The mood in the room wasn’t the best. Everyone could tell I was upset by what had just happened. The others were just as shaken by what had happened, worse even. They all held themselves like they were responsible for the woman’s fate. Everyone except for Siofra that was. She had been sat on one of the beds just listening, she had been unusually quiet the entire time. As Serin and I finished talking she got up of the bed and walked over to us. As she drew near, she gave me a big slap on the back.

“What a shit situation this whole thing is hey?” She said right after.

“Err yeah.” I responded a little surprised.

“No point in getting all bent out of shape over it. Just need to concentrate on the things you can change and remember the things you can’t. Maybe one day you will be able to do something about them…”

“That’s surprisingly inciteful.”

“What do you mean surprisingly! Anyway, it’s not like Either Altria or Lillia can drop their responsibilities. They don’t want to die or worse that way. You wouldn’t want that either, would you?”

“Of course, not!”

“Thought so. You aren’t going to have any luck trying to get the other summoners to behave differently. They’re all princesses, besides these two, most of them are conceited and stuck up. Not that you’d be able to get anywhere near them anyway. You’re not going to have any luck with the guild masters either. You’d land yourself in even hotter water if you tried that route. It’s a shit situation, but the only way I see out of this for everyone, is to continue to do what you’re doing. Of course, I’ll help you all the way as much as I can.”

“Thanks, Siofra… It’s just what happened to that woman, dying like that…”

“It was shit. I know I saw everything that happened, remember?”

“Yeah.”

“I also saw you do everything you could to save her. You stopped those thugs, but there was nothing you could do stop what happened next. It was something that none of us could prevent. But if we take down the demon the lord, then maybe all of this will end.”

“And what if it doesn’t?”

“Then we move on to the next problem. I have a feeling, you, no we will all be in a better position to do something about it by then.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Me too.” She laughed. “Anyway, we shouldn’t just hang around in here moping about. We’re in the capital, we should go and do something fun. We need to have lunch and I think we could all do with a drink after that.”

“I think you could be right.”

“Great, I know just the place.”

Siofra grabbed me by the arm and started walking to the door. She stopped just in front and turned back to the others.

“Aren’t you all coming?” She asked.

“Yeah, I think we could all do with a drink and some food. Come on you two.” Serin said while looking to Altria and Lillia.

The pair still looked a bit down. I know they must have felt a bit like I held them responsible for what had happened. They had also just been face to face with the consequences of being a summoner, even if it wasn’t them that had caused her death, they still felt a bit responsible.

“Come on, I’m hungry.” I called back to them from the door.

It was Altria that jumped up from the bed first and pulled Lillia along with her.

“We’re coming. It’s not the elf’s turn to choose the place, but I suppose we can let it slide this time.” She said as she strode towards the door.

“Great, we’re all going then.” Siofra said seeing everyone was now onboard.

She opened the door and strode out into the corridor with me in tow. Serin hurried along behind us while Altria and Lillia followed a little way behind. A few minutes later and the five of us had pushed our way through the guild and were making our way down the steps to the square down below.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked Siofra.

“You’ll see soon enough. Don’t worry, it’s a good place.” She replied.

For some reason, I trusted Siofra’s choice of food place. After the other night I was glad that it wasn’t Altria taking us somewhere. We headed in the opposite direction as we had this morning and as we crossed the square, Serin walked alongside me. I was sandwiched in between the two beautiful women as we walked.

It was about a ten minute walk to where we were heading. We ended up on an old looking street, it bordered one of the wooded sections of the city. Siofra came to a stop outside a large pub, it had a small garden out the front, overlooking the wood. Apart from the size of the place, it reminded me of a quiet village pub.

“Here we are.” Siofra said pointing at the place.

“Well, let’s go inside and get ourselves that drink.” I replied.

The three of us stepped inside, Lillia and Altria were a short way behind, but they had seen us go inside. The place was half full, but it had a warmly feel and there was I quiet buzz from the people sat inside, drinking and eating away.

“Where should we sit?” Siofra asked glancing around.

“How about over there by the window.” Serin suggested pointing out the empty table.

“Oh, good call, yes let's.”

Our attention was drawn to the door as it flew open behind us. I was expecting Lillia and Altria to walk in, but it seemed that hadn’t caught up yet. Instead, we were greeted by the sight of two slightly drunk looking guys stumble inside. I could tell at a glance they were trouble. The pair looked around the room. They soon noticed Serin and Siofra, as soon as they did, they decided to head over in our direction.

“Hey, you two, why don’t you ditch this guy and come have some fun with us…” The first guy said, a leering look over his face as he eyed up the girls.

“I’d rather not.” Replied Siofra, turning her back on them, clearly not pleased to be approached like that.

“Aw come on…” The man said leaning in an attempt to grab her shoulder.

I quickly stepped in front of the bloke. I knew that Siofra and Serin could take care of themselves better than I could, but something about the guy’s attitude pissed me off.

“She said no.” I told him firmly.

“Eh? Who asked you?” He grunted back.

“No one, but you seem to have a problem listening.”

“What, you wanna go?”

“Not really, I’d like it if you did though.”

I’d barely finished the sentence when the guy swung at me. I easily sidestepped his drunken attack and before I’d even thought about it had countered with a punch straight to the bloke’s jaw. It sat him on his arse in an instant. I hoped that would have been the end of matters, but the second man that had been quiet up until now stepped forward. After seeing what had happened with his friend, he wasn’t going to take any chances. He had pulled a knife from under his clothes and came straight for me.

I was able to avoid his strikes with ease, but I had no weapon on me and I was going to struggle to get in close enough to hit him without being cut. I wanted to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible before someone got hurt. He dove forwards once again, so I quickly side stepped and fired off “Disarm”. It took him a moment to realise what had happened, but as soon as he realised, he was stood in front of everyone completely naked he stopped attacking and covered himself, glancing side to side for his clothes.

The first man having recovered a little got to his feet and attempted to draw his sword. He barely pulled it out an inch when he felt cold steel pressed against his neck and stopped what he was doing.

“I don’t think so.” Altria told him.

She had quietly walked in with Lillia once the trouble had started. Seeing that the danger was all over, the bar keeper ran over with a bat in hand.

“I told you two that you aren’t welcome in here!” He shouted at the pair chasing them towards the pub’s exit while throwing items of clothes at them.

They soon ran out of the door, the naked one desperately trying to cover himself up as he left.