Flogging was not generally my idea of a good time, particularly outside in the relatively chilly weather of the North in front of a reasonably sized crowd. It was evening, in a shaded area, meaning it was both fairly dark and felt absolutely freezing. I glanced upward and saw Teris sitting on top of the flogging pole. I tilted my head at him briefly, wondering if he were at all to thank for the gloomy weather. I may not have loved the cold, but the lack of visibility was almost comforting.

I stripped out of my coat, hanging it over a chair and then pulled off my shirt too.

The one doing the flogging blinked a little at my back and the prolific collection of well-designed scars, to put it somewhat mildly, but I was pretty sure the lighting was such that no one else would be able to notice much; they were thin, for the most part, but expansive, covering every inch of my arms, back, and chest up to my neck and down far enough that their end was covered by my trousers. The only scar that would be plainly visible was the thick, jagged, clearly undesigned one that ran parallel to my spine on the left side of my back.

I walked up to the pole and put my hands up.

The guard went to tie them to the pole, and I didn’t even have to speak. I looked at him with enough venom that he took a step back, swallowing hard.

For a moment, nothing happened.

“Do you not know what to do?” I taunted, not turning to look because that was a bad idea, but derision clear in my voice. “Would you like me to demonstrate?”

Apparently that knocked him out his hesitation, whatever was causing that, and the thick cords hit my back with a solid thud.

At least it wasn’t a whip. I didn’t want to deal with the blood.

I was quiet the whole time, but the crowd seemed mildly uncomfortable, amusingly enough. I heard a few voices dissenting, but I didn’t recognize any of them. I hoped my team and Hector were just waiting for me at our usual tavern; I didn’t really want to explain this.

The pain started out fairly intense, but with time, it started to fade into a burning sensation all across my back that settled into my bones. It was tiring but plenty tolerable. Each new strike flared up the intense flashes again, and I was sure that my coat was going to cause me pain for several days, but this was fine.

Particularly when compared with other things.

“What is going on here?”

I jarred slightly out of what had almost been a sort of doze.

“Lord Ennis! Highlord Rufais cited him for insubordination.” So that’s what they settled on, officially; I’d stopped paying attention. “This is the punishment.”

“Surely it’s been quite enough,” Ennis said a bit sharply.

The soldier quietly stood down, and I wondered distantly through a slight haze of pain how easy it would be for this man to take over the House, if only it wouldn’t have branded him a traitor and likely led to a revolt of the other Merchant Guilds.

And then I realized the new flashes of sharp pain had stopped, and I should probably start being functional before people thought I was damaged or something. I stood up straight, no longer leaning on the pole. “Lord Ennis,” I greeted, my voice sounding somewhat far away to my own ears as my focus returned.

“Captain.” He glanced down at the crowd of people briefly, and then back at me– except not at my face, he was looking at my chest.

Scars. Right. I should grab my shirt.

“I appreciate the assist, though it wasn’t necessary,” I told him, walking down the stairs that led to the flogging platform in order to grab my abandoned shirt and coat.

Terrance looked like he might have wanted to help me with the shirt, but also like he wasn’t sure how to do that. I could imagine; the man had probably never had to assist someone in getting dressed before, and he didn’t have to now. I had it handled; it just took me a second.

The haze was going away, though slower than I would have liked, the world coming back into focus with its normal level of clarity.

“This was because of what you did earlier.” The unspoken ‘for me’ was left hanging in the air.

I successfully conquered my shirt and had a much easier time with my coat, unbelievably grateful that I didn’t have to try to lace up my boots right now. “This is because of insubordination,” I said with a wry twist of my lips, but my eyes darted up to a window of the keep behind us, a watch tower located out here in the slums where the flogging post was. I didn’t trust it, didn’t trust any of the people who were still milling about, wandering off now that the show had been stopped. Somehow Durnin had known about our conversation. I didn’t care for a repeat.

Ennis followed my gaze, and he was not stupid. He straightened a bit, taking a step away from me slightly. We weren’t friends.

“I just hate to see such a legend not be given recognition for his acts,” he said with a smirk of his own that didn’t touch his eyes.

“Worried you might have to see this repeated in your favorite play?” I teased as I pulled my swords into their place on my back once more, stifling a wince as they settled against a plethora of bruises.

“Concerned that tarnishment to your reputation might cause the plays to go out of circulation,” Ennis rebounded.

“Ah, don’t all the good heroes in the stories have a streak of insubordination in them?” I started walking away from the tower as I spoke, heading in the direction of both Ennis’ house and my inn.

“Fair enough.” Ennis paused. “How long was he going to go before I stopped him? He had to have already been at fifty.”

I thought about it, replaying the scene on fast forward in my mind in order to tally up the strikes. I had zoned out for more than half of it. “He was at sixty-eight, actually.”

Ennis looked a bit pale. “A hundred?”

“Or maybe he was just supposed to go until I did something,” I thought aloud, bemusedly. It would’ve been kind of fun to pit my stubbornness against the stamina of the flogger’s arm.

Ennis shook his head slightly, his mansion in view now. “I would invite you in for tea, but it seems you think there is no privacy to be found,” he said, voice pitched low though still audible to me.

“I appreciate the offer, but yes. Lord Durnin brought up that I may have acted the way I did for someone else, hinting strongly at our conversation earlier today. Rufais doesn’t need another reason to hate me, nor, I think, suspect you of perhaps wanting the throne.”

Ennis looked at me sharply. “I have made no bids for power. Not even a hint. I don’t even live in the–” He cut off as his voice grew louder, clearly exasperated.

“I know,” I said quietly, “but Rufais is a paranoid man, and you are a powerful and well-liked one.”

“Like you?” Ennis challenged me.

I breathed a short laugh. “Different kind of power, but sure. Did you turn him down for a promotion too?”

“You didn’t turn down his promotion, Leon. You turned down his control.”

I just nodded to that; he wasn’t wrong.

“I am sorry that my request has caused you such difficulty.”

“My actions caused me difficulty, Terrance,” I didn’t realize until after the fact that I had used his first name. Oh well, “not your request.”

He gave me a somewhat dubious look but didn’t argue. “Very well. You would seem a good friend to have, Captain. I do hope any potential for that hasn’t been jeopardized.”

I smiled at him. “Why would it be jeopardized? You saved me,” I affected a voice on the last sentence, like I was playing a maiden in one of the shows of which he seemed so fond.

Ennis scoffed and shook his head. “Have a good night, Captain.”

“You too, Terr- ah. Lord Ennis.”

“Terrance is fine. Have I ever seemed to mind?”

“Sometimes you give me a look.”

Terrance snorted. “Two years, I’ve never know a look to dissuade you.”

“Eh, I actually think you’re a decent person, so it might.”

Terrance looked a bit surprised. “You didn’t strike me as the type to think anyone in power was… decent.”

“You have me confused for Hector,” I told him dryly. “Power is just a thing that people have, like a sword. It’s the people who have it that use it for good or ill.”

“I try,” Terrance admitted. “I don’t always think I do a good job.”

“No one does all the time. You just have to be better.”

“Better than what?”

I looked down, seeing in my mind’s eye smooth black hair against a silken, light purple robe, feeling the heat of a raging fire against my face.

“Better than you were before,” I said simply. “Just better.”

Terrance nodded slowly and then for the second time said, “Have a good night, Leon.”

“You as well,” I echoed, leaving him in front of his house and heading down the street to the inn where I stayed.

I waved at the innkeeper as I walked inside through the main door.

“I see you’re not using trees tonight,” Berd commented wryly.

I liked this man. “Not tonight.”

“Lots of commotion outside….” He looked at me for a moment, and I realized he knew exactly why I didn’t climb a tree. “Soup?”

I smiled at him. “Sounds fantastic. My thanks.”

Berd handed me a bowl from the pot that he had kept on the fire despite the late hour.

I inclined my head as I accepted it and then headed up to my room, stumbling inside and barely having the presence of mind to put the bowl down before crashing face first on the bed.

It had been a long day.

The night was even less kind, but at least that was familiar.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I was up with the dawn sun, groaning as I stretched, my back protesting every single movement, though I ignored it with the ease that years of practice will bring.

I opened the door and headed downstairs to find Hector in the lounge room of my inn– and not just Hector, but my entire team.

It took me a second before I realized why.

“Uh. Oops.”

“Oops? That’s what you have to say after completely abandoning our date without a word?” Jair demanded, loud enough that Berd poked his head out from the back before realizing it was just my overdramatic team and not actually a date that I had stood up.

“I got… sidetracked. I apologize,” I said sincerely.

Ehud knew exactly what had happened, I realized after one look at him. He just looked mildly annoyed with my life choices though, and I didn’t blame him.

“Well, you also overslept,” Hector told me, which was very untrue but I had stayed in my room longer than normal. “The ceasefire announcement came in this morning, as predicted. We are to report to Keeper Ialdi in less than an hour.”

“Fantastic,” I said, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. “In the meanwhile, why don’t the lot of you tell me what I can do to make it up to you?”

“Don’t skip another night at the tavern,” Jehu said, giving me a glare.

“A raise?” Jair said with a grin, to which I rolled my eyes. I had no control over their pay, and they knew it.

“Drinking contest with Jehu,” Tola said with a smirk.

I looked over at Will and Ehud, who had remained silent. “You two? anything?”

“I actually left early,” Will admitted. “Got some extra sleep. So I don’t feel like I can judge.”

I chuckled a little and then looked at Ehud.

“You never did tell us why it was we wanted a ceasefire called so soon. One would almost think you want us unemployed.”

“Or I want you to be free?” I attempted, drawing looks of ire from all of them and making me laugh slightly in defeat. “Alright, fair.” I lowered my voice. I trusted Berd, and no one else was in the inn at this hour but even so. “Lord Ennis is missing a man from his house. I’m hoping to be assigned the case when we go in today.”

“Want me to see what I can find out?” Ehud asked.

I blinked at him and then inclined my head. “I’m not going to turn it down. Apparently it’s not the first irregular disappearance of late here in the outer ring, but because this is the slums….”

“Even if we had been on the job, it wouldn’t have gotten to us until someone like Ennis’ man went missing,” Hector finished.

“Hey, don’t just let Ehud help,” Jehu told me, grinning. “We’re your people.”

I smiled back at her. “You are my people,” I agreed dryly. “You sure you don’t mind me crashing your vacation time?”

“Don’t act like this is new, Captain,” Will scolded me lightly. “You always talk about your cases when you come out with us, and we always help.”

She wasn’t wrong. I laughed. “Alright, fair enough. Appreciate it, as always.”

“We should get going,” Hector prodded lightly.

“I’ll see you all tonight; I promise,” I told them as I walked out the door.

“You’d better, or we’re going to come hunt you down!” Jehu called after me.

“We know where you live!” Jair seconded.

I was still chuckling as Hector and I crossed into the second ring of the city.

The Peacekeeper Station was far more alive than the last time I had visited, bustling with activity as all the Captains moved back into their desks and positions, making it feel like home again.

The Keeper was watching from her office in the back, mostly her stoic self, but I could see the faint smile on her lips and in her eyes. She was happy to have us back.

“Keeper Ialdi,” I called out almost immediately after walking inside.

“What are you doing?” Hector complained, but made no attempt to stop me.

“I brought you a gift,” I told the Keeper, who looked at me in bemusement as I presented her with a knife. It was a nice blade, sharp and shiny with an ornate handle.

She accepted it with surprise. “.... this is surprisingly thoughtful of you, Kazere. Where did you get it?”

“Corpse of Tirnaog. Reminded me of you.”

“The blade or the corpse?” she asked wryly.

I just continued smiling at her until she scoffed and waved me away.

“Get to work, Kazere.”

I chuckled and went back to my desk, but noticed out of the corner of my eye how she did rest the knife gently on her own desk, clearly intending to keep it.

Once we were all settled in again, the most important aspect of which had been pulling the Peacekeeper insignia out of my desk and affixing it to my belt, I got Hector’s attention and then headed back up to her office. “Keeper,” I greeted professionally.

“Captain,” she returned, standing. “What can I do for you?”

“You have a case for us? Something in the slums maybe?”

“Regarding missing persons?” she finished wryly and then shook her head. “I don’t know why you’re interested in this case, and I don’t want to know,” she told me firmly while handing me the file. “But it’s yours. Figure it out, and do it fast. There’ve been five disappearances over the course of the last two months.”

To me, that honestly didn’t seem like that much, but these weren’t just disappearances from people in the slums– these were proper vanishings. As I read through the files, it looked like these people had simply been plucked out of their lives and vanished into the ether. Individuals falling into Rifts would leave more trace than this, from what the file indicated.

I frowned heavily at the lack of statements gathered about any of them. “We should go talk to people,” I told Hector once we had both familiarized ourselves with the content.

“Do you think that no one tried, or that they couldn’t get anything?” he asked, standing up to head out with me.

“I’m not sure, but either way, we’ll probably have better luck.”

“You might live out there, but they don’t think you’re one of them,” Hector pointed out.

I found deep irony in that but kept it to myself. “We should still have better luck. We’re charming.”

Hector laughed slightly.

The slums weren’t the worst, as far as slums went. The trees, once again, made this city better than others in several ways, providing cover and a shelter of some kind, places to hide. While if they had tried to cut down the trees to build homes for themselves, they probably would have been executed for grand theft, something that perhaps some would consider unjust, the very presence of the forest canopy itself was of benefit, and many had erected small fort-like shelters under the trees.

Of course, the downside of this was that it became much more difficult to find people, not just walking through streets to see who was there, but now having to hunt through a surprisingly dense forest area within the walls.

We talked to a few people, those whom we could, but we got very little in return.

Hector went to get some water after a few hours, and I was left standing on the edge of the forest, trying to think of any contacts I could try. Somewhat unusually, I found that most of the people I knew in this city were, in fact, fairly well off and not the sorts of people who could benefit me in the slums. I really needed to fix that.

“You look very intensely in thought.”

I looked up, surprised to find someone willingly engaging me in conversation, even more surprised as I found myself face-to-face with a beautiful young woman in a simple but lovely blue dress, with black hair and blueish green eyes.

“You look very well dressed for these parts,” I responded, perhaps not the most politely, but what was someone who looked like she could be a noble’s daughter doing out here by herself?

She blinked in surprise, faint color springing to her cheeks. “I’m… a refugee, I suppose you could say. Evacuated from one of the villages along the borders. I only just arrived.”

“And immediately wandered off to talk to strangers?” I asked, smiling bemusedly.

“You’re wearing a Peacekeeper ensignia,” she defended. “And I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be going. Many… most from my village were unable to make the trip.”

“I’m surprised they’re still evacuating border villages, now that the ceasefire has been called.”

“There was a ceasefire?” she asked, sounding shocked. “So fast?”

“Just this morning. I suppose if you were on the road it makes sense you wouldn’t have heard; apologies. I hope the trip wasn’t too terribly long.”

“It… wasn’t, but….” She looked slightly lost.

“You seem very troubled by the news of peace,” I pointed out, not accusingly, just questioning.

“I didn’t just come to escape war,” she said quietly. “Life is meant to be better here. But now I feel as though I have abandoned my family.”

“Siblings?”

She shook her head, “Just my grandparents. They refused to come with me, but did not refuse me. At least, not with a skirmish aggressed by Tirnaog. We are very close to their border.”

“It was impossible for you to know the skirmish would end so quickly. It rarely does.”

“Was it the Lion of Ildanach?” she asked me, eyes lighting up.

How in the Abyss had that title made it all the way out to little border villages? “Ah… some may give him some of the credit,” I admitted.

She smiled. “He’s been a great blessing of the Fates.”

I smiled back at her slightly. She hadn’t hesitated to say that in front of me, despite the mask, yet she also hadn’t addressed my obvious “heresy”. I appreciated that. “Did you know that he’s a Turyn?” The question was asked genuinely; it had suddenly occurred to me that maybe that bit hadn’t made it beyond the walls of Ildanach.

But she nodded. “I do.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“Why should it?” she challenged almost coyly. “The Fates can use anyone to bring about their will, even unwilling folks who don’t know why they’re doing it.”

“You think he’s unintentionally a good person?” I asked, amused.

“Not intentionally good. Unknowing, perhaps, that he is performing the will of the Fates, or denying it. But it must be the Fates will, for it has occurred. And he is clearly blessed.”

I chuckled at her straightforwardness. Sometimes it was easy to forget that there were honest people out there who believed in the Fates, that it wasn’t all about the Chantry to them. “Maybe good is just good, regardless of who you think you’re serving.”

“Precisely. And he has done great things for Ildanach.”

“I’m sure he’d be glad to hear it.” I saw Hector in the distance arch an eyebrow at me and then give me a subtle nod and walk right past us without commenting. I barely withheld a sigh, but, honestly, I wasn’t unhappy with the decision he’d made, as it gave me the liberty to do the following, “You said you came over because I was a Peacekeeper. How can I be of assistance? You need directions?”

Following my lead, she got back on the main topic as well. “I’m not sure where refugees are supposed to go, or if there’s any particular place for them. Shelters, perhaps?”

I realized very suddenly that this girl had no money.

“May I ask your name?”

“Oh! Forgive me, of course.” She curtseyed. “My name is Avaline Norel.”

“Mine is Leon,” I didn’t give her my full name; she looked caught off guard enough by the short one simply due to its clearly foreign nature. The small town girl had probably never met anyone from the Western Territories before. “Avaline, I hate to tell you this, but unless your village was forcibly cleared through destruction or the direct orders of the Highlord’s forces, there are no shelters here open for general migration. You’re not actually a refugee, by the law. You’re either a tourist or a newcomer.”

Avaline pulled back away from me, looking dazed. She pulled out her purse, and I could see her start to try to figure out how to make more money almost immediately.

“I’ll tell you what. I’m staying at an inn right out here in the slums. It’s not great, but it’s not expensive either, and the innkeeper can most definitely be trusted. How about I show you to there, and then maybe we can look into finding you some employment? Won’t be easy work, but it’ll be honest.”

She looked at me sharply in surprise. “I– thank you, uh. Leon.” She blushed very slightly from using only my first name, but I hadn’t really given her any other options. “I am deeply grateful and in your debt.”

“It’s really not a big deal. Let me show to the inn, hm?”

She nodded, smiling at me, and I offered her my arm to escort her.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re surprisingly formal for someone from the border towns.” And yet far too naive to have come from a city.

“My mother was a performer who ran in a troupe in the Morrigan Houslends. I stayed with her when I was young, but… she sent me away to stay with her parents when they came to the Ildanach Lands.” Avaline looked down, back up at my mask, and then at the ground again. “She performed with Turyn, and when the Chantry came from them, she refused to denounce her friends. They burned her with them.”

I sighed heavily, unintentionally tightening my grip on her arm for a moment. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”

She nodded a bit. “I don’t usually say much about it, but.” She looked at my mask again and seemed to change her mind about saying it, though her point was clear enough.

I thought you’d understand.

“Thank you again for the help, Leon.”

We had reached the door of the inn, so I released her arm to bow slightly. “It was no trouble at all, Ms. Norel. Have a good night.” I kissed her hand.

She blushed again and inclined her head. “You as well.”

Avaline went inside, and I turned around to find Hector smirking at me from nearly across the width of the whole district. I sighed and walked over to him resignedly.