Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 121: The Next Step

I felt a smirk split my face as I turned toward the voice. The crowd parted once more for another intruder. Renea Shorn wore her usual dark attire, though the sleeves of this dress were looser than her normal black ensemble. A mantle of dark fur wrapped around her pale neck, protecting her from the chill. Over her head, she held a shadowed parasol. It was dripping with water.

The pale-skinned owner of Bloodstone Elixirs finally stood before me. I looked at her parasol quizzically. In return, she raised a brow at me as if to say, "You expected me to let myself get rained on?"

"Your skills are beyond what I expected, Lord Daen," Renea said, nodding slightly in respect. She gave both Lord Morthelm and Sevren a slight bow, sticking to protocol. "I believe you've more than kept your end of our bargain."

She did watch my show, I thought with a hint of happiness. I thought she'd been avoiding me since I went against her advice and tracked down the Doctrination's old temple in Nirmala.

It was a little nibbling thought in the back of my mind that the one who had made all of this possible didn't attend. But it appeared she had, even if I hadn't sensed or seen her in the crowd.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I was cut off by something else.

Aurora's puppet was raising its bladed wings, puffing itself out in a display. It glared burning suns at Lady Shorn, hissing quietly. A sound like scraping knives slowly rattled outward.

And my bond's own emotions... She was on guard. Her hackles were raised toward one, singular person.

"Toren," she said sharply into my mind, "that woman isn't what she seems. She is dangerous. I cannot say why, but you need to avoid her."

I remembered the instinctual anxiety that suffused me when I first met Renea Shorn. That subconscious understanding that I was facing a predator; one who outclassed me in experience, grit, and intelligence as it slowly stalked toward my blind spot.

But for Aurora to feel the same sensation, I thought, staring at the bird on my shoulder uncertainly. Renea matched the steampunk sparrow's sunset gaze. For the first time since I'd met the austere woman, she seemed a touch uncertain. Her face slowly morphed from its characteristic impassivity, a frown growing on her face as the seconds passed.

It was equal parts one of displeasure and another of confusion.

Suddenly, the reality of the item on my shoulder set back in. It was a djinni relic; taken straight from the Relictombs. Sevren Denoir had assured me that inquirers couldn't detect it as a relic any longer after some sort of initial aetheric signature washed away over time, but that meant nothing to someone who was invested in actually determined to try and discover the clockwork raven's inner workings.

Aurora, I said with a bit of internal hastiness, You need to be careful. At least for now. Renea is intelligent enough to be suspicious of your appearance.

Reading the flow of my thoughts, Aurora reluctantly settled the construct on my shoulder. Orange and purple light misted through gaps in its brass plating as it pointedly ignored the owner of Bloodstone Elixirs.

Renea turned to me instead, that frown still plastered on her face. "You did not tell me you gained a new..." She glanced at the bird again. The bronzish feathers ruffled in irritation as Aurora forcefully controlled herself. "Companion? I cannot sense any mana from its structure. How does it work?"

Think fast, Toren, I told myself. The crowd still spectated this interaction with fervent attention. None seemed primed to step forward, but I was extremely aware of the importance of my words.