A Hero may retire from the Guild in good standing after no fewer than ten years of service.

-Hero’s Guild Book of Rules

Rule #52

   Lord Fesser’s castle was not overly large, Feral mused as the soldiers marched him towards it. The outer wall was perhaps twice his height and the courtyard beyond seemed cramped with soldiers. Here and there Feral spotted the different uniforms of Lord Fesser’s soldiers mixed in with those of the Western Realm. Beyond the courtyard was another wall, slightly taller than the first, that wrapped around the castle itself. The soldiers prodded Feral along when he paused to get a better look at the still unfinished towers on the castle. The wooden supports and rope pullies being used in the construction looked impossibly balanced.

   “Must be drafty for Lord Fesser,” Feral joked but none of the soldiers said anything.

   They lead him through the gate in the second wall and right into the castle. From that point, only two soldiers continued with Feral and he was taken down a narrow stair that opened up into a corridor with heavy doors running along the right hand side. It would have been completely dark were it not for the small, slit windows that opened regularly near the top of the walls on the left. They were barred, and too narrow to squeeze through regardless, but allowed in enough light to see by. Even still, the soldiers lit a lamp and carried it with them. The soldiers opened one of the doors and pushed Feral inside. There was a small wooden bucket in a corner, along with a small pile of straw, but nothing else inside the room.

   “No, no, no,” Feral said at once before they could close the door on him, “This is all wrong. I wanted a room with company.”

   “Yeah, I bet you would,” one of the soldiers said. “But unfortunately for you the only other person down here is set to be executed tomorrow so no point in getting to know him.”

   “Bit of a wait, don’t you think?” Feral replied and the soldiers both gave him confused looks.

   “The General likes to watch,” the soldier told him with a sneer, “and he won’t be arriving until then.”

   “How is the General doing these days?” Feral asked with mock concern and earned a punch to his stomach.

   “You should know!” The first soldier growled.

   The other soldier, who had so far remained silent, tugged on his companions shoulder.

   “We should just go,” he said quietly but was shaken off.

   “Do you know what this man did?” the first soldier asked the second.

   “Yes, and that’s why—

   The first soldier silenced the other with a sharp wave of his hand and turned back to Feral.

   “Did you know,” he said as he and the other soldier strode into the cell and pulled the heavy door of the cell shut behind them, “when these doors are shut no one outside can hear what’s going on in here?”

   “Good,” Feral remarked and punched the man in the throat.

   As the first soldier dropped to his knees, gasping for breath, Feral brought his knee up and bashed the soldier in the face. The man slumped to the ground and did not rise.

   “How?” the second soldier cried out. His shock was so great that he didn’t even try to draw his sword. “How…how did you get loose?” he stammered.

   Feral twiddled the arrowhead he’d been palming around his fingers before slipping it into his hip pouch.

   “Is that really the right question to be asking right now?” Feral’s voice was low and dangerous.

   “Umm,” the soldier backed away a step.

   “Here you are,” Feral went on, advancing as he spoke, “in a small room where no one outside can hear what’s going on inside. You, a soldier of the Western Realm, and me, the man who’s wiped out two full armies of the Western Realm.”

   The soldier backed all the way up until his back was against the closed door. His hand began immediately to search for the door latch but Feral took hold of his wrist and turned it away.

   “I could have killed you when your scouting party found me,” Feral said, his voice no louder than a whisper. “I could have killed you when you first brought me down here. I could still kill you. Now ask yourself why I haven’t killed you, and then see if you can ask me the right question.”

   The soldier was visibly sweating now, the droplets on his face reflecting the wavering light of the lamp they’d brought into the cell with them. His eyes darted back and forth as he thought.

   “What do you want?” he asked at last.

   Feral smiled.

   “I want you to put me into the same cell as my young friend,” Feral told him brightly, all of his threatening demeanor gone.

   The soldier was clearly confused beyond anything he’d ever experienced before and he gaped, blinking but unspeaking for some some time.

   “Come on,” Feral prompted after some time.

   “You,” the soldier said uncertainly, “you still want me to lock you up?”

   “Of course,” Feral said, clapping the soldier on the back and helping him away from the door. “It would have been quite ridiculous of me to let you capture me if I didn’t want to be locked up.”

   “He’s just down the hall,” the guard said with a brief nod, “third door on your right.”

   Feral had the door open by this time and he gave the soldier a sympathetic look.

   “A bit too helpful,” he told the soldier. “See, now I don’t need you to take me there.”

   The soldier paled but Feral held up a calming hand to him before he could begin begging for his life.

   “Just hand me the keys, the lamp, and your sword, and we’ll call it even, Feral said.

   The soldier complied and then Feral stepped out into the hall before shutting and locking the door to the cell with the two soldiers still inside. He laughed to himself at how those two were probably the safest ones out of all the soldiers in the castle, considering what would be happening over the next couple days.

   Feral counted off the doors as he walked down the corridor and stopped at the third one. He unlocked the door and looked in. Will sat with his back to the door, his head resting sideways against the stone wall and his knees pulled up to his chin. From the looks of his clothes, Will had been handled pretty roughly since his capture. There were rips across his back as though he’d been whipped and even in the dim lamp light Feral could make out the edge of a dark bruise peeking out from beneath his collar.

   “I’ve told you,” Will said at once without turning to see who had entered his cell, “I don’t know anything. I was just passing through when I ran into your soldiers.”

   Feral stepped inside the cell and closed the door behind him. Will tensed as though expecting to be hit any minute and fresh anger towards General Jernagin and his soldiers flared to life inside of Feral.

   “I’m not here to hurt you,” Feral assured him and he sat down beside Will.

   Now Will realized who it was that was in the cell with him and he spun to face him.

   “YOU!” Will shouted and he punched Feral squarely on the jaw followed by another punch to the ribs.

   Feral let him hit him. Will wouldn’t listen until he’d spent some of his anger and Feral had no desire to make matters worse by fighting back. Besides, sitting as they were, Will couldn’t put any significant force behind any of his punches and he was unlikely to cause any real damage.

   As predicted, after a few more hits, Will stopped punching and began to cry softly.

   “Why are you here?” Will asked.

   Feral took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking. “I’m here because I made a promise to your parents to keep you safe.”

   Will stiffened.

   “Don’t talk to me about them!” Will spat at Feral. “You left them to die!”

   “No I didn’t,” Feral corrected him in a quiet voice. “But my master did.”

   Will looked back to Feral.

   “You were an apprentice?” he asked.

   Feral nodded.

   “You missed a bit of my conversation with Skemm,” Feral told him. “When I refused to abandon your family my master struck me down. Your parents dragged me to the cabin and when they found the root cellar they helped lower me down into it with you in my arms. They would have come down as well but…

   Feral heard their screams again, fresh in his mind as though they were still being burned and he fought back the tightening in his chest.

   “I couldn’t take care of you on my own,” Feral went on, “but the innkeeper seemed to be a decent man and so I gave you to his keeping. I’ve tried to go by your village as often as I could to make sure you were alright. That’s why Riven and I were there for the tournament.”

   “Why didn’t you ever say anything to me?” Will asked.

   “I was afraid,” Feral admitted.

   “You’re not afraid of anything,” Will said, clearly not believing Feral.

   “Yes I am,” Feral said.

   “Like what?”

   “A lot of things,” Feral said, “but mostly I think I’m just afraid of failing. That’s why I never spoke to you before because I couldn’t…because I didn’t…” Feral struggled to find the right words for some time before settling on, “because I still carry the guilt for failing to protect your parents and I was afraid you’d agree with me that I’d failed them. That I’d failed you.”

   “But you didn’t,” Will said and he wiped his face with his hands to clear away the last of his tears. “If you really stayed while your master left then…I guess I owe you an apology.”

   Will leaned his head against Feral and Feral wrapped his arm around Will.

   “You know I realized something yesterday,” Feral said after a few moments of silence.

   “What?” Will asked.

   “All this time I’ve been failing at some pretty important things.”

   Will gave him a confused look.

   “While Skemm and I were talking I realized that, even before I was an Apprentice Hero, I had the wrong idea of what a hero was.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “It’s not enough to just fight the bad guys,” Feral explained, “and for most of my life that’s all I’ve done. But I’m beginning to see that a real hero lifts everyone up, tries to make them more than they would otherwise be. It’s what your parents did for me. It’s what you’ve continued to do for me.”

   “Um, Feral?” Will spoke timidly and he looked up into his face with an odd expression on his face. “Could you tell me about my parents?”

   A few tears rolled down his own cheeks as he nodded to Will. They had some time to spare and it felt right to finally have this burden lifted from his chest.