The pale light of dawn crept through the thin curtains of Urvashi's bedroom, casting soft shadows that danced across the walls. He stirred, caught in the delicate balance between dreams and reality, when all of a sudden, Sharron suddenly jolted him awake.
Waking up in a daze Urvashi only saw Sharron's face, with her golden eyes and high cheekbones, and her finger placed at her mouth as if telling him to keep quiet, upon seeing this Urvashi squinted his eyes.
What he noticed first was that even this early in the morning it was too quiet, far too quiet for the city of Nast. The usually bustling street on which he lived was dead silent which made Urvashi's hair stand on end.
Sharron seeing as he had woken up pointed to the door of the apartment with her chin.
Upon seeing this Urvashi instantly picked up the revolver that lay bellow his pillow and checked to see if the bullets were in, and upon confirming that they infact were he quietly got up from the bed.
He started walking towards the door while trying not to be heard. But despite his quick thinking and resolve Sharron was already closing in on the door.
And all of a sudden, but not unexpectedly a knock was heard from the door.
Urvashi upon hearing this started walking towards the door slower and trying to be as quiet as possible, while Sharron was picking up her pace.
The knocking continued.
Manuevering through the pile of clothes on his floor Urvashi kept staring at Sharron with his gun pointed at the door. He didn't know which was worse, the fact that his entire street was silent as if nobody lived there or the fact that Sharron woke him up.
This was because Sharron had set up a few of her coins at all possible entrances leading towards Urvashi's place and they all had a simple task, which was to 'report' if they 'saw' anybody.
Bitting his lip Urvashi sped up to try and reach Sharron who was maybe a meter or so away from reaching the door.
And during all of this, the knocking on the door just kept getting louder and louder.
Just as he was about to overtake Sharron he took a glance at her and noticed her tense posture which only seemed to fire up his resolve even more.
He gently pushed Sharron away just enough so that he could step in front of her, Sharron looked at him with bewilderment but didn't protest.
He took the door handle in one hand while he aimed the revolver with the other.
Urvashi inwardly cursed not having a door with a peephole and swore that he would buy it one day.
If he survived today of course.
He took a look at Sharron before opening the door. Sharron met his gaze with a nod of her head.
And on the other side of the door stood...
A familiar face.
...It was Taele.
Taele upon seeing the gun pointed at him lifted his hands into the air and spoke.
"Woah, easy there." And before he finished speaking he also saw Sharron who was stadning behind Urvashi with her gun pointed at him.
Seeing this Urvashi put his gun down and signaled to Sharon with a flick of his wrist to do the same, which she did.
"Come on in." Urvashi spoke up.
As he was walking into Urvashi's apartment he glanced at Sharron before looking at Urvashi.
Seeing this Urvashi knew the dreaded moment had come.
"It's... complicated." Urvashi said.
"Ah, I see." Taele replied.
Thankfully Sharron's wound had nearly fully healed or he would have a more pressing matter to explain.
He inwardly thanked her awakened physique.
Before they all got seated Urvashi closed the door behind them and only then did he sit on a chair.
There were a few moments of tense silence before Taele coughed and said.
"It's happend again, this time on your street." Before saying anything he signaled at Sharron with her eyes.
Seeing this Urvashi understood that it was that killer who can inject venom.
He thought that the Blades would have it covered, but obviously he was wrong.
Now he just wondered what to do with Sharron, should he involve her in this or not.
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Could he even really? Without Taele aproval most likely he wouldn't dare. That was because he didn't want to make an enemy out of an Enforcer.
But before Urvashi could say anything Taele just leaned back into his chair and said.
"Well, this will probably go public in a little while so I'll say it anyway. We're going to put wanted posters on this creep."
Urvashi just looked at him with understanding and asked.
"Any clues?"
Taele glanced at Sharron once again before replying.
"No, not really -- but our previous theory about him was correct."
Urvashi's face revealed a smile before saying.
"Is that so?"
"Who died?" Urvashi continued although this time he didn't have that carefree expression.
"Some woman named Rhonda, she lived im the building just across from yours."
Upon hearing this a chill ran down Urvashi's spine.
Not because of who died, he didn't really know Rhonda. But because of how close to him it was.
He glanced at Sharron who was also looking at him seemingly having a similar thought.
"Well I wanted to come here and offer you a chance to work on this murder, considering our previous deal." Taele said.
"Sure, I'll look into it." Urvashi replied.
"Don't do anything dangerous, it could easily cost you your life." Taele said.
"Yeah, yeah i know. I'll be carefull." Urvashi replied.
But just as he said that Sharron looked at him with almost tangible intensity, she might have guessed that Urvashi and Taele were talking about Rankbearers.
Urvashi didn't dare look back at his friend, but instead he looked at the beans of coffee on his table.
He suddenly had an idea and he coughed lightly before speaking up.
"So does anyone want to have coffee?"
He didn't even like coffee, but it was worth trying to shift the attention to something else.
Taele only refused before speaking up.
"Actually I best get going, I don't want to keep other Enforcers waiting for too long"
Sharron on the other hand said with a smug expression.
"Yes, I'd very much like a cup of coffee right now thank you very much."
Taele stood up before he could leave Sharron spoke up.
"Urvashi why don't you introduce me to your friend?" She once again said with a smug expression.
Taele coughed lighly before offering her a handshake.
"Taele Black." He said.
Sharron accepted the handshake and said
"Sharron Montes."
After those 2 introduced each other Urvashi agreed to come to Taele's house should he find anything in his investivation before he left.
Once the door was closed and Sharron had confirmed that Taele truly couldn't hear them she said as she was sipping coffee.
"You were talking about a Rankbearer right?"
"Right." Urvashi said with a lot of hesitation.
"Ok, I won't allow you to investigate this, atleast not until your 5th rank abilities have developed." She spoke up.
To which Urvashi scoffed before saying.
"And what else mom?"
Not finding his remark funny she said.
"I'm serious."
"I'll allow you if we do it togeheter though." She continued.
"And why do you think I'll do anything you say." Urvashi replied.
"Unless you develop your 5th rank abilities I suggest you don't go after Rankbearers. After all who knows what kind of powers he wields to be able to kill people with the Enforcers not being able to catch him."
After a while Urvashi simply replied with.
"Alright."
"And that means I'll spend a few more days at your place." She said.
"Don't you have your own home?" Urvashi asked taken aback.
"Nope, Viano trashed it." She replied.
"Ah so you just said all that so you could stay here." Urvashi said.
To which she didn't reply but instead just smiled sheepishly.