I went to bed that night after a few evening drinks and some more time spent studying. I even used some of my ill-gotten gains to rent a bedroom at one of the local inns, where I was lucky enough to find an unoccupied room. I slept with no anxiety about the coming day, which is why I nearly crapped my cheap britches as I heard the sounds of horses storming through the middle of town. I leapt out of my bed and pulled open the curtains to reveal a parade of Royalist soldiers charging through the main avenue.
"What the hell?"
I quickly got my shit together and found Cali waiting for me in the downstairs lobby. She said nothing as I stormed out onto the sidewalk and witnessed the mayhem for myself. This was a victory parade. The Kingdom has expelled the Feds from the area, had they thought a battle the previous day? Us burning down their supply sheds must have given them the confidence to charge in.
No climatic battle, no fanfare, just a scuffle in a nearby muddy field followed by a rapid retreat. I didn't even know it happened until it was all over. If there was ever anything that reminded me I was just a small cog in an infinitely complex machine, this was it. As I looked at the hundred strong platoon of knights marching through the town, I realized that this would make my job much, much harder.
"I believe that the Kingdom of Sull has occupied the area," Cali noted.
"Oh, I didn't notice."
I had one destination in mind, the bar. All hell would be breaking loose in there, and I wanted to be there to witness it. It was a short, quick walk, and the door was wide open. Every rogue I knew in the area was there, yelling, shouting, arguing and scuffling. Cassandra was stood on top of the bar, trying to project her voice over the chaos. I pushed through the crowd and climbed up next to her.
"Hey, Cassandra's trying to talk!" I shouted as loud as I could. I was always good at shouting. The noise settled down momentarily.
She smiled and nodded, "Thank you Ren. I know you're all very worried about the news, but I can assure you that nothing is going to change. I've lived through four of these occupations, and every time, they've replaced one incompetent governor with a new, incompetent governor." There was a jeer from the gathered audience, "I only have one suggestion for all of you, take a few days off, lay low, and don't talk to anybody. When these tin cans move on to their next death march – things will be like they always used to be."
An affirmative aye rose from the assembled thieves. With her bit said, Cass climbed back down from the bar and sighed, "Always with the blind panic." The rowdiness had been taken down a peg. People found seats and started to act like normal again.
"So the Royalists gave them a kicking?"
Cass poured herself a glass of beer, "Late last night, surprise attack on the fort. It was a rout."
I frowned, "Rare of those knights to outmanoeuvre the Feds. They usually like to have a 'noble' battle with them."
Cass took a swig of her drink and nodded to me, "You gone? You told me you'd be out of here the moment this happens."
"If by moment, you mean today, then yes. I'm done. Not hanging around to deal with those Inquisitors, especially not when they're out for blood. Eight of them got killed by someone."
"I heard the rumours but…"
"You didn't believe them?" Cass nodded. "All I'll say is, I saw the bodies myself. Until they find someone to point the finger at, it'll be hell to pay for everyone else." I tactically occluded the fact that I was the one responsible for those killings. Cass didn't need to know. She understood that I was trying to cover my own ass, even if I wasn't the 'culprit.' it was a death sentence to stick around – if they found out I was there, they'd chase me down to the other side of the continent just to kill me back.
Cass scanned the room, there was one person missing. "Have you seen Bell?"
"No, not since yesterday."
That made me worry. Bell had been acting pretty weird. He knew more than he was letting on. A few more of our number trickled in over the following hour, but there was no sign of the blonde bastard. Knowing his habit for running his mouth, I imagined him getting a few teeth punched out by one of the soldiers.
That would have been preferable to what actually happened.
The room fell deathly silent as a group of five Royalist knights entered the bar. All eyes were on them. Shimmering steel armour, faces gaunt, stony and hands clutching swords tight. An officer pushed through the middle of the line and regarded the room with a confident smile, a slimy smile. I knew this guy was bad news the minute he walked in.
"What do we have here? A jolly band of thieves hiding away in their fox hole?"
Rule one, don't talk.
Everyone remained silent and continued to observe the preening nobleman. Nobody was going to respond and incriminate themselves. There were forty of us, packed tightly into that small building, but at that moment it sounded like it was completely empty.
"Charming. Not a word to share in your defence? Ah, I see. You believe that plausible deniability is going to protect you once more. You are the moral rot at the heart of this City, decimating the livelihoods of all it touches. For years they turned a blind eye. I will not do so."
Tick, tick, tick.
My eye twitched as the grandfather clock continued counting on.
He turned his scorn to Cali, who was stood frozen next to me, "And an Ashmorn?" He marched over to us and get into her personal space. "A prideful woman like you? Scurrying around like a rat in a sewer?"
I took a deep breath as Cali responded. "I didn't expect an officer of the Kingdom to be so…"
"So?"
"Boring."
The officer wasn't expecting that. The wind has been taken from his sails. Cali didn't play games when she was in serious mode. She just said what she thought with little regard for other people's feelings. He motioned to himself like he was the hottest thing around and scoffed, "Boring?"
"Boring. As in, you have no chance of defeating me in combat."
He laughed. "I see. Despite my years of experience?"
"Yes."
"Thank you for the kind advice."
I stepped in. He drew his sword and swung down at Cali's head, I held up the flat side of Stigma and blocked the blow without removing the banner wrapped around her, before pushing him back. The men in the bar yelled and insulted the officer for his cowardice. Through all of that Cali didn't even flinch. I was shocked that I could even move Stigma like that to stop him without hitting Cali myself, the effect of stealing someone else's swordsmanship.
I was not happy. "Not very chivalrous, attacking an innocent woman like that."
His eyes narrowed, "Oh? One of you is willing to stand and fight? You have the weapons and the armour, but your eyes still look the same. A bedraggled mutt, standing against his betters."
This was bad news. A lot of the people in the bar couldn't defend themselves, and the few that could didn't carry a weapon around like I did. There was no room to manoeuvre, if we all tried to escape we'd end up crushing each other and getting nowhere. I didn't make any motion to attack, standing in the middle of the room against five people.
He returned to the safety of his men, "I know everything about you. Your names and faces and all the little holes you enjoy hiding in. I know for sure that every one of you is guilty of enough individual crimes to put you onto the chopping block."
The penny dropped.
"Bell."
Fucking Bell!
"One of you decided that he was sick and tired of doing nothing with himself. So, he decided to take the opportunity that was presented to him and make a change for the better; and he was paid handsomely for it."
That cash wasn't just for trashing the depot. It was for selling out every rogue in the city! The Kingdom didn't need a trial or even evidence to kill whoever they wished, but what kept us safe was secrecy, Bell had taken that away. I felt like a total idiot for not pushing him more the day before. He wasn't in Exarch's Bend anymore, that was for sure.
Cali stood beside me with her finger on the trigger. I turned back, "Cass, get them out of here."
Resolutely she nodded, "Last orders you mongrels! Finish those drinks!"
All hell broke loose. Dozens of half-filled glasses showered the officer as the room pelted him with glass projectiles. The knights, wearing their full body armor, didn't have to worry about the shards getting into their skin. As someone with an elevated understanding of the mechanics of this world, I knew that the glasses wouldn't do much damage even to an unarmoured target.
In the carnage, Cali thrusted forward with her spear, catching one of the knights in the stomach and caused blood to spurt everywhere. Still her face remained passive. This wasn't a threat to her. There was no excitement in slaughtering a group of weak foes. For me, it was much scarier. I was a thief by trade. I never once thought I'd have to face down two knights charging at me with their weapons drawn.
"Teaming up on me, huh?" I grunted, blocking a clumsy swing from the knight of my left. I stepped back as the other tried to take advantage and cut me down. My back bumped against the bar behind me, with nowhere else to go, I slid under their blades to reunite with Cali in the middle. Stigma had received a serious power up from consuming those inquisitors and bandits, I could easily defeat them in three or four solid swings.
My sword skill was too low to use any of the techniques associated with it. I needed to use my guile and agility to dodge their attacks and get my hits in, easier said than done when two of them were trying to cut my head off. Cali was not experiencing such obstacles, she had already killed two of them while I wasn't looking.
The officer had clearly decided better than to join this battle himself and had run away when the trouble started, presumably to get some backup. The rest of the rogues were already scattering to the four corners of the earth, running through both the front and back door to escape their attempted captors.
With some space made, I decided to press the attack. I clutched the hilt with both hands and hefted her up onto my shoulder, bracing my feet, I stepped forward and brought Stigma down in an overhead attack that clobbered one of the knights on the head and sent him tumbling down to the floor, unconscious. Using less-lethal attacks like that didn't impart the full damage potential of the weapon, but it did have a chance to stun my enemy.
Once again, the knight retaliated, but I was too quick. I danced away from his glancing blows by using my fancy footwork. I struck back by poking him in the stomach with the tip of my blade, piercing the softer part of his armour and eliciting a gasp of pain. He clutched the fresh wound and drew his hand away, covered in a covering of red.
Big mistake.
The pain and the shock distracted him. I returned to my previous stance and brought Stigma back down again, this time slicing diagonally through the exposed part of his neck. A critical strike that conferred extra damage. While the edge was still embedded into the spurting flesh, I quickly cast [Consume] and drained his knowledge and soul. In the chaos of the fighting nobody noticed me taking the liberty.
I still didn't have time to check on what I stole though, a level up message would have been nice. I turned back to assist Cali, only to find that all three of her foes were now deceased. We were the only two people left standing in the bar. Two of them were covered in blood from several cuts, while another slumped back over a chair with a clean slice across his neck. I acted fast and drained the bodies, giving me another week of life and several new skills.
"Are you done? I fear that enemy reinforcements are coming."
"They're probably chasing down the guys who ran away, but yeah, we need to get the hell outta' here. Fast."
Luckily for Cali she found the right person to team up with. I knew every route and escape path used around the Bend, and some that others didn't. It'd still be risky. There were a huge number of soldiers running around and trying to flush out Feddie loyalists who stayed behind. My only hope for an easy ride was that the officer only knew that we were gathering in the tavern, and hadn't told his men our names and appearances.
Given that Bell was paid by an individual, it begged to reason that only his men were in on this plot to oust the city's criminal underworld. I escorted Cali through the back door and hooked a left. Alleyways would be our main method of avoiding detection. I found myself wishing that Cali had the same stealth skills that I did – it would make life much easier.
Something caught my eye. I peered out from the shadows and into one of the many communal spaces that the community had constructed over the years, a small, serene slice of parkland in the middle of a tightly packed hellscape. I shook my head in disbelief, "Fuck off." My heart pounded, my breathing became heavy.
Swinging from one of the trees by his neck was Fitch, blue in the face and lifeless.
"They killed Fitch."
I knew that Cali wouldn't feel the same as I did. She didn't know Fitch like I did. It was a statement made for my benefit.
"They killed Fitch!" I repeated.
They hung Fitch, left him there to rot! They were going to do the same to all of us, if they found us.
"Ren, we have to go."
How badly I wanted to run over there and cut him down, find a nice patch of soil to bury him in. But I couldn't. I was a rogue first and a friend second, he'd have been furious with me if I risked my life just for the sake of his dignity in death.
"Fuck!" I spat.
I swallowed my grief and continued down the long path.