Warnings: Minor depiction of blood and injuries.

Chapter 21: The City that Tempted Fate Part 9: Master Pugnacious, Greedy Grand High Roller of Goldpaw

They all barely had time to dodge the fireball that was flung in their direction. Roland could feel the heat of it on his back as he rolled away. It exploded where their feet were mere seconds before but – he observed with curiosity – did not ignite the wooden floorboards it had struck. He had little time to marvel over Pugnacious' level of control as he'd sent four more fireballs hurtling after them – one for each – with a wave of his staff. They scrambled to dodge these too and ended up nearly crashing into each other. With another wave of his staff, Pugnacious blew them back with a blade of wind, sending them flying back into the barrier. Then he gripped his staff in both hands.

Roland suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Move!" He barked. They flung themselves out of the way just as lightning stuck the floor where they'd been recovering. So this was what a seasoned magic user looked like; The battle had barely begun and they were already struggling. And the power behind those spells and the casting time were on a whole other level to Evan's.

"Flippin' Nora, mun!" Lofty panted, echoing his own thoughts. "You weren't kidding earlier when you said he was powerful. But you didn't say he was fast too."

You can say that again, Roland thought. It barely gave them time to react let alone attack. He briefly contemplated hauling out his gun, but he couldn't be certain that Pugnacious would even realise what it was – let alone what it could do – and if even if he did, he clearly had some kind of barrier spell like Mausinger's that could block his bullets. And that wasn't even getting into the fact that they hadn't come here to kill the guy either. They just had to hold out. That was all.

"If you think this is bad," Ya Ya replied. "You should see him using his full power. But you can thank the close quarters for being the reason he's holding back."

"Small blessings," Roland muttered. He spied a chance to attack when Pugnacious, taking advantage of Ya Ya's momentary lapse in attention, sent a ball of water in her direction. She slashed at it with her sabre in the hope of diffusing it. Instead the ball exploded, flinging her back against the barrier. With Pugnacious' focus momentarily centred on Ya Ya, Roland dashed forward, closing the distance between them in seconds. He raised his sword over his head and angled it into a downward strike that lead with the blunt edge of his blade, but the blade struck the wooden floor! Pugnacious had disappeared in a flash of white light! "What the…?"

"You will have to be faster than that, Mr Roland," Pugnacious taunted and they spun to face him.

"What was that?"

"It's a teleportation spell, mun," Lofty explained. "There's annoying."

"Ah. Perfect." It seemed to be a short range spell unlike Travel, but it would allow him to evade their attacks unless… "Listen. One or two of us has to hold his attention while the other tries to get in some hits."

"But who-?" Evan began to ask.

"Ya Ya." Their attention snapped back to Pugnacious. "It is not too late to reconsider."

Ya Ya stepped forward, gripping the hilt of her sabre tightly. She raised the sabre and snarled. "I will never reconsider." Then she charged forward. She swung at him again and again with increasing frustration as he teleported through her attacks, evading them effortlessly.

Roland and Evan exchanged looks. "All right," Roland said. "Wait for an opportunity, then strike." Evan nodded. But that opportunity never came, as Pugnacious reappeared, a wind blade spell already prepared and they were sent crashing back into the barrier once more. Roland didn't need to wonder which spell he was going to follow up with as the hairs on the back of his neck were already standing on end, so he flung himself forward, narrowly dodging the lightning strike that struck the floor where they'd all just been. "Evan!" He barked, a little harsher than he intended. "You have to try countering his spells!"

"But he's so fast!" Evan objected.

"Not for long!" Lofty exclaimed. He leapt onto Evan's back and they both started glowing gold. Pugnacious sent a fireball their way, and he fired back with a water ball. But even with Lofty boosting his power and casting time, he still wasn't fast or strong enough to effectively counter the spell. The fireball exploded and Evan and Lofty went tumbling back.

"Evan!" Roland cried. As he pulled Evan to his feet, Evan apologised.

"I'm sorry, Roland. I tried. But he… he's just too strong."

"It's all right. We'll just have to think of something else."

"But what?" Ya Ya asked. But they had to break off as Pugnacious had summoned rocks from goodness knows where and hurled them at the party one by one, forcing them to evade them one after the other.

"New plan, mun!" Roland raised an eyebrow as Lofty jumped onto his back. He sucked in a breath as a golden light enveloped him and power was suddenly coursing through him.

"You feel that?"

"Yeah." As best he could describe it, the sensation felt as if something was unlocking inside him.

"Good. Now why don't you try using it, mun?"

As Pugnacious called up another fireball, Roland felt his arms moving of their own accord. He slashed the air horizontally then vertically, leaving behind blades of energy. They surged forward, slicing through the incoming fireball and slammed into Pugnacious before he had time to react. It was the Grand High Roller's turn to be sent flying back into the barrier this time. Ya Ya, Evan and Lofty all cheered. Roland smirked. "Well how about that."

"A lucky shot, Mr Roland. But I wouldn't celebrate just yet." He gripped his staff, teeth bared in a growl. "This isn't over."

"No," he agreed. "But it's a start."

Then Pugnacious smirked and Roland didn't like that expression one bit. "Heh. Perhaps it is." He started combining spells after that, and Roland couldn't say which combination was worse. But as round two of the battle wore on, he became increasingly thankful of his Dellian greatcoat and the protection it afforded him, however slight that was. The wind scythe with rocks knocked them back into the barrier and then battered them with rocks. One slammed into his gut, knocking the wind out of him while another hit his forehead, making his vision explode. He felt something warm and wet trickle down the side of his face but didn't need to touch it to figure out what it was. The fire and water ball was boiling hot water that left a trail of steam in its wake. They dodged it, but droplets of scalding water flew in all directions after exploding against the barrier, and he felt pinpoints of burning pain on his hands and face. The electrified water ball was the same, except instead of burns, the droplets gave them nasty shocks. The fireball with rocks were blazing rocks that sent shards flying on impact. He felt one lacerate his cheek. The water ball with rocks was the same, except the explosive force was reduced. And the wind scythe with fireball was basically the wind scythe… but with fire. Roland did his best to block some of the spells with his newfound power, but the time it took to cast was just so much slower than Pugnacious'. And he wouldn't hold still long enough for Roland to hit him with it a second time either. He glanced at Ya Ya and Evan. They were bruised, bloody and panting for breath, though Evan was less so thanks in part to Roland's efforts as well as being a smaller target. He could see the despair in both of their eyes and feared he held the same look in his. Hold on! An encouraging voice shouted in his head. The others are on their way! What the hell was taking them so long? As if his thoughts had summoned them from the aether, he heard Batu's voice from the door. "Stand down ye scruvy dog!" All eyes turned to investigate.

"Batu!" Evan shouted.

Batu was standing the doorway, his fists raised and a fierce expression on his face. Aranella and Tani joined him, as did the higgledies. "Cor, youer a sight for sore eyes!" Lofty exclaimed.

"Higgledy pig!" Runcible explained and saluted.

"You sure did, mun."

Aranella took in their injuries and frowned. "It seems we arrived just in time."

"Good thing we brought company," Tani added.

Ya Pi strode in behind them looking none too pleased by the scene that confronted him. "Master Pugnacious? Lady Ya Ya?" He looked from one to the other. "What is going on here?" Pugnacious's answer was to gape at him in astonishment and Ya Ya's was to sag to her knees in relief, finally allowing the tears she had been holding back the whole time to flow freely down her face. Evan and Lofty allowed themselves to relax as the barrier faded away, indicating the battle was now over, but Roland stalked over to Pugnacious and held the tip of his sword mere inches from his throat. "Don't try anything," he warned as Pugnacious glared daggers at him return.

"Master Pugnacious just tried to kill Lady Ya Ya," one of the factory workers blurted out. "And King Evan and Mr Roland."

"Sai Len!" One of the others objected.

"Don't give me that!" She shot back. "Arresting and blackmailing the others was bad enough! But this was going too far!" There was a murmur of agreement from some of the other workers.

Ya Pi clenched his fists. "Then am I to understand that what these outsiders told me is true?"

"See for yourself," Roland replied, gesturing to the workstations with his free hand. As they were still in the process of being cleared away, there was enough damning evidence remaining to confirm the accusations of wrong doing.

But Ya Pi didn't even need to look as some of the factory workers were stepping forward. "It's true! Master Pugnacious had us rigging the casino dice! And the dice of Lady Luck!"

Ya Pi clenched his fists even harder and his lips pulled back, exposing his teeth in a snarl. He took a very deep breath and expelled it slowly through his nose before speaking again. "And what do you have to say for yourself, Master Pugnacious?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Captain," Pugnacious replied haughtily.

"Then you can explain yourself to the people of Goldpaw." He tore Pugnacious' staff from his hand, allowing Roland to finally relax. "Men." He commanded of the dogfolk soldiers that had accompanied him. "Restrain him."

"Yes, Captain," two replied and moved to take the Grand High Roller into custody.

"Wait!" Evan objected. "You mustn't do that!"

"Higgle pig pig!" The higgledies added in agreement.

Ya Pi blinked. "Whyever not?"

"Master Pugnacious is broken hearted. This can all be resolved without incident if you'd-"

"Broken hearted?" Ya Pi repeated. "That's nothing but a myth!"

"Here we go again, mun," Lofty sighed.

"Higgle," Wiff-waff added, shaking his head.

"It's no myth, pal. I'm a faery. I know broken heartedness when I see it."

"Even so," said Ya Pi. "The stories say that broken heartedness could only be caused by one man, and he's long gone."

"Well that's not entirely true-"

"Enough. You two," he commanded of his remaining men. "Remain here and interrogate everyone involved in this scheme to determine their level of complicity. I will return once I've seen Master Pugnacious to his jail cell."

"Yes, Captain."

He softened his voice before kneeling. "Lady Ya Ya. I will have you escorted to Zhi Yu's clinic to have your injuries treated. But once they are, will you be willing and able to assume Master Pugnacious' duties and preside over his trial?"

She sniffled and dried her tears on her sleeve. "Yes… Of course." She took his proffered hand and allowed him to help her to her feet.

"For the moment then, this staff is yours." When he held out Pugnacious' staff, she swallowed before taking it.

"King Ivan-"

"It's um, Evan actually," Evan corrected, apologetically. "King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum."

"Evan," Roland scolded as Pugnacious and Ya Pi and the soldiers' reacted with astonishment. "You really should be sticking to your codename."

"You are the ousted king of Ding Dong Dell?" Pugnacious asked.

"Yes, that's me," Evan replied.

"I thought you would've been a grimalkin," said Ya Pi.

"I'm half grimalkin. Mother was humanfolk."

"Evidently. But that aside, I must thank you for your assistance in exposing Master Pugnacious' schemes. But as this is a Goldpaw matter, we will be handling it from this point forward. I will have you, your Kingmaker and Mr Roland escorted to the clinic so that you may receive treatment for your injuries. Afterwards, you are of course welcome to remain and observe the outcome of the trial if you so choose, as I am certain Niall would wish to learn of all that will transpire."

"But wait-" Evan objected.

"Evan." Roland placed a restraining hand on Evan's shoulder. "This is out of our hands now."

"But…"

"You'd be going from interfering to obstructing, Evan," he said. "I don't need to tell you how that would turn out."

"Indeed," said Ya Pi. He turned to one of his soldiers. "See that Lady Ya Ya and King Evan, his Kingmaker and Mr Roland are taken to Zhi Yu's clinic for treatment."

"Yes, Captain."

"The rest of you? With me."

"I can walk there myself," Pugnacious snarled, wrenching free of the soldiers' grip. He stalked off after Ya Pi with his head held high and the soldiers fell in behind.

"Lady Ya Ya, King Evan, Mr Roland. Please follow me to Zhi Yu's clinic," said the soldier.

"Lead the way," Roland replied gratefully. The soldier took the lead with Ya Ya falling in behind and the party bringing up the rear. At first he strode on ahead before realising the pace was too fast for their wounded shambling and adjusted accordingly.

"Are you three all right?" Tani asked.

"Higgledy pig," the higgledies seconded.

"Do we look all right, mun?" Lofty snarked. He too had taken his share of injuries.

"I'll feel better once we get some treatment," said Roland. "You can bet this is as painful as it looks."

"It must be if you're hunched over like that," said Tani.

"Yeah. I took a hit or two to the stomach, so… try not to make me laugh, okay?"

"Ye also be lookin' like ye've taken a blow or two te the'ead as well, lad," said Batu. "Do ye be feelin'… dizzy, or anythin'?"

"I think I was pretty lucky in that regard," he replied. "Or… I hope. There's a throbbing pain where I was struck and I'm a little nauseous but… that could just be the blows to the gut. I guess we'll see."

"Aye, well, ye be lettin' me know if that be changin'."

"I will, thanks."

"I'm sorry, Evan," said Aranella. "If I had known what was going to happen, I would've-"

"It's all right, Nella," Evan replied. "None of us knew. And I had Roland and Lofty and Lady Ya Ya with me."

"Yes. So you did."

"So… what do we do now?" Tani asked.

"We'll continue that conversation at the clinic," Roland replied. "It's a little hard for me to think right now."

"Yeah. Okay. I'm glad you're not dead by the way."

"Higgle!"

He smiled. "Yeah. I think we all are."

The clinic receptionist did a double take when Ya Ya and the party walked in. "Lady Ya Ya, what… what happened to the three of you?"

"Four," Lofty objected.

"We had an… altercation. The details of which you do not need to know," was all Ya Ya would say.

"I… I see. Then if you would please wait a moment, I will fetch Doctor Yu immediately," she said before disappearing into the back.

"I too will take my leave," said the solider before bowing and leaving.

"So who is this Zhi Yu?" Roland asked.

"He is our best healer," Ya Ya replied. "He is also the personal physician to the Grand High Roller, as well as his most senior staff including myself."

"He sounds expensive," said Aranella.

"He is, but you need not worry about the bill; I will cover it for you. If not for your help I would not have…" She swallowed and looked away, eyes watering.

The party exchanged looks. "So what's the story with you and Pugnacious?" Roland asked, speaking what was on all their minds.

"He found me on the streets as a young girl of fourteen and took me in."

"You're an orphan?" Tani asked.

"Yes… My grandmother raised me until her death. But after that, I had no one…"

"Until you met Pugnacious?" Roland half stated half asked.

"Until I met Master Pugnacious," she confirmed.

"So, he was like a father to you," said Tani.

"Yes. Or… so I thought… But after today…" She pursed her trembling lips and pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to stem the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. The party exchanged awkward yet sympathetic looks.

"Pooer dab," said Lofty.

"Higgle," the higgledies added, even though she couldn't hear them.

"C'mere, lass," said Batu softly, holding out his arms. "You cry into ol'Batu's shoulder now."

She sank into his arms and sniffled into his shoulder until she had regained her composure and pulled away, wiping her face with a sleeve. "Thank you… Mr Batu."

"Yer welcome, lass."

"But it's like I said, mun," Lofty began. "He's broken hearted see. So he's not himself."

Before she could respond to that, an elderly shih tzu dogman entered the reception area and froze in the doorway so suddenly that the nurse entering behind him almost collided with his back. "Heavens, Ya Ya," he uttered. "What have you been getting up to?"

"I'm afraid I cannot disclose that information at the current time," she replied.

He sighed. "I see. Very well then. If you will follow me, Ya Ya, I will see to your injuries."

"Thank you, Doctor Yu."

As they disappeared into the back, the nurse approached the party. "Good afternoon, I am Hu Shi. Are you all together?"

"We are," Roland confirmed.

"I will only be able to treat you one at a time."

"Understandable. Then you'd better treat Evan first."

"Oi! And me!" Lofty objected.

"Lofty, she said, "one at a time"," Tani scolded.

"Oh no, that's all right," Evan interjected. "You should go first, Roland. Your injuries are worse than mine."

"Really? You sure?" Roland asked.

"I insist. No. I command."

"Ah. Well. In that case." He stood up. "I'd better do as I'm told." He followed Hu Shi into the back area. She held open the door to one of the treatment rooms and gestured for him to enter first. Bandages, sterile pads and other medical supplies including some four leafed soreaway, and a bowl of water had already been laid out.

"Now just sit on the bed, and I'll get to work," she instructed.

Once Hu Shi had finished her examination and had cleaned and dressed his wounds, she determined that his injuries weren't beyond the power of a soreaway to heal, so gave him the soreaway to munch on and instructed him to lay down on the bed to rest until told otherwise. After which she disappeared presumably to treat Evan and Lofty. Some time later there was a knock on the door. "Are you decent, Roland?" Aranella asked from the other side.

"Yeah, come in."

She opened the door and entered. There was a seat next to the bed, so she sat down. "How are you feeling?"

"Way better. This soreaway is the stuff of wonders."

She smiled. "It certainly is."

"But I've also been instructed to rest until told otherwise."

"Yes, I thought you might."

"How's Evan?"

"Also much better. But then he didn't seem to take as much of a battering as you did."

"He was a small target, but I did my best to block as much of Pugnacious' spells as I could. That probably helped."

"Well whatever the reason you have my gratitude. You did what I should've been doing."

"Hey, it's all right. It's like Evan said; No one knew this was coming. If anything I'm the one who should be kicking themselves. Everything was going so smoothly that the thought that Pugnacious might try to do something just never occurred to me."

"No," she sighed. "Nor I."

"But we lived, so… I guess that's all that matters now."

"Well, I would like to avoid repeating that mistake."

"Oh yeah, me too. But hopefully we won't be finding ourselves in the same situation again."

"So would I, but… Somehow I have the feeling that we will."

"… Yeah…" Truth be told, the whole thing with Pugnacious was beginning to make him question Mausinger's actions, as well as Vector's. If a broken heart could make Pugnacious turn on Ya Ya, then could a broken heart make Mausinger turn on King Leonhard? And turn Vector on his people? He glanced at Aranella. On the other hand the situation in Ding Dong Dell was volatile enough that outside interference wouldn't have been necessary for mousekind to kick off, so perhaps it would be best to keep those questions to himself for the moment. And Broadleaf wasn't exactly their problem either.

"But now that that's over, we need to talk," she continued.

"We sure do," he agreed.

"Then I'll gather everyone together."

When they'd all gathered in Roland's recovery room and had made themselves comfortable, Tani was the first to speak. "All right, so what are going to do now?" She asked, repeating her earlier question. "Niall said we weren't supposed to be exposing him to all of Goldpaw."

"Niall told us not to take this course of action unless we had no other choice," Roland corrected. "So it was always a possibility. And unfortunately I'd also say that we've now arrived at this course of action. We gave it our best shot but we just couldn't talk him down."

"What happened in there?" Aranella asked. "It looked like the four of you were having the fight of your lives."

"You can say that again," Lofty remarked.

"We were," Roland added. "Pugnacious confronted us. He gave Ya Ya the opportunity to come over to his side, but she refused, so he decided that he had no choice but to silence her. Permanently. And he was going to let us walk away, but, well. There was no way that was happening."

"Blimey," Tani muttered. "No wonder she reacted the way she did."

"Higgle," the higgledies agreed.

"Was he really intending for you to join in her fate?" Aranella asked.

"He sure was, mun," Lofty confirmed.

"I mean, see for yourself," said Roland gesturing to his injuries.

"An'ow did'e be thinkin' we would be takin' te that?" Batu demanded.

"I don't think he was thinking at all," Roland replied. "Rather he seemed to have one thing on his mind, which was protecting his scheme. He was even prepared to throw away Ya Ya's life for that, and… I'm getting the feeling it isn't something he'd usually do…"

"It's like I said, mun," said Lofty. "Those who have broken hearts just aren't themselves."

"Yeah. So I'm learning."

"I still be thinkin' it be a mite strange, that ye've not'eard o'such a thing," said Batu.

Roland shrugged. "What can I say? I was never really into faerytales that much."

"Oi," Lofty objected.

"Back to the matter of Pugnacious' broken heart," said Aranella. "Is it safe to assume that you've failed to expunge the darkness filling it?"

"I'm afraid so," Roland confirmed. "I think Niall had the right idea, but the execution… Pugnacious seemed to have convinced himself that he was ultimately doing the right thing no matter what, so pointing out the opposite just wasn't getting through to him…" He frowned and folded his arms. "Maybe if Ya Ya had tried emotionally reconnecting with him instead…?"

"Then it doesn't sound like a public trial will yield a better result."

Roland's frown deepened. "… No…"

"Then what do ye be suggestin' we be doin'?" Batu asked. "They'll be exposin'im te the rest o'Goldpaw, and t'would be seemin' fer naught."

"I think we're going to have to prepare for the fallout…"

"Is anyone else getting a bad feeling from all this?" Tani asked.

They looked to her and then to each other. Roland's frown deepened further. "… No… There's the unsolved question of why this is all happening in the first place."

"What are you thinking, Roland?" Evan asked.

"I'm not sure. But it's something that Niall said; That it seems like Pugnacious was being targeted, which means there's a reason behind it. And Lofty, you said the darkness filling his heart is acting like a second piece of ambition, right?"

"That's right," Lofty confirmed. "Why'd you ask?"

"Because you also said that was unusual didn't you?"

"It is."

"What're ye gettin' at?" Batu asked.

"If this isn't operating how broken heartedness typically operates, then perhaps we should stop thinking of this as being broken heartedness, but rather something else."

"… Huh," said Lofty. "Youe're right. We should."

"Higgle pig?" Asked Runcible.

"He wants to know what, mun."

"If I didn't know any better, I would have dismissed Pugnacious as simply being corrupt. So that's what I propose we call this. A corruption."

They exchanged looks. "Sounds good to me," said Tani.

"Aye," Batu agreed.

"So this mystery man corrupted Pugnacious in order to what? Make him a terrible leader?"

Roland frowned at this. "If that's true, then what would he gain from that?"

They all assumed thoughtful postures. "If a ruler loses the respect of their people, that triggers a confrontation with their Kingmaker," said Aranella.

"Right. So what would he gain from doing that?" There was another round of contemplation. Then Roland suddenly straightened up sharply. "Hold on. What if we're looking at this all wrong? What if Pugnacious isn't the one who's being targeted here? What if it's actually Longfang?"

"Longfang?" They repeated. "But why would anyone want to target a Kingmaker?" Evan continued.

"Kingmakers can make people into rulers right? Maybe he… wants to… rule Goldpaw…?" He grimaced and shrugged, and there was a long drawn out hum in response to this suggestion.

"Well… it's not just that though," said Lofty. "Kingmakers can also amplify the power of their chosen rulers. You saw that with Pugnacious. Got no doubt he's a force to be reckoned with in his own right see, but some of the power in that battle was Longfang's."

"So maybe he's not after leadership of Goldpaw, but rather the power boost you get from being joined with a Kingmaker?" Roland stated more than asked.

"No clue what he wants to do with that power, like. But it's possible I guess."

"Hmm. This is of course assuming that he wants something from Longfang and doesn't just want him dead."

"You'd have to be terribly powerful to face a Kingmaker in battle singlehanded if that's true," said Aranella.

"Aye," Batu agreed. "Even one Kingmaker be'avin' the might te rival a whole army."

"Not if the Kingmaker's been weakened first. And that's assuming that he even is alone."

They exchanged grim looks before Roland simply concluded. "I think we'd better attend the trial."

"Shouldn't we stop it?" Evan asked.

"I don't think there's any way of doing that. At the moment all we have are hypotheses and speculation. That's not going to be good enough for either Ya Ya or Ya Pi, and there's still the chance that we're wrong. But if it turns out we're right, then… we can't just walk away. Right, Evan?"

"Right!" He replied. "I don't know what we'd be able to do but…"

"We'll just have to do what we can," he finished.

"Right," they chorused.

There was a knock on the door and Hu Shi poked her head in upon being bidden entry. "Lady Ya Ya asked me to inform you that the trial has been scheduled for six o'clock this evening in Fortune Square."

"Thanks. When are we being discharged?"

"Doctor Yu wishes to hold you all for a few hours more, but you'll be released in time to attend the trial."

"Perfect. Then could you please tell her that we'll be there." She nodded and disappeared, closing the door behind her. "Looks like we've got some time to kill until then."

"Do you think word of the trial will have spread to Leafbook by now?" Tani asked.

Roland checked. There were posts from the day before yesterday bemoaning a Six being rolled for the third time in as many months, and it hadn't escaped some residents notice that Pugnacious had been marched up to the Grand High Roller's Hall by Ya Pi and a small company of soldiers. But no mention of the upcoming trial. "Doesn't look like it. But I'm sure it will eventually. I'll keep checking."

"I'm concerned that Lady Ya Ya plans to call on you as witnesses," said Aranella. "That would most certainly put Evan on Leafbook which would then broadcast his location to Mausinger."

"Yeah… If that's what she plans to do, then we'll need to have a word with her about keeping us out of the trial…"

"Considering you're on bedrest at the moment, that responsibility should probably fall to me." She disappeared and then reappeared a short time later. "Lady Ya Ya and Captain Ya Pi are currently in discussion regarding how they'll be handling the trial," she explained. "But they both agree that you and Evan should not be involved."

"That's a relief," said Evan. "I've not been in a trial before, so I'm not sure what I would've said. A few hours isn't much time to prepare…"

"Well, you don't have to worry about that now."

"Do you think it's about time we get something to eat?" Tani ventured. "I'm hungry." There was an immediate chorus of affirmation.

"I'm still on bed rest, so you'll have to bring me some food," Roland reminded them.

"And perhaps you should stay here and rest too," Aranella said to Evan.

"All right. If you could bring me some food as well then, please."

"And some for me too," said Lofty. "Evan and Rolly-boy weren't the only ones who took a beating, like."

"Rolly-boy?" Roland repeated with a frown as Batu said. "We'll be getting' somethin' fer yerself as well, Yer Mighty One."

"I'll box youer ears if you don't!"

Aranella stood. "Then it appears the three of us have other matters to attend to," she said to Tani and Batu.

"Right," Tani replied as Batu said, "Aye. Give us yer canteens an' we'll'ave em refilled fer ye." So Evan and Roland handed over their canteens.

"Then let us be off," said Aranella.

A/N: Pugnacious' boss fight is a curb stomp battle in his favour that the party barely manage to scrape through. It lets him have an impact on the audience/players that was otherwise missing from the game. It also demonstrates how powerful a nation's ruler can be as well as provides foreshadowing to the showdown with Mausinger.

The story also pretty much rolls through Goldpaw giving no indication that something much bigger is going on, until Doloran appears to steal Pugnacious' kingsbond. It's certainly one way to do it, and it's not a bad way either, but it does means there's no build up to that moment, and then everything goes to hell so quickly afterwards that you're not left with much time to process it.

So here, I'm adding a layer of tension to the upcoming trial as the party use everything they know and have learned so far to make some guesses as to what they think the mystery man might be plotting.