I feel a lump in my throat the moment I see that the girl before me is holding a gun. My first instinct is to draw my sword on her and try to get away, but I know I can't do that. Starting a fight in a highly populated place like this isn't a good idea. Not for her, not for me.
"Tell me why you wanted to know about the Sealed Spirit," she repeats. There is a certain level of viciousness in her voice. I know she's going to give me problems, so I have no choice but to answer.
"I want to protect it," I say flatly.
"Protect it from what?"
"Protect it from people who want to use it to hurt others." My words come off strong and bold, and I see the fiery look in the short girl's eyes falter.
"So you don't want to awaken it?" she mumbles, surprised. She takes her hand out of her pocket, away from her gun. "I've been hearing the higher-ups talking about a top secret operation they're planning down there," she whispers into my ear. Her voice is soft and her breath is cool; it smells minty and clean.
"I don't know what they're planning," she says seductively, "But they're up to no good."
I back away from her slightly. "Well, I don't want to use that Sealed Spirit for anything evil. I want it to stay right where it is, that's all I can tell you."
I start to walk away from her, glad the conflict has resolved itself peacefully. I'd have hated to see swords and bullets flying around a place like this. Someone would have gotten hurt, definitely.
"Wait," she steps toward me. I turn my head and I see the firm, powerful look is back in her eyes. "Are you going to stop them?"
I hesitate. I can't say yes, because that would raise a huge red flag with this girl. On the flip side, I can't say no right away, because I feel terrible about lying.
"I see." She reads my face perfectly, and she knows what's going through my head. "There's supposed to be a 'special delivery' tonight, stranger, and they're bringing it down to the basement. I have a feeling it has something to do with that Sealed Spirit. I've been…worried, you know. Worried for a long time. But I'm just a Vitarine employee. I can't do anything about it. But maybe you can."
She walks back up to me and takes my left hand in both of hers, and she brings it close to her chest. "W-what are you doing!?" I sputter.
She places my hand just below her neck and there's a million things running through my head. The biggest one is 'WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH MY HAND!?'
She slides one of my fingers down her shirt ever so slightly, and I'm about to pull my hand away when I see what she's trying to accomplish. She uses my finger to lift up a small key she's wearing around her neck. She dangles the key from my finger and then looks at me with fluttering eyes. She licks her lips once before she speaks.
"This is the key to the room where the Sealed Spirit is," she whispers. "You can have it, if you want."
She places a hand on my neck and speaks into my ear again. "Do you want it?" her words are slow and breathy.
"If you're talking about the key, then yes," I sigh. Her actions are making me uncomfortable in more ways than one, and I want her to stop. I'd be a little more forceful, but I can't deny she's attractive.
"I have one condition," she says lightly. "One thing you have to do, if you want this key?"
"What?"
"Take me with you."
I freeze. "I can't," I frown. "I'm…"
"On a top secret mission?" she laughs. "You want to get down there, and I want to go with you. Neither of us can have what we want unless we compromise, mister."
"My name's Sigmund," I correct her. "I don't want to be called mister."
"Sigmund, eh?" My name rolls off of her tongue so naturally. "I'm Portia. Nice to meet you." She lets a finger slide along my chin as she looks innocently into my eyes. It's funny that she gives me that innocent look, because that's not the vibe I'm getting from her at all.
"So do we have ourselves a deal, Sigmund? My key for your friendship."
"I'll have to talk to my friends about it," I gulp. They won't approve of this at all, I know they won't.
"I'll go with you then, to meet them."
After that, Portia and I go to get lunch together. It wasn't my idea, it was hers. Considering how I need that key, I go along with it though. I spend my entire lunch trying to think of ways to steal the key from her without her noticing, somehow. No matter what I think of, the idea is terrible.
I make my way back to the inn, where we all decided we would meet this morning. The inn we stayed in has a large lounge area. We're going to meet in the back corner. Not only is it a fairly secluded spot, but it's the only landmark we could all establish this morning. None of us knew the city yet, so the inn was the only place we could all trust ourselves to find our way over to.
I see that I am not the first person to arrive, once I get to the inn. I find Natalia is lying on one of the sofas in the back, fast asleep.
"Hey, Natalia!" I call out. Her eyes shoot open and she enters a defensive stance. She must be a very light sleeper, if she's going to pop open like that.
"That lady at the counter made me pay for another night if I was going to nap here," Natalia mopes. "So we're staying here tonight again."
"Okay," I say. "Natalia, this is, uh…Portia."
Natalia looks like she is just noticing the girl next to me for the first time. She sees her face, first. Portia has light skin and dark green eyes, and her face is soft and almost doll-like. She's removed her had at this point, so I can really see what she looks like. Her hair is dirty blonde and is free-flowing. She has it all pushed to the right, and her hair is falling like a cascade over her right shoulder. She's got perfectly straight hair, there's not a single wave to it.
She's short, probably…5'5? She's pretty thin as well, but she's got a tough and spunky demeanor to her. If I hadn't already made my judgments on her, I would stereotype her as a little spoiled brat.
"Sigmund, we're not here to pick up dates," Natalia rolls her eyes.
"I'm not a date," she scoffs. "I'm a teammate. Here, look." She takes the key off from around her neck and throws it at Natalia. My friend catches the key and looks at it.
"I don't want to go to your inn room," Natalia shrugs. "Is that what this is?"
Portia snarls at Natalia. "Hmph. I thought you'd keep better company, Sigmund. No, that's not an inn key. That's the key to the basement of Vitarine Inc.!"
Natalia raises an eyebrow. "How—"
"Sigmund told me everything," Portia smirks. "And I got that key for him. With that key in hand, you and Sigmund here can get to where the Sealed Spirit you're looking for is."
"Sigmund, this girl is obviously a spy," Natalia growls, standing up. Natalia is a lot taller and more imposing than the small girl, and I notice Portia cower a bit.
"If she's a spy, she's not doing a good job," Sigmund says. "She should have reported back by now. She's been with me the entire time, she hasn't had a chance to warn anyone from Vitarine that we're here. I trust her."
"See, Sigmund trusts me!" Portia sticks her tongue out. "If you don't want my help, I'll just take my key back and march all the way back to Vitarine and have them change the locks!"
"Not if I kill you first."
"Hey, Natalia!" I yell. "That's not nice. Portia here offered to help us out."
Natalia shrugs. "Not my problem."
Portia looks a little disgruntled and she snatches the key back from Natalia. "I just want to help you guys, okay?" she says. I can tell she's trying to get through to Natalia, and not to me. I've already decided to keep Portia around. I don't know if I can trust her completely, but up to this point she's given me no reason to doubt her.
"Sigmund said you're Natalia?" Portia asks. "It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot, it's just, well…I've been suspicious of the company for a long time now, and I overheard Sigmund come up and start asking our receptionist all sorts of crazy things. And…that got me thinking…I'm not the only one who's suspicious. I thought maybe Sigmund was going to come and be the one who helps me out, you know? I can't stop anything on my own, but Sigmund seemed strong. Plus, he has friends like you!"
Portia tries to sweet-talk her way into Natalia's good graces for the next five minutes, and Natalia eventually succumbs to the pressure.
"Okay!" Natalia shouts back at me. "I believe you, with the damn key and the 'I want to help'. But what good is a key going to do us if we can't get to the door, hmm? You ever think of that? I'm sure little Prissypants here could get down there no problem, but they have security in Vitarine. There's no way you, me, Kael, and Kavella are getting through their security without causing a huge scene," Natalia says to me. "It's not about whether or not we trust this girl. It's about how realistic what we're doing is."