[i]“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War.[/i]

The most unsettling aspect of the modern day assassin is his or her ability to carry out such an action as murder without even the slightest remorse for the victim or anyone else of relation. They are weapons and tools of stealth, used to cleanly and swiftly eliminate either targets selected from an outside party, or high value targets during war times. When their times comes to attack, they move in fluent motions with deadly precision and accuracy. Some even say that the way the attacks are carried out, could be called a dance, a beautifully lethal dance of death. With every solider though, there comes a time when they question if they are laying down their lives for a truly worthy cause. Beneath the solider, beneath all of the armor and military physique, is still a living creature that has its own hopes, dreams, family, and friends that are waiting for them at home. Every target that is killed has a repercussion that can hunt them down ruthlessly to the ends of the earth, for the whole integrity of their lives. So, each rogue must very cautiously choose which assignment they wish to carry out. There was certain battle etiquette that had been lost to both factions, as well as chivalry. This was at least what one rogue thought, and she kept her personal beliefs to herself, most of the time. 

"What did I just instruct you to do? The dagger is to be tossed from the middle of the hilt. Take into account the wight of the dagger, the direction of the wind, the distance and altitude of the target. You only have one chance to hit your target, and if you miss there is a high chance you will be dead or captured in the next minute or less. Breath slowly, stay calm and release the dagger at the dummy in the back of the room." A young male Sin'Dorei rogue tossed the dagger, following her instructors orders to the letter. It hit its target square in the middle of the head, hitting the instant kill marker. A smile quickly spread across his face, "Good, now do it again, but try it with a dagger of a different size, or improvise using something else in the room." The instructor felt a tap on her left shoulder, she spun around on her left heel to regard who was trying to get her attention. "Pardon my intrusion instructor Solares, but I have two letters for you. I was told to deliver them immediately to you, one is from the Dark Lady, and another is from someone named Daud." The courier handed the letters over then quickly left the training arena. "A letter from the Dark Lady herself..." Solares admired the forsaken wax seal that held the first letter shut for a couple of seconds before very carefully opening the letter with one of her daggers. The parchment inside had a beautifully written cursive that flowed across the page.

“Solares Morgenstern, I appreciate and admire your willingness to help protect not only the Sin'Dorei but also the Forsaken. I unfortunately do not require any assistance as of now among my ranks. Should the need arise, I will personally summon you to my side to discuss how you can help rid the enemies of the Horde. I was also informed you had a sister among my ranks, a Dark Ranger, I have given her permission to visit you after two more weeks of training. I have enclosed a Dark Ranger badge inside of the envelope, after your sister personally asked me to do so. May your arrow always fly true. /Sylvanas Windrunner."

There was a short pause as Solares thought about everything that the Dark Lady had said to her, and about the fact that she was able to see her sister after many years. The badge was carefully taken out of the envelope and held delicately. It was made out of very high quality fabrics that were enchanted by some unknown force. "I wish I knew how they enchanted these, could help me a lot in combat." Flipping the badge over, she noticed that a note had been attached to it with the short message of "I had this enchanted for you, it will help me find you if anything goes wrong, as well as help with stability of your rifle. /Love Orion." Solares chuckled to herself and removed her chest armor before attaching it to her shirt. The armor was placed back onto her chest and tightened. The strange thing about enchantments, is that they start working immediately, and you can not feel a them giving off magic at all. "Oh, my other letter." she used the same dagger as before and opened it, reading its contents, with a smile that looked suspiciously like a smirk. "Well, no more teaching for me students, Colistis will be taking over for now. I will be back in...I am not sure, be safe and follow the rules and guidelines of the creed." Solares saluted her students and then said, "I know you will all make me proud, I wish you all the best of luck." With that, she turned and left. 

Around an hour later, Solares had all of her gear packed up and was ready to move out, letter sealed safely inside of the envelope, just in case plans well to fel quickly. "Let us hope this venture to Stormwind ends better than last time, being shot with arrows then having to removing them yourself is something I rather avoid this time around." She thought to herself as she mounted her Gyrocopter. The machine started to hum before quickly climbing to a high altitude where its jet engines kicked in. The G-Force pushed Solares back into her seat and the aircraft quickly picked up speed, Silvermoon vanishing in the distance behind her. Around an hour and a half would pass before the main capital of the Alliance came into view. "I hope this trick still works." Focusing upon her fel magic as well as the light, she turned her emerald green eyes to a sapphire blue, that matched that of a Highelfs perfectly. Leaning to the left, she peered into a miror on the side of her aircraft and smiled, the spell had indeed worked. Since the restoration of the Sunwell, the Sin'Dorei had been able to do many more things, one of them being the spell Solares just casted. 

The city of Stormwind was an impressive sight, much larger than Orgrimmar was, and much more advanced. She envied the Deep Run Tram that they had built that would transfer from Stormwind to Iron Forge, then back again. "Wish the goblins would come up with something like this, then again it would most likely explode and kill a large amount of people." Solares thought to herself with a chuckle as she approached the landing pad. The Gyrocopter touched down and a rough looking man ran over to Solares, quickly helping her turn off the machine with a smile across her rugged features. "Solares? is that you? how long has it been? I have not seen you in years it seems like!" The human pulled Solares into a hug with out any hesitation. "Hey There Nick, I am sorry I have not been around Stormwind for a while. Ashenvale takes up a good chunk of my time, I enjoy having a home out there to visit when I am not busy." Nick wrapped an around her shoulder and let forth a hearty laugh, "If I was a fool, I would invite myself over for a drink! I am a gentlemen though, so the drinks will be on me this time. I mean, if you have the time to catch up with me?" Solares gave off a soft glow of happiness, even if he was Allaince, she still liked him and thought of him as a friend. What if he knew she was a Bloodelf? what would he do? would he attack her or tell a guard or maybe something worse? The time would come when he would find out, but for now the two of them walked through the snow to the Pig and Whistle. The doors swung open to reveal a warm and happy atmosphere that was filled with holiday cheer due to the fact that Winters Veil was currently going on.

"Over there, a empty table for us, quickly!" Solares laughed as Nick grabbed onto her left hand and pulled her gently over the table. Two mean looking mercenary type men quickly ran over to the table and sat down, laughing at them like they were idiots of some sort. "Hey! those were our seats, you saw us heading over there, get on out of here and find your own." One of the men stood up and glared at Nick, "Oh? Just let me..." He pretended to grab something from the bag on his belt before throwing a punch at Nick. Unfortunaitly, the swing made contact with Nicks face and knocked him back a couple of feet. Solares, quickly moved in front of him and narrowed her eyes, "One..." The large man that had hit Nick raised an eyebrow at Solares, "What do you want, upset we hit your boyfriend here?" Solares responded with a stern, and cold sounding "Two..." The large mans friend started to laugh at Solares, "She can count! I did not know those whore elves could count." Solares felt her body tense for what was about to happen next. "Three..." With a blur of movement, she subdued the large man in front of her by using a pressure point to cause the large mans legs to give out. While he fell to the ground, she brought her knee up to his face with a powerful thrust and knocked him out cold, right there on the spot. 

The large mans friend started to loose himself in panic before Solares hit the man on the neck then slammed his head onto the table, also knocking him out cold. "Pathetic worthless pieces of meat. Not even worthy to reside in this city." Two guards came in behind Solares and quickly started to question her. "They attacked my friend and threatened me, I removed the threat." One of the guards let out sigh, "Well I am glad someone put them in their place, we will take care of them." The guards picked up two two men and dragged them out of the Tavern. A cheer came from the taverns occupants at the show that had now come to an end. Solares bowed while Nick laughed in the background. As soon as they took a seat, a meal was set down for each of them. "No charge, thank you for getting rid of those two, they have been causing trouble here for some time." Solares nodded her head, "I am glad I could help." An hour would pass before the Nick and Solares had finished their food and the two of them were outside, looking at the colorful lights that festivities that had been set up in the park for the holiday. 

"I had fun with you tonight, and I am glad you put those two in their place." Nick took a seat on a stone bench, and Solares quickly joined him. "I did as well, thank you for letting me join you tonight." Before she could finish her sentence, Nick leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. For only one second, her eyes flickered from the sapphire blue to her regular emerald green. "Whoa, what was that?" asked Nicked, while Solares was still caught off guard, which was saying a lot, due to the fact that she was a rogue. "What do you mean?" asked Solares, who raised an eyebrow. Nick pointed at his eyes and said, "They went green there for a second, are you alright?" Solares's smile quickly faded to one of concern. "My eyes turned from blue to green? What do you mean? how is that possible?" Solares did her best to play it off. "Riiiiiight." Nick smirked, "I always knew there was something different about you Solares. Do not worry my friend, you secret is safe with me, I have known you for over ten years and I have come to know, trust, and like you quite a bit. You are a good person, even if you may be a spy." 

Solares coughed slightly to try and break the tense feeling she had, "I..." there was a awkward pause before she spoke once more, "Fine, you caught me, but if you tell anyone I am sure I will be excited tonight, in the middle of Winters Veil." Nick laughed heavily before wrapping an arm around Solares's left shoulder. "I already said, you have nothing to worry about, and I hear there is already another one of your kind in the city, freely walking around with out any trouble. Come on, lets go get some hot chocolate, you will feel better after it." Solares nodded her head lightly, standing up and walking with Nick over to a vendor that was selling treats. The concerned look upon Solares's face had now turned into a smile as the all the joy and festivity around her seemed to only grow as night finely fell upon the city. The lights glowed brighter it seemed, and the snow flakes that fell from the sky no longer seemed a bother when they fell upon her face and armor. They in fact, now glistened beautifully when when caught in the festive lights all around them.

"Are you ok Solares?" He looked at her with a smile but something in his eyes spelled out concern. "I am fine, in fact I am doing much better." The vendor offered her a cup of hot chocolate with out even asking for pay, the only thing he did was wink lightly at her. Once they had their drinks, they took a seat back at the bench and started to once again converse about anything and everything. The clock struck midnight, and the festivities were still going strong, even children were out and about. "I have enjoyed our time together tonight Solares, I hope to see you again soon. Please take care of yourself tonight, you do have a place to sleep, right?" Solares nodded her head, "I do indeed, a friend lives in the city and I tend to stay there when visiting. I will see you tomorrow I hope, and..." she paused stood up, walking over to his side and pulling him into a tight hug. "I want to thank you for everything, for your company, for the friendship, the food, the drinks, and for not loosing it when you found out..." Nick laughed and hugged back. "I should be the one thanking you, and I am willing to take some risks to spend time with you, my friend." The two gave their final farewells for the night then parted ways for the night.

Not long after leaving the park, Solares found herself at the home of her very close friend, Kyndariana. A female Nightelf Druid came to the door and opened it with a yawn, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you visiting me at this hour, I need my sleep and am in no mood for visitors." There was a pause before she realized who was standing in front of her. "SOLARES, I am so sorry please come in, your room is ready and I have everything set up for you. I am so happy to see you again." as soon as Solares stepped inside and the door was shut behind her, Kyndariana pulled Solares into a hug and did not let go for quite some time. The two of them talked for a while, before Solares fell asleep leaning against Kyndarianas left shoulder. The next morning when she awoke a full breakfast had been made for her with a note that said that Kyndariana had to report to Ashenvale for the day and would be back later evening and that she wished her best of luck on her mission. 

Hours would pass before Solares was fulled geared and was ready to move out to her objective, which was not far from Kyndarianas house, fortunately. The door to Kyndarianas house shut behind her with a loud clank, kicking up some snow that had formed outside of it. The rogue was standing out on the snow covered walkway, snow slowly falling from the sky. The city was busy for this time of morning, but Solares did not care, in fact she enjoyed seeing something different for a change. Pulling out her map, she looked over her plan of attack, then quickly but carefully started walking down the street to the house she was going to scale. "Well this should be quite the adventure." she thought to herself, as the house came into view as she walked around a corner that had an armor shop on one side of it. It did not take long for her to scale to the top of the empty house, and when she reached the top of it, there were two chair conveniently placed pointing at the large mansion not far from her, but far enough for the job. 

After brushing the snow off of her chair, she heard a strange sound coming from the other side of the houses balcony she was standing on. The figure of a Quel’Dorei appeared before her, and took the chair she had just cleaned off. "Hello Arinis, it was not expecting you to get here so soon, oh I brought you something.” Solares bent down and started to look through one of her bags before pulling out a thermos full of hot chocolate, a bag with some gingerbread cookies and two candy canes. Solares took a cookie a candy cane for herself and took a quick sip of the hot chocolate before handing it over to Arinis. "Now, let us see what is going on over at the house of said target." She stuck the end of the candy cane into her mouth then raised her sniper rifle and peered through the high powered scope just in time to see the NightElf Sentinel take a dominate position on top of Rae'liel. "I can see some kinky shit going on over there, we are missing all the fun Arinis." Solares laughed quite a bit at her own joke before following the scene that unfolded before her. "No more happy fun time over there, look's like one of my own is in a bit of a spot and may need some assistance. Shooting the Nightelf in the head will cause this whole mission to fail and put both of our lives in peril. A shot to draw her attetion of her to move away from the Bloodelf would a better option. What do you think Arinis? also, how is that hot chocolate? I picked it up last night with the cookies and other goodies." 

Solares loaded a special type of round into her rifle that was mostly used to kill small animals. She had found a better use for them, either picking off small targets to cause distraction, or to set off explosives from a distance. Explosives where something she greatly enjoyed and the fact that she had not brought any explosive rounds with her made her depressed. Near the Nightelf Captains head was a metal vase, from the look of it, her special round could blow a whole through it and stop before going through the wall. Waiting no time, she went into a trance and focused only on the target in front of her. She had to take the distance, the drop of the bullet, the wind speed factor, and the rotation of the planet into mind before firing. With a deep, calming breath, she lined up the cross-hair to the correct area and lightly pulled the trigger, confident that the bullet would hit its target, dead on. The bullet left the rifle with tremendous speed and the rifle itself barely made any sound due to the silencer installed upon it. The world seemed to slow down around Solares before the bullet hit the target, dead on, going through the metal vase and stopping at the wall behind it. A loud and very annoying PING sound echoed through the area, and could easily be heard from where Solares and Arinis where sitting. 

Solares congratulated herself mentally and watched what would happen next with great anticipation. "Well it hit the target, I am sure you know that already Arinis, but I think we should move or risk being seen." She paused, "Then again, I want to make sure this other Bloodelf is going to be alright, then we can head into the house and cause chaos."