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The sun is slowly setting and the busy atmosphere on the streets of Redridge is slowly dying down. The store owners start cleaning up and close their stores down, and the people on the streets start going home or to their second beloved place, the pubs.

After the streetlights light on, there are only a few people left walking through the silent alleyways. Under the few still roaming the street, there are two cloaked figures who try to avoid any contact and hide in the shadows.

They cross the town without a word and always stay hidden beneath their robes until they stop in front of a dark alley. Looking around, and after being sure no one followed them, they vanish into the dark and a few steps later, find themselves in front of the door of a very sleazy looking bar.

Inside, the air is thick of smoke of pipes and cigars. There is not much light, and a lot of the tables look like they are purposely put into the dark. Entering the room, the patrons inside look up to the two newcomers, but quickly concentrate on their own things. The barkeeper, who was just washing some glasses, looks at the two figures and gives them a nod to the backrooms. They nod back and without acknowledging anything else, disappear through one of the curtains.

Behind the curtain, they find a small room. At the end, behind a velvet rope, there is a small table with a sitting arrangement around it. At the wall a couch and in front, two chairs. Sitting on the far end, smoking a cigar, is a middle-aged man flanked by two women. With his high-quality clothes, he looks very out of place in here.

“Stop! Where do you think you are going?”

Suddenly a big muscular man steps in front of the two. Through his rough bodybuilder appearance with scars and tattoos, everyone would start backing off after bumping into him.

But not the two visitors. One of the cloaked figures steps in front of him.

“Tell your boss, the fox arrived with the package!” the figure replies.

The guard was a little bit surprised to hear a female voice coming from under the cloak but keeps his strong appearance up. He looks at the person in the back, who just finished smoking and with a small gesture, shooed away the two women beside him. He starts talking:

“So, you are the Zeaphyr Fox? To be honest, after everything I heard about your exploits, I am a little surprised that you are a woman. Wouldn’t it be better to change your artist name to Vixen?”

“And to pass on one of my best disguises?” she smiles “And I also would miss the surprised looks from the people who find out.”

“There is a lot of truth behind this.” He replies. “But I am still amazed about all your feats. I have a lot of male professionals on the payroll who have done a lot in their life, but no one comes up with such a history like yours.”

“Now, is this a real compliment or is this your anger speaking, that your employees are just unreliable, like this guy here who we would have been able to take out at least three times now?” She replies with a smile and with a swift motion of her right arm she activates a small crossbow under her forearm pointing the dart in the direction of the privates of the guard.

The guard starts fuming, but before he could say or do anything, the man in the back starts laughing.

“You are a feisty one, I love it. But I think you already realized that John isn’t the only guard in this room?”

“Of course. I never thought of you to be such an idiot. So, how about we stop with the small talk and the dick comparison and come back to why we are here?” she responds.

“Right on the point. I really start to like you. John, calm down, take away her weapon and check if there are more. But one more thing: Your companion.”

“What is with her?” She was caught a little off guard.

“This is just between us. Also, I don’t trust you. I know how good you are, and it would already be quite some work to keep you under guard.”

She nods and gives her follower a small sign, to go back into the bar. The figure is a little bit reluctant at first, but then nods back and disappears back through the curtains. After being alone, John starts taking away her weapons.

“So, now that we are alone and you unarmed, we can start talking business.” The man behind the table continues. “Can I offer you a drink, or something else?”

“Not now, thank you. Now, I heard you can provide me with the info I might need? An informant told me you might know who is in possession of the Grimoire of Shangra.”

“I might know something about that. As you know, as an information broker, my help doesn’t come for free. But having this conversation today, means also that you have something that is worth this information and my time. And I believe you know what I am talking about.” He grins at her, lighting a new cigar.

“Of course! Your contact gave me clear instructions.” She reaches under her cloak, what puts John on edge, pulling out a few documents. “This is what you wanted. The documents that show who was behind the attack on the airship company in Dunguard. So, I kept my end of the deal.”

He takes the documents from her and gives them a quick look. Then he responds “Yes you did. Here the information you were looking for.” He hands over a little envelope. But suddenly grabs her hand after she took it.

“Hey, let me go.” She shouts at him.

“Take off your hood!” “What?” She looks surprised and in shock.

“I said: Take off your hood! There is something under there, I just saw something moving under it. Who are you working for?” He gives her an angry look. “John, take it off her.”

“Yes boss!” he replies and grabs after her hood. “Has no one ever taught you to never corner an animal!” She grins at him and shouts “Aiko! Now!”

Suddenly a bang and a big flash emits from the center of the room, blinding and stunning everyone who wasn’t ready for it.

“What was that? Anyone, stop that whore, she tricked us.” “Boss I can’t see a damn thing!” “I think I got her – ahh!”

“Sorry to disappoint you, I am not so easily caught!” she responds while punching the second guard who reached after her, down. “Great doing business with you!” And with that, she jumps through the curtain.

The last thing the information broker thought he saw, was the silhouette of a woman with long hair, and he swears, the ears and tail of a fox. The flash must have played tricks with his eyes and brain.

“Aiko, I think you went a little bit overboard!”

“Crystal, can we talk about this after we get out of here. At the moment I can use your help here!” Aiko replied. She was right. In the main hall of the bar, a brawl was going on. While Crystal was dealing in the background Aiko was trying to secure the exit if something goes wrong. But somehow this also went south after a group of drunks arrived. Aiko sits behind one of the tables in the corner, trying to avoid the action near the bar.

“What happened here?”

“Listen, it was an accident. I just wanted to keep them busy, but somehow these drunk idiots just destroyed my plan.”

“You didn’t try to charm them?”

“Maybe?” Aiko smiles.

Crystal shakes her head.

“Ok, let us talk about this later. Now we must get out of here. In a few moments, this will become more than a brawl. The authorities are preparing outside, they came a little earlier than I anticipated. They were the reason why it went south. I wasn’t able to control my ears, again.” She had to admit embarrassed.

"Again?” Aiko looked at Crystal in an angry and disappointed way “We really have to train you a little more!”

“Ok, ok, let's stop with this small talk, and get up to the roof”

Crystal looks around the table to see if they can sneak through the chaos. Ducking to avoid getting hit by a glass that was flying through the room. She takes out a small round object from her belt, lights it up and throws it in the middle of the room. A second later it flashes up and starts emitting a lot of smoke into the room. But even with a lot less visibility, most of the people fighting at the bar don’t really mind.

A few moments later no was able to look further than a meter into the room. Crystal and Aiko quickly made their way to the stairs behind the bar. Even if they aren’t really seen and mostly ignored, the flying chairs, bottles, and glasses make it a challenge. But they reach their goal and silently go up the stairs.

Reaching the top, suddenly something takes hold of Crystals robe.

“So, you thought you could escape us? Guess what? You are wrong!” It was John, who somehow was able to get back to his feet and went after them. He stands half way up the stairs and pinned the end of Crystals robe with a knife to the wall.

“You are dumb and annoying!” Crystal sighed “But I admit, getting back so quickly after Aikos little show, call me impressed. But again…” she starts smiling “…I told you: Never corner an animal!”

And with that, she slips out of the robe and throws it into his direction. Surprised by this move, John stumbles back. And in this second, he sees the person who made so much trouble for everyone. Up there, at the top of the stairs stands a young athletic woman, with long black hair, dressed in a green functional outfit with belts and pouches. But the one detail, he was distracted by most, was a black fox tail and black fox ears on her head with white tips. She throws him a kiss and disappears behind the wall while he crashes into two guards, who just stormed up the stairs.

While the police storms the bar, two shadowy figures jump from roof to roof, vanishing back into the night.