“Do you think we can trust him?” Kveldulf asked Jeanne as he took a sip of mead from his flagon.

“I don’t know,” Jeanne replied, rubbing her head. “Damned this is giving me a terrible migraine.”

Leonidas reached into his satchel and began rummaging around inside. “Hold on, I know I have something for that.”

Jeanne lightly slapped his hand, mouthing ‘Stop it.’

“It is quite unusual for a lord to be so proactive in hunting down his own kin,” said Silvius, tapping his fingers on the wooden table.

“If he was he’d be sending his own men,” Benkin replied, “This way he can have them out of the picture and keep his hands clean of the whole affair.”

“And I don’t like how we’re doing this on nothing more than a wink and a smile,” Maeryn followed, sipping from her flagon.

“What are your thoughts, Gabriel?” Cid asked.

Gabriel shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t like any of this. You hear more about back stabbings and double-crosses than noblemen being true to their word.”

“What does he have to lose if we do this and he doesn’t go against his side of the deal?” Hypatia asked.

“The friends of the Kolvilles could see this as Gareth throwing his hat into the ring without an official declaration of support in the Strife,” said Kveldulf.

“And this won’t blow back on Lord Kolville when we abscond with the sarcophagus?” Silvius asked.

“Right now, that’s in the hands of Lady Adelize, who is looking for any and all aid to win herself that crown,” Gabriel said, cracking her neck to loosen up the muscles.

“So now we have to kill these Kolvilles, get their heads back to their estranged brother as well as bring a large casket across the region,” said Maeryn.

“That seems to be about the size of it,” said Cid.

“Do we have any idea how we’re going to do any of this?”

“First we’ll take the next few days, get our bearings and find out where the Kolvilles have been active laltely, if they’re not too busy here,” Cid said, rubbing his forehead for a moment. “Chances are, whoever they are working for will either have the sarcophagus.

“And how do we find that out?” Hypatia asked.

“Simple, nab of the Kolvilles one before they know we’re here and see what they can tell us.”

“At least we can make sure whoever we nab won’t be able to talk afterwards,” said Kveldulf.

“That’s a little morbid,” said Hypatia.

Kveldulf shrugged. “We’re bringing a man the severed heads of his brothers, meaning we’ll need to be lugging around across this wonderful patch of earth, no offense, Jeanne …”

“None taken,” Jeanne replied.

“… or stashing them in a safe spot to keep someone from getting any funny ideas.”

“Is this normal for a bounty operation?” Silvius asked Cid.

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“More or less,” Cid replied. “Heads tend to be better form of identifying a person, as well as proving they are dead. Though some regions prefer fingers, hands and ears.”

“That’s … odd,” Silvius said slowly, leaning back and wrapping his arm around his stomach.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t come up with the system,” Cid replied, taking a sip of his ale.

“What are we going to do with Gareth’s brother back at the ship?” Maeryn asked.

“I’d say we let the privateers know so they can send him this way,” Benkin replied. “A dungeon is a better place to keep someone compared to the hull of a ship.”

“That and it’ll be less weight on our coin purses,” said Cid.

“And we can take him off the list of Kolvilles we need to hunt,” said Hypatia.

“You think he’d know what his brothers were doing with the sarcophagus?” Gabriel asked.

“Couldn’t hurt to ask when he gets here,” Kveldulf said.

“I doubt he’s going to be very loquacious with us,” Silvius followed.

“I am not too concerned about that,” Cid replied. “We do have our contingencies should young Raul begins to push his luck, and our patience.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Gabriel asked.

“More than likely,” Cid answered directly. “Will that be a problem?”

Gabriel shook her head. “With them, not a bit.”

“You can’t mean torturing the man?” Silvius interjected.

“And if they do?” Jeanne followed.

“I am going to defend the man’s actions, but when do we keep ourselves from becoming as bad as they are?”

“We’re not robbing people, murdering them for fantastic slights, having our way with whomever we come across our path and leaving their corpses to rot in a ditch!” Jeanne bellowed as she rose to her feet. Cid and Kveldulf quick moving to get between her and Silvius.

“And will doing to them what they did do their victims make us any better?”

“Putting them down like dogs is sure as hell a great start, and I have no problem letting them know what the taste of their own mercy tastes like.”

“Jeanne, you have to hear what you’re saying,” Silvius insisted.

“I was banished from my home, my home, because those bastards took my sister from me and no one did anything. The lord who was supposed to protect us, was the very shit who let his boys run wild and kill us like dogs. If you think I have any sympathy or compassion for them, then you don’t know me at all.” Jeanne marched towards the door, slamming it shut as she left.

Making her way outside she slammed a stone covered fist into a wooden column, the dust flying off the wood and floating into the air. Stepping outside she saw several of the townsfolk going about their business. Nearby she smelled the scent of bread baking in the oven, the hint of wood shavings smoldering on the floor mixed with the dough.

She rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming back to her as she tried to calm her anger. This was beginning to concern her with each day. The rage creeping more to the forefront of her mind, trying to gain control of each thought and action. The thought of putting each of the Kolvilles down was almost too tempting and knowing this was now something of a possibility was hard for her to process since she returned to her homeland.

But a thought began lingering in her mind. One which not even a week before she could answer with great certainty. Were there deaths worth it? Were they worth whatever price she would need to pay to achieve some small measure of peace and quiet? To no longer see the specter of Sabine in the shadows. Hear her voice in the quiet as Jeanne laid in bed, calling out to her.

No longer thinking she was responsible for her sister’s death. No longer to consider why Sabine died and she still walked the earth, that much poorer for the loss. Spilling their blood would not bring her sister back. It would not heal the rift that existed between them. It would not assuage the guilt she felt for how she treated Sabine. That would always linger in the back of her mind until all thought faded away into oblivion.

She did not want to admit the truth. She wanted to see these bastards shake in fear as she gripped their throats and watched as their lives slowly slipped from their eyes. But the truth now was robbing her even the satisfaction from the fantasy itself. What she wanted wasn’t justice, it wasn’t righting a wrong long since abandoned. This was revenge, nothing more.

This was her way of assuaging her own guilt for how she treated Sabine. If she could find them, end them, put them as far into the earth to keep them from ever coming back, then she could prove to herself that she was truly a good sister. However, that wouldn’t erase the words she said, the insults, the accusations. What the Kolvilles did to Sabine was a horrible, but it was one event. Jeanne treated Sabine with disdain for years, and as each time she treated her sister as such, Jeanne grabbed her arm tightly.

Jeanne tried to steady her breathing as she looked up to the night sky above, watching the stars slowly move across the sky.

“Everything all right,” she heard someone ask. She turned to find Gabriel standing nearby, sitting in a chair with a flagon of mead in her hand.