Another Noble caravan.

At some point, it seemed that all Nobles drove between the cities for one reason or another. Usually it was for the Adventurer Games, which had the preliminaries about six months into the year before the full games started at the end of the tenth month and lasted for two months.

There were other reasons to travel as well. The families that had empires like the Alard Hospitals, Jinsu News, or Beeki Prisons that crossed Wards and were controlled by a central leader often saw the leaders in the other Wards have to travel back to the main office, or the main office would send someone important to the family to inspect the facilities in another Ward.

Which led me to where I was right now, sitting on a cycle, waiting for the caravan to get close enough so that the bandits that I was with could ambush it. Sipher had a specialty of kidnapping the rivals of his benefactors at their behest, then ransoming his captives back after the deal they were needed for fell through. Or just holding them until their business suffered enough difficulty that they sold out to our employers.

The caravan belonged to the Calx family, who had succeeded in keeping Alard Hospitals out of the Vatican Ward. The Alards were paying Sipher to hold Jet Calyx hostage while they negotiated with the Temple and other city leaders in the Vatican Ward to let them build hospitals there.

“It’s so exciting.” Lyssa Beeki poked me in the arm. “So many people!”

I shook my head. Rishard had decided that I was too troublesome to handle and gave me to Sipher. For some reason Lyssa had started tagging along, despite supposedly being in line to run the prison in Inaer. The ivory woman looked younger than me, even though she was six years older. There were perks to being the child of a God, though trying to control her bloodlust when she had the ability to order me to stand and watch was infuriating.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Remember that we need them alive.” I shook my head as I waited for the signal.

“Sipher only needs the man.” Lyssa corrected. “He didn’t take money to take anyone else.”

“But they could be worth something.” I nodded at the caravan of four large vehicles. “Those are Nobles, which means someone will pay something for them and unless you want to ask your dad to take you farming again…” I had to force myself not to smirk at the face she made. Farming with her father meant she got to sit on the ground and watch him kill stuff. It was the worst torture she could be subjected to.

“Fine. Just pokes.” She revved her cycle. “But…” She eyed me as she pointed a knife at the target. “I get to do the killing if there is any.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. One day, I’d find a way to break the hold they had over me. Until then, I would bide my time, learn as much of Sipher’s map as I could, and potentially learn more about how Kire was connected to the Primus. I’d already learned that Sipher was connected to the main branches of the Alard, Jinsu, and Beeki families and there were a lot more minor branches that he ran errands for.

“Come Whisper! It’s TIME!” Lyssa took off as the rest of the ambush party swarmed the vehicles.

I started my cycle and followed after her. Eventually I would hand over the information that I was slowly compiling into a list to Tres. I wasn’t sure how far away that would be, but I could be patient.

I was immortal after all.