After taking some time to relax and enjoy some actually edible food, we headed back to the house to find out if Benadora had successfully been released from custody. My knocking on the door was soon reciprocated by that same door being thrown open by a jubilant looking Adrian. “Ren, Cali, come in, come in! We were waiting for you.”

We entered the living room slash library and we finally got our first up-close look at the woman who’d been causing us so many headaches over the past few days. Without the furry shawl covering her upper body, Benadora’s dress was in plain view, and what a revealing dress it was; this was the traditional Ashmorn garb? Her large chest ballooned outwards, straining the fabric to its limits.

She tucked a wild strand of black hair behind her ear and stood to greet us with a smile. “So you’re the two wandering saviours that my Adrian has been working with!” Before I could greet her in return, she pulled my head down into her bosom and smothered me half to death. “Thank you ever so much!”

She was an equal opportunity offender, if Cali was feeling left out she didn’t need to. Benadora rounded on her and did the same. After forcing us both to motorboat her, she sat back down and crossed her shapely legs. I wasn’t usually the type of person to take notice of ‘seductive’ behaviour but Benadora was out and proud with it. It made it hard for me to get a read on her.

“…Nice to meet you too,” I concluded – unwilling to air any complaints.

“I’m so happy that you assisted Adrian in dismissing those frankly absurd charges against me.”

Adrian bowed his head, “I’d like to thank you both again. The Duke’s scouts reported that no more giants were crossing the border. Combined with Fernwell’s testimony the matter was considered closed.” Adrian took a small bag from the table and handed it to me. I loosened the drawstring and peered inside, seeing several valuable silver bars inside.

“That’s your payment for the escort,” Benadora explained, “But… if you’re willing – I have a second bag here with a rather large down payment inside of it.”

I had to be sceptical of that. “You’re offering me money for something else? You haven’t even told me what the job is.”

Benadora laughed melodically, “I know. I know. I was looking for the perfect chance to bring it up with you.” She turned to a roll of parchment on the table and unfurled it, revealing a map of the coast and the continent that lay to the West. It had a million different names depending on where you came from, but people from Sull and the Federation called it the ‘Untamed Land.’ The real name used by scholars and mapmakers was Versia.

‘Untamed Land’ was a pejorative that was used to enforce a colonial claim against it by members of Sull and the Federation. It remained untamed for a good reason. It was significantly more dangerous than Paneusia and contained powerful native collectives that fought off attempts at settlement. It had become something of a battleground between scholars and government leaders, who insisted it should remain untamed for a variety of reasons.

“Before I was so rudely arrested and held by those amendment fools, I had been commissioned by an old friend to visit Versia for a research expedition. I promised them that as soon as I concluded my urgent work here, I would depart with a small team and explore a certain ruin on the coast.”

I wracked my brain for the name, “The Tall School?”

Benadora was delighted by my guess. “Ah. I see you’re well read! Yes. He’s a foremost erudite on the matter of ancient languages. Entering the School and retrieving new material for his research is expensive and time consuming, and it can only be done when the tides are favourable. It’ll be long and difficult. I need people I can trust to show their resourcefulness and adapt to many differing circumstances.”

She was trying to imply that my work for Adrian was as good as a job interview. Versia was a crazy place. The people and monsters that lived there were much stronger than normal. In my case, that was an advantage. I needed to find more monsters to kill, and the mostly untouched lands of Versia meant that they roamed in abundance.

“To be honest, I might have some trouble coming my way soon after that last job. Getting out of here, preferably on a boat, would be ideal.”

Benadora leaned in, deepening her already absurd cleavage, “Adrian already told me. What an interesting man he stumbled upon.”

“If Adrian told you, that means that Marcus is telling everyone who’ll listen. There’s probably a paranoid lynch mob forming right now.”

“I see no problem. The fact that you’ve continued to live, even while wielding such a powerful and evil weapon, means that you’re exactly the kind of man I want on this expedition. You aren’t so bad on the eyes either!”

Stigma appeared behind Dora and swiped at her, her hand phasing through her head harmlessly. “I don’t like her! You’re surrounding yourself with too many pushy women!”

I tried to ignore her tomfoolery and focus on the matter at hand.

“No, I look like a wet dog. Are you bringing anyone else with you?”

Benadora tapped her nose with a smirk, “That’s for me to know, and for you to find out.”

“…”

She laughed, “Okay. I’m bringing a few others with us, including a blacksmith-”

“-Named Medalie.”

“Oh, you’re already acquainted? That’s perfect.”

“She made this armour. How much did you have to pay her to make her pack her things and leave her shop?”

Clenched teeth, neck retracted. “A lot.” Yeah, that tracked.

“She’s worth it.”

The conversation took a sudden swerve in the road. Benadora turned to face my travelling companion, “And what a lovely young thing you have here. Let me guess, girlfriend?”

I shook my head, “No.”

“I am Cali La’Corvan. Ren and I are business partners.”

Benadora leapt back to her feet again and took Cali’s hands into her own, “A real, in the flesh La’Corvan? It really is an honour. I greatly admire the work of your family.”

“Yes. I see that you are wearing traditional Ashmorn robes.”

“With a few of my own modifications, I’m afraid they don’t make these in my size,” she said, reaching up and squeezing her own breasts to make her point. She seriously wasn’t concerned about using her body to rile people up. but as a (technically) forty-year old man I was capable of holding my nerve well enough.

“I’m afraid that Ashmorn women are not usually well-endowed,” Cali said with blunt honesty, “I am a statistical outlier due to my larger size.”

From the look on her face, Benadora was starting to catch onto the fact that Cali wasn’t quite right in the head. Though the full extent of her odd behaviour would not manifest unless something strange or dangerous happened. She pursed her lips and continued on, “Okay… I would like to invite you both to formally join the journey as guards. I know it’s on short notice, but we’re leaving in two days. Time is money after all.”

I’d already made up my mind, I wasn’t going to get anywhere without taking a few risks. “I’ll do it. Where are we meeting?” Benadora handed me a small slip of paper, an identification card for boarding the ship she had commissioned. It also listed the dock that it would be parked in, number three.

“Don’t worry about bringing food and water. All of the essential supplies are going to be provided - and we are bringing a hunter with us in case things go wrong and we lose our cargo.”

“Alright. I’ll get some new boots.”

I took the bag from the table and opened it. There were four golden bars inside. More than the pay I received for any of my previous jobs. Given the length that the trip would fill though, it was only appropriate that they pay should be as such.

“We’ll see you there.”

We set about our preparations in earnest. After leaving Benadora’s abode, we divided the down payment between ourselves and tallied up the things we would need for the trip. Fresh clothes, extra pairs of shoes, medicine, catalyst powder and other miscellaneous goods that would make things easier.

It wasn’t a comfortable shopping experience. I was paranoid that Marcus had whipped the people into a murderous frenzy while I wasn’t looking. Every wayward glance put me on edge. I didn’t know if they were sizing me up or wondering about the size of the huge sword strapped to my back. I swung by Medalie’s corner in the markets and found that the stall was already being used by someone else. She must have been renting the place.

I didn’t know if I really wanted to speak with her before the trip anyway. I didn’t have much to say other than that her armour was worth every penny I’d spent on it. It was extremely unusual for me to work with someone like her more than once. People moved around, rogues more so. Getting attached to people from another ‘world’ to you wasn’t conductive to good business.

It made me think. I’d been straying away from my rogue roots more and more as time passed. I found myself taking on risky jobs I’d never have considered before. I threatened people, killed them, fought giants and even worked with an inquisitor. Granted – Adelbern didn’t seem to be on the same page as the rest of them.

But it all served an important purpose. I couldn’t survive as a rogue anymore, suckling sustenance from destroyed bandit camps in Exarch’s Bend. There weren’t enough criminals in those woods to make me last eighty plus years like I wanted to. Stigma had changed everything. I would be a fool to deny that fact.

“Hey, asshole!”

I came to a halt, just as I was about to leave the market, someone had singled me out. I turned on my heel and came face to face with a total stranger, wearing chainmail and a tabard. He was a merc. I wished I kept my helmet on.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

Unperturbed, he approached me with wide, angry steps, “Marcus told me what you did to his boys. You got ‘em all killed. That kind of shit isn’t appreciated around here. They’re going to teach you a lesson.”

I motioned to the area around us, “You’re the only one here.”

“For now. This is your last warning. You’re going to want to get out of Pascen before karma comes knocking.”

I stepped closer to the man, and squared up with him. “Big words from a small man.” I didn’t wait for him to swing first. I punched him in the gut as hard as I could, my heightened strength transferring the impact through the leather and chain. He double over and clutched his stomach with both arms.

Just to make sure, I leaned down and clapped him around the left ear with another punch. He fell like a sack of bricks into the mud below. With my boot on the back of his head, there wasn’t much he could do to stop me. “Listen, you fucking waste of space – if Marcus wants to rally up some boys to try and pick a fight with me, they better be a damn sight better than you are. Or the local gravedigger’s going to be getting a lot of business.”

I removed my foot from the back of his head and ragged him back to his feet by his hair. He sputtered and spat, trying to get the dirty water out of his mouth. I pushed him away. A crowd of people had gathered to witness the commotion. Watching mercenaries with bad blood beating the seven hells out of each other was the only thing that passed for entertainment around here. As such, none of the watchmen were going to get in the way unless someone pulled a knife.

“Now piss off.”

Beaten and humiliated, the mercenary hobbled his way around the corner and out of my sight. Trouble was coming my way like a storm cloud.