Cultivating Plants

Sunlight scorched the sands. Their bodies too.

Malik awaited underneath the sands like his comrades, as ill-advised as it was. Not only did the heat boil one’s body, but heavens knew what awaited beneath the dunes. Their only saving grace was that it wasn’t night.

Is this the place? Zayyan questioned him in his mind.

Yes. Malik responded him. This is the route the courier will take, there are no others.

I am aware of that, but…

It is not your job to doubt. The man transmitted his thoughts to the other.

We are chasing something that we don’t even know what it is, you can allow me to have some doubts, right? Zayyan countered.

No. A female voice – if their thoughts could be considered that – interjected. Shut the fuck up already.

The loose-tongued woman was Dareen. And her mood was perhaps the worst of the group. But no one could criticize her results.

The courier will be moving fast, they will rush by in dweller, we cannot afford to distract ourselves or we will lose them. Dareen added over their shared thoughts. And I’m running out of tobacco. I’ll need to get a smoke if I am to communicate with you any longer.

Malik sighed, or more exactly, mentally sighed and conveyed that emotion to the other assassins. Get far away behind the dunes. Tobacco smoke is too visible.

It was problematic that the drug that allowed them to talk without making noise was also one of the most visible ones to consume. Though at the same time, it was one of the more normalized ones. No one in the city would raise an eyebrow to someone puffing some tobacco, but the problem was that they were in the middle of the desert right now. And on a stealth mission at that.

Thanks to his heavy use of peyote, Malik could sense the tremors on the sand where Dareen was trudging as she slowly moved away from them. Not many assassins consumed the cactus as other drugs also boosted one’s senses, but peyote worked the best for him.

That was how Enlightening was, most substances gave some properties, but one had to find what was the plant that affected oneself the best and in what doses. Snake-tongues tell how the late Grandmaster Umar smoked a whole opium field in a bet and lived to tell the tale. Though stories of the man became more and more blurred as his legend grew.

I still can’t believe the old turd survive a whole minute after his death. Zayyan commented.

Wait. Malik realized. Fuck, did I leave my thoughts open again?

Yeah, shitface. Dareen interjected again. Pay attention to the road, will you?

Attention span was one major problem of the assassins. Being as deep in kush as they were severely affected their capabilities to focus on a single given task. That was why they had three of them placed to capture one lone courier.

Can I get a reminder of what we are looking for? Zayyan asked a few minutes later.

Before answering, Malik waited for a moment. As Dareen didn’t instantly go to their throats, he was sure she was on her smoke break now.

There has been a courier going up down these lasts months across Sadina and Asina. The assassin explained. The correspondence comes from Aloe Ayad, one girl that has provided us before with some cannabis and…

Wait, Ayad? Zayyan cut him off. Ayad as in Karaim Ayad? Umar’s provider?

Yeah, she’s the granddaughter. Malik thought.

Then why are even trying to steal the package? Can’t we just ask her like we did with Karaim?

The girl isn’t on the business, and the plant master left it quite clear on his will that he wanted us to avoid stablishing communications with his granddaughter.

Oh, come on! Zayyan protested. You’ve said she has sold us cannabis! It would be as easy as to ask her about the package.

No. Malik transmitted cuttingly. That girl is the scribe of commoners of Sadina, and also very close with many sultanzade, we cannot be sure of her ‘goodwill’. Besides, we don’t even know if the things in the package are strictly drugs, that’s why we are here after all.

So reconnaissance? The assassin groaned.

Nah, that courier is already dead and they don’t know it. A little bit of disguised banditry. Whatever is inside, it’s ours. Along with the dweller too. We only suspect it may be drugs because the addressee is Fatima Asina, one of the martial sultanzade, and she seems to have changed her behavior as of late.

Ah yes, nothin’ better than a line of the good stuff to change one’s mind, eh?

Before Malik could refute that, they got intercepted again.

I’m back, stop talking bullshit. Dareen said.

Love you too, woman. Zayyan sent a kiss over their connection.

The two assassins continued bickering in their collective thoughts, but their howls faded to the background of Malik’s mind as his skin felt movement in the sands, small tremors that got his senses active.

It’s here. He relayed his thoughts and the two other assassins suddenly became as silent as tombs.

The sound of the shifting sands soon became audible, no need for tremor sense anymore. From their position of the dunes, the only one who currently had vision of the courier was Zayyan.

Sights on the dweller’s dust cloud. The male assassin confirmed.

Ready to attack. The female assassin added.

Not yet. Malik countered her. We need them closer in case you fail. Dareen didn’t protest at the doubt of her abilities, redundancy was professional after all. I’ll keep watch. Zayyan, you ready your knives.

Gotcha. Zayyan taciturnly complied.

The dweller was rapidly closing on their ambush site, less than a kilometer away from them now.

Wait. Malik remained. Not yet. His fingers trembled with the increasing movement of the sands. Not yet. The dweller was getting close. Just about a hundred meters more for the prime spot. Now! GO GO GO!

Dareen was fast with her teleportation, vanishing from her scout’s nest and appearing two meters above ground, in the position the dweller was about to be in one and a half seconds.

The courier reacted at the shadow cast above them by rising their head, but alas, they were too slow. In less than a breath, Dareen had dropped on top of them and locked her thighs on the person’s neck, snapping it a blink later.

Ya’ know. Zayyan said as soon as the gnarly crack was echoed in their minds. If I die, I want to be a lucky bastard like the dude here. Those are a good pair of thighs.

Malik sighed, both mentally and physically, as he left his own scout’s nest. Sand poured down from his attire, a beige and light brown vest to camouflage better with the dry environment. Both him and Zayyan skid down from the massive dunes with perfect control of their bodies. The other assassin opting for a flashy summersault as he landed.

“Y-you. Took. Y-your. TIME.” Dareen grunted as she wrestled control over the dweller. The monster wasn’t all that happy from having its rider killed.

“Here.” Already having expected to work with dwellers, Malik took a handful of pistachios out of his pocket and scattered them in front of monster.

“Hrar!” The death of their rider instantly vanished from the dweller’s mind as they gorged on the nuts.

“I’ve never understood why they react that way to pistachios.” Zayyan inquired as he closed on the corpse that the dweller had unceremoniously knocked down to the sands with their mad dash.

“Pistachios are drugs for them.” Malik explained as a matter of fact.

“On heavens?” The assassin viscerally reacted at the revelation, opening his bloodshot eyes like plates and arching his back greatly.

“Yes.” His cell leader confirmed. “Some creatures react to some substances differently from others. For example, these morons are immune to any of the effects of opium poppies and actually love to eat them, so they are worse than locusts if they find an unprotected field.”

“Damn.” The gaze Zayyan gave the dweller was as if he gained a newfound respect for them.

“Can you two stop being the morons and help me here?” Dareen protested as she looted the courier’s corpse.

Malik knelt beside her and instantly snatched a letter from the corpse. It didn’t say much, just pleasantries and that the delivery was six of the ‘product’ as always. The sender was the scribe of commoners herself.

“Okay lads, we are looking for six of something.” Malik announced them.

On it! Zayyan told over his thoughts even if they were next to one another. Him and Dareen started inspecting the courier’s body, but not even a few seconds later, Zayyan assaulted them again. Found it!

Malik groaned over the mental shouts and went to the dweller. On the saddle a small, padded chest lay with six flasks full of a yellow liquid.

“I guess this must be the ‘product’.” Malik guessed and picked one of the glass bottles.

“Any idea of what it may be?” Zayyan looked over his shoulder. “Some alcoholic beverages?”

“We won’t know until we inspect them.” The leader uncorked the flask with a satisfying pop and sniffed it. “Hmm… smells funny.”

“Drugs! Bingo!” His comrade jumped on the spot. He tended to be too enthusiastic while on duty. Or more exactly, while high.

“Can’t say for certain.” Malik cut the man’s fun. “If I die, Dareen’s the new leader.” And took a sip of the bottle without a second thought.

Drugs didn’t work instantly, every assassin new that. Like poisons, there were very few that could knock down a person in seconds. Yet the very moment the yellow liquid wet his tongue, Malik felt a warmth grow inside of him.

“Ah~” He panted; the heat of the desert he had previously ignored now became oppressive.

“His connection has gone haywire.” Zayyan said. “I think he’s dead.”

“He’s still breathing, retard.” Dareen slapped the idiotic man on the back of his head. “Either it was poison and he’s dying or he’s having a high.”

His ears had heard the whole conversation, but his brain hadn’t processed it. Yet when Malik turned to face Dareen, he felt the warmth grow. Now not only the heat felt oppressive, but also his pants.

A primeval urge started to overtake his body, but he was an experienced assassin, and people that were led by their urges didn’t last long in the job.

Instead, he focused the warmth of the liquid in his Enlightenment, and strength surged in his veins. He was fast. He was hot. He was light. HE WAS ILLUMINATION INCARNATE.

The next instant his surroundings blurred. When he blinked again, the dunes didn’t look the same.

What the fuck. Both Dareen and Zayyan cursed in his mind.

What…? Sluggishly, Milak voiced his thoughts, for his mouth felt dry. Too dry. As if the yellow liquid had become sunlight and seared his tongue. The assassin turned his back and saw that his fellows were a few tens of meters away. What has happened?

I… don’t know. The surprise was so big that it burned the curses and insults out of Dareen. One moment you were next to us, then the next… you were there.

It’s not only that. Zayyan interrupted. It was as if you became… light.

I see. Others might have considered the words of the assassin madness, but the feeling in Milak’s veins told him the opposite. And even if it wasn’t the case, assassins had always been connected to the Greater Understanding. Foreign knowledge allocated in their minds wasn’t nothing new.

Milak knew he had become light.

“Fellas,” the man announced, his lips drier than sand, “we have gotten a new drug in our hands.”