After following Svanda through the door, Nina found herself in what seemed to be a reception room. An unattended desk faced a pair of couches that sat on either side of a low coffee table, the four pieces of furniture filling up most of the space available.

“You could call this the real reception room,” Svanda said as she walked around the desk before striding over to a door set into the far wall. Opening it, she turned to Nina. “Most requests are submitted by phone or internet though.”

Following Svanda through the next door, Nina found herself in another living space. Relatively clean besides a thin layer of dust on table in the centre of the room, the dimly lit room felt dated. Walking past a kitchen, a bathroom, and then two bedrooms, Nina realised that they were now walking through an apartment.

“This apartment is the cover for the business on the back end, although you can hang out here if you really want to,” Svanda explained as they headed through the space to the front door. “Use this entrance when you are out and about unless you are with outsiders. If they don’t know this address, don’t tell them.”

“Alright.”

The pair exited the apartment to find themselves in a corridor, doors lining each wall like a standard apartment building. Unlike a normal apartment building, however, graffiti covered the walls to the extent that Nina couldn’t tell what colour the original paint had been.

“Apartment 572,” Svanda said as they walked past a colourful piece that read ‘$uT$U’. Reaching the end of the hallway, the pair exited onto a small street which seemed more like a slightly larger corridor. With a ceiling only two floors above them, Nina quickly found herself disoriented as Svanda turned left and right.

“The apartment exits a floor higher than the main road you saw at the front of The Cloud Orchestra, and further away from the main street.” After descending a set of stairs, Nina found that they had reached what could be considered a larger road, similar in size to the one at the front of The Cloud Orchestra.

“There’s a few clothing shops over there,” Svanda said as she pointed to a series of awnings that protruded out from a gothic style stone building. With a nod, Nina moved through the procession of people on the main road ducking inside the first shop.

Triggering a chime upon entry, Nina sighed before triggering the chime again as she exited within ten seconds. Seeing Svanda’s confused look, she tried to hide the unimpressed scowl that had crept onto her face. “I’m not going to wear military equipment.”

Svanda’s confused look was replaced by a smile as she scratched her head. “Sorry about that, I shop there sometimes and forgot that nobody else likes it.”

“Are they all like this?”

“Just that one. Jade and Aline like the one down there if you want to look.”

After checking five other shops, Nina had quickly found that most of the clothing that was on sale seemed to be rather eccentric. Ironically, the most ‘normal’ clothing she had seen was when she had taken a quick glance at the blacks and greys in the shop which Svanda had initially pointed them to.

Despite her opinion, it seemed that everyone else thought that she was in fact the eccentric dresser. The business suit which she had worn to work that day, and was still wearing, had attracted many comments from the staff at the shops they had visited. In one case a shopkeeper had even asked to buy Nina’s clothing, where she politely and quickly refused.

Although she finally managed to find some basic shirts that she could wear while at The Cloud Orchestra, Svanda reminded her on multiple occasions that she needed to find ‘work clothes.’ What ‘work clothes’ actually entailed, however, was something that seemed rather vague. Twice already Nina had found clothes which she had found acceptable only for Svanda to ask her where she would put a weapon. When she tried to say that she didn’t want to carry a weapon and didn’t see a reason to, Svanda had scoffed. It was for work, she had said.

“When I saw you all the first time, you were the only one armed though,” Nina complained as they entered another shop. Walking to a rack of jackets, she began to leaf through the contents.

“Everyone was armed.”

Nina stopped leafing through the jackets as she turned to Svanda. “Jade and Aline were both wearing dresses, Trim was in a tracksuit, and Reina was wearing a sweater.”

Svanda chuckled. “And? Jade and Aline wear thigh holsters, Trim keeps a pistol in the back of her pants, and Reina…”

“And Reina?”

“Reina’s is something you can find in your own time,” Svanda laughed as she held up a red leather jacket. “What about this?”

“Put it away please,” Nina sighed as she returned to rifling through the contents of the rack. Finding nothing of interest, she moved onto the next.

“Oh, this?”

Nina held up a navy blue jacket only to sigh when she saw it off from the rack. She had initially picked it off the rack as it had looked to her at least, quite normal. The more she looked at it, however, the further away from standard it seemed. With a thin fabric exterior, it had looked to her like a bomber jacket with a hood. Upon closer inspection, she realised that the jacket had no exterior pockets and also seemed to have two layers of zips, one sitting over the other. On the back of the jacket, between the shoulders, a lattice of crisscrossed fabric ran from the collar to the band at the bottom.

“Looks good,” Svanda said as she met Nina’s eyes through the lattice of the jacket that was held up between them.

“How is this even practical?” Turning the jacket around, Nina examined the back.

“Interior pockets are good,” Svanda smiled as she examined the front which had been turned towards her. “Try it on.”

“I don’t think so,” Nina sighed. About to put it back, she caught the flash of disappointment that crossed Svanda’s face. Deciding to satisfy her curiosity in repayment for showing her around, Nina changed her mind and nodded before taking off her current jacket and putting the blue one on.

“I think it’s great,” Svanda commented as Nina zipped up the outer zip, which finished slightly lower than the interior one. Agreeing that from the front it didn’t look too bad, Nina turned around and examined her back in a mirror, her white shirt showing through the empty space at the back.

“How much is this one?” Svanda asked the employee a few racks over. Standing on her toes, the employee saw the jacket Nina wore before pausing.

“You can have it for 20 credits.”

“We’ll take it for 15.”

“Svanda… I di-”

“Deal,” the employee said before Nina could say that she would look at something else. About to speak up that she was changing her mind, she saw Svanda throw her a smile and a wink as though to say ‘don’t worry, I got you.’ Not wanting to disappoint her, Nina nodded before using her card to pay in silence.

“Good deal,” Svanda said as they left the shop. Forcing a smile, Nina thanked her as they continued to shop. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for them to find the last few pieces that she needed. Opting for a slim pair of maroon pants and some brown leather boots, Nina was thankful that she had picked up an outfit that would let her blend in on the street.

Watching as the crowds parted easily for Svanda as they walked, she wondered if it was because of her intimidating frame or the green band on her arm. After a few more turns the pair made their way back onto the main street that Nina had walked down the day before, the bottom of the yellow floors loomed above them in the distance, an entire 20 floors up.

“The yellow level is up there, right?”

“Yep. It’s not too different from here, just less people,” Svanda smiled as she raised her head to look above them. With buildings stretching up on each side right to the very top, the road had given Nina a strange feeling as though they were outside even though they were inside.

“You and Reina have green bands, right?”

“That’s right.” Svanda turned into the entrance of the largest buildings on the street which seemed to stretch at least ten levels above them. “Reina occasionally has to go up there to take care of a few things, so I go with her.”

The pair passed through a security gate where an employee scanned their bands, although from the friendly smile that was thrown in Svanda’s direction, Nina guessed it was just for appearances. “What’s it like up there, on the green level?”

“More orderly, and a lot richer,” Svanda replied as they entered the building. A large lobby was spread out before them, elegant marble pillars stretching to the decorative ceiling from the polished timber floor. Leather couches sat in small groups around tables while an indoor fountain sat in the middle of the room, a long desk running across behind it.

“Is this a hotel?”

Laughing as she led Nina over to an elevator, Svanda returned a curt nod to the attendant before stepping inside. “This is The Eye of Iron, one of the most respected weapon shops at the orange level, even in the surrounding collection of buildings.” Hitting a button on the elevator panel, the doors closed before their ascent began.

“I didn’t agree to carry a weapon when I signed up.”

“Hopefully you won’t need it, we almost never do,” Svanda consoled her. “It’s just for self-defense, Reina isn’t going to ask you to go out and shoot anybody.”

“Are you sure?”

The elevator chimed as the doors opened before them. Stepping out, Svanda smiled.

“I am sure, because that’s my job.”