Moments before the appearance of the Crimson Sky…

At the edge between a middle-class zone and a lower class zone, in a building of six floors high, a woman in a large, red cloak and hood takes a look out the window. She catches once more the throat of Arcadia, visible from where she is right now. This window is the only light source of the otherwise dark room, a somewhat rare instance where in a middle-class zone a room lacks a light source of some sort.

On the other side of the table, there are three men, one sitting, and the other two standing each beside him. The ones standing wear dulled colors, tight clothing, and eyes are covered with a black cloth. The one sitting wears a royal blue tunic with a collar and some medals, also tight but not like the ones beside him.

-”Hey, are you hearing me?”- The man sitting speaks.

-”I apologize, my lord. My mind sometimes just wanders off…”- The woman in the large red cloak and hood speaks, as she turns to him and rests her left arm on the table, revealing a woman of pale skin and delicate arms and hands.

-”Never mind that. I have the information you where asking for.”-

-”Is that so?”- She says as she raises her head a little. The dark hides the sly smile that otherwise would betray her act.

-”Indeed, but I have to wonder, why did you went to such… extremes… to get this info?”-

The left-arm jolts a little bit before this question -”Didn’t know that I needed to explain my reasons to my lord as to why I’m searching for this man.”-

-”Please, humor me, Hashi.”- Says the man, doing circles with his hands.

After a moment of silence -”This man I want… let’s say that he has a debt with me. A debt too large…”- Hashi says as she tries to control the movement of her left arm. As she quiets it down, her right leg starts moving up and down, giving a slight hit to the wooden table with her knee -”And let’s leave it like that. I hope that suffices to my lord.”-

Rubbing his chin with his right hand, the man assents a couple of times. One of the man’s bodyguards, the one to his left, raises his right arm a coughs twice.

The man sitting opens his eyes slightly, and at this, Hashi retires her left arm into her cloak.

Then, the man in front of her starts saying -”Very well then, the man in question goes by the name of Lee Sparrow. Leader of a bunch of pirates…”-

At this, Hashi’s heart jolts and all of her attention focuses on his words.

The man continues -”Right now he runs his operations in the seas around the island of New Arcadia. He was more active a couple of years ago, but from time to time there have been reports of ships being assaulted by this bunch and all of their shipment being stolen.”-

Hashi leans forward in her chair, assenting at each word spoken by the man as a burning sensation starts taking over her body, losing her sense of space again, letting the memory, the wound of old days bleed into the present. At that moment she feels once more the heat, she sees the flames, she sees the floor covered in blood, she hears the laughter of a large group and the screams of families being torn apart… including her own, and she then sees a large shadow standing in front of her, hands big enough that they could wrap around her tender head and squash it in an instant.

Hashi was showing her teeth. Even if the hood saved her from what otherwise would betray her act, the words of her former educator echoed in her head:

-”Always behave like a lady, even if it is all an act. We will not get what we want from our clients otherwise.”-

What I want…

The sound of snapping fingers took her out of her daydream. Raising her eyes, she sees the man with one arm up in the air.

-”My apologies, and thank you, my lord.”-

Taking out a pipe, the man chants a small spell:

Even in the coldest snowstorm

I’ll not freeze as long

As I have it.

Fuego.

Rainbow colored sparks surrounded the pipe, and from it a small trail of smoke came out, raising in the air.

-”What is it?”- Hashi asks.

-”What?”-

-”The “it” in the part of your chant, my lord, what is it?”- Hashi says, making emphasis on “it”.

-”Aaah, well…”- The man replies, as he lowers the pipe and lets out circles of smoke with his mouth. Then, a smile that goes from ear to ear covers his face as he says -”Money.”-

At this very moment, the wooden door behind the man opens up and two men and a woman enter the room, dressed in a similar fashion to the man’s bodyguards.

-”You… Hashi,”- the man starts saying -”You see, for some reason, the Zunkois Prince wants you, so badly”- his eyes go down her body, that even the cloak can’t hide completely, then up again and stop at her right arm -”even with the little accident you went through…”-

Eagle sounds rip through the air. Looking outside, Hashi can see automated carts surrounding the building, floating with multiple law enforcement officers setting up barricades, as well as many more entering the building, all of them in their anti-terrorist gear, plate armor and crimson mithril threaded robes.

-”My lord…”- Hashi says as she slowly stands up.

-”Don’t try anything funny, Hashi.”- says the man as he also slowly stands up, then he says -”Start the chants, now!”-

As the bodyguards start chanting, Hashi lets a chuckle escape.

-”My lord, are all politicians like you just as greedy?”- Hashi asks.

The man doesn’t answer, instead bringing up crimson mithril shackles instead.

Hashi then takes off her hood with her left hand, revealing a woman of fine features, small mouth, high cheekbones, pale skin, wavy brown hair. At her appearance, the chant of a couple of the bodyguards suddenly got slower, with one stopping completely.

-”Wha-what are you doing?! Resume at once!”- the man yells at the bodyguards.

-”My, my, my, what a slow man you are, my lord,”- Hashi says, accompanied by a sly smile and a giggle -”don’t you know that bold, fast men usually get the girl? And on top of that, you bring basically anti J’avo equipment just to get a little frail girl like me to come with you. How do you think it makes me feel? My lord surely is pretty rude.”-

-”Shut up. No matter what you say, there’s nothing you can do now.”- The man says as rainbow sparks start appearing around Hashi and the law enforcement enter to the room.

A smug smile suddenly is drawn on Hashi’s face -”My lord, regarding effective use of chants, this won’t do…”- she says as she raises her left arm and touches with her fingers some of the sparks floating in the air, letting escape a little moan with each spark touched, then adding -”You should do it like this:”-

Meteoro.

With her single chant word, suddenly the room filled with rainbow sparks, from top to bottom, and in an instant an explosion blew up the entirety of the room. From the smoke that raised into the air, a red blur could be seen coming out of the smoke and gliding towards the lower class zone.

At this moment, a small flash could be seen beyond the throat of Arcadia, and as Hashi landed on the street, the crimson sky appearing, activating the wall of Zunko’s defenses.