Harek noticing himself, let go of Agnes.

* "I’m sorry this is all my fault I should have-"

* "Oh shut up you’re not my nanny, and you saved us anyway."

Agnes turned away dismissively but spoke with a soft voice as she walked towards the corpse before continuing in a reprimanding tone.

* "But you didn’t have to kill him! We needed the numbers from him!"

* "Numbers?"

Harek raised an eyebrow, puzzled.

* "There was this box we found, it will be easier to show you than describe it, but whatever's in it must be important, and we believe it opens with a number combination, which he knew!"

She pointed her hands towards the now headless man in a presenting manner.

* "Oh…oops." -He shrugged.

She started going through his pockets and clothes and appreciated that the body wasn’t covered in blood for once.

* "With a bit of luck though he has it written down somewhere. He didn’t seem like to type to memorize it and I’m not even sure if it can be changed if he forgets it."

While she was rummaging through the pockets Harek picked up his shield and started cleaning the blood off with a rag. Then lifted it to inspect it. It had two clear indentations where it’s been shot making its otherwise somewhat shiny surface look crooked. Harek gave it a disapproving look.

* "I was hoping I’d get away with just oiling it up again… Agnes, is the spare ready yet?"

He asked in a raised voice towards her.

* "What?"

She snapped her head back confused. Then turned back to her work after realizing what he was talking about.

* "Oh yeah, Robert brought it back yesterday."

Harek nodded approvingly, then noticed Patrick standing around looking at his feet, unsure what to do. He walked up to him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

* "It’s over boy, you did good."

He squeezed his shoulder and patted his back. Patrick didn’t feel like he did much at all, but he wasn’t going to correct him, and it felt good to be praised anyway. Coincidently Harek wasn’t presuming he did much either but he thought he could use the encouragement.

* "Found it!"

Agnes exclaimed victoriously, holding up a small rolled-up piece of paper in one hand and a boot in the other.

* "Good work! Was there a box on him by any chance?" – Harek asked.

* "Uh…"

Agnes looked back at the body for a moment unsure

* "No, no there wasn’t. I’ve looked everywhere."

* "Okay well, let’s see what all the fuss is about then."

He put his bent shield a bit awkwardly on his back, then walked to the tent.

* "Could you bring out that box Patrick? Would prefer to not hunch down the whole time."

* "I- uh would need your help with that…it’s pretty heavy."

* "Lead the way then."

Patrick lifted up the canvas and led Harek to the box. Agnes saw a small and a large bump move around the tent, the big one disappeared, reappeared then both of them walked out with Harek carrying the metal contraption.

He sat it down “face up” on the ground and gestured to Agnes to do her thing. She nodded then opened the small paper and carefully started to put in the 4 numbers.

* "Are these runic numbers?" -Harek asked.- "They look strange."

* "No, those are a lot straighter, with fewer lines too. Easier to carve." -She mumbled absentmindedly.

The fourth number was followed by a satisfying ping sound as all four lights blinked green and a *thunk* sound could be heard from the box.

* "Try the knob maybe?" -Patrick suggested. They were all hunched over the box, looking at it curiously.

Agnes reached out and turned the knob half a rotation and feeling it not move any further tried to open it. It did effortlessly. Inside it, there was a single, slightly bigger than a palm-sized square plate with rounded edges.

* "Oh my god!" – Agnes froze.

* "What?" – Harek looked at him puzzled.

* "We just did something very stupid and got very lucky."

She didn’t look at him but could feel his confused expression so she continued.

* "It’s- Well, I think" -she gestured- "it's a rune plate. When you turned over the box it faced down. If it weren’t and the Cipher saw it, we could be dead by now."

* "Oh… You should be smarter than that." -He noted.

* "Me?! What about you?" –She pushed him.

* "You’re the one who is supposed to think of things like this."

He shrugged with an oblivious face.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

* "What does that even mean?! What about you?"

* "I’m just a dumb brute I don’t know any better."

He shrugged and held his hands up innocently.

* "Oh, fuck you." -She smiled.

* "So we’re not blowing up?" – Patrick butt in.

* "No" -she let out an exasperated sigh- "No, we’re fine."

* "What is a rune plate anyway?" – The boy asked.

* "I’m uh…not completely clear on that." -She admitted.- "The notes I have say if you don’t have a rune plate you can substitute it with just about anything."

She raised an eyebrow, thinking.

* "I have no idea what it does though. It’s gotta make the effects…stronger right? Otherwise, what’s the point?"

She asked no one in particular.

* "And we have no idea if there's anything carved on it on the other side, but there probably is."

Harek said to summarize, to which Agnes replied with a nod.

* "Okay, I’ll bring something."

Harek grabbed a fistful of the canvas and cut it out, then took the box-

* "Careful!" –Agnes instructed.

* "I’m being careful, it's already face down right?" -He held it mid-air.

* "Yeah just..agh, just be careful."

He nodded and took the box back under the canvas and gently lifted the tablet.

* "I can turn it around, right?" -He looked at Agnes for confirmation.

* "Yes, yes it's fine." -She hurried him in excitement.

He gave her excitement an amused look, then flipped the tablet around. It wasn’t a word, sentence, or even a pattern. It was many purple lines meeting at points and leaving those points for another. Many terminated at their points, but from where they began it was impossible to untangle. Agnes's eyes traced the intricate design, her brows furrowing in concentration. Harek watched her, his expression a blend of curiosity and impatience, before he finally broke the silence:

* "What does it say?"

* "I haven’t the faintest idea."

She said with more awe than irritation. She gently traced a line with her finger and slowly, she continued.

* "It’s not a word or a pattern I’d recognize. My notes have nothing like this... Harek, we need to get that book from Frederick. What I have from those scavenged notes is barely an introduction compared to… whatever this is."

* "So no idea what it does?"

Harek asked.

* "It must be something very complicated or specific, but that’s as much as I can guess."

Harek nodded then wrapped the tablet in the piece of canvas. Before taking off his bag, he turned to Agnes:

* "Do you want to hold onto it?"

Agnes’s eyes lit up.

* "Yes, please."

She said cheerfully and put it in her rucksack.

* "Let’s collect Adrian then. I’ve already got our money. Then we just have to bury the bodies and we can go to Frederick."

* "Oh come on, we have to bury them too?"

Agnes complained.

* "You thought they were going to do it?"

Harek pointed at the girls carefully peeking from behind the wagons. Whether they were more frightened because they were expecting something else to show up or because they saw the captain's gruesome end, was anyone's guess. Agnes groaned and headed in the direction where Harek came from.

* "Come one then!"

Shortly they found Adrian jogging towards them in a fresh brilliantly white buttoned shirt with flowery petal-like motives at its edges and carrying a sheated sword in his hand.

* "Ah, I see all is well! Come here, honey!"

He rushed to Agnes and gave her a tight hug.

* "Yeah, yeah I’m fine, it’s okay you can let go."

She patted his back embarrassed.

* "I was just on my way to check on you. You see I was in a barrel butt naked and-"

* "No need to explain it's fine."

Agnes reassured him.

* "Besides you’ve got the “Black Bear” running to your rescue anyway."

He said while ghostboxing Harek's side, laughing.

* "Please stop calling me that, it’s embarrassingly childish." – The bear in question said.

* "Oh come on! People talk! You may not see it but you leave an impression. We definitely would not have gotten this job if Frederick hadn’t heard of the “Black Bear”, but of just Harek and some of his pals. And he specifically asked for you! You are very welcome by the way."

Harek rolled his eyes but stayed silent. He may not have liked it, but he wasn’t going to deny that it probably did help get the word out. Before meeting Erick and Adrian they were doing whatever they could with Agnes to get food in their stomach and a bed under their head. After they found a few half-burnt pages of common runes and some basic instructions, life certainly got easier, but they only started getting hired by men of higher stature and deeper pockets after Erick and Adrian started speaking for and of them.

As he pulled back he saw Patrick trailing behind them and his now concerningly large bump on his head that started to discolor into hues of yellow. He ran to him and held the boy’s head between his hands.

* "My gods! What happened to you!?"

Agnes piped in:

* "Their captain showed up, I didn’t see him and Patrick got in a fight with him."

Patrick looked and her confused and she shrugged with a smile.

* "Oh you little hero!"

He hugged him tight and spun him around as he squirmed in pain.

* "We just have to drink to that!"

* "That’s gonna have to wait."

Harek held up a hand. We have to bury the bodies and-

* "Do we have to?" -Adrian groned- "I just took a bath!"

* "Yes we do."

In the distance, hoofs could be heard galloping and getting closer. Harek turned his head and saw a man wearing the black and green colors of Lord Frederick approaching fast, then slowing down as he got closer to the tents. Finally, he stopped got off his horse, and hurried to them.

* "Harek of the Black Bear band?"

* "I am."

* "Lord Frederick wishes to speak with you and is ordering you and your band to get ready."

With a nod, he hurried back to his horse and rode away.

* "Guess we dont have time to dig a grave."

Adrien said in a cheery tone. Harek sighed, then said:

* "Fine but you tell Madame Ilona."

* "Ooh, you know her by first name eh?"

He winked and was away.