Kaiz sat on the floor of the closet he had slept in. Viz sat next to him. He had just finished updating him on what had occurred last night. Viz agreed with his deduction that the three were part of Ernst’s mercenaries, but he disagreed with the motivations Kaiz assumed they had.

“Why else would they randomly attack us?”

“It wasn’t random. I’m certain they were told you were camping here.”

Kaiz raised both eyebrows at the implication, “Rieka can’t possibly be that skilled an actor?”

Viz waved away the suggestion, “I visited her husband's grave with her. It was Carl. He escaped custody.”

“In Silberg?”

Viz nodded.

Confusion tickled his back, “How? He was still heavily injured. They don’t have cells in Silberg? Guards?”

“They do. He was in the police quarters' prison actually.” Viz chuckled, “Shifts got ‘mixed up’. The officers that were meant to be watching him were busy escorting the Baron instead.”

His confusion turned to understanding, “He escaped just as the Baron arrived?”

Another nod.

Kaiz shook his head, “So he lied about not having agents in high places. Can’t be too surprised, I guess.” He thought back to the barriers the three would-be assassins used, “He knows more about us than I care for. He’d make operating in Struleren more difficult.”

“Not necessarily. Remember when I said ‘na the lizard who poke head, dey catch fly’?” He had a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

Kaiz rolled his eyes, “So the meeting went well then.”

“Like I said it would.”

Carlton’s perfectly timed disappearance likely played a part, but the Baron had believed their frankly insane and under informed presumption. Not at the start, Viz claimed he was heavily adversarial at first, but as he revealed the information they’d retrieved and explained the rationale they’d come up with, that hostility deflated. So too did the energy in the room. The Baron unveiled that Count Emmrich was meant to be an ally.

“An ally?”

Viz applauded, “He’s good, isn’t he?”

“Now is not the time to applaud the man that might be responsible for our deaths.” Kaiz rubbed his bare temples, “I haven’t forgotten that all your information about Struleren was chameleon piss.”

“In appreciating others' brilliance we can look inward and improve on our own faults.”

“Right…” Kaiz rubbed his temples even harder, “Anyway. Ally to what extent?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know. He didn’t really explain when I asked. He talked about how reasonable the terms of the alliance seemed, but didn’t elaborate on what those terms were. I tried to get him to talk about the convoy too, but he deflected.” He shrugged, “He did say he was interested in our assistance though, but he’d speak with his council first and we’d meet again after the convoy arrives later today.”

“I suppose it's good that he’s still relatively guarded. Would make him a more reliable ally if it came to it.”

Viz scoffed, “He’s so compromised that he can’t even hold a single prisoner. He can be of use, but certainly not reliable.”

“I meant him as an individual, but true. So what assistance did you offer?”

“Nothing set in stone. We still don’t know what Emmrich’s goal in all this is. At minimum, we need to find out what the convoy’s role is before we settle on our own, so I just told him we can help clear out the bandits and organize a bit of trade.”

Kaiz raised an eyebrow, “We couldn’t just focus on the latter?”

Viz raised his back, “You think we’d manage the latter without the former?”

“You didn’t have to offer it.” He clarified, “We could have attempted covertly, without promises or expectations.”

“And without support. Weren’t you just complaining that it would be harder to operate?” Viz countered, again.

“Weren’t you just complaining that Heldermann is compromised?”

“And I said he could still be of use. He has access to resources and knowledge.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Third time was the charm, Kaiz relented, “Fair. That would be useful to have.”

They both sat in silence for a moment.

“Still no information about Emmrich’s nephew then?”

“Nothing.”

Silence again.

Kaiz looked into Viz’s eyes, “The blood run has to be off the table now.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

“And how do you figure that? You want to be a lackey in Emmrich’s scheme?”

“I believe they call it a ‘double agent’.”

Kaiz’s chin dropped, “You want to do the blood run? And help Heldermann?”

Viz acted like it was a foolish question, “If we can, we absolutely must. How will we become ‘big boys’ if we let golden opportunities slip from our grasp?”

"By slowly building our foundation to the point that it is more of a hassle to break it than it is to just negotiate with us. But whatever. ‘If we can’, right? We’ll see how that second meeting goes. I’m really not opposed to heading home and leaving you and Red to handle it.” That reminded him, “Actually. How much of this does Snake know? He’s bound to be more clued in than we are and suddenly there’s a chance this is a trap after all.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he didn’t source this job then.”

Kaiz’s chin almost fell off his face this time, “Wait. You did? With Count Emmrich? How? We’re untitled. And you said he didn’t know it was us specifically?”

“What? You’re saying the lowly untitleds of Dunetree wouldn’t be worthy of meeting a Count?” Viz smirked, “You’re going to be so shocked when you get back to Waldaun. But no, it wasn’t me. Reel sourced it. He contacted her in need of specific services, and discretion, and our name came up. Well, actually, your name came up. I passed on it originally because I knew you would curse me for just bringing it up to you—”

“I would have.”

“—but then Red was added to the Snake job and it became the perfect trial run. Snake signed off on it, but he shouldn’t know much more about it than we did. I doubt he’d have sent Red with us if that was the case.”

Kaiz chewed on those details for a bit. He was real sick of all of Viz’s vagueness about the state of their crew, but he knew Viz was far too excited to see his first reaction to ever dispense with it. He just had to move past that to the pertinent points.

Like the timing.

“There was a very small window for this to work. Bit convenient you got it just at the right time, don’t you think?”

“Maybe.”

“And wait. Didn’t you make the deal with Snake over a month ago? Why was Red only added recently? At the perfect time to coincide with this?”

Viz smiled, “Ever the cautious one, eh? When we made the deal originally, he offered Links and F.R. to be your running mates. I knew you would never accept that so I gave him a list of requirements for better runners.”

He was correct. Those two, while very skilled thieves, were poor runners. Being able to take an item was not even a third of the job. Being able to get in and out without getting caught was eight-tenths of every run. As a blood run in particular, their skill sets just didn’t match the task. Kaiz would have refused them and sourced his own. Viz went a different route.

“You told Snake to.. get you better runners?”

“If you want to sit at the big table, you have to act like you belong.”

Kaiz rubbed his forehead this time, “That generally only works when they don’t already know you don’t belong, but whatever. It worked out.”

Viz stuck out his chest, “Boldness often does.”

“No, n—whatever. It took over a month for him to come up with Red?”

“Not quite, but close enough.”

“No alarm bells rang at that?”

“No. I had pretty high requirements."

I suppose Red is rather unique. Never seen spells like her's before.

Viz rolled his eyes, “I know I’m not as careful as you, but I am quite diligent with my planning. I’m not just throwing our lives in harm's way.”

Kaiz stared, “If I hadn’t boarded up decoy homes, I’d be dead right now.”

“...” Viz bit the inside of both lips, “Okay. True. Fair. But…”

Kaiz continued to stare, “But?”

“But… you caught one of them! We should go interrogate him.”

Viz rushed out of the closet. Kaiz just sighed as he slipped on his mask. He loved Viz to near death, but he was tired of his quiet belief that he was some kind of hero in a fairytale. As if he was destined to reach the sky and death couldn’t arrive at any moment. People relied on them. One misstep was all it would take to ruin all their hard work.

He stepped outside to see Viz standing over the body.

“Did you accidentally kill him?”

“What? No. He’s very much alive.”

“It’s past 11. When did they attack?”

Kaiz thought for a second, “Hmm. 2? 3? 23? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. Somewhere in the middle of the night.”

“So it’s been at least nine hours. And he still hasn’t woken up?”

“Check for yourself.”

Viz actually knelt down and put his hand on the old man’s chest, “A heartbeat.” He then put a finger under their nose, “And he’s definitely breathing.”

Kaiz folded his arms, “You really thought I ‘accidentally’ killed him?”

Viz shrugged, “You aren’t exactly known to hold back. But anyway. He’s alive, just not waking up. What did you do to him?”

“Me? Right, I didn’t mention. It was Red that got him.”

Viz stood up, “Red?”

“Don’t ask me how. I have no clue.”

“From what you said, these guys should be pretty high level. Was she wearing one of the cloaks?”

“Nope, just her bodysuit.”

“Huh. Well, we can figure that out later.” He grabbed the man's legs and started pulling him into Kaiz’s temporary home, “Lets see what he knows first.”