I had never been into a room like this one before. It reeked of unimaginable wealth, even if it appeared plain. Dominating the room was an impressively large table made from a single plank of wood from my home isle. Impressively enough, they had somehow managed to make the plank perfectly rectangular, and rounded the corners of overly hard wood. Further more they had somehow even contoured the edges of the table.

Outside of the large windows was an untouchable, to the students of M ægen Scōl, well maintained private garden. The summer blooms of the plants were pretty enough, yet not so overwhelming that it distracted those within. And somehow they planted some soothing scented plants in such a way that their calming scent filled the room.

Above me, the celling was seemingly simple. Yet as I looked at it, avoiding the scene below, I saw the subtle and intricate carvings on the dark beams which ran between the pristine white plastered celling.

Still, I dared not ignore what was going on below for too long. Surrounding the table were seats which I guess high backed Thrones, with their impressive sturdy arms, would look like. Each of the thrones were so intricate they made the one which one which Gomes purchased for me seem like a crude stool.

Eight of those throne-like seats were occupied. Along with the other sixteen lined up alongside them, the seats dominated the two long sides of the table. And here I was stuck, standing all alone, on the far end of the table from them.

Above the heads of the occupied seats, and of two others, were the coat of arms belonging to the Livery Companies whose masters were seated in their thrones. The two unoccupied Livery Company seats were often empty as they belonged to the other two Livery Companies who held control elsewhere in the Isles.

Two other seats had a coat of arms above them. First belonged to the Lundein Pool Guardians. Though they were not a Livery Company, the importance of guarding the largest port in the Bernician Isles meant that they, too, had a coat of arms.

The final person who sat on a throne with a coat of arms was Doctor Lee. The coat of arms above her head was for M ægen Scōl.

In my cheap and sweaty combat outfit stained with both mine and Morag—Castor ’s blood, I felt totally out of place. It didn’t help that the discussion on the far end of the table had been going on for ages. I could see the signs of a major disagreement and more than one person was shouting. However, I could not hear a single word even though I was in the same room as them, even if I was at a bit of a distance.

I saw Doctor Lee, calm and impassive, her stern elderly face blank whilst sitting straight-backed with an elegance none of the others had. She was just impassively sitting there, hands on her lap, ignoring what was going on. Her eyes were lightly closed as if she was there, yet not.

The other person who was not taking part was Castor. Her small and solidly built body was leaning back on her throne, well lounging was maybe the better term. She was acting more like a man; her legs spread wide, one of them was even hooked over the arm of her throne. Like the rest, she was wearing her uniform but without the mask.

Her elderly pale pink face with its broken nose was unlike Doctor Lee ’s. It was as if she were a grandmother rather than a ruler. But her distracted look, and no nonsense scowl she occasionally gave others, was perfect for her. Like the elegantly refined Doctor Lee, she was being quiet, allowing the argument to go on around her. Unlike Doctor Lee was impatient, tapping her fingers on her muscular thighs.

Occasionally, she would catch me looking at her, and she would smile. Once she even blew me a kiss, much to the apparent annoyance of the Guild Master of the Lundein Pool Guardians.

In time, I could see Castor getting more and more annoyed.

The gentle tapping of her fingers turned into a rapid drumbeat. Not that I could hear them from her. In the end, she swung her legs back to the front, stood up, and slapped the table hard. From how the table rocked, and the wince from everyone present, even Doctor Lee, I guessed it was a hard slap which produced a loud thud.

Yet, the table remained intact.

She jabbed a pointed finger angrily at three people; one of who was the Master from the Lundein Pool Guardian ’s. Then she said something.

The barrier then disappeared. ‘—young Berwyn, along with Tan-bei, Gomes de Rio Puente, and Lucia will be full members of Castor ’s Defiance. I was willing to, before this meeting, to allow them to be Dayers, but I fear for them if I was not to offer them my full protection—’

‘You just want to fuck him, don’t you—’ Someone said.

‘And what if I do?’ She then looked up at me. ‘Oh, hey, Darling, I’m sorry but I’ll be talking about our sex life.’

I gave her a slight shrug and an equally slight nod.

‘It’s so wonderful when I can go all out, makes me wet down there, you know.’ She gave a teenage in love giggle. ‘And unlike with others, I don’t have to pull any punches and can be as rough as I like. When we fucked, we both ended up black and blue. Tell you what, I was sore down there, and walked funny. Until his wife healed me up.

‘She wasn’t upset that we fucked, was she?’ This last she asked towards me.

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I smiled and shook my head.

‘Damn, what a fine wife you have there. Treasure her, okay.’

I gave a slight nod of my head.

‘J-j-just what are you two on about?’

‘Enough of my student’s love life. That is not what this meeting is about—’ Doctor Lee said in her slightly shrill voice.

‘No. It is the—’

‘Quiet.’ Castor said, in a low commanding tone which brooked no disagreement. Her face turned hard, more like a commanding officer than a grandma. For once, I could see her as the leader of a powerful Livery Company. ‘Listen carefully. That young man stood toe to toe to me when I was wearing the gauntlets. You all saw that. You even saw him catch my final outright attempt to beat him. ’

Castor looked around at the people seated in the thrones, looking at each of them in the eye before moving to the next.

‘He is young and I am sure he has untapped potential—no. I know he has untapped potential, which he didn’t, for one reason or another, use. While you are all in here crying like wee bairns, you’re ignoring the threat that he poses to all of us. I cannot stop him. So I’m trying to tame him another way, and yes, I’ll get some of my sexual needs fulfilled. And yes, maybe I’m using him to meet other needs I have tried long and hard to suppress. And maybe I’ll end up being used by him in certain ways. But if we ignore him…’

She shrugged and collapsed back onto her throne, making it rock slightly under the force.

‘That boy as you try to demean him, ’ she carried on, this time in a disinterested tone, ‘will be hard to bring down if he were to go on a rampage. I don’t know why he was so injured after that last fight he had in Three Bridge. I know that was an exception, not the rule.’

‘How do you know?’ A voice sneered.

I sighed. This was all getting too much for me. But I could tell that Castor was trying to protect me. I looked at Doctor Lee; she was looking at me with her lips tightly pursed.

‘Tell them.’ I said quietly.

Castor looked at me.

I looked at her.

Her eyes were not the fierce ones she held when looking at the others earlier. They were kinder, gentler. Supportive. A brief glance at Doctor Lee showed she wasn ’t going to help me decide.

So I pushed down the uncomfortable feeling that was welling up from deep inside my chest.

I gave Castor a painful nod.

She gave me a bright smile. ‘On second thoughts, no. I will not tell you what I know. But I’ll use this instead.’ She reached down her top, as if she was going to grope one of her almost non-existent breasts, and pulled out a piece of parchment. ‘This is the summary of an investigation conducted by Gomes de Rio Puente and Lucia on the attempt on his life. Oh, do you know about the Rio Puente family, Alger?’

The head of the Lundein Pool Guardians scowled at Castor.

‘They’ve been a pain, haven’t they? Even going so far as to gain an audience with the King.’

The evil grin on Castor ’s face didn’t belong on it. That kind, friendly, grandma face was how it should be. Maybe even the commanding face. Never this demon possessed face.

‘Oh, how is the punishment going?’ She held up a hand to her face, in a mockingly demur fashion. ‘Oh, it was meant to be private, wasn’t it? Extra protection to Rio Puente’s interests—material and personnel. And Gomes de Rio Puente was specifically listed as a person of interest to be guarded. So is his fiancee Celena de Frontera, who has now left her position with the Lundein Pool Guardians. Oh, but don’t worry, she’ll join her fiance in joining the Defiance. And as for that knife which so carelessly lost, the King himself has noted it belongs to the Rio Puente family. It’s a shame. A royal heirloom given to a foreign nation we were at war with not long ago.

‘Anyway, I’m hot and flustered after than bout earlier. And you fools have made me lose my precious time over something which was already decided long before, and above your heads. So now I’m gonna take my lover and work out my many frustrations as I can by fucking him until neither of us can walk straight. Then I’m gonna get his wife to heal us, so maybe we can do it all again.’

She sat up straight.

‘Oh, yes, that leads me to another thing. In reaching out to Tan-bei, to offer her protection by having her join our Livery Company, I had to make a deal with the temple in Three Bridge. The King was not happy with that, but he knew it was not my fault. He trusts me, you know, and when I told him why. Well …’

Castor smiled a bright beaming smile, which seemed even more chilling than the demon smile from moments before. Slowly, carefully, and with a muscular grace, she stood up.

Even though she was by far the shortest person in the impressive room, she dominated everything easily. All eyes were locked on her as she walked towards me with her powerful gait. She reached out her meaty hand. I took it and held it as I had Tan-bei ’s the night before.

It felt so different, yet interestingly right.

Without turning around to talk to the people at the table, or even to face me, she carried on. ‘Three Bridge is now under the protection of Saint Evaine’s Defiance; a guild under the banner of Castor’s Defiance Livery Company. And my lover,’ she squeezed my hand, ‘is the Guild Master.’

What ?