374, 11th of the winter season, morning, Weaver and Sons Tailor, the industrial city of Forge

  “Strip,” the little old man told Rosario and Senarre, much to their dismay, causing Rosario to frown and begin pulling off his black sweater before beginning to unbutton his shirt. She said, “What?” Rosario sat down on a stool and began to take off his boots. He said, “He needs us down to the undergarments to make us formal attire; he's doing it from scratch, needs to take our measurements to get a good fit.” Senarre reluctantly agreed. Shortly thereafter, the little old man returned with two rolling clothing racks filled line to line with a variety of different styles and colors for suits, alongside a large briefcase. Senarre, with her arms crossed in front of her, said, “What's in the case?” The little old man looked up from the cart and said, “For the Lorea,” and turned to look back towards the rack of clothes. Rosario turned to look at her and said, “Let's find out.” He gently placed both hands on the clasps of the briefcase and pushed them outward, causing the briefcase to open with a resounding click. “Holy shit,” Senarre said, the briefcase was lined end to end with paper money, all thousands. She picked up one of the rectangles held together with clips and ran it through one of her thumbs and said, “Each stack has got to be close to two million, and there's twelve of them here, this is more money than I've ever seen in my life.” She placed the wad of cash back in the case, and Rosario said, “My brother wants us to show he can afford whatever we're walking into.” She looked confused. “Why are you not surprised by that much money?” He looked at her with a bored expression, “It's a lot of money, sure, but it's nothing compared to the queen's vaults.” She uncrossed her arms and sat down on a stool opposite him. “How do you know what the queen's vaults look like?” he scrambled in the back of his mind and meekly said, “Uhh, field trip?”

  “Ok, I'm ready for you. Please pick an item off the rack, and we can begin,” he brought out a pair of white button-up shirts for the pair. “This will be the base layer of your outfits.” Rosario put on the shirt and began buttoning it up. Senarre took the other shirt and began to button it up, and then stopped, “You uh got a bigger one?” The shirt was both too short and too tight. “It's a little tight in the chest area.” The little old man ran off and said, “My deepest apologies, miss. I will get you a larger size. The man ran off and came back with another shirt. “Try this one on, miss.” She quickly put on the shirt and said, “Much better, thank you.” The pair began looking through the clothing on display. Senarre looked over at Rosario. “Should we match?” he shook his head and said, “Yeah, probably.” Rosario pulled out a purple suit jacket and made a face of disgust, “nah.” Senarre pulled a suit jacket off her rack and said, “How bout this one?” He smiled and said, “yea im feeling that one.”

  374, 11th of the winter season, Noon, Empress Heavy Industries, the industrial city of Forge

  The clicking off of the concrete echoed one pair of heels and one pair of dress shoes; they both wore black pants held up by a silver belt buckle bearing the insignia of a laurel wreath with a flower in the center, white shirts visible through low-cut suit jackets form form-fitting and wine red, both with black bowties around the neck and cufflinks featuring the same insignia as the belt. They both wore sunglasses, Rosario's tinted darker than hers, and his hair was slicked back; hers was tied into a braided bun. Her ears bore two small earrings also bearing the insignia of the cufflinks and belt. “I'm not gonna lie, I feel like a million marks right now,” her eyes not visible, but the slight rise on either side of her lips, shaded red by lipstick, gave away her emotion. He said, “That's how good clothes feel when they are specifically modified to fit you perfectly.” She said back to him, “I could get used to this, although I feel a little naked without my friends.” Rosario said back to her, “It's normal, usually nobles don't carry weapons, so personally I don't feel it, but I can understand the feeling, like leaving a wallet at home, I presume.”

  The pair came to the gate, and an armed guard was on duty. He said to them, “State your business.” Rosario looked at the man through his glasses, “Business transaction.” The guard looked disappointed. “Name?” he looked to Rosario, “Rouge Lore.” The guard looked at Senarre, “Name?” “Sera Dawn.” She said to him, "The guard looked down at a clipboard with a sheet of paper, 'checks out.' He reached down to a radio and called out, 'Client visit.” Shortly thereafter, another guard came running and said, “Apologies for the delay,” and led them deeper into the complex. The central building was a large, long frame resembling the outer hull of an airship. The buildings connected to it had large, thick-gauge cabling connected to the central building. The guard led them into one of the connected buildings, onto an elevator, and up four floors. They exited on a scaffold, a metal open-air bridge, and they passed the bridge, and through a bulkhead, the inside was lavish wood paneling on the walls and floors, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The guard led them through the luxurious halls to a small conference room with a large hardwood table at its center, surrounded by five chairs on either side. The armed guard stopped and said, “Wait here, Mr.Qiang will be with you shortly.” They pulled out chairs and sat down, placing the briefcase on the table.

  The bulkhead slid open with a creak. A sharply dressed man no older than 50 walked in and sat down at the head of the table. He said, “Let's get down to business, then shall we? My name is Bo Qiang, head of sales for aircraft and armaments at Empress Heavy Industries International Branch.” he held out his hand for a handshake. Rosario reached in and shook his hand, glasses still on his face, “Rouge Lore, Aircraft acquisitions of house Lorea.” he reached over to Senarre, offering his hand for a handshake. She reciprocated and said, “Sera Dawn, Weapons development and adequate deployment for House Lorea.” Bo Qiang sat back in his chair and pulled a clicker out of his suit pocket. The lights turned off, and the rollers on the window closed. A small projector came out of the ceiling. An image of a chart filled the screen and then changed to one of an airship, an unseen model on the display in comparison to one of the dreadnoughts.

  Bo Qiang spoke up, saying, “As you can see, this is our newest experimental ship. Its hull is still in drydock, being worked on, but it's expected to be fully operational within the fiscal year of 375. Her current configuration features hangars for up to thirty-two Aerodynamic flight parasites, with additional space for workshops and storage for parts. He picked a pen-like device out of his suit pocket and extended it to reveal a pointer. He pointed to a point on the top of the ship, “This is the primary bridge. She has a minimum crew requirement of 12 bridge crew for steering, and as always with EHI-designed ships, we have two auxiliary bridges, one in the engineering section and one in the bow observation deck, she is also equipped with the standardized lock-track system on her outer hull providing a safety net to maintenance crews and any that need to work outside the ship both in flight and on the ground” he pointed the stick to the turret emplacements on the hull of the ship “as standard with modern airships we are using mana recharger based shield stunners as well as conventional propellant based weapons systems in supplementation” he clicked abutton on the on the clicker and the image changed again showing the ship in a cross section he pointed to a line of squares near the core of the ship “she is equipped with 24 officers quarters with a double sized bed and desk in each, and she features 4 larger sleeping berths in a standard 36x6 configuration for each” he clicked another button and an image of a very large kitchen appeared in the frame “full sized kitchen with two mess halls sized to fit a recommended capacity of 216 diners” he clicked a button on the remote and the lights turned back.

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  “I trust you are aware of the terms of the agreement we came to with Lord Lorea?” Rosario thought for a brief moment in panic, “Please enlighten me to assure that the terms have not shifted in the time between the initial agreement and this current meeting?” The man said to him, smiling, “Most definitely, we are to sell the ship to Lord Lorea at a fraction of its cost in exchange for the granting of its combat data.” Rosario slid the briefcase over to Mr.Qiang. He popped it open and looked inside before briefly closing it. He leaned in to shake Rosario's hand again, then turned. To Senarre. She shook his hand. “Would you like a tour of the facilities?” he said to them before Rosario could decline. Senarre said, “That would be most appreciative.” Mr.Qiang led them out of the conference room to one of the elevators and down to one of the hangars. They walked out onto a large tarmac. He turned to them and said, “This is where we test the aerodynamic parasites.”

  A voice through a speaker came on saying, “Incoming, incoming.” The whirring of a propeller came into earshot, and a small swept-wing aircraft came into view at the end of the runway, gliding before dropping down and rolling for a bit, before one of the wheels deployed from under its wings fell off, causing the craft to go lopsided, grinding on the ground in a shower of sparks it came skidding to a halt before catching on fire. A series of ground crew ran out with fire extinguishers.

  The glass canopy slid open, and a figure pulled itself out of it. A pair of boots led into a jumpsuit crisscrossed with harnesses, a brown leather jacket over the top bearing two patches on the right arm, one of them a large cat-like paw pinning a figure with the words written on the top “beneath the hand of doom,” the other was a red bird with flaming feathers that read “Burn in the night.” they pulled off a pair of gloves pinning them to their belt revealing golden brown hands the figure wore a helmet with an oxygen mask covering the face they unclipped it from the side allowing it to go limp and pulled off the helmet on their head it was decorated with two aggressive carvings of a cat’s ears and on the side sat words that read AVP- Vina “Nekoma” Parker. One of the ground crew ran over and offered her assistance, saying, “Are you okay, Miss Parker?” She looked down at them and said, “Not the worst landing I've had.” She turned to see the two figures in red suit jackets standing in observation. She walked over to them and said, “Mr. Qiang, I trust these are the guests I was told about in my briefing?” He said, “Yes, Miss Parker.” She said, “Rouge Lore, Sera Dawn, please join me for tea.”

  The three sat at a small table in a cramped room, some clothing neatly folded on a small fold-out bed, and some others on the ground. Three cups of tea sat on a table, the woman with ears like those tigers said in a flat tone of acknowledgment, “Lorea, Halfkin woman.” Senarre’s eyebrow twitched with anger. Rosario opened by saying, “I saw that ship in the board room, what in the ever living hell is my brother planning? One ship like that could feasibly take down two or more dreadnoughts. This isn't a defensive or a show of force, this is an in-route for an invasion,” Vina said, “I know not the machinations of the mind of Lord Lorea.” Rosario put his hands to his face and leaned against the table, “shit, I might as well be back at square one, the I dont even have any information on why im wanted” Vina looked at him her head craned to the side like a cat in interest “Lord Lorea did not inform me of your status, would you care for an escort to his court?” He shook his head declining her offer “im trying to work with others to find some leads of my own i figure i can get more information getting my hands dirty than i can waiting for my brothers proxies to do it for me should also allow me to cover more ground, more fields of fire and all that” Senarre leaned in for a sip of tea when a burst of smoke filled the room coughing Rosario dove to the ground and began to look for a weapon he shouted "we've been set up” Senarre also on the ground shouted “i can tell” Vina yelled to them both “no worries, its just my little Kian” the smoke cleared and she could be seen holding a small skinny figure with white hair with black stripes in it, ears like a tigers the figures face was covered by a white mask they wore a white sleeveless shirt with chains wrapped around the arms and oversized black pants taped tight on the ankles with a pair of wooden sandals a short sword hung from their back too short to be a one handed sword but longer than a dagger.

  They shouted, “The great shinobi Shirotora demands you let them free at this very moment or face the wrath of the Yuki no akuma.” Vina’s face was twisted into one of anger. She hit Kian on the back of the head, causing them to yelp. She said to Senarre and Rosario, “My deepest apologies, Kian likes to masquerade around the facilities as a character from one of the many books in the libraries.” she looked at Kian with anger and said “youre too old to play pretend Kian” pulled his mask down making a frowning expression “Im not playing pretend i am a true shinobi, i even have my Ninjato”

  Rosario let out an exhale and said, “No worries, I'm used to a bustling home life.” Senarre said, “I don't have a home, but I guess I do too.” She laughed and said, “Hey, kid, wanna see some real Ninja magic?” Vina frowned and said, “Don't encourage-” she was cut off by Senarre saying, “The origin of all sound,” causing her eyes to shift from their normal indigo to a burning gold, draining all the sound from the room. Kian attempted to speak, but no sound came out, causing their face to light up. When the sound came back, they said, “Can you teach me?” She said to them, “Fraid not, it's my incarnation, I can't share it with anyone, I think I'm not too sure how they work on a mechanical level, I'm not a scientist.” Kian said, “Wicked, big sis Vina, can I go with her?” Vina said a simple “NO,” causing Kian to frown. Vina turned to Rosario and said, “I'm afraid we'll have to cut today's conversation short, but please take this.” She handed over a small half ring, large enough to fit around someone's neck. He said, “What's this?” She looked him in the eyes, “Hermes MK3 bone conduction communication system lets us talk to each other without prying ears. If you need anything, just ask.”

  374, 12th of the winter season, Night, Billy's bar and grill, the industrial city of Forge

  Rosario and Senarre were sitting at the bar in a rapid service chain restaurant. He was on his 4th five-mark marg. Senarre tapped him on the back and said, “Cheer up, we'll find another lead, we're bound to.” A waitress placed down a plate of breaded and battered chicken accented with fried cheese and a side of egg rolls. Senarre grabbed a piece of fried cheese and dipped it in the red sauce on the plate. She tossed it in her mouth. While chewing, she said, “I'm tired, after we're done here, wanna head back to the inn?” Rosario shook his head in affirmation before laying it on the table. A figure in a black double-breasted coat with irises of brilliant crimson placed a cane between the two of them. Rosario said, slurring, “hat do ou wan?” Senarre turned to face the man in black. The man in black said, “Ooh, I have something you'll very much want.” He placed a small cloth on the bar it went down with a metallic clink. Senarre un did the cloth, and upon seeing what sat before her on the bar, her eyes went wide, the hairs on her arms stood on end, and she could feel the pit in her stomach. The red-eyed man said, in a calm, malicious tone, “Well, hear me out, will you?”