The man smiled and held out his hand, “Yusadel. Could I get your names?”

“Garrote and Leo,” Garrote said, pointing at each of them in turn.

“Garrote? Like the wire?” Yusadel asked.

“Not important, but yes, like the wire,” Garrote said, holding up his hands.

“Blithe and Millie are their names. They were the two that were captured, a water spirit and a godsburn,” Leo said, quickly briefing Yusadel before they set out.

“Alright, I’ve got some stuff to finish up, so I’ll meet you outside,” Yusadel said, shooing them out of the room.

Leo and Garrote quickly made their way out of the underground complex, effortlessly evading guards along the way. But just as they were about to head through the man door, they saw the kid from earlier, the one who had let them in, standing there, fiddling with his thumbs.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I just got here a couple days ago and I’ve been trying to learn the ropes. Things have been really messy recently,” the boy said, practically on the verge of tears.

“Gyrus, was it?” Garrote asked.

“Yeah?” The boy responded.

“Don’t worry about it. We all make mistakes,” Garrote said, waving his hands dismissively.

“Yeah, we do. Some people worse than others,” Gyrus said, sobbing now.

“I think you said the wrong thing,” Leo murmured in Garrote’s ear.

“Really? I would have never guessed,” Garrote walked over to Gyrus, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “But, if you had let me finish earlier, what I was going to say was that what really matters is what you do afterwards. We all make mistakes, but what you do next is what’s really important. So whatever mistake you made, you just gotta work double to make up for it, make sure you don’t do it again.”

“I told them where we were. I told them exactly where we were hiding. Dead. All dead. House burned to the ground. And then I went to a homeless shelter, and they burned that down too. And now I’m here, and there was a fire earlier in the kitchen. Old granny said she’d make me cookies to feel better, and she burned to death!” Gyrus said between heaves. Garrote looked at Leo, realizing now just how in over his head he was. But the only response he gave was slowly sliding away, shaking his head the whole while.

“Uhhh…wow, that’s tough. But uh hey! You’re still alive! At least you’re still kicking, and we’re alive too, which means you can’t be all the bad!” Garrote tried, doing his best to comfort the poor boy, who only started to cry harder. He was really not the right man for the job. Slowly, Garrote peeled away from the boy, noticing that his hem was starting to sizzle where the boy was clinging to him. Not the most honorable play to just leave the boy crying there alone, but they also had other things to be doing. He would sort himself out.

They slipped out the front door, trudging their way back up the 400 mile staircase to the old warehouse. By the time they surfaced, it was already dark, the moon hanging low in the sky. Hopefully Trenton would still be waiting for them. They were close to the city center, but it was still a jaunt to get there; and they were already several hours late, not a good combination all around. After about 20 minutes, Yusadel emerged from the darkness, a deep pocket now hung on his waist.

“You ready?” Garrote asked, much more impatient than Leo.

“Of course. Where are we to meet this Trenton fellow?” Yusadel responded.

***

“Where are they?” Kiva whispered to herself.

Trenton and she had assumed they’d be the ones late to the meeting if anything, especially after they had spent so much time discreetly scoping the edges of the temple. But as the afternoon turned to night, Leo and Garrote were nowhere to be found.

“There,” Trenton said, pointing at a group of approaching dark figures illuminated by a little flame in one of their hands. He saw Leo and Garrote huddled together, but there was also a third man traveling with them that he didn’t recognize. It seemed both of their groups found little friends to help them, although theirs was notably older. “Over here,” Trenton whispered, careful not to be heard by any of the guards roaming around. An hour ago, when curfew approached, the two had slipped into a well hidden side street, keeping low and quiet to avoid alerting attention. They didn’t need a scuffle with the guards right now. Leo, Garrote, and the unknown man sneakily slid into their little hiding space, finding them with little effort and joining them on the ground.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Sorry it took us so long. You would not believe the day we had,” Garrote said, shaking his head.

“Sneaking around past curfew. Makes me feel like a kid again,” the man said, his eyes suddenly going wide as he looked over at Trenton. “What the hell is that?”

“What do you mean?” Trenton asked.

“You’re presence, I’ve never felt anything like it. I don’t even know what you are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, it just…keeps changing, shifting like it can’t sit still.”

“Oh, right. I wish I had an answer for you. My mentor and I never did figure it out.”

“Walibeld, you mean?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I told him,” Garrote said, raising his hand, smiling wider than Trenton had ever seen.

“Figures. What’s your name?” Trenton asked the man.

“Yusadel, and I presume you’re Trenton?” Yusadel said.

Trenton nodded, “That’s right.”

Yusadel smiled, going over them one by one, muttering each of their names to himself, stopping at Kiva, “And you are? Surely not Millie, and don’t tell me that you’re Blithe. I don’t think I could handle that.”

“You told him about Trenton, Millie, and Blithe, but not me? I’m hurt,” Kiva said, feigning insult.

“Well…uhhh…I was busy that day?” Garrote tried, looking at Kiva for mercy.

“Today?” Kiva said, completely unimpressed.

“You-” Garrote tried, holding in laughter, “you would not believe the day we had.”

“High spirits are great, Garrote, but we need to focus. Kiva, to answer your question, Yusadel” Trenton said, nodding towards Kiva. “We got intel that Blithe and Millie might be in the salamander's main temple. We tried scoping it out, but there wasn’t any sign of either of them.”

“I’m almost certain that’s where they’ll be. There’s no other place in the city a godsburn could be taken, even disregarding Millie. And knowing Kraijsh, I wouldn’t be surprised that he’d take your friend for a slave. The sick bastard relishes at reducing humans/humanoids to meer playthings,” Yusadel remarked, his tone suddenly abandoning all warmth. “So, we storm the temple and get out by daybreak. That’s the proposition I gave to your friends already, me joining your group to the academy being the corollary to that decision.”

Trenton took in the man’s words, his mind catching on the word “slave.” Absolutely not, he wouldn’t accept it. That feeling from before, the unyielding rage, slowly rose anew like a wildfire raging through every corner of his body. Killing them wasn’t enough, blood wasn’t enough. They needed to suffer, to feel every ounce of agony they were deserving, to fall by his hands alone. He would not only relish in their deaths, slow and agonizing as he they would be, he would string up their corpses, parade them around the city for all to see.

“Right through the front. Yusadel, Garrote, and I will break through the front gate. You’ve full permission to do whatever is necessary to see this through. Leo, you stay with Kiva. Keep on lookout in case anything goes wrong. Am I understood?” Trenton said, barely keeping his voice steady.

“Right through the front? Don’t be absurd,” Leo said, not complaining at being left on the sidelines.

“No, actually, I like it. Break in through the front, faster than they can mobilize their units. It’s risky, absolutely, but if we’re quick, we’ll break through their lines before they can react,” Yusadel said, rubbing his chin.

“Can I talk now?” Raligoth’s muffled voice called out from beneath Trenton’s cloak. He’d been so quiet all day that Trenton completely forgot that he was even under there. He deserved a little fresh air at least. He wasn’t an animal…probably. Without a word, Trenton undid the hook keeping Raligoth on his belt, holding him up for everyone to see, only one of them seeming distraught at the severed head suddenly brandished to their little circle.

“Oh, that’s certainly…wait, it talks?” Yusadel said, his mind reeling from the sudden burst of information.

“Not the time. What did you want to say?” Trenton asked.

“Right, couldn’t you just break in through the side? You draw their attention from the front, Yuffadle, and Trenton and Garrote can take a side route, splitting their forces. It’s the most classic infiltration strategy in the books,” Raligoth said.

“Yuff-you know what, nevermind. You’re right, the problem is trying to get in through a side route would be extraordinarily difficult. It’s not like they just leave windows open to crawl through. The whole place is surrounded by a magical barrier. The only way in the main gate, at least the only way that I’m confident I could get us through. Besides, a blitz strategy might work here. The strongest forces are all deeper in the palace, close to the emperor at the top to ensure his safety, which means we should be able to overpower the gate guards pretty easily. It's just numbers that's the issue, but since they’re all weaker foot soldiers, a quick surprise attack should be more than enough. Besides, even if we did get in through the side, we’d have no idea of where we were. The front entrance has the most direct path through the palace,” Yusadel said, nodding his head with absolute confidence.

“How do you know so much about the palace?” Garrote asked.

Yusadel hesitated, looking away from the main group, “...well, there was actually a second reason that I wanted to storm the temple. A long time ago, decade or so back, my friends and I had gotten sick of the salamanders in the city. We planned to invade the temple and kill the emperor, so we did a lot of reconnaissance and spying. Unfortunately, we weren't careful. One of the salamanders, the emperor’s closest guard, caught us, killing all of my friends while I ran. I was the only one who made it out alive. The next day, they paraded their corpses around the city on sticks, burning them in the center square to make an example of them. At the time, people were too scared to do anything, too worried of what might’ve happened if they fought back. So this time, we won’t fail. Get in, get your friends, kill the emperor if we can. That’s the plan.”

“Then it’s decided,” Trenton said, putting Raligoth back under the cloth around his waist. “Let’s go.”