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Redrick is done with all the shit and Marten and Co continue faffing about.

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Zik stood in the police station, bearing witness to a horrifying scene. On the floor of the evidence room lay the body of an officer. Nearby sat the man who had survived the encounter. Next to Zik was the lioness he had met on the road to the capitol. As it turned out, she was the chief’s second in command. The chief himself was also in the room, a hard expression on his face. He spoke to the other officer. “It must have been Arbalest. The pendant he stole, was it the same one from the site of Hayate’s murder?”
The other officer nodded. “Yes, sir. It was.”
Zik shook his head. “One day and they’re already stirring up trouble. I’m willing to bet this ‘Arbalest’ character was travelling with Marten, and entered the city with him.”
A few felines entered the room with a stretcher and bore the body off. Zik shook his head in disgust. “So he just walked in, killed one of your men and walked back out?”
The chief nodded slowly. “Seems like it. I’m having the guard at the door flogged.”
Zik walked out of the room. “Don’t bother. Have someone sketch his face and put up some wanted posters. If we find him, we’ll find the others.”

Tezar had been given time to rest, along with most of the other soldiers, if only for a few hours. It was getting late in the night, after all. Instead, though, she ignored the rest period, shouldered her equipment and joined the police already out searching. The streets were quiet and dark, and there was no one around. Atrieans loved their sleep so much almost no one was out after dark unless they had to. Although Tezar had been ordered to rest, she felt she could stay up all night. Tezar was once a resident of the capitol, and walking the streets again instilled her with sadness. She had spent a few years here with Ocara, her mate, and now the sight of the familiar surroundings was bringing up happy memories. Of course, those memories had turned sour as Ocara took his last breath. Determined, Tezar sped up, and kept her acute vision focused on anything that might be out of place.

~~~

Redrick dragged his feet down the corridor with the Regent’s tray of food. It was very late at night, and the Regent had been conferring with Orli, who had returned earlier that night. Redrick stopped just outside the door to listen in. He only had to swivel his ears around to listen to what was going on in the room. Orli had just finished her account of the battle, and the Regent was mulling it over. “I would say good work, Orli, but when the general sent you here you assured me the ambush would have minimal casualties. Twenty percent is not minimal.”
Orli sounded disappointed in herself. “I know, sir. I didn’t anticipate the fight they put up. We slaughtered them in the end.”
“Yes, indeed you did. Now we must turn our attention to the approaching army to the north, and a possible counter attack from the south.”
“I suggest we push south and crush whats left of the canines there. They can hold out up north until then.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, but will think about it. Go get some sleep, my food will be here shortly.”
It was at that moment Redrick decided to step through the door. He stepped out of Orli’s way and towards the Regent’s table. He placed the tray there and began walking out, the fur on his back raising as he hoped the Regent would not speak. He was almost to the door when- “Redrick.”
He stopped and turned around slowly. “How was the festival?”
“It was fine, sir.”
“Did you see the fire dancers?”
Redrick was confused. Hadn’t the guards that dragged him and Myri off told the Regent anything? Redrick just nodded. The Regent sat down to dinner and dug in. “Mmmf… Who would have guessed? Fray a rapist. Heh, and I thought I could trust him.”
Redrick honestly didn’t know if the Regent was playing with him or not. Zhoe continued. “I hear Myri fainted after I executed Fray. Good thing you were there to catch her, hm?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Regent flicked a bone at Redrick’s head. “No, it wasn’t. I have strict rules, Redrick. There will be no romantic notions among my workers, understood?”
“Yes sir.”
Redrick’s words sounded sincere, but his mind was dripping with malice for the Regent. “Good. Get out of here.”
Redrick left. Now that Fray’s plan (which Redrick knew about from the start) had failed, and the army to the south defeated, he had lost all hope. Redrick ignored everything the Regent had said and went directly to Myri’s room. He briefly wondered why the Regent kept her in her own room still, after all that had happened. Maybe he didn’t want to look suspicious by moving her to the slave pen. It didn’t matter. It gave him some privacy, anyway. He stepped through her door and sat at the table next to her bed. She lay there, and it looked like she was fast asleep. “Myri?”
There was no response. Redrick really didn’t want to wake her. It looked like a very peaceful sleep. “Myri, I think you were right. The Regent needs to die for what he’s done. Now that Fray is dead, and the army in the south is defeated, it looks like we’ve run out of hope. I’m sorry things had to happen this way, Myri.”
He reached out, hesitated, and let his paw rest on her head. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, I’m sorry your father is missing, I-I’m sorry for falling in love with you…”
Redrick sniffed, and a pair of tears tumbled from his eyes and soaked into his clothes. “I’m sorry for everything. I’ll make things right, though. I promise you that.”
He gave he head a couple strokes and stood to leave. As he did there was a rustle, and a paw shot out and grabbed his arm. He whirled around, and there was Myri, tears streaming down her face, arm outstretched. “Redrick, don’t leave…”
His eyes widened, and his face flushed red. “You… were awake?”
She tugged on his arm. “Sit down, please.”
Redrick did, but on the bed next to Myri. “I was awake, yes. I heard every word you said.”
“Oh…”
She squeezed his arm harder. “You can’t go, Redrick, you’ll get yourself killed. I know I want him dead too… but just look at what happened to Fray! I-I can’t let that happen to you.”
Redrick blinked, his lower lip quivering. “Myri, I-”
She pulled him suddenly into a tight hug. “Please Redrick… I can’t lose you too…”
Redrick cursed himself. “I have to, Myri. We can’t keep living like this…”
This caused Myri to sob quietly into Redrick’s shoulder. It broke his heart to hear her like this. He reached up and stroked her crimson fur once more, unable to speak. After a few minutes, Myri pulled back and met Redrick’s eyes. “A-at least… Stay here for tonight.”
Redrick gulped. “But… It’s against the rules.”
“To hell with the rules. Stay.”
Redrick slowly nodded, then leaned forward to kiss Myri.

~~~

Pil rarely slept on a regular basis, only taking long naps when sleep eventually overtook him. It ruined any chance of him ever having a good night’s sleep, but he barely noticed how it affected him. That night, he was especially restless, given all that was happening. He though he had a plan, but they needed to act quickly if their chances where to be good. And for that to happen, Drifrasa’s Dagger needed to be finished. So, before the blacksmiths could quit for the day, Pil ran out his chamber doors and towards the forge. As he entered the room, the heat blasted his face, and he felt as though his fur might smolder. He ran to the railing overlooking the forge below, and shouted to the blacksmiths as they packed up their gear. “Hey!”
They looked up. “You can’t stop now! Finish my project first!”
There was groaning among them, and once shouted up. “Aw, c’mon! It’s late, and we’re tired!”
Pil stomped his foot. “Then get it done quickly! You’ve got the main body cast, correct?”
“Yes, but it’s not cool yet!”
“Then wait for it to be! Make sure it’s hollow and exactly to specs. Don’t forget the ammunition!”
“But-”
Pil sighed and leaned forward. “I’ll give you all of tomorrow off, how about that?”
The blacksmiths looked at each other and grinned. “Yeah, sure!”
Pil turned around and left without another word. The blacksmiths went about cooling the great metal tube, as well as creating the wheeled cart for the thing and it’s ammunition.

~~~

The four friends sat around the bookstore, snoozing. Arbalest was the only one awake, the rest having dozed off in the comfy reading chairs they had discovered in the other room. He was holding the amulet in his paw, staring at it. It was a rather plain looking thing, pinkish red with a swirl terminating at the bottom of the stone. It was set into a pretty sizable metal plate, which hung parallel to the ground. Arbalest slowly took hold of the stone, and inserted his claw into a secret hole in the metal plate. With a click, it swung outwards. Inside was a very small, but very, very detailed sketch. It was of Arbalest and feline. They had an arm around each others shoulders, and were smiling good naturedly. Arbalest quickly shut the clasp as tears rolled down his face, and he wept bitterly for his lost friend. Unbeknownst to him, Kathresh was not asleep. She watched him from the corner of her eye. After a few minutes, Kathresh’s entire perception of him had changed. She opened her mouth. “Arbalest?”
His breath caught in his throat, and for a second, Kathresh feared he wouldn’t start breathing again. But he did, doing a terrible job of trying to hide his tears. “Y-yes?”
“Something wrong?”
She sat up, and leaned forward, looking him in the eye. He looked down at the amulet, closing it with a click. “No…”
“So crying into a necklace is a normal thing for you then?”
Arbalest said nothing. Kathresh joined him on his chair, which was quite wide. Arbalest made an effort to look up. “I’m not telling you my life story now that you’ve caught me.”
“I’m not expecting you to. It’s just a surprise to see you… as a person.”
Arbalest raised an eyebrow. “As… As opposed to what?”
“As opposed to the bloodthirsty feline killer I met back in that cave.”
Arbalest was taken aback slightly. “Now listen here, I’m not that bloodthirsty…”
“You’re a convicted murderer.”
Arbalest poked Kathresh in the chest angrily. “I’m innocent! I must have told you that a hundred times!”
Kathresh looked at him again, and Arbalest wasn’t able to hold his composure. From his eyes flowed more tears, and he fell forward. Kathresh held him comfortingly. “Shh, there there. Let it out, whatever it is.”
Arbalest tried to control his voice, but like many before him, was woefully unable to. “H-he was more than just a friend to me… Oh, why did I- why did he have to die, Kathresh?”
Kathresh patted him on the back. “People die. People who have family and friends don’t just not die because people might miss them. You must know this, you’ve killed plenty of people.”
Arbalest suddenly stopped. He pushed Kathresh away, disbelief in his eyes. “That doesn’t make me feel better!”
“Shh! You’ll wake the others. It wasn’t supposed to. I was trying to make you think about the choices you make.”
Arbalest turned away. “Got out of here.”
“Ar-”
“Just… Let me wallow in my guilt for a while. Just- … I know the things I’ve done, I don’t need you to remind me of them.”
Kathresh stood up and nodded, returning to the other side of the room and sitting in her chair. “I’m sorry.”
Arbalest said nothing yet again. He began pondering. An unfortunate thing when combined with guilt.

~~~

The next morning, Redrick awoke early. He felt more relaxed then he ever had in his life, but there was no time to savor it. He slowly and quietly slipped out of bed, so as not to disturb Myri. He quickly clothed and crept out of the room, with one last glance at Myri.

He headed for the slave pen first. The slave master rarely missed Redrick, as he often ran late night errands for the Regent. He tried to look his most exhausted (which was difficult given he slept unreasonably well) and meandered into the room. “ ’Mornin…”
The slave master was drinking his morning grog. “Hehe. Working you like a dog, hey? Heheh!”
Redrick nodded sleepily and crumpled into his bed. Soon the slave master would leave for an hour or so, and be back to wake the slaves. Quickly Redrick sprang up as soon as he heard the footsteps recede across the dirt floor, into the building and down the corridor. He quickly searched among the empty bedrolls until he found a small rock. Tossing the bedroll aside, he began to dig. Down, and down he went, until he discovered a small trinket. A decoy. The real treasure lay further beneath the dirt. Claws black with earth, he scooped up a small shiv. It was rusty, short but wickedly sharp, made from a piece of broken metal post. He stashed it in his pocket, and quickly filled In the hole, with the trinket and threw the bedroll back over the spot. Making sure no one else was awake, he quickly darted back inside the building.

A good fifteen minutes later, the slave master returned with the night watchmen. They were friends, and often spent mornings eating and chatting. As they sat down to the small corner table with their food, the slave master looked over the slaves. “Huh. Redrick’s gone.”
The night watchman sipped his drink. “Why’s that weird?”
“He was up all night again doing stuff for Zhoe.”
The night watchman looked at the slave master with puzzlement and worry. “No he wasn’t. I watched the halls all night, I would have seen him.”
They both stared at each other for a moment, then darted up so fast they knocked the table over.

But it was already too late. Redrick strolled into the Regent’s bedchamber, pushing a wheeled cart with his breakfast on it. “Good morning, sir.”
“Ah! Redrick. You’re early today, don’t you think?”
Redrick grinned. “Yes, sir. I am.”

~~~

Tezar did sleep that night. But when she awoke, she immediately joined the search parties once more. She was joined by a few soldiers they had marched in with, and Zif. He sighed heavily. “I wonder if all this is worth it. I mean, it’s nice to travel and all…”
He chuckled, and Tezar shot him a look. He coughed. “I’m glad we got these reinforcements from Stone Wall, it’ll make the search a great deal easier.”
The soldiers behind them were not pulling their punches. Anyone who so much as hid their face from the suns was roughly pulled aside and searched. Tezar looked at Zif. She looked for his distinctive features, to be sure he really was Zif. Zif had a small scar under his right eye, Zip was the fattest of the three and Zik had suffered a blow to the eye as a child, so one of his eyes was sightly more dilated than the other. Upon spotting the scar, she nodded. “I agree. Though I think it’s absurd they’ve been able to give us the slip so easily.”
Zif shrugged. “I don’t know. They did have a head start on us. You do know why Marten fled, right?”
“No… I just assumed he left because he didn’t like our new Regent.”
Zik chuckled. “Well, you’d be right there I suppose. The Regent took his daughter away for… reasons… and he tore off a chunk of his arm. Then he was sentenced to death, and so he ran away.”
Tezar nodded. “I thought that was a different person…”
She never once, throughout their entire journey, stopped to wonder what Marten’s motivations might be. Motivations for running, motivations for pushing that rock or for staying alive so damned doggedly. It was all through paternal love. She tried not to think about it. As terrible up as it sounded, she didn’t want to sympathize with Marten. It would made plunging her blade into his gut that much more difficult. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts the walked headlong into a brother of the church. “Oof! … Oh, sorry, brother.”
She righted the man before he could fall over. He pushed her arm away. “I’m fine.”
He walked past her without another word, his two companions following behind. They dragged a slave along with them too. He was hunched over and pulled along with a rope which bound his paws. She paid them little mind. Zik stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder what they’re doing here, of all places? A hub of activity and they head straight for it.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re looking for help from the resistance. Of they thought they could blend in here.”
Zik shook his head. “Both are useless endeavors.”
“Coming from a canine, useless endeavors are common.”

~~~

Compared to Marten and his companions, Harimau and Rita had made incredible time in their journey. With no incidents to slow them up, in two days they had made it all the way to the little hill from which the capitol could be seen. Harimau sat down and took out some food as Rita gazed the the distant metropolis in wonder. “It’s bigger than I imagined…”
Harimau grunted around a mouthful of bread. “It’s extends to the other side of the hill it’s built on too.”
“Wow…”
She sat down and took some food from Harimau. “I wonder what they’ve done to it.”
“Nothing that can be reversed, don’t worry.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it…”
Harimau chuckled. “You’d like the city. It’s quite the sight to see. But if we’re going to see it, we need to get moving again.”
“Already? Can’t we rest here a while…?”
Harimau frowned, and Rita threw up her paws. “Fine! We’re going.”
She jumped up and ran down the hill. Harimau laughed deeply and followed her.

The trees were much thicker at the bottom of the hill, and the going was tough. Rita kept getting her cloak caught in the branches. “Grr! You’d think there would be a road this close to the city!”
Harimau swung at the branches with his sword. “Probably. Wouldn’t want to find it though… Rita?”
Rita spotted something in the woods and was making her way towards it quickly. “Rita, slow down!”
“It’s ok, Harimau! I found a road!”
“No! Rita, come back here!”
But it was too late. She was already out on the road. “What? It’s fine- Eek!”
Harimau crashed through the forest, ignoring the stabbing and slashing branches. He burst out onto the road and chopped at the nearest capitol police officer. The feline was caught unawares, but her chainmail armor deflected the blow. She toppled over under the force, though. “Freeze or the girl gets it!”
Rita was being held by a feline, a dagger pressed to her throat. It was taking three of them to contain her, and she growled and struggled as much as she could under the blade. Her head was tilted back so much her mouth was open in a scowl of defiance. Harimau dropped the sword without hesitation, and soon was tackled by the feline he had downed. Their captain walked over to Harimau. “My, what strong arms you have. You’ll make an excellent oar slave.”
He then turned to Rita. “The king’ll want you for sure.”
Rita was unable to talk back. The captain signaled with his paw. “Double time now, back to the capitol! We’ll get something good from this, I can tell.”
Harimau cursed to himself as the felines cheered, and dragged them off down the road to the capitol.

~~~

Marten was sweating bullets, even in wintertime. “Holy shit that was close.”
Arbalest, who was bound to the two, muttered. “You’re not the one trussed up like some sort of beast.”
Kathresh shushed them both. “Shut up! There are patrols out everywhere. One can only wonder why.”
Arbalest got really into the part, staring intently at the ground as it passed underneath him. The trek to the tower was somehow longer the second time, when every few steps they passed a soldier or police officer who was out looking for them. Eventually, however, they were standing before the black marble structure once again. This time the gates were heavily guarded with five felines. Bronze took Arbalest’s arms. “Stand behind us, and hide behind our robes. Don’t say anything unless We speak to you.”
“Yeah, I know the drill, Bronze.”
The four approached the gates with purpose. Despite their determination, one of the door guards stepped forward. “Um… you can’t come in here, we’re on full alert right now. There’s a serial killer about.”
Kathresh stepped forward. “Is there, now. Isn’t that nice. Get out of the way and let us in!”
“I-I can’t sir. Apologies.”
Marten stepped forward. “Bring out the guard who was here yesterday, he told us we could come back today.”
The guard looked at his companions. None wanted to say anything. Kathresh could only guess at what atrocities the church committed to get this kind of reaction from people, but she was glad for it. The guard turned around and unlocked the door. “I’ll be right back.”
After a few awkward minutes, the doors opened and the feline guard emerged, joined by the feline from the previous day. He looked them over once, and nodded to the other feline. “Yeah… They said they’d be back and I said ‘of course’… You’d better let them in.”
“Fine. Go in then, brothers.”
None of the felines took much heed of Arbalest. It was a very common sight on the streets of the capitol, especially with brothers of the church of Laroja. Despite how normal the four looked, as soon as they were inside and the doors closed, the first guard turned to the others and spoke. “A bit odd that they would visit again, and on the resting day too!”
“I don’t know. They must have some important business to attend to.”
“And we weren’t informed? I know, it’s probably nothing, but to be on the safe side, I’m going to the church and asking Father Abbot what’s going on.”

Pil was peeking out from around the corner of the spiral stairwell landing on the main floor, anxiously waiting for the trio to arrive. He spotted them as they walked down the hall. “Psst! Over here! Over here! Who’s that?”
Arbalest re-adjusted his paws and they stopped next to Pil. “I’m Arbalest. Murderer, slave, travelling companion of these three fine fellows.”
Pil gulped. “I hope you’re kidding.”
Marten walked up the stairs past Pil. “He is. Come on.”