"The name of this one is Neptune. May I know the young lady's name?"
They were dazed for a brief moment before Lily spoke," uh! I am Lily. She is my sister, Jasmine."
We stared at each other for a few seconds before I asked again,
"If it isn't too presumptuous of me, may I know the reason for why you did what you did? I don't want to repeat my mistake again."
Hearing my request, she snapped out of her stupor before looking around once more. Though this time, her gaze was fixed for a moment. Looking in the same direction, she was watching out for a bunch of guards again.
"I will tell you. But can you wait for a few minutes?" She was pretty nice, so I waited for her to speak. We both just stood there as the guards had walked quite a bit from here before she finally sighed again and turned at me with a wry smile.
"Well, Neptune. I don't know what your purpose of visiting the city is… but you came at a bad time. Since you seem like a nice guy, the best thing I can tell you is to leave the city and return a few months later."
She seemed rather genuine with her words. But since we can't do that,
"I am afraid I cannot do that," I made a dejected face as I continued," I am supposed to meet my brother in this city after quite a long time."
She turned quiet before thinking a little. And then she firmly spoke," then it would be better to lie low until your brother arrives. And then leave the city with him as fast as you can."
This time I gave a long sigh as I continued," I apologize, but it seems I can't do that either. My brother, you see… is a bit peculiar."
Confused, those girls looked at me, wondering what could I mean by that.
"He is a bit on the childish side and seems to keep hiding himself. It's always hard to find him, too. For now, he said that he will stay in this city for a month, so I have ample time. Think of it as hide and seek between brothers?" I tried to make up shit as I spoke. A bit of loopholes and too much incomplete information.
"Just what kind of…" Lily paused as she looked at me with slight pity before I continued,
"Well. All of my brothers have at least one nut cracked. Trust me, he is the most sane one among us."
I tried laughing it off, but they weren't smiling. So I chugged my laugh in my gut and looked at them with a serious look again.
"So? How are you going to find this brother of yours?" This time, the young lady, Jasmine, asked.
"Well. I got my means. But he should at least be in my sight if I want to confirm he is my brother," I told them before changing the topic.
"You said that it was a bad time for me to appear here? If it is all right, can you tell me what is going on?"
My face turned a little serious as I looked at them while they were hesitating.
"Please! I just want to find my brother and get out of here. I promise, we won't be causing you any inconvenience." I pushed a bit more. Concern written all over my face.
"Sister… I think we should tell him," Jasmine spoke with misty eyes while Lily was still contemplating.
"All right," she then sighed as she continued," since you are gonna stay in the city for a while, you will end up finding out about it one way or another. But… not here. Let's wait till dawn."
I nodded at them as I sat down on one of the chairs around while the sisters sold the flowers. I kept quiet as I waited for them for a couple of hours while keeping a check on the incoming customers.
'By now, my clone must have followed the same path as me and sent Aisha, Geralt and Vladmir to search for information,' I thought as I saw the sun slowly set. Let's see how much I can dig by dawn tomorrow.
Time passed, and finally the sisters started sorting the flowers, preparing to close the shop. I wanted to help, but they said that they can do it by themselves. It was a nice sight to see the girls doing all the work by themselves. They seemed quite professional, too.
And once the work was done, they looked at me and spoke," come with us. It's not exactly safe here."
I nodded and started walking behind them as they took me through a couple of alleyways. While not exactly a maze, the path turned a couple of times. Took a 20-minute walk before we reached a blind alley. The blind alley was stinking with all the trash being dumped there.
Lily then lifted her skirt and stepped up on one of the large trash bins before knocking thrice on the reachable window. A few seconds passed before a stair made of rope fell from the terrace.
Lily looked at me and spoke," let me go first and then come. Jasmine will follow behind you," before she started climbing.
'I guess this counts as an adventure too?' I thought as I followed behind her, towards the terrace top. I looked at Lily going up, before I put my head down a little.
'White,' I thought before I shook my head and then reached the top with Jasmine right behind me as she picked up the rope as well.
"Who is he?" A boy in orange asked from the terrace gate as he narrowed his gaze at me. He was the same kid as before who escaped the guards.
I waved my hand at him, while Lily, who was observing me carefully, finally spoke," our next sacrifice."