They left the tavern arm in arm, singing loudly and a bit past tipsy. They walked in such a way for a few streets when Mahon heard it. At first he thought it was his imagination playing tricks on him or maybe it was the alcohol, but when he heard it for a second time, he recognized it. A scream.

He abruptly stopped and turned his head in the approximate direction of the sound. The third cry finally cut through his numbness and the adrenaline kicked in to chase away the remaining dullness of the night’s drinks.

“Stop the music. Zac! Stop the music!”

Zac put his hand flat on the cords to prevent them from vibrating further and looked startled at his duo. Seconds after, the singing died too and the other roommates turned to see what happened. Zac asked, his voice still loud from the party.

“Hey Mahon. What’s got into you? You wanna throw up or wh…”

A scream tore up the silent night, interrupting Zac. The roommates exchanged a surprised look and instinctively moved from relaxed postures to alerted stances.

“This way.” Mahon stated as he guessed the location of the noises.

The roommates nodded to each other and moved silently to follow Mahon. At the first intersection, they had to wait a bit before another scream reached them and they went back to the chase. The closer they approached, the more noises they heard and the faster they moved.

“It’s not just a brawl between drunkards, isn’t it?” Kali asked.

No one answered and the tension stepped up a notch. There were screams and muffled sounds, as if dozens of people were fighting against each other in a chaotic mess. Sometimes a heart-rending cry raised the hairs on the back of the First Red and they exchanged a look before increasing their speed.

At the bend of a street, they found a man huddled in a fetal position lying on the street. Zac and Allen rushed to assist him, and Mahon questioned the man while Wyrran and Kali guarded the alley.

“You ok? What happened to you?”

The man was rendered immobile by a fear that emanated from his terrified eyes. He stuttered something unintelligible and Mahon had to move closer to his mouth to make any sense out of it.

“Fada… I respect the Fada… I… I swear I respect the Fada…”

Zac stood up and exposed his own diagnosis.

“The man isn’t in danger. He got hit a few times but he is more afraid than hurt.”

Kali nodded and the group intuitively turned to Mahon, as if they were awaiting his decision.

“He speaks nonsense, clearly in a state of shock. Let’s get moving, we have to know what is going on.”

They ran again in the direction of the loud commotion until they came upon it. They stopped for a full second at the scene that played in front of them.

Close to a hundred people were fighting messily in an enclosed place. At the edge of the battle, men and women were crawling away from the brawl. Some were resting seated on the ground with their back on the wall. Others were lying unconscious. Most people seemed to be entangled in a fight they didn’t want to be part of and thus were moving away from it. In the hearth of the brawl, men with greenish tunics were fighting hands in hands with what looked like angry citizens.

The first were from the same group, whereas the others appeared to be a disparate group of normal people. It was presumably a fight between some kind of gang and random people, in the wrong streets at the wrong time. And it somehow got out of hand and turned into this mess. The roommates were almost at peace after they found out it was just a giant brawl when a green-coated man took out a knife and yelled.

“Praise the Fada!”

And he stabbed an innocent man that was trying to escape the fight. It was at that point that they realized blood was already tainting the cobbles of the otherwise charming little square.

Multiple corpses were draining out of blood, eyes glazed, in the middle of the fray. What was at first sight a big brawl between drunkards was now obviously displayed for their eyes.

A group of men were murdering people in the streets and citizens were fighting for their life and tried to keep the group away from their terrorized family hiding nearby.

The roommates didn’t hesitate further and rushed to assist the frightened citizens. Mahon showed some restraint, however, as he knew he was not fit enough to fight in this condition. He swore once at his frailty before regaining his composure and changing his mindset.

Most of the time, a commander was not fighting. Instead, he was planning, organizing, ordering and overseeing. And though it had been long since he had needed to act like one, it just went back on with a single thought and suited him up like a second skin.

Mahon kept an eye on his roommates while he went to the men and women running away from the fight. The first man he stopped just shoved him off and pursued his mad escape. The woman he halted next actually paused to listen to him.

“Please direct the flow of people that way and prevent them from stamping on the injured.”

The woman threw a worried look behind her.

“My husband is still in there! Can’t you help him?”

Mahon pointed to his roommates rushing in the fray and then shook the woman so that she looked back at him.

“Assistance is already arriving. Please do as I say and tell the same to the other people.”

The woman took a deep breath and bravely executed. Like that, Mahon recruited a few fleeing citizens and redirected them where he needed them. Within a minute, he had organized the back line and some strong guys were already moving the injured to a place where a supposed nurse was checking their state.

Most people knew what to do in case of a crisis after the first moments of fear and stress. They just needed someone to guide them in the right way and they would then act instinctively towards a common solution.

After igniting that spark of courage and clarity, Mahon focused on the actual fight. His roommates were better fighters than their opponents and they had managed to prevent further deaths up to now. They were not enough to repel the green robes, but they at least could stall until reinforcements arrived. Mahon went to see the first woman he had stopped to answer the few questions he had in mind.

“Tell me what happened in two sentences.”

Under the authoritative order, she paused what she was doing and nodded in comprehension. Mahon was pleased to see lucidity in her eyes as she looked back at him after a few seconds of musing.

“We were having a party in the streets with the neighbors when these fanatics arrived. They claimed to purge us of our sins against the Fada and as we chased them away, they turned crazy and attacked us.”

“Numbers?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“How much are they?”

“Maybe twenty? Thirty?” She said while pointing to the group and looking at him as if he could count himself. Mahon changed his approach as he realized he was not talking to a trained soldier.

“Are they all there?”

The woman glanced at the fight hesitantly. “I think yes.”

“Ok. So none of them went to these side alleys?” He pointed to the different openings in the plaza.

“Oh, right… I… I think I saw two of them run after uncle Durlan there.”

“You sure? Breath and take your time to answer. We’re in a rush but I would prefer certainties in a minute than half-truth now.”

She nodded and said nothing for a few seconds before she felt confident enough in her answer.

“Yes, I’m sure, they are all here except for two that went into that alley.”

“Perfect. Thanks.” Mahon acquiesced encouragingly before continuing. “You mentioned fanatics. You know who they are?”

“No, no, I don’t know them! They just arrived suddenly and attacked us! They...”

Mahon calmly interrupted her.

“Why do you think they are fanatics?”

“They mentioned the Fada and said we were not respectful enough. They were screaming about Fada and their glory and things like that...”

“Hmm… Cultists then. Is there a church, a religious circle or some kind of building related to the Fada nearby?”

The woman shook her head negatively.

“When they first arrived there, did you notice a leader, a chief or someone giving orders?”

Again, she shook her head.

“Ok. Where are the nearest city guards? Did you send someone there?”

The woman horrifyingly pointed to the alley she had previously indicated.

“Uncle Durlan… He was the one to go, but...”

She couldn’t continue and Mahon had to shake her a bit before she was focusing again.

“Do you have anything loud or luminous we could use to draw the attention of the guards?”

She seemed to think a bit before hesitantly pointing to a wooden box abandoned near the remains of the party’s meal. When he realized what it was, Mahon nodded, satisfied.

“Go and light them all together.”

“All together? But…”

“Drop some matches in the box and run to safety.”

“But… And the crowd?” She gestured worriedly to the people still fighting in the center of the place.

“I’ll deal with it, just go.”

Mahon walked closer to the ongoing battle and put his fingers in his mouth. He blew and a short but loud whistle reverberated. It went mostly unnoticed among the raucous noises from the fight, except for that one person.

Zac pushed away his direct opponent and turned around to look for his duo. Mahon waved and once his friend located him, he gestured to the running woman with lightened matches in hand. He saw Zac turning his head a bit further and his eyes went wide as he realized what was at the end of the woman course. He turned back and shouted to Wyrran, Kali and Allen, that were fighting beside him.

Mahon ran back to the injured lying on the floor and the persons tending to them. He pushed down a table that was near them in the hope of offering some protection. He threw a glance above the improvised shelter just in time to witness the woman throwing the matches in the box before hiding past the corner of a street.

In a powerful flash of light and a thunderous bang, more than one hundred fireworks went off at the same time. The dark night was lightened up for long seconds as sparks of red, blue, green and yellow teared up the sky.

Mahon smirked at the deafening uproar he had triggered.

Hi, guards.

The silence that followed the explosion was eerie and Mahon jumped over the table to see how his roommates had handled the blast after he had warned them.

His four comrades were already back on their feet and were disabling some of the stunned cultists, whereas the citizens were gradually standing up with surprised looks. Most of them took the opportunity to run away from the fight and went near Mahon and the others.

Eventually, the cultists managed to overcome the surprise of the explosion and reorganized their ranks. Mahon counted sixteen of them still standing for ten down. Still way too much for the four First Red.

We just need a bit more time before the guards arrive.

Mahon walked to the cultists and stopped when he was only a few meters away from them. He took his best drill instructor's voice and yelled.

“The fuck is going on there??!”

His roommates and the cultists looked equally surprised by his interruption, as they were both ready to start fighting again.

“You dare fight under the Colors of the Fada that fade into the night? I request a negotiation!”

He then walked authoritatively to his roommates and gestured for them to come closer to him for a talk. The stunned cultists had still not moved, and they were quite indecisive about what to do now. When Mahon was close enough, Zac asked him quietly.

“What did you say? I have no idea what you meant.”

Mahon shrugged. “Yes, I surprised myself, too. I think I got a bit carried away.”

His roommates just looked at him with wide-open eyes as if he was a madam and so he continued.

“Good news is the guards should be a minute or two away now.”

Understanding dawned upon them as Zac grinned wildly and Allen repressed a chuckle.

“So... what’s the next step?”

“I have no idea. Let’s stay like that until they realize something is wrong.”

The farce lasted just enough for the guards to intervene before they were put in a difficult situation. Except for some hard punches, the roommates were all fine and only Allen had been slightly injured by a knife. Zac bandaged him while the guards took over and chased the cultists down.

The real danger having been avoided, it was now time to tidy up and understand what exactly had happened.