"I warn you, I have been trained in the great arts of the sages of Urrad. If you try anything – uurkh!" Before the guard could do anything with his great arts, a hand snapped up him up by the cor.


    "Stand down, guard." The older woman holding the guardsman back said the words with the resigned frustration of someone who had dealt too much with youthful shenanigans.


    "Yes, nephew," the docent sighed. "this is the young man who saved me."


    "Krow," he introduced himself. "Maybe you could secure them before they wake up? I don''t want to deal with the guy''s movement spell again."


    The guardswoman – from the decal on her shoulder armor, an officer – narrowed her eyes at him, but nodded at the other guards that had followed behind her.


    The young draculkar got free of the officer and approached the docent. "Great-uncle, we saw…"


    The docent nodded once, swallowed and turned away.


    His great-nephew stopped, not knowing what to do or say.


    "Docent Ordoi," the guard officer approached. "will you tell us what happened?"


    Krow turned from watching two guards tie up failed-robber draculkar guy and lift him to their shoulders.


    "Of course…" The docent seemed to be lost in thought, then shook his head, focus returning. "Of course, Training Sergeant Amluyr."


    He ced his hand on his nephew''s shoulder, and started. "I had just sent away most of my morning ss, thank the Divines, when the three of them entered."


    The training sergeant''s eyes swept the room. "Three?"


    "There''s a siren tied up in one of the ritual rooms, if you''re interested." Krow spoke.


    "A siren, yes. That was the other." The docent nodded.


    One of the guards nodded at the sergeant, and headed for the stairwell.


    The sergeant''s gaze centered on Krow. "And you are Krow of…"


    "s Krow," he borated. "Came to conduct a spirit binding on a few items. I was greeted in the hall by the siren, who called himself a priest."


    The docent barked a humorlessugh, increasing the concern in his nephew''s eyes. "Young people. They do not listen half so well to their lessons as they do to tales of derring-do and adventure."


    He smiled bitterly at Krow. "I thank you. Your binding will be paid for by the Temple, of course."


    "You are generous, but I came prepared," Krow declined gently. "I only did what any rational person would do."


    "You would think," the sergeant murmured, almost to herself, "that the rational person would do the actual rational thing and call the Guard."


    Krow lowered his voice to match, leaning toward her. "I''m sorry, sergeant. I was afraid that after telling him I wanted a ritual room, just leaving would make him suspicious."


    The sergeant exhaled audibly, acknowledged his words with an inclined head, and returned to questioning the head of the temple. "Please, docent, after they entered?"


    "The young male, the leader, walked up. Simply killed them, just took out his sword and...like he was swiping a line of ink across parchment with a pen!" The docent''s eyes sparked. Then dimmed again. "It happened so fast, I didn''t even realize until their blood washed the stones…I…I didn''t realize.


    "He turned the sword on me, still red. ''Now,'' he said, ''you know I am serious.'' Then demanded the location of the vault and that I open it."


    The young guard sped tight the hand his uncle had ced on his shoulder, trying not to look ill.


    "Two of my students, promising young ones, they had not even reached their quarter-century." He huffed augh that cracked halfway through. "…innocently telling me about their wish to try their hand at the Gauntlet. So much promise, so much."


    Tears hung in the silver eyes, expression suddenly vicious as he raised his gaze to the guard officer. "Even if I died, sergeant, I could not give the urfekkar what he wanted. How could I face my ancestors and theirs, if I allowed the one who killed my students to profit from their deaths?"


    The docent took a few breaths, then ended. "He was about to kill me, I believe, when the young one came in."


    The guard sergeant nodded. "Thank you for telling us, docent."


    "No, no. I want those people jailed, never to show their faces in the kingdom again."


    "If you give your nephew the names of the deceased, we can send a runner to the families."


    "Thank you, but I must go myself. They were entrusted to my care."


    "He''ll apany you, regardless."


    The docent turned to Krow. "Shall we speakter?"


    Krow bowed.


    He watched as the docent was gently led away by the nephew.


    When the game developers decided that actions of the yers had consequences, they went all out. So much that theplexity of NPC behavior had to be taken into ount.


    Failed-robber, you acted dramatic and cool in the true chuuni way, but bad luck, you failed in your calctions. Now, there will be no chuuni criminal mastermind tugging the strings of the Marfall underground with overlyplicated gambits, chess metaphors, and the asional viinous cackling.


    Krow truly regretted it, a tragic loss.


    Dealings with the underground would be so much less entertaining now.


    "s Krow, was it? Of the Garvan n?"


    Krow blinked at the sergeant. Then straightened, rmed. "Sein saw the…"


    He didn''t see the bodies himself; they must have been on the upper mezzanine.


    But Sein was a curious cat of an explorer. He would definitely have reconnoitered the whole of the Temple first.


    Sein was the only reason the sergeant would reference the Garvan n to him right now.


    "The child? No. His sister sent him packing to call a patrol."


    "Oh." Krow breathed relief. "Good. But I''m not n, no. I traveled with them from Gremut."


    "What made you decide to stop the robbery?"


    Because he didn''t want to do chores for the Kamathor temple just to find their binding Chants, and the Garvan n would object to spirit-binding an object to one of their children using the Grenod Temple, whose bindings were the most difficult to get out of – you had to parse through the meanings of the Ritual Language first, and no one understood thatnguagepletely.


    Tnweth spirit bindings were the simplest to remove, so it would appeal to the caution of the n. And for Krow, they were also the simplest to ce.


    In other words, he waszy?


    He couldn''t say that.


    Mercifully, while he was scrambling for something suitably heroic to say, she just asked another question. "After locking up the siren, why not, at that time, leave the Temple to inform the authorities?"


    "I…didn''t think of it?"


    The sergeant drew her fingertips across her temple, tracing a line to her ear, amon expression of frustration in draculkar. "Of course you didn''t think."


    Uh…that wasn''t what he said. He opened his mouth to protest.


    She red at him, a faint smile touching her lips. Thebination made her look like she could murder him in less than a second.


    She probably could.


    He shut his mouth.


    "Walk me through your actions, from entering the Temple to the Guarding down here."


    Interrogation, Krow thought morosely, was not a proper reward for valiant deeds.


    If it were those elite top level yers, they''d probably have strode off into the sun right now, cloaks pping indifferently behind them, wallets fat, heads haloed in glory, and never caring about the paperwork.


    He signed a witness statement, deliberately blurring his signature. His name was not on the paperwork, thankfully. He was Witness B.


    What?


    Who was Witness A?


    They didn''t even give him the first letter?


    Weeping skies.


    [The Nurajke Town Guards have taken into their custody three (3) burrs attacking the Temple! You''ve gained 15 RP with the Temple of Tnweth, and 6 RP with Nyurajke Town!]


    Whoa.


    …fine.


    Let those gloryhounds take the sun.


    Krow would sign whatever he needed to sign for the RP.


    *


    When Krow and the sergeant squeezed through the door in the wardrobe, they saw the docent staring out the window, eyes far away.


    He turned at the sound of them exiting the vault, stared at them nkly for a moment.


    "Ah, yes." He said atst. "May I speak to young Krow for a moment, sergeant. I sent Dad to…to acquire carrying frames."


    "Is there anything I might assist you with, docent?" The sergeant was concerned.


    Krow understood. The docent looked like he''d been in a daze since the attack.


    "I…no, only make certain they get justice."


    "Of course. Then, by your leave," the sergeant nodded and left them there.


    "Please sit." The docent waved carelessly at the furniture as he himself dropped into the chair behind the desk. "I heard…no, this is no time for flowery words, I will be blunt." His gaze sharpened. "I wish you to kill someone."


    Krow paused in the act of sitting, stunned into the awkward pose for a long moment before he realized he looked too uncool and sat down properly.


    Did he look like a killer?


    ck coat, ck trousers, dark blue-grey gun, boots that were so dark they might as well be ck, ck travel-bag, white gloves.


    Eh...he did.


    "Um." Krow frowned. "You know it''s safer to post a bounty in the ''official'' guilds rather than grabbing someone off the street to do your…wetwork?"


    That was the ssic description, right?


    The docent''s shoulders slumped. He smiled wryly. "I see that you were not expecting it. No, by your response alone, my fears in that regard are nil."


    "Yes. I see why you''d think I''m of the particr profession though." No, were his clothes the reason Sein''s rtives and the guard sergeant interrogated him as soon as they saw him?


    That…that was prejudice against the color ck!


    "You fight with stealth and speed, you are a gun-wielder, you have acquaintance with the Kevaldau, and you did not introduce the name of your House, yes."


    …a different kind of prejudice then. A passel of prejudices, even.


    He smiled, settled his expression to politely enquiring. "I don''t see why acquaintance with the Kevaldau would make people think me ready to kill for money."


    The docent eyed him, sighed. "You need not defend the ns to me. My mother was of the blood, after all. I chose to oath to Tnweth for a reason."


    A test?


    Tsk.


    Krow got it. As a mediator, the docent could ease the passage of the Trade ns through at least the merchant areas in the kingdom.


    That had certain implications in the increased trade between the western and eastern halves of the continent.


    In Zushkenar, trade across the U Mountain Range was nearly non-existent.


    He wondered what happened.


    Inwardly, a part of him snorted cynically. Why even ask?


    War happened.


    The docent stood. "I wish to thank you for your acts today."


    It was nothing no yer would do. But it''s not like he would refuse a reward. Krow stood as well.


    "Come," the docent re-entered the now not-so-secret wardrobe door to the vault. "This is an offer just for today. One item of Unique rarity from the vault."


    Jackpot!


    *


    End Chapter


    *


    Notes:


    Urfekkar – a slur in draculkarnguage, very impolite. Based on the draculkar word for ''wolf'', which is ''urv''. Or ''urf'' in certain dialects.


    The docent using it was….you can just hear his nephew mentally falling t on his face in bbergasted disbelief – thankfully, this one time, he won''t tattle to his grandmotherter.. The training sergeant has a good poker face, never gamble with her.