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Cleo’s tail swished as she frowned at the greed angel standing across from her. The lizardman had her back facing a dead end in an alley, and Linda was at the entrance, staring at her with a creepy grin. Cleo’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want from me?” she asked as she eyed the open spaces beside Linda. Her tail thumped against the ground as she took a step back.
Linda smiled and took a step forward. She wet her lips with her tongue and cleared her throat. “I was just wondering about that power of yours that you demonstrated,” she said. Her voice sounded like an adult attempting to lure a child into a carriage with candy. “Why don’t you show Auntie Linda just how much stuff you have? I know you made some of my wares disappear. Shouldn’t you return them to me?”
Cleo inhaled through her mouth until her chest puffed up. She shouted, “Help! Murderer! Thief! Robber! I’m being mugged! Arson! There’s a fire! Someone save meeeee!”
Linda dove forward and attempted to grab Cleo, but the lizardman slipped around the angel before throwing a pile of skeletons and dirty bath water on top of the angel’s body. The angel burst through the pile of bones and chased after Cleo who was shouting at the top of her lungs while running through the streets of Ni’En. “I’m being chased by a kidnapper! She wants to skin me alive and sell my organs for a profit! Help!”
“Someone stop that lizard!” Linda shouted as she scrambled through the crowd, her clothes soaking wet and hair dripping water. Cleo was able to slip through the tiny spaces between the people due to her size while Linda collided against the crowd, attempting to force her way through.
“She’s a child abuser! She’s going to work me to death! I’m only six years old! She murdered my family, and ate my pet dog!” Cleo bit an angel’s hand that was trying to grab her and slipped underneath a stall. Her tail narrowly avoided the hands of the stall keeper as she scrambled along the ground. Cleo pouted as she ran around a corner. She was definitely going to get Palan to eat Linda when she saw him again. So what if she stole a few goods? Everything in her space belonged to her. Once Linda’s precious blankets entered her space, they automatically became her possessions.
Linda’s brow furrowed as she rounded the corner that Cleo escaped to. The lizardman was nowhere to be found, and it didn’t look like there were any witnesses who saw which way she went. Linda gritted her teeth and ran down the street, straining her ears to locate any presence of the tiny lizardman. All of her stones had been stolen by the orange creature, and her remaining wares had already been burnt to a crisp by Raea. If she lost track of that lizard now, then she really would have nothing left to her name. Just when she was about to lose hope, she saw a glimpse of orange rounding a bend, and she shouted, “Catch that lizard!”
“Ack!”
Linda smiled when she heard Cleo yelp. “Finally!” she said as she rounded the bend and saw three angels: Owen, Carmella, and Gerome. Owen was grabbing Cleo by her tail, holding her upside down as she hissed and clawed at his arms.
“Damnit, Owen,” Cleo said. “Why is it you? Hurry up and let me go or the crazy lady will—Ah! She’s already here.” She pointed at Linda. “Keep her away from me, Carmella and … her boy toy?”
“My name’s Gerome!” Gerome said as his eye twitched. He sighed and looked at Linda. “Hello.”
“You know her?” Linda asked and raised an eyebrow. She hesitated and took a step back while eyeing Carmella. Something in Linda’s gut told her that the frowning angel was the most dangerous of the three.
“Unfortunately,” Gerome said.
“Hey!” Cleo said and pouted.
He ignored Cleo. “Did she do something to you?” he asked. “We’re sorta … kinda … something like companions?”
“So you’re friends of Raea and Palan?” Linda asked.
“Yes!” Owen said as he dropped Cleo. “Do you know where Lady Raea is? We came to Ni’En to find her, but there seems to be a lot of chaos and confusion.” His face darkened as he recalled the spread of the black flames. The trio had arrived at Ni’En during the midst of the inferno and came to the conclusion that Raea was responsible. Despite knowing that, they hadn’t found any leads on her location or status—until they caught Cleo that is.
Carmella picked Cleo up and hugged the squirming lizardman to her chest. “Shouldn’t you just ask the lizardman?” Carmella asked Owen and rolled her eyes. She looked down at Cleo. “How’ve you been and why aren’t you with Palan?”
Cleo pouted. “There were some really scary archangels, so I ran away first,” she said. “I think they were Raea’s parents.”
“Lord Caelum and Lady Caelum came to Ni’En?” Owen asked, his eyes widening. He didn’t believe it. They hadn’t left the capital in decades.
“They did,” Linda said while nodding. The best way to get her stuff back from Cleo would be to ingratiate herself with the lizardman’s friends. “They didn’t seem to be hostile towards Raea, but they didn’t seem very pleased either.”
“I don’t imagine they would be,” Owen said. “Do you know if … anyone died?”
“Well,” Linda said and scratched her head. Her hair was still damp from the water Cleo dumped on her. “Lots of people died while I traveled with Palan. But I don’t think that’s what you mean. The little thief”—she stared at Cleo—“and I left the area because we weren’t very welcome.” She watched Owen’s face fall into contemplation. “I can ask around if you’d like. My name does have some worth in these areas, and the officials of the city should have records of when Lord Caelum arrived and left. Speaking of names, I don’t believe I got yours.” One way or another, Linda planned on getting her stones back from Cleo.