"This is a bad idea, really, a very very bad idea. The worst!"
The whispers rang behind Raivi's ears, its tone whiny like a child's, with a crack of fear mixed into it. He turned around, half in annoyance from the badgering timber and half in agreement. A bad idea it might have very well been but it wasn't like they had any other choice.
There was no one visible within earshot, except for the empty, dirty hallway dimly lit by a few oil torches on both sides, filling the air with a burnt smell of bran rice.
"Your idea is WORSE."
Raivi replied back into space and in the same whispering tone so that only those who were standing right next to him would hear, much like the voice. His eyes scanned the dull hallway back and forth, not resting to focus on anything. The voice didn't respond with words, but with a soft grumble that could very well be the wind.
Raivi straightened his back and took a deep breath as he tried to calm his thumping heart. The wooden door in front of him was as old as Noswen's books with its crush peeling off from the edges, just like the others he had crossed in the hallway downstairs. He advanced his right hand and paused a few inches before touching its scratchy paint.
He was having second thoughts now. What if he had been mistaken? So many things could go wrong. He shook his head, as if trying to charge up some strength from within, and knocked on the door. The voice gasped behind him and Raivi ignored it. What did HE have to worry about? HE was invisible. Raivi thought bitterly.
They waited. Their breaths withheld, as it felt like time around them had suddenly slowed down. Raivi wondered if he was at the wrong door, or they had the wrong person; the surety he had moments ago left his body the second his knuckles touched the door. May be his own idea was the worse one after all, Raivi swallowed nervously at the thought.
The door opened, just a crack at first and then it pulled inside. Behind it stood an old woman, slightly taller than average with a wrinkled scarred face, grey hair in that immaculate bun and the stern expression; she was a very sharp contrast to her neat background. Any other time Raivi would run the other way whenever she was in sight but right then a dizzying relief washed over him.
"Raivi?"
Ava asked, her voice not masking her surprise. Her ever present frown deepened slightly as she looked him over head to toe. She peered behind him, and her eyes searched the empty hallway. Her gaze lingered on his left for an unexpectedly longer time.
"Mrs. Ava, I need your help."
Raivi managed to speak out, shaken by her daggering gaze, but without any significant tremble in his voice as he pushed down his hood. Ava stepped back to gesture him to get into her chamber. It was a small and frayed room, as much he'd expect from a place like this, but neatly exhibited but with the same burnt smell from the corridor. The yellow paint on the wall had decayed. The curtains on the windows were old and torn but its pleats were angled perfectly. There was two beds in the center. The green haired girl that had been following Ava for last few months was also there, sitting in a wicker chair with a book in her hands. Her large, daggering eyes were on him, wide with childlike wonder and a fleeting glint that was more than the reflected light. Raivi felt like she would jump from her seat and to him any moment but her eyes quickly and apologetically shifted back to Ava and then the book, like a dog that was caught stealing.
"Sit down." Ava pointed at one of the beds and she sat on the edge the other one. "You too, Vynder." Ava added without looking at anyone, not surprising Raivi at all with her intuitions, but there was a momentary pause in the room after that. Raivi glared at the girl who was doing her best impression of ignoring them.
Despite how much Vynder liked to overestimate himself and his little trick, Ava was a master sorceress. He should have known that by now and stopped being surprised when caught. His Frolicking had neared its end.
The air rippled in the middle of the room, revealing a handsome tall young man with sheepish smile, deep black eyes, a sharp jaw line and dark hair. Unlike Raivi's worn out appearance, Vynder was mostly clean and proper, only a few smudges of dirt here and there that too only visible if one was searching for them. He wore a dark and expensive sleeveless tunic, he had made a habit of showing off his muscles whenever. Like right now even in a tensed situation. He showed none of the fear or doubt Raivi was feeling, or the one he was nagging Raivi with before he'd knocked on the door. He scratched the back of his head, clearly overplaying his embarrassment and biceps. It twitched Raivi's eyes to look at the desperation.
"I am very sorry Madam. I wasn't sure it was you." Vynder said with a bewitching tone that was known to melt anyone's heart in the academy. But he was good and Raivi didn't mind admitting, after all he had seen Vynder spend hours practicing his speech, and practice often made perfect. However, his didn't seem sorry at all to his classmate. Working with Vynder for the last few months had led Raivi to a point where he could easily read the other boy. Then again may be it was that he rarely did feel sorry, Raivi thought.
Vynder shuffled near Raivi, sitting suddenly too close and looking like a giant near Raivi's small and frail frame.
Ava's gaze shifted between her two freshmen, eager to hear what purpose they had and completely ignoring the 'heart melting' apology. She was as silent as the grave, but Raivi could almost hear her mind running over the scenario behind those calm eyes. He tried not to dip his head any lower, but the weight of Ava's gaze felt heavy on his shoulders. He turned sideways to Vynder, head still hanging in the same weary position.
Ava was commanding and a bit impatient. A combination Raivi was used to hearing in the woman's voice, and it unnerved him greatly. He squirmed inside, his entrails twisted as much as was allowed without being too hurtful that he had to physically groan. He tried focusing on the girl, who hadn't budged an inch in her chair.
He even noticed Vynder shimmer for a moment, and hoped it was just his eyes playing tricks. Because if Vynder turned invisible and ran leaving him alone there, Raivi would make sure not even ashes remained of the taller boy when they next met.
To his relief, Vynder stayed where he was and appeared as jittery as him. Ava wasn't in a good a mood and their story was only going to make it worse. Raivi didn't know where to begin, how to narrate his version of the story without looking guilty. He kept shifting his eyes on either sides looking for a head-start, they met the girl's, and for once Raivi sensed pity in them, pity for them.
"Go out and find what you can about the city, Olean."
Ava's word cut through the tension in the room like a hot knife through butter. Raivi heard a thump of window opening and turned his head to see Olean suddenly at the farthest window, looking eager and ready to jump out of the third floor.
"Don't be seen." Ava enjoined loud and clear. Olean disappeared the next moment after a graceful nod.
Raivi heard a gasp behind him; he turned his head to Vynder whose charismatic expression had dropped in disbelief.
After the creaking of the window had faded, the three of them sat in silence for a few other seconds.
"There. That should make it comfortable for you, now start speaking." Ava said with an impatient tone. Though it wasn't much different than her usual tone of voice, Raivi couldn't help but imagine her speaking through clenched teeth. It elevated his tension some more. He was having a very hard time blurting his first word. Vynder's presence was of no help either, as ever.
He heard Ava sigh in front of them, and looked up at her. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and looked at him with looking a very tired old woman.
"Is Cinsa alive?" Ava asked drily.
Raivi took a sharp breath as it felt like his heart skipped a beat at the question. He hadn't expected her to ask that nor had he thought of that possibility until now and how real it could be that she wasn't alive.
"Yes." he said and then thought about it and added. "I think so."
Ava nodded and looked down in thought and then looked up at him and Vynder.
"And? Where is she?"
"We…don't know."
Raivi answered with the truth. Ava frowned at him and narrowed her eyes, and at that moment Raivi felt an intense annoyance at his companion who had been nothing but a silent observe, leaving him to deal with their pedagogue all alone. He sharply glanced to his right only to find Vynder looking everywhere but at the two of them.
"Start by how you ended up here."
Her voice broke Raivi out of his thoughts. She looked familiar now, the same old woman he was used to seeing all these years.
Ava poured two big cups of basil tea and placed them on the bed in between Vynder and Raivi.
"That should explain everything, right?"
She asked looking directly into is eyes and Raivi found himself nod without thinking.
"Two weeks ago, Cinsa called us for a meeting, regarding the next job."
Raivi started looking into that steaming cup of dark tea in his hands. He took another sip and enjoyed the lingering and comfortable warmth since the first sip. It was not a taste he could explain, a hint of sweet and bitterness and others.
"A routine procedure. And then?"
Ava said breaking him out of his thoughts again.
"But this one was bigger than what we had done before and she didn't want anyone to know, and she said we get twelve hundred, four hundred each if it was just us three doing it."
It was Vynder who replied. He looked uncharacteristically pleased and had worn a smile wide enough to be goofy on anyone else but him. Raivi turned his suspicious eyes onto the drink in hand and wondered if Ava had mixed something suspicious in it. But he quickly thought against it, if he couldn't trust Ava then he might as well not trust anyone.
What Vynder said was true however; the money was one reason for them for taking the job. It was extremely generous, more than three times what they were getting before.
Raivi recalled Vynder wearing the same 'goofy' grin the day Cinsa had come to them with the job…