Six months was a long time. Many leads, a number of broken bones, and all dead ends. Sarkis was gone, and it was more than apparent by now that he had left Terminus. The huntress had never given up on a target, but her patience was beginning to wear thin. So when one of her street rats came to the bar, saying he had a solid lead, she almost turned him away. Against her better judgement, she sat him down. ‘Solid’ turned out to be hearing it from another rat who had been taken there as part of a labor force. Excelsa was an old city that didn’t like changing up their status quo much, so instead of going with the new, they just kept maintaining the old structures. In any case, the laborers fixed up several facilities, and a lot of chit-chat occurred. Someone in the city had been gloating about stealing a document from Terminus, confident that their laws would not reach him here. It may not have been an eyewitness account, but the wording sounded damn similar to what that asshole would say. The Excelsus kingdom was far from Terminus though, too far to travel on foot, she’d have to secure transportation. There was more than enough in the bank to afford an airship trip but something in her head told her she shouldn’t go alone. Her influence and status was solely within Terminus, she’d be an unknown in Excelsa. But who to bring along though...that answer came very quickly, the other people that Sarkis had screwed over. Harper and Nera wouldn’t be too hard to track down, they were still wanted by the city. Aeria though was in the wind, though chances were the two would cross paths again, they’d already done it twice. She sent the rat back out, telling him to pass along a message throughout the city. To find the other three, give them the location of her bar and to come immediately to meet about their last job. If they didn’t come of their own volition, then she would hunt them down one by one and turn them in. They had until the end of the day to show.
Aeria was inside the offices of the Societas when someone came in talking about the message that had been put out on the street that a certain woman was looking for certain people who had specific information. She realized that it had to be about the job that she’d been a part of in which Sarkis had absconded with the document and their money and that it was Furi who was seeking a meeting. Although Aeria had escaped, she still felt that some consideration was due for the danger she’d put herself into for the man, so she would go along and see what the killer had to say for herself. She went carefully and in full robes, ensuring that no one was tailing her, so that she could make her way to the appointed bar. As far as she could tell, there was no one who was on her tail although she was by no means an expert in avoiding followers. She could Furi sitting off to the corner of the room with her eyes scanning the doorway. Clearly she was observing the rule that one should never keep one’s back to the door but she was unassuming and blended into the crowd.
Making her way over to Furi, she sat down and smiled tightly across at her.
“You called?” [221]
Lottie entered next, taking the seat beside Aeria. The dark skinned woman smiled widely and folded her hands in front of her.
The agent was a distinctive woman: curvy, perhaps 5’5”, with dark brown eyes. What stood out most were the violet scales around her right eye, trailing across her cheekbone towards her jawline. A few scales dusted the left half of her face like freckles. She was neatly dressed in a dark grey jacket and brown pants tucked into a pair of boots that came up to the middle of her calves. The top half of her locks were pulled back into a high ponytail, the lower half left free to brush the top of her shoulders.
Tracking Harper had been no easy task; Lottie's search still wasn't complete, but she had found a few clues Furi might be able to use. Most of her sources had been articles in newspapers, the wanted posters, reports of sightings, and a few juicier bits she had only discovered by chance.
The agent wanted to meet Harper for herself; someone who had managed to get into so much trouble had to be interesting. Whether she would continue tracking him, however, depended on how much exa Furi was willing to cough up.
She glanced at the hooded woman beside her, wondering who it could be. Lottie turned her attention back to Furi to see what she had to say.
“Quite the gathering you've got goin’ on here,” the agent commented lightly.
Furi did not speak upon Aeria’s arrival, only signaling to the enlil bartender to prepare another drink. Once the new girl sat down, the huntress immediately drew a revolver, pointing it right at her. “You can explain why you’re sitting there as fast as you can, or you get a warning shot...in a non-lethal, but still painful spot,” she stated.
Lottie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You do that and I'll make use of the information I found with other clients." Furi didn't need to know that the agent had already potentially compromised Furi's search for the elusive spurii known as Harper. The money had been good, and Eden's money was just as good as Furi's.
"I thought you'd appreciate knowing why Harper isn't going to make it tonight... of course, after this, if your offer isn't up to my standards, I could just walk away." The half velen looked the huntress dead in the eye, not even sparing the firearm a glance. This wouldn't work if she didn't sell it with confidence.
"You shoot me and you'll have the Conexus on your ass for assault," Lottie reminded her just in case. "Besides, you don't want to disrupt your whole meeting over lil' ole me."
The huntress’s head tilted to the side as the girl spoke. She wasn’t dressed like the common street rats that fed her information, so she was likely a more professional information gatherer. As for what her agenda was, that could be answered later, right now Furi was more interested in what she had to reveal. So she lowered the gun, though not holstering it. “You’d be surprised what the Conexus will turn a blind eye to. So what do you know about Harper?” she inquired.
"That." She paused for dramatic effect. "Depends on how much exa you're willing to pay for it." Lottie slipped her hands into her pockets, subtly donning a pair of brass knuckles.
Turning her attention to the hooded figure, she asked, "Is your friend usually so demanding?"
The fact that none of this phased Aeria surprised her. At one point in time, that level of tension would have left her trembling and nervous. Now she didn’t even flinch when Furi drew a gun. She thought the huntress was being a little rash but it did seem as though the woman’s temper had a hair trigger.
She’d been assesing Lottie while all of this was going on and had come to the decision that she liked the woman. There was a tough, brassy quality in her that Aeria had never really possessed and that she admired. It took her a second to realize that Lottie had referred to Furi as her friend (despite that not really being the case) but she repiled quickly to her query.
“Yeah, she’s usually pretty demanding. She...uh….sometimes goes to quite the lengths to get people talking. I’m sure in this case we can all be civilized and hopefully no one will end up with a bullet embedded in them.” The spurii gave Furi a pointed glance as she said this.
If they avoided an escalation in this situation, Aeria had some hope that there might be some chance that they could find Sarkis and deal with the sleazy bastard in an appropriate manner.
"Great lengths, huh." Lottie looked at Furi, clearly unimpressed. "Do those lengths include three bigats? My services ain't free and cheap intimidation doesn't get a discount."
She withdrew her hands from her pockets, a metallic triangle appearing in front of her, point down. The portal hovered between the agent and the huntress, ready to eject magical energy. Murmurs and hushed whispers sounded throughout the bar as people started to point and comment to each other on the escalating conflict.
The bartender began approaching, a glare on his face.
"Now, are you willing to pay up for some information? 'Cause if you're not, I'm out. It won't hurt me to stir up a scene, but it'd be a shame if someone were to figure out who you're looking for... word travels pretty quick, you know?" Lottie drawled, dark eyes boring into Furi's green ones. She didn't usually go so far, but the agent had heard about the huntress' trigger-happy reputation and wasn't about to get shot. It didn't hurt that Furi's attitude irritated her.
Furi raised a hand, halting the enlil bartender who looked concerned. She pointed back to the counter, and he walked over, pulling out some of the revenue from the day. He brought it over to the table, placing a small amount in front of Lottie. “That enough to get you talking, or do you want to continue this little light show?” she said.
Lottie smiled, though the portal in front of her remained. She quickly counted the coins with a sweeping glance over them. "It's a start." The agent pocketed the money. To the bartender she added, "Don't worry, I won't cause much collateral damage if any."
Not quite trusting the other woman not to shoot her, she left the portal in place for the time being. Once the bartender retreated, Lottie spoke again, "Well, part of your difficulty finding Harper is that he's no longer in Terminus. He left the continent; tracking him down is gonna cost extra 'cause it requires travel and staking out a new area. Unless, of course you do it yourself." The spurii shrugged. "He's a slippery one."
“I see no reason to divert my attention to tracking Harper down. I asked that he come here and he didn’t. However, if you are so interested in meeting him, you can find him on your own time. Tell him that the last job he went out on is looking to get fair compensation in Excelsa. Whether or not he shows, your payment when you return will be double of what’s on the table right now. Deal?” the huntress offered.
Lottie hummed thoughtfully. "Money is money." A shrug. "You have a deal. I'll let you two continue your little meeting." Her eyes flickered towards Aeria again. "You're cute," she stated bluntly setting one hand on the table near the other woman, "you should give me a call."
With that, the agent exited the bar quickly, the magical portal fading once she was gone. Lottie covertly glanced over her shoulders a few times on her way out just in case Furi decided to shoot her in the back. Once she was in the clear, the spurii let out a sigh of relief. This was taking a rather interesting turn. While Lottie currently didn't have the means to confirm her suspicions, she knew someone who did. Smirk in place, the agent disappeared into the night.
Back in the bar, when Aeria looked to under her arm, she would find a small business card with Lottie's name and how to find her.
Aeria really hadn’t any response to Lottie. She wasn’t sure how one even responded to that kind of statement. It had never happened that anyone was attracted to her before or at least no one who mentioned it aloud. It wasn’t a bad feeling but it was, at the very least, confusing for the spurii.
“Uh...oh...kay...thanks?!” She stammered as Lottie got up from the table and left the bar. She watched the other woman go with her sense of confusion only growing. She could feel Lottie’s card under her elbow as she re-focused her attention on Furi so she pocketed the card. The lean half-avian wanted to forget her embarrassment as quickly as possible.
“So what now? Clearly that didn’t go super well. Who else exactly are we waiting for? I mean...I’m not sure you and I are going to be able to do this all single-handed...are we?” There was a mixture of skepticism and surprise in the delicate features of the spurii’s face as she watched her mercenary companion for some reaction. Furi wasn’t the easiest person in the world to read unless she lost her temper.
The agent left the bar after the deal was made. Whether or not she held up her end of the bargain was another story. In any case, Furi turned her attention to Aeria to discuss their actual business, when she spotted the girl holding a card. “Looks like you have a fan. Guess having a record is attractive,” the huntress said. Before she could speak further, the velen waitress passed their table, leaving a note on the table. Giving it a quick read, it told her that Nera had similar intentions, except she’d already gone off on her own. “Seems like nobody stuck around once that job finished. Looks like it’ll be me and you for now. I’ve found where Sarkis fled to, a city called Excelsa. The distance is far, and we’ll be complete strangers to the people there. I intend to capture him and find out what he did with the document. It may also help your...status within this city if you assisted in this matter. Are you interested?” she said.
“I guess it is? You never know what people are into, do you?”
Having recovered from the flustered embarrassment that had been left in the wake of the agent’s departure, Aeria was able to return her focus to Furi again. She took a deep breath and paused before replying to the query posed by her dangerous companion.
“Well I guess that if it has to be us for now, it has to be us. I’m not sure I’m a complete stranger anywhere at this rate but at least it’d take a while for news to travel to Excelsea about me. I’m in although I doubt my status will get much help from anything right now. I just want that sleazy prick Sarkis somewhere I can reach him. When do we start this trip?” The same desire for adventure was rising in Aeria again. No matter how much trouble it landed her in, she couldn’t seem to escape from it. [788]
“Well it depends on how we travel. Of course I want the fastest route, so it’d be by airship. I also want a ride that won’t ask questions, given your bounty and my need to carry as much as possible. I’ve already got a bag of supplies, and I’ll get a second one prepared for you overnight. Unless there’s something critical that you need to do in the city, we can be out of here by tomorrow morning,” the huntress explained. “Assuming our little agent friend pulls through we should have some backup when we reach Excelsa. If we come across Nera on the way, we can throw her an invitation. Regardless, I intend to crack Sarkis’s head on a wall as many times as it takes to get him talking. Find out what he did with the document, and then put a bullet in his head when it's over,” she said, getting to her feet. “You can stay in the same room you did last time. Get a good night’s rest. Hope you don’t get airsickness,” Furi finished, leaving the spurii as she went to the hidden room. “You think getting the band back together is the best idea?” Bill remarked as she entered. “I don’t fancy my chances going it alone. Sarkis may be an asshole but he’s a smart asshole. Increasing the number of pursuers with a common goal is the best shot I can take. Get her a supply bag, nothing too heavy, I don’t know what she can handle,” she responded. [SIZE3]“Will do.”
There was nothing critical for Aeria in any serious way. She had long ago decided that she was going to leave as little footprint as possible anywhere from now on. Of course, she had her connections with Kincaid, Ignis and Deni but aside from them, she was free. The Professor was also to be counted but his presence was less connected to her now than it had once been. She turned to look at Furi.
“There’s not much I have to do. I’ll go and grab my halberd but otherwise I’m fine. I don’t want to go completely unarmed on this little trip. We can definitely head out in the morning.” She let Furi continue to speak and then broke in. “Well bashing his head is definitely one way to go about it. We might think of a more subtle approach on our way to Excelsea but we can’t rule anything out, can we? I’d also enjoy having him slowly tortured by someone. It might be more appropriate.”
Aeria nodded. “I’ll just go get my weapon and return to the inn here to rest. I’ll see you in the morning and I’m half-enlil so no, I don’t get airsick.” They parted ways and Aeria wondered, once again, if she was really smart to get involved in this right now but she was in it too deeply to get herself out and she still didn’t want to escape, even if she’d had a chance to do it. [1034] FINAL
