The healing provided by his abilities did wonders to alleviate the pain coming from Hokhin’s nose. He found himself staying at a hotel for the night. If he was lucky, he’d have a nice base of operations set up in the next few days that he could use to permanently work from.

Much to be done, it seems. It was hard for an honest con man to make a living in these trying times. The next day he called up Reven, an old friend of his who had decided to come here for work. He didn’t know why she had decided this place out of everywhere, but he relented and accepted her offer for lunch at one of the restaurants of Lasruay.

Ayvery’s Reprieve was the name of the place. Hokhin had no trouble finding the location. He appreciated the style that restaurant had, and once he’d given his name, he was let in without delay.

The inside was even better looking than the outside. Chandeliers hung from the glass top that constituted the flooring for the second floor. It allowed Hokhin to gaze up at the amazing artwork drawn on the ceiling and admire it fully.

Hokhin walked past the tables that were already filled to the brim with other people. The restaurant had pleasant music coming from the band. Hokhin bobbed his head along while looking for Reven.

He found her sitting at the table that the receptionist had specified. Reven had always been a beautiful woman, and the time that had been taken from both of them did her more justice than it did him. Though she always said she’d love to have his long silky hair, Hokhin had never understood why she’d need it. She still carried herself with that charismatic smile that she flashed at the waiter while he was taking her order. Hokhin walked over to the table and placed his hand on the chair.

“May I?” he asked her.

“No thanks, I’m waiting for someone I used to know.”

“What a coincidence, so am I!” he replied as he grinned at her. She chuckled at his retort and let him take his seat.

“How have you been, Reven?” Hokhin asked her. She looked to be in good health.

“You would have known I was doing well, had you actually talked to me these past few years.” She said it in a joking manner, though there was the hint of a bitter truth.

“I was busy with my own work, if you couldn’t tell. As are you, I’m sure.”

“Work? I guess you could call what I was planning work.”

“Have you given my offer any thought, Reven?”

She looked troubled at the mention of the plan. “I was planning something similar, anyways. It fell to the wayside over time, I guess.” She twirled a glass in her hands, moving the water around while Hokhin waited for a direct response.

“I’ll need to hear you say it, Reven,” he gave her one of his irresistible smiles, or so he claimed, and she was forced to answer. She met his eyes and scoffed.

“I’ll help.”

She said, although she didn’t sound totally convinced. Hokhin hoped that would fade over time. That or she had found something deeper in this plan of his.

“It’ll be much easier to pull off with someone like you working with us. I’m glad you agreed, honestly.”

“I’m just one person, Hokhin. And from what the news reports say, you’re just one person too.”

“News reports? It travelled that fast?” he was dumbfounded that his escapades from the previous night had already made it to the eyes and ears of the common folk.

“You’ll have to get used to that, you old-fashioned idiot. What were you thinking just waltzing into a place like that?” She kept her voice low enough so it wouldn’t catch the attention of anyone near their table.

“I thought I could use the practice.”

“You committed a crime on your first day setting foot on Lasruay and made yourself a topic of the local news.”

Hokhin rubbed at the space between his nose. It was healed now, though a minor discomfort emanated when he touched it.

“I didn’t know things had changed this much.”

“They have. Those simpler times were the best, weren’t they? Certainly easier to get our work done back then.”

“I’d agree with you there.”

“So, how is the great Hokhin going to solve this?”

“Well, whenever I encounter a problem I can’t conceivably solve, the only solution is to add another member onto the team. It just seems now I’ll have to find a technological expert before we can fully begin.”

“The issue being?”

“I’ve no damn clue where to begin. Perhaps someone who's spent a large amount of time on Lasruay could guide me?” The implication was obvious.

“I’ll try and look for some contacts. While I do so, maybe you’ll have some luck with tech companies. Some of them set up offices around here.”

“You want me to walk up to buildings and ask the people there whether they’d like to commit a robbery with me?”

“Or something related to that.”

Hokhin leaned back in his chair and observed the other families and couples who had decided to dine here. Their meals looked delicious and made Hokhin’s stomach growl in anticipation of his own.

“Wait, did you place an order for the both of us?”

“I thought you’d want to pick it out yourself, but I couldn’t bear to watch you decide for the next ten minutes.”

“Rude.”

“But resourceful.”

Their food arrived shortly after. It was suitably fancy for Reven’s tastes, and just good enough that even Hokhin had to acknowledge the rich meaty flavours that were aided by the spice. They enjoyed a nice meal together like the old days, something Reven was grateful for after a long time of not having seen her friend.

The issue of finding a tech expert would be one that they would have to resolve later. They’d need to find someone who was not only an expert, but had a reason to make such a huge gamble and join in what they were trying to accomplish.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Someone with a grudge to uphold, or with the necessary skullduggery to take an interest in them. What kind of person that would be, Hokhin wouldn’t know.

****

Reija Laktimost was a woman with a bright future ahead of her. She was at the top of her class, having a real passion for computer technology. The field itself was ever expanding at an enormous rate, enough so that there was a high demand for new and talented people that only kept getting bigger over time.

She’d always dreamt of being a part of some research project, to be credited for the invention of something new and innovative. Sadly, those dreams would remain just that, dreams. Her alarm clock chased away the sweet fog of sleep and opened her eyes to her bedroom.

She hit her the beeping machine and sat up blearily in her bed. Her bedroom consisted of a simple mattress that she had bought for herself and dragged into the place along with some desks and a cupboard built into the wall that held her favourite clothes. The light shining through the windows did her no favour in hiding the sight of the mess that clogged up her room, but she did well to ignore those in the morning.

This is what her life was actually like. Getting up early in the morning, taking a shower and then heading off to the most boring and mind-numbing job in the world. Reija worked as a receptionist for a simple convenience store, somewhere in the middle of the city of Lasruay.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t tried applying for a higher position or was too insecure to. It was the fact that every place that she applied to never looked past the fact that she was an inexperienced young adult.

She knew that she shouldn’t have picked somewhere like Lasruay. The island wasn’t really known for being a technological center, unlike Elaren. Though she’d assumed that because of that, she just might find herself a position no one else was vying for. There were other reasons, obviously, but she tried not thinking about them as she brushed her teeth clean. After cleaning them clean, she left her reflection waiting to prepare the rest of her routine.

Reija took her “uniform” from her closet and placed it in a bag along with a few other things that she usually brought with herself. She then walked out of the tiny apartment she had rented out in the lower rungs of the city. The unsteady stairs creaked under feet and paint flaked off the halls of the building as Reija began the journey to her job.

On the way there, she decided to treat herself to some street food. It wasn’t the healthiest diet, but Reija could bother with dieting once she had a good enough job, by her standards at least. The streets were empty early in the morning, since her shift started earlier than most. It had been raining the night before, so the sidewalks had gathered small puddles of rainwater that Reija had to avoid.

The only upside, or at least Reija thought, was the nice refreshing smell of an early morning after rain. Lasruay usually smelt like whatever the street vendors were selling or like a blend of the perfumes people were wearing on their nights out.

She walked into the store, simply titled “Vane’s Store” and clocked into her shift. The small shop was nothing out of the ordinary. Shelves lined the walls, holding onto various products that people could browse at their leisure. Frozen products filled the fridges and a broken skyeel toy hung from high up on the wall behind the counter. Vane himself was standing near the register until Reija had walked in.

“Good morning,” she said lazily.

“Morning, Reija,” he replied. He went back into his office since she’d arrived. Reija didn’t know why the man insisted on opening the store so darn early. No one was going to show up for the next hour. And that included Reija’s workmate.

That girl’s always so late.

Vane didn’t really care if one of them was absent. It was when neither of them arrived to work early in the morning that he got annoyed at both of them. Reija had tried asking Arayva to come in early half of the time while she could handle the other half, but the woman was dead set on shirking her responsibilities.

She guessed it was because the job didn’t matter to her as much as it did to Reija, considering she was still living with her parents. Reija set to work on her responsibilities, stocking the shelves, manning the reception when a customer arrived.

Just like all days, she met with a wide variety of faces when she did. All too common were the types of gamblers that Lasruay was famous for creating. Uneven clothing, poor and with an addiction to guessing fate itself.

The Fates did encourage you to guess your own future, but it seemed as though some people had taken the message in the wrong way. She always felt a little bad for these people.

“May the Fates guide you to something better…” she muttered every once in a while, when those sorts came to visit. Hopefully they’d see the error of their ways and find some better way to spend their hard-earned money.

Even Arayva had decided to show up, late as she was. She was as listless as ever when working, placing boxes and cans on the shelf as though the effort strained her every muscle. She wasn’t like this around her friends. The girl positively burst with energy when they came to visit the store and see her. Reija just wished the young girl put a bit more effort into her job instead of relying on her to do so all the time.

Their shift progressed slowly, as it did on most days. Reija sent Arayva into the security room to check the cameras and make sure they were working correctly. The woman came out and flashed her a nervous smile, though she was too busy to notice.

Then, Vane came out of his office and walked up to her.

“Reija, something’s wrong with the camera system. I can’t find yesterday’s files.”

Reija gave a side eye to Arayva, who was busy cleaning a spot on the floor that she had inexplicably missed the last time.

“Fine, I’ll look into it.”

Vane gave her an approving nod and went back to his office. Reija opened the door to the security room and found a few screens set up with the feed from the cameras. Vane had been right to listen to Reija when she had told him to install the system. He was old, but could understand the practicality of them in case someone decided to rob the place.

Reija checked the computer and found that someone had ruined the entire organizational system that she had set in place. It was supposed to save the video feed every few hours, label it and then store it in a folder. But someone had just up and deleted the entire folder!

Reija stopped the program that would save the feed and started work on recreating the folders and setting the parameters for where to save the files again, but was stopped by the sound of the door slamming open once again. She had been working on it for about twenty minutes at that point and was forced to halt her progress.

Vane was standing angrily in the doorway, looking straight at her.

“What happened, boss?” she asked the man.

“Some kid just rifled through the register while you weren’t there. Arayva for some reason didn’t notice while she was cleaning!”

What kind of turn of the Fates is that?!

“Show me the feed from a few moments ago! I can at least give the police a report of what he looked like.”

Oh, come on. Just as she was changing it out? The cameras weren’t technically recording at this point, just transmitting to the screens in the security room.

“We can’t do that, boss.”

“Why not? Didn’t you fix the system?”

“I was in the middle of fixing it, yes.”

“Tsk, why do I even bother with you both,” he cursed and turned to leave. Reija felt useless in the moment. The one time her expertise could come in handy and she failed it. Vane would be calling the police to file a report, so she did what little she could and set up the system once more.

She walked into Vane’s office cautiously to ask the man some things.

“Yes, Reija, what do you want?”

“Can you tell me what the robber looked like. In case he comes back?”

“In case he comes back?”

“Uh…yes?”

Vane let out a sigh and obliged.

“Scrawny kid with a leather jacket and hat. He had on some fancy shoes. I’m too old to chase those kinds down anymore. You should have gotten it working faster.”

“But I couldn-“

“No excuses, Reija. Now go, your shift’s almost over and I’ve got work to take care of.”

Reija felt anger rising in her chest, but she let it drop. It wasn’t Vane’s fault that he was robbed nor was Reija in any position to refute the old man. She stepped outside and found Arayva idling near the aisles like she usually did.

“And what exactly were you doing while someone just robbed us?”

“You wanted me to tackle the guy or something?” Arayva retorted.

“I wanted you to do something. Throw a can at him for all I care.”

“I’ll remember to throw cans next time, Ms. Reija,” she replied mockingly. She walked over to clock out and met with a bunch of leather wearing punks. Reija couldn’t be bothered with the girl, so she just went home.