Half an hour after deciding on this plan with Elise, I became convinced we were heading for disaster.

The alterations had gone well. At first. Then the staff knocked on the door and told Elise that because of security concerns, the entire first layer would need to be evacuated within half an hour.

“This will not work,” I muttered, looking in the mirror.

You could see the thickened bone where my horns had been, hurriedly covered up by skin. Skin that was supposed to be the same shade as Petroula, but I’d only managed a few layers so far, so the color looked off.

Facial structure was….I’d done the best I could but adjusting bones up there was always the trickiest part. I suppose I should be proud of the fact I looked like a member of my mother’s family pretending to be Illtean. Well, outside the coloration which could be explained. If I’d spent most of today in a freezing icy lake before coming here.

“This will not work,” I repeated louder as I stretched my eyelids, looking at the altered eyeball. It didn’t look too bad, as long as no one peered too close at the pupil and spotted the botched alterations there. How had a straight line snuck in there? This happened when you asked an artist to work under pressure.

“Have more confidence,” Elise said with force cheer. “Just think, its this or we go back to the kidnapping plan.”

“The failings of this one don’t mean we go back to kidnapping,” I said. “Just that we need a fresh approach.”

“In about fifteen minutes?”

The time left was a bit of an issue. The guards were only being polite, probably because they assumed Elise would have nothing to do with that pair of Changers, and that she’d still been in here when they came knocking.

The moment someone’s mind happened across the possibility a third person could have snuck in as a changer shrunken down among what we’d carried inside that politeness would evaporate.

“I could turn myself in,” I suggested. “Give you the papers to take out, say I tricked you, and you can get them to Doctor Dawes.”

Elise shook her head. “No, father would kill you! And that’s if they didn’t just take you to the crown.”

“He wouldn’t kill me straight away,” I countered. “There’d be torture first to ferret out what I was doing. And I’m sure your father has nothing I’ve never felt before in that department.”

Not knives to start with. Lord Montague seemed a little squeamish and probably not eager to witness that kind of mess. Not that he’d ever wield a knife himself, but I’d bet on him going for methods that wouldn’t turn his stomach when he came in to see the results. Probably one of those devices or spells invented to just cause pain.

“That is still horrifying,” Elise protested. “We can try the disguise.”

“If we try the disguise and get caught out, you get implicated and we don’t get those papers out at all,” I replied. “I can deal with a few hours of discomfort. Your father seems squeamish, so I doubt he’ll do too much that can leave a mark.”

He might not need to do much for marks to appear. Some parts of me didn’t hurt, but a lot of me was hurriedly joined and closed skin over wounds. I’d done the best I could with the time I had, but much like how the coloration changes were barely skin deep, so was my healing of the wounds I’d suffered inside the Archive. Skin hastily joined, the interior left split and probably still bleeding. I’d need a potion, or preferably a few hours, to work over the damage.

Also, despite our best efforts, the dress still had smudges of dirt and grime and tears from imp claws. So that also was going to give me away pretty quickly.

“Our backup plan is not you being tortured,” Elise snapped. “Listen, what if we-”

There was a harsh rapping on the door. It shook as a sound like the sound of thunder echoed across the room. The hells? Not even the butt of a rifle made that noise.

“Mistress Elise?” A gruff voice barked from the other side. “Are you in there?”

Elise’s eyes widened as she turned to the door. Clearly, she recognized the voice, and it looked like they weren’t supposed to be in there.

“Mitchell? Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with Edward?”

“A situation has arisen,” the gruff voice said, and as it continued, I could hear the muffled sound of distant shouts and arguing. “Can you open the door? We need to take you to the estate immediately.”

“Uh…” eyes wide, Elise turned to me and I could only shrug. This might actually be the perfect time to turn myself in.

The door shuddered, then swung open as nearly two dozen people tried to squeeze through all at once. Somehow they made it past without serious injury to themselves.

Half of the people shoving themselves inside were in the colors of Lord Montague, including my old friend the human who’d been changed to be like an ogre. I drew back into the bookshelves while Elise tried to say something only to be overwhelmed by the cacophonous sound of multiple voices trying to speak over each other.

The leader of the Montague guards was a tall man, with brown eyes, rust red sideburns, and bits of grey mixed in.

“My lady, we need to leave this place now,” he hurriedly told Elise and not paying me any mind, thankfully. “Its-”

Whatever was about to be said next was cut off by one of the archive staff yelling at him about how they needed to turn around and head to the entrance now, and soon the entire group dissolved into arguing.

It at least wasn’t devolving into threats with weapons, and somehow no one was noticing the strange abomination standing awkwardly in the back. I began to quietly inch towards the door.

Eventually, things grew quieter as Elise demanded someone explain what was going on as I slipped behind the Montague guards.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Shape-changers attacked the tea party your father was attending,” Mitchell told Elise and my breath caught in my throat. “They were disguised as you and your eldest brother. They killed many members of the party before making their escape.”

Elise paled. “Many….are any of my family alright?”

“They all are, although your brother Gregory’s companion was killed,” Mitchell said, the mild expression of distaste that passed over his face telling me all I needed to know of his thoughts on that. “Gregory and Henry both suffered minor wounds and are currently recovering at your estate. We’re to bring you there immediately.”

While Elise continued arguing, I retreated inside my own thoughts. Tagashin? Dead? I could only hope trickery had been involved. No matter how infuriating the Kitsune was, she didn’t deserve death.

“Your father has demanded you be brought to the family estate now,” one of them said. “We can be better assured of your protection there.”

That rankled the Archive staff in here with us, who looked on in a distinct lack of amusement.

I said nothing as I considered how to get out of here. I didn’t want to bring attention to myself, and also my mouth had far too many pointed teeth inside to pass as human.

“Her ladyship is perfectly safe inside here,” one of the Archive guards snapped. “Honestly, the only risk was the chaos you all caused rushing in here!”

Which sounded like an opportunity. I caught Elise’s gaze as I continued inching my way out. I just needed one last distraction, sure to grab all attention.

She inclined her head ever so slightly, then with her eyes rolling upwards, collapsed onto the ground.

That drew every eye as it looked like the Archive and Household guards were racing each other to reach the fainted lady, and with a small grin, I snuck out. Sure, there was still the checkpoint, but I would figure something out.

***

I got waved past. I could barely believe it. I stood near the checkpoint, looking at the guard, almost in disbelief.

“I can go?” I asked slowly, and they rolled their eyes and nodded.

“Yes.”

Hesitantly, I walked forward a few steps, then when no one tried to tackle me or pull a weapon, moved more confidently away from the archive’s entrance.

Behind me, my enhanced ears picked up a few key remarks about how dumb nobles were being about mixing races and how it was probably going to end poorly for one of them in the future.

Well, as I hurried along, the quick efforts done to repair my body threatening to come undone any second, I couldn’t disagree with the sentiment.

The bit after about how Intelligence always gave him the shite jobs like cleaning after Voltar’s gaggle of misfits I could not. Well, that explained some things at least. And given how it would be very unprofessional to reveal something like that, was probably meant for me to hear.

Something to chew on while I hurried back to Voltar’s house.

***

“-so after the changer stabbed the fake body I’d made of you, I just stayed invisible, helped keep your dear friend alive, and tried to fight them off.”

I nodded numbly, letting some tea take the edge off as the mixture I’d imbibed did its best to keep me together. I’d taken it soon after getting here to find an alive, well, and far too cheerful Tagashin enjoying tea with Doctor Dawes. After letting it seal my wounds shut just a little, I’d come down here to listen to her story of the tea party.

“They eventually fled once they realized they wouldn’t be able to kill Gregory easily, and soon after that, his father came over to confirm your death. He interrupted a nice little conversation between the two of us doing that.”

“What was the conversation about?” I asked, trying to hide my interest in whatever Tagashin and Gregory had chatted about in private. The Kitsune had been frustratingly vague about each one of those conversations.

From the looks on Dawes’ and Tagashin’s faces, my interest was not particularly well hidden.

“It was a private conversation,” Tagashin said with a grin.

I wanted to pry, but conceded for now. Pushing wouldn’t gain me anything.

“So, Lord Montague has decided to handle any inconvenient witnesses,” I said, looking down at the first of the two documents I’d brought back with me. “After that I wonder how long till he betrays the shape-changers?”

“Who knows?” Dawes said, leaning back in his chair, expression grim. “I’ll need to contact people, and quickly. Killing you and his son might be the limit, but if he decides he needs to remove myself and Voltar from the picture, there are people who must be warned.”

“Take Tagashin with you,” I suggested. “If it can wait, I might heal my leg soon, but otherwise find a few more people as well. We can’t move about alone. That’s just begging for the worse to happen.”

Something I’d been guilty of that night of the party.

“Or you could just send letters,” Tagashin said with a yawn. “I’m already pretty tired of fighting these things.”

“Mails too easily intercepted,” I said.

“And some of Voltar’s associates will only listen if it’s him or me in person,” Dawes added. “Especially some ones who need to be warned the most. How far do you think Lord Montague’s ambition stretches?”

That was a good and potentially terrifying question.

“He has a group of shape-changing assassins and a long list of grudges,” I said. “He has to deal with the fact the relationship isn’t what I’d call friendly. They will not tolerate being blackmailed with the information they want for too long. I think he realizes that though, I doubt they were just in the Archive to steal his records. So he’s trying to fulfill his end of the bargain, probably because before they were just after his archive access and willing to play the long game. If he tries to double-cross them? He makes them both angry and desperate.”

Mind you, the long-game approach was only a theory for the target the shape-changers had selected. Going after Lord Montague’s heir instead of him probably meant they would wait for the shape-changer who replaced Edward Montague to inherit access to the Archive. But then the raid on the party itself had hardly been what I’d call careful and with the long term in mind. A sunk cost being pursued?

Moot for now. What was important was what I’d gained from the Archive.

“There has to be somebody we can show this to,” I muttered. “If we have Imperial Intelligence this, do you think they could get us the books so we could confirm it? At a minimum, we can show that Lord Montague let a pair of shape-changers into the archive, knowingly or not.”

We both turned to look at Dawes, who was in the middle of scrutinizing said paper.

“I can send these to my contact,” he said. “And see when Voltar will be back. This situation might trump what they’ve sent him to handle.”

“What did they send him to handle?” I asked, curious about what was so important it had demanded Voltar’s attention away from shape-changers loose in the Empire’s capital.

“I don’t know how much I can say,” Dawes admitted.

“Oh, what you are reluctant to do , I will be happy to share,” Tagashin said. “Voltar is off handling- hrrk!”

The Kitsune seized up, toppling backwards off her chair as he paws scrambled at her throat as if trying to pry hands off of it. I got up from my chair, uncertain if I even could help. I had no genuine fondness for the Kitsune, but this seemed several steps too far.

“Please Tagashin,” Dawes said tiredly. “Enough theatrics. I’ve temporarily silenced your voice. Nothing more.”

The Kitsune’s scrambling stopped as she pouted at Dawes.

“It’s a serious concern,” Dawes told me. “One that is greater than this? Perhaps not, but no one knew where this case might go when he left.”

“Seems short-sighted,” I commented. “Shape-changers aren’t something you should ever let out of your sight. That’s when the problems start.”

“To be fair, Shape-changer was one of a few different theories he was entertaining,” Dawes said. “There wasn’t confirmation till the Warehouse after he left.”

Well, that was a little disappointing, but answered an idle curiosity. I had met the Empire’s Greatest Detective, with the trade-off between him and Tagashin occurring before then. Probably right before then, if I had to guess.

“We have another avenue,” I said, getting up. “While you take these to your contacts in Intelligence-”

“I wanted you along for that,” Dr. Dawes protested. “You need to meet them at some point.”

That I did, but something else needed to be attended to first. I could not imagine how much I owed for help to get out of that Archive. And anything else they might have been helping with from the shadows.

“I do, and if you insist I must come, I will. But unless it’s necessary, I think it is time to go talk to Mr. Hawkins.”