“K-Ken?” Violet said uneasily.

Kenrich did not say anything. It was almost as if he could not even if he wanted to. The guards then got into their fighting stances warily. Someone being able to disrupt a fireball using only their hands was unheard of. The middle guard shot another fireball, hoping that it was a fluke, but Kenrich slapped away once again. Violet stood closely to his back. It felt safe behind him. As she stood there, she felt an intense heat radiating from his body like he was a walking furnace. Kenrich suddenly shot towards the guards at lightning speed. The second he stopped moving, a large explosion lit up the end of the hallway. All three guards laid in chunks across the floor and ceiling as Kenrich stood there quietly, looking back at Violet once again, with blood running down his face. He suddenly grabbed his head and started convulsing. The orange glow in his eyes started flickering, before going out like a torch that just ran out of fuel. He fell to his knees. keeping his hand on his head. Violet ran down the hallway towards him and put his arm around her shoulder.

“Are you okay?! Can you stand?!”

“Ugh…I think so…” He looked exhausted and was sweating profusely.

Violet was sweating too. Kenrich had definitely raised the temperature of the place by at least twenty degrees.

“C’mon, big guy. We gotta get out of here…”

Violet helped Kenrich up the stairs. Once they got close to the top, they poked their heads out slowly trying to gauge whether or not they would have to continue fighting. No one was around so they entered. Violet was not sure where the guards threw their things, but she figured it must be at the back of the building. Kenrich was finally able to stand on his own, so he took himself out of Violet’s grip.

“What happened to me?” Kenrich asked. “Did you save me?”

“It was…you, Ken. Your eyes turned orange, and you took them all out. You saved me.”

“I…don’t remember anything.”

“It’s okay. We can talk about it all later, ‘kay? We need to get our things and find somewhere safe first. There’s no chance that the Ring of Life is here, but everything else should be.”

Kenrich nodded and followed Violet through the door in the back of the room. They heard some footsteps and voices as they walked in, so Violet grabbed Kenrich and pulled him behind a wall that spanned half of the room. They listened in on the voices.

“How did those two evade capture for so long? They don’t seem that strong to me.”

“I heard that they had a crazy long head start. Apparently, they were able to get a horse pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, it was in Lampeer, right? Can’t remember the last time that place had anything interesting happen in it.”

“Apparently they had an eyewitness account that they spent almost a full day in the city and took a request in the guild, but the guildmaster refused to divulge any details, so they killed him.”

Kenrich felt another intense rage coming that caused a massive amount of heat to permeate through his chest. Guildmaster Geralt had been nothing but kind to them during their time in Lampeer, so the thought of him dying to keep their movements a secret was enough to make that earlier rage-induced psychosis start to return. Violet looked over and saw his eyes flickering that same orange glow again, so she took his face and pointed it towards hers. He looked upon her pretty face, which was tainted with blood and dirt, and suddenly he felt the rage start to subside.

“We can’t cause a scene, Ken. Please, keep it in.”

He nodded and took a deep breath. He was starting to understand that weird state he was in a little more. It was definitely fueled by intense rage. He did not think he would be able to control himself in that state, so he tried to relax. The flickering orange light in his eyes stopped again. They kept listening.

“So, with the rest of their belongings being in this chest…does that mean that magic ring is too?”

“Of course not, you dolt! Commander Tinsen took that with him personally.”

“He’s out getting drunk with the ring in his possession? Sounds like a recipe for disaster…What if he tries to pay his tab with it?”

“Come off it, Jean! If he heard you insinuate something like that, he’d put your head on a stake!”

“I’m just saying…Doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Just say it in your head, or else that head will roll, bud. Now, let’s go check on the prisoners. It’s about time to give them their rations.”

Violet grabbed Kenrich again and they pressed themselves against the wall on the other side of the guards. The guards showed themselves as they walked around the wall and towards the door that Kenrich and Violet had used to enter earlier. Violet had her hand on her mouth as well as Kenrich’s as they watched the guards leave the room and close the door behind them. Violet released them both, with a gasp of relief and they made their way past the wall to the other side of the room. They saw the chest that they had heard about which was locked. Violet took out the sword that she took off of the guard she killed earlier and used it to pry open the chest. After a few moments, she managed to pry off the top and they quickly gathered up their things. They knew that the guards would see the mess in the dungeon and immediately call for help, so they had to leave the building quickly. They ran out of the room, then made their way towards the exit. As Violet threw open the door, she heard a scream from the basement. They ran onto the cobblestone street, put their clothing over their heads to hide their profiles, and walked briskly down the road back to where they were originally captured. To their delight, they saw Atlas was still tied to the post outside of the tavern.

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“Atlas!” Violet yelled before hugging him. “I was scared they would have taken you away!”

“Maybe they thought it belonged to one of the patrons of the tavern,” Kenrich said

“Either way, there’s no time to think about it. We gotta move.”

Violet and Kenrich hopped on Atlas and made their way towards the edge of the city. They knew that they had to get out of the city walls before they put the place on lockdown, so they quickly made their way to the gate where the guard let both of them out without an ounce of suspicion. It was good that they made it back out, but it was clear that they would have to make their way back in eventually if they were going to recover the ring. After setting up in a forest near the outskirts of the city, Violet and Kenrich knew that they had to get their thoughts in order before they came up with a plan to recover the ring.

“Well…we’ve got a lot to talk about, huh?” Kenrich said.

“Let’s start small…so Farrell sold us out to the Admian government.”

“That’s small?!”

“Comparatively, it is. Your weird new powers and having the ring stolen are a little more important in my mind.”

“How do you know he sold us out?!”

“He told me himself. He came to my cell and gloated about all the gez he was getting for turning us in.”

“Goddamnit…I really thought he was a good guy. I can’t believe this…”

“That’s the last time I trust your judgment over mine. Never trust a merchant. I figured you would have learned that from what happened back in Millin.”

Kenrich did not say anything. He just looked down at his worn shoes sadly.

“...I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me,” Violet said. “Betrayal is a horrible feeling. I know it well.”

“Just feels like the whole world is constantly against us. We can’t take two steps before something horrible happening, every fucking day.”

“The world is against us, Ken. But I’ll promise you one thing – I’ll never betray you.”

“We’ve been through too much for me to ever suspect that of you, V. I’ll fight with you until the bitter end.”

Violet’s words helped alleviate some of the sadness that Kenrich was feeling.

“I’m just happy that, since we escaped, that green-clad fuck won’t be getting any of that bounty. He’ll get his comeuppance eventually. I’ll see to that personally. Now, let’s talk about these new powers of yours…They’re fucking insane, Ken!”

“What did I do? Did I look cool?”

“You looked cool as hell! Your eyes turned bright orange, and you blocked fireballs with your hands! You saved my life…again. I’m really getting sick of you playing hero all the time. Especially when you whine as much as you do.”

“Couldn’t just keep it as a compliment, huh? You save my hide all the time, so I’m happy to have my moments to repay the favor. One thing I noticed is that it seems to activate when I get really, really angry. The last thing I remember before seeing you in the prison hallway was a hot pain in my chest, and how enraged I was about what Tinsen did to you…God, I want to rip that stupid smile off his face.”

“I reached the same conclusion from what I saw when we were getting our supplies back. When they talked about what happened to Geralt, I saw the orange in your eyes come back for a moment.”

“He shouldn’t have died for us…Those bastards will pay.”

“We’ll make sure they do.”

Kenrich nodded.

“I’m glad this power helped us escape, but I can’t help but worry about how I don’t remember anything afterwards. If I’m not in control of myself, I might hurt you without realizing it.”

“In the dungeon you did nothing other than protect me, so I wonder if you still recognize me when that power takes over. You went out of your way to stop me from getting hurt.”

“I did? Did I say anything to you at all?”

“Not a word. I tried calling out to you, but you didn’t respond. You were looking over at me though, so you definitely knew I was there.”

“I can’t help but worry, but I’m glad it seems like I was protecting you.”

“I say we use these new powers of yours in every fight from now on! All I gotta do is make you mad, right?”

Violet started poking her fingers into Kenrich’s ribs repeatedly. Kenrich chuckled and slapped her hand away.

“You’re supposed to get angry, not laugh!” Violet yelled.

“We’ve been through hell and back, so, sorry but it’s gonna be hard for me to get angry no matter what you do, V,” Kenrich said with a smile. “Still, if you see me in that state again, you should keep your distance. There’s still too much we don’t know.”

“This is my chance to have my knight in shining armor save me though! I can’t take that for granted! If I run into a nest of bears, you can use your weird fire powers to come get me out,” Violet snickered as she pranced around a nearby tree.

“You just said you were mad that I saved you before! Needing a knight in shining armor is very unlike you, V.”

“Calm down, it was just a joke. Now, enough fun. Let’s talk about how we’re gonna get back the ring.”