August’s text had been pretty clear, he stood now outside of Herbs & Hexes and rocked absently on his heels with his hands in his pockets. Night would be upon them soon, but there was still an hour of daylight left, time still to venture into the belly of the beast: the home of Philippe Ballard. August mused at the thought, his attention more towards the inevitable task that the Regium vampire would have he and his newfound cousin carry-out. Apparently it was strange to Aria that Philippe had contacted August first, in retrospect, it seemed a bit odd to him, as well. August was the thief, after all, but he would not pretend to understand the inner-workings of whatever complicated history existed between Aria and Philippe.

It did him some good, putting his hands to some use, he’d spent the afternoon preparing a repertoire of spell works that would hopefully serve him through the events that were to follow. While August was surprised at how long Philippe waited to call, he could not be offended, after all, August himself had been busy. Since his last encounter with the regium, the witch had been fortuitous indeed. His eyes, trained firmly forward, where once August had allowed glib distractions to deter him, he’d become resolute in his pursuits.

“You look terrible.” August breezed, teasing. “Are you ready?”