Nine Swords

Quietly stepping inside the coffee house and shutting the door behind him, an unfamiliar face walks in and looks around. He is wearing all black except for his tie, which is blood red. Strangely he keeps his dark sunglasses on even in the dim light of the Coffee house. Slowly he walks to the counter and orders a simple bottled water ,nothing more. He leans against the end of the counter without taking a seat on the barstool right next to him, and watches the room as if he is looking for something or someone.

A woman in a worn brown leather jacket and jeans walks in to the coffee shop, quietly muttering unflattering comments about someone or something.

"~Slithering green reptile....immature...irresponsible...absolutely useless as anything but live bait.~"

She stops at the counter next to the man, crosses her arms and glares at the menu board. After a moment of though and a deep sigh, she looks at the man with the dark sunglasses.

"Ok, I can't decide. Americano or Cafe Late, what do you suggest?"

" hmm? What was that? " he replied as his attention goes from the Coffee Bar to the person speaking to him.

"Oh Sorry. Go for the Latte. I hear it's quite good.", he continued as he adjusted his shades.

The door to the store room opens and a man in a worn Templar combat suit steps behind the counter. He is talking the waitress who follows him, "... quite nasty really. Shouldn't be a problem again, but I'd order a new batch of choclate sprinkles if I were you." He stops, seeing customers, checks the young lady's drink, "No sprinkles, you'll be fine." he says.

Adjusting his cap, he heads to a chair by the window where a discarded paperback is lying on a nearby table. Picking it up, he settles down and starts reading.

Sep stares at her Latte for a while then slowly turns to the man reading near the window.

"Umm, so theoretically, what might happen if I had sprinkles this morning on my mocha?."

Looking up over the top of his book, he replies "Well, you know how mouse droppings look a lot like raisins, it's something like that. With bigger mice. Who have six legs. And tentacles." He goes back to reading, finishes the page and looks back up before closing the book.

"It's dealt with now, and we 'think' they only got into the one bag. Mary's phoned the manager and I've got in touch with my boss, and we're going to fund a new delivery of stock. Richard does like his morning tea, but his secretary gets quite jittery without his coffee." He turns and looks out the window. Grey clouds are gathering in the sky and the air has that colour of rain about it.

"Winter's coming fast," he says, before looking up with a wry smile and saying expectantly "Dark days are coming."

Silas looks over at the man with the book and chuckles softly. "Your generosity is refreshing. I just hope your 'mice' don't have friends who will want revenge," Silas chuckles again and orders another bottled water.

"Name's Naite by the way" he replies looking over. "If they happen to have family or back-up, Mary's got my number if they need me again, but I'm pretty much a regular anyway. Your face however seems new round here."

" I'm not really new around here, I just don't get to London much. I spend most of my time abroad. I'm Silas. Pleasure to meet you, Naite." Silas replied as nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Your name sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. I think we might have met before. I could be wrong though."

Sep just glances from one man to the other and listens to the conversation while drinking her coffee.