As Kaiz walked towards the Southern Hideout, his thoughts quickly bounced between the ranger, Crypt, and Conan and Snake. He’d already settled on letting Viz handle it, so his thoughts were brief, but they were just long enough for him to smirk at his luck. Only he could step out to solve some problems and return home to even more.
The smirk stuck as his destination came into sight. With how deep into the zone he already was, it hadn’t taken long for him to arrive at the only three-storey building in the area. Even knowing its true purpose, calling it a ‘hideout’ always felt amusing. It was about as conspicuous as you could be in the Zones; well-built, clean, and crawling with people.
There were shops, food stalls, a training yard, a small clinic, and even a daycare out back. The daycare and clinic were closed, but the rest were crowded. There weren’t many safe gathering points in the north, at least not this far from the wall, so anyone with enough silver to have four walls and a roof, but not enough to own them, would make their way here. Even more so than usual tonight, which more than likely meant that there would be some fights going on in the yard.
When he emerged from a side street he was just another body adding to the crowd, but that changed as soon as people recognized his mask. They immediately started to distance themselves, giving him a wide berth.
In a weird way, his anonymity made him the most well-known person in the crew. A lot of people didn’t even know what he did. Within the crew too, many had no clue what the extent of his involvement was. They were all just attracted to the mystery.
He ignored the eyes and whispers and kept moving, adding a bit of umph to his step. It did nothing to stop a commotion, there were always people itching for a fight and suddenly getting shoved was as good a reason as any. Some who sought to move out of the way suddenly found a fist flying.
The punching didn’t last long before two of the guards at the ‘staff-only’ entrance came out and broke it up. Kaiz gave them a simple nod as he strolled through the gap they’d made. The shouting behind him didn’t sound serious.
The smell in front of him was, though.
As soon as he entered the building, he scrunched his nose. An unsavory stench had invaded it. He hadn’t planned on sticking around anyway, but leaving became an even more immediate priority.
He paced through the lounge he’d stepped into, doing his best to ignore the scent of alcohol, shisha, and unwashed bodies. Fortunately, the festivities outside meant it wasn’t packed like usual. Unfortunately, Code was there anyway.
He stepped out in front of him, “Ayyy! Silence himself!” His voice covered the entire room, “The greatest runner in all of Goldfrucht! Cheers for Akelan!”
A couple of people raised their mugs in cheers, but the vast majority of the room merely grunted.
“Come, come. Sit, drink. Another drink!” He looked toward the bartender, but the man wisely didn’t move.
Kaiz sighed at the theatrics, “No.”
He tried to move around Code, but one of his drinking partners, a woman, grabbed his arm, “Don’t be like that.”
Her eyes were pretty.
Kaiz gave her a glance. Tall, toned, with thighs like tree trunks, she was certainly a beauty. She was also, by Kaiz’s estimation, the least attractive of the four women that gravitated toward Code’s booth. The second was snuggled next to Code’s wingman, Tytan, while the third seemed to genuinely just be there for the drinks. That left the fourth, who smiled sweetly as she rubbed his bicep and handed him a mug.
The calculation that occurred was clear to Kaiz. Tragically, even if his pride went unbruised by being third to Code and Ty, he had no interest. That said, the prospect of ‘Akelan’ finally taking off his mask trained a lot of eyes on them and to openly reject her advance in such a setting would be needlessly embarrassing.
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He first guided the mug back to the table, “I no too like drink.” Then he gently removed her grasp, “And I get work to finish.”
It was a tried and true excuse. ‘Akelan’ was known to strongly favor work over socialization. Most, correctly, assumed it was to keep his secrets, but there were also rumors that he was secretly slow in the head. That annoyed him once upon a time, but either way, people rarely gave more than a token effort to interact with him.
Code was not people.
He gripped Kaiz's shoulder and waxed on and on about ‘activities of companionship’ and not betraying their years of friendship. Kaiz knew it was an act. They both knew he wasn’t going to stick around, talkless of any notion of drinking. Code wasn’t even as buzzed as he was pretending to be, he was just bored.
A bored Code was a migraine.
Kaiz had the remedy though, “You know.. Viz ask make I see wetin happen to Conan’s orange wine supply. Maybe I—”
Code immediately turned and pushed him towards the back. Kaiz laughed.
At the back there were stairs to the second floor, that's where the offices were. They were obviously empty. As soon as the sun set, you were either on a job, on a bed, or on your way to a painful morning. Kaiz wasn’t up there to do paper work either, despite what his rummaging through files would have an observer believe.
There you are.
He pulled out a sheet of glowing black paper.
Hmm. We’re running low. I’ll have to make some more of these.
He left the black sheet on the table and pulled out a smaller white one. On the smaller sheet, he jotted down the details of his conversation with Crypt and his potential stalker turned assailant. He included some of his own insight and theories, but for the most part he left the work to Viz.
Once done, he hid it within a secret compartment. After double checking that it was properly concealed, he grabbed the glowing sheet and moved to a corner of the room. There, he placed it flat on a glowing section of the floor. It immediately lit itself on fire. Under its ashes, the floor lit up as well. Instead of in fire though, a dim green light pulsed and a hatch opened. A ladder waited within.
Under their hideout, and much of the north, an impressive array of tunnels stretched out. They didn’t know who built them or when, but it didn’t matter. They had them fully scouted and they controlled every access point. One such access point was very close to his own personal hideout.
Once he trudged to that particular point, he slowly lifted the hatch and scanned his surroundings. The carefully dilapidated home it exited into was clear. No signs of an ambush or a tracker or any soul at all.
The home was so hidden and so far that he expected that, but it didn’t hurt to be extra cautious considering what had just occurred..
Confident he was home free, he stepped out and jogged into the forest. His problems were shelved for another day.
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At the top floor of Timeless Sands Tower, the third tallest building in Waldaun, a group of four high-leveled individuals gathered. Hidden behind one of the strongest barriers in all of Goldfrucht, they debated.
The first voice was agitated, “It’s simple. We’ve run out of time. We can not afford to stay here any longer. We either bring him in now or leave without him.”
The second was stern, “Why the impatience? We have months until their arrival. If the boy is one of us, we can not leave him behind. Best case, it’s a betrayal of our cause. Worst case...”
“The worst case would be having all of our operations in Goldfruct uncovered. That is what we’re risking.”
The third, cold, “I stand with the knight. Whatever our decision, we must make it now. You know how much the bastards love an unexpected appearance.”
“You would forgo your duties because of a baseless fear?”
“Our duties are to far more than one boy.”
“To betray him due process is to betray our principles.”
The final voice was quiet, yet commanding. It came like a whisper in the wind, but struck with a thunderous roar, “Our mission here is complete...besides the boy. He ties us here...but he does not tie us here.”
“But, but. It is tradition for one of us to conduct the initiation.”
“Tradition...but not doctrine.”
“But..I..its.”
“Give it up. It’s three to one, we’re leaving.”
“This..this has never been done.”
“We tell many stories...not all of them are true. We are not as great...as you young ones believe. Many brothers and sisters...have been abandoned for the greater good. There are no texts...for their sacrifice. Just memories.” They paused, “We can only pray...that he is not another.”