"What's scariest is to fight against people who ain't got nothing to lose, not even their lives. Madmen like those fought like possessed, often tried to take you down with them as a last struggle, and rarely broke. It's why most everyone hated dealing with zealots. They're invariably of that sort.

Of course, not all of them. There's always the cowardly and the craven even amongst those types, ones who paid lip service to the zealotry rather than drink deep into it. These ones are usually the ones who got something to lose, highborn more often than not.

They also squeal quite easily once brought to question." - Qant Nunarys, previously a General for the Clangeddin Empire, now the High Marshal for the Grand Duchy of Sevral-Galastine, circa FP 7.

"What is it, Friede?" asked Reinhardt when he and his small group reached where the second group was posted. He spotted signs of battle, and could smell the blood in the air, but since the report said the situation is under control, it likely weren't his people's.

"Caught this bunch of chickens trying to fly the coop," said Elfriede, while smelling strongly of blood to Reinhardt's nose. A quick inspection showed that it wasn't her blood, just that she got quite a bit of bloodstains on her gambeson, likely from whatever fighting happened.

He also spotted the dead bodies of around ten people who looked decidedly better equipped than the zealot militia they had to deal with so far, in the process of being stripped of every valuable item on them. These men and women actually wore proper armor, plate over chain, and had well-crafted weapons.

One of them was also still alive, though already stripped down to his skivvies, his right hand severed at the wrist - likely Elfriede's work, Reinhardt thought, as she always had the habit of aiming for the joints when fighting armored opponents - and trussed up like a pig to be slaughtered.

"Why keep that one alive?" asked Reinhardt out of curiosity. Their contract had not asked for them to capture enemies, as they could just turn in the heads as proof instead.

"He's their commander, prolly brat of the noble in town, given how well he was geared up," said Elfriede as she pointed to a particularly eye-catching pile of salvaged armor on the side. Reinhardt saw right away that it was really good quality plate armor, engraved with a heraldry emblem on the chest. "Figured the prince might appreciate some pigs that would squeal."

"He hadn't asked for captives but I doubt he'd mind, yeah," admitted Reinhardt. The noble captive uncle Angus tried to interrogate back at Fort Ascher had been a tough one who refused to open her mouth other than to curse them, but the bound up one before him - he looked like a kid barely into his adulthood - seemed far more afraid of them.

"His armor had the crest of the Larsen family," said Elfriede as she traced one finger over the emblem on the chestplate taken from their captive. "That's the house which ruled Zefirous when I left. He's either part of it or related to them."

"That's a decent catch all right. Any casualties on our side?" he asked with a nod. The salvage they would have to negotiate about with their employer, but usually catching a high ranking enemy commander would net them a bonus.

"Bernd and Pat got a couple cuts, but nothing serious. Do we stay here in case there's others, or do we pull back?" she asked him in return.

"Keep your men here just in case. You come with me. We'll deliver that brat over to the prince and see where it goes," said Reinhardt after a moment of thought. He left three of his men to cover for Elfriede's absence, while the other two lugged their captive around like a log on their shoulders.

"So how did you get them that easily?" he asked after they walked away for a bit. Although Elfriede's group outnumbered the escapees five to one, given how well they were equipped he would have expected at least some of the enemies to have put up a solid resistance.

"We got a bit lucky. Passed by their exit before they were anywhere near it," said Elfriede. In truth, how they had found the secret passage's exit was mere happenstance. The exit was very well concealed, practically indistinguishable with the naked eye. It was their bad luck that Elfriede did not use her eyes to search. "They kept the passage ventilated, so I noticed the anomaly in the airflow and traced it to the end. After that we just set up an ambush for them and waited till they walked into it."

"That'd do it I guess," he admitted. Trained or not, five on one odds with the five in ambush was a difficult situation indeed.

******************************

"Good work, Captain," said the prince, who by then had already entered Fort Prydwen. All resistance had been taken care of by then, and the Crown Prince and his staff had quickly taken over the commander's office.

They too had noticed the disappearance of the fort's commander - in this case whoever was out in charge of the fifteen hundred people left behind for a suicidal last stand to buy time - when they stormed the actual buildings, and had already found the secret passage from their end as well.

That Reinhardt's people already caught the escaping commander was good luck on his part.

When he walked in, Reinhardt had noticed immediately that the people defending the fort were all elderly men and women, probably villagers who had been too old to join the militia that struck his people weeks ago, but nonetheless still fit enough to hold spears and bows for one last stand.

None of them had survived the battle. They had not surrendered, and while a few did try to run, the dwarves were not in a merciful mood at all.

"Supposedly he's a scion of the Larsen family in Zefirous, or at least related," said Reinhardt to the Crown Prince. "His chestplate was engraved with their emblem."

One of the Crown Prince's aides whispered something to him, after which the young dwarf nodded, looking satisfied. He turned towards Reinhardt and Elfriede with a friendly expression. "Excellent, Captain Edelstein. This will be noted and we will add a bonus to your company's pay," he said.

"You may also keep whatever you salvaged off him and his men, though we expect you to pass on anything that might offer some information over to us," he added with a smile. It was a generous reward all considered, one Reinhardt knew better than to look in the mouth.

"Our gratitude, sir," he said sincerely with a bow. "A pleasure doing business with you."