"Nin, is something wrong?" Vadei asks me as I continue to fidget at the edge of my seat. Right at the back end of this place. There was no one to my right and there should've been... Larishazza had still not come back from whatever it was she left to do...
"Lari isn't back!" I let out with clear worry.
"Shhh!" someone in front scorned. Only for them to violently rock forward when my foot just barely fit before me. The sudden impact having both disturbed the row in front and severely damaged that seat.
"Excuse me!?" a woman let out quietly yet harshly. A tone that seemed to disappear the moment I rose up to meet her. Initially eye-to-eye, but I quickly soared over her.
"Nin!" Einervaene snapped just as quietly before I snapped towards the door.
"Sir, please stop disturbing the audience." a nervous member of staff told me as I started to chitter louder and louder.
"Tsk." I let out before I crashed into my seat. Snarling as the row I disturbed walked out of the room. An effect that seemed to nearly disturb the show. But, whoever was performing, this masked man, he was not phased.
"Nin, it's okay, she will be back." Vadei tries to soothe me with. A slightly louder tone this time as those in front had vanished.
"You know I can't... Not after the way she's been acting." I say with a slight choke to my words. Was this my fault!? She has referenced it so many times... Yet, I can't understand why she was behaving like this.
She was too kind to just stew angrily over what I asked of her. She showed no signs of this behaviour even while she was drunk later in the night. In fact, it only seemed to amp up previous joy and merrymaking. Not a single sign of remorse or anger.
Then, recently, that all seemed to change at the drop of a hat... Anger I had never seen from her. A degree of irritability I would've expected from Vadei... It was like someone else was forcing their way into her.
To say nothing of how distracted she was back at lunch. Yet, her behaviour wasn't the only thing that worried me at lunch. Well, it's more hindsight now. But, that group, they had not performed yet...
They were supposed to have been two acts ago according to their word. But, this pamphlet we got when we finally got in. It says that they were all the way towards the end. In the establishment's words, 'the closing act to the mighty peak of the light.'
A phrase that seemed to speak of this man going by how enthralled everyone was. However, his choice of music, no matter how talentedly he performed it on his lonesome. It did nothing to calm me. This music was designed to make you feel tense...
Harsh drum beats and the sharp pull of strings. A strange, almost sinister beat to it all. I know I was just losing myself in the music as well... Yet this was just not right.
There was something wrong... There had to have been something... Lari should be back by now. Regardless of if she gave a time or not.
She had been gone for too long and this was unacceptable!
"Nin? Nin!" one of them called out to me before I shot out of my chair. Stomping out to the bar just outside the performance chamber. And, in an effort to clench my worries. I snatched up someone's drink and swallowed it.
Glass and all.
"He-" he began to complain before he likely froze in shock at my exposed features. There was no screaming. But, I could see that in the corner of my eye... The security of this place was on the move.
"Nin? Nin!" Einervaene said as she came up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder.
"Where is she, Einervaene?" I asked pointlessly as there was no way she could've known. She was one of the first in... I was the last one to come in. The last one who could have actually caught sight of her.
"Nin, it's okay. Just calm down. I know, the music is quite tense, isn't it?" she tried to joke before I shifted my gaze towards her. And she leapt in surprise as our eyes met.
"It's not that..." I complained before I rested my face into my palms. Digging the sharp points of my claws into my head as the chittering got worse. What if this really was my fault!? She's mentioned it enough for that to be potentially true!
"You're worried about her, aren't you?"
"And you aren't!?" I may have presumptuously asked as she reacted by raising her hands.
"I did not say that! It's just..."
"I'm sorry... Something just isn't adding up."
"Then ask her when she comes back?"
"She should be back by now... Lari should be in there enjoying the show with us. But, no she's..." I started to say before a glass was placed before me.
"Drink, focus." the barkeep said to me without a sign of fear.
"Y-You aren't afraid...?" I ask. Just letting this confusion fill my mind in the hopes it might calm me down.
"Not when you are worried for your bird." the familiar man answers while also encouraging me to drink.
"Hey, weren't you...?"
"Serving your lunch earlier?" he asks back with a laugh.
"Why're you here?" I decide to ask as I tremble with a near-empty glass in hand.
"I work part-time here when I am not full-timing at my place. I get to enjoy the music for free and I carry on doing what I love." he laughs out before he pours me another drink. A small notetablet even started to be filled out as he did so.
"Sounds like you're a dependable man." Einervaene compliments with a smile. Something that makes the man chuckle a little longer.
"No, I just love a good talk over a drink." he says before he takes a simp from a tankard he had.
"Can you find someone else to talk to, then?" I soon asked him as getting lost in this conversation was pointless! I needed to find Larishazza!
"Nin!?" Einervaene called out as I suddenly shot off the stall. Carrying on until I left the building with a sudden temperature change hitting me outside. Screams from the surprised filled the air and I was under constant watch.
"LARISHAZZA!?" I cried out into the somewhat quiet streets. Frantic worry all about me.