The next morning was just like any other morning for Kira, she woke up and got ready to make a difference in the world. She believed strongly in making sure that people respected the law and hated when the law was twisted to bend the rules for higher class citizens. The halfling went down stairs to meet with her new team. Ever since joining the Jellybeans, the young ranger felt that she was doing actual good. First, she helped traders get their business back and now she helped stop a political altering murder. All and all, she was feeling great about her work so far in this town.

As she arrived in the main area of the inn she could see Ken serving breakfast to everyone. It was the same as most days, sliced meats and cheeses with a side of porridge. This meal was served with water, milk or ale. She scanned the party she was a part of and fixated her eyes on Ciylia. It was only about a week ago that the elven thief was trying to still coin from her purse but Kira had already forgiven her for that. Ciylia was oddly alluring, and both of them being rangers gave Kira a sense of sisterhood with the elf. Not to mention that watching the elven ranger lay down on her bedroll in the middle of battle just because of an awful idea Kira had earlier was both endearing and funny. A memory that could be shared with friends or others whenever the mood needed to be lifted.

As they were eating breakfast, Threen walked into the tavern. He waved at Ken before arriving at the table the Jellybeans were eating at. "Excuse me, Grand Wizard Fen of the council would like to speak with you about your investigation of Candice Bruntworth.”

Gene turned to the commander, "We will finish our breakfast first and then we will go to the council's palace. You are free to join us if you would like.”

"No thanks, I already ate this morning. I will wait here until you finish and then escort you.”

"Suit yourself," the monk shrugged before returning to breakfast. Kira was excited to see how the higher-ups really were. She had been a bit confused ever since Shield was mentioned in the jail but no one seemed to make a note of his name even though he was also connected to the murder.

Once breakfast finished, everyone left with Threen to go to the palace. Kira walked beside Aylia as they had been friends since before they arrived in this town. After being exiled from her town for trying to take justice into her own hands, the halfling wondered around Erend looking for some sort of purpose. When she had met Aylia, the gnome was very secretive about what she was doing or where she was from but eventually after months of traveling together Aylia opened up a bit to Kira. The cleric was on the impossible mission of trying to end all the diseases in the world. Even though it was a fool's errand, it still gave Kira something to do.

When they arrived in Tormund and had the chance to help clear out the wolves arose, the ranger had to take that chance to make a difference. It of course to quite a lot of convincing to get Aylia to agree but it was all worth it in the end. Now she got to be apart of this team, that she had the honour of naming.

"Hey, are you okay?" Aylia's voice interrupted Kira's thoughts.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just thinking about the good we are doing right now. We are making a difference here so I'm very happy about that.”

"At least you aren't a fugitive here as well," chuckled Aylia.

"You are right about that. We are heroes here," grinned Kira as she locked arms with the gnome and skipped merrily down the road. Shortly after, the Jellybeans arrived at the palace gates once again but this time they were welcomed in. They moved through a circular garden that only had a few blue flowers and a small fountain in it. The ranger was curious if there were fish in it but focused on the task at hand instead of checking. Escorted inside and down a long corridor the group arrived a simple set of double doors. Threen pushed open a door for them and let them inside.

The room was long and had a slightly shorter table near the end of it. The table was elevated to stand above the rest of the room. Nine chairs sat behind the table, all of them empty expect for one. An old human sat in the middle chair. He wore great blue wizard-style robes with a black hat that was styled like a beret. His face was very wrinkled and had a grumpy expression. A fine looking long staff with a gorgeous white gem on top of it was leaning against his chair.

"Grand Wizard, the Jellybeans have arrived." Commander Threen announced the group and then exited the room and shut the door.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The old man stood up and closely scanned across the members of the group. "Welcome to the council"s main chamber. I assume you know why you are here.”

"Yes we are aware," replied Gene.

"Very good. I am Grand Wizard Fen, and I help maintain justice in Tormund.”

"What are you doing about Shield?" Kira couldn't contain herself anymore.

"Shield? Nothing at all. First of all, he lives outside of the town and never comes into the town himself thus keeping himself out of our boundaries. Secondly, we sometimes use him to find rats that we have escaped us. We were going to use him to find Blair Cormund's murder but he had heard we had you in custody. He said that you were the ones responsible according to his network."

"So you are with him! That is fucking disgusting! How could the city employ a …" the ranger's voice was suddenly cut off. Fen was standing up now with his staff pointed at her. Kira tried her best to scream but nothing came out.

"I hate people who can't mind their own business. Anyways, it seems you have found the person who held the knife even though we could find the blade itself."

"I see, so what do you want from us?" The Jellybean's leader asked the old wizard. Kira nodded in agreement with that question. She wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Fuck that wizard for silencing real justice!

"I wanted to thank you for making our decision for the next councilman easy. We will be taking Kenneth Storn as his party didn't cheat in trying to win the spot and we doesn't care that Ronald Bruntworth didn't know as his wife was actively trying to have him elected.”

"What will you do with Lady Bruntworth," asked Fern in a concerned way.

"She will most likely be tortured to reveal any ongoing plots she may have, then after that, it all depends. The best case for her is that she is exiled from our town blind as it seems she uses her eyes to create her magic and worst case is death." Kira thought that if Candice could have some how offered them a large sum of money she would have disappeared with nothing bad happening to her. Nobles always seemed to get off easy, if it was a poor person who did this then he would have already been executed."

Aliya looked at Kira as if trying to read her mind, "Are our names really cleared?”

"Yes, yes. I called you here also to not reveal the nature of this problem either as we don't want people to worry so much when it's a time for celebrating the new councilman.”

"And if we did," questioned Fern. 'What would happen?”

"I'm afraid we'd have to detain you until further notice. Now you are free to go. Here is a thousand gold pieces for bringing in Candice Bruntworth." He tossed a bag of coins on the floor in front of the group and Ciylia dived it pick it up. Grand Wizard Fen motioned with his hand to leave his presence.

After the group was escorted back outside the gates, Kira finally got her voice back. "That mother fucking low life! How dare he claim to represent the people when he employs scum to wipe out problems he can solve using the law! I say we fucking wipe out that little rat infestation right now!" It really felt good to yell her feelings out even though she cursed. She wasn't a fan of swearing but she couldn't contain herself when it came to being that upset. Even though that was her excuse it still felt wrong. "Ah fiddlesticks, I'm sorry I yelled guys.”

"It's alright my dear," said Aylia while trying to comfort her equally sized friend. "We know you are upset.”

"I think Kira has a great point though," Gene said. "We should wipe out that group of thugs. Not to mention that they tried to kill us as well." A lot of the group nodded at the suggestion except for Meowlynn.

"What's the matter?" the halfling ranger asked the team's wizard.

"I don't really see why it should matter to us or why we should bother putting our noses where they don't belong.”

"But they are corrupt," pleaded Kira. "We need to allow this town to have real justice.”

"What's in it for me?" replied Meowlynn.

"I'll carry your bag and you can burn some of them with you amazing and impressive fire magic," begged Kira, dropping to her knees. She didn't care how it made her look because making the world better was worth the cost of embarrassment.

"Fine, you shall start carrying it now. A high born elf such as myself should have never had to carry my own bag in the first place.”

"Well, we can't do it by ourselves," interrupted Gene. "We'll need some help and I know a man who might be able to help us.”

Aliya looked towards Gene with a pleading look on her face. This expression did not go unnoticed by Kira. Then the gnome mouth something to the effect of "You said you wouldn't tell anyone" but since the halfling was not the best at lip-reading it was the most she could figure out.

"Who exactly are we going to recruit?" asked the halfling.

"The assassin, he could help us infiltrate Shield's base. I know it's not ideal for you Kira but we have the gold to pay him now that we helped the council.”

Kira was unsure, on the one hand, she really wanted to exterminate the underbelly of this town but she didn't like working with a killer for hire. The only reason she was considering it was because for some reason Aliya, who was her closest friend, seemed to trust the assassin enough to help hide him. "As long as Aliya is okay with it, then so am I.”

"I am," she replied timidly.

"Alright then, let's get going.”

Kira grabbed her gnomish friend as they were walking. "Why do you guys know where the assassin is? And why didn't you tell me?!”

"I know I should have but he has a daughter," said sheepishly. "He only does this to take care of her. Maybe this is all he knows. Perhaps after we drive of these bad men we could teach him a different skill to help make him a standard citizen again.”

"You could be right. We gave Ciylia a second chance and she's turning out alright." The rest of the walk was silent as they arrived at the house in the alley.

The door was ajar so the Jellybeans cautiously moved down into the darkness. Thankfully for Kira, Gene had turned on his hooded lantern as both he and herself were the only ones not capable of seeing in the dark. The stairs lead into an empty basement with only one door. Surprisingly, this door was wide open as if guests were being expected.

Gene, Fern, and Ciylia moved forward while Kira stayed behind with Aylia and Meowlynn. The three front people cautiously entered the room and looked around. It became obvious that their eyes were drawn to a single point. Finally, the rest of the group made it into the room. There on the wall was a man crucified to it. Blood was dripping from his hands and feet. His black leather was wet with his blood as well. Beside the man was a message written in the same crimson:

Though this blade has fallen,

The SHIELD stands strong.