Ain't A Hero

Season 6

Bryan Schuder

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

Beta Release

Updated 02/04/2020

Ain't A Hero

Season 6

Dedications

Timeline

Episode 66

Episode 67

Episode 68

Episode 69

Episode 70

Episode 71

Episode 72

Episode 73

Episode 74

Episode 75

Episode 76

Episode 77

Episode 78

Dedications

First and foremost... A special thank you to all the crazy humanity loving folks over at /r/HFY ! Out of all the places on Reddit for writing, you all are the most accepting and welcoming bunch of them all. As long as humanity is involved some how and you want to write, /r/HFY will give you a place to call home. I was not only surprised to find people interested in this crazy tale, but people who repeatedly read episode after episode... And still wanted more. I will try to deliver more! Second season down, hopefully a third and more to go!

So, in an inconsistent arbitrary order of me looking through the series posts, thank you to these fine folks that provided commentary (both praises and criticisms) and those who subscribed. (Please let me know if I missed anyone!)

roflmaono
Attamark
Lithuse
KillerKolonelz
RougemageNick
Twister_Robotics
joe_wood
Fly18
Lurking_Reader
Waspkeeper
bontrose
carpkiller
KahnSig
Shactus
michael15286
Krynja
ProfessorVonSagan
Layxe
zarikimbo
Ryushimojii
atomic_cheese
Rand__Rahl
NinjaTurple
fatboy93
PhalanxLord
Slayalot
K2MnO4
zymurgist69
ChainsawNagitana
Eater_of_yellow_snu
Jonfirst
Nuke_the_Earth
Isitalwaysthisgood
Red-Shirt
WandererOfTheMind
ImperialForgeMaster
barely_harmless
Maxkenny09
Alphamole0
Random-Hats
Applepielord1244
Fieryfight
ccassidyx9
Ghrrum
Thatfurrykid
tipsy_topsy
DudeGuyBor
InitiativeTwentyOne
Sakul_Aubaris
antonthekiller
pie4155
ragnoraknow
nerdy_n_dirty86
RedTheReckless
Shiamu
ZeDestructor
Omega048
MavenDeviant
HardAtomicSmile
testicouille741
Deathcoolbro
SirSchmoopy111
Halefor
cochi522
Olindoga
smeik111
explosiveelephants
LIKE1OOONINJAS
Cyber_Reader
ruruwkzu
spaceminions
CSlade1
JoshXH
sic99
Leginp
Firenter
lazyviking3742
ryan_morland
SirIronTwig
ChainsawHalberd
elemental821
MaartenS16
RollSavingThrow
randommlg
GrayMatter01
Daevis43
Glaris
vittupaahan
Admiral_Sylvor
TRN42
Golddrake
Repeated_613
Voobwig
Dr_Acen
Honoris_Causa
nuacc2
sluglie
mortalnine
mheiszler
pennythoughtful
IntelligentDemise
Makyura
minkshaman
Fkn_Ra
WakelessTitan
BlessedPatrick
ikbenlike
maaghen
Shaeos
garrdor
wiggamail
allorigional64
DarkLordZargon
bracabrad
Stordabjornen
ubercaesium
kaloshade
LurchTheBastard
kumo549
splash_43
Meh12345hey
F0rg0tMy70gin
Dolduck
jaredzz
KorbenD2263
PresumedSapient
minicooper237
mudkip201
Netmantis
Kasaeru
UnholyReaver
Just_a_stae_of_mind
Khelbun
Ice_Man_Cometh
Havok707
Omenofstorms
zombieking26
Kiryln
JJdaJet
AMEFOD
TheBarbequeSteve
TW6173
_Skylos
A_Drunk_Ninja
Maravedis
Moonlitsif
vitalmoss
Brimicidal
o11c
Danr630
readcard
Deadlytower
Einhanderz
HarbringerOfMayhem
Zoutpeper
Tinkerbill93
p75369

-66-

The glow of the near noon sun radiates inside the living area of the ranch style house. Bach steps through the archway from the hallway, stretching out his shoulders with a roll and rocking his head side to side. He stops to scan the room for activity. The sounds of kitchen metal snatches his attention, and he steps forward towards the kitchen area. With a quick peek, he studies the food in the middle of preparation upon the counter top. Leaning closer, Bach attempts to determine the intended meal, and pauses as he feels a tall presence next to him. He glances up with an awkward, innocent smirk to Dretphi, and scratches the back of his head of longer brown hair. “Hey... Just curious what’s for lunch.”

Gradually dropping the stern, stoic gaze to a humored, warm smile, Dretphi rests a covered pot upon the counter top, and brushes back her platinum blonde braids. “Remnant soup. Nothing special.”

Bach stands back up straight, cocks his head curiously to the side, and inquires. “Remnant soup?”

Dretphi sighs amused with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “My mother calls it that. Soup made from the remaining ingredients you have. After you have cooked all other meals. Before you go to the grocery store.”

Nodding understandingly, Bach steps back to give Dretphi room to cook and studies the assorted collection of vegetables, seasonings, and other edible bits. “Well, it looks like it’ll be good when you are done with it.”

Dretphi smiles appreciatively, and gently directs Bach out of the kitchen. “I hope so. We shall see.”

Wandering back into the living area, Bach walks along the side of the dining table, and glances around for the source of a new noise. A stream of faint clicks fill the soundscape near the couch as Cideeda types upon a laptop. She adjusts her head upon a couch pillow, flexes her fingers briefly, and studies a screen of numeric figures and charts. Her toes claws idly press onto the fabric of the couch cushion as her long tail wags out from underneath her drawn up knees. After a few seconds of her emerald green eyes analyzing the screen, she sighs with a trailing grumble and clacks her finger claws upon the sides of the weathered and heavily retrofitted laptop. Bach approaches slowly and pries with an intrigued tone. “Huh, I’ve never seen that laptop before.”

Cideeda tilts her head up briefly to glance at Bach, and resumes her attention to the computer resting on her stomach. “Oh, it’s my old one. I like to keep it well protected and out of the way. It’s got my personal stuff on it... And, it’s gotten REALLY cranky with age and repairs, so it spends most of its time in a protective case.”

Looking over towards the dining table and the boxes near it, Bach points a thumb over his shoulder. “Any projects you need help with today? Still feeling a bit sore, so I don’t really want to do anything too physical today.”

Searching her mind, Cideeda nods her head, and directs her voice back. “Yeah, there’s a few things I’ve been meaning to get your help with. And, I need to show you a few things about locking mechanisms. Maybe see how you can apply that magical angle.”

She taps a claw tip on the laptop’s screen. “Let me take care of a few things here first, and I’ll see what we can do.”

Bach gradually shifts his attention and directs the topic towards what’s on the screen. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are doing right now?”

With a sly grin, Cideeda taps upon a few keys and directs a cursor on the screen through a few menus. “Oh, just managing my future fortunes and seeing where I need to invest my money next.”

Bach snorts lightly with an amused smirk, and allows his curiosity to shift his focus to the graphs and number tickers on the display. “I can’t say I’m surprised you are playing the markets. Working those hot tips and making the split seconds trades for the big payouts?”

Cideeda laughs, rolls her eyes with a smirk, and slowly shakes her head upon the couch pillow. “Oh gods, no. That type of day trading has always seemed like needlessly abstracted gambling to me.”

Perking her brow and gazing up to Bach with a sinister grin. “I prefer to see the faces of the people who I’m taking money from if I’m going to gamble.”

Pushing herself up to rest her back against the couch arm, she stretches her legs out and resettles the portable computer upon her lap. “I stay away from all the short term trading business. I’m playing the long game, and go after companies that have proven dividend payouts. That’s about as risky as I’m going to get with my retirement portfolio.”

She lifts a humored eyebrow, and chuckles softly. “Anyway, I’m not looking to strike it rich with this money. I’d just end up worried all the time if I was going to lose it in the next minute.”

Bach’s interest piques, and he leans over to get a better view of Cideeda’s laptop screen. After a few moments of watching the information stream upon the screen, he grits his teeth briefly and sheepishly admits. “You know, I wouldn’t mind getting some advice on investing money... Since... Well... I actually have free money to do so. For once.”

A spark of excitement lights up Cideeda’s eyes. She pivots upon the couch, slides over to the middle seat, and pats the spot next to her. “Well, let me give you the introductory lesson! Have a seat.”

Bach blinks at the sudden shift in attitude, slides behind the coffee table, lowers himself in the seat next to Cideeda, and awaits further instruction. Cideeda quickly taps her clawtips on the laptop keys and brings up a few simple informational graphics and charts. “Now you can search the aethernet, and you’ll get every get rich plan in the world. But, I’ve found the bucket system to work nicely for me.”

Studying the pictures on the screen, Bach glances over and patiently waits. Cideeda draws in a long breath, and her genuine interest slips through into her explanation. “Simply, your different accounts are buckets. Your first bucket is going to be your guild account. They don’t pay much interest in those accounts. But... No fees, easy access, and no restrictions. So, you’ll want to fill that bucket to a point where you should be able to handle three months worth of expenses. Then, you can start to fill other buckets. These could be savings and low risk investment accounts. Once, you get the amounts distributed evenly across the board, then you get into the riskier...”

A toothy grin parts Cideeda’s lips, and an eager glint flashes in her emerald eyes. “And exciting markets.”

Bach gradually nods as information sinks in, and he glances over to Cideeda. “Okay. That makes sense. Limit liability and all that. So... Once, I get to the point of getting into the riskier markets, what do you recommend then?”

Cideeda taps the finger tips on her hands together with an intrigued twist of her mouth. “Well, I prefer the long term game. So, first, invest in what you know and understand. I’ve been burned on investing into companies whose markets I didn’t quite know as well as I should.”

She points out to a list of company names with industry categories to Bach, and leads his attention around. “Second, I would always keep a diverse portfolio. Nothing will drive you crazier than watching one large investment in a single company tank. That will unnerve you to do something silly in a frantic state of mind. Diversified portfolio will buffer those bad days.”

With a shrug of her shoulders and a slightly annoyed lift of her eyebrow at a downwards trend on chart, she sighs with a grumble. “And... Don’t get discouraged by the daily fluctuations... Despite how frustrating they may be...”

Bach frowns slightly at the offending graph, notices the annoyance drooping down Cideeda’s furry ears, and finds a new topic. “Um... So, any favorite companies you’ve put your money into?”

Perking her ears back up, Cideeda’s claw tips clack out commands, and a short list of companies appears on the laptop screen. “Of course! There’s Arc and Spark Munitions, Faraday Aetherwave, MercMart, and...”

Narrowing his stare at a company name on the screen, Bach slowly shifts his questioning gaze over to Cideeda, and lifts an inquisitive, slightly incredulous brow. “Pancake Shed?”

Cideeda meets Bach eyes, dismissively smiles, and points out a set of statistics on the screen. “Don’t let the storefront appearances fool you. They have been consistent performers when it comes to dividends. Plus...”

She dons a wide, toothy grin and chuckles smugly. “I’m just trying to get back some of the money I’ve given them over the years. Just investing on the other side of the business arrangement, so to speak.”

With the cut off of running water, Dretphi leaves the kitchen area, drying her hands on a towel. She wanders over to the other side of the couch, glances over to the laptop screen, and politely asks. “Could you bring up Diamond Defense? I am curious to its performance.”

Cideeda sorts through a few screens on the computer, finds the trading symbol, and opens up a very promising monthly graph. “Wow. Should have gotten in when you did. Might have to buy a few shares if it keeps it up.”

A tinge of excitement emerges upon Dretphi’s face while she reads the statistics and trends. “It was a risk. Loss of a core workshop was hard to comeback from. They did not lose that defense contract. That saved them.”

Tightly smiling, Cideeda eyes over to Dretphi, slightly narrowing her gaze. “Well, next time your house hears about tips like that, let me know as soon as you can.”

Pausing in thought a moment, Cideeda grins eagerly towards the screen and switches to another program on her computer. “That reminds me... Someone is going to need a NEW set of armor!”

Dretphi twists her mouth, averts her gaze humbly, and sighs calmly. “Replacement plates. New boots. A new suit is not needed.”

Bach feels the slight nudge of Cideeda’s elbow into his arm, and catches her winking to him. Cideeda opens up a browser to an aethernet site, and the display loads up with the Diamond Defense logo header. As images of different armor sets appear on the screen, Cideeda angles the laptop screen towards Dretphi with a scheming smile. “Are you sure, looks like they released the latest line.”

Dretphi’s steely gray eyes lower down, lock onto the screen, and focus upon the products appearing. She blinks away, crosses her arms, and attempts to quell her desires with financial logic. “It would be prudent to replace the missing parts. Cost effective option.”

Smiling while scratching her chin with a claw tip, Cideeda playfully sighs, acts as if she’s searching her mind, and thinks out loud with an unconvinced tone. “That’s... technically... true. But, I’m quite certain with a little negotiation and effort on our part... And, factoring the growing amount of maintenance the old suit is starting to need... I don’t think the difference in the long run would be that much.”

The line of thought piques Dretphi’s attention, and she twists her mouth as she contemplates the logistics. “It has become difficult to mend the under armor. The fasteners are fraying. Cleaning has never been easy.”

Her face sours with long term annoyance, and she grumbles to herself. “After each wash, it faintly smells of slime... Still...”

Momentarily, Cideeda snarls her upper lip, grits her teeth, and sighs. “Yeah. It lingers much longer than you know.”

Bach scrutinizes Cideeda and narrows an investigative stare at her. “I can’t shake the feeling there’s something you’re trying to work here.”

Cideeda grins with bold guilt, and nods while holding her hands upwards. “A little. I’ve been wanting another body suit, and it’s easier to work discounts on larger group purchases rather than individual.”

She gazes right at Bach with a sly smile, and pokes a finger claw gently into Dretphi’s arm. “Speaking of which, I think someone needs a new duster?”

Dretphi briefly looks away from browsing on the laptop to Bach, and nods in complete agreement. “Yes. Sleeves are beyond repair. Fabric is thin. Charred. I would NOT trust it on a mission. You need a new duster.”

The trio settle upon the couch, and take turns pointing to the latest sales and deals. Dretphi asks while studying the picture of new armor plating. “Do the armor covers come in red?”

----

With a long, uncomfortable sigh, Trakenthin lowers his aetherphone from his ear, gazes at the ended call screen, and briefly grits his teeth. Drawing a slow, calming breath, he tries to roll some of the tension out his shoulders, and straightens his posture. He scans around his room and idly coasts his stare across the armor on the stand, the boxes of equipment stacked, the great sword hung in its sheath, and the laptop on his desk. Finally, he focuses upon his bedroom door, steps forward, and opens the exit to the second floor hallway. Surveying the empty hall, he glances around to the other doors for Deedri, Modoran, Tassilda, Veevi, and Chad. Pausing for the moment, Trakenthin angles his ear towards Chad’s room, and listens to the activity sounding out from the cracked open door. He twists his face in concentration, but eventually drifts to frustration as he fails to decipher anything. From distantly down the stairwell, Veevi’s faint whines of curses grate against the peaceful ambiance upstairs, and Trakenthin cringes at the peak of her fit. A bit of relief emerges on his face, as he walks slowly towards Chad’s bedroom door. As he steps forward, he remembers his previous task, and his face grows more stoic and neutral. With the overlay in full, he knocks on Chad’s door. From inside the room, activity halts momentarily and Chad’s voice rises up. “Oh, uh... Come in?”

Trakenthin calmly pushes the door open and turns to face Chad. “Sorry to interrupt?”

Chad gazes up examining himself in a reflective spot of the shield in his hands, and nods to Trakenthin with a smirk. “Hey. What’s new?”

Lifting his eyebrow curiously at the shield, Trakenthin blinks back to focus. He winces slightly with a hesitation straining his voice. “Oh. Want to inform you my... father will visit tonight. After lunch... Stay for dinner. I hope it is not a problem.”

Pondering momentarily, Chad flashes his trademark white smile towards Trakenthin, and shakes his head. “Of course not! I’m quite happy you’re spending some time with your father after so many years. And, his stories from serving in the defense against the Red Gear Uprising are amazing!”

Weakly smiling, Trakenthin thinks about it as his eyes search his mind while slightly gritting his teeth. But, he nods eventually in partial agreement. “Stories they are.”

Chad glances down at his Flames of the Phoenix branded shield, and happily points out a very reflective section of metal. “I took his advice with cleaning up spots on my shield, and it’s turning out great.”

He motions over to his desk, and points out the bottle of cola, a cut lime, and salt shaker next to rag covered bowl. “I was getting some oxidation around the edges where the lacquer has worn off a bit, and this stuff takes it right off.”

A small genuine smile appears in the corner of Trakenthin’s mouth, and he sighs with hints of pride. “He is knowledgeable in that field.”

Chad shifts his gaze over to Trakenthin, studies the body language and expression, and cocks his head to the side. “Hey, Trakenthin, you okay? You don’t seem to be all that excited to see your father. I don’t mean to pry, but is there anything I should know?”

Trakenthin’s hazel eyes widen briefly, and he grumbles uncomfortably to himself. Chad holds up his hand with an awkward grin. “Hey, if it’s a touchy subject, I’m cool with staying away from it.”

Shaking his head side to side, Trakenthin frowns slightly and groans softly. “No. The subject is fine. It is just hard to relate correctly.”

Searching in his head for the words, he tries to piece together a concise explanation. “He is my birth father. He is... NOT... my house father. Has not been for a decade.”

Chad drifts off in his thoughts as he processes the meaning, and gradually arrives at some kind of understanding as he nods. “Oh. Okay. Huh. Sorry, to hear that. That must have been tough.”

Trakenthin crosses his arms, shrugs his shoulders, and contemplates the sentiment. “Parts were. Better overall.”

He grumbles thoughtfully and slowly shakes his head. “It is strange now. Difficult to know how to act.”

Chad dons an awkward grin, and sways his head side to side as he thinks out loud. “I guess it would be. I don’t know. My dad and I don’t always see eye to eye on things. But, we get along for the most part...”

He curls a corner of his mouth toward frown and sneers his upper lip as a few memories pop to front of his mind. “On the other hand, my dad and grandfather. Now, those two barely tolerate each other. My grandfather was and is an adventurer today. But, my dad started and runs a used equipment dealership chain. I guess that was his way of rebelling? I don’t know.”

Fumbling to find a justification, Chad contorts his tan, clean shaven face, and narrows his brown eyes. “There are moments they seem to enjoy being around each other... But, the rest of the time? They barely can stay in the same room for a few minutes before the other tries find any reason to leave.”

He pauses to focus his attention to Trakenthin, and goofily grins while scratching the back of his short, brown, coiffed hair covered head. “Sorry, man. Wandered off on my own problems. Don’t know if that’s anything like your troubles... But, I’ll try to be understanding?”

Trakenthin ponders over the sentiment, and eventually settles into a slow nodding acceptance. “It is similar. Thank you for relating.”

A genuine smile appears on Chad’s face, and he commiserates with a sympathetic eye roll. “Yeah, I guess parent issues are pretty universal.”

He perks up a curious brow at Trakenthin and carefully approaches a question. “So, how long has it been since you’ve seen your father?”

Drawing in a long breath, Trakenthin exhales calmly and shrugs his shoulders. “Years since in person. He occasionally writes. Visits were not often due to circumstances.”

Chad tilts his head to side and inquires further. “Circumstances?”

A humored smirk appears on Trakenthin’s face as he explains. “Father travels. Not in the area often. Other circumstances... My birth mother wants nothing of him. My three other house mothers have promised him shallow burials.”

Chad snorts in amusement briefly, but halts as he reviews the last word from Trakenthin. “Wait, burials? Plural?”

Trakenthin’s gaze widens, and he slowly, dramatically nods with a stern expression. “Yes. Never been told what would happen before that point. Do not want to know.”

Gradually shaking the imagined possibilities out of his head, Chad props the shield up on the floor against the side of the desk, stands up brushing his pants off, and steps next to Trakenthin. With a charismatic bright smile, Chad pats Trakenthin on the side of the shoulder, and dons a sure, bold tone. “Well, if he gives you too much trouble, let me know and I’ll show him the door.”

Trakenthin focuses a judging, slightly incredulous stare at Chad, but slowly lets it fade to an appreciative, humored smirk. “Will keep that in mind. I will try to suffer him for now. Seems to be behaving. See how long that lasts.”

Pulling his phone out briefly, Chad checks the clock on the display, pats Trakenthin on shoulder again, and leads out into the hallway. “Well, it’s showtime. Time to see what everyone has been up to today for the cameras.”

As the two move down the second floor hallway, Veevi’s voice competes with Tassilda’s as the conflict echoes up the stairwell. Both Chad and Trakenthin roll their eyes at the cacophony as they gather their will for the descent down the stairs.

----

Off to the side from the aisles upon aisles of merchandise in the massive MercMart store, Sotalia stands waiting outside in an open area next to a dressing room. She waits expectantly as her gaze wanders at the many mannequins covered in various armor attire and displays filled with advertising literature. Cideeda shifts her inspecting stare between two large under armor suits, and focuses her attention to the comparison of the small details between garments. Bach looks apprehensively at a clothing rack of various dusters, jackets, and trench coats, and contemplates one before sliding to the next. Aristespha sits back in a chair, sorts through numbers on a spreadsheet displaying on her phone, and taps the sword at her side. After a few moments, Dretphi emerges from a dressing room door, walks out between everyone, and stretches out in a gray, thick full body outfit. “I am not sure about this one.”

Cideeda turns around, scrutinizes the rough fit of the suit, and paces around Dretphi. “Yeah. That one seems like it’s designed for heavier plating. The extra armor around the joints is nice with the thicker outer shell, since you are using medium coverage plating.”

Sotalia quirks an eyebrow, twists her mouth unsatisfied, and slowly shakes her head. “It’s really bulky looking. And, not really flattering. How well can you move in it?”

Dretphi moves her body through a number of stances, executes a few maneuvers, and slowly explores a common set of motions. Bach watches, frowns slightly, and slowly shakes his head. “It’s like you’re fighting the suit a little to move.”

Grimacing as she stands back up from a squat, Dretphi rolls her shoulders, and fidgets uncomfortably in the suit of under armor. “It is stiff. Not flexible for what I need. Not this one.”

Nodding in agreement, Cideeda lifts up one of the under armor suits towards Dretphi with a confident smile. “Okay. Given the last few you tried and how your old suit was, this one should be really close to the mark.”

Dretphi grabs hold of the garment, studies it briefly, and walks back towards the dressing room. “It looks similar to my old under armor.”

Cideeda grins toothily, perks her furry ears, and flits her brow. “Should be. It’s the latest Diamond Defense medium under armor. Should be the same thickness as your old suit.”

As Dretphi slips through the dressing room door, Sotalia crosses her arms, flashes a curious glance to Dretphi, and sways her stance. “Before you try that one, could you give the one I found for you a try?”

Dretphi pauses a moment, nods to Sotalia, and closes the door. “I will try that one now.”

Wandering over a bit aimlessly, Bach surveys the selection of under armor garments as Cideeda puts them back on their hangers. “There’s a lot of options with this type of armor. It’s not as expensive as I’ve always heard though.”

Cideeda gazes up to Bach after she finishes laying out the latest rejected suit, and smirks as she gestures to emphasize the hidden costs. “Well, that’s just for the armor pieces themselves. A LOT of the true cost comes with fitting the suit to your dimensions, adjusting the plating fasteners to work with coverage and style you are using, and all the customizations you’d want to fit it to your needs.”

She grins slyly with a frugal spark in her emerald eyes, and taps the claw tips on hands together. “But, we are fortunate enough to have a good range skills in our group. Between Dretphi, you, and myself, we’ve got everything covered.”

Bach blinks a few times as his mind ponders to a point of confusion, and he quirks his face seeking clarification. Cideeda smiles confidently, rests a hand on her hip, and points a thumb over her shoulder towards the dressing room. “Dretphi can sew anything on the suit to her liking. I can adjust and tweak the plating and accessories. And, you can handle the finishing touches.”

Tilting his head to the side, Bach puzzles briefly and thinks about what Cideeda said. After a few moments, Cideeda rolls her eyes playfully, flexes her fingers in front of her to mimic a series of magical gestures, and stares at Bach with an amused smirk. “Enchanting. Those last ones saved her a few times, I think she’s going to want a fresh set upon her new plating.”

Bach’s pride cringes as he remembers the blatantly obvious, and he smiles with a sigh. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I keep forgetting...”

Cideeda narrows an incredulous gaze at Bach, twists her mouth, and rests both hands on her hips. “You keep forgetting you can do ridiculous magical stuff?”

Frowning momentarily, Bach fights the word choice to an explanation of his feelings. “Well, uh, no. I just... I guess I’m just still getting used to being included in on projects because my magical skills? I mean, after not having anything worth mentioning magically... It stops being the first thing you assume people are talking about?”

He scratches the back of his head with an awkward smile, and fidgets uncertainly. “Did that make any sense?”

Cideeda smiles genuinely, nods slowly to Bach, and sighs. “It did. I think I understand.”

She reveals a toothy grin, perks up her furry ears, and wags her tail. “Also, you could definitely assist in a bit of reworking of the old plating for an idea I had.”

Sotalia’s golden eyes flit wide as her pointed ear catches a gasp and mumbles of grath in an obviously embarrassed tone from the dressing room. She steps close the door, knocks on it, and curiously asks. “Everything okay in there?”

Dretphi’s voice emerges uncertainly form the other side of the room with an awkward cadence. “... Yes... This suit has an... Unexpected fit...”

Sotalia puzzles blankly at the choice of terms, narrows an inquisitive stare, and tries to push open the door. “What are you talking about?”

She taps around the slide lock on the other side, and rolls her eyes impatiently. “Come on, let me see. I did pick it out for you.”

Seconds later, the lock slides, and Sotalia peeks her head around the cracked open door. “Okay, what are you talking about...”

A mischievous grin grows upon Sotalia’s face, and she chuckles evilly. “Oh... What are you worried about? There’s nothing wrong with something that accentuates your figure that well. Come on out.”

Another grumble of grath from Dretphi slips out from behind the door. Sotalia sighs as she slowly shakes her head. “It’s not bad at all.”

Cideeda’s ear flicks back from the conversation at the dressing room door. She pivots around, walks over next to Sotalia, and slips her head in for a glance. “Okay, what’s going on?”

She pauses a moment, cocks her head, and flicks her ears around contemplatively. “Oh. That is DEFINITELY much more form fitting than your old suit.”

Aristespha blinks to attention from her phone, stands up, and steps over to the gathering. “Gods, now I’m curious. What are we dealing with?”

She peeks around the door, halts to study for a number of seconds, and covers her mouth. Stepping away, she walks back to her seat while searching her mind and tapping at the sword. “Oh, that design was obviously inspired by one of those animated action movies.”

Sebastian’s voice softly emanates from the sword inquiringly. “You mean the ones with revealing outfits and impossible body physics?”

Sotalia crosses her arms, stares unamused at the detractors, and pouts shaking her head. Her gazes falls upon Bach as he distracts himself with an informational literature next to a display. A devilish grin cracks from the corner of her mouth, and she quips. “Well, let’s get another opinion from a different perspective... Oh, Ba-”

Her voice cuts out abruptly right before it carries over far enough, and she cringes with a reflexive lean. Cideeda glares right at Sotalia, releases her cautionary grip upon Sotalia’s side, and closes the dressing room door. “Try the other one out, Dretphi.”

Sotalia sighs with a grumble in fvalian. Cideeda slowly shakes her head with an apologetic phrase in fvalian, but focuses an accusatory expression to Sotalia as she walks away. Sotalia rolls her eyes dismissively with a playful smile. Minutes later, Dretphi emerges in a suit similar to her old suit. After a few maneuvers and common movements, she dons a happy smile and grows more satisfied with each test of the garment. With a few final series of mock attack and defense motions, she stands content before the group. “This one. It feels right. I can move in it freely. Similar to my old suit.”

Cideeda gives a thumbs up to Dretphi and points towards nearby tall racks of plating in a plentiful gamut of sizes, shapes, materials, and colors. “Good. Let’s try out some plates and see what works for you.”

Dretphi eagerly walks over to the expansive selection, surveys the products before her, and picks up an example piece. Cideeda crosses her arms in thought, taps her foot, and deliberates. Determining her desires, she steps next to Sotalia and directs a quiet question. “Where did you find that particular suit?”

Sotalia smirks slyly, brushes back her fiery, wavy orange hair, and points over to a display rack. “Over there. There’s a few other styles.”

Bach arrives at the overwhelming line up of armor plates upon many levels of rack space, and stands in awe as analysis paralysis seizes his mind. Situational awareness returns to him when he notices Dretphi standing next to him patiently with an example plate in hand. “Oh... Yes?”

Dretphi smiles warmly, presents the plate, and approaches her request, biting her lower lip slightly. “Could you put a barrier enchantment on this?”

Bach picks up the plate in his hands, examines the construction, and slowly nods. “Yeah. I don’t think it’d be any different than before.”

Dretphi lifts a curious brow to Bach, and poses another question. “Could the color be red instead of gold?”

----

A high gust of wind blows through the thinning forests along the sides of the highway. The afternoon sun slowly approaches an orange horizon, gradually reddening towards the evening hue. The breeze stirs Meredosia’s long, gray hair against her ivory skinned face as she walks along side of the roadway. She adjusts her old backpack, and brushes off her worn hoodie. Twisting her mouth briefly, she works an uncomfortable spot out of her frayed blue jeans. After checking her course, her crimson eyes wander to peacefully gaze into the rural landscape, and sighs heavily with a slight droop of her long ears. She occasionally smiles at the brief appearances of wildlife existing nearby under the cover of trees.

Minutes pass on by as the ambient glow from the horizon shifts to a warm red, and the tinges of evening purple crest opposite. The lone evuukian woman arrives at the top of a taller hill, and pauses a moment to gaze ahead. Meredosia focuses her attention in front of her and watches with widening eyes at the distant lights of the suburban sprawl. She studies the scene before her with an uncertain mix of fear and anticipation, drawing long calming breaths. After the sounds of traffic stir her back to awareness, she musters her courage and steps forward.

As she continues her journey into the sparse outskirts, she sinks into her own thoughts, and occasionally glances over to survey the changing landscape. Moments she smirks at familiar sights, but often stares uneasily at the unfamiliar aspects. The sky overhead darkens from purple to dark blue with the waxing moon brightly contrasting, despite the ambient city lights. Her thoughts wander inward and her dark red eyes sort through her mind. She continues walking along the side of highway of moderate traffic, and loses knowledge of the world near her for minutes at a time. Eventually, the toe of her boots tap up against a concrete curb, and her attention snaps back to the path ahead. She stares ahead towards the distant city upon the horizon and the highlighting glow of urban activity. Surveying the area around her, she notices a huge, tall sign off the roadway and over to the side of the sidewalk in front of her.

“Welcome to Amaranth Valley.”

Meredosia’s crimson eyes widen as she finishes reading the sign, and she slowly resumes her stern gaze ahead towards the city. She tightens her grip on her backpack straps, briefly grits her teeth, and slowly exhales her nerves. She dons a cool, calm exterior, reaches into her jeans pocket, and pulls out an old wallet. Opening the billfold, she sorts through a few old government IDs, worn business cards, and a very modest amount of money. A surge of uncertainty floods her expression as she looks distantly ahead. Seconds later, the wave of emotion subsides and determination boils up to the surface as she returns her wallet to her pants pocket. Hesitating briefly, she puts one foot ahead, and resumes her journey into Amaranth Valley.

----

Isaac clamps hold of a slice of beef out of a take out box with a pair of chopsticks, pops the piece of food into his mouth, and points towards a document on the table. “And, those are my notes from exploring that one hidden base near Hattan.”

He pauses a moment to enjoy a few more morsels of dinner, and remarks nostalgically while glancing at the logo on the takeout carton. “Gods, I’ve forgotten how good this place is. They haven’t changed a bit.”

Dr. Dawkins chuckles to himself as he scans over the documents, pictures, and information upon the large, antique dining table. “That they haven’t. Same owner still, too.”

Picking up papers and printouts, he skims through stack after stack, and slowly shakes his head in disbelief. “So fascinating... I can’t quite make out what you’ve found. But, it is significant.”

Isaac slowly nods and sighs with hints of frustration in his voice. “And, this latest discovery wasn’t a remote thought in my mind. The scope of my investigations were in a completely different direction.”

Reaching over the table top, he taps upon a folder of documents, and tilts his head to the side. “I got my original list of locations to explore from the remote radio outpost. Quite a few on there. It took some effort to decipher the coordinates.”

His attention shifts over to a small stack of written notes interleaved with paper and graphite rubbings of rough symbols, and he narrows his gray eyes upon the pile. “Surprisingly quite a few of those locations had ancient elder energy structures that were still quite functional. One unfortunately had fallen into wrong and dangerous hands, but I remedied that.”

Dr. Dawkins perks up his brow and levels an inquisitive stare at Isaac. “What exactly was going on, and... How did you remedy it?”

Isaac meets Dr. Dawkins gaze, frowns slightly, and sighs in a mix of disappointment and frustration. “No one was hurt... Physically. I did manage to severely wound the ego of a very self-righteous leader of one of those damned Terra Priest cult groups. It’s actually quite the shame. That young evuukian woman had figured out how to control elder energy. And, was able pull it into and from an energy storage amulet.”

Twisting his mouth, mild sadness emerges upon his face, and he slowly shakes his head. “If she just wasn’t so caught up in her delusions, she had the potential to become a great pupil and possibly help with future breakthroughs.”

With a long sigh and slump of the shoulders, Isaac tugs at the corner of his frown and grimaces. “I despised having to ruin that elder energy dais and the amulet, but after seeing those who were trying to use it, I could NOT leave it functional.”

Dr. Dawkins slowly nods in total agreement, and grumbles loudly with a curling sneer of his upper lip. “You did the right thing there. Truth to be told, I’ve had the misfortune of running into a number of the more inane groups in my career, multiple times. Depending on where you are setting up, you had to check the area for any signs of Terra Priests, Red Gears, or government privateers. Gods, we practically had to pay monthly rent to a number of local gangs and mobs to keep them not only out of business, but to keep them quiet about it, too!”

Isaac exhales in commiseration with Dr. Dawkins. After picking a few choice pieces of beef out of the takeout box, he settles back into his chair at the table, and gazes upon a battered laptop’s display filled with electronic document text. “After taking the pictures, I had to pull all the data I could have Dr. Malkav’s research. But... Unfortunately, it’s not exactly what I need. There seems to be hints and overviews of his initial vague theories, but none of the specifics I need to see.”

Dr. Dawkins picks up the photograph of Bach in flight carrying Sotalia within a cavernous pit, brings it close to study it with his eyes, and traces his finger along the bright white aura surrounding Bach. “I can’t fault you there. But, you might want to be careful accessing the Grand Library in the future. I haven’t heard much, as they’ve been uncharacteristically quiet lately. Which usually means something happened to spook the higher ups.”

Lifting a curious eyebrow, Isaac ponders the advice, and gradually nods in agreement with a sly smile. “Thank you for the warning. I had thought my access to the system after so long might seem strange. So, I made sure to pull everything I could... From a random location in the woods near an outskirts aethernet tower that I don’t plan to ever visit again.”

A proud grin graces Dr. Dawkins face, and he chuckles in sheer amusement at Isaac’s tactics. “Good thinking. I am happy you still remember those early lessons of mine.”

He rests the picture down, hums in thought to himself, and slowly eases back into his chair contemplatively. “Gods, this Bach Warwick... Whatever has he managed to accomplish? Before we even venture to ascertain HOW he pulled this feat off, we first have to establish WHAT he did...”

Isaac dramatically nods as he sits up, rakes his fingers through his head of wild, graying white hair, and grumbles out his frustrations. “I KNOW. This is absolutely baffling to me. Did he find some strange power source of elder energy that causes this difference in auras?”

Dr. Dawkins quirk a wary and intrigued brow towards Isaac, and strokes his chin thoughtfully. “Gods help us, has he bypassed the abstract prism?”

Isaac flits his eyes wide while entertaining the possibility, and slowly shakes his head frowning. “We could theorize all we want, but that will not get us the answers. Are you certain you don’t know where Dr. Malkav is?”

With a long sigh, Dr. Dawkins grimaces and lowers his head slightly. “I know where he’s been. At least, from when he stops to write during his slow periods. But, he gets caught up in his work and disappears for months at a time. The last package I got from him was from a hotel in Perimeter.”

Gritting his teeth, Isaac groans as he sinks into his seat a little. “Good gods. The Perimeter Weird Zone? He could be anywhere in that area, and who knows if he’ll ever resurface. What was he out to study there?”

Dr. Dawkins crosses his arms, contorts his face as he searches his memory, and shakes his head with hints of irritation. “He’s always vague about the details when he thinks he’s on to something big. It’s aligned with the common theme of his research. Clues to an old point of power that seemed extremely relevant to him. I could never get him to elaborate more before he headed out on sabbatical years ago.”

Isaac’s mood drops as he slumps in his chair, and he releases a sad, disheartened sigh. “Well... Shit... It will take forever to figure out exactly WHERE he was going without some kind of context to WHAT he was researching. If we could just have something to work off of, I’m certain we could derive what caught his attention...”

Nodding sympathetically, Dr. Dawkins halts as a distant memory tickles his attention and he concentrates upon a thought in his mind. After a minute, he blinks to a realization, slides back his chair, and holds a finger towards Isaac as he gets up. “Wait here... I think I might have something...”

He walks swiftly out of the dining room. Distantly from the archway into the hallway, the faint sounds of documents shuffling, paper moving, and a desk drawer opening resonate. A bit of excitement fills Dr. Dawkin’s voice. “There it is!”

Isaac sits up in his chair, gazes curiously towards the entry into the dining room, and cocks his head in anticipation. Seconds later, Dr. Dawkins reappears, shuffles over eagerly into his chair, and presents an old envelope to Isaac. “This might be what we need.”

Narrowing his attention upon the aged paper exterior, Isaac glances towards Dr. Dawkins and points curiously at the item. “What’s inside?”

Dr. Dawkins smirks with a glint of anticipation in his green eyes, and laughs as he turns the front of the envelope at Isaac. “I don’t exactly know.”

Isaac’s eyes flit wide as he reads the text upon the paper container above Dr. Malkav’s barely legible signature. “Open upon my DEATH?!”

A sly smile creeps upon Dr. Dawkin’s mouth, and he chuckles dryly at Isaac. “If he’s dead, no better time to open it. If he’s still alive... He’ll understand.”

Isaac waits barely patiently as Dr. Dawkins uses a nearby plastic knife to awkwardly saw through the top of the letter. Dr. Dawkins empties out a few folded letter pages, and a key upon the table. Both Isaac and Dr. Dawkins exchange glances, and Isaac urges Dawkins to read the letter via hand gestures. After a few seconds of Dr. Dawkins speed reading through the paragraphs upon the first page, he chuckles loudly with a wide grin and slowly shakes his head. “You tricky old bastard.”

Isaac leans over to get a glances at the papers Dr. Dawkin’s hands, and eagerly searches for the meaning. “What does it say?! What’s the key for?!”

Dr. Dawkins picks up the key, smiles brilliantly to Isaac, and reveals a hand drawn map upon the next page of the letter. “He hid backup copies of his notes underneath the computing equipment anchors in one of the collection’s server rooms!”

Isaac’s eyes open wide, and excitement drives his curiosity as he grabs hold of the map for further study. “By the gods! YES!...”

He halts a moment as his mind remembers old details, and puzzles at a conflict in his mind. “The server rooms? I thought Dr. Malkav LOATHED the chair of he computer science department?”

Dr. Dawkins nods with grin as he chuckles, and sits back in his seat. “Oh, yes. He DESPISED the previous chair. But... It oddly makes sense, though. No one would have EVER thought to look there for anything of Dr. Malkav’s knowing his hatred.”

Isaac snorts as he examines the map further, and remarks on a thought. “Probably wanted to put one over on that chair. Hiding his treasure right in the house of the one he hated.”

The two sit quietly a few moments as they study the pages from the envelope. Dr. Dawkins smirks slyly at Isaac, and poses a question in a foreboding tone. “So... How should we go about acquiring this treasure?”

Isaac grins and hums contemplatively, and the two men examine the map closer.

-67-

Dretphi lifts her arms out to her sides, spreads her legs out, and watches Cideeda circle slowly around. In the open area between the living and dining parts of the large room of the ranch style house, Cideeda inspects the new under armor suit and plating on Dretphi. She pauses, demonstrates a maneuver, and directs Dretphi to mimic it. As Dretphi performs a similar move, Cideeda steps in close to investigate the spaces between the plates, and her ears perk forward, searching for any sounds of problems. After different flexes, stances, and actions, Cideeda twists her mouth contemplatively, and nods with her thoughts. She lightly sketches plating outlines upon the under armor around shoulders. “Okay. I think we got the plate clearance just right. You’ll just need to get the fasteners the way you want them.”

Dretphi nods as she studies the other chalk drawings upon her suit, and mentally reviews the last few minutes. “Did not feel any snags this time. Think I will use magnetic patch keying. Hook loop fasteners in the middle of the plating. Same as before.”

Nearby, Bach quirks his brow as he holds a variety of suit accessories in his arms. “Huh, I always wondered how you could stick those plates in the right place all the time. I just figured you knew it that well by memory.”

Hiding a bit of embarrassment with a smirk, Dretphi plays it off with a slight shaking of her head. “Not entirely. Pairs of keyed magnetic patches help align the plate. Then, you push on to fasten fully. I found it to be faster. Helpful when you are in a rush.”

Cideeda finishes touching up outlines around the plating upon Dretphi’s shin, stands up stretching her arms back, and sighs with a roll of her eyes. “Gods... Does this setup ever beat trying to using strap-on plates in a hurry.”

She grimaces mildly at a relevant memory. “I remember working with one group... VERY BRIEFLY... Who had one idiot with some complicated, ancient set of armor he got from some relative. And, he INSISTED on using it.”

Lowering her furry, annoyed ears out to the side of her head, she rakes her clawed fingers lightly through her shorter, mix of brown, orange, white, tan, and black hair, and expresses to Bach her stale frustration with a long sigh. “It would take him SO LONG to get suited up. By the time he got ready, threats and targets would be LONG GONE before we’d be able to go after them.”

She grits her teeth, snarls her upper lip, and slowly shakes her head with a groan. “I quit that group during the last contract. We were incredibly lucky to escape without getting chased down by some dire bear... And, the MORON wanted to go back to find the armor he had to leave behind. Gods almighty. He kept swearing it had some unique enchantment or something on it.”

Bach furrows an incredulous brow towards Cideeda with an unconvinced twist to his face. Lifting her eyebrow at Bach, she smirks slyly, and rests her hands on her hips with a sway. “Called out his bullshit right there. Since... unbeknownst to him... I had taken time to sneak over to his tent when no one was looking. And... I inspected that armor myself.”

Crossing her arms, she snorts derisively and laughs. “It didn’t take a mage to see anything with that much covered up rust and dry rot on the leather straps had nothing magical about it.”

Bach searches his mind a moment, grimaces at the image in his mind, and nods in total agreement. “Yeah. Even if it did have something, it was probably too weak and far gone to be worth the trouble. Especially, if the material had started to decay that badly. Usually, decent enchantments prevent that.”

Dretphi lowers her arms, gazes to Cideeda, and smiles with a chuckle. “You were hesitant to work with our group after you saw me.”

Bach blinks in surprise and glances over to Cideeda quizzically. Cideeda shrugs holding up her hands to side, and sarcastically groans at herself. “I just didn’t want to be in another group with yet another fighter that needed a pit crew to gear up.”

She quirks her brow to Dretphi, taps on one of her armor plates, and grins at Bach. “After seeing her put the suit and all the plates on herself in under two minutes, I felt I could work with this team.”

Dretphi swells with a bit pride at the comment, and points out a few spots around the edges of the dark red armor plate covers. “Still need to attach helper straps that make it easy to don. A trick my mother taught me.”

Cideeda’s ears perk as her recent memory brings something to her attention, and she sorts through the small collect of equipment in Bach’s arms. “Speaking of... Let’s see... What should we try to fit onto the suit first?”

Stepping over to the coffee table, Dretphi picks up her new transparent face shield helmet, and taps on a connection port around the bottom edge. “The radio?”

Bach studies the devices in his possession and presents a suitable component to give to Cideeda. “I think this one?”

Cideeda nods, plucks it out of Bach’s hand, and gestures Dretphi towards the floor. “Yeah. That would be a good one to start with. Just below the nape of the neck, like you had it before?”

Dretphi lowers down to a seat on the floor, and brings her platinum blonde braids forward out of the way. “Yes. That worked me.”

Studying the clearances and kinematics before her, Cideeda positions the radio unit upon the suit, below the nape of the neck, and holds it in place. “Give it a try here.”

Dretphi reaches her arm back behind her, feels out the location of the small piece of equipment, and practices a few routine actions. She moves her shoulders around, brushes back her hair, and readies her helmet. Cideeda gestures Bach close, and directs his attention to the radio. “Get the radio cable and put the rest of that stuff on the couch. Hold this in place, please. I want to check the clearances from a different angle.”

Bach glances down at the accessories, shifts a cable into his hand, and empties out his arms of the fodder onto the couch cushion. Leaning down to hold the device in place, he passes the radio cable to Dretphi’s waiting hand at Cideeda’s silent instruction. Dretphi connects the coiled cable to the radio unit on her back, and snaps the other end into the port on her helmet. Cideeda narrows her emerald eyes at Dretphi, and analyzes the entire process as Dretphi puts on the helm. Slowly looking side to side, up and down, and rolling her head, Dretphi steps through a memorized routine, occasionally waiting for Cideeda to check certain spots closer. After a few demonstrations, Cideeda pulls the triangle piece of chalk back out from her shorts pocket. She marks out the outline, moves the radio unit in Bach’s hand back, and writes a shorthand label in the middle. “I think that’ll work.”

Dretphi pulls off her new crimson helmet, disconnects the radio cable, and nods with a happy smile. “I do not think we will have to change much. The suit is a similar design to the old.”

Cideeda shrugs with a smirk, and gently scratches her chin contemplatively. “Probably, but can’t help to make sure.”

With a curious perk of her expression, Cideeda wanders to another topic with a casually prying tone. “By the way... What do you plan on doing with your remaining, old armor plates?”

Bach smirks, chuckles lightly, and applies a mild, sarcastic hint to his tone. “Because, I doubt we’re going to try to go back for the missing pieces.”

Dretphi lightly snorts with a dismissive eye roll, and slowly shakes her head. “Oh. No. I do not miss them enough to think of retrieval. I will happily leave them for the history of that place.”

She blinks in thought and gradually shifts her focus inwards as she ponders. “I... Do not know... I have a new suit. New plates. I can not think of what to do with them now. I do not want to wear that old suit anymore.”

An eager, toothy grins appears on Cideeda’s face, and she leans her body to the side into Dretphi’s view with her hands behind her back innocently. “Would you sell the plates to me?”

Dretphi rocks her head to the side, wondering about her options. Soon, she nods partially with a twist to her mouth. “Yes. I would. I can give them to you? I do not need to sell them to you, if you want them.”

Cideeda crosses her arms, shakes her head, and smiles thoughtfully. “I appreciate the offer, but I must insist on at least paying for the materials for my projects.”

Both Bach and Dretphi exchange glances, and shift their collective attention towards Cideeda. Bach lifts an intrigued brow and studies Cideeda demeanor. “Projects? What kind?”

Homing in on a key point of the last sentence, Dretphi scrutinizes Cideeda’s words and searches for further explanation. “At least pay for the materials?”

Displaying a faux guilty grin, Cideeda reveals her grand scheme while tapping her finger tips together. “Well, I’ve got a nice new suit for my usual kind of work, but I’d like to recycle my old suit and the plates to see about crafting a super light armor gear, and probably also fashion some nice inserts for Bach’s new duster.”

Bach rolls his hand with growing interest. “Okay. Go on.”

A spark of excitement slowly ignites in Dretphi’s steely gray eyes, and she studies the new imagery in her mind. Cideeda stands up straight, stretches her back, and points a claw tip towards Bach, grinning. “While I can roughly cut down and trim the old plates, I’m going to need your help to do a bit of refined, magic rework. If I’m right, there will be plenty leftover to help you out.”

She turns her attention to Dretphi with appreciative plead, and presents a convincing smile and posture. “And... I’m hoping if I give you a good price on your old plates, I can put your sewing skills to use. I figure we could use the old suit as a base for the new gear and fashion it to work with my new bodysuit.”

Bach thinks a moment, shrugs his shoulders, and nods simply. “Sure. You’ll have to show me what you want, but I think we’ll figure it out somehow. I got my tricks.”

Dretphi smiles brightly, stands up with a bit of excitement in her step, and eagerly gazes at Cideeda. “Yes! Of course. This is a neat project. My house father had a modular outfit that sounds similar to what you want. Base suit. Slip on padding. I helped my mother repair it often.”

Her focus drifts inwards and her eyes sift through ideas. “Never crafted an outfit this small before...”

Cideeda smiles slyly, and postures with an aura of accomplishment between Bach and Dretphi. “Good to hear.”

Her pride subsides gradually in her body language and a reserved smirk graces her face. “And, thank you. I’ve been wanting something a bit more protective when I’m not having to squeeze through tight, uncomfortable places.”

During the lull conversation, she glances over to Dretphi studying of her figure, and redirects focus with a smile. “Okay, let’s finish your gear first before you start on me.”

Dretphi snaps back to awareness and remembers the immediate task at hand. “Oh... Yes... Sorry.”

----

The older grath man maintains his balance as he steps back from Chad’s practice sword swing, and expertly redirects it away. Recovering from the sudden change of momentum, Chad steadies himself, pivots to face the grath man. “Good gods. Not much must ever hit you.”

With a swift shift of his weight upon the back yard grass, the grath man smiles, and readies the wooden sparing blade in his hands with a smug grin. “No. You do not survive Red Gear ambushes if you let them hit you.”

Chad smirks, rolls the tension out of his shoulders, and checks his grip on his practice sword. “Fair enough.”

He pauses in thought, glances at the older grath man, and quizzically tilts his head of brown, coiffed hair. “By the way, you sure your okay with me calling you by your first name, Trenannin?”

Trenannin furrows his brow, ponders the idea for a few seconds, and scratches his head of graying dirty blonde hair. “It is fine. I am not in the military anymore. Sergeant Hekkinen is not appropriate. It would take a long time to explain grath honorifics. Keep it informal.”

Chad nods understandingly, positions himself defensively, and signals Trenannin with a hand gesture. “When you’re ready.”

An eager smile creeps across Trenannin’s face. His body briefly tenses, and he launches his large, tall frame toward Chad. Closing the distance with his long gait, he fancifully swings his sword around in a dramatic, showy fashion. When he nears Chad, Trenannin power swings right at Chad’s side in a run by attack. Chad twists himself around, absorbs the attack with the practice sword, and steps back from the force of the blow. Trenannin slides briefly in the grass behind the two story house, digs his boots into the dirt, and propels his mass abruptly in a different direction.

Leading the point of his sparing sword forward, he aims the tip right at Chad’s center mass. Seeing the incoming attack, Chad braces himself with his blade at the ready to intercept, and spreads his feet to steady himself. A sly smirk flashes on the smug gaze of Trenannin as his muscles tighten mere moments before getting close to Chad. Right before the swords touch, he pulls his blade back, drops low to the ground in a powerful spin, and swings the sparing sword tightly away from Chad. Sliding upon the ground, he leads the blade into a full, sweeping revolution around into the back of Chad’s knees. Pushing through with the momentum, Trenannin powers into an upwards pull, and yanks the confused Chad’s legs right out from underneath. Finishing with a prideful gaze back, Trenannin watches with satisfaction as Chad lands on his back in sheer astonishment. After Chad regains his senses, he notices the hand extended to him from Trenannin, and takes hold of it with fascinated excitement. “Wow! Okay, you HAVE to teach me that move!”

Trenannin chuckles and nods slightly as he pulls Chad back up. “Maybe. Have to keep some secrets. I can show you pointers.”

Off to the side and next to the back sliding glass door of the two story house, Veevi snickers at scene, rests her hands on her hips, and grins sharply. “Well, that would be a lot more than what I’ve been getting from Trakenthin’s lessons... If you can call them that.”

Tassilda crosses her arms, narrows an accusatory stare upon Veevi, and groans out her annoyance. “You ever think there just might be a GOOD REASON you aren’t taught certain things.”

Veevi flashes an indignant glare to Tassilda, turns her nose up, and rolls her eyes petulantly away from Tassilda’s glower. “As if YOU have any ground to stand on.”

While the Tassilda and Veevi exchange mean stares of silent condemnation, Modoran twists his dusky, bluish gray skinned face as he replays the maneuver in his mind, and mulls over his opinion. “A bit more fanciful and risky than anything I’d want to do. But, I can’t argue with the results.”

He shrugs nonchalantly as he settles to a lean against brickwork of the two story house. “I can appreciate the application of misdirection.”

Deedri releases a long sigh of relief, and slowly shakes her head. “Oh, good. I know they’re practice weapons, but I really didn’t want to fix anything too major today.”

The sliding glass door opens, and Trakenthin steps out wearing a stoic, neutral expression. Turning around to the sound of the door opening, Trenannin gazes over to his son and smirks. “Come here. Spar with me.”

Trakenthin snarls his upper lip slightly, grimaces faintly, and slowly shakes his head. “No. Close to lunch. We should figure out what we are going to eat.”

Furrowing a mildly annoyed brow, Trenannin motions his son over, and twists his tone with some encouragement. “One bout. First to make contact. I want to check your skill before your next mission. See if you remember all I taught you.”

Trakenthin crosses his arms, maintains an unamused stare at his father, and sighs with a muted, irritated growl. Chad brushes stray grass blades off his pants, gives his trademark bright, white smile to Trakenthin, and motions encouragingly to him. “It’s just one match. Plus, I’d really like to see what you two are capable of.”

Veevi grins with a sharp, derisive tinge, tosses her head of pink hair back, and crosses her arms to an antagonistic pose. “Yeah, and I want to see what you are supposed to teach me!”

Trenannin narrows his gaze at Trakenthin, concentrates his stare, and chuckles. “You should not deny your father a match.”

Glancing around at the growing attention from the group, his father, and the camera crews off to the side, Trakenthin sighs deeply with a growl, shakes his head, and steps over with his hand out. “Fine. One bout. We eat.”

Chad passes Trakenthin his practice sword, and quickly steps away to join the audience next to Veevi, who promptly leans against him. Trakenthin tilts his head side to side to stretch, rolls his shoulders, and tightens his grip on the sparring blade. Without a word, he readies to a combat stance with both hands on the sword, and levels a silent glare at Trenannin. In response to his sons posture, Trenannin grips his practice sword tightly with both hands, and slowly shifts to a readied stance. An eerie silence looms over the back yard as Chad, Veevi, Tassilda, Modoran, and Deedri watch in anticipation, while the camera crews concentrate their full attentions to the match between father and son.

Seconds tick by with the two quietly studying each other. Cautiously and carefully, Trakenthin slowly steps to the side and gradually circles around Trenannin. His motions purposefully telegraph no significant information. A confident smirk cracks out of the corner of Trenannin’s mouth as he watches Trakenthin move around him, pivoting to keep facing his son. After a few more seconds, he narrows his stare, tenses his muscles, and swiftly swings towards his son. In mere moments, Trakenthin intercepts the attack, diverts it away, positions himself clear of any possible counterattack, and resumes his guard.

Trakenthin quickly lunges forward, driving his blade towards Trenannin’s side. With the same concise, speedy motions, Trenannin parries the attack, sidesteps away, and readies his blade, again. The two trade attack after attack, with each expertly blocking and protecting themselves against counterattacks. As the assault continues, Trenannin’s motions become less fanciful and showy. His counters, parries, and attacks shift to an efficient, serious style along with his expression. Impacts grow louder and more powerful against the practice blades. They fill the area with solid wooden crashes that drown out the hints of cloth padding.

Excitement from the gathered audience decays into a variety of conflicting emotions. Trenannin sneers darkly, focuses his attention, and launches out into a feverish flurry of blows. Enduring the unfolding barrage, Trakenthin deftly and solidly blocks each part of the onslaught. With each counter, the blades crash into a challenge of raw strength near an old scar upon Trakenthin’s body.

Trenannin finishes the volley with a leap backwards, and the two fighters pause to slowly pant out the boiling aggression. Chad stares on in wide eyed bewilderment. Veevi blinks blankly and unconsciously slides slightly behind Chad. Tassilda watches the match uncomfortably as hints of terror creep into her expression. Modoran cocks his head to the side, narrows his eyes at the scene, and grits his teeth. Deedri leans out during the lull in combat, shoots a demanding glare towards Chad.

After a few moments, Chad finally notices the attention from Deedri and meets her stare. Deedri mouths out with fear and anger. “STOP. THIS.”

Chad fumbles upon his response, utterly dumbfounded. He glances over to the cacophony of pitched battle between Trakenthin and Trenannin, and looks back to Deedri to mouth. “HOW?!”

Blade impacts crack out and the sound bounces off the hard surfaces surrounding the backyard battlefield. Both Veevi and Deedri cringe at the sharp noises, but their ears focus on a faint, contrasting, crisp hint in the most powerful clashes. Audio technicians in the crews flinch with each blow and suffer through the acoustic chaos funneling into their heads from their headphones. Meanwhile, camera operators position themselves to capture each wave of the battle from the most dramatic angles. Around the perimeter, Samantha watches with her jaw hanging open and pen slipping out of her hand above her clipboard. Gerald moves his head briefly away from his camera’s viewfinder, and witnesses the spectacle uneasily.

Both Trakenthin and Trenannin slowly pant during a pause between their exchanges, and each glares intensely to the other. A wry, derisive smirk appears on Trenannin’s face, and he directs irritated, goading phrases of grath right at Trakenthin. Grimacing at the words, Trakenthin snorts with gritting teeth, and grumbles back to his father dismissively. Focusing upon signs of hesitation in Trakenthin’s body language, Trenannin spits out another assault of demeaning words. Trakenthin cringes, shakes off the emotions, and brings forth a stoic exterior against his father. Narrowing his stare briefly, Trenannin chuckles darkly, levels a glare upon Trakenthin, and mutters one more grath phrase with a sly, sinister grin.

Trakenthin freezes for a second. The stoic exterior shatters away as Trakenthin bares his teeth. A hazel light briefly flickers in his eyes, his feet dig into the soft dirt, and Trakenthin’s body contorts to vehemently enraged definition. Trakenthin charges forward in a berserk flurry of chaotic, hammering fury upon his father. Trenannin blocks each furious blow, anticipates the next from Trakenthin’s body language, and readies to intercept. With each thunderous, echoing slam, the faint, crisp hint crackles louder into the air. In a powerful overhead drop of the blade, Trakenthin hammers down towards his father’s blade. A loud crumbling snap blasts out as the practice sword in Trakenthin’s hand bends sharply against the defending blade. Trenannin quickly reacts in the sudden confusion from Trakenthin, side steps clear, waits for the follow up opportunity. With merciless precision, he solidly swings his sparring sword solidly right onto his son's chest. Trakenthin winces against the impact, and reflexively drops to his knees.

As the battle finishes, silence overwhelms the awe struck expressions upon everyone. Trenannin extends his hand down to his son and waits. Trakenthin glances up, draws a hesitant breath, and begrudging takes hold of his father’s hand. After helping his son up, he nods to Trakenthin with satisfaction and pride bright on his face, and pats him on the shoulder. “Good to know you remember all I taught you. That was proper fight. Never anything less from you. My son.”

Trakenthin grants his father a silent, rigid nod, and gazes upon the mix of astonished, terrified, and shocked looks from the group and crew. He holds a hand up to the gathering and clearly speaks with a little reservation. “I am fine. Do not worry.”

Chad nods towards Trakenthin, surveys the dramatic tension in the area with an uneasy smirk, and claps his hands together loudly. “Now THAT was a hell of a fight. I always wondered where Trakenthin got his sword fighting skill. Now, I know... That was... Absolutely intense.”

Trenannin walks with Trakenthin towards the sliding glass door with a smug and prideful grin. “Intense. Yes. It has kept him alive.”

Putting up a calm exterior, Chad redirects everyone’s attention inside with a focus on Trenannin. “So... Lunch? How about you choose the place, Trenannin? Since you’ve won the matches today?”

Thinking a moment, Trenannin nods in agreement, and opens the sliding glass door. “Sounds good. What is good around here?”

With Veevi following behind him in an awkward stupor, Chad quickly leads Trenannin inside. “Well, we’ve got menus for a few different places...”

As Chad, Veevi, and Trenannin slip inside, Modoran smoothly slides the sliding glass door closed, steps up to Trakenthin, aims his gaze up at him. “Hey, you okay?”

Tassilda releases a stressed breath behind her cupped hands around her mouth, gazes with concern at Trakenthin, and seeks an answer as she approaches. “My gods, are you okay? That was a terrible hit you took. And, that whole battle... What the fuck?!”

Trakenthin holds his hands up, gestures them in a calming, assuring motions, and presents light smile over hints of strain. “I am fine. That is just how we have always fought. Do not worry.”

Tassilda directs an unconvinced stare up at Trakenthin. Her expression softens and she nods with worry. “Okay. If you say so, for now.”

She lightly rubs Trakenthin’s shoulder, opens the sliding glass door, and slips through. Modoran follows after her, with an acknowledging nod to Trakenthin before he goes inside. Trakenthin breathes carefully, blinks blankly, and notices the hard analyzing stare coming from Deedri’s glowing auburn eyes. He glances inside and through the sliding glass door to where his father is, and meets Deedri’s stern, demanding gaze with a bit of shame. “Can it wait? After my father leaves?”

Deedri crosses her arms, narrows out the glow in her eyes, and grits her teeth. “If it must. Thankfully, nothing is broken from what I can see. It will be painful until I can properly treat it.”

Trakenthin sighs understandingly, grimaces briefly, and carefully flexes his upper body. “Yes. I know.”

With a light pat on his arm, Deedri gazes up with a comforting smile, and motions upstairs towards her room with a whisper. “After he leaves, come to my room. You can talk freely if want while I’m taking care it.”

Bowing is head graciously, Trakenthin reveals a genuine smile and softly speaks. “Thank you.”

Deedri opens the sliding glass door wider for her and Trakenthin, steps through, waits for Trakenthin to enter, and closes up.

----

Leaning over the dining table, Cideeda eagerly lifts up a small metal and crystal infused frame for a golem arm on tabletop. She slides it over upon a heavy cloth work pad, and settles it in front of Aristespha and Bach. With her tail wagging in anticipation, she grins toothily and gazes expectantly at the two mages. “Okay... Let’s start with this one.”

Bach pulls the mat over closer, briefly surveys the part, and quirks his brow. “Well, it’s definitely an arm... Or, part of one.”

Cideeda narrows a brief, incredulous glare at Bach, rolls her eyes with a sigh, and rolls her hand for more information. “Well... YES. But, does it still work? What did it go to? How does it work? I can guess at how it might work, but I figured you two would know the most.”

She points the various arcane components visible, and guides a claw tip over different parts. “There’s either a power or signal line going to some kind of actuator. Then, it moves the cabling to the hand’s fingers. The mechanical side of things look about the same to what I’ve seen else where.”

Aristespha studies the device near her, tilts her head to the side, and blinks her violet eyes to a glow. “For the most part. A lot of golem workings borrow heavily from robotics with some magical liberties taken.”

After examining it closer, Bach’s eyes light up blue and he scrutinizes the golem arm overall. “Well, I don’t see anything too dangerous. Let’s see if it can work after all this time.”

Holding his hand out close to the base of the forearm, thin magical threads materialize and reach out to exposed arcane conduits. Bach’s face twists in thought as he concentrates upon the task, and his hand reflexively flexes and moves as he mentally explores. “Alright. I’m feeling some signs that the lines are connected. Just don’t know to what really. Well, let see what THIS moves.”

Faint illumination flickers from inside the arm, and weak flashes of magical light pulse along different components inside. Moments later, the wrist shudders briefly, and the middle digit of the five fingered hand curls slightly. Cideeda’s emerald green eyes widen in sheer, absolute fascination, and she leans over further to watch every motion, her tail obviously twitching with her thoughts. “Try the other fingers!”

Bach grumbles as he searches his mind, and pulses of magical energy trace down the magical threads into the golem forearm. He grits his teeth briefly, twists his mouth in mild frustration, and sighs. “I’m trying... But, I think there’s something down the pathways that’s getting in the way of the flow. Or, I’m just poking around the wrong spots.”

Aristespha taps upon the middle section of the forearm, squints her eyes as she lowers her gaze closer to the device, and hums in thought. “I see some degradation to your flows here. I would imagine that there’s probably a magical conduit that has decayed significantly over the years.”

Briefly disheartened, Cideeda’s furry ears flick with her thoughts, and her attention shifts away from the golem part towards Aristespha and Bach. “Could it be repaired or replaced?”

Bach exchanges a glance with Aristespha, gazes back over to Cideeda, and shrugs his shoulders. “Well, I can’t think of a reason it couldn’t. First, we’ll have to see what we got going on here. Let’s see if I can manage to...”

Holding both hands near the arcane arm, Bach flows streams of magical energy out upon the golem part. He closes his eyes, twists and turns his head with a grimace, and concentrates. “I think I got it figured out... Now... Will it come apart easily?”

Carefully and slowly pulling his hands away from the device, the arm stirs and hovers up into the air. Gradually, the framework disassembles in logical, sequential steps, and the pieces release out into subsections as the binding bits release themselves. Soon the individual components of the magical device float above the table in a functionally exploded arrangement. Aristespha narrows her violet illuminated gaze at the smaller parts of the piece cloud. She follows along a path of bundled magical cabling, and stops at an intersection between wiring and sub-components. She points out a darkened, cloudy section of crystal, and nods her head of long, silvery blue hair towards the oddity. “There. If nothing else, that’s the best place to start checking.”

Bach tilts his head to the side, and notices the piece Aristespha identifies. As he gradually brings his hands back together, the individual components of the golem arm reassemble themselves into larger pieces, and reattach in a meticulous process to reform the golem limb. After the rebuild, the arm floats back down upon the cloth work mat. Bach blinks his eyes back to normal, and curiously studies the array of other magical parts upon the dining room table. “Probably shouldn’t be too hard to replace it. If we can find the right size and type of crystal.”

Cideeda perks up, searches around the collection of arcane devices, and hoists over a wooden box. “Well, there’s this box of different crystals I found.”

When the box settles in front of them, both Aristespha and Bach scan over the contents before plucking out choice pieces to examine closely. Aristespha smirks slightly, slowly shakes her head, and hands over the piece to Cideeda. “These aren’t the right types of crystal to use as a replacement for that, but...”

She smiles to Cideeda, and retrieves another one for herself. “They are flow reactive movement crystals. If I remember correctly, they are very easy to move around with simple energy flows.”

Bach nods in agreement, holds out his hand upwards, and his blue eye illuminate. The movement crystal in his palm hovers up to a few centimeters, and freely spins and pivots. Bach continues to demonstrate the possibilities as his outstretched fingers twitching slightly to the movements of the small, faintly glowing object. Cideeda widens her eyes in absolute fascination, and gazes excitedly at the magical mineral in her hand. “That’s amazing! How do I move it!?”

Bach blinks, glances over to Cideeda, and uneasily stumbles around his words in an awkward tone. “Well, uh... I move it in a particular way that I’ve learned... that’s similar to my current means of magic use... And uh, it’s not easy to reproduce...”

Signs of disappointment trickle into Cideeda’s face. Bach dons an encouraging grin, and glances over to Aristespha hopefully. “But, I know there’s more typical spells that you should be able to do. That, um, I think Aristespha might be far more familiar with than I am right now...”

Aristespha presents a confident smile, nods to Bach, and gestures for Cideeda’s attention. “That I am. And, I can certainly teach you a basic helper spell to help you move this type of material.”

Cideeda snaps her full, undivided attention to Aristespha, and awaits further instruction. “What do I need to do?”

With a calm, teacher’s tone, Aristespha guides Cideeda through a series of hand gestures along with the vocalizations for the incantations. During the explanation, Bach pays attention, and occasionally twists his face as faded lessons resurface back into mind from college semesters long forgotten. After following along a few demonstrations from Aristespha, Cideeda readies herself. Carefully reciting the incantations and slowly articulating her hands into the gestures, Cideeda wills her magical flows towards her hands and holds them to either side of a small movement crystal on the tabletop. Tense, still moments pass. Then, the crystal rattles and shifts suddenly a few centimeters in one direction. A bright smile flashes upon Cideeda’s face, and her whole demeanor flushes with absolute joy. Her focus elsewhere, she remains utterly fascinated on the motions of the magical mineral, completely unaware of her the flicks of her ears and long tail.

Aristespha and Bach watch with satisfaction and amusement as Cideeda continues her magical exercises. After a few minutes, Aristespha and Bach exchange thoughtful glances, and silently ponder at the development.

----

Deedri guides the tail of long strip of gauge around Trakenthin’s chest, tightens up the slack, and presses the very end upon the bundle of medical wrapping. She turns a nearby adjustable lamp back to lighting the top of her desk. She stops in front of Trakenthin, and gazes right into his eyes. “That treated pad with reduce any swelling. It’ll also make the bruising heal quicker. The ointment I put on there will dull any pain, so you’ll be able to sleep without it bothering you.”

Sitting upon a stool in the middle of Deedri’s room, Trakenthin meekly responds with a gracious tone. “Thank you. I appreciate you waiting until later to treat me.”

Deedri crosses her arms, stares sternly at Trakenthin, and draws in faintly frustrated breath. “You are the one that suffered the most. Still, I don’t like withholding treatment when it is needed. But... I know you had your reasons...”

She twists her mouth during the awkward silence, sighs as concern overtakes her attitude, and relaxes her arms to her side. “I know I’m prying into personal things, but... What the hell was that about?”

Uncomfortably grumbling as he reluctantly approaches the subject, Trakenthin grimaces,and eventually relents with a long exhale. “Long story. Short version. My birth father has issues. It makes him difficult at times.”

Tilting her head to the side, Deedri contorts her face incredulously, flicks her tufted ears, and gradually nods at the obvious. “Yes. We all saw.”

Trakenthin grits his teeth, gently hisses an uneasy breath through, and slowly shakes his head. “It would take days to explain. I have had long conversations with my birth mother about him. I can go on for days. She could go on for weeks.”

He sits up straight, sadly draws in air into his lungs, and frowns longingly. “He can be great. He has helped when I needed it greatly. Taught me useful skills. Unfortunately...”

Narrowing his focus into his mind, Trakenthin’s face contorts as he searches for the words and his discomfort grow more obvious. Deedri presents a reassuring smile, rests a hand on Trakenthin’s shoulder, and shakes her head. “It’s okay. I’m overstepping personally and professionally anyway. Fathers can be... difficult.”

Trakenthin slowly lifts his head back up, gazes at Deedri, and smirks appreciatively with a light chuckle. “Yes.”

Deedri reaches over to the desk, picks up Trakenthin’s shirt, and hands it to him. “Here. I’ve done everything I need to at the moment.”

After Trakenthin pulls on the t-shirt, he resumes his previous thoughts, ponders a few seconds, and concentrates on the phrase in his mind. “He... He... He has had expectations. The same ones for years. He still has those exact expectations of how things should be.”

With a sad tone, Trakenthin releases a long sigh, shrugs his shoulders, and shakes his head. “The world does not... will not meet them. He refuses to see it otherwise. I wish I knew how to make him accept it.”

Deedri silently nods as sympathy colors her gaze. Trakenthin chuckles lightly, rolls his eyes at the same old situation, and smiles to Deedri. “I will not solve it today. He was good the rest of the day. That was nice. We leave for the mission tomorrow. I doubt he will remain in town for long.”

Crossing her arms, Deedri hums in thought as she flexes her clawed fingers and wags her long tail in deliberation. “I don’t know. The fact that the Next Adventurers of Nexus people got him here makes me think they’re hoping more happens.”

Snarling her upper lip, she narrows her eyes off to the side and growls irritably. “Gods damn that Howard. I’m sure he’s behind this... Along with that scheming Samantha. Only two people I can think of that would arrange something like this.”

Trakenthin stretches out his arms as he stands up, carefully stretches his upper body, and snorts with a humored smirk. “I hope they are paying him. That way he has steady income for once.”

As Deedri follows Trakenthin to her bedroom door, she grins lightheartedly, and gazes up to Trakenthin. “Well, that’s certainly one way to look at it.”

Trakenthin shrugs as the two exit out into the upstairs hallway, and laughs. “Find humor where you can.”

----

Dr. Dawkins slowly walks into the well decorated sitting room, ambles over to his aged leather recliner, and settles down into the seat with a satisfied tone. “As much as I do enjoy a good session of academic exploration, I think I need a break from the books.”

Following shortly behind Dr. Dawkins, Isaac rubs his gray eyes into to a pinch of his nose bridge, nods slowly as he wanders over to the other recliner, and plops into the couch chair. “I must say, I would have to agree. Give my eyes a well deserved break from reviewing all my notes. Gods, I have forgotten how much I’ve written.”

With an amused snort, Dr. Dawkins reaches over to a bottle of dark liquor on a small end table, uncorks the top, and starts to pour a healthy portion into a glass on the tabletop. Isaac blinks a few times, glances over to Dr. Dawkins filling the glass, and narrows his gaze upon a wall clock. “Good gods, sir. It’s barely the afternoon.”

Dr. Dawkins slowly raises his humored stare to Isaac, smirks dryly, and snorts. “Oh hell, it’s Saturday. You, of all people, aren’t going to deprive an old man his vices in his own home?”

Isaac cracks a sly grin, chuckles to himself, and taps on another empty glass next to the filled one. “So long as you don’t leave me out, Dr. Dawkins.”

Nodding with a smile, Dr. Dawkins shifts the bottle over and pours another ample amount into the other container. The two men pick up their drinks, sip them in silence for a few minutes. Dr. Dawkins angles his gaze over to Isaac, lifts an intrigued brow, and points to him. “I’ve been thinking about how we are going to get to Malkav’s stash.”

Isaac meets Dr. Dawkins’s gaze, cocks his head to the side curiously with an interested cadence. “I’d love to hear it. Because, truthfully, all I’ve come up with is to just walk in there like I own the place, grab it, and hope no one cares.”

Pulling a devilish grin across his face, Dr. Dawkins laughs, and slowly nods. “Actually, my plans is pretty close to that...”

Blinking out his surprise, Isaac narrows a scrutinizing gaze towards Dr. Dawkins. Perking his brow, Dr. Dawkins draws a long breath in, and carefully explains. “It’s actually quite the ideal time for a simple, calm approach to this problem. We may have been gone from the Grand Library’s normal operations, but I doubt too much has changed. It’s the tail end of June, in the middle the summer sessions... Which means not a damn much is happening right now.”

Isaac’s eyes widen as his mind processes these details, and he ponders his thoughts out loud. “That’s right. There will be hardly anyone around. But, just enough with summer classes and students working on research that it wouldn’t be unusual to see new people in buildings.”

With scheming smile and glass in hand, Dr. Dawkins nods and focuses his attention on the presentation of the plan. “Exactly. The only real problem is those that know who should and shouldn’t be in certain places. Which is usually the administrative faculty and their subordinates.”

Slowly processing the dilemma, Isaac narrows his inquisitive gaze at Dr. Dawkins, and cocks his head to the side. “So, how do we handle them?”

Finishing a long swig of his drink, Dr. Dawkins grins brightly and laughs with a dark tinge. “Take them out to lunch.”

Isaac’s expression blanks out for seconds, before he shakes his head back to awareness, and leans closer to Dr. Dawkins. “Okay... Go on?”

Settling back into his plush recliner, Dr. Dawkins rests his drink on the table, and taps the finger tips of his hands together with a plotting tone. “Exactly what I said. I’ve recently spoken with both the heads of the computer sciences and archaeology departments. They’re good young men, and I wouldn’t mind seeing if they would update me on the latest internal affairs. I figured I would visit and treat them to a lunch. And, I’d also offer to treat any of the graduate students that happen to be around for the day.”

Putting his glass down, Isaac scratches his chin as he plays out the scenario in the mind, and slowly rocks his head as his eyes sort through the internal play by play. “Yeah... That could work. It’d give me a good hour window to slip in without any of the regular guard around to notice anything.”

Dr. Dawkin lifts an incredulous eyebrow towards Isaac, snorts in ill-humor, and rolls his eyes. “An hour? I’m taking them to an all you can eat buffet. You have two hours, at least. Academics and free, plentiful food are hard to separate.”

Isaac reflexively snickers out in laughter, and agrees heartily with Dr. Dawkins. He ponders a moment, and his eyes light up as the pieces of the puzzle fit together. “You can drop me off near the campus before you go in to meet with them. I’ll head on into the campus once you head off with everyone to lunch. Go in quickly, get Malkav’s notes, and casually leave the area. Once you finish up, you can pick me up at a point some distance away from campus, which would grant you plausible deniability.”

A delighted smile appears on Dr. Dawkins’s face, and he picks up his glass. “I think we have something quite resembling a viable plan.”

He holds his glass up, and waits for the Isaac to do the same. The two men clinks their drinks together, and enjoy healthy portions of the dark liquor.

-68-

Laying out upon the cheap, motel single bed, Meredosia stares blankly up to the aged ceiling paint, and yellowed light glowing out from the dusty dome fixture. She adverts her crimson eyes away briefly to watch an advertisement on the old, outdated television. After recognizing the repetitious advertisement, she rest her long, gray haired head uneasily upon the single stiff pillow on the mattress, and winces with a slow breath through her gritting teeth. She gradually tosses and turns, and eventually presses her hands tightly upon her growling stomach. Hissing out her aggravation and frustration, she frowns harshly when reaches out and snatches her wallet off the lone nightstand in the small, simple motel room. Flipping open the billfold, she sorts out the meager amount of money upon the bed top, and stares unhappily as her mind runs the dismal calculations. With a saddened sigh, she grimaces and begins to put her funds back into the wallet. Then she cringes while wrapping her arm tightly around her gurgling, empty stomach, and clenches the money in the hands. In a surge of frustration, she curses out in a dialect of evuukian, stows away hold her billfold in her frayed blue jeans, and turns on the bed to stand up on the floor. Quickly slipping on her hoodie, she swiftly steps into her boots, and sweeps up the room key into her pockets. Mustering her determination, she exits out into the parking lot of the remote, rundown motel.

Meredosia slowly widens her narrowed eyes against the high noon sun. The dark circles under her eyes contrast her ivory skin and the bright ambient light. She wanders down the long sidewalk towards the nearby intersection and the small commercial buildings surrounding it. Concentrating on her mission, she keeps her gaze lowered upon the concrete walkway in front of her and hands in her hoodie pockets. Minutes later, she reaches an inlet to a small strip mall parking lot, and surveys the area. Searching the collection of store signs upon the different sections of the large, long building, she mentally sifts through the places that don’t interest her. After a few passes, she settles her intrigued gaze upon the simple lettering of “Fval Spice” and the blue and red “Open” sign light through the window front. The wind shifts and a breeze blows around Meredosia. She sniffs the air, and instinctively follows the alluring scent straight towards the small restaurant.

Opening the door, Meredosia steps cautiously in and looks over the setup. A few different, simple arrangements of tables and chairs comprise the majority of the seating in the front with a number of wall mounted benches. Gazing towards the back, a tastefully decorated counter sits between the short hallway to bathrooms and entry into the back kitchen. Meredosia hears activity in the back as sizzles of food fills the air and flashes of cooking flame light warmly glow out from the path to the kitchen. The aroma guides Meredosia’s hand to tightly grasp a menu and she lifts it open to her eager eyes. She analyzes the menu and sorts through the possibilities. After a few moments, her gaze concentrates upon a cheaper choice, and she deliberates while she stands in the middle of the front area.

An older Fvalian man, steps out from the back kitchen, hoists up two large paper sacks upon the counter, and narrows an unamused glance to the wall clock. Slowly shaking his head of short, graying hair, he mumbles out his confusion in fvalian while his short tail twitches. Pausing his thoughts, he notices Meredosia, perks up his furry ears, and dons a pleasant smile. “Oh! Pardon me. Sorry to keep you waiting. Dine in or carry out?”

Meredosia blinks back to awareness, meets the older Fvalian man’s gaze, and searches her mind a moment. Eyeing out the door and frowning briefly at the alternative, she glances around the front area. “Um... Dine in.”

With a delighted smile, the older fvalian waves his clawed hands out to all the seating, and slightly bows. “Of course. Sit wherever you like. Please.”

Meredosia fights through a bit of indecisiveness, but settles in a seat at a small table. The fvalian man quickly picks up an order pad and pen, and rushes over to Meredosia’s table. “What would you like to drink?”

With a meek, reserved tone, Meredosia simply replies. “Oh. Uh, just water right now.”

Nodding as he writes it on the pad, the older fvalian man tilts his head to the side curiously, and inquires. “Do you know what you want? Or, do you need a minute?”

Meredosia turns the menu towards the fvalian, points out to the cheaper option, and gazes up. “I think I’ll have this. Just as it comes.”

The fvalian nods happily, writes down the order, and presents an appreciative smile. “Yes. I will get your drink, and start cooking it.”

A slight smile appears on Meredosia’s face as the fvalian man hurries off to the back kitchen area. She folds up the menu, places it off to the side on her table, and settles into her chair. With a long sigh, her thoughts wander to the front of her mind, and she stares idly ahead at the table. Hearing the soft thud of a full glass of ice water upon the table, she stirs from the her stupor, nods to the fvalian man, and picks up the paper wrapped straw on her table. As she peels the wrapper off the straw, she notices the older fvalian man on an aetherphone, and focuses her attention upon this side of the call.

Lifting a mildly annoyed brow, the fvalian speaks to the other party. “Yes, this is Noyando. Where are you? Orders are coming in.”

Noyando listens to the response as the emotions on his face shift between a gamut of frustration, understanding, and disappointment. With a long groaning sigh, he shakes his head after the long explanation from the other party, and collects his thoughts while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Okay. Try to come in for dinner deliveries, if you can. I will figure out lunch.”

He ends the call on the his phone, groans out his irritation, and mumbles a few choice phrases in fvalian. He lifts his head up, notices Meredosia gazing over, and bows apologetically. “Sorry. I did not mean to disturb you.”

Meredosia shakes her head slightly, and smiles politely. “Oh. No. It’s fine.”

She pauses a moment, fights off some hesitation, and carefully pries. “What’s wrong?”

Noyando tugs at the corner of his mouth, and shrugs his shoulders as he put his aetherphone away. “The usual delivery man for today... has a hangover. I don’t have others that can work Sundays.”

He thinks a moment, glances over to Meredosia with an examining stare, and poses a question to her. “You want to earn some money?”

Meredosia blinks to attention, searches her mind a moment, and uncertainly mulls over the idea. “Well, I could use the money. But... I just moved here. So, I’m not familiar with the area.”

With an encouragingly dismissive wave of his hand, Noyando explains the situation with calm tone. “It’s okay. These orders are nearby. You can walk to them easy. I’ll show you on a map, and write out directions. I just can’t leave the store right now. You deliver, you keep the delivery fee. If you want more work we’ll talk. I always need good help.”

As Meredosia starts to ponder the offer, her stomach growls loudly, and she glances around embarrassed as she presses her hands on her midsection. Noyando lifts an intrigued brow, and smirks enterprisingly towards Meredosia. “When you work for me, I’ll cook you free meals.”

Meredosia perks up and her long ears twitch reflexively at the notion. “I might be interested.”

Noyando smiles, nods appreciatively, and turns towards the kitchen. “Good. Let me cook, so you can eat first. What is your name?”

The faint trace of a hopeful smirk cracks in the corner of Meredosia’s face. “Um... Mera.”

----

Across the beautifully landscaped courtyard between a number of scenic resort structures, Chad leads Tassilda, Modoran, Trakenthin, and Deedri, with an excitable Veevi at this side. The team wanders loosely behind Chad, and each take in the layout of the resort grounds. Tassilda dons a sly smile, glances behind her towards Deedri, and points to building with a large “Spa Center” sign. Deedri notes the location, nods back to with a hopeful smirk, and curiously watches Modoran. As the group travels across the open space on the stone paver pathway, Modoran remains silent, and his dark blue eyes actively poll around to the different visible entrances into the area. With a rigid posture, he stiffly angles his head side to side with an uneasy expression sneaking out onto his dusky bluish gray face. After a few more seconds of observation, Deedri thoughtfully crosses her arms, perks her brow, and steps over closer to whisper to Modoran. “What are you looking for?”

Modoran shudders out from his previous state of mind, gazes down to Deedri, and attempts to nonchalantly shrug off suspicion. “Oh... Uh... Just making notes of the layout of this place. It’s one thing to see a map, but another to see it for yourself.”

Deedri narrows her unconvinced auburn eyes at Modoran, flicks her furry ears, and gradually wags her tail. “Okay. That makes sense. You just seemed uncomfortable for some reason.”

Summoning a wave of cool, confidence, Modoran presents a calm smile to Deedri, and dons an easy going tone. “Well, it’s a big job. And, there’s going to be a lot of Evuukian house members all in one place. A lot of really big names will be wandering around.”

Blinking at a realization, Deedri bites her lower lip as she contends with a surge of nervousness. “That’s right... I’d forgotten about that with getting everything prepared. I really need to review the guest list again, and try to get some familiarity with the politics.”

Modoran thinks a moment, presents a comforting smile to Deedri, and relaxes his body language as his attention shifts. “Yeah. I wouldn’t go too deep into all that. House politics change everyday, and there’s a tremendous amount of history behind everything. If you want, I could give you a quick overview of the current important bits.”

Deedri perks up, and gazes at Modoran with a delighted grin. “I’ll take all the help I can get. Gods, I thought medical literature was convoluted, then I just read up about one recent scandal.”

A humored smirk appears on Modoran face, and he chuckles lightly and lifts an intrigued eye brow toward Deedri. “Which one? There was at least three major ones last week and a few other minor ones.”

Widening her eyes in surprise, Deedri grits her teeth briefly, and brings out her aetherphone from her pocket. “Okay, where are you getting your information from. Because the news sites I visit didn’t mention anything else.”

Modoran peeks over Deedri’s shoulder, and starts instructing her on the more appropriate aethersites to visit. Tassilda stretches out her neck, rolls her her shoulders, and sighs as she ponders the tasks ahead. “It is ever a lovely resort here. Though, I doubt we’ll be able to enjoy it fully.”

Chad glances back over his shoulder as he continues to guide the team down a long pathway branching off the main route. “I wouldn’t say that yet. I mean, we are going to be busy.”

Trakenthin cocks his head to the side, eyes down towards Chad, and twists his mouth. “Busy doing what exactly? I understand our general purpose. Clarification would be appreciated for our daily activities.”

Sorting through the agenda in his mind, Chad lays down an explanation as the group travels further along the lone, stone walkway. “We’ll be serving both entertainment and security purposes here. Most of the time we’ll just be making appearances and hosting events for the guests. It turns out a lot Evuukian house members are big fans of the show. It seems like it will be like a small convention.”

He slyly smirks, shrugs his shoulders, and laughs. “As for security. Nothing too crazy. We'll be escorting some big players around, stand around at big gatherings, and just serve as a deterrents against the nobles acting out too much. Most probably don’t want to be caught being stupid in front of us and the cameras.”

A spark of foreboding mischief flickers in Veevi’s pink pupil eyes, and she grins devilishly towards Chad. Trakenthin grumbles with a dismissive eye roll, and slowly shakes his head. “I hope we have time to ourselves.”

Tassilda tosses her raven black hair back, brushes stray strands over her swirling horns, and nods in agreement. She puts her hands on her hips, contorts her gray skinned face, and stares her light blue on black eyes sternly ahead at Chad. “Again, I DO hope we get a chance to enjoy a little of this for ourselves. It’ll be quite torturous to be at such a place and forced to constantly babysit bratty nobility.”

Chad dons his trademark, bright white grin as he steps pass the end of the long path into a small courtyard, and presents a resort villa to the team. “We’ll be here til Saturday evening. And... the guests leave Friday. Until then, I think we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves a little in the off time.”

The rest of the group gawks in surprise and delight at the facilities before them, while camera crews off to the side record their reactions from different angles.

----

Late morning sun beams around the moderate cloud cover above, and projects large drifting shadows across the grass in the backyard behind the ranch style house. Bach reservedly judges the eager grin upon Sotalia’s face as he sits across from her at the large picnic table. Sotalia perks up, taps her long, thick black finger nails upon the wooden plank table top, and smiles expectantly. “So... What’s the first step in this lesson?”

Bach twists his face, searches the edges of his mind, and cautiously approaches the subject. “Well, first... Let’s see how well you can do the regular disintegration beam spell before we get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Narrowing a brief, incredulous stare at Bach, Sotalia draws a confident smirk across her lips, turns around on the bench seating, and stands up searching the vast open field. “Fair enough. Let’s see...”

Her gaze settles upon the battered, burnt, and blasted boulder, and she points out to the stone target. “I’ll use our favorite target.”

Bach rests his arms upon the table, weaves his fingers, and waits patiently. Sotalia stretches out her arms, rolls her shoulders, and settles her footing, swaying her hips. Closing her golden eyes, she releases a long, calming breath, and readies her hands in front of her. With careful motions of her gestures, she methodically speaks the incantations in sync, and ends with her hands in front her. Palms ahead and wrists touching, flows of magical energy stream out from her body, and swirl to condense in the middle of her outstretched fingers.

An orb of prismatic white noise grows briefly before a stream of sparkling, dull gray launches out. The beam quickly bridges the distance, and splatters upon the surface of the boulder. Plumes out powdered rock belch out from the impact point and glowing sparks puff out chaotically. As the seconds pass, Sotalia grimaces under the stain of the magical flows jetting around her into the beam. A few moments later, the beam fades out and the cloud of dust around the boulder drifts away with the gentle breeze. Sotalia grins triumphantly as the fading stone haze reveals a sizable, few centimeters deep bore hole into the giant rock’s surface. She pivots in place to face Bach with a drama flair, projects her confidence with a pose, and awaits recognition of her efforts. “I do believe that should demonstrate my expertise with the disintegration beam.”

Bach lifts his hands up from the table top, lightly taps both extended index fingers to his mouth contemplatively, and sneaks an amused smirk out of the corner of his mouth. “Yes. It does. Now... Can you curve the beam?”

Sotalia blinks blankly as she ponders the concept, rests her hands on her hips, and cocks her head to the side puzzling. “Curve it... as in... changing the direction it leaves the starting point?”

Raising a hand away from the other, Bach draws a circle in the air and smiles smugly at Sotalia. “Well, more like a circle.”

Lifting an intrigued brow, Sotalia steps back to the bench next to the wooden plank picnic table, and settles back onto her seat across from Bach. “Okay. Explain.”

Bach shrugs his shoulders, pantomimes the key concepts of the disintegration ball spell, and gazes at Sotalia to gauge her understanding. “Well, the D-Ball spell is basically bundles of high energy magical particle streams circling upon themselves into rings, that spin around.”

Sotalia furrows her brow curiously, leans over the table slightly after she tosses her fiery orange hair back, and watches Bach expectantly with her golden eyes. “Okay... I think I know what you are saying, but an example could help.”

Bach nods in agreement, lifts his hands up in between Sotalia and himself, and blinks his eyes to a glowing blue. A single tiny, prismatic point hovers in between Bach’s palms. The particle moves around in a fast circle, and soon other spots form to fly in the same ring path. A few seconds, a blurry ring of fast moving magical energy pivots around a center axis. As the rotation speeds up, the ring turns into the illusion of a flickering, transparent orb. Sotalia watches in utter fascination, and studies the display of magic attentively. After a minute, Bach releases the flows of magical energy and the particles harmlessly dissipate into the air. Watching the miasma float away in the wind, Sotalia directs her attention upon Bach, and cracks a sly smile. “I think I get it now. I was curious what the secret trick to it was.”

Bach cracks a humored grin, tilts his head to the side, and nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders briefly gazing away. “Oh yeah. The fundamentals are simple. The execution is the hard part. I mean all you have to do is create nearly solid rings of thread thin, highly destructive magical particles. Then, you need to spin the rings in counter rotations of each other along the same center point, as you build layer upon layer to form an orb that wants to spin apart... and shred you to pieces.”

The confidence fades away in Sotalia’s face and an awkward unease sneaks out during the idle stare at Bach. “Yeah... I think I might practice with harmless magical particles first. Just to be on the safe side.”

Nodding at the idea, Bach chuckles lightly to himself and crosses his arms. “That’s probably a good idea. I don’t think Aristespha wants to have to stitch up hands or reattach fingers today.”

Sotalia rolls her eyes with a humored snort, and readies her hands in front of her. Over the minutes, Sotalia grits her teeth, grimaces, cringes, and strains with each attempt to finely control the small speck of magical energy in the space between her hands. Bach patiently watches with his blue illuminated eyes, and waits for lulls in Sotalia’s frustrated pride to calmly suggest alternative methods to approach the problem. With a few more stubborn failing attempts, Sotalia adopts the recommendations to gradually alter her technique to a more viable method. Powered by her sheer determination and unyielding pride, Sotalia manages, after dozens of gradually less unsuccessful attempts, to form a crude, slow ring of magical energy particles. A spark of joy lights up her golden eyes, and she hoists the successful manifestation of her labor towards Bach, beaming with pride. “Yes! Oh, I’ll have this figured out soon enough. Take a look!”

Bach blinks back to awareness, gazes over from his own magical creation, and examines Sotalia’s efforts with a smile. “Yeah. That’s pretty good progress.”

Sotalia’s attention shifts over to the complicated, complex molded streams of different shapes and figures hovering in the air between Bach hands. For a moment, her prideful front wanes into a unamused pout as her eyes compare the difference between her magical craft and Bach’s. Focusing her defensive stare at Bach, her gaze softens watching him study her creation and lightens to a smile as he moves his hands to close to hers. Bach looks over, and puzzles a moment. “Hey, you okay?”

Sotalia blinks back her usual confident grin. “Of course. What are you going to do?”

Bach motions his head towards Sotalia’s energy ring, and squints at the details with his blue illuminated eyes. “Well, if you don’t mind, I can show you some tweaks you can do. You should be able to feel them if you pay attention.”

With a simple nod, Sotalia perks up, smiles excitedly, and waits eagerly. “Go right ahead.”

----

Out from a large, tall brick building, Dr. Dawkins steps out a set of double doors into the surrounding parking lot. Behind him, Harvos and Nash walk up to either side of Dr. Dawkins, and lead a small gathering of graduate students a few steps behind. Nash leans over towards Dr. Dawkins with a smirk, and jokes with a curious tinge. “Hey, I appreciate you offering to pay for our lunches, but you sure you want to pay for all the graduate students? I mean I know Grand Library retirement is good, but I don’t want to take advantage of an old man. I could help out with the bill.”

Dr. Dawkins laughs as he slowly walks towards his old sedan in a nearby parking spot, and dismisses the notion with a casual wave of his hand. “Oh, nonsense. I can’t take it with me, so I figured I might as well enjoy it with others.”

Harvos slightly nods his head of short, bright brown hair and large upright horns, and presents an appreciative smile. “Well, thank you, very much, Dr. Dawkins. We all appreciate your generosity. Especially, my graduate students.”

A satisfied smirk graces Dr. Dawkins face, and he flashes a grin with a wink towards Harvos. “They were looking a little hungry. I always found filling stomachs was a great way to keep the morale up during the long stretches of research.”

Dr. Dawkins notices Nash turning towards his car, and motions him over. “Let’s take my car. It’s quite the enjoyable ride, and I rarely get to drive anyone else around these days.”

Nash pauses a moment, glances down at the car keys in his hand, and shrugs as he puts them away in his shorts pocket. “Yeah, probably a good plan. My car isn’t... um... set up for passengers anyway.”

Harvos rolls his bright brown on black eyes, and slowly shakes his head with a snort. “You mean it’s completely filled with junk mail and empty drink cups. Again?”

Nash holds his hands out to the side in a display of mock offense, and twists his mouth with a sarcastic color. “Oh, passing judgment are we? I’m sorry, not all of us have to keep up appearances just in case Malva calls up.”

A flash of embarrassed red highlights Harvos’s cheeks, and he aims a mildly annoyed glare at Nash. “Gods dammit, not in front of the graduate students.”

Nash stops, pivots slowly around, and gazes back to Harvos with a wide, dramatic wave of hand showcasing that no graduate students remain in the parking lot. “Dude. They are gone. At this rate, they be through the first plate before we even get to the door.”

Dr. Dawkins chuckles happily as he unlocks his car, and shakes his head with a smile. “Gods. It is ever good to know that some things don’t change. Reminds me of my youth scavenging for free food scraps after faculty events.”

He opens the door, hits the switch, and unlocks the other doors. Pausing a moment, he retrieves a cheap looking aetherphone, sorts through a few menus, and taps out a very quick message before slipping it back in his pants pocket. As Harvos gets in the front passenger's side and Nash gets in the back, Dr. Dawkins addresses the two when he settles in his seat. “I figure we’ll get into more detail after lunch, but I must ask... What exactly has been going on with the higher ups as of late?”

Nash averts his gaze as he momentarily grits his teeth, and shakes his head as he closes the door. “Yeah... We’ll definitely have to save a bunch of that after lunch. But, to say the least, the powers-that-be are well... scared shitless?”

Dr. Dawkins eyes over to Harvos with an inquiring glance, as he starts up the car. “Really?”

Harvos exhales slowly with an uncertain grumble, and rocks his head carefully side to side while mulls over the sentiment. “Truthfully, scared shitless is the nice way to put it.”

The old sedan slowly backs out of the parking spot, turns out into the main road, and rolls off towards a campus exit.

With a casual stride, Issac rounds the walkway around the corner of another nearby building, and maintains a cautious survey of the area. Slowly changing his direction using sidewalks and crosswalks, he eventually maneuvers over to the large, tall brick building and stands in front of the double doors. Glancing around briefly, he nonchalantly pulls open one side of the entrance, and walks on inside.

Presenting a facade of purpose, Isaac searches for landmarks, signs, and other bits of positional information along the walls. Eventually, a number of departmental directories and hallway arrow stripes lead him towards a doorway and down a dark stairwell. Climbing cautiously down the stairs, Isaac reaches the dimly lit, disused basement floor. Quickly scanning the area, he retrieves a cheap aetherphone from his pocket, and wraps up his blue scarf over his lower face. He studies a picture of a map on the screen, analyzes the structure of the basement hallway, and slowly nods as he recognizes a particular door down near the end of the hallway. Quietly stepping forward, Isaac peeks through small windows in the other doors to darkly lit rooms of technological towers of flickering lights, and listens to the droning mix of muffled fans and air conditioning duct work.

Reaching the door, Isaac inspects the doorway carefully, and searches for anything out of the ordinary. After checking the high corners of the hallway for monitoring devices, Isaac trains his focus upon the door, and begins to gesture out an incantation. Flows of prismatic energy flow out from his gloved hands upon the door knob and jam. After the magical miasma seeps into the mechanisms, Isaac halts, narrows a puzzled stare at the door knob, and unceremoniously grabs hold of it. With a simple twist, the door opens without any issue. Blinking in annoyed astonishment, Isaac rolls his gray eyes, grumbles to himself, and slowly shakes his head. He notices the stark contrast of ambient dust against the recently disturbed door knob, and inspects the coating of funk upon his glove. Twisting his mouth under the scarf, he wipes the excess off his hand onto his pants, and enters the room, closing the door behind.

Checking the map on the aetherphone, Isaac navigates aisles of server racks, webs of cabling, and blockades of old junk piles. Eventually, through the dimly lit labyrinth, Isaac ends up against the opposite wall near a corner area of the oldest computing equipment cabinets. Surveying the area and comparing the layout against the map, Isaac ascertains his location and guides his pointing hand towards the target destination. He looks up from the cheap aetherphone, and grimaces at the sight of boxes upon boxes of old equipment, paperwork, and literature piled up over the area. Putting away the phone, he sighs deeply, shakes his head, and stretches his arms out with a resolute grumble. “It’s never easy...”

----

Dr. Dawkins, Nash, and Harvos sit around a booth table in the busy buffet restaurant, and pause a moment to watch the graduate students leave in wave towards the food lines. Nash tilts his head to the side, glances down at his second plate, and slowly turns to face towards Harvos and Dr. Dawkins. “Damn... I guess we’re really not paying them enough these days. I think a few of them are on their third plate already.”

Harvos shakes his head, smirks to Nash, and chuckles. “You need to be careful. If you fall too far behind, they might feel ready to challenge you for leadership.”

With a reflexive laugh, Nash rolls his eyes, and twists his mouth with a long groan. “I don’t have to worry about THAT. They only know half the bullshit I have to deal with, and none of them want to deal with even that much. I couldn’t give this job away.”

He snarls his upper lip, and eases out a sigh. “Especially with the recent drama...”

Dr. Dawkins gradually nods as he idly stirs the remnants of food on his plate with a fork, and narrows an inquisitive stare at Nash. “Indeed... So, they really are that deadlocked as to what to do?”

Nash nods with a frustrated frown, and grumbles as he summarizes the situation. “They’re afraid to get too involved. They don’t want to draw attention and disturb what Aristespha’s group has been doing. They don’t want to report it to the many authorities for fear of multiple governments digging into Grand Library affairs, with legitimate reasons to do so.”

Harvos slowly shakes his head, settles back in his spot in the booth, and crosses his muscular arms with hints of irritation. “In other words, until their hand is forced, they are NOT doing anything until they absolutely have to. Until then, they are trying to keep it all hidden.”

A saddened frown grows on Dr. Dawkins’s face, and he regretfully nods as the actions sound unnervingly familiar to him. “I believe I’m partly responsible for that policy. It does seem like they’ve taken an exception to the rules and made it the rule for all exceptions.”

Presenting a sympathetic smirk, Harvos shrugs his shoulders and eyes at over at the full plates of food the graduates return with. “Maybe. But, I tend to think it’s more of the fault of the current board not having any experience at handling something like this. They seem more prone to inaction than action.”

An electronic chirp rings out from Nash’s shorts pocket and he fumbles around to bring his aetherphone into view. “The hell?”

Dr. Dawkins’s perks his brow, and shifts his attention towards Nash. “Something wrong?”

Puzzling at the messages the phone screen, Nash hums in thought, scrolls through the list alerts, and contorts his confused face. “Yeah... But, it doesn’t seem like anything too high priority. Looks like the network links to a few old servers in the basement farms went down.”

Flitting his eyes wide, Dr. Dawkins stealthily pulls the cheap phone from his pants pocket out, briefly diverts his gaze towards the screen, and navigates to the audio messenger app. Drawing a breath to speak, he taps his finger on the record button, and inquiries curiously. “So, whatever would cause these servers to lose their network connections?”

Nash’s eyes sift through the information streaming upon the small display, and he shrugs nonchalantly with a calm attitude. “Well, more than likely the network cables have backed out over the years from all the vibrations working on them over time. Maybe someone tripped over a cable, and it unseated just enough? Or, it could be the old software on the thing just stalled out.”

He puts his aetherphone on the table, picks up his fork, and readies to finish up the rest of the platter before him. “Meh. It’s just a bunch of old archive data that’s got redundant duplicates elsewhere. If they don’t come back online after a few minutes, I’ll need to get back to check on them.”

Maintaining a cool, collected exterior, Dr. Dawkin’s secretly taps a series of onscreen buttons, and glances down to notice the “Message Sent” prompt. “Well, let’s hope it’s just a temporary glitch. It would be a shame to hurry our nice lunch.”

----

Sliding a heavy box over with a shove of his boot, Isaac stands in front of the cleared floor, and slowly pants. In contrast to the ambient drone of ventilation fans from stacks of computing equipment around him, a high pitched chirp sounds out from Isaac’s pocket. He quickly retrieves the cheap aetherphone, notices a new message, and navigates through the menus. Lifting his eye brow, he momentarily puzzles at the contents of the message, taps a play button, and puts the phone to his ear. “The hell? An audio recording?”

Isaac focuses upon the playback, and grimaces as he tries to divine the purpose. His eyes spring wide open, and he spins around in panic, and searches the area after he puts away his aetherphone. Locking his attention to a few nearby tall racks of blinking equipment, Isaac hunts frantically for cable connections. Tracking the routes of wiring on the floor and comparing the different colors of indicator lights between similar machines, he eventually narrows down his search to a few rack mounted servers. Fumbling around, he pushes his hands inside the mass of plastic coated wiring, parts a chaotic waterfall of electronic cabling, and finds a few lights completely dark above network jacks. Quickly he grabs hold of each plug, presses it firmly in, and listens to a reassuring click each time. Seconds later, indicators blink back to life. Isaac stands back, carefully examines the nearby racks for other possible issues. Eventually, he settles down and releases a long sigh of tentative relief. “Good gods... Hope that’ll fix it...”

He returns his attention to the cleared section the tiled floor, steps over, and kneels down for further investigation. “But... If not... Have to find-”

The distant, muffled sound of a door opening peaks above the dull drone of the server room. Isaac’s gray eyes flit wide open in surprise. Quickly scanning the area, he hops over behind a low wall of stacked boxes, and slinks low in the shadowy cubby. Listening attentively, Isaac aims his ears at the reflective walls and ceiling. Above the sound of footsteps, a male voice confidently speaks out. “See. I told you this was the perfect place to go. No one has been here in ages. No one is going to bother us.”

The noises of movement grow closer to Isaac, and a female voice giggles excitedly. “You were right. Oh, over there.”

The male voice dons a curious tone. “The stack of boxes?”

Isaac winces and slowly shakes his head while silently mouthing. “No. Somewhere else...”

The female laughs with a sly tinge. “No, that table over there.”

Quickly peaking out from behind the stealthy cover, Isaac’s eyes survey the area, and a wave of relief flows over him as he notices the table meters away from his position. Slipping back into hiding, he continues to listen in on the conversation. The man chuckles and lowers his voice. “Well... We got the place to ourselves... What ever shall we do now?”

After sounds of shuffling upon the table rise into the soundscape, the woman eagerly giggles with a seductive tone. “Oh... I don’t know. Maybe-”

Isaac pauses a moment as he searches for the conversation with a hand to his ear. Seconds later, the developing carnal chorus of excited movement, aroused breathing, and passionate noises mix with the muted squeaks of an old table. Isaac rolls his eyes in disgusted annoyance, and drops his frustrated stare to the ground. As he rubs his eyes to a pinch of the bridge of nose, he slowly shakes his head and mutters near silently. “Of fucking course... Couldn’t wait for any other time...”

In a lull of intimate rhythm, the male voice hopefully approaches a request. “Hey... Could you do that thing with your tail?”

Isaac blinks blankly as curiosity knocks the irritation out of his expression. The young woman lets loose an aggressively eager giggle, and growls happily. “Oh, yes. But ONLY if you let me guide you down by the horns.”

Underneath his scarf, Isaac’s jaw hangs opens, and he puzzles in a bewildered stupor, while the sounds of carnal gymnastics overtake the ambient drone.

----

Nash settles back into the booth seat, pats his stomach, and gazes down another empty plate on the table. “Well, I don’t think I could fit another thing if I tried.”

The aetherphone on the table in front of Nash chirps out a few notification tones. Slowly leaning forward, Nash picks up the phone, and squints at the text on the screen. He releases a sigh of relief and puts the phone back in his shorts pocket with a smirk. “Welp! Disaster averted from the looks of it. Those systems are back online.”

Glancing up to Nash from checking the cheap aetherphone on his lap, Dr. Dawkins quickly works the worried grimace off his face, and calmly nods. “Well, that’s good to hear. Just a glitch, then?”

Nash finishes taking a long sip of his glass of iced tea, pauses in thought a moment, and casually smirks. “It’s old equipment. I eventually need to get around to migrating the contents to our new data arrays. But, I’ll task my graduate students to check them later. Just to make sure.”

He turns his head towards the nearby table and the overfed graduate students lounging lazily in chairs. “Speaking of which, I think they’re more than done at this point.”

Harvos snorts at the lethargic gathering of students at the table, shakes his head, and grins humored at Nash and Dr. Dawkins. “Well, we need to head back. If only to make sure they don’t fall asleep here.”

A bit of worry creeps into Dr. Dawkins demeanor as he reads the latest message on his aetherphone and overhears the comments between Nash and Harvos. Summoning a calm, interested facade, he hums contemplatively and addresses Nash and Harvos, while secretly tapping the record button on his phone. “That’s understandable. I doubt they’ll be doing much for a while. By the way, I was thinking... Could I pester you, Harvos, for a tour of the old department?”

Harvos’s bright brown eyes search his mind and he scratches his short brown hair. “Certainly. We actually have few new exhibits that you want to take a look at.”

Dr. Dawkins grins with an eager tint, nods appreciatively, and perks his brow. “Excellent. I’ve been curious how the old department has been, and just wanted to see the direction it has gone.”

He glances over towards Nash, and politely poses a request. “I hope it wouldn’t be too inconvenient for you if I drove over there first, Nash?”

Nash shrugs his shoulder with a neutral attitude, and motions his head over towards the graduates in the early stages of calorie comas. “Not a problem. It’s not like I’m going to get any work done for the next few hours with these kids.”

Lifting an intrigued eyebrow, he smirks towards Dr. Dawkins and Harvos. “Plus, it might be a good thing to do while we dig more into the latest drama.”

A delighted smile appears on Dr. Dawkins, and he sneakily presses the send button of the aetherphone as he puts it up. “Sounds like a plan. Allow me to settle the tab, and we shall be off.”

----

Listening quietly with the phone pressed to his ear, Isaac nods understandingly at the audio playback, and sneaks a soft sigh of relief. His attention shifts over to the sounds of giggles and chuckling. A young man’s voice snorts. “Wow... That was a bit intense.”

The young woman snickers and stifles a few laughs. “Gods almighty, it went everywhere. I’ll have to remember that magic trick.”

With an awkward cadence, the man wanders over to another topic. “Yeah... Oh... Crap... We probably need to get back before the boss gets back from his lunch.”

A bit of concern colors the woman’s tone. “Um... Should we try to clean this up?”

Sounds of shuffling, movement, and table squeaks punctuate the man’s commentary. “Ah, we’ll come back later. Don’t think anyone is going to notice this any time soon.”

As the activity moves away from Isaac, the young woman barely holds back a giggle. “I don't know, we might get distracted.”

Distantly, the two snicker as the door opens, and then promptly closes. The faint sounds of fast footsteps up a flight of stairs echo from the other side. Isaac cautiously stands up, slowly inspects the vicinity, and softly steps out from his hiding spot. Keeping alert, he walks towards an intersection of the different aisles, studies the pathway leading to the exit door, and observes. After a minute, he relaxes his shoulders, growls out his annoyance, and shakes his head. “By the gods! Let me get this ONE THING done...”

He pivots around, halts mid step, and catches sight of the old, squeaky table. His eyes open wide and his expression blends up fascination, puzzlement, and disgust as he studies the scene before him. Dropping his analytical stare downwards to the floor, he traces the carnal leftovers up the table, and squints bewildered at the wall. Glancing upwards, he pauses dumbfounded, blinks blankly, and hangs his jaw open under his scarf, slowly shaking his head in disbelief. Recollecting his sanity, he quickly walks away from the scene, kneels back down in front of the cleared section of floor, and examines the tiling. Feeling along the ground for suspicious grooves, he taps upon the different sections and listens for the contrasts of sounds. Quickly, he finds an odd spot, swiftly gestures out a spell, and flows magical energy into the crevices. With a lift of his hand, a section of floor rises up to reveal an large, unused conduit junction box with a tight, sealed package filling the space inside.

Isaac grins happily as he removes the hefty parcel from the space. Carefully, he replaces the section of floor, scoops up the package under an arm, and stands up with renewed vigor. Thinking a moment, he slides over a few stacks of old equipment and books over the section of floor, and camouflages the hidden spot. With a content sigh, he begins to step away towards the door, reaches the aisle intersection, and stops. The outline of a sly smirk appears under his blue scarf, and he wills flows of magical energy towards two choice targets near the table. A used condom hovers through the air, glides down the aisle, and rests upon network cables going to previously loose plugs. Following close behind, an incriminating pair of panties hangs itself upon top corner of a nearby server rack. Isaac barely contains his cackle as he takes off quickly out of the server area through the door.

----

Dr. Dawkins bids both Harvos and Nash goodbye with a wave out his open driver’s window, and calls out to them. “Do not forget to keep me updated!”

Harvos grants a confirming nod, and Nash gives Dr. Dawkins a thumbs up. The two walk through the double doors back into the tall, large brick building. Dr. Dawkins drives his sedan away, and calmly cruises through the campus proper. Exiting onto the surrounding city streets, he keeps an ongoing watch of the area, and eyes his rear view mirror, while hints of paranoia slips into his face. He slows to stop at a red light, checks the latest message on the cheap aetherphone, and nods to himself. The sedan continues to navigate the roads. After a few minutes of traffic and turns, he rolls to a stop in a back alley behind an old strip mall, and waits patiently.

Moments later, Isaac appears without his face covered from hiding behind a row of dumpsters, swiftly moves around Dr. Dawkins’s car, and hops into the front passengers seat. He closes the door, pats the tightly sealed packaged on his lap, and pulls his seat belt on. “Despite the lewd comedy fate tried to make of it, the mission was a success.”

Dr. Dawkins puts the sedan in gear, turns the steering wheel, and shakes his head with a relieved smirk. “I must say, I can not shake the feeling that greater powers were conspiring against us in the most awkward fashion.”

Isaac snorts and rolls his eyes with a disgusted tone. “You do NOT know the half of it.”

Twisting his mouth, Dr. Dawkins glances over with a lift of the eye brow. “I get the distinct impression that your messages did not quite impart the situation fully.”

Grumbling out the amusement at his expense, Isaac sighs as he settles into the leather car seat. “Yes. You could say that. I must say, I’m not exactly familiar with the proper terms to describe what happened. And... Honestly... I am bit wary to search for them.”

-69-

Sebastian’s ghostly form hovers nearby Aristespha as he looks over her shoulder, sampling the sections the text she reads from pile on the dining table. He eyes over to Aristespha’s worn gaze, and resumes inspecting the document currently in her hands. Tossing her long silvery blue hair back, Aristespha groans out a long sigh, and slowly shakes her head. A defeated frown slips out on her face, and she drops the stack of papers upon the table top between other piles of research materials and a tablet. Bach rocks side to side in his seat, and wrestles a mix of boredom and stale frustration while he strains to keep his eyes upon the heavily notated printout. After a loosing battle with his attention span, he releases the paperwork upon the dining table, rakes both hands through his brown, longer hair, and sinks back into the dining chair with a grimace on his face. “Damn, I’ve run through all this a few times, and I can’t figure out anything new.”

Aristespha nods slowly as she brushes her hair back, and guides a few stray strands over her very long ears. “Same here.”

She blinks her violet eyes, stretches her arms out in front of her, and rests her hands on the table top. “Okay, reviewing all this... Noxian- Well, Isaac, seems interested in these sites and ruins near coordinates detected by that research outpost. We can now assume that these sites have had some kind of involvement with elder energy, since we keep finding energy collectors.”

Lifting her hands to rub her ivory skin along the blue gray hints at the temples of her head, she grimaces with a long sigh. “He’s definitely been collecting power where he can, but I can’t help to think there’s something else he’s looking for.”

Sebastian hums ethereally in thought, floats down into an empty seat at the table, and crosses his arms as he delves into the discussion. “Gathering power make sense. Going to places that have elder energy makes sense still. We’re still not certain what his end goal is...”

Lifting a quizzical brow towards Bach, Sebastian cocks his head to the side, and poses a question. “But, the fact he seems to be changing things up because of what he learned about your elder energy connection... That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

Bach blinks blankly as he searches his mind, and squirms slightly in his seat. “I don’t know. If he could figure out how I’m getting elder energy... And gods forbid reproduce it... It’d certainly solve his problem with acquiring power.”

Sebastian nods in agreement, twists his mouth as he sorts through his thoughts, and grumbles. “Yeah. Then, he’d just build up his power far from anyone else, and then do whatever he wants when he feels the time is right.”

Mulling over the possibilities, he focuses his gaze at Bach and inquires hopefully. “Hey, bro, you sure he didn’t mention anything else to you when you ran into each other? Insinuated anything? Even an odd reference?”

An uncomfortable wave travels through Bach’s body as a frown slowly weighs down his face. He plays back recent memories in his mind with a squint. “I- I’ve gone through that whole thing in my head multiple times. Nothing blatant stands out. Though...”

He grimaces, narrows his blue eyes inward, and uncertainly comments. “Isaac seemed really happy I was using elder energy in the ways I have. And, he seemed really honest with offering to help me. It really felt different talking to him then, than Noxian before.”

Aristespha twists her mouth, and consider the idea. “I hate to say it, but it might be truly genuine. Isaac was an academic, a knowledge seeker, and a very supportive member of the Grand Library during his tenure. Unfortunately, him and that particular group were not much for respecting limitations.”

Sebastian’s ghostly form phases slightly through the chair and table as he drifts into a deep line of thought. After a minute, he blinks his eyes, floats back in sync with the physical objects around him, and cocks his head to side, staring uncomfortably. “Actually training others to use elder energy? Possibly recruiting people to whatever his cause is?”

Bach cringes, sighs as he rests his forehead on his palm, and searches in mind. “I don’t know. That could make sense... Instead of trying to do whatever he plans by himself, train others to assist him? Gods, that’s fucking terrifying... The LAST thing this world needs is more elder energy users. The worst magical disasters I’ve ever heard of happened because of elder energy.”

Squirming briefly into an uneasy roll of his shoulders, Sebastian glances over to Aristespha, and awkwardly approaches a question. “If I remember right, dear, some weird zones were the result of such disasters?”

Aristespha sighs deeply, and nods solemnly. “Yes, Sebastian... That’s what the current consensus of evidence points to... Well, evidence that existed afterwards. Numerous things that plague us today stem from elder energy misuse.”

She pushes her mood towards levity, slides back her chair away from the dining table, and stands up in a long, slow stretch. “Historians at the Grand Library joke that the fact the planet wasn’t annihilated before the Abstract Prism proves the gods exist and they are strangely merciful. Anyway... Does anyone want anything? I’m brewing some coffee.”

Bach glances to Aristespha, and briefly lifts his hand up. “Some tea, please. Nothing special.”

Pivoting around towards the living section of the large room, Aristespha tilts her head to side as watches Dretphi pull out a cloth measuring tape along Cideeda’s outstretched arm. “You two want anything?”

Cideeda blinks to attention, searches her mind with her emerald eyes, and perks up her furry ears. “I’ll join in on the coffee.”

Dretphi glances over her shoulder, and nods towards Aristespha. “Coffee will be fine.”

Sebastian snorts and shakes his head amused. “Almost noon on a Wednesday and we’re already hitting the coffee again.”

Aristespha rolls her eyes with a dismissively humored toss of her hair, and presents a defiant smirk. “Oh please, this isn’t my worst abuse of caffeine.”

She groans on her way into the kitchen area, sneers her upper lip, and mumbles as she prepares the larger coffee machine. “And fuck me, if I’m going to dig through all this material again for some off the wall reasoning we haven’t found yet... I’m going to need SOMETHING to keep my mind from wandering to ANYTHING else.”

Cideeda’s ear flicks back from listening to Aristespha and she nods to herself a commiserating smirk. Dretphi kneels down next to Cideeda, wraps the fabric measuring tape snugly around Cideeda’s hips, and squints as the end overlaps the marks on the strip. Flitting her eyes wide, a relevant concern enters Cideeda’s mind, and she taps Dretphi on the shoulder. “You should probably get a measurement with my tail wrapped up. I always buy body suits with a little extra room because of that.”

Dretphi releases the tape measure around Cideeda, and writes down another number on a pad of paper. “That would be wise. I have options to contend with that.”

Cideeda’s long tail curls between her legs, flicks upward in the front of her shorts, and loosely coils around her waist. With a well practiced method, Cideeda combs down the medium length fur with her clawed fingers, gently tightens the slack in the partial wrap, and guides her tail the rest of the way around and back between her legs. With a bit of effort, she works the tufting at the end down, and secures the wrap between her thighs. She lifts her hands up away from the area, and nods towards Dretphi. “Okay, now take a measurement. The tail always adds a few centimeters around the waist and hips.”

The sliding glass door opens up, and Sotalia walks in with a towel around her shoulders. Closing the door behind her, she takes a few steps before drying the damp ends of her fiery orange, wavy hair. She stops midway, blinks curiously at Cideeda and Dretphi, and lets the towel drape over to either side of her bikini top. Observing Cideeda standing around with her tail coiled around in a rough imitation of her bikini bottom, Sotalia smiles intrigued, rests her hands on her hips, and chuckles lightly. “Sometimes, I just can’t help but get a bit jealous of those with tails.”

Cideeda gazes over to Sotalia, crosses her arms, and shrugs with a nonchalant tone. “It has its benefits. Honestly, I’m still surprised I made it out of childhood with it intact.”

Rolling her emerald eyes at herself, she smirks with a lighthearted snort, and slowly shakes her head at the memories. “I mean, by all odds, between my dad’s junkyard and my mom’s metal shop, it should have been shortened from all the trouble I got into.”

Sebastian glances over to his brother, smirks, and comments. “Yeah, I doubt we’d have anything left by now, if we had tails.”

Bach smiles tightly, blinks with a rocking nod, and briefly grits his teeth. “Yeah...”

He ponders a moment, gazes back over to Sebastian, and puzzles. “Between us, who would have lost part of their tail first?”

Lowering his head in reflection, Sebastian’s eyes sort through a long series of memories before returning to the conversation with a twist of his mouth. “Probably me. Actually... Definitely ME. But, I don’t think you’d be too far behind.”

Bach mulls over the answer, and quickly nods back in agreement. “Oh yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me at all.”

After Dretphi finishes taking the measurements, Cideeda’s tail unravels free from around her shorts, flips out behind her, and wags in purposeful stretches. She steps into position for the next set of measurement from Dretphi, and flashes a prideful grin towards Sotalia. “One of the benefits to being the only child was getting all the attention and care from mom and dad... If only to save me from myself.”

A bit of embarrassment sneaks out onto Cideeda’s face, and she smiles awkwardly when briefly averting her eyes. “Thinking about it now, Fate was kind to have me be the special, unexpected little surprise to my mom and dad when they were younger.”

She grits her sharp teeth momentarily before grimacing in equal parts humor and seriousness. “Because I seriously doubt they’d have the energy these days to keep up with me back then. I think they started teaching me how to properly use all the equipment and told me all the safety rules, just so they could get a few moments free from watching me.”

Sotalia snickers as she steps towards the kitchen area, playfully makes a gesture to snatch hold of Cideeda’s tail, and smiles slyly. “You’d think it wouldn’t be too hard with a handle this long on you.”

Cideeda laughs with a proud grin, rests her hands on her hips, and wags her tail defiantly. “Oh, believe me, it was used for that purpose A LOT. First thing a fvalian parent learns about their child is how tough their tails are to you grabbing them.”

The watery gurgle of the coffee machine rises up from the background, and the familiar steamy hiss piques everyone’s attention. Aristespha waits patiently as the last few drops of brew drizzle down into the carafe, and sets out containers and condiments on the counter top. Carefully removing the glass pot from the built-in hotplate, she slowly pours the dark drink into a mug, and stirs the teabag around in cup off to the side. Sotalia sniffs the air with interest, but stops as she notices the academic chaos upon the dining table top. “So, any progress on the Noxian front?”

Sebastian’s ghostly form hovers up from his seat, drifts over ahead, and surveys the collection of research materials. “Well, we’ve definitely been going for the same places that Noxian is interested in. But, maybe that’s the problem.”

Sotalia lifts her brow incredulously, sways her pose, and contorts her face. “Okay... I thought beating him to the punch was the current plan? Clear out the elder energy before he gets it? Maybe catch him off guard?”

Aristespha walks on by Sotalia from the kitchen area with mugs in hands. She drops off the cup of tea in front of Bach, leaves a mug of coffee in front of her seat, and glances over to Sotalia. “Yes. But, we might need to try a different angle. There’s a few mundane and well-explored sites indicated by the coordinates on the printout.”

Settling in her chair, Aristespha wraps her hands around the mug, and ponders the situation a moment. “I’ve done initial searches in the Grand Library database and found exploration reports for some of the sites. I haven’t delved too deeply, but some have unexplored, sealed areas.”

As Dretphi and Cideeda slip on by towards the fresh coffee, Sotalia perks up at Aristespha’s explanation. She steps up behind a chair next to Bach’s, leans over slowly to get a better look at the material all over the table top, and cracks an unconvinced smirk. “Okay, interesting... Sounds like we'd be pushing the limit for acceptable exploration.”

Sebastian shrugs with an eager smirk. “Well, I don’t think we should go around cracking open every sealed door. But, since I don’t have worry about typical barriers, I could easily find out if there’s anything worth the risks.”

Cideeda and Dretphi return around the table with coffee mugs in hand. Bach redirects his attention away from a nearby distraction as the gathering around the table focuses on the topic. Cideeda’s interest piques, and she slowly sips from her cup with intrigue. “That would help cut through the list... First thing, how are we getting official reasons to be at these places? There’s only so much protocol you can dodge before you get the wrong type of attention.”

With an understanding sigh, Sebastian nods his head and ethereally grumbles. “Yeah, the whole pursuing and tracking down Noxian excuse probably won’t get as far as it did, since he’s been mostly out of the news lately.”

A sly smirk graces Aristespha’s face, and she sits up in her seat. “Well, I am still a Master Sage of the Grand Library. So, I doubt academic passes with legitimate enough sounding reasons would be too out of the ordinary.”

Flicking her ears with her thoughts, Cideeda grins toothily, and scratches her chin with a claw tip. “Oh, that would probably work. Make it sound boring enough so the local authorities don’t get nosy.”

Standing up back straight, Sotalia narrows her golden eyes, sways her stance in deliberation, and grumbles slightly in an unenthusiastic tone. “I don’t know, this feels like going down the wrong fucking path. We need to get ahead of him.”

Bach manages his gaze upwards from his seat to Sotalia, presents a reassuring smile, and motions towards the coordinate list. “Well, maybe THIS is the way to get one over on him. I mean, he can easily go to the same ruins out in the middle of fucking nowhere that we can. But, just how easy is it for him to go to regularly patrolled places? He can't easily camp out around these places, since the police have been informed what to look out for. And, he wants to keep a low profile. While I don’t think it’ll stop him from investigating these places, they're not his first picks.”

Dretphi finishes a long sip of her coffee, and idly combs her fingers through her platinum blonde braids as she follows an idea in her mind. After a few moments, she furrows her brow, and calmly states. “If we have to clean a location of elder energy, we should monitor that location.”

The suggestion floats above the gathering and slowly sinks into the minds of the team. Cideeda chuckles to herself, flicks her furry ears, and wags her tail. “Yeah, I bet he’ll investigate at least one of these places. And, I don't think he'll have the time to be too cautious. So, if we could manage to hide some intrusion detection near something he’d be interested in, we might be able to detect him when he's making his move.”

A bit of excitement slips out into Sotalia's demeanor as she shifts her weight and brushes back her fiery orange hair over a horn. “Okay. Now THAT I can get behind.”

Her mood sours slightly as sarcasm tinges her voice, and she rolls her eyes with a grimace. “And I actually wouldn’t mind going to places that don’t have completely unknown horrors awaiting us... For once.”

Recovering her confidence to an eager smile, she glances over to Cideeda and snickers to a suggestion. “Are spy cameras an option? I’d love to capture the look on his face when we surprise him.”

Grinning toothily, Cideeda laughs with a mischievous tint and poses with her hands at her hips. “As if I was going with anything else.”

----

Upon a brightly lit, small stage, Veevi prances to the bass beat, tosses her long, bright pink hair back, and flashes an attention soaking grin to the crowd in the large karaoke bar. While rhythmically wagging her long, short-haired tail, she grips hold of the microphone, winks to the eager crowd, and starts singing out one of her songs. Dozens of younger evuukians cheer out from the tables, and a few dance upon the small dance floor in front of the stage. Wandering around the venue, Chad patrols the floor, stopping at each table to meet and greet evuukian house members. With his trademark bright white smile, he poses in pictures for excited fans and signs his elaborate signature upon promotional materials, items, and the bodies of a few inebriated, wilder evuukians.

Tassilda tosses her raven hair back, presents a sly smirk with an evocative lift of an eye brow to a fan calling out her name, and grants a parting wave. She struts through the maze of tables as her alluring facade fades the further along she gets. Approaching a corner section of the establishment, she stops next to Trakenthin, and curiously glances at the cover of the book he’s reading. “I’m surprised you’re able to read during all of this.”

Trakenthin turns his head slightly to gaze down at Tassilda, straightens his standing posture, and shrugs his shoulders stoically. “You learn when you have no choice.”

Resting her hands on her hips, Tassilda leans over to peer around Trakenthin and down the narrow passage to the booths next to the bar. “Is Deedri STILL back there?”

Twisting his head the other way, Trakenthin searches down the aisle next to the booths along the wall, and notices a familiar tail lazily wagging out from the further corner booth. “Yes. The server has gone there multiple times. With large drinks to the table. Empty ones coming back.”

Quirking her brow in surprise, Tassilda nods with a twist her mouth and pats Trakenthin on the shoulder. “Well, thank you for keeping an eye on these spoiled brats. At least Veevi is good at keeping them distracted.”

Trakenthin contorts in expression into a begrudging agreement, releases a long sigh, and nods as he briefly scans over the area. Tassilda walks down the corridor towards the corner end booth, and slides into the leather bench seat opposite of Deedri. “Still hiding out here?”

Deedri springs back to awareness from a distant thought, notices Tassilda at the table, and awkwardly smiles to her. “Um... Yes? I just...”

She releases a long sigh, props up her head upon the palm of her hand, and slowly shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I know I should be going around to the tables... But... I just need a break.”

Tassilda smiles comfortingly to Deedri, and waves off the trouble. “It’s fine. The nobility are plenty distracted right now.”

She rolls her eyes, twists her mouth, and sneers her upper lip. “I hate to admit it, but Veevi can actually sing pretty good, and is putting on the best karaoke show I’ve ever seen.”

Deedri nods, releases a long sigh, and relaxes back against the booth seat. “I’ll give her that.”

Tassilda surveys the table, eyes the pile of leftover beverage decorations, and ponders a tally in her head from the evidence. “So... How many have you had so far?”

Averting her gaze to either side, Deedri presents an innocent facade, shrugs her shoulders, and smiles. “Not that many.”

A sharp, high pitched hiccup from Deedri reveals the truth, and Tassilda focuses her examining gaze. With an amused smirk, Tassilda chuckles to herself, and rolls her light blue on black eyes. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me, and I’m certainly not one to judge these days.”

Deedri rakes her clawed fingers through her multi-colored hair, and exhales out her relief. “Thank you. After having to babysit these noble jackasses these last few days, I need a few moments to unwind. Gods, some of them are THE WORST.”

Tassilda grumbles sympathetically, grits her teeth, and resettles herself on the booth seat. “Tell me about it. They certainly are used to thinking they are better than everyone else. I can smell that attitude from experience.”

She glances around, leans slightly over the table, and directs a whisper to Deedri. “And you can definitely tell some are hunting for an opportunity to defy that interracial relations taboo they have.”

Deedri groans visibly irritated, rolls her auburn eyes, and contorts the frustration out on her face while clenching her fist. “Oh my gods... I swear the next one that tries to work the conversation to ask what can do with my tail or if use my claws will get a full strength magical bowel evacuation.”

Tassilda blinks blankly in a bit of shock as she stares at Deedri. After a few moments, Deedri recollects herself with a punctuating short, high-pitched hiccup. Failing to contain her smile, Tassilda covers her mouth with her hand, and giggles as politely as possible. “Oh, I know the feeling. Such hypocrites, too. Since they’re the ones that keep that whole taboo alive publicly.”

She leans out, scouts the stage, and watches Veevi bring up a few of the evuukians up to participate in the impromptu singing contest. Gauging the future entertain, she settles back into her seat, glances over to Deedri, and motions towards the exit. “You want to head on out and walk around a bit? I think Veevi and Chad have got this covered for now.”

Deedri flits her eyes wide for a moment, bites her lower lip in embarrassment, and sheepishly replies. “Uh... I want to, but I don’t think I should.”

Noticing the confusion up Tassilda’s face, Deedri weaves her fingers together, averts her gaze briefly, and sighs. “I don’t think I’m sober enough yet to risk a long walk.”

Tassilda squelches a laugh, smiles amused at Deedri, and searches around for a server. “That’s okay. I’m impressed actually. In the mean time, let’s see about some water for you.”

Relaxing her guard, Deedri sighs appreciatively, and asks a question. “Have you seen Modoran lately? I thought he’d eventually show up here like the rest of us.”

Pausing to think, Tassilda shakes her head, and gazes over to Deedri curiously. “I actually haven’t since much of him today since that lunch and trivia event.”

Deedri narrows her stare off to the side, twists her mouth, and colors her tone with an angry tint. “What the hell has made him so scarce these last few days? Gods dammit, I know he usually sticks to the shadows, but this is ridiculous.”

With a growling hint in her voice, she curls her upper lip to reveal a sharp canine, digs a claw tip into the finish of the wooden table, and snorts out her irritation. “He’s hiding something something from me, and won’t say what!”

Tassilda perks her brow at the display, and puzzles at the odd change of attitude. Quickly analyzing the behavior, she gradually adopts a sly grin as her intrigue grows upon recognizing the evidence. “Well, I’m sure he has his reasons. I don’t think it’s worth getting too upset over... yet.”

Drifting off into her own thoughts, Deedri's frustration fades. “Hmm... You’re right.”

Propping her arm on the table by the elbow, she rests her head lazily on her hand, grows a goofy smile, and mumbles near incoherently. “... can’t stay mad... ... ... especially... that good... shirtless...”

Tassilda tilts her head to the side in honest confusion, and aims her pointed ear to Deedri. “Huh? What did you say?”

A flush of red colors Deedri cheeks as the protective measures in her conscious mind force a surge of corrective sobriety into her thought processes. “Um, nothing! I think I need some water.”

Nodding in agreement, Tassilda finds a server and waves them over. “Yes. That would be for the best.”

She turns back toward Deedri, and nudges the conversation elsewhere. “Speaking of water, we really need to find time to try out that private pool.”

Deedri grits her teeth briefly, sighs out a reluctant tone, and squirms uncomfortably. “Yeah... Unfortunately, I don’t really have a swim suit. But! I’ll hang out around the pool.”

A delighted grin appears on Tassilda’s face. “Well, lucky for you, they have a wonderful little shop on site that we can visit. I’m certain we can find something for you.”

Blanking her expression, Deedri wrestles her self-conscious discomfort, and stumbles around the subject. “You sure? I mean, I doubt they’d have anything that... flattering of my figure...”

Tassilda narrows her intrigued gaze upon Deedri, presents a sly smile, and giggles eagerly. “Oh, you would be surprised. Let me be your guide.”

----

A calm quiet flows through the warmly lit halls of the hotel building. Leaning out cautiously, Modoran peeks around the corner into the main run from a branch corridor, searches around with his dark blue eyes, and pauses a moment to listen with his long, pointed ears. With nothing but dull ambient background noise, he softly steps out into the hallway, and carefully surveys the area. Assessing the situation, Modoran gradually relaxes his posture, breathes a muted sigh, and begins to casually walk down the passage. Reaching the midway point of the corridor between intersections, he halts abruptly, darts his eyes around the exit points, and mutters a short evuukian curse under his breath.

Six evuukians of similar age to Modoran boldly step out, three covering both ends of the section of hall. With a mean, sneering smirk, the best dressed one calls out in a dramatic, patronizing tone. “Modoran...”

Modoran fights the mix of emotions fighting for space on his face, and manages to present a nonchalant smile. Quelling nervous hints slipping into his body language, he recognizes the lead evuukian with a respectful bow, and addresses the man with a proper evuukian greeting. The leader of the group narrows a disgusted glare at Modoran, crosses his arms defiantly, and growls out his distaste. “Stop trying to speak to me using OUR tongue. You damn well know YOU aren’t worthy enough use it to address me after what you’ve done to our house.”

A bit unease bends the friendly grin Modoran presents, and he lifts his open hands up in an apologetic manner. “Okay. My apologies, Hektoran. It has been awhile since I’ve even gotten near proper nobility, so I’ve forgotten my manners.”

Hektoran concentrates his yellow eyes at Modoran, steps forward, and leads the other male and female evuukians at his side, while the other three on the opposite end of the hall section close in. “Yes you have. But, I haven’t forgotten the embarrassment you brought upon my house for your actions.”

Modoran uncomfortably chuckles, glances around at the diminishing space between the two groups of three, and tries to adopt a calming, peaceful attitude. “Hey... Listen. That was a few years back, and I mean... I got caught. I was very officially removed from my house, and I’ve kept away from it all. And, your house got popular from it. So, that’s always good.”

Hektoran grits his teeth with a curl of his upper lip, slowly stretches out his neck towards both shoulders, and starts cracking his knuckles. “Yes, but we were still denied proper payback. Which I think we’ll exact now.”

Glancing nervously between the two closing parties, Modoran keeps his hands up in the air, dons a nervous pleading grin, and tires to smooth things over with an easy-going, relaxed voice. “Hey... This is supposed to be a vacation for you all. Take it easy. Relax next to the pool. Veevi Valiant is doing a show at the karaoke club.”

Lowing his hands to his sides, he carefully sneaks in magical gestures and whispers out incantations under his breath. He pauses at a point in the process, gazes over to Hektoran, and shrugs his shoulders. “I’ve heard that your sister is big fan of hers, you two can catch the show if you head out now.”

Hektoran grins confidently with an evil laugh, motions his head towards the female evuukian leading the opposite group. “Oh, we plan on doing so. After we settle some debts with YOU. Don’t try your disappearing act, Mishavalla has been practicing her magic, especially to counter your tricks.”

Modoran pauses in thought, blinks in surprise, and gazes over to the young evuukian woman in the other group. He squints his eyes at her lithe frame, pale dark blue hinted skin, and piercing yellow eyes, as she precisely weaves together a preparation of magical flow through gestured incantations. After a moment, recognition dawns upon Modoran, and he nods in her direction. “Huh, you’ve certainly grown up since I last saw you. Taking after your mother with magic I see.”

With a sinister and appreciative smirk, Mishavalla steps forward in sync with her brother Hektoran. The two groups of three systematically shrink the space around Modoran, as he tries to search for an escape. Attempting levity, he shrugs his shoulders with hands out to his sides and puts on his best charming grin. “Oh, come on! I’m not worth this much effort. I mean, I appreciate the sentiment. I’ll buy you all a few rounds. We’ll take some pictures you all can post on your favorite aethernet site...”

Modoran’s voice trails as he arrives at the conclusion that the six evuukians no longer listen to his persuasive attempts. His stance tenses, his posture shifts defensively, and he nervously grits his teeth.

Down the hallway from an intersection, a booming, commanding voice echoes powerfully out from a tall, imposing evuukian man. “HEKTORAN! MISHAVALLA!”

Quickly with solid footsteps, the older evuukian in proper attire walks down the corridor towards the gathering, and levels soul piercing stares upon the six younger evuukians. He focuses a drilling, brilliant orange eyed glare right through Hektoran, and exudes an intimidating, stoic presence. Parting through the pair of evuukians behind Hektoran, the older man stops mere centimeters away and waits as he gradually lowers his glower. With Mishavalla and the accompanying evuukians watching in terror, Hektoran stiffly pivots against his desires to tremble, and fumbles to greet the imposing, older evuukian. “Uh... Hello, great uncle Kallentesson...”

Kallentesson widens his cutting glower, and leans closer in demanding silence. Hektoran’s horror spikes, and he awkwardly presents a colorful, elaborate proper greeting to Kallentesson. Straightening his posture after the satisfactory address, Kallentesson launches into a condemning verbal fury and systematically berates Hektoran, Mishavalla, and their associates in litany of furious evuukian. Heads bowing and long ears slightly drooping, the group weathers the furious scolding without contest. Modoran gradually creeps back from the center of the hallway, and slinks over against the wall while hunting for an out. With a final angered snorting exhale, Kallentesson snaps his fingers to a point down to the nearest exit, and commands the group. At the first opportunity, the six evuukians escape quickly and empty out of the area.

A bit of relief gradually relaxes Modoran, but wanes when he notices Kallentesson’s attention upon him. He walks over to Modoran, bows slightly, and calmly speaks. “I would like to apologize for their behavior, Modoran.”

Modoran appreciatively smiles, and relaxes his tensed stance further. “It’s okay. To be fair House Head Kallentesson, I expected some kind of run in. Just thought I was a bit more careful.”

Kallentesson smirks, and sighs out his frustrations as his commanding presence fades. “Well, it has been a number of years since you last dealt with them, and they’ve gotten significantly more crafty and bold.”

Agreeing with a simple nod, Modoran sheepishly addresses the old evuukian. “Either way, sir. I want to apologize for disturbing your evening.”

Kallentesson furrows his brow, slowly shakes his head, and frowns slightly. “No need on your part. You did nothing to provoke this. In fact, I’ve been meaning to apologize to you.”

Modoran halts his thoughts, gazes to Kallentesson, and tilts his head curiously to the side. Kallentesson draws in a long breath, sighs deeply, and nods respectfully to Modoran. “I’ve been doing some much overdue reflecting after recent revelations. And, I want to apologize to how you were treated. If I had the wisdom I do now, I would have talked down my brother into pursuing a more reasonable punishment for you.”

In stunned astonishment, Modoran stumbles to a response, awkwardly scratches the back of his head, and settles upon a thankful tone. “I- Uh- Wow... Thank you. It does mean a lot. But, I don’t blame you for anything. By house laws, you were correct to allow your brother to seek justice.”

Kallentesson rolls his bright orange eyes, shakes his head of gray speckled golden brown hair, and twists his mouth dismissively. “True, but my brother is a vindictive prick at times, and no one should suffer it. The judgment was unfair, and I should have at least appealed for something more fitting.”

Modoran shrugs his shoulders, smirks amused, and snorts with a chuckle. “Gods, I think that would have caused far more drama and trouble for everyone.”

With a hearty laugh, Kallentesson nods in agreement, releases another long sigh, and smiles. After a few seconds of silence, Modoran glances over to the exit, and thumbs over to it. “Well, I don’t want to keep you all night, House Head Kallentesson, so I’ll leave you be.”

Kallentesson raises his hand to get Modoran’s attention, and pauses in thought to form his question. “Could I ask a favor of you?”

Modoran searches his mind for a moment, nods tentatively, and lifts a curious brow. “Um, sure? Depends on what it is.”

With a bit of embarrassment, Kallentesson smiles as he relays his request. “Could I get a picture with you? I am going to see my grandson this week, and I would like to impress him. He’s always excited to see you on the show... Well, the little he sees when sneaks out of bed, and before his parents catch him.”

Modoran thinks a moment, searches his memories as he looks at Kallentesson, and finally nods happily. “Sure. And I’ll get you a group signed promo photo, too. I’m sure your daughter and her husband will like that.”

----

Carefully reading the last few lines upon a page of handwritten notes, Dr. Dawkins pauses. He gradually lifts his gaze up, settles back into his leather recliner, and locates his glass of whiskey upon the small table nearby. Resting the packet of papers upon his lap, he glances over to Issac, blinks while shaking his head. “Has the weight of what you are reading been as heavy as mine?”

Isaac closes his eyes hard, stretches his neck to either shoulder, and blinks back to the conversation. “I think so. While I’m not seeing anything definite and concrete, the implications are all there.”

He glances over to Dr. Dawkins, twists his mouth, and lowers another collection of heavily notated documents down. “Okay, before I say anything, what do you think that Dr. Malkav believes he’s found?”

Dr. Dawkins ponders, searches his mind, and draws in a long, collected breath. “The location of where one of the lead architects behind the Abstract Prism retreated to.”

Isaac nods slowly, glances over his packet of notes, and flips through a few pages. “Yes... Most importantly, it seems like it was one particularly meticulous mage that somehow absconded with a great deal of the original design documents.”

Grasping hold of his drink, Dr. Dawkins sips upon the brown liquor, slowly shakes his head in astonishment, and sighs out his amazement. “While I highly doubt those documents have survived after all these years, assuming they weren’t destroyed purposefully... Just the fact that Dr. Malkav located a copy of the table of contents and part of the index to possibly THE master plan for the Prism is- I do not know where to begin.”

Rubbing the temples of his head, Isaac closes his eyes briefly, collects himself, and searches through the text in his hands. “The section headings alone are fascinating enough! By the gods almighty, there are references to aspects that I don’t ever remember hearing about during any my studies.”

He leans over towards Dr. Dawkins, presents the packet of papers, and points to highlighted sections. “There’s references to the actual construction of the Prism! Where it is located, and the definition of what the WHERE is actually? How it streams out magical flow and the definitions of what the Prism will recognize? Foundational Construct templates? These are things that dedicated researchers have spent their careers trying to speculate.”

Dr. Dawkins sorts through the stack of notes on his lap, pulls out on page, and hands it over to Isaac. “If you think THAT is fascinating, read this summary Malkav wrote from the his exploration of the references he found in the index.”

Isaac grasps hold of the page, settles back into his seat, and quickly reads through the information. Dr. Dawkins waits patiently, and calmly drinks his whiskey while observing Isaac. The looming quiet peaks when Isaac stares absolutely dumbfounded and bewildered. He mentally wrestles with the conclusion written upon the document, slowly turns his head towards Dr. Dawkins, and speaks plainly. “Possible self-optimization and self-adaptation systems in the design...”

Dr. Dawkins gradually nods, releases a long exhale, and rests his head upon the back of the recliner. “Yes. Something that’s been theorized to exist... This practically confirms.”

Isaac rubs his eyes into a pinch of the bridge of his nose, settles back in his recliner, and calms himself back down. The two dwell in a long silence, and both internally deliberate the ramifications. A few minutes later, Dr. Dawkins twists his face contemplatively and theorizes out loud. “Having such documentation would explain why this mage disappeared into the Perimeter Weird Zone.”

Isaac stirs from his stupor, reflects upon the circumstances, and visibly puzzles. “Also might explain why there’s no mention of his existence or involvement anywhere. Yet another thing the creator mages obscured from history in some obtuse attempt to protect us.”

Dr. Dawkins narrows his distant stare, gradually nods, and ponders out loud. “That would make a great deal of sense. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they purposely planted rumors about prominent creator mages having small sections of Abstract Prism documentation as a way to distract everyone. Busy everyone out there into looking for the known small, unimportant bits. Meanwhile, an unknown mage disappeared with the master document to an unknown location. Probably just in case something went wrong too soon after the implementation of the Abstract Prism. Their backup plans.”

Contorting his face against his shifting mood, Isaac shakes his head and clenches his fist briefly. “Oh fucking hell... Given the other trickery and shenanigans that collection of pompous, arrogant smart asses have cursed upon our society, that makes too much sense.”

After brief moment of silence, Dr. Dawkins glances over to Isaac with an adventurous smirk. “I do believe this confirms that dear Dr. Malkav is most certainly in or around Perimeter, and quite possibly has delved into that massive weird zone.”

Isaac sighs as he stares distantly ahead inside his mind while his thoughts play out into his demeanor. “Oh yes. But, the city of Perimeter is massive by itself, and that weird zone dwarfs it completely. If he’s gone in... Who knows where he’s at now? I need to go there, but it’ll be fruitless if I don’t have a means of roughly locating him.”

Dr. Dawkins lifts an enlightened eye brow, and chuckles to himself. “While I can’t say were he went to if he’s inside the PWZ, he most certainly left an impression somewhere in Perimeter. Believe me, he’s easy to pick out in a crowd and unforgettable by most.”

A sly grin grows on Dr. Dawkins and he taps the finger tips of a his hands together. “And, it does help I still have a few contacts around those parts that I can put you in touch with. Plus, I most certainly am not going to let you run down there unprepared.”

Isaac gazes over to Dr. Dawkins in hopeful disbelief, and smiles graciously with a thankful nod. “I- I, uh... Thank you. I don’t know what to say. You have done more than enough, and I don’t want to burden you any more than I have to. And, I certainly... Do not want to feel that you owe me for... the past.”

Dr. Dawkins notices the empty glass on Isaac’s side of the table between the recliners, picks up the bottle of whiskey, and calmly fills the container. With a delighted smile, he laughs softly and shakes his head. “Well, just think of it as repaying you for reviving an old man’s sense of adventure and thirst for discovery. To be honest, Dr. Malkav’s recent work here has captured my curiosity. While I’m no longer spry enough to do field work, you seem most capable still.”

Isaac grins eagerly, picks up the filled glass, and sips down the liquor. He wanders through his thoughts, halts at one, and quirk his brow. “There’s some prep work that needs to be done. And, thinking about it, a little bit of clean up after our recent chore.”

With a mild grumble, Dr. Dawkins frowns slightly annoyed and muses. “Very true. We need to contend with those cheap aetherphones I bought through the... usual sources. I always detest wasting good, still serviceable equipment. But, in this situation I guess it cannot be helped exactly.”

Pulling a smirk at the corner of his mouth, Isaac glances over to Dr. Dawkins and inquires with a plotting tone. “Are the phones still on the dining table?”

Dr. Dawkins eyes Isaac curiously, and nods. “Yes. Batteries still removed, and the identification chips pulled. All of it should still be there.”

He pauses a moment in thought, narrows an inquisitive gaze at Isaac. “Whatever are you planning?”

A brilliant, scheming grin widens upon Isaac’s face, and he settles himself contentedly in the recliner with a devious tinge to his voice. “Well, I think a quick, stealthy visit to that pick up point for The Train is in order. I believe with careful placements on the undersides of hauler trucks, and liberal applications of duct tape, they should transmit some interesting coordinate data in case someone gets lucky idea. Give them red herring to enjoy.”

A highly amused cackle leaves Dr. Dawkins, and he shakes his head snorting. “Oh, gods... Have I ever told you story where we had to contend with a bunch of bandits looting our artifact shipments back to the Grand Library?”

-70-

Knocks sound out from the exterior door of the modestly decorated living room. Lalyanpha gazes at Mylo, and smiles brightly to the four year old. “Guess who that is?”

Mylo’s attention span manages to grant enough time for him to blink his orange-speckled brown eyes in thought, before launching off the couch in sheer excitement. “Grandpa! Grandma!”

Lalyanpha quickly grabs the energetic child by the sides before he escapes her reach, tosses back her long golden brown hair, and glances over towards Mason. “Could you-”

With a laugh, Mason nods his head of dirty blonde hair and winks to Lalyanpha. “Already on it, Laly.”

He walks up to the exterior door, and opens it. He grants a respectful nod to Kallentesson, and smiles to the older evuukian woman behind him. “Come on in. Fair warning, you’ve got about five seconds before the little one is released.”

As soon as Kallentesson and the woman cross into the living room, Lalyanpha lets go Mylo to the awaiting arms of a kneeling Kallentesson. Sweeping the child up into his arms, Kallentesson hugs Mylo and playfully ruffles his dirty blonde hair. “How’s my favorite grandson?”

Mylo excitedly rambles breathlessly a clumsily compressed version of his day so far to an eager grandfather. Mason addresses the woman with a smile and points outside. “Lasosopha, is there anything you need me to help you two bring in?”

Lasosopha shakes her head with a calm smirk, and pats Mason lightly on the arm. “Oh no, dear. Not right now. We’ll worry about that later. Right now...”

She steps forward next to Kallentesson, leans on his shoulder, and gazes lovingly at Mylo. “I want to see my little grandchild.”

Mylo tries in vain to split his attention between grandmother and grandfather, and decides to focus on Lasosopha for the moment. Kallentesson hands over Mylo to his wife, and gazes his orange eyes into Mylo’s orange-speckled brown eyes with a proud grin. “The orange is really coming out in his eyes.”

Lalyanpha chuckles lightly, rolls her eyes with a humored smile, and sighs. “Yes, it is. The genetic specialist we saw says the evuukian coloration will most likely win out.”

Lasosopha glances between Kallentesson and Mylo’s face with delight. Kallentesson steps over his daughter, and warmly embraces Lalyanpha with a loving greeting in evuukian. Afterwards, Lalyanpha quickly wipes the hint of a tear at the corner of her eye with a happy smile. “I’m fine, father. Just busy keeping Mylo out of trouble.”

Mason stands next to Lalyanpha and extends out his hand to Kallentesson. “So, how was the resort with the houses?”

Kallentesson grips Mason’s hand tightly with a stoic hint to his posture and Mason responds with equivalent response to his subtle challenge. After a test of handshake strength, Kallentesson nods to Mason with a slightly annoyed smirk. “Same as they usually are. For as many deals are made, drama is born. Decided to skip watching yet another archery competition, and the pool party is really just for the young ones to be wild. By the gods, the new generation is too much at times. Had to break up one fight yesterday.”

He pauses a moment, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out his aetherphone. “Speaking of which...”

Quickly navigating through menus, he pulls up a picture of Modoran and him posing, and shows Mason and Lalyanpha. Both Mason and Lalyanpha quickly recognize the evuukian in the picture, and look to Kallentesson a bit surprised. Mason nods at the image on the screen and tilts his head to the side. “Wow, he’s usually pretty slippery from the cameras. Surprised you got him by himself.”

Lalyanpha lifts a curious brow to her father. “My gods, how did you manage that? Especially, with the family history and all? Did not think he’d stay in the same room with you, much less grant you a picture.”

Kallentesson shrugs his shoulder with a guilty grin. “Well, let’s just say I did him a favor and he returned it. Also, he got the rest of the team to sign a promo picture for you two.”

While Mason and Lalyanpha exchange glances, Kallentesson winks, steps over to Lasosopha and Mylo, and shows the picture on the aetherphone. “Guess who I met, Mylokia...”

Mylo’s attention snaps over to the glowing screen, and his eyes focus on the picture. Moments later, his excitement surges and he yells out. “Moddorren!”

Lasosopha strategically lowers the energetic child back down on the floor. Mylo looks to his audience and eagerly hops around between the adults. “Come see the tree house!”

After a few repeated attempts, Lalyanpha and Lasosopha eventually get lead away by Mylo towards the back door through the kitchen. Mylo pauses before going outside. “Daddy, Grandpa!”

Mason leans into the kitchen, nods to Mylo, and reassures him. “In a few minutes Mylo. Give grandma the tour.”

Kallentesson lifts an intrigued brow and eyes Mason. “Tree house?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Mason briefly grits his teeth and rolls his brown eyes at himself. “Mostly a really tall deck around a tree at the moment. But, he’s loves it.”

Kallentesson and Mason idle and stand silence for nearly a minute. Gazing around the modestly decorated living room, Kallentesson relaxes his stance and dons a calm smile. “You two have made a wonderful home here.”

Mason blinks, mentally wanders through some surprise, and nods towards Kallentesson. “I’d like to think so. I mean, it can’t compare to a house’s mansion...”

Kallentesson narrows his eyes mildly incredulously at Mason, and sighs with a frown. “Don’t short change your efforts. Before my brother brought me in on his business... to negotiate with all the people he pissed off, Lasosopha and I lived in a place almost exactly like this one. Gods, how I’ve come to miss those days.”

Mason quirks his brow, cocks his head to the side, and scrutinizes Kallentesson. “You okay? You don’t secretly have some incurable disease and are trying to make amends before it takes you in a month?”

Reflexively snorting, Kallentesson shakes his head and laughs. “Oh, gods no. I just...”

He sighs while searching for the words to match his thoughts, and pieces together the best approximation. “I’ve just come to realize... I just don’t like what I do anymore. The house head position was fine for the longest time. But, I think I only liked it because I had nothing else. Now...”

Stepping over to gaze through the archway into the kitchen and out the kitchen window, Kallentesson points to Mylo and Lalyanpha outside. “There’s better.”

Mason glances out the same window to Mylo and Lalyanpha, nods appreciatively, and smiles. “Yeah, funny how that happens.”

Kallentesson cracks a sympathetic smirk to Mason. “Indeed. Lately, everything has come under a new light. The politics, the business, the houses... It just takes me away from what I want to do.”

He levels an honest stare at Mason and speaks in a genuine tone. “Listen, the both of you have managed to build a wonderful life here that I was too stupid to realize. Let me apologize for how I’ve treated you in the past.”

With wide eyes, Mason glances around in shock and nods with a gracious smile towards Kallentesson. “Wow... Um... Thanks, Kallentesson. That actually does mean a lot.”

Kallentesson smirks and laughs. “Just call me Kal. I think we’re beyond certain formalities.”

Mason snorts and agrees as he walks into the kitchen towards the fridge. “Yeah. Make sense. So, you want a beer? Nothing too fancy at the moment.”

With a humored smirk, Kal steps over to examine the beverage stock. “Don’t worry. I drank Stag’s Standard for the longest time. I’m not THAT fancy with beer.”

Mason grimaces briefly, picks up a can, and hands it over to Kal. “Gods almighty, you drank straight from the stag? Willingly?”

Kal shrugs his shoulders with a tight smile. “Some months, it was all Lasosopha and I could afford to drink. It was her favorite when we were young.”

Pausing in thought Mason’s mind wonders a moment between questions answered, and answers with new questions. Kal draws in a long breath and cracks open his can of beer. “Anyway, I plan on retiring in the next year, and hand over control of the house to my brother.”

Halting mid sip, Mason shakes his head in shock and stares at Kal. “Really? Wow... Well, congratulations on your future retirement.”

Kal frowns briefly and sighs out a faint bit of frustration. “Well, I’m not there yet. Have a quite a few things to take care and a few wrongs to try my best to amend officially before I bow out. Also, need to prepare our business partners to deal with my brother.”

He pauses a moment, lowers his voice, and looks to Mason. “One thing that I’m prioritizing, that I need to you keep secret for now... I am reinstating Lalyanpha officially back in the family... And putting her name back on the registry for the house.”

Mason’s hand reflexively tightens when he feels his beer almost slip out of his grasp. He snaps a wide eyed gaze at Kal. “Holy hell... That’s- Good gods... That’s huge. I mean. As much as I’ve tried to comfort her about it... She’s always missed being part of the family.”

Kal nods and fights to hold back guilt-ridden regret seeping into his voice. “Yes. It’s going to take some effort. But, I think I can get it done. She won’t have any real house duties, or a significant say in family affairs. Regardless, she’ll have every official right to attend family events... With you and Mylokia.”

Blinking blankly a moment, Mason straightens his posture, and smiles with emotion nudging his voice. “Thank you. Just thank you. It’ll mean the world for her.”

Tilting his head to the side, Kal chuckles lightly. “I’m going to try to get it ready for her birthday, but these particular processes take FOREVER. They’re not used that often, and people forget it’s in the laws.”

The two men stand and watch Mylo lead Lasosopha and Lalyanpha around the backyard, pointing out various things with long, excited rambling explanations. Mason finishes sipping his beer and lifts his brow. “We better get out there and give them a break from Mylo.”

Kal nods in complete agreement. “Oh yeah.”

The two men head out the back door into the yard to the joy of a four year old.

----

Chad, Veevi, Tassilda, Trakenthin, Deedri, and Modoran walk down a path on the resort grounds in the dusk light. Nearby from choice angles, camera crew record their every movement along the way and work themselves in an active orbit around the team. Veevi struts around in pace with Chad, evocatively stretches out in her bikini swimsuit for the cameras, and grins with a wicked hint. “That was SO MUCH fun! Archery competition AND a pool party in the same day!”

She leans against Chad, wrap her arms around him, and consuls him with a sympathetic tone. “So, sorry you got knocked out of the semi-finals.”

Glancing briefly down towards the still damp pink hair of Veevi, Chad shrugs his shoulders and dons an amused smirk. “Actually I’m kind of okay I didn’t get too far and Modoran mercilessly beat me.”

He looks over his shoulder towards Modoran with genuine curiosity. “Archery competitions must be serious business with the Evuukian Houses.”

Modoran nonchalantly nods and shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah. It’s an old tradition they’ve had for centuries. Most children raised in a house are expected to know how to use a bow and arrow. They used to settle arguments of honor with archery challenges not too long ago.”

Deedri smiles and gazes up towards Modoran, brushing her long, multi-colored hair over her shirt covered shoulder. “You held your own in that contest, I thought you we going to win it for a while.”

Lightly chuckling, Modoran shakes his head and puts his hands in his pants pockets. “Oh, no. There were a few famous archers in that competition that would have easily beaten me if I faced up against them. They were just playing well enough until they got into the finals. Then, they could be serious.”

Trakenthin glances up from his aetherphone, lifts an inquisitive brow at Modoran, and asks with hints of accusation. “Seems certain house members wanted to challenge YOU.”

Modoran’s dark blue eyes widen briefly as he grimaces, and he calmly plays off his nerves. “O-Oh? Well, you know... Being the one Evuukian on the team with a dark evuukian lineage, I’m not surprised a few wanted to see how they measured up.”

His eyes dart around and quickly scan the immediate area, before his posture relaxes back down. Veevi glances over her shoulder to Deedri, and frowns with a slight droop of her fuzzy ears. “I’m really sorry, you couldn’t find your bathing suit Deedri. It looked really cute. You can borrow one of mine for tomorrow if you don’t find it.”

Deedri blinks to attention, searches her mind for the current ploy, and smiles appreciatively, hiding a telling curl in the corner of her mouth. “Oh! Uh, thank you, Veevi. But, I’m sure it’ll turn up. I just bought it earlier today, so it couldn’t have gone that far. And, I didn’t mind being the backup medic in case anything happened between the flying arrows and water today.”

Tassilda barely contains her knowledgeable smirk as she eyes through Deedri’s guise. Resting her hands upon her towel wrapped waist, Tassilda tosses her raven black hair back off her bikini top and struts with an extra bounce in her step. A few cameras focus on her and away from the conversation between Deedri and Veevi. Stretching her arms over her head, Tassilda yawns. “I can’t wait to get back and take a long shower.”

As the group passes a small building for restrooms, Modoran breaks off from the group and motions a thumb point over to the bathrooms. “I’ll catch back up with you all. I need to use the facilities. Been holding it since the finals of the archery competition.”

After simple acknowledgments from everyone but Deedri who perks a suspicious brow, Modoran quickly walks over to the small building and enters into the men’s side of the open entryway. A small detachment of recording crew break off from the orbiting mass and wait outside, as the rest of the team leaves the area. Minutes pass. More minutes pass. Eventually one of the crew checks their aetherphone for time, and sighs. A phone alert chimes from everyone’s device, and they all investigate it. Excited and eager expressions overtake them, and they rush down the path, as extremely faint, argumentative voices resembling Tassilda and Veevi drift away.

Seconds later, Modoran slowly peeks his head out from around the entryway corner, searches the immediate vicinity, and slinks out. He swiftly slips into the growing shadows of the evening ambiance, sneaks down a narrow side path near the bathrooms. Keeping out of sight, he blends into the surrounding resort scenery and eventually settles to a seat on a decorative metal bench near a calming pond. Breathing a long sigh of relief, Modoran checks his aetherphone, navigates to his messages, and nods as he reads. He checks the narrow, secluded path through bamboo forests and exotic plants, and waits.

As his attention drifts off into to simple, captivating game on his phone, two groups of three quietly approach the bench from either direction of the path. On opposing sides, Hektoran and Mishavalla close in. Mishavalla concentrates as faint flows shimmer along the ground near her two associates. Hektoran keeps pace with a young male evuukian focusing upon a similar magical spell. Modoran grits his teeth, quickly taps upon his phone screen, and eagerly plays the game on the screen. Hektoran grins evilly, and laughs loudly. “What are YOU playing, Modoran?”

Modoran’s dark blue eyes spring wide open. He slowly lifts his head of short white and light gray hair, turns to either side, and studies the situation in sheer, utter bewilderment. He mouths to himself in shock. “How the fuck...?”

Hektoran steps up to the standing Modoran, smiles with sinister intent, and postures pridefully. “This time... You won’t be getting away.”

Recognizing the same group from before, Modoran sneers his upper lip, grumbles in frustration, and slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know how the fuck you even knew I was here, but still... This is a bad idea. You all should really drop this.”

Mishavalla readies herself into a casting pose, trains her piercing yellow eyes on Modoran, and grins sharply. “Last night we’re here, so last chance to settle this.”

Hektoran nods to the two pairs of evuukian comrades, and the pairings secure the exit routes, waiting for action. Hektoran puffs out his chest, glares eagerly at Modoran, and cracks his knuckles. “You know, just take your beating like a proper house reject. It’ll be a lot easier on us... You not so much. And you wouldn’t want to leave any mark on us, since it’d just cause you so much trouble for assaulting house nobility, so recklessly.”

Studying the scene, Modoran parts a devious smile, laughs darkly, and narrows a stare into Hektoran. “Oh... Really? As if leaving bruises and marks me is going to help you out... Since I’m certain your great uncle will know exactly what happened after yesterday!”

A sudden, stark realization erupts simultaneously in the youthful, naive minds surrounding Modoran as they contemplate their shared gross oversight. With a final few gestures, Modoran finishes an incantation and vanishes from view. “Bye!”

Hektoran snaps back to awareness, notices Modoran disappearing, and yells out. “MISHA! REVEAL HIM! HURRY!”

Stumbling into the casting of the spell, Mishavalla quickly runs through the gestures and repeats an incantation from memory. The two pairs of perimeter guards hold their arms out and carefully watch and listen for any sign of Modoran. Anger swells into Hektoran’s face and he attempts to turn around. His body tries to twist, but his shoulders remain held in place. Puzzling at the strange forces, Hektoran grunts as his body hops up from the force of several fist sized, sudden depressions into his gut. Hektoran doubles onto the ground, barely holding himself up, and covers his mouth when he reflexively wretches.

While the male and female evuukian pair near Hektoran watch their leader collapse into a vomiting fit, Mishavalla releases a colorful pulse from her hands. The wave of glittering particles expands quickly, and coats all it contacts in a sparkling layer, including the transparent form of Modoran. Hektoran’s pair of escorts lunge at Modoran. The duo release a flurry of punches and kicks that Modoran deftly dodges when possible and weathers the rest. Slipping into a few opportunities, Modoran returns a similar barrage of attacks at the pair. The exchange continues at a feverish pace in between struggling grapples. In a lapse of judgment, Modoran side steps into the perfect path for muscular evuukian man’s shoulder check, and flies back and over row of metal garbage cans. As he lays there, he returns to full opacity.

As Mishavalla helps Hektoran stand back up from a pool of his stomach’s previous contents, Hektoran’s accomplices approach the trash pile Modoran is in. A sudden plume of inky black mist erupts from Modoran and obscures the area. When the four evuukian lackeys defensively form around the expanding dark miasma, five Modorans leap out from the cloud into dramatic, taunting poses. Hektoran wipes the remainder of the vomit from his mouth, steps up into the line with the other four evuukians, and readies himself for a fight.

Mishavalla’s suspicion narrows her stare at the multiple Modorans, and she studies the animated, mocking batch. After a few moments, her eyes notice a distinct lack of a colorful, sparkle on each of the illusions, and she starts to open mouth. Modoran’s hand seals Mishavalla mouth, and he hoists up her away from the group towards the nearby pond. “Hush! Don’t ruin the surprise for them.”

Flailing around in a mix of shock and anger, Mishavalla slams her elbows down into Modoran’s side, attempts to backwards head butt him, and claws behind her after him. After mostly dodging these attacks, Modoran swiftly drag Mishvalla to the bank of the pond, grins mischievously, and laughs. “Remember our favorite game?”

Blinking confused, Mishavalla notices the body of water and her yellow eyes spring open in past frustation and rage. Modoran readies himself, and tosses the lithe Mishavalla right into the pond. She falls with an angry scream and flailing splash into the drink. A reminiscent smile appears on Modoran’s dusky bluish gray face, and he chuckles to himself. “That brings back memories.”

As he swings around to dart off, and Mishavalla’s pair of friends intercept. Within the melee exchange, Modoran fends off the assault and manages a number of well placed kicks and punches. Stepping forth to start initiate a throw, Modoran's momentum halts unexpectedly as Hektoran’s pair of friends each snatch an arm. Quickly Mishavalla’s duo go for a leg each. Modoran tries a fake out, and kick towards the groin on a male evuukian. Unfortunately, the evuukian catches the attack, and glares at Modoran in disgust. “Dirty motherfucker...”

Completely locked down, the four comrades secure Modoran, and present him before Hektoran. Hektoran huffs out his exhaustion, narrows an infuriated glare at Modoran, and punches him square in the chest. Modoran cringes with a reflexive grumble of pain. Hektoran gradually collects himself and resumes his prideful stance as he stares at Modoran. “Well, that’s was fun, but... It’s time to-”

Splashes of wet footsteps slap out on the concrete pathway above the drone of evuukian curses in a furious woman’s voice. Mishavalla storms up with her arm tightly around her soaked, thin shirt, covering her revealed lithe, athletic figure. Her other arm pulls back with growing muscle definition and clenching fist. With a powerful swing past Hektoran, she slugs Modoran powerfully right in the nose, pushing his head back and rocking the four other evuukians holding him. Mishavalla steps away in an indignant huff, and crosses her arms. As Modoran recovers his senses from the blow, Hektoran grins with mean satisfaction. “So, are you learning your lesson?”

Modoran blinks back to awareness, dons a sly smirk, and quirks his brow defiantly at Hektoran. “Not really, but I have learned one thing.”

Hektoran cocks his head expectantly to the side. “Which is?”

Presenting a wide rebellious grin under a stream of blood from his nose, Modoran cackles loudly. “Your sister hits the hardest out of the bunch of you weak loser shits!”

With that prompting, Hektoran and crew take turns to elaborately insult and berate Modoran with a punctuating punch or kick. A minutes later, a distant voice calls out down the path. “Modoran?”

Landing a final punch in the gut on Modoran, Hektoran directs the gathering down the opposite way and leave Modoran unceremoniously on the ground. Sitting up on the grass bordering the path, Modoran groggily inspects himself.

Walking down the narrow path, Deedri’s ears perk up to distant footsteps up ahead and she picks up her pace. Rounding a slight curve in the path, she sniffs the air and widens her auburn eyes from the unsettling familiarity. Rushing down the walkway, her eyes notice a figure slowly standing up and she closes in to an unsettling surprise. “MODORAN?!”

----

Modoran clenches his fist tightly and cringes with watering eyes, as Deedri flows magical energies into his nose. After a minute Deedri releases hold of the bridge of Modoran’s nose, and slip her gloved fingers out from his nostrils. Modoran vainly tries to collect himself as he lightly touches his freshly realigned nose, and winces through the remnants of the pain. “Oh gods... You weren’t kidding... But... Thank you... Ow...”

Aiming a glowing eyed, stoic frown towards Modoran on the bench, Deedri leans forward and stares right into Modoran’s eyes. “Are you going to tell me what happened now? Or, keep dodging the subject?”

Sporting a weak smile, Modoran awkwardly stumbles around his words and shrinks in his seat under the auburn illuminated glare of Deedri. “I- Uh... It’s complicated, Deedri. It’s nothing you should worry about and-”

Sneering her upper lip as she applies a treated adhesive bandage upon a cut on Modoran’s face, aggravation slips out into Deedri’s tone. “NOT anything I should worry about?! I’m sorry, but the moment I find you beaten up and abandoned in some alley, and have to patch up you... I THINK it becomes something I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT.”

Modoran tries to summon up his nonchalant demeanor and fails miserably upon gazing into the examining stare from Deedri. He meekly lowers his head, sighs deeply, and uncomfortably resorts to the truth. “It... It was... It was a group from another house. I knew they wanted to settle an old score, but I didn’t think they’d go this far with it.”

Deedri’s gaze softens as she kneels down in front of Modoran and watches the untypical emotion upon his face. “Why did they want to settle a score with you?”

Drawing in a pained breath as he watches Deedri apply medical ointment onto a large patch of bruising on his forearm, Modoran slumps his shoulders and averts his eyes away. “It’s for something I did years past. A... um... a crime against their house. Long story short, I orchestrated a theft of their prized treasure and my team got caught.”

Pausing in her treatment of Modoran’s minor wounds, Deedri cocks her head to the side curiously, perks her furry ears, and focuses on Modoran. “Okay...”

She narrows an inquisitive glare upon Modoran, frowns slightly, and waits expectantly. Modoran draws in a long breath, nods towards Deedri, and reluctantly approaches the explanation. “I... WAS a member of a house. Their house was always boasting about this grand heirloom and how it was such a symbol of their success. My dumb ass thought it would be great to take them down a peg by stealing it long enough for them to admit it was stolen, then quietly return it. It’s not uncommon for such pranks between houses. But... The group I put together got caught, and the other house got REAL angry. REALLY... Angry. I took the whole blame for it so no one else in my team got in trouble, since it was my idea. Hence, I was dehoused and changed my family name to even things out.”

Blinking blankly to comprehend the whole extend of the history, Deedri stands up, sits down on the bench next to Modoran, and gestures out an incantation. While flowing magical energy to into Modoran’s shoulder, she process the information and aims her investigative gaze at him. “But, that’s been settled. So, what right do they have to attack you now?!”

Modoran tries to shrug his shoulders with a nonchalant smile, and only manages to squirm with a pained grimace. “Well- Uh... They’re just still sore about it? I mean, technically, we made off with their artifact that they said was protected by their gods. So, they’re just still mad about it? Anyway... They’re just young and stupid like I was. They got some satisfaction, nothing permanent is broken, so not a big deal in the end.”

Deedri eyes widen, her furry ears drop down to the sides of her head, and she grits her sharp teeth with a growl. “Not a big deal?! You got ATTACKED! This wasn’t a bar room fight or a heat of a moment dispute! This was premeditated and you could have been seriously hurt! This NEEDS to be reported!”

Wave of nervous energy runs through Modoran’s body, and he turns his head to gaze at Deedri uneasily. “Uh, it’s- No. There’s no need to do that. It’d just cause more drama and trouble. I mean it’d just be my side versus their side, and it just wouldn’t go well and-”

Gently resting a hand on Modoran’s shoulder, Deedri looks directly into his eyes, straightens her posture, and focuses her stern, supportive voice at him. “This isn’t right. You NEED stand up for yourself. They shouldn’t be allowed to do this! If fact, I remember reading up about laws against house members seeking vendettas against non-house citizens.”

Modoran pauses in thought, entertains an idea briefly, and shakes it away. “Yes, but... It’d just bring up a bunch of old drama and-”

Deedri slightly tightens her grip on Modoran’s shoulder, summons her courage, and levels a defiant stare at him. “Maybe it NEEDS to get brought up. If you aren’t, then I AM. My party member and friend just got attacked, and I NOT going to let it go. You shouldn’t either.”

Slowly turning his head to meet Deedri’s auburn eyes, a nonchalant smile gradually appears on Modoran’s face and he eventually nods in agreement. “Yeah... Yeah... You’re right. I just... It’s just not fun dealing with it. I don’t know... Maybe it’ll be different this time around?”

A happy smile graces Deedri’s face. Suddenly her furry ears perk towards section of open space above the walkway, her eyes flash brightly auburn as she grits her sharp teeth and curls a hand of clawed fingers at the ready. “Who’s THERE?! Drop the invisibility spell!”

Two evuukian women materialize into view on the walkway near Modoran and Deedri. Modoran glances over to the pair, lowers his face in mild embarrassment into the palm of his hand and slowly shakes his head. “It’s okay, Deedri. These are my sisters. The people I was waiting for out here.”

The older sister bows with a graceful and collected demeanor, tosses her long light gray hair back, and glances over to Deedri with dark blue eyes. She presents a grateful smile upon her dusky bluish gray skinned face. “Our apologizes for startling you. We were delayed getting here. And when we arrived we weren’t sure what was going on and didn’t want to intrude on anything.”

The younger sister with short white hair grins wide with dark blue eyes, and barely contains her energy. “Also, you were doing a REALLY GOOD job at talking sense into our brother... So, we didn’t want to interrupt!”

A light tint of embarrassment colors Deedri’s cheeks. Modoran straightens his sitting posture, points to the elder sister, and gestures to the younger sister, while sighing with brotherly annoyance. “This is Massadenia my eldest sister. And, Linanania, my youngest sister.”

Massadenia bows again at the address, glances at Modoran and Deedri, and motions down the pathway. “Not to rush anything, but it might be best we get moving, if possible.”

Modoran slowly rises up from the bench, stretches out his soreness, and nods in agreement. “Yeah. I don’t think I want another surprise round. And...”

He smiles genuinely to Deedri. “I really don’t want to make any more work for you tonight.”

Deedri pops up from her seat, help Modoran stand up all the way, and checks for any other immediate issues. “Well, I wouldn’t want to keep your from your family since that’s why you came out here. But, stop by my room so I can apply another round of treatments.”

Linanania lifts a curious brow as she walks next to Deedri. “You’re not coming?”

Puzzling at the response, Deedri asks confused. “I didn’t think I’d be allowed to?”

Massadenia smiles as she glances over to Deedri and leads Modoran in front of her. “Oh nonsense. Mother would be absolutely furious if I didn’t invite and bring along the woman who healed her... Precious little boy.”

A quiet stale, annoyed groan drifts out from Modoran. Massadenia presents a delighted grin. “So, please join us. It’s nothing official, I promise.”

Modoran walks ahead under the graceful guidance of Massadenia, while the energetic Linanania and cautious Deedri talk about random subjects.

----

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia wander slowly down a dusty, decorative stonework hallway. Overhead lamps dimly light the quiet passages and occasional sign indicating present location or official warning. Aristespha stops in front of a sealed metal doorway, checks the map on tablet, and sorts through a few information prompts. She furrows her brow, points over to the mechanical entry, and turns to the group. “This one has not been explored. It’s been sealed since this site was first discovered.”

Sebastian’s ethereal forms drifts in front of the sealed doors, and glances over for confirmation from Aristespha. “Nothing else on file, dear?”

Flicking through a long section of text, Aristespha shakes her head and smiles towards Sebastian. “Go ahead, Sebastian.”

With a simple nod, Sebastian phases through the metal and disappears. Bach wanders over towards the opposing side of the hallway, inspects a decaying sign written in an old language, and comments. “It’s kind of nice to have some of the grunt work done for you before having to trudge through these places.”

Cideeda examines the sealed doorway, and her emerald green eyes search along the wall. “Yeah. Saves us a lot of trouble. Still finding a bunch of duds, though.”

Sotalia stretches her arms back in a long yawn and tilts her head to either side. She fights the boredom off her face and idly paces around while playing with her longer fiery orange, wavy hair. “I’ll say. I mean, I’m not arguing the logic behind this. But, gods, it’s hard not to be a little bored.”

Nodding in begrudging agreement, Dretphi alternates between watching different ends of the current hallway. “Only trouble we have had was that security guard. Would not leave us alone.”

Rolling her eyes with a sneer of her upper lip, Sotalia groans out her disgust and shakes her head in commiseration. “I KNOW. That place wasn’t THAT big. Was he expecting us to get lost or something?”

Glancing over from peering through the gap in a ventilation grate on the wall, Cideeda grumbles with a canine revealing twist of her mouth. “That lazy wannabe cop was just looking for a reason to send us away. He was hoping our paperwork had anything wrong with it.”

Sebastian’s head pops through the middle of the metal doors with an excited grin, and he motions for everyone’s attention. “Think we have something! Looks like a research area or archive of sorts. A few documents and a bunch of little artifacts on display.”

Cideeda claps her hands together, rubs them eagerly, and hunts around the frame of the sealed doorway. “Alright! Now how to get this thing open... gently.”

She stands in front of the metal doors, feels around the joins, squints at every corner and crevice, and taps a claw tip on the door. As her furry ears flick around and listen to the finer acoustic details, her eyes sort through the mental images in her mind and she briefly grits her teeth. “The doors are solid, but not really thick. It doesn’t sound like high grade steel or alloy. So, it’s probably a simple hydraulic sliding door.”

Rapping her claws on the door, she directs her voice towards Sebastian’s floating visage nearby and queries. “Did you see a locking mechanism on the other side?”

Sebastian shakes his head a moment, pauses in thought, and phases back through. After a few seconds, he pops his head back out and shrugs his shoulders. “No. The door looks the same on both sides. The control panel is mirrored on the other side.”

Cideeda nods, closes her eyes, and processes the information while tapping her toe claws on the floor. “Okay. Low security door. Probably just a standard design they bulk ordered. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if...”

Stepping methodically along the wall section with the door controls and moving away from the frame, she purposefully hits the lower part of the wall with the bottom her fist, and listens carefully. The rest of the team watches her travel a few meters down, slam hard on section, and stop. She spins around with her ears flicking and searching, and starts tapping around the surface of the wall. Seconds later, she grins toothily and motions everyone over. “There’s a hollow section here. It’s probably a hidden access panel they blended in. Bach?”

Bach blinks to attention and gazes down at Cideeda. “Yes? What do you need?”

Cideeda points to general areas and gestures out her suspicions. “Depending on how they built this place, I think it’ll either be a few magnetically driven locks or spring loaded friction fit from hell. Think you could use your mechanical magic?”

Bach kneels down next to Cideeda, closes his eyes, and places his hands on the wall. Reopening his blue glowing eyes, he grins confidently, and nods to Cideeda. “I think I can manage something.”

Flows of magical energy emanate from Bach’s hands and glide along and into the wall. He focuses upon the task, searches his mind, and twists his face. “Huh. It’s like some twist lock with magnets. Four of them. And... Oh, they painted over the panel joints. Give a me a second...”

Brief thin lines of energy flicker and finely score lines into a meter by meter square of the wall around Bach’s hands. A series of four solid, heavy clicks dully thump from the revealed panel, and Bach grins with satisfaction. “There we go, now we just-”

Confidence disappears from Bach’s face as the panel tilts away from the wall and he scrambles for a good hold on it. “Shit! It’s heavy-”

A pair red armor gauntlets out reach on either side of Bach, and halt the panel in place. Bach glances up with an appreciative smirk and nods to Dretphi. “Thank you.”

Dretphi smiles warmly to Bach, and the two coordinate to ease the panel down to a graceful landing on the floor. Cideeda pulls out a flashlight from her utility vest, clicks it on, and investigates the hollow section. Scanning over the electrical lines, data cables, and hydraulic piping, she peeks further inside and studies the configuration. Minutes later with the curiosity and lighting sources from the rest of the group, Cideeda slides her contorted self back out. “Okay, real simple setup. But, I doubt the electric pump and valves are going to cooperate. One option is to cut lines to release the pressure and pry the door open...”

Aristespha grumbles uneasily and slowly shakes her head. “If we could avoid obvious changes, that would be preferred. There’s only so many law violations I can get overlooked through Grand Library clout.”

Cideeda grins toothily and eyes Bach eagerly. “I thought so... Bach, I’m going to need your help.”

Bach follows Cideeda’s guidance and the two position themselves partly through the access panel frame. Cideeda points out a number of valves, lines, and control mechanisms inside the packed space. “I bet you can easily manipulate the stubborn insides of these and get that door open... And, keep it looking stock.”

Glancing over to Cideeda, Bach smiles with growing interest and thinks through it. “Yeah. Definitely can manage that, but you’re going to have to tell me what, when, and how. I don’t know much about hydraulics setups like these.”

Cideeda winks to Bach with a confident smile. “Of course, that’s why I’m here. Ready for your first lesson?”

Over the next minutes, Cideeda instructs Bach on basics of hydraulic door systems. With pantomimed explanations of different component constructions from Cideeda, Bach threads magical flows into a mechanisms integrated with the aged devices, and weaves control lines together to handle signaling. The rest of the team watches in fascination as Cideeda navigates the system and Bach fashions magical manifestations to manipulate the setup. With a number of flow threads in his hands, Bach gazes over to Cideeda expectantly. Methodically stepping through the process, Cideeda recites an ordered list of instructions and waits for Bach to perform his tasks. A series of valves creak and briefly fight against the magical might, but relent with a surge of energy. Flows of energy from Bach travel down a thicker magical cable woven into hydraulic pump and reservoir assembly. With careful focus from Bach and Cideeda’s percussive coaxing via the butt of a large flashlight, a large hydraulic ram retracts, and one door of the dual sliding door arrangement pulls slowly into the wall.

Cideeda smirks and sarcastically declares in a mocking tone. “Oh, look. I think these doors must have finally opened after years of age... We should probably investigate it.”

After quiet and modest celebration, the team swiftly slips through the doorway. Everyone slowly spreads out into the large room of faintly dusty desks, tables, and shelves. Sotalia rolls her shoulders uncomfortably and surveys the room suspiciously. Her golden eyes widen when she looks upon a nearby long shelf of labeled magical trinkets and oddities, and the long nailed fingers on her hand flex in anticipation. Aristespha calmly lifts Sotalia’s hand and leads her away, shaking her head to Sotalia’s pouting frustration.

Slowly approaching the center point of the room, the team shines lights in searching sweeps of the area. Bach halts in place, studies his feelings, and pivots around hunting for something.

“STAGNANT ENERGY. DETECTED. NEARBY.”

The team pauses, and attention collectively gathers on the sword at Aristespha’s side. Sebastian’s visage stabilizes and he wanders his pointing arm towards a direction. “I think it... It felt something over... There?”

Flashlight spots, magical torch illumination, and a series of drifting glowing orbs light up the back wall of the room. As the brightness increases, the circular outline of an energy dais contrasts the rest of the floor. Everyone’s attention locks onto the uncomfortably familiar magical device. Sotalia rests her hands at her hips, and narrows her stare. “I thought I felt something weird in the room.”

Bach remains still and stares uneasily at the dais. Fighting his nerves, he grits his teeth and states an uncomfortable fact. “Yeah... Felt it, too. There’s... There’s a good amount in there.”

Sebastian nods, and gazes to Aristespha. “Well, I think we have a way to fix that.”

Aristespha glances back, smiles lovingly to Sebastian, and eagerly draws the sword out. “Yes, we do.”

Hovering with a mix of relief and satisfaction, Sebastian stares at the stonework circle. “Let’s drain this thing dry.”

Coming back from a thought, Bach holds a hand out to halt Aristespha’s approach. “Not all of it.”

Sotalia blinks confused and irritation rises in her voice. “What do mean? No. We don’t leave anything behind for Noxian to get.”

Bach turns around to face Sotalia and the team and sighs. “I know. I know. But... We can’t drain it completely. Otherwise, he’ll KNOW something is not right. If he’s expecting some power and finds none, then he’ll start to suspect something and change up his plans... Yet again...”

The team mulls over the suggestion. Dretphi nods in agreement and ponders out loud. “Leave enough for it to... smell... correct. No more.”

Sotalia defiantly crosses her arms, and narrows a glare at Bach. Meeting Bach’s gaze, Sotalia internally argues with herself and telegraphs the progress on her face. She grits her teeth and grumbles. “I DO NOT like the idea of giving Noxian anything.”

Cideeda sighs, glances over to Sotalia, and frowns. “Me neither. But, we got to make it look convincing enough, otherwise this whole catching him in the act thing falls apart.”

Sotalia slowly nods after some final deliberation. “Yeah. You’re right...”

Stepping next to Sotalia, Cideeda flashes a sly grin and holds out a small camera device. “Would helping me choose the right camera angles make you feel better?”

A smile graces Sotalia’s face and she rolls her eyes at herself. “A little.”

Aristespha pans a gaze around the room and lifts an intrigued brow. “And, while we’re... Unofficially here... Let’s see what this room was for.”

-71-

The faint hum of a large water filtration system drones out from the decorated shed, and hides under the many crisp gurgling flows of water in and out of the small, private pool. Flickering against the evening darkness, tropical themed torches dimly illuminate the area with wisps of smoke trailing up into the air. Surrounding the perimeter of the pool, pools tables and chairs remain empty in the gentle warm breeze. A pump spins up in a separate hot tub, secluded from view by a vine covered privacy screen. Soft splashes of water sound out from the pool, in contrast to the soft ambiance contained by wooden lattice work fence around the area.

Modoran sighs as he rests his head back, and allows his lower body to float in the gentle, calm water. Keeping anchored in place by his elbows upon the steps to the shallow end, he slowly relaxes himself with occasional winces of dull pain, and squirms to stretch out the annoying, stubborn spots. Gradually releasing a long breath, he opens his tired dark blue eyes, gazes up to the emerging stars above, and pulls an exhausted but hopeful smirk across his face. Gritting his teeth, he carefully rolls his dusky bluish gray body in a general stretches, and eventually surrenders to relax what he can of his thin, athletic form. After cinching up the draw string on his blue swim trunks, he sinks down into the water, and bubbles out a long sigh before resurfacing.

Snapping back from inside his mind, Modoran blinks briefly in confusion as his eyes dart around. He lifts his light gray haired head out of the water, and curiously aims his long, pointed ear towards the familiar voices of Deedri and Tassilda. “Okay...”

Tassilda’s relieved voice grows louder and clearer. “Oh. Gods be praised. Finally, we get to enjoy this pool without those insufferable camera crews trying to capture our most revealing poses possible.”

Deedri’s apprehensive cadence colors her uncertain tone rising out of the background din of water and pool equipment. “I know. I didn’t even want to wear shorts with them around yesterday. It’s relief they’re busy elsewhere... But... I’m still not so sure about this swimsuit.”

The gate doors swing open, and Tassilda struts through the archway in the surrounding privacy lattice work fence. She glances back with a reassuring smirk, and encouraging hint in her voice. “Oh please. You have NOTHING to worry about. I’m so jealous you found that, and it fits you so amazingly. Now come on!”

She stands up to the end of the pool in her bikini, gazes around with her hands on her hips, and notices Modoran idly relaxing nearby. “Oh, so this is where you disappeared to?”

Modoran nonchalantly shrugs his bare shoulders as he sinks himself to seat on the shallow end stairs. “Yeah. Oh, and don’t worry. The camera crews left a while ago. From what I overheard, it seems like they were off to do some last minute footage uploading or something. They were really persistent. I was practically in a staring contest with one camera guy.”

Behind Tassilda, Deedri’s furry, tufted tip ears flick momentarily towards Modoran’s voice. She halts her progression briefly, and quickly inspects her modest, patterned two piece swimsuit. Awkwardly summoning her confidence, she step up next to Tassilda and gazes over to Modoran with a wag of her long tail. Modoran attempts to continue his story, but trails off as his attention shifts elsewhere. “But, he gave up on me... after I didn't do... anything...”

Stumbling to regain his focus, he manages to resume some semblance of his usual nonchalant demeanor, and waves back to Deedri with a smile. “Oh, uh, hey. Uh, I see you found your swimsuit. It looks very nice on you.”

Tassilda eyes Modoran and Deedri, rolls her eyes with a twisted smirk, and steps towards the diving board at the deep end of the pool. Deedri presses through her shyness, dons a goofy smirk, and nods. “Oh. Thank you. Yes. It just happened to be under something else. I must of put something on top of it when we were rushing around to events, or something... I’m just glad I’m getting to use it before we have to leave.”

The diving board audibly flexes and rattles as Tassilda dives into the water. She emerges up to the surface with a splash. She perks her brow at Deedri as she guides her raven hair off her bikini top. “Well? What are you waiting for? Get in the water.”

Deedri blinks to attention, glances over eagerly, and pardons herself from the stilted conversation. Modoran nods understandingly with a calm demeanor. Sprinting up to the edge of the deep end, Deedri leaps into the pool. She touches the bottom with her feet, springs herself upward, and coasts up to break the surface meters away. She combs her hair out of her eyes and laughs. “It’s been too long since I swam in a such nice pool!”

Tassilda casually backstrokes and pries. “What do you mean a nice pool?”

Kicking through the water with her tail waving behind, Deedri calmly strokes through the water. “Well, this is a really nice pool in comparison to the ponds and creeks I usually had when growing up.”

Smiling with a humored snort, Tassilda shakes her head, and glances over with her light blue on black eyes. “I HAVE to visit your hometown someday.”

Deedri and Tassilda enjoy the cool waters against the humid, hot night air, while Modoran relaxes and watches on. After swimming multiple laps and floating lazily around while staring up at the night sky, Deedri glides over to a seat on the shallow end steps next to Modoran. “How are you feeling tonight? Still sore?”

Modoran tries to maintain a nonchalant attitude and smirks to Deedri. “A little. But, I feel pretty good overall. Well, especially considering, I got my ass handed to me last night.”

He glances away briefly, and gazes to Deedri with an appreciative smile. “Which, um... Thanks for patching me up. And also, well, talking some sense into me. Maybe some good will happen from all that drama.”

Deedri’s furry ears perk up and her tail wags through the water. She nods with a happy expression and smirks with a bit of embarrassment as she rests her hands on her knees. “You're welcome. I’m sorry if I poked a little too far into your family affairs. May have gotten a little too righteous there.”

Modoran rolls his eyes with a shake of his head, and reassures Deedri with a genuine grin. “You didn’t. Having that outside perspective kind of pointed the really damn obvious.”

Smiling and relieved, Deedri gazes over to Modoran. “By the way, your family is really nice. They weren’t quite what I expected. But, maybe I’ve been reading the wrong things about Evuukian houses.”

Fighting off his embarrassment, Modoran chuckles lightly and shrugs his shoulders with a briefly wince. “Yeah, there’s a public face all the houses want to have. In reality, they are more typical and just as dysfunctional as any other family. Mine just happens to own a few choice businesses in the service industry.”

Deedri agrees with a nod, and darts her eyes around the target subject with an awkward hint. “Yes. I also would never have guessed your sisters would be so...”

Modoran lifts a humored brow, and chuckles lightly. “Different? Yeah. My parents and I have tried to figure that one out for years.”

Biting her lower lip, Deedri grins partly and averts her gaze briefly. “I STILL can’t believe your mother gave me THAT bottle of wine. I’m going to have to hide and save it for a special occasion.”

Modoran snorts while shaking his head with a smile. “Don’t worry. She was very happy you took care of me and patched my sorry ass up.”

He shifts his weight around, resettles in his seat upon the pool step at the shallow end, and grits his teeth as he rubs his lower back. Flicking an ear to hear Modoran’s quiet complaints, Deedri leans close to investigate his pain. “If you are still sore, you might try soaking in the hot tub over there. A little heat couldn’t hurt to relax the muscles.”

As Tassilda swims closer to the two, Modoran twists his mouth, grimaces in mild disgust, and grumbles. “I would and really want to... But... I am going stay away from that thing, and recommend you two do the same.”

Deedri quirks a curious brow, and Tassilda turns her gaze to Modoran expectantly. Modoran averts his gaze, sighs, and shakes his head. “Chad and Veevi were in there earlier. And, well... The camera crews were VERY interested in something going on there for some reason. So, I’d just enjoy the cool waters of the pool to be on the safe side.”

The trio cringe in unison as the ramifications of such an encounter sink into their minds. Tassilda closes her light blue on black eyes hard and shudders in the water with disgust blatant on her face. “Thank for you warning. I think I’ll pass on soaking in slut soup.”

Deedri’s expression sour and she tenses her shoulders. “No thank you.”

Tassilda glances over to Modoran, lifts an inquisitive brow, and peeks out around to the surrounding area through the gaps in the wooden lattice fence. “Do you have any idea where Trakenthin went off to?”

Modoran thinks a moment, turns his head towards a section of the privacy barrier, and points in a rough direction. “Uh, last I saw him, he had a bottle of some grath wine he ordered from room service and had a book in hand. If I remember right, think he headed off towards the hammocks. I haven’t seen him come back, so he’s probably sleeping it off.”

He shrugs his shoulders and twists his mouth. “I figured if I didn’t see him come back after I got out, I’d check over there. Though, I don’t think I could move him by myself I had to.”

Tassilda stands up, combs her raven black hair back over her spiraling horns, and rests her hands on her hips. “Well, I’m going walk around a bit before I get back in the water. We better check on him. You two want to join?”

Deedri glances over to Tassilda, thinks a moment, and slowly rises out of the water. “I better come along just in case. I know a few ways to make someone sober enough to stumble into a proper bed.”

As Deedri stands up, she tosses her hair back. When she presses the water out of her tail fur, Modoran’s eyes sneak over to watch her attentively. Deedri glances over to Modoran, catches his gaze upon her, and observes him awkwardly try to shift his focus smoothly elsewhere and obfuscate his previous peek. Secreting away her satisfaction, she calmly asks Modoran with a kind smile. “Are you going to come along?”

Modoran assumes a nonchalant demeanor, smirks typically, and shakes his head slowly. “Ah, no. I’m going to soak for a little while longer. But, if you need my help, just let me know.”

Deedri nods, and steps up the stairs to join Tassilda. The two walk out of the pool area through the archway in the privacy fence. After Tassilda walks a significant distance away from the pool with Deedri at her side, she smirks slyly and quietly directs her voice. “So. How are you liking that swimsuit of yours now?”

Quelling a flush of pink in her cheeks, Deedri averts her eyes away, and calmly replies as she taps her clawed fingertips together. “I think I’m warming up to it.”

Over in the pool, Modoran stares up at the starry night sky, sighs, and thinks a moment. He squirms around upon his seat on the shallow end step, straightens up his posture, and glances down at his lap. Twisting his the hints of embarrassment on his face, he glances around the area and mumbles to himself. “That was a... very nice swimsuit...”

----

The old humvee rolls down the two lane highway. Thinning forests pass by on either side of the ancient military vehicle under the late afternoon sun. Cideeda taps her claw tips on the steering wheel as she steers down the road, and eyes the rear view mirror inquisitively. “So, do we want to try to squeeze one more place today? Might be able to fit one more in.”

Aristespha sighs as she relaxes in her seat behind Cideeda, scrolls through a few notes on her tablet, and shakes her head apprehensively. “We could try, but I don’t think we have enough time to give anything close to a proper investigation. If I remember correctly, most offices or checkpoints for those sites close in an hour.”

She taps through a few menus on the screen, and twists her mouth as she accepts the unfortunate fact. “And, it looks like anything else will take thirty minutes to get to.”

Cideeda flicks her furry ear back, nods her head, and rolls her shoulders with relief. “Yeah, I was figuring that. We’d be asking for trouble from someone official if we stayed too long.”

Crossing her arms, Sotalia rolls her eyes and snorts with a derisive tinge. “Yeah. That’s the last fucking thing I’d really wanted to have to deal with today. Some security guard following us around and pestering us to leave, so they can go home.”

She shrugs her shoulders and smirks with a faint amount of compassion. “Not that I don’t blame them. Still...”

Flipping through pages of a heavily annotated printout, Bach narrows his blue eyed gaze and scrutinizes sets of numbers next to location coordinates. “Well, the last few places didn’t have anything much to speak of, to be honest. Just a bunch of little things with traces of elder energy remaining.”

He scratches his head close to the white streak in his long brown hair, and grimaces uncertainly. “So, I don’t know if there’s really anything significant left to find.”

Dretphi leans forward from her seat in the back, peeks over Bach’s shoulder while holding onto the back of his seat next to Aristespha, and points out a line on the print out list. “There was the energy storage artifact.”

Bach studies the entry, nods in agreement, and squints his eyes thoughtfully. “True. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if number of items or strength was what these other numbers indicated. But, who knows what scale they’re based on.”

Aristespha glances over from her seat to the list and brushes her silvery blue hair out of her violet eyes. “I was theorizing that, too. We’ll have to sit down and compile all the information we’ve found out. There has to be some significance to those numbers, and we might just have enough information now to decipher the meaning.”

Sebastian’s ghostly form drifts over to the impromptu meeting and peeks over the group. “Well, we found two major targets and put monitors on them. If Noxian is going off information indicating the amount of energy, those will probably be the most likely places he’ll visit. Hopefully, those will also be the places he’ll stick around the longest to investigate after tripping our traps.”

The group collectively agrees on the thought, and their spirits rise up slightly as hope sparks. Sotalia shifts her attention to the increasing signs of civilization outside the vehicle, and scans the road ahead with her golden eyes. “So, is anyone else hungry?”

Dretphi settles back into her seat, gazes up to the front of humvee, and nods while removing crimson armor plates off her suit. “Yes. Food would be nice.”

Cideeda drums her claw tips on the steering wheel, searches out on the horizon, and narrows her stare to the emerging city scape. “Let’s see here... I think this is that part of town where we got sniped trying to capture that one fugitive at the motel. If I remember right, there was a place I wanted to try out when I got the chance...”

She slows the humvee to a stop at a stoplight intersection, glances around the area, and spots a “Fval Spice” sign at the corner of a strip mall parking lot. “There it is.”

Pointing out the location, she looks to the rest of the team through the rear view mirror and perks a furry ear over. “Should we give it a try?”

With no obvious objection or counter, the team agrees. Cideeda navigates through the intersection and finds a route into the parking lot. Pulling into a close spot, Sebastian's ethereal visage disappears into the sword at Aristespha’s side with a smirk. “Just in case they don’t serve ghosts.”

The doors of the humvee open, and the team exits the vehicle, securing unneeded equipment inside before walking up to the store front of “Fval Spice”. A chime rings out from the door bell above, and the team ventures through the front door of the restaurant and congregate near the counter of the dining area. Noyando appears from the back room and greets everyone. “Oh, hello! Welcome. Dine in, or take out?”

Aristespha glances around, confirms with the group overall, and looks to Noyando. “I believe it will be take out, today.”

Noyando nods happily, picks up a few menus from a holder nearby, and passes them out to everyone. The team flips through the pages, studies the choices, and eventually arrive at their decisions. Cideeda steps up to the counter and orders in fvalian. Noyando responds with a quick question in a similar dialect, to which Cideeda answers with a toothy grin. Sotalia moves up next, and speaks her order in fvalian to the delight of Noyando. Bach points to the menu and shows the selection to Noyando. “I’ll go with this.”

Noyando nods as he writes it down and glances over to Bach. “How spicy?”

Thinking a moment, Bach gestures with his hand indicating a modest amount. “Moderate. Just above two out of five? Maybe a three?”

Aristespha rests her menu back into the holder, and waits for Noyando to glance over. “I’ll go with the red curry. Pork. Four out of five with the heat.”

Dretphi points to an item on the menu and shakes her head towards the end. “Steak stir fry. No spice, please.”

Noyando finishes writing up the orders, taps the information into the register computer, and asks the group. “Separate or together?”

Retrieving a card from her pocket, Aristespha hands over the plastic payment method to Noyando with a smile. “Together.”

She smirk and peeks over her shoulder to everyone else. “I think it qualifies as a business expense today.”

With few final key presses, the system processes the transaction. Noyando returns the card to Aristespha with a receipt, and nods to the group. “Thank you. Please, have a seat. I will get your food out shortly.”

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia find a larger table, and each sits down. As the minutes pass with the flashes of cooking fires radiating from the back kitchen and sizzles releasing a delectable aroma into the air, the team individually relaxes and idly talk about topics other than work. The discussion shifts over to “The Next Heroes of Nexus”, and Dretphi grimaces uncomfortably towards a cringe, and shakes her head. “That was NOT a proper sparring match. That was a FIGHT.”

Bach nods in agreement and winces slightly. “Yeah, that was something ugly right there. Nothing felt good about that.”

Sotalia smirks, and drums her long, black nails on the table top. “Oh, there’s some problems with that father-son relationship. If THAT is what a sparing match turns into, that’s just the surface of that whole ordeal.”

Sighing thoughtfully, Dretphi twists her mouth and ponders. “Strange. Disturbing. Sad.”

As the conversation wanders to catching up on the latest episodes, the door chime rings as Meredosia walks in. She counts out cash and receipts in her hand while going behind the register. She enters the signed receipts and cash into the drawer, and writes down bookkeeping notes. She steps through the entry into the back kitchen and addresses Noyando. “I am done with the local orders. What do you have next?”

In between the different steps of the dishes he’s cooking, Noyando glances over, and points to a pair of handled paper bags on the back counter. “Those. Further out. The electric scooter is charged, so go ahead and use it to deliver.”

A flit of an eager smile graces Meredosia’s face as she grabs hold of the key hanging on the wall with one hand, and picks up the bags with the other. “Will do.”

She quickly crosses through the front area towards the door and past the team, when Noyando calls out. “Mera!”

Meredosia halts, spins around, and replies. “Yes?”

Noyando’s voice rises out of the din of sizzling food. “Take the alley ways. They are faster and you don’t have to fight traffic.”

Nodding as she resumes her exit, Meredosia opens the front door. “Will do.”

A few minutes later, Meredosia rides off through the parking lot on sit down electric scooter, and drives towards a nearby alley way. Bach glances over as Mera disappears from sight and comments with a reminiscent smile. “Reminds me of the one I had when I was in school. Damn, that made getting around that campus so much easier.”

Cideeda’s furry ear perk up and she lifts an inquiring brow towards Bach. “What do you have?”

Bach grits his teeth briefly in a mix of embarrassment and awkwardness. “Well, it might be best to say what it originally started out as. That scooter went through a number of... revisions? Yeah, revisions.”

Narrowing a stale irritated glare towards the sword at Aristespha’s side, he grumbles loudly. “Some that a particular person was responsible for.”

Sebastian’s voice softly emanates from the sword in an accusatory tone. “Fuck you, bro. At least, I didn’t run head long into a vending machine.”

More minutes pass on by. Finally, with grand entrance, Noyando appears from the back kitchen with paper bags stuffed with food containers. “Your orders are ready. My apologies for the wait.”

The team stands up showing excited and eager expressions towards the meals. Dretphi lifts up the hefty bags off the counter with an a thankful nod towards Noyando. Cideeda notices a small stand with business cards, picks one up, and examines it. “So, how far out do you deliver?”

Noyando thinks a moment, taps his claw tips on the counter, and shrugs with a smirk. “Within a few kilometers. But... If the order is big enough and we’re not too busy, I can make exceptions. Just expect a longer wait and a delivery fee.”

Cideeda bows slightly with a smile. “I think we might make it worth your while.”

She catches up to the rest of the team as they start to filter out through the front door. Watching the group leave, Noyando takes a seat behind the counter, relaxes with a long sigh, and stares out the front windows to the late afternoon sky as it shifts through orange hues. Minutes pass and Meredosia zips through the parking lot to a side alley, parks the scooter, and walks in through the door. Her crimson eyes sort through the signed receipts and she hands them over to the sedate Noyando. After a few moments, Noyando snaps back to awareness, and graciously takes the receipts from Meredosia. Studying the table the group was at, Meredosia combs her long gray hair back to order, and lifts an intrigued brow at Noyando. “Who were those people?”

Noyando shrugs his shoulders, ponders a moment, and glances over to Meredosia. “New customers. I think they are adventurers. They certainly look the part. But, I’ve never seen them before. Might be new in town? I hope they come back. Adventurers usually tip nice.”

Meredosia returns her gaze to the table, twists her mouth in thought, and puzzles uncertainly. Noyando stands up from chair behind the counter, stretches his back while he walks over to the back kitchen. He calls out. “So, Mera, what do you want to eat tonight? We have some time now to cook.”

Meredosia’s long pointed ears perk up slightly, and she excitedly wanders in the back with her thoughts focused on dinner.

----

Sitting around the dining table in the ranch style house, Aristespha, Cideeda, Bach, Dretphi, and Sotalia dig into their respective take out orders, while Sebastian hovers next to Aristespha enjoying the smells. Sotalia pauses feasting with a piece of chicken pincered between her chopsticks, and uses the wooden utensils to point over to small set of light armor plating in progress on the coffee table. “So, Cideeda, how much more needs to do be done on that?”

Cideeda perks her furry ears, glances over with her emerald green eyes, and mentally deliberates while contorting her face. “Well... It’s close. Really close. Just need to get a few adjustments to get just quite right.”

Dretphi thinks a moment, studies Cideeda, and nods. “We are close. Need to reinforce seams. Test to find hidden issues.”

Bach swallows a large bit of his basil stir fry, sniffs from the building heat, and gazes over to Cideeda. “Speaking of which, do you want to cut any more plating? Think I’ve figured out how to tweak the magic flows at little better after that last batch.”

Resting her head on the palm of her propped hand, Cideeda hums indecisively while she idly stirs her pepper and spice loaded beef and coconut cream curry. “I think I got the major pieces cut. Any fine detail work, I’ll take care of. It’ll probably just be a little angle grinder and rotary tool work.”

She flashes an eager, toothy grin towards Bach and wags her long tail. “Just be ready when I ask for those armor enchantments.”

The split unit air conditioner kicks on in the living area and a gust of air breezes through room towards the dining table. The gentle wind wafts the spicy vapors off of Cideeda’s meal down the table. Bach waves the potent smell away. Unfortunately, Dretphi draws a long breath in through her nose at the worst moment. She reflexively coughs, squirms, and winces as she covers her nose with curses in grath. Bach looks over to Dretphi with a bit of concern. “You okay?”

Dretphi settles down, and nods to Bach with a warm smile. “Yes. Caught me off guard.”

Bach shifts his gaze over to Cideeda and lowers his focus upon the potent spicy dish in front of her. “Okay... I have to know. How the hell can you eat that with your sense of smell? That just seems like it’d be pure, fucking torment.”

Cideeda blinks blankly, looks down at her food, and shrugs her shoulders towards Bach indifferently. “I don’t know. You just get used to it when growing up. Heat and spice was just always a traditional thing with everything my mom and dad cooked.”

Barely hiding her sneer, Dretphi narrows an incredulous glare at the toxic dish in front of Cideeda and quietly quips. “Excessive spice hides poor quality. Proper main ingredients should carry the dish with minimal assistance.”

Sotalia snorts into a snicker, points the chopsticks at Dretphi, and smiles slyly. “It’s been awhile since I’ve heard from your inner food snob. Now, I know where you get it from.”

Rolling her eyes, she picks up another piece of chicken, gestures with the wooden utensils, and playfully mocks. “Would this dish best be improved if it was cooked in a stone bowl upon an open flame?”

Dretphi grumbles to herself as she resumes eating her cooler food. She halts a moment, smirks, and snarks. “I do not expect one who requests well done steaks to understand.”

Bach shakes his head in lighthearted laugh at the debate between Dretphi and Sotalia, and shifts his attention to Aristespha calmly eating her red curry. “Huh, you’re handling that pretty well, Aristespha.”

Aristespha nonchalantly shrugs and pours another spoon load of curry upon her bowl of rice. “There was a fvalian restaurant across the street from my dorm at the Grand Library. A bunch of us were competitive about handling the heat. So, I’ve built my tolerance up over time.”

Nodding understandingly, Bach shrugs with a smile to Dretphi. “Hate that you’re missing out. But, if the heat is not for you, that’s fine.”

Sotalia grins smugly as she bites into another piece of chicken, and lifts a mocking brow at Dretphi. “Yeah, just not for you, huh?”

Sebastian narrows his stare at Sotalia, shakes his head slowly, and mouths out. “Leave it alone-”

A defiant wave twists Dretphi’s face. Reaching over the table, she sticks her fork into a chunk of chicken and spicy vegetables on Sotalia’s plate, and brings it close to her mouth. Sebastian snaps his attention over to Dretphi, dons a calm, polite tone, and drifts out into her view. “Okay, there’s no need to prove anything so drastically. So long as you enjoy your food that’s all that matters, right? And, you can work up to it if you want-”

Sotalia gawks in surprise at Dretphi when she puts the spicy food into her mouth while staring right at Sotalia. Dretphi pridefully chews and tilts her head to the side. “Did you order this hot?”

Bach watches a flush of red color Dretphi’s tan cheeks as she struggles to keep the stoic facade up. He glances around the table to the anticipating stares of Aristespha, Cideeda, and Sebastian, and Sotalia’s disbelief. Dretphi summons up her pride, and speaks with a bit of hesitation. “Not... bad. It has its unique flavor.”

Sotalia slides back from the table, looks to everyone briefly, and walks towards the refrigerator. “I need a refill on my drink. Anyone want anything? Water? Ice cold water? Milk maybe?”

Swallowing a mix of pride and spice, Dretphi raises her finger and points to her glass with a nod. Bach nudges over his egg soaked rice and whispers over to Dretphi. “It helps.”

Mustering an appreciative smile to Bach, Dretphi scoops some of the yellow coated rice onto her plate, and nods thankfully to Sotalia as she places a fresh glass of ice water next to her plate.

----

Samantha paces around the small upstairs bedroom and pauses to gaze out the double doors to the balcony. She hums in thought and glances over to Gerald sorting through data cartridges. “Okay. We should be able to stretch out the scenes from the resort for another episode. But... We NEED something MORE.”

Typing a few commands on his laptop, Gerald settles back into the chair and idly watches a message prompt appear on screen with a progress bar slowly filling. “With a bit of editing we almost have a whole episode’s worth of stuff. It might get a little repetitive towards the end, but it could work.”

Howard’s voice sounds out from the speaker phone on the desk, and he verbally sorts through his thoughts. “True, but it wouldn’t be bad to have some contrasting segments to break up any possible monotony. The editing crew is good, but I don’t want to push it too much. You only get so many of those episodes before people start complaining.”

He pauses a moment and sounds of keyboard typing mixes with paper shuffling. “By the way, is Trakenthin’s father still around? Got a copy of the invoice from that cheap motel we booked him in.”

Rolling her eyes with a sneer, Samantha brushes back her brown hair and slowly shakes her head with a hint of annoyed disgust. “Yes. He’s making sure to milk every bit of the deal we offered him. Do you want me to... STRONGLY ENCOURAGE him to leave?”

Gerald blinks a few times, sits up as an idea pops into his mind, and turns his chair towards Samantha. “Wait, what if we did another segment with Trakenthin and his dad? Like a bookend bit and farewell for now type of thing?”

Howard’s plotting tone leaks through the aetherphone speaker and drifts into the room. “Yeah... I like that line of thinking. But, I don’t want to run another training or sparring segment. It’s too soon. Need something else to differentiate it. Something to set it from the rest...”

Samantha dons a sly smile, sits down in another chair near Gerald, and ponders out loud. “We got to stir things up. There’s got to be some bit of drama we could amp up and ignite. But, what exactly?”

Grumbling to himself, Howard’s cadence shifts towards frustration. “Unfortunately, Trakenthin isn’t the easiest to antagonize. Save a few things... And, it seems Veevi only has Chad’s and Tassilda’s buttons figured out.”

His voice trails off and Samantha twists her face in contemplation. As both idle on their thoughts, Gerald crosses his arms and smirks unsatisfied with his current idea. “If there was a way to get a rematch between Trakenthin and Dretphi. That would get viewer attention. But, I doubt you’d be able to convince either to go for it at this point.”

Nodding her head in agreement, Samantha flips through her clipboard of older notes, halts to gaze at a guild quick physical identification guide, and closely studies Dretphi full name. “Dretphi Prakkenten Reti Veranattin... Reti... Where have I heard that before?”

Gerald perks up, cocks his head to side, and puzzles at Samantha. “Trenannin got on a really hateful rant about a Commander Reti. Blaming him for being a coward and fucking up the progress in fighting the Red Gears... He just kept going on and on. I got the clip around here somewhere, but I didn’t think some war veteran’s rant would be useful.”

Samantha eyes widen as her memory digs up long forgotten information, and a devious grins grows on her face. “THAT’S RIGHT! Dretphi is Commander Reti’s daughter!”

Narrowing her aimless stare, she rests her chin on her hand in thought. “Trakenthin knows that... He figured that out from the info we gave the team a while back. But, he hasn’t mentioned any of it to his father... I wonder if it’s because he knows it’ll set his father off?”

A dark chuckle oozes into the room from the aetherphone speaker, and Howard’s evil scheming tone fills the room with his eagerness. “I DO wonder if that’s the case. I think it might be worth trying to inform him of certain details, such as the fact that Commander Reti’s daughter is right next door...”

Howard’s laugh manages to infiltrate into the soundscape of the room, and he plots with devious glee. “And... That she’s the one that beat his son publicly in a sparring match at that convention.”

Gerald cringes slightly, alternates his gaze between the aetherphone and Samantha, and squirms uneasily. “Are you sure about that? I’m all for mixing things up, but that sounds like it might detonate. You two might want to watch that clip first before you go with this plan.”

Samantha switches to another clipboard of paper, and starts excitedly writing down an outline of notes. “That just might WORK, Howie! Trenannin might challenge Dretphi, but more than likely he’ll push Trakenthin to demand a rematch!”

Howard’s satisfaction radiates from the speakerphone, and he sighs in anticipation. “And, I’m quite certain, that Trakenthin’s father will spout off plenty to CONVINCE Dretphi to accept the rematch.”

Uncomfortably witnessing the scheme forming before his eyes, Gerald shifts his attention to the progress bar on his laptop and grimaces uneasily as he mumbles to himself. “Sounds like you two have that covered. Uh, I’ll figure out a backup plan to deal with small war that might happen.”

----

Large wall monitors scroll through various status messages and information prompts in the messy academic office. Nash reluctantly eyes a tall stack of paperwork upon his desk, and curls an upper lip into a sneer of defiance at the task before him. He slowly eases back into his squeaky office chair with a long metallic groan, and runs his fingers through his long, graying hair. “Gods... Dammit...”

He gradually allows the spring loaded back of the chair to lift him upright to his desk, and rests his arms to either side of the imposing pile of paper. Slowly shaking his head, he stares at the stack in disbelief and groans. “How... How can there be this much budget paperwork? They have to be making up policies to justify their jobs... Yeah... That’s it... That explains it...”

Reaching out hesitantly to lift the first form on the pile of bureaucratic doom, he freezes when the door opens quickly. A graduate assistant steps in first with an irritated Vetra entering immediately afterwards. The young evuukian man grimaces, eyes over to Vetra, and apologetically stares at Nash. “Uh, sorry to interrupt.”

Nash drops the top form back onto the pile, and slides the mass off to the side of his desk. With a mixture of confusion and relief, he address the graduate assistant and Vetra. “Not a problem. Really.”

He furrows his brow, tilts his head to the side, and puzzles at Vetra. “So... Uh... Whatever do I owe the honor your visit?”

Vetra tosses a sealed plastic bag onto Nash’s desk, points a sharp, dark finger nail at Nash’s desk, and grits her sharp teeth. “THAT.”

The young evuukian man stiffens his posture, and struggles to form anything but an awkward explanation. “Uh, well... We checked out that server on that work order finally... and well... Found... uh...”

Nash picks up the plastic bag with his finger and thumb, lifts it up into his view, and reveals the bewilderment plainly on his face. “Okay?...”

He slowly rotates the container to different angles, and quietly examines the pair of panties and used condom. Seconds of perplexed and substantially disgust expressions later, he gently drops the bag on his deck and quietly shudders. “Ewwww.”

Searching for the reason between the graduate assistant and Vetra, Nash holds his hands up and out to his sides, absolutely baffled. “I REALLY don’t know what to make of this. Explanation? Please?”

The graduate assistant chimes in after noticing Vetra’s constant, dark orange eyed glare at Nash. “Um... Well, the good news is the server is just fine. But... We think a possible cause for it momentarily being off the network was due to... uh... unanticipated physical contact?”

Rolling her eyes in disgust, Vetra’s pointed ears droop and she growls out. “Someone was LITERALLY FUCKING AROUND in the server room, AND left a gods damned MESS!”

Nash smirks towards a frown, lifts an uneasy brow, and attempts to vent off his discomfort with a chuckle. “Well, how much of a mess are we talking about really-”

The graduate assistant interrupts in a plain tone. “We cleaned the ceiling.”

With wide eyes, Nash’s expression blanks and shakes the mental imagery out his head to focus on Vetra. “So, how did you get involved?”

Vetra crosses her arms unamused, furrows her brow, and explains. “I found it strange for a graduate assistant to be asking for a ladder, mop, bucket, scrub brushes, gloves, and the strongest cleaner for biological mishaps to clean up a server room. And, I’m just generally suspicious when any of your graduate students request supplies.”

Nash releases a long sigh while shaking his head, glances over to the graduate student, and mercifully waves them off. “Thank you for handling it. Get out of here while you can. You’ve done plenty. We'll talk later.”

Nodding in agreement the graduate student slinks off, relieved for his freedom from the overwhelming pressure of opposing authorities. Nash gazes to Vetra as he relaxes back in his seat with a long metal squeak. “So, what do you want me to do?”

Vetra taps her sharp, dark nailed fingers on her arm, and narrows her stare at Nash. “Well, find out who did it, of course.”

Rubbing his temples, Nash grimaces in thought and rocks his head side to side as he sorts through the options. “Okay. I think there’s an old camera that watches that particular door to that area. It’s mostly to watch that hallway more than anything, but it gets a decent view of the door.”

He turns to a monitor on his desk, slides his keyboard over, and types out a series of commands. “Well, let’s get the camera system up and check the recording.”

The large monitors overhead on the wall flick over to new screens showing multiple, current camera feeds. Nash retrieves his aetherphone from his pants pocket, sorts through the interface, and scrolls through a list of alerts. He settles upon a familiar series of entries and studies the time stamps. Quickly entering the data into the camera system interface, a large monitor switches to a full screen view of a long hallway leading to an intersection and a single plain door. Vetra pivots in place, lifts her stare up to the screen, and watches expectantly. Nash sorts through the controls on screen and fast forwards to the next nearest motion detection. “Okay, let’s see what this motion trip was for.”

On the big screen, the door opens slowly and a young emin man peeks out into the hallway. He looks both ways, steps out, and motions for someone else to come through the door. Moments later, a young fvalian woman hops out into the hallway, and the two laugh and giggle together. They quickly rush down the long hallway closer to the camera and soon out of view. Vetra slowly turns around with satisfaction to the begrudging groan of Nash. His face securely in his palm, Nash loudly sighs out his sheer frustration and annoyance, and grits his teeth briefly. “Gods fucking dammit... I know exactly who they are. And, I will personally berate them for you, to spare you the trouble.”

Dragging his hand down his face to a grip the chin hairs of his beard, he draws in a long breath and slowly shakes his head. “Well, I apologize for their... sloppy antics. Uh, would assigning them to you for a week or two of work make up for this incident?”

Vetra ponders the offer a moment, nods slowly, and perks her brow. “Yes. But, separately.”

Nash widens his eyes in agreement and grumbles. “Yeah. Just to be on the safe side.”

He snorts and shakes his head in disbelief. “What the fuck? Kids these days. What ever happened to bribing your roommate to find somewhere else to be for an hour?”

Vetra glances over her shoulder to the wall monitor with the camera playback, and focuses her attention upon another mark on the motion detection tracker. “Huh, there’s another ping on the motion detection system just a few minutes later.”

Nash squints his gaze up to the screen, glances over to his monitor, and taps a few keys curiously. “Great fucking gods... I really hope they didn’t go for round two.”

Turning to face the overhead screen fully, Vetra smirks with a roll of her eyes. “I highly doubt THAT. But, it might explain the size of the mess.”

The video playback skips to the marked time code on the bar. The same door gradually opens. A thin man with wispy white hair and a blue scarf wrapped around his face peeks out into the hallway, and carefully scans the vicinity. Vetra’s eyes open wide as her jaw drops open. “Who is that? Wait... He matches the... Good fucking gods. That isn’t-”

Terror floods Nash face. As the man quickly walks down the hallway, Nash pauses the playback, and recognizes the person on screen. “Oh. Shit.”

-72-

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia gather around Aristespha’s aetherphone on the dining room table and listen to the speakerphone. From the other side of the call, Nash sighs in a mix of frustration and fatigue. “So... That’s the summary. Noxian- or Isaac- whoever you want to call him, showed up and took something. I wish I knew more than that, and I really want to know what he took. But, I’ve been dealing with everything else since yesterday.”

Closing her eyes tightly, Aristespha rubs the temples of her head and grits her teeth. “Gods almighty, how are the higher ups dealing with this?”

Nash pushes out a halfhearted laugh through the phone and groans out his annoyance. “Well... Running around with their heads on fire, but with less direction. No one these days really has the temperament and experience to handle something like this. And, for better or worse, all the major players this side of the continent have been informed and brought in.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage leans over and drifts closer to the aetherphone with an inquisitive perk to his brow. “Major players? Who exactly?”

A chair squeaks out from the other side of the call, and Nash grumbles out his apprehension. “Well, the Big Ones. Let’s see... You got the Greater Azure Alliance. Appaland has been called in. Even the Coalition Of Independent Lands to the north, and Perimeter Defense Force to the south. To say the least, it’s gotten... Interesting?”

Cideeda raps her claw tips on the wooden dining room table top, furrows her brow in thought, and directs her curious voice to the aetherphone. “Anything useful turn up on the camera footage from anywhere else in the area?”

Nash hums in thought and sighs apologetically over the speakerphone. “Well, unfortunately, nothing too useful despite what we've tried. We were able to track him from when he arrived on the campus and went he left. The problem is that he walked onto the campus from the surrounding neighborhoods. Hell, he even entered and left from two different points. We’re trying to locate any other cameras from homes and businesses to see if we can figure out where he went, but he picked the perfects spots to appear and disappear.”

A hopeful tinge colors Nash’s voice, and he relays his interest in a piece of information. “But... We did notice him use an aetherphone. I’ve already pestered a few people I know in the network companies, and they’re combing through the data.”

With some disappointment weighing on his tone, he explains the situation further. “Unfortunately... Officially, they can only release basic information at the moment, until they get an official court order or warrant to be able to dig further. Unofficially, they let me know they found two strange outliers mixed in with the usual devices detected. Oddly, the last time those devices checked in they were out west almost to Radotahin.”

Dretphi cocks her head to the side, blinks confused, and ponders out loud. “Do not know what could be in Radotahin. Two devices? An accomplice?”

Sotalia crosses her arms, sneers her upper lip, and grumbles out her growing irritation. “Gods damn it. Not only did he steal something that was important enough to him, he’s ditched the area and has someone working with him?! Fuck! How are we ever going to find him at this point?!”

Nash’s voice rises up from the aetherphone and he explains with a soothing cadence. “Hold up. Those techs warned me that those devices were really suspicious since they’ve shown up in other odd places before based on their network access history. At this point, this is all random bits of the info, and I won’t have anything too concrete until the legal paperwork starts landing on the right desks. It’s going to be crazy for the next week, at least. But, I’ll get you all the information and data I can manage. Just remember, THE hornets nest just got drop kicked into our party. Soon, the GAA, Appaland, COIL, and PDF investigators will be everywhere.”

A sly hint emerges into his tone, and he chuckles hopefully from the other side of the call as his chair back rocks with a slight metal groan. “This could work out for you all pretty soon. I get the feeling any clearance you need to do your work will be easier to get, and you probably will be hearing from a GAA representative in the area.”

Twisting his mouth contemplatively, Bach weighs the pros and cons, and shrugs his shoulders. “I guess that’s one good thing to come out of this. Helps if you have updated paperwork to show people when you want to get into places.”

Aristespha nods slowly as she reopens her eyes with a calming sigh. “Very true. As much clout as the Grand Library has, it would still be beneficial to have something local governments can immediately recognize and respect.”

Cideeda rolls her emerald green eyes with a begrudging nod. Sotalia tosses back her fiery orange, wavy hair over her shoulder, and brushes the stray hairs over her swept back horns with a mumble. “Might be useful... if he hasn’t escaped to the west.”

A long silent pause fills the room as some background chatter leaks from Nash’s side of the call. He returns his attention to the conversation and groans. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. Another horde of officials are making their rounds. I need to lead them around to the scene, and hand them copies of all the evidence. I’ll talk to you all as soon as I can.”

Aristespha manages an appreciative smile and directs a gracious voice to her phone. “Thank you, Nash. Keep us informed.”

She taps the end call button on the aetherphone screen, sinks back into her dining table chair, and tilts her head of long, silvery blue hair over the back. After a few tense moments, Sotalia’s ire peaks and she firmly grabs her hips while gritting her teeth. “GODS DAMN IT! While we were digging through the places Noxian must have dismissed as useless, he went and got something that was of some real importance AND LEFT WITH IT!”

Her body language tenses as she spins away from the table, and walks irritably away tightly grasping her horns. “FUCK! GODS FUCKING DAMN IT!”

As signs of dismay and discomfort form in the team, Sebastian straightens his posture, narrows his gaze in thought, and projects a resolute declaration. “He has NOT gone far. And, I DON’T think he’s done with this area yet.”

Sotalia pauses a moment, and glances over her shoulder back towards the table with a trace of hope in her voice. “Why do you think that?”

Crossing his arms, Sebastian searches his thoughts and twists his mouth while he forms his theory. “I don’t see why Noxian would head off to Radotahin so suddenly. Can’t dismiss the possibility, but that doesn’t fit what he’s been doing. And, it doesn’t feel like those devices are exactly trustworthy.”

Cideeda’s furry ears perk up, and she tilts her head to side with a thoughtful, sly smirk. “Yeah. Nash said those techs have seen those devices pop up before. They could be second hand, or bought from the... Usual Places.”

Nodding in agreement, Dretphi searches her thoughts, and idly grips the back of the chair she stands behind. “Noxian has not worked with others before. Do not think he would leave with someone else now.”

Bach grimaces, darts his blue eyes around his mind, and slowly shakes his head. “We did find at least two places he might be interested in. I don’t think he’d just completely abandon those easy pickings... yet. Even if he did wander off, I still think might visit those spots.”

He glances over to Aristespha quizzically. “Are any of the locations on that list out west?”

Aristespha ponders a moment, and shakes her head. “No. The research station seemed to have had a limited detection range from what I’ve determined, and it didn’t go that far.”

A proud grin appears on Sebastian’s ghostly visage, and he nods happily to the team. “Exactly. As careful as he was for the most part, I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled a trick or two to mislead and cover up things.”

Exhaling out her fading frustration, Sotalia steps back up to the table, and tugs at the corner of her mouth. “Gods, I hope that’s the case. Because I don’t know what to do otherwise. Still... Now, I’m wondering who he was talking to? Someone one the inside? I wonder if they can figure who and where the other caller was during the heist?”

Resting her head upon her folded ivory hands, Aristespha narrows her stare internally and thinks out loud. “The Grand Library is his old home. I would not be surprised if there was someone helping him out with a place to stay for the time being. Possibly trying old contacts for information? Calling up old friends? I don’t know. I hope it would not be someone directly helping him do this.”

Sotalia musters a hopeful smirk, rests a hand on her hip, and taps her long, black nails on a chair back she stands behind. “Well, I DO hope he does stop for a visit. Hate for our efforts to go to waste.”

Bach shrugs his shoulders and stretches out his back. “I don’t think it was a waste regardless. We still got some useful data for that list in what those other numbers meant.”

Aristespha smiles and nods in agreement. “Yes. Seeing what was to be found and correlating those sites on the list has helped decipher some of the significance.”

Cideeda’s tail wags and she grins toothily to the team. “Well, I hope something trips one of the traps. Otherwise, we’ll need to sneak and break in again to get everything back before someone else discovers all of it.”

Sebastian blinks at the realization, and grimaces with a twist of his mouth. “Yeah... Then, we’d have to explain TWO incidents worth of breaking a few laws.”

Aristespha grits her teeth briefly, and bites her lower lip uneasily. “Let’s hope we do get some broader investigative authorizations from the GAA, Sebastian.”

----

A dim red glow illuminates the horizon against the encroaching night sky, and a few sparse clouds barely drift along overhead. Isaac stands and wanders off in thought as the gentle breeze sways wisps of his white hair. With a relaxed sigh, he narrows his gray eyed gaze out to the fading light and stretches out his thin, wiry frame. A house door leading into the garage opens, and Dr. Dawkins walks out with a thoughtful smirk towards Isaac. “One of the reasons I’ve kept this house. Too good of view.”

Isaac glances over his shoulder with a smile and nods as he resumes his stare out into the distance. “I can’t argue with that sentiment. I’ve had a wonderful time here.”

Dr. Dawkins steps next to Isaac, lifts his green eyes up to the scenic night sky and chuckles to himself. “I really do wish the context surrounding your stay was different. Just know, you are more than welcome to stay as long as you like. But, I do understand the hunt and that itching desire to venture toward the next step of your quest.”

He hands over a thick portfolio binder brimming with papers and other documents into Isaac’s hands, and presents a bold grin. “I made sure to make copies of all my old notes and maps relating to getting to, from, and around Perimeter and the Weird Zone. I’m certain you’ll find something useful in there.”

Isaac shifts his focus to the collection of documents in his hands, opens up the leather folder, and briefly studies the contents. He swells with appreciation and bows slightly to honor Dr. Dawkins. “Thank you... So much. I’ll definitely take time when I stop to go over them.”

Dr. Dawkins nods with a smile and examines Isaac’s sedan with a scrutinizing stare. “There’s a list of my previous contacts in the area for whatever tasks you might need help with. But, before you go too far, I’d recommend looking over the off-the-record routes for getting to Perimeter. With good weather, you should be able to travel most of them. But... You might want to... Change out vehicles once you get to Perimeter.”

Meeting Dr. Dawkins’s subtly insisting glance, Isaac nods understandingly as he relays similar sentiments. “Yes. I figured it might be time, since I’ll be going to less accessible places.”

With a humored smirk, he perks an inquisitive brow at Dr. Dawkins. “Am I correct to assume there’s a recommended contact for such a transaction?”

Chuckling with a slight grin, Dr. Dawkins narrows his green eyed gaze, and nods slowly. “Of course. A few actually. It always threw off artifact thieves when you left in different vehicles than what you arrived in. They eventually figured out it, but it always bought us a day or two down the road before we had to worry about them.”

Isaac laughs and shakes his head in brief disbelief as he gazes at Dr. Dawkins. “I feel I have only gotten to experience the smallest sampling of what you are capable of, Dr. Dawkins.”

Straightening his posture with a proud smile, Dr. Dawkins holds his hands behind his back and shrugs his shoulders innocently. “Maybe so. By the way, call me Emanuel. You WERE my student and employee. My friends... Call me Emanuel.”

A bit of surprise swells in Isaac as he gazes at Emanuel, and smiles happily. “I will... Emanuel. Gods, that’s going to take some getting used to it.”

Laughing heartily, Emanuel rests his hand on Isaac’s shoulder and shakes his head with a grin. “You’ll have plenty of time to get used to it when you call and message me. Remember to use the new aetherphones. And, send anything... Interesting... that you are willing to part with back through one of the preferred package services on my list. Most of them like money more than they like asking pesky questions.”

Lifting an inquiring brow at Emanuel, Isaac scratches the gray scruff on his chin thoughtfully and hums in thought. “I will do so. It might be some time before I find anything worth the trouble. First, I need to finish checking a few sites in Amaranth Valley before I head down to Perimeter.”

Emanuel narrows a cautious gaze upon Isaac, and twists his mouth uneasily. “I would exercise caution there. You would not want to put yourself at risk, when a greater prize is possible elsewhere.”

Nodding understandingly, Isaac mentally weighs the options while staring at the supplies filling the backseats of his sedan. “Very true. But, I don’t believe I’ll run into too much trouble. The locations haven’t garnered much attention lately, so I doubt anyone is putting forth any resources to guard them.”

Crossing his arms contemplatively as the summer wind breezes by, Emanuel shrugs his shoulders with an examining gaze at Isaac. “Just exercise caution, regardless. Some of the worst surprises I’ve ever experienced spawned from the most mundane situations.”

Isaac steps forward, turns around, and extends a hand to Emanuel with an appreciative smile. “I will. As much as I enjoy your company and generosity, I should be off now. Need to take advantage of night to travel.”

Emanuel firmly shakes Isaac’s hand, nods thoughtfully, and sighs. “Indeed. I’ll try my damnedest to keep you updated on things here. I pray it remains quiet enough. Good luck, Isaac. And whatever happens, my door is always open to you so long as I’ve got one to open. Always appreciate someone to share a drink with.”

Isaac bows with a grateful smile to Emanuel. “Thank you Dr.-... Emanuel. Gods damn it. I’m going to have to practice.”

Emanuel laughs loudly, shakes his head, and waves to the departing Isaac. He returns to the door in the garage to the rest of the house and watches as Isaac enters his sedan. After starting the vehicle, turning on the lights, and granting a final farewell, Isaac rolls down the long driveway to the access road. As he disappears out of sight down the sparsely lit roadway, Emanuel presses a button on a panel next to the doorway, and the garage door slowly closes.

----

A warm summer breeze blows through the open garage door of the ranch style house, and circulates the air inside. Cideeda stands in a rigid posture wearing her new bodysuit, and waits for Dretphi to finish up the latest adjustments to the slip on armor plating. Dretphi stands up fully and admires her handiwork. “Move around.”

Cideeda steps forward carefully and purposefully, sensing every bit of her motion. As she gets in the middle of the garage, she flexes her arms out to their extremes. Twisting her flexible torso around with the rest of her body, she gracefully morphs between a series of contortionist maneuvers. Slowly widening her stance, she eases down into full side split with ease, twists her upper body around along with her arms, and arches herself backwards. Pulling her legs together in front of her and pointing her clawed toes, she folds herself forward and rests her head upon her shins with her furry ears flicking at her ankles.

Sitting back up with a long draw of breath, Cideeda smirks proudly as she brings her legs close and feet underneath herself. She tucks into a forward roll, and springs herself up to stick the landing on her feet with her arms out to balance. Pivoting around from the mouth of the garage, she prances elegantly in exaggerated motions and flexibility showcasing poses with a prideful grin as she stretches out. “Barely held me back. Had to push against a little resistance. But... I’ll manage.”

Bach blinks out of his staring stupor, and returns to his focus to the unfinished armor plate on his lap. He shuffles his seat on the floor, picks up the thin metal piece, and taps it on the ground. “All that might be easier after this latest incarnation of your armor enchantment.”

He pushes forth the plating along the ground and it slides with gentle glide across the floor to Cideeda’s eager clawed fingers. “Think I got it just right for what you need. Thinner and sleeker protective layers, with a very low friction coating.”

With a firm grip, Cideeda picks up the armor piece, studies it carefully, and drags her claws hard across the surface. Her fingers easily slip along the plating, and a faint golden glow fades from the path her finger tips pressed. A toothy grin appears on her face, and accomplished glint sparkles in her emerald green eyes. “Oh, I LOVE it when my designs become reality.”

She smiles towards Bach with an intrigued lift of her brow. “So, when can you update the new plating with the latest version?”

Bach shrugs his shoulders with a nonchalant smirk and easy going attitude. “Not long. Just a few tweaks that’ll take a few minutes per plate.”

Dretphi steps up behind Cideeda and presents a sleek, plated head guard to her. “Try it on. I believe the measurements are right.”

Cideeda examines the piece of head gear apprehensively initially. After studying the construction and design, she swiftly dons the protection and cinches it into place. Her furry ears perk freely through the crafted clearances on the sides and she taps her claws the plating on the forehead cover to faint traces of a magical barrier. A satisfied, toothy grin appears, and she rest her gloved hands on her sides in a confident pose. “Pretty close. Nothing little wearing in won’t fix.”

Cideeda’s confidence shifts to casual unease as she watches Dretphi train her steely gray gaze upon her in a mix of awe and joy. Dretphi clasps her hands together with slight bite of her lower lip in an overwhelming appreciation of her creation. “This is... Cute! May I take a picture? My mother will want to see this.”

With a slight chuckle, Cideeda presents a smile with a pose, and nods calmly. “Oh, sure. Go right ahead. I mean you did make a lot of it.”

While Dretphi searches for her phone nearby, Cideeda glances over to Bach with an uncertain expression. Bach darts his eyes to either side, shrugs with his hands out to the side, and smirks in return. As Dretphi takes pictures of Cideeda from different angles, Bach flexes his hands in a break from his enchantment work, and scans his gaze around the garage. He notices the minigun from the large security droid on a workbench, and points over to the weaponry. “Any progress on getting that working?”

Cideeda shifts her attention to the device, crosses her arms, and sighs. “Unfortunately, not much. I just really need to sit down for a day and just tear into it. But, we’ve been running around so much, that I just haven't been able to set aside time just to do that...”

A guilty smirk graces her lips, and she rolls her eyes with a shrug. “And... I’ve been a bit distracted with trying to figure out what I’m going to exactly do with all the golem parts.”

Gripping her hips, she drums her fingers in sync with her thoughts as she ponders. “As much as I am learning about magic, those things are a bit... Large? And well... unwieldy for me right now? I don’t know how to say it correctly. Maybe if they were smaller and simpler, I’d make some headway.”

Bach narrows his gaze and nods understandingly. “I think I get the idea. There might be something we can do. I’ll have to check with Aristespha and Sotalia, and see what we could come up with.”

As Cideeda steps away towards the distraction of a nearby box of golem components, Dretphi glances over to Bach and quietly agrees with him. Bach and Dretphi watch Cideeda dig through the box with a happy smile.

----

Stepping through the sliding glass back door of the two story house, Trakenthin slowly moves through the opening while staring at his aetherphone. Furrowing his brow, he struggles with the bewilderment plain on his face, and cocks his head as he blinks at the ended call statistics screen. As the prompt disappears and reveals the home screen on the device, he pulls the sliding door behind him to a close, and steps past the table of the dining area, sorting through his confusion. His attention diverts away from his phone and he glances over to Tassilda and Deedri sorting through reagents and recipes.

Deedri carefully measures out exacting amounts of powdered compounds into a series of small flasks, and gently swirls the granulated mixture along the glass bottoms. Tassilda narrows her light blue on black eyes at the process, and cocks her head of raven hair to the side curiously. “Any particular reason, you don’t use one large flask and divide out the potion later?”

Flicking her furry ear back from listening to Tassilda’s question, Deedri focuses her auburn gaze upon the task, and explains with a smirk. “Limiting liability. There’s a few steps in processing these reagents that can spoil the potion. Each is tricky by itself, and together it makes it quite difficult. So, I like to do a series of small batches.”

Settling the last small flask on the counter, she glances over to a pot of iridescent fluid faintly steaming in a large pot on the stove, and twists her mouth in anticipating frustration. “Occasionally, despite my best efforts, there’s some variance in the mix or impurity that throws the calculations off. When that happens, it can cause byproducts that can ruin the batch, and are almost not worth the effort to filter out.”

She crosses her arms, turns around to face Tassilda, and leans against the edge of the counter with a sigh. “I consider the first flask my litmus test, and adjust from there. Thankfully, I rarely have any problems after the first flask anymore.”

Tassilda brushes her hair over her swirling horns, rests her hands on her hips, and smiles with a chuckle. “Do I sense some previous scarring from past failures?”

Deedri grumbles with a playful roll of her eyes, and slowly shakes her head. “Oh gods... So many hours wasted on salvaging potions with reagents I had to pay too much for.”

A sympathetic groan leaves Tassilda, and she nods understandingly with a faint sneer of her upper lip. “Don’t I know it. What’s worse is when you have to make do with the ones you know aren’t quite right.”

Exhaling out flits of bad memories, Deedri grimaces and briefly grits her teeth. “Introductory Alchemy was a rough semester on my digestive track.”

Leaning to the side, Deedri glances around Tassilda, and waves over to Trakenthin. “Hey, Trakenthin.”

She narrows her curious gaze at Trakenthin, and cocks her head to the side. “Are you okay?”

Trakenthin blinks back to awareness, notices Deedri and Tassilda, and puzzles on an appropriate response. “I am okay. Do not know if my father is.”

Tassilda turns around to observe Trakenthin, and focuses her concern on him. “What ever has happened?”

Putting away his aetherphone, Trakenthin steps closer to the counter opposite of Tassilda, rests his hand on the counter top, and twists his mouth in contemplation. “Nothing is wrong. I do not believe anything bad has happened. My father called me.”

Narrowing his stare internally to his own mind, he grimaces a few times searching for the appropriate pieces for his explanation. “He requested my assistance... for a task he did not disclose. Described it in vague terms. Assisting honor?”

Quirking her brow, Tassilda shifts her weight as intrigue influences her pose. “I always heard being vague was difficult in the grath language? Since, well, it has exact words for every different degree something can be?”

Trakenthin shrugs his shoulders with a roll of his hazel eyes, and sighs. “It is not hard. Gaps between the definitions provide ambiguity. Tone context can obscure further. Contradictions worsen it.”

Deedri ponders a moment, and gradually rocks her head side to side as her understanding develops. “I think it’s similar to word order when framing in fvalian. Sometimes there’s a subtle difference between a big red ball and a red big ball.”

Tassilda blinks as she processes the concept, and furrows her brow. “All this makes most Emin dialects sound very straight forward in comparison.”

Thinking a moment, Trakenthin grants an agreeable nod, and contorts his face at the previous subject. “I am surprised my father is here still. I assumed he would have left for... usual reasons?”

Crossing her arms, Tassilda sways her stance and studies Trakenthin’s expression with a slight frown. “Not that I believe it’s the best for your sake, but you don’t believe he just wants to spend more time with you?”

Humming in thought, Trakenthin weighs the possibility and remains unconvinced overall. “Not strictly. An ulterior motive exists. Can not determine that right now.”

Lowering his eyelids and exhaling a long groan, Trakenthin twists his mouth into an unamused smirk, and slumps his shoulders slightly. “Will probably ask me for money. Not the first time. Will not be the last.”

Narrowing her concerned gaze at Trakenthin, Tassilda pries with a slight grumble to her supportive tone. “You seem to have a very... trying relationship with your father. Despite your best, noble efforts.”

Drawing in a long breath, Trakenthin releases out stale frustrations, and nods slowly in begrudging acceptance. “Yes. Long story. Rhymes often.”

An appreciative smile appears on his face, and he shrugs his shoulders. “If he only asks for money, I will consider it a good day.”

Deedri briefly checks the concoction in the pot on the stove, and glances over to Trakenthin with an inquisitive perk of her furry ears. “When did he say he wanted this favor from you?”

Trakenthin pauses for a moment, checks his recent memory, and ponders. “Soon? No exact date. Under a week? He had chores to handle first. Do not know what chores he would have here? It is perplexing.”

Tassilda smiles to Trakenthin and sighs with a supportive voice. “Well, if you need my assistance, don’t be afraid to ask.”

Deedri nods with a happy tone towards Trakenthin. “No matter how it goes, we have your back.”

Subduing a bit of embarrassment, Trakenthin grants a very appreciative smirk and bows slightly towards Deedri and Tassilda. “Thank you. I will leave you to your tasks. Off to read a book.”

As Trakenthin turns and walks away, a sly grin graces Tassilda, and she playfully inquires. “Oh, is that the new one the girl from that review aethersite suggested? You seem to LIKE a lot of HER recommended books.”

Trakenthin’s dark bronze skin flushes with hints of red around the cheeks, and he stumbles upon his vocabulary to a response. “Uh... Yes. She has... Excellent recommendations... that align... with my... preferences...”

With an air of satisfaction, Tassilda pivots around to face Deedri, and directs her voice back. “Okay, just curious. Let me know how it is after you read it.”

Trakenthin disappears through the archway into the living room, and quickly up the stairs. Deedri narrows an accusatory stare upon Tassilda, and mildly chides her. “Tassilda. What did you do that for?”

Tassilda shrugs her shoulders with a guilty smirk, and bites her lower lip. “I HAD to confirm my suspicions. I just keep seeing him browsing that same aethernet site.”

Returning a scrutinizing gaze back at Deedri, she smiles with a giggle. “Don’t tell me you weren’t curious.”

Averting her eyes away, Deedri shifts her focus to her task and eventually grants an admission. “Well, yes...”

She sighs and motions the content Tassilda over. “Now help me with this pot.”

----

Aristespha and Bach sit cross legged upon pillows on the floor of the garage. Sotalia rests her hands upon complicated magical markings encircling Aristespha and Bach. Focusing her attention upon the protective circle, she releases flows of magical energy down her arms and hands, and guides them to sink into the carefully drawn shapes upon the concrete floor. After a few moments, she gazes between Aristespha and Bach, and smirks eagerly as a glow rises out of the circular barrier. “The circle of protection is charged.”

Cideeda finishes a few final adjustments on the aim of the camera and presses the record button on the device. Giving a thumbs up, she nods towards the team. “We should be recording.”

Dretphi kneels down nearby the circle opposite of Sotalia and keeps the sheathed Sword of the Spirit Realm in her hands, at the ready. “Sword is prepared.”

Sebastian hovers nearby, grins proudly to Bach, and nods to him. “When you are ready, bro. Kind of getting the hang of figuring out this elder energy sensing part of the sword. Might have to try detection at a distance.”

Finishing a final sequences of incantations with gestures, Aristespha smirks approvingly with a sigh, and aims her violet illuminated gaze upon Bach. “That would be nice, Sebastian. Maybe we could recover some of that functionality the sword lost.”

Bach rolls his shoulders in a stretch, positions his hands close together in front of him, and nods with a snort. “Yeah, that’d be nice. Have the damned thing help us out again rather than stating the fucking obvious.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage rolls his eyes, and he groans commiserating. “Gods, tell me about it, bro. If the creator of this thing wasn’t very likely already dead for a few hundred years, we’d forcing him to write an instruction manual at gunpoint.”

Shaking his head briefly, Bach grits his teeth, exhales a long breath, and settles his full attention upon the task. “Yeah... Well, I’ll get started then... Here we go...”

Aristespha directs her voice to Bach, and calmly instructs him. “Focus on maintaining control and fine flows. Keep from pushing yourself too hard.”

Bach closes his eyes with a nod, and reopens them to a brilliant blue glow. Narrowing his stare at the space between his hands, he concentrates fully within. Magical miasma rises from his arms and upper body, and condenses into elaborate magical structures that hover in anticipation. When the last bit of the energy mist collects upon the layers of prismatic machinery, Bach draws a long, careful breath, and tenses his body. Fighting against a pained wince, he presents a cool, collected attitude, and concentrates on calming minor tremors and spasms in his body. Small pinpoints of white appear in the centers of glowing blue in his eyes. The sword vibrates in Dretphi’s expectant hands, and Sebastian observes his wavering and flicker form.

“NEW FLOW DETECTED. FROM FAMILIAR SOURCE.”

Focusing upon controlling his self, Bach slowly breathes at a consistent rate, and stabilizes the sporadic twitches and shudders in his arms and hands. Seconds of straining concentration later, thin threads of pure white drift out of Bach, and weave between the encapsulating confines of the magical constructs around his arms and upper body. The strands of magical energy flow steadily, and diffuse into the vaporous cloud between Bach’s hands. The miasma condenses gradually into a denser form, and draws the constant thread flows towards the center of the tiny, glowing orb. Slight tremors and shudders move Bach’s body, but he remains cool and collected against the building stresses. As the minutes pass, Sotalia gawks in wonder at the small sphere of white brilliance. Cideeda peer over Dretphi, as the two observe in astonishment at the scene. Sebastian’s form warps and wavers with the flows of energy, and he occasionally stabilizes for brief periods before his visage distorts again. He twists his month in frustration, and grumbles out his annoyance at the constant inconvenience to his studies.

Aristespha observes the energy flows, and carefully leans closer to examine the magical processes. A few minutes later, the thin flowing threads of white energy fade out, and Bach secures the glowing ball of energy in his hands. Faint trembles rattle his composure, but he remains fully focused upon the stable orb hovering above his palms. The rest of the team observes the magical phenomena, as they contend with curiosity and awe individually. Blinking his brightly blue illuminated eyes, Bach fights against a wince and sighs out a mix of stress and looming exhaustion. “I’m starting to feel it...”

Noticing familiar signs of fatigue, Aristespha signals Dretphi with hand motion and nod. Dretphi partially slides the sword out of its scabbard, and guides it close to the floating white orb above Bach’s hands. As layers of elder mist vent off the ball, Sebastian’s visage flickers and distorts. He furrows his brow thoughtfully, and searches within to judge his feeling. Seconds later, the sword vacuums the last of the quickly disappearing energy sphere into itself. Sebastian's ethereal form stabilizes, and he gives a thumbs up. “All clear!”

Aristespha grabs hold of Bach’s arms, while Dretphi and Sotalia stabilize Bach by a shoulder each. Bach tilts backwards as his eyelids try to close hard, and consciousness struggles to maintain hold of his mind. Closing his glowing eyes, and Bach rocks back against the support of Sotalia and Dretphi. Immediately, Bach’s eyes spring open, and he startles back to full consciousness, shuddering his head. “Gods almighty, that’s still a hell of a hit afterwards, even taking it slow. But... I don’t think I went out completely this time.”

Dretphi shakes her head with a comforting smile to Bach. “No. You woke when you put weight back.”

Gently patting his shoulder, Sotalia grins to Bach, and quirks an intrigued brow. “I think you might be getting better at this. You’ll be quite the challenge soon enough.”

Bach smiles awkwardly, and shrugs his shoulder. “Well, I don’t know about that. The kick back wasn’t as bad as the times before. So, that’s progress, I guess?”

He glances over to Sebastian, and smirks amused. “So, brother... What was the score on that bundle of energy?”

Sebastian searches the top of his head, dramatically contemplates with a hum, and slightly shrugs his shoulders. “Well... Maybe a little more this time? It’s been pretty consistent. Which is fine by me, since the whole coming down from all that seems really rough on you, bro.”

Leaning forward to prop himself up by his arms, Bach sighs with hints of frustration venting out. “Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on there. Gods dammit, I really wish it wasn’t the case. Then, I could spend my spare time dumping elder energy into that fucking sword, and maybe get enough to satisfy it.”

Aristespha releases Bach’s arms, sits up straight, and grumbles to herself in agreement. “That would be absolutely lovely, but I agree that would be too much of a risk to you at this point, Bach.”

Sotalia frowns slightly, and rolls her eyes with a sneer of her upper lip. “And well... gods damned Noxian doesn’t seem to want to retire and stop being a fucking problem. So, can’t just sit around and wait.”

Cideeda walks over to the camera setup, hits the stop button, and properly turns off the equipment, nodding at the sentiment. Sebastian shrugs his shoulders, holds his hands out to his sides, and grins boldly. “Well, we can’t very well be called adventurers, and leave a threat like him wandering about anyway. We’ll figure all this out one way or another. He and everything else hasn’t stopped us yet, and I don’t see a reason to stop ourselves.”

The team appreciates the moment of emotional uplift. Stepping across the garage with a spring in her step, Cideeda wags her long tail, climbs up the steps towards the kitchen door, and glances back. “Anyone else hungry?”

Aristespha, Bach, Dretphi, and Sotalia exchange glances, and arrive to similar conclusion. Cideeda grins toothily and opens the door. “Well, I want more Fval Spice and... we haven’t had a chance to hit the game shop lately...”

Dretphi and Sotalia perk up, and excitement swells in Dretphi. “All the new issues should be available...”

With a sly smirk, Cideeda glances down at the dust and dirt on her shirt and shorts, and slips through the doorway with a final declaration. “Sounds good to me. I’m changing to some cleaner clothes, first.”

Sebastian drifts close to the door, and watches into the house as Cideeda turns down the archway into the main hallway. He flies over to the rest of the team, and whispers quietly. “So... Cideeda’s birthday is coming up soon... Anyone got any ideas? She’s a tough one to shop for.”

Sotalia sighs in defeat and shakes her head of fiery, wavy orange hair. “Gods, I don’t know. Been trying to think of something.”

Dretphi hums in thought, and shrugs her shoulders. “Gift cards are bland.”

Aristespha contorts her face, and grumbles. “No ideas from me.”

Bach glances between everyone, narrows his eyes in thought, and cocks his head to the side. After searching his mind for a few moments, his confidence builds, and he grins proudly. “I got one.”

Attention shifts towards Bach, and Aristespha, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia wait expectantly. Bach nods with a sly smile, and gazes to the members present. “I got an idea, and it should incorporate a number of things she’s interested in, but I’m going to need to help from all you to make it happen.”

As the group shifts into a quick meeting of the mind, Sebastian keeps watch through the doorway.

----

Very dim moon light leaks through the partially closed window blinds. The faint rays creep across a desk covered with contingents of plastic military figurines and squads model vehicles in various states of painting. Scatterings of midnight light barely illuminate a freshly configured body suit upon a chair and a neatly laid out set of slip on armor plating upon the floor. Cideeda’s tail hangs out to the side the bed from under the sheets, and she softly slumbers. Her furry ears flicks reflexively, and her tail retracts back under the covers, as she gradually stirs. Unconsciously flexing her clawed fingers into tighter grip on her sheets, she mumbles out a few slurred phrases of fvalian, snorts dismissively, and rolls up another layer of her bed covers around her.

Settling her head of short multi-colored hair back on her pillow, she eases back to a quiet, peaceful rest. Minutes of idle, soothing domestic background noise fill the air. The air conditioning unit on the wall softly spins up a faintly droning fan, and provides another layer of background noise. The gentle breeze circulates the air in the peaceful bedroom, and softly blows the fluffy hair in Cideeda’s ears and the tufted tip of her tail peeking out from underneath sheets on the other side of the bed.

A sharp, jarring alarm rings out, and reflects off the walls in the room. Crashing out from her unconscious state, Cideeda grits her teeth reflexively, and tosses in bed with a jumble of fvalian swears leaving her. As the sharp, harsh din of the alert noise persists, Cideeda groggily opens her emerald green eyes, and stares half-awake in the direction of the sound. With her ears pulled back, she drags her annoyed self across the bed to the night stand, and fumbles her clawed fingers for her aetherphone. Finding the device, she quickly snatches it off the night stand, and studies the device with growing confusion as her consciousness restarts. Tapping in a security code, she turns off the jarring alarm to her immediate relief and relaxes her tensed body.

Searching through the application menus as the screen brightly lights up her squinting eyes, she locates a prompt and presses the on screen display. A connection progress bar appears on the device, and a video feed appears. As the imagery streams, Cideeda’s face contorts with an uneasy, developing familiarity of the layout and contents of the room shown. Her eyes lock onto to humanoid movement, and she immediately summons her full focus upon events transpiring on the screen. She cocks her head to the side and puzzles briefly, before the scene brightens from a new light source. As the video adjusts and refocuses, Cideeda’s eyes spring wide open in absolute shock. The immediate, unquestionable recognition stuns her dumbfounded for moments.

Snapping back to awareness, she scrambles upon the bed, sticks her finger and toe claws into the surface, and launches herself off towards her bedroom door. Landing smoothly as her loose nightshirt catches air and her tail trails behind her, she flings the door wide open, draws in a large breath, and screams out into the hall. “WAKE UP! NOXIAN IS AT ONE OF THE SITES!”

-73-

A dim street lamp in front of a tall, simple metal mesh fence flickers momentarily before settling to a steady glow. A mechanical roar in the distance grows louder with each passing moment, and bright beams of a light illuminate the surrounding trees bordering the road at the top of a hill. The humvee crests over, and speeds down the roadway to a hard, controlled stop into the gravel parking lot near the fence gate. All the doors swing open as Cideeda, Sotalia, Aristespha, Bach, and Dretphi pour out, and rush towards the entry point in the chain link barrier. Cideeda scouts the immediate vicinity and glances towards the rest the team. “I don’t see another car around here? Anyone spot anything?!”

Sebastian’s visage materializes a few meters above the group, and he surveys the area. After a few moments, he shakes his head with an unsatisfied grumble. “Nothing from up here. And he’s here, right now?”

Sotalia eagerly nods towards Sebastian as she hands Cideeda’s aetherphone back into her awaiting claws. “Oh, yes. He is. Seems to be taking his time here, in comparison to that other place. We got the drop on him this time...”

Dretphi squints her eyes, underneath her full face visor helmet, towards a number of distant spots in view and slowly shakes her head. “Must have parked a distance away. No recent tracks. No disturbances indicate a vehicle hidden nearby.”

Sebastian floats down in front of the gate in the perimeter fence, glances towards the old architecture in area, and calls back to the team. “Okay everyone! Equipment and magic checks!”

Aristespha recites through a methodical check list of the equipment on her, inspects her pack of medical supplies, and secures the sword at her side. Sotalia tightens her belt of pouches around her waist, brushes out her cloak, and readies into a casting stance. In near synchronization, both Aristespha and Sotalia cast similar protective spells and layers of magical armor settle into transparency upon their bodies. Electronic whines ring out from Bach and Cideeda. Bach’s plasma pistol charges up and flows of prismatic energy sink into the device. In a well rehearsed routine, the weapon transforms to a magically upgraded form, and modifications of stabilized energy materialize. Cideeda holds both her laser pistols in hand, and watches the status lights flip to ready as the highest pitch whine tickles her sensitive furry ears. Dretphi cocks her sub machine gun, inspects the suppressor on the end, and checks the magnetically secured large machete and powerful rifle on her back. With a determined, toothy grin, Cideeda examines her shotgun, throws it over her shoulder. Sebastian smiles with pride, focuses upon the path ahead, and eyes the rolling track gate in the chain link fence with suspicion. “This has got to have an alarm.”

Cideeda narrows her investigative stare upon the frame of the gateway, steps up close, and carefully inspects the system with her eyes and ears. “Oh, yes. I remember when we were here, there was a few simple sensors to detect if outer entry points were breached and a standard alarm system. But...”

She approaches one side of the fence door, and focuses her emerald green eyes upon a barely hidden mechanism near the top on the other side of the chain link fencing. “I don’t think they have any area motion detectors, at least outside.”

With a sly smile to Sotalia, Cideeda points up, and motions over and down. “So, as long as we don’t disturb the fence, nothing will trip out here.”

Sotalia chuckles to herself, stretches her arms out, and begins to gesture out a spell. “That makes sense. Noxian looked pretty calm on your phone, so he probably flew over this this.”

Cideeda’s furry ear flicks back from the building down the dirt path, past the gate, and nods in agreement. “And no alarms. So, probably nothing difficult left for me to rig to get us in.”

Sotalia finishes the few incantations for the spell, and hovers up from the ground. She glances between Bach and Dretphi, and holds her arms open. “Who’s first over?”

Bach nods towards Dretphi, and slowly breathes out as he concentrates his flows of magical energy. “You go, Dretphi.”

A bit of confidence colors Bach’s grin, he prepares himself as energy drifts around his legs. “I can get over this myself.”

Aristespha finishes casting a similar spell, and offers Cideeda her hands. Pairing off, Aristespha hoists Cideeda up and over the fence, and Sotalia wraps her arms around Dretphi and ferries her above. After the two pairs land safely on the other side, Bach couches down, summons up the energy flows, and springs up into the air. Clearing the height of the chain link barrier, he maintains his concentration, and glides slowly down to decent landing next to the team. Sebastian phases through the fence with a brief shudder, and smiles proudly to his brother. “Nicely done, bro. A little combo work there or something?”

Bach shrugs his shoulders with a nonchalant grin, and walks with the rest of the group down the path towards the old structure. “Something like that. Mostly putting all my half-assed skills together.”

Sebastian coasts in the air next to his brother and smirks mischievously. “Ah, so you can make a complete ass of yourself.”

Rolling his eyes, Bach shakes his head and moves into formation, while Sebastian scouts ahead.

----

Aged hallway lamps above flicker near an open hydraulic sliding door. The reflection of the lighting above glints in the growing pool of dark fluid oozing out from the near-invisible seams beneath a door panel. The liquid seeps out, and coats the floor a few meters down from the force breached doors. Interior room lighting casts out between the tilted door panels, and an outline of someone briefly crosses the illumination. Slowly stepping through the large room of tables and displays, Noxian’s wiry frame wanders between the aisles, and studies the assortment of artifacts and objects. Occasionally pausing, he picks up items, examines them closely, and returns them after the brief interest fades. He narrows his gray eyes, surveys the area, and gradually settles his curious stare towards the far back wall of the room. Twisting his mouth under his blue scarf, he lifts an intrigued brow, calmly navigates the rows of displays and tables, and catches sight of a circular stone platform. His eyes widen with recognition as he moves closer, focusing his attention upon the elaborate carvings on the dais.

A relieved grin draws under his blue scarf covered face, and he releases a long sigh while relaxing his shoulders. Stretching out his arms and hands, he rocks his neck side to side, and grimaces with the audible crack. He briefly grunts, massages the back of his neck, and rolls his eyes at himself. “Gods... Need to get that checked out... Ow...”

Shaking off the stale aches, he readies himself in front of the stone circle on the floor, and holds his hands over the device. Breathing out, he closes his eyes, and concentrates his full attention inwards. After a few moments, wisps of white energy swirl out from the engraved dais, and twist towards Noxian. Swirling around his body in an upward draft, the energy sinks into his form, while the currents of air lightly toss stray white hairs on his head. Just as Noxian settles into the routine, the flows of elder energy wane and gradually thin to fine threads. Seconds later, the last bit of magic settles into Noxian’s body, and nothing more rises from the stone platform. Blinking out of his trance in confusion, he lowers his gaze downwards, cocks his head to the side, and stares incredulously at the stone platform. Lowering his arms slowly, he scrutinizes the magically empty object, and frustration leaks out into his body language. Narrowing his glare upon the stone platform, he throw his hands out to side, sneers his upper lip mildly irritated, and groans out his disappointment. “Really? That’s it?”

Crossing his arms with a huff, he halfheartedly kicks the large disc on the floor, and slowly shakes his head unsatisfied. “Gods damned research station... badly calibrated... piece of shit...”

After staring at the magic disappointment, he sighs out a begrudging acceptance, and slumps his shoulders with a dramatic eye roll. Sebastian’s amused voice confidently resonates in front of Noxian. “Aw, you weren’t expecting that, were you? Among other things...”

Noxian’s body stiffens immediately, and he eases his stare towards the ghostly visage of Sebastian, while he rigidly straightens his posture. Gritting his teeth under his scarf, Noxian gradually turns his head around, and glances back behind him towards the exit. In one corner of the room, he spots the red armored, large form of Dretphi, and the sub machine gun barrel precisely aimed at his center mass. Instinctively, Noxian snaps his attention towards the opposing corner at that end of the room, and just catches a glimpse of Cideeda’s sleek, lightly armored figure, with her twin lasers pistols appearing just above the top of a table. Focusing upon the exit point, Noxian watches Aristespha and Sotalia project protective barriers, while Bach finishes filling up the doorway with a translucent golden barrier.

Noxian returns his attentions towards Sebastian, and awaits with hints of annoyance rising upon his face. Sebastian smirks, crosses his arms authoritatively, and narrows a stare upon Noxian. “Alright Noxian. Let’s just make this easy on all of us. Give up, surrender whatever elder energy you got in you to the sword, and we’ll see what happens from there.”

A defiant grin contours the blue scarf covering Noxian’s face, and he bellows a loud laugh with a dramatic pantomime of his hands. “Really? You honestly think I would hand over all I have worked for to you? At this point?”

With hint of frustration leaking out, he presents a counteroffer, and colors his tone to a darkly demanding twist. “How about your team lets me walk away, and they all get to the do the same? And, I understand your desires to be freed from that sword and this state of existence. So I promise you, it’ll be one of first of the many mistakes our ancestors left for us to deal with that I will remedy... Once I take of care of things.”

He narrows his gray eyed stare upon Sebastian, quirks his brow, and tenses his stance. “A fair deal really. Saves us ALL so much TROUBLE.”

Sebastian curls an indignant twist to his mouth, and slowly shakes his head. “No. I think not.”

A determined gaze settles on Noxian, and flash of white illuminates his eyes. “I thought so.”

“FAMILIAR FLOW DETECTED.”

While a warping, transparent barrier radiates out from Noxian, Sebastian yells out in a commanding tone. “LET HIM HAVE IT!”

As Noxian pivots quickly around, a spray of suppressed bullets from Dretphi impacts the outer layers of his protective barrier and bounce weakly onto the floor. Twin bright, blue beams from Cideeda diffuse violently upon the surface of the defensive energy and burrow gradually against the protective magic. Eyes radiating a white energy, Noxian lifts an arm each towards Dretphi and Cideeda, and concentrates his attention upon them. Streams of flow warp the fields around the impact points of firearm and laser attacks, and the barrier shifts slightly. Bullets sink briefly into an elastic warp of the elder bubble, and launch back in a chaotic spray. Laser beams hit and reflect under the direction of Noxian’s whims. With twists of his hands and swings of his arms, the combination of returning mass and photon launch out in arcs across the length of the opposing wall to focus on Aristespha and Sotalia’s magical fields. Sparks and crackles of energy mix with the acoustics of the room, and Aristespha and Sotalia buffer the defected brunt of recent shots. Quickly, Cideeda and Dretphi halt their attacks. Aristespha, Sotalia, and Bach scatter for cover behind displays. Throwing his hands out, a wave of energy knocks over a number of large tables near Noxian, and he dives for cover. Sebastian hovers high above Noxian, maintains his watch, and calls out. “He’s taken cover right below me, behind a table!”

Glancing briefly up to the ethereal watchdog above, Noxian grits his teeth, grumbles out his frustration, and cautiously glances out from cover. His eyes search through aisles table legs and displays to catch brief glimpses of movement from the corners. Sebastian keeps his vigil and continues to call out updates on Noxian’s activities. Briefly retreating into his mind, Noxian ponders and frantically searches for a solution to the situation. Momentarily peeking out, he notices new movement behind other displays. A plotting smirk appears barely on the surface of his scarf, and he nods to himself. Eyeing up at Sebastian briefly, Noxian stands up and aims his palms at two displays near the exit. Sebastian’s yells out, as white magical flows swirl into small orbs in front of Noxian’s hands. “INCOMING! LOOK OUT!”

Members of the team peek out, spot Noxian and the forming energy, and react. Aristespha dashes out from one display to another. Bach and Sotalia rush out from the other display, and scramble to fresh cover. Bright flashes of energy fill the room. Wood and glass violently erupt into energized fragments. The light fades to reveal the fractured remains of two displays. Dretphi and Cideeda appear from new locations, and unleash volleys of metal and energy upon the translucent barrier surrounding Noxian. When Noxian’s attention shifts, Cideeda and Dretphi duck back down. Searching for other attacks, Noxian swings his arms forward and releases a repulsive wave towards the doorway. The magical force launches tables and displays off to the side in cacophonies of destruction. Noxian focuses his full attention at the barrier, and takes the first steps towards the exit. Sebastian signals and calls out. “He’s trying to make a break for it! Lock him down!”

Aristespha pops out from cover mid incantation, focuses her violet eye glare upon Noxian, and finishes the final gesture with a swing of her arms forward. A wave of energy glides a path through the room and envelops Noxian. The warping field of energy constricts down and tightens upon the protective elder barrier around Noxian, slowing his progress and laboring his movement. Sotalia appears with a mean grin, takes aim with the last stage of casting, and projects a transparent beam at Noxian. The magical flow splashes over Noxian, and the force holds him in place. Sebastian commands out to the team. “Wear him down! Fire!”

Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi appear from new locations, aim, and unleash. Joining the barrage of mass and photon, balls of green plasma splatter upon Noxian's defensive field and visibly distort energy flows. Noxian pauses, reassesses the situation, and grimaces in a torrent of annoyance, frustration, and worry. Searching his mind, he begrudgingly arrives to an inconvenient solution, grits his teeth, and focuses.

“SURGE DETECTED.”

White flows of elder energy ooze out from Noxian’s wiry frame, glide in swirls across his form, and force out the protective barrier further. He powers through against the restrictive magics, and powers through towards the exit. Both Aristespha and Sotalia strain to maintain their spells. Aristespha releases her spell, unhappily grumbles, and drops down to cover. After many unsuccessful rallies of magical flow and seeing Noxian’s progress, Sotalia halts her spell, grits her teeth, and focuses an irate glower. “FUCK YOU, NOXIAN! YOU’RE NOT LEAVING HERE ALIVE!”

Putting her hands together, she focuses energies between her palms. Swirls of air condense down, ignite into fire, and concentrate into a blue orb of hissing flame. Sotalia heaves the fireball in a collision course with Noxian. The explosive fire explodes upon Noxian’s back, pushes deep into his barrier, and radiates a power force inwards. The impact pushes Noxian forward, and he unceremoniously stumbles onto the floor next to the archway, while bullet, beam, and bolt fly at him.

Forcing himself back onto his feet against the unrelenting attacks upon his protective field, Noxian steps over to the golden barrier sealing the exit archway, and studies it briefly with an intrigued quirk to his face. “Fascinating, but...”

He presses his hand against the surface of the magical force field, concentrates his stare upon the energies, and flows a powerful pulse of white miasma out. White arcs crackle upon the surface of the golden barrier and highlight the hexagonal substructure in a sparking, flickering light show. Moments later, the wavering field stabilizes and solidifies back to a defiant, golden blockade. Blinking in surprise, Noxian pauses briefly in awe as his gray eyes widen in shock. “Oh.”

Cideeda pops up from cover behind a turned over table, drags two long, blue blasts from her laser pistols, and drops back down. She checks the indicators on her weapons, grits her teeth in worried frustration, and speaks to her radio. “Okay! We need to do something else. I’ve only got so many cells for my pistols, and his barrier is still holding up.”

Bach speaks on the radio channel, with the source from nearby. “I know. My plasma bolts are doing something, but it's just thinning his barrier. We need something that can pierce it.”

Aristespha sighs out on the frequency, and her hesitation radiates. “I cannot risk using any more of reserves.”

Frustration crackles in from Sotalia after another whoosh of an expanding ball of fire sounds out into the room. “I can try something more powerful, but nothing is hitting him as hard as it should!”

Dretphi reports in a defeated tone. “Sub machine gun ammo is low. Not effective.”

Cideeda grumbles, flicks her ears, as her emerald eyes sort through options. “Maybe powerful single shots?”

A very wary Bach mumbles on the channel. “Maybe a D-Ball? But, I’m afraid that he’d be able to return that somehow-”

An excited prompt from Dretphi springs onto the radio, and her eagerness seeps out. “My rifle!”

Cideeda grins toothily, and glances over at Noxian studying the golden barrier, as another plasma bolt slams into the barrier around him. “That might do it. If nothing else, it’ll catch him off guard.”

Bach chimes in with a renewed confidence. “If that gun can crack my barriers, it just might do enough damage to Noxian’s.”

Aristespha's hopeful voice sounds over channel. “It’s worth trying. Sebastian relayed to me he’s good with it, and we should get into position to capture if it works.”

The eager tone of Sotalia perks up on the radio. “I think a distraction of all those really annoying spells is in order.”

Listening to the radio planning, Cideeda puts her laser pistols away, swings her shotgun into her hands, and inspects it before slinking off around the perimeter of the room. “I’ll sneak into position. Net and stunner rounds getting loaded.”

Dropping behind the cover of turned over tables, and display debris, Noxian vents out his aggravation with each breath and glares at the golden barrier. As the assault of bullets, beams, balls, and bolts halt against his cover, he tries to gain some semblance of calm and sorts through his thoughts. Narrowing a scrutinizing gaze upon the shielded archway, his white glowing eyed gaze studies the golden structure. Gradually, he nods at construction with a respectful appreciation, and theorizes out a plan. “So... Interesting... Very intricate Mr. Warwick...”

Sebastian glances down at Noxian from above and smugly grins at him with a mocking tone. “Yes, Noxian?”

Rolling his eyes in disgust, Noxian readies himself and growls out. “Not you, Sebastian. Do you have anything better to do at moment? I would appreciate a little time away from your antics.”

Sebastian watches Noxian leap out from cover, rush up to the door, and concentrate magical flows upon it. He settles next to Noxian with a sarcastic flair. “Well, it’s little hard to get away when you are bound to a sword that... Oh... YOU PUT ME IN.”

Noxian tries to maintain a majority of focus on the golden barrier and the energies sinking into the substructure, but glances over with an incredulous lift of his brow. “I only wanted to blast you out of my way. I never intended you to be bound by a badly designed ancient artifact. And, THAT is on YOU for using such a cursed thing.”

He pauses a moment, and waits in silence. Glancing over his shoulder, Noxian searches around expectantly. “Why are they not attacking-”

A swarm of small magic missiles descend from above, and the barrage pelts chaotically upon the outer layers of Noxian’s defensive field. Bright blue white, glowing orbs fly toward Noxian, stick onto the elder barrier, and flash to bright white. He squints his eyes and shields his face from the intense light with his arm. “By the gods... REALLY?!”

Sebastian flashes a mean smile and narrows his glare upon Noxian. “You know, if you’d just give up, we could probably work something out. I’m pretty sure with good behavior and a merciful judge, you’d be out in less than ten years.”

While Sebastian yammers on, a surge of suspicion swells in Noxian. His gray eyes desperately search for justification through the constant warping of his barrier from the magic missile barrage, and the bright, sticky flares overwhelming his vision. “Wait... What is this attack actually for-”

Dretphi’s voice calls out, and faint echoes barely rise into the room from other electronic sources. “EARS!”

When the last of the magic missiles impact and the flares fade, Noxian blinks and searches the room briefly. His gray eyes spring wide open in abject terror when he notices a particular glint of metal sticking out from cover. He realizes the aim of Dretphi's anti-material rifle, just as she squeezes the trigger. “Oh my hell-”

A booming shock wave erupts from the end of barrel, and spreads out into the large room, stirring up nearby debris. The large caliber round presses deeply into the protective magical shell around Noxian, stretching the layers dangerously close to his body. A reflexive surge of elder energy pulses out when nearly reaches his chest. The layers flex and stretch against the danger. In a fraction of second, magical forces erupt, launch Noxian away onto the ground, and deflect the powerful round slightly off its path. Noxian slams upon the floor, the elder barrier flickers away, and the rifle shot crashes into the doorway barrier. Cracks immediately splinter out into the golden field from newly the embedded round.

Recovering from the mental haze, Noxian rubs his head and hunts his bearings. After a few seconds, he blinks back to some semblance of awareness. In a wild eye glance around the area, he notices Sebastian cautiously observing him and rolls over onto his stomach. Laying out prone and still on the floor, Noxian hides his recovery and searches out from the corners of his eyes. Briefly, he catches the glimpse of the tip of a furry ear, moving out of view behind an intact display nearby. Slowly cupping his hand upon the floor, Noxian feigns partial consciousness and idly moves, mimicking prior confusion. Sebastian hovers over Noxian, lands upon the ground, and leans down for a closer inspection. “How you doing there, Noxian? You awake? Ready to talk about this?”

“FAMILIAR FLOW DETECTED.”

Noxian lifts up with a bright glowing orb in his palm, and aims at the intact display. Sebastian ghostly blue eyes widen in terror and he shouts out. “CIDEEDA! RUN!”

A bright blinding flash floods the room with light. A white beam of energy shatters through the display, and squarely impacts Cideeda on the chest plate. Threads of flow scatter out into the crackling surface of the protective enchantment surrounding the plate. The powerful collision of magics and matter launches Cideeda backwards. She slams solidly upon the nearby wall, bounces off a desk, and crashes into a pile of debris. Sotalia screams out in rage, summoning surges of flow to her hands. “CIDEEDA! GODS FUCKING DAMN YOU, NOXIAN!”

Splinters of wood erupt as Sotalia’s energy blasts burn and break chunks off remaining furniture near Noxian. Aristespha rushes over to Cideeda, while Dretphi snatches up her sub machine gun and pins down Noxian with sprays of lead reminders. Bach stares stunned as a stern, worried Aristespha begins to check over the motionless, unresponsive Cideeda. Terror and horror flood his frozen body, and overwhelm any possible expression on his face. His gloved hands shake, his body shudders, and his eyes flicker bluish. Sebastian turns to Noxian and growls at him with an accusing point. “WHAT THE FUCK! ... Oh, I’m going to enjoy seeing that sword stuck through you!”

Noxian scowls a menacing glare at Sebastian, summons up his flows of elder energy, and stands back up slowly. “I grow TIRED of this... STOP YOUR ASSAULT. I ONLY want to leave. Do not MAKE ME put any more of you DOWN-”

He halts his rant abruptly. Quickly searching around the area, he narrows his blank stare, and hunts through the warping impacts of Dretphi and Sotalia’s attacks. He mumbles to himself uncertainly. “What the-”

“ANOTHER FAMILIAR FLOW-”

Noxian flits his eyes wide open and snaps his gaze immediately at Bach rising from cover, as fear cracks his previous facade. “Shit.”

Mustering his energies, Noxian crosses his arms briefly and swings them out to unleash his barrier in an expanding wall outwards. He swiftly rushes to the cracked golden barrier. Sebastian’s ethereal form distorts with the energy, and the both Dretphi and Sotalia tumble backwards from the force. As the energy parts upon the unmoved Bach, he glares solemnly at Noxian with fiery blue eyes, and white, pinpoint pupils. Noxian examines the doorway field, notices the rifle’s damage, and presses his hand against the damaged section. Glancing over briefly, his fear develops into horror as he watches Bach concentrate upon him. Releasing a massive surge of elder energy, flows force through the cracks and shatter the majority of the golden barrier. Noxian slips out quickly and darts off down the hallway.

Bach grits his teeth, twitches his face, and narrows his whitening eyes upon the exit, focusing himself. A pained cough emerges from Cideeda, and she groans out a few fvalian swears. Bach blinks hard and flutters his eyes back to reality, as the glows fade. Dretphi and Sotalia pulls themselves back up to their feet. Sotalia glances over to Cideeda and Aristespha. “Cideeda!? Are you okay?”

Cideeda winces as she draws in a pained breath and squirms slightly. “I’ll fucking live... Ow...”

Sotalia rushes to the doorway, slips through into the hallway, and searches around. “SHIT! He’s getting away!”

Pausing a moment, Sotalia puzzles and hunts for a distracting target nearby. After a few seconds, she shakes her head, refocuses, and runs down the hallway. Dretphi springs forth, jumps though the hole in the broken barrier, and growls out. “I will retrieve her! SOTALIA!”

Sebastian shakes his head and darts through the wall. “Gods dammit! I’ll be back. Bro, keep it covered here, please!”

Bach nods quickly and yells out to his brother. “Yeah, I got it!”

Slowly surveying the situation, Bach steps through the fresh rubble of wood, glass, metal, and random artifacts. Getting closer to Aristespha and Cideeda, a strangely familiar wave of fatigue seizes him, and he stops. He thinks, remembers, and glances down at his arm. Faintly venting from his limb, a cloud white, magical miasma flows closely to his skin. Horror skewers Bach, and he drops to the ground near Aristespha. Scrambling quickly over, he grabs hold of the handle of the sword at Aristespha side. The sword vacuums up the elder miasma and extracts many similar thread flows from within Bach. Aristespha startles at the sudden pull on the sword, snaps her gaze over, and watches remaining traces of elder energy leave Bach. She stares in silence as he lets go and sits with terror plain on his face. Cideeda pulls in a pained breath and winces her closed eyes. She sniffs her nose and flicks her ears. “Bach? Is that you?”

Aristespha rests a comforting hand on Bach. “Will you be okay?”

Bach shrugs his shoulders a bit and tries to smirk. “Right now... Yeah.”

Nodding understandingly, Aristespha presents a smile to Bach and directs his attention to Cideeda. “Could you help me move Cideeda off the pile of uncomfortable debris?”

Cideeda flutters emerald green eyes open and moans out pleadingly. “Oh yeah, that’d be real nice right about now. I think there’s a nail trying to stick me in the ass.”

Bach slides over opposite of Aristespha and assists in carefully lifting Cideeda off the pile and onto smoother floor. While keeping an idle, shaky grip on Cideeda’s shoulder, Bach feels a familiar five points of sharp pressure on his forearm, and glances down to Cideeda. “Oh, hey, sorry...”

Smirking at Bach, Cideeda gazes her emerald green eyes at Bach’s worried blue eyes, and sighs. “It’s okay. I’m okay. Are you okay?”

Bach thinks a moment, but eventually nods slightly. “Enough for now...”

Cideeda smiles and rolls her eyes at the situation. “Know that feeling.”

----

Foot steps echo in the large empty hallways of the old structure. Sotalia skids to a stop in the middle of an intersection, and glances around in frantic search. “Where did you go, you bastard...”

Heavy boot stomps and armor clacking halt immediately behind Sotalia, and Dretphi clamps a gauntlet firmly onto Sotalia’s shoulder. “DO NOT ENGAGE HIM.”

Sotalia blinks out of her previous mindset, glances over to the towering Dretphi, and grimaces in partial, frustrated agreement. “I KNOW! I know... I just don’t want to him get away... AGAIN!”

Sebastian’s ethereal form stops in front of Dretphi and Sotalia, and he gazes at Sotalia with stern concern. “First, stop running off like that! Secondly... You okay?”

Sotalia nods and pants out her recovery from the long sprint catching up to her. “Yeah... Just... DAMN IT!”

Dretphi shakes her head and grumbles as she scans down the long runs of other dimly lit hallways. “I understand.”

Landing his ghostly figure upon the floor, Sebastian surveys the scene and frowns with a long ethereal sigh. “Chasing him through this place would be useless. Let’s regroup, start calling the authorities, and search around area for tracks... or something...”

While Sebastian gazes back down the hallway with worry, Sotalia releases a long, begrudging sigh, and nods in agreement, while she searches her outfit for her phone. “Yeah... I guess. This is going to be a long, awkward conversation with the cops.”

Sebastian groans out the foreboding dread and briefly grits his teeth. “Tell me about it. It’s going to be a long day between the police, GAA, and the guild about this whole thing. I don’t know what we tell any of them at this point.”

A powerful, rumbling concussion resonates through the building, and stirs dust and dirt from the openings in the ceiling. Crisp, metallic reverberations bounce down one hallway and fill the air with sounds of destruction. Seconds later, red alarm lights pulse along the in varying degrees of function, and a barely working public address system chimes out an audible alert. Dretphi thinks between all the emerging chaos, points down the one hallway, and looks for confirmation. “That way.”

Sotalia nods quickly and stares in that direction. “Heard it from there, too. That rumble felt like a magical concussive blast. Don’t I know know what the other sounds were.”

Sebastian signals the two to follow along, and darts down the hallway with a determined stare ahead. “Fucking bastard probably blasted out the perimeter fence, and is running off now. Let’s see if we can figure out how he’s getting around at least.”

Sebastian, Sotalia, and Dretphi rush down the long hallway, and quickly approach a set of exterior doors leading to the barely illuminated outside. Sebastian phases through the doorway and immediately searches the area for activity, while Sotalia and Dretphi forcefully push open the metal doors. Following Sebastian, the group runs along the dirt path towards the gravel lot and perimeter fence. The team approaches, and Sebastian blinks in utter shock when he spots the humvee. Flipped back end over onto a crushed section of fence, the vehicle rocks slightly, and faint magical vapors steam off the underside armor plating. Sotalia notices a similar miasma drifting off a shallow crater in the gravel lot. She spouts of an enraged stream of curses in a variety of languages. Sebastian hovers over the scene in disbelief, and twists his face in a mix of emotions. “THE FUCK.”

When the team gathers close to the upturned humvee, a faint, small engine sounds out from a distant patch of bushes. Seconds later, a dark green sedan erupts out of the underbrush, hops up onto the road, and speeds off down the remote highway. The engine revs up to full speed. Sotalia remembers the aetherphone in her hand, taps on the camera function, and aims as the vehicle speeds past. Dretphi reflexively swings her strapped on sub machine gun up into her arms, ejects the current magazine, and locks the last fresh one. She rushes out onto the side of road and aims at the escaping dark green sedan. Sebastian zips out after car and phases into the passenger’s seat. “Where do you think you’re going, Noxian?!”

Noxian glares over in mix of annoyance and surprise at the ghostly visage of Sebastian, and sighs with a hint of a grin. “Some place where I’ll be left to continue my work without your interruptions. Again, I’d like to state how much I would rather you and your team to not get in my way.”

Sebastian narrows a stern, irritated stare upon Noxian, and leans in close. “Well, UNFORTUNATELY for all of us, YOU are kind of our biggest concern at the moment.”

Blinking off into thought momentarily, Isaac’s expression softens under his scarf, and he gazes to Sebastian with worry tinting his tone. “You should reevaluate that... For your brother’s sake.”

Sebastian’s face blanks at the sudden change of emotion, and stares idly in shock. Moments later, an unseen force halts Sebastian independently from the car, and he phases through to a hover over to the pavement. He shudders back to awareness, snaps his head to face the dark green sedan rolling off into the distance, and squints his eyes at the identification plating on the back of the vehicle. Floating there mumbling out letters and numbers to himself, his visage distorts as a series of small projectiles zip through. He immediately glides off to the side, and watches a few stray rounds impact the back of the sedan, with grazing sparks and solid punctures in the metal. One projectile manages to hit the back window edge and send cracks through the glass. The vehicle crests over the hill and disappears from view.

Sotalia sorts through a few pictures on her phone, and grimaces as the imagery discourages her. “Gods dammit. None these are worth a shit. Too dark and it was moving too fast. Maybe this one will do, but I can’t read anything off it.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage zips next to Sotalia, and he sighs with a slight smile. “Got that vehicle’s ID, write it down quick.”

Flipping to a note taking app on the phone, Sotalia pays careful attention to Sebastian reciting a series of letters and numbers. She nods with a growing smirk after the saving the note, and compares the sequence to the picture. “Yeah, that looks close enough to blurs on the picture. Okay... So, older green sedan, with this identification, and-”

Dretphi walks over to the group, ejects the empty magazine out of her sub machine gun, and flips up her full face visor with a partial, reserved grin. “Broken back windshield. Bullet marks on back half of vehicle.”

Sebastian blinks, smirks towards Dretphi, and chuckles slightly. “One or two bullet holes in the trunk actually.”

Nodding a hint of satisfaction, Dretphi glances over into the distance and twists her mouth. “Surprising. At that distance.”

Sotalia finishes recording the information on her phone, reads over it a few times, and taps through the contacts list. “Okay, that’ll be a start. I better make the call now, BEFORE they arrive to investigate this alarm.”

Searching through her belt of pouches, she pulls out of a few vials, and quickly quaffs down the potions. She finds an old stump nearby, sits down, and groans out a long sigh while removing her radio ear piece. “After I finish this call, I’ll see what I can do about getting the humvee back on its wheels...?”

Both Sebastian and Dretphi shift their attention to the flipped over humvee, and display equal mixes perplexed and apprehensive. Sebastian grits his teeth, shifts between different uncomfortable grimaces, and crosses his arms awkwardly. “Well... Um... I think it should still drivable... Once we get it right side up.”

Dretphi eventually rocks her head in partial agreement, taps a button on the side of her helmet, and glances over to Sebastian. “First check on Cideeda. Maybe inform then? Maybe later? Upright it before she sees it.”

Sebastian quickly nods, and starts to fade. “Sound good, I’ll go back to Aristespha and see how it’s going there.”

Dretphi scans the scene around her, slumps her shoulders with a shake of her head, and slowly steps over to pick up the two empty magazines nearby. Sotalia draws in a long calming breath, and greets the police operator on the other side of the new phone call.

----

The ambient glow of the late morning sun lights up the living area of the ranch style house. Above the constant, soft drone of the air conditioning in the room, a dull mechanical rumble sounds out from the kitchen door leading to the garage. Seconds later, the door opens quickly to an irritable growl of Sotalia as she rolls her eyes and toss back her fiery orange, wavy hair. “Gods fucking damn it! That’s THE last time I think we should call the local cops around here for ANYTHING. I swear they were just thinking of reasons to keep us at the station longer!”

She undoes her armored cloak, flings it through the kitchen archway at the living room to the couch, and steps over to the refrigerator. Quickly sorting through the contents of the box, she pulls out a bottle of grath beer, and direct her voice towards the garage. “Dretphi! I owe you a beer.”

Dretphi slowly trudges from garage into the kitchen, stops in front of Sotalia, and holds out her open hand. Sotalia plucks another bottle out of the fridge, and slides it in between Dretphi’s closing grip. Sotalia pries the bottle cap off her beer. Dretphi clamps her gauntlet covered hand around the top, and wrenches the metal off the glass. In unison, both Sotalia and Dretphi take long swigs of their beverages, and stare off distantly. After a few moments of silence, Dretphi snarls her upper lip, quietly growls out her frustration, and mumbles loudly. “Yes. I have FUCKING licenses for my firearms. Includes my rifle. Assholes.”

Sotalia rolls her eyes in commiseration and shakes her head. “I don’t know what the hell was up with that one guy. I mean gods forbid they run a quick check with the guild... That we are all registered with... That should have all the information they need.”

Cideeda walks into the area, rubs her back briefly, and lifts up the top of her old shirt to sniff. “Wow... We need to wash the spare clothes in humvee. Ungh.”

Her tail waves slowly behind her. She tries to brush off dirt on a pair of worn shorts, but only manages to smear it further. Closing her emerald eyes for a moment, she shifts her attention to the hospital bracelet around her wrist, and picks at it with her claws. “Before the painkillers wear off, I’m getting this fucking thing off, hitting the shower, and going to bed. No offense, but leave me the hell alone until dinner. Please...”

She walks off into the hallway wincing as she breathes too deeply, and mumbles frustrations to herself. “Shouldn’t have peeked around the corner... that must be how he knew I was there... gods dammit...”

Listening to Cideeda blame herself, Dretphi drinks the remainder of her beer, sighs out regretfully, and mutters heavy with guilt. “Should not have taken that shot.”

Sotalia narrows her gaze at Dretphi, and pats her on the shoulder of her under armor suit. “Now don’t you start blaming yourself, too. We all agreed on it. And, your shot took him down. The bastard just got really lucky and pulled a fast one on us.”

Aristespha moves through the kitchen area, mutters to herself in evuukian, and flips through a combination of tablets and paperwork in her arms. Sebastian hovers in pursuit after her, but halts the chase after a certain set of evuukian phrases. Aristespha speeds through the area worried, past the hallway archway, and quickly down the hall through her closing bedroom door. Sebastian’s ethereal form rubs his forehead, and glances over to Sotalia and Dretphi. “I’m going to give her a few minutes before I go in there.”

Dretphi and Sotalia nod together in agreement. Sotalia perks her brow and gazes curiously at Sebastian. “Is she still panicking about how to explain that supposed anonymous tip we got about Noxian being there?”

Bach walks in through the door from the garage, closes the door behind him, and nods grimacing. “Yeah... She’s been trying to put together a supporting story for it? I mean, I think an anonymous tip is somewhat believable. And... we did find him. But, I don't know if anyone starts digging too deep.”

Sebastian sighs ethereally, shrugs his shoulders, and crosses his arms. “Well, not much more we can do today. Hopefully, since it’s Friday any serious paperwork about us won’t be filed or processed today. That’ll give us the weekend to sort things out.”

He relaxes his shoulders, dons a grateful smile, and nods to everyone. “For now, let’s just take the rest of this day easy.”

Sotalia drinks more of her beer, walks out of the kitchen, and politely waves with beverage in hand as she goes through the hall archway. “Sounds good. I’m going to try to get some sleep.”

Dretphi sighs, rest her empty bottle on the counter, and plods towards the hallway. “Will do the same.”

When Dretphi leaves the living area, Sebastian glances over to Bach and focuses his concern. “You feeling okay, bro?”

Bach blinks a moment, thinks for a few seconds, and rocks his head side to side. “Yeah... I suppose you know. Uh... Um... Well... I really don’t know how to feel about THAT right now.”

Sebastian presents a comforting smile to his brother, and shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. “Don’t worry about it then. Talk to me when you feel like it. We all made it. That’s all that matters right now.”

An appreciative smirk appears on Bach face, and he sighs with some ease. “Thanks. That... That was not a good situation.”

Nodding in total agreement, Sebastian leans close to Bach, lifts an intrigued brow, and whispers. “Just between you and me, I think he ran because of YOU.”

Bach blinks absolutely bewildered and pauses to process that statement. “I REALLY don’t know how to feel about THAT.”

-74-

Stepping out into the noon sun, Trakenthin follows his father through the back sliding glass door of the two story house. Narrowing a confused and perplexed stare, he glances towards either side and spots groups of recording crew with their full attention upon him. As Trenannin continues to march forward with a bold grin on his face, he moves towards the corner of a back yard. Pausing briefly, he starts searching for a route to somewhere else. Trakenthin steps next to Trenannin and puzzles at his behavior, while maintaining his neutral mask under the attention of the cameras. “Where are WE doing?”

Trenannin chuckles slightly with a dark tinge, and glances over his shoulder towards his son. “YOU need to settle a score. Recover your honor. From YOUR loss.”

Trakenthin twists his mouth and blinks out his apprehension. Searching his memory, a faintly familiar moment rises to front of his mind, and his hazel eyes widen in a mix of surprise and concern. “What... loss?”

Grumbling while surveying the underbrush and visually tracing a path through to the open field diagonal to the house’s back plot, Trenannin glares at Trakenthin momentarily. “Match at the convention. With The Coward’s daughter...”

An uncomfortable wave radiates through Trakenthin, and he grits his teeth as his posture stiffens with his growing unease. “That match? It was not important. Nothing official. Does not count-”

Hopping over a low wooden fence, Trenannin trudges through the overgrowth and navigates around the brush beyond the back yard. “When it is The Coward’s spawn, it counts.”

Snarling his upper lip briefly, Trakenthin climbs over the barrier and trails behind his father with a faintly pleading tone. “Why are you going over there? Now?”

Pushing through the last shrub, Trenannin steps out into the sunny, grassy field, and searches for signs of activity towards the ranch style house on the other end of the plot. “YOU will demand a rematch.”

Trakenthin eyes widen and an uneasy curl forms at the corner of his developing frown. “This is NOT the best approach. Try a formal request first? Proper time. Proper place...”

As the camera crews finally navigate into the open field and refocus upon father and son, Trenannin turns around, aims a glare at his son, and sneers slightly. “You are NOT backing down?”

Narrowing a stare at his father, Trakenthin growls through his teeth and sighs full of irritation tipped indignation. “NO. I prefer proper process.”

Obscuring hints of his redirecting motive, he presents a firm, stern attitude as he elaborates upon his idea. “Make it official. Public. Written in records.”

In distance, Dretphi walks out into the side plot next to the house from the front yard, readies her practice blade, and an energetically swings through a series of maneuvers. Trenannin catches sight of of Dretphi and faintly overhears a few irritated quips in grath. A grin appears on his face, and he starts walking quickly across the field. “Understand the sentiment. Would like that under normal conditions. Time is short. YOU take the opportunity NOW.”

Trakenthin uncomfortably contorts his face and catches up to keep pace with his father. He begrudging pleads with his father, and tries to quell his growing frustration. “I will properly request the rematch. If she accepts, she sets time, place.”

Trenannin glances over his shoulder at his son with a tint of suspicion hidden in his the growing disagreement on his face. Trakenthin smirks boldly and chuckles. “Present fair offer. Refuses to defend her victory under those conditions? Proves she is the coward’s daughter.”

Pondering the concept for a few moments, an approving, proud grin appears on Trenannin face, and he nods in agreement to the proposal. Patting the back of his son firmly, he glances toward Dretphi and laughs towards the camera crew. “I have taught you well! An offer we win regardless.”

Performing through a number of sword exercises, Dretphi finishes the last attack in a series and grumbles to herself. She repeats the last motion, sneers her upper lip at her performance, and draws in a long breath. Her gaze rests upon the large tree nearby, and her mind wanders through a chain of self-reflective frustration and aggravation. After a few seconds, her attention returns to her immediate surroundings, and she realizes the crowd nearby. Sorting through the initial surprise at the camera crews, her focus settles directly upon Trakenthin. She grimaces and voices her annoyance. “Can I help you?”

Trakenthin draws in a breath, assumes a stoic facade, and clearly states. “I am here to request a rematch for our fight at the convention. You set conditions. Do you accept?”

Blinking utterly bewildered, Dretphi shakes off the initial confusion and rolls her steely gray eyes with an unamused, dismissive groan. While Dretphi ponders the offer and disagreement rises into her expression, trickles of relief seep out into Trakenthin demeanor and he glances over to his father. As Dretphi begins to relay her refusal with the start of a phrase and a wave of the hand, Trenannin spouts off a particular grath phrase. Trakenthin’s jaw drops as the words echo in stark familiarity to those before the original match. Recognizing the same phrase in a different voice, he snaps his blatant discomfort towards Dretphi. Hearing the insulting words again, Dretphi’s face blanks and halts her answer before it leaves her lips. She narrows her angry glare at Trakenthin, spikes her practice sword firmly into the dirt in front of her, and points sharply at Trakenthin. “I ACCEPT. Two hours from now. Out in the field. Two-handed sparring blades. Match upon first confirmed vital hit with blade.”

An excited grin grows wide upon Trenannin face and he proudly slaps the back of his son. “You have a match.”

Under the heavy weight of camera attention, Trakenthin struggles to maintain a stoic front to cover the swell of dread bubbling through him. He musters up a meager smirk to satisfy his father, and sneaks out a wavering sigh as Dretphi promptly turns away to prepare.

----

A crowd of teams and crew surround Dretphi and Trakenthin in an impromptu ring in the middle of the grassy field. Gusts of wind blow waves in the taller grasses nearby, and occasional clouds drag patchy shadows across the open area. Aristespha crosses her arms as the breeze moves stray silvery blue hairs off her shoulders. Sotalia rests her hands on her hips, and casts an unamused glare towards a few members of the camera crew when they get close. Deedri and Tassilda exchange quiet commentary, and relay their similarly wary sentiments across to the other group with momentary glances. Modoran maintains a distance from the gathering, and eyes over to an excited Samantha and apprehensive Gerald nearby. Cideeda twists a souring mood out on her face as she taps her foot, but musters up an encouraging gaze towards Dretphi. Bach notices an examining stare from Chad, awkwardly tries to play off the attention, and settles his focus back to the match. Veevi energetically cheers out with an insult. “You kick that blonde bimbo’s ass, Trakenthin!”

Dretphi narrows a dark glare upon Veevi and stares through her very existence. A moment later, Chad feels the close cower of Veevi, glances to his side to see her taking cover behind him, and rolls his brown eyes with a faint groan. Trenannin smirks at the comment from Veevi, and maintains his stoic gaze upon Dretphi and Trakenthin. Trakenthin raises his two-hand sparring sword up in a readied position, draws in a long calming breath, and directs his attention to Dretphi. “I am ready.”

Tossing back her platinum blonde braids, Dretphi lifts her similar blade up, pauses to close her eyes briefly in thought, and nods to Trakenthin. “We start... Now.”

An eerie silence rests upon the vicinity, the wind stills for seconds, and a cloud shadows the area. Both Dretphi and Trakenthin observe each other. Minute movements from either trigger slight motions to counter from the other. Stances shift briefly to explore the finely tuned reactions from the opponent, and the two combatants constantly reevaluate ever changing tactics. Seconds of stillness pass, and Trenannin spouts out an irritation tipped quip in grath.

Simultaneously, Dretphi and Trakenthin launch out towards each other. Both exchange quick attacks for blocks, and anticipate the counters into defensive positions. Combinations of maneuvers evolve from both Dretphi and Trakenthin, and refine to hunt down the weaknesses in other’s abilities. After a close dodge, Dretphi leaps back to gain distance, but Trakenthin quickly attempts to seize the opportunity. Noticing the incoming assault, Dretphi sets up a feint, leads Trakenthin’s attack to a create false opening, and staggers. When Trakenthin drives the assault, Dretphi shifts herself out of the way, and checks her full body weight into Trakenthin, sending him backwards onto the grass field. When Trakenthin lands on the ground, cheers and excitement rise up from Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, and Sotalia. Dretphi readies herself and moves in quickly, hearing the encouraging calls from Chad, Deedri, Modoran, Tassilda, and Veevi. Angry, derisive disappointment taints Trenannin yells at Trakenthin, and Dretphi halts her charge. She thinks a moment. Glaring insulted at Trenannin, she steps back with her blade readied and waits.

Trakenthin puzzles, stands back up, and readies his sparring sword. Exchanging stoic, respectful nods, the two resume the match to the mixture of confusion and intrigue from the crowd on both sides. Dretphi and Trakenthin trade masterful impacts up their blades, and the wood echoes out into the field over the sounds of supportive cheers and a series of degrading grath terms.

Minutes into the match, signs of fatigue reveals themselves upon the combatants. The timing between waves of attacks and counters grows longer with each flurry. The surrounding teams silence themselves when Dretphi or Trakenthin lunge out, and focus upon the clash of the imposing titans. Recording crews shift constantly around to capture the best action angles, and frame the most dramatic moments. Trakenthin summons up a surge of strength, releases a powerful flurry of blows, and rains a barrage upon Dretphi. With expert precision, Dretphi anticipates the course of each attack, intercepts, and redirects the energy. At the last moment, Trakenthin dramatically alters the course of a finishing strike and empowers it with all his strength. Dretphi awkwardly shifts to receive the impact upon her sparring sword, and fails the properly redirect. Pressing his full weight upon the clash of wooden blades, Trakenthin brute force shoves Dretphi off-balance, and she tumbles back upon the ground.

Sorting through the calls of concern and cheers of encouragement, Trakenthin prepares his follow through. Right before driving his attack, he listens a comment from his father. Twisting his mouth uncomfortably, and he halts disapprovingly. He walks back, readies his sparring blade, and waits.

Dretphi narrows a curious gaze upon Trakenthin, smirks appreciatively, and stands back up. Settling into a combat stance, both Dretphi and Trakenthin exchange respectful nods to the growing excitement from the crowd, and the confusion from one. Both pant out their looming exhaustion, judge the status of the other, and arrive to an unspoken agreement.

They still themselves, focus fully upon the other, and tense their bodies. Simultaneously the two launch at each other. In the fractions of time during their charges, both constantly change attack angles in response to the other until they settle upon their vectors. As the two close in, Trakenthin leads the point of his sparing sword forward, and aims the tip right at Dretphi’s center mass. Quickly adjusting, Dretphi braces herself with her blade at the ready to intercept and body adjusting to counter. Mere moments away from the clash with Dretphi, Trakenthin’s muscles tighten. Right before the swords touch, he pulls his blade back, drops low to the ground in a powerful spin, and swings his sparring sword tightly away from Dretphi. Sliding upon the ground, he leads the blade into a full, sweeping revolution around, and rams the tip of the wooden blade squarely towards the center of Dretphi’s back. Readying his full strength behind the finishing move, he winces in pain as he tenses his chest, and recent memory flashes before his eyes. In a moment of reflection and calm, eases his attack to a modest amount of energy, and lands a gentle but firm wooden tip upon Dretphi’s back.

Both combatants freeze in place, confirm with each other and the surrounding crowds, and wait. The Flames of of the Phoenix team yells out triumphantly, the other squad claps encouragingly through disappointment, and Trenannin incredulously complains. Trakenthin lowers his weapon from Dretphi, stands up, and releases a long sigh of relief. Dretphi slumps her shoulders slightly, musters up a stoic front, and respectfully holds out a hand. “Excellent match.”

Trakenthin firmly shakes Dretphi’s hand with a grateful smirk. “An honor to have. It was close. A proper rematch.”

Trenannin watches the handshake, does not bother to quell his disgust, and storms up to his son accusingly. “What type of match was THIS?! Passed an opportunity? Showed mercy?! To HER?!”

Mustering up every bit of calm, Trakenthin draws in a long breath through his gritting teeth, releases grumbling exhale, and slowly pivots to face his father. “YOU wanted a rematch. I provided.”

Trenannin sputters out a number of angered sentences in grath. Trakenthin struggles to maintain calm, and slowly states. “As YOU said... It was MY fight to rematch. NOT yours. Settled it as I saw fit.”

An irate scowl develops upon Trenannin and he launches into angry scolding of Trakenthin. While Trakenthin resolutely stands, Dretphi watches in utter disgust and notices the flinches of pain as the hurtful grath phrases wash over Trakenthin. With a final summoning of spite, Trenannin spits out a quip towards Trakenthin and Dretphi, that abjectly shocks Dretphi. It catches the full attention of an offended Sotalia. “THE FUCK did he say?!”

Clenching his fist tightly around his sparring sword, Trakenthin grits his teeth, puffs up his chest, and glowers at his father silently. Staring down Trenannin, Trakenthin fights swelling rage growing blatant to the teams and crew. With a sudden stillness, he breathes out his ire, and refocuses an odd, stern calm to his father, and glares. “Do you have anywhere else to be?”

Tilting his head to the side, Trakenthin narrows his hazel eyes and snarls his upper lip. “Out of my life? Again... As it SHOULD BE.”

Trenannin’s expression blanks completely, and he stares absolutely bewildered at his son. Seconds later, he returns to the awareness of his surroundings, and notices the undesirable attention from the crowd. Without another word, he steps back, looks upon his son, pivots, and walks away back towards the two-story house.

----

Peeking from under the covers, emerald green eyes stare at the late morning light slipping in through the window blinds. Slowly panning her gaze across the room, Cideeda settles her attention upon the desk against the other wall, and focuses upon the blemished chest plating upon the table top. With a long, sad sigh, she groans out her disappointment, and curls up into her bed sheets. Tossing and turning, she finds a comfortable spot on her bed, pulls her tail up to her chest, and wraps her arms around herself tightly. She exhales somberly through her nose, closes her eyes, and nuzzles her head upon her pillow. Bringing her tufted tail tip close, she hides the stale frown on her light brown face and lets her furry ears droop near her shoulders. Minutes of quiet pass on by as Cideeda rests within her own thoughts.

A few soft knocks on the door stirs up Cideeda’s attention as a furry ear flicks towards the bedroom entry. Waiting quietly, she finally opens her eyes partially to a second series of taps upon the wood, and Sotalia’s voice calls out from the other side. “Hey, Cideeda... You awake in there?”

Searching for how to handle this, Cideeda draws in a reluctant breath and directs her halfhearted reply. “Yes.”

Sotalia tone brightens a bit and she pries. “You doing okay? You want anything for lunch?”

Snuggling up into her bed covers more, Cideeda sighs with a slight grumble and closes her emerald green eyes. “I’m... fine. Just tired and still a little sore today. I’m not all that hungry right now...”

She pauses a moment and softens her frown with a slight smirk. “Thanks for checking.”

On the other side of the door, Sotalia nods with a slight down turn of her smile and raps her long, black nails lightly on the door frame. “Let us know if you need anything.”

Cideeda’s voice softly resonates out. “Will do.”

Walking slowly down the hallway with concern blatant on her face, Sotalia brushes back her fiery orange, wavy hair over her swept back horns, and hums thoughtfully to herself as she walks out into the living area. Aristespha, Bach, Dretphi, and Sebastian shift their attention from random paperwork on the dining table towards Sotalia. Thinking a few moments along with her steps to the towards the kitchen, Sotalia meets everyone’s gazes, and twists her mouth. “Yeah... She says she’s just tired and sore.”

The group exchanges looks and quickly arrives to a shared, unconvinced conclusion. Aristespha deliberates briefly and lifts an intrigued brow. “Admittedly, that was quite the hit she took, but I think it’s more psychological at this point.”

As the team ponders options quietly, Bach speaks up and motions towards the garage. “Let’s see how much more can get done on the... project... I think we can get it done tomorrow.”

Sebastian nods in agreement, drifts over to the hallway, and keeps watch. The others head out into the garage, quickly dispersing to various locations, and revealing hidden materials.

----

Trakenthin sits up against his bed, near the secluded corner of the room. He holds up his aetherphone in front of him and sighs deeply trying to collect his thoughts through rambling about various things. A motherly tone sounds out from the device, and the video feed on screen displays a calm, older grath woman. She focuses her hazel eyes towards Trakenthin’s side of the call and tilts her head slightly with a subdued curiosity. She twists the corner of her mouth, eases out a long sigh, and speaks out an explanation with tinges of regret. She slowly shakes her head, rolls her eyes at the past and herself, and frowns sadly as she mentions Trenannin by name. Wavering as old memories return to the surface of her mind, she draws a long, thoughtful breath, and exhales out a few remarks of wisdom earned by hard experience.

Slowly lifting his head up to face the phone, Trakenthin brushes back his hand through his short dirty blonde hair, and grimaces. Swaying his head with each part of the grath sentences, he puzzles through anger, confusion, and sadness. He pleads out through stilted phrases, struggles to determine the answer he seeks, and pauses a moment. With incredulous scrutiny upon the video feed of his mother, he refers to his father, and poses a simple open ended question as he runs out of words to continue the thought process.

The maternal figure on the other side of video call sighs, twists her mouth thoughtfully, and then smiles lovingly. She gazes her hazel eyes into the camera. She briefly points towards Trakenthin through the call, and addresses Trakenthin directly with a simple loving word. With a calm motherly smirk, she speaks thankful, endearing terms to Trakenthin.

In a moment of silence, Trakenthin gazes at the screen blankly for seconds. Closing his similarly hazel eyes tightly, streams of tears run down his dark bronze face and he sniffs. Emotion finally pushes through, and Trakenthin surrenders to sobbing. Fumbling through attempts to constrain his feelings, he apologizes to his mother. With each comforting and calming grath word from his mother, Trakenthin eventually regains his composure and a smile graces his face. Releasing a final sniffle free sigh, he gazes with a bit of embarrassment to his mother on his aetherphone display, and mentions some recent events.

A few other women’s voices rise out of the background of the other side of the call. The video feed of the phone angle up and back from Trakenthin’s mother to reveal three other older grath women. Trakenthin blinks in surprise and greets them as his house mothers with endearing terms. One calls out to Trakenthin and refers to a something. Trakenthin glances around the room, spots his handmade bedroll, and nods with an appreciative answer. The focus of the display returns to Trakenthin’s mother, and she cracks a mischievous smirk. Trakenthin lifts a warily curious brow, and carefully asks. His mother smiles reassuringly, and references the Next Adventurers of Nexus with a few choice terms. Faint dark chuckles grace the background from the other side of a the call, and Trakenthin slightly nods wide-eyed as his mother changes the subject.

----

The humvee slows to a halt in front of the stoplight intersection. Cideeda sinks back into the driver’s seat, droops her furry ears down towards her shoulders, and stares annoyed ahead at the bright red. Drifting her gaze down to the hood of the vehicle, she narrows a frustrated glare upon small dents shadowed from the late afternoon sun and highlighted by the overhead stoplight. Tightening her claws into her steering wheel, and she grumbles and groans out her frustration. “GODS... I can’t believe how much that asshole wanted for these parts.”

Sotalia glances over from her aetherphone, sighs, and shakes her head. Shifting in the passengers seat, she grits her teeth briefly, and rolls her golden eyes. “Seriously. I mean how often does he have anyone wanting those parts anyway? You’d think a discount would be worth having the shelf space.”

Cideeda combs her fingers through her short, multi-colored hair, narrows her emerald green eyes ahead, and twists her mouth. “I mean... Yes. They are rare. Yes. Someone else might come along to pay out more money for them. But... DAMN IT! I’m offering decent money today to take them! There's more dust on them than the shelf they were on!”

The stoplight flicks to the bottom lamp and casts a green hue over one side of the intersection and humvee. Cideeda pushes accelerator hard, carefully eyes the diagnostic output from the in console display, and sighs. “Fuck... The hell is that drive motor lagging behind for...”

She returns to the previous conservation with Sotalia, and shakes her head with a long roll of the eyes. “They’re NOT vital parts. They are exterior accessory parts. People have figured out retrofits and I KNOW I can craft something that’ll work. Gods damn me for wanting to keep to proper replacement parts, and taking advantage of a local source.”

Sotalia smirks derisively, settles back into her seat, and chuckles to herself. “Visiting that stupid place was an act of fucking charity. I’m surprised the building was still standing. He should be happy anyone bothers to look that dump up.”

Cideeda grits her teeth briefly, tenses her shoulders, and releases a long defeated sigh. “Well, he’s bit richer than he should be. So... Whatever... I got the parts... Despite him getting a better deal than he deserves. Last time I go there.”

As the humvee speeds down a long stretch of two lane highway, a white sedan with a light bar pulls out from a side road, and closes the distance gradually. Cideeda maintains her speed and watches the road ahead, slowly relaxing in her seat and glancing over to the diagnostic data on the console display. After a minute of closely following behind, the white car turns on its blue flashing lights and chirps out a few seconds of its siren. Cideeda and Sotalia startle in their seats, glance behind over their seats, and exchange confused expressions. While pulling the humvee over to the shoulder and slowing down, Cideeda peers through the rear view mirror, snarls her upper lip, and spouts off a fvalian curse. Sotalia narrows a glare to the local police officer in the white vehicle, and directs her voice to Cideeda. “What the hell does this asshole want? You weren’t speeding or anything?”

Cideeda contorts the frustration out upon her face, thinks a moment, and shakes her head as she turns off the powerplant. “No. At least, not enough to pull us over. It’s the beginning of the month... What is he doing? Getting a head start on his quota?”

Sotalia grimaces, shakes her head, and drops back upon her seat. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve all been warned about us. Probably trying to hassle us out of town now.”

Stepping out of the white sedan, the fvalian policeman adjusts his hat, straightens his posture, and authoritatively walks to the driver’s side of the humvee. Cideeda rolls down the window, waits with her eyes ahead, and hands on the wheel. The officer glances down with a neutral, plain expression. “License and registration.”

Cideeda quickly retrieves the vehicle registration card from the center console, sorts through her wallet for her license, and hands the two bits of documentation over. The officer takes them in his clawed hands, pauses to carefully survey the inside of the vehicle through Cideeda’s window, and moves away slowly back toward his car. He visually scans the humvee on his way back. Sotalia crosses her arms and silently eyes the fvalian man. Cideeda tightens her lips, and maintains her cool demeanor with breaths through her toothy grimace. After long minutes, the officer arrives back at the side of the humvee, returns the vehicle registration, and shows Cideeda’s license to her. With a routine, monotone drone, he points to her card and explains. “Your driver’s license is an old version. You’ll need to get it updated as soon as possible to meet the new GAA requirements.”

Cideeda presents a faux smile, flutters her eyes endearingly, and holds her hand out to accept the license. “I’ll remember to do that. If that’s all, I really wouldn’t want to take up any more of your time-”

Interrupting and continuing his presentation, the policeman deposits Cideeda’s driver’s license onto her palm, retrieves his ticket book from his side, and finishes filling out a few details. “Your tail light cover is broken and the running light is out.”

Mustering up a cheery tone, Cideeda smiles brightly with a toothy grin, and motions to the box of parts in the seat behind her. “Well, that you don’t have to worry about! We just got the parts to fix it and are on our way home to take care of it.”

Sotalia glances around, picks up the receipt, and points out the piece of paper to the officer. “We even have the receipt. We made this trip just to take care that.”

The fvalian police officer continues to fill out information on his paper pad, pauses a moment to stare unmoved at Cideeda and Sotalia, and finishes the ticket with a rehearsed tear of the perforations. He presents the piece of paper to Cideeda, and drones out his explanation. “This is a citation for operating a vehicle without proper road safety equipment. Bring proof you have resolved the issue by the indicated date to the central courthouse, and the citation fine will be waived. You will still have to pay the court filing fee.”

As Cideeda firmly pinches onto the offending ticket, her smile gradually twitches to a snarl, and she narrows an inquisitive stare towards the officer. “Okay... Well... Explain this to me...”

Gritting her teeth, she cocks her head slightly to the side, eases her frustrations out with a long sigh, and sternly inquires as tinges of sarcasm sneak in. “What is the proper procedure to address this issue upon discovery on a vehicle... if said vehicle is my only means of transportation to facilities that would either provide parts or service to remedy the problem? Do I have to arrange for a delivery service to get the parts? Do I need to call one of you to drive my vehicle over there? Is there some random temporary tag that I need to fill out completely arbitrary and inane paperwork to get?”

Blinking at the fvalian policeman with a wide, toothy grit of her teeth masquerading as a grin, Cideeda and officer silently exchange stares for seconds. Quickly the officer presents Cideeda with a small business card, and repeats a well-worn phrase. “If you have any complaints, please contact the number listed and you may file any and all grievances.”

The policeman quickly pivots, walks over into his white cruiser, and quickly departs. When the white sedan moves off into the distance, Sotalia gazes over to the silent Cideeda. “You okay?”

Cideeda’s grip clamps tighter onto the citation as a claw tip pierces a hole into the paper. Drawing in a long breath, she pulls back her lips and growls out a long string of fvalian curses as her tail puffs out. Sotalia watches in a wide eyed surprise, and blinks in astonishment. After the long rant, Sotalia sorts through the words in her mind, and curiously restates one to Cideeda. “They should have cut your tail and stuck it in front so you wouldn’t be an embarrassment? Did I translate that correctly?”

Recovering her composure, Cideeda settles into the back of her seats, turns her head to face Sotalia, and nods. “For the most part...”

Sotalia twists her mouth, glances down the road mischievously, and perks her brow. “Want to stop by the vice store on the way back?”

Cideeda starts up the powerplant of the humvee, releases a long grumble, and smirks through the aggravation. “Yes.”

----

An aetherphone rings out on a night stand next to a bundle of covers upon a bed. Peering out from the mass of bed sheets, Cideeda’s emerald green eye spots the rattling device. She reaches out, snatches the phone back into her pile of blankets, and taps the screen to answer. “Hello?”

Listening to the caller, a smile gradually appears on the groggy Cideeda, and she slowly pulls down the sheets. Blinking to the late morning light, Cideeda rubs the sleep out of her eyes and chuckles lightly. “Thank you, mom. It’s good to hear you, too. Sorry, I haven’t called you lately. It’s been a little crazy...”

Laying out on the bed with her phone next to her ear, Cideeda listens to her mother’s voice and her mood brightens. “Yeah... To think, today twenty nine years ago, eighth of July, I surprised you and dad by coming a little early. Always been special like that.”

Slowly rising up to sit, Cideeda draws in a long breath and sighs with a roll of her eyes at herself. “I’m feeling fine. Like I said, it’s just been a bit crazy. I’ll get into that later. What have you and dad been up to? How’s the scrap and art sales doing?”

In the living area of the ranch style house, Aristespha sits sorting through another stack of paperwork. Sebastian’s ethereal form hovers nearby and he occasionally points out a section of literature questioningly. Bach reads an article on his aetherphone upon the dining table, and slides his plate of breakfast away when Sotalia’s fork wanders too far from her own. Dretphi cleans off a plate, and stores leftovers away in containers. Spiking through the peaceful ambiance, Cideeda’s utterly shocked voice penetrates down the hallway into the area. “YOU’RE WHAT?!”

The abrupt question startles the rest of the team, and they peer towards the archway leading out of the living room into the hall. Waiting and listening carefully, a flurry of bewildered fvalian blends together between the reverb and muffling of the house structure. Sotalia slides back her chair, slinks closer to the entry, and aims her pointed ear towards the source. Her golden eyes search her mind and she tries to decipher the fast spoken, native dialect of fvalian spewing forth from Cideeda. Sotalia tilts her head to the side as she pieces together some understanding of the conservation, and her eyes widen in a mix of comprehension and surprise.

The fvalian dialog stops and silence fills the area. Sotalia moves away from the archway, turns to the rest of the curious team, and starts to open her mouth. The sound of a door opening resonates down the hallway and into the living around. Soft footsteps and claw clicks echo out, and Cideeda plods into the room. With a blank expression, she maneuvers around Sotalia, through the living area, and into the kitchen space in front of the refrigerator. Opening the door, Cideeda’s eyes acquire targets, and she grabs hold of a bottle of beer in each hand. With a swift pivot pushing the fridge door close, she runs the glass container sharply down the edge of the counter top, and pops the metal cap off as she passes by into the living room.

Sebastian hovers out in front of the archway, perks an awkwardly curious brow, and approaches the question the best he can manage at the moment. “Sooo... Everything okay, Cideeda?”

Cideeda pauses before Sebastian’s visage, takes a long swig of her beer, and blinks to some awareness with a neutral tone. “Yeah... Just fine.”

Glancing over to the rest of the team, Sebastian grits his teeth briefly and attempts to pry a bit more as gently as possible. “Okay. That’s good to hear. Any news we should know about?”

Thinking a moment, Cideeda turns towards the group, searches her mind with her eyes, and shrugs her shoulders ambivalently. “Well, my mom’s pregnant, and she asked if she could turn my old room into a nursery. So... That’s a thing.”

Pivoting towards the hallway, Cideeda departs around Sebastian, walks with soft footsteps and claw clacks to her room, and shuts the door. The rest of the team stares in utter bewilderment and awkward silence.

----

Sotalia stands in front of Cideeda’s bedroom door, rests her hands on her hips, and calls out. “Come on out! You can’t stay in there all day. It’s your birthday!”

Cideeda’s voice grumbles out from the other side of the door. “Exactly! It’s my birthday and I’m choosing to spend it in here.”

Furrowing her brow, Sotalia crosses her arms incredulously, shifts her weight, and taps her foot on the hallway’s hard wood floors. “And what? Watch reruns of old cartoons on the holoplayer in a nest of alcohol and snack food?”

After a thoughtful pause, Cideeda replies defensively and snips. “Well... Yes... It’s fine. I just need a day for myself.”

Bach leans in from the living room archway with an unconvinced smirk, and directs his voice down the hall. “Yeah... From experience, that’s a REAL slippery slope. Days become weeks really easily.”

Defiant growling follows up a brief moment of quiet from Cideeda’s side of the door. Sotalia draws in a long breath, sighs out loudly, and explains with stern tone. “Well, here’s your options. One, you come out willing. Two, Sebastian phases in there and bugs you until you leave. Three, Dretphi DRAGS you out.”

She leans close to the door and projects her voice. “Regardless, you sit down, enjoy the wonderful protellow pie that Dretphi made, and open your gift from us.”

Sotalia turns her head, presses her ear against the door, and curls a satisfied smile as she listens to movement and grumbling behind the door. Stepping back, she waits a few moments and rests her hands at her sides. Cideeda opens her bedroom door, musters up her composure, and sighs. “Fine. I can’t very well let a protellow pie go to waste.”

Resting her hands on Cideeda’s shoulders, Sotalia guides Cideeda down the hallway into the living area with occasional nudge. Sotalia pulls out the chair for Cideeda at the head of the table, and slides her in. As everyone settles in at the table, Cideeda observes a small box magically slide up in front of her and smile appears on Aristespha’s face. “We decided to let you open this one first before we reveal what the rest of your gift is.”

As the team gathers close around her, Cideeda grasps hold of the package, carefully examines it, and taps it with a claw tip curiously. Lifting off the box top, she angles the opening of the box and studies the contents. As intrigue drives her attention, she slowly picks up a wooden articulated figurine of a fvalian. She blinks and puzzles at the object, carefully examining each joint. Pausing a moment, her emerald green eyes widen when she catches the glint of familiar shards of crystal. Her mind quickly pieces together a possible theory, and she glances up to the others for confirmation. At the nods from everyone else, Cideeda seats the fvalian figure upon the table top, methodically gestures through an incantation, and concentrates. Holding her hands to open to either side of the wooden figurine, she wills faint flows of magical energy down her arms into the palms of her hands.

As the miasma settles, she narrows her gaze upon the to fvalian, contorts her face, and twitches her fingers as she feels out an unseen force. The wooden figure stirs. After a few erratic movements, shudders, and twitches, Cideeda grimaces as she focuses fully. The fvalian figurine slowly, stiffly moves, and lifts its arm up.

With a few slight finger movements and straining her concentration, the wooden figure slowly waves repeatedly with a few intermittent shudders. Cideeda stares in absolute awe at the little toy figurine before her in motion, upon her command. Tears well up in her eyes, and she sniffs loudly with a smile overwhelming her. In between sobs and attempts to wipe the water off her light brown face, she chuckles with a persistent grin. “It’s... Wonderful... I don’t know... What to say...”

Sotalia stands behind the chair, wraps her arms around Cideeda, and gives her a gentle hug. “When we heard the idea, we figured it’d be something you might like.”

Cideeda releases the spell, pats Sotalia’s arm, and gazes out to everyone. “This is using the golem crystals. You all made this? When? How?”

Sotalia stands back up straight with a grin, point to the rest of the team. “Well, Sebastian was the look out. Dretphi did a lot of the wood carving for the figurine parts. Aristespha and I got the crystals ready to use. And, Bach had the idea, and helped us out in all the fine details.”

Picking up the little fvalian figure, Cideeda examines it and marvels at the construction. She carefully rests it down in its box with smile, slides back in the chair, and stands up. She walks up to each tangible member of the team and hugs them tightly. After hugging Bach, she squeezes her claw tips gently onto his forearm, and perks her brow with a sly smile. “Really good idea you had.”

Bach chuckles, and awkwardly averts his eyes with a bit of embarrassment. “Well, to be fair, I kind of got the idea from that puppet show. Just modified the idea to use the golem crystals.”

Cideeda grants Sebastian an appreciative grin with a wink. “I was wondering why I kept seeing you just around every corner.”

Settling back into the dining chair and smelling the delicious aroma of protellow pie, Cideeda gazes upon her wooden figurine with a happy smile. “You’ll have to show me how to make another one of these.”

The rest of the group individually laughs and snorts to Cideeda’s confusion. Bach rolls his eyes, slides the larger box on the table closer to Cideeda, and lifts the lid. “Well... Don’t worry. You’ll have the parts to do so...”

Dretphi bites her lower lip and shrugs her shoulders innocently. “We over produced parts. Under estimated time.”

Aristespha sighs while shaking her head. “It turns out the individual parts aren’t the problem. Assembly on the other hand was quite involved...”

Bach pulls the lid off fully, rolls his eyes, and grits his teeth briefly. “In the end, I think it’ll work out better this way for you.”

Cideeda stares in wide eyed wonder at the box of small figurine parts, small golem crystals, and other components.

----

Sitting on her bed, Cideeda gazes at the display of her aetherphone with drooping ears and frowns apologetically with a sniff. “I’m really sorry I freaked out like that, mom. It’s a been a rough few days, and... I just really wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I just let it get the better me.”

An understanding chuckle sounds out from the speakerphone, and an older fvalian woman with green eyes and light brown skin shakes her head slowly on the video feed. “Oh, Dee, there’s nothing to be sorry about. There’s a few gods I’ll need to visit their shrines extra to make up for how badly I freaked out and cursed their names. And I REALLY should have eased into THAT announcement better...”

Cideeda rolls her eyes at herself, and presents a guilty smirk. “Yeah, and not good idea to follow up immediately with asking to use my old room. But... Still that doesn’t excuse for me being such a...”

She mutters out a fvalian term, and her mother snorts amused. Cideeda pauses in thought a moment, lifts a intrigued brow, and poses a question out of the corner of her mouth. “So, how did dad take it?”

Cideeda’s mother perks up with a guilty smile. “What? My freak out, or the news?”

Puzzling at the response, Cideeda tilts her head to the side and mumbles. “Um, both?”

Gritting her teeth briefly, the older fvalian woman rubs her temple and bites her lower lip, hinting of embarrassment. “Well, nothing he hasn’t dealt with before... I did grab him pretty hard on the arms.”

An older male voice call out in the background from the other side of the call. “I’ll live. By the way, if find a deal on some new welding gloves, message me, Dee.”

Cideeda narrows an inquisitive stare at her mother through the phone, and awaits a response. Her mother sighs with a guilty shrug, and shakes her head. After a few moments, Cideeda snorts and relaxes with a long stress venting breath out. Her mother’s furry ear flicks forward and she aims an examining gaze to her daughter through the phone. “Everything okay, Dee?”

Fighting through a mix of emotional thoughts in her mind, Cideeda rocks her head side to side indecisively. “Yes? For the most part. Just feeling... Oh gods, this is going to sound so whiny. But... Just not feeling as... Special as I thought I was.”

Wincing reflexively, she grits her sharp teeth, and cringes slightly as she reviews the words in her mind. “Oh gods, that sounds so awful. I don’t know... I guess I took comfort in certain things that didn’t change, and well... Being you and dad’s special, only child was one of those things, and it hit me kinda hard?”

Covering her face with her hand, Cideeda groans as she grimaces with an awkward twist to her mouth. “Shit, it just keeps sounding worse the more I explain it.”

Humored laughter rises from the other side of the call, and Cideeda’s mother smiles brightly and shakes her head. “It’s okay. I remember that happening a few times to me.”

She moves the camera closer, and smiles with a loving, green eyed gaze to Cideeda. “So you know, when I was trying to figure what to do... I thought about all the wonderful times I had when you were growing up. All those special moments, and how I’d get to share new moments like those... with you.”

Mother and daughter both smile, and gaze happily into each other’s green eyes. After a few moments, a sly grin appears on Cideeda’s face, and she presents a prying question. “So, mom, have you and dad thought about names?”

Her mother blinks a moment, releases an uncertain breath, and groans with an eye roll. “Gods, Dee, YOU KNOW we don’t plan things like this! I never imagined having another child, especially when I’m almost fifty. I haven’t even told my own mother yet...”

Cideeda’s eyes widen and she covers her mouth in humored surprise. “You HAVEN’T told Grandma Garadra yet?!”

Embarrassment reveals itself plain Cideeda’s mother’s face. She grits her sharp teeth, and sighs. “I KNOW! I know. Just... Just one thing at a time right now.”

With a comforting smile, Cideeda hums to herself and thinks out loud. “It’s okay. Let’s see... Let’s go through some boys names first.”

-75-

Pressing firmly upon the confirmation button on her tablet’s display, Aristespha wrestles a grimace upon her ivory face, and draws an uncertain breath. Allowing the device to slide through her hands down upon the tabletop, she slouches back into her chair and releases an apprehensive sigh. “Gods helps us...”

Sebastian’s ghostly figure briefly grits his teeth, and presents an assuring smile to Aristespha. “Dear, it’s going to be okay. We’ve done all we can on our end.”

Fighting the nagging doubt creeping to the front of his mind, Sebastian’s smirk weakens and he trails off. “Just hope that other people believe our intentions were good...”

Slowly pushing a pile of paperwork off to the side, Bach rests his head upon the table, and groans out his frustrations. “I swear these laws are designed to allow people to get away before anyone can file the paperwork to go after them.”

Wrapping his arms around the sides of his head, he lifts his face up and props his chin upon his folded forearms with a slight frown. “I mean... I understand you don’t want people running around doing off the wall vigilante shit. But, how the fuck are you suppose to go after obvious problems when you see them?”

Sotalia slowly walks on by the table top from the couch, pauses a moment to grant a commiserating smile to Aristespha, Bach, and Sebastian, and scoops up the last bit of cereal from the bowl in her hands. “Simply put... You don’t.”

Shaking her head with a smirk, she sighs and rolls her golden eyes. “From my experience, the only things that are legally safe for adventurers to do are from the guild. Everything else is a fucking legal minefield.”

Aristespha gradually nods, combs out a length of her long, silvery blue hair, and occupies her hands by idly braiding it. “With any kind of disturbance, the local police will investigate and consult the guild. Then, if anything that smells like a violation, they will dig further.”

She closes her violet eyes, exhales out her nerves, and twists her mouth. “And given how well they received us at the station, I’m certain they’ll be looking for any reason to question our uses of first response law and circumstantial procedures.”

Sebastian grins warmly to Aristespha and gazes lovingly at her. “I think you did a good job filling everything out. Hopefully, they’ll be too busy trying to find Noxian to really dig too deeply into what flushed him out. I would hope he’d be the bigger priority.”

Sotalia nods her head as she struts off into the kitchen area and snorts. “Gods, I’d hope that’d be a priority for them. Then again, given that officer writing a ticket for a fucking taillight, I’m not so certain.”

An annoyed grumble escapes Cideeda and drifts over to the table from the couch. She aims the television remote and flips through another set of channels. Aristespha bites her lower lip uncomfortably, and squirms out the unease throughout her body. “I have tried my best to fill everything out I can, as properly as possible, so that casual reading will paint a... legal picture of what happened.”

She grits her teeth briefly, winces with a breath in, and slumps her shoulders on the exhale. “But, if anyone observant sits down and examines it thoroughly... They are going to notice all the omissions and sparse information surrounding our questionable activities. So... I don’t know what will happen at this point.”

Finishing up the small braid, she gradually combs out her hair with her fingers, sighs, and shakes her head. “I just fear what the repercussions will be. It’d be one thing if we had apprehended Noxian. So much would be looked over with that kind of result. Without him in custody, we’re the only ones left to focus on.”

Staring distantly out on the table top, Aristespha shrinks in her chair slightly, frowns sadly, and contends with a swell of worry from within. “Depending on who gets involved with Grand Library and pushes the most, they might use this incident to pull the funding on our efforts to chase after Noxian and redirect it to some other team. The guild could see fit to put violations on our adventuring licenses and restrict what jobs we can do. And, that’s not even counting what the local authorities would do...”

Propping her arms upon the table by the elbows, Aristespha sinks her face into her hands and exhales deeply with a slow shake of her head. Her ears perk slightly when Dretphi places a mug of freshly brewed coffee in front of her. Aristespha peeks out, lowers her hands around the cup, and smiles appreciatively to Dretphi. “Thank you.”

Bach furrows his brow, hums to himself, and shrugs his shoulders. “Well, if it comes to that... I guess we’ll just have to go underground with going after Noxian.”

He lifts his head up, dons a bold smile, and speaks encouragingly towards Aristespha and Sebastian. “I ain’t stopping at this point. So, I’ll help make it work one way or another. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done some... less than official deals.”

Sebastian smirks towards his brother, nods thankfully, and ethereally sighs. “Thanks, bro. Let’s hope for the best for now.”

Aristespha smiles to Bach with a hint of relief easing some of the discomfort turning underneath the surface. Seconds later, Sotalia pauses in thought, eyes Bach through the bar opening, and lifts an incredulous brow. “Okay, okay... What kind of under handed dealings could YOU have possibly done?”

Bach crosses his arms, glances over to Sotalia, and summons up some confidence with a defensive tint. “Nothing big... Or terrible. But, I may have sold information and a few scrolls that may have defeated certain devices’ security measures.”

Sebastian narrows his gaze at Bach, cocks his head to the side, and snorts. “What? Selling scrolls to get free stuff from vending machines? I mean that was good racket back in school until they put new ones in.”

Grimacing out an uncomfortable memory, Bach darts his eyes around and mutters through his embarrassment. “Ah, um... Well, more like slot machines.”

Cideeda’s furry ears flick over towards the conversation, while the rest of the team’s collective curiosity focuses upon Bach. After a few moments, Bach sighs, drops his head briefly, and meets the expectant gazes. “Okay. Long story short. I ran into some guy at a bar. Got to talking about tricks I’ve done with magic and machines... And, he mentioned he had some old, antique slot machine in his garage. So, I had nothing better to do. I swung by his place on the way back from the bar. We goofed around with it, and I figured out a way to manipulate the result.”

Cideeda blinks in thought, searches her mind, and ponders to herself. Rolling his eyes at himself, Bach grimaces at the past and rubs his temples. “The guy got really interested in that trick, and offered me some money if I could encode the trick into a scroll. Well, rent was due and the fridge was empty... so I did.”

He twists his mouth, draws in a long breath, and contends with his unease. “What I didn’t know is that the guy knew some people. They knew of a place that was still using that ancient model. So, they copied that scroll and used it.”

Widening her emerald green eyes with recognition, Cideeda sits up on the couch, stares at Bach across the room, and tilts her head to the side. “Wait... I remember hearing something like this. Wasn’t one guy found in-”

Bach shudders and frowns with prominent disgust. “Ten pieces across SIX COUNTIES. YEAH! After that, I kept to bar game scrolls. So, glad I moved soon after that.”

In a mix of disbelief and fascination, Cideeda crosses her arms and narrows her attention upon Bach. “Oh my gods... Now it makes sense. I read about that whole incident and wondered how they got such specific scrolls that didn’t trip normal magical detection measures.”

Sotalia pulls a sly smirk across her face, lifts an inquisitive brow at Bach, and presents a curious tone. “So, Bach, what if-”

Bach snaps his stare right at Sotalia, and clearly pronounces. “NO.”

----

Bach opens the door leading into the garage, steps down the stairs, and pauses a moment. Shifting his attention from his sidecar motorcycle, he notices the glow of bright afternoon sun radiating from the open garage door. Allowing his blue eyes to adjust to the light, he narrows a curious gaze at the humvee in the driveway. He cocks his head to side, focuses upon the open hood of the engine compartment, and watches Cideeda’s legs hanging out upon the side fender. He wanders over to the mechanical ratchet noises clicking out, and grumbles of Cideeda straining. Arriving at the side of the humvee, Bach watches Cideeda’s hand rise up from another part of the engine area, and grip tightly to part of the frame. With slight shifts of her body, Cideeda secures her backwards flexed self down into the engine access of the military vehicle, underneath the powerplant, and tightens her ankles hooked under the lip of the fender wheel well. Bach puzzles at the scene, leans over the front corner of the vehicle, and glances down inside with a perplexed tone. “There’s got to be a better way to do whatever you are doing.”

Cideeda’s tail flicks sharply a few times before settling into a slow wag, and she snorts with a light chuckle. “Maybe, but for what I need to do, this is actually a lot faster.”

Bach narrows his gaze as he searches through the maze of pipes, electrical lines, and supporting components around the central cylindrical powerplant. “Really? Because I doubt the service manual has anything requiring the technician be capable of quite literally bending over backwards and slipping inside the engine area.”

Finishing a series of tightening cranks of a ratchet driver, Cideeda peeks her emerald green eyes through a narrow passageway between engine area machinery, and perks a confident brow. “True. To be fair, there were originally huge, ancient battery packs blocking the way on either side. But, those got replaced with new underside packs when we first fixed this thing up.”

Searching for a good view of Cideeda’s next target, Bach twists his mouth a bit unconvinced, and scratches his head. “Yeah, but can’t you just go from underneath the thing? That has to be the way the designers originally intended for it to be fixed.”

Wagging her tail in sync with the flexes of her body, Cideeda sighs and audibly rolls her eyes with a laugh. “Intended, yes. Practical, no. The correct route is to go from underneath... Which requires jacking the vehicle up a meter, unbolting thirty large bolts, getting two or three people to lower the underside armor plate, and THEN you can do what you need to do.”

Her hand slips down momentarily and rises back out through another clear corridor to claw onto new spot for support. “If I was going to completely overhaul the power distribution module, rework the turbine exhaust thermal converters, or finally change out this old hydraulic fluid reservoir... Yeah, I’ll go through the few extra hours of work, since I’ll already be investing quite a few hours anyway.”

She raps her sharp finger tips upon the metal structure of the humvee, and sighs. “But, I’m just tightening a few bolts that might need it.”

Bach thinks about the logistics a moment, slowly nods in agreement, and shrugs his shoulders. “Fair point. Still, it seems like it would be easy to get tools stuck down there, much less yourself.”

With an annoyed tone, Cideeda groans out past stale frustrations, and her tail sharply flicks out her irritation. “No shit. There’s actually no easy side access to get to anything you’ve dropped. Not even a removable access panel in the wheel well. The only reason I figured out I could fit under here was because I was so angry at losing three wrenches down here when we were broken down on the side of the road.”

Flexing her body down further into the underside of the engine area, Cideeda stretches out and strains to reach a distant bolt in a crowded section of components. “Why anyone would engineer a pit of fucking despair in any vehicle is beyond me. Anyway, just got to check this one bolt and I’m done.”

Reaching out to her furthest limit, she slips end of her socket wrench onto the awkward bolt, rotates the handle a few ratcheting clicks, and pulls it back. After a few tense moments of applying force, she gives a final tug before slipping the wrench off. “Still good there. Time to back out of here.”

Putting the socket wrench back in her shorts pocket, Cideeda secures her grip below, and releases her hold above. Weaving through previous corridor of clearance, she tentatively grips upon an engine support as she reverses direction underneath. Applying her weight onto the new hand hold, her fingers attempt to tighten upon a spattering of hydraulic fluid, and promptly slip. She yelps and hisses in surprise. Scrambling for a new hand hold, she slides down further into the engine area. “AH FUCK!”

Her ankles slip free of the wheel well lip, her tail puffs out, and her legs find partial purchase hooking against the hood and bodywork. Bach swiftly side steps in front of the flailing fvalian, reaches quickly down with both hands, and grasps the panicked Cideeda firmly around her waist. “Don’t worry, I got you!”

Seconds later after a few tail twitches, Cideeda promptly wraps her legs around Bach, crosses them behind his back, and tightens her hold. The sudden force from Cideeda draws Bach firmly against the side fender, and he blinks absolutely dumbfounded as Cideeda pulls herself out of the vehicle and up to close to Bach. Squirming around, aligning herself, and sliding Bach over, Cideeda grips onto each of Bach’s forearms with a hand each, contorts herself briefly, and gradually slips her head clear of the last obstruction. With a final flex and twist of her body, she rights herself to a seat upon the top of the side fender and ends up face to face with Bach. Bach widens his blue eyes, Cideeda blinks her emerald green eyes, and both gaze at each other across the mere centimeters between their noses in silence.

Hints of red coloring his cheeks, Bach awkwardly stumbles upon his words and fumbles at maintaining a cool exterior. “Uh... um... You okay?”

Cideeda smirks slightly with a perk of her furry ears, and calmly replies. “Oh. Yes. Just freaked out a little bit. If you slide down there too far, it’s a pain in the ass get out.”

She glances down at the tight wrap of her legs around Bach, flits her eyes open, and relaxes her hold completely. “It can get a scary, too. So, I REALLY wanted to avoid that.”

Averting his gaze in breaks from direct eye contact with Cideeda, Bach nervously replies as the slight blush spreads out on his face. His situational awareness finally reminds him of Cideeda’s waist in his hands, and he quickly releases his grasp. “Oh, yeah... I could imagine. I mean, I’m not exactly claustrophobic, but that’d be a bit much for me.”

Cideeda briefly, gently squeezes Bach’s forearms with her claw tips, slides her hands off, and resettles upon her seat. Moments of awkward silence later, she glances behind her and narrows a stare at a particular spot in the engine area. “Damn hydraulic oil. Never had a spot show up there before.”

Bach cracks a nervous smile and shrugs his shoulders. “Well, I guess it was the first time this thing has been flipped over?”

Rolling her eyes at herself, she returns her gaze towards Bach with a humored smirk. “Yeah, and speaking of that reservoir I’ve been meaning to replace.”

Struggling to maintain his composure under the close attention, Bach glances over to a few small dents on the bodywork off to the side. “So... Uh... How do you normally take care of dents like that?”

Cideeda turns her attention to the blemishes upon the metal exterior of the vehicle and sighs with a frustrated curl to her mouth. “A lot of hammering and being unsatisfied with the results. It’s a cycle of disappointment really.”

Bach smiles with a humble chuckle and motions over to the dents. “Well, I could probably work some of those out easily enough.”

Thinking a moment, Cideeda presents a toothy grin to Bach, and perks an intrigued eyebrow. “That’s right... You should be able to easily fix those little dents. I’m going to have to take you up on that offer.”

Shifting to another thought in her mind, she settles to an appreciative smile, averts her slightly bashful expression momentarily, and then focuses upon Bach. “By the way, I really love my birthday gift. I REALLY needed something that perfect to break me out of the funk.”

Bach grins awkwardly, shrugs his shoulders casually, and presents a nonchalant tone. “Well, it was a group effort. Dretphi carved most of the figurine, and helped with fitting things together. Aristespha and Sotalia got the crystals just right. And Sebastian kept you from learning about it, and suggested where to hide everything. I just gave them the idea and helped with the details here and there...”

Cideeda tilts her head to the side, grins warmly, and perks her furry ears up as she brushes back some stray hairs in her face. “It wouldn’t have turned out so well if someone didn’t know exactly what I’d like. So, thank you, again.”

She giggles brightly and stretches her posture out gradually. “I can’t wait to fit a few of those crystals in a few spare units, and surprise everyone at the game shop.”

Bach furrows his brow at Cideeda, twists his mouth into a smirk, and snorts humored. “Good gods, that’s going to freak out a few immediately, and soon after get them ready to throw money for something similar.”

An entrepreneurial smile graces Cideeda’s light brown face, and she gazes up to Bach with a laugh. “Guess we need to keep a lookout for more of that crystal, because I’m keeping my gift. Also, I need to learn a few of your tricks when it comes to wiring them up.”

Bach chuckles out some of his nervous energy, feels the blush of pink forming in his cheeks, and glances over towards the garage. “Yeah well... All in good time. Speaking of time, you think Dretphi’s got dinner done yet?”

Cideeda turns her head towards the house, draws in a number of a sniffing breaths through the her nose, and mulls over the results. “Smells like she’s getting close. It’s probably still in the oven.”

Pointing a thumb over to the kitchen door in the garage, Bach turns towards the ranch style house. “I’m going to go check if she needs help on anything.”

Granting a nod, Cideeda glances over to the engine area behind, sighs, and narrows her stare. “Yeah. I need to close this up and clean up anyway.”

She pauses a moment, grins toothily, and lifts a curious brow. “Mind helping with adjusting a few miniatures after dinner?”

Pausing his first step, Bach glances back, and nods with a smile. “Sure.”

Widening her eyes briefly, Cideeda aims her gaze down at her tail, and feels Bach slip out from its loose coiling wrap around his upper legs. As Bach departs into the garage, Cideeda thinks a moment, and flicks her tail around. After sorting through her thoughts, she bites her lower lip, curls her toes briefly, raps her fingers upon the metal of the humvee, and slowly wags her tail. A hint of pink fills her cheeks, as she fidgets a little and her thoughtful expression warms.

----

Aristespha slowly plods through the hallway, searches through the confusion in her mind, and gradually nods to the other side of the aetherphone call. She stops her pacing, tilts her head slightly, and grimaces bewildered. “No. That’s very good to hear. Yes, I appreciate your efforts, and I’m very happy the report satisfied your investigation.”

Blinking uneasily, she maintains a supportive vocal facade and contorts her face as her mind puzzles deeper. “Of course. Happy to be of service. Feel free contact me if there’s anything further you need. ... Goodbye.”

She removes the phone from her long pointed ear, stares absolutely perplexed at the screen, and shifts her posture with her thoughts. Idly tapping her socked foot softly upon the hardwood hallway floor, she wipes the screen off on her loose shirt, and rests her other hand on the waistband of her shorts. Tossing her long, silvery blue hair back, her violet eyes search aimlessly in her head for an explanation. After many futile seconds, mumbles of exasperated evuukian roll out of Aristespha’s mouth, and she furrows a frustrated brow. She resumes her walk to the archway leading into the living room and stops at the threshold. Rolling her shoulders, she fights back against the incredulous curl in her upper lip, and hems to get the attention of Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia. “Well, I just got off the phone with Amaranth Valley police...”

The mood in the room sharply drops as worry and dread surfaces upon everyone’s face. Biting her lower lip briefly, Aristespha draws in a long breath, and announces in disbelief, shaking her head. “We are no longer under investigation and completely cleared of any possible violations.”

Silence hangs out for mere moments before relief blasts it out of the room completely. Sotalia reclines back into the couch chair, stretching her arms out, and laughs out her anxieties. “Oh gods! You had me going there for a minute. That’s fucking amazing news!”

Cideeda’s furry ears perk up, her tail wags with a light sway as she flops back on the couch back. “No kidding! Part of me wants to ask if I can have my cameras back, but I think I’ll cut and run while I’m ahead. Small price to let them leave the issue alone.”

Dretphi releases a long sigh, relaxes her shoulders, and returns to preparing lunch. “Good news. Wonderful outcome.”

Bach melts a bit into his stabilized energy lounge chair, and exhales out his worry. “One less thing to worry about... for now.”

Sebastian’s ethereal form drifts up next to Aristepsha. He studies her expression, body language, and grumbles of evuukian under her breath. Leaning close to her, he inquires further with concern in his tone. “Dear, you okay? You don’t seem happy about this. Something wrong?”

Aristespha tugs at either corner of her mouth, groans unsatisfied, and sighs annoyed. “Sebastian... There’s NO WAY they properly read that report I wrote! Gods damn it... I know this is good for us... But, how did we get this result?! A few fines, further explanation on the reports for an ongoing investigation, or even a probationary period granted due to extenuating circumstances... Those results I can understand. Absolution?! NO.”

She rubs her eyes into a pinch of the bridge of her nose, draws a long breath in, and calms herself down. “I’m sorry. Something else is going on to have allowed this. I mean it sounded like the officer was completely satisfied with the report. Actual satisfaction. Supportive even! It’s just- Gods, something else has happened and I don’t know what. Because nothing I did could have gotten this for us.”

Sebastian crosses his arms, glances around, and frowns slightly. “Yeah, thinking about it... It doesn’t quite add up.”

Alternating flicks of her furry ears, Cideeda thoughtfully scratches her chin with a claw tip, and twists her mouth sorting through the possibilities. “Maybe they confirmed it was Noxian, and are just glad we ran into him first rather than any of their people. They may not care much for us... BUT... I doubt they’d ignore the utility of someone else going after a problem they don’t want to deal with.”

Bach taps a finger on the arm of his chair, rocks his head side to side, and shrugs indecisively. “Something else may have happened and made us look good in comparison? Thinking about that, we might want to check the news just in case.”

While suspicion and mystery drives the debate further, a familiar chime rings out from Aristespha’s aetherphone, and she eyes the caller identification. A sly smirk cracks across her mouth, and she chuckles with a roll of her eyes. “Oh. Nevermind. Here’s my answer.”

She quickly taps a few onscreen buttons, holds the phone out in front of her, and announces with a satisfied grin. “Hello, Captain Hackle. It has been a while.”

Captain Hackle’s voice resonates out into the room through Aristespha’s speakerphone, blatantly amused. “It indeed has, Aristespha. I hope everyone is doing well after recent events.”

A wry curl appears at the corner of Aristespha’s mouth, and she lifts an intrigued brow. “Which I’m certain you’ve had some involvement in.”

With a respectful chuckle, Captain Hackle sighs and elaborates. “A little. Just an appropriate, choice amount. Your report was masterfully done, and made it very easy for my organization to... explain the vague points with details that we could only provide.”

A sly tinge colors his voice as Captain Hackle continues his explanation. “I just simply informed the local department that for this particular long term, GAA investigation to operate properly, we needed a certain team of experts to operate separately and independently. Keep up appearances and maintain the expectations of our target. It was unfortunate we couldn’t involve the Amaranth Valley police department sooner before this recent incident, but it was thought we had to act before any great harm to the city was allowed to transpire. And, through the efforts out independent experts, a far greater disaster was averted.”

The team collectively stares at the aetherphone as emotions rotate through appreciation, incredulity, and apprehension. Cideeda smirks wryly and lifts a suspicious eye brow. “So, what is that explanation going to cost us?”

Presenting a thankful tone through the call, Captain Hackle calmly replies. “Nothing more. You’ve already done us a great favor recently with the containment of that nightmarish hell of a blob. Doing your due diligence and going well beyond the call of duty has saved many lives that will never know they were at risk. I want you all to know that your group handling all these hidden dangers has NOT gone unnoticed. So, consider this bit of creative administrative outreach our thanks.”

Bach blinks a bit as another wave of relief washes over him, but he narrows his stare at towards the phone and contorts his mouth with a question. “By the way, is IT still around?”

Captain Hackle grumbles out a bit of disappointment and verbally rolls his eyes. “Unfortunately so. IT has proven to be difficult to handle safely. We are very appreciative for the magical barrier you all left behind. But, handling THAT monstrosity has been reassigned to a group with more appropriate equipment to enforce containment, with specific orders eliminate the entire hill from existence if it tries to escape.”

Dretphi draws in a long breath and releases a sigh of relief. “That is reassuring.”

With a comforting tone, Captain Hackle continues and proposes. “I agree. Now, on to business... I have a simple offer. With recent troubles at the Grand Library, Noxian has become a bit of priority for a number of organizations and we are authorized to use our resources to track him down. We want to follow up on this fresh trail with our resources, but we have a pressing matter that’s preventing us from doing so. If you all can address it, I will devote my team to getting the best information on where Noxian has gone and relaying it to you.”

Sebastian floats closes to Aristespha’s aetherphone, eyes the device with a bit of suspicion, and inquiries further. “Can you provide any details about the pressing matter?”

Captain Hackle’s voice chuckles over the speakerphone and he elaborates on the situation with a calm tone. “Of course. Simply put, there’s been some strange phenomena happening, northwest of Amaranth Valley, in Ark. In a specific farming region, there’s been reports of odd noises, steam eruptions, and thermal anomalies. We have checked with geologists and they report nothing that should be causing this. And, any historians we have asked haven’t been able to turn up anything in that area. That unfortunately doesn’t mean that much, to be honest.”

Aristespha quirks a curious brow and glances over to Sotalia. “Maybe leftovers from the last maelstrom?”

Sotalia ponders out loud, searches her mind with her golden eyes, and idly plays with her fiery orange, wavy hair. “Maybe... Usually, strange things happen right after a maelstrom, but not always. But, I think Ark wasn’t directly in line with the maelstrom?”

She rolls her eyes, and eases out an annoyed groan. “Then again, doesn’t mean something couldn’t have been launched that far from the storm. I’ve heard of stranger things.”

Captain Hackle continues in a commiserating tone. “Yes, it’s an odd series of events, and we haven’t been able to find an easy explanation, hence why we were set on investigating it. But, given your group’s track record in handling strange situations, I thought this might be a good trade. Standard contract through the guild with a proper payment upon completion. All I require is an investigation into the phenomena and identification of what may be the cause.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage nods thoughtfully, turns to the group, and address the team. “So, thoughts everyone?”

Dretphi grumbles with a reserved tone, and contorts her face with a bit of hesitation. “No known monstrosities. I will be fine. For now.”

Sotalia glances over from checking her aetherphone and smirks. “It’s probably some stray maelstrom junk that just activated for whatever reason. I’m good with going out there.”

Cideeda shrugs her shoulders, stretches out her arms and back, and smiles. “A job is a job.”

Sebastian glances over to his brother. Bach lifts a mockingly wary brow and snorts. “This one doesn’t involve thudkickers, so that’s step in the right direction.”

Aristespha exchanges a loving gaze with Sebastian, and directs her voice to her phone. “I think that’s a group acceptance.”

Hackle’s voice brightens from the other side of the call. “Excellent. I’ll have Sergeant Violet ready the bid into the guild system and send it over to your group in the next hour.”

Sebastian dons a bold, proud grin, and nods towards the aetherphone. “Sounds like a plan. We’ll see what we can find out for you. Be careful tracking down Noxian, he seemed really motivated on getting away last we saw him.”

With an appreciative tone, Hackle replies with similar sentiment. “I will heed your advice. Please be careful yourselves. While I hope this is nothing more than late maelstrom leftovers, we all know anything can happen. I’d like ALL of you to continue your hunt for Noxian after I get you the info.”

----

The morning sun creeps in through the sliding glass door into the living area of the ranch style house. Dretphi methodically checks down a list on a pad of paper with pencil marking the side of line items. She glances up, visually searches between a collection of boxes arranged on the living room floor, and spots the relevant label on one container. She directs her attention back to the list and scratches another check mark on the next line item.

Aristespha’s voice faintly echoes from the hallway in between pacing soft footsteps on the hardwood floors. With relief in her voice, she walks out with her aetherphone pressed to her ear, and a smile on her face. “Thank you very much, I’m so glad you have a room that will work for us. Have a nice day.”

She taps the end call button her phone, releases a long exhale, and slouches her shoulders. “Gods almighty, that took some effort. But, I found a place with a large room with enough beds for all of us, and actual space to store our equipment.”

Sotalia glances over from the kitchen area with a flask in each hand, and perks her brow curiously. “Really? Where did you find a place like that? Most hotels have gone to smaller rooms, so they can charge more.”

Aristespha slides her phone into her shorts pocket, shrugs, and gazes back, hinting at surprise. “It’s actually a proper tavern still geared towards supporting adventuring groups in that traditional style. The receptionist was trying to sell me on the theme like I was tourist. Then, she realized we were an actual adventuring team, and dropped trying to sell that point to me. Cut straight to business after that.”

Pondering a moment, Sotalia briefly diverts her attention to swirling each flask of liquid in her hands, studies the slight color shift, and resumes her work. “That might be a fun place to stay. Hope it’s as nice as Goff’s place was.”

Rubbing her long pointed ear gently, Aristespha walks over to the couch and settles down on a cushion. “Well, hard to beat a passion project like that. But, it’s a place to sleep that isn’t the humvee, and we’re not going that far from civilization.”

Dretphi finds a spot on the other side of the couch, relaxes into the seat, and drops off her pencil and paper pad on the coffee table. “Enough supplies for the mission. If we venture far from the city, we should stock up. As a precaution.”

The kitchen door from the garage opens, and Cideeda steps through with a toothy grin on her face, and announces happily. “Our ride is properly fixed up.”

Rolling her emerald green eyes with a derisive undertone, she rests her hands on her hips, lowers her furry ears, and grumbles out. “And, the local authoritative assholes are satisfied with the repairs I’ve done to the taillight. Also, paid the court fees.”

She walks over to the fridge, opens the door, and searches through the stock of drinks. “Fifty minute wait to settle something in less than five minutes. I even showed up when the court house opened.”

Sotalia takes a break from her alchemy preparation, glances over to Cideeda, and smirks amused. “Did you get your license updated?”

Pulling out a can of fruit juice, Cideeda flashes an incredulous sneer at Sotalia, snorts shaking her head, and laughs. “You’d think I’d be back here now if I did that? I thought my wait was bad, until I realized the same people I saw in that line coming in were in the same spots when I was coming out.”

Cracking open the pull top to the beverage, Cideeda grits her teeth, sighs reluctantly, and walks over to the dining table. “I think I’ll do that when I literally and figuratively have nothing better to do with my life.”

Smiling slyly, Sotalia uses a glass rod to stir up a swirling concoction of reagents in a glass beaker, and chuckles to herself. “I look forward to expanding my knowledge of fvalian insults in the future.”

Hovering nearby, Sebastian studies printouts of the mission description and a labeled map on the dining table. Bach sorts through the lists of information in front of him, and eases back into his chair. “I don’t, man. Something about this seems a bit off. The first reported incident happen a little over a week ago, and more came in quickly after that.”

Squinting at the map, Sebastian examines the highlighted points indicated, and contemplatively contorts his face as hints of suspicion rise to the surface. “Yeah, bro. The weird part of it is that the reports sound like people are discovering something that’s already been going on, rather than a new instance.”

Bach nods in agreement, flips through a few pages of report details, and cocks his head to the side. “That make some sense. Most of these locations are in big farms.”

Sebastian lifts an inquisitive brow, and gestures toward the literature of the accounts. “Did anyone mention what crops currently growing out there?”

Searching through the lines of text, Bach frowns slightly as he taps his finger down upon below a few phrases, and sighs. “Corn, sunflowers, and protellows.”

Humming in thought, Sebastian twists his mouth slightly, and grumbles. “Oh... So basically everything that’s tall, leafy, and hides everything within it.”

With a tight smile, Bach groans mildly frustrated. “Yep. That probably explains why all the reports came so quickly after each other. People checked the fields closely and finally started finding all the phenomena.”

Cideeda flicks her ears, raps a hand of claw tips on the tabletop, and finishes taking a swig from her drink. “Yeah, I’m still wondering about the rumbling noises and ground shaking. What was the description again...”

She traces a claw down a printout of text, settles upon a line, and reads it out. “Let’s see... It sounded and felt like someone was blasting out a rock with dynamite. I’d have to hear it myself. But a loud sound that shakes the ground? That makes me think something had to of blown up.”

Sebastian crosses his arms, sorts through his thoughts, and narrows his stare at the map. “Yeah. But what exactly?”

Aristespha glances over from the couch, rests her head upon the back rest, and directs her voice to the debate. “There are maelstrom anomalies that do explode given the right trigger. They typically don’t last long and I’ve never heard of them waiting this long after a maelstrom to go off.”

Mulling over the many possibilities, Sebastian relaxes his shoulders, frowns in temporary defeat, and gazes over the team. “Well, I don’t think we’re solving it today. We’ll just have to wait till we get there and see it for ourselves.”

Sotalia’s stomach growls quietly, and she blinks a moment before glancing over. “Anyone hungry? It’s getting close to lunch time.”

A mischievous, toothy grin appears on Cideeda’s face, and she presents an innocent tone. “Fval Spice?”

Sebastian smirks amused, and shakes his head. “You are wearing that place out.”

Cideeda finishes her drink, tosses the can in a perfect arc to the garbage can in the kitchen, and slowly pulls the key fob for the humvee out of her shorts pocket. “Hey, I’ll drive. Plus, you all have to see all the dents that AREN’T in the bodywork now.”

Glancing over with a smile, she winks to Bach as she walks towards the kitchen. “If all else fails, you have future in metal working.”

Bach blinks a moment, and narrows his eyes with a smirk as sarcasm colors his voice. “Oh good, I’m so happy by my post-adventuring career options are growing.”

----

Samantha excitedly twirls to a step forward, and grins in anticipation at Gerald. “I can’t WAIT for the ratings tonight! This going to be an amazing episode! Competition with the other team, family drama, and so much more!”

Gerald glances over from his aetherphone to Samantha, and contorts his neutral smile. “Yeah... I guess. It’s not everyday I get to almost witness a murder or two.”

Staring over to Gerald, Samantha crosses her arms with hints of defiance. “Oh, it’ll be fine. We’ve had far bigger actual fights on the show in previous seasons. But, nothing like the build up to this one. I knew the fight was going to be a big draw, but the father and son falling out at the end... Too perfect.”

She holds her ringing phone up and reads off caller identification on the screen. “It’s Howie! I bet he just viewed the raw episode and is calling us.”

Quickly placing the phone on a nearby desk, she taps an on-display button for the speakerphone and cheerfully chimes out. “Hey, Howie! Did you watch the episode?”

Summoning up a modicum of enthusiasm, Howard’s voice trickles through from the other side of the call and he sighs. “Yes. It’s going to do quite well. I think the ratings will be worth it... They better be.”

Samantha’s joy deflates down to confusion, and she puzzles out loud towards the phone. “You don’t sound all too thrilled there, Howie. What’s wrong?”

Gerald lifts an intrigued brow at the conversation and pries into the situation. “Yeah, usually you and Samantha would be plotting your next move to take over the world by now. Something happen?”

A long, exaggerated groan rolls into the room from the speakerphone, and Howie grumbles out his frustrations. “Well, it turns out that NO ONE on the investigation team cared to inform me that one of Trakenthin’s house mothers... IS A FUCKING LAWYER!”

Samantha and Gerald exchange wary looks, and shift their focus upon the voice coming out of Samantha’s phone. Howard’s growls out his aggravations and lists out his complaints. “Of all things to NOT bring to my attention! Not even a simple by the way one of his moms is a lawyer. No, I had to be on the phone ALL DAY with the legal department finding out how litigious and savage that woman is! It took everything I had to get them to allow tonight’s episode to even air. I had to basically promise them that we will still come out ahead if it aired and we had to eventually pay a settlement.”

Dragging a long exasperated sigh, he musters up his will to continue the conversation. “So... To say the least... NO MORE drama pieces involving Trakenthin’s family! Understood!?”

Samantha stares wide eyed at her aetherphone, and gradually nods with an awkward, uncomfortable smile. “Yes, of course, Howie. That shouldn’t be too difficult, and anyway we got the key pieces we need to make this episode... So... I’ll focus on other aspects for the next one.”

Howard calls through the other side of the conversation in a commanding tone. “Gerald! Make sure she does so. And, let the editing staff know to bury those clips with Trakenthin and Trenannin, and keep them from using them in as even background clips for intro and outros.”

Gerald quickly nods and twists his mouth into an uneasy agreement of the demanded terms. “Uh, yeah. You got it. I’ll message them right now.”

Samantha speaks at her phone with an apologetic tone. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

With a long calming exhale, Howard draws in an equally long breath and wanders around in thought out loud. “It’s okay. No fault on you all. Really. It was my plan that backfired on me. So, that’s fine. I’ll be able to handle it well enough. Now... There is one thing you all can do for me.”

Gerald quirks his brow, and eyes the speakerphone warily. “And, what would THAT be?”

Howard hums in thought, and grumbles out his frustration. “If you overhear anything about what the rest of Trakenthin’s house does for a living... LET ME KNOW. He has his birth mother, three house mothers, and three house sisters. If there’s ANYTHING I should be on the lookout for, I NEED to know so I don’t get blindsided by another lawsuit, or worse. I dread to think of what else they might try to get back at me.”

He reiterates his sentiment and emphasizes his intention. “Seriously, if you even overhear enough to suspect that one of them is a current or retired black ops assassin, or someone who can get government permission to take someone out... FOR FUCK’S SAKE! LET. ME. KNOW!”

-76-

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia stand around the humvee in the parking lot in front of a thematically old wooden building. They collectively observe the many questionable facets of the kitschy attempt at a classic inn. Beneath the thin outer facade, hints of modern design peek through and reveal the tourism intent. After a minute of silent analysis, Sotalia lifts a critical brow above her sunglasses, and glances over to Aristespha with a slight curl to her upper lip. “So, how much was this place a night?”

Aristespha quickly flips through a few screens on her aetherphone, presents the display towards Sotalia, and rolls her eyes under the shade of her floppy hat. “Economical enough.”

Sotalia lowers her sunglasses, reads the modest pricing on the device, and shrugs her shoulders as she returns her attention to the structure. “Okay. Fair enough. I’ll tolerate it for that price.”

Twisting his mouth, Bach releases an unenthusiastic sigh and musters up a smirk. “Yeah, I think Goff’s place has really broken the scale I judge by.”

Crossing her arms, Cideeda taps her clawed fingers on her arms and snorts in agreement. “Gods, yes. Was just thinking the same. Admittedly, it’s not THAT bad. Just geared for a different crowd. I know a few reenactment geeks that would love to stay the weekend in a place like this.”

Bach smiles slightly as he puts his hands in his pockets, perks a humored brow, and chuckles. “And get out the character sheets and start rolling the dice?”

Cideeda glances up, barely contains her grin, and rolls her emerald green eyes a with wag of her tail. “OH please. That’s not dedicated enough. They’d be wearing the outfits and speaking old dialects... Kind of fun, occasionally...”

Dretphi slowly pivots around, lifts her hand to shade her steely gray eyes, and scans the scenery along the river front. “It does have a nice location. Pleasant view.”

As the wind blows across the parking lot, ruffling clothing and hair, the team shift their attention to the forested opposite bank. They quietly watch the water flow warp the reflective surface of the river. Mixing with the scenic beauty of the ambient natural background sounds, the distant changes of the green horizon and blue sky mirror fluidly upon the open waters. Sotalia spots a sandy lot and park nearby, and cracks a reserved smile with a sway of her hips. “Hopefully, we’ll get this job handled soon enough. I wouldn’t mind a day sunbathing with a few drinks.”

Aristespha nods with a sly smirk, reveals her aetherphone display to Sotalia, and motions towards a direction. “Looks like there’s a few promising establishments along bank.”

The large wooden double doors open and a middle aged woman steps out with customer service smile. “Welcome to The Ark Inn! I see that you’ve already discovered the wonderful view our fine establishment offers, and that your room overlooks. My name is Katherine.”

Aristespha spins around, steps forwards towards Katherine, and greets her. “I’m Aristespha. I believe we talked on the phone.”

Katherine nods to confirm, perks up the grin on her tan face, and motions the group towards the entrance. “If you’d like, allow me to show you around and help get you settled in.”

The team quickly reaches an agreement, and start to retrieve their luggage from the humvee. With an assuring tone, Katherine presents an alternative solution. “Oh, if you want I can have your belongings brought up for you. Allow me spare you that trouble.”

Aristespha glances to Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia, gauges the receptive expressions, and nods to Katherine with an appreciative smile. “That would be nice.”

Katherine promptly pivots around, narrows her stare towards the open doors, and sternly motions towards two figures just within the doorway. A teenage girl lugs out a luggage cart, and a teenage boy pushes a heavier duty hand truck. Katherine resumes her customer service smile, nods towards both teenagers, and introduces them. “This is my daughter, Kristine, and my son, Brennon. They’re quite helpful around here, and will be happy to ferry your belongings to your room.”

Both lanky, awkward teenagers struggle to project serviceable smiles in stark contrast to their true feelings. Hints of adolescent contempt for their current existence slip through the facade. Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia unload their baggage onto both cart and truck. Afterwards, Cideeda locks up the humvee, and rejoins the group slowly migrating inside the establishment. Both Kristine and Brennon strain to move their carriers. After checking for mother and customers, Brennon whispers over to Kristine. “The fuck did these people bring? Rocks? Good fucking gods...”

Kristine glances around behind her as she drags her cart along, and returns her gaze back to Brennon. “I don’t know. That half-emin woman’s pouch belt is clanking around, and the fvalian dropped a case holding something heavy.”

Brennon nods with a hard shove over across a crack in the pavement, and quirks a curious brow towards his sister. “Did you see that sword around the evuukian’s waist? That actually looks real.”

Inside The Ark Inn, Katherine recites a well rehearsed explanation of the establishment, while motioning to the internal architecture. “The Ark Inn focuses on providing a focused experience for our guests. The adventuring party suite is our largest suite with plenty of beds, a large bathroom, and a dedicated conference area. It also has the best view of the river front and beautiful views of both sunrises and sunsets.”

The congregation follows Katherine to the base of a staircase where a middle aged man stands. Katherine smiles brightly and directs the group’s attention to the man. “This is my wonderful husband, Johnathan. He’ll be happy to show you up to your room and make sure it is to your approval. I must handle some business for now. Hope to see you tonight in the common room!”

Johnathan respectfully to the team, and starts up the stairs. “Follow me.”

After climbing the stair case, the gathering arrives to the middle door of a long hallway, and Johnathan opens the door. He leads Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia inside, and presents a modest room with quality beds and decent accommodations. “Please check over everything and let me know if there’s anything you need.”

From the apron around his waist, he retrieves a number of pamphlets and hands them to Aristespha with an encouraging tone. “Now, while we don’t do a full dinner service, we have worked out agreements with a few good places nearby. They all deliver here, and we’ll even take it up to your room for you. But, you are more than welcome to come down to the dining area, where the bar will be open tonight.”

Aristespha nods, and passes the various menus to the rest of the group to review. Seconds later, muffled sounds of quiet cursing peak out of the background. Kristine's mumbling voice drifts barely through the door. “That old elevator sounds worse everyday.”

Brennon’s grumbles faintly rise out from the hallway. “Gods... It wants to die. But, we just won’t let it.”

The sounds of luggage cart and hand trunk stop just outside the room, and Johnathan maintains a calm exterior while eyeing the teenagers in the hallway. Kristine walks into the room with a cloak on a hanger in one hand and a belt of pouches in the other. She feels out of the odd heft in each, and awaits instruction in front of Sotalia. “Um, where would you like these, ma’am?”

Sotalia directs the girl towards a bed. “Just on there for now. Thank you.”

Kristine lays the garment and accessory on the bed, pauses in thought a moment, and inquiries. “If you don’t mind me asking, is there anything special about these? They’re heavy.”

Within an intrigued smile, Sotalia pries open the snap on a pouch flap with her long, thick, black nails, and slides out stoppered tube of faintly glowing liquid. “Well, it is loaded with a variety of potions right now.”

Brennon arrives into the room carefully carrying Bach’s helmet with an uncertain expression on his face, and presents it to Bach cautiously with both hands. “Where would you like this, sir?”

Bach notices the odd twist to the teenage boy’s face, pauses in thought, and then chuckles apologetically. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I didn’t warn you. That helmet has protective enchantment on it. Makes it feel weird, if your aren’t expecting it.”

He hooks up his hand into the helmet, flicks a finger onto surface to trigger the faint, fading golden barrier, and shrugs his shoulders. Brennon and Kristine depart to the hallway, pick up more luggage, and exchange glances in an unspoken conversion of excitement out of sight of everyone else.

----

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia sit around a large dining table in the common area of the inn. The team picks through the different plates filled with food from a number of delivery containers off to the side. Johnathan arrives next to the table between Aristespha and Sotalia, and places fanciful alcoholic beverages next to them. “It’s been awhile, but I think I remembered all the steps for these. And, I had all the right ingredients, too.”

Both Aristespha and Sotalia eagerly sweep up their respective drinks into their hands and quickly sample them. After a few moments of deliberation, they give satisfied nods to Johnathan. Sotalia smirks sly, tosses back her fiery orange, wavy hair, and chuckles to herself. “Just perfect. Admittedly, if I have more than one more, I’m probably not going to tell the difference anymore.”

Aristespha smiles with a relaxing sigh. “Tastes just right. I’m surprised you had everything for this. Not many places in the area have enough evuukian liquors in one place to pull it off.”

Johnathan grins proudly, shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, and laughs. “Well, despite current appearances, we get a lot of guests with broad tastes.”

Quickly depositing mugs of beer, large glasses of teas, and a few pitchers of water, Katherine relaxes her arms, rests her hands on her hips, and presents an entrepreneurial smile. “You happen to have arrived here during one of our off-seasons. So, you’re getting our special attention to all your needs. While we aim to provide the best experience for everyone, I have to admit it gets a bit hectic depending on the clients we have.”

Bach finishes a long swig of his milk tea, thinks a moment, and glances over to Katherine. “Have to ask, what types of clients do you normally get out here?”

Katherine searches through her mind, twists her mouth contemplatively, and begins to count out on her hands. “In the winter, we get the same families and groups that come to experience Ark’s holiday festivities. Spring, we typically get a number of people going to agricultural conferences and don’t want to pay outlandishly for the main hotels. We also get a few people doing long weekend breaks scattered throughout. But...”

An excited grin grows on her face, and she steps next to Johnathan. “Soon all the adventuring and reenactment fans will arrive!”

Johnathan lifts an amused, reserved brow to Katherine, places his arm around her, and smiles to the team. “Those are the guests we like to cater to during the summer and into the fall. They like the area, and the town enjoys their business.”

Katherine tosses back her light brown hair, smiles boldly, and gazes out to the team. “It’s also the time we all get to dress up for a good reason. I can’t wait to put on my dashing rouge outfit.”

Cideeda’s furry ears perk up, and she aims a curious emerald eyed glance towards the inn owners. “Is there some smaller adventuring convention happening around here soon? I haven’t heard of anything lately.”

Rocking his head side to side indecisively, Johnathan narrows down the right description and relays it carefully. “Somewhat? We have a few different groups that like to spend the week... And lose themselves in the pockets of wilderness around Ark.”

Katherine narrows her stare at Johnathan with hints of accusation, resumes an eager expression to the group, and continues her excited explanation. “Not everyone is like that! But, the best ones are the summer camps for the children. We host their events and give them a memorable Ark Inn experience! In fact, even Brennon and Kristine play characters and have wonderful costumes.”

At a nearby table, both Brennon and Kristine halt mid bite of their meals, shift their embarrassed gazes over towards their mother, and cringe visibly with teenage revulsion. With hints of young defiance, Brennon mumbles loudly and rolls his eyes. “The only reason they come here is because NOTHING ever happens here. It’s SO SAFE and PEACEFUL.”

Kristine twists her mouth uncomfortably, and glances over to the team’s table. “Well, usually... There have been a bunch of weird noises and clouds of steam appearing lately.”

Aristespha pauses a moment as she rests her hand on the sword at her side, ponders out a silent conversation, and lifts an intrigued brow towards the family overall. “Speaking of that... Do know of anything related to those incidents? We have been assigned to investigate those phenomena.”

Johnathan and Katherine exchange glances. Johnathan meets the new attention from the Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia, and sorts through recent memory. “Unfortunately, not as much as I would like to. But, my son is right. Things are normally very quiet around here, so I think the first incident happened over a week ago? Maybe two?”

Katherine meets her husband’s gaze, and relays bit of information to the team. “Yes. It was really worrisome last week. We had strange noises, steam eruptions, and other weird things. But, oddly, it’s gotten quiet again.”

She grits her teeth briefly, gazes to the group with a mix of pleading and hopeful thinking, and sighs. “It’s good to know you all are investigating. I just hope you find it was nothing worth worrying about.”

Dretphi presents a comforting smile, and nods appreciatively. “We hope the same. Can not expect that. Hope it is.”

Brennon frowns slightly with an irritated tint to his voice. “I keep telling you all that it had to have been that strange evuukian man I saw in Cumber Woods.”

Kristine rolls her eyes, shakes her head of light brown hair, and groans dismissively. “Not this again. You saw him over a week before any of this started happening. And, there’s no way one guy could still be causing all this. It’d take some real magic to do all this.”

Narrowing his glare at his sister, Brennon curls his upper lip, and argues loudly with her. “Okay! Well, you explain why some evuukian weirdo was wandering around the woods dressed up in leaves, leather, and odd drawings on his clothes?”

Standing her figurative ground, Kristine leans over the table slightly and growls out. “Says the guy wandering around the woods with his loser friends at the same time! Maybe he was some reenactment dork doing some solo thing.”

Brennon angles over the table, stares down his sibling, and retorts. “That BOW over his shoulder was NOT some cheap knock off! It looked real and the arrows were nothing like I’ve seen before. You can’t buy stuff like THAT. He looked really suspicious, too. Like he was up to something, or looking for something-”

Right before the teenagers engage further into their clash of attitudes, Bach exchanges glances with developing intrigue of the team. He focuses his gaze at Brennon, and calls out to the teenager. “You know that actually sounds REALLY strange to us. And, oddly familiar...”

Both Brennon and Kristine halt mid breath, pivot their heads to Bach, the interested team, and their parents. Katherine crosses her arms, and narrows a parental stare upon her children. Johnathan lifts an inquisitive brow, glances over to the team, and motions over his son. “Brennon, tell the nice people what you saw.”

----

Through the few of windows in the large, long inn room wall, the dim glow of late evening light radiates into the area. Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Aristespha, and Sotalia slumber in the line of beds, and the sounds of sleep mix with the low drone of the lone air conditioning unit. A muted and barely audible high-pitched whistle echoes from the distance outside, and resonates against the glass of the windows. One of Cideeda’s furry ears flicks reflexively and she rolls over. Less than a minute later, a metallic straining groan roars out across the river and vibrates the inn. Cideeda groggily mumbles incoherently, lifts her head up off the pillow, and lazily aims her ears towards the rattling glass. Bach stirs in his bed, as flits of consciousness prod him further out of slumber. While Aristespha softly snores undisturbed, Sotalia snorts and unconsciously pulls a pillow to cover the side of her head. Dretphi fidgets briefly as the resonating, echoing noise outside halts.

Moments of silence contrast the sudden low, eruption that thunders powerfully into the area and rolls harshly over the inn. Cideeda springs wide away and abruptly sits up in bed. With wide emerald eyes, her tail puffs out behind her. “What the fuck was THAT?!”

Bach crashes hard into consciousness, pulls himself up in a daze, and searches around the dark room. “Wha- Fuc- The hell is going on?”

As Dretphi stirs awake, Aristespha and Sotalia fumble to understand the situation. Cideeda throws the covers off, rushes over to the closest window, and throws it open. She leans out of the opening, closes her eyes, and searches the outside air with her ears. Surrounding buildings light up with activity, and specs illumination flicker on along the river front. A constant reverberating hiss escapes the natural baffles of the forest and drones over the background water of the river. Bach finally arrives at the same window and stands curiously peering out. “Any idea what THAT noise is?”

Cideeda moves her head side to side, allows each furry ear an attempt to home in on the source, and twists her mouth uncertainly. “I don’t know... It sounds like gas escaping? But huge? Steam? It’s really hard to pick out the details.”

Sebastian’s ethereal form materializes over Bach and Cideeda, and he searches out along the distant opposing river bank. “Yeah, that doesn’t seem like something that should be happening around here.”

Aristespha, Dretphi, and Sotalia join the gathering, open up windows, and scan the dark horizon. Minutes of hunting for information with magical and mechanical optics later, the ambient hiss fades below the recovering sounds of nature and emerging town activity. Dretphi lowers a pair of binoculars, rests them back into her nearby bag, and sighs uneasily. “I do not think we can gather information tonight. Contact authorities tomorrow. Start looking for answers.”

Aristespha blinks her glowing violet eyes back to normal, gazes over to the rest of the team, and frowns slightly. “I can’t see any traces of magic. But, being this far away from the source, that doesn’t indicate anything definite.”

Sotalia dismisses a visual spell between her hands, crosses her arms, and pulls at the corner of her mouth unsatisfied. “I certainly don’t feel any thing magical about this. That doesn’t make me happy. Something that loud and powerful, I should feel.”

Sebastian grits his teeth, ethereally hisses out his reservations, and slowly shakes his head. “Well... Let’s all just try to get some more sleep for now. We can’t solve it right now, and we’ll be useless if we are sleep deprived.”

Cideeda slowly slides down the window firmly, rubs her eyes, and pivots back towards her bed. “Yeah... Gods dammit, I was really enjoying that dream, too.”

After closing her window, Sotalia massages the side of her temples, winces briefly, and steps over to the bathroom door. “Ooo... I think I need a glass of water.”

Aristespha pauses, closes her eyes hard, and flutters them back open towards Sotalia. “Pour me a glass, too.”

Sebastian drifts over next to Aristespha, narrows an accusatory stare at her, and chides her over expressions. Rolling her eyes away, Aristespha grumbles back at Sebastian, and playfully waves him off. “Oh please, Sebastian. You of all people...”

The team settles back into an uneasy slumber. As the locals of Ark calm back down and the lights flip off in homes around the area, a faint haze graces the tree tops in the horizon. Expanding slowly out, a misty fog filters through the trees and fields, and gradually spills out along the flowing river surface. The cloud fades as it wafts over the water, and disappears.

----

Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia maneuver through the clear corridors in a dense field of three meter tall protellow plants. Aristespha shields the late morning sun from her tablet screen, studies the map, and glances back towards access road at the mouth of the passage. “We should be coming up to the area the local police believe last night’s disturbance happened.”

Sebastian drifts up above the tops of the surrounding protellow plants, searches out into the distance, and directs his voice down. “Yeah, looks like there’s dip in the plants just ahead in the next row.”

Eyeing around the area, Sotalia hums in thought, and twists her mouth uncertainly. “Still not feeling anything magical. This just doesn’t seem like the work of most spells that would be that loud.”

Slipping in through the gaps between the thick plants stems and huge, broad leaves, Bach navigates to the next row, surveys the run, and direct his voice back. “Yeah. There should be some left overs or even faint flow residue.”

He blinks his eyes hard, reopens them to a bright blue glow, and scans the vicinity carefully. “And, I’m not seeing anything.”

Cideeda deftly flexes her agile frame through the closely packed protellows, hops out into the row with Bach, and cautiously walks ahead. “If it was magic, that would be an easy explanation. But, whatever THAT was last night, sounded and felt like an explosion. I’d expect a HUGE crater for something like that.”

Sebastian zips back overhead of the team, points towards a section of the field, and instructs the group. “Up ahead! Something weird definitely happened.”

Aristespha, Dretphi, and Sotalia find passage through the crop into the clear dirt corridor with Bach and Cideeda. The team slowly approaches their destination with Sebastian in lead. Stopping suddenly, Cideeda’s face contorts and her nose twitches. She draws in cautious sniffs of the air, twists her mouth, and grumbles apprehensively. “Okay, that’s a weird smell. I think I should know it... But, what is it?”

Widening her eyes, Aristespha motions the team to halt, steps ahead, and gestures out an incantation for a complicated spell. With a violet glow in her eyes, she holds her arms out, aims her palms ahead, and releases a faint pulse of magical flow ahead. Pondering inside her mind, she relaxes her posture, and eases out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. No obvious toxins or hazardous compounds.”

Sebastian smiles appreciatively to Aristespha, and nods. “Good call, dear.”

The team arrives at the sparser spot in field of protellows. They fan out into the area, and individually search for information. Bach stands next to a curved stalk, and examines the deformed, wilted leaves barely hanging on. “The hell happened to these protellows?”

He cocks his head to the side puzzled, and calls out to the rest of the group. “What would make these things sag so much, but still be green? They’re not withered or dried out...”

Dretphi grasps of another floppy protellow leaf from a nearby plant, feels out the shape and integrity, and tests its strength. As the flora easily pulls apart, she works the material into a green mush in her gauntlet, widens her steely gray eyes in sudden recognition, and gazes to Bach. “Steamed. They were steamed.”

Sotalia blinks her golden eyes at the response, studies the area around her, and lifts an intrigued brow in surprise. “That would be A LOT of sustained steam to do this thorough of a job. Or, a really powerful blast.”

She narrows her stare to the surrounding fairly health protellows, crosses her arms, and frowns slightly. “That much heat and water, I would have thought it would affect the other ones nearby more.”

Nodding in agreement, Aristespha gazes above at the drooping plants, the slack leaves, and the sagging flowers. She slowly shakes her head contemplatively, bites hers lower lip in thought, and tries to step forward. Recovering her briefly lost of balance, she snaps her glance down at her leather boots partially sunk into the ground, tilts her head to the side confused, and flits her eyes wide at a discovery. “The soil is absolutely soaked here.”

The team shifts their attentions upon the dirt, and search for clues. Cideeda kneels down, sniffs carefully, and widens her emerald green eyes at a revelation. “That smell is coming from the ground.”

She continues searching along the ground, sifting through the air with her nose, and follows an odor. “It’s got a stale metallic scent to it. Humid, of course. Iron? Copper? Both? A lot of clay and earth in it, too.”

Sebastian stares down overhead, squints towards the center, and directs attention to a spot. “Hey, there’s a hole right there!”

Quickly responding, the rest of the team gathers close to the nearly ten centimeter wide hole of strangely smooth and discolored mud. Cideeda leans briefly close to the port, draws in air through her nose, and backs away nodding. “Gods, that’s strong. It’s definitely got an iron and copper tinge to it and still hot and humid.”

Dretphi pulls out a flashlight, aims the directional spot down the hole, and carefully gazes into the darkness through her full face helm. “Deep. Strangely deep.”

She kneels down next to the opening, puts her light away, searches her utility pouch, and retrieves her range finder. Cautiously, she positions the device above the hole, presses a button, and studies the display of numbers. Finely aiming the range finder, she ponders the readings to emerging surprise, and glances at the team. “At least fifteen meters deep.”

The group exchange bewildered expressions as they individually process the new information. Sebastian furrows his brow, searches his mind, and lifts a curious brow towards Bach. “Never heard of them tilling soil that deep.”

Bach nods uneasily, and gazes at the hole. “Yeah. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Dretphi puts away the range tool, stands back up, and contemplates the situation. “This is related to last night. The bore is smooth. Recently made. Has not filled with ground water. Still warm. Steam.”

Bach blinks his glowing blue eyes back to the normal, shakes his head, and shrugs his shoulder. “Nothing magical going on. So... What the hell is causing this?”

Twisting her frown, Aristespha deliberates in her mind, and grumbles out a bit of frustration. “I know a few spells for archaeological purposes, but at that depth the most I could detect is cavities underground... Which is a bit redundant.”

An idea hops to the front of Cideeda’s mind, and she eagerly searches the various pockets in her vest. She dons a toothy grin, gazes up to Bach, and opens her hand to reveal a small portable camera. “Want to do that remote controlled camera setup again?”

Bach notices the device in Cideeda’s palm, and he nods quickly with a smile. “Worth trying at least.”

Minutes later, Dretphi stands over the gathering and shields out the bright near noon sun off of Cideeda sitting on the ground. Cideeda checks the connections of the receiver unit to her aetherphone, taps out some adjustments to the video feed on her screen. “Looks good here. Ready when you are.”

Bach places the magical machinery encasing the camera to a hover upon the ground in front of him. Concentrating with a blue glow in his eyes, he gently moves his fingers and adjusts a series of magical threads wrapping into a flowing thread to the energy construct. “Let’s see what we got.”

Aristespha, Sebastian, and Sotalia find spots around and above Cideeda and Bach’s shoulders to spy on the progress. The hovering camera drifts up to the mouth of the hole, edges to the lip, and floats down inside. Team watches the video feed of a smooth downwards tunnel with a faint glow of magical flow illuminating the mud walls. Seconds of tension pass as the stream shows a gradually widening passage of converging branches delving deeper into the earth. Bach maintains his focus as magical energy flows out from his hands to the lengthening cord pulsing down into the small tunnel. Cideeda’s emerald green eyes remain fixed upon the imagery on her phone, and the strange geology beneath. A minute later, her eyes flit wide, and she instinctively leans to view the display closer in surprise. “Is that a-?! Bach, can you make it shine a light ahead? The glow is too dim to see clearly enough.”

Bach thinks, smiles to Cideeda, and nods. “Yeah, give me a moment.”

The screen on Cideeda’s phone washes out briefly, and gradually the camera’s systems readjust. When the scene refocuses, Cideeda’s jaw drops open and she blurts out. “Good gods! That’s massive steel... and copper pipe... What is that even doing here? And, why the hell is blown completely open?!”

----

Standing around the large table in a side room, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia focus upon an assembled collection of prints out forming a large map of the area. Confirming with Dretphi, Cideeda marks a spot across the river in a designed farming plot, and carefully draws out an arrow in both directions with a protractor. “Okay. So, that pipeline seems to run these directions. Now... The fuck does that actually mean for us?”

Dretphi furrows her brow, tosses back her platinum blonde braids, and sighs. “Locations are spread out. Erratic.”

Sotalia uncrosses her arms, leans over to squint studiously at the map, and idly raps her long, black nails on the table top. “There’s got to be something going on. All the places have roughly the same signs of steam erupting from the ground. No magic involved. But, now it might be some kind of pipe network? I guess?”

Humming with an ethereal reverb, Sebastian’s ghostly visage narrows his stare upon the spread out points of data, and he ponders out loud. “I mean, that would make sense, but that’s just an assumption. A good one given what we’ve found out. But, still... It’d take some effort to really confirm it, and we still need to get some more data.”

Cideeda twists her mouth, straightens her posture, and runs her finger claw tips through her short, multi-colored hair with a sigh. “If we could find another pipeline, that would definitely confirm suspicions. Maybe we’d figure out an intersection between the directions of the runs. But...”

She rolls her eyes, droops her furry ears, and grumbles loudly. “That’s assuming that a supposed pipeline doesn’t suddenly change directions. We’d honestly need at least three or more vectors around town to get a decent fix... IF there are all running to some central place.”

Working through a mix of commiseration and frustration, Bach slowly shakes his head and grits his teeth briefly. “Gods dammit, it just seems like tons of ways to possibly waste time.”

Sebastian groans out, slowly nods, and contorts the contemplation on his face. “I know, bro. The reports we got from Captain Hackle, that he got from the local police, never mentioned underground pipes. Or, centimeters wide, deep holes. This could be an unrelated fluke, and some side thing triggered.”

Cideeda’s tail wags sharply, and she sneers her upper lip and sighs. “Even if we rented a backhoe and spent days digging, I doubt the town would appreciate fifteen meter deep holes everywhere.”

A frown grows on Dretphi, and she gradually slumps her shoulders as an unfortunate realization forms in her mind. “If they are correct places to dig.”

The groups attention shifts to Dretphi, and she grits her teeth and sighs. “Geology could lead steam away from the source. We dig down. May not find the source. Waste days trying.”

Aristespha sadly nods, places her tablet down on the table, and rests her hands on her hips. “Very true. Even with a focused version of the archaeological ground detection spells I know, if the disruptions aren’t significant enough... It won’t stick out enough. The spells are designed for sharp contrasts in materials.”

Defeat slowly fills the air in the room, and the team idly stares at the pieced together map on the tabletop. Unsatisfied expressions seep individually onto everyone as the pressure from the looming frustration weighs down. Blowing the white streak in his hair out of his face, Bach stands back up straight, scratches the side of his head with a sneer, and sharply shrugs his shoulders. “You know, for the hell of it, put down that spot that Brennon says he saw that evuukian guy.”

Aristespha perks her brow as intrigue overtakes her face, thinks a moment, and nods with hopeful curiosity. “Yes. Let’s do that. I have my suspicions that whoever may be a Terra Priest, and may be involved... Somehow...”

Cideeda searches the map briefly, finds a spot within an area designated as Cumber Wood, and neatly circles a rough area on a marked access road. The team analyzes the relations between the old points and the newest addition. With each second, interest grows within everyone and attentions focus more upon sparks of intuition. Flicking her furry ears in thought, Cideeda reaches out for a ruler and pencil, aligns the straight edge along the new and an old data point, and gauges reactions. With growing encouragement and interest from the rest of the group, she draws lines between the Cumber Wood location and all the other disturbance sites. After a few minutes, she finishes the last line, steps back from the drawing, and widens her emerald green eyes as the pattern becomes clear. “Okay, we might assuming A LOT here... But, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something to this.”

Sotalia twists her mouth, crosses her arms, and sorts through her doubts out loud. “I want to believe this, but the distances are all different.”

Floating above, Sebastian stares straight down at the map, and smirks. “Yeah. That’s true. But, the angles between the lines are REALLY even.”

Dretphi reaches out, slides over the protractor, and begins nodding as she measures the angles. “Indeed. Minor variation. Correctable. Still would be near this central point.”

Aristespha quickly picks up her tablet, holds it above the drawings on map, and taps a few onscreen buttons to capture the image. She cracks an eager smile, and begins tapping through a few application functions. “I’ll see about charting a few of those possibilities. And, I do suggest we talk to Brennon again for a bit more information about that area.”

----

Late morning sun slips through the overhead canopy of leafy trees, and lights up scattered spots of tall grasses. A gentle wind sways old branches and fills the air with a soft background drone into the serene soundscape. Wooden snaps and dry, light crackles grow rhythmically louder. Dretphi’s camouflage pattern covered, armored arm pushes through the full branches of a tall shrub, and opens a route into a thinning of the undergrowth. Cideeda quietly slinks out, steps softly into the area, and carefully pivots her head around. After a quick visual scan, she closes her eyes, and focuses her attention. Perking her furry ears, she searches the subtle sounds surrounding. She reopens her emerald green eyes, glances back to Dretphi and the rest of the team in hiding, and shrugs her shoulders. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage flies into the vicinity, hovers high above, and surveys nearby. “Dammit. I was hoping there would be something obvious. Guess we’ll have to search the hard way for some of interest.”

Bach snorts as he shakes his head, steps out into the space between a number of tall trees, and glances up to Sebastian. “I don’t know, that mock up of a fort was pretty cool.”

Rolling his eyes amused, Sebastian drifts down next to Bach, and smirks. “Yeah. Trying to figure out if that was for combat sims or cheap roleplaying events.”

Cideeda perks a humored brow, and cracks a greedy smile. “Which ever group is paying the rental fees that day.”

Sotalia arrives from behind the perimeter of underbrush. Aristespha follows behind, studying her tablet. Glancing over to the discussion, Sotalia smiles at the concept, and chuckles to herself. “Gods, that all sounds so goofy, but I can’t help but to think it might be pretty fun.”

Bach lifts a curious brow at Sotalia, and tilts his head to the side. “The combat sims, or roleplaying?”

With a sly grin to Bach, Sotalia winks with an amused tone. “Maybe both. Depends on the mood.”

Blinking off his confusion, Bach gradually, awkwardly shifts his attention to the surrounding area, and ponders out loud. “So... this is the spot that Brennon mentioned?”

Aristespha lowers her tablet down, presents the display between the group, and confirms. “From his directions and description. We are also near the intersection between all the different points. So...”

She twists her mouth, sighs, and gazes to the rest of the team. “Hopefully, this will help our odds in finding something further to go on. Otherwise, I don’t know what more to do.”

Sebastian nods slowly, hovers up into the air, and directs the group outwards. “Well, let’s spread out a bit and start looking.”

Fanning out into the region, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia start their individual investigations. The morning sun rises close to high noon, the clouds drift over head to cast a fluffy shade over the region, and the team continues their hunt for clues. As time passes, an emerging mix of frustration and disappoint materializes upon the team, and fruitless searches grow gradually more aimless.

Sebastian lands back onto the ground, and calls out to the team while motioning them to gather. “Okay everybody, anyone got anything to report?”

The group convenes in rough circle and sort through their unamused expressions. Dretphi crosses her arms, glances around the area, and sighs. “Nothing out of place. Forest seems typical for region. No tracks. No signs of campsites. Nothing unusual.”

Cideeda taps her foot onto the forest floor, shifts her weight around, and shrugs her shoulders. “Same for me. I’m not smelling anything weird. It looks fine. Sounds like it should. Certainly haven’t found anything man-made. Gods, not even an old fucking beer bottle even.”

Sotalia slowly shakes her head, tosses back a stray fiery orange, wavy lock over her swept back horn, and contorts the rising dissatisfaction on her face. “I’m STILL feeling NOTHING magical. Well, apart from the normal, barely perceivable background flows. So... No help from me... Unfortunately.”

With a similar expression, Aristespha sorts through some menus on her tablet, glances over to the team, and frowns. “My impressions exactly.”

She gazes hopefully to Bach, and inquires. “Have you found anything?”

Bach shrugs his shoulders, grits his teeth briefly, and exhales with a hint of a groan. “No. Dammit. I’ve been trying, but nothing obvious is showing up. If it wasn’t for Brennon saying he saw someone here and the description of the guy he gave... I probably would have just kept walking along and never paid any attention to this place.”

With a disappointed curl to his frown, Sebastian arrives to a reluctant acceptance, rubs the back of his head, and ethereally sighs out tinges of defeat. “Yeah, bro. I’m the same as you there. Looking overhead, this place doesn’t stick out at all. If it wasn’t for all of you wandering around here, I probably would have drifted off course and dropped in somewhere else without knowing I did.”

He works through a grimace on his face, hums ethereally, and musters up his determination. “Well, this is the best spot we got to check out at the moment. Any ideas?”

Aristespha straightens his posture in thought, pans her gaze around the area, and uncomfortably cringes. “I have the few spells that could help. Unfortunately, to get any useful information, I have to narrow the focus. Which means, it’ll take some time to methodically survey the area.”

Cideeda tugs at the corner of her mouth, nods reluctantly, and perks her furry ears. “Worth a shot, in my opinion. We can section off the area, and maybe get lucky finding the right-”

A muffled series of solid impacts faintly shakes ground below. A strange undercurrent of noises resonate from ambiguous source, and the powerful vibrations rattle up the nearby trees to a shuddering chorus among the leaves. Cideeda’s emerald green eyes widen as she slowly pivots herself to face the direction her ears home in on. She narrows her stare to a location, points a claw tipped finger in an area, and struggles for the correct term. “I heard an... Echo? Reverb? Something hollow?”

Stepping next to Cideeda, Aristespha gestures out an incantation, determines the spot indicated by Cideeda, and releases her spell in a faint wave towards that direction. After a moment, she blinks with surprise, and calls out to the team. “There’s a LARGE cavity in the ground there... Contained inside a solid structure.”

Dretphi carefully approaches, studies the dirt and debris of the forest floor, and glances over to Sotalia. “Could you clear off the loose material?”

Sotalia grins eagerly, steps up while readying a spell, and positions herself with her arms aimed down. “Why, of course!”

Releasing a projected vortex of wind down upon the ground, she blasts clear centimeters of dirt, leaves, twigs, and other fodder in a methodical sweep. Seconds later, the torrent of air uncovers a slight, straight indentation in hard dirt beneath patches of loose grassy soil. Focusing the stream, Sotalia clears out the long straight section, and reveals a deep crack in the earth leading to a straight mechanical join between to concrete surfaces. Sebastian swiftly flies over the spot, nods to the team, and phases down. Seconds later, he emerges with a hopeful grin on his face, and points down. “It’s thick cover to a ramp that leads down into... something BIG!”

The team collaborates on the task. Dretphi and Sotalia finish clearing the outline of the huge earth layered hatch, while Aristespha documents and searches for information. Sebastian repeatedly dips down through deep ground, and relays up to date information to Cideeda and Bach. Pondering through the problem in her mind, Cideeda coaches Bach as he weaves threads of magical flow down through the crevice leading into the gap of the massive door. With a final draw of a thoughtful breath, Cideeda nods and smiles to Bach. “Okay. If it’s still working and we’ve tapped into the right wiring, we should be able to trigger the opening sequence. Hit it!”

Focusing upon a remote task, Bach narrows his glowing blue eyes, grimaces, and winces hopefully. “Okay... Now!”

A mechanical groan sounds out as old machinery hums to life. An over three meter wide, five meter long hatch gradually angles upwards. Old hydraulic pumps pressurize powerful rams to lift the thick concrete slab beneath multiple layers of crumbling earth and rock. The team cautiously backs away from the rising entrance, and stare apprehensively down a long, sunken ramp into a dark corridor with flickers of faint light at the distant end.

-77-

A distant, ambient drone faintly fills the air, and aged lighting flickers at the end of the long ramp downwards. Cideeda, Dretphi, Aristespha, Sotalia, and Bach cautiously walk down the wide and tall corridor upon an old coated concrete floor. Sebastian’s ghostly form hovers in front of the team, watching carefully ahead. Magical lamps and flashlights search, and the group studies the architecture. Bach narrows his stare at the wall paneling, and recognition fills his face. “Does this look familiar to anyone else?”

Aristespha pauses, glances to a few spots, and scrutinizes details with a slight nod. “Yes, somewhat. This construction is common to many early third period government structures. Similar to the research outpost.”

An uncomfortable curl twists the corner of Bach’s mouth, and he grumbles audibly to the rest of the team. “Gods, let there NOT be a kill crazed security bot here.”

Sotalia flashes a confident grin, rests her hands on her hips, and laughs boldly. “Oh, I think we know how to deal with something like that.”

As the passage levels out, Sebastian coasts ahead of the team, and notices the back-lit silhouette of small structures within the tunnel ahead. “So... What is all of this?”

Under his direction, lighting aims ahead and illuminates a small guard kiosk off to the side, the crossing guard arm across the concrete roadway, and a sign. Interest shifts over to the large lettering on the metal sheet. Despite the decayed vinyl and rust obfuscating the outer wording, the center plainly states the most important piece of information. Everyone focuses upon the title between the pair of symbols, three black circular slices around a center circle upon yellow background.

“Nuclear Waste Transmutation”

The team stares blankly at the new information, briefly dumbfounded. Sparks of terror ignite the frightful faces upon Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sebastian, and Sotalia. Aristespha quickly gestures through a frantic incantation. Cideeda expediently searches through her vest pockets and retrieves a device. Both Aristespha and Cideeda turn their full attention ahead, pointing spell and gadget forward, while the rest of the group remains in aghast silence.

Cideeda’s emerald green eyes study the display on detector, and her furry ears listen to the consistent, modest combination of beeps and clicks. Aristespha’s glowing violet eyes scan the vicinity ahead with her palms aimed outwards. After a few tense seconds, Cideeda glances over Aristespha with tentative relief. “I’m not picking up anything seriously out of place. Maybe slightly above normal?”

Aristespha blinks her eyes back to normal, releases a long breath with her nerves, and nods thankfully. “Yes. It’s the same as I detected. There’s traces of elevated levels, but nothing that should be immediately harmful. Though, I would not recommend an extended stay.”

A wave relief passes over the rest of the squad, as Aristespha releases her spell. Cideeda tweaks the threshold of the detector, and clips it onto her vest. Sebastian hovers ahead of the group, directs them ahead. “Well, let’s see what we got going on here... And, make it quick as possible.”

Resuming formation, the team slips through the guard gate, and continues to the end of the concrete and metal panel tunnel. Echoes of a large open area funnel down from the brighter mouth of the passage, and the group searches the area curiously. Sebastian halts at the exit of the tunnel, hovers in place, and gawks with his jaw open. “Holy shit... Really?”

He signals the rest of the team to join him as he continues to stare ahead. Aristespha, Cideeda, Bach, Sotalia, and Dretphi arrive around him, and look out. They collectively gaze in utter astonishment at the overhead domed concrete and rock ceiling meters above a huge steel framed and transparent paneled geodesic structure, upon an expansive concrete bowl. From the surrounding, encircling outmost platform, a ramp leads down through the open outer passage towards a central smaller concrete and metal encased semi-spherical building. Cideeda steps forward, squints her eyes, and points a claw tip to massive structures of steel, copper, and other materials. She traces the routes of the hardware. Guiding the team’s attention, she shows the connections from the central structure to the outer framework perimeter and the joining networks of pipelines stretching out into the walls at evenly distributed angles. “Those HAVE to be heat exchangers... And THOSE are the pipes! One of these must of have run to that field.”

Dretphi notices a light haze on her full face visor, carefully rubs a finger of her gauntlet covered hand across the outer bottom, and studies the condensed moisture. “It is warm down here.”

Discomfort arises within everyone else as the awareness prompts reactions to the unexpected temperature. Sotalia glances her golden eyes around the area, inspects the gradual curling in her fiery orange, wavy hair, and blinks thoughtfully. “Yeah, it feels like I’m around a heated indoor pool or sauna.”

Bach opens his eyes wide, glances over the group, and directs his inquiry to Cideeda. “Oh... Shit... Is this thing running right now?!”

Cideeda blinks as tinges of worry creep upon her face. Her furry ears flick around and search the soundscape. Seconds of scanning the mix of sounds, she grits her teeth, and gazes back to the team. “Something is running. I don’t know what, but I’m hearing too much happening.”

With a stern, urgent tone, Dretphi draws in breath, and suggests. “We should find the controls.”

Sotalia points over to a nearby rectangular building close to the entrance. “That one looks like the part.”

Sebastian nods in agreement, starts leading the team, and flies ahead. “Lots of cabling going to it, furthest from the action, AND right next to the exit. Sounds like where anyone trying to run this thing would be. Let’s go!”

----

Flashlight spots zip between shattered screens and shredded wiring, while ambient magical glows from blue orbs on the ceiling cast light upon the ruined equipment. Fanning out into command center, the team surveys the wholesale destruction to rows of electrical and computer systems. Sebastian hovers towards the middle of the area, coasts close to the ceiling, and scans the vicinity with a confused stare. “Okay, any ideas of what the fuck happened here?”

Cideeda approaches a torn open console, carefully lifts up the keyboard module dangling by ripped ribbon cables, and slowly shakes her head. “I don’t know. Someone caused this damage. This all looks like control equipment, so there shouldn’t be enough current running through these things to blow them apart.”

She sniffs the air, and ponders with an investigative expression. “And, it doesn’t smell right. Electrical and electronic equipment burning up on its own usually stinks up a room with very distinct odors.”

Dretphi pans her gaze around, steps next to computer rack, and notices a puncture through the front bezel. She scrutinizes it closely, reaches for her knife from the back holster, and pulls it out towards the hole. Holding the tip of the blade close to the gap, she explores a few maneuvers, studies the possible motions, and matches a likely candidate. Replacing her knife back, she glances over to the rest of the team, and ponders out loud. “Purposeful attack. Took significant effort. A specific goal in mind? Attacker knew of how the system functioned?”

Sotalia closes her golden eyes, relaxes her shoulders, and hold her arms out slightly from her sides. After a few moments, she twists her mouth, crosses her arms, and open her eyes full of suspicion. “Someone threw serious magic around here. I can feel A LOT of leftover energies.”

Aristespha blinks her eyes to a violet glow and Bach’s eyes flick to a blue illumination. The two stare at scorched impact points littered long rows of computing systems, and analyze the evidence before them. Bach grits his teeth, grumbles uneasily, and nods. “Someone wanted this place to be completely fucking wrecked. They went down the row.”

Sebastian curls his upper lip as he lowers down towards to floor, and gazes around the scene with obvious bewilderment. “No shit, bro. This beyond just tossing something in and running off. Someone took their time to do this.”

Slowly walking through the aisle between equipment rows, Aristespha spots a broken flat panel monitor on the far wall. She cautiously approaches the shattered display, and narrows an accusatory gaze to a single, embedded arrow. After studying it, she grips the shaft tightly, firmly rips it out of the screen, and examines the construction. Mumbling a few evuukian swears to herself, she turns around and holds up the arrow for the rest of the team to view. “Looks like Brennon’s hunch was right. This is hand made, evuukian design... And, definitely something a Terra Priest would be shooting.”

Flying over to eye the projectile closely, Sebastian’s ghostly visage lifts an incredulous brow. “Really, dear? Did whoever just shoot this... Just to leave their mark behind?”

Aristespha furrows her brow, sighs out hints of annoyance, and nods with a groan. “Yes, Sebastian. Knowing the egos on some of them, I’m pretty sure that’s the case. Because, he obviously had other means of destruction available to him.”

Sotalia rests her hands on her sides, idly picks at her belt of pouches, and sways her hips with an irritated curl to her lips. “Okay, what the hell was the goal here? Are you trying to use this place for something, or just wrecking it? What is it? Pick one.”

Cideeda’s furry ears flick and perk towards a faint noise in the corner of the room. She aims her gaze towards the source, quickly steps over the piles of debris, and digs into a clutter of knocked over computing systems. Carefully, she extracts from the nest of cabling a partially functional monitor, and inspects the device. “Hey! This screen is still working and actually attached to something that is working. The sound barely works, but-”

Her emerald green eyes lock on to the status graphics on screen and the erratic pattern of blinking red littering key measurements. As the team assembles around her, an unsettling pressure presses down on them, and unspoken dread rises within each. Bach squints his gaze at the screen, and slowly shakes his head as an enough understanding spikes fumbling fear. “None... of that is... good...”

Cideeda’s eyes widen in horror, and she struggles to draw a breath without shuddering. “No... Everything... EVERYTHING... is overloaded.”

----

The team travels fast down the access path leading through the outer geodesic containment structure and towards the vault door on the central concrete, metal encased dome. Cideeda slightly leads the group with her radiation detector in her hand. Sebastian hovers next to her and questions while staring ahead at the massive doorway ahead. “So, what are we looking for?”

Cideeda checks the readings on her detector for safety, gazes ahead, and releases a hesitant but hopeful sigh. “Well, the control room is trashed. BUT, this place is still running. So, I guess core systems are still intact, but there’s nothing to tell them to stop. If this place was built to any safety code, there’s GOT to be emergency overrides.”

The group arrives at the entry into the solid strutcure. The heavy machinery surrounding the reinforced gateway frame and the massive mechanisms attached the thick door exudes an imposing, uneasy presence. Sebastian hovers up close to the haphazardly closed vault hatch, and glances back to Cideeda uncertainly. “This doesn’t look like it’s in the greatest shape.”

Bach steps forward, and points towards surface melting and soot marks scattered across the dome walls and machinery. “Someone tried to blast this from the looks of it.”

Sotalia narrows her stare, wipes a bit of sweat off her forehead, and nods in agreement. “Yeah, TRIED. Whoever tried the same spells they did in the control room here. And, didn’t manage to do much.”

Surveying the nearby structure, Dretphi rolls her shoulders uncomfortably in her red plated armor suit, focuses her attention to the warping of light from heat above the thick, reinforced door, and motions with a gauntlet. “The door is not sealed. Heat is escaping above.”

When the team draws close to study the entrance further, alarms ring out and rotating warning lamps spin up. Instinctively retreating, the team backs away when low groans sound out. Loud, powerful strains resonate through the structure and vibrate the ground. Rushes of hydraulic fluid churn in the aged pumps. Gigantic rams rattle free layers of old dust and rust. Machinery clangs out in a cacophony of mechanic echoes. The huge, thick door shudders briefly, flexes millimeters towards closing more, and groans defiantly. Covering her furry ears briefly, Cideeda searches the audible chaos and filters a particular sound. She spots a large steel chunk warping under the crushing forces of hydraulic rams and supporting metal framework. Searching around, she notices the strange collection of blast marks surrounding missing section of plating above on the dome. After a minute, the system halts its attempts to close the door and settles back down.

Cideeda signals the team’s attention, points out the huge metal blockage, and calls out. “THERE! It’s been jammed. We’ll need to clear it out.”

Bach twists his mouth, and glances apprehensively down towards Cideeda. “Should we? That might be the only thing keeping this door from sealing.”

Walking close to the heavy machinery, Cideeda slowly nods, and waves a claw tip to key issues. “If we want to get in there, we’ll have to clear it. That chunk is completely locking the thing up with how bent up it is.”

Aristespha studies the material, ponders a moment, and readies to gestures out a spell. “That seems like lead with thin steel layers encasing it... I think I have a spell that can cut it.”

Sebastian hovers over the team, thinks a moment, and calls out instructions. “Okay. Let’s make this quick. Aristespha will cut that chunk up. Sotalia, you get the pieces out of the way. Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi. See if you can coax that door open enough. I’m going to peek inside and make sure nothing immediately terrible is inside.”

Over the next minutes, Aristespha releases concentrated beams of magical energy and surgically whittles down the massive lead chunk into manageable pieces. Sotalia guides transparent flows of magical energy to hoist up the heavy fodder clear, and piles up the metal clumps. Cideeda coaches Bach’s magical manipulation of the door systems, and coordinates Dretphi’s application of muscle and leverage with a scrap metal pipe pry bar. Sebastian’s ethereal form phases out through the thick door, and he recovers his senses with a brief shudder. “Whoa... That’s at least a meter or two thick...”

He observes the team’s progress, and announces. “It looks like everything is still intact inside. At least I didn’t see anything sparking, on fire, or leaking.”

Cideeda acknowledges the information from Sebastian, glances to Bach and Dretphi, and calls out. “Okay! Get ready. On three! One. Two. THREE!”

Bach’s eyes flash blue as pulses of prismatic flow travel down to massive valves and reinforced electrical lines. As stubborn flows of hydraulics fight against uncooperative rams, Dretphi forces her full might against a flexing steel pipe to wrench the support arm of the thick, solid door away from the gateway frame. In a tense few moments with Sotalia’s magical energies assisting Dretphi’s efforts upon the heavy door, the concrete dome’s massive hatch gradually parts open a few centimeters before grinding against a hard stop. After seconds of futile effort, Cideeda signals to stop, hops down, and approaches the doorway with radiation detector in hand. Studying the size of the gap and checking the readings for relative safety, Cideeda stretches her body. “I think I can fit through there.”

Sebastian’s ghostly visage lands his feet next to Cideeda, and he gazes at her with a concerned grimace. “You sure about that? We should try to get that door open a bit more, and secure it first.”

Drawing in a long breath, Cideeda slowly shakes her head, examines the gap closer, and sighs. “It can’t open any wider right now. And, fixing it is going to take time away from figuring out if we can even shut this thing down safely.”

Grumbling slightly, Sebastian agrees with the logic, and gestures out the layout inside. “Damn... You’re right. Okay. Just to your left inside, it looks like a control console and bunch of monitoring valves. I would stay away from the right side, as it just looks like a bunch of really hot pipes. Then, there’s the central chamber with what looks like the reactor in a deep pool of water. It is closed off but there’s windows to look inside.”

He gazes into Cideeda’s emerald green eyes, fights off the concern on his face, and grants an encouraging grin. “Just get in there. Figure out if it can be shut down safely. If not, try to make it manageable. We’ll get ready to cut and run, and seal everything we can on the way out.”

With a confident smirk, Cideeda nods, flexes her form with an exhale, and slips into the gap between door and door frame. Wiggling through the layers of steel and concrete, Cideeda deftly slides the slick enchanted plates along the tight quarters, and squeezes past the narrowest part. Slowly drawing in a breath, she orientates herself and glances over to control console on her left side. Stepping over fast, she studies the system in front of her. Wiping away the dust from the screen, she brushes off the keyboard, and types through a number of menus on the simple interface. Sebastian phases through the doorway, flies over near Cideeda shuddering from the transition, and carefully inquires. “So... What’s the story?”

Cideeda’s emerald eyes sort through the information prompts on the screen as her claws click upon the keys. She quickly processes the data, and grumbles to herself. “I don’t know yet. This is definitely some kind of emergency console. There was no password. I’m trying to figure out what a graceful shutdown could even be at this point. Someone really did a number on this thing.”

As she digs deeper into the different menus and systems outlined by the console, a nervous frown grows sharper on her face, and her body language stiffens. Sebastian observes the quiet changes and asks. “Everything okay?”

Cideeda grits her teeth briefly, sighs long, and slowly shakes her head. “Not really. But, there should be a way to handle this...”

Dretphi’s voice calls out through the door gap. “Do you need assistance?”

Glancing over her shoulder, Cideeda directs her reply back. “No! Just keep out there, and make sure that door stays open. Not sure how to shut this thing down, yet. But, once I do... We should leave this mess as soon as possible.”

Dretphi’s voice confirms and moves away. “Understood.”

Outside the concrete dome, Dretphi picks up the scrap steel pipe in her hands, and steps over to the heavy duty hinges of the thick, concrete and steel laminated door. Studying the structure and mechanics of the hardware, she slides the pipe firmly to wedge between functional clearances, and gazes over to Aristespha, Bach, and Sotalia. “Need more to secure it proper.”

Aristespha taps Sotalia’s shoulder, points over to the pile of steel plated lead chunks, and motions over towards the door corner. “Let’s hover this over to the door and see about an impromptu doorstop.”

Sotalia nods, glances over to Bach, and lifts a curious brow. “You got it under control?”

Bach sorts through the collection of stabilized magical energy cables in his hands, blinks over to Sotalia, and rocks his head side to side. “Think so? I got the valves set and locked that we know of. But... Good gods... This damned thing is engineered with a bunch of redundant and backup systems that are... hard to figure out.”

Another set of alarms blares out in the area. Spinning warning lights flash to life around the doorway. Bach eyes widen and surge with bright blue light. He focuses fully upon the door control systems, and the magical lines flash with powerful prismatic pulses. Loud, powerful thunks sound out as torrents of fluid stir violently inside the piping. Bach grits his teeth, strains his concentration, and surges out new flows down the bundles of magical lines. “SHIT! The valve servos are fighting back! Trying to interrupt power-”

Sparks erupt in a downpour from the door’s powerful electrical controls, and motors strain against opposing forces. The door shudders forward. Dretphi grabs hold of the steel pipe, and wrestles the leverage back to jam machinery. Sotalia quickly gestures out an incantation, directs her energies to a large chunk of steel and lead, and guides the mass up into the air, and over to the door gap. With explosive arcing and a powerful mechanical thud, the system violently frees itself from Bach’s overrides. The full power of the hydraulic ram forces the door mechanisms against the makeshift pry bar in Dretphi’s hands. With the surge of overwhelming power, the forces upon the steel pipe flings Dretphi away, and launches the makeshift tool out in distant arc. In a ditch attempt, Sotalia propels the steel and lead chunk into the closing doorway. The heavy duty door and door frame pinch briefly onto the chunk. After moments of strain, the conflicting pressures pop the metal piece back out, and propel it meters away free from Sotalia’s telekinetic control.

The door quickly closes, and sink into the frame. Loud machinery engages, and the locks secure the door completely.

----

Cideeda maintains a constant watch upon the console display and monitors the system outputs. She blinks hard, releases a long stressed breath, and wipes the sweat collecting on her light brown face. Sebastian hovers next to Cideeda with a reassuring smile, and motions over towards the door. “Hey, don’t worry. They will figure out how to get the door back open.”

With a reserved but hopeful smirk, Cideeda nods to Sebastian, gazes back upon the screen, and taps out commands upon the keyboard. “I know. I’ve been listening to the radio...”

Tapping on button her vest, the speaker of her radio crackles to life as the mode switches. Bach’s voice sounds out over the heavy static. “Gods dammit! What the fuck is wrong with this thing?! This system is overpowering anything I try... Ah, shit... what the fuck to do... Dretphi! Check to see if there’s a cut off or something for this thing.”

Dretphi sounds out over the radio. “Understood. Saw valves over there. Will investigate.”

Sotalia’s irritation comes through the audio as she growls out her frustration. “This is just layers of steel, concrete, and lead! And, there’s some locking bar or something holding it in place... FUCK! I can’t pull this door back.”

Hints of desperation trickle through Aristespha’s vocal facade. “I know. If we can find the locking deadbolts, I may be able to cut them and then you should be able to pull the door back.”

Cideeda frowns with a brief grimace, taps the button to switch her radio back into the previous mode, and sighs nervously. “They’re not having the best of luck.”

Sebastian tries to maintain a hopeful demeanor with an encouraging tone. “It’ll be okay. You focus on getting this thing to shutdown properly. Then, you’ll help them figure it out. I know you will figure out the best solution.”

Cideeda’s claw tips clack on the console keyboard, and she flips through the same series of information screens. Each transition her frown deepens, a shudder trembles her breaths, and grim mood weighs down upon her ears. Sebastian gazes at Cideeda, drifts in front of her, and directs his concern. “What’s wrong?”

With her furry ears drooping, Cideeda drops her head forward, and sadly replies. “I know a way to shut it down...”

The spark of joy within Sebastian disappears under a wave of dread upon his face. “But... It’s not good.”

Cideeda draws a long, deep breath, wipes more sweat off her face, and sorts through the explanation with growing fear. “I don’t understand completely how this system works... I think it was suppose to use a fusion reactor to transmute nuclear waste to more stable isotopes. But, I know it’s well past its limits. Whoever, purposefully overloaded the processing chamber with too much nuclear waste, and set the output of the fusion reactor way too high. Now you have the too much heat from the fusion reactor AND have nuclear waste under going fission. Meanwhile, the cooling system, that was already in disrepair, isn’t capable of handling the thermal load anymore after every pipeline burst. And... THE only thing that’s keeping this area from getting bombarded by radiation is the protective containment force fields... powered by the fusion reactor.”

With a trembling voice and terror filling her emerald eyes, Cideeda stares out through an observation window, past the sparkling energy barrier, and into the glowing pale blue cooling pool. “Without the advanced computer control, this system has been running off of basic backup systems... It’s been stuck in a feedback loop of doom. Fusion reactor powers the field. Field stops the radiation. Radiation is caused by fission from the fusion reactor processing the waste. The only thing I can stop is the fusion reactor, which will hopefully stop the cycle and drop the heat output to something manageable. But, once it stops... The protective field will decay in minutes. This containment dome will keep radiation from going outside... But here...”

Horror washes away the encouraging expression on Sebastian’s face, and he desperately tries to search through possible options in his mind. “Okay... Okay... Okay... We’re not out of options. Okay. How long before the force field breaks down after shutdown?”

Cideeda glances inside her mind, processes the calculations, and weakly answers. “Maybe ten to fifteen minutes? That’s being really... hopeful.”

Visibly stressing at the situation, Sebastian summons up his composure, force up a hopeful grin, and ponders a plan out loud. “That can work. Once they figure out how to the door open, you trigger the shutdown, you get out, we close that door, and get moving. We’ll try to get the other containment dome door closed, if we have time.”

Grabbing hold of the console sides firmly, Cideeda pulls a pained breath in, stares at the monitors on screen and gauges off to the side. “Time is the problem.”

Sebastian follows Cideeda’s gaze, and squints grimly at the gauges and the needle indicators well into red regions. “Oh, gods... I was really hoping those were broke and the needles were resting on the those pins.”

Cideeda frowns, closes her eyes tightly, and shakes her head slowly. “No... They’re pushing against the stops.”

Drifting away towards the door, Sebastian puts forth a reassuring front with a smile. “Hey! We still have a good option. Since you know how to shut it down, we can focus on getting the door open. Then, we can shut it down, seal it, and run. Let me get everyone focused and with your help, I’m sure we’ll get this thing open.”

Cideeda weakly nods. She slowly draws in calming breaths, wipes the sweat off her face, and combs away stray multi-colored hairs with her clawed fingers. Closing her eyes in thought, she attempts to focus her self and mutters a few fvalian prayers under her breath. Her furry ears twitch to a new noise. She steps back from the console, sweeps the aim of her head around, and both ears lock onto source of the sound. Through the ambient drone, crisp noises tickle Cideeda’s ears, and she watches as crumbles of concrete fall from gradually expanding cracks around pipework entering the reactor chamber. Hairline fractures form from widening divides leading to other reinforced pipelines. Cideeda’s eyes narrow, and she notices the slight bends in the longer runs of steel tubing and the strange, minute swelling at joins and connectors. The waves of heat billowing out from the heat exchange machinery fume up and flow along the ceiling.

Another noise pulls Cideeda’s attention over. Focusing her frightened gaze through the observation window and sparkling force field, she surveys the surface of the glowing pale blue pool. Small bubbles breach the surface of the water, and more patches of boiling vent out onto the surface in rising intensity. Cideeda’s expression blanks, and her stare grows distant. Quietly, she drops her head down, steps up to the console, and gazes resolutely inwards. Her emerald green eyes flit through possibilities, calculate the odds, and weigh heavily the costs. Sebastian phases back through the door and hovers towards Cideeda. “Okay. I think the plan is to try cutting off the door hydraulics. That might free it up, so that with your help...”

Frowning sadly with tears welling in her eyes, Cideeda lifts her head up to the console screen, and begins to type out a command. She draws in a long breath and silently contemplates. Donning a somber smile, she taps a button on her radio, and gazes over to Sebastian with a remorseful tone. “I’m sorry, everyone.”

Sebastian jaw drops as he vainly reaches out for Cideeda’s hand, and pales as she initiates the fusion reactor shutdown. In the dwindling ambient hum, Cideeda closes her eyes tightly, and Sebastian watches the tears run down her face in absolute, overwhelming dismay.

----

The background din winds down and Aristespha, Bach, Dretphi, and Sotalia search around the area for the cause. Bach calls out from near the hydraulic door machinery, and blinks absolutely bewildered. “Did something turn off? I didn’t do anything over here. What was that?”

Aristespha glances over to the shrugging Dretphi and confused Sotalia, narrows a perplexed gaze at Bach, and eyes the concrete dome with developing dread. “That sounds like it is from inside...”

A faint crackling chorus sounds out from the group’s radio devices, and Cideeda’s resolute voice rises up from the static. “I have shut down... the fusion reactor... The pressure and heat levels are dropping. It should hold out and stabilize.”

Her shuddering, uneasy breath wavers off the airwaves, and she fights through her choking sobs to relay her message. “I’m sorry... But, you all maybe have ten minutes to get safely out of here! The concrete containment dome should... shield you all from most of the radiation... But, I DON’T KNOW and I want YOU ALL to get clear, NOW!”

Abject horror crushes the team as they listen to broadcast. Cideeda draws in a sniffing breath, clears her throat, and continues on her explanation. “Try to get the second containment dome shut for everyone’s sake! But, don’t stick around. I’ll monitor things from here...”

Sotalia grabs hold of the collar of her cloak, pulls it away to reveal the clipped on radio, and glares at the device. “WHAT THE FUCK, CIDEEDA?! Why did you trigger that now?! We need more time to figure this door out!”

Cideeda sternly retorts with a pained growl and her voice blares out of the radios. “There was NO TIME. The walls of the reactor chamber were at the point of catastrophic failure! I’m not going to risk it blowing up, and killing everything for kilometers around this place.”

Bach directs his voice to his radio and frantically explains a panicked plan. “Okay! We can still do this! There’s things I need your help on- BUT! I think I can overpower the system as hard as I can and get it to cooperate for just long enough and-”

With a cold, eerie tone, Cideeda’s voice systematically dismantles any possibility before Bach’s terrified, tearing blue eyes. “That would risk breaking the current seal in place. We CANNOT risk opening what we don’t know we can close... Leave... please... Respect my... last wishes...”

Sebastian phases through the door with a stoic expression, stares grimly at the team, and commands ethereally. “You heard her. GO. NOW. Close the outer containment door if you can. We need to alert the town.”

Dretphi meets Sebastian’s hard gaze, drops her head squeezing the tears from her eyes, and steps towards Bach. She grabs hold of his arm, pulls away from the door hydraulic systems, and marches towards Sotalia. Summoning her defiant ire, Sotalia draws in a long breath, stretches her arms, and readies herself for spell. “FUCK THAT! We’ll just cut a hole large enough to get you through and-”

A firm, red gauntlet covered hand clamps onto Sotalia’s shoulder, and Dretphi drags the hesitant Sotalia as both fight against their emotions. Sebastian rests a sad gaze upon Aristespha, sighs deeply. “I’m... going to stay with her as long as possible.”

Aristespha summons all her resolve to maintain a strong front for Sebastian, nods simply in agreement, and quells the turmoil in her voice. “Thank you… Sebastian...”

Sebastian turns around and phases back through the door into the interior chamber. Aristespha pivots in place, musters her courage, and quickly steps to catch up to Bach, Dretphi, and Sotalia. She seizes Sotalia’s other arm, and starts disarming Sotalia’s desperate attempts to reason hastily thrown together plans. When Dretphi, Sotalia, and Aristespha step out the outer dome’s transparent framework, through the gateway, the distant concrete structure and the surge of finality overloads Sotalia. She struggles to break free. Dretphi releases Bach, wraps her arms around Sotalia tightly, and speaks simply through her tear splattered full face visor. “Please... I know...”

Bach stands blankly at the mouth of the outer geodesic structure’s entrance, and stares empty at the central containment dome. Moments pass, and he maintains his gaze downwards to the concrete metal encased building, and focuses upon the vault door. Tightening his fists, he drops his head down closing his eyes tightly, draws in a long calming breath, and frowns with a strangely peaceful hint. “I’m sorry... Cideeda.”

----

A pale blue light radiates out from the cooling pool waters, and highlights the sparkling surface of the chamber force field. The mix of ambient glow and flits of light blend with the illumination of the overhead lights and yellow strobes. Cideeda tightens her arms around her curled up legs, resettles her back against the interior concrete wall, and rest her head on her knees. Sebastian crosses his arms as he sits on the floor next to Cideeda, glances over with a curious brow, and hums. “That actually sounds like a nice name for a boy. Why don’t you like it?”

Cideeda smirks briefly with a snort and roll of her emerald green eyes. “Same name as a previous boyfriend I had. If mom has a boy, he doesn’t deserve that namesake.”

Sebastian cracks a humored smile, nods in agreement, and chuckles. “Fair enough. About as good a reason as any. I’ll be sure to remember that, so Aristespha can write it down.”

Drawing in a long breath, Cideeda releases an equally drawn out sigh and surveys the chamber. Staring at the console, the status monitors gradually drift further from the red extremes in the relative safety of the yellow regions. Her sight settles upon the gauges nearby, and she watches the slightly bent indicator needles creep gradually away from overload. Flicking her furry ears over, she listens to the shrinking cracks in the concrete around pipelines, as the various tubes deflate towards to their original shapes and alignments. A somber smile appears on her face, and Cideeda rests her head back upon knees. “I guess it was the right move...”

Sebastian summons up a bold grin against the looming doom, and nods with a genuine tone. “You saved the team. You saved the town. And prevented who knows what else. It could have been an absolute disaster.”

He stares up towards the observation window and the looming pale blue glow radiating out, glances over to the console, and settles his proud gaze upon Cideeda. “You knew full well the situation, and you did it anyway. That’s far more brave and courageous than I’ve ever been.”

Cideeda blinks briefly, lifts her head up, and puzzles at Sebastian. “Says the man that has gone toe to toe with the Dark Lord Noxian?”

Sebastian rolls his eyes at himself, and shakes his head with a smirk. “That wasn’t bravery. I was bold and dumb. Totally believed I was going to win those confrontations each time...”

A few moments of silence pass on by in the low background noises of the surrounding systems. Cideeda glances over to Sebastian with a weak smile, snorts, and asks through her embarrassment. “Could you buy Bach a new holoplayer with my share of the mission payout? I’ve got it with me and I’m certain the radiation will destroy it.”

Sebastian’s ethereal form fights against his swell of sadness and presents a comforting smile. “Of course...”

Lifting up her head, Cideeda stares at the console screen, and watches the power indicator meter for the reactor force field approach creep near the bottom. As her mind processes the status, her emerald green eyes water. With a sudden frown on her face, she drops her head down, curls up tightly, and sobs loudly. “I wanted... to do... so much more...”

Wiping the overflowing tears, she sniffles and cries as she buries her face in her hands. “I was really looking forward to having a little brother or sister, and helping my mom and dad out... I was finally learning how to use magic and really loving it... There’s was that business I wanted to try out after adventuring...”

Regaining some of her composure, Cideeda struggles to calm herself down after a series of slow, stammering breaths, leans back into the wall, and frowns regretfully with a sad tone. “And... maybe... there was a possibility I wanted to explore... that I’d never considered before.”

Sebastian smirks with a curious quirk of the brow, chuckles against the gloom, and pries. “Like what?”

A slight tint of embarrassment fill Cideeda’s face, and she twist her mouth.

Sebastian suddenly sits upright, springs up into the air, and glances around confused. “Cideeda, have been listening to your radio?”

Cideeda blinks, stands up, and starts to the press the button on radio. “No, I turned it off to well... Let me turn it-”

Once she clicks the button, a blast of static crackles out upon a wavering twist of tones and other odd noises to her utter surprise. Sebastian halts suddenly, blinks his distant stare, and snaps his attention to Cideeda. “GET TO THE DOOR!”

Following the order utterly perplexed, Cideeda steps in front of the door, and stares to Sebastian for answers. “What the fuck is going on?! They aren’t going to-”

Her furry ears flick forward and her eyes search the doorway. Thin threads of prismatic magical flow seep around the joins of the door and weave into the material surrounding. Loud clunks resonate from outside into the structure and mix with a cacophony of mechanical strain, fluid rushing forcefully against pressure, and groans of machinery straining counter to its desires. In a brief moment of silence, Cideeda widens her eyes as the prismatic flows erupt in a brilliant white burst. Locking bolts slam hard, and the containment door flies with a powerful pull of air.

Blinking in utter surprise, Cideeda briefly gazes upon a magical barrier covering the exit, and notices Sotalia’s field encased arm reaching out. Sotalia grabs hold of Cideeda’s hand, and yanks her out through into barrier and outside the central containment building. Cideeda runs along at the guidance of Sotalia and within Aristespha’s warping barrier as it bubbles around them. She glances back and watches the massive, heavy containment door slam shut under the power of white energy infused magical machinery. Long runs flow conduits bound to parts of the door system glow brightly, and magically energized sparks erupt out from hydraulic electrical systems nearby. Loud solid clanks echo throughout the outer containment dome as the door locks reengage under a domineering power. Moments later, the cracks between the vault hatch and door frame glow to a near white hot heat, and sputter with molten lead as magical cabling feeds leftover metal chunks into the crevices.

Aristespha, Cideeda, and Sotalia cross through the threshold of the outer, transparent geodesic dome, and Sebastian materializes next to the team. Following the bundles of magical, white pulsating cables and conduits, Cideeda gazes over to torrent of prismatic and white energy flows radiating from Bach. Maintaining full concentration and focus with brilliant white glowing eyes, Bach motions his hands and alters the energies leaving him. The long lines reaching to the concrete dome dissipate quickly into clouds of white and prismatic miasma, and the remaining lines pulse and twitch to operate the outer containment dome’s door. As the system sputters and grinds, Cideeda’s ears flick over and she listens briefly. Glancing over to Bach, she notices the growing strain apparent on his face and wavering concentration, and calls out an instruction. “Disengage the safety locks, then pressurize the rams!”

Bach snaps to back into focus, nods quickly, and warps the flows of energy down the lines. Soon after, the final containment door shudders free, slides closed, and locks. The final conduits of flow dissipate in clouds of magical miasma, and Bach stumbles around after releasing the last flows of energy. Dretphi swiftly supports him under the shoulders, and leads him towards the main exit with the rest of the team.

----

Bach, Dretphi, Aristespha, Cideeda, Sotalia, and Sebastian sprint out from the underground ramp, encased in a protective barrier from Aristespha. When the team gets meters away, a faint alarm sounds out from down the corridor. Aristespha braces herself and bolsters the barrier around the team. Bach drops down to knees with Dretphi guiding him down. Cideeda pulls out her radiation detector, shows it to Aristespha, and slides it just out of the bubble. Minute pass uneasily as the sounds of surrounding nature fill the background behind the beeps and clicks of a radiation detector.

Cideeda motions over to the detector and Aristespha warps the field over. Carefully approaching, Cideeda picks up the detector, sorts through the recorded readings, and breathes a sigh of relief. “Normal levels. That barrier should have shut down completely by now. I think we’re safe enough for the moment.”

Aristespha releases her barrier spell, takes a few steps, and eases herself down upon the ground. “Good. I need to rest after that. Sotalia... Potion please? Need to get ready to do some medical checks.”

Sotalia flips open a pouch on her belt, pulls out a vial, and passes it to Aristespha. “Here you go. I’m going to make a call to the local police before ANYTHING ELSE happens.”

Dretphi pats Bach’s shoulder, waits for him to nod, and flips up her visor after retrieving her aetherphone. “Will contact the guild.”

Sebastian hovers up, and calls out. “I’m going to check to make sure nothing else happening nearby from above. Gods fucking dammit, can this day just end.”

Cideeda steps next to Bach and Aristespha, settles down onto the ground, and relaxes for a moment. Slowly recovering from the surge of activity, she glances over to Bach and cocks her head as she watches him support himself up by his arms and sway quietly. She slides over close to him and curiously gazes. “You okay, Bach?”

Bach unsteadily keeps himself seated up on his knees without response. Cideeda grips hold of his forearm, gently presses her claw tips, and angles her head to see his face. “Bach?”

Bach startles out of his daze, lifts his head groggily to Cideeda, and tries to keep his faintly white glowing eyes in focus. “W-w-what? Are you okay? I- Um- Uh- Where...”

With a concern in her tone, she nods and grips both his arms. “Yes. I’m okay. We’re okay. We’re clear. You can rest now.”

A relieved smile graces Bach’s face, and he blinks into a wince. After gritting his teeth and grimacing, he reopens his normal blue eyes. Exhaustion overwhelms Bach immediately, and he manages a weak smirk before tipping over to the side into unconsciousness. “I’m going to lay down n...”

With a firm pull, Cideeda redirects Bach’s collapse and guides his head gently upon her shoulder. Wrapping her arms around to secure Bach, Cideeda gently strokes his back as he passes out.

-78-

High, sparse clouds slowly drift along the gentle air currents above, as the noon sun beams down upon the landscape of Ark. A low, fast paced rumble reverberates out into the idle town’s soundscape, and a large carryall zooms on by with thrusters and hover pads glowing brightly. Faint trails of ionized air disperse quickly as the massive airborne transport lines up towards its destination within the river peninsula. As large metallic, mechanical clanks sound out, the large vehicle’s wings tuck in for a narrower profile, and jets rotate downwards during the slow vertical descent below the treeline. The reflective markings of Greater Azure Alliance logos flicker briefly in the sun before the carryall drops out of view with landing gear extending out.

The teenage boy, Brennon, squints across the river towards the woods, halts sweeping the front steps to the thematic inn, and points enthusiastically. “There’s another one! That’s another GAA carryall. That HAS to be the seventh one that’s landed there!”

Kristine rolls her eyes at Brennon and scoffs in an argumentative tone towards her brother. “Sixth one. You really need to learn how to count.”

Sneering his upper lip, Brennon shoves a large pile of dust and dirt towards the sidewalk near his sister with the push broom in his hands. “Whatever. Still, what the hell is going on?! I mean, like, nothing happens out here. Now, the GAA is sending everything they’ve got over THERE.”

Defiantly brushing back the debris off her side of the cleaning chore with a bristle broom, Kristine awkwardly grimaces with hints of nervousness slipping through, and proposes an unconvincing explanation. “Maybe it's an exercise or drill? I mean, it’s not like they don’t use this area all the time for random stuff. Maybe it’s just a really big training thing?”

Brennon pauses a moment to think, and slowly shakes his head. “Nah... If it was one or two carryalls... Maybe? But-”

A huge shadow projects down from above and shades out the vicinity. A rattling rumble vibrates the area, and both teenagers gawk up in utter surprise. Nearly a hundred meters long, the air carrier gradually descends towards the river, rotates itself along its flight path to align with the center of the river, and slowly dips its adjusting keel into water. The massive volume displaces water in a large wake, and launches out large crashing waves against the river front. Upon the flat top of the vessel, military personnel scramble to various land vehicles and control stations for large extending ramps. A torrent of churning bubbles blasts out from behind the floating air carrier, and it gains velocity around the river bend as it sails out of view.

Brennon and Kristine remain speechless as they stare blankly at the vessel going down the river. In their shock, they fail to notice the humvee pull into one of the parking spaces in front of the inn. As the powerplant spins down, the driver’s side door opens up, and Cideeda slides out with a mix of fatigue and eagerness blatant as she pulls against her body suit. “Okay, just lock the doors for now. We’ll deal with it later, because I need a shower NOW.”

The rest of the doors open up. Bach groggily eases himself out of his seat, puts his unsteady boots onto the pavement, and yawns while rubbing the temple of his head. Sotalia hops out, steps next to Bach, and slips a supportive arm under his shoulder. “Going to make it up the stairs?”

Bach blinks a few times, fights off the drowsiness, and nods with an appreciative smile. “Yeah. I think so. Just REALLY tired.”

Aristespha directs her voice through the cab from the other side of vehicle, and hoists up a medical kit under her arm. “That is not surprising. Just take it easy for the rest of the day. You should feel a bit better with a big lunch and a few stamina potions mixed in.”

Dretphi steps out of the humvee behind Bach, pats his back gently, and gestures forward. “Let us get you upstairs.”

Bach rubs his blue eyes, fights backs another yawn with a twisting grimace, and smirks with a little embarrassment. “Yeah... Definitely wouldn’t mind just laying around and watching random aethersite videos on the phone until I pass out.”

Dretphi closes the doors on her side of the humvee, and protectively walks behind Bach and Sotalia. Aristespha closes up on her side after hitting the lock button on the driver’s console. She walks up towards the front entrance of the inn, notices Brennon and Kristine still captivated by the military activity in the distance. After studying the huge vessel slipping out of view, she smirks over towards Brennon and lifts her brow. “By the way, Brennon. You were right on about your suspicions.”

Brennon awkwardly blinks to attention, glances over to Aristespha, and puzzles. “Huh, what?”

Aristespha maintains a professional demeanor, and nods to the goofy teenager. “The evuukian man you saw in the woods. It turns out his presence there was not a good thing. He was very likely a Terra Priest and extremely dangerous. Thankfully, whatever he was planning did not come to fruition.”

Narrowing a stern stare upon Brennon, she instructs with hints of concern in her tone. “Now, I will NOT recommend you being too adventurous at your age. But, I WILL recommend that if you come across anything that suspicious in the future, don’t be afraid to let the police and guild know. It could make a bigger difference than you’ll ever know.”

Trying maintain his stumbling composure, Brennon summons up a bit proper procedure and straighten his posture. “Oh- Um- Yes, ma’am! Thank you. I’ll do that in the future.”

Aristespha smiles respectfully, turns away towards the entrance, and rolls her violet eyes mildly amused. Brennon enjoys the moment accomplishment in brief silence, turns around to his sister, and grins pridefully. “SEE! I FUCKING TOLD YOU!”

Kristine groans in disgust, shakes her head, and aggressively flicks a pile of dirt over onto Brennon’s side of the front walkway. “GODS. WHATEVER.”

As Bach, Sotalia, and Dretphi walk through the lobby of the inn, Sotalia glances over to Johnathan cleaning up a number of glass at the nearby bar, and waves for his attention. “Hey, Johnathan?”

Johnathan pivots towards Sotalia’s voice, nods briefly, and smiles with a concerned twist. “Oh, yes, how can I help you all today? Looks like you all have had quite the day... already.”

Sotalia shrugs her shoulders with a smirk, sighs brightly, and chuckles. “You could say that. But, we’re okay. Just a little worn out, and a needing a few days of not doing anything.”

With a sly smirk, she searches her mind briefly, perks an inquisitive brow towards Johnathan, and coyly asks. “You have any drink specials sold by the pitcher?”

Johnathan chuckles with a grin, glances behind at the selection of bottles behind him, and returns his gaze towards Sotalia with a confident nod. “We have a few favorites... And the stock to make any of them.”

Aristespha walks up to the conversation, glances between Johnathan and Sotalia, and twists her mouth curiously. “What do you have by the bottle?”

----

Through the wall of windows, the faint glow of nearby city lamps barely creeps over into the large inn room. Along the horizon, bright lights highlight the top of the distant treeline across the river, and the blinking flight lamps of drones dart around in the starry night sky. Fluttering her emerald green eyes open, Cideeda stares up at the plain white ceiling in the dark, draws in a long breath, and releases a mildly frustrated sigh. Quietly grumbling to herself, she rolls her head side to side upon the pillow, flicks her furry ears, and vainly searches for a comfortable position while tugging the covers. Staring groggily upwards, she closes her eyes, and tries to calm herself into slumber. Drifting off into her thoughts, she contorts her face in a variety of grimaces and uneasy expressions. Finally, she reopens her eyes, sighs quietly, and grumbles to herself in fvalian with spikes of self aggravation.

A noise tickles her furry ear, and she perks it towards the source. Hearing the sound again, she slowly sits up, and searches around the large, dark inn room. After few passes, she focuses her gaze over to Bach in the bed at the end of the row, and she watches carefully. Tossing and turning, Bach rolls over to new position, mumbles incoherently, and winces in his sleep. With a shudder in his breath, he tenses up uneasily and cringes in between muttering. Cideeda pulls the covers off her, rests her feet on the floor, and stands up quietly. Stepping silently across the room with her tail waving out from underneath her nightshirt, she navigates to the side of Bach’s bed. She kneels down, and observes the discomfort and unease upon Bach face. Her ears flick forward and listen carefully. Gritting his teeth, Bach mumbles out a few clear words in between his pained cringes. “... why won’t... ...I’m sorry...”

Cideeda’s expression softens as a slight frown curls the corners of her mouth, and she sighs sympathetically. Her concern sharpens with each shift between fear, sadness, and pain upon Bach face, and the visible tension and discomfort building up. In the darkness, a tear escapes the corner of Bach’s eye, rolls down over the bridge of nose, and barely reflects the sparse light from the windows. Leaning close, Cideeda directs a gentle whisper to Bach's ear with a reassuring tone. “It’s okay. You are okay.”

With a sad tremor in his voice, Bach mutters out something incoherent in his slumber. Moments later, he winces out tears in a remorseful whimper and slightly shakes his head. Listening to the meek pleas from Bach’s unconsciousness, Cideeda narrows her worried gaze and quietly ponders. Searching her mind, she musters up a calm smile and softly speaks to Bach. “It’s fine. Everyone got out just fine. Everyone is safe.”

Resting her hand gently upon Bach’s topmost shoulder as he lays on his side, she rubs his arm comfortingly. Bach grimaces, rolls his head slightly, and sighs with an uncertain, sad whine. “You... sure...”

Sliding her grip down, Cideeda holds onto Bach’s forearm, thinks a moment, and softly presses her claw tips with a few squeezes with a gentle smile. “Yes. It’s okay. I’m fine. Don’t worry anymore. It’s going to be okay. This is just a bad dream.”

Over the next minute, the twitches of discomfort subside on Bach's face. The distress in his unconscious mumbling fades away to a calmer tone. Cideeda gently rubs his forearm, and watches his breathing ease to a peaceful snore. As tension gradually subsides, Bach’s head shifts to settle fully upon the support of his pillow, and he slips into a deeper slumber. Cideeda gazes upon Bach with a relieved smile, and quietly sighs shaking her head.

With her free hand of clawed fingers, she deftly combs the white streak of hair dancing upon Bach’s nose off to the side of his face. With a few final pats upon Bach’s forearm, she stands back up quietly, and silently travels down the large, dark in room to her bed. She stops a moment, pivots slowly, and stares out through the windows. Gazing distantly to the treeline edging the horizon across the river, she fights off a grimace. Staring at the flickers of light and activity around the night obscured land, she silently ponders to herself. Eventually, she shudders herself back to the present, fights off an disturbed expression, and fidgets out her nerves. Slipping back under the covers, she rest hers head upon the pillow. Drawing in a few comforting breaths, she lifts her head up briefly, aims a furry ear over towards Bach, and waits. Confirming the consistent, peaceful sounds of sleep, she settles into a comfortable spot on her bed, coils up in the covers, and closes her eyes as her tail slips out to wag freely off to the side. Gradually, the fatigue of the day and relief of the night allow to her drift off to a proper slumber.

----

A breeze blows across the river and ruffles the leaves in the surrounding patches of forest. Underneath the shade of a large beach umbrella, Aristespha and Sotalia lounge in fold out chairs upon the sandy lot near the water. Sotalia lifts up a mixed drink pitcher off the wooden table between the two of them, pours her glass full, and tops off the other glass close to Aristespha. “This is nice.”

Aristespha picks up the refreshed beverage, stretches her legs out, pushes some sand with her feet, and settles back into her chair. “After yesterday, it certainly is. Nice and quiet.”

Stirring around the ice in her glass with a few gentle swirls, Sotalia lifts her brow up from behind her sunglasses, and glances over to Aristespha. “Still seems weird to be relaxing here given what we found just across the river.”

With a defeated sigh, Aristespha sips her drink, adjusts her floppy hat against the wind, and shrugs her shoulders slightly. “If half the GAA’s teams specializing in hazardous materials can’t keep it under control, then it won’t really matter if we are here and back at the house. We’re both figuratively and literally down river from Ark in Amaranth Valley.”

She cringes briefly, and mumbles. “Which is frightening thought really.”

Pondering the concept, she tips back her glass a bit further than before. Tossing her fiery orange, wavy hair back with the breeze blowing by, Sotalia brushes stray locks around her swept back horns with her long black nails, and grumbles at the thought. “It is. Especially listening to Cideeda explain how close the thing was to just blowing it’s top and blasting everything up into the air.”

She grits her teeth with tinges of frustration and irritation, and huffs indignantly. “That Hackle better get us the location of where Noxian went after handling this mess for him. I’m getting a REALLY tired of stumbling into these supposedly simple missions that turn out to be worst fucking doomsday machines this side of Nexus.”

Aristespha twist her mouth and groans out her irritation. “Oh, I think he will...”

A sly smirk appears upon her face, and she narrows her stare ahead with plotting satisfaction. “Because, I think he’s smart enough to realize that it would be best to keep us happy... And, not give us reasons to complain to certain sources on how the GAA is haphazardly risking the lives of the public by handing off critical missions to some random adventuring group.”

Sotalia glances over to Aristespha with an amused grin, enjoys a long swig of her beverage, and relaxes back into her chair. “Damn, girl. Getting your alpha bitch mode armed and ready for the fight right there.”

Spiked into the sand, the sword within its scabbard resonates with Sebastian's voice. “To be fair, we’ll give them some time to do their jobs.”

Sebastian’s tone darkens slightly and an ethereal grumble sounds out. “But after a week or so, I think we’re in our right to demand some gods damned answers.”

Aristespha nods slightly, chuckles to herself, and rests her hand on the sword handle. “Still, Sebastian, I’m going to demand a significant bonus to compensate us for sacrificing our sanity in contending with this... absolute bullshit.”

A reverberating laugh sounds of from the sword, and Sebastian agrees. “Of course, dear. I wouldn’t expect any less.”

The small waves of the river lap against the water front and fill the air with a serene background drone, as Aristespha and Sotalia continue to relax on their chairs in the shade. From the parking lot, Cideeda and Dretphi step down a walkway with paper bags of fast food and carriers of drinks in their hands and arms. Cideeda stands in front of Aristespha and Sotalia, glances between the two of them with an amused smirk, and flicks her tail. “Well, I see you two have been hard at work.”

Sotalia chuckles, lowers down her sunglasses, and muses. “Well, this pitcher isn’t going to drink itself.”

Aristespha smiles smugly, sighs, and shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly. “After extensive testing, we have determined this to be the best spot to enjoy a late lunch. A good balance of sun, shade, and wind, if I must say.”

Dretphi rolls her steely gray eyes at the comment with a humored snort, reaches over Aristespha and Sotalia’s shoulders from behind, and deposits a paper sack in each of their laps. “Your food.”

A spark of excitement appears on Sotalia’s face, and she opens up the bag eagerly. “Thank you!”

Aristespha methodically removes individual containers out of her bag, and sorts through them with an appreciative smile. “Oh, yes. I was getting really hungry.”

Sebastian’s voice emanates from the sword with thankful tone tinged with sarcasm. “Good timing. They’ve needed something to slow down the alcohol absorption and let their livers catch up.”

Eyeing the sword briefly, a sly smirk cracks on Aristespha. She retrieves her aetherphone, flips up to the messaging app, and starts to type on the screen. Cideeda searches around the area briefly, and looks to both Aristespha and Sotalia. “Where’s Bach at?”

Sotalia turns her head towards a patch of trees at the edge of the sand lot, points to a spot under the leafy shade, and sighs with a slight frown. “He’s over there. Seemed like he just wanted to be alone for bit... Even after I tried my best to encourage him to sit with us. Even so, I think he’s had enough time to internally beat himself up over things he really shouldn’t.”

Dretphi gazes over at the wooded spot with concern and worry, and judges the opinions of everyone else. “Should I ask him to join us?”

A confident smiles appears on Cideeda’s face, and she lifts up a paper bag with Bach’s name written on it. “I’ll go see if he’s worked up an appetite from too much self reflection. Be right back.”

A bit of relief eases Dretphi’s tensions, and she settles down in another nearby wooden beach chair with her order of food. Sotalia slowly shakes her head, draws in a long breath, and leans back into her chair. “I guess he can’t help but to think about things... But, I still think he really needs to stop overthinking to the point he comes up with reasons to stress himself.”

She pauses in thought, glances down at alert chime coming from her shorts pocket, and retrieves her aetherphone. Sebastian ethereally sighs, and sympathetically comments. “Well, it can’t be easy for my bro. Dealing with all that has to be a weird existence for him. As the ghost trapped in the sword here, sometimes you can’t help but think about everything.”

Dretphi nods in agreement as she watches Cideeda approach the tree Bach sits under. Sotalia snorts, meets Aristespha’s gaze, glances down to the sword, and nods with a dramatic curl to her smirk. She quickly taps out of response on her aetherphone, presses the send button, and waits for Aristespha’s reaction. Glancing over to her phone after the chime, Aristespha reads the message quickly, rolls her eyes in annoyed commiseration, eyes the sword, and type up another message. Sebastian’s voice resonates out with growing suspicion and confusion. “Hey... Are you both looking at me? You know I can’t see that well when I’m in the sword and- Wait. You two have your phones out. WHAT ARE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT?”

Dretphi pauses in the middle of sipping the straw in her drink, rests the paper cup down, and curiously eyes over to both Aristespha and Sotalia. Aristespha and Sotalia meet Dretphi’s gaze, exchange glances, and both gesture to their aetherphones. Dretphi eagerly pulls out her phone with a mischievous curl to an excited smile, and starts tapping out a message. Sebastian's voice pleads out with indignant twists in his tone. “Oh, come on! Don’t make me manifest out in public here.”

Cideeda walks casually up under the canopy of the tree Bach sits underneath. With a distant stare detached from his thoughts, Bach watches the wind push long lines of ripples across the river from his seat on the ground. Tracing his long gaze out across the water, Cideeda pivots in place to look out onto the water and idly wags her tail while perking her ears to the ambient sounds. After a few quiet moments, she glances down at Bach, and hangs the paper sack with his name into view. “So, are you hungry?”

Bach blinks back to awareness, notices the bag, and gratefully takes it from Cideeda. “Oh, uh... Yeah. Um, sorry, just spacing out there. It’s actually a nice view and it’s not too hot in the shade.”

With a comforting smile, Cideeda flicks up a furry ear at Bach and pries with an inquiring tint in her voice. “So... You doing okay?”

Slowing down his progress opening the paper sack of food, Bach grimaces uneasily, darts his blue eyes around slowly, and eases out an uncertain sigh. “I guess? I mean all things considered, this was the best outcome. But... I don’t know.”

Cideeda rests her free hand on her hip, flexes the her other grip on a bag with her name on it, and twitches her tail with a sway in her stance. Lifting a puzzled brow towards Bach, she mulls over recent memory thoughtfully and directs a question. “Why did you say you were sorry?”

Bach’s eyes flit wide momentarily, and he gazes up to Cideeda confused. “Um, what?”

Narrowing her inquisitive stare at him, Cideeda expands upon her thought. “Last thing I heard over the radio, you said you were sorry to me. What did you mean?”

Contorting his expressions between guilt and embarrassment, Bach eventually draws in a long breath and stumbles upon an answer. “Well... Um... you see... I, uh, kind of went against your last wishes.”

Cideeda perks up her furry ears, cocks her head to side, and cracks an amused toothy grin. “Well, seeing how I’m alive and standing here, I think I’ll be perfectly okay with it. When I made those... last requests... I didn’t think flipping open and slamming closed a few ton door open like a toilet seat was an option.”

A humored smirk slips out on Bach face, and he chuckles awkwardly. “Yeah... Truth be told... Me neither. And, that’s THE problem.”

As Cideeda puzzles at the answer, Bach works through his disappearing confidence and ponders out loud. “I mean... I took your perfectly logical solution to a huge problem, and risked it all on the idea that I had the power to make it better. When looking back on it, I could have completely fucked everything up. Not just a little, but REALLY fucked it up. I could have failed at so many points from not getting the door open, damaging the structure, not being able to get the door closed, and some many other ways I can’t think of at the moment.”

He slumps his shoulders, hangs his head lower, and frowns. “I just don’t know if using that power was ultimately the right thing to do. Am I allowing poorly placed confidence in some power I barely understand to lead me down THAT path? Which makes me no different than...”

Cideeda kneels down to seat next to Bach, grabs his shoulder, and gazes her emerald green eyes at his blue ones. “Listen, I agree that maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do given all the possible odds and outcomes. But...”

She grimaces uneasily, sighs with a grit of her sharp teeth, and squirms slightly. “Even what I did was probably not the best course of action depending on the perspective you take. I mean, what if I had taken a look at the situation and just told everyone to run for the hills? What if I had gotten trapped in there and there was no way to shut it down? Or, maybe we could have timed it right? And, it wouldn’t have locked when I was there? Then, I hit the shut down, and we all got clear with out any problems?”

Squeezing Bach’s shoulder firmly, her expression softens and she smiles kindly to him. “It was a REALLY fucked up, shitty situation. I navigated it the best I knew how and made the choices I thought were for the best given what I had available. It’s the same thing you did.”

Gradually averting his gaze from Cideeda, Bach contorts his face as he processes the sentiment and eventually settles upon a halfhearted acceptance. “Yeah.”

Lifting a smug eyebrow, Cideeda presents a toothy grin with a genuinely happy tone, and playfully shakes Bach’s shoulder slightly. “Hey, the town is safe and we’re all alive to debate all the hypothetical ethics behind getting here. That’s a pretty good result.”

She smiles with hints of concern as she leans around to meet Bach’s gaze. “And the fact you are deliberating about this is a good sign. From my experience, it’s the ones who aren’t aware you have to worry about.”

A smirk gradually appears on Bach and his tensions relax a little. Cideeda hums in thought for a few seconds, chuckles to herself, and grins. “Let me tell you one of those fvalian fables that... somewhat applies.”

Bach shifts his attention fully upon Cideeda and waits curiously. Cideeda draws in a long breath, wags her tail behind her, and starts to relay the story. “Okay... So, a thief goes to rob a house. While he’s robbing it, he notices a lot of smoke coming from the house next door, and quickly realizes that it’s on fire. Well, he decides he really needs to get ready to leave before all the firefighters and police arrive to investigate. But, while he’s outside loading stuff up into his van, he sees a car parked in the driveway. He realizes that no one is outside at this point, and the fire is pouring out a few of the windows now.”

She presents a puzzled gaze to Bach with a questioning flourish of her hands. “Against the obvious choice to leave, he decides to investigate... And, even goes inside the house when it just doesn’t feel right to him. Just as he’s about to give up searching, he finds a woman passed out from the smoke. So, he carries her out... to the awaiting police and firefighters.”

Donning an uneasy, tight lipped expression, she explains the predicament further. “So now, he’s REALLY trying to leave the scene and not draw any more attention. But... The neighbors point out they don’t recognize him to the police, and one officer starts asking what he’s doing with all the stuff in the van. They quickly figure out what’s going on, and arrest him. Later, he’s on trial for the robbery, and fully expects to be put into jail for a long time.”

She furrows her brow and playful bewilderment tints her tone. “Oddly and against all his expectations, the judge is really light on the sentencing. This totally baffles him. Why be nice when he was so obviously caught in the act? As much as he didn’t want to admit it... it was a pretty open and shut case, and he didn’t think there was any way to argue against it.”

Twisting her mouth in suspicious intrigue, she focuses a dramatic gaze upon Bach. “Somehow while filling out paperwork to process out, he was by himself and the judge wanders in to handle some other bit of business. So, they are alone briefly. He decides to simply ask the judge why she was so easy on him? While he’s not one to turn down mercy and good fortune, he can’t deny how it felt like it should have gone differently.”

Smiling kindly, Cideeda leans closer to Bach and asks him. “You know what she said?”

Bach tilts his head to the side, narrows his attentive gaze, and shakes his head slowly. “No. What did she say?”

Cideeda grins toothily and chuckles lightly. “She said that she couldn’t very well condemn the man who choose the risk for her daughter’s life, over certainty for his freedom.”

Allowing the last line of the story to sink in, Bach gradually nods as he start to decipher the intended meaning, pauses to a blank expression, and then puzzles more upon it. He continues to visibly deliberate and contemplate the story. After a few seconds, he glances over to Cideeda with a pleading expression in search of further explanation. “Alright... I’m seeing few possible lessons to take away from that... But... Wow, it is a bit murky, and I’m not sure I’m pulling the right things from it.”

With a humored giggle, Cideeda stands up, picks her paper sack of food up, and stretches out her back. “Well, don’t think too hard about it. They are ALL like that. That actually was one of the straight forward ones.”

She motions over to the rest of the team, and smiles brightly as her emerald green eyes gaze into Bach’s blue eyes. “So, how about you join the rest of us to eat? Afterwards, maybe you can tag along and we all see what passes for a comic or game shop in this town?”

Rising up to his feet, Bach stands up fully, stretches out some of his stale stress, and smirks with a humble chuckle. “Yeah, sounds like a plan to me.”

Cideeda grins toothily and walks along side Bach with a confident stride in her step and satisfied wag of her tail. As they approach Aristespha, Dretphi, and Sotalia messaging each other with sinisterly humored expressions, Sebastian’s voice whines in mild frustration. “This is SO rude.”

----

A strong gust of wind blows across the large, sparsely graveled lot, and bits of sandy soil stir up into the air. The flecks of dried grass and specks of white sand gather around the tires of many different vehicles and the side of an old, worn store front. A small rust spattered windmill anchored to the flat roof top spins to the surges of airflow, and creaks when direction changes. Driving down the long paved road between other quiet business, a dark green sedan cruises slowly over the gentle dips in the aging asphalt. The vehicle rolls to a stop next to the sign upon a tall chain-link fence next to an open gate.

Isaac lifts up a folded up paper map, orientates it to his view, and compares landmarks around him. Glancing ahead, left, and right, he twists his mouth, focuses upon the rusty metal sign, and grumbles to himself. “Trusty Tony’s Transportation...”

Lifting an uncertain brow at the alliteration, he draws a suspicious breath through his gritting teeth, and releases a slightly disgusted sigh. “Gods almighty, Emanuel... Who the hell are you recommending to me?”

Dropping the paper map into the passengers seat, Isaac eases off the brake, and steers the car through the entry gate. Pulling into one of the many empty parking spots in front of the small, glass walled building, Isaac puts the car into park and turns off the engine. He slowly steps towards the front entry, peers inside briefly, and pushes open the door. The small bell above the door rings out, and Isaac cautiously walks towards the front desk of the small front office space.

Muffled noises of movement sound out from behind a sun damaged, cheap wooden door opposite the counter. As Isaac arrives at the front desk, and he suspiciously watches the doorway open on the wall across from him. Brushing off cheaper business attire, an older fvalian man notices Isaac at counter, and presents a sly, chipped fang smile with an enthusiastic greeting. “Hello! Welcome to Trusty Tony’s Transportation. You MUST be a customer of EXCELLENT taste to have graced me with your patronage. How can I ever be of service to you?”

Isaac blinks briefly as he comprehends the changing situation he finds himself in, and cocks his head to the side curiously. “YOU are Trusty Tony?”

Tony smiles pridefully, combs his sharp claws through his slicked back, graying hair, and flicks his nicked and notched, furry ears. “Of course. Tony is a shorter nickname. And, it flows so much better in Americ with my business name. So...”

Nodding at the reasoning, Isaac glances around the office space and through the large windowed walls. “Well, you have been recommend to me by a business associate of mine.”

Furrowing his brow with signs of intrigue, Tony hums to himself and raps his thick claws upon the counter top. “Oh, really? Certainly it MUST be someone I know, and has been quite satisfied with the services I provide.”

Settling his investigative stare upon Tony, Isaac twists his mouth, and purposefully keeps his tone even and calm. “Might be. He used to do a lot of work in the recovery and transportation of historically significant cargo.”

Tony narrows his gaze briefly, ponders a moment, and pulls a widening grin across his face. “Ah, yes. I think I know the particular, previously adventurous, academic minded individual. How is he doing these days?”

Isaac shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, and keeps a cool expression. “Enjoying his retirement however he can and pleases. But lately, he’s been graciously educating me on particular aspects of his old career.”

With an amused chuckle, Tony smiles eagerly and flits his brow. “Indeed he is. And, I’m so happy he is teaching you to come to me. So, how exactly can I facilitate your education?”

Gesturing toward the front of the office and at the dark green sedan parked, Isaac states the situation. “I recently arrived in town, and I don’t believe my current vehicle will suit my needs anymore. So, I’d like to... trade up... to something better suited to exploring the zone.”

Eyeing Tony from the corners of his gray eyes, Isaac mentions in a hushed tone. “This sedan has too much recent history on it for me.”

A sly smirk creeps out upon Tony’s lightly tanned face, and he chuckles in good humor with a darker undertone. “Completely understand. It helps to start out fresh in a new town. And, I just happen to have a wonderful selection of all terrain vehicles, proven to handle what our own Perimeter Weird Zone can dish out.”

He narrows a calculating stare upon the dark green sedan in the parking space out front, and widens his smile as his eyes focus upon the key details and conditions. Shifting his attention back to Isaac, Tony lifts up a hinged section of desk, steps out swiftly, and leads towards another set of doors exiting out into the back lot. “Follow me, let’s see what you desire first before we talk any further.”

Isaac follows along behind Tony, maintaining a cautious distance from the antics of the salesman, and thinks to himself. After a few moments, he remembers an issue and searches his mind for the right phrasing. “Oh, by the way, there’s a few spots on my sedan that might need to be... returned to stock condition to make it... easier to sell in the future.”

Tony slows his pace, glances behind to Isaac behind him, and smirks curiously. “Hmm... So, a horizontal hail incident?”

Isaac decodes the obscured meaning and slowly nods his head. “You could say that.”

With a reassuring laugh, Tony waves off the worries, and shakes his head as he opens the door for Isaac. “Oh, nothing to worry about. Around here, not uncommon at all. Nothing to concern yourself with. I know a few talented people who will make it presentable. They’re so good, it’ll look like a totally different car.”

An odd sense relief washes over Isaac as he follows Trusty Tony through a large lot of all terrain vehicles of different sizes and designs, as the moist, salty breeze stirs the white sand throughout the area.

----

Out in the back yard of the two story house, Samantha steps up next to Gerald with her attention fully upon her clipboard. Flipping through a number of pages, she grumbles to herself, and tosses her brown, shoulder-length hair back in a fit of frustration. Briefly closing her hazel eyes, she draws in an audible breath, and exhales in a vain attempt to ease her attitude. Gerald shifts his dark brown eyes from the large camera’s viewfinder, and lifts a curious brow towards Samantha. “What’s wrong?”

Grimacing out her thoughts, Samantha groans, idly raps her fingers upon her clipboard, and lifts her gaze ahead. “I’m trying to figure out what to do next with the team. We need some drama, action, or... Something! A little down time is fine, but we got to be ready to grab viewer attention, again. Soon. With Trakenthin’s family off limits, I’m trying to figure out who we should focus on next.”

Turning his attention back to the viewfinder, Gerald scratches his head of short, dark blonde hair, shrugs his shoulders, and aims the camera around at the different members of the Flames of the Phoenix. “I’m sure something will happen soon enough. We just need to keep an eye for any clues, and keep the cameras rolling. There’s still enough volatility left in this team.”

Samantha releases a long sigh, holds her clipboard in her arm, and scans around the back yard. Out of the corner of eye, she catches some movement beyond brush leading into the nearby forest. Squinting her eyes, she leans back and spots Veevi’s contrasting pink hair against the forest green and brown. As Veevi pulls Chad along with her seductive intent blatant, Samantha smirks slightly, and signals a small camera team over. “Urdi, Radnae, Harris... They’re hitting the forest again. See what you can get.”

The older human man leads the fvalian man and woman to a stealthy approach into the forest, carefully trailing Chad and Veevi. Samantha groans out her annoyance, and rolls her eyes with a slow shake of her head. “We might get a good side bit in an episode, but even that isn’t quite enough.”

Propping her chin with her fist, she shifts her weight from foot to foot while she fidgets with thought. “What to do...”

Gerald glances over to Samantha, returns his focus to recording, and aims the camera towards rest of the team. Deedri and Tassilda discuss different magical recipes, and sort through notes upon the metal mesh garden table. Deedri wraps her hands around a large cup of tea, lifts it up to her mouth, and sips the steamy, warm drink. Flitting her auburn eyes wide in pleasant surprise, she examines the beverage again, and offers compliments towards Tassilda. “Oh, this is really good! You’ll have to tell me how you made it.”

Tassilda tosses back her raven black hair over her spiraling horns with both hands, leans back into the wooden outdoor chair, and giggles lightly. “It’s nothing special really. To be perfectly honest, it’s just one extra ingredient I put in on top of a store brand mix. You will won’t believe it when I tell you.”

A sly grin appears on Tassilda’s gray toned face and she narrows her light blue on black eyes at Deedri playfully. “Try guessing. I’m curious if you can figure it out.”

Biting her lower lip, Deedri’s furry ears twitch thoughtfully as her eyes search the top of her mind, and her tag wags swiftly. “I don’t know... Hmm... Let me have a few more sips and sniffs, first.”

In the middle of the back yard plot, Trakenthin’s tall grath form stands at the ready with a sparring sword. He carefully maintains a watch of his nearby surroundings, and eyes the ground immediately around him. A gentle wind coasts across the area, and brushes the tops of the short blades of grass. Trakenthin’s hazel eyes widen to an alert glare the moment two small narrow strips of grass stop swaying in sync with the rest the yard. His body tenses at the ready, and he swiftly swings his practice blade well above two visually hazy spots joining the unusual patches. The sword halts with a solid wooden clack midair, short of crossing into the airspace above the suspicious ground. With satisfied smirk, Trakenthin concentrates his gaze expectantly and waits.

Gradually shifting from transparent to fully opaque, Modoran grumbles to himself as his dark blue eyes glance up to Trakenthin. He eases the pressure off his practice dagger as Trakenthin lowers his sparring sword, and twists the disappointment upon his dusky bluish gray face. “Damn. I thought I was doing decent there.”

Lifting an inquisitive brow at Trakenthin, he pivots around behind him and studies his previous approach. “Okay, what gave it away? I swear I obfuscated my foot steps in the grass when I was getting close to you.”

Trakenthin rests his wooden training blade upon his shoulder, grins proudly, and gestures with the flow of the air. “Wind. The grass behind your legs did not move correctly.”

Rolling his eyes at himself, Modoran slumps his shoulders, and sighs with a slight droop in his long pointed ears. “Gods... That figures. This is why people sneak between dim and dark spots. Too many details to keep up with.”

After shaking his head and pondering to himself, he shrugs back to his nonchalant self, and steps away from Trakenthin. “Okay, let’s try this, again. I think I might be able to do something about that... Maybe...”

Trakenthin nods with a singular laugh, readies his practice sword, and calms himself to fully focus. As Modoran stretches out his neck, shoulders, and back during his walk to the edge of the back yard, Samantha curls a sly grin and taps her clipboard eagerly. “I think I have an idea.”

Gerald rolls his eyes out of view, concentrates upon capturing the video of the activities before him, and humors Samantha. “Which is?”

Samantha flips through her notes upon her clipboard and eyes a report print out with a devious smirk. “After the resort, there’s been a small, vocal group on the community forums that haven’t had the nicest things to say about Modoran.”

Blinking in disbelief, Gerald turns his puzzling gaze away from the viewfinder, cocks his head to the side, and stares confused at Samantha. “Really? I mean, he’s a bit of smug ass sometimes, but I don’t think he’s done anything to rile up the fans. What’s got those people mad?”

Samantha slowly shrugs her shoulders, and gazes at Gerald. “I don’t know exactly. But...”

Sporting a sinister smile, she chuckles with a plotting tone. “I took the liberty of having the community managers check the details of those accounts... And, had the tech department do a few checks. It turns out a few of those accounts connect from Evuukian owned aetherphone companies. Also, initial sleuthing shows one account is definitely from someone living in the heart of Evuukian territory.”

Gerald furrows his brow and grimaces in a shifting blend curiosity and surprise. “Huh. Who would he have pissed off?”

He pauses in thought, searches through bits of memory rising up into his mind, and nods slightly. “Actually, yeah. Thinking about it, he got more than a few strange looks from the evuukian nobility at the resort.”

With growing excitement, Samantha grins eagerly and narrows her scheming gaze up on the magically fading Modoran. “Exactly! So tonight, when I call Howie, I’m going to mention this and see what he wants to do. But, I’ve already told the community managers to... encourage and allow... those people talk about whatever they want.”

She chuckles to herself darkly, smiles smugly, and hugs her clipboard tight. “I wonder what our researchers will dig up given the right clues.”

Timeline

March 3017

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

9

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12

13

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15

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

16

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22

Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Episode 14

Episode 15

Episode 16

23

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29

Episode 17

Episode 18

Episode 19

Episode 20

30

31

Episode 21

Episode 22

April 3017

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

5

Episode 23

Episode 24

Episode 25

Episode 26

6

7

8

9

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12

Episode 26

Episode 27

Episode 28

13

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Episode 29

Episode 30

Episode 31

Episode 32

20

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Episode 32

Episode 33

Episode 34

Episode 35

27

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30

Episode 36

Episode 37

Episode 38

May 3017

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

Episode 39

Episode 40

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Episode 40

Episode 41

Episode 42

Episode 43

11

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Episode 43

Episode 44

Episode 45

Episode 46

Episode 47

18

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Episode 47

Episode 48

Episode 49

26

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Episode 49

Episode 50

Episode 51

Episode 52

Episode 53

June 3017

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

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Saturday

1

Episode 54

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Episode 54

Episode 55

Episode 56

Episode 57

Episode 58

9

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13

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Episode 58

Episode 59

Episode 60

Episode 61

Episode 62

16

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20

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22

Episode 63

Episode 64

Episode 65

Episode 66

Episode 67

23

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29

Episode 68

Episode 69

Episode 70

Episode 71

30

31

Episode 71

July 3017

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1

2

3

4

5

Episode 72

Episode 73

Episode 74

6

7

8

9

10

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12

Episode 74

Episode 75

Episode 76

13

14

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16

17

18

19

Episode 76

Episode 77

Episode 78