Cece found herself eating dinner with some of the worst people she had ever met. The Master and the Mistress of the house, Sylvester and Genevieve Solastria, along with Genevieve's brothers, Jareth and Clarence. She had been lead to her seat and introduced when Genevieve, who seemed to be the leader here, asked for her name. As she did so Cece saw with her daemonic eye, the magic within her flow through one of her golden rings. She saw the shape of it and knew what it was. Gold was the element of light and purity, but more importantly in this case it was the element of truth. She was casting a truth detection spell, but those spells weren’t perfect.

Cece mentally commanded herself, using her ability to shape her mind she demanded that she believe her own words, that for just this moment what she said was the truth.

“Jean Brown, ma’am.” She said politely. Her head hurt from the contradiction, of knowing she was Jean Brown, and then remembering she wasn’t, but it seemed to work. The spell relied on her own perception of truth.

“Well we’re glad we could help you Jean, a girl shouldn’t be wandering on her own so late in the day.”

“I appreciate it very much ma’am, thank you for having me.” It would have been more appropriate to have thanked them all, but she thought a common mundane would just address the person talking to them.

She took a few sips of wine and a few bites of the steak they had served before she felt it. Poison. She had already known that this was likely how it was going to be though, and she was suddenly much more grateful for her father’s insistence on building up an immunity to several toxins. She hated the man, but the older she got the more sensible he had seemed, he may have been a piss poor father, but he was quite good at preparing her for what her life had become. The poison hadn’t affected her too much yet, but she pretended like it had letting her head flop onto the table, and dropping her glass.

“Take her bag.” She heard Genevieve say. That was something she had failed to account for. If she had stored more scrolls on her person she would have been able to play dead longer and drawn them into a more vulnerable position, but even her enhanced mind made mistakes often. Unfortunately she couldn’t let them take her scrolls so she would have to fight now. She reached her hand into her bag and pulled out two items, a gold purification spell scroll, and the weaker combat grimoire. She snapped with her right hand to trigger the scroll, which immediately began burning the poison out of her body, and with her other hand she threw the small ruby into the middle of the large dining table.

“QR512” She said softly. The ruby glowed bright and began floating in the middle of the room.

“What!” Genevieve cried, but her words were short lived, as Cece unholstered her revolver and shot her in the arm. She cursed her own aim, but she’d have to work on that later.

“Did you think it’d be that easy?” She grinned, letting her country bumpkin act drop.

“You bitc-” Sylvester screamed, but he was interrupted by the grimoire electrocuting him with a tin spell. He wasn’t dead yet, but he was at least distracted by the lightning coursing through him.

Cece didn’t waste any more time talking, she shot Clarence through the head while he was preparing a spell. One down, one stunned, two to go. Genevieve launched a concentrated beam of light that grazed Cece, burning the surface of her arm. She saw Jareth was also about to finish a spell, so she pulled out a scroll, and activated it with a physical cue. It was one of the simplest silver magics, and one that everyone in her family was forced to learn, including her despite her inability to cast it. Her family had continuously hoped that teaching her would somehow “activate” her potential. It was the most useful silver spell in combat as well, it simply made you invisible and left a static copy of you in the place you were standing. It was easy to spot, but few people were truly looking in combat.

Jareth unleashed a sword made of pure light and slashed at the illusion, after realizing that it had no effect, both Genevieve and Jareth had the good sense to start dispelling the illusion, something that gold magic was suited to do as the natural enemy of silver. However it was too late, while he was stationary Cece shot Jareth through the head just as easily as Clarence. At the same time a bolt of lighting launched out of the ruby towards Genevieve, she blocked it by turning one of her golden bracelets into a thin sheet of conductive gold. Gold was a poor shield, but she was likely a pure gold mage and had little better to work with than direct manipulation of her element. While she was occupied she shot Sylvester’s stationary form, he had begun to twitch, Cece didn’t know if that meant he was about to start moving, but she wasn’t going to take the risk.

In the time it took to eliminate Sylvester, Genevieve had finished her dispel, and the illusion of Cece or rather “Jean Brown” was gone, and Cece’s real body was clearly visible again.

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“When I’m done with you, you’ll wish you were dead, girl.” Genevieve snarled.

Cece began to run.

“What, are you afraid!?” The woman mocked.

“No.” Cece replied, “I simply want to survive what comes next.”

The grimoire released its explosive payload, toward Genevieve. She constructed a shield from her bracelet again, likely thinking it was another lighting bolt, however gold would not save her from a phosphorous blast. It also wouldn’t save the dining room which is why Cece was already in the kitchen. The blast was deafening, and so was Genevieve’s scream. She turned to the hapless chef cowering in the corner.

“Run.” She said bluntly. He had poisoned her, but she quite frankly didn’t care enough to kill him. Especially because he had the good sense to do as she said. She gingerly walked into the wreckage of the dining room, the ceiling had come down a bit, but otherwise it seemed like it would hold. She confirmed that Genevieve had died in the blast and used a few soul capturing scrolls on the four, and stole any useful reagents and materials like gold jewelry. She tried to move quickly before the children could investigate, but she knew it was too late when she heard a small girl scream, she was holding hands with an older boy, maybe fifteen years old, her brother. Cece turned towards her ruby grimoire.

“Creator verification: zero lethality mode.” The ruby made a dinging noise as it used gold truth detection to verify her identity and switch modes.

“What have you done!” He screamed.

“What does it look like?” She grinned. He ran at her, calling up a weaker version of Jareth’s sword, clearly he had been training the boy. The grimoire lightly zapped the boy, stunning him before the sword could connect to Cece, but not hurting him too much.

“Do you think that can stop me!” He struggled to move.

“It just did.” She replied as she whipped her pistol into the side of his head. Hitting him in the temple and knocking him unconscious. The little girl just looked stunned, unable to move, or cry, obviously in shock. Cece turned to her.

“When you can move, you should get someone to help you, if there’s no one in the house by then, you can walk south to Cestra and ask someone to call Solastria for you, mundanes are eager to help mages, especially when they think they can get a reward. Now I’m going to go free the captives.”

Cece wandered down the stairs until she found what she was looking for. If you’re going to build a secret lab, people usually tend to build that kind of thing into a basement. She found it far easier than she thought, a heavy iron door with a padlock on it. She threw one of her acid bombs at the door, and over the course of a few minutes it completely melted away. Inside were a series of cells with a laboratory built into the side, she first stole any useful material for alchemy, it never hurts for a girl to be thrifty. Then she went to free the prisoners in the cells. There were ten men and women, emaciated, and living in filth, with quite a few incisions on each. Likely trying to implant gold into the body in new and exciting ways, that was always a favorite for Solastria. She didn’t particularly care about the details, they would just get in the way.

She opened the cells, as they warily watched her.

“Everybody up, everybody up! You’re free now, they’re dead let’s go!” She said loudly.

A woman with short red hair was the first to listen to her, she had the most life in her eyes. Cece looked around to find the lab’s notes, they weren’t hidden since these people weren’t exactly cautious.

“Here.” Cece said handing the girl the bulky notes, her emaciated muscles struggling with the weight. “You could take these to the authorities if you want, probably won’t do much, a slap on the wrist for Solastria, but you never know. If I were you I would sell them to a silver- no a platinum family if you can contact the Osmi family, they could do far more harm to Solastria, and you can get some money from that. Shoot for five thousand Astrancs, okay? Now let’s go.” She said before letting anyone speak. She didn't want to talk to them, to empathize, she came here with a job and she had done it, and now she was getting out. If anyone didn't want to listen they were on their own.

After several moments of hesitation, and Cece pulling out her gun, their meager forms shuffled after her and she led them outside without encountering any staff except the butler. The second he saw her, he began groveling.

“Ma’am I’m so-”

“Save it.” She said, sending her last bullet into his skull. The captives all stopped moving in shock.

“Oh come on, keep moving, follow this road to Cestra, you’ll be there in two hours okay.” She pulled out a scroll, to capture the butler’s soul as well, waste not want not after all, right?

“Wait.” The redhead finally spoke.

“What.” Cece said, trying to not sound annoyed. She knew she should be nicer, but it was just so hard talking to people like this, it reminded her of how she used to be.

“You said Osmi, right?”

“Yes Osmi, barter for five thousand, no six thousand Astrancs, but if they offer five thousand five hundred take the offer, okay?

“Yes, thank you.” She said blinking in shock, before she started walking, helping the weaker ones keep going. Cece started walking the opposite direction towards her car.

“Good head on her shoulders that one.” She muttered to herself. She walked while absentmindedly considering the situation. It had been a bit messier than she would have liked, but it went better than she thought it would. Threats eliminated, and she got an extra soul! She didn’t have to kill any kids although she considered that the captives might try to do so, it depended on how involved they were, but she wasn’t involved past this point, she did her due diligence, but as far as she was concerned she was an outsider. Cece got to where her car was hidden, just as the illusion on her wore off, she climbed in, and started the drive back to the capital.

“four down, seventy-one to go.”