Chapter 6 - Black Hare and Violet Song

Sumire adjusted the hood of her cloak. The evening air still hung with the warmth of early autumn, but the breeze the filtered through the city made the extra layer bearable.

Performing at Wynrose had come with a number of benefits for Sumire. Good pay. Lodgings where the tenants outnumbered the pests. Even a bit of fame. The notoriety she had built for herself had proven quite useful, but it was more of a hinderance right now.

For those who knew about the under-tavern, it was rather easy to conflate the Burrow with the Black Hare. That, however, wasn’t always accurate. The Burrow, despite its smaller space and secretive nature, had a degree of class. Prestige. People went there for an exclusive experience meant for those who knew someone who knew someone. The Black Hare, on the other hand, was a public, raucous tavern that nearly every working man and bard had stumbled out of at some point.

No one batted an eye if Sumire wanted to drop by the Burrow and watch an old friend perform. Visiting the Hare, particularly its owner, was slightly another matter.

Sumire breezed her way into the tavern and up the wooden steps to the second floor. The tavern was packed with patrons. No one paid her a second thought as she maneuvered her way towards the office at the other end of the landing. Sumire knocked twice on the door and was admitted inside.

Arthur Stilcrique’s office was a rather nice allegory for the man himself. From the outside, it had the appearance of a simple, if successful, pub owner’s place of business. The windows were stained from years of rain and the outside of the door from patrons too drunk to tell an office from an inn.

The inside, however, told a different story. The office was neat and well kept. Unlike its exterior, the door to office was polished and pristine. A leather top stretched across the desk in the center of the room. The chairs on either side of it were padded and free from the dings and scratches that decorated the seats in the pub space.

Most striking of all was how isolated the room felt. The moment Sumire closed the door behind her, the songs and reveling down bellow became muted. It was pointless trying to hear anything from outside and vice versa. More detail-oriented visitors often wondered if the stains on the windows were a product of nature or a design more purposeful.

Arthur himself sat at his desk, his quill streaking across the parchment before him. He almost looked more like a banker or a lawyer than a tavern owner. It was honestly a fair comparison. A tavern owner would know your name and favorite drink. Arthur would know that, what you ate for breakfast, how much coin you gave the guard to forget he had seen you the other night, and about half of whatever other skeletons you had in the closet.

“Ah, Ms. Kosaka, pleasure to see you,” Arthur greeted evenly, tucking a loose strand of faded blonde hair back behind his ear. “What business do you have for me tonight?”

“Just came from the Radolf estate,” Sumire answered as she took her seat across the desk from him. “I thought you might like to hear about it.”

“Enjoy the party?”

“Yes,” Sumire said, pulling a folded sheet of paper from her cloak and sliding it across the desk.

One of the more gilded perks of Wynrose was being invited to gatherings of Olbrin's wealthy socialites. Sumire had been awestruck when she had gone to her first few, but the veneer slipped off soon after. The whole affair, each and every one, was just a pretense for the city’s idle rich to show off and negotiate with their peers to try and get even more out of the pot.

It hadn’t taken long for Sumire to figure out where she fit into that arrangement. The sons of merchants and even lesser nobles were eager to have a woman on their arm and their fathers were willing to toss some coin to the theatre to make it happen. Most encounters were fair enough with the young men showing some basic manners. She’d share a dance with them, maybe some pleasant words, and leave it there.

It was the boorish, entitled ones that always made Sumire want to scream before the night was out. The overgrown children that seemed to go through life thinking mommy and daddy’s money meant the world belonged to them. That wasn’t even getting into the ones who were faithful to the church and had certain opinions towards elves. Sumire thanked the goddess that Janise had taught her early on to never allow herself to be alone with some young upstart. She still bristled at the memory of feeling a hand slip a little too low down her back during a dance.

If there was any silver lining to have to be within arm’s reach of those cretins, it was that they often had the loosest lips. Young nobles and heirs to businesses had to know how to run what they were set to inherit and lacked the experience of their fathers to know what not to tell.

Sumire watched silently as Arthur scanned the information she had managed to collect at the party. It was never anything too grand, but the smaller details could be valuable, too. Making notes on who had talked to whom, who had spent the night boasting, and who had stayed away from attention all carried their own little hints.

Janise liked to refer to the invisible dance as a game and Sumire could see why even if she sometimes felt like she didn’t know half of the rules. What she did know was that she wasn’t a player. Not a real one. That role belonged to Arthur and those he brokered information for. Sumire was a piece on the board. One of many. She didn’t care for the unseen hierarchy over her, but she was willing to swallow her complaints so long as Arthur paid her for what she supplied.

“Hmm,” Arthur hummed as he read the note. Without a word, he tucked the paper away and pulled out a small coin pouch. He gently passed the pouch across the table. “Thank you for your business, Ms. Kosaka.”

“Thank you,” Sumire replied with similar politeness. She got up from her chair and started towards the door.

“Oh, and please tell your brother that the guards seem to have taken care of the local lindrake problem. He should be able to back to… foraging, was it?... soon.”

Sumire stopped and glared at the man. For his part, Arthur simply returned her gaze, stone-faced with the exception of slight amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Is this the part where you ask me what he’s been up to?” she said flatly after a moment.

“No, I just thought I’d pass along some news that a former employee might appreciate,” Arthur answered smoothly.

Sumire raised an eyebrow at him.

Arthur steepled his fingers, leaning back in his chair. “Despite his flaws, Sumire, young Ryu has proven to be smart enough to be aware of two things. The first being not to talk about his exploits where I might hear.”

“What’s the other?”

“That would be him knowing better than to tell you when he’s up to something.”

Arthur was barely able to get a single chuckle off before Sumire slammed the office door shut behind her. She stomped across the upper floor, decorum momentarily taking a backseat for her flaring temper. How she ever managed to work for that gadfly without pulling her hair out was a mystery to Sumire.

“Care for a drink?”

Sumire stopped at the top of the stairs and shot a glare over her shoulder. Cassandra sat at a nearby table, wine bottle in one hand and glass in the other. She returned Sumire’s glare with a cool unflinching gaze.

She’s been spending too much time around Arthur, Sumire thought as she gave a tired sigh. Either that or I’m losing my touch.

She sat down at the table, Cassandra pouring a glass of wine and offering it to her. Feeling the need for some fortification, Sumire took a generous sip, perking up as the fruity flavor of black cherries and fermented grapes touched her tongue.

“Bacanal?” she asked, holding up her glass quizzically.

“My bonus for my last show selling out,” Cassandra replied, taking a considerable sip of her own. Her cheeks were already tinged a touch pink from her indulgences. “Figured you could use some after talking with Arthur.”

Sumire slouched in her chair, propping her head on her hand. “Remind me why we ever worked for him,” she sighed.

“Same reason you still come by selling whatever it is you got for him to buy,” Cassandra said with a casual shrug. “He pays and doesn’t care a bit if you’re human or elf.”

That was true. Arthur seemed to know just how to poke and prod every person he met, but he cared far more if someone could get a job done than what race they happened to be. He’d pay lip service to the church and its knights only so far as to get them off his back. It was why the Burrow was one of the precious few venues in the city to be patroned by both humans and elves.

Knowing what she did of the man, it was probably by design instead of some quirk of happenstance.

“That the only thing bugging you?” Cassandra asked, topping up Sumire’s wine glass.

Sumire swirled her drink, watching it slosh against the crystal walls of her glass. “I wish it was,” she admitted.

“Still hung up about Ryu, huh? You said he had Zach with him, right? The kid’s always been the most responsible out of all of us. How could whatever they’re up to be that bad?”

It might have been the wine, but Sumire nearly laughed at Cassandra calling Zach a kid. He was only younger than her by a couple months.

That aside, she did have a point. Zach had been the voice of reason for the three of them growing up, especially when they were all at St. Anne’s. Knowing that he was with Ryu should have assured Sumire that they weren’t doing anything too stupid.

But that still left the question of why Ryu refused to tell her what was going on!

What could be such a secret that Ryu could not only ask, but actually talk Zach into going along with him and still not tell her? The fact Zach had agreed meant that they weren’t doing anything too illicit. Ryu had proven able to talk Zach into some schemes in the past, but the scholar had always known when to put his foot down.

Thinking back on it, Sumire could admit that she might have jumped to conclusions when she had learned about the lindrake attack. Ryu could do foolish things, but he wasn’t boneheaded enough to try and hunt those beasts. Besides, as much as she trusted Zach in most things, hunting was not one of them. Their mother had tried teaching him some skills, but he could never seem to get a handle on any of them.

So what did that leave for the two of them to get up to outside the city?

Feeling her frustration beginning to build once more, Sumire shook those thoughts from her mind and drained her glass. “Can we talk about something else?” she asked.

Cassandra happily obliged and the two conversed on cheerier subjects. Sumire talked about the new show they were preparing at Wynrose and Cassandra described the new routine she was putting together. They both laughed as Sumire recounted some of the more… memorable figures she had had to converse with at the Radolf party.

It felt nice. Sumire had missed these moments of levity with Cassandra. The dancer seemed to always know how to cheer her up.

Then again, the wine probably helped, too.

The conversation made the rounds from topic to topic, eventually circling back to the mystery of Ryu and Zach’s activities outside of the city. Despite having cheered up in the intervening hour, the subject still dampened Sumire’s mood.

“Have you tried just asking him?” Cassandra suggested, rolling the stem of her empty wine glass between her fingers.

“Like Ryu would tell me anything,” Sumire remarked glumly. Arthur had been right. If Ryu really was up to something even remotely dangerous, telling her about it was the last thing he’d do.

“I’m not talking about Ryu,” Cassandra said. When Sumire looked at her, she nodded her head over towards the railing overlooking the pub below.

Sumire followed her gaze and saw a dusky head of hair she would know anywhere. Why hadn’t she thought of it before?

Bidding Cassandra her thanks, Sumire stood and made her way down the stairs. Holding her hood with one hand, she made her way over towards where Zach was eating his meal.

He looked up from his finished plate in surprise as she came near. “Su-” Zach began before quickly falling silent as Sumire pressed a finger to her lips. She took the seat across from him, keeping her back towards the other patrons and her face hidden away under her hood.

“What are you doing here?” Zach whispered.

“Had some business with Arthur and wanted to catch up with Cassandra,” Sumire replied cooly. Or at least almost cooly. She hadn’t drunk that much wine, had she? “You?”

“Needed a break from the library and decided to get some dinner.”

“New research project?”

“Something like that.”

Sumire nearly snorted. Why Zach didn’t just apply to join the scholar’s guild already was beyond her. She would have been shocked if he didn’t get top marks on whatever entrance exams they gave.

“Hey, if you’re done, want to come walk with me? It’s been a while since we talked… just you and me.”

Zach nodded without hesitation and left his coin on the table as he followed Sumire out. After the crowded tavern, the cool night air was more than refreshing. Sumire breathed it in, clearing her head from her frustrations (and hopefully a bit of the alcohol) as she walked beside Zach.

“So what’s this new research project about?” she asked as they strolled along the street.

“It’s part of my tutoring job for Abigail,” Zach replied.

“Abigail?”

Zach cocked his head. “Oh, I thought I told you about it,” he said. “I’m giving rune lessons to Abigail Riess.”

Sumire stopped dead. “I-I’m sorry,” she sputtered, certain she hadn’t heard him right. “Did you just say Abigail Reiss?”

“Yep.”

“Reiss? As in Gavan Reiss, the mining baron?”

“Yeah, I think I met him once or twice while I was at her house for a lesson.”

Sumire stared at him, her face blank except for her wide eyes.

“Sue… you okay?” Zach asked once the moment had lasted for what felt to be a little too long.

Sumire blinked and immediately swatted Zach on the arm.

“Ow!"

“WHY!? HOW!? WHEN!?” Sumire demanded.

“I’ve been tutoring her for the last couple months,” Zach answered, rubbing his arm tenderly. “She’s enrolling in Everset’s archeology course next term and needed help with Dwarven runes.”

Sumire took a deep breath as she tried to process things. What Zach said seemed to line up with what little she knew about the heiress. If half of what she had heard was true, Abigail could give Zach a run for his coin when it came to academics. Still…

“But why you?” Sumire asked. She knew Zach was smart, probably the smartest she knew personally, but that wasn’t exactly unique criteria when talking about the scholar’s guild.

Zach took a step back and shrugged. “Search me,” he said. “Apparently my name came up when her dad was asking for tutors and he picked me to try first.”

“He picked… why?”

“No clue. All I know is that the pays decent and Abigail’s taking to runes even faster than I did when I first started.”

Great, Sumire thought as she rubbed her temple, feeling the beginnings of a headache. There’s two of them now. “Well, what’s this research project she’s got you helping with?” she said, resuming their walk. Academia wasn’t usually her topic of choice, but it felt like much safer waters at the moment.

“She wanted help with some relics she’s studying.”

Relics? No wonder Zach had been so busy at the library.

“How did she get her hands on those?” Sumire asked. “Even with her family’s connections, those are hard to come by, aren’t they?”

“Abigail didn’t say,” Zach said, shrugging off the question.

“You didn’t at least ask?”

“Kinda forgot to.”

Sumire raised an eyebrow as she looked over at Zach from beneath her hood. He wasn’t looking at her, keeping his eyes straight ahead of them. He couldn’t think she would ever believe that he of all people would forget to ask about how a teenager, mining magnate father or not, got her hands on priceless Dwarven relics, could he?

“Well,” she said after a beat. “It sounds like you have been pretty busy lately. Must have slipped your mind, I guess.”

“Yeah… must have,” Zach said quietly.

“I hope it doesn’t keep you from going out with Ryu into the forest.”

Now it was Zach’s turn to stop in his tracks. “What?”

“For foraging,” Sumire remarked, her voice plain and innocent. There were times she loved how much practice she had at playing a part. “That what you and Ryu were doing a few days ago, weren’t you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Zach replied. “But I can make time.”

“Good,” Sumire said. “I heard the lindrakes have been taken care of. The guards gave the all clear, apparently.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too,” Zach said, rubbing his neck. “Hey… um… Sumire, do you mind taking a carriage the rest of the way home? I have work tomorrow and well…”

Sumire smiled and waved of his worries. “I get it,” she said cheerily. “I need to be getting back, too. Good night, Zach.”

“Night, Sumire.”

The two parted, bidding each other a wave as they walked in opposite directions. Sumire hailed a carriage and climbed inside, her mind puzzling away.

She knew Zach didn’t have work tomorrow. Not officially, anyway. Sunday meant that the library would be closed while the clergy and the faithful gathered in their churches for worship. Not much chance for him to do research.

There was also his reaction when she had asked about Abigail’s relics. He clearly knew where she had gotten them, but didn’t want to tell. Sumire wasn’t ignorant of the black market for Dwarven treasures existing. While that would be reason enough for Zach to be tight lipped, it didn’t make sense beyond that. If Abgail was even half as smart as she had heard, she wouldn’t go telling her tutor of all people that she had purchased relics under the table.

Zach knew something and Sumire had the sneaking suspicion that it was tied to whatever he and Ryu had been up to the day they’d had that run in with those lindrakes.

Sumire’s lips pulled back into an impish grin as she added one more fact to her list.

Sundays were her day off, too.

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Author's Note

Finally wrote a Sumire chapter!
Really had a blast while writing this one. Gave me a chance to flesh out Sumire along with some of the characters from the Black Hare. Sumire is hands down the most social of the main cast, so it's fun having her bounce off others and explore how she picks up on things during the conversation (granted, Zach is terrible at lying, especially to her).
In case anyone was wndering why I opted for using fullnames instead of nicknames for characters like before, I kinda felt they were getting a little same-y (Cassy, Abby, etc.) and wanted the names to stay easy to remember. Zach and Ryu will still call Sumire Sue from time to time, but I think that makes more sense given how close they all are.
Next chapter is back to the ruins! Super looking forward to that.

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Next Chapter:	Chapter 7 - Through Fire and Shadow