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Somewhere in the middle of the Spooky Forest in a dark room of creaking old wood in hallways lined with books and filing cabinets there were dozens of skeletal figures roaming around organizing, dusting, and managing the countless documents.. but whats more, the skeletal beings opened and read every single one of them in an ongoing effort to learn and uncover all that they could about all the activities of the Rune Knights, Magic Council, and Royal activities for the past decades.
It was a recent effort, Edge had only just gained access to the hall. It was a shadow archive. Not meant for the eyes of anyone other than the Head of Intelligence. The archives were in disrepair as a result of that. Nothing a few clones couldn't handle, such as they were.
The Clones managed the archives and read things on her behalf. The skeletal theme was more for personal amusement. She herself altered her shape before cloning, leaving them shifted as a cloned copy of her. Frail copies as they were. The theme seemed fitting after all, given the decrepit nature of the archives, being situated in the spooky forest, and the entrance to the archives being hidden in a tomb that itself was hidden under a single gravestone in the forest.
One of the skeletons was reading a peculiar set of documents detailing a series of evidence suggesting the existence of a hidden Magic Council laboratory that was ridden with illegal activity including human experimentation, not of recent make, but ancient. At least a century old. It had ties to the head of the council, Count Sparrow. Those who got too nosy met untimely ends. Black Rune Knights guarded it, not of any of the three divisions but privately owned rune knights. The skeleton-clone's head cocked to the side curiously as it wondered, just how had something like this remained a secret for so long?
The Skeleton's bony finger came to rest at a name and it tapped the page. Alexander Zenneth. He was involved, was being the operative word. And not for long. His carrier burnt to a crisp suddenly but he had "friends" in the right places and escaped an attempt at getting rid of him through the courts.
That was all the documents had on the matter, here among these shadowy archives. It was time to pay someone a visit.
The skeleton had read all it had on the subject. With one motion it reached up and took it's skull in it's hands and clenched it's fist. The skull shattered like brittle glass and the skeleton vanished into mist.
____________________________
Edge had uncovered the whereabouts of Zenneth hours after the alert came and had decided on how to meet the man, but there was days between the ideal time and then so she didn't worry about it. She had her scatterthoughts handle the research and had finished her dinner at her manor in Crocus with a handful of guests from the city's "Blue-blooded" families as a sub-formal occasion, such as she was in the middle of when one of her scatterthoughts had burst to merge it's memories and experience with all the others, including herself.
She carried on as normal, research and digging was something she reserved for her scatters. She could do things they couldn't, a lot of things they couldn't, and they were best suited for taking up paperwork. But now it was time. Edge's eyes were closed as she sat in front of her wide fireplace, magic welled within her threatening to overflow. Her sense of reality disconnected, stretching. And with a mental snap as though an elastic band was released there was a flicker as her mind reconnected itself with the new reality around her. The human mind was easily confused by suddenness, and the flicker was a result of it coming to terms with the new scenery.
Edge was invisible, perfectly silent as always without the slightest hint of magical aura or any manner of "presence" one might detect should they be sensitive to such alternative senses. She was tucked out of the open attached to the wall under the rafters of a building as her target wrapped up his activities with a brown haired girl, both mages. He was finished now, and as she had predicted from past habits, he was now leaving for a bar. A nasty little drinking habit of his.
Edge wasn't impatient, but there wasn't any need to waste any further time. There was a sudden static that filled the air and an edgy sense of wrongness and pressure as in a flicker all movement was ceased. Birds hovered in mid-flight, people stood frozen, and all sound was stopped cut off. Zenneth remained unfrozen, but not without company for long.
Making a point to approach him more casually, rather than appearing in front of him more suddenly, though she made no sound she made no attempts at hiding her presence and he's easily see her as she approached in her black suit and red hair tied into a single tail that stood out against the black, with two golden sticks pinned through the base of the tail in a cross.
When she was no less than 10 feet away from him, she stopped, and managed to force her words through her own silence. A nuisance she'd grown accustom to in recent years.
"Alexander Zenneth" She said, her pale white hands crossed in front of her bearing her insignia on her ring. Few knew of the office, or of who headed it, but that was why the ring was important enough to order it's creation. The ring was instantly identifiable and projected an aura of its authority, any eyes who see it recognize it. An unquestionable badge of authority and identification, marking her as the Head of Intelligence, one of the three highest ranking Rune Knights, each equal to one another- officially, at least.
"Approach, and take my hand." It wasn't a suggestion. Holding out her ringed hand before her. Edge had her ways of uncovering the truth, and her word was almost as good as law. By simply taking her hand and answering her question, she'd officially clear any doubt as to the legitimacy of any claims against him. When he took her hand, she would ask;
"Were you responsible for the crimes declared against you." She went on to specify the trial dates in particular leading up to his severance from the Rune Knights. This was all she needed to decide to involve him in her investigations of human experimentation and illegal research being conducted by the magic council, her ring would make him speak the truth. This wasn't for her, she could see truth as clear as day, but the slim recording device hidden in the button on her collar and again in the base of her sleeve would collect the truth for others to hear under the effects of the ring.
