The two arrived to The Unyielding Fortress, the headquarters of their mercenary company, The Wolves. Much of the dark and ominous aura from their first encounter was long gone. Amazing what three months can do, Jeanne thought to herself looking at the stone face of the high walls. There was no longer the sense of danger, of caution, of dread.

Now there was a sense of strength and revitalized honor. The stain glass windows now showing the emblem of their company a wolf’s head looking forward, its eyes all white and stalwart in its gaze. Leonidas and Jeanne moved through down the path and arrived to the gatehouse where they found a small elven woman practice with her bow in a deepened bailey to their right.

“Maeryn!” Jeanne called out, waving to the elf.

Maeryn loosened her pull on the bow string, turning to the couple and waved back. “Hello there!”

“How’s everyone been doing?” Leonidas asked.

“Not bad,” Maeryn replied. “Everyone’s been set up with their own quarters, and Allianna’s workers have finished providing some better lighting for the library.”

“Oh, thank the gods,” exclaimed Leonidas. “That’ll help my eyes.”

“You mean, you don’t enjoy being cloaked in the darkness as you educate yourself on the darker knowledge of the world?” Jeanne asked nudging his arm.

“No!” Leonidas challenged. “I like being in a well-lit setting. And I don’t enjoy straining my eyes in near pure darkness for the ambiance.”

“Well not with that attitude,” said Maeryn.

Leonidas looked at Maeryn with a look of utter desperation, Jeanne doing the same with sheer delight. “I thought we were on good terms,” he said to the archer.

“We are, but I like to mess with people sometimes.”

Leonidas turned to Jeanne. “I blame you for this.”

Jeanne pondered the thought before agreeing with vigor. “Yeah, I’ll take this one.”

Leonidas shook his head and continued into the main hall seeing Kveldulf Einarsen and Miyamoto Benkin practicing their sword skills. The first level of the keep was refitted to being their training hall. Their training swords swung through the air with great speed. Striking their generating terrible blasts that echoed off the walls. Jeanne watched the two in their element, it was hard not to admire the dedication put in to hone their craft.

She spotted Hypatia and Silvius standing next to a series six of hourglasses. Five had already drifted downwards, with the last one having its final grains of sand trickle down to the bottom. Silvius took a stick and smacked a bell nearby three times. Kveldulf and Benkin returned their weapons to an attention stance and after a moment reached out and gripped the other’s forearm.

“That was a good one,” said Kveldulf.

“It was,” said Benkin, “I had a fun time.”

“Who’s next?” Kveldulf asked Hypatia.

“Let’s see,” Hypatia said as she leafed through a small book. “Hmm, divide that by one, carry the four, don’t the forget the … Doc and Kel.”

Leonidas narrowed his gaze towards Hypatia. “You just picked that randomly, didn’t you.”

Hypatia nodded eagerly.

Leonidas went over to one of the several weapon racks and grabbed a long, unadorned staff. As he and Kveldulf took their stances, Jeanne moved around the ring. Towards the stairs at the back of the room and negotiated her way up to the war-room. She found their commander, Cid, standing over a map and several missives over a large circular table.

She moved closer to the table as Cid spotted her. “Jeanne,” he said to her, “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Just arrived with Doc.”

“Oh, where is the good doctor?”

“Trying not to die while sparring Kel.”

“Ah,” Cid replied. “That should be a wonderful exhibition to see.”

“So, what’s the situation?”

“We would know if we were present for the meetings,” he said, giving her a wide-eyed look.

“What are you talking about?” Jeanne replied. “We’ve been present for every meeting.”

“I know,” Cid admitted, “but it’s been too long since we’ve given each other some hassle.” Cid then looked down at the papers before his brow furrowed and he turned back to Jeanne. “Wait, when do have meetings once a week or twice a week?”

“Twice, that way we can focus on other obligations between contracts.”

“Really?”

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“Yeah.”

“Then why did I think it was once a week?” Cid asked,

“Because you’re overworking yourself again?”

Cid looked up at to the heavens. “Gods, mother was right. I am too dedicated to my work.”

“Could be worse. You’re not married to your sword.”

Cid looked at her.

“You know someone is.”

“Yeah … you’re probably right.”

“Be an odd wedding night.”

“Could you imagine if they got a divorce?” Cid asked.

“I would you’d get the better cut of the estate?” Jeanne followed

Both looked at each other and before they began blurting out laughing. As they regained their composure Jeanne asked, “So has anything come in from Allianna or another contract?”

Cid shook his head. “Nothing recently of terrible import? Most of those who were aiding Baeron have skuttled underground for the time being. We have had a couple of bounties come in. Mostly minor ones, but they’ve brought in a few coins.”

“Any contracts still lingering?”

Cid brushed a few pieces of parchment aside. “Uh, I know I saw one earlier. Let me see,” he grabbed one contract, looked it over closely and handed it to Jeanne. “This was a bounty that seemed promising.”

Jeanne reached out, taking the bounty and reading it closely. Her eyes first narrowed as she skimmed over the writing. Her brows furrowed as her mouth slowly opened. Her breathing began quickening as she gripped the paper tightly in her clenched fist.

“Jeanne,” Cid said to her.

“Are we taking it?” Jeanne asked staring at Cid.

“I mean,” Cid said hesitantly, “It didn’t seem like a priority when I first read it.”

Jeanne said nothing, looking down at the parchment with murderous intent.

“You mind cluing me in here, Jeanne?”

“It’s one of them,” she said through gritted teeth.

Cid’s mouth dropped. “One of them?”

Jeanne nodded, she began growling as she breathed. She snarled as she lifted her fist into the air as she slammed her hand was covered in rockscales. Cid came over and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Fucking Kolvilles!”

“All right,” he said to her, “let’s pay the good captain a visit, see if we can –”

“What is there to find out Cid!” Jeanne snapped, “these bastards are the same who murdered my sister. We should be out there gutting them like pigs!”

“I know, Jeanne, I know,” he said. “You know I wouldn’t want anything more. But we don’t know where to start looking for them. And I doubt the bounty on your head has gone away either. Let alone you’re branded an outlaw, someone could stab you in the middle of the street and their wouldn’t be a single charge made to hold them accountable.”

Jeanne looked down as she calmed herself down before she looked back to Cid.

“I won’t say I know what you feel. I won’t dare insult you like that. But I know if the situation was reversed, I would want you to caution me to not rush into something without being prepared.”

Jeanne took a deep breath before nodding her head. “I guess that’s why you’re the leader.”

“A leader is only as good as the people they’re with,” he said, calmly taking the bounty and holding in the air. “But this now our priority.”

“Thanks Cid,” she said, a weak smile on her face. “I appreciate that.”

“Not at all. You’re family.”

“Then why can’t you lend me money when I ask?”

“Firstly, you kept using it to get yourself in trouble. And second, you have a lovely doctor to fund your penchant for chaos.”

“And here I was thinking we were kin.”

Cid looked at her with his eyes half opened. “Jeanne, if you were actual kin, then we wouldn’t be on speaking terms.”

“Hold on, I’ll need to write that down.”

“And to think I call you a friend,” Cid said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

***

Jeanne sat on a ledge overlooking one of the deepened baileys. She would look around at the empty training field before letting out a heavy breath and looking back down again.

“Copper for your thoughts?” she heard Maeryn ask.

Jeanne shook her head. “Just in my head right now.”

Maeryn sat next Jeanne, laying her bow down next to her. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“Just learned of a contract that came in from the city guards. Turns out one of the brothers who … took my sister, Sabine, has a price on his head.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“You would think that. But life has a way to just making something simple excruciatingly difficult.”

“That’s never a good sign.”

“No … no it isn’t.”

“Well, what’s keeping the authorities from just, you know, rounding them all up, throwing them into a dungeon and throwing away the key?”

“They’re nobles,” Jeanne replied.

Maeryn closed her eyes and let out a low moan. “Of course.”

“Too low in the pecking order to inherit status and wealth, but too high in society to be given the same punishments most are heir to.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“I don’t know,” Jeanne admitted, her voice breaking. “Every inclination wants me to go off and rip their heads off with my bare hands, place them on silver platters and serve them back to their kin. But I know such things can be problematic.”

“I would think you’d rush off without a care to the consequences.”

“That’s because I’m still dealing with the consequences of such an action,” Jeanne followed, looking back at Maeryn. “The man who murdered her, he wasn’t subtle about what happened. And waited until he didn’t have his brothers to defend him. Made him think he was going to have another roll in the hay. Before he knew it, he was covered in his own blood, begging for me to let him live. When I saw the fear in his eyes, I saw the fear in Sabine’s. It wasn’t a clean kill, Maeryn. He did not die quick, and I enjoyed myself completely in the moment.”

She took a moment to look up at the rocky ceiling above them while taking a deep breath.

“I thought I was going to be hailed a hero. Bringing justice when the system would not. Then I learned of the bounty on my head and that was when I ran from home. By luck or some divine intervention, I ran into a recruiter for Cold Company and, well, here I am.”

“I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to go through that.”

“I think I’m still going through, if we’re going to be honest here.”

“I wouldn’t think that’s something you fully get over, Jeanne.”

“I just … I thought I would have started having some closer with what happened. Some peace of mind and it’s like nothing happened. Like that little sniveling shit still walks the earth! Like … like I did nothing.”

Maeryn looked at Jeanne, grimacing as she tried to find the right words to comfort her friend.

“Sometimes I wonder if I did any good at all, or if I made the situation worse for people back home. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they all cursed my name.”

“If they do, then they’re fools in every sense of the word,” Maeryn said, putting her hand on Jeanne’s shoulder. “I cannot say I entirely blame them for staying their hands towards a nobleman, even when the noble is an outright bastard. But if they hold any ill will towards you for seeking out justice, then I cannot feel any sympathy. Especially when you did what many of them had considered doing.”

“And I left them at the mercy to those who cared little on if they lived or died. Would we not feel a sense of longing for retribution if we were given the same fate?”

“I see your point, though I still stand by my thoughts on this.”

Jeanne put her hand on Maeryn’s shoulder. “That means a lot, Maer, thank you.”

They turned to the opened gatehouse as Kveldulf called out. “Hey, Cid wants to call a meeting with everyone.”

Both women rose to their feet and made their way inside.