Bright and sunny days were common in Bradigar during this time of year, and this day looked as if it was going to be no exception to that time-honored tradition. Throughout the capital city men and women were rising from the night’s slumber, preparing for the new day. The marketplace was already buzzing with activity as the many merchants that called Bradigar home began setting up shop, hoping that the new day would be as productive as the last. Many travelers passed through the city, which meant that there were always potential customers, and insured that business was at least decent on most days.

 A lone horse-drawn carriage came thundering down the cobblestone road from Bradigar Castle, a continuous presence on the horizon of the city. This was nothing special, as carriages came from the castle all of the time. Those few individuals that happened to be in the road hastily stepped to the side and allowed them to pass unhindered- being trampled by a horse and carriage wasn’t exactly prime early morning activities for the masses. A Setian male sat at the reigns, dressed in the full regalia of an official Bradigar courier, the fancy dark blue uniform, cloak, and hat a stark contrast to the red scarf wrapped around his nose and mouth to protect him from the dust kicked up by the horses. He quickly raised a hand in greeting to several of the merchants as the carriage passed by, continuing on its way down the road. The merchants waved back and smiled, then continued to go about their preparations for the new day.

 The carriage continued on its way down the cobblestone road, towards the outskirts of the city, and eventually to the forest that gave the city its name. Inside of the carriage, one of the two passengers casually glanced outside of his window, the young wood-elf smiling as he found himself back in familiar territory. His long blond hair came down neatly to his shoulders, framing a boyish face and smile. Clothed in a tunic and cloak of dark green and brown, he looked as if he could blend into the forest with great ease. A short sword sat sheathed casually at his hip. He turned his attention back to the passenger, the smile never leaving his face. “So Amelia, how about that explanation you promised?” he requested, holding out his hand to the passenger beside him.

 The high-elf sitting beside him jumped, not expecting his voice as she looked outside of her own window. She was a tall and slender young woman, who wore the black waistcoat that was popular among the high-elf intellectuals in Darkpool. A pair of round spectacles sat on the bridge of her nose, and her shoulder-length black hair made her green eyes that much more prominent. “I’m sorry, Kadoska,” she hastily apologized, shaking her head. “I zoned out there for a moment…”

 The wood-elf shrugged. “It’s ok, Bradigar Forest has had that effect on every high-elf I’ve seen come through here…” He raised a brow and grinned. “And how many times do I have to tell you… you can just call me Kado.”

 Amelia nodded, a smile finding its way onto her face. “Yes… Kado.” Without missing a beat, she reached over to a neatly kept portfolio at her side, flipping through the contents before pulling out a sheet and spreading it out on the small table between them. The page was covered in grids, with a large drawing of an engine of some sort in the middle. Various notes were scribbled all over the drawing to explain some sort of detail or two here and there. “Well,” Amelia began, giving the sheet a good once-over. “It’s all pretty simple once you’ve gotten a good understanding of the principles and everything…”

 “And this is all done with steam?” Kado wondered, peering at the drawing.

 Amelia nodded, glancing up for a moment. “Well, not totally, but steam is a very important aspect of it. See, this happens to be an engine based on some of the principles my father was toying with. Right here is the compression chamber, and…”

 “Not to interrupt you,” Kado cut in. “But isn’t this like what was in that thing that went rampaging through downtown Bradigar a few nights ago?”

 Blushing, Amelia nodded. “Well,” she began, brushing back a stray strand of hair. “The Steel Juggernaught still has a few kinks that have to be worked out here and there… at least the Edges were able to stop it before it hurt anybody…”

 Kado leaned back in his seat and placed his hands behind his head. “All in a day’s work for Edge Keeper Kadoska Ludrigar…”

 Amelia giggled. “And the other four Edges that helped…”

[*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*]

The carriage began to slow at the approach of one of the many checkpoints set up throughout the forest. Bandits were common the further one got from the city, and the checkpoints were put into place to discourage their attacks. However, as the driver of the carriage stood to present the guards on-duty with their official documentation, he found himself pierced with an arrow to the chest, where he slumped over, unmoving. Well, at least the checkpoints worked in theory.

 Inside of the carriage, Kado quickly noticed that something wasn’t quite right. “Right on schedule,” the young elf remarked. He turned towards Amelia, who didn’t look nearly as calm as the Edge Keeper assigned to escort her. “Don’t worry,” he remarked, the smile never leaving his face. “This is the type of stuff we do for a living.”

 “We?” Amelia wondered out loud, clutching her portfolio tightly to her chest. “Last I heard you were the only one assigned to me.”

 Kado grinned. “You’ll see.”

 There was a loud banging on the outside of the carriage before the door was thrown open, and Kado suddenly found himself being yanked out by his collar. Amelia sat in the corner until two guards stepped inside and gave her a dirty look each. With a whimper of protest, she stepped outside, the portfolio still clutched tightly against her chest.

 Once outside, it became apparent that these were not the normal set of guards that were assigned to these posts. While they did wear the uniforms, the four looked a bit less tidy and unkempt than the typical Bradigar guardsman. There were four total, three humans of varying filthiness, and a dark elf with a multitude of piercings in his ears, and the apparent ringleader of the lot. By the time Amelia had gotten outside, Kado’s hands were already bound with rope. Despite this, the smile was still on his face.

 “Varos Gandrick,” Kado greeted, nodding towards the dark elf. “You’re looking far less filthy from the last time I arrested you. I figured that you and your boys would be doing hard labor in the mines by now.”

 The dark elf smirked. “Didn’t you hear?” he remarked with a nonchalant shrug. “We’re out on good behavior.” There was a laugh from the rest of his associates, who in the meantime had surrounded a very nervous Amelia.

 Kado sighed. “Our justice system is a travesty, I tell you…” He looked back up at the grinning dark elf. “So tell me Varos, give me one really good reason why I should go easy on you this time.”

 Giving it some thought, Varos pulled out his sword and pointed it at Kado. “How about the fact that we’re gonna cut your nads off?”

 “Hmm… that could really make the rest of my life suck…”

 Varos smirked. “All remaining thirty seconds of it, at least.” He glanced over at Amelia. “But don’t worry about your friend. We’ve got orders to bring her back unharmed.” He turned back towards Kado. “You, on the other hand, are in for a bit of a beating.” Despite the news, Kado continued to smile. Without a word, he raised his bound arms above his head.

 Varos raised a brow. “Er… what are you doing?”

 “Signaling the thirty archers waiting in the trees to take you guys out.”

 While his three associates looked a bit unnerved at the news, Varos sheathed his sword. “Oh really now?” he wondered, crossing his arms about his chest. “I call your bluff, Edge Keeper,” he announced with a short laugh.

 As if to respond to the challenge, an arrow suddenly went whizzing through the air from one of the trees. Not only did it take out the rope binding Kado’s hands, but conveniently stuck itself into the foot of one of the guards surrounding Amelia. As he fell to the ground in a bleeding and swearing heap, Amelia took off running back towards the safety of the inside of the carriage. Before any of the other bandits could regroup, several more arrows came flying from the trees, landing just inches from their feet. Kado quickly pulled out his sword and pointed it at Varos, who now looked as if he wanted to soil himself. The remaining two bandits suddenly tried to run behind the carriage, but were greeted by the sight of the Setian driver of the carriage pointing a crossbow at the duo, the arrow still protruding from his chest. He then threw off the hat and scarf to reveal that he was actually a she, and a very angry looking one at that. The shorthaired Setian woman looked angrily among the group of bandits as she pulled back a portion of her uniform, revealing a thick chest guard of chain mail armor. With a quick yank, she pulled the arrow free and threw it to the ground. With a graceful leap, she jumped from the carriage’s seat and over to the bandits.

 “Alright…” Her eyes darted back and forth between the two standing before her. “Which one of you bastards shot me with that arrow?”

 It didn’t take long for the two bandits to come to the same conclusion, and point at their associate on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his foot. Without another word, the young woman planted a firm kick on the perpetrator’s backside. “That HURT, you jerk!” she shouted, planting a few more kicks on the screaming man.

 Kado glanced over his shoulder towards her. “You ok back there, Raine?”

 The young woman looked up at Kado, then back down to the man to plant one last kick on him before pointing the crossbow back at the remaining two bandits. “Just fine now, Kado,” she remarked. “Just fine.”

 It was at that moment where Varos decided it would be best to make a break for it, as the dark elf suddenly took off full sprint in a serpentine manner back down the road. Raine pointed the crossbow at him, but Kado dismissed her with a quick wave. He quickly sheathed his sword and began to concentrate, suddenly pointing his hands in the direction Varos was running.

 “FIREBAAAAAALL!”

 A massive burst of flame ignited from Kado’s hands and shot down the road, exploding just behind the fleeing dark elf. Varos went flying through the air in a fit of cursing and landed some distance away with a painful thud. As he looked up, he saw a figure standing a bit further down the road. Even through the smoke he could tell that it was another dark elf like himself, his long black hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. There was a smirk on his face, and a fully drawn bow in his hands, pointed right at him. “Long time no see, Varos,” he began, a slight bow of his head. “Please don’t give me a reason to stick an arrow in your face.”

 “Ah, I see you’ve met our thirty archers,” Kado greeted, walking over to the duo. “Varos Gandrick, meet…”

 Varos growled. “…Brock…”

 “We’ve been acquainted,” Brock remarked, glancing at Kado. “I was arresting this guy while you were still an Initiate.”

[*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*]

 Back at the carriage, Amelia slowly poked her head out of the door and looked about the area. Things had been a little quiet after the explosion, and she wasn’t quite sure what was going on. As she looked outside, she was surprised to see a Setian female dressed in the garb of a Bradigar courier tying three of the bandits up with rope (and occasionally swearing at one with an arrow sticking out of his foot). Approaching from further down the road was Kado and another dark elf, with Varos walking slowly ahead of the two. Sensing that things were a bit safer, yet still being cautious, Amelia slowly stepped outside of the carriage. Kado waved as they approached.

 “I told you that we had things under control,” he greeted, grinning as broadly as he had been since the whole ordeal began. He walked over to Amelia, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Sorry to be so secretive and all, but we figured that the less Edge Keepers you knew about, the calmer you would be…”

 “You’re right,” Amelia acknowledged, looking about the area a bit. “Are there any more lurking about?” she casually wondered.

 Kado pondered the question for a moment. “Hey Brock, Pashana’s still in Khyber-Set, right?”

 The dark elf nodded as he continued to tie Varos. “It’s just the three of us on this one.”

 “Well, let me introduce you to the crew,” Kado said to Amelia, holding out his hand. “This is Brocktolli Sardryn, ranger-extraordinaire and the guy in charge of all of this…”

 “Milady,” Brock greeted with a flourish and bow, before returning to the binding of Varos.

 “…and our driver actually happens to be the lovely Ms. Raine Alandros, who until recently had an arrow sticking out of her chest…”

 Raine smirked as she waved. “Right, and if Kado doesn’t watch his mouth, he’ll have one sticking out of his butt.”

 Amelia nodded, and for the first time since the attack began, actually looked somewhat calm. “So, what happens to these four?” she wondered.

 Kado shrugged. “Well, after I send a message back to Bradigar and have them send a couple of guards, I imagine that it’s back to the labor camp with them. Hopefully with heightened security this time, at least.”

 “And while you’re at it,” Raine interrupted. “Have them send another driver. I’ll be damned if I get caught sitting up there again.”