[Sytze]

I stare down the shining point of my arrow at Galdron Venray, the man who made this ball possible. From the outside my body is totally calm, unshaken, but inside it doesn’t feel like that. I feel like I’m a bird caught up in a hurricane, unable to move, yet at the same time violently tossed and thrown from side to side. My mind tells me to release the arrow, but my heart won’t allow my fingers to move. It’s the eternal struggle of my life. I know much of this city and its inhabitants, too much, but there are days when that knowledge collides with what I see and experience.

Today is one of those days.

Galdron deserves death, I know that. What I’ve seen him do disgust me to my core, shakes the very foundations of everything I stand for and believe in. Yet that which I see now is also what I believe in. I see trust, affinity, care, even love. Love for family and friends, for those close to him. I see Venray’s beautiful daughter laughing and dancing with pleasure. The world is so careless to her now. Her mother seems to shine with an inner radiance, her posture proud, her smile happy. Venray’s son stands just a few feet away from them. He bathes in the attention the young women are giving him.

They are innocent, I know that too. Venray hides his life from his family well, they know nothing about the man behind the silken soft smile.

I do.

I came here to end a miserable man’s life, but now I’m here I know I will be ending much more than that. I will be ending the innocent lives of his family, the love they feel for him. I will end life as they currently experience it. And that pains my heart more than I thought it would. If it was just the man, it would all be so much easier. But if I take him down, I will probably take his family along with him. I’ve seen and experienced it before, firsthand. There are few things so capable of eating away a man’s soul.

I look down and see the bright, warming smile on the face of Galdron’s daughter. She’s beautiful, delicate like a spring’s morning flower. A flower which I will shatter with just one move of my slender finger.

Sorrow and anguish flood over me as I rest my eyes on her. A deep sigh escapes my lips and I take the arrow my bow. I untie the small paper from the arrow’s shaft and fumble it in my pocket. As I lay my eyes on Venray again, I take a deep breath and aim my arrow once again at his heart. No matter the consequences, this man needs to die. I took the decision a long time ago, one I know is rightly taken, and one I won’t come back to anymore.

I take a look around the grand hall to see if anyone notices me. The hall is enormous, larger than one would expect when looking at the estate from the outside. It’s two floors high and almost encompasses the entire length and width of the estate. It’s as if the place was build for a ball like this.

I’m sitting on a ledge covered partially by a long, reddish looking curtain. In the shades, away from any revealing light, no one is able to see me. There are no torches, chandeliers or anything else able to illuminate the contours of my body.

Venray is standing a few feet away from me and from here I can pretty much see the color in everyone’s eyes. It’s the ideal place for an assassin like me. It took me a long time, a lot of energy, and even more patience to get here unseen, but it’s without question the perfect location to make my shot.

Squatted, I draw the string to my face and bring the arrow to my eye. I know what’s to come if I release it. Panic, chaos, anger, sadness, it will come to an explosion all at once. It won’t be pretty.

I take a look at Galdron’s family and my heart screams no. I take a look at Galdron himself and my mind demands yes.

The eternal struggle.