One of the things that Elena hated most in life was bureaucratic meetings. Specifically, the ones where a bunch of men and women dressed to impress sat around a table, speaking so much yet saying so little, brown-nosing, concealing their crookedness, and inciting some manner of reaction from everyone else until they all went home in the wee hours of the night having made very little progress.

That was exactly the type of meeting she and the two new heroes had sat through for the past five hours. The table sat laden with coffee and choice snacks, papers with all sorts of important-looking information littered the table, and that smug prick of a governor was seated at the head of it all. He was most likely chuckling in his fat, piggish little head how he was able to have three heroes at his beck and call. And, for the umpteenth time that day, Elena regretted the day she stopped Adrian from killing the governor after that one murder spree. She couldn’t remember which one. They all started to blend together after all those years of her doing damage control on that lunatic.

But it was neither the time nor the place to consider her own murderous thoughts, Elena reminded herself as the nasally bastard to the right of Carlos unpleasantly cleared the phlegm from his throat to grab the governor’s attention.

“Sir, sir, I must, yes I must emphasize how important it is to deal with those filthy demon animals! It’s truly inconceivable that they would have the guts to conduct a terrorist attack on our own soil! Not after what we did to their king! Without proper retaliation, the citizens will lose trust in our leadership. I implore your eminence to order these heroes to strike back at the lizards!”

Elena barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Back to the genocide idea it was. Certainly, she didn’t hold any love for those gray fuckwads after what they had done, but genocide… that was a bit too far. Aannnddd something that had been brought up by both the nasally bastard and the shrewish woman to the governor’s right at least ten times since the meeting had started. Elena sighed as she saw more than a few heads nod in support, raising her hand to catch the governor’s attention.

“Striking back is all well and good,” Elena mentioned, “but with that hero-level demon in the equation it makes any arrangements we consider a bit awkward.”

That got the governor’s attention. Nothing like mentioning the warrior that had crippled her, fought two heroes at once while assisting in the death of Kevin, and who had reportedly fought Adrian one-on-one in what the surviving witnesses said looked like an equal fight before the rats intervened to run a shot of pure concern and adrenaline through the idiot.

“What then? Shall we simply sit behind what’s left of our walls, picking up the pieces until those disgusting abominations invade like the tales of old?” The nasally man interrupted.

Elena raised her hand to her mouth, pretending to rub it in thought while secretly using it to hide her smirk. The governor really did not like people speaking out of turn.

Sure enough, an unpleasant purple color filled the skin on the governor’s face.

“Enough, Candever! Let the woman speak. Despite her… failings, she brings at least some experience to the table.”

Candever quailed in the face of the governor’s irritation, but motioned for Elena to carry on regardless.

“I understand any concerns that you may have, that if we withdraw into our defenses like a turtle into its shell, it could be seen as weakness. One the demons could choose to exploit. They already have a great victory under their belts, why not try for two? The issue is that hero-level demon. One of us alone would be insufficient to handle him. Even more so if the rumor floating around that he has allied with the Rat King is true. If all three of us go, we would have the numbers to deal with anything that comes, but the city would be undefended, helpless if the Rat King comes back. So, if everyone sees a counterattack as truly necessary, I propose that two of us lead troops to assail the demon’s territory, while one hero remains at the city to guard. We lure the demon hero into combat and strike him down with the two of us.”

The governor nodded his head in thought, the oily flesh that ballooned from his neck jiggling with the motion.

“Then who do you propose?” He asked.

“Jim and I can lead the assault force, while Carlos defends the city. I’ve been in demon territory once before, in the last war, so I know my way around enough. According to the court magicians, Jim’s extremely proficient in body-reinforcement magic, so with myself as the hammer and Jim as the anvil we can box in and defeat the demon hero. As for Carlos, the court magicians say he has a mastery of water magic as his blessing from the world, so he would be able to provide enough defense to Drassington.” And if the plan goes through, we can ward any demon assaults off while feigning that we don’t have enough manpower to genocide them.

“Very well.” The governor nodded, though his body language betrayed that he was beginning to be bored of all the talk that had no bootlicking contained within. “Do as you wish.”

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Elena. The magic words. With the governor’s style of running things, those words would see that no one would directly interfere with them, lest they lose their heads. Literally. It was a breach of conduct, but immediately Elena shot out an affirmative, leaping out of her seat and gesturing for Jim and Carlos to follow her to a room she had Bill prepare earlier. Silently the two men shuffled out of their seats, and the door closed behind them, cutting off the voices that were praising the governor for his quick and brilliant decision-making, along with suggesting for more wine to be served so they could toast their wise leader that brought them to such a bright future.

Fucking pricks.

Within a minute of the doors closing, the thin figure of Bill came in sight, flanked by two familiar scarred soldiers. Elena squinted her eyes, but just as she was about to whisper a pointed question to Bill asking who they were, the scarred soldiers formed lopsided grins in their mouths and bowed with knowing looks towards each other.

“Evenin’ Miss Elena,” They chorused. “It’s our pleasure to be at your service again.”

The one to the right stepped forwards, his strangely familiar voice ringing out in her ears. “Ma’am, we’re Roderick and Reynold. We followed you from the Bastille, Lady Elena. Ol’ Clarkson had us taking care of some business all secret-like, if my lady knows what I mean.” Roderick straightened up and tapped his nose with a wink as if he was divulging some strange secret.

The confusion in Elena’s eyes cleared up in an instant. Yes. That’s right. They weren’t… they weren’t dead. Not all of them, those that made the mistake of following me.

But, before Elena could voice the new questions that popped up in her head, Reynold stepped forwards, the clanking of his chain mail armor muffled against the opulent carpet of the halls.

“Mr. Clarkson had us working the streets, feeling out the air of the place. Seeing who all could be trusted and who all truly wanted to help out you out, Ma’am. He was a smart one, that Clarkson. Always knew it was right and proper for a hero to have some fightin’ lads around to take care of the dirty work. So’s once we heard that the man fell in the line of duty and that his son was askin’ around, we called out the boys so Miss can have a proper fightin’ unit to watch yer back. This dunce and I rustled up 50 good men in the city, armed to the teeth and ready to rumble. Bill says yer headin’ to fight the demons, Lady Elena, so if ya don’t mind taking a detour there’s some boys that’re waiting to join us in a few villages along the way.”

Elena swallowed her questions as she heard the pure reverence in his words that was only partially disguised by his rough way of speaking. In the back of her mind, a small voice, the quiet note of positivity that had been long absent spoke but a few words.

They did follow you. From the Bastille, through the flames, and into the rat’s maw. And still they follow even now.

She let out a sigh that she didn’t even know she had been holding as she gestured for Joe, Carlos, and her men to follow her while Bill led the way. Now she just needed to figure out a more detailed plan with them, though she wouldn’t bother informing those government assholes. Sure, demons were a threat just like they said, but that thing worried her the most.

The Rat King.