The blackstone flooring seemed to be staring me down like some sort of feral beast. I spat on the ground, out of all the places I wanted to be at the moment this sure as hell wasn't one of them. I tried to strain the rope that was keeping me pinned to the chair, but it was too strong, or rather I was too weak.
"Ray Mejia…" A cold voice broke the dead silence, I could barely tell what the figure said due to the gravelly tone in their voice, "I assume you know why we brought you here."
"Can we do this later, Serpens? I'm sort of on a tight schedule here."
"I know you're working with Greyson Okinji my boy." The rough scratchy voice seemed to be coming from all around me, I couldn't see Serpens so I couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, "Now that I finally have you, you're going to tell me why Grey sent you here. It was quite foolish for him to send you to Zleigh of all places."
I chuckled, "You know I can't tell you that information, Greyson works in mysterious ways. I don't know why he's sent me to this grimey dump of a city you call home."
In an instant he had appeared in front of me, slapping my face so quick I could barely see his hand swiftly strike my cheek, "Don't lie to me my boy. Why has Greyson sent you to Zleigh?"
I chuckled hysterically, "Do you really have the authority to ask me such trivial questions? I should kill you right now you bastard."
"Oh? And how would you plan on doing that?"
"Simple, I'll use my morte like I always have."
"You, filthy creatara, don't possess a morte."
"That's where you're wrong, Greyson has shown me how to control it."
"Alright then, if you are so confident, show me by all means."
"As Greyson put it, I'm able to channel my chaotic energy through objects like he does with his waypoint. I haven't honed my skills quite yet, so all I can channel it through right now is my scarf."
Serpens chuckled, he had a smug sneer plastered across his face, "Greson Okinji… is a liar."
"Is that so?" I had had enough, I felt my chest begin to get tight as the crimson scarf across began to get hot around my neck. "Then how would you explain this?"
I felt the scarf grow red hot as a blast of black and red energy shot out of the scarf, burning my ropes and setting the room on fire. Serpens simply drew his katana and parried the blast, his blade glowing a deep purple as the energy reflected off of it's center and hit the roof with a shuddering boom.
I shook my wrists, happy to be freed from my bondages, "Well Serpens? I'm waiting for an apology."
"I'm not going to apologize," Serpens knelt over and tapped the floorboards with his two fingers, instantly dousing all the flames in an instant. He couldn't fix the massive hole in the roof however. "What I said was still true, Greyson has deceived you boy."
"What?" I felt the heat around my neck fizzle to a stop as my cockiness faded.
Serpens paused, "Have you ever heard the legend of the ethereal and vengeful beings?"
"Took you two long enough, what happened back there?"
I whirled to see Corra and Rico strutting towards us, Alice still resting in Corra's arms. Julian had called out to them, waving his hand in the air frantically to get their attention. Odd how Julian noticed before myself, must have been his keen sense of smell.
"Sorry about that!" Rico was panting and out of breath, both his hands were placed on the knees of his jet black jeans. "We ran into a little bit of trouble with the Dawn Syndicate."
Jack facepalmed, "Of course you did. How'd you get off scot free though?"
"Corra shrugged, "They were asking about Alice, luckily they didn't see her wings. I simply persuaded him with my knife, that's all."
"And, no witnesses?" I replied.
"No witnesses." She repeated.
"Sounds good," Jack clasped his hands together, "Shall we be on our way inside then? We still have to track down that guest that Cornelius wanted us to get the entry pass from."
Jack swung open the luxurious doors to the establishment with grace as we made our way inside. The inside of the hotel was gorgeous, it felt wrong to simply step through it's clear glass doors, but then again I appeared to be human so I was treated with respect. The lobby was garnished with gold trimming that accented the smooth quartz siding. Above the chattering of sophisticated humans who lined the room neatly, there was classical music that lightly played in the background.
"Greetings!" The receptionist who stood at the front desk around fifteen feet away from us called out to us, he spoke in a manner that only Cornelius did, "Do you chaps have a reservation?"
"Indeed," I replied, "There should be a reservation here for a 'Cornelius Hoffman."
The man rolled out a large piece of parchment, adjusting his silver monocle as he glanced over the paper, "Indeed." He exclaimed, "It appears he reserved a room for the group of you."
"Yes, that would be us." Corra replied, "Top floor, correct?"
He scanned his papers again, "Indeed." He was about to walk us over to the stairs, but then glanced at Alice. "Is your friend here alright? Would you want me to take her to our nurses office?"
Corra immediately snapped back, her voice was still slightly shaking from the encounter with the syndicate, "No, that'll be alright. Where do we go to see our room?"
The accountant motioned towards the quartz stairs to our left and cleared his throat, "Indeed, this way please."
We followed him up the seemingly endless spiral staircase that was encased in glass. Through it's clear finish I could see all of Zleigh, a spectacular view of the mountainside, harbour, and the Lord's Tower that was towering over me as I climbed higher and higher. Eventually we reached the top, the receptionist handing me a golden key that resembled the head of a lion.
"This is the key to your room," He motioned down the hall to his right. "It's right over there, number thirty three."
I gingerly snagged the key from his hand, turning towards the hall without a word. I had more pressing matters at hand that didn't involve small talk, I heard Rico politely thank the man as he trailed behind me. As I lodged the key into the door handle, I felt a heavenly smell of fresh spices and pine grace my nose. The room was garnished with a familiar gold trim that stretched along the quartz walls that gave off a regal air. The room was small, only a few chairs cupped the walls that cut into a smaller bedroom. Large oak bookcases lined the walls filled to the brim with books of all sizes.
Rico stepped inside, outstretching his wings as he glanced at the large window that overlooked all of Zleigh, "Now this-" He yelled, there was a joyous tint in his eyes, "-is a view I could get used to!"
Corra followed into the room behind him, slumping into the bedroom as she set Alice down onto the bed, "Don't get used to it. We need to head back into town to find that guy that can supposedly get us into that banquet."
I approached Corra, who was tucking Alice into the bed. She seemed solemn, "When do you think she'll recover?"
"I'm unsure," She glanced in my direction, still giving most of her attention to Alice, "If Cornelius was here, perhaps he could tell us."
"Should we just leave her here to rest? Maybe by the time we've gotten the identification card she'll be awake."
Corra nodded as we exited the bedroom to see Julian step through the door to the hotel room, his ghastly thin hands were cupped over his thin nose as his eyes narrowed. Jack and Rico had spread themselves across the golden and wood upholstery as they chatted.
"This place stinks."
"Glad to see you're enjoying yourself for once Julian."
"Can we get out of here already? All of this perfume is excruciating. Besides, we have work to do. You're forgetting the banquet is tonight, that doesn't leave us much time to find this man that Cornelius spoke of."
"Indeed." I turned to Corra, "I believe Cornelius mentioned where you might find this gentleman."
"Yeah, indeed." Corra tapped her chin with the tips of her gloved fingers, "His name is Rufus Cross. He's quite a good chum with our target, Lord Earl." She pulled out a small slip of parchment with a jumble of letters inscribed on it, "He gave me this address."
Jack cracked his neck, "I'll stay here with the girl. This is your job after all."
We all agreed, exiting the hotel and making our way back into the electric city. As we jogged briskly through the streets feeling the warm sun on our skin, Corra proposed a question.
"This address should be found in the outskirts of Zleigh," She held up the piece of paper from before, "if we continue at this pace we should reach him by midday."
"And…" Rico patted his bare back, he had been forced to leave his rifle in the hotel. We didn't want a repeated incident with what happened to Corra. "...what do we do when we find him?"
I shoved past a group of people, it felt strange not having a tail to have to worry about, "We do what we always do. Prey on the rich and corrupt, and give them what they deserve." I tapped the revolver that was concealed in my coat.
"Fair enough." Julian shrugged. "Will he have the card we need on him? I'd hate to have to rummage through someone's home."
"We'll have to see." Corra replied, "Cornelius never told me where the card would be located."
"Yes, this is quite a predicament." I said, keeping my head low in my scarf, "Even if we do reach the address, it'll be difficult to pull this off. We don't have enough time to wait for sundown so we'll have to go into this in broad daylight."
"I'm sure we can handle it." Corra still had her eyes firmly planted on the tips of her boots, the encounter with the syndicate must have shook her. "We've seen worse."
Something about this mission to me seemed off, I tried to not think about it as I made my way through the busy streets but I couldn't help myself. At least in just a few moments I would know what was making me uneasy. Soon enough we had made our way to the edges of town, reaching a small neighbourhood that was crammed between two large department stores.
"This is it." Corra double checked the slip of paper Cornelius gave her, then glanced up at the small dark green house. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.
"So, what's our plan of attack?" Rico clenched his feathery fists.
I pointed around to the back of the house which we could barely see from our view on the shady sidewalk, "Our best vantage point will be from around back. From there we can see inside through the windows, and be hidden from sight."
"We? As in all of us?"
"Don't be daft Rico, Corra and I will go. You stay here with Julian as lookouts."
Julian stepped forward, "And what do we do when the spell eventually peeters out? You can't expect us to keep watching even as creatara."
"That's right." I shrugged, "You'll have to figure out for yourselves. Who knows, this might be such a snappy operation that we'll be back to the hotel before the spells effects run out."
Julian mumbled something inaudible under his breath, probably some form of curse.
"Well then," I turned to Corra who was staring intently at the small home, "Shall we get going?" She nodded, and we stepped back into the now dimming sunlight of Zleigh.