“There is,” she said with a fire in her eyes. “Find the curs who did this. Find that mangy bastard who turned my child into a some wild loon and hang his corpse from the tallest building.”

“Well, that’s just the problem. We’re not entirely sure where to start looking.”

Weuve looked at Cid with a steeled gaze. “I don’t know where those vile dogs are, but I know there’s a friend my boy spends time with. Galbert, that’s his given name. You find him,” she said with her voice breaking. “You find him and his vermin friends and make them pay for what they did. You make them pay for what they did to my boy.”

“We will do what we can, miss,” Cid said, gently clasping her hand in his. “We will bring him to justice.”

“To the Wode with justice!” Weuve said, “There is no justice in this place. I want vengeance. I want blood. I want my pound of flesh and I want it collected with as much suffering you can inflict.”

Cid nodded, patting her hand. “We’ll do what we can.”

“You put all those animals down, and leave their corpses for the wolves,” said as she turned back to her child. Edmund began stirring in the bed and his mother moved to caress his head. “Shh, little one, everything’s all right. Everything’s all right.”

Cid looked back to Jeanne and Kveldulf, gesticulating his head towards the door. As the three left, Weuve called out.

“Do any of you have family?”

The three looked at each before Jeanne turned to Weuve. “Not children no, but I had a sister once. She was stolen from my family, too.”

“Did you give them what they deserved?”

“Some of it, still working on the rest.”

“You send them the darkness, and you don’t show them any mercy.”

Jeanne nodded, saying nothing as she and the other left the room.

They moved down to the top of the stairs landing before Kveldulf stop them. “Cid, are we actually going to be enacting vigilante justice on the streets?”

“I don’t know, Kel,” Cid said.

“We can’t just go around nabbing people off the street and looping off heads without some justification.”

“We’re not going to that Kel.”

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“Then what are we going to do?” Jeanne asked. “If we don’t put them down when we find them, we’ll have to find a place to hold them until later. And if it’s the former we’re going to need to deal with keeping several decomposing heads.”

Cid growled and sneered. “I’m still trying to figure that out. And I don’t think this place has a vault to sort severed body parts.”

“I mean, there’s always bury their heads in a forest.”

“All right, tomorrow, pick a spot about five miles from the city walls and find a spot. Maybe get a thick burlap sack and maybe that’ll keep the worm’s from getting to them … hopefully.”

“I think once the second brother is taken care of, it might get the others moving,” said Kveldulf.

“You think so?” Jeanne asked.

“I would, out of seven brother, two are taken out of the situation. And chances are they’ll start figuring these aren’t isolated incidents.”

“And if the youngest one was trying to find me, it won’t be long until they know I’m here.”

“Then we need to start moving on this one before they have time to recover,” said Cid. “Kel, have Gabriel and Ben start looking for this Galbert character. Once this boy is out off his plate, have the doctor and Silvius prepare for obtaining proof of capture for our friends. And when you and Maeryn found a place to store the heads, we’ll begin pressing in.”

“How soon do you want to do this?” Kveldulf asked.

“Two to three days,” Cid said. “I don’t want to give them the chance on catching us by surprise.”

“All right,” said Kveldulf, “I’ll start letting the others know.”

“Good,” Cid said to Kel before he left. “Let me know if anything comes up. Jeanne, walk with me, talk with me.”

“I didn’t think I did anything this time.”

“No no, nothing of the sort. I just wanted to check in, see how you were doing?”

“Conflicted, to be honest.”

“How so?”

“I want to hang, draw and quarter each one of these bastards, have Doc bring them back to life and do it all over again.”

“And what’s staying your hand now?”

“A lot of things.”

“Anything you want to talk about?”

“Cid, let’s not beat about bush on this, why are you asking?”

“Your one of my lieutenants, it’s part of my job to make sure you’re able to do what you need to do.”

“You think I can’t?”

“I think you’re in a tough spot and that can cause tougher decisions.”

Jeanne let out a heavy sigh. “Cid, how would you handle this?”

“I’d try to do what I knew was right, not what I felt right for me.”

Jeanne narrowed her eyes and growled. “Well, that’s just wonderful.”

“I think maybe if you focus on one person at a time instead of the whole it might make things easier. At least you don’t have to see the whole mess until after it’s over.”

“Yeah, guess I’ll try that.”

“Certainly, couldn’t do any harm.”

“No, no, but one other thing. When we come across these brothers, do you think you can keep yourself from doing when we were on the Bellamy Blade?”

Jeanne nodded. “I know I fucked on that, Cid. But I’m not going to let myself get carried away like that.”

“At least make sure when you’re doing something exceptionally silly you’re keeping it strictly to the enemy.”

“I only promise to try,” she said, giving a him a slight smile.

“That’s all I ask.”