Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 2: Magic in the Air

Naomi shrugs. "According to Nisha, a couple hours. Not too much farther to Letroseli," she states and Reela nods. The girl takes off her hoodie and tosses it into the bag to leave herself in her black tank top and leggings that she pulls the dress on over with such lack of grace that she swears she can hear her ancestors scoffing. But whatever. They're dead.

"Good. The sooner I find a lead, the better," Reela says. "Hopefully my dad's having good luck back in Manatria."

That gets a snort out of Naomi which makes Reela glance back at her. "Reela, come on. When do these situations ever start with good luck? Knowing how these things usually go, you'll find a shit ton of dead-end leads, probably all given to you by the people who want to kill you, and it's only after your first near death experience that you'll get anywhere."

Reela glares at her with a huff. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she mumbles and goes back into her bag to find her hairbrush, combing over her long white hair in a battle against the tangled knots born from her restless nap earlier.

Naomi shrugs with a feigned-innocent smile. "I'm just speaking from experience. Word of advice, if anyone asks you to hunt a werewolf and bring them its pelt, politely walk away."

"Noted. I'll add that advice with Cree's 'don't get in bed with the first hot stranger you meet.'" Reela chuckles, the sound gets cut off by a grunt as her brush snags a matted knot. "Fuck," she winces with a low growl of frustration. She sets the brush down to try tugging at the gnarl with her nimble fingers.

"Need some help?" Naomi asks as she watches the girl struggle with a disgruntled glare at the knot.

"No. I've got it," Reela murmurs as she works through the tangled mess. Naomi sighs, but nods regardless. Reela is stubborn and has made a point all her life to make it known, especially since moving into Sage. People either respect that or hate it. For Cree, it's always been a fine blend of both. Mostly because he's the same way.

She manages to loosen the knot enough to be able to resume brushing it out. She runs the hairbrush through her hair a few times after straightening it out to make sure it's at least a little presentable before pulling it all back and up with a black hair tie. Once her hair is situated in a long ponytail, she finishes it off with a silk black bow to compliment the black and purple dress.

Reela looks back at Naomi when she stands up from the bed and walks over with her arms crossed. "There a reason you're getting all dolled-up to go looking for Regan?" Naomi asks.

Reela nods and tosses her brush back to her bag. "Dad has met with some members of the Letroseli council before, not that they were happy about it. But maybe they've been keeping up on recent news. Add in the fact that Varagores is now targeting Adaliaens, maybe the council of Letroseli knows something that could help," she explains.

"Would they really just let you meet with the council out of the blue?"

"I've met one or two members before at a few of Dad's 'political dinner parties' in Sage, so they know who I am at least. That, and I dug up some of Dad's contacts and sent word to the council. If it was received, they should hopefully be expecting me," Reela says and leans back against the wall beside the door.

She sees that spark in Naomi's dark brown eyes. Curiosity. The questions that linger on her mind, but she withholds them. It's no secret that Regan would often bring Reela with him to political gatherings, but only the ones in Utopia or Eutria. And only ones that Letroseli representatives were attending.

A knot forms between Reela's brows and her shoulders tense. A natural response to thinking about it that doubles as a means of warning Naomi to not pry. She knows that Naomi is good at backing off when she needs to. She has to be, seeing as she's married to a former Narvadin slave. Certain things just shouldn't be brought up.