36 The Vegetable Soup

'Never in my eight years of breaking into people's homes, have I ever felt so helpless.' Falcon grumbled. It was against the rules he had set up for himself to feel trapped and insecure. He liked being in control, predicting the prey's next step and lying in wait, to catch them off-guard from where they had least expected it.

It isn't about you, Falcon, it's about the man whose finger is inside that pristine fixative envelope on the table, he thought grudgingly. 453, you bastard. I am going to teach you a lesson for messing with Falcon, not to mention, you broke a contract too.

He was sitting in the small kitchen of Aurelia's wooden house, sipping water slowly to stave off the pangs of hunger hitting him in waves. The cursed envelope was lying on the table, as if taunting him to try and fix what had been broken, or more accurately, mutilated.

He had recognized the long, thin finger instantly. Cyan had the prettiest hands he had ever seen. There was a gold ring on the finger, an intricate pattern of a grapevine carved on the glinting metal. The finger was still bleeding, the metallic smell of blood more terrifying than the sight of it, glistening all over the inside of the waxy paper. The scent had filled the air, causing Aurelia to wrinkle her nose and press her lips tightly.

'So that's how long you have doing it?' Aurelia said.

'Huh?' He looked up from his glass. He wasn't aware Aurelia had heard his seething mutter.

'Breaking into homes. Eight years, that's how long.'

She was standing at the counter, pouring ladles of fresh, hot soup into two bowls, even after he had told her he consumed nothing but water during assignments. She was stubborn as she cooked the soup, chopping up vegetables with a ferocity that would scare off beasts.

She placed a bowl in front of him and hopped onto the counter, placing her bowl into her lap. Falcon ignored the fresh aroma and steam blowing into his face, as Aurelia started slurping at hers. She was testing him, he knew, watching if he would give in to her tactics.

Falcon realized he was crushing the small piece of paper in his palm and opened his fingers, letting the scrap fall to the floor. The ugly words stared up at him as if mocking his desperation and he closed his eyes trying to block out their sight. No matter how hard he tried, the burning letters remained etched on the inside of his eyelids, making him read them again and again.

*Find the ring or Yarrow dies*

Taking the glass to his lips, Falcon gulped the remaining water down, not a trickle escaping his mouth to roll down his chin. The envelope watched his anxiety, while Aurelia only watched her soup as she placed aside her spoon and drank directly from the bowl. He blocked out the slurps, knowing she was enticing him to test her cooking with the noises.

'This is repulsive.' He said, finally, when the slurps didn't subside. 'I am not a messy eater.'

'I thought boys ate like that.' She shrugged, picking up her spoon.

'Only YOU eat like that.' He grimaced at the soup glistening at the corner of her mouth.

'I do NOT.' She said, indignant.

He ignored her expression, grateful inside that she had started eating properly, instead of slugging the whole bowl down.

'You sure you don't recognize the handwriting?' he said.

Aurelia shook her head, dejected and Falcon sighed. 'It's someone from your village, isn't it?'

'So I'm supposed to know what the handwriting of every person here looks like?'

'Uh-uh.' Falcon said, even as he knew she was right.

Aurelia rolled her eyes and turned back to her soup. Falcon watched the sun rays falling on her hair through the window and making the curls look golden. She glanced up from her bowl and Falcon's stomach flipped. He hoped she hadn't noticed him staring.

'Why soup, though?' he said, by way of making conversation.

She shrugged. 'I only cook meals which take just a few minutes to get ready.'

Catching his witty retort at the tip of his tongue, Falcon said:

'What are we doing? Cyan is in danger. The longer we sit here, the more of his fingers threaten to come under a blade.'

Aurelia nodded, eyes downcast. Her cheeky expression was gone as she hopped off the counter and pulled a chair at the table, opposite Falcon. The presence of her legs under the table felt too close and Falcon scooted away slightly.

'Cyan's in danger.' Aurelia let her head fall down on her arms. 'We don't know where the ring is, and this finger-cutting bastard hasn't contacted you again.' She looked up, dejected. 'So, what plan do you have?'

'We wait for his next message. He has sent me a warning, now he will most likely send me the location of the ring.'

'This client of yours, why is he called 453?'

Falcon sighed. He didn't like the way Aurelia had said 'client', as if feeling the word around in her mouth before deciding to use it. She might not have meant it the way he had taken it, but suddenly he was furious.

'Why is this important? And stop trying to blame this on me.'

'What?' She said, anger slowly creeping up onto her. She looked indignant, like Falcon had the nerve to snap at her. 'This man IS your client. He hired you to steal the ring, and here we are.'

Falcon wanted to say that it wasn't his fault the man had turned out to be an asshole. But, his anger had dissipated just as quickly as it had come, leaving him fatigued and mentally exhausted.

'Forget it.' He sighed. 'I don't even have the energy to argue.'

He glanced at her, to see that the anger on her face was gone too as she stared at the envelope remorsefully.

'Then have your soup.' She said.

He pursed his lips exasperatedly. 'For the last time, NO.'

'Fine.' She said, pulling his bowl towards her and picking up the spoon, attacking the soup furiously.

He watched her eat, quiet in his musings. She looked angry and, what was that, hurt? He wasn't sure.

'I am sorry.' She said after a while. 'I was just ranting my negative energy out.'

To his surprise, Falcon completely understood. He nodded a bit before leaning back in surprise, as Aurelia extended a soup-filled spoon towards him. Sighing, he parted his lips and allowed her to feed him the hot liquid.

The soup burned his tongue as it made its way down his throat. He gulped, he hadn't expected it to taste this good. It was salty and thick, with the vegetables soft but not soggy, and a savory aftertaste.

Falcon pulled the bowl towards him and grabbed the spoon. His stomach groaned in appreciation as he sighed deeply, ignoring the burn of the hot liquid.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. Aurelia did not look smug, she looked pleased as she watched him gobble down the bowl. He sighed in contentment as he pushed the bowl away, now spotless.

'You know what I do to let my damaging energy out?' he said, quickly, before she could say anything.

'What?'

'Train.'

Aurelia looked at him interestingly. 'What kind of training do you do?' She asked, pleasantly curious, a quizzical gleam in her eyes as she waited for his response.

'It's very different from yours. We night cats are trained to be light-footed, but strong and muscular too, and above all, fast as light.'

'Night cats?'

Falcon fell silent. He hadn't meant to say that much, but in his flow he had revealed more than he wanted to. He continued like he hadn't heard her question what he'd just said.

'Unlike a demon slayer's apprentice, we don't practice swordsmanship, we practice combat. Your training includes killing a beast at all costs with a weapon, our training is designed to take down a man as quickly and silently as possible by hand. But there is one thing common in both of them. We attack the vital organs, slayers focus on the underbellies, while we focus on, well, genitals.'

'Teach me.' She said, interestingly.

'Oh no. You are enough of a monster without me adding to your wildness.'

She shrugged, unbothered. 'That's fine. I already know how to take down a man.'

'Want to make a bet?'

Aurelia sat up straight. There was a challenging sparkle in her eyes, and Falcon felt similar energy coursing through his veins.

'Let's go in the yard.'