Business Meeting

The wait for the bus passed uneventfully and before long John sat on the half-full transport, passenger laden pack next to him.

‘Worst part about this is just waiting,’ John mused, lightly tapping a finger against the crook of his arm. With no distractions by way of his phone, and all targets to use Observe on already exhausted, though he could have gone without knowing how sexually experienced the old lady seated ahead of him was, John was left with his thoughts.

‘Best case scenario, we meet with these Renox people, they agree to help and everything ends up fine. Worst, they’re the real bad guys and we die.’

John shook his head, banishing that horrible thought, though he remained on edge as the bus drew closer to their destination.

‘Stop thinking so negatively,’ John chided himself. ‘There’s no indication that these people are the bad guys. The vision I got using Observe on the card made it seem like they already had the job that was an ambush and this was a new development. So really, the worst case is they won’t help us and they show us the door.’

Nerves settled slightly, John relaxed in his seat, watching as the city passed by. A sharp tinny sound drew John’s attention away from the window and to his bag, the noise ending abruptly. John glanced around to see if anyone had directed their attention towards them.

None of the other passengers took note, and John carefully drew the zipper down, widening the opening.

“You okay in there?” he whispered, seeing a slightly red-faced Aeolia illuminated by his phone.

“Yeah,” she answered, eyes pointedly avoiding his. “Stupid autoplay.”

John couldn’t keep from cracking a smile. “I know the feeling.”

“How much longer until our stop?” Aeolia asked with a sigh.

“Ten minutes,” John estimated.

Aeolia frowned and grumbled, “I really don’t like travelling like this.”

“Sorry,” John whispered.

“It’s not like it's your fault,” Aeolia chided. “Don’t take the blame for something you can’t control.”

“Right,” John replied. “Probably should stop talking. Don’t want anyone to get suspicious or weirded out by me talking into my backpack.”

Aeolia looked displeased at being isolated again, but simply nodded as John zipped the bag mostly closed again.

‘Man, I hate that she has to be dragged around like this,’ John thought as he reclined on the bench seat, frowning as he did. ‘Aeolia said something about being invisible when she was tracking down whoever sent those hounds, so maybe we can buy something on the Auction so she can just travel around unseen.’

John let out a breath and returned to watching the streets pass by, trying to push down the guilt he felt. Before long, the bus rolled to a stop in a well-maintained area, not quite at the college campus, but well within the institution’s influence.

John exited the bus, taking in the tidy buildings that housed numerous small businesses that hoped to entice young adults to part with their parents' money. John walked down the street until he reached the nearest intersection, the signs on the traffic lights reading ‘Cherrytree St.’ and ‘38th Ave.’ He turned down the arboreal named road, keeping an eye out for their target.

‘There it is,’ John thought as he saw the cursive gold ‘217’ that marked a white brick facade as their destination. Recalling how Aeolia’s guild had set up their Barrier, John walked past the building, and when he saw an adjoining alleyway between it and its neighbor, slipped down it. As he trekked down the narrow pass, he equipped his jacket, just in case.

“We’re here,” John said, setting his pack down and undoing the zipper. Aeolia emerged a second later, flying out from her confinement and landing on the pavement.

“Finally,” she groused, flexing her wings. “If we keep having to move around like this, I’m going to need to personalise this thing.”

She emphasized her point by lightly kicking the bag as John withdrew his phone.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that,” John mentioned. “You said you flew to the Academy invisible. How much would some cloaking device go for?”

Aeolia frowned. “I don’t know. The potion I used wasn’t that long-lasting and the quality wasn’t that great. It was more like I was see-through than really invisible. Still went for over a grand a dose.”

“And a reusable gadget would probably go for at least ten times that,” John surmised with a shake of his head. “I get the ability to grind for money and stuff to sell only to find everything is stupidly expensive.”

“Wait,” Aeolia interjected. “You’re not planning on buying me something like that?”

“Why not?” John asked innocently. “It’d make things easier for you to move around and I don’t want to keep making you do something you obviously hate.”

“You can’t just...” Aeolia said, her words coming out stilted as she tried to formulate a sentence. “You should spend your money wisely. You’re pretty much at rock bottom and there are better things you could buy.”

John was about to argue the point, but the resolute glare Aeolia levelled at him quieted him.

“Alright, alright,” he relented. “But if we find something that grants invisibility, you’re getting it. That’s non-negotiable.”

“That’s...” Aeolia began before she shook her head and released a breath. “Okay, that’s fine. Anyway, we’re wasting time just standing here. How do you want to do this?”

“Well,” John said, withdrawing the business card, “the message didn’t say anything about how to enter, just that the card would act as clearance. So I guess we can just enter normally. Though, I’m not sure where the Barrier actually starts. Is there a way to detect Barriers, or do we just need to guess?”

“Just try to feel the magic,” Aeolia answered with a frown. “It’s not a perfect method; Barriers can be made harder to detect, and sensing magic isn’t something everyone’s good at. If I didn’t have the Tracer Crystal, I might not have found that Barrier at your school. It was a bit hard to sense.”

“Feel the magic, huh,” John murmured, closing his eyes. He reached for his own mana, a familiar sensation now, the potent power simmering within him waiting to be put to use. After a second of saturating his perception, he tried to turn his focus outward. After a moment of nothingness, a sensation of gentle warmth, like resting in a beam of sunlight, hit his face, centered on his closed eyes.

He turned his head away from the building, the warmth fading away as he did. He opened his eyes and was greeted to a popup blocking his view of the street.

“Do Barriers always feel warm?” John asked Aeolia as he dismissed the skill notification, turning his head back to face the facade, the warmth returning to his skin.

“They feel differently depending on the person who made it and whoever is trying to sense it,” she answered, extending a hand towards the wall. “Feels like a gentle wind to me, no temperature.”

“Do you think something would show up if I looked at it with the Googles?” John mused curiously.

“Maybe,” Aeolia shrugged, a touch of impatience creeping into her voice as she tapped the butt of her glaive against the pavement, “but you can try that later. We’re wasting time.”

John flushed, disengaging his new skill. “Right. Sorry, got carried away there. Um, do you think we should go in there armed up?”

Aeolia’s grip tightened around her weapon. “Don’t really like the idea of going in without a weapon.”

“I get that,” John said gently. “But we should play this cool, you know. Last thing we want is to make whoever is in there think of us as a threat.”

A frown marred Aeolia’s face as she worked through John’s logic. “You’re right,” she reluctantly sighed. “Best to start off on the right foot. Got room for one more weapon?”

“Inventory’s good for it,” John replied, accepting her glaive. “All set. You want me to go in first with the card to make sure we don’t set off security?”

“Sounds good,” Aeolia responded, critically eyeing the wall. “Slipping in anywhere shouldn’t be a problem since they didn’t say anything where to enter.”

John took a breath and equipped his jacket. “Well, here I go.”

He raised a hand and cast Instant Barrier, vanishing from the alley.

You have entered the Renox Solutions Illusion Barrier

John jolted to a stop, disoriented by the unexpected lateral moment. He blinked when he noticed he wasn’t standing facing the side of the building, but instead was in front of the entryway. Before he could make any remarks about it, the air shifted as Aeolia popped in next to him, her stance far more stable than his had been.

“Well, that’s fancy,” she said, flying up to John’s shoulder.

“Is it?” John inquired, still slightly dizzy from the experience.

“We got shifted to a set point instead of just crossing over,” Aeolia answered, her tone pensive. “It’s not a hard thing to set up, but maintaining it requires a bit of work, at least that was what Zeph said. So these guys either have someone of Fateweaver quality on hand or had the cash to hire one to set this up.”

“So they’ve got a lot of money or a good reputation,” John assessed. “Let’s hope they’re feeling generous. Shall we?”

Aeolia nodded and the pair walked up the short staircase to the green painted door. A bronze plaque was affixed to it, Renox Solutions engraved in the center. A circle of lines and symbols began to glow, light fading away from the door as it did. A glance at the card held between John’s fingers showed the same effect.

“Guess this is the key,” John said, waving the card at the door. The words had barely left his mouth when the glow dimmed and the door swung open.

“Okay,” Aeolia chimed in, “that was fancy.”

The pair stepped into the building, entering a long and narrow foyer. Several doors lined the hallway, terminating in a staircase to the floor above.

“Just a minute,” a harried woman’s voice called out from above, a slight accent coloring her words. The sound of quick footsteps rang from the second floor, joined by the harsh scraping noise of drawers being hurriedly opened and closed, before the footsteps upstairs began to journey down the stairs.

A young woman came into view, her red hair kept out of her face by a pair of lime green framed glasses. Her rapid descent caused the forest green sweater she wore over her black dress to slip off her shoulders. A number of papers were held in her arms, clutched to her body, the pages ending just shy of touching the gold disk that dangled from the choker around her neck.

“I’m sorry for making you wait,” she apologised as she reached the ground floor, squinting eyes shifting from the papers to her guests. “Welcome to Renox Solutions. You must be from the Dawnseekers, yes?”

John felt Aeolia tense on his shoulder and he quickly began to speak, “Well, er, kind of. There was an incident and…”

“They’re all dead,” Aeolia cut him off bluntly, her voice void of emotion as she stared at the redhead. “We were led into an ambush a day ago. I was the only survivor. We found your card in my brother’s possession and hope you can help us.”

The woman, Vivian the display above her head reported, blinked and nervously began to fiddle with her pages. “Oh. My condolences. Er, I’m not sure what help we can currently render…”

That set Aeolia off. She jumped off John’s shoulder, growing to her full height before she landed a few feet in front of Vivian, wings extended until they touched the walls, partially blocking John’s view.

“Listen,” Aeolia hissed, anger and loss boiling over as she pressed forward, yellow eyes locked with Vivian’s brown ones, “I just lost everyone I’ve ever known. My brother, who you were in contact with, sacrificed himself so I could avoid whatever killed everyone else. I’m not in the mood to hear, ‘Sorry, look for help elsewhere’!”

Wide-eyed, Vivian took a step back, one hand raised in front of her in a placating manner. John advanced, not really able to step between the two women. He withdrew Senka, ready to cast Shadow Snare in case things got physical, keeping the knife out of sight to prevent Vivian from panicking further. He quickly cast Observe on the redhead, hoping that more information might let him figure out a peaceful, and satisfactory, ending.

“Okay,” John interjected, trying to project a sense of authority to ease the situation, “how about we calm down and talk things out? I’m sure we can work something out.”

Aeolia’s steps halted and she took a heavy breath. Then she rapidly shrunk back down and flew back to John’s shoulder.

“Let’s just get out of here,” she spat. “I don’t think these guys can offer us any real help.”

John was about to issue a rebuttal when Vivian cut in, “W-wait! Perhaps I was too hasty. I’m sure there’s something we can do to help.”

The desperation in her voice, coupled with what John had gleaned from Observe both here and back at Aeolia’s HQ, clicked in John’s mind, a moment of pure clarity giving him the words he needed.

“The Dawnseekers aren’t the only guild you’ve been in contact with?” he asked, though he believed he already knew the answer. “And they’re not the only ones who haven’t gotten back to you, are they?”

Vivian blinked owlishly, evidently taken aback by John’s assertions.

“No,” she said, her voice low as her posture deflated. “I’ve reached out to several guilds over the last few weeks, and you two are the first people I’ve had come here in response.”

“So we weren’t the only victims here,” Aeolia chimed in, her eyes drifting from the open Observe screens. “Damn, this looks like some big conspiracy shit.”

Vivian stepped back to the stairs and defeatedly sat down, setting her papers down on the floor.

“Just great,” she dejectedly sighed, weariness seeping into her voice. “I would stumble right into something like this.”

She pressed her hands against her eyes as she took a few deep breaths.

John and Aeolia shared an uncomfortable look and she jerked her head towards the despondent woman, urging him to say something. John pointed at himself as if to ask ‘Me?’ and Aeolia nodded then pointed a thumb at herself and shook her head as if to say, ‘I’m not the right person to try to talk to her right now.’

John sighed as he relented to Aeolia’s silent argument. “So, um, do you want us to leave or..?”

“No,” Vivian said, pulling her head out of her hands and setting her glasses in their proper place. “I reached out to people in an attempt to establish a profitable business. Someone going around and eliminating people is something I can’t just let happen. It’s not good for anything.”

She pushed herself to her feet, straightened her attire and extended a hand.