ZEN - Part Two [COMPLETED] [#WATTYS2017]

Questions And Disappointments

 Chapter 55 - Questions And Disappointments

"Mrs. Brahm? Sorry for the intrusion, but Miss Nekoyama and Miss Thatcher are here."

"Oh? Well, show them in, Quincey. And get us some teas and cakes, would you."

"Certainly, Ma'am."

Alyssa displays a wide smile from behind her massive wooden desk as the pair of beautiful women shuffle into her office, then gracefully pulls herself up and moves to grasp each of their hands in turn. "I suppose congratulations are in order. Both for your recent wedding, as well as this latest business."

"Thanks."

"Thank you, Alyssa." Joanne issues a melodic giggle, and slides over to one of the chairs in the rear corner of the office at the bidding of their hostess. "It was actually quite fun in Viscily. Especially the first night that we were there."

Zen snorts out a breath of amusment while flopping down into one of the high wing-back seats. "Yah. We had to kill off Cameron's power-base, but if we just murdered them in their beds as they slept, then it would've been too obvious that we were makin' a play."

"I did hear something about those nobles being kidnapped..."

"You heard that, huh? Tch. Ransom-notes are useless."

The red-headed healer offers a nod of agreement. "We told them not to get the guards included... but that was the first thing that they all did."

The life-long merchant neatly crosses one leg over another before absently reaching out to massage her aching knee. Her arthritis always flared up worse when the weather began turning cool. "Still... nine nobles in the span of a few hours. Completely un-detected."

"Oh, Gods. You actually make 't sound easy." The small Cat-woman rolls her eyes at the thought of how bloody careful they had to be. "The first couple of ones weren't that bad. Simple enough to elude exterior patrols an' sneak through a house with only a couple of guards wandering around. But then we found this guy that was nearly five hundred pounds. Took all three of us just to roll him out into the garden."

"Three of you?"

"Mm. After we got to Viscily, Mizuki had us go to the Adventurer's Guild to garner some information. And she found us the perfect person in that regard."

"She's a bit shady. Gask. A Lemur-kin who was a Scout-turned-thief." Zen offers a little shrug before patting a bit of dust from the knee of her wide-legged velvet trousers. "She's been living there for ten years and knew all the in's an' out's of the local scene, though. After we let on that we were gonna make a play for ol' Cameron, she practically begged us to let her help."

"That's not how it happened." Joanne sends a wry smile towards her silly kitten, and couples it with a quick shake of her head. "Gask offered her services to help me avoid the exterior patrols while Mizuki was skulking around inside the buildings. I was saved nearly a hundred times because of her hearing and eye-sight."

"Yah, whatever. Well, she was useful at the gala last night. Identified a bunch of schemers and got herself a job because of it. She's gonna just continually patrol the castle as an internal investigator... though she'll probably end up robbin' 'em blind. Anyways, the last arse-hole that we went after was by far the toughest. Goldstein."