The Apothecary

Kai stumbled out of the dark tunnel, only to be blinded by the harsh glare of the sun.

He shaded his eyes with his right hand and peered ahead of him. He was still not yet used to the bright daylight, especially after spending most of the last few days running around the labyrinth of a guild.

It looked like he was back outside the guildhall, standing near, but aside from the mission request board. The bustling streets and busy roads looked all the same as they had when he had first arrived, but there was only one difference...

Now he had a mission. A solid mission. It wasn't some sort of vague idea like "I want to find my sister," but rather, he finally had a real plan. He would take on the mission, gain an audience with the king, ask for the king's aid, then finally bring Rin home. It was a simple, yet solid plan. With the king's help, he'd undoubtedly be able to bring his sister back home. But before any of that, he needed to find this "Glen" guy.

Or rather, Glen found him...

At least, he hoped it was him.

Kai noticed a man with dark clothing walking towards him. He'd seen the man leaning against a tree earlier when he'd stumbled out of the guild headquarters... he'd assumed it was to stay out of the sun - however, it didn't cross his mind that the man was in actuality watching him from afar.

"Yo!" The man called out. He raised his left hand casually, capturing Kai's attention.

Wary, but not scared, Kai raised his hand back, acknowledging the man's gesture. It had to be Glen. Nobody else would bother to greet him otherwise.

The man - supposedly Glen, walked up to Kai, keeping a few feet away.

Upon closer inspection, Kai noticed the man looked to be around his late 20's, early 30's max. He was a wiry man. His hair was a messy scramble of dark brown that obscured his left eye. The mess of brown snaked down the back of his neck, much like a serpent - making for a rather lazy, laid-back kind of look. It looked like he didn't really care about giving much attention to his appearance, hence his messy hair and a rather ghostly-white-like complexion. The man's skin was very pale - so much so, that it almost looked like there was no blood beneath it. It was unsettling.

Adding onto that, he also had eery, dark grey eyes resembling that of a stone. Cold... and dead.

Yet besides his rather unhealthy complexion and dark eyes, the man did not stand out very much. His clothing was nothing special. With a ragged grey cloak and simple bag, he looked nothing more than an average villager. The only thing that separated him from the other people, however, was that he wore gloves. Black gloves covered his hands and wrists - maybe he was sensitive to germs? How peculiar...

"You're Kai, correct?" The man asked, taking a step closer.

"That's right, and who are you?" Kai answered, taking an inconspicuous step back.

He chuckled, noticing the uncomfortable gesture. "I'm Glen, your new partner." He winked. "It seems we'll be working together on our mission for the meantime."

Kai nodded, "Yes, I do hope we get the job done quickly." He was still wary of Glen, despite his easy-going air.

"Don't sweat it, I'm sure we'll make a great team, kiddo. But first off, let's not waste any time dawdling around here." He smirked, "We've got information to gather."

"Information?" Kai echoed.

"Hideaki's whereabouts, habits, tendencies, family members, schedule, that kind of thing," Glen answered matter-of-factly. "But before we do any of that, let's ditch this crowded place. It's giving me a headache."

And with that, Glen swiftly turned away and broke into a run. He was heading away from the crowded market, towards the hills that lay on the other side of the village. Kai, without having had the opportunity to ask any questions, followed.

The two newly-made mission partners made for the hills. Glen running ahead, and Kai following from behind. It looked as though Glen was fairly familiar with the narrow roads of the village. He ran confidently without so much as a glance back.

"Hey kid, you still following?" Glen shouted from ahead.

Kai, not too far behind, shouted back in reply, "Yeah, Just keep going!"

Within a matter of minutes, the two of them reached the rolling hills of the village side. These hills were on the opposite side of the village from his house. They were much steeper and had a lusher forest than the hills his home was situated on.

"Alright kiddo, we made it here. All that's left, is for us to get to the top of the hill, then I'll explain our reconnaissance plan." Glen said, waiting for Kai to catch up.

At this point, Kai was getting tired, having needed to run across the village as fast as he could to keep up with his older partner. However, he gritted his teeth and nodded at Glen, motioning for him to continue up the hill.

They reached the top in roughly 30 minutes, only taking a 5-minute break in between, to catch their breath. Yet despite the painstaking process of climbing the hill, the view at the top was breathtaking. So much so, that it seemed to melt away the fatigue of the climb. The red village rooftops dotted the land, with the narrow streets spread between the houses like roots.

A faint breeze brushed across Kai and Glen, serving as a relaxing gift; along with the shade of the trees around them blocking out the harsh summer sun. If this were an ordinary day, Kai could've spent hours like this, sitting at the top of the hill - surrounded by nothing more than the whisper of the trees.

However, today was anything but a normal day.

"Mind filling me in on this reconnaissance plan you mentioned earlier?" Kai asked, keeping his eyes fixed on the little village below.

Glen extended his hand forwards, pointing towards something in the distance. "You see that big house with the eagle crest on it? Over by that small lake?"

Kai peered into the distance to where Glen was pointing. He saw the little shimmering lake - then next to it, the said house. It was grand, much larger than the little houses in the village. It seemed to be separated from the villages around it by a black gate. He looked closer, and sure enough, there was a golden eagle crest imprinted on the gates of the residence.

"That, my young friend, is the Hideaki residence." Glen paused for a moment. "Well... more like their summer house. However, I expect they'll be staying there for the time being."

Kai nodded, searing the golden eagle crest into his memory. "So the plan is to go there and study his behavior, outgoings, and such?"

"Well... yes and no." Glen smiled wryly. "While that certainly would be a good, genuine reconnaissance, that would be too time-consuming. You see, I'm not a patient guy. I want my audience with the king just as much as you do, friend."

Kai nodded in agreement, and Glen continued. "So... we're going to abduct one of the servants from the Hideaki house and make him give us all the information we need."

"Eh?!" Kai turned to Glen disbelievingly. "How do you plan to do that? Won't that just endanger our plan further? Not to mention complicating it much more than it needs to be."

"Ah, I keep forgetting you're new to this stuff." Glen chuckled, reaching a hand to ruffle Kai's hair. He pulled away. "You see, in this business, we do what needs to be done in order to finish the job. Kidnapping a simple servant won't hurt anybody."

"But once we release him-" Kai started.

"Shh..." Glen said, holding a finger up to his lips. "You're worried that the servant will alert the Hideaki house about us, correct?"

Kai nodded.

"We'll just need to make sure he doesn't talk," Glen said, his voice no more than a whisper.

The ominous reply left Kai with many questions and concerns. Glen expected them to be able to kidnap a servant from the Hideaki house without being detected, force the information out of him, then let the servant go. All while also making sure that their plans are not exposed.

It seemed like a pipedream.

"You wanna know why I'm so confident we can pull this off?" Glen nudged Kai playfully.

Kai narrowed his eyes. Did Glen have some sort of legitimate plan? "Tell me."

He grinned and slung the simple black bag he was carrying, around his shoulders, and into his arms. He opened it and gingerly reached into the bag, rummaging around for something. A little "ah" sound from Glen, indicated that he had found what he was looking for. He pulled out a small vial with a transparent liquid inside. It looked no different than ordinary water.

"What is that?" Kai asked, staring at the transparent substance.

"This, my friend, is going to make our mission a piece of cake."

Kai arched his eyebrows and silently watched Glen as he brandished the vial like a sword.

"Hmm... I don't mean to rain on your parade," Kai started, "but that honestly doesn't look very impressive. What does it do?"

With a glint in his eye, the dark-eyed man smiled slyly at Kai. "It's a secret."

Kai sighed, deciding not to play on with Glen's little farce. He turned away, focusing his attention back on the Hideaki house next to the glittering lake.

"However," Glen whispered, pulling Kai's attention once more. "When it comes to toxic substances, I'm the best apothecary there is."

A silence ensued between them.

"You may not trust me," Glen smiled darkly, "but you can trust my work. I promise you that."