It's hard to find true equilibrium.

[thesilentstorm]

Lindblum was, in Lumi's opinion, a singularly awful city.

Built atop a mountain, or possibly a cliff, it bore the sort of architecture that made it amply clear that it had been added to over time, that it had started off much smaller and had grown, almost organically, outwards and then upwards, like a particularly unpleasant fungus of mismatched brick and tile all contained within the immense castle's fortified walls.

Lumi's nose had wrinkled as they made the approach to the Falcon's Gate via airship. Even from a distance he could see that, without more space for the city to crawl beyond the walls, as most seemed to when they outgrew a castle's ramparts, it had just gotten ... taller. Idly, he had wondered how it would fare in the event of an earthquake.

Once the airship had docked and he and Marluxia had disembarked, he decided that the city was even worse than it had looked from their approach. The winding streets and irregular buildings did little but compound the fact that the city was not purpose-built. Some of the houses leaned like drunkards and some of them had larger, over-hanging upper floors, as though they had been added to at a later date by a less skilled builder. It looked disorganised, ramshackle and untidy.

With any luck, they wouldn't be there long.

They were in the city on a mission, or, at least, a favour. In deference to the alliance he had made with the most recently recruited of his old ... "colleagues", Marluxia had agreed to make a trip to Even's old home to pick up some items that he hadn't thought to bring with him on his would-be temporary relocation to Daguerreo. It wasn't safe for him to go himself, on any front, and Marluxia had the freedom of movement accorded to an established and voluntarily joined member of Clan Khamja.

Lumi stood in the street outside the Air Cab station, a frown on his face at the feel of the uneven cobbled floor under the soles of his shoes. It was a warm day, but it was growing clear that Summer was on its way out in this part of the world. The breeze that blew down the street carried upon it the scent of woodsmoke, hanging baskets and the promise of rain. It was, despite the pleasant day, cool enough to make Lumi stiffen where he stood. He scowled, looking up. The sky was, at least, still blue, though grey clouds were visible in the distance.

He looked to Marluxia for direction. It was he who had the address of Even's old residence.

Comments

[notjustanyolddude]

"Yeah," Xigbar said, a nasty smirk on his face that was audible in his voice, "you always did like buddying up to powerful people."

Lumi was damn good at not making a peep. That was irritating. If Xigbar could get a fix on his location, he could shoot him without ever having to come out from cover. All he needed was a good idea of where exactly the bastard was standing.

But Marluxia would know that, or at least, would be able to surmise that, and would try and keep it from happening.

"So, what are you doing rooting around in Vexen's study?" He readied his preferred gun and slipped to the door of the dining room again. It was a pity it wasn't in Vexen or Saix's tastes to put mirrors about; they'd have been real useful right about now.

Was Lumi going to be waiting for him at the drawing room door, or just inside it, waiting for him to stick his head in and force him to turn his back on at least one of them to get shot at or.... Magicked at, judging by Marluxia's performance in the past? It wasn't a question Xigbar wanted answered the hard way.