"Of course I'll patch you up. You would do the same for me," Cáit replied and I smiled at her and said, "That's my girl."
"Do you really think it's the right time to be flirting?" Abe asked, a little disgusted, and the guy holding the knife to my throat was not fully focused because of the 'flirting' between Cáit and me. 
"There's probably never been a worse time," I said sarcastically, "But you have to take a risk every now and then in life."

I seized the opportunity and threw all my weight at the feet of the man holding me down. Then I turned and kicked him in the balls for the second time that day - but definitely with more force than Cáit had done before.
It must have really hurt because he fell to his knees beside me and stuttered, "You little rat". The pain forced him to drop the knife and I kicked it a few yards away from him. The whole manoeuvre only worked because I remembered he was wearing simple canvas shoes and luckily hadn't had time to change. To knock him out for the time being, I kicked him again between the legs.
Next to me a second man suddenly shouted loudly. Noel had taken my hint about extreme measures, pulled the knife out of his sleeve and rammed it into the thigh of the man holding him. I was actually a little surprised by the boy's callousness. The good news was that we had drawn attention to ourselves and given Hayden a window of opportunity to free the other two. 
The bad news was that Noel and I now had eight unharmed bandits watching us every step of the way.
"I'm going to try and get your walking stick back," Noel said suddenly, charging towards where the two dead adventurers lay - and the boy was damn fast.

"Control puppet," I said immediately, taking control of a second spider. Hannah had figured out that I could control a puppet with each of my hands, and we'd tried it a few times - but it burned a lot of my ether, and I wasn't very good at controlling two puppets at once. The good thing was that I only had to control the second spider for a short time. I reached out and started to move both spiders at the same time. "Shit. A clockwork spider," shouted one of the men, who was removing the pile of scrap metal, and a moment later he shouted, "My eyes. The gas is attacking my eyes."
"I'm sorry," I muttered quietly, "But you left me no choice."
Meanwhile, the second spider made its way to the group, who was working on the scrap heap initially and attacked on my command. I really tried not to kill any of the men, even though they probably deserved it from this world's point of view - but I couldn't help it. As it turned out, there was no need for me to be cautious, because suddenly something exploded next to the men who were fighting the spiders.

The whole exercise with the spiders took a lot of strength and concentration, and I wondered all the time why none of the other bandits had attacked me, as I was an easy target for them. The explanation was relatively simple and involved two crazy twins.
"Now that we don't have to be gentle anymore, we can really get going," Jacky laughed almost maniacally, and Hayden added with a bloodthirsty look on her face, "Boy. You better cover your eyes. This is going to get ugly." 
Unlike in the Adventurers' Guild, the two of them didn't seem to be playing games or playing for time. They wanted to kill. They wanted to finish the job. And the three ordinary bandits were no problem for them. It was a bloodbath.

"Listen, idiot," Jacky grinned, "Do you want me to tell you something?"
"Can I tell him?" asked Hayden, "Please, please, please?"
"What are you going to tell him?" Jacky turned her head to the side questioningly and Hayden grinned, "That Em is a lying little rat and there's no treasure here."
"Oh, that's what you mean," Jacky started to laugh almost psychotically, "I actually wanted to let him die thinking he was CLOSE."

All that ether consumption had given me a nosebleed and I was feeling a bit dizzy, so I had to pull the emergency brake and say, "Stop, puppeteer". Just in time, because the guy I'd just brought to his knees suddenly stood behind me, angry and threatening, "Now I'm going to wring your neck."
"I don't think so," Noel said suddenly, throwing the stick in my direction, and this time I did what the Shillelagh was meant for - I hit him. Hard. Right on the forehead as he attacked me. All I heard at that moment was the sound of the man's head cracking like a raw egg. 
"You should have just left when you had the chance," I said to him, but when I saw the blood running from his head, I dropped the stick in shock and the first tears ran down my cheeks as I realised what had just happened. All I wanted to do was send him off to the land of dreams. But he fell over and stopped moving. I reached for the man's neck but could feel no pulse. Damn it... I had killed him.

“Cáit”, Jacky shouted, “Look for Em.”
“Already on my way”, the young girl replied and was already running towards my direction, “You two can handle that guy without me.”
“Yeah,” Hayden said, “Looks like she needs you more than we do right now.” 

Noel had also noticed that I was having a breakdown and was already talking to me, "You didn't do anything wrong. If you hadn't, he would have killed you."
"I don't care," I muttered, "I'm not here to kill people. I just wanted to get five fucking steel plates out of the dungeon and then go for an ice cream with Cáit."
On her way to us, Cáit finished off the bandit, who was already bleeding out because Noah had hit a major artery in his thigh with her crossbow. When she reached us she hugged me and said, "It's all right. These things happen. It was an accident. You put up a good fight."
At that moment, all my barriers broke down and I started crying snot and water. Cáit seemed a little overwhelmed by the situation because she didn't say anything and just hugged me even tighter. 
"I already tried to cheer her up," Noah said to Cáit, "Without much success. But I'm only ten. And those guys killed my parents. Maybe that's why I can't understand her reaction."
"Don't worry about her," Cáit said, "I'll manage somehow. But you could make yourself useful. Hide behind that pile of scrap and keep an eye on the door. Let me know if any more bandits come through that door."
"Those poor farmers died because of me, too," I murmured to myself, but Cáit just said calmly, "How were we supposed to know? You're not to blame for anything that happened today." 
Cáit was probably right, but I wasn't ready to understand or accept it at the time.

I didn't know how Abe died in the end and, to be honest, I didn't care. But he must have been a tough guy, because the fight went on for minutes. Cáit didn't leave my side the whole time and just held on to me. 

At one point Hayden was standing next to us, covered in blood, checking to see what was going on. She must have turned off her crazy fight mode again, because you could see she was giving me a worried look. "It wasn't the plan for you to have to fight," Hayden said - and at that moment I could already hear Jacky screaming, who had freed Jessy from her bonds and gag, "What's gotten into you idiots from the Adventurers' Guild? I said we'd rescue the boy first and then we'd deal with the bandits together. Now three of your people are probably dead, and our sweet little girl has been dragged into a fight that we would have easily won if you had stuck to the plan. Em has no fucking fighting experience whatsoever. She's just doing some simple gathering quests for us. She even carries a wooden weapon."

When Jessy didn't answer, I said a little louder, "Don't be so hard on her. We're all still alive."
"I've got a little bone to pick with you too," Jacky yelled at me, but Hayden just grinned and said, "She'll tell you you were great earlier."
"I can't buy anything with that right now," I muttered, "I killed someone and I still haven't finished my stupid mission."
"The steel plates are the least of your problems," Cáit laughed and called to Noel, "Boy. Can you see if you can find five big steel plates around here? Three to five feet long? I'll keep an eye on the door in the meantime."
"Right," replied the boy, and started rummaging through the junk.

Jessy gave our group a wide berth to check on her dead comrades, while Jacky appeared next to us and gave me a quick angry look. After a few seconds the look changed to a broad grin, "You really have nerves of steel, don't you? First you tell the bandits a fairy tale about a switch under a pile of scrap metal and then you sic the spiders on them. That was you with the spiders, wasn't it?"
"Yes. I controlled the spiders. But I have a confession to make to you three," I said quietly after making sure that neither Noel nor Jessy could hear us, "I actually lied to you. There is a hidden switch here. But not in the place where I sent the bandits."
"Let's go and see what this supposed treasure is," Jacky grinned, but I just said, "The switch is broken - that means I have to fix it. And I can't do that right now. Besides, I don't want the adventurers to get wind of it."
"Good girl," the twins said almost at the same time. So far, I didn't get the impression that they were angry with me for lying. For Noel's own safety, we decided not to tell him.

Noel quickly found the steel plates and we made our way out with Jessie and him. The shock of losing her companions was still fresh and as we left the dungeon she said quietly, "They're going to kick me out of the Guild. It was my job to keep them alive."
"They weren't just bandits," Jacky said suddenly, sounding for the first time as if she didn't want to go for Jessy's throat, "The fault lies with your superiors. By the way, no one can tell me that there hasn't been an official mission to look for a kidnapped child named Noel?"
"Not that I know of," Jessy said, "And I have access to quests up to rank B as we lack from high ranked adventurers at the moment."
"This was at least an A-rank mission. Probably higher, considering how much trouble their leader gave Hayden and me,” mumbled Jacky.
"Doesn't change the fact that I'm going to get the blame for this," Jessy muttered, and I said at that moment, "You go get the reward for freeing Noel first - if there is one. And if they still want to kick you out of the guild - there are better places in Dubstep." Even though I felt terrible after what happened in the dungeon, I felt that Jessy needed some kind words and someone to show her an alternative. And knowing the twins and Cáit, I was somehow the only person who could do that. I also didn't get the impression that she felt very comfortable in the Adventurers' Guild.

The day had completely drained me and when we got home I handed my five steel plates to Sara. I said dejectedly, "I hope the ten Yorkies the client saved were really worth all this trouble."
"No one could have guessed," said Sara, but Jacky made a quick gesture to indicate that she should just keep quiet for now.
Cáit hasn't left me alone since she took me into her arms in the dungeon. She even spent the night in my room to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. Normally I would have made at least a few sarcastic comments about sharing my bed with such a beautiful girl, but today I just couldn't. Cáit did what she had promised - she was there for me and tried to patch me up. But this wound would not heal as quickly as my more superficial wounds of recent times. Cáit knew this - and she didn't mind.

The dungeon was then closed to the public until the Adventurers' Guild, under Angus' supervision, had cleaned up the mess. It turned out to be a well-known group of bandits with a large bounty on their heads. Angus was also able to confirm that there was indeed an official quest, but that none of the adventurers wanted to deal with it, as no one was interested in risking their lives for a ten-year-old child. While we left the reward for completing the quest entirely to Jessy, we ended up splitting the bounty between the six of us, with Noel getting the largest share. I had even offered to give him my share, but he graciously declined. In the end, he was taken home to his grandparents by a group of adventurers - but he invited Cáit and me to visit him. I suppose he just wanted to find out if I had come to terms with taking someone else's life.