(A/N: And we've reached the third checkpoint.)
XOXO
A spread open fan in one hand, Miss Malachite's blonde hair swayed in sync with its light flaps. Unlike those around her, all regarding me with a critical eye, she didn't so much as look up from the table, taking a long draw from the smoking pipe she held in her other hand as she read through the sizable stack of papers before her.
Some kind of test of my patience? A way of establishing the pecking order? Maybe she was making it clear that everyone here, including me, was on her time?
Like everyone else, I just kept my mouth shut. Not like I was in a rush to be anywhere.
Only after she reached the end of her current page did she look up, her dark lavender colored eyes scanning my mask.
"Bring Cue here." She said as she lowered her pipe. A simple order tossed out in an even simpler tone. And yet everything, from conversation to laughter, lowered, none across the entire bar risking being any louder than she was.
The man to her left took off, disappearing upstairs and returning seconds later, another in tow. The same bald member of that group that been throwing around lien back at the city's gates.
"You recognize this one?" She said, the smoking tip of the pipe pointed at me.
"Yes, boss." He said. "He's the one we told you about."
So, I'd made a big enough impression escorting that group to reach her ears. Intention aside, the mere fact that they shared crossing paths with me was a way of vouching for my skills. Could save me some trouble.
"Seems to me, you led him straight here." She said. Rather than digging down on some accusation or dealing out any sort of punishment she just waved her fan, the man quick to take off back up the stairs. "Today's the first time I've heard of anyone in a mask like yours coming around the capital. Want to share why you made my humble establishment your first visit?"
"I've been told you're the only person worth checking in with for work and information in Mistral."
"Flattery, huh?" She paused, taking a slow pull from her pipe and letting a trail of smoke go in one continuous trail. "Let's say that true." She said, fan snapped closed. It was silent, my telekinetic field the only thing warning me, but directly behind me her men on the second floor had moved forward, all sorts of weapons aimed down at me. "You threatened one of my people and have blatantly ignored my rules all without the decency to show your face. What part of that says trustworthy to you?"
I raised an empty hand, the twins, still on either side of me, tensing up and preparing to intercept any attack.
I dropped my hand.
Clattered filled the bar, the weapons her men had been aiming at my back falling to the ground in the center of the bar. "No one's been hurt."
She raised a brow, glancing past me. With another wave of her fan a collection of her people ran over, collecting the fallen weaponry. Everyone else had followed the lead of the twins, regarding me with renewed caution but only a few smart enough to realize they should have their aura up.
Little Miss Malachite was one of those few. She might not have much aura, the lavender colored energy easily dwarfed by the twins who were average at best, but if it weren't for my Sharingan that shimmer around her could've easily gone unnoticed.
"Another hotshot huh. People these days just do whatever they want with no clue of what respect is." She said with a shake of her head.
Melanie snorted. "Careful, mom. You're letting your age show."
"Quiet brat. Don't think I didn't see what you were up to over there."
"It was just one glass."
"One glass is how it always starts. Show some sense and keep your hands off the alcohol until you're older. Both of you." Beneath her sharp tone and gaze Melanie huffed and crossed her arms, looking away while Miltia lowered her head to the woman.
A parent was a parent no matter their profession it seemed.
"If its work you want, it just so happens that I need something done that a newcomer will be perfect for." Miss Malachite said, attention turned back on me. A slight shift of her head and one of the men behind her rounded the table, a closed scroll held out for me. "I just need you to retrieve something from beyond the city. Should be simple enough if you can handle a few Grimm."
Vague but I assumed the scroll would have the actual details.
I silently turned, pocketing the thing as I left.
That was one foot in the door.
XOXO
A single contact labeled One in the scroll's directory. Nothing other than the most basic apps and programs installed. A message from said contact that said nothing other than the word airship. And a single location, a set of coordinates rather than a named place, a good distance from the city as well as any other official trails or landmarks.
Loosely holding the scroll in one hand, I leaned and zipped around trees, sword surfing my way towards the coordinates.
The scroll was a burner intended for whoever Miss Malachite originally planned on handing this job off to, no revealing information left on it. Not something she had to worry about throwing in the lap of a stranger. So much so that I wasn't totally sure what I was looking for.
Would someone in an airship show up? Would an airship be at the coordinates already? And if there was, it couldn't possibly be what she wanted to retrieve. No one in their right mind would expect a stranger to be able to pilot one let alone smuggle it into the capital, so how was I supposed to know what to bring back once I was there?
VMMMMMM!
Shifting my weight, my sword flew above the green foliage of the forest.
Far above, high in the cloudless sky lit up by the ever present shattered moon, an airship flew towards the direction I was headed at a steady space.
So, an airship was involved but-
BOOOOMM!
A flash of light lit up the night sky. Engulfed in bright flames, the now descending airship streaked across the darkness like a meteorite, several pieces tearing off and plummeting into different parts of the wilds.
What few pretenses there were about this job being remotely legal just blew up before my very eyes. Literally. I was retrieving something she wanted from that airship. The coordinates were just the expected area of this crash.
That or something had gone wrong.
Either way, I shifted course, lowering my stance as I sped forward, cold air whipping past. Without any obstacles to slow me, trailing the streak of flame and smoke was easy. By the time it dipped low, ripping through woods and leaves before crashing int the ground fully, I was close enough that I could see the tremors it sent through the shaking greenery just below me.
Best case scenario, I got there, what Miss Malachite wanted was immediately obvious and I brought it back to Mistral without drawing my sword.
I knew better than to expect that but dammit a man could hope.
As I neared the crash site, I jumped off my blade and dropped through the foliage, landing on a thick branch.
Uprooted trees. Displaced mounds of dirt. Flames beginning to crawl out and lick at the surrounding brush.
Keeping to the edge of all that mess, I jumped from branch to branch, following the trail of destruction. And, as I came upon the cause of it, settling on a branch overlooking the half buried wreckage, the best case scenario I was hoping for remained just that. A hope.
Beowolves, the always plentiful fodder, were already emerging from the surrounding forest, embers snuffed out beneath their clawed paws. Many circled the flaming metal, not joining but watching the pack already down within it.
The decapitated head of a beowolf flew out from the dark smoke, rolling across the ground.
Dual swords sliced deep and quick, severing the limbs of rushing and pouncing beowolves as their user twisted and threw herself out of the way of attacks, all while avoiding the quickly spreading flames of the crash.
They couldn't be a member of the crew, not a single fresh injury across their aura shielded form. Maybe this was the other hotshot Miss Malachite had been talking about?
As their blades pierced the neck of a single beowolf, they spun shifted their weight, spinning and severing the head and cutting through a handful of others.
Ashen black hair. Amber eyes not dissimilar to the crackling flames around them.
She took deep breaths, glaring up at the prowling back ahead of her, completely unaware of the alpha prowling its way down as more rushed her.
I reached for my back, eyes wide open and adrenaline flowing as I drew my blade.
As she sliced through another group the alpha pounced, its predatory growl alerting her to it a moment too late. Her shallow slash grazed the bone protecting its skull, the other blade caught between the beowolf's teeth. It managed to pin her beneath its weight, claws digging into her aura shield.
From that position few would've managed to get up again, especially with the rest of the pack quickly converging but her fiery aura moved, traveling through the length of her caught blade. Slowly cutting through its teeth, it suddenly cleaved through the head entirely, sinking through armoring and flesh like a hot knife to butter.
Taking quick desperate breaths and fumbling to throw up a defense, she threw herself back to her feet with wide eyes, the rest of the pack, led by a handful of alphas all still converging.
A group lunged.
I jumped, sword raised.
My bandaged blade cut clean through the group as I landed in front of the girl, her desperately stubborn gaze meeting mine.
Ashen hair. Amber eyes. Young as she looked, this close up there was no mistaking it.
Before me stood Cinder Fall.
XOXO
(A/N:One of the most important character of these opening chapters for this new arc has finally appeared. After setting up a handful of other things up, some involving hints at what happened during the time skip, things will slow down in the next chapter or three, other things given a bit more attention like Mistral itself.
As always, here's the link for anyone looking to read ahead:
patreon .com/ thirdratewriter
Someone asked about good old Emerald in the last chapter and you all know my policy by now, I don't really give straight answers to plot related things. Lets just hope I keep steady with the updates so we one day reach her. I'll see you all in the comments or in the chapter, and remember, be safe and happy.)