Kaiser returned to the inn. Without even saying a word to G or Faldo or even the keeper, he opened his door after G unlocked it and collapsed onto his knees, his head down on the floor. Fatigue had taken its toll. Kaiser hadn’t slept since he began his excursion to Barbush.

“G?” He mumbled as he spread out on the floor.

G, sitting in the corner of the room, got up and pitter pattered over to him.

“The bed. . . Use it. . . I’ll. . .” Kaiser started to muddle his words. His half-closed eyes felt so, so heavy, like they were being weighed down. He relented and closed them.

“Mmm,” G hummed.

Kaiser gave no response. He’d have interrogated G about his muteness if he heard him make the noise he just did, but it was impossible to do so when completely unconscious.

G got up onto the bed and looked out the window above its frame. His eyes widened. He hadn’t taken in a good view of Barbush. He had been running and running for so long, the pain in his little legs had blinded him from all else except for the path that led him away from his pursuers. The boy yawned. His yellow eyes began to close. Soon, he too would begin to drift off to sleep.

Respite would not be awarded to the boy for his struggles. For hunger, he would now have fear as the sounds of doors slamming filled the hall outside. Kaiser began to slowly awake. He slowly got up from the floor. Dreary, he cautiously pulled out his revolver and pointed it at the door to the room, placing his finger at his mouth so as to tell G to not make any noise. The boy heeded the warning and shrouded himself in the thin white sheets of the bed.

The sound of snapping wood grew louder and louder. Every five seconds, another door would slam open. Thoughts ran through Kaiser’s head as to who it could be and how they could be doing this without drawing any attention. Suddenly, a new dread entered his heart as he realized that the only people in the inn were himself, G, and the man forcing open every door. He had seen the innkeeper leave for his own little hovel away from the inn, and he knew from his time in the Glascanian military that Branko and his squad had gone out to patrol and do nightly exercises. Faldo didn’t live in Barbush, and he had seen Eldwin conversing with a bald-headed man in a black suit in the town square before he headed back to the inn.

“One. . . Two. . . Three. . .” Kaiser chanted to himself in quiet breaths to steady his mind and his hand. At the off chance it really was the Drauxian military, he could not point the gun at the door. He had to wait and see who it was and quickly draw if they possessed sinister intent.

Kaiser chanted to himself a second time. The sound of snapping wood stopped. The only sound he heard now was of shoes clacking against the old bendy floorboards.

At the third chant, as he muttered, “Two,” he and G could hear metal scraping against the door. Kaiser shuddered but kept his hands from shaking. He reminded himself that he had seen the end of the Glasco-Drauxian war, that he was a soldier.

As soon as he muttered, “Three,” the door flew open, bursting at its hinges as it sent splinters and dust out. Kaiser saw that the man had slim features and he wore a gentleman’s black suit and vest. He spotted a slim metal pole in his hand and sweat on his head. Kaiser’s left hand bolted from his jacket. He pointed the gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger. He was sure the man meant harm and sought to eradicate him. Only, no shot came. A split second later, Kaiser’s hand felt blazing hot and his pistol had been knocked out of his grip and just below the bed. Kaiser winced in pain as the man took another swing at him. He was knocked down and as he reached for his pistol, he was slammed in the face, pushed over to the left wall of the room. The man swapped the pipe to his left hand and retrieved Kaiser’s revolver, holding it in his right.

“Where’s the kid?” The man asked.

Kaiser had recovered from the blow to the face. He’d been struck with the blunt edge of the pole which had spared him losing his eye. “Who are you?” Kaiser grasped his left hand tightly as he felt his wound spill more and more blood.

“Got you right in the vein did I? Well, your neck’s next if you don’t start talking. Where’s the kid?”

“Who are you talking about?”

The man grimaced and struck the floor with his pipe. “The one you hid back in the forest. I saw you, through the trees and thickets. You used some kind of trick to take out the vehicle’s lights. Magic, was it? You won’t be using that anymore. Your palm’s sliced open, and that little circle drawn on it’s been broken. So, tell me. Where is he?” The man slammed the pole into the floor again.

G began to lightly shake underneath the sheets. Jean was too focused on Kaiser that he didn’t notice G’s quivers of fear, but Kaiser noticed. Out of the corner of his eye, Kaiser saw the desperation of G. He had no plan, no solution. He merely acted on instinct.

“I have no idea.”

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“Get on your knees.”

Kaiser followed Jean’s instructions. Immediately, Jean rushed up to Kaiser and slammed his foot into his gut. Kaiser slumped over, his hands on his belly. He spat on the ground.

“Do you see now how pointless this is? Just tell me where the boy is?”

“Why do you want to know. . .?” Kaiser grunted from the pain. His breathing quickened.

Jean scoffed. “This dumb, eh?” He kicked Kaiser again, laying him out on the ground. “Y’know, I’m a real meticulous guy. I dedicated a lot of time to spying on you. Why don’t you show some respect for my dedication and tell me where the boy is? Respect’s something they teach you in the church, isn’t it?”

“Yes. . . Yes, that’s true. Fine, I’ll tell you.”

“Goody.”

“I’m going to get up slowly, okay? My stomach hurts. . . It’s harder to breathe sitting down.”

Jean grinned. “Merry.”

Kaiser began to slowly rise. Jean, his revolver arm fully outstretched and still pointed at Kaiser, remained motionless. Kaiser stopped once his legs were fully extended but he was still hunched over. Jean stared at him and pointed the gun at his head.

Kaiser tackled Jean with explosive power. He took him to the ground and moved on top of him. He placed his knee on Jean’s arm holding the pipe, crushing it, and held the wrist that aimed the revolver with a vice-like grip. Jean shouted and struggled in futility as Kaiser beat his head into the floorboards with his free arm. Jean began to stop struggling and Kaiser repositioned himself, placing his knee on Jean’s gut as he tried to wrestle the revolver out of Jean’s hand. Jean’s fingers desperately clung to the revolver. Kaiser locked his fingers in with Jean’s and tried to pry them off, but Jean kept his grip. Kaiser loosened one of his hands from the revolver and went to beat Jean, but Jean crushed Kaiser’s groin with a knee, sending him tumbling off in pain as he held the area with one of his hands, the other’s palm facing Jean to act as a shield.

Jean and Kaiser both quickly recovered and got back up from the floor. Kaiser held his hands up in defeat as Jean pointed the revolver at his face.

“Look, look! I’m the one with the power! I’m in control!” Jean smiled. “What the fuck did you think you’d accomplish, hm? Be a hero? No. Now, you’re gonna die, and you’re gonna die wearing that silly jacket.”

Kaiser breathed slowly and began to step back from Jean. Jean advanced, pointing the gun firm at Kaiser’s temple. The two circled the room, Jean trying to corner Kaiser.

The two stopped as they heard footsteps from down the hall. In their fighting, they hadn’t realized that two people had entered the inn. Now, those two, Drauxian soldiers they were, revealed themselves. One stepped into the room and the other, much shorter one, stood in the doorway. Both had drawn their pistols and pointed them at Kaiser and Jean.

“What’s going on here?” One of them asked. “Is this another exercise, Caligula?”

“No, no. . . Let’s see. Ah, yes, I know one of these miscreants, Von.”

“What should we do?” Von asked

“Shoot them,” Caligula said.

“Wait, you want me to shoot them?”

“Yes, that’s generally the way to go about neutralizing a threat.”

“No, no, don’t shoot!” Jean shouted. “Listen to your friend! Listen, just. . . Put the guns away. What if we all just put our guns away, eh?”

“Caligula? Are you—”

“Yes, I’m the one from the church. Now, Von, what do you suppose we do? The one in the gent’s outfit has a gun and the one in the jacket is unarmed.”

“Branko told us we were to act as bobbies, and bobbies don’t shoot people.”

“I don’t care that bobbies don’t shoot people.”

“But he also told us to not cause trouble, and shooting people is trouble.”

“Alright. Here’s what we’re going to do,” Caligula said as he took the safety off his pistol and aimed it at Jean.

“That’s disobeying orders!”

Jean tried to catch Kaiser in his grasp, but his fingers were still weak from when Kaiser tried to pry them off the revolver. Kaiser broke off from him, and Caligula fired, dropping Jean to the ground. Kaiser flinched from the sound.

“No, no, no! This is a disaster, Caligula!”

Kaiser squatted down and slowly reached for his pistol as Von and Caligula argued. It was easy to take from Jean’s already weak grip as the man was now slowly writhing in pain on the floor.

“Relax, I only shot him in the stomach. He’ll be fine.”

“Fine? Why, what’ll Branko do if hears of this?”

“Nothing, because he won’t hear of this.”

“Oh,” Von said as he began to march out of the room. “I take great pride in my honor as a Drauxian! I’ll not let myself act like a lying pig, just as you!”

“Dear, me.” Caligula sighed.

Caligula aimed his pistol at Von’s head and fired before he could leave the room. Von fell to the floor, his body limp, and his eyes unmoving. Kaiser flinched again. Caligula turned to Kaiser and holstered his pistol. Kaiser kept his hands on his revolver in his pocket.

“You’re a sensible man, yes?”

“I’m not so casual about murder if that's what you're asking. How could you do that? Just. . . Shoot your comrade?”

“Really? I thought all clerics were fine with murder, so long as the only people they’re murdering are ‘aggressors’ and ‘threats to liberty’.”

“That doesn’t answer the question! Why did you do this?”

“Just as you use every weapon within reach, even your religion’s supposedly sacred prayers, in order to protect your freedom, I’ve merely taken a precaution by killing him. I’m afraid lieutenant Branko might be too upset if I tell him both this miscreant and Von were killed in action, so he’s going to jail. You can come too if you still want to question me. You won’t be killed, but you will be shot. Bandaged after, just as I intend to do with that miscreant on the ground, but still imprisoned. A very distasteful fate, wouldn’t you agree?”

Kaiser was silent. He still held onto his revolver tightly, but his will to shoot waned. Caligula spoke with such confidence, such casualness, that it put a deep unsettling worry into Kaiser.

“So. . . You’ll let me go?” Kaiser asked.

“Of course. Just, don’t speak a word of this to Branko. Take it as a token of goodwill.” Caligula pointed his arm at Jean. “Off to jail with you now.”