Eriad guessed that not many outsiders stayed in Selbina.

It was a big enough town, sure, but most of the people they saw had that particular 'Who are you and why are you on my lawn' look about them.

"So, uh," the former pirate said, catching Saeun's attention. The leader, not for a minute acting out of character, was wearing a white robe and hood to shield him from the heat and looking for every part like he had come down to earth to heal ills and right wrongs. "Tell me again, number one. Do we just hang around here for a few days and then the territory's ours?"

"Correct, Eriad."

"Cool stuff, cool stuff."

They walked in silence, Eriad sweating under his collar. Today was not a good day to wear his combat gear. "Okay, why are the locals alright with this?"

"Clan wars are an ages-old tradition. Selbina is one of the most important trade routes in Vana'Diel, so it is by common sense that we arrived here." Saeun had that sort-of eerie way of talking without any hesitant pauses or 'uh, ums'. It made him seem...scarily organized, on the outside.

"...Well, alright then. Where are we heading?"

"To the leader of the town, to inform them of our intentions and ask if there is anything we might assist with."

"...Oh."

Day 1

A polite but speedy conversation later, and Saeun had learned of a street gang that was determined the town of Selbina should remain independent, and the two outsiders were already in danger.

Informed of the gang's disposition after Saeun had left the mayor's office, Eriad groaned. "So we have to take some thugs out?"

"You shall have to avoid killing them," the leader said, already leading his subordinate to the town center. "But they require a lesson taught. Send them home with cuts and bruises."

"What 'bout you, number one?"

"I shall keep you hale and hearty, Eriad," the white-robed man said, still not turning around as he walked.

Day 2

It didn't take the two long to find the thugs, mostly because the thugs found them.

"Couldn't we have, y'know, number one...Gotten the jump on them? I could probably have just shot one in the arm."

There was a monument in the town center, a fountain with a statue of a man kneeling and point a sword skyward. Probably some hero saved the town a while back, Eriad thought.

The pirate was seated on the statue's giant stone knee, with Saeun up on the shoulder, hand on top of the head, though Eriad suspected he didn't need the balance and it was for some sort of regal effect, which sort of worked. The thugs, for there was a certain plurality about five men with blunt things glaring at two strangely-dressed people, were of course armed.

"Eriad, right now, you are the champion of Clan Andraste. I can't fight; you can. Taking down five foes with skill, guile and strength will leave a much stronger impression on the folk of Selbina. Your story might spread further..."

"...I get it, I get it."

"Good." Eriad felt magics shimmer into life on and around him at that word, invisible to the untrained eye.

He drew his saber and hopped off the knee, landing with a splash in the fountain. A thug, swathed in sandy-coloured clothes probably designed to survive the heat, opened his mouth to speak. The former pirate cut him off. "Hi there, I'm Eriad. I'll be Clan Andraste's champion for today. You first?"

The five thugs charged, clubs brandished. "Ohh, kay then."

Days 3 and 4

Eriad realised that what Saeun had cast on him was not time magic, because nothing seemed slower around him; instead, his muscles and reflexes had been fine-tuned past their already impressive points, and his senses told him everything he needed. It wasn't quite white magic, either...

A club whooshed over the former pirate's head as he ducked super humanly fast. From his crouch, he knocked his attacker over with a good sweep kick. He stood, shot the downed thug in the right arm, and blocked a club from another with his saber, all in the same motion.

Saeun's magic made him feel...not just good. Great. Eriad liked to think he had a natural talent for fighting hardened by years of learning from some of the best, but if he could fight his old self now, it wouldn't have gone on for long.

Eriad slid under another club, dragging his saber to leave a mostly superficial gash across the attacker's ribs, turning the clothes below it red. He whirled and grabbed, actually grabbed a cudgel as the owner brought it down, yanked just hard enough to help his opponent on his way down, and smacked him on the head with the saber's hilt.

Two down, one screaming. The other two seemed to grow more wary and stood back, side by side.

Eriad's crystal-clear thoughts told him that that was stupid, and they should have circled around to get him from either side while he was distracted. But they hadn't.

Days 5 and 6 >______>

A hand clapped Eriad on the shoulder, and Saeun walked past him, hands spread to indicate he wasn't armed. The thugs each took a step back, regardless. "If you're willing to listen, I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement..."

---

And, ten minutes later, Saeun had negotiated the gang into leaving the clan alone.

"Wait, I'm confused," Eriad said, sitting on the fountain. "Did you seriously just con them into letting us keep the territory for no troubles?"

"I did heal the ones you wounded," Saeun responded. "And it wasn't a con. Much more like...implication of threat. They know you alone could have killed them, and clans always consist of more than two members. They were common thugs, and the populace should keep them in line now."

"So I guess we're done here, for now."

"Quite. Damalia's group should be by now, as well...so we can leave to pick them up."

Clan Andraste now controls Selbina.