Cece paced her apartment, not necessarily out of stress, but because it helped her think. She had the very beginnings of a plan. She couldn’t allow Tiberius to become an elemental. Three was already far too ambitious for her to try and kill, to the point that it may as well be four, but that was a quitter’s mindset, she had to press every advantage. She would not allow them four. She had two options so far, she could infiltrate their estate to sabotage the gold and the ritual site, or she could infiltrate their estate to sabotage the ritual as Tiberius was undergoing the process. Each intrusion would be a major risk, but unfortunately she couldn’t deal in half measures when she was so thoroughly outclassed. She would have to do both.

This meant that she could afford to make a scene on the second entrance, but the first had to be seamless to not provoke suspicion. Despite how often she used subterfuge, and despite the fact she was from a silver family, she was actually far more comfortable with outclassing people in terms of firepower than tricking them. Unfortunately this was not an economical comfort. The ruby grimoires helped of course, but if she wanted to make one that she was certain could beat an elemental, she would have to use at least half her fortune. Even the grimoires she was thinking of creating were going to eat into her funds, unless she gathered the ingredients herself.

“Lotte, we’re going on a trip.” Cece called back to the construct who was sitting aimlessly, staring out the window.

“I understand, do you require assistance preparing?”

“No, just be prepared to move.”

“Understood.”

Cece packed her own bags, not wanting to explain to the golem how to do it herself. She was sure that was against the point of having an alchemical construct specifically meant to serve you, but it seemed like a pain to tell Lotte the exact scrolls she would need from her atelier, what materials, and what clothes she needed. It helped that her purse was spatially enhanced, so most of her emergency scrolls were always on her, but for the ones that wanted to take for convenience, she doubted Lotte would be able to distinguish them from other scrolls.

Before they left Cece manually transferred any temporary inscriptions on Lotte’s golem core to the ruby serving as permanent storage, although it was no longer permanent to Cece. Her storage had been almost entirely filled by that point, mostly with miscellaneous information that Lotte had asked, but also some inscriptions that were created by other inscriptions. It was interesting to analyze them, figure out what they did and how they came about. The process wasn’t revolutionary, simple learning procedures to let her perform better. It was something a few alchemetrixes specializing in golemancy had already done on their service golems. From what others had written they made good servants after an awkward learning period of a year or two. Cece, however, had not set Lotte up as a service golem. It was what she was meant for, and it was the job she performed, but her “learning” was not for being better at serving her, but for actually learning.

“Core inscription capacity is now at 0%. Thank you.” Lotte said.

“Of course, Lotte, now lets get to the station.”

“We aren’t driving?” Lotte asked.

“No unfortunately. The drive would take twelve hours so the train is our best solution.”

Cece’s apartment was luckily only a few blocks from the train station, not that you would know, since the apartment had inscriptions to reduce sound. One of the many perks of luxury living. They received a few looks along the way, Cece was used to it, of course. She didn’t think she was god’s gift to the world, but she wasn’t unattractive, and although she didn’t dress completely outlandishly, she was a woman on the taller side, dressed in red, with an eyepatch. She wasn’t exactly subtle. It, of course, didn’t help that she had a golem walking behind her.

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She was dressed in a long skirt made of sturdy plaid fabric, in a dark red. Her blouse was a contrasting cream color with pearl buttons, and although it was finally starting to warm up, it was still March, so she wore a fur coat as well. Lotte was in her usual dress. Cece hadn’t felt the need to change it yet, and since it didn’t really get dirty , there was no reason to. Cece did however put a jacket on her, as silly as it felt to do so, she felt the golem looked out of place outside without one.

Cece was someone who considered herself stylish, what little fame she had, centered on the fact that she was a fashionable heiress. This did not mean she looked refined however. To be fashionable one has to make a statement, and the richest mages of Astraev did not like making too big a statement, which is to say, Cece did not look like someone with money.

“To purchase a private car from here to central Datske would be five-hundred Astranc, correct?” Cece asked the attendant behind the kiosk.

“Yes, ma’am, unfortunately though we can’t accept checks from unauthorized parties.”

“Do you take cash?”

“P-pardon?”

“I said, do you take cash?”

“U- uh yes ma’am.”

“Perfect.” Cece pulled out five, one-hundred Astranc bills.”

The man at the counter wordlessly started holding them up to the light, after a straight minute Cece interrupted him.

“Are you finished?” She said, with an annoyed tone.

“I’m just going to have to get a supervisor…” The man replied.

“My god.” Cece sighed in exasperation.

After several minutes of glaring at the man, and a vague apology from an older man who Cece presumed to be the supervisor, Cece and Lotte found themselves in a private car. She gave it a once over with her scribe’s eye, which only revealed some basic inscriptions to block noise, and to protect the exterior of the cars from magic or some other outside attack. Although the trains did run through some of the more wild regions that humans couldn’t live, they typically moved so fast that alchemical beasts, and some more… unpleasant, creatures couldn’t attack them.

“Where are we going, Cece?” Lotte asked after she got them settled.

“We are going to central Datske, specifically the town of Beron.”

“Where is Beron?”

“Due East.”

“What are we doing there.”

“We’re going hunting.” Cece replied, but realized that it would certainly prompt another question from Lotte, she was asking them even more frequently. “Specifically one of the “holy beasts” of the Silva family” She said, putting air quotes around the term, as she found it to be a bit to poetic, even for her.

“What is a “holy beast”?” Lotte asked, mimicking the air quotes despite likely not understanding them.

Cece decided she needed to nip this in the bud before Lotte’s curiosity made Cece shut her down. “Lotte. Save a new order to your core, Try to limit how many questions you ask in a five minute window to… let’s say three or four unless you need information urgently, or unless the question is related to a previous question.”

“Understood, core inscription capacity is now at 3%.”

“Thank you, Lotte. Now to answer your question, a “holy beast” is just an alchemical beast that a family has a particular liking to. Usually because they have a high concentration of the family’s element. The one that we are going to hunt is called a doppelgänger.”

“I see, what is a doppelgänger?”

“An alchemical beast that mimics its victims.”

“I see, thank you.”

The rest of the ride was far quieter, with Lotte only asking about the occasional sight here and there.

After the long ride was over, Cece and Lotte got off the train and found a suitable place to spend the night. The place was in the middle of nowhere, the only reason she knew about it was because of Silva’s records, so they were left with only one inn at the center of Beron, they charged her slightly more than the accommodations had been worth, but the woman in charge was nice enough and breakfast was included, so she wasn’t perturbed by it.

The train ride had been long so Cece decided they would stay the night. She wasn’t intimidated by Doppelgangers, they stood little chance against her, but even she didn’t want to fight them at night. As she prepared for bed, Lotte had yet another inquiry.

“Cece, what is sleep like?” That question was surprising, she didn’t expect Lotte to ask something so subjective.

“It’s pleasant, at least sometimes.”

“Why only sometimes?”

“Sometimes you dream. Goodnight, Lotte.” Cece said, turning the lights in the room off. Cece focused her mind on falling asleep, she couldn’t force herself into the state quickly, but she had been experimenting with her control over her mind, to make herself sleep easier. The results were noticeable, but she still had to spend a few minutes to force the mental state along. Nevertheless she felt sleep come to her.