"Does thinking you're the last sane man on earth make you crazy?"

[Rattrap]

The lake was a beautiful structure, pristine and calm despite all the turmoil that occured beneath the surface. And there was a fair amount of that - Thomas was privvy to some himself, though he had lesser knowledge of what sort of the more demonic creatures lurked there. But now, against a frigid, crisp and yet sunny morning, the lake was beautiful.

Captain Thomas Daniels stood on a large rock looking out over the lake, dressed in plain clothes. His medium-to-heavy build wouldn't altogether contrast with the scenery around him, though his close-cut cap of golden blonde hair would certainly make him stand out - along with the lack of limb.

Thomas needed a break. He needed...something. A lot, perhaps. He started with a deep sigh, and took that back. He needed little. The Captain still had the option of resigning, moving off to Derry. Robert tells him it's considerably less hectic over there. And boy, would the Council love that. Thomas cared less and less for them, though. Their wants. Their desires. The Captain was pleased to see Kerrak's open support at the hands of the obvious evidence, but he was outnumbered in the reasoning department.

Could one reasonable councilor sway the rest? Thomas could hope so. Even if it was their likes that he dealt with most on a day to day, he had to remind himself it wasn't for them he was here. It was for every other man, woman and child in Myrken Wood. The ones without their own personal armies, the ones that could feel safe seeing the black and silver pass by their homes.

Between one councilor who has already been talked into conspiracies, and the other who paranoid to the point of looking under every uniform for an assassination order, and one that was an outright murderer - the Council was a joke. If Thomas left now, the disservice - and damage - done to Myrken Wood would be great.

The Order of Straka was not a seperate entity to Myrken Wood; they are plain men and women who simply wanted to protect their families while bringing home the bread. The distrust - more rightfully a simple dislike of Captain Daniels - that the Council placed on anybody in the Straka uniform had not gone unnoticed to the ranks of Straka, or to their families. After all, how could the people trust a Governor or a Council that didn't in turn trust its constituents?

Thomas smiled at the thought of simpler days. Patrolling with Robert Sullivan held no politics; just a job. The Council had decided he'd done a fine enough job, along with the recommendation of Alexander Kanashia, and Thomas had been instated as Captain. He was scarcely different than the man they had placed as Captain. He still had a job, and he still did it.

But alas, the Council - even those that were on the council that instated him - had changed greatly.

...the difficulties harder mattered, though. This Captain of the Order of Straka would fight against the Council's misguided mistrust and paranoia to protect the people that paid his wages, just like every Captain before him.

People weren't blind to this; after all, it was Captain Daniels who was out, patrolling, and still seeing to his duties when the rest of the Council was scarce or gone altogether. How would it look to them if the Council finally returned, instated their own troops, brought in foreign mercenaries, and removed Thomas from his post?

Riots. Chaos. Welled up anger, not just at the Council - but at Straka. At Myrken Wood, for being the magnet of disaster that it was. The fact that someone had been happily running away with their taxes, taking away those uniformed individuals that kept their homes safe.

Thomas hoped, beyond hoped, that it didn't come to that...but. On the other hand, perhaps it was a like a sickness the body had to react violently to to purge from the body.

The power was in the Council's hands. Thomas was watching. Myrken Wood was watching; by now, the charges against Suede Roschen were public. The Council's constituents would want to know why there's a murderer running their land. Jobless men and women formerly of the guard profession would want to know why there's a Black Market member taking away their jobs.

The lake was calm. Captain Thomas Daniels was not, but he was better off than when he'd came. He ended with a deep sigh before turning off to take a shift and go back to work.