I know I said I wanted to do a bonus story for the second part of the special. However, as I was digging around in my files trying to come up with an idea, I remembered I had already written two oneshots that I think would be fun to share: one is a peek into the past with Felix's master, offering another snapshot of their relationship, while the other is written from Dinah's perspective and has some very fun insights into her character. So without further ado... :D

Fair warning though: both of these do contain MAJOR spoilers. If you haven't finished reading Ashes to Ashes, I would save these for after ;) (The second short story also contains some threads of information that are not revealed until the sequel, Dust to Dust, so... fair warning x2?)

Short Story 1 - "Stay Here"
~Young Felix grapples with a vague memory of the past~

Felix's eyes snapped open, landing on the wood paneled ceiling above his bed. Lungs aching, chest heaving, heart racing. He fought to catch his breath as he shoved up, throwing the blanket aside. Breathe. It was just a dream. The same dream he had seen over and over, haunted by the sharpened emerald gaze of the woman, drilling a hole straight through each time she looked his way. A shiver trailed down his spine. Breathe. It was just a dream.

"Felix, come down here and help me.

"Yes, master." Felix flung himself out of bed in a heartbeat, grabbing the linen shirt from his nightstand and tugging it over his head. No door separated his tiny bedroom from the hall that led to the master's study, but there were three creaky steps that he jumped over on his way out. Wood squeaked beneath his bare feet, old and loose in certain spots. He swung into the study, combing his fingers through his hair.

Leaning over the desk, shoulders already wrapped in a familiar gray cloak, stood his master. He busied himself with a basket of dried herbs, sorting them and setting them aside on the tabletop. He didn't look up as Felix entered, padding softly to his side, but Felix knew the master was aware of his presence. There was nothing that got past his master; it was why he was Furvus's best assassin.

"Pack these up, will you? Those dimrot weeds will need to be ground into powder as soon as I'm done with this." The master waved an absent hand at the pile of dried, brown roots. Their rotting stench had worn off as they had dried, but their poison would still be just as potent when ground.

Felix gathered the roots into a small box, laying them carefully inside. The pads of his fingers tingled at the contact with their prickly bodies, and he shut the weeds away as quickly as possible. He slid the wooden box back into its place on one of the shelves, amid rows and rows of other similar boxes, all painted with the symbol of the poisonous herbs they held inside.

"Is something bothering you? You're distracted this morning."

"I just woke up," Felix admitted, firm but not too much so—like his master had taught him to do when he was concealing the truth. The threads of his nightmare still clung to his mind, pinned in place beneath emerald eyes. Sighing, he returned to the desk at the master's side. "I'll focus. I promise."

"Promises mean nothing, Felix. I want action from you, not words." For once, the master stopped his work and turned to Felix. His silver gaze settled on Felix, as stern as the frown set on his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. As always, they were cold and distant, like the emotion in his face was nothing but a mask, void of sincerity. "An assassin does not allow his mind to wander. He must always be focused on the task at hand. Am I clear?"

"Yes, master." Felix straightened, fingers curling against his palms so tightly that he felt his nails dig into his skin. "You have my attention. What must I do?"

A smile crinkled the corner of the old man's mouth. Reaching out a hand, he ruffled Felix's hair. It lasted only a moment before he returned to his work, picking through his herbs and sorting them into piles for Felix to pack away. "Stay by my side for now. Help an old man with his plants, hm?"

"When you talk of yourself that way, it makes you sound innocent."

The master released a quick breath through his nose—something Felix had come to consider his way of laughter. "Am I not innocent?"

"I think you know."

The conversation lapsed into silence for the rest of the chore. By the time Felix had packed all the bundles of poisons away, the tips of his fingers were red and sore, but he tucked them away into his pockets until the pain subsided. Emerald eyes loomed over him, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Twice he jerked a glance over his shoulder, only to be met with the sight of the master's full shelves and lanterns flickering with warm light.

"Felix."

A sturdy hand clamped down on his shoulder and Felix jumped, his breath snagging. When he snapped his gaze up, he met only the face of his master, feigning soft concern this time. His grip was strong, yet gentle as his fingers curled against Felix's shoulder.

"I had that dream again," he admitted, voice soft as he hung his head. "The woman... and—and that place, I—"

It was barely perceptible in the candlelight, but Felix could have sworn his master's gray eyes darkened. "It's only a dream. You're safe here. You're safe with me."

The response rose instantly to his tongue, but it felt heavy this time, difficult to force through his teeth. Felix kept his head down, eyes rooted to the floor beneath his toes. "Yes, master," he finally ground out. "I won't dwell on it any longer."

"Good." The master hesitated a moment before pulling away with one last pat to Felix's shoulder. "Get dressed. You're going to run some errands for me today." With that, his footsteps faded out into the hall.

Yet the woman's words rang over and over in Felix's mind, curling around him like a snake. Stay here until you rot.

--

Short Story 2 - "Luck"
~Queen Dinah waits for a guest, pondering the fate of her kingdom~

 There was an assassin roaming the kingdom of Furvus, a shadow who killed expertly and cleanly, who evaded all attempts of capture despite that his face was known. He was a ghost, a perfectly crafted weapon of slaughter.

They called him Felix, and Dinah couldn't help but laugh at the irony of such a name. Lucky, it meant. Happy, some said. It was meant to be a token of good fortune, a name bestowed upon kings and rulers, wise people at the head of the world. Yet someone had gifted that name to a bloodstained monster from the slums. He arose from nowhere, appearing on the scene at his first murder—a crime he had committed before he even left the innocence of childhood.

It was laughable, yes, but it didn't matter what he was called as long as he could get the job done.

Dinah paced up and down the dark corridor, her skirts sweeping behind her in a pool of midnight and glittering silver stars. She wrung her hands, twisting the gold band that bound her to the King of Furvus, the same man who had begun to look upon her with disdain after his multiple attempts to have a child with her had failed. He was desperate for an heir as all kings were; she had conveniently refused to tell him that she sold her ability to conceive in exchange for the Zephyr Core. She had already had one child, a monster she refused to acknowledge was her flesh and blood. She would never again have another, not when she could hold the power of the Primordial Gods instead.

If there was no heir, the throne would be hers, too. It was best to keep that open before her dear husband sought to wrench that power from her hands.

That was why she needed him to die—tragically, accidentally, violently. It could never be traced back to her, not truly.

That was why she needed that ghostly weapon. That Felix.

With a sigh, she leaned against the grimy stone wall. A dim lantern hung from the ceiling, lit with the barest flicker of a flame that hardly graced the room with light or warmth at all. She was in a section of the servants' quarters, obvious from the dinginess that made her wrinkle her nose. If she had stayed at home, she would have been confined to a similar life, only it would have been with that monster of a child on her hip—always staring up at her with those lifeless green eyes, so much like her own and yet so dull. She was a polished emerald, a glittering and powerful thing. He was an empty husk, a curse that godforsaken man had forced upon her, long before she ever met the King. The child was that man's alone; she was lucky to be rid of both of them. And if she had her way, the Core Reapers would make sure that blank child was never seen in the world again. If only she could have twisted them into slaughtering that man too, but alas, there were limits to the deals she could strike with otherworldly beings.

"Miss."

She startled at the sound of the voice, softer than the draft that drifted from under the rickety wooden door. When she swung to face the source, she came face to face with a pale child in black clothes that didn't quite fit his skinny frame. His face was gaunt, thin like some haunting creature that emerged from the deepest depths of hell at night. She hadn't heard him enter; he had simply appeared, perhaps peeling himself out of the shadows that lined the tiny room. However, it was his eyes that gave her pause and stole her breath away.

Lifeless pools of dull emerald green stared up at her, the empty husk of a soul that betrayed the countless lives he had stolen.

So this was Felix. Her lip twitched and it took all her years of practice to smooth her features into a queenly, regal look once more. It was cruel irony, a joke played on her by the Primordials.

The child she had abandoned, the one who was supposed to be dead, was standing right in front of her, and his hands dripped with blood.

He had truly become a monster now.

Though her stomach twisted at the disturbing sight, the tiniest smile curled the corners of her mouth. Yes, this could work. He would never know. He was only a weapon now, a tool that fit perfectly in her hand because she had molded him from her own flesh and blood. He was perfect now.

Perhaps his miraculous survival would work in her favor.

She lifted her chin and looked down her nose at him in her best regal disdain. "It's Your Majesty," she corrected. "I am the Queen of Furvus."

"Your Majesty," he murmured, ever the obedient machine. How he fell in line so easily—it was eerie. He was a puppet whose strings were all too easy to grab.

"I assume you know why you're here?"

"To kill." He tipped his head. "But I've never killed for a queen before."

"Yes, it is a rarity." She slipped a coin pouch from her cloak; its contents clinked, but he barely looked at them. Unlike most of her servants, who practically fell over themselves at the promise of money, he seemed disinterested in her reward. Well, no matter. "If you kill the king, this will be yours."

"I understand. It will be done." He didn't wait to be dismissed, nor did he bargain for more than she was offering, or ask how much she was willing to pay. He simply turned and left the room without a sound. The darkness swallowed him, and his horrifying green eyes were again concealed from her sight.

She tucked the coins back into her cloak, a devilish smirk on her lips. The throne was as good as hers, and soon, Furvus would sit in the palm of her hand. When the time was right, the other Cores would be hers as well.

And if that little monster, that freakishly empty mistake of nature, could help her get there, then so be it. She would let him survive a little longer in this world. 

--

*washes my hands of Dinah* eugh

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed both of these little snapshots--or at least found them interesting. I definitely want to write more about the master and young Felix, but I already had this little brain dump sitting in my files and thought it wouldn't hurt to share. The Dinah one was part of a character study I did, trying to understand her better as I dive deeper into the rewrite. If I keep going, I'll end up with enough content to write a whole novella about the past. Wouldn't that be crazy haha...

Thank you all for 50k reads! Here's to more milestones and more fun bonuses :D

And if you haven't read the completed sequel yet, what are you waiting for? ;)