A Few Dead Ends

Walking inside the building Xilo followed behind Aeon who led the way as he felt the girl's nerves behind him. "It's alright." He wasn't saying that for anyone but himself though. Now that he was aware of what the girl's were worried about, it sort of bugged him too. Their nerves were rubbing off on him but so far nothing had happened. Besides that one insistent stare most people only gave them a glance before leaving them alone. Whether it was Aeon deterring them or a lack of care though Xilo didn't really know.

"There's that stare again."

Feeling that piercing gaze never leave his body he felt slightly annoyed that he could never sense where it was coming from. "How can they hide from me?" Doing another look around the room himself he found nothing before they eventually reached the same door he had entered the first time. Entering it they walked down a hallway before eventually ending up in a familiar room that Xilo had visited before. Sitting down on one of the couches, Xelfia sat next to him quickly before any of the other girls could take her spot.

"Not this time girls."

Giggling to herself she watched their heads drop with defeat as they went to the couch on the opposite side as Aeon left to go find Telan. Shaking his head at Xelfia's acting he grabbed her arm and pulled her in. He knew he had been neglecting her a little bit lately which was the cause of this. Xelfia liked physical attention just as much as the others and now she was receiving a lot less than she was used to. "We all need to adjust." With Tearia in his life now and with Relia feeling like a little sister Xilo was being stretched thin. Not that he was complaining though, it was nice to feel like he wasn't alone.

"Really got to tease them like that?"

"Of course, it's fun and they need to know who's on top. Are you saying you don't want me next to you?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all, you know that."

"I know, I still like hearing it out loud though."

Leaning on Xilo's shoulder they waited for Aeon's return just like this. He heard slight whispers from Tearia and Relia but he assumed they were catching up with each other after such a long time so he left them alone as he enjoyed Xelfia's presence. Eventually he heard a familiar knock on the door that he was getting used to as Aeon entered shortly after with another lazy man lurking behind him. "Still the same." Looking at Telan walk across the room to his desk Xilo waited for him to say something. This was the job that he assigned to them so in a way currently he was in charge.

"Welcome back, you four."

Slumping down onto his chair he stared at Xilo's familiar face and the three newcomers he hadn't seen before.

"I assume you three are the girl's that Xilo is travelling with, am I correct?"

"""Yes."""

"I see, well let me first congratulate you four on your job well done. Curing that city was something I never expected you to be able to do. I even created a backup plan in case you all failed but… Tearia was it? You seemed to have impressed even Aeon with your skills. A fine job indeed and for that, you of course will receive full pay and even a little bonus from me."

Setting a bag of Astral Stones down on the table in front of him, he offered it to Xilo. Standing up Xilo went to grab it and put it in his bag he had with him before sitting down. Once he sat down again Telan spoke up once more. Right now he had full control of the conversation and was giving Xilo zero escapes. "Might as well hear him out." Xilo wasn't too sure what he wanted to do next but either way he needed Telan's help with it. He came here to do jobs and gain some influence and strength and Telan was his best lead to that.

"Alright now that the boring part is out of the way, I think you all deserve to hear the next part of this conversation. Of course you can choose to leave or even pick another job but I'm sure with your involvement so far you don't want to miss out. This does involve the Royal Family after all and Aeon mentioned you had a friend there too."

"We'll hear it."

Hearing Telan's manipulative words Xilo sighed as he said that. Once he mentioned the Royal Family he instantly grabbed Tearia's attention without an issue. "Well I'm curious about it too." They both wanted to know more about Felli's situation potentially so there was no ignoring this even if it felt a little dirty by Telan.

"Good to hear it."

With that same lazy smile as always, Telan looked at the group in front of him as he started to remember some of the things he had learned over the past few days. He had been trading in favours like crazy trying to find anything out and came up with a lot of dead ends but his hard work paid off. After a few failures he ended up coming across an interesting piece of information that he almost ignored. At the time it was pretty useless but now that he knew of Aeon's thoughts on the matter it was a little more useful.

"As you have all guessed the Royal Family are the people behind this little attack on our town. I found out in some of my investigations that they've been up to some weird things like mass material collection and transporting along with other things as well as something else that I found strange. A few months ago they took in a crazy person spewing nonsense in the streets."

"Isn't that a bit normal for them though or any leader of a place, keep control of where the lead and so?""

"Usually, but this case is a bit different or I should say how they handled it is different.."