When the gypsy reached the front counter of the shop, not only was her bag of clothes awaiting her, but a message as well.

"Mrs... Valentia, right? There was a very urgent message left here for you earlier, which I had to write down...urm...somewhere... on a paper here because I did not quite understand it, and..." the young clerk trailed nervously off, disappearing behind the register to rummage around for his note, and leaving Cadenza to ponder what this sudden and important "message" could be.

The first conclusion she immediately jumped to was that it was from Rain--it wasn't far to jump when her thoughts were already circling around him--but then she reminded herself that him leaving her a message on the ship would make no sense. He'd left the ship--why would he bother coming all the way to the store to leave a note, especially when getting himself some nourishment was so much more important? That idea had obviously missed the line to pick up some logic on its way to her attention.

But... if not the vampire, then who?

All her wondering was cut short by the re-emergence of the awkward young clerk from the behind the counter. "The message w-was, and I quote, 'The Fisher's in the city, and he has his Bait.' The person p-put special emphasis on the 'The' and wanted to make sure I knew 'Fisher' and 'Bait' should be capitalized and... why do you suddenly look so worried, Mrs. Valentia? Your eyes went kinda wide for a second."

"...Who left you this message?" Cadenza demanded, ignoring the boy's questions.

He looked from the fist she'd just slammed down on the counter, to her blazing blue eyes, and anxiously back down to the tightening fist. He knew he was supposed to stay calm and professional with the customers... but he couldn't help letting a muffled gulp escape his mouth. "W-well it was some tall blonde lady in a white dress... I... I kinda felt faint when she first came, but someone said she had an expensive-looking firefly pendant on too that I didn't notice... do you... know her?"

The gypsy's eyes had gone wide for a moment again at the mention of the firefly... it didn't seem as if she'd heard the clerk's last sentence. When he blinked again, she'd seemed to have just vanished--as if she'd melted into her own shadow or something. But she couldn't have... his mind must have been playing tricks on him. He chalked it up to the stress of a long day, and went back to business.

In the shadows, Cadenza was rushing, bags in hand, towards the port city.

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