A couple days had passed since Emily's return, and the quaint little guildhall returned to normal. Too bad normalcy wasn't long for their world.
"Oh," humd Shouri as he sipped from his morning coffee. He eyed the tuner in his opposite hand.
As always, Rebecca joined her Maestro to keep him company while Pacifica showered and Taika claid the kitchen.
"What's up, bossman?" asked the vixen.
"Elijah doesn't need us to chauffeur him," revealed the Maestro. He grunted and moved on with his morning routine.
"Guess his pops gave him back the plastic," Rebecca scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Less we have to do, I suppose," Shouri pointed out.
"True, I guess," conceded the fox.
Breakfast was served and consud. Shouri took care of the dishes, as usual, before heading into the office. Emily had set up her computer she shipped from Luna. It was nice to have a full computer now--it made their whole operation feel that much more legitimate.
It also turned out Emily was a bit of a tech wiz herself. She set it up where their "work account" was synced up between the laptop and desktop computers. This would allow them to work on the road with the laptop while keeping their finances and other docuntation in order.
Now, if only they had soone to manage said finances.
A problem for later.
The appointed ti soon arrived, marked by Taika poking her head into the office.
"There's one of those long cars here," she inford him.
Shouri erged from the wall of monitors. He took off his glasses and set them on the keyboard. "'bout ti," he grumbled.
The late morning was cool, part of a warming trend that was to peak in a few days (if the forecast was to be believed). Still too cold for their resident cold hater, Pacifica; comfortable for most of the rest of the guild.
A sleek black limousine sat on the dry clay of the driveway, the last appreciable precipitation being months ago at this point. Emily poked her head out of her room, and after spotting Shouri, joined her fellow guild lead outside to await their missing mber.
First was the man they expected--Elijah Klein--in all his glory. He dressed to impress, as always. Behind him was the Resonator they expected, Zino.
But today, a third joined their group. They were a younger resonator, clad in the deep violets of purple night. The gold trimming that graced their robes only accented by the sparkles that shimred from their waist cloak. Curious eyes were thoroughly unimpressed by their surroundings.
"Wow, what a dump," they comnted.
"Jade, please," Elijah quietly scolded the demure Resonator.
"Yeah yeah, I'll be good," they mumbled a small concession.
Emily was particularly drawn to the strange newcor to their humble little ho. Her eyes specifically locked on their long black ears, which stood at proud attention atop their head.
Jade smirked and flicked their long violet hair back, satisfied they were being paid proper attention.
"Mister Tomoshibi, it's been too long," Elijah greeted his guildmaster.
Shouri's gaze was not on the Resonator, but the black tuner that joined Zino's brown on Elijah's dress jacket. His itchy curiosity couldn't help but to fixate on it, as a million questions buzzed in his head.
He pointed at the new tuner the Klein heir proudly wore. "You got a second Resonator?" questioned Shouri.
"Ah, this is more of a internship program. Jade here is quite poor with their finances, and requires a helping hand from a business professional," Elijah chuckled.
"Eh, you know what they say; if money doesn't bring you happiness, it can at least help you be miserable in comfort," quoted Jade.
Zino rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Jade, right?" Emily asked of the Resonator.
"Yes, that is ," they replied.
"You're from Luna?" she quizzed.
"Born and raised."
"Where from?"
"Aitken, but I moved to the cast--"
Elijah loudly cleared his throat, muffling out what the rest of Jade's sentence. "Apologies, it's a bit cold out here and it's doing no favors for my throat. May we move inside?" asked the Klein heir.
Emily continued to study the strange Resonator in their midst, her scrutinous gaze only sharpening. That was sothing to dwell on another ti. "Co on." She waved the group towards the guild office. "We can talk in private," said the princess.
Jade moved to follow along, however, the door to Colette's room opened and the trio who dwelt within stepped out. As soon as the rabbit caught sight of the trio of girls, they paused. "Actually, I think I'll stay out here. I think you said this was so important hush hush eting, right?" the rabbit asked for clarification.
Elijah's eyes darted between Jade and Colette. "Ah, yes. Very important, but private. Run along and don't bother them too much."
Shouri and Emily exchanged a perplexed glance, but let it slide. Zino was sticking by the limo, too, so there would be less voices in their eting. A blessing in disguise, really.
"It troubles that this wasn't caught or reported," Elijah humd thoughtfully.
Emily and Shouri had explained the discoveries they made thanks to the information provided by Seat Ṣaṣṭha. Elijah himself reviewed the docunts for anything the rest of the guild may have missed. His eyes darted across the pages, scrutinizing them with senses honed by years being in the business world.
The Klein heir let out a sigh. "If these docunts are to be believed, your hunch that this might be a case of corruption may be on the money; and money is key to this entire thing," he admitted.
"What do you know about the René Group?" Shouri questioned.
Another sigh escaped the man's lips as he leaned back in his seat. "I'm not the most unbiased source. You see, the Klein Foundation and the René Group are business rivals. We operate in the sa field."
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"Resonator products and services," Shouri guessed.
"Correct," Elijah confird. "We're what so might call 'old money', where the René Group is a new upstart venture. Well, new may be stretching that definition. We have reason to believe their funding might be deep like our own," he explained.
"Old, like vampire old?" questioned Emily.
That shot in the dark earned perplexion from the wealthy Maestro. "V-vampires? Like the old stories?"
"Not stories, real. One attacked us in Lyreann about a month ago," Shouri grumbled. "Dude tossed us around like toys. We only drove him off because we managed to get so sunlight in the room," Shouri told their perpetually absent guildmber.
Elijah grunted, his brows pinching into a tight glare as he lowered his head in rumination. "Vampires?" he breathed out.
"Apparently, from what Cheryth told Shouri, they've been trying to keep it under wraps to keep the public from panicking," Emily added.
That earned a quiet nod from Elijah. "That sounds about right," he mumbled. "Very troubling," he added.
"Ya fuckin' think? I don't know if the vampire belongs to or is allied with the René Group, but I can feel it in my rhythm--there's so kind of connection there," spoke Shouri stubbornly.
"Possibly. The René Group does purchase quite a few Resonators. Most of their operating inco gets diverted to their founders ahem, eccentric habits," said Elijah.
"Eccentric habits?" Emily questioned.
"He's a collector," Elijah stated.
Shouri rolled his eyes. "Didn't need you to tell us that," scoffed the guildmaster.
"I'd imagine not," Elijah chuckled. "You have an odd way of intuiting these things before soone tells you it outright."
"Well in this case, Zephyr told us outright. She was one of the 'pieces' in his collection before she escaped," Shouri had to fight to keep himself from growling as he spoke.
Elijah raised a brow, trying to recall why that na was familiar. "Ah! The fairy girl that Vince took in, I rember now." He nodded, pleased with himself for rembering. "She was from the René Group?" he asked for clarification.
"From what she said, yeah," Emily nodded. "Based on how she reacted when telling the story, I believe her," the princess clarified.
"Anything illegal?" Elijah quizzed.
Shouri really wished he had sothing--if anyone would have had the resources to drag that sli ball to court, it'd be the Klein Foundation. In fact, they'd love any excuse to dispose of a rival. Sadly, all Shouri could do was shake his head. "No, from what she told us, she was physically kept in mint condition."
The Klein heir grunted in frustration. "I suspected that would be the case. I'm sure they're lawyers are very ticulous and keep their operation well above board. Nothing like a Resonator care scandal to drive away business."
He caught Shouri and Emily's suspicious gazes and clarified. "There have been many a Resonator service company taken under by bad PR. The Klein Foundation ensures that the duelist circuit is run with strict ethics in mind. In fact, every mber of our company must take a mandatory eight hour ethics and compliance training yearly. Everyone must participate, from the janitorial staff right up to father and I," he paused for a mont, his lips tugging down before he resud, "I would imagine the René Group has very similar practices. It's more or less standard across the industry at this point. Especially with Resonator rights being a hotly discussed topic at present," he added.
It was at that mont sothing ca to mind. "Actually, if you really want to attack him from a business angle," Shouri spoke up, "maybe see what politicians he's backing and what their platforms are."
"What are you getting at?" questioned Klein.
"See if he's lobbying senators to suppress Resonator rights. Might be a way to at least carry out a sar campaign," Shouri suggested.
Elijah considered the thought, but didn't voice his own feelings on the matter.
"I'll let you know if we find any information on our end," Elijah finally spoke up. He rose from his seat. "And do let know once you've found a suitable replacent for . Don't rush it, obviously."
"Yeah yeah, go back to counting your stacks of bills or whatever you rich people do in your free ti," Shouri waved the departing man off.
Elijah couldn't help but chuckle. "Indeed. We do spend a lot of ti trying to figure out how to make more money. It's never enough, after all."
"Yeah yeah," Shouri repeated.
Once the heir was out of their hair, Shouri looked to his vice-guildmaster.
"You were quiet," he noted.
"Thinking about that rabbit. They seed like they'd be so kind of Lunar aristocrat but…" she trailed off.
"But?" Shouri said expectantly.
"There's sothing weird about them. They acted like most rabbits on Luna do, with all the freedom and air of nobility that I've seen before. Except--" she turned to Shouri, "--they had none of the disdain for Terra that other high-born Lunars have."
Shouri opened his mouth to refute her point, but closed it and lowered his head in thought. Truthfully, he hadn't t any of the blue-blooded Lunars, but from what he understood they held the opposite set of beliefs that the most staunchly anti-lunar elents did.
"Plus!" Emily derailed his train of thought. "They were about to say they moved to the castle before Elijah cut them off. That's what really made suspicious."
"Do you think Elijah was lying about who they are?" asked Shouri.
"Absolutely. I don't know why, but I know he wasn't entirely forthcoming about this Jade character."
Shouri let out a big dramatic sigh. "Why can't any of this shit make sense? I'm sick of playing scorekeeper here," he groused.
Emily patted him on the back. "It'll be fine, we'll figure it out."
"Or get arrested trying."
"Or get arrested trying, yes."
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