Kaiz crashed into his bed, exhausted. His work the past few days drained him completely. Snake had been incredibly forthcoming with his request, giving Kaiz immediate access to his secret tunnel into the noble’s district. While it made scouting trips much, much easier it also meant that he truly had Snake’s full backing. That terrified Kaiz. It wasn’t the fact that they gave him access; it was the immediacy and openness. Snake was desperate to get the blood run done.

At least that was how he felt. The actual difficulty of the run was slowly proving much more manageable the more he learned. White Turtle was definitely well guarded, but it was nothing like the Blue Shield’s actual compound.

The scouting report had been accurate when it came to the guards they put on duty. They were the most amateur of Blue Shields. In fact, they were worse. Before he even began observing them in detail, Kaiz could visibly see the difference between their glows and the glow of a true Blue Shield.

While he wouldn’t usually trust something as unreliable as the brightness of glows when scouting for a blood run, what he saw was far too clear not to take into account. He never got close to either compound, so all the visual information he collected came at a distance. And still, he could spot a significant difference in the glows of the proper Blue Shields standing guard and those that were at White Turtle.

Level [30] was hard to reach. Passing that threshold meant you entered the realm of elites. Blue Shields that reached that realm were given the title ‘Astral Guard’. An odd name to the unaffiliated, like Kaiz, but legendary within their own ranks. A city like Waldaun would have somewhere between twenty and thirty of those so called Astral Guards and few, if any, would waste their time on the walls of their near-fortress.

If they weren’t on the walls and Kaiz was still seeing such an obvious discrepancy in glows, the Blue Shields at White Turtle were far below their usual standard. That was great for Kaiz’s run, of course, but just like Snake’s interest in Rayner, it was confounding.

Much of the stress of the past few days wasn’t the physical reconnaissance. It was information sourcing.

First, he needed to know why there were Blue Guards that weren’t level [20]. They were a policing force administered solely by the Crown. When powerful titleds were making a mess, they were who was called. That was consistent all over Goldfrucht. Stability and consistency were part of their mantra. They wouldn’t change one of their core doctrines overnight. They shouldn’t have.

But they did.

The public level requirement for enlisting was still [20], but they’d begun recruiting people as low as level [10]. They did so covertly, though. Kaiz had to jump through various hoops to get the information. Some of those hoops had long-term effects. They locked him into a number of deals, one included delving into a sandpit.

If Viz had been in the city, instead of off poking his head in scorpion dens, he would have been able to help out.

Hmm. Maybe he wouldn’t have.

Ultimately, Kaiz cracked the door open onn what he needed to know what he needed to know. As ever, one question answered asked two more questions. Why were they secretly recruiting low levels and why did Snake want him specifically? The first question would require far too much effort to find out, if it was even within his power to do so. The answer wouldn’t truly be pertinent to the run, only satiate his curiosity, so he put it to the side. Snake’s interest in him though, that was concerning.

He had to assume that Snake already knew about the Blue Guard situation. It had been going on for at least the last half year. Which means he’s known that the difficulty of the run was within a reasonable threshold. It wasn’t the kind of run that should require him to seek outside assistance.

Yet.

Not only did he manage to track down his home, something that must have taken significant investment, he specifically requested for Kaiz to run. Or Akelan. Even further than that, now that Kaiz was on the Run, Snake gave him all the resources he would give an inhouse runner. What was the motive?

Tomorrow’s going to be a looong day.

Kaiz rolled out of bed the next day with a notable lack of enthusiasm. There was no one to see his depressive aura, he still lived alone. Mostly. His new home was on the second floor of a shop that sold flowers. He didn’t like the location at first, but it was growing on him.

Outside, next to the orphanage, there was a park. He watched the kids play around in it every day. The odd couple made an appearance too. It may have been sappy of him, but it brought a smile to his face. The park was small and nowhere close to as nice as the ones in the noble’s district, but they had made it themselves. Well not Kaiz, it’d been mostly done when he arrived. Viz was there for the whole process though. The giant red-leafed tree in the middle of it was what inspired their crew name. Old crew name.

Unfortunately, there were only crusty men out this early in the morning. He didn’t bother looking through the reflective windows. Instead, he went to take a bath. The other upside to his new abode was the amenities. There were separate rooms for a bath, a study, and a kitchen. Absolutely luxuries by his standards. The ‘hide in plain sight’ factor was a bit unappealing to him, but all things considered there wouldn’t be a point in hiding soon. They were well on their way to becoming a legitimate business.

Laying in the warm tub of water, he continued to lament.

I’m going to have to go see Reel. Even if she has no idea what Snake’s up to, she’d definitely know who to ask and what the right questions are. If I go to one of the others without my story straight they’ll just feed me cactus juice. Ughh.

He sank deeper into the tub, frustrated. The rune engraved tub was doing its best to soothe him, but his mind was in too many places for it to be effective. He wasn’t mentally prepared for the visit he needed to make and no amount of warm, rhythmic water massaging could change that. The best it did was rejuvenate his body. He’d need that anyway, so it wasn’t a complete loss. Though, the more refreshed his muscles felt, the more stressed he became.

I should have just grabbed an oasis potion. I wouldn’t have to sit here with my thoughts. Now I—Wait! I can just grab Code! I don’t have to pretend I don’t know him anymore.

Kaiz hopped out of the tub and dashed to get dressed. It may have been early, and Code may have drank until his limbs turned to jelly, again, but he was the type of sick human that only slept four hours a day. For as hard as he partied, he made sure his work never slacked. Kaiz had to catch him before he headed out for the day.

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He hurriedly threw on some plain pants and a plain shirt, alongside his trusty boots and gloves, and moved to leave. Immediately thinking better of it, he slid some armor on. Nothing heavy or flashy, just scorpion scales. It didn’t make for amazing defence, but it could handle an unenchanted sword. More importantly, neither the chest-piece nor the pants were rigid. They covered his vitals, while keeping his agility.

Now sure that he was prepared for the day, Kaiz stepped through the door. 'Door’ being the hatch that led into the tunnels.

It didn’t take long for him to reach Code’s home. Code was much less tightfisted with details about himself. He wouldn’t give people too much. It never paid to do so in their line of work, but in general he took a different approach to protection

Even though finding out where he lived was easy, getting in was a different matter. Each outward entry point into his home had at least two traps. The entrance at the front was trapped in six different ways. Best-case scenario, an intruder got carried away with charred skin. Thankfully, the tunnels led right into his home as well and they didn’t have a password or lock with deadly consequences for failure. Once in, Kaiz met Code having breakfast.

He was an odd fellow. He drank enough to drown a man and ate a family’s full dinner for breakfast, yet he was the most physically fit member of their group. Which was doubly odd because he specialized in numbers and paperwork. Anyone that looked at him would think he was a Walker, but no. He was just an unnecessarily fit, alcoholic accountant.

“Good. You’re still here.”

Code looked up from his eggs and steak, “Kaizer? What are you doing here on this fine morning?”

“Still running my suicide mission. I need your help real quick.”

Code smirked, “Oh? What happened to doing everything yourself?”

Kaiz rolled his eyes, “I never said that. You all just assumed that’s how I felt.”

“You didn’t correct us.”

“In the past. I need your help now.”

Code’s smirk continued, “After spitting in the face of my companionship for so long, you surely understand my reluctance?” He pulled out a darkgold coin, “Some reassurance that you truly value our friendship would persuade me though.”

“And here I was giving you the chance to persuade me not to tell Viz about his missing wine. Alas.”

Code jumped from his seat, “Wait! I’m getting dressed, I’m getting dressed.”

Kaiz smiled, “That’s better.”

Reel worked and lived in the same building, a massage parlor called Gold Lips. It was located in one of the seedier sections within the city. Even though the slums around Walddaun were pretty sizable, they were populated by untitleds. Not every titled had wealth, the ones that didn’t usually found a home in one of those sections. For the most part, they were poor districts that bordered the outer rim of the city.

Reel’s parlor was in one of the poorer districts that didn’t border the wall, District 19. Instead it sat in the middle of the two major northern marketplaces, District 7 and District 25, and right next to the district with most of the major battery factories, District 26. The convenience of close proximity mixed with the inconvenience of constant traffic and pollution to chisel out a very specific demographic of residents.

As Kaiz and Code passed through the outer wall’s security, they were surprised to see the guards paid them very little attention. They were almost eager to pass them through and move along. Kaiz walking through unbothered was normal. Code doing so was an eyebrow raiser. A few strides in and Kaiz could make guesses as to why that was.

There was a massive crowd of people by the Northern Gate. Walldaun have four huge gates, one for each cardinal direction. They were ‘special’ and only ever opened for high-ranking nobles or unique occasions. There were numerous smaller entrances for people and goods to pass through, like the one Kaiz and Code used. If the big ones were being opened though, something even bigger was happening. To the city that is, Kaiz couldn’t care less.

Code had his interest piqued, “Huh. From the north?”

Kaiz didn’t break stride, “Maybe the convoy got the news and came back.”

“They didn’t open the gates when the convoy left.” He was still looking towards the crowd as he caught up to Kaiz.

“Huh.”

I hope Viz isn’t doing something stupid.

He took a peek at the crowds.

He’s definitely doing something stupid.

They reached Gold Lip soon after. It was a wide two storey building with tinted windows and a dark purple exterior. On the front there was a large illuminated sculpture of lips. They were gold, of course. Stepping through the entrance, they were met with an almost empty building. A far cry from what Kaiz was accustomed to seeing.

Is everyone outside at the gate?

“Kai!”

At the receptionist desk a young woman waved at him, “Good morning Crystal, is Reel in?”

Crystal’s smile quickly morphed into a grin, “Oh?” She then turned to Code, “And you’ve brought a friend. Am I seeing a new side to you Kai?”

Kaiz quickly waved the notion away, “Definitely not. I’m here on business.”

“Hmm? If you say so. Reel will tell me all about it, you know?”

“You’re going to be very disappointed then.”

“I doubt it. She’s in the art room.”

Kaiz raised an eyebrow, “With a client?”

Crystal smirked, “Maybe?”

Kaiz wagered if it was worth heading in immediately or just waiting until she was done. On one hand, Reel was often in a snappy mood after she finished working with a client. On the other hand, all of her clients were eccentric and powerful. If they were okay being walked in on, they’d be okay adding him to the ‘festivities’. Both were bad options.

If I wait until she’s finished and it was a bad day, she may just force me to do it anyway. But. She may not. What if she had a good time and it put her in a good mood?

He looked towards Crystal, who was still grinning.

She won’t say a word.

He looked towards Code, who was confused.

Whatever. If they say anything funny I’ll say I just came to drop him off, pay my debt, and leave.

Escape plan secured, he walked to meet his fate. Outside the art room, there was a guard. Titled and from the glow, powerful. That part wasn’t surprising though. The surprise came from the color of the glow, it was blue.

Kaiz had seen a blue glow four times in his life. Hundreds of thousands of titleds and only four blue glows. To add to that, three of the four were in incredibly high-ranking positions. He didn’t really think there was a correlation between the color a person radiated and their strength, but the sample size he’d been given around blue was enough reason for him to be extra cautious.

There was also the fact they wore a more than skin tight, full body suit. It made them look like a mannequin. Kaiz knew to be cautious of people with peculiar fashion sense, though. It often served a function he couldn’t even begin to understand.

As he approached the guard to ask for entry, they swiftly opened the door.

Oh no.

Before he could deftly retreat behind Code, a force suddenly gripped them.