Calvin had sent some of the soldiers ahead to clear the streets, making it a little easier for us to walk down. I hadn’t wanted it, but he’d done it before I could stop him, and I didn’t feel it appropriate to counter his order. I’d given him a hard enough time already.

  I probably could afford to cut him a little slack.

  Maybe I’d judged him a little harshly.

  Daphne was right, he’d expected one thing and I’d completely thrown that out the window. Wasn’t really his fault.

  But because he’d kind of cleared the streets, there weren’t that many people out watching us. The Town Hall was at the northwestern end of the city, near the wall. It was the largest building in the city, five stories with a tall tower. I could see people up there, along with a warning bell. That was a good system.

  Without many people out, I could see a lot through the gaps in the buildings. They weren’t laid out in that orderly of a fashion. I liked what I was seeing. It was a frontier town that had just grown haphazardly over time.

  Kind of like Solacetown.

  There were four main roads. The one leading from the docks to the square outside of Town Hall. Another ran off at an angle from the square, heading to the north gate. As we headed for the Town Hall, we crossed the other main streets, which ran east-west through the city, with gates at either end. I was able to see down the road, as we were close to the west gate, which were open. Outside I saw a lot of tents.

  It was a good distance down, but what I could see, I didn’t like. It was a refugee camp, that much was obvious.

  I stopped walking. Calvin got about ten feet ahead before he realized I’d stopped. Because I had stopped, that had stopped everyone else behind me.

  “Lord Howell?” Calvin asked, walking closer. “Is something the matter?”

  “Are those refugees?” I asked, pointing down the street.

  Calvin looked to where I was pointing, acting surprised, which just pissed me off. He knew they were there. Had been there, would still be there. Just how many were there?

  “Oh, yes. There’s a stream of people coming down from the north where the Incursion is,” he said. “Darren’s Port is the closest big city, so they are all coming here.”

  “Are there soldiers escorting them safely?”

  “Uhm.. no…,” Calvin said, his voice unsure why I would be asking that.

  Kat would be proud of me. I resisted punching him.

  “Colonel Ferandez,” I said, hard edge to my voice, which Calvin caught.

  He took a nervous step back.

  “Yes, Lord Howell?” Maria said, coming to stand next to me.

  I pointed down the street. Maria didn’t even ask any questions, she pulled out a lexicon, hitting the buttons to dial a number.

  “Yes, Colonel,” a voice said.

  “Sargeant Bowker,” Maria said. “Are you at the warehouse?”

  “Yes Ma’am, it’ll be adequate enough for our temporary needs. I was just about to ring up Sargeant Adams on the ship and have them start unloading.”

  “Change of plans,” Maria said. “There’s a refugee camp outside the west gates. Gather the men and escort those refugees to the warehouse. Make sure they have enough supplies and shelters. Then have Adams and the others set up tents for us outside the walls.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Sergeant Bowker said.

  The glowing crystals that signalled the lexicon was being used winked out. Maria returned it to her Inventory.

  “Thank you, Colonel,” I said.

  “Of course sir.”

  I turned to Calvin. He looked like he was about to faint.

  “I assume those people are being given enough supplies?”

  “Uhm.. uh… yes, they are getting an adequate amount of food.”

  I took a very menacing step forward. The guards that had been escorting us started to tense up. I saw Nathan take a step forward, glaring at the guards. They, smartly, backed down.

  “Adequate?” I asked. “That is not good enough. You are part of the Solace Fellowship now, Mayor Holsted. We take care of our own.” I pointed to the west gate. “Those people are our own. They do not get housed in tents. They will get good shelter and good food and it will all be more than just adequate.”

  He was shorter than I was, so I used every inch of my height and let a bit of aura out. He visibly paled, starting to sweet.

  “Am I understood?”

  “Yes sir, Lord Howell.”

  “Good,” I said, backing off and giving a friendly smile. “Now, I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.” It took Calvin a couple seconds to recover. I let him and then gave him a not-so-friendly smile. “And I’ll personally check on the refugees later.”

  He nodded, sweating a bit more, turned and started walking a bit faster.

  ***

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  The Lord Mayor had really gone all out for the reception. It was in the Town Hall’s large conference room, which could easily fit a couple hundred people. Along one wall was a long table covered in a variety of dishes. Lots of finger foods. There was a bar set up at the end in the corner, serving beer and other alcohol.

  They even had imported some of the brews from Solacetown. Someone was trying to kiss butt, but they had my favorite, so I let it slide.

  A couple of bards were set up in the other corner. Decent musicians. They were playing light music, good for ambience. Not heavy enough for my tastes. I’d been a metalhead pre-System, and remained one to this day. We didn’t have electric instruments or amplifiers, but didn’t need them when had Essences and Abilities. I knew a couple guys that could shred on an acoustic guitar.

  The food was a decent spread.

  There was already a crowd waiting for us, which got bigger with the entourage that had been at the docks with Calvin. I figured the folks at the docks were the very important people and the ones waiting for us to arrive were the slightly less important people.

  I stood in the middle with my people. Nathan did his best to look unapproachable, but some people still did it. Maria got a steady line. Derek went mostly unnoticed, but he kept pestering the Mayor, who was doing his best to keep distance from me. Daphne stood nearby, helping with the introductions.

  I’d lost track of time but was already bored. I hated these things. Not just because I was a man of action, but because they were so boring. This was the part of the job I was definitely not good at. It’s why Kat was really in charge. She was great at this stuff. Friendly, open, inviting. She hated it as much as I did, maybe even more, but she was better at faking it.

  I didn’t know how many more obvious ‘date my daughter’ introductions I could take. I’d lost count after a half dozen. There were a lot of single daughters of rich merchants in this area. I’m sure they were nice enough women, but not what I was there for.

  Enough women came up on their own, flirting and wanting to spend time with me.

  They were spaced with merchants wanting to work out private deals. Then there were the so-called nobles that wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to drastically change how things had been. The merchants were concerned as well. I got that part. It was a pretty major change joined the Solace Fellowship.

  They’d all been the big fish in their small pound and were now unsure of where they stood.

  No matter how hard they tried, I was going to give them the assurances they were looking for. I wondered how many of them had been on board with the Gray Wolf Clan joining the Solace Fellowship. Probably not many. Not if it meant giving up their comfortable lives. The leadership probably wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t need our help and the protection of the larger Clan.

  We would have helped them anyways, but they didn’t know that. Or maybe there was something else going on that I didn’t know about yet.

  Which reminded me.

  “Excuse me,” I said to the man standing in front of me, whose name I had already forgotten.

  He was a merchant, I think. I wasn’t sure.

  “Mayor Holsted,” I called out, loudly so the whole room could hear.

  The Mayor, still keeping his distance, jumped at the sound of my voice. He turned, a weary look on his face, wondering what the crazy Lord Howell was going to do next.

  “When is Tommy supposed to arrive?”

  “Tommy?” The Mayor asked, a little bit of a stammer.

  He knew exactly who I meant and my use of the nickname was deliberate. I could feel Derek staring at me in horror from where he was next to the Mayor. I probably could have been a little bit more respectful but I was nearing the end of my patience and really had expected the Gray Wolf Clanchief to be present when I arrived.

  If he wasn’t here, there was only one place he should have been, and I doubted he was there.

  “Yeah, Tommy, Thomas Payton, the Gray Wolf Clanchief,” I said, drawing out each word with just enough impatience in my tone. I added a bit of good ol’ ‘are you stupid, how could you not know who I was talking about’.

  Kat would have been proud, or she would have been very angry and would smack me upside the head later. I wondered if she gave Derek instructions to do that. That conversation would have been hilarious to watch.

  “Uhm… I believe Lord Payton is at XXX,” Calvin said.

  “The capital of the territory?,” I said, and everyone in the room could feel the tension rising. A lot of the Gray Wolf dignitaries eyed each other, all very nervous now. A couple took some steps back from the poor Mayor. “He’s not at the frontlines?”

  “No… he’s not….,” Calvin said.

  “Interesting,” I said. “Then there’s no reason why he isn’t here. You might want to reach out to him, however you do it up here, and tell him that I expect to see him here.”

  “It will take a day or two for a message to arrive in the Capital and then I don’t know how long it would be before Lord Payton could manage to get here,” Calvin said.

  I couldn’t tell if he was being honest or covering for the ‘Lord’ Payton. Maybe a bit of both?

  “He is a busy man after all,” Calvin added, and immediately knew that had been a mistake.

  Next to me, I heard Daphne just sigh in disappointment.

  Calvin visibly shrank back from my glare. Payton was a busy man? Really? Calvin had thought that would work on me? For a bit there, he had to have forgotten who he was talking to.

  “He’s got two days,” I said. “Including the time it takes a message to get there.”

  “But..”

  I held up two fingers. Calvin gulped and nodded, immediately turning to one of the people hanging around him. That person left before I’d even managed to get my fingers down. Smiling, I held up my empty mug of beer. All eyes were on me.

  I looked into the mug, turning it upside down.

  “Looks like I’m empty, I need another drink,” I said and walked toward the bar.