“This is it, you ready?” David asked from the saddle of his horse.

The four day ride had gone quickly and without any further outbursts from Ethan. They’d arrived on the outskirts of the town not long after lunch time. As the forest had given way to swamp lands before they finally reached the coast, Ethan had taken a lot of time to think about what exactly he would do when he saw his guild mates. Miguel and Leah, he knew, would be happy to see him. Leah would probably be apologetic and Miguel just excited he was there.

But he didn’t want anything to do with Alera. She was cut out, a soon to be blank spot in his memory. That was how he dealt with any relationship that ended, friend or romantic, the person simply ceased to exist in his mind. He would work with her to accomplish their mutual goals, however long that took, but then after that she was a ghost.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ethan sighed, breathing in the hot salty ocean air. The entire last day, he’d felt a sense of familiarity in the surrounding landscape, like he’d been somewhere similar to their destination. It reminded him of home, but he couldn’t quite recall why.

“Good,” David nodded as he pulled his hood over his head and dismounted. Ethan did the same, sending his horse back to her summoning crystal. Miguel has sent word that the entire town had been taken over by the Blood Dragon guild. For the five of them to be seen before they had come up with some sort of plan would be a death sentence to their rescue mission before it even started.

“Try to blend in, act natural,” David cautioned. They’d taken the cloaks from a small gang of NPC mercenaries they’d overheard talking about being paid to come to Playa de Fuerte in an inn two nights before. David and Ethan had heard one of them mention Caleb’s name and had followed them. The fight had been quick and clean, the only information they’d recieved was that this wasn’t the only group of mercenaries coming to Playa. Paul appeared to be building an army.

“Where are we meeting?” Ethan asked as they walked down the cobblestone lane, passing under a massive wooden portcullis. The buildings were built close together, usually sharing at least one wall. Large open windows with shutters lined the painted multicolored walls. Most of the few free standing buildings were raised and on stilts. Tropical palm trees and small bushes with sharp, needle-like fronds dotted the area. Why is this place so familiar to me?

“Alera found an inn near the fort, we’re meeting them there,” David pointed towards the massive stone fort seated on a hill overlooking the rest of the town. Even it’s grey walls looked familiar to Ethan.

“The inn got a name?”

“Augustino’s,” David answered, his head tilted down to obscure his face.

Ethan stopped dead in his tracks and looked around again before letting out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” David asked gruffly, clearly much more nervous than Ethan.

“This is St. Augustine, Florida!” Ethan laughed again as he smiled in recognition of the town, clearly influenced by the real world.

“What are you talking about?” David turned and looked at him in confusion.

“My family went there on vacation one time, the entire town looked just like this,” Ethan gestured to the buildings and the fort. “It’s the oldest European city in the US. It was owned by the Spanish and the British hundreds of years ago, the buildings reflect that.”

“Wow, thanks for the history lesson, can we continue?” David resumed walking briskly. “Miguel is supposed to meet us at the square to show us the way to the inn.”

Ethan had to force down the happy memories of time with his parents and siblings as he walked past buildings that reminded him of a happier time in his life. Usually memories of home saddened him, but for the first time in weeks he actually felt happy. His mom was a history buff and she’d been giddy with excitement over visiting St. Augustine, their short family vacation to the historic beachfront city had been especially fun and memorable.

“Okay, we’ll wait here,” David announced half an hour later as they approached a city square with a beautiful ornate fountain in the middle. “I’ll send Miguel a message real fast.”

Ethan took a seat on one of the many benches facing the beautiful fountain. Little children played in the flowing water and chased pigeons and seagulls through the finely manicured grass that broke up the cobblestone walkways. Several large, armored men and women interrupted their fun, throwing one of the kids hard into the water. Her companions laughed as she held the boy’s head under the water.

Unconsciously, Ethan reached for his seax but David stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Don’t draw attention, now isn’t the time,” he said harshly as the woman released her hold on the struggling child. He gasped on the ground as he struggled to breathe. “This isn’t why we’re here.”

Ethan nodded sadly and released his hand from his weapon. We can’t afford to get caught now. Tae-Won is in that fort somewhere, we’re too close.

The kids, their playing disturbed, scrambled away from the armed adults en masse.

“Come on, Miguel is here,” David stood up quickly and strode in the opposite direction of the mercenaries.

Ethan got to his feet and took one last look at the solider still laughing at the children to commit to memory their insignia, a black vulture clutching a sword on a yellow background. Moments later, a brown hooded figure tackled him in a tight hug.

“Oh god, I missed you,” Miguel’s voice sounded relieved as he held Ethan close. “You smell so good.”

“Dude, you’re being weird,” Ethan forced a smile as the cleric released him. “I missed you too, Miguel.”

“They waiting for us at the inn?” David asked, purposefully not using names to avoid drawing more attention to themselves.

“One is, the other is wandering around,” Miguel answered him, leading the way to the inn. “We were starting to get antsy.”

“What do you mean ‘wandering around’?” Ethan asked, confused by Miguel’s causality over the obvious danger surrounding them in the city.

“She, um, didn’t want to be there when you arrived,” Miguel said awkwardly. “So she’s doing,” he paused and looked around to make sure no one could hear, “reconnaissance. On the fort.”

Ethan nodded in understanding. Alera was out in the town, she obviously didn’t want to face him. Fine with me, I’d rather not see her anyway.

The three of them walked in silence as Miguel led them down streets and crossways to the inn. Ethan couldn’t help but notice that civilians seemed quieter and more sparse the closer they got to the fort, while the mercenary presence grew heavier.

“Who are all these soldiers?” Ethan whispered after they passed a particularly large and rowdy group of them. “Are they building an army?”

“Yes,” Miguel whispered back to him, not breaking his stride. “We’ll fill you both in as soon as it’s clear.”

The first thing Ethan noticed when they entered the tavern was just how quiet it was. Nearly all the tables were full, but the patrons all conversed in hush tones. It didn’t take him long to discover why.

A group of four rough looking men and women sat at a corner table, far removed from the rest of the inn. Their cloaks all had the same symbol as the group at the fountain. So there’s more of them than just the handful we already saw.

“Don’t even look at them,” Miguel whispered as he hurried Ethan and David towards the bar. “They got here the same night we did and have been looking for fights.”.

The entire bar was full of armed soldiers who turned and glowered at any noise that disturbed their meal.

“Barkeep!” A large bald man with a scar that circled his head yelled as he slammed his wooden tankard on the table. Ethan saw a black bird holding a sword in its talons patch on the metal shoulder of his armor. “Another round! Quickly!”

The fat bartender hurried to refill the soldier’s cup, glancing nervously over his shoulder as if he was afraid of retaliation for some unknown offense. He placed the frothy beer back in front of the soldier and bowed low as he backed away.

“What the fuck is this?” The bald man yelled as he threw the contents of his mug into the bartender’s face. “If I wanted this much head, I’d have brought your daughter back out here! Refill it!”

“S-sorry, milord,” the bartender wiped the beer from his face and hurried to refill the mug, taking much more care to make sure to limit the froth. The mercenary’s companions laughed and clapped the bald man on the back.

“Good one, Sarge!”

“Get the girl back out, she’s got a right beautiful mouth on her!”

Ethan felt the fire inside of him well up once again. Either these are players and they were assholes, or these were the worst kind of NPCs in the game. A quick, discrete tap of his fingers brought up health bars and name plates for everyone in the room. Instantly, his vision was clouded with floating green bars. He searched through them for the one the man had called “Sarge”. Players could turn off their own, allowing them to maintain a level of anonymity, but NPCs couldn’t hide theirs.

“Silas Jenkob” floated in gold letters over the scared head of the mercenary. Got you, he thought comitting the man’s name to his memory.

Ethan couldn’t imagine why, even as terrible as Paul was, why he would choose to associate with them. By his words at the Tower, he saw himself as some kind of hero.

“Leave them,” he heard Miguel say from the other side of David. He looked and saw golden light fading from David’s eyes, Miguel’s hand on his chest. “Don’t forget we can’t draw attention yet, those guys aren’t even the worst I’ve seen in the day and a half I’ve been here.”

Ethan and David followed him silently as he led them up the stairs. It took all Ethan’s willpower to turn away from the bartender who was still being harassed. I’m going to find him and kill him.

Leah was waiting for them as Miguel hurried them into the room at the end of the long hall on the fourth floor.

“Thank god, you’re okay!” She said as she rushed across the room and wrapped her arms around him. “Ethan, I’m so sorry. I should have done more.”

“It’s okay,” he squeezed her tightly. “You did what you had to do.”

Leah released him, shock draining the blood from her face as she stared at him.

“Did, did David already tell you?” She asked nervously, her eyes wide.

“He told me everything,” Ethan nodded. “And I understand why you did, and apparently it worked.”

“Ethan, I shouldn’t have-“

“You did what you thought was right,” he assured her, taking her hand in his. “I don’t blame you, Leah. I’m not mad at you.”

Forgiveness was coming easy to him towards Leah. She was like a sister to him. Alera he would easily cut off, but he couldn’t do that to Leah. She’d suffered more than nearly anyone else because of his encounter with Paul. She had done the only possible thing she could. And her brutal gambit had paid off.

“And… Alera?” Leah asked hesitantly.

“Catch up later,” David said before he could answer. “Fill us in on what’s going on here? When can we get to Tae-Won?” He took a seat on the bed and looked expectantly at Miguel and Leah.

Ethan was glad that David had changed the subject. If Leah trusted Alera enough to send her to find her husband, Ethan didn’t think she’d appreciate how easily he planned to cut the rogue out of his life.

“Right,” Miguel walked over to the small table in front of the window. “Big problem with that.”

“How big?” Ethan asked as he leaned against the wall by the bed.

“Not entirely sure yet, but it’s looking like a couple hundred mercenaries. Alera is out trying to find out more,” Miguel answered sadly. “We don’t know why, but Paul’s been recruiting. He’s surrounded himself with an NPC army.”

“They’ve completely taken over the town,” Leah said. “You guys must have seen it coming in? They’re acting like they own the place, doing whatever they want.”

“What did the town leaders say?” David asked, leaning forward onto his knees.

“Don’t know,” Miguel shook his head and shrugged. “No one has seen the mayor in weeks from what we’ve heard. Rumor is that the Blood Dragon guild showed up and took over the fort. They’ve been telling the people of the town that they’re there to protect them from pirates.”

“You guys seem to know a lot for having just gotten here,” Ethan said, impressed by how knowledgeable they already were of the local goings on.

“Um…” Miguel looked nervously at Leah before continuing. “It’s really been Alera, she’s been out of the room the entire time, coming back only for a few minutes to give us information before disappearing again.”

“How long has she been gone?” David asked, once again interrupting Ethan before he could say anything about Alera.

“Couple of hours, she should be back any time,” Leah answered him.

Almost as if she’d been summoned, the door swung open and the rogue in question entered.

“Hey everyone,” Alera said grimly as she stepped into the middle of the room. For a moment, her green eyes locked onto Ethan’s. He felt his heart race.