Hirrus could feel the tension in the room as he returned to the Violet Plate. It seemed to dissipate immediately upon his arrival, though, as Barin sagged back in his chair with a loud sigh of relief.

At the far end of the room, Dahlia visibly relaxed at the sight of him as well, though less obviously.

“What happened to you?” Barin demanded, standing up from his chair and crossing the room towards Hirrus and Alric at the door. “We were all worried sick!”

Alric gestured impatiently. “I told you what happened to him. He got picked up by that GM we saw. But just like I said, I got him out. It was all under control.”

“You got him out, hmm?” Barin said, giving Alric a dubious look.

“It’s true,” Hirrus said. “Were it not for him, I would still be trapped. I am unsure if his plan was as foolproof as he’s making it seem, but-”

“It all worked out,” Alric said, waving his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter how much luck was actually involved.”

“Regardless,” Hirrus said as Alric crossed the room to sit down at the table, kicking back comfortably, “the time has come. With Orlina removed, I have to trust that their numbers are thinned enough for me to strike at their headquarters.”

“Without Orlina,” Barin said, returning to his own seat at the table, “all the true threats have been removed. Their raid group is gone. Their general is gone.” He pushed Alric’s feet away, before resting his elbows on the edge of the table and steepling his fingers. Barin paused for a moment, brow furrowed. “The remaining officers will be a fight, make no mistake. Especially all together. It may still be too soon.”

“I can’t waste any more time to pick away at them,” Hirrus said, shaking his head. “I am only giving them more opportunity to think their way out of this. I don’t know if I can afford dealing with another trap, or if I could escape GM Dave’s clutches again.”

“Or any other GM,” Alric warned. “It doesn’t have to be the same guy.”

“It’s time,” Dahlia said, her tone demanding the attention of the three men. “Enough time has been spent clearing rats from the basement. It’s time to find the nest and destroy it.”

Alric barked out a laugh at that, but Hirrus took it for the somber warning it was. Every moment Last of the Strong had to breathe was a chance they had to put a barrier in his path that he couldn’t overcome. If he let them marshal their strength, he was handing them the opportunity to slip through his hands.

“She’s right,” Hirrus said, giving her a grateful nod. “This ends now, or the end might never come.”

“Right,” Barin said, turning back to the table. There were a few scattered papers there he hadn’t noticed when he came in. “To that end, I have what you need.”

“You know where they are,” Hirrus said. It wasn’t a question.

“I do,” Barin confirmed, turning a handful of pages towards Hirrus and offering him a reed pen. “I also know your way in.”

“Way in?” Hirrus asked, stepping up to the table.

“They will have hired mercenary guards,” Barin said, impatiently waving the reed pen at Hirrus until he took it from him. “They’d keep you out.”

“None of the others had,” Hirrus observed, taking the pen and looking down at the pages. It appeared to be a contract of some sort.

“Because you’re a guard,” Barin said with a tilt of his head. “Mercenaries operating within Hari legally are loyal to the kingdom over their employers. Last of the Strong, however, haven taken additional precautious, hiring guards with no such loyalty. Their mercenaries will attack guards who try and invade their manor.”

“So what is this?” Hirrus asked, gesturing at the contract with the reed pen. “How will this help?”

“I am, technically, in the employ of the Last of the Strong,” Barin said, flipping the top paper over to show the backside with signature lines halfway down the page, where Barin’s own signature was already in place. “Just as my guards were blind to your intrusion, Last of the Strong’s guards have explicit orders to leave their fellow employees alone.”

“And so this is an employment contract,” Hirrus guessed, leaning down and reading the text more closely.

“If you’re in my employ, then you’re in their employ. You walk through their guards as easily as I would,” Barin said. He gestured at the page, flipping it back over for a brief moment and then flipping back. “There’s nothing exceptional here. It employs you as my personal assistant. If you were to be my bodyguard or such, it would be simpler, but then you would need to be accompanying me. Or, more accurately, I would need to accompany you. As my assistant, I can direct you to go to their manor without me.”

“Will that work?” Alric asked, leaning over the table to look at the contract. “Seems kinda sus to me.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Barin said with an exasperated sigh. “But I’ve sent employees and messengers to them in the past. It should get your foot in the door.”

“And this contract...” Hirrus paused, swatting Barin’s hand away from it to examine it more closely. “You’ve got no trickery here? No secret betrayal?”

“I swear to you, ser,” Barin said, raising one hand and putting the other over his heart. “You will be employed for a period not exceeding six hours, and putting you at no obligation to me after the end of our terms.” He gestured at part of the contract below where Hirrus was reading. “Of course, as long as you don’t expect to be compensated.”

“Hm.” Hirrus grunted, waving the man to silence as he went over the contract.

It didn’t take him long. He was no legal genius, but Barin appeared to be telling the truth. Hirrus would only be in Barin’s employ for a single shift, on this specific day, as a trial for a more permanent position to be part of a different contract. It was simple enough.

Hirrus put the tip of the reed pen to the signature line and made the horrible squiggle that represented his name.

There was a lonesome pang in his chest as he remembered how much Julissa liked to tease him about the way he signed his name.

And about his handwriting in general.

She was right. His penmanship was atrocious at best.

“Alright, then,” Alric said, clapping his hands together. “Do you have one for me, too?”

“What are you talking about?” Hirrus asked, even as he handed the pen back to Barin.

“You thought you were going alone?” Alric said with a laugh. “After what I just had to pull you out of, I think fucking not.”

Hirrus stared at the man for a long moment, genuinely uncertain if he was joking or just insane.

“Um,” Barin said, rifling through the papers on the table. “As an adventurer, you likely won’t have any trouble from the mercenaries. The other adventurers, though, are likely to crush you in short order.”

“They’ll be dealing with me,” Hirrus said, then stopped and shook his head. “And they won’t be dealing with you, because you won’t be there. It’s madness to think you should come with me.”

“Why are you so insistent on going alone?” Alric demanded, suddenly taking an aggressive stance.

Hirrus had a sudden desire to call his axe to his hand and slap the man down before it escalated further. Instead, he tightened his grip on the edge of the table, letting his knuckles go white as an outlet for the violent urge.

“This will be dangerous,” Hirrus said, struggling to keep his voice calm and even as he stared Alric down. “If you come with me, you will die. The best you can hope for is that your death doesn’t slow me down, not that it might help me in any way.”

“I know that,” Alric said, sticking out his chin obstinately. “I’m not expecting to walk in there and be a super badass were-dragon monster like some people. I know what’s coming.”

“Your death,” Hirrus said, intensifying his glare on Alric, resisting the urge to grab the man and shake him. “Your death is what you’re demanding. You will not survive this venture.”

“I died last week for no reason,” Alric shot back, standing strong against Hirrus' glare. “And the week before that, and the week before that. I’ve died for the amusement of other assholes, and for the change in my pocket. One time - just once! - I want to die for a reason. I want to choose the death I’ll face, and feel good about facing it.”

Hirrus hesitated at that, and then sighed. “Why are you adventurers all like this?”

“Just millennial things, I guess,” Alric said, his smirk returning. “We’re famous for our generational death wish.”

“I don’t know what any of that means,” Hirrus grumbled. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose that means it’s time to update our gear. I’ve gained quite a stockpile since we last spoke, even if I lost Orlina’s items.”

“You didn’t lose them,” Alric said, his smirk turning to a grin as he reached for his inventory, and then produced a set of leather armor. “You just dropped them on the ground on top of her corpse.”

“How did-”

“Either it was luck, or skill,” Alric said, holding the items out towards Hirrus. “I choose to believe it was skill. I’m just that good at the videogame.”

Hirrus didn’t buy that for a second. He suspected that some other force was at work here.

Orlina’s gear represented some of the most powerful equipment available. If it had fallen from his hands when GM Dave picked him up, it seemed ridiculously unlikely that it would have stayed there unattended long enough for Alric to blunder into it.

But in the absence of any further clues, that mystery would have to wait for later.

Or never.

If every moment was precious, then Hirrus couldn’t afford to waste more on unrelated questions.