"Hello?"

"I have your child- that came out wrong," Elliot said, cringing as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Who is this?" the woman nervously asked.

"Elliot. Uhm, Craig. Elliot Craig. Sorry, I meant to say I found your daughter and it came out… Sorry."

"You have her?"

"Yes, we're at your house." Elliot thought about saying more but decided against risking further embarrassment.

The voice on the other end heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God. I'll be right there. Please, stay with her."

"Of course," Elliot said, ignoring the protesting of his stomach. "Uhm, would you like to talk to her?" He didn't wait for the reply before holding his ARCUS out to the little blonde girl sitting next to him on the porch and playing with a grey kitten. She looked at the device and pouted.

"Mama says I'm not supposed to take things from strangers."

"Amelia," Elliot faintly heard from the ARCUS speaker. He would recognize that parental 'I-love-you-but-come-on' tone anywhere, even with it buried under a mountain of relief.

"Mama?"

"You can take it this time, baby. But only this one time, understand?"

"Okay." The girl took Elliot's ARCUS and pressed it to her ear, stopping him from hearing the rest of her mother's words.

The thought of listening in on such a personal conversation, even just half of it, made Elliot feel awkward. He busied himself looking around the porch. On second thought, it wasn't really a porch, more of a stoop. Well, sort of. It seemed like he was in that awkward gray zone where houses weren't sure if they were close enough to the heart of a town to be cramped or far enough away to spread their metaphorical legs.

...Well, that was all he had for interesting observations. He turned his attention to the note of the door, pretending he could glean some knowledge from it like in the detective stories. It was a simple note, just saying the house's resident was out looking for her daughter along with a number to call if someone had found her. Maybe it had been rushed or maybe the mother just had sloppy hand-writing. Or maybe both.

After the fourth read-through Elliot realized what this felt like. It was like having breakfast cereal before he had an ARCUS, how he'd read the back of the box over and over again until he was finally done eating.

The thought of cereal made his stomach clench again. Maybe he should have reserved some of the tuna fish he had used to help find the kitten. Nah, he wasn't that hungry.

It had been fun, helping the little girl find her pet, almost like the good old days at Thors. Good thing Sara wasn't here to see him now, she'd definitely tease him for leaving all his travel snacks in his hotel room. She always emphasized keeping a morsel or two on you at all times, you never know when you'd get side-tracked.

Elliot certainly hadn't expected to get distracted from returning to his hotel after a morning spent teaching children the most basic basics of music by an even smaller child shouting about cookies.

If someone had asked him what type of thing he was hungry for, cookies wouldn't have been on that list. But, now the possibility had been brought up, it was certainly tantalizing. And there were worse ways to spend money than giving it to, what he imagined was, a kid running a cookie stand. It reminded him of his own childhood, selling lemonade or brownies in front of the house. Well, not him personally. Or anyone he knew. Or had ever met. But it happened a lot in newspaper comics! That meant it had to have happened somewhere, sometime, somehow, to someone. Probably.

Not this time though. This wasn't a young entrepreneur, just a little lady with a missing, deceptively named cat. The name did make it make more sense why she was yelling "Cookie!" and not "Cookies!"

Faint disappointment aside, Elliot couldn't just leave without helping her. Thankfully a nearby bodega had canned tuna they could use as a lure.

It was a cute little kitty, insistence on trying to eat Elliot's fingers aside. He noticed it purr into the microphone when Amelia held his ARCUS up to its ear.

He should probably stop thinking of the cat as an 'it', it felt rude. Would the cat care about him being rude? Celine certainly didn't mind much, but Elliot knew he shouldn't just generalize from a single example. Thinking like that was why he had made the personal mistake of avoiding blues for so long.

Cookie looked at him and Elliot realized he had been staring. He sheepishly smiled an apology and turned his gaze away.

He'd never tell Fiona this but Sharon made the absolute best cookies. Elliot had tried replicating the recipe once, for valentine's day. They were supposed to be given to someone special but he chickened out at the last moment and ended up giving one to everyone in the dorm. At least he knew Fie'd liked them; she was never the type to lie to spare someone's feelings.

A car pulled up to the curb in front of the house and a woman burst out of it. She ran to them and lifted her daughter into a hug with such force that Cookie sprang out of Amelia's arms to cower behind Elliot's legs.

"Don't ever do that again!" The woman said, trying to sound stern through her relief.

"I was just following Cookie," Amelia mumbled as she wriggled in her mom's grasp, making her put her down.

Cookie responded with a lazy blink and defiant paw-lick, eliciting a sigh from the woman. She turned her attention to Elliot. "Thank you, thank you so so much for finding her, we were so worried about her! Oh, where are my manners, I'm Iris," she said, shaking his hand.

"Elliot," Elliot said, followed by an internal groan when he realized he had already introduced himself. "It's nothing, really, I'm just glad she's okay."

"Really, I can't thank you enough. I don't know what I would do without her."

"Well…" Elliot drew out the syllable, trying to think of something to say as he crouched to pick up his violin case. "I'm glad you don't have to figure it out?" Being thanked was hard, how did Rean make it look so easy?

Iris laughed, taking Elliot's awkward reply as a clever joke and making him feel better about himself.

"I should be going," he said, reaching out for Amelia to hand him back his ARCUS. The little girl narrowed her eyes at him and protectively clutched the device to her chest.

Iris saw this. "Amelia, give the nice man back his orbment."

"But you said I could take it," Amelia protested.

"Amelia," Iris groaned, one hand clutching her forehead in such a way that still allowed her to lock eyes with her daughter.

Amelia pouted but returned Elliot's property.

"Thank you," said Elliot. The motion of putting away his ARCUS drew a rumble from his stomach. "Sorry," he sheepishly apologized. "I've had a busy day." There wasn't any time for a meal between his morning concert and setting up the noon tutorial in the local library.

"How about you join us for lunch?" Iris offered. "I was in the middle of making it when I realized this one had run off."

"Nuh-uh, Cookie ran!" Amelia insisted.

"Correction; these two."

"No, I couldn't impose on you like that," Elliot said.

"Oh it's no imposition at all," Iris said, dismissing his worries with a flap of her hand. "In fact, I insist. Besides, I'm not the only one who'll want to say thank you."

It wasn't until she finished speaking that Elliot realized he had been herded through the front door and was taking off his shoes.


The past week, Fie felt like she was trapped in a maze. No, that wasn't fair to mazes, those at least gave you the brief illusion of progress, let you go down a few halls before you hit a dead end. Fie had no halls, only walls. Walls between her and the Ignacio Family.

The Ignacio's were notorious. They didn't control a lot of Erebonia but what they had was arguably the most important part; the coastline from the lower bend of the Izellia river down to the Malva peninsula. Roughly eighty percent of Erebonia's seaports in total, along with the best routes for getting goods from the other ports past Erebonia's mountain ranges. The illegal activity alone that relied on those ports and those routes was mind-boggling, billions of mira in business, and if you didn't want to deal with the authorities you had to go through the Ignacios. If the rest of the criminal underworld were to ever catch a sniff of them losing their hold, it would be a mad, bloody dash to take their place.

Fie was here to stop that before it ever began.

Over the last month, a Bracer informant in the Red Snow gang had been reporting that something was up with the Ignacio Family leadership. They had no idea what but whatever it was was making things so tenuous that the other gangs were taking notice and serious rumblings were stirring about all of them wanting to start pushing in on their territory.

Fie had questioned why the information had come from a Red Snow member and not an Ignacio, and the answer was simple. There were no Bracer informants in the Ignacios. In fact, there were no Bracer informants of any kind in that entire region. The Ignacios handled everything; they protected the people and in exchange the people gave them their money and loyalty. The guild had tried to establish a base here before, way back before the bannings, but it lasted less than a year. It failed, not due to any intimidation or aggression, but because the people saw no reason to bring the guild their problems.

Sara had tried to talk her out of taking the job, Toval had offered to switch missions with her, and both had warned her. Even for Erebonia, a place where Bracers could barely ply their trade, this region was known as no-man's land.

Fie paid them no mind. Not her mentors, not the history, not the utter lack of intel, nothing could stop the confidence of youth as it took her from Saint Arkh to the Malva Coast. She'd thought that she would have everything wrapped up within a day, maybe two. How foolish she had been.

All she had was a town, some pictures, and a goal. The leadership lived in Aibynnaere, a mid-sized city on the intersection of the two main roads going up and down the coast and the road leading to the rest of the country. She was to find the leaders, figure out what was wrong, and fix it as fast as possible before a multi-gang war broke out.

Fie had expected it to be hard. She had expected it to be frustrating. She hadn't expected it to be both, all at once, right away.

No one would tell her anything. Civilians, gangsters, law enforcement, all tight-lipped as soon as she even hinted the conversation in the direction of finding the Ignacios. The only break she got was a rumor that at night a local furniture shop turned into a "tax-free" bar. She went into the store during the day and hid her ARCUS in a bathroom vent, setting it to record audio during the night until it could be retrieved the next morning. She spent the entire day listening to that audio, having it going in one ear as she struggled to find any other possible leads.

Near the end of the audio, she finally got a break.

"Yeah, pick me up at Thirty-Fourth and Moore."

"Nah, it's Sunday so the boss is giving us a brunch break after his meetings, I got four hours to kill."

"How about Cherone's? You've gotta try their frittata."

"No it is not just a big omelette!"

And then the door closed.

It wasn't much, but even a whisper of an echo on the wind was more than anything else Fie had. Sunday, long before daybreak, she climbed to the top of the tallest building on the corner of Thirty-Fourth and Moore with a pair of binoculars and watched, looking for anything that looked like a criminal overlord leaving his underlings. She knew it was likely nothing, knew that odds were good that the guy would go to this intersection after his boss had already let him go on break, knew that even if he hadn't then she might not be able to pick them out, knew she might miss them if she blinked or turned away.

But she waited.

And waited.

Ten twenty-nine AM. A man with a long orange scarf and black hat came out of what looked like a normal orbal car charging station, flanked by three toughs in hoodies. The toughs looked around, checking for danger in a way Fie knew like the back of her hand. The man said something, his head turned just enough in the other direction to keep Fie from reading his lips.

The rough looking guys dispersed. One got into a waiting car. The others went their separate directions. The man took off his hat and Fie's lips quirked up. He was a near-exact match for one of her photos.

Fie stood up and stretched her legs, watching him go to a car parked near the sidewalk. She memorized it and took a photo using the small orbal camera in her binoculars.

All these walls and finally, a door. It was time to chase.

That was two and a half hours ago. One-hundred and fifty-six minutes to be exact. One-hundred and fifty-six minutes of chasing after a moving car as it drove through the city, never stopping. She checked the interior every twenty minutes or so to make sure she hadn't missed something. No, the man was always in there.

It took until twelve thirty-three for something interesting to happen. He had gotten a call and suddenly looked like a man with a purpose. Instead of driving aimlessly, he made a beeline for the residential districts. Once there Fie had to follow him going up one street as far as possible, turning, going a single block, turning again, and then following that street as far as possible. It would have been difficult if not for the strange pace he kept. Sometimes gunning it to the point Fie's heart nearly burst sprinting after him, sometimes moving at such a crawl that she had to slow down her normal walking speed to not overtake him. That lasted for eighteen minutes, eighteen minutes following a car do the most bizarre serpentine she had ever seen.

Then, he got another call. Fie saw him sigh and smile. He drove normally again, and she followed.

They went to a house with an awkward porch. He parked in the driveway and opened the front door with a key. The curtains were drawn, stopping Fie from seeing inside the front windows. Thinking quickly, she ran to the house next to it, using her grappling hook to clamber up the walls and situate herself on the steeply-slanted roof.

She removed the hook from the wire and screwed on a tiny camera. Fie walked along the edge of the roof facing the house the man had gone into, lowering and raising the camera to photograph every square foot of the exterior. Each picture was transmitted to her ARCUS. Wall. Wall. Wall. Wall. Window with a curtain in front of it. Wall. Wall. Wall. Empty bedroom. Wall. Wall. Wall. People!

While one hand fixed the camera in place, Fie looked at the people.

The man she was following.

A woman that seemed to be around his age.

A little girl.

...What the fuck?


Elliot's ARCUS dinged, making him nearly drop his fork. "Sorry!"

"It's alright," said Iris.

"It's normally set to vibrate, I'm so sorry, I should have checked," he said as he awkwardly dug into his pocket.

"It's okay," said the man Amelia had referred to as 'Andy'. "Amy probably turned the notifications on by accident. She likes pressing buttons."

Amelia was too busy teasing Cookie with a piece of sausage to defend herself.

Elliot fished out the machine just in time for it to ding again, even louder now that it was not stifled by the dampening power of corduroy. His mouth opened up, ready to apologize once more, only to be distracted by the message notification hovering at the top of the screen.

From Fie: 'hes dangerous'

The message was visible just long enough for Elliot to read it and did nothing to calm his embarrassed nerves. Usually dexterous fingers fumbled as he tried to change the notification settings, making a normally half-second long process last at least three, his blush deepening with each tick of the clock. He finally managed to switch the damn thing to vibrate, just in time for a third message to come in.

From Fie: 'dont agree to anything'

Elliot knew if he didn't check that first message right now, he would not be able to stop thinking about it until he did.

From Fie: 'be careful'

Confusion. Concern. Not pleasant feelings by any stretch but ones Elliot was much better at handling than awkwardness.

"Something wrong?" asked Andy.

Elliot shook his head. He might not know what is going on, but he trusted Fie. If she needed anything from him, she would have said so. "No, thank you." He returned the ARCUS to his pocket. "Sorry for the interruption."

Andy waved his hand dismissively. "Shit happens. I'm sure you're well aware of that, being on tour and all."

Elliot leaned back, stunned. "I- Yeah. How did you know?"

"I saw the crest on your violin case in front of the closet. The academy in Heimdallr gives those out for graduation, right? Never seen one that new before. This your first tour?"

Elliot blinked. "Wow. Yeah, it is. Well, I wouldn't really call it a tour," he said, shyly scratching his cheek. "Just traveling around, getting work where I can get it."

"Morning shows, community classes, anything to get your name out there and some food in your belly, huh? And I'm willing to bet most of it's not this good," Andy said, gesturing at the plates of decadent potatoes, pasta, and sausage in the center of the table.

"Ferdinand!" Iris sharply said.

"It's alright. He's right anyways," Elliot said with what he hoped was a diffusing smile. "Not that it's saying much, I could be eating at five star restaurants every night and most of my food still wouldn't be this good." It apparently worked, Iris's lips quirking upwards as she stopped glaring at Andy. "Are you a musician?" Elliot asked him.

"Me? Nah, nah, I've just heard the story more times than I can count. I like to think of myself as a patron of the fine arts." In the corner of his vision, Elliot saw Iris roll her eyes. Andy continued undeterred. "And speaking of fine arts; how am I gonna repay you for finding Ames?"

"Oh, no, you don't have to-" Elliot said.

"Mmm, yes I do," Andy replied, his tone playfully bordering on condescension. "I believe in paying my debts and let's be real, I owe you big time." He steepled his hands in front of him and rested his chin on the fingers.

"I'm sure you'd have found Amelia eventually," Elliot said, trying to mask his nerves behind bashfulness. "And she's smart, she would have found her way home eventually."

Andy nodded. "Maybe. Hell, I'll be arrogant; let's say probably. But I don't much like dealing in maybes and would'ves and could've happeneds. The facts are the facts and the fact is you brought my niece home. Besides," he said with a chuckle as he leant back in his chair. "Imagine how it would look if word got out that Iris was able to pay you back and I wasn't."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Iris asked.

Andy held his hands up and cheekily smiled. "Just that you shouldn't have to be the sole bearer of respectability. Let me shoulder some of that burden."

"How generous," she dryly replied.

Elliot was silent, slowly eating to give himself time to think. He was more than familiar with the tone of a dangerous man. His father had it. The Thors instructors had it. Even some of his friends had it. Right now Andy was not a danger to him, in the same way a cliff is no danger to those who stand at its base, but Elliot had no interest in seeing if that would change. Fie's warnings rang in his ears.

Andy took his silence as a cue to continue speaking. "You've heard of Mesh and Lace."

It wasn't a question but Elliot nodded anyway. It was an opera that had just last year crested the wave from indie darling to mainstream juggernaut, and part of why he had come to Aibynnaere. The show was performing for two days here on their way to a month-long sit in the Malva Port. When something that big comes to town, interest in music tends to spike up and a few more people come to his performances and classes.

"Me and some business partners have a box for tonight's performance." Elliot must have done a poor job of hiding his reaction, because Andy took one look at him and smiled. "Interested?"

Of course he was. He'd missed his chance to see it as a smaller show due to an unfortunately timed cold and now tickets were far too expensive for a traveling little-known musician. "Yes," Elliot admitted, his mind racing.

Don't agree to anything. Fie wouldn't have told him something like that out of the blue without a great reason. That's all Elliot needed to put his attendance out of the question. But Andy had already seen his desire, knew Elliot wanted to come. He already wasn't accepting any of Elliot's refusals, now he knew he wanted what he was offering; it would be almost impossible to politely dissuade him.

Elliot needed to think fast, chewing slowly to give himself more time. There had to be a way to get out of going to something he wanted to go to. He'd have to play Andy's game. He clearly cared about his family, meaning he cared about relationships. He cared about appearances, if his implications about his reputation taking a hit was anything to go by.

"I can't go," Elliot said after finally swallowing. This was a bad idea, but it was all he had. "I wish I could, but I can't."

"Oh?" Andy said.

"Yeah," Elliot said apologetically. "I have a date, my girlfriend actually. I promised I would take her out tonight. You know, touring and all, it means we only get to meet up every so often. I can't just cancel on her at the last minute, she deserves better than that. I'm so sorry."

Andy nodded and Elliot nearly deflated from relief. "It's okay, I get it. You're a good man Elliot Craig."

"Th- thanks." Elliot looked down at the table, seeing the once-full plates completely bare. "I'd be happy to help with the dish-washing," he said, eager to change the subject.

"Nonsense," Iris replied. "You've done more than enough and you have a special lady to get ready for. I'm sure Andy will be more than happy to clean up all of this, won't you Andy?" She fixed him with a dangerously pleasant look, of the kind Elliot had seen mastered by Sharon. "Since it's the… respectable thing to do and all."

Andy put up his hands like a man who knew he'd been beaten. He stood and started rolling up his sleeves. "Oh, Elliot, here," he said, pulling a business card out from his button-up's breast pocket. "Tell your girl about my offer. If she decides she wants to come, we'd be more than happy to have her."

"Thank you, that's very generous of you," Elliot said, shoving the card in his pocket with more force than he intended. He hadn't realized how shaken his nerves really were.

"Have a good evening, Elliot," Iris said as she took the plates to the sink. "Say bye-bye Amelia."

"Bye-bye!"

"Best of luck kid," said Andy, turning on the sink and immediately being splashed by water ricocheting off of a spoon.

"Thank you, all of you, the food was delicious," Elliot said. "Have a good evening!" His words were more enthusiastic than strictly necessary, making him cringe in a way he was almost able to hide by fixing his hair as he left.


The camera showed Elliot leaving the table, and Fie's eyes showed him leaving the house. She knew where the house was, she could come back to it some other time, right now she had to make sure Elliot was safe. She jumped from her rooftop to the next, to the next, never letting him out of her sight. It would only take an instant for something horrible to happen.

Her ARCUS buzzed in her vest pocket. She could see Elliot's unit in his hands, she knew it was him who had messaged her. But answering would be risky. Another buzz. She ignored it. A third. Elliot seemed to give up after that.

They walked a quarter-mile, Elliot constantly checking his ARCUS. She could see him growing more worried with every minute.

Fie knew he deserved answers. When he walked past a playground, one heavily monitored by surveillance cameras, she saw the chance to give them to him.

He answered on the first ring. "Fie! Wha-"

"Go to the green bench in front of the parking lot. There are two cameras watching it. You'll be safe there." She felt bad cutting for him off, but safety was a priority over manners. Luckily he followed her instructions without argument.

"Safe?" Elliot asked as he went to the bench. "Fie, what's going on? Can you see me?"

"Yes. Stop looking for me, I'm hiding."

Elliot blushed lightly and stopped glancing around the park, instead focusing on his ARCUS and trying to act natural. "What's going- uhm… what's up?" he asked, trying to sound casual. Good, he was getting it. That made Fie's job easier.

"How much do you know about the Ignacio family?" Fie asked.

"Uh…" Fie could practically see the gears turning in his head as he racked his brain. "Nothing," he admitted. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Fie said. "Not like I know much more. They're a crime family. Really important and really dangerous. I've been investigating them for nearly a week."

"Oh. How's that going?"

"Bad."

"Ah." Elliot scratched his cheek in that awkward way Fie had seen so many times. "Sorry."

"Eh," Fie replied as a sort of auditory shrug. "Did you catch the name of the man you were eating with?"

"Andy? Wait, no- Iris called him Ferdinand."

"Mhh."

"Is that… bad?" Elliot hesitantly asked, his tension visibly rising.

"For me or for you?"

"Uhm… y- you?"

"No."

Fie saw Elliot's shoulders slump with relief, then immediately tense up again. "Is it bad for me?" he asked.

Fie frowned. "I don't know…" Elliot's eyes went wide in a way that made Fie quickly add to her sentence. "I don't think so, not if you don't know who he is."

Elliot let out a little sigh. "That's good. So who is he?"

"Ferdinand Ignacio," Fie explained. "One of the sons of the leader of the Ignacio Family. Finding him is my first real lead."

"Oh! Uhm… congratulations?" Elliot said. She could see him bite his lip as he tried to decide if he should ask the obvious question or not.

She answered it for him anyways. "When I saw you with him, I didn't know if you were in trouble or not. I've been tailing you since you left in case someone tried to attack you."

"So I made you lose your lead…" Elliot said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Your safety is more important." Elliot nodded, but the expression on his face told Fie that he didn't fully believe her. "Besides," she added. "I can pick up the lead tomorrow now I know about that house."

The expression melted away. Good.

"Thanks for looking out for me," Elliot said.

"Don't mention it," Fie dismissively replied. "You'd do it for me in a heartbeat. Seems like you didn't need it either way. How did you end up having lunch with him anyways?" With luck she could score a meeting with the same method.

"I helped his friend's- that woman we were eating with- daughter get home safely after she had gotten lost trying to chase down her cat," Elliot explained.

Darn. There was a lot Fie was willing to do but kidnap a little girl's pet was a step too far, even if she would give it right back. She let out a small sigh of disappointment. "Thanks Elliot. You should head back to your hotel; I'm sure you've got work of your own to take care of."

Elliot opened his mouth, hesitated and closed it, then opened it again.

Fie quietly waited for him to decide if he was going to speak or not.

"...I might have a way to help you," he hesitantly said, reaching into his pocket.

Oh? "How?"


Elliot looked down at the slightly creased business card. "Well…"


A/N: Unlike my other recent stories, I have no planned release schedule for this or pre-written chapters. This means chapters will be up when they are done, however long that may take. If you get impatient and would like to know more, please contact me on twitter or discord, both of which you can find in my profile.

The first three chapters of this story will be setting up the premise and then everything after that will be mysteries with some romance sprinkled in.

If you liked this chapter, please leave a comment. Feedback is what motivates me to write.