You Coterie, do not understand the task you ask of me. Your exact words were “Rob The Noble of life.” You use these words yet you do not know their meaning. I followed your orders in a way you cannot understand.
You ordered the death of the Noble. Such a request is a waste of a thief’s skills. Stealing is the primary crime. All other crimes are a form of stealing. However, murder is the exception and therefore lacks the malice of crime. One cannot take a life like one does another’s possessions, virtue, or honor. History does not care for the potential of the deceased if they had more time. History is kept by living and never the late. Only the living can feel the loss of theft. Taking a life only robs the thief of purpose.
“Rob The Noble of life,” you said. Many die never touching the eyes of History. Their death marks the end of their existence in every sense. But some manage to be great. And even fewer manage to be recognized by History. These rare few have History asking the Question, “Who was that person?” Death is an equalizer. When and how are of no consequence in the eyes of History. But History does care about the who of a death. When History remembers the death of a person, the living remembers that person as well.
Everyone dies, nothing can change that. The dead cannot be robbed of, but the living can be robbed. And History can be robbed as well.
I understand the contract was a request born of out hate from a rival noble. Killing the Noble would have made that person a martyr in the eyes of the Orlesians. The Noble would have been given to History and the living. I cannot kill The Noble. But in doing so, I robbed History and the Orlesians of a memory. I robbed them of a great person. I did not kill The Noble. I did so much more.
You cannot take a person’s life, but you can take their legacy from them. Tell the client I took that much from the mark. If you send a misguided assassin to undo what I’ve done, I will take that as my resignation. I will disregard your threat to sway your minds in order to “receive your payment and keep your life.” Like I said, one cannot take a life.
The Thief