I stepped back into the light of my drones and raised my hands once more. The gathered people obediently quieted to let me speak.

  “It would seem that you’re having trouble selecting a speaker for arbitration. Very well. You there, man in the green tunic with the leather cap, come up here.”

  The man glanced around to see if anyone around him also had a leather cap. When one wasn’t found, he inhaled deeply and then headed for the steps to join me. Once he had made his way to the top, I presented my hand and firmly clasped his forearm in a brotherly handshake.

  He was young, possibly 20 or 22. A light dusting of facial hair partially hid the acne scarring across his cheeks; mousey brown hair poked out from beneath the worn leather cap, and his faded green tunic was patched in multiple places.

  “Well met, lad. Tell me, what is your name?”

  He licked his lips and then stammered out.

  “J-jogen… Jogen Oflet. I-it’s a pleasure ta be meetin’ ya… M-Mister Vita.”

  I smiled at the man warmly. He had a nervous earnestness about him that spoke of an honest and principled disposition. I liked him immediately.

  “Just Vita is fine, Jogen. Tell me, what is your profession?”

  He stepped back and wrung his hands as an absentminded self-soothing mechanism. The scrutiny of being in front of so many people obviously made him uncomfortable, even if he knew almost all of them by name.

  “A-apprentice b-blacksmith!”

  I nodded; he had some heft to his shoulders and a thick neck. Hours spent bent over an anvil.

  “A good trade to be sure; farmers wouldn’t get very far with stone tools, and I’m sure many a home would be poorer off without your nails. A respectable profession, Jogen. Now, you’ve been selected at random from a crowd of your peers to fill a role outside that profession.”

  I needed to bring this man’s ego up if he was going to fill the role I needed him to. As honest as he was, he’d be no good to me if he didn’t believe it was something he could accomplish.

  “Understand that it’s not a simple thing we are asking you to do, Jogen, so I want you to treat this as though it were the last thing you ever did. The importance cannot be overstated.”

  He swallowed audibly, but nodded anyway.

  “I’ve chosen you to be the voice of your people. What you decide will be their will and, in turn, be a burden that you all must bear together.”

  I turned to address the crowd.

  “Are there any among you who would object to Jogen's selection, whatever it may be? Speak now or rest with your opinions!”

  The group of people was still and silent. Nodding, I turned back to Jogen.

  “Well, Jogen, it appears you are well-respected among your people. Now, as to the fate of the men before you. You are tasked with delivering their judgement…”

  He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.

  “Be reminded, Jogen, that you are handling lives. The people bound at the bottom of these stairs may have families of their own; they may have loved ones who will miss them, and they may have important roles in society. Do not rush to a conclusion so quickly, as you are not making it on your own.”

  I placed a deliberate hand on his shoulder and squeezed it slightly to emphasize the importance of what was happening. He had the backing of the village; his voice was their voice. They all trusted his judgment and would share the responsibility for it, regardless of what it was.

  “Look out among your people, look at their faces and ponder this choice with the severity it deserves. We will not proceed until you have settled any doubt in your heart.”

  His mouth snapped shut, and he turned to regard the people lining the street. The mass of people had grown slightly as stragglers wandered in, either late from the chores they needed to complete, or drawn in by the conversation being projected over the drones.

  The guards at their posts were doing everything they could to pay attention to two things at once: following the broadcast and scanning for threats in alternating intervals. Jogen adopted a look of intense contemplation as he looked out among the familiar faces in the street.

  Minutes passed, and the agitation among the people rose. Many of them nodded to Jogen as his gaze passed over them; finally, he nodded to himself and turned back to me.

  “We of Hilst protect our own, even if that means protecting each other from the c-church. What these men tried to take from us couldn’t be given back, and who knows how much they’ve taken from others! This crime will not go unpunished, and it will not be forgotten by us!”

  Unanimous cheers erupted from the crowd, strongly agreeing with and encouraging Jogen’s response. He had thought his words over and was much more confident with them; as he spoke, he became more impassioned.

  “For the suffering they’ve caused us, and for the suffering they’ve caused countless others, we of Hilst will take the responsibility of ensuring they never harm another soul! It is the decision of Hilst to have these men put to death so that Tempi remains the last of their victims!”

  He choked up halfway through at the memory of what they’d done to Tempi. The roar from the audience shook the remaining windows of the commerce building and the businesses across the street. All of Hilst agreed. I raised my arms to settle them and spoke again.

  “Very well said, Jogen, and there isn’t a soul here who disagrees with your judgement. You have chosen wisely indeed, and should be proud of this moment, for it will be written in the logs of the village’s history.”

  He smiled lightly and seemed to swell ever so slightly with the praise.

  “Killing a man is no simple thing, so tell me, Hilst, is there an executioner among you? Perhaps a guardsman who will accept the task? If there are none among you who wish to commit such a deed, Armela has already promised to carry out the wishes of the village.”

  I motioned her forward, and she came to stand at my side, her arms folded across her chest in an imposing stance of power and domination.

  “Her abilities regarding the taking of life far exceed my own by a wide margin, so make no mistake, if left to her, these men will die tonight.”

  There were some murmurs and some light shoving where friends or family attempted to convince others to take up the axe, but ultimately no one stepped forward. Not even the guards. Apparently, they would demand the death of the men, but refuse to be the ones to deliver the blow.

  Interesting and somewhat understandable. It was easier to sleep knowing that the blood of a person wasn’t on your hands.

  “Armela, it seems like you’ve got some work to do. Where would you like them?”

  I could see the feral, animalistic urge to kill spread over her face with the aphrodisiac flush of lust; from the dilation of her pupils to the crinkling of her nose, to the savage grin that revealed her sharp, dagger-like teeth.

  I didn’t know exactly how much of the canine instinct existed within her, but the raw thrill of the hunt suffused her body with a hormonal response no longer fueled by actual hormones.

  “Send me back to that room with the machines… but leave them off… the noise would interfere.”

  Once again, I questioned my decision to allow her to tread this path. A bloodthirsty tyrant wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but she may require more… micromanaging than someone who was less inclined to… shred… people she didn’t like.

  Well, doubling back at this point would muddy my support of her by sending mixed signals, and this still fell within acceptable parameters for me, so I would continue ahead.

  “Very well, you may begin immediately if you wish.”

  She cracked her knuckles and tilted her head from side to side, eliciting more crackles from non-existent bones.

  “Oh… I very much wish to start now.”

  I simply nodded and opened a rift for her to step through. I opened more under each of the selected men, and they fell through to their bloody doom. There was no pity in my heart for those men. They knew what they had done; they knew what their actions would bring upon their heads.

  To meet their end in a blood-soaked cave at the hands of a prior victim was likely the most karmic end they could hope for. Especially given the sheer level of pain they would each experience before the end. Their debt to the world would be paid in full before the end.

  With that decision made, I turned back to the people of Hilst as they cheered, slapping each other on the back and embracing over the joy of ridding themselves of the menace to the village.

  “People of Hilst! I must address you one last time before I bring this meeting to a close. Justice has been served against those who sought to bring you low. And tonight we may all rest easy knowing that once again, the only dangers you face are outside your walls.”

  A small round of applause and cheering interrupted me before I could continue. After waving my hand gently for a moment, they quieted down again.

  “The guards you’ve stationed are doing a fine job of keeping the surroundings monitored, and I have the utmost faith that they will continue to do so as the moon travels across the sky. However, I have one parting comment for very specific people who may or may not be listening to me now.”

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  I scanned the crowd, looking into confused and curious eyes as I went.

  “My comment is this: I know you aided the village leader in brushing his dealings aside. Covering his misdeeds and shutting away the truth. I understand it may not have been your idea, and you may have been threatened to do it. I am not without compassion.”

  I paused, letting my words catch up to the people listening so that they might clue in that they’d been discovered.

  “If you come to see me tonight at the inn down this street, I will discuss this issue with you discreetly and with an open heart. However, if you decide that you have better chances absconding, or sneaking your way out of this village, I will see that as an act of aggression towards the fine people of this Hilst.”

  My tone darkened with an imperious and callous tinge.

  “And I will be forced to take you where the priests and leader went… please know that I do not want that for you. My only wish is to see justice brought against those who truly deserve it.”

  I looked directly into the drone recording the events of the meeting, allowing me to stare into the eyes of all the remote viewers across the village, as though I were addressing them specifically.

  “Do the right thing, and you may yet live a peaceful life. You will not receive another warning like this.”

  With that, I clapped my hands and took a bow.

  “This is the end, good people of Hilst. Carry on to your homes, and may your rest tonight be filled with pleasant dreams. For anyone needing to speak to me, please come find me at the inn. I wish to relax with some drinks and food.”

  I thought for a microsecond and figured I would do a little more marketing for myself. Who didn’t like free food and drinks?

  “If you find this appealing, I will cover your expenses for the trouble of keeping you from your families. Thank you all for your time.”

  I shut down the lights, and people dispersed; animated conversation trailed after them down the streets and out into the night air. Mostly discussing all the interesting things they’d seen; the conviction and execution of the slavers hadn’t been the principal attraction for people.

  That baffled me. These villagers had just condemned people to death, and their concern was the nature of my magic. Not the cessation of life they’d perpetrated just moments before. I was once again reminded that my values did not align with this world’s.

  I hadn’t been raised in a place where people were slaughtered so casually. I knew of places like that back on Earth, but I’d been sheltered from it. It was a theoretical concept to me, not a reality. Was the tragedy of death diminished by people’s proximity to it?

  I didn’t know.

  Shaking my head, I opened a rift to the inn bedroom where Armela and I had slept and shut it behind me. I changed into something a bit more formal, though not by much: light beige slacks with a simple leather belt and plain brass buckle, a white sleeveless undershirt with a soft grey tunic over top.

  From a drone’s perspective, I looked much like any other peasant belonging to a stable and well-compensated profession. Not destitute, but far enough from wealth that, at a glance, I wouldn’t be mistaken for nobility.

  The fact that I would cover expenses for those who came to see me might alarm some of the more fussy among the community and spark a bit of debate over how, exactly, I’d come into such wealth. But I hoped it would fly under the radar enough so as not to tarnish my ‘everyman’ persona.

  Heading down to the dining hall, I tracked down the innkeeper and asked if they’d been privy to the broadcast from the main street. They had, and were already working to drum up enough food for a sizable party of people. I thanked them and put two gold coins into their palm.

  They thanked me profusely and added that they’d called out for additional staff to come help serve tables. Even with the late hour, it seemed they were well aware of the potential revenue opportunities a gathering like this would have for their waitstaff.

  The innkeeper was almost entirely androgynous, to the point where I couldn’t identify whether they even had a gender. The sleek lines of their face, pale complexion, and dress, completely devoid of any biological indicators, made it impossible to tell by looking.

  Their voice carried the deeper tones of a woman using a husky, masculine projection, but incorporated feminine pitches throughout the higher annunciations of syllables. There was no Adam’s apple visible in their neck, but that was hardly a solid indicator to go off of.

  They had platinum blonde hair, which was unusual for the area, and reminded me of Belimra, but they did not have the pointed ears of an elf. The hair was also long, past their shoulders, which wasn’t uncommon for men in the village.

  I’d ultimately refrained from arbitrarily assigning them any specific labels, as they weren’t necessary for the interactions we had, or the nature of our business together.

  I headed into the farthest corner of the hall, passing two rather inebriated patrons at the bar. The scent of alcohol radiated from them like a thick miasma. Both of their heads were down in their arms, and it made me think that perhaps they really didn’t want to be wherever it was they were supposed to be.

  I’d almost written them off completely when my pattern recognition picked up an incredibly subtle finger gesture from the man to the left. It was just a slight wiggle, the tiniest of movements back and forth, but the repetition and precise distances had triggered my awareness.

  I continued to my seat, not letting my outward appearance reflect my recognition of the coded messages the man was sending. There was communication happening between the two men at the bar, so I waited for enough information to be transmitted that I could extrapolate the meaning of the movements.

  After a bit, I pieced it together.

  “-im, room. make. It. slow. yes. after. room. paralysed. take. her. horseback. window. meet. with. cardinal. Heltor. money.”

  I couldn’t see the other side of the conversation, but enough had been relayed for me to know what they were about. I pinged Armela to let her know she had two more arrivals incoming, and that she needed to question them thoroughly about this ‘Cardinal Heltor’.

  They’d obviously been sent to assassinate us and were scouting the inn to plan their attack. We needed to know if there were more of them in the village, or if more were coming. She acknowledged the information and gave the okay to send them over, so with no warning I dropped them both through their own rifts. Barstools and all.

  The bartender and, subsequently, the innkeeper both looked over at me. It’d happened so quickly and with no preamble that they hadn’t really reacted. I figured it would be easier to head things off at the pass rather than let their questions linger.

  “I will compensate you for your stools. Unfortunately, it seems those two fellows were assassins sent to eliminate both myself and Armela. Are either of you two familiar with Cardinal Heltor? Apparently, he orchestrated their presence here. They likely slipped in with the priests and guards when they arrived.”

  They stared at me, dumbfounded, before the innkeeper found their voice.

  “That name doesn’t conjure a face for me. Though I haven’t been in Hilst long and have never travelled to Eprie.”

  So they weren’t local. I wondered where they originally hailed from.

  “Same for me, can’t say’s I’ve ever heard that name before. And I been here my whole life, heh… hehe.”

  The bartender chimed in with a nervous chuckle. While the innkeeper not being local raised my suspicion, I didn’t really think they had anything to do with the pair of men I’d sent to Armela.

  The assassins must have arrived within the last day, and the innkeeper had been running things for some time before that, based on how accustomed they were to the location.

  “That’s fine; we’ll find out who that is, eventually. Appreciate your help and sorry about the stools again. This is for the stools.”

  I flicked a silver coin onto the counter by way of apology, and the innkeeper swept it up as they opened their mouth and then closed it before trying again.

  “I-if you don’t mind me asking… how, exactly, did you know what they were doing here? They didn’t speak, didn’t so much as lift their heads. They’d been drinking here all day, talking about their wives and work and commiserating over their woes.”

  They scratched the back of their head, finding it hard to believe that I’d had any idea what their deal was.

  “It seems strange that they’d have done all that just to kill you. You’d think they would have… I don’t know… waited on the roof… maybe?”

  I nodded; from what they’d observed, it would appear nothing had happened.

  “They were using an incredibly subtle form of code to communicate. Likely they’d been doing it all day, and it went unnoticed. Look.”

  I wiggled my index and middle fingers like the two men had.

  “Can you tell how there’s a rhythm to the movements? It must have taken an incredible amount of time to learn and train the muscles of their fingers to move so precisely. But then again, assassins are typically known for steady hands.”

  I exaggerated the movements for both their viewing benefit.

  “And notice that while I speak, my fingers continue moving, so I can say two things at once if I wanted.”

  They both squinted at my fingers, even while directly looking it was hard for them to tell, but the bartender finally leaned back and their eyes widened.

  “Now that you show me… I do recall noticing something like that at some point! I think I’d just written it off as an itchy finger though. I’d never have known to look for something like that… amazing!”

  I nodded again.

  “Indeed! And I’m impressed you even noticed that much… you must have quite the discerning eye! It was an interesting discovery for me, and yet another thing we’ll be able to tuck under our belts for an interesting icebreaker in conversation! For example… guess what I’m saying now!”

  I wiggled my fingers exaggeratedly for effect, and they both giggled.

  “Well! Go on then! What did you say?!”

  The innkeeper was quite interested to see how the punchline to this little skit would go, so I teased them both a bit.

  “Ahhhh, you see! I was inviting you both back to my room!”

  They laughed and blushed, which had an incredibly interesting effect on the innkeeper’s appearance, sliding it heavily into the feminine end of the spectrum. But as I watched, actual—physical—changes were taking place under their skin.

  Subtle shifts in bone placement, narrowing of the jawline, heightening of the cheeks, their lips plumped up, and the nose shortened and decreased in size. It was amazing, and with little thought, I commented on it.

  “That’s amazing! How did you do that with your looks?”

  Still smiling, they tilted their head.

  “Hmmm? What do you mean?”

  I paused. Uh oh.

  “Your looks… I’m not sure how to describe it; it’s like your face has changed subtly…”

  The look of panic and dread that swept over their face was stark and immediate. They whirled away from me and screamed.

  “NOOOOO!! DON’T LOOK, I’M SORRY. DON’T LOOK AT ME. OH GODS, PLEASE! NOT NOW!!”

  They began desperately sprinting for the door behind the bar. Hands over their face to keep us from looking at it. This startled me, and I stared at the bartender, who wore a concerned look and shrugged.

  “First time that’s happened. Dunno what would have set her off like that…”

  I quirked an eyebrow.

  “She’s a woman?”

  The bartender looked confused.

  “Eh? Isn’t she? Pretty effeminate for a man… though I suppose I never asked, really. It’s only been a couple months since I started here and I’ve been calling her ma’am this and miss that… she never mentioned anything about it! Figured I’d gotten that right, but thinking about it now I suppose she… he? Could have been a man and just went along with it.”

  I scowled; well, that wasn’t particularly helpful.

  “Do you at least know their name?”

  The bartender struck me with a slightly offended look.

  “Course I know… their… name! Did you honestly think I’d sign on here and just never ask? How does that make any sense? You take me for a simpleton, don’t you? I have patrons to prep for, so if you’re done insulting me, I’ll be cleaning up. Hmph!”

  With that, she turned and took up her station behind the bar, once again wiping down mugs.

  I rapped my knuckles on the table, idly wondering how I kept putting myself in these positions. The talk I’d literally just had down the street went really well, but less than a minute into this conversation and I’d upset both the innkeeper and the barkeep.

  I simply found the ability to change their looks to be interesting and wanted to understand it. I had seen no sigils or other sources of power, so it had clearly been an inborn trait of their body. No one had come to the diner yet, so I figured it was as good a time as any to rectify the situation.

  I stood and made my way to the door they’d gone through.