What surprised me wasn’t how difficult it was to sneak Rosalina into my room in the dead of night.

It was how surprisingly easy it was.

After our gondola finally docked in the dead of night, I dragged the tired girl onto one of the few operating cabs, pulled along by what looked like an oversized chicken. Borrowing a few coins from Rosalina, I’d paid the man, and we had arrived at the Parisian lodge before long. From there, I entered the building and walked up to the receptionist, who made no mention of my appearance aside from a raised eyebrow before retrieving a replacement card for my room.

Then it was as simple as taking the elevator, Panthera finally rejoining us now that we were once more alone, and dropping onto my couch within my room, I let Rosalina take my bed for the night.

Talk about lax security.

Perhaps it was the reputation that helped safeguard the place. Still, anyone with any skill at illusion-type magic could have walked in, gotten a key card to whoever’s room they desired, and no one would have been the wiser.

I should move out of this place soon.

I’d spent the last few months calling the lodge home, but it was only meant to be a temporary residence; it was expensive enough that I couldn’t afford this indefinitely.

With the comforting thought of my impending homelessness, once I should pursue that future endeavor, I fell asleep. Even if I didn’t need to sleep as much anymore, there was no point in not sleeping if I could help it.

And so, just like that, the rest of the night passed without problem until daylight soon rolled back around, and I found myself shifting out of the tired daze of slumber, sunlight shining down on my face.

Sitting upright, I rubbed the back of my neck before feeling the stubble upon my chin. Or there had been stubble only a day prior. Then my beloved adopted sister had nearly sent me to the scorching pits of damnation; the stubble burnt away along with most of my skin.

“Morning.” A voice called out, prompting me to turn around and take stock of Rosalina seated at the kitchen counter, snacking away on a bagel and drinking a cup of tea, so much steam billowing away from it that it was probably closer to magma than tea.

“Morning.” I yawned, stretching. “How’d you sleep?”

“That bed is beyond comfy. What, was it made from the hopes and dreams of children?”

“No, and what sort of comparison was that?” I raised an eyebrow at my sister before noticing something blinking past her, the transponder crystal near my front door flickering.

“Has that been going off for a while?” I pointed at it as I drew myself out from the alluring embrace of sleeping another five minutes.

“Oh, the blinking crystal? No, maybe five or so minutes. What is it?”

“It’s a communication crystal. It relays spoken messages.”

“Ooo, nifty.”

“Limited range, so only useful up to a certain distance. Let me get changed, then I’ll check why I’ve got a message waiting.”

Shambling off to my room, I finally pulled free the too-small shirt and shorts I’d borrowed from Rosalina. I purposely grabbed a relatively free-flowing white poet shirt and a pair of equally flowy billowing white pants.

Walking out of my room, I saw Rosalina cough, choking on her bagel as she saw me.

“What?” I raised an eyebrow at the girl.

“You.” She laughed after forcing down another cough. “You look like the cover of a romance novel.”

“And you ruined it for me.” I sighed. “They’re comfy.”

“Yeah, okay.” She scoffed before returning to munching on her bagel.

“Bleh. What does she know.” I muttered under my breath as I went and gave the crystal a light press.

“Hello, Mr. Koor. I’ve heard you’ve returned from your business trip, which is most pleasing. This message is being left regarding a message we have received from Ms. Eorial, who instructed us to inform you she wishes to inform you that she will be waiting at the outdoor plaza and that you should make haste to meet her there.”

The flickering light of the crystal flicked off, informing me that there was nothing else to the message left by the front desk.

How’d she know I returned already? Scratch that; I shouldn’t even be surprised.

“What was that about?” Rosalina questioned as I turned back to face her.

“A message from, uh….” I frowned, trying to figure out how exactly I was supposed to label Scyla.

“Oh. Ohhh.” Her eyebrows shot up as she suddenly smiled with far too much knowing smugness. “I see.”

“You see what?”

“I see.”

“Quit it with the knowing act,” I grumbled. “Do you want to meet her, yes or no?”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me,” I said. “I figure it’s probably easier to introduce you now.”

“To your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my, or well… whatever.”

“And you think it’s okay to bring me along without telling her?”

“Trust me, with how well connected she is to things, it’s probably best to introduce you before she gets any weird ideas or misconceptions about why I brought a random girl to my room in the dead of night.”

“Oh, fair enough.” Rosalina nodded, catching on. “Let me just get changed, okay?”

With a surprising amount of pep in her stuff, Rosalina shot up from where she was seated, rushing off to my room to get changed out of her sleepwear.

“Hope she doesn’t take too long.” I sighed as I felt something soft brush up against my leg.

“Morning to you, too,” I said as I looked down at my demon cat, pressing her body against my leg. “You happy to be home?”

Purring loudly, she bumped her head firmly against my thigh.

It was cute enough until an electrical current passed through me unexpectedly, jolting me into alertness.

What was that?

My head was on a swivel, looking for signs of danger. When I found none, my gaze slowly returned to the shadow blossom, her intelligent eyes staring into my own.

No. It couldn’t be.

As if meaning to shut down the chance of assuming it was anything else, she rammed her head against my thigh against the same electric current of awareness passing through me.

Except, paying attention to the feeling now, it wasn’t my own awareness I was feeling.

“W-was that you?” I asked my cat.

The shadow blossom almost looked to me as if she were rolling her eyes at me.

Persuaded by the intelligence behind her expression, I tentatively reached out, not with my hand, but with mana, extending my mind outward toward the cat.

As soon as my sense reached the cat, I was nearly knocked back by the wave of feelings radiating from the monster. Exasperation specifically, she’d been waiting until she’d had enough and taken things into her own hands.

Err, paws.

I recoiled my awareness from the monster, staring at her, flabbergasted.

“You can think!?’

She blinked at me, her expression like she were saying duh.

I was reminded of what Don had mentioned, how he’d referred to the shadow blossom as my familiar. I was only beginning to understand there was more to that than simply having a docile monster under your control.

Once more, I reached out, and once more, I was met by a wave of awareness, a sort of sentience that even animals wouldn’t have.

“That’s strange.” I laughed, experiencing the world in a second layer of awareness like two canvases were interwoven, one with the other.

“As a sage, all you need to do is establish a soul conduit.”

The words echoed through my mind as I felt a sense of agreement from the monster.

“A soul conduit.” I mused, watching my cat just as she watched me. “Not exactly a simple thing to do, especially with another living thing.”

A soul conduit was when one quite literally bonded their essence to an external force, allowing the ability to share mana back and forth, amongst other things. The divine wrap covering my right arm was connected to me through a soul conduit, hence why I could manifest it at will.

So how do I do that with a monster cat?

It wasn’t as simple as connecting with the cat or sharing mana. She was a monster, after all. She didn’t have the natural propensity for magic like a magical beast did.

“Task for a different day.” I sighed, the shadow blossom exhaling heavily before padding away.

Familiar. I guess that has more meaning in the world of sages than how ordinary people use it.

I was shaken from my thoughts when, from my room, Rosalina appeared, wearing a dress of all things.

“What is that?” I asked, bewildered at what I was seeing.

“A dress. I want to make a good impression.”

“It’s freaky,” I said after a moment of pause, trying to balance my mental image of my sister with the reality of her standing there wearing a dress.

“And you’re an ass.” She scowled. “This is usually when you’d say, ‘Oh, you’ll make a great impression. Don’t worry about it.’ and not call it freaky.”

“Err, sorry?”

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go meet this woman who apparently has sour enough taste to take an interest in you.”

“Rude.” I snorted as I stood up, went to the front door, pulled it open, and waved toward it. “Ladies first.”

Rosalina rolled her eyes but didn’t argue as she exited my apartment. I was right behind her, closing the door and locking it behind us. We’d made our way downstairs to the outside pavilion only a few minutes later.

“Oh, there you are, Mr. Koor.” The current employee, a woman who’d once offered implied services, nodded toward me. “And with a guest. I take it you’re here looking for Ms. Eorial? You can find her toward the back.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I thanked her briefly before directing myself toward where Scyla was meant to be. Passing past a few collected guests, I saw a woman reclined slightly at a table, seated by herself, enjoying the sun. She wore dark black sunglasses and a silvery black piece of jewelry framing her forehead. She wore a dark blue flowy blouse, with tan pants and several golden rings adorning her fingers.

Basically, Scyla looked like she’d just come from a professional setting, perhaps a meeting of some sort.

I waved toward her, and I saw her hard-pressed scowl soften.

“Scyla.” I addressed her as soon as we were close enough that I wouldn’t be speaking up. “I’d like to introduce you to my adopted sister, Rosalina.”

I waved toward Rosalina, who gave a light curtsy, her white and yellow sundress balling up ever so slightly.

“A pleasure.” Scyla smiled, offering Rosalina her hand momentarily as she greeted her.

“And Rosalina, this is Scyla, my-”

“Your what?” Scyla was smiling, but I could see behind her smile a test.

Yeah, Rook, your what?

Friend? Acquaintance? Sugar mommy?

Or the scariest thought of all.

Girlfriend?

I was thankfully saved as a waiter decided to approach us at precisely that moment.

“Would you three care for refreshments? Or perhaps a more… private location?”

“No, that’s fine.” Scyla shook her head as I took advantage of the situation to seat myself, Rosalina copying me.

“So, since your sister is with you, I can see you succeeded in your little trip,” Scyla said after a moment of silence.

“You could say that.” I snorted. “No one died. Well, I almost died, but that’s nothing new.”

“You almost died,” Scyla said flatly before shaking her head. “Yes, I suppose that sounds about right. So, what happened?”

“It, it was an accident,” Rosalina spoke up, showing signs of being nervous, of all things.

“What she means is, on our return trip, we encountered a minor issue, and in the excitement, I got caught up in the crossfire.”

“Right.” Scyla tapped a finger on the table, clearly unsatisfied with the answer. “Why don’t you just start from the beginning?”

“Really, there isn’t much to say about the first half of the trip. I went north and investigated what I was tasked with looking into. Thankfully it was nothing of major concern.”

I made it a point not to mention how the source of the issue stemmed from the reality that someone was getting up to researching lost magic somewhere in the world.

“And after?” Scyla asked.

“After I managed to take a Gate back to Dunehold, where I managed to find Rosalina. After some sidetracking, we returned to another Ring Gate. However, the Gate ended at the bottom of a Desert Crawler nest. One thing led to another, Rosalina set off an explosive spell, and here we are now.”

“Skipping the finer details, but I suppose that is to be expected.” Scyla lightly tipped her head toward the other guests, understanding well, I wasn’t about to babble all the juicy details.

She was wrong in her assumption of my reasoning; I just wasn’t about to explain that I didn’t feel like discussing such trivialities.

“I’ve heard from Koor enough; what about you?” Scyla questioned Rosalina, fixing her with a curious gaze.

“I, uh-” Rosalina stuttered, once more surprising me. “I worked for the adventurer’s guild back in Dunehold.”

“Oh, you were an adventurer as well?”

“Not quite.” Rosalina shook her head. “I was a Sentry; it was a sort of-”

“Oh, I know what they are.” Scyla smiled, but I didn’t miss the slight narrowing of her eyes. “There had been some talks of potentially having the Sentry system brought to several other cities as well.”

So it seems like Dion really is up to something.

I ignored the thought, instead latching onto the flow of the conversation.

“Speaking of Rosalina here.” I interjected, “I was wondering if you could be of assistance.”

“With?” Scyla asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“She sort of left Dunehold suddenly, left her job and everything. While I could get away with housing her in my room for a night, I doubt the lodge will be pleased if I try to have her suddenly bunk with me, nor do I feel like sharing my personal space.”

Rosalina cast me a stink eye, but I continued unabated.

“No job, and no place to stay, so I was thinking-”

“If I could help, lend a hand and find her a place and a job.”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

Rosalina shifted nervously, clearly not pleased that I’d spoken on her behalf but unable to argue with what I was saying.

“Yeah, I don’t see the problem,” Rosalina said after a moment, flashing us her dazzling white smile. “Aside from your job as a Sentry, do you have any other skills?”

“Metalworking,” Rosalina said.

From how it sounded, I’m not sure ‘skill’ is how I’d describe it.

“Hmm, this isn’t a hub for adventurers for the most part, so metalsmiths aren’t as in high demand here. Anything else?”

“There is one thing,” Rosalina said with a frown. “Accounting.”

“Accounting?” It was my turn to interrupt, speaking without thinking. “Since when?”

“Since always. You should know my father was an accountant with the guild. Whenever I was young, and I saw him, he would show me spreadsheets excitedly, and then after I moved in with him, that continued, with even more earnestness as I got older.”

“Huh,” I said simply, staring at her in surprise. “Just never took you for the.. numbers type.”

“Duh, whenever you returned from your little ‘excursions,’ why would I bother talking about the endless spreadsheets he made me look over?”

“An accountant who can fend for herself.” Scyla nodded. “In fact, that is a rather valuable combination of skills. Yes, I believe I can find you a position easily.”

I sighed in relief, Rosalina clearly sharing the sentiment, but Scyla wasn’t done.

“Now that the topic of what you will be doing here in Akadia is taken care of, may I ask you a favor? I’d like to have a word with Mr. Koor here… Alone. Don’t worry for him; I don’t intend to chew him out for anything.”

Rosalina glanced at me, but I casually shrugged to let her know it was fine.

“Sure, I’ll grab a drink at the outdoor bar then.”

“Here, count it on me,” Scyla said graciously before handing her a single black card.

Watching her walk toward the bar, Scyla waited until she was well out of earshot before turning back to me.

“So, things went alright.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t hate me, though she did give me a pretty good walloping.”

“Deserved.” Scyla laughed before her expression darkened. “But that wasn’t why I had a message delivered to you.”

“It wasn’t.”

“No.” Scyla placed her hands evenly on the table. “Do you remember when you said you had concerns about… things? How you wanted me to look into them?”

“The lumber stuff, yeah, I remember.”

“Well, it took some digging, but I think I’ve begun to figure it out.”

“You did?”

“Of course. The issue was nothing seemed amiss. Everything was perfectly normal except that itself was the red flag. Normally there are signs of some level of embezzlement or corruption going on. When I realized things were too squeaky clean, I had my people investigate it. A question for you, if you did something wrong, what would be the last thing you do?”

“Draw attention to myself,” I answered instantly, recalling times from my childhood when I’d accidentally broken a vase or something that belonged to my mother and would hide out in my room after the fact.

“Bingo.” She snapped her fingers. “And therein is the key. When it occurred to me that things were too clean, it wasn’t long before I had my experts sniff out the likely places of interest. And what we found was coordinated number fudging.”

“Sounds like an accountant problem,” I said, thinking of my adopted sister as I made the joke.

“You may think it’s trivial or a joking matter, but the reality is much more nefarious than that. Normally number fudging goes the opposite way, underreporting gains or overreporting losses. Those are simple crimes, nothing more than financial in nature. Yet in this situation, there was evidence that sales have increased across the board in several fields, such as lumber sales.”

“You said it yourself. They underreport their gains. What’s the issue with that?”

“It’s that the equation is too balanced. Normally when numbers are fudged in that situation, you only see it on one side of the equation, sellers underreport sales, whereas buyers overreport expenses. But this isn’t the normal situation. No, the buyers and sellers kept the story straight, their financial records showing neither losses nor gains outside normal levels.”

“So they’re trying to avoid detection, and it’s not for financial reasons.”

“Correct.”

A feeling of dread began to build, but I couldn’t quite place it yet.

“What… what fields were these number adjustments found?”

“Well, lumber sales were one of them, of course. Other areas of note were steel and iron purchases and crop buyouts. We also looked at shipping logs, and there has been obscured movement of personnel.”

The dread crystalized as I summarized what she said in my own words.

“Unrest. Violence.” I murmured.

“Or worst case.” Scyla glanced around before leaning in. “War may be coming.”

“When? How? Why?”

“Your guess is as good as mine for now.” Scyla sighed. “We only managed to put this all together a few days ago. My men dropped off a report the day after you left. At best, we know those behind it aren’t novices and are well-connected. There is no way they could have hidden such actions for so long without gaining notice. In fact, they likely would have remained undetected if it weren’t for that student of yours mentioning the lumber sales to you.”

“Well connected and good at what they do. That’s it?”

“For now. But, I may have a theory.”

“Which is?”

“It involves both your family and my own.”

“How?” I raised an eyebrow at her, surprised.

“My family isn’t always a unified group. We compete against one another, trying to get a leg up over each other. With my grandfather’s health degrading with ever-increasing speed, the different factions within the family are likely jockeying to take control, gain the position as family head, and to do that, the best way is to prove themselves and what they believe is best for the family.”

“You think your family may be in cahoots, hence why the information was so expertly censured.”

“And not just my family. The Baster’s as well. Remember, your mother was here in Haerasong not long ago on behalf of your family.”

“Who are revolutionaries.” I drummed my fingers along the table. “So you’re suggesting this is being planned out by those against the crown.”

“Not necessarily,” Scyla said. “It could be that the crown is taking discrete action but were found out. Looking to protect themselves, those opposed by the crown faction would have looked for help and resources from those with expertise in those areas regarding working against sitting governments.”

“Which is all one fun way of saying we still don’t know who is responsible for what, or even where the battle lines are being drawn.”

“No, we don’t.” Scyla sighed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t turn up more. Had I caught on sooner, perhaps I’d have discovered more by now. Still, if my family is involved in some degree, in conjunction with the resources and know-how of those sponsoring all this, it would have been difficult to turn anything up even with another half a year of searching.”

“So what do we do?” I finally asked, unwilling to beat around the bush any longer.

“Well, that’s the thing.” Scyla shifted around as if feeling uncomfortable for a moment. “This isn’t a ‘we’ situation. It’s what I do.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

“Don’t take this as a personal insult, but what can you do? If there is a chance of war coming, what can you do? You don’t have unlimited funds like the wealthy merchants, so you can’t use embargos or trade blockades. You don’t have a vast network of connections and resources to your name like mine. Sure, you are powerful; I reckon you’re probably one of the top fifty, maybe even amongst the top twenty strongest individuals in this country, but what does that matter in the face of thousands of potential enemies?”

I was silent, not sure how to respond.

“What I plan to do is to gather as much information as I can. Whatever the truth, I’m certain something will be happening soon, so I need to see if there is anything I can use to our advantage to either dampen the worst of the fallout or avoid it entirely.”

“Soon? You said soon.”

“Yeah, the frequency and size of the shipments throughout the country indicate that they’re feeling about ready.”

Soon. Something major is going to happen soon.

I felt a sense of helplessness hanging over me, an unfamiliar feeling. With my power, it was rare that I felt like there was nothing I could do, but Scyla was right. I was only one person without the sort of connections or resources Scyla had.

“What if… What if I reached out to my family? You said yourself you think they may have some matter of involvement.”

“I think that would have been good to start with a year ago, but now… No. It takes at least six weeks to reach Varana. Just going there and back would eat up three months of your time. You’d have to track down your family and convince them to share everything they know with a family member they’ve never met. And, if they operate anything like my family, chances are they won’t just hand out things for free. They’ll try to extract as much use as possible from you.”

I was reminded of my mother’s warning, of how she had ended up with the hooks of the family in her once more after returning home.

No. I think Scyla is right. Trying to track my family down for answers isn’t going to work.

“What should I do then?” I laid my hands out on the table, finally admitting my own uncertainty in the form of a question.

“For now? Just keep an eye open. Uncertain times lay ahead. I think if anyone can weather it, it’s you.”

“Hah.” I snorted. “This is the second time I’ve been warned of uncertain times in the last few days. Dion said something similar.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew at least something of what is going on. That man is dangerously connected to the country’s pulse, with eyes and ears everywhere, not to mention more muscle than most have realized. The only reason the differing factions within the country put up with him and his strength as an outlier is that he’s always been content with maintaining stability and the status quo.”

“Yeah, well, the man is still an ass,” I grumbled. “He could have been more direct with his warning.”

“Considering the bad blood between the two of you, you really think he would have told you more, even if he knew of it?”

“No, probably not.” I sighed. “So, that’s it. I just… continue like usual.”

“Unfortunately.” Scyla exhaled softly.

We sat silently for several minutes, the topic weighing down on us, until a courier hastily approached our table, leaning down to whisper something in Scyla’s ear. Her expression darkened until she waved the man off.

“Something the matter?”

“Duty.” She growled. “I’ve got to go. I’m sorry I could only drop by long enough to give you such depressing thoughts.”

“When is life ever easy.” I forced a chuckle out, not feeling in the mood to laugh.

“Tell your sister that it was nice to meet her.”

Glancing around once, she stood up before walking over to my side, planting a quick darting kiss on my cheek before hastily leaving the pavilion.

“She’s leaving already?” My sister appeared only moments later at my side, watching Scyla leave.

“She has business to attend to.”

“Right.” Rosalina sat across from me, taking a sip from some orange-looking drink, a small umbrella poking out from the ice cubes within the glass. “I like her.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell with how you clammed up.”

“Shut up.” She kicked me under the table, rubbing at her shoulder. “I was just.. nervous.”

“You?”

“What!? You saw her! She’s so… cool!”

“Cool?” I raised an eyebrow at my adopted sister.

“The way she holds herself. Like she’s got the whole world in her hand.”

“That’s the impression you got of her?” I asked.

“Well yeah. How’d you meet someone like her?”

“Long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

I eyed her drink before shrugging.

“Fine, but first, I’ll need whatever that is.”

Rosalina laughed, waving over a waiter to get me a drink.

“I have two working legs,” I said, frowning as I noticed the slightly rosy tint on her cheeks.

“Yeah, but this is the first time I’ve got to experience what being rich would be like.” As if to prove her point, she fanned herself with the black card. “You think she will mind if we get a few drinks on her.”

“I think Scyla is exactly the type not to accidentally leave her card behind. If she left without retrieving it from you, she probably doesn’t mind.”

“Wonderful,” Rosalina said, eyes sparkling. “Than a toast to your wonderful girlfriend.”

“Not my- whatever. Anyway, I don’t have a drink to toast with.”

At that moment, a waiter appeared, carrying a platter of the same orange drinks she had. Swiping one from his tray, Rosalina slid it across the table toward me.

“You do now. Toast!”

“Fine. A toast to Scyla.”

Raising our glasses, we clinked them together as I let myself enjoy the merriment of my slightly drunk sister.

It was better than indulging in my thoughts of the dark clouds gathering on the near future’s horizon.