I headed to the window next to the desk in my room and opened it, taking in the breathtaking scenery outside, the gigantic trees and the houses carved into them, along with the bridges connecting each tree to the other. That sight, along with the clean air and sound of the forest, just calmed me down and made me relax, helping me bring my nerves under control.

While overlooking this natural masterpiece, I started going over what I had to do as I tapped the frame of the window with my finger, a habit that Denethor had whenever he was deep in thoughts.

If there was one thing I was able to notice from Dorian's memory about captain Dunn, it was that he was an extremely attentive person, the way his eyes scanned you and how he took in everything you did and said whenever you talked to him, all pointed towards that.

And going over how Dorian was whenever he was anxious or lying, I couldn't help but sigh, Dorian was the definition of a greenhorn, he had many tics and habits that he could barely control, and I was sure that captain Dunn knew about them all, and that he would be searching for them when I'm telling him about the invasion.

That wasn't all bad though, I could use that for my advantage, using these habits that Dorian had, to project a sense of fear, anxiety and terror without a hint of lying, if done well I could probably get captain Dunn to believe me.

And... I frowned a bit, if done badly he would see through my act and his suspicion would go through the roof. It was something that had to be done though, so I just threw those fears out of my mind and continued my planning.

The first thing I had to go through was how Dorian acted when he was nervous or lying. That wasn't that hard considering how expressive he was for someone that introverted, I found myself picking up on his cues quite easily as I went by them, something I attributed to the fact that Denethor was quite proficient in reading people.

Dorian was someone who had low self-esteem, which meant that he had a hard time keeping eye contact with people, that got better after he joined the guard and spent years there, and he was able to hold eye contact and act normal, well for most of the time at least. When lying or trying to hide something he still would revert to trying to avoid eye contact, with him averting his gaze for a split second before meeting your eyes again, it was something quite easy to catch and I had to make sure not to do when talking to Captain Dunn.

Another thing that stood out was how when he's under huge pressure, Dorian would crack his fingers, which wasn't something that I had to worry about really, I think that the original Dorian would have been under extreme pressure if he knew about an incoming invasion from the demons, so trying to suppress that would be a mistake.

Stuttering and mumbling were also things he reverted to whenever he was under a lot of pressure, or when his lies got challenged to the point he wouldn't be able to keep them up anymore.

Taking all that into account I finally moved from my place by the window as I headed to the dresser by the bed, knowing that I would soon get called to have breakfast with my family, or more precisely, Denethor's family.

As I was preparing myself for the coming meeting with Denethor's family members, as Dorian, I was already making my way down Border Town's deserted streets, following Dorian's memories as I headed towards Lambert's home. I knew that the man wasn't on the night watch, so his family's house was the place to go. It was already quite late by then, and only a few pubs were still open, full of noisy and drunk customers.

I got stopped by a group of patrolling guards, but as soon as they recognized me they let me go without any questions, that little episode helped me calm my nerves a bit and I continued to my destination with much lighter steps.

Soon I found myself outside the house of lambert's family, it was a medium-sized two-story building that was situated in the better parts of the town.

After steadying myself, I looked at the door in front of me, lifted my hand then...

Knock! Knock!

The hollow sound my hand made as it hit the door echoed down the empty streets and I found myself looking around me in anxiety.

I had to knock two more times before anyone came down to answer the door, I felt like berating myself, I took too long to leave home and come there, of course, they have already gone to sleep.

"Dorian?" I sighed in relief when I saw that it was Lambert who opened the door, "what are you doing here at this hour?"

"Hi Lambert, sorry for bothering you, but I really need your help right now," I tried to make my voice as desperate as it could be.

"Why? Is everything alright? are we needed at the guardhouse?" Probably seeing how serious I was, he took a step outside and half-closed the door behind him.

"I... I can't tell you here, you should just know that it's really important," I didn't want to talk about the invasion out there in the open, the matter on hand was too dangerous to just talk about it in the middle of the street.

Seeing how he was still hesitating, I pushed for a bit more:

"You might have noticed how I have been acting today, that I haven't been myself at all..." Seeing him nod, I continued, "that's because I had something on my mind, something that I'm not too sure of, and I'm telling you now because I need your help to prove it."

Lambert held my gaze for a long time as he thought over what I had just said. Lambert might not have been as attentive as captain Dunn, but I still wasn't going to risk it, so I held his gaze and tried to seem as serious as possible.

"Sigh," he finally looked down in defeat as he sighed before saying, "what do you even want me to do? You want me to go somewhere with you I guess?"

I nodded slowly, so he continued: 

"And where's that? Where would we go at this late hour?"

"To captain Dunn, he also needs to hear this, I need his help to prove what I heard."

"Captain Dunn? What you heard?" He frowned at what I said and stood a bit straighter, as if finally noticing that things were a lot more serious than he thought.

"Yeah, as I said this is quite important..." I added.

"Okay, I will just tell my father and get ready, I'll be right back," with that he turned around and walked into his house.

"Don't wear your uniform," I half-shouted from behind him, the uniforms would make us stick out like a sore thumb, and that's the last thing I wanted.

Fortunately, Lambert didn't take long to return, and soon we were on our way to Captain Dunn's home, with my thoughts wandering over how this will turn out.

From what I could remember, captain Dunn was a married man, yet he didn't have any children. Also, both he and his wife were from out of town, and they moved here around 6 or 7 years ago.

As I was going over the things that were related to captain Dunn, something soon stood out, I couldn't remember captain Dunn's family name, it was something I never heard before it seems.

In this world, and for humans, family names are generally linked to Inheritances. After a commoner gets an Inheritance, they would get sent to the highest-ranked noble in the area where they will get a family name that's related to their Inheritance. Let's take for example the man overlooking Border Town, Sir William Longspear, just from his family name you would get an idea about what kind of Inheritance he had, and that it has something to do with spears.

For long-lasting noble houses that can't be always right though, sometimes their descendent would decide to keep the main family's name. Going through all this made me realize that I really needed to stop and look into how Inheritances and all that mess worked some time.

Anyway, what I wanted to say with all that is, I didn't have any idea what kind of power captain Dunn had, or if anyone did at that.

"Say, Lambert?" I turned to Lambert who had been walking in silence behind me, "do you have any idea what kind of Inheritance captain Dunn has?"

"Hmm? Oh, no I actually don't, and I doubt anyone does really, that had been something that everyone in the guard had been arguing over for ages, and till now, there are no new clues about that."

I nodded lightly at that, well, if things tuned badly that night, I would get the chance to see him in action.

Not long after that, we finally found ourselves in front of a small but cosy looking house, it too was on the better side of the town and it even had a small well kept garden in front of it.

We didn't stand outside much and instead made our way through the garden to the front door. As I stood there the pressure started mounting and I found my calmness slipping away a bit, it was then that I felt a hand on my shoulder.

When I looked to the side I was met with the concerned face of Lambert, I don't know why, but the hand on my shoulder and seeing him there calmed down my jumping emotions and helped bring them under control.

So after giving Lambert a small nod, I lifted my hand and knocked on the door.