As written by Script
A few minutes later
Inarin's room at the monastery was, much like the rest, minimalistic. He perched on the edge of his bed, holding his phone up to his ear. It rang a few times before it was answered.
"Hey, In. What's up?"
"Hi Leon," Inarin smiled as his brother's voice answered. He'd worried that his brother might be busy on duty. "I need to ask you a favour. But how are you, first? It's been a while since we talked."
Aurelion laughed. "It's been a bit less than a week, In. I'm fine. Still on R&R, but starting to go stir-crazy. I'm glad I'm in the city, though. I have a bad feeling about everything that's going on here."
"With the packs?"
"That, and some other attacks across the city. Messy ones. Anyway, don't worry about it. They've not been anywhere near the monastery. What's this favour?"
"Okay, you can't tell anyone about this..."
"Uh... little hard to promise that before I know what it is, but if it's reasonable not to, then I won't."
That would have to do. "I'm going to a party tonight. With Aaro, Jimmy and Celeste. Uh, they're other proselytes. But um, we're sneaking out."
"In! You devil!" Aurelion sounded more amused than angry, "Those three must be a bad influence, because this isn't like boring old In at all!"
Inarin blushed, scowling. "I'm not that boring! I just..."
"I'm only teasing, In. But seriously... what brought this on?"
“We met a guy at a cafe after class,” Inarin explained, “Talked to him for a while. He asked us if we wanted to come.”
”Did he seem like a decent guy? How old was he? How insistent was he that you went?”
Inarin thought back to the conversation, frowning faintly as he tried to recall the details of how Arien had spoken to them. “Yeah... he seemed nice. He was around our age, and not very. He encouraged it, obviously, but he didn’t seem like he would have protested if we’d said no.”
”Hm. And where is the party?”
"Merveilleux. At 291 Coterie Avenue."
" Not a bad area... A lot of necromancers, but they're not normally any trouble. So it’s probably just a party. Still... with the city how it is right now, I’m not sure this is a good idea."
Inarin hesitated, grimacing. "I... the others will go even if I don’t. And there’s four of us, including two who aren’t far off of taking the silver."
There was a pause, before Aurelion spoke again. ”Alright, In. I’m not sure I like this, but I won’t tell anyone. What do you need from me?”
“I just wanted to let you know... so someone knows where we are, just in case... well, just in case something does happen.” Inarin sighed.
"There's the In I know. Always thinking three steps ahead. Alright, well consider me in the know. Now, listen. This is your first party, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay, so rules of thumb. Make sure you know what's in your drink - if a stranger offers you a drink, make sure you saw it poured or poured it yourself, and if you didn't, find a way to not drink it without being obviously impolite. Don't drink much, you won't have a high tolerance since you haven't drank before, and you need to walk yourself back to the Monastery and get back inside. Uh ... I guess if you get lucky, use protection? Do you have access to tha-"
"Leon!" Inarin's face went bright red.
"Hah! I can feel that blush from here. Sorry, In. But listen, all jokes aside... be careful. I know you will, since you're you, but really keep your head on. Don't get too drunk. You're just a kid. So are the other proselytes, no matter how close to taking the silver they are. If there's trouble, I want you to get out of there. Don't try and be a hero."
"That's... sort of what I was planning anyway. Thank you. For not telling anyone."
Aurelion sighed, "In, I took worse risks when I was in your shoes. But from my perspective now... well, I don't want anything to happen to you. But you have to have some fun. Make sure you do that."
"Huh?"
"Have fun, In." Aurelion laughed. "I'm glad you're getting out more. Are these three friends of yours? You've not mentioned them before.
"Um..." Inarin hesitated, "I ... guess so? I've talked to Aaro before, but the other two I only really talked to today. They seem nice, though. Celeste's a little terse, but Jimmy is ... nice."
"Are you twirling your hair right now, In?"
"What? No, why would I be?" Inarin blinked in confusion.
"No reason. Anyway, I'll let you get on with your party prep. Call me if anything goes wrong. I'll be up late working on reports, so don't worry about waking me up."
"Uh... alright. Thanks again, Leon."
"No problem. Have fun tonight. Bye!"
"Bye!" Inarin smiled as the phone cut out, and he slipped it into his pocket. Party preparations indeed. First things first, he needed to get some things ready for their escape plan...