“Hold.” The man repeated at a lower volume as he walked passed me.

That freaked me out and pissed me off in equal measures. I was dismissed as a threat almost instantly. I studied him as he moved away from me. Tall and slim, he wore a dark brown leather cuirass over a white shirt with billowing sleeves and a pair of leather pants with soft, comfortable-looking shoes adorned with gold buckles.

He looked like a cross between an old fashioned swordsman and a pirate.

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked eloquently.

The man stood facing the giant and the sniper before nodding his head and turning around so he could look me in the eye. I matched him stare for stare. I may have an arrow sticking out of my shoulder and be down to one hand, but I’d be damned if I was going to show weakness. I bared my teeth in the facsimile of a smile. I noticed there was the same crest on his chest as the one on the giant’s pauldron.

“I could ask you the same question, lad.” The old man said. His voice was barely above a whisper, now that he wasn’t yelling and I leaned forward unconsciously to hear better. “Running around the city, causing havoc, with half the city guard on your tail shouting about murder. Tell me…are you a murderer, lad?”

“Yes,” I answered, my eyes never leaving his.

“You do not wish to lie and say you are innocent?”

“You asked if I was a murderer, not if I had committed whatever murder the guards are shouting about,” I said, playing coy. I didn’t trust these three, they had me on edge. If I admitted my guilt they may just kill me on the spot and I was starting to doubt whether or not I could stop them.

The man’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Very well. Are you guilty of the murder the guards are yammering on about? Three men, I believe it was…”

I almost corrected him, maybe he expected me to, but I didn’t and the silence grew awkward as I tried to figure out the appropriate response. Something told me he would know if I was lying and he wouldn’t like it. So instead I said “What’s it to you? Your little arrow happy sidekick over there already said you aren’t with the guards.”

“Little!” Hissed the soft female voice but the old man raised his hand and she said no more.

Those cold blue eyes studied me, taking in the arrow in my shoulder and the one still in my hand along with the glowing orange lines that covered all my visible skin. He must have reached a decision because the tension in the air suddenly eased off and he gave a small bow, a hand over his heart. It was the same one Nel had given me when she introduced herself in the woods.

“I am Trinadelle De’Vraga. The large one is Pruda of the Hammer and the hooded one…you may call her Twix.” He tapped the crest on his chest. “We are hunters dispatched from the Guild at Kings Landing.”

I didn’t know what half of that meant but I nodded like it cleared everything up before returning his bow. No need to be an asshole if I didn’t have to be…right? Besides, feeling was starting to return to my arm.

“Alexander Haha October,” I said. I almost finished with ‘Champion’ but stopped and instead said “So now what? You kill me?”

Trinadelle shook his head and sheathed his rapier. “No. I will hold you here till the guards come. I have no quarrel with you but it is not in my nature to let a wanted man walk free.”

“And if I insisted on leaving?” I asked, more to see what the reaction would be.

“I will stop you.” He said, with complete conviction.

“So how far out are the guards?”

He titled his hand this way and that and shrugged. “Who can tell. You are fast and they are slow, they fell quite a ways behind you.”

“Fast,” Pruda grunted, looking at me and then at the hole in the wall his hammer had made.

“So what are you hunting, if you don’t mind me asking?” I said, changing the topic and letting my energy go so I could recharge.

“The hunt is over, in fact. There was a slew of wild beasts acting aggressively near the foothills of Champions Fall, to the North-East of here. It was affecting the quarry workers or so we were told in the messages sent to the guild.”

“So you were told?” I asked, leaning against the alley wall with my shoulder to try and push the arrow all the way through.

“It turned out to be a false report. The workers themselves declined out help. We camped there for several nights and met with no beasts other than those we could eat.”

“Eat all beasts.” Pruda corrected.

“Small game.” Trinadelle corrected.

“And you got stuck here when the city gates closed?”

“Yes.” The old man nodded with a slight tilt of his head towards Pruda. “He was sampling the alehouses.”

The arrow was most of the way through now, the head and about three inches of the blood-stained shaft was visible in front of me. I gripped the wood, only half-listening to the old man. He wasn’t attacking and I was done running so it was just a waiting game now. With a wet sucking sound, the arrow slid free. A slow trickle of blood seeped out of the open wound, staining my shirt.

“Thought you would want to help chase down the Denvii, being hunters and all that,” I mumbled, prodding at my new hole.

There was an awkward silence and I looked up to see the old man and the giant watching me. I mumbled an apology and stopped playing with myself.

“You think, as the rest do of this town does, that the Denvii are responsible?” Trinadelle asked. Was it just me or did he sound skeptical?

I gave a noncommittal shrug and we descended into silence once more. This time the silence stretched on and on until Trinadelle cursed under his breath and turned to the hooded woman.

“The guards have obviously gotten lost. If you would be so kind as to go and get them, my dear?”

In a movement so smooth it had to have been done a hundred times the cloaked figure sprung into the air, her hands finding purchase on the giant's shoulder as she used it to springboard herself onto his broad back. The giant lifted one hand, his palm facing up. The sniper jumped from his back onto his hand and the giant’s hand sunk under the weight before he grunted, the veins all along his bicep and forearm popping out, and with a heave of effort, he threw her into the air.

I stood there slack-jawed as the woman sailed over the lip of the roof, two stories up, her cloak flapping in the breeze before she disappeared.

“Pruda has the promotional skill: Overpower. He can double the force applied by any single movement of his.” Trinadelle told me.

Oh, so he could normally only throw a woman, like, a story in the air. Okay.

The silence grew awkward again and I started humming tunelessly, waiting for the stupid guards to come to get me. The old man stood there motionless in the shadow of the hammer-wielding hulk and watched me with those cold blue eyes.

“You do not seem concerned.” It wasn’t a question but I answered anyway.

“As long as they put me in front of the mayor, I don’t really care.”

“And why do you want to be taken before the mayor?” His eyes narrowed.

“Best way to talk to him,” I said with a shrug, not seeing the harm in telling him that much. “Explain things.”

“You killed a group of men simply to get an audience with the mayor?” Trinadelle sounded sickened and impressed.

“No, I needed to meet the mayor and the men got killed along the way. I’m simply using their deaths to expedite the process.” I didn’t mind admitting to the killings now. If they wanted to kill me they would have.

“Perhaps I will stand in on this meeting with the mayor.”

“You can do that?” I asked, suddenly uncertain of my plans. I didn’t want the whole town knowing what I had to say. “I thought it would be a closed hearing sort of thing, you know? I get dragged in front of him by a guard and he says ‘kill him’ or whatever and no one else had to be there…”

“Ahh, so you have news that you do not wish to share with the masses…interesting.” Trinadelle’s lips turned up in a smile, this one actually warmed his eyes minutely. “and I do indeed have the power to stand in on such a meeting. I can even request the meeting be private if you so wish.”

I looked at him, weighing my options. “What would it cost me?”

“A simple hint of what it is you are going to say. I do not need to hear everything now as there is little need for you to go over it twice if once with the both of us would suffice.”

“Uhh…Okay? It’s to do with the Denvii attacks.”

There was a long cold moment as the old man weighed me with his eyes, searching my face for more information while processing my words. At last, he nodded, the movement slow and thoughtful, as he said: “You will have your private meeting, though the shackles will have to stay on.”

“Wait-What! Shackles?”

He was saved from answering by the arrival of a whole platoon of guards. I say platoon because that’s what they were, about twenty-five maybe thirty of them. Some more out of breath than the others, but all furious. One of them, dressed similar to the captain I had killed, so presumably another captain? Or lieutenant? I don’t know the ranks of guardsmen. Well whoever he was, he looked really spiffy, with his shiny mail and tight leather belt. He also clocked me one, right across the jaw.

Too bad for him even when I’m not boosting my bones are still metal and my skin still synthetic. He hurt his hand more than he hurt me. Should have kept his glove on. Furious at my lack of response and the pain radiating up his arm the man reached for the sword at his waist only for Trinadelle to appear as if by magic between the two of us. I hadn’t even seen the old man move.

“You will find, Captain, that your prisoner is quite willing to go with you. Force will not be necessary.”

“Prisoner?” The Captain sneered, his bushy mustache quivering with rage. “Ya mean murderer! He killed Billy, and them other folks! He’s lucky I don’t gut him right here.”

There were sounds of agreement from the rest of the guards. Though I noted some weren’t as eager as the others. Peer pressure at work, I guess. The complaints died down real fast though when a hand landed on my shoulder, covering the whole thing, and made my knees buckle under the weight.

Pruda stood behind me and glared over my head at the guards. I scowled at him before stepping out of his shadow to do my own glaring. I preferred to do my own intimidation, thank you very much!

“You may honor your friend’s death by arresting the prisoner, but I will insist that Pruda and I accompany you.” He smiled as the bowwoman landed beside him in a mass of cloth. “I believe Twix will also be coming along.”

“Ya see here, old man!” The guard stepped forward, his finger held out to point at Trinadelle. He didn’t get far before an arrow tickled his nostrils. Twix had pulled her bow out from under her cloak and knocked an arrow and pulled it back to full draw, all before I could blink.

Trinadelle’s face was carved from stone and his voice had turned to flint when he said in a whisper that was all the more intimidating for it, even to me “You had best remember your place, Captain. I do not use De’ simply for fun.”

The man nodded slowly, the broad arrowhead brushing against his nose hair. I’d get rid of that arrow if I was Twix. Boogers could have attached themselves to the metal. Also, Trinadelle was more awesome than I thought. I nodded my head in appreciation of the badassery he seemed capable of.

Things went smoothly from there. I was burdened with the promised shackles. Cold metal bands linked by thick chains that went around my hands and feet and restricted my movements. I could snap them in an instant if I overclocked. Hell, I could eat them and repair my shoulder if I wanted to…but I don’t know where the metal had been so…eww.

Surrounded by angry, surly men who glared at me and shoved me when the hunters weren’t looking we all made our way towards the Mayor's house at the top of the hill. The citizens oohed and ahhed as I walked past. Some even pointed. My guards thought the attention was for them and puffed out their chests and sucked in their guts.

I spent the walk thinking about what I would say to the mayor to get him to believe him other than showing him my stat sheet. I also wondered if Nel had managed to stay hidden. I had this horrible image in my head of some old lady walking into her room and finding a spider woman hiding in the corner. Okay, it was more funny than horrible but once the old lady got a pot in her hand…she was deadly.

Once out of the market district the buildings changed again. They became squat sprawling structures with large lawns and gates made of stone and iron. There was a lot of gold gilding on display and I wondered how much profit the merchants made in this small town to be able to live so luxuriously. Maybe they were part of larger trading houses that had branches in other towns?

The Mayor's house was a thing of beauty. Surrounded on all sides by a green lawn spotted here and there with perfectly trimmed trees shaped like animals (I spied a giant cat and a dolphin..but the dolphin had two tails so make of that what you will). A pebble walkway led from the front gates to the house, which was built of black marble with the wooden fixtures painted a dark green.

We walked right past the front gate and I turned around to ask Trinadelle what was happening but it was the captain who answered and he did so with a certain amount of glee.

“Criminals don’t walk through the front door. Ya ain’t a welcomed guest, prisoner. No. Ya get to go round the back.”

“Lucky me!” I drawled.

“Indeed. Only the worst of the worse get ta meet the mayor. I think he’ll want to hang ya in front of the masses. They been needing a good show to pick up their spirits.”

“You, sir, are a walking cliché,” I said with a large smile.

“Whaddaya mean, cliché?”

“Well, you don’t speak properly,” I held up a hand so he could see me counting it off with my fingers. The chains jangled like metal bangles. “You’re overly fond of taunting prisoners, you got on the wrong side of someone important…I think…Trinadelle, you’re important right? doesn't matter. Oh, and you’re ugly.”

The Captain's face, what little I could see between the helmet and the beard, turned red then purple and I swear a blood vessel popped in his eye.

I may have just killed a man without even touching him.

The Captain took a great shuddering breath and growled in his throat.

Okay, it looks like he’s going to make it. Too bad, that would have been incredible for my rep.

“That means you’re probably going to die some meaningless death,” I added, hoping to push him over the edge. No dice. He stomped away, cussing up a storm, but very much alive. Crap.

The back entrance to the manor was a lot more simplistic than the front. The lawn was as well cared for, it was just smaller, and the trees were groomed into simple shapes. I walked past one that was shaped like a ball and marveled at the perfectly curved edges. I wonder if there’s a class called landscaping or something. Probably.

The Captain led us up a stone path that curved gently to the side of the building. A few of the guards surrounding me dropped back to stand outside the property while the rest vied for the honor of standing next to me. I guess there was a position for Captain open now that one had been knocked off. Those ungrateful bastards should be thanking me.

A small wooden door barred with studded metal was recessed into the marble slabs and the Captain pushed it open to reveal a small room, barely large enough for all of us to fit inside.

“Tony, ya with me. The rest of ya lot stay out here,” The Captain told the other guards before turning to the three hunters. “I suppose ya’ll be wanting to come in?”

Trinadelle nodded in agreement while I eyed the small door and his large companion. I was about to say something but I was getting bored of being chained up and maybe watching the giant try and squeeze his way through the tiny opening would give me a bit of entertainment so I kept my mouth shut.

The Captain entered first, the Trinadelle, then me, with Tony and Twix bring up the rear. Sadly Pruda chose to stay outside amongst the suddenly nervous guardsmen.

“Tony, ya watch the prisoner. I’ll go let the steward know we have a special prisoner for the Mayor to sentence.” The Captain left me there and walked through a different door, I caught a peek of a brightly lit hallway before Trinadelle blocked my view.

“I will advise him that this will be a private meeting. Stay here!”

“Yes, because I was planning on going outside and having a picnic.” I deadpanned, shaking my cuffed wrists in his face.

The old man just turned and walked away. Smooth.

Twix stood motionless in the corner, her ever-present hood up, and looked like a shadow. Tony eyed me up and down with the attitude of a man confident in his own strength, I had to resist the urge to take a nibble on my cuffs just to freak him out.

“Ya know, we only ever bring the serious defenders before the mayor,” he said, walking around me. “And the last time that happened was three years ago. A merchant killed a pickpocket.”

“And how did that go?” I asked, curious despite myself. The answer may tell me a little about the Mayor.

“The merchant paid a fine to the boy’s family and was imprisoned for the number of years the boy had been alive. His trading house was allowed to remain here though. Many called it a fair ruling.”

That was a lot fairer than Dockside rules. Dockside rules were if you had the strength to do the crime, more often than not, the others didn’t have the strength to stop you and they got away with it…unless you hire someone like me to break a few bones.

The Captain came back first. His face twisted in anger that only got worse when he saw me.

“We are ta leave.” The Captain growled at Tony. “The sentencing will be private.”

He glared at me again and this time Tony was doing it too. “But Captain, he killed one of ours! The mayor ha-”

“The Mayor is the one who says it’s private!”

No amount of arguing on Tony’s part could change that and I think the younger guard knew. Instead, he joined his Captain in stomping out of the room and shutting the door with a loud bang.

“Alexander, come with me. Twix you to.” Trinadelle said as he stuck his head back through the door. “The Mayor will meet you now.”