Book 2 Ch 20: Company Contracts

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Lysandra, but I go by Lys.”

Something felt odd about her, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was. He started to focus on her, watching the gold lettering slowly come together.

“You know it’s considered rude to divine someone without their permission.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s the first I’m hearing of it.”

She shrugged. “I’m guessing you usually did it to people who were going to try and kill you anyway. Or other soldiers that you basically share underwear with anyway.”

“Fair enough. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. “I was divining you the moment you came down the stairs anyway.”

That’s what it was. He could feel the touch of the divine on her, though it wasn’t as strong as it was on him.

“Rude for me, but not for you?”

“I don’t mind being rude, but you seem like a more polite sort.” She smiled mischievously. “You have a very impressive list of titles and deeds for someone of your age, even as a taker veteran. What are you twenty? Twenty two?”

He scratched his chin. “That’s actually a very good question. I think I’m about two? Maybe a bit younger. Physically I think I’m supposed to be about seventeen or eighteen? Mentally I’m an old man.”

She nodded. “What strange existences you takers must lead. Sounds like an ideal build for a soldier. A young body and an old mind. I’m stuck in an aging body with an aging mind.”

Michael thought she looked quite good, but held his tongue. His blood was still up a bit from the previous night it seemed. He moved to sit next to her.

“Where is Gemini operating? We’re deserters from Stent so we don’t want to operate in Tusinia or Stent if possible.”

She nodded. “I figured from the Stent gray trousers you’re wearing. We were involved briefly in the northeastern campaign, but Untan was conquered before we’d even reached the front line. We took our pay and got the fuck out of there.”

Michael nodded. He’d been hearing whispers of that for weeks. He’d even heard a bit about Burndan’s war of conquest back in Stent. While it was common for the countries of the Humelands to be at war, it was very rare for one of those wars to be won so decisively that one of the countries conquered another, much less two of them at once.

“For now we’ve got a contract to deal with a number of the rifts near the lake of beasts. Hence why when I heard of a healer I sought you out. Not a lot of diviners with combat experience, not to mention I can tell from your deeds that you’ve sealed one before. You’re like finding a piece of gold sitting upright in the muck.”

“How flattering.”

She smiled. “If you’d prefer more honeyed words I can manage that. I can also spot you another night at the Velvet Embrace or share a fine bottle of wine.”

Michael smiled, it had been a while since he’d spoken with a headhunter. It seemed that it wasn’t so different on this world. Though he was disappointed in the lack of waterbottles, pens, and coffee thermoses with the word Gemini branded across them.

“Listen, I’m interested, but I assume you’d have a place for my friends as well, not just me.”

She nodded. “They’re takers with Stent knight training including a mage and a dragoon. Even if you weren’t part of the package I’d be trying to recruit them as well.”

Michael nodded. Marcus had mentioned that they’d had a number of offers, but that the largest problem had been that most of the companies were headed to Tusinia, which wasn’t an option for them for a number of reasons. The others hadn’t had favorable offers, or were active in places that were very strict about their rules against Penitents.

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“Okay, I’m not going to lie to you and pretend I’m not interested, but let me go and rally my friends to see what they think and then we can talk gold and silver.”

She nodded, and pulled out some sheets of paper, a quill, and a vial of ink. “Works for me.”