ACCESSING CLARKE DATABASE...
LOCATING MOST RECENT FILES...
DATA RETRIEVED

ADAM CLARKE: DAILY LOG

Over the past few days, I've been using my downtime to make my way below the central district of Angel's Landing--much further than most are willing to spelunk for fear of getting lost. Above me was dim, slitted light from sewage grates, and surrounding me was the stench of only a few thousand years of accumulated humanoid (and otherwise) excrement. For years, waterways have carved a twisted labyrinth under Angel's Landing, the ancient roots of what once was a city buried, eroded, and forgotten along these former canals. Tall pillars, once white and new, are covered in moss and muck, most of them collapsed and twisted like silent stone serpents. Even so, the most rotten of ruins can hide secrets, messages from our past we lost long ago. I can't help the gut feeling there's something still here, just waiting to be discovered.

PERKLE VISUAL FEED: ACTIVATING...
PERKLE AUDIO FEED: ACTIVATING...
REPLAY LOADING...

"What the--really, Eve? Right now?" Adam's finger curled around his earpiece, one slight jerk away from yanking it out. "Turn off that garbage so I can focus."

The voice in his earpiece snerked. "I don't need to defend Plasmic Star to you. She's sold more than a hundred thousand records--the lack of one classical snob won't leave a dent."

"Eve." The hint of warning in Adam's voice was always hot-cold, like a spout of water threatening entropic emnity with a burn before a frosty snap. "You can see I'm suspended more than a hundred feet above a septic, rocky death. I'd appreciate my last moments not being played alongside 'Kiss, kiss, give me love!' How can such a heavily auto-tuned voice still manage to be so grating?"

"Whatever! She's my robot angel girl. And besides, you've been reinforced to withstand over a hundred G's. Worst that would happen is you might dislocate a few joints. Easy fix."

Adam resisted the urge to roll his eyes, fixing his gaze on a pillar well out of his reach. "Eve, if you experienced 'dislocating' several of your joints, I don't think you'd bank on calling it 'easy.' Now turn it off or you're getting poached eggs for breakfast tomorrow."

"Eugh, like rubber, so thick and tasteless and..." An audible shudder passed through the earpiece before the music flipped off. "Fine! But I better get extra Parmesan on my scrambled. You always scrimp on the cheese. No sense of adventure."

"Says the girl sitting safe and sound in her lab while I climb around ancient waterways. Is it even worth pointing out the irony?" Adam kicked himself into motion, feeling the heavy swing of his legs push him through space. When he deactivated his grapple hook, there was a familiar rush of adrenaline--one was never quite so vulnerable nor so graceful as when mid-air, relying on the aerodynamics of one's own body to steer toward doom or destiny. His hand punched safely into the pillar he'd targeted, sending a puff of dust and plunk of pebbles to dissipate into the black, watery abyss below.

"Well, some of us get our rush of adventure in more reasonable ways. You know, like listening to heart-pumping, beat blasting music or indulging in delicious fo--well now, that's interesting."

"Do tell." Adam's voice was a grunt as he grasped a chink in the pillar to climb around it. Another little leap awaited him--he could see the beginnings of a rooftop some seven meters away. After a deep breath, he pressed his feet up against the pillar before kicking off it and turning mid-air. His arms stretched out on either side of him, a whirring, metal man-bird before his fingertips grasped the end of the rooftop. Eve, as ever, went on as though they were in the middle of a game of croquet.

"All your monkeying around has picked up some interesting info on Perkle's sonar. I mean, it's still just underground sewage runoff below you, but the aqueduct system around you is very different from the sewage lines above. I mean, most places build off and feed purposely into the old water systems, but this... it's like it was totally skipped. I wouldn't be surprised if you were climbing on a fresh water feed."

"Not surprising." Adam pulled himself onto the rooftop with a soft huff, then turned to gaze back at the system Eve described. "After the Stygian occupation of Angel's Landing, we lost more than can ever be accounted for of our history. The detail in these markings the pillars have--they were clearly made before the Abberation Wars occurred. Craftsmen of the era--"

"Ohmigods, I think I just aged ten years! I'm not following you on a live feed for a history lesson, A-Boy."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and flicked a hand in the empty air. "Right, I'm sorry; I keep forgetting you have no interest in Orieon artifacts."

"Come again?" Something clattered on Eve's end--probably chopsticks. She always had a tendency to order out instead of putting up with Ace's lunches.

"You remember I've been searching for the Seraphic Library. You know, supposedly built near the end of Orieon's life and sanctioned by Orcorum?" Adam started walking again, following the line of the roof with an eye on the ruined stone he could see stretching out from far beneath it. "There's an old prophecy about the library's founding: 'We who were formed from the flesh of a god bear also the seeds of His knowledge. We treasure not only our bodies formed from divine will, but also the minds we are blessed with, which create beauty, reason, and the foundation of a society that will build upon itself until it ascends into the stars. But let it be known to all my brethren that there is secret knowledge, dreadful knowledge, that could entice us toward our own destruction. When the flesh of Orieon turns against itself with dreams of blood and greed, the divine knowledge and all its great purpose will be lost to us all.'

"And that's what happened, in a sense. During the First Stygian War, it's recorded that the Seraphic Library collapsed in on itself during the fighting and fell into a chasm. Primitive explosives that exploited the city's sewers, maybe, or tremors caused by elemental magic. Just like that, it disappeared off the face of the planet, wiped out, built on top of, forgotten. A good number of scholars don't even believe it exists. Orcorum's clerics, though... they're less willing to give up on such a legend and much more helpful for it."

"Well, sounds like you ought to be indoctrinated into their church. Should I pick up some robes and a pamphlet before you get back?" A tight squeak sounded--her chair leaning back. How was it she was the tired one between them?

"Not all scholars can afford to collect dust while debating and theorizing. And even I have to admit, this looks prom...ising." Adam's voice trailed off as he caught a glimpse of one of the exposed aqueducts below. A golden glitter flashed as the comfortably perched Perkle on his shoulder cast a beam toward the water.

What could he do but smile?

FURTHER ACCESS DENIED. ENTER DECRYPTION CREDENTIALS TO PROCEED
CREDENTIALS NOT RECOGNIZED
DATA UNAVAILABLE
INCOMING MESSAGE...

FROM: EVE
(¬‿¬) I see you. Chat properly over dinner sometime? <3

---

"You're way too chipper for just having stepped out of a sewer. And last I checked, it's not your birthday." Eve glanced up from her computer as Adam came striding into the lab. His smile was, unfortunately enough, contagious, and the fresh waft of juniper-esque cologne was equally perky.

"Well, I am expecting a present this morning. Have you finished compiling Perkle's sonar data?" Adam was already leaning closer to catch a glimpse of her screen, and just like that, his smile disappeared. One of his bronzey fingers pointed accusingly at the offensive imagage as he scowled. "How the blazes did you get that?"

Eve simply shrugged and tabbed up some visual reconstruction software on her computer. There were a few faint, but recognizable features of the ruins Adam had visited the day before. "Perkle gets around more than just smelly sewers, you know. And come on, a shirtless Eiishii in the middle of training? Priceless. I mean, he's sorta older, but those abs! Gods, the things linen hides. I mean, if he wears linen. Do you think it's imported silk? Or maybe genetically altered spider silk he wears?"

"Eve! This voyeur habit of yours? It needs to stop. It's not endearing, you're well above the age and breeding of a lust-addled stalker, and... just... really? Mr. Umemoto? The traitor? The blademaster who can cut anything?" Adam grasped the armrests of Eve's desk chair, swiveling her around to face the burning amber of his eyes directly. "Do you want to end up dead?"

"Yipes, so serious." Eve held up her hands oh-so-peacefully, only to scowl and grab at Adam's arm as he moved one hand to delete her precious Eiishii compilation. "Hey! Destruction of personal property! Way worse!"

Adam didn't even bother to look her way as he held her at arm's length. "Eve, that man is dangerous. If he caught you snooping around him... gods! Why do you have such a perverted sense of curiosity?"

"Keeps me entertained. Unlike you." Eve stood up from her chair in a huff and moved toward the window--which happened to be the entirety of the walls. "Does this mean I can delete your request for an excavation team?"

"Absolutely not. Our findings were... well. There's no understating it--this could be the most promising lead in finding the Seraphic Library ever. We can't afford to pass up the chance! And I'll make sure the Tower Masters know." Adam's hands clenched before one ducked under his chin. "I'm sure they'll listen. I know we're short handed and the Stygian Blades are at large, but our findings... our findings are irrefutable. If I can't get their support, I'll find an Orcorum church that's more like-minded."

"Aaaand there he goes again, from ice to fire!" Eve leaned up against the glass and sighed. "Ace told me we'll be landing at the Tower docking bay in less than an hour. Did you want me to come with?"

Adam actually hesitated before flashing a smile. "Well, it was our discovery. Short of the Stygian Blades raining fire on us, I can't imagine anything will deter us. It's short notice, but my request for an audience should get us going again by the end of the day. Well... one hopes."

"Aw, don't pitter out already!" Eve sauntered her way back to him and clasped his metal hand in her squishy one. "Let's do this!"

"Hurry up!" Abbadon said, flapping his wings just hard enough to stay aloft. "And be careful with that! It's fragile!" He watched as the men he'd hired, which used up his last bit of money, moved all his tech from the room he shared with Ulrich in the tower to the wagon outside. "Don't screw this up!" he said, pointing at a guy who almost tripped. "That ink is expensive!" What he didn't tell the movers was the ink that particular man was carrying was nanobots.

It took a while but, once the wagon was loaded, the winged hybrid flew as fast as he could while dragging it to the new shop, where Ulrich waited. It wasn't too far but the wagon definitely slowed him down to at most a quarter of his full speed. "I should've had Ulrich pull the wagon." he frowned. "I hope he's stalling the guy."

-----

Ulrich smirked as he moved piece after piece, watching the board carefully. It was their third game and, as he saw the checkmate, his third loss. "Wow. I really suck at Chess," he said, laughing. "Sorry for making you wait. Abbadon should be here soon." He sat across from the man who owned the building, in his armor and trying to make conversation while they played.

"You said that 5 times now." the man frowned. He was getting really impatient. "He was supposed to be here an hour ago to sign the paperwork. If he's not here within the next 15 minutes, he doesn't get the shop."

"Don't be like that." Ulrich frowned. "You're the only one who'd give him a chance. Everyone else shut him down quickly because of his mixed heritage."

The man nodded with a sigh. "I see your point. Still, I have other appointments. This isn't the only building I'm leasing. What's taking him so long, anyways?"

"He has to get his machines out of my room. The people at the tower don't want him bringing customers in there anymore." Ulrich chuckled, reaching to scratch the back of his head, though his helmet was in the way.

-----

Abbadon gasped as he stopped outside the shop. He released the harness and ran inside, seeing Ulrich and the leasing agent setting up a chess board. "Sorry I'm so late." Abbadon said, frowning. "I had to make sure all my machines were being moved properly after I unplugged them from each other."

Both men looked at the winged being with a nod.

"Anyways, I'm here to sign the paperwork. I even brought my own pen." As he said this, he pulled a pen from his toga, smiling. "I'm prepared."

-----

It wasn't too long before the paperwork was gone through and signed. By the time the leasing agent had left, Ulrich had gotten all the big machinery and most of the rest inside. The pair worked together to fix his machines up in 2 of the 4 back rooms.

"My own tattoo studio." Abbadon squealed. "It's perfect. Or, it will be, once it's all decorated."

Ulrich, who had since removed his armor, reached up to pat Abbadon's back. "Everything's gonna be great."

After a break to eat lunch the pair finished their work and closed the shop to open the next day.

-----

Upon returning to the tower, Ulrich asked about the group who'd been sent into the Narrows, who had yet to return yet. He'd had a bad feeling about that particular quest. Then again, he had a bad feeling about anything involving the Stygian Blade.

Abbadon, however, went straight for the cute woman he always flirted with and always got shot down by.

"Hey there, cutie. Why aren't you out on a mission? Couldn't go without me? I understand. I am, after all, irresistable."

[OOC: @Fairess, that last line is towards Eve.]

With the last of the thugs cleaned up Malakaus shook his hands, dismissing the Stone Fist spell. He looked on over towards the stranger who, while cocky, could at least walk the walk. Her fighting style felt too flashy for Malakaus's taste, but it works. So he wasn't going to make any complaints. As she came closer Malakaus narrowed his eyes at her half-expecting her to jump at him, but instead she wanted to know if he was part of the Tower. She also wanted to state she wasn't affiliated with any of the local gangs, which only made Malakaus wonder which gang she did associate with. As for her question Malakaus guessed she was from the Tower too, considering that he only just recently joined. "Kinda yeah. I just joined them recently. Didn't expect to see one of their Knights so soon, and here of all places."

Malakaus then went about the usual business of looting these guys for cash. He didn't bother to take any of their cards, though he did toss their wallets into the local drain after he got his money's worth. Just a little something to teach them a lesson about thuggery. He got about a grand in cash and a few business cards he'll look into later. Then he gave the girl his attention again. "If you want to chat I think we ought to go somewhere with less trash laying around. I know a nice place." Malakaus left the alley and headed a few streets over to a little tea shop off the main path of the Full Moon Market. The shop wasn't really all that impressive, just setting cheap candy and canned drinks. But it had some tables where Malakaus could sit and relax. The shop was ran by a very old looking man who didn't seem particularly bothered by Malakaus's presence. The half-orc grabbed two cans and paid for them while he waited for the elf to follow. If she did. If not, than Malakaus could enjoy his Ginger Honey Green Tea alone.

Adela frowned, images of the past, unpleasant images, memories of times she’d rather forget and people she’d have been better off not knowing. Ralrisk wanted her of all people to go back to the Narrows. She knew the reasoning of course - not many in the Tower could come close to her knowledge of the rundown slums, housing projects, and overall decay that made up the Narrows, but likewise, not many had endured actual torture within their confines either.

She grimaced, letting out a resigned sigh. Babysitting duty in the Narrows. It was almost as if Ralrisk had it out for her today or something. She made a mental note to send the Mistress a lavish gift of some sort to avoid further such assignments. Assassinations she could do, information extraction she could do, strike teams she could do, and all sorts of black ops - she could do. Babysitting a team in the Narrows of all places? She could do it for sure, it was merely guaranteed to be a perfect combination of tedium, bad memories, and possible urban combat that would, if nothing else, drive her mildly insane for the duration of the op.

“I don’t suppose I can suddenly catch a cold and let someone else take over while I help clean the bathrooms?” She suggested half jokingly, “In all seriousness, I’ll do it, but I’ve gotta warn you you’re choosing one of the people who least wants to go there. How much intel can I count on?”

After a moment, she walked back into her room, inviting Ralrisk to follow her in, and began to dress herself for the assignment, slipping out of her nightclothes and into the armored undersuit that formed a part of her normal mission attire. The other parts of her armor followed shortly, ending as her helmet sealed itself into place, locking down snugly with the torso of her armor, though the visor remained open. “Right.” She looked back over at Ralrisk, “Just tell me where to meet the team.”

@Monochromatic Rainbow

Ralrisk kicked her left eyebrow up and pursed her lips slightly as she stepped into the room. There hadn’t really been a question as to if Adela was going to be reluctant on this mission it was just sort of assumed that would be the case. A plink on her PDA made her look down at it. Sentinel had cleared a cutter for clearance to land and it was flagged for her. They needed more Master’s but Ris understood the problem that Lady Calrissa was facing. They needed to clean house before they put someone in a position to do real harm and right now Ris was the only weapon Lady Silver had left in her arsenal.

Looking back up as Adela put her gear on. “Crow. And Markus. They have as much intel as we were able to pull up until now. Though you no doubt know how the Narrows are. There is no such thing as good intel coming out of there. I’ve given you the next best thing. Fire support. Kirane and Megelis are going with you. They will keep an eye on the operators and should be more than enough to put down anything that looks at you funny. I cleared you for use of one of the gunboats too if you need really heavy air support or a fast pull out. I don’t particularly want our fingerprints all over this one but if it comes down to it I’d rather have all of the Knights make it out in one piece. Don’t hesitate to reduce the block to rumble if it means getting everyone out. Crow and Ayala need to be on site to find the spirit of the corpse we yanked.”

With a heavy sigh Ris thought that maybe now was the best time to actually try and be a leader of some sort so she marshalled the nerve to say something inspirational. “I’m sorry we are sending you back into the Narrows. I know that you are not a fan of this plan. Lady Silver doesn’t have anyone else that can do this right now. Yes I’m aware that is bullshit but this place is about to fall apart at the seems and you are someone we can trust with this. I can’t count on the other captains for this.” Tapping her PDA on her wrist the Mistress of Shadows nodded. “Third floor staging area. The gunboat will drop you in a few blocks out from your target. Get in. get out. Nothing fancy.”

Turning Ris walked to the door and tugged it open. “I’m sorry I don’t have too much more time. Senechal can help with the rest of the logistics. Stay safe out there. Megelis and Crow have the majority of your team. Kirane is in one of the training rooms. You might want to go get her since I don’t know if she was paying attention to Senechal today. I don’t particularly want to have an AI project into whatever she is doing so you might want to knock.”

Stepping into the corridor Ris made a beeline for the elevator. Sentinel’s ping had been for the Clarke siblings. They had information they wanted to present to Lady Silver. It was probably best that they see her immediately.

--

@Lyla



--

Nodding at the assertion that she did not need anything else for the mission he hit the button for the floor with their staging ground on it. Crow could feel Vulture shift on his shoulder to look at the woman standing next to him. It was rather unusual for the bird to take an interest in anyone really. The fact that Vulture was taking an interest confirmed his suspicion that she was unusual in some way. Beyond simply being an incredibly rare breed of Necromancer, it had irked Crow to a certain degree when she had quite literally appeared out of thin air only to be a potentially better Veilwalker he was. After a few weeks of keeping an eye on her he’d finally given up on trying to unravel her secrets as it had seemed less important than his work at the time. Vulture’s interest however brought his own questions back to the front, though it seemed like at the time she had appeared that they had done a rather thorough investigation into who exactly she was which meant his own questions would probably on illicit similar answers.

“I guess that depends on if a reaper was sent for it. I get the suspicion that if it's still on this side of the Veil that we may have a rapidly decaying entity on or hands. If it is on the other side of the veil we may have an altogether different issue. I don’t particularly relish the thought of crossing the veil in the Narrows. There is no telling what might be waiting for us on the other side. Hopefully you can spot it on the other side without crossing the veil. I should be able to draw it back across if you can find it.”

Absentmindedly Crow brushed his hand over the small silver open base bell on his left hip. It had taken him two decades to find the item. The bell was a wedding gift to one of the legendary Princesses of the Nothern Djinn tribes from a Demon of Yishreenok who had been sent to collect her soul, or so it was said. The demon had supposedly fallen in love with the princess and refused to take her soul. When Yishreenok discovered the treachery it had forced the demon to kill the Princess’ husband. Taking the out the demon had killed the husband. After this the Princess had used the bell to call her husband’s soul back from the grave. In the end Yishreenok had won as the shade of her husband ripped out her heart in her sleep has he could not bare to see her in life without him and so claimed her in death.

The moral of the story went something like: Don’t try to cheat Death itself. What Crow had taken away was that there was a bell somewhere in the step pyramids of the Djinn which could call the dead back to this side of the veil. Once he had finished his induction into the Tower he had immediately set out to claim the powerful death magic tool. Sure enough he had found it buried with the remains of one of the great great granddaughters of the original princess. Regardless of the stories truth the bell had worked as promised and he had been employing its power for the Tower ever since. With a thoughtless flick Crow tapped its edge sending ripples of its power into the other side of the Veil around him. It was not a ring of the bell just a slight discordant note of its power. A single stone dropped carelessly on the edge of a still pond. Vulture suddenly tightened its claws on his shoulder. Bringing him back to the present Crow covered the bell, ending the ripple from it.

As the elevator came to a halt he stepped out and gestured down the hallway. “Hopefully the others are ready for us. Let's go.”

Feeling almost a guilty pride at Megelis' words, Markus nodded to each of the two men. He didn't really interact that much with this part of the Tower, given that his job was to help Sentinel defend their network, and to crack into systems and retrieve info. Most of the time he'd just send messages to the people he'd been working with.

"I'm guessing that order of yours is coming from Dino?" he asked. Then, with an idea and a grin forming simultaneously, he made an offer. "If it is, I can spam his inbox with a few special gifts. Just to dissuade him, of course."

But he was also wary of how Megelis might react to his plan, and so swiftly changed the subject. "But, I think we ought to get going, don't you? We need to rendezvous with whoever else is on the team, right? That creep from the basement's one of 'em, isn't he?"

@Rockin Strings


A coy smile immediately tugged at Eve’s lips, her head turning to get a good look at the cocky fellow. Truth be told, she didn’t really get around much outside of her lab. Rather than make her antisocial, the isolation simply made her more keen on accepting any kind of invitation, no matter how silly or lewd. She winked and was just about to say as much when--

“Hello, Abbadon. Please excuse us--we’re on our way to the Masters and can’t keep them waiting.” Adam offered Abbadon a curt nod in greeting, one of his metal arms curving around the small of Eve’s back to keep her walking.

That did not, however, stop Eve from turning to mouth words as they rushed off. ‘Call me,’ she seemed to say, spreading out her thumb and pinky and bringing one hand to her ear as if it were a phone.

---

Only a few minutes later, the siblings were walking into a conference room. It seemed they were the first to arrive, so Adam nervously fiddled with the lapels of his vest while Eve plopped into a chair. Her face turned sour as she looked about--the utterly plain and crisp room was all metal and glass, not a spec of dirt between the conference table and the large windows along the wall.

Calrisa’s steps carried her down the hallway towards the conference room. Just one more meeting in a long string of placating gestures and attempts to end the constant fires. Looking up from her dataslate the angel pinched the surface of the slate and flicked it to the left of her as she walked. Archive obliged her by projecting the information so that she could read as she walked. One of the few perks of being in charge of the Tower was that the A.I. catered to her every whim which was a small consolation given the loss of her husband.

Pausing just outside the door she took a long breath and a single slow beat to compose herself. Some days this was easy. Other days it was far harder than she had ever anticipated. Once upon a time she had been able to run around all but carefree and play the spiteful spoiled brat she still felt like at heart but now it all rested on her shoulders.

Letting the breath go Calrisa pushed the doors to the conference room open and stepped in pulling her wings tight to her back so that they didn’t brush the doors as they closed. The Siblings It had been a challenge getting to know everyone of the Knights and she had found herself having to give them nicknames just to keep up. Calrisa was not sure exactly how her husband had managed to know them all by name and keep up with their lives. No doubt it came with practice, one thing she did not have the time for.

Forcing a smile she walked to the table and settled in at it. “I’m sorry you two, the Mistress of Shadows won't be joining us so you will be stuck with just me for this. I had to have her round up a strike team, something came up early this morning.” Calrisa had briefly glanced at the report that Archive had provided her with on Adam and Eve’s work. It had something to do with the ruins of Angel’s Landing that had been built over. No doubt Christian would know exactly what to ask them given that he remember the original city, a gift of his long years. No that she wouldn’t live equally long but she had only been born in the last eight hundred years and many of them had been sheltered. “You’ll have to excuse me if I ask some uneducated questions. I only had a little time to review the report Archive gave to me. Feel free to start whenever you’re ready. Senechal, give them the rooms controls would you?” The A.I. pinged it’s assent in her ear.

‘Whenever you’re ready.”

“Of course. Thank you so much for your time, Lady Silver. I wouldn’t have asked you here if I didn't think our discovery was of the utmost importance to the rest of the Tower.” Adam finally sat down himself, taking a seat next to Lady Silver while Eve busied herself with the control interface of the table. All it took was a few seconds before Eve had pulled up their visual data, springing up all manner of images taken from Adam’s recent spelunking.

“I’ve been searching for a place known as the Seraphic Library for a few years now. There are a number of ancient texts that mention it--city records, philosophers, famous dignitaries--but actually tracing these documents back to the library have been… well. Nearly impossible for anyone over the last few decades. It’s like it just disappeared, and the fact that the city has expanded and rebuilt over itself over the two thousand or so years since hasn’t helped.” Adam offered a vague smile as he magnified one of the picture thumbnails on the table, displaying a view of the ruins he’d come across under the city.

It was strange how, even while in the middle of a conference, just the sight took him back. The scent of fresh water mixed with the musk of old moss and stone, the sewer stretching out beneath him for what felt like an impossible distance…

Adam coughed into his hand, bringing himself back to the present as he magnified the view further, displaying the high-definition take of one of the pillars. “I used the details I found to locate these ruins and found the clues I was looking for. These markings--they’re the names of the sculptors who oversaw the construction of the aqueducts… and even more importantly, the same sculptors who were said to have worked on the Seraphic Library, dating this location back to somewhere around 2,400atf.

“While I was scouting out the area, I found remnants of golden silt accumulating in one of the aqueducts. It resembles pyrite, but the cleavage and composition was unmistakably paint. When I followed the aqueduct up through a tunnel… it brought me to this.” Again, Adam selected an image and magnified it, but this time the sight was almost eerie. A massive face carved in stone shone against a harsh LED, part of its skull caved in. A hint of mossed-over gold was visible in the eyes and across the lips, the expression of the statue noble and apathetic even after so much time.

Soon after that image, Adam brought up another, this time showing what was most likely the statue’s arm, which had been detached among rubble and boulders. In its hand was a broken page, but some of the ancient text carved into it was visible.

“I don’t have the full page reconstructed, but there’s enough on it that I know exactly what passage it’s from. ‘Let no man be the hand of another’s mind. Let man, instead, guide his own hand, the imperfections of his creations the admittance of man’s own genius.’ It’s a somewhat popular phrase of the time from the philosopher Avitus, but most importantly, I know for a fact this phrase and this manner of statue were displayed just outside the Seraphic Library. I believe we have just found the outer wall of Angel’s Landing’s most ancient and potent vault. If the legends are even remotely true, the purest and oldest source of artefacts and knowledge obtained from Orieon over two thousand years ago could be right at our fingertips.”

At first Calrissa wasn’t sure if this was going to be at all interesting. Occasionally meetings like this were just the day to day efforts of the Order of Steel to be useful beyond working on the weaponry that they used to arm the Knights. Leaning forward on the table Lady Silver propped her head on her hands as they displayed the images from their exploration of the ruins beneath the city.

Absentmindedly Calrissa took one of her silver locks and twirled it around her finger as she listened to Adam explain what precisely he had been after. The words Seraphic Library perked her ears up immediately. It was a fairly common legend almost five hundred years ago but now it was largely considered to by myth. No doubt Christian could probably have said one way or another although she suspected he might have been in his infancy at the time it would have been buried.

The images were certainly a strange look backwards in time, if anything it almost made her want to go explore herself but the duties of the Tower made sure she had little time for such things. As the presentation progressed she leaned forward studying the image of the sculpture and the damaged page. Initially she had doubted that the two had found anything worth dedicating Tower resources to but it did in fact seem as though they had found something of note. In her mind she ticked off the amount of manpower they would need in order to conduct an excavation on the scale they were suggesting. Not only that but they would need equipment, beyond that they would probably need at least a few mages...frowning to herself as the thought led to the inevitable end result of: we don’t have the resources.

Something about the whole thing stoked the fires of the rebellious brat she had once been. The two had clearly done an excellent job and to add to it there was no doubt they had found something worth at least Investigating. How in the world could she managed to justify this though? Even if it was the library she knew its contents wouldn’t include a few high profile items that were on the Tower’s radar as Retrieve at all costs. Unless…

“Sentinel what clearance do the Clarke siblings have?”

The A.I. responded in its usual monotone machine tone “Level Three Lady Silversun.”

Calrissa screwed her face up in a surprised and annoyed look. “They don’t have level two clearance? Why not?”

“Adam and Eve Clarke have been flagged as Lady Ralrisk has been unable to fully validate their background. They are considered a level six threat to the Tower if exposed to Level Two information.”

Calrissa’s eyes bulged “A level Six threat, Sentinel? Are you serious? That's what we flag over zealous journalists as.”

The A.I. did not dignify the outburst with a response. Looking at the two siblings she pursed her lips in vague irritation. “This is so fucking stupid….Sentinel! Override Iota Psi. Clear both Adam and Eve Clarke for exposure to Level Two sensitive information for the purpose of conducting an investigation into the ruins of the Seraphic Library, on the authority of the Mistress of Stars.” It was a petulant thing to do since Ralrisk could be sent to clear their background but Sentinel’s tone pissed her off.

“Right.” Stretching like a cat Lady Silver looked at the two of them. “I can’t give you any manpower at all.” She paused just a moment before smiling like a cat who had caught a particularly interesting insect. “But. You can have me instead. I have a few toys that might make this a little easier.”

Both siblings blinked in surprise and shared a glance. Eve looked like she was about to burst out laughing, but reigned it in after a warning glance from Adam. Her brother was… almost cute at times like this. He was so much more eager and sincere than he realized, the energy infused into his voice as he went over his findings like an artist describing his own painting. He was, undeniably, in love with the dead remains of some other time, and the notion that one of the Tower Mistresses had taken just as much of a shining to his findings floored him.

“I… that’s… more than I could ask for, thank you.” Adam cleared his throat again, the amber glow of his eyes studying Lady Silver carefully. He’d made note of the tension in her face as she’d spoken and had started to think her reaction was leading exactly where he hadn’t wanted it to go.

Eve, however, was unfazed as she brought up lists and blueprints on the space in front of her. “Just the three of us, huh? I mean, I have some manpower in the form of Jack and Perkle, but a little more muscle wouldn’t hurt. We have plenty of room on the ship for you, too, Silver.”

Grinning now that she felt like she’d finally slipped a little of her responsibility even for a little she chuckled at Adam’s reaction. “Please I’m not half the scholar the two of you are but there is no way we could mount any sort of actual excavation of the scale you need in order to safely extricate anything and everything that is in that library assuming that you have in fact found it. This way, if you have, we should be able to handle it. If you haven’t I get to go on a field trip. No harm no foul.”

At the mention of Jack and Perkle, Calrissa shot an eyebrow and her grin widened. “Oh I have an idea of who might like to join us. Sentinel? Would you do me a favor? Wake up Cartographer and prep him for travel.” All but giggling Lady Silver raised both her eyebrows this time. “Bet you didn’t know that the Tower has another A.I. did you? And he’s field deployable.”

Tapping her fingers on the dataslate next to her she bypassed half a dozen screens in rapid succession with an increasingly lengthy series of alphanumeric codes. “I also have an idea as to how we are going to shift that much rock safely….which is why you need me..”

“I certainly couldn’t turn down assistance like that.” Adam smiled, relief relaxing his shoulders. “Again, thank you, Lady Silver.”

Eve smirked at the exchange, finally glancing up from her screen on the table. “As long as the A.I. doesn’t interfere with my Ace program. If you like A.I.’s so much, I think you’ll enjoy your stay on the Pegasus.”

“Oh Cartographer plays nice with everyone. It was originally designed to track troop movements and construct firing solutions for field artillery but Christian rebuilt his program after the second war. Now he can map just about anything as well as coordinate survey and excavation automatons. My husband planned on using him when he determined how to breach the Everwinter.” Tapping the last of her keys Calrissa stood up. “I need to go retrieve something from the Vault and change, let me know when they two of you are ready.” Standing up Calrissa started towards the door.

Pausing just before the conference room doors she looked over her shoulder through the waterfall of silver curls. “Thank you. Both of you.” With that Lady Silver pressed through the doors of the conference room heading towards the elevator.

Abbadon smiled as he watched Eve. She seemed to want to say yes. Adam, on the other hand, was getting in the way. "She wants me to call her." he smiled, glancing at Ulrich. "Did you hear that?"

"Do you have her number?" Ulrich asked, smirking.

Abbadon slapped his forehead. "Who does have her number? Except Adam. I don't think he likes me."

Ulrich facepalmed at his friend. "Why are you always flirting? Don't you want to at least get your life set up first?"

"I have my parlor. I have a steady place to live. I have two jobs. How is my life not set up?"

Ulrich opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it. With a frown and a grumble, he stomped upstairs, slamming the door to their room.

"And he's locked me out again." Abbadon frowned. With a shrug, he sauntered outside, spread his wings, and took flight.

-----

Abbadon returned a couple hours later with a sigh. Ulrich was sitting at one of the tables, drinking some ale slowly. Wordlessly, the half-dwarf held up a slip of paper for his winged friend. The other half-breed grabbed it as he passed, reading it with a smirk. He didn't have to say thanks now.

Once in the privacy of their room, Abbadon pulled out his phone and dialed Eve. He didn't know if she would answer or not but he had a message ready for her if she didn't.

Kirane finished her isotonic drink and looked at her watch. The team leader, whoever it was, still hadn’t contacted her and she was starting to worry. Had he been expelled without a notice, deemed too much of a liability? Or had she maybe missed a call?

She checked for any messages but came up empty-handed. Bizarre. Then again, from what she gathered the mission only concerned a dead man so it probably wasn’t urgent. Kirane didn’t know the first thing about necromancy but she did know that both Crow and Ayala were incredibly skilled. Whichever of them was joining her today was probably going to be centre-stage and Kirane herself merely expected to back them up.

Taking her mind off the impending task, she looked down and inspected her shirt. The bleeding had long stopped but the green colour of the fabric was doing little to hide the stains except turning them a dark blackish brown. Out of all the things that were made available to the Knights in the training facilities – from healing patches to flesh glue and even one-shot biological enhancements, one thing was remarkably absent. Zinophide, the miracle powder that drew out any stain out of any garment in seconds without even requiring water. Of course, Kirane had enough of it for half the Tower’s population in her room but she doubted she had the time to go get it. Really, someone ought to request of the higher-ups to add a few lockers to the training rooms for situations like this. But then again, would anyone else really care? ‘You’re barely breathing, you could faint in the middle of a long jog and what you’re most concerned about is your shirt? Are you really that vain?’

‘Yes. Yes, I am.’ She confessed to herself bitterly.

Maybe she could ask somebody to bring her a new top? No. Even just the thought of someone going into her room made her cringe. The only thing that could save her now was someone skilled at water magic or alchemy who could draw out stains. A certain someone popped into her mind, definitely uninvited, and made her face contort. He had no right to be hanging around her in her private time, even if he was imaginary.

But it got worse. For the in-the-flesh-Sirius had just appeared out of the Tower’s south entrance and was headed straight her way. ’I have summoned a demon.’ Kirane thought, resting her forehead on her hand.

“No need to be shy, dear, you’re hard to mistake and especially after all the time we’ve been spending together recently.” He chirped happily, taking a seat next to her. She didn’t dignify him with a response but did give him a ‘shouldn’t-you-be-somewhere-else?’ stare. Last she remembered he was headed for his favourite Chinese restaurant, so why--?

“What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were spending the day at your clinic?” He had the audacity to ask.
“A mission.”
“Oh~? Should I come with you?”
“No.” She said with more hostility than was warranted. She was still a bit frustrated at her performance earlier. Perhaps the medics were right that she shouldn’t have done it. It hadn’t killed her, of course, but it had definitely damaged her pride.
“There’s no need to prove anything to me, you know. I’ve already seen you naked.”
Kirane’s eyes snapped at him before her words cut the air. “Why do you think this is remotely appropriate?”
“Oh, it’s not appropriate. But I do enjoy seeing those expressions on your face. They’re cuter than you think.” He kept grinning shamelessly.
Yes, enjoyment. This was probably his get back for making him wear a leash the other night. She shouldn’t give him the pleasure. Just ignore him. The woman glanced at the girl behind the café counter who was politely pretending not to hear anything and closed her eyes with a deep inhale.
“Oh, you’re doing that thing, right? The famous Kyotan ‘I-can-handle-anything’ meditation technique, right? Gosh, you’re good at this. You should teach me some time.”
Kirane didn’t open her eyes but did address him. “Sirius, I don’t need your help for this. Thank you for earlier but if you could now go away and find something else to do I would be very appreciative.”
“Roger, mistress.” The man fell blissfully silent. However, not even a minute later she was attacked with the rustling of carton and the smell of sweet and sour chilly fish.

It smelled delicious. As a rule, Kirane didn’t eat immediately before a missions and today the summon had come too late for lunch to be had. So far, she had only had a piece of buttered toast. Her stomach grumbled and gave her away.
“Want some?”
“No! Excuse me! Can I have an avocado sandwich please?”

Lugen

Lugen took another drink from his beer, still holding his hand above the candle, and grinned at his opponent. "Come on now, you know you're going to lose. No one can deal with pain better than I can. Cut your losses now and save face while you still can." The other bar patron, a rather large and ugly Ogeron merely snarled in response, the huge hand only slightly wavering over his own candle. Lugen shrugged. "Not my hand that's gonna be burned to shit and near useless when you lose." Another snarl, and the hand began to shake more. Twenty-five minutes until Tower meeting. PAM informed him. Lugen chuckled he didn't want to be too late to that meeting again. "Come on now, just give up. You don't want to look like a bitch and a fool in front of your friends, do you? Not after all the talking up you did in front of them before this began." He nodded to where the Ogeron's companions were waiting, watching and talking amongst themselves.

"There's no shame in losing to a Knight of the Tower. Plenty of other idiots have died trying to prove they were better. Just give up before you damage your hand and I have to beat the shit out of all of you because you'll be angry that you lost." The hand shook more, and for the first time uncertainty crossed the Ogeron's face. Much to Lugen's disappointment, he didn't give up though, forcibly keeping his hand above the flames. Twenty minutes until Tower check up.. PAM informed him again, her emotionless voice resonating through his skull. "Look, just slide me most of the winnings and I'll pretend to give up and you can save your reputation as the toughest bastard in this shitty bar." The Ogeron hesitated, then used his free hand to slide the lion's share of the coins on the table to Lugen. Lugen grinned, sliding it into his pockets. Winking, he leapt from his seat and started shouting and shaking his hand.

"Fuck that shit! I'm not gonna burn my hand like some fucking Unvaris cleric just for some fucking coins! Elsindar's flaming cock, I don't need money that bad!" Still muttering curses and shaking his hand, Lugen exited the bar and started making his way towards the Tower, as PAM droned once more in his ear, If you continue at your current pace, you will reach the meeting 4 minutes after it ended. "That's fine!" Lugen replied cheerfully, whistling a tune. "Come along Scruffy, you annoying animal." The creature huffed in irritation, it's small feet scurrying as it followed.



Miriam sighed as she turned off the simulator. She had been at it for three hours, running against the AI in a squad simulation. She had set it to the hardest difficulty and refused to leave until she had beaten it. It was not like she had anything better to do. There were no missions to go on, and she didn't have much of a social life with the other inhabitants of the Tower. Being a public worshiper of Overack and a well known ex-Blade didn't exactly endear her to the rest of the Tower, exemplary record of missions or no. It was also why she wore her armor and sword with her, even when walking in the Tower. She didn't want to run the risk that someone would attack her, and had ben forced to deter others early on through her fire magic. Thus she didn't make any overtures to make any real connections in the Tower. Most would scorn her at best and attack her at worst.

She left the simulation room, icily ignoring the looks she got as she finally left. Walking her way towards what the cafeteria, she idly wondered if she had enough coin left to by more paint or another book. It seemed like that was what she'd be doing for the rest of the week, at least until she was given another mission to occupy her time. Overack bless me with a mission to save me from this tedium. She idly prayed, hoping it would work.

“Level two clearance and greenlighted on our expedition—we just hit the day running, huh?” Eve managed to swagger even while sitting, yanking out her thumb drive from the table with a confident twist before standing up.

Adam, as was expected, barely heard her, his chin cupped in his hand as he stared at the door Lady Silver had just left through. “It's all happening so fast... do you really think she expects us to be able to leave by today?”

“We are the Wonder Twins. If the impossible wasn't expected of us on a daily basis, we wouldn't be members of the Tower, would we?”

Adam shook his head, turning toward her with a sigh. “I still can't get over how enthused she was. It's like she's been a closet archeologist this whole time. Eager, though I'm somewhat concerned about her experience, asking us to leave so suddenly...”

“Oh, stop all the worrying and get working! We're leaving today, remember?” Eve slapped her hand against Adam's shoulder, her wince somehow managing to twist into a smile. “I've already had Ace analyzing what supplies we'll need for more spelunking out there. The grav scaffolding needs new wiring in a few places and the solar sails need their monthly maintenance, but I can handle that in a few hours.”

Adam nodded, absentmindedly following his sister out of the conference room. “The food and auxiliary fuel stores should be fine, but our new guest... well. We can't have her sleeping in a bunkbed. We'll have to rearrange the first-level quarters so they're comfortable for Lady Silver.”

“Just add it to Ace's list! He'll take care of everything. You should focus on getting your notes together or something.” Eve grinned, starting to feel some of the excitement rub off on her, too. She was about to mention more they should consider for the expedition, but her phone suddenly started to vibrate and display an unknown number.

Without a second thought (and to Adam's mild annoyance), she accepted the call and brought the phone to her face. “Thank you for reaching Tower Garbage Compaction. How can we assist you?”

Ayala raised an eyebrow as the man explained the situation and let out a quick, "huh.." Since she had come to the tower, a lot of people were aware she had lost her memory - at least those that cared to even learn a little bit of her. So a lot of things she was able to do, she never had names for or a true understanding. However Crow seemed to fully understand the function of necromancy and she quietly wondered if it would be wise to learn from him. Besides, there was something about that bird on his shoulder to made her feel.. familiar. ".. thank you.." she explained before they got off the elevator, quickly following after. "I didn't realize that was what I was doing - seeing beyond the viel. Unless seeing spirits everywhere is normal for necromancers." She paused dramatically, though only to ponder for a moment. "... also curious if my spirit form is just that - crossing the viel? I'm.. not sure.. either way.." At the end of it, she shrugged. She didn't want to grab at straws that were incorrect and be thought of as uneducated or stupid, but truth be told, Crow most definitely knew much more than she did in spite of her skill.

"Is that the tool used to pull them across though?" she asked causally, gesturing to the bell the man was fiddling with in the elevator. "Certainly has a feeling of necromantic magic anyways." Ayala quickly wondered if that was also normal or not, whether other knights could sense magic. She supposed his reaction would tell her what she wanted to know either way.

So he was apart of the Tower already, meaning they were comrades at least. Maybe one day they`d work on a mission together. It certainly was possible. He was new so there was no doubt he was a knight unless he seriously had impressed someone up there. In her experience the tower wasn`t much one for just handing out ranks however. They took how good you are, an how you could benefit them, on a very serious level after all. He seemed serious, and his abilities certainly were skilled. There was no doubt in her mind he could climb the ranks if he tried.

"Ehh I`m not a knight anymore, I found that position didn`t really fit well. It can be a rather group activity. Plus you`ll find the tower is everywhere, especially in the cities and towns closest to it." Crimson commented as she watched him pick pocket all of them, she wouldn`t judge. She killed and/or hunted people for a living, there really wasn`t much room to judge. With a simple nod of her head she followed him out of the alley of meanies to somewhere he`d deem better.

Which turned out to be a quaint tea place.

The elf simply watched him as he paid for the drinks before following him to a table where she sat down and looked around the shop. Her gaze turned to look him in the eyes with her pale blue ones. The vibrant colors she had naturally certainly stuck out in this city didn`t it. This is what most likely made black all the more appealing in her line of work. In the tower she wouldn`t be in her current get up though that was for sure. Wearing black all the time, not to mention purposely using her sex appeal to her advantage in the field, wasn`t her real choice. Wearing a nice dress that wasn`t black was nice at times.

"So what brings you to becoming a Knight of the Tower? Not the kind of place most people find themselves wanting to be, more ending up in now a days."

---

"Guess that makes me special then. All I did was walk in the front door and ask if I could join."

Malakaus took a long sip from his can, letting out a satisfied breath as he finished half of it in one gulp. That old man made some good tea. Malakaus glanced up to the girl in front of him and sized her a bit. Just something of a habit he's formed running the gangs back at Krumpus Bay. Obvious features that stood out were her ears, eyes, and hair. She had pointed ears as sharp as knives, making her elvish heritage about as obvious as an eclipse. If the ears didn't show it than her eyes certainly did. Malakaus has seem plenty of blue eyes before, but only elves have them in such a deep yet notable gleam. They were kinda of like the sky on a sunny day: obvious and omnipresent. The eyes of a spy in plain sight. And her hair... Well it was red. Red, long, and kinda poofy. Malakaus could count the amount of redheads he's met on one hand, so this girl would certainly be on his mind.

But there was more to her than a pretty face. He didn't get to watch her fight due to his own issues at the time, but from what he saw he knew she wasn't just a street fighter. Her moves were far too graceful and flashy. A martial artist perhaps, but he's seen martial artist. Even the fancy ones had moves with plain, practical applications, just spiced up a bit. Hers was more like a dance, an art. The stuff of assassins. Malakaus didn't know what was with assassins and being so showy in a fight. He supposed he should be grateful, if more assassins were basic and straightforward they'd kill him already. A bullet in his head from a hundred yards off, and no amount of magic or muscle could stop that. Still, as odd as he found her fighting style, there was no denying that she was good at what she did. It made him wonder how he'd fare in a fight against her. Whether she was one of those "Thrill of the hunt/It's an art" type of assassin or "Complete the mission" type. Seeing her fight wasn't enough for him to judge that.

And of course she was part of the Tower. He wasn't sure if she was just shilling for the Tower or if Malakaus was that ignorant, because he only heard about the Tower of Star and it's knights in passing. Then again, much like the Goroshi Family, perhaps the Tower of Stars simply make sure they don't make a reputation. Fame and the fortune is bring might be enticing for a short-minded soldier of fortune, but when you're a multi-million dollar organization playing ball with the big boys, you need to watch your every step. All it takes is a single crack to break everything apart.

So in the span of about five seconds Malakaus finished his analysis and spoke again. "I figured that joining the Knights would be a nice change of pace. Put my muscles to better use than getting into brawls and stuff. I wish I could say I had a noble reason like protecting the innocent or something, but I'm mostly just looking for a better way to make use of myself. All I'm good for is fighting so I figured I'd go find someone who needs a fighter." Malakaus secretly hoped that this lady didn't know about his magical abilities. He'd like to keep the image of just being a big dumb fighter to lower people's guards. It's how he survived the mage guild after all; even after the others knew he was a student, they expected him to pick up a stick or conjure up an axe and charge at them. They never see the golems coming. "So if you ain't a knight, what are you? In fact, who are you? I don't think I've gotten your name. And I know you've already gotten mine."

---

"Oh! How rude of me!" Crimson said with a sheepish smile. "I`m Crimson Sparrow," she reached her hand for a hand shake whether he took it or not she returned it back to the canned drink to take a sip of it. "As for my rank, the official title is Paladin of Sight, fancier terms for an assassin at it`s most basic elements. Paladins in the tower hold the same kind of power as a Knight Captain. We just are more specialized in our fields. For me that means I get to work solo or with only a few other people, the way I prefer it if I`m being honest."

The elf half-breed let out a bit of a laugh as her features curved into an amused smirk. "Ironically I think I`ve held the title about as long as you`ve been alive." This year would mark her 40th year with the tower. It seemed like only a short time ago she joined them and now she was 40 years in. It was strange how that was but a bat of her eyelashes, while to other races it was half a lifetime. Crimson held no doubt that eventually her years would start showing. She was half human after all. The only bad part of it is that she really didn`t have anyone to base her lifespan on.

He was a strong fellow, but he wanted to be known for his brute strength. Apparently he didn`t understand that she`d seen his little magic show. He wasn`t just a mass of muscle. Inside that head of his was a brain. Magic did not come to idiots. Now that being said there were magic users that lacked decent common sense, but idiots they were not. "I am much the same in reason to join the tower. There is no place for me to belong, so why not belong to them."

Crimson was playing off everything very witty and nonchalant, but the way she joined the tower was anything but a walk in the park. 40 years ago many people lost their lives, blood was everywhere, the only sound was that of which her body barely made. If the people of the tower had found her any later she`d probably have taken her last breath a very long time ago. One day it`d all come to light, what happened, how she survived the massacre. For now she`d keep it to herself and play it off like it was nothing. That joining the tower was something she did on a whim.

"I`m sorry I know so much about you but you do not about me. In your file I saw you happen to be half human. I too am apart of that strange little club."

---

Malakaus shrugged his shoulders about her comment about being a paladin for as long as he was alive. He's frankly gotten used to meeting people 100+ years old with the same youth and vigor as himself. He stopped trying to wrap his mind around how they could act so... Immature for their relative age. Easier on his head. Still how the long-lived could just see ten to twenty years as a breeze did still boggle his mind. While his youth was naught but a memory in his mind, Malakaus could hardly handle sitting around for an ten minutes, let along for ten years. Again though, some of these conundrums were best left to more philosophical minds. Less headaches for him.

Still, it was comforting to know that Crimson's reasons for joining the knights were not dissimilar to his own. He had actually worried for a while that his less-than-noble intentions would make him seem like a ruffian among more honorable or highborn members of this guild. But to hear that they employ assassins also made Malakaus wonder just what sort of an organization he's joined. He figured them to be a fighter's guild of sorts. Evidently there was more to them than what the brochure showed him. Finishing off his tea Malakaus smirked.

"Tis fine. I suppose I ought to be flattered that anyone would want to bother knowing who I am. Half-Orc you know, most just make their own assumptions." Malakaus was still uncertain just how much about him Crimson knew. He could understand if she knew he was a new recruit to the Knights, and possibly his time with the Mage's Guild, but he wondered if she knew anything about the Goroshi family. They were still a bit of a sore point for Malakaus, mainly since he hasn't really been keeping the best tabs on them as he should've. He's only spoken to his friends back at Krumpus Bay, none of whom are particularly involved in the Goroshi family's business. It concerned Malakaus because he didn't know how his family was doing, and more importantly, if they needed his help. "But I'd say we solve that little problem about what I don't know about you. Crimson Sparrow, yes? If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your skills from? You're certainly no brawler. And I don't imagine that the knights would've trained you to be an assassin if you didn't already have the skills to show for it."

---

A real question, one that dug into her past, something she didn`t really like to discuss. The past was full of hardships and fighting. There would always be the happy memories that she would keep with her. They still didn`t change the bad ones she left behind her. The clan`s state was up in the air, she had yet to go back to check them out nor had she asked about them. In the back of her mind Crimson wondered who would be the next leader. She had a feeling she knew who it`d be.

"No, you`re right. They didn`t train me at the Tower, I was trained in the arts long before ever joining. In my earlier youth my training in the arts of combat was started in the elven clan I was raised in. We often had fights over territory and foul play wasn`t uncommon. As a child you had to learn to protect yourself or you may ended up captured in a cage somewhere. The assassination parts of my training were half self-taught and half learned by one of my instructors. That didn`t come till much later when things got a lot rougher."

The instructor that taught her assassination tactics wasn`t supposed to teach such methods, but Crimson was young and ambitious. As she grew up she loved dancing and combat is a dance in itself. Assassination tactics are a deadly dance. The thrill of combat had never ceased, but her craving to be in it had. Two hundred years is a long time to think and understand the world. She doesn`t agree that the world is a bad place. It has it`s beauties just as it has it`s flaws. The only thing bad about it truly are the situations in which bad things breed and spread.

"Where did you learn your art of combat? I know you`re from Krumpus Bay, but I didn`t dig too far past that as it were."

---

"I learned how to fight by fighting."

Malkai wasn't sure how privy Crimson was about his upbringing, so Malakaus will be as honest as he could. But he wouldn't tell her anything she didn't need to know. "I lived in a pretty ghetto place. My folks were well off enough that we could afford a nice place to live, but unless I was a shut in I'd end up tangling with gangbangers and thugs anyways. Making friends just meant I had more guys at my back to face bigger mobs and well... Long story short I pretty much grew up fighting." Malakaus put some money on the table and the old man came out with two more cans for Malakaus and Crimson.

"I left Krumpus Bay to get away from that life. Try to make something of myself. I still got friends there fighting, an I wish one day I could go back. But... it's a shame really. Krumpus Bay's got character. Got culture, and wealth. All sorts of style and people call it home. As a port, lots of trade goods coming through too. Exotic stuff you just can't get around here, exotic people you won't meet anywhere else. Everyone wants to call it home... Most don't want to share though." Sighing Malakaus popped a cold one and took a long sip, finishing his can of tea in one go.

"Anyways. I think I've gabbed enough. You busy right now Crimson?"

---

"Sounds like an interesting place to live, very different compared to where I grew up I must say." The crimson haired elf commented as she opened and drank a little of the second tea. "To be honest I was out on the town exploring, in the mornings I often do so when they aren`t using me for something. Living in the tower you can explore everything and know it like the back of your hands but living things are always interesting. Every once in awhile you`ll find a person that truly amazes you by their uniqueness."

She stretched her arms above her head as she leaned back in the chair before pushing back from the table. Standing to full height she looked down at him. "I actually should be on my way back to the Tower. They get a bit squirmy if you go without communication for awhile."

A sudden thought occurred to her. This man was a knight now. Had he been to the Tower and received room and board yet? Did he just arrive here? There were questions she didn`t quite get too nor realize till this moment. While she was intelligent sometimes she could be rather clueless on normal social ques. Wait, maybe that was why she was clueless on them, the long life of intelligence and learning has made her overthink her surroundings and social interactions had become overly thought out and complex! These were definitely thoughts for the middle of the night and not now. This was a strange amount of time to stand here and say absolutely nothing.

Crimson cleared her throat a bit awkwardly before leaning over the table with an easy smirk blossoming on her pale features. "Would you like to accompany me back Malakaus? You are apart of us now after all. We may not be your family and friends back home but I`d say the Tower is still full of colorful individuals."

---

"Sounds like a plan. Better than what I had in mind anyways. Lead the way, Crimson." Malakaus stood up and threw away their trash, leaving a tip for the old man and gesturing for Crimson to take point.

Megelis looked down at his PDA as he led his group out into the staging ground. It was a message from Ralrisk. A typically passive aggressive one but it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Lady Solver had changed the mission lead. It was an ex stygia officer. One of the few others of her kind within the Tower one of Shards decisions in an attempt to make amends with the people who he’d killed by the thousands. At Least that was how Megelis saw it. There was little way for him to really speculate but the wounds of the wars still scarred the land decades after they were over. Perhaps The Master of Stars had done what he’d done for other reasons but they were a step above his pay grade.

Ralrisk was off to get their new Captain for the mission which meant that he was off to find Kirane. Turning to the others he pointed. “Wait here. I have to go take care of something I will be right back. Also If you call Crow a creep to his face, he Might actually just rip your soul out and feed it to his bird. I've seen him do it before. Its not pretty” It was all bullshit of course but Crow was the kind of person that might surprise him one day by actually doing what he'd just described. Turning he started for the elevators again.

“Sentinel? Would you bring up my armor? I think the Mercury Mark IV Autogun is an appropriate armament. I'll need the firepower.”

With that Megelis made his mere moments before Crow and Ayala stepped off their elevator.

@CollectorOfMyst@ChickenTeriyaki

---

Crow held the elevator for Ayala while she stuffed out. “It is. My understanding is that it is unique. Though it certainly reminds me of a spirit lure. It compels spirits across the Veil. Less….nice than its counterparts.” shifting his shoulder Vulture ruffled it's feathers before finally taking it's eyes off Ayala. It was becoming rapidly clear that Ayala was fully talent and little knowledge. It was very unusual given that she was so very talented from what little he actually knew about her.

At the question about seeing spirits constantly Crow furrowed his brow. It wasn't usual in the slightest but it suggested that she was either unaware or incapable of closing off her spirit sight. That or she was part of the way IN the spirit realm pretty much constantly. Crow had never once encountered someone like that but then again he had seen the recordings of Master Pavaine. Even he had been unsettled by the footage of the Master of Sight raising siege engines and ships, castle ramparts, whole villages. The Avatar had been a master of all the paths and his capacity to raise the corpses of dead buildings and engines of war was legendary.

The next comment was equally surprising. “Its unusual to see spirits constantly and I've never heard of one completely converting their physical form into a spirit form. Crossing the Veil is mostly an exercise in encasing your form in spirit magic and then moving across.”

she doesn't recognize a Reaper?

Crow flicked his eyes to Vulture. ”I don't think you really count”

”Is what she talking about typical for a Veilwalker?”

Vulture astutely avoided eyeing Ayala again. It's not impossible.

”Strange”

Agreed

The whole exchange lasted but a few seconds but as it finished they both looked at Ayala. Crow simply volunteered “Those are an unusual set of gifts.” with that he lead Ayala out into the staging ground where the others were already waiting for them.

@Lyla

---

Ralrisk steps carried her down the hallway towards the mess. She had been rerouted on her way to a meeting about some ruins discovered under the city. Not exactly her speed but Lady Silver had told her that she’d changed the lead for the mission to Miriam. It was an odd choice but Miriam had comparable experience to Adela and she was ex stygian.

Walking in the doors of the mess Ralrisk huffed a sigh. There were already plenty of Knights eating breakfast and she was not in the mood to sift through them. Tapping her PDA she called up her roster and located Miriam on the list. Tapping the name she fired off a simple ping:

Your presence is requested outside the mess. Lady Silver has requested your lead on a mission. I'll brief you when you arrive. Your team is on standby in the tier three staging ground. Wheels up in fourth five minutes. You're being sent to the Narrows.

Tapping g her PDA one more time Ralrisk stepped back into the hallway to wait. Today was already turning into a mess...little did she know.

@Rtron

---

With light steps Calrissa was carried deeper into the Tower. She’d had to reassign Adela. Ralrisk has made a good call in terms of her experience but Lady Silver didn’t want her going back into the Narrows so soon. Best to just keep her here, let her adjust more and let Miriam handle it. Not that Calrissa really trusted Miriam but, she was predictable. Hopefully the mission went off without a hitch. In the meantime she needed the last of her things.

The first stop after talking with the Clarke children had been a change of clothes. Instead of her usual business clothes she’d switched into something out of an adventure novel from a hundred years ago. The tank top and cargo pants felt appropriate for what she was up to: treasure hunting. Stepping off of the elevator she had hopped on to descend to the Tower’s ground floor Calrissa made a beeline directly for the center of the Tower. After more walking she finally approached a set of heavy double doors. At her approach Sentinel disabled their locks and the might doors swung open. Within the heart and bowels of the Tower were systems and storage for all manner of things. Crossing the floor of the Forge, Lady Calrissa wove in between some of the most sophisticated fabrication equipment in the whole world all of which surrounded the heart of the Forge. It was a Mage furnace of titanic proportions and had served to produce the Tower’s most powerful weapons since its creation. Supposedly it had been the Forge of Westhaven, brought back to life by Thomas Paviane himself.

Stepping into the elevator on the other side of the Forge Lady Calrissa didn’t bother hitting any buttons for their were none. “Reliquary. Tier Nine, authorization: Mistress of Stars.” The elevator descended swiftly into the depths of the earth below the Tower. Few Knights knew about the network of rooms beneath the Tower. Many of them composed the Tower’s safest places containing relics, artifacts and other things of note. The rest had largely been the purview of Urthar and the Order of Sight during the last Stygian War. Christian had needed a place to confine Urthar’s dangerous experiments. Even then Calrissa had never really plumbed the depths of the Tower’s lower basements, it was probably for the best. At Least for now.

When the elevators doors slid open again Calrissa was confronted by a series of massive circular vault doors which slowly unlocked and opened for her. The idea behind the vault had been that anyone who could get into the Reliquary was going to require the personal attention of one of the Tower’s more powerful inhabitants so the vaults were designed to slow down anyone attempting to get into them. Which was why many of the Artifacts had their own vaults.

As the final door opened before her Calrissa stepped into a room with a single object sitting on a waist height pedestal. Crossing the room which might actually have enough firepower built in it to harm her, Lady Calrissa reached out and picked up the object. It was a golden disk slightly larger than the center of her palm. A series of round holes marked its surface, taking the disk in one hand Calrissa stuck the fingers of her right hand into the disk twisting it slightly as she did it.

With the motion the disk shifted and a series of smaller internal disks extended from the center of the original disk. Looking at the series of other gear like rings which now hovered in air above the disk made her head hurt. The way her husband had explained it had also made her head hurt but the gist of it was that the rings were infinitely concentric and the initial outer ring could be used to select any of the infinite inner circles. The reason it had hurt her head was that it seemed to suggest that the way the world understood physics even in this enlightened age was fundamentally flawed as it seemed to suggest that space and matter were on a certain level infinitely divisible. Calrissa did her best not to contemplate the reality warping nature of the object. It was frightening enough that it even existed. And it was just one of six such objects. She couldn’t even begin to fathom how her husband carried such a weapon with him constantly.

Twisting the disk Calrissa stuck it in the belt she was wearing. Best not to use it until they were on sight. Using the Architect always made Calrissa sick, supposedly if she continued to use it regularly she would build up a resistance to its effects but she wasn’t sure she ever wanted such a thing.

Shivering Calrissa exited the vault and made her way up to the landing platform where the Siblings had docked their personal craft. In the process she stopped to collect the field deployment unit for Cartographer. This outing was going to be interesting to say the least.

@Fairess

...continued from A Job To Do

---

For months, Nathan had not been able to fulfill his duty as an officer of the Tower.

He spent his days tinkering with numerous gizmos in his office. The 3D printer the higher-ups provided him with was more than enough, as he used it to create various weapons. The only person who really kept him company was his ever-as-annoying workmate Michael, who visibly also had nothing to do. He would have more cabinets installed into his office and buy more boxes to store his weapons in. Soon enough, he would become a one-man weapon factory.

He had only been able to secure a proper mission right now. Whoever Megelis was, he saw him as a savior of sorts. All he had to do was to protect some scrawny kid who had a profound expertise in coding. Nathan saw this as an opportunity to unload his arsenal. A large and bulky bag resembling a sports duffel hung from his shoulder, containing many instruments of destruction.

Yes, instruments of destruction. What other way would there be to put it?

Nathan whistled in a long and high-pitched manner. Another data screen appeared on the interface of his helmet.

"Are you there, Archive? I'd ask a favor from you."
ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ɴᴀᴛʜᴀɴ. ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ғᴀɪʟ ᴛᴏ ʙᴜɢ ᴍᴇ. ɪ ᴀᴘᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴀᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ.
"All right, please provide me with info on my companions. You have access to my visor, right? I blew quite a large amount of money on that."
ᴀʟʟ ʀɪɢʜᴛ.

Senechal began to scan the individuals that Nathan looked at. Megelis was first in line.

ᴍᴇɢᴇʟɪs ᴀʟᴛᴏʀɪs, ᴋɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴇxᴇᴍᴘʟᴀʀ. ʜᴇ ɪs ᴡᴇʟʟ-ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ғᴏʀ ʜɪs ɪɴᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴛᴏ ᴀɢᴇ. ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ, ʜᴇ ɪs 150 ʏᴇᴀʀs ᴏʟᴅ.
"Considering that, he must have tons of experience. I'm also considering the fact that he isn't exactly immortal, of course."
ɪɴᴅᴇᴇᴅ. ʜᴇ ʜᴀs ʙᴇᴇɴ sᴇʀᴠɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴡᴇʀ sɪɴᴄᴇ ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs 19 ʏᴇᴀʀs ᴏʟᴅ.
"Wow, that's one hell of a record. Hey Archive, could you scan that other kid for me?"

Nathan turned towards Markus. Archive immediately began to rack up important data, and within seconds, he (the AI had identified itself as a male) had prepared a comprehensive report.

ᴍᴀʀᴋᴜs ᴊᴏʀᴅᴀɴ, ᴀʀᴛɪsᴀɴ. ʜᴇ ɢᴏᴇs ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘsᴇᴜᴅᴏɴʏᴍ ᴏғ ʙʟᴜ_ᴅʀᴀɢ0ɴ.
"Reminds me of the cafe I used to go to back then. I loved the pancakes there. How'd he get hired?"
ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴀʙʟᴇ ᴛᴏ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴀ ʜɪɢʜ-sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ ᴅᴀᴛᴀ sʏsᴛᴇᴍ. ᴏғ ᴄᴏᴜʀsᴇ, ʜᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴄᴀᴜɢʜᴛ. ғᴏʀᴛᴜɴᴀᴛᴇʟʏ ғᴏʀ ʜɪᴍ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴡᴇʀ ʀᴇᴄᴏɢɴɪᴢᴇᴅ ʜɪs sᴋɪʟʟs ᴀɴᴅ ɢᴀᴠᴇ ʜɪᴍ ʜɪs ᴘᴏsɪᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀs ᴀʀᴛɪsᴀɴ.
"That's rad. I doubt he has any experience with weapons, though."
ɴᴀᴛʜᴀɴ, ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʜɪᴍ ᴀʀᴇ ᴜsᴜᴀʟʟʏ ғɪʟʟᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇs. ʜᴇ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ɢᴜɴ ʜɪᴅᴅᴇɴ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ ʜɪs ᴊᴀᴄᴋᴇᴛ, ᴏʀ ᴀᴛ ʟᴇᴀsᴛ ᴄᴏᴘɪᴏᴜs ᴀᴍᴏᴜɴᴛs ᴏғ ᴛᴇᴀʀ ɢᴀs.
"Right."
ɪɴ ғᴀᴄᴛ, ɪ'ᴍ ᴅᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛɪɴɢ ᴀ ᴜɴɪǫᴜᴇ sɪɢɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ғʀᴏᴍ ʜɪᴍ. ᴡᴇ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴʏ.
"Company?"
ʜᴇ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʙᴇ ᴜᴛɪʟɪᴢɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴅɪsᴛɪɴᴄᴛ ᴀɪ ᴘᴀᴛᴄʜ. ɢɪᴠᴇɴ ᴛʜᴀᴛ, ʜᴇ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴀʟᴇʀᴛᴇᴅ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ǫᴜɪᴄᴋ sᴄᴀɴ ᴀʟʀᴇᴀᴅʏ.
"Damn. All right, scan finished. Go back to work."

The kid had programmed his own artificial intelligence. Nathan wanted one of those. He didn't actually like to bother the Tower's own AI systems just for personal information. Markus began to speak:

"I'm guessing that order of yours is coming from Dino? If it is, I can spam his inbox with a few special gifts. Just to dissuade him, of course."

Nathan was surprised. This kid had guts. He admired the kind of person that had guts.

"That would be an absolutely terrific idea, but no. Dino ain't the real problem here. The real concern is your safety."

He put a hand on Markus' shoulder. Such a brave person needed more than a pat on the back.

"Are you armed and ready?"

"Are you armed and ready?"

Markus flashed a small smile at the man, before switching his visor's 'channel' from observation to targeting. Several small targets appeared on Nathan's body, letting Markus know where to aim to get weak spots or vitals. Of course, Nathan couldn't see them.

"It might not be tear gas, but what weapons I have should do." he said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Thanks for the tipoff, Archive. By-the-by, Zoe wanted a chat."
ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ, ᴍᴀʀᴋᴜs. ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ ʜᴇʀ.

Putting his hand over Nathan's, he glanced at the older man. "A word of advice - don't try to run secret scans on the guy who updates the A.I.s Virus protection programs. Since you aren't familiar with my trade, I'll just inform you that malware is sort of my deal."

Then, walking towards where Megelis had disappeared, he began watching the corridor for the swordsman's return. He had no idea when Megelis would come back, but the sooner he did the better. Less time for Markus' social anxieties to kick in.

"Besides, I'm not meant to be fighting on this mission. I've got no magic and I'm not exactly 'combat-trained'. The reason I'm more valuable, as Megelis put it, is because I'm a hacker. Which you know, now. And I'll be trying to hack into video logs, computers, maybe even a couple of doors. You're supposed to protect me while I and whoever else might be on this mission get as much info as we can."

Turning around to face Nathan and Michael again, he decided that was enough monologuing for now. "But, enough about me. Since you know how I got hired, how did the two of you end up here? I doubt that it was the same way I got in, that's for sure.

Stopping outside of the room that Senechal had indicated Kirane was practicing in Megelis paused considering the past course of action. With a careful rap on the door he waited politely for a moment.

“Miss Kirane. It is Megelis. I've been asked to collect you. We had a captain change. Adela will not be heading point on this one. May I come in?” Resting his left hand in the double swords on his left hip Megelis waited patiently for Kirane. He didn't know too much about her but he did know she could be trusted. The few missions they had been on together told him that she was very capable. Beyond any rumors that she was just here because of her mother. Megelis hoped the newer rumors weren't true about her having medical issues. Either way, she was up and the two of them were looking like the only real firepower.

It was a rather interesting position to be in given that they were walking into a rather dangerous part of the Angel’s Landing. Lady Silver knew what she was doing though, at least he hoped that was the case. Kirane was a melee weapon specialist like himself but given the current mission roster Megelis suspected that he was going to be running fire support more than anything else if they actually ran into anyone.

The training rooms were intended for just that but….

But when encountered with Sirius Dylan one often gets the urge to look for an emergency escape. It may have looked a bit rude to the waitress in the café – and it certainly was rude to the cleaners – but Kirane couldn’t help herself and brought her breakfast over as soon as she received it.

The knock on the door startled her and she hurried to shove the last remaining bite in her mouth before she shook the crumbs off and opened the door. “Mr Altoris?” Her eyebrows arched in slight surprise, two things becoming instantly clear. One, Lady Silver also anticipated trouble and two, their chances of succeeding went up a notch. Kirane felt a twinge of relief. Megelis was a good fighter and a considerate team-player with significantly better interpersonal skills than herself. They made an efficient combination which promised a smooth execution.

“Of course you can come in, though I myself am ready to go as soon as everyone else is ready.” She stepped away to let him in. Did she sound overeager? Hopefully not. “Captain Láska isn’t leading?” She asked. It wasn’t like her to take second place. “Do we have a two captains for this one? Or none?”

“One.” Megelis stepped into the room and then closed door behind him. “Captain Lanthan. I don’t know where Captain Láska has been reassigned though if I’m being transparent I didn’t ask.” The ex-soldier hadn’t made up his mind about Miriam but he was fairly certain her power at any cost ideas were generally bad for those she worked directly above.

Standingly slightly uncomfortably right inside the room he realized that he was at least a little worried that the rumors about Kirane’s health were true but Lady Silver wouldn’t be sending her in if she weren’t capable. The two of them had done their fair share of missions together and they went well. Points for Kirane but he still couldn’t shake his fear that she might be compromised. Leave it be, she’ll be fine. There was no use worrying about it.

“Do you need anything else before we go? I think basically the rest of the team is in the staging area. We are taking Crow and Markus in to do a retrieval and hopefully you and I get to be bored the entire time.” Chuckling he felt some of his awkwardness finally fade. This was going to be just fine.

Captain Lanthan? That was also a surprise but a welcome one. The woman was one of the captains Kirane could relate to and one she admired despite never having worked with her personally. The woman’s calm was at least as notorious as her skill – something that would be valuable in a chaotic place like the Narrows. The other two members she was already aware of and finally, with the brief explanation the puzzle clicked together. Two to do the actual work, two for backup and one making sure they don’t descend into chaos. The chances of that happening were unlikely with this set of people – although Crow and Markus both spent way too much time on their respective “desks”, she couldn’t imagine any of them disregarding orders or running off carelessly. In a relatively tight formation things should be perfectly fine.

However, at Megelis’ last remark Kirane’s eyebrow twitched and she had to avert her eyes. Was he trying to be nice? Or had Lady Silver or Captain Lanthan decided not to expose her condition? Sure, they were short staffed but wasn’t this putting her team at risk? But if she spoke up, would that create panic or undermine her superiors’ authority?

No. She was overthinking it. Nothing bad would happen. “Yes, let’s hope we will be.” She forced a smile, meeting his eyes again. “I’m ready to go. I’m sorry you had to explicitly come to pick me up – I’ve been experiencing problems with my communication devices since this morning. Hopefully it won’t interfere with the mission. Do you know what we’re retrieving? By our party’s composition I assume it is either electronic or dead.” She said, checking the twin scabbards and her holster again while she spoke.

“Both actually. Crow is supposed to collect the spirit of the corpse laying in his lab at this moment and Markus is supposed to collect the street side data from whatever cameras were in the area.” What was that reaction? Brushing it aside as more overthinking Megelis nodded at her assertion that she was ready. With the group as small as it was there was always the risk of running into a bigger group of Stygian supporters in the Narrows but given that Sentinel should be fetching the heavier side of his arsenal for this one it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

“I hope you don’t mind me putting up in front. I just figured that with the others we have with us I might be better off providing some heavier firepower. I think Crow can take care of himself but Markus I might [i]actually have to pick up and physically carry if we need to make a clean escape and I wanted options” That and as far as he knew Kirane was strictly a close quarters operator which was dying breed in this day and age though many still maintained their abilities in melee combat. It was generally considered poor practice for Knight operators to Not be capable in close quarters with at least a single weapon. Turned out not many people cared if you could shoot though it lead to most of the knights being okay at both.

“Well if that is everything we should get going. Opening the door he held it for her. Staging area three.” He waited politely for his partner for the mission.

“Markus has to be physically present?” Kirane asked, musing out loud. For a hacker to have to leave his ‘office’ in order to get information struck her as abnormal… and worrying, given where they were going. The Narrows was no walk in the park. She could only hope Markus knew what he was getting himself into. Crow.. well, from what she knew of him, death was not his biggest worry. “I suppose a random hijacking may be a more subtle approach in the Narrows than a highly skilled hacking… Lady Silver must consider this death very significant.” Truth be told, Kirane didn’t know who the victim was or even how he died. It wouldn’t mean much to her anyway as her knowledge covered almost exclusively non-Tower individuals.

She picked up her jacket and exited the room, appreciating Megelis’ gesture. “And no, of course I don’t mind you being the lead. I think it’s better this way. I haven’t been in top shape recently. Let us hope both our skills will be irrelevant for this but should they be needed I am not letting anyone lay a hand on our valued outlaw.” She smiled. “Or anyone else for that matter.”

Ralrisk sat with her legs dangling over the balcony of the main shaft that ran the length of the middle of the tower. Beneath her all that was the Tower of Stars unfolded, she was the daughter of the Shadows and they hid nothing from her. Every movement, every person, every act. With a single touch she could vanish into them, swallowed up by a murky world that was the single gift she had ever received from her father and the other Elemental Lords that made up the triumvirate. Tilting her head she peered further down the length of the Tower.

With the departure of the Mistress of Stars on her own mission and the other having left the Tower she was technically the only ranking Knight of the Tower. It was a strange feeling as prior to Christian’s disappearance she had never really had that much responsibility. For all the power that coursed through her veins it was rare indeed when she was called upon to use it or act on behalf of the Tower. Perhaps this was what she needed. From the day that she had been brought to the Tower and taken in it had always felt like she was the one who needed the Tower of Stars and now for the first time it was the Tower who needed her.

Still letting her mind and eyes wander Ralrisk peeled back more layers of the Tower in her careless search. It was careless at least until she spotted something off. It was a group of Knights. That was until she looked again. They moved differently, it was as though they were not totally familiar with the layout of the Tower. Normally she wouldn’t have thought twice but it seemed as though they were looking for something. Moments later the Mistress of Shadows suspicions were confirmed when they got on one of the few elevators that lead into the depths of the Tower and started to ride it down.

Kicking her feet forward Ralrisk launched herself into open space and began to fall to the floor. As she fell the Mistress of Shadow slipped into the murky space between realms as she skated along the oily surface of the darkness that linked where she was to where near she wanted to be. This was bad, Sentinel wasn’t recognizing them as an enemy and as she got closer she got the distinct impression that several of their number were exceedingly powerful. There was no way, but how had they made it this far? A hacker? But Sentinel was the most complex A.I. in existence to Ralrisk’s knowledge. How...as she continued to descend the Tower via the elemental realm of Shadow she finally determined how they were doing it. They were wearing some sort of devices that were listing them as members of the Tower and one of them had a code that Sentinel was recognizing as a Master code. Ralrisk blood ran cold as she recognized the code. It was the previous Master of Blade code. They had always wondered what had happened to him but this confirmed the Towers suspicion that he had been killed. There was no doubt now that the intruders were Stygian Blade. Not only that Ralrisk feared that they might be Stygian Death-Feeders. Some of the only remaining members of the true Stygain army the Death-feeders had been an order of mounted Knights during the first Stygain War and had been critical in the Stygian Empires intial invasion. The Death-Feeder’s had used a particular alloy of metal that ripped the soul from a victim's body with a single nick. Luckily for the Middle Kingdoms the swords lost their potency upon the a Death-Feeder being slain. The only instance she knew of in which Stygian Steel existed outside of a Death-Feeder’s grasp was in the armor and weapons of Lord Nightshade.

Finally exiting the Elemental Realm of Shadows Ralrisk sprinted down the hall towards the elevators. Tapping her ear piece she barked out a set of orders: “I need senior Knights to South Hall six. We have intruders! Knights to arms! Sentinel is unable to target the intruders. Prepare for battle. The Stygian Blade is here!” With that Ralrisk grabbed the shadows in the hallway and stitched them into a cloak of almost perfect darkness that she wrapped around herself from the neck down as she drew her sword and automatic pistol. Before she charged down into the Gods knew what she needed back up. Hopefully the Knights still left in the Tower would respond.

@Tracyarmav@Lucius Cypher@Howler@Rtron

Miriam glanced up as she was PA'd, eyes narrowing. A squad ready before she was even notified? To the Narrows? Either this was being kept under very hush hush wraps or something had gone wrong and she needed to fill in. She wasn't sure which was worse. Regardless, it was an answer to her prayers and would end the tedium she found herself in. Standing up she quickly put away her tray, moving towards the exit of the mess. She was already prepared for the mission, at least prepared as best she could be prepared with absolutely no information to go off of. She made her way out of the hall, hand gripping and releasing her sword. She strode quickly through the crowds, finally reaching Ralisk. She gave a short bow. "Mistress. Who will I be working with and what is the objective of the mission?"

She ran through mental ticks as she was briefed,quickly heading to the staging area. It wouldn't be easy going through the Narrows, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem. She paused at the staging area, critically running an eye over the team she had to work with. The knight and Kirane would be useful. The rest she didn't have enough information on to make a judgement call.

Lugen

Lugen glanced up as the orders were snapped out, laying on his bed. A grin broke across his face and he leapt up, laughing. "Ballsy motherfuckers! I like them! He quickly got into his armor, rolling his shoulders experimentally to make sure everything was properly in place. He was about to pick up BESS when his AI spoke in his head, stopping him mid-reach. That would be unwise. You would cause serious damage to the Tower. Lugen looked at BESS longingly for a moment before sighing, the noise reverberating out of his helm. "You're right PAM. Guess we're going to beat these poor bastards to death with our hands then.". He clenched his hands and spikes popped out making him chuckle in anticipation. "How fast can you get me there PAM?" Taking into account your speed and population of the Tower, I can get you there in three minutes.

"Perfect. Lets go!" He shoved his door open and was sprinting down the hall in a second, whipping past people and groups heedlessly and following PAM's directions. He skidded to a stop as he saw the Mistress of Shadows. "Ralisk! Damn it's good to see you! I presume the simple directive is to absolutely murder the shit out of them and then figure out how they got in so quickly and undetected later?"