Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 25 - The Underground

Standing beside Athira on the rooftop of a high-rise with shifted Black simmering in his veins and just enough breeze to flutter his garments, Shift felt dramatic.

Not for the first time, he caught his reflection in the window of the large skyscraper across from them, hardly recognising the masked, cowled figure that stared back at him.

The outfit Athira had given him mirrored her own with a few key differences — notably, his full-length sleeves to her halterneck that left her runed arms and back exposed, but there was one particular detail that Shift found himself surprisingly disappointed about.

"Why don't I get a cloak?" he asked, tugging at the edge of the cowl sewn to his tunic.

Athira didn't even look at him before she answered. "Because if they grab your cloak, you're in trouble. If they grab my cloak, they're in trouble."

Still somewhat disappointed, Shift accepted that logic with a shrug and ran a hand over his clothes. "This all fits too well to be a guess. Where'd you even get my measurements?"

"There's literally a database that's updated daily by your fanbase dedicated to you on the net," she muttered, grabbing his arm and pulling him down. "It wasn't hard. Now get down before they notice you."

Shift did as instructed, crouching beside her and followed her gaze down to the alley below.

The large skyscraper across from them was, of course, Sirah's infamous casino-slash-hotel the Royal Hue, renowned for its questionably named club, 'The Underground'. Shift had always assumed it was just an edgy name to draw attention, but given the reason they were currently Owled up and perched on top of an adjacent high-rise, he was starting to wonder if someone had taken the phrase 'hiding in plain sight' one step further and hung a sign above the door.

There were six people loitering in the alley — seven if you included the one obviously guarding the side door to the casino. This far up, Shift couldn't make out a whole lot of details about them except the occasional shove.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Shift. The mask was crystal Black, as he'd learned when she'd pressed her fingers to his face to shape his own. Looking through it was like viewing the world through sunglasses, and it was surprisingly comfortable. "Are we sneaking in?"

Athira snorted. "No. I'm just waiting for that tall one to leave."

Shift quickly identified them as the one doing most of the shoving. "Are they a problem?"

"If by a problem you mean he talks too much and the only way to get him to shut up is to put his head through the wall, then yes."

Amusement curved Shift's mouth into a smirk. "Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me."

"The problem is that tonight, I'm in exactly the mood to do it."

He glanced at her, attempting to read her expression from just the exposed lower half of her face. The edges of her runes were still frayed, but by some small blessing, they didn't seem to have decayed further.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, tapping his head. "Y'know, in here?"

Athira grimaced. "A little worse than usual, but nothing I haven't handled before. You remember the plan?"

"I'm your apprentice," said Shift. "I stay close to you, keep my mouth shut, and stare down anyone who looks at me too long." He paused, trying to remember if he'd missed anything important and realised something. "You never did tell me why we're coming here first, by the way. I thought we were just checking out those buildings from the journal."