Book 2 Ch 39: Scales Among Leaves

Michael walked a short distance behind Lys. Devahn was shooting the shit with Marcus and Ollie, and the other mercs were all scattered around with the scouts moving ahead to make sure the way was clear. It was a hot day, and Michael had defaulted to a kind of steady mindless march that he’d mastered back in Stent. They’d gotten work closing another two rifts. From what he understood, this was much faster than the breaks between rifts had been in the past. That further strengthened his theory that the erosion between worlds was speeding and the gods needed help to stop it.

Lys was in charge for this mission and had brought with her a solid mix of scouts, support, and front-liners. Just like the last mission Michael had with Trina, this one was also meant to determine more about how diviners working together could affect the rifts. Tai seemed to, in spite of his laid back demeanor, believe firmly in experimenting to figure out the best way to make things work. After this mission Devahn and Lys would be leaving again to do some recruiting. They’d managed to pick up a few new recruits from Southwind as well as some of the other villages they’d been visiting when closing rifts, but it had been decided that they needed to maintain a higher number of Mercs to stay effective in general, and they needed to find more experienced recruits in general.

Michael was daydreaming when Lys interrupted him.

“You’re aware that you’re a freak of nature, right?” she asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Your healing abilities, the number of blessings, titles, and deeds you have. Divining you gives me the same readings as lifelong veterans or minor nobility and you’ve been here for what, a year?”

“A bit more now, I think. It’s been hard to keep up with exactly how long it’s been.”

She shook her head. “Your friends aren’t far behind either. Ollie’s probably going to start performing some feats of magic that are going to trivialize the rest of us soon, and Marcus’s awareness and reaction are getting to be ridiculous, particularly considering how well balanced he is in every other area.”

“Why are you bringing this up?”

Lys shrugged. “Just making conversation. I think it’s important that people know what they’re worth.”

“If you want to make conversation, I actually have a few questions?”

“Oh?” She asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“Does anyone ever take a boat out on the lake?”

Her expression shifted to one of mild disappointment, but she answered anyway. “There are a few small fishing villages up and down the coast. Some nobles pay for expensive trophies taken from monsters, some alchemists like to experiment with some of the ingredients that can only be found in the lake and some people really enjoy the taste of the fish from it as well. All of it can be sold at a premium so there are more than a few professionals that make a business of it. I don’t know many that actually take their boats far into the lake though.”

Michael nodded. It sounded like he’d need to find the right person in the right village and he should be able to manage to reach whatever it was his Godseeker title was drawing him toward.

“Thank you,” said Michael.

“Why’d you ask. Are you planning on making some stupid decisions?”

“Pretty much at any given moment.”

“Why? Is it about the gods again?”

“Yep. They want me to see something on the lake.”

She sighed. “You know, managing to recruit you was a real feather in my cap, I’d hate to have it fall out because you chose a dumb way to die.”

He shrugged. “You hire people for a mercenary company. Seems like that’s always a possibility.”

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“This is true… most of them aren’t eye candy like you though.”

Michael raised his eyebrow at her, but she wasn’t looking at him, keeping her focus on the road ahead. He realized that she’d been flirting.

“Eye candy is good, but I personally appreciate a full meal.”

She laughed a bit. “That was terrible. I like it.”

They traded a few more flirtatious lines with one another, interspersed with a few actual discussions about the surrounding area, and eventually Michael began to feel the dread that came from a rift starting to enclose his heart.

He looked at her. “You feel that?”