The prestigious Hotel de Luxe (not a very imaginative name, but who was I to judge) was a familiar setting. The high-rise building in the economic center of Timaeus was fancy, but in a subdued kind of way. Less posh and more elegant, with modern interior décor dominated by white walls decked out with abstract art pieces and the gleam of mirror-polished stainless steel. I was familiar with the place and even visited it in person; it was where arch-mage Saahira originally set up shop after coming to the island, and where I performed the impromptu soul-switcheroo that resulted in Sahi joining our principal cast, so to speak. That was a while ago though, and once Sahi entered my employ for the homunculus project, she had effectively moved to the underground base and there was no reason to ever revisit this building. Until now, that is. "Has the meeting started yet?" the voice of an unfamiliar man asked, eliciting a dismissive grunt from his companion. Dressed in rather conspicuous white robes, the two men continued to walk down the elegantly simplistic hallway on the sixth floor of the building, completely unaware of the orange flicker following behind them from a distance. The one on the left was cleanly shaved and had a bit of a baby-face, while the other looked a bit older and had a sort of perpetually-frowning resting bitch face. "I don't think everyone's here yet," the second Magi responded dismissively, and while I didn't recognise him right away, his voice sounded rather familiar. "The Lord will not start the meeting until we're all there, so there's no reason to rush." "We shouldn't make her wait, though…" It took me a while, but I finally figured out where I'd seen the second man: it was back in Ottawa. He was the rude senior Magi who wasn't going to get a gift bag. Since he was here, it didn't take a genius to figure out who they were talking about. Actually, I take that back. I had a strong inkling ever since Sahi showed up in the alley with my sister and Tajana. She used to live here for a while, and her suite was full of heavy magitech machinery. That wasn't something you could smuggle into a hotel room without anyone raising a brow at you, early-development placeholder staff or not, so I had long suspected that the hotel had close ties to the Magi. All that considered, I already had a strong hunch about why Penny was currently in the middle of infiltrating the place, even before laying eyes on the robed men. But speaking of her, I focused my attention on the soft magical glow peeking out from behind one of the decorative cabinets in the spacious hallway, and I found my knightly sister there, her back set against the side of the furniture. Her appearance was rather odd; not just because of the thin sheen of orange light covering her body, but because she was also wearing an eclectic mix of her Uniformer outfit and her original armour. Her head was covered in a silvery white metal helmet with a stubby alabaster horn sticking out of the forehead, and she was also wearing metal gauntlets and greaves. Furthermore, she had her original sword hanging from her waist; the one she used until recently, when she decided to switch to a zweihander. The latter was probably too bulky to carry around indoors . She didn't exactly look sneaky, but the subtle, occasionally rippling magical aura covering her whole body told me she was under the effects of Snowy's Concealment Sigil. She poked her head out for a moment, her eyes behind the face plate darted left and right, and then she immediately jumped out of cover and dashed over to the next hiding spot, behind a large blue vase set between two doors. She held her breath, and seeing that nobody was the wiser, her body language relaxed. Now, why was my sister sneaking about in a hotel that was implicitly Magi territory at the moment, belonging to an arch-mage who didn't exactly like us? That sounded like a silly question, but I had to insist: what was she, in particular, doing here? If it was about infiltrating a building, we had perfectly good ninjas for that kind of thing, and if this operation required the concealment Sigils to happen, our Fauns were always available as well. Since she was already there, I could only imagine two possible reasons: my Doylist reasoning told me she had to be the one doing this because it was more dramatic this way, while my Watsonian common sense figured that, considering her personality, Penny probably really, really wanted to do this for no other reason than to prove that she could. Because she was stubborn and competitive like that. Either way, she followed after the two Magi until they eventually reached the large automatic doors at the end of the corridor. "Hey? Do you really think that the Celestial Archon was captured in the Abyss?" the younger Magi asked while the two waited for the elevator to arrive, and the gruff man by his side let out an ambivalent grunt. "Why couldn't they? We also caught him once." Latest content published on noⅴelfire.net "Yes, but… didn't he escape right away?" The other man glared at his companion and uttered a flat, "That wasn't the original question. Whether he escapes or not is technically a different question." "I… suppose you're right." The lift arrived just as they finished, and the two of them leisurely entered, only for the baby-faced man to suddenly stop and glance around. "I… It felt like there was a breeze." The other man also looked around, but when he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, he shrugged and gestured to their right. "There's a storm outside. Maybe someone left a window open somewhere." Thus reassured, the two of them got into the lift car, blissfully unaware of the half-armoured girl in the corner. She slipped by them using her unnatural speed, and by the looks of it, she was holding her breath until a moment ago, afraid that she was discovered. Now that she was inside with them and she was in the clear, I could already picture her smug smirk under her faceplace. I could also clearly imagine it withering the moment the lift doors opened, just a floor later, revealing a maid pushing one of those all-in-one cleaner trolleys with the buckets and the mops and everything. It was a 'normal' maid though, not the French variety; just a middle-aged woman wearing a simple sky-blue uniform with white cloggers and a hair-net. "Going up?" she asked in a creaky voice, and the men inside nodded. "I'm going to the top floor. Can you make some space?" The grumpier man was none too pleased by this, but they made way and the maid pushed her trolley inside… much to my sister's visible panic. The elevator cabin wasn't exactly spacious, and after a moment of hesitation, she suddenly crouched down, extended her hands, and leapt up. This was followed by a series of gymnastic twists and turns in the air that made my back hurt just by looking at them, and before I knew it, she somehow managed to wedge herself between the opposing walls of the elevator cabin with her hands and feet. "What was that?" the younger Magi glanced around in mild bewilderment, but he stopped when the maid let out a grating chuckle. "Ah, don't mind it. This thing always makes weird noises." She lightly kicked her trolley. "Management says it's not broken yet, so I'll keep using it until it is." Meanwhile, the automatic doors closed and the lift headed up. Two floors later, it came to a halt again, presenting Penny with another dilemma. Because the way her sword was hanging from her waist, its tip was right at face-level, and the gruff Magi was just about to walk into it as they were leaving. With some quick thinking (and more impromptu acrobatics), she somehow managed to twist her hips so that her scabbard barely missed the man's head. He must've still felt something, because he came to a halt just outside the lift and turned around, his eyes narrowed into a suspicious squint, but then the door closed again and the elevator continued its way up. The maid and her trolley departed as soon as they reached the top floor, and it wasn't until the doors closed again that there was a soft thud followed by a relieved sigh. My sister stretched her back and shook her hands inside the empty elevator car. Then, seeing that she was all alone, she balled up her fingers, followed by a sudden fist-pump and a quiet, "Yesss!" She was pretty hyped, and even after pressing the button for the ninth floor, she held her firsts up to her chest with innocent glee and muttered, "That was so cool! Like a real spy! I wish the others could see me…" Yes. Like a real spy. Sure, kiddo. Sure. Her elation didn't last long, and as soon as the automatic doors opened again, she dashed out of the elevator and crouched behind the first piece of cover she could find, namely a curio cabinet filled with old glazed plates and silverware. More importantly, the men she was following were already long gone, so she had to figure out which way to go. The elevator was at the end of a T-junction, so she could go left, right, or forward. Now, considering that left and right were dead ends, while the last remaining path led directly to the hotel suites, she obviously… "I wonder what's there…" Went left. Dammit, kiddo! Why would you go that way? Okay, that wasn't exactly fair. I knew why she was did that; while Penny in particular was rather… 'physical', to put it diplomatically, the Unicorn Knight was always the anti-magic specialist of the Brotherhood, just like how the Griffon Knight was anti-air, or how the Eagle Knight was the ranged and skirmish specialist. The Mantle and the equipment of the Unicorn Knight not only made her highly resistant to spells, but she could also sense magic. Not to the degree I (or more recently, the class rep) could see spells with our naked eyes, but more of an instinctive perception. And that dead-end hallway? It was positively aglow with ambient mana, so I could understand why she would choose to investigate it first. She continued to sneak down the corridor, hugging the wall and occasionally sweeping the floor ahead with her feet, as if searching for tripwires. There was nothing of the sort, yet she diligently repeated the motions until she reached the second-to-last door and the source of all the ambient magic energies suffusing the air in the vicinity. She gingerly reached out towards the doorknob, turned it, and… It was locked. I mean, of course it was. Whatever was behind that door had to be at least somewhat important, so it would've been eminently dumb to leave it open. Of course, going by the same logic, I would've expected the Magi to put some kind of ward or at least one of those eyeball spells, the magical equivalent of a security camera, onto the door, but maybe my standards were just too high. I fully expected that Penny would just kick down the door at this point, but instead she… reached under her helmet and pulled out a simple black bobby pin. She broke it in half and then twisted the pieces a bit so that she could… Wait, what…? Dammit, kiddo, were you holding out on me? I didn't know you could pick locks! She wasn't even half bad at it, because after just a minute, the doorknob clicked and she turned it with a happy-go-lucky hum. Seriously though, I had 'learn lock-picking' on my to-do list for ages, but I just never got around to it because I was always busy with something else. I no longer needed it, because nowadays I could just retcon locks open, but it could've been potentially very useful in some past scenarios. Or failing that, a nice family bonding moment. Anyhow, Penny slipped into the room and, after some fidgeting in the dark, she flipped the light switch. I could already see a vague outline of the items inside, but I think we were both equally stunned when we saw them under proper lighting. Okay, so maybe Penny was a bit more surprised than me. Putting that aside, this seemed to be some kind of storage room, and half of it was still occupied by beddings, curtains, and other textiles piled up almost to the ceiling. The other side though… Where should I even begin? There was a small table in the corner, and on it, an eclectic collection of handcuffs, blindfolds, a ball gag, some kind of binding device made of dozens of thick leather straps, and there were even multiple finger-cuffs of various sizes. They were also aglow with the colourless light of magic, yet they weren't the most eye-catching items in the room; in the back, near the window, stood a kind of vertical bed made of steel pipes with a pair of wheels at the bottom. The kind of contraption muzzled serial killers would get tied to for transport. However, as if that wasn't creepy enough, there was also a huge open suitcase lying on its side, and its insides were padded in a way to fit the contours of a person in the foetal position. Now, there were two possibilities here: either Lord Marzanna was into some kinky stuff (which, for the record, I didn't judge), or some really shady shit (which, on the other hand, I did judge with extreme prejudice). Penny must've realised that this could be important, because she stepped up and closely observed the various items on display. I half-expected her to take out her phone and start snapping pictures at any moment, but she probably didn't bring it with her. She didn't have the opportunity either way, because there was some noise coming from outside. Penny abruptly snapped her attention to the doorway and immediately dashed over and crouched down in the nearest corner. The door opened wide almost as soon as she came to a stop and in walked a tall, gaunt woman wearing the same kind of white robes as the men from before. "The door's open," she called out towards someone outside. "And they left the lights on, too!" "C’est typique!" the muffled voice of a man responded from the hallway, followed by some more complaints in French, culminating in a heavily accented, "Someone must 'ave been late from ze meeting. It's très lucky we noticed it before ze Lord did." While the two Magi were conversing, my sister inched towards the entrance, and seeing an opening, she dashed outside. "What was that?" the woman jumped and glanced around, but by then Penny had already rushed past not only her, but the muscular older man in the hallway as well, only to… go down the other dead end hallway with the only door leading into the stairwell. She realised her mistake fast, fortunately, and she returned to her initial hiding spot next to the curio cabinet in the junction. It was just in time, since the two Magi finished inspecting the room and were already near the elevator. "I swear there was something there. Maybe a bat, or some rodent…" "Zere was noting. You’re juste nervous because of ze storm outside. Let’s take a coffee break, oui?" "Sure, just… Let's be quiet. The meeting is in the second room to the left over there, we don't want to interrupt them." Oh, how very convenient. After delivering that crucial bit of information, the duo walked down the middle corridor, and Penny followed closely after them right until she reached the designated door. She waited until they entered another room and were out of sight, and only then did she sidle up to the door and put her ear against it. Or rather, her helmet, but let's not split hairs about that. She remained motionless, but it was clear from her body language that she couldn't hear anything. It was as expected; privacy spells and artifacts were dime-a-dozen in the World of Mystics, so there was no reason why the arch-mage and her posse wouldn't muffle the room before they started talking. My sister hesitated for a while, but then she put her hand onto the doorknob and very slowly opened it to a crack. As soon as she did, the muffled voice of Lord Marzanna could be heard from the inside, barely more than a faint whisper. Penny held her breath for half a minute, and only when it was clear that nobody had noticed her intrusion yet did she relax. Feeling emboldened, she pushed the door a bit further, and the voices on the inside became clearer with each millimeter. Of course, I could just shift my point of view to the other side of the wall and didn't have to strain my ethereal ears at all. "… the Tower of Evocation," an unfamiliar man spoke in a deep voice, and everyone sitting on a bunch of chairs arranged in a circle was paying full attention to him. "Lord Bruxo is Lord Endymonion's protégé, so we can assume that his Tower of Conjuration will also support them. Under these circumstances, Glasgow won't move until all the other Towers also state their intentions, regardless of the results of our investigation. In the worst-case scenario, the Assembly might call for a Grand Gathering." "Those miserable fools," the familiar arch-mage of Ottawa, Lord Marzanna in the flesh, cursed under her breath and stood up. "The Assembly still doesn't seem to understand what's at stake here!" "But, my Lord?" an older woman with white hair and grandmotherly features spoke up, holding her walking cane up to signal that she wanted to speak. "What if it's the truth? What if they really have found the Conduit of the Grimoire?" "I think we already concluded that she's an impostor," Marzanna hissed back, but after a long beat she humoured her anyway. "But assuming that she is, it's all the more reason to proceed with the plan." Her eyes swept over the people in the room, and she vehemently declared, "We must capture this Celestial puppet and find out the truth. If she's a fake, then we can use her to lift the veil off the eyes of those stubborn old men in Glasgow, and if she's genuine…" She paused for a while, until the gruff man from before finished her sentence. "Then we take her back to Ottawa, as planned." "Yes," Marzanna spoke in a deep, eerie voice. "We need to bring her with us and either reveal her true nature, or extract the power of the Conduit from her. By any means necessary." As per the universal rules of timing, the storm outside was not only getting worse, but we even got a classic 'dramatic lightning bolt in the background' effect to punctuate her sinister declaration, with the thundercrack making the room shake and the flash momentarily blotting out lighting and dressing everything in black and white. However, that wasn't the only thing it did. "Why is the door open?" Marzanna asked while glaring at the entrance. The flash must've seeped through the gap in the door as well, or maybe it just cast a shadow to draw attention to it, and the robed Magi closest to it got off his chair and walked over. He flung the door open… and then turned to his fellows and uttered, "It must've been the wind." Apparently, today was 'stealth clichés day', or something. They might've said something more, but I couldn't hear it, because my point of view was forcefully dragged along as Penny left the vicinity. By the time I caught up with her, she was already halfway down the building using the stairs, jumping off five steps at a time and occasionally sliding on the railings as well. It took her no time to reach the ground floor… only to get too engrossed in her daring escape and accidentally go down into the basement. She climbed back up with considerably less enthusiasm, and once she was back on the ground floor, she wandered the hallways for a while, dashing from one corner to another until she finally found a service entrance and left the building. Once outside, it only took my sister a minute or two to orient herself, and she dashed across the street. While she was undetectable to the naked eye (and most magical senses), the water she kicked up on the sidewalk turned a few placeholder heads, but then they soon continued walking and minding their own business. Hearing my other sister's voice, she dove into the familiar alley where she was waiting for her, along with Tajana. "You're drenched," the Abyssal spymaster muttered and started rummaging through the large handbag she was carrying. "Here, I brought a towel." "Never mind that!" Penny cried out as he took off her helmet. "We've got them red-handed! It's exactly what Joshua suspected!" "Really?" Snowy sounded both skeptical yet cautiously optimistic at the same time, and she proceeded to take Tajana's fluffy blue towel and wipe the rainwater off my knightly sister's forehead. "They didn't notice you, did they? Because if they did, they might change their plans." "Of course not! Your Sigil was awesome! They didn't see me even when I was right next to them! It was sooo cool, and—!" "My Lady, Penelope," the spymaster cut in while holding a cheap smartphone that must've also been in her handbag. "Our ride should be here momentarily, so…" Just as she was saying that, a bright yellow sports car came to a sudden halt in front of the alley. While it was hard to see it in the rain, it was obvious that Sahi was behind the wheel, and while this was a four-seater Mercedes instead of the Lamborghini she was driving the last time, it was still a bloody expensive car. "… let's talk once we're back home." She used her phone to make a sweeping motion towards the street and added, "I'll contact the others." By the sound of it, this wasn't just some rogue operation my sisters came up with. Okay then, I'm game. Let's stick with them a little longer and see where this was going…