Binary

Chapter Six: New Orders

Vera glanced over at Quan, who casually looked around her bar and then nodded stoically as if to herself. Vera slid the door to the booth closed and the sound in the dining room was cut off abruptly. Rikon had already lit a match, which he touched to the candles in the center of their table, then to the long pipe that we pulled out of his robes.

"Report," he said quietly.

Vera didn't say anything as she set down the teapot and found her seat.

"Vera?" Rikon looked up at her. She smiled and poured herself a teacup.

"Yeah! The report, of course..."

"Are you okay?" he asked, "your hands are shaking..."

Vera sighed and took a drink of her tea. It burned her tongue, and she ignored it.

"Sorry, it's just that apparently, a lot can happen in a short amount of time," she said with a nervous laugh.

"What's your report, Vera," asked Rikon sternly.

"So," she said, clasping her hands on the table in front of her, "let's just get this out of the way... Do you remember when you told me to let the last of our spies be removed from the Desert Zone by Lady Argus when she was moving all of her servants to her private palace out in the hills?"

Rikon nodded and took a long pull from his pipe. His purple eyes narrowed as he watched her. Even after all this time Vera still thought Human eyes were creepy.

"I thought that maybe we'd still want some people out there," said Vera, smiling nervously down at her teacup, her six-fingered hands gripped each other tightly.

"I may have relocated some people from the Iron Zone to the Desert Zone to give us some more eyes out there."

Rikon glared at her for a minute.

"You went against my orders," he said.

"Yessir," she mumbled.

"And now you're fessing up to it?"

"Well, that's the thing, sir," she said, trying another sip of her tea, "there've been updates."

"Updates?"

"The spies I sent out there were mainly just wanderers, I couldn't get them back into the old positions in Lady Argus's castle or anything, but... well."

"Spit it out, Vera," said Rikon.

"They said they're convinced now that Lady Argus was deliberately trying to make the Desert Zone a blind spot to our forces."

Rikon stopped puffing on his pipe.

"What are you talking about? Lady Argus, directly targeting the Light? She shouldn't even know we exist, are you saying..."

Rikon put his pipe down.

"Are you saying Lady Argus is in league with the Hatred?"

"There's more," said Vera quietly, "the spies I have positioned in the Desert Zone just confirmed yesterday, they're utterly convinced, that the Hatred has returned, and that they've seen proof that the samurai is among them."

Rikon stared at her. Neither of them said a word for a minute.

"And-" Vera started again, but Rikon held up a hand. It wasn't the commanding gesture that he meant it to be, but she could see on his face that he needed a minute.

"The Hatred has landed in the Desert Zone?" He breathed.

"Yes," said Vera.

"And the samurai is with them?"