“So you want to either find this person directly or use one of the other three as bait to lure her out, correct?” Ormain asked as glanced at the table, his fingers casually tracing the lines on the grip of Shalan’s pistol. “Are you going to kill her?”

“If we need to,” Trim shrugged as she continued to make her way through her glass of ale. Svanda, who hadn’t been talking, had finished a while ago.

“I’ll consider that as probably,” Ormain smirked as he held a hand up to the bartender before dropping it back on Shalan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s much I can help you with. Like us, you’ve probably realised that they don’t seem to be interested in leaving the Royal District at all. It isn’t somewhere that we can just stroll into either.”

Trim stewed on his words while she finished the rest of her drink, the table sitting in silence as the bartender brought over four new glasses for them. She wanted to press, but at the same time she knew that pressing too hard would instantly put Ormain on alert. They were already treading a fine enough line, so taking risks with not only Nina’s life but also their own was something she wanted to avoid.

“What do you think?” she asked Svanda, who seemed to be surprised that she had been brought into the conversation. From the beginning she had played the role of the guard in the same fashion that Shalan had done for Ormain, so Trim’s prompt had made it difficult for her as it wasn’t part of the plan.

“You haven’t seen anything in the Merchant or Farmer’s District at all?” she asked, fully knowing that her question was dangerous. Ormain was either looking for Nina or had already found her, so if he decided that they were actually interested in the same person he would shut up shop and they would be left with no hope at all.

“Nothing interesting,” Ormain sighed as he finished his glass of ale before sliding Shalan’s glass in front of himself, ignoring her glare as he took a sip. “Nothing that you can use, that is.”

Trim fought the urge to clench her fist and kept a straight face as she feigned casual interest. “But there’s been something? I’ll be honest, we haven’t even caught a sniff of what we’re looking for short of asking the girl from the restaurant, but I think it’ll scare them off,” she said, knowing fully well that she had just dropped her trump card.

“Girl?” Ormain asked as his ears pricked up. “What girl?”

“There’s a girl from the group that visits the Merchant District…” Trim stopped as Shalan snatched for the gun at the table, her action mirrored by Svanda as she tipped her rifle up from the seat to face across from them.

“If I say so, you aren’t leaving here alive,” Shalan spat as she glanced at Trim before refocusing her attention on Svanda and the rifle in her hands. “Spit it out if you want to live.”

“Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it?” Svanda smiled as she looked over to Ormain while ignoring the scowl on Shalan’s face. “If this doesn’t end amicably then neither of us are going to get anywhere.”

“Not now Shalan,” Ormain sighed, watching on with a slightly frustrated expression as she reluctantly placed the pistol back onto the table. Trim didn’t miss the fact that ‘not now’ could also mean ‘later,’ but it could also be a technique that he used to calm her down. The tension in the air seemed to settle a little as Svanda placed her rifle down again and the chair once more, but it was evident to everyone inside the bar that their discussion was volatile.

“And so? What are you offering?” he asked as he sat back. “Remember that there isn’t much I can do for you if you can only use information from outside of the Royal District.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Trim assured him. “We’d like to know just about everything you have on them. Even if we can’t catch up to her now, we still have the next couple of plates so anything we can learn now would be helpful.”

“You want to know everything? Just who do you think you are?” Shalan growled as she slammed her hand on the table. “Do you know how much it costs to keep this many ears to the ground?”

“It’s not your call,” Trim replied with a frosty expression. She’d had enough of this woman’s interruptions, but letting it show wasn’t the wisest choice considering that she seemed crazy enough to pull the trigger without a second thought. She was close to what she needed, and as soon as she had it then she would never need to have a conversation with these people again.

“And what are you going to tell me in exchange for this?” Ormain asked.

“A member of the group visits the Merchant District quite often,” Trim finished what she had tried to say earlier. “We’ll give you a description and where she’s usually seen.”

“Not enough,” he replied almost as soon as she had finished. “Even if what you say is true, it seems she’s of no use to you. Why would she be of use to us then?”

“You’re after the leader, right?” Trim said as she used the opportunity to throw down a little misdirection. “Surely she would come out to make a deal for her. On the other hand, we don’t think our target would appear because apparently they’re on bad terms.”

Ormain raised an eyebrow when Trim mentioned disharmony. It has been a side goal of his to create a rift in the group when he had talked to them earlier, so he was now wondering if he had been successful. Regardless of how it had occurred, he was inwardly pleased as any disharmony was a benefit to him that he would use as soon as he saw an opportunity to leverage it.

“Alright,” he said as he leaned forward with both elbows on the desk. “We’ll tell you about the movements we’re aware of in exchange for the details on this girl,” he concluded with a sigh. “That’s it though, and your information is first. I’m going to verify it first before you get anything in return.”

Trim paused for a moment as though she was considering the deal before nodding and providing Ormain with a brief description of Saela. It was reasonably accurate of course, as she knew that the details would be verified. After adding a brief description of the restaurant that Saela had been frequenting, Ormain nodded to two of the male suits that stood at the bar and watched as they left to confirm the information. Trim hadn’t missed the flicker in his eyes when she mentioned the restaurant, and she took it as a sign that it was also a place of interest for them due to Nina being seen there.

“Should I consider this as an opening exchange between us?” Ormain asked to pass the time while they waited for the men to return. It made sense from his perspective that they should keep exchanging what they could if neither of them could get what they wanted straight away, and Trim knew that he was thinking it was almost guaranteed. While he thought that they would be cooped up in the Royal District the entire time, Reina and the rest of the group were in fact now hiding in the Farmer’s District.

“That would be ideal for us,” Trim agreed with zero intention of actually upholding the deal. “We’re a little short on hands, so we’re thinking of dropping to Areinis soon to beat them there. It seems like we won’t catch them here.”

If she could convince Ormain to do the same it would work out well for them, assuming that they didn’t already have Nina locked up somewhere. It would give them time to regroup, find Nina, and then repair their relationship with the Royal Family before finally preparing to tackle the next hurdle. Without their walls to hide behind and their safehouse within, the members of The Cloud Orchestra were essentially sitting ducks right now.

“Info seems good,” one of the men from earlier said as he pushed his way through the door. “Talked to a few of the people there and they said that the girl is there almost every day while nobody had seen her before the last week or so. I left Artel hanging around in case she turns up again.”

Every day? Trim sighed. Reina was going to kill her when she heard that.

“Good,” Ormain smiled as he turned back to Trim and Svanda. “Alright, a deal is a deal,” he said before he began to reveal what he had learned over the past week.

It was interesting for Trim and Svanda to hear a group reveal information concerning their own team, but also incredibly valuable to see just how much they had given away. While they both knew that he was holding some finer details back, it was obvious that he had managed to get someone relatively close to Jade, Aline, and Nina while they had spent time in the shopping district. Their timings, activities, and habits while out were all thrown on the table as Trim became more and more surprised at just how much Ormain had managed to learn.

“My conclusion is that they’ll be leaving the plate in around three days,” he concluded at the end of his talk. “I don’t think we can touch them, but I will wait until they have gone down before chasing them. I know that they will have their eyes on us, so if we drop early, they will wait us out from up here.”

Trim resisted the urge to slam her hand on the table. Ormain hadn’t once mentioned anything about Nina in the Merchant District, and that was concerning as if he had indeed captured her then he might not want to show it. Quickly formulating a question that wouldn’t make it blatantly obvious that they hadn’t found what they were looking for, Trim was about to speak when Svanda spoke instead.

“Didn’t you say there was something from this district?” she asked with a blank expression.

“Come and gone,” Ormain said with a sigh. “It’s useless, she was under such heavy guard that there was no point trying.”

“What, the boss?” Svanda continued to pry as though it were nothing. Trim could have kissed her at this stage.

“No, the new one,” Ormain said as he placed his empty glass back on the table. “Her group changed carriages and went back to the Royal District though, and I doubt she’ll return.”

“Shame,” Svanda sighed before glancing at Trim with a frown. Who would have thought she could act like this when she needed to? “I guess we’ll leave you to it then, good luck with finding the little one. How about we come and see you again tomorrow to see if it paid off?”

“Sure,” Ormain shrugged as he watched them stand. “Extra hands are always useful.”

Trim resisted the urge to smirk at Shalan before nodding politely and leaving the bar with Svanda in tow. Immediately stepping outside and setting off down the street in the direction of the Farmer’s District at a brisk pace, smiles blossomed on their faces as they breathed a sigh of relief. Not only had then escaped the SuTSU den alive, they had also managed to snag what they had risked it all for.

“She’s still in the Royal District,” Svanda mused as they turned a corner to see a large stone arch which separated the districts loom in the distance.

“Unless he’s lying,” Trim added. “Nina is probably still in danger either way.”

“Agreed,” Svanda nodded as they skipped past a group of surprised locals before picking the pace up. “Let’s talk this over with Reina.”