Lime dust filled the room. The insides of Xiao's mouth were coated with the bitter stuff and he coughed. Beside him, Jonah grunted loudly in pain. Keeping his eyes shut, Xiao reached for him, but suddenly his brother vanished. In the next moment, someone grabbed his waist and picked him up as if he was a pillow. Then they were moving at a very fast speed. After he judged that they were clear out of the manor, Xiao chanced an opening of his eyes. The road flashed by. It was quite weird being carried and not in control. He could somewhat understand why everyone he had carried on his back expressed great discomfort.

"Cole," he said through a mouthful of dust. "Where are we going?"

"Our guesthouse." Speaking of, Cole was already stepping through the window. He placed Jonah face-down onto the bed and moved a tub of water next to the bed. 

Xiao cupped his hand together and scooped out handful after handful of water to clean his mouth. Cole took out the cloth in Jonah's mouth and used it to clean off his face. 

Xiao spat a mouthful of lime dust solution onto the floor. "How?" he asked between gurgles. With Cole, there was no need for long sentences.

"I alerted the town hall and a civilian group," Cole told him. "They are onto saving the maidens. Speaking of, can you take care of Jonah? I will go help."

"I'll, too, after."

Cole was already out of the window. Xiao peeled back Jonah's eyes and cleaned them thoroughly. Jonah groaned. Xiao understood why. The lime dust did not work well with his wounds. Xiao got out a clean piece of a cloth and some clean water, and started wiping down his back.

"Was Cole here?" Jonah asked.

"Yeah."

"Where is Bradley?"

Xiao froze. He couldn't speak at all nor could he think clearly. How would Jonah react to everything that had happened?

"Why are you here?" Xiao asked instead.

"To find you guys, obviously. John-ge and the Mount Phoenix disciples got rid of the Guifang stronghold. The Ronan River disciples from the north and Frank-ge got rid of the Lapoint stronghold and they are targeting Harrison right now. I expect White is somewhere there, trying to help," Cole said the last part with a sneer.

Xiao raised his eyebrows, impressed and a bit sad. Jonah had always gotten along with everyone. The fact that he would talk that way about Stephanus would probably be attributed to Stephanus' treatment to Xiao.

"Why are you trying to find me - find us then?" Xiao asked, now cleaning Jonah with some cleaning alcohol that made Jonah wince.

"To tell you to come help," Jonah said. "And just to be with you guys. White was intolerable."

Every time Jonah said "you guys", Xiao's heart lurched. "Were you permitted to leave Mount Huai?"

"You weren't either," Jonah shot back, "so don't lecture me. And when Bradley comes - "

"You stay here," Xiao interrupted him. "I'll go and help Cole. If you move a muscle, I'll shred you." As he talked, he was already heading towards the window while checking that he had all he needed.

"What?" Jonah pushed off from the bed to look at him.

"Stay here, Jonah!" Xiao ordered as he jumped out. 

The sound of fighting could be heard from their guesthouse. Xiao jumped onto a roof near the fray and squinted. All around Walker Manor, there were officers and regular civilians who were trying to keep the bandits in the place. However, the bandits were fleeing in all directions, often harming their oppressors while doing so. There was one part of the fighting that was different, however. A figure was wounding every single bandit that came close to him and others would come and tie them up. The person's sword flew around him, and it almost looked as if he was a giant ball of ice with the icy light his blade reflected.

Xiao grinned and jumped into the fighting, copying what Cole was doing. Except he was faster in getting people to the ground as he started throwing out darts, arrows, and stones. It wasn't too hard, therefore, for Xiao, followed by the officers and civilians, to break into the basement of the manor, where a few bandits were trying to get all the maidens onto a carriage.

Xiao let out three stones that hit them in the stomach. The bandits all fell down at the impact and the soldiers rushed to tie them up and get the maidens out. Seeing that the maidens were in good hands, Xiao left the prison. The maidens, along with the bandits, could be questioned later. Right now, he needed to find Walker. 

Xiao jumped out of the yard wall and then got to the top of a tall restaurant and looked around. Blurrily, he could make out four or five figures fleeing towards the south of the city. As light as a pigeon and as fast as a leopard, Xiao chased them. He was almost closing in on them when, suddenly, they disappeared. Confused, Xiao reached the place they were just a second ago. 

"Hey! Come out!" he yelled.

No sound was heard from around him. Xiao furrowed his eyebrows and focussed. Suddenly, he heard a scuffle somewhere on the ground. He snapped his head around and saw that there was a well to his left. Xiao smirked. He couldn't believe that he was fooled by such a simple trick. 

"I'm coming towards the well," Xiao said and stomped his feet on the ground.

The men in the well couldn't discern that he wasn't moving and a few darts shot out. Xiao laughed. 

"I'll burn you alive in there," he told them. "Come out obediently and I'll let you live."

There was a short pause before a pair of hands appeared on the top of the well and then a head appeared. Xiao instantly whipped out his lasso and threw it around his neck. The man choked.

"Come," Xiao ordered. The man obeyed. "Everyone else, come out."

Three more heads appeared out of the well and Xiao tied all of them up and took away all their weapons. To his chagrin, he didn't recognize any of them. "Anyone else?"

No one answered. Xiao approached the well. Right when he was about to look in, a dart shot out. Skillfully, Xiao twisted to the side and caught it. Then he returned it back to the sender, who yelped in pain.

"Curtis," Xiao greeted. "Why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

Curtis sneered through the blood dripping down his face. The dart had sliced open his face. "Xiao. I heard you got thrown into jail."

"Rumours," Xiao brushed it off. "But don't you want to come up? It would make it much easier for me to talk to you that way."

Curtis jumped up so he was right in front of Xiao and his sword came at Xiao's neck. Xiao blocked it with his own and kicked Curtis in the chest. Curtis stumbled and fell and Xiao rushed to tie him up too. "You know, I've always thought that even though you aren't too good of a person, you aren't too bad at sword fighting. I guess I was wrong."

Curtis sneered. "How could you understand me?"

Xiao furrowed his eyebrows. "I really don't."

Then, eager to catch more escaped bandits, he left the five prisoners in the well and got back to searching the city. By now, troops were patrolling the street, so Xiao stayed on roofs to avoid any unwanted confrontation. It wasn't too long before he was met with the night's hero.

"So what happened to you exactly?" Xiao asked Cole.

"To me? I went to the dining hall and then followed two servants into the basement. They were going to bring one maiden up to entertain the bandits. So I killed those two and then rushed to call in some troops as there were too many people for us to deal with. But on the way back..." Cole glanced at Xiao with a smirk. "Daddy? Really?"

Xiao looked away. He had expected Cole to be angry at him ruining the secrecy of their visit. "Sorry," he muttered. "But I was almost out of the place when this accursed net ... whatever." He didn't want to talk about how he forgot to get rid of the servants before saving Jonah.

Cole smiled. "Let's go back to the manor. The troops can finish rounding up escapees."

"Not so fast," Xiao said and grabbed hold of Cole's arm to stop him from leaping down the building. "I have a bone to pick with you."

Cole raised an eyebrow and waited.

"You overheard me and Jonah talking about lime dust being painful on Mount Huai," Xiao accused. "You did it on purpose."

Cole smirked but didn't say anything. Xiao gasped. "You actually did it on purpose! Cole! I didn't take you to be someone like that!"

"I didn't take you to be that shameless," Cole countered. "Seriously. 'Heroes don't hide their identities'? And then you say you're Stephanus?"

Xiao grinned. "We've got to be flexible with things, you know. Though apparently Steph isn't too popular these days so maybe I should have used your name."

Cole didn't comment as it was Xiao's brother they were talking about. "I saw Curtis, so I'm guessing there might have been the two murderers among the bandits too. I didn't see them though."

"I got Curtis and four others," Xiao said. "I left them in a well."

Cole nodded. "Let's get him then. He would know what's going on in the organization since he was sitting with the important people."

Xiao agreed and led Cole to the well. However, he found it to be empty. Confused, he looked around. He was sure it was the place. Could Curtis have ran away? All his happiness about a relatively successful night and talking to Cole dissipated in the void that was his heart. It seemed that he wouldn't be flaunting his heroics about that night.

Cole saw a soldier guarding an intersection up ahead and went over. "Did you see five prisoners getting out of the well?" Xiao stood a half step behind him and listened.

"I let him out," the soldier said. "They said the bandits tied them up and took everything they had."

"What!" Xiao bursted out. Quite routinely, Cole elbowed him.

"They were bandits," Cole told him. "Where did they go off to?"

The soldier seemed terrified at what he had done and he fell to his knees. "Knights, please, I didn't mean to."

Cole huffed impatiently. "Where did they go?"

"Somewhere that way," the soldier said. His arm flailed in all four directions. 

Xiao rolled his eyes. "Get up. Make sure that no one else gets out, alright? Is the city closed off?"

"Yes," the soldier said. "But that order was just passed down. The bandits are probably out of the city already."

Cole turned his back on the soldier. He grabbed Xiao's wrist and dragged him away. "It's too late now. Let's just go."

Xiao let him drag him away without resisting. It seemed that being dragged away by pretty boys was the norm for him.

Some officers were leading all the criminals into the yard of the manor so they could interrogate them while others were searching the manor. Xiao scanned the criminals' faces as he passed, but none resembled the murderers of his brother. Cole was doing the same thing, and he found that none were seen by him in the dining hall. 

Cole led Xiao to a criminal that seemed the most promising. He was a buff man with a big mole on the side of his right cheek. He looked quite vicious and sly, even as he sat there, nursing a dart wound on his leg despite the bondages.

When the two knights neared, the criminal didn't bother to look up. He had thought that they were some officer and didn't think them harmful. Xiao kicked him to get his attention. "Hey!"

The criminal looked up. "Yeah?"

"Show some respect," Cole ordered. "He could give you a few more wounds before you could even blink." 

Xiao thought that what Cole said seemed to be something he would have bluffed. "What's your name?"

"Leon Cotton."

"What do you do under Walker?" Xiao asked.

"I just got here. I was promised gold and a comfortable place to live." Xiao and Cole scrutinized him for any signs of deception.

"Do you know what the traffickers plan to do?" Cole asked.

"Send the maidens to the Ravens, what else?" Cotton said dismissively.

"What do you know about the organisation?" Xiao said. As a way of coercing him to answer the question, he played with a dagger in an exaggerated fashion.

Cotton eyed his dagger. "I just know about the five strongholds and how they are sending the maidens down to the Ravens' territory. I'm not important enough to know about other things."

"So where would they be going next?" Xiao asked.

A man next to Cotton spoke up. "We were just following them, weren't we?"

Cotton rolled his eyes. "Roche, where else?"

Xiao and Cole glanced at each other, relieved and triumphant. The traffickers would have a bunch of knights waiting for them.

Then, an officer came over. "Knights, we found somethings you might find interesting."

Cole and Xiao followed him into the basement. Turns out, it wasn't a thing, but a maiden lying in front of a wall. She was dressed in a ripped up black dress and her hair wasn't groomed.

Xiao approached her. "Maiden?" She didn't move at all. 

Cole moved forwards and prodded her with one finger. Again, she did not move.

"Is she dead?" Xiao asked. His eyes filled with anxiety and fear he'd never shown before. Innocent lives being lost was a sensitive topic for him.

Cole nodded. "I think so."

Xiao crouched down next to Cole and touched her arm, which was twisted in a weird angle. Her body was cold and hard to the touch. He resisted the urge to move away when he saw the blue lips and pale face. He'd seen his share of dead bodies, but not one who died so wrongly. 

"Wait," Cole said, suddenly. Gingerly, in contrast to the urgent tone he had just used, he moved the hair away from her neck to reveal a trace of ink. 

Xiao gasped. Cole used one finger to pry open the back of her dress more and a wolf's claw and snout was revealed to be tattooed onto her. The surrounding skin was almost black with bruises and burns. It was a macabre sight.

Xiao and Cole looked at each other, mouth parted. Both knew who had done it, but one knew the name and one only remembered a vicious face.