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Sent Kobold

Chapter 10: Tyrant's Justice

Author's Note: This chapter's even longer than Revolt's Chaos, so you better like walls of text and political intrigue, or at least a good tolerance for it. And time. Lots of it. Don't say I didn't warn you! Enjoy!

To learn of justice is to learn what it is not.

---

"I suppose that went well. Kind of."

Standing back from Iskdiwercaesin as finished healing, the dragon scowled at Serhis. "Oh sure, it went perfectly well. I'll be tempted to come back the next time I feel like I'm in a happy mood. This place will change that, no problem."

"Sorry Iskdiwercaesin. I wasn't as attentive as I should have been," Rhasalis said to him as he huffed before getting into the wagon.

Their expedition into the ruined outpost was by no means a disaster, but a few parts could have gone better. For starters, it took nearly half a day to find the entrance. Iskdiwercaesin's inquiries into lost and abandoned places that might hold valuable treasures had lead them to an outpost that had been built into the side of a mountain a number of centuries ago, during a war that's cause was unknown to them, but the effect had been clear. Either by nature's whim or someone's resourceful hand, a rockslide had buried the outpost in a tomb of rock and mud. Finding a way inside was tricky and they eventually found a hole near the top that they suspected would get them inside. It wasn't big enough to fit any of them, but one ditherbomb later, they could see worked stone at the bottom of the hole in the dimming afternoon light.

Using the rope and pitons they had, the climb down wasn't hard, but they would all be muddy and in need of a wash by the end of the day. Looking around the place, they saw piles of skeletons, the remains of the defenders of the outpost that laid where they had died. Shovels, picks, and a few weapons had been repurposed looked like they had been used in an attempt to dig their way upwards, all the equipment was scattered around and large bins full of dirt sat in the corners. It wasn't clear if the hole in the roof was a product of their digging or because a part of it had collapsed over time, but either way, the defenders had died from dehydration or starvation, depending if the hole provided water from rain. Humans, Halflings, Gnomes, Elves, Dwarfs, and a few of Orcish blood, all were sealed down here where their arms and armor couldn't fight off the passage of time. Most of it had rusted and gathering it all to be sold would be useless, but a few pieces could be found that were still in good condition, giving some hope that if they explored the place, they might find more.

It took the rest of the day to finish going through the outpost. What slowed them down the most were the traps. Even after centuries of neglect, there were some with wood that hadn't rotted and triggers that hadn't jammed, but the most dangerous were the ones that relied on magic. A fireball in their midst had made that clear, requiring Serhis to administer healing to them all, and from then on, Rhasalis took point, combing the path ahead for more traps. Progress was slow, but eventually got to the lowest point of the outpost and had gathered anything of value along the way.

As they went, they could see that a few stories could be found even amongst the long buried dead. There were letters on faded parchment, written as both last wills and testaments and farewells to loved ones in the event that someone found them at the bottom of the rubble. Journals of young soldiers who awaited glorious victory on the field of battle. Perhaps the most disturbing were the scenes of murder and depravity, the pressure of being trapped getting to the survivors in their final hours, as a skeleton with a sword through it's ribcage displayed hopeless fury. The skeleton was probably of an officer, the armor it wore was of better quality than most and had an insignia of rank for the army he had been serving. Then there was the kitchen, which had been barricaded and locked until Rhasalis fiddled with the bolts. Bones had been neatly stacked on the shelves, skulls purposefully placed on the tables, and the only skeleton that was intact was sitting slumped over a table, the bones of that person's last macabre meal still on the plate, the silverware set still in place and the polished knife and fork still in it's hands. By unspoken agreement, they didn't take any of it.

All the while, they couldn't help but feel uneasy as they went through the empty halls, the only sounds that could be heard echoing though the dark was their footsteps and their own breathing. Sometimes, they thought they heard an extra set of breathes that weren't their own, but as far as they could tell, it was only the echoes. Baous had asked Serhis if ghosts were haunting the place and if the skeletons would rise. Everyone else were just as interested in his answer. Serhis replied that he didn't feel any lingering spirits and it was normally the influence of a cleric of evil or a necromancer that made the walking dead, but he did mention that if the death was particularly violent or the victim had been in complete despair, there was a chance that they would act on their own. It was a disturbing fact, but as far as they could tell, nothing had stirred.

It was when they reached the lowest level that things looked brighter. After Rhasalis had disarmed the most complicated trap they had seen yet, they found the officer's quarters and the armory. It was a trove of armaments and valuables, ranging from high quality swords and bows to a chest full of silver and gold, likely meant to be the salary of the soldiers and officers which had sat forgotten and dismissed when their crisis came about. There was only one set of remains that could be found here, a skeleton fervently clutching a set of scrolls of teleportation. Whoever it had been was no mage, but that hadn't stopped wishful thinking. Even though neither Iskdiwercaesin or Xet could use it themselves without a high degree of risk, they took them anyway, carefully slipping the scroll from bony fingers, standing back as if the skeleton would suddenly spring up. After that, they set their way back to the surface.

By some stroke of luck and unlucky fortune, they had avoided stepping on a trap before the fireball. On the return trip though, Iskdiwercaesin only had enough time to look down as the tile shifted before the mechanisms started moving.

In all of Serhis' experiences of building traps, this was one of the strangest and most elaborate ones he'd ever seen. He was both horrified and in awe as carefully measured iron arms swung into place, a trapdoor opened, and reinforced bars snapped shut. He wasn't sure where the honey came into play, likely for some creature that was meant to be in the pit where the trapdoor lead, but the cage with the dead chicken was the only thing that didn't make much sense.

Iskdiwercaesin wasn't hurt physically, but his pride took a dent. As he climbed out of the hole, all the kobolds stared at him. After hours of tension, Serhis and Baous cracked. All throughout the underground outpost, the sounds of high pitched and canine laughs rang out, soon followed by angry, draconic yells of "SHUT UP!"

Some minutes later, after cleaning up the honey and feathers, they climbed out of the hole and were on their way to the nearest village.

"You will never bring that up. You hear me?" Iskdiwercaesin demanded.

"I'd never dream of it," Baous said with a straight face.

"Just... drive. There's a village or something near here, right? Go, I never want to see or hear of this place again."

"I was thinking about sending a message to Professor Rilink," Serhis said, "she seems the sort that would be interested in something as historical as that."

"Whatever. Just don't go into the details."

"Where are we headed?" Xet asked, his first dungeon delving experience both an underwhelming affair of non-action and nerve-wracking suspense.

"Here, I have a map of the area," Rhasalis provided for them. "There's a village four days North of here."

Serhis looked at the map, all the of landmarks and locations were written in Draconic. This was likely the same map she used on patrols. "We can pick up some supplies there, but I don't think they'll be interested in buying anything we found."

"That's a town a bit further along there, right?" Iskdiwercaesin pointed out. "We'll go that way and sell what we got."

Looking over his shoulder to see the map, a furry brow furrowed as he looked at the map, then his own. "That's the last town on the way to the Ceritun Plains that I can see."

"Then we'd better make sure that we have all the supplies we need before we leave there," Rhasalis suggested. "Items of a magical nature and potions, those sorts of things."

"Anything in particular?" Xet asked.

"Whatever we think's needed. I don't have a clue what we're going to find that way either."

"We'll see if this backwoods town has anything to offer first," Iskdiwercaesin said. "What's the place called?"

Baous looked at his map in the dimming sunlight. "It's, uh, called Axton."

"Ever heard of it?"

"Nope."

"Me neither. Let's hope they've got something worth trading in all this crap for."

Laying down on his seat, Serhis watched the sky turn from orange to purple to black as the night sky darkened.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Why isn't it ever simple?"

A 'simple' question like that is never easy to answer, especially when a dragon asks it. Serhis shrugged, "I'd say it was easily solved."

"So this happens often?" Xet asked as he counted the sacks of flour and eggs, making sure the two pigs in the wagon with them didn't start chewing on his robes.

"Not really. The pigs are definitely new," Baous replied.

No sooner had they entered the village yesterday, the villagers clustered around their wagon. Some had their hands on their pitchforks, wary of the visitors, while others approached with apprehensive eyes and needy voices. Their village was being beset upon by a plague of semi-intelligent rats that only came in the moonlight, demanding tribute. The villagers had resisted once and found that a swarm of a hundred rats would either rip one of their people to shreds or would display an intelligence not known to most rats, sometimes setting fires to barns and homes. And as luck would have it, their little group had just arrived just before nightfall. Serhis was still wondering if Bahamut was rolling the dice for their party like it was some sort of game and finding the results to be as amusing. And if the dragon god did have a nudge in their current affairs, he was in favor of overkill to a simple problem. As the sky got darker, the villagers got nervous and ran for their homes, leaving the confused kobolds and dragon standing in the middle of the village alone in their wagon. Serhis tried knocking on one of their doors, but all he heard was "go away!"

Then the rats came. Swarming over the hill in the dozens, they could see the party standing exposed in the village and they started to make their way to their newest prey. Some were carrying tiny little weapons in their paws.

Iskdiwercaesin and Xet looked at each other with a skewed glance, then let loose. One breath of acid and explosion of fire later, almost half of those rats were hissing from the acid and just as many were roasting. Serhis, Baous, and Rhasalis sat in the wagon, not really able to do much while the pair played havoc on the rats, effortlessly swatting at the few that came too close. In under a minute, the plague of rats was now fertilizer.

The villagers witnessed these newcomers dispatch their problems and were quick to reward them for it, giving some of the monthly tribute meant for the rats to them, sure that they would never have to give anymore away again. They were just as quick to send them on their way.

"It's almost like we have to solve everyone's little problems," Iskdiwercaesin muttered with disgust. "I'd like to visit a village or two that doesn't have some sort of problem or crisis or whatever."

"So what are we going to do with these... things?" Rhasalis shuffled slightly away from the pigs as they snorted at her.

"We definitely don't want to take them with us," Serhis said. "They'd eat too much of our food and if we butchered them later, the meat we'd get wouldn't be worth all that they ate."

"Then we're having bacon," Iskdiwercaesin grinned at the pigs which nervously squealed and went to the farthest side of the wagon from him.

"Lucky I didn't name them," Rhasalis said as she poked one of them with a stick.

"Huh? Aw, I already did," groaned Baous.

"Really? What did- never mind. It's better if I don't know."

After almost a week from Lehaskeral, Serhis was glad that Xet and Rhasalis seemed to be handling the journey well. Even better, they were getting along with Baous and Iskdiwercaesin. Rhasalis had noticed Baous' daily training routine and had asked to spar with him, and now every day, they would try and get the better of the other in their contests of skill. They used practice weapons of course, but that didn't stop them from going all out against each other, Baous steadfast on his feet and Rhasalis moving swiftly to try and get past his guard. Xet seemed content conversing with Iskdiwercaesin, discussing arcane theory and practice, as well as coming with all sorts of nasty ways to combine spell effects to make an enemy's life miserable. He and Baous got along fine, but the language barrier slowed things down. It wasn't that Xet spoke in a broken manner like Serhis, but that he didn't know it at all. Xet never learned Common, thinking it wasn't useful. He was aiming to become a Dracolexi, a sorcerer who studied the very language of dragons, as it served as the principle foundation for all spell casting, and in learning the subtle nuances of those words, would find their spells empowered as a result. This required that they learn two other languages that were similar and had originally been made out of the Draconic alphabet in order to make sure they would interpret the words corrects. Dwarven happened to be one of those languages. When Baous found out, he eagerly chatted with Xet, but that meant the problem worked backwards, leaving Serhis, Iskdiwercaesin, and Rhasalis out. So it was decided that unless Baous needed to articulate something specific, his yet to be complete Draconic would have to do.

Rhasalis, on the other hand, was very good at Common, even better than Serhis. It had been part of her training in infiltration in the event that she was to sneak into hostile territory and listen in on the command elements, and if the spy didn't know what they were saying or wrote in secret documents, what was the point?

For Serhis, having old friends along also gave him another opportunity to speak about more things that interested him. One of the subjects was traps. They would sit near the fire while they camped, discussing in great detail some of the nastiest and devious ways to make living hell in the form of small, mechanical devices, redundancies if the subject managed to escape, and what to do in the event of large groups. Baous and Iskdiwercaesin only had one reaction, stare dumbly in the face of some of the jargon. Who knows what a TPK meant? Cleric of Bahamut or not, old habits died hard and the willingness to use everything at his disposal to survive even harder.

Things were more lively on the road than before. Serhis and Baous would go out to pick herbs every so often, Iskdiwercaesin would regale past exploits to Rhasalis and Xet, and boredom seemed a much more distant experience.

It was late in the afternoon when they saw the town of Axton, sitting near a river with high stone walls and a keep next to the river. Half the town was inside a set of inner walls and most of the other half in the outer walls, but they could see the frames of more buildings being constructed outside the walls, so this was likely a rapidly growing community.

"It's bigger than the one we traded with back home," Xet noted as they approached on a dirt road.

"Midbow is very new. I don't know how old this town is, but compared to the hundred or so people back there, yeah. There's even bigger towns than this," Serhis explained.

"It's so... spread out," Rhasalis observed. "How do they defend it all? Don't they have any underground defenses? One good tunnel and *wumph*," she placed a claw like it was a wall falling down, "the rest of the defenses aren't going to be useful."

"Not everyone's comfortable living underground. Even if they are, they might not be able to see in the dark," Serhis explained.

Xet shrugged as he watched the gates get closer. "Their loss then."

As they neared the entrance to town, they all saw the large banners hung from the walls. A stylized azure dragon ascending on rays of white lightning on a black background with blue borders. The guards bore similar icons on their shields. It was probably the banner of the lord of this town or something that represented the town itself, they didn't know who ruled this town or how it was governed, but they only hoped that whatever the case was, the guards would let them without too much trouble.

"You there, halt!" Pulling to a stop, they waited as the pair of guards approached. "State your names and purpose."

"I am Serhis. This is Rhasalis, Baous, Xet, and Iskdiwercaesin," he pointed to each of them in the wagon. "We here to rest for the night and trade supplies."

Like always, the guards would stare at the wyrmling in the wagon for a few seconds, but they seemed to recover faster than most. "We have to inspect your wagon and supplies before we let you in."

"It fine. We no mind," Serhis said to them. As the guards went around to the rear of the wagon, the others got off.

"Wonder what they're looking for?" Baous said as he clambered off.

"Who knows, as long as they don't nick any of our stuff," Iskdiwercaesin watched them comb through the wagon.

It didn't take them long to find something. "Holy shit!"

"Uh, something wrong?" Serhis asked.

The other guard whistled as he leaned over to see what his partner uncovered, but he didn't keep his eyes off the group. "And to think I was going to have a slow day. You're carrying a lot of weapons here. A damn lot. I think there's enough here to equip a company of soldiers. Looks like some of it's pretty good too."

"Is this going to cause a problem? We want to sell this stuff," Iskdiwercaesin, untactful as usual, asked.

Again, the guards stared at him. "You're not some sort of weapon's dealer, are you? One of those, 'merchants of death' that get rich selling this stuff at high prices in places that stir up trouble?"

"No, I'm not. Though, I wonder why I didn't think of that earlier..." Serhis frowned in Iskdiwercaesin's direction. "Anyway, we found this cache some ways out in the middle of nowhere and want to see if anyone around here's interested in buying."

"Middle of nowhere? Riiight." It was clear they didn't believe it.

"Serhis, what's going on? Why aren't these human's letting us in yet?" Xet asked.

As Serhis explained the situation, Rhasalis chimed in. "Is this going to be a problem?"

"Somewhat. The sale of weapons is currently restricted and only by the authorization of Lord Ligain are any merchants allowed to do so."

"What do you mean 'currently restricted'?" Iskdiwercaesin noticed the wording.

The other guard sighed, evidently the younger, more inexperienced guard. "There's been a lot of trouble lately. All sorts of nasty words being thrown around. You know, politics."

Iskdiwercaesin sighed. "It's never easy, is it?" he grumbled. "Where do we find this Lord Ligain? Is it going to be too much to ask to sell this stuff?"

"Weren't you listening? I don't think he's going to let you do that," the older guard said, but then looked like he was reconsidering those words. "On the other hand, he might want to buy this lot off you outright, to better equip the town. I sure as hell wouldn't mind getting my hands on a set of that armor."

Serhis didn't like the idea of putting weapons on the market of a town that had problems, it sounded like it would bring up a host of trouble, even if they had no clue what the political situation was. However, they couldn't lug around the weapons and armor as they traveled. There weren't going to be any other towns further up the road, which would soon turn to no road at all, and the weight of their cargo was slowing down the wagon. They couldn't just dump it all either, on the off chance someone found it all, which could create a whole new set of problems if it fell in malicious hands. Right now, it would be best to offer the equipment at a fair price to the lord of the town. "You tell us where he be then?"

"He should be in the keep now. If not, he's probably at the town hall, still working," the older guard with the bushy salt and pepper beard said. "Um, say, if his lordship does take kind to the idea, would you mention us? Name's Danward."

"Mine's Henry," the younger of the two eagerly said.

"Though if he doesn't, please don't."

Sniggering, Iskdiwercaesin nodded. "We'll keep that in mind. Guard duty just isn't giving the glory it's suppose to, hmm?"

The guards saluted. "Most appreciate it if you do. Or don't," Danward said.

As he was translating for Xet, Baous edged closer to Serhis. "You noticed something weird going on?" he whispered. "There's some people acting all shifty. Don't look. I think they're watching us. And I mean more than usual."

"I agree," Rhasalis whispered behind them. She had also quietly crept closer, her eyes darting from shadow to shadow in the dim afternoon light. From the way that Iskdiwercaesin was craning his head, he had heard their whispers. "Good to see you're attentive. They seem to be observing us, but also waiting for something."

"How can you t-" Serhis' words were cut short as a loud, guttural battle cry was loosed, ridding him of all doubts.

Almost a dozen people of various races ran towards them from the surrounding buildings, at the fore was one of the burlier specimens of orc they had ever seen. "Those weapons aren't going anywhere! Kill 'em, kill them all! String 'em up before we grab their stuff!"

"Shit!" Henry swore as he backpedaled, unable to go anywhere but the still shut gates.

"Ah hells. Don't go running off!" Danward yanked Henry back. "We split up, we get killed! Stick together!"

"Whaaaargh!" The attacking mob let out a ear splitting yell as they closed the distance, wielding clubs, crude spears, skinning daggers, butcher knives, and a few with the old standby of farming scythes and pitchforks. Their weapons were clearly improvised and only a few looked like they would stand up to a sustained battle.

Iskdiwercaesin had been waiting for them to get closer, then let loose his acid breath as they grouped together as they ran. Either his acid was getting harsher or the mob wasn't that strong, most of those caught in the splashing acid had fallen, but there were still more coming to replace them. At least he had made them more cautious, many of them were reluctant to charge out in the open and face another rain of corrosive liquid.

"Calhin! Damn it, Calhin! Where the devil are you?!" Danward was screaming at the walls, probably to another guard. Sure enough, a helmeted head stuck itself up from the ramparts. "Get reinforcements! Now!" As quick as this Calhin came, he went.

"Why didn't you tell him to open the gates to let us in?!" Henry desperately asked.

"It'll take too long for that damn gate to open. By the time that happened, he'd also get some help, and I'd prefer to have some guys flinging arrows to keep this bunch off my back," Danward grunted as he reached into the wagon. "Hope you don't mind me borrowing this," he said as he withdrew a finely balanced long sword for the heap of weapons and tossing another to the other guard. "This one's better than the pig sticker I've got."

So far, the attackers were holding back, staying close to the walls of the surrounding buildings to avoid getting hit from Iskdiwercaesin. Baous and Rhasalis stood next to Iskdiwercaesin at the front, besides the two guards, ready for another possible charge. And they did charge, many of them holding pot lids, boards of wood, or whatever bric-a-brac they found that they could use as a crude shield. It wouldn't help against Iskdiwercaesin's breath, the acid sprayed everywhere and nothing less that solid cover would help, but they must have felt that what they had was enough as they ran towards them, far more spread out to avoid all getting hit again.

Iskdiwercaesin proved them wrong, splashing a number of them as they almost reached him. And if he didn't, Xet did, as a wave of arcane energies blasted just as many of the attackers, a sleep spell. A dragon these people could comprehend as a threat, the acid he breathed a recognizable danger, but when some small lizard starts waving his arms and yelling and people start to fall down for no discernable reason, the main thought of the day is going to be "screw this!" Any that could still move broke and ran, escaping into the maze of alleys and back roads.

"Well I'll be damned," Henry swore as he took off his helmet, observing the destruction those two had done all by themselves. "We're still alive. And in one piece."

"If you're disappointed, I can fix that," Iskdiwercaesin joked, causing the young human to pale.

"Stop jerking the rookie around. Other gates got hammered before and those poor souls really did get ripped to shreds," Danward handed the long sword by the handle to Baous. "Didn't get to use it, but thanks."

Taking the sword and placing it back, Baous turned to the guards. "What was that all about?"

Lifting his head, Danward looked at the top of the wall, making everyone else turn to see that the runner had returned with a full squad of archers. "We can talk once we're behind the walls. I'll tell you what I know, but the lord can do better. He'd definitely want to see you now. Oy! A bit late there, aren't you! We're already done here."

"Ah screw you old man, I ran as fast as I could," the runner shot back, somewhat out of breath.

"Then you'd better get down here and clean up this mess. I want these people in a cell by the time they wake up. And open the gates!"

The guard named Calhin grumbled as he went into the gatehouse, the clanking of gears as the portcullis opened the only sound they could hear as they listened for more attackers. With a loud click, the gates were open.

Danward sighed as the got on the wagon. "Hope you don't mind if I hitch a ride. This 'old man' would like not to be sweaty when he gives his report to his lordship." The more Serhis listened to the human, the more he was inclined to believe that he was a lot tougher than his age might indicate.

Henry looked unsure if he should board the wagon as well. "Uh, you don't mind if I-"

"Get your butt up here, these folks won't mind," Danward said and Henry jumped.

"You very... calm not right word... accepting around us," Serhis said, Danward's casual attitude was an unusual, but refreshing, change.

"A veteran like me learns right quick that if someone's willing to watch your back in a fight and you theirs, then it'd be nice if you gave them a friendly front. I've fought with more than my share of the strange and the weird, for and against, so pardon if I'm not too surprised. Kobolds and a dragon, that's a new one."

"You know I'm a kobold?" Baous said, a ray of hope in his eyes. If this man knew about canine kobolds, than he might know something.

"Huh, you are? What, you adopted by them? I thought you were a rather nice gnoll."

Sighing, Baous shook his head as the flicked the reins. "No sir. I am adopted though."

"About the situation?" Rhasalis pointedly asked. She wasn't the kind to dawdle around when important information was needed.

"Right, here's how it is. Some people round here didn't take too kindly to Lord Ligain's rule and got mighty upset over something. Things go bad from there. Not much to say about it really. I don't think you'd be very interested in all this, you're probably going to be out of here soon enough. Anyway, one of those people who think they'd do better in charge is some bandit lord that's suppose to be pretty famous. I don't know about that, I've never heard of him before he came here. Any of you know a Yelec Searflint?" All shook their heads no. "Well, him and his crew popped up here around five months ago and raised all sorts of hells. Now, I normally think that the people of this town have some inkling of common sense, but there are some plain idiots here that think it'd be a good idea for him to be the new lord of the place. Hah! Sure, it looks nice to feast on whatever you want, don't care about the rules, and tell everyone else to pike off, or you just plain don't like Lord Ligain, but Searflint in charge? That's going to be a short life or a very, very nasty long one. Now why they went and attacked us is pretty clear, they want the neat and shiny weapons and armor you brought in. Bandit lord or not, it's hard to put up a fight if what you've got is going to fall apart if you swing too hard and Searflint probably didn't have any quality stuff in the first place. Lord Ligain figured as much and put a ban on the sale of weapons and armor unless the merchant has this license. Hey, take the turn over there. To the left," he instructed Baous as they went into an intersection. "You can bet the merchants weren't too happy about that and they complained that the licenses were only being given out to his supporters, but I say bollocks to them. They don't make too much money off of selling that stuff anyway and I rather like the idea that those that do sell them are responsible about who they give it to. Hasn't stopped a few from selling anyway. And the more dangerous people who went with Searflint, well, you remember us saying how some of the guards get ambushed? All their stuff swiped, but what they do to the poor souls mortal remains, that's just too much."

Henry shuddered as Danward mentioned that part. "Yeah. That raid on Felson Street, that's... that's horrible. Five guys, all spread out."

"Don't think about that too much," Danward said to him. "The bastards that did that to them is going to get theirs, don't worry."

"So we have to worry about them when we leave town then?" Serhis asked while giving Xet a translation of the details.

He seemed to consider it, then shook his head. "You're going to have to worry about them in here. There might be a few of those loonies in the town, just waiting for a chance to knife you in the back and still get away without anyone knowing it was them. Damn, the situation's getting worse. Right, stop here."

Pulling up in front of a large stone building, complete with inner courtyard and gate, they could see that this was the local guardhouse. "I thought we were going to meet your Lord Ligain?" Baous asked.

"You will, after I give my report to the commander," Danward grunted as he got and hopped off the wagon. "It's probably going to be sent to his lordship, probably by tomorrow, then he's going to want to talk to you. Better luck than trying to go and meet with him."

"And what are we suppose to do while we wait? Stand in the middle of town with the wagon full of banned weapons, hope no one with even less brains than the last bunch try to nab it again, and think happy thoughts?" Iskdiwercaesin said.

The guard chuckled. "Sharp tongue on this one. Err, figuratively and literally I suppose. Here, take this map," he handed a parchment to them from out of his pack. It looked to have been worn and there were trails of ink that looked to have been added on after it had been made by a professional cartographer, showing a number of back roads, shortcuts, and warning signs. "I can get a new one, but I've got it all in here already," he tapped his head. "Go to the crossing at Amnerby Avenue and Opal Street, there's an inn and tavern there that's alright, you can stay there for the night at a good price. You're probably going to want them to keep your wagon in the back. Just tell them ol' Danward Vidbacal sent you."

"Thanks then," Baous waved to him as the started to go toward the guardhouse.

"Aw shit!" Henry groaned, causing everyone to turn and look in his direction.

"What is it? More trouble?" Serhis asked.

"No, I mean pig shit," he went to the side of the road and scrapped the bottom of his boots on the road. "Uh, thanks for saving our asses," Henry said before running to catch up with Danward.

"Yep, we're are not going to be taking these pigs with us," Xet said with a definite tone. "Hope that stain's going to come out. ... Hmm, Iskdiwercaesin? Maybe a little spit shine there? That'll get rid of it."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The inn was only a short drive away, easily within walking distance from the guardhouse. That was probably why Danward recommended it. As they approached, they noticed a lot of off duty guards inside, still in their armor and uniforms, as well as a few of the townspeople that weren't nervous about having a drink with the local law enforcement. The name of the inn was also a giveaway, the "Worn Helmet". Putting the wagon nearby, they went inside, getting the usual batch of mixed looks. When Serhis asked the innkeeper about finding someplace to put the wagon and mentioning the recommendation from Danward, most of the guards returned to their conversations and drinks.

As they got their own table, Serhis noticed that Iskdiwercaesin had hung back to talk with the innkeeper before joining them. "Did you order something?"

"Yeah, a side of pork, barely flame kissed, chopped up nicely," he grinned as the plopped down on a cushioned seat. "He'll have the cook do all the butchering and they get to keep half of one of the pigs."

"Sounds fair I guess," Serhis shrugged.

"By the way, does that happen often as well? The random attacks when you get into town I mean," Xet asked.

"No. Thanks for the sleep spell, I didn't want to use my hammer on those people, even if they did want to kill me," Baous said.

"I'll be sure to note that the next time one of them wants to have a new set of boots and a fur coat," Iskdiwercaesin replied.

Xet scratched the back of his head, "I think a fireball would have worked better, it has a bigger blast radius. I guess it's because the orc brought up some memories."

"No, the sleep spell was fine."

"Is selling that equipment worth all the trouble?" Rhasalis wondered.

"It's going to have to be," Serhis said with resignation, idly watching the entertainers on stage performing with string instruments and song. "Since some of the attackers got away, they're probably going to be watching us now. Dumping it all is going to be a bad idea and I don't know if they'd want to get revenge for their losses."

Watching the pigs getting led into the kitchen, Iskdiwercaesin leaned back into his chair. "Then this Lord Ligain better want to buy all this stuff. I don't want to stick around selling it all piece by piece. At least we won't have to worry about whoever this bandit lord is trying to get it while we sleep," he looked over the room full of guards chatting with one another.

Serhis nodded, thinking the same thing. Listening to the music as they waited for dinner, they also ordered a few extra items to go along with the pork.

As their orders were frantically placed by their young server, Baous made a face as he tasted his ale. "Bleech. What is this? It tastes horrible."

"Hey, watch what you say there!" the innkeeper overheard his comment. "That's my own brew."

"Sorry, but it's not good. Instead of the house brew, do you have anything better?"

The innkeeper crossed his arms, clearly not liking how Baous' request. "Then how about a jug of the best stuff you'll ever get? One for ten gold coins."

Baous pondered for a second before nodding. "I guess it'll make a good gift for mom and dad if there's any left when I get back. Sure, I'll take a jug," he said as he slid a platinum piece towards the man.

The innkeeper raised an eyebrow as he inspected the platinum piece, a little surprised that they had enough money to spend on good ale. Rummaging through a back room, he came back out holding a very aged clay jug and a small drinking glass. "You'll want it in glass, not metal," the innkeeper warned as he poured some in and presented it to Baous.

Serhis was eating his meal with plain water, half paying attention to Baous' request. As he watched the liquid being poured, he noticed that aside from the music being played, most of the talking had died down and that most of the regulars were watching their table out of the corners of their eyes. He was about to caution Baous against drinking it, but the canine kobold had lifted the glass with a cheerful smile and drank it all in one gulp. Any conversation had effectively stopped now, all eyes watching him.

"... that's good!" Baous remarked happily as he poured himself another shot. The innkeeper blinked, as if waiting for something more to happen, but whatever it was, this certainly wasn't it. He became more distressed as Baous bit into his side of pork and vegetables and took another draught. Lifting the jug up, he sniffed the opening, making him cough and his eyes water. Even the people on stage had stopped playing, noticing how the innkeeper was reacting strangely.

"Something wrong over there Fethed?" one of the guards yelled from his table with a smirk, more than likely already aware that things weren't going as the innkeeper had planned.

"Nothing. It's nothing," Fethed muttered as he walked away sulking. The tavern went back to it's own business, the entertainment of this anomaly vanishing fast. Serhis' thoughts of a worse case scenario, poisoning, were very unlikely. It was very, very bad business to poison the subject in public and in your own establishment, and in front of the guards no less. Even if he did, Serhis had a potion that could neutralize any number of different poisons in his pack. This Fethed was expecting something as was the rest of the tavern. Either way, Serhis monitored Baous condition as he ate.

"Hungrier than usual, huh?" Iskdiwercaesin said as he ripped though a quarter of pig. "What's with the ale, besides getting it as a gift? You usually just have juice anyway." He had noticed the reactions to the ale as well and was just as interested in what would have happened, if mostly for the entertainment value.

"It's going to be my last drink for a long while since we're going to be out in the wilds for a month or two, so I thought maybe a little something would be nice. But yeah, I usually only have a cup, but this stuff is great! It's going to make great present when I get back home. Don't want to have anymore, I've got to save some for... for..." Baous' eyes started to lose focus. "... my foo-olks. They can take thiees wallop. I'm sshu, sure. Dad's no conni... connis..."

"Connoisseur?" Serhis offered, a hint of worry in his voice. Even with Baous' little trick of delaying the effects, he shouldn't have become so plastered so quickly. With the dwarven ales, it took at least a pint to make him lose focus and maybe another if Baous felt like he had to impress some of the bigger dwarves, which would have him slurring only a little fifteen minutes afterwards. Alcohol poisoning isn't an issue if you have a friend that can purge your system if things go bad, but Baous was always a restrained drinker. It was like he had skipped 'buzzed' and went straight into 'shouldn't have had that last one'.

"Pfft hahahahaha!" Baous let loose a wild laugh, devoured the last of his dinner, then gave everyone a smile. "Fethed? It's Fethed, right? Here, ca, catch!" he clumsily tossed a gold coin to him. "Something for everyone!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, wobbling as he tried to stand. "Just no, none of that other ale. Or this ale. *Hic*."

"Uh, Baous, I think you better sit down," Serhis moved out of his seat to try and guide Baous back into his. Baous was acting way too much like a stereotypical friendly drunk for his liking.

"Huh, Serhis?" Baous groggily swayed. "Aww, I know you cared a lot." Serhis couldn't jump out of the way in time and emitted a pitiful *yipe* as Baous fell down on him.

"Serhis, Baous! You alright?" Rhasalis stood up on her seat. A little while later, a swaying hand with an upturned thumb appeared over the lip of the table. It took a bit longer for the rest of Baous to get up as well. Serhis winced as he got up, he was heavy! And the armor didn't help.

"Th, that's good music, how about I dance? *Hic* I'll, I'll probabluy walk better after a while." Serhis almost had to push him into his seat.

"No, no let him have some fun," Iskdiwercaesin was enjoying how things were going. He was probably never going to let Baous forget this. "Fethed! This what you were waiting for?" he yelled.

The innkeeper shook his head, looking very sheepishly at them. "Umm, most of the time they fall over after the first glass."

"Which is not nearly as fun as this!" another of the guards said, watching as Baous merrily singing dwarven songs in rather good tune considering his state. Apparently someone on the band knew the song, because the music shifted to suit the occasion, and a few of the guards were singing along with him. His dancing, however, much less so. Especially with him dragging Serhis around as his dance partner, who had tried initially to hold onto his hand and keep him in his seat, but was now stumbling along in Baous' grip and just trying not to get flattened again.

"Should we... try to help him?" Rhasalis asked, whether she meant Serhis or Baous was anyone's guess. Probably both.

"How? I don't think either can stop him and I don't think Iskdiwercaesin's wants to," Xet replied. "And I don't think a sleep spell is going to be appropriate. Not that it would work."

With Baous practically lifting Serhis off the ground, Iskdiwercaesin stopped roaring from laughter long enough to ask Fethed a question. "What in the nine hells did you give him? Do you do this to everyone that insults your brewing skills? Must happen a lot."

Fethed had enough presence of mind about who he was talking to not to be goaded by the implied insult. "Macial's WyrmKiller brew. Most of the time, the guy just gives the jug back after the first glass," he sighed. "Guess I've got to go get a new bottle."

"WyrmKiller? Your joking about the name, right?" The innkeeper slash barkeep shook his head no. "What is with you people and that damn obsession? Guess being top of the heap counts for something," Iskdiwercaesin muttered. Pouring a glass out of the jug, he stood up from his seat, craning his head up for maximum height, and yelled to all in the room. "No one's going to be calling it that after this!" he declared as he held up the glass like it was a challenge.

Serhis barely managed to yell out during all the dancing. "No wait! I think that's a bad-" Iskdiwercaesin had already dunked his head back with the glass, not even bothering to taste the drink. It was fortunate that everyone had finished their food by that time when Iskdiwercaesin fell snout forward onto the table. There was now a green dragon lying very, very unconscious on the table, like he was the prized main feature to an equally strange dinner. "Idea."

"Dinner's over I guess," Xet said as he poked the wyrmling with a fork.

"Innkeeper, rooms please," Rhasalis sighed as she set down the plate in her claws after having quickly removed them from the table before Iskdiwercaesin's collapse. The man nodded and went to get the keys. Glancing at Baous and Serhis still in the center of the floor and the center of attention, she asked Xet, "how are we going to get him up the stairs?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the next morning, things had settled down. More or less.

"Morning!" Baous said to Iskdiwercaesin's prone form.

"Huurgh. Blargh." It was all the response he could muster before he could form a coherent response. "Don't shout. Please. Oh, my head. My head..." It wasn't that coherent, but it got the point across.

"How are you feeling?" Serhis asked Baous.

"Fine, I suppose. Arms and legs feel a little sore though. Why?"

"How much do you remember from last night?" Rhasalis queried.

"How much I remember? That's a weird thing to ask. We got to the inn, we got dinner, Iskdiwercaesin handed the pigs to the innkeeper. I finished dinner, then... then..."

Iskdiwercaesin groaned. Had he a working brain right now, he would have made a crack at Baous' conduct, but at most he was grateful that Baous didn't remember how he got laid out after a small glass. The WyrmKiller didn't live up to it's name, but that had been under the impression that it was someone else who did the job and not the wyrm itself.

"Then you provided dinner and a show to the patrons of the tavern," Xet said. "I mean it. Paid pretty much for everyone's meals and a little extra, then went dancing. Kind of dance. With Serhis. Good moves there," he complimented. Serhis didn't know if he should be happy of the compliment or be embarrassed. "After a while, you fell down. We had to get a little help to bring you up to our room."

"Wow. I usually remember what happens after I drink," Baous mused. "I already don't have much, but I think I better cut down."

"Yes, that would be wise," Rhasalis said. "Although you have quite some fortitude." Baous shrugged, not able to give an explanation.

Serhis finished with his prayers towards the window, which was shut for Iskdiwercaesin's benefit. They were fine with the gloom anyway, but it felt funny praying past a shut window. Theological implications abound.

"By the way... danced? I don't dance," Baous asked with a shade of embarrassment.

"You could call it random jerking of the legs then," Xet joked, "but either way, you managed to stay up for at least fifteen minutes."

Baous rubbed his forehead, a little confused. "Feels weird not remembering that. Most of the time, everything's a bit fuzzy, but I remember it all. Uh, sorry about dragging you along with me then Serhis."

"It's alright. You just got unlucky and found some unusually strong ale," Serhis replied. He had already stowed the jug deep into his pack. It wasn't going to see the light of day anytime soon if he had a say in it. "We should get breakfast first, then we'll head over to see if we can meet Lord Ligain."

"Sounds good to me," Xet clapped his hands. "You feel like you can move yet Iskdiwercaesin?"

All anyone could hear underneath the bed sheets was a muffled grunt. "I'll see if I can feel alive first."

At least his snarky attitude was alive and well, Serhis thought. "See you downstairs."

First, they checked if the wagon and all the weapons were still there before getting something to eat. Everything looked to be in order, and after Baous fed the horses, they got something for themselves. It was an hour before they saw Iskdiwercaesin descend down the stairs in a foul mood, but was in a bad enough way that he didn't say anything at all when he slumped down in his seat at the table. It was a little while later when they were finishing off the rest of the pig from the night before when someone came through the doors of the tavern and was coming their way.

A male elf wearing the same colors as the banner on the walls of the city, with that same emblem on his shirt, came forward and presented a sealed letter to them "I come bearing a message from Lord Ligain."

He had presented the letter to Iskdiwercaesin, who was too busy clutching his head, so Serhis waved for the messenger to hand the letter to him. Breaking the wax seal that also had the emblem of the lord of the town, he was surprised to see that it had been written in Draconic. "Having read the report from Captain Vidbacal, I am aware of your desire to do business in town, and extend an invitation to you and your group to discuss the sale of arms and armor in my residence, as well as to receive my thanks for you aid in repelling those that wished to attack our town. Present this letter to the guards at the gate and they will allow you in," Serhis read it aloud. "Considerate of him to write it like this. I wonder if he wrote it himself or asked for someone else to do it for him."

"It saves us the trouble of asking to see him I suppose," Rhasalis said. "The sooner we sell the dead weight, the sooner we leave here. I don't like staying in this place." Xet nodded in agreement.

Serhis thought this place wasn't to bad. The situation could have certainly been better, but it wasn't intolerable, though it might have had to do with their discomfort with having to deal with other races. "Everyone finished eating? Let's go."

They had to shake Iskdiwercaesin a bit to get him to move, but eventually they were all in the wagon and heading towards the keep. They had to pass through the inner gates of the town, but when they presented the letter, they passed through without any further problems. One thing they did notice was how the tension seemed to lift as they went past the inner walls, the way the people moved about their business didn't seem to coincide with having to deal with a bandit lord that was laying siege to their town.

Getting closer to the large stone structure by the river, it could more rightly be called a tower than a keep, since the stone building rise high over the small river island it was on. It looked more like a small castle, but that could have been because it started as a keep and eventually had been expanded. The walls outside looked to have been more recently constructed and additions had been placed on the main structure.

"Let's hope this Lord Ligain's got some coin to spare and buys all it outright. I'd hate for him to have spent all of it on this place," Iskdiwercaesin rubbed his head, a minor headache still gnawing on his brain.

They could only hear the sounds of the horse's hooves as they crossed the stone bridge and the running river underneath it, broken now and then with the cries of some bird off in the distance. The gates to the keep were raised, though none of them doubted that it could slam shut very quickly at the first sign of danger. The guards on the walls were watching them, prepared to act if they were that danger.

Reaching the other side of the bridge, Serhis held out the letter for the guards at the front of the gate as Baous slowed the wagon down. Satisfied that the letter was authentic, the guards waved them through. They were directed near the stables to park their wagon and to knock on the main doors to get an audience with the lord.

"So, before we go in, did anyone count how many weapons we have? Or how much it's worth?" Xet asked.

"Uh, I... don't know," Serhis said and looked to the others. Baous shook his head and Iskdiwercaesin probably did know, but he wasn't in the mood or condition to give accurate numbers.

Rhasalis cleared her throat. "Accounting for the condition of the equipment and their quality, I'd say it's worth two thousand."

"Nice to see we brought someone competent along," Iskdiwercaesin muttered. "If we sold it to some merchant, we'd be lucky if we got half that. Since this lord wants to buy it off of us, we want to try and get as close to the full price as we can."

"As long as he doesn't know we don't have any other way to sell it," Serhis noted before he knocked on the large wooden doors. Even these had been reinforced with metal bands.

"If this person's nice enough to write us a letter in Draconic, then I say-" Rhasalis stopped talking as soon as she saw who had opened the door, both her and Xet on full alert as they saw that it was a gnome. The feeling must have been mutual, as the gnome looked ready to slam the door in Serhis' face.

"Who might you be?" he demanded.

"We have letter from Lord Ligain. Please let us in," Serhis' tone was neutral. He was willing to be friendly to gnomes, but if they were going to be difficult, he was just as wiling to be as confrontational as a stone wall. In Draconic, he turned his head to Xet and Rhasalis. "Don't do anything hostile."

"But... that's a gnome," Xet replied.

"He's also the doorman. I don't think we'll get anything out of it and we won't be make ourselves any friends by attacking him."

"Why do we want to be friends with a gnome?" Rhasalis kept her weapons sheathed, so that was good enough for Serhis. He was going to have to explain things to them about dealing with them, but that would have to be at a later time. It would take a longer time than that to completely stifle an age old grudge and injustice.

The doorman sniffed at the letter, giving a look of disdain towards the group. "My liege will see you now. Remember your place before him and give proper respect." Under his breath, they could barely hear him whisper, "if you damn lizards are capable of that." After several flights of stairs and a few hallways later, he knocked on an ornate set of doors. "My lord, some visitors have arrived."

"Let them in." Even through the doors, they could tell that the voice belonged to someone powerful and in control, a baritone voice that gave orders that were seldom ignored. Opening the doors, the doorman stepped aside to let them through to the throne room.

As the doors opened, it was Serhis' turn to stop himself from going on the attack. There were few conditions that would make him launch an unprovoked assault on anyone, religious differences not being among them, but here, there was an exception. Sitting on the throne, there was a half-dragon bearing the five headed emblem of Tiamat on his armor, archenemy, rival god, and immortal foe of Bahamut. The half-dragon didn't look surprised at seeing Serhis or the rest of the group, not even reaching for the sword strategically placed next to his throne, and spoke in a firm tone. "Calmness, cleric of Bahamut. I was well aware of your presence before I summoned you here, after I called Captain Vidbacal here earlier this morning and he gave me a more detailed report, and I have not lead you here for an attempt on your life." He spoke fluent Draconic and his blue eyes regarded them in a relaxed way, but that sword next to him could be easily drawn with a single turn of the arm.

"Then what do you want with us?" Serhis growled, restraining himself from hurling insults or outright attacking the man. "I've seen the atrocities those of your faith have created and I will do nothing to aid you in making another!"

Lord Ligain sat up from his throne, but was still in easy reach of his weapon, Serhis now getting a better view of him. He was of draconic descent, there was no doubt of that, with blue scales and eyes that easily told his lineage from one of the dragons of the desert. A large, vertically wide horn stuck out the front of his head that had a smaller sub-horn curving upwards midway up the main horn, with smaller hornlets at the sides of his jaw and a line of them on the upper ridge of his eyebrow, extending all the way to the back of his head, and had a large patch of scales underneath his jaw that made it look as if he had a beard, although he had no hair. He couldn't tell what the other half of his bloodline was, but it was undoubtedly humanoid, but even then there was a hint of doubt. He had wings, large wings. Normally, only the larger half-dragons would have wings or be able to use them, but Lord Ligain must have either been born with a functioning set or had trained himself to be able to use them effectively, otherwise they would have been short and stunted from lack of use.

"No need to shout, cleric of Bahamut. May I have your name?" Even with the façade of polite inquiry, there was a distinct undertone of an order.

"My name is Serhis. Now, tell me why I shouldn't leave this very second, Lord Ligain?" he demanded.

"You're rather rude. May I remind you that your are in my castle?" he intoned dangerously. "I would ask for the names of your companions as well, but let's get our differences and problems settled first. I am Kaeis Lleisgaritpro. Lord Ligain is just my Common moniker, very few of my subjects can get my actual name right, even with practice.

Glancing behind him, Serhis saw mixed reactions from everyone. Baous was bewildered at Serhis' aggressive attitude, Xet and Rhasalis sharing that same confusion, but with the added discomfort of witnessing him being irreverent to the half-dragon, and Iskdiwercaesin seemed to have banished any semblance of expression from his face. He would have to explain things later to them, but now, he turned all his attention to the dangerous half-dragon. He wanted nothing to do with him, but the follower of Tiamat wasn't making any hostile moves, they were in his seat of power, and the best Serhis could hope for was to get out of here without getting killed. "So what should I call you?" he said through grit teeth.

"Kaeis will do, it's not often I get to hear it. As for why you're here, what other reason would you want to meet me?"

The weapons. That was obvious enough for Serhis, but he had high doubts that they would be for anything good. Weapons by nature aren't meant for peaceful purposes, but they could serve a protective role. Those following the teachings of the five headed dragon rarely ever were on the defensive side of that distinction. "Then I'm sorry to have troubled you. We'll be leaving now," he firmly said as he moved to turn away.

"A bit hasty, aren't you? Presumptuous even?" Kaeis said before Serhis had even taken a step out the door.

"I won't have nothing to do with any evil scheme you've got," Serhis declared defiantly.

"And I would prefer not to be calling on the resources of those of the Platinum Dragon, but it seems you have something I'm lacking and I'm willing to be cordial enough to do business with you. How is the desire to protect my realm and subjects an evil scheme?"

Subjects, or servants? Serhis was extremely wary of any transaction with him, but if Kaeis wanted the weapons badly enough, he would call down a swarm of soldiers to cut them down. "So why are you willing to make this trade and why I should be willing to commit to it?"

"As I said, for the protection of the realm." Kaeis seemed satisfied that he had stopped Serhis from walking out. "The incident at your arrival should have made that clear. Innocent people are being killed and it's making everyone uneasy. I seek to give their defenders a better chance of doing their jobs."

"Protecting the innocent? Why does that sound so hollow coming from you?" Serhis scoffed. "I might not have knowledge of what you've done over the time of your rule, but I doubt it has been kind and benevolent."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, despite what you've heard about what you've heard about those who follow Her divine will, I have a more enlightened view of ruling my subjects. I don't have to go into the details, and I don't want to. You've probably heard about this bandit lord, Yelec Searflint. Now there's an example of depravity. I don't go into the whole 'flay them alive' and 'feed them their own heart and stomach' thing for the hell of it."

"No, you wouldn't. You'd do it for a purpose," in the back of his head, Serhis' common sense was screaming not to tick him off, but seething anger was drowning out the normally strong calmness.

"There are times that call for unkind actions, but I haven't yet had the need to resort to those tactics," Kaeis replied, admitting the option was still on the table.

"Setting the little religious squabble aside for a moment," Iskdiwercaesin interrupted, breaking his silence, "maybe we could get to the whole point of us being here. Selling the equipment. Hmm?"

Serhis huffed and turned his head. He would rather have no dealings with any follower of Tiamat, but the only peaceful way out of this situation would be make a deal. Simply walking out wasn't an option, Kaeis didn't seem the type to allow that.

"Good, there's someone that's willing to be civil about this," Kaeis softened as he turned to the green wyrmling. "What is your name?"

"Iskdiwercaesin Thurkearseoyl."

Kaeis nodded to him. "When I heard that a cleric of Bahamut was willingly with a green dragon, I was hoping that he would be open enough to speak with me. Looks like I assumed too much."

"I'm sure he won't argue with doing simple business," Iskdiwercaesin said. Serhis, in fact, would like to argue a lot about any transaction with Kaeis as a general principle, but unless he had something more concrete to argue against, he was going to have to sit back and let this play out. "Just to make my companion here feel better, what are you planning to use the equipment for?"

"Beyond protecting my subjects? Being able to launch an offensive at the bandit lord in the woods for one thing. I do have enough equipment for the task, but I need quality equipment to do it properly, enough for a good strike force. I don't suppose stopping a monster like him is enough of a noble cause for the cleric?"

"I don't know enough about either of your situations to make that case," Serhis said.

"Ask around town, you'll learn about things soon enough," there was a tone of confidence to Kaeis' words. "I'd like to see what I'm buying. I'll have some of my associates come with me to appraise what you have, then we'll settle on a price."

Going back down, Kaeis must have felt confident that Serhis would restrain himself, as he walked in front of them, showing his back to them. It would turn out that it was because his 'associates' were nearby, well within a short run to the throne room if an attack would have taken place.

They had never seen a Warforged before and to say that they left an impression would have been an understatement. A being made of metal, yet in possession of a soul, they weren't like the mindless golems that mages would make to act as eternal protectors, but instead, were fully capable of independent thought and action. Warforged weren't much larger than the average human, but from the perspective of a small kobold, having one that was almost seven feet tall tower over them was intimidating. What it carried on its back didn't help matters, it had an actual ballista and it was amazing that the Warforged could even handle such a thing. As their names imply, they were made for war and this one appeared to have been fashioned for heavy support. It lumbered behind them, it's face a metal mask that gave no indication what it felt.

Next came a Tiefling, who had no such compunctions about hiding his mood. He ran around the whole group, inspecting each of them like a playful child. Grandchildren of the denizens of the hells and abyss, Tieflings tended to have the unfortunate reputation of their sires, but their bloodlines weren't strong enough to dictate their attitudes and beliefs, and more than a few were renown for doing good. Whether this Tiefling was among them, that was going to be difficult to determine. With spindly horns and a thin red spade tail, he was certainly going to be someone that wasn't going to be easily forgotten. There was also that smile, like he was in on a joke none of them knew.

It was the last one that Serhis and the others would later firmly agree had left them feeling ill at ease and made their skins crawl, scales itch, fur standing at end, or whatever euphemism that was appropriate, it all boiled down to the fact that he felt wrong. He looked to be human and wore a none descript black cloak and dark green robe, a hood covering the top of his head did nothing to improve the impression that he was someone that liked keep his face hidden. Even if someone did get a good look at his face, the best way it could be called would be nondescript. Kaeis might have put his behind an affable personality, but this man's aura gave no mistake that he had seen and done unpleasant things, and tampered with forces that were better left undisturbed. And he got away with it.

Kaeis didn't bother introducing any of them to the group and no one had asked for names, all that was said was by Kaeis to the others, that they would be appraising some equipment and went in uncomfortable silence to the courtyard. It took half an hour before they started haggling over the price, Kaeis opening at a thousand and a hundred gold pieces, Iskdiwercaesin countering at eight hundred over that price. They eventually settled at a thousand four hundred, lower than Iskdiwercaesin had hoped, but it got everything sorted out quickly and a bit better than if they sold it to the merchants.

"Done," Kaeis arranged for the money to be hauled over to the wagon before turning back to them. "Normally, I would have done all this at the town hall, but considering the nature of our business, I hope you didn't mind doing it here."

"Not at all," Iskdiwercaesin smoothly agreed, casting a glance Serhis, the kobold was still fuming.

"Good. If we ever have to make a deal again, perhaps it will be over a meal. The main reason I'm mentioning this is that I want to ensure the secrecy of our transaction," Kaeis lowered his voice.

"What's to keep secret? You get the equipment, we get the gold, and this bandit already knows that we had this stuff. Uh, why aren't your people taking it out?" Iskdiwercaesin watched as some of the castle guards hauled in a small chest containing their payment, but weren't taking the weapons and armor with them.

"It's not my people here that need to acquire more quality arms, but those at an outpost further out of town. That's were I need you to take it."

"Out there? With all those bandits that are probably watching every cart and wagon that's going through the gates?" Xet hesitantly asked.

"I'm no fool. I will send some of my troops to escort you to the outpost. Seeing as I've already paid for it all, I hardly want to lose it while it's being transferred."

"Then what do you need us for?" Iskdiwercaesin was starting to get annoyed. "You've got your own wagons to haul it all."

"I don't think you'll mind if I want to see you safely out of town. Searflint's people wouldn't know if I took all of it, and even if they did, they would still try to attack you for your own equipment and perhaps to get back at you for the loses they took at the gates. Once you get beyond the outpost, they aren't going to be interested in chasing you that far."

"Hmph. I suppose that's good enough," Iskdiwercaesin admitted. Serhis, however, was still trying to see what type of advantage Kaeis would gain from this. "I suppose you have your troops ready?"

"No, you're going to have to travel in the afternoon. Your escort will meet you at outer gates." Kaeis gave a small nod to the guards who opened the castle portcullis. The other members of Kaeis' entourage were already heading back inside to their own business.

"Then if you need us, we'll be staying at the same inn again," Iskdiwercaesin bid him goodbye as they went back into the wagon and left. Kaeis watched them as they went, until they passed the bridge and out of sight.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Serhis, what was that about?" Baous had kept silent during the whole event, bewildered as to why his friend had flipped out. It was only when they got back to the inn when he asked.

"Yeah, I haven't seen you like that since... well, ever," Xet combed his memories. "I've seen you get mad sometimes, but never just by seeing someone. You sure you haven't met before?"

"Never. But he's a follower of Tiamat, and that only means terror and subjugation. And I'm not being judgmental or unfair, it's an actual part of their creed," Serhis grumbled, his head laying on the table. They were right about him being furious though, he was in a foul mood and their situation was only making it worse.

"He was nice enough to us," Rhasalis commented as she sat back at their table after ordering lunch for them all.

"That's because we did everything he wanted us to do," Serhis growled. "The second we went off of his script, that nice face he was showing would have gone away."

"What script? All we were doing were business negotiations. Sure, we didn't get the price we wanted and we're going to have to bring it all out to this outpost of his ourselves, but I don't think he's going to get much more than that," Iskdiwercaesin said.

Serhis was swinging his feet back and forth in irritation as he sat in his too high chair, leaving scratch marks when his claws met the wood. "He would have called in the guards and his compatriots to kill us all if we didn't make the deal. Taking everything would have been easy enough. Why he didn't though, I can make a few guesses. Maybe it's because he's got a reputation to uphold, no one wants to be known for bringing in merchants then slaughtering them for their inventory. Or he wanted people to see us in the courtyard as he brought the gold to our wagon. I don't know. All that I'm sure of is that he needs us to be the ones to carry the equipment to the outpost and not someone else, we're doing exactly what he wants us to do."

"What's so bad about that? We'll have an armed escort on the way out and then we're gone," Xet rested his head on the back of his seat.

"I don't think it's going to be as simple as that," snorted Serhis, "Tiamat's way thrives on deception and subterfuge."

"Can you explain about Bahamut and Tiamat?" Baous asked. "I've heard feuds between gods can be bad."

If Serhis wasn't in the middle of being manipulated by Kaeis, he would have laughed at the understatement. It was a cruel irony that when he devoted his life to Bahamut, it was to trade one rivalry for another, where in the place of the kobold gods towards the gnome's, he got a war between two dragon gods of opposing dichotomies with little hope for resolution any time soon. "We've got until the afternoon, so we have plenty of time."

"As long as you don't start preaching, I suppose a history lesson isn't too bad a way to entertain for lunch," Iskdiwercaesin said as their plates of food arrived by way of harried serving boy. "I've gotten the basic facts about this whole feud, but let's see what a speaker for the Platinum dragon has to say."

History. History is written by the winners it is said. Seeing as the conflict was nowhere near won by either side, that might be the greatest triumph for the side of truth. Truth is recorded by the observer, and Chronepsis, the silent, the dispassionate watcher, the dragon god of fate, death, and judgment, and was probably going to give the most accurate account. Serhis' knowledge on these sorts of things was extensive and he warned them that it would be a while before he managed to finish. This ongoing conflict is called the Dragonfall War.

Wars between dragons leave wide swaths of destruction in their wake and could span hundreds of miles, depending on the strength of their armies. In the battle between the two dragon gods, these battles span multiple planes of existence, from the highest mountain in Celestia to the deepest reaches of the Hells, are far more subtle unless it's a deciding battle, and there were very few times that the two fought each other directly. The times that they did can only be described as world shattering.

Bahamut and Tiamat were born from the eggs of Io, the creator dragon, and he had wanted each to be a paragon of good and evil. This meant that they were brother and sister. Their fight against one another didn't start at the very beginning of time, but it began remarkably close enough to it, with an intense sibling rivalry. Io had intended that they grow up with one another and learn from each other, taking both aspects of good and evil together, and never gave preferential favor to either. Tiamat wanted that favor and when her plots and schemes failed to give that to her, she eventually took drastic action. They were not the first children of Io, that distinction belonged to Vorel, Io's first attempt at creating the perfect dragon. Vorel was said to have been a beautiful dragon, as implied by his namesake, but his intelligence was extremely limited, no more intelligent than a baby or a dog and the concepts of good and evil were beyond him, but Io loved him regardless. Despite being the first, Vorel is one of the more unknown entities in the world of draconic lore. It was because of Tiamat that became so.

Her first act was making Vorel destroy some of her twin's favorite possessions, magic devices treasured by the Platinum dragon, hoping it would rile him against their elder, but simple brother. Bahamut did show regret that he lost the devices, but no more than that, but Tiamat wouldn't let it end there and secretly told Io that Bahamut had become furious with Vorel. While the rest of their family slept, the wyrmling goddess slew Vorel and marked Bahamut with his blood. She had hoped that this would lead to Bahamut being slain as well or at the very least expelled from their father's sight. Instead of reacting in fury and rage like she expected, Io diligently sought to find how Vorel was killed and her murder was exposed. Io could no longer remain impartial to them. Even though he still loved his daughter, he could no longer allow her to remain in their household, and for her deceit and callous slaying of Vorel, she was the one who was banished. Tiamat's feelings toward her father turned from seeking his approval into hatred. Her ambitions turned to bringing all of existence to heel and she became the Creator of Evil Dragons. Seeing what his sister had become and the lengths see was willing to go, Bahamut himself swore to became her antithesis. It is said Io lost his three children that day, one to murder, one to the ideals of evil, and one to the ideals of good.

There have been other wars where dragon gods opposed each other, but none have lasted the number of millennia that these two have been fighting. For a time, they were even lesser gods, fallen from their greater status when their battles weakened both of them and nearly destroyed all of their non-dragon worshippers, though they since have recovered somewhat.

As for Serhis' personal experience in dealing with Tiamat's ilk, his year with Helena and the few encounters they had with them were more than enough to convince Serhis that they were indeed a force to oppose. Most chromatic dragons respect and acknowledge their creator in some way, but few actually devote their lives to her service, so most of the time they dealt with her more numerous non-dragon followers and her twisted spawn. Simply because these followers weren't dragons didn't diminish the horror of the depravities they committed, terrorizing and oppressing all they came across. When their goddess deems that slaughtering a village that dared oppose them is a fitting tribute, he and Helena raced to prevent these atrocities. It took Serhis a while to finish his tale, he had to take a while when describing their encounter with a cleric of Tiamat, what had happened to the slaves that he held, the twisted bodies of a few that had been subjected to highly magically charged dragon blood in his search for making something purely for terror and battle, the schemes he had built, and Helena's clash with him.

"I suppose that explains why I don't like dealing with them?" Serhis replied, having cooled down by now.

Baous silently nodded, still digesting the description of one the more grotesque horrors.

"And what are you going to do about Kaeis?" Rhasalis asked. "Are you going to try and oppose him as well?"

Serhis sighed, shaking his head. "That's why I'm so frustrated. It looks like he has enough troops and resource that the best I can do is annoy him rather than be a threat. Even worse, we're going to be running an errand for him! At least he's not asking us to do something unjust and unkind for him, there would have been no way I'd have agreed to that. I wonder what he's done to get those resources and become lord of this town, or what he's been doing for all that time?"

"Well, for the tale you've just told, a brief history of this place is going to be a bargain." Turning around in his seat, Serhis looked up to see the faces of two women, one human, the other half-elf. They seemed to be the same bards that were on stage the previous night.

"Uh, you understand Draconic fine?" Serhis asked in Common. It was clear that the human that asked certainly did, but he wanted to be sure the other could as well.

"I understand it well enough," the half-elf replied. "My name's Veri and this is Vincentia. Traveling entertainers." Veri was modestly dressed, wearing clothing that was both useful for travel, but displayed her profession with intricate weaving on the vest that was colored in blues and grays. Her pointed ears and face easily showed her mixed heritage and her blue eyes and short blond hair worked well with her clothing.

"So how did you like our little friend's tale of one of the worst sibling rivalry in existence?" Iskdiwercaesin asked the eavesdroppers.

"If it were me telling it, I'd have added a few embellishments," Vincentia stood next to their crowded table, "although it was more of a history lesson than an actual story that you can tweak a little." The human female brushed her long red hair aside as she looked at all their faces with her deep brown eyes. Her style of dress was far more flashy and showy to better attract the eyes of the audience, with frills, ribbons, and golden chain. It was also cut in a low manner that displayed her large cleavage. Serhis could never understand why the males of the species found the mammary glands so attractive, they were lumps of flesh that helped give newborns nutrition. Then again, kobolds were born from eggs and whole concept of mammary glands was entirely alien to them. The style of the dress might have been to allow her to breathe deeply when she sang in her high, clear voice.

"You said you knew something about the lord of this town?" Serhis asked them.

Cautiously looking around, the two entertainers pulled up seats and sat down with them. "You're a cleric, right? How about this? One of the guys in our troupe took a nasty tumble a few weeks back. Completely shattered his leg. We had enough to pay for another cleric to stop all the bleeding and mended the bigger breaks, but it didn't fix him entirely, and it screwed up his mobility and he still needs help to move anywhere. At least he didn't break his arm too, otherwise we'd be in some deep trouble."

"You want Serhis to heal him and you'll tell us about Kaeis, right?" Rhasalis guessed.

"Kaeis? Ah, you mean Lord Ligain. Yep. Fixing his leg with spells was way too much to pay for, so he's had to sit back and mend naturally, but we've been meaning to get out of town for a while. We got here about three months back. We tend to ask around the towns we visit about anything unusual, and this half-dragon Lord Ligain fit the requirement of being an interesting character, so we asked around."

Serhis hopped out of his chair and went towards the stage, where an elf with a leg splint sat playing his violin. He flinched as Serhis jumped on stage and tapped the splint, then slowly flexed his leg as Serhis made his way back to the table. Vincentia and Veri smiled waved to him. "I suppose that means yes," Veri got comfortable in her seat.

"Any information would be helpful," Serhis replied.

Vincentia and Veri told them what they knew, sometimes interrupting each other while they talked to tell of a specific detail or to correct something, sometimes making clear that what they heard might have been rumor.

Kaeis and the others of his group first arrived to Tiasvern seven years ago. When the others asked, they explained that Axton was the name of the town before he arrived and changed it, and that their map of the region was outdated. They went on to tell of how the people in this town were being ruled by a Lord Gregcel Axton, descendant of original founder of the town. This Lord Axton was a bully of a man. He taxed the people obscenely and used the funds either to build up his own power, his troops so that they remained loyal to him, and for his own debauched pleasures, made questionable deals with friends and associates, and if they were charged with criminal behavior, all charges would be dropped in even more questionable circumstances. Those that opposed his rule would find their possessions stripped from them and if Lord Axton was feeling particularly bored that day, would set that person's home and business to the torch. There were more than a few times that such a person would simply disappear, many people whispering of hidden passageways where the guards would sneak out of the guardhouses unseen and disposing of a body or two, or perhaps grabbing a living one to bring back. Even though he was considered the legitimate ruler, he ruled through force of arms.

When Kaeis' group arrived, they entered the town without doing anything disruptive or overt, though their very presence was notable in itself. They spent a few days going around town, doing nothing aside from looking at the city walls, checking their maps, and checking the back streets and alleyways. Lord Axton considered their activities suspicious and ordered some of his men to round up these strangers to be interrogated and at the end of the day, Kaeis and the others willingly went with the guards to see the lord of Axton. When he asked, they told him that they were interested in exploring the town and getting to know the locals before they left town again. Figuring that he had nothing to gain by detaining these people any longer, he let them go, but secretly had them followed. He suspected that they were scouts of some sort, meant to determine the strength of the town's defenses and wanted to find out who they were reporting to. The agents of Lord Axton soon noted that every night, the human had a raven that would come to him and would stay for a few minutes before going back out into the forest. Thinking that the raven was some sort of messenger, Lord Axton ordered for the raven to be shot after it left from the human's room the next night in order to intercept the message, but when the archers attempted to shoot the raven, they found their arrows veering off course as if a bad breeze kept knocking their arrows out of flight. Lord Axton then ordered his men to pursue the raven on horseback the following night, but as soon as the raven entered the forest, the riders lost track of the bird. Growing more and more frustrated, Lord Axton then ordered for the group to be placed under arrest and brought to the keep again for more a extreme interrogation, but was enraged to learn that Kaeis' group had vanished during the night while everyone was paying attention to the raven. Mobilizing a number of his troops, he waited until the nightfall for the raven to come back again and ordered them to surround and attack the building that it flew to.

In the morning, Lord Axton learned of how all of those troops were slaughtered and placed in the town square. Kaeis had anticipated Axton's growing paranoia and need for action and had planned accordingly. In truth, the raven going to the forest was in contact with no one, it was simply a way to misdirect their watchers as they sent messages to those that sought to oppose Lord Axton's rule, and requested that if they sought to overthrow his weak rule, they were to go to a specific alley during the night. Only a few were willing to go meet Kaeis, but that small number was enough for what they had planned. When the raven settled on an abandoned house, Lord Axton's troops surrounded the place and attacked, but the attackers found that the place really was abandoned, no one was inside to meet their charge. Kaeis had had the resistance groups in specific alleys to ambush the ambushers, effectively trapping them all. This would be the first blow struck against Lord Axton, but it was also a signal that Kaeis' group was able enough to outwit him, and the number that followed Kaeis grew. One constant deception that would play out for the rest of the conflict would be the raven. From start to finish, Lord Axton remained convinced a hostile force was in the forest and would commit forces to his walls, ready to repel the supposed force, which could have instead been used to confront the battles on the inside, these guards would wait to face an enemy that would never come and would never exist.

The bards gave a brief summary of the next three months after that battle. Hearing that Kaeis had unified the resistance groups, albeit without them actual knowing they were going to do so, the people of Axton who had grown frustrated under their lord's rule quietly gave their support to him. There were few large scale battles, but when they happened, Kaeis always had a tactical advantage when confronting the better funded troops. One thing everyone agreed on was that the most was that the biggest and most spectacular event involved no battle at all. Kaeis and his party marched up to one of the guardhouses, met the commander at the gate, and they shook hands. It was a sign that some of the guards had thrown in their support behind Kaeis, and it marked the turning point in the battle for the town. It all came to an end with a large scale assault on the castle when the guards that supported Kaeis clashed with Axton loyalists while Kaeis and the others of his band spearheaded the attack into the keep. Axton was forced onto the highest tower during his retreat and from there, Kaeis pick him up and threw him off into the courtyard below. The defenders broke and ran at that point and many were cut down as they fled.

"That's how most the people here told it to us," Veri concluded.

"Sounds kind of noble, in a way. Overthrowing a cruel lord and all," Baous said.

"I don't think they told us the whole story yet," Serhis said. "What have they been doing for the past few years then? How do the townsfolk feel about him now?"

"They're doing pretty well," Vincentia said around a piece of apple, spinning it around in her hands. "First thing he did was lower the taxes into what most people thought was 'fair'. I say most because, well, it's taxes, the word 'fair' can mean 'none at all for me' to others. It certainly opened trade up in the region again, now that the merchants didn't have to worry the tariffs would drain their profits out of their coffers. He's been doing other things, like building schools and hospital, stuff that makes these sorts of lords popular."

"Sounds ideal," sarcasm dripped from Serhis.

"There have been a few changes some have been objecting to. There's been a lot more guards on the streets ever since this bandit lord came riding in. Some are getting nervous with all these guards around, but a lot of people brush it off, since this bandit lord is trouble. Then there's the annual tournament," Veri informed them.

"What's so bad about that?" Baous asked.

"It's a tournament in Tiamat's honor. All the most heinous criminals and low-lives that are in the prisons are rounded up and sent to the arena, then a few champions are picked out to fight them all. It's a complete slaughter and some folks are calling it a despicable blood sport, the religious sort for the good bunch of gods and others with a conscience, but just as many think that it's what those criminals deserve and if it's Lord Ligain's way of honoring his deity, good for him."

Vincentia lowered her voice as she looked around. "There also been talk about how Lord Ligain tends to reward those that converted to Tiamat as well. No one's actually complaining about it in the open, but there's been grumbling."

"People have been turning to Tiamat?" Serhis inquired.

"Yeah, there's this temple to her in the inner walls that he had built three years ago."

Serhis groaned and shook his head. It was getting worse and worse. Not only was Kaeis generally popular, he was having them come around to his point of view. A temple dedicated to the Five Headed dragon goddess out in the open, Serhis had no inkling how to respond to that. The favor towards the converts was unfair, but the tournaments that amounted to blood sport was certainly troubling, but if they were gaining popularity, that meant Kaeis' influence on the populous ran deep. Under the teachings of Tiamat, the strong were to rule with absolute power while the weak were to cast down and used to make the strong even stronger. As far as the townspeople were concerned, Lord Axton was the weak one, while they were the strong and were content to make Lord Ligain even stronger.

"He's the most dangerous type of tyrant, the smart kind. He can make it seem like he's giving others options, but anything but what he actually wants is not going to be good for the chooser," Serhis grumbled. "Even if I did try to oppose his rule, many people of this town won't want for him gone."

"So what are you going to do?" Xet asked his depressed hatch mate.

"What CAN I do? We're an irritation, not a threat, and the people want him to stay," Serhis sighed. "Maybe it's best if we just finish delivering the equipment and be on our way." One part of him felt a little guilty about not following his duty to oppose a follower of Tiamat, but at the same time he would have felt guilty for meddling in the business of others. Beyond the questionable tournaments, he had no grounds or ability to fight against Kaeis. Perhaps later he would begin displaying a desire to conquer neighboring lands, but at the moment it looked like he was content enough consolidating power. Hopefully, Serhis thought to himself, I could get help from other members of a temple of Bahamut before then, and coordinate efforts to stop his less ethical activities. He would have preferred to stop those acts now, but as things stood, adding his voice to those already discontent with them wouldn't accomplish much. He had to remember to send a message later tonight to the temple in Aveamaria and inform them about them about the situation here. Perhaps it was harsh for him to judge Kaeis' actions simply on the basis of his religious views, but he kept on remembering the victims of another follower, and swore he would never let that come to pass again.

"It's almost time to go," Rhasalis informed them as she got out of her seat.

"Thank you for the information," Serhis nodded to the bards as the party rose from the table to leave.

"And thanks for your help with the leg," they nodded back.

As Baous went towards the exit, he was nearly bowled over as the door was forcefully swung open with a bang as it hit the wall, leaving Baous on the floor after he fell down to avoid being hit. "Whoa! Hey, what's-" Baous protested was cut short as a much louder voice shouted him down, coming from the human that had opened the door.

"You there! I demand that you stop at once!" He was slightly shorter than the average human, though that distinction might have been because he was being flanked by a pair of heavily armed guards that were taller. He had a face that looked like it was in a perpetual frown, but at the moment it was in a scowl, had deep set green eyes, kept his brown hair neatly combed and brushed to the sides of his head, and wore clothing suitable to the nobility. His following conduct did nothing to dispel the notion of him being a arrogant aristocrat. "Are you the ones that sold equipment to the usurper? Under the name of the Axton's I order you to hand over that equipment to us!"

"Ah stow it you limp-wrist piss mop!" Fethed yelled at the man as he emerged from the back of the inn to see what the noise was all about. "Ignore him," he said to Baous as Serhis, Xet, and Rhasalis helped him to his feet, "his authority don't mean shit and his name even less. And I know tanners that would pay for good shit."

"How dare you! You, who supported the false lord that clutches at your chains and every person's freedom in this place! Your lord, who has no rightful authority to claim this land, should be cast down and the pitiful name he has tried to label our town should be ripped from the record!"

"And what? You'd take his place?" the innkeeper laughed. "Anyone that allows you pack of degenerates to rule is out of their damn minds! You're family might have founded this place, but then they turned it into their private little fun house of horror. All the crap you spew from your mouth would fertilize the fields for years, it's so rich I'm surprised no one's been able to pluck gold out of your teeth."

As the two men yelled at each other, Vincentia and Veri reached them.

"What is all this about? What are they saying?" Xet asked them.

"That's Bej Axton, son of the late Lord Jerin Axton. He and the innkeeper are having a heated disagreement," Veri tactfully explained. "You see, Bej fled the town when the castle was taken and hasn't been back for years, but when he heard how Lord Ligain was having bandit troubles, he came riding in, saying he could deal with their banditry problem. He's been giving grief to any people that publicly support Lord Ligain. He's come in a few times while we performed."

"So can I sleep spell him? No one will mind that," Xet asked.

"No, it'll be impolite to do that," Rhasalis informed him.

"Lord Ligain lets him walk around doing that?" Iskdiwercaesin asked curiously. "I'm surprised he's not rotting in some dungeon when he passed through the gates. Or worse."

Vincentia shrugged. "He's claiming that to imprison or execute Bej would be unfair, since it's placing blame on the son for the sins of the father. Personally, I say Lord Ligain's got a bigger angle than that and he's barely restraining himself from tossing Bej into the river. I know I want to. Came in insulting everyone in the bar and had the nerve to mouth off at me. Gave him a good whack with a tankard for that."

As the two men continued their shouting match, the guards with Bej sat around with a bored expression on their faces. Even they weren't taking it seriously. Eventually, Bej turned his attention back to the others. "You! Dragon! What did Ligain pay you for your equipment?"

"My name is Iskdiwercaesin Thurkearseoyl, not 'dragon'. It's polite to introduce yourself first," the wyrmling replied in irritation.

"What was that name again? Could you shorten it?"

"Nope. He's not going to shorten it for anyone," Baous said with full confidence.

"Whatever. His price?"

"A thousand four hundred gold pieces."

"I'll give you a thousand six hundred, and you can keep the money that originally belongs to me anyway for good measure. Rest assured, me and my entourage will see that that cur will not retaliate for his clearly illegal deal. Unless you prefer to give me it free of charge, then you will have my full gratitude, and I will not forget your support when I reclaim my rightful throne."

"Ah, no thank you," Serhis declined the offer. "We not interested in causing any more problem. We going to be going now." Iskdiwercaesin appeared to have been a little swayed by the prospect of more wealth, but he seemed to agree with Serhis' assessment about unnecessary trouble. Fethed also appeared to be interested in Serhis' response of denying Bej the weapons.

As Serhis tried to pass the man, he held up a hand and made another offer, "I'll add another two hundred to it! Surely you must not be loyal to the false lord?"

Serhis scoffed, shaking his head. "Not loyal at all, but not going to break agreement because someone has more money. Why you want stuff anyway?"

"Does that mean you would be swayed by a righteous cause?" Bej asked, though they all had serious doubts about what he considered 'righteous'. Just by listening him talk for a while, they suspected that anything that advanced his agenda would have fit the bill. "Perhaps you haven't heard of my plight. I am Bej Axton, the rightful lord of these lands," he finally, through rather belatedly, introduced himself after several minutes of making demands and general loud yelling. "After Ligain murdered my father and set himself as the false lord, I have had to spend my time waiting until the right moment to reclaim what should always have been mine. Now is that time and I am gathering my loyal supporters to oust him, but for that, I myself will need strength of arms to resist the pretenders forces. You may not be aware of it, but any quality equipment is hard to get around here."

"This land is mineral poor, the town usually has to import goods that are made of metal," Veri whispered to the others while Bej spoke to Serhis.

"You mean we could have held out for more money from Kaeis? Damn," Iskdiwercaesin swore at the missed opportunity.

"While underneath Ligain's cruel rule, many of my father's supporters have seen their fortunes fall, their families without the proper respect due to their position, and bandits ply the roads. His ineffective rule must end! Will you aid me?"

"I agree that Lord Ligain's rule something I not like, he still doing things that people here respect. I also not want to enter politic problem, sounds very messy. If Lord Ligain start doing evil acts, then I have duty to stop him. For now, we only do delivery, then we leave," Serhis evenly explained before beckoning the others to follow him outside.

"Wait! Dragon, is this kobold speak for you? Does your servant really express what you feel?"

Iskdiwercaesin snorted, suppressing a laugh from the idea of Serhis as his servant. "I wouldn't say that he speaks for me, but he's got it right that I want nothing to do with you or this whole mess. Goodbye," he walked past the former lord with the others.

Bej looked to have something more to say, but Fethed tapped his shoulder, after having gathered a few of the guards still in his bar to his side. "Are you going to buy something here or am I going to have to ask you to leave?"

As they heard more shouting erupting from the building, Baous flicked the reins and directed the wagon towards the gates.

"This is one weird town," Xet muttered to the agreement of everyone. "We're coming back this way on our return trip, right?"

"I think so. I don't know if there is quicker way," Baous shrugged.

"Maybe the situation will have changed by that time. Maybe not," Serhis sighed.

"Either way, some warning would be nice the next time you want to go into some religious fight," Iskdiwercaesin said.

Despite Iskdiwercaesin's joking tone, Serhis admitted to himself that it was unfair for him to drag the others into these fights. Maybe Baous would be willing to if Kaeis was a complete bloodthirsty despot, but the others, he didn't know what they would feel about it all. They had listened to his tale, but hadn't expressed a strong opinion. He would be glad to see this place disappear over the next hill.

They reached the gates without any interruptions and like Lord Ligain had ordered, there was a patrol waiting to escort them to the outpost. The two guards from before were at the head of the patrol and stood to attention as they approached. "Greetings there!" Danward shouted as they got closer and they gave their own greeting in reply. "How did your audience with his lordship go? Sounds like he took to the idea of buying it all rather well."

"The negotiations were... intense," Iskdiwercaesin replied. "Anyway, did he fill you in on what we're doing?"

"Not directly, got the orders by way of written message," Henry saluted, then turned his head to look at their wagon. "... ah, you wouldn't mind us using some of that now, would you? You know, since we're suppose to guard against a bandit attack and all."

Baous stopped the wagon and pulled back the cloth covering the equipment. "Why not? It's technically yours now. Well, Lord Ligain's." The patrol crowded around the wagon, picking out what they wanted and placing their old equipment back into the gatehouse. It seemed to have a good effect on the whole patrol. Many commented on how the boots they picked out actually fitted.

"Never underestimate the value of good boots. Especially if you're going to be walking in them for a long ways and don't know when you're going to stop. Or need to run faster," Danward took a few steps and nodded in approval.

"Would you like to tell us about some of your own tales on the way?" Baous asked the veteran.

"Why not? It'll pass the time and maybe you've got a few to say yourself."

"I'd be most interested in the battle strategies you've used and encountered," Rhasalis said, her interest in combat strategy and tactics coming to the fore.

As they rode out of town with the escort walking around them, Xet looked at Danward curiously. "What's that human saying? He's been going on for a while."

"Oh, he's recalling a few interesting times he's had," Serhis informed him. "Maybe later we could tell him some of yours. Did anything happen while I was away?"

"Simple patrols, nothing else," Rhasalis replied quickly, not interrupting Danward's talking.

"Uh, I can recall a few stories I read instead," Xet offered.

"What are they about?" Baous asked. He didn't notice how Serhis and Rhasalis were silently waving their arms for him not to.

"It's hard to describe. Uhm, here's one of the lines that I can remember. 'In the midst of the pools of blood, each made from a slowly leaking, beating heart, there floating in the largest was the most horrendous of creatures, lying face down as it floated, only to stare upwards at me as it's eyelids opened and the head turned so far around it broke it's own neck, displaying ruinous mouths where the eyes should have been, each screaming the chant of the damned and tortured as insects crept forth from those waggling tongues. It's stomach burst after being filled with dark blood and intestines spilled out, snaking about as if they had a life of their own, the very sound of the air passing through them was almost like a hideous laugh. Turning to run, I saw that each pool now had a body float to the surface, each of them standing up, looking at me, pointing to me to laugh and scream at the same time as the blood from the hearts cut from their own bodies bled on them, and formed the masks of my dear friends, each of them accusing me amidst the screams that they have been wronged, that I should understand the suffering that they see, that I am alive by unfair means. As I watched, they- " It took a while to notice how every person that could understand Draconic was staring at him. Serhis and Rhasalis sighed and shook their heads while Baous and Iskdiwercaesin had expressions of their own horror etched on their faces, wide eyed and mouths open in disgust and surprise. Fortunately, only a few of the escort looked like they had understood as well.

"What in the hells has your hatch mate been reading while you were gone?" Iskdiwercaesin looked accusingly at Serhis.

If it was one interest Serhis and Rhasalis didn't share with Xet, it was his love for horror stories. Every now and then, he would engross himself to these tales while in the same libraries he studied his sorcery in. One of these days, they would have to pull his interest from the non-fiction section.

"I hope I don't have nightmares about that," Baous moaned as they politely declined Xet's offer, and were relieved that Danward didn't understand a word of it.

It was half an hour into their travel towards the outpost that eyes other than the animals took a keen interest in them. There were observers hidden in the trees outside the gates of Tiasvern, but where those were meant to watch and report, these were looking for battle and carnage. Watching and waiting, these ambushers aimed their arrows. Towards the kobold driving the cart to prevent their targeted cargo from bolting, towards the guard that lead the others to cause panic, towards the dragon due to his danger, towards the sorcerer that could cause many of their number to simply fall down with a wave of his claws, and towards the winged one. What they didn't see was Rhasalis hidden from view when she noticed the quiet movements in the bushes and hushed footsteps, quietly nock her own arrow and letting it fly through the foliage and strike one of their would-be attackers.

"Ambush!" she yelled out and ducked behind the side of the wagon as returning fire came back, but she had done her damage. It was hard to keep aim when they turned to see one of their buddies suddenly catch an arrow in the chest, their aim had either wavered or the sudden change of target to her had screwed up any chance of an easy shot.

"Cover! Get to cover!" Danward shouted as he followed his own advice and found refuge behind a tree that found a few extra limbs now attached to it. "Use whatever you got at them, arrows, bolts, stones!" he shouted as he fired a crossbow into the opposing side of the road before turning to the wagon. "Go, run, they're after the equipment! We'll keep them off your backs. Ride!" he grunted as he pulled back the string for another shot.

Baous was one step ahead of him as he cracked the reins, their position in the middle of the road was too exposed for them to stay there. Xet wasn't going to leave it at that though and sent a fireball at their hidden attackers as they rode off, but didn't see what effect it caused as the cloud of dust they kicked up obscured their view, but the shouts of encouragement from the other side gave a hint.

"Nearly lost the spell there. That was rough," Xet steadied himself back into the wagon as the horses galloped on the dirt road.

"Bad news, you're about to do that again," Iskdiwercaesin said as they looked behind them. Out of the bushes erupted the leafy silhouettes of horses and their riders and when the leaves were gone, ten horsemen with swords, spears, and shields were now pursuing them. "Looks like they prepared for this. They really must want this equipment."

Even with some lead on their pursuers, their horses were still pulling a wagon with heavy objects, a number of kobolds, and a dragon. The riders were going to catch up. "Slow them down, use whatever you can," Rhasalis calmly said as she readied another arrow and fired at the one in the lead, but the combination of riding in a wagon on a rough road and the man's shield spoiled her aim as it buried into the wood.

Iskdiwercaesin needed no encouragement as he blasted acid towards them. It did cause some of them to pull back and spread out, but as he needed to wait between each breath for another, that gave them an opportunity to come closer in that window of opportunity.

The scenery blurred past them as they raced down the road, catching small glimpses of the river that ran next to the road past the trees to their left, the afternoon sun shining rays of light that could be seen in contrast to the trees that they passed and made the river sparkle. It could almost be could be described as picturesque if it weren't for the whole problem of being chased by bandits. As the light strobed on them as they passed tree and shadow, they couldn't see the outpost further down the road.

"Did they say how long it was to the outpost?" Serhis said with in a raised voice to overcome the rushing wind and the roaring of the wagon's passage as he turned around in his seat, firing off a shot with his crossbow.

"I didn't ask," Baous gripped the reins tight as they took went through a curve on the road. It didn't look like there were any hard turns to make on this road, otherwise this chase was going to end in a quick and messy way.

"Damn!" Xet cursed as a bump in the road jostled his arm and disrupted his spell. "I don't have many fireballs left! Keep breathing on them!"

"I can't make an endless stream of acid, it doesn't work that way," Iskdiwercaesin sourly replied. He didn't have any ranged weaponry and between every breath, he could do nothing but wait for the next one.

One of the horsemen rode faster than his fellows and had come alongside the wagon with drawn steel and took a swipe at Iskdiwercaesin, making him dip his head down below the lip of the wagon to avoid getting cut. "Rhasalis, shoot that one, that one!"

As she drew another arrow and drew back her bow, their attacker slashed at her instead and she fell backwards into the wagon, her arrow flying off into the wilderness. As he laughed in victory, this horseman didn't realize how far ahead he was getting and came in hammer's reach of Baous as he drove the wagon. One off-hand swipe later, the horse next to them was rider-less as the heavy impact launched him off and into the road.

Iskdiwercaesin watched as the man tumbled into the dirt. "That takes care of Mr. Hero. The others won't be so stupid trying to hog the glory. I think."

Concentrating on his own hand movements, Xet successfully completed his spell as a bead of fire flew out from his hands and exploded, catching most of their pursuers and their horses in the blast, but they still kept coming. "Augh, that was weak!"

"Then fire another one!" Iskdiwercaesin shouted as he rummaged around in the wagon.

"What are you looking for?" Serhis asked as he reloaded and fired again.

Instead of answering, Iskdiwercaesin drew one of the cheap, but still sharp swords they had recovered from the ruins and flung it behind them.

"What are you doing?!" Xet shouted in surprise.

"Slowing them down. I don't think Kaeis is going to mind that some of this stuff is missing if it takes down the a few of these guys. Better that then lose the whole shipment." Throwing a breastplate at them again, one of the horses tripped as it's hoof landed on the curved metal, causing both it and rider to crash into the road in a heap.

Having had enough, their attackers caught up to them in a large group, all of them slashing and stabbing, causing a few injuries in the forms of cuts and bruises, but mostly gouging the wood in the side of the wagon. Baous had difficulty swinging at them as his concentration was split between keeping their wagon on the road and avoiding getting hit and Rhasalis had switched out her bow in favor of a rapier, parrying blows from their limited angles and trying to inflict some damage back at them.

Xet had a rough time of it, having to concentrate between avoiding getting hit with either sword or spear as he formed another fireball and flung it close to their wagon, this time to greater effect and half of their attackers fell to the conflagration. "That's it, no more fireballs from me!" he shouted.

Iskdiwercaesin had built up for another breath, but as the horsemen were so close and yet spread around them, he could hit one of them, but that probably didn't make the poor soul that he picked any happier as both she and horse was left in the dust.

"There, I see it!" Baous yelled as the outpost was spotted through the trees. He had spoken in Draconic and their pursuers didn't understand him, all of them were still busy trying to hack at him and try to bring their wagon to a stop. As they got closer, they could see troops on the wooden palisade, a lot of them.

And all of them had either bows or crossbows, all aiming down the road.

Iskdiwercaesin exclaimed something truly inappropriate for someone his age as he ducked his head down along with everyone else, but the coming shower of wood wasn't aimed at them. After the brief, but terrifying sound of so many projectiles rushing past them subsided, they found their wagon no longer had horsemen attached to their sides, all of them were now pinned to the road behind them. Aside from the arrows from the bandits in the initial assault, no stray shots had landed on them, though the few arrows that did miss their mark were due to wanting to avoid hitting them.

"... that was good," Rhasalis gave credit to the archers as they slowed down and reached the gates of the outpost.

"That was scary," Xet breathed out.

"Compared to what? What you read is scary enough," Iskdiwercaesin laughed in a tense way, his own nerves frayed from the close projectile support.

"I really want to leave this place now," Serhis sighed, Baous silently nodding in agreement.

As they rolled into the outpost, the wooden gates shut behind them and they watched as the commander of the outpost came off the walls to meet them, a female elf. "I'm Commander Iluin, leader of this outpost and under the command of Lord Ligain. You're the ones with the equipment for my men?"

Iskdiwercaesin nodded to her. "Yep. I couldn't help but notice that you had a welcoming party for us out there." The archers and crossbowmen were still on the walls, watching the road, though they probably had their ears trained on their new visitors. "You were expecting trouble?"

"That we did, Lord Ligain instructed us that we were to expect some form of attack. Where are your escort?"

"They still back there on the road," Serhis hastily informed them. "They under attack, you need send help, don't know how many-"

Commander Iluin raised her hand, "no need for worry. That was only one part of your escort, there was a second group that was to follow behind you, avoiding detection from the bandit observers. By now, they're likely mopping up after a flanking attack, but I appreciate your concern."

Serhis relaxed a little. He might not have any love for Kaeis or his machinations for power and conquest, but the people under his command didn't deserve the same anger. Danward and Henry were certainly one of the more friendlier guards they've ever encountered.

"With that out of the way, where do you want all of this?" Iskdiwercaesin patted the large pile next to them. "I haven't been able to lie down in here all week."

"We have a tent for our supplies and equipment. Follow me," the commander gave a few hand signals to the people on the walls before leading them further inside the outpost.

The outpost was much like anyone would expect of a military operation in the field, large rows of tents all surrounded by a wall made from the resources of the local area with a large staging field in the center. "How long have you been here?" Baous curiously asked the commander.

"We set up this outpost about a month after the bandit lord Searflint arrived. As long as this outpost is here, Searflint can't risk putting his own camp any closer to town. This place acts as our base of operations and we launch strikes out from here whenever our scouts determine his own camp's location, but by the time we've mobilized and attack, they've pull up stakes and we only manage to pick off the stragglers. The most we've been able to do is keep a watch on the river and find some of his men on a water run. I expect them to be rather thirsty by now. They're about to get even more thirsty from running now that we've found their camp again," she grinned.

"Good for you," Iskdiwercaesin said to her.

Pulling up to one of the tents near the center of the outpost, Commander Iluin arranged for a team to sort through the mess of equipment and bring it inside. "I was informed we had bought more than this," she commented.

"The escort wanted to use some of it before we left," Baous informed her, "... and we might have lost a piece or two in the chase."

The commander shrugged. "Perhaps the escort might find these pieces on the road. Now, this might take a while," she slightly raised her voice over the clatter of metal. "If you'd like, your escort should be arriving by now if you want to thank them."

"If they need healing, I give some to them," Serhis replied.

"We should thank them, since they did stay behind to fight," Baous nodded.

As they approached the gates again, they could hear one of the spotters of the camp yell out that some of their people were approaching. At the fore was Danward and another sergeant chatting with one another, no worse for wear despite being in a pitched battle. Going out to greet them, Serhis waved to them as they got closer.

"Ah, looks like you got here okay," Danward said.

"And so are you," Serhis nodded. "Thank you for protection from bandits. Any of you people hurt and need healing?"

"Little bumps and scratches, nothing a good night of rest can't fix. The more serious injuries we already fixed up with a healing potion or two. I was a bit worried when I saw those horsemen going after you, we didn't expect those folks, but it looks like you handled yourselves well. Left your handy work of roasted horse and bandit ass back there."

Rhasalis conveyed the compliment to Xet, making him grin at Danward. "Here's a human that I can work with on a mission," Xet said.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I've got another report to fill out," Danward sighed as he headed through the gates, ordering a few of his men to pick up some buckets and head to the river next to the outpost for fresh water.

Iskdiwercaesin himself had just come back from the river. "It's always the same every time I use acid breath so many times in a row, I'm always thirsty. Think they're done unpacking yet?"

Baous shrugged. "I don't think so. Even if they're taking everything out first before they sort it, they still have to be careful handling all those sharp blades and making sure all the armor pieces belong to the right set. It's probably going to take-"

"Raiders approaching!" One of the lookouts on the walls yelled out an alarm before Baous could finish and everyone immediately began looking where he had been keeping watch. Again, archers began to line up for a volley, but out from the trees came a hail of arrows, all of them with ignited tar and cloth. As some of the defenders raced put out the arrows that had shot overhead and landed in the tents, a wave of bandits poured out from the forest and charged for the gates.

"Ah hells!" Iskdiwercaesin cursed as all sprinted for the gates, the sheer number of attackers to many to deal with and the sound of approaching horses didn't help. They didn't make it halfway before the gates closed, leaving them trapped outside. "You assholes! OPEN UP!" the wyrmling pounded on the thick wooden beams that now stood in his way. His protests were just as effective as the other troops that had been left outside with them.

"We can't let them inside! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" They could hear one of the gatekeepers apologize from the inside. He truly did sound sincere, but that was did nothing to stop the insults and pleads from those still outside.

"I'll try and get it open," Serhis said as he leapt upwards to fly over the wall and almost got three arrows for his troubles, forcing him back to the ground.

"That's it! Everyone stand back before I blast through those gates!" Iskdiwercaesin shouted as he took a few steps back and got ready to burn through a few feet of wood, though it would take several breaths.

"You do that and I'll order the archers to target you!" From up above, they could see the commander directing the battle. "I won't allow a breach in the defenses! Try and force that gate open before this attack is over and I'll have you executed even if you survived! Stay under our arrows and hold out!"

"Easy for her to say, she's not the one here," Iskdiwercaesin growled as the few troops around them no longer tried to pry the gates open.

"So we're stuck out here," Serhis darkly muttered as he turned to face the onrushing forces, symbol of Bahamut in his hands. "People stay near me! Going give you healing and help, but need stay close!" Serhis shouted in Common and began casting to bolster all their allies strength and speed. He had always used this spell during a pitched battle, but he had never needed to affect so many before and even a few archers on the walls near them had been boosted by it's effects.

The raiders were closing distance fast and one of the troops with them had just enough time to utter "oh shit" before the brunt of the assault hit them. Even with help from the archers up above, the archers in the forest were giving returning fire and the number of attackers was hardly thinned. The only person there that could effectively bring down a large number of them was Iskdiwercaesin with his breaths, and almost all of those attackers were concentrated on bringing him down.

Even with Serhis' healing, he could only do it one person at a time and it usually wasn't enough. Soon, one of the troops fell, then another. No one had time to speak and Serhis almost missed Xet being brought down from a club blow to the chest. He was dimly aware of Rhasalis shouting in rage before a blow to the back of his own head knocked him to the ground. The last bits of consciousness were of Iskdiwercaesin being overwhelmed and Baous trying to stay close to them, desperately fending off attackers from all sides.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"..." A dull throb to in his head greeted Serhis as he regained consciousness and the bobbing and swaying didn't help. He would have groaned in pain if his mouth hadn't been bound shut and any attempts to move also felt as constrained. Hands, feet, and even wings felt tied up. Opening his eyes, he saw the ground and grass moving beneath him, and as cognition returned to him, realized that he could also see someone back and moving legs. He was being carried on someone's shoulders like a sack of grain away into the forest. His head hadn't been restrained and as he craned his neck up to look, saw that darkness had fallen as people of differing sizes and species moved through the shadowy night. On one of their shoulders he saw Rhasalis' limp form and he dearly prayed she was still alive and further behind, there were three people attempting to carry all of Iskdiwercaesin. Even in black and white tones of his night vision, Serhis could see large bruises and cuts on his hide. There were also a few of the troops that had been with them. As for Xet and Baous, he couldn't see either.

One of the bandits had noticed Serhis' movements "Hey, Geor, the one you've got woke up."

"And? What'd you like me to do about it?" Serhis' carrier replied in a gruff tone.

"I don't know. Just saying. How about telling it that it's got no chance to get away, it's totally surrounded?"

"Yeah, if it could understand us. Kobolds are stupid little runts, aren't they? Don't even speak proper Common or none at all."

"Want me to give it another smack to the head?"

"Nah, it's fine. Boss said to bring 'em in as 'unharmed as reasonable possible'. As long as it doesn't struggle, I won't have to explain a cracked skull or anything."

They want us alive? Serhis thought. What for? His answers would have to come later, but from the look of things now, later would likely mean things were going to get worse.

As he was carried though the woods, Serhis didn't know how long it took before he began to see the glimmer of fire light shining on the fronts of the bandits. They passed rows of tents as thick as the trees around them, the people in this camp looking up to see who their allies had brought in.

"Someone get Searflint, tell him we've got prisoners." From behind Serhis, he could hear one of the bandits talking before he was roughly set down, along with the others. Looking around, he could see Xet and Baous next to him. Xet was barely conscious and his breathing was ragged, but he was alive. Baous was battered and bits blood stained his fur, but not all of it was his, having fought to his last waking moment, all of his gear had been taken and dumped in a pile along with everyone else's.

Everyone had been bound, gagged, and lined up in a row, their backs to a bonfire that blazed a vivid orange-red in the night and revealed how deep within the bandit camp they were. Surrounding them were unfriendly faces with drawn weapons, ready to strike down anyone that attempted to flee. Through the line of weapons and into the light came a human that could only be described as disturbing. He wore light chain mail with no insignia or symbol, his clothes bore no coloring aside from it's natural white wool, and wore a simple brown cloak, but on his face he wore a steel mask that might have been custom made for his face, it's lips curved in a small smirk and had openings for the eyes and bottom of the nose for breathing.

"These are the ones from yesterday," the one of the bandits said, pointing towards Serhis and the others, it was the orc that initiated the attack at the gates and had managed to get away.

"I can see that for myself, a dragon and it's minions aren't hard to miss," said the masked man.

"We did like you said and hit their wagon, but they ran off and our guys chased them. The green dragon over there used this acid stuff, but the little lizard over there can throw fireballs. Most of the horses and the guys got blasted because of them and we couldn't get any of the stuff before they got into that outpost. We thought that was it, but then they went out of the walls, so I figured 'what the hell'. Got all of the ones outside the gates and gave them a bit of a burn while we did it too."

In this lighting, they couldn't tell where Yelec's eyes were looking, the shadows of the mask only made them look like pools of darkness. He said nothing as he looked at them all.

"Why'd you want us to take them alive? We lost a bunch of the boys when that patrol got reinforcements! And for what?! We got nothing! I say we gut them all and put them on a pike in front of their gates!" The orc was getting angry as he raised his voice.

"Then you should have damn well thought of blocking the road before you spooked them," Yelec retorted. "You keep complaining about me always messing around in your business, but if you can't think smart for yourself when I give you a chance, I don't see why I shouldn't."

The orc growled dangerously at Yelec, but they caught the way his eyes spotted Yelec's hand was placed under his cloak, lightly placed on the handle of a weapon they couldn't see. "Fine! Now what are we going to do with these pieces of shit! They'd better be hurting for all the guys we lost today!"

"We'll see." There wasn't much emotion as he replied. He turned his attention back to his prisoners. "You probably figured out that I'm Yelec Searflint by now, so introductions aren't necessary. Might not even matter soon if you give me what I want. Take off the gags, but I want the dragon facing the other way when you do it. Keep your weapons on them."

Handling them roughly, the bandits tore off the gags on each of them, while for Iskdiwercaesin, they turned him on his back and pressed his head down on the ground before pressing a blade to his neck. If he tried to face upward to breath on them, he would have to cut his throat. "So... what do you want?" Iskdiwercaesin sounded unusually calm under the circumstances, but since anger would have gotten him killed, he was restraining himself.

"Obviously the weapons, but that's out of the question now. I lost a few more and the men that carried them because of you as well. Right now though, all I want is that outpost burned to the ground and each of those soldiers rotting in the sun. You're going to tell me how many defenders you saw, the layout of the camp, and-"

"Go to hell." Turning their heads, they saw the soldier on his knees and with defiance in his eyes, despite the long piece of iron at his back that could end his life. He was a young human with a strong chin and it must have taken all he had to stop it from quivering as Yelec walked towards him.

"Shut your hole!" the bandit next to him barked as he jerked the soldier up by his neck, pressing the dagger to his jugular, but that burning defiance remained as Yelec looked at him beyond that cold mask.

"We have a little hero here," Yelec declared to the malicious chuckles of those around them. "I wonder how many of your fellows next to you are going to be as brave when they see what we do to you, and what we might do to them." For the captured soldiers, all their attention was drawn to Searflint and the young soldier next to them, some with expressions of fear, some with anger. Taking a step closer, Yelec pressed a thumb to the back of the blade, applying the slightest pressure as a small trickle of blood pooled on the edge of the dagger. "You're so very loyal to your cause. I wonder what this Ligain fellow has done for you to inspire that?"

"He's done my family a good turn, sir." That "sir" might have been unintentional, a habit for the young man despite the fact he was being held at blade point. "Done the whole town good. My mam and brothers and sisters don't have to sleep in the gutters no more. We don't worry no more about food and water. We don't have to worry about getting shanked in the night for our bread. I'll be damned if I let you walk through those gates."

Though didn't see Yelec's face, they could sense his expression of amusement as he removed his thumb from the dagger and gave a hollow smile at the soldier. Serhis and Baous recognized this same smile on people like Faresterear as they greeted you amicably while thinking of several horrors that they were going to subject on the person in front of them, but where Faresterear hid himself behind words of assurance and a charming attitude, Yelec's smile was that of a person who had no need to hide. "Does he now? All I'm asking for is just some information. I'm not asking you to turn you blade on your friends here. Unless you want me to? Would that make you feel better, thinking that you'll have no choice? That you were ordered to?"

"I'm not doing a thing for you. Some of my friends are in that outpost and I'm not going to help you kill them. And if you did, then you'd turn on the town. I won't let you slaughter anyone in there, no way, no how."

"Ah yes, your 'friends'." Yelec hung on the word, stripping it of any positive meaning. "Those same 'friends' that hung you out to dry when the going got tough? Those 'friends' that were going to shoot if you tried to get back in?" He was speaking as much to the other soldiers as he was to the one in front of him. "Where was their loyalty then? They could have left the doors open a little longer, but no, they thought of their own safety first, couldn't have any chance of their own skins getting hurt."

"They... they did what they had to," the soldier replied weakly.

"How about yourself? What if I offered for you to join my company? You'll be watched of course and you'd get skewered the moment we think you'd try something dumb, but you'd be alive. You'd get a chance to get back at the one's that left you to rot. I'm rather sure that commander is a right bitch at times. Haven't met her, but she must be."

"You'd think I'd follow you, just out of revenge?!"

"Well, perhaps not entirely. Here's something I should tell you. Not every person in my company is some cutthroat murderer who wants a big score. Some were just poor farmers, taxed beyond all sensible measure, both by their lords and by their lives. A few had to poach in the private forests, because the lord of the land refused to be lenient on a bad harvest and to spare some of his own game for the lowly peasants was too much. Sometimes life in the city is just as bad. I offered them a chance to get back at those high and mighty lords. Took their tax carriages, gave them those farmers a chance to tell those collectors exactly what they felt every time they came to their house, putting pain in their bellies like the stomachs of their hungry children when they had to go to sleep! Now I'm giving you that same chance. The lords took what they want because they had the opportunity and now it's our turn. I chose to come here because this was a big score, a chance to take what we deserve in life. When we take that town and sack it, you'll take what you can get, get rich off of the strength of your own arm and there won't be a damn thing that pitiful Lord Ligain can do about it. There won't be no taxes, nobody to lord over you telling you to do things because that's what's expected of you. These boys here follow me because I can deliver on what I say, right?!"

A loud roar echoed through the woods in response to his call, all the bandits in earshot had replied in kind. "They do what I say not because I'm some high and dandy lord that says I know better, but because I can do better. I can give them a chance to do everything they might not have been able to." Through the steel mask, he leered at the soldier that dared to speak. "And now I'm asking you if you want to take that chance."

"I... I..." His expression was pained, his voice breaking both because of age and emotion, but somewhere, he drew out one more moment of defiance. "I stand by my conscience and there is no way I'd turn my blade for you. No. Damn. Way."

Serhis and the others still weren't able to see his eyes from their angle, but they could certainly see the smirk that was still on his mouth though the mask. Motioning his hands, rather than slicing a throat, the bandit removed the dagger, only for Yelec to press his hand on the back of the soldier's neck and turning him around.

What came next, everyone but Yelec and a few of the more hardened or demented bandits turned away as the bandit lord thrust the defiant man's head into the bonfire, but it would do nothing to stop them from hearing the screams. Yelec kept a tight hold on the man's back and shoulder, having only the head in the fire and nothing else. Eventually, the screaming stopped, the sounds of struggle faded, but the memory wouldn't. With a small push, Yelec tilted the body as it landed on it's back. No one but him was looking at what remained of the head.

Baous was struggling to breathe, the smell made him retch and he couldn't bear to watch, a sentiment strongly felt by Serhis and the others.

"You... You..." Another of the soldiers babbled, his curiosity overcoming judgment as he had turned to look.

"How about you? Do you feel that you life is worth that much? A smoking piece of meat? I didn't even get his name. Would you also die nameless?" Yelec mildly said through his mask, the horrific death he had just caused seemed to have hardly affected him. "Tell me your name."

"I'm Ryan," the soldier squeaked.

"So Ryan, are you going to take up my offer or are you going to be defiant to the end? And it will be exactly that, the end. No glorious battle, no great memorial to your so called heroics, only another useless gesture of loyalty to your own backstabbers. What will it be?"

After breaking his eyes away from the smoldering head, he faced the horror that was Yelec's mask staring at him. "I'll take your offer," he answered with apprehension.

All through the line of soldiers, he asked their names and their decision. Those that accepted Yelec's offer had their ropes cut, though they had to stay with the others, surrounded in the ring of weapons and bandits, but to each had their weapons placed in their hands. The few that had resisted Yelec were still on their knees and had bound hands, cursing each of the ones that took up the offer.

To those few, Yelec jerked his thumb over his shoulder and the bandits behind them moved away.

"Now we get to see if you really want a spot of revenge or some of you were just shitting me," Yelec leaned back on a tree that allowed him full view of all his new recruits. "Kill them," he pointed to the ones on their knees. "I don't care how you do it. Throw them in the fire, break their necks, stab them, beaten to a bloody pulp, whatever, I don't want to see any of you doing nothing. Get a hit in before they die and you'll live to see morning."

Turning to face their former comrades, many of their hands were shaking as they held their weapons, only a rare few didn't, their expressions blank and a vacant look of detachment in their eyes. It was those ones that struck the first blows, only to be followed by the rest as they hurriedly tried to strike. There would be no doubt that they were Yelec's people now. They wouldn't be able to forgive themselves if they tried, even as they knew their lives were on the line.

Serhis and the others witnessed this atrocity play out. It pained Serhis for him to watch, for him to be able to do nothing. Even worse, the weapons some of them carried were the ones that they were given before this whole thing started, but at the very least, it would make their passing easier. Most of the weapons around them carried by the bandits were low-grade, just as likely to kill by infection as the wounds they might cause. It didn't make any of it better.

When the slaughter next to them was over, Yelec had them carry the bodies out of the camp to be burned. He rather not have the entire camp smelling of burnt flesh, a brief whiff of it was enough for him. Turning back to Iskdiwercaesin, who was still pressed to the ground with a blade to his throat, Yelec looked over the green dragon. "Now that the interruption is dealt with I am going to have to ask what you think your own life is worth. I'm certain that those soldiers are going to be more than willing to give me what information I want."

"Then what? You're going to let us go?" Iskdiwercaesin's ability to make anything he said sound both genuine and sarcastic was coming into play again.

"I would, if there was something in it for me. Right now, you don't have much worth to me, which means that you might as well be dead. A dead green dragon is still worth something, what with selling your hide and organs. I'm sure someone would be willing to buy you alive, but I can't have you getting a chance to escape, so tough luck."

"Then help me out here. What's going to make you want me alive? Preferably able to walk away."

"Well, since you asked, I can think of a few things. Asking for you to join my little band is going to be too risky, not like those soldiers. One breath and I lose too many. How about your hoard? It has to be stashed away somewhere since it wasn't with you. Lead us to it and that'll be your own ransom."

"If I did have a hoard to give, you'd probably kill me afterwards because I'd still be dangerous and would get you even more money, not to mention you'd think I wouldn't let you get away with that and find a way to kill you for it. Which I would. All my stuff is in the wagon, which is in that outpost you seem to be having a lot of trouble with burning down."

"So you're saying you have nothing. What a pity," Yelec raised his hand to give an order.

"I've got nothing because of that damn Kaeis! I swear I'm going to haunt him for this!"

Yelec's hand halted in mid air while Serhis, Baous, Xet, and Rhasalis' head turned in unison. Xet was about to say something, but caught himself and closed his mouth. Serhis was also wondering what the wyrmling was getting at, but he stuck to playing dumb and letting Iskdiwercaesin lead the conversation. "Kaeis? Ah, that's right, that's Lord Ligain's actual name. Only a few people here actually know that, never mind be able to say it correctly. What did you mean he's the one responsible for you having nothing?"

Yelec couldn't see Iskdiwercaesin's mouth due to his own orders to keep him there, but the kobolds could see the barest hint of a smirk on the dragon's lips. "I mean he ripped us off. We got next to nothing for all the equipment we sold him and now that we're so conveniently in your hands, whatever we had left in the wagon is now theirs!"

"Really? I guess I wouldn't put it past him to try something that underhanded. I did hear that he paid you... a thousand four hundred. Considering that getting any quality metalwork out here is hard enough, yeah, I would think that would be a rip off."

"If I had it my way, he'd have a knife in the back right now, but damn if my spies can't get that close." At this point, Serhis had no idea where Iskdiwercaesin was going with this, but it was certainly stalling his death.

"Spies? What spies?" Yelec asked as he paced back and forth opposite of Iskdiwercaesin's head.

"I'd be a little more willing to tell you if this oaf next to me gets off my neck. And yes, I promise not to spray you," he added as an afterthought.

After a moment of consideration, Yelec nodded and the bandit raised the blade, allowing Iskdiwercaesin to speak face to face. Yelec seemed ready to dive out of the way at any moment, but the wyrmling was being truthful about not holding back. "Talk, dragon. And you better hope whatever you have to say is worth something to me."

"Whenever a dragon speaks, it's always worth something." Despite the fact that they were surrounded with little chance of escape and that he was talking to someone who thought horrific death was a casual recruitment tool, Iskdiwercaesin was keeping a smug attitude. In his head, he knew that to show any sign of fear to Yelec would make the bandit lord lose interest.

"We'll see," Yelec said as he sat down on a stump. "Who are you?"

"I am Iskdiwercaesin Thurkearseoyl."

"Well Iskdiwercaesin, you have my attention. You say you have agents in the town, was subjected to some very unpleasant business practices, then left in our care. I can't help but ask why."

"Same as yours. To have my own little fiefdom for myself."

"You would be wrong there," Yelec leaned forward. "I'm not interested in ruling anything, I just want everything of value in that town."

"My mistake. I guess from your little speech back there, you've got something against nobles and the like and giving your own brand of justice."

"Wrong again," Yelec scoffed before chuckling. "I couldn't care less for the farmer's ideas for 'justice' and the like, but I do enjoy giving them the opportunity to give their former masters a swift kick in the pants and a knife in the ribs. I enjoy watching as they feel the rush of finally having power of their own, power that they can take, and they'd thank me for it too. Most of them. Sometimes, they just turn into useless babbling wrecks. You are right about the thing against the nobles. Always with their 'high-class' ways and snobbery. I don't have to hide behind those little charades to show that I've got power and I'm willing to use it." Yelec talked casually to Iskdiwercaesin, aware the he was being listened by the rest of the bandits around them.

"Then please, enlighten me about why your out in this forest and getting chased around by the local guards before I come to the wrong conclusion again. If loot is what you're after, I'm sure hunting down a few caravans would be more productive."

"Ah, but it's not as grand. You see, people like me who gather all these talented individuals-" all around them, the bandits laughed at Yelec's sense of humor, "they're followed not just because I can get them the loot, but because I can do things they'd never thought were possible. A bandit lord that can hit three caravans in a single day, that would be something, but not compared to the sacking of an entire town. That's something only those 'high and mighty' lords and their private armies can do," Yelec's own brand of sarcasm came forward. "When we do get inside Tiasvern, we won't be just some bandits running around in the forest. We'll be known as the ones that can do whatever the hell they want." Cheers came from all quarters, some shouting Yelec's name in support.

The kobolds had reached the same conclusion that Iskdiwercaesin would voice. "You're after a reputation then. You want to be the biggest, meanest bunch of cutthroats around."

"Simply put, yes," Yelec shrugged with outstretched hands. "Back to the point though. You have agents in the town. What can they do? Who's ears do you have?"

"Now that would be telling," Iskdiwercaesin teased. It was a dangerous game he was playing, trying to bluff Yelec into thinking that he had something the bandit lord wanted, but he had to be careful not to reveal everything. He had to keep Yelec intrigued. "I wasn't able to sneak those people in if I talk about things like that out in the open. For all I know, maybe a few of your own men are spies for Kaeis."

Yelec's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What makes you say that?"

"You must have thought about it at some point. The commander of the outpost seems just fine finding your camp every now and then." Everything Iskdiwercaesin was saying was pure speculation or an outright lie, but they were things that Yelec had no way of confirming either.

"I've made it well known what would happen to people who try to sell me out. It's happened a few times. Want to guess what happens to them?"

"Nah, you don't have to," Iskdiwercaesin said. "But I can see that you don't trust me having a few infiltrators in the town. I'm sure that you have a few of your own feeding you information, like how the commander is going to launch another attack on your position tonight."

That got everyone's attention. "Is that so?" Yelec's tone had gone neutral again, giving no hint of emotion. "Ryan? Did your commander say anything about an attack tonight?"

"Uh, no," the soldier meekly said. "We didn't hear anything about orders for an attack."

"I wouldn't expect them to, but believe me, you're going to get hit tonight," Iskdiwercaesin said in calm tones, but in his head he was howling in victory now that he had found something he could use. A passing comment from Commander Ilium had potentially saved his skin.

Yelec considered his response before turning back to Iskdiwercaesin. "Let's say what you told me is true. Why did you tell me that? Having them attack would give you an opportunity to escape or be rescued."

"A chance to escape doesn't mean I'm guaranteed get away alive and as for a rescue, I don't think you're the kind to keep prisoners for long," Iskdiwercaesin shook his head. "Making a deal with you, that I have a shot doing."

"So you can get information I can't get and you're going to keep that advantage. I see that the scheming savvy that green dragons are famous for are true."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Iskdiwercaesin nodded. As far as Yelec was concerned, he believed was dealing with a green dragon that was as malevolent as he was and was only abiding his nature. "You say that you're not interested in the town? Then I propose a deal."

"You'll have to remember that you're currently my prisoner and you're surrounded without any allies, so I'm in a much better position to bargain than you are." The bandit crossed his arms as he waited for Iskdiwercaesin to respond.

"Since what I want is what you don't care about, I'm sure it won't matter. You want to loot the town? Fine, but what happens after that? The town's going to want to have a new ruler since I assume you're going to kill Kaeis."

"You'd be right about that. And you're thinking about taking over when I'm finished with Tiasvern?"

"Why not? It's what I came here for anyway. It'll be more scorched than what I wanted, but it'll still be mine. As long as my involvement in what happens next is kept quiet, the people there are still dragon-worshipping faithful. When you're done picking the place clean, I'll come riding back into town, loudly shouting how I'll run you out of town, but It'll be unfortunately too little, too late, you'll have somehow slipped out with all the gold, but you didn't have a chance to butcher everyone," Iskdiwercaesin played with their imaginations with the mock scenario. "I'll come out looking like I got you out of there and you'll come out with all the gold. I'd have preferred to have both, but since my plan's been rather badly dismantled by Kaeis, I'll settle for just the town. Does that sound like something useful to you in your 'superior position'?"

Tapping his chin, Yelec smiled as he considered the scheme. "Sounds devious. But this all depends on how well placed these agents of yours are."

"Now hold on! These are the same bastards that killed some of my guys! Hells, they nearly burnt me to a cinder twice already! What about that?!" The orc from before protested.

Yelec gave him a hard look through the mask, his voice reverberating through the metal as he spoke. "So we lost some men. It won't matter for long Harick, not if we can get into the town without drawing this out. We'd have lost more anyway. We've already tried getting our own people in and that plan turned out badly. This dragon has had more luck than us and he's willing to cooperate, so I say we use that." Growling, the orc backed down.

Iskdiwercaesin took the initiative in the conversation and broke the silence. "I might not be able to give you the specifics on where my own operatives are placed, but if you want to storm the town, I can get you in by the end of the month, if not sooner. Since I assume you've got spies in the town, but no one able to actually do any damage, how about you tell me one of them so that I'll be able to contact you."

Yelec sighed. "You're too damn perceptive. Yes, you're right about both the spies and that they're can't do much, but they keep an eye on what Ligain's up to and what's going on, but here's one thing that ought to be clear. You screw me, I'll hand you over to Harick. He's not as creative as me, but he gets the job done." Harick smiled at the prospect.

"Why would I do that? You're the one that's going to give me my own town of slaves." Iskdiwercaesin said.

Leaning forward and resting his chin on his clasped hands, the fire continued to spark and crackle as he spoke. "A few long term things first. Whenever we pass through here, you better have something on hand to give to us. Make it look like you're just telling us to get out of here or something to your new slaves, whatever, just make sure you have a cut of the profits for us."

"How much are you thinking about?" The hearts of the dragon and the kobolds were now beating less frantically, Yelec was swallowing the bluff.

"I want half of all your taxes, plus any supplies we need," Yelec demanded.

"Ten percent, after expenses, the supplies are guaranteed, and any healing you need."

"Forty, supplies, and the healing."

"Fifteen and I'll throw in a dozen explosives you've probably never heard of before called ditherbombs." Serhis' eyes went wide.

Eventually, they bartered down to twenty five percent and a whole number of other conditions, but it reinforced the impression that Iskdiwercaesin had something to bargain for rather than the truth that they had nothing at all.

"Now that that's taken care of, what are you planning to do about the us being attacked? Tonight? Otherwise this would have been all for nothing," Iskdiwercaesin asked.

Turning to the bandits with his mask reflecting the fire light, he looked at Harick. "Spread the word about the possible attack. They've got too many reinforcements for us to ambush them, not with some of our people still out from the fighting. Just get ready to do anything that'll slow them down, assuming that there will be an attack tonight," Yelec's head turned in Iskdiwercaesin's direction, he was still skeptical. Yelec wasn't the only one that was currently staring at Iskdiwercaesin, the kobolds were similarly looking. One thing that was clear to Serhis was how unpredictable Iskdiwercaesin could be, from being spoiled and obnoxious or unwaveringly calm and manipulative. Yelec turned his attention back to Iskdiwercaesin. "If you're right about this, then we'll let you go back to the town. You'll then report to one of my people in their about anything your own hear about or what you can do. That way, if I think you're not doing enough, then you're still trapped in that town until I get past the walls. Do you understand?"

Iskdiwercaesin's delivery of a bland, "perfectly," seemed to satisfy him.

"In the town, there's a barrel in an alley of the streets Hale and Formic. You want to pass on a message, you drop a letter in there. Assuming you live through tonight." With that, Yelec motioned for Iskdiwercaesin's mouth to be tied shut again and for them to be taken away.

Roughly dragged onto their feet, Serhis and the others were placed in crude wooden cages that were more suitable for handling livestock than prisoners, perhaps because that was because that was how highly they regarded the kobolds, and they were shoved into the cages and the gate shut behind them with an iron lock. For Iskdiwercaesin, they carried him since they didn't want to risk releasing his bindings and chained him up to a tree nearby. The bandits then starting discussing who would be the ones to stand guard over them and after drawing lots, a pair of unhappy looking dwarves stood watch over them, though at a fair distance, even with Iskdiwercaesin's mouth again clamped shut. They didn't know it, but such caution was wise, since he would only need to drool acid on the chains for a few minutes for his jaws to be free again. Right now, Iskdiwercaesin was content letting them believe he was safely contained.

Serhis moved to the side where Iskdiwercaesin was closest, whispering in a hushed voice so that their captors couldn't overhear, but unless they understood Draconic, anything they overheard was probably babble to them. "Iskdiwercaesin, that was brilliant." Despite the bindings, Iskdiwercaesin's smirk said everything about the compliment.

"What we do?" Baous asked, also in Draconic.

"We find a way to get out of here," Xet said urgently.

"That wouldn't be good. Not now, not in our condition," Serhis advised.

"Did you see what Yelec did? The screaming, the smell," Baous shuddered.

"All the more reason we should be looking for a way to escape," Xet said.

"Escaping isn't going to be easy. We don't know where we are, which direction we should head and the chances we'll be spotted are high," Rhasalis said.

"That mean we have to wait until the commander attacks?" Baous asked.

"Maybe, but we don't know if they're going to stay with their plans since they just got hit themselves," she reminded him. "At least if she does, we're likely to get out of here, either by them freeing us or the bandits are going to believe Iskdiwercaesin's story and we'll be freed in the morning."

"What I'm worried about is what's going to happen if the commander doesn't launch an attack," Serhis frowned with downcast eyes. "I used all my strength and power before we got captured. What about you Xet?"

"Same. Only simple cantrips to cast. I don't think changing the cage pink is going to solve anything."

Serhis sighed, not liking how thing might turn out. Glancing at their guards, it sounded like they were having a conversation of their own and were almost completely ignoring them. "In the morning, if there wasn't an assault in the night, we'll have to break out on our own. We aren't going to be staying here if they find out we've been lying to them." Everyone nodded in agreement, including Iskdiwercaesin, since he couldn't say anything. "I'll prepare a few spells that can break Iskdiwercaesin's chains and create lots of fog to confuse any pursuers."

"I can grab stuff. They left it all over there," Baous pointed to a tree next to the dwarves. "We have to use everything we can. Ditherbombs, traps, potions, everything to get away."

Xet shrugged. "No need to ask what I can do. A few fireballs ought to make them think twice about grouping together."

"We better rest now then. We'll want to wake up earlier than everyone else in the camp. Preferably before sunrise so that the ones that can't see in the dark are blind," Rhasalis said as she settled down on the rough wooden cage floor. Having nothing else to do but wait, they tried to sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Angry voices. Unkind words. Faces full of malice and hands carrying cruelty as they reached through the bars. That's what Serhis awoke to as he was dragged out of the cage and slammed into a nearby tree. Even if his vision was still blurry from his rude awakening, he could tell from the voice that was yelling at him was the one from the orc. He didn't understand what he was saying, but the message was clear.

"What should we do with him boys?!" Harick yelled to the other bandits in Common. "Three hours and shit happened. No attack, no raid, not even a scouting party. I say we save the dragon there for last!" A chorus of approval was shouted.

"Serhis!" Baous shouted in alarm, still inside the cage. "Let him go!"

"Stop! Aren't you being hasty? They could be attacking later," Rhasalis also yelled.

"Shut up. You're all buying time for your own skins. I thought it all sounded funny and none of that talk is going to help you now. I'll just let your master over their watch as I show what I'm gonna do to it on the rest of you," Harick glanced at Iskdiwercaesin as he pulled out a dagger from his belt. "Time to find out if those scales are really gold. How much- What is that one yapping about. Shut him up!" Xet was shouting nonstop at them all, even though they didn't understand a word of it. At first he had been asking for them to stop, but now he was using every insult that his knowledge of languages provided. One of the bandits jabbed the bottom of their spear into the cage and knocked Xet onto the ground.

Raising the dagger now that the distraction was dealt with, Harick paused to consider where he was going to cut first. With the help of Rhasalis and Baous, Xet had gotten of the ground only to charge back to the front of the cage to yell out a word in Draconic, using one of the few spells he knew that wouldn't be hindered by his arms being tied up, causing a flare of light to spark between Serhis and Harick.

"Argh!" Blinking to clear his eyes, Harick kept his hand tight on Serhis' arms, even as the kobold tried to struggle. "Someone get that one out here!" Using their spears, they kept Baous and Rhasalis in the back as they violently pulled Xet sprawling into the ground out of the cage. "Shut it's damn mouth. Tie it up!" Harick's vision was returning to him, the daze of the spell wearing off.

"Xet! Get up, run!" Serhis shouted, but his friend was already being held up by a pair of bandits. Xet was drawing in air for another spell, only to have a fist land in his gut and he struggled to breathe as a coil of rope was placed around his snout.

Harick pushed Serhis into the arms of another bandit as he walked towards Xet, dagger still in hand. "That the one that's been using all those fireballs, huh? Still has a few spells left in it." As the orc approached, he reared his leg back and kicked Xet full in the chest, making the pair that held him back off as he landed on his back. Serhis was thrashing to get out of his ropes, but the bandit holding him was stronger, Baous and Rhasalis were banging at the wooden cages even as spears were pointed at them. Out of the corner of their eyes, the chains around Iskdiwercaesin's snout were being coated in a slow drip of acid. None of them could help Xet.

Laboring to get some air into his lungs, Xet was dimly aware of Harick standing next to him. Placing a boot on Xet, the orc bandit kicked and rolled Xet onto his back and put his boot back on Xet again. "I've heard how frail kobolds can be," he growled as lifted his boot. The other kobolds' yells were totally ignored as he slammed his foot down, making Xet thrash on the ground as his arm was broken and his eyes water as he was unable to scream in agony. Harick wasn't done as he kicked again, spinning Xet around before pounded the boot down, breaking his other arm. As Xet writhed on the ground, the pain was driving him into unconsciousness.

Harick watched as the small kobold could only twitch in his bonds. "Come on, where was that all that yapping? No more screams? You're no fun, I guess we'll have to wait until you're awake again before we go on," he chuckled. "Can't cast anything like that, can you? Wait your turn," he spat on Xet as he turned back to Serhis.

"Monster! Going to-" Serhis' words were cut short as a fist hit his face and the dagger was placed on his throat, reducing anything else into a whimper of pain and fear.

"Monster? You're the freak here. I don't think I've ever seen a kobold with wings before or one that had gold scales," Harick taunted him.

"Damn wings are trouble, all that flapping almost made me lose my grip," the bandit holding Serhis said.

"Can't have that," Harick took the blade away from Serhis' throat and took hold of him again.

Spun around, all Serhis could see was the trunk of the tree, though he could see the shadow of the orc behind him raise the knife. He could hear the hoots of laughter and the taunts of the bandits as well as Baous and Rhasalis, but he couldn't hear anything beyond his own scream as he felt the blade cut a jagged line across one of his wings. He wasn't sure how many more cuts were put on his wings, he didn't have the strength to count, but that didn't stop him from feeling every one of them. Harick was avoiding cutting bone or cartilage, but only when he was done shredding Serhis' wings did he turn his attention to them. All Serhis could remember after that was the blood on the bark of the tree streaked with his tears and the pain of his broken wings hanging on his back and his own sobs as he felt the edge of the blade touch the ridge between his wings and his back, his tormenter determined to give the last injury he could to those wings. The only reason Harick hadn't cut them off sooner was so that he had something to hurt. "I'm going to start on your legs after I get these out of the way and work my way up from there."

He had reached the point where he was too tired even to scream. All he could do was pray for some form of mercy that he knew his torturer would never give. Only after a while, past the noise of his own heart beating in his ears did he notice that the laughing and the cheers had stopped and had turned into alarm and panic.

"Put them back into the cage, now!" Shouting to the rest of the bandits, Harick hastily pulled Serhis back towards the wooden prison and flung him inside and Xet landed next to him in a crumpled heap.

"Serhis, Serhis, say something!" Baous cried out as he picked Serhis up. Rhasalis was busy tending to Xet, her face a grim mask as she examined his arms and tried to set them straight.

"Turn... turn me over," Serhis groaned and Baous did as he asked. He was no longer laying on his broken wings. "How. Bad?" he grunted, his words a wracking sob. If pain could be considered an emotion, then that was all that consumed him. He was too tired to be in sorrow about his wings, too tired to care what was occurring around them, too tired to be enraged at what had happened.

Baous worriedly described the wounds to his wings and Serhis had to press for him to give all the details. "Here, I'll use my shirt," Baous gently placed the cloth onto the cuts in the hopes to stop the flow of blood.

"Xet...?" Serhis asked.

"The bone didn't break out," Rhasalis informed him. "We need a splint or something for both of you."

"They didn't need to do that. There's no good reason to do any of this," Baous whispered in fury.

Silently agreeing, Serhis couldn't muster any more voice to talk further, his weary mind wished for rest, but he had to stay awake. Rolling his head around, he tried to see what was happening. Iskdiwercaesin was still chained up to the tree, drops of acid was starting to pool underneath his head and was burning into a root. His green eyes were narrowed in his wrath and the bark around the chains were chipped from his attempts to break free.

Turning the other way, Serhis could barely make out the shadows of figures on the trees. The sounds of battle echoed in the woods and the movement of many feet. The sound of a few getting closer caught his attention as Yelec approached surrounded by a squad of bodyguards.

Looking into the cages, Yelec shook his head as he turned to Iskdiwercaesin. "It looks like your information was accurate. The commander of the outpost seems to be bringing everything into this fight. I suppose we can consider everything even now."

The acid had burned and weakened the chains around Iskdiwercaesin's snout enough that they broke with a loud crack as he moved his jaw. The bodyguards all pointed their weapons at him, but they had the presence of mind to step away from Yelec as the wyrmling glared at the bandit lord. "Even?! How is this even, look at Serhis and Xet!"

"What happened to your servants was a mistake. Harick was too hasty and impatient, though if you had been lying, this would have happened in the morning anyway. Your warning might have given us enough time to slip away and put things in place to slow down those troops, but since you've killed a few of my people, that makes us even."

"So what are you going to do with us now?" Iskdiwercaesin demanded.

"You're still useful to me, so I'll leave you here to be 'rescued' and they'll probably take you back to town. As long as you can get those gates open for me, I don't care what you do with the town after we gut the place of riches and guards."

"Then you better give me something in compensation for my servants," Iskdiwercaesin thought fast, still needing to maintain the image he was self-serving and had a stake in this. "What one of yours did to mine is going to hurt my own operation. Some damn barrel in an alley isn't going to work."

Yelec might have had more time to consider things if it wasn't for the sounds of approaching battle. "Very well. There will be a parchment with a location written on it in that barrel. You'll meet a few of my me there." No more words were needed as he moved past Iskdiwercaesin and into the forest. Soon enough, a wave of bandits poured past carrying everything they could as they retreated into the darkness. It would be a while later before an organized line of infantry could be seen marching cautiously towards them.

"You okay over there?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"Xet's breathing has evened out," Serhis muttered. "I'll need to check his arms in the morning."

"What about you?"

"From what Baous can see... it's going to take a lot of healing," he groaned. The main ligaments to the top of his wings weren't cut, but the bones had been thoroughly broken. It might take him three days to heal the damage and Xet's arms, but that only by spending all of his energy on nothing but healing spells. He wouldn't lose his wings, the damage could be repaired with what spells he had, but that was little consolation for all the torment they had suffered and the pain he still felt. Simply because he was able to fix the damage didn't make the person that caused it any less despicable, Harick's open pleasure in torturing others was what made him so terrifying. As he felt some of his blood leak around him from his wings, he started to see why Iskdiwercaesin was so obsessed about getting revenge.

The soldiers made their way around them after shouting back what they found as they continued their pursuit into the forest, even if their chances were slim. A short while later, Commander Ilium approached them. "You're still alive. Count yourself lucky, that Searflint usually kills anyone he thinks that are worthless to him or hands them over to his cronies for their own sport. How'd you do it?"

"Thanks for the sympathy," Iskdiwercaesin snarled. "Do you have a way to contact Lord Ligain?"

"I might. Why?"

"I'll explain after you get me out of these chains. You have a healer? They're going to need some attention," Iskdiwercaesin nudged his head towards the cage. Inside, Baous and Rhasalis tended to their friends. Xet was still unconscious, but Serhis had lasted as long as he could and had joined him.

"I'll get the sergeant to bring someone. We'll talk later, those bastards slowed us down too much already," she said as she continued her chase.

The sergeant in this case happened to be Danward as he brought a healer along. "Damn, what happened? Was it Searflint or one of his people that put you through the hells?"

"Not now," Baous said in a tired voice. "Can we talk later? We just want to get away from this place."

As they were lead away from the forest, it still felt like that they were still being watched by those hollow, masked eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Serhis, you alright over there?"

Blinking his eyes as he awoke, Serhis turned his head to see all his friends next to him and that they were in a large tent with numerous cots lined up inside. "I guess I am," he grunted to Baous as he tried to turn, only to receive the sharp of agony from his wings.

"Don't move," Baous put a hand on Serhis to keep him still. "We've bandaged them up and put splints on, but there weren't any healers that could fix bones."

"What about Xet?"

"I'm over here." Turning his head the other way, he saw his hatch mate on the cot next to him. Both of his arms were bandaged and were sticking straight out from his body and his face said everything about the pain he got from simply putting air into his lungs. "You look silly with your wings like that," he tried to smile through his aching ribs.

"Me? I thought he was going to kill you when you used that flare. What were you thinking?"

"I couldn't do nothing. It was all that I had and I knew it wouldn't do anything but just make him mad, but I had to do something," Xet's smile faded as his expression turned to concern.

"That was a stupid thing to do," Serhis mumbled. "But... I think it did save my life. He would have started to cut me up before we could be rescued. So, thank you."

Xet laughed and sighed as his turned his own head so that he stared straight up. "Yeah, it was stupid. At least it worked. Now, how about a little help with this?" he said as he raised both his arms.

"Give me a moment to meditate, then I'll start," Serhis replied as he closed his eyes, the nightmare of yesterday's events still burned into his mind. It would take more than a little moment of calm to be rid of that memory.

While Serhis and Xet rested, Iskdiwercaesin informed them about what happened after they got out of the forest. "The soldiers lead us back to their outpost and wrapped you two up in this field hospital. While you slept, the commander came back, said that every single one of the bandits got away. After she finished up giving out a few more orders, she came to us and asked us what happened."

"What did you tell them?" Serhis asked with eyes still closed.

"That we should go someplace safe to talk first. She was cautious about me asking to do that, but she told me that her tent was warded against people trying to eavesdrop, both the usual way and by spell. Gave her the reason when we were inside, that Yelec had spies somewhere in the outpost and in the town. She already knew that though, but she was more interested in what I had to say to keep us alive while we were captured."

Serhis nodded, knowing not to ask about it. The field hospital wouldn't be as protected as the commander's tent and it wouldn't be hard to listen in on their conversation, even if they were speaking in Draconic. If there were spies, Yelec would most assuredly send people that could understand it so he could listen in on his new 'allies'.

"Does this mean we can go? We can leave here when we're done healing?" Xet asked.

"Sorry, but no," Iskdiwercaesin said. "She wants us heading back to Tiasvern as soon as possible." There was a hint that there was more to that. "Seems she's got orders from Lord Ligain that we are now to be regarded as 'persons of interest', whatever that means and that we should stay within the city for our own protection."

Serhis groaned as he tried to continue his meditations. He had hoped that simply getting away from Yelec would have been enough, that they would get back to their wagon and ride as far away from this mess as possible now that they got rid of their merchandise and before Yelec discovered that Iskdiwercaesin had created an elaborate lie with nothing to back it up. Now that they were going back, it would only be a matter of time before one of Yelec's people would request to meet Iskdiwercaesin's network of operatives. As for why Kaeis would want them to stay, Commander Ilium had likely informed him about what they had said to Yelec, so he had no idea what the lord of the town had in mind for them. No matter how he looked at it, it had all turned into one huge mess.

"Hey, Serhis, you sure you're alright? You look a little sick there," Rhasalis had noticed Serhis' expression.

"I'm just thinking about how bad this is going to turn out," Serhis replied truthfully.

"As long as I get a chance to get at Harick for what he did to you and Xet, then I'm sure it'll get better," she said with ice in her words. "He won't get the chance to surprise us again. I swear."

Meditations done, Serhis had Baous and Rhasalis help him out of his cot to reach Xet. He could heal both of his arms and his bruised ribs, but that left nothing for his own wings until the next day. Scratching both of his arms now that they were out of their casts, Xet sighed in relief. "I think I owe that orc something as well. And if I have a chance to set that bandit lord on fire too, all the better."

"Nice to see you've been making friends." Everyone looked as Danward approached them. "Well now, I see one of you has their arms back to normal. Wished I had a healer that skilled around all the time. Would have saved me a lot of grief when I had a javelin sticking through my leg a few years back."

"Hello Danward," Serhis greeted the guard again. "Thank you for getting us out of cage."

"All part of the job," he used the old line with all the honesty and modesty that it had. "Though when we got to you, it looked like you could have needed us to get there a few minutes earlier, though I wished that you weren't stuck out of the gates like that. No one deserves to get trapped like that, especially when you fall into the hands like that abomination Yelec and his cronies. We saw what he did to poor Vinny. Bastard, I'll stick a torch in his mouth for the lad." They were somewhat confused before they figured out it was the name of the soldier that Yelec had burned to death.

"You got us back out of it, that's all that matters," Baous said.

"As long as you don't do that again," Iskdiwercaesin added. "If I had to go through that one more time, I'm destroying that gate and to hell to what your commander says."

"Since we're going back to town, you won't have to. That's what I came to you bunch to tell you, we're going to be your escort back. The commander doesn't need the extra forces out here for a while, not with those cowards going to ground in the forests again. It might take weeks, maybe months before we can find their new camp. By the way, what did you say to the commander last night? I've been told to bring you to the castle."

"I can't say," Iskdiwercaesin said as he stood up.

"Ah. Those sort of things, is it? Fine by me, I know when not to stick my nose into it." With everyone following him, they headed to their wagon to leave.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The ride back to town was no less tense than the trip from it. Even with the second team following close behind, the guards that were missing form the original group had left an impression on those that were still with them, leaving everyone's moods edgy and guarded. What little conversation was short and somber as they crossed the town.

"I've never had a broken bone before now," Xet said as rubbed he his fixed arms.

"Luckily for you, you didn't need to spend almost a month limping with a broken ankle," Serhis commented. "I had to be careful about every step I took and it still ached."

"Yeah, I shouldn't complain," the sorcerer sighed as he leaned back and flicked his hands, conjuring a fire in his palms. "It's just... I didn't know that it would be that painful. It didn't help that that orc was kicking me while I was down, but it was like it was getting ripped apart from the inside. It's not at all how some of the others said it'd feel like fire running down your arm. Sometimes they say you won't feel anything at all because you're that hurt, but I'm starting to think that's just talk."

"I'm just glad either of you didn't lose anything permanently. We've had enough pain and loss," Rhasalis said sadly. Iskdiwercaesin opened an eye from his usual resting place in the wagon, a small nod as a sign of approval to those words.

"I've never had a broken bone before," Baous idly commented. "There were a few close calls when I was training with dad. There were some deep cuts and really bad bruises and Serhis healed them, but not a single broken bone."

"Count yourself fortunate and I hope you keep it that way," Xet said, blowing out the flame as they pulled up to the guardhouse.

All of the second team marched inside and most of the ones that originally made up their escort, but Danward and Henry along with a few others stayed with them. Danward hopped into the wagon along with the others. "Hope you don't mind us hitching another ride with you. Just head for the castle, his lordship wants to see you as soon as possible."

Despite his reservations, Serhis nodded for Baous to keep going. Flicking the reins, they went onward past the inner gates and soon saw the shadow of the castle in the morning skyline. Going past the portcullis of the outer castle walls, their escort casually got off the wagon and chatted with one another, but stood to full attention and rushed into formation as they caught a glimpse at the main entrance to the keep. It wasn't hard to figure out why when the blue half-dragon strode out to meet them.

"Sir! It's an honor for you to come out to see our arrival sir!" Danward snapped off a crisp salute to Lord Ligain.

"That will be all Sergeant," Kaeis said as he raised his hand. "You've done your duty and have brought them here. See to it that you and your subordinates have some rest, I will speak to our guests now." With one more salute, Danward and the rest of his squad marched out of the castle.

"Had them trained well, didn't you?" Iskdiwercaesin commented as he watched the backs of the guards marching off.

"Of course. What use are guards if they aren't efficient in taking and executing orders," Kaeis replied.

"Why did you want to see us again?" Serhis said with a hint of disdain, but he was willing to be more civil this time around.

"Why else but to speak about our mutual threat, the bandit lord Yelec Searflint. Your own ordeal must have terrible," Kaeis said as he observed Serhis' wings. "The commander's report mentioned your torture, but I can see now how extensive they were."

Iskdiwercaesin might have divulged most of what had happened the previous night, but he hadn't given more detail than he thought was warranted. "Is this concern going somewhere?" the green wyrmling said in an effort to wrest the conversation away from the subject. "You had better have a good reason for bringing us back, since we don't have any reason to stay around here."

"We can discuss matters inside," Kaeis didn't break stride as he turned his attention to Iskdiwercaesin as he went to the large doors of the castle, beckoning for some servants and waited for them to enter. As the servants handled the wagon and the horses, they went along with him.

"Now will you explain what's going on?" Iskdiwercaesin asked impatiently.

"Wait until we are further in. As you know, Yelec does have spies somewhere in the town, something my own operatives have made extremely difficult for him to maintain, but I can't keep track of every subversive movement and the interior of this place has wards against such surveillance. Vigilance is necessary, since Searflint is determined to have an influence where he can and operatives where he can strike," the half-dragon said with a knowing smile. Had it been to those with less sharp and numerous teeth, it might have been unnerving, but to the party involved, all they saw was his sarcastic grin.

As they went though the castle, they reached a set of doors that a servants opened for them, revealing a dining room that some of the wealthier nobles or merchants would have regarded as modest, but what any peasant would think was grand and luxurious. It contained the usual long table that stretched from one end to the room to the other along with a number of smaller tables occupying the rest of the room, as high, barred windows cast rays of morning light into the space.

Offering them a seat at the long table, Kaeis took his place at it's head. "I did offer you a chance to have a meal with me and I keep my word. The sharing of meals is considered a gesture of trust and I aim to have that trust."

"Isn't it usually the trust of the visitors? Why do we have to trust you?" Baous said skeptically.

"True, but in this regard, it will be I that will need to trust you before the day is out," Kaeis said. "My own companions won't be joining us. One prefers to cook his own meals and the other prefers to stay in his study to eat. Of course, the last one requires no food at all." If it was an attempt at humor, no one was smiling, but it was hard to tell if Kaeis had meant it that way or not.

"Thank you for treat us to your table," Xet graciously said and Rhasalis nodded as he spoke.

"Glad to see that some of you are still polite." Kaeis earned a scowl from Serhis before the first course was brought out.

The fare at the table wasn't grand or showy, but was filling. Iskdiwercaesin and Kaeis engaged in casual table talk, occasionally with Xet and Rhasalis interjecting their own comments. Baous could only feel awkward as he spoke in Draconic while Serhis declined to say anything unless it was directed at him. In this case, Kaeis still attempted to maintain an air of amicability with the cleric of Bahamut.

"I suppose we've held this off long enough," Kaeis' tone turned serious as the last of the servants left the room after depositing the dishes on the table. "It would appear that you've earned the somewhat tenuous trust of Searflint during your capture. No small feat," he praised Iskdiwercaesin.

"I wasn't going to have my revenge stalled by some small time bandit in the forest, that's just insulting," Iskdiwercaesin said while still accepting the praise.

"I'll have to tease my commander about her slip of the tongue, but the manner in which you used that piece of information can make the failed assault last night inconsequential. I have been attempting to eliminate Searflint by most conventional and non-conventional means and so far, direct attacks and assassination has failed to achieve the desired results. He has proved remarkably effective in removing spies and assassins, almost as effective as me and he barely trusts any of his own men. Normally, that would be a sign of poor leadership, but in the case of bandit lords, his wariness is considered a positive attribute. The fact that he has exposed those that failed to be stealthy enough only seems to be giving his people more reason to accept it."

"I'm starting to see what you meant earlier about you having to trust us," Iskdiwercaesin said. "You want us to pretend to work with him, but we really work for you."

"Good, you catch on quickly. I'm willing to concede small... 'victories' to Yelec so that he'll trust you more, make him believe that you are upholding your end of the bargain and your own agenda. Eventually, he'll extend himself too far, making himself vulnerable," Kaeis said as he wiped out one plate of food.

"It sounds like a good plan and all, but it leaves out one important part. What do we get out of this?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"We don't have to work with him," Serhis quickly said.

Kaeis sighed at his interruption. "I'm not keen on working with you either, cleric of Bahamut, but you and the rest of your party are one of the better chances I have in dealing with Searflint. You've already experienced what he and those that follow him are capable of doing, so what objection do you have with that? Aren't you sworn to destroy those that commit great evils?"

Serhis' throat emitted a low growl. As much as he hated to admit it, Kaeis was benign compared to Yelec, at least for now. If had been a paladin, he would have outright refused any part of this. A more idiotic paladin would have tried to attack Kaeis on sight or gone off into the forest to hunt for Yelec, both with unhealthily low chances of success. "What are you then? The lesser evil?"

"The state of your wings should speak for itself," Kaeis retorted. "Under normal circumstances, you have no chance of fighting Yelec and his horde of bandits. I and those that follow my rule have that strength and only need a chance to use it."

Emotions conflicted, Serhis' stormy glare faded. "I'm still going to be watching you. Any atrocities that you commit, I swear I will make you pay for them."

"Justice is something I am capable of," Kaeis smiled again. "I remove the unworthy, the weak, and those that follow my rule grow stronger for it. As well as myself. Now, where were we?" he said as he turned back to Iskdiwercaesin.

"What we'll get out of it," Iskdiwercaesin reminded him.

"Rest assured that your aid will strengthen you as well," Kaeis replied. "You'll have a chance at revenge and make some money out of it as well. Or would you prefer something else? A title of nobility and land might suit you."

"Hmm, interesting, but I don't think I'm willing to stop traveling just yet," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"So you don't want the title, land, and the servants that go with it? Then the gold-"

"Hold on, I didn't say I wouldn't want it. Maybe when I'm done traveling, my enemies dead and a kobold city to call my own, it would be nice to have some land in distant places and the ear of certain powerful figures."

Kaeis seemed genuinely surprised. "I suppose this is to be expected," he smiled as he shook his head. "Very well. A title of nobility, a few acres of land, and a small pile of gold. Do we have an agreement?"

"We just wanted to pass through here. How long is this going to take?" Serhis spoke up. "We do have a destination to reach," he said as he looked at Baous.

"If things go well, perhaps a few weeks. Perhaps even months if Searflint keeps being difficult."

"It's alright Serhis. If we can help stopping Yelec from hurting anyone else, a few weeks is fine," Baous said.

"There, that's settled then," Kaeis clapped his hands. "Achieve what I ask of you and receive your just due. Of course, betray my trust and suffer harshly. We shouldn't have any problems there," he smiled presently as he made the combination promise and threat.

"As long as you not ask us to do anything wrong and evil, is fine," Baous replied. Kaeis had told him earlier it was fine for him to speak in Common, but Baous had refused on the grounds that he needed constant practice.

"What do you mean? Ah, I understand, you've been speaking to your cleric friend. Are you expecting me to drown puppies and kick children for breaking dishes?" Kaeis laughed.

"How about the tournaments? Killing people like that not right," Baous replied.

"You mean outlaws that have committed the most heinous of crimes. My companions and I make sure that their guilt is undeniable, and I mean that in a way without falsifying evidence or testimony. I'm sure if you saw them while they were in the middle of those crimes, you would have done everything in your power to kill them too. Mainly because they would try to kill you for being a witness," Kaeis said offhandedly.

"Still, they don't need to die that way."

"Then how should they die? With dignity? Whatever dignity they had was forfeit when they did those crimes. They knew the consequences of their actions," his tone was firm, almost as he were lecturing to a difficult child and Baous said nothing further.

Iskdiwercaesin burped as he finished his breakfast. "Is there anything else or are we done?"

"I think that's it for now. You are still staying at that same inn? I recommend that you do, and don't worry, I'll reimburse you for the cost of lodging when this is over. If I should send a message, expect it to come discretely. Yelec's spies will be watching you closely for a while to see if you can be trusted. If anyone should ask why you were summoned to the castle to meet with me, say that I was interested in your account of Yelec and his people and whatever you feel like adding, just make it believable. Go to that barrel in the alley and meet with his spies, we will discuss what will happen next after that. Any questions?"

It looked for a second that no one did, but Xet urgently stuck up a hand.

"Yes? What is it sorcerer?"

"I don't mean to impose, mighty lord. I mean, great winged one," Xet stumbled on his words. "It's just that. No, forget it. I didn't say anything."

"Speak up," Kaeis said. "If it's important, say it now."

"Well, you see..." Xet's eyes went every which way, trying to avoid looking at the half-dragon directly and it took a while before he summoned the courage to ask. Although it was more due to urgency. "Where's the bathroom? That stew didn't agree with me."

There was a groan from Rhasalis as she clutched her head in embarrassment, but Serhis, Baous, and Iskdiwercaesin kept their faces straight. "I'll have my servant direct you," Kaeis sighed. After being lead through the halls by the same gnome from yesterday and a brief stop at the lavatory, they were escorted outside to their wagon.

"Another delay. And we have to work with him again," Serhis grumbled as he took his seat next to Baous.

"Serhis, I'll make sure to protect you," Baous assured him. "I know what you said about followers of Tiamat, but... are you sure they're all like that? How he deals with criminals sounds harsh, but he seems respectable."

That was the whole problem thought Serhis. Kaeis was polite, cordial, and had no compunction about telling you where he stood and what would happen to you if you opposed him. His methods were harsh, but he was well within his rights to do so. Had he not been someone who worshiped Tiamat, he could easily be compared to any stern lord, but where Kaeis ruled, he did so with the word of the dragon goddess. If Kaeis had been the overly cruel lord that delighted in the torture of his subjects, ruled with an iron fist that subjugated all around him, and made demands under threat of death, Serhis would have had no problem outright opposing him. Instead, he ruled like a reasonable authority figure, his faith was gaining acceptance, and the advancement of his power was considered a good idea. He had no idea what to think.

Serhis hadn't realized he was holding his breath. "I don't know. Let's get Yelec as soon as possible, then we can leave," he exhaled.

As they made their way over the bridge, Baous looked worriedly at Serhis. "You sure you're alright? You and Xet have had it really rough. Maybe we should drop you off at the inn so you can rest more."

"No, no. It's fine," Serhis replied and Xet similarly declined, but Baous had been right to a point, he might be physically fit with the exception being his wings, but Serhis hadn't escaped the previous night without the mental scars of torture. He felt tired, he was emotionally exhausted, but he was not going to sit around at an inn feeling sorry for himself while his friends went into a potentially dangerous situation. It was more likely he would have gotten worse because of that.

They found the barrel at the alley after wandering around looking for the right street. They were still cautious and had looked around before they approached it, looking around to see if anyone was observing the place, and even then, Rhasalis approached it like it would explode before declaring that all that it held was a piece of parchment with an address labeled on it, the new location not far from there. The building looked like any house that they passed, but there were tell-tale signs that something was amiss, all the windows were shuttered and they thought they could see someone peering out the windows in the surrounding buildings, watching them, and would duck back if they thought they had been spotted.

"I don't suppose we should just knock?" Xet said as they pulled the wagon up to the house.

"Which door? I think I see three and I don't think that's all of them" Rhasalis observed as they got off, wary for any strange movements.

"We'll go through one of the side doors. Remember, we're suppose to be partners with these bandits and not attracting the attention of the local guards," Iskdiwercaesin quietly advised.

"I don't have anything good to say to them. Not after what they did. You do the talking," growled Baous.

"You don't have to. These sorts of people get very suspicious if you try to play nice with them and are too friendly." Giving a quick rap on the door, Iskdiwercaesin stood back as the waited for a response. "They only have enough trust to get the job done and no more than that."

Out of the corners of their eyes, they could see one of the nearby windows with it's curtains flutter as someone quietly peeked out to look. The sounds of multiple locks unlatching behind the door could be heard before it opened, but only slightly. "This is a private club. What's the password?"

"Password?" Iskdiwercaesin looked blankly.

"You don't have a password, you don't get in. What's the password? You're letter should have had one on it."

Serhis had looked at the piece of parchment up and down earlier and there wasn't any indication that anything else had been written on it. Before Iskdiwercaesin said anything else, either to intimidate the mysterious doorman or make something on the spot, he spoke up. "All paper had on it was address," he remarked.

The sliver of light that flowed through the crack in the door was barely enough to show the face of the person behind it, but eventually it widened as the door was pulled back. "Good. There was no password. Damn guards always try to give a false one anyway. Come on in."

"I'm a dragon with a bunch of kobolds. Since we were expected, that wasn't necessary," Iskdiwercaesin indignantly commented before he went in with the others. No sooner had his tail cleared the door before it was quickly shut, locked, and barred with a thick iron rod.

Now inside, they saw that they were in a dimly lit corridor with a few people of various species at the far end, their guarded expressions full of mistrust and carrying weapons, but at least not in their hands. The doorman was another human, his clothes a little ratty and smelled like it hadn't been washed in days, if not longer, his brown eyes almost covered by his black hair also looked at them with suspicion. "Can't be too careful these days. Not with that half-dragon in charge, no sir."

"Got a problem with dragons?" Iskdiwercaesin asked testily, aiming not to provoke, but at least irritate. Serhis and Baous knew for certain he could do that well.

"Only when they're thinking about making me lunch. Go on in, there's someone that wants to talk to you," the man said as lead them through the corridor and pointed at another door, staying with the others at their post.

Iskdiwercaesin knocked before he entered and was greeted with three people at a table pointing crossbows and knives at him, but as their wielders got a good look, they put their weapons down. "Taking the whole secrecy, cloak and dagger thing seriously I see."

"Some of our guys got killed because they didn't," a female dwarf wearing an eclectic amount of different pieces of armor spat back.

"Let's just get on with business," one of the others said, an elf with narrow eyes and a baritone voice said. "I don't think that introductions or names are important, so I'll spare asking for yours and you won't ask for mine.

"Oh, then what should I call you? Shady elf and dwarf with no fashion sense? I don't know what to call you, human just isn't descriptive enough," Iskdiwercaesin said to the third member of their group.

"Just call us D, E, and H then," the elf said with some aggravation, the dwarf next to him bristling while the human didn't seem to be taking notice as he put down his crossbow back on the table and picked up a book that was on the floor.

"Single letter names. How original." Sarcasm aside, Iskdiwercaesin approached the table with the others to his side. "You all know why I'm here, right?"

"Yeah, you made some sort of arrangement with the boss. Sent us a message when he could and rushed it to us. It was a secure route for the message, so no worries about it getting intercepted, but we'll never use that way again," E said.

"Did it say anything about how you tortured my friends?" Baous grumbled and got a stern glare from Iskdiwercaesin.

"That explains that one, looks like Harick's work," E shrugged as he looked at Serhis. "I don't have any involvement with what the boss or his lieutenants do out there for their fun, I just handle what happens in here."

"Keep your gnoll on a short leash, dragon, or we'll put him down," D warned them. Baous was about to protest and inform them that he wasn't a gnoll, but Serhis tugged on his arm and shook his head. This wasn't the time for it. "All that matters is that the boss says that you've got people already in here doing stuff for you, that you've been doing a hell of a lot better than us." There was a sense that some pride had been wounded.

E took it from there. "What we need to know is what can these spies of your do. What private documents are just waiting on the table to be picked up, which windows have been opened a crack, which door has been neglectfully unlocked. Those sorts of things."

"It's hard to say. The reason I came to this town personally is because I got tired of receiving news that was a week old and finding out that my new orders won't work or are needed because the situation has changed or that specific person found a way to achieve my objective already." Iskdiwercaesin had been creating the details for this elaborate lie all morning and was prepared for most of the questions that they would throw at him. He hadn't filled in any of the others about any of it and so they weren't able to comment. At least, that was what he thought.

"Our master gives us a wide range of latitude in our operations," Rhasalis quietly rasped, filling her role as servant and spy.

"Quiet. Your comments are not needed," Iskdiwercaesin turned to scold her, but they could see his small smirk as his the back of his head was turned to the others.

"Wish my old boss was like that. Always the slave driver," H spoke up, his nose still buried in his book. "Always had to be 'just so'. Nasty little gnome. Always had to be in control of everything."

"You'll have to excuse our friend over there. He's not what you would call social active, but damn if he has a head for knowledge and numbers. He's great to bring into the gambling dens."

"Weekly profits are three hundred and fourteen silver pieces. Discrepancy of five silvers on one of the lists, the person running the one at the warehouse has been dipping into the till. On review he has been doing so for two months," H rambled on.

"Ignore him. He'll just keep going on and on if you let him and you give him a topic. Wait, which warehouse? Someone's going to get their ass beat. Ah damn it, where were we. He always knocks us off track," D complained.

"My agents. In the field," Iskdiwercaesin suppressed another smile. He was afraid that he would have to go into the specifics about it, but that concern was fading.

"Then tell us what you do know they can do at the moment. You can update us later," E put the conversation back on course.

"Obviously, I hear about troop movements. That helped your boss escape. Although after this recent incident, that agent is going to have to lie low for a while."

"Here's a question," D interrupted. "Why are you here at all? What's in this for you? Why did Ligain tell you to go to his castle, twice, and what did he say?" Her voice was rough and had an edge of hostility.

In response, Iskdiwercaesin replied diplomatically, but firmly. "I guess that message didn't explain everything. As I told your boss, I intend to claim this town for my own. He has no interest in it aside from its wealth and the reputation he'd gain, though I suspect he might wish to do so at a later time, when he has a more established power base. But I digress. As for Lord Ligain, I needed to see him personally, to see how he would react. That was why I came to town with the equipment, to attract his attention. However, my plans did not include having to deal with your lot," he said with slight contempt. "Either way, the situation is in our favor. I see that he has an established army and made his subjects loyal, so I must remove him by force. You want to get rid of him because he's in your way. I'm not above modifying a plan. How about you? What have you been doing here?" He was playing his role as a scheming wyrmling bent on power to the hilt. Perhaps he wasn't even playing.

"Failure to achieve targeted goals. Failure rate of eighty-seven percent. Remaining active factors minimal. Opposition strength is rated as strong to overpowering," the relentless font of information coming from the one called H was immediately cut off as E clasped a hand over the human's mouth.

"Yes, about that. As you've gathered, that's the reason the boss wants you in this mess. You seem to have bribed the right people or know a few unpleasant secrets to have them in your pocket," E said before his brow furrowed. "You know what, that makes sense. Explains why some of the folks we've tried to talk to seem to be really edgy or not interested at all, they already report to you."

"Probability that hypothesis is correct is high, patterns are logical of a third party interfering," H talked with E still covering his mouth, muffling his speech.

It shouldn't be this easy. Iskdiwercaesin only betrayed a hint of a smile while the kobolds exchanged befuddled glances at one anther, but his mind was racing to consider the implications of that piece of information. There was someone else actively engaging in their own bit of skullduggery in this town. This was why Serhis hated dealing with situations like these, they reeked of politics and as common as that was, it always remained confusing. "Is there any connection between them and me?" Iskdiwercaesin asked H.

"There is no discernable connection. It would have been more probable that-"

Iskdiwercaesin cut off H before he could continue further. "Glad to see that they can work so well. Don't tell me who they set up as the scapegoat for me, I'd rather not know unless I needed to."

"Alright, you're pretty good at this sort of thing if you're good enough to fool him," D grunted. The nagging feeling of dread began to fade from the back of Serhis' mind about the whole situation, Iskdiwercaesin had managed to earn the barest hint of their trust.

"But-"

H's words were again cut short as Iskdiwercaesin interrupted with a question, "what might be the average amount of loot if the town was plundered by Searflint's bandits?"

The man's eyes once more glazed over as he saw numbers flying past his eyes. "Taking into account the average wealth of the residents, trade flow to and from the city, the current situation, and miscellaneous concerns, each member would attain nearly two hundred gold pieces while those with more prominent positions would gain triple that amount, Yelec Searflint would gain in profit of ten thousand gold pieces, assuming market conditions are sound when goods are sold and inflation is added."

D whistled. "I can do a lot with six hundred gold pieces. I should have asked him that earlier."

"Yeah, but we need to do the job first," E reminded her. "First off, what can you do to get more of our people into the town? Can you know if you can at least do that?"

"I'll tell you which gate and at what time," Iskdiwercaesin said with some disdain. "I don't think we have anything else to discuss here. The whole getting people inside is a test. You'll see them inside. We can talk about other plans after that."

"You do that," E's eyes narrowed as he thumped the desk twice, the same human from before opening the door. "Show them out. And if anybody asks what you were doing here, give them a nudge and a wink that there's good gambling here. That should satisfy their curiosity."

The door was briskly shut behind them as they left. The whole conversation might have taken less than ten minutes, but that was ten minutes of tense lies and deception. It was until they had taken their wagon several streets away that they began to talk. They hadn't even bothered thinking of where to go next, Baous had just directed the horses in one direction away from that place and driven off.

"Wow. That was a little much," Xet broke the tense silence with a weak laugh.

"Do you think that they suspect anything?" Serhis asked.

"Of course they suspect something. They just don't know what," Iskdiwercaesin replied, his façade of calm and control briefly chipping as he slumped down.

"Should I head back to the inn so we can send a message?" Baous nervously glanced behind him and saw no one following them. He had intentionally left out 'to Kaeis' and anyone that might have overheard would either not understand or assume that he meant Iskdiwercaesin's as yet unknown operatives.

"No. Drive around for a while," Rhasalis advised them. After taking a few turns down numerous streets and avenues under her direction, she seemed satisfied with their current location at the end of a blind alley.

"Why he-" Baous' question wasn't completed as Rhasalis held up a finger, her eyes watching the only way out.

"We are being followed," she whispered. "Two men, separate from each other. One trying to stay out of sight of the other one." They made the connection as to why Rhasalis wanted them in this dead end alley, if either of them attempted to follow, they would be immediately spotted.

"Are we suppose to sit here then?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"Wait and stay quiet." Putting on a pair of thick leather gloves, she took a grappling hook out of her pack and flung it onto the top of the nearby roof. Tugging the rope twice to see if it was secure, she silently went upwards and disappeared over the lip of a shingle roof. One minute passed, then two, and they hadn't seen anyone come into the alley or heard any noise aside from the regular sounds on the street.

"I'm starting to get worried," Serhis whispered.

"Thanks for the concern, but you don't need to worry." Looking up, they could see Rhasalis as she slowly climbed her way back down into the wagon. "We can talk freely now."

"What did you do? Who where they?" Xet asked, taking one last glance down the alley.

"I couldn't exactly talk to them, but I would guess that both were spies, one working for Searflint and the other for Kaeis."

"Nice to see how trusted we are," Iskdiwercaesin sneered. "At least they think we're important enough for that. How'd you get rid of them."

"They aren't dead. I managed to lure one towards the other, the one working for Kaeis managed to get a poisoned knife out and forced the other unconscious. The winner is now lying in the next alley over and he's going to wake up wondering what happened and why the back of his head feels sore." She managed to make the whole thing seem pleasant as she smiled and leaned back, enjoying a job well done.

Reasonably certain that they were no longer underneath the eyes of others, they all breathed a easier, but only a little.

"Did anyone else catch that? That there's another group plotting and scheming," Serhis groaned.

"Yeah and I can guess who," Iskdiwercaesin said. "It's... damn, what has his name, the human that demanded we hand the weapons over to him in the tavern. The last name was Axton, I can remember that because of the old name of the town."

"Bej Axton," Serhis reminded him.

"Yeah, that guy. I'm surprised someone like that is even capable of being subtle, and that he has people infiltrating Kaeis' ranks. Unless Kaeis already knows and he's just waiting to do something," Iskdiwercaesin pondered. "Damn, now I'm going to be second guessing myself."

Baous sighed and held his head. "I hate all of this. All the spying, the deals, the lies. Why is it all so complicated?"

"It's politics," Serhis was relieved to see that he wasn't the only one that was getting frustrated by it all and they finally had a chance to speak their minds without being scrutinized, although Xet was only befuddled by it all while Rhasalis was accepting everything stoically. "But since Kaeis controls who goes out the gates and Yelec would try to catch us if we managed to get out, we're stuck here until we're done."

"You're handling it well. I would have thought working with a follower of Tiamat would make you go nuts," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"It's starting to."

"Okay, so maybe Bej Axton has a few people in his pocket, but what's that mean for us?" Xet asked.

"It means we're not holding the most cards, but we've got the most important ones," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"What does that mean?" The gambling analogy went over Rhasalis' and Xet's heads.

"I'm saying that we're can tip things in our favor, but only if we do things right and in the correct order."

"You're losing us," Serhis' voice was full of exasperation.

"Look, we might be only three words short of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person before we all get gutted, maybe even two, but every single one of those damn idiots is starting to depend on us for some critical objective. As long as we make sure they know only what we want them to know, we'll come out on top."

"How? There's no way I'm letting Yelec pillage this town, innocent peoples could get killed, so we can't let him win," Serhis said. "Kaeis... is a lesser evil compared to him and those that he leads are blameless. I have no idea what Bej wants or is capable of doing and if he's as bad as his father."

"Then we'll go over to him and ask."

"Why did I know that was going to happen?" Baous rubbed his forehead before taking the wagon back out the alley.

"I only hope you have a plan for all this," Serhis said.

"I don't have any plan at all. What's to plan? We don't have enough to make anything work," Iskdiwercaesin shrugged.

"I pray this ends well," Serhis muttered as they went back into the afternoon sunlight.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They arrived at where Bej Axton was staying, after traveling back to the "Worn Helmet" to ask Veri and Vincentia about where he was. They informed them that he had been residing with an old family friend from before the revolt on a small estate near the edge of town. It looked grand and exquisite, at one time. Carved statues of various races that lined the road to the main house were in various states of disrepair, some missing different limbs, a few ears, and sometimes the noses, the trees and plants were overgrowing what had been a regularly tended garden. The house stood three stories tall, but most of the windows had been boarded up and the face of the building showed decay.

"I understand that he's got spies amongst Kaeis' people, but what are we doing talking to him?" Xet asked as they went down a cobble road that had likely been more frequently used by luxurious carriages than their simple wagon. "We could tell Kaeis about this."

"We could, but how would that benefit us? Bej makes it really obvious he wants to be a lord again and I want to see what he's willing to do to get his title and all the little privileges that come with it back. Besides, we don't know exactly who's working for him, so telling Kaeis isn't going to do much good. Just don't tell Bej that, I want him to understand that we know about his spies, just not that we don't know who they are," Iskdiwercaesin told them.

"So you're going to do all the talking again?" Baous asked.

"I don't have to if you've got something to add. Remember what I said about three wrong words."

"We're here to gather information then," Serhis stated as he got off the wagon. "How do you know that Bej is capable of helping us against Yelec?"

"I don't. That's why we're here." Without anything further to say, Iskdiwercaesin knocked on the doors.

They waited for a few seconds before they heard a gruff voice from behind the doors. "Who are you? What you want?"

"Someone wanting to speak with Bej Axton," Serhis responded. Again, out of the corners of their eyes, they could see movement from a nearby window as someone took a peek at them.

"You're that dragon."

"Yes I am. How obvious," Iskdiwercaesin mocked the person behind the door. "Are you going to open up or not? Unless you really are the door and are as thick as you seem?"

The door opened a crack and a face that was barely recognizable as human behind a nose that had probably been broken multiple times and a mouth frozen in a perpetual scowl looked out at them. "What you want with Bej?"

"If he's here, we've got business with him. We're not saying anything else while we're out here," Rhasalis replied with a quick glance over her shoulder. She knew for certain that they were no longer being followed, but it gave enough of a hint to the doorman.

He looked uncertain as he tried looking towards where Rhasalis had glanced. "Wait here."

"What is it with all these doormen? I thought they were suppose to be friendly and inviting," Xet said.

"The people we always go to aren't known for being 'friendly and inviting'," Serhis replied. "I'm sure it's because they don't expect seeing a dragon and kobolds as well."

The door opened again, fully this time. "Lord Axton's finished with his meal and is in the dining hall with Lady Eolith. They also want a word with you." As soon as everyone was inside, the door was quickly shut behind them, then they were lead further inside.

The interior of the building was in a marginally better state than the outside, but there was a layer of dust covering almost every surface. Opening the doors to the dining hall, the doorman announced their presence. "The visitors are here."

The elderly halfling sitting next to Bej nodded and waved her hand. "Thank you Gregory. You may take your leave." The doorman bowed to both of them before he went turned to close the door behind him as he left. "Do you know these beings?" she asked Bej.

"Yeah. I tried offering them a better deal for a shipment of equipment two days back, but they were stubborn and didn't listen. What do you want now? Got another shipment of arms and finally wised up?"

"Now Bej, let's not be rude. We must introduce ourselves properly. My name is Lady Haime Eolith and I welcome you into my home," she smiled at them all.

"I am Serhis. This is Baous, Xet, Rhasalis, and Iskdiwercaesin." Serhis bowed towards the elderly woman, then the others when they saw him bowing. Technically, Rhasalis should have curtsied, but Lady Eolith probably couldn't tell that she was female. Either way, Serhis didn't bother to advise Rhasalis about how surfacers usually conducted themselves and their strange habit of gender roles in formal situations. The only reason he knew that particular habit was because he asked Helena some time ago after they were at a noble's dance hall and he still didn't completely understand.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm afraid you've just missed a rather nice meal, but if you would like, I can have the cook prepare some more."

"No, no, but thank-" Serhis began to politely decline until Iskdiwercaesin intervened.

"I wouldn't dream of refusing your generous offer," the growing wyrmling sincerely smiled.

Clapping her hands to summon a servant, she waved her hands to the seats surrounding the large table. "Have a seat while my cook prepares the coals. What would you like?"

As he took one of the seats, which was his size for once, and the others sat around him, taking seats that also fit them, he couldn't help but be taken a little off stride. He had expected a more tense and strained experience, but meeting the kindly old lady had changed things around. As they finished placing a few simple orders after asking what was available, the servant hastily went out of the room. "Thank you for hospitality."

"It's nothing. We may not be able to get everything that we want, but old Sam makes do. Now, what is it that you wished to discuss with Lord Axton here?"

"Lady Eolith, is this really proper? I mean, sharing a table with these creatures?" Bej asked.

"Bej Axton, that was rude of you. I realize that your father may not have had many moments where he was known for his civility, but as long as you stay in my house, you will also conduct yourself like a gentleman and I will not have you questioning who I invite to my table. Apologize to them," Lady Eolith scolded him. Surprisingly, he did look sincerely chastised.

"My... apologies. I misspoke. But in all seriousness, why did you come looking for me?"

"We've wanted to talk to you about things of a delicate nature," Iskdiwercaesin said. "What I have to say, you might not like."

"I doubt it. You've already insulted me enough during our last meeting, although that shit head tavern keeper should have his tongue ripped out for his own words," Bej growled, only to receive a rap on the knuckles from Lady Eolith.

"No more of that young man," she waved the silver spoon in her hands like a dangerous wand that could strike others dead. "You'll have to forgive Bej. He entered my ward when his father died almost seven years ago and I've been trying to raise him as a proper gentleman since, but I fear his father's mouth and manner of expressing his displeasure remain with him," she sighed as she stirred her tea.

"We've been told the story," Baous said.

"It's that ghastly Ligain's fault. I had to flee with young Axton for our lives that dreadful day and we've only recently begun to reclaim what is left. When we first arrived here, my own home was filled with squatters."

Iskdiwercaesin coughed to get their attention. "Then I'm not sure if I should speak business then. It might upset you."

"Nonsense. I've had to deal with 'business' since I young. Such are the ways of those in power, what with all the intrigue and the politics, so I understand you meaning. I have a keen interest in what Bej does to reclaim his throne, so do not worry."

"If you say so," Iskdiwercaesin shrugged as he turned his attention back to Bej. "I'll be blunt about it then, we know about the spies you have in Kaeis' ranks and we'd like to make use of them."

Bej choked on his tea and had to have a coughing fit before he could respond, rising to his feet. "How do you know about them?!"

"Calm down Bej. Clearly I must teach you more on the art of subtlety, you've just admitted that they even existed," Lady Eolith calmly sipped from her cup. "A more diplomatic answer would have been to ask where they would have heard of that assumption."

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, it's practically expected, but we do know about them being well placed. Not just the cooks and servants, but people who might handle the right information or be in the right place at the right time. And that they've been approached by others for their services" Iskdiwercaesin said.

Bej made a worried look at Lady Eolith who only put down her cup to watch with heightened interest. "Go on," she said, "you have to learn to do this someday if you expect to rule. They know about the offers, so it lends credence to their words. How do you respond?"

"Crafty old lady," Xet smirked as things were translated things for him between Serhis and Rhasalis.

"And what do you want to do about it?" Bej got around to making up an question.

"It's simple. We have a need to kill Yelec Searflint and his bandits. We had a run in with him the night before and things didn't go well, but I've managed to gain enough of his interest to be involved with his future plans with this town. Care to hear more?"

"What do you mean by his interest? And why do you need him to die?"

"We make deal with him," Serhis said. "With terms we not want to do."

"What this kobold means to say is that he thinks we have a stake in this town as well. The agreement was that by allowing him a chance to destroy all the defenders and sack the town, we'd ride in to 'save the day'," Iskdiwercaesin made his sarcasm plain. "He would ride off with whatever he and his men can carry while we would take control of the town in the chaos."

"And you don't think he will honor his part of the bargain and simply kill you all when it'd over, do you?" Bej asked.

"Actually part of the agreement was that we'd give his some tribute any time he passed through these parts again and a safe haven. I actually have no interest in staying in this region or taking the town, but if we tried to leave, Yelec would capture us again when we pass through the forest and we don't have to explain what would happen next."

"This is all very interesting, but I don't see how it involves those in my service, and more importantly, how it can give me back my town," Bej frowned.

"Oh, I don't doubt that you'll get it back one way or another," at this point, Iskdiwercaesin's ability to lie with a straight face came into play again, "but how long is that going to take? You've been here for months and you've made some progress, infiltrating your agents into a very tightly run operation, but that isn't going to be enough. Kaeis is strong here, he has the support of the people and he's very good at reminding them the things you father has done-"

A loud *thump* could be heard throughout the dining hall as boots slammed on the ground as Bej stood. "My father was a great man and I will not allow you to sully his name!"

"I'm just telling you the facts; Kaeis is the one making you family name something of a warning. Kaeis is the one with all the goodwill, the money, and more importantly, control of all the defenses. Unless you do something drastic, even if you somehow manage to kill Kaeis, the townspeople aren't going to let you become their new ruler. It'll take you years before you'd have any chance at keeping Tiasvern-"

"Axton."

"Whatever. I'm saying that with us, you'll have a chance to speed things up. One thing I've learned about those with short life spans is if there is a chance to save yourselves any of those precious years, you'd take it. Or am I wrong?"

"Not unless there is a high risk that opportunity can end your life quickly," Lady Eolith interjected.

"You'd still want that chance though," Iskdiwercaesin insisted.

"Alright, so you say you can turn things around for me. How?" Bej said.

"It's simple, we kill Yelec Searflint in a way that benefits us, so that we don't have to worry about him hunting us when we leave and brings you a step closer to your throne. You could just let Kaeis do all the work, but where does that leave you? Everyone will think you're useless. If you could manage to do what he couldn't for months, with far less resources than he commands, that would speak volumes about your leadership. Even if Kaeis doesn't manage to hang Yelec, he'll still be a problem get to be a little lordling again."

"A little popular support never hurts," Bej appeared to be slightly swayed. "But you're still not saying how you're going to help."

"We are in the unique position of placing Yelec's men inside the walls. You'd know of all their hideouts, their movements, all the little details nobles seem to love. When he thinks he has enough men inside, he'll launch an all out attack, but there's going to be an unexpected hitch that neither him or I will expect, and that's going to be you. Kaeis is going to have his hands full trying to contain the situation, but you're going to be the one that's going to be at the right place at the right time. You get all the glory, we don't have to look over our back on the way out. All the while, Kaeis' position will be weakened."

"There's a lot of chances of something going wrong there," Bej said.

"Maybe, but do you have any better schemes than this? What were you going to do with all those spies? Do you have a private army we don't know about that's large enough that can take advantage of those opportunities?"

Bej opened his mouth, but a stern look from Lady Eolith made it clamp shut. The young man's boisterous attitude was firmly kept in check, unlike the last time, where he was outside the gaze of his guardian. "While we would like to keep to our own plans, that does not mean we should ignore opportunities when they arise," she said. As to the hidden meaning behind her words, Serhis could only guess, but he didn't doubt there was one.

"While talking opportunities, I wondering why Kaeis not get you already? You not like bandits, he know where you are and that you want town back, but why he not do something?" Serhis asked.

"Despite what the stories say, this false lord did not cleanly wipe the field of all the loyal supporters of Lord Axton. Some held prominent positions or were too valuable to lose and he needed to retain their skills. He cannot judge every person so precisely, but if they said they were willing to serve him, that was likely enough. It is by their influence that we remain and make our presence known, not like thieves stealing into the town at night, but proudly as the lords that rightly belong, and have committed no crime," Lady Eolith explained. "If he wants to keep his image as a firm, but lawful lord of this town, he is forced to accept our presence. If you manage to achieve what you can claim to, you will have our gratitude and thanks."

Iskdiwercaesin smiled and extended his claw. "Great! When this all plays out, you'll keep telling us what we need and we'll do the same and soon that bandit lord is going to have his head on a pike, and more importantly, it'll be your pike. We'll be on our way after that, but if we ever come through this way again and you've managed to become the new lord, you'll be welcoming to your allies, won't you?"

"I thought you would have some sort of angle in this," Bej snorted, but with some reluctance, shook the claw.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"All that talking and all that we can do now is wait."

Serhis stood looking out the window, watching the setting sun as the day came to a close, the others behind him keeping themselves entertained. For once, he didn't know if it could be considered a productive day. After eating a fair meal at Lady Eolith's estate, they had returned to their room at the inn.

"These people have been going at it for months. I don't see how we can make things go any faster," Rhasalis looked up from her cards.

"I'm still not sure I got it all right," Xet muttered as he drew his card. "I know a few words got mixed up in the translation. We've got no intention in going for Yelec's deal, but we've also got to make sure that he still believes that we don't want to get caught by Lord Ligain, but at the same time, we're going behind both their backs and dealing with Bej?"

"Bej is our back-up plan if Kaeis tries to do anything funny that we don't like. Don't forget the part where we have to make sure Yelec somehow dies at the end of it all, either because of Kaeis or Bej," Iskdiwercaesin's face was set in stone as he glanced at the cards on the table before flipping a gold piece into the pot.

"This is politics? Why is it always that complicated?" Baous scratched his head as he matched Iskdiwercaesin's bet.

"All we can do is wait while everyone else starts moving around. It's like chess, where they want to make sure they've got the best position before the real game starts, except there's more than two players and you don't know if that one tile has a trap door under it. Are you sure you don't want to play for anything more than small stakes? Fifty gold is just silly," Iskdiwercaesin asked the others at the table.

"I thought we weren't playing for keeps," objected Baous, who was several coins behind everyone else.

"No, but I'd like to see how much I could swindle from you if I tried," the green dragon laughed as he put down two more coins.

"Chess? I'm good at chess," Rhasalis said as she looked at the table. "I fold."

"Yeah, same. Fold, I mean. I'm kind of good at chess," Xet tossed his cards down, a junk hand. "What are we waiting for though?"

"First, we've got to wait for Yelec to stop prancing around in the woods long enough to send more bandits into the city. I've already dropped a letter by the door before we came in like Kaeis said. Looks like it's just you and me," Iskdiwercaesin smiled at Baous.

"I saw you writing in the wagon, but I didn't see you drop it," Baous threw in his bet.

"I dropped it for him," Rhasalis said.

"It all feels wrong to me," Serhis sat down on a bed, watching the game unfold.

"I don't like having others push me around like a tool either. Five gold," Iskdiwercaesin raised.

"I don't think that's what he meant," Baous looked cautiously at his dwindling pile of gold, but pushed in five pieces. "Serhis, Kaeis hasn't done anything to us. You don't have to worry so much about it."

"I'm trying, but I keep remembering the last time I met a follower of Tiamat," Serhis curled up on the bed.

"I'm trying to push everything as fast as I can, alright? We're just lucky that Rhasalis had our own spies knock into each other, otherwise I wouldn't dare go to that charming Halfling's estate. And I'm just as lucky that you would let go of more of your money," Iskdiwercaesin doubled the amount of gold on the pile.

"Eeurgh," Baous grumbled as he tossed his hand down.

"Hah, wised up for once. Take a look at the winning hand," Iskdiwercaesin laid out four kings. "The faster we're done with Yelec, the sooner we're out of here. Is that good enough for you, or do I have to worry about you trying to start a war against Kaeis?"

"No, you don't. I know when I see a battle that can't be won. Perhaps at another time or maybe never, but it never pays to throw away your life uselessly," Serhis sighed.

"I wish I met more paladins with your attitude." Displaying an aptitude at shuffling cards that seemed almost at odds with his claws, Iskdiwercaesin dealt out the next hand. "The first few groups are going to be small, Yelec isn't going to risk getting betrayed, but once he sends larger groups and thinks he has enough to overwhelm the guards at the gates, that's when everything starts. We just need a chance to pin him down and we're finally out of here, but the problem is he's probably not going to trust us that much and he's probably got something in store."

"That's why you wanted to see if Bej was interested in this. He's our own surprise," Serhis said.

"Yep. Baous, try not to make it too easy for me. Since we're not playing for keeps and I want a challenge, I might as well tell you. You're tail always wags whenever you get something good."

"Huh? Ah rats."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the end of the week, developments had occurred so quickly, it began to become hard to comprehend all the myriad of deals they had created. Perhaps Iskdiwercaesin had most of the picture and Serhis could puzzle out the meaning behind most of his maneuvers, but that didn't stop it from being any less difficult.

For Serhis, it would be a week that had somehow combined relative calm and nerve grating tension. He was relieved to see that there would be no lingering harm to his wings when he finally had the energy to focus on them, but such relief was short lasting as the week progressed, a sentiment shared by the others. Eventually, they received a message from Yelec by way of his one letter named conspirators, arranging for a small group of his men to be snuck inside the town. It would be their task to ensure that none of the guards would interfere. They would in turn send a message to Kaeis to allow for their successful infiltration while at the same time informing Bej and Lady Eolith about the movements of the others so that they may prepare their own moves. The calm aspect to the week was that there would be no pitched melees or running skirmishes, but the stress came from having to regularly dealing with the bandit conspirators. Every time they met, they would wonder if they hadn't been careful enough with their messages, that the bandits has discovered their ruse and that the next invitation to the next meeting spot would be an ambush.

From one week to two, then three. Yelec began to send more bandits in larger numbers as he grew more trusting of the group, but Serhis and Iskdiwercaesin were also careful that not all of their attempts were success, that one group or two would get caught while being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Yelec would always be in a foul temper when this happened and he made his displeasure known through his minions, but they if everything had gone perfectly, they would have gotten suspicious. Either way, Yelec would be satisfied with those that did manage to get in and H would note that the losses were well within acceptable parameters.

Nearly a month after their arrival to Tiasvern, or Axton, depending on who they were speaking with at the moment, the party received word that the main event was about to start.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Yelec wants the attack done tonight," E said to them before they had even passed through the door.

"So you finally have enough people to overwhelm the walls?" Baous asked.

"That's a stupid question, of course we do," D scoffed. "We need to know where those damn patrols are and when they'll be at those spots again. And those agents you say you've got in the gatehouses? Use 'em!"

"We going to need to know more," Serhis replied coolly. "When is attack start? Is Yelec going to rush all other still with him through gate? He lead attack?"

"And we'll need to know when to come charging in ourselves when he finishes with Lord Ligain," Iskdiwercaesin maintained their cover. "He better have enough people left for us to make this look plausible and suitably heroic."

H started his peculiar mode of conversation that required no other participant to actually listen. "Attack will start at midnight. Arrangements for night fighting have been made, squads separated on ability to operate in certain lighting conditions, others able to fight in zero light conditions. Yelec will be personally attempting to terminate Lord Ligain, but his position must remain concealed. Street fighting conditions will alter predictable outcomes. Expected losses are one in twenty, best case one in thirty worse will be one if fifteen assuming all lines of retreat are clear. If not, one in five predicated to survive. Casualty rate of town defenders expected to be much higher, but failure to surprise will drive rate significantly lower. A force of a hundred has been provided for your deception, enough to be seen from the outer walls as a large force, as it will be difficult for the witnesses to determine how many are actually already inside. Food ration levels starting to reach critical levels for those inside town limits, tensions among those hiding rising exponentially, while-"

"Thank you, that will be enough," E sternly shut him up. "As he was saying, our stockpile of food is starting to get low and having so many of our guys crammed into our hideouts is getting on their nerves. Luckily, we have enough so make this work."

"Midnight? Can you wait for two hours later? That would be better time," Serhis asked.

"No, it has to be at midnight."

Serhis had no actual reason to wait two more hours, but he had wanted to see how flexible their plan was going to be. It was due to their hideouts being so scattered throughout the city that prevented reliable messages from reaching them, so any alterations to their plans was going to reach them too late, something that had proven to be an asset over the past few weeks, and since it was already afternoon, this was beyond the point of no return.

Iskdiwercaesin was thinking along the same lines as well. "It'll be tough, but we'll manage to do something with what time we've got. You could have given us a bit more warning."

"Yelec wanted it done now, so piss off unless you want to argue it with him," D replied.

"Fine. We'll have to get going now," Iskdiwercaesin took a step back. "Unless you have anything else to say?"

"No, go," E unceremoniously set a month's worth of effort into motion.

Walking back towards the inn, Serhis cast a glance at Rhasalis. It wasn't until several minutes later that Rhasalis nodded, confident that they weren't being watched or followed.

"Yelec's personally leading the attack. Good, I'd hate to go through with this and know he's still out there somewhere," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"Yes, but we don't know when that's going to be. The attack might start at midnight, but all we know for sure is that he'll be assaulting the castle," Rhasalis said.

"We're going to have to send a message to Kaeis and Bej quick if we want their people moving without everyone noticing the other," Serhis said.

"Maybe we can get Kaeis to round up all the bandits before that happens," Baous said hopefully.

"We can't do that," Iskdiwercaesin countered. "Yelec's still going to be out there and I doubt the guards can catch all of them. Those hideouts probably have plenty of escape routes and it's only one of those bandits needs to get away to tell Yelec his plan's gone to crap and he doesn't need to be a genius to figure out we're behind it, since it happened only after we got informed that the attack was tonight. Like Rhasalis said, we're going to have to wait until we know where Yelec is and the only place we know he'll be is trying to attack the castle and he won't be doing that until he knows he's got the rest of the town under his control. We can't even have Kaeis' troops prepare for an attack, it'll be too obvious."

"So we have no choice but to wait even more," Serhis sighed. "What about Bej?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking what good he might be. Which is about next to nothing," Iskdiwercaesin snorted. "Sure, he's got all these collaborators working for him. Well, more like Lady Eolith, but I'm not sure what good he is in a fight. He might have his own little private army, but they're not going to last long in a siege."

"He still might be able to do something. And what about what we said about him and Yelec?" Baous asked.

"I did say he wasn't totally worthless. I'll think of something," Iskdiwercaesin shook his head. "Let's just hurry back and hope Kaeis and Bej take our suggestions."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It's almost time," Baous whispered.

"How can you tell?" Xet asked.

"I don't know, I just get the feeling."

Inside their room at the "Worn Helmet," they waited around a table with a lone candle. The candle wasn't lit since they could see better without it by way of the glowing moon, but they kept it there for anyone that might come into their room. No messenger had come with last minute changes or replies to their letters and the candle remained unlit.

"Once the battle starts, what are we going to do?" Rhasalis asked.

"I don't know," Serhis answered. "It feels like we've just set some big, huge trap, but we can't tell if we're still in it and all we can do is wait some more."

"More waiting. Is there anything else we can do?" Baous whined.

"I'm perfectly fine with sitting this fight out. It's not like we can do anything by joining the brawl," Iskdiwercaesin said.

So they continued their vigil in the room, all eyes and ears focused on the window for sounds of the start of the battle. It would be hard to tell when it would start, the first moves of the night would be the quiet movements of bandits and guards, each hoping to get the drop on each other. There would be no siege equipment firing volleys of projectiles and no loud bursts of arcane magic to signal the beginning of the attack, but the flicking of knives in the dark and hands resting on gatehouse wheels, waiting to give an advantage that a hundred blades would not.

Both Baous and Iskdiwercaesin's turned slightly. "I hear something," they both said, but eventually the kobolds began to hear the sounds of rising conflict too. It began with sounds of distant shouting, then more loud voices issuing warnings and giving orders, mingled with furious rage and mindless screams. And all they could do was stay where they were.

Through the night, dozens of little battles were fought. From their hideouts, the bandits that had infiltrated the city went about, finding as many soldiers as they could to strike at, but most of the fighting would be concentrated around the gatehouses of the inner and outer walls so that Yelec would be able to bring the bulk of his forces inside. Kaeis had been no fool and had placed his own soldiers accordingly, issuing orders for the patrols to be larger in number to repulse the coming attacks, but he did not inform his troops as to why he did. The increased numbers could be explained as coincidence, but if any of his soldiers acted suspiciously because they knew to expect an internal assault by being constantly alert and prepared, that would have ruined the deception. Kaeis knew as well as the others that in order to lure Yelec out from hiding, the bandit lord had to believe he held the upper hand and so he accepted the fact he was going to have to fight on the back foot from the start. And so all over the town, most of the patrols were caught by surprise, but would quickly fall back into defensive positions in an effort to stay alive or to prevent the bandits from gaining a critical area, but for the main gatehouses to the city, their efforts would be in vain. There where many of the attacking brigands and they overwhelmed the forces there, forcing the soldiers to abandon their positions, but even if they held those areas, their victory would have been pointless. Bej's collaborators were already in place before the start of the battle, the actual operators convenient out of the way, and had barred the doors while opening the gates. A fire was set at the top of the gatehouse, the signal for the bulk of Yelec's forces to pour out from the forest and through the opened gates. The battle would intensify from there.

Kaeis was not the type to accept losses though, a trait that Serhis grudgingly admired in a commander though Kaeis did so more for practical reasons than out of kindness, so even as he lost ground, he quickly issued orders for his forces to hold position in easily defendable areas and to wait for further orders. Slowly, the mass of Yelec's band of cutthroats and outlaws further into the center of the city, aiming directly for the castle, all of them spurred on by the thoughts of glory and gold to be gained. Even though Kaeis was half-dragon, he still shared their trait for accumulating a fortune, and all of them were keen on laying their hands on the riches hidden behind those walls. If they couldn't they were more than content to slaughter the soldiers holed up there so that they may pillage the surrounding town without interruption.

It would be here that the attackers would face their greatest challenge. Attacking a bridge defended by archers would be a risky and dangerous task for even the most hardened of veterans, but assaulting a fortified castle on the other side was more than daunting. Yelec Searflint came forward then to command the siege force, ordering a portable battering ram forward under cover of constant arrow fire.

Nobody would know which side would have won the day if the siege continued, as Bej's own forces decided it was time to join the fray. Pouring out of the estates that were nearby the castle, Bej's relatively small army of no more than a hundred lead an offensive on the rear flank of Yelec's forces while they were too deeply committed on taking the bridge. The resulting melee was chaotic, but it broke the bandit lord's offensive, the bandits were not so loyal that they would fight to the death and attempted to flee back towards the gates they had passed through. It was then that those in the gatehouses slammed them back shut. The raiders that had entered the city now found it as their trap and maze. Those already on the outer walls found ropes and lowered themselves out of the city, but most were caught before they could flee. The fighting would last for several more hours and even as day broke, there were still several clashes around the city. The soldiers under Kaeis' command and those of Bej's seemed to be holding an uneasy truce as they fought around each other as they pursued the fleeing thugs and it wouldn't be until near noon when Lord Ligain and Bej Axton spoke to each other by way of letter. Bej was already in the town plaza, proclaiming his victory and his great deeds in breaking the siege and he basked in the praise that some of the townsfolk gave to him, while others gave credit to Lord Ligain's leadership and his soldiers, but as the rival lords corresponded with each other, any praise turned bitter and hollow. Neither had captured Yelec during the struggle and both weren't sure if he was still somewhere inside the city or had managed to reach the forests again. The only consolation was that his forces were completely broken, a vast number had surrendered when they found themselves staring through shut gates and a number of soldiers advancing behind them. Most of Yelec's captain's were also captured as well, but the ones known as E, H, and D were not among them, despite their hideout being the first to be taken.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For Serhis and the others of their group, all this news would be given to them two days after the battle, the whole town was sealed and locked down as the soldiers mopped up the remaining bandits that had made a last stand at their hideouts. Both Kaeis and Bej were very, very interested in meeting them again. In person and at the castle. That the invitations were given in the same letter didn't help.

"How the hell did Yelec get away?!" Iskdiwercaesin exclaimed. "Damn it, Bej really was worthless."

"Calm down. Maybe he's in one of those hideouts and the guards haven't captured him yet," Serhis suggested.

"What do you think they'd want?" Xet said as he read the letter as it was passed to him.

"Hells if I know, but I doubt it's anything good," Iskdiwercaesin slumped down in his chair.

"On the bright side, Yelec won't be able to come after us anymore. I don't think he'll want to risk chasing us after this," Baous tried to remain optimistic.

"Somehow, I doubt that a person like that would accept his defeat so easily," Rhasalis cautioned him as she sharpened her blade. There were a few times in the past three days where the fighting got close to the inn, but none actual got that far, but every time it did, they would be glued to the window with weapons on hand.

"Let's go and find out what the high and mighty lord fresh from the battle wants," Iskdiwercaesin proceeded to the door. "Maybe he wants to give us our just rewards. Hah, not damn likely. I'll be grateful just to get out of this place."

Whether he meant the town or the inn they had been stuck in for three days, they all felt the same and went out into the streets. Life hadn't exactly returned to normal for the townspeople here, but the amount out in the open was surprisingly large, though this was often bolstered by large patrols of soldiers walking in the streets as well. Buildings that had been damaged during the fighting were already being repaired, and even those were relatively few, although the some of the hideouts were now nothing more than smoking ruin. One thing that Serhis had been glad to hear was that despite how widespread the fighting was, none of the townsfolk had died and the few that were injured were already healed of their wounds, most of the casualties were between the soldiers and mainly the raiders. He felt sympatric to the soldiers that had died. The primary reason there had been no fatalities among the townspeople was that Kaeis had already instituted a curfew and no one had been out in the open that wasn't without a weapon and armor and Yelec had ordered all of his raiders to focus on dealing with the soldiers before they started to pillage the town. That hadn't stopped a few opportunistic looters from trying to force their way into numerous shops and homes, accounting for those injured, but fortunately, they were concentrated on ransacking the place rather than harming the owners.

The group was stopped at the front of the bridge and they had to wait a few minutes before they were permitted to cross, but even then, they saw all the guards on the walls turning to watch them cross. The ballistae pointed towards the bridge also didn't help. Passing through the portcullis that was swiftly lowered behind them, they followed the same frumpy gnome towards the dining hall, where they heard a conversation already well underway with Kaeis' voice currently speaking.

"... isn't any room left in the dungeons and I don't like the idea of putting more inside. Adding more would increase the chance that some could overwhelm the guards posted there."

"You can't possibly expect us to hold onto them!" Bej's voice protested loudly through the wooden doors to the dining hall. "Those estates aren't prisons and my noble friends aren't too happy about all those ruffians squatting on their lawns."

The gnome doorman politely knocked on the door. "Lord Ligain, your guests have arrived."

"Show them in." As Serhis and the others entered the hall, they saw Kaeis seated at the head of the table and Bej on the opposite end, both with armored guards next to their arms. It was small surprise that Lady Eolith was also present, seated next to Bej. It might have been breakfast, but Bej's attention was consumed on the half-dragon seated across from him, his meal sat untouched below his nose, Kaeis looked like he had already finished his before they arrived, and Lady Eolith was finishing up her bread and soup, but taking care not to stain her fine clothes as she had dressed for the occasion.

"Ah, so the schemers of many deals has arrived," Lady Eolith glanced at them before finishing her soup.

Kaeis pointed towards the empty part of the table between himself and Bej. "Have a seat," he said. It wasn't clear if that had been a request or an order.

Baous and Iskdiwercaesin glanced at each other as they sat down, not sure how this was going to play out. Serhis, Xet, and Rhasalis would have done the same, if their head didn't barely clear the top of the table. At least Lady Eolith had been provided a seat high enough to accommodate her.

"An interesting ring of deceptions and careful handing of information. It's taken me and Bej some time to unravel a large part of it," Kaeis commented to them.

"We do our best," Iskdiwercaesin gave that old smile where you couldn't tell if he was sincere. "I suppose you invited us here to clear up the parts you couldn't?"

"Not really. We're here to tie up loose ends," Kaeis cast a glare at Bej.

"Yelec's escape was not my fault! They warned you about his plans and you're the one that couldn't finish the job, and I had to come in to the rescue," Bej snapped.

"Despite what you think, I did have a plan for a counter-offensive, but that's unimportant. What is important is that Searflint is still at large and we must deal with that. Have you had any news about where he might be? Is he still in contact with you?" Kaeis directed the question to the party.

"Nothing yet," Serhis replied. "We also not hear from spies."

"Doubtless that he realized that you were the ones that spoiled his plans," Lady Eolith said to them. "I'm rather pleased you managed to get them to trust you so much."

"I think it's because he thought we couldn't stop him," Baous piped up. "We didn't have any army and he knew that Lord Ligain's men weren't prepared."

"A plausible theory," she nodded.

"I'm not as pleased on how you decided to leave me out of the loop. You're collaboration with Bej Axton and Lady Eolith was not pleasant news," Kaeis said.

"And none of you mentioned your dealings with Kaeis!" Bej roared.

Lady Eolith sighed. "Bej, I'm surprised you didn't realize something if they met Ligain on more than one occasion. I thought you simply were wise enough not to voice it."

"Now, is there a reason you invited us here? Besides going through all our deals I mean," Iskdiwercaesin asked. "Because it seems that you both benefited from this."

Leaning forward in his seat, Kaeis gave his reply. "While your choice to hide things from me was inconvenient, you have managed to reach the terms of your agreement to me and delivered Searflint to my doorstep, but such as shame how my plans were interrupted with those of another."

"It's not my problem your soldiers couldn't keep track of him! You're the one with all the soldiers under you thumb, soldiers that rightfully should be serving me," Bej pressed.

"Those soldiers will have nothing to do with you. They will not accept the corrupt rule of the Axton line any further."

"How dare you! You insult me and my father's memory in our very house!"

"Boys, enough." Lady Eolith declared, despite Kaeis likely being as old as her or possibly older.

"But he-" Bej sat up from his seat.

"Bej Winston Axton!" His full name echoing through the hall and in their ears in only the way a parent could bring it to bear, Bej's defiance faltered. "There is a time and a place for this. Now is neither. Sit down and at least be cordial enough not to insult our host by eating."

"He could have poi-"

"He wouldn't dare. Keep you head boy and realize that he would gain little from it."

"I assure you it isn't," Kaeis said. "Your guardian is wise enough to know that if I were somehow possessed to poison you, the town's most recent hero that lead the counterattack on invading bandits, while in my protection, it would have been very unseemly of me."

Looking at Kaeis, Bej's eyes turned to the hard gaze of the lady seated next to him that crushed any further protests. He quietly began going through his cold breakfast. Serhis and the others found it best to keep quiet and only speak when spoken to.

The issue resolved, Lady Eolith returned to the matter at hand. "The issue remains that Yelec Searflint was not captured and how we are going to rectify the situation. While he may not have enough followers left to launch a similar assault again, he is still a threat that has not been dealt with and the possibility that he is still within our walls must be addressed."

"My troops are diligently combing the streets of the last pockets of resistance. It will be by nightfall before we determine if those last areas are hiding Searflint. On that note, are there any boltholes that you have yet to tell us about?" Kaeis inquired to the group seated at the center of the table.

"If there are any other hiding spots in town, Yelec didn't tell us about them," Rhasalis interrupted her translation to Xet to answer.

"Hmm. What about the force still in the forests? A hundred?"

"Maybe more now, if enough got away and found them again," Serhis said.

Kaeis took his time considering before he answered. "Where is their position? Commander Ilium will be sent to crush the remaining threat."

"It an hour to the South-East," Serhis held up a map and pointed to the location that Yelec had given them from his last message. "Maybe not there anymore."

"We'll find out soon," Kaeis called to one of his servants as he quickly marked his own map and sent the servant out of the hall.

"Is that it then? Nothing else?" Baous asked.

"Eager to leave?"

"A bit of compensation for our efforts would be nice before we left," Iskdiwercaesin interjected. He wasn't sure if either side would actually give them anything after this, but he did have his hopes.

"...You can have something for your efforts after tomorrow and we've finished sweeping the town for Searflint. The gates will remain shut until the last of the resistance is gone. However, I might still need to call on you later, so you may have to stay longer than that."

"What? Why?" Serhis asked.

"Seeing as you've made yourselves the center of attention for all parties, you have been privy to all the actions made by Searflint's band of thieves. I'll need your testimony about those actions. Don't you want to see your tormenters given their fair due? What about the lives of those that they've killed? I'd imagine your testimony against Yelec himself about what he did to one of Tiasvern's would rile the crowd."

"It's not like you're giving us a choice anyway," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"Hah, no, I'm not," Kaeis laughed as he agreed. "The archers on the walls have orders to fire on anyone trying to leave. They've already had to shoot down sixteen bandits after they scaled the wall and got outside."

"That seems a bit much," Baous cringed.

"What else are they suppose to do? We can't open the gates to pursue them and their guilt is beyond doubt, so it's more of a swift execution. It's not like it's going to matter in a few days, anyone that would have gotten away is going to be brought back in chains by Commander Ilium and the sentence would have been the same."

"Speaking of bringing them back, where are you going to put them? We still haven't done anything about the ones we already have," Bej said with a half-full mouth, slowly making his way through a breakfast he didn't trust, getting a tap to the head with a tea spoon.

"Manners Bej. I suppose our dealings with these young people are done?" Lady Eolith spoke to Kaeis.

"That should be it," Kaeis called a servant to show them the door as the kobolds and dragon got out of their seats. "We'll send you a letter when we need you. Back to the original matter..." The doors to the hall closing behind them, they made their way out of the castle and back over the bridge, going to the inn.

"Looks like we're stuck here even longer," Xet remarked as he shaded his eyes from the sun.

"At least we're in good standing with those in power," Rhasalis replied.

"'Good standing'? Maybe as good tools," Iskdiwercaesin scoffed. "If we stayed here any longer, we'd probably start getting offers from both of them for us to spy on the other and the whole thing starts again."

"You think they'll do that?" Baous asked.

"Like I said, only if we don't get out of here the first chance we get. I'll be glad to go along with you and your goose chase for long lost relatives if it gets us out of here."

"At least we'll get to see those fiends get theirs for what they did to us, right Serhis?" Xet asked.

"Yeah. Great," he answered with little enthusiasm.

"Three days, at most. It's not that bad. We give them what they should get, grab our payment, and we're out of here."

Xet's unrelenting cheerfulness at least made a small crack in Serhis' disposition as he sighed and tried to smile. It was a weak one, but he did feel things weren't that bad.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I was wondering what was with all those creeps pussy-footing around the place," Vincentia said as she put down her tankard on the table next to everyone else.

"You noticed the messengers?" Serhis was a little surprised they had noticed.

"When you're up on a stage most of your life, you learn to read a crowd. I kept on noticing those fellows whenever they came in. They barely have a drink, they're paying more attention to everyone else than watching us, and they always go to the same place by the end of the day. I had no idea what they were doing, but we could tell it wasn't because they like being here," Vincentia explained and Veri nodded in affirmation.

"We might as well ask Bej or Kaeis to hire you as his spies, you seem to be doing a better job of it," Iskdiwercaesin joked.

"While a lord's patronage would be most welcome, we aren't ready to stop seeing the world yet," Veri said with Vincentia also agreeing.

"You never know what surprises you can see. Like now. I thought it was funny that you were staying in town longer than you said you'd be here, but it's shocking to see that you're the ones behind all the spies and skullduggery," Vincentia remarked. It had only been a day before someone let the word out that a dragon with a band of kobolds had been partially responsible for the failed assault on the town, in both enabling and foiling it. Why someone would do that and for what purpose, the best they could tell was because it made for a good tale and gave what seemed like an straightforward attack an added twist. Now a day after that, they had to deal with the newfound attention.

"Would have been nice if someone gave us a heads up for it," Henry said from the table next to them as he had a drink with Danward. They had also heard about the strange tale, but were keen enough to go to the source for their take on it, seeing as how convoluted the tangle of deals had become and how it tended to warp in the retelling. One version included Xet summoning a devil and making a deal with him for Yelec's soul. It didn't take long for them to set the record straight to the pair of bards and guards, but that wasn't likely to stop the conjecture. The only consolation was the number of people seated around them, politely looking at their dinners while turning their ears toward the very interesting conversation behind them. As far as Serhis could hear, theirs was the only table with a conversation in the tavern.

"It's fine Henry. They meant well by keeping it secret. They could have picked a better choice of ally for the fight, but I suppose they had to work with what they had," Danward said.

"You think that Searflint is still in the city?" Serhis wondered aloud.

"Don't really know," Danward shook his head. "We were out here fighting near the outer walls. I've asked a few friends after their own fights and they haven't heard anything about him either. The guys that take Bej's coin, they're still roaming around looking for him too. Damn rotten craven bastard."

"Suppose he is caught, what are you bunch going to do?" Veri asked. "Kaeis promised you something for all your work, right? You going to take him up on his offer of a title and some land?"

"Not going to be very useful. We not staying here, so land and stuff not going to do much for us," Serhis replied.

"I wouldn't know about that. As I said before, it could come in handy later," Iskdiwercaesin mused.

"At least you're doing right with Lord Ligain, that's something," Fethed said as he wiped off a nearby table. He wasn't too pleased at having them stay at the inn for so long, but when he heard how deeply involved they were working with Kaeis to deal such a hard blow to Yelec, he was more than happy to accommodate them. "And you're not taking that ruddy Axton's offer seriously. Smart there, he's not likely to give you what he promised."

Serhis suspected that there was a story behind the innkeeper and the Axton family that explained their deep animosity, but knew better than to ask. Some stories should be told in their own time. Right now, he was busy trying to break the death grip Rhasalis had on his pieces. They had managed to find an open shop on the way back and had went with whims to buy a few trinkets. The chess board in front of them was one and Rhasalis was proving as crafty as ever by driving a few pieces behind his defense. It wasn't the most productive way to spend their time and money, but with nothing to do except wait once more, their only alternatives were to go with cards again or suffer from boredom. At least the Vincentia and Veri would go on stage and entertain with a few songs they hadn't heard before.

Finally getting a break and escaping her trap after losing several pieces, Baous tapped Serhis on his shoulder while Iskdiwercaesin and Xet looked out the door of the tavern, a messenger from Kaeis walking inside and not one of the sneaky ones. "Hmm?" Serhis looked at him.

"I bear a message from Lord Ligain." That much was obvious, but protocol had been drilled into his brain. "He has requested your presence in the town center in an hour."

"The last of the raiders have been driven out?" Iskdiwercaesin asked

The messenger nodded. "All their known hideouts are now controlled by Lord Ligain's soldiers."

"What about Yelec?" Baous looked anxious for an answer.

The messenger looked around the tavern, noticing how the patrons were focused on him, making him lean closer to their table and whisper. "Yelec Searflint has not been seen at any of those locations. It's not public knowledge yet, but Lord Ligain will likely say as much in an hour."

Iskdiwercaesin scowled at the news. "Then what does he need us for? Without Yelec, us saying anything isn't going to do anything helpful."

"Even though Searflint has yet to be captured, a number of his lieutenants have been, if they could be called that since they don't have really have their own system of rank. Even without their leader, these criminals will be presented in the town center."

"Hah! Finally getting what they deserve!" Danward yelled in approval, despite the messenger's attempt at secrecy. "They've a lot to pay for with all the guards they've butchered." The other off-duty guard in the room shouted in agreement with him.

The messenger sighed as he gave up trying to keep anything secret. "Lord Ligain still needs you there to identify the leaders, as you were in their camp and have seen those closest to him." His message delivered, he left quickly.

Finishing up their game, their went to the town center. There was a crowd already gathering there, but the kobolds and dragon pressed their way through the throng of people that had gathered in the noon sun. The weather was way too pleasant considering the seriousness of what was happening. Kaeis stood on a raised platform, his own companions next to him, as well as Bej, his bodyguards, and Lady Eolith, while a chained group of bandits were placed at the bottom, surrounded by a ring of guards. Even as the guards stood at attention, a few in the crowd were throwing various objects, from rotten fruit and vegetables and rocks towards the captured bandits, though once in a while a bad through dinged the helmet of one of guards next to them and a very swift apology from the thrower. It wasn't clear where they were to go until the guards stepped out of the way as they neared, one pointing his thumb towards the top near Kaeis. As they passed through the ring of guards, Serhis and Xet had a glance of Harick as they passed, the orc staring intently at them. A mixture of fear and anger surged through both as they walked by and continued upwards. Once they were with him on the stone platform, Kaeis turned to face them.

Iskdiwercaesin didn't give him the chance to speak first. "We're here, so what now? You've got a script prepared for us or do you want us to just improvise about how nasty these guys are or how valiantly your soldiers took them down?"

"A little irritable today, are we?"

"I thought we were suppose to give a simple testimony in some sort of court and be done with it, not this," Iskdiwercaesin looked out over the still growing masses. The kobolds were starting to get nervous and uncomfortable with so many people looking their way. At least the crowd wasn't throwing things at them and it seemed like they were approved of on the stage, but that still didn't stop the feeling of hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at them from feeling any less awkward.

"That still no reason to be snappish. Besides, I'd thought you'd like a moment of glory before you went on your way."

As Iskdiwercaesin and Kaeis exchanged words, Serhis looked over at Lady Eolith and Bej. "Hello there. Manage to make friends with Kaeis?"

"In a way," Bej grunted in a sour tone.

"Ligain has agreed to restore a measure of Bej's title of nobility for his service of aiding in the battle," Lady Eolith said. "It clears up the whole issue of Bej having an army in his employ a great deal and is to be treated with equal footing with the other nobles here."

"I'm surprised he do that."

"Whether Ligain likes it or not, it was Bej's men that allowed for our victory. It also helps that many a noble's estate were left undamaged due to their diligence," she tactfully added.

"Would have been better off with him just giving me my castle back," Bej huffed.

"Now Bej, you should be grateful for what you received. I'm sure things will be the fine as they are." Even as her voice sounded completely sincere and her back turned to Kaeis, there was a flicker of a dangerous flash in her eyes that said she was in no way content with the status quo. It would be a long drawn out conflict between them and Kaeis long after they left, Serhis was sure of that.

Iskdiwercaesin went back to stand next to them as Kaeis faced the townsfolk as it neared the hour mark, the green dragon looking less aggravated. "What did he say? I was busy talking to Bej and Lady Eolith," Serhis asked.

"He's willing to hand us five thousand gold pieces and a few acres of land out in the forest."

"Five thousand? I suppose that's good," Serhis shrugged. He was about to ask about the forest, but was interrupted as Kaeis' voice shouted over the din of people.

"Those of Tiasvern, we are about to pass judgment on those who thought themselves your betters. By strength of arms, that strength has been found wanting!" Even as the people shouted, Bej had already started scowling as soon as he heard the town name. "By Tiamat's will, we have destroyed them and have grown greater for it." It would be Serhis' turn to feel uncomfortable as he brought forward the rival goddess' name. "Those that stand with me have added their strength to ours."

"This is the part where you say 'smile and wave', right?" Serhis muttered out of the side of his mouth to Iskdiwercaesin. He declined to respond.

"Here we have Bej Axton, who despite growing under his father's influences, has proven an able defender of these walls." Polite applause was the main sound for a few seconds, but not without a series of boos and jeers. If it was possible for Bej to scowl any deeper, he did so. "I have seen fit to grant him a minor title of nobility for his acts, so that he may retain the use of his armed forces. I would also like to thank Lady Eolith for her efforts at organizing his forces." More applause, though there was no jeering and booing as the old lady waved at the crowd. "Would you like to speak a few words?" Kaeis asked Bej.

Bej barely had time to open his mouth before Lady Eolith intervened, "no, that won't be necessary."

Kaeis turned back to face the throng of people. "Seeing as how effective their forces were, I feel they can handle their new responsibilities adequately as their soldiers are added under my command. They are to be our first line of defense, securing our borders and ensuring that an infestation like this will never happen again!"

"What?!" Bej's words of surprise were drowned out by a shout of approval.

Lady Eolith put a hand on his arm before Bej could do anything else, slightly biting the thumb of her other hand. "Well played. I expected a catch when he gave nobility, but for it to be under your military rules... I'll have to think of something for this."

"I'd say this was interesting, if it had anything to do with us," Iskdiwercaesin muttered to the kobolds.

"Should we be worried?" Baous wondered.

"Not really," Serhis replied, his interest in these political maneuvers having waned long ago. It was now that Lady Eolith took Kaeis' offer to speak on their own behalf, adding conditions to their service while Kaeis added his own, essentially making their the terms on the fly in front of a public that didn't know none of it had been previously established. Standing to the side, Serhis looked down at the line of captured bandits. While most the them looked sullen or glared at their guards or Kaeis, Harick focused his attention on him. Serhis couldn't stand to look at those eyes and turned away as memories of a month ago forced their way into his mind.

"Hi there, little gold one. I see your wings are back in one piece. Sad I couldn't finish the job." Despite his situation, Harick still smiled.

"Have nothing to say to you," Serhis replied. Kaeis, Bej, and Lady Eolith were still loudly speaking to the crowd and no one was paying attention to them.

"Hah, fat chance of that. I've run into a few that I've met before, those that I let get away anyway, and every one of those poor sods always had something to say. They also had something they wanted to do to me as well and you can tell how well that turned out."

"I have nothing to say because you about get what I want," Serhis snarled.

"And what about your friend over there. Does he have anything to say to me? But I don't remember him saying anything I could understand through all the screams."

Serhis grit his teeth and tried to ignore Harick, but not without imagining him being torn apart in the abyss or his soul eaten by some abomination. He had never been so compelled to end someone's existence in every aspect. He barely noticed Baous setting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright Serhis. We got him now." Serhis hadn't noticed how he had been trembling from the mixture of fear and rage and his friend's calming words helped a bit.

"I'll be fine," Serhis replied. Harick didn't say anything else, but that hint of a smile, that same smile he remembered in the flickering firelight behind a blade still made him tense up. Bej and Kaeis were now in a shouting match about taxes, though Bej was still being tempered by Lady Eolith not to press too hard, else he lose his very recent elevation to nobility and a good reason to keep his army. Either way, Kaeis was going to benefit, but Lady Eolith understood it was better to hold onto that status. Bej looked like he would have preferred losing it if it meant having to plead some sort of allegiance with him. He almost didn't hear the weak and pleading voice behind him.

"Help. Please, help."

Serhis and the others looked behind them and so no one there, at least until they looked down. Sitting at a slight distance from the other bandits was a small huddled group with haunted eyes and beaten wills. They were dressed differently from the others as well and it finally struck Serhis that he remembered at least one of those faces from that same night of horror and the one that had been pleading to them was one of those that took Yelec's offer. "You're... Ryan?"

"Yes, yes, you remember," the young man's voice strained with dim hope and fear. "Please, they're about to execute us! For treason! We tried to convince them, but they're not listening!"

"Convince them that you are not traitor? Why not?"

"Because... we told them everything, about what we did to the others."

"Well it's true though, you did kill those poor souls," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"It's not like that! We didn't know he wanted us to do that," the soldier referring to Yelec, "we thought he was going to roast us if we didn't. I- I- I didn't mean to get a stab in like that. I thought that since he was bleeding so much already, I though he was already dead, and I wouldn't hurt him." Tears flowed past Ryan's eyes as he recalled the slaughter. "But he screamed anyway and bleed even more. Then I had to do it again, and again, but he wouldn't stop screaming."

"It going to be alright," Serhis looked around at the guards stationed near the prisoners. They didn't seem to like them talking to the prisoners, but they weren't stopping them.

At least his words stopped Ryan from recalling the vivid memory any further "No it's not! They're going to kill us for it!" he almost screeched, the others next to him also with expressions of panic and terror.

Serhis attempted to console him. "I can say something-"

"Will saying something be enough?! You were there, you understand what we had to go through. I see some of my friends in the crowd and they won't look me in the eye or spit in my face, I'm a disgrace to my family. Don't let it end like this!" his pleas grew more desperate, but he didn't say anything more as a guard moved towards him with a sword leveled at him. Taking the warning, Ryan and the others kept silent.

"Are we really going to say something to Kaeis about those lost causes? Especially in front of half the town," Iskdiwercaesin quietly said to the others.

"They seem really sorry for what they did and Yelec did say he was going to kill them if they didn't. I don't think they deserve this," Baous said.

"It might not be wise to say that," Rhasalis warned him. "All these people here have been listening to Kaeis and they're going to want blood. These soldiers have turned their blades against their own and that's going to make them look just as bad as the bandits, maybe even worse."

"She right. I'm sure Kaeis isn't going to hang us for that, but he's isn't going to like it either, and I'm damn sure the crowd too. I for one don't want to leave a bad impression, especially if they might run us out of town, and it's not going to stop their execution anyway." Iskdiwercaesin said.

"Baous is also right that they don't deserve this. They know they've done something bad and should be given mercy," Serhis responded.

"And I don't think these people are going to care. What do you want them to do, get up and say they're sorry? That's not going to be enough for them," Iskdiwercaesin looked like he was about to continue, but Kaeis drew their attention as he spoke out again.

"As we conclude the rewards of those that would aid our town in it's plight, we turn our attention to those that would dare to attack it. Their greed and lust for destruction and chaos has taken the lives of those that defended us in our homes and ensured we slept well at night. They sought to take what is rightfully ours, our possessions, our dignity, our very lives! They have gambled and lost, and now it fit that we shall take theirs." Kaeis had descended from the stone platform, walking in front of the prisoners as he circled it, the swell of voices near deafening. "Most of these outlaws are imprisoned for their crimes, awaiting their punishment, and right now in front of you are the leaders of those cutthroats and murderers. They will die like those that followed them, but all their souls will be sacrificed to Tiamat as a special punishment for their roles." Kaeis' words must have been a signal as several clerics with the symbol of the five-headed dragon came forward, each bearing a blade in their hands. "Some of you may personally know these tireless workers of our fearsome goddess while others know that their lives were spared due to their abilities in channeling her will, that they may continue to serve faithfully. It would do us well that we let her know that we are grateful and send their souls to her as payment." The crowd was less enthusiastic now since many still worshipped other deities, but no one objected.

This almost too much for Serhis, he deplored the thought, not that it was tribute to Tiamat, but to all blood sacrifices in general.

"Don't say anything. It's not going to change much," Iskdiwercaesin cautioned him. "You know that they're going to the abyss or the hells or wherever they go. He's just sending them there quicker and with some extra attention to Tiamat."

Serhis wanted to object, he knew that somewhere this was all wrong, but he couldn't find fault with Iskdiwercaesin's reasoning. That he was right made him feel even sicker.

The clerics of Tiamat held the blades close and their heads held high. They were more acolytes than proper clerics, their expressions ranging from trepidation to exhilaration, but many of them looked young. Maybe this was why he felt so ill at ease, that someone this young would be tasked to kill. No cleric should be required to kill someone, not by choice.

"But first, some here have to answer for their treason." Stopping his circling in front of the former soldiers, he looked over them all as the crowd found it's voice once more. "Some of you might know those that they've killed to save their own, rather than face an honorable death. Not only that, they willingly gave information of critical importance to their new comrades that would cost the lives of even more of our defenders. For them, there will be no redemption." As he spoke, his very presence seemed to be suffocating the former soldiers, any protests stopped by fear and they couldn't stand to face him.

"Serhis, we have to say something," Baous insisted.

"I know, I know."

"But why?" Iskdiwercaesin hissed. "I keep telling you it's not going to change anything and even if it did, how is it going to help?"

"No, it won't help us," Serhis agreed sadly. "But if I didn't, then I'm not sure I could stand thinking back and knowing I could have tried." Stepping forward, he stood over the condemned soldiers, looking face to face with Kaeis from the raised platform.

Turning his attention away from giving his speech, Kaeis looked up from the cringing prisoners. "What is it? This is important."

"What I need to say is also as important." His voice shaky, Serhis hoped that he could keep it together as the mass of the people's attention shifted towards from the former soldiers to him.

Kaeis' eyes narrowed at Serhis before turning around to face the crowd. "To those that are unaware, the kobolds and dragon that had been standing with me were an important piece in lifting the siege of our town. They had been captured along with the cowards behind me, but instead of siding with the scum, they manipulated them. They owed no loyalty to our town, swore no oath, but as soon as they escaped their captors, they approached me. They could not abide what these villains wanted and worked with us to bring them to justice. While their actions would appear to have been traitorous to those that didn't see the whole as they allowed more and more inside our walls, they were only waiting for the opportunity to put them in our hands. That is why they stand with me and now, one of them wishes to speak. Say what you're going to say." Those last, quietly said words didn't have any hint of encouragement in them.

As those hundreds of eyes stared at him, Serhis dearly hoped he hadn't gotten deep over his head, but now he was committed. "I- I-" His voice was too quiet and many yelled for him to speak louder, the expressions of those he could see weren't of anger or disapproval, just simple expectation. This isn't fair, Serhis thought. Had he been accused of some misfortune or persecuted unfairly, he would be standing firm in his conviction and stand up. Instead, Kaeis had painted them as one of the heroes of the day, the people around them viewing them with relief and thanks. To speak out now was going to destroy that perception.

This is going to end badly, Serhis thought to himself as doubt settled in. He was going to have to stick to Kaeis' "script". As he rapidly tried to think up some form of speech that avoided the topic of the soldiers, he sensed someone moving behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, Baous stood next to him. He looked as tense as the smaller kobold and just as nervous, but the small nod he gave showed that he still thought that something had to be said.

"... We think that there is still an injustice to be fixed," he started, projecting his voice as much as his throat could give. "There has been life lost here and I am sad because of that, the bad people who did that need to answer for that, yes." Kaeis was closely watching him, his expression remaining impassive. "Some of the things they did, their very spirit and soul tainted for it, they not regret their actions and they not going to stop until we stop them." Taking a deep breathe, he plunged onward. "But that not mean more killing will fix that. The soldiers here, they did not want to kill others, they did not want to be killers, but forced to. They should not die for that."

He could tell mood of the townspeople shifting. They had accepted what he said about the bandits well enough, but when he talked about the soldiers, something changed. Before, they were simply hearing the speech, now, they were listening, judging those words. He avoiding in Kaeis' direction, but he saw Xet and Rhasalis standing behind him as well. "We might not all agree with the punishment, but what we can agree on that no one deserve what happened to them. Not only they have to see friends die, now other friends and family turn away from them when need most. They not need more torment, not now."

"What are you suggesting, hmm?" Kaeis asked, forcing Serhis to turn his attention back to him. "I don't think you've heard all the reports from the battle. Some of the patrols that were ambushed were greeted with one of them, a 'friendly face' that somehow made it back into town after being missing. Those traitors lead those loyal troops to their deaths as others swept up behind them. They didn't stop killing their former brothers-in-arms when they joined with the enemy, they ensured that others died just as brutally. This wasn't a case where the captured soldiers would die either way, they did it to continue their own traitorous lives!"

Again, Kaeis destroyed Serhis' line of thought. Why hadn't he heard about this earlier? Had Kaeis prepared for this, that any protest would be met with information that had been kept from him? He quickly pushed those questions from his mind, trying to focus. "They regret it all, don't they? Did they surrender to you when they had a chance?"

There was a brief silence from Kaeis. "All of them surrendered peacefully. They approached a patrol alone and unarmed, but that does not excuse them of their crimes. There are those that will never see their own friends and family again because of them, nothing short of a cleric of some power can bring back the dead when their bodies have been burned to ashes. Regret will do nothing for them. Come forward, one of you, and speak your mind."

The crowd looked around expectantly, waiting to see who would step out of their ranks. One did, a young woman with tears in her blue eyes that were already dropping into her modest clothing. One of the former soldiers cried out in despair at the sight of her. "I will."

"State your name and the wound dealt to you," Kaeis said.

"I am Jenith Hourkeep. I don't even have to point out the bastard who should hang in a gibbet." The man howled even louder at her words.

"So you know him?"

"Jeremy knew my brother!" she screamed out over his crying. "You promised each other you'd keep each other safe! You promised! Here you are, alive, while my brother's ashes are somewhere in the woods! Why didn't you at try to stop them?! You could have tried to get away, but you used them on my brother! Damn you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the former soldier called Jeremy screamed out. "But there were so many of them. They could have burned us alive or worse. I beg you, forgive me, I'm sorry." He kept asking for forgiveness and telling her how much he regretted it, babbling as she screamed profanity and cursed his name.

"Please, please stop," Serhis asked firmly, but not loudly. Emotions ran high here and he had to say something as those gathered around murmured at the scene. "Miss Jenith, you good friends with Jeremy too?"

"Were good friends. Were," she emphasized, "you could have still tried and now he's probably got others killed. He shouldn't deserve to keep on living for that," Others were looking like they wanted to step forward now, but were waiting for her to finish. Serhis knew that if they started to demand the former soldier's lives as well, that was what they would get if he didn't change things.

"Please, try to remember that it not your friend that killed your brother, but the ones that make him do it," Serhis said.

"And it makes it alright how!? You heard what Lord Ligain said, he helped kill others as well!"

"But what you want him to do? How is making him die for it make things better? You lost a brother, do you want to lose friend as well?"

"What do you care?! He's not going to do any damn thing to make things betters, he might as well die!"

"You are wrong." Looking into her tear filled eyes, he could see the pain and anger burning to be let out. "He and the others do wrong things, but they want to make up for it. You need to give them chance."

"Why should I?" Kaeis inquired. "I have been given the right to determine their fates by these people. Their crimes are grave and their punishment shouldn't be turned from. It's very clear they are beyond help."

"Actually, you could work out something that doesn't require them dying. Not naturally anyway." Looking back over his shoulder, he saw Iskdiwercaesin now standing with him. He didn't look very pleased to be there and he shrugged as Serhis gawked at him, but continued speaking. "They could just pay for the cost of resurrecting them."

"Impossible. Those killed during the assault would be easier to raise, since their bodies are still intact, but resurrecting the ones burned to ashes would need diamonds to fuel the process, and in large numbers. They have nothing to offer."

"Not impossible, just very, very difficult and nearly as suicidal."

"This is pointless!" Kaeis' temper was beginning to show and the crowd was starting to get just as anxious. "These are criminals and traitors that are guilty beyond doubt! There is no reason to spare them their just punishment."

"I'm not saying they don't have to repay their debts, I'm just saying it's better if you actually get something for it," Iskdiwercaesin calmly replied. "Send them off. Exile them, but with the condition that they can come back if they are capable of resurrecting the dead with enough of those diamonds."

"Exile? They might as well be going free!" Jenith yelled.

"But for chance for them to bring back your brother, you let them?" Serhis asked.

For the first time, her rage faltered. The woman who was channeling the anger of those wronged in the fighting was for a loss of words. When she finally did speak again, the anger was gone from her voice, but none of her conviction. "If they can do it, I might let them."

"That is going to be a very slim chance that's assuming they are willing to do that," Kaeis said.

"It better than no chance. You not need doubt many very willing to do something to bring them back from dead, to do something to get rid of regret," Serhis looked at their faces, a small bit of hope kindled inside them now.

"I'd suggest a geas to make sure, but I don't think you've got anyone that's that powerful," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"No, we don't," Kaeis replied coldly. Taking a glance behind him, he could also see how the people were speaking to one another, if they would want a chance to bring back the ones they loved. Some remained unconvinced, others swayed, it was hard to tell, but it was easy to see that this would be a conversation that would last for a long time, and one that might never end. "Why are you so concerned about their well-being?" he asked suspiciously.

Iskdiwercaesin shrugged. "Me? I don't have anything to do with it, I'm just giving a solution to your problem that isn't 'kill them all'." In his own mind, he figured that if they were stuck so far in this situation, he might as well offer something. "You're better off asking this little kobold or the furry one, they're the ones with the issues."

Looking intently at them, Kaeis awaited an answer that Serhis. "They not murderers or killers. They also victims. As I say before, they not deserve this, they deserve mercy and a chance."

The lord of the town resumed pacing around the platform again, this time concentrating on them. "What about those victims? Suppose these traitors fail in their task? Blood has been spilled, laws were broken, and the town is in turmoil. Their betrayal makes them honor-less. It's better that they answer for those crimes now. The laws are clear on this and I will not change that for them. The oaths they have sworn have been forsaken, and I will give them their deserved punishment. How else are they going to answer for their betrayal?" Waiting for an answer, he stopped facing them. "What about justice?"

"This is not justice!" His voice echoing throughout the square, Serhis stood defiantly in front of him. He was tired of all the manipulation and twisted truths and he needed to say something to get rid of the plague of doubts that had been twisting him up for so long. He barely had time to think about his own words, he only knew he was speaking from his heart, about his ideals, and barely comprehended how his words exploded out.

"Justice not only about law, not only about punishment! It about making things right, so things can get better! Yes, when something wrong happens, when someone cruel, they need to be stopped and amend for it. Retribution is needed, I know, but when person who did wrong only suffer as well, what is fixed? When make amends, not only to see that person who do wrong not want do it again, but see that when all over, can able to make things improve. If punishment only do harm to person, only so others like seeing hurt, what good can be made?! Things care for still broke, person care for still hurt or lost! Wanting others in pain only bring make more pain. Your law do nothing to fix that and it bring more pain. They already suffering, they feel guilt and regret and still going to for long time, but can fix that, they want to change what is wrong! They want to see your friends alive again, see those they hurt fine again, and all they see now is how others want to hurt them! Your law say they betray you, but it say nothing about why they do it. The law not see everything here. This is not justice!"

His throat sore from the shouting, Serhis took deep breaths as he calmed down, then noticed there was no noise. There was no more murmuring among the crowd, no sound aside from the wind passing. Everyone had been stuck silent by this small soul, as well as his friends as they heard his innermost principles let loose in an outburst. Looking out from the platform, Serhis wondered what he had done. He wasn't a charismatic leader, his broken speech wasn't great rhetoric, he wasn't some great authority that was respected, they had no reason to take his words for granted, had no reason beyond listening to his words to be swayed. But those words were spoken from the heart, from the core of his being, and that might have been enough.

"If we want justice, give them chance to live, to help others live. Justice won't fix everything, there still might be small things still not fixed. But chance to make things better still there, and that's enough." He gave those last words as both request and plea, amazed to see how he had captured all their attention.

There was the soldiers who looked upwards at him, their hope renewed. There was one person's attention he didn't want, Kaeis' glare fixed squarely on him. He might have been struck silent as well, not because he was choosing the right words to say to sway the argument, but because he had to think what could be the right words, conscious of the expectant townspeople around him. "... Whatever you think, their final judgment is still my decision," he finally said. The people started talking to one another again, but the flow of conversation had changed. Some agreed to one another, others argued, some were steadfastly refusing to move from their position on the matter, and more privately gave their own views. By showing what he believed, Serhis had sown doubt.

"That was very... expressive Serhis," Iskdiwercaesin said. The green dragon himself seemed to be dwelling on it right now.

Nodding, Serhis felt like he wasn't really there, that he'd just fallen into a half-dream. It felt unreal, his head felt light, he could barely remember breathing while he was saying it all. Wobbling on his feet, Baous helped prop him up with an expression of amazement.

Rhasalis had been helping Xet. "I've never seen you like that before," he said.

"I didn't know you were capable of that," Rhasalis said.

"Me too," Serhis replied truthfully.

"Well Lord Ligain?" Iskdiwercaesin spoke to him by his formal title. "What do you say now?"

The half-dragon's teeth were slightly bared now that the focus went back to him. Now it was his turn to either measure up to the high regard expected of him or lose face. He might not lose too much respect, but he had a reputation to uphold, his legitimacy was based on the perception that he was harsh, but reasonable, and that he respected the laws, but he was usually the ones to make them, and on his terms. He could order their execution anyway, but now there would be controversy over the decision. "Should I grant them a chance, realize that it was you that brought this forward." He was doing damage control, placing most of the responsibility on them. He had nothing to gain by having the former soldiers executed, but losing face to Serhis was a provocation in itself. Serhis didn't care. In all fairness, he wanted it that way. All he cared about was that he spared the lives of those that were to die unwarranted deaths, their souls not sent into the domain of a malevolent goddess.

"I'll be sure to hand back whatever land or titles you were about to give us," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"Does that mean you'll spare them?" Serhis asked.

Kaeis seemed to be controlling himself more now, somewhat bitter that he was allowing them even a minor concession, but he was still mostly in control. "The damage they've done is high, so they're going to be exile for years, likely decades. I'll decide how much they've done later, when a full review is done. Until then, they'll stay in the dungeons."

"A fair judgment," Iskdiwercaesin gave a mocking smile. Kaeis didn't bother to respond as he ordered the former soldiers separated from the rest to be taken away.

Serhis would be smiling with him as well. He wanted to laugh from the euphoria, but he still felt somewhat out of touch with reality. He had nothing to gain by doing this, he could have brought the whole ire of the town on them for saying the wrong words, but here and now, he knew he had done something right.

"Hehehe. What about us?" The sound of Harick's voice pulled Serhis back, his spine stiffening as he heard the orc bandit laugh.

"I doubt you regret anything," Serhis tempered his tone.

"You're damn right about that. Do it all again if I could," he said with a toothy smirk.

"Like we'd let you," Baous growled.

"I wasn't asking you if I could. And I will, starting with you again." Serhis fought off shaking in fear because of Harick.

Taking a step forward to confront his tormenter under the platform, Serhis was interrupted as he heard screams coming from the outer edges of the crowd. The others were also looking in that direction too, but they couldn't see what had happened at this distance, but they didn't need to, as it happened again. One of the archers posted on the roofs was flung down and more screams and shouts erupted as they saw both the result and how had caused it.

Kaeis had still been wary of any surprises and had put soldiers on the roofs to be lookouts and sentries. It looked like he had been right about expecting trouble, but underestimated how much he would get, as a few more soldiers were killed, a few more by being thrown off their high position above the streets, others by way of a close blade, and more struck unaware by an arrow from positions unseen. Panic rushed through the crowd as they tried to get out of the square, but some found their way blocked by men carrying weapons and showing unkind smiles.

Serhis was dimly aware of Kaeis rapidly giving orders to the soldiers next to him and getting a message sent for reinforcements, he was more concerned about looking around to see the man who created this situation. Baous pulled his arm and pointed towards one of the roofs, the shouting was so loud they couldn't hear each other speak, and he spotted a gleam of metal shining in the sun. It was Yelec's mask as he turned his head to see the panic below. Serhis knew it had to be him, but he couldn't figure out where he had been hiding or how so many of his bandits had managed to escape capture, never mind being able to attack the town center in force.

As the townspeople poured out through the streets that weren't being blocked, they could now hear Yelec as he spoke. "Lord Ligain, I see you've kept my men in fair health while I was busy. I can't say so much about your own." To emphasize his words, he kicked the archer he had stabbed over the side of the roof. Serhis winced and didn't look as the body landed, could still hear the impact, and hoped that whoever it had been had died quickly before being kicked off.

Kaeis didn't exchange any words with him and only issued another order. "Archers on the ground, aim for Searflint!" Twenty bows pointed upwards, but as the arrows sailed upwards, they were blown backward before they could touch him. Apparently there was a mage up there with him that had made a wall of wind who they couldn't see at this angle.

"I can't get a good shot." Serhis looked at Rhasalis as she aimed another arrow at Yelec despite the disadvantage, having also contributed to the volley. Oddly, there wasn't the sound of battle now, he had expected the soldiers fighting the bandits in the streets again, but this time without the advantage of a flanking unit or room to maneuver, they would be fighting at a standstill, so they kept their ground near the platform. Bej's own small cluster of guards stood next to him and Lady Eolith.

Even as the plaza emptied, it was clear they were in a bad position, they were too exposed out here to Searflint's archers on the roofs who had the benefit of both elevation and cover, the wall of wind not helping either, but it looked like Yelec was waiting for something and hadn't ordered them to fire.

"My lord, your orders?" A captain asked Kaeis, just as aware of the tactical situation. "Should we send a runner for reinforcements?"

"Don't bother. They should already know about this by now and any runner you'd send is going to get shot." Kaeis looked very calm despite the situation. "Searflint looks like he wants to say something. The longer we stay here, the better the chances of reinforcements arriving," he quietly informed him before speaking in a louder voice, not once taking his attention off the bandit lord. "Your advantage is temporary, your numbers heavily reduced, and these clerics will kill your lieutenants should you try to attack. Get down from there and surrender!"

"Temporary? I don't think your aware of what's happening all over your own town, you're going to find I'm the one with reinforcements soon enough." He likely had heard what Kaeis had said to the captain. "As for surrender, I'm offering you none. It was difficult to get you out of the castle. That includes all the reptiles over there and that canine. If you're foolish enough to think I would fall for your tricks, you deserve to die."

A sick dread filled Serhis. It was clear now that they had fooled no one in their deceptions, but the bandits had played along anyway. How long did they know? Serhis asked himself. From the very beginning or did we mess up somewhere along the way? He shook the question from his head, it wasn't going to help now.

"Oh how nice of you to inform us," Iskdiwercaesin shouted back. "Now are you done gabbing? I've been waiting for a chance to burn you down. Or let the kobold here beat the crap out of you with the metal square on a stick, that's probably just as good."

"Hmph. Don't think because I'm not allowing you to surrender means I'll let you all simply die. As useful as all of you were, you still are more trouble than you're worth."

Kaeis had heard enough. "Simious, let's see if that wind can turn away a ballista bolt," he said to the Warforged, "Captain, execute the-"

It wasn't until later that Serhis tried to recall what happened next. He wasn't sure if he had been knocked unconscious for a few seconds or if all his senses had been overwhelmed, but all he knew was that he was on the ground and his ears were ringing, Baous trying to pick him up in one arm and using his shield in the other as arrows were shot down from above. Looking around in a dazed state, he could also see Rhasalis and Iskdiwercaesin helping Xet run for shelter. Behind him, the platform looked like it had been blown apart from underneath, broken chunks of stone scattered all around the square. They took cover behind one of the larger slabs that had remained intact, but it offered little protection from the archers, who were currently aiming for other targets. The smell was probably what cleared his head, the smoldering scent of a recently detonated ditherbomb. "Argh! I'm such an idiot!" he cursed himself.

"Yeah, we made a dumb move, no need to state the obvious," Iskdiwercaesin said as he looked around their small sanctuary of stone. They had remembered the pair of ditherbombs they had given to the bandits earlier in the month, part of the agreement when they made their deal with them. The bandits were very interested in the little spheres when they said it could blow though stone with ease, useful for creating a breech or getting into a barred gatehouse. Serhis had thought they use them on the siege on the castle, but it was very apparent they had planted both underneath the platform. How they managed to do that and detonate it remotely, he could only guess. He had never been on the receiving end of one of his own ditherbombs before. It was an experience he didn't wish to feel again and probably wouldn't since he didn't give the formula or process to anyone, but now he would make sure never to give one away ever again.

The havoc it created had disorganized the soldiers all around it. The bandits that had been in the streets rushed in to free the ones that had been captured and hacked apart any guards that had been too distracted. Kaeis had his hands full trying to reorganize his soldiers, ordering a fighting withdrawal from the square. Bej and Lady Eolith had also been thrown from the platform from the blast, but they looked like they weren't badly injured. Bej's face had several cuts from chips that hit his face and shirt arm was starting to turn blood red, but he also ordered a withdrawal as well. As for Lady Eolith, she looked a bit bruised, but relatively unharmed. "Tough old lady," Iskdiwercaesin remarked.

"We have to move now or we'll get pinned down" Rhasalis was rapidly firing arrows as fast as her arms allowed at the advancing force.

"Oof, no argument from me," Xet groaned as he started to stand on his own. "Which street do we take?"

"It doesn't matter, we have to get out now," she ducked her head back as the archers on the roof started firing in her direction.

"Wait! What about them?" Baous pointed towards the platform. The former soldiers hadn't been released yet and were still chained to the remnants of the platform with the rest of the bandits. They wouldn't get a clap on the back and handed a weapon if the others reached them, that was for certain.

"Don't move!" Serhis shouted to them as they struggled. Another blast of sound echoed through the square, this one higher pitched and without the harsh pressure wave as the bar the former soldiers had been chained to broke apart. "Run, run!" he yelled, already taking his own advice as the others went into a sprint towards the unblocked streets.

Their mad dash was surprisingly unhindered. The archers were still concentrated on Kaeis and Bej's larger groups, Kaeis himself taking wing to pick them off. His own companions, despite almost being on top of the blast, were also in fighting condition and doing probably as much back, the Tiefling flinging fireballs at the advancing bandits, though he also aimed for the ones still chained up if he could. The Warforged, who's name they now knew as Simious, was unsurprisingly intact, though a few plates had been dented and they could see his construction included adamantium and was also forcing the bandits to keep their distance from them and each other with the portable ballista. As for the last member of Kaeis' group, he was nowhere to be seen.

Soon they lost sight of them as they went through different streets. Now that he could hear without all the ringing in his head, Serhis could hear sounds of battle not only from where they guessed Kaeis and Bej were, but from other directions. It was the siege all over again.

"What do we do now?"

The voice had asked what they all thought, but it wasn't from the kobolds or the dragon. Standing behind them were the former soldiers they had freed.

"Good question. Here's another, what are you following us for?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

They looked at one another sheepishly. "We thought it was a good idea, since you helped us out so much." A chorus of 'thank you's and other praise were given until Serhis brought up a claw.

"Thank us later, we still not out of trouble." This had added another layer of problems. He might have shattered the bar that held to the platform, but each of them still had their hands bound, and they were wearing nothing more than sack cloth pants and shirts. There were ten of them and they didn't look hurt, except for the haunted looks in their eyes, but that had currently been suppressed. If they ran into trouble, they wouldn't be able to fight effectively. "We don't know what going on or where to go too."

"Forget going to any of the guardhouses or barracks, those places are going to be crawling with baddies, I can hear the fighting from here," Ryan said.

"Problem is we not know what happening or where to go," Serhis worriedly looked around. He felt a slight sense of déjà vu from the situation, recalling of another town in chaos, again hunted by a powerful enemy, but this time instead of a revolt, it was a full scale siege and their allies had their own agendas to fulfill.

"Standing out here isn't going to help. Where is someplace that isn't knee deep in shit and can actually be defendable?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"How about the 'Worn Helmet'?" one of the ten suggested.

"The tavern? Why?" Baous asked.

Iskdiwercaesin's reaction to the suggestion was less inquisitive. "Oh, that sounds like the perfect place to hold out. Somewhere that actually wants as many people inside and open for all to see. While we're there, how about we all get so drunk we don't care they're going to bash down the doors? Anyone else have an actual idea?"

"Wait, wait, Ethan's not joking," Ryan replied. "Yeah, the place is a tavern, but before Fethed rearranged a few of the walls, it was an old guardhouse before Lor-... Ligain had a new one built." It seemed to pain the young man to acknowledge he was no longer in service to his former liege. "It's still built real solid, stone walls all the way around and the windows are too small to fit through. Can't set fire to the walls and the roof's made of clay tile, not thatch, so fire's nothing to worry about. Fethed didn't want to change the doors, so they'll need a real good battering to get through that."

"I don't think Yelec's going to be attacking a tavern, we should be able to get there," Baous agreed.

"Fine, it doesn't look like we've got anywhere else to go since breaking into someone's home defeats the purpose in looking for a secure spot in a bad way," Iskdiwercaesin said.

As Serhis gave the summary of the conversation to Xet, the sorcerer laughed and shook his head. "So long as these bandits don't get thirsty, we should be fine in there."

"Keep moving, it should be this way," Rhasalis took the lead, the old map that Danward had given them in her claws.

Moving through the streets and alleys, they had a few close calls as they avoided the large groups of roving looters and bandits. Rhasalis kept Baous and Iskdiwercaesin close to the front as well, making use of their keen senses and noses to sniff out if they were getting close to anyone. The large groups they saw weren't concerned with looking for them, this time they were too busy pillaging and getting payback for their imprisonment, destroying everything they couldn't steal just for its own sake.

As they hoped, the inn wasn't under attack when they reached it, but all the shutters were closed, the gates to the rear entrance locked, and the front entrance shut tight. Now that they looked at it, it really did look like the place had been a decommissioned guardhouse, the upper level meant to see the whole street for trouble, but when it's purposed changed, it simple meant it had a great view.

Baous knocked on the door as they reached it. "Mr. Fethed, Mr. Fethed!"

They heard a muffled voice from behind the door. "Hey, that sounds like one of the kobolds, the hairy one." It sounded like Danward, and they were sure of that when he spoke louder. "Baous, right? Are the others with you?"

"Yeah, we're out here. I'd like to be in there though, so open the door," Iskdiwercaesin shouted back, still looking down the street for signs of pursuit.

"What are you waiting for, get that thing open. I'm not going to see them hanging out to dry like last time." Sounds of heavy objects being moved were then followed by the click of the latch and the door was open. As soon as the people who cleared the tables and furniture from the door were also out of the way, the whole group ran through the door, which was quickly locked again and the barricade remade.

"Thank you for that," Serhis said in relief.

"Instead of thanks, what I need is your healing skills. I've got a few wounded here," Danward pointed to one of the rooms, the door open and a few injured soldiers were lying on the beds.

Serhis wasted no time tending to their wounds. Their injuries weren't severe, none were in danger of dying, but as Serhis lightly touched a claw on each of them, they were now back into fighting shape. "You know what happening?" he asked as he came back outside.

"Aside from the hells breaking loose, way too much bad news for my liking," Danward sighed. Henry was skittish, pacing back and forth with a loaded crossbow in his arms. "My patrol got kicked in the teeth out on the streets when we were on patrol. We broke a few jaws for the favor and made our way to the guardhouse, but when we saw the whole place surrounded and we couldn't fight our way in, we went here and have been using the old lookout tower up top. Every barrack and guardhouse from West Street to Cordelia Alley is getting hit!"

"What I'd like to know is how those bandits got in here and how Yelec had so many?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"A few of the soldiers that got here as well told me what they could. From what I can tell, all of them are the same ones we got from before, but they got loose. Don't know how they did it, but once enough of them got free, they went and released the others next to them, then on and on. They probably didn't get any of the keys to the locks, but they're using hammers, rods, whatever they can to break the chains. The ones in proper dungeons are still probably there, but all the ones they couldn't hold, they're probably out now. Damn, it's a mess."

"But you won other time. They have less people now," Serhis said.

"Yeah, but they were outside the first time. Most of them are actually inside the defenses now and I'd guess everyone's had to pull back. Bej's bunch of misfits isn't going to be helpful now, they're probably just as deep in it as we are. Numbers count, but when things are as bad as this, it doesn't look good."

"Is that a vote to get out of this wreck?" Iskdiwercaesin said.

Danward gave a dirty look at the dragon. "I'm not saying we're that bad off. We're going to take losses at the end of the day though, there's no getting around that."

"Do you have a plan?" Rhasalis asked.

"We're trying to gather as many of the patrols that were outside when this all started. If we don't get any orders from Lord Ligain soon, then we'll head out for the nearest guardhouse and hit the dumb shits from the flank. Won't be too hard, they're too busy trying to get through the front doors. Feel like coming along with us? We'd really like the help, nothing helps break through like your friend's fireballs and some dragon's breath. Any healing you could give would be very appreciated, it'll save lives."

Serhis looked at the others. Joining the fighting didn't sound like a good idea, but not many were coming up. Running wasn't going to get them anywhere, even if they left the wagon behind, they would still have to go over the walls and would get a hail of arrows to the back for their efforts. This was to be a long, drawn out fight, there wasn't any discernable leadership to strike at and what support they could get was the ones they could rescue. It was either that or let the bandits win, who would then free the ones in the dungeons.

"Our options are limited," Rhasalis admitted.

"And they're going to be looking for us, one way or another," Baous pointed out.

"It's back into the fray for us," Iskdiwercaesin grumbled bitterly. "Who else's fight are we going do? I'm sure we'll be glad to help out there."

Danward nodded. "You might not have any loyalty to this place, but your help is still needed. I'll get preparations done."

"What about them?" Serhis asked.

Looking past Serhis and the others, Danward sighed, no longer able to ignore Ryan and the others. "What about them?"

Ryan looked deeply hurt at the question. "Sir, Ligain was about to exile us, but we want a home to come back to. Would you let us fight with you?"

Again, reactions were mixed. Many of the guards here weren't at the town center and they weren't going to trust these former soldiers soon, but they were also short on numbers. "You'll be fighting from the front," Danward told them. "I'm no longer your officer, but you'll still follow my orders, right?"

Ryan saluted, or tried to, if not for the chains around his hands. "Yes sir!"

Danward nodded. "Get those things off you first, then we'll see about finding you some weapons." The newly promoted Captain turned his attention to other things, leaving the dragon and kobolds to their own devices.

"Is something wrong Iskdiwercaesin?" Serhis asked, something was obviously gnawing on the dragon's mind.

"This whole place is wrong, that's what," he growled as he sat down. "We finally were going to get out of here, then that damn demented masked bandit shows up again and we have to deal with this crap! I'm tired of this town and its stupid little games! You're not the only one that's pissed that we're in the middle of all this. What we're doing is barely even a plan, beat the crap out of any bandit we find until they start running away. How the hells did Yelec pull this off?!"

"We'll ask him if we catch him," Xet said. "Right now, I'd like to have some revenge for that blast back in the square. The ringing has gotten out of my head now."

"If we catch him, I'm giving him an acid bath."

Serhis felt as weary as the others and looked around the tavern. He also wanted nothing more than to leave, but they had to fight their way out first. He could see Fethed helping the soldiers with supplies and provisions as well as arms and armor, looking very displeased while he was talking to Danward with the former soldiers behind him. It looked like there would have been an argument, but it seemed to resolve itself quickly. More than a few of the townsfolk were also inside, those that knew that this place would be better protected than their own homes. Veri and Vincentia were also still in the tavern, watching as people nervously went about.

"Nice speech out there," Veri said as they approached. "Not the best I've ever heard, but good."

"So you were out there too, huh. Thanks," Serhis replied. "Did you need something?"

"No, just wondering what you're going to do next," Vincentia said.

Serhis shrugged and sighed. "Beyond fighting for our lives with the others, I don't know. There's way too much going on and so little we can do. It feels a bit hopeless."

"Hey, don't go about moping like that, you're fighting for our lives out there too," Vincentia said in all seriousness.

"Things may seem overwhelming, but keep in mind that you fight with a purpose. You're the one who had the courage to give your ideals and to defend them, fettered as you were. Now you must put your words into actions and defend those unable to defend themselves." Veri pointed a finger on Serhis as she kneeled down next to him. "Try to keep your own hope."

As Veri's words sunk in, Serhis gave a slight laugh. They were remarkably close to the tenants of Bahamut, inadvertently said. "You're really good at quickly turning around a bad mood."

"We're bards. Our whole job is making others feel what we want them to," Vincentia smirked.

Baous overheard their conversation. "I'm just glad someone's managing to help. What about him?" he pointed to Iskdiwercaesin.

"I don't think we're that good," Veri said.

"Large force approaching!" Someone up above in one of the rooms shouted. "It's not one of ours!"

"One of Yelec's bunch," Danward grunted as he put on his boots. "Let them pass, don't let them know we're here. After they're gone, we'll head out."

"Sir, they're headed directly for us!"

Danward swore as he charged up the stairs, the kobolds and dragon at his heels. Rushing into one of the rooms, they saw the sentries at the windows, peeking out of it every now and then. Serhis and the others stood next to another, looking outside.

"Why do they want to come here? They don't know we're here," Danward said.

As if in answer to his question, someone approached the large group from the same side alley the group had taken to get here, pointing to the inn. It was Harick leading the raiding party.

"No, they know we are," Serhis sighed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Rhasalis' brow furrow. She might not be vocal about much, but she was silently berating herself for not checking if they had been followed. "It's fine, we were too busy finding out what was ahead of us."

"I could have still checked," she replied.

"Little kobolds! Oh little freaky kobolds and dumb dragon, come on out! We've got unfinished business!" Harick called out to the inn.

Danward was still looking out the window, slightly tilting his head so that only his eye was exposed. "What do they want with you? I'd imagine they're ticked off from your double dealing, but this fellow looks like he's got something out for you."

Serhis forced his words to come out without his voice breaking. "We kill some of his bandits and got away after he almost torture me to death."

"And that makes him bring his own bunch of scum just to hunt you?"

As if in answer, an arrow smashed through the window pane, scattering glass and creating a string of cursing from Fethed.

"Yes!"

More arrows were shot at the upper windows, but most bounced off the stone walls or got stuck in the shutters, no one was hit by one of them. "Damn it, we're stuck in here then. Archers, let them know standing in the middle of one of our streets is a big mistake!" Danward shot his crossbow as he issued the order. Bolts and arrows returned fire from the others rooms as well, through broken windows, scattering the bandits and catching a few in the volley. Harick was not one of them.

"Does anyone have a spare crossbow? Something I can use?" Baous asked.

"Here, go the room five doors down to the left." Fethed had entered the room while they were focused on the bandits outside. "There's a few old weapons that were left here when I got the place. Grab some more bolts and arrows on the way back," he said as he dropped a key into his paws before heading to one of the windows and firing his own crossbow.

The bandits' advanced had slowed considerably, stopping to fire at the inn before receiving return fire. Serhis and Rhasalis contributed their own arms to the skirmish while Xet flung arcane energies at any exposed target, only using a fireball when he saw a group of them bunched together. Iskdiwercaesin could only simmer and wait as he stood at the window over the front door, they were too far away for him to reach unless one of them charged forward. They were wondering what was slowing down Baous until they saw him come back.

Some consider the crossbow to be a miniature ballista, but that's a misconception that few might correct. In truth, crossbow are smaller versions of arbalests. These monstrosities were made so that they just barely could be carried and fired and requires the user to wind the string back into place with a winch rather than pulling it back by hand or pull-lever, but when they were loosed, the force they released is frightening. Many countries ban anyone without a military background from owning one, arbalests are considered unsporting, since anyone with a month's worth of training could bring down a fully armored soldier or unaware mage that spent years training their own skills. Those protected by certain powerful spells, exceptionally skilled, or particularly tough would be exempt from such a ignominious death, but such individuals are uncommon. Not that Serhis complained as Baous pointed it out the window, aimed, and fired. A little skill and luck helped and the bolt went completely through an unlucky bandit who thought he was protected behind a barrel. There were still plenty more around.

"Here! That's all I could find," Baous tossed the quivers of bolts and arrows that were draped on his shoulders to the others before he reloaded.

For the better part of half an hour, there was nothing but the constant firing and reloading of ranged weapons. The smell of friction burned wood and sinew filled the room. Both parties had dug in, both finding cover, and neither side was winning. There were casualties on both sides, a projectile would find one of the archers at the windows and Serhis would rush over to tend to the wounds, and the bandits on the streets looked to have a healer of their own, the ones that hadn't died outright from devastating injuries getting back up or replaced with reinforcements.

"I'm running out," Rhasalis had emptied another quiver of arrows, but Serhis' concerns were for her strained arm and fingers.

"I've almost nothing left myself," Serhis replied in the same weary voice, having dropped his crossbow and had been constantly running from room to room.

"You're lucky, I'm completely drained," Xet sighed as he slumped down at the bottom of a wall. "I don't think that's ever happened before."

"Hey, they're pulling back!" Looking out the window, they saw the archer was right as the arrow fire whittled down and the bandits gradually withdrawing. There were few bodies on the streets.

"Hah, looks like they've had enough. Bet they didn't expect an inn to have so much resistance," Fethed smirked.

"Or, they're regrouping." Danward wasn't going to lulled into lowering his guard. "Keep an eye out, they might be trying something new."

"That was incredibly dull." Everyone else felt otherwise, but Iskdiwercaesin didn't needed to do anything during the whole battle since no one had gotten near the doors.

"Captain Danward, what's our plan now?" Ryan asked.

"We hold here. I'm not leaving a secure location with that bunch hounding us unless Lord Ligain can get us some reinforcements to surround them."

As much as Serhis hated being dependant on Kaeis again, they were in another no-option situation. "No one else hurt?" he asked around.

"Had a few close calls, but I'm fine," Baous pointed to a few dents and scratches on his armor where an arrow broke or bounced off. The others were similarly unharmed except for battle fatigue.

"Uh, Captain? You hear that?"

Danward looked out the window and shook his head. "Yeah I hear it. Bad news."

The sound of something heavy rolling down the far end of the street echoed over the face of the buildings, the source of the noise was pushed into sight. A covered battering ram.

One of the archers cursed. "Oh fuck me."

"I don't know where you got all that help from you damn scaly rats, but here's something to fix that! You've been alive for too long, but it'll be long enough when I get to you!" Serhis dearly wished the arbalest could travel through solid stone to hit Harick, he hadn't bothered sticking his head out to taunt from the corner of a store down the road. It wasn't just that someone so cruel was allowed to continue, but what he had done. Strapped along the top of the battering ram were captured prisoners, they couldn't tell if they were soldiers or someone they grabbed out of their homes. An entire battering ram, just for them. It was overkill, but since none of the bandits were willing to brave running down the street to hack at the door, they figured it was worth it. Once the front door was opened, they would pour through, the entrance too open, even with the makeshift barricades made from tables and chairs, and the defenders would be hard pressed to hold their positions under the weight of heavy numbers.

"That's obscene," Serhis said. "Baous, you still have some bolts left?"

Baous' eyes widened. "You don't want me to shoot at them, do you?!"

"No, no. We can't hit the pushers, but the wheels are far enough that from those poor souls. Think you can break it?"

Baous nodded as he cranked the winch and held the arbalest up. He aimed, held his breath, waited, waited more, and pulled the trigger. The left wheel splintered under the impact, but it was still moving. He frantically set it back down and wound it up again as fast as his arms could move, his next shot was less settled and fast, but it cracked the wheel. The next two shots were less fortunate as they smashed into the street, but a clean hit brought the ram to a shuddering halt.

"Good, good," Danward's relief was echoed by everyone. "We've got some time before they pull the wheel off a wagon or something to fix it. We can't stay here, not any longer."

"Where'd they get that thing?" Henry asked.

"My guess, they made it," Rhasalis answered. It did look hastily cobbled together, but it had probably taken them several days at minimum to build it. "That explains why they pinned us down here instead of retreating and letting us out, they needed time to get it here."

"Sir, I think I can still get a shot off," said a soldier under Danward's command.

"Tilswith, you might be a good shot, but you're not that a good of a shot. You're a lot more likely to hit the hostages than any of them."

"Unless we do something sir, it won't matter."

"But if you fire, it more likely hit hostage than any pusher. Maybe even not slow them down if you did hit," Serhis said.

"Acceptable risk."

"How is firing at civilians anywhere near acceptable?" The tone from Danward was cold and severe.

"When the lives of everyone in here is at stake. Their sacrifice will allow us to survive."

Another soldier as likeminded as this one spoke. "Don't think of them like they're alive anymore. They aren't, not when they're like that. If we keep enough pressure on them, they'll probably give up or we'll hold them off long enough so reinforcements can reach us."

"They're only dead if we think they are," Baous protested. "I'm not going to point this thing at them, I won't."

Danward approached on the two soldiers, contained fury welling up from his eyes. The two didn't even flinch as he spoke to both of them in turn to their faces, close enough that they could feel his breath as he spoke. "We do not shoot at civilians or our own. I don't know what's gotten into either of your heads, but I will be damned if I give such an order. I will not order anyone to do such a thing, and I sure as the hells won't do it for a fleeting advantage. We are soldiers, not butchers. I don't want to hear a word about it again, understood?"

Both of the soldiers nodded. Serhis couldn't tell if the message had sunken in.

Considering what the one named Tilswith said next, it hadn't. "Then here's my other suggestion sir. We give the kobolds and the dragon over to them."

"Were you really that stupid to say that in front of me?" Iskdiwercaesin asked as he turned away from the window, now aware of a danger from the inside. The kobolds grouped closer together as much as the soldiers took a step back. A lot of arrows that had originally been pointed out the window were now between there and them.

"Sir, these bandits are only after this bunch. The orc out there's got something in it for them and I don't see why we've got to keep them with us. A few for the many, and this time, it's not going to be a fleeting advantage."

Serhis looked cautiously at the soldiers around them, warily listening to Danward's response. It didn't take him long to decide. "You're a gutless worm Tilswith."

"Sir?!"

"You heard me. They might not be one of ours, not soldiers or guards to this town, but they've kept some of our own alive, kept their blood in their bodies and stood next to us though all the troubles, and I'm not some spineless piece of scum that'll sell out the guy next to me so that I can live."

The dragon and kobolds relaxed a fraction as did the soldiers around them. For as long as Serhis was concerned, the whole "needs of the many over the few" was going to be weighed a lot more carefully now that he had been on the other end.

The reprimanded soldier broke out into a fresh sweat, despite already being soaked. "We can't fight them! We're completely outnumbered over three to one, you're not going to give them what they want or do the dirty work! What are you going to do, wish for a miracle?!"

"No miracles today. Just what we can do for ourselves," Serhis replied.

Tilswith gave Serhis a withering glare. "We... We should surrender then. This is a hopeless fight."

"No surrendering today either. I doubt they're the type to offer you mercy anyway. You'd probably end up used as a shield too."

"This is insane! You're all insane!" Danward couldn't stop the soldier as he dove out the window, the back of his shirt ripping in the old guard's hands. Tilswith landed awkwardly on the street below, taking a glance back before going towards the bandits further down the street, unarmed and using the white rags of his shirt as a flag of surrender. Surprisingly, he wasn't shot as soon as he came into range, the crowd of bandits parting as he walked towards them. Harick was the one to talk to him, standing in front of the battering ram.

"Anyone one else going to surrender?" he yelled to the inn. "The kobolds and dragon would be nice as well! Then I might be willing to let you keep all your hands and feet!"

"Eat shit and die!" Danward hollered back. "Tilswith! You're lucky I didn't shoot you in the back!"

"Tilswith, eh, that your name? You got any words for your friends over there? Anything to some of your pals that are going to get slaughtered if they stay in there?" Harick said.

"I tried, but they're not listening. They want to stay put."

Harick sighed as he put his arm around Tilswith's shoulders. "Pity. Not much good there then."

"What do I have to do? Do I have to fight them now? Like the others and join up with your bunch?"

Harick smiled. "That's my boss' way of doing things." The friendly arm around the man's head closed around his neck, choking him. "You're fucking useless."

Tilswith struggled in Harick's grasp, but a kick to the stomach and to the crotch from one of the other bandits brought him low. Harick pushed him the rest of the way, slamming his head down onto the cobbles, not hard enough to kill, but Serhis though he could see a few teeth. "Caused us way too much trouble! You're one of the bastards that shot an arrow or two at us and you think that we'll let that pass?" Harick pulled out some rope and tied up his new hostage. At least, Serhis thought he was a hostage up until Harick waved an arm. With one wheel missing, the battering ram was badly off-balance and shifted to one side as it moved, but it wouldn't matter when Tilswith was in front of the still functioning wheel.

Harick's laughter almost overpowered Tilswith's screams. He had gotten back into cover now, Baous had been aiming for him the whole time, but he always had Tilswith in front of him. He wished he had taken the shot. The wheel couldn't go over Tilswith, every time the battering ram was pushed, it slammed into his side, creating another cry of agony, and sometimes if it was pushed hard enough, it pushed slightly over him, crushing slightly more of him before it slid back off.

Everyone inside the inn watched in horror. Ryan and the others had covered their ears and closed their eyes. They had seen enough already, they didn't need more. Serhis shivered at sounds. Maybe if Tilswith had been placed a little lower, his ribs would have cracked, he would have died sooner, but the way he was positioned only allowed the wheel to roll over his abdomen. He didn't want to see what was going to happen when they finally put the full weight of the ram over him.

"Here, give me that," Danward took the arbalest out of Baous' paws. He didn't even need to ask, the kobold's grip was already loose. He fired, and the screaming finally stopped. A few boos and jeers could be heard outside. "I should have done that sooner. We can't surrender. That's for sure now. No letting them taking us prisoner." The others agreed emphatically.

"There no reason for him to do that," Serhis' voice was coarse.

"No, the only reason he needed was because it could be fun for him and he could," Iskdiwercaesin replied. "He probably wanted to freak out everyone here. Looks like it worked."

Danward handed the arbalest back to Baous, looking even more tired. "Wish I could say I felt sorry to do that. I don't. We just don't have many more options."

"Danward?" Serhis got his attention. "Thank you for not give us up."

"Don't thank me just yet, the thought was tempting. A stupid thought, we know now. I still have to get us out of here."

"We fight our way out?" Serhis asked.

"Maybe we won't have to. If we're lucky, the side passage out of here is still good." Fethed said.

Iskdiwercaesin's lethargy dissolved. "There's a side passage? Why didn't we use it sooner?!"

"Because everyone already knows about it. Or at least, everyone that's lived here," Henry replied.

Serhis recalled what the bards had told them about the history of this town. "So we not use it why?"

"Because everyone already knows about it," Henry repeated. "If someone from this town joined them, the bandits out there probably know about it too."

"You're telling me that there's a hole in our defenses?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"No, the entrance is locked from the inside, there's no way to get in from out there. They try of force it open, all they're walking into is a corridor of death if they're stupid enough to charge into that narrow space." Fethed assured him. "But if those bastards out there are smart, they've got someone watching it."

"Let's hope they aren't. Let's see if they're there," Danward said. Everyone except the archers followed him out into another of the rooms that looked out over the streets, almost at the other end of the inn.

"Oh damn. Yep, they know," Henry sighed. A good distance away, it wasn't just someone keeping an eye out in a side alley, but a whole bunch of unsavory types armed to the teeth.

"No way forward, no way back. Any better plans?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"No, that it," Danward heaved a tired sigh. "We're going to have to push our way through them. They have too many out by the front, but we've got a chance through there."

Serhis could imagine the scenario. Everyone tightly packed in the tunnels as they went out, emerging out an entrance where their enemies would barely have to aim to fire down it. Whoever was in the tunnel would be the one to take the most losses. "A lot of people going to get hurt or die."

"I know." Some of the fighting spirit died had died in Danward, his next orders making it clear what his duty and his responsibility to his troops was, and how painful. Everyone with shields will be at the front of the line. I know we don't have any of the bigger shields, so keep your head down as much you can, then charge into them, get through their front ranks. Try to get to their archers, even if it looks bloody and grim, but do it quickly. When the ones out front break through, they'll find the tunnel eventually and we can't afford to stay in there, we can't get caught between them, so fight quickly, move swiftly. You'll save many a life today." Many helmeted heads gave a somber nod as they picked up their shields. They knew what he hadn't said, that their own might not be one of them. Some were nervously shaking, a few holding back tears. More than a few were pale or slight sickly shade of green. It didn't surprise Serhis that Baous had picked up his shield too.

"We can try some other way," Serhis suggested desperately. "That many archers, they going to hit too many too easy! What about we knock hole in one of wall of inn, get out that way? I have two ditherbombs left, they can work fast."

"It'd still be too close to the ones outside and they'll notice the bang. We might get a few streets down, but they'll catch up. At least with the side passage, we'd have a head start," Danward said as he marched down the stairs, gathering everyone else with him. The dragon and the kobolds didn't go with him.

"This, this is stupid," Iskdiwercaesin bellowed. "We come here because it's suppose to be safe, then we end up trapped! Now we've got to worry about going through a tunnel that's going to turn into a target range when we open the door? It's insane!"

"Like he said, we don't have many options," Rhasalis replied, steel in her voice.

"Serhis? You can think of something, can't you?" Baous asked.

Serhis didn't answer. He wasn't even paying attention to the conversation, vehemently asking himself for a better way. They had been trapped in an inn before, but that in situation, they had been surrounded by zombies, not bandits that could think independently and didn't mindlessly get themselves doused in flammable liquids. Setting fire to the inn wouldn't help, it wasn't night and they didn't have the time to wait, not to mention most of this place was made of stone. A more recent memory passed by, a town hall on fire. There was no roof access here and even if he made one, they would quickly be shot at from below and still be cornered on the roofs. Serhis ruefully realized that they had survived this theme before, only to get into worse ones and come out more experienced in getting out. It was something he wished he didn't need to become familiar with as time went on.

"Serhis!"

Someone had jostled him, a look of worry and a fuzzy face was in front of him as Baous shook him. "Ah! I'm okay. No problem, just thinking," Serhis replied.

Xet sighed. "For a moment, I thought you went catatonic on us."

"He might as well have. It won't hurt us any," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"Hey! They found a wheel!" A series of groans and curses could be heard all over as the sentry shouted.

"We don't have much time left. Everybody, get into the tunnels," Danward ordered the evacuation. "It'll take them a while to get that wheel replaced, a few minutes, probably more if they're sloppy about it, but we still have to slow them down. I need ideas people," he said to everyone around him.

"You could have a few of us stay here until the last minute and keep shooting at them," Henry suggested.

"No good. I need as many sword arms with us when we get to the exit. I'd probably set a fire under that thing, but it'd burn those poor souls on top. We need something to slow them down while we all get away, we can't split up."

Tunnels. Thinking about ideas for tunnels was something Serhis could do. "How deep are the tunnels?"

"About five feet or so underground, I think. I never bothered to measure. No way we're digging out of there, we don't have the right tools anyway," Fethed informed him.

"Will not matter. Can I see food stores? Alcohol storage too?"

They all went down into the cellar. The passageway was already open, but no one had entered it yet. Rhasalis had caught the glint in Serhis' eye. "Thinking of a few traps too?"

All he had to do was give a manic smile. Traps were something both of them did well. It was going to have to be completely improvised, but that wasn't going to make it any less deadly. "Danward. You said you want an idea or two?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hurry it up you slugs, I don't have all day!" Harick bellowed to the men around the wheel. The dead man had been tossed to the side after that damned bolt ruined their fun. It wasn't like they had anything else to do while they waited for a new wheel to be found and he wished he could have seen all their faces in there. He consoled himself thinking that any of the fools they took alive would get to show him in person.

A loud thump was heard throughout the street as the battering ram was let down, the whole weight of the thing landing could be felt through the boots of everyone around it. "About time! Boys, you know the drill. When that door's bashed down, we go in and give them a good thrashing. They'll make a run for it when they see how screwed they are, probably down that tunnel we've heard about. They're going to find some of our boys waiting to greet them." Many chuckles could be heard paired with sadistic smiles. "If they're going down the tunnel, run them down in there and fuck them up good from behind! So either they'll try and hole up in there and just die, or they'll head down the tunnel and die like rats. Either way sounds good to me." A few more laughed from the crude joke and the battering ram was pushed down the street.

"Hey, they isn't firing at us," one of the bandits said the obvious as the ram got close.

"Makes it easier for us then. Keep aiming for the windows anyway," Harick said as the battering ram reached the doors. "Huh, no boiling oil or nothing. Guess this bunch is soft," he smirked. He was always pleasantly surprised how often a bunch of hostages made everything go smoother. Even if they didn't make the enemy stop firing, they were always useful for arrow pincushions, and it never loses it effectiveness at demoralizing the ones shooting. The idiot that tried to surrender to them was probably better at it though, what with all the screaming.

"Heave, heave, heave!" The ram buckled the hinges of the doors with every swing, but it took a lot more than they expected to bash through. The whole place was too much trouble for Harick. Reinforced doors, too small windows on the ground, and stone walls. Harick swore whoever thought about turning an old guardhouse into an inn was going to be drawn and quartered.

A resounding crack announced that the door had finally been split open. "Let's get them!" Harick uttered a battle cry as he ran forward, still looking out for more arrows. "Slice them up, beat them down, just give them some suffering! And if any of you see those kobolds and that dragon, I'll give you an extra share for handing them to me!" Greed and hunger for destruction pushed them forward. Harick had been constantly annoyed about how that bunch had escaped him constantly, first at the gates, then in their own camp. He was only mildly upset how some of his men were lost in each fight, but he couldn't stand the humiliation of them getting away. He was Harick Uistiain, no one would ever get away from him! This time, he was going to make sure he was finished and had his fun before he said anything to Yelec.

"No one's inside!"

Harick could see that much was obvious from one of the ground windows. "Then get in there and find them!" The ram crew wheeled it out of it way, allowing for the others to push inside. The door had been barricaded with tables and chairs and were pushed aside. The main floor of the tavern had been rearranged, many other pieces of furniture had been placed as barricades for an attack from the front, but no one was behind them. "They making a run for the tunnels. You bunch are going with me," he pointed to a dozen men next to him, "we're going to check upstairs incase they're hiding up there. The rest of you, head for the tunnels," he said as he crossed the room. Felt a tug on his boot.

"What the fuck?" Harick looked down and saw he had stepped on a thin piece of string, then felt something hard hit him on the back of his head. Swearing loudly, he looked all around to see who had done that, but no one was around. Looking back down at what had hit him, he saw a small dark metal sphere. It looked similar to the one that had been used in the town square.

"Oh shit!" He dove for cover behind one of the barricades. The others next to him did the same, many of them not sure why or had even heard of a ditherbomb before, but could tell he thought it was dangerous. Ten seconds later, nothing had happened.

An oblivious brigand approached the sphere and picked it up. "Something the matter? Looks harmless."

"That thing should have gone boom by now," Harick quickly picked himself off the floor.

"Don't look like it to me," he said as he tossed the sphere to Harick, the orc forcing himself not to flinch as he caught it.

It felt light in his hands and a small shake confirmed it was empty. Looking up, he was that the sphere must have been placed on the rafters and had been pulled down when he stepped on the string. "Son of a bitch! It's fake!" he screamed in fury as he threw it down, leaving a large dent in the pair of round helmets that had been glued together. Now the kobolds were playing games with him, making him look like a fool in front of the others. Even now he knew that a few of them were trying to hide their laughs. "What are you waiting for, get after them!"

The ground floor rooms were check as swiftly as the upper level. None of the rooms had been locked except one on the ground floor, next to the kitchens. "That's got to lead to the tunnel," Harick swung his mace at the door, knocking it open. As it opened, another container fell down, a jar full of oil that shattered on the stairs leading down and splattering a few droplets on his pant legs.

"These fuckers are getting on my nerves," one of the bandits commented.

"Then show them how you feel. Get down there," Harick pointed into the cellar. They took careful steps on the oil slick stone and more than a few slipped, causing them to crash into the ones that didn't underneath them. These slowdowns were getting more and more aggravating. "You see anything down there?" he shouted.

"Not much to see. All I've got is a lit candle down here next to the stairs, the whole place is dark. I think it was suppose to light the thing on fire, but it didn't work. We'll need a torch anyway. Tunnel should be going North of the building, right? We'll have to check there." Harick waited impatiently as more men slowly descending downwards. "Hey, we've found it! Some kind of lever, it's gotta open something."

"Pull the damn thing!" Harick shouted as he started to make his way into the cellar. He barely took three steps before he heard a *poof* sound and coughing, then another *poof*, then saw a bag filled with something fall out of the rafters after being tugged by another piece of string and hit the steps, exploding in a cloud of white dust. Harick covered his mouth as he back away from the cloud, then heard another sack fall out of the rafters from the main room's rafters, filling the tavern with more of the dust. Looking up at the door, he could barely see the long piece of string that had been colored the same as the stone, now covered in the dust.

"Pfft! Pfft, what the hell?" he spat out some that had gotten in his mouth.

"Poison?!" One of the bandits below screamed.

"It's not poison you coward! It's... flour," he could still taste it. There was still some coughs from in the cellar. This was even more infuriating, the kobolds weren't just content with slowing him down, now they were making him a complete mockery on purpose.

"Flour?" Harick heard from someone downstairs. "Someone put out the candle, put out the candle!"

Harick didn't live to become one of the more feared bandits alive by standing still when he thought trouble was coming. From the way the man was screaming like his life depended on it, Harick ran. He cleared the entire length of the room and out the door, roughly pushing the bandit that was trying to get in so he could get out, a few of those with him that had been a little slower on the uptake trying to follow.

As he stood outside and looked in, the swirling flour filled the tavern, covering everything in a light film of dust. "What the hell was that for?" the man Harick had shoved asked. A murderous glare shut the raider up, then Harick kept looking inside. Perhaps someone had gotten to the candle.

The deafening combustion of flour proved otherwise.

Granaries and sawmills, despite seeming calm at times and the obvious hazards, can be very dangerous places under the right conditions. Any place where large concentrations of dust that could be flammable met the criteria for a dust explosion, and many a miller or woodcutter wives' tales of how they became widows could involve the seemingly harmless dust in the air turning into a blistering gout of flame.

Harick groaned and opened his eyes, looking upwards at a smoky sky. He must have been blown ten feet backwards, he had been standing a little away back from the front door and most of the force of the explosion had exited by way of that entrance or the shattered windows. The inn was still standing, the sturdy structure had withstood the blast, but that only meant that all the force had to leave by those ways. Little fires could be seen inside the inn, as tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture had been violently moved aside in the explosion. The fires would burn out soon, there wasn't much left for them to consume. The same couldn't be said for the stairs and the cellar below, thick black smoke was pouring out.

"Damn it! Get buckets of water, get them out of there!" someone shouted nearby. Had to have been shouting, Harick could hardly hear anything from the ringing in his ears.

"Forget it!" he shouted back, "they're a lost cause." Following the tunnel wasn't possible now, not without getting burned or dealing with the choking smoke. The fury that had been bottled up was now consuming his entire being. It was those damn kobolds again! He had lost face, he lost even more men, and now that he could reorient himself, the battering ram was damaged! The explosion had caught the ram that had been close to the door, pushed it over and snapped some of the rigging and timbers. He needed that battering ram!

"Don't just stand there! Those pieces of shit are still trying to get out! They won't have any way to go back now, just get over to the exit and gut them!" He was already going at an unsteady run towards the tunnel exit. He wasn't going to stop at just torturing and killing them now, he was intent on torment and massacre. It would be a long time before he actually allowed any one of them to die, and he was going to make sure every one of them knew it. It was bad enough that he was so close to the explosion in the square, but that one had gotten the ones on the platform, but this had rattled him.

Down several streets and into a side alley, he saw the ambush party watching and waiting. "What the hell was that noise?"

"It don't matter, just be sure to make them suffer!" Harick snapped, his hand raising to his head to stop the spinning. Felt that most of his hair had been burned off, saw that the others were trying to not stare. Harick didn't need more excuses to get any angrier, if his heart could pump any louder, it would burst out of his chest. Time passed as they waited. Harick couldn't stand the waiting, he wanted to break all their legs and arms right now, and only then would be patient. It shouldn't take them this long to get here, he thought to himself and fumed.

He almost missed the second explosion. Those around him twitched, they were already jumpy from their escape. It sounded distant, several streets away. A small piece of Harick could tell it was halfway between the inn and here. "Get over there!" he roared, running at a full sprint towards the source of the sound as everyone followed.

His guess had been right. In the middle of a road several streets away, there was a large crater that had looked like a sinkhole. Looking down, they could see the very edge of a tunnel, but most of it had collapsed by the time they had gotten here. "Where are they?!" he demanded as he looked around, trying to spot any fleeing backs. The kobolds must have had one of those exploding spheres with them and used it to open a way up from the tunnel and ran before they got there. They had gotten away again! He had been made a fool again!

Nobody got close as Harick as he flew into a frenzy, his mace swinging at anything and everything near him as he yelled incoherently in his fury, smashing doors, windows, and the loose rubble near the hole. By the time Harick regained his senses, he realized he was all alone in the street. With nothing else to do, Harick stomped off, watching every street and alley for hide, hair, scale or wing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It's cramped in here."

Serhis didn't mind close spaces, but this time, he had to agree with Iskdiwercaesin. Especially when it was because over fifty bodies of different races and species were in a tight enclosed room. It was a spacious cellar, but not nearly enough. "As long as you don't sneeze, we'll be fine," he said.

It wasn't that they had to press against each other in the cellar, but the anyone with the concept of 'personal space' was not going to last long in here. Lean too far to the front and you were probably going to breath down someone's neck. Or in Serhis' case, move too far back, and he had to deal with someone's hind end near his face.

"Not that I'm not grateful for you getting us out of there, but did you have to rig my place to blow up?" Fethed asked.

"You place fine. Going to smell like burn bread for long time and you need to replace furniture, but I pretty sure it didn't completely destroy it." It would have taken double or triple the amount of flour to do that kind of damage, but rigging it up so that over a dozen heavy sacks of flour got pulled down when the passageway was opened hadn't been easy. He had to leap up to each of the rafters and get a rope over them while the others loaded the sacks up, then had to make sure they couldn't be seen from below and were kept balanced. Overall, he was sure his ruse had worked, no one was checking the tunnel.

Again, he had to use all his ditherbombs to make their getaway, or at least make it look that way. If they had actually tried to flee out onto the road, the chances that they would all get away without being seen was low. The chance was still there, but far to low for his liking. It wouldn't have meant all of them would have been run down in the streets, especially if they scattered, but he still preferred having no losses at all. They only got away with it because the bandits outside didn't know how many of them there were and would assume it had only been the party and the small platoon of guards. Causing the road to collapse into the tunnel had to be carefully measured and Rhasalis had succeeded in determining how far into the tunnel they need to set the first ditherbomb. The second one was trickier, they asked everyone if they knew if any of the houses nearby the underground tunnels had some form of basement or cellar. One of the guards new that of a certain house that was owned by a wealthy merchant who boasted of his extensive wine cellar, so they picked that one to have its wall blown in. After everyone had been squeezed inside, the last ditherbomb collapsed the tunnel to the cellar.

It wasn't a brilliant plan, but Serhis' standards were high, and he had to do things quickly to get their fifty-odd group to safety. And now, humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, a few orcs, an uncomfortable number of gnomes, and everything in between were sharing this uncomfortable, but safe, space, civilian and soldier alike. Also, four kobolds and one dragon.

"Xet, do we have enough materials for more ditherbombs?"

"What? You're asking me? Now?" Xet's feelings about alchemy had always been mixed. He appreciated the practicality it gave to the miners and those that weren't born with the ability to cast spells, but he was always nervous about handling the explosives himself. He preferred that if there was going to be an explosion, it was going to be from his spells.

"When you've got the time. I keep running out of them in situations like this."

"How about we avoid these situations from now on?" Rhasalis said. If it had been anyone else, Serhis would have expected sarcasm. She meant it in all seriousness.

"It's not that easy."

"Its almost been half an hour. I think we can go upstairs now," Baous said. No one had wanted to move upstairs until they were absolutely sure that all the bandits had moved on, getting seen would have meant that they would wind up in even worse trouble than before, the building had no defenses to speak of and wasn't made of stone.

"I've already gotten the lock open," Rhasalis informed him, everyone nearby breathing a sigh of relief, with a hint of dread. "I'll go up and check all the streets for any hostiles. Everyone wait here until I come back." Dim afternoon light poured down into the cellar as she left, then the room was put back into darkness again as she shut the door. At least those that could see in the dark weren't too badly effected.

"Danward, do you have an idea where to go next?" Serhis asked.

He shrugged, bumping his shoulder next into someone in the dark. "I wish I knew. You're the one with all the ideas at the moment. We don't have any information about where to go, what are our orders, or where our friends or enemies are. I'd say our first job is finding our leadership. Problem is that the castle's likely under siege again, we don't know which guardhouses or barracks are still holding or have fallen, and the town hall is right out. For all we know, these lunatics turned the place into their own command post by now. Maybe your friend up there can get a good view of what's going on, then we can figure out what to do from there."

"Rhasalis is a good scout, she'll see."

"Good. Could be that things aren't as bad as we think. I'd- Hey! Who opened that!" A cork had been popped in the cellar and someone actually responded.

"Lighten up Captain. We're thirsty and it's the least snooty Avingo could do for us. He should be happy that we're all here in his house with all his precious jewelry and paintings." To Danward's displeasure, it was own that replied. The captain looked like he was going to make an issue of it, but shook his head. A good leader he might be, but there's little to stop a bunch of soldiers after a hard battle from enjoying themselves and the elation that they're alive. Especially when stuck in a wine cellar. "Pass me the bottle then. And make sure it's a good year."

As Serhis watched the man drain half a bottle in one swig, the door opened again and everyone immediately shifted to see. To everyone's relief, it was Rhasalis as she poked her head in, and even more so when she spoke. "They're gone. I've closed all the curtains to be careful."

"Good, let's get out of here," Iskdiwercaesin said as everyone pushed to get out.

Rhasalis had very good reason to close the curtains. Even if none of the bandits had spotted any of them, all it would take was one good look and looters would pound down the doors anyway. The merchant's home was gaudy, filled with expensive looking baubles and paintings. Most were fake or only looked expensive though, not standing up to closer inspection, but the raiders weren't picky. No looters had reached this part of the town yet, but it wouldn't last. People stepped out of the musty cellar and enjoyed the clean air, stretching out now that they had the room.

"Henry, get to the top floor and post sentries. I want to know what's going on." The young guard snapped a salute, scolded a few soldiers that had a bit too much to drink, then headed up.

"From what I could see, a lot of fighting going on out there has slowed down. It's hard to tell if it's because they won or they're pulling back into defensive positions, but I don't think it's the former," Rhasalis said.

"I hope so or we're in deep shit. Pardon an old soldier's mouth," Danward apologized. "Henry and the others might see a few details you might not recognize, flags, standards, signal fires and the like. We'll be able to confirm things from here."

As they waited, they could barely hear anything outside, most of the battles had played themselves out as the sun had set. Those that could see in the dark could still fight, but they were too few in number to be effective. It was likely that fighting would start up again tomorrow after both sides had rested, unless someone chanced a night attack, but that was unlikely. Inside, it was just as quiet. People were still scared of being found in the house and talked in barely audible whispers, mostly to check up on a person's condition, comfort somebody for their loss, or quiet prayers to various deities.

Baous' ears flicked as he heard Henry coming down the stairs. "What's happening out there?"

"Good news and bad news. More bad than good though. Lord Ligain's managed to muster up a defense, that's the good news. The bad is that it's all around the inner walls. We're stuck out here with the rest of the baddies."

"That feeling you're getting? Yeah, not pleasant being left out, is it?" Iskdiwercaesin said.

"I'll remind you locking you out of the camp was not my call," Henry retorted.

"I didn't say it was yours. Just that you've joined the club."

"Oh I've gotten the feeling before. No need to tell me. Continue," he ordered Henry.

"Yes sir. Most of the signal flags I've seen are 'in distress', but I saw a few places outside the inner walls where some of ours guardhouses or barracks managed to beat them off. Traded a few signal flashes between us and the one on Viander Court, but now that the sun's down, we can't trade signals anymore."

"Viander? That's halfway across town. How'd you get them to notice?"

"Used a big mirror sir. Took it off the wall of a really nice room upstairs." Henry spread his arm to display the length.

"Huh. Hurray for vanity. About time it did us some good. So what did they say?"

"That they've established a perimeter around their place, so they'll be clear until the bandits realize they've got something dangerous out here with them."

"Do they know what's been going on? For one, I'd sure like to know how these curs got back out."

"I figured you would ask. They say that they caught a small group trying to sneak in, but not before they had already let go a couple outside. They only saw them because a group running out to deal with the loose ones ran into them coming in. They figure that's how they got the other places, make sure the guards go out while they go in, then spring the other bandits so that we get hit from both sides."

"Sounds like a flimsy plan. I'm surprised that we didn't catch more of them."

"They had keys sir."

The silence became uncomfortable as Danward and Henry glanced at the group. "Don't look at us, we just got them into the town. With your lord's permission for a trap, I might add," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"If it hasn't been clear, they kept many details of their operation away from us," Rhasalis added.

"So looks like Searflint's intelligence work isn't as incompetent as we thought," Danward sighed. "Well, never mind that. Do they have contact with Lord Ligain or any of the commanders? What are our orders? I hope they didn't try to send battle plans, way too easy for it to be intercepted that way."

"Sorry sir, but I ran out of light before I could ask. I could try using a cone lantern, but we'd get spotted like that. The last orders from Lord Ligain were to execute all prisoners, but since most of them are out..."

Danward grumbled as he weighed his options. Serhis gave him one. "Danward? Could you show me where on map this place is? When very dark tonight, I could try flying there, deliver message. Maybe deliver message for them too to another place."

"You could fly with those? I thought those were just for show." Danward had never seen Serhis even glide with his wings, let alone fly.

"No, I can fly. Just not want to leave others behind, so I don't."

"I can respect that. Since we've got no other way to communicate with anyone else, it'll have to do," Danward nodded. "Thanks for doing this."

"Thank you for protecting us."

Rhasalis began tugging Serhis away. "If you're going to fly, then I need to do some work. We've got to do something about those gold wings. They are too reflective, especially with the moon out."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I look like a demon."

Serhis looked himself over in the large mirror upstairs with the others all around him. He had put his regular cloths aside as the others had coated him with thick piles of soot from the fireplace. His wings no longer had their shiny luster and the only spot of color on him was his gold eyes, which added to the effect.

"A very small demon, but that's a good thing. If you do get spotted, they probably don't want to shoot at you," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"I would have said a dust mephit," Xet said, referring to the tiny imps made of a certain substance animated by magical energy.

"The idea is not to get spotted at all," Rhasalis viewed her handiwork. "Hmm, no good. In the sky, complete black is going to attract attention." Again, Serhis and everyone around him held their collective breaths as Rhasalis threw a light coat of gray ash on him. It was enough to make him look vaguely unreal. Satisfied, she nodded in approval.

"I just hope it doesn't all fall off when he starts flying," Baous worried.

"It shouldn't, it's going to be very difficult to shake or wash loose," Rhasalis said.

"What? Really? You better help me when I come back then, it's already itchy," Serhis had to stop himself from scratching his scales.

"The faster you do it, the better," Iskdiwercaesin opened the window for him. "I don't see anyone on the street. You're clear."

Taking a deep breath, Serhis was already having second thoughts about jumping out, but it was too late for that. Running up and out, he waited until the last moment before spreading his wings, not wanting to slam into the sides of the window if he opened up too early. And almost hit the building on the opposite end for his caution. Flapping frantically to gain altitude, he swore he felt the tiles scratch the cloth wrapped around him as he cleared the roof, then felt the chill of the wind lift him up into the night sky.

He risked a glance behind him and saw the window shut, heard no shouts of alarm or arrows aimed upwards, and headed for the guardhouse, the message written by Danward tucked in the cloth.

Carefully keeping himself high above, he soon spotted the guardhouse and safety. At least until arrows from the place started coming towards him.

"Ack! Stop! Stop! Message from Captain Vidbacal!" he yelled out. Another two arrows flew past, but he could see someone ordering them to stop. Circling one more time to make sure they had completely stopped firing, he descended towards the one that gave the order, trying to slow down and appear as non-threatening as possible. Flapping hard as he came down, he formed a light cloud of ash as he landed. The archers may have had orders to stop firing, but all of them were watching him warily and had drawn short swords.

"What are you, creature? And what is the message?" It was a female voice underneath the helmet that spoke to him. It reminded Serhis of Xephil, it held the same authority, but the voice was somewhat higher in tone and pitch and she was a head shorter than the Captain of the Natade Guard.

"I am Serhis, the kobold. Just really dusty," he explained as he pulled out the message and held it forward. She tilted her head down to look at the message and took it from him, cautiously opening it, the back covered in Serhis' ash hand prints.

After checking it's contents, she put it into her pack. "It's legitimate," she said, to the relief of the archers around them. It was only marginal, as they turned back to the outside, watching for movement and danger. "I'm Sergeant Stia, Captain Vidbacal is my superior."

"Did the message explain everything?"

"Enough. If you're acting as messenger, then I'd like to relay a few more messages, one to the captain and another to whoever's in charge of the inner defenses. We're holding out so far, but one good shove from all sides and we're done for."

"I can do that," Serhis replied.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time he reached the merchant's house again, Serhis was completely exhausted. As the window opened for him, he descended too fast, the burning fatigue from his wings draining each gasp of air he took in. Again, Baous was almost knocked down as he caught Serhis. "Whoa! Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"Tired. Really tired."

"The message? Did you run into trouble?" Danward quickly shut the window.

"Only trouble from twitchy archers. Message delivered, then a lot more," Serhis held up two letters, one from the sergeant, the other from the lieutenant he met on the wall.

"Looks like you made it alright." Taking the soot covered letters, he read the sergeant's first, then the lieutenant's. Serhis didn't know what the messages contain, he only knew they were important and critical in turning the battle. At least, he hoped they were.

"Here, some water," Baous offered a cup. "You might want to rinse out your mouth before you swallow any."

Serhis was well aware of that as he raised the cup, but his arms were shaking from the effort and spilled a few drops. "Maybe I should sleep first..." he began to doze off.

"Hold on, let's get you a warm bath first, then you can sleep," Rhasalis said. "Otherwise, you're going to be itchy all over by the time you wake up."

Serhis wasn't about to object. He could feel the tiny sands of ash all over. He most certainly wanted to clear his nose, he had been holding off the impulse to sneeze the whole time. "It was a nice job of camouflage. No one saw me until I was really close."

Rhasalis took the compliment with a small smile. "I do my best. Now to the bath with you."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sleep did not come easy, but at least they found some comfort in knowing that there were sentries keeping watch. It helped that Serhis and Rhasalis had trapped all the entrances, rather than only their bedroom, a precaution they all hoped wouldn't be needed. Even as the sun rose, their situation had improved little.

"Captain, what is plan?" Serhis asked as he climbed up the stairs to the office Danward has taken over.

"That's what I'm hoping to find out today. The sergeant and the lieutenant both said that we'd receive orders from Lord Ligain and wait at a secure location first. I don't know if this counts as a secure position, but I'm not moving know that I know there is a plan."

"What we looking for? More light signal? Flags? No need for me to fly I hope, too easy to see."

Danward shrugged. "I doubt it'll be sent out in the open like that, but I have watchers looking anyway. Beats me on how they're going to send anything to us here."

"Open up and you'll find out," a voice belonging to no one spoke.

Everyone looked around, searching for the source. "A sending spell?" Baous suggested.

"To everyone? Not likely, too much effort. Now open up," the voice said again, this time they could tell it was coming from the window, two taps confirming their suspicion.

"Sir?" Henry looked at Danward as edged towards the window.

"Open it. If it's one of Searflint's, we're buggered anyway."

The window shutters were pushed aside and Henry stood out of the way, but no one could be seen. Obviously it was a spell of invisibility, but instead of the sounds of boots of their mysterious messenger landing on the floor, they heard flapping and rustling paper as the scrolls on the office desk were blown away.

"Oh. Oh, it's the raven," Baous made the connection.

As if in answer, the large black bird appeared on the desk at it dismissed the spell, the raven oddly colored with a tinge of red on its wingtips and head. "You've heard about me? How pleasant."

Iskdiwercaesin was closely observing the raven. "You're not just some animal messenger, enchanted only to deliver, and you smell a little off. A familiar?"

Xet also was looking closely. "But familiars can't speak to anyone else except others of their kind or their masters, unless this one's been enchanted." Many spell casters had an familiar, animals which had bonds between the mage, granting them intelligence as the mage gained a measure of the animal's in return. Iskdiwercaesin and Xet themselves could have their own, but hadn't had reason to.

"The ability to talk is just the permanent one. Right now, I've got so many protection spells against arrows and detection, I'm surprised I'm not glowing," the raven made use of his gift of speech.

"You can talk about it later. Aawel, I assume you're the one with our orders from Lord Ligain," Danward must have heard from the raven before, Serhis assumed, since he knew his name.

"Ah right, your orders," Aawel hopped as he turned to face the Danward. "I don't think I need to tell you how deep in trouble you are. Half of Yelec's force is trying to find a way through the inner walls after they got pushed out the first time, but the other half is gutting everything else outside it. That means you. They're probably going to start another attack on the places that are still being held, everyone except you, since they don't know you're even here. All the soldiers have to consolidate and they can't do that with all those enemies around their defensive positions. The forces at Viander have orders to break out, but are expected to meet heavy resistance. You're going to hit the enemy in the back while they're busy with the ones from Viander. Sure, you don't have as many as them, but you've got the kobolds and the dragon, so it'll work out. After that, well, it depends on the situation."

"That doesn't sound like much of a plan," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"What can I say, Kaeis is making things up as he goes along. At least, that's how I see it," Aawel said.

"When do we attack? Viander Court's a long way's away and we might run into trouble," Danward asked.

"You've got half an hour. I wouldn't expect running into anything like patrols, it looks like Searflint's got everyone attacking us rather than let them loot. Still, if you're feeling nervous, just let the one with the wings here get on the roofs and spot for you."

"Me? Why not you? You much smaller and hard to see. And not a kobold." Serhis added.

"Look, you're friend here recognized me just by guessing, right? Guess what the bandits are going to do if they see a raven. Well, they probably couldn't hit me, but it'll still tip them off that something's up. I even saw a few of their archers picking off the pigeons. I'm probably as well known as you bunch."

"What about Searflint? Know where he is?"

"That I do. He's holed up in the arena, since that's where most of the prisoners were held, at least until they got out."

"What I'd like to know is how Kaeis didn't find out about their plans to spring them loose," Iskdiwercaesin said. "I really doubt he didn't interrogate them, especially the leaders."

"Don't ask me, I'm not his familiar. He usually doesn't listen to my opinions either, so what do I know?"

"You can ask him later, after we're done helping my sergeant out of that mess," Danward picked up his equipment.

"Now, if one of you can use the invisibility scroll on me, I'll be on my way," Aawel lifted up an avian leg, a bit of parchment coiled around it. Xet obliged and the sound of flapping out the window and the scattering of papers again was all that marked his passage.

"What about everybody else?" Baous pointed downstairs.

"They'll be fine. Since Searflint's mustering up his forces to hunt us down instead of letting them pillage, we're probably putting them more in danger by staying near them. When we've secured the guard station, we can send a runner to get them and bring them to safety. It's safer behind the inner walls, but since they'd need to get past the attackers, it's not a good idea." All of soldiers around him fully prepared, Danward took one more look out onto the street. "Like Aawel said though, it shouldn't be too hard with all of you supporting us."

"Not like we have anything better to do since we can't leave while the whole place is under siege," Iskdiwercaesin said. Danward ignored the grumbling and laid out an attack plan on the map.

Not everyone was happy about the soldiers leaving them, but there wasn't much they could do about that. With Serhis on the roofs and Rhasalis in the streets, they went swiftly towards their destination.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As far as battles went, this one was part of the few that actually went according to plan and wasn't a trap. They didn't run into any stray raiders on the street during their progress through the town, avoiding known locations where they had concentrated. Nearing the guardhouse, they could plainly hear the battle before they could see it. Without hesitation, everybody rushed down the street towards the fighting, ensnaring Searflint's bandits between Danward and Sergeant Stia's, but not before Xet and Iskdiwercaesin soften them up in the usual way.

Sergeant Stia, with dents and scrapes on her armor, approached them while the other soldiers finished mopping up. "Captain Vidbacal," she saluted. "Reporting with thirty soldiers and guards, six of them injured, four of those walking wounded.

"You did well sergeant," Danward replied. "We only have minor injuries. Serhis, can you see to them."

Serhis nodded. "Can you show me to them?"

Even behind her helmet, he could tell she was a little surprised. "You are the same kobold from last night? You must be, I don't see any others with wings. You look much differently in the daylight."

"Just something for the night," Rhasalis answered for him. Healer's kit in hand, Serhis applied bandages and ointments to the injured, only using magic for the critically injured, since he had to conserve in the event of emergencies. Since the battle for Tiasvern was still going, that was more than likely to happen.

"Sir, your orders?" the sergeant asked.

"I think I'm to find out myself," Danward looked up to a raven descending towards them.

Settling down on Danward's helmet, Aawel balanced on the rough surface. "Seems that went well. I suppose you want to know what to do next?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Danward said. "And get off of there."

"Give me a break, I've been flying around and delivering messages all morning. I won't crap on you, I promise. Now, you just got to keep bringing all our forces together. Head to the nearest barracks or guardhouse, avoid their strongest, get more people together, rinse, wash, and repeat. It's that simple."

"It never that simple," Serhis said. "They not going to stand for us getting stronger."

"I wasn't finished. After you've picked up enough reinforcements, say about what you've got now, you're going after Searflint himself."

"And that will win the battle for us?" Henry asked hopefully.

"I don't think it'll be over that quick, but it'll really help with him dead. With bandit lords, they usually don't pick out a successor beforehand. It's usually a quick way to get killed. All the big boys under him are probably going to try and take control, and then that's going to screw up any chance they're going to work together."

"First, we have to get to him," Rhasalis stated.

"Don't let me stop you, good luck." Taking wing, the raven went over the buildings once more.

Crossing the town in a wide arc, they made their way from to guardhouses and barracks, strengthening their own numbers while depriving more to the bandits. They managed to free three other groups of soldiers from their besieged positions, but twice, they arrived too late, the attackers having forced a hole in the defenses. They still fought on, if not for the memory of the fallen, then to keep the bandits from heading to another place and killing even more.

Serhis was beginning to feel numb from the constant fighting, having to fire and reload his crossbow when not occupied with tending to the wounded, and insistently worrying about his friends. He didn't doubt their abilities, not in the least, but he always was afraid that his string of good luck would run out, that he couldn't heal an injury that was too severe, that me might be too far away and couldn't reach them before shock and blood loss took its toll, but they had to keep fighting, had to keep placing themselves in danger. They were too deep in this already, there was little way out now. Was this what they called a siege mentality? thought Serhis.

"Serhis, you think we have enough people with us?" Xet asked as they took a short break after their last battle.

"I hope so. I want to end this quickly."

"Things have been going smoothly at least. Only had two fireballs today." Xet had been conserving his best spells during the course of the fighting, Iskdiwercaesin had been more than willing to breathe acid almost constantly. The wyrmling would probably demand a feast when it was all over. Aside from worrying about his friend's state of health, Serhis was also worrying about how they would take the strain of the fighting. Fortunately, they were in good spirits. Unfortunately, they seemed to be in too high spirits for Serhis' liking, casually joking about how many bandits they could group in a single blast. He didn't need to worry about Rhasalis, he knew her well and that she would take things in stride. Serhis' main concern was for Baous. Even now, the kobold was hunched over as he sat down, tired, but uninjured.

"I think it's my turn to ask if something's wrong." Baous look slightly dazed as he saw Serhis approach.

"No, just... I don't know," Baous replied, the war hammer haft gripped in his fingers. "I don't like all this fighting. It's just that I expected us to be farther away from here by now."

"We'll get out, I know it," Serhis assured him. "We have to endure this a little longer, we have others willing to fight that horror-maker Searflint and his cruel partners."

Baous didn't respond for a while, his thoughts elsewhere. "Serhis, do you have any of those sending scrolls left? I want to send a letter to my parents."

Serhis shook his head. "I'm all out. We used the last one a week ago. I thought that maybe I could try using the spell without a scrolls after we left, but I don't think I can yet." Serhis knew he wasn't making Baous feel any better. "What were you going to tell them? Saying that we are in the middle of a siege is going to worry them, so wait until I can send them a message on my own, after we leave. At least they'll know we're safe."

"I can wait that long," Baous sighed and stood up, flexing his fingers to get rid of the cramp from wielding.

"Everyone rested up? Good!" Danward's voice could be heard all around the recently liberated barracks. "We're going to be tearing the heart out of the bandit's leadership, what do you say to that?!" A series of shouts and cheers resounded inside and outside the building, soldiers eager to bring an end to the fighting, guards determined to defend their homes, and a few brave souls that took up arms and displayed enough competence that Danward allowed them to keep fighting. "It's going to be tough, I can tell you that much, we're hitting them where they're strongest, but when we bring them down, take a guess what the other bastards are going to think, us taking on their best and winning. They'll crap their pants and run, that's what!" Laughs joined the cheers, everyone around him was being infected by his rowdy humor and spirit. They would need it, thought Serhis. "We'll drive them out of our homes, then out of the streets, out of the walls, out of town, and to the very edge of existence if we wanted to! All they need to do is give me a good reason, and I don't need much of one. Let's give them all we got!" Soldiers and guards saluted, others banged weapons against shields or let out a war cry. Serhis and the others calmly stood up and walked next to Danward, ready to head where the fighting was thickest and change the tide of battle.

The walk towards the arena was mostly quiet, everyone listening closely for signs of an ambush or a cry of alarm. Again, the noise of battles elsewhere could still be heard. They could only have faith that the others stayed alive as they went towards another enemy. Asking about the arena, Danward explained the layout of the structure to the kobolds and dragon, the simple gray stone brick building would be difficult to approach with it's high walls and despite its numerous entrances, they were all likely to be closed shut and guarded. Entering the place, it was likely to get easier, since the place was designed to allow for ease of access to incoming fans. They didn't know where Yelec Searflint might be, but Serhis ventured that someone of like him would probably be where it was easy to observe the whole arena while being considered important. Danward suggested the Kaeis' private viewing area, next to the main fighting area, but built high enough for easy viewing. Serhis didn't want to know any more than that, the whole purpose of the arena made him feel ill at ease. If the place was irreparably damaged during the fighting, he wouldn't mind.

It wasn't long before they heard the shouts of alarm from near the arena, their large group was easily seen from the streets. Bandits could be seen on the arena walls and the surrounding buildings which they had occupied for the night. Maybe the original inhabitants weren't home at the time, Serhis thought. Wishful thinking wasn't going to change much here, so he focused on the matter at hand. Praying in Draconic, he gave strength, speed, and protection to his friends and everyone else around him, giving them a little boost that might mean the difference between a narrow miss and a painful blow.

"Wow. There's a lot of them," Baous said as they approached. Many of the bandits were in the streets, eager for a fight, while others remained on the walls and in the buildings, arrows and crossbows ready to fire. It would their turn to hold a defensive position.

"I'm more worried about how we're going to get inside," Xet said. "We used all our dither bombs, right? I hope you're not going to try flying up to the walls to open the gates Serhis, you'd be pincushion if you tried."

"I have something else as a backup," Serhis replied. "We only have to reach the walls."

"I had imagined we would need ladders, but the portable ram will have to do," Danward said to Sergeant Stia, attracting their attention. They had managed to find one in the barracks they had just saved, giving them a method to break through the arena gates. It wasn't as large or well protected as the one the bandits had wheeled out against them earlier, it was essentially a large piece of timber with handholds and an iron head, but it had to do.

"That's all we have sir. We'll just have to keep constant fire on them while we bash it down."

"Or dragon's breath. As long as this bunch can get inside and keep the gates open, we'll get him."

"Sir? Are we really trusting the course of the battle to them?" she asked.

"They've already gotten out of a number of jams and here they're trying to get into one. They'll get the job done."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Iskdiwercaesin replied, and for once that line wasn't sarcastic. "How about I go up and tell them what a bad idea it is to line up for us like that?" Danward nodded once, readied his sword, then began the attack.

Baous and Iskdiwercaesin were with the ones at the front of the assault, the green dragon unleashing a torrent of acid mere feet in front of the line of brigands. At the same time, Xet let loose one fireball, this place the whole reason he had been holding back in the previous battles, weakening the front line even further. The kobolds weren't far behind the front, giving support by firing bolts and arrows at the surrounding building that housed bandit archers. Under the harsh barrage of fire and acid, the forward line of the bandits crumbled, forced to withdraw from the streets.

"Things are going our way," Xet was relieved.

No sooner had he said that when they saw a spark of fire from above the walls race towards them and an explosion of heat and fire swept over them and others near them. Serhis had flung himself to the side, still feeling the heat scorch his scales while Rhasalis had evaded the explosion completely. Unfortunately, Xet hadn't gotten out of the way and was barely standing, swaying slightly as he kept his balance.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?!" Iskdiwercaesin yelled back before breathing towards the origin of the fireball, hoping to hit the enemy mage, but it was likely that whoever had done that had ducked behind the cover of the wall again. Still, he managed to pick off a few archers that had stuck their heads up at the wrong time.

Serhis channeled soothing energy to Xet, watching as the burns faded from his friend's hide. "Thank," Xet sighed.

"That the best you can do?! Try that again, try it!" Serhis saw as Danward leveled his crossbow towards the walls. Despite having been in the center of the blast, Danward had stood his ground, not even bothering to avoid the hit and a large scorch mark decorated the center of his armor, his beard and facial hair burned away to show numerous scars previously hidden. Serhis wondered exactly how many wars had this man been a veteran in before "settling down" to being a guard captain. Either the mage had no fireballs left or didn't feel like being a target, no more spells were being sent their way.

"Go, go," Rhasalis pulled Serhis and Xet towards the opening made by the soldiers to the walls. As they ran towards the stone arena, a familiar and unwanted figure could be seen up above. Harick was directing a number of archers and had spotted them.

"Found you, little kobolds, I've been looking for you! You're all going to suffer and die!" he swore as he directed his fire at them. Ducking and weaving, Serhis almost reached the wall, then was sent reeling back as an arrow hit his chest.

"Serhis!" His hatch mates pulled him forward, close to the wall and out of Harick's line-of-sight.

"I'm. Fine," Serhis wheezed. Feeling around the arrow shaft, he felt no blood, the arrow head had penetrated the chain mail, but his own scaly hide had stopped it from going further. He could see the scratch it had left as he tossed the arrow aside.

"That's going to leave a mark," Baous sighed in relief as he joined them next to the wall.

"It's go away the next time I shed," Serhis inhaled deeply, forcing air into his lungs.

"So what were you planning? Because we're not going to last long out here," Iskdiwercaesin slashed at a bandit that had gotten too close. They might have pushed the bandits from the street leading to the arena, but now that they stood in the intersection, the bandits were easily able to flank their forces and it the archers were making a killing field of the street.

"No you aren't, so give up!" They heard Harick shout at them again, determined to give them as much of a hard time as possible. "I give you a quick death. It won't be painless, but I'm not going to make the same mistake of doing it slowly! You should be grateful, you deserve to be skinned alive for everything you've done to me!"

"Self centered prick," Iskdiwercaesin said, and the others were inclined to agree.

"Keep that ram covered!" Sergeant Stia shouted as she hacked her way forward. A deep *thud* announced that the ram had connected with the arena doors, but what they really wanted to hear was it splitting and cracking open. Even with the soldiers' best efforts, some on the battering ram got hit and had to be dragged back so they wouldn't be trampled on the next push. They might have a temporary advantage in numbers, but everyone was starting to become reluctant to become a target if they joined the ramming team, and the advantage wasn't going to last as soon as all the bandits around them rallied.

"Get over here you lugs! Aim down, aim down!" They could hear Harick shouting orders of his own behind the sound of arrows buzzing past in the air around them. "You're all going to die down there, you hear?! But not before you bleed out on the stones first, or better, when I come down there myself, then you're going to entertain me and the boys for a good long time, then you'll die!" The orders changed to taunts, Harick giving vivid descriptions of the depravity in store for them all while he rained death down below.

One of the guards on the ram was felled with an arrow. Sergeant Stia had to drag the injured man away with one hand while lifting a shield the other direction. "This man needs help!"

"That bastard's beyond help! You all are! I'm going to twist that arrow in his guts later, then pull it out with all the stuff wrapped around it and stick it back in somewhere else, maybe his eyes!" Harick bellowed.

"You're disgusting!" she shouted back at him as she and Baous stood next to Serhis, using their shields to block incoming shots as the kobold removed the arrow.

"That's fun! You better not be dead when I get around to you," whether he meant her or the kobolds, it didn't matter anymore. "Maybe if you beg in the right way, I'll end things quick for you, since there's so many to get around to later."

"How thick is door?" Serhis had to stand on the man's hands to stop him from struggling as he plucked out the arrow with little grace, his own claws wrapping bandages around the bleeding wound.

"It shouldn't take much more, but they likely barricaded it," the sergeant informed him as an arrow was caught on her shield, adding to the small collection already on it.

"Can't wait to shut him up," Iskdiwercaesin growled.

"How do you want it done? A throat cut or pierced lungs?" Rhasalis asked. It was morbid questions like those that reminded Serhis that she was a completely different person when in a fight.

"It doesn't matter, just get him!"

"What about them?!" Xet pointed to one side of the street as a horde of bandits surged their way.

"More the other way!" Baous indicated the opposite street as even more came forward. They had come from inside the arena itself, using the other entrances unseen to sweep around embattled entrance. As it stood, the soldiers and kobolds were now in the center of the three way intersection with the bandits holding two of the streets. Anyone that was staying there was going to get crushed by the flanking forces.

"Damn it, we have to pull back!" Sergeant Stia cursed. Behind them, Danward was already ordering the archers and crossbowmen to aim for the reinforcements, but that wouldn't be enough. They had to retreat, giving up ground and losing access to the arena gates.

"Run, scurry away!" Up above, Harick cackled with sadistic laughter and glee, aiming directly towards the kobolds and dragon, despite a bad angle and the constant need to duck back before a return shot could hit him.

"Wait, I still can do something!" Serhis raced forward, diving out of the way as another arrow meant for him struck stone.

"You can't do shit! Do you know how annoying you are? It's no good when I find out that you can fix up someone else's hurt, it doesn't make it feel permanent! The whole point of making you suffer was to make it hurt and now I see you with everything whole! Where's all the effort gone? Next time, I'm going to find out which of your pals screams the longest and makes you cringe the most! You'll die last and you still won't be able to do shit! Get them boys, give 'em grief!"

As the two groups surged forward, yelling death and fury, Serhis stood his ground. Harick's constant threats and taunts were infuriating to listen to, his callous desire to cause pain for his own entertainment even more so. He was tired of the fighting, the long, drawn out chase, and needed it to end. They had to win, they had to finish this here or never at all, and Serhis wasn't about to lose this chance to get so close only to be driven back. Claws wrapping around the Star, he went forward and took his chance.

Stone shifted and the ground moved, cobblestone and mortar flowed like clay around Serhis and those around him. He concentrated, shaping the stone with his will and Bahamut's power, using the wall of the arena and the street around his feet as material for a new wall, rising right on the intersection between the soldiers and the bandits, three meters thick nearly three times as high, with stairs on the inside and the tops had crenels to allow archers to fire back with some protection. It was nowhere near as high as the walls of the arena, but it would take a skilled athlete to get over the Serhis' walls uncontested.

"Get up those walls!" Sergeant Stia was quick to take advantage of the shift in the battlefield. The brigands weren't sure how to proceed, some going back the way they came, others still charging forward heedless of the obstruction.

"We get inside," Serhis announced as the last of the stone returned to its solid nature, the wall of the arena next to the damaged arena gate now had a hole the size of a troll in it and would easily allow a human to pass through. And a human did go through it, a bandit from the other side trying to see what had made the hole. The unfortunate soul was quickly pulled out by the battering ram team as more bandits from the other side tried to plug up the hole, but they hadn't prepared for this. Most of their preparations and barricades were around the gate and this quick breach of defenses had fouled it up.

"You could do that? Why'd you take so long?!" Iskdiwercaesin blasted the inside of the breach, clearing a path.

"I needed to get close enough, had to touch the wall," Serhis said. That spell was mainly for mining around tough stone, but a bit of creative thinking had done wonders here.

"Good job there!" They heard Danward running up to the intersection, bringing the rest of the reinforcements with him. "Take the walls of the arena! They made a mistake coming out here to face us, now it's time we give them a taste! Get to the others gates, keep them out!"

It really did look like a good portion of the bandits had left the arena for their flank attack, leaving the defenders at the gates they had overconfidently thought wouldn't be breached, which was correct as far as the still intact wood was concerned, and the archers unsupported. Outmaneuvered, Harick was screaming for them to get back inside.

Entering the gap in the wall as the last of the defenders fell, the dragon and kobolds stood in a large tunnel with stairs leading upward to the sides and doors next to them, leading further inside.

"You bunch, find Searflint," Danward said to them as he entered.

"Which way?" Serhis quickly.

"The Lord's seat should be up these stairs and further in, but the place is going to be swarming in enemies soon. Try taking the tunnels under the arena, through that door. It's a longer way around, but you probably won't find anyone blocking your way. We'll take care of everything out here, go, go!" If Danward meant that for them or the soldiers around him as he rushed up the stairs, they didn't know. Maybe both.

"Door's open," Rhasalis said as she pushed it open. Serhis didn't even know it was locked from the speed she had picked it. "Everyone prepared?" she asked as they went in.

"Not really. Some healing would be good," Iskdiwercaesin pointed to a number of scrapes and cuts. Baous also had some blood dripping from his fur. A few were deep cuts and Serhis quickly tended to them both with spells. They couldn't afford to be hurt when they confronted Searflint and his bodyguards.

"How much do you have left?" Baous sighed as the bleeding from his arm stopped.

"Enough, I hope."

The door had been to a small tunnel, probably for preparation for fights in the arena. A some pieces of armor and weapons hung on the walls and racks. They were lucky the door had been locked, or everything would have been taken and used against them earlier. A brief search found a few healing potions that were meant for the arena combatants after a match, there one for each of them and the two spares ones were given to Serhis to administer if they needed more.

Passing though another locked door, they entered a tunnel that lead downward underneath the arena, which lead to a barred door, but from their side. Removing it showed why their path there had been obstructed. The chamber they entered smelled of sweat and desperation, cages and manacles lined the walls, some had been pried or broken open. This was where the prisoners had been kept until they had escaped. No one had stayed behind, so the group continued past the empty cages. Another door ahead of them was unlocked and they were in another tunnel that sloped upward, with light at the far end that showed the arena battlegrounds.

Cautiously edging towards the exit of the tunnel, they saw the entirety of the arena. Rows of seats surrounded the arena, rising upwards and towards the outer walls. Across from the tunnel, they could see what Danward had called the Lord's seat, a show box next to the battleground that was shaded and positioned to view everything. The symbol of Tiamat and Kaeis' could be seen on a tapestry hanging from the seat, both had been defaced, but what concerned them the most was who was in the seat. Yelec Searflint had been talking to those next to him in the box, likely about the battle, then saw them from the corner of his vision. Turning to face them, the masked bandit lord took a mace off a table as he looked down.

The two parties stood watching each other for some time, waiting for the other to make the first move. It was Yelec who broke the silence. "What? No dramatic speeches declaring that it's over for me? No indignation for your manipulation?"

"I'm more in favor for just getting to the part where you're dead and we live. I'm not one for speeches," Iskdiwercaesin said.

Looking more closely, Serhis could see six others with Yelec. Three of them were easily recognizable, E, D, and H, the other three Yelec's bodyguards. "Talking not change much here," Serhis said.

"And here I was expecting you'd demand my surrender or something similar. Not that I would take the offer, it's only lead to me getting sacrificed to Ligain's goddess, and I don't like the idea of my soul being used as dragon fodder." From one side of the arena, something caught Yelec's attention as he was speaking and drew Serhis' and the others attention as well.

Harick was sprinting towards Yelec with two other bandits in tow, "Boss, they're inside! We-" The orc slowed down as he saw who was in the arena battleground. "It's those little shits!"

"Your failures regarding these five is starting to annoy me," Yelec said with no little displeasure. "And your personal vendetta cost us the battering ram. We could have been through the inner walls by now if you hadn't taken it for you own use."

"Stuff it Yelec! If I had it my way, they'd have been dead in the forest and rotting by now, but no, you had go and put them in your stupid plan! Hell, even your try to blow them to the abyss with their own stuff didn't work and it barely even scratched Ligain! It's bad enough I had to be captured and they were right in front of me! But no! I had to deal with giving away keys and looking like we weren't losing too badly! Look where your dumb ass plans got us now!"

It was hard to tell what Yelec was thinking behind that mask as Harick vented at him. "Are you challenging my leadership?" he gripped the haft of the mace tightly, his voice low and dangerous, the tone almost resonating with the metal covering his face.

Harick was much easier to read. His teeth were bared and his eyes were almost glazed over with fury, but a small part of him, a bare hint of self-preservation, kept him from challenging him here and now. "No," he said, but they all could here the unsaid 'not yet' that it carried.

"Damn. Here I was hoping they'd start fighting each other right now," Iskdiwercaesin sighed.

"Then we'll correct this mistake now," Yelec redirected his attention back to them. E, D, and H were nodded to Yelec as they sat down in the box, waiting.

"Hey, where are they going?" Baous demanded.

"It's none of your concern. Nothing is," Yelec said back as he and his bodyguards walked out of the box and towards the battlegrounds. Harick approached from his side, eager to spill their blood.

"When I break each of you kobolds, I'm going to start with your limbs, then I'm going to twist, twist, and twist until they come right off," Harick taunted them as he dropped his bow and took a morningstar from his side, "that's if you unlucky enough not to die outright."

Serhis barely heard the taunt, he would not allow himself to get any more riled. If there was going to be any anger, it was letting such a sadistic being live and continue. "By Bahamut's will or as sacrifice to Tiamat, you still going down."

As they faced each other on the arena field, it was Rhasalis that proved the fastest to strike. Her dexterity and speed saw that an arrow hit the mage that was with Harick, the same one that had thrown the fireball at them earlier and this time he didn't have the benefit of cover. He was still standing, but it wouldn't take much to push him the rest of the way.

One of Yelec's bodyguards charged forward, claymore raised as he went directly for Serhis, only to get blocked by Baous as he stood between them. "If you want a fight, you're going to fight me," he challenged the attacker. The bandit didn't reply as he swung full force with the long blade, a clumsy blow that Baous sidestepped.

As Baous and one of the bodyguard were occupied, the other two went forward more cautiously than the first, one sweeping left to attack Iskdiwercaesin, the other right in a bid to hit Rhasalis.

"Not so fast!" Xet shouted, despite them not being able to understand as he ignited a fireball in his hand and tossing it at them. His aim was well on the mark, catching nearly all of the bandits after waiting for them to move enough, the sole exception was Yelec as he jumped out of the way. This proved too much for the opposing mage who had been too slow to respond, his body landing backwards as the feathers on Rhasalis' arrow caught on fire, making a morbid candle. "Hah! Payback!"

The loss of the mage next to Harick only served to infuriate him further and he rushed forward into the melee, bellowing as he went. This time Baous couldn't stop him as he charged past, but Serhis wasn't going to stand still as the morningstar passed over where his head had been. Instead, he had stepped into Yelec's reach, the bandit lord had gotten behind him while Harick had attracted all of Serhis' attention. Yelec's mace lashed out once and the knobbed weapon struck into his side, spinning him. The blow was slightly lessened by the chain mail, but that did nothing for the pain and the air forced out of his lungs.

"He- Help," Serhis wheezed ass he backed away from Harick and Yelec, not even able to retaliate as he tried to avoid getting hit again.

"I've got them!" Xet came to his aid, summoning a swarm of bats to where Serhis had been. Flinging another fireball would have risked hitting practically everyone, the melee was too close. The little winged creatures harassed and harried the two, biting into exposed areas and drawing blood.

"Ghrah! Annoying little rodents, I'll get you!" Harick swore at Xet as he swatted one away from his face.

"No, keep on the winged one, he's their healer!" Yelec shouted. "They'll die quicker that way."

"I want them to suffer first, not die too quickly," Harick responded, but he looked like he was complying.

Baous and Rhasalis had drawn closer together, the pair fighting in tandem against the two bodyguards. Rhasalis had dropped her bow and was using her rapier and dagger, ducking, tumbling, and weaving all around them as she struck at any unprotected back or exposed limb while Baous kept them in place, his war hammer's enchantment ensuring they would get weaker with every strike. Iskdiwercaesin hadn't used his breath earlier, the bandits had charged in too fast, and like Xet, risked hitting the others if he tried using it. Instead, he breathed on the one that charged at him, dousing him in the full spray. It was a surprise to practically everyone that the bodyguard was still upright, but then again, Yelec had likely chosen him for that purpose.

"Looks like your other friends are too busy keeping themselves alive. Now I'll- Ow! fucking bats!" Harick kept swinging the morningstar at the swarm of bats still biting at his face and arms, the little bites making him bleed profusely and disorienting him.

Yelec wasn't as distracted and lunged forward, out of the swarm, his mace swinging fast. Serhis used his pick to block, but the impact still stung his arms and numbed his hands. He wouldn't last under the constant assault, Yelec would keep following him as he back away, he was determined to make him fall.

Fortunately for Serhis, he wasn't bound to stay on the sand. As his feet left the ground and wings flapping, he hoped he kicked up plenty of sand to get into Yelec's eyes. Given a momentary respite in the air, he used it to heal his wounds.

"Ow, shit! How are we going to get him now?!" Harick was still being enveloped by the swarm.

"Then get the one over there," Yelec pointed to Xet, who now realized how exposed he was. Still concentrating on keeping the bats in existence, Xet headed towards Baous and Rhasalis, who had now taken down one of the bodyguards.

As the battle went on underneath him, Serhis would swoop by, touching his friends and healing them before heading back up.

"Aw come on, that's not fair!" the bodyguard complained as the axe wound he just landed on Baous faded away. Those proved to be his last words as Rhasalis slashed two lines down his back.

"Fool! Never mind, you're all still weakened," Yelec said as he faced them. Harick had finally managed to hit enough of the swarm to cause it to dissipate and he drank a healing potion as he stood next to Yelec.

"We might be hurt, be we can still stand," Baous raised his shield towards Yelec. Despite Serhis' best efforts, he couldn't heal every injury and wound. Yelec's bodyguards were tough and heavy handed and had been skilled enough to take any opportunity to strike. Both him and Rhasalis still had lacerations on their arms and legs, Serhis had concentrated on healing the more debilitating injuries.

"And aside from those little bats, we're fine. You should know that we are your betters," Yelec leapt forward to prove his point with Harick next to him. At first, it looked as if they were aiming for Baous, only to divert at the last second to flank Rhasalis.

"I'm in troub-!" Harick couldn't land the morningstar on Rhasalis, but again Yelec took the advantage when she was on her back foot. Her reflexes didn't save her this time as the mace came past, hard, on her head, knocking her sideways.

"Rhasalis!" Xet yelled. Rhasalis didn't stir at his cry. Giving motion to his hands, he flung an arrow of acid towards Yelec and causing severe burns on his arms as he raised them to block the spray. "Serhis, is she alright?!"

"You should worry about yourself," Harick smirked as he and Yelec went around Baous again. Xet barely made a sound as Harick and Yelec swung at him, he barely managed a squeak as the morningstar weaved past and only a small grunt as the mace caught him in the gut. "Heh. That's two of them. Reminds me of earlier, except it was me knocking them down."

Serhis quickly landed and checked Rhasalis. "Is she okay?" Baous asked hurriedly.

Frantically inspecting the head wound, he was exceedingly worried as he saw a little clear fluid mixing with the blood. "Her skull's fractured, but I think I can heal that." Head injuries were extremely hard to diagnose and he could only prayed that when she regained consciousness, there weren't any debilitating effects. As for Xet, he was confident he could fix the internal injuries, but only if he could get to him in time, before the internal bleeding could do more damage. Right now, Yelec and Harick were still standing in their way.

Burning more of his spells, Serhis mended what he could. Her eyes opening and refocusing, she blearily looked at him. "This has to stop happening."

"Us getting beat up? Most definitely," Serhis agreed as he helped her on her feet. "Careful, I did what I could, but the damage was extensive. You're going to need more later."

"You see. That's why you bring down the healer first," Yelec said to Harick. "Aim for him. Grab your bow from the ground if he tries flying again. For now, just get to him."

"I'm not letting you get around me again," Baous declared as he stood next to Serhis and Rhasalis, war hammer ready to swing if they tried that maneuver once more. Even if they didn't, they probably had more tricks to use, they were obviously very coordinated in their attacks. "Iskdi, I'm going to need some help keeping these guys back!"

"A little busy here mutt," Iskdiwercaesin grunted while holding the bodyguard's spear away from his head, the man's tenacity had brought their own duel to a standstill.

Although it was three against two, the odds felt even to them. Though slightly outnumbered, the bandit lord and his second in command were fearsome combatants. Having spent their lives raiding and pillaging and even though it sounded like they had disagreements, they knew how to fight together. They demonstrated it again when Harick moved first, flinging himself headlong towards Baous in a reckless charge, the morningstar smashing into the shield with enough force that the kobold still felt the impact shudder through his arm. He almost missed Yelec using his Harick as a springboard as he launched himself over the both of them and nearly caved Baous' skull in as he dropped, the kobold sidestepping the downward attack. Even though he missed, he had still gotten past Baous.

"You're not very good at defending the weaklings, are you?" Harick goaded Baous, then yelled in pain as he felt a pair of blades lash his legs.

"We can defend ourselves when we need to," Rhasalis said as she danced clear of the morningstar's reach.

As Baous tried to regain his balance, Yelec pressed the attack, the shield easily blocking the first mace strike, but Yelec suddenly turned to the right and stepped forward, sweeping past Baous' guard, catching the exposed kobold in the shoulder with the second hit. Baous did not let the blow go unanswered as he swung around with his war hammer, only barely clipping Yelec's elbow. The barest hit was enough to work, he could tell that the bandit lord's arm responded as if slightly deadened.

Yelec hissed through his teeth. "Enchanted, right? I might have to replace this old mace with that when you're dead."

"You not get chance," Serhis said to get his attention. Yelec only barely turned his head to notice Serhis, but that was also just enough. High pitched ringing filled the arena.

Serhis could have shattered the mace, but it wouldn't work well, Yelec seemed the type to have spare weapons on him. The studded leather he wore wasn't an option and it wouldn't make him any less dangerous. Instead, he aimed for something more personal.

The sudden ringing was quickly replaced with shouts of pain as Yelec held his face, a bleeding mess as the metal mask meant to hide and protect breaking into large shards and had peppering it with large gashes. Even with the mask gone, the resulting wounds now obstructed any attempt to see what he looked like and Serhis could only wonder what the cruel man had been hiding. It wouldn't be something he would wonder or care about later.

"Boss! You still with me?!" Harick shouted.

Yelec never got the chance to respond. With his hands still covering his face, he didn't see Baous swing the war hammer. Yelec's body fell, his broken, bloody hands still clutching his face. "That's for Rhasalis and Xet."

Aside from the lone bodyguard still embroiled in his battle with Iskdiwercaesin, Harick was now alone. That didn't seem to faze him. "Well shit. I'll never know what if he was piss ugly now. Guess I'm in charge of things from now on," he grinned.

He wasn't the slightest bit upset over Yelec's death. "You care about no one but yourself, do you?" Serhis said with disgust.

"It was going to happen sooner or later. Hells, it would have been me smashing his face in if I thought I could get away with it and had enough men to follow me. No more stupid plans for 'glory' and 'fame', I'm going to run this gang like it's suppose to. Now that he's dead, everyone's going to be bowing to me."

"No one do any bowing when you captured," Serhis said.

"You still think you can capture me? Ha, you kobolds really are that stupid."

"You're calling us stupid? You've now outnumbered and outmaneuvered," Rhasalis pointed out.

Harick's grin stayed on his face as his hand reached quickly into his pocket, only going away as he drank something from a vial and only getting bigger when Baous had tried to strike while he was drinking. "I've been saving that for a long time. Promised myself I'd only use it on a special occasion when I really, really needed it. I suppose that's today," he smirked as he tossed down the empty vial. "And here I thought I didn't because you were all pathetic wimps."

"What was that you drink?" Serhis demanded.

"How about you find out!" Harick laughed as he stepped forward with unnatural swiftness and celerity, he had taken a draught that increased speed. Once, twice, then three times, his morningstar battered Baous, the spikes catching him in the legs, arms, and in the side, the beleaguered kobold trying to shield his head from the many blows. Rhasalis didn't stand by as Harick pummeled Baous, her clawed feet leaving deep rifts in the sand as she stepped to one side of the orc, her blade cutting at his knees again, but despite the previous wounds, he was ready for her this time and aided by the potion as he jumped away.

"That's getting annoying, you know that?" Harick casually talked to them as he stood his ground. "I let you keep doing that, I might not win."

"You really think you can?" Baous kept his distance as he regained his balance, taking a defensive stance as he held his shield at the ready.

Serhis went quickly to his side, relieving him of his recent injuries. "I don't have much left to heal you. I have to save some for Xet," he said in Draconic, it wouldn't do them any good to let Harick know how hard pressed they were now.

Harick didn't stand still as the kobolds regrouped. Instead of charging at them again with another assault, he ran to the far end of the arena, forcing them to pursue. As they caught up, he had drunk another vial, whose effects were far more obvious. As they got closer, they could see his skin turn the color of granite, the muscles on his arms covered with a thick layer of stone with cracks showing where his joints were. "And there goes another one I've been saving. Doesn't matter though, I'll have all I'll want after I'm done picking my share of the loot from this place."

"Keep talking, that way that stone skin won't matter when my hammer goes through the back of your mouth," Baous said, trying to hide his apprehension. It was going to be significantly harder to injure Harick now without the aid of magic, and unless he wanted to chip away at that stone until it was all gone, it was going to stay that way. His charge at Harick proved that, the war hammer barely knocking away a chunk as it landed, the life wounding enchantment unable to work without direct contact.

"You talk big, but I wonder how long that'll last after you winged friend there goes down" Harick looked over Baous' shoulder.

Serhis had reached Xet while the others kept Harick occupied and was helping the sorcerer to his feet, Xet cradling his stomach as he rose. "Don't move too much, more healing is going to be needed."

"I think I taste blood and it feels like the worse stomach ache ever. How bad- look out!" Xet's groan turned in a shout of warning as Harick sped around Baous and Rhasalis again, his morningstar clipping Serhis' arm and smeared blood over the round head and spikes.

"Aieurgh!" Serhis' arm bled as he backed away.

"Nice of you to separate yourself from the others. Makes it so much easier. Stupid move."

Why sadistic malefactors like Harick felt the need to constantly degrade their enemies, Serhis could only guess why, but he didn't need to figure it out to shut them up. "Never stupid to help friend. You not understand that."

"I can barely understand anything you're saying," Harick said as he was pushed forward. Rhasalis had stuck the rapier in his back, the tip burying into the stone, but hadn't met flesh. She jumped back as Harick almost casually grabbed for the blade. "I didn't even feel that one. Come on, make it easier on yourselves. I've got a gang to run so if you'll give up now, I can finish killing you all instead of slowly torturing all of you. I do have more potions and you're healer isn't going to last."

"I'm not giving up!" Baous sprinting forward as Harick turned to meet the charge, Baous didn't hit this time, the stone surrounding not even slowing the newly made bandit lord as he took a step back. "Everyone stay together. He's not going to break us apart this time," Baous stood in front of the others.

"I don't even have to try. I can kill your healer before the speed goes away, then you're all screwed. I've got another for the speed if that wears off, so no worries for me. See what I mean, you can't beat me."

"He's not the only one with stuff prepared for emergencies," Xet said as he pulled out a scroll, Harick's taunts and ridicules going past uncomprehending ears. The arcane writing glowed as he recited the activation words.

Harick didn't need to understand Draconic to know that he was doing something, and once more, his feet kicked up sand as he went around. This time, Baous hadn't stood his ground. Leaping back, Baous felt the slam of the morningstar against his shield, intercepting the blow meant for Xet before he could be interrupted, making Harick spit and curse.

He had good reason for it, as a ethereal glow surrounded both him and the scroll Xet held. Then, nothing.

Harick raised an arm to block whatever arcane energy he thought was going to envelope him, but as he felt nothing, he laughed. "What was that? If that's some devastating spell turn your enemies into frogs or scare 'em enough and make them crap their pants, it ain't working."

If Rhasalis had been a more vocal person, she might have said, "look again." She might have been sporting enough to let him know that he had stupidly forgotten to cover his back from her again. Like Serhis, she wasn't fair. Instead, she simply pushed the rapier into his back again and Harick's cry rung throughout the arena, it's very purpose to amplify the sound.

"AUURGH!" Harick twisted around to face Rhasalis as she stood ready, ready to punish another mistake.

"Dispelling can be as painful," Serhis said.

"I hit the ribcage, didn't puncture a lung. Sorry Iskdiwercaesin," Rhasalis said.

"No, no pro'em," the green dragon rasped as he tried to close his jaws around the last bodyguard's head, his hands straining to keep them open. "I 'ike some help whe' you're done. 'ike, soon?"

"You didn't get rid of the other one!" Harick roared as he kept up his attacks with the same speed as before. "It just means I gotta beat the shit out of you faster!"

"You not going to hurt anyone anymore!" Serhis snapped as he joined the fray and tried to jam it into his foot, only to hit sand. Harick swung the morningstar around madly, indiscriminant, but would favor striking at Serhis above all others when he had a chance.

Enraged at how badly things had turned, he babbled, his tirade relentless while he fought. "I'll make your friends eat your skin when I'm done, then make them eat the others stomachs! After that, I want to see how far their guts can stretch and how long they'll stay alive all the while! You're going to- AAAUUGHEUAH!"

"You do nothing. No more," Serhis said as he tried pulled out the pick from the hand carrying the morningstar, Harick was starting to succumbing to his injuries. Baous had managed to hit him a few more times, the orc was physically robust, but it hadn't been enough. Even with the pick imbedded in the hand, the morningstar remained tightly gripped. With a fell roar, Harick pulled, making Serhis stumbled forward, pick still in hand, as the orc made one more try to smash the kobold's skull in. Serhis dropped on the sand to avoid the hit, but lost his grip on the pick, leaving it stuck in Harick's hand.

Raising his injured hand, Harick brought it down hard with a roar, only to have Baous swing at his side, knocking the blow aside as the hammer smashed into the hand. The roar of bloodlust turned into one of rage, fury, and agony. The force of the blow had ripped the pick out of the hand. One the bloody sand, next to the morningstar, laid the pick, still stuck to part of Harick's hand. As Harick scrambled backwards and away from them, he grasped his bleeding palm with his still good hand, they could see that it was missing the bottom two fingers.

"We're not through, you hear?! I swear I'll find you, I swear! I SWEAR! By any way, you'll know I killed you all!" He had no more taunts, no more insults as he cursed their names with a voice filled with pain. With only a little bit of the speed potion left in him, he sped away, out of the arena.

"We've got to catch him!" Xet started running after him, but Rhasalis held him back.

"No, he's too fast. Even badly injured as he is, he'll still get away. Besides, we have to tend to your injuries and help Iskdiwercaesin," she said as she held her own head with a grimace.

Rhasalis spoke too soon as Iskdiwercaesin breathed one more time on the tenacious bodyguard, making him collapse in a heap. Somehow, they weren't surprised at all to see him still breathing, if gravely injured. "Sheesh! Where did Yelec find these guys, in a troll den?! If you still want to help...," Iskdiwercaesin turned around, showing a spear going clean through his tail. "Hurry up, it hurts like all hells," he grit his teeth. Breaking the spear near the wound, Baous got a full course in Draconic insults and curses as he pulled.

"Is that it then? We're done here?" Rhasalis asked.

"I think so. I've got little fight left in me," Serhis sighed as he gathered his pick from the sand, try not to stare at the dismembered digits that were next to it, then went to deal with the tail. As he looked up, he saw Danward and many other soldiers sprint towards them from the upper stands.

"The big damn heroes are late for their big damn entrance!" Iskdiwercaesin groaned as the wound closed.

"We just got through, the bandits are running," Danward words were rushed, he was breathing hard after his own fight. "Where's Yelec? Did he get away?"

"There," Serhis pointed to the bandit lord's remains.

Danward used his sword to push the hands away. "You sure it's him?"

"Yes. Very sure."

Danward tilted the head so that it faced the ground. "Must have pummeled his face in good to break that mask. Not that I'm complaining the scum's dead."

"Serhis helped," Baous said.

Danward raised an eyebrow in slight surprise as he looked at Baous, still holding his war hammer, then to Serhis. "That little fellow there is pretty strong."

"Don't mind me. What now?" Serhis asked.

"We're chasing down the last of the stragglers here. What we need to do now is let word out that Searflint's dead."

"I don't think we have to," Serhis looked back at the Lord's seat. The three spymasters had left sometime during the fighting.

"With their leader gone, things are going to get much easier. Especially since Lord Ligain's sending us reinforcements."

"How? I thought had trouble of own at inner walls?"

"Go see for yourself," Danward pointed up to the top of the arena walls. Climbing the arena stairs, the kobolds and dragon saw the soldiers holding the top cheering and shouting down at the street.

Serhis gasped in shock as he saw what they were cheering at. Undead were walking the streets, a hundred of them, mostly skeletons mixed with some zombies. Any raiders left in the streets turn and ran, those that didn't were swiftly cut down by the horde as they slowly pressed forward. Some of those that attacked made the mistake of using the wrong weapon, swords and daggers did little to slash or pierce the bones and clubs did little to bruise the already dead flesh of the zombies. "Where they come from?" he turned to Danward as he came up the steps.

"They mostly stay in the catacombs under the town graveyard, but a few of them come from the private crypts of a few families. Sentimental value I suppose."

"I mean, who made them? Why you allow it?!"

"No need for worry, they're under Lord Ligain's command. Jeritiath makes with most of the arrangements."

"Guy that's with Kaeis, wears black robes, gives me the creeps?" Iskdiwercaesin asked.

"Well, he might be a bit odd, but I hear is sociable enough at parties. I haven't spoken to him at all yet," Danward shrugged.

"But, but, the bodies, where he get those? It doesn't upset people?" Serhis watched as the hundred strong undead continued their march past the arena, towards the parts of town still under siege.

"Oh, I think you got the wrong idea. Jeritiath doesn't go into graveyards and steal bodies, no, people volunteer." Danward saw their faces of disbelief and incomprehension. "I guess I should explain a bit more. Lord Ligain has an offer that if someone dies, they could still do some good while they're dead. Since the whole soul goes on it's merry way, why not offer your rotting corpse you won't need no more to protect the people you care about that are still alive. Anyone interested just goes up to the castle, talks it over with Jeritiath, signs a contract, and they even get a little bit of gold for it, like a signing up bonus. When they're dead, the body gets sent by the family to the castle. After the funeral of course, they just don't bury it. Signed up myself, but I don't know if they want me in the graveyard or at home. I bet I can give my grandkids the willies just standing in the hallway. Then again, they might have fun playing with my bones."

It was like this whole town was meant to make Serhis stand around stunned and confused. Kaeis had made necromancy acceptable! It was like a public service, except you'd be dead and never care about it, while avoiding the unpleasantness of desecrating graves and unsetting the relatives. Like the arena they were standing in, it probably wasn't completely liked, but it was tolerated. Now that he was looking more closely, he could see that some of the skeletons wore armor that had been polished and weapons that were sharpened and finely crafted, the undead cared for like a family legacy. The zombies were in far worse condition, they were dressed in ragged clothes and the only weapons they had, if any at all, were simple clubs. Serhis voiced his thoughts to the others.

"The zombies are a special case, they're from the criminals, the really bad ones. It's one way to pay back for their crimes that even killing them isn't going to repay. I bet some of the ones walking by us right now are fresh from the bandits from the inner walls. I don't think people are comfortable with being a pile of dead meat walking around. I'm not keen on the idea myself."

"And being a pile of walking bones doesn't hurt? Well, I suppose they'd be polished and would look nice in that armor," Iskdiwercaesin answered his own question. "What I'd like to know is why we didn't hear about them or why they weren't used the first time around?"

"It's not something you talk about to strangers or passers-by, it's a private thing. It's not even said much in polite company, not unless you bring it up first. As for why Lord Ligain didn't use them earlier, I suppose he was waiting for an opportunity, then Bej came in and he didn't have to use them," Danward explained. "We can stay here and rest, we've earned it. The fighting's over for us, we can let them handle things. Now with Searflint dead and our 'Old Army' scaring the crap out of them, they're finished."

Serhis certainly hoped as much. Tending to Rhasalis' head and Xet's stomach, he felt that he was finished here.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Standing at the gates of the town, the kobolds and dragon looked at the road ahead of them. The strain of the gates opening drowned out most of the noise coming from inside the town, but only barely.

"I'm glad we're getting out of here," Iskdiwercaesin said from the back of the wagon, settling in for the long journey ahead. He even bought a few feather pillows for comfort.

"Sorry your stay wasn't pleasant. If you pass this way again, we'll give you a grand welcome," Danward stood next to their wagon. He had come to see them off, as did a few others. Henry, who would normally be glued to the Captain, was absent, having taken an unfortunately solid blow during the fighting. Serhis had precious little strength to heal anyone else and did the best he could, bed rest and good care would have to deal with the injuries. Another reason Danward had come was to escort Ryan and the exiles out with a small group of soldiers. There was little anger and animosity towards either group, all of it had been spent. All that remained was a sense of tiredness. How long it would take for the exiles to achieve their goal and come back, no one knew, but Ryan and the others had expressed their heartfelt thanks to Serhis. He wasn't used to such strong feelings, but he accepted it graciously.

Kaeis wasn't here. He had been busy for the two days since the last of the bandits had either been slain or run out of town before the soldiers recaptured the gatehouse. He had been dealing with repairing the damage to the town, the reason for all the noise of reconstruction, while organizing the return of stolen property, and a myriad of other details, chief among them the defense of Tiasvern. The undead they had seen near the arena had been one of two groups, the other had been on clear across town fulfilling the same goal. Even now, all two hundred stood on the town walls, lined up and facing outward in what looked like an eternal vigil. The use of undead unnerved Serhis, the negative energy used to create them was entropic and the potential for something going wrong was still there. Still, the townspeople accepted them well enough, viewing them with pride and anxiety, in differing parts depending on one's views. Their contribution towards routing the bandits had likely put some of the latter at ease.

As expected, when the bandits learned of the defeat of their leader, all the coherence towards cooperation vanished. Many tried to claim leadership, only to find another had also done so, and the issue further muddied by numerous others doing the same, and with different goals. Some wanted to keep fighting, but each had different plans on how to do it and where to strike, getting in each others way at times or panicked when they had to face so many of the undead, reinforced by the living soldiers. Others simply grabbed as much stuff as they could, then made a run for the gates. When Kaeis had went back to the ruined square to confirm Yelec Searflint's death, Serhis had confronted him privately after his second speech, asked why he didn't learn about the bandit lord's second attack. The half-dragon only gave a simple answer. "It all worked out in the end." Kaeis had praised their efforts publicly, though giving equal credit to the guards and soldiers. That was also fine for them. After giving them an ample amount of gold, he was quick to send them on their way.

Bej and Lady Eolith had other concerns when they saw them. Bej had suffered some injuries during the blast in the square, but Lady Eolith looked as if her own injuries were barely noteworthy, and even scolded Bej for whining. "Very tough old lady," Baous thought out loud, to the agreement of everyone. They were just as involved in the repairs as Kaeis, all of them suspecting that there were more hidden political moves underneath it all. It was fine by them that they knew nothing about it.

As for themselves, they spent those days resting, waiting for the gates to open. Rhasalis' head injury required a more concentrated effort on Serhis' part, but he was confident that there was no lasting damage. Xet had an unpleasant set of bowel movements for a short while, a problem that he was quick to resolve. In all, their injuries were painful, but not permanent.

They had also asked if there was an orc among the dead bandits, one missing the bottom of his right hand. So far, they haven't found any such body. Now that Serhis had time to wonder why Harick seemed so obsessed with hunting him, he could only guess. That he had lead some of his men to their deaths and lost face, that was for certain, that he was "the one that got away" was also just as certain. There was also the way Harick seemed to get more and more enraged while Serhis healed others of their injuries, that he took away other's pain, made lasting wounds and scars fade, and saved lives and limbs where they would otherwise be lost. It was only speculation, one with a hint of truth.

E, D, and H, the three spymasters with their one letter names were nowhere to be found. Kaeis had spared no effort in trying to find the people who could infiltrate and exploit any weakness they could find, but those efforts turned out nothing. Like Harick, they had vanished in the chaos. Whether they bore the same ill-will towards their leader's slayers, only they knew.

"I almost get the feeling we're being kicked out," Baous quietly said so that Danward didn't hear. Kaeis had arranged the escort and had made a small show of it, with a few flags and ceremonial armor decorating the guards as they made their way through the streets. The residents of the town responded well, applause and cheers as they passed.

"That's because we are," Serhis looked behind their wagon as the small group of people went back to the business of restoring their lives. "It's not like we're that useful to him."

"A guy like him, I'm sure he has a lot of uses for us," Iskdiwercaesin commented. "We're just not useful right now. He just wants us out of the way before we can do anything on our own. If we ever come back, he'd probably try something again."

"I don't think we'll pass this way again if I can help it," shaking his head, Serhis leaned back in his seat, making use of the new pillows.

Danward went out with them out the gate, the sentries on the walls watching the forest for any movement as the gates stood ajar. "You sure you don't want us with you all the way to the outpost? Might run into some unfriendly faces out there."

"We can also go with you. It's not the way we're going, but we don't mind walking back," Ryan said.

"No, it fine," Serhis said. He was still nervous that Harick was somewhere out there, watching them right now, but it was just as likely that he was far away from here. Commander Iluin was on the hunt, the patrols were constantly combing the forest, rooting out anyone still there.

"We can handle ourselves adequately," Rhasalis said.

"I don't doubt that," Danward nodded. "Still, if someone's fool enough to try anything, make them regret it. You sure don't need an escort."

"Then how about traveling companions?"

Shifting in their seats, they looked behind and to the right to see Veri and Vincentia riding up towards them on horses, their performing clothes tucked away and wearing something more suitable for the road. "Only until we reach the mountains, then we'll have to part ways," Vincentia smiled.

"Where are you two going? There's barely anything out there," Iskdiwercaesin said.

"We could say the same for you. We're heading to the mountains to reach a tiny village near there. It's suppose to have a few books we've might like, really old ones. Since you're going past the mountains, you don't mind us going part way?"

They looked at one another, no one had any objections. "I suppose a pair of bards might liven up things," Iskdiwercaesin replied.

"Splendid," Veri said. "You wouldn't mind saying how things went after you left that merchant's house? It would make a good story to tell. We'd be the bards that told of the battle firsthand."

Serhis looked at the others and shrugged, "I suppose."

"Another story about us and our what happened is good. Especially since gives us a certain renown," Iskdiwercaesin smirked. "On the other hand, we might get the reputation for making the towns we go to war zones. Even when it's not our fault."

"We'll put things accurately, Veri assured him. "Now, if this happened a third time, that might make it seem plausible."

"I'd rather we weren't in another," Serhis said to them in Draconic.

"Once again, thank you," Ryan and the exiles repeated. "You've given us a chance. I don't know if we'll ever be able to repay you..."

"Repay yourself first," Serhis replied. "Goodbye."

Saying their farewells, the exiles went down the road they had first went down to get here. He wondered what they would do to assuage their guilt, even they had been given little choice. As for them, they followed the river through the forest, towards the mountains and beyond.

Tiasvern soon disappeared behind the trees, the clear day lighting up the road for them. "When we get past the outpost, then I know we've left," Serhis didn't hide his anxiety. His experiences here were scarring and almost the entire time he was here, something seemed out of place. Either it was the town or himself, he didn't know. Kaeis method of rule was unsettling, his use of undead, his unclear goals.

But through the feelings of doubt, he knew he had done something. Ryan and the others were spared, and though they now were exiles, they had a chance to fix what was wrong. Perhaps they might fix even more as they went on their own journey. Yelec Searflint, the man who wore a mask, not to hide his face, but for some unknown reason did. His dreams of glory and a legacy of terror were dust. He was someone who deserved to be feared. And opposed. Serhis wondered what could make someone like that. Harick was still out there, somewhere, but for now, he would be too weak to take revenge. As for the spymasters, he had no idea what they would do.

"Sorry Serhis. For dragging you with me and this whole search," Baous said, breaking Serhis from his thoughts.

"You don't need to apologize," Serhis sighed. "It's not your fault these things happen. I wanted to help you, and I'm going to keep doing that."

"The only people that should do the apologizing are Harick and his ilk. Not that I'd think they would be sincere," Rhasalis said.

"I've got to get stronger though. I don't want to be that helpless. Never again," Xet said.

"Yes, stronger. Much stronger," Iskdiwercaesin agreed. It wasn't hard to know where his thoughts dwelled.

"Thanks Serhis," Baous said.

"Don't thank me yet. We still have to see if there are any Kobolds out there. But your welcome," Serhis said anyway.

Passing the outpost with no further interruption, it felt as if a burden had been lifted. The road ahead looked long and their destination unclear, but they went beyond the map anyway, seeking whatever was there.