SEEKING A LINK

Kaylee tossed her knife and caught it while she observed the camp. The fire in the middle illuminated the faces of her companions and the rescued hostages. They had all gone to sleep, letting her stay up as the lookout.

The atmosphere in the group had been sombre since their second encounter with that swindling undead and her necromancer. To say her companions were upset at finding out that the girl they had accommodated with as much kindness as they could, the same girl who later stole from them, had been an undead all along; would be an understatement. They were over the clouds livid.

The most affected had been Zachary. Being a priest of the Life Goddess, the idea of letting a necromancer and undead roam free completely repulsed him. He even suggested that they chase after the two. The moron. As if they could chase after someone hopping through a [Dimension Door].

She actually had to be the voice of reason that persuaded him to let it go.

That was not to say that she was not fuming. Even now, her entire being still ached with fury. Anytime she thought about that stitched up bitch she wanted to break something. This was usually how she coped with her anger. Unfortunately, she could not do that at the moment because it would scare women they had rescued. It was one of the reasons why she hated these sorts of quests, the fact that she had to restrain herself in front of her charge.

Honestly, even though she had been the one to make Zachary back away off from his foolish suggestion, she too had thoughts about tracking that bitch down and ventilating her with a few arrow shafts. If she were in front of her right now she would not hesitate to decorate her face with more cuts.

"Hey there," a quiet voice muttered besides her.

She jumped to her feet, completely caught off guard. She had not heard the person approaching. Quickly, she turned to the source of the voice and found herself staring into the face of the person she had been thinking about. With a panicked breath she jumped backwards to put distance between them. Then she raised her bow and let an arrow fly.

But the undead girl's appearance was blurry, like a ghost's, causing the arrow to pass through her.

What the hell? Kaylee was horrified when she saw this.

Taking another arrow from her quiver, she fitted it to her bowstring and released it. However, the same result followed. She could not hit the undead.

Fuck! She exclaimed inward. Outward she yelled. "AMBUSH!"

She shot at the undead once more. At this point she knew there was no hope of hitting her, but that did not matter at the moment. What she was currently doing was stalling for time so the others could wake up and come and help. Then they would take the fight to the thieving undead bitch and rip her apart.

Any minute now they'll come and support me, she thought as she nocked another arrow.

However, seconds passed and there was no support. When she frustratingly looked in their direction she found that they were still asleep, along with all the rescued victims. None of them had been alerted by her shout at all. It was completely bizarre.

What's going on here? She thought, beginning to feel herself panic.

As mercenaries they had perfected the art of light sleeping. The slightest call should have woken them up. So why had they not done so?

Her fearful gaze returned to the undead and saw that she had put her hands up in a surrender.

"It's okay," the undead said. "I am not here to fight."

"Then what are you here for?" she asked in a measured tone, not lowering her bow. She would not let her guard down.

She shot a momentary glance at her friends, saw their chests moving up and down, was certain they were still alive. Even so…

"What did you do to them?"

"I cast a sleeping spell on them?" the scarred bitch responded casually. "It's quite effective when they are already asleep."

Kaylee was stunned when she heard this. Her companions were put under a sleeping spell? How come she had not felt the spell being cast? She might not be a sorcerer of Arletta or Zachary's calibre but she was still a 2nd Order mage. A spell being cast in her vicinity would not be undetectable to her.

Unless it had been cast from outside her detection range.

With a serious glare she looked at the undead.

Just who was she?

Right now Sage looked a little different from the last time they met. Her arm had been reattached to her body, probably sewn on; it must be why she had so many stitches. The biggest change however, was that she seemed to be fading. Her translucent form seemed to be getting even clearer as time passed.

What was up with that?

"What do you want?" Kaylee asked.

She could not beat Sage. It was more than the feeling she got from the undead that told her so. Back when they had stormed the bandit hideout and accidently exposed themselves it was Sage who had taken out the bandit leader and his cronies while they were massacring the hostages. From how their charges described it, the scarred girl took them out in an instant before vanishing through a [Dimension Door]. Kaylee herself would not have done such an easy job of it, so she was pretty sure the undead was superior to her in terms of combat.

Knowing this, she lowered her bow and adapted another strategy; stalling for time until the sleeping spell wore off.

Unfortunately, the bitch seemed to see through it.

"If you're trying stall for time don't bother," Sage told her. "I used [Sleeping Circle] on them. It will take at least half an hour before the spell wears off, which is more than enough time for what I came to do."

"And what is that exactly?" Kaylee asked, on edge.

Instead of responding, the undead put her hand behind her back, an act that caused Kaylee to draw back the string of her bow. She was ready. If the scarred bitch tried anything she would be the first to attack.

"Relax, I'm not here to pick a fight," Sage said, her face conjuring an infuriating smile. "I came to make a deal. To show my sincerity… here."

Her hand came from behind her back with two familiar tomes and tossed them at Kaylee's feet. Instead of looking down at the tomes, Kaylee kept her wary eyes on the undead. Even then, a part of her felt ridiculous hearing Sage's words.

Was this bitch not the one who pretended to be a victim to get them to lower their guards before running off with their money? She was a damned undead too. What would someone like her know about sincerity?

"If you really wanna be sincere why don't you start by lifting the spell from them?" Kaylee asked, pointing at her companions.

This caused Sage to sigh pitiably. "If it were possible to converse peacefully with them I would not have cast the spell in the first place. But we both know they have certain prejudices that would make things difficult. Though, mind you Marcus is probably more pragmatic than the other two, but he fails to meet the most basic requirement. So I chose you?"

"Oh," Kaylee said silently. "And what requirement would that be?"

"Active mana."

"So you're looking for a mage?" Kaylee asked. "Why?"

In response to her question, the undead cleared her throat, took a deep breath, released it and gave her a serious glare.

"I need a favour."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kaylee yelled. "You stole my money and now you want me to do something for you?" She nocked another arrow and released it angrily. "Do you think I'm a pushover?"

"Not at all," Sage responded patiently as the arrow passed through her ever clearing body. "I'm just asking for a little favour. Besides, I think it will be to your benefit."

"How about you bring my coin back before we talk," Kaylee retorted. She fitted another arrow to the bow and pulled the string, but she did not let it go this time.

"I already told you that I lost it," the undead said. "I have nothing on me right now but I can get money for you another time."

"And what is it you want me to do for you?" Kaylee asked with a snort.

What a joke. As if she would actually do a favour for a damned undead, especially this undead bitch. She had already enacted a plan in her mind; listen to the scarred bitch's request and rudely decline.

"Sign a contract with me?"

"What?"

This was not the kind of request she had expected. When Sage said she needed a favour Kaylee originally thought she it would be something along the lines of "help me rob someone" or "there's this guy I want to kill and I could use your help." But a contract? She could not understand.

"What do you mean?"

"Contract with me, like how one would do with a familiar," the scarred girl reiterated.

For a moment Kaylee was confused. Why would this undead appear before her and ask her to contract with her. That did not make sense unless…

This time when she looked at Sage she scrutinised her severely. The bitch looked even fainter than she did before. Kaylee could clearly see through her now. Suddenly she understood what was going on and- figuring it out- she could not help but laugh.

"That withering geezer is dead isn't he?" she asked mockingly. "Undead cannot survive without their creator and you, being the parasite that you are, need to latch onto to another host prevent yourself from crumbling like you are right now. Ha! Forget it! Go and rot in hell!"

"The geezer didn't create me," Sage replied calmly, although Kaylee did notice a satisfying twitch in the corner of her mouth. "But he did summon me. And now that he is dead I am about to be sent back to where he summoned me from, unless I contract another sorcerer?"

"And you think I am going to do that for you?" Kaylee did not cease her mocking tone. "Did the necromancer's death addle your fucking mind? Even if for some unlikely reason I contract an undead it would never be you!"

For a moment the bitch seemed surprised, but then she began to smile. Kaylee did not have a good feeling about that.

"I figured it was your only choice," Sage said calmly.

The measured tone of her voice was ominous, causing Kaylee to pull her bowstring even further.

"Or what, you're going to kill everyone here? Try it and I swe-"

"Please don't put words in my mouth," Sage interrupted her, still calm. "What I mean is that you won't get a better chance to advance anymore."

What?

The undead ignored her and looked where her sleeping companions lay before turning her back to face her.

"Your mana aptitude is E, which means you will never go past the 2nd Order which you are stuck in. Also, although you have developed your physique to Grade 4 it is on the weaker end. I was watching you guys stage your hostage rescue back then. Your skills seem to be the most polished of the Scarlet Quartet," her face seemed to sour as she said the name. "You were right by the way. That name sucks.

"Either way. Your skills seemed to have reached a limit that can't be crossed without improving your physique or raising your Order."

Kaylee did not respond, instead choosing to glare at the undead.

"You must have realised it right?" Sage continued. "With your potential it is as far as you can go? At the moment you're still useful to the team, but as time goes on and they will begin to grow and you will become a burden to them. Do you think they will still keep you on the team?"

"You fuc-"

Sage did not let her talk. "But if you contract with me I can assure you within a few hours your aptitude will increase, allowing you to advance to the 3rd and even the 4th Order."

Kaylee listened to most of the speech intently, except the last part. That one made her sneer.

"Do I look like a fucking idiot?"

Contracting an undead would increase her aptitude? What a fucking joke! If that was truly how one increased their mana, necromancers who led hordes of undead would have near endless mana, making them invincible. But they did not, and they were not. Did this bitch think she could sell her such a garbage tale?

"You are right to be sceptical," the undead said. "Under normal circumstances contracting an undead would not increase your mana, but it would be different with me because I happen to be Netherkin."

"Netherkin?" Kaylee asked, puzzled.

For the first time since she returned here, Sage was left speechless.

"You don't know what a Netherkin is?" she asked incredulously.

"Is there supposed to be a special meaning behind it?"

Hearing this, Sage sighed and stared back at her like she could not bother to explain. At this moment she was almost completely transparent, as if she would fade out of existence any moment now.

"Look," the undead said. Her tone still sounded calm, but Kaylee sensed a desperation in it. "Just know that I'm a special kind of undead and bonding with me can increase your aptitude. You don't have to believe me. Just try it for yourself. If, in a few hours you feel your mana has not increased, you break it off. Come on, you lose nothing by trying."

Hearing this made Kaylee lower her bow and think. The scarred bitch was right. It would not hurt to try. If it turned out to be a lie, which it probably was, she would just break the contract. It was not like Sage would be able to prevent it. Even if she possessed mind control magic she would not be able to use it against her contractor, which was something she knew about necromancers; to prevent them and the undeads' roles from being reversed.

Having made her decision, she purposefully glared at the undead.

"Fine. I'll sign the contract with you."

If that was what it took to get her to leave than she would do it. However, as soon as the half hour effect of [Sleeping Circle] wore off she would break their bond. Then she would see if the bitch would return when she and the others are prepared.