In the very center of the small city of Lindum stood the residence of the local lord where he lived with his daughter. It was a very basic building compared to what other nobility might have built, but Lord Albinus Ventor wasn’t the type of lord to build such a home. He wasn’t a god or a king, he was just a simple lord of a small city on the northern border of the kingdom and it was something he was determined to never forget.

  Lord Albinus had tried to teach his son who at the time was the heir to the city and the surrounding lands, however a tragic incident involving a family friend of the lord resulted in the young lord having his title, his inheritance, and most of his things taken as he was banished from the land for the reminder of his life. Since then his daughter Gavia became his heir and was doing her best to learn everything she could for when the time came for her to become the lady of the land.

  While the young lady Gavia enjoyed learning and doing all the administrative tasks someone of her title should know she also enjoyed learning how to fight with her weapon of choice was a two handed war cleaver. It wasn’t the only weapon she knew how to use, it was however her favorite and what she was best at using.

  Lord Albinus would often finish up some of the lesser administrative tasks in the main hall while his daughter would be taking part in her sparing with her two teachers. Those two teachers being the ones who taught her how to fight with all the weapons she could use.

  The first teacher was an older gentleman and resident of the city named Cario, he taught her how to use a bow and throwing weapons which she quickly learned the basics of and kept practicing several times a week. The other teacher was a younger woman of roughly the same build as the young lady named Maria, she was the one to teach the young lady all of the close range weapons she knew how to use including the war cleaver.

  This was the routine that Lord Albinus and his daughter went through just about every time they could, however on this very day something happened that was out of the ordinary.

  Abruptly the large double doors leading to the outside opened and the captain of the city guard entered the hall with a stern expression on his face. He gave a small nod to lady Gavia but otherwise gave her no attention as he walked up to lord Albinus.

  “I am sorry to disturb you my lord.” The captain apologized as he gave a bow. “But there have been some developments regarding the bandits that you should know about.”

  Lord Albinus looked up from the table and over to his daughter how had stopped what she was doing to listen. After thinking for a moment he allowed her to stay and nodded signaling the captain to continue. “Very well captain, share with us these developments.”

  “We have in our custody several bandits that may have the location of the base of operations the bandits are using to conduct their raids. At the moment they are being interrogated in the dungeon, from what I last saw they were being very cooperative but the interrogator has his tools on standby incase that changes.”

  Lord Albinus turned his eyes towards his daughter who was looking at him with a slight touch of worry in her eyes. ‘I am sorry Gavia, I know you abhor torture but there sometimes isn’t any other way.’ Lord Albinus thought to himself as he closed his eyes for a moment, after which he replied to the captain.

  “Very good captain, keep me up to date on any further developments on the situation. Send me messenger pigeons if you must.”

  The caption gave a deep bow and turned and walked the same way he came, for a while his boots hitting the wooden floor was the only sound louder than the crackling of the fireplace in the middle of the room.

  Lord Albinus looked back towards the small area dedicated for his daughter's training and found it empty, she had left without saying anything and took her instructors with her. The aging lord let out a soft sigh as leaned back in his chair, his thoughts a swirling mess of what if’s and could haves.

  ‘Will the destruction of the bandits even make a difference? Even before they arrived trade was starting to slow as tensions between the kingdom and the empire rose, the war practically sliced it in half, and now we might be having another in a handful of years.’

  Lord Albinus stood up from his chair and turned to look out the one window in the whole building that could be considered decorative. He looked out upon the streets below that was just over one story above the ground, he rested his forehead against the glass as he felt the stress churning in his mind and body.

  ‘Whatever will I do?’

  ********

  Days and then a week passed as we searched just about every lead we could acquire from the bandits we had taken prisoner. Around half turned out to have actually good information, though most were just the locations of other groups affiliated with the bandits. One of those was a merchant buying and then selling stolen goods.

  “I demand you unhand me! I have done nothing wrong!” I listened to the merchant alongside Calavia and the sergeant. The merchant was one of the more wealthy travelers that had been coming and going through the region as of late, and now it looked like we understood why that was the case.

  “It is of no use Mr. Servius, we already have several of your business affiliates telling us of your dealings. They were the ones to tell us of your location.” The sergeant called out to Servius as everything but the thin clothes he was wearing was taken as evidence and piled onto a small wooden table. There were several bulging pouches of copper and silver pieces along with an assortment of other valuables and an expensive decorated cloak.

  “I swear what they are saying isn’t true, I only paid them to be allowed passage unharmed! I never bought anything from them!” Servius shouted as he was pushed into a holding cell.

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  “I never said you bought anything from them Mr. Servius.” The sergeant said with a smirk. “ for a while I was actually under the impression you were just selling them supplies, but these little trinkets right here I think are telling a different story.”

  The sergeant stepped forward to the table and picked up a silver dagger decorated with an encrusted blue sapphire. He ran his hands across the hilt and then the blade as if he was examining every little detail.

  “You see I recall around a month ago there was a dagger with the exact description of this one was reported stolen by one of the store owners in town. I wonder what they would say if I showed them this dagger, would they say it was theirs?” The sergeant leaned in close to the cell at the merchant that was now sweating solid stones.

  “Now is there anything that you think you are willing to get off your chest Mr. Servius? It might be the last thing you do of your own free will.” The merchant looked at the sergeant with wide terrified eyes as his hands slipped down the metal bars of his cell. Slowly his gaze turned downwards in a mix of shame and fear.

  “The leader of the bandits calls herself the butcher.” The merchant spoke in almost a whisper. “From the few interactions I had with her I figured out she is a high born, probably a former noble woman.”

  “And where did these interactions happen Mr. Servius?”

  “You won’t find anyone in those locations now, I always met them in small clearings that were chosen days in advance. The only way to find her would be their base of operations which I have never been to or even heard a peep about.”

  The sergeant looked at the merchant with his head hanging low for several moments before turning away and walking back towards the two of us.

  “Unfortunate he doesn’t know more, but you have done us a great service by bringing his actions to our attention.” The sergeant said to the two of us as he gave a small bow.

  “We are more than happy to help sergeant, also it would be both foolish and selfish to refuse to help when we can do something.” Calavia quickly responded with a soft smile on her face.

  “And don’t forget we are more than happy to help if you find any other leads and don’t have the manpower to follow it up on your own.”

  “Excuse me sergeant.” A voice suddenly piped up. We turned to look at the source and found a wood elf dressed in simple dark grey clothes with a belt full of sharp looking tools and a black sack with two holes on his head. “One of the prisoners was willing to share with me a location of significance, the location the bandits are using as the base of operations.”

  The room turned quiet for a moment as we processed what the sadistic looking wood elf told us, the first of which to say anything was the sergeant. “Are you absolutely certain of this Galan? We can afford no mistakes when it comes to something this important.”

  “I am more than certain sergeant, I already took two of the fingers off of his friend before he said anything and he knows what will happen if we find out he was lying.” The wood elf Galan waved two severed human fingers in front of us.

  “Do you have a map with the location marked down?” The sergeant eventually asked after turning his nose from the severed fingers.

  “Yes I do.” Galan gleefully answered as he reached into his back pocket and produced a map of the region. The sergeant opened the map up and just a day's journey south of the city was a location circled with red ink. The location was a good distance from any roads or other landmarks, it was a good place to avoid any wandering eyes, or to dispose of them should they accidentally find themselves there.

  “Did he give any more details regarding the amount of bandits at the location.” The sergeant asked as he closed the map and handed it to me.

  “He gave a few rough estimates, though he did admit the number could change dramatically depending on the amount of travelers or even if their leader was planning something. He said there would be at least fifty bandits there at all times and at most around one hundred.”

  “Thank you Galan, you may leave now. Enjoy the remainder of the day.” The sergeant said as he turned to face Calavia and myself. Galan, despite what I would have assumed, didn't seem all that offended after being dismissed, instead he just shrugged his shoulders and took a bite off of one of the fingers making an audible crunching sound like eating a carrot. Calavia turned his gaze away from the elf as she gagged, I tried to push the sound out of my mind, and the sergeant just ignored Galan like it was a normal occurrence.

  “Is that normal behavior of elves?” Calavia whispered once she thought Galan was far enough away. “I don’t think I have seen any others do anything like that.”

  “Fortunately that is something that just Galan does.” The sergeant replied, resulting in a mix of relief and confusion in both Calavia and myself.

  “Now I hate to ask this of you after everything you have done for us, but could you go with the men that will be sent to this location and help destroy the bandits? We will likely only be able to send a medium sized force to deal with the bandits as we still need to maintain order here in the city, the two of you however easily have the power of ten or twenty men each.”

  I could see the tension on the sergeant's shoulders and eyes as he asked us. I wasn’t certain if Calavia could also see what I could but she still made the right choice. “Of course sergeant. We have already helped you so far, we may as well deal the finishing blow to the looming threat you are facing.”

  I couldn’t help but smile lightly as she gave our answer, it was worded in a way only she could and I was more than happy with it.

  “Very good then.” The sergeant gave a smile of his own as his shoulders relaxed. “I shall speak with the captain about the matter and inform him of your voluntary decision to join the attack force. I suspect a just reward will be in order once you return with the heads of the bandit leadership plaguing the lands.”

  Without delay the sergeant gave us a small bow before turning to the stairs and climbing back out the dungeon leaving the two of us alone. The only living things around were the prisoners who likely didn’t care much for us.

  “Look at the two of us, hunting down bandits.” I half joked to Calavia as she came in for a deep hug.

  “Well this small city is about as good a place as any to build up a home, so we should probably make sure the place is safe enough to build something to last.”

  “That certainly is a good point.” I replied as I held Calavia in my arms for a moment. “What about the bandit leader though? How dangerous do you think she is going to be?”

  Calavia slowly pulled away as she was deep in thought. “I don’t know to be honest. Most of what we know about her came in the form of unreliable sources, those being the bandits who are absolutely terrified of her from what she did to the others who opposed her.”

  I nodded along as Calavia said what we both already knew which wasn’t much, the only thing we knew for certain was how dangerous she was with two handed swords and her brutal fighting style.

  “We will need to prepare with potions before engaging her in combat.” I said as I started looking through my bag. “Thankfully I know of a handful that should be able to give us an edge over her.” I pulled my hand back out with three glass bottles, each contained a unique colored liquid that glowed slightly indicating its magic.