It had been a long and, frankly, disappointing day. Agent Sigil had spent most of the day at the ready, in case her expertise was needed. That meant she had been mostly idle. Still, idling didn't prevent her from getting sleepy. At least days like this paid well.

At times like these, she envied agent Morli. Possibly the only agent who chose her last name as her agent call sign. When Sigil heard of her power, she had actually laughed out loud. No need to sleep? Insomnia as a power? What a joke! Well, look who's laughing now. Obviously not Sigil.

To be fair, it was worse for Agent Willow. He had been trekking around all manner of forest paths, scanning for signs of life. Then he was recalled only to head out mere hours later. She might be crotchety, but he was the Grinch. At least he wasn’t required for this part.

They had found Ms. Redwax’ hut, but not the witch herself. The hut seemed to have been vacated. There was plenty of stuff left, but it seemed like most of what was essential had been stripped. A contingent of agents had tried everything they could to pick up her trail, to no avail. Agent Sigil had spoken with the few people living nearby, but none of them had provided any solid leads. They didn't have her in their register, at least not until now. Now she had earned a spot on their watch list. It was unsettling that someone as dangerous as her had flown entirely under their radar.

She was back at Ms. Smith’s farm with Agent Solitaire. She was their only lead on the witch, though it was a long shot at best. Solitaire loomed in the background, while she did all the questioning. After a full day in the field, his appearance was not quite as sharp as in the morning. Nevertheless, the man itself looked determined, and his stare was as intense as ever.

Ms. Smith and her friend, Britney Staalen, were sharing everything she knew about Ms. Redwax. It wasn’t much. The trail was already dead. Even if the Consortium put a bounty on information about her, it was unlikely to lead to anything.

“Do you have anything more to add, Ms. Smith? Something you haven't shared already?"

Ms. Smith thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don't think I have any useful information I haven't told you already."

Well, it was a long shot anyway. Sigil was about to thank them for their cooperation, when she noticed Agent Solitaire shaking his head. That was curious.

“Do you know any other relevant information that might help us, Ms. Smith?” she pressed on.

This was the reason Agent Solitaire was present; his ability to discern truth wasn’t just limited to simple truth or falsehood. He could also detect half-truths and omissions, something very rare among truth-tellers. By his own admission, very few people were ever entirely honest. Most of the time he would just pretend he didn’t notice half-truths. In this case, though, he wanted to press the issue.

“Is this really necessary?” Ms. Staalen interjected, “We have told you everything already. Just piss off already.”

“In my experience, only people who have something to hide will aggressively protest to further questions, Ms. Staalen,” Sigil pointed out. “Preventing a Consortium investigation may be punished according to §14, section 3.2.”

She turned back to Ms. Smith and repeated the question about relevant information.

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Ms. Smith hesitated, then shook her head again.

“No, I don’t have anything more to add about Ms. Redwax.”

A quick glance towards Agent Solitaire confirmed that this was true.

“Disregarding Ms. Redwax for the moment, is there anything else relevant to the case that you can tell us?”

Miss Smith bit her lip. She looked towards Britney, a classic sign of guilt. Britney looked quite annoyed, and clenched her fist.

“Ms. Staalen, before you do anything you might regret, know that we have read your file. Your strength, even diminished by the nearby veiled population, is indeed impressive. But these are not the medieval times. We are combat trained, and have firearms.”

She let the statement linger for a few moments.

“I see you are still undecided. Let us consider the hypothetical scenario in which you manage to successfully disable both me and Agent Solitaire. What is your plan then? You will at the very least have violated §10, which entails significant punishment. Even if you manage to evade an immediate arrest, you will be hunted down by our best agents. Is that a future you want to envision?”

Ms. Smith put her hand on Ms. Staalen’s clenched fist. It took a few moments more, but she finally unclenched her fist with a deep sigh.

“I don’t know why I’m trying to defend someone I don’t even like,” she muttered to herself. Hm. Curious.

Ms. Smith sighed, too.

“I … do know something. But I’d rather you not pursue it.”

“I’m afraid that is not up to you to decide, nor are we willing to make any deal out of the gate. Know that dragging this too much out may cause you to be violating §14, section 3.9; intentionally delaying a Consortium investigation.”

There was another heavy sigh. She looked visibly defeated.

“Very well. I’ll tell you what I know, but don’t blame me if you don’t believe me. As I said earlier, after helping Martin into the witch’s hut, I waited outside. There was at least ten minutes of waiting until a different face popped her head out. Mina, the girl that was here earlier today.”

Sigil could almost hear Agent Willow’s racial slurs upon the mention of the dark-skinned girl. Not exactly surprising. His comments weren't restricted to only things motivated to race; he was capable of coming up with derogatory terms for just about anyone. It was a miracle that Solitaire hadn't gotten rid of him yet. Granted, he was competent, but he was also a huge prick.

Ms. Smith told them a long tale about this girl, Mina. After a lot of clarifying questions, they had the full picture. Agent Solitaire confirmed that there were no lies. The case suddenly flared up from arctic cold to extremely hot. The question was, would Agent Solitaire want to pursue her? Stupid question. Of course, he would. Particularly since they knew for a fact she was awakened.

“Where is Mina now?” Sigil demanded.

Another defeated look.

“She is either on her way or has already arrived at the Dawnhill Academy.”

That could be somewhat problematic. The Dawnhill Academy had strong support in the local group, the Evergreen Tenders. They controlled a large area, most of it uninhabited. Well, except for the druids themselves. If they were to march into Dawnhill uninvited, they would significantly strain the cooperation between the Consortium and the druids. In other words, they needed clearance from Dawnhill itself. The druids could technically allow them to go there too, but she distinctly recalled that they hated to deal with anything other than emergencies. They would probably just decline on principle.

After confirming that there was nothing else relevant, they got up to leave. She thanked them for their cooperation.

Britney looked pissed.

“So, that’s it, then? You’re just going to do whatever you want to, without caring who you step on?”

Maybe it was the tiredness getting to Sigil, but she wasn’t happy about constantly being challenged.

“No, Ms. Staalen, we are not going to do ‘whatever we want to’. We are going to do exactly what we need to do, in order to fulfill our purpose. Nothing more, nothing less. If you have nothing else to add, I’ll kindly ask you to ‘piss off’.”