They quickly descended the hill in the smoke, sliding and running as they could, trying not to trip. Reaching the garden and the cover of vegetation they stopped to breathe.

* "Harek are you okay?"

Agnes asked worried, seeing the extent of his bleeding which covered most of the grey rugs on his right shoulder and left arm, now soaked in crimson.

* "God, boss, you're not looking so good." -Erick said, pointing at the blood dripping from his hand.

* "I'm fine!" -Harek boomed, his heart still beating like a drum.- "Adrian, check the castle is it safe to cross?"

He wordlessly nodded. Which was rare for Adrian, but the stress of combat affected them all in some way. He took out his spyglass and carefully peeked between the canopy towards the castle. He saw a fire and lots of smoke. It was dark, hard to tell anything, but he saw no firing squad trained on them.

* "Hard to tell, seems okay." -He said curtly.

* "Okay, I'll go first, then Adrien, Agnes, and Erick" -Harek said.

* "You're injured maybe we-" -Agnes called out to him as he started moving.

* "I have the shield, do what I said!" -He ordered with more force than he intended.

He disappeared in the stairwell and appeared on the top of the wall, after carefully looking around he went to the ladder, gave a thumbs up, and climbed down. The other followed suit and in a few minutes, everyone was safely on the other side. Harek started talking with shallow breaths:

* "Let's...let's get to a house I need..." -His vision started to blur slightly and became nauseous.- "Agnes...I'm gonna pass out." -He managed to say before he lost his footing.

* "Nononoo!" -Agnes mumbled as she ran up to grab him while shouting to the others.- "Grab him!"

To which Robert stepped to him quickly and grabbed his right after which he began slowly:

* "False alarm...I'm conscious...thanks." -Harek said between breaths.

Erick broke the door into a lavish-looking house near the wall and looked around. It seemed safe so he gave the ok signal and they led Harek into the first room which had nicely painted walls with flower motives, a sofa, a few chairs, and a table next to a fireplace.

* "On the sofa, he needs to keep his head up!" -Agnes ordered and they sat him down. -"Erick get a pot with water, Adrian I need you to make a fire to boil a rug for me."

They nodded and went to search the house.

* "Sorry for...worrying you." -He smiled at her, eyes dazed, and reached to touch her face before realizing his hand was shaking with a deep cut in his palm and covered in blood.- "Oh..."

* "You're gonna be fine, we just need to stop the bleeding and clean up your wounds." -She said while holding his face after which he slowly nodded.

Agnes took out some pieces of cloth she brought with her and tied a knot around his head when Erick came back with a pot and a few bottles of wine.

* "There's no water." -He said putting down the bottles of red wine on the table.

* "That's fine wine is better anyway." -She said trying to open the bottles but realizing she had no opener.- "Fuck!"

* "It's okay, here." -He took out a bottle opener and started to unscrew the bottles.- "What's wrong with him? He seemed fine a minute ago." -He asked.

* "Combat shock is catching up with him." -Robert said.- "His injuries are not life-threatening but his body was in such a heightened state of stress that now that the danger is passed it's shutting down to catch up with itself."

* "That's what I thought too." -Agnes said.- "He is also bleeding from his head quite bad which can't be good for the nausea and dizziness."

* "Oh no certainly not, but yes he will be fine, especially with our very own healer."

Adrian joined them as well a box full of firewood.

* "There was another fireplace in the bedroom." -He said as he put down the box next to the fireplace and started throwing in the logs.

Agnes noticed a large pool of blood from under his left, which started to drip down from the soaked flower-patterned cushions.

* "Shitshishit!"

She repeated as she ran up to him and inspected his arm, finding a deep cat across his forearm that was oozing deep dark red. He turned to Robert and shouted:

* " A bandage, quickly!"

He gave her a roll in a hurry and she started wrapping it around tightly, squeezing a part of the roll between the layers to create a bump, upon which she wrapped even more, tight layers. Harek gritted his teeth in pained grunts. Excruciating pain flooded him as the final drops of excitement left his body and it gained back all of its suppressed senses. Despite this he he kept his arms as unmoving as he could to let Agnes work. This was a familiar, routine to them judging by their movements, but one they never could get used to.

Adrian entered the blurred vision of Harek with an opened bottle of golden brown liquid in his hand. Harek took it with his shaking and bloody right hand and downed half of it's contents before giving the soiled bottle back to Adrian. It burned his throat and stomach with a good, distracting burn. He smelled smoke as he opened his eyes. He must have passed out as Agnes now was cleaning his right hand first then his head and face with a wet and hot piece of cloth that smelled like wine. He could barely follow her with his eyes as she moved around the room and started to wrap his head, then his hand in bandages coved by what he recognized by now was her healing runes.

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* "Oh...cold..." -He said slightly shivering.

* "I know, I know."

She responded motherly and brought blankets to cover him then with the help of the others pushed the wood-framed sofa closer to the fireplace. Harek's shivering subsided and Agnes put her hands on Harek's while looking at him.

* "You can rest now, we'll be here."

Harek's eyes felt incredibly heavy as he blinked twice before dozing off.

Agnes joined the others who sat around the table next to the window on the other side of the room. Cards were spread around with Robert sitting at the head of the table with Erick and Adrian on the sides. Cups were filled, but the mood didn't feel jovial.

* "So what's your read Agnes?" -Adrian asked.- "Erick filled us in about the knight you met. Did we just step on the Patriarch's toes?"

* "Oh since when do you give a shit about the Patriarch?" -Erick asked provocatively.

* "I don't, but don't you think we should know whether this will bite us in the ass?" -Adrien retorted.

* "How would it? We don't even know who that guy was." -Erick said leaning back.

* "You just said he had runes all over his armor and ate bullets like they were sunflower seeds. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. Or are you suggesting the sheepfucker Zatovs pulled him out of their ass?"

* "Whoah whoah, the fuck is even your problem?" -He stood up angrily and pointed at Harek.- "He is the one who had to go toe-to-toe with him while you were on smoke duty."

* "And look how that turned out!" -He stood up as well, matching his intensity.- "What will we do if another one shows up while Harek is out?! I can't take down a guy like that and neither can you if not even your fancy bullets did anything."

* "Enough!" -Agnes slammed the table and Harek twitched under the blankets. -"Sit down and shut up! The both of you!"

They looked at each other, then her, slightly embarrassed but did as they were told. She began with a sigh:

* "I need to talk to Frederick."

* "Count Cunt? What can he do? He's in as much shit as us if the Church is involved, more in fact." -Adrian asked with skepticism.

* "It's uh...it's a long story but he has...connections and he likes me. Well, I hope he still does, I...kind of implicitly threatened to kill him."

Adrian slammed his hands on the table, comically leaning on them.

* "Man I missed a lot!" -He said laughing.

* "And not just you!" -Erick leaning deeply on his hand elbowed on the table while looking at Agnes.- "Come on princess, fancy yourself a Countess?"

* "Oh go fuck yourself Erick." -She said exasperated and sat down frowning, with a hand on her head.- "We talked about rune drawing and theology, different denominations-"

Adrian interrupted with loud snoring, in a pretend-to-sleep position.

* "Yeah yeah I'm getting there." -She laughed slightly.- "Anyway he's very knowledgeable and can likely tell us more about what that was and whether we need to worry. You're right in the sense that if we're in trouble then he's in way deeper. Not that he seems to care much..."

* "Pfff" -Erick made a noise.- "Of course he doesn't, he's a noble, and from a direct line at that! What are they gonna do? Slap him on the wrist and send him to his castle to think long and hard about what he did? No, the small guy will be ground up as usual..." -He took his cup to drink.

* "Now you're just being melodramatic son." -Robert waved a dismissive hand.- "We will straighten this out with his lordship, get our payment, and disappear on the road like nothing happened."

Agneses' eyes lit up as she remembered something and took out a pouch from his bag and threw it on the table. The others eyed it curiously as she began:

* "Also he gave me this as payment for delivering a letter in person for him." -She pointed at the sack.

Erick peeked into the bag and began to whistle approvingly.

* "Are you sure this is not for your dowry princess?"

Agnes rolled her eyes while Robert corrected him

* "It's the bride's family that pays the dowry, actually."

* "What? Why would you pay to give away your daughter? Isn't the whole point is that they pay you for her?"

Erick asked perplexed while Adrian snatched the sack and emptied its contents on the table. The ivory-colored thick coins hit the wooden desk with muted, soft sounds as they bounced and rolled around slightly.

* "Oh, praise be!"

Adrian said smiling while picking up a coin and inspecting it in the candlelight.

* "I'll be the best goddamn delivery boy in Gezlov if it pays this well."

* "White silver huh?" -Robert murmured- "Been a while since I've seen that. Must be a really important letter."

Agnes turned to him.

* "Well, the letter is secondary, he mainly wants me to help out a friend of his who is researching the runes."

* "So what's the destination?" -Erick asked.

* "In uhh...what was it called? Bodor...something. At the monastery there."

* "Bodorka?" -Robert asked.

* "Yes, that's the one."

* "Hm, sounds nice." -He nodded.

"Have you been there before?" -Agnes asked curiously.

* "Oh no, not me but I heard the monastery there is quite the sight. Had a friend who visited it some time ago."

After a few moments of silence, Adrian said:

* "What's the big guy's opinion on this?" -He pointed at Harek snoring on the sofa.

* "Well, he's suspicious, as always, but the money is good and I am curious so he's fine with it."

* "Alright, Bodorka it is." -He shrugged and downed his cup.