Chapter 1

The sound of their footsteps sounded loud in his ears as the man who was Benoit led him up the flight of stairs all the way to the fifth and final floor.

 The wooden panels of the walls were lacquered in a dark colour which reflected the dim light of the few candles that had been left to light the way.

 The headquarters of the Sunbittern was hardly a palace, which the descriptions he’d heard during his travels had led him to believe, but it was sturdy, well built and seemed to demand respect, not because of wealth but because of ability.

 The man who was guiding him seemed much the same.

 The house and he might as well have been built from the same material; sturdy, clean, neat, but not exaggerated.

 He found himself doubting his decision. Leaving his city of birth, riding all the way to the imperial city, entering this house and asking to join the Sunbittern.

 With him he’d carried several letters of recommendation, but Benoit had barely looked at them. Instead Benoit had spent the entire day, from midday until now, when the sun was about to set, putting him through one test after another.

 He felt the uncomfortable process of sweat drying on his body.

 During the day there had been several physical trials and at the end of it all it had felt as though his arms and legs were shaking visibly, but Benoit’s serious face had revealed neither negative or positive thoughts.

 He found himself thinking that the man would make the best gambler, if it wasn’t for the fact that he seemed all too strict to partake in such activities.

 They arrived in front of a heavy-looking door, lacquered in a slightly lighter colour and decorated with the carving of the Sunbittern emblem; the silhouette of the bird from which they got their name with wings slightly spread and the red eye painted on them.

 As he looked down the hall there were half a dozen doors just like it.

 Benoit opened the door and stepped to the side to allow him inside.

 Before he even took a step inside he saw the faces of four men, all turning to see who was entering, their eyes focusing primarily on him.

 He knew that part of the process to getting accepted as a Sunbittern included living and working with a team of already accepted Sunbittern, so he chose to see it as a sign he had passed the earlier tests.

 He stepped into the room and was met with decorations similar to the rest of the house; robust and practical furniture with hardly any purely esthetic streaks to it, but the lack of paintings and sculptures did little to diminish the regal and expensive feel of the room.

 There were, however, a few things that set the room apart.

 These items, he assumed, belonged to the men living there.

 There weren’t many of them; a small bedside portrait, a few books on a sturdy shelf, bottles of alcoholic beverages and four elaborate but sombre steins to drink out of.

 The four owners seemed to have been relaxing, three of them were laying on the bunkbeds that were part of the room and one was lounging in a large, heavy armchair in the corner of the room, just off to the left of the door.

 One of the men laying down rose to his feet when the two men entered the room. He looked to be the oldest of the men in the room, by quite a bit, looking like he was in his mid thirties with short dark brown hair with a few strands of grey in them.

 He was also tall and would have hit his head on the bed above, had he  not lowered his head.

 How he carried himself and looked at them gave him the look of a calm but firm leader, one who would welcome him into the group but who wouldn’t let him get away with doing anything halfheartedly.

 “This is Reux,” Benoit started the introductions. “Head of this particular team,” Lamont took this as a cue to greet the man and when he stepped forward Reux reached out and they gripped one another’s forearm in greeting.

 Lamont took the time to glance at the two men, still on their beds, as he stepped back from Reux.

 One had sat up, his legs dangling from the bed above the one Reux had been laying on.

 That man had sharp, brown eyes that seemed to analyze him and a serious expression.

 Lamont was willing to bet he lacked a sense of humour.

 The other man stood in stark contrast, offering Lamont a brilliant and warm smile that took Lamont by surprise.

 It seemed out of place and too friendly when compared to the stiff feeling of the room and the house in general and the man had a very relaxed, almost lazy position, the way he was laying down.

 If it weren’t for the friendly smile he would have come across as rude.

 “I suggest,” Benoit continued, “that you view Reux here as the head of your new family of sorts. If you have any problems or questions you bring them up with him.”

 It sounded like the polite way for Benoit to make it clear that he did not want Lamont to trouble him with anything.

 “I’ll leave the rest of the introductions to you, Reux,” he continued. “I wish all of you a pleasant evening.” and with those words and a brief salute frrom Reux and the other men he left the room, closing the door behind him.

 For some reason the sound of the door closing made it feel like there was no turning back. As though he truly had left his old life behind.

 He probably should have felt like that the moment he left his home town but that hadn’t been quite the same.

 Reux cleared his throat, which made Lamont focus on the present once again.

 “I suppose I had better get introductions over with,” he said with a polite smile. “And you lot could stand to get up and offer a proper greeting, lest you’ve forgotten your manners,” he said to the other men with a stern tone which made the smiling man sigh, though he didn’t lose his smile and was quick to get to his feet.

 The other man, the one on the upper bed didn’t sigh or make any faces, he just let himself slide down from the bed, landing gracefully.

 “Furan,” Reux said and gestured towards the smiling man, “and Perdeut,” he gestured towards the other.

 Perdeut was the first to act, straightening out his gray shirt before decisively extending his hand towards Lamont and they, too, gripped one another’s forearm.

 Lamont noticed that Perdeut’s grip was not quite as firm as that of Reux.

 Perhaps it was a matter of personality, but to be honest Perdeut, although toned, didn’t have as muscular a build as the other two.

 “Welcome into our competent, albeit small, group,” Perdeut offered. Though his words were friendly and he even offered a hint of a smile his voice seemed a bit distant, like he was thinking about something else and his posture was stiff and formal and did little to make Lamont feel like part of the group.

 “It is my honour to join you,” Lamont replied, feeling like it’d be best to just keep things formal with Perdeut for now.

 He was growing increasingly certain that Perdeut was of noble heritage, perhaps even one of the more prominent houses and judging from the colour of his skin he hadn’t exactly spent all of his life out working.

 As the two of them let go of the others arm Perdeut moved a bit to the left, placing himself closer to the man in the armchair, who was currently outside of Lamont’s field of vision.

 This made more space for the man with the smile, Furan, to step forward. Space which he did well in taking up with his broad shoulders and muscular arms.

 Without those warm, curious and friendly eyes he would easily look intimidating.

 Furan was a little bit shorter than Reux but heavier built, with a dark tan that told of long hours spent in the sun and a short, fine, full line of black beard decorating his chin.

 It was neat and suited him, but it was not of a fashion Lamont was familiar with.

 “It is an honour, to be sure,” Furan said, a heavy eastern accent taking Lamont by surprise. It didn’t make him difficult to understand, strangely enough, but had a lulling and melodious sound that was dangerously pleasant to listen to.

 The surprises didn’t end there, for the man didn’t offer the customary greeting of gripping the other’s forearm, but instead he bowed low, eyes cast down on the floor and thick arms pressed to his sides.

 Lamont had never met anyone from the east and thus had never come across this way of greeting, so there was a brief moment of hesitation before he did his best to mimic the greeting with as much grace and confidence as he could muster, but it felt a bit awkward and strange.

 In his world only those of low rank would bow and he himself was of noble blood, so even if his house was poor and barely held any power anymore he’d never have bowed under normal circumstances.

 It was a relief when he finally straightened his back again. “A pleasure to meet you,” at least this time there was some honesty to Lamont’s words, he wasn’t just being polite. Though Furan’s ways were a bit strange he did seem like a very friendly and warm person and Lamont thought and hoped that they would get along.

 Tere was twitching in one of the corners of Furan’s mouth that made it seem like he was close to laughter, but his eyes were still friendly and warm, so it didn’t seem like he was trying to offend Lamont.

 Perhaps there was just something about different cultures.

 Though it shamed him to admit it, Lamont’s education was very lacking when it came to other cultures outside of the Empire.

 This would be an opportunity to learn, he told himself.

 “And lastly,” Reux said, “we have Auldamis,” reminding Lamont that there was still one more introduction to take care of.

 Lamont turned to face the man in the armchair.

 Upon closer inspection he was hardly a man, more like a boy.

 He was shorter than all the others, completely without any proper facial hair and looked weaker than any of the others.

 The boy had remained sitting with an air of confidence which seemed off, considering he could hardly be as much as sixteen years old yet.

 Lamont was in his late twenties and was only on trial for the Sunbittern. To think that a mere boy like this could be a full fledged member was nothing short of a joke.

 However, no one was laughing.

 In fact, it felt as though the room had gone cold.

 The reason for this was the boy’s deep green eyes, filled with open hostility.

 Lamont was surprised both by the intense, green colour of his eyes and by the rude and hostile greeting that he was receiving.

 He’d seen people get killed over less and his hand went to where he would usually have his weapon. A movement which triggered the boy to rise halfway from the chair before Reux stepped in beside him, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder, forcing him sit back down again.

 “I won’t have bloodshed, Auldamis,” he said firmly, but with a surprising amount of affection, looking the boy in the eyes until Auldamis seemed to relax, pointedly turning his head away from Lamont, ignoring his existence instead.

 Lamont felt himself boil with anger, but forced his hand away from his belt, even though there was no weapon present.

 Starting a fight on his first day would likely be unwise.

 He still spent a brief moment to study the boy, appraising him.

 The green eyes were almost as deeply green as the leaves of the maple trees just outside his home town and matched the shirt the boy was wearing.

 Other than the sharp eyes Auldamis had soft facial features and over the green shirt he wore a dark brown leather vest, a combination which looked warm and stiff to wear inside.

 “I’m going out,” Auldamis said, his voice monotone but as soft as the features of his face.

 He didn’t wait for anyone to reply before he swept Reux’s hand aside and rose, but before he left the room he went over to a small pile of weapons.

 Lamont had assumed they belonged to the four men as a group, but as the boy strapped one weapon after another onto his person he realised that the small arsenal actually belonged to Auldamis alone.