"Explain yourself, Bael." Threatening him with the end of my blade. If it wasn't for him this would have been settled peacefully. These were just knights doing their jobs, true they threatened my women, but it should have been an easy situation to diffuse... I really had nothing against them, but Bael just shrugged indifferently, even with a sword pointed at his neck it was like he was emotionally detached from the situation. Simply an observer watching from on high.

"I fail to see the problem, you're now two kills closer to leveling than you were before."

My face tic'd in anger, holding back the urge to just kill him on the spot and be done with him. He wasn't even a user and he dared act like this to me? Bael was like this from the start, the incident at the guild office was entirely the same. Like he was intentionally trying to turn me against otherwise innocent people.

"We just killed the city watch and you don't think this is a big deal?" I don't know why the church ever picked Bael for this job, couldn't they have sent someone more normal as a guide?

"It's like I thought, this is no good... your thinking is too constrained, too normal... is it because you're new? You're just not at all like the others." Bael wondered aloud, talking mostly to himself. 

"Start making sense or I'm going to do it." I warned him again, the tip of my sword drawing blood along his neck, but he stared at me with his vacant eyes. An expression not unlike that of a dead fish left too many days in the sun, completely oblivious to the threat on his life. "We've got five dead guards here... I don't know what you're thinking but cut it out." Looking down at the bloody scene, I felt another wave of contempt for Bael, two of the dead were even my own men. And over what? He did it so I could get more experience?

"Ah, I see the issue." Bael's eyes lit up as he looked at my dead men, as if he suddenly understood what I was so angry about. "It won't happen again." He replied, grinning like a demon. 

"Fix. This." I told him again, leaving a faint scar on his neck where my blade had been. 

He just nodded, seeming finally to get the message but still remaining far more calm than I felt comfortable with. 

Sitting down and downing my drink to calm my nerves, I pulled a terrified Cal up and let him know where we stood. 

"Don't let yourself or anyone you care about leave my sight if he's ever around. Keep that in mind." I should be able to get out of most situations, but Bael had been such a wildcard up til now that I never wanted anyone alone with him. 

And so we waited, waited for the reinforcements from the slain red-cloaks to arrive. The bystanders outside the tavern, who had previously been cheering for our arrests ran off in fear their beloved peacekeepers died so disgracefully, to call more no doubt, so all we had to do was wait.

And when the city watch reinforcements did come, as we predicted, we were all calmly sitting with weapons drawn. Ready to meet them if it came to that.

Thankfully this time, Bael decided he wanted to cooperate. Glibly talking his way out of a tense situation before showing the infuriated guardsmen a black coin between his fingers. Their anger fading away only to be replaced by resignation. Bael stood gloatingly over the slain red-cloaks, giddy at the opportunity to show the other guards that we had killed them. Even so, they swallowed whatever words they had for us and let us pass. The end result was a surreal scene, one with red-cloaked knights forming a sort of protective honor guard as we walked out over the bodies of their fallen, I couldn't help but feel a touch guilty. 

Given what had just happened, Cal and I agreed it was best for everyone to share a carriage until we got to the destination, even if was a little cramped, we still did manage to fit all seven of us. Given that the benches were wide enough to sit three a side if you squeezed people in, one of us had to share, which ended up as Belle sitting on my lap.

Most of us silent as we sat around trying to digest what had just occurred. "Are all the people in the church like that?" Tammy finally asked, speaking for all of us, but we could only hope that wasn't the case. 

Time passed and our nerves settled, the walls of the next district appearing now at a distance. We were all interested in spending some time resting from our long travels, and the sooner we got to the church district, the sooner Bael would become someone else's problem instead of ours. Bael and Crow might have both been a bit odd, but for such a highly respected institution they couldn't all be such weirdos, right?

Curiously the shops and civilian oriented things disappeared more and more the closer we got to the church district as 'pleasure' establishments and slave oriented activities cropped up to take their place. Slave houses designed for the buying, selling, trading, and housing of the chattel along with other industries of the flesh, beastkin brothels and other indulgent activities. 

"What a strange looking building... what could it be for?" I asked as our horses pulled passed a series of stacked concave walls that towered over the rest of the surrounding buildings, the stone-built complex supported by a network of equally towering pillars. The structure as a whole formed a gigantic ring and excited crowds clambered to push their ways into the multi-storied openings that led into it like a gaping mouth swallowing them up; roaring cheers thundered out of the open-aired structure, audible to us even from such a distance. 

Marcella snorted, her noble pride still so ingrained that she couldn't help but look down on me for making such an uncultured comment. "That's the colosseum, isn't it obvious?" She answered haughtily, triggering a hostile glance from Tammy. The sharp look from eyes like daggers sent a shudder down Marcella's spine, knowing she would probably have her mouth retrained all over again. 

Cal couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of his troublesome half-sister being whipped into submission, before continuing with a proper explanation from where Marcella's explanation had left off.

"It's an arena for fighting and public entertainment. The city puts rewards for mercenaries to battle for sport, or be pitted against slaves and monsters. From what I know King Baelywn introduced it and it's been a massive hit with the public ever since... as you can see for yourself."

And indeed I could, watching the crowds line up for a spot only to be turned away by red-cloaked guards, seeming like they had just now determined that the venue was at maximum capacity for the day. 

As our carriage continued, my attention turned to wayside as we passed the rather stimulating sight of some nude beastkin with placards around their necks. Breasts and pussy exposed for all to see as they wore expressions of embarrassment and shame, standing outside what appeared to be specialized brothels. The signs hanging from their necks advertised exotic services and acts, the manner of which I had never heard of before.

"Chicken and egg?" I couldn't help but read the text aloud, some of signs didn't even sound sexual in nature, my confusion causing Cal to double over with laughter, eliciting another unhappy look from Tammy before he explained again. "Mother and daughter slaves that were captured together," he finally elaborated, causing the women in our carriage to wrinkle their nose at his crude description and the implications behind it, but clearly our subject matter expert wasn't phased in the slightest, shrugging his shoulders without a care. 

These brothels seemed like they had something to satisfy every taste imaginable, and for such astoundingly low costs. No wonder I hadn't seen any traditional brothels around here, how could they possibly compete? Unless someone had an exclusive preference for humans, they wouldn't bother, and no free women would be willing to sell themselves so cheaply. Silently comparing the rates to what I had seen in Tromwell, not that I had ever frequented such a store... but still, frontier towns were normally considered as relatively poor, but this here was something else. 

Belle tugged my shoulder after we passed another building that appeared to be a slave trading house and auction block, her pupils enlarging and narrowing as she watched the variety of races to which she bore some resemblance. 

"Something catch your interest?" To which she nodded in agreement, focusing on the catkins she picked out of a crowd. It was unexpected that a slave wanted to visit a place like this of her own volition, but given that she was sold so early in life she had no negative feelings towards it like a normal slave would. Her simple curiosity weighing far heavier as she burned with a desire to meet more of her kind.