The rats were over the wall and swarming through the gate. I would've hated to be on the receiving end of this onslaught. The rats managed to take out a fair number of the thugs but ignored the ones that weren't wielding a club and also the ones that chucked their clubs to run away from the horror that was approaching them.

"Dang it. I guess it still kind of worked though," I said as the three of us, as Barry was still up in his perch, ran towards the now open gate. Barry could probably see well from up there at least so I figured he could provide some tactical insight. That didn't make me miss the security blanket of his swinging axes of death any less though.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I at least hoped the rats had sent some of the thugs running. If I ever tried something like this again I would give different instructions or just more detailed instructions. The rats had followed what I had asked to the letter so I couldn't fault them.

Mina moved first and we followed her closer to the wall where the new opening was. The gate was lying on the ground at this point and this point of entry was better than trying to climb the wall again.

We got to the gate and before we could enter we saw Edrus standing in the courtyard clapping. The rats had disappeared having completed their task as given. I really missed those critters already but was really missing Pips a lot too. The decision to keep him out of the city was the right move.

"Who is responsible for what I just witnessed?" He asked Jen, Mina, and myself. None of us spoke. "I will get an answer one way or another."

"It was me and I wish that they had done more damage, to be honest," I said with a slight smile. Based on all the information I had in front of me, I believed that we had him right where we wanted him. It was only Edrus and one of his bodyguards. We could definitely take them both out. Before we could move, he whistled and his other body pushed Roderic out of the front door of the house. Jen's father was tied up and close to death from the looks of it.

As soon as Mina saw him she ran over not thinking about anything else but her husband which was completely understandable. I'd probably do the same if it was Paige laying there.

Edrus whistled again and men with bows stood from their hiding spots which were situated up on the top of the perimeter wall. Some looked more freaked out than others. You could tell who had recently had rats crawling over them. They took aim at Mina as the bodyguard near her and Roderic walked back over to stand beside his boss.

"Move and they die," Edrus said to the two of us who were left. We both froze. "Drop your weapons." Jen dropped hers and I instinctively put mine back in my dimensional space. He clapped again, "How many tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

I didn't answer him but I did think it was weird how much this man used clapping to display emotions and be generally over-dramatic in his reactions. I just stared at him indignantly trying to think of a way to save her parents. Nothing was coming to me.

"You will join me or I will kill her parents," Edrus said with an evil grin.

Theodore: Jen, what do I do?

Jen: He needs my father to help run his little empire here. Call his bluff.

"Never," I said resolutely. I trusted Jen and they were her parents so I listened to her.

"I guess I haven't made an offer you couldn't refuse yet," he said. He stood there pondering for a moment and I saw a thought come to his malevolent mind. Like an evil lightning bolt had struck his brain. His mouth curled into a vile smile and that scared me more than anything he had done yet.

He whispered something to the guard to his right and the guard reached out, grabbed Jen, and brought her back to stand beside Edrus. He was holding her tightly by the arms and she was facing me.

"Join me or I will kill this woman," he said with no indication that he was bluffing.

Jen shook her head as if telling me not to join him or was she telling me she didn't want to die. I hesitated to answer and was about to mentally message her so she could answer me but it was too late.

"Final answer?" He asked. After a second of silence, he spoke again. "I guess you don't care about her then."

I was too far away from him to stop his next action. He pulled an expensive-looking, showy knife and jabbed it into Jen's heart right in front of me. Mina looked on in dread as her daughter fell to the ground.

"No!" She screamed like I've seen so many times in movies but never felt the full weight of it. The only similar scream I'd heard in real life was the scream of the mother whose toddler was falling into the Grand Canyon.

All of the guilt from leaving Paige behind collided with all of the guilt from failing Jen and watching her die in front of me. I fell to my knees and was broken. I had no idea what to do to fix this situation. The weight of all of my perceived poor choices became an unbearable burden.

"Oops. I guess you did care about her," Edrus said with mocked concern.

I could feel the rage building inside of me. This was one NPC I was not going to regret taking out of this world. At that moment I didn't care if I didn't make it through this I was going to kill this jerk. I looked up at Edrus with a goon on either side and smiled.

"I'm going to make you pay even if it kills me," I said getting ready to make my move to attack the three men. That gave me an idea of how to make things right. At that exact moment, a greataxe embedded itself in Edrus and he fell to the ground a few paces in front of me breathless.

One of his lackeys had already pulled a throwing knife as he saw that I was about ready to attack and threw it in my direction. It caught me in the stomach but it wasn't a kill shot.

The intense pain and normal fear of death emotions kicked me into flight mode and I once again made the decision to go on a magic carpet ride. In this case, the magic carpet was the greataxe handle I managed to grab as it hurtled back to Barry. I comically flew through the air once again this time using a healing scroll on the way.

Barry had thrown his axe from an incredible distance but the archers were able to require and take a shot on instinct as I flew away. This time, since none of them were aimed at me to begin with, it was a waste of arrows.

Barry and I ran as fast as we could. Luckily the archers were not in a position to easily give chase and the bodyguards stood by their charge looking at each other in foolish disbelief.

"I'll explain when we get out of the city. I have a way to bring Jen back and fix this," I said as we ran through the streets. He seemed to accept my answer and we kept going.

The guards at the city gate were sitting at a small card table with a chair on either side probably waiting to answer the bell if it rang. We slowed as we saw them in the distance.

"Let me do the talking," I said to Barry.

"Wait," he said putting out a hand to stop me. "Why did we leave Jen's body there if you're going to bring her back? And why leave her parents there?"

"You have to trust me. I will bring Jen back and her parents will be safe this way," I responded.

He nodded although I could tell he didn't fully understand. How could he? I could explain this plan to the most intelligent man in this town or any and they wouldn't fully understand.

We approached the guards that appeared to be playing a card game of some sort.

"Hiya fellas," I said like a weirdo who says that kind of thing. "We got everything worked out with Edrus and he told us it was okay for us to split." I wasn't sure if they were convinced but I recognized that one of the guards had seen us enter the city with Jen. "We dropped the lady off with Edrus and he was we were good to head out. Could you please open the gate for us?"

They glanced at each other and then back to us. Neither seemed to care enough to question us further and the one nearest us got up to open the gate.

As the guard opened it and watched us leave he asked, "Wait, did Edrus give you any paperwork to leave?" I had a feeling these guards that got the early morning shift were maybe not the 'best-of-the-best' type of guards. We just continued walking out of the gate.

"He said we didn't need anything but you can axe him about it yourself if you'd like. Bye"

Barry laughed at my joke as we continued walking.