“No,” Kayde doesn’t entertain Oswald’s suggestion of Xander becoming king for a second.

“Wait, why? He would be a good king, a better one than I could ever be!” Oswald insists, having known Xander from his time with the church all those years ago.

“Xander has more important things to do, he can’t get bogged down with silly stuff like running an empire; you are going to have to do it,” Kayde is insistent, not willing to let Xander go just yet.

“Guys, I don’t want to be the pessimist here, but how in the hell are you going to make Oswald king?” Alwin butts in, unable to comprehend the logistics of this at all.

“Kill everyone above him in the church,” Kayde states like it’s no big deal.

“No! You can’t do that! Sure they are a bit misguided, but some of the people there are genuinely good people, you can’t just kill them,” Oswald is very opposed to this sort of plan.

“It’s for the greater good,” Kayde tries to appeal to him.

“He has a point,” Alwin quickly jumps on board with Kayde, ever the pragmatist.

“You know what? Fine I’ll become king, but if I’m agreeing to this then no killing, we have to do this another way,” Oswald proposes, intent on not seeing anyone die.

“Okay sounds good!” Kayde agrees immediately, not really sweating the details.

Meanwhile, Drakthar and Gwendolyn have made their way inside the city to the house where Juliana used to reside. They find the door that Kayde dug up concrete to uncover. As soon as they reach the bottom of the ladder, Drakthar puts on his golden armor from the sand dragon they slew what seems like now was ages ago.

When Gwendolyn lights up a torch they discover a wall at their backs, the passageway only goes in one direction.

“This is the end of the hallway,” Drakthar points out.

“That must mean that, wherever this leads, it was created specifically for Juliana. That just makes this all the more promising,” Gwendolyn notes, hopeful that Xander is being held somewhere down here with them.

Drakthar grabs his axe, ready to spring into action should they run into any hostiles. The room they end up in is confounding. Rather than secret holding cells, it is a room with a couch and pillows and blankets strewn about.

“What the hell is this?” Gwendolyn asks, snuffing her own torch after noticing existing torches all around them. She looks to the other side of the room and notices a hallway heading off in that direction “Looks like there is only one other entrance to this place”.

Just as these words escape her lips, they hear footsteps coming from the other opening.

“Come on,” Drakthar mumbles, pulling her down behind the couch.

“Juliana is that you?” They hear a woman call out.

Gwendolyn peeks over the couch to see a pair of girls, fairly youthful-looking with long black hair, twins.

“That’s Ulla and Mila, they are both in the files,” she whispers as quietly as she can to him.

Drakthar looks at his axe, signaling to Gwendolyn that they are going to fight. She nods readying her bow as well. The second they jump up to attack they are taken off guard.

Suddenly the two of them are on the ground, in the corner of the room, tied up with ropes.

“Looks like we caught ourselves a couple of intruders,” one of them declares haughtily.

“Now how did you two stumble across our hangout spot, with such ferocious weapons?” She asks, holding Gwendolyn’s golden bow in her hands. Gwendolyn sort of snarls at her, but doesn’t respond, not wanting them to know who they are.

While this is going on, Drakthar tests the bindings, he discovers that he could probably break free of them if he tries, but for now he remains, sizing up the situation. The other girl, who looks exactly like the first one is creepily staring down at them, focusing on the matching rings on their fingers.

She grabs at the one around Gwendolyn’s finger.

“Ulla what are you doing?” Mila asks, confused by why her sister would want such a plain-looking ring. Suddenly before them, the plain woman with brown hair is replaced by Gwendolyn’s regular appearance.

“I see, good job Ulla, it looks like we caught the one everyone is looking for ourselves,” Mila congratulates her with glee at the thought of how well they will be rewarded.

Mila leans over and pulls off Drakthar’s ring, “That must mean you are…” They see a hulking man covered in scars now before them.

“Yes, the other one. How nice of you to just come to us. This is amazing! Ulla, we are going to get promotions!” Mila states excitedly.

Instead of celebrating, Ulla stares silently at the other ring on Gwendolyn’s finger, the one Xander gave her before he was taken.

“What are you looking at this time?” Mila asks, watching as Ulla approaches Gwendolyn once more to take that ring as well.

This time Gwendolyn struggles, clutching her hand into a fist as tightly as she can to prevent having the ring taken from her.

“Looks like we finally get a reaction out of you, this ring looks much nicer than the others,” Mila starts to taunt her once Ulla gets the ring off.

“Give it back!” Gwendolyn demands, desperately not wanting to lose that ring.

“Nice to know you can talk, but I’m not giving you this ring back… no, I’d much rather give it to Juliana,” Mila knows exactly what to say to get a rise out of Gwendolyn, watching as the frantic woman in front of her is now struggling to break free from her bindings.

Mila laughs at her futile attempts, “Oh you aren’t getting out, we are bringing you to the king. Meaning you will both be killed; you’re nothing but a pair of worthless pawns”.

Drakthar senses Gwendolyn’s rage and decides to make his move. He snaps the rope holding him as if it were mere twine. In a flash, he sets Gwendolyn free, before turning his sights on the two in front of him.

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He rushes forward, easily pinning both to the ground with one arm.

“Where is he?” They recoil as the man holding them against the floor growls at them.

“Where is Xander!” Drakthar makes himself clear, further scaring them to the point where Ulla starts to cry.

“We don’t know,” Mila responds, seeing her sister start to cry in fear. Drakthar doesn’t like that answer, and applies more pressure to the two of them, “I don’t believe you”.

“No, it’s true, we aren’t high up enough to know that sort of thing, please please believe me,” Mila starts pleading with him.

Gwendolyn walks over to Mila ripping her bow out of her hand. Making sure to hand Drakthar his axe, which he is now holding with his free arm.

“Fine, if you don’t know where he is, tell us where we can find someone who does,” Drakthar moves on, starting to believe they don’t know.

“I can’t tell you that, they'll kill me,” Mila blubbers, seeing death in her future no matter what.

“That means I can’t let you live either,” Drakthar tells her, trying to scare the information out of her.

“I understand; if that is how it has to happen, go ahead,” Mila gives up, resigned to her fate. Drakthar lifts his axe, Mila closing her eyes waiting for it to end. Instead, she hears a wet squelch and the thud of his axe hitting stone. She is suddenly deafened by a piercing wail, and Mila blanches when she finally recognizing the pained screech.

“What have you done?” Mila looks to the side in horror as she sees Ulla lying next to her, bereft of her right arm.

“If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I will kill her,” Drakthar demands, his cold eyes boring into Mila.

“Fine, fine… only Wulfric, Dunstan, Godric, Juliana, and the king know where he is. Please, please spare her life!” Mila breaks, giving in to Drakthar’s demands.

“Where can we find them?” He wants more.

“I don’t know, around the city somewhere. It’s not like they hang around specific places,” Mila quickly blurts out, unsure of how to answer.

“Thanks,” Drakthar tells her, brutally cleaving her head from her body upon doing so.

He then turns back towards Ulla’s terrified, bloody form, “I’m going to need that other arm”. He calmly cuts off her arm, before drawing a knife to cut out her tongue as well. To his surprise, he finds that it has already been mutilated, explaining why she has yet to talk.

The armless girl is now lying on the ground, the life rapidly leaving her as a torrent of her blood pours out onto the floor.

“I’ve been in worse situations myself, if you are strong enough, you will be able to survive this,” Drakthar tells her, before wiping his ax on Mila’s clothes, holstering it, and preparing to head out the same way they came in.

Gwendolyn collects the rings off Mila, handing Drakthar his back so they can once again disguise themselves.

“You know that girl is dead right?” Gwendolyn tells Drakthar, sure that Ulla will die right there on the floor.

“I know... but I couldn’t let her have her arms; if she were to write something, anything that told those other people we were here… I just couldn’t take the chance,” Drakthar explains himself.

“I understand,” Gwendolyn notes, not wanting him to feel bad about what he did, still not understanding that mere slaughter such as this no longer has any effect on Drakthar.

They make their way out of the city, returning to the laboratory in the dead of night. Sitting outside of the hovel up against the wall with a single torch lit above her is Kali. She spots the two of them return, her face lit up with glee.

“You idiots!” She berates them as she wraps her arms around the two of them, pulling them into a hug.

“I was worried about you two,” she tells them.

“I said I would be fine,” Drakthar retorts, more irritated than anything about her worrying.

“Come on Drakthar, we did do something pretty reckless,” Gwendolyn admits, taking Kali’s side, casually slipping out of the hug and putting Kali’s other arm around Drakthar as well.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” she comments sadly before going inside, wishing Xander was here to hold her like that as well.

“Hey, it looks like you are okay. Where’s Drakthar?” Kayde asks her as she enters the door.

“Outside, getting cried on by Kali. Going down there wasn’t a complete waste, we did find out some information. We know all the people who know where Xander is,” Gwendolyn tells him, hoping to get an excited reaction.

“So Godric, Juliana, Wulfric, Dunstan, and the king right?” Alwin comments from the couch.

“How did you?” Gwendolyn looks over, seeing both Alwin and Oswald for the first time.

“Looks like that little adventure of yours was for nothing,” Lunette scoffs, believing it to have been a mistake from the beginning.

“Anyway this is Alwin and Oswald, guys this is Gwendolyn,” Kayde makes introductions.

Gwendolyn takes off her ring, revealing her true appearance to them.

“Wait, you’re that woman from the square; shit, you guys really are Xander’s friends,” Alwin comments, remembering her face from all the fliers around the city.

“I’m sorry he got captured,” Oswald gives her his condolences.

“Is this guy really a priest? Why is he being so nice?” Gwendolyn questions, clearly seeing the blue robes Oswald is adorned in.

Alwin stands up cutting in to answer the question, “It’s just who he is”.

Oswald mutters quietly, “thanks,” taken by seeing Gwendolyn’s beauty first hand.

“The real question is who are you?” Alwin finishes what he was saying.

Gwendolyn responds by lifting up her hand, displaying the ring Xander has given her, “taken”.

“Well, Taken, it is nice to meet you,” Alwin puts out his hand. Gwendolyn returns his handshake despite the bad joke.

“Let’s get back on track here, you guys were telling us where we should look for the others?” Kayde asks Alwin and Oswald.

“Yeah, right, these days Wulfric is hanging around the king, so he is going to be too well guarded for you guys to snatch like you did for us. Dunstan went missing, which I assume was you guys. Don’t mind that… he was a dick… let’s see Juliana and Godric… yeah, I’m not sure what their routes are. It changes a lot based on our assignments. Best guess is to just roam the city,” Alwin thinks out loud, trying to answer Kayde’s question as best he can.

“Cool, sounds good, tomorrow we will head back there, you two will stay here of course. I’ll leave the two lovebirds outside with you guys just in case,” Kayde tells them.

“It’s fine we won’t cause trouble. We already told you way too much, if the Purity finds out we will be as wanted as you guys,” Alwin points out, not finding guards necessary.

“True, view them more as protection then,” Kayde gives them a different viewpoint on it. Just then, Kali and Drakthar walk in.

“Oh hey you two, Drakthar this is Alwin and Oswald, they will be helping us moving forward. Oswald here has agreed to be our new king,” Kayde greets them as he sees them enter.

Drakthar approaches Oswald, giving him a weird look.

“What?” Oswald dares to ask, despite being deathly afraid of what this giant, armored man caked in blood might do to him.

“Nothing?” Drakthar responds, continuing to stare directly at him.

“No offense, but why would you be looking at me like that if it were nothing?” Oswald doesn’t let it go, wondering if he is going to regret it later.

“You freak me out,” Drakthar explains.

“Why?” Oswald isn’t sure what he means.

“You look exactly like him,” Drakthar states, noting the odd similarity between Oswald and his best friend.

“Now that you mention it,” Gwendolyn finally recognizes the resemblance.

Oswald fed up with the comparisons at this point turns his head, “Ever since I got here everyone has been saying that. I don’t get it before he left the church everyone thought he was really cool, the guy everyone wanted to be, but nobody has thought anything like that about me. So no, I don’t think I am like him at all”.

“You do seem less mature,” Drakthar states, shooting straight through whatever ego Oswald had to begin with.

“I’m sorry, we have all been a little on edge since Xander was captured. We are probably projecting a lot of him onto you right now because of it,” Gwendolyn apologizes to him, knowing exactly how to handle his type.

Lunette comes over to Oswald and puts a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, I haven’t met this Xander guy yet, I recognize your individuality”.

“Thanks…” Oswald tells her, feeling awkward about everything that is happening.