Moving to the bar, they order a couple drinks and set about drinking as they take in the clientele. Most are what Jiron would call sewer rats, little more than drunkards and layabouts. The fact that they’re even in a place like this tells him all he needs to know.

One man sitting at a table near them, who only has one hand, catches Jiron glancing in his direction. That is all the excuse he needs. Getting up from his chair, he moves toward him and says, “I don’t like the way you’re staring at me!”

The other patrons perk up at that. “No trouble tonight, Lonn,” says the barkeep from where he stands behind the bar.

“I’m not looking for trouble, mister,” Jiron says to him. “I apologize if I’ve bothered you in any way. I assure you it was not my intention.”

“You think I don’t know what you’re thinking about ol’ Lonn?” the man asks, anger beginning to build in voice. “Poor ol’ Lonn. One handed he is and good for nothin’!”

Jiron can smell the liquor on his breath. He’d like nothing better than to put Lonn on the floor, but he doesn’t want to do anything that could come back to James. “I’m not thinking anything like that,” he says, trying to diffuse the situation. “Here,” he says as he produces a coin out of his pouch, “let me buy you a drink.”

“I ain’t no drunk!” he says, now enraged. Using his one good hand, he takes a swing at Jiron’s jaw.

Easily anticipating what Lonn was going to do, he blocks the attack and follows through with a punch to the jaw. The blow snaps his head backward and Lonn stumbles into a table with three men. He smashes the table, tossing the men’s drinks onto the floor, one which spills across one of the men’s shirt in the process.

“Get them!” the man cries as he and his two buddies launch themselves at Jiron and Fifer.

Fifer flashes a grin to Jiron as he moves to meet the oncoming men. Both he and Jiron are veterans of the fight clubs back in the City of Light and readily wade into the men. The first man approaching Fifer soon finds himself lying on the floor several feet away, blood running out of his nose from where Fifer had connected with a roundhouse.