Felix kneeled over his sister, his face contorted with worry. It took him a few moments to realise he had absolutely no idea what he should do. He reached for her instinctively—

“No! Don’t… come closer…” Marcia barely managed to squeeze out the words from her rapidly constricting throat. Strange green symbols were flashing in her eyes and clouding her irises.

A flash of red barely missed Felix as it shot towards the woman. Felix stared in surprise as a hawk dropped a spellcraft at least five times its size beside Marcia. She groaned weakly as she rolled to her side, flipping the book open.

Dark green glyphs floated out of the spellcraft immediately, following a barely visible current of air into Marcia’s nose. Colour returned to her face as she inhaled deeply, letting the magic symbols flow into her mouth as well. Felix’s expression darkened with recognition.

Marcia shut the spellcraft after several seconds of inhaling corrupted magic. Felix gave her another few seconds to stabilise herself.

“You’re one of them?” He folded his arms, questioning her sharply. “You’re addicted to these spellcrafts as well?”

“What? Are you going to give me a big-brother lecture now?” The woman chuckled softly, unfazed by his tone of voice. “I’m the Kingpin of Narcotics, dear brother. Is it really so surprising that I partake in my own crime?”

Felix released his breath loudly. She was right. Who was he to tell her how she should live her life, especially when she had been living without her brother for eighteen years? Besides—

Hold on, something did not add up.

“I thought Metas couldn’t consume corrupted spellcrafts? I heard Lucius mentioning that,” he asked. “Why are you affected by these spellcrafts?”

Marcia cast her gaze downwards. “You’re right. But ever since the explosion in Titus’ castle, I’ve gained the latent ability to interact with Arcani like a normal Magi. I even picked up a little Necromancy myself.”

Felix’s eyebrows remained creased. He didn’t mean to peek, but Marcia had just reinforced her mind block so considerably that he could sense it even if he wasn’t paying attention.

“Anyway, I’ve got my addiction under control,” the woman continued. “I just took it up to numb the pain from…”

Her voice trailed away.

“Point is, everything is under control.” She shook her head as if to fling some bad memories out. “I’m the most powerful woman in Sirius city, now that the Guardian Council has been dissolved by the Ex-President Cosmo Benedictus.”

“W— What?” Felix blurted out. “Why on Earth would he do that?”

“Saw them as a threat to his rule, perhaps.” Marcia shrugged. “He paid dearly for it, though. Benedictus was dragged out of his house and burned alive by a mob of Metas after his racist policies were exposed to the public. Nobody else was on his side to help him, and he couldn’t fight off thousands of people, as powerful of a Magi as he was.”

“So who rules Surone now?” Felix asked.

“Pollux Isles. Since our country was plunged into a civil war, they took the chance to colonise us. There are barely any constables left to police crime. Fat load of drones, though; our new Sultan is a bit of a technomagick freak. Even our prisons are…”

Marcia’s eyes sharpened for a moment.

“Felix, I just thought of someone who can help you!” Her voice rose in excitement. “It’s not a spellcraft, but there were rumours of a man; someone who claims he has the means to travel worlds using a tome from Janus himself.”

Felix’s heart leapt. “Truly? Where can I find him?”

“In Sirius City’s most heavily guarded prison. Devil’s Gate Gaol.”

He slumped his shoulders. “I don’t suppose I can just waltz in there and request a visit?”

“Security is tight, and the building construction itself was designed to keep unwanted visitors out.” Marcia shook her head. “It used to be the Guardian Council headquarters, after all.”

Felix’s mouth hung open in surprise before he composed himself. “Any idea about the identity of our quarry?”

“No, he was an unregistered Meta. That guy is in solitary confinement, having apparently gone mad from peering into other worlds too many times,” the woman replied. “Mad Badger, the prison wardens called him. He used to be a hired assassin, until he found that book and started slaughtering people at random. Even the most hardened criminals resorted to calling the constables on him when he started going after them. They’d rather rot in jail than have their flesh filleted by a madman.”

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“Is he a Meta?” Felix asked.

“Yes, with regeneration capabilities as well as enhanced reflexes; a very troublesome combination of abilities to deal with.” Marcia’s voice darkened. “When the constables finally boxed him in, there wasn’t a spot in the room that wasn’t covered in blood. That man wiped out seven stations’ worth of manpower before he finally succumbed to their spells.”

“Why didn’t he just escape into another universe using the tome?”

“Probably because he couldn’t. The constables speculated that all those murders were him trying to activate the book since there were multiple glyph patterns drawn in blood as well.”

“Know the way there?” Felix asked.

Marcia raised an eyebrow. “Planning a prison break-in?”

“Perceptive. You are my sister, after all.” Felix smirked, tapping his head. “It won’t be difficult. Just a little mind trick and I’ll be invisible to both the men and the cameras.”

“You mean ‘we’.”

“I—”

There was a loud knock on the door.

Marcia’s eyes glowed pink, and a chimpanzee hobbled over to slide it open. A young man stood on the other side of the door, his face wrought with worry. Felix narrowed his eyes. It did not take psychic powers to figure out something terrible had just happened.

“Boss, Warlock Vulcan is here.”

~ ~ ~

Marcia’s cloak swept out of the door, leaving Felix in the room by himself. Not like it mattered, anyway. With Felix’s telepathy spanning a solid range of a hundred metres now, he might as well be watching her movements from the sidelines.

Still, she wanted nothing more than for her brother to be by her side. But Warlock Vulcan had worked with him before, and would definitely recognise Felix in a glance. Marcia shuddered at the thought of what the government would do to an ‘alien’ like him.

Besides, she had matters of her own to worry about for now.

The woman standing before her was dressed in her usual black military jacket. Polished badges decorated the helm of her sleeves, while the rest of her outfit was neatly pressed. Flaming red hair flowed elegantly to her shoulders, complementing her navy blue undershirt.

“Warlock Vulcan, what brings you to my fine establishment?” Marcia decided to speak first. Her men paced the room restlessly, casting nervous glances at the unwelcome woman in their midst.

“Please, Miss Pagonis. Have we not known each other for long enough? We were once sisters, remember?” The woman flashed a wide smile, although her voice was dripping with malice. “Kleo will do. Or Kleopatra, if you insist on formalities.”

The mobster boss kept her silence, waiting patiently for Kleopatra Vulcan to answer her question.

“You know what the heaviest thing in this world is?” Kleopatra said. “Responsibility. Being in charge of people, keeping them in line, killing them when things go wrong… It’s a lot of work—”

“Just tell me what you want,” Marcia snapped impatiently. “Governor.”

“I’ve been good to you, haven’t I? Your little narcotics business has only been thriving because I, the governor of your sector, allowed it,” Kleopatra continued. “And also because it maintains order in my sector, but that’s… on me.”

“Are you here to change the terms?” Marcia asked, noticing her gang members tense up at the question. “Haven’t the Grave Markers been paying you enough to leave us be?”

“Goodness, no.” The governor chuckled. “I’m not here to increase your ‘taxes’. I’m only here to say my farewells. I’ve been transferred to the Devil’s Gate as Chief Warden.”

Marcia hid her surprise.

“Congratulations then,” she muttered. “Farewell to you too, K—”

“Not… quite just yet.”

She froze.

“As I was saying, responsibility takes a lot of work,” Kleopatra said curtly. “Your lackey, Lucius, has confirmed some intel that I already took from one of his peddlers. Ran straight to me about an hour ago and babbled everything about where you keep your goods.”

Marcia clenched her jaw in silent anger.

“Of course, I did you a favour and executed him on the spot. I know how much you hate disloyal subordinates.” Kleopatra shrugged nonchalantly. “Now, you have to agree with me on how important supply and demand is when it comes to consolidating power. The inmates there are going to be desperate for narcotics. I spent years building my power in your sector, and I don’t intend to start from scratch in Devil’s Gate.”

“What are you—”

A silver staff materialised in Kleopatra’s hand as a blue light ran through her clothes, transforming them into battle wear. Commotion erupted in the room as the Grave Markers, both Magi and Meta, powered up in response.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Kleopatra stood unflinching as magic hummed in the crystal on her staff. “Hand over all your spellcrafts to me now and we can keep this alliance. Refuse, and I will discharge my duties as an official to dissolve your gang.”

“So I’ll lose either way?” Marcia spat, swiping her hand across the device on her waist. “Bitch. Go fuck yourself.”

There was a mild whirring as the energy constructor flooded with her Meta essence, ready to print out an army of animals on command.

“No?” Kleopatra clicked her tongue in mild annoyance. “Didn’t think so. Well then, Marcia Pagonis. You’re under arrest.”

“We outnumber you,” Marcia snapped in response as her gang members stepped forward threateningly.

Kleopatra Vulcan simply smirked, before snapping her fingers.

“No, you don’t.”