Leonidas sat on a bench, staring out to the stables a distance from inn after Cid and Ben moved the man Jeanne apprehended there for interrogations. The doors were closed and little noise came from there.

The shock had finally left him as the sun set into the horizon. The horror of the moment at the farmhouse ebbed away leaving bringing an old familiar, dark presence from a corner he wished he could hide away forevermore. One he had tried to bury this back in the Outlands, and leave far behind when he returned back from his exile. The trials of that land untouched by laws and civilization; tilled with blades, sowed with bones and watered in blood.

Tribes, villages, small towns barely scraping existence from the earth on one day. Only to be wiped from existence with no warning on the next. Sometimes by beasts born by waking nightmares, sometimes wrought by forces of magic and the divine wielded by few who barely understood such things, yet many felt were masters in the craft. Sometimes by those fighting each other for reasons which boggled the dullest sensations of logic and reasoning.

It was a hard land, and every day it tested him to his limit. Goading him to be the very thing he stood against this darkness within him with every fiber of strength he could conjure to stay its hand.

And what was his reward? Graveyards filled with friends and comrades. Branded a knave, criminal and hunted by those whose lives he saved for false accusations born from inflated egos. The burning anger began filling his mind with dark thoughts. Even the slightest memories caused him feel the compulsion to indulge in ill deeds, growing stronger by the second. So deep in these thoughts he jumped when he noticed Jeanne taking a seat next to him.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” she said, handing him a flagon before sitting down next to him.

“Thanks,” he said weakly before taking a short sip of the mead inside.

“I heard what happened at the farm. I’m … I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you’re holding up.”

“I appreciate that.”

“How well did you know them?”

“Moire was a good friend. I knew her husband before I was sent to The Outlands. They were the first to give me work when I got back. Helped me get back on my feet. When Siomon was born I helped her deliver him. When her husband died I did what I could to make his passing easier. Tried to be something of a father figure to Siomon as I watched him grow from babe to being on the cusp of manhood. And she treated me with a kindness I could never begin to repay. In some ways I saw them as kin. And now they’re gone, just like with so many others I came to find some comfort and solace.”

Leonidas looked up, seeking succor for this terrible pain in heart and found none. “I used to think I had a blessed life. For all the times I stared death in the face and yet was graced to see the light of the dawn one more time. Now I wonder if this was nothing more than a mere trick to keep me from a bitter truth.”

“What’s that?”

“That I’m truly cursed,” he said with his voice breaking.

Jeanne placed a hand on his shoulder. “I won’t act as if I can speak on their behalf. It’s not my place, and frankly I’m certain a few wouldn’t even give me a moment of their time at this point. And I doubt I’d give them the same courtesy if they sent me something. But … I do not think you’re cursed, Doc. I think you just have a caring heart.”

Leonidas looked down, taking in the words. “That means a lot, Jeanne. Thanks.”

“Hold off until you know how much you owe,” she said, giving him a cheeky smile.

“Prick,” he said, chuckling. His demeanor became less serious as the laughter ebbed away, “I can assume you and your friends are going after these outlaws?”

“That’s the plan, yeah. Hunt them down until they’re all put to the sword.”

“Count me in.”

Jeanne turned to Leonidas, taken aback. “You sure? This … this may get ugly.”

“I’ve dealt with ugly before,” Leonidas replied. “It’s a road I’m more than familiar with.”

“Well,” Jeanne said, wrap her arm around his shoulder, “It’ll be nice to have someone who can actually do some healing. As well as a few of those odd bits you know,” she said, taking a sip of ale.

“I can’t just rely on my devilish good looks all the time,” he replied.

“I’m letting you have that one,” Jeanne said, shaking her head and nudging his shoulder.

“I’ll thank you for your magnanimous boon.”

“You very good welcome, good sir,” Jeanne said, bowing her head towards him.

Cid and Ben emerged from the stable. Shaking the fingers loose and rotating their shoulders and looking worn as they neared the inn.

“You two don’t look thrilled,” Jeanne said to them.

“It wasn’t as productive as I had hoped,” said Cid they reached the other two.

“Did you get anything out of him?” Jeanne asked them.

Benkin shook his head. “Not much, mostly insults and a few slurs to us and our kin. So, you know, the usual.”

“Same thing when you brought up the farmhouse?” Leonidas asked.

Cid shook his head. “He showed little remorse about that.”

Jeanne turned to Leonidas. “I don’t suppose you know of any pressure points that might help them?”

Leonidas took a deep breath, rose to his feet, turned to Ben, “I might, mind if I borrow that knife?”

Ben, lifting an eyebrow up at the request, cautiously handed Leonidas his knife. “Don’t dull it.”

“Won’t be an issue,” Leonidas replied as he began calmly walking towards the stables.

“What are you going to do?” Jeanne asked, concerned, slowly rising to her feet.

Leonidas turned to her. “Don’t worry, it’ll just be a little chat,” he replied coldly.

Inside the stables, Leonidas found the bandit tied to a chair. Bruised and bloodied all over his face, his shirt torn in many places, and his breathing was heavy as he looked up at the doctor. “The fuck do you want?” the man asked.

Leonidas turned to the door and ran his fingers over the stable doors. He watched as the wood tightened shut, causing some of the dust to fly off. “Just want to play a game. I ask, you answer. You give me something within your current antagonizing manner and … you know what, why spoil the surprise?”

The man spat at Leonidas. “Fuck you and your mother.”

Leonidas nodded. “This is going to be far easier than I thought.” He moved around behind the man, asking, “Which is your dominate hand?”

“The fuck would I tell you for?”

“And there you go just keep digging that hole,” said Leonidas as he used the knife to lacerate the man’s left hand.

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The man growled in pain before turning back to Leonidas. “You think a little cut like that is going to make me talk?”

Leonidas grabbed a large iron bucket resting next to a wall and moved it underneath the man’s cut hand. “Oh no, I’m not going to make you talk. Though I do know how, even if your mouth was gagged, waxed and sealed, with runes and incantations. But I’m not here to make you talk,” the doctor said with a hint of menace. As he spoke, Leonidas’s hands began to glow red, the bones now visible from the inner light through the skin. Veins along his skin turned black as his eyes disappeared, leaving only dark abysses where they once were, he held up his left fist and the man found to his horror his mouth was forced shut, “I’m going to make you sing.”

***

Leonidas struggled to open the stable doors, wiping a layer of sweat from his brow, breathing heavy and his skin colorless. He leaned up against the outer walls of the building as the three came up to him. “What happened in there?” Cid asked flinching his head back.

“He should be in a better mood to talk,” Leonidas replied, trying to catch his breath while running his right hand up and down his left arm.

Benkin opened the door, taking a step back and his mouth falling open for a moment before he regained his composure. “Those are some pressure points, Doc.”

“Like I said, I know a few tricks,” said Leonidas, handing Benkin back his knife before he began stumbling towards the inn, “If you all don’t mind I think I’m going to call it a night.”

“You need help getting back to your room?” Benkin asked.

Leonidas waved it off. Not looking at the warrior as he spoke. “I’m fine, I just need some night air and I’ll be all right.”

Barely hearing the startled conversation behind him, Leonidas made his way to the inn. The labored breaths growing worse as each step demanded more of an effort for him to keep his balance. His muscles screamed in pain with each movement, the world spun randomly as he moved, his eyes opening and closing rapidly to try and reorientate himself. The scent of food and ale made his stomach turn. Reaching the base of the stairs, he rested much of his weight on the railing to help negotiate his way up the steps.

Once at the landing he leaned against the wall, unable to regain his balance without some aid. Arriving to his room, he grabbed the door handle and with what strength was left in him, he pulled the handle down. Opening the door, he collapsed onto the floor with a hard thud. He tried to force himself to crawl further, desperately searching to find the chamber pot under his bed. As his hands shook terribly, he lifted his torso high enough for his head to hover over the pot and vomited a black bile into the recess.

Once he finished, his strength left him and rolled onto his back. His began slowing down as the room began spinning, voices of those long dead speaking to him in words he could not make out. His eyelids twitched violently as his skin shivered as the world became black.

Leonidas awoke to a mind splitting headache as the rest of his body ached to find himself on his bed. It took him some effort to sit up in his bed. As his vision came back, he found Jeanne and Cid sitting next to his bed. “Huh,” Leonidas said in a gravelly voice, “that answers my first question.”

“Good,” said Cid, in a calm but stern voice, training his gaze on the doctor. His legs cross and hands clasped over one knee with a straight back. “Especially since I have been enjoying a rather interesting conversation with Jeanne.”

“Great,” Leonidas replied, his head falling back onto his pillow and placing a hand over his eyes.

“Are you really that surprised?” Jeanne asked him.

“Not entirely, though this was something I would prefer handling. How much did you tell him, Jeanne?”

“Everything, Doc.”

“Figured as much. I’m assuming you have questions, Cid.”

“Many, as well as some reconsiderations, but Jeanne is vouching for you, even after seeing what you did to that man,” Cid shook his head, clearing his throat.

“Are you really that upset?” Leonidas challenged. “You honestly are telling me you wouldn’t have the same to the man to get whatever information he had?”

“You crushed his arm enough his bones and flesh poured out of that cut on his hand,” Jeanne replied.

“Then there were all the ribs you broke,” Cid followed.

“You’re telling me you didn’t want to do the same,” Leonidas replied, sitting up in bed. “That man is part of the group who will two innocent people. One of them a child! They damn neared killed your friend who’s still bedridden. Are you telling me with all honesty that you both didn’t want to get a little payback?”

“That’s not the point,” said Cid.

“Then I would love to be enlightened to this one,” said Leonidas.

“Doc,” said Jeanne, moving to sit next to on the edge of his bed, in a more relaxed tone. “First, I think this goes against the whole ‘do no harm’ part.”

“That’s more of a guideline than a rule,” Leonidas replied.

“As I was saying,” Jeanne interjected, a harsh looking in her eyes, “even if it is a guideline, I think crushing a man’s arm to where it’s a bloody bag of skin might be taking it a bit too far.”

Cid puffed his cheeks out, wrapping his arms around his stomach. “Jeanne I was just to not be nauseous from that.”

“Sorry Cid,” Jeanne said to the Felidan before turning back to Leonidas. “On that brings me to my second point. How many times would you lecture someone who used magic they had no business using? How many times did you tell me stories of what happened when rituals, despite them doing everything right and by the book, had something horrible occur? Then you do this? Doc, I’m not mad, I’m worried.”

“I’m sorry,” Leonidas said weakly. “Just … I’m sorry.”

Jeanne turned to Cid. “Can we have some privacy, please?”

Cid nodded. “Of course. Let me know if there’s anything you need. And I expect of you present for the morning meeting.”

As he closed the door, Leonidas turned to Jeanne. “Is that a thing with you all?”

She nodded. “It’s been a thing of his since our days back with the Cold Company.”

“Right, right.”

“But what happened back there? It was as if you snapped and became a different person?”

Leonidas took a deep breath, looking away. “I don’t know what happened either. Used to be before this was far easier for me to handle. Probably because it was towards me and I just told myself to toughen up and take it all with some form of grace. I don’t know. But … when it’s someone else, it’s hard. Really hard.

“Especially when the person responsible gets off without a slap on the wrist or even an ill word said their way. And after Moire and Siomon I just …” he paused, rubbing the back of his neck and rubbing his eyes, “… it brought back a lot of emotions that I wished would just let me live in peace. And for once, I just gave in. I saw a chance to return back all those wants and desires to unleash a turbulent storm of hate and pain and retribution.

“I saw a chance to finally see someone get what they deserved. To see the horror they inflicted come back and there was nothing they could do to avoid it. To rob them as they’ve robbed others and there was nothing they could do to slip away into the night and avoid repaying their debt. And before you say it, I know it wasn’t my place, but …”

Jeanne put her hand on Leonidas’s knee. “I get it, Doc. I do,” she said in a soft tone, “We both know I’m not well traveled on the high road. But you are. That’s what I respect about you. If half of what you’ve told me about your life is true, I would’ve lost my mind and told everyone to sod off. But you’re still in it. You help people because that’s just who you are. It’s admirable. Noble even. And there’s not a lot of people in this world anymore who are like that.”

“Keep saying stuff like that, and I might start to get this ego I keep hearing about,” Leonidas replied.

Jeanne slapped his shoulder. “Don’t make me regret trying to be nice.”

“So … what are you guys going to do with our guest?”

She shrugged. “I have no clue. Probably hand him over the authorities.”

“They wouldn’t ask about his current state?”

“Doc, seriously, how long have you been away from civilization?”

“Long enough it seems.”

She patted Leonidas’s shoulder as she rose up and made her way out of the room. “Get some sleep, Doc. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He rested his head, trying to let his thoughts calm themselves down. A click of the knob and opened his eyes to see Jeanne reentering the room. “Sorry, but there was one more thing I wanted to … talk about.”

“Oh gods,” Leonidas said, slamming his head back against the pillow. “Is this another one of your ‘ideas’?”

“No,” she said, “not this time.”

“All right, I’m listening.”

“Do … do you remember our last conversation? The one before I brought into all this?”

Leonidas lifted his head slowly, his eyes beginning to squint and his brow furrowing. “Yes.”

“Well,” Jeanne said, before taking a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to reopen a wound like that and …”

“It’s all right,” Leonidas told her. “Really, it was just matter of bad timing.”

“Just, I know what it’s like to lose someone close. And I know she was close to you.”

“Yeah, yeah she was,” Leonidas paused to take a breath to compose himself, “though you didn’t know the whole story. And are still a few things I still prefer not to disclose.”

“No, but I still wanted to sat that.”

“I appreciate that, Jeanne. I really do,” Leonidas.

Leonidas noted a soft smile on her face before she rose from the bed. “Well I’ll let you get some rest and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

“Not without a meal and dancing first,” she said, closing his door.