'Easy enough job. Go meet someone, help them retrieve something, go back and cash in enough money to last a month', Kandar Akassir thought as he rounded the outer circle of a massive crater from two wars ago. It is a lake now; fish swam merrily beneath the crystal-clear waters as ducks and geese and birds he had no names for frolic here and there.

  He skidded down one side of the crater. Fields of colorful flowers span, bordering the small dirt path he took to reach his destination. Further beyond the flowers were the woods made of young trees, grown just after a recovery program led by the local government. He could've taken the cobblestone road, much faster, but it was far more monotonous. Boring. Here he could smell the flowers and listen to the sounds of animals who are now beginning to return from their burrows.

  'Five-man job. Shared rewards. Client is 'Order of the Talon'. Who are those guys?' He recalled as he walked. His worn leather backpack rustling with 3 days' worth of travel gear and supplies. The familiar weight of his sword hung on his hip.

  Ahead was a T-junction. Going straight on will lead him to one of the bigger cities near the area, Losirem City. His destination was to the left. That will lead him towards the mountains. There's a boulder just off the road. Someone was sitting on it, staring at the mountains he was heading to. They wore red robes with intricate gold trim. A spear with a very long tip, long enough it could be a short sword in its own right and painted shaft leaned against the boulder, definitely not army-issued.

  Kandar's footfall shattered a wayward branch, the person on the boulder turned towards him. He raised both hands to ensure he meant no harm, and said person saw he was not holding any weapons.

  That person lowered their hood in response. Her long dark hair framed her face quite well. Her pearly skin seemed to glint beneath the sun. She could not be older than twenty-five. She stared at him from head to toe, and showed her hands – unarmed.

  Now that is a rare sight.

  "Talon's contract?" She asked.

  "Yeah," Kandar said as he approached her. "You're heading there too?"

  "Something like that. I'm waiting for someone."

  "Oh yeah, it is a five-man job after all. So, I guess there's only three of us left," He gazed towards the mountains. "Maybe they're already there, especially if they took the other road."

  The girl raised her eyebrow.

  "I'm only waiting for one person. The other four are dead." She smiled.

  Kandar leapt back. Taking a stance. His right hand tightly gripped the sword on his waist. The girl chuckled. Her hand went to her waist, and when it rose it pointed something straight at him. It looked like a hollow metal tube, with a wooden grip and complex clockwork behind said metal tube.

  Procedure — no witness stood near a worldforger untested.

  A contraband worldforger's gun. Not a firearm — a catalyst. A relic that rewrote whatever it struck. Now he's in a world of trouble. She's a worldforger and only the gods in heavens above know what she might shoot at him. If she decided to shoot.

  Beads of sweat trailed down his face. He only fought two worldforgers before, and both fights ended up with him nearly dying. And very expensive hospital bills.

  The girl remained seated. Face blank. Eyes lifeless and lightless. His instincts told him she'd killed a lot of people before they met.

  That spear leaning against the rock threw him off. If he hadn't leapt back, he wouldn't be at her mercy. He could only pray she's a bad shot. Unlikely. Her gun did not tremble even slightly.

  Long heartbeats passed. The world itself seemed so far away. All noises faded. Only his breathing and heartbeat remained.

  His mind raced. There is a technique he could use to turn the tides, but doing so is fatal if he missed. The problem was said technique was designed for a blade duel, at a range of less than fifty paces. Against someone on ground level.

  The distance between him and the girl was about seventy-five paces. Well within her gun, far beyond his theoretical reach. And she's sitting on a boulder. That's more vertical distance for him to reach.

  'Never thought I'd die on a nameless road like this'

  "...Now why did you jump back like that?" She asked. "I hope you won't pull that sword out."

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  'Wait, what?'

  "The other four – how did you know they were dead?" Kandar's stance is unbroken, sword still tightly gripped.

  "I passed by their corpses earlier this morning. Victims of contract wordplay. 'Shared bounty'. The girl swayed her gun away from him. "Two of them killed each other, the other two managed to make it to their destination, but they were killed as well." She shrugged.

  "So, who are you? You knew I was paid by Talon." He let go of his sword, but kept his hand close to it.

  "That's because I am with Talon." She answered nonchalantly. "I already let them know their habit of using template text had cost the lives of four people.

  "Now, will you ease up a little?" She holstered her gun.

  Kandar sighed. A fight with her would have not ended well for him. His hand wandered away from his sword.

  She threw something at him. He barely caught it. The small pouch jingled in his grip.

  "Compensation, one-fifth of the bounty." she said. "For coming all this way. Contract's a bust."

  "A bust? Just because four people are dead?"

  "Yes. Talon and I will handle things from here." She stood and jumped off the boulder, high enough to blot the sun for a few moments before landing within twenty paces of him.

  She took out a brass scroll from within her robes and unfurled it. It was the Freeblades' guild copy of the contract in her left hand. Her right hand held an autoquill.

  "I still need your signature." She gestured towards the dotted line beneath 'CANCELLATION' Her signature was already on the letter. Her name was Samira. Probably.

  "Wait, hold on. If I sign this, I am entitled to one-fifth of the bounty, yes?"

  "Yes."

  "What if I refuse, and choose to go with you instead? Will I be entitled to the whole bounty?"

  Samira's smile faded in a heartbeat. "A five-man job is a five-man job for a reason, you know this, yes?"

  "Yeah, but I already did sign up for it. I knew there's gonna be a fight between anyone who took it, since the pay is already quite high, although..." Kandar scratched the back of his head.

  "Still not quite high enough to get a Worldforger involved. Unless they're really strapped for cash." He chuckled.

  "So, you aren't going to sign this?" She asked, humorless. "You still need to survive to cash it in."

  "How hard could that be? We have a Worldforger between us." He confidently said.

  Samira rolled the Freeblade scroll up.

  "Since the other four died, I am going to explain the situation. Make no mistake, things are a lot more serious now that the item we seek has access to at least two dead bodies. The terms have changed."

  "What exactly are we after?"

  "An Animiculus, we – did you just feel that?"

  Sure enough, the ground began to tremble. Not strong enough to be a serious earthquake. Definitely strong enough for around ten horses to make.

  "Is someone chasing you?" Kandar asked. "Bandits?"

  "Shit – ! Border Guard! I broke a law to get here."

  "Well shit, what rule did you break?"

  "I didn't know you needed a male companion to travel here!" She protested. "I just walked out of the office after I did all my papers. I didn't know what they were crying about until I was already days away!"

  "Okay okay, calm down." Kandar rubbed his forehead. "...Do you still have an original copy of the first contract, without the 'CANCELLATION' clause?" he asked.

  "Uh, yeah?" Confusion was written across her face.

  "Give me the autoquill, fast!"

  "...I hope you know what you're doing." She handed him the scroll.

  "And hide your gun!"

  **********************************************************************************************

  "What seems to be problem?" Kandar asked as the horsemen caught up to him and Samira. The lead horseman, a man with gleaming armor and feather-plumed helm approached. His arms are exposed, the face-plate of his helm seem to be missing, and both his legs below the knees are equally unarmored. A scar traced over his left eye; white beard hung below his chin. The man is seriously underequipped for a fight.

  "Hail, Freeblade." He raised a hand in greeting. "We believe this woman here had entered the country without a companion nor escort." The man gestured towards Samira.

  "Good sir, I am her companion." Kandar announced. "She is my employer." Samira raised an eyebrow at him.

  "Truly? Do you have proof of this?"

  "Here you go." Kandar politely threw the freeblade scroll at him. It was caught deftly without effort. The lead horseman opened and read the scroll from top to bottom. Twice. Thrice. He let out a sigh, then rolled the paper up once more. To Kandar's surprise, he leapt off his horse and approached them.

  He tapped the scroll over his shoulder twice, then handed it over to Kandar, not to his employer.

  "I don't know what it is you're trying to pull," He turned towards Samira. "But these lands have laws, and you'd do well to respect it."

  "And I have," She countered. "Everything is above board, as written."

  The man kept a cautious gaze at Samira for several long seconds. Samira's lifeless and lightless eyes betrayed nothing. She gazed at him, unblinking, until he backed down. He turned, climbed back up his horse, then gestured to his men that there was nothing more to do here. All ten horsemen made their way back towards Losirem.

  Soon the hoofbeats faded away.

  "Nice. I'm surprised you wrote me in as your employer." Samira said. "Could've easily written me as your underling or something. Less questions that way."

  "Never felt the need to. I didn't need to complicate that with more lies. People like him can tell when you're lying."

  "I noticed," Samira grabbed her spear leaning against the boulder, and wrested it out of the ground. The thing was upturned this whole time. The 'top' which was underground had an axe-blade and crow's beak, as well as a much shorter spear-tip than the 'bottom'. It was a Pollaxe, and the painted shaft turned out to be a scroll-caster. All the components were held together by world-forged rivets.

  The thing must cost a small fortune. Probably more than his house.

  "So, let's go." She bid him to come along. "Ah yes, I almost forgot. I am Samira Akrafona, of the Order of the Talon. I am a Worldforger. But you already knew that."

  "Pleasure to be at your service," Kandar bowed, slightly mockingly. "I am Kandar Akassir, Freeblade." He offered his hand. "This, you have known."

  Samira slung her pollaxe over her shoulder and shook his hand with both her own.

  'Oh, this day might get a lot more interesting,' Kandar thought, a warm smile on his face.

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