Taava wasn’t back by morning. Seyari and Salvador had only just stopped me from going to Riverside and finding her. I had to admit they were right—I had no idea where to look, and ripping through houses wasn’t a good image.

I cursed myself for letting her go as well. Seyari hadn’t been able to say much to that, but it was Salvador who’d shaken his head and knocked sense into both of us. “Sometimes, you have to let someone you care for take the risks they want to, alone.”

I couldn’t say I loved Taava—maybe platonically one day—but the sentiment was correct and his words stayed with me all throughout our morning prep. I had to hope she’d show up at the meeting place on the edge of town. It was far from Riverside and every step we took away from where I knew Taava had gone was harder than the last.

I’m really, really just about done hiding, I assured myself. Our path took us out of the city proper and onto a dirt road lined with dense small farms and clusters of other buildings. The air still smelled faintly of spoiled fish.

I hadn’t done anything seriously wrong that wasn’t a horrible mistake, right? Even Ned & Jacob had been self-defense—mostly. Okay, there was an argument to be made both ways for that incident. I’m the Sovereign of Wrath, though! I’m no pacifist and I’m damn well going to use this power for something.

“Everything alright, Renna?” Seyari asked worriedly.

“Huh?” I realized I’d been frowning. “No, not really—Actually yes, but not anything that wasn’t already wrong.”

My partner shrugged. “I hate feeling powerless, too.”

“Same, and I also hate hiding myself. How do you do it, Sey?”

“Decades of internalized self-loathing,” Seyari responded back with a hint of bitterness. “I don’t recommend going that route.”

“Hey, we’ll be done hiding, soon.” I reached over and squeezed her hand.

“Done hiding from what?” I nearly jumped at Fira’s voice next to us.

“Done hiding what we’re capable of, Firalex,” Salvador addressed them formally. “We want honest work and I know Zarenna personally doesn’t appreciate people trying to take advantage of her talents for their own gain.”

I smiled and nodded. Thanks for the save. Seyari huffed.

“And I assume that’s why you hide your aura,” the company mage asked, quirking their lips up. They were dressed more seriously today—a tunic of leather and chainmail over sturdy-looking trousers and boots.

“Yes, it is,” I lied as best I could. Though I supposed in a twisted way the truth wasn’t far off.

Fira stared at me for just a moment before gesturing farther down the road to a small crowd in front of a larger building. “Of course. It looks like the others are already here. Will Taava be joining us?”

I looked ahead to the other group, but didn’t see Taava’s ears or tail. One of the taller figures looked vaguely familiar, however. “I hope so.” I answered honestly.

“She didn’t strike me as the type to get cold feet.” Fira started to walk toward the others and waved. The tall figure waved back.

I spared a glance at Seyari and Salvador.

Sey spoke up. “She said she’d be here.”

“But you think something might have happened?” Fira asked coldly, inclining their head back to look at us with one blue eye.

“Maybe?” I replied. “She’s a local and met us on the road in.” I hated to distance myself from Taava, but she’d want us not to blow this chance. If she was taken, or worse, the best resolution for everyone would be to go official rather than vigilante. Everyone except Taava.

I didn’t hide my frown.

Thankfully, Fira dropped the topic since we were close enough to catch the Gelles Company members’ conversation. I recognized Tren’s voice immediately, then realized the tall figure was an armor-covered Drin.

“Alright, Company!” Fira ordered and the group stopped talking to look at us. “These three are the new recruits.” They gestured to me, Seyari, and Salvador. “Tren and Drin, you two already know them.”

Drin nodded and Tren waved.

“Now,” Fira continued, “this is supposed to be a simple contract, but we all know how that can go. I expect everyone here to contribute and to stay serious. It looks like everyone’s here, so let’s head out.” They turned to us. “I’ll explain what this contract’s about once we’re on the road. No sense wasting any more time.”

“What about Taava?” I asked, fighting to keep irritation out of my voice.

Fira looked back down the empty street we’d come up with a frown. “I suppose we should give her until the appointed time.”

I nodded my thanks, and took to watching down the street.

The pair of people who came jogging down the road not two minutes later were two I had not expected to see. Despite their shorter stride, Nelys bounced around in front of Aretan, and took off into a sprint once they saw me. Aretan continued a measured jog, content to sit back and watch.

Fira looked at the pair suspiciously. “Friends of yours?”

“Hi Nelys!” I shouted past the company leader and Nelys waved back with both arms. “Yeah, I know them. In fact, we’d come to this city to meet up with them.”

Nelys crashed into me like a pillow impacting a stone wall. I met the hug and ruffled their hair. “Nelys, this is Salvador—an old friend.” I gestured to the man who gave a polite “Hello” that Nelys cheerfully parroted back, accent and all. “Did Taava send you?” I asked hopefully, taking a shot in the dark.

“Yeah, she did.” Nelys nodded, a worried look in their dark eyes.

“Is she okay?”

Nelys shook their head.

I drew in a sharp breath, careful of my anxiety that was turning rapidly into simmering fury. “Who?”

“I shouldn’t say…” Nelys mumbled into my stomach.

“I think it is fine if we speak quietly.” Aretan finished his jog up to the group. “Present company,” he said with a nod to Fira, “should be aware of the general situation.”

Fira waved to the others in the company who scooted farther along up the road before they spoke. “I’m missing information, and I’d really appreciate it if you all could tell me.” They glared at the lot of us.

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“Sure,” Seyari interjected curtly. “But we need to know about our friend first. Aretan, Nelys, what happened to Taava and how the flying fuck are you two connected to it?”

“We’re working with Officer Lorton to try to take down the gangs in the city.” Nelys somehow managed to shout and whisper at the same time.

Fira raised both eyebrows. “Interesting.”

“I…” Aretan put his hand to his forehead. “—Would not have been so forthcoming, but yes. That is correct. We were waiting in the city for Zarenna and her friends to arrive and took the offer after an incident that forced our involvement.”

“An incident?” I asked, concerned.

Aretan looked to me with a careful expression. “We are fine, Zarenna. Just a robbery—and it was just things. Nelys has their pendant and I my pride.”

I nodded. “I hope we can help.”

Fira glanced at me, then back to Aretan and Nelys. “How is Taava involved?”

“She is a victim,” Aretan answered.

Fira’s eyes narrowed. Seyari perked up at what Aretan said, but both of us knew this was a lie. The question was, Why he would lie on her behalf? The company captain sighed. “I cannot in good conscience get involved in this, or let the company get involved in this.”

““Why not!?”” Seyari and Nelys asked. My partner’s tone was accusatory. Nelys’s was inquisitive.

“The Gelles Company understands the issues Lockmoth faces, but unless we are involved, or hired, we cannot show an interest. While we do not work with criminal enterprises, it is in the best interests if our operations are not impeded by those in power—on either side of the law.”

“So, you’re just going to stay out of it?” I snapped.

Fira glared at me. “Recruit Zarenna, remember your place. Provided we do not have a contract that we are able to accept on the understanding that further operations will not be disrupted—beyond an acceptable margin—then yes, we are going to stay out of it. And you as well if you wish to join the company.”

I wanted to argue, but I held my tongue. Fira was angry, furious even. I couldn’t know the source, but on the chance it wasn’t at me…

Seyari glanced at me, frustration burning in her eyes. I couldn’t offer her a reply.

“What about Taava?” Salvador asked. “Is she okay?”

“Uh…” Nelys looked away.

“She is well enough to speak and in no danger of dying,” Aretan replied calmly, inclining his head toward each of us in turn, but a bit more deeply in Seyari’s direction.

I shared a glance with Seyari.

Hesitantly, she nodded. “Fira, I’m going to go see what I can do for Taava. My holy magic may not be much, but I’m not going to leave a friend when I could help.”

“We won’t wait for you,” Fira replied simply. “But it’s good you care for your friends.”

“Does this mean Seyari and Taava won’t be able to join?” I asked.

Fira looked at me and Salvador, who wore a hard expression. “Today, yes. Provided Taava is just a victim and you do not seek to drag the company into this mess without good reason, there will be other contracts.”

“That seems fair,” Salvador responded evenly.

“I…” I sighed, exasperated. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

“Excellent.” Fira nodded to us then waved at Seyari, Aretan and Nelys. “Thank you for the information, and good luck healing your friend. Give Officer Lorton my regards—he should know of me.”

Before the three of them left, I gave Seyari and Nelys another hug and Aretan a firm handshake.

The Navanaean man surprised me by pulling me into a chaste hug as well. “Be safe, friend. We’ll be here when you return, and we can catch up then.”

I nodded with a smile, then turned to catch up to Fira who was walking purposefully away. I didn’t know what to feel about the enigmatic Company mage. The contract should help with that, I hoped. Firalex took the lead, and we started walking out toward the fields surrounding the city. Salvador walked a few paces behind me, busy with his own thoughts, but watching carefully.

“Glad to see a fellow mage joining up!” Tren greeted me with a smile.

“Good to see you too, Tren.” I tried to smile back, but didn’t quite pull it off.

The small man walked quickly up beside me, a hint of light armor visible below the collar of his robes. “Sorry about Firalex,” he whispered, “they’re really protective about the company, but they’re good people.”

“They treat us well,” Drin agreed from my other side. “Is your kazzel friend okay?” She looked down automatically, then up. Drin must have been close to two meters in armor, and clearly wasn’t used to looking up at people. Her visor was up, and she wore a pleasant, but neutral expression on her thin lips.

I shook my head. “No. Taava’s really hurt, and Seyari’s going to go try to help.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Drin frowned.

“That sucks,” Tren said with a bit more emotion. “I hope all of you can end up joining up if Taava gets better!” He looked at me expectantly, excitement poorly veiled by the long bangs threatening his vision. “So, uh, do you want to talk about magic?”

“No.”

“It could, uh, maybe make you feel a little better?” Tren offered.

“Maybe later.”

“Later, okay, yeah!” Tren nodded, gaining some confidence with each word.

“You know,” I started, “we didn’t really expect to run into you again so soon, but I guess it makes sense you’re based out of Lockmoth. Did you recommend us or something?”

“Sure did!” Tren beamed. “I mean, how could I not? I guess that’s a little morbid, heh. But not so much, and I figured you’d impress with your magic and we could always use more mages and—"

“Tren,” Drin interrupted, “really?”

“What? I’m not like, well…”

Wait, was Tren—

“Alright, this is far enough for now!” Fira called back to everyone. They stopped at the corner of a fence just past the last building along the road. “Let’s talk about the contract and get Renna and Salvador up to speed.”

Tren, Drin, Salvador, myself and the other eight people I saw gathered around Firalex.

“This is a two-part contract. First part is protection: something’s been killing and taking animals from some of the local farms. We need to set up watches and coordinate an effort to locate and take down whatever beast is doing this. Second: a farmer’s son’s gone missing; a young adult. Now, this isn’t the first time running away for this lad, but with the recent animal killings his family’s understandably worried.

“This is why we have such a large crew. I’d hoped for more, but if the boy’s in danger, or something worse than a goat gets killed, I don’t want it to be because we stalled. Understood?” I nodded along with everyone else. “Good! We’ll be forming three teams. Zarenna and Salvador will go with Drin and Tren, and…”

Fira organized the rest of the Company into three groups. Each one of us would be in charge of watching a farm or two and tasked with canvassing the nearby area. They described the community in question as little more than a hamlet, with wooded areas by a stream and lake and grassland and rolling fields beyond.

“…Since I’m to judge the recruits, I’ll be spending most of my time near or with their team. Signal if you run into trouble. Any questions?” Firalex finished.

“I assume I’ll be given orders by Drin or Tren?” I asked.

“Or me,” Fira agreed.

There were a few more questions, and I started to get a feel for how the company worked. Caution, followed by decisive action. We broke into teams and resumed walking. I was seriously thinking about taking Tren up on his magic discussion if I could figure out how to bluff my knowledge when Salvador approached me.

Drin and Tren were talking animatedly about some mission that went wrong and involved an overabundance of weasels, so we were able to pull back. Not so much that we couldn’t be overheard, but enough to where someone would need to want to listen in.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Nervous. Aretan and Nelys are involved in this now—before we were apparently—Taava’s hurt, and I’m not there to help Seyari and the others try to deal with things.” As I spoke, my nervousness rose. I’d been putting it aside. My fury toward whoever hurt Taava and my nature as a demon made it almost too easy to detach from the anxiety I felt for splitting from Seyari—even for this short time.

“Me too,” Salvador admitted. “I’m surprised you agreed so easily to go with the company instead of with Seyari. As for me, this reminds me of many years ago, before I moved to Inolza, and that has me nervous.”

“I’m a little surprised I agreed, too.” I glanced over to find him staring off at the farms in the distance. “What was it like all those years ago? Were you with a mercenary company then, too?”

Salvador shook his head. “Not really, I mostly worked on my own. Sometimes, though I had to band together when something I couldn’t handle came along—or when someone else asked the same of me.”

“Did something bad happen?”

“It often does. We lost people, and people lost limbs—livelihoods and dreams. It all seemed necessary, and I hope to Dhias that it was, but I can’t help but see parallels today. It’s silly, too. We aren’t a small group of woodsmen banding together to take on a monstrous bear or an aggressive pack of wolves. Our foe is likely a single half-starved animal being taken on by a dozen people armed to the teeth and wearing proper armor.”

“I… see, I guess.” I rubbed at the back of my neck. “I hope things go well and I think you’re right about all this being necessary. I’m sorry I can’t really empathize more. The loss I’ve experienced has been… different, but I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.”

Salvador looked up at me and our gazes met. He nodded. “Thank you, Zarenna. Listening to my paranoid concerns is enough. And I’m sorry for your losses as well.”

I managed a thin smile. “Thanks, Salvador. Do you think we made the right choice?”

“Hmm?”

“Going with the Company instead of staying, I mean.”

Salvador rubbed his chin, over rough stubble. “I don’t know that it’s right. But I don’t think it’s wrong, either. Only Dhias knows the answer, and he’s not going to just give it to us.”

“I wish he would,” I joked, mind starting to drift.

“So do I,” Salvador responded.