angry, too

4. 3 Years Later

   Lethe's hair had grown quite long as of late. It was milky white and braided uniformly down her back.

    She was sitting under a pavillion, sunlight filtering in between the colorful awning, making interesting patterns in the ground.

   There were two body guards on either side of her. Sweaty, yet unmoving. Lethe had made it clear that she was fine if they sat down but both of them refused to. "We musn't let down our guard," One of them had said.

   Lethe didn't push it any further than that. She stayed in her spot, waiting like she was told.

   She had found herself in a rather fortunate position as of late, she was betrothed to a wealthy warlord who left her alone for the most part.

   She was just meant to sit next to him and look pretty whenever he asked her to. That was easy, even if it got incredibly boring at some points. They were talking about which village they were going to pillage and just generally speaking of violence.

   Lethe was mentally checked out at this point. She had never been one for the gross talk these men partook in. She just wanted to leave.

*

   Viktor walked along the promenade, cane in one hand, cigarette in the other. It was an unusually hot day today.

   People were shouting at each other and merchants were simultaneously fanning themselves and trying to get people to buy their product.

   Viktor ignored them all.

   He had a very specific place that he was going. It was on the lower east side of town. A place where none of the rich enforcer agents wanted to go because it was too dangerous for them.

   Viktor had always found this absolutely pathetic. The lower east side of town was dangerous and lawless but it was their jobs to clean all of that up and protect innocents.

   Of course, they only protected innocent on paper. Never in practice.

   That led to the crime ring that Viktor was in charge of coming into fruition. He tried to keep it clean when he was conducting business. He wasn't a fan of unnecessary violence.

   He was; however, a fan of necessary violence. He would do what he needed to.

   Any means necessary. Viktor turned around the corner, down a street that was lined with seedy bars and merchant stalls.