The adrenaline stayed fueling Rami’s mind that night. From the moment he stepped down from the table after addressing his now employees, he was swarmed with congratulations. These greetings from men who looked half as decent as the crowd that greeted him at Nanji’s residence the night he revealed himself alive at his own funeral, were twice as genuine. They seemed elated and genuinely concerned for his well-being that several of them offered to attack the dungeons and slay all the guards responsible for Rami’s torturous weeks. Rami simply laughed along and made sure to dismiss their offers hoping none of them took it seriously. It was a welcome fitting for a beloved leader.
The tavern, which Rami soon came to understand was only open to Azul’s workers, kept a steady pace of alcohol being served while Rami finally managed to get ahold of Heril, who was described as the keeper of the residence and Azul’s right hand man by a few of the rowdy ones who had grabbed him by the neck to thank him for managing to stay alive.
“Master!” Heril greeted cheerfully and immediately handed a tub full of alcohol his way. Rami deflected and passed it off to Yulhan, who was strictly instructed by Noor to be at Rami’s side at all times (Noor was out to take a piss).
“Master, you must relish in some libations. You have been through much difficult times that you must begin to enjoy yourself,” Heril cried while grabbing ahold of another tub. Rami simply stopped him before Heril could begin to force it down his throat and instead attempted to change the subject.
“Heril, I need your help,” Rami began but Heril only held the tub his way and said, “But first, you must take a sip. I know you refuse to indulge in alcohol or anything remotely pleasurable in life but tonight you must at least taste the mead!”
Rami’s eyes lit up. It was the first time he heard of something relatively tangible about Azul. Something that wasn’t along the lines of ‘Azul is the most ravenous dangerous person to ever grace the earth’.
He looked to Yulhan from the corner of his eye. Yulhan gave no reaction, almost as if he himself was shocked to find Azul did not drink. Seeing Yulhan’s blank face Rami quickly held the tub and titled it to take a mouthful. The acidity of the liquid hit almost immediately, making him gulp harder, forcing it down his throat as the crowd surrounding him caught on to their reluctant leader chugging for the first time and cheered in excitement.
After several hefty pats to his back and another convincing speech from Heril to down the entire tub, Rami successfully managed to avoid a second round and get Heril away from the celebrating crowd and to a much quieter corner right at the foot of the stairs. Yulhan stood guard a few feet in front of them.
“Heril, listen, I must first thank you for getting everybody together,” Rami lied but Heril’s face lighting up made him continue, “I didn’t expect to get everyone back so soon.”
“Well, to be fair, Master, Butcher gave us no choice but to abandon our post. We refused for a good day, quite sure that you would indeed set fire to the dungeons and escape, but he forced us out. I’ve gathered most of the crowd but some have already found work elsewhere. Almost all the men have returned, there are not many places willing to hire former thieves anyway. The servants however I could not gather. All the serving girls have relocated to other households and I only managed to convince one cook to return. We must start looking for serving staff very soon, Master.”
Heril’s info-dump made Rami’s face turn from surprise to sour. He had not realized that living in Azul’s residence meant managing everyone as well.
“Everyone here tonight, all the men, will they be all sleeping here, upstairs, in the rooms?” Rami asked without giving the question much thought.
Heril gave a confused look then replied, “Not all. The lower rankers will relocate to the safe-house down the streets. The others will occupy the two stories. Is–is something bothering you, Master? You don’t seem quite like yourself?”
Heril’s concerned look made Rami smile wide and shake his head intensely.
“Oh! No, no, not at all…Although I must ask…” Rami took his chances, “...since you mentioned that I’m not quite myself, what–what am I usually like?”
Silence followed as Heril tilted his head in fascination. Rami thought he had done it then, given up his position, but seeing how Heril followed his silence with a light chuckle Rami felt a touch of relief.
“Well, you do appear quite stoic most of the time. But as I am usually by your side, I must say, you do have your moments where you do get overcome with anger. But that is mostly if something were to go awry and never quite directed aimlessly.”
“Right,” Rami nodded, taking notes in his head to appear as nonchalant and stoic as possible. His earlier speech to his men may have been a little too emotional now that he thought about it.
“But I must say, Master. For a person with so few words you do have a commanding presence. A hush silence follows whenever you entire a room. Pairs of fascinated and jealous eyes follow you wherever you go. And that is not only because of how good you are at your job, but because you will let anyone who gets in the way feel your wrath.
And yet you are kind to your people, I would say even loyal to your people. That is precisely why I decided to be your right hand man. After Lord Burham cast me out of his manor I was homeless and in the streets, sleeping with rodents. If it was not for you lending me a hand that night and giving me the choice to repay you by coin or labor, I would have never joined the Circle. I joined so for you, to serve you, for your kindness towards me.”
Heril’s grateful eyes found Rami’s. It seemed Heril had much more to say. Yet only a gentle bow followed and Heril soon left Rami to process his words. The dichotomy of Azul was beginning to unravel as Rami reflected the respect Azul’s workers had for him. What was so different that his men seemed to embrace him with open arms, lay their lives for him, but out there in the city, the Ravenous was so feared?
Questions began to toil in Rami’s head as he stared into the celebrations still carrying on in the name of him having defeated death.
#
That night Rami tossed and turned as insomnia found him. He had somehow ended up in the attic and had relatively sobered up. He cracked open the window in an attempt to make the chilly breeze lull him to sleep. And despite the cold temperatures or the heavy day he had had, he was wide awake.
The adrenaline…
He thought to himself looking at the bare boned ceiling colored by the monochrome light of the moon. His mind was dead set that he had traveled to the past. Everything screamed so. The horses, the buildings, the people and the medieval ways of life only made it seem so. He wondered which year he had traveled to. He wondered if he would ever travel back to his present time. He wished so desperately for it for it was no longer a silly dream, or nightmare he would simply wake up from. And if he just knew how to get back home, he would have already. It seemed he had to fight for it, fight to get back home to his mother.
Rami quickly got bored toiling away in his thoughts and decided to get out of his room for a moment. He was starting to make his way down the stairs, with the floorboards creaking with every step he took, when he suddenly heard whispers coming from a room close by.
“There’s nothing else we can do, Yul. We must not intervene,” the sharp whisper of a familiar voice was heard. It was Noor with his shadow moving in and out of a door cracked open with a candle flickering inside.
Rami naturally tip-toed closer to the door, planting an ear so carefully to a conversation not meant for him.
“Was it not the plan to have him hidden in the attic until the raid? This is the complete opposite of it! If his men are back, he needs to go back to work. We must do something about it.”
“Well, if you hadn’t noticed, nothing really goes according to our plan, now does it? I thought you would be more optimistic, take it as a challenge,” Noor retaliated.
Rami peeked through the crack of the door to see Noor crossing his arms and looking out a dingy window. Yulhan's silhouette passed by making Rami duck fast.
“This is not going to last long, Noor,” Yulhan pressed on, “He’s not the Azul they know. And if he gets found out it would end very poorly for all of us!”
“It didn’t turn out so bad today, now did it? He spoke to his people and they welcomed him with open arms.”
“And how long do you think that would last? He will get found out sooner or later.”
Noor smirked looking into Yulhan's concerned eyes, “So what? You don’t actually think we would be around to witness that happening, do you?”
Yulhan titled his head in disbelief, “Well, we can’t just leave him–”
“We can,” Noor cut him off.
“Not with what the Commander has planned for us,” Yulhan pressed on, “She will not let us escape her. She will find us.”
“She only cares about Azul. She couldn’t care less if his spies abandoned him.”
Yulhan paused, taking a step back looking at Noor in disbelief of the words he had uttered. But he wasn’t the only one taken aback. Noor too was surprised to see Yulhan express such distaste for he did not think Yulhan truly cared about Rami and his situation. Noor realized then that Yulhan’s attachment to Rami was deeper than he had imagined.
“I know you tend to be soft towards people going through a rough time–”
Yulhan sighed loudly, cutting Noor off, “He’s not just anyone, Noor. This is Azul, our friend Azul. He’s going through possibly the most dangerous time of his life and you suggest we leave him now?”
“And you think he would do the same for you if he was the real Azul? The one that ran away from the village, the one that has committed all these heinous crimes to climb his way up to the top of the world? The one that I have no doubt would leave us in the dark if it ever came up to that? I am not going to put the chances of our survival in the hands of such a person,” Noor bit back.
Yulhan scoffed, “Oh don’t you paint yourself to be a saint, now—“
“It was you who suggested we break him out of the dungeons in return for coins. You are not the saint you paint yourself to be either. This was all your idea!”
“And you agreed! No, you insisted you come!” Yulhan spat back harshly, “It was as much your decision as it was mine. Do not put that on just me!”
“Fine, I’ll gladly take part of the blame if it means you shut up. We are done with this conversation. We will find a way to leave before they find out the truth. Do you understand?”
Rami watched as Noor waited with the shadow of his chest moving up and down brimming with anger waiting for Yulhan to agree to it. But as time passed and silence grew, Noor had no choice but to whisper back,
“The village needs us more than Azul does. He has everything he needs here. We need to go home. We need to take care of our home first.”
“And what if Azul does not give us the coins we need?” Yulhan asked back, “Do we continue to stay?”
Noor shook his head, “No, we leave empty handed.”
A creak on the floor board startled Rami’s being magically revitalizing his body to make a swift action and find himself running up the stairs and back into his attic. He held his door in motion as he silently let it close while listening to Noor’s heavy feet stomp out onto the hallway to catch any eavesdroppers. Rami listened as the shuffling outside died down with his back to the door and his knees to his chin.
The conversation between his saviors had startled him. But Rami did know it would eventually come to this. Noor had initially promised to take Rami back home, and now it was time for his end of the bargain to be kept. He had to pay them. But seeing how the two most trusted souls in this new reality were having to leave him behind, Rami felt a familiar feeling of bitterness fill his body.
The emotion evoked memories from his past he hadn’t realized were buried deep within. Especially the times when he thought he would be forever playing catch in the backyard with his father whenever he got off of work and came home excited to spend time with little Rami.
And to think that one of those days was the last that he would ever see his father in the flesh was jarring to say the least. His father’s untimely passing left a trail of bitterness. The bitterness grew larger like a blob of ink spreading through the veins of paper clinging on to him while it dried leaving its touch forever. Even his mother’s sweet smile faded overtime as the days grew lonelier and nights were often filled with muffled sobs. And as time passed, grief blended in with life as if it had always been a part of life to begin with. With that Rami had somehow convinced himself that he was perhaps a beacon of despair turning the happiest of attachments to empty hollow remnants. He could never really form a genuine relationship with anyone. He felt himself to be so hollow that eventually anyone drawing closer to him would flee seeing his emptiness radiate from within.
And here it was repeating once more. He wondered for a moment if he should hold onto them, beg them to stay. Or if he should let them go, free themselves from the walking hollow shell he seemed to be.
#
Rami’s lips quivered. He did not know the answer to the question, how could he have?
His eyes scanned the paper once more as the foreign letters became words and the words formed the sentences. And for a reason beyond his comprehension he began to understand the sentences like he was merely reading in his own language back in his reality.
“Right, the money,” he whispered to himself, taking a quick glance at Heril standing in front, hands clasped together like an obedient dog waiting for his master to throw him a treat. Rami squirmed in his seat uncomfortably regretting having opened the attic door this morning not knowing it was Heril behind the door. He had let Heril in and taken a quick seat so casually at Azul’s table overflowing with paperwork to keep up with his act. The act soon fell apart when Heril dropped a foot worth of paperwork at Rami’s lap asking him to look them over as soon as possible.
Rami glanced at Heril once more. He had already asked Heril twice of what the documents were and Heril had diligently explained. Yet Rami could not make heads or tails of it.
“Right, so again, from the top, Heril,” Rami started hoping to not give it away, “What is this?” His fingers grabbed the first piece of paper at the top of the stack.
Heril smiled, breathing deeply as if he was beginning to hold a massive dump from leaving his body.
“As I explained earlier, Master, that is the pay for the household staff from two weeks ago. Nobody got paid from the moment you were captured, including the staff.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Ah! Right!”
Rami lifted his quill, dipping it gently in the ink tub next to him, half unsure of how to use it properly. His eyes quickly spotted a document that had been left previously on Azul’s desk that had a soft scribe at the bottom with a few twirls and a sharp line crossing it all. Rami’s fingers grasped the quill so tight that his poor attempt at copying Azul’s signature left the paper blotting in ink and almost torn with how tightly he had pressed on to it. The signature itself was a disgraceful rendition of Azul’s perfect light strokes.
Heril stared at the sign for a moment in shock, his mouth gaping in almost disgust, before he snapped out of it and looked to Rami.
“Are you well, Master? You don’t seem like yourself,” he asked as his eyebrows curved in worry.
Rami jumped on it, “Ah yes! Well, I am a little unwell. It’s been quite taxing on the body, you know, being in the dungeons and all.”
Rami hoped he sounded stoic and convincing but Heril only looked more confused as time passed on.
A swift knock on the door saved the day, according to Rami. The awkwardness dissipated and soon Rami was welcoming a much younger lad, barely fifteen in age, through his doors all giddy and ecstatic to meet Rami.
“I cannot believe it, Master! You are truly back!” The boy jumped up and down in joy to which Rami simply chuckled along and dad-patted the boy’s back as if he was some sage mentor hailed by his pupils.
“Ah yes, of course,” Rami attempted to mumble something, wondering how often he would have to keep answering his door to his own workers visiting him one by one for the entire day. The plan was to have him in the attic for the next few days till the raid to the garrison. But here he was stammering his way through conversations.
“Master, I believed in you, truly! I knew you’d be back although it was much much longer than the last ones, you know,” the boy kept the conversation going in high spirits while Rami nodded, giving an occasional laugh heading back to his seat. A beat passed before he stared at both Heril and the boy staring back at him.
“Right, yes. Um…why–why are you here…boy?”
Rami immediately regretted his question. The baffled look on their faces screamed that he had messed up again. Both Heril and the boy looked at each other in equal confusion before looking back at Rami.
“This is Mihir, Master Ascari. Your left-hand man,” Heril said.
What?...There’s something called a left hand man?...
He thought as his mouth curved to an uncomfortable smile, “Is–is there a right-foot man too, then?”
Rami’s words had slipped through his lips like water, making the room fall silent. Then suddenly Heril roared into laughter.
“If you require one, Master. We can surely get you a right-foot man as well,” Heril snorted. Rami sighed in relief seeing Heril only took his mistake as a joke.
But it wasn’t until after they returned to the paper stack at Azul’s desk did Rami finally begin to understand that Mihir was also an assistant to Azul, except Mihir was merely second to Heril. Observing Heril’s old age, Rami began to wonder how a young boy like Mihir would have gotten involved in a crime organization so early in his life. Yet remembering how Azul was only twelve when he joined the Circle, Rami wondered if Mihir was merely marinating at work ready to take over the crime syndicate when he would finally be of age.
The paperwork was mostly signatures to approve pay for the staff and workers. Rami was partially thankful for it for he was beginning to connect the dots that would eventually help him understand the entire organization under Azul. He was approving pay for thieves, pickpockets, debt-collectors, tax-collectors, smugglers, embezzlers, and bribers. By the time Rami was realizing the extent of corruption by just how many workers were being employed under the coin-master, his head was beginning to throb of pain as the heaviness of it all was beginning to settle in.
“Oh yes, and we have not reported the revenue from the coin-division since you were captured, Master. I suppose Butcher will ask for the accounts soon,” Heril said while clearing the desk. Rami nodded thinking that was the end of it yet Heril carried on, “We also have to pay a few lenders. They have been growing anxious. We had a few of them visit while you were away.”
“Lenders?” Rami whispered in confusion as to why an organization that seemed to be extorting everyone around needed lenders.
“How–how much is it? The money we owe?” Rami asked almost rhetorically hoping Heril would brush it off when suddenly Heril pulled out another stack of papers and dumped it on the desk.
Rami’s eyes bulged seeing the numbers increasing exponentially.
“Three thousand–”
“And fifty Korins, Master,” Heril was quick.
“How much is that in Dollars?”
Rami should not have let his mind slip again. He was well aware the currency being used in Keimitaan was not the same as the one he was used to. He let it slip again simply because he only wanted to know the true effect of how much three thousand and fifty Korins truly was, given that the numbers he had seen so far were only double digits.
But he should not have said it so casually for Heril immediately retorted,
“I beg your pardon? Dolla–”
“Sorry, ignore that. Just wanting to know the price,” Rami managed to coolly brush it off, mumbling some words he thought did not need to really make sense.
“Price?! Oh, I–I did not think…but if you must know, Master, I can ask–”
Rami waved Heril off going back to the papers. He thought it was resolved when suddenly both Heril and Mihir excused themselves leaving Rami alone in his room. Rami wondered if he had perhaps said something wrong. He wanted to go after them yet seeing the empty room and feeling the peacefulness of nobody nagging at his ear he thought it was for the best.
He was merely beginning to enjoy the silence when the door suddenly thrashed opened, spooking the daylights out of him.
There stood an older woman of small stature in a distinct bright purple dress and a fan at her fingertips. The fan immediately folded shut, whipping the air around it. With force she lifted her hand up and threw the fan aimed square at Rami’s forehead. Rami’s eyes bulged and his body froze in place ready to take the violent hit when a hand reached out and slapped the fan to the wall.
“How dare you throw your belongings at Azul?!”
It was Noor’s deep voice threateningly questioning the woman. But she wasn’t afraid in the least. She stepped up as her eyes raged of fire and her hand raised to silence Noor at once.
“Wh–where did you come from?” Rami stuttered, not expecting Noor to appear beside him. Noor simply glanced at Rami, eyeing him to shut up.
The lady’s heels clanked, snapping Rami back to her enraged face. Her red lips smacked before pointing a finger at Rami as she spoke in rage.
“After all these years, Ravenous, you’ve finally given in? And that too, you chose me? I never quite took you as a person to take such pleasures but today you ask for my price? My price out of anyone you could have?!”
Rami’s eyes wandered to Noor, frightened. Noor sighed in disbelief before turning to him to whisper, “She’s the head of the gaming house.”
“What’s a gaming house?”
“The house next door, ‘The Tigress’,” Noor whispered harshly.
Rami remembered then seeing her with her fan to her face last evening urging Nanji Kaalu’s son to go home. Quickly snapping back Rami asked,
“Right, yes, what is it that you need?”
A beat passed as the crowd fell silent before Heril innocently chimed in, “You asked for her, Master. You asked for Dolla or more precisely for Dolla’s price.”
“No no, I asked…” Rami paused, realizing the Dollar as he knew it was not a currency the civilians of Keimitaan would know and that instead Heril and Mihir had mistaken his question for a person. More specifically, a woman.
“Yes, Master Ascari. You had asked for me and my price…I am assuming it was my price for a night. Or is it my price entirely so you could buy me fully?”
The lady stepped towards his desk furiously before placing her palms on the scattered paperwork and staring into his eyes.
“I may have started out as a girl in a brothel in my early years but since then I have managed to climb ladders no man or woman would ever dare to. And after all those years of torture I have managed to make myself the head of the most prestigious gaming house in all of the Southern Kingdom. And just because we work under the same overlord, in the same syndicate, none of you ever get to step over the line and ask for my price! I’ve had very few men think I am still open to making them warm in bed and those men often found themselves with less fingers attached to their bodies. I do not tolerate such words for it will begin with you and then your peers and then your underlings. I will not ever tolerate this kind of behavior, do you understand?!” Her palms lifted and thrashed on the table, sending Rami jolting behind the desk.
He quickly recaptured his posture to nod furiously in reply.
Stoic and convincing…stoic and convincing…
Rami repeated to himself as his back straightened and his head tilted towards her.
“My–my apologies, Dolla. I–I believe my workers only misunderstood me,” Rami started and stammered his way through the sentence, “Please, do believe me when I say I–I did not step over the line, truly.”
Rami paused, glancing over at Noor as assurance he did well. But Noor was only looking at Dolla, who remained fuming.
“You expect me to believe that, Master Ascari? Do you truly think that I failed to spot your spy in my kitchen this morning…spying on me?!”
Dolla’s voice reached new heights as Rami began to sweat in fear.
“Wh–what spy?” Rami’s lips quivered in shock.
Dolla turned back to hiss, “Come in, boy! Show yourself.”
Heril and Mihir had made way for a crouching shameful Yulhan to step up. A light layer of white powder lingered on his left cheek. His eyes remained low and his hands clasped and rubbed as if he was beginning to plead in silence.
“Yu–” Noor had stopped himself before looking at Rami and whispering, “He wasn’t at his bed this morning. I was only coming to your room now to ask if you had seen him.”
“What do you have to say for yourself, Ascari?” Dolla pressed on to which Yulhan immediately threw his hands in front to answer.
“Please forgive me! I was only in your kitchen to get some breakfast. You see, I was too hungry this morning and could no longer bear it. They said there’d be food at ‘The Tigress’ I was only there to–to…” Yulhan dipped his head lower.
“...To steal food?” Dolla asked back to which Yulhan nodded in shame. But Dolla only shook her head and spat back at Rami, “And he says he was there to steal food but I know he was there to spy on me!”
“How would you know that? He–he says he was there for food?” Rami bit back to which Dolla stepped up, “But he is your spy…your rumored spy that assisted you in escaping the dungeons. Why would such a talented spy steal food from me other than it be a cover to truly spy on me?”
“Well then, if you think he’s so talented why did he get caught by you?”
Rami’s retort had everyone on a hold. Even Dolla considered it for a moment before she snapped back, “I am not a fool, Master–”
“You certainly sound so,” Noor’s off handed whisper fell on everyone’s ears.
“Please, le–let me make it up to you. I was only stealing and I will pay for my punishments. Master Ascari had nothing to do with this. It was my fault.”
Yulhan’s nervous pleas fell on deaf ears as Dolla stared down Noor for his previous comment.
Not wanting Dolla to possibly punch Noor in the face and start a fist fight, Rami finally gave in and said,
“It was a misunderstanding. I was not spying on you or asking for your price. Please, forgive us for our mistakes.”
“It is not enough. You must pay for your mistakes,” Dolla replied finally.
Rami’s fingers reached his forehead in an attempt to relieve the stress building in his head before looking to Dolla, “Alright, name your price–or whatever is it that you want.”
“I want four girls out of the serving staff you will be hiring soon. And one cook. I want them employed and paid by you…”
“That’s not how it is done–” Heril started only to get cut off by Dolla’s sharp voice.
“...I am currently understaffed, you see, and we have no way of negotiating to increase our provisions. Butcher is not one to budge. If you can get me the additional staff I require, all of this will be forgotten.”
Rami’s eyes wandered to Heril who was stammering away, “We–we ourselves are merely beginning to hire additional staff. It will be difficult–”
“This is what I need, Master Ascari. Are you willing to accept the terms before I start to cut off your favorite finger? I have to make an example of anyone who dares to play with me…and steal from my kitchen.”
Rami felt the heavy stare of everyone on his skin. He thought for a moment although he was not really sure what he should be thinking. He finally nodded in acceptance and replied, “You have my word.”
A wide smile crossed Dolla’s red lips complimenting her tan skin as she nodded back in pride and said, “Well then, that’s done! Glad to have you back, Master Ascari.”
A swift nod from Dolla and her confident smile made it seem as if she was merely playing a part to get Rami to hire people for her. He thought he caught a glimpse of her cunning smile as she looked to Yulhan in softness rather than in contempt for stealing from her kitchen as if he was the perfect scapegoat she wished to use regardless of if Rami had asked for her price or not. It was as if she had planned it all morning waiting for the perfect time to make her demands.
“And that goes without saying I myself will be choosing the staff for this round of hires,” Dolla added to which Rami only nodded in approval.
Heril had raised his arm in question, gaining Rami’s attention as if a school boy asking a question from a rude teacher, “Since we are on the topic of staff, Master, who–who are these two men? We noticed they arrived with you last night. Are they truly the spies that helped you escape?”
Rami gulped as his eyes bounced between Yulhan and Noor. He did not know what to say. They never went over it.
“Oh! Well, yes, they are the spies I hired for–for emergencies.”
A beat passed before Heril asked again, “And you hired them as your private spies? Out of the Circle I heard?”
“Yes yes, of course. Needed some spies with no ties to the circle for something. Which came in handy eventually!”
But Rami’s answer only made Dolla scoff and Heril give an uncomfortable smile. It was as if Rami was giving all the wrong reasons.
“S–should I add them to the staff list then, Master? Get them paid for their work?”
Heril’s question alerted Rami in a different way. It was as if Noor and Yulhan were finally getting closer to being released from the bargain they had struck to deliver Rami to his home. Rami feared that adding them to the list of people to pay would merely have them collecting their money and disappearing one night without a word. He worried if he was enabling it, making it so that he would be abandoned by the only two people that seemed to be on his side.
The silence from Rami had slowly caused a wrinkle to appear on Noor’s forehead. Yulhan stayed with high hopes looking to Rami who quickly cleared his throat not dragging it on any longer.
“Of course, Heril. Let’s do that.”
“I must warn you, it might take a few weeks for the payment to arrive…” Heril immediately followed up speaking to Noor and Yulhan, “...Since we need to get the others paid out first.”
Heril spoke with a smile to which Yulhan smiled back but Noor only held his rigidness as if he was displeased with how things were being discussed. Rami noticed Noor’s indifference and spoke out, “But we’ll get to it as soon as possible, right, Heril?”
Heril nodded vigorously but that did not seem to satisfy Noor in the slightest.
“On that note, what are your names, so I can have it down correctly?” Heril asked innocently.
Rami held his breath as Heril looked to both Noor and Yulhan in question. He wasn’t sure if telling their names was a good idea or not. They had already given fake names to Dolovan and they had already tripped up several times in trying to keep up with the fake names. Rami waited for their replies only to suddenly find the two of them stare back at him in equal dumbfoundedness.
“Ah!...” Rami suddenly spoke up, “...Since you talked about it earlier, Heril, let’s go with right-foot man and left-foot man!”
Rami pointed to Noor and then Yulhan, proud of himself for coming up with it on the spot. Heril’s mouth stayed agape for a moment before Mihir chimed in with a delightful smile, “Excellent choice, Master. While we are your hand-men they are your foot-men.”
Rami chuckled along with Mihir quite loudly watching Yulhan get influenced to join them in laughing. Noor only continued his nonchalant appearance but his brows lifted so high told otherwise. Rami ignored the cogs turning, perhaps on overdrive, in Noor’s brain, thinking to himself that perhaps if there were any doubts Noor would eventually come to him.
The prolonged silence from Dolla made everyone eventually look at her in curiosity. She remained arms crossed and chin titled observing Rami.
“Is there something wrong?” Rami merely asked, feeling her unwarranted gaze edge discomfort.
“Not at all. It’s only that something is different about you, Ascari.”
“That’s Master Ascari to you,” Heril corrected her instantly.
“Hush now! I have been employed under the Circle for far longer than you lot!”
“It’s alright, Heril. I don’t mind,” Rami tried calming the situation. Heril quietened to his corner once more as Rami stepped towards Dolla picking up her fallen fan with a slender symbol of a dagger etched at the top corner.
He smiled ever so slightly hoping not to over-do it, then placed the fan on his hand for her to pick up.
“I hope our encounters from here on are much…pleasant,” Rami said, trying for his sentence structure to not sound so loose as Noor had told him multiple times already.
“Of course, Master. That also depends on how you and your underlings behave,” Dolla smiled back, picking her fan and giving a slight bow.
“I will have Mihir walk you back,” Rami pushed through.
Dolla accepted his kind gesture slightly baffled by it. She turned to follow the boy only to look back at Rami in amusement and reply in yet a pointed but gentle tone,
“Perhaps the dungeons do change men after all.”