Chapter 3 - Old Friends, New Jobs

  Present Day

  Cal gasped awake, sitting up. As he swung is head forward, the momentum caught him unawares and his brand new hangover struck him back down. A sharp pain that felt like a dagger stabbed through from the front to the back of his skull. Clasping his head, Cal groaned and rolled over, squeezing his eyes shut. He let out a long slow breath to avoid throwing up and blinked his eyes open, peeking out to stare… not at an alley.

  The sheets were too nice to be an alley.

  They also happened to be on a bed, but you sometimes got beds in alleys, so that wasn’t an immediate give away that he’d been moved, but this was a nice bed. The bigger give away, however, were the pyjamas he was wearing, the roof over his head and the simply phenomenal smell of food cooking instead of the usual smell of alcohol and urine.

  Cal sat back up, doing his best to ignore the pain and looked around the room, squinting to allow as little light in as possible. He found his clothes had been thrown into a bin but not completely destroyed - presumably in case he was really attached to any of them - and a new set had been laid out on the chair next to the bed. He went to get up and realised that, though his head was killing him, the rest of his body was largely fine.

  He frowned and flexed his arms, then swung his legs out and extended then bent them, wiggling his toes to make sure he had full range of motion. Leaning forwards, Cal buried his head in his hands. He hadn’t stayed in a bed like this in… months. Was he dreaming? Had he dreamt last night? Had he dreamt the last five months?

  No, the clothes in the bin were the ones he was wearing last night, he could even see the blood stains. That could only mean…

  The door swung open making a loud bang and Cal squeezed his eyes shut again, cursing violently and throwing himself back onto the bed. “By the Dawn, could you be just a smidgen or a lot quieter?” He groaned, peaking one eye open to watch Meliana walk confidently across the room with a plate of breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausages, some fried potato. All greasy foods to soak up the booze.

  Cal’s brows raised and he sat up. She walked over and placed it on the bedside table with a knife and fork.

  She’d taken off her long coat and the wrist cuff. Her blouse’s sleeves were pushed up and Cal could see that up her right arm she had dozens of magical marks tattooed onto her skin that she hadn’t had the last time they’d met. Cal didn’t recognise what they were or what they meant. He didn’t even recognise what type of magic they were, though he could tell that they weren’t fire magic.

  Taking the food as she sat in one of the chairs, he started shovelling it into his mouth immediately. The fact that the room had more than one chair, let alone more than one nice chair could only mean that this was a very nice tavern or home.

  Between bites Cal pointed to the arm. “Those are new.” He said before stuffing a potato into his talking hole.

  She looked down at her arm and grinned. “Like ‘em?” She asked. She reached up and pulled her hair out of the way on the right side to show that there were more tattoos up over her shoulder, her neck and curving around behind her ear, around which was shaved. “’Bin learning some magic since you left the Blades. Got pretty good as well.”

  The Black Blades.

  Cal’s first mercenary company, if you could call it that. To him it was more of a family.

  “That’s where I know you from.” Cal responded, trying to make it sound non-nonchalant. “I thought you looked familiar.”

  Meliana rolled her eyes.

  It had been a long time since the Black Blades. Not as long as he was with them. Eight years in and six years out. Cal had been a part of the Black Blades since he was eight. Their leader, Varian Surefoot, was his mentor… and also his saviour.

  Cal closed his eyes, squeezing them shut until the thoughts of his old life, the one before the Blades, faded away.

  He took a breath and looked over at Meliana. “So, why the sudden interest in magic?” he asked, continuing to eat, though a little more slowly now that he was filling up and the headache was turning into a dull roar rather than a constant pounding.

  “Have to have at least a passing interest, in the work I’m doing now.” She replied. “To do it well I decided I’d make my interest a little more than passing.”

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  “You left the blades as well?” He asked.

  She nodded. “A while after you, but I did it eventually.”

  “Back on the sea?”

  “No,” she sighed, sitting back. “Maybe one day, but the gig I have right now’s doing me right.”

  “Oh yeah? What work is that?” Cal asked. He finished off the food and placed the empty plate aside. The food was a godsend, he could already feel the hangover fading.

  “It’s… complicated.” She admitted. “But short answer is that I work for a man with a really good information network. Every so often he hears about an ancient site of evil or a horrible disaster and I go and find what caused it and shut it down.”

  Cal raised a brow. “You’re a hero?” He asked, incredulous.

  “Why do you say it like that?” She laughed.

  “Well I mean… you don’t do things without money being involved.” He told her. “Or you didn’t used to.”

  She grinned. “Still don’t, shorty. I get paid very well to do this stuff. Think of me more as a very expensive hand that does the hero’s work. The guy’s rich and crippled, can’t do it himself. So I do it, for gold.” She grinned, holding up a bag of coin. “Which is why I came to find you.”

  Cal raised a brow at her. “You want me to go to some disaster for you and fix it?” He asked.

  “No, I want you to join my team and help me save some lives.” She replied.

  Cal eyed her for a long moment and then shook his head. “No.” He said.

  “No?”

  “I don’t work in a team, Liana.” He said. “If you dug up enough dirt to find me then you know that I haven’t worked with anyone in months.”

  “Yeah, I did notice that. Why is that? You’ve always been such a people person.”

  Blood. Broken Leg. Jaws.

  “I have my reasons.” Cal replied, shaking away the images. “If you wanted me to go do something on my own I’d be happy to help. For old times sake if nothing else, but I don’t work with people.” He looked over at his destroyed clothes. “Besides you don’t need me weighing you down. I’ve got people after me. Could blow up on us at any time. You don’t need that while you’re… doing whatever.”

  Meliana frowned, cocking her head to the side. “The Debtors are off your back.” She said. “For now.”

  Cal looked up at her and he let out a sigh and shook his head. “Did you kill them?” He asked.

  She let out a laugh. “Nah, though it wouldn’t have been hard.” She paused. “I admittedly almost changed my mind about recruiting you after I saw how easy they were to beat and how bad you got beaten. But we’re family, so I’ll give you a try anyway.”

  “If you didn’t kill them…” Cal said, pushing the conversation back on track. “You paid them off?”

  She smiled at him for a long moment then her expression flattened. “No, but I told them I need you for a job that will pay twice what you owe and you’ll pay them after with interest.”

  He eyed her for a long moment, a dozen thoughts running through his head. “Shit, so now I owe how much?”

  “About an emp and a half.” She said, shrugging.

  “I can’t pay that.” He said flatly.

  “No, you can’t.” She agreed. “At least not without this job I have all set up and waiting for you.”

  Cal groaned audibly, leaning forward and wiping his hands over his face again, desperately begging for this all to be a dream.

  “I also got you those two healing potions that you drank last night to heal your injuries.” She added. “Not cheap. So you owe me some aswell.”

  Cal unconsciously reached for his arm where he knew he’d been hit the previous night. That explained the lack of injuries. “Why are you doing this to me?” Cal asked.

  She smiled warmly and leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been out of it for a while now. I’m not the only one to notice.” She said, pointedly.

  Varian Cal thought, and shame spread through him again.

  “I want to help. I want to get you back on your feet so I don’t have to worry about my little brother any more.” She smiled sadly. “So none of us do.”

  Cal looked down at the floor, shame encouraging him to cry, but his stubbornness keeping the tears at bay.

  “Besides, I need someone that fit’s your bill and I don’t really have time to find someone else.” She grinned, “You owe me, you owe the debtors, this will wipe all that clean. Seems like a perfect fit.” She added, winking.

  “Liana…” Cal grumbled.

  She smiled again, warmer this time and took his hand in hers. “At least let me tell you about the job. If after you’ve heard the pitch, you’re not interested then you can walk away, no questions asked and you can find your own way to earn all that money to pay back to circle.” She sat back in her chair and added under her breath, “no idea how you drank an Emp in less than five months… it’d be impressive if it wasn’t-”

  “Fine!” Cal exclaimed, groaning. “Tell me about the job.”

  She grinned and hopped up onto her feet. “Will do, but it’s a bit weird having this conversation with someone in my ex-girlfriend’s pyjamas, so get dressed, and shave - by the sea-witch you do not suit that beard. Stubble might work but a beard? You’re twenty-two, your face hasn’t developed enough. It’s patchy as all hell.”

  “All right, all right, get out and stop describing me.” He groaned.

  “Fine, fine, fine.” She sighed, almost laughing, and started walking for the door. “You know I saw you naked when I put you in the pyjamas though, right?”

  “Out!” Cal yelled.

  “Just saying.” She added as she reached the door. “Some people are so sensitive, it’s not like I ain’t seen the same a hundred times before.” She closed the door and her self talk became too muffled to hear.

  Cal let out a long and frustrated sigh before laying back in the bed, grabbing a pillow and screaming into it. How had he gotten himself into another situation like this? He’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t work with people again. It limited the number of jobs he could take, but at least when he went on an adventure he knew that either everyone would come back alive, or it wouldn’t matter any more.

  He threw the pillow down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was fine. He’d just hear her out, tell her he wasn’t interested and leave. She told him he could. No questions asked.

  And yet… he owed her so much. Not just for saving his life. Not just for the potions… maybe he could help just this-

  No.

  He was done with that life. Cal took a long breath and stood up. “I just have to say no.” He told himself aloud.