“So you noticed me.” A strangely-accented female voice echoed from the pub’s rooftop.

It’d be hard not to. Sanchi thought to himself. He’d posted his ghostly soldiers all around the area, posing as drunks, beggars, and the like. He’d caught wind of her approach almost as soon as he’d dragged poor Cormac into the alleyway.

Sanchi raised his head and responded, “I did.”

“And you know of me.”

“I do.”

“And you still decided to knock the sense out of my little brother.” A pair of eyes, incredibly white against the dark sky, blinked.

After a tense moment of silence, Sanchi shrugged his shoulders. “Figured I was doing you a favor. How ‘bout talking about it over dinner… Ava?”

A diminutive young woman with fiery red hair jumped down from the roof and looked Sanchi up and down.

She flashed a confident smirk. “You’re paying.”

***

Instead of a restaurant or even the pub, Sanchi led Ava to a clearing outside the town, near a small forest. There, Ava watched Sanchi labor over the flames of a freshly-made campfire.

“I didn’t take you to be the cooking type.”

“No?” Sanchi didn’t even look at the woman, as the particular cut of cow he was working on deserved each and every iota of his attention. He didn’t have Andes’ cooking skill, after all.

Thankfully, with such high quality meat, all he really needed to do was salt and sear it.

“I suppose I’ll give you some credit. Usually those who get involved with my brother shit themselves as soon as they know of me… or are too stupid to know better. I still think you’re the latter, but I’ll take a stupid man who knows how to cook over a man who knows nothing any day of the week. Especially one who procures such items from a holding item. Just who are you?”

Sanchi wordlessly took the meat off the fire and sliced it before neatly placing it on a plate.

He handed the plate of delicious meat to Ava. “Here. Dinner. I didn’t poison it.”

“I didn’t think you’d poisoned it… but now I’m suspicious.” Ava looked at the meat with some suspicion, but then its incredible scent floated into her nose and she picked herself a slice regardless.

“Mmm…” Ava shrugged. “Damn! I haven’t had anything this good in my life! The way it just melts, and oh my god, how is it sweet?!”

“Meat worth dying for, hm?” Sanchi teased as he helped himself to some of the meat as well. “Don’t worry, I really didn’t poison it. After all, it’d be foolish of me to poison such a lovely lady, especially one I need a favor from.”

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“Still don’t understand why you messed around with my brother when you’re trying to get into my good graces,” Ava said while squirreling a large slice of beef in her cheek.

“Well, Ava. It sounds like this entire town answers to you. Perhaps not legally speaking, but in every other way. You see, I arrived here a few days ago, asked who was in charge, and three people immediately tried to rob me while shouting your name.”

“Damn idiots,” Ava cursed under her breath.

Sanchi smiled. “Don’t worry, they were dealt with. But once I knew who to look for, I needed to know how to get your attention. So I spent a few nights making friends and found that your brother was running a little… side hustle?”

When Ava didn’t show any reaction, Sanchi knew he’d won the gamble—and that it was time to start setting up for the grand finale. With a flourish, he pulled out his guitar and began to strum it as he began to eloquate.

“Let me know if this story sounds familiar to you. There are two siblings who care for each other very, very much. Perhaps a little too much, as they’d tragically lost their parents to the authorities when they were young.”

Ava’s eyes narrowed. “Watch where you go with this story of yours.”

Sanchi picked up the pace, both in his guitar strumming and storytelling. “Perhaps the siblings would have enormous potential for combat—and perhaps only the elder would harness this enormous potential, while the younger would spend their time messing about. Messing with the other kids, messing with the townsfolk, messing with the authorities… and perhaps that behavior would only be somewhat curbed by the studious sibling’s repeated requests.”

Sanchi leaned forward and gazed deep into Ava’s eyes. “After all, with all the love the siblings had for each other, the older might not have the heart to discipline the younger as needed, despite wanting to do so. So, when a man conveniently comes along and provides a little… negative reinforcement, perhaps his actions would be perceived less as an act of aggression and more akin to a favor. One that he would like to collect.”

With that, Sanchi drew his guitar back into his holding space. “Of course, the favor I’m asking for is not so frivolous. I’m willing to offer goods and services to make up the difference in value.”

Ava’s eyes glinted. “Just what exactly do you need from me for you to go through all this trouble?”

“Much. But before we get to that, you realize it too, right?”

“I’m glad you brought it up. I was beginning to think you were working with them.”

“Nothing of the sort.”

Sanchi and Ava simultaneously twisted about so that their backs were to one another. At the same time, about a hundred men, each wearing a black three-piece suit with a top hat, stepped out of the shadows, surrounding the campsite.

Sanchi pulled out a banjo, while Ava pulled out a pair of revolvers.

They simultaneously eyed the other’s weapons and exclaimed:

“Why did you pull out a banjo?!”

“What the hells are those?!”

The two looked each other in the eye, and again exclaimed at the same time:

“What don’t you like about my banjo?”

“How do you not know what guns are?”

The two stared at each other for a moment, until a ruffian stepped forward with a gun in hand and pointed it at the two.

“Hey there, mate. Sorry for breaking up what seems to have been the start of a romantic date, but we have business with the boss of the Leaky Lighters here,” the ruffian nodded his chin towards Sanchi.

“I haven’t seen you around these parts, so I’ll give you a chance to get the fuck out of here before the shooting starts”

Sanchi glanced at the woman standing behind him, then at the ruffian and his army.

“I’m sorry, lad, but I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Well… no respectable self-loathing bard is going to let a beautiful woman die on their watch. That, and…”

Sanchi grinned. “If I just walked away, I think my late wife would divorce me for being a coward.”

The ruffian shrugged. “Your funeral.”

With that, he aimed his gun at Sanchi’s head and fired.