After a painfully slow walk along the cobbled streets, surrounded by his guards, Gomes and I finally made it to a small and seemingly simple, closed top carriage which only had a single horse pulling it. It looked strange and unlike the boxy open topped carriages that were all too often seen pulling cargo around the streets of Lundein and through Three Bridge.

For a start, it only had two wheels and was relying upon the horse to stay upright. The cabin wasn ’t fully enclosed, there was a lap… Door, I guess, which covered the lap, but was currently open. There was also only a single bench. The driver sat behind the cabin, and not at the front of the carriage.

I helped Gomes up the step into the cabin and followed after him.

The single bench in the cabin was cramped with me sitting next to Gomes. And it was further cramped by the way his leg was resting semi-straight on my side. I did my best to make myself as small as possible, but my muscular bulk made it almost impossible to be much smaller than this.

Gomes closed the lap door over the two of us, but it wouldn ’t close fully as my knees got in the way and I dared not move them for fear of crushing Gomes’ leg.

He took a deep, juddering breath. ‘I am sorry for not being able to come to see you before now,’ Gomes said.

I saw the whip of the driver make the horse move. The cobbled stones beneath the metal rimmed wood wheels made the carriage shake in an uncomfortable and oddly rocking motion. One particularly heavy rocking motion made my leg knock into Gomes ’. That was when I realised I was still in my birch armoured form.

I let it fade away.

‘Shall I get out and walk with the rest?’ I asked.

He patted my muscular thigh. ‘No. It might be comfortable for the two of us, but it’s important. My father is here in Lundein and is trying to make me head back to Osonda. But I can’t, just yet. If I do, then I would likely lose Lucia forever.’

I looked out at the streets which we were travelling through. Because we had an escort, we were both faster and slower than I expected. The buildings here were different from the closely packed three-story buildings near Brook Gate. Most of the buildings were timber-framed, the timber painted black and the plaster between the black timber frames painted white. They were various sizes and of two or three story. Only a few of the buildings had flacking plaster or paint. And one particularly bad building, a small simple house, had timber scaffolding up around it and was being painted and the plaster being patched up.

After a while longer of silence, Gomes carried on. ‘I’m going to have to marry. I always knew I would have to. I am the eldest son of the Rio Puente family, after all.’ He gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘That was why I started chasing after all the girls I could. Have a bit of freedom after the restrictive lessons and upbringing I had. Always knew I would have to give it up one day. But before I realised what happened, I fell in love with Lucia.

‘I just can’t give her up. The past few weeks since my attack, we’ve been talking about things. She’s just as selfish and greedy as I am.’

I could understand love. I know I felt it for Tan-bei and Morag, and had felt it for Sirona. I could also understand marrying for other reasons: which was why I wasn ’t upset with Sara for wanting to marry me.

But none of this really made sense to me why he was telling me all of this. I knew he was a friend and friends did share—which was why I wasn ’t upset that he had sex with Sara. It was nice that he did so that she felt comfortable when taking me to bed that first time.

‘You’re just as transparent now as ever,’ Gomes laughed, slapping me on my thigh. ‘That is one of the things I like about you. Though from what Tan-bei has told me, you have depths locked down inside that I never knew existed. To think that my friend is a genuine hero, who did his best to save his people from the tyranny of others.

‘And at a great cost. I honestly don’t know how I could be so open and loving and caring if I went through what you went through.’

I was about to say something, but he cut me off.

‘Don’t be so modest. Even if you had help from others, you still overcame the darkness.’

I thought about the darkness which had almost overwhelmed me earlier. ‘What if I haven’t overcome the darkness?’

‘After I was attacked, laying there bleeding from nasty wounds, which I was sure was going to kill me, all I could think about was paying back the one who went after Lucia. She did her best to protect me. Me? I should be the one protecting her! Isn’t that why I trained up to be a hero for?’

He was quiet. I allowed him to sit with his darkness. As he was quiet, I did my best to avoid knocking into him as the carriage rocked on the cobbled streets.

‘No. I was a hero because it was easy just to sit through the lessons and watching the woman and girls as they got sweaty in the physical classes. I loved messing around with the artefacts—Kredrā as the snooty bastards call them, and other magical items. Basically, I treated this trip to Lundein as a holiday where I was away from the watchful eyes of my father and the family as a whole.

‘I was always envious of you and Tan-bei. You two had a drive that I never had. You two had a future laid out for you, which you picked for yourself. You were going to be a hero who saved people, Ber, not for riches or praise or any of the thousand other mainly selfish reasons I heard from the heroes I interacted with. No. You wanted to be a hero to protect others.

‘And Tan-bei. She wants to be a hero to thank the church for saving her. Lucia just saw it as a way to escape. And me…’

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I didn ’t want to see Gomes so unsure of himself. He was usually the direct one who knew what he wanted. Maybe it was all an act, like he said, but I wasn’t sure. I was sure that there were things he wanted but couldn ’t go out and get. So I let him have time with his thoughts, looking outside the carriage as I did so.

By now, more and more houses were made of stone or brick. Also, they were larger, newer, and more ornate. Smaller and older black timber-framed buildings still dotted the road here and there. Occasionally reasonably new four-story buildings, looking remarkably like apartment buildings complete with a simple shop on the ground floor, lined the streets. Off to one side, between gaps in the buildings, or over some shorter buildings, I occasionally saw the royal castle or, more likely than not, The Tower, a tall and stark black cylindrical tower which dominated this entire region.

‘We’re almost back to the Rio Puente Headquarters here in Lundein. My father is staying there, and so am I. Though I’ve only seen him in passing since he arrived eight days ago.

‘I’m sorry for what I’m about to do. I just hope you can forgive me for it.’

With that, he went quiet. The carriage then stopped outside an old, yet large and imposing stone built building which instead of looking old felt distinguished amongst the much newer neighbours which tried to mirror its majesty.

They failed.

The building was four stories high, with grand bay windows reaching all the way to the red glossy tiled roof. Coat of arms were brazenly displayed on the bays between the windows and above the grand wooden door, which stood off to one side. But instead of the stone carved ones which I guessed should ’ve been there, colourful and gilt carved wood coat-of-arms were proudly displayed.

The grand wooden door currently stood open. Two heroes from Lundein Pool Guardians stood, one on either side of the door. Inside the doorway I saw more crimson outfitted guards.

Gomes opened the lap door.

Before he could shift himself to get out, I climbed out, carefully avoiding knocking into his leg. Then I shamelessly offered my hand to help him down. At first he was hesitant, in the end he accepted my help.

I followed him through the carefully carved doorway with its geometric design, his cane clicking on the smooth flagstone floor. All the crimson outfitted guards in the wood panelled entrance hall eyed me with some apprehension.

Not that I was surprised.

If I had been by myself, I was sure that they wouldn ’t have let me in. But following Gomes, they had no choice but to accept my presence. Very few people were fully open and accepting of me. A curse of my height and the deadly grace my friends told me I walked with.

Sara ’s Tavern was one place which had accepted me as their own. I think months of being there and acting as a big softie guard dog had opened their hearts to me. Despite that, even after I killed that man in front of them a couple of nights ago, most of the regulars still treated me the same when it came to the celebration last night.

In fact, some of them thanked me for killing that man, especially husbands and more than a few single women.

Still, the entrance hall into the headquarters was small, and made to feel smaller by the crowd of guards in it. Gomes went through double doors into a small wood panelled chamber.

I followed him through.

The front of the room had massive bay windows, which let in a decent amount of light. But despite being on the ground floor, I couldn ’t see through them, nor could I hear any of the noise of the street.

Even though the large bay windows let in a decent amount of light, the celling had ornate chandeliers with numerous glowing light gloves. Dominating the wood panelled chamber was a large solid dark wood table near the far end. One large ornate chair sat in the middle of the table.

In the chair was a man with noble bearing and ornate and high-class clothing, that if you told me he was royalty, I would not be surprised. The slicked back black hair and the well-trimmed beard had distinguished streaks of grey in it. Added to the strong, unforgiving face, with the same butterscotch skin as Gomes, I knew this was probably his father.

There was a single simple, uncomfortable looking chair off to one side, which Gomes made his way towards. The floor in this room was wood and the echoing of Gomes ’ cane differed to the flagstone flooring of the entrance hall.

Behind me, the double doors closed with a solid thud.

I hadn ’t felt trapped when locked in that small room a while back, even if they had strapped me into that uncomfortable chair.

I felt trapped now.

I was standing in this large expansive chamber with my best friend and his father, who was looking at me with his impassive gaze.

There seemed no escape for me.

I did my best to hold back the tingling feeling in my fingers. Being armoured might make me feel safer, but even I knew it was the wrong thing to do.

I preferred the battlefield and the sands of the arena. Things were simple. I followed whatever orders I had to. In the end, I generally came out victorious.

Here, in this chamber, I was lost.

I was weak.

I didn ’t know what I needed to do.

Gomes, with his halting and limping progress over the impossibly long distance to his chair, wasn ’t helping. Each thud of his cane sounded like an executioner drummer beating a dirge for my death.

All the while, his father was gazing at me with that impassive and foreboding gaze.