Competent leaders command, and no one doubts they have that right. There is an indefinable aura about them that people instinctively trust and do not doubt.

~Nuada the Silverhand, First God King

Nin stared at the slaughtered syndicate members and suddenly smiled. That smile faltered as they proceeded further into the house. There were bodies literally everywhere. She was no longer sure she knew what was happening.

As they were analyzing the situation, a body fell from above, and as it slammed to the ground, they all saw a dark shadow riding it down. Faelan’s dagger twirled and disappeared before she stood up and stepped off the corpse.

“What the hell, Faelan? Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t kill all of them?” Nin asked.

“No choice,” Faelan said and pointed at the corpse, and Crow glanced at the blood once more. It was too dark to be human blood.

“They are undead?” Nin sniffed the air and then burned the corpses. She was careful not to burn the house down, but she was a little disturbed. Her father once told her of a great plague that had ravaged all the realms. It was called the Hunger and came about from a mutated undead. That meant that…

“Nadia!” Crow and Faelan said at the same time. He felt it odd that he subconsciously referred to her as Faelan when she was like this. A cold, hungry wolf on the prowl.

“No,” Nin refuted. “Her body isn’t undead, not really. Those things were turned from those bites. Did she ever claim that Kafele had other undead under his control?”

“Well, he is Hex Vodun, so it would stand to reason that he did. Without them, he was a fairly weak opponent.”

“Hey, let’s focus,” Faelan said. “Mara first, then talk.”

Crow nodded, feeling this situation was now out of their control.

“Lead the way, my Faelan.”

“Little bird knows his place as my follower.”

“Pfft,” Crow burst out laughing.

“If you want this body again, you’ll have to prove you are worthy!” Faelan sauntered away and led them deeper into the house. Nin and Otto were chuckling behind him, especially when they saw his fallen face.

“There is a treasure room of some sort near the back. It’s where that Rift guy sleeps because it’s the most secure place in the whole manor,” Faelan informed him. “Mara should be there, too.”

Saying all that, she brought them to a wide door that was askew.

“This is the safe place? Why is it open?” Crow asked.

Faelan shrugged. “Who am I supposed to ask?”

Crow grinned at her snarky comment and pinched her cheek before entering the room. She wanted to dodge but found that Crow was much faster than she thought. Instead, she angrily rubbed her sore cheek and stomped after him but had to avoid him at the last minute.

“What the hell did you sto—oh.”

“What the hell?” Nin asked. Otto chuckled, unable to stop himself.

Acco was sitting at a nearby table, sipping wine and eating grapes.

“She didn’t want to leave,” the Astrologer said by way of explanation.

At the end of the table, Mara sat in a throne-like chair. Her feet rested on the edge of it. A brutish man dressed in a fur coat and pants with a collar and leash around his neck poured her some wine, but she stopped smiling when she saw Crow and the others arrive.

Coughing nervously, she immediately stood up. Crow shook his head, not even needing an explanation to know what happened. Instead, he could only sigh in resignation. This woman of his would never suffer a loss, and he worried for nothing.

“P-p-please save me.”

“Is that how dogs talk?”

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“N-no. Woof. Bandit Mommy is the queen of my skies and darling of my heart. Woof. A dog’s best friend!”

“Ignoring what went through your mind when he dressed and leashed him like an animal… what is up with Bandit Mommy?” Crow asked while walking over to the table and grabbing a piece of cheese.

“Is that really important, husband?”

“Nope,” Crow grinned and shook his head. “Did you subdue the entire syndicate?”

“They do answer to me.”

Crow looked over at Nin, who shrugged in return.

“This place isn’t bad. Based on what you said about this scourge thing, should we move here? It has a wall, even if Otto almost destroyed it.”

“You big oaf!” Mara fumed. “You broke my wall?”

“Otto, sorry,” the big guy scratched his head but smiled the whole time.

“Hold on… did you say scourge?” Mara asked.

“You didn’t notice the undead running around the manor house?”

“No… for that matter, how the hell did you get in here. That door has powerful formations on it. I know your talent is strong, but it was supposedly set by that Madame Rouge person.”

“The door was open,” Nin grabbed a rib of meat, not sure what kind of beast it came off of. Either way, it was highly aromatic and looked tasty.

Mara stared at Rift.

“Little puppy, why was the door open?”

“Woof.”

“Use your words.”

“Woof. Woof.” Rift kept barking and refused to look at her. Crow felt the situation would frighten most people. Mara was very creative in subduing people, and he’d long gotten used to her antics.

“Enough playing. I feel the time is short here. Nin, move them here or not. If there is an issue like you are claiming, I feel the café isn’t as defensible as this place.”

“Wait! This place is mine. I pirated it.” Mara argued.

“It is yours. We won’t take it from you or the syndicate. Call it a joint venture. You can Nin can work together to subdue more people.”

“It isn’t called scourge but the Hunger, and yes, we’ll want walls. The higher, the better.”

“Is no one worried about that Madame Rouge woman? She’s been here frequently, and she is way more powerful than any of us. Even combined, we aren’t her match,” Mara threw water on the party. That scary woman liked to hide. Even when she came into the manor, she was placed inside a coffin and wheeled in. Nothing worse than the imagination to give a person nightmares.

“Well, from the intelligence I’ve gathered, she can’t leave her wagon, and if she does, she has to be carried inside a box. We can just connect this room to the tunnels below. Even if she is more powerful, she won’t catch up to us down there,” Nin rationalized. “On top of that, between Crow’s formations and Song Lin’s poisons, we can trap the hell out of this place which will give us more time to escape.”

“Fine, we stay. Get our people here now,” Crow looked over to Mara. “Did you already loot this place bare?”

“Dearest… it was already looted when I took over,” Mara gave him a sickenly sweet smile.

“Who’d believe that?” Faelan snorted.

“Otto, check the place over. Kill any of the undead you find. Nin, get people on the wall. Mara, contact Commander Drock. Tell him what is happening—”

“No can do. Puppy here tells me that Commander Drock is not in town. This undead thing seems to be more serious than you think. Rumor is dozens of towns have disappeared.”

“Lily! I know you are around here. Go find Nadia and bring her here.” Crow already felt a headache coming on. Nadia was a bit of a wild card. More than that, she was very sensitive to things, and like a porcupine, she hunkered down when she was upset.

After giving everyone tasks, only Faelan and Song Lin were without one. Song Lin arrived after Otto left and quietly sat down to eat like the others had. While Crow didn’t assign her a task, she’d heard what he intended, so she just had to create some traps and work with Crow on the fortifications.

“What should I do?” Faelan asked.

“I’ve never asked you what you did within the Sky Torn Sect, but I’ve always assumed your skills—can you infiltrate the council? We need time before we can climb to the next floor. By my estimation, I need at least a few weeks. You and Mara aren’t far behind me. Song Lin…” Crow glanced at her. “She already has the capability. Acco is the biggest slacker. With resources and using Nin and Otto to protect us, we might be able to escape this floor within two weeks.”

“Ohhh, a heist?” Mara exclaimed. “No way you are leaving me out of this.”

Crow sighed.

***

Almost two weeks passed without much incident. Quietly, they fortified the manor and moved their people inside. Rumors of undead attacking spread like wildfire, and there was a palpable fear hanging over all of Rosdoe.

Crow robbed a lot of furnishings from the manor and gave it to his Soul Butlers to decorate the mountain home. It was no longer the low-scale primitive thing it was in the past. Even the wood nymphs lounged around the place while he was away.

He also created a small warehouse inside another mountain. He used it to stash goods they looted not just from the manor but from the councilmen who had hidden caches throughout Rosdoe. They were going to be pissed when they found out Mara carted off nearly everything, even the garbage decorations.

Madame Rouge was nowhere to be found. Even Nadia hadn’t heard from her. Crow assumed the woman used the Keystone and left this floor, but that only made him more concerned, not less. She was too powerful to fight against and more worrisome because she had a backer. It made him feel like he was racing against an imaginary clock.

Other than rob for resources, Mara used the Vana Syndicate to open up underground casinos, auction houses, and other nefarious money-making schemes. She wasn’t interested in power, only profits. It would have been okay if it was just her, but Nin was even more vicious than Mara when acquiring money. The two were like twin nightmares, and he felt sorry for whoever plotted against them.

However, they prudently gave most of the goods to him to store away. Crow didn’t take all of it because he wasn’t the type to put all his eggs in one basket. Still, it wasn’t wrong to say that they gained a lot of benefits within the past two weeks.

Crow was just worried that the whispers of the Bandit Mommy might become louder than those of the Hunger and undead. If that happened, they wouldn’t have a choice but to flee this place.

Everything was going smoothly until Commander Drock returned.