After all the horseapples I’d gone through with Deathspair, Atramentous, and Nightshade, I needed a drink more than just about anything. Coming back to Freeport had been a huge mistake. I should’ve just taken our little escort ship and sailed off into great blue beyond. No idea where we would’ve eventually hit land, but anywhere else would have to be better than here.
Well okay, I’ll give Freeport one thing over most of the other places I would’ve landed. The rum was cheap and plentiful. That didn’t do anything to fix all my problems, but at least it made them a bit easier to tolerate. Feathers, maybe if I just got drunk and stayed drunk for the next couple years I could pretend things were almost normal instead of the godsawful mess it actually was. Not like I could change the world and fix everything wrong with it. I just needed to find a way to live with it, and that was a lot easier with a belly full of rum.
Talon found me a couple hours later, in one of the seedy dockside taverns. The floors and glasses were dirty, the rum wasn’t very good, and instead of cute barmaids, the owners cheaped out and used undead. The good news was that by the time I started working on my second bottle, I stopped caring about all of that.
I was about halfway through that when Talon found me. Her lips tugged down in a disapproving frown as soon as she saw the state I was in. “Ah, there you are.”
I groaned and filled up my glass again. “Whatever it is, it can wait until morning.” Or better, afternoon. I was probably going to have one nag of a hangover.
Talon’s frown got a bit more obvious. “With all due respect sir, it can’t.”
“With all due respect,” I snorted. “Nice phrase. Very handy way to tell someone who outranks you that they’re being an ass.” I drank a bit more rum. “‘Course, the way things are going, you might not outrank me for long.” I paused and thought that sentence over again. “Bah. Other way around. You know what I meant.”
“So I do, sir.” She moved the bottle out of reach before I could fill my glass up again. “We have quite a few things to go over, sir.”
“And I told you it’d have to wait until tomorrow.” I scoffed and emptied out my glass. “You really think it’s a good idea to talk over company business when I’m drunk?”
“I wasn’t expecting you to be at your most articulate, sir,” Talon answered dryly. “That said, the troops will feel better if they have some assurance that the company has a future. Right now the only way we can afford to pay them is to empty our coffers and sell off some of the company steel. Having another job lined up would be nice. Especially one that comes with an advance.”
“Well it sure would be nice if I could tell them that, but then they’d have a liar for a captain.” I slumped down and tipped back my glass, trying to capture the last few drops. “There isn’t any money, Talon. That bastard necrocrat left us high and dry. We were lucky to get out of it without picking up more debts. And as far as jobs go, I don’t like our prospects.”
“I didn’t imagine they were especially rosy.” She took a seat next to me. “But this isn’t the first time things have looked grim for the company. So how do we fix it?”
I knew she wasn’t going to leave me in peace until I gave her the answers she wanted. Best to just get it done then. “Same as the rule was last time. We need a job, even if its one I don’t love. Not like we’re in any position to be choosy about which jobs we take; right now we’re about one step away from begging for a handout. Just gotta make sure we don’t get screwed over with whatever job we take this time.”
“Right.” She pointedly moved the bottle a bit further away from me. “Do we have any leads on a new job? Anything on offer?” She grimaced. “It’s possible we might need to see if the clan has a contract for us. Nightshade did pull us out of the fire with Deathspair. Doesn’t change that he’s a bastard, but if he can get us a job to keep our heads above the water and we can clear out any red in our ledger from getting his help, I’d call that a win.”
“We’re not that desperate.” Not to mention that from what Nightshade said, things weren’t exactly going great for the rest of the clan either. No sense selling my integrity if I wouldn’t even get anything for it. The last job made that pretty clear.
Of course, that cut down our options even more. Down to just about one, if I thought about it. “There’s one thing we can try, but I don't like it. I really don't like it.” I leaned in a bit closer and whispered to her. “As in I don’t want to be in this bar talking where people might overhear don’t like it.”
“Then you shouldn’t be shouting about it to half the bar,” Talon commented.
“I was whispering.”
Talon snorted. “If that was your whisper, I’d hate to hear your shout. The only good news is that everyone else here is probably at least as drunk as you are.” She scoffed. “Well, if you have a room it shouldn’t be too hard to talk it over in private. Safe bet everyone here’ll see you go upstairs with a mare and draw the wrong conclusion.”
I grunted. Not like any of the barflies would know she was my cousin. “It’s not much more than a flophouse, but it has a door with a lock on it. The walls are thin, but the plumbing’s so loud it’ll drown out anyone who’s too curious for their own good. Just don’t drink the water.”
“Not like anyone comes here to drink the water anyway.” She followed me up to the room I’d rented. It wasn’t much, just the loud creaky sink and threadbare mattress. “Serviceable. That’s more than I expected.”
“Keep your expectations low, that way you never get disappointed.” I tried to take a seat on the bed, but the damn thing slipped out from under me and sent me flopping onto my back. I glared down at the mattress, only to see that it hadn’t moved at all. Damn tricky thing.
Talon let out a pained sigh as she went over to the dingy sink and turned it on. The pipes immediately started clattering and groaning. “Really, sir?”
I scoffed. “If you had the day I’ve had you’d want to drink too”
“I’m your second in command; my day wasn’t that much better.” She crossed her forelegs over her chest. “The company needs you right now, sir.”
“I know that.” Just that sometimes it was hard to still care about that. Belladon’s Brawlers, Tenth Company, whatever I called it. The whole thing was just a sick joke. A bunch of has-beens lead by a drunk. Or hell, the whole damned clan system. What were we? Low down backstabbing mercs who pretended we were something better, just because of our proud heritage. Never mind that those ancestors would be horrified to see what we’d become. Or that all our venerated forefathers were assholes too. Warrior clans aren’t built on niceness. The first pegasus clans were just a protection racket dressed up with fancy names. The farmers gave us their food so we wouldn’t steal it from them, and we didn’t let anyone else steal from them ‘cause why share? It was all just one giant pile of manure.
“Sir,” Talon growled, snapping me out of my thoughts. “The company needs its commander in one piece right now. I know you’re sick of hearing it, but this is not the time to go on a bender. Do it after we’ve had a successful job and we’re all flush with funds. Not like half the troops wouldn’t join you for the celebration. But right now we can’t afford to lose you for a couple of days while you crawl into a bottle and drown your sorrows.”
I scoffed. “Like you couldn’t run this company better than I can. Even Nightshade wants to give you a command.” I groaned and ran a hoof through my mane. “Dammit, I don’t want to have to think about any of this. We’re circling the drain, Talon. One more mistake and the whole company’s dead. Or we’re already dead, and our corpse just hasn’t stopped twitching yet. Not like dead things still staggering along and refusing to admit it’s been over for years is that rare for Freeport.”
I groaned and rubbed some sort of gunk out of my eyes. “I know you went to Nightshade to get us out of the fire. You know who he got to pull that off? Lord bucking Atramentous. That’s who. Not that I’m gonna complain about not ending that meeting with my head adorning a Necro’s trophy wall, but I have a feeling all I got was a stay of execution. Atramentous wants us to do a job for him.”
Talon frowned. “One of the oldest, wealthiest, and most powerful necromancers in Freeport wants to hire us? I should think that would be cause for celebration. Especially since his rep says he always pays his debts instead of treating mercs like disposable fodder.”
“Yeah, he said he’d pay us well if the job succeeds.” I grimaced. “And if we survive it. He might not kill us just to save the trouble of paying us, but he’s not exactly shy about sending us into a situation where we’ll all end up dead if it goes wrong.”
“That is what we do,” Talon pointed out. “So if you’re not happy about it, I presume there’s a bit more risk than usual? A situation where he needs deniable asset. If we pull it off, we get paid. If it goes wrong, we’re just a band of criminals he’s never heard of. Probably order the execution himself just to make sure we don’t talk.”
“Pretty much.” I took a deep breath. “So like you probably guessed, we’re doing some dirty dealing. He wants us to help Torch and the Council.”
Talon’s eyes shot wide open. “That ... would definitely qualify. If word of that got out that he was working with them, not even he could survive that. He might be the oldest and strongest of the Necrocrats, but he’s still just one of them.” She frowned as the initial shock faded, and she started thinking strategy. “So what’s his angle? I can’t imagine he plans on defecting to a movement that’s against everything he stands for.”
I shrugged. “Seems like he thinks he can find a way to make it all shake out in a way where he still ends up at the top. Get the Council to kill off the other Necros and cause enough chaos that he gets to take over and make himself the next Archon. Way he sees it, the Necros are doomed one way or another. He just wants to make sure they don’t drag him down with them. Sending a few expendable mercs to help the Council out can go a long way.”
“Makes sense,” Talon grunted. “Not like the current generation of Necros have much in the way of loyalty to each other. If he can keep himself safe by putting a knife in the back of a bunch of people he doesn’t have any respect for ... win-win.”
“Assuming the Council goes for it,” I pointed out. “Once they know he’s mixed up in this, they’d have to know he’s working some kind of angle. Then again, if they were desperate enough to try and recruit us they might not be in a position to turn down help regardless of who’s giving it and what they want out of it.”
“Not like they couldn’t agree to an alliance of convenience, at least,” Talon pointed out. “They can always try to take him down after he’s helped them eliminate all the other Necrocrats.”
“Also an option.” I grimaced and considered trying to slip downstairs to grab that half-empty bottle. Pity Talon would never let me do it. “And that’ll be great for us as long as all their clever little schemes work out. And if it doesn’t, well then Atramentous kills the whole damn company for aiding the rebels, and just writes that off as a failed scheme.“
“Never said it wasn’t a risky job,” Talon conceded. “But at least it’s a job, and not the worst one we’ve had. I’d rather risk getting killed helping people who want to make Freeport a better place than on slave escort duty.”
“I’d rather not get killed at all.” I doubt a corpse cares how brave and noble the cause it died for was. “This is deep into necrocrat business. If it all works out we’ll get paid more than enough to secure the company, but there’s a lot of ways this could go bad.”
“You think we’re not in danger of winding up dead regardless?” Talon pointed out. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but our last job was supposed to be a milk run escort job, and we wound up getting hit twice. If we’re in danger of getting killed no matter what job we take, I’d rather take something that doesn’t make me feel sick to my stomach.”
“Guess so.” I grunted. “Not that we have much of a choice in the matter anyway. Can’t imagine Atramentous is gonna gracefully accept and let us go on our merry way if we tell him no. Guys like him don’t like hearing that word, and there’s always the risk we could sell the info about that job offer to one of his enemies.” I grimaced and slowly nodded as I realized just how screwed we were. “We take the job, or we die. We might die if we take it, but our odds are better than if we defy Atramentous. Besides, we need the money.”
“Right.” She took a deep breath. “So we’ll be working with Torch again. Will that be a problem for you?”
I thought about it for a second. “I’m sore at him for doing us a bad turn, but I can respect him for at least standing up for something. Compared to the times we’ve been backstabbed just to save the cost of paying us or to get a slightly bigger payday, doing it for a good cause he truly believes in is ... better. Still a backstab though.”
“Yeah.” Talon sighed. “Still, we’ve worked with a lot worse than someone we respect, but are still mad at. I’m sure we can find a way to make it work.” She hesitated for a moment. “Mind if I speak a bit bluntly, sir?”
“Do I look like I give a damn if you’re blunt?” I scoffed. “Subtle’d probably be wasted on me when I’ve had this many drinks.”
“True.” Talon took a deep breath. “If Torch had come to us honestly and asked us to hire on with the Council, would you have taken the job?”
I had to think about that for a second. “Getting mixed up with rebellions and revolutions never ends well. The Council wouldn’t pay us a fair wage, or if they did, they’d keep asking us to think about ‘the cause’ and how much more good the money would do somewhere else. Plus ... well, even if I didn’t know about Atramentous until recently, I suspected something was up. Sure, The Council talks a good game, but at the end of the day it’s just gonna be a reshuffle of the assholes at the top of the pyramid. Either Atramentous will use them to seize power, or we’ll get some new group running things that’ll eventually end up being as bad as the Necros.”
“Maybe,” Talon agreed. “But I don’t think the slaves being kept in chains right now care if the people who free them might make a regime that eventually turns corrupt in a century or two. Not saying it’s not messy, but all things considered I’d rather be on the side that’s breaking chains than the one that wants to keep everyone locked in them.”
I didn’t like how this talk was going. “I gave our clients my word, Talon.”
“I know you did, and I know how much that means to you.” She frowned. “Integrity counts for a lot. I’m just not sure it’s more important than any other virtue. How much value is there in keeping your word if you only give your word to horrible clients? There’s clearly a line we need to draw somewhere. We gave our word to stand by our clan and follow the orders, but then the Charger Contract happened. Begs the question, where else do we draw the line?”
“Are you saying we should’ve joined him?” I groaned and shook my head. “We’re mercenaries, Talon. Not rebels.”
“We haven’t had much luck at being mercenaries lately,” Talon countered. “Why stick to a job that barely keeps us alive day to day and keeps getting worse? Something needs to change. Something bigger than us hoping the next contract pays a bit better, and this job’s not quite as ugly as the last one.” She sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “Haven’t you ever wanted to accomplish something meaningful with your life?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” I groaned and tried to sit up a bit straighter. “But for right now, I’ll settle for keeping the company alive and intact so maybe one day we can actually pull that off. Big dreams are nice, but nothing’ll come of them if we all end up dead.”
“Right.” She frowned down at the floorboards. “So we’re taking the job to work with Torch?”
“Yeah, we are.”
Her frown got a big deeper. “That’s a start. One problem, though: how do we get in touch with him to let him know we’re interested? I don’t suppose Atramentous has any contacts inside the Council who could pass on a message?”
“Nothing that lucky,” I agreed. “Figure out best hope is for him to contact us.”
“Not precisely an ideal solution,” Talon murmured. “There’s no guarantee he’ll do that at all, especially not within the timeframe we’ll need.”
“Yeah, which is why I was working on a plan to kinda nudge things along when you interrupted me.” I snorted. “Gonna take a while to make up for lost time. I’m almost starting to sober up.”
Talon answered that with a skeptical raise of her eyebrow. “So your brilliant plan to get the Council to recruit us was to get drunk?”
“Sort of.” I shrugged. “Get really drunk, then make a big drunken fuss about how I should’ve signed on with Torch when he gave me the chance. Make a big enough scene of it and there’s a decent shot word of it would get back to him. Probably earn me a night in the drunk tank, but I doubt anyone would bother with more than that. Just that old drunk Belladon getting plastered three sheets to the wind and shooting his mouth off again, no reason to take him seriously. Of course he’d say some stupid things after his last job went bad and his company’s falling apart.”
Talon stared at me for several seconds. “You’ve actually weaponized your own alcoholism and poor reputation. I’m impressed.”
“Also why more rum than usual wound up on my clothes, and a bit less in my mouth.” I glanced down and grimaced. “Damn shame to waste any of it, but I figured playing it up a bit more would be help add to the illusion. The more hammered I look, the better.”
“You could just splash some rum over yourself and pretend to be drunk,” Talon pointed out.
“I’m not that good of an actor,” I shot back. “Way easier to pretend to be slightly more drunk than I actually am than to do it while I’m stone cold sober. Not to mention all the little details that are a lot harder to fake. If I do end up in the drunk tank, I need a proper stinky drunk sweat and bloodshot eyes to go with it. Maybe it wouldn’t matter, but if there’s anyone who knows all the ugly little details of drunks, it’s the guards at a drunk tank.”
“You really have thought this through.” A hint of a smirk tugged at her lips. “Or you’ve spun an impressive string of lies together to give you an excuse to get falling-down drunk and say you’re doing it for the good of the company.”
I shrugged. “As long as it all works out, who cares about the details? Now go get me some more rum so I can get properly drunk.”
I suppose the good news was that at least the first stage of my plan went off flawlessly. The bad news was that meant waking up the next morning with a nasty hangover, and then having to lounge around in the drunk tank until Talon came around to bail me out. Giving her the ducats to cover my fines wiped out my drinking money for the near future, but it wasn’t like I could ask her to pay those out of her own pocket or take the cash out of the company’s funds. Maybe I could’ve justified it as a business expense considering it had been part of the cost of contacting Torch, but somehow I doubt any of the troops would’ve believed that.
After that there wasn’t much to do but wait and hope. My gut told me Torch would be keeping an ear to the ground for whatever I was up to. Certainly me going on making drunken spectacle of proclaiming that I’d made a huge mistake not taking that job from him would be exactly the sort of thing he’d want to hear. The only question was if word would get to him, and if he’d actually be able to do anything about it in time.
At least there hadn’t been any trouble from other sources. I’d been a little worried Deathspair or one of the other Necros would come after me, but apparently my drunk camouflage had worked as planned. If anyone found out about it, they just rolled their eyes and grumbled about what a useless old sot I was. Nobody takes an old drunk seriously. Or at least, almost nobody. I was pinning an awful lot of my hopes on Torch doing so. Hopefully he was a big believer in the idea that drunks spouted out their true feelings they would never dare share while sober. A load of horseapples if my experience was anything to go by. I didn’t reveal any deep hidden truths while drunk, I just blathered out whatever random nonsense happened to be on my mind.
Once I was free I headed back to the tavern, trying to decide how best to treat the pounding headache that seemed determined to remain firmly in place. Normally I would’ve gone for a bit of the old hair of the dog that bit me, but I needed a clear head right now. Not to mention that with how bad I’d tied one on last night, getting enough to hold off the hangover would probably require getting drunk all over again. Not exactly a winning move.
The next week wasn’t very much fun. I’d done the only thing I could think of, and now all that was left was to wait and see if Torch reached out to me. Preferably before the next payday, considering how many desperate measures Talon and I had to resort to just to get this month’s paycheck out. I’d managed to avoid selling off any of our spare gear, but only by breaking one of the number one rules of managing a merc company: I was sinking my own money into the coffers. Not like my retirement fund would do me any good if I got strung up by my troops when I told them I couldn’t pay them.
I spent most of my spare time making token efforts to find other jobs, and then just sitting around taverns drinking watered down rum. Not because I needed the booze, it was just that I didn’t trust any water that didn’t have enough alcohol in it to kill whatever else was in it. Not like the cheap dockside taverns I’d been hanging out in would bother with properly filtering and treating it. I was about halfway through my less than pleasant beverage when a pegasus mare with bright blue eyes passed behind me. A second later I half-heard a whisper. “Torch will meet you at the old Talon Trust warehouse in two hours.”
“Wait, what?!” I bolted up from my seat, sending it tumbling down to the floor. The messenger was already out the door by the time I realized what had happened, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I followed her out, just in time to see a flash of her tail disappearing into a nearby alleyway. I had no intention of letting her get away, not without getting a lot more answers.
When I rounded the corner, I saw a dead end alley, but there was no sign of the mare I was after. The only one there was a bleary-eyed gryphon, one who looked about as sober as I’d been last night. “You see a pegasus mare come down here?” I demanded.
The gryphon blinked a few times, then shrugged. He was probably so out of it he wouldn’t have noticed his own mother walking by. But that still begged the question of where she’d gone. Maybe she could’ve flown out of the dead end? I should’ve seen her making her getaway, but maybe she’d come up with something sneaky.
Ugh. Never mind. I’d probably get better answers from Torch than I would from whoever he sent to tell me when and where to meet him.
Two hours later I was outside the old warehouse. Talon Trust had been one of the bigger Westmarch trading companies, but they’d lost interest in trading with Freeport thanks to all the trouble stirred by Equestria and the Council. Why take the risk of having your merchant ships hit by ideological pirates or caught by a naval patrol when there were plenty of safer ports to visit? They were still happy enough to do business with Freeport, they just didn’t see any reason to take on the risk of putting their ships in our troubled waters. Thus, a warehouse that hadn’t seen any use for the last few years.
I headed up to the front door. It had been locked and chained shut once the Talon Trust gave up on it, but a locked warehouse with no guards only stays locked for so long. Doubtless it had been taken over by squatters and smugglers, at least until the Council moved in. Or maybe the Council had only taken it over for a couple hours, and soon enough it would go back to whatever dock flotsam wanted it.
I stepped into the warehouse, and the smell instantly confirmed that the Council wasn’t here long-term. It smelled like a squatter nest, and one occupied by the sort who didn’t think to clean up any garbage or step outside to use a latrine. Still, it was the kind of place nobody came if they had somewhere better to be. Good enough for most private meetings. Even if someone spotted us, most of the locals knew willful blindness was a lot safer than prying into others’ business. Plenty of smugglers and pirates wouldn’t think twice about cleaning up a few inconvenient witnesses, especially when the locals were so low on the ladder that nobody would miss them.
I grimaced and headed into the center of the warehouse. “So, here I am. What do you want to talk about?”
Torch dropped down from the warehouse’s exposed rafters, landing in front of me and smiling. “A pleasure to see you again, captain. Even if our current meeting place leaves a bit to be desired, the pleasant company makes up for it.”
I snorted. “Someone tries buttering me up that hard, they’re usually after my wallet.” That or trying to get me into bed, but I was way too ugly and beaten down for anyone to have tried that for a while. “So are you really happy to see me, or did you just think a bit of sweet talk would make it easier to get me to go along with whatever mess you want to drag me into?”
Torch chuckled softly. “Just as surly as I remember. Would you believe that it’s a bit of both? It costs nothing to be pleasant, especially to someone I would like to consider a friend, but I can hardly deny I was hoping to recruit you.”
“Recruit me, huh?” I might have wanted the job, but I knew better than to let that show. Considering the terms we’d parted on last time, not being grouchy would look suspicious. “Guess since you weren’t a real merc, you don’t know how it goes. Whenever someone wants to be my friend, it always seems to lead to ‘well can’t you just do this one job for free for your old buddy?’ Though in your case I expect you’ll toss in a bit of ‘Don’t you want to help out the poor oppressed slaves?’”
Torch sighed and shook his head. “I know better than to ask under those terms. In fact, I was hoping to hire you. I won’t deny that could lead you into quite a bit of trouble, but it’s honest paying work and I’m willing to meet the usual market rate for your services. I don’t expect a mercenary to work for free.”
So, a paycheck from him, and one from Atramentous when it was all done? I could work with that. “Alright then, I’ll hear your pitch. We both know I’ve taken jobs from far worse clients.”
“Thank you.” Torch took a seat. “The job should be simple enough, just another escort mission. I’m going to Equestria, and I need an honor guard to come with me. Not to mention a bit of protection for the journey. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the seas are rather perilous, especially the route between Freeport and Equestria. Considering the unofficial blockade and embargo, I can’t exactly blend in on an ordinary trade ship.”
That all sounded just a bit too simple and easy for my tastes. I never trust jobs that sound too easy. “That’s it? Doesn’t seem like something you’d need to hire a whole company for.”
“Certainly not in normal times, but these times are hardly normal,” Torch pointed out. “Your last ship got attacked twice on its way back from Port Nowhere, and if the Necrocrats catch wind of there being a Council envoy headed to Equestria, they’ll throw quite a few ships into stopping us. As the old saying goes, I’d rather have too much security than not enough.” He shrugged and shot me a self-effacing smile. “Not to mention that I did do your company a bit of a bad turn. I know you only took that job because your finances were desperate, and I can’t imagine your client paid you for coming back with an empty cargo hold. Consider hiring your company my way of offering recompense.”
“Right.” I knew better than to buy that line, even if it did sound nice. A bunch of abolitionists wouldn’t give a damn if some mercs who worked for slavers were in a bad way. Torch was just playing nice to try and win me over to his cause. Still, the money was good. “If I take the job, no more lies or nasty surprises. I’ll let what you did on the last job slide for now, but the instant you turn on me or make me think you’re sharpening another knife for my back, I’ll find out just how much the Necrocrats are willing to pay for you.”
That finally got the smile off Torch’s face. “I can’t say I like the idea of being threatened, but I suppose in light of everything that happened I can’t fault your suspicions. I assure you, from this point forward there will complete openness and honesty, save for any facts that might endanger other members of the Council.”
“Fair.” I could hardly ask him to sell out any allies just to win my trust. “You said you’d pay a fair market rate. Mind getting a bit more specific?”
He chuckled softly. “I recall a saying I heard once. ‘When negotiations get down to debating the price, you’ve already conceded to making the deal.”
“Doesn’t mean talks can’t fall apart if the offer’s not good enough.” I took a seat and crossed my forelegs over my chest. “I’m a merc. Unless someone’s trying to hire me for something utterly evil, the price is what negotiations are all about, and I’ve turned down plenty of jobs.” Even if I hadn’t had the luxury of turning down paying work lately.
“Very true.” Torch’s smile came back as he gave me his first offer. “That should be more than enough to keep your company afloat for the length of the job, and even allow you a few weeks to relax and catch your breath before the next job.” His smile turned just a touch too cocksure. “And I’ll remove any spell-traps still left in your company’s equipment as a courtesy.”
“Damn well better.” I hadn’t gotten around to finding some street mage to look over our gear yet, especially considering the budget I had to work with. What little I knew about magic said that those traps would be a one-time thing, but I was just an old merc who’d seen some things. Long damn way from being an expert. I would be a lot happier if someone could confirm I wouldn’t be getting any nasty surprises. “The price is reasonable, at least. Almost sounds too good to be true. Of course, you glanced over the part where this will make me and my company traitors as far as the Necrocrats are concerned.”
Torch shrugged. “Only if they find out, and are the type to bear a grudge. I’m sure you could make up a grand story about how I deceived you into working for the Council without knowing who your employer truly was. In fact, I would encourage it. Let them think I’m a master manipulator who can bend everyone to my whims.” He leaned in a bit closer, smiling knowingly. “Besides, I doubt you have any love for them “
“Can’t say I do,” I confessed. “Not that anyone seems to be all that fond of them. Nobody on the bottom of the pyramid likes getting stepped on, and even the ones on top all seem to hate each other. Can’t say the way that my last client threatened to kill me for the job going bad did much to endear me to him.” I frowned and shook my head. “Not that I was all that eager about taking that job in the first place.”
“Poverty and desperation can push many to do things that would otherwise be unthinkable.” He took a deep breath. “One of many reasons Freeport desperately needs change. Imagine how much we could change this city by working together.”
“Sounds like you aim to get a lot more than just one escort mission out of me.” I held up a hoof to cut him off. “And no, I’m not gonna volunteer to hook up with your crazy revolution and fight for free. Now, if you’re talking about a potential long term contract...”
Torch shrugged. “I can’t promise it would be, since quite a bit is going to depend on exactly how our mission goes. However, if it goes well that would certainly make hiring your company on a more permanent basis seem appealing.”
“Huh.” I tried to figure out how exactly I felt about that. A steady paycheck instead of little one-off jobs would do wonders for the company’s finances and morale. Even when we could make good money on smaller jobs, nobody liked the uncertainty of not knowing where and when our next paycheck was coming from. I would certainly sleep a lot easier if I could stop worrying about whether I’d be able to pay my troops this month.
On the other hoof, it would mean tying ourselves to the Council. I could take one job for them and say it was just another mercenary contract. A long-term deal would make it a lot harder to play that game. Which meant that if the Council went down me and mine would go down with them. I couldn’t say I liked the idea of that. The whole point of being a mercenary was to not get mixed up in causes and ideologies.
Still, no sense worrying about the long term just yet. For the short term, it was a good job that would fix my company’s finances, and give me opening to finish my commission from Lord Atramentous. No sense worrying about my company’s long-term plans if it didn’t survive the next couple weeks. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I think we can work out a price for this first job. Can’t say I’m wild about getting back on a boat for another escort mission when we just wrapped one up, but at least it’s a paycheck. The troops might not be wild about working for you after you did us dirty, but we’re mercs. A signing bonus and a keg of rum will go a long way to smoothing that over. Especially if I can get that signing bonus a day early so they have one night to waste it on whatever sounds good to them.”
“I don’t have an unlimited budget,” Torch pointed out. “There are those in the Council who think we could spend the money on far better things than hiring your company. Every ducat I give you is one we can’t spend on feeding, clothing, and treating our refugees.”
It was hard to come up with an answer to that where I didn’t sound like a heartless bastard. Not like I wanted them to take money out of the mouths of starving child slaves. But I had a company to take care of, and without something to smooth over any ruffled feathers, there’d be plenty of grumbles about working for Torch. “My guys aren’t going to care about that kind of thing. They want fair compensation. Only takes one really disgruntled guy to sell us out to the Necrocrats. Not saying they’re on the verge of mutiny or anything, but sometimes showing a little bit of respect goes a long way.”
“Ah.” Torch shrugged. “Well, I’m sure we can arrange something. I’ll admit, working with mercenaries is a bit different from the usual recruits we get. They’re just a touch committed to the cause and enthusiastic about helping.”
“If you wanted an enthusiastic idealist, you shouldn’t have hired a mercenary,” I pointed out. “We do the job, and we get paid. Giving a damn about what you stand for is optional, and in my experience pretty damn rare.”
“Everyone needs to believe in something,” Torch countered. “Without some broader purpose, what’s the point of even being alive? It’s how I made it through the downfall of my clan when so many others didn’t. The remnants of Pegasopolis devoted ourselves to our clans, but now those old clan structures have fallen apart, and in my case vanished completely. So I found a new cause, something worth being part of.” He smiled at me. “That’s why I want you to join me, Belladon. You’re a lost soul, like I once was. What you need is a good cause to fill that giant clan-shaped hole in your heart.”
I scoffed. “The clans? They’re just a bunch of corrupt self-serving assholes. Probably always were, no matter how much we like to go on about all the honor and glory of old Pegasopolis.”
“Maybe so,” Torch conceded. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t need something to believe in, whether it’s the clans or something else. Just because the clans were flawed and imperfect doesn’t mean we can’t follow their ideals while trying to avoid their mistakes. I know the Council isn’t perfect either, but freeing slaves is still the right thing to do.”
I groaned and shook my head. “Look, Torch, I’m already taking the job. You don’t have to try and win me over to your grand cause. Just pay me, and I’ll do the work. And if you plan to use this job to keep trying to fill my head with crazy ideas the price is gonna go up.”
Torch sighed and shook his head. “Very well then, I’ll keep things professional. Though I do hope you’re in the mood to discuss the bigger picture at some point.”
“Don’t count on it,” I grunted. “Now about that signing bonus...”