Scared shrieks and furious yells rang through the square. The guards looked almost feral, snarling viciously as they brought down the hammer of law. It happened so quickly that Kaius was almost frozen as he struggled to reconcile the sudden, unneeded violence. This was pointless — beatings for what, having the poor luck to be in the path of letters someone else had penned and sent?

At the front of the crowd, a guard rammed his baton right into the gut of a man who had yet to even move. The man collapsed, freeing the guard to snatch a page that had landed at his feet.

What were they doing? He could understand the Duke’s rationale. Even if the order was futile, he was making it damn clear that he wasn’t happy with the guild. But this? The violence?

It was so stupid. Did they want a riot? The crowd numbered in the hundreds, and Kaius could already hear the shock fading into outrage. It sounded like people were gathering from farther away in the square, too — and Kaius could blatantly see the delvers behind the fence reaching for their weapons.

Not to mention that the pages that had so thoroughly incensed the guards had already been caught on a decidedly more natural wind. They were everywhere — they’d have to put half the damn plaza the sword if they wanted to confiscate all of them.

Gods’ damned fool of a captain was practically begging to take a long swing on the branches that swayed far over their heads.

When the man in question reached for his own baton and made to dive for the crowd, Kaius blinked in astonishment. Did he expect him to stand here and just watch — had the man been kicked in the head?

Kaius clapped his hand on the man’s shoulder, wrenching him to a halt with an iron grip.

“Stop, and call off your men, you fool.”

“Unhand me!” the captain yelled, his face going redder by the minute. Without a shred of hesitation he swung.

Astonished at the simple audacity, Kaius didn’t even try to move. The captain was slow; weak. The shiny, well-loved length of black hardwood landed on Kaius’s cheekbone with a sharp crack. It stung — a little, at least — but it was like getting smacked by a child. Kaius could feel the captain straining, desperately trying to carry his weight through the strike. He may as well have smacked a granite boulder; Kaius didn’t move a hair.

Freezing, the captain stared at him with his arm fully outstretched.

Frowning, Kaius tightened his grip just a little, and felt the man’s bones creak. A surge of mana preceded a subtle pop behind him, quickly joined by the creak of a bowstring and a rising swell of grey mana that tasted of silence.

“Stop,” Kaius said softly, continuing to stare down the captain, though his words were directed more at his team.

This was a smoking powder keg. As much as the captain’s order could not stand, they had to at least try to avoid an escalation. If they attacked, people would die — both guards, and innocents caught in the chaos. He didn’t hunger for the blood of fools, and they were in Baanswell for a reason. Scrounging the library for hints of ancient history would be much harder to do if they pissed off the Duke and got in shit with the Guild.

That said, he couldn’t just ignore what was happening right in front of him.

Tugging against his grip, the guard captain’s face twisted into a sneer. “I said release me! I am an agent of the Duke's authority, and no delver, Silver or otherwise, has the right to accost me in my duty!”

Where was this coming from! The man had to be deluded. He knew, of course, that some people let even the smallest iota of power go to their head, but could he not see? His men had already started to pull back, watching their confrontation with uneasy eyes as they continuously flicked towards the swelling numbers of the crowd.

“Rotten bloody roots, man, you have far too much confidence in borrowed power,” Kaius hissed, wishing that he could just shake the man by his ankles until his missing sense fell out of his pockets.

He needed the captain to think.

Reaching for his Authority, Kaius slammed it over the man. It was a heavy thing, staggering the captain as Kaius blared the proof of his power to everyone nearby. The swelling chaos stilled — guards and the gathered crowd both cowed in an instant.

Reeling his aura back in, he fixed the pale-faced captain with a pointed stare.

“Listen to reason, man. We both know that this is a pointless pissing contest. Whatever is on those pages doesn’t matter — it is already spreading as we speak, through whispered words and over shared drink. The Guild knows it, and the Duke knows it — this whole charade is nothing more than a show of force.”

“Do you believe that you can order a man of the law, guilder?” the captain hissed, his jaw set resolutely despite the slight pallor to his skin.

Kaius sighed; the man was persistent, he’d give him that.

“I think that you are here to be annoying and make the Duke's displeasure with the guild plain, and not to start a violent riot — especially not in front of a Guild full of delvers that are already pissed off at you. But by all means, if you want to shove your cock in a door and slam it, be my guest,” he hissed, praying the man could put aside his self-righteousness to see reason.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

There was hope — the captain seemed less sure of himself. He still looked outraged, but Kaius could finally see thought swirling behind those bloodshot eyes of his. He was one of those — someone who took things a little too at face value. It seemed like he really hadn’t thought about why, just suited up to crack some skulls and be home in time for dinner.

Idiot.

When the captain turned towards the crowd, Kaius let him go. It had doubled in size, and while they had backed away from the Guild’s iron wall, they were still a heaving mass of frustration. The guards themselves seemed to have realised that they were outnumbered ten to one, and had retreated to their original formation to the side of the gate. They constantly flicked back to the Delvers that were jeering on the other side of the wall — pincered between two groups that were very unhappy with them.

Yet the situation was still stable — just. Kaius had no doubt that it would have already exploded if they hadn’t been here. Too many people in the crowd were watching his team nervously — a fair choice, considering Porkchop was currently covered in armour that made him look like some sort of demon.

The guard captain stiffened at the sight in front of him, finally realising what had been obvious from the beginning.

“Hells, man, I don’t think the Duke wants you to start a bloody riot over some pieces of paper, and I don’t think you want to be strung up by your toes by an angry mob,” Kenva said from behind him. “Just let it go.”

Kaius watched the obstinance flow from the man’s body.

“There will be reprisals for this — Guild members or not, delvers can’t just flagrantly disobey the law,” the captain muttered, before his voice boomed with Skill-backed power to drag at the crowds attention. “I will repeat myself, the guild's methods are untested! In the interest of public good, the Duke has decreed that possession and distribution of sanctioned material is punishable by fine or imprisonment!”

The crowd muttered as the captain took a breath. “However, you should not suffer for the actions of a single fool. Allow my men to fetch the pages, and I will assume that any found in your possession were intended to be handed over to us. Please, this is a temporary edict — just give the Dukes of our land enough time to verify these extraordinary claims.”

His words worked — to an extent. The crowd settled down, but Kaius’s eyes were more than sharp enough to catch more than a few folded leaflets being slipped into pockets. Nor did the guards have any hopes in the forsaken hells of finding all of the pages that were blowing across the plaza.

When the captain stomped away from them without a second look, Kaius watched him leave without comment.

“Do you think that means we’re free to enter the guild?” Porkchop asked, eying the guards as his armour vanished once more.

“I’d say so,” Kaius said, shrugging.

“We should probably have a word with that group inside. Throwing those pages was moronic,” Ianmus said, eying the milling group as they approached the wrought iron entrance to the overgrown park.

Kaius grunted in agreement. He disagreed with the duke's actions as much as anyone else, but hurling a Fireball at a stacked pile of tinder wasn’t the right move. People could have died, and were injured.

Crossing the threshold, they left the wide paved path that led deeper into the compound, and wove through the trunks towards the would-be agitators.

It was a bigger group than he’d first thought — nearly twenty, though the strongest of them only felt like they were Iron. Pushing through the undergrowth, Kaius watched them freeze as they approached. He came to a slow halt, scanning the group. Most of them met his eyes and then looked away, though a few stood staunch in their frustration.

“I’m not going to ask who it was, and I don’t want to know. I hope it’s blatantly clear how bloody stupid that was.”

“They have a right to know!” a man in leather armour said — one of the ones that still had a bit of fire.

Kaius sighed. “I know — and they will. However, it doesn’t help them if they die in a riot, does it? All of this is just bullshit politics, and we all know it. The Skills will spread by word of mouth at the very least, but that doesn’t mean you should openly test a Duke’s authority. Slip notes under doors, let your tongue get a little loose in the pub, sure — but don’t rise to the bloody bait, you fools — people could have died. Or do you want to give the Duke a reason to crack down even more than he already has?”

Before anyone could respond, Kaius stalked away from the group, waving at his team to follow. Returning to the path, they made their way deeper through the trees. They passed someone every few minutes — ranging from full Steel teams who looked suited up on their way to jobs, to a singular Bronze went wide-eyed as soon as he spotted them, and then suddenly grew very interested with the patterning of the paving stones.

“I don’t get it,” Porkchop said shortly after they passed the poor sod. “Why doesn’t the guild do anything about it? Even if the Dukedoms are rich and powerful, this is the Guild we’re talking about.”

“They can’t, not without certain lines being crossed — and it seems the Duke has been careful to stay well clear of those,” Ianmus replied. “Its entire function and structure is predicated on being present in damn near every city on the continent. They can only do that because of thousands of interweaving agreements and treaties. Their hands are tied.”

“They carry the biggest stick, but they never use it first,” Kaius added when he felt his brother’s confusion.

Kenva nodded in agreement. “If they bulldoze through the Duke’s resistance, suddenly every damn ruler from Mystral to the Xarinian coast will question if it's worth allowing a guildhall in their city, consequences be damned. It goes both ways though. If the Duke were to say, start rounding up delvers, or directly assault the guildhall, then he’s the one dumb enough to start a fight with a sleeping giant.”

“I wish that didn’t make sense,” Porkchop grumbled.

“That’s politics for you,” Kaius said, shrugging.

Up ahead the trees started to thin, revealing an open clearing of sun, and a trio of stone buildings. They were large, far bigger than what he had seen in Deadacre.

Kaius picked up his pace. It was time to meet guildmaster Guilewind, and see why they needed so much damn space for a guildhall.