Debt: The Afflicted Saga

By Katika Schneider

There were only two ways to escape the assassins guild. Debt understood them both.

Born to buy his mother's freedom from the wicked life of murder-for-hire and meticulously forged into the guild's sharpest weapon, Debt knew no other path than the one he followed. When his masters assigned him the termination of a problematic wash-out called Succubus, it was just another tally for his log book.

Until he tracked his target to Fairmont — and witnessed for himself why his employers wanted her executed. Failure was not an option for one of Debt's caliber, but he hadn't bargained for the growing list of complications which accompanied what should have been a simple assignment.

There were only two ways to escape the assassins guild. Debt was about to learn them both.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katika Schneider
• Release date: Jul 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781952673061

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Copyright © 2023 Katika Schneider

All rights reserved.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction, distribution, or unauthorized use of the material contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual locations, events, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No Generative AI Training Use.

This author expressly prohibits the use of this book and any other title published by her for the use of training any and all artificial intelligence technologies to generate text. This book was written by a living human for the enjoyment of other living humans, without the use of predictive language software in any part of its creation. All efforts have been made to ensure all affiliated artwork has been created by fellow human beings. Katika Schneider thanks you sincerely for supporting the arts and those who create them.

ISBN: 978-1-952673-06-1

For all of you

who patiently waited a year

for me to commission this cover.

Better late than never, am I right?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A special thanks goes out to g. Veintimilla for being one of the best cover artists I've ever dealt with.

Your execution of my concept is as brilliant as before.

And I will ALWAYS shove my gratitude on my beta reader team.

You guys never fail to leap into my messy manuscripts with enthusiasm. I love you.

MOST GUILD ASSASSINS could recall with vivid clarity the exact day and circumstances in which they signed their lives away, the same as anyone relived the most monumental mistakes of their pasts. Not Debt. He'd been left to the guild as an infant, his mother's ticket to freedom from the organization's employ. He'd never been given a proper name, hadn't known anything close to a parental figure, and had received his education from life lessons on the streets. His had been an unfortunate childhood—if such a carefree label could be assigned to his youth—but Debt had grown into adulthood knowing nothing else. His only loyalty, his only purpose, was owed to the guild. And that was precisely why, when internal business had to be tended to, Debt was the man they called on.

Debt had always done his job well. With no knowledge of life outside this wicked servitude, there'd never been reason for him to question any assignment he'd been given. And so, when one of Covington's eyes slipped him the guild's summons, Debt pulled himself out of the tavern he'd chosen for the afternoon, barely warmed by the few drinks he'd consumed, to report to the guild hall hidden in a defunct root cellar toward the outskirts of town. He invited himself inside without a formal invitation.

Debt! Spring was an appealing woman composed of proportions more tasteful than her pastimes. Her full lips and bright eyes glimmering in the dim hole's candlelight pulled Debt down the stairs with an eagerness stemming from well outside his ingrained loyalty. She'd never shown him the sort of wary reluctance many of the other guild lackeys did, and the thought crossed Debt's mind of how nice it would be if his assignment could be executed fast enough to allot some leisure time with her. She teasingly leaned over the table centered in the dank room. You are just the man we wanted to see.

Any man is one you want to see... muttered a square-jawed, stringy-haired man slouched in a chair behind the table. He didn't look up from his task of digging at a splinter buried in the meat of his palm.

The young woman's lip curled as she glanced at her compatriot. That's saying more about you than it is about me, Torch.

Enough. Both of you.

The two younger assassins silenced and sobered immediately at the curt correction, Torch pursing his lips and Spring's big eyes widening with a self-conscious flush as an aged gentleman with a closely trimmed white beard descended the cellar stairs. Debt obediently stepped aside to permit the guild master's entry, not balking at his arrival as the other two had. This self-assured response didn't bother Animus as it would have from any other subordinate. After all, Debt was the guild's unwavering and most efficient asset, and the organization had decided long ago to nurture and preserve that respect of his.

I was told to report to the nearest guild hall, Debt said, that you had work for me?

Yes, Animus hissed out his answer with a sharp irritation his disciplined demeanor seldom permitted he use. Have you been made aware of current guild business?

I've been too busy with work to keep up with the day to day, Debt said, always pleased to boast of his productivity. What has changed that needs my attention?

"Have you heard of our