Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapter 4 - Domestic Disputes

The following day, while the rest of their companions are attending to personal matters, Alden and Fedor - both persons-at-arms and servitors of the Archbishop, seek to occupy themselves. Fedor consults with Father Oleg - the attendant priest, and liaison to the Archbishop - about possible ministration for his limp, but the good father cites the prohibitive expense, and the Archbishop's business with other matters.

The two then go into the practice yard to spar. Alden gets the first lick in with a wooden sword, but the fight is full of falls and missteps, and Fedor's hard hits with the axe handles send Alden tumbling to the ground, and yielding. Three other warriors watch the fight, and narrate it with snide commentary. One of them throws Alden a kopeck for the entertainment the fight provided.

When the training day is over, Misha the brewer wheels several casks of beer into the compound, to help the soldiers relax. Fedor engages him in conversation, and asks them if there are any matters in Malinka or the vicinity that need attending to, that might earn them a bit of coin. Misha does have a problem that he would be willing to pay to solve. Apparently, he and Yulian - the master of stables - fought for the hand of the same woman. Misha won, and married her, but Yulian never let the matter go. As Misha tells it, the stable master is also a sorcerer, and has given him the evil eye, and caused accidents for him on several occasions. If the pair drive him out of the estate, Misha is prepared to pay them one ruble.

The following day, the two head to the stables to seek out Yulian. They find him carrying a bag of horseshoes into the stable. Fedor tells him to lay off Misha, and to find someone else to court. Misha tells them to mind their own business. When they persist, Yulian smacks Fedor in the head with a horseshoe. The stablemaster is quickly subdued, but as the two warriors beat him down, Fedor feels hands closing in on his throat, choking him. At first, the two men think Yulian is doing this through some dark magic. But the choking continues even after he is knocked unconscious. Seeing no one else around, the two quickly tie Yulian up and leave. Only after they get a ways away from the stable does Fedor feel the pressure on his throat lighten.

Yulian, when he's not being pestered about his personal life

The two bring Yulian to Father Oleg, tell him the tale of the contendings of Yulian and Misha, and claim that he used dark magic to try to choke them. There is a lot of dark magic going on on the Archbishop's lands, they say, and something needs to be done about this.