I got back to my desk, and sat down, sighing, now upset instead of angry.

Fen came to the door after a little while. “Come have a cup of tea.”

I blinked, “You know what? That’s exactly what I need right now.”

“Good.”

I got up again and went with him, sitting on the couch as he made some tea.

“Will you listen to what I’m working on right now? It doesn't sound quite right and I can’t figure out why.” Fen asked me, frowning as he set a cup of tea in front of me to steep.

“Sure.”

Fen sat down at his desk and read from the document he was working on. It was a bit technical, but I was able to follow along.

“You switched to past-tense for a bit, that’s why it sounds weird.” I sighed, rubbing my face. The drama with Thomas had exhausted me, for some reason.

“Oh. Good catch.” he paused. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I muttered.

“No, something is up. What gives?”

I sighed. “Thomas sort of…asked me out as I was walking him down.”

Fen was quiet for a moment. I saw a vein pulse in his temple. “I’m not surprised. He couldn't keep his eyes from you while you both were in here.”

“I didn’t notice.” I muttered.

“You’d gone back to filing.” Fen shook his head. “What’d you tell him?”

“No, of course!” I snorted. “I told him why, specifically I wasn’t interested, and he said the magic words, ‘you might change your mind’.”

“Ah.” Fen said softly.

“He broke up with a long-time girlfriend he’d had fairly recently. Like within the last six months, I think. So I think he’s just looking for a rebound and latched onto me because he thought it’d be easy, given I had a crush on him as a kid.” I sighed.

“You forget that you are a very attractive, young, single woman.” Fen said gently, “I know you don’t see it, but your friends do, alright? He asked you to date him because he finally saw it too, I think. Not that I think you should date him.”

I looked down. “I…don’t…” I sighed, “Well, I did turn him down. But it makes things complicated.”

“I imagine. I know you’ve known him a long time.”

“Yeah. Now it feels like I’ve known him too long. He also called me Iris, which I didn’t appreciate. It doesn't usually bother me too much, given how long I’ve known him and his family, but today it really just pissed me off.”

“Understandably so.” Fen replied.

It was quiet for a few moments.

I sighed, “Thank you for listening.”

“Just doing my job.” he saluted jokingly at me.

“No, what’s on your screen is your job...I really appreciate you, you know that, right?”

“Of course. I appreciate you too.” Fen smiled reassuringly.

“Alright, I’ll get back to work now.”

“Hey, would you print some documents and make files for me?”

“Yeah, what documents?”

“It’s quite a few, I’ll email you the list.”

“Alright.” I nodded, going back out to my desk and taking my tea with me.

After working a little while longer, printing the documents he’d sent and getting them into labeled files, Fen opened the door to his office, and asked, “Ready for lunch?”

“Sure!” I got up.

“Axl already went to get the food.”

“Okay.” I nodded, getting up and following him into the office.

Axl returned and we had a nice lunch, eating and chatting together.

When it was time, I got up, stretching, and sighed, “Back at it! I’ll have those files done for you soon, Fen.”

“I’ll need you to file them when you’re done, is that alright?”

“Yeah, of course.” I nodded, leaving his office. A few of the other top-floor workers had returned from lunch, but not all of them.

Aren waved, smiling politely, and I returned the wave and smile, nodding slightly, then turned to my desk.

“What?!” I gasped as my eyes rested on my workspace.

Shredded paper was scattered all over my work station, and the stack of files I’d made were totally gone, likely the shredded paper that littered my desk.

Having heard my squeak of dismay, Fen appeared in the doorway, then swore in Faerie, tone furious. “This has gone on long enough!” he snarled. He caught my hand and pulled me back into his office, slamming the door shut, presumably so we could talk privately.

Axl reached up, putting a hand on Fen’s shoulder, “I’ll go down to the security office and see what the cameras caught. Didn’t you have them add another camera after hours yesterday?”

“Yes.” Fen nodded, “I guess that’s our only hope, since they’ve managed to avoid being caught by the other cameras until now…messing with the files didn’t require them to move away from their computer at their desk.”

“Maybe it will have caught something. We did keep it pretty under wraps by having it done at night, when no one was here.”

“Fine.” Fen sighed.

I didn’t know that they'd added another camera. Not that it mattered that I hadn’t known, that had been the point, no one was supposed to have known.

Axl left the office.

It was quiet for a moment.

“Well, I guess I should get that cleaned up.” I sighed, leaving the office as well, and starting to sweep the shredded paper off of my desk and into the small garbage can.

“Just a minute.” Fen disappeared in a burst of fey speed, and returned with a broom, which he began to use.

“You don’t have to, I can handle this. It’s just paper.”

“I want to.” he said quietly. “I’m sorry this is happening. I’m sorry you’re being targeted.”

“I just wish I knew why.”

“Could be any number of things." he shook his head, "From jealousy at you getting this position to someone just messing with you because they think it's funny, except it's not."

“No, it’s not. It’s extremely frustrating and vaguely threatening. They’re singling you out.” Fen straightened, casting his gaze across the room. Most of the other employees hadn't returned from lunch yet, but he lowered his voice to barely a whisper so they couldn't listen in anyways, given his peoples' enhanced hearing ability, “I don’t like it, and I won’t have it! When I find out who it is, I’ll make them wish they’d never even so much as looked sideways at you!”

“Take a deep breath, Fen.” I told him, a little alarmed.

He did as I said, then muttered, “Sorry. I’m just…angry.”

“I know. I’m frustrated too.” We’d managed to clear the worst of it by now.

“Leave the rest, the janitors can get it later.”

“Okay.”

“Now we just have to wait for Axl." Fen sighed. “Come sit in my office and keep me company until he’s back.”

“Sure, but let me run to the restroom first.”

“Alright.” He nodded, going into his office. I swept for a few moments longer, then tidied my desk up a little before heading towards the top floor's bathroom.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

When I got to it, there was a janitor’s cart outside, and a ‘maintenance in progress, please use restroom on level below’ sign on the door, so I went down a level on the elevator, and went directly to the bathroom there.

Given it was so close to lunch, the restroom was deserted.

After relieving myself, I stepped out of the stall, then froze dead in my tracks.

A menacing figure loomed by the restroom door.

A spirit?! What was it doing here?! Fen said they didn’t really come into the building because there were so many fey folk around at all times!

I didn’t have time to think because the moment I set eyes on the spirit, it began to run at me. It was a tall, thin figure with a horrible blank face, except for a mouthful of sharp, jagged teeth, which it bared at me as it staggered forward in a sickening, terrifying grin. Thin, stick-like fingers reached out towards me.

Something in me had the good sense to dive between the spirit’s spindly legs as it lunged at me. I slid on the floor on my stomach, then scrambled to my feet and ran to the door, aware that the spirit was right on my heels. I grabbed the handle, but to my horror, the door wouldn't open. It was locked.

I felt an icy, sharp hand on the back of my neck as the spirit grabbed me from behind, drawing a scream of terror from me, “FEN!”

The spirit pulled me backwards, giving a hoarse, evil laugh.

Then there was a burst of magic and a breeze. After giving a gargling gasp, the spirit let go of me as another burst of even more powerful magic exploded through the room.

Then the spirit was gone, and I collapsed to the floor.

“Mercy!” Fen was there, his gentle hands on my face. “Are you alright?! What are you doing down here?! There was a spirit!”

“I-I…I-I…th-the b-bathroom u-upstairs w-was being f-fixed, a-and th-the sign s-said t-to come here!” I whimpered, aware that I was trembling violently. “I-I c-came d-down here a-and i-t w-was j-just here when I-I was done! I-I-I c-couldn’t g-get the door open!”

Fen swore in Faerie. Then I was in his arms, which were warm and strong. I slipped my arms around his neck, clinging to him, glad to feel safe again.

The fey king carried me to the door, and pulled back on it. He frowned when it didn’t open, took a step back, raised his hand, and sent a small burst of magic into the handle. There was a clicking noise, and Fen tried the handle again. This time, it opened, and he stepped out, still carrying me.

“This is getting dangerous.” Fen said quietly. “This wasn’t just some deleted files or a messed up computer. Spirits don’t come into this building, not without good cause.”

“I-I remembered you telling me that! Wh-what are you saying? What reason could it possibly have to come in here?” I asked, shivering.

Feeling my shiver, he tightened his hold on me, holding me close. “I have a feeling it was led in here, with the promise of you.”

“Me?!”

“Some spirits can be spoken to and reasoned with. If one was tempted with getting its hands on you, it might have risked coming in here, which means someone led it here. And knew you’d come down here to this bathroom. I suspect the one on our floor wasn’t even being cleaned, so you’d be farther away from me when the spirit found you. Gods, I’m glad I have these glasses, or I wouldn't have known what was going on after I jumped down there!”

“That’s terrifying!” I squeaked as we stepped onto the elevator.

“Yes,” he muttered, “it is.”

I buried my face into his shoulder, whispering, “I-I’m scared!” This was the second time I’d been attacked while running to the bathroom. “W-will I ever be able to just get to and from the bathroom without having to worry about someone attacking me?! I-I don’t want to ask someone to come with me each time!"

“I mean, if that’s what it takes.” Fen shrugged. The doors of the elevator opened.

Axl was standing just outside, “What happened? I’d just gotten onto the elevator,” he motioned at the other elevator, “and I felt your magic, Fen! That wasn’t just small, everyday magic, either!”

“Someone trapped Mercy in the bathroom on the floor below with a spirit." the fey king said quietly.

“What?!”

"Can you walk?" Fen asked me quietly.

"Yeah."

Fen put me down, and steadied me, asking Axl “Did you see anyone on the video?”

“Yes. Let’s go to your office.” Axl said, leading the way. “Something weird happened when I was down there. It probably has to do with this, given what happened to Mercy.”

We hurried through the office, which was only just starting to fill up again as people meandered in from their lunches.

The fey king shut the door to his office firmly behind us, and got me a cup of tea while Axl pulled up the video in question on his computer.

“Here.” Axl said, turning the screen for us to see.

It showed the top floor office during lunch, which meant it was empty. A blur crossed the room in the blink of an eye, spent barely a second by my desk, then disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving behind the pile of shredded papers.

“It’s too fast to see anything.” I muttered as the video looped, playing again and again.

“We have special cameras.” Fen said, “It can go frame by frame.”

“Yes, here’s one of the stills.” Axl pushed a button, isolating a frame, which brought the perpetrator into focus.

“See if you can get the footage for the cameras outside the bathrooms on this floor and the floor below.” Fen told Axl. “I want more footage.”

The bodyguard frowned, “You know how I said something weird happened when I was down there?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, some of the cameras went fuzzy for about five minutes. I have a feeling it was all the ones the perpetrator would need to target in order to do whatever they did to get the spirit into the building, and to isolate Mercy like they did. That’s why I was gone for as long as I was, we were trying to figure out what was happening, since it wasn’t all of the cameras. But they went back up, so I took the footage I needed and headed back up here to tell you something fishy was going on, except I felt your magic and…well, here we are.”

“I’m guessing the recordings from that time on those cameras will be entirely unusable.” Fen sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly.

“Yes, I expect so. Do you think the footage we have will be enough for the courts?”

“I don’t know. Enough for HR? Sure. But I don’t just want them fired, I want them to do jail time for this, given they set a spirit on Mercy." the fey king shook his head.

“I know. We’ll think of something.” Axl sighed.

A thought occurred to me. “Wait, Fen, this camera,” I pointed at the screen, “shows the bathroom on our floor.” I tapped the screen, indicating where we could see the door to the top-level bathroom. Both the men’s and the women’s doors were visible. “They didn’t know the new camera was there. Wouldn't it have caught them hanging the maintenance sign on the door?”

Fen blinked. “Yes. Yes it would have. I didn’t think about that because the attack itself was down one floor.”

Axl immediately turned the screen towards him, and clicked around on the laptop for a moment. “That's no moon! That's a space station!” he said triumphantly, spinning the laptop to face us again.

The new, secret camera had indeed caught the saboteur very clearly on screen, pushing the janitor’s cart to the bathroom, and then hanging the maintenance sign on the door.

“Someone might have seen that. It would have been done after some people had gone to lunch.” Fen said.

“Aren was still here. He was in a fight with the printer." I remembered being amused at his violent swearing in Faerie.

“I’ll ask him.” Fen tapped on his phone for a moment.

A brief second later, Aren entered dramatically. “Oh yes, great and mighty leader? Long has it been since you summoned your humble servant!"

“Drop it. This is serious.” Fen muttered annoyedly.

Aren blinked, cocking his head to the side, “I can see that. What gives? Everything okay?”

“Did you see who put the maintenance sign on the women’s bathroom earlier today?” Axl inquired.

Aren thought for a moment. “No, but…” he blinked, frowning, “I saw who grabbed something like that off the printer, now that I think about it.” he said the name of the perpetrator, “Why do you ask?”

Fen explained the situation.

“Oh gods!” Aren paled, asking me, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, thankfully." I said softly. Despite his annoyingly flirtatious personality, Aren did seem to have some sense of decency.

“Alright. Grab the video clips in question, Axl, and inform HR. I’m getting Breya up here, I'll deal with this myself.” Fen said, tapping on his phone. “She’s on her way up.”

“This will be the first time I’ve met her.” I said, sipping my tea.

“How are you going to handle this?” Aren asked Fen. “I expect they won’t go quietly.”

“Why not?”

“Honestly, I’ve long thought that they were obsessed with you, boss. Could never prove it, though, and it didn’t matter too much, as long as they got their work done, and didn't, y'know, actively stalk you or anything.”

“Thanks, Aren.” Fen rolled his eyes. “It would have been good to know before now!”

“I can see that now.” Aren grimaced. “It did seem harmless, though.”

“It’s alright.” the fey king sighed.

The door opened suddenly, revealing a fey woman who had to be Breya. She had short, dark purple hair, lilac skin, cat-like green eyes, a lion’s tail, and cat ears, a bit like Aren did, only hers were black. “Your grace.”

Fen rolled his eyes, “My name is fine. Aren and Mercy use it too.”

Breya’s cat-eyes flickered over me in a very disinterested manner. “Tch. Fine.”

Oh boy, she did not like me.

“We found out who the saboteur is.” Fen pointed at the laptop screen.

“Oh?” Breya bent and looked at the screen. She smiled wickedly, revealing fangs, then extended and retracted a set of claws, “Do you want me to deal with this, sir?”

“I want to help.” Fen replied evenly.

“Of course.” Breya practically purred.

“Aren thinks they won’t go quietly.”

“It’s more fun that way.” the female bodyguard grinned.

“Well, we have to keep the safety of the other employees in mind.”

“Then let me deal with it the way I do best.” Breya murmured in a low voice.

“No, I don't want them just disappearing. I want them to do jail time."

“But sir-”

“Assassination isn’t my way, you know that.” the fey king rolled his eyes, “As much as I know you enjoy it.”

“Fine.” Breya pouted.

We were quiet for a few moments.

If the person doing this was obsessed with Fen, then getting me out of the equation would likely calm them.

I straightened in my seat, and asked, “Why not pretend to fire me? I can clear out my things, someone can escort me from the premises, and then you can call whoever it is back to the office under the guise of wanting them to finish some work I’d not started. They won’t question it because they think they deserve your attention and will be glad to see me go, even if you firing me doesn't make sense. Except I don’t have to actually leave, I can just wait somewhere safe.”

“That’s an idea.” Fen nodded.

“I usually do the firing, so I’ll need to be the one to do it.” Axl said.

“And then, if they’re obsessed with you, Fen, it’d be good for you to make an appearance, like to offer the last, biting word, or something.” I told him.

“Alright.” Fen shrugged, “We’ll have security escort you down, and give you some time to get down to another floor, then we’ll call them in here.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

“And, just for the record, I’m going to be mean and say things that I don’t think and aren’t true, and I don’t want you taking them to heart, okay?” Axl told me, frowning.

I smiled, “No worries! I hope I can keep a straight face.”

“I’ll go sit back down.” Aren said, “It’d be weird if I stayed in here.” He got up and left.

“I hate to say it, but me too. I’m not often around. I’ll hide myself on the top floor though.” Breya sighed, leaving as well.

There was a pause.

“I’ll go back to my desk, and then Axl can come out and yell at me, or whatever.” I told them, getting up and looking out the window blinds. Basically everyone was back from their lunches now. “Let’s get this show on the road!”