My team followed me out of the compound. Once we were on the streets, everyone spread out and took their positions. Brudaer moved up ahead while Rylzt dropped back, and Caelnel walked beside me.

The seven remaining soldiers spread out, forming a defensive diamond around Caelnel and me while staying out of sight. The Shadow Knights were known for their stealthy abilities and their knack for staying hidden in plain sight. As we moved into the marketplace, it looked as though Caelnel and I were alone.

Over the comm implant, Brudaer’s voice crackled in my ear. “Boss, what are we looking for?”

I relayed the question to Durdrin. “We’re at the marketplace. Who are we meeting, and what are we transporting?”

Durdrin responded after a brief pause. “You’re looking for a nervous half-breed. You’re to eliminate the contact after receiving payment.”

The instructions were clear, and I relayed them to the team. Soon, we were scanning the marketplace for our target.

“Shadow Nine-Four to Shadow Nine-Actual, nervous half-breed, your seven o’clock,” came a quiet voice over my comm implant.

I turned to my left and spotted a dark elf with unusually small ears for his kind, standing next to a large, wriggling bag. His eyes darted nervously, and he kept tugging at his ear and scratching his arm like an addict.

“He looks like an addict, Masdrin. Be careful,” Caelnel whispered.

I nodded, sliding my House De’Endar dagger into my sleeve. “Rylzt, Caelnel, and I will approach from the front. You match our approach from the rear. Four to Ten, bring in the flanks. Brudaer, keep your eyes peeled for any friends he might have. We’re to kill him after we collect whatever payment we’re here for.”

Caelnel gave me a look, but I simply shrugged. “Orders,” I said. Caelnel nodded as we made our way toward the nervous man.

As we approached, I tried to detect any magic on him but found nothing. Confident, I got closer and pointed to the bag. “That our payment?” I asked quietly.

A voice from inside the bag whimpered, “Oh, please no…” I looked up at the half-elf, who kicked the bag, causing the person inside to groan.

The half-elf nodded and held out his hand for payment. I forced a smile, reaching into my tiny bag of holding to pull out ten platinum coins. As I handed them over, I let the dagger slip down into my other hand.

His eyes widened with anticipation as he reached for the coins, his thoughts clearly on the drugs he would buy. He never saw the black blade coming as I drove it into his chest, piercing his heart.

He shuddered, then crumpled to the ground, lifeless. “Tighten up. Nine, Ten, retrieve the package. We move together,” I ordered, wiping my blade on his shirt and retrieving my coins. As I did, a tattoo on the dead man’s neck caught my eye—a Barra D’aron officer’s tattoo.

I pointed it out to Caelnel. “He was one of ours?”

Caelnel shrugged. “Our place is to do, not question.”

I nodded. The mission always came first; the details could be sorted out later. Nine and Ten carried the package—a hostage, judging by the sounds—all the way back to the Barra D’aron compound. Once inside the magical gateway, they dropped it on the ground, the person inside groaning again, but we all ignored it.

“What do I do with this package?” I asked Durdrin through the comm.

“Bring him to the armory.”

“We’re on our way,” I said, turning to the team. “Seven, Eight, haul the package. The rest of you, follow my lead.” The two men grabbed the sack, and we moved out, heading for the armory.

At the armory, Durdrin stood waiting with Shadow One, his personal team. “Follow us,” he ordered, and I nodded, motioning for my men to follow as I took my place beside him.

We passed through the armory’s main area, Durdrin leading us to a special section I was permitted to access. As we walked, I caught Zeera’s eye at the currency counter, and a quick grin passed between us before Durdrin drew my attention back.

“Over here,” he said, indicating a hidden doorway I hadn’t noticed before. We dragged the package inside, and Durdrin turned to me with a rare smile. “You killed the junkie who brought this?”

I nodded. “As ordered.”

“Good. You’re dismissed. We’ll take it from here.”

I returned the nod and turned to face my team. “You’re all dismissed. Assemble when I get the next orders.” The team dispersed, each going their separate ways as I led them out of the armory and into the compound’s halls.

I made my way to the Inn within the compound, a place set aside for VIPs during their stays. After a quick stop at my room to secure my gear, I removed Antzar’s dagger from my belt and slid it under my pillow. Unbuckling my armor, I ran my fingers through my dark, crimson hair before donning my fedora at its usual tilt. My cloak, now concealing three blades, completed the look.

In Felynafay, no one questioned a soldier’s right to drink, regardless of age. If you were old enough to fight for the Barra D’aron, you were old enough to drink with them.

I took my cup of mid-grade wine and found an empty booth to sit in and watch the crowd. I sat back comfortably in the booth, sipping my wine and reflecting on the day. The mission had gone smoothly, but something about the tattoo on the half-elf still lingered in my mind.

Vielyn slid into the booth beside me. “Good work today.”

I nodded. “The task was easy. Antzar put up more of a fight.”

Vielyn chuckled. “Our brother was a tough son of a bitch.”

“Maybe, but not tough enough,” I said with a casual shrug. I turned to face him directly. “By the way, don’t think I’ve forgotten that sucker punch last night.”

Vielyn raised an eyebrow. “You were about to get yourself killed. I saved your life.”

“I’d have killed them both,” I said, though even I knew it was a half-hearted claim.

Vielyn smirked. “Perhaps, but then every blade in Barra D’aron would have come down on you, including mine. Enjoy leading Shadow Nine while you’re still untouchable.”

I grinned back at him. “I plan to.”

As we talked, Zeera, the accountant girl from the armory, walked in. She cast me a quick smile before finding a seat at the bar next to a larger Drow male. I watched as the man grabbed roughly at her, and the look on her face showed her discomfort.

“That’s his woman, I’d tread carefully if I were you,” Vielyn said through the comm implant.

“She’d rather be with me than him, I’m willing to wager,” I replied with a sly smile.

“Go for it, if you think you can take him,” Vielyn said, his voice amused.

My teammates grinned at me, waiting for my move. “Would he even know what to do with a woman?” Rylzt quipped, and the rest of the group chuckled.

“Of course, Rylzt, I learned from watching you with that… woman of yours!” I shot back, earning more laughter.

I watched as the large man placed his hand on Zeera’s thigh, and her shoulders slumped again. It was clear she was afraid of him. I had been observing them for weeks, and I knew she wasn’t as into him as he was her.

“Time for a Masdrin show,” I said, drawing the small karda, a tiny blade that accompanied my kukri. The blade was coated with Drow sleeping poison, and I already had a plan.

“I’ve learned much from you boys; perhaps tonight you’ll learn something from the handsome rogue,” I said, flashing a crooked grin as I slid out of the booth. I removed my cloak and weapon belt, setting them on my seat before adjusting my hat and shirt and swaggering over to Zeera and the male.

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The gap between their barstools was just wide enough for me to slip through. I slid into the space, knocking his hand off her leg as I leaned casually against the bar, facing Zeera.

“Hello, Zeera!” I said cheerfully. She cast me a quick smile but kept her eyes down on her drink.

“Hello, Masdrin…” she replied quietly.

Behind me, I heard the man’s voice, angry. “Hey!” I felt a shove from behind.

I turned to face him. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m talking to my friend?” I said, my tone annoyed.

“That’s my woman you’re talking to!” he barked.

I crossed my arms, flashing the officer cufflinks I wore. I spotted the Barra D’aron tattoo on his wrist and smiled wide. “You dare to address an officer like that?”

“But…” he began, his red eyes darting nervously.

Suddenly, I raised my voice, and every torch and candle in the inn flared up. “Drop and give me one hundred pushups!”

“You can’t be serious!” he snarled, his hand moving toward the sword on his belt.

“The penalty for drawing a weapon on an officer is death. Now, get your nose to the floorboards, or I’ll kill you where you stand,” I said, my voice cold.

He dropped to the floor and started doing pushups. I stepped onto his back to slow him down, and Zeera tried to hide her smile.

“Hey, Zeera, I had a question,” I said cheerfully.

When she didn’t look up, I lightly stomped my heel into the man’s spine, slowing him down even more. He grunted in pain as he reached his twenty-first pushup.

“You don’t need to fear this man anymore. He has muscle but no balls. That’s why he’s counting pushups and I’m standing on his back while he does so,” I said to her with a sly smile. She still refused to look up from her drink, other than slight, subtle glances my way.

“You know, if you want to look up from your drink, you should be allowed to. If you don’t want someone to touch you, then you should be able to make that choice,” I said in a calm tone. I heard the counting turn growly again, so I stomped down on the man’s spine again, right between his shoulder blades.

Zeera slowly looked up from her drink and turned to face me. I smiled wide at her, and she put on a weak smile. “He’s going to punish me for this…” she said quietly, her voice trembling slightly.

“You’re damn right I will!” he growled ferociously.

I looked down at the man I was standing on and lifted my boot high, bringing it down hard on his spine just about where his neck ended and shoulders started, absolutely destroying two vertebrae. He howled in pain and collapsed on the floor, face down and not moving. “He’ll never punish you again,” I said as I stepped down off the man’s back.

“I can’t move!” he cried.

I simply looked down at him as I squatted beside him. “I’m only fifteen, and I’m more of a man than this waste of air,” I stated. He cried out again as I grabbed him by his long white hair and roughly gave his head a shake.

“Alright, time for a nap,” I said as I poked him in the neck with the blade I was holding. I didn’t puncture deep or hit anywhere important, just a nick with the small, pointy tip of the sleep poison-coated blade to knock him out.

Zeera fought back a chuckle as she listened to me and witnessed her abusive boyfriend unable to move and now unconscious on the floor. She looked at me with the same smile she gave me in the armory, and I returned the smile as she spoke up. “What did you want to ask me, before you were so rudely interrupted by Chey?” she asked.

I stood up straight, adjusted my shirt and hat, then grinned a wide crooked grin as I looked into her dark green eyes. “Well, Zeera,” I said as I moved back beside her, “I was wondering if you’d like to be my girl.” I asked confidently.

She glanced down at Chey, the dark elf male. “What about him?” she asked.

“Does he have a family that values his existence?” I asked curiously.

She shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard of,” she said, and I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t much care what happened to him.

“Well, in that case… I’d say he’ll wind up dead in a gutter somewhere. I paralyzed him from the neck down… as punishment for him putting his hands on you,” I said as though it didn’t matter to me. In truth, it didn’t. We had rules in our organization, and one of those rules was not to intentionally cause harm to another member. Zeera, an accountant girl of only seventeen years, had the same rights as anyone else.

Chey was a veteran; only veterans could have the tattoo he had. As a veteran, he knew better. He knew our rules and admitted to disobeying them. He deserved what he got just on that principle. Taking advantage of a young woman was utterly inexcusable. We were mercenaries, but we lived by a strict moral code. We were killers and thieves, most were houseless rogues, but above all was The Barra D’aron Code of Conduct.

Zeera glanced down once more, then looked at me with a wide smile. I held my hand out to her, silently hoping she’d take it. “At least join me for a drink, even if you won’t be my girl,” I asked politely.

She hopped off her barstool and walked over to stand in front of me. “Do I have a choice, Officer Masdrin?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded my head. “Of course, I’m not him, I don’t need to force a woman to be with me,” I said confidently. “Though I must admit I’d be much happier with a beautiful woman like you by my side, smiling that beautiful smile of yours.” I brought my hand to my chin in thought.

Zeera was still smiling wide as she took my hand in hers and then leaned down to kiss me. “Yes, handsome,” she said before kissing me again. “I’ll be your girl.”

Cheers and whistles resounded from my table, and I glanced over to see Vielyn, Caelnel, Rylzt, and Brudaer all laughing and smiling. I smiled contentedly as Chey was dragged out of the inn and dumped unceremoniously in the street. I held Zeera’s hand and guided her towards the booth where we were sitting. I picked up my belt and put it back on and then did the same with my cloak. I sheathed the small karda I was carrying while sliding back into the booth and pulling Zeera onto my lap.

“Congratulations, little brother!” Vielyn said, smiling proudly.

I nodded with a crooked grin. “I told you she’d rather be with me,” I said matter-of-factly.

Zeera looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. “How did you know?” she asked.

“I could see it in your face the day we met in the armory. I’ll admit I didn’t know what it meant, but it stuck with me. So over the next few weeks, I watched how women looked at the men they liked. For example, Rylzt’s woman’s eyes light up and she smiles every time she sees him. When he touches her, she’s happy about it; when she’s with him, she fears nothing and especially doesn’t fear Rylzt,” I said, and Rylzt smiled and nodded, appreciating the kind words instead of the verbal daggers I normally threw his way.

“You looked at me just like she looks at him, the way the ladies all look at Durdrin or Vielyn. Once I learned what it meant, I decided to learn more about you. It didn’t take me long to realize you didn’t like Chey. When he was around, you were afraid. Afraid to reject his touch, afraid to look up from your drink, even so afraid that you wouldn’t look at an officer that was addressing you directly,” I said confidently.

“Armed with my newly acquired information, I decided I was going to punish your abusive boyfriend and, at the same time, try to win you for myself,” I added boldly.

Zeera looked at me and smiled as she leaned back and whispered, “Thank you…” into my ear.

I smiled at her and wrapped my arm around her waist, holding her tight.

“So, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision to take another member’s woman?” Vielyn asked, and I looked up at him rather surprised. He’d seen me enforce our rules and knew how I dealt with violators of those rules.

“If he wasn’t abusive and if she seemed happy with him, I would not have interfered no matter how much I wanted her. We live by a code of honor, and part of that code is not to intentionally cause harm to another member. He broke our code, so I broke him. I embarrassed him in front of his woman and then, with one move, broke his body,” I said as I stomped my heel on the floorboard.

I looked from Zeera to the rest of the group and noticed Rylzt’s face looked angry. “What’s wrong?” I asked, but Rylzt ignored the question and jumped up onto his seat, then onto the table, before hopping down and heading towards the door.

“Rylzt?” Caelnel called out, equally confused.

Caelnel and I looked at each other, then back to Rylzt and noticed he had his starmetal kukri in his hand as he went through the door. My eyes went wide as I realized he was going to kill Chey. “Shit!” I exclaimed as I slid out from under Zeera, leaving her in the booth. “Wait there!” I said as I sprinted for the door.

Caelnel was right on my heels as I went through the door just in time to see Rylzt holding Chey by the hair, his kukri raised high above his head. “Nine-Two, stand down! That’s an order!” I barked, my voice booming with authority.

Rylzt froze in place, and through gritted teeth, I heard him growl, “She’s just a child…”

I stopped for a moment as it dawned on me that even though she was two years older than me, she was indeed still a child, and Chey was at least a couple of hundred years old. I looked to Caelnel, and he shrugged. “Shadow Nine-Actual to Shadow Nine, you all willing to clean this up?” I asked my team through our implants. I got eight responses; all were “on the way,” and I smiled happily. My team was loyal to each other.

“Rylzt, I rescind my previous order. As my third in command, I’d like you to deal with this as you see fit. The boys will help you,” I said both out loud and through the implant to my team. “I’m going to drink with my girl and my brother. I trust you can handle this,” I said as I turned on my heels and walked back into the inn.

I looked to Zeera and Vielyn as I passed Brudaer on my way to the table. They were both watching my direction curiously, and as I approached, Vielyn spoke first. “Is everything okay?” he asked, and I shrugged my shoulders. I looked to Zeera, not sure how she’d react to what I was about to say.

“What would you say if I told you I could have prevented Chey’s death but decided not to?” I asked her. I noticed her shoulders slump a little and her face went through a mix of emotions, her young heart not sure how to feel. I felt my heart sink as I expected the worst, but instead, she surprised me.

She took a deep breath, looked at me, and asked, “Why did he have to die?”

I looked at her and sighed. “Zeera, we’ve spent so much time around our Barra D’aron family living as adults that we’ve forgotten that we’re both not yet adults,” I said flatly.

“Rylzt is an old Drow. He has a woman and even children… I think. He reminded me that while we’re treated like adults, we are, in reality, still children. I am fifteen, and you’re seventeen. I stayed his hand at first, but in the end, I allowed him to deal with Chey as he saw fit. I heard the blade come down before I was back in the door,” I said solemnly. “You didn’t deserve to be treated the way he treated you. He also broke our code of honor by the way he treated you,” I added.

A smile crept onto her face, and she reached up with her delicate fingers and caressed my cheek. “I say… you and I are a better match than he and I ever were,” she said quietly as the smile turned to a wide grin. “So, I suppose you’re gonna take me back to your room and ravish me,” she purred seductively.

I tilted my head and grinned a wide, awkward grin. “Oh, I suppose… Can I finish my wine first?” I asked, surprised by the question. Vielyn burst out laughing, and Zeera giggled as I raised my cup of wine. “To decent drink and pretty women!” I said as Vielyn and Zeera raised their cups.