Lukas Lumeris finally looked up from the odd report given by one of his subordinates who kept tabs on the happenings in the Processing District that he had been going over. He had called in the cinderen sitting in the chair across the desk from him to verify some of its contents since the details within made it difficult to simply dismiss.

  “Why does this report cim that the Saint’s still alive?” he asked, his tone clipped from annoyance. “You told me you took care of her, Vas.”

  “I did! She triggered my trap and they had a pack of Night Lurkers on ‘em,” the other Emerald Caster replied, tossing his hands up in the air in exasperation. “There’s no bleedin’ way she could survive!”

  “Did you see her die?”

  Vas got an awkward look and shifted uncomfortably. “Well, no. Her friends showed up, and I didn’t want that boy’s far sight catchin’ a glimpse o’ me. I made sure to read that folder you gave me from the AOA listin’ out all their powers.”

  “So she couldn’t have, oh I don’t know, used her bloody portal to get away?” Lukas asked, his volume increasing along with his grip on his papers. He didn’t hold back his ire as he yelled at the incompetent man, “If you read that folder, then you’d know she’s a portalist! You needed to stay and finish the job!”

  “Hey, you said to make it look like some kind of monster hunt gone wrong and not to take out the whole group and cause an investigation. That means I can’t be bloody seen by them if I still want to be able to go about the city.”

  “Your failure has brought them right to our doorstep, Vas!” Lukas shouted, tossing the report back onto his desk in frustration. “They’ve been seen in this district asking questions.”

  Vas scoffed. “Nobody’s gonna talk. They know they’re only safe by stayin’ in this district and keepin’ their mouths shut. We got too many eyes and ears here. Plus, they know the AOA’s in our pocket—”

  “Not entirely.” he interjected, gritting his teeth. “You know that director woman is too upright for that. Also, if we make too big a mess, they won’t be able to get it cleaned up. There’s only so many times they can tell the Ducal Guards that nothing was to be found from their mission request. If someone talks to that Saint, they could bring a lot of heat down on us.” He gave Vas a pointed look. “That isn’t something you or I want, so either keep them away or get rid of them.”

  “All of them?”

  “Do I have to spell out everything for you Vas?” he replied with a roll of his eyes, standing to get a stiff drink from the nearby cabinet. He poured himself a short gss and took a swig before pointing at the other man and ordering, “They need to be reminded of the rule of Caste and their pce in it. Make sure they stop asking questions and don’t get others involved. I don’t care how you do it, just remove them from the board.”

  Dazien mentally groaned when he saw Ramir Mirimel at the desk for “Mission Delivery,” where he would be returning his test report. Normally, the runeforged man was stationed at “Mission Receiving” to hand out tasks and verify qualification, but the functionaries would change up who was where from time to time, so it wasn’t that out of the ordinary… just annoying.

  “Mister Smithson,” the attendant greeted him when it was finally his turn in the queue.

  “That’s Noble Waynd, Mister Mirimel,” he corrected, not feeling up to his usual game of banter when he was already feeling down about the waste of time they had spent in the Processing District earlier.

  “Right, my apologies,” Ramir replied and surprised him by giving a slight bow of his head. “Habits are hard to break. Please forgive the slip.”

  Dazien was eyeing him suspiciously now. The runeforged had never bothered to treat him with respect before, and he wondered what had suddenly changed. It was odd to see this man actually showing some deference, even if it was a mask.

  “It’s forgiven,” he replied slowly, handing over the paperwork he had completed earlier. “This is the report on the Night Lurkers. We managed to find and eliminate four of them before needing to retreat due to interference.”

  “Yes, Ambassador Waynd has been on a ramp—I mean, she has made it well known that some Emerald Caster likely interfered to endanger Saint Waynd,” the functionary replied with a sour expression that suddenly made the newfound deference make more sense to him.

  Ramir seemed to gnce over his report briefly before adding, “I also owe you an additional apology for my earlier dismissal of your concerns regarding those death reports.”

  Dazien narrowed his eyes as he prodded, “Because of the habit of not treating me like a noble?”

  The Sapphire Caster’s face twisted in disgust before smoothing over again into a more indifferent professionalism as the man bowed his head once more and said contritely, “And for dismissing the concern out of hand. Another person approached with a simir concern and a potential pce to investigate further.”

  “Really?” he asked in surprise. Perhaps rumors of their investigation had already spread? He was almost certain Arin would let it slip accidentally, which could be either a good or bad thing. Or maybe Camil had gotten more people involved? He was almost positive that the older woman would have mentioned something about all this to Lord Teras.

  “Yes, wait here one moment, please,” Ramir replied, then left to walk over to a back room and disappeared for a few moments before returning with a new sheet of paper for him. “I actually wanted to be the one to give this to you as an added apology for my behavior before.”

  Dazien took the proffered paper only to discover it was an official mission assigning King’s Dream to further investigate the specified location that was under suspicion: The Crimson Rose.

  He was slightly stunned that it was actually the same pce and that they were the ones being given the mission. “The AOA wants us to look into this?”

  “Yes,” the runeforged replied firmly. “It’s within the city and has a time limit of two days before an additional mission will be made should you return empty-handed. I believe the higher-ups wanted to kick the hornet’s nest, so to speak, by sending in such a prominent party that’s protected by the gods.”

  Dazien looked over the mission statement again, but everything about it seemed legitimate, even the signature for the Assistant Director of Investigations was there, but he had never seen it before to compare or know for sure. Forging an official mission like this was practically unheard of, though, so despite his misgivings and poor history with the man in front of him, he had no reason to decline.

  “Very well then,” he finally answered. “We’ll poke around and let the AOA know what we’ve uncovered in two day’s time.”

  Camil Saren knew something was wrong as soon as she got home from her visit to the temple of the Undertaker with the little information she had been given. High Priestess Esilin Deveen had agreed to meet with her personally, which she had suspected was due to her distant retion to Paul and Phoenix, though she hadn’t quite put together why yet since her new cousin wasn’t the Saint of that particur god.

  The information the priestess had let slip with her questions had clued Camil into the ulterior reasoning but she didn’t have time to dig into that puzzle yet. Instead, she was trying to piece together the reports she had been able to get from the woman after hours of awkwardly trading questions and answers. She hated that part the most.

  She had confirmed the death of Dazien’s mother, Lora Smithson, along with some of the other people, but none of the pairs together. This meant his father was still missing. That was an oddity in itself, but the causes of death were the most concerning. In a majority of the cases, including Lora’s, they had died from exsanguination.

  While that could be for a variety of reasons, the one that concerned her the most was vampires. The counterargument to that, however, was the unlikelihood that a nest of vampires, or even just a single one, could hide in the city for so long without anyone taking notice.

  All of that wasn’t what let Camil know something was wrong now, however. No, what was wrong was the envelope lying on the entryway floor that had been slipped under the door.

  Nobody wrote her letters.

  If the Order of Magic wanted something from her, they sent a messenger or one of the little magical construct birds they had started using now that they could work consistently in the area with the raised magic levels.

  She cautiously nudged the envelope with her foot, but nothing happened. She walked past it, and still nothing happened. She bent down and carefully lifted it up with just a thumb and finger while holding it as far away from her as possible, but still, nothing happened.

  Then she opened it, still held away from her, as the pin wax seal broke and she read the note inside.

  Your Adventurers are the price for your curiosity.

  Stay away and stay silent, or you’re next.

  Not even Teras can protect you.

  Then she yelped in surprise as the note burst into fmes and quickly became unreadable ash. Camil didn’t waste any more time as she ran to the building of the newest person she had thought might become a friend and not just family. Not bothering to expin herself to anyone, she sprinted down the streets then hallways of the Waynd Estate, where she was supposed to meet King’s Dream ter. Then smmed open the door to the room the party should have been in.

  “They know you’re coming!” she shouted before registering the designated room was empty and her cousins nowhere to be found. She immediately noticed the odd pattern id out on the map and shuddered. She hated that part of the city. Always noisy and crowded with people and creatures.

  Her gaze roamed the room and at the traces of aural signatures that floated around it. Her enchanted spectacles had been specifically designed to help focus the traces and filter out the older ones that her perception ability could often overwhelm her with. The tangle of noise and colors made her head spin.

  Camil easily found the shimmering silver thread she recognized as belonging to Phoenix. She also saw her other cousin’s golden thread that was often entwined with a dark red one, along with the blue and amber threads that belonged to the odd voxens. She immediately followed the trail, intent on warning her potential friend of the trap.

  However, she was soon halted at the front door by another Sapphire Caster. She couldn’t just barge past like she had when coming into the building. Camil gave a huff of annoyance at the inconvenience but realized from the brilliant blue thread trailing behind the woman that it was yet another cousin of hers, though she had rarely spoken to this one.

  The researcher noticed Padma’s smile in her periphery as the runeforged woman kindly asked, “Do you need some help, cousin?”

  The soft tone of voice helped her rex slightly. It reminded her of Paul, and she tried to expin, even without the proper preparation, “Y-yes. I need to, um, warn them.”

  “Warn who?”

  “Um, King’s Dream,” she answered as succinctly as possible. People didn’t normally like if she rambled on too much. “They’re, uh, in t-trouble. I’m going to t-track them.”

  The runeforged shifted in surprise. “Uriel’s in trouble?”

  She found it odd that the woman seemed more concerned about the possible-demon than their cousins but nodded in confirmation anyway.

  Her entire body tensed when Padma took her hand and said, “Well, let’s go find them then. I can help you out if there’s trouble. I am an Adventurer, after all.”

  Camil didn’t reply immediately, promptly extricating her hand instead. At the frown she managed to notice she added, “O-okay. This way,” and was gd to see the smile return, avoiding the potential punishment.