Cece was beginning to get bored. The lead up to the solstice had involved so much work that her regular work felt like a vacation. She tried to relax, especially after dealing with Eibon. The man seemed to be genuine, but Cece doubted she could ever trust another Knowledge daemon. He hadn’t invited himself over again since the first time, but she doubted it would be the last. It was stressful to be around someone who’s motives you couldn’t perceive. She took several baths and lazed around her apartment for a bit, but it was boring.

She had been laying low for a few days now, only engaging in the most passive forms of sabotage. Namely financial. Since she had inherited her fortune she had used a large amount of money to aggressively invest in any competitors that Solastria had. Like most rich people, they made most of their money off of investments. They didn’t engage in much business, besides the services of divination and certain healing magics. For those, a few years prior she had bribed a few government officials to reduce tariffs on business with Datske, as there was a powerful gold family in that country. It was slow going, the Aurtz family had been taking their time, but they were starting to get more of a foothold in Astraev’s market.

It hadn’t amounted to much in reality, slowly but surely enhancing Solastria’s competitors, but she hoped it would accomplish something. For now she contented herself with reducing their profit margins a percent at a time.

She felt stagnant despite knowing her inaction was for good reason. Still it was hard to justify doing nothing when a board of suspects had her name and picture on it in the Solastria estate. She wasn’t entirely worried about it, she clearly was one of the last picks, likely there only for posterity’s sake, but she was still slightly concerned. Although she tried to be thorough, her cover relied less on her skill at subterfuge and more so on the implausibility of her as a suspect. Her name being on that board was not a good thing for that implausibility. Luckily she had a plan that would kill two birds with one stone.

The manuscript of refining techniques had opened her eyes to how much information was hidden in the past. Knowledge’s library was vast, but she had come to the conclusion that it was incomplete. Not just because Knowledge kept some information to itself, but simply because it hadn’t learned the entirety of human history itself. There were several regions that lacked information, especially in the new world. This led her to believe that, at least the majority of the information Knowledge has obtained has been from it’s daemons, which generally came from the old world continents. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she had found that trying to understand devils wasn’t really possible without knowing more about them, and she was hesitant to spend souls just to learn why certain places had higher daemon populations than others.

She had her eyes set on one of Knowledge’s blind spots on the southern continent, Abiaya. There was a country called Pharum there, which stood on the ground of a dead ancient empire. The Iskarians. People knew very little about them, but intriguingly, their city was partially subterranean, and the ruins were heavily inscribed. So inscribed that even the nearby cities wouldn’t touch them. It was considered to be more of a deathtrap than a ruin, and no one who did return after entering, came out with anything of material worth. Still Cece thought it held potential, they must have been very knowledgeable about alchemy to have warded it to such a degree, so she hoped to find some long lost knowledge of her own. Of course that was just a bonus to the real goal. As long as she makes a scene in Astraev while she’s out of the country, it should help to throw Solastria off of her scent. It wasn’t a sure thing, but she also got to plumb an ancient civilization for alchemy secrets so it was a win in her book.

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It had taken her a few days to prepare for her little expedition. She didn’t know exactly what to expect, so she packed several suitcases and prepared several contingencies in case she encountered a dangerous situation. Additionally she sent several letters to let anyone who might have needed to know, where she would be and when she expected to return. Of course she also sent said letters to several people who didn’t need to know, but who she was sure would spread the rumor.

Cece had considered simply using one of her teleportation scrolls to get there, but she needed her “vacation” to be a bit more visible. She wasn’t willing to go by ship, since even newer ships would still take weeks to get there. Magic or no magic, traveling to the other side of the earth was not a quick journey. Unable to use a scroll or take a ship, she was left with only one option.

That was how Cece and Lotte found themselves at the Osmi Teleportation Bureau. It was incredibly expensive, but a space mage could send you anywhere for a price. It was yet another reason that Osmi held an absolute mercantile power over Astraev. It was convenient instant travel if you could afford it and better yet the records were public, so Solastria was bound to notice. Or rather Dimitri Solastria was bound to notice, she was beneath the concerns of most any other Solastria mage. Except perhaps Sienna, but that was a personal dispute.

“Next!” Called a young man in luxurious purple clothes and decorated with platinum.

“Hello, here’s my paperwork.” Cece said simply handing the man a few forms. The man’s eyes lit up with relief. Cece had discovered long ago the power of showing up with any paperwork already completed. It made things faster and it gave you an upper hand.

“Alright, it looks like you’re going to Pharum and have already paid for the transfer. Step onto the platform, with your luggage, and your golem and we’ll get you to where you need to go.”

“Thank you.” Cece said while stepping onto a platform that radiated with space magic to her daemonic eye. She watched in fascination as magic flowed through the man, and for a brief, normally imperceptible moment, she and Lotte where surrounded by stars.

She stepped off a similar platform in Pharum, feeling incredibly grateful that Osmi had a location in the country already. It wasn’t particularly surprising they would put them in any country that would allow them, but of course not every country agreed. There was little risk of using them for nefarious purposes since they could be deactivated from either side, so no armies could march through them. Still she supposed she could see the issue, after all she was had nefarious purposes herself, although more for Astraev than Pharum.

An attendant confirmed their information for their records and then allowed her and Lotte to go off. They had been offered help finding a place to stay or a guide, but Cece had rejected both offers. She had read a primer on the language, and had already found the name of an inn she wanted to stay at. It was a higher class place marketed towards mage tourists, so it was the kind of place a young heiress would stay on vacation. That was certainly why Cece picked it, not because it had a spa.

She breathed the warm humid air and relaxed for a moment. It was nice to be outside of Astraev, it felt freeing in a way. She glanced at Lotte as they walked towards the inn, she had been almost silent since they left the house. She wasn’t alarmed by it, the construct seemed to be getting a bit… shy, for lack of a better word, around people. She still spoke as usual with her, but when she was around other people she tended to be silent. Cece ignored it, knowing it would probably sort itself out, and kept walking. She was just beginning to relax when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Cece, I’ve been waiting forever, what took so long!”

She turned around with a sense of dread, to find Eibon behind her, wearing a short black shirt with shorts, sunglasses, and a tropical looking drink in his hands.