Fin stared at the kitchen aides in the faint firelight of the candles and hearth, his eyes somber, and his hands pressed into his pockets.

The group all shifted awkwardly, not saying a word as the vibrato of crickets wafted in through the open window.

“So… your father is coming… tomorrow?” Hannah asked slowly, while glancing nervously at Peter.

“He is. I’ll be heading out shortly for some work with the Captain, but when I get back, we are working on preparing enough food. It’ll be like Beltane all over again.”

Sirs Andrews and Lewis groaned aloud.

Sir Harris turned with an arched eyebrow to stare at them. “Was it really that bad?”

“Yes,” everyone in the room answered in unison.

“Also, Harris you better go to the barracks. Captain Antonio has a few messages for you.” The redhead informed sternly.

The Knight looked uncertain by the sudden announcement, but did as instructed and excused himself from the room.

Fin began giving out his instructions to the staff who all nodded, and for once didn’t dispute his orders. “I’ll be back around midnight, try to have everything ready by then so that we can start preparing for breakfast. Remember, with breakfast you cook the meat and dice the fruit last, and focus on baking the bread first to avoid poisoning people.”

The Knights all looked off innocently in various directions, Hannah suddenly became interested in her toes, and Heather and Peter had the good grace to blush and wince.

Fin cleared his throat, making sure to cast one final flat look at the aides to let them know he was far from letting the food poisoning incident go.

As he slowly rounded the table, and strode towards the garden door, the staff gradually shifted towards their duties, all but Sir Taylor who was in the process of nudging Hannah towards Fin.

The blonde looked uncertain, but gave the burly Knight a hesitant nod of understanding.

Stepping lightly after the tall redhead, Hannah caught up to him just outside the kitchen door. “Err… Fin? Might I… talk with you?”

The cook turned and stared with a mildly concerned expression while turning his toes to be facing petite blonde directly.

“It’s just that… well… are you going to be alright with… with your father being under the same roof as you?”

Fin felt the pain in his chest that had started building the moment he and Antonio had realized that Aidan Helmer would be descending upon them. There was a reason his hands were shoved into his pockets… he knew they had a tremor.

“It’s fine Hannah, it was many years ago.” He tried to turn back around and walk away from the conversation, but she once again stopped him.

“It’s still your father. I know even when I don’t want something like that to matter it… somehow still does.”

Fin’s face tensed as he remembered what Lee had told him a few nights previous about Hannah’s father. He felt a new wave of guilt fill him as he realized he knew far more about her situation than she may want.

“I’m sorry, Hannah,” Fin started, immediately making her expression turn tense and hesitant. “A few days ago someone told me about your own father… it isn’t my business to know, and I hadn’t asked about it they just… told me.”

Embarrassment, followed by a deeply pained emotion, marred the maid’s face as she took a small step back towards the warm glow of the kitchen behind her. Fin’s hands clenched in his pocket, and immediately wondered if he should have told her that he knew, when she spoke.

“I guess that means you know I speak from experience.” Her voice was quiet. “My father was a nasty man, and he sold me to a brothel when I was fifteen. Even though he died before I had to go, and I managed to give them back the money they paid, no one would ever want to marry me in my village knowing that…” she trailed off, a small croak in her throat had started that wrenched Fin’s heart sickeningly.

After a moment of regaining her composure, Hannah resumed speaking. “It doesn’t matter that he died four years ago. It could be twenty and if he were alive and showed up, I would somehow feel… feel like I did back when I was with him.”

“What happened to your brother?” Fin asked softly, hoping for to lessen the pain in her eyes.

“My best friend back in my old home… she and her husband took him in. I send them money to help, but I didn’t want being around me to hurt him in the village. If I brought him here with me, there was no chance that I would’ve been able to protect him… that is until you came.”

Fin stilled.

“I might… after the war… be able to bring him here, because you… you made me stronger. You’ve made all of us stronger. You’ve made us feel like we belong here. Like this is… an actual home to us. The Knights that used to terrify me and make me cry myself to sleep at night, are now like my older brothers. When I started standing up for myself, Peter realized I needed help, and now he’s my best friend. He was so quiet before, and is so much older than myself that I never would’ve bothered. It isn’t just that you’ve helped us all either it’s that… well… you’re… all my family, Fin. You gave me a family I can count on and love. So if you need help, please tell us.”

The only sound between them was the clattering that came from within the kitchen, and the singing crickets. Fin stepped forward heavily, and drew Hannah into an embrace.

Patting her back, the redhead did his best to swallow down the swell of emotions that threatened to overflow.

“Thank you,” he managed hoarsely.

When the pair separated again, Fin moved his hands to her slender shoulders and stared earnestly at the young woman, a small smile on his face.

“I will definitely say if I need help. Even though you’ve all done more than enough already pertaining to a certain noblewoman…”

Hannah grinned devilishly, which made her look far more like herself. “How is your courtship going?”

Fin chuckled and dropped his hands to his sides. “We’re betrothed actually.”

The blonde maid’s jaw dropped. “What?! So soon? When… how… where… When?!”

“You asked when already, but these are questions that will have to be answered another time. I need to go convene with the Captain.” Ruffling the top of Hannah’s head and making her squawk in displeasure, Fin turned and once again moved away from the castle.

As he walked, he couldn’t help but notice that he was able to stand a little straighter, and even his hands felt steady enough to stitch wings back onto a fly.

He could face his father… he just had to keep remembering that he wasn’t alone anymore.

*

As they crept along the docks, the creaking of the ships amongst the dark waters echoed around the Captain and the squadron he had brought.

“Do you see the abandoned inn over there?” the Captain whispered to Fin, who was trying to watch his feet so that he wouldn’t misstep and fall into the Alcide sea.

“I can’t see anything,” the redhead murmured back. It was true that they had opted to go without torches so that if there were any Troivackian soldiers hiding they would not be alerted.

“Do you see where the tavern’s torch is lit?”

“Yes.”

“Do you see the inn that has collapsed into the water beside it?”

“I thought that was a rock!” Fin couldn’t help but exclaim when he realized the half sunken lumpy crest at the end of the Austice road was their destination.

“It’s one of the reasons we never suspected anything strange. The entire building looks as though it is about to crumble into the sea with one good storm, but if that pub were connected to it somehow… well…”

Fin nodded in understanding as he moved towards the destination with more certainty, eyeing it’s precarious balance on the rocks with renewed interest.

With them were perhaps ten Knights, and another ten standing up the street that could easily arrive should they be called upon.

Once in front of the sunken building, the Captain pointed to the ground to draw everyone’s attention to the foot wide crack between the land and the building that dropped straight down into the sea. Nodding in understanding, the men carefully stepped over the gap, and filed into the building as quietly as possible.

Fin and the Captain being one of the last ones in, then had to creep around the severely slanted floors while maintaining their footing in the dark.

There were piles of broken chairs and tables pushed against the walls, and more than the occasional loose or rotted floorboard beneath their feet.

Fin’s heart was in his ears as the slight shuffling of men moving through the building uninterrupted blended with the swish of waves beneath them. There was a tension in the air the redhead wasn’t familiar with, and not having any light to go off of was frustrating, but he knew it wouldn’t be for long.

Now that they were in the building, and the door behind them closed, Antonio finally called out:

“Torches.”

Five bursts of light suddenly appeared around the room, showing how absolutely frightening the inn truly was.

There were cracks running across the ceiling and the corners, and several spots that looked wet and waiting for an errant step. As the group surveyed their surroundings, it became plain to see that no one had lived there in quite some time, and not only that, but the stairs to the second story were no longer attached to the second landing at all.

“I don’t like this,” the Captain growled beside Fin, making him give a small start.

“Sir there’s a pair of trousers and other odd clothing pieces along this back wall,” one of the Knights called out.

Antonio frowned.

“Captain, what if… this building is only for hiding the men when Knights come to the nextdoor tavern?” Fin asked suddenly as he eyed the wall of the inn that was still relatively intact. “Only half of this building has collapsed fully away from where it was… what if it’s like Mathilda’s maze in the attics?”

Fin nodded to the wall that could have been shared with the tavern back before the erosion of land beneath them. In all honesty, the precariousness of the creaking floor beneath him made him a little eager to be back on solid land.

“This place wouldn’t be able to safely hide more than twenty men at most,” the Captain voiced pensively.

“Yes, but if the pub had an apartment above and a basement built into the rock where they keep their ale barrels… they wouldn’t need this place to house all of them.”

The Captain’s lone blue eye swiveled over to the wall that Fin had gestured at where many of his men had already started searching after hearing the redhead’s idea.

After a few moments, another Knight called out.

“Here sir! It doesn’t open straight into the pub, but… well… come take a look.”

Both Fin and the Captain moved over to the broken set of shelves that the Knight had pressed open to reveal a second door that undoubtedly led to the pub, but was obviously locked shut.

Grinning ruthlessly, Antonio turned to Fin. “Feel like grabbing a drink?”

*

The plan was simple, all he had to do was go in, and see if there were any Troivackian’s in the pub. Then take note of who did anything that could be a warning to any hidden soldiers when the Captain made his entrance. Given that the establishment was owned and run by Madame Mathilda, the bartender may not have been the one who knew anything…

Fin sidled up to the bar, and slowly seated himself. Ordering himself a tankard, he watched how the occupants of the pub appeared to be a handful of weary sailors, and the occasional seedy characters. Pretty standard patronage… and not a Troivackian in sight.

He eyed a door to the side of the bar, and glanced at the bartender as he poured the frothy beverage with a complacent expression that matched his sallow coloring.

Fin eyed around the pub, and considered the surroundings more carefully.

Despite the room being well lit, and the bar obviously well stocked, it occurred to the redhead then that the establishment, despite its prime location beside the docks, wasn’t all that busy…

“Here you are,” the bartender immediately snatched up the coin Fin had dropped on the bar surface.

“Thanks, surprised you don’t have more people in here,” the witch tried to relax his speech cautiously.

The man with his balding head and deep scowl lines glared in response. “We close early.”

Giving a single shoulder shrug, the redhead picked up the ale and pretended to take a drink. He didn’t need a repeat of the night at Madame Mathilda’s.

He was about to start trying to find a gap in time to sneak into the closed off room, when an unsuspected cry boomed out.

“OYY! FIN! LAD! I’VE BEEN SEARCHIN’ FOR YOU!”

The redhead spilled his ale he was so taken aback by the shout, and several heads swiveled around to see the newcomer.

Once he had landed his drink safely on the bar, Fin looked over hastily to look at who was disrupting the plan.

Red, the man who had tried to mug Fin when he had first begun looking for the Troivackians, stood grinning at him as he strode into the tavern.

“I was searchin’ at Mathilda’s for ye ever since the festival- what a spectacular night that was eh? Did you hear that the brothel closed down?”

Fin blinked, and was still reeling from being startled.

What in the world was Red doing so far South in the city…

Alarm bells were clanging very loudly in his head.

“Yeah I, uh, ran into one of the girls. She said you kept going back asking for me. What was that about?”

“Well you see, I had wanted to talk to you ‘bout how you were lookin’ for those Troivackia men,” Red held up a single finger to the bartender who was eyeing the entire situation like a cat eyed pending danger- gearing up to scurry away.

Once Red had a pint in his hand, he seated himself on the stool beside Fin, and leaned both elbows on the bar.

“I know they lifted your change that day, an’ well… I felt bad. Wondered if you wanted a bit ‘o work. You made the best food I’d ever tried…”

Fin waited as all the pieces of the puzzle began to shift closer together.

Someone had sent Sandy to distract him, and when Annika had showed up and gotten rid of her, Red had shown up and redirected him.

Red had been talking with his son and friend about the Troivackian’s when they’d first met… And now, he was conveniently located at the same tavern the final group of soldiers were allegedly hiding in.

“Afterall, you seem to know quite a few people around the city, like those Knights out front.” Red took a sip from his ale, and turned to face him, a strange gleam in his eyes.

Fin heard the door beside the bar open, and heard the weapons being drawn.

“Pity it had to be like this,” Red announced as the bartender suddenly ducked beneath the bar while clutching two bottles of what the redhead guessed to be expensive liquor.

“It is indeed, Red. Too bad, I was looking forward to meeting your missus.”

Fin ducked suddenly, and narrowly avoided the sword that sang past his ear, turning with his tankard in hand, he threw the item into the face of his attacker.

When he faced the group that had emerged from the storage room of the tavern, he counted ten, but knew there were most likely more hiding.

Fortunately… the front door sprung open, and this time Captain Antonio emerged with the Knights behind him.

Red shrugged. “Sorry to say, lad, we have a few more in the reserves.”

The pounding of an extra dozen feet could be heard as they clambered down from the apartment above, and up from the basement..

“Oh, we know.” Fin then heard the undeniable splintering of wood as the first squadron that had remained in the dilapidated inn blocked off another possible exit, making Red frown. “Don’t worry, we wanted it to be a fair fight.”