Chapter 88: Final Transactions

Thatch. Kai hadn't woken up staring at thatch since he'd been a young orphan, not yet adopted by the Granfian clan. He blinked several times before trying to sit up.

The rest of the room matched the roof, so he had been moved to some village house. After everything he'd been through, he expected to be in pain, but his body felt perfectly normal. Also encouraging was the fact that Zae Zin Nim sat on a chair beside him, cultivating.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "Did Anaelina manage to drain any of your qi?"

"What kind of question is that? Have some sense of self-preservation!" Her frown quickly faded, however. "No, you jumped in before I could suffer any permanent harm. You've only been asleep several hours and there's been no sign of her since then."

"Then where are we and what are we doing here?"

"It's too much trouble to keep track of everything. Let me get the merchant to explain."

She stalked out and, not long after, pushed Razz into the room. He gave a broad smile and wave as he sat down in her vacated chair. "Hey, Kai! Glad to see you're alright. We suspected you would be, but that battle was rough on everyone. You do feel fine, right?"

"More or less." Kai shifted to a more comfortable sitting position, because he could see what was coming. "What's the situation in Rayakan and why have we been moved to wherever this is?"

"Well, in one sense things are going great. The woman who attacked the market has not been seen again. We've increased the guard and everyone is in communication, so we don't think she's attacking individuals. This is absolutely terrible for the Corinin clan, let me tell you. There's absolutely no way they can dodge the fact that they showed off their new mercenary and then she went wild."

"All of this is good for you, isn't it?"

"Won't deny it." Razz spread his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "The Orgoron clan isn't taking the blame, but they lost a lot of hunters in the fighting and their market event was destroyed with significant losses. The Lantrian clan is the only one coming out of this looking stable."

"Plus you have the support of the Irunians."

"And the general public! But that brings me to the difficult part of this: I'd like to ask your permission to stab you in the back."

Kai stared at him flatly. "Explain."

"There's one little problem about the killer: she was extremely obviously going after you. The public doesn't know why, I don't know why, and frankly it doesn't matter why." Razz's smile turned apologetic. "Regardless of whether it's your fault, a lot of people blame you as responsible somehow. The Corinins are on the back foot, but if I continue associating with you, they're going to use that against me."

"I see how it's going, then." Kai rubbed his eyes as he caught up and realized what would happen. "You kicked us out of the city and you want to deny all involvement."

"Not deny, since that could be disproven, but I'll definitely disavow you. I'm sorry about that, I really am. I would have liked to have you in Rayakan for longer."

"One condition, or I'll march to the Lantrian estate and announce our eternal alliance." Kai stood up to face Razz and waited until the other man rose as well. "I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you'll run Rayakan better than the Corinin clan did. No expensive excesses. Make the Hunters Guild respectable again. No mercantile games... okay, fewer mercantile games. But don't enrich yourself by exploiting the people you're meant to be leading."

Razz sighed and pushed his hair away from his face. "Didn't we already cover this? Yes, I'll be trying to do those things. But there's no point making me tell you what you want to hear."

"Promise me. If I hear otherwise, I'll come back."

"Hah!" Razz squirmed a little but then thrust out a hand. "Alright, I promise. I'm glad I met you, Kai. Hopefully one day you'll be glad you met me."

Kai shook his hand firmly. The idea of a hunter making a deal with a merchant would have been laughable not long ago, but all the chaos he'd been through had changed more than just his power. When Razz let go, he stepped back and gestured to the door with an elaborate bow.

"I guess it's good you got that agreement out of me now, because I also have a lot of bribes for you. They should still be waiting."

That part Kai hadn't been anticipating at all. He saw that Zae Zin Nim was waiting outside the door, listening more than she had let on. She raised a sack of coins. "He gave us back what was lost during the fight."

"Whatever else you can say about the merciless indiscriminate killer, she wasn't greedy." Razz pulled him into a village square. "But that's just returning what should have belonged to you in the first place. I can do better than that."

Though he didn't recognize their exact location, Kai knew the look of villages around Rayakan by now. This one was slightly smaller than the one where they'd killed the Gomodo, with worse roads and a lot more thatch. He didn't see any actual villagers, just a cluster of Lantrian officials and a few others. Several looked oddly familiar, and he definitely recognized Soeraina Corinin.

"I misjudged you when we first met." She looked like she didn't want to apologize, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I thought you were another northerner looking to come south and indulge yourself. But instead you showed me just how weak our Guild had become. That will change."

"I'm glad for all of that," Kai said, "but are you sure you want to be talking to me in public?"

"Let the public think what it wants. Razz tells me that you'll be moving on anyway, and I wanted to give you this." She reached into her belt, very like his own, and revealed the pale sphere of the soul fruit. "I think you'll make better use of this than we would. Take it."

He wasn't going to refuse: Kai's hand had already closed around the fruit. "Thank you."

She nodded and turned away. As several men and women moved forward, Kai finally placed them: they were some of the merchants he'd seen at the market. He hadn't expected that at all, considering that he didn't even know any of their names.

"Our trip to Rayakan didn't exactly end the way we'd wanted," the head merchant said. "We lost much of our merchandise and, even though they promise another market in time, the city no longer feels like a safe place to conduct business. Since you were one of the few to show real interest, we wanted to offer you our goods at a very reasonable-"

Razz coughed loudly.

"-at a significant discount. What do you say, can we help one another?"

That didn't exactly help Kai's impression of merchants, but he supposed they were more citizens who had been on the wrong side of the violence. As it turned out, whether because of their gratitude or Razz's pressure, they weren't lying about offering good deals. In the end he purchased a pair of drake fruits and several mana plums for just a little over two thousand Eagles. It hadn't been the path he'd intended to take, but now he didn't need to compromise.

With that done, the final business seemed to be over. Kai glanced around the village one more time before turning back to Razz. "No Irun?"

"They retreated to their own camp. Something about an urgent message, but I think they're just shaken and want some time alone. Oh, but your friend Tusquo survived. The Irunians all fared pretty well in the battle, actually." Razz shifted awkwardly, then reverted to a grin. "I guess there's really nothing else. I'll take care of Rayakan, don't worry. You head back north and do... whatever it is you're doing."

"Good luck, Razz." They shook hands one more time, then Kai gathered his things and left.

When he'd come to Rayakan months ago, all he'd been thinking of was finding a mana pool and fulfilling his promises. Somehow he left it not only significantly stronger, but carrying a small fortune in coins and magical items. A "soft" southern city had proved to contain far more trials than he'd ever suspected.

Zae Zin Nim slipped from nearby shadows to follow him once he got out of the village. "Are we done here?"

"Yeah, looks like it. Where do we go next?"

"I want to stay away from civilization until we can both advance, especially since we don't know the current situation with Anaelina. But we should head north. I'd like to test myself against more of these monsters."

"Works for me."

With both of them in good physical condition, they could walk much more quickly than when they had arrived at the city. They stayed alongside the river for a while, nodding to the sailors who waved at them, then eventually veered away to head straight north. Kai wanted to talk, yet he was still thinking about everything that had happened.

Was all this good or bad luck? Any plans he'd had for Rayakan were gone now and he had no choice but to leave it to Razz. Maybe it was just luck and trying to label it any further was a mistake.

"Noticed them?" Zae Zin Nim asked. Kai blinked, then looked back.

Sunlight glinted off something in the air behind them. A crystal diamond floated in the air, far behind but slowly closing. Even from this distance he could see it was carrying two figures, so Kai just groaned. It wasn't over after all.

"Are the peasants going to come out and defend us this time?"

"No," Kai said, "I don't think so. They'll wait until we're away from any witnesses, then strike."

"Good." As Zae Zin Nim spoke, a wisp of blue flame escaped her lips.