Snowbound Blood: Volume Eleven/Transcript
Aumtzi Maught. Male. Eight sweeps old.
Greenblooded - olive. Sigil type SAN-2- C, "dissolve". Known aliases: Noxious, obnoxiousAntidote.
Confirmed to have been present at the Corporate Awards Night, where he purchased the information necessary to get access to the Vivifier's blood from an informant. An insider.
Informant claims to have had past experience with these sorts of transactions.
The informant is—
Your heart is pounding. Your chest feels tight. There is a longing inside you - an itch you have refused to scratch so far, growing more and more insistent the longer this case stretches before you.
You need to see her. You need...
YESHIN LAEVIS
- [CONTENT WARNING: This volume contains police brutality.] -
You swivel yourself around as you finish your eighth lap around the room. Even with the coat discarded, you're working up a sweat with all the pacing, fingers tapping an impatient rhythm on your left arm.
Typical of her to be fashionably late. Despite you having stressed how urgent of a matter your meeting was.
Maybe you should have said nothing would please you more than her being forty seven minutes late to your rendezvous. You're sure she would have shown up on the dot if that were the case.
You huff through your nose. With nothing else to occupy it, your mind keeps running on loops, going over the same facts a hundred times and spinning on its wheels.
You don't have Aumtzi's location yet. One last puzzle piece, and you will finally be ahead of him, make your own path rather than follow his breadcrumbs. All you need is a link. A location.
on the case. That's your priority.
There have been no status updates from Crytum for a few days, and neither have you kept Sestro and Hamifi up to date with these latest happenings.
They have no idea how close you are, and you will keep it that way. The possibility of a leak is too high. You can't risk this, not until the information is secured.
You'll apologize for keeping them in the dark once you come back to the Stronghold with a concrete plan of action, ready to be deployed.
...
Where the fuck is Yeshin?!
>Recall: YESHIN LAEVIS
Your left eye stings like a bitch.
Barely a minute since you've stepped inside this… haunt, and already you regret it. Too many patrons, too much dust, music far too loud. You prefer not to think about the smell.
Damned if you'l1 back down, though. Your day's been shit enough so far and you need a drink, stat.
You steel yourself and shoulder past the crowd, paying no mind to the glares directed your way. quick once-over and - yeah, you could take this entire bar with a hand tied behind your back.
A shrill laugh pierces your eardrums just as you find an empty spot by the counter. A series of hoots, hollers and guffaws follow like an echo. Your head throbs.
Muttering a curse under your breath, you focus on trying to catch the barkeep's eye.
The lilting, song-like voice snaps you out of your private little pity party.
The first word that comes to your mind is gaudy. Indulgently, shamelessly so.
Ridiculous sheer shirt, low-hanging tailored pants, a truly unnecessary amount of jewelry to top it all off… The woman before you is a parody of wealth.
A burgundy-blood, you note - someone who would have been given none of it. Whatever she owns, she must have gotten it by taking. A point of pride.
The second thing you notice is that her cane is not just for show. You catch her last steps before she stops by your side, lazily leaning against the bar. She favors the left leg.
As she reclines against the surface, not even bothering to hide the way she's looking you up and down, you realize that…. you...