Contractbound

"Let"s go to Don"s, Val. I miss their pancakes," he said hungrily. It was already ten o"clock and he hadn"t had breakfast.

Graham left his office in his favorite trench coat. Sloten was getting colder by the day, so a lot of people were wearing similarly warm clothing. Only those with high cold resistance would dare to wear only shirts outdoors, which made Graham wonder if they were Contractbounds.

It didn"t take him long to reach Don"s Pancake House, the small, homey diner that specialized in pancakes. Graham entered the busy diner and was greeted by the usual smile by the waitress, Mirjam. She came over to where Graham was sitting, which was not his usual spot, but still near the doot nonetheless.

"Hi, Graham! You haven"t come in a while," she said with a warm voice.

"I"ve been very busy lately. Could only grab ready-to-eat meals," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Such is the life of a famous detective," she said teasingly. Her smile always brought comfort to the customers there.

"What else can I say? Anyway, I want a big portion of banana pancakes with syrup and blueberry toppings. And a cup of hot chocolate," he ordered decisively.

"Okay. Anything else?"

"No. That would be all. Thank you, Mirjam." said Graham with a friendly smile.

She smiled back at Graham and went to the back to tell the chef Graham"s order, and when she was done, she went over to another customer"s table to serve them.

Graham, who was sitting alone far from everyone, took out a lighter. Since he got his upgraded power, he needed to try out its effectiveness on the field. His question was actually pretty simple, and it would be better to do paper burning divination, but it would be too eye-catching, so he used fire scrying instead.

He triggered the lighter and stared at its tiny flame while concentrating. He repeated the question he wanted to ask in his mind.

"Are there any Contractbounds near me?"

Graham"s surroundings became dim, but it seemed that he was the only one who could see it. From the flame, he could see an image of the small area around him from a bird"s eye point of view. He saw himself glowing blue in the image, while everybody else didn"t emit any color. The image then disappeared and his surroundings became normal.

"So there are no other Contractbounds around. I guess if there were, they would have glowed blue in the image," he made a theory.

His divination power has really been boosted. Now he could experiment more as well since his limit has also been raised. Since this morning, he had used eight divination attempts, including the one just now. If he hadn"t gotten the power upgrade, he would only have been able to do two more. But now, he still had seventeen more attempts. But he still needed to save some for tonight"s graverobbing mission.

Mirjam came with his food some minutes later. She stayed by his table to chat, just like she always did with other customers. It was one of the reasons she liked working there.

"So what"s your current mission?" she asked him full of curiosity. Her blue eyes glimmered in expectation.

"To be honest, nothing. I"ve been busy with something else," he said half honestly. He obviously wouldn"t tell her about his mission to rob a grave or to a.s.sa.s.sinate an office worker.

"Are you doing anything illegal?" she asked teasingly but in a serious tone.

"Yeah. I"m actually harvesting organs from unsuspecting diner waitress. That"s why I haven"t come in a while; I was busy visiting other diners," Graham said with a low voice with eyes looking straight at Mirjam"s.

"Fine, if you don"t want to tell me," she shrugged.

"Val, one of these days I could totally talk about our illegal activities, and people would think I was joking," he muttered whisperingly while looking over his shoulder.

"What did you say?" asked Mirjam who couldn"t hear what Graham was saying.

"Nope, nothing. Just taking a mental note," he said.

"You will have no girlfriend if you always take "mental notes" like that," she lectured him.

"With my good-looking face, I"m sure any woman can tolerate my "taking mental notes"," said Graham confidently, emphasizing each word.

"You"re hopeless," said Mirjam while shaking her head. She then left Graham alone because he had got new customers.

Graham finished his food and went to the cashier to pay. With his breakfast done, he went back home. He needed to be home when Jacco came to buy the scroll of Theft, and without even divining it, he had a feeling that the gang leader would be there soon. He arrived home not long after.

While waiting for Jacco, he sat in his office chair in the dark while doing divination in preparation for tonight. He lit a single candlestick and focused on the flame.

"What is the safest method to enter Sloten Public Cemetery undetected?"

Graham, who was staring at the burning flame, could slowly see an image. It showed a dark cramped s.p.a.ce with running water. It was the underground sewer system. Graham was not surprised that the sewer was connected to the cemetery, but he was surprised that it was unguarded. The image then shifted to illusory figures wandering about the sewer. He now understood why it was left unguarded; the guardians were something else.

"Hmm... more ghosts. We would need a lot of bed sheets to deal with all of them," he said bitterly.

He then turned back to the candle flame that was now burning normally. He concentrated again and repeated a question in his mind.

"What are those ghosts?"

The room gradually turned dim and an image formed from within the flame. He could see there was another book entry that he could read. The book looked newer than the one from his previous divination, so it was most likely a different book.

"Wraiths. They are a stronger form of lingering spirits, basically the souls of those who died with very strong emotion and attachment to the living world. Unlike lingering spirits, most wraiths are malicious. The stronger the wraith is, the more visible it is to the normal human"s eyes. Their main form of attack is their wail that can stun their unsuspecting victims. They are weak to a Contractbound"s blood and can be destroyed with blood-related abilities."

The image of the book then disappeared, leaving Graham in deep thought.

"We don"t have any blood-related abilities. I don"t think Luuk or Jacco has any either. Hmm... This will be problematic."

"Anyway, this divination power-up is really convenient. It can just show me book entries that I need, provided I have the correct information to even start the divination, Val."

Ding... dong...

The bell of his apartment was rung.

"It must be Jacco," he guessed.

He opened the door and the big, muscular man was standing there. He wasn"t wearing his usual gang leather jacket, but a shirt that was messily untucked. He must have come right from work at the restaurant.

"Come sit down," he offered professionally.

"So have you done studying the scroll? Can I buy it now?" he said with his usual loud voice. He could probably even play the War Drum with his voice alone if it worked like that.

"Yes, yes. But before that, can I read your palm?" said Graham seriously. He needed to make use of that power more and now was the best chance. If he had asked him back then, he would have definitely refused.

"Uhm... sure? What for?" he asked confusedly while offering his right hand. Since he had fought together with the man in front of him and had seen his power, he could trust him to some extent.

"To read your fortune," Graham said casually, "I need both hands."

Jacco extended both hands to Graham, who started to read his palms right away. He looked at the lines across both his palms and all the intersections and entanglements.

Normally, he wouldn"t even know what they meant, but since he had got the power, he spiritually got some information through reading the palm. He got a glimpse of some of Jacco"s personality traits. He was a hot-headed man, but extremely loyal to his companions. He had someone he held very dear, even more than his own life. Graham could ask about this when the man had trusted him more. It also showed that his life would intersect with Graham"s a lot in the future.

"What does it say?" asked Jacco curiously, his eyes reflected expectation.

"We"ll have a lot more co-operations in the future," Graham said honestly but vaguely. Even he couldn"t see what it meant.

"Did you make it up?" he asked with suspicion.

Graham only shrugged. He then changed the topic, "So, the scroll. It is twenty guilders if you want to buy it."

Jacco"s eyes opened wide in surprise, "f.u.c.king h.e.l.l! That"s expensive! Can"t you give me a discount?"

"Okay, okay, fifteen guilders. That"s the lowest I can go," said Graham with a serious tone. He had actually planned to sell it at that price anyway.

Jacco looked like he was thinking. He then said, "I only have ten guilders right now. What about I pay ten guilders in cash and offer you one free co-operation?"

Graham had expected this to be one of the outcomes, so he gladly welcomed the opportunity since he needed support for tonight to deal with the wraiths. He pretended to be thinking hard to not appear too eager to accept the deal.

"Hmm... that could be acceptable."

Jacco sighed in relief after hearing the answer. He really didn"t have enough money right now, but he also needed the scroll soon. He had promised his friend, and he never broke his promise. He could just ask his friend to give him the rest of the money later.

Graham handed him the scroll that he had prepared before. The others had been kept inside his safe along with his valuables. He then received ten guilder bills from Jacco.

"Thank you very much!" he said excitedly.

"Anytime. By the way, since you"ve offered your co-operation, I actually need you for tonight"s mission..." Graham said, seizing his opportunity.

Jacco somewhat felt like he had been conned.