Christian~

Ink, three unbroken bottles. Paper, half a stack unstained. Maps, everywhere, layering the mud-coated floor, painting the path the beast had taken through my living room.

Scraps of paper were strewn about the room like snow I’d have to clean. The rest of my ink was on me, staining my clothes with glops of deep black and shards of glass piercing the cloth and down my arm.

The hog squealed and struggled against Olexi’s grasp. The thing had been coated in layers of the mud that was now all over everything that I owned. Olexi, my second in command for many reasons except this one, grimaced at the glare I was giving him.

“They were going to slaughter him, Christian.” He pulled the hog closer, as though it were his son, “He was just scared, then excited.”

“He’d make a lot of zharkoye.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” His eyes widened as I mentioned the stew we had shared the night prior.

I ran a hand through my hair with a heavy sigh, knowing he wouldn’t let me do anything to it now that he had claimed it as his. It already had a name, I was sure. How Olexi managed to survive the military, I would never understand. We were in the same unit, we had fought side by side as brothers, and I still couldn’t wrap my head around how this was the same man who had saved my hide just as many times as I saved his.

He patted the beast’s side as it flailed in his arms, challenging my annoyed gaze, “We’re naming him.”

I sighed and motioned to the destruction it had caused moments before, “Khaos?”

“I’ll name him.”

He cautiously let the beast go as I began picking the inked glass out of my arm, keeping an eye on them. “Why’d you buy it?”

“I was talking to the farmer in the market to get our rations for the next job when we landed on his pigs. This one was a breeder hog, but he’d started to become a problem for the farmer, so he was on the chopping block…”

“Problem how?” I sighed, seeing where this was going for him. The hog was a means to an end, something that reminded him of his time in the field when he’d been left to die.

“He said he was jumpy?” He was hesitant, not looking at me as he watched his new best friend, “He made it sound like he was attacking the female hogs he was supposed to breed with.”

“Jumpy and attacking women are very different things.”

“They’re pigs, Christian. Besides, they were winning the fights.”

“Has he seen a human woman yet? How do we know he won’t attack them, too? We get a lot of them as clients, where are we going to stick him if he does?”

“I’ll build a pen for him to stay in while we talk with clients, and we won’t find out who he’ll attack.”

“With what wood?”

“The wood I’ll buy from the lumberjack.”

“With what tools?”

“Yours.”

I laughed, pulling out the last shard I could find, “Alright, don’t knock yourself out.”

He smiled victoriously.

“If he attacks anyone, I will turn him into zharkoye.”

He shot me a glare as he stood. “I’ll go get the wood then.”

I nodded to him, pulling off my shirt to assess the damage, “Take him with you, and see if Lev is still at the tavern while you’re out.”

He waved goodbye to me, grabbing the rope by the door before they left together. With a long sigh, I grabbed my bottle of alcohol and looked over the room again. The damage was expensive, and there was no way that the guild had any jobs left up that could even cut into the repair bill that hog had already caused.

That was if the guild portion was still open. It should already be just a regular tavern for anyone to come to off the street. They usually closed up the guild for the day once all the good jobs were gone, the ones that would be picked up by anyone who’d actually been on a job before.

We had to hope that someone would show up at our door, see the mess, and still want to hire us with our declining reputation.

At one time, we were known for being the best in the business. We were never idle, always out on the road going after our next bounty. But now, I was rapidly becoming known for my quick temper, the one that Olexi’s shenanigans never seemed to set off, and Olexi was known for the stupid things he got up to on the town with all of the free time that we’d gotten.

The free time was a nightmare for me. I had no roots anywhere. I had been living out of our office space out of convenience. While we were always out on the road, there had been no reason for me to have anywhere to call my own.

Most of me missed being so busy that I didn’t think I needed a home to return to. But there was a small part of me that wished I had somewhere away from the office, that I had a family missing me while I was gone, one to come back to after the long, cold nights in the field and celebrate making it out again. Something normal to live for. Someone to worry about, to take care of.

Maybe Olexi was feeling that too, maybe that’s why he ‘saved’ that hog.

I cleaned the specks of blood that poked out of my skin, scrubbing at the ink staining my skin. There was a knock at the door and heavy footsteps, before I lifted my head to see who I assumed was Lev rejoining us after running out of money at the tavern.

“Can I help you?” I asked, seeing Lord Orlov’s soldier standing among the chaos in freshly polished armor and a rigid posture.

“The Lord requires your audience immediately.” His tone was carefully neutral, a practice I did not miss.

“Regarding?” I set the alcohol soaked rag down in a metal pan.

“Nothing I can discuss.” Above his station.

I nodded and left to grab a fresh shirt before rejoining him as he studied the mess. “A hog got in,” I spoke, startling the poor kid.

He nodded and led me down the overfilled streets to the more private paths of Lord Orlov’s home, where his wife and grown twins would be, instead of the public offices that I would have been brought to for any normal job.

It gnawed at the back of my mind. It was odd, a public figure bringing me into his home with my reputation, with no prior notice. Any job that would require an audience with his family could have easily been done by anyone, so why me?

Why risk the temper I was known for? Why not call in the soldiers who had sworn their allegiance to him?

The soldier knocked on the door and waited, keeping me a step behind him. It almost felt like I was being arrested, except instead of going to the jailhouse, it was directly in front of the Lord of the land, who could easily decide my fate was execution without any evidence of my less-than-legal activities from years before.

We were rushed inside by the butler, who quickly looked outside again after we walked into the entrance hall, before closing the door. He motioned for me to follow him through the lavishly decorated hallways filled with art that the family had accumulated over generations.

The butler seemed anxious, like his livelihood was on the line if anything went wrong. The whole of the massive house stood still, seeming to share the butler’s anxiety. The air in the house felt heavy, like he was clawing through thick waves of muddied secrets that only the walls knew the whole of.

“The Lord awaits you inside.” He spoke, opening the dark door for me to walk through. I took a moment to go in, watching the room as I walked toward the large desk with the aging man behind it, holding his head of greying hair in his hands.

The door closed heavily, sealing us in silence. The last time I was there, it was similar. The Lord sat in the same spot, vulnerable and weak, not caring how I saw him as he pleaded for me to help his family by any means possible.

“Nothing said in this room is to be repeated to anyone.” He finally spoke, echoing his words from their last meeting.

I nodded, silently urging him to go on with his request. I assumed it would be something along the same lines as last time.

The door opened again, and his eldest son, Alexander, walked to the desk, resting his fists on the embellished wood, announcing his protests as though I weren’t there. “This is ridiculous, Father. You do not need this hoodlum to answer the questions we already know the answers to. You have two children, not three.”

“Your mother birthed three of you. I was convinced she was passing for too long as I heard the updates about you three to be told otherwise by one of the babes.” The Lord sighed, not raising his head to look at his son.

I turned my head to see the last two of the family quietly walk in and close the door. The Lady gave me a weak smile as the younger twin, Erin, fidgeted in his pocket, not meeting my gaze.

“That may be, but you have raised us as twins for more than twenty years. The girl cannot possibly still be alive in the care of that witch.”

“We cannot know that—”

“Do you care for her more than your living children?”

“There were three, and I still do not know what happened to your sister. We need to know.”

Alexander began to protest as I broke into their fight, “I assume that’s why I’m here. To find out what happened to her?”

I didn’t know there was ever a third; I wasn’t even aware that was possible or survivable. But I did not care to stand in on their family problems if I was not being paid for it.

“Yes, we will provide you with everything you need for your investigation.” The Lady Orlov spoke as she sat in a chair nearby us.

Alexander looked at her, the betrayal clear on his face, “Mother, you cannot be serious.”

“I wish to know what the witch did to your sister, Alexander.” Her tone was final, one that seemed she used on them frequently as children. Erin stood behind her on the chair, still avoiding my gaze, as he placed a hand on her shoulder as though proving his support of her.

They were quiet for a moment, expecting Alexander to protest further. I hated every moment I spent in the family’s presence; this was clearly a problem that they avoided talking about as often as possible. I didn’t care how they felt, and I did not want to be in the middle of this.

But if I were going to get paid…

“You will receive three times your usual rate to keep the investigation quiet.” The Lord Orlov finally looked at me, the desperation clear in his features, “And, should you find yourself able to bring her body back to us, you will receive three acres of land to do whatever you wish with.”

Land? He was offering land to bring back a stolen baby decades after she was taken. Was it possible? It was tempting to try.

“I have two men under my command who will need provisions.”

“Done.” He replied quickly.

“Father, think about this! He is going to bleed us dry if you let him.” Alexander piped up again with contained fury.

“I will go with him to supervise.” Erin finally spoke.

“You have all lost your minds.” Alexander threw up his hands. turning from the group.

“I do not usually allow that,” I mentioned slowly.

“I will obey your commands, just as your men would.” Erin pleaded with me, his eyes searching mine, “You’ll forget that my father was the one who is paying you.”

“You are aware that you could die if we leave town? There is a lot out there more than willing to make us a meal before we even see a witch.” I said, mostly trying to scare him off this idea of his. I was not inclined to let anyone I didn’t know well anywhere near my work, even if he was a client.

“I have military experience.”

“Clearly not much.”

“Enough to know the danger and importance of following orders.” He tried.

I sighed, running a hand down my face. This would be the most infuriating job I had ever taken if I chose to accept. I knew he wasn’t going to let up on this. I knew if I said no, he’d likely find ways around what I said to follow us anyway.

But he was offering a lot of money, and more importantly, land that I could build a home on. I could have roots somewhere, where I didn’t have to worry about anyone disturbing the family I could grow for my line of work. We could know peace amongst the chaos that I had known my whole life.

“Fine, but if you step one toe out of line, I’m sending you back here alone.”

“Deal.” He reached out his hand for me to shake.

I turned back to the Lord, “I need all of the information that you have.”