“Things were rapidly looking up. Novus proved to be quite the asset. Between Ultor’s plans and Novus’ connections, we started to really cause a commotion in The Pits. After a month of him in our service, we had nearly quadrupled our numbers. We had a network of agents, informants and, most importantly, mis-informants. To top it off, we had sympathisers by the thousands.

“It became a whole different fight. We had people working for us who didn’t even know they were working for us. We riled up some of the smaller gangs and had them take pot shots at one another. It was honrdtly quite satisfying to watch the dogs at each other’s throats. Mayhem was coming to The Pits, and we were offering it a room with a view.

“There was a point where it looked like we wouldn’t ever need to leave that warehouse again. We probably could have sat back and never dirtied our hands again. Ultor didn’t want it that way, though. His subjects’ hands were bloody, and he saw no reason why ours shouldn’t be too. No work was below him, that was a message he always wanted to spread. People fought and died for our cause and, no matter how vital Ultor became, he would prove time and time again that he was not asking them to do anything he wasn’t willing to do. Our supporters loved it. The people loved him. Ultor was a folk hero. He didn’t just grumble in some dingy corner of a piss-soaked tavern, he stood proud, ready and willing on the front line. He practiced what he preached.

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“‘Anyone can make a difference,’ became our mantra. To meet the man, you would have believed it too. No one ever felt too small or too feeble under Ultor. Ultor would be the first to sit there and do the menial tasks, and to explain the value of it. There was an honesty and sense of importance to our work which spurred people on, even when things started to get really bloody.”

Polias had begun to speak quite rapidly, his respect and admiration for his older brother becoming very apparent. He took a moment to calm himself.

“It should never become easy to take a human life and, for his part, Ultor tried to remind us of that. We could give the word and blink a dozen men out of existence without ever having met them. Ultor was adamant that we should never become that detached, never be that far removed from our actions. It wouldn’t do to let someone else pull the trigger. It wouldn’t do to let them carry that awful weight and you yourself sleep soundly at night. It wouldn’t do to forget what it was like to see a man cry for his life as you stole the last of his time from him.

“To that end, Ultor would ensure that all of us, himself included, did not go long before reminding ourselves of the full consequences of our actions,” Polias scratched his arm, “The good and the bad.”