Viz turned at the exit to see that Kaiz hadn’t moved a muscle.

Kaiz folded his arms, “Just like that? You want me to rush off when you haven’t even explained anything?”

“I’ll explain as we go. We would have had time, but the convoy leaves in..” Viz glanced at his watch, “It’s already left actually. Wow, you took awhile.”

“I took awhile? Maybe if you didn’t trick me and planned properly instead, we wouldn’t have unreliable timetables.”

Viz stared at Kaiz with the most deadpan of expressions, “Feed dustfox by hand?”

Kaiz groaned at the expression. Dustfoxes were flighty and untrusting. Recently domesticated ones would starve themselves to near death before eating food given to them. A handler often had to tie them up and shove food down their throat to keep them from irreparably damaging themselves.

Though Viz was practically admitting it was him that deployed the tactic of showing up at his front door, Kaiz could begrudgingly accept the need for it. There was likely no other circumstance he’d have bothered to listen to the details of a Snake job. Plus, if Snake already knew and Viz already had a replacement, he hadn’t truly lost anything.

Though he’d be extra careful with how he moved around as Kaizer just to be sure.

“Alright. Fine.” He waved Viz and Red away, “Give me a moment.”

Once they both stepped out, he quickly checked his hidden compartments. Viz knew most of them, but he had a few he kept only to himself.

As he expected the ones he’d shown Viz had been emptied, but the others were untouched. They didn’t have anything of immediate importance, just some funds, various pieces of equipment, and a load of books and notes. He left them where they were for now, except for some of the notes. Those that could not be risked being seen by the wrong eyes.

While he tucked them away, he took a few seconds to look around the room. His former home. Even completely barren, it didn’t look all that different. Maybe it was just a hole under a tree. While he greatly appreciated the secrecy and seclusion it afforded him, he was never truly fond of the space itself. It served its purpose and no more.

The abrupt eviction was less bittersweet and more concerning. Kaiz didn’t do sudden shifts, he was a carefully prepared sort. This felt... uncomfortable.

Alas, he’d make do. Progress didn’t lie at the other side of comfort and he could tell the step he was taking right now could lead to a greater path. He just hoped they were prepared for the pitfalls.

On the same day I revisit my old room, I leave my current one...almost poetic.

His face was caught between a smirk and a sigh.

What’s next?

He stepped out of his former home to see Viz and Red talking between themselves. Oddly enough, she no longer scowled. In fact, she seemed to be actually paying attention to whatever Viz was saying. Kaiz didn’t know whether to be glad or concerned.

Either way, he told them that he’d be right back and headed for the tunnel. Viz complained of course, but it was in one ear and out the other.

Out of the forest and down the hatch, he returned to his satchel. He took it, placed the notes he retrieved inside, and stored them both behind a hidden wall by the ladder. Before he left, he pondered if he should bring his book with him. There wasn’t too high a risk in doing so, but the series was rare and had been thorough in looking for it earlier.

In the end, he decided to store it as well. If he hadn’t revealed his true voice to Red he would have taken it, but he’d given up enough information about himself already. There was no need to supply even more clues.

Business handled, he returned to the duo and all three of them headed to the western edge of the forest. There, two men waited. Kaiz recognized Ty, Code’s premier drinking partner, but the other man was a stranger to him.

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I guess we have grown.

He once knew every member of their gang. That had clearly changed.

The two discreetly led their trio to a quiet set of ‘outhouses’ nestled in between a cluster of trees. Three sand chameleons lounged outside of them while backpacks full of supplies rested inside.

Glad to see we haven’t completely lost our dedication to preparation.

Kaiz double checked the bags and helped load them on the chameleons while Viz and Red got fitted and kitted. Viz was largely prepared already, he just needed some gear to protect his head. Red had a whole ensemble she needed to remove though.

Once they were both done, they saddled up and rode into the desert. As the mini forest faded into the background, Viz finally explained the run.

“There are around fifty to a hundred of them. The bulk of them will be untitleds. We’re unsure how many are tilted. The baseless assumption is twenty, but we have no way of knowing concretely. What we do know for sure is that their leader is. Calls himself the ‘Duke of the Dunes’.”

Viz seemed impressed by the name choice, “Quite inventive of him, it’s always kings or emperors with those types.”

Then he didn’t, “Alas, they went with Doomers as their group name. Can you believe that? Doomers. You’d think a guy with the brains to come up with ‘Duke of the Dunes’ would make a better group name than Doomers.”

“Who said he m—no.” Kaiz shook his head, “Can you get back to the important details please?”

Viz somehow managed to visibly scowl through his headpiece, “These are the important details. Who wants to go down in history as the leader of the Doomers? You’d be laughed at for decades.”

“Conquer a kingdom and who cares what your name is? Accomplishments matter more than titles.”

Red snickered at that.

“Whatever.” Viz continued, “The Doomers have been raiding a few villages in Struleren for months. Recently, they got cocky and attacked Silberg, the biggest town up there. Lost more than half their crew, but they more or less won in the end. The town surrendered, and they made off with everything they could. Our target, Karl Emmrich, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Emmrich?" Kaiz repeated, "Like Count Emmrich? You didn’t think that was pertinent information before?”

“Don’t fret about the past.” He waved away his very reasonable concerns, “Anyway, they planned to ransom him. Sent a letter asking for some exuberant amount of money for his release.”

Kaiz shook his head, “Idiots.”

It was a remark at both the bandits and himself.

Viz chuckled, “How could they know? The Emmrich family is fairly new and their land is to the south. Their information network would have had to be immaculate for them to truly understand who they were dealing with.”

“Who we’re dealing with as well. This suddenly went from dangerous to lethal.”

“Oh relax. Worst case scenario, we fail and the army picks him up.”

“Or. We succeed and he offs our heads for interrupting some grand scheme he made.” Kaiz could see all the ways the run could go wrong, “Does he know we’re doing this or are we supposed to just drop his kid off like 'Hey, just found this guy hanging out in the desert. He was lost. So were we. Craziest of coincidences. Have a great day!’.”

Red giggled this time, but she immediately stopped as they turned to look at her.

Shame.

He peeked at Viz, unsure if he felt the same way. He definitely saw her beauty, even when it was just her eyes, but whether he saw that there was no getting past the ugliness on the inside was another matter.

Kaiz coughed, “Anyway. Does he know?”

“Uh.” He had a look of guilt about him, “Yes and no. Does he know another team of specialists is also moving to retrieve his nephew? Yes. Does he know it’s a completely legitimate but frowned upon organization? No.”

“Completely legitimate, you say.”

A bit of smugness creeped into Viz's voice, “There’s much to catch you up on.”

He was skeptical, but he thought back to the stranger with Ty, "Right… Well. Where would we find these Doomers? Do we know what level 'The Duke' is?"

"We'll find out when we get to Silberg."

He damn near stopped his sand chameleon, "What do you mean, 'we'll find out'?"

"They're in Struleren!” Viz yelled while gesturing to a random dune in the distance, “That's as far from civilization as it gets. Any further out and you're basically in Storn. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to prepare better when you send me off to my death."

"Our deaths.” He brought his chameleon close enough to reach over and put an arm around Kaiz, “I'm right here with you."

“Should I thank you oh dear brother-in-arms?”

“It would be appreciated, yes.”

Kaiz slapped his arm away, "Pest.” He then proceeded to talk himself into it, “So we'll have to do a bit of reconnaissance once we're there. Sure, it's a trial run. Have to test everything. How are we moving Emmrich from wherever they have him holed up back down to Waldaun though?"

"We—"

Kaiz did stop his chameleon this time, "Don't you dare say 'we'll find out'."