Without saying anything, Tristan pulled out the round artifact made by gears stacked on top of each other, activating the concealed zone.
Even if the Chosen one had been kidnapped, the world kept on moving, and the Pioneer Three was set to arrive tomorrow, with several important family’s heads being present to receive it.
Maybe even more than previously thought.
“Here’s what you will do.” Tristan started, once the concealment took effect over the whole room. “I’ve scheduled several deliveries for tomorrow, all of them directed for pocket dimensions on the First Tower.”
Velvet’s smile twitched. Yes, she was aware that playing delivery girl was a way of building an alibi as to why she was roaming around there, but that didn’t mean that doing it wasn’t basically free labor.
“The first three mages you will deliver to,” Tristan continued, ignoring her expression. “Are extremely… ‘meticulous’.” Not the word she wanted to use, clearly. “They will check that the artifacts work correctly and everything is in order. It will take half an hour for each.”
“Those are in the Ernon, Galibi and Alchor families pocket dimensions. They will be waiting for you, so don’t be late.”
“The fourth one won’t look at the artifact while you’re there,” Tristan continued. “Nor will he ask you any question about it. So, once he tells you to exit, here’s what you will do…”
…
In the end, going over the whole plan took one hour. It wasn’t the plan itself what ate most of the time, but the artifacts being delivered.
As to quote Tristan’s words: Even when she had hurried with those orders, that didn’t mean that Velvet was allowed to fumble the delivery job and damage Tristan’s brand (Name? Reputation?). She needed to know what questions the customers would ask, and the pertinent answers.
Tristan didn’t give her any info on the fourth customer’s artifacts, though. It was a private order, so she didn’t need to know. Or try to know.
Since official and upper mages had some ways to detect lies, Velvet wasn’t even gonna try to glance inside the container.
Privacy, delivery and scheming matters aside, right at this moment, Velvet was making her own artifact, the one she had wanted to do since buying the bulk of materials from Harlan.
That’s to say, modifying the cursed mirror.
To make possible the handling of the mirror without being reflected on it, Velvet had painted over the surface, using a sticky paint that would become elastic once dried, which made its future removal easier. It also made it unusable until the changes were over, but that wasn’t a problem.
The mirror's main weaknesses were how delicate it was, the fact that it only reflected in one direction and the difficulty using it efficiently.
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Velvet wanted to combine it with Sion’s umbrella at first, but that would mean losing her only defensive artifact, so, in the end, she tried to make a staff ‘from scratch’.
The mirror was made of glass and silver, so bending it with magic wasn’t impossible. It was complicated, because it was her first time, but not impossible.
On her mental blueprints, the mirror staff was ball shaped on the top, with the mirror looking inwards while it was deactivated, and expanding once it was activated, covering her and reflecting her surroundings.
The formation needed to make that possible wasn’t complicated, but it was tedious, since it had to switch the “solid” state of the mirror while it was in ball form to “liquid” when it was activated, without damaging the cursed spirit inside.
Speaking of the spirit, it was a doppelgänger, that’s to say, it was a conscience replacing curse. If someone looked at their reflection on it, they would be drawn inside the mirror, while an ‘evil’ (term depending on the mage it was applied to) version of them would take over.
It wasn’t as strong as it sounded, since the doppelgänger got weaker and weaker the more it was outside the mirror, and if the person reflected was stronger than it, the possession time would get shortened by a lot.
There were ways to make it stronger, but Velvet didn’t have the compatible Paradigm, the necessary spells, or the intention; since making a ghost stronger usually implied giving it living human sacrifices.
Building the staff completely would take her a full week, five days if she really pushed herself, taking into consideration the time spent on testing the formations to see if they worked correctly before incorporating them.
Tristan also gave her a few pointers hidden as remarks. Like ‘What is the function of those holes you are carving on the metal?’ or ‘What’s that screw for?’.
She wasn’t asking Velvet for any explanation when she asked that. In fact, the first time Velvet proudly explained her reasoning, Tristan had stared at her in silence before going back to her own work.
Bending the mirror was the delicate part, so she only moved when she was sure that Tristan was glancing at her, to avoid any mishaps.
It worked nicely, the previous almost useless mirror now getting a slight curve. Velvet only bent it a bit, since bending it completely in one day would break it.
Once she felt that she had advanced enough with the staff, she waved goodbye to Tristan, and went to the door to exit the Archiv-
The moment she opened the door, the quick succession of steps climbing the stairs made her close the door again.
“Ejem.” Velvet coughed, leaving the door and approaching the small window on the opposite side of the room, reaching towards it. “How far away is the floor?”
“Weren’t you proudly declaring your adulthood weeks ago? Act like one.” Tristan mocked her.
“But- wait, isn’t adulthood being responsible for your actions? I’m taking full responsibility for this, I swear!” She answered, touching the window’s borders. The window was small, but she should fit without problems.
“Also, adulthood is jumping into calculated risks!” Opening the window, Velvet first looked down, pushing her head outside.
She then went back in, stepped over the frame and stood there, before looking towards the door.
“It’s unlocked, you know?!” She spoke towards it.
Immediately, the door slammed (carefully) open, and Merrs entered.
“Let there be known.” Velvet said, grinning at her. “That bookworm cats aren’t good hunters.”
“You-!” Not giving her any time to keep talking shit, Merrs dashed across the room, intending to finally catch her.
But Velvet was ready, jumping into the window, hanging at the outside edges.
Right before Merrs’ claws went outside, she released her hold, falling from the Tower.
Face up, just so that she could give Merrs a last daily shit eating grin.
“See ya tomorrow!”
Screaming in rage, Merrs cursed at her, her nails digging on the exterior walls.
The noise of someone clearing her throat made her quickly go back inside, though.
Ignoring the things that had just happened, Tristan didn’t raise her head from her job. “Close the window when you exit.”
“O-of course Maam.” Instantly stopping the annoyed twitch of her tail, Merrs closed the window, grimacing when a paper figurine with a smile cut on its face waved at her mockingly, stuck on the other side.
Not that paper figurines could mock someone. But to Merrs it was doing exactly that.
And she wanted to knock on the glass so badly now… but not while Tristan was there, of course.
For now, she would grit her teeth, shut the window to perfection, ignore the mouse squeaking noise coming from inside the machine Tristan was working in, smile and go out.
But, the next time she saw Velvet…
She was really going to catch her.
Really!