Cowardice is only pushing on the toilet once the air escaped. Be a man! Shit that shit! - Provlov the Grumpy

His wounds did heal faster than Garvin could have imagined. The bandages might have smelled terrible, but they certainly did their job. The next day he could walk without his skin tearing with the movement. It still was stiff, it did feel weird and it still very much hurt, but he could move. It was a good thing, too. The trial was due tomorrow. This evening the Dragonslayer would be put down the chopping block, unless he could somehow make a difference.

Garvin cleaned up the books that littered the ground the same way he got his thoughts in order, slowly and one by one. First, needed to speak to the Dragonslayer. Then he had to convince the whole of Greed to let him go. How he would have to figure out along the way. The words of the witch were ringing in the back of his mind; Realise that only heroes can stand up for the individual.

He walked down the stairs like an old man, stiff and painful. He crossed a servant on his way down.

‘Master Garvin, shouldn’t you be resting?’

‘A cloudless morning brings clarity,’ Garvin said. ‘I am going to walk, it shall do me good.’

The servant bowed and continued about his chores. Garvin asked him where Maegis was so early in the morning. The servant said he had an important meeting.

He grabbed some pastries in the kitchen on the way out, then he moved towards the keep. That’s where the barracks were, and also the dungeons. The early merchants occupied their spots and the bakers finished their first rounds of fresh bread. Garvin moved trough the street, staying close to the walls. He didn’t want someone bumping against his charred skin. The city came alive as he devoured his treats, something he had time to witness every day since he lived here. And except for today he had time to enjoy that.

Soon he found himself in front of the keep. He had seen it almost everyday and it always felt protective. Like a stone giant ready to rise to any challengers. Now it felt oppressive. The dark stones rose and kept rising, seemingly endless.

The gate had an enormous, double portcullis. Arrowslits covering both sides of the gate. Only two guards were guarding the open gates, like they guarded the mouth of a terrible beast.

As garvin looked towards the top, it felt like the keep swayed slightly in the wind. Or maybe it was him who lost his balance.

Garvin approached them as he could feel his wounds thud like drums. The guards both wore a shiny cuirass and carried long halberds. Above them, on the wall, hung a drape with the city icon, to Garvin it looked like a gold windmill, with Greed written in purple underneath.

‘You,’ one of the daunting pair said as he came closer. ‘State your business.’

‘I want to speak to the Dragonslayer,’ Garvin said resolute.

‘He has no visitors,’ the guard simply stated. He probably expected someone who just wanted to have a chat. That was a grave understatement, however.

‘Don’t you know who I am?’ Garvin said. He tried to sound convinced of his right to enter. That’s what he noticed when Maegis acted or spoke. He always sounded sure of himself, and it somehow convinced all others. Maegis could convince the citizens to take off their clothes and dance naked in the streets.

‘I am Maegis protege, and I wish to speak to the man that almost burned me alive.’

The guard looked at each other, both waiting for their opinion on the matter. But they both remained silent as they try to think of the most diplomatic response.

Garvin did not gave them the time.

‘So what’s it going to be? Shall I return with Maegis? Or we can handle this like proper gentlemen?’ He internally cringed with the words gentlemen, but he couldn’t show any doubts now. Besides, clearly the guards had heard of what happened, and everyone in town knew Maegis.

The guards looked at his arm and back, but Garvin had hid his wounds well. He just eyed them, not moving an inch.

‘Fine, you may pass. But please don’t cause any trouble,’ the guard eventually said. They moved to the side and lifted their spears. Letting Garvin pass through. His steps echoed trough a long, arched tunnel.

‘Ask the next one you see for directions.’ they said when Garvin passed them. He couldn’t utter a single word, though. He just raised his right hand like he saw Maegis do so many times when begin served, and hoped it screamed confidence. He continued to walk.

At the end of the tunnel, because it was too large for an entryway, there was a closed door. There he knocked three times. A man wearing a simple tunic opened the door. Behind the man stretched a well lit hall, almost too bright after the dark tunnel he passed trough. It looked cosy enough, however, and that calmed his somehow.

‘May I help you sir?’

‘I wish to speak to the Dragonslayer,’ Garvin said.

‘Naturally,’ the man said in a laid-back tone. ‘I didn’t expect him to find an lawyer before the trial, however. You had connections with him before?’

‘You could say that,’ Garvin responded, going with the moment.

The man opened the door further and Garvin stepped in the light of the room. There were wooden stairs going up, and there were large doors some opened others closed. Garvin could see a large dining hall and bedrooms trough them. On the ceiling hung an enormous chandelier. It seemed calm. Besides the few men cleaning up the tables it was deserted. Garvin remembered it was only the early morning, most guards were starting their patrols or manned the towers now. The man opened a smaller one, and it revealed a round staircase that seemed to burrow itself underneath the castle.

‘Do you follow me, sir?’

Garvin would have preferred to take another door. But this was the only one that would take him to the Dragonslayer.

‘You must never gone in here before. I can see it on your face,’ he said when he turned around, then he carefully descended the stairs. ‘It’s quite intimidating here, isn’t it? They once told me to find something down here. The most haunting hours of my life.’

Garvin gulped. ‘What item did you need to find here?’

‘Ha, it was just a prank they did with the new ones. Sending them here with barely half an hour of light.’

‘Oh.’

‘They stopped doing that after we found someone dead.’ The man laughed loud, his voice resonated on the bare walls.

Once they arrived at the bottom, they walked trough enough dark corridors that soon he couldn’t remember where he found himself. It seemed a maze down here. Garvin hoped they wouldn’t encounter anything. And besides the occasional rat skiting in the dark just beyond, it was.

The man finally stopped by a door, and placed his torch in a holder. The door was made of a dark wood, reinforced by rusty iron bands.

‘We should have a small oil lamp in the room, but you can have mine,’ he said as he handed it over to Garvin.

‘Don’t you need one?’ Garvin asked.

‘I always bring a spare one, and a flask of oil big enough to spend day down here.’

Garvin shuddered by that thought.

‘I will be waiting by the door,’ the man said as he pushed a key trough the lock of the door en turned. They pushed the door open, as it resisted with a long groan.

Garvin thanked the man, and then stepped trough the door. As it fell shut behind him, Garvin couldn’t help thinking the man would turn the lock and trap him there. He took a deep breath and moved forwards, the light of his lamp danced with the shadows on the wall.

In the murk, chained up to the wall was the Dragonslayer. Dark hair veiled most of his face, except for his mouth. He looked calm yet was bleak and pale, in the darkness of the room.

‘Hey.’ Garvin’s shuffling feet echoed trough the barren room.

‘Hey,’ he said, barely moving his lips. One could hear he didn’t talk in a long time.

Now that Garvin was finally in reach of his childhood hero, knowingly this time, he didn’t know what to do. His focus had entirely revolved around getting to him. Now that he did, there was nothing. His mind was as blank as the cell they were in.

‘You’re gonna say something, or you’re just here for sightseeing?’

‘I am actually your lawyer.’ It was the only thing coming to mind.

‘I see.’

Garvin turned behind and looked at the door. Then manned up and stepped closer.

‘I need your cooperation, otherwise this won’t work.’

He got no answer.

‘So why enter this city when you are a wanted man here?’ Garvin tried again.

Nothing.

Garvin felt a sudden surge of anger. It was maddening to see him there, weak and passive. Like trying to help a drowning man, only to figure he can swim.

‘I deserve your attention! So bloody pay some!’

‘Do you now? What did you ever do for me?’ he said, rising to meet Garvin’s anger.

‘No, it’s about what you did for me.’ Garvin stepped forward pulled on his tunic, his wounds underneath his neck got visible. He watched his own burned skin, it filled him with anger and sorrow. A tear boiled up and slid to the top of his chin.

‘I am…’ the Dragonslayer stammered. ‘I never meant that to happen.’

‘Well it did, so if you have any sense of self-respect left, look at me.’

He Garvin at him with his charcoal eyes.

‘The boy from the shop,’ the Dragonslayer gasped.

‘The boy that you both harmed and saved,’ Garvin said. ‘And I’m here to fight for you. So think before you speak.’

Garvin, standing straight and holding a lamp in his hand. The Dragonslayer down in the dust, chained against a wall in the dark.

They stared at each other.

‘How do you want to help me?’ the Dragonslayer asked.

This time Garvin didn’t have any answers.

‘I don’t yet know. Your trial is due today, and if we don’t have any good defence, you die.’