The Law Enforcement officer was dressed in a gleaming blue uniform, and flanked by two others. One, a woman who looked as tough as nails. The other, a thin, tall, but equally menacing man who seemed to leer down at Alice.

They found me, Alice thought. They were able to track the blue steel coin that Numi ate. I should've never—

The officer in front doffed his hat.

"Pardon the interruption, Miss. We have a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Questions?" Alice breathed, her surprise at their courtesy enough to snap her back into thinking. Oh yes: last night's activity, which would have been visible to anyone. "Is this about the ruckus from last night?"

"Partially, Miss," the officer replied. "We're trying to determine if you saw anything out of the ordinary."

She laughed. "Other than the trees spontaneously catching on fire? Honestly, I was wondering if I should be concerned for my safety."

All three of the Law Enforcement officers winced. Apparently, they didn't see it as a laughing matter.

Alice didn't either, but her nerves were wound so tight that she couldn't help herself. Seeing their reaction, she firmly tried to take better control of herself.

Again, the man in front tipped his hat to her. In fact he looked… faintly apologetic? But how could that be?

"It was quite a disturbance last night. Miss, if you don't mind, we would like to conduct a search of your premises. Just for safety's sake, of course," he added quickly.

"You think that I'm hiding a criminal in my hotel room?" The words slipped past her numb lips, but she had enough presence of mind to sound haughty and a bit insulted.

Judging by the slight wince — quickly covered up — the female Law Enforcement officer made, Alice realized she had not been the first one to push back against this request.

Of course. The high classers and Nobles would see this as an insult.

"No, no, Miss,” the man said quickly. “Of course, as an Apprentice Merchant, we know that you would never knowingly hide a criminal in your room. But, you see," he leaned forward as if to confer a secret, his voice low, "we suspect the people who started those fires last night are unscrupulous folk. And they have been known to hide out, or worse, keep people under duress so they can't call for help."

The way he watched her intensely, his eyes searching her face for any hint of a micro expression, she knew, with a sinking feeling, that he was using a skill on her. Likely to see if she was lying or if she was indeed under duress.

Well she did have things to hide, as she had everything to do with the events of last night.

If he was using a skill on her, he might be picking up her fear and unease.

So, on a whim, she decided to play into it. "I have heard stories of terrible people like that," she said truthfully.

As a General Laborer, she had, of course, heard dozens of horror stories of Dark classers preying on people too weak to fight back. It was part of the reason why the Earl kept them on his grounds, behind thick walls.

It took everything Alice had not to look over her shoulder and make sure that her dragons were not in plain sight. She had to trust that Prim still kept them hidden.

"Yes, then, of course, if it will make you feel better," she said, again choosing haughtiness, though she felt this time her voice fell a little flat. "Please, make it quick. I do have things to do today.”

This was the truth. The quicker they conducted their search, the less thorough they would hopefully be. But who knew what skills they would have? Would they be able to find the stolen blue-steel coin? She didn't see how, but she knew nothing of the powers of mid and higher classes.

But she had already agreed. She couldn’t back out of it.

Stepping aside, she opened the door wide. The three entered, each tipping their hat to her.

Alice nodded back, her face stone, and tried to force herself to breathe and not clench her hands into fists.

The two junior Officers immediately moved to the right and left, one going to the bathroom to make a quick search… and the other heading to the balcony where Alice had last seen the dragons.

Oh no…

Alice wanted to stop him, but knew doing so would be terribly suspicious.

Prim, keep them hidden…

The Lead Officer stood silent in the middle of the room, his eyes shut.

Alice watched him cautiously, sensing that she was about to witness a skill in action. And, by the faint buzzing in the air, it was something magical.

She hadn't had much opportunity to see real-life magic aside from occasional vendor shows she had passed when she had been a girl. She was all together horrified, terrified for her dragons, and fascinated.

The man exhaled and a wave of blue emanated from his feet, pulsed out, covering the length of the floor in all directions, and crawling up the walls a few feet. It was as if he were in the middle of a pond and had thrown a stone.

Alice had no idea what it did.

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A moment later, he opened his eyes and nodded. "I can confirm there are no human beings other than us and yourself in these rooms."

"Of course," Alice said, though her heart was hammering. "I could have told you that."

He gave her a thin smile. "Some Criminals have basic illusion charms, skills, or amulets. You may never have known."

Illusion... Prim...

But the policeman had said ‘people’, not dragons. And certainly not aspects of Alice's own class.

She nodded, swallowing. "Then, what are these two other Officers looking for? They're not going through my things, I hope?” she asked, eyeing the man and woman who were still giving a cursory glance around.

“My skill is only a basic one, Miss,” the Lead Officer said, apology in his tone. “It does help to conduct a visual inspection too. We’ve also received a report of money taken from another hotel guest."

Alice’s heart-rate jumped.

“I see,” she said, tightly.

“Nevertheless, everything appears to be in order.” The man stepped closer and again his voice dropped low, confidential. “But, if you don't mind me giving you a friendly word of advice, especially as you don't have any protectors. When things go missing, it is often the result of an inside job, which doesn't speak highly for the rest of the business. If you catch my meaning.” His eyes flicked to the door. “If you were my daughter, Miss, I would tell you to find another hotel to lodge at.”

He was being kind to her?

Her confusion faded a moment later because, of course he was. She had to learn to think of herself as an Apprentice Merchant. Now she was of one of the middle classes, she was granted basic dignity.

Before, she may have been taken in for questioning – if not outright arrested – for being near the scene of the crime.

Alice made herself nod. “Yes, I will take that into consideration,” she said calmly, though inside her head, she was screaming, "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Turning away, the Officer motioned with his hand. The other two Junior Officers stopped their casual snooping around, and joined him at the front door. With another tip of his hat to Alice, the Lead Officer stepped outside and closed the door behind him with a click.

Alice swallowed through a dry throat and whipped around back to the balcony. It was utterly empty in a way she knew wasn’t one of Prim’s illusions.

"Prim? Numi? Iggy?"

For the space of a few heartbeats, there was no answer.

Alice caught a shimmer out of the corner of her eye. She half-turned, biting back a cry of relief when she saw all three fade shimmer into view. They had been hiding within the grate of the fireplace, all three squeezed among the cold logs.

Prim must have moved them when Alice wasn’t looking and hidden them with her Illusion magic. In fact, Prim looked a little tired, but very proud of herself.

“Oh my darlings!” Alice fell to her knees in front of them and scooped them up, one by one. “When I saw that Officer go to the balcony… but why didn’t you stay outside? Prim, you could have hidden them among the brickwork.”

“I couldn’t fly.” Numi crawled out, her stomach distended. “I took all of the coins from the safe just in case any of those Law Enforcement people were thieves."

Iggy snarled something under his breath, then jumped to swim through the air and perch on Alice's outstretched arm.

“I could have fought them off. Then they would have never dared to bother you again."

Alice stifled a laugh and petted her most fearsome dragon. Iggy's scales were warm to the touch.

“I know," she said, “but sometimes it's wiser to be discreet. Now we're under no suspicion at all. If you would have chased them off, they would have simply called for more backup, which would have caused me a lot of trouble."

“I suppose,” he muttered, a little bit of smoke escaping from his lips.

"I gained another level in Illusion skills,” Prim said, walking up to Alice, dignified as always. “And another level overall."

Blinking, Alice took a look at her status and noticed that indeed, Prim was right. “She squinted at her rose gold dragon. “Have you grown too?"

Prim flicked her wings in and out, and indeed they were larger than they had been before. Once the size of a cat, Prim could now be compared to a smallish dog, not even counting her tail which was easily two-thirds the length of her body.

"You look magnificent,” Alice said, and Prim preened a little more under the praise.

"What do you want me to do now with all these coins?” Numi said. “I suppose I could return them back to the safe, but I don't like the idea of them sitting there, just waiting for those Law Enforcement officers to come back."

Alice didn't like that idea either.

"I think it might look suspicious if we don't move on, after last night and the reports of theft going around," she sighed.

She was a homebody at heart, and while she had been looking forward to going out on the town, she had been equally looking forward to returning to a soft bed. However, her payment for the room was up today, so at least it was good timing. "I suspect most of the other guests around here will be equally spooked. We should kill two birds with one stone, do our shopping, and find another hotel to stay at.”

"I would like to continue to level my Concealment skill,” Prim said. "So, I will accompany you.”

"I will too,” Numi said, “if we're going to a market, there's sure to be lots of coins dropped along the way."

Only Iggy looked less than happy about a day of shopping ahead of him. Seeing this, Alice said, “Iggy, I do need a brave dragon to help me find Tom and his friend from last night. Did you get a good look at them? Do you think you could help me track them down?"

Iggy perked up. “Yes, I did. Though most humans look the same to me, I got a good whiff of his scent. It was easy because he hasn't bathed in some time.” He hesitated for a moment, then asked, half hopefully, “Do you think that there will be another great battle soon?"

Alice thought for a moment. “There... may be rats to fight along the way,” she said, looking to Numi who had the most experience out of the three in scuttling in and out of small places.

Numi nodded happily. “Oh yes, lots of rats live in the dark places. Some are almost as large as Prim.”

"Hopefully not as beautiful as I,” Prim said, fanning her wings.

"Yeah, not really,” Numi said, “they're all kind of gray and brown with red eyes. And none of them have any coins,” she added, in disgust.

However, Iggy looked happy. “Yes, I would very much like to fight these rats.”

Alice bit her lip. She hated to suggest it, but… “Work on your Ultimate Armor skill while you do. It’s at zero now, and I believe you will level up if you fight at close range.”

Iggy looked incredibly enthusiastic. That set off Alice’s alarm bells.

“But please keep out of sight. No one must see you.”

“Why?” Numi asked. “Are we bad?”

“No, all three of you are good dragons. But other people won't understand this if they see you.” She thought about telling them that traditionally dragons were the tools of Dark Classers, but decided against it. All three were so young and she didn’t want to weigh them down with worry. “Do you understand?"

"I can fight from the shadows,” Iggy agreed.

“I will work on my Concealment,” Prim added.

"And I've always been really good at squeezing in and out of tight places. I'll be fine,” Numi said. "No one will see me. They never look in the gutters, anyway."

Alice nodded, and it was as if the bands around her heart had relaxed... just a little.

"Okay,” she said on a sigh, “let's find Tom.”