Dorian paced, holding his hands tightly behind his back. He was observing the building across the street. It had been suspiciously quiet for a while now.

“Gladiel,” he suddenly said, “How much more time left on that sundial of yours.”

Gladiel licked his lips “We still got a few minutes left to go cap'n,”

The groups tension hit a new high, waiting before the fight was always the most nerve wracking. People started checking the edges on their weapons, here and there people were pacing. Trying to prepare himself mentally for any situation Dorian kept staring at the building.

Viyella was fidgeting with her hair keeping an eye on the building as well. Dorian could almost feel the nerves of the other members.

I have to do something about it.

“Snax, Axe you guys have some of that ale with you?”

“But of course cap'n we aint goin anywhere without a sip of our good ol' ale”

Dorian grinned “How about giving us a taste of that brewing you're so proud of,”

Snax winked, “As you command cap'n!”

The twins uncovered a small cask each which they had been carrying beneath their cloaks. Axe waggled his eyebrows. “We was prepared for a victory drink, might as well have sip now ay?”

To everyones astonishment the two had actually acquired enough mugs for everyone. Dwarves never really ceased to amaze. Olgrin wasn't surprised in the least, he had brought a set of mugs himself.

They held the mugs under the casks and filled a mug each. The mug filled with rich golden liquid and was topped of expertly by the dwarves to form a some clean white foam. Dorian sat himself down against a wall and took a sip, the cold ale made its way down his throat and burned its way down to the stomach. Where it hit with a splash of satisfaction. Warmth spread through his body.

“That really hits the spot.” Dorian said face flushed.

“Don't it?” Snax said back straight, grinning with pride. The rest of the group stepped forward to get some ale for themselves. Soon enough they were sitting in a circle enjoying themselves over some great dwarven ale. Even the elves among them enjoyed the taste of the ale, and that said something.

It had worked like a charm, everyones nerves were quelled. Cern was laughing at the foamy mustache on Viyella who had never had any ale or the like before. Soon enough the rest of them joined in the laughter. Viyella blushed and wiped the foam mustache.

Gladiel refrained from having a mug, he had caught on to what Dorian was doing and kept an eye on the building and the dial in his hands. Gladiel was the most cold-blooded of them all, Dorian felt reassured leaving some tasks in his hands. Which made him think of something.

“I'd like to make Gladiel my second in command, what do you guys think? “

Gladiel looked back in surprise, then shrugged and went back to observing the building. The rest of the group just voiced their consent, Cern slapped his shoulder congratulating him. Gladiel checked his sundial one more time, giving Dorian a short nod he got up.

“Right, Guys time to get to work, lets have some more of that ale once we're done!”

The group grinned but then joined him in walking to the building. Dorian set himself up on one side of the door, he looked at Farial, Firail and Viyella. They put an arrow on their bows and aimed at the door. He looked everyone over once more, then took a deep breath and kicked the door open.

Three arrows zoomed past his ears piercing the vital spots of 3 thugs close to the door. Dorian immediately shifted to the back of the room, Grabbing hold of a thugs chin then cleanly slitting his throat. The four legionnaires were the first to rush in together with the 3 dwarves. They made short work of the thugs closest to the door.

The rest entered soon after, some magic spells went flying throughout the room taking down enemies to far away for the front line. Arrows hissed through the air, Dorian quickly shifted from enemy to enemy taking down those out of the line of sight. Within seconds their were none of the thugs left. No death throes to be heard, every attack had been aimed at a vital spot.

Dorian took a deep breath and cast a gaze over his team, no injuries to be detected. The entry had been swift and clean. Not wanting to waste time Dorian started the search for the latch that would lead them into the sewers. After a few minutes they found it, Dorian took a deep breath and headed opened the hatch.

Before them was the expected hallway, Dorian told the dwarves to lead the way. Dorian and his team carefully made their way down into the sewers. It became dark around them, air pungent. They decided against using torches, favoring the surprise over the extra vision. Lalin made sure to carefully check for life signs using her magic.

After a few minutes of carefully mapping the labyrinth that was the sewers, they came across another group of the thugs. There weren't that many of them this time, a dozen at most. Dorian signaled the 3 archers, letting them know they were to take two each, Lalin would take three, Dorian would take the other three himself.

A deep breath, then he shifted behind one of the thugs. Arrows hissed through the air once more quickly taking care of their targets. Dark stains of shadow flew through the air slipping into the throats of three unaware guards. Who to their horror were suddenly no longer able to breath. As for Dorians targets, a knife to the throat and two thrown needles quickly dispatched of the targets he had picked.

Cleaning his knife on the enemies tunic, and then retrieving his needles he stood up and looked at the corpses on the ground around him. Even for criminals these people had been terribly armed. Their clothes and armor were worn and tattered. Their weapons had niches and showed signs of rust. He took a closer look at the corpses, they even showed signs of malnourishment. So poor they had didn't have enough for food. The thought honestly bothered Dorian a bit, he didn;t really blame people for sinking into criminality when they were so hungry their stomach was snipping at their spines.

Snow, corpses on the floor. Ribs showing, black finger tips.

Dorian shook his head in an attempt to clear it, visions? Was this an effect of his Internal magic? He would have to ask Shun when he got back to the base. Dorian gave himself a mental slap, he had to focus. He was responsible for his teams lives, he had no time to be distracted.

He ignored the bodies at his feet and motioned his men further down the sewers, they still had a ways to go before they reached the meeting point. They continued to carefully make their way through the sewers once more.

After they cleared another group guarded by the thugs Dorian looked at the bodies and the faces of the people at his feet. One of them was a very skinny woman with blond hair and blue eyes. Her eyes had glazed over but her face triggered yet another vision.

Woman, basket of fishes, offer. Smiles.

Dorian wondered if he was seeing memories of the people before him. He looked over to a man who was laying face down in a pool of his own blood. He gently turned the corpse over and looked at the face of the surprisingly young man.

Laughing, throws axe, hits target, triumphant smile.

The visions felt oddly familiar, a sense of connection with the victims? Another side effect of the excretion of atoms perhaps. It was throwing Dorian of his game. Taking a deep breath he tried to shake off the odd sensation.

Lalin stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder, looking at him in concern. He looked back into her savage brown eyes, her pale skin was unusually flushed. Her eyes filled with concern and some unspoken emotions.

“I'm ok,” he whispered, “Just a headache.”

Lalin nodded but the concern did not leave her eyes. Fortunately it was not that much further till the meeting point. The made their way to the crossing, about half of the other teams had already arrived. Dorian joined them with a simple greeting.

The other soldiers nodded their acknowledgment and went back to preparing themselves for battle.

The atmosphere was tense, here you saw soldier sharpening his sword with slightly trembling hands. Over there one of them was cleaning a boot that was already showing his reflection. The captains were sitting in a circle, not talking but studying the map on the ground insistently.

Dorian joined the captains and sat down, the captains didn't look up and concentrated on the map.

Now they just had to wait till the others arrived. A waiting game once more, not his favorite thing to do.

Instead i didn't let sk8later do his thing. That way i could still post one today. I don't think i made any mistakes but you never know.

Thanks for reading!