Shadows and dim lights rushed across Alys's face. The sounds of heavy footsteps chased them through Exile's Gate. The night streets that had promised opportunities moments ago now only felt too long, too dark, too dangerous. Dieder banked on a sharp left into a space that wasn't an alley more than an accidental space between two buildings.

"Dieder," Alys gasped, "Jedeth-"

"Don' say it!" Dieder said, risking a look back. "Think we lost 'em, but let's git more distance."

"We have to help him!"

"We're just gonna end up like him, is what! Serve 'im right mixin' wit' thugs like-that!" Dieder yelped and came to hard stop without warning. Alys didn't react in time and slammed into him. Her jaw met his back and they fell, all limbs, onto half-dirt half-gutter.

Alys looked up to see one of Jedeth's friends, wearing finery rather than his Blues. She'd seen him in classes. What was his name?

"You're just in time," she blurted, "Jedeth..." Her eyes drifted from the Blue to the men on either side of him. Big men, that fell squarely in Dieder's thug category.

Dieder struggled, scrambling to his feet as quickly as Alys could get off him.

The Blue smiled at her. "Go on."

"I, uh..."

Dieder grabbed her shoulders and hastily dipped his head. "Sorry m'lord, so sorry to git in yer way, we'll be headin' out-"

The Blue snapped his fingers. "I remember that horrible accent. You were with that other Grey, weren't you?"

Dieder swore under his breath. "Uh, I dunno-" He grabbed Alys's arm again and bolted back down the alley.

"Get them too," the Blue said behind them, and his companions gave chase.

Alys's heart pounded in her chest. The walls were swimming, and it was all she could do not to trip. "What's going on? I thought, they were friends! Why-why are we running?"

"'Cause some people beat people up, and we look like people that git beat up!" Dieder almost reached the beginning of the alley when one of the men from before blocked it. Dieder startled back but not in time to avoid slamming into the sellsword. Unfazed, the sellsword hauled Dieder off his feet by his collar and rammed him against the wall. Dieder choked. Alys watched in horror as the man slammed him against the stone again before letting the boy crumple at his feet.

"Dieder!" Alys stared wide-eyed at the sellsword, who watched her with narrowed eyes before dismissing her. She dropped down by Dieder, who let out a dazed groan.

The path was barely wide enough to fit two people side by side. With Dieder and Alys in the middle, it was two thugs and the Blue about twenty feet behind them, and the sellsword ahead of them in the alley. Behind him were two men, each dragging Jedeth by one of his arms.

Jedeth scowled through his split lip. "Rahlen."

Rahlen laughed. "Who now? I was never here, and I didn't see anything." He nodded to the sellsword. "The others?"

The sellsword grunted and indicated Alys, who shrank closer to Dieder. "Looking for these two. Everything's already taken care of."

Rahlen and Jedeth exchanged some words. Alys wasn't listening. How had this happened? They were only running around having a bit of fun like they always were. How could it have changed so suddenly? Elyssa's warnings rang in the back of her head. Sure, things happened, but Alys had always imagined things like simple muggings and not, not giant criminals beating them up for reason...

A small pebble plunked off her head. Alys looked up to the roof to see Kerchen over the edge, face lit dimly by some fire behind him, finger to his lips. Alys gaped. Kerchen swiped his finger to indicate her to get away from the sellsword. Hope soared in her chest. He knew how to get them out!

Alys wrapped her arms around Dieder, ignoring the stickiness around his neck, and shuffled backwards towards Rahlen's side. The sellsword's attention soon swerved to her, but then something dark poured over his head. He gagged and took a step back.

"What the-?"

The dark liquid oozed and slithered across the dirt, reflecting the scant moon, as well as Kerchen's torch. Alys took in a breath. Oil.

Kerchen stood up, his silhouette a study in red light and black shadows, anger flickering between coldness along with the flames.

"Run," he said, "or burn."

Everything happened at once. The man swore and took off. He yelled something at the men holding Jedeth, and they went with him too, leaving Jedeth in a heap. Kerchen looped a rope on something off the roof and slid down halfway before jumping down right in front of Rahlen's thugs. He thrust the head of the torch into the closest thug's chest and it hissed on his clothes. The man shouted and scrambled backwards to avoid the next attack. The second man pulled a knife and lunged from around the first, but Kerchen parried and whipped the end of the torch to smash into his face. He hit the man again, in the chest and then across the head. The thug fell to the ground and didn't get back up.

The other man had pushed Rahlen out of the way to flee. Kerchen glanced back at Alys and Dieder, and there was a-a fire in his eyes, or a darkness, that froze Alys's blood.

Rahlen ran. Kerchen dropped the now-unlit torch and gave chase. Alys didn't know what to do. She hauled Dieder's arm around her shoulders and struggled to run after Kerchen with Dieder in tow, grabbing the torch on the way.

"Ker'-Kerchen, stop!" she yelled.

"Kernos' tits," Dieder groaned weakly, and gave a wet burp.

They were out of the alley. Rahlen had tripped in his haste and was on the ground, looking back at Kerchen in terror. The two men that had held Jedeth had rounded the building and drew their swords. Alys wanted to call out to her friend, but it didn't even look like he was there. Kerchen drew his knife like he was at war, and he lunged at his enemies like that was all he'd known. Alys set Dieder down and gripped the torch with sweaty hands, but their failed training session lingered in her memory. She was afraid to hit Kerchen instead.

One of them went down like the other in the alley, but the other scored a heavy blow into Kerchen's gut. Kerchen managed a gasp before the man elbowed him in the face. Kerchen staggered back, and the man raised his sword.

"Stop!" Alys cried, and she swung the torch down on the man's head with a heavy thud. The man swayed on his feet, then screamed as Kerchen sliced his shins. Fear seized her as the thug crumpled to the ground, blood staining the ground and Kerchen's clothes. She stood motionless as Kerchen rammed the grip of his knife into the man's back, again and then again. He wiped blood from his mouth, his dark eyes the stare of a dead man or a man possessed, and Alys felt tears well in her eyes.

Then he started for Rahlen.

Rahlen was still frozen on the ground, shaking. "W-what are you?"

Kerchen's grip tightened on his knife. That broke Alys out of her spell. She wiped her face and dashed to throw herself between him and Rahlen. "Kerchen, stop it!" His glare sent chills down her spine, but she stood firm. She had to. "You have to stop. Beat up those thugs all you like, but he's our classmate!"

Kerchen swallowed. His voice was eerily level. "He hurt Dieder."

Alys stammered. "H-he did, but he just-just wanted to rough him up, maybe a black eye or two, but not-"

"A black eye or two?" Kerchen spat, the incredulity in his voice so thick the words barely made it out of his mouth. "Do you hear yourself, Alys? You are asking me that to accept? Is 'roughing him up' okay to you? What kind of friend are you?"

"It's not okay!" Alys yelled. "Of course it's not okay! But Kerchen, that knife-I've seen you you cut staves in half with that thing. You don't just want to punish him, you're going to kill him! Are you going to let yourself become a murderer?"

All color drained from his face, as though she'd snapped him and his life had poured out. Any other words choked in her throat. Alys didn't know what she'd been expecting, but not this. Kerchen didn't look invincible anymore. He looked broken.

"I-I am not-" he quavered, staggered. He was falling apart. Whatever Alys had said to make this happen, she regretted it, but she didn't have time to apologize as one of the men Kerchen had beaten rose to his feet, his enraged eyes fixating on Kerchen's crumpled back.

"Ker', look out!" Alys cried, grabbing the boy and dragging them both from the man's sword. The man growled, winding up his sword again to sweep at them sideways. In a panic, Alys picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in his face, which worked but also blew back in her face. Hacking, she tried to stumble in the other direction anyway, but Kerchen didn't budge, his stunned eyes staring at his knife as though it were the last thing in the world to hold onto. She dragged him with all her strength, but only managed a few steps before the thug regained his senses.

"You brat!" he roared, raising his sword again. Alys tugged futilely, watching the blade in fear. Out of nowhere, a dark blur crashed into the man's side, sending him tumbling to the side.

"Hah, serves ya right!" Dieder wheezed, gasping out just enough strength to point a defiant finger at the thug he'd just rammed into. He seemed to do more damage to himself than the man, however, who growled a warning before swinging at Dieder. By a stroke of luck, the boy rolled out of the way in the nick of time. Kerchen's head snapped up, panic in his eyes as he saw the man target Dieder. Before he could close in, another figure stepped in to protect the sandy-haired boy from the next blow, the ring of clashing blades as surprising as the figure himself.

"What a brute," Jedeth sneered, his posture haughty despite his ragged appearance, "A sword isn't a club, don't you know?" Alys's jaw would have dropped if it hadn't already been hanging open. The man rained blows on Jedeth instead. Jedeth parried to the best of his ability, but it was like watching a hammer beat down a nail. I need to help him-but how? She'd dropped the torch too far away-

A pained grunt brought her attention back to the battle. Holding his injured hand, Jedeth stared as his sword fell to the ground, frozen. He had lost, and they all knew it.

"Jedeth!" Alys cried, running forward. The next blow would kill him-she didn't know how she was going to stop it, but she had to.

But before she could begin to make something up, Kerchen raced past her. The man had only just started his swing when Kerchen had already parried it with his knife, and the man had only just begun to widen his eyes when the Trainee delivered a palm to his chin. Alys and Jedeth only stared, watching the usually quiet, calm boy take down a brute twice his size little by little, with a precision and savagery that chipped away at his enemy until he fell. When the thug finally dropped to his knees, battered by the assault, Kerchen pointed his knife at his throat in a definitive checkmate. Besides ragged breaths, the night was silent.

"K-Ker-"

"Everyone stop!" a voice boomed from the end of the street. Confused, Alys looked up to see the guards flood the area. The owner of the voice, sweeping to her side in billowing whites, was none other than the King's Own, Talamir. "Trainee Alys! What are you doing here?"

"Um, I, well-hey stop!" she cried, as the guards began to haul Kerchen away by his arms. "He's my friend and a Trainee. Why are you taking him?"

"A Trainee?" one of the guards asked incredulously, hauling the frozen boy up. "He doesn't look like much of a Trainee."

"And neither do I," Alberich stated flatly, stepping forward. "Nevertheless, it the truth is. The boy unhand."

"Do as he says," the King's Own sighed, a hand to his temples. "I'll take care of the children here. Just make sure to handle the rest of the lot."

"Yessir." The guards did as they were told, though not without another backwards glance at Kerchen, who remained bent over the ground.

Alys eyed him hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

"I am," he managed, "but Dieder-"

"He'll be fine," Alys assured. "The Healers can surely fix him."

"That's not the problem," he said through his teeth, "Dieder shouldn't have been here. You two shouldn't have been so drunk when you did come here. You should have known better, but you humored him. He wouldn't be here if you had not been so blind!"

Alys was about to protest that this was unfair, but his eyes shot to her, and she found herself captured by his gaze. It wasn't just a glare, but a plea for help, a stubborn frown, a prideful independence and a well of loneliness. Even she was speechless. It was a storm of emotions, every one of them lined in torment. Had he been wearing an expression like this before?

The guards and a Healer gathered Dieder into a stretcher. Talamir and another Healer approached the three of them. Talamir's eyes were unreadable as he scanned the two Trainees. "How did you end up here?" he asked.

Jedeth straightened up with more haughtiness than Alys thought he merited. "Where's Rahlen?"

Talamir lifted an eyebrow. "Rahlen Poitregas? We didn't see him, but we're still rounding up perpetrators. On that topic, I would like to speak with you."

"After," the Healer added as Jedeth opened his mouth. "Let's see to their wounds, first."

"Of course."

Tentatively, Alys took Kerchen's arm. Kerchen flinched, and she remembered he had broken his arm not long ago. Even with Sherri's Healing, how had he fought...?

Kerchen got to his feet but his eyes were glued to the ground. "I want to see Dieder," he said, and the words came out in a quiet sob.