By Any Means.

Tracklist

---

The shrieking of the door managed to startle the both of them. Its hinges really needed some grease, especially if it was going to be opened at this hour.

Salute huffed as he marched on into the crumbling dungeon, wasting no time before coming face to face with Hiketeria in her cell.

“…Congratulations, Salute,” she said.

The dragon flinched, caught off guard before the interrogation had even begun. He instinctively bore his fangs, but managed to keep his stance from turning defensive.

“For what?” he growled.

“It’s at least an hour before call time.” Hiketeria slowly stalked to the bars, piercing Salute with her eyes. “You never arrive early. You’re always right on time. That can only mean your call time has been moved up.

“You got the position,” Hiketeria summarized with a warm smile. “The guard voted you as Chief. Congratulations.”

Salute released a long held in sigh. It seemed Hiketeria wasn’t quite omnipotent. “That’s wrong. Thyreos is Chief. I’m the Vice Chief. It’s a new position.”

Mercifully, Hiketeria broke her stare off, turning her gaze to the wall. “Unfortunate. They made the wrong choice.”

“Thyreos is a fine choice. But either way, he’ll be stepping down in a few years.”

“No, he won’t.”

In all her staring at the wall, Hiketeria managed to find a small stain across one of the bricks. She stomped it with a hoof. Sprouting a fan of leaves underneath, she smeared that hoof away and scraped that grime right off.

Satisfied, she turned back to Salute, bringing her face close to the cell’s bars. They radiated with heat and sent mirages across her form. “In time, he’ll latch onto his status. He will not let that position go.”

“…I don’t agree.” Salute was a hair quieter than usual. “And I’m not ready for that position yet.”

“You won’t be, not until you have it.”

The torches crackled. Between them and the red-hot bars, this whole room was filled with flames, meant to keep the Sawsbuck locked inside. When Salute met her comment with silence, she chanced another step towards the bars. Her hoof got close enough that its leaves wilted and died.

“Adaptation. That’s your way of learning, Salute, by being thrown into the deep end. If you were thrust into that role, you would grow to match it. Thyreos doesn’t have that kind of capability.”

“Sir.” Both of Salute’s heads gave a stern, authoritative glare. It only proved her point. “I don’t doubt Thyreos. Now I have some questions for you. Why did you commit the Merx Manor Theft?”

So this was an interrogation. “This again? I thought we were done repeating that line of inquiry.”

“And I thought I would give you another chance.”

Hiketeria looked her loyal guard up and down. She checked every scruffy bit of fur atop the Zweilous’s scales, then the pair of caps adorning his heads. Unlike his hair, his hats were perfectly maintained.

“This is the last time you’ll be asking, isn’t it?” she sighed.

“…It is.”

Yes, he had new responsibilities now. That meant he would be thrust into the bureaucratic nightmare of chiefdom. There would be no more time to try and get an answer out of her, so he was giving it one last attempt today.

A small chuckle escaped Hiketeria as she turned away. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with not knowing, Salute.”

“I thought so.”

Hiketeria strode on over to her bed in the back of the cell. Then to the latrine on the other side. She didn’t allow for the splint on her broken leg to slow her pacing.

“I assume Ennea may be leaving town,” she thought aloud. “That would spurn you to check as well; to tie up this loose end for her.”

“I’m asking for me.”

The splint on Hiketeria’s leg gave an ugly crack as it stomped to the ground.

“What about that Vulpix boy? Is he absconding with her?”

Both Hiketeria and Salute held still. No pacing, no cleaning, no breathing. Just a cold glare from the Sawsbuck and a practiced attention from the Zweilous.

“That doesn’t concern you,” he hissed.

He was getting better at this. Salute knew he was bad at lying, so he refused to answer at all.

“How about we compromise?” A smile didn’t make Hiketeria’s expression any less cold. “Tell me, and I’ll tell you why I did what I did.”

Salute snorted. For a moment, he almost seemed to find it actually funny. “You don’t bargain.”

“No. I don’t.”

He passed the test. Hiketeria would just have to assume the worst, then.

A knock on the door broke the silence. Both scowled at the interruption, despite it being more of a blessing than anything. Then the door squealed open once again and let a Marowak inside.

“Ah. Hi Salute,” Osteon greeted tepidly. “You almost done here?”

Salute performed his namesake for the fellow guard. “Almost. Give us a few more minutes. Wait on the other side of the door.”

“Yeah, sure.” Osteon’s neck tensed for a moment. He was keeping a yawn in. Then he assaulted everyone’s ears by using that door one more time, and left them alone.

“…It was Thyreos’s decision to have him guard me.”

Salute’s wings folded.

“That was a bad call,” Hiketeria continued. “Osteon is best used for low-risk assignments. You know that as well.”

“I don’t doubt my coworkers.” Salute’s heads were turned towards each other. “Not for you.”

“He doesn’t know the guards on the same level as you.” Hiketeria did not let up. “You understand them intimately, as individuals. Thyreos doesn’t put in that kind of effort.”

Salute’s right head gave a low growl, keeping his left from saying something. She was getting to him.

“Do you know why I named Thyreos as Head Guard? Because he wouldn’t question me.” Vines snaked down Hiketeria’s legs, covering the shackles on her ankles and letting her stand proud. “He will single-mindedly complete his assignments without critical thought. He is no leader.”

“Do you know how much this sucks?!” Salute’s left head broke, gnashing at the bars despite the right’s protests. “Seeing a beacon of justice reduced to this?!”

He was close enough that Hiketeria could’ve had a perfect shot at him. But instead, she relaxed.

“Yes. I know it well.”

“…What?”

“This is the curse of our position, Salute. It is only passed when blood spills.” The vines coiling around Hiketeria swiped at the floor, desperately trying to remove its filth. But she could only do so much. “It’s better that you were the one to spill mine.”

This would have to do. Hiketeria lowered herself onto the ground. “Sit with me, Salute.”

“’Never let the interrogee take control,’” Salute quoted his Chief.

“This doesn’t have to be an interrogation.”

Salute hesitantly took a knee instead. Part of him was done with Hiketeria for good, but only part.

“Do you remember when I was training you?” The thought of it brought an honest smile to Hiketeria’s face. The little Deino with his oversized cap, biting away at her ankles because he didn’t know how to do anything else. He probably could’ve bit right through her shackles if he tried now. “I always thought you were hard to teach, that perhaps you’d never learn anything other than how to fight.

“But I was wrong. You grew, and quite suddenly. In these last two years, you’ve become the best of my guards.”

“I appreciate the compliment, sir.” Apart from a small waver, Salute’s voice was utterly flat. “Yes. I remember training.”

“What about the Chief? Do you remember him?”

Salute’s jaws flexed for a moment. “No. I don’t.”

Then Hiketeria was the only one left. Perhaps in a decade, she would be forgotten as well.

“…Was his blood spilled?” Salute asked.

“Yes. But not by me.” Sap leaked from Hiketeria’s vines. They squeezed her shackles so hard that they bled. “Those that you cherish, those that you look up to, they will always be taken from you. Be happy that the fault for this lies on me alone.”

“Until you tell me why you did it, I can’t be sure it does.”

Hiketeria chuckled. “Understandable. But these circumstances are not identical. Unless…” She let herself relax again and tilted her head. “Do you actually love me?”

“I don’t really get ‘love.’” Salute’s heads wandered all around, avoiding Hiketeria’s. “But I cared about you. Like Justice.”

Past tense. Hiketeria tried to let that sink in, but it wouldn’t.

“I’m going to ask one more time. For what, exactly, did you steal the Merx Family Fortune for?” Salute ordered.

“It’s the most humorous thing. Even I’m not fully sure.”

“Of course you—” Salute’s muttering hit a snag. The brims of his hats tilted up and down as he checked Hiketeria’s body language. “…No, it can’t be. Whatever. Are there any questions you’ll actually answer?”

“Certainly. I want you to succeed, Salute.”

That made him scoff. “Then how do you suggest I act as Vice Chief?”

“Stamp out everyone unrighteous from Epiphany. Remove any turncoats from positions of authority. I’ve taken care of the Guard for you, in that regard.”

“What about Thieves’ Cant? Teach it to me.”

Hiketeria shook her head. “It wouldn’t do you any good. They’ve already changed how it works.”

“Then how do you figure it out?”

“Find a member of the Thieves’ Guild and force them to tell you.”

Salute groaned at Hiketeria’s honesty and stomped his foot down, breaking away from her. “This is a waste of time. I have to go.”

“Seeing Ennea off?”

“None of your business.” Salute used a wing to pull down his caps, straightened his stance to perfection, and trudged off to the door.

“Salute.”

He stopped.

“You know that Thyreos is not suitable as Chief. You’d do well to renegotiate with him.”

“I do not doubt my coworkers,” Salute repeated one last time. “Not for a lowly criminal.” He opened the door. It cried out, pleading with him to stay just a little longer.

But he didn’t.

“…Goodbye, Hiketeria.”

Oh. So it really was over, then.

“…Goodbye, Vice Chief Salute. I will miss you.”

The door slammed shut, and Salute left Hiketeria behind.

The Sawsbuck let a pink vine grow from her antlers, curling into a hollow cone around her ear. She angled it towards the door.

“…Are you sure you can handle this?” Though muffled, Salute’s powerful voice could be heard.

“Yeah, don’t worry.” Osteon’s was harder to make out.

“You’re rested enough? You didn’t stay up again last night?”

“I’m fine, quit doubting me! I’ve got it covered.”

“Alright. Don’t let your guard down.”

So Hiketeria did get through to Salute. If only he took her advice fully.

Osteon came into the cell, posture slackening not long after. He just kept it up for Salute. He gave Hiketeria a once-over, making sure to keep a Petrify Orb in hand as he did.

Then, when he’d had enough of watching her statuesque form, he turned his attention to his bone, pinching into a hidden hole it had. From it, he pulled out a small, bright seed. It almost looked like a piece of candy.

Oh, Osteon. Sneaking an Energy Seed in to cover for his poor sleep schedule, breaking the rules so sneakily.

This was how it always began. A small allowance, a minor break, a tiny seed. Just a one-time thing that “wouldn’t cause any harm.” But mistakes like this would always lead to ruin for one simple reason.

Seeds could germinate.

Hiketeria would not be held in this cell any longer.

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TRACKLIST:

 

1. The Ends Justify the Means                                                  END POINT