
;;━━━━━━━━━━and i'm so━━━

━he
n e v e r━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━;━
━━━━that i'd have to━━━━

━━;;;
that's
f a l l e n from━
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━;;━━━━━━━━━━in
d o u b t of my━━━━

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xxxFor as long as she could remember, everyone had been saying that the world was dead and gone, and all of them were right. It had been gone and destroyed for so long, that now all that remained was a crumbling place of darkness and deceit, a mere pitiful shadow of the lush and thriving green it had once been. It was gone, and it was never coming back, not unless some miracle suddenly changed all the earth around them. The world it had been was finished, defunct; forever gone, and they were left with it's ruined pieces, pieces they hadn't even begun to pick up, at least not in this part of the broken world.
xxxThe buildings still hadn't been finished after all these many years; they were all ramshackle messes that had once been filled with intent to be completed, until the kalons had become used to the unfinished look of them, and gave up on the hope to improve them and rebuild what had been lost, gave up the chance they had to fix this awful mess. Now things here were beyond repair, beyond saving, an even more broken heap on top of the pile of an already dilapidated and ruined place. All of it was a gigantic mess, a horrible mess of something that could never get better, a mess especially prevalent in her current location, a shabby bar she was sure she was too young to be in, or at least she would be if anyone here cared about the rules. Rules were something that had been discarded long ago, and forgotten by so many in the formerly magnificent city that was now a skeevy, sordid, tumbledown town known as Beggar's End. The name would have been fitting if it weren't for the fact that no one was a beggar here; everyone took what they wanted with no regard for another, no one trusted their neighbor, their brother, and anyone who had some semblance of a heart was cut down quicker than a blink, and anyone with morals was corrupted within the week. It was an awful place, and it only made sense that this was the place the unscrupulous and twisted spymaster called home, and the place where she had without knowing, sold her soul to whom she'd without a second thought, label the devil, a soul who at first had seemed charming and kind, but turned out to have a rotted heart blacker than the darkest nights.
xxxIt was so long ago that she had once been free, once been innocent, once been able to remember how to feel, and in truth, so long ago that she could barely remember the times, though no matter how many years ago that was, she knew she would never forget the day she had lost that all, lost everything she had ever had, lost all that she had left.
xxxRain poured down all around her, and she gave an involuntary shiver as she walked through the street of an unfamiliar town. A sign read "Be g r's En", but the letters were too faded for her too properly make out, and it was also too dark to really see. She gave a soft sigh that came out as a little whimper and continued walking, her head down and her tail between her legs in an attempt to stay at least a little dry. Staying dry was hopeless though, she knew that; she was already soaked to the bone, and the droplets of water that hit her horns with a silent splatter eventually ran down the sides of her face, occasionally getting in her eyes and making her bleary eyed and completely covered in rain. She wished she was back with her parents, wished that they weren't gone forever, that they were still here at her side. She was tired too, oh so tired, and she wished she could lay down on a soft bed again and sleep in it's comfort, but she couldn't, that wasn't an option anymore, and she didn't know if she'd ever get to feel that precious luxury again. All the lights in the buildings around her were dimmed and turned out, and the rain seemed to pour even harder when the only light she saw flickered out for the night. She tried to walk faster, to go toward it in hopes it wouldn't be too late to ask to share that roof for the night, but she couldn't push herself to go any faster, she couldn't even move. Rini felt herself fall, all four of her paws losing their balance and causing her to collapse with a splash in the mud. If the circumstances had been different, she was sure she would have found that sound very funny. She tried to pull herself up, but she couldn't, she couldn't no matter how hard she tried. Her limbs refused to move, and protested against every movement she wished for them to make. Her heart sank. What could she do? Why couldn't she move? She wanted to cry, but no tears would come out. She wanted her parents to come and comfort her, tell her that it was alright and that this was just some horrible dream she'd never have to face again, but they were no longer around to do that. She whimpered again, and that's when she heard the sound of a door slowly, and quietly closing in the distance. She used what was left of her energy to force herself too look up, and she saw a kalon walking toward her- though they didn't seem to notice she was there. They walked with an elegant gait, an air of authority so few seemed to possess, and something about him seemed too proper for this part of the earth, too important for such a shabby town. She continued to watch them with tired eyes, her heart hammering in her chest, thundering like the rain. They seemed to finally notice her when they were a mere few inches away, and she wasn't sure what the word for the look that crossed their-his face was when they noticed her pitiful form beneath them.
xxx"What do people call you?" His voice was like a purr, and smoother than silk.
xxx"R-Rini." Her voice was weak and soft, barely audible against the pounding of the rain, and she wished she could have mustered up something stronger.
xxx"Can you walk?" He sounded concerned, but there was something different about it, something that sounded fake, or like he was forming a new plot within his mind, but she was too tired to comprehend any of it.
xxxShe hesitantly shook her head.
xxx"Do you have somewhere to go? A home? A family? Or are you an orphan, a lost?" He seemed almost irritated now, like she was a bother, a little flea that specked his perfectly white and clean table cloth, but she didn't think much on that either.
xxx"I don't have anywhere." Rini searched his face, but it was emotionless, unchanging, a perfect mask.
xxxHe paused for a moment, considering his options, before letting out a sigh and bending over to help push her with his snout. He seemed somewhat disgusted that he had to dirty his pristine clothes and carefully combed pelt, but all signs of it quickly flickered away. "Very well then, you shall come with me. You need a place to stay, and I, well, I need an... a.. an assistant of sorts, and I believe you will do. We can shake on it tomorrow, unless of course you'd rather I leave you crumpled in the dirt?"
xxxRini gave a nod, and the next thing she knew, she had woken up on the silkiest pillow she had ever felt, with her fur cleaner than it had been in a long while. She pulled herself up, her head pounding, and looked around. She was in an abandoned church, or at least, she assumed that's what it was, and she had to squint through the darkness to make out the things around her. Why weren't there any lights? The only lights there were were the glow of her paws. It looked as if she were next to a throne of sorts, a lavish chair far larger than an average sized kalon, and raised to tower above even the tallest of her kind, and when she looked up, she noticed that the ceiling had places filled with stained glass of the colors red and purple, colors that cast a rather odd mixture of hues across the very dim room, and she assumed the odd attempt at windows were the only things keeping this building falling into total darkness. Everything looked as if it had originally been made to be temporary, but then was reinforced as permanent, like they simply didn't care to finish it. Was this the strangers home? Would this be where she stayed from now on? The sound of someone clearing their throat caused her to jump and spin around to face the sound, and her eyes widened when she saw the stranger. How long had he been there? He was standing as elegantly as he walked, with a tray of food she assumed to be for her sitting at his feet. He beckoned her over with a swish of his tail and she quickly scrambled over to him, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks as she nearly tripped over her own feet and fell right into the food.
xxx"Eat, and we shall talk." The stranger sat, curling his tail gracefully around his paws. She quickly dug in.
xxx"So, in exchange for allowing you to stay here, do you agree to give me the help I am needing? Do you agree to assisting me with the work in my job I cannot complete myself?"
xxxShe paused mid-chew when he finished, surprised he had gotten to this so quickly. Something within her told her to say no, to decline and run, but how could she not say yes to him? He was offering her a place to sleep, and a meal each day, how could she refuse? She nodded as she swallowed. Uncertainty instantly washed over her the second she saw a devious grin pull at the corners of her lips. He reached out a pristine paw, and she hesitantly placed her own on top, beginning to doubt if this was the right thing to do, but now it was too late too reconsider, she was trapped. She had shaken the devil's hand, and everyone said that when you make a deal with the devil, you're stuck in it forever, and that was the moment where everything had changed, where she had lost it all.
xxxNot long after, she had learned that his name was Valentyn, and that he worked as a spymaster and an overseer for The Nine that ruled this part of their broken realm while they resided in a luxurious palace, drowning in riches and freedom from any sort of discomfort and pain while they took care of matters that were too important for Valentyn to take care of himself. It wasn't too long after that he had begun to teach her things, and it took even less time for him to give her a different name, to start calling her 'Rin' instead of 'Rini'. He said it suited her better, that she better fit a name that was as dignified as him, and she so wished she had seen the warning sign and escaped then before it was far too late. He continued to teach her things after, but they were different things than before, things no kit, and not even most adults, would ever really need to know. He taught her how to move without a sound, how to stay hidden in the shadows, how to blend in, how to maintain a perfect mask of neutrality without a single crack, how to not feel a thing, and when he was sure she no longer knew how to resist, he taught her how to kill and feel nothing, how to kill without a thought for the lives she had taken, how to be the perfect little assassin he could send out to kill anyone who challenged his authority, or the rule of The Nine, to kill anyone who proved a threat. She had become his pet, a dog to do as he told and sit loyally at his side beside the throne on the silky pillow she had woken up on so long ago.
xxxHer eyes quickly flickered to the source of the screeching sound of a chair being scraped against the floor as someone pushed it back, all her thoughts quickly halting. It was her target, he was finally on the move. Without a sound she stood, standing up from the pillow she had been sitting on in the far back corner, and swiftly followed him out of the tavern, her dark cloak concealing her from the drunken notice of those within the tavern, and keeping her hidden from her target's sight when she entered the outside bathed in night's black. The entrance she had emerged from was well hidden, noticed only by those who already knew it, so she doubted that anyone would notice where she had just come from and follow her. Anyone inside was too drunk to care, and unless they had a well trained eye, no one outside would be able to distinguish her from the shadows.
xxxShe watched as her target turned down an alley way not far off, and she followed silently with a tilted head. She had been watching him for awhile, waiting for the perfect time to strike, and this was not where his home was. She saw a faint light coming from a well concealed hole in the back, a light that disappeared after her target had gone through. She waited a moment, and then followed, now curious as to what this was. Was it another secret bar like the one they had just come from? She nosed the entrance open an inch, just wide enough to pear through, and felt herself freeze when she saw what was inside. There was a kit, a kit that had the same soft green pelt as her target. Her target was a father? He had a child? Both of them looked thin, and she saw the look of disappointment on the kit's face when she saw that her father had nothing for her. He seemed to be holding back tears before he put on a brave face, and consoled the kit with a gentle nuzzle and soft words she couldn't quite make out. She saw a tear begin to form at the corner of the kit's eyes, but before they could fall her target pushed them away. Suddenly, she got an image of her own father doing the same thing to her when she was very small and had tripped on a stone and hurt her paw. She fell backward with a gasp, her heart beginning to race, and her eyes widened. For the first time in so long she had actually felt something, and for the first time in so long, she began to think for herself, to question Valentyn's orders. How could she kill her target now? How could she leave that poor little kit alone? How could she rip her target's daughter from her family in the same way her own had been taken from her? What sort of monster had she become? She let out a choked breath. A kit had never been involved before, it had always been heartless criminals, never before a father that couldn't pay his taxes and stole from the treasury to provide for his daughter. He wasn't the thief she had been told he was. She couldn't kill a father, she wouldn't. In a flash she spun around, her cloak whipping behind her and her hood falling away from the speed at which she ran back to the abandoned church.
xxx"Is it done?" Valentyn's disinterested voice- still as smooth as a purr- rang throughout the room as soon as she burst through the doors, his eyes cast downward at his manicured claws.
xxx"I won't kill him, he has a child!"
xxx"What?" He snarled, suddenly standing from his throne, glaring at her with nothing but venom. It was no surprise he was displeased; this was the first time she hadn't ever done what he had said.
xxx"I said I won't kill him." Rin growled, her eyes giving a dangerous flash.
xxx"You won't? Why now, after all these years do you refuse what I have ordered you to do?" His voice came out in a low growl, and he approached her with his tail angrily swishing. She stayed silent.
xxx"Nothing? I have given you everything and you respond with nothing?" He roared. "Well then, if you won't kill him I suppose I'll have to myself. He has stolen from me and he will pay either by my paws or by yours."
xxx"NO!" Suddenly she was overcome by fear, a feeling so foreign. He gave her a wicked grin. She could not let that kit lose her father, she just couldn't, this world was already cruel enough.
xxxBefore he could react and she could comprehend her own actions, she had gripped her knife in her jaws, pulling it from it's sheath on her front left leg, and she plunged it into his heart. His once confident eyes were now filled with confusion and betrayal, before they flickered out and his lifeless body fell to the ground as she let the knife go. He had trained her to be the perfect little assassin, his own little killer, but he had never thought that is perfect little pet would turn and kill him, and she had, and now she needed to leave before it was ever found out, but she couldn't. Her eyes were frozen wide and her paws wouldn't move as tears streamed down. She couldn't believe what she had just done.

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sorry I'm a few minutes after the deadline ahh, I've been really busy and had to take my cat to the vet when I was planning on working on this! I truly hope this isn't an inconvenience or anything ahh, and I also hope it's alright that I combined the three extras of 1000 words each into a story of that much, and again, I am so sorry if it's not!
also, for the playlist, ignore the romance themes in a couple songs, there is absolutely no love in this story, and instead I picked the songs for the deal with the deal with devil/revenge/starting to feel something after forever elements
the gif is also 19 frames, and took many many hours and
here's the best frame━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━