A strikingly beautiful woman with a supple figure, full blood red lips.The woman was wearing an expensive red dress with various jewelry on her fingers, but, the most noticeable feature was her strange grey skin that gave her an inhuman look but seemed to only add to her exotic beauty. This was The Lost daughter of Clan Song, Saint Seishan, she was walking through the streets of Ravenheart with hundreds of people looking at her, some respectful, others with gazes of something more.
She was going towards a place she never thought she never imagined she would be at, a cafe, well more specifically an Emporium.
She had never understood what her sisters saw in these things especially bin, the only reason she was heading here was because she was told by the entrance guards that a young man had shown up out seemingly thin air she had thought nothing of it, people did that all the time looking for shelter in Ravenheart but when she was informed by the blood sisters that an emporium showed up quite literally out of nowhere a few days ago along with the mysterious man, her curiosity was piqued.
So she decided go take a look she had a small amount of free time after all, she knew her sisters would never let her live it down once they got word of it and word traveled fast around here but She also to advantage of that and got a description of the man, having black hair, eyes, clothing and pale skin but that wasn't nearly enough to go off of considering thousands of people had that appearance including her sister Revel.
So she went to check on it herself. Her curiosity turned mildly intrigued, in front of her was a small one story cottage built from what looked to be brown bricks and a sign that read "Sunny's Brilliant Emporium: Cafe and Memory Boutique."
When she stepped inside her ears picked up a quiet but pronounced short melodic ringing after she opened the door, she looked up and saw a small intricate silver bell hanging just above the door frame, she kept looking around observing the smooth dark oak tables that were placed around the cafe and the floor that seemed to be made of the dark oak wood.
Out of her peripheral vision she saw someone who looked they had almost stumbled putting down a stack of ceramic plates on a counter, she turned to see a delicate young man with porcelain skin that so flawless it nearly made her envious the more she looked at it, he had long raven black hair that was tight neatly in a ponytail with a set of onyx eyes to match his hair as for his clothing he wore a dark mantle over a black button down shirt with pants and an apron to match.
She could have been imagining it but strangely enough his clothes seemed to absorb the natural light that was pouring through the front glass windows. His eyes met hers and the strikingly gorgeous young man who had his hands clasped behind his back smiled politely at her, he had a very weak presence , so from that alone she could already tell that he was a master but despite that she could feel a calm confidence coming from him.
W-what the hell was she doing here?! Didn't she have better things to do, Like worry about his avatar in GodGrave?! She was looking around the cafe with a calm expression while walking towards the counter Sunny was behind with noble and graceful steps. Eventually, her eyes landed on him and studied him for what felt like minutes before she spoke with her husky voice
" Young man, I have come here to see exactly what this cafe and memory boutique is. I have been told that it appeared here several days ago. Are you the owner of this place?"
She had already moved to stand in front of the counter Sunny was behind
"Greetings Lady Seishan and yes, I am the owner of this place. I am called Master Sunless but most people call me Sunny. Sunny put on his best polite smile and bowed deeply
Please, sit down my lady, would you like anything to drink?"
Seishan nodded and sat down at a table near the counter while Sunny was still standing.
"Tea please, this is quite the cottage. I do wonder how something so out of place can fit so well here".
She seemed to be genuinely curious about it, but he knew better to be fooled by that, he had already figured from the moment after she stepped inside that she was suspecting he was a spy sent by Valor, well she was going to be in for a surprise!
"As do I, I guess I didn't make the sign big enough"
Seishan didn't react to the ice breaker
"What is your occupation, what exactly do you do here?"
While she was speaking Sunny had brought two porcelain cups and a teapot, he poured tea into both cups he handed one to Seishan and sat down across from her at the table, his smile widened a bit
" Well I'm a shopkeeper first but an Enchanter second, I craft memories! "
Sunny's smile became a bit more reserved
Seishan raised her eyebrow elegantly 'An Enchanter?' They had more than plenty of those as well as Blacksmiths, it was interesting, but nothing really noteworthy but then again there was no such thing of having too many enchanters perhaps Seishan and her sisters could recruit him, 'I suppose we'll have to see from here and cross that bridge when we get there'.
She brought the cup to her lips and set it down.
"I see, and what was your occupation before this? Where did you stay before coming here?"
She was really firing off rounds back to back!
" I was a scout during the time I served in Antarctica and due to certain events that took place". He took a sip of his tea as well "I decided I had more that had my share of the waking world and I set out to explore the dream realm for several years my lady before staying outside of Bastion to open my Emporium for several months to get back on my feet and then coming here". He forced out a smile
She was satisfied with the answers he gave her, and here she was worried about a noncombatant who was just trying to make an honest living, considering how much the many millions of people had been through in Antarctica it made since why he would be one of many people wanting to settle down here but then again she didn't hear any changes in his heartbeat the entire time, so either he was a very good liar or he was telling the truth and he wasn't a spy sent by valor. Her intuition was nowhere near as strong as her sister Hel, but, it was enough and it was telling her it was the latter.
" My apologies for interrupting your day I just wanted to see what all the commotion was about and thank you for the tea Master Sunless, have a nice day" She finished her tea then stood up, pushing the chair back in its original place
Master Sunless bowed deeply "it was an honor meeting you Lady Seishan, do come back if you have the time, My waffles are to die for! "N-Not that anyone has actually ever died eating them, that would be bad for bus— I mean awful very awful! Yes it's just that they're so good, that someone could die!"
His delicate face shifted to a somewhat nervous expression. She gave a somewhat confused look but eventually nodded and left the cafe 'it makes sense as to why he would be so nervous I am a daughter of a sovereign after all'
Sunny felt like an APC was lifted off of him, why was talking to those girls always so damn stressful!? But it didn't matter now, he had successfully avoided her suspicion now he just had to wait for Ki Song to send a negotiator to his avatar in GodGrave.
'That Lazy guy has it so easy he doesn't do a damn thing and just sits on his ass all day!'
Speaking of lazy, Aiko who was lingering in the kitchen listening the entire time had finally decided to show her face.
"Boss! You didn't even get her to buy anything! Are you trying to have us broke within a few weeks?! She's a princess! She's filthy rich and yet she's walked out of here without giving us a dime!"
The petite young woman looked at him and floated towards him with an outraged expression.
Sunny gave her a halfhearted glare then smiled
"Of course I'm not! And think about it Aiko, hundreds if not thousands of people saw Seishan walk in here. So, naturally they're going to be curious about us! And then business will be booming in no time, Just think about all the money we'll make!"
" Boss, you're amazing, I love you" Aikos eyes were so wide and bright he could almost see dollar signs within them, her smile was so wide that it startled him a bit, she floated away humming to herself. Sunny shivered, that woman terrified him sometimes but onto more important matters.
Now that Seishan had shown up, he had to be prepared for more of them! And who knew when one of the sisters would pop up, though he would rather Kai and jet show up unexpectedly, but he knew they were terribly busy so that was extremely unlikely he only hoped that the Prince of Nothing didn't show up.
By now it was already night time had already shown up and Sunny found himself bored which was very surprising considering he was doing several other tasks simultaneously.
"Aiko I'm gonna go take a walk! I'll be back in a few hours" he called out to his assistant
"Sure boss, don't die!" He heard her shout from upstairs
" I know you'll protect her buddy" he gave the door frame a couple of pats and left the Emporium, walking into the night.
Thankfully most people here weren't night owls so the streets were empty, save for the people closing up or walking back to their homes. Most of them wouldn't see him anyway since he was almost indistinguishable from the night which is why he had to be careful not to accidentally give someone a heart attack by not announcing himself if he approached them but that was really the last thing on his mind.
He stopped in place and started to think about how he was going to get inside the Jade palace undetected; he knew he could ask Cassie for help since they had met when he first came back to civilization and made a deal with each other to help find a piece of weavers lineage in the real Bastion But he figured he would attempt to scout the place out first. Even that was ridiculously impossible because of the Queen living there and on top of that he had just moved here as well so he would be drowned in suspicion by being this close to where the Queen and her daughters lived.
'Ah, I'm thinking about this way too much. I'll cross that bridge whenever I get there' he shrugged and kept walking to nowhere in particular now. He really took a look at his surroundings. This place, while not as populated as Bastion, was definitely as beautiful if not more than the former, breathtaking even. He continued walking aimlessly through the quiet streets of Ravenheart enjoying the peaceful silence until he stopped dead in his tracks seeing a man sitting alone on a bench in the dark. He wore a simple black and white suit. The man turned his head in Sunny's direction and smiled pleasantly.
Third chapter will be out sometime next week, until then have a good weekend!
Update; Fixed Volume number