The feline coughed into his furry fist. “I’d say they knew about you before the trial. Rot has been in the Nightmare District for more than forty years. He never took a risk because he never had to. I was sure he wouldn’t try anything stupid without knowing what you are capable of. He would've been much more cautious if he’d already gotten word about your fight against the Black Devil.”

“What was it he said after you held the sword to his neck?” Rayden asked, crossing his arms and starting to pace in thought. “Something about the sword’s worth?”

“He said their information about me was wrong,” Sieg mused. “Sounds like someone tipped him off but depicted us as an easy target, which is likely why we are still alive.” He studied his hand absently, curling it into a fist. “They were nearly too much for us. I’ve been pretty low on energy but was confident some armour and my reflexes would be enough.”

Rayden looked pensive, a clear line appearing between his brows. “We need to get you some sustenance. And I’d love to find out who this informant is.Kaz’s digitigrade legs tensed, the claws clicking against the stone. “I’ve seen your appetite. Won’t be easy to get that much food around here. The only one with an overabundance would be Penance.” His voice took a haunted quality when he uttered the name.

“Wasn’t Penance the real name of the Nightmare District?”

“Named after the man who had ruled it since long before I was born,” Kaz answered. “He rarely makes an appearance, but there’s a middleman who can procure food and information.” He raked the fingers of his good hand through his mane, clearly qualmish about the prospect. “I’ll check if he would even see us. If he does, I’ll fill you in about everything, and we'll decide if it’s worth the risks.” Kaz turned around, leaving the room silently.

“Samuel, can you stay in the bar and make sure no one tries to get in?”

“Sure thing,” the Nivetian said, giving Sieg a thumbs up. If he held any resentment for being excluded, he hid it well.

Once the door closed with the scraping of leather against stone, Sieg let out a weary breath.

“Was it really that close?” Haylee asked, tilting her head. “I mean, you took on a small warband yourself in that wooden fortress before. Is it because you lack energy or didn’t want to reveal your powers?”

“It was bad, yes.” Sieg eyed Ryden, who sat with his chin propped against his palm. “Without Ryden, I would have been in bad shape after fighting just five of them. Their teamwork and experience were on a different level. Whenever I evaded an attack, someone else was ready to exploit my movement and get a hit in.”

He let his eyes wander over his comrades, bringing their unique talents to the fore of his mind.

“I’ll be honest, even though we had a lot of group training in the guard, I’m not sure if I can take all of your abilities and strengths into consideration and bring up a training plan of similar quality“.

I think I can”, Sally unexpectedly shouted out. Her shoulders tensed defensively at the attention, but her voice did not waver. “I mean, I have a lot of experience and have been trained to work with other enforcers against countless variations of changl— enemies.”

Sieg nodded slowly. “I’d warn you about committing fully to this, but honestly, after confronting Rot, I think we might need your expertise.”

“I understand,” Sally answered, holding Siegfried’s gaze. She knew that there was no going back once she knew the secret behind his powers.

He relaxed and let a tiny smile slip. Just weeks ago, he would’ve never believed he’d work with an enforcer.

Halee took a second longer to realise the implications, but her reaction was all the more enthusiastic. “Welcome to the team!” She cried out, flinging her arms around Sally’s neck.

Rayden chucked, and Rak grunted with approval as Sally tried to keep the embarrassment from showing on her face and gently tapped the catgirl’s arms.

“The foremost thing you should know is that I use neither regeneration nor any kind of bone-related abilities,” Sieg explained. “I use shapeshifting and have a limited amount of energy to either regenerate flesh or generate bone and enamel.”

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Sally froze with Haylee still hanging on her neck. “Oh,” she replied softly. “Oh!” her eyes widened. “You could shapeshift into anything with enough training!”

“He could,” Rayden intervened. “Presuming he knows how to do it.”

“That’s the problem,” Sieg took over. “After extensive sessions with Rayden, I know enough to conjure bones from places that won't hinder my movement, but I’m far from understanding how muscles or nerves work.”

“OK, so you’re limited to bones and regeneration. And you get that excess energy from eating, I guess, seeing how you devoured that clawbear earlier? Yes, I thought so. That means you need to top up soon, hence the request to Kaz.”

“Exactly.”

“If you were completely sated, could you conjure that bone armour everywhere on your body?”

“No,” Sieg responded, looking at Rayden. “We tried that, but only some places let me extend bones without messing with my nerves and muscles. Most of those are across my rips or at places where we have few muscles, like the outer side of our lower arms or the shins.”

“Ok, that’s still plenty to work with,” Sally answered.

Over the next hour, Sally quizzed everyone in detail about their strengths and weaknesses to get an accurate account of their actual combat prowess. By the time Kaz returned, it was late into the evening.

“I’ve got good and bad news,” the lion-man said. “The Broker will see us tomorrow.”

“And does the broker also have a name?” Sieg asked.

“Yes, Broker.”

Sieg sighed. “And the bad news?”

“We don’t have enough tokens for the food or the information. We’ll have to barter something else,” Kaz said, glancing at the sword at Sieg’s hip.

He contemplated it shortly, but the enforcer’s blade was just too valuable to give up. With it, Sieg could cut even the toughest foes, and it might be worth even more in Sally’s hands. She was an experienced Second-Class Enforcer, nothing like the overconfident fool he’d fought in the city. If push came to shove and she used her powers, Sally might be even more dangerous than himself.

Seeing Sieg’s reluctance, Kaz sighed. “While I wouldn’t recommend it, we can offer our skills as mercenaries. The Broker is working directly under Penance, who doesn’t want to get directly involved in petty squabbles unless necessary. That puts him in a bind because sometimes he needs to nip possible nuisances in the bud before they become a real complication.”

“So, in addition to keeping an eye on everything, The Broker also acts as an inofficial peacekeeping force?”

“I wouldn’t call it peacekeeping,” Kaz grimaced. “But yes, he keeps things from going out of hand by using unaffiliated muscle. The downside for us would be that he’ll get a lot of information about us if we work for him. His spies will keep track of our progress, and if we get into a bad spot, we might need to show our hand.”

“Couldn’t we make a deal with him not to sell that information in exchange for our help?” Ryden interjected.

Kaz shook his head, his mane swaying with the movement. “While he is definitely discreet, any vows he makes would exclude his master, and we really don’t want Penance to take an interest in us while we’re in his district.” The lion-man shuddered, the fur on his arms standing straight.

“I think we are past the hiding stage anyway,” Sieg declared. “Rot was one of the strongest guys around, wasn’t he?”

Kaz raked the claw of his left hand through his hair. “I haven’t told you much about penance because it shouldn’t be necessary. That man has secluded himself in his underground base for centuries and only comes out every few decades or even centuries. Fortunately, not in my lifetime,” he added. When he does appear, the source of his displeasure disappears. And I mean that literally.The last time a major group tried to take over the district was in my grandparent’s time. Grandpa told me he saw a shadow walking through the streets before the cries began. At every door the light ceded the shadows and nothing exited from the rooms where the shadow took residence. There was no fight, no battle. Just death.”

“Sorry, Kaz, but that doesn’t match up with what you’ve told us before,” Ryden interrupted. “If Penance is that strong, he should be forced to live in the upper levels, right?”

“Yes, that’s the rule,” Kaz answered, looking Ryden in the eyes. “But Penance doesn’t play by the rules, and there is no one capable of forcing him.” Kaz sighed, sitting down on the stairs of the arena. “I have no idea who Penance really is, but he is powerful enough to give Victor a pause. That’s the only reason I can think of.”

“So Victor is afraid of Penance, but the guy still stays in this shithole?” Sieg asked.

“I wouldn’t say afraid, but it’s uncertain who would win if those two clashed. Victor is practically invincible. He’s taller than five houses and can regenerate any wound so fast that even decapacitating him doesn’t work.” He threw a grim glance into the round. “Penance, on the other side, can apparently eat everything with his shadows. Maybe they just never wanted to find out who would win. Penance hardly ever shows himself, so perhaps he just doesn’t have the drive to rule, and Victor is happy to let him reign over the slums instead of forcing him to a fight he could lose.”

“Okay, so we have a really frightening immortal here that we don’t want to piss off,” Siegfried concluded. “And you think him getting wind of our true abilities might be enough to rouse the sleeper?”

“I don’t think it’s likely,” Kaz assuaged them. “To be fair, I don’t know how far your abilities go. But if the Broker thinks you might be a challenge to Penance, he will at least inform him.”

“And of any possible districts, you thought this would be the safest for us?” Sally scoffed.

“It should have been,” Kaz growled. “That Rot got wind of you happened before we got here!”

“Enough!” Sieg decreed with finality. “We’ll meet this Broker and see where we go from there.”