Right of the Victor

Dawn brought with it nothing less than what I expected. Upon exiting the communal sleeping room with nothing but my sword and the clothes on my back, I was met in the main area by Vargos and a few others-three men and a young woman-that I only vaguely recognized. Among the hundreds of people here, it was hard to hold any faces in mind.

“Lengin. I’d love to say you’re the first here, but unfortunately, you’re the second to last. Quite a start to your new position,” Vargos glanced in my direction with his usual smile that held an indistinguishable emotion. Whether he was annoyed, glad, or just bored wasn’t clear.

“Be happy I’m not the last and shut the hell up.” Came my reply, keeping up an equally blank smile and passive aggressive tone. Eyes were flicking between me and Vargos to follow the conflict, but he made the smart decision to only smirk and drop the matter. Much as I disliked him sometimes, Vargos was a good leader and knew how to handle things. We waited as a group for a few more minutes until finally the last man showed up. Vargos didn’t hesitate to solidly punch the guy in the face, sending him unconscious to the floor after a wet cracking sound that was probably his nose rung out.

“We only need the five of us for this one. He can stay.”

Nobody seemed surprised by the harsh punishment. The duality of Vargos was something a lot of people wouldn’t risk dealing with, and I was starting to realize the way I spoke to him might be even more dangerous than I’d thought. Whether or not that was true was to be determined later, as at the moment we were leaving. I followed at the back of the group as we exited through the same cramped tunnel as we’d entered through.

Our walk through and out of Umbriel felt completely familiar. We were going the same way I’d come in originally with Vargos a week ago. All the way back to the forest, it was the same. Once we hit the tree line, though, I started to feel lost. The thick clusters of trunks and branches seemed like an impossible to navigate maze. Without Vargos here, I’d be permanently gone in the forest. What if he planned to leave us here? That’d be one way to solve the problem that I was. Shaking my head and setting aside any thoughts like that, I resolved to stick close to the man who knew what he was doing.

It didn’t take long to reach the side of a commonly travelled road and set up a camp in a clearing to the side. It wasn’t more than a few tents and a fire in the center, but that wasn’t the point. We would be here until at least one group of people came by, according to the briefing I’d gotten on the way. Our plan was simple; we split into two pairs while Vargos himself would just observe. Each pair hid on one side of the road, completely concealed by foliage. Even with all the hiding spots, I found that I could still see glimpses of all the other men except for Vargos. He was impressively good at disappearing, especially for a man of his size. The person I was paired with was the woman. She had long brown hair tied behind her head, and was about my height. That was rare; nearly everyone was taller than me. As expected, she hadn’t said anything yet. Nor had I; we were meant to be quiet for this to work. I remembered when I was ambushed it was in the middle of the night, but that situation wasn’t the same now. Sunlight streamed down through the leaves, and people wouldn’t be looking for other light. Sounds would always stand out, however. All that came into play when finally, a small group of people appeared on the horizon, coming towards our hiding spot. It looked like merely a man with a sword and two women accompanying him, each carrying a bag over their shoulders. We both outnumbered them and had more weapons visible, so I could see this being rather simple.

Once the group of people were past myself and the woman at my side, we both broke from the cover of the trees to block their escape backwards. Simultaneously, the other pair had appeared in front, containing the travelers between us. Strangely, all the cornered people stayed quiet and only seemed a little panicked, but the man drew his sword and faced me. He likely thought I was the weakest due to my size and hence the easiest to defeat.

“I challenge you. If you win, I die. If I win, you let us go.”

That was a serious thing in Forlica. An issued challenge couldn’t be turned down between people of the same class, at least not without being incredibly dishonorable. I didn’t care; it would take me mere seconds to defeat the guy. With a smirk, I nodded and backed off from the group, well aware that Vargos would be watching and judging this. Everyone would.

Once we had enough space to begin, I drew my sword and my opponent did the same. His eyes looked confident, likely expecting this to be an easy win against a child. If there were any benefits to being short, they were that I was underestimated every time I was seen. Unsurprisingly, the other man chose to attack first and fast, trying to leave me little time to respond as he stabbed straight towards me. I deflected his sword with my own, then waited for him to overcommit to another strike from the side. While blocking that with my sword, I stepped close and transferred one hand from my weapon into a sharp punch at the stomach of my opponent. His eyes widened and he paused for a second or two, which was easily enough time for me to deal a strong blow to his sword near his hand. Either out of fear for losing the limb or simply from shock, he dropped the weapon. My blade was at his throat instantly, gleaming menacingly. His previously self-assured expression was gone, replaced by the striking fear of death.

“I’m not going to kill you, idiot. Leave all your money and supplies here and get the hell away from this place.” I told him, waiting as he did exactly what I said and gestured for the two women to follow suit. Money, bags of supplies, weapons…all of it was laid on the ground in front of me. All the other bandits who’d come on the expedition were looking at me, wondering if I’d received any previous training. It was obvious that Vargos was happy with me; he had a grin on his face that somehow seemed better than the usual ones. Something changed quickly, as it always seemed to when I was involved. My luck was probably the worst in the world.

Vargos had brought a bow with him, and of course arrows. He was one of the best archers I’d ever seen, reminding me of my old friend Meoris. A difference between them is that Meoris wouldn’t kill random people who’d done nothing wrong. Vargos, however, didn’t hesitate to draw back an arrow and send it flying into the back of one of the women’s heads once they were about seventy yards away. I watched her fall silently while her companions went into shock, freezing up for a few seconds before trying to find cover. My gaze swung to the man who’d shot at them, furious.

“Why the hell did you do that? We were done with them.” I kept my weapon out, storming up to Vargos and glaring at his face. The height difference between us was comical, but I felt that it wasn’t relevant. Emotion was whirling around inside me. I hadn’t felt this strongly about anything since my mother died, and this time I had someone to take out the feelings on.

“The Torris can’t just get a reputation of mercy, boy. You should know that.”

“We took everything they had on them, imbecile. How is that not cruel enough for you?” My anger at the situation must have been funny, because Vargos certainly laughed. The other four members of our group stayed dead silent, caught up in the tension that I’d created.

“It’s not enough if I say it isn’t. I thought you were looking promising, but I must’ve been wrong if you can’t handle death.” Vargos said with an edge in his voice. He knew full well I could handle death; the fate of my family had been widespread news for years. All he wanted to do was poke at my lack of desire to murder, something that simply wasn’t normal for thieves and bandits. I didn’t know what I could say back to him without provoking further harm to either myself or the remaining travelers. Killing Vargos wasn’t an option, as I simply didn’t want to kill anyone and that would bring down the wrath of the Torris upon me. An entire bandit gang out for my head wasn’t something I wanted. Smoldering with annoyance, I backed off with a look that told Vargos exactly what I thought of him and went to pick up the loot we’d stolen. Shoving it into a bag and passing it off to one of the other men, I decided that I hated this job more than cleaning.

As expected, we headed back towards the Torris hideout right after the successful robbery. I could tell that Vargos was happy with how things went, if only because I wasn’t. Whether he hated me specifically or not was unclear; he seemed to take satisfaction just from showing his power over others. The guards at the front of the city of Umbriel were disappointing; they didn’t bother to check any of us or question the suspicious bag of random stolen items that we were carrying. Maybe they knew Vargos and had been paid to ignore us? I wouldn’t be surprised; he was definitely the type of man to pull off something like that. Passing through the gates only brought to my attention one other thing of note, something I hadn’t seen in years. A white and black mask glimpsed staring at me between several other people, moving away from the small group of bandits I was in. That mask was something I’d had stuck in my mind every day since I lost my family to the wearer. Rather than telling Vargos about it, I simply started running in the direction of the person, ready for a fight and revenge.

The streets were crowded. Being the biggest trade city in Forlica, Umbriel was always full of people from all sorts of places, much to my annoyance. Pushing aside bodies without so much as an apology and rushing towards where I thought my goal was, I ended up totally confused as to my location. Bodies were moving on all sides, and I was simply trapped between them. Not tall enough to look over the heads of people, I chose a direction and started forcing my way through again, ending up in front of an alleyway. Not the alleyway in which the entrance to the Torris headquarters was, unfortunately. If I ever made it back to there, Vargos was going to kill me…I had bigger issues.

Walking deeper into the alley to get away from the swarms of people, I found myself leaning against a wall and thinking I was alone. I was shaken by the appearance of the man in the mask, hating that I’d missed the chance and terrified that he would come to kill me while I wasn’t ready. Minutes of heavy breathing and thoughts running wild in my mind passed before I finally was prepared to leave the alleyway and head into the streets again. Yet as I tried to go out, I heard footsteps at my back and spun to face the man of my nightmares.

I never thought that I’d be terrified when I finally faced the man in the mask. After all my training with the sword, I knew I was better than he was. I had to be. But as I stood there, my hands shook as the emotions caused by the murders of years ago resurfaced and I could hardly move. Anger, grief, terror…all I did was remain still as the masked face came closer. A muffled voice came through it next, sounding vaguely familiar but not so much that I could place it on someone.

“How disappointing. The best swordsman alive, unable to move.” He chuckled, drawing a sword from his side. That also looked familiar; I assumed it had stuck with me only because it had slain my father and siblings. I despised even more that he was correct. Forcing out a response, my tone was bitter and cold.

“I can move just fine, idiot. Get away from me.”

“I thought you’ve been looking for me? Was I misinformed?” He replied slowly, towering over me now, “Do you want me to disappear again?”

The three consecutive questions had me fumbling for an answer, and honestly, I didn’t know what to say. Indecision gripped me firmly, causing hesitation that might have been almost fatal.

“Disappear if you want. I’ll find you when I’m ready, and I’ll kill you.” I didn’t offer to fight the man now. Somehow, I knew I would lose if this was where we tried to end it.

“You sound confident,” he said sarcastically. “If you find me, you’ll join your family at last.”

Death threats were never pleasant to receive, and it was worse to know that this man could follow through with them. To get away from the situation, I backed off and picked up my pace as I went back into the main streets. While it was risky to turn my back on the masked man, I somehow knew he wouldn’t attack yet. It wasn’t time for either of us to fight.