Chapter 341: The Waterlands Contract

We returned to the Company, in a worse state than we had left. This was not because we were worse for wear. But the conditions seemed to have significantly gotten worse and even though Kassie wasn’t showing it, she was incredibly pissed.

And me, I just kept pitying this person called Blood Mage.

Whoever this man was, wherever he was hiding, he had just earned himself the focused attention of the Tyrant Empress, the Blood Conqueror, a woman who had dismantled an entire empire in order to bring down the church. He was probably somewhere out there right now, thinking he had sent a message.

’Buddy. You just signed up for a war you don’t even know you’re in yet.’

We walked through the front door and I immediately noticed something different.

There were boots by the entrance. Two pairs. One I recognized, expensive leather with gold thread stitching at the heel. The other was worn and plain, the kind that had seen more terrain than comfort.

’Those are…’

The main room was lit. When we’d left, everyone had been asleep. Now Milo was standing by the table with his arms folded, his cracked glasses replaced by a new pair. Cressida was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her midnight-blue hair loose around her shoulders.

And sitting at the head of the table, slouched in his chair with a bottle dangling from one hand and that infuriating relaxed expression on his face, was Levi.

Beside him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his white hair catching the lamplight, was Tristan.

They were back.

Levi looked up as we walked in. His heterochromatic eyes traveled from me to Kassie to Evangeline, took in the state of us — filthy, barefoot, Kassie still in her armor with blood that wasn’t hers drying on the gauntlets — and he smiled.

“Looks like I missed the fun.”

’Oh, you missed a lot more than fun.’

Kassie walked past him without a word. The armor dissolved into red sparks as she moved, and by the time she reached the far wall, she was back to her a casual appearance. She didn’t sit. She stood with her back to the wall, her posture unnervingly still.

Tristan’s eyes found mine. He didn’t smile. He studied me the way he always did, that quiet assessment behind the blue, and whatever he saw made him straighten slightly.

“You look like shit, Cade.”

“You should see the tunnels.”

“I heard.” His gaze shifted to Kassie’s back. “Milo briefed us.”

So they knew. Good. That saved me from telling the story a third time.

Levi took a swig from the bottle and set it on the table with a gentle clink. The casualness was deliberate. I’d been around him long enough to know when Levi was performing ease versus actually feeling it.

Right now, he was performing.

“Let’s save the state of the company itself which we wouldn’t even want to talk about. Who would have thought that Blood Mage will take this personal.”

Tristan shook his head.

“Ah… this is quite a mess. And Zarion too? What did he do to get bought by that sickly bastard?”

“I think it’s important to note that that man is dead…” I inputted, “His summon… it had been reanimated by the Blood Mage, it died and came back. I think the Blood Mage has done something to either the Summon or the Summoner.”

“The bottle stopped halfway to Levi’s mouth.

“What?”

The silence that followed was different from the usual silences. Levi set the bottle down properly this time. Tristan uncrossed his arms.

Milo adjusted his new glasses. “I have to admit, it’s one of the uncomfortable abilities I’ve seen.”

“That… changes things,” Levi said. The performance was gone now. His voice had dropped into that lower register I’d heard maybe three times since I’d met him, the real one, the voice that reminded you he ran an entire criminal enterprise and hadn’t gotten here by being charming alone.

“It changes everything,” Tristan said quietly. “If he can reanimate summoners and keep their spirits active, then every person he kills becomes an asset. He’s not spending resources on soldiers. He’s growing an army.”

’An army of the dead. Wonderful. Just what I needed in my life.’

“So we hunt him,” Cressida said from the floor. Her jaw was set, her hands tight around her knees. “We find him and we end this.”

Levi didn’t respond immediately. He ran his thumb along the rim of the bottle and glanced at Tristan.

Something passed between them. A look I couldn’t read, loaded with context I didn’t have.

“About that,” Levi said.

Those two words pulled the energy out of the room.

“Tristan and I didn’t come back because of the Blood Mage.” Levi leaned forward, elbows on the table. “We came back because we have a contract. A big one. The kind we can’t turn down.”

Milo’s posture shifted. “How big?”

Tristan was silent for a moment, then at last he responded.

“Waterlands big.”

Milo took his glasses off. Cleaned them. Put them back on. That sequence, in my experience, meant he was doing math that made him uncomfortable.

“Levi. We have a crisis here. You just said the Blood Mage building an undead army in the tunnels beneath the city, and you want to talk about a contract?”

“I want to talk about the contract that’s going to keep this Company alive,” Levi said. The words came out without sharpness. “We’re not in a position to wage a private war against something like this. Not financially, not even in terms of manpower. You see those damages outside alone? It will cost more to repair than our last three jobs combined. Do you want to imagine the cost of a more drawn out war?”

He was right. I hated that he was right, but he was.

“The Waterlands contract covers will resupplie us, and put us in contact with people who might actually know how to deal with the Blood Mage.” Levi held up a finger. “And before anyone says it, I’m not suggesting we ignore the Blood Mage. I’m suggesting we can’t fight him broke and exhausted.”

Tristan stepped away from the wall. “The contract is legitimate. I vetted it myself. A Clan needs us to find their son who has hidden hinself because he does not wish to be found.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Three weeks. Maybe four, depending on conditions.”

“And you want to leave now? With a Blood Mage actively hunting freed slaves in our city?”

Levi met my gaze. “I want to leave within the week. And not everyone goes. Some stay. Some go.”

Kassie finally moved… and in that instance, the room went still.

“The Blood Mage is not a fool.”

Her voice carried the weight of someone who had spent eight thousand years evaluating threats.

“He created a sacrificial body and laid an elaborate trap. He will not attack the Company directly while we are here. He will probe, gather intelligence, build his forces quietly. We have time, not infinite time but enough.”

She looked at Levi.

“Your contract. Tell me about the Waterlands.”

Levi blinked. Of all the reactions he’d prepared for, Kassie’s calm pragmatism clearly wasn’t one of them.

“The Waterlands are a chain of territories connected by river systems and canal networks. Heavily forested. High spirit concentration. It also where the people of many people of reputable clans have settled and built their wealth. And recently, a war has broken out… an inheritance war. Asides that three major gates have opened in the last two months and the local summoners can’t keep up.”

“What tier?”

“The gates? One confirmed C-rank, two unconfirmed. Possibly B.”

Kassie processed this in silence.

“The contract pays in gold and materials,” Tristan added. “But it also includes access to great Clan’s archives. And the Clans are one of the oldest establishments in the region. Their records go back further than most kingdoms.”

He said this looking at Kassie specifically. And I caught the implication.

Archives that old might contain records of ancient techniques. Including forbidden ones. Including whatever the Blood Mage was using.

’Tristan, you clever bastard.’

Kassie caught it too. Her expression didn’t change, but something behind her eyes shifted.

“I will go,” she said. “Cade comes with me.”

’Did she just volunteer me?’

Of course she did. That was Kassie.

Levi nodded as if this had been the plan all along. Maybe it had been.

“Tristan and I will go as well. Milo, you stay and run things here. Cressida, Ophelia, Odelia, you hold the fort. If the Blood Mage moves while we’re gone, you don’t engage. You document and you wait for us.”

“And if he comes for the remaining freed slaves?” Cressida asked.

Levi paused. That question had no clean answer and everyone in the room knew it.

“Bring them in,” Kassie said. “Every freed slave you can locate, bring them to the Company. Make this building a shelter. The Blood Mage will not attack a defended position when his target could scatter. Consolidate, and he loses the ability to pick them off.”

She paused, looked at me and added:

“Moreover, that Fire Witch will be here with you. She might not seem like it but she’s very capable.”

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