Melmoth silently slid the body of the young man to rest in a sewer drain. He took one last look at Roland, and then closed the metal hatch on his improvised tomb. At least the man would no longer be a matter of concer to him any longer.

Roland had been a challenge for the entire time he was under Melmoth's gaze. From the initial manipulations, to the final hellish meeting, he had struggled. For all his loss, he had been unwilling to give one thing to get it all back. In the end, he met his death like hundreds before him had.

You know you love it when they struggle. A voice in his head spoke. Xrtchwdg was around somewhere, like always. The demon loved to comment on it all, to point out things Melmoth would rather leave unsaid. I don't understand why you love to lose. You could grab anyone off the street, and within a week you'd win if you just took my advice. Xrtchwdg appeared under a street lamp, and proceeded to define several rather gruesome coersion methods. While undeniably effective, they went against Melmoth's style. He'd get what he wanted without leaving a mark on his victim. His failures, he'd rip their throats out.

Melmoth stood and wiped the blood off his mouth and face with a scrap of rag. Under his illusion, it didn't show, but still existed and annoyed. Finished, he flung the bloody scrap into the darkness. He regreted his failure, and moreso setting things right again, but it was a process he had to do. Letting things return to a good state was the first step to pulling people down again. Roland's family might be usefull targets in the future. Letting them get used to misery would make it that much harder to work with them.

These nomadic tribesmen I saw once had a trick with small pieces of wood that - Melmoth shook his head Xrtchwdg knew he was being tuned out. He was unusually talkative tonight, and Melmoth was quieter than he had been in days. It probably had something to do with the upcoming ammends he was choosing to make. Melmoth's self-imposed pennance could take any shape, and was always unexpected to everyone except himself. he probably just made them up on the fly.

Xrtchwdg faded from sight, and Melmoth was relieved. Putting up with him was a constant trial. Keeping his mind on his work was doubly hard with the demon talking in the back of his head.

Roland's home was not far. He had a special letter to put in the house, to explain his absence to his wife and daughter. The guardsman had been a failure in life, but his death would propel his kin to a higher standard of life. Melmoth wiped all expression from his face, and then set off into the night, determined to set things right.