Josie crossed her arms as she watched the markers for Mister Warner and Kyle

  wander the wooden castle below them. They passed each of the three marked people

  as they headed for the general administration hall above where Kyle received

  members of his government, ambassadors, and applicants for justice beyond what a

  local judge would do.

  “They’re moving,” said Vin. “Maybe they are in it together.”

  “It would make things easier for us if they were,” said Jack. “Mister Warner has a talk

  with them, and the quest is done.”

  “Call Mister Warner, Jack,” said Josie. She didn’t like the way their three subjects

  were vectoring in on the wandering king and his visitor.

  Jack pulled out his phone and opened it. He nodded at the charge on the battery as he

  pushed the contact button for Mister Warner.

  “Yeah?,” said Mister Warner.

  “Your Three Stooges are coming down the steps after you,” said Jack. “Do you want

  us to step in. I can ask the Enterprise to pick them off from here.”

  “I got it,” said Mister Warner. “Hold this, Kyle. If I miss, you’ll want Jack to be able

  to pull you back to the Enterprise.”

  “They’re right outside,” said Josie.

  “Got it,” said Mister Warner. “Step over by your chair, Kyle.”

  The sound of the door slamming open was followed by the thunder crack of lightning

  in a confined area. Josie expected a scream, but maybe the blast had been too sudden

  and overpowering.

  “A little lightning fixes things sometimes,” said Mister Warner. The ding told Josie

  the threat to Kyle had been averted. It looked like Jack’s analysis had been right.

  He grinned like he knew what she was thinking.

  “How do you want to do the rest of this, Kyle?,” Josie asked.

  “I think we need to know why they wanted to kill me,” said Kyle. “Then I have to

  decide what I can do under the law, and what I want to do now that I know there were

  three people willing to rush in and kill me.”

  “The quest is gone, so these should be the only assassins wanting to assassinate you

  at the moment,” said Josie. “I can leave you an escape if more show up and we can’t

  get to you in time.”

  “I wonder why they wanted to kill me,” said Kyle. “I don’t remember doing anything

  to these people.”

  “They’re still alive, Kyle,” said Mister Warner. “Let’s put some manacles on them,

  and then we can wake them up. Once you know why, you can decide what you want

  to do about it.”

  There was a snap over the phone as metal appeared at Mister Warner’s insistence. He

  threw some water on his victims from the sound of it.

  “How’s it going?,” said Mister Warner. “You want to tell us what this is about?”

  “Why should we?,” said one of the captives.

  “Because if you have an understandable motive, you may be able to get off with an

  exile,” said Mister Warner. “Otherwise, Kyle will have to convene a court and punish

  you. So why?”

  “So he’ll kill us like his father did our father?,” said a younger voice. “What does it

  matter?”

  “I don’t know you,” said Kyle. “So I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sir Kernly Haynes was our father,” said the older voice.

  “Haynes was your father?,” said Mister Warner.

  “What do you know about it?,” said the older voice.

  “I’m the one who put Haynes in the ground for trying to rile up the goblin tribes,”

  said Mister Warner. “He got what he deserved.”

  “The King said he executed our father,” said the female in the mix.

  “What was he going to say?,” said Mister Warner.

  “I don’t believe you,” said the older voice. “How can you make such a claim?”

  “Your father was raiding the goblins despite the truce,” said Mister Warner. “The

  Faceless asked me to come down here and sort it out. So I did. Haynes wasn’t the

  only one I killed that day. I killed all of his raiders in one shot.”

  “All of them?,” asked the older voice.

  “Everyone that took the field,” said Mister Warner. “I assumed that the man had some

  backing from one of the low kings, but I never pursued it.”

  “You might should have done that,” said Jack over the open line.

  “We’re not here to get involved in political machinations other than erasing the

  people trying to cause harm,” said Mister Warner. “On the other hand, maybe I should

  have checked for a backer and did something to him.”

  “Who was the most likely culprit, Mister Warner?,” asked Josie.

  “I would have said Kaus,” said Mister Warner. “His region was where the raids

  originated from back then.”

  A sound came over the line like a sigh.

  “I suppose they are connected to Kaus in some way,” said Josie.

  “Kaus is dead,” said Kyle. “His son was elected as his replacement.”

  “What are you going to do to us?,” asked the female.

  “It’s exile, or the axe,” said Mister Warner. “Which do you prefer?”

  “Why would you let us live?,” asked the older man.

  “Other than trying to kill me, I don’t really know you, and don’t care about you,” said

  Kyle. “If you want to live and not come back, it’s the same to me as having you

  executed. Mister Warner?”

  “The quest is done,” said Mister Warner. “Kyle isn’t hurt, and the three of you only

  got some lightning. We can move you up north while we try to sort out the rest of

  this.”

  “And we can never come back to Karieda?,” said the female.

  “Now that you have been exposed,” said Mister Warner. “You can’t be allowed to

  stay where you will try to kill Kyle again, and you can’t be allowed to stay where

  someone will kill you to cover up any connection to you. It’s better for you to start

  over somewhere else.”

  “And how do we do that?,” asked the elder male voice.

  “Pack everything you want to carry with you,” said Mister Warner. “My associate will

  handle getting you where you have to go.”

  “And we should accept this?,” asked the elder.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Your father was an idiot,” said Mister Warner. “I’m giving you a chance not to be

  an idiot too. If you want to throw this chance away after you tried to murder the high

  king and split the kingdom into pieces, I will be glad to take that opportunity back

  and let you deal with the royal executioner.”

  “I think we should agree to this,” said the female. “We are at a disadvantage.”

  “Go ahead and get your things,” said Mister Warner. “I will arrange transport north

  from here as soon as you come back.”

  The table showed the markers leaving the throne room. They headed across the castle.

  Josie thought they were all servants who had infiltrated the castle for this chance.

  “Josie?,” asked Mister Warner.

  “I’m still here,” said Josie. “Lightning?”

  “I have a version of Lightning,” said Mister Warner. “Can you send them away with

  your birds. I doubt they will stay away from the kingdom, but it might take years for

  them to make their way back so they can get back into position to kill Kyle again.”

  “I can do that,” said Josie. She frowned at the air. “Are you sure this is the way you

  want to go with this?”

  “I expect they will try to get back here as soon as possible to try again,” said Mister

  Warner. “Hopefully, a quest will be sent out to stop them before that happens.”

  “I will deal with it so Kyle doesn’t have to worry about them with the regular parts

  of governing,” said Josie.

  “Thank you,” said Kyle.

  “They are getting their stuff together, Mister Warner,” said Jack. “They should be

  coming back to the throne room in a few unless they run for it.”

  “They probably think they can take Kyle and me by surprise so they can do what they

  want,” said Mister Warner.

  “I have an idea on what to do,” said Josie. “I’m ready when you are.”

  “Let them come back,” said Mister Warner. “They will probably want to try to catch

  us by surprise before we send them into their exile.”

  “You said this Haynes was raiding the goblins?,” said Worldy.

  “The tribes are mostly peaceful,” said Mister Warner. “But they could be families of

  bandits in the day. Haynes had a small army he was leading across the Picket. He was

  massacring any goblin, or associated race, while riding through their land. The

  Faceless wanted it to stop before a full scale war broke out between the low kings and

  the tribes, so I stopped it.”

  “Any problems since then?,” asked Jack. He looked around the room.

  “Not that I know of,” said Mister Warner. “Not until we had to do something about

  the Iron Teeth.”

  “The goblin quest you picked up?,” asked Josie. Jack had said they had helped the

  survivors rebuild from the raids.

  “Yes,” said Mister Warner. “The goblins haven’t eaten anybody in a long time, and

  then these morons show up.”

  “Could this Kaus have been behind Haynes?,” asked Josie.

  “Yes,” said Kyle. “He was nothing but trouble the whole time the Picket was being

  built. He kept sending letters to my father to increase taxes so he could fund an army

  of adventurers to clear the land away. We would have been at war with the tribes from

  then to now unless someone like Mister Warner stepped in and did something to both

  sides.”

  “The loss of life would have been bad on both sides,” said Mister Warner. “Maybe half

  the tribes would have been wiped out. I don’t know how many humans, but I figure the

  number would have been high.”

  “I would have had to secure my southern border in case the goblins tried to march north

  after they destroyed Karieda,” said Rickard. “They might have been able to push my

  forces back if there was enough of them.”

  “Let me go down and get this part done,” said Josie. “The sooner we can wrap this up,

  the sooner we can get back to the last quest.”

  “Go with her, Mark,” said Jack. “We’ll take the Enterprise back up to the border and

  try to come up with a new angle. I’m glad this was an easily fixed situation and not an

  extension of a larger trouble.”

  “Let’s go and sort this out,” said Josie. She transformed long enough to teleport herself

  and Markus to the chamber where Mister Warner and Kyle waited.

  “I’ll sort this out, Mister Warner,” said Josie. “If there are any more troubles, Kyle,

  Jack and I are based in Hawk Ridge. Send a messenger, and we’ll come down and see

  what we can do.”

  “Thank you,” said Kyle. “I doubt Kaus the younger will be happy that I am still alive.”

  “I’ll have a talk to him when I am done with this,” said Josie.

  “Your guys are outside the door,” said Jack over Mister Warner’s phone.

  “Come in,” called Josie. “We don’t have all night for this.”

  Three young people who looked close enough to be related came into the room. They

  carried travel bags in hand. The men still wore their swords on their hips. She supposed

  Mister Warner felt confident enough that he didn’t need to disarm them.

  “I will see you when we’re done, Mister Warner,” said Josie.

  “Be careful,” said Mister Warner. He took his phone back and vanished through the

  roof of the room.

  “It has been a thing, Kyle,” said Josie. “Try to stay out of trouble.”

  “I assure you that I plan to look at things a little more neater in the future,” said the

  king.

  “All right,” said Josie. “I’m going to send out a bird to find your new home, and then

  we are going there.”

  She transformed, carved a booster in the floor to give her bird a longer range, and sent

  it out for them. After a few minutes, it sent back a ready signal. She threw out long

  chains of magic to the bird and used it to reel them across the continent to a dusty room

  with dusty furniture, some of which looked broken. A circular counter dominated the

  center of the room. She cleaned off chairs and gestured for the siblings to sit down.

  “Where are we?,” asked the elder Haynes boy. He looked around at the dusty room.

  “This is an abandoned inn at the tip of Agre, almost to the northern coast of the

  continent,” said Josie. “If you would like to sit so we can talk, that would be fine.”

  “Why here?,” said the sister. She did sit. This was the second witch they had

  encountered. Either of them could have blotted them out without a thought.

  “The place needs an inn,” said Josie. “I decided to put you here to help improve the

  community. Maybe it will teach you some things while you do it.”

  “So you want us to turn this mess into an inn?,” said the youngest. He waved his hand

  at the desolation. “We don’t have the money for that.”

  “I’ll do the heavy lifting,” said Josie. “All you have to do is run it and do the best you

  can. I will even make it something of a deal with you so you can end your exile and go

  home.”

  “Aren’t you afraid we’ll try to kill Kyle again?,” said the eldest. “Is that what that

  adventurer is here to do, to guard us?”

  “No,” said Josie. “Markus is here to remind me to not dump you in shallow graves

  despite promising Mister Warner I wouldn’t.”

  “Her brother says she is overly fond of putting holes through people,” said Markus. “I

  doubt I would be able to stop her if she really decided to renege on the bargain you

  struck.”

  “Holes through people?,” asked the maid.

  “I don’t give that many second chances,” said Josie. “But I am willing to give you one

  just on the basis that Kyle isn’t holding the attempt against you like he should.”

  “So this is going to be our second chance?,” said the eldest.

  “Yes,” said Josie. “Sit down, please. I will tell you the terms of your probation.”

  The three sat down in the offered chairs. Josie sat down opposite them. Markus hovered

  aside and behind her, wary of an attack.

  “You three are to run this inn,” said Josie. “When you have satisfied the conditions I

  will impose on you, you will be able to go back south. Until then, you are going to have

  to work on things, and yourselves. Let’s start by cleaning this up so you can have a

  home to settle into for your stay.”

  She transformed, carving the floor up as flock of birds attacked the building. It changed

  under the fiery touch of the magic, becoming cleaner, adding new furniture, provisions

  in an icebox, kegs of ale that would never empty, and most importantly a bathroom.

  The walls picked up pictures of the three, and the places they grew up in as they tried

  to figure out how to kill Kyle. The last additions were mottos over the door and two

  number boards set to one million each.

  “Everyone matters, or no one matters,” said the maid. She frowned at the other mottos.

  “Don’t mistake kindness for mercy,” said the youngest. He scratched his head.

  “This is your judgement,” said the eldest. He frowned at Josie. He looked around at the

  changed inn.

  “There is a place set up for you to live in outside the inn,” said Josie. She nodded at the

  refreshed lamps on the walls. “There are rooms upstairs for guests. These two signs are

  what you have to worry about so your exile can end and you can go home. If you can

  get the sign on the left down to zero, you can leave the city. If you can get the sign on

  the right down to zero, you can get leave the country and go south. I’ll let you figure

  out how to do that.”

  “What is to stop us from leaving as soon as you are gone?,” asked the youngest.

  “If you cross the line, you will be vaporized into a cloud of ash,” said Josie. “I think

  you should think on how you want to run the place until you have enough credit to do

  either thing.”

  “We don’t know how to run an inn,” said the eldest Haynes.

  “Then I am sure you will have fun figuring things out,” said Josie. “Just remember the

  limitations, and soon enough you will have worked them off so you can just abandon

  the place and head back across the continent to get your stupid revenge for your stupid

  father who should have known better but didn’t.”

  “He wasn’t a bandit, he was a knight,” said the eldest. “What do you know about such

  things?”

  “You’re right,” said Josie. “I didn’t know your father. I do know the Society. If they

  issued a quest on him, he was doing something to endanger all of Karieda. They just

  don’t send us out to deal with bandits when they don’t have to. You three could have

  caused a civil war and got a lot of people killed for nothing. You think about that, and

  when you want to be better, you can work your way home.”

  She took one last look around the inn as someone knocked on the door. She turned her

  cold gaze on the siblings.

  “I think now is the time for you to put aside your excuses and actually be knights in

  your behavior,” said Josie. “Never be cruel, never be cowardly.”

  She looked at the door as the knock sounded again.

  “I think you have your first guest,” said Josie. “Do the best you can.”

  She whisked herself and Markus away as the Haynes opened the door and tried to

  explain they were new to the neighborhood.