Morning brought about the salty air, the cries of dockworkers and the crashing tide. It was warm and sticky and nobody slept particularly well. Flencer was still sluggish from recent poison and his Elven bride did not relent, pursuing his company and explanation in nightmarish echoes. No matter how much he called back she could never hear.

Kaleb had roused and was stalking through the hideout, a simple hallway with several rooms varying in usage. Esme was walking towards him in the hall and he barred her progress with his arm.

“Yes?” She said groggily.

“I’d like to ask some questions.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“I’m making it so…who are you?”

Esme pushed her dark hair behind an ear and raised her brow, “I am Esme.”

Kaleb narrowed his eyes, “Your games wear thin,”

“All you need to know is we have the same goals.”

“Who is your master?”

“If you are successful, that will be revealed.”

Kaleb bit the inside of his bottom lip.

“I am not the monster you paint me to be, perhaps you could address me with some respect?”

Kaleb laughed and moved his arm, “I want that pendant, you couldn’t possibly understand what you and your master are involved in.”

Esme nodded softly, “So you say, but I think we both know that isn’t true.” She brushed past Kaleb and looked back at him over her shoulder. “Your hammer is ready I imagine, you should go about town, perhaps enjoy a moment of calm before the storm.”

Kaleb took Esme’s advice and set out with the party. Iridia kept her shield slung over he back and spear beneath her cloak as did Flencer with his crossbow. “We should get you a blade, Morgan.”

Morgan blinked, “I eh, I am not a swordsman.”

Flencer smirked, “Ye don’t need to be a swordsman to shank someone, and you might need ta do a bit-o-shanking.” Morgan seemed wary but agreed that it’s better to have and not need rather than need and not have.

They approached the smithy which appeared to be unmanned. “Smith!” Kaleb called and looked around.

“He’s away, am tending to the shop.” Everyone looked about but couldn’t see anyone, the voice was so small but still piercing. “Down ‘ere!”

Iridia looked down and sat on the ledger atop the counter was a tiny person. “Oh! You’re so tiny!”

“Well of course I am, I’m a bloody fairy, you silly girl!” She shook her head and folded her arms.

Iridia puffed her cheeks up, “Well…I thought fairies had wings.”

Kaleb sucked his stomach in and shook his head.

“Listen ‘ere you cheeky muffin-faced cow! You ain’t gonna go about making fun ‘o me just cos I got no wings, who do you think you are? Some sort ‘o Paladin?”

Iridia blinked and thought it best not to reveal her rank, “I am not making fun of you, did you lose your wings?”

“Lose? LOSE? My wings were torn from my back!”

“Why?”

Kaleb pinched the bridge of his nose, “We should leave the questions.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you why, one of them Paladin types ripped em off, caught me in the Imperial lands, not a mile away from the gate, all I was doin’ was picking Giladyfoil, the bastard!”

Iridia blinked and looked back at Kaleb.

Kaleb shrugged.

Flencer nodded, “Ye see, Iridia, Fairies were banished from Imperial lands a few Emperors ago, couple got caught spying on him and well, a lot of fairies were netted and had their wings clipped.”

“Ripped off!” The fairy corrected.

Flencer cleared his throat, “Ripped off…since then Paladins have gone pretty hard on their lot.”

The fairy nodded, “Right you are Dwarf, and let me tell—”

Kaleb cut the small lady off, “I think we have heard enough, you were caught, you were punished, we are here on business not for a history lesson.”

Iridia frowned, she was most curious about the goings on of the past, her father had been secretive, always telling her she would learn about certain things when she was ready. She felt ready, she was on a quest to save the world and she had the right to know.

“Hmph, you sound like a Paladin, what’s yer business anyway?”

“Picking up a hammer…and we’ll take that cutlass too, with the harness and strap.”

The Fairy struggled to pull a page of the ledger up and over to inspect the order, something she’d find much easier if she had her wings. “Hmm, right, right…yes.” She looked at the hammer in the corner. “Paladin weapon that, you kill one and steal it?”

They paid for the sword and Kaleb was reunited with Zale. They trotted out toward the main docks and found a pub. “Did you miss me?” Zale asked after being propped against a table.

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“Sure, does it feel good to be as one again?”

“Don’t break me again please.”

“Don’t be so brittle in the face of an enemy.”

“You would not say that if I wasn’t a hammer.”

“I didn’t miss you.” Iridia's shield chirped, now resting beside him against the wall.

Drinks arrived with a platter of food, it was nice to eat daily and well in comfort and warmth, Morgan was reminded of when they first met Flencer in the Bucks brunt, the beer was bitter and the food was savoury, a perfect combination. A fire crackled and a bard sang songs of sea-faring adventurers, sirens of lust and vengeful spirits that took the form of consuming tides, all to a hurdy-gurdy that a player turned while prancing beside him.

“That bard is dreadful, he doesn’t even rhyme.” The shield buzzed.

“Well, not all odes need to rhyme you know.” Morgan nodded while he inspected his new blade, recoiling with a quiet gasp when he caught his finger on the edge and drew blood from a paper-thin cut.

“What do you know?”

He sucked on his finger and shrugged.

“That’s what I thought.”

Iridia took Morgan's finger from his mouth and tended to it for him in a motherly fashion, enjoying being needed by him, even in the least committal of ways.

“Can we trust that she-devil of lust, Kaleb?” Flencer sipped his pint in wait for a response, his question inspired by the lyrics of the bard.

“No, they all smell something rotten.”

Iridia glanced up from Morgan's finger to chip in. “I don’t like them,”

“Something happened here when the Paladins left, I wasn’t made aware and I saw no new Paladins on the register for Angelspree, I am usually advised of such a movement.”

“I think it’s clear why you were left in the dark,” Flencer nodded, this time with a gulp, “But if they didn’t arrive in Angelspree where did they go?”

“I don’t think they went anywhere.”

Morgan looked around the table which had gone quiet, “Then…where are they?”

Kaleb looked around the table, “Dead or worse.”

“Worse?” Iridia leaned in.

“They may have been compromised.”

Flencer finished his pint and set the tankard down with a deliberate gentleness, “What makes you think this, apart from them not showing up?”

“I think some of them got back, they knew about Iridia.” He nodded to the Neophyte.

“Why would they know about me?”

Kaleb looked around the pub and gulped his pint, he wiped his beard. “Paladins come in many different forms, some rare, some not so, you and I are quite rare but not as unique as the scion.”

“What’s a scion?” Iridia was all ears, desperate to learn more of the order she had been born to serve.

“Scions are Paladins that share a bloodline with Eradamus.”

Iridia’s eyes widened, she knew Eradamus, every Paladin did, he was the first, the founder of the order, worshipped like a God in some circles and some say he even dwelled within the divine heart itself, the symbol of perfection. “What are they like?”

Kaleb took another gulp, “Never met one, but I hear they can see into the future, know when a great Paladin is birthed and can slay Demons with their hands.”

Morgan inspected Iridia’s handy work and then placed his hand on hers under the table. “I believe it,” he nodded to her, “A Scion would have seen you.”

Iridia didn’t move her hand away, instead leaning into him, “Why me?”

Kaleb smirked, “Only the Divine Heart knows, it’s just a theory, but things seem too convenient. I find you, I am told to take you on as an apprentice and they use my oath sworn to send us to the Elves under the guise of some diplomatic issue, then Zeth finds us with this blade and here we are.”

Flencer nodded, “What’s more intriguing is how I found you.”

Kaleb frowned, “You hide something?”

“Well…” He cleared his throat, “I was given a tip-off, not by me cousin, by some…” his head wobbled, “by a fairy.”

Kaleb’s eyes vibrated and daggers shot from the pupils into the Dwarf's skull, “Come again.”

“Yeah, c’mon you know fairies still live amongst you, they told me to find you in Buck’s brunt, in you come.”

Kaleb was too intrigued to be angry by this point, “Who knew you had the seed?”

Flencer shrugged, “It was mainly a secret but if anyone did it’d be fairies and their handlers, they get into every bloody crevice.”

Kaleb thought a moment, “The seed will play a part in our journey, I feel it is the key to our entry to the Elf-lands…if we get there.”

Flencer nodded, “I agree, my quest and our meeting were too convenient, we are being moved about like Vigorat pieces.”

“I hate that game.” Kaleb sneered.

Morgan scratched his nose with his free hand and squeezed Irdia’s hand with the other, “Those fairies, they would have been following us through Elsbury I think.”

Flencer agreed, “You got that right, they knew we was comin’ before we did.” He chuckled and scoffed a cube of cheese.

Kaleb looked down at the food, suddenly without appetite, “We have been clumsy, noisy, I have failed you all by taking my position for granted.”

Iridia shook her head, “Without you, we’d be nowhere.”

Kaleb smiled, “Kind of you to say Iridia, but I underestimated the presence of the Emperor and our order. We have shrivelled so rapidly and it has happened under my nose, look how we are treated here, even the fairies curse our name…that would not have happened a year ago.”

Morgan sighed, “Then you must learn from this.”

Kaleb shot Morgan a fearsome look but he did not retreat his gaze, perhaps emboldened by the bulwark of Iridia’s quiet affections beneath the table. Kaleb’s glare retreated and was replaced with a nod of respect. “You are correct, I must learn from this.”

Morgan smiled, for once he felt like an equal amongst the party, no longer the helper boy but someone who could make an impact with his thoughts and perhaps his blade. Though no warrior he was keen to swing it at a foe, for too long he had watched the others take action from the side, he was ready to battle, at least in his mind.

Flencer drummed his fingers to the song the bard was singing as he spoke, “What do we about this Esme harlot?”

Iridia sighed, “I cannot see through her lies.”

“Me either, these people shroud themselves, they are deceitful, something about Esme concerns me.”

“Perhaps ye just have a wee fancy in your heart for her.”

Kaleb glowered at Flencer, “Perhaps I should have let that murder root sprout a tree from your chest,”

The party chuckled, even the shield and Flencer, though Kaleb remained staunch in his seriousness.

“Come now, Kaleb, you can’t deny the lass’ beauty.”

“This is what concerns me, Flencer, you don’t have a woman that beautiful flaunt about the place for no good reason.”

Morgan nodded, “Agreed.”

Iridia snatched her hand away from Morgan’s at that.

Morgan corrected himself, “Ahem, that she is no good.”

Kaleb frowned and shook his head at Morgan as if to call him nonsense.

“Perhaps…” Flencer smiled wryly, “You could give into her beauty.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re quite a big handsome lad too Kaleb, I reckon she’s got the fancy for you, and maybe you can open her mind up, sort of…turn the tables.”

Kaleb pulled the platter in front of him, “You are as ridiculous as you are fat, Dwarf.”

Flencer raised his eyebrows several times.

“You are verily fat.”