Chapter 26: Responsibility (1)

The water had quietened down and the rats had stopped squeaking around. The crackles of the flames were a notch too macabre tonight. Had Ate been stepping on the heads of all here with her light feet, this mood would have made her laugh in glee and fare to another prey.

Mischief had been made and prices were being paid.

With his head against the table, the sire sniffled. Everyone around him donned masks of gloom.

This time, there were only seven. Seven men in the deepest pits of hell, with two above pulling their strings. Life felt like a funny joke these days.

"What do we do…"

The sire muttered.

"Would you like to play some poker, sire? Since you have nothing to do?"

Ah, that's where he went wrong.

It was the people that he was with, that's where Johnny, the golden-masked sire of the gang had gone wrong. Whether he had targeted the daughter of the Kaisers or the grandmother, the outcome would have been the same yet.

It was all because of the, and pardon his language, cunts, around him.

The sire raised his head and smacked it back down on the ground, tears streaming down his face. It seemed the gods were fresh out of mercy or were fresh filled with Sadism.

Served the old ones well, he thought. The lands that were wrought with their old corpses and the labyrinths those formed were likely well deserved. A harbinger of problems be damned, they were playing sick games with humans!

How!

Just how was he supposed to handle both of them?

With almost uncanny, eery creepiness, the lady of Kaiser had had the exact same idea as the lord of Athenus.

"You guys will attack Isaac."

She had said.

His luck had worked out in a pinch as the lady never asked if they were attacking her, let on someone's order.

He had saved himself from Isaac's rage, but what now?

Oh great lord, the one who you told us to attack has asked us to attack you so please be attacked while we also attack her, is that was he was supposed to say?

"Sire, pie?"

The sire felt his forehead twitching.

Then, he banged the table and stood up straight.

Fuck it, and pardon his language again, Pie? Yes. If Jim's wife made such a killer pie, he would rather eat that and die before walking straight to his death at the hands of two messy nobles.

"Let's move, Jim. All you mutts."

"Where to Sire?"

"To your home."

Jim smiled a bright smile, the rats started running again and the water was loud once more.

"We'll eat some pie."

"Right away sire! Oh! Nothing would joy me and my wife more, sire!"

"Truly! Any of us would be happy to have you with us, Sire."

Bad fate or not, the sire was the one who had brought these poor knights abandoned for injuries beyond their control and given them a way to feed themselves and a shelter to keep away from the rain. How was one to not like a man like the sire?

The group led him on and the sire followed, it was time for his last supper.

***

In the shanties at the edges of the imperial capital, where the cleaners' brooms didn't reach and where the politicians' interests didn't fall, were the houses of not just Jim, but everyone in the group.

Their homes held up by planks of ebony and oak were yet better than the streets, and with the help of all the ones that were in this together, what made a home complete was more abundant than in the homes of the elites.

"Please wait here, sire," said Jim. "All of ye too. I'll go and tidy up the place, let the missus know."

"Take your time, Jim. I am hoping our last meal be a hearty one."

"Let us know if we can help in any way. Actually, I'll come to help anyway."

Jim let his best friend, Wolf, come along, while the rest took out a stroll in the boonies of the capital city. The scent of freshly baked bread and cookies wafted through the streets while younglings danced around, in their hands wooden cars and paper planes.

"Quite lively."

"It is always like this, sire," said Silver. "We have missed this sight for the last few days, correct?"

"Yes, I for one have made acquaintances with a bunch of little birdies, sire."

"I apologize, lion."

"Oh! It's the hero!"

"There's an evil ogre too! Aaaa!"