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carrera-ffxiv · 4 years

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The Wolf of Yanxia

The typically clean bandages on his hands were dirtied and dyed a dark crimson hue. His grip trembled from all the blunt force trauma while he held the glass. The bartender seemed calm enough as he continued to serve drinks, seemingly unphased by the fact that a half dozen regulars donning black suits laid sprawled about the floor either unconscious or wailing periodically.

“It’s good to see you again, sir. You know the mistress will not take kindly to this, though. I wish you wouldn’t stir trouble for yourself here, sir.”

“Glad you still remember what I drink.”

“Neat whiskey is easy enough to remember, sir.”

“How’s the family?” Hadriel asked.

“Doing well, sir, business has been treating me well enough. Still gets rowdy in here quite often-” he paused to look around at the mess Hadriel made, “...but the mistress ensures all tabs are paid on time and any damages are compensated.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. The only thing I regret is that I’ve made a mess for you to clean up.” he offered a sympathetic smile and drank the entire glass, set it down, and motioned for another. He smelled noticeably like booze as it were, using a pocket-brush as he waited for the drink.

“Don’t give it a second thought, sir. Again, I’m more worried for you right now.”

A different voice sounded as the attendant rushed down the stairs, looking exceptionally calm, “Sir, Mistress Himaa will see you now.” he offered a respectful bow as Hadriel downed the rest of his whiskey in a fluid motion.

Hadriel made his way upstairs guided by the attendant, walking past various rooms behind a series of paper partitions. When he got to the largest center-room, the attendant slid the door open and backed up for him to go through with another bow. Hadriel briefly rubbed a little omamori he was carrying, gifted to him.

“Did you have to be so mean to my boys?” The voice was pleasant but clearly laden with an irritated tone. She sat at a table, the lighting was dark with but a candle flickering in the private room. The young woman was a delicate looking Xaela wearing a rather agitated expression. Though she looked soft, she was dressed in an intimidating fashion donning a black suit. The most striking feature was, however, her heterochromia- specifically that one eye shined a bright blue glowing singularly in the darkness.

“Have to? No. But I did enjoy it. Maybe they should’ve let me walk in and see you instead of making a deal out of it. A healer friend recently took care of an old wound I had, figured I’d stretch my legs out a bit. You know, sometimes you don’t know what really ails you until someone else points it out. A passive pain that grows and grows and your body has already become accustomed to it so it’s like… just another part of life, another day.”

She huffed disregarding his little monologue, “Still wearing that dumb eye patch to cover up such a proud symbol.”

“Anyway, I know your attention span is pretty shit so, the moral of the story is that dealing with the lot of you is lately is making me realize what a festering wound it’s left.”

She narrowed her eyes, “The lot of us? You have some nerve coming in here with that attitude, Hadriel. I’m not your enemy. Most of us are content enough to leave you alone.”

“Most, Adala?” he responded.

“Most of us remember why the Garleans gave a kill-on-sight order and nicknamed you the Wolf of Yanxia. You set the record for most imperial regiment captains assassinated. Still gets me hot and bothered thinking about it.” she winked at him with a devious smirk, “Remember, if you ever get over your dead wife I’ll be more than happy to show you what you’ve been missing out on… anyway, I can’t say your hands are clean in this either. You’re the one who chose to walk away from the Black Blades of Doma.”

“I chose to walk away because even through everything I’ve done for the organization, none would help me chase the traitor I was hunting for years that fled to Eorzea.”

Another presence seemed to saunter in from the shadows, a Midlander Hyur with dark hair and crimson highlights wearing a raven-colored dress. Even for a spell-flinger she was known for her dramatic entrances. She often enjoyed translocation through aetherial manipulation. Her bright red eyes focused on Hadriel as she spoke, “That was a personal vendetta. Not something the organization was interested in.”

“Carrera. No one. Invited. You.” the Xaela spoke.

“As far as I care the organization has fallen far and deep from what we once stood for. Common thugs collecting ‘protection fees’ and harassing the citizens we fought to free from oppression.” he continued.

“Tch. Three executives in one room, how often does that happen? Anyway, waging war costs money. It’s not a stretch to say that it’s a protection fee.” Adala offered calmly.

“Former executive.” Hadriel rebutted. “Speaking of which, what happened to your eye?” he asked Carrera.

She slowly brought a hand past her face to cover her expression a moment revealing her left eye to be much like Adala’s- a lightly glowing bright blue. She reversed the motion and as her hand passed the color restored to a crimson. “A simple glamour any third-rate caster can manage. Well, without you our numbers fall to eight now.”

“We lost someone?” he inquired.

“Oh, it’s we now?” Adala retorted, “Yes. Daichi is the one who sent those boys after you that you chopped up and sent us in barrels. Nice, by the way. He’s the one whose been heading up those fees you’re talking about. We let it happen because, like I said, wars cost money.”

“But he was getting brazen and we handled it. You left but you did not do so on bad terms. We voted to leave you be considering your accomplishments and contributions. I don’t know what you’re thinking but we didn’t devolve into rabid animals after you left. The fact that you were left alone for so long so uncharacteristically of the Black Blades isn’t because we couldn’t reach you. Rather that we didn’t want to reach you. Then he broke that agreement. So we removed him. Believe it or not, the majority of us empathized with you and were sad to see our own brother go.” the other elaborated.

“The majority? Heh. Could have fooled me. Feels like we were always at odds.” He added.

Carrera continued softly, “Your spot has been left vacant in the hopes that you would return to us once your vendetta came to its conclusion. The vote to replace your position was a four to five split. Three did not want to replace you, a fourth felt there was no worthy successor at the time so voted against, a fifth also in your favor however felt it was easier to have nine executives rather than ten since it’s easier to get motions passed instead of having pointless fights to make a decision. And then we just lost Daichi so… we’re back to arguing a lot.”

“So three liked me. That’s three more than I thought. And far from a majority.”

“Is the bar-owner business going well? You have what, three now?” Carerra asked coolly, “I hear you joined a Free Company. Ashen Wolves? Mn? Oh and who was their director? A cute Miqo’te if I remember correctly… M-something... Mira? How is that working out for you?”

Adala slammed the table with a fierce expression, “You’re cheating on me?”

He simply raised his hand to his face with an overt sigh, “... Back to this again. How can I be cheating on you when we were never together. I really didn’t miss this part. And you, what are you getting at?”

“Nothing.” she responded in a sing-songy voice. “Just curious is all. So how about it Hadriel? Come back to us. We’ve fixed the problem, no harm, no foul and the power balance has shifted in our favor.”

Adala chimed in, “The wolf of Yanxia joining a pack of wolves? That’s cute.”

“I’ll consider it. Just stay the fuck away from the free company.”

“Ohh?” Carrera said in a faux saddened tone, “Here I wanted to see what you were up to. Well, how about we make a deal, hmn? No one has to know who I am, we can even say I’m your attendant. It’ll be convenient for me to operate out of the area since now I happen to have business in Eorzea as well.”

“My attendant? That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Oh? Attendant, assistant, whatever. Well I thought it’d be decent enough cover for me. You need help managing your business too, right? You know I’m pretty good with numbers.”

Adala figured Carrera had an ulterior motive but quietly listened. The two weren’t in the habit of getting in each other’s way.

“As if I’d let you touch much less look at my ledgers. What’s your angle?”

“I have my reasons. But also, let’s just say I want you to feel like you made the right choice. We didn’t support you when you moved your hunt to Eorzea and you needed us- put the shoe on the other foot. I’m asking you a favor right now too, and expanding my interests back into Eorzea. And making amends on behalf of the others. Are you going to leave me to fend for myself or can I count on you?”

Hadriel considered a hundred different reasons why it was a bad idea and thought of a thousand more as why specifically she was trying to angle into his new organization.

“So you want me to rejoin the Black Blades and you want to come over to my new organization. This doesn’t look, smell, sound, taste or even feel right.”

“There’s a lot in it for you that you refuse to see. Your networks in Hingashi and Doma will not only be restored to you in full, they’ve expanded greatly, and I’m sure that’ll be of personal benefit to you, as well as to your wolves. But one thing at a time. If you accept our offer then we can call for a summons of all the executives and discuss your reinitiation. Though I’m sure if but one of us simply drops your name they’d all show up regardless. Just think about it.” She slides an old Doman coin over with a devlish grin.

Hadriel opened his mouth and meticulously chose his words, looking to Carrera carefully, “I have a strange feeling that… one of us is going to regret this.”

#mentions: @smira-asah-xiv

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