The Dawn of Light

(5)Under the Laurel Leaves

Malreus checked his watch for the eighth time in less than five minutes. "He's late."

I suppressed my smile. He was in a particularly terrible mood tonight. Narray stood leaning against a tall, marble pillar, her eyes droopy. I'd warned her not to drink too much before we came...

"Relax." I crossed my arms over my chest to cover my body from the icy cold wind. It was winter here, in this part of the world, and the cold nights weren't really for me. I was made to enjoy the summer breeze and the decadent sun. Although, I will admit; nothing compared to the icy chill of Tundra.

"We're wasting our time." Malreus said commandingly and fixed me with his dark gaze. His eyes were more black than blue in the dark of the night. "He's toying with us."

"You're particularly optimistic tonight." Narray commented from the side and lifted her hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn.

"It's been thirty minutes." Malreus replied calmly, but his eyes were anything but serene. He looked irritated.

"So then we wait another thirty." I said with conviction; "We have all the time in the world."

Malreus was about to respond, but a loud voice interrupted our little 'potential' spat.

"Evening, strangers!" Simos rounded the corner with his hands in the air- one of them carrying a paper bag. His eyes twinkled with mischief and his smile was wide and excited.

I smiled in response to his happy-go-lucky attitude. "Glad to see you made it. Finally..."

"My apologies, my lady." He walked towards me with a skip in his step and took my hand in his with a charming smile. "I was busy fulfilling my end of the deal." He placed a soft kiss on the back of my hand and I immediately noticed a shadowy figure creep up behind me.

Malreus growled from over my shoulder; "Which was what exactly?"

Simos straightened up to look him directly in the eye; still smiling. "Tea; of course." He pulled a red flask of hot tea out of the brown paper bag and placed it in my hand with a wink. "Tea for Tea."

Narray had been caught up with our aliases and softly, under her breath, snickered behind us. Simos turned around at the new voice. "And you are?"

"Uh..." She pursed her lips and smiled; "Ray."

"Nice to meet you, Ray." He nodded with polite courtesy and I silently wished Malreus would take note of it. But he didn't. Instead, he pushed his menacing tone further towards Simos before Narray could respond. "Your end of the deal wasn't to just bring 'tea', mercenary."

"Yes, I remember." Simos gritted his teeth at my friend and chuckled softly; "You three are interested in the recent fire, correct?"

"Correct." I nodded, eager to get to the bottom of this.

Simos smiled at me and stepped closer. Malreus did the same. I grimaced at the awkward position I was in, but Narray found all this far too funny. She smiled broadly at the scene- I was stuck in between two tall men, glaring at each other.

"So what do you know about the fires?" Malreus asked suspiciously and Simos replied with dispassion; "I know that they killed thirty-three people and injured two more. And those two who were injured, died this afternoon while in care at the city's finest hospital. So I suppose you could say there were thirty-five deaths as a result."

"We heard there were only thirty?" I said with narrowed eyes and Simos smiled down at me; "Your information wasn't far off, but the city reports rounded the number off to lessen the blow of the incident to the public. It's thirty-five. I assure you."