Chapter 36: I Saved the Crimson Sorceress. She Asked If I Cared.

He closed the window without reading it.

Valeria noticed.

"You don’t want to know what it offers?"

"Later."

"That’s self-control."

Raven looked at his arm.

Blood.

Teeth had pierced two sections.

"I’m prioritizing not losing the limb."

Valeria approached.

"Let me see."

"Roland can do it."

"I said let me see."

Raven looked at her.

"That sounded like an order again."

Valeria went still.

Then she extended one hand, palm up.

"Would you please allow me to examine the arm you just used to keep that thing from ripping my head off?"

Raven considered.

"Better."

He gave her the arm.

Valeria laughed softly.

---

Her magic could be used for medicine.

Raven hadn’t expected that.

Valeria didn’t exactly heal.

She controlled.

The blood leaking from the punctures began to slow when she placed two fingers near the wound.

She didn’t close the skin.

She simply forced the damaged blood vessels to constrict and accelerated coagulation.

Exactly the ability Raven wanted from the Crimson Mirehorn.

He watched carefully.

Valeria noticed.

"You can’t learn this by watching me."

"I wasn’t trying to."

"You were studying."

"That, yes."

"Because you want Coagulation Control?"

Raven nodded.

"With this, I’d stop wasting bandages."

Valeria looked up at him.

"You reduce everything to efficiency."

"It works."

"Do you ever do something simply because you want to?"

Raven thought.

"Eat properly cooked meat."

"That’s depressingly specific."

"Sleep in beds."

"Better."

"Sex."

Valeria went still.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"You asked."

"I wasn’t expecting you to answer like that."

"That’s an expectations problem."

She continued working on the wound, though a smile slowly appeared.

"So you do have human impulses."

"I never said I didn’t."

"Sometimes you act like attraction, pleasure, even curiosity are inconveniences you’re trying to file away somewhere."

Raven looked at her.

Her face was close.

Too close to ignore how beautiful she was.

Pale skin.

Wine-red eyes.

Black hair falling over one shoulder.

Perfume now mixed with blood.

Still extremely attractive.

And now Raven also knew she could turn a creature into red rain with her hands.

That combination didn’t exactly lessen the effect.

"I can feel something without letting it make decisions for me."

Valeria held his gaze.

"That sounded less interesting than you expected."

"I wasn’t trying to interest you."

"That seems to be your most effective method of doing it."

Raven pulled his arm back once she finished.

The bleeding had almost completely stopped.

"Thanks."

Valeria blinked.

"Did you just thank me?"

"Don’t make it weird."

"Too late."

Raven tested his fingers.

Good.

Then he looked at Valeria.

No injuries.

The leech hadn’t touched her.

That was what mattered.

Valeria followed his gaze.

"Now my question."

"You’ve already asked several."

"This one interests me more."

She crossed her arms.

"When that thing came up behind me, you used Burst Step before Roland could reach me."

Raven nodded.

"Yes."

"You put yourself between us."

"Correct."

"You could have let my barrier react."

"I didn’t know you had one."

"I have three."

Raven looked at her.

"That would’ve been useful information earlier."

"It doesn’t change the question."

"Which is?"

Valeria smiled.

Not the arrogant smile she used on officials.

Not the amused one she used when provoking Raven.

Something smaller.

"Were you worried about me?"

Several yards away, Roland stopped cleaning his sword for barely a moment.

The other guards suddenly found very interesting things to do.

Raven looked at Valeria.

He understood what she was asking.

And what she was probably hoping to hear.

He could say yes.

It would’ve been easy.

She was beautiful.

Powerful.

Important.

A woman accustomed to men finding reasons to worry about her even when she didn’t need them to.

But it wasn’t true.

Not in the way she wanted.

Raven answered:

"You were useful."

Valeria blinked.

Roland closed his eyes.

One of the guards looked away.

Raven continued before she could misinterpret it.

"The Mirehorn is injured. Something large is hunting it. And we just discovered the quarry is full of predators attracted to its blood. You can track it, manipulate blood, attack at range, and probably know more about the target than the rest of us combined. Losing you would’ve significantly reduced my chances of killing it."

Raven pointed toward the water.

"The leech had to go through me first. Stonehide made that a better option than losing the mage."

Roland muttered:

"How romantic."

Raven looked at him.

"Want to be the next shield?"

"I withdraw the comment."

Valeria still hadn’t responded.

Raven expected irritation.

Maybe even anger.

After all, he’d just told an extremely proud noblewoman that he’d risked his body because she was a valuable tactical resource.

Instead...

Valeria smiled.

Slowly.

Far too satisfied.

Raven frowned.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That expression means something."

"I’m just enjoying the answer."

"Why?"

Valeria tilted her head slightly.

"Because you didn’t say you did it out of honor."

Raven sheathed his knife.

"No."

"Or because I’m a lady."

"Definitely not."

"Or because you couldn’t bear to see me hurt."

"That would’ve been a lie."

"Exactly."

She stepped closer.

"You said I’m useful."

Raven looked at her.

"Yes."

"Very useful, apparently."

"Don’t ruin the moment."

Valeria laughed softly.

"I think that’s the most sincere compliment you’ve given me."

"That’s concerning."

"For you, maybe."

Raven shook his head.

"Noblewomen in this world have issues."

"Only the interesting ones."

"That doesn’t help either."

She walked past him.

"Come on. I still need my Blood Core, and you still need your disgusting gland."

Raven followed.

After two steps, Valeria glanced back.

"Raven."

"What?"

"If it happens again, you can save me."

"If you’re still useful."

Valeria smiled.

"I’ll work hard to maintain my position."

Raven stared at her for several seconds.

He didn’t fully understand what had just happened.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Roland walked past him.

"My advice would be not to think about it too much."

Raven looked at him.

"Does that work with her?"

"It’s kept me employed for four years."

"Impressive."

"Thank you."

Valeria called from ahead:

"I can hear you."

Roland accelerated.

Raven almost smiled.

---

They descended another level.

The Mirehorn’s trail was impossible to miss now.

Blood across the stone.

Dark fur.

One of its plates.

Raven picked it up.

The system reacted.

«"Crimson Mirehorn biological material detected."

Integrity insufficient for Predation.»

He kept it anyway.

It could be sold.

Valeria noticed.

"I thought you only cared about abilities."

"I also care about money."

"I’m glad to see universal constants exist."

Raven was about to answer when he heard something.

Not an animal.

Metal.

Everyone stopped.

Then a voice.

Human.

Distant.

Another.

Raven raised his hand.

The group went silent.

Shouting.

Not exactly combat.

Orders.

Someone was farther down inside the quarry.

Valeria frowned.

"No one else should be here."

"You said the hunt was reserved."

"It is."

"Seems someone missed the memo."

Roland looked toward the descending path.

"I see tracks."

Raven approached.

Human.

Many.

Some wearing boots.

Others...

Barefoot.

Then he found another mark.

Chain.

Metal dragged across stone.

Valeria crouched.

Her expression changed.

"Slaves."

Raven studied the direction.

At least a dozen people.

Maybe more.

They hadn’t simply been walking.

The patterns showed short sprints.

Stops.

Abrupt changes in direction.

A smear of human blood.

Raven looked across the quarry.

Then at the Mirehorn’s trail.

Both converged.

"No."

Valeria looked up.

"What?"

"This isn’t a normal hunting expedition."

"How do you know?"

Raven pointed at the barefoot tracks.

"Because no one brings chained workers to chase an injured Awakened unless they want something to chase them instead."

Silence.

A scream came from below.

Clear this time.

"RUN!"

Then a roar.

Deep.

Not the Mirehorn.

Something larger.

Raven looked at Valeria.

She was already standing.

Her smile was gone.

"Someone’s using people as bait."

Raven drew his knife.

Not because the slaves mattered to him.

Not yet.

He looked at the Mirehorn’s blood.

Then the tracks.

Then the direction of the roar.

"And they’re fucking up our hunt."

Valeria looked at him.

For a moment, she seemed to expect something else.

A moral declaration.

Anger over the slaves.

Outrage.

Raven didn’t give her one.

"If they panic the Mirehorn and drive it deeper, we could lose it. If that other thing kills it, we lose the organs. And if whoever’s down there wants the Core, we have competition."

Valeria smiled faintly.

"There you are again."

Raven started down.

"I never left."

Below them, another scream ended far too quickly.

Raven accelerated.

Not because someone needed a hero.

Because someone had just turned his objective into a problem.

And Raven had already learned something about problems in Veyr.

Sometimes they had fangs.

Sometimes they had titles.

The second kind tended to be more annoying.