Essentia Animus

22-Potential Investment

The silence covering the room continued until Sryine finished her food and returned to include herself in the room. The others might not have anything to speak about, but Sryine wasn't interested in a false sense of tranquility.

"Vwyx, that was cruel, and you know it! Leaving me in high hopes like that, it practically left me in tears as I struggled to eat every last bite. Now you tell me that dinner is going to be more of the same? Riyxia, why are we being tortured again?" "Before Vwyx tries to say anything about being tortured for information and having us spill all of our secrets, this is actually the regular food available to the Hunters." "Well then, I can see why so many Hunters flocked to the Cafe, in that case. The cafe was really actually well placed.. ready to receive anyone hungry for actual real food. It just probably didn't stand out well enough, and people free to visit probably went to places with more than just food to offer, such as the mall. Stuff that stood out better, at least. No wonder we got so many hunters after adding some basic entertainment. .. maybe we should have charged more?" Returning to financial matters was actually enough to distract Sryine from the food she had eaten, giving Riyxia the opportunity to start talking about some of the things the others had missed. She was still unsure if anyone was listening to them, so she only covered things she was expected to know, mostly the entire conversation she had with Ayzherie.

"Wait, that was a leader around here? Really? No one is pulling my leg this time, right?" "Remember, Dhyinze mentioned having a leader with the same name before, while we were doing that mall trip?" "He did? No, I don't remember this. Did that really happen? Why does even Vwyx not seem surprised? Am I the only one who did not know this?!" "Relax, like I said, I almost didn't remember either." "By the divine, no wonder she was flooding me with so many questions." "Wait, did you tell her anything?" "I told her that questions are free, but answers could cost her. Then I told her we could negotiate prices later, though she seemed inclined to throw in a bunch of questions so that I could be aware of what prices I needed to come up with. Seriously, with the food on hand like that, I thought talking money would put everything into a 'not going to happen' category. Hey, do you think we could make some good Qeld with..." Sryine stopped at Riyxia's serious expression frowning up at her. Sryine took that moment to recall that much of the day's events had occurred simply in the interest of making some extra money. In that light, they had actually made nothing from either of her two earlier projects, and had instead landed in a pretty complicated situation.

"Oh, well, you always were better at the organized approach." "I was? Since when?" "Since.. actually, I guess you kinda just picked up on it last night, but haven't done such since..." "... Since...?" "Well, let's just say it's been more than a lunar cycle, and leave it at that." Sryine's reflection left Riyxia speechless too. More than a lunar cycle, that could only imply that was how her predecessor had been. Also, it implied she had been unlike her predecessor in this regard, all the time she had neglected such a planned and efficient approach. It explained where such originated for her, and why she might have such a talent for it. After all, they weren't exactly the same person, but they technically almost were. It was some of the first insight she had been seeking about herself across this entire journey.

"Speaking of long stories, anyone else keeping track of how long we've been stuck sitting around here for? No? Me either, though I'm starting to get hungry again. If we're going to be.. tortured for information until we spill all of our secrets.. and we don't exactly have room to plan much more than this, maybe it might be time to get things over with. Hiding isn't going to make things go away, instead that might give us more things to worry about. Just like the food, probably best to just face it and get it over with, so that we can move towards something we might actually like to worry about." Vwyx was mostly speaking from hunger, but had a good point. The three of them made their way from the room they had been resting in, and returned to where they had been given food. There, they found Ayzherie waiting for them.