I’ve learned something today.

Syron thought with a pained grimace when he attempted a ‘rueful smile’. The bleeding from his head thankfully was taken care of quickly, as was the concussion. Any damage to his body was left intact, however, including some pretty severe burns.

Ah, can’t forget the hole in my torso where I got impaled on a broken wooden board. It seems that was fixed too. Oh, and I think I may have been paraplegic for a bit? Okay, apparently it’s just the scrapes and burns that are still there.

Syron didn’t really remember receiving the injuries. He got brained on a stone wall and everything after that was pretty hazy. He remembered running down the alleyway, getting pushed into the wall, using flashbang, and also burning. That’s about it. Waking up, he could faintly make out the frantic faces of Kasumi, Renee, and Aleala for some reason, as well as the uninterested face of Marigold. Now, however, he could once again see and hear properly, though moving still hurt pretty bad.

“What was I saying again… oh right. Sorry, I’m a little out of it at the moment and unfortunately get distracted easily. I was saying that I’ve learned something today.” Syron said, while lounging imposingly on a box marked in handwriting no better than Syron’s to say “beets”.

He crossed his legs and leaned against the wall carefully, hissing like a snake. Kasumi thought he looked like a majestic overlord, about to pass judgement on his disappointing subjects. Renee thought he looked like a piece of jerky wearing burnt clothes and had a ‘people’ head. Marigold thought he looked like he was trying too hard. Aleala was just trying not to look at him.

“I’ve learned that having superpowers is great! At least until everyone else has them too. That makes cluster fu… excuse me, ‘accidents’ like today possible. Explain to me precisely what happened again, from your perspective, if you wouldn’t mind.” Syron wasn’t moving his mouth to speak, likely due to the pain, and instead was just projecting his voice into the area in front of the four bound and kneeling captives before him. To them, he looked like their judge, jury, and executioner. Also, he looked pretty uncomfortable.

* * * * *

Toby and Gus had done it again. Only this time, they were almost certainly going to die from it. They had been long time patrons of Gerald and Arnold’s tavern, the Kanouki Rous. Unfortunately, it seemed they were going to drag Gerald and Arnold to hell with them. They operated their tavern with their wives, who had constantly told their husbands to stop allowing day drinking for troublemakers, especially those with aptitudes. Did they listen to their better halves? Of course not. If they were capable to listening, perhaps their wives wouldn’t be their ‘better’ halves, after all. They were sincerely regretting their life choices at this particular moment.

Perhaps if they had done as they were asked, they wouldn’t be getting murdered by some noble brat today. They looked up at the child no older than fourteen, burnt all over his body except on his strangely pristine face, and despaired.

“What… the @#$% am I looking at? Forrester, what is this?” An angry looking boy around the same age as the noble kid turned into the alleyway. The new boy was dressed in enough finery to buy their tavern three times over. The four men gulped. Had they just heard the name ‘Forrester’?

“Can it, Rue. Take a seat. We’re getting to the good part. Also, sorry I’m late for our meeting. There were… complications getting to your location today.” Syron’s eerie ghost voice sounded clearly throughout the area.

As in Prince Rue!? Couldn’t be… right? Anyone could name their kid Rue, even if they appear to be the same age… but the name Forrester… that’s not one common enough to mess around with. We’re dead.

Gerald, Arnold, and Gus all visibly deflated at Rue’s arrival, earning a smirk from Syron. Toby always was the slow one of their group.

“Well, get on with it. Tell me what happened.” Syron sounded a little more aggressive than his laid back appearance would denote. It was Arnold that started speaking first.

“Gerald and I run the tavern at the end of the alleyway with our wives and kids. Those two jokers over there got a little drunk and started fighting, so we kicked em out like we always do. Since they can get a little rough when they’ve had a few, we all ended up tradin’ a few nasty words and churnin our Souls about… you know, to get the point across. Two of us use blades, so we had em out and… well… then the missus over there appeared and started slashing at us like we owed her boss money or somethin’. A few seconds of us blocking her blows, the bleedin’ sun appeared in the middle of our fight, flashin’ all sorts of random colors from its sides tha’ looked like mirrors. There was also this real low droning noise that made all our ears start hurting and all the nearby glass to shatter. It was also pulsing though, like it would get real high pitched suddenly and kinda… like… bump like a drum. Dunno what that was all about. Anyways, after that, Gus started launchin’ fireballs at the sun to stop the sounds, making the whole place go up in flames.

"Finally, a wave a’ force came from the other side of the alley, and you’s came flying through the air and crashed into the wall next to us, landin’ on tha’ box right there. The rest of us just fell over. Then the cold lookin’ maid over there drug tha’ girl through the flames by the hair and started usin’ these little gems to put out fires and patched you up. We was gonna just run away, but then another knight lookin’ lass appeared and helped the firs’ one beat the hell outta’ us.”

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A small, less bright version of the sun appeared, changing to random rainbow colors as it turned in the air. Then the sounds returned, though they were slightly different from how Arnold remembered.

“Tha’s it! There it is!”

“Huh… rainbow disco ball and dubstep thumping? That’s where I went when the cards were down? Surely I can just blame that on getting brained, right?” The noble boy was talking to himself, but nothing he said seemed to make sense.

“Well, whatever. I can ponder my life choices later. You two! You say you run a nearby tavern? Learn to deal with belligerent customers better. Seriously, there’s gotta be a better way. As for you idiots. Leave when a proprietor tells you to. It’s their business, and they can serve whoever they want. Got a problem about it, write a scathing review or something, I don’t care. But don’t go all balls to wall with swords and fireballs. What’s wrong with you? Sheesh. I nearly died!”

“Kasumi, release them all. Marigold, please see to it that all the businesses are compensated for damages that we caused. Actually, Rue can do that. Marigold is too important to waste her time with stuff like that. I’m going to go get healed up, so I’ll see you some other time. Renee… enter the tavern and check it for any dangers. Try not to throw anyone head first at any walls or assault anyone unprovoked please. There should be two women in there, awaiting their husbands… do not sword them or throw them head first into any walls. I don’t know how many children might be in there… but make sure you don’t…?” Syron asked a leading question to a steadily turning-red Renee.

“I shall not assault any children, Young Master.”

“Ooof. I’m always the ‘Young Master’ when they are in trouble. You’re correct! I also would have accepted ‘I shall not sword any children’ or ‘I shall not throw any children head first into walls’.”

“Why are you using ‘sword’ like it is a predicate?” Rue tried to interject but got shot down by several glaring women. He started to get angry at his treatment before catching an unamused glance from a very crispy Syron. Seeing him grunting in pain as he tried to get down from the box gave Rue enough happiness to forgive his maid and knight’s rudeness. He made eye contact with the final girl and shuddered when he realized who she was. He started to stammer out something towards her but her eyes flashed dangerously as she held a single finger up to her lips.

It would be hours later, after he finished the task of paying reparations and returning home, that Rue would realize he was just bossed around by Syron. All because his ‘maid is too important to do the #$%@ work’ or something like that… he wasn’t really paying attention. Furthermore, it had all slipped his mind after seeing her there.

* * * * *

The Young Master sat contentedly in a hard wooden seat at an old, worn table. He was smiling gently at Miss Gamete, who still wouldn’t make eye contact with him. Behind him, no fewer than three healers were dumping their magic reserves into him under the watchful eyes of Marigold and Kasumi. It was strange to see his skin recovering in real time, like his good skin was ‘infecting’ the rest of his body and spreading at a steady pace. Also seated at the table was a woman by the name of Karen, the carefree wife of Arnold that didn’t seem all that concerned with her potentially dangerous situation.

“So what were you doing with my employees before you blindly ‘dragonborned’ me into the boxes, Aleala? You mentioned you could create little whirlwinds of force from your hands… you didn’t mention you could launch me thirty feet through the air like a bandit on a bridge.” The struggling healers behind him shared a confused look, but said nothing. Aleala herself just deflated like a puppy being told no.

“I had wanted to ask you something and followed your maid to the carriage when we heard the loud noise. We rushed to the alleyway to investigate, but the flames were growing too fast to enter and there was that… light show… stopping us from properly seeing too. I just tried to use the magic to disperse some flames but it did not go so well. I’m sorry for flinging you, Syron… do you forgive me?”

The Young Master just laughed, but didn’t answer her question. Instead, he excitedly received a mug of beer from a ghostly pale Arnold. He took a tentative sip and frowned. Looking at each person surrounding him in turn, eventually he just sighed and chugged the whole mug down.

“Yep… beer is still gross. Proprietor, could I get a juice or water next?” Syron asked sweetly to the man abandoning his wife to the boy that could murder them all.

“Anyway… Karen, such an unfortunate name for someone so pleasant, tell me more about your events you put on?” If Karen thought his comment about her name was strange, she didn’t say anything.

“Well, Lord Forrester, I’m glad you asked! Once a week, we hold a little talent show on our stage over there. Anyone that wants to come up and sing or dance can do so for the crowd, and the winner gets a free meal.”

“I like the business model. You draw in a bigger crowd on those nights, far offsetting the cost of one free meal I’m guessing?”

“Indeed you’re right, M’lord. Music was a big draw for other businesses, but we couldn’t afford any professional entertainers. To compete, we decided to have our customers become the entertainment. It doesn’t matter if they are good or not. In fact, bad performances are often quite appreciated.”

“I can imagine! Maybe I’ll have to stop by some time incognito and check it out. I love stuff like this.” The Young Master’s smile was so brilliant and genuine, Karen was taken aback slightly.

“Oh, we can come together, Syron. It could be a D. A. T. E.” Miss Gamete interjected. Syron sighed and looked over at her.

“It’s not cute to spell things out loud, it’s annoying. Unless it is for passing coded messages in front of small children, anyway. Even then… it’s risky business… kids pick stuff up without you noticing sometimes.” Miss Gamete seemed upset at first, but was just confused by the end of his reply.

“But I think I’d like that. You can sing for us while you’re at it. If you need any accompanying instruments, just let me know. I’ve been practicing!”

To an outside listener, it might sound as though the Young Master was offering to play music like a bard… but Renee knew better. He was offering to have ‘any’ instrument accompany her. Miss Gamete perked up happily.

“Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?!” She exclaimed, excitement in her voice. The Young Master just laughed again, shaking his head.

“It’s fine. I’m sure I deserved it anyway.”