The air in the attic was thick with dust and the smell of stagnant oil. The only light came from flickering Aether-lamps hanging from the low, slanted beams. Eevee's spiral eyes remained locked on Lucidia, her neon-pink irises glowing in the dimness. She waited for an answer to her chilling question: "People are so fragile when they see something they don't understand... don't you agree, writer?"
Lucidia stared back, her face a mask of bored exhaustion. She didn't look at the pinned mechanic or the fuming noble. She just shrugged, her shoulder brushing against a dusty crate.
"Sure... I guess," she muttered.
The simplicity of the answer seemed to throw Eevee off. Her head tilted at a sharp, unnatural angle, her pigtails brushing against a low rafter. Before she could press further, Aero stepped into the gap, his hands raised in a mock gesture of peace.
"Guys, uhm... let's all just chill down for a second?" Aero's voice echoed off the wooden floorboards. "How about we go eat at a cafe? I'll pay! Let's actually get to know each other before we all end up killing each other."
The reaction from the group was a symphony of disbelief.
Ash let out a sharp, disgusted huff, his murderous glare fixed on the dusty floorboards as he gripped his sword hilt. Acheron let out a dry, raspy chuckle, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Free food?" Acheron said, his eyes glinting with a cynical spark. "Sounds good to me. It's hard to find a decent meal in this soot-pit that doesn't taste like copper."
Quinna took a slow, deliberate drag from her cigarette, the smoke curling up toward the cobwebbed ceiling. She rolled her eyes at Aero's enthusiasm, but internally, she paused. It's not actually a bad idea, she thought, flicking ash into a dark corner. If we're going to be targets, it's better to know who these people really are. She kept her guard up, her sharp eyes scanning each of them with clinical caution.
But Eevee's eyes lit up with a terrifying, childlike glee. "Cafe?" she chirped, the tension in her strings suddenly snapping. "I love cafes! I'll go!"
With the pressure gone, Mugen collapsed forward, gasping for air. He scrambled to his feet, his head nearly hitting a support beam as he rubbed the raw, red marks on his neck. "Fine. Whatever. Just let me go," he grunted, his pride wounded worse than his throat.
"Yeah, whatever," Lucidia added. If someone else was footing the bill, she wasn't going to turn down a meal.
"Excellent!" Aero beamed, though his smile faltered as he realized the magnitude of his mistake. He was now the host for a group of strangers in the middle of a high-security floor.
As they turned to head down the narrow attic stairs, the remaining crowd of onlookers parted for them like they were the plague. The "Deadly Sweetheart" skipped at the front of the line, her pigtails bouncing as she hummed a melody that sounded suspiciously like a funeral march.
Ash stood in the dusty attic alone for a moment, his face red with humiliation, before stalking after them. He wasn't about to let this "peasant party" leave him behind especially not when there were secrets to be pried out of them.