Harek and Agnes walked the man back to the tent and with some snarky remarks by Adrien tied him to the same pole that had confined their friend just moments before. So what did they want from you? – Harek asked the blond man who was currently inspecting himself in a small mirror.

Satisfied that he lost none of his charm, he answered:

* "They wanted me to take a box to his mightiness this morning. So good timing on your part."

He winked in their direction.

* "Did they say what was inside that box?"

* "No idea. They were quite insistent about it, however."

* "Where is it?"

* "I don’t know I haven’t seen it."

Adrian turned is head towards the captive and shouted at him:

* "Hey ugly, where’s that box you kept going on about?"

The captive looked defiant at first, then closed his eyes and sighed.

* "I don’t know, nor anything else that you’d find useful."

Harek knelt beside the sitting man on the ground.

* "Let’s start with an easy one. What’s your name?"

The man rolled his eyes and then said:

* "Lajos."

* "Okay Lajos, we need to know where that box is, what is inside it and why did you want it to be delivered to the lord. Last time I ask nicely."

Seeing where this was going Agnes and the others decided to give Harek some privacy and left the tent.

* "Thank you for the timely rescue Agnes."

Adrian said with a respectful nod, to which Patrick joined in:

* "Y-yes, thank you so much! I’m in your debt, well, more than I already am." –He stammered.

Agnes answered with a shrug.

* "It was mostly Hareks doing. Regardless, you are very welcome."

Stepping outside, Adrian welcomed the small crowd with a theatrical bow which prompted some whistling and shuffling. Three young women ran up to him with motherly worry. “Sweetie what have they done to you!” “You poor thing!” “Come let’s fix you up. “We’ll draw a warm bath and get you sorted.”

* "Oh, please ladies I…Well you see…"

Before he could protest, if he even intended to, he was whisked away among the wagons leaving Agnes and Patrick by themselves. The silence turned uncomfortable as pained screaming, then sobbing broke it. Agnes said the first thing that came to her mind:

* "So, have you managed to bed one of them yesterday?"

She gestured to the now-leaving crowd with a teasing tone. Then cursed herself for not coming up with something better.

Patrick got disoriented by the sudden question, but after getting his bearings he managed to answer:

* "N-no."

* "That’s a shame, I’m sure you’ll get it next time."

She patted his back and acknowledged this would have been a lot funnier if she timed it better. The boy got red in the face but had no clever retort ready, so remained in silence. With a more serious and empathic tone, Agnes continued:

* "They didn’t hurt you too bad, did they?"

Sensing a rare opportunity to show off some manly bravado, Patrick mustered his restrain on complaining and answered as nonchalantly as he could:

* "No." –He shook his head.- "No, they were mostly interested in Adrian."

* "So what exactly did they want with you anyway?"

* "To be honest, I don’t think they really knew what to do with me. They were just pushing us outside when Adrian started talking about how “Lord Frederick will have their ass for messing with some of his closest associates”

He said with a mock dramatic voice.

* "Then they mumbled something among each other, and they brought us back to the tent. They tied us to the pole and told us to bring a box to Lord Frederick in the morning. Adrian then tried to clear it up with them that he wasn’t actually serious but they wouldn’t buy it. They said we have to wait for their boss because he has it."

By now the screaming had stopped and only sobbing and quiet mumbling could be heard from the tent. They both released a deep breath they didn’t realize were holding. Harek stepped out of the tent, wiping his hand on a piece of cloth.

* "Well, he was telling the truth."

He said with a sigh. Agnes turned to him.

* "So, nothing useful?"

* "He was hired a few months ago for a 'no questions asked' job. Back in Batorvaros. That is about as much as I got." –He shrugged.

* "The capital?" -She asked.

* "Yeah, quite the distance from here."

Harek acknowledged her thought.

* "What now?" –Agnes asked.

* "I’ll collect Adrina, our payment, and then we head to Frederick. He needs to know about whatever this is."

He gestured in the general direction of the three men.

* "You two look through the tent and the bodies, I’ll be back soon."

Without waiting for an answer, he headed towards the wagons. The few women still standing there quickly scurried back to their dens, seeing Harek's grim expression heading towards them, which made Agnes flash a wry smile.

* "So, uh…what are we looking for?"

Peter asked following Agnes's steps.

* "Anything valuable, useful, or interesting. You check the tent; I’ll have a look at these two."

He nodded, resolute to make himself useful. He walked into the tent and focused on not being disgusted. It took effort. The body of Lajos was bound to the pole with a stab wound on his leg and chest. His gambeson was drenched in blood with a puddle forming under him. He looked away from the corpse for now and searched through various chests and containers he saw lining the sides of the tent. As he was going through them, he mumbled to himself to occupy his thoughts.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

* "Dirty clothes, no. Firewood, no. Sausages? Useful. Chainmail! Valuable and useful!"

* "Did you say something?"

Agnes asked while kneeling at the punctured man at the entrance.

* "Uh, no nothing!"

Patrick said with an embarrassed voice. She hummed absently. Patrick decided to shut up and go through the rest of the boxes in silence. Shortly under one of the beds, he found a strong metal chest. With some grunting, he managed to pull it out and examine it. It was a strange-looking metal box, rather than a chest on closer inspection. It was completely flat on all sides except for a small wheel on the front with 12 small squares next to it. On each square, there was a finely painted number except for two that had letters on them. C and E. Peter had never seen anything like this. Whatever it was, it definitely looked both valuable and interesting. After some deliberation, he decided against pushing anything as much as he wanted to and called out to Agnes.

* "I found something!"

* "Anything good?"

Agnes stepped in after a few seconds and said:

* "They had some money on them but not much."

Patrick was squatting before the box and pointed at it.

* "Look! Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Agnes squatted beside him with a curious expression.

* "No…can’t say I have."

She reached out to lift it, but almost fell face first instead before catching herself, while Patrick quickly moved his hands in a “I want to help but not sure how without touching you inappropriately” motion. At least that’s how he lived it. Agnes just saw him raise his hands and assumed he wanted to help.

* "This is heavy."

He wished he had anything insightful to add, before realizing that he did.

* "The numbers and the letters. I recognize them I think but they look…different."

Agnes softly touched the squares. They were soft but smooth. Almost like skin.

* "They feel like…skin? Leather?"

* "Let me!"

Patrick reached out excitedly.

* "Oh wow!" –He exclaimed.– "What do you think this is?"

* "I have…" -she blew out some air from her mouth- "Honestly…very little idea. It’s a box and there are numbers on it so I assume it’s some kind of lock mechanism, but I have no idea how such a thing would even work."

As if on cue, Patrick pressed one of the squares a bit too hard, and a hole they hadn’t noticed before lit up green above the numbers. Silence followed, and then at once they both began:

* "What did you press?" / "I’m sorry."

* "What?" / "What?"

Silence again, as they looked at each other, then at the box. Then Patrick began:

* "The one that I assume is 2."

Agnes reached out and pushed “2”. Another green light. She pressed it again. A third green light showed up.

* "Is that good?"

She asked him. He shrugged. She pressed it again. A fourth green light. Then a second later all four lights blinked red, to which they both pulled back expecting something to happen, but nothing did, and all lights were dark again.

* "Did we break it?"

He asked sheepishly.

* "No, I don’t think so."

She said trying to convince herself. After a few seconds of staring at the box and looking around the tent, she asked:

* "Was there any slip of paper with numbers on it on the guy or anything like that?"

* "Uh, I haven’t checked him yet."

He looked at the body again for the first time in quite a while. He hesitated for a few seconds before Agnes cut in.

* "I’ll do it."

And began to walk over to it and check its clothes. Patrick felt both relieved and shameful.

* "Check the other again please in case I missed something."

Maybe a little too quickly he answered:

* "Will do!"

He was felt disappointed that he would have to touch corpses after all and determined that he is going to it no matter what. As he stepped outside a gauntleted fist knocked him to the ground like a battering ram.

* "What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!"

A tall slim, but strong man was standing over him wearing a red brigantine. He was bald with a long mustache and hate in his eyes. Patrick only saw a blurry figure, dazed from the punch. The man looked at the two corpses.

* "Fucking amateurs."

Then a small rock flew by in front of him, then away for a few meters which then exploded in a loud crackle.

* "What the-"

He snapped towards Agnes in the tent.

* "Fucking witch." -He cursed.

Agnes's thoughts raced. She needed to buy time. The tent canvas is too thick to cut through quickly, and too heavy to lift quickly. Can't run, one way out. Need an advantage. Could she push the central pole? Maybe. No more time. She quickly jumped a few steps back and then ran as hard as she could into the pole. She grimaced at the sharp pain in her shoulder but pushed through it. The pole began to fall towards the man at the entrance who mumbled:

* "Oh you little…"

The canvas at the top of the tent fell to hip height and Agnes took out her knife, staying low. After a few seconds, the man roared:

* "Okay witch. You either come out…" -He grunted.- "Or your little friend dies."

Agnes cursed.

* "Okay fine!"

She moved as slowly as she could without making him more angry and tried to think of something. He doesn’t have her sling, even if she did she can’t use it now. She could use the stones, but can’t use those under cover from the sky. The Cipher needs to see the rune. Fuck! Think! Before she reached the mouth of the half-standing tent, she hid her knife behind her in her belt.

* "There, nice and slow."

The man was backing away, holding a knife to Patrick's throat.

* "Now, who the fuck sent you?"

* "What’s the combination?"

* "I’m asking the question here bi-"

A shot cracked and it was as if time slowed for Agnes. She held her breath. It missed. The man looked towards the source while letting go of Patrick and stepping back. He started pulling out a pistol and a sword. Harek like a frenzied ox ran towards him, shield in hand. The man fired. Agnes couldn’t tell whether he hit or not, but if he did, it didn’t slow Harek down. The man dodged to the left, out of Harek's way, leaving his sword hand slightly out. Harek missed him but grabbed his sword hand with his right and span around mid-run. He felt the man's shoulder crack as he threw him to the ground in an arc. He took two quick steps towards him and lifted his shield above his head. Agnes reached out and shouted:

* "Wait!"

But he brought down his shield on him with force. The man's jaw ripped, teeth broke, his body went limp, then as Harek lifted his shield his head stayed open in an unnatural angle. After a second he dropped his shield and ran to Agnes in an embrace.

* "Are you alright?"

He asked, more panicked than she saw him in a long time.

* "Um, yeah, yeah I’m fine, thank you. Patrick was hit pretty hard tough, are you okay?"

She turned her head towards him. He put his hand on an already growing bump on the side of his face and grimaced.

* "I’ll live."

For a moment he felt cool saying that, which almost made it worth it. Almost.