44: The Truth

Both of the demiwolves transform to their normal forms and the other wolf is revealed to be Feno.

"I figured that was you Feno. You can't hide that sly grin from me!" I tease as Feno smiles lightly.

"I really didn't want to fight any of you guys the other day but my loyalty to Silver Fang comes first!" Feno maintains as Urmac looks astonished.

"No way! Rena, you're a part of Silver Fang? How did I never catch that? It's so obvious when you think about her fighting style." Urmac comments as his voice full of confusion.

"You probably never realized it because a rich boy like you doesn't have time to think about this issues of the common folk!" Rena calls out sarcastically.

"Maybe I shouldn't, considering that you two were about to murder me!" Urmac snaps back his voice full of anger.

Out of nowhere, I start to notice that people are staring at us from their houses and on the street. I gotta get in between this!

"Guys! Let's head somewhere a little bit more private! We're causing a commotion." I inform them as they finally notice that we've caused a scene.

"I know just the place!" Feno suggests as we leave Hastios District.

Feno takes us to Orym District behind the tavern where there are a bunch of chairs in the alley with a lit-up lantern.

"Ugh, it's disgusting back here!" Urmac observes as he carefully sits down on one of the chairs.

"Aww, should we grab you a pillow and a blanket so you'll be more comfortable?" Rena jokes her voice full of sarcasm.

"Ugh, maybe it was stupid of me to come down here? I should you just turn you two into the authorities so you can rot in jail!" Urmac replies his voice full of frustration.

"Do that and we'll finish up our mission! Crow won't be able to save you this time!" Rena threatens as Feno and I both let out a huge sigh.

"ENOUGH! Rena, even though the noble might not understand I'm positive Crow will. You know he's not a bad guy he deserves to know the truth! I trust him." Feno advocates as Rena finally calms down.

"Right… My apologies I was being ignorant again." Rena concurs as she starts drinking a cup of tea.

"Before we continue, I have to ask, have you two killed any of the nobles who were at the statue?" Urmac asks his eyes full of quiet anger.

"No, you were supposed to be our first… The older members of Silver Fang usually carry out that part of the job but to test our loyalty they sent me and Feno today." Rena confirms as she folds her arms.

"Personally, I didn't really want to do this. But after what the nobles did to my family I let my anger and rage get the best of me." Feno admits his voice full of sincerity.

"I see… " Urmac responds as he drew in a long breath.

"I need you guys to give me the bigger picture. Why is Silver Fang so angry at the nobles?" I ask as Feno and Rena look at each other.

"There's a place I want to show you two. Follow me." Rena commands as she jumps out of her chair.

We go into the tavern and descend into their hideout where they had the party the other day.

"Woah, you're telling me this has been under us this entire time?" Urmac asks as he observes the underground district.

"This is just one part of the enormous underground district! It was originally thought that the Capital abandoned this place long ago but we found out that it was a lie as you'll soon find out." Feno answers as all of their comrades are staring me down.

"Are they really staring at me? I wasn't the one who was trying to fight then." I remind as Rena looks a little embarrassed.

"Sorry, one of the effects of becoming a demiwolf is you grow to be very territorial. They just want to make sure you aren't going to hurt any of ours." Rena replies as she waves at them letting them know that they can stand down.

"I guess so… " I say as we keep walking down the district leaving the general area of their hideout.

We walk in almost pitch black darkness for the next 30 minutes as I can barely see where we are going.

"How the hell can you guys see? It's so dark here!" Urmac asks as he holds a weak torch up.

"Night vision, it's another benefit of being a demiwolf." Feno explains as he and Rena start sniffing a lot.

"Everyone keep it down. We're finally here." Rena shushes as we can see a bunch of light right ahead of us.

We walk further until finally, we see a giant city ahead of us and there are a lot of people here.

"What? I know that flag anywhere! That's the symbol of The Hawk!" Urmac observes as we all hide on top of a hill that has a view of the entire city.

"What's the Hawk?" I ask.

"An elite group of nobles that are tasked with protecting our land from the shadows. My father is also a part of this group! I've always wanted to join since I was a little boy!" Urmac declares his voice full of excitement.

"You might change your mind after finding out what's going on here… " Rena replies as she points to a part of the city with a bunch of cages.

As I squint my eyes I notice that a bunch of young Frodians are locked in those cages and each of them has brands on their necks.

"Slavery… Oh no." I note as I feel completely disgusted.

"What? This can't be right!" Urmac shouts his eyes full of disbelief.

"It doesn't stop from there either. If you look towards the west of the city there is the entertainment district where they use commoners for entertainment and torture. I don't even want to speak about what goes down over there but I think you get the gist." Feno explains.

"You see the Hawk has been doing this for years and many commoners have gone missing because of them! The worst part about it is the nobles we used for our message were all in on this, which is why we said that they weren't innocent." Rena shares as Urmac punches the ground.

"NO! This can't be real, there's no way my father would take part in something as horrible as this! You're lying, this must be a spell or something!" Urmac yells his voice full of denial.

"Urmac… This is very much real, don't let your bias cloud your judgment. They've been hurting and abusing commoners before any of us were even born! Feno's little sisters are working in the entertainment district but because of how tight security is down here he hasn't had the resources to fight back! My family was all sold away in the slave trade they run in this market as well… " Rena discloses her voice full of pain and sadness.

"That's why we joined the Silver Fang, to get back at the Hawk and give closure to commoners who've lost their families. Unfortunately, even with the large number of recruits that we have, we couldn't hope to save everyone here. They've hired powerful mercenaries plus some of the strongest nobles all have properties down here with slaves and all of their sick hobbies as well." Feno explains as out of nowhere Urmac starts throwing up.

"Uck, this goes against everything my family taught me! The Hawk is supposed to help our land not hurt it." Urmac exclaims his voice full of anger.

"I won't sit here and act like what our group is doing is the most morally upstanding thing but you have to understand that we couldn't just sit around and do nothing while our people suffer!" Rena explains as she helps Urmac up.

"No, these people deserve anything that comes to them! As far as I'm concerned they aren't true nobles. The problem is I don't really know how we can solve this situation! I'm only an heir right now I don't have as much power or clout as my father and mother. If what you say about their security and forces down here is true we can't hope to face them in battle." Urmac sighs as he clenches his fist.

"That might not be entirely true!" I add as everyone darts their eyes at me.

"What do you mean Crow?" Rena asks.

"Rena, Feno. You guys have older members that lead the Silver Fang correct?" I ask as sit on the ground.

"That's right, our leader is named Elce. She's quite strong probably comparable to one of our instructors at the Academy." Feno answers.

"How many deep is your group?" I ask.

"There's about 500 of us after the last recruitment. Why do you ask?" Rena responds her voice full of confusion.

"I know this a lot to ask… But could you ask your leader to have a ceasefire and also have a meeting with my group? We were actually tasked by Master Elyon to put an end to this conflict by the end of the week and I'm hoping to resolve this without anymore lives lost." I offer as Feno and Rena grow really quiet.

"Crow, what are you planning? If we bring our Master into this you better not be coming with a half-assed plan!" Feno warns.

"Listen, it might not be all the way there yet, but I promise I'll think of a good plan! Just give me until tomorrow and we can all meet somewhere to figure this out!" I assert trying to sound as confident as possible.

"What do you think Rena? Should we give it a chance?" Feno asks.

"I don't see why not. Having more allies is better than having more enemies. You just better hope you can convince our Master, Crow. She's not easily persuaded at all." Rena decides as I can tell she's hoping this all works out.

"Count me in too! I may not be as powerful as my dad but I do have a lot of noble friends of mine that would be disgusted about what's happening down here. If there's any plan going down I want to be a part of it!" Urmac declares his voice full of passion.

"Very well, but our Master won't be very fond of having nobles around." Feno replies.

"I understand… Nobody can blame any of you for how you feel." Urmac agrees his voice full of understanding.

"Let's get you two back home! After all, we've got a long day tomorrow." Rena commands as we leave the underground district.

I can't hesitate anymore, we have to take action or this will only get worse.