Once Narenhior's vanguards' footsteps had faded, the crowd began shuffling.

Aster sniffled as dirt and dust rose in the courtyard.

As the mass began to sit, he saw vast tables arranged along the yard's walls. The resembled the one he sat at now, though they were lined with crude benches rather than finely carved chairs. Plainly dressed men and women entered the hall bringing slabs of wood dripping with grease. Plates of flesh were set at their table and small, crude knives offered as utensils. From each man's pocket he drew a flask of this or that variety, taking deep swigs as the horde descended on the small banquet.

A hush had fallen on the hall. Unlike any banquet Aster had attended, there was no speech at the tables. Men and women looked at their plates or exchanged glances silently.

For sometime the meal continued.

"Eat," Pheor gestured, pointing his small knife at the grey lump of meat on the wood tray Aster had been given. "It must have been some time since you had a decent meal."

As if in response, his stomach groaned. It has. But this is not it.

Still, he picked up his knife and poked at the meat. A sheen of grease jiggled as though the muscle was still quaking with life.

He opened his mouth to search for an excuse when he was interrupted by another announcement.

"Endel of the Watch seeks the Marshals' attention."

Pheor pursed his lips and coughed a laugh. Etress likewise looked up from her meal. Her locks of hair fell away, revealing the shredded but uneaten slap of flesh on her plate.

"Bring him," she rasped.

At the tables around them the vicious dinner continued as men and women attacked their plates quietly. The announcer led a familiar hulking figure through the mix.

Endel pulled the snarling hide of the wolf that donned brow away from his face. Plungingly dark eyes stared through a gaunt face to the seated marshals.

"What is this place."

"Endel," Pheor answered, leaning back in his chair. The shadows from its back drenched him in darkness.

The gaunt warrior turned his gaze to the seated marshal. "Pheor." Endel's eyes betrayed no recognition beyond contempt.

"I see you captain the Watch."

"Someone had to."

Pheor's lip curled. "That might be the first clever thing I've ever heard you say."

"That's not quite fair. It seems you've missed several years' worth hiding in this pit. But it seems my quips aren't the only thing you've avoided. Could not handle the responsibility of the Watch, hm?"

"Enough," Etress interrupted. "Captain, you are welcomed in our hall tonight. As guests."

Endel wrinkled his nose. "Your hall?"

"Yes." The woman's hand shot out from under her hair and swept a hand around the walls. "This is greater protection than you have enjoyed in some weeks, is it not?"

"Protection is more than walls, my lady."

Etress offered a crooked grin. "You are smarter than Pheor gave you credit."

Someone scoffed. Aster could not make out who.

"Indeed," the woman continued, "you likely have many questions."

"No. Just two. Who the prey are you and what the dark have you been doing here?"

Etress eased back in her chair until she too was shrouded in dark beside Pheor. The two stared with glowing eyes at Endel's haggard gaze.

"We are the Grimwatch," Pheor started.

"Certainly grim," Endel retorted, eyeing the drab hall.

"Cute," Pheor shot back, "but no. Grim because we are the lost. Each of us have been claimed by the wood. It has consumed us. It is within us. In our minds, in our hearts. To leave it is unthinkable."

"Do not doubt him," Etress furthered. "I see your mistrust. You think me ghastly, yes? An unnatural monstrosity. Hm," she sighed. "And so I am. But was not always so. I was a fair woman of your city once. A hunter like you."

"We all were," Pheor explained. "Until we were lost."

"Lost to what?" Endel challenged. "The forest is only wood, leaves, and wolves. And perhaps the darkness that comes from them."

"No," Etress challenged. "No, my friend. If you think such, you are blinder than the dead. Something sleeps here. An ancient evil. An evil everyone knows and yet we only have seen."

A torch sparked.

A tongue of light shuddered across the cobblestones. For a moment Aster saw Endel's face clearly. It was worn. Black hair had become grey. A strong face hung with exhaustion. And proud eyes lashed with desperation.

Perhaps Etress spoke of more than just her companions.

"And yet you stay here?"

"What more can we do?" Etress spread her slender arms. "We are prisoners. And yet wardens as well." She snatched her dagger and plunged it into the table's wood. "There is much evil here Endel of Arcath. Wolves, yes, and greater creatures. They carry a spirit that long since should have died."

"And we seek to restrain them," Pheor finished. "The wood has broken our will to leave. Yet our will to defeat it remains."

"How will you defeat something that does not live? My men are not here to wage a war against their own fear. Axes sever bone and marrow, not nightmares from trees."

"Are you so certain?" Etress whispered.

A torch sparked.

"You carry your ax and it gives you courage, yes? Then why should we carrying weapons not disparage the wood from its evil."

"Isn't fire a greater threat to wood than metal?"

"Why do you think my eyes have gone white?" she whispered.

Endel considered her words in silence. "If what you say is true or not, I do not have a mind for. My concern is my men. My city."

Etress bowed her head. "As our ours. If it were not for your city, we would have taken our own lives long ago. We live for Arcath and her preservation."

"What do you wish of us, then?"

"Only to help you," Pheor answered. "We believe we have discovered a way to silence the wood's whispers. It will be a gruesome task. With your numbers, however, we may succeed."

"And if we should refuse?"

Etress tilted her head. "You will not. You cannot."

It was not a threat. Nor was it a challenge. Her words murmured a devasting truth.

If Endel realized, he did not betray it. "It may be. But we have a greater need now than some unseen demon. My men are wounded, tired, and unfed."

"Lodging and food are yours," Etress entreated.

Endel hesitated only a moment longer. From the look in his eyes, Aster knew he was in no position to refuse.

"We accept."

Etress grinned broadly. "It is an honor to welcome you to our hall. Pray, bring your men. They will be fed and bedded in this very courtyard."

Endel nodded his thanks. "Might I ask what happened to the elves who preceded us?"

"They refused our hospitality," Pheor replied. "Though not without encouragement."

For the first time in weeks, Aster saw Endel smile. "Good. I shall sleep a trifle better with a wall of stone between us and them."

"Good. You will need your rest. Indeed, you've earned it. Now go," Etress instructed, "gather your men and bring them here. We will have plates and bedding brought for them before your return."

Endel nodded a final time and left the hall with his guards.

As they left, Pheor rose from his seat. Leaning to where Etress sat, the two exchanged hushed words.

"Come," Pheor said to Aster. "I've something to show you."

Aster hesitantly rose. As Pheor left the table, Aster snatched his small knife from beside his plate and followed silently.

As he left, he felt eyes follow him.

A torch sparked.

Pheor led him down the hall. Around them, seated men and women continued to tear into meat and down their drinks. More than a few faces rose to meet Aster's downturn gaze. Most just stared blankly, though one smiled broadly with its daggered teeth.

His uncle took an unlit torch from the back of the hall and set it in the flame of one already burning against the wall. Once it had caught flame, he gestured for Aster to follow him out of the courtyard.

The cold stone landing outside the room was scarcely more silent than the banquet inside.

"How are you?" Pheor asked. His brow was furrowed with concern.

"Numb," Aster murmured.

"Mm, I thought as much. You don't seem surprised. Or even concerned."

Aster shrugged his shoulders bitterly. "I am exhausted, uncle. Tired. Beat. And uncertain."

Pheor slipped his torch into the hand of a nearby statue. His strong arms opened familiarly, pulling the smaller boy into a hug.

Aster wrapped his arms around his uncle and let his head drop.

The two embraced. Then Pheor held him out and smiled.

"Alright then, let's have a proper look at you. Hm," his grin widened. "You look just like your father. Strong. You've got a grit to you."

"I guess –" he stopped himself. "I guess time will do that to you."

"Yes," Pheor admitted, "especially time in these parts. It's more than anyone should ask of a boy."

"I wasn't asked," Aster muttered.

"All the same. How have you been?"

"Bad. Very bad." Aster felt the strength in his arms and shoulders release. The tension seemed to ebb into his uncle's strong hands as the honest word came out of his mouth. "I live with Ton now as a bar-hand. It isn't much. But, well... not much."

"And the Watch? How did that come to be?"

"Canth and I were treated like rats. He didn't mind as much, I guess, but I couldn't stand it. I needed to do something, to be something. And," he faulted. "I thought if I joined the Watch, maybe I would come into the wood someday. Maybe I would find you."

"Bless your courage, boy," Pheor murmured, pulling him back into an embrace. "You found me alright."

Aster gently pushed himself away. "Maybe, but you still don't seem yourself. None of this seems what it should be." He contemplated his next words closely. "Every fiber of my being screams this is wrong. And yet... It's you. It's freedom." He tossed his hands. "It's almost everything I've wanted. It's true adventure."

Pheor tussled his hair again. "Then you are learning, my boy. The books we read are not true adventure. This," he said, sweeping his arms around the shadow-clad ruins, "is adventure. There is fear, dead, but victory as well. There is no such thing as good without evil. Evil will always exist, always persevere. There is no defeating it, only resisting it. And an adventure is when you came face to face with it."

Aster hung his head. "Wonder then why anyone should ever go on them."

Pheor chuckled. "Men like you and I do not always have a choice. But we do the best we can."

"Yeah," Aster kicked a loose pebble, "I suppose we do."

"Do you regret coming?"

Aster stared at his feet. He knew what he wanted to answer. Maybe even what he should answer.

"I'm not sure. This whole mission... Every day I have spent since leaving... I feel like I am supposed to have learned something. The stupid words the elves would whisper while looking down at me from their mounts. Even..." He shivered. "Even the time I spent alone in the dark." Flinching, he thought back to the horrifying dark. The days spent alone that he tried to forget. "It's as though it's trying to teach me something. I just don't know what."

"Time will tell," Pheor nodded grimly. "In the meantime, we'd best be getting back. You should be bedding down for the night."

The two walked the short ways back to the courtyard where tables were already being moved and bedrolls spread out. The Grimwatch had brought enough blankets for most of Endel's men, but the captain still paced nervously.

"Might we offer you anything else to ease your mind?" Pheor offered.

"Nothing," Endel replied. "I suppose I'd better thank you."

"I wouldn't do you the disservice."

Endel huffed but grinned. "All the same, thank you," he said, sticking out his hand.

Pheor shook it with a nod. "It is our pleasure. We will post a guard at the entrance to the courtyard should you need anything."

"That won't be necessary. Our own men are well enough."

"I imagine your men need their sleep. Truly, it is no trouble –"

"Please," Endel insisted. "I would sleep better under the eyes of my own than of strangers."

For a moment, Pheor looked as though he might protest. Eventually however, he simply nodded again. "Very well then. Rest well."

Aster's uncle give him a final hug goodbye and led the rest of the Grimwatch from the courtyard.

A torch sparked. 

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? :D