“I don’t like it,” Shalan grumbled while examining the clear liquid that swirled around in the bottle before her. “There’s something about them.”

After Trim and Svanda had left the hotel, Ormain spent the next hour relaxing as he discussed the meeting with Shalan and Lysalya. While the meeting had been brief, that didn’t necessarily mean that it hadn’t been fruitful. Whether the two women from earlier knew it or not, he had gained much more than they would have thought from the exchange so now he was simply using his time to string the pieces together.

“Of course there is,” he replied with a dull expression as he watched Shalan pour herself another glass of liquor. After deciding that the ale ‘wasn’t strong enough,’ she had taken a bottle of liquor from behind the bar. Understandably the bartender didn’t have the nerve to stop her, and Ormain hadn’t bothered to do so either. It was fortunate for her, but he sighed to himself when he thought about how he maybe should have stopped her after all. He would be the one that had to keep her in line if she indulged in more drink than she should have.

“Why didn’t you say something then?” Lysalya asked as she reclaimed the seat that Trim had used earlier before pouring her own glass from the bottle. “We could have kept them here and roughed them up a little.”

“It’s better for Vechse to follow them while they're unaware,” Ormain dismissed her idea with a casual wave of his hand, instead referring to the second male suit that had returned after visiting the restaurant. “If there’s something suspicious we can go and… ask some questions.”

“If you say so,” she replied with a wry smile before glancing over at Shalan. “What, I wasn’t supposed to have any? It’s not like you’re going to pay for it.”

Instead of answering, Shalan snatched the bottle back with a scowl before pouring herself another glass. Ormain smiled when he thought he heard a sigh escape from the bartender’s lips, but ignored it as his attention turned to the door which had just been pushed open. To their surprise they found that it was actually a Royal Guard that had stepped inside, and a proper one clad in blue at that. The gold on his buttons and helmet reflected the dim lighting as he walked down the length of the silent bar, his obscured figure pausing at their table for a moment before reaching for his pocket. Fishing out a neatly wrapped roll of paper, he dropped it in front of Ormain before leaving the bar without speaking a word.

“Interesting,” Ormain mused as he slowly reached for the paper. With a practiced motion, his fingers untied the small black ribbon that was wrapped around it before he unfurled the document and scanned the contents.

“Well?” Shalan asked as he set the paper down before him with a smile on his face.

“Very interesting,” he grinned as he slid the piece of paper across the table to her. Picking it up, she scanned it just as Ormain had:

the cloud orchestra - expelled from royal district

reina – deep red hair, long. brown eyes. 170-175cm.

svanda – v/short silver hair, bright eyes. 180-185cm.

trim – long blonde hair, green eyes. 175-180cm.

jade – long green hair, blue eyes. 170-175cm.

aline – short pink hair, purple eyes. 170-175cm.

saela – short blonde hair, dark eyes. 160-165cm.

“Someone wants us to find them,” Shalan concluded as she slid the paper over to Lysalya. Her earlier scowl had hardened into a serious expression as she watched Lysalya read the page before turning to Ormain. “What do you think?”

“Three things,” he said as Lysalya dropped the paper on the table between them. “The first thing is that whoever wrote this is claiming that they’ve been kicked out from the Royal District. We don’t know what happened, but whoever wrote this obviously knows that we’re looking for these people and wants us to tangle with them.”

“We’re not going to say no to a gift are we?” Shalan smirked as she rolled her shoulders. “They won’t have anywhere to hide yet either. Rats without a nest should be dealt with before they make one.”

“The second thing is the descriptions,” Ormain said as he brushed off her statement. “The second and third ones seem to be the two that we met just before, which itself raises a lot of questions.”

He watched as Shalan snatched at the piece of paper before reading it again, a low growl forcing its way out of her mouth once she connected the dots. Unlike her, he wasn’t particularly fazed by being duped. It was a loss, but he was more focused on trying to put the bigger picture into perspective. It seemed easy to look back on it and think that he should have seen through them, but at the same time he realised that the thought should have never crossed his mind. After all, what kind of group sells information on themselves in exchange for information they should already know?

“Which leads to the third thing,” he continued.

“Nina,” Lysalya concluded.

“Nina isn’t on this list,” he said with a nod as he pointed at the letter. “It means that whoever wrote this either doesn’t know about her, or they are telling us that she hasn’t left the Royal District. I think it’s pretty obvious as to which one it is, and they're telling us that she isn't included. Nina was spotted with a prince, and then her own group comes asking questions about her. I thought it was strange why they asked about what I considered useless information, but it would fit if this is the case. Something has happened between Nina, her group, and the Royal Family.”

“So now they’re looking for her too?” Lysalya mused before standing up and stretching her arms over her head. “This seems like a mess if she’s been taken by the Royal Family. Getting to her in the first place was hard enough.”

“Are you going to give up?” Shalan asked.

“Not entirely, but I think we can shift our attention to Reina for now as she’s the bigger catch,” he replied as the door to the bar opened again. Watching as Vechse skulked into the room, he frowned. “You lost them, didn’t you?”

“The Farmer’s District is a shanty town compared to this,” he complained. “From how they moved, it isn’t the first time they’ve dropped a tail either.”

“Well we know why they’re good at it now don’t we?” Ormain smiled as Shalan handed Vechse the list. “Is the lieutenant still sleeping?”

“He is.”

“Wake him up,” Ormain said after Vechse dropped the paper back on the table. “And then get Artel back here. That girl isn’t going to show up at the restaurant anymore.”

It was obvious that the restaurant was as good as dead as far as leads were concerned, but despite that Ormain was feeling confident. The Cloud Orchestra would surely disappear among the endless stretches of stone that was the Farmer’s District, but he knew that the tables had now been turned on them. If Reina and her team wanted to find Nina, they would have to be active, and that was when he would have the perfect chance to strike. He considered the possibility that Nina had been abandoned, but shrugged it off. The fact that the women from earlier had played such a risky hand led him to think that they wouldn’t be giving up.

He pushed his way out of the bar before stepping out on to the street, breathing in the cool air that accompanied the late afternoon breeze. He wouldn’t admit it to his team, but there was a little part of him actually wanted Reina to succeed in taking her back. Planning to pull Nina out from the Royal District after they themselves had been thrown out? That was something that he wanted to see. Not only did he have had no idea how someone was supposed to infiltrate the district in the first place, he also knew that their success could potentially deliver Nina right into his waiting grasp.

Or Shalan’s, he thought as his gaze flicked over to her. She had followed him outside like a loyal dog before leaning against the stone wall of the hotel, watching passer-bys with an icy gaze as they stepped around her. He knew that she had been left seething after their first encounter with The Cloud Orchestra, and two women slipping through their fingers just before would do nothing but agitate her further. Like cooking a grenade, Ormain was going to have to throw her at something in the near future if he didn’t want to pick up the pieces of whatever mess she decided to create when she’d finally had enough.

“We’ll get them,” he said, unsure of whether he was saying that to Shalan or himself. “We didn’t come this far for nothing.”

Without responding, Shalan glanced in his direction before her interest returned to examining the unnerved pedestrians that walked around them. She acted as though what he had said was a given, and inside he wondered if she was actually more confident than he was. Ormain was good at getting what he wanted, but this was a different game from what he was familiar with. While Luem was his home ground where SuTSU’s might left the population at his fingertips, this time around they were playing as the away team. SuTSU might have had connections, but he himself wasn’t as knowledgeable as Reina and her team were about their surroundings. Like chasing a fish in water, all he could hope to do was either catch them with some bait or predict where they would be so he could wait for them to stumble into his grasp.

“You’re frowning,” Lysalya said as she poked her head out the door. “Is something wrong?”

Ormain paused to look at the sky for a moment, composing himself before walking back in the direction of the door. “It’s nothing,” he said as he stepped past her. “Get everyone together. Tonight is when they'll move.”