"The Fallen Noble..."
From within the shadows, Helene silently read the name on the sign hanging outside the bar. It was written in dark red Intisian, though she could not tell whether it used some kind of blood or merely imitated the color of dried blood.
Iris did not enter the bar directly. Instead, she knocked on a window near the entrance. A moment later, a low male voice came from inside:
"What are you buying?"
With her dark red hair draped casually behind her head, the thin, rather flat-chested Iris answered in a shrill voice:
"How much is your loyalty worth?"
"At least ten thousand Verl D'Or!"
The man answered from behind the window, and the narrow opening immediately swung inward. Iris glanced around, braced herself against the sill, and nimbly climbed through before closing the window behind her.
They're exchanging passwords... So Iris really did have a purpose in mind when she set fire to a library in Lenburg, a country that values knowledge so highly. She deliberately committed a crime serious enough to get herself "exiled"... That also explains why she knows this city so well. Members of her organization had already infiltrated it and sent plenty of information back outside.
As Helene considered this, she circled through the darkness to the other side of the street, then emerged from the shadows created by the Shadow Cloak she had paid so dearly for. She strolled leisurely toward the Fallen Noble, intending to walk brazenly through the front entrance and see what was going on inside.
Of course, before approaching the bar's entrance, she scooped up a handful of the lead-gray dust carried over by the earlier volcanic eruption and rubbed it over her face as a simple disguise, lest Iris recognize her easily after their brief encounter.