The second layer of Edion didn’t have as many people as the first layer, but it was still bursting with activities and businesses, now that the festival was over. Beastmans of all kinds hurried on the street, talking, asking, selling and buying, trying to climb their way up in the society. There were a few decorations of the festival left on the street, but they were being removed by the Public Service, returning Edion to its usual state. Amongs all that, enforcer Ieta walked slowly through the crowd, a simple brown cloak covered her uniform. After all, the Inquisition hardly ever received any positive reaction from the crowd, unless they managed to discover a high-level treason, which only happened four times in two hundred years.

The enforcer breathed slowly with a fixed rhythm, her yellow eyes constantly checking the surrounding but still managed to keep track of her target. She swallowed down her saliva, then cover her head with the hood. She had never liked the heat much, especially when she had to walk under it with the black uniform of the Inquisition. She had been following this foxman for a while now under the heat, and he didn’t have any intention of stopping anytime soon. Once in a while he would stop by a store to get something, but never for too long, didn’t give Ieta any chance to rest and get some water. Damn fox! She didn’t like fox, liars, frauds, the bunch of them. She didn’t like following people either, too tiring and too dangerous. In fact, there weren’t a lot of things that Ieta liked, and ever since she became an enforcer, the number seemed to decline drastically.

The foxman turned left and Ieta hurried to follow, but then she suddenly stopped just before the corner. She wasn’t too familiar with this area, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Did he find out? Ieta squinted her eyes. She wasn’t there that night, but she knew the story. Eight hired assassins, seven dead. All of them against two. A mage’s magic was fearsome of course, but it would be stupid to underestimate this fox guy. Ieta bit her lips, her target could have gone far now and if she wait any longer she would lose him before long, but the idea of stepping to the alley wasn’t an exciting one. Careful and discreet. Those were the words the Crown Enquirer said to Krane, and the inquisitor to her. Apart from that, her senses told her it was a dangerous gamble, and she believed in her senses, that was how she had been surviving up until now. The enforcer cursed in her mouth, then took a step back and turnaround, walked away from the corner. There weren’t a lot of things that Ieta liked, but she sure liked to keep her head intact.

Dead body in the dark alley. The thought was hardly an encouraging one.

After the enforcer had walked away, Yoru stepped out from the corner, one hand behind his back. The minstrel’s green eyes were cold and filled with killing intent.

To Yoru’s surprise, he found a stranger sitting on the couch in the living room as he walked in with his big bag of groceries. Yellow fur, round ears, deep brown eyes and a not fully grown mane, typical looks from one of the Lion tribe. He was wearing a grey uniform with golden patterns here and there, a fancy robe lied next to him, Eria herself sat on a nearby chair, both of them focused on their books.

Noticed Yoru’s appearance, Eria closed her book and spoke up:

“I guess you have finished with your shopping then? Come here, this is Cornelius Brent, a mage from my Order. He will be joining us in our journey.” The rabbit girl pointed at the man from the Lion tribe.

“A pleasure to meet you, master Brent. I’m Yoru Halbmond.” So our band of heroes grows in size. The foxman thought as he introduced himself. Cornelius didn’t reply, he just simply looked up then once again focused on his book. Friendly enough, I guess? Yoru shrugged his shoulder and walked to the kitchen. A lion mage with high ego, why am I not surprised?

“Anyway, I have something to ask, if you don’t mind, Eria.” He said just before entering the kitchen. The rabbit girl didn’t really understand, but she still followed him, leaving Cornelius alone in the living room.

“Is something troubling you, Yoru?” Eria asked as soon as the kitchen door was closed.

“Nothing too serious, it’s just that I was followed.” Yoru replied, putting the food down on the kitchen table.

Eria’s left eye twitched a little bit with the news. But she didn’t show any drastic emotion.

“So who is this lovely fan of yours?” The rabbit picked up a carrot from the bag and took a bite.

“I don’t know. She covered herself in grey cloak. A black cat, as if my luck isn’t bad enough already.” Yoru started slicing the meat. “Is your friend going to join us for dinner?”

“No, he is just here for a short visit, he won’t be staying for long.”

“What a shame, his friendliness surprises me.” The foxman talked with a monotonous tone.

“Come now Yoru, don’t mind him. Cornelius doesn’t like me that much, so him being put on this journey isn’t something exciting.” Eria finished her carrot, then pick up an apple from the table and took a bite.

“Then comes another a question of mine. What is this journey, where are we going, and for what purpose?” Yoru put all the sliced meat to a frying pan then lighted up the fire, the flavourful smell started filling up the kitchen. “And don’t tell me that you don’t want anyone eavesdropping us. I have made sure that there is no unwanted guess nearby this house.” The fox man glanced at Eria, he was determined to find out the answer.

“Well, to begin with, you know who is Lamia, right?” The rabbit girl swallowed a piece of apple.

“Yes, I know. The first mage ever in the history of Palomar, the Miracle Maker, the Light of Ilan, the Bringer of Hope and many other titles. A great person no doubt.” The foxman talked while frying the meat, after a while they started showing a nice texture with the flavour.

“Well, you have done your homework, I suppose.” Eria tossed the remain of the apple to the bin. “Yes, Lamia was a great person, the one who opened the gate to magic for us, the one who lead us through our dark days. No one really know why but in her later years she left Edion and wandered across Palomar. She had houses all over the country, some in towns or villages, others in mountains and forests. The Order later tried to trace her steps, and in those houses, they would occasionally find notes of her study in magic. And any study of Lamia is a great knowledge to us all. Even now we are still learning new things from her notes. You following me so far?”

“Yes, please continue.” Yoru added some vegetables to the frying pan.

“Last week we received some reports about another possible house of Lamia, and after some research my Order believed that the reports are true. You can guess from there, I was tasked to go to this place, find Lamia’s house and bring back whatever I could.”

A quest to search for knowledge, what a heroic cause. The foxman nodded, he put the now heated pan away, covered it with a lit then placed a big pot of soup on the fire. “To my next concern then, who is this enemy of yours. Who sent those assassins on that night and now watching me from the dark?”

“You have a lot of questions today, Yoru.” Eria poured two glasses of water, kept one for herself and the other for Yoru. “They were probably sent by my big brother.” Eria’s voice didn’t show any emotion, as if she was talking about someone else’s situation.

“From what I know, brothers don’t usually send assassins after their little sisters.” Yoru said while adding spices to the pot.

“Not unless an important heritage is at stake.” The rabbit shrugged her shoulder.

A noble’s internal conflict, I should have guessed. Yoru raised his eyebrown. But then noble families don’t really give women a chance to inherit their treasure. I wonder what kind of family she is from. Consider the amount of men her brother could send without worrying about the City Watch, they must be from a powerful family. What a mess I’ve got myself into. The foxman chuckled. Yoru Halbmond, protector of the helpless lady, tracer of the knowledge long lost, trusted sword of the great mage. My old friends would laugh at the idea and my enemies would spit in disgust, but fate sure can play some tricks.

“Does my family’s situation amuse you?” Eria asked, she had the looks of one who was hurt.

“No, nothing, I was just lost in thought a little bit, I’m sorry. Anyway, thanks for clearing out my doubts. Please accept my deepest condolence for your situation.” But I’m sure it won’t do you any good. Yoru didn’t really buy Eria’s sad look. He had known her far better than the friendly and sincere first impression.

“I really appreciate your thought, your kindness warms my heart, truly.” The rabbit girl returned to her usual cheering tone. If there was one thing that the minstrel and the rabbit girl had in common, it would be the sarcastic they had for each other.

“So I guess we are good to go now with the addition of master Brent?” Yoru covered the boiling pot with a lit, then started preparing some salads for Eria. “What kind of salads do you want today, the usual one?”

“Yes please, if you don’t mind. Actually, I’m still trying to find another member for our journey. The past few times the Order discovered Lamia’s houses, there were traps laid hidden, some magical, some physical. While we don’t really know why she did that, precautions still need to be made. I need someone with a slim build and light weight, one who doesn’t activate the traps easily and has good reflex and attention to details.” Eria took out some dishes and bowls to prepare for dinner. “And since my brother doesn’t really fancy the idea of me raising in ranks within the Order, I have to be discreet in looking for my companions. It is quite a challenging task, as you have already known. You have any recommendation?”

“You are probably looking for someone from the Cat tribe, those people quite suit your needs, if you can handle their lovely personalities.” Yoru said as he cleaned up his knife.

“A member of the Cat tribe …” Eria muttered, the corner of her lips curled up to a grin. “I think I know someone who might be able to help.”

“Really? I wonder who is the kind soul.” Yoru said as he brought the pot out to the dining table in the living.

Another addition to our heroic company.

“You chickened out?” Krane ask, his voice was filled with disappointment.

“You told me to be careful and discreet.” Ieta lazily leaned herself on the wall of the room.

“That I did, but losing track after only one hour is hardly a result His Excellency will expect. Did he find out that we are watching him?” The dogman eyes squinted as a line. He knew the Crown Inquirer didn’t really have high tolerance for failure.

“No, he didn’t, I was sure to cover myself. I might have failed to follow him, but I have some informations you might want to know, Inquisitor.” The enforcer sat down on the chair in Krane’s quarter.

“They better be good, I don’t want to go His Excellency empty handed.” Krane glanced at the cat girl.

“After I lost track of the foxman, I decided to go to the 13th Cat Bar to ask for some informations. It turned out he was the one that discovered Brock’s plan with the tax department. From what I’ve been told, he appeared approximately half a year ago, no one really know where came from, not even Mister Grim. He doesn’t have any relatives or friends in the city. Sometimes he would sing in the second layer for a living, but his main earning is from selling informations to Mister Grim.”

There were a few knocks on the wooden door as the inquisitor was analysing Ieta’s information. Soon after the huge figure of Mirza stepped inside the room. He had a stern look on his white fur face, the black stripes added a dangerous flavour to the mixture.

“Mirza, I thought I told you and Udun to watch Eria’s house?” Krane raised his eyebrowns.

“Udun is still there, but I’ve something you might want to know.” The enforcer from the Tiger tribe had a rough voice.

“What is it now? I can hardly stand the suspension.” The inquisitor asked with a commanding tone.

“As we watched the house, we noticed another group of people who also did the same thing. From where we stay we couldn’t see them clearly in the dark, but they were surely watching the place.”

Krane closed his eyes and let out a sigh. A foxman who appeared out of nowhere and a mysterious group of people in the dark. Too many questions and not enough answer. His Excellency will hardly be pleased by this progression.