A Date and a Little Light Robbery

“Damn... You didn’t tell me she was fucking hot...

Mercury was currently lounging on the grass in a small park inside the city, about half a mile away from the laboratory that belonged to Patricia. Despite the fact that she looked like she was merely lazing about and enjoying a day in the sunshine, Mercury was quite hard at work. Vandrad had let her know what restaurant he was going to meet the doctor at so Mercury would know how long she’d have if Patricia needed to leave, so Mercury had taken the time to pre-emptively place a few tiny drones around the inside of the restaurant that wouldn’t be noticed by even the most keen or suspicious of eyes. While she had given Vandrad a small earpiece so they could communicate with one another -- or at least, so she could listen in on the conversation and add to the growing dossier that was Patricia Reeves -- Mercury hadn’t told him about the cameras that would allow her to actually see as well. Not that she imagined he’d be too surprised by that.

Zooming in on the digital feed inside her mind, Mercury took a nice long gander at the woman’s ass. “You sure you don’t wanna tap that while you have a chance? Cause I might.” Honestly the best part about all this, which she wasn’t sure if Vandrad had realized ahead of time or not, was that she was going to get practically an entire evening of being able to say whatever she wanted without the prince being able to respond, or even make a face, and Mercury planned on utilizing every moment of that.

Holding up her fingers gently, Bandit hopped down from his perch on her knee to her hand. She petted him in soft strokes along his back, the crow soaking in the attention and allowing Mercury to use him as a distraction so anyone who happened to walk by and see her talking would assume she was just talking to the bird. Listening in on the conversation, she observed the exchange as the brunette teased the man about his princehood, which was public knowledge these days. He insisted she ignore titles, and the woman giggled and took it to mean she must be special to get to be on a first name basis with royalty. Mercury snorted and rolled her eyes. On the one hand she was glad that this woman was clearly going to be so easy to distract, but on the other hand she was a little unimpressed by that same fact. Ah, well. Let her think herself special if it kept the woman out of Mercury’s hair long enough to do her part.

They chatted a bit longer, with Patty admitting that she was surprised to even hear from him again, given everything that had happened at their last run in, which had clearly been a set up. Not that she had voiced that last part, of course. And Vandrad, precious Vandrad, rather than acknowledging the life or death event and the revelation of Patty’s magic instead focused on the kiss. Mercury cackled openly into his ear, already knowing where the doctor was going to take that comment. “Man, you lobbed that one to her.” With Vandrad unable to undo the comment, he irritably elected to change the subject entirely, starting with drinks. Patty was all too happy to oblige, practically snapping over the wait staff like she thought herself an aristocrat and ordering an entire bottle of brandy for them.

“Damnit, I’m not supposed to like her,” Mercury commented after the brief exchange that followed, knowing that while Patty was going to be easy to keep distracted she was not going to be easy for Vandrad to keep on the linear path he’d crafted for the evening. “And before you get all huffy with me about not paying attention to what I’m supposed to be doing, relax. I’m getting my shit done.”

And indeed she was. Mercury was a master spy, and had been such for practically her entire life before she’d come to Earthland and acquired magic, which had only increased her capabilities.Right now it was best to keep a low profile and do some scouting from afar to see what she was working with. So she had sent a couple of small drones no bigger than common house flies, to examine the building. There were a number of security cameras posted outside, primarily focusing on entry points into the building and along the alleys outside the exterior walls. There was even a camera covering the roof and the door that led to it. Directing a few of her drones, she had them land on the cameras where they very carefully sliced the protective layer of plastic casing around the wires and embedded themselves, passively syncing with the camera so they could forward the feed to her.

Letting that sit for now, she sent a few more of her drones inside through an exhaust vent in the roof, where they easily spread out and emerged through vents in various rooms of the building. A full blueprint of the building began to download directly into Mercury’s mental databanks, giving her an extremely precise layout of each floor. In a matter of seconds, she knew where each room was located and how many security guards were watching the place. It was a fairly large facility consisting of six floors with various departments each having their own level. On the first floor was a standard security room where a single guard sat in a chair in front of a bunch of monitors, clearly bored to tears but not to the point of slacking. Either the man was paid extremely well, or it was still early enough in his shift that he was still too alert to nod off just yet. There were three other guards performing random patrols throughout the building, and Mercury observed them for a while to log the paths they took so she could compare it to their later rounds and see if they kept the same routes. She also zoomed in to get clear shots of their ID badges, collecting their names.

As she put on a search in the background for their full identities, Mercury began a visual breakdown of each floor. There were various different offices and labs upon each for various different types of scientific studies. There were also offices dedicated to more administrative purposes, such as finances and human resources. There was a large office at the top with a personal lab that she could only assume was Patricia’s, particularly since there was a room attached to it that appeared to house a large computer main frame. Once she had a pretty basic idea of what was where, she planted the drones in strategic locations and pulled up the results from her search of the security guards.

Their public records were pretty easy to get a hold of, and it took her almost no time at all to not only access most of their private details but also confirm what kind of magics they had. Mercury had no intention of getting into an altercation with any of them, or even having them realize she was there, but in order to stay out of sight she had to assess how likely they were to have magics that could detect her. Thankfully, they all had fairly basic or common magics that she should be able to work with. “Well, Bandit, I guess it’s time to get the party started.” The bird cawed at her and hopped into the air, allowing Mercury to get to her feet. Throwing down her hover disc, she stepped on and shot up into the air after the feathered creature, and made her way toward the building.

Mercury was having a great time. She could only giggle as the prince scanned the restaurant with an irritable scowl trying to figure out where her cameras were, only to ultimately just pick a direction to shake his head at her and assume she would see it -- which she did. It wasn’t difficult to assume he would be annoyed with her for seemingly paying more attention to the dinner than her own part of the mission, but the truth was that observing the dinner was just as much a part of her goals as infiltrating Patricia’s office. After all, she needed to know how the woman behaved when she had her guard down. It was data she could compare later if she ever needed to pick up on suspicious tics.

She opened up as any normal person would, asking Vandrad how he had been and starting the dinner off with pleasantries. Mercury rolled her eyes when Vandrad attempted to cut the conversation off. If this was his way of distracting the woman, Mercury wasn’t very impressed with it. Casual conversation was the cornerstone of espionage. Luckily, he seemed to realize his mistake right away, particularly when Patricia mentioned that she could access her lab through her tablet, and reined himself in. “She has remote access, huh? That’s good to know. Alright, killer, keep her talking. The more she talks, the more we learn about her and the more she thinks she’s winning you over.” More than anything, by the end of the night Patricia had to believe she was succeeding in drawing the attention of the prince. It was the key to setting up whatever trap they would lay for her later, depending on what Mercury found out.

As the conversation carried on Mercury soared up into the sky above the cloud on her hover disc where she would have a little cover. With a snap of her fingers, The rest of her stealth suit materialised around her body, including the various pouches and gadgets around her waist and thigh, and the armoring along her limbs and torso. Her intention was to use as little magic as possible while inside the building so that she could minimize the likelihood of any part of Patricia’s security being able to sense her. As such, it was beneficial to have most of her tools crafted and ready to go, though in a pinch she could use her enchanted pouch to mask if she needed to create anything. Touching a setting on her wristband, her cloaking shield turned on, bending the light around her to cause both her and her hoverdisc to become invisible. Then, she came down from the clouds and began heading toward the labs.

Cackling merrily at the prince’s discomfort as Patty threw a few rather crude jokes his way, Mercury continued to grow a slight appreciation for the woman, or at least her bold sense of humor. While Vandrad was a bit annoyed by it, and likely feeling like he was just at dinner with Mercury herself, he steered the conversation coolly into something more casual, finding a natural way to explain away his stiff mannerisms as simply a product of his noble upbringing. She expressed her surprise in his contacting her after so long, thinking he wasn’t interested in the opportunities she had to offer him, to which he masterfully used his increased guild duties as an excuse. When he mentioned his position as taskmaster, Patty practically swallowed her brandy down the wrong part of her throat, remarking about how she had just been joking when she’d teased about sexual domination. “Oh lady, if you only knew.”

As they began discussing her work, Mercury pulled within range of the building. There were a number of ways she could get inside between various windows and the roof, but these were the obvious entryways that likely had more digital security fixed to them, just as an internal alarm. So instead, the Xocili aspired to take a less conventional route and simply stroll right into the front door, with a little assistance from her companion of course. Bandit had a penchant for following her everywhere. Even now she could hear him cawing lightly from whatever perch he’d found. Dropping down to the ground, her hoverdisc folded itself back up and she put it away before approaching the main entry.

It was locked, of course, but given that there was a security guard right in the foyer watching the monitors it wasn’t alarmed. That was all she needed. Pulling out a couple of her thin lock picking tools, Mercury carefully and quietly played with the mechanism on the door. As she did, Bandit swooped down to the ground next to her, somehow able to sense where she was and what she was doing, despite currently being invisible. She could only assume he could smell her in some fashion. He hopped forward, watching the door curiously until there was a soft click. The automatic door registered the motion in front of it and slid open, allowing Mercury and Bandit to walk right inside.

The guard at the monitor stood up immediately. [b]“Who’s there?”[/color] he asked with a frown, his hand hovering over the weapon fixed to his hip. When he looked toward the front door, however, all he saw was a single crow tilting its head toward him and walking about like it owned the place. The guard instantly relaxed. [b]“How the hell..? I could have sworn I locked that door. Go on, get out of here! Shoo!”[/color] He moved toward the entrance, doing his best to corral the bird and usher it back outside, to which Bandit stubbornly hopped in basically every other direction but the one the guard wanted him to go in.

With a grin, Mercury used the distraction to silently stroll right past him until she was behind the security desk. Withdrawing a couple small devices from her belt, she placed one in the back of the guard’s computer and one beneath the panel to the alarm system. Both devices tapped into the electronics with effortless ease, syncing with the programs and establishing control over them. By the time the guard had successfully managed to kick Bandit back outside and relock the door, Mercury was already moving into the rest of the building.

According to the blue prints she’d put together and the cameras she’d stashed throughout, there was little of interest to her through most of the building. The vast majority of the rooms were simply various labs with standard supplies and set ups. Sure there were computers throughout the place, but they wouldn’t hold the type of information she was hoping to find. Patricia’s personal computer would have everything these computers had on them, and more, so she wasn’t concerned with wasting time going through every electronic device. Instead, she had one other point of interest besides Patty’s office: Human Resources.

The Human Resources office would be chock full of some of the most sensitive information about both Patty’s business and the people who worked for her. While she didn’t expect to find too much about Patty herself there, she would gain an incredible amount of valuable information that could be used in a myriad of creative ways. By now the guards had done a couple of rounds that she had been able to monitor through the cameras, and Mercury had picked up enough to know they were professionals. They did not keep to any particular routes, and they did not each keep to the same patrol areas, often switching with one another to keep themselves fresh. Luckily, she would always know where they were with plenty of advanced warning. Keeping an eye on their whereabouts, she made it to the offices without indecent.

She wouldn’t have to try the handle to know the door was locked. It was standard procedure for a room like this to have extra measures of security due to the sensitive personal information within. There was a lock pad outside the door, but Mercury did not immediately move to interact with it. Instead, she adjusted her vision to its x-ray setting, looking through the walls to the wires and lines that ran within them. Most of them were clearly for lights and general electricity purposes, but sure enough there was a line that ran through the door frame that was indicative of a sensor. Not only would she have to disarm the alarm, but she would have to find a way to get inside without the guard at the security desk being pinged that someone had opened the door.

Thankfully, that wouldn’t be too difficult for a woman like Mercury. Starting with the alarm, she fixed a small device to the panel and seamlessly hacked into it, her custom programming automatically scanning the system until it could confirm the password and enter it. The light on the panel turned from red to green. Then, she reached into her pouch and masked her magic as she conjured a thin, small metal plate into her palm. The sensor on the door was magnetic, so all she had to do was trick it into not realizing the door was being opened. Making sure none of the patrolling guards were within range to walk in on her any time soon, she carefully slipped the metal plate between the top of the door and the sensor in the door frame. Lastly, she took a prerecorded section of footage from the security camera that faced that door to this office and set it as a loop overriding the main feed so no one watching the monitor would be able to see the door open.

Once that was done, she quickly picked the lock on the door and slipped inside, quietly closing the door again behind her. Monitoring the computer on the first floor, she confirmed that it did not trigger any reaction to state that someone had gone inside. Mercury swapped her vision to night mode so she could leave the lights off in the room. Then, continuing to ignore the computes, she unlocked the filing cabinets and quickly began flicking through the hard files for anything that would be of interest, including personnel and incident records. While she could download this information more quickly in digital form, it was much riskier than working with the physical copies. Plus, she didn’t actually have to read anything. As long as she saw it, her internal system would record it and store it away for her to look at in more detail later.

Quickly flipping through the folders with the most sensitive information, she kept an eye on the patrolling guards and an ear to the progression of the dinner date...

Mercury frowned a bit as she listened in to the discussion. Something seemed… off. While she was perfectly happy that Patricia was willing to go out of her own way to drink herself into a stupor -- after all, it would make their jobs a lot easier -- the fact that the dinner had barely started and she was already more than a little buzzed felt a bit excessive. Unprofessional, even. At least, for someone that they suspected was trying to spy on Vandrad. As a master spy herself, she could not see the advantage in getting herself drunk around the person she was casing.

For now, she simply continued to listen as she flipped through files and gathered as much personal data as possible. They briefly went back and forth over how the bill would be handled and that was when Vandrad took his first real step in the game. Even Mercury paused in her chore as he spoke Patricia’s name, drawing in the attention of both women as he softly insisted on paying for the meal in a way that was bound to woo the pants of any lady. With a slight stutter, Patricia relented. Mercury allowed them a brief moment after the fact, mostly because she was a bit stunned herself. Then…

“Why don’t you ever say my name like that?” the lavender haired woman muttered, speaking quietly so her voice wouldn’t carry. “You might want to ask for extra napkins. I think her seat is dripping.” Having gathered everything of interest. Mercury silently shut the file cabinet and locked it back up. One of the guards was making their way in her direction, and she needed to get out before they came by and saw that the room was unlocked. Slipping outside, she locked the door from the inside handle and then quickly set the alarm again, removing her tiny device from the panel. The metal plate she left in the door as it would take too long to retrieve, but chances were it would take someone quite a while to find it, even during the day. As she started walking down the hallway, the guard came around the corner at the far other end, checking the locks and peering his way through the windows and such to make sure everything was in order.

When he didn’t stop to inspect the office any further than confirming the door was locked and the alarm set, Mercury slipped past him in the hallway and started making her way to the top floor. In the meantime, she tuned back in to the conversation on the other side of town where Vandrad was selling their carefully crafted fib about having had difficulty getting in contact with Mythal. The Xocili had been surprised to hear that Mythal and Serilda were acquainted with Patricia, a matter that had seemed quite suspect in itself until the couple had explained how they had been the ones to approach the doctor originally, not the other way around. Coincidence wasn’t something Mercury often bought into, but for that particular circumstance it seemed to be the case. The doctor even spoke her thoughts a bit on the engaged pair, complimenting them on just about every front, including her desire to be caught between the two of them. “Now that’s a fucking mood.”

By the end of it, Patricia gave Vandrad the contact information, so far with no alerts on her data pad that anything was happening back at her lab. As they moved along to a different topic, Mercury made her way to the top floor of the building where she stood outside the door leading to Patty’s office. As she expected, it also had its own individual security panel, though this one was a bit more advanced than the last one. When she turned on her x-ray vision to check the door, she was surprised to find that there was not a magnetic sensor to alert the security of any time the door was used. Mercury frowned in thought. She supposed it made sense to a point. Being the owner of the company, she would hardly one anyone able to monitor her comings and goings. But it still felt odd to think that she only had one security measure to her office.

Scanning the room, Mercury didn’t see anything of note at first. Then, she noticed a camera in one of the corners of the office that was pointed toward the desk where her computer was. With a frown, the Silver Wolf mage flipped through her internal monitors, going through each and every security feed that she had hacked into, but none of them fed from Patricia’s office. Was that camera on its own system? Scanning the walls in x-ray mode again, she checked the wires, confirming that the camera in the corner was attached to what appeared to be a mainframe in a smaller room attached to her office. Interesting. Utilizing the small crack beneath the door, Mercury withdrew one of her tiny drones and slipped it into the room where it flew up to connect onto the odd camera. Once Mercury was synced to it, her emerald eyes went wide in surprise before a pleased grin spread across her face. “Well, look at you. You’re really making me work for this one, Doctor Reeves…”

It was a thermal camera. Rather than record a traditional feed it read heat signatures, and most likely was set to trigger an alarm of some kind should any wayward heat signature, such as that from a body, move across its field of vision. Mercury was quite delighted. Something like that would be damn near impossible for most people to fool. Even her invisibility wouldn’t be enough because it was monitoring for heat. Luckily for Mercury, and unluckily for Patricia, the Xocili was not the average infiltrator. Placing her bypass device on the panel, she hacked into it -- a process that took a little longer than the previous door but one she was successful with nonetheless. Then, she picked the lock on the door, which was much more complex than previous ones. Mercury actually had to try a couple different picks before getting the right combination.

Then, before stepping inside, she paused for a moment and focused inward on her body. Slowing her metabolism, she forced her body to slowly cool itself by a number of degrees until it matched the temperature in the room. The Xocili would be moving a little more slowly like this, but it would be enough to trick the camera. Checking once more to make sure the guards weren’t around, she carefully opened the door and stepped inside, using her attachment to the thermal camera to monitor her movements and regulate her temperature. “I’m in her office,” she updated Vandrad simply. She had discussed with him ahead of time that if she was going to run into any problems, it would more than likely be within Patty’s personal lab, which Mercury had suspected was where the best security measures would be.

She took a good long look around the room, taking everything in and even walking around quietly to make sure she got good footage of everything inside. There were a few projects in various stages of design, with blueprints and prototypes set up at various stations. Mercury analyzed each of them, downloading various schematics and digitally breaking down the physical specimens without touching them. In truth, Mercury was impressed. Outside of Silver Wolf’s own projects, the things Everance and Dudley built, and some of the stuff she’d seen come out of the engineering labs at the Rune Knights, this was some of the most advanced tech the Xocili had seen since arriving on Earthland. She couldn’t deny that Patty was quite good at what she did. Some of the concepts she was working with was bordering on techniques that mimicked what she’d seen on other, more advanced planets The doctor was clearly ahead of her time. In literally any other circumstance Mercury would be trying to recruit her. Hell, she still might. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as they say.

Still, she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted for long. Mercury needed to get what she came for and get out. She would have plenty of time to analyze the details later once she met back up with Vandrad. Moving over to the computer at the desk, she turned on the monitor. “Alright, let’s see what you’re hiding…” Pulling out a small USB device of her own making, Mercury plugged it into the back of the tower. After a brief moment for the internal programming to do its thing, she was easily able to bypass the logon screen to access the desktop.

That was where the easy part stopped.

If Mercury hadn’t had a literal connection with all of her technological creations, she would never have noticed the virus that subtly slipped its way into her drive. “What the fu-- oh shit..!” Without having any time to stop and think about how it was happening, the computer had registered her foreign device and was executing processes to corrupt the drive and log a history of its attempt to connect in its memory banks. “Te, te, te! Chaur koh vea chenh soy asa tow..!” a slew of what Vandrad could only assume was profanity in the Xocili language would trickle into his ear pierce, and while he wouldn’t understand what she was saying he would hear the panic in her voice as she furiously fought to try and overwrite the invasive coding.

“Chab laeng, chab laeng, chab laeng…” Mercury threw her firewalls up in full force, battling back the virus and slowing it down. She knew she’d beat it, but it was going to take a minute. Or at least, so she’d thought. After a few long seconds, she spotted an opening in the coding. “Now tinoh!” Without wasting a breath, Mercury typed out a fast command on the keyboard and severed the connection before ripping her device out of the back of the computer.

She had managed to stop the invasive programming before it could log any permanent files or complete any of its processes, but now she was left staring at the monitor in shock as anger began to settle within her. Vandrad must have managed to get a moment away from his dinner partner as only a moment later he spoke up very directly in her ear to ask her what the hell had just happened. “Chhkechhkuot nih mea-” Mercury growled under her breath, cutting herself off as she realized she was still so hyped up that she was speaking words he couldn’t understand. She needed to calm down or her body temperature would rise and tip off the thermal camera.

Sighing out the vast majority of her frustration and stowing it away for later, she tried again, this time in a still annoyed but much more collected tone. “Something that should not have been possible. I managed to log on to her computer but it tried to install a silent virus on my access drive. It’s pretty standard, even with Earthland tech. What’s not standard is a virus like that being able to detect and access my tech.” While Mercury was still composed and clearly keeping herself in check for the mission, Vandrad would hear the ire and indignation in her voice as his partner was very clearly offended on a personal level by this development. Mercury took a lot of pride in her work, and for the most part hadn’t had much trouble at all with getting what she wanted when she wanted it, even through the occasional challenge. Hell, most of the time Mercury enjoyed a good challenge -- it was one of the reasons she and Vandrad got along. She wasn’t as vocal about it, but much like him she enjoyed rising above hurdles as they presented themselves and proving her superiority.

But this was different, and it showed. “I’m not going to be able to access anything directly from her computer. The virus will just try again as soon as I connect. I’m going to have to try something else.” Locking the screen on the computer, Mercury made her way over to the adjoining room with the main frame. She was going to have to connect directly to it in order to bypass the invasive programming. However, as soon as she opened the door and got a glimpse of the system, she stopped in her tracks. It took a moment for her to register what she was seeing, if only because it was so out of place. Then, her anger washed away completely and she was left with a small smirk on her face. Suddenly, everything made sense. “Oh, Patricia… you clever, naughty girl… No wonder you got the drop on me.”

The mainframe was of extraterrestrial build. More impressive was that she didn’t recognize it. Mercury was highly educated in the technology of just about every advanced race out there, yet this was an unknown. “I’m going to need a little more time. She’s got an alien set up that I’ve never seen before. I need to run some diagnostics and see what I’m working with before I try pulling any information out of it so I don’t trigger any security measures again. This is going to take all my focus, so you’re on your own for a bit.”

It was time to pull out all the stops, and after that last fiasco Mercury was raring to go to put this pretentious little bitch in her place. She may have gotten her hands on an advanced computer that Mercury had never seen before, but in the end nothing stood up to the technological might of Xocil, and she intended on proving that. Mercury carefully inspected the outside of the mainframe, scanning its hardware inside and out to build a digital blueprint of its composition. She counted the exact number and type of ports it boasted, where they fed to, and how each component had been organized within the chassis. There were several different hard drives that she could only assume were capable of holding a great deal of information. The power box was also a thing of beauty, extremely powerful and seemingly self-sustained by producing its own neo-nuclear energy.

The first measure of security was the access port, though it was less security and more advantage of circumstance. The main port that Mercury would need to connect to was of a unique design that she was unfamiliar with, which meant it was likely custom. The only people who would have access to such a port would be the one who created the computer, or someone who’d had enough time to study it to build an appropriate plug. The latter strategy would take days or even weeks for the average Xocil, months for an Earthlander. If it weren’t for Mercury’s unprecedented form of magic, there would have been no way that she’d have been able to handle this tonight. She would have needed to take her findings back to her own lab and work on building an interactable port by hand so she could return another night to try again.

That would not be the case tonight, however. Reaching into her enchanted pouch, Mercury crafted a new drive with a plug that matched the port based on the schematics she’d pulled of it. Knowing this might take a while, she tapped into her connection to the security outside Patricia’s office and set it so that the panel would appear to be armed should any of the guards walk by on rounds. She also sent out a couple small drones to take a post by the door so that they could scan anyone coming inside and silently alert her. Then, she sat down in front of the main frame, took a breath to focus, and got to work.

Ready this time for surprises, she plugged the drive into the port and immediately overrode the initial malware with the programming she’d crafted based around the coding she’d gathered from it last time. This time around, she was able to shut the virus down before it even had a chance to get started, tricking it into not recognizing her device as a foreign object. From there, she started her diagnostic, digging through the software on the computer and looking for anything akin to anti-virus programs and scan-ware. Finding several, Mercury got to work one at a time to first disable anything meant to trigger an alarm or alert. Rather than simply turn these programs off, however -- a process that in and of itself could leave a trace of activity -- she continued to adapt the coding of her own device until one by one each measure of security had been convinced her presence was merely a normal function of the mainframe not even worth logging a report about.

It was a time consuming process that took several long minutes to get through, even at Mercury’s level. A patrolling guard came and went in the time that it took to get through every layer of security, confirming the door was locked and the alarm appeared to be set before moving on. Once Mercury was certain that she could move through the mainframe without triggering any alerts or leaving any trace of her invasion, she got to work digging through the files. There was a lot to go through. Much of it was stored behind encryptions that she needed to code her way past before she could even upload them into her own database. Most of them she didn’t look too deeply into; she could tell at a quick glance that it was schematics and plans for current and future projects, things that were interesting but not really what she was looking for. What she needed was more protected files, ones that Patricia would have taken extra precautions to make sure they were as difficult as possible for someone else to find.

After several long minutes of searching, she discovered a password protected file buried deep within another folder of seemingly insignificant information. Pulling it up, she took a moment to bypass the encryption and pass code. Picking a file at random, Mercury opened it and took a quick peek at the information. What she found inside gave her pause. “Hello, what’s this..?” It was a series of what appeared to be articles from a prominent scientific journal, chronicling a fallen star that they had been trying to locate and study. Patricia was listed as the leader of the team in charge of the study. With each article Mercury pulled up, she learned more and more about the team’s journey. And then all of a sudden, there was a file containing a news article about the destruction of Patty’s former lab, and the investigation that followed it. Practically overnight, Patricia went from being a highly respected, highly valued member of her community to being scorned and discredited by her peers, who accused her of purposefully setting her lab on fire.

There must have been some truth to their accusations, because the end result was that Patty had been formally charged with arson, destruction of property, and a number of other things. She had also had her doctorate revoked. “Oh, you lying sack of stardust…” Mercury murmured, a triumphant gleam in her eyes. Patricia wasn’t actually a doctor, not any more. Her license had been terminated, and as far as Mercury could see it had never been reinstated. The woman was breaking all sorts of laws every day as she continued her craft and charade around as though she were still licensed. If word of that got out to the right people Patricia would come under heavy fire.

But that still left a number of questions, the first of which was why had Patty burned down her precious lab and risked her prestigious reputation in the first place? What had she been trying to hide? She flipped through a few more files before she found her answer. Apparently, she had discovered that the fallen start they had been researching had not been a star at all, but rather a spacecraft. Her curiosity piqued, the Xocili continued to scan through the files trying to find anything she could about the ship and what they had found, only to come up empty. That information appeared to be missing, but Mercury was not one to believe in appearances. Patty was a careful, intelligent woman as far as Mercury could tell. That information had to be here somewhere. There was no way the disgraced doctor would have simply destroyed years worth of research.

But it also begged another question: How come none of this was public knowledge? How had the records come to be more or less scrubbed from the entire digital web to the point where not even Mercury had been able to find it until just now? That took some serious tech savvy, and while Patricia was certainly impressive she did not have that kind of power. Someone else had to have helped her. Mercury downloaded everything in the folder and then did another scan of the data on the mainframe, this time searching for anything she may have missed during her first sweep. She found a number of hidden folders, most of which contained standard files for basic computer operations.

Eventually, she came across a hidden folder that caught her attention for the simple fact that the folder had no name. Peering at it, she opened the folder and found several layers of encryption as well as another password to get through. After about a minute, she got inside and found what had to be every piece of research and information Patricia had collected on the ship she had found. Curiously, it was yet another piece of technology that Mercury did not recognize, which was saying a lot. What spoke even louder was that the designs of the ship did not match up with the alien specification of the mainframe she was currently hacked into. That made two highly advanced pieces of tech that Patricia had come into contact with that Mercury knew nothing about.

Downloading each file as she opened it, the last thing she came across appeared to be a digital journal of some kind. As Mercury skimmed it at light speed, her emerald eyes narrowed sharply at the eye opening details found within: Patricia was being blackmailed. Mercury wanted nothing more than to read over everything in detail, but she had already spent far too much time on this mission. She needed to leave. Doing one last sweep and not finding anything else of interest, she unplugged her hardware from the mainframe and stood up to her feet with a renewed sense of curiosity and focus. Moving her way back through the woman’s office, she collected all of her drones except for the microscopic ones that were embedded into the security cameras.Then, she left the office and re-alarmed it for real. Getting out of the building had been relatively easy, achieved much the same way as she had gotten in. She simply waited patiently until one of the guards left for their lunch break, following him outside through the door he utilized and then slipping away into the night. Once she was far enough away, she hopped on her hover disc and shot back into the sky.

“I’m out. I got everything we were looking for, and then some. I’ll meet with you at Fairy Tail.”

The Silver Wolf ace came to a screeching halt in the air the moment a file awakened within her database without her permission. A digital image of Patricia opened up within her mind’s eye, as clearly as if she were watching a video on a tablet. Fury unlike any other ripped through her core. Who the hell did this woman think she was? There was so much red in Mercury’s vision that she almost wasn’t even listening to the recording, forcing herself to pay attention even as she instinctively fought to trace the feed back to its source to eradicate it from her databanks. The only reason she stopped was when the recording admitted that it had been rerouted to not feed back to Patricia, nor her employers, giving Mercury pause -- even if it did nothing to quell the inferno of anger within her.

If anything, she only became more enraged at the insinuation that she might have been destroyed by the coding, only to have a yawn in the fabric of reality rip open above her with a hideous shriek. Mercury’s sensors went utterly haywire and she whirled on her hoverdisc, ripping Mercy out of its holster and firing off a couple rounds before she had even realized what was happening. Her shots were swallowed by the portal and in an instant it snapped shut. At this point the Xocili had half a mind to go back to the lab and set the place on fire herself. In fact, she was almost tempted to not even give everything to Vandrad just to spite Patricia, as that was the one thing the recording asked for. Trembling with rage, she growled and focused inward once more, scanning her databanks at full power to make sure there were no other surprises in store. After she found no other sleeping files or unidentified software, she once again made for Fairy Tail.

By this point, Vandrad was likely going to get there before her. Unbeknownst to her, the prince would feel her approach long before she actually walked into the door of his private quarters, as the Xocili was still utterly seething. His door would open and at first it would look like no one was there because she still had her cloaking activated. Bandit would gently swoop inside with a squawk just before the door shut again. As the bird found a perch, the cloaking device dropped and there stood Mercury, red in the face with indignation. “I’m going to fucking kill her,” she informed him without even really looking at him as she crossed the room to his computer and turned the monitor on. “I’m going to start by ripping her nails out and peeling off her skin an inch at a time, and then I’m going to take her screaming body with all her exposed muscles and leave it to bake in a tanning bed on the highest ultraviolet setting so that the cancer will continue to grow on her corpse long after she is dead and buried.”

While there had been moments through the course of their friendship where Vandrad had gotten glimpses of the deep seeded darkness within Mercury’s soul that betrayed she was a woman who could and likely had taken a sick and visceral pleasure in inflicting pain on others, this was the first time he would hear her speak in such violent detail. Typically the parts of her that were concerningly unhinged only came through through sharp focus and collected, sadistic smirks, anger never really being an emotion that she often felt, and certainly never something that set her off to this extent. Hell, not even Sabine had made her this furious.

But it was more than fury, though Mercury herself wasn’t consciously aware of that fact. She felt humiliated, violated even. There was a soreness inside that could only come from her pride having been severely wounded. The Xocili founded the vast majority of her self-esteem in being of the last living members of a dying race that was the end all be all of technological superiority in the known universe. It was a talent that was quite literally written into her DNA, so much a part of her that it practically defined her, and with good reason. And it wasn’t so much that it had been a challenge -- Vandrad knew her well enough by now to know that she hardly expected to breeze through everything she did, and she was quite happy to meet challenges head on. But something about what had happened to her tonight had struck her deep, leaving her not just infuriated but shaken and wounded on a deep, personal level.

“I don’t even care that she’s being blackmailed. I’m going to track down every piece of the legacy she built on her stolen technology and dismantle it, and then when I get my hands on her handlers, I’m nung thveu soy puokke meul dauchchea khnhom samleab mnoussa krobknea del puokke thleab sraleanh…” Once more she descended into her native tongue, unable to find the proper words in the Earthlander language to convey the vast extent of her violent creativity. By the time she was done with Patricia, she was going to be begging to return to the group that had her under their thumb, and Mercury would not be merciful enough to grant the request.

Like she was drowning in the ocean once more, Vandrad’s hands reached into the sea of her fury and pulled her back toward the air. He stopped her from getting too involved with connecting to the computer to focus on what had set her off, holding her arms gently and asking her to calm down to tell him what happened. With a deep sigh to make a conscious effort to calm herself, she explained about the message that had forced its way from her system and the portal that had attempted to kill her. To her credit, she did explain in the message that Patricia had fixed it so the attack would miss, but it did little to make Mercury relent on her stance of pointing her anger toward the disgraced doctor.

The lavender haired woman knew she was being petty, but frankly she didn’t care. In a way, she was acting in response to a trauma that borderlined on rape. The message had been intended to be received through the storage device of whatever person managed to successfully steal it, but the problem was that Mercury was her own storage device. It had been violating on a physical level, and an intimate one at that. Unfortunately, Mercury didn’t have the a healthy upbringing to fall back on to teach her how to cope with a feeling like that, so instead she lashed out at the most immediate source of her anger: Patty.

Thankfully, Vandrad was there to keep her level, respectfully informing her that she should refrain from acting out until they had all the details. She was calmer after getting everything off her chest, at least, and so she merely nodded gently before following his lead to finally return to the computer. He drew up the files, revealing the tons and tons of information she had gotten her hands on, and she guided him toward the most pressing documents, but otherwise let him look at everything at his own pace. Not keen on standing idly by, Mercury flopped down on top of his bed and closed her eyes like she intended on resting, but really all she was doing was going through the documents on her end as well now that she had more free time to study them in earnest.

When the prince looked over to her after finding a curious video file, she was still laying on the bed with her eyes closed, but they would flutter open as soon as she heard the recording. Turning to look back toward his screen, Mercury turned around and sat herself back up to watch the video with him via the projector. The doctor opened her will and testament by commenting that the person receiving the video had to be a spectacular thief to get their hands on it, to which Mercury reacted with only a soft, mild, “Hmph.” Trying to butter the Xocili up after the fact certainly wasn’t going to earn any favor, but even Mercury knew when it was time to shut up and listen so that was what she intended on doing.

It was a lengthy video detailing the events Mercury had read in the articles, but this time it was including Patty’s personal report and experience of how things had gone down. The short and skinny of it was that the Magic Council had pressed her to use her findings for violence, and Patricia had been so wholly against the idea that she had gone out of her way to hide everything to keep it out of their hands. As soon as they found out, she claimed the Council destroyed her lab and then framed her for the act, though not without attempting to coerce her into submission. Patty had refused, but somehow had never served her sentence. The charges had been mysteriously dropped, and so with no other outlet she had gone on a bender of sex and drugs until she ultimately wound up in Bosco and went through enough education to be credited with other doctorates.

She had lived freely for about a year before a man called Hasan had approached her on behalf of the group that would soon become veritable slave drivers to her. Similar to the Council things had started off well at first but it did not take long for the cracks to form and reveal that they were just as much, if not more, corrupt than the Council, utilizing several tools to control her to do their bidding under the guidance of someone only referred to as the Engineer. Not only was he not native to Earthland, but apparently he was the owner of the ship that Patricia had discovered. Mercury frowned heavily here. She was aware of a few other aliens currently on the planet, but none that fit the description of an evil technician. The doctor tried to leave and was unsuccessful, but claimed to have dedicated herself to sticking to the work if only because she knew the only way she could combat the group was to play along and keep them close, even managing to stake some autonomy in the process.

While she went into a few more details about the Engineer and how the environment had regressed back into territory she was not happy with, Patty explained that the computer Mercury had hacked belonged to the Engineer and it was he who had set it up with the counter measures that had very nearly spelled Mercury’s doom. Her ire rose fresh, though she was admittedly assured by the fact that it was in fact another mysterious alien that had thrown her for a loop rather than this annoying Earthland doctor. However, the restoration of some small semblance of her pride was quickly thrown to the back burner as the doctor revealed the name of the group she had found herself working for.

The Dread Masters.

“What?!” Mercury could only stare at the screen in unadulterated shock before peeling her gaze away to look at Vandrad to make sure she hadn’t misheard. The Dread Masters were the antithesis and sworn enemy of the Order of Souls, and were supposed to have been eradicated a long time ago. She had a number of questions, but was forced to tuck them away for now as the seemingly endless video of Patricia talking nonstop carried on.

Continuing to listen, the doctor explained how she’d gotten roped into spying on Vandrad and trying to get his attention. Apparently the reason she had magic like his was because the organization had forced it on her in an attempt to make her more curious to him. When she finally met the prince, however, she saw a chance at salvation. Mercury rolled her eyes heavily when the other woman took a moment to gush over Vandrad’s looks. She wasn’t wrong, of course, and if she had been in a better mood Mercury would have had quite the field day with the comment, but right now she still had some lingering irritation with the woman and simply wasn’t in the mood to be pert for once in her life. Patricia took it upon herself to do as she was bid, but in a way that she hoped would make Vandrad suspicious enough to see through the surface of her actions. She claimed that was the reason she had kissed Vandrad in the midst of that trap, earning not just another eye roll out of the Xocili but also a soft snort of disbelief.

The log was concluded with the admittance that the Masters had recently done some horrific experiments on a young woman that seemed to have caused extreme mental trauma, and due to her protests of the study Patricia had been put under heavier guard than normal. She ended by stating her belief that the key to unraveling them began with exposing them, which she hoped they would do, and from there the video finally ended.

“This is insane.” Mercury rubbed her face with her hands, her brain going a mile a minute to compute all this data to try and figure out what the hell was happening. Out of any organization it could have been, the Dread Masters wasn’t even something she had considered as an option. Hell, the only reason they even knew about them was because they had accidentally gotten caught up in everything with Mythal and Serilda, and Mercury had taken it upon herself to use the opportunity to snoop. “Okay, so we know they’re all about fighting immortals and stealing their powers. So what interest could they possibly have in you? You’re mortal. A powerful a fuck mortal, but you still don’t fit the criteria of the beings they target. At most you have your power -- the dark one that manifests around demons and gods… but that’s a fairly recent discovery for you. Patricia was already casing you before that power started manifesting, wasn’t she? They couldn’t have possibly known about it before you did...”

Vandrad surmised that it was possible they knew about his dark magic because this Hasan had something similar. If that were the case, he would know what to look for. Unfortunately, the logic was sound, and Mercury didn’t like it one bit. And not just for Vandrad’s sake, either. She was without a doubt angry over this organization stalking and attempting to manipulate the first and only real friend she had ever had, and she was already working out various ideas in her head about what she would do when she came across these people. But she also had to wonder: if they were watching Vandrad, had they been watching her, as well? Vandrad had gone for four decades without much by the way of friends or partners, and then within a couple short months of meeting one another he and Mercury had been practically inseparable. They had to have been looking into her, too. How much had they put together?

It was a lot of questions that she didn’t like and the very thought was putting her back on edge. Luckily, Vandrad seemed to have the same thing in mind as she had. It was time to call in his brother and future sister-in-law, as well as the Order of Souls. The Dread Masters had just painted a target on their backs and neither of them intended for the Masters to live long enough to regret it. “I’ll send a message out to Serilda to let her know. I’m sure she’ll be able to get the appropriate group together.” She would have done so right then and there and continued on formulating some kind of plan, but the prince had other activities in mind to focus their energy toward, and Mercury had no intention of declining.

The meeting happened much sooner than Mercury had anticipated. She had figured it would take time to get Chishan and Zifu to meet up, but apparently the knowledge that the Dread Masters were at large was concerning enough news to merit a near immediate get together. Mercury had called Serilda first thing in the morning on a secure line and by that night the Field Marshal called her back to confirm that they would be hosting a small gathering at their home in Era the following evening. Mercury had figured the Order of Souls would want to keep to their own secure bases, but after discussing it with one another it seemed the leaders trusted that the home of the Rune Knight leaders was every bit as safe and secure as any place they could host from. Not one to shirk as a host, Serilda had made it clear she intended to feed everyone while they were present as she imagined whatever discussions arose for the evening may take some time to explore at length with one another.

Soon enough the night of the meeting had arrived. The Silver Wolf mage met up with Vandrad at Fairy Tail before using her teleportation ray to instantly drop them off at Serilda and Mythal’s door step. At this point they had visited so often that Mercury knew better than to knock, the pair simply opening the door and letting themselves in. Since this wasn’t really a social call, she had not taken the time to dress up in anything worthwhile, just showing up in the street clothes she had been wearing throughout the day. She could smell food from the kitchen and followed her nose to find Serilda at the stove, as well as Victoria at one of the counters putting a large salad together. In the adjacent dining room, the table had been stretched to make room for extra seats. It was already set up with nine place settings.

“We’re here,” the Xocili announced as they walked in the room.

Serilda looked up from the pot in front of her and smiled, though there was a tiredness to the expression. Granted, that could have been because she’d quite literally just given birth the week before, but Mercury sensed it had more to do with the seriousness of the topic they would be broaching. “Hey Mercury, Vandrad. Good to see you both.”

Since she didn’t look like she was able to pull away from the cooking, Mercury opted to go over and give her a casual hug herself. “Smells great. Anything I can do to help? You two look like you got your hands full. Sup, Victoria?” While the Seal still made Mercury nervous, she had interacted enough times with her by now to be friendly with her, particularly since they seemed to get along decently.

The Seal smirked in her direction, then toward Vandrad. “Good evening to the both of you.”

“Mercury, would you mind stirring this so I can check on the roast?”

“You got it.” Taking over at the stove, Mercury looked around a bit. “Where’s Mythal?”

“He’s upstairs with Gren changing the girls. I’m sure they’ll be down soon.” At the mention of the newest daughters, her spirits lifted a little. Serilda still basking in the glow of a motherhood she never thought she would experience. As before when they had originally been planning to have Gren and Vandrad meet, it seemed she had dismissed her staff for the night in order to give the group privacy. The noblewoman opened one of the ovens to check the temperature of the large pot roast inside before shutting the door back up. Opening the fridge, she began removing other bowls of previously prepared dishes and other sides to accompany the main course, setting them out on the counter to be moved onto the dining room table. “Chishan and Zifu should be here soon. Please feel free to help yourselves to something to drink.”

Serilda glanced up as Vandrad announced his intention to go find his father and brother and check on them, turning and heading toward the stairs without much other word. The prince wasn’t exactly the most chatty of individuals on a regular day, though he had become much more sociable and friendly over time, particularly after being introduced to Gren. But today, something was clearly bothering him. Mercury hadn’t really gone into much detail over what they had found when they had spoken the other day, only relaying enough for Serilda to understand that they had come across information that proved the Dread Masters were not as gone as the Order of Souls may have hoped. Serilda and Mythal knew very little about the Masters; really only what Mythal and Mercury had discussed almost a year ago, which had been regarded as little more than a chapter of history. None of them had really looked into it any further. Well, Mercury may have she supposed -- that did seem to be the woman’s thing -- but if she had found anything, she had never mentioned it.

“He seems… out of sorts,” the noblewoman remarked, not really intending to start any discussions before the rest of their guests arrived but unable to truly ignore the elephant in the room, so to speak.

Mercury’s face hardened slightly as she stirred the pot, adjusting the temperature of the fire down a little to keep the dish from burning. “He’s angry. I am, too.” Granted, the two of them were angry for somewhat different reasons. There was an overlap of course, but while Vandrad was more preoccupied being upset over the manipulative and covert methods of the whole operation that had put an objectively good woman in danger, Mercury was very focused on whoever the mysterious alien Engineer was who sported tech that gave even her a run for her money.

Unbeknownst to the Silver Wolf ace, Serilda and Victoria shared a glance. As the Seal finished the bowl of salad and began adorning the dining table with the various dishes Serilda had set out. The Voidwalker turned back to Mercury. “Well, whatever is going on we’ll figure it out together. It’s the least we can do after everything you two have done for us. We’re always here for you and Vandrad whenever you need us, Mercury -- for anything at all.”

While the comment itself wasn’t necessarily anything out of the ordinary, there was something in Serilda’s tone and the way their eyes met that made Mercury feel like there was more to what she was saying. The lavender haired woman wondered, not for the first time, how much about her origins the couple had managed to put together. She trusted that neither Vandrad nor Gren had revealed her secret, but the fact of the matter was the Rune Knight couple was both powerful and intelligent. And not just them -- these days, Mercury had found herself surrounded by all sorts of observant and mighty beings, both mortal and immortal, that for all she knew could have easy ways of seeing right through her fronts. It was already bad enough to know these days that Mythal could sense lies as easily as she could. Easier, actually. It meant that she had to be very careful about the way she worded things around him.

Nonetheless, Mercury offered Serilda a small but surprisingly genuine smile. “We never doubted that you were. Thanks, Seri.”

Not long after that there was a knock at the door announcing the arrival of Chishan and Zifu, who were greeted by the men. The entire group merged back into the kitchen and dining area where Mercury was helping Victoria with the last few arrangements of the table and Serilda was carving slices out of the finished roast. Setting down her utensils, she wiped her hands off on a nearby towel and moved over to greet them more formally, offering them both a handshake. “Your majesties, welcome. It’s good to see you both again. Thank you for making time at such short notice, and for being willing to come all this way -- it’s a little difficult for us to travel at the moment, so we really appreciate it. Please make yourselves at home. Can I get you something to drink? We have a variety of most everything, both alcoholic and non.”

Victoria took up the mantle of finishing the carving so Serilda could tend to her royal guests personally. The Voidwalker went to retrieve whatever they indicated they would like. While Serilda had been greeting the other couple, Mercury wandered over to Gren with a small smile that seemed practically reserved for him. “Hey there, big daddy.” She gave him a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek before turning to Mythal with a brighter, more cheeky smile. “And hello to you. I guess I have to come up with some kind of daddy nickname for you now, too. Congratulations!” She embraced the director as well. “Where’s Lux? He hasn’t popped up to exchange customary insults with me yet. I’m starting to feel neglected.”

Once the pleasantries were over and everyone had said hello or acknowledged everyone else in some form or another, Victoria had finished separating the roast. “Serilda, I believe everything is ready.”

“Oh, good! Everyone, please feel free to take a seat wherever you like.” She picked up the platter of beef cutlets and followed everyone into the room. Once the royal couple had sat, Serilda held the plate between them so they could select their slices first and then began to go around the rest of the table to serve everyone else in whatever order they had set themselves up in. “Forgive me for skipping past most of the pleasantries, but we all know we are here for a reason and I think we would all rather get right into things. What did you two find?”

Reaching toward various bowls as they were passed around to her, Mercury filled her plate a little bit at a time. She shared a look with Vandrad, letting him take the lead as he usually did anyway. They had discussed and agreed beforehand to lean as much on the vague side as possible about how they had come across the information, as anything too obvious about Mercury’s episode of breaking and entering would probably be enough for Chishan and Zifu to suspect that she may have been the one behind the leak in their own storage. It was going to be a long, potentially awkward night in which Mercury was going to try to keep as much attention off of her as possible and most likely failing at that. So, she felt it best to let the noble folk start things off with one another and she would interject as necessary from there.

“Thank you so much,” Serilda told Chishan and Zifu, humbled and touched by their kind words of congratulations. Chishan commented that he had also invited Wanda, explaining that since she was their top informant they had thought it prudent that she be a part of the discussion. Vandrad advised he was fine with that, to which Serilda nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s perfectly alright. Wanda is welcome in our home any time. Let me just put out another place setting for her.”

Serilda poured a couple glasses of wine for the visiting royals before putting another set of dishes and silverware out for the unexpected addition to their dinner party. Meanwhile, the rest of the group greeted one another, with Gren finding time to slip Mercury an intimate pat on the rear that the Silver Wolf mage quite enjoyed, giving the much older man a small, naughty little grin before moving over toward Mythal. She teased him about the possibility of bequeathing a nickname of the daddy variant to him now that he was quite literally a father, causing the man to laugh and admit he couldn’t really stop her, since that would only encourage her more. “And just like that, you’ve caught on much quicker than Vandrad did.” She asked about Lux, and apparently the Lightbringer was off reading and looking into something he was interested in finding, which he hadn’t divulged to Mythal yet. “Ominous,” was her only playful response, having been around Lux long enough at this point to know he was a bit of a prankster.

It wasn’t long after that when Wanda arrived, dressed in quite the outfit. She apologized for being late, explaining that she had been caught up in other matters and then wound up having to change because of whatever had come up. It was certainly a strange attire to have elected to adorn, but Mercury’s eyes had lit up like Christmas lights at the sight of it. “Girl, I love everything about this.” She gestured to the entire ensemble. “It looks fantastic on you.”

Once everyone was settled into their seats, Serilda chose to follow protocol and offer first selection of the main course to the highest ranking nobles at the table. However, Chishan and Zifu both respectfully insisted on forgoing such etiquette, with the queen suggesting they simply partake in a more casual, family style arrangement. Serilda bowed her head with a soft smile. “A gracious suggestion. Very well, thank you.” Finding her own seat, Serilda sat with the rest of them and the plates were passed around, but she wasted no time in taking charge to get them started. She could sense that Vandrad, at the very least, did not wish to waste time and there was no telling how long they would be there once they got going.

The prince and his friend shared a quick look, and then he began to speak, focused enough on wanting to talk that he had yet to put any food on his plate. The room listened in rapt attention as he explained that he and Mercury had recently finished a mission that they had been putting together for quite some time, and through it they reaped some weighty information. He asked the two Rune Knights about their previous interactions with Patricia, to which Serilda frowned and nodded curiously while Mythal explained their brief history with the woman. When Vandrad explained that the Council had been secretly terrorizing and attempting to control the woman, Serilda paused where she sat. She cast a glance toward both Mythal and Gren, the only other two in the room that were involved in the ongoing investigation into the council.

Vandrad went on, explaining about everything that lead to Patricia’s current circumstances and having been press ganged into working for the Dread Masters. The very term brought Chishan, Zifu, and Wanda to a horrified halt. It was confirmation enough to what they already knew, and Vandrad continued by explaining what they knew of the dark order. Chishan followed up with a more detailed explanation, though it granted nothing additional to what Mercury had already read back in the Order of Souls’ base months ago. His annoyance and frustration finally rising once more to the surface, Vandrad snapped a bit over how the Order had clearly not done a good enough job at eradicating their counterparts as Patricia was essentially enslaved to them now, forcing her to take part in unethical and grotesque experiments as well as grafting magic onto her without her true consent so that she could be used to spy on him.

This caught Zifu’s attention enough that she didn’t seem to care about his tone for the time being, prompting Vandrad to explain about the one known as Hasan, who shared Vandrad’s ability to control ethernano. He also mentioned the Engineer, who was the one to physically perform the graft itself. There was a long moment of quiet as everyone digested what was said. Mercury took that moment to silently reach beneath the table and take Vandrad’s hand, giving it a soft squeeze and passing him a meaningful look to remind him both that she was there to back him up and also to help him ground his anger before it became too hot again.

Eventually Chishan asked if they still had the information that had lead to this discovery, to which Vandrad confirmed they did but also informed them that for now Mercury and he were keeping a tight lid on it until they could finish going through it themselves to try and find what they wanted. When prompted to elaborate, Vandrad explained that what he wanted was, frankly, everything. He wanted to know who they were, how they operated, where to find him and how to deal with them, but first and foremost what they wanted with him specifically.

There was another moment of pause before Victoria gently cleared her throat, swallowing the bite of roast she had taken only a moment prior. She seemed to be the only one that hadn’t forgotten about her food completely aside from Mercury, though that was hardly a surprise given how long the woman had been around. “Actually, I believe I may be able to answer that last one for you.”

Calmly cutting her roast into bite sized slices like this was any other family dinner, she told them, “As you are all aware by now, I and my siblings have been alive since the dawn of humanity. Our existence is such that we spend a lifetime with a mortal that shares a bloodline with our first vessels, and when those vessels die we fall into a slumber until we can be born into a new host. Sometimes the process of rebirth can take some time, and as such it is quite common for a number of years to pass before we are conscious again. While we have not been present to witness every waking moment of history, we have lived through most of it. All of us have run into both the Order of Souls and the Dread Masters here and there over the millenia. I could probably tell you quite a bit about both organizations that has been lost over time. Same for the Sins and the Divines.”

“I was awake during the time when the Order went to war among itself and splintered. While I was not personally involved in any of it, the Order was a much more public organization at the time, and so the civil war was a bit of a hot topic among the immortals. The Dread Masters were formed and led by a small group of like minded men and women that felt rather passionately about having a more aggressive approach to combating immortals and putting humanity above the gods. One of their most prominent founders -- the one that was predominantly in charge, in fact -- was a man by the name of Marka Ragnos.”

The older woman paused there to set her golden eyes evenly on Vandrad and Gren, letting the knowledge sink in. Taking a sip from her wine, she continued. “When I first learned of Mythal and Gren’s existence not long after waking within Serilda, I figured the shared surname was merely a coincidence and thought little of it. And obvious, Mythal was adopted so he did not carry Ragnos blood. However, I was able to confirm the lineage during the battle with Faera in Mythal’s psyche. The Goddess of Love met us almost immediately upon our arrival, and it became clear right away that she intended to separate us from Gren in an attempt to weaken us. While we had lost the element of surprise in Faera learning of my presence, Serilda quickly came up with an absurd and risky plan that to this day none of my previous vessels ever attempted… and shockingly, it worked. She was able to secretly retrieve a small amount of Gren’s blood from his body before we were separated, and I was able to use that to locate Gren even through Faera’s trickery. We were only able to rejoin him for a brief moment, but it was enough for Serilda to temporarily transfer my consciousness inside Gren.”

“Once I was fully exposed to Gren and able to use my blood magic to help give him an edge, I was able to confirm his lineage as a direct descendant of Marka. Marka and I had fought before on a number of occasions via one of my previous hosts, so I had been exposed to his blood before. It is the same blood that runs through Gren’s veins… and yours.” Victoria turned her attention back to Vandrad. “If the Dread Masters have been tracking Marka’s bloodline, then it is no wonder they have been looking into you, particularly with your mastery of Ethernano. In a way, the Dread Masters is your birthright, as is the Order of Souls to an extent, considering that they used to be one organization. If I had to hazard a guess, they are probably vetting you for recruitment.”

She paused there to return to her food, giving the mortals a chance to discuss what she had relayed so far and to pose any questions, should they have them.

If there had been tension in the room before at the mention of the Dread Masters themselves, the room had become palpable with it once Victoria had revealed what she had learned. Zifu seemed intent on denying the truth altogether. Serilda had practically turned to stone, her face an unreadable facade of focus as she silently ruminated over all the information that had been brought to light. Mercury was equally as quiet, though in truth she understood very little about the implications outside of “Vandrad was related to a powerful bad man that died a long time ago”. Mythal spoke up in Victoria’s defense, not that the queen had necessarily been accusing Victoria of anything. Still, he confirmed there was no deceit in the Seal’s statement.

Victoria nodded her acknowledgement to Mythal before turning toward Zifu. “As alarming as I’m sure it is to face this truth, blood does not lie. It may evolve over the years, but it never loses its origins entirely. My intention had been to relay this information after the battle with Faera, as I figured it was something everyone currently gathered here would want to know. Once we had all mostly gathered again after we got a chance to rest, however, I elected to wait. There had already been enough conflict that day, and since we were not aware that the Dread Masters were still a threat, the topic did not seem urgent.”

The room was silent for some time as no one knew what to say or how to react to this information. Vandrad in particular was extremely pensive, and after a moment he finally spoke up to say he now understood why they wanted him. Mercury turned to give him a curious frown as he explained about his power that they had yet to identify, the one that had a bone to pick with immortals. While he didn’t say as much out loud, Mercury instantly followed his logic: The Dread Masters were all about conquering gods and demons, so that meant that the prince’s abilities would be an enviable, even necessary tool, in their quest. But it still didn’t answer the question of how they knew about it, as they had been spying on Vandrad even before the power had manifested. So, did that make it an inherited ability, one that they had reason to suspect he would develop?

Before Mercury could voice such a question aloud, Wanda chirped up to let them know that she was capable of confirming exactly what the ability was. This offer was met with some resistance as Zifu practically threw herself from her chair in an effort to stop the woman, but as he had done several times before Chishan stopped her, explaining that it was Wanda’s choice to reveal herself, and she had already planned on doing so anyway. Now more confused than anything else, Mercury could only watch as Wanda stood and came around the table, asking Vandrad to join her. The prince did so and then allowed her to place her hands on his temples, instructing him to focus on the magic in his mind.

After a moment, she opened her eyes to reveal they had changed colors, and with an outstretched hand she more or less turned herself into a projector, using her body to transfer information directly from Vandrad’s body into a visual image that they all could see. Mercury leaned into the table, peering at the hologram of the man with intense study. He was dressed like a king, complete even with a crown. He wore a large cloak that was adorned with thick white fur, and across his forehead was some kind of strange tattoo or tribal marking. The expression on his face was more than enough to pinpoint him as a bit of a pretentious scumbag, and there was no mistaking that something about him was just… wrong.

Wanda relayed some details about Marka, the man in the image. He was hungry for the power of the gods, and not just that but to acquire the seat above them all, as he supposedly believed there was a singular throne above even the gods to be master and commander over all reality. However, he could not do this without the proper power and tools. So, he and his secret followers set out to kill a god and succeeded, allowing them the chance to apply their magics to birth something called the Ark of the Dread Masters. This magic was one that could only be utilized by one meant to lead, and consisted of all the stolen power of the immortals. WIth this ability at his beck and call, Marka was able to run rampant upon many celestial and demonic beings, and only a worthy member of his descendants would be capable of awakening the power within them.

With the speech concluded, Wanda lost her strength. Vandrad kept her from falling, holding her steady until she could hold her own weight again. The Xocili was busy trying to comprehend the information, which seemed to have a strong effect on the leaders of the Order of Souls. Honestly, the question as to how Wanda had managed to perform the feat of extracting such information from Vandrad was the last thing on Mercury’s mind; to her, it was just magic. But apparently it was much more than that, as many others at the table held curious gazes toward the woman. Gren spoke up to ask the question, and Chishan gently explained that Wanda was not bound by mortal limits of magical abilities because she was an Ataxian shard in living form.

Victoria sat up in her seat, fixing Wanda with a focused gaze through narrow, golden eyes and she studied the woman with renewed understanding and curiosity. At first she said nothing. Serilda was eying the Seal from across the table as though monitoring to make sure Victoria wasn’t going to do or say something inappropriate. It seemed the worry was not needed as the older woman ultimately relaxed and, with polite curiosity, asked, “May I inquire as to which one?”

Whether or not Wanda chose to answer, Serilda tapped her fingernails thoughtfully against the surface of the table. “I’m sorry, I know we discussed this when the topic was brought up last, but I was a bit preoccupied. Remind me the significance of Ataxian shards again? I believe someone said they had something to do with a goddess of the same name?”

“Yes. Most mortals who are privy to such knowledge believe there are ten divines and seven prime sins. However, there are actually eleven. Ataxia, the Divine of Entropy, was the most powerful ol the gods.. And the most destructive. As I explained to Gren once before, each of the gods and demon lords represent the embodiment of the virtues and vices of life. Ataxia is their antithesis, the chaos to their law that strove to undo creation in its entirety. Such was her threat to creation that the Divines and Primes formed a temporary truce to work together, sealing her away between dimensions where she would no longer be a threat. Kingdom Darkness was her domain, and as Gren and I learned from the memory of hers that we witnessed, Faera volunteered to inherit the toxic realm after Ataxia’s banishment in hopes of sparing her siblings from the very same corruption that now plagues her.”

The Voidwalker frowned. “Well, that’s… horrifying, to put it mildly. I don’t think Ruzatz has ever mentioned this before, not that we ever had reason to ask about it.”

“I doubt he would be able to tell you much, anyway. Ruzatz is not the original Prime of Lust, and this happened long before he assumed the mantle. The only ones who would be able to explain in any detail would be those who were present, which would be the rest of the Divines and Ozorith, who is the only remaining original Prime. The other demon lords have been killed and replaced various times through the millenia.”

Another uncomfortable thought, but one that wasn’t wholly pertinent to the topic at hand. With a small sigh, Serilda let the subject go and turned to Wanda. “Well, what you are holds no consequence to me, Wanda. You were there when we needed you and you put yourself on the line to help Mythal and me during our most desperate hour. You have my respect and my gratitude, and our door is always open to you without hesitation. To all of you, in fact.” She turned to nod meaningfully to Chishan and Zifu. Then, after a moment’s pause, “That being said… I suggest we keep this knowledge from Lux. He has been… better, lately… but I think it would be wise to withhold him from temptation.”

Having been quiet for some time, Mercury finally found her voice, steering the topic back on track. “I have a theory… One I don’t like, but it needs to be discussed. As Vandrad mentioned, Hasan is utilizing the skills of an agent known only as the Engineer, and the only thing we really know about him is that he is extraterrestrial. This in and of itself isn’t altogether shocking; my guild, Silver Wolf, has quite the collection of alien goods that have been discovered over the years. However, one of the things that Doctor Reeves managed to impart to us was a number of schematics for current and future projects, as well as those of the Engineer’s computer.”

“To call his work advanced beyond the current reaches of our planet is a gross understatement. Thanks to Patricia, we know know that he is the one that is responsible for grafting Energy Monarch onto her, and we also know that she is not the only person that this Engineer has forced magic onto. So my question, and my concern, is: If he has found a way to install rare, powerful magics into those who did not inherit them naturally… can he also remove such magics? What if the intent of the Dread Masters is not to recruit Vandrad at all… but to take his power and graft it into another, such as Hasan?”

It was interesting that Wanda didn’t know which shard she was, particularly given her recently revealed skillset of being able to use any kind of whatever magic she wanted to. One would think such an ability would narrow it down. But, it was neither here nor there. While Victoria was more than a little curious, Serilda had been stalwart enough about the other Ataxian shard that wasn’t currently in the form of a living person. She would gain zero ground in something like this, and the truth was that Wanda had also earned Victoria’s respect after hearing about everything that had happened. So, the Seal merely nodded her understanding before getting into a discussion about the shards with Serilda.

Chishan added his own two cents, confirming that no one really knew what Ataxian shards truly were. All they had were assumptions that they were remnants of the goddess’s power from her battle with the other Divines and the Primes. Up until Gren and Victoria’s encounter with Faera’s memory, they hadn’t even known what Ataxia’s true nature was. Either way, they knew with certainty that the shards were intensely powerful magical artifacts that could be the catalysts to uprooting the world, and so far Wanda was the only one they knew of that presented as a sentient being. Chishan compared her to a super computer, but one that possessed as much compassion and thought as any other human being.

Serilda assured the green haired woman that her origins changed nothing about their respect or gratitude for her, and Vandrad quickly followed to say the same, informing Wanda that she need only ask if there was anything she needed. From there, Mercury moved the topic along to voice the bigger concern that had presented itself to her that night: namely, whether the Dread Masters actually wanted Vandrad himself, or just his Ark magic. The prince relented to the weight of the possibility, of course with his usual “fuck around and find out” confidence. Meanwhile, Chishan remarked upon how concerning it was to know that the Dread Masters had willfully employed an alien. They knew about the ship that Patty had gone to research, and knowledge of extraterrestrials on Earthland wasn’t unknown, if mostly because of Silver Wolf’s diligence in collecting such things, but they themselves had no concrete proof of their own.

It was a topic that quickly splintered off into another, with Mythal remarking upon all the various wild cards of beings that were suddenly cropping up all over the place. He used the chance to reveal some of his own information that he’d acquired regarding Ataxia herself, stating that he recently learned of the existence of not one but two women known as Avatars of Ataxia. Victoria lowered her fork in an instant, staring at Mythal with rapt attention as he explained about what he was told, and how he had been advised not to kill the more dangerous of the two women right away for reasons he didn’t share. But apparently, some of the other information he learned was the names and identities of Faera’s Immortal Thirteen -- as well as the names of the rest of the Divines and Sins, though Victoria could have easily relayed that bit of information.

The Master of the Order of Souls expressed his respect over how much valuable information Mythal had managed to discover, hoping it would lead to better discoveries on how to deal with Faera. As Mythal explained, they were going to need quite the game plan because should Faera be killed Kingdom Darkness would come apart at the seams and start to consume reality. When Zifu inquired as to where he had gathered such knowledge, Mythal respectfully advised that it was from a source he trusted but wanted to protect, offering to give them copies of all the information for their databases. Mercury definitely wanted to get her hands on that information as well, but she would ask Mythal about it later after everyone else had left.

The queen spoke up in surprise that the Dread Masters would even consider employing an extraterrestrial in the first place, given their sense of superiority when it came to anyone that wasn’t human.. Or at least, mortal -- which could have been the difference. Alien, while strangers to Earthland, did not constitute as immortals and thus were more comrade than enemy. Still, it left her curious as to why this Engineer would join up with the Dread Masters in the first place. Vandrad surmised that he likely saw it as ample opportunity to conduct his immoral experiments freely, using humans like guinea pigs. As far as he was concerned, it simply went to show the hypocrisy of the Dread Masters, who claimed to be the bastions of mortal salvation. He reiterated that if their plan was to capture him and steal his power, then he was all for them making the mistake of trying. In fact, he even revealed that he and Mercury had already worked out a plan to get in more direct contact with Patricia again in the interest of swapping further information with one another. Granted the plan wasn’t one that Patty would like too much at first, but if they were going to have any shot at getting to her safely without raising suspicions then it had to be convincing.

Mercury nodded. “I also plan on looking a bit more into the Engineer himself. Currently, I am aware of at least three extraterrestrials on the planet. I actually met one of them not too long ago. He’s definitely a decent guy that poses no threat to us. He and an associate of his are bounty hunters, currently on Earthland in pursuit of a third alien that they are attempting to capture, and from what I was led to understand that one is dangerous. I’m not sure if these events are related, but it’s the only lead I’ve got at the moment. So, I’m going to get in contact with them and see if I can get more information about their target so I can confirm if there’s any overlap between our missions.”

The room was quiet for a moment longer as everyone pondered the recent round of details, but none was more silent than the Seal of Conquest, who had not return to her meal since Mythal had revealed his intelligence. She turned to the director. “Your contact… you’re certain she is reliable?” Victoria asked, brows furrowed with uncertainty. “Much about Ataxia’s Avatars is unknown, even to me, but generally they are regarded as.. Unstable, to put it politely. The legends say that those with minds that have been broken by insanity are drawn to Ataxia’s chaos. In fact, one of the original founders of the Dread Masters -- and one of Marka’s closest cohorts -- believed that mental instability in mortals was actually caused by Ataxia directly. He guestimated that she preyed on the weakened minds of those who suffered from intense trauma, seeping her chaos into them to break them further, attempting to utilize them as gateways to seep her magic out of her prison and back into the mortal realm from which her siblings had banished her."

“He never had any proof of this, of course, but Darius was a bit of a prodigy when it came to the study of magic, clairvoyance, and the celestial; it was his research and spellwork that led to the successful birth of Marka’s Ark magic. If he developed a theory that he felt strongly about, he was rarely proven wrong.”

About two weeks later, it was finally time. Vandrad and Mercury had taken a bit longer than usual to enact their plan, if only because the nature of their foe was complex to say the least. It had taken Mercury quite a bit of study to make sure she create the tools she needed to successfully pull off her heist. Frankly, it was the first time in a long time that she had been challenged so eloquently by a technological hurdle. Luckily, she was more than happy to rise to that challenge and show this elusive Engineer that he wasn’t the only bully on the playground. Patricia had made it clear to them that she was constantly being monitored, so the natural conclusion was that both her lab and her physical person were bugged all to hell. That meant that they needed to be very tedious and precise about how they approached Patty, so as not to incriminate her in the eyes of the Dread Masters.

Which was why it had been decided that Mercury was going to kidnap the woman.

The Xocili was quite looking forward to the job, eager to dig into her roots and show off what she was made of. Vandrad was less excited about the subterfuge, as he always was, but for once he had not argued, knowing that the situation was far too tenuous to be driven by his stubborn pride. So the stage had been set, the pieces were put in place, and now it was time to make her move so they could finally get some real one on one time with the good doctor.

Mercury had opted to pull her heist at the time when it was least expected: in broad daylight. Thanks to the monitoring devices she had left connected to Patricia’s security feeds, she was able to pick up quite a bit about the woman and her habits. She truly did keep long arduous hours which often left her quite sluggish in the mornings after nights of not enough sleep. Much like Mercury, it seemed Patty was rather reliant on a tall, hot cup of joe to jump start her energy. There was a place not too far from the woman’s home where she frequently visited like clock work every morning to get her daily fix, a small but popular hole in the wall coffee joint that practically knew the woman by name at this point.

This was where Mercury waited, sitting casually at a small table in the patio area outside of the coffee shop. She was dressed in a black skirt with gold trim that hung past her knees with a slit on one side that went up nearly to her hip. Her black top covered little more of her chest than what a bikini top would, with a black strap that crossed around her waist over her stomach and a gold collar with symbols reminiscent of math equation signs strapped to one side of the top of the blouse. She wore tall golden colored boots that rose up to her knees, and a bright pair of purple and blue tinted sunglasses with wide, round rims adorned and mostly covered her face. She sat calm and relaxed among many other people that were enjoying the start of their mornings at various tables around her, just another faceless body in the crowd, drinking her -- admittedly quite delicious -- coffee and perusing her iLac.

When Patty came to order her drink, everything would seem quite normal. The staff were the usual faces that she was used to seeing, and those whom she had built up a small, friendly rapport with greeted her as usual before taking her order and building her drink. There was only one major difference: one of the baristas wasn’t exactly who she appeared to be. In fact, it was actually one of Mercury’s highly advanced clones that she had set up to be in a place to make Patricia’s drink that day. And little would Patty know that her coffee would have an extra ingredient, one that was odorless, tasteless, and would dissolve instantly in any liquid without changing its color or appearance in any way.

Once Patty had received her order, Mercury, got up from her table and started walking behind the woman at a safe distance as she made her way to her lab. It would take about a minute or so of sipping her drink before the doctor would start to feel even more sluggish, her drink having the opposite effect of what her intention for it had been. Once it reached a point where she would need to stop, the realization likely dawning on her that something was very, very wrong, Mercury approached from behind. Using the crowds to mask her movement until the last moment, under the assumption that Patricia could use Energy Monarch to monitor the world around her in a full radius, she casually slipped and arm around Patty’s waist to support her and kept her walking.

“Good morning, doctor. I don’t recommend fighting the little drug I slipped you. It will only make you dizzier faster,” the Xocili practically purred at the woman in a smug tone. Speaking only loud enough so that Patty -- and anyone listening on the other side of any bugs she had on her -- would hear, Mercury went on. “You have been quite curious about a friend of mine. A bit too curious for my liking, in fact. So I think it’s time you and I had a little chat.” Steering them down an alley, Mercury pulled out her translocation ray and opened up a portal to its predetermined location, practically carrying the woman through it as she would quickly fall unconscious. The moment they stepped through, with Bandit swooping in after them, the door would close and they would be gone.

A little while later, Patricia would find herself waking up in the most unlikely of places. It would likely take a moment for the grogginess to wash away completely. The first thing she would see were the blurred images of a number of a number of sex toys and related items scattered around the room. As her vision would clear, Mercury would step in front of her, bending over the bed upon which Patricia had been laid and giving the woman a small, impish grin. “Rise and shine, sweetcheeks. Nap time’s over.”