There was a tug at the back of my mind as the name "Henry Noman" hit my ears. I had learned much about him in my week of planning and investigation, but he was never my main focus. Still, I recognized most of what Drifter proceeded to talk about. It was eerie, as if my mind was open to him and he was able to pluck out precisely what he needed.

  Most eerie were the parts I did not recognize, however. He was able to fill the gaps in my knowledge perfectly, as if I had always known but never realized, and both I and the rest of the people listening knew his revelations to be true, somehow.

  Where did this knowledge come from? I never really found out.

  Henry Noman walked into Beorne for the first time 22 years prior. He had been a vagabond, wandering the north with no real purpose, for most of his life, and he was intrigued by a simple poster on a market board recruiting for the local guard: "BEORNE NEEDS YOU! Patrol and Gate Guards - Promotions available - 20 ден / week to start."

  Guard work was something he had previously done for individuals or small communities, something done ad hoc to get a few denars. But he was well into his thirties by that point. The wandering was getting to be too much. Some time to rest in a city where he did not need to scavenge for survival was appealing.

  He inquired with a guardsman watching the market, who looked like little more than an ordinary citizen with a tabard over his clothes and a quarterstaff in his hand, and was directed to the inner city gates. There Henry went through a brief inspection to make sure he wasn't smuggling in anything with which he could harm the wealthier citizens of the city, after which he was directed to the main guard headquarters to follow up on his recruitment questions. In the headquarters he talked to someone in the front lobby, then someone else in the front lobby, then was given an application to hand to a third person in the front lobby, and then the guard captain at the time - one Abigail Fritz, a forty-year veteran of the force - happened by, glanced over his application, and hired him on the spot.

  Thus Henry's first introduction to the Beorne city guard was a whole train of bureaucracy that would be cut off to his benefit. It was an experience he took forward into his daily work: if someone needed help, he would do what he could to help, and he would do what he could to do so effectively, even if it meant stepping around people and processes and documents and notifications. This made him friends and enemies both, in both the city and the watch, but it happened to align with the desires of Fritz and select others in the guard hierarchy who saw the chains of procedure dragging down their organization.

  Henry was promoted quickly, taking an oath as the lieutenant in charge of mid-city patrols within a year. It was the most public role available in Beorne's guard corps, giving him responsibility for the day-to-day safety and concerns of the bulk of Beorne's population - at least, the bulk of the population people actually cared about, since the slums were technically more populous at the time. And he filled that role wonderfully according to the average citizen, who could now rely on the guards to actually help them with their concerns instead of writing the problems down and storing them at HQ for a later that never came.

  This led to an odd political situation for Henry. Some folks within the guards who wanted that bureaucracy were seeing less value in Henry's solo approach, leaving them with question marks about what was happening in the mid-city. They argued that his guards were actually doing less because they weren't telling every detail to headquarters, and they complained that he was failing to do due diligence in many of his official duties - most notably, in his criminal investigations, which often had spotty paper trails and dubious arrests.

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  It wasn't corruption, per se, and Henry's advocates in the city guard knew this. Henry had the trust of the people, and the people were willing to share information and resources with him anonymously. If a neighbour knew the murderer but didn't want to be associated with Henry's report, should he betray that neighbour and out them as the source? Should he let the murderer go until he could find more evidence? Should he beat the confession out of the murderer himself?

  The latter was often the option of choice. In some regions with more robust legal codes it may be considered barbaric, and there is plenty of historical precedent showing it is a system ripe for abuse, but for the Beorne of decades past it was an improvement. Ducking around a bogged down legal system to put a criminal out of society was considered well worth the occasional issue the guards caused.

  Henry's two main selling points - a community focus and a disregard for procedure if it led to results - resonated with the citizens. More importantly, it started resonating with the other lieutenants in the guard. There was a sense in Beorne that, after many years of paying taxes for nothing, the guards were finally working for the people.

  Captain Fritz would report on these developments, as they became relevant, to the Regent at the time, the first Lord Edgar Braven. He cared little for that community approach to policing; his view was that the guard was primarily there to serve the Regency, and the protection of the citizens simply worked to that benefit in most instances. What he liked was the procedural "streamlining" that Henry encouraged.

  The senior Lord Braven had some secrets. It was vaguely known to some higher-ups with the guard, and it was vaguely known among the treasurers of his administration, but the Regency had sources of money outside the norm. Agreements with bandits, with smugglers, with traffickers, with assassins, sharing schedules and providing leniency in small cases to help their business along as long as they kept the noise to a minimum. In return, of course, the Regency received kickbacks.

  The public parts of Castle Beorne were not extravagant, exactly, but their construction was of a quality beyond the expectation of such a small nation. Materials were used that any workman would be jealous to handle, and they were used well. Still, it was left nearly austere in a decorative sense. The general feeling was that it was built well to maximize functionality, more of a practical building than a show of power.

  Beornia was not rich; resource extraction was difficult due to the weather and terrain, the population was too low to support service industries, and they lacked the technology and connections for more advanced manufacturing. This left the general perception of Beornia and the Regency as middling in wealth and status, at least at the global scale.

  As a result, Lord Braven decided to spend his wealth on the interior portions of the Castle, surrounding his family with lavish goods enjoyable only by them and their close guests. It worked well as a way to hide his wealth; the public saw a tasteful minimalism while he could surround himself with all the velvet and gold he desired. Few suspected anything untoward happening behind his public image.

  Abigail Fritz retired after Henry had spent two years as a lieutenant. His leadership was already impacting how the guard functioned across the city, making him the obvious choice for the next captain. The rumours on the next choice did not debate that Henry would be captain, only whether a more senior lieutenant would be promoted first.

  One was not. Lord Braven confirmed Henry as Captain of the Beorne City Guard almost immediately.