Liano showed the last customer of the night the way to his room. Business had been slow since the night the Divine Lord’s henchman had attacked. The reason wasn’t the fact the goat demon had to rebuild the house, but the majority of people were too afraid of the Divine Lord to frequent the Merry Boar Inn anymore. They thought he would soon raise the inn to the ground himself, but Liano wasn’t so certain. Sure, some of those loyal to the Divine Lord had tried to burn the inn down twice already, but every time they had been stopped by courageous patrons and their family. But those had been some misguided inhabitants of the city, and not the henchmen of the Divine Lord. If the man had proven one thing than that he didn’t waste any time sending out his minions on petty errands.
Upon his way back down to prepare for his journey to the abandoned house with some provisions, Liano was stopped by his sister, Freda. Despite her being younger than him, she looked, when frowning, so much like their mother, he couldn’t help but stop.
“What are you doing?”, she asked with crossed arms.
“I brought a customer to his room for the night”, he replied and stifled a yawn.
“You know that’s not what I mean”, she replied with a hiss. “I want to know whether you intend to slink off to God knows where again. Since the attack you’ve been away every the night, only to return in the early morning to sleep for how long? An hour? Half an hour?”
“And to where would I go?”, he asked, slightly annoyed.
“That’s what I want to know!”, she snapped and walked up to him until she could, digging her pointed finger into his chest. “I won’t allow you to bring more harm to this family!”
“I won’t”, he replied and tried to push past her.
Freda was having none of it and grabbed him. She dug her fingers into his shirt and pushed him against the wall. While being rather small, she was the strongest of his siblings. She had no problem throwing him around if she wanted to, so this shove was a rather gentle reaction.
“I want to know what you’re doing!”, she demanded without letting go. “If you think no one notices that you act differently since those people intending to fight the Divine Lord showed up, you’re a moron.”
Liano took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. He couldn’t hope to hide anything from his sister on a good day.
“I help those people”, he admitted with a sigh. “Since they fought the Divine Lord about four days ago.”
Upon hearing this, Freda let go of him and stepped away, growing pale. Liano brushed his clothes back down and looked at her, half expecting her to tell him how stupid and reckless he was. Things he already knew. He was foolish but also fed up. He wanted change, and what change could be achieved without risk? But before Freda could start chewing him out, a loud knock was heard throughout the whole inn.
Startled they both looked at each other and then towards the stairs leading down into the main room. Even from the back of the main room, a simple knock couldn’t be heard so clearly.
Another knock reverberated in primal intensity throughout the building. Liano felt the hair in his neck stand on end. Judging by the tense expression on his sister's face she was equally frightened.
“We should go and open the door”, he said tense and headed towards the stairs.
Freda remained silent but followed him. The walk to the door didn’t felt right. In the main room, he found it to be darker than usual around the hour. Not even the night-lamps could manage to dispel the dark. A shiver ran down his spine. There was no doubt that whoever had knocked was with the Divine Lord if not the man himself.
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Taking a deep breath, Liano went to the door and opened it.
Immediately he recognised the Knight at the door as the one who was the appointed the Lord of Eldebourg. Behind the monstrous ironclad Knight stood two of the Dark Priests, their faces hidden similar to the Knights by some vile magic.
“Good evening”, the Knight said. “May we enter?”
The civil, almost amicable tone of his deep voice was worse than any shouted command could be. Liano caved into the demand almost immediately and stepped aside with a bow. His sister also backed away to the other side to make a perfect curtsy.
“Thank you, young man”, the Knight said, and entered the main room.
After a few seconds, he headed towards one of the largest tables available and sat down. The chair creaked dangerously under his weight, but miraculously held. The Priests also followed their leader's example and sat down at the table, flanking him.
Immediately, Liano closed the door and headed to the table, while his sister walked at a brisk pace into the kitchen. Without asking, he knew she was reading everything to make a potential late meal for their illustrious guests.
“Welcome to the Merry Boar in”, he said monotonous and barely able to hide his trembling. “Can I offer something to eat or drink, Milord?”
“How kind, but no, young man, we don’t need anything but a few answers”, the Knight said and offered Liano a place at the table with a simple gesture.
Unable to disobey, Liano nodded and sat down in front of the Knight.
“Very well”, the Knight said in a much too friendly way. “Now to our questions, young man. Four days ago, you offered two strangers a place to stay. There’s nothing I can fault you with, young man, after all, this is an inn and every inn is meant to host strangers as much if not more so as locals. But those strangers were special. As enemies of the Divine Lord they posed not just a threat to the peace of this town but also a threat to the peace of the whole kingdom. Especially, you should remember them well. Am I right?”
“I…”, Liano stammered, he wanted to lie but couldn’t. “I did offer them the services of the Merry Boar Inn. I took their orders for food and drink, as well as allowed them a room to stay the night. They did pay.”
“But that’s not all, is it?”, the Knight continued, as if talking to a misbehaved but loved child. “I was here fighting the knight myself, but I was called away in accordance to our Lord’s wishes. Despite that, I do remember clearly that the fight had damaged your inn considerably. So much in fact that even a fast repair, if it had been possible, would’ve taken weeks if not months without any magical aid. I can still feel it in the wooden beams and the stone tiles on the ground. The demon, who repaired your inn, was with those enemies and I do wonder… What was offered in return?”
“N-n-”, Liano wanted to lie but instead of the lie he involuntarily bit his tongue.
“But, young man, there’s no need to inflict harm upon yourself”, the Knight continued as if smiling. “I know you can’t lie right now in my presence. There’s no need to fight it.”
Liano let out a groan and grounded his teeth.
“There’s also no need to try to remain silent”, the Knight said. “You will talk. The only question remaining will be how much pain you’re willing to endure before you cave in. Understood?”
“Yes”, he replied hoarse.
“Good. Now tell me, did you help our Lord’s enemies?”
“Y-y… yes.”
“That’s not what a good subject does, now, is it? Helping the enemy… But I can hardly fault you for feeling indebted to them. Demons have the ability to make even the most honest man feel indebted without proper reason. In the end, what matters is the question of where our enemies are. Do you know, per chance, where do they currently hide?”
Liano took all his willpower to withstand the urge to tell him everything. He didn’t care if it meant he had to bite off his own tongue or chew through his cheeks. But the compulsion was growing stronger and stronger. He could feel his teeth and bones slowly cracking.
“Duck!”
Liano didn’t know why his sister had screamed that, but he immediately followed her command. Not a second too late as hot dirty oil was thrown at the Knight and his monstrous companions. At the same time, Liano fell from the chair and rolled away from the table. Immediately he scrambled to his feet and jumped to his feet to ran towards his sister. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along into the kitchen. With a groan, she pushed one of the heavy cupboards in front of the door after closing it and pushed him towards the backdoor.
“Go and seek your friends!”, Freda said and snatched one of the large kitchen knives.
“Are you insane?”, he asked her and tried to pull her along. “You can’t fight them!”
As if to underline this statement, the door to the kitchen was hit by something with the force of a siege-engine. The cupboard exploded into a mess of wooden splinters and pottery shards. At the same time, the bulky shape of the Knight appeared in the broken door. Luckily, this was all the encouragement Freda needed to run with Liano out of the kitchen.
They dashed onto the back-path where usually their suppliers brought the goods for the kitchen. Without looking around, they started to run for their lives.