Chapter 62

Three days was the earliest Sideon was willing to go on a match between Aldrick and Zammin. He wasn’t wrong to take that stance, since the longer they hyped it up, the better the turnout would be, but the fight fees wouldn’t change based on that. So it helped him, but didn’t help Zea and Aldrick. She couldn’t really blame him though; it wasn’t like Sideon knew who Aldrick was or how quickly he wanted to leave.

Three days wasn’t too long though, and it would give Zea time to decide what she wanted to do and gather supplies if needed. That one was going to take a lot of thinking. On the one hand, Zammin had been right: she was miserable in Valtira and pretty much always had been. She was only there to hide, and she’d done that quite well. It had been years since she’d caught even a whiff of anyone looking for her. At this point, she had very few reasons to stay.

But she also couldn’t go back south. That would just be stupid. Going north was equally stupid, so she was stuck in Valtira mostly by inertia. And life in Valtira sucked for her. At least it had before she’d met Aldrick. She was making bank off his fights, enough to live for a week or more every night. Zea had a warm-ish bed to sleep in, and her new roommate was doing an excellent job of making it even warmer. She had a roof over her head and food to eat. She’d even gotten new clothes, a hot bath, and a haircut that didn’t involve hacking the end off with a knife for the first time in years.

At the same time, Aldrick’s status as an off-worlder apostate meant there was practically nowhere more dangerous to stand than right next to him. She liked the guy, but regardless of her personal feelings, the church would come down on him like a bolt of lightning if they ever figured out who he was, and her too just for being associated with him.

That was a pretty big drawback to traveling with Aldrick, the colder climate notwithstanding. That wasn’t even getting into crossing the literal ocean, which, if half the stories the sailors told was true, might be even more dangerous than staying in Valtira with the church hunting for him. But if he could do what he said he could, if that bloodline of his really worked that way, maybe he could reset her back to level 1, let her level up right. Even better, if he could just change her skills directly and refund the AP she’d lost, that would let her keep all the progress she’d earned on her own.

It was tempting. She liked Aldrick, didn’t mind the idea of traveling with him, and would tolerate the cold if she had to, but the risks were insane. Even if he could make it across the ocean to Sastilun, there were no guarantees. She figured she needed to talk to him first about that anyway. Lying to him about her reasons for going wasn’t going to do anyone any favors.

There wasn’t much to do but bet on the fights between a bunch of no-names in the pit while she waited for Aldrick to show up, and Zea didn’t want to risk the money if she was going to need it for traveling expenses. She wondered if she could get back some of what they’d paid to rent the room if they only ended up using it for a week. It wasn’t exactly a cost-efficient investment at that point.

The more she considered it, the more she realized she was making plans for leaving, despite there being a few good reasons to stay and a lot of reasons to not go. Yes, she liked Aldrick, and yes, she would love to be relieved of some of the skills that she’d been forced to take, but the odds of that working out in her favor had to be practically nonexistent. And still, for some reason, she was considering it.

And then the idiot himself walked into the Harbor with none other than the church girl with him. Zea felt her eye start to twitch as she watched him say something to the girl and point her towards a table. Then Aldrick scanned the place, spotted Zea, and walked over to her.

“I need your help,” he said in a low voice.

“It’s hard to help someone who doesn’t listen. How many warnings do you need?”

“It’s not my fault! She found me. She already knows I fight here. I tried to shake her off, but she was insistent, and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Isn’t it better not to make a scene that might end up with people from the church looking at me?”

“I suppose.” Zea was still annoyed. “So what do you want me to do?”

“Help me cut her loose? I already told her I was seeing someone now, but that didn’t do it.”

“Oh, you are, are you?”

Aldrick looked confused there. “Well, kind of, yeah? Sorry if I’m making some assumptions here, but I thought that was the best way to kill her interest in me. It just, you know, didn’t work.”

“What does she think you’re doing now?”

“I told her I’m talking to my manager, because this is where I fight at and of course I need to touch base and find out if I’m doing any fights. Speaking of which, am I?”

“No.” Zea scowled. “I tried, but Sideon won’t do the big fight for at least three days, and he wants you to stay out of the pit to build up anticipation.”

“Shit, is it even worth it at that point? We could make more doing a few smaller fights every day.”

“Well I do have some good news there. I managed to get a two gold fight fee for the wait, so that’s not an issue.”

“Oh, nice! Total, or just my cut?”

“Total. Sideon’s not that generous. Still, it would be good seed money.”

Zea didn’t comment on it, but she knew Aldrick had some money from before they’d met. He held it pretty closely, which was probably smart. She didn’t know how much it was, but she figured since he was bothering with fighting in the first place, it couldn’t be a life altering amount. It would take a fair bit of coin to travel a few thousand miles on foot, probably more than he had. Another reason not to go with him.

“So no fight today then, or tomorrow. And then the fight with Zammin?”

“No. It’s a three day wait and then the fight’s on the fourth day. That’s why it’s worth four times as much as your normal fight.”

“Not really a lot of incentive to even do it then,” Aldrick said. “Maybe I could fight somewhere else during those off days?”

“Not if you want to fight here. Your contract means you’re exclusive to the Bloody Harbor. If it gets back to Sideon that you’re fighting in any other club, he’ll ban you, probably me too. So don’t do that.”

“Got it. Okay, so we’re waiting on that. Four days. That’s not so bad, I guess. I can use the time to work on something else.” Aldrick ran a hand through his hair and blew out a sigh. “What about Myla?”

“Not much I can do to help you,” Zea said. “I don’t have anything to keep you busy with. Just give me the room key, have some lunch, and try not to do or say anything stupid or incriminating.”

“Right. Okay, I can do this.” Aldrick fished the key out of his neck pouch and left it on the table. “Fuck, I do not want to do this now. It was a lot easier to talk to her before I was afraid she was a church spy.”

“You’ll be fine,” Zea said. “Probably.”

“Thanks,” Aldrick said, rolling his eyes. “Your confidence in me is overwhelming.”

* * *

Luke sat down at the table across from Myla. “Hi,” he said. “I guess I don’t have a fight today. The guy who runs that side of the business has one for me in a few days, but no work right now. So, lunch?”

Myla smiled. “Lunch would be fantastic. I was maybe lying a bit when I said I didn’t mind waiting to eat. I just thought it was worth waiting for good company. Did you want to eat here or…?”

“Oh, I’m not picky if you want to go somewhere else.”

Luke spared a moment to wonder why the girls back on Earth were never as forward as the ones on Aros seemed to be. No one had ever asked him out prior to getting shunted through a doorway into another world. Then again, he was in fantastic shape now. It wasn’t like he’d been a butterball back home, but still, he was completely shredded here.

Plus he figured he had a sexy foreign accent now, and that had to help. Everyone loved a sexy foreign accent. It was too bad for Myla that he considered himself extremely taken, even if only for a few more days before he left. She was very obviously interested in him, which he sadly had to view with suspicion. Even if not for her ties to the church, he would have had to rebuff any advances she might make. He was uncomfortable enough just doing lunch.

She didn’t try to take him back towards the church, thankfully. Instead, they went to a bakery with an outdoor patio. “I love the bread they make here,” Myla told him. “Just add some butter or jam. And they even have fresh juice or wine to go with it.”

She directed him to a table near the back, where there were a few small trees growing to give the illusion of privacy. “I’ll go grab us something,” she said. “My treat. I invited you out after all.”

“Are you sure?” Luke asked.

“Oh, yes. Just wait here, I’ll be back in a minute.”

Luke settled into the chair and looked around. Despite it being lunch time, there were only three other people out on the patio, a couple at one table nearby and a man sitting by himself. Luke made an effort not to look directly at any of them and to keep his facial expression neutral. [Deception]kicked in to help, but he wasn’t sure that he managed it.

There was something off about those three people. The guy sitting by himself was pretending to be reading something, but his eyes weren’t moving. He was just staring blankly at the book in his hand, occasionally turning the page. Luke also noticed that he’d angled it to see a good portion of the patio out of the corner of his eye. Whoever that guy was, he wasn’t there to enjoy his lunch.

The couple was a different story. They had eyes only for each other, but the woman’s bracelet was a coil that went up her forearm and was sharpened. He heard it scrape across the table when she moved her arm carelessly and could actually see the small peel of paint and wood come up. Both of them pretended not to see it, but he noted a tenseness in the man’s leg when it happened. It would have been less suspicious to acknowledge the accident, unless they didn’t want to call attention to the concealed weapon.

Luke focused on listening for a few seconds and did his best to ignore the three people. He wanted to know if there was anyone else around that he couldn’t see. Other than the murmur of conversation inside the bakery where Myla was getting their meal and the chatter of the couple, there was nothing but the normal background noise of the city.

He wasn’t convinced. Casually, Luke looked over towards where Myla was standing and took in some of the background details. The screen of trees wasn’t enough to hide anybody in, not unless they had some sort of skill to assist, but he trusted his perception to tell him. He hadn’t been debuffed in any way. But the whole thing had him tense.

He was in danger, somehow. They’d wandered into the middle of something they shouldn’t have. Or he’d been led into it.

Myla returned with a tray held in both hands. She set it down on the table between them and said, “Let’s eat!”