Earlier in the day
Karic and Narie head out to visit their client. They had a request that they wished to be granted so, they left early to get it done. They stood in the familiar clutter of their client's home or workspace...they honestly couldn't tell with how cluttered everything was but that wasn't important.
"Do you really think she'll go for it?" Karic asked Narie nervously.
"This isn't about if she'll go for it. This is about making her understand that we have our own agenda as well and that it would be kind of her to let us do our own thing!" Narie explained to calm her leader's nerves.
"But what if she cancels the contract because of this?!" Karic became even more paranoid than before.
"That's the kind of thing that you have to get out of your head. We've already signed the contract so there's no need to be so worried. And even if she says no in the end, that won't change the fact that she's paying us a fortune every month."
"If you have such a good grasp of this then why can't you just talk to her? She already knows you and you're nowhere near as nervous as I am." Narie placed her hands on her hips and stared at Karic deadpan.
"Because you're the leader Karic."
"What if I make you the leader?"
"You can't just do that! In our contract sheet you're the one that's signed in as the leader. Also, she's met you too so she knows that you're the leader so she'll want to hear any requests we have from you, not me." Karic clicked his teeth frustrated.
"Why couldn't someone better become the leader?" Narie gently patted her complaining leader on the back.
"Well, if anyone else was the leader then we wouldn't be the Djinns now would we?" Karic solemnly shook his head. At that moment, the client in question marched into the room from above.
"Alright, I'm here. Now what do you two want? Also, I'm far too busy to engage in small talk so keep it short." The woman stood before the two of them with her arms folded. She was covered from head to toe in some sort of black leather suit and a gas mask. Her toe tapped quickly showing that she was losing patience by the second.
"Right! Ahem. You see, we've been working for you for the past three weeks and we think that you'd agree that we've been doing a good job." Karic paused for a second to see if the client would reply.
"Did I not say to hurry this up? What are you just standing there for? Spit it out!" Karic flinched when the woman bit at him. His eyes began to dart around the room as his nerves started kicking up again.
"Sorry! I..um... s-sorry. I-I-I j-just wanted to...AHEM! I mean I wanted to ask if-if we could maybe go fight that girl that was at the house with the bird?" The woman's foot came to an abrupt stop.
"Are you telling me that you two came all the way out here just to ask if you could go and break the one rule that I gave you lot?"
"W-well you actually gave us a few rules so if you could just explain which one it is that we'r-
"ABSOLUTE DISCRESTION!!!" The client shouted though the shout was slightly muffled by the gas mask. Karic and Narie both closed their eyes tight out of fear. "Why in the hell would you think that I would allow you idiots to fight some random kid?" Karic slowly opened his eyes and cleared his throat.
"Ahem! Uh actually, she isn't just some random kid. She happens to be the lifelong nemesis of the Djinns, if that makes it any better." Karic's voice got quieter as he continued that sentence.
"Oh, she's your nemesis is she? Then why didn't you just say so?" The spoke in a false cheery voice making Karic understand that he had made another mistake. He turned to Narie who was staring back at him with eyes burning with resolve. It was like she was saying, 'Don't give in, leader!' Karic nodded a bit more confident and stood up a bit straighter.
"Yes, she is our nemesis but that is not the only reason that we bring her up."
"So it isn't? Then please do tell me the other reason. If you think that will help your situation." Karic let out a calming breath.
"I believe that the girl has some connection to the bird that you had us capture." The client leaned back and placed a hand on her chin expressing her interest.
"What sort of connection?"
"I don't know how exactly to describe it but I can tell you for sure that she can speak to it. The evidence is that we've seen her do the same with that hellish fish that she travels around with."
"She travels with a fish?" Karic nodded in confirmation.
"Yes, which brings me to my other reason. We think that her fish is some sort of Nightmare class monster that she can control. Which seems like something you would have interest in."
"A simple fish? Yet you believe its classification is Nightmare? What brings you to this conclusion?" Seeing that the woman was thoroughly invested in the story Karic and Narie summarized the events of Nogreni.
"Essentially..."
The client nodded. Her breathing was heavy behind the gas mask due to how excited she was. "So this fish can summon some sort of strange liquid and control it. Not unlike the uniqueness of our dear friend downstairs. Yes, that sounds very interesting. What about it's ether?"
"What about it's ether?" Narie asked confused. The client reached down into a pouch to her side and pulled out a vial filled with a black liquid with small shinning white lights within it. It almost looked like the night sky captured in a glass container.
"What is that?"
"This is the ether from my firebird friend. Do you know if the fish's ether is similar to this?" Karic and Narie both shook their heads.
"We never got the chance to see it. We never injured it in a way that made it bleed." The client let out an annoyed sigh.
"Of course you didn't. Alright, where is this girl?" Karic's eyes widened.
"Wait, are you saying..."
"Yes, you can do battle with this nemesis of yours but no killing. I just need to get that fish to do some experiments. I don't need some brat's blood on my hands." Karic and Narie started to cheer but were stopped by the client immediately.
"No cheering, just tell me where we can find this girl!" That was the moment that Karic had realized that he made another mistake.
"Oh, I actually don't know where she is." He chuckled nervously as he spoke.
"But you came here to ask me for permission to fight her?"
"Yes we did..." Karic said really regretting letting Joana and Leroy talk him into doing this.
"Are telling me that you came here to ask for a fight with a person that you don't even know the location of?!" Karic slowly nodded his head. The client was boiling with rage so much so that she reached into her pouch, walked over to Karic, and jabbed a needle into his arm.
"Ow! What was-Woah~" Karic felt like half of his body's systems had shut down at the same time. He collapsed to the ground and began to shake. Narie stared at her seizing leader with fear in her eyes. The client watched Karic shake for a few seconds before pulling a second syringe out of her pouch and jabbing it into Karic.
"There..." She said nonchalantly. "He'll be fine in a few minutes. I just needed to let off some steam. I can deal with the rest by toying with our flaming poultry friend." Narie knelt next to Karic and tried to make sure he was okay even though she didn't know what he had been injected with.
"Aww, look at you caring for your captain. Oops! I mean leader. I guess I've spent too much time with pirates." Narie looked up at the client still dazed by the sudden turn of events. The client waved her arm. "Oh calm down! Look if it'll make you feel any better take one of these with you. I need you two to go grab the peccary and I'm not sure that I can trust just one of you to do the job."
The client grabbed a flask that held a light green, bubbling liquid inside and placed it in front of Narie. She stared at the flask for a second before grabbing it. "W-what about the girl?" Narie asked.
"I'll just ask my informants if they know anything about her then go to her myself. What's her name?"
"Alix Deminal, I think?" Narie answered uncertainly. She was far too shaken up to be confident that she was right.
"Alix Deminal, huh? Something about that name sounds familiar." The client walked out of the room while deep in thought leaving Narie and Karic alone. Narie looked down at Karic and felt a bit of relief when she saw that he was no longer seizing.
"Maybe we shouldn't have accepted that long term contract after all?"