Liaena had been eying Nisha with a look of combined distrust and malevolence, the big cat cracking its jaws open in a huge uncaring yawn that showed off a highly impressive set of teeth. Upon hearing Sharons words she looked up at him, as her face formed a slight grimace. “…No. Thea…my contact said she would sort it out, but maybe we need to stop off by the Cathedral or…”

“Mistress!”

Serphia turned, as did Liaena to see one of the Watchers from the gate approach. From one hand there was dangling a boy, looking to be in his early teens, wearing the dull grey tunic and robes that could be identified as Cathedral servants or support staff. Having reached the group, the watcher promptly dropped the boy with a quiet ‘splat’ onto the slushy ground beneath her, where he landed on his face. “He was asking to come in, Mistress. Says he has a message for Syn’dials monkey”

“Is **that** your help?” Rithrynn enquired from somewhere over Liaena’s head, sounding highly unimpressed with the situation. Liaena chose to ignore her, moving to crouch down gingerly next to the boy in the slush. “Uh. Hi, Rory. Why are you here?”

“Looking for you” The boy said sullenly as he peeled his face out of the muck of the garden to give her an accusatory look. That expression quickly shifted to one of terrified compliance as Nisha padded over to sniff him, as he looked at Liaena pleadingly. “…I-I got asked to deliver a message. Nobody mentioned _tigers_”

“Well, life’s a bitch” Liaena muttered tetchily, having little patience even to affect sympathy with the clock ticking and success chances slipping away by the moment. “Where is it?”

“…”

Even in the presence of tigers, thrift apparently won out. The two teens engaged in a staring match for a few moments before Liaena relented and fished in her pocket for a coin. Proffered a small, folded over scrap of paper in return, the girl quickly unfolded it. The brief message read as follows.

_Meet you by the Steps.
You suck.
B_

_
“….You must be joking”_

**“SYNDIAL!”** Serphia’s voice thundered, sounding deeply unimpressed with the situation. Looking up, Liaena became aware that most of the Night Sabres were already at the gates. Nisha, Rithrynn and Sharon were the only ones remaining, the former bobbing about in impatience to leave having decided that the new arrival didn’t smell very delicious. Flapping a hand at Rithrynn in a ‘just one moment’ fashion, Liaena turned quickly back to the boy. “Isn’t there anything else? Did you speak to Thea? Did you – ooff!”

An impatient purple hand had grabbed Liaena by the back of her robes as Nisha gambolled past, slinging her like a sack of potatoes onto the Night Sabre. Liaena found herself clutching onto Sharon for dear life to remain in the saddle after her highly undignified landing, rapidly coming to the conclusion that she would prefer a runaway cab to the up-and-down motion of a big cat any day of the week. “HEY!”