Darian Moss sighed as he scratched his clean-shaven head, staring down at the file in front of him with his usually clean three piece incredibly crumpled and his eye bags of designer quality. The reason why was pretty simple. One of their field operatives, who had been previously excommunicated to prevent complications with the rest of the organisation during his arrest, was having issues with being readmitted back in. Archer Hamilton had performed wonderfully considering the sort of liability he was working with, so when it inevitably didn’t work out no one had been surprised. They’d welcomed him back to their main headquarters in Duroria with open arms, however when he left they’d had to completely wipe the systems so it was taking time to re-enter everything. Most of it had been cleared by hand but some of the information had been set to automatically wipe and the guy who had set up the code had been killed, so they’ve been having trouble hunting it down.
It was a shame having a useful asset off the field so long, but they couldn’t risk him being vulnerable without having him put his name in their registrar. Of course he had been trained when he initially joined the organisation on how to avoid common fey scams, but one could never be too careful when it came to things like these. Darian pulled his key out of his pocket and unlocked his office door, keeping his eyes focused on the documents in front of him. That was until a polite cough caught his attention.
There, sitting in his office chair, behind his desk, was Gastele. Only it wasn’t his desk anymore as the nameplate that had been laid on top of it read Gastele Lichter instead. Darian seethed.
“What are you doing here? This building is a place of residence and you have no permission to enter.”
“Not even a hello? I come bearing new business opportunities and yet you scorn me!” The rejection of her welcome should have forced her out, if it didn’t keep her out initially, and yet she still sat there. Playing with his favourite pen. “You look surprised Darian. Is it not common knowledge that the only one who can revoke a welcome is the one who gave it?”
“And who was it that gave you it?”
“Ah, now that would ruin the fun. And stop the game before we’ve even started.” Gastele dropped the pen on the floor and leaned her elbows on the desk. Stapling her fingers so she could rest her chin on them. “Take a seat.”
“You dare-“ Gastele cocked an eyebrow up and Darian’s jaw clicked shut. He sat on the seat opposite and gestured for her to continue.
“Excellent. The game I am proposing is a simple one, a race to an object of power. Which is something I am aware that you’re always chasing after.”
“Indeed we are. It is unfortunate then that often the ones we find are extremely lacking.”
“Not this one. Tell me, how familiar are you with the realm of the fey?”
“It’s a set of backroads that allows for instant travel between ley line convergences with the central hub being based in Junein Forest.”
“Ah. Not much then.” She paused for a moment to savour Darian’s indignant splutter before carrying on. “While it does allow for the travel along ley lines, it is more than a set of backroads. It’s almost entirely a different plane of existence, one where the fey don’t have to worry about being bothered by boring, stupid humans. Now obviously something like this could never be maintained on the skill of the fey alone. Creating and maintaining another plane of existence? Outside most of our skillsets, however it has recently come to my attention that it would suddenly become within our skillsets with a little bit of assistance.”
“And how did you come across such information? I can’t imagine someone gave it to you for free.” Gastele barked a laugh.
“Of course not! The source I have however is extremely reliable. I might even be willing to answer more questions about this object.”
“How did you originally think the fey plane was managed?” Asked Darian, and Gastele blinked as though she wasn’t expecting an off-topic question.
“Much like how we are created. Human belief. Of course such otherworldly creatures couldn’t exist on our plane, so they must come from another. It also explains how it occasionally changes to reflect the human world, but it seems like our previous assumptions were wrong.”
“You don’t sound too unhappy about that.”
“Why would I? It was a learning experience. Quite frankly, this revelation has only increased my interest in this object. It would be a fascinating study should I get my hands on it. Which brings us back to the matter at hand: the race.”
“What are the specifics behind this race then?”
“We both chose someone to send to Junein Forest with nothing but a set of clues that will be decided on now, and whoever receives the object first wins.”
“So you could have someone sit outside Junein Forest, have them jump my team and as long as it reaches your hands first, you win?”
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“That is a possibility.”
“That’s bullshit. Whichever team touches the object first wins, and I know you can weave together some deal to enforce that.” Gastele gave a half nod, so Darian continued, “what are the clues then?”
“I’ll give you a written sheet that you can hand over to your candidate, but they go as such: Death peacefully slips into new beginnings and in the still waters of an eternal garden there rests a blossom ever so fragile, that holds an ever-larger potential. I will give a little assistance on the location, if you accept.” Darian laid back in his chair and made thoughtful noise. While it was unnecessarily poetic, the whereabouts of Morsemt’s Lotus had been a point of contention for years, so it was quite obvious what it was talking about. If it was truly in the fey realm, then it would explain why there was such difficulty trying to pin it down, or why its very existence was under such contention.
“Very flowery. I would expect nothing less than that for Morsemt’s Lotus, but that still leaves the question on why I would accept such an offer. If the rumours are to be believed it is an extremely powerful artifact, but the deity its attached to doesn’t exist. How can we use such a thing to accomplish our goals?”
“Ah. Now this is where I bring in the insurance.” Gastele reached into her grey waistcoat and pulled out a dark piece of glass. While she could barely wrap her fingers around it width wise, lengthwise it was far longer. She put it down gently on the desk between them and Darian immediately felt his eyes drawn to it. Black fog danced behind the grey sheen of its surface, slightly obscuring the reflection of the ceiling above them.
“A shard…” He muttered weakly. He could still refuse of course, but to have something so contested casually placed in a bet like this didn’t sit right with him. “I suppose now we can get to the true reason behind your visit today. You never intended to get the Lotus out of this, clearly you could do that without telling me, so that leaves the question of why make this bet in the first place?”
“Good, good. We can stop dancing around the point. I want you to put everything you have in this company as your bet.”
“That’s ridiculous! I would never agree to such terms.”
“Normally, no. But this isn’t equivalent exchange, this is a bet. And to my knowledge you will already have a lot of personnel on site. You may have chance at winning.”
“If you’re so confident in my chance at winning, then why are you putting something so important as a wager?”
“Because if you win or lose, it doesn't matter. The shards are useless on their own. You’ll have to go and get the other ones, and I am not the scariest thing in possession of one of these.” Darian sighed. She was right. Though it would remove one of the more difficult obstacles, there were still three more that he knew of that would prove more challenging. And it wasn’t too risky for him, even if he lost. The most important thing he put into the organisation was his name, and that was protected by the registrar. That did lead to him wondering on their candidate though.
“Who are you going to putting in the race then? Because I am not letting you send Kheka, or any of the other shard keepers. I realise that this will go both ways, so I will reveal that my initial candidate would be one of our field agents.”
“I must say that Kheka is an appealing choice, but if you’re forbidding me from sending one of the shard keepers, then I must forbid you from sending someone in your organization.”
“Fine. I’ll send…” Darian’s eyes drifted from Gastele to the papers that he was going through on his way in. Archer had experience in the supernatural and he had yet to technically be readmitted to the organization. It would be a little loophole exploitation, but he felt as though Gastele would appreciate it had he not wanted to keep this idea from her at any cost possible. “I’ll have to think about it, then.”
“I shall have a think about it too.” Then she stared off into the distance for a second before giggling.
“Now that I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve accepted this deal. What clues are we giving for the location?”
“Remember that you can only give them-"
"and anybody else."
"Or anyone else this information.” Gastele ammended with a wink and then the lights flickered and she was gone. Darian leaned over the desk to see a sheet of paper with the clues she had said on it, and on the bottom of it read Reach into nature’s heart. So that was the location clue. Darian leaned back in his guest chair and pulled out his mobile phone to dial one of his direct superiors who picked up after the third ring.
“This is unusual. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I’ve just made a deal that could be quite beneficial to us in the long run, though it requires Archer to be kept off of the registrar for a little longer.”
“Are you thinking of sending him out on the field without proper precautions?”
“Yes, it was one of the prerequisites.”
“It sounds dangerous. Was it the right decision to make?”
“That remains to be seen, but there are certain things we can do to decrease the risk. Such as the fact that the mission occurs in the fey realm, one of the entrances to which can be accessed from our little operation in Junein Forest. If we could relocate some of the personnel working on that to watch over him, then victory should be ours.”
“You still haven’t convinced me on why I should follow your lead on this. In fact, I should have you exhumed for being such a liability.”
“Well first of all, I’m still doing that undercover work for you. Secondly, if the deal comes through properly, we could have one of the shards.” There was a pause on the other end of the line.
“Why wasn’t someone more important consulted on this?”
“It was a surprise for me too. I didn’t have much time to manoeuvre around it.” There was a second, longer pause.
“Very well. I hope you understand that if this falls through, we will find a punishment for you that won’t affect your undercover work.” Then the line went dead and Darian sighed. That was the harder of the calls he had to make, so now that he had the go ahead from his boss, he could call Archer who picked up on the first ring.
“Sir?” Archer sounded slightly robotic, though it was at a late hour so he couldn’t fault the boy for being tired.
“I have a mission for you to do before you are fully readmitted back…” As Darian went through the clues, he felt his eye being drawn to the name plate on his desk. It had read Gastele’s name, but he thought it was an illusion that would clear once she had left. He lifted it up with a frown and ended the call with Archer to put his phone back in his pocket. Then he muttered something as he ran his hand over the metal engraving to check whether an enchantment had been stuck to it. Darian scowled. She had physically replaced his name plate.