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The Angel of Death felt eyes on him, making the skin on the back of his neck crawl. That was expected here, when walking through the village market. But he never got used to being seen.
"Uh, pal, will that be all?"
"…" Jaffar nodded, setting the payment down before going on his way, pulling the hood over his head up tighter. He never went out in public without it.
Jaffar turned to stare down at the basket under his arm, thinking whether he had enough. Four carrots, three turnips and their greens, rashers of bacon, several eggs… he had been too late for a full loaf of bread at the bakers, but he still had some hard bread rolls that Jaffar knew would taste well after a few minutes by the fire. He also picked up some milk, even though Nino didn't request it, he had overheard Rebecca say that getting things like that would help after someone gave birth. They could put it in porridge, maybe.
He still had a little bit left of the coin Nino gave him. Jaffar wondered if he could find anything else, but with Nino still resting and not helping out at Merlinus's shop, maybe they should be more careful with money—
He heard footsteps stop behind him. At first, Jaffar wondered if they were an irate villager, so he went back to walking, only to hear the foot stops stop again when he went to look at the nearest stall with some children's toys.
He was being followed.
Jaffar calmly turned away, and began walking down the main road, but then after a large group walked the opposite way he ducked behind them and into an alley, and waited.
This hadn't been the first time he had been recognized— when doing a quick job after he and Nino settled in Pherae. He thought he took care of it, but word must have spread.
He couldn't let whoever was tailing him follow him home.
Jaffar quietly set the basket down, and took out his dagger from his belt, remaining still as a stone. Despite how hard Nino tried to make a new life for them, Jaffar knew he could do this work. It was what he had been raised for.
The assassin waited, but no one looked his way into the alley, and no one approached.
He didn't think he had been mistaken, though, and the lack of an attack unsettled him.
Still, he couldn't stay here all day— Nino would worry, maybe even come to look for him if he was much later, and that would be even more dangerous.
Knife tucked away and basket on his arm, Jaffar scaled the back wall with ease, and took the long way back home.
The sun was about to set by the time Jaffar returned to the cottage. Before he could knock their agreed on code, Nino had opened the door and threw her arms around him, pressing her lips towards his and landing on his chin instead. Jaffar felt his whole body relax, forgetting to remind Nino they had the code for a reason. He wrapped his free hand around her, readjusting to meet her lips, taking in the familiar smells of home that always traveled with her, feeling the stray wisps of her recently cut hair tickle his face as he pressed it against the top of her head after the kiss.
"I have the food." Jaffar mumbled.
"The food? Oh, yes, food! Great!" Nino replied, pulling back and looking down at the basket, before taking it from under his arm. Despite the long way back, nothing had been broken or bruised along the way. She went to the table and begin taking out the ingredients alongside the ones they already had, moving with a nervous energy that came out after she had been startled by something, but she didn't give Jaffar the chance to ask. "I can try that new recipe Rebecca showed me— oh, you got milk, I should put that in the larder box—"
She quickly took the bottle, while Jaffar hung up his cloak on the jutted out nail they put for that purposes in their cottage, before moving forward to stop the eggs Nino had left on the table from rolling over. "—can you watch Lugh and Raigh while I get things started, after you wash your hands?"
Jaffar put the eggs back in the basket. "Sure."
The cottage is all one room, so he doesn't need to go far. Once he dried his hands, Jaffar approached the two old cradles (handmedowns from Rebecca), and looked down at the twins. They were awake, surprisingly, since most of the time over the last few weeks they had mostly slept after feeding times. When they noticed him, Lugh babbled, reaching up with tiny hands. Jaffar hovered closer, reaching out his hand so Lugh could grab and bat at it as he pleased. In an odd way, they reminded Jaffar more of kittens than 'people'— reaching out with curiosity, babbling words he couldn't understand at first, but maybe was slowly starting to learn.
The color of their eyes is still murky, so Jaffar is unsure what they will settle into, but the faint whisps of hair across their heads resembled Nino's. He ran his fingertips across Raigh's brow, careful and keeping his touch light, then did the same to Lugh when he seemed to grow tired of his hand, yawning as he seemed to wriggle minutely to retain a comfortable position Jaffar had no means of fully understanding.
He had only held them when Rebecca put them in his arms right after they had been born. Even though Nino had helped him learn how to touch with care, how to be careful, he still wasn't sure what to do. What if he did something wrong and hurt them? They were both so small, so fragile.
By the time Nino called that dinner was ready, Jaffar felt a slight ache in his muscles from hoving over the cradles. He hadn't really noticed the time passing, though.
The dinner was carrot, turnip, and bacon fritters, fried in bacon grease with greens on the side. It tasted good, better than when they first began living there and neither had much of an idea of how to cook. Compared to some of the feasts they had in the Black Fang or ones of the nobility, it wasn't much, but it was hot, and the two of them could eat until they were full.
Jaffar wondered if they would have enough when the twins got older and began to eat solid food, and then considered the thought more closely: the twins getting bigger, he and Nino still being here. It was a thought about the future.
The future was something that Jaffar had never considered. Everything was the present, with the only plan being to stay with Nino for as long as he could.
But that lead to Lugh and Raigh. More… to worry about. But it didn't feel frightening. It was like an odd ache hit his chest, as he thought about it: of the twins growing up, looking like Nino, and Nino with her arms around their shoulders, smiling.
It… hurt, but in a way he couldn't place, and it made him feel like he did when he and Nino were together.
"Jaffar?"
"Yes?"
"Is it… good?" Nino asked, tentative.
Jaffar looked down at his near empty plate, then back to Nino. He thought it was obvious, but Nino liked to be told directly, to make sure. "It's good. Thank you for making it, Nino."
Nino beamed. "Of course! And thank you for getting all the ingredients. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be up to going myself: I can't wait to show Uncle Merlinus the twins!"
Jaffar nodded. He decided not to tell Nino about the unknown stranger at the market. Maybe it was a mistake— even though he kept up training, he had gone away from home less and less for work.
Both of them turned at the sound of a fussy infant.
"Oh, time for your dinner, too!" Nino got to her feet to go over to the twins.
Jaffar began to reach for their plates. "I'll clean up."
"Thanks!"
Jaffar had learned to clean up well: he didn't want either he, Nino, or the twins getting sick because he was careless. After gathering all the dirty dishes and cookware, Jaffar took them outside to clean— the moon was full, which meant he could see without a candle, which was good. Jaffar had only realized how expensive wax was when they settled here—
His mind went still as soon as he heard it.
It was faint: to many, far too faint among the usual night sounds of the woods that surrounded the cottage at this time of year, but it was enough. A stray branch, broken when pulled back too far.
It took only a moment for him to shoot forward, the knife he had been cleaning in hand and it to sink into a man's throat. Jaffar shoved the soap he held in his other hand into his mouth to cut off any noise or death rattle as moved the knife out, then in again.
He was careless. He didn't notice the arms yank his own neck back into a firm hold, whether to choke him or break his neck, Jaffar wasn't sure. He tried to struggle, taking his bloody knife and stabbing back, only to nick off thicker leather armor. Where was his dagger, where, he had to find it—
Black dots were hovering over his vision of the moon above him. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't even yell to warn Nino. Nino, Nino, the twins—
"JAFFAR!"
The sound of Excalibur meeting its mark hit Jaffar's ears, and the arms around Jaffar's neck loosed enough for him to break free, taking in much needed air. When he turned around, Nino was running forward, ignoring the assailant whose middle had been cut near in twain with the force of her magic and was groaning on the ground.
Jaffar finally found his dagger again on his belt, and ended it with two firm jabs into the man's jugular, too tired to escape the blood after as Nino pulled him to his feet.
"Are you hurt? Did they hit you?"
"No." Jaffar rasped out.
"Who— who are they?" Nino said. "Bandits?"
Jaffar shook his head. "I think… they came for me."
"What?" Nino's hand felt ice cold as it touched his face, looking over him with care. But before he could try to say anything else, they heard crying from the cottage.
They rushed forward and Jaffar felt like he couldn't breathe again.
Yet, it was just the twins inside. No third figure hovered over them, ready to strike.
"Oh, oh I'm so sorry," Nino said, a hitch in her breath as she took them into her arms, rocking both of them awkwardly. It was only then that Jaffar realized her dress was half buttoned, as if she had just finish nursing when everything happened. Jaffar reached out to right it, before seeing how his hands were stained with blood, and he snatched them away.
"… Nino."
"Yes?"
"Stay with them. I'll clean up."
"But I can help—"
"No. I need to clean myself anyway. Don't dirty yourself."
"You aren't dirty…"
"… Please, keep them safe."
"…" Reluctantly, Nino nodded, before going back to rocking the infants in her arms.
Jaffar went back outside, closing the door behind him, and out to the two bodies, before heaving a small sigh.
He looked through their things first, taking off what he can. There's some coin, and their weapons are good. He could sell them to a traveling merchant when a caravan next went through the village.
Among the things was also a blood-stained piece of parchment, with some writing on it: too much for him to fully make out. Even with Nino's lessons after she learned a little, the words got jumbled in his head. He did recognize the picture on it: it looked like him.
It was of when he was in the Black Fang: his hair had grown out, and he didn't wear his head scarf anymore. He stared at it, before tucking it back into the corpse's pocket.
So, they had been after him.
But they were dead now, and he had to move their bodies away from the house, far enough to dispose of the evidence if anyone else came looking. He didn't recognize their faces, so they were outsiders at least. They wouldn't be missed by anyone in the village.
The process is slow, and he has to be careful not to spill even more of a blood trail as he pulls them further into the woods, over roots and brambles, until he finds a bit of soft enough earth, and begins to dig.
He has to toss the kitchen knife in as well into the shallow grave he makes: Nino wouldn't like to use it after where its been. If he wanted to be sure, he should have separated the bodies, or buried their heads somewhere else; but he was tired, and the night wouldn't last forever.
After he walked back, he grabbed a bucket of water from the well, and then he stripped and began to wash himself. He could have buried his shirt too, but he didn't have many of those. He refilled the bucket and grabbed more soap, then left the shirt in to soak. He didn't know if it would work, but it would have to do.
The sky is beginning to lighten by the time he went back inside. The cottage was quiet— the twins were in their cribs, and Nino was lying in the bed they shared. Jaffar checked one more time that he was clean, before quietly creeping forward, and slowly laying down beside her.
Despite Jaffar's doing his best to try not to wake her, Nino turned around almost immediately and clung to him, her arms around his shoulders and her legs tangling into his. His body tensed, remembering the arms around his throat hours before, before he clung back to her.
Jaffar inhaled and exhaled, over and over, and felt himself shiver, until his body finally relaxed in Nino's embrace. They said nothing, until the sound of a baby's coos reached them.
Nino began to sit up, but Jaffar gently guided her back to the bed, and he went up to check. Despite eveything, he picked up Raigh and held him close with a sense of detached peace now. The baby in his arms moved, fussed, laughed, and cried, still. Still…
As he calmed down, Nino spoke up.
"Who do you think sent those men?"
Jaffar watched Raigh's eyes blink open and close, as if trying to stay awake. "Not sure. The Black Fang had a lot of enemies."
"But the Black Fang is… gone. Father and my big brothers are... they're gone. Uncle Jan and Uncle Legault decided to leave. So why…?"
"…"
"… We can protect them, can't we?"
"…" Jaffar can't say yes or no. He's not sure. The future is open, and terrifying.
One by one, he brought the twins back to bed with him, settling them down between him and Nino. The two watch over them as the sun rose.