Fenrir sighed as he walked through the mostly empty streets. Of course, it was still the capital city, mostly empty still meant dozens of people that the large figure of Fenrir had to navigate around. That was not why he was sighing.

Alaster initially suspected that it would take six days to reach Zolis. Fenrir had taken three days to accomplish his goal. It was now a week later, ten days after Alaster started the journey.

The delays were small, but numerous. Monster activity was rising in the countryside, a sure indicator of a coming Monster Horde. Trying to maintain the image of a magnanimous and heroic Nobleman, as he was sure he was being watched, Alaster stopped to combat any Monsters he found, especially if there was someone in danger or nearby.

Doing so, he had been able to figure out that the Horde was traveling away from Lissura Lands and towards Taria. It was not his problem.

The conflicts also took much longer to resolve than they should have because Alaster did not use any Magic. He rarely engaged in any combat himself, letting his Purple Hooded Forgotten destroy them. Obeying Alasters commands, they too refrained from any Magic use. But they did not necessarily need it.

Each of the Purple Hoods were Expert Ranked, and while they were weaker than Living Experts, it was not by much, and there were two dozen of them. Even without their magic, two dozen Experts were a significant force. As such, despite the many times they had been engaged in combat, Alaster doubted any of the observers knew anything about the Forgotten or himself.

Afterall, despite the battles, lengthy or challenging, the Forgotten had endless endurance. They came out of every battle ready for another. Their armor was a part of them, but separate. It naturally repaired itself, independent from their Health. As such, no matter how devastating the battle, or even how close one of the Forgotten got to death, the hidden observers only saw the Forgotten move and act as if they were completely unbothered, as if they had not broken a sweat.

But all of this was Alaster’s problem, not Fenrir’s, even if they were technically the same person. Fenrir had his own problems, some of which were created due to Alaster’s lateness, however, others were improved or even solved by his tardiness.

Regardless, Fenrir’s current issue was not Alaster’s absence, but by Quinn’s. The two of them had agreed to meet today at a café as a way to check up on each other. Quinn was supposed to have already been there, but as Fenrir walked into the small restaurant, one of the few that remained operational in these trying times, he did not see the man.

Fenrir’s sheer size seemed to fill the nearly deserted building. A waitress quickly walked over to him.

“Would you like a table or the bar?”

Fenrir took another look around, “Let’s do a table. I’m also waiting for someone.”

“Alright, would you like a menu right now, or would you prefer to wait for your company?”

“I’ll wait.” Fenrir said with a slight grin and sitting down at the table she motioned towards. Fenrir did not technically need to eat, though he could still taste and get satisfaction from it.

The waitress walked away, leaving Fenrir to quietly think. Only a few minutes passed before Quinn walked in, looking much better and with a bright smile on his face that only grew brighter when his spotted his massive friend. He quickly walked over and sat down. Before he could speak, the Waitress silently walked over and placed two menus down.

They both thanked her as she walked away but neither touched the menus.

“How are you, Quinn?” Fenrir started.

Quinn laughed, “Tired in ways I relish. And dried out.” He finished with a snide grin.

“I guess your wife missed you.” Fenrir chuckled.

Quinn joined in before the teasing smile turned more warmhearted, “Yeah, but really, its nice being a father and husband once again. I thought I would never have the chance again. My children have been telling me all sorts of stories. Every day, I walk them to school on my way to work. My boss is a stickler to the rules, but besides that, he is alright. The work is boring, but fulfilling. Then after work, I pick up my kids from their classes and when we get home, my wife has supper hot and ready for us. It’s a good life. A life I never want to lose again.”

Fenrir smiled, both internally and externally, “That’s great! Hey, I actually have a surprise for you.”

“Fenrir, you really don’t have to. You have already given me the greatest gift a man could ask for.”

“Nonsense! Besides, its kinda late for me to return it. Come on, I want to show it to you.” Fenrir stood up.

“I thought we were eating lunch here?” Quinn looked up, confused.

“Don’t worry about it. Come on.” Fenrir prompted, waving for Quinn to join him.

With a lighthearted sigh, Quinn stood up, “Alright, alright I am coming.”

“Great!” Fenrir dropped a coin on the table, despite not ordering anything, they had taken the space, even if the Café had no shortage of space. Besides, Fenrir had plenty of coins and no real use for them.

Fenrir led the way out and down the street, all the while, Quinn continued to gush about his family. He was so enthralled in his own words that he did not even realize when Fenrir led him into a dark alley. He only noticed when he stepped into a snow drift.

“What are we doing here?” Quinn asked, but it was too late.

Fenrir grabbed Quinn’s arm, and they both disappeared from the alley. They immediately reappeared in a room so cold and dark that Quinn shivered under his heavy winter coat as he looked around, unable to see.

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“Fenrir what are we doing here?” Quinn asked, tension building in his body, his prior training taking hold.

In response to his question, a single candle was ignited on the floor in the middle of the room, revealing only a single chair and leaving the edges of the room hidden.

“Sit down Quinn.” Fenrir’s voice sounded in the dark, all prior warmth gone.

A knife appeared in Quinn’s hand as he spun around.

“Don’t be stupid Quinn. Despite what it might look like, I would prefer to do this without bloodshed.”

“Do what?” Quinn shouted in the darkness, unable to locate the source of Fenrir’s voice.

“Sit down.” Fenrir commanded, his voice booming in the empty room, rattling the wooden flooring.

Hesitating, Quinn obeyed, though the knife remained, with his training, sitting down did not mean much. He was trained to eliminate the target regardless of what state he was in.

“Good, now we can begin.”

“Begin what?”

“Why, the interrogation of course!”

“You must be pretty new to this then, leaving me armed.”

“Quinn. Use your head, and I mean this in the most humble way possible, but you have as much chance of harming me in anyway with that knife than you could a mountain. But regardless, Quinn Reyes, what was you occupation eight years ago.”

“Why should I tell you?”

Fenrir revealed himself, stepping just into the light of the small candle, “When I first saw you, I held a sword to your throat. Do you know why I did not kill you?” Fenrir asked, allowing Quinn to answer, though he did not, “Its because you would have welcomed death. You were a drunk, sickly man with nothing to live for. So I did not kill you, and instead decided to help you.”

Quinn glared at the man he thought was his friend.

“I helped you. I pulled you out of the filth. I washed, fed and even clothed you. I pushed you to get a good job, and even convinced you to reconcile with your wife. Why would I do that if I wanted to kill you?

I did it, because now, you have something to lose. Now, you have a reason to be afraid.”

“I don’t fear death!” Quinn shouted in defiance.

“No, but you should fear me! You should fear the man who would not hesitate to gut your wife in front of you. You should fear the man who would enjoy seeing your mind break in agony at being unable to save your family!”

Quinn was silent, stunned, the knife clattered to the floor, “Why? Why are you doing this?”

Fenrir leaned in close, fire burning in his voice, the threat of unimaginable pain behind every word, “Because long ago, you did exactly that to me.”

Quinn recoiled, “What do you mean?”

Fenrir stood up straight, drawing his massive greatsword and stabbing it through the floorboards with a single hand, “I gave you everything you hold dear, and if you do not tell me what I want to know, I will take it away.”

“I was an operative of Lissura.” Quinn whispered, his loyalty to his family overtaking the loyalty to his country.

“Eight years ago, you snuck into the village of Pinefall during their Planting Festival. You killed two parents and kidnapped a young girl. My questions are as follows. First, where is the girl? Second, who ordered it? Third, why? Fourth, who else was involved?”

Quinn stayed quiet, fighting to remain quiet.

“You might not have an issue with butchering the parents of small children, but I do. That does not mean I won’t.” Fenrir threatened, the image of his, Alaster’s, parents hanging from meat hooks burned in his mind.

Hating himself for it, Quinn opened his mouth.

“I do not know where the girl is, my squad was only given orders to retrieve her at any cost, preferably quietly and without her knowledge, and give her over to a cloaked man. I do not know who the man was.” Quinn took a deep, shaky, breath before he continued, “We were operatives whose main goal was to ensure Lissura’s safety. Sometimes this meant assassination, both outside and inside Lissurian borders. Other times it meant collecting information. Sometimes we even fought against Monsters. Anything our superiors thought would lead to the continued safety of the Kingdom.

We rarely knew the true ramifications of our actions. We did not need to. If some of our missions directly benefited certain individuals, I do not know, at the time, I did not want to know. Very rarely did we like what we did, but it had to be done. We simply followed orders.”

“Quinn, I need you to understand something. I do not care whether you enjoyed what you did. I want to know why. I want to know who. Someone is going to die for it, and if you do not tell me everything, that someone will start with you.”

Quinn hesitated, slouching in the old wooden chair, “I don’t know about the other Squads, I don’t even know how many there were, just that there were others. Our Squad numbered five. Three of us hated most of what we did. Our commander, did not care. But Justin, he enjoyed what we did. He seemed to delight in the bloodshed and torture.

The night you are talking about, I remember very clearly. It was perhaps the worst job we had been given. One thing after another failed. Not only had we only been given a few hours to plan and execute the kidnapping, but there was a local Knight patrolling with a retinue of guards nearby. If someone had sounded the alarm in the village, that Knight would have arrived in mere minutes, forcing us to scrap the mission and escape.

Then the village’s own Guards were out in force for the festival, very alert. Our plan had been to be in and out before the festival even began, that way everyone would think that the girl was simply out playing and therefore wouldn’t sound the alarm for several hours later. Then when they couldn’t find her, they would assume that she had been killed by a Monster in the forest.

But the girl was never left alone. The Guards were active. Everyone was rushing about together. Eventually, our commander, a man named Noah, was forced to hide himself outside the village and channel a spell in order to isolate the girl’s house. The spell would dampen any sounds as well as give a subtle impression on anyone nearby to avoid the area, easily ignored if they wanted to go in, but if they were just out for a walk, or stumbling around drunk, they would go away.

The girl’s parents put her to bed, but before we could strike, a large pack of Thunder Wolves were getting too close to the village. If they were discovered, the Guards would sound the alarm and everything would end. So Grant and I went out to distract and redirect the pack, leaving Justin there to watch them. He was ordered not to engage, only observe. But let alone, he ignored the orders and attacked.

By the time Grant and I returned, he had knocked out the girl and needlessly tortured her parents. Grant was so enraged that I had to hold him back from attacking Justin. Meanwhile, he laughed, still covered in their blood. I was also furious, but our window was quickly closing, so to avoid detection, I sent him to Ileane, our Squad’s healer who had stayed behind with Noah.

With his gone, Grant and I grabbed the girl and activated the portal scroll. We could sense a couple of children nearby that were getting closer. We refused to harm them so we had to be quick.”

“Why were you ordered to take the girl?”

“We were not told. Why do you care anyway?”

Fenrir leaned in close, mere inches from his Quinn’s face, “Because she was not an only child. You murdered my parents, strung them up like puppets on display, stole away my sister, and I want her back. Who ordered it.”

Quinn’s already heavy breath turned ragged, “If I tell you, will you leave me and my family alone?”

“The only thing I will promise is that your children will not grow up with the image of their father’s corpse on display seared into their minds.”

Quinn leaned back, letting his head hung over the back of the chair, “All I know is that Duke Redmond oversaw all out Missions.”

Quinn resigned himself to his death, but it did not come. Slowly sitting up, he saw that Fenrir had vanished, not just from the candlelight, but from the room itself.

His body began to shake, both from fear and from relief. He had fought Dragons, toppled rebellions before they could even begin. Yet none of them had made him as afraid as Fenrir had. Quinn dropped his head between his knees and vomited.

“Why did he leave me alive?”