The crowd was staring at me expectantly. One of the guards had jumped down from the viewing area, and was heading towards Eric’s passed out body with haste in her step. She was wearing the same plated armor as the rest of the city hall guards, making it only possible to identify their gender in the circumstance where their helmets were removed. She had removed it as she went closer to Eric in order to get a good look at his wounds.

 Thomas was still standing, waiting for my reply. He had a bit of a resigned smile on his face, and kept glancing at his son. I walked over to where he was standing, and turned to face him.

“I will ask of him that he hires me as a guard on his trip to the capital for the tournament” The crowd was momentarily confused, and started murmuring with concerned expressions. Some however were quite happy, Eric’s fans in particular, and showed no regard in hiding this emotion. Thomas was also shortly confused, then a smile opened up on his face and he laughed with a roar before jumping down onto the arena floor. He landed with a thud and said;

“Please, on the journey, wear what you are now, with the addition of this” as he handed me his shoulder mounted bear head, and continued his laugh while approaching his son. He picked Eric up, carrying him face down on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, much to the dismay of the female guard who had been trying to wake him up and stop his wounds from bleeding. On the way out he said “You know, I quite like you Alphonse. I’ll see to it that Eric knows about this new agreement. I take it you’ll want a horse too?”

“Yes, I would quite like that.”

“Then allow me to arrange that for you too.”

After he had left, I did too, though I had quite the following of townsfolk who were a little too afraid to approach me and a little too curious to stop following me. This is why I headed to the lower halls. Eric wasn’t due to leave for the capital for another three days, Thomas had mentioned at the dinner, so it would probably be fine for me to meet up with them then.

In order to pass time, I went down to the corridors beneath the halls again. This time, I felt fairly certain that there were no capable seers in the city, or if they were, they were unlikely to be down here. So I spread my spirit thin and analyzed the different pathways and corridors, memorizing where the paths had collapsed and where there seemed to be a lot of activity. I set out towards those presences.

At the first concentration of presences, I found five men sitting on anvil sized rocks around a bigger rock with a flat top. On the top were several cards, gold pieces, alcohol and some food. Behind the men was a corridor in which roughly a dozen people sat. Looking closer, I could see the beaten faces of dwarves and elves, shackled to the wall by their hands.

Looking at the slavers’ spirit, it was all over the place in a misty form, typical of those who have no talent for magic and have not trained their will to protect them, leaving them open to spiritual attacks. Demonstrating the fault in not training to protect oneself from spirit magic, I used my own spirit to overpower theirs, grabbing hold of it and forcing it away from their bodies. As I was doing this, they reacted violently by smashing they heads against the tables or stamping their feet while holding their heads in their hands. All of them were moaning as if they had stomach ache, which did not match the vigor they were putting into their movement.

This attracted the attention of the enslaved, as they watched in horror as their captors began to run about the room. This was ended swiftly as I severed the connection between their spirit and bodies, instantly making them lose all strength in their bodies and leaving them motionless on the ground. The ones who had fallen in a position where one could see their eyes appeared to be drugged out of their minds, as their eyes were distant and glassy, glazed.

At that moment, I entered the room, walking over to their slumped bodies and going through their pockets. Any gold I found I stored away in the pockets of my sash, by now empty of cooked animal meat. Weapons like knives and other useful trinkets like watches and matches I left on the table with the other food and booze. After I had finished rifling through the pockets of a body I threw it over to the side of the room, and when I was done with all the bodies I employed fire magic to schedule their funeral early. If they felt any pain from being burnt alive, their faces did not reveal anything. They simply lay there and accepted their fate.

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The slaves, who had watched with mixed feelings at that which just transpired, looked at me with horror when I approached them and begun to sob and beg. With a raised voice I told them to be quiet and that I had no time for charity. I went on to tell them they would have to fend for themselves down here with what I had placed on the table. To this they nodded softly before I released them from their cuffs with some well-placed explosions by fire magic.

When it got late, I went up to the lower halls’ tavern in order to eat. I could have eaten the scraps looted from the various groups of ruffians that had perished by my hand, however that was hardly appetizing and I currently had a good lump of gold to spend.

Whilst enjoying my meal in a secluded area of the main tavern, I spotted Eric sitting at a table off to one of the other sides. He seemed to have recovered well, testifying to his natural ability to employ life magic. This trait was normally not found in humans, especially at his age, so calling him talented was on point. If he would train to employ his magic more adeptly in battle, he probably had a great future as a battlemage or perhaps even a paladin.

He was sharing a table with several others, some wearing the city patrol uniform and some wearing the uniform of the town hall’s guard, though none of them were currently wearing any armor or had any obvious weapons. Sitting next to him was the guard I saw tending to his wounds in the arena earlier, laughing away with the others and sitting somewhat awkwardly close to Eric, I pondered as I finished my meal and headed out of the tavern. Maybe this was their meeting place away from their fathers and superiors?

At night I slept down in the corridors, blocking off a segment to myself to provide some privacy and so as to not be disturbed. The cycle of purging lowlife, eating in the lower halls continued until the day I was supposed to meet.

I walked in behind the walls to the city walls. It was early in the morning, yet three horses were being held by a stable boy, saddled up with food supplies. As I did not see Eric or the third guest, unless we were bringing the stable boy, I elected to wait by the wall until they arrived. When they did, it was Thomas and Eric trailed by some of the city guards in plate armor.  They noticed me as I approached them. Eric saw my bear head on my shoulder and reacted with surprise, then gave me and his father suspicious glares. Thomas smiled began to talk;

“Alphonse!, I must admit I was slightly worried you would not show when you disappeared for three days.” Before I replied, Eric interjected.

“And I was hopeful you’d been killed off” with an annoyed glare.

“Eric, please. He defeated you in combat and did not request your championship. Show some decency and respect.” Thomas now shared Eric’s annoyed expression.

“It was mock combat father, do not forget that!” Eric replied with a hint of furiosity.

“And I am certain you would have better odds in real combat, seeing as you have next to no experience fighting other people with your life on the line.” Before Eric got a chance to argue this point, Thomas interrupted him.

“Anyway, Alphonse please excuse his attitude, he is still young and naïve.”

“Well, I did choose this”

“Truly, well, as you can see, we have prepared three horses. This is because there will be an extra guard with you. Alex will be joining you for the ride to the capital. I do hope this is fine with you.”

As he said this, one of the guards stepped forward and saluted first Thomas, then me. At this, Eric sent me an annoyed glare, but quickly went back to inspecting the hall’s walls and looking for birds.

“It should be fine.” They are not so trusting of me, huh? I suppose this amount of carefulness is called for because of my strange and suspicious request.

“Well then, son, I wish you well in the tournament. Remember to not let your emotions affect your judgment, making you break the rules.” This time he seemed to be serious, for once he looked appropriately like a father.

“I will make us proud father.” Eric responded, still looking a bit annoyed.