39th of Hamis, 2718
Mid-Evening
Aurélien wished now that he had savored the time away from the office in Brunnhold a little more as he lugged his briefcase down the street towards one of the many tenements housing the young professional galdori of the city. The briefcase wasn’t the only thing he carried with him that day; on his back was a pack filled with the clothes of an acquaintance, a young man by the name of Palis Ainu.
Palis was one of the many guests at the latest party hosted at the LeClair manor. Aurélien remembered the young man fondly because of his playfully devious way of being, his strawberry blond and wavy hair, and his enchanting heterochromatic eyes. Someone with features so striking as that - at least to Aurélien - was simply and indisputably unforgettable.
When the party had started to wind down and the guests began to funnel out, Aurélien returned to his mother’s workshop and cleaned up the mess he and Palis made early on that evening. He found Palis’ discarded shirt and vest and collected them, taking them with him when he left the house the next morning to return to his own home in central Vienda. Though it had been quite some time since the party, he had put Palis’ clothes with his when getting them laundered and had been holding onto them since then. A moment had finally presented itself, allowing him the time to return Palis’ clothes to young Ainu.
Dutiful as Aurélien was, he was able to find where Palis lived and worked, and he walked down the street now with a slip of paper in hand with Palis’ address written down on it. He walked with a small flutter of butterflies in his belly, swelling up with each glimpse he took at the path that lay ahead. Aurélien nervously twitched, shuffling the paper between his forefinger and thumb. This nervousness was unfounded, he thought. He blamed it on Palis’ aggravating behavior and how he mischievously picked at the stoic-like calm Aurélien worked hard to cultivate. In spite of how seemingly annoying Palis was, Aurélien still sought out the man. He could have easily sent a courier to deliver the young man’s clothes to his doorstep, but here he was on a mission to deliver them himself.
Several moments later, Aurélien was walking down one of the halls of the tenement Palis lived in. He had forbid himself from feeling the flutters in his gut that reminded him of Palis’ bothersome behavior that he felt ambivalent about. He double-checked the slip of paper in his hand and matched it with the flat numbers posted on the walls near the doors. Once he was certain the door he stood in front of matched his paper, he folded the paper into his palm then rapped on the portcullis with his knuckles.