They headed to the jail, following Mina’s directions. It turned out to be a blocky stone building a few minutes away from the Lodge, walls made of thick granite blocks. The gate had been set with sturdy iron bars, as had the narrow windows. It looked secure enough to hold even Powered criminals.

They were held up at the door by a guardsman, who looked them over with a suspicious eye. He was about to turn them away, but he recognized Mina at the last moment. Once they explained their matter, he let them through.

They entered a room connected to a long corridor. Several more guardsmen lounged inside, swords on their hips.

“Come to see the crazies have you?” one of them asked. “At your own peril, then. I’d suggest you leave the kid here.”

Lace complied, letting Mina sit down with a trio of guardsmen who were playing a round of cards. She gave the little girl one of the blood vials to tide her over until they returned, then hurried to catch up to Kiren as he wandered into the corridor beyond.

There were ten small cells, doors made of thick iron bars. Most of them were empty.

I suppose any Villains that get put here must be moved to Wailing Hill fairly quickly.

There were sounds coming from the last cell in the hall on her left. A slow scraping that made the hairs on her arms stand up.

“Let’s see what kind of crazies they have in here, then,” Kiren said.

The sound stopped.

Lace followed tight behind Kiren as they approached the end of the hall. She peeked around the corner, peering into the dark cell.

A massive, furry shape slammed against the bars, claws long as fingers scrabbling at the metal. A long muzzle squeezed itself between two of the bars, snarling to reveal rows of long, sharp teeth.

“Do you wanna get dead, lapdogs?” the creature howled.

Lace jumped back with a yelp. Kiren remained where he was, hands on his hips. The claws scratched at the air a hand’s length from his face, but he didn’t even blink.

“You look familiar,” Kiren said.

The creature stopped moving. It pulled back into the cell.

“Oh, come on, man. You could at least get a little bit scared,” it said with a deep, scratchy voice.

A man, seemingly.

Lace gave the creature a good look. He was furry from head to toe, clad in rags far too small for his body. He was large enough that his head brushed the ceiling, forcing him to stand slightly hunched. He had broad shoulders and a muscular frame, even for his height, and dirty yellow fur with black spots. His face almost looked like that of a dog’s. He could have been Bloodhound’s overgrown cousin if she didn’t know any better.

“Oh yeah,” Kiren said, snapping his fingers. “I know you. You’re Hyena, right?”

The creature looked just as shocked as Lace felt.

“You… know of me?”

“What’s a hyena?” Lace asked.

“An animal they get in the south, I think,” Kiren said. “This guy’s got quite the reputation in the Slog.”

“You’d never heard of Excelerate, but you know who… Hyena is?”

“Things are a little different down there.”

“If I may ask,” Hyena said. He breathed onto his claws and rubbed them on the fur of his chest. “What exactly have you heard about me?”

“That you and your partner are the least successful Powered criminals in all of Goldbrand.”

Hyena’s dark eyes widened. “How dare you! Our heists are the stuff of legend!”

He threw himself against the bars and Lace backed up another step. She hit the bars of the cell behind her.

Stolen story; please report.

Something huge clamped down on her shoulder.

“Now you’re dead, little morsel.”

Lace let out a short yelp and directed a blast of air behind her on pure instinct. The hand didn’t budge.

She looked up.

A leather-faced, beaked monster looked down at her through the bars. His hand had a firm grip on her shoulder.

It almost reminded her of… a turtle.

The creature let go, its slab of a hand slipping back through the bars with some difficulty.

“Ha. Gotcha.”

The creature opposite, Hyena, burst into shrill, whooping laughter. He rolled onto the floor, clutching his stomach as he belted out laughing. The other one let out a wheezy chuckle.

“Oh, we got you good!” Hyena said between laughing fits. “You should’ve… seen… your face! Ow, my stomach hurts, this is too good. You thought you were going to die, didn’t you?”

Lace gaped, looking back and forth between the two Villains as they guffawed themselves hoarse.

“Ah,” Kiren said, facing the second creature, still not particularly fazed. “Then you must be Snapjaw.”

The second creature was even taller than the first, with moss green, leathery skin that had some sort of chitinous armor plating across the arms and chest and a clunky shell on his back. He was entirely without hair, with a pair of tiny, deep-set eyes placed into a large, round head. Much like his companion, he was dressed in rough sackcloth.

“I am,” Snapjaw said, his voice a bassy rumble.

“The Wild Lads, at your service,” Hyena said.

“I told you to come up with a new name!”

“What’s wrong with Wild Lads? It’s short, punchy, and descriptive!”

“Oh, you’re hopeless.”

“You alright over here?” asked one of the guardsmen, coming down the hall with a hand on the pommel of his sword. “We heard some commotion.”

“We’re just talkin’, chief,” Hyena said, hanging his hands out of the cell. “No harm in that, is there?”

The guard glanced suspiciously at both of the Villains. “That’s Captain Renald to you. You two, are they up to anything?”

“I don’t think so?” Lace said. “They seem… bored.”

“Oh, something terrible,” Hyena said, rubbing his body against the bars so that they creaked disconcertingly. “I wish I could just have one hour in the sun. I’m wasting away in here.” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath through his large nostrils.

“Stop it with the crocodile tears,” the captain said. “You’ve got it far better than they do in Wailing Hill.”

Hyena opened his eyes and shrugged. “Worth a shot, wasn’t it?”

“Why were they detained?” Lace asked.

“Robbing a dressmaker’s shop, of all things,” the captain said, scratching his rough stubble. Torchbearer happened to be nearby, and they were captured before they could make away with anything.”

“Almost got cooked in my shell,” Snapjaw said sullenly.

Hyena turned around and showed a singed patch of fur along his ridged back. “Yeah, see! Talk about a miscarriage of justice! We’ve gotta get serious after that debacle. When we get out of here, we’re stealing the Queen’s nightgown. That oughta fetch a fucking astronomical price.”

Snapjaw frowned. “You never told me that.”

Hyena gave the green creature a meaningful glare. ‘Throwing them off our trail’, he mouthed.

“Say, kids,” he said, “you don’t happen to have a key or something, do you?” He clacked his claws together. “Captain won’t mind if we come out to stretch our legs, would you, chief?”

“Right, enough of that talk,” the captain said, tapping the bars of Hyena’s cell with his knuckles. “Simmer down, or you’ll be spending the evening on empty bellies.”

Hyena froze. He shared a look with Snapjaw, and they both rushed to sit down in the corners of their respective cells.

“Come on,” the captain said, motioning to Kiren and Lace. “Best not rile them up more than necessary. They’re not usually dangerous, but it’s not a good bet to take chances with Villains that size.”

Lace complied, following the captain into the main part of the building.

“They don’t seem all that violent, considering,” Lace said.

“They haven’t killed anyone, far as I know. They mostly do robberies and heists. Fail at them, that is.” He shook his head. “I swear, I don’t know why they keep trying. They’ve been in and out of here since before I took over. There’s a bit of a housing crisis in Wailing Hill, what with all the new Villains popping up, and these guys are considered low risk, so they usually just stay with us.”

Kiren and Lace met back up with Mina and took their leave with the guards.

Lace gave the girl the last of the vials. She sucked down the blood greedily before throwing the empty container over her shoulder. She showed Lace a red-toothed grin.

Lace looked up. The sun was getting high.

“Alright, I’m hungry,” she said. “Who else is feeling up for some food?”

“Me!” Mina shouted, jumping up and down.

Kiren didn’t say anything. He was looking off down the street, staring at nothing in particular, as if in deep thought.

“Kiren?” Lace asked. “Hello?”

He looked up at her, and his dark eyes were framed by a weight she had never seen in him before.

“They aren’t Villains,” he said.

“What?”

“They aren’t. Being a Villain is a choice. To kill and steal and murder for the sake of evil. Do those two really strike you as that?”

“Well, no,” Lace said. “But they’re criminals. They might not kill, but their antics could easily get someone hurt. Robbing a shop is different from stealing a few apples to survive. Someone like that is a Villain, regardless if they kill someone or not.”

Kiren shrugged. “Whatever.”

He looked away and assumed that faraway stare once more.