True to her name, Tiny Sneaky was sneaking through a tiny passage. It was very late at night, or perhaps very early in the morning —it didn't matter much to the ogress, whose concept of time didn't really go beyond day and night— and pretty much everyone in that weird and big palace she was in was asleep judging by the almost complete silence.

There were a few exceptions though, such as Boss Marcus's spare bodies. Like most Vex —well, more like all Vex save for Boss Marcus himself— these copies of her Boss didn't seem to ever fall asleep, and even when they were resting they remained awake, standing still with their eyes open. However, even these Copy Drones slowed down a bit when Boss Marcus was sleeping very deeply, usually very late at night. During those hours, the drones were still conscious but much less aware of their surroundings, making it much easier for Tiny to slip out of their sight. Just like she had done for four days in a row by now.

She didn't really know the exact reason she sneaked away like that. All she knew was that she had this urge, coming from the depths of her fractured mind, that made her scout out the territory she was in for escape routes and potential threats. And since Boss Marcus always scolded her when she got away from him, she had decided to do that without him knowing. After all, she wasn’t doing anything bad, and besides if she was careful he would likely never discover her nightly strolls.

Getting out of her rooms had been simple enough. Though the heavy metal door was impassable even for her, she had discovered that each room had these small holes in the walls, usually high up and hidden behind tapestries or furniture —air vents, though she didn't know what their name or their function was. Admittedly, those passages were far too small for anything bigger than a toddler, but for a shapeshifter like Tiny that wasn't too much of an obstacle. Moreover, she had quickly discovered that those holes led to a veritable network of small tunnels that seemingly spanned for kilometres, which allowed her to move through the lower levels of the castle without any risk of being seen. So, without any hesitation, she kept slithering through different passages each night, exploring those weird places and trying to find out if there was anything interesting around.

This night she was going pretty far away, rising through the tunnels to reach the upper levels which she had yet to explore and occasionally stopping to peek out of the air holes and into the rooms of the castle. She passed several closets, a warehouse and what looked like a well stocked larder —the latter forcing her to call upon all of her willpower not to stop for a quick snack— and finally, after climbing upwards for several levels, she arrived where the living quarters of the palace servants were located. Once again, no sound could be heard except for the occasional snoring, and she proceeded further. Then she arrived at what looked like a dead end, since the way ahead was blocked by a series of solid steel bars. Curiously enough, she could also see what looked like a cork panel beyond the bars, but a mouse or some other vermin had eaten a large hole through it. However, as peculiar as that was, it wasn’t interesting enough for Tiny to inspect it further, so she was about to get back and try a different way when suddenly she heard some voices. They were very muffled due to the distance and the cork panels in the way, but thanks to the mouse hole Tiny's sharp hearing could still clearly hear the conversation.

“Thank you for coming this late, master Darmerlen.” Someone said. “Sorry for not being available earlier, but I was busy with dispelling the security wards after the ceremony.”

Tiny didn't have a good memory, but that voice sounded familiar. However, before she could try to remember who that was, a second person started talking, sending a chill down the ogress's spine.

“Don't worry about it, Orr.” A stern, cold voice replied. “We all have our duties.”

Despite everything that had happened to her after her capture, Tiny's instincts were still as sharp as always, and right now they were screaming at her that the voice that had spoken last belonged to someone extremely dangerous. So she remained still, trying to erase her presence as much as she could. She was certain that if that dangerous person found her, then she would almost surely die.

In the silence that followed, the ogress could hear her heart beating incredibly loudly, to the point that she was sure that the dangerous person would hear it. But then there was the sound of someone sitting on a chair, and the first voice spoke again.

“Ah.” Orr sighed. “Pardon me if I sit down, master Darmerlen, but I'm starting to get a little tired. At my age standing up for too long becomes a challenge.”

“Don't worry, Orr.” The second person reassured him. “I'm quite familiar with the problems of old age too. However, I'd rather you keep calling me Dar, and don't be too deferential to me either. I am playing the part of an old colleague of yours after all, so we're supposed to behave as if we’re equals.”

“I know, but we are safe right now.” Orr said. “I've prepared this room specifically to safely discuss things in private, so there is no way that we could be overheard.”

“Even so, I'd rather not relax for now, not even when we are in private.” Darmerlen —or Dar as he wanted to be called— replied. “We've got to seem completely natural when we interact, and keeping up the act at all times should reduce the risk of any of us making a mistake.”

“Very well. As you wish, Dar.”

“Good. Now let's get down to business, shall we? The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get to bed.”

“That's music to my ears.” Orr approved. “Messing up my sleeping schedule isn't good at my age. I already get little sleep as it is, without having to stay up this late.” He sighed. “So, now that you've met her, what is your opinion on our lovely countess Marcus?”

Hearing the name of her Boss, Tiny immediately started paying more attention. She did wonder what the word “countess” meant though.

“Well, for the most part she's exactly as you told me.” Dar replied. “Friendly, clumsy, honest to a fault, a bit naïve and clearly out of her depth when it comes to politics or subterfuge. No overt signs of ambition or thirst for power either. And I don't believe that this is a facade. It's too perfect to be anything else than her true self.”

“I thought so.” Orr said with satisfaction. “I've got a good eye for people, if I can say so myself, and I've rarely met such an honest and straightforward person such as Lady Marcus. That would make it really easy to work with her, and considering her powers she could become a great asset to the kingdom, and therefore to the whole empire.”

“Yeah, she certainly could be.” Dar agreed. “However, the potential threat she presents is still too great, so under normal circumstances we should still get rid of her.”

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There was a stunned silence for a moment, before Orr spoke again.

“That seems a bit extreme to me.” The old man protested. “After all, given her personality, it’s extremely unlikely that she'd turn on us unless we provoked her first.”

“That's correct. But it's based only on her current personality. There is no assurance that she won't change in the future.”

“I thought that this is what contingency plans were for.” Orr argued. “To be ready to neutralise her in case she turns hostile. That's the reason we tried that experiment with the Crown of Silence, after all. To ascertain whether or not our usual methods of Aura Suppression would work on her.” He paused for a second, as if he had realised something, and then asked: “Or is that actually the problem? Are you so wary of her because you've noticed some problem with the Crown?”

“No, the Crown of Silence works perfectly as far as I can tell, which in turn means that a Null Crown should also work fine.” Dar replied. “However, the real problem is that the stakes are just too high. With her telepathic powers and her army of utterly devoted minions, countess Marcus is already a substantial threat after only one year from her initial appearance. So how much more powerful could she become in a few years from now? She might as well grow to be an existential threat for the whole Empire. And if perchance we miss the signs of her turning hostile, she might cause untold damage before we could react.”

A few moments of silence followed, as Orr processed these words.

“When you put it like that, I think I can see the point you're trying to make.” The Magister then said in a rather resigned tone. “So I assume that what you're proposing is that we should arrange a fatal accident to befall the Countess as soon as possible, is it?”

“Wrong again.” Was the immediate response. “I said that we should do that under normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances, and taking any action against her would be premature for now.”

“Why?”

“Because we might actually need her help to face the upcoming World Crisis.”

“Oh yeah. I almost forgot about that.” Orr replied, sounding a bit relieved. “So, your plan is to use her against whatever horror spawns during the Crisis and then get rid of her?”

“More or less.” Dar confirmed. “And as a plus, we also get to use her against any other Outsider that may appear in the meantime. She already proved to be a valuable asset against the Oni and there might actually be others of their kind still lurking around. However, we have to be extremely vigilant and keep an eye on her at all times. We can't risk having her turn against us before the Crisis is over.”

“Don't worry, I’ll take care of that.” The Magister reassured him. “It shouldn't be too difficult, since she already agreed to have me study her species, so I have the perfect excuse to visit her territory, or maybe send someone in my stead if I can’t go personally.”

“That's good, but make sure to always keep your mental defences up when you are near her. Otherwise, you might get influenced by her mental powers.” Dar warned the old man.

“Of course. I was already doing that.”

“Excellent. Oh, and by the way, I think that you should also use the same precautions when you meet with the other Outsider, the Arachne called Anak'si.”

“Why? Do you think she also has some mental powers?”

“She just might. After all, she is an Outsider too, and her kind often possesses several weird powers and skills. So it's best to play it safe and assume that all of them could mess with your head, one way or the other.”

There was another pause, and then Orr asked:

“You know something about Outsiders that you don't want to tell me, do you?”

“Maybe.” Dar replied, and for just a moment his voice had a hint of what could almost be called amusement in it. “You’re really sharp Orr, and lying to you would be hard, so I’d rather just ask that you trust me and drop this matter for the time being.”

“Well, I certainly appreciate your honesty.” Orr commented sardonically. “Anyway, I’ll do as you ask. After all, it'd be foolish to ignore the Black Sorcerer's suggestions.”

“Thank you Orr. However, I once again must ask you not to use my name or title.” Dar said, his voice turning cold and professional again.

“I apologize.” Orr immediately replied. “I really must be getting tired right now, because otherwise I’d never make such a slip.”

“That's understandable. After all, it is very late and you worked hard all day. Do you want to stop here for tonight then? We can resume our conversation tomorrow, if you want.”

“Yeah, that's probably for the best.” The old man agreed. “I am getting a bit too sleepy to keep discussing important business.”

“Very well. I'll get in contact with you in the afternoon then.”

The old man then grunted, probably from the effort of getting up from his chair, and then there was the sound of footsteps followed by that of a door opening and closing. After that, complete silence returned once again.

Tiny waited a few minutes to start moving, just to be safe. In the meantime, she thought about what she had heard. Though she hadn’t been able to completely follow the discourse, since it was too complicated for her, one thing was clear: the two people who had been speaking were plotting to do something bad to her Boss because they were scared of him. And while Tiny had complete confidence in her Boss’s power, the second person seemed quite dangerous, so it was probably better to warn Boss Marcus about him.

Then, since nothing new happened and there were no noises whatsoever, Tiny turned around and started crawling back to her rooms. This time she was extra careful to not make any noise and stayed away from the vents on the way, fearing the possibility of being seen. But luckily no accidents happened, and she safely reached her destination.

The ogress slid back into her bedroom through a vent hidden behind a tapestry and then spent a few minutes to shapeshift back to her usual form, moving her muscles and bones to their original position. Then, when she could walk upright again, she got out of her hiding spot and started searching for her Boss.

Luckily, she didn't have to look far. One of Boss Marcus's bodies was in the bedroom, currently sitting on the bed and resting with its eyes open, immobile and unblinking. Tiny took a sigh of relief and immediately approached the clone.

“Boss!” She cried. “Tiny has something important to tell you!”

The spare body immediately turned to her, giving her a blank stare, but it took a few moments for it to actually speak.

“What is it, Tiny?” The copy drone then asked in an emotionless voice.

“Tiny heard bad people talking through the walls! They were talking of harming Boss!” She explained frantically.

The drone kept staring at Tiny for a few seconds, taking some time to process her words. That wasn't a surprise though, since Boss Marcus's drones were always a bit slow at this time of the night, so the ogress waited patiently.

“I didn't hear anything.” The copy drone said. “Are you sure it wasn't just another bad dream?”

“Yes, Tiny is sure!” The ogress replied. “Tiny went into the walls when everyone was sleeping, but in a room there were bad voices who did not sleep! One voice was that of old man, while the other voice was cold and full of danger! They were speaking of using Boss to fight something called... Crucis or something, and then they are going to kill Boss when it is done!”

This time the drone remained silent even longer, since it struggled to make sense of the ogress’s confused discourse.

“That sounds like a bad dream to me.” It then said after almost a minute. “Just try to sleep it over. We'll talk about it tomorrow if you'll still be worried about it by then.”

“But isn't Boss worried about bad voices who want to harm Boss?” The ogress asked.

“Not really. Right now I'm more worried about waking up completely.” The drone replied. “It's been a long day Tiny, so please just calm down and let me sleep. I'm sure that even if you did hear something, it won't turn into a problem before tomorrow morning.”

Tiny hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. After all, if her Boss wasn't worried, then she probably didn't have any reason to be either. After all, he was much more powerful and smart than she was.

“Tiny trust Boss, so Tiny will do as Boss says.”

“Excellent.” The drone said. “Goodnight then Tiny.”

“Goodnight Boss!”

The ogress then laid down on the bed, grabbing the copy-drone and hugging it like a teddy bear. Only a few minutes later she was snoring loudly, her fear and worries completely forgotten now that she was safe beside her Boss.