Sniffing a Trail [Closed]

Rory's eyes begin to tremble and she slouches in her chair.

"Are you really sure?" Rory said. "Would Cheshire really do that?"

She pinches her chin for a while and nods.

"So...that means he's been planning this all along..." Rory said. "And that this whole relationship of theirs...is a farce."

Rory stands up to walk over to Aeden and shake him.

"Onii-chan!" Rory said. "You're a genius!But why would he want such a book?"

"Wait wait wait Rory. This is still just an idea and him needing the book is something I never figured out. I'm not even sure why I said that. It's just, Vixen said that Cheshire would be the reason Lise dies. I don't even know why I'm believing her. I just feel so confused about the whole thing." Aeden begins to get frustrated and closes his eyes to try to calm himself. "I'm sorry Rory in the end I couldn't come up with an idea I have confidence in."

Rory's excitement sank and it showed in her wolf ears and tail drooping. She sighed.

"But it's one reason..." Rory said. "I don't know much about him. Like I said, it's best we confront Liseran first. Do you think you can call her?"

Aeden taps the table with his finger. "Okay let's call her, I know she's on mission but I heard it was boring guard duty. I doubt that anything would be going wrong. Worst scenario we get her voice mail." Aeden retrieves his scroll from his pocket and opens it up quickly finding Lise's number. "Well she had a vision of you arriving so she knows you're here but we should just let her know anyway." Aeden taps the image of Lise's contact, he didn't have time to take her picture and substituted the image with a pair of glasses and a tear under one of them. Aeden waits for Lise to answer or for the voice mail, hoping for the former.

The phone begins to ring and it suddenly beeps. It raises Rory's hopes for a millisecond, but that hope is crushed by Liseran's recorded voice.

Hi, I'm not at the phone at the moment, so you'll have to call again. Hopefully I get a vision of your next call so I can pick it up. Wait...that sounds weird...anyways, I'll just check again later. Sorry in advanced! Leave a message!

Aeden looks at his scroll a little confused by the message. "Well uhh Hi Lise, Its Aeden I'm here with Rory. She's safe by the way, I've been showing her around town and we need to talk to you about something. It relates to the thing you told me after our race, this is something better not left as a message. Please call back as soon as you can." Aeden moves away from the scroll and turns to Rory moving the scroll toward her. "Rory is there anything you want to say to Lise?"

Rory looked a bit flustered, but she bent over to speak.

"U-uhm...hi, Liseran!" she said nervously. "It's me...Rory. I know we haven't officially met, but I'm really hoping to meet you. There's a lot of things I need to tell you, but...I can't say it here. A-Anyways...hope to hear from you soon and...good luck on your mission!"

The scroll beeped and the call ended. Rory sighed.

"Woof..." she said. "I don't know how that went...but it looks like she's out of reach...I guess we'll have to wait for the dinner party after all..."

She turned to Aeden and tried to smile, though she was now more worried than ever about Liseran. She looked at her watch.

"My next job's coming up soon," she said. "I really have to go. But thanks so much for everything today."

Aeden stands up and stretches. All the stress of trying to figure out the connections of Lise's problem had drained him mentally and made him feel like an old man. He walks over to Rory reciprocating her smile. He places his hand on her head and pets her a bit. ((Not like a dog even though she's a wolf)) "It's getting late anyway I should head back, Lucina will start to worry. Before I go I want to give you something." Aeden pulls out a pen and paper and jots down a number. "Here it's my number. If you ever need anything just call me. Should it be a sword in battle, an escort for the day, or just an ear that will listen your knight will come as quick as the wind. With that I bid you good night and good luck at your job."

Rory nods and the two walk out of her small unit. They're back in the streets where everything is glowing in neon and skyscraper lights. Coming to the street, Rory, still in her maid outfit for work, then impulsively gives Aeden a huge hug.

"Thank you so much for everything today!" Rory said. "You''re really something, Onii-chan!"

She let go and before Aeden realized it, there were small tears in her eyes.

"Oh, now what?" she said to herself as she wiped the tears. "This is more of something cousin Lise would do, according to her dad."

She rubbed her eyes and gave Aeden her best smile.

"Don't worry, Aeden," she said. "As long as we work together, I'm sure nothing bad can happen to Liseran. You can count on it!"

***

Liseran arrives home on Rae-Rae when everyone's asleep. She had actually gotten to Vale earlier, but she wanted to clear her head. The mission had been a devastating challenge, but it all worked out in the end. In fact, she believed it forged the bond between her and Cheshire even more. As she parked Rae-rae, stroking it's seat with the love of a mother, she looks to the sky. The moon's only a sliver of a crescent. The full moon's pretty far away. But not far enough.

"Why must it come just when my happiest days are beginning?" she whispered to the empty air. Her three godmothers are asleep and she enters the house. As she does, she checks her scroll and realizes that Aeden called a few hours ago. She replays the message. A part of her is happy that Rory and Aeden had arrived, but another part of her is regretful.

"They probably know something about what's going to happen..." she sighs. She sits down on the sofa and looks at the dinner invitations she's going to send out. She smiles.

"Please let me have just a few more happy days..." she murmurs. "Just a few more..."