#teledji

Living corpses were something Esredes loved and hated in equal measure. When it was a dear fellow harrier he long thought potentially dead showing up to his door, or a different fellow harrier discovered alive in Gridania, or even, he would admit, the empty husk of his brother appearing again claiming to be better and surprisingly actually meaning it- those were all good living corpses.

And then there were the bad kinds. Mad scientists from centuries ago suddenly alive again, or lord forbid, greedy parasitic bastards who for some reason were apparently alive despite being sliced in half.

Now, that on its own would be a whatever. He was an awful person who deserved to die, sure, but if he wasn’t hurting anyone, who cared if he was hiding out at some fancy hotel? Not Esredes, particularly, if not for some unfinished business, to put it lightly.

Or in his case, vengeance.

For this was no ordinary somehow-alive horrible syndicate member, it was an ordinary somehow-alive horrible syndicate member who had pledged to help his cause.

He still remembered the meeting clearly enough. The Lalafell from Ul’dah, in addition to complaining of cold, had claimed to be someone of influence interested in helping his people for business purposes. Food and supplies for rare materials like molted dragon scales. That on its own would have been fair enough. He wouldn’t expect someone so far from the conflict and Ul’dahn to be invested in it for anything else, and he could take on a few purely business deals as long as the person was fair about it. He had even helped supply them for their failed invasion on Ishgard. If the man simply wanted to keep it quiet and disassociate from the harriers in light of the war, so be it.

No, what Esredes couldn’t stand was people who played to both sides. Business was one thing, but using his people purely as a means for monetary gain while also assisting their enemies was another. And for someone from Ul’dah, no less, who had the lowest chance of being in such a position! Hiding that he was a Syndicate member was one thing, it only made sense, and Esredes would have never expected to have accidentally talked to a Syndicate member in need of money. But revealing allegiance to those blue-coated bastards who had helped to kill his people at Snowcloak?

Oh, that was another, dear little rat.

It was a shock to find out their little helper was actually Teledji Adeleji after the man had already died. But it was even more of a shock for him to find out the man was alive and the manager of a hotel now, as if that had never happened. As if nothing had ever happened. Oh, but everything had happened, and Esredes, above all else, wanted answers.

Mirage Crown.

It was a very nice looking hotel from the exterior, Esredes could admit. And in such an ideal location. Had it not belonged to an oversized rat, Esredes wouldn’t mind staying here if he ever had need to.

But today was not about hotels or vacations. Today was about finding out what kind of security this place had. He had no need to sneak in elaborately or anything of that nature, yet, no, this was a test run. He would walk in as normal and see if there was any chance of confronting the man. As tempting as it was, Esredes wasn’t sure he could get away with proper murder- again- but he could certainly do a host of other things.

The man pocketed the notepad and took in a deep breath, then proceeded to do what any person would- simply walk into the establishment normally. With a visible sword as always at his side. And see what would come of it.

One way or another, he would find what he wanted out of this place. And whatever became of the method...