Kaiz blinked.

She's joining the crew?

That didn't make sense.

“She's joining the crew?”

It didn't sound right either.

Tanzer responded for herself, “He's convinced me.”

“No. He convinced you.” Viz gestured toward him, “I've been telling you the same thing since we met.”

“Okay. Whatever. You convinced me. I haven’t been aiming high enough. I haven’t been aiming at all, just lashing out. Hate is a fuel, not a direction.”

Kaiz smirked. That was the same line he told Viz once upon a time.

She continued, “And I’ve found my direction. I want to help you!”

He glanced at Viz to confirm his suspicion then returned to her gaze, “Me specifically? I’m happy to have your help, but I don’t think you’d find fulfillment in research and development.”

“Definitely not.” She waved her hands, “That’s your thing. And it should have your full attention. V has you running around for him because you’re the only fighter of any talent that he has. What if he had another?”

Kaiz almost salivated at the prospect of that. All the time he would save. All the risk he would avoid. No more spending weeks organizing and planning suicide runs. He’d be able to really hunker down and dedicate himself to his work. That would be a dream.

Actually.

He turned to Viz, “We’re a legitimate company now, no? Would we still need all of that?”

He received the look fools received, “Cliffs is a legitimate company.”

“Right.”

It was indeed a stupid question. Why would they play by the rules when no one else did?

“And.” She had more to say, “When you finish the rune—”

“If.” He corrected, again.

She still wasn’t having it, “When. You finish it. You’re going to need protection. The council of parasites won’t accept a rune going around giving people titles, they will find you and try to snuff it and you out. Assuming they don’t hear of it even before that point.”

He already knew that. Untitleds made up less than a fifth of the total population, something like two for every eleven people. Major cities slightly increased that ratio, they were the only places with any semblance of safety or community, but none did so as much as Waldaun. Almost half of its ‘residents’ were untitled.

The promise of fair work had brought them in droves and the city had kept their word. It was cheap labor, but almost all of the vast tree farms and red plantations to the south of Waldaun were tended to by untitleds. If all of a sudden they all gained titles for themselves, the entire balance of the city would crumble. The noble council weren’t the only ones who wouldn’t accept that.

He didn’t have an exact distribution plan, but he knew he was going to go through Lyn. Unless a Duke marched his elites here, no one could touch her and her party. Even if he was discovered and killed, the rune would live on. That said, he had no active interest in being a martyr so he would happily accept the extra protection.

He stretched his hand toward her, “Glad to have you.”

She shook it, “Glad to be had. Expect to see a lot of me, I’m going to want frequent updates on how it’s coming along.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to provide them. You’re the first to take an interest in my work.”

“Hey!” Apparently, Viz took exception to that statement, “I did not spend hours listening to you bounce around terms I’m pretty sure you made up to have my effort disregarded like that.”

“Coagulation is a real word.”

“Yeah right it is.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“YoU reAd tOO ManY pOEmS aNd NoT eNoUgh THeORemS.”

They shared a laugh.

“So I’m off the blood runs? I can leave?”

Kaiz had no problem admitting he was effectively a worse version of Tanzer. With her in the crew now, he could really just head home immediately.

“Not so fast.” Viz had to crush that dream though, “You want to announce to all of Waldaun than Tanzer is a part of Dunetree? And I’m the one with the death wishes?”

Right. Red.

“What’s the plan then?”

“You and Red are still going to complete both runs.” Kaiz groaned, “While you’re busy in Waldaun, we’ll be here sorting everything out.”

“The bet still stands by the way.”

“Of course. Why would I give up a free five briks?”

Kaiz cut in before they could get going again, “Why am I doing both runs?”

“You don’t have to do the trial run, but is there a reason not to? You and Red still haven’t said ten syllables to each other on any given day. ”

“Rephrase. How does having me do the runs keep us safe from ‘friends and family’ revenge plots?”

Tanzer smiled as she gave a nonsensical answer, “He’s going to kill me!”

He just nodded and waited for the rest of the story.

She just pouted, “No fun.”

“He’s remarkably less fun when work is involved—”

“Everyone should be.”

“—but T was only partially joking. We plan on having ‘Tanzer’ die in her attempt to kill Heldermann. She needs to be here for that, so you still need to do the run in Waldaun.”

“Ah. That’s certainly one way to avoid making her enemies ours. Alright. How are you going to do it?”

“Not sure. It would be easy if I could just valiantly fend her off, but because someone couldn’t keep her hands off me.” He received a kick for that, “Red knows about us. It would be suspicious if my name came up as her killer.”

Kaiz did not agree that it would be easier for Viz to do it. Suspicions aside, if people actually believed he had killed her they’d immediately try to test him. He had no interest in dealing with the ramifications of that.

“Good it's not you. Do you have a person in mind?”

“Not yet.”

He didn’t like that, “Okay… so body double or illusion?”

“It depends, but probably a body double.”

“From EVE?”

“Most likely.”

“Do you have a fake identity to attach to it?”

Viz didn’t like the interrogation, “All the questions. I’m still figuring out the details, give me a break.”

He raised his hands in retreat, “My bad. I’d think if you planned to fake someone’s death, you’d put serious thought into it.”

Tanzer stepped in to defend him, “It was my idea. I mentioned it less than an hour ago so it's still a plan in progress.”

“Fair.” He let it go. If they were staying in Struleren for a while, they had plenty of time to figure it out, “So what now?”

“Now.” Viz stood up, “We get our script together and go do a bit of acting.”

----------------------------------------

“It was ‘nice’ seeing you again V.” Tanzer stood at the edge of the Master bedroom’s door. “You haven’t changed.. so I won’t either. The enslaver dies. Good luck with your run.”

Kaiz cursed as she walked away, “So much for talking to him.”

Viz just shook his head, “I tried. He wouldn’t listen.”

“I guess you’re only charming in the mirror.” He let out a defeated sigh, “What’s the plan now?”

“You two still have a trial run to do. The deal with Heldermann would have been nice, but it was always just a bonus.”

He looked toward Red, “Right...”

Viz walked over and sat across from her, “Come on.” He brought out a crude map from his bag and laid it on the floor, “We don’t have a reason to delay anymore so let’s get on with it.”

“I’m telling Snake about this.”

Kaiz scoffed as he sat vaguely close to her, “What’s he going to do? Cancel the blood run because we almost worked with a dead Baron?”

“Maybe. He’ll know you’re double crossers.”

“And who did we double cross exactly?”

“Count Emmrich!”

He waved his hand, “We were hired to retrieve his nephew, which we were always going to do. If he wanted help with his schemes, he would have paid for help with his schemes.”

“... Still.”

“I didn’t take you as the type to do work for free. Such a sweet heart.”

She eyed him. It was strange to speak so much to her after not conversing for multiple days, but she didn’t appear to suspect anything. Her stare held displeasure, not distrust.

“Anyway.” Viz cut in, “We have almost everything we need information-wise. Black wants to do some pre-scouting, but I think you two should get out of Struleren as soon as possible.”

“Wait. ‘You two’. What do you mean?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen when T kills the Baron, but it’ll be ugly. We don’t want you two here when she does it, but we don’t know when she’s going to. The sooner you leave, the better.”

Kaiz nodded, but Red scrunched her face, “You’re staying?”

“I have a meeting with the Baron tomorrow. If T doesn’t kill him before then and I don’t show up, it could cause a lot of problems. I can afford to be trapped here for a few weeks, you have a blood run to prepare for.”

She seemed to accept that answer.

Kaiz finished his lines, “So ‘as soon as possible’ doesn’t mean tomorrow, we’re running it tonight?”

“We have Killian’s location, we have our in, and we have his security by the balls.” He tapped Geyser’s leg, “You’re running in an hour.”