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[Garret Sawyer]

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Timestamp - Sun-Rise, 15th of Winter, AV 513

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The scene was a fairly bleak one at best; the streets were completely barren, not even the odd beggar or mute wandered the streets aimlessly, the only life consist of small, feral critters scurrying about for shelter. A strong wind flowed through the street, dulling all the senses and sending any light object not nailed down flying away. Overhead dark, furrowed clouds formed, spinning and circling around each other as they blanketed the sky, blocking all but the faintest glow of the sun, that could just be made out, low down on the horizon. The corpse of scraggy dog laid spread eagle in the middle of the dirt path, its balding head smashed in by some unknown force only a few minutes earlier based on the weeping wound.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.

The wooden wheels of the weathered old cart turned slowly, pulled by two surprisingly brisk horses, one was nearly pitch black with the faintest white mottling over its rear while the other was younger, with a full light chestnut coat it, seemed more skittish then its elder. Both strangely sported cuts and busies over their backs and sides while some effort had been made to protect their faces, on both horses a padded hood had been placed. Their driver wasn't faring so well, with blood running down the right side, his arms and legs battered and bruised he had taken to covering himself in a thick woollen blanket while atop the cart.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The noise echoed throughout the street as large lumps of hail struck against Garret's wooden shield that he held aloft to protect his head from elements, it had started spontaneously around 20 chimes ago along with the rain, catching them and most of the city off guard. In his other hand he held a lantern, casting light where the sun had failed though it had nearly melted through his final candle as the flame flickered and glowed, fighting for life. He had donned his leather armour, in Sunberth he always expected trouble, but he had not expected the trouble from the weather as the night had been clear and crisp as he wandered out of Sunberth in the very early hours of the day to meet the cart.

It hadn't been far from the city when he stumbled upon the cart and its current guards, the job description had been vague at best and he even questioned the need for his presence when the cart already had guards.
"We have been travelling with this cart for the last eighteen bells" they replied curtly to him "We are going to get some rest, you'll wait here until the other guards arrive then you'll escort the cart to the storage house"
They left almost instantly after that, leaving both Garret and the driver to wait for the rest of guards in silence.
"That's what gets on my nerves the most" he thought as they trundled through the city, fighting against the wind, hail and rain. Garret had worked with plenty of different mercenaries over the years, heck he had even worked with the same guys for over three seasons but that didn't mean he trusted them to do anything more than wipe their own arses. Fortunately they had both blessed Garret with silence as they talked amongst themselves, unconcerned with his presence.

A sudden crack erupted from a decrepit house next to them as a fist sized hailstone smashed through the roofs, triggering the collapse of an already severely weakened roof. As a cloud of dust and dirt shot up into the air one of the horses reared up, neighing loudly as it eyes open wide with fear. The driver shouted at the beast, struggling to comfort the animal with the howling wind blocking out most of the noise. With his shield still overhead Garret pushed forwards against the wind, and reached out to grab the horses harness, tugging at it with as much strength as Garret could muster against the stout beast.
"We need to find someone to top!" The driver shouted over the wind at Garret as the horse began to calm down.
"No..." He replied shaking his head as the both the wind and the rain picked up, drenching his beard and numbing his face with his arm couldn't to shake against the onslaught of the hail "The storage houses are about fifteen chimes away at the rate we're headin', we don't a stop until we reach them"
"But the hail..." The driver tried to explain before Garret cut him off
"It's flash hail! It'll probably be over in a few chimes, we keep goin', the more time you waste arguing about it the longer it'll be til' our arses our safe"
He looked over the other side of the cart at, ignoring the drivers continued protests to speak to his fellow guardsmen "You got that? We don't stop moving til' we reach the storage houses, nothing get's in our way, am I clear?" He turned back into the wind, not waiting for an answer, and started to walk again.

[Senghor Vilhjalmr]

As the large lumps of hail peddled at the mercenaries guardians the cart, one had taken to using a large and wide piece of wood to shield himself, he was wrapped in a makeshift shroud made from cloth someone in Sunberth had the courtesy to throw out before they got where they were. Winter in Sunberth was cold, and when it arose in the morning it was truly on another level, and Seng was feeling what that level as he walked behind the cart, the foreign shroud flattering in the winds vengeful grasp as it was hugged his lean body. Maybe it was the lack of light or the absence of life in Sunberths streets that made it seem foreign to him, it felt as if though all the crime had even taken a breather for the day and everyone was in their homes, where Senghor wanted to be at that moment. As he held his makeshift shield to the side and left as snow hammered down angrily upon the wood, he was thankful, his stature gave him the strength to lift the heavy weight with relative ease and move around with it. The sounds of the cart's driver(s) groaning in pain only reassured him that if they didn't get where they had to go in time than they wouldn't make it because of their injuries. Seng turned to his old friend Noven and couldn't help but disagree with the conditions of this job, it was a small shake of the head yet only clear enough for his friend to understand him. Ever since they'd met up with this cart, things went from shyke to petch and weather didn't make a difference Seng thought a he turned his head back to the streets. As the roar of the hail tearing the the weathered home brought took the attention of the mercenaries, he shot his gaze back towards horses as the dust cloud frightened the beast, the deafening wind doing nothing for the poor driver soothing his animal with shouts that only seemed mildly effective. As another gust of heavy wind pushed at them, Senghor held his ground and didn't even shake, even though old pains came to haunt him it didn't shift his stand on bit, the cart bucked in front of Seng as the driver tried taming his horse. He listened to the man speak towards the bearded mercenary, and the Vilhjalmr couldn't believe it... This bastard was trying to kill them, flash hail or not if these men didn't find shelter not only would they die but Senghor would get paid. As the wind caught speed and the older mercenary told them what to do... "Are you petching deranged, these men aren't like you an I, the won't live through this!..." he moved towards the drivers and talked to them, making sure everyone there could hear him. "We need to find shelter, and the only way to do that is to outrun this hail... You're going to have to high tail it and we'll follow behind as quickly as we can!" he roared over the sound of the wind, he was sure that everyone there could run especially if it concerned living at the end of the day. "Does anybody disagree!?" he asked with a deep seething rage laced with his words, he wanted to make sure that they understood. In his head, if they kept walking leisurely through the city like this, they were no better than extremists thinking they'd find salvation in death...

[Noven]

Crack. Another sizable chunk of hail exploded against Noven's head. He kept moving with the others, undeterred, as a steady stream of the foulest curses he could think of ran endlessly through his mind.

When they'd first taken on the job, Nov had only one thing on his mind: money. It was either this, or go hungry. Now he was considerably less concerned about food, suffering one impact after another as globs of ice the size of his fist pounded against his skull and limbs. It was all rather demoralizing, getting smacked around by mother nature just so they'd have a decent bite to eat tomorrow.

Correction, just so they might have a decent bite to eat. Because at this rate, with people panicking and two of the mercenaries in dissent, no one was going to get paid.

At that moment, a ridiculously large chunk of hail plummeted right into one of the horse's flank. The beast whinnied in terror and pain, bumping into its chestnut companion. For a tick, the wagon teetered and wobbled dangerously before settling back on its center. Nov now held the darker horse by its bridle, hushing and speaking calmly to it, muscles strained from trying to keep it from bucking.

He wasn't exactly a master horseman. In fact, he knew next to nothing about the large, smelly creatures, other than how often they liked to leave piles of shyke in his path. But he'd seen people handling in them often enough, and they were tight on options. He had to try or risk failing their mission altogether.

Something in the combination of his tactics worked, because the horse relaxed a little and stopped trying to break free of its reins. Relieved, Nov let go and patted it roughly on the nose, then along its body as he brushed off the crystals of ice from its pelt. It felt strange to comfort a beast of burden; he never even bothered with humans, other than Seng when he occasionally got to remembering too much.

"Whatever we do, we'd best do it fast!" Nov shouted over the din of hail, squeaking wheels and men panicking.

[Garret Sawyer]

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Thud. Thud. Thud.

"Fuck this! I'm gettin' out of here!" The driver shouted as another gust of wind tore through the street, deafening everyone within it. As soon as Noven managed to calm the horse down slightly with a crack of the whip, the driver had managed to send them hurtling down the street, both horses clearly quite happy to oblige the wishes of the driver to find somewhere sheltered, as the cart disappeared around a corner.

Garret lowered his lamp as he ran after the cart as fast as he could, the wind and hail trying their best to hold him back as he muttered curses even he didn't understand under his breath. "This is why you don't work with others Garret, you can't bleedin' trust 'em!" He thought to himself as he turned a corner, pressing himself up against the wall to relieve himself temporarily from the weather as he searched for the vanished cart. As the lantern lit the ground up, it allowed him to scan for the tracks of the cart "Especially that big one, all muscle, no brain that one was" he thought ungraciously as his eyes spotted the hoof tracks stamped into the ground.
"The cart went this way!" he called out behind him, hoping that his fellow guards had gotten lost or even better killed in this hail, it often meant more money for him. His worn leather boots scrapped against the coarse, damp ground beneath them as he jogged along, struggling to maintain the pace with his shield in one hand and his lantern in the other. The tracks deepened, becoming more apparent with each length that lead him into a scummy part of Sunberth, as if that were possible in this place, but the ground became muddier, and more worryingly, bloodier as well.

"By the gods' I hope the cart is nearby" he prayed, as he continued to follow the wobbling tracks, judging by the bloodied hale and unsteady hoof prints one of the horse could've been struck by hail but Garret wasn't a skilled enough tracker to be sure. The only relief came when the tracks lead into a large, empty building. "We'll stay here till the hail let's up" the driver said, already off his cart he had removed the harnesses off the horses and was currently wiping blood of the older horse "I told you we needed to find shelter" he continued as he clutched a bloodied rag, whilst staring accusingly at Garret.

Garret simply clenched his jaw and stared back. It was said owners end up looking like their pets and that was certainly true of this driver, he had a long, narrow face with large brown eyes slightly too far apart and large, tall teeth that had yellowed with age. His long, straw coloured hair had been pulled back in a ponytail which revealed the fact one of his ears had been cut off completely, and while it was little consolation to its owner, it had been done very cleanly and professionally, leaving only a small black hole with some slight scar tissue circling the edges.

"Still wants done is done now, at least we are safe" he stated, turning back to care for his horse "Say where are those other guards?" he asked
"I don't know" he replied curtly as he wandered around the room, examining the building. It must have been some abandoned private stable or something like that, it had one stall at the far side of with room with a large open space that a tavern crowd could fill which they cart now stood in. Above him the thatched roof fought off the oncoming hail, Garret hoped that it would hold, he had seen too many caved in roofs dotted about and he had no intention to be under one "They were behind me, perhaps they'll be here soon" he said doubtfully, wincing as the building's walls seemed to creak in the wind "Then we can all be buried together" he added darkly in an undertone.

[Senghor Vilhjalmr]

When the restless horse stirred more it didn't take any more convince for the driver to do what any survivor could do and ran, the fight or flight reaction in both animal and man was truly in play as he watched the cart rumble and move forth. Senghor watched the older mercenary run after the cart, he couldn't help but smirk slightly as watched the entire escapede, it didn't take long for the lean dark skinned, wet and irritable man to run after them. He quickly abandoned his makeshift shield and let his lean figure do all the work, he turned and ran under the shelter of the buildings of Sunberth, tall as he was he could still move faster than others would have thought. "Old bastard... Trying to kill us all, damnit!" he swore as he looked at the hail fall, his rugged features tightened as he moved along the walls and slowly before he ran again. Whilst springing behind the older mercenary he kept disappearing as he got farther, Senghor could only look at the imprint of the hooves embedded in the snow. It was easy for him to follow and quick for him to catch up... Senghor quickly moved through the hail, his head rose to the sight of the large buildings ahead and when he ran it he found the old man and driver of the cart already conversing. "Still breathing I see..." he joked darkly as he walked past the mercenary towards the back of the room, he began to remove the shroud he wore and moved around to try and warm himself. He began to look around the abandoned room to find some wood, luckily he found some broken chairs, the wood he found would provide a flame to at least keep them warm. Seng inclined his head towards the older man, as stoic as he pretended to be, the bastard was cold, no doubt about it... Senghor gathered the wood and stacked it onto itself, he took two ample stones and began battering them together, after a couple of strong pushes the fraction between them caused a spark too emerge, and soon after the smallest sticks caught flames. Seng took eased breathes began blowing on the small sticks, the embers glowed and smoke rose up. Another two or three breath and a fire burst forth and rose up... Winter was in Sunberth but Senghor was with fire, he sat there and brought out his hands to keep warm. It was truly a change yet Senghor felt proud enough to know how to start a simple fire...

[Noven]

At the exact moment the driver high tailed it, a humongous chunk of hail slammed right on top of Nov's head. It sent a shower of ice down his face. Half blinded, he stumbled around a bit, hastily wiping the coldness from his eyes.

When he could see again, everyone was gone.

Noven swore with all the violence and vigor he could muster before he caught a glimpse of Seng's broad back rounding a corner. He dashed after his friend, tuning out the onslaught of ice as best he could as he ran through the empty streets with reckless abandon. If he got left behind, he was as good as dead. At the very least, he wouldn't get paid, and he wasn't keen on going another night hungry.

As soon as he rounded the corner, something in his path made him skid to a screeching halt and tumble right over his own feet.

Nov groaned. He picked himself up slowly, bits of ice and street grime stuck to his cheeks. When he looked to see what had caused him the great misfortune of landing in such a humiliating manner, he cursed under his breath.

It just figures that fate would do this to him. Put a child right in front of his blind pursuit.

The girl was just a sad lump of a thing, shivering in her rags, fat tears in her hard bitten eyes. Her skin was dark and hair bursting in black springs, and she was utterly pitiful. Nov caught himself comparing her to Nona just in time to lock those memories away again, before they unleashed things he would rather not feel at the moment.

For a while, they just glared at each other. Then a fist full of hail knocked Nov on the side of his helmet, making his head throb once more.

He looked back at the girl. She was laughing. That little she-devil was laughing at him. Another chunk of hail exploded by her feet and she abruptly stopped. Nov would have gloated at the poetic justice, but she looked too frightened for him to sink so low.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded. "Get back inside! Where is your family?

Her silent, grim stare said it all. Well, now this was just perfect.

Nov spat some of the ice out of his mouth, picked the girl up like she was nothing more than a sack of groceries, and started jogging towards where he had last seen Seng.

When they finally arrived at the stables, Nov was panting furiously, his hair covered in flecks of white. He dropped the girl down in a pile of hay and almost collapsed himself for a breather, but didn't. There was still plenty to be addressed, and they'd barely gotten a start on getting closer to the store house.

Nov scowled at the others. "So, what did I miss?"

[Garret Sawyer]

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Garret leant against the rough, untreated wooden wall as the figure behind him scurried about trying to cobble together a makeshift fire, something Garret doubted he was even capable off. Garret hadn't laughed at his joke, far from it as his jaw clenched harder with harder with anger though he always prided himself on being able to take a lot of crap on the job. "I wonder where your mate is..." he said, thinking out loud as he peered through the torrential rain and hail that darkened what should have been a rather pleasant morning, scanning for their missing guard though it occurred to him he hadn't even bothered to look at his face "I wonder if we'll get his cut" he added callously.

He heard the scraping of coarse rocks behind him followed by a sudden crack as the stable was filled with a growing light while his own lantern flickered and faded as it burnt through the remaining wick. He was cold, it was true but he refused to join his fellow mercenary at the fire, partially out of not wanting to show weakness to his comrade but mainly so he wasn't forced to talk to him. The driver on the other hand had so no such issues with that so after making sure his horses were alright he wandered over and sat by the fire.
"Some hail out there" he said, filling the blissful silence with noise, his tone towards Senghor was rather upbeat and chummy, no doubt because he had sided with the idea of getting shelter before "Let's hope it stops soon."

Garret barely paid any attention to the rambling of the driver as he spoke though he did catch some snippets of conversation as he stared out into the austere surroundings, he introduced himself a Kevin Willas and even gave the horses names though Garret quickly discarded them from his memory as he peered outside.
"So what are your names then?" he asked.
"Garret..." he mumbled as his eyes caught a glimpse of movement, though his eyes failed to keep track of it as another torrent of rain splattered against the muddy ground, but that gave him no comfort as he pushed himself away from the wall and slid out his morning star, his hand gripped the familiar hilt tightly as he spoke once more, this time raising his voice "Someone is out there..." he said, raising his shield as the figure once more appeared. It was a disfigured shape, as it walked it's lopsided figure bobbed up and down, it's particularly large head struggled to rise and fall with the body as it ran forward.

"Stop right there" Garret warned as he raised his morning star but the figure continued to approach at a alarming pace "I said stop!" but it continued to ignore his warnings so Garret raised his weapon, ready to strike as the figure came into view. Garret's eyebrows furrowed as his jaw dropped slightly, leaving his mouth strangely ajar as the familiar face of the mercenary passed Garret, seemingly unaware that the child he held was worth discussing as he dumped it down onto the pile of hay and looked back at the rest of the group.

"So what have I missed?"

Garret looked at the child, it was a pathetic thing; battered and bruised, with messy hair and wild eyes that only seemed to have time for her rescuer. Then he looked back at his fellow guard "Sorry, I didn't catch your name earlier but I think you might need to fill us in on this little runt first?" he demanded as he pointed at the child "Because I don't remember my job description to involve babysitting this thing or you!"

[Senghor Vilhjalmr]

The warmth of the crackling fire was a much needed presence during the hail, it didn't take long for Seng to feel his attire begin to dry, as he sat there and watched it dance to the gusts of wind that caressed over its violent presence. It was a miracle that the fire had even started, maybe it was luck but truly the survival lessons his father had the courtesy to teach whenever he had the chance was truly worth it. It didn't take long until those who wanted to keep warm sat around the flame and than the older mercenary spoke, Seng couldn't help but clench his fist and incline his gaze towards him... "Senghor..." he replied with his head still turned to Garret when the man asked who they were. Senghor's gaze returned to the driver as the man began to spoke, his life story soon began to unfold and Senghor mentally sighed, he hoped to Lhex that the man would shut up soon. Occasionally the Vilhjalmr would agree with a hum or a simple 'yeah'. Senghor looked at the divine beauty of the fire before he heard Garret become rowdy, he kept asking something or someone questions as it neared and this caused and when he held up his weapons, Seng reacted by raising his right hand to draw his blade as he stood up... The dark skinned wanderer couldn't help but feel relieved when Noven ran into the stables, with baggage... It was than that Seng sighed when he saw Nov with the child, 'There he goes again...' he thought as he walked up to the little girl, she was drenched and shivering, around kids Senghor's melody with things changed, he knelt down and asked her how she was yet he didn't get his answer because Garret had started hollering. As he inclined his head watched the irritated man, Senghor turned back to little girl and held out his hand when she took it, the warrior led the little girl to the fire. He left her there and turned back to Noven. "Care to explain this?..." was all he could ask whilst he walked up to his old friend, he knew Nov had a soft spot for kids that was established long ago but this was risky, a child on the job? Senghor crossed his arms and looked at his friend, he didn't like have something in agreement with the man that was butting heads with him since the hail had began but than he was right this time, they couldn't play babysitter, not this time.

[Noven]

Yelling. So much yelling. If things kept up like this, between the hail and the angst and the gnawing hunger, his headache was going to return ahead of schedule. And then someone was going to have to suffer. Immeasurably.

Noven had already decided on the who. It was only a matter of when, now.

"The name's Noven," he answered curtly, shuffling toward Seng's fire like a moth to candlelight. For the umpteenth time, he was grateful for his friend's surprising amount of tenderness. The child could benefit from being a little less surly. "And there isn't much explaining to do. I literally almost ran over her, and it's clear she has no family to speak of."

The cook glanced at the small, dark girl, and then went back to staring at the dancing flames. They licked up against the wood, hungry, merciless. Everything beneath their path shriveled to lumps of ash and nothingness.

Memories. One too many petching memories.

He almost--almost--reasoned that, if they didn't take this girl to the Orphanage at some point, Calyn would never forgive them. Almost. But then he remembered, and his mood blackened tenfold. "I couldn't leave her. She would have died, if not from the cold then from a thousand other things in this city. We don't have to take her with us. We can leave her here, and I'll come back for her later."

Nov rubbed at his chin, then turned to the child. "You got a name, runt?"

The girl sniffed and glowered at him indignantly. Shyke, what a mean look that one had. For a tick, he was sure the next thing that was going to come out of her mouth was a glob of venom aimed straight for his eyes. But, instead, she answered flatly, "Amira. Sometimes just Mira. I don't like orphanages."

Nov glowered back at her incredulously. "Well, small fry, it's either Sunset or a cold, miserable death. Really going to argue with me here?"

Mira pursed her lips and remained silent, but her dark eyes glittered vehemently in the firelight. She's thinking of ways to murder me in my sleep, the sweet thing, Nov assured himself. And what was with that look? It belonged on the peeved faces of Brega's girls whenever he offered to cook for them instead of paying, or petty pickpockets he caught redhanded. It did not belong on little girls who looked no older than six or seven years old.

Krysus, what a day.

"Well, gents," Nov announced as he got wearily back to his feet. "I believe that matter is settled. Now, how to get to the storage room in one piece so we can get paid?"

[Garret Sawyer]

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"You should have left her to die" He said darkly as the shadows of his face danced in the flickering fire, giving him an almost demonic appearance as they twisted and knotted, distorting his face as his sharp green eyes gleamed in their darkened sockets "This city claims the weak, and she reeks of the stuff. I'll have nought more to do with her" he spat on the floor in front of the girl "She's your burden now" He stormed off, raising his shield over his head once more as he stepped outside.

His arm felt the familiar thud as his shield vibrated, the hail seemed to target the shield as they bounced uselessly of its surface. The street was now cast in a pale blue as the sun rose up, heading away from the horizon to take its place in the sky. The furrowed clouds had slowed down with the wind, no longer circling each other they simply hung in the sky, covering it in a dark grey blanket though the faintest streams of light could be seen breaking through hopefully.

Garret tried to weigh up all the options in his head while rain continued to pelt him, only his thin coat protecting him from the cold as he inexplicably came to the same conclusion with each scenario.
"We have to wait this bloody hail out" he declared as he came striding back into the stable "As soon as the hail outside weakens we make a dash for the storage houses"

"I think not" spoke a sly voice behind him, its condescending tone laced with pride and cockiness, it was voice that belonged to someone you wanted to punch in the face. Garret turned on his heels to confront the voice. He sharp green eyes meet a tricky pair of pale blue, but not for long as they darted around the room, trying to weigh up every option. They belong to a short, slight manRapier - 30, Acrobatics - 10, Persuasion - 10with long raven black hair, a short pointed beard on his chin and a long hooked nose. Donned in the typical leathers, his speech was no doubt a facade as he seemed as common and as uneducated as the rest of Sunberth though he did have a rather fine looking rapier hanging by his side but Garret silently assumed it was stolen.

"Me and my..." His confidence momentarily lapsed as he stumbled for his words, revealing his ineptitude for the spoken tongue and destroying the illusion he had created around himself "My... umm... associates couldn't help but notice that you have a full cart of goods" he said, trying to repair the pieces of his shattered confidence as he gestured to his companions either side of him, they certainly were quite the sight.

While he might have had the opportunity to appear for cultured and sophisticated it was a lost cause for his henchmen. The one his left who stood directly opposite Garret was a short, squatty manSpear - 25, Brawling - 15, Intimidation - 10 donned in shit-stained rags and a skull cap that was slightly to large for his head judging by the way it wobbled when he walked, in his right hand he clutch a spear that when rested on the ground still stood a foot or so above him. On the other side stood a particularly tall womanBattleaxe - 25, Bodybuilding - 15, Unarmed Combat - 10, standing just over six foot with a muscular build and a flat chest, the bottom half of her face was covered with a mask, while a small, brown eyes and short rat brown hair adorn the top half. Like her male counterpart, she wore no armour but at least had the decency to wash her plain clothes. In her strangely large, rough hands she held a particularly vicious looking battleaxe.

Garret took a few steps back, putting some distance between himself and the thieves though he maintained he defiant stare and even raised his weapon to make clear the fact that he was armed.
"Come now, is there any need for that?" The leader asked softly "You weren't ordered to die protecting this cargo now"
"Actually we were" Garret stated
"Oh really" The leader noted, his eyes twinkling with interest as he looked over the cart once more "So whatever you are guarding must be valuable then"
"Not really" Garret replied as he took as step forward, opening up his coat to reveal the fact that he was armoured "It just means my life is worthless"
"Well it's a shame it's come to this" He turned to the other guards "If you betray this fellow here I will let you go, unharmed. Do we have a deal?"