Silver leaned against the railing and nudged his hat out of the way. For the first time since Angel had met him, the man looked surprised. “You want to hire me?”

“Sound that surprised and you’ll give me second thoughts.”

“Do you really think I can leave everything that I used to be behind so easily?” Silver pressed, ignoring Angel’s sarcasm. “I’ve been in the business for years. Could you give up being a Seeker at the drop of a hat?”

“No,” Angel said. “But seeking doesn’t involve selling people into slavery either. I’m not forcing you to do anything, Silver. But, one day, we’re both going to die. And when that day comes, I’m going to face it knowing that I brought Old World magic back. On your current path, you’ll face it knowing that thousands of your victims are waiting for you at the steps to the underrealm.”

“And you think that escorting this girl will absolve me of my crimes?”

“It’s a start.”

The rattle of chain on the barge’s metal ground broke their conversation. Lilian emerged from a trapdoor at the far end of the deck. Vanessa followed out after her, looking frazzled but uninjured.

“Time to make a decision,” Angel said, thumbing one of the canisters on his arm holster.

Silver looked down at the approaching women. He lifted his massive hat off his head, examining it for a moment before setting it down on a post in the railing.

“I suppose you said it yourself,” Silver said. “Legends all meet their ends eventually, and what better funeral for a bandit captain than the wreckage of a sand barge?”

“You mean…”

“I’ll take you up on your offer,” Silver said with a sharklike grin. “Try my hand playing a round for the other team. At least that way I’ll be able to say I tried.”

Angel paused. He honestly hadn’t expected the captain to accept his offer. He released the canister and chuckled. A small burst of pain ran through his body as wounds reminded him of their presence.

“I found the girl,” Lilian told them, walking up the stairwell. “Loot as well. A good amount of it. The bandits were rather wealthy.”

Vanessa wore the beautiful gauntlet that they’d found in the Great Catacomb, and she had several canisters at her side. She’d clearly accompanied Lilian and gotten herself outfitted. Vanessa’s eyes widened as she recognized Silver standing beside Angel. She started to raise the gauntlet and grabbed a canister with her free hand.

“Hold on,” Angel said, raising a hand. “Believe it or not, I think he’s on our side now.”

“He tried to kidnap me,” Vanessa said flatly.

“Tried being the key word,” Silver said, tipping an imaginary hat to her. It didn’t quite have the same effect when his real hat was about a foot away from him.

“We still need protection to get across the desert,” Angel said. “I think Silver is being genuine about wanting to turn over a new leaf.”

“For now,” Silver added. “No promises for anything long term. I’m a lot of things, but I’m no liar.”

“Just a kidnapper,” Vanessa said.

“Attempted kidnapper.”

“Fine,” Vanessa said, lowering her hand slightly. “I trust Angel. I don’t trust you.”

“Smart,” Silver said. “Just be glad your friend has a quick tongue. He’s very convincing.”

Vanessa shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. “What happened to Cowl?”

The Seeker pulled Cowl’s mask out and tossed it to Vanessa. “That’s all I’ve found of his belongings, unless you managed to spot something when you were looting the bandits.”

“We found his sword,” Vanessa said. “It was too heavy for me to lift, though.”

“And I can’t use a sword,” Lilian added. “It’s of no worth to me. Carrying it around is just asking for trouble.”

“So he’s dead then,” Silver said. “Unfortunate. He was a respectable fighter.”

“He betrayed us,” Vanessa said, her brow tight and her eyes thin. “I thought we were friends.”

“Nothing to do about it now,” Angel said, sitting down against the railing to try and get more comfortable as his body healed. “He got what was coming. Silver’s right about one thing though – his death was unfortunate. I feel like he had some reason for turning against us beyond what we know, but we’ll never find that out now.”

“Enough of the past,” Silver said. “What’s our path from here?”

“Molten Cliffs is the target,” Angel said. “I need to figure out where we currently are before figuring out what the next stop will be.”

“We’re about two weeks’ travel away from the center of the Barren,” Lilian piped up. She’d been silent since they’d started speaking, and Angel had almost forgotten she was there.

“How do you know?” Silver asked.

“I’ve got an artifact implant,” Lilian said, pulling her rough shirt down to reveal a small metal coin in her collarbone. “It’s a system artifact with access to a map of the Barren. I know where I am at all times – lot of good that’s done me recently.”

“Convenient,” Angel said. “What’s your story, anyways? How did the bandits catch you?”

“I was traveling the desert in a chopper with a few other people,” Lilian said, her tone darkening. “They shot it down with their runed ballista, killing most of my crew. They killed everyone else when they arrived, leaving me alive to sell as a slave because of my artifacts.”

“I’m sorry,” Vanessa said, putting a comforting hand on the other woman’s shoulder. Lilian gave a weak shrug but did nothing to move Vanessa’s hand.

“I survived. I’m thankful for that.”

“What’s your plan now, then?” Angel asked.

“If you don’t mind another member, I’d like to join you three,” Lilian said, rubbing her arm. “The desert is less safe than it used to be, and that’s saying a lot considering it’s always been a deathtrap. I can pull my own weight.”

“I don’t think I’ve got any objection to that,” Angel said, shrugging. The motion made another twinge of pain shoot into his stomach. “It looked like you know your way around your fight anyways.”

“Looked?” Lilian asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve got a system artifact, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“So why haven’t you scanned me?”

“It’s impolite,” Angel said defensively.

“Really? You didn’t strike me as the type to care about that.”

Angel grimaced. The wound on his stomach throbbed. He could see the skin and muscle slowly rebuilding and pulling themselves back together. It wasn’t pretty.

“You’re right,” Angel admitted. “I couldn’t care less. I just haven’t had a chance to look yet. I’m a bit preoccupied.”

He flicked the eyepiece down. Comforting orange light washed over his surroundings as the artifact scanned them. Angel turned his attention to Lilian.

Race: Human

Name: Lilian

Level 91

Status: Healthy

Information accuracy: 74%

Strength: 82

Intelligence: 14

Nimbleness: 50

Toughness: 36

Comparative Rating: Incredible Threat

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)

Element(s): Unknown

“Well, this is a bit embarrassing,” Angel said. “You’re higher level than I am.”

“Seriously?” Lilian asked, shocked. “I saw what that arm of yours does. It must not be getting taken into account by the system.”

“It makes sense,” Silver said, his sword slithering from hand to hand. “It’s still an artifact, not part of his body. The System is flawed, after all. It was made so long ago that I’m surprised it doesn’t have more problems with all the things that have changed.”

Silver’s eyes alighted on the corpse of the woman who had stolen Angel’s canisters. He strode over to it, his sword flicking into his hand, and drove the blade into her chest. The others recoiled as Silver dug around inside her body for a moment before pulling out a small, gray orb.

“What?” Silver asked, walking back over to them. “Did you want this?”

“Absolutely not,” Angel said, grimacing. “Why would I want that? What is it?”

“Some Seeker you are,” Silver snorted. “It’s a core.”

“Like a monster core?” Vanessa asked. “Humans have those?”

“Where did you think your magical energy was stored?” Silver asked. “Great way to get some extra energy. You don’t get any for killing other humans because these little baubles keep it all locked up.”

“I’m going to regret asking this,” Vanessa said, her eyebrows pulled tougher in disgust. “But how do you get the energy out?”

“You eat it,” Silver said. “Obviously.”

“Right, I regret asking,” Vanessa said, gagging. “That’s dangerously close to cannibalism.”

“I guess you don’t want it then. What about you, Angel?”

“Hard pass,” Angel said.

Silver shrugged and wiped the orb off on his shirt before tossing it into his mouth. He swallowed, shuddering as energy twinkled around him for a moment before fading away. “Ah, that’s the good stuff. She had a good bit of energy.”