“Ugh…” I groaned, pulling a few shards from my stomach. “Why the heck was this one still active? Damn things should stick to their schedules.” I grumbled to myself, tossing aside the shards and sealing the punctured sections of my armour. The ice had managed to puncture what I’d made to be practically steel, the rest of my armour was just scored, and that was easy enough to fix.

I was otherwise unharmed, which was nice, Numen looked uninjured, though she patted herself down all the same. “No idea. Just bad luck.” She said with a shrug. “Some slimes are just… good for the winter. At least they’re still easy to deal with.” She said, walking over to the slime.

“What was that arrow?” I asked, following her. “Never seen you use it before. Though I assume it delivered the poison to the slime somehow.” She stepped carefully through the slime, making slow, low movements. Eventually she picked out the arrow, and began moving back out of it.

She slipped near the edge of the slime, and I reached out, catching her as she fell past me. “Careful.” I said. “If you splattered yourself with the slime you’d be in trouble.” I said, a hint of amusement catching on my face.

Her left hand clutched at my shoulder, pulling herself upright while she kept her right hand, clutching the arrow, away from me. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, since we keep dealing with slimes. I’m not really an up close and personal kind of fighter after all.” She said. “So I thought maybe I could try something to give it to the slime from a distance.” She held up the arrow. “It took a lot of work to balance it, and it doesn’t really shoot that well even so.”

It couldn’t really last too long. Between the slime’s digestive juices and their occasionally violent death throes it probably lasts only a few uses. I thought to myself, staring curiously at the arrow. “What do you put inside there?” I asked, looking to the hole at the tip.

“A vial of the stuff.” She answered, showing me the inside, there was a bit of pointed rock there. “It cracks when the slime slams the glass vial into it. And that’s what releases the poison.” She said. “Some of it didn’t get into the slime this time though, probably thanks to the ice coating.” She shook out the inside, letting some of the slime leak out onto the ground. “Let’s go.” She said.

We collected our pay from the farmer, who thanked us for our help. She split the reward with me, ignoring my attempts to pass some of it back to her. “You realize I was literally just along for the ride?” I said, arching an eyebrow. “You’ll need to replace the vial, eventually the arrow, and the pay wasn’t that much.” I continued, as we made our way back towards Torven.

“And I’ve been taking more than a few jobs for some good pay. How much were you actually provided while working with the Republic?” She asked. Huh… I forgot to collect the rest of my payment. I realized, wincing a little at the thought.

“Enough?” I offered, doing the mental math as we talked. “Somewhere around ten brass siqs I’m pretty sure.”

She snorted. “For what you were hired for that’s low.” She said. “I’ve made more than enough, just keep it, maybe you can consider that thanks for coming with me today.”

“You’re going to hold that over me forever aren’t you?” I said, smiling wryly. “Alright, I’ll take it, but nothing else.” I put the coppers into my pocket. “Frejr and Qent were back in Torven at the time right? What have the others been doing since I left? The other receptionist didn’t explain much.”

“Well it’s nothing too exciting anyway. Though it is still important.” Numen added. “We’re trying to make sure that the people we get will actually survive.” She said. “That means some basic testing, the weekly training stuff, so on.” She sighed. “The other one… is us making sure we actually keep the peace.”

“… What happened?” I asked, frowning slightly.

“One of them took a job and tried to fleece them for money.” Numen said. “One of the travellers brought it to our attention since he knew Rince.” She continued. “Frejr was the one that brought down the hammer. For that one… it was literal. Tracking him down was hard, never expected I’d need to before.” She said. “That was why we started checking in with them. Before we used to just be doing this for the hell of it you know? Now we attract all kinds of people, some good some bad…” She seemed a little pensive. “Are we really the irregulars anymore?”

I shrugged. “We’re definitely different from what we used to be that’s for sure.” I said. “Honestly, by the time the war ends, I think this thing will become a new organization in its own right. While most of the old irregulars and some of the new go back to drifting like they used to.” I said. “We’re not the same group of people that the stories talk about, that isn’t necessarily bad though, so long as we make sure to do good.”

“I guess…” She said, unsure. “I just… it doesn’t feel the same anymore.” She said. “I wanted to explore, to go further, to help people further out… Be the…” She paused, and I saw her lower her head a little, a light blush on her cheeks. Heh, romanticism. I thought to myself, smiling a little. She shook her head. “I know I’m doing good here, I just want something… more?”

I smiled slightly, It was rare for us, any of us, to become our heroes, at most we got to dream, to imagine. “It’s not wrong to think that.” I said. “I wouldn’t have expected this to happen if it wasn’t for the all the scheming…” I observed wryly. “We’re being used as a buffer.”

“Mmm…” She replied. “Yeah, Frejr talked to us about that. She and Azarint got a straight answer out of one of the nobles after she pressed her suspicions.” She said. “We were supposed to keep them from starting anything. Didn’t quite do that.” She continued. “The bandits at least were their doing right?” She asked.

“Yes.” I answered. “I didn’t see the evidence myself, but Cale explained it somewhat… Me… I’ve got some other doubts as well now, but… could just be paranoia.” I said.

She didn’t ask further, and we spent another day on the road, making other small talk on the way back. Tina greeted us as we returned, and the bar and restaurant were bustling, a serving wench worked alongside Gen now, passing drinks, food and gossip among the crowd.

“How was the job?” Tina asked, leaning forward on her elbows. “Sorry we didn’t have anything more important.” She said.

“It’s okay.” Numen said. “It means we’re fulfilling our duties. Has anything else been posted?” She asked, her voice a little more formal, stiff. Still a ways to go… I thought.

“Nothing much has come up since you were gone.” Tina admitted. “Frejr did say she wanted to see you.” She said, turning to me. “She was talking to the dragon before she talked to me, so it probably has something to do with that.”

“I see.” I said, thinking. “I’ll make sure to talk to her, is she upstairs then?”

“She and Qent went out for the day, thought I don’t think it was for a job, they should be back before dark.” Tina answered. “In the meantime I think Azarint got back, I think he’ll be running them through drills in a bit.” She said, gesturing to the growing number of patrons.

“Heh, maybe I should get in on the fun after I change.” I said. “Could learn a thing or two from a veteran like him.” I smiled.

“You aren’t exactly weak either.” Numen observed. “Most of them aren’t even close to you in terms of skill… If anything I think you’d just be bored out of your mind.” She continued. “We could spar though, you could probably teach me a few things…”

“That isn’t really your role though is it?” I cocked my head. “I’m always up for some training, but will this help you?” She rolled her eyes at me. “Fine, fine. Where do you want to do this?”

She brought me to a training area a few streets down. “We managed to get a place constructed once everyone chipped in.” She said. “It’s been pretty popular so far.” I saw a number of people inside, all duelling one another. Some of them were grinning as they fought, while other were utterly focused on their opponent. Numen had suggested I change before coming here, reasoning that I’d attract less attention if I weren’t dressed as the Masked.

I picked up a practice sword, grabbing a buckler as well and settling into stance. “How do you want to do this?” I asked. “I’ll probably switch my weapons out after a bit…” I said.

“One of our recruits from the Kithar brought in an interesting style…” Numen answered. “Haven’t tried it yet myself though…” I nodded, thinking back for a moment to when I’d sparred with Mulia. “Well if you know it, I’ll just grab a weapon and we can start.”

She drew a wooden shortsword and a practice dagger from the racks. Huh… I should swap around at some point, this… probably won’t go well for her otherwise. I thought. Some of the others had stopped sparring, looking over with interest and amusement. She upturned an hourglass on the side, and dashed toward me.

The first fight was illuminating, I held the advantage of reach, but she still closed, sometimes even managing to strike me from angles I’d not even thought of. I stepped back, reassessing, and moved forward again. Slowly, I was gaining, but it was hard to tell if it was skill on my part, or just the reach, just the advantage of the buckler…

In the next fight I swapped out for two daggers, Alida had been so much faster, so much better when she’d first taught me… But she wasn’t here now, I had only others to gauge my progress, others to compare to. I pinned Numen, the practice daggers making several cuts and stabs as I stood again to let the fight continue.

In this safety I let myself focus on just the fight, just the target, it felt… good. The clarity of battle, the simplicity, none of the blood, none of the pain, nothing but the exchange of blows, almost… almost a dance. “Time.” A voice said, shocking me from the fight. Numen struck me one final time, shortsword grazing across my thigh. “That was certainly an interesting fight.” Azarint said.

“Hah, well if you say so.” Numen replied, working a sore shoulder. “I feel like a training dummy though.” She groaned, stretching herself. “I didn’t know you learned to fight with daggers though.”

“I picked up a lot of fighting styles from a friend.” I said. “Though I doubt I’ll ever be as good as they were. Besides, it’s not like a lot of it applies very well against slimes and dire wolves…”

“That’s an excellent point.” Azarint said. “Which is also part of the reason why we hold these training sessions, some of you may have been soldiers, or just learned to fight through training against your fellow guards. While it does help your reflexes and your ability to fight, it isn’t always directly applicable to the opponents we face on an almost constant basis.” He addressed the group that had gathered. “With that, let’s begin…”

Me and Numen headed back as they Azarint started his training. Several children had gathered outside, watching and even mimicking the actions with one another. I smirked as one of them slipped, knocking his partner to the ground.