CHAPTER 6: THE MEETING

Arno is sitting sternly on a comfortable sofa in his lounge. His eyes feel heavy as he sips a cup of coffee in his hand, leaving a bitter aftertaste lingers inside his mouth. This morning, He was in the middle of breakfast when his maid told him that he got visitors who insisted on meeting him. Now, His eyes scan at the two figures sitting across him. Sitting right in front of him is Esther, a familiar beautiful dark gray skinned young girl with golden freckles in her skin, her long hair is tied into a braid while she wears a nice looking one piece dress. Much more comfortable attire than the one that she wore when they first met. Sitting next to her is Naurel, a handsome tall man with shoulder length messy wavy hair wearing a sleeveless tunic shirt that displays his dark skinned muscular arm. As Arno glances at him, Arno can see that he stares back intensely, as if he is trying to read Arno body language, making sure that Arno did not bring any threat to his friend.

"As I was expecting that you will come, I certainly did not expect for you to come in this fine morning while wearing that charming dress, Moreover by bringing any companions." Arno relaxes his body to show that he did not mean any harm. "Not that it matters though. I assume you trust him with your identity?"

"Hey! I thought I needed to come dressed like this. Since I am meeting a noble and all." Esther protests, regretting her decision to wear a dress. "As for him, you can trust him. He is a friend of mine. His name is Naurel."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Arno, Arno Styne." Arno stands and bow a little to Naurel. Which only replied by a slight nod. Then, he proceeds to sit again and looks at Esther. "And now that we met on better terms, How can I call you? I know you did not prefer me to use your other name."

"It's Esther, no family name. I came here to speak with you about your proposal last time we met. A lot has happened."

"You do realize that the last time we met was two days ago, right?" Arno asked while sipping a cup of coffee in his hand.

"I know… that's why I said a lot has happened."

"Now I am curious. Mind telling me what exactly happened?"

"So, you know, this might sound crazy to you, okay. But, believe me, this story that I will tell you is based on what really happened without adding anything. This story is pure from the exact same situation when I first met Naurel. You will think that I lied but no. I totally assure you that this story–"

"Just get straight to the point, please. And slow down, I barely understand what you were saying."

"Maybe it would be better if I tell it from my perspective." Naurel volunteers as he can clearly see confused looks on Arno's face.

Arno leans his body forward as he is paying full attention to anything that Naurel is saying. Once in a while, a concerned smile showed up on his face, as if he had predicted the worst and it finally happened. While it still has not been completed, a lot of puzzle pieces in his mind started to match with each other. He starts to get the bigger picture on what actually happened.

"Pardon my language, but, fuck, you must be kidding, right? A monster attacked you?" Arno took a deep breath as Naurel finished his story. His eyes fully open now and any urge to sleep that linger before has disappeared without a trace as adrenaline rushes in. He says, "Based on your story, it means that they can also transform into a normal human. No wonder nobody can find them."

"I thought you already knew that they exist."

"I know that there are dangerous creatures lurking. They leave very little trace here and there, but I never actually found any of them. That is why I thought it was your doing at first due to your ability to hide and disappear in the dark."

"Rude, I only do it to help my people, okay, not to kill innocents."

"Well, in my defense, I did not know that then. Have you listened to what people said about As-Tasheena out there? Some people believe that you fly around at night with your giant wing to steal money and kill people. It was wild." "At least now I know that is not the case. That is why I offered to work together. Because I believe we can unravel the mysteries and help the people."

"Wait, really? People think of me like that? I helped them! I stole money for them! How dare they think of me like that."

"Well, can't blame them though, people tend to fear on what they cannot see. And don't deny that getting their money stolen from an unknown creature does not sound dangerous to you."

"Wait, their money is stolen?" Esther stopped for a second to think. "Aah, I see, by people did you mean the Azdhaka's? Serve them right then, it is not their money to begin with."

"I hate that word, but yes, by people I mean a portion of the people that live in this city who happen to be white skinned and have heard stories about you." Arno let out a big sigh. "I think we need to be a little open minded here."

"Well, we can always start calling them assholes from now on."

"On second thought, Azdhaka would be just fine." Arno shifts his attention to Naurel who has been silently listening to their conversation. "We may have never met before, but, knowing that we are chasing the same thing, do you accept working together with me?"

"It depends." Naurel confidently answers, "I go wherever she goes. As long as she trusts you I will be fine with that. Just be careful the moment she is not."

"Nice try, but threat means nothing to me. I'm used to it. Well, it doesn't matter, I have no intent to betray your trust as long as you did not betray mine. Now that we have agreed to trust each other, we can bring this conversation to the next step. Follow me to my study room." Arno smiles and leads his two visitors to the other room.

As they reached the study room, tea and cakes were already prepared on the table for them. Scattered in the room, stacks of documents and books can be seen, creating a messy and busy atmosphere. As both Esther and Naurel enter the room and check the stacks of documents, they can find various notes containing hypotheses, eyewitness reports, newspaper clippings, and much more information regarding the case.

"So, do any of you have any leads regarding the attack on Naurel?"

"Actually, I have prepared a drawing of the person that attacked me." Naurel took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "This is purely from my memory, so some details might be hazy. hopefully we can track him by using your connection to the Azdhakas."

As he opened the folded paper, both Arno and Esther went silent for a few seconds. They looked at each other as if not knowing what to say. After a few moments of silence, Arno finally opened up his mouth.

"Well… I mean, Do you have any picture of him in his human form? it would be quite difficult to look for him in his monster form like in this picture."

"What do you mean? That is his human form."

"This? This picture looks human to you?"

Well, of course, look, here is the eyes–"

"Those are eyes? Why are they so far apart? They are not even properly aligned." Esther picked up the piece of paper from the table.

"Come on, it's not that bad. It should not be a big problem."

"Of course it is. We barely even recognize that it is a picture of a human to begin with." Arno, who stands behind Esther, took the picture from Esther's hand and brought it closer to his face. "I think that should be a fundamental problem."

"Shut up. Why don't Esther draw it then? She saw him too."

"I cannot draw."

"And you think this picture is the result of someone who can?" Arno adds.

"Stop whining. Do you have any other solutions then?"

"I guess looking for this person needs to be put on hold then. Let's just proceed with my plan first." Arno walks into the stacks of paper and picks up some documents. "What we really need right now is more allies. Just the three of us would be having a hard time to track them. Moreover, we also did not have any clue regarding these creatures. And not just any allies, we need someone who knows about them and has the same goal as us." Arno said while giving the stacks of documents on his hand to Esther.

"And where can we find this person?"

"You must be joking. This person is at Vaanjara Facility" Esther answered as she rummaged through the documents that she received from Arno.

"Vaanjara? A prison? Are you crazy? How do we even get the chance to get inside?"

"Well, I have you guys. We can make plans to break into the prison and get Alexander Orthrus out of that place."

"Okay, no, this is crazy. You want us to break the law to help a murderer escape? Is that what we are doing? We are working with criminals now?" As Esther finishes her sentences, silence fills up the room as both of her companions stare blankly at her. Realizing the intense stares and silence, she snarkily adds, "What? Why are you guys staring like that?"

"No, it's just strange to hear that sentence from you." Arno answered. "Law would be the last thing that bothers you."

"Fuck off. I am not a criminal."

"Well, it is just a matter of perspective, isn't it?" Naurel adds. He then turns to Arno. "Well, Forget it. Tell us about your plan."

"Tonight, there will be a dance ball party hosted by Sir Lavington. In case you don't know, Sir Lavington is the head warden of (Prison name). In this party, I will be the distraction for the master of the house and his crews. both of you will be coming from separate entry ways. Esther's role is to get inside his room stealthily and make duplicates of his prison master keys. While at that, please look for any blueprint, employer list, prisoner list, anything that could also help for us to break in. And don't forget to take anything that can be used for blackmail, we might have some use for it. As for Naurel, your role is to prepare a carriage in the darkest area near the house. After Esther escapes the house, you need to bring her away as far as you can. One thing about him is, he really hates the local Aizdiharian, so his party would be strictly for Azdhaka nobles. So it would be best for both of you to go unnoticed."

"That's kinda simple, are you sure it will work?"

"It better be, this will be our chance."