They arrived at an apartment, maybe it was her main one, maybe she had multiple places, Eru wasn’t sure. It was nicely decorated and looked like a girl lived there. Charmalina made him sit in a comfy chair and asked him if he wanted a drink.

“Sure a water would be good.” Charmalina returned with a nice cold glass of water with ice for Eru and one for herself as well.

“Here you go. I’m thirsty too, lucky that fight wasn’t too big. I am glad you can handle yourself well.” She sat down on a couch across from him.

“Thanks for everything. Are these gang fights normal? I haven’t seen any or heard anything about them on the news.” Eru sipped some of his water. Mmm, it was good and refreshing and very cold.

“They haven’t been common here but they seem to be increasing. Something is going on. I assume that is why you are here.” A phone rang. It was an encrypted video call from the council. Charmalina answered it and let the council know that Eru was there.

“Greetings Eru. Nice to see you are settling in well and found Charmalina. I was hoping that you would have made contact with her.” The council was all there, the same as his big fight. The fight seemed like ages ago now. They were dressed differently but still fancy. Eru wondered if maybe they would have fought him had it gone on longer.

The quiet one started to talk, “We want you to work together. As I am sure you two know big gang wars are starting to happen all over the place. Not just in the city you are in, all over the place. Different gangs, different motives. We feel something bigger is brewing. Find out what it is. You will most likely have to travel to other cities. You each will have an additional deposit in your accounts.”

The council member who started the call took over, “Time is of the essence as per usual but don’t be hasty.” With that he ended the call.

“Wow that was brief, were you expecting the call?” Eru asked Charmalina.

“No, they had given me that phone a few months ago when I started and it hasn’t been used since. This is really my first job for the council, I am not sure what to expect. Just recently I got information about you and to make contact discreetly with you. They certainly were brief I guess they didn’t want to sit around answering our questions”

“Any idea where we should go from here. I am new at this as well though I know how to take care of myself.”

Charmalina replied to Eru, “Hmm, maybe we could compile some of the recent big news items along with gang reports. I know where we can go to get some police reports that aren’t open to the public. That might help us find a clue or give us somewhere to go.” She yawned and continued talking, “I’m pretty tired right now though, in the morning we can start. If you want you can sleep on the couch or you can go to your place.”

Eru was tired too. It was quite late. He might as well stay on the couch. That way they could get started earlier and he could get to know her better. “I’ll stay. I’m exhausted too. It will be nice to get some sleep.”

“OK sounds good, let me get you some blankets.”

Eru went to sleep right away and slept pretty good for a few hours. He was awakened by a large boom. What was that he thought groggily.He slowly realized that it was an explosion. Charmalina came out of her room, “What was that explosion outside she asked?”