Knife met steak, fork met chunk of steak, chunk of steak met mouth. She chewed for a solid minute, eyes focused firmly on the clock on the wall for the entire duration. If she had to give Eorzea anything, it was that the quality of its food was absolutely sublime. The thought that this was considered low rate was impossible to fathom.
Brushing her white hair from her eyes, she leaned against the table, and continued her staring contest with the clock. Low rate as the establishment apparently was, she could do nothing but lavish it with praise. The food was intoxicating to her impoverished palate, and the staff had been more than accommodating when she had asked for a private corner. All it had taken was a bit of extra gil.
The same praise could not be given to the individual who was meant to meet her. They had been difficult to establish contact with, which was the nature of speaking to a thief. She was willing to dismiss that as the realities of her work. But that was where the difficulties were meant to end. Since their initial meeting, she had struggled to keep up the correspondence. Even establishing the details of this meeting had been difficult.
She stared at the clock for another fifteen minutes, setting her knife and fork on the table with an annoyed sigh, and raising a napkin to pat at her lips. Her currently incorporeal companion gave her the slightest taps on the shoulder, and she drifted to the hallway leading up to the private section. Someone was most certainly about to arrive. She could see the shifts in the hallways lighting, noticed the slight steps in the carpet. Even if the footsteps were silent, the signs were obvious.
"Do not waste any more of my time," she said coldly.
The raen emerged from her hiding spot in the hallway, grinning like an idiot. Her long pink hair shifted around untamed as she took her chair, and began digging into the steak that had sat there for an hour now.
Without waiting for her food to finish making its way down her gullet, the new arrival looked up at her contact, "When are you going to tell me what it is you wanna talk about lady?"
Bringing her napkin from her lap and setting it at on the table, the white haired woman took in a breath, calming herself from an outburst. "Now. And you shall not interrupt me, unless I ask you a question." There was no uncertainty in the words. Rolling her eyes, the raen motioned her to go on, loudly chewing with her mouth open.
"You are planning to steal something quite valuable," the white haired woman said flatly. The raen's face changed somewhat, looking more serious at the accusation, but any sort of response was cut off by the woman's raised finger.
"I will help you. You either accept my help, or you do not. If you do, you follow my plan to the letter. That is the offer. Do you accept it?"
The raen's face curled in offense, "Lady, I barely know you, and I don't need you to do my job. I don't even know your name."
"Angela Harkness," the hyur said flatly, leaning against the table. She didn't even offer the raen a moment to consider if it was an alias, "And you do. Else you will fail. You desire a rather expensive jewel, which is currently being toured around Ul'dah. You will try to steal it. You will fail." Again she slew the raen's opportunity to respond, "Yes or no. Answer now."
Sliding back in her seat, the raen clearly felt threatened. Her arms crossed, and she tried looking defiant, but whatever dismissive interest had been in her voice had vanished.
"Okay."
"Then we have a deal." 'Angela Harkness' stood, "I have supplies to gather, and will share further details with you at a later time. You will not make me wait the next time."
The raen nodded like a scolded child, staring at the steak on her plate, no longer feeling hungry. A chill ran down her spine as she felt a hand creep across her shoulder followed by what seemed to be high pitched laughter, long after her point of contact was long down the hallway.
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