The next morning, Key arrived at the office. The door was unlocked, but the captain was nowhere to be seen. He settled into his chair and began looking through letters.

They contained a treasure trove of information. For a while, he got lost in a sea of correspondences, acquisitions, and requests. He found one that mentioned Corporal Ellsworth. He had heard the name before; he must have been the captain's former assistant. Rumors of his death had spread like wildfire. Each story brought on a different scenario, leaving more questions than answers about his death.

There was a knock at the door.

"Enter," Key said. It almost sounded like a question.

"Corporal Givens, reporting as ordered." The man said, saluting Key.

"At ease, Givens," Key said, uncomfortable at being saluted.

"Key, is that you?" Givens asked, squinting at him. "I thought you was some kind of officer with how you're dressed."

"That's okay," Key said, uncertain what to do. "The captain isn't in right now. What did they tell you to report here for?"

"Dilly said we are being transferred," he smiled. "There's more of us outside."

Key stood up and walked outside and found a group of some of the worst guards in Royal City. The only exception was Trudie, who was standing among them. Some weren't standing at all. Three of them sat on the cobblestones, and the others stood around talking loudly, unsettling the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the officer's district. Two had started wrestling. None of this would bode well for the captain's favorite axiom.

He cleared his throat and greeted them. "Hi everyone, I'm not sure why you are here, but I'm sure the captain has his reasons. He should be here soon if you all want to try pretending to be orderly until he arrives. It will look better if you do. I recommend forming up in loose ranks."

"Hey, Givens," Roger called out, "It looks like Key's new uniform has gone to his head!"

A few of them laughed, one of which was Jory.

"We weren't sent here to report to you," Poulson said, still sitting on the ground.

"You guys are going to piss him off if he shows up and you're sitting on the ground." Key's warning elicited more laughter and a few curse words.

"Trudie," Key said, ignoring the jabs, "Can I have a word with you inside?"

Trudie stepped into the office after Key, followed by whistles and innuendo.

"What is everyone doing here?" Key asked, shutting the door.

"I'm not sure," Trudie said, looking around the office. "Sergeant just told us to report here after the morning assembly."

"But why are you here?"

"The same reason everyone else is?" Trudie formed her statement as a question.

"I mean, clearly, Dilly sent the worst guards he had," Key said, struggling to finish his thought. "You're not on the list of the worst guards."

"I don't think he likes me," she admitted.

"That makes sense," Key said, understanding how easy it was to get on Dilly's bad side. "The group out there is going to get both of us into trouble if they don't reign it in a little. You might want to wait in here with me. When the captain gets back, you don't want to get roped into whatever's coming their way."

Trudie started to reply when her words were cut off by the sound of yelling.

"What are you doing on the ground? Stand up, fall into formation, all of you!" a voice yelled before the door swung open, and an angry Major Kane walked in. Trudie and Key stood to attention.

"Where's your captain?" the man asked abruptly. "And what is the meaning of this?"

"The captain isn't here, and I'm not sure what they are doing out there," Key said. "I'm working that out now."

"Your men were out there being a disgrace to the uniform," he said. "You need to keep a higher standard."

"He told them to form up, sir, but they wouldn't listen," Trudie said in Keys' defense.

"Is this true, corporal?" the Major asked.

"Yes, sir," Key answered.

"Come with me," the Major said and walked outside to the formation of guards. "This is Corporal Key; he is the assistant to the investigator. That means when the investigator isn't here, Corporal Key is in the office of investigations. Whatever he says will be treated as if the captain spoke it himself. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" The formation said in unison.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The major directed his attention back to Key, "When your captain gets here, tell him to report to my office immediately."

"Yes, sir," Key said as he stormed off.

Key found himself standing in front of a glaring formation before he made his way back inside. He opened the door to find Trudie still standing at attention.

"You can relax now," Key informed her.

"You weren't kidding about getting roped in with the group out there," she said. "You saved me from that one."

"Thanks for speaking up for me."

Before not too long, Key heard a familiar voice say, "Gentlemen." Before the door to the office opened, Captain Castor stepped inside.

"Why is there a whole company of guards standing outside my office?" He asked, noticing Trudie.

"The Sergeant sent us a group of his absolute worst guards," Key said and then added. "Except for Trudie, I mean, Corporal Logan."

"Well, send them back," Castor ordered with a flick of his hand. "I have no need for them at the present."

"I tried. They said that they have direct orders to report to you, sir," Key said, remembering to speak formally. "Speaking of orders, Major Kane wants to see you. He sounded urgent."

"What does he want?" Castor asked.

"Sir, I might be able to explain," Trudie said. "Request to speak freely?"

The captain nodded, and Trudie walked him through the series of events that had happened before he got there. She explained how they were to report to the captain and await further orders from him.

After she was done, the captain took a moment to gather his thoughts. Finally, he said, "Corporal, I'm going to tell everyone to report back to the sergeant then you and I are going to go pay a visit to the Major."

"Yes, sir," Key acknowledged and followed the captain out.

Key and Trudie stood off to the side as the captain addressed the guards standing in formation, "Thank you all for coming, now fall out and report to Sergeant Dilly." With that, he turned on his heel and made his way to the Major's office with Key in tow.

"Come in," the Major said after the captain knocked.

Key and Castor went inside.

"Ah, Captain Castor," the Major said as if he had just been thinking of him. "I take it you've met your new company?"

"I stumbled across some random guards on my way back to my office," Castor said, keeping a neutral face. "I sent them back."

"I see," the Major said producing a letter from on top of his desk. "I have here a request letter from you asking for eight guards to standby for further instructions. There doesn't seem to be a time frame for how long they would stand by for. Captain Watford payed me a visit yesterday and came up with a quite generous offer.

"He offered to transfer eight of his guards into your service. Seeing that your office has had an increased workload as of late, I believe it prudent to accept the captain's offer. I signed the transfer letter this morning."

"Sir, I assure you, the guards I requested are a solution to a temporary problem," the captain said. "I will have no need for them once I catch a singular group of murderous thieves."

"Be that as it may," the Major started, "you are still negligent of a full company, even with the extra support."

"Corporal Key, will you please explain to the major the first thing you noticed about the extra support we received this morning," the captain said.

"Yes, sir," Key hesitated. "Permission to speak freely, Major?"

"Go on."

"The first thing I noticed was the guards that Sergeant Dilly sent are the worst guardsmen he has," Key stated. "Every single one of them, save Corporal Logan, are all the biggest troublemakers in the force. The only reason Corporal Logan was added to the bunch is because she is a girl. The rest are the lowest form of human ever to don the uniform. I've worked with them. I think Sergeant Dilly is just trying to rid himself of a headache."

"I'll admit, they did seem an unruly bunch from what I noticed," the Major recollected. "But that's only because they lack proper leadership. All guards are equal in the King's eye, and until they are discharged, whether honorably or otherwise, they are considered equally valuable members of the King's service. I will not be withdrawing my authorization for the transfer. Besides, the better team you make them, the better it will look for you come promotion time."

The three stood for a long, silent moment.

"That will be all captain," the Major said. "Go forth and do good things."

Key followed his disgruntled captain out of the office. He knew the captain had been avoiding picking up a company at all costs. He was able to avoid it for years.

"If I can't give them back, I'm going to have to figure out another way to get rid of them," the captain said thinking out loud. "I could always make it so difficult for them that they quit…."

"Remember what you told me about playing people off of their strengths?" Key asked, pausing a moment to work his thoughts out. "You could always play them off their weaknesses. I know that Dilly won't put Foiler on bridge duty because he can't be trusted to handle money. If you have coins lying around and you leave him unattended, you could catch him in the act of taking them. I'm sure we could find similar scenarios for each of them."

"That's not a bad idea," the captain said, arriving at his office door. "Tell me everything you know."

"Keebler broke the brotherhood of the guard once, so everyone tells on him. Poulson lies about everything, Roger and Givens act like they are the law, and Lambro just smells bad."

The two sat at their desks while Key talked nonstop about the other guards past offences. Part of him wondered if he was technically betraying the brotherhood of the guard himself, but with the way they treated him earlier, it seemed only fair. He didn't have much to say about Jory considering his pranks were the cause of him being one of the worst guards.

Castor scribbled down notes as fast as Key spoke. Before they were finished, a knock came at the door.

"Enter!" Castor said.

It was Givens. He explained how they were all sent back.

Castor told Givens to fall in and wait for further orders. After Givens left, he let out a huge sigh. "I better go speak to them." He said and walked outside.

Castor stood in front of the small company and addressed them, "It appears that you all have been transferred to the office of investigations. Welcome to my world. Everything you say and everything you do is a direct reflection on my office and me. When you are in my service, you will act with professionalism and integrity. You have an important job. I am currently working on a course of action. I need you all to stay on your guard and be prepared to move when I say move. As the Major explained earlier, Corporal Key is my voice when I am not present. If he says jump, you jump. If he says fall in, you fall in. If you have a problem with that, you come to talk to me so I can get you some lashings. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" the company said in unison and remained where they were standing.

"Very well," the captain said, looking at each of them in turn. He went back to the office and collapsed in his chair. "What do I do with them?" he asked himself.

"Sword training?" Key suggested. "Trudie trains pretty much every day. She can take them down to the yard."

"That will buy at least a little time," Castor admitted, loading his pipe. "Go out there, put Trudie in charge of taking them down to the training grounds. I'm going to draft a letter of acquisition for all of their past writeups. Maybe we'll find something inspirational."