Save his bacon

It is said that the flap of a butterfly's wing can create a tornado on the other side of the continent.

That night, I too had altered the course of things. Just a small flap of a wing, and the gears of fate had begun to move... Would I have made the same choices if I had known what kind of tornado I was going to create?

Thursday Morning, 3:36 AM – Killer Wind Headquarters

We finally arrived at the headquarters of the organization after thirty monotonous minutes through the dark forest. We had cut across predefined paths and were galloping wildly thanks to magical incantations cast on our mounts to enhance their performance.

In Asyria, most of the short-distance travels was done on horseback. The fact is, we had neither the roads nor the means to afford motorized vehicles. For the past thirty years, an embargo had prevented us from accessing technological ore, the only material capable of conducting electricity. Without this ore, no machines, firearms, or electric cars... In short, every country of the Continent made its technological transition, leaving us behind.

Seeing that we didn't have this resource in our subsoil, foreign powers decided to unreasonably raise their prices during the industrial boom. But against all odds, instead of annihilating us, this crisis liberated us. In our misfortune, we rediscovered a far more interesting alternative: magic.

After passing the magical barrier of illusions, our cottage suddenly appeared among the oaks. The building stretched out in length and was attached to a small stable. Its walls were made of charming sandy stones gnawed by climbing plants.

Justine went ahead to slide open the stable door. It stood out with its large palisades of faded blue wood. The lights all came on with a clap of her hands. I dismounted and handed the reins to my partner. While she put the beasts in their stalls, I headed in the opposite direction. The unconscious prince levitated all the way to the cellar because I didn’t wanted to touch his dirty noble’s body.

“I’ll come see you later. You know what to do,” my boss said before I closed the hallway door.

I made a quick stop at the workshop to remove my gear. As Justine had implied, my role was to watch over the prince, whom I had tied to a chair in the basement. Considering the workload of two horses, I had a good quarter-hour of respite.

My partner was a curious phenomenon. She led a contradictory life, alternating between a modest peasant and a dangerous criminal. If she wasn't dusting in the living room, I would find her in the garden or at the stove. It was bewildering for outsiders to observe her so serene and kind-hearted, knowing she would kill in cold blood for a few coins.

To her, money was the most secure thing in the world, though who knows why… She literally spent all her time chasing bounties like a dragon chases gold, and once her loot was safe, she lived an austere life.

Money is meant to be spent, but Justine barely touched it. What was the point of amassing millions in an inactive account? This question often crossed my mind, and I still hadn’t found a satisfactory answer.

To uncover the truth, I would need to unlock the little treasure box Justine had sealed deep within herself. Her mouth revealed nothing of her true intentions, as if locked with a padlock. However, whenever she granted you a smile or a favor, all suspicion turned into trust, and you found yourself at her mercy. But her technique only worked on fools willing to take her at her word…

Over the years, I had come to see all that money in a negative light. Contrary to what she preached, money made her weak and dependent. It was a vicious circle: the more you had, the harder it was to keep. And what could be worse than the constant fear of losing our most precious possession?

When her slender silhouette happened to pass near me, I could sense a sinister aura following her like a funeral procession. There were no doubts: this woman was but a shadow of her former self. Whatever person she had been in her past life, there was nothing left of her now.

I lived by her side as if I had always been her daughter and had grown accustomed to seeing her chain together stratagems to forget the harsh reality. Her golden hair flowed in a long gradient, often piled into scarves and turtlenecks. I eventually concluded that these pieces of fabric served as emotional support for her, and without them, she couldn’t bear the weight of her crimes.

Despite all the exploits we made as the Killer Wind, Justine was consumed with shame. Why did she put herself through this when we were saving lives? It was beyond my comprehension.

Her calm gaze sparkled with feelings reduced to silence. It pierced me like a rifle bullet, dominated by the intense light blue of her irises. Sometimes, I felt as if they opened the way to the purest of Edens, only to realize they left me in a fog of questions…

Why had she taken the trouble to take me in? Why would a tender soul like hers choose such a tainted profession?

Despite my attempts, Justine had made it clear that she would reveal nothing, perhaps wanting to spare me great anguish. Deep down, not knowing allowed me to maintain a certain stability between us.

The past cannot be changed, so why dwell on it?

Without Justine, I would never have found a reason to live. I would never have been able to make my voice heard in this troubled kingdom. All my life, I had believed that the chief wanted me to find the happiness she had never had. But just as I was on the verge of reaching it, she blocked my path.

What do you want, in the end?

Justine was the last person I wanted to confront. There was no question of choosing between her and Big Brother. Of course, I surpassed her in terms of power, but not in authority: I couldn’t bite the hand that had saved and fed me. That’s why I needed a way to win on all fronts without engaging in direct combat. Fortunately, I had long identified each of her weaknesses. Being the opportunist she was, it wouldn’t be too difficult to persuade her to join my cause with the right arguments.

“This prince is already dead anyway! Isn’t it better to make him profitable to earn even more money? He knows a lot about the government! Imagine how useful he could be to us!” Presented this way, the chief wouldn’t be able to resist! It was undoubtedly much easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

I checked my communicator. Just a few minutes remained before the hostilities. My gaze slowly returned to the torture chair.

We’ll soon be able to play together, Big Brother, just a little more patience…

On the way back to the headquarters, I had imagined a plan that would allow me to reformat my hostage. The prince would embody a new version of Big Brother and simultaneously solve my memory problems.

What a pitiful scum! I’ve sunk so low as to pick through the rubbish can… Don’t be picky, I thought afterward. This scum is your last resort.

While he slept, I decided to study the prince without reservation. I amused myself by guessing his weaknesses, then tried to find some qualities in him. His dirty clothes gave him a destitute look, and when I lifted the top of his blue pajama, I discovered a musculature that was far from what I had been told.

"You disappoint me on all counts..." I whispered before retreating to a corner of the confined room.

A second later, I heard the stairs creak. My time was up. The pressure intensified with the cadence of the increasingly heavy footsteps.

Try as much as you want, Justine, I don't care about your intimidation act.

My partner roughly placed a glass on the small pedestal table. Aside from the strapped chair, it was the only piece of furniture in the cellar. This place housed nothing warm, just emptiness and gritty walls. It was regularly cleaned because of the bloodshed, but despite our constant upkeep, this place always looked dirty…

My boss bluntly declared "For when he wakes up."

I observed the oscillating liquid from the corner of my eye. Our hostage wouldn't wake for several hours. Serving him a glass of water so kindly when he wasn't welcome? It seemed like a desperate act to buy time.

Justine hated lecturing me as much as I hated being patronized, but in a moment like this, refusing to play her role as the leader would only encourage my disobedience. She burrowed further into the neck gaiter of her uniform.

We were both acutely aware that we were treading on dangerous ground. As I expected, she dove straight into the heart of the matter.

"What the hell have you done with our target? Why didn't you inform me that something was wrong? You should never have brought him back alive, and worst, have taken so long!"

No matter how irritated she was, her emotions didn't affect me. I needed to come up with a good excuse, because the truth would immediately shatter our mutual trust. Between partners and accomplices, that was the foundation of any organization.

"The prince woke up before I could kill him. I had to fight him to avoid setting off the intrusion alarm."

It didn't matter if I altered the truth; only the result mattered.

"Come on, you know very well how to avoid this kind of situation. Why did you bring him back conscious? You could have killed him on the spot. You should have," she insisted harshly.

"I wouldn't have had time to make the kill without being caught. So I ended up drugging him. Since I didn't have time to carry him, I thought it would be faster to make him run. He wasn't in his right mind, nothing threatening..."

"Do you think you can make me swallow that lie? You almost ruined the entire mission and all our financial investments! Three months, we've been on this for three months! Promise me you'll never go solo again when the bounty is this big..."

"Sorry, it wasn't my intention to lie to you," I said to appease her, though I didn't regret any of my actions.

It wasn't sincere, and she probably knew it.

It's so much simpler not to make a fuss.

Justine let out a tired groan, relieved to have come through unscathed.

"But what were you thinking, spoiling the plan like that?"

It wasn't common for me to make mistakes, especially when it came to work. Justine was inevitably intrigued by the reason for my failure. It was clear that I had chosen not to kill the target. However, I would keep the truth behind that choice to myself. Just like Justine, I was not accustomed to seeing myself fail. In any case, one never really gets used to frustration.

If I had seemed concerned for a moment, I no longer was. Without fear, I dared to stand up to my superior.

"I know we need to follow the plan... but I have no reason to kill him. He hasn't committed any crimes yet and he's not responsible for his family's actions. Nor for being born an heir. You know better than anyone that you don't choose your condition."

My last words struck Justine like knives to the heart. I knew full well that she had suffered from the system, and that being noble would have spared her many problems. The traumas of the past forever linger in the eyes of a broken person. Justine's eyes had displayed storms and fires since our first meeting. That was how I had deduced that she was living in denial.

I had concluded that she would never allow herself to be happy again because of the regrets weighing on her conscience. If I hadn't met her, Justine would likely be alone and consumed by madness by now.

In any case, happiness is merely a poisoned illusion.

Was I partly responsible for the suffering that plagued her? I admitted to having shattered hundreds of souls, but not hers. Her pain seemed immeasurable; she was so uncomfortable in her own skin… I watched her suppress an old suffering that was foreign to me.

She remained silent for a few seconds before finally regaining her composure. "Can I know since when you care about our victims?"

Trapped by this tricky question, I growled in annoyance and then responded, "Since you no longer respect our moral principles. You’re blinded by money, Justine…"

After all my efforts to keep this little bastard alive, I wasn’t going to let Justine touch him. The reward was mine; I’d leave her the bounty... So she had no right to get in my way!

Unhappy to hear the facts coming from my mouth, the boss fixed me with her darkest gaze as if that could silence me.

"Oh, don’t start with that, you little troublemaker. We need this money; it benefits both of us equally. I’m keeping us afloat, and you’re jeopardizing everything with that dead weight in the cellar. Do you really think you can extract anything useful from him? Seriously?!"

"Yes, we can get much more than a few pieces of information. We can make him work for us. Give me a chance and you’ll be nicely surprised."

Justine burst into laughter "Well, I didn’t think you had the nerve to play the long game! What’s your plan, this time?"

We were on the same wavelength, both determined to find a compromise that would benefit us equally. Life is just a strange game where we have nothing to lose, and we agreed on that point.

Agreements have the advantage of defusing conflicts.

"The more he trusts us, the more he’ll reveal about himself. If we want to reach the big wigs of the government, we’ll need someone who has lived among them."

"Wait, you want me to host and pamper the prince? We can’t even exchange him for a ransom! Don’t get your hopes up, darling: if you want to keep him alive in that house, it’ll be at your expense!"

"It’s already taken care of; I’ll handle everything. You just need to feed him. I’m sure he’ll be won over by your sweet treats!"

"Very funny, but what’s your point? We can’t keep him hostage indefinitely."

I played my final card, reassuring Justine of my position.

"Recruit him."

Taken aback, my mentor wondered if I had lost my mind. At that moment, she was no longer the amused woman she had been.

"Excuse me?”

“You heard it very well. We’ll stage his death and then recruit him.”

“No. No way! It’s outrageous of you to ignore our traditions: hiring a novice on a whim without giving him the test... Never in a million years "

I expected this response because I had the solution that would reassure her.

I plan for everything.

“Forget the traditions; it’s better that he remains unaware of some of our practices. If you insist, we can present them to him later—there’s no rush! I’ll train him and take responsibility for any collateral damage. One day, he’ll surely bring in enough money to cover his keep…”

“I don’t want to be involved in that, especially if you’re offending the mercenaries' code of honor,” she replied frankly. “Handle making him your soldier, but I’d rather not complicate my life. The more people we have, the more exhausting it is to manage. And I don’t want to share my earnings with this spoiled kid who doesn’t understand the value of money. Who knows if he won’t betray us?”

“Not a chance. I’m going to brand him with a magic seal of ownership. This kid might be spoiled, but I assure you he’ll prove to be valuable. After all, he’s been trained by the elite!”

“That won’t stop him from getting killed if he doesn’t conform,” she corrected me. “You seem really determined to chain yourself to a burden… You know that such a seal only breaks upon death, so why? Why him? It could have been any other fool, someone more suited, but strangely, you’ve killed them all without a second thought!”

Seeing Justine treating him as an ordinary person offended me.

Big Brother is above us all. He is anything but ordinary!

I couldn’t say more, except to cross my arms with a condescending smirk. The seal would bind me to Big Brother when he returns. My connection with the prince was strictly personal; it wasn’t her concern.

"He has something special about him, I can feel it. Even if I have to kill him if he doesn’t prove himself."

This time, I had responded ambiguously to avoid revealing everything. This target was special to me; he was like a reincarnation of my role model, albeit less skilled… I admit. Justine seemed particularly interested in my notion of the word “special.”

Now I just had to keep her confused.

“If he can be useful to you…”

What? Is she letting me win?

I could hardly believe that my blonde-haired partner had just given up on insisting about that detail. But she knew that continuing in that direction would have only wasted time, and in Justine's eyes, time was money. In any case, I wouldn’t have revealed anything more to her, and my closed-off expression assured her of that.

Maybe you'll understand one day Justine?

“Thanks,” I said solemnly.

It was merely a formality, nothing more. I was about to turn on my heel when the boss asked me "Do you intend to use your toy on him?"

"Come on! How do you expect him to work for us with his brain turned to mush?!"

"Well, I understand, but you've never done without it, and if we let him have his freedom, who knows what he'll try? Imagine this panicked kid snooping around in the workshop where we keep all the weapons! I mean, we won't always be there to watch him..."

“Justine, I’ve been doing this long enough. I can be control my targets, even without my weapon! As for the rest, he’ll get a new identity, a new appearance… Don’t worry about the details.”

A small smile formed on her face, and I mimicked it hypocritically.

“I hope for your sake that you’re not making the biggest mistake of your life. I’m giving you a chance: if I find he’s too much of a nuisance, you’ll have to stop everything.”

“That goes without saying.”

“Ah... it reminds me of when I decided to take you with me. It was a big responsibility, you know…”

I refused to dwell on the past she was bringing up.

I’m not that weak thing anymore. You don’t know what they did to me. What they did to him.

“It also reminds me that I have work to do, if you don’t mind,” I gritted out.

“He’s all yours. When you’re done with him, send me something to confirm his death to the clients. See you tomorrow~!”

She was almost laughing… The task was going to be grueling… and my mentor was assuming I’d spend the rest of the night on it. At the expense of my health, the priority was to retrieve the prisoner when he woke, let him stew, and only then think about getting some rest.

Justine doesn’t understand a thing! The cellar is the most entertaining part. You just have to know how to handle it…

The path had been cleared; I had won the first round of the game. Little did I know that I was embarking on an endless journey with the prince. A journey that would break all boundaries and souls…