Kain and his mother were huddled with the rest of the women and children. His mother's scream to alert him of the danger had unfortunately alerted the bandits to their presence. It wasn’t long before they were ‘escorted’ away from their house and into one of the barns closer to the edge of town. They didn’t put up much of a resistance, the guns in the men's hands were powerful deterrents to commonfolk.

Comforted by the knowledge the bandits didn’t plan on killing them, Kain assumed they were merely going to be used as hostages. A hostage had to be kept safe to be properly capitalized in whatever negotiations the bandits planned on having. He obeyed their every instruction, making sure to not cause them trouble or give them any reason to look at him or his mother twice. It worked well enough. Kain was able to secure a spot by the wall for his mother to rest her back on. Albeit after a few minutes he learned why the spot was left untaken. Threw the thin walls, the sounds of battle were clear. The yelling, the swinging, the shooting, the killing, the dying. They could all be heard crystal clear. While Kain could handle it, his mother could not.

She was shivering in fear, clutching him desperately.

What’s happening to her?

Not everyone can hear death on their doorstep and remain calm.

We’re in very little danger here. If they wanted us dead, they would have killed us already. She shouldn’t be so afraid.

Once again, not every can hear death at their doorstep and remain calm.

Kain didn’t respond, he merely turned to look for a spot further away from the edges of the barn. In doing so, he saw familiar faces. Hoping that interacting with people she knew and trusted would melt her fear somewhat, Kain moved with his mother over to them.

“Mrs. Fidel, I hope you’re doing well?”

—————

Chopping another bandit’s neck, Nyle rolled his shoulders a little. His colleagues were helping snuff out the flames so he was left to spreadhead the offensive against the bandits. They seemed to know what they were doing. In an attempt to weaken and ultimately break through his barrier, they tried to consolidate the damage they did to certain spots. Unfortunately for them, his sahir reserves were quite deep. Noticing that the bandits were beginning to realize all their attacks were in vain, Nyle chuckled. He wasn’t the run of the mill malsir. Seeing as the bandits switched from rushing him to running away, he jumped on top of the roof next to him to get an idea of where they were running to.

Still no signs of the women and children. They can’t be slavers can they?

Nyle switched gears, he had left the task of finding them to his team. He had to focus on his own task. He jumped from building to building looking for the one calling the shots. Each roof he leapt on to, he stopped to assess the movement of the bandits running around beneath him.

Finally spotting the point there were all meeting at, he leapt off the roof and began his massacre anew. Before he could kill the sixth bandit within his arms reach, a sword blocked his chop. A glowing sword.

So they did have a malsir.

The bandits around Nyle dispersed. Annoyed by the interruption, Nyle moved to chop the swordsman's neck. To his surprise the man’s reflexes were razor sharp. He dodged the attack and managed step back far enough to be out of Nyle’s reach. Nyle quickly pulled out his two broad swords, he wasn't going to underestimate this opponent. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a man approach them with two other men trailing behind him.

You must be the leader.

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Nyle immediately lunged forward, slicing inward with both swords. His speed was incredible. The swordsman couldn't dodge in either direction. So he stepped back again. Nyle used this time to dash at the man he perceived to be the orchestrator. The man was a mere three steps away, but before he could even reach the second step he stopped. The man had pulled out a child and stood him in front of himself. The child acted as a human shield, protecting the man from Nyle’s attempted assault.

“If you believe a child will stop me from killing you all, you are mistaken.”

“We wish to talk, not fight.”

The malsir spoke first. Walking towards Nyle, he sheathed his sword.

Nyle scoffed, “Talk you say. I noticed quite a few dead soldiers before I arrived here. They weren’t worthy of being spoken to I presume?”

“Unfortunate casualties.” This time it was the leader who spoke, “We have something you want and you have something we want. That is why we want to talk.

“Really now? It would be a shame if it was something I could simply take off your corpses,” There was a noticeable smirk on his face.

The bandits were clearly feeling intimidated. The thickness of Nyle’s sahir barrier already gave them an idea of his strength, but his attitude solidified their belief that he was on another plane to them.

“I think you’d find getting information off of a dead man rather difficult. And. There are a few women and children that would be really disappointed.”

Not slavers?

Nyle figured he might as well figure out their motive, “What do you want?”

The captain replied immediately, “To be free men. Liberated from the life of banditry.”

Nyle was flabbergasted, “You attacked a town to become free men? Are you insulting me?”

The man paused. Having only just realized the optics of his statement, he stuttered. He needed to word his point better.

“Our circumstance are not that simple. We need protection as well. The bandits I'm sure you were sent here to kill are trying to kill us.”

Nyle relaxed his stance, “So you believe that by holding hostages you’ll be able to bargain for protection. Hmph. I don’t make deals with people of your ilk.”

Contrary to his words, Nyle sheathed his blades. His barrier never receded, but it appeared that he had ceased immediate hostilities. The captain smiled, the second part of his plan was succeeding. He just needed whoever was the head of the garrison to sho-

BSH!

Something light blue had crashed into the ground a few strides away from them. Olin quickly moved to his captain’s side. The new intruder stood tall. He was dark skinned, wielded a spear, and also had an abnormally thick sahir barrier. It wasn’t as strong as Nyles, but it communicated his strength relative to the bandits all the same. Judging by his armour, he was related to the garrison in some way.

The captain whispered to his men, “Go grab one of the Imurian women.”

While one of the men behind him ran off to find the woman, the malsir stepped back to take his place. In that time, the Imurian man had reached them. He glanced at the child in front of the captain and readied his spear. Seeing as Nyle, a mercenary from Goldenheart, had not killed them yet, he could gather that some form of discourse was due.

He asked, “Who are you and why did you attack Bruyn?”

“We need protection. There are bandits that are trying to kill us.”

He didn't view those that turned to crime fondly, “No one can protect you from yourself. You forfeited your right to safety when you became a bandit.”

That response seemed to anger the captain slightly, “You act like there are other options. Unlike the blissful lives you live here, where we’re from it's kill or be killed. We had no choice. It's the same now. If we didn’t attack you first and take hostages, you would have sent a force out and killed us were we laid or we would have died in the snow. We only wish to leave banditry behind and lead good lives.”

The Imurian was momentarily enraged, he was unaware of the fact they had taken hostages. The anger subside rather quickly though. It could be much worse, they could have simply killed the townsfolk. He just had to get the bandit to agree to releasing them. But before he got to that, there were parts of his story that didn’t add up. He glanced at Nyle to see if he had anything to say. He didn’t. He appeared to be completely uninterested in the conversation going on. It was odd to him, but he continued on anyway.

“If you wanted to leave banditry behind, why attack?”

The captain cleared his throat, “Like I said, we need protection. If we stayed out in the open we would have been hunted down by other bandits.”

He didn't understand, “Why are you being hunted?”

“We know too much about them; their numbers, their hideouts, their plans. The fact that all of the ‘bandit groups’ now operate as one.”