I look around the small room I paid for. No wanted posters seem to be up yet so I should be safe for the night. It has been three weeks since the incident. Thankfully it should take some more time for the news to get here. I look at myself in the small mirror, I can barely see myself in it because of how dirty it is. I rub a cloth against it to clean it.

Brown eyes look back at me, my short black hair dirty from all the traveling and rushing. My face no longer cleanly shaved, it gives me a rustic look. Especially the dirt. Using a water basin to wash for the first time in weeks, I feel slightly better. Guilt is still gnawing at my heart for the atrocities committed. I have been fighting a losing battle against myself, blaming the demon for my actions, but I should have known. I should have known. How could I have been so stupid as not to see that it was manipulating me?

I barely notice the blood dripping down my fist, a result from hitting the mirror. I turn away and sit on the bed. Barely more than two planks of wood with some hay beneath some thick cloth. It does the job I guess. I close my eyes and concentrate inward. I now know I did something terribly stupid at the village. But I do not regret it. In a desperate attempt to stop the demon from killing, I somehow took control back, but at what cost.

Looking inwards, I go deeper and deeper, something I never managed to do before. There deep inside myself, I see my soul, broken in two pieces. The smaller piece containing the terrible demon. Slowly I can feel it mending, and with it, the demons influence, but also power. So much power. Concentrating, I break up the small connexions between the two pieces yet again. Unimaginable pain strikes me, so sudden and sharp I don't even have time to scream before it's over.

Sweat drips down my forehead and I'm panting. I know I have lost at least 3 skills. Two were minor, but the loss of [Burst of speed] is really going to make things difficult. I still have [Double Strike] and [Piercing Thrust], which should be enough for most situations. I look towards the bed and see the dirty cloak I found in one of the dumpsters, it has holes and stinks but I can't be picky right now. I try to wash it with the rest of the water to at least take some of the stink out and I'm only mildly successful.

Opening the door I walk down to the main room of the inn. The wooden floors and tables sticky in some places, clean spots more scarce than clean ones. This looks more like a den for thieves and murderers than an Inn but it's perfect to hide. And maybe deep down, I don't think myself above them anymore. I have done much worse than any of these rough drunkards. Spotting a lone table in a corner I walk towards it. I spot the kid from the village standing by the door. I wonder if he will try to kill me again tonight. I don't blame him. How could I?

Sitting down I order some food and wait. I look around once more, this time scanning the crowd for more followers. I don't recognize anyone, and most of them seem drunk. I should be in the clear. A drunk comes and sits down in front of me. He is large and has seen more than one brawl it would seem.

"Never seen you around here before eey?" he slurs the words, smirking at me.

"Piss off." I hiss at him. I know these kinds of men and there is only one language they understand.

"Hey, I'm only tryin to be friendly my friend." His face a mockery of a shocked one.

"Go be friendly over there." I point towards the other end of the room. I just hope to intimidate him is enough to avoid the fight I know he is looking for. These kind of places are never kind to newcomers.

"Hey, Bert, Charles, do you know why this guy doesn't want to be my friend?" He asks across the room to another group of drunks.

"It's because you stink Jack." Laughs erupt from the group.

"You gonna just let a newcomer push us around?" He looks around the room.

"As long as he is just pushing you around, fine by me!" Another round of laughs come out of the group. A big burly man approaches us, from his tabard I'd guess it's the innkeeper.

"Cmon Jack, not again. This isn't your territory or something. Just leave the man alone." Sighing, he adds what must be yet another favor for the man.

"I'll give you a beer on the house, come on." Slowly turning towards me again, he starts to get up.

"Well, ain't it yer lucky day." Well, this somehow worked out. Before walking away, he trips and falls down. Quickly standing up he shouts.

"He tripped me! The bastard!" Knowing it will be useless to contest him now, I stand up and punch him as hard as I can before he can stand up again. The room goes silent as all eyes are upon me. Jack is out on the floor. I turn towards the innkeeper and throw him a silver coin.

"For your troubles." Catching the coin, he mumbles a thank you before striding off, leaving Jack on the floor. The noise slowly resumes in the inn, but I catch several of the men eyeing me. Not knowing how strong I actually am should make them hesitate long enough for me to not be in any more trouble before I leave tomorrow morning, especially if I play my cards right.

Finishing my bland meal, I walk to the counter up to the innkeeper. Producing another 2 silver coins, I raise my voice high enough for some of the others to hear me.

"Will this cover expenses for two more days?" Nodding in response, he quickly pockets the money and continues scrubbing glasses with a dirty towel. Without looking back I go up the stairs to my room. With this, I should be safe for the night. Closing my door, I nevertheless put a chair against it after locking it.

I lay down on the bed, thoughts swirling inside my heads about everything that happened. Fatigue of the journey finally hits me and I fall asleep.

I wake up to the sound of the door being pushed against the chair used to block it. I jump out of bed suddenly very awake. I quickly put on my cloak and take my bag on my shoulder. The door is slightly open, but blocked by the chair, someone unlocked it before trying to open it. The lads from earlier? Seems unlikely for them to have such thieving skills.

Without waiting for the intruders to make it through the lone wooden chair blocking them, I open the window and jump down. My feet ache from the two-story fall. It's deep in the night now, and only the main streets have lights on them. My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness. I start to move out but stumble on some crates I missed. I see movement from the corner of my eyes. There are more than one. As I look behind me I notice there are actually two people blocking that way. I quickly look at the other end of the alley and see two there as well. Covered in black leathers and black masks, they are hard to see and I mostly make them out due to the light of the main street in front of the inn. So they did cover their bases.

Knowing my best chance is to make this a two vs one rather than being completely surrounded, I rush ahead to meet two of the assassins before me. Instead of meeting me head on, they simply try to slow me down with projectiles I can barely make out. Dodging the two thrown from the ones in front, I forget about the other two behind me. A knife lodges itself in my right shoulder. Pulling it out, I throw it at one of the assassins behind me and continue to rush. As I approach them I use [Double Strike] right of the bat trying to create an opening I can use to make it out of this alley. Parrying one of the blows, the other doesn't cut deep.

In the rush of the moment, I feel something stir inside me. I quickly push down the fear welling up inside me. As I do I feel something new. Or maybe something I have felt for a while but didn't want to admit. Power. Looking behind me I see the assassins caught up and I'm completely surrounded. Puzzled why they don't attack, I slowly move to put a wall behind me. Content to leave me be, they are all combat ready nonetheless.

Unnatural fatigue slowly makes itself known and I understand what is going on. The knife was poisoned. Anger, an emotion I've been more easily prone to recently, surfaces. Anger at my attackers, angry at my carelessness. Determined not to croak in some dark alley, I decide to try all or nothing. Having lost my best skill and some other things, this is my only option to make it out of here alive.

I draw from the power deep inside of me and the exhilaration I feel from wielding it makes me smile at these lowly worms. With a slash of my sword, a red arc of energy is sent towards my foes. Two of them are caught by surprise, one losing a leg, the other losing his life. Stopping myself from continued drawing, the feeling of power leaves me. I feel like something is missing, but dismiss the thought as I have more pressing issues right now. Rushing out by the opening created, I make it out of the alley before the assassins dare to move against me.

I rush towards the light of the main street and take a left turn away from the inn. Turning my head to look behind me, I see no signs of my pursuers. Further away I spot a patrol of knights. Running towards them, I see them turn towards me.

"Halt!" He turns towards his knights and adds something I can't make out. Why do they seem to be hostile? A movement catches my eyes and I think I saw a shadow move on one of the rooftops. Must be the assassins. The knights start to run towards me, weapons drawn.

What the fuck is going on! I turn to the other direction and start running for my life. It's one thing to kill assassins, but knights? Anger, again. Two streets later I turn in an alley. The knight's footsteps can be heard behind me. The assassins still probably hot on my tail I run for all I'm worth. The alley only turns right, and as I turn the corner I see that it leads to another main street. Not where I want to go. I hear the knight's footsteps getting closer and decide I'd rather run than be caught right now. As I get out of the alley into the street I bump into someone. My hood falls off my face at the impact.

The knights quickly surround me, weapons drawn. Then I see the person I bumped into.

"Men, sheath your weapons! I know this man." A large smile on his face, Mike stretches out a hand to help me up. I take it when the other patrol of knights come out of the alley. They stop and Mike turns towards them.

"I got it from here lads."

"Yes, sir!" echoes in the empty streets. Some people have opened their windows to get a look at the commotion, most of them looking pissed of at being woken up. Not daring to yell at knights, they quietly close the windows and go back to sleep.

"So, Reagan, what are you doing running this late at night?" His genuine smile a relief after an eventful night.

"Some assassins, you know how the competition gets." I try to joke it off.

"Captain, isn't he the criminal we are supposed to apprehend?" One of the knights speaks up.

"Reagan, a criminal? Hah, no that can't be, the criminal must still be close by, continue to patrol. Tom, you are in charge. You don't need me to babysit you on this assignment do you?"

"Sir, no sir!" The knights quickly form up a two-man column and continue on their way.

"Come on Reagan, I know a good tavern still open, and we got a lot of catching up to do." Gently patting me on the shoulder he starts walking. Unsure if I should follow him, I finally decide it's the safer bet.

We soon arrive at a large tavern, the atmosphere much nicer than my previous inn, no hostility in the air. Mike finds us a quiet table and soon we each have our own drink in front of us.

"So, back from your last mission already? Where is the company staying?" Not sure how honest I should be here, I stay silent for a bit. Mike's face turns serious before he speaks.

"That bad? What happened?" Concern on his face, I take a sip of liquid courage before I speak.

"The company, it's all gone, Mike."

"What do you mean all gone? Did you disband?" he asks with a shocked expression.

"No, I'm the only one left Mike." My voice is trembling, all the emotions I bottled up until now coming out. Anger, sadness, powerlessness, they all envelope me. I see Mike hesitate, not knowing how to phrase it perhaps so he keeps it simple.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Max too." I sigh, it's all still unreal like they might still show up somehow. My mind knows, but my heart cannot accept it.

"I'm so sorry."

Having been alone for the last weeks, I start telling him about the mission, about the priests. I keep out the fact that I got possessed and about the village, but leave nothing else out. He stays quiet, refraining from asking questions as I keep going about it all.

"Fucking hell." He finally says after I'm done.

"Those Kathar priests should all get hanged. Fucking Empire and their twisted ways to power." It's rare to see Mike angry and in a twisted way its comforting to see him get angry for me. Old friends as we might be, that was in another life now. A life we all left well behind us.

Feeling better I try to change the subject.

"Who is this criminal you are patrolling for?"

"We only got a description and nothing else. Not supposed to kill him but capture him alive." Could they be after me? It's too much of a coincidence.

"When did you get the order? Seems serious." I try to keep my tone neutral.

"We got it tonight, emergency and all. Apparently, he arrived yesterday evening." Shit, yeah that's me no doubt.

"Well good luck. By the way, you don't happen to know where Bianca is nowadays?"

"Bianca? Haven't heard that name in a while." He frowns.

"Last I heard she was visiting the Grey tower, but that was at least three years ago." He looks at me apologetically.

"Well, at least that's a start."

"Wait, you aren't doing what I think you are right?" He looks at me, serious.

"What? Oh, no don't worry, I'm never going back to being an adventurer. You know I never could." The atmosphere tenser as we both recall some unpleasant memories. We deviate from the subject to less important subjects. Trying to make small talk and catch up, mostly talking about Mike as I don't really want to talk about me right now.

Several drinks later, comfortable silence reigning over our table now, both slightly tipsy, Mike stands up.

"Be right back, gotta take a leak."

Looking at his broad back disappear behind a door, I pick up my bag and leaves before he comes back. The sun is low on the horizon, the first morning rays shining on the city. Wary of my surroundings, hoping the assassins aren't still waiting, I make my way to the northern stable just outside the city.

Trying another approach this morning I discarded the hood to hide my face, as that seems to be what the knights are looking for. I go up to the stable boy and ask for his fastest horse, promptly paying him. I don't have much money left but it will have to do. Jumping on the back of the horse I take off, the sun laying long shadows along the way. Lets hope news doesn't travel faster than me or it might get tricky to get out of the city.

With one last look backward, I think about my wife and kid, waiting for my return home. I'm both sad and happy I didn't go to them first. Afraid of what would happen if I would lose control when I'm with them. Turning forward I ride ahead, forcing myself to think about a happier future where all of this could be behind me somehow, with things back to how they used to be.