R O X A N A
All the Shens were at attention. From the boss, Secondhand Ferris, all the way down to the fresh meat… kids, some no older than fifteen. Arris Windrun stood in the middle, literally and figuratively, as the speedercade pulled up to their base - a big brick building. It was the first time a Family visited the Shens' base in her time, but Hic had told her it had happened before. That usually, according to him, meant something bad was about to happen. Suffice it to say, young Arris was more than a little nervous.
Out stepped the well-dressed thugs. One walked to the landspeeder in the middle, a beautiful XP-291 that just drew her in, and opened the side door. It was that click that caused all the older Shens to stand a little taller. The mimic in her did the same, and she watched as a blonde-haired man stepped out. He was immaculately groomed, wearing threads that could pay for at least ten tickets to Coruscant and back. Trailing him was a young woman of strong resemblance who looked to be around Arris’s age. She looked... sad.
Ferris walked down the steps to greet them, exchanging words with the man.
Hic leaned into her earshot. “Jond Bel Numen - and his kid.”
‘Bel Numen?’
Arris had heard the name in passing. “The casino?” She whispered back.
An older Shen, passing by, smacked them both on the back of the head. They stood at attention. Ferris walked inside with Bel Numen and his daughter in tow.
Hic opened his mouth to say something, but Arris had slipped away. She was good at that, and by the time anyone else noticed she was gone, the street rat was already clambering up the back of the building. She carefully lifted herself onto a metal pipe, then the concrete ledge after that, until she rested her back beside the slatted window into Ferris’s office.
“Then we have a deal. The ledger for my daughter. Yes?”
‘Ledger? Daughter?’
Just what the hell was going down in there? She couldn’t quite make out what Ferris said next, and then she heard the door close. Arris leaned a little closer, but then the shutter folded up with the sound of a shuffled deck, and Ferris yanked her inside and onto the floor.
“Agh!” She yelped and fell flat on her stomach, nearly smacking her nose into the tile.
“Listening in, were we?” The boss drawled. “What did you hear?”
Windrun’s heart was racing. She looked up - hesitant.
“Well?”
She stammered. “S-Something about a ledger! T-That’s all!”
He helped her back to her feet. “Roxana will be staying with us for a while, and she’s going to need a friend around here.” So her name was Roxana.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled, but she knew that smile - his way of telling, not asking. ”Why don’t you keep an eye on her for me? You can visit her each day when you bring the morning chitset.” And there it was, the ask.
Arris nodded once like a good soldier. “On it,” she said. Though she wondered just what the old man expected her to learn.
He nudged her out the door.
