"Straight" turned out to be somewhat of an exaggeration.

However, by the time Lowe had stopped off at home to refresh his clothes, clarified a few details about the Priestess's schedule with Mylaf and then stopped by Cuckoo House to make nice with Cenorth, the Celestial Temple was absolutely his next visit.

Things had started to slot into place some time into his third bell of torture. It was funny how being repeatedly punched in the head seemed to help his deductive process. If he survived what was coming, he might need to try it out as part of his usual way of working. From the conversation he had just had with Cenorth, his boss appeared very open to putting together a team to help with a series of experiments of this nature.

Nevertheless, after first Mylaf and then his own detailed examination of Grid View had helped the jigsaw puzzle fill in, he was returning to the Temple with the first real moments of epiphany he'd had since the case began.

"I really don't think you should be coming with me," he whispered to his companion for the fifty-eight time.

Arebella smiled grimly and kept matching him stride for stride. "You are neither as brave as you pretend nor as smart as you think you are. At the very least, you need a good lawyer with you when you try this."

"And in the absence of a good one, you thought you'd step up?"

She kicked him in the shins. Roll with the Punches fixed the graze instantly, and his mana was returned to full even before her foot was back on the ground. Rank 2 was nothing to be sneezed at.

"Settle down, lovebirds," Hel said, her voice drifting across the spiralling tendril of wind she'd attached to their ears. "We're trying for covert infiltration. Enough people are already thinking the thin streak of piss in the cheap suit is spectacularly punching without anything happening to suggest this is a hostage situation."

"Fuck off, Hel." Lowe's irritation was more than slightly undercut by Arebella's giggling.

The towering height of the Celestial Temple loomed above them when they paused to reconfirm the plan of action. It seemed like the temporary block on sub-25 entry had been removed, and there were - literally - thousands of people flowing in and out of the entrance hall.

"I can't see Mr Law anywhere," Lowe murmured.

"Of course you can't," Tenia was using the much more intrusive method of communication of having her words etched in dripping blood on the inside of Lowe's eyeballs. He was pretty sure that once this was all over and done with, he didn't want anything to do with a ever again. "He doesn't need to be stood at the gate checking tickets like a wanker. He has people for that."

"Any chance Hel can do the talking? I'm in danger of looking like I have epic conjunctivitis, and, as she said, we're aiming for discrete here."

"How about we all start acting like we're on a covert mission and shut the fuck up. Lowe, look straight ahead. Four basic pretending to read newspapers. One of them is clearly the genius of the group, as he has it the right way up. There's another pair to the far left - again, common-or-garden muscle - and the same again about a dozen paces behind you. Don't look!" she hissed as his head almost instinctively jerked around.

"Someone really doesn't want you going in there," the words in blood dripped down his face, and Arebella handed him a handkerchief. "Make's a person wonder why."

"We can be sure to ask them - " Hel's voice was soft - "or at least one of them. Very briefly. Charl, clear the way for our sweethearts. Tenia, you go left. I'll take care of those at the back. Lowe, you understand that we will be of limited operational use once we get you in there. If your friend isn't on duty - or, more importantly, willing to help - it could get messy."

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"Messy is where I live," Lowe said, the phrase sounding an awful lot cooler in his head than it did out loud.

"It's true. He has some shocking personal habits," Arebella noted helpfully.

"Children!" Hel buffeted them both with a quick pulse of wind.

"Just get me in there, Hel. I have a funny feeling Latham will be exactly where I need him."

*

was a fairly sucky Class.

There was a school of thought that being Classless was actually preferable as the demerits of selecting it were so significant. Sure, even a Level 15 had Strength enough to bend iron bars and enough Stamina to keep punching away long after more prestigious Classes had given up and gone home. However, there was such a commensurate drop in all other attributes that it was one of the few Classes that, once chosen, was unlikely to evolve. If this was not reason enough to steer clear, the gods of Soar were generally pretty unimpressed with worshippers who picked a Class with such limited scope for improvement. Only those right at the bottom of the Celestial Temple - the ones whose avatars tended to share offices and hang around the water cooler - would take an interest in them. This limited the range of patron-gifted Skills and upgrades, meaning that once the Class was locked in, it would pretty much become a dead end.

But not as much of a dead end as being a attempting to fight an elite 'Out of Bounds' squad. That pretty much redefined the term 'futile'.

Lowe didn't even see what happened to them, but suddenly those Hel had pointed out were no longer there, and he and Arebella were walking past a slightly bemused who was trying to brush blood off his coat.

"Where in Soar did that come from?" Lowe heard him murmur as they slipped past him inside the Temple proper.

"Good luck, guys," Hel whispered. "We'll do what we can to run interference."

"With the emphasis on 'run' if that fucking Advanced Class shows up," Tenia added, the words in some strange gothic font this time.

And then they were gone.

Arebella touched his arm. "Come on, Jana. No point in dragging this out."

And with that, they activated the portal stone to the Second Floor.

*

"I have no appointment for you, Mr Lowe. And - as I am sure you can appreciate - the Speaker of Yolgorth is a very busy avatar."

"I think he will want to speak to my client." Lowe had never before had the opportunity to witness Arebella in full 'lawyer' mode, and it was doing a lot for him. "Please run along and let him know we are here."

Szana, an , stared daggers back. As she appeared to have a number of unusual upgrades courtesy of Yolgorth, this was not a metaphor.

Lowe did the chivalric thing and stepped forward to tank them. They vanished as soon as they made contact with him, Roll with the Punches making the wounds vanish in a heartbeat.

"Assaulting a member of the Security Services during the course of his investigation is an interesting life choice. Interesting and somewhat devastatingly stupid. And not to mention," Arebella produced a thick book, flicked through it and found the statute she was looking for, "you are in breach of the Convention of Bugs, which forbids anyone in the employ of a post-Fourth Floor avatar from using offensive Skills against anyone sub-27. You are aware of the Convention of Bugs, I presume. It's an anti-paedophile law."

The perfectly manicured eyebrows shot upwards. "Anti-paedophile! He's at least twice my age!"

"I mean, I know I've had a rough couple of days, but that's a fairly harsh judgement."

"Hush, Jana. And half your level. The Convention noted that the power imbalance between those who work at the higher levels of the Celestial Temple and those below 27 was so significant that special circumstances apply. What you have just done should get you at least ten years in a very, very special prison. Unless . . . "

"Let me quickly contact the Speaker."

"Excellent choice."

Arebella and Lowe were left alone in the outer office. "Convention of Bugs?" Lowe asked.

"All those years of studying alone at night, waiting for my boyfriend to come home for whatever case he saw as more interesting than me counted for something."

"Interesting." Lowe took the book Arebella was quoting from off her. "And this had all that information in it, did it? The latest Hyran Fox romantic novel?"

Arebella blushed most pleasingly. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Why, Ms Telut. I had no idea you were so sneaky."

She was spared answering further as the door to the inner chamber opened, and a rather white-faced gestured for them to come inside. "You have until the next bell."

"Thank you, Szana. Your assistance has been noted."

"And the other matter?"

Arebella flashed her a wide smile. "I think, on this occasion, we can let it slide."

They pushed past her to begin their audience with Mdamic, Speaker of Yolgorth and pre-eminent challenger to Arkola's dominance over Soar.