Mahon had very few experiences with women, not that he wasn’t interested, but more that he didn’t put it as a priority in the long list of things he had to do. And now, he was having an important discussion with Jorik when the woman interrupted, and he couldn’t be more annoyed by this. Still, without knowing why, a memory of a similar time with Zac flashed through his mind.

He clearly remembered how Zac and Ash had tricked him and made fun of him on an orchestrated date as the woman had asked the very same question. Unknowingly, it had come to be one of the memories he cherished the most from his time with Zac and Ash, and he could vividly hear Zac’s advice from that time.

Maybe it was the fact he was drinking a beer in a tavern with Jorik, the closest person to him at the moment, or maybe the turmoil of the previous events had affected him more than he thought, but the memory carried over, and Mahon instinctively answered the woman with the green dress.

“Eighty.”

“I beg you?” Nixie’s smile started to falter as she looked at him weirdly.

Like a forgotten dream, the memory faded away, and Mahon came back to reality.

“I said you look eighty years old.” He clarified after regaining control of his senses. “But forget it, I’m not interes…”

Before he even got to finish, the woman’s hand rose high in the air, and she tried to slap him. Mahon reacted immediately, and he caught Nixie’s arm before she could reach his face.

“Release me!” She yelled as soon as he grabbed her, and Mahon let her go while making sure she wouldn’t attack him again. The woman threw him a deathly glance before she raised her chin and left. “Jerk!”

Mahon and Jorik exchanged a look of disbelief as the woman left as quickly as she had joined them. After making sure the woman hadn’t stolen anything while she distracted them, the two men resumed their conversation.

“People around here are really something…” Mahon commented.

“She looked at least two centuries old, why did you say she was eighty?” Jorik asked instead. “Wait! It doesn’t matter. Just ignore her. Back to the main topic.” Jorik continued without pause. “We need to get a better understanding of this world. Although the people are weird and a tad slow to understand things, they might not be without quality. We’ll see at the capital how normal people fare. We might even find information about fire magic or the Amentiae as well. I say we stick to the plan.”

“I agree.” Mahon quickly acquiesced. “I just don’t get how they can be nice to you one day, then they see you as a god and worship you like they were not even worthy to talk to you the next day. Give them just another day and they might completely ignore you for another completely obscure reason. I admit people are not my strong suit, but still, we have special specimens here.”

“It’s not just you, don’t worry. But there are exceptions to the rule, we might not have met the right people yet. Take Siraye for example. She doesn’t give a damn about who we are, and she hasn’t changed her behavior with me in the slightest.”

“That’s not a good example.” Mahon chuckled. “She was crazy from the beginning. Still being crazy now only shows she’s consistent, not that she’s worthwhile.”

Mahon and Jorik continued their discussion around a second beer. While with the caravan, they usually talked freely only in Nightmare, and being able to be themselves in the real world with a beer in their hands gave them some energy back.

At first they had been excited and delighted to have discovered such an impossible world. They had wanted to explore everywhere and to know everything about it. But the more time they spent in Finem, the more they realized they were strangers in this world. They didn’t belong in this place.

The people looked like them and talked like them, but deep inside they were completely different. After some time spent among Finem residents, they couldn’t help but feel incompatible and lonely. Amentiae had dictated so many of their actions in their daily life in Ratho they hadn’t even realized until they were freed of it. Now that they witnessed a life devoid of Amentiae, they couldn’t help but see it, and it was very different from what they had imagined.

The wildlife was dangerous, but nobody actively tried to change it. The people were living their life without purpose, following along without even trying to progress on their own. Their goals weren’t of greatness, instead they were marveling at inconsequential things, and changing their mind every other day.

Mahon was someone who could get satisfied with few, and he understood the appeal of a simple life. But even he would fight to improve. To move forward. He would not depend on others, nor judge a book by its cover. He would divert the river if it didn’t carry him in the right direction.

On the contrary, the people of Finem were just barely floating on the river, complaining about its rapids while doing nothing to change it. For Mahon, they had a mentality too different from his own. He couldn’t grasp why people would live like that.

He had already met people he couldn’t understand, for example Ratho’s nobles, but even them were acting with reason. Even if they hadn’t wanted to stop the war, they were at least flowing on a river they understood. They had even tamed it in some way. They weren’t getting carried away by the current without their will.

Mahon and Jorik spent some time discussing the subject. They shared how they felt about it and what they expected they would find in the capital. A third beer followed the second, and the duo spent most of the day in the tavern, chilling and chatting.

When they finally exited the place, they felt much better. They felt truly rested and ready to give another go at this strange new world. If they had been alone, they wouldn’t have fared as well, but even though they weren’t best friends or anything, just being able to share a part of the burden helped them tremendously.

The tavern had been getting more and more crowded as the light dimmed and the moon chased the sun, but the streets had gotten emptier in exchange. Mahon and Jorik walked through an empty alley when they met people again.

“Big bro, it’s this man that treated me rudely!”

Mahon recognized Nixie’s voice before he even saw her.

“That twit dared to assault you? Don’t worry little sis, I’m gonna handle it.”

From the side of the alley, a group of thick bullies approached Mahon and Jorik. There were six tall and muscular men accompanying the green dressed Nixie. Each of them bore the look of street thugs, with nasty scars and broken noses. They exuded a sense of barely contained violence and from the marks on their knuckles, they weren’t containing it often.

“Yes, it’s the one on the right! He even said I looked eighty.”

The leader of the thugs opened his mouth wide in a stereotyped gesture before turning his head to Mahon.

“You really did that, shrimp? You’re looking for trouble? I’m gonna teach you some manners.”

“Be careful big bro! Back at the market, they said he killed a lot of goblins by himself in the caravan’s attack.”

“Goblins?” The thug bursted out laughing. “I ain’t goblin, little sis, don’t worry. We’ll see how he fares against a real man.”

In the meantime, Mahon and Jorik had stopped and observed the group playing its little scene as if it was a show.

“Are they really trying to do what I’m thinking they’re doing?” Mahon finally asked Jorik.

“Keep faith, Mahon. If they’re smarter people, it’s only natural there would be dumber ones to keep the balance. Take it as a sign we’ll manage to meet smarter ones one day.” Jorik commented.

“Hey, you two buffoons!” The thug barked at them. “Hand over everything you have on you, even your clothes, apologize to Nixie and I might let you go without hurting you! You have three seconds!”

“I’ve another idea.” Jorik countered in a calm voice. “If you manage to land a single hit on my friend right here in the next five minutes, we’ll consider it your victory and leave you be. But if you don’t, you’ll have to join the caravan as guards for free.”

“What is this brat saying?” The thug looked back at his friends with a frown.

“Good eye, Jorik.” Mahon chimed in. “They’ll indeed make excellent guards.”

“You’re taking us for fools?” The thug finally understood what was happening.

“Exactly!” Jorik acquiesced with a smile. “And we’re also giving you an opportunity to change. If you join the carav…”

“Grab them!” The thug roared while he rushed at them, his men following him.

Jorik took two steps back unhurriedly and left Mahon at the front. He leant on the nearby wall and found a comfortable position to watch the show.

The first thug arrived on Mahon with the power of a charging bull. The man had even lowered his head to impact Mahon with his shoulders.

“You don’t even look at me. How can you aim properly?”

Mahon explained as he avoided the man with a single step to the left, hands in pocket. As the charging man passed at his side, he extended his leg and tripped him, sending him to the ground. The next thug arrived on his back and tried to catch Mahon in a deathly hug, but Mahon escaped easily with a nimble motion.

The third and fourth thugs tried to punch Mahon as he walked to them. Their arms swung widely, but with just a slight twist of his hips Mahon avoided the first one, and he only needed to turn his head to dodge the second.

“You should at least coordinate your attacks. Look at you, it’s such a mess.”

The fifth thug jumped on him from the side, but Mahon jumped higher, and the thug crashed on the ground. Mahon landed on his back with elegance, and he walked down to the ground like he was strolling leisurely in the park.

With a roar, the final thug tried to kick him, but Mahon kicked faster. He first taped the man’s kicking leg, unbalancing him, and then pushed on his belly to throw him on the ground.

“Always be steady on your feet, otherwise you’ll do nothing good.”

In just a few seconds, Mahon had walked through the full group of thugs, and not one had even managed to touch him. Half of them had ended on the ground, but they quickly got back up and, pulling knives from their sleeves or belt, they charged at him altogether.

“There is no need to use weapons if your foundations aren’t yet developed.”

Mahon continued his lesson, hands still in their pocket, while dodging every attack sent his way with extreme ease. Sometimes he used his foot to push back an opponent or kick a knife away. The thugs were encircling Mahon and swinging their weapons without pause, yet none of them managed to get close to Mahon.

He wasn’t Flowing, but his fighting abilities were already way over a group of nobodies. There was no excess power in his actions. He wasn’t moving extraordinarily fast, nor pulling out incredible techniques and flexibility to dodge and parry the attacks.

Instead, he was simply relying on his incredible understanding of the battle, and he was always at the right place at the right time.

It was as if he knew everything that would happen even before the thugs thought of it, and he reacted two steps in advance, forever out of reach from his opponents.

The minutes passed slowly while the thugs spared no effort to land their hands on the slippery Mahon. Soon they were sweating and breathing loudly, but they hadn’t even gotten closer than in the beginning.

All the while, Mahon continued his lesson without a care in the world. He pointed out their mistakes and provided adequate advice about how to improve, or how they could try to limit his actions. Of course, it only enraged them further, and they didn’t listen at all. They groaned, roared and swore, but it only exhausted them quicker. Mahon even pointed it out and told them, but they yelled their frustration even louder before redoubling their effort. To no avail.

“Five minutes.” Jorik commented from the side after some time.

“Already? Well, let’s see if you picked up anything, then.”

Mahon swiftly dodged a wide swing and retaliated with a kick at the man’s chin. He deliberately slowed his attack to give the man a chance to catch up, but the thug was so focused on his knife missing Mahon by a hair’s breadth that he completely missed it. The kick sent him to the ground unconscious.

Mahon grimaced. “I told you multiple times to pay attention to your surroundings. You can only blame yourself.”

Seeing that their friend didn’t get up, the thugs ignored their ragged breath and sore muscles and went all out to land a hit on Mahon. Three kicks later, and there were only two left standing. Finally, something seemed to click in their head, and they tried to escape, but it was way too late.

Mahon was at their side in an instant. He kicked the first one in the guts before he even moved one step back, and, in the same fluid motion, he swung and broke through the last thug’s knee.

Three seconds had passed since Jorik announced the end of the five minutes, and the whole group of thugs was already on the ground, whining or screaming as they held their injured parts in a futile attempt to reduce their pain. None of them got back up.

“It seems they aren’t worth becoming a guard.” Mahon concluded as Jorik joined him.

“A shame. And here I thought I had solved our guard shortage in a single day…” Jorik shrugged and flashed an innocent smile.

The duo walked away as if nothing had happened, and Nixie, the only other witness of the scene, watched with horror as they passed by her leisurely. Mahon gave her a look and stopped as if he had suddenly got an idea.

“Hey, by the way. How old are you?”

“I’m eighty! I’m eighty!” Nixie immediately said, raising her hands in an attempt to protect herself from Mahon.

“No, I mean. What’s your real age?”

The woman didn’t say anything else and only cowered even further in front of Mahon.

“Don’t bother.” Jorik said while pulling Mahon away. “Come, let’s go.”

“But I was really curious how far off I was!”