Burning Rose (A Cinder Fall Story)

Chapter 6

I awoke the next day to the sound of Roman's voice. It was faint, but he sounded annoyed. I groaned and sat up in the bed. I saw streams of light coming in through the windows. I quickly got to my feet and walked to the living room area where Roman was sitting. Neo was beside him, wearing his hat.

"Will you give that back?!" he snapped at her. "I've been trying to work nearly all night!"

Neo just covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

"Find anything interesting?" I asked.

Roman looked up at me and said,
"You're finally awake. I've been looking for weak spots around the place. And I think I might've found a few. But first, I'd like to see my weapon."

I nodded, "Of course. What time is it?"

Roman looked at his watch.
"Around one in the afternoon."

"I'll go pick up the weapons. And I hope that you take care of them. Because you're not getting a replacement," I said, walking out the door.

The air was cool as I walked through the busy streets. I kept my head down, trying not to draw any attention as I continued to walk towards the alley where the shop was located. Once I arrived at the place, I walked through the front door and saw Roman's fancy cane and a pink and white parasol with the tip of a sword poking out the top, barely visible to the naked eye. The guy did some really good work despite the high cost.

"What do you think? I had to work on this all night," a voice in front of me said.

I looked up to see the owner of the shop.

"And you've built them as I requested?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yep. I had the sword concealed in that parasol. There's a button that you can press that fully reveals the sword for combat. As for the cane, I had a grappling hook placed in the handle as well as a high powered gun. The handle acts as the trigger as well."

I smiled and picked up the weapons.
"You did a fine job. I'll pay you extra."

I grabbed a few hundred Lien out of my pocket and threw it onto his table. Before he could thank me, I was out of the door walking back to the house.

Roman and Neo were waiting for me outside. Neo looked especially excited and had the biggest grin on her face. Her eyes sparkled brightly once I brought out her parasol sword. She reached out to take it, and looked it over.

"There a button you can press to use the sword," I told her. "Take care of it. You won't be able to get another one."

Neo nodded and smiled, holding her new weapon closely.

"What about me?" Roman asked. "I was the one who paid for this!"

"Here," I said, tossing his cane to him.

He caught it and looked at it.
"This doesn't look like a weapon to me."

I scoffed. "It's not supposed to look distinctive. It's concealed for a reason. Do you really want to be walking around with a gun? You'll instantly get arrested. Or at least get some charges. I had these made so that you two can blend in and not draw attention to yourselves."

Roman sighed. "I guess that makes sense. What can it do?"

"It's a gun that can shoot both regular bullets as well as dust bullets. The handle acts as the trigger and a grappling hook. Figured it would be handy."

Roman whistled and ran his hand down the cane.
"I gotta say Cinder, you really did get creative. I'm impressed."

I smiled. "Glad you both like them. Now, let's back inside and discuss those weak spots you've found."

Roman lead me back inside and showed me the hologram of the facility Felice was in. He had zoomed in to a particular area near the back of the building.

"You see that area there?" Roman asked. "I've noticed that it isn't as guarded as the others. If we play our cards right, we could be able to get past them. We might need to fight our way in, but I bet we can take care of that easily."

"Not without training," I said. "You'll need to learn how to use your weapons correctly if you want any chance of getting past those Atlesian security guards. We can begin training today if—"

I was cut off by my scroll vibrating. I growled in frustration and answered it.

"What?" I snapped.

"Good afternoon, Cinder," Watts said on the other end. "How are things going along?"

"Hello Watts. Things are going as well as they can. I finally have Roman and Neo's weapons ready. Now all that needs to be done is training. I can train them within a week if we're lucky."

There was a brief silence on the other end. Finally, I heard Watts speak again.

"That all sounds good, but I was actually calling about another matter."

"Is that so? And what might that be?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk about that eye of yours. I've been tinkering around, and I think I can have your missing eye replaced. That is if you choose to go through with the operation."

I sighed. "I don't have time to worry about my damn eye right now. There's a maiden that I need to get to. We can talk about this at a later time."

"That's understandable. I just thought I'd give you the option," I heard him reply.

"Well, I'll need to think about it. Besides, I don't even know what this replacement eye would even do. I can see just fine without it."

I pressed the button and hung up the scroll before Watts could reply. I threw the scroll down on the couch.

"Jeez... what was that all about?" Roman asked.

I glared at him. "None of your business."

Roman sighed and sat his cane near the door. Neo placed her parasol next to his cane and came to sit back on the couch. She looked at me curiously before writing in the air 'eye'.

"I think little Neo there wants to know what happened to your eye. And to be honest, I do too," Roman said.

I sighed. I only remembered bits and pieces. A scream... something flying towards my face... the feeling of someone carrying me. But I couldn't remember all of it. And I didn't want to.

"I lost it years ago," I told them. "Got into a fight with someone and they got my eye pretty good."

Neo looked at my sadly. Roman looked somewhat sad too.

"Damn. That really sucks," he finally said.

"Yeah," I replied, picking up my scroll. "It does."

As I turned to walk into the back I heard Roman behind me.
"Hey, what about training us how to use our new weapons?"

"We'll work on it tomorrow. ...I need to make a call."

I walked back to my room and looked down at my scroll. I could still see Watt's number displayed, along with the words 'call back' below it.

I sighed as I pressed it and placed the scroll to my ear.

"This better be worth it," I whispered.