It didn’t take long for us to start working out terms with the Vox Knights.

“I want people who’re trained by you, but they can’t be sworn to your mercenary code. We’ll establish a new one. The Vox Knights as they’ve been aren’t welcome on our lands.”

Vexna glanced at Vexith.

“That… might be possible. But it would mean the end of our paths,” Vexna said, grimacing.

“Perhaps not,” Calbern said, glancing towards me. I knew what he was implying. The Ascension Assistance chamber had indicated that he could ‘fix’ his own vows. There’d been a single change that he’d made, about obeying superiors without question unless betrayed first.

It’d been a pretty serious change, but one he’d made easily enough, with several materials from Nexxa and time spent running one of Tender’s paths.

“We have a way to adjust oaths. Not pleasant, but definitely possible,” I said. Calbern had spent a day in bed recovering. It said something that changing his oath had been the single most crippling injury he’d had in the entire time I’d known him.

“You get why we wouldn’t want to take you on your word on that,” Vexna said, leaning on the table, not having retaken her seat after intercepting us. At least her dagger’s sheathed again.

“It doesn’t matter,” Vexith said, bringing his hand down on the table. “We do not have the luxury to choose.”

Vexna turned, meeting her companion’s gaze. After several long seconds, she sighed, nodding. “He’s got the right of it. Our backs are against the wall. We need this. And if the Vox Knights need to change to survive. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Some’ll even be happy about it.”

“Depending on the new vows,” Vexith said, his eyes narrowed. “We will not swear oaths of fealty to nation nor man.”

“That’s fine,” I said, smiling. “In fact, that’s a relief. Don’t need slaves.”

Vexna’s frown eased slightly at that point.

We paused as the server came by, asking if we wanted to order.

It was remarkable how he completely ignored the way she was fingering her dagger and Calbern’s bared blade.

After placing a rather large feast, despite having just had breakfast, we all settled back at the table.

“Let’s start with some of the easy stuff. I’m going to need to insist that we have terms that forbid any Vox Knight who lives within our borders or trains at the Academy to take a job that would allow them to hurt those who reside within Cape Aeternia’s borders,” I said, settling my elbows on the table. “Not as part of an oath, just as a regular rule.”

“This can be done,” Vexith said, Vexna nodding beside him.

“Should probably include Nexxa too,” Tamrie reminded me.

“And our other allies,” Calbern noted. “Vaserra and Books will both need the same assurances.”

“Good point. Them too,” I said.

“It makes little difference,” Vexith replied. “What concerns me are the changes you wish to make to our code.”

“Well, we’ll need to know your code first, won’t we,” I said, gesturing for him to lay it out.

They exchanged another glance. This time it was Vexna who answered, “The code is simple enough.”

She stood up straight, holding her dagger balanced on the tip of her finger as she started reciting in a deep tone.

“The Reputation of the Vox Knights is Paramount. A Vox Knight's word is their bond.

“Once a contract is accepted, it must be completed or the payment must be returned.

“A Vox Knight must prioritize their own and their chapter’s survival over the mission’s success.

“The chapter must receive payment before starting the work.”

She paused for a moment, flipping the dagger around, catching it by the flat of the blade. Then she drew it across the tip of her thumb, drawing a bead of blood.

She pressed the blood down on the table as she continued.

“Do not betray a client unless they betray the Vox Knight or their chapter first.

“If a client betrays a Vox Knight, then their chapter shall seek revenge. If a client betrays a chapter of the order itself, then the order shall seek revenge.”

When she said the word revenge, she plunged the dagger into the table in the exact spot she’d marked with blood. This time she did it without making a sound.

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that.

Vexna continued without retrieving her dagger, hands now held behind her back.

“When taking a life is required, it is to be done with a minimum of suffering. Harming of innocents shall be avoided even to the detriment of the mission.

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“All who face death with courage, regardless of status, are worthy of respect.

“A Vox Knight must remain pragmatic. They must not allow their pride to blind them.

“Vox Knights shall never use Soul bindings or torture, even when a client insists upon it.

“A Vox Knight shall observe local law to the extent that it does not endanger the mission.”

When Vexna stopped talking, she shifted to a more casual stance, retrieving her dagger from the table. “And that’s all of them,” she said, her voice back to normal.

I traded a glance with Tamrie. She shrugged. “Sounds better than most, truth be told.”

“Would be easier to pick apart, if any of that was villainous. Probably be better if those were written down, before we attempt to make any changes,” I said, pulling a notepad from my storage pendant.

Tamrie chuckled and Vexith let out a loud guffaw.

The food arrived while I was still recording everything she’d told us. Honestly, for a mercenary company, their code made a lot of sense.

After I had their code written down, I had to admit… there weren’t many changes I wanted to make. “Think we can start with a long term contract. So long as you’re on our land, with your academy, we’re your primary clients. We’ll consider the code later, in case there are any issues I’m not seeing, but this is reasonable for you to operate inside Cape Aeternia in the short term. Most likely one we’re going to want to change is the following laws, but we’ll think about it.”

Vexith nodded once, offering his hand. When I clasped his arm, his fingers wrapped so completely around my wrist the he might as well have been clasping my thumb. Wasn’t so bad when I clasped arms with Vexna, of course.

With the rough shape of our deal worked out, we wrapped up the meeting with the understanding that they’d be making their own way north in about a week. It wouldn’t be just the two of them, but all the Vox Knights under them.

With that sorted, we still had another person to recruit.

Well, technically, we’d already recruited him, and now we just had to find him and make sure he joined us on the ship.

While Calbern split off to continue his investigation into Sebastian, Tamrie and I made our way across the city.

The blond man who was Tarnibus’s pupil was staying at an inn on another of the middle holds. Getting to it without Tamrie would’ve likely taken me half the day. Even with her leading the way, it took us half an hour of riding waterlifts up, down and sideways.

Only to discover that he’d gone off to meet us at our inn.

“At least he’s proactive,” Tamrie said, elbowing me as we made our way back to the central lifts.

“At least,” I agreed grudgingly. Much as I enjoyed spending time with her, the constant interruptions of the waterlifts were growing annoying. They were great for vertical transport but most long distance horizontal movement was done by ferry along the canals. But Tamrie insisted that would’ve taken us at least another half hour.

Luckily, we only had to take two lifts to get to the upper hold where we were staying.

When we approached the inn, I almost walked right past the man. That was because he was sitting at the edge of the inn’s patio painting on an easel, the blue ribbon woven into his hair barely visible.

If I hadn’t noticed the frankly awful painting, we would’ve missed him again. Tamrie followed my gaze, then pulled out her notebook, nodding at the image she’d sketched there.

“Pardon me, are you Folras?” I asked, stopping to take a closer look at the painting. It very vaguely resembled one of the holds below. In that there was a blob roughly the shape of an oversized block.

“An excellent question. Am I Folras? I know that it’s a name I’ve worn, yet how well does it truly describe me? Can a being be summed up in a single name? In a designation given solely to make it easier for others to identify them?” He rambled off, holding his still wet brush up against his beard, leaving streaks of orange. “There are certainly others who have worn the name better. Do I have the right to share it with them? Would it not be better to say that I aspire to be Folras?”

“Gonna take that as a yes,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “You’re the former pupil Tarnibus said was interesting in teaching?”

“Once more, you rouse my curiosity. When does one stop being the other’s pupil? Even now, years after the lessons, my reflections take me further along the path. Do I not remain her pupil, despite no longer receiving direct tutelage? Have I truly made it to the point where I can teach others, when I am still a student myself?” he pondered, taking his brush and dipping it into a red pool, contaminating it. Then he made a large swipe across his canvas. It didn’t improve the likeness, unless he was going for ‘distorted and destroyed.’ Given everything he’d demonstrated so far, that might well be true.

In which case…

“You know what… I think we’ll be fine,” I said, turning to Tamrie with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged back, though there was a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

“More’n like we can get the High Shaper to give us a proper teacher or three,” Tamrie said, already moving on to the next step. “Arizar mentioned several tutors who’d serve, right enough.”

There was a clattering from behind us even as we started walking away. Suddenly the man was in front of us. His robes were covered in paint, and his face was red as the paint he’d just smeared over his canvas as he huffed in place.

Had he seriously gotten winded by running fifty feet?

He held up a single hand, still huffing. I shared another amused glance with Tamrie, but otherwise remained silent. Finally, he seemed to recover enough to speak. “My apologies, my good people. I’m afraid that I was caught in the throes of artistic whimsy.”

“Were throwing something, that’s for certain,” Tamrie said, chuckling. “Not so sure that was any sort of art though.”

He narrowed his eyes, but whether he was too out of breath, or didn’t know how to respond, he chose to ignore her comment. Instead, he looked towards me. “I am indeed the man you’re looking for.” As if I’d missed it, he held forward the length of braid with the blue ribbon woven in, further smudging paint into his hair.

“The man we were looking for,” I corrected him. “Philosophy has its uses, but I’m not a big fan of it being used in place of a greeting.”

He pulled on the braid, wringing it in his hands. “Ah, by the Dragons, I don’t suppose you’d consider giving me a second chance? Tarnibus has had nothing but good things to say. It would truly be a shame if I were turned away now.”

“Surprised Tarnibus had anything good to say. Only thing she seems to care about are our books,” I said, giving the man another look. Now that we weren’t threatening to walk off, he seemed to be recovering his composure somewhat.

The man grimaced at that, then bowed his head. “It was more implied than spoken. That she remained in your kingdom throughout the Howling season says much.”

I was about to correct him about it not being a kingdom, but then paused to consider. With our connection to Althon basically cut, and nobody above me, a kingdom really was the closest model to ours.

There’d been a time that might’ve made me uncomfortable, but I’d spent too much time worrying about keeping people alive and fed to care what we were called.

“Well, we’ll bring you along, give you a shot. You can wait for us on the ship. We’ll be departing early tomorrow, assuming no more explosions or leviathans. But we’re probably going to want more teachers anyway with the number of people flooding in,” I said, dismissing the man with a nod. If he was gonna imply I was a king, might as well have fun with the bit.

“Explosions? Leviathans?” he muttered as we turned away.

“Aye. Was thinking the same,” Tamrie agreed, jotting something in her notebook before snapping it closed. “I can talk to Arizar about it when you visit the library, sure enough.”

“Lunch first?”

“Mhmm,” Tamrie agreed. It was only as we were walking away that I noticed the large bag full of books sitting close to the easel. That made me smile.

At least he liked to read.