Max kept his eyes peeled as he walked through the city. He slowly realized there was no way he was going to find James or the other members of the Silver Guild. Despite being a small town, there were still thousands of residents. This was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack, but it was the only idea he had. He kicked himself for riding to the rescue without a solid plan. This was Max acting like a white knight all over again.

  At least part two of his plan was better. He knew exactly where the guild would be soon, attacking the governor. If he warned the governor and joined forces, he might be able to save the city and his friends at the same time. It was a stretch, but better chances than-

  “Max?” a voice called out.

  He turned around, looking for who called his name. He didn’t see him at first, but then he saw James in a darkened doorway. He was waving Max into a quaint little house. There were shutters on the windows and dead plants in the flowerbeds.

  Normally, Max would be a bit wary of walking into a strange building when he knew a fight was brewing. But he had his Igra armor on and this was James. He trusted his friend. As long as James knew they were friends again. Maybe he should lead with that.

  As soon as Max entered the shadowed hallway, James whisper-yelled, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you. I can’t believe I actually found you,” Max said.

  A huge guy appeared from deeper within the house. His hair brushed the ceiling and his shoulders almost touched both walls in the corridor. He said, “Who is this James?”

  “He’s a friend. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he doesn’t endanger the mission,” James said and made placating motions.

  The giant growled. “He’s an unknown, why shouldn’t I just off him now?”

  “Because you need me. I say he’s cool, so he’s cool, alright?” James said and put his hands on his hips.

  “I don’t report to you. Just because I’m on your protection detail doesn’t mean you get to boss me around. This man ain’t leaving without the corporals’ say so.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” James said. He turned to Max. “Follow me. We can talk in the sitting room. Sorry there are no lights, we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves right now. Don’t ask me why, I can’t tell you. By the way, I have the Listen card slotted right now. Do you want me to take it out so we can talk?”

  “No, it’s fine. It doesn’t bother me when I know you have it in. I already know why you are here. We can talk about that in a bit,” Max said and sunk into a soft chair embroidered with flowers. “First though, I wanna say sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry for treating you like that. I forgive you. You’re my friend. We’ve been friends for years. You didn’t stop being my friend when I started dating Erin, I shouldn’t have stopped being your friend over one little thing.”

  “Didn’t seem like a little thing to you a week ago.” James said with a raised eyebrow.

  “I deserve that. I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. What I did was wrong. I should have asked for the card instead of taking it, and it was seriously creepy of me to listen in on people’s thoughts without permission. I have my excuses, but that’s all they are, excuses,” James said. “What I’m saying is why forgive me now? What changed?”

  “I finally realized why I’ve been so mad at you. Lily forgave you the same day, Yang didn’t have to like you to fight with you, and Gus was furious, but forgot about it right away. Bisrat didn’t even care, she just thought it was rude. I felt like I was going crazy for holding a grudge.”

  James started to say something but Max held up a hand and said, “Let me finish. I was pissed at you for being a shithead, but that’s not the real reason I blew up. I realized today that I wasn’t really mad at you, I was mad at my dad. He’s the one that broke my trust and orphaned me. I was so mad at him, so mad. I thought I got over it years ago, but apparently not.”

  “You got some issues man. I know you don’t like to talk about it, but you can’t blame him for dying. Accidents happen.”

  Max tilted his head. “Have I seriously never told you? I’m not mad at him for dying. Well, I kind of am, but like you said, it was a car accident. I blame him for what led up to that. A few days after I turned seventeen, my dad got fired. He lied and pretended he still had a job. He left every day, did jack squat and returned home, pretending to be exhausted. He drained my college fund to pay the bills. But that wasn’t enough.

  “Then he racked up credit card debt, thousands and thousands. He even got a few grand from a loan shark. When that wasn’t enough, he knew he had to come clean. But instead of telling the truth, he kept lying. He took me and mom out for a fancy dinner and got drunk. I think mom suspected something, because she got even drunker. I offered to drive everyone home, but dad lied and said he was good to drive.

  “You know about the wreck that killed them, of course. I sometimes wonder if dad drifted across the lanes on purpose, ‘cus he knew he couldn’t lie anymore. Not that it matters now. When I healed up and came to live with you, that’s when I found out I had no inheritance, no employee life insurance, no college fund. That lie killed my parents and my future.”

  James sat back. “Damn. I had no idea. I knew you didn’t like talking about the accident, and you blamed your dad. I thought it was because he was drunk, not because of everything else. Damn.”

  “I mean, shit. I didn’t want to talk about it because it was painful. And embarrassing, I guess? I never suspected a thing. It really messed me up. Anyway, the point is I’m very sensitive about lying now. If you can promise never to lie to me again, I would like to be friends again,” Max said.

  Max wasn’t looking his way, so he was taken by surprise when James bowled him over with a hug. He knocked him out of the chair and onto the floor. His armor clanked on the wooden floor. Max laughed with relief.

  James said, “Of course I want to be friends again. I promise I’ll never lie again. Promise promise.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Max smiled and then said, “Glad to have you back, buddy. But that wasn’t the only reason I came here. Listen carefully.”

  With a bit of concentration, Max continued talking in his mind. I know you are being forced to fight for the Silver Eagles. I bet they have Lily locked up somewhere, right? Let me help you rescue her. I have Bisrat and Yang in town too. Between the four of us, we should be able to break her out.

  James shook his head sadly. “Don’t bother trying to whisper. It won’t work. My bodyguard, Simon, maxed out his Sight stat. He can hear a mouse fart in the next room.”

  Ok, shit. I can talk to you but you can’t talk to me. “Is that right?” Max mused.

  “Yep. His ears are well tuned. His card isn’t too impressive, just a Whirlwind card. Not like the guild leader. That man, he’s something else. I won’t tell you what he has, but he has an intimidating presence.”

  Presence? Does the guild leader have maxed out Presence? You can fight against that, you know. It just makes you like him more.

  James looked at him like he was an idiot. “Anyway, presence is unimportant. Thanks for saying you forgive me. It means a lot to me.”

  Presence is unimportant? Then why the hell did you mention it?

  James widened his eyes and tilted his head.

  Ok fine. You were trying to say something else. Wait, intimidate or Intimidate? Does he have a bullshit Bell card? Can he intimidate you to do whatever he wants?

  “At least I think that is half right. Is there any other reason you came here?”

  Half right? So he can intimidate you, but it has some limitations?

  James quickly nodded.

  “I was hoping I could help you out. That Simon fellow said I couldn’t leave without his say so, but I don’t want to leave. I can stay here and fight by your side,” Max said and glanced at the shuttered windows. I mean that literally. I can kill this Simon guy if you want me to. My belt is full of charged up tools.

  James shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s necessary. My job is to see through the illusions, both literally and with my Listen card. Then I hit them with Decay so they are weak enough for the others to finish the job. I don’t think you are needed here. Maybe you should talk to the lieutenant when he swings by. Maybe go with him?”

  You don’t want me to save you? I’m guessing that means you think I can find and free Lily if I go with the Lieutenant?

  James smiled and nodded.

  “Alright, I can do that,” Max said. Should I leave my belt with you? It’ll teleport itself onto my waist in a few hours.

  “Yeah, good idea.” James replied.

  Simon growled and said, “You two are acting weird.”

  Max turned to see Simon leaning up against the doorway into the room. Apparently he had been listening in on them. Good thing James had the Listen card and Simon hadn’t heard half of the conversation.

  James nonchalantly said, “So what? We are old friends. We can act weird if we want to.”

  “If you can’t be weird with your friends, who can you be weird with?” Max said with a lopsided grin.

  Simon grumbled and turned away.

  Max chuckled and kept talking with James. He told him about what he had been up to over the last week, and the dungeon they had climbed. Max unbuckled his belt and handed it over to James while they talked. He thought about putting his armor into the belt too, but that was a hassle.

  About a half hour after he arrived, the Silver Eagle lieutenant came by. He was a skinny guy with short black hair. Simon met him out front and they had a whispered conversation. Max couldn’t see him through the shuttered windows so he walked into the hallway leading to the front door. He needed to ask the lieutenant if he could go with him after Simon gave his report.

  He stood there for a bit before he was yanked back into the sitting room. James shoved the belt into Max’s hands, his eyes wide. He must have read something concerning from their minds. James mouthed a message to Max. He didn’t catch every word, but he understood kill and you.

  Max hurriedly clipped the belt back on.

  “Hey, Max,” Simon called. “Can we talk to you in the backyard? The lieutenant wants to ask you some questions. Just a formality before we let you into the mission.”

  “Sure thing,” Max happily called out.

  Simon continued. “James, you can stay here, keep a watch out. The governor should be passing by any minute.”

  “Will do,” James said.

  They were trying to lure Max into the backyard so it was easier to kill him. He reached his hand into his belt and pulled out a charged circular saw. He glanced over to James. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t misinterpreting the message. He pointed to the saw and then to where Simon was standing out of sight. James nodded firmly.

  Max nodded back. He had hoped that he was wrong, but it looked like he was going to get into a fight. He took out a second saw and palmed them both. The tools were too big to fully hide, but he could walk out there without them realizing he was armed now.

  With a swift walk, Max headed towards the backyard. His best bet was to attack first and kill one before the second realized he was on to them.

  He opened the door and saw the lieutenant walking up from the left. Where was Simon?

  The man answered that question right away. A gust of wind hit Max square in the back, strong enough to knock him off his feet and halfway across the yard. Max stretched his Flow to the limit, turning his fall into a roll.

  He was hit with something as he rolled, his thigh armor clanging from the impact. Max rolled to his feet, stumbling slightly as he realized his leg was hurt. For now he ignored it and stretched out his hands.

  Simon was barreling towards him, arms outstretched to take him down. The lieutenant had pulled a sword out of nowhere, the tip coated in blood.

  With a mental flex, Max activated both saws. Silver discs shot out, expanding as they spun. The one on the left didn’t even finish expanding before it impacted Simon. The magic cut him in half at the waist. The two halves tumbled and rolled forward with residual inertia.

  The second silver disc spun forward, aimed at bisecting the lieutenant as well. At the last moment, he twitched his sword up and shattered the spell. Bits of silver shards dissolved into nothingness in the air.

  The lieutenant jumped back in case there was a follow up attack. When none came, he smirked and said, “You’ll have to do better than that.”

  Between them, Simon groaned and flopped his hand around. He hadn’t died instantly, and it was taking a bit for him to bleed out.

  The sight left Max devoid of the urge to banter. Instead, he dropped both saws and reached into his belt.

  The lieutenant dashed forward, trying to attack while Max was rearming. He wasn’t quite fast enough. Max pulled out a tungsten hammer and deflected the sword strike with its haft. The impact knocked the hammer head down and almost yanked it out of his hand.

  Desperately, Max activated the hammer’s super strike. The blast of blue magic knocked the lieutenant backwards and sent his sword spinning off into the air. He scrabbled to his feet and reached for a bottle at his waist.

  “I guess I’ll have to start taking you seriously now,” the lieutenant said and downed the potion bottle.

  His skin rippled and he started changing. Into what, Max never found out. While the lieutenant was monologuing, Max had pulled out another saw and shot a silvery disc. The magic caught him mid-transformation and cut him hip to shoulder. He died as he fell to the ground.

  Max checked for anyone else, but there were no reinforcements. He slowly caught his breath as he stared at the bodies. This might complicate things.