“And then there I was, feet pointed to the ceiling, thighs shaking, begging every god I could remember for the session manager to lose his watch and come back when I was well and truly satisfied.”

  “You’re lucky, Fons, I got two virgins tonight, and they didn’t know a tit from a doorknob.”

  “Well, young people like that only know one knob if you catch my drift, Becca?”

  Belinda's eyes flitted to the two flophouse workers, a human woman and an elf man, leaning against each other in raucous laughter as she ate her noodles next to Sophie.

  “Glad they’re having a nice time,” Sophie said as she blew on her steaming noodles.

  “Not too late to change professions,” Belinda quipped, placing her bowl against the stall's long bar top. “Of course, I’d make a killing at it.”

  “You think so, what would be your draw then?” Sophie asked with a smirk.

  “Consultation.”

  “…Consultation?”

  “Yes, picture me in my nighties, sexy ones of course… would have to buy some. But, regardless. Some magical society bloke would bring me their ritual, and I would correct it, then correct them, and I don’t mean academically.”

  “And they’d pay you for it?”

  “Well, wouldn’t you pay for a sexy lady to help you with your array work? I surely would.”

  “I can’t say I’m really into arrays like that or women for that matter, Lindy. Wish I was, men are terrible.”

  “It’s just your questionable taste in men that’s terrible. Also, wait, is that why I’m doing all the work on the arrays then?” Belinda asked with feigned surprise to mask her true feelings. The ones that wished, for once, Sophie would look at her like she did every other terrible decision.

  The remark earned a snorting laugh from Sophie. And Belinda couldn’t help the smile that played across her lips.

  Maybe it was how the stall’s warm glow danced across Sophie’s silver hair. How her smile, which she rarely showed others, made her look more perfect than any bronze adventurer Belinda had ever seen. How her laugh was home no matter where they lived.

  She needed to protect it. She needed to get them out of this city.

  “What can I say, I like them a bit dangerous.”

  “You need to reform your taste; three of your lovers tried to sell you out to Cole Silva. That would inspire most people to examine their taste in men, but you pick up every lying scheming weasel that stumbles into view.”

  “They weren’t lovers; they were just a bit of fun. And things didn’t exactly work out for them,” Sophie laughed before looking up at the sky with a contemplative expression.

  “The point is you need to raise your standards. You are worth more than any of those guys could offer you. If you’re going to stick with men, at least pick a good one.”

  “Then find me a good guy who’s also a lying, scheming weasel. Oh, what about a reformed bad boy!?” Sophie asked with a grin.

  Belinda groaned.

  “Reformed bad boy? Sophie, I’m no miracle worker. Besides, you don’t need bad at all. Why not go with a guy with no history? It’s the safest bet.”

  “But I like a little bit of edge,” Sophie said with a smirk, only to look at Belinda’s face and sigh. “Fine, fine, I can only ask so much of you… Well, what job would I have then?”

  “Other than people paying just to catch a glimpse of you?” Belinda asked.

  “What, would I never leave the house? Sounds more like a prison to me,” Sophie said, looking down at her noodles, then back to Belinda with a smirk. “Do you think people would pay for me to beat them up?”

  “Well, people got paid to fight you, not too hard to see the reverse. It’d be far less work for them anyway. But why does it always have to be fists with you?”

  “It’s cathartic. You should really try punching someone.”

  “Well, I tried stabbing, and that didn’t work out too well for me, did it, Soph?”

  “Yeah… maybe just leave the punching to me then.”

  “Oh, if you’re lookin' for a fight, I’ve got you one,” came a voice from behind the bar as the stall’s owner leaned towards them. “I got a copy of that recording crystal going around.”

  “We’ve already seen the one with the evil powers guy,” Belinda said, waving a hand at the woman. “Though I don’t think I would really call Asano evil now that I think of it. He does too much at the clinic to truly be all that bad.”

  “No, not that recording,” The chef said, tapping the crystal. “The Geller and Mercer fight. It’s quite good and not just because both parties are lookers.”

  “Wait, the fight actually happened?” Belinda asked. “I thought Mercer would’ve backed out of it.”

  “Well, he’s done a lot of unexpected things recently,” Sophie said, pushing away her bowl and leaning toward the crystal that’d been tossed up in front of the bar.

  “Oh, are we watching something?”

  Belinda glanced down at the flophouse workers who’d now slid down the bars length to get a better view.

  “Yeah, I’m thinking of getting a projector and setting up more of these fights to watch while people eat. The guy with the evil powers called it a ‘Sports bar’… Whatever that means. But he’s pretty good at pulling noodles, so maybe he ran one back wherever he came from.”

  “I wouldn’t trust everything the guy suggests,” Belinda added, as she eyed the crystal and finished her noodles.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Thad fought surprisingly well; no wonder Sophie had come back worse for wear the first time they’d run into each other.

  “Umm? Why are they fighting again?” The flophouse worker named Fons asked.

  “I heard it’s cause Mercer stole Geller’s boyfriend,” The chef said.

  “What, I thought Geller was dating some priestess,” Becca chirped, sliding a coin across the counter for a glass of cider.

  “I thought that too, but apparently he was dating that guy from the other recording.” The chef replied, handing over a glass and tucking the coin away.

  “Wait, the guy with the evil powers? I thought he was dating Cassandra Mercer,” Fons said, leaning in closer for the gossip.

  “Apparently, he gets around. I saw him here in this very shop the other day with not only Thadwick Mercer, but also the assistant to the deputy director of the magic society.”

  “Wait, he’s sleeping with Lucian Lamprey as well? Brave guy, most of us won’t go near him,” Fons said, making a motion of protection across his chest.

  “No, not him. He’s sleeping with the tall skinny guy, who actually runs the place. He’s a good customer.”

  “So, let me get this straight… the guy with the evil powers is sleeping with Humphrey Geller, both Mercer siblings, and some random guy from the magic society? Not to mention Humphrey Geller, the Humphrey Geller, is cheating on him with some priestess?” Becca asked, holding up a finger for each love interest added to the list.

  “That about sums it up,” The chef said with a nod. “Though I heard that Mercer is sleeping with his healer and the assistant to the deputy director of the magic society as well.”

  “Do you really have to call the guy by that long title every time?” Sophie asked, finishing her noodles as she watched the screen, enraptured

  “Well, at least Mercer’s sleeping with someone. He’s been absent from the houses for over two months now. The economy’s in shambles,” Becca said with a sigh before looking back at Fon’s. “He was one of your regulars, right?”

  “Yeah, pretty good shag. Though most people with a praise kink and low confidence are, given the right direction,” Fons said, waggling his eyebrows at Becca, who laughed into her cider.

  “Wait… Is that my fucking ritual?!” Belinda scowled as she watched the young noble pour salt on the ground.

  “How can you tell?” Sophie asked, studying the recording more closely.

  “I… I leave a signature in the retention lines.”

  Sophie and the other people at the bar turned and gave Belinda a withering look.

  “I’m not going to tell you how to do your business deary,” the chef said with a frown. “But I know you girls shouldn’t be leaving traces of yourself around. I don’t even keep track of your receipts, in case Cole Silva’s goons come nosing about.”

  Belinda looked away, her face flushing a bit before she glanced back up at the screen, only to catch Thad yelling at Geller to leave before the screen lit up from an explosion that sent the man into a wall.

  “Wait, you’ve got a ritual that can do that?” Sophie asked, her eyes going big.

  “What, no… he must’ve done something?”

  “He killed a bloody Manticore with it! That’s dangerous, Lindy.”

  “It’s a stealth spell with a bit of blowback, not something that would do that,” Belinda said, looking up at the screen. The ritual had obviously been modified… but it’d definitely been her spell mixed with another. How did he copy it after only seeing it once? Hadn’t it been the first time he’d seen it? Had Thad had his people check in on them?

  Belinda recalled the worried expression Thad had when he held her broken wrist, how he’d healed her with painless magic. He could’ve just used a potion. He’d seemed so… earnest.

  However, she’d still caught the lie he’d spouted about how he’d learned lock picking… he’d definitely known it for other reasons, not just as some hobby or to get himself back into his own home.

  The guy was some sketchy enigma.

  And then she saw it, Thad grabbing Humphrey and checking over him. Tears welling in his eyes for a man who was his supposed enemy, the man who’d stabbed him in cold blood, but then was absolved. Why did everything Thad did conflict with her knowledge of who he was?

  “It’s weird seeing the personality match the face for once. Sort of a deadly combo,” Fons said, looking up at the screen. “Shame he’s not coming around the houses anymore. Would’ve given him a discount.”

  “You know, doll, if you’re looking for a reformed bad boy, there he is,” Becca said, waving her hand at the recording crystal.

  Belinda watched as Sophie tilted her head and bit her lip in contemplation, and dread immediately set in.

  “Sophie, don’t you dare.”

  “What?! I’ve done nothing,” Sophie said innocently. It was the same tone she gave when she was about do something they would both regret.

  “Just because he’s acting like a good person doesn’t mean anything,” Belinda scolded. “Just don’t, ok?”

  “Well, I’m definitely going to do him, now.”

  “You’re not funny, Sophie!”

  “Lindy, think about what we could do with a Mercer in our corner. That’s a lot of protection.”

  “I wouldn’t count on a family like the Mercers approving something like that. Sleeping around in the flophouses is one thing, but families like that don’t deal with people like us. You’d have a better chance getting with Humphrey Geller.”

  “Well, Geller does have a bit more edge than I thought he did, pulling a backstabbing move like that.”

  “That’s it, no more men for you! Your judgment obviously can’t be trusted!”

  “Oh, finished another contract there, Lord Mercer, quite the reform these last few months. You trying for a second star?”

  “Albert, of all people, you know I don’t really qualify,” Thad said with a smile as he leaned against the job hall desk, watching the official finish the paperwork.

  “Well, you've actually done more contracts than us at the moment… so I wouldn’t count you out,” Dustin laughed as he nudged Thad in the shoulder.

  “Please, most of those were assigned contracts… I don’t think you can count Asano pulling me into his shenanigans against your overall number.”

  “He does like to bring you along,” Neil said, crossing his arms as he looked out at the job hall.

  “Oh, you’re mentioning that reminds me,” Bertinelli said, tapping on his society tablet quickly. “Your team’s been assigned a contract, actually.”

  Thad felt his stomach drop.

  “The spirit coin farm?”

  “Right you are, Lord Mercer, you must’ve heard it from Asano already then?”

  “Just a lucky guess,” Thad said, tapping his badge against the tablet.

  “To be honest, if you hadn’t been taking so many contracts. I would’ve bet on you trying to skirt it,” Bertinelli laughed as he finalized the paperwork.

  “Well, not this time,” Thad said, trying to keep dread out of his voice.

  He’d always known that the clock was ticking, that the story was progressing. But somehow, it’d always felt distant, a known unknown. And now…. Here was the start of it. The march towards the astral space, towards his fate, the inevitable.

  A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts.

  “You ok there?”

  Thad looked up into greenstone eyes with an easy smile.

  “Of course, still a bit mana drained is all.”

  “Want me to top you up?” Neil asked, his eyes glancing about his person. A tell Thad had come to realize was him doing a medical assessment.

  “We both know, it’s better if I recover naturally. You’ve no obligation to look out for me this much.”

  “It’s not out of obligation,” Neil returned quickly. “I’d do the same for Dusty.”

  “Of course you would,” Dustin said with a laugh as he walked towards the exit. “Now would you both hurry up? I don’t want to keep Pheebs waiting.”

  “Oh, Neil, we must make haste. Dustin hasn’t seen his love in many a moon,” Thad said dramatically, which made Neil snort.

  “Yes, how dare we waste time completing legally binding paperwork when he has been separated from his, and I quote, ‘goddess of the battle’ for less than a week?”

  “Tragic, really, how long the separation was,” Thad said, wiping away a fake tear. “Will she even remember his face?”

  “Of course she would!” Dustin exclaimed, only to see Thad and Neil both smirk at him.

  “He’s so much hope, it's truly moving,” Thad said, fanning himself with his hand. “Such fortitude from such a noble warrior in such deprivation.”

  “He was brave, leaving such a prize alone for so long. I pray she’s not already moved on,” Neil said, leaning against Thad dramatically, who played along expertly, earning a scowl from Dustin.

  “I wasn’t that dramatic this week, guys!”

  “Of course not, you only mentioned her name, let's see,” Thad said, as a notebook appeared in his hand. “Roughly, 500 times.”

  “You're lying! Did you actually keep track?” Neil asked, breaking character, to look at Thad’s notebook, which only had a few ritual sketches in it.

  “You’re both the worst, you know it.”

  “Shhh, you love us,” Thad laughed, which made Dustin look at Neil, who suddenly appeared rather flustered.

  Wait, what was that all about?

  Updated Anisa and Thadwick fanart from the earlier chapters!

  Builder Thadwick Fanart... Scary

  Cassandra and Henrietta Fanart... though I know my sapphic muscle mommy hasn't shown up yet.

  Updated Thad vs. Thadwick Art.

  The economy is in shambles.