Azemo woke up and finally got a proper look at his small two room apartment. It was exceedingly plain with a few pieces of furniture that were carved out of the room. This meant that Azemo could not change the look of his room because the table, as well as everything else was attached to the floor.
Azemo's stomach growled and he realized that he had no food. 'Do I not get free food in the city?'
As the thought crossed Azemo's mind a knock was heard at his front door. When Azemo opened the door he could see the back of a figure walking away. Azemo was on the third floor so he did not really feel like chasing the person down and when he saw it was a food delivery he forgot all about the delivery man.
On the ground was a tray with enough food to feed Azemo and the two cats. As Azemo picked up the tray he noticed a small slip of paper under one of the plates.
Instead of reading it Azemo decided to eat his breakfast because food was always the most important thing.
After eating, Azemo left Ima and Bella to explore the new city. They were happy to be out of the sand.
As soon as the cats were situated Azemo hurried to the docks. The note was not forgotten but Azemo only had time to pocket it as he ran through the city.
Azemo was running late because the police had closed the alley that was his shortcut. They had told him something about a sight that could never be unseen when they stopped his advance.
At the dock Azemo was a little unsure what to do but after seeing someone hop off the side of the floating city he followed suit. Azemo jumped off the edge and began diving towards the ground. The person he had followed had already activated their badge but Azemo was in a rush.
Azemo plummeted towards the ground pressing his badge twice a mere twenty feet in the air. Azemo's momentum was arrested and his body felt the strain of the abrupt stop, otherwise his demon body staved off any repercussions.
Because of his aerial endeavors Azemo was only two minutes late, something that the others had gotten used to. Azemo did like to sleep after all and he often woke up late with no Casen to get him up. 'I wonder if they have alarm clocks in the city.'
The walk that day was like any other and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Azemo put Reginald back in the barn and began the ascent back to the city in the sky.
On the way up he finally decided to read the note from the morning. On a plain piece of old paper a message was written in a hard to read cursive font.
Nice work in the alley. Meet me next to the cafe on third street. One hour after midday.
Someone had seen him in the alley. Azemo was trying to keep a low profile so he decided to listen to the demands on the letter. If it was a trap Azemo was confident in himself. The worst thing that could happen would be him failing the Soul Essence's mission.
After Azemo decided on a plan of action the docks soon came into sight and Azemo had to show his residency pass to another guard.
After leaving the docks Azemo looked up at the big clock in the sky and saw that it was nearly time for him to meet up with the sender of the message. 'I better go collect Bella and Ima.'
Azemo hurried back to his room and found the two sisters napping. He quickly woke them up and the group hurried to the meeting place.
"You two go on look out." Just because Azemo was confident did not mean he would not be at least a little cautious.
The cafe that he was instructed to go to was nothing out of the ordinary, but next to it was another dark alley. Without hesitating Azemo stepped into the comforting darkness while Bella and Ima slunk into the shadows.
"You actually came." A cold voice filled Azemo's ears and he looked up to see a figure standing in the shadows. The person probably thought that Azemo would not be able to get a good look at them but Azemo's demon eyes worked just fine in the dead of night. It was easy for Azemo to see that the person was none other than Casen.
"I see you can make observations, what do you want?" Azemo decided not to show he already recognized Casen, maybe he would learn something.
"Are you not a demon? It is me, your pal Casen." Casen's voice was a good deal less sinister and quite a bit cheery.
"Okay, but what do you want?" Walking Reginald always took a lot of Azemo's energy and he needed time to recuperate back to his talkative self.
"I saw you take down those folks in the alley yesterday and I thought you would be perfect for our organization."
"How did you watch the fight?" Azemo was impressed because apparently Casen had been able to avoid detection when Azemo was in combat mode.
"Every time someone new enters the city, people are sent to rough them up. Usually the guards will come and save them before anything too bad happens. This makes people thankful and supportive of the guard. All I had to do was tail you until you got attacked."
Azemo blinked in surprise forgetting about his original question. 'I guess that is a way to gain loyalty.'
"Okay Casen I will join your group."
"I thought you wou... wait you don't even want to ask what we do."
"I assumed you would explain, but I am in, as long as it doesn't conflict with my other job."
"Your job is one of the reasons we want you. To explain it simply we are a group called Lleh. Our goal is to overthrow the government and free our demon brethren."
'I guess it does make sense that a demon Soul Essence would have something to do with demons.'
"Okay lead the way." Azemo could tell that at the very least he would learn something from Lleh so he was not at all that hesitant.
"Because you are new I can't reveal the location of our base so I need to blindfold you."
"Go for it." Azemo chuckled to himself, the sisters would follow them and tell him the exact directions to the base later on.
Casen quickly blocked off Azemo's sight with a thick piece of cloth before leading him to the hideout of Lleh. Casen paid no attention to the two cats that were tailing them and did not notice when Bella and Ima slipped back into the room bag.
Azemo had done a clever thing, for once.