Iris turned another corner with Kia closely following behind her. She was not happy about Kia coming with her, she tried to quietly slip out of the guild house, not wanting the girl to go with her. For the elf, bringing the exhausted necromancer to a place invited by powerful and potentially dangerous undead who thinly veiled the consequences of ignoring their invitation felt wrong, abhorrent even. But Kia noticed her sneaking out of the guild house at the last second and her teary pleas work like charms causing Iris to allow the fair girl to come along to her great displeasure.

  Even in the dark twilight of the early night, Iris's enhanced night vision was able to spot the perched crows, observing her and Kia's every movement. She should have been more observant previously as the murder of black birds unashamedly followed them. The elf huffed loudly in irritation unable to do anything about it.

 

"Iris?" A melodic voice said her name from behind.

 

"Yes?" One word filled with anger and irritation accidentally left the tall undead's mouth. Seeing the girl's barely raised hand dropping with dismay flooded the elf with guilt drawing the irritation and anger below it. "I'm sorry Kia... I am just angry with myself." She snuck her hand below the coarse woolen hood and the girl's head, running her fingers through the smooth onyx hair to comfort Kia or that was what Iris told herself comforting her own overwhelmed mind.

 

The two passed the gate between the lower and upper districts, ignoring the puzzled looks given by the guards sheltering themselves inside the gatehouse from the harsh elements. The elf consulted the beautifully written letter in her right hand again turning to a street bordering what she assumed was the aristocratic quarter. A large lavish building akin to a noble estate stood on the corner of the street with elegant stone arches crowning each of the many windows.

The sign above the front door read "The Bright Lighthouse", she carefully recheck the letter which had led them to the front of the clearly closed building. Her eyes started to look around the building and a small gap between the building and its neighbour attracted the elf's attention.

She walked over and looked into the alley finding a small lit candle burning at the end. Iris gave her surroundings a last one look before walking deeper into the alleyway finding a reinforced door tucked into the wall beside the lonely candle.

 

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

 

Iris knocked on the door, she tried to listen for noise coming from behind the door but no sound came penetrated the thick door. Without warning the metal visor slid quickly to the side and a pair of bloodshot eyes gazed at the two. "What you want?" A coarse voice loudly asked from behind the door. "We don't employ whores." Before Iris could respond the person behind the door declared.

 

"Wait!" Iris stuck her fingers inside the visor preventing it from slamming shut.

 

A moment passed before anyone said anything as Iris slid the letter she was holding into the opening. "I didn't know..." The man behind the door finally said rushing to open the door. "The front door is on the other side, my lady." The man gave Iris and Kia a bow while opening the door wide open for them to step in.

 

  Iris noticed the man's bloodshot eyes follow the now slightly crumpled letter in her right hand. She hesitantly stepped inside finding herself in front of a tight corridor ending with a stairway going down at a very steep angle. From downstairs the muted sounds of jovial conversations intermixed with giggles, cheers and more suggestive sounds came, slowly rising in volume as Iris descended down. The smell of strong perfume permeated the air irritating the elf's nose.

When the two reached the bottom they found themselves in a large hall where people sat in groups and cheerfully drank between themselves. Scarcely clad humans of both of the sexes walked between the tables serving colourful drinks with a strong sweet aroma before going back to the large bar at the center of the hall. 

 

  Iris took a step trying to not attract attention but her efforts were futile instantly attracting the attention of the elegantly dressed patrons with her dull-looking clothes. Thankfully for the undead elf, the patrons' marginal curiosity quickly faded finding nothing of interest on her or Kia to entertain themselves.

 

"Welcome, would you like to order something?" An attractive young man said from behind the counter, he ran his fingers through his lush blonde hair.

 

"I am looking for the owner." Iris ignored the human's question.

 

"Unfortunately the owner is unavailable today." An instant response came from the waiter as if he had already answer the same question a hundredth times today.

 

"I have this letter for him." Iris showed the letter to the posing man ignoring his further hints.

 

"Ehh... give me one second my lady, please sit over there." The man's eyes opened wide before calmly walking out of the bar and quickly disappearing in the chaos ruling the hall.

 

"Useful" Iris thought, finding a small humorous silver lining in the entire situation. She turned her head and saw an opening to a side room separated from the main hall by a thin translucent pink cloth, from there the sounds of hedonistic pleasure sounded. 

Iris placed her hand on Kia's shoulder and placed herself between the tired girl and the room, leading the precious girl to a free table tucked in the corner.

 

*Psiik*

 

Kia sneezed from the strong smell as she sat down beside Iris.

 

"Oh, Aspects! Which of the girls did that?" An overly eager woman said at a table beside them, thankfully the tall sofa blocked them from seeing Kia. "Get that warmblood to sit down with us."

 

"I think it might have been one of the other patrons, my lady." An emotionless female voice tried to explain.

 

"Eastwood tell your servant to find that girl." The woman begged someone.

 

"Leave me alone Lizz." A miserable voice answered the woman.

 

"Dear, why are you so gloom now?"

 

"She summoned me and..." The man started to quietly sob. "That whore, she caused all of this!" Iris heard wood splintering as glasses jumped off the table.

 

"Don't worry dear, the Overtyrant didn't kill you and you still have me~."

 

"And?" 

 

"And, I have a plan to fix it all," The woman hushed the man's worries before continuing. "But first you need to get better~."

 

"Go check where is the plaything a kin off my." The man's voice fell into a whisper.

 

 

  Iris could not hear the rest of her neighbour's words but she saw a young human woman dressed in a servant uniform stand up and look around the tables. The elf saw that the servant's clothes on her chest were ragged and uneven showing a bit of skin underneath.

 

The servant approached Iris and asked. "My master wishes to know your lineage." 

 

  Iris stared at the servant trying to figure out the meaning behind the strange question. Did she ask her about her noble lineage or something like that? The undead thought.

 

"Thank you very much." The servant girl suddenly said and went back to her table. Iris tried to focus and hear her words above the loud ambient noise of the other guests. A man stood up with the woman and a servant in tow and came over to Iris.

 

"Warmblood I am-" The man started to announce his name before staring at Iris's face. "You! How dare you show yourselves here!" 

 

  Iris readied herself to parry the yet-to-happen attack and riposte at the man with her hands but a loud noise suddenly caused the room to go silent. Everyone inside the hall looked where the noise had come from finding an armoured figure clad in all black. The soldier silently looked around the hall, the blond human waiter appearing behind the knight's back and returning to his station. 

 

"Enjoy the execution." The man's eyes leered at Iris, his mouth forming into an uncomfortable grin showing off a pair of long fangs as he whispered with joy seeping through his voice as he  stepped aside letting the armoured soldier see her.

 

Curses!