Unspeakable Secrets The Alchemist Series (A Dark Medieval Progression Fantasy)

Chapter 3 Violet Eyes

Connor sat alone in one of the many corridors inside the palace with his head in his hands.

This had been his chance to walk a path that would grant him the power to seek out his parents and find what happened to them. His path to revenge and retribution.

And he'd failed.

It was like a knife to his heart.

When his magic had appeared, he'd thought it was a sign of what he was meant to do. A way out of this life. A way to get the vengeance he so desperately craved.

But, clearly, he was wrong.

His memory of his parents was little more than a blur, but he knew that they loved him. That he was happy. And, that he missed them.

Besides, they were his family, and they'd been taken from him! How could he just sit back and do nothing the way Victor did? How could he care about corrupt nobles, or anything in Vigil when the ones who'd taken his parents from him walked freely?

He squeezed his hands into fists in his hair. If only his magic would just work! Every time he tried to use it, it was like he was straining against some invisible weight and now this?

Sunlight streamed in through the windows and onto his leather boots.

Great. After waiting for Elgar, and going through that stupid test, he was running late.

He let out a ragged sigh and got to his feet.

"Just what I needed," he muttered.

He wasn't in the mood for more training for a life he didn't want, but making his uncle angry with him would only make this day worse.

He started on the long walk back to his uncle's manor, through the now bustling hallways of the palace.

Despite already being late, and far away he didn't rush.

His excitement from earlier had soured into the bitter taste of defeat. As if it wasn't bad enough that he'd failed the test, he just had to enrage the city's head wizard. Now no wizard in all of Vigil would teach him.

At least he hadn't been turned into a frog, he thought bitterly.

The manor was a large building of cleanly cut stone and polished wood. It looked every bit like a wealthy noble's manor on the outside, but the inside was filled with training equipment and the office of the city's spymaster, Victor.

Connor felt like a dark cloud hung over him as he approached, and his thoughts turned increasingly bitter.

Victor was a master of secrecy, deception, and misdirection. He tried to pass it on to Connor, but in the end, as talented as Connor was, he had no desire to live the life his uncle did.

He wanted friends, not assets.

A lithe figure leaned against the manor door. Dark fabric and leather armor covered her from head to toe, leaving only her intense violet eyes visible.

Despite having her whole body covered, it was easy to tell she was a woman as her clothes and tight-fitting armor hugged every sensual curve.

She radiated danger, and anyone would avoid her on an instinctual level like a mouse would avoid a cat.

If they noticed her that was.

Even the royalty didn't come near her and left managing her to Victor. She was the top royal assassin, and one of his best friends.

"Yeah, I know I'm late," Connor said.

Her violet eyes narrowed as she looked him over. "Victor is not amused," she said.