chapter 84 – a misguided offer

    we sat there in silence, just staring at each other until cattleya eventually slid the brooch back towards her and slipped it into her cloak.

    “look, catt... can i call you catt?” ava asked.

    “cattleya,” she responded immediately, completely straight-faced.

    “then, cattleya, i’m sorry, but i haven’t heard of either of those names before, and neither do i know who you think we are. but what i do know for certain is that at this moment, my sister and i are in the middle of a meal, and you just barged in here uninvited.”

    “and i keep telling you. you don’t need to hide it,” cattleya just kept repeating herself, “i already know. i’m on your side.”

    however, as cattleya spoke this time, i noticed something a little strange. each time she opened her mouth, two of her teeth seemed to get ever so slightly longer, almost like fangs.

    “who do you even think we are?” if the table wasn’t in front of her, i was sure ava would have jumped at cattleya.

    cattleya responded a little awkwardly by leaning over the table and loudly whispering, “... is it okay to say?”

    “yes... it’s okay to say...” ava sighed, “i really want to clear whatever this is up...”

    “then...” she continued to whisper, even if her voice was only slightly quieter than when she was talking normally, “i know volpe rossa has hired you to look into the ships that have been crashing at this port as well as all the missing cargo.”

    “what?” i was so surprised by what she said that i couldn’t help myself.

    “are you impressed at my detective skills?” she pulled back and puffed out her chest, “naturally. this much is to be expected from me. no one else would have noticed all the little clues you had left behind, but you were dealing with me.”

    “how did you even come up with that idea?” from the sound of her voice, ava was just as surprised as i was, “it’s just...”

    “because i’ve been watching you both very closely,” she unashamedly admitted, “you came into town while escorting an unassuming merchant, someone neither too wealthy nor too poor, the kind of person no one would look into. i did lose you once you got into town for some reason, but after a day or so, i managed to find you again, watching the ship elenia, the guild master, was coming in on no less. at that time, i also saw that you were a kitsune when your hood blew off. it’s rare to see a kitsune, so i knew there must be a greater reason as to why you were here at this specific time.”

    both ava and i sat in silence as cattleya exploded into her explanation.

    “but that’s not all! you’re not just any kitsune. wherever you go, there is a noticeable deficit of mana in the air, which i was able to use to track you all around the city. and that’s when i saw it! you just happened to run into the ever-elusive elenia inside a random, no-name food store. i wasn’t able to hear your conversation from where i was hiding, but i didn’t need to. i saw that you were given a gold ring, something almost no one else in volpe rossa is given. after that, it was almost too obvious, yet i managed to find even more evidence as i continued to look. i was able to follow you to your inn, a small place very out of the way. the perfect place to stay without drawing too much attention to yourself. of course, i left once you got into your room. i can respect a person’s privacy. but the very next day, you go to the volpe rossa branch here and get brought up to the top floor! i just know that you were being given the information that had been collected at the branch, and now you’re sitting here in a private booth in order to put together a plan of attack.”

    mana deficit? what does that mean?

    i don’t understand.

    ava tried to say something, “cattleya, i-”

    “i want you to figure this out as soon as possible,” cattleya immediately interrupted, “there is something coming in on a ship a few weeks from now, and i won’t stand for it disappearing again! i’m tired of this happen-”

    “you have the wrong people!” ava shouted, interrupting cattleya just as cattleya had done to her moments before.

    it was painfully quiet for just a few moments after that. i couldn’t even hear any noise coming from the rest of the restaurant.

    ...

    cattleya slowly slunk back into her seat just as the curtain to the booth was opened.

    “is anything the matter?” the waiter asked.

    the bag tipped just enough to show what was inside. it was filled to the brim with gold coins.

    “...”

    “is it not enough?” cattleya asked sheepishly.

    “if you have this much money, why not just go and talk to someone at volpe rossa yourself?” ava asked, “surely they would be better suited to this than two people you are trying to hire off the street.”

    “i... tried... they just told me that they were looking into it and sent me away.”

    ...

    she probably spoke to tybalt.

    “b-but now i can just hire you!”

    “... why does it have to be us? if you just need to hire someone, surely there’s a guild you can go talk to. with that kind of money, i’m sure you’d have people practically begging you to hire them,” ava said.

    “because i think this case has something to do with magic!” she quickly retorted, “the guilds here have plenty of sword fighters, archers and scouts, but they’re all completely useless when it comes to this.”

    “and you think we would be any better?”

    “well, not both of you, but definitely her,” cattleya pointed at me, “even if you’re not hired by volpe rossa, you can’t deny the atmospheric mana deficit that follows you around.”

    “m-me?” i stuttered in disbelief.

    “yes, you! i just have a feeling that you’re the right person for this. you should be honoured!”

    honoured?

    but i don’t know anything about magic.

    i don’t even understand what’s going on right now!

    “look, cattleya,” ava put her arm out in front of me again, “we appreciate the offer, but we’ll have to turn you down. like i said, we are just here to visit haelmor, not get involved in whatever you have going on.”

    “but why?” cattleya didn’t waste any time before responding, “i have offered you money. why won’t you work for me? is money alone not enough? do you want something else? i can talk to people; i can get you whatever you need. i really want you to help me figure this out, no matter who you are.”

    at that point, her desperation was starting to scare me. it just didn’t make any sense to me that she would be so adamant about asking ava and me to help her. we didn’t even know anything about her; all we had was a name and that brief encounter in the forest a few nights ago.

    “we said no,” this time ava nudged me slightly before pointing at the curtain, “it doesn’t matter what you say to us right now. we aren’t going to change our minds.”

    “but...”

    as cattleya tried to come up with something to say in response, ava nudged me once again. this time i opened the curtain, and almost immediately, ava pushed me to the end of the bench and onto my feet.

    “we’ll be going then,” ava said as she guided me towards the door.

    “...” cattleya just remained on the bench, motionless.