Beyond the Burning Blade

Chinwe passes as an ordinary villager under a new name in a small village. She is in fact the chief assassin of the Burning Blade, the organization that raised her, and anyone who leaves the Burning Blade is put to death. From childhood her master taught her that an assassin must have no feelings, and she took that to heart and became the sharpest sword the organization had. Then someone told her that her sword did not have to take a life. She wanted to live in daylight, so she paid her master back for raising her by throwing herself off a cliff. She woke up badly hurt in the village. Shane took her in there, and from him she learned that everyone has somebody they want to keep safe. She also found that the village was being squeezed by a local strongman who took the villagers' money and carried off their girls. When his men came for people who had done nothing, she picked up her sword again and used it on them. Later she has to cross swords with her old comrades from the Burning Blade.