Cali led Tahar under a nearby awning as the weather took a sudden downturn. A light drizzle settled over the city as people ran for cover or tried to protect themselves. Cali unfurled the parchment and carefully studied the details of the contract she had taken. A local criminal by the name of Adam Briar was on the top of the Federation’s list – he was the leader of a local gang called the Well’s Street Boys.

“Have you ever hunted a bounty before?”

Tahar didn’t even know what a bounty was. The thought of committing a crime against a fellow tribe member back was unconscionable. They were drilled from birth to never harm or steal from another person. They had no formal legal system. If a crime was committed it came down to the judgement of the elder. The culprit could be banished for the offence or forgiven.

Such a system was easier to justify in a small village where everyone knows everyone. But in the tangled roots of modern, outside society, there were always going to be people who tried to break the rules to advantage themselves. Tahar was receiving a crash course on the worst nature of people.

Cali noticed Tahar’s adrift expression, “I have broken down the process into four easy steps. It is similar to the way you hunt animals.”

“Okay.”

“Identify, assess, locate, capture. First we must identify him visually and his associates.” 

Cali knew better than to trust the composite sketches that the bounty people gave out. Sometimes they looked like they’d been scribbled by a two-year-old. Better safe than sorry – she needed to put a face to the name and reputation.

“We then assess his defensive capability. How many people surround him? Is he a capable fighter himself? Can he use magic? All of those factors will determine how we approach him.” You never know how tough they could be in a fight.

“Location. We must narrow down his usual areas of footfall, does that environment pose challenges to our capture?” When all of that information was combined, it was time for the final stage; “Capture. Utilising the gathered information, we create a plan and execute it. We apprehend or kill the target and return them to the watchmen for processing.”

Adam’s contract didn’t specify, but there was a cash bonus for bringing him back alive. Plus, Cali liked to make things as difficult for herself as possible. She seldom went for the easy way out and killed one of her targets.

Tahar had taken in some of what Cali had said, but the vocabulary was still advanced by her standards. What she really wanted to know was about the woman herself. Tahar had never seen an Ashmorn before. Cali’s dark skin, pointed ears, silver hair and red eyes were entirely unique. Nor had Tahar ever seen the strange weapons she wielded.

The halberd bore some resemblance to the spears that she used back home, but the shaft was sturdier and well treated, and the pointed tip was accompanied by two huge blades. That was before Tahar got to the (currently empty) metal mount and screw-holes that allowed Cali to attach the catalyst device tucked safely into a leather sheath on her belt.

Cali folded the poster away and slipped it into her coat pocket.

“Ren said you have a condition.” She spoke the word with uncertainty. 

“Yes. I do. I cannot feel like other people do.”

“Cannot… feel?”

“Happiness, anger, despair, love – those are things that other people feel but I do not.”

“Why? I don’t understand.”

Cali held an open palm under the pouring rain, “In a sense I also fail to understand you. Why would you willingly offer yourself to a stranger as a bride?”

“Strong, virtuous man. By our traditions he is the perfect mate.”

Cali frowned, “He is not as virtuous as you think.”

Was it jealousy or the truth? Cali wondered. She could feel herself trying to ward Tahar away from Ren at that moment. She was trying to convince her to change her mind by positioning it as friendly advice, and using her longer association with Ren as a crude weapon. She should have thought that it was strange, ridiculous even. Cali looked down on people who let their emotions control their actions, but now the wheels were turning out of control – it was a rampaging carriage that she couldn’t stop.

“Might, the measure of all men,” Tahar declared, “To see a living being’s real nature, you must see them at their strongest.”

“And if they are a bad person?”

Tahar smiled, “They will suffer.”

“…Way too idealistic,” Cali concluded with a sigh. Was it the true nature of all Ashmorn to be ill in mind and spirit? Because to her, the Ashmorn leaders that ruled over their home Kingdoms had been a successive progression of the mad and the infirm. Would she reach her own ‘apex’ and betray Ren in the same way?

Ren had always posited that people were ‘complicated,’ they did things that didn’t make sense to anyone but themselves. Much like the first two times they worked together. Since that time Cali had learned of Ren’s strict adherence to his own rules and internal policy. Yet if he’d followed those principles back then they would have never started travelling together. Cali was an untrustworthy stranger dipping her toes into his closed-off world.

What had possessed him to come with her? Perhaps he believed that earning her silence on him being bound with Stigma was worth the time and effort. But if that was the case they would have parted ways then and there. He leapt in to assist her when Bell wanted to attack the stockpiles in Exarch’s Bend afterwards.

Thus, the only reasonable conclusion was that Ren felt responsible for her, and that her presence by his side through tough times had been some small comfort. Cali should have been celebrating, but why did she feel so bad about it? Ren’s warnings about offering her body to others rang in her ears. She was a burden to him, someone to manage and look after.

Cali didn’t like that one bit.

Tahar tapped her on the shoulder, “You say you cannot ‘feel,’ yet now you have a sad expression.” 

By the virtue of noting as such, Cali reverted back to her usual self. She was getting distracted. She could worry about her ‘feelings’ later – she had a job to complete. The first step of which was confirming the identity of her target.

Unlike Ren, Cali had performed a lot of work in Dalston and she even had a network of contacts to make things easier. As the rain finally died down, she led Tahar back through the district to a local bar; The Fox Hole. Lillian Fox was both not a real name, and a very helpful provider of information. She owned the bar she worked out of and loved gossip more than anyone else alive.

A flash of vibrant orange hair nearly bowled Cali over as she entered the currently closed bar. “Cali! It’s so nice to see you again!” 

Exuberance was her defining personality trait. Cali had to train herself to endure it.

“I came here-“

“-About a job,” Lilian sighed, “You never drop by for a social visit, do you?”

“Apologies.”

“And who’s this towering mountain of a woman?”

“I am Tahar.”

Cali was eager to get to the point, “I need some information about Adam Briar.”

“Briar? Ah, let me guess – you picked up his bounty from Xerces?”

Cali nodded and unfurled the parchment, “I’d like to know if this sketch is accurate.”

Lillian took both women by the arm and dragged them to the nearest table. “Adam Briar’s a local celebrity. Leader of the Well’s Street Boys and one of the people responsible behind the recent explosion in boxing’s popularity.”

Cali asked again, “Is the sketch accurate?” It didn’t paint an inspiring image of the man. He was rather normal, with short brown hair and no defining features to speak of. If she saw him in public, she wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a crowd.

“As far as I know, it is. If you want to have a look for yourself you’re going to need to find him at one of the fight meets that he helps organise.”

“How do we get in?”

Lillian scratched her chin, “You need to have an invite from someone who’s already involved, or be a fighter that they’d like to have in the tournament.”

A fighter? Cali’s eyes drifted to Tahar, who was bunched up onto the small wooden chair next to her. Tahar didn’t really understand what both of them were getting at, so she nodded along happily ignorant. The silence had unsettled her, both women were staring.

“Yes?” Tahar offered.

Lillian continued, “I don’t know anyone who can get you an invite, but if you show up unannounced with Tahar here – they might just let you in. They’re not the brightest bunch; they’ll think she’s some kind of sideshow.”

For Cali this idea killed two birds with one stone. She could locate and identify Adam Briar, and assess his defensive capabilities all at once. The only flaw with the plan was that Cali would naturally attract a lot of attention for her appearance. If Adam saw her, he’d remember her. That could make things harder if she started lurking around to try and capture him. Cali’s straightforward manner of thinking only led her to one conclusion – just don’t get seen.

“Hm. Do you know where it is?”

“That I do know. They’re holding the next meeting tonight at one of the ranches outside of town. You won’t be able to miss it, they’ll bray like a pack of donkeys whenever someone loses a tooth.”

“And nobody thinks to shut these meetings down?”

Lillian laughed, “Most of the guardsmen join in! Unless someone decides to take things too far and stab a fella’, they aren’t going to do anything about it. They’ve got bigger problems to worry about than a bunch of damn fools punching the piss out of each other.”

“I see. Thank you for the information,” Cali said – she reached into her pocket and placed a few copper bars as a tip.

“No need to pay me,” Lillian insisted, “That was nothing more than hearsay.”

“It was hearsay that I didn’t know – so I’m paying you,” Cali responded. “If Ren was here, he’d be very upset at you refusing payment for it.”

This caused Lillian’s ears to perk up, “Ren? Who’s Ren?”

“My current travelling companion. We met at Exarch’s Bend and have been working together for some time now.”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, “I never pegged you as the companion type. Don’t tell me there’s something more to it.”

“There is nothing more to it,” Cali denied. At any other time it would have been a plain lie, but Cali was unsure about how she really felt. “I find him more tolerable than most, and he has a wonderful way of dragging me into extremely dangerous places.”

Lillian rubbed her forehead and sighed. Cali was much more open with her feelings than usual and her face had almost cracked into some kind of expression too. That was progress. Her old friend was growing up a little, even if that still didn’t stop her from looking for trouble. “I guess you haven’t changed that much. We need a miracle worker to fix that part of you.”

In Cali’s mind there was nothing to fix, “Some people enjoy art, reading or music. I enjoy living on the edge of oblivion.”

“Any of those hobbies would be an improvement over this.”

Cali considered it for a second, “I haven’t played the piano in a long time. Not since I was back at home.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. Did you enjoy it?”

That sent Cali into a deep contemplation. She hadn’t thought about it in a very long time; “I think I did. It was before my mother died.” 

Despite the rust that surely would have set in after years of neglect, Cali remembered the techniques and sheet music vividly. Lillian really wanted to hear her play – but she didn’t own a piano. “We should go down to Benny’s place sometime, he has a piano in the bar that you could use.”

“I’ll consider it.”