The blizzard was getting thick enough that Mouse could only just barely see the complex their target was supposed to be working in. An L-shaped building out in the middle of nowhere, its walls as white as the landscape surrounding it, getting steadily buried under mounds of snow and a howling wind.

It had been hard enough to find. Now, Mouse stood between Owl and Fox far out of sight on a tall hill, the three of them deciding how they would sneak in.

"Fingerprint scans, ID checks, a couple trained guards at each point of entry," Fox muttered. Like the rest she donned a heavy parka, and her face was covered by a pair of binoculars. "These guys don't mess around. But I think our usual can work."

The usual being having Owl sneak in by herself, eliminate someone important enough on the inside, then bring the body back for Fox to transform into an identity that was, unbeknownst to everyone else, thoroughly deceased. Those two certainly made for a terrifying combination when it came to infiltrating high places.

"What about me?" Mouse asked.

"Hm... We could always just leave you out here."

"Be serious," Owl said. "We're all needed if we want to get this done."

"I know. That was a joke."

They had two objectives. One was to kill the top dog at whatever research center this was supposed to be, and the other was to destroy all their documents. Seeing as this lead Artificer might not be in their office, and seeing as they'd more than likely get caught if they stuck around too long, the best course of action was to split up. Fox and Owl would go one way while Mouse went another.

After a long moment of thought, Fox shrugged. "I guess we'll have to be a little more obvious this time. Clean out an exit, go fast, and hope this weather keeps anyone from checking in outside before we're done."

They could've thought of a better plan, but Father had made it clear they couldn't take their time with this mission. Apparently the Artificers here were on the precipice of some kind of breakthrough, and someone out there wanted it stopped badly enough to get the House to put a stop to it. That was all they'd been told, and while Mouse did wonder what this supposed breakthrough even was, she'd long learned it shouldn't matter to her why the job had to get done, so she hadn't asked for more on the subject.

It would have to be fast and dirty, then. "Works for me," Mouse said. "Owl and I can go. We'll signal you when we're done."

"Have fun."

Mouse nodded, and from her periphery saw Owl sink into the ground, slipping into her shadow. She trudged forward through the snow, wrapping her arms around herself, pretending at cold and fear.

The guards outside would see a little girl shivering and stumbling around in the middle of a storm. They'd be wary, but then they'd be worried. They'd ask who she was, where her parents were, what they could do to help. Then they would die, and no one would hear them scream. Just like always.

- - - — MKII — - - -

Inside, Jason Column walked through pristine white halls, passing by glass door after glass door. He looked through them and through his youthful, well-groomed reflection to see a seemingly endless assortment of men and women in lab coats, some donning goggles and masks, some jotting down notes on clipboards, all of them fiddling with a series of objects that had no rhyme or reason. A golden ball etched with strange runes, a cloth mask hung inside a steel container, a Stratocaster guitar whose strings exuded a blue glow.

He'd been told this was the biggest Talisman research institute anywhere in the western hemisphere. So far those expectations hadn't been disappointed, and the grandeur of it all honestly made him feel a bit out of place. He had to be at least ten years younger than anyone else here, and his jeans didn't exactly scream "professional."

Beside him walked one of the lab-coated men, hands behind his poised back. Kilmer, he'd introduced himself as, the same name written out on the name tag he had pinned to his chest. Stout and nearly bald and not particularly friendly, but that was somewhat understandable. At the end of the day Jason was just some random Ranger, and the sword now strapped to his hip was the only reason he'd even been allowed inside. Kilmer probably thought he had better things to do than serve as a tour guide, and that was fair enough.

Still, Jason figured he might as well try being friendly. "Where do you even get all of these?" he asked. "I thought Talismans were supposed to be rare."

Kilmer grunted. "Donations, mostly. A few from the Chairman himself." He sighed. "You can imagine why we'd need your services. Not many would volunteer a Talisman for our purposes, and even less would volunteer a powerful one. Even a temporary arrangement like this is more than we usually get."

"Sure. Glad to help."

Kilmer grunted again, and Jason guessed that was as appreciative as he'd get. Thankfully, they weren't alone for much longer.

Turning the corner, they came to a wide and tall room, one of its walls taken up entirely by glass. There they found a small group of people murmuring to themselves, most of them Artificers. Noticing Jason, two of them stepped forward, a man and a woman, the latter donning a lab coat like the other Artificers and the former kitted like the guards Jason had seen around the place, clothes dark and padded at the joints.

"There you are," the woman said, smiling. "I hope the trip wasn't too bad."

Glancing down at her name tag, Jason read Faye. A fitting enough name for someone as dainty as her, thin as a rail and at least two heads shorter than him, surely about as old as the other Artificers yet strangely youthful. It was the way her eyes sparkled at everything, the way her lips curved into dimples, the way her thick round glasses looked far too big on her face.

All of it made Jason smile back quite easily. "It wasn't much. I just missed the weather."

"You got lucky," said the man, and when Jason found no name tag on his shirt he held out a hand, jaw set hard. "Vincent, head of security. Just here to make sure you don't cause any trouble, Mr. Jason."

His grip was hard enough to make Jason believe it, but Faye slapped Vincent on the arm before he could get carried away. "Don't listen to this doofus," she said. "The Chairman said you were a good kid, and that's good enough for me. Vincent is just overprotective."

Letting go, Vince's face broke in a chuckle, and Jason could see the well-trodden laugh lines along his nose. He looked like a soldier, and his accent sounded decidedly rural—all in all, he seemed as out of place here as Jason himself, and the thought was nice enough to ease the tension on the younger man's shoulders.

"You'll forgive any hard nosin' on my part," Vincent said. "The folks here're smart, but they ain't what you'd call tough." He patted the silver gun strapped to his thigh. "That's my contribution."

Jason nodded. "I can respect that."

Kilmer cleared his throat. "If you don't mind, Faye..."

"Ah, right," the woman said, a bit distracted. She inclined her head towards the hall. "Fell free to go, Kilmer. We'll take it from here."

Grunting for a third and final time, Kilmer turned on his heel and walked off. Jason saw him go, brow raised. Some people just couldn't be pleased.

Faye noted his look, her smile dimming. "He's not too bad, once you get used to him. And I'm sure he'll be plenty excited once he sees the results of our test."

Jason waved it off; he didn't want any trouble on his account. "Don't worry about it. I'm just a visitor here."

"A very valuable visitor," Faye said, taking him by the arm. She led him past Vincent and to the other Artificers, all of whom quieted down at their approach. "Your sword is exactly what we need to complete our research. We'll set up some targets; I hope the space is big enough?"

"I... think so?" Jason looked around, measuring the distance.

The place was about as big as half a football field, and he noticed the counter by the wall and the kitchen beyond it. This had been a cafeteria, he realized, even if it seemed as sterile as everywhere else in the building. They must've removed all the tables and chairs, all so he'd have more room to work with.

With a nod from Faye, the others got to work. Some began putting up some tackling dummies they'd kept crowded by the corner while others went across the room and drew lines with a marker, the floor clean enough that the red ink lay stark atop it. All worked in concentrated silence, though even then Jason could sense a hum in the air, excitement clear in every motion.

"You guys're taking this pretty seriously," he muttered.

Vincent let out a bark of laughter. "You've been the talk of the town ever since we got the go-ahead for your visit. These folks've been waitin' for a chance like this for a good long while."

"Mind telling me why?"

Faye turned to him, grin almost splitting her face. "Jason, you're about to revolutionize the entire field of paranology. We're talking a Newton-level leap forward in Talisman duplication, and possibly a lot more."

"... Right..."

It had clearly gone over his head. Smile turning indulgent, Faye led him to the edge of the room by the windows, Vincent following. Outside they could see the blizzard had well and truly arrived, blanketing the view in frizzy whiteness and pounding against the glass.

"When you sense someone's Spirit," Faye said, "what you're picking up on is their Spirit Signature. The specific flow of their Spirit that makes it unique from everyone else's. A Magician's Art is just a manifestation of that Signature, the product. Make sense so far?"

Jason scratched the back of his head, feeling the full consequences of having dropped out of school. He glanced at Vincent, who just shrugged, wordlessly telling him that he was pretty much on his own here. "Kind of?"

"When a Talisman gets made—I'm sure you know how that happens?" Faye waited for Jason's nod, slow as it was. "When it gets made, it's because a Magician's Spirit enters an object and leaves a... an echo. In a way, Talismans are really just replicas of the living person. That's why they can perform the same Art, you see? Their Spirit Signature is the same."

"And you've been studying this stuff?"

"That?" Faye gave a little giggle. "No, that's just the basics. But if you wanna know what we're doing, you have to know about Spirit Signatures, because it's the most important thing we Artificers learn to read." She gazed up at him coyly, adjusting her glasses. "I can get a good sense of yours now. Just feeling it... An Outer Art, right? Something like... Force emission?"

Jason stepped back, pulling his arm from her grasp. She giggled again, and even Vincent chuckled at the shock on his face, but Jason couldn't help his surprise because he knew Faye hadn't been told about his Trick. She must've used some version of Spirit Sense, but that wasn't possible, because if she had then Jason should've felt her Spirit with his own, and he very much had not.

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"I guess... I need more practice," he said, meeting her smile with a wary one of his own.

"It's not your fault," Faye said, softening. "Any decent Artificer could do the same thing. Just think about what I told you. If we want to duplicate a Talisman, what would be the first step?"

Looking away, Jason mulled it over. She hadn't told him much, but judging by what she had shared, the answer seemed rather straightforward. "You'd need the Spirit Signature, right?"

"Yep. The first step an Artificer needs to be able to do is replicate someone else's Spirit Signature." Faye frowned. "I guess you could even say it's our job to be able to learn other people's Arts. Not easy, but the more you do it the easier it gets. Our Spirits get pretty malleable that way."

Jason gaped. "So you could just copy any Trick you wanted?"

"Ha, I wish! No, all we do is... I guess you could say we draw up a blueprint. I know how your Spirit works, and I can make my Spirit take the same shape, but if I tried to actually apply it, the Art would just fizzle out." She held her hands out and sighed. "Thing is, we Artificers already have our own Art, called Embedding. That's the second step to making a Duplicate Talisman. We take the blueprint of the original's Signature and push it into another object with our own Spirit."

"And because your Embedding Trick already takes up a bunch of space in your Signature," Jason said, words slow, "that's what keeps you from, uh... building those blueprints yourself?"

"Correct! You know, you're pretty quick."

Jason smiled. "I do alright."

"Anyway, here's where what we're doing today comes in." Faye glanced at the other Artificers, who seemed almost done setting up. "The big problem with how we currently go about things is that we can only duplicate Talismans with a simple function. You've probably seen some of our Dupes before. Those handcuffs all the Enforcers carry around, for one." She raised a brow and Jason nodded. "Super easy to reproduce, because the only function in its Signature is to plug the flow of Spirit. But then there's a Talisman like yours."

Faye looked down at it, and Jason did the same. Even sheathed, his sword had a certain draw to it, a weight that made its golden crossguard seem somehow more solid than it already was. Maybe that had to do with its Spirit Signature too.

"Such a deceptively complex function. Very few Magicians are ever able to make an Art this powerful, much less imbue it into an object when they die. That's why it's Peerless, you see? Duplicating it with our current technique would be just about impossible." Blinking, she smirked up at Jason, exuding confidence. "That's why we've developed a third step. Vincent?"

The man, having listened quietly, now unholstered his gun and presented it handle-out. He looked amused over at Jason, who'd flinched. "Take a look, mister."

Hesitantly, Jason took the gun. It looked as silver as his sword was gold, its metal heavy in his hand. A revolver, and though its cylinder spun with a sharp click he couldn't pop it out to see the bullets inside. Stranger still were the etchings on the side of its frame, spiraling circles that wove into and out of each other in minute patterns.

"That's what I call a Spirit Script," Faye said, pride evident in her voice. "Instead of embedding a duplicate Spirit Signature into the object itself, we embed it into these etchings. One signature per spiral. It takes some fiddling, but if we do it right we can make it so one object can have multiple etchings, and so multiple Signatures. So rather than try to replicate a complex signature all at once, we can split it up into a few smaller, simpler signatures and recombine them through a script like this, and voila!"

She looked at Jason again, eyes glinting. Not knowing what else to do, he held the gun back out to Vince, but just then Faye swiped it instead.

"But wait, there's more!" Faye leaned forward, making Jason lean back with increasing discomfort. "You see, this Talisman isn't actually a Duplicate! Look!" She pointed at the etchings. "This one is for 'plug,' and this one is for 'bullet!' It's not one complex Signature rebuilt in two etchings, but two distinct Signatures! A new Art created artificially! Do you realize what this means?!"

Jason blinked, opened his mouth to say something, but Faye stood on her tiptoes and leaned even further forward. "A whole new world of Talisman creation! All sorts of things will be possible! Our research here could totally change the world!"

"That's..." Jason swallowed to wet his dry throat, taking a step back. "That's very, very cool."

Apparently that had been the right thing to say, because Faye nodded vigorously and finally stopped trying to get all up in his personal space. She gave the gun over to Vincent, who chuckled and put it back in its holster.

"Today we'll be studying how your Talisman works," she said. "Just show us your moves, you see? We'll be paying attention to how the signature works. Then, hopefully, we can replicate it. I figure, if we can make a script of a Talisman like yours, we'll be able to make one for just about anything."

Suddenly there was a crash. All three turned to the other Artificers, seeing that one of them had dropped a dummy and now stood rather shamefully beside it, glancing around with a reddened face as everyone else stared.

Faye rolled her eyes. "Gosh, you just can't trust some people," she muttered, walking over and giving Jason one last, quick glance. "Hold on a sec, let me help these doofuses get things ready."

Watching her leave, Jason's brain felt a bit sore from all the strain she'd put it through. "That was... something."

"She's like a mom talkin' about her baby," Vincent said, grinning. "And I mean that, too. This whole Spirit Script thing is all Faye." He slapped his gun. "She even made my Moonshooter all on her own. Worked day an' night just to prove to everyone else this crazy idea of hers was worth somethin'."

Jason glanced at him. "Sounds like you're close."

"Ha... I was just a bum, Mr. Jason. Good for nothin', 'cept I'm alright in a fight. No home an' no family, least until Ms. Faye let me take up residence here at the lab. Her an' all these brainiacs, I can't understand what they're sayin' half the time, but they took me in, gave me a job, gave me purpose. They're my family now, an' this is my home." Vince's grin turned sheepish. "Guess you could say that makes me plenty proud of all this myself, even if I'm only really a spectator. I'm hopin' you can fulfill all of Faye's expectations, for all our sakes."

A lot of pressure to put on him, but Jason found himself sharing in Vince's grin now. He supposed he was, in his own way, really going to contribute to something major. "I'll try my best."

Vincent nodded, looked like he was about to say something else, but then something caught the corner of his eye. Jason watched him turn, and following his gaze saw Kilmer coming back into the room, hands still behind his back, expression just as grouchy as before.

"Why, Mr. Kilmer," Vincent said, raising a brow. "You got curious about what we're up to here after all?"

"Something like that," Kilmer said. "But please, if you could just point me to Faye?"

Something in the man's voice put Jason on edge, though he couldn't exactly tell why. Vincent didn't seem to sense anything, merely pointing over at Faye working with the other Artificers, but Jason had made it too far in this career to not trust his instincts even if they made no sense sometimes. He watched Kilmer carefully, Spirit Sense at full attention, hand tense against the handle of his sword. He could feel Kilmer's Spirit, and it seemed the same as before, but there was something else there too. Almost like Kilmer's Spirit wasn't alone.

Then, just as Kilmer reached Faye, Jason saw the man's shadow shift under the room's florescent light. He drew his sword in one instant, and the room was split in the next.

As it turned out, Faye would get her showcase, just not exactly in the way she or anyone else had imagined.

- - - — MKII — - - -

Several floors up, Mouse found the room she'd been looking for. It had taken plenty of sneaking, but ultimately it was hard to catch a girl as small as her when each step she took was completely soundless. It also didn't hurt that she held no qualms about putting down whoever did happen to see her. A fast and dirty operation meant there'd naturally be a few more bodies left to find once all was said and done.

Dr. Faye Remment had been engraved on the door now before her, the same person Owl and Fox would be looking for elsewhere in the lab. Hopefully they wouldn't have too much trouble with it. But Mouse had her own task, and it was pointless to think about the others while that was left undone, so with a single steadying breath the girl opened the door and stepped inside.

The room looked more like a museum than an office. Lit in a low, orange hue, Mouse saw a desk sitting across from her, one entirely overshadowed by the twin walls of glass cases that flanked it. Rows upon rows of see-through boxes covered the walls, all of them carefully titled, and all of them containing what looked like a random assortment of nonsensical items. Hats, bags, cups, wands, claws, arrows, books, pens, on and on in an endless breadth of variety.

Talismans, all of them. It was awe-inspiring, and even sort of intimidating. Mouse could sense the sheer heft of their combined Spirit oozing through the room like a heavy blanket, enough that each step closer came along with a new shiver.

She read some of the names. Merlin's Cap. Lowad's Pointer. Squaring Fork. Each one came with a description, half of which Mouse struggled to believe, not because they were too powerful but because they were too ridiculous. A glass eye that could turn anyone it looked at into an egg? A ship in a bottle that could turn into an actual ship? A cellphone that could call anyone on command with only a thought? What kinds of powers were these?

But the one that most caught her eye seemed perfectly normal by comparison. A transparent ring, barely visible but beautifully reflective in the room's soft light. The Ring of Gyges. With it, one could turn invisible and anonymous. Even their Spirit would be hidden from the senses. The perfect tool for her line of work, and even beyond that, it looked so pretty...

No. Mouse had a job to do. Turning away from it, she went to the desk, eyes on the pile of papers spread unevenly atop it.

There were paragraphs full of big words she couldn't quite understand, and there were some math calculations she couldn't even begin to make sense of, but mostly what Mouse saw were spirals. Pages upon pages of them, all around the same size but all just the slightest bit different, some with more rings than others, some symmetrical and others leaning from the center.

Nonsense? Mouse would've liked to think so, but if this Artificer really was so important then chances were she was currently staring at the epitome of genius, even if it didn't look like it. Something that had surely taken years if not decades of careful study. Something that could very well change the course of history.

Oh well.

Mouse took all the documents, stuffed them in a nearby trashcan, took out the lighter she had in her pocket, and burned them all to ash. She stood there watching for several minutes, making sure none of it survived. Then, once the flame died down, she started making her way out.

Except that hadn't been all. Mouse clicked her tongue, turning back to the desk and seeing the cabinet right under its surface. She reached over to pull it open and found more documents, not as many but enough. Sighing, she started collecting those as well.

But just as she was about to stuff them in the can along with the burnt ones, an alarm went off. Mouse held the papers against her ears as the whole building seemed to vibrate with each screeching drone, one that came again and again, pounding at her like an auditory hammer.

Wide-eyed, she looked at the door and found it still closed. She hadn't gotten found out. Had someone come across one of the bodies? She thought she'd hidden them pretty well, but there was always a chance.

Then the alarm was accompanied by a fervent voice from the speaker system.

"All security personnel to the cafeteria! Two hostiles, armed and dangerous! I repeat, all security personnel to the cafeteria!"

Owl and Fox, damn it. Mouse instantly went for the door, then stopped herself just as quickly. She looked down at the pile of pages in her hands and knew at once they might not be the only remaining ones. She'd already been wrong before. Chances were Dr. Remment kept her notes all over the room.

It was Mouse's job to find every scrap of research and destroy it. That was her mission. Owl and Fox were on their own. They were the ones who'd gotten caught. Plus, even if they were in serious trouble, they'd been trained to handle anything.

These and other rationalizations echoed in her head, all of them in Father's voice. But at the same time, Mouse couldn't help but remember the night before.

Even if you were the only one in the whole world who liked me any, I'd be fine. That's what Owl had said.

Yet Father had been just as clear. Discard such useless feelings. The mission took priority.

You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. That book Fox had read, except now Mouse didn't hear those words in Fox's voice. She heard them in her own, and she realized in a sudden, joyous, terrifying instant that she had tamed those girls, and those girls had tamed her, and there was something between them that took priority even over the mission despite anything Father could possibly say.

Mouse dropped the papers. The whole building would be buzzing now, she knew. If she wanted to get to Owl and Fox without trouble, her Trick wouldn't be enough. Time was of the essence, and she'd have to hide from sight as much as from sound.

Luckily, this room had just what she needed. With the alarm as loud as it was, she didn't even need to use her Trick to muffle the sound of breaking glass.