HE WAS LATE. He had said to meet at midnight and now the clock was nearing the first hour. Seven stared grumpily down at her empty class, debating if it was worth trying to get at the last drabs of liquor.

"Waiting on someone?" Asked a barman, leaning casually as he polished a glass with a greying rag. She shook her head, "No."

"That's pretty." He commented, nodding his head towards her pendant with a smile. "It matches your eyes, —Where'd you get it from, it's my sisters birthday next week and I'm sure she'd love something like that."

Tonight she had shed her silk in favour something a little more dangerous, —a devastating pair of leather trousers, and an onyx blouse half tucked, unbuttoned to her chest, to reveal the necklace. "Thank you." She mumbled, reminiscing the taste of whiskey on her teeth as she thumbed the emerald stone. "And I don't remember... It was a gift, —I think."

"Fine, keep your secrets, —Do you want another?" He chuckled as he took her glass, and she shook her head, the little change she had left in her pocket was just enough to tide her over until the morning.

"Come on, —I'll get you one for the road." He shot her a devilish wink, and disappeared off before she could protest. She wasn't complaining of course, she needed one last dose to sleep tonight, before fall into unconsciousness before the monsters came for her, as they so often did at night.

When he returned a moment later he placed a three quarters full bottle of Fire-Whiskey on the bar with a dull thud. "There you go, on the house."

  "That's too much," Seven's eyes widened greedily, "—Really, I can't drink all that alone."

It was a lie of course, Seven could drink that and more as she did most nights to keep the nightmares at bay, except for the past three days she'd decided she needed to kick the wicked habit, and limited herself to one per day, —just to take the edge off.

"Well in that case," He smirked in a way that made her skin crawl, "My shift finishes in ten, wait for me and I'm sure I can help you out a little and in exchange all I ask is that you allow me a secret."

Maybe it was something in the way he said it, maybe it was that Seven knew all too well that nothing in this world came without a price, or maybe, —maybe it was nothing at all. —But feeling of dread began to settle in Seven's stomach, like a weight that she couldn't shift.

When she didn't answer the barman opened his mouth as if to speak, only no words left his lips. Instead his face turned ashen as a corpse and he began to back away from Seven as if she had suddenly transfigured into some great beast.

An explanation came in the form of the storm cloud of  a boy that slid into the seat beside her, only now a wicked-looking cut carved across his cheekbone, and the skin beneath hinted at violet bruises to come.

Seven made a point of paying him little mind, instead pouring herself a hefty glass, and letting the fire scorch her throat with a smirk. "—I'd hate to see the other man."

For once he didn't answer, he had no quip or cutting remark, favouring the bottle as he reached behind the bar and stole a glass, helping himself to whatever he pleased.  
  —The dark look on his face spoke for him.

They were dead.

  "What was that about?" He grunted, cocking his head to where the barman had been and taking a deep drag of his liqueur.

  "He wanted to know all my secrets." She said coyly which caused the boy to scoff and after a minute she added, "So what's the plan then?"

  He stared down at his glass, swirling the contents and watching the honeysuckle waves as they fought the frozen, ice cubes struggling to surface beneath the due. "...You see that man there." He discreetly nodded his head somewhere off to the left, and Seven's eyes were instantly drawn to a middle-aged man sat alone at the far end of the bar. "—He works for Echo."

  "So?" As far as she was concerned after overhearing the conversation in the alley she had almost all the relevant pieces to the puzzle of the next Sin's location, she just needed to find a way to put them all together.

"—So, I've been watching him." He said, tossing back the last of his liqueur and pouring himself a second. "Every night he leaves at the exact same time, one-thirty, and walks the same route home by the canal... Thus I say we either follow him, or ambush him."

  Seven raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "You think Echo's men would know better than to walk alone..."

   "—Whether he's brave or foolish, I guess we'll have to wait and find out."

  "So how do we do it? —You don't even know how armed he is, and even if you disarm him, —then what? ...Please tell me you atleast have a plan."

  He turned to her with a wicked challenge in his eye, glinting like the stars that so fascinated Seven. "Do you trust me?"

  She barely knew him, and in what little time they'd spent together he'd knocked her out, stolen her letters, and promised that he was not an enemy she'd like to make.
But something within Seven felt oddly at home beside the boy, in an almost achingly familiar kind of way, as if she'd known him long ago, far away from here, possibly in another life. And in some strange way she did trust him, though no matter how she tried, she couldn't quite figure out why. She didn't even know his name.
Seven knew better than to object, as she swallowed her pride and gave a solemn nod, which caused a devastating grin to grace his lips. "—Good."

• • •

  THE CLOCK STRUCK one-thirty and Seven stood up, burying the bottle of Fire Whiskey in her purse and exiting the bar, just in time, and a minute or two later the man began to trail behind her.

  Seven guessed him to be in his fifties, a short, balding man, with a hooked nose and crooked teeth, yellowed by years of hard liqueur and cigars.

  The walk alongside the canal was eerily quiet and void of life, —especially for the Lust District. Seven's only company was the coloured streetlights reflecting off the water, casting it crimson like a river of blood.

  When she levelled with the alley she paused, just as she'd been instructed too, riffling around in her purse in search of something she knew she wouldn't find as she placed a cigarette between her teeth.

  "Excuse me," she glanced up, smiling sweetly as the haggard man passed, "You don't by chance have a lighter on you I could borrow?"

  A creeping cold crawled down her spine as he looked her up and down, piggy eyes black with feral intent. She struggled to resist the urge to curse him then and there, —he gave a grunt and began patting his pockets till he located the right one, handing her a lighter between thick fingers.

Seven hid her disgust well, buried it deep beneath a familiar facade of innocence as she struck the flame and took a deep breath of smoke. "Do you want one?" She asked, holding out the packet.

He eyed her suspiciously, but soon his caution gave way to greed. A deadly sin for an equally deadly mistake.

The second the cigarette met his lips a scarlet curse that Seven didn't recognise broke free of the alley and brought him to his knees before her. Eyes still wide and mouth slightly parted as if frozen in time as her accomplice emerged from the darkness. "Bring him in here."

With a flick of her wand, Seven had the body dragged into the alleyway behind her, where the boy propped it up against the wall, leaning in close to the vile man and whispering something Seven didn't quite catch before standing straight. She'd never noticed how tall he was before, easily clearing six foot he towered over her, even though she wasn't small herself.

  "Liquescimus." —And with that the spell was lifted. Instantly the man erupted in an almighty gasp, chest heaving with deep, hungry breaths as his body relaxed.

  Between pants he glared at his two captors, as if debating trying his luck against them. Both were less than half his age, and one a female he bet he could easily overpower. —But he was wrong.

  He leaped to his feet, aiming a heavy fisted blow towards the male, only he didn't get that far as the moment he stood Seven kicked him in the groin, effectively folding him, then shoved him back down hard. She kicked him again just for good measure, forcing a shout from his bloody lungs.

  Seven knelt down, grabbing a fistful of the man's hair and yanking his head back. "—Scream and I'll tear your tongue from your skull, see if I won't." He grit his teeth to withhold a whimper, but Seven wasn't done yet as she pressed her face close to his, "—Try it, I fucking dare you, —just give me a reason."

  "—Alright, alright!" She released him and his head fell forwards into his hands. "Just tell me what you want!"

  The boy spoke up, until now he had only stood back and watched Seven, arms crossed and an unreadable look on his face. "What do you know about the sins?"

  "The same as everyone else!" He coughed and blood spattered the cobble. "—They're the Dark Lord's right hands... Lust, Greed...Gluttony,—Pride, Envy, Sloth...W—"

  "—We know who they are." Said the pale-haired boy darkly. He didn't shout, he didn't need too. His quiet was far more terrifying, like the silence right before a storm. "...What do you know about the Sins coming here."

When at first he didn't speak, Seven reached into her belt, preparing to pull the dagger from its home. He saw her slight movement and blurted, "Gluttony!  —She, She's coming first! —On the twenty seventh of this month, the Tuesday!"

  "Where?" Seven hissed. That was the same thing Mundungus had said, but without a location the information was fruitless.

  "—The Law Courts, in Greed! They're all staying separately—I don't know where, I know know what Echo told me, —but the meeting's in the Law Courts..."

Seven and her accomplice exchanged glances, and he gave a small nod, the man was telling the truth.

The Greed District was at least a weeks travel from here, and only twelve days remained until the twenty seventh. But still, even if they got there in time and somehow managed to bypass Gluttony's security, they still had no clue where exactly she was.

By the time the other Sins arrived it would already be too late, they'd have no hope of killing any of them, unless they could devise some great master plan to take them all out at once...
  Seven cast a glance to the boy. Only God knew what he was capable off. Maybe together, they could figure something out...

  "Where do we find Echo?"

***
QOTD-Who do you think Echo is?
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