The storeroom wasn’t much to look at, but the simple fact that it was completely undisturbed was a little worrying. My mind wandered to the possibility that this was a trap, and that it only looked like we’d teleported somewhere completely safe. Then it shifted to the possibility that Scalovera was a complete dumbass who didn’t scour every single inch of his home once he ousted Okeria. Neither of them were great, since one spelt a near-immediate disaster for us.

And the other spoke of Endra interfering far more than I thought. I turned to Viri and cleared my mind of the possibilities, leaving only the task at hand.

“So we’re under a vault. Where do we go from here, Viri?”

The woman looked at me as if she hadn’t just been asked that exact same question a few seconds ago. I was starting to wonder if she was talking to Scalovera in secret just like Okeria and I were, but it was balanced out by the simple fact that she seemed like a complete scatterbrain.

Okeria cleared his throat, which had the effect of shocking Viri back to coherent thought. She straightened her spine a second time and pushed herself to her feet, looked around, and swiped her hand through the air to summon her interface. She pawed at the empty air for a moment while muttering to herself, then tapped confidently on a spot that meant absolutely nothing to me.

“We’re right here, and the nearest patrol goes just outside the vault doors. Scalovera emptied the place out and is using it as a panic room, since it’s apparently the safest place in the mansion, and I don’t know what he did with the stuff that was in there.” She said with a tone that made me imagine she was frowning. “If we want to get through unseen, we’ll have to get out without opening the door somehow. That’s if someone isn’t posted up in the vault right now, which I’d bet there is.”

“Hrm. I bet Scalovera wouldn’t put someone powerful in charge of guardian’ the safest place in the mansion, so we can probably deal with whoever that is before they can raise an alarm.” Okeria theorized, then quickly shook his head. “Actually, that’s a dumb risk that’s not worth takin’. All we need ta know is if the vault door is open or closed right now, and then we can go from there.”

I nodded and waited for Okeria to continue with his plan to find out if the door was open or closed. We stared at each other for a good fifteen seconds, and eventually Viri started looking between the both of us in confusion.

A sigh escaped my lips as I planted my hands on my hips and looked up at the ceiling. “You have no idea how to find out if the door is open, do you?”

“Oh, I have an idea. And I’m doin’ it right now.” Okeria said with a smirk in his voice. “Just wanted ta see ya squirm a little. I’m checkin’ the vault with a drone right now, and it’s completely dark. Can’t see if there’s anyone standin’ guard, which there very well might be, but I just flew it into where an open space would’ve been if the door was open. So we’re good on that front. Viri, how punctual are the guards ‘round the mansion?”

“Extremely punctual. Scalovera gives us a bonus at the end of every week if he doesn’t hear any complaints about anything we’ve done.” Viri said bitterly. Which I took to mean that she’d been complained about way more than once. “I’ve got all the guard patrols and the mansion layout memorized, but my interface doesn’t have a clock in it for some reason. If you tell me what time it is, I can tell you when’s the best time to leave.”

Okeria hummed in thought. {Sebastian, any reason why she’d lie about not havin’ the time on her interface? ‘Cause, that’s more than a little suspicious.}

{Hell if I know. Maybe she just doesn’t know where to look.} I suggested. {Or it's some kind of code that’s blatantly stupid and obvious.}

{Yeah, could be. In that case, though, I’m not real worried about who she might call on us.} Okeria chuckled. He opened his interface and pulled a piece of paper out of his inventory, scribbled something on it, and handed it to Viri. “That’ll update in real-time for an hour. Keep us updated on the movements.”

Viri accepted the paper with a nod. After she studied it for a second, she seemed to have all the information she needed. Which wasn’t a lot, since there was only one thing written on it.

“The guards will be out in front of the vault in eight minutes, then they’ll stand there for five minutes before going on their ten-minute round again.” She said eagerly. “I think we have some people who have sensing functions, but I’m not really sure. They could feel us the second we get up there, or they might have to see us before they send a message out.”

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

“Here’s hopin’ it’s option number two.” Okeria said and pulled another device out of his inventory. This one was a simple silver square, which he pulled at the corners until it was a rectangle as big as a doorway. With a snap of his fingers, it pulsed with electricity and began to emit a projection of itself that slowly made its way upward. “Twenty-three seconds ‘till the gateway’s in place. Viri, ya might want ta shrink yourself down and jump on my shoulder again. And blue, ya just do whatever ya think is best.”

I rolled my eyes and summoned my weapon as a knife. It snapped to my thigh with a satisfying click, and I prematurely coated it in petal-scales while also pushing my blood-oil through my armor.

“Done and done.” I relayed. “Ready to fight or run.”

Okeria clicked his tongue and made finger-guns at me. “All I could’ve asked.” He said and bent down to pick up Viri, who’d done as he asked. “I’ve obviously got the layout of this place memorized, but just in case Scalovera did some renovations since I’ve last been, I’ll send another construct ta scout the halls.”

“Hey, wait. If you can do that, why did you need me?” Viri asked.

“Don’t trouble yourself with questions ya won’t like the answer to.” Okeria replied smoothly. He thumbed at the gateway, then gestured for me to go ahead of him. “Blue, ya go in first. I’ll go in guns blazin’ if it looks like things’ve gone deep.”

I searched Okeria’s body language for a hint at why the hell he thought I’d have a better chance at going in first, but his armor was as quiet as he was. Viri adjusted herself so she could sit on his shoulder and steadied herself with her hands, then gave me a thumbs-up of encouragement that I definitely didn’t need. Yet for some reason, I wasn’t worried in the slightest. I rolled my shoulder and coated my hand in some petal-scales that would summon a hydra for me if things went south, then stepped into the crackling silver outline of the portal.

Yet again, I was whisked away. For a much shorter distance than before, and in a much gentler way that felt more like the time Okeria had teleported me in the oilsea. I swiveled around, not taking in the scenery at all as I scouted for enemies or anything that could’ve been hostile. Nothing jumped out to me, and I slowly let myself understand where I was instead of looking for strange-looking shadows.

The first thing I noticed was just how low the roof was. When I thought of mansions I pictured vaulted ceilings and priceless artifacts strewn about like worthless knick-knacks, but there was next to nothing decorating the halls I stood in. Sure, they were wide enough for five people to stand with their arms out and just barely touch each other, but that just made the lack of any decoration at all the more unsettling. And if I was right, there were some slight discolorations on the floor and walls that looked like things had been there before, but weren’t any more.

Almost like Scalovera had taken everything Okeria had put up, but never replaced it with any of his own things. Probably because he didn’t trust the people he hired to keep their hands to themselves. Even still, the vibrant wooden floors and brightly-painted walls gave the place a sense of vitality and energy even as my thoughts on Scalovera tried to bring it down.

Of course, that all came crashing down when I focused on the fuck-off huge vault door that was right behind me. A massive metallic thing made of Okeria’s own metal, carved with intricate symbols that lined a manual crank that connected to a series of switches and panels I’d have to get a closer look at to understand. But I didn’t have the time for that; Okeria was due any moment, and he’d want to get to Thorn as quickly as humanly possible. Or Staura-ly possible for him.

The snap of static alerted me to his presence, and Viri’s surprised yelp confirmed it. He shushed her with a harsh whisper, spared one glance at the vault, then held a finger up to his helmet for silence. When it wasn’t followed by a message through the communicator, I knew he was going for the most cautious route possible. A route that involved as little noise as possible, and which showed he still wasn’t one-hundred percent convinced his communicators couldn’t be hacked.

I could voice all of my concerns when we were back in the facility. But for now, I nodded and followed Okeria as he beelined for a set of spiral stairs that looked like they only went up. As my feet quietly scraped against the wood of the stairs, I realized that I’d thought Thorn was being kept in some kind of dingy underground dungeon like in all the medieval stories I’d ever read. But as the spiral staircase led up and up, through at least six floors that were also completely bereft of any decoration, I realized that Thorn would be like the princess in the tower, not the thief sentenced to death.

Which beggared the question; why was Scalovera keeping Thorn alive? Dylan was dead and gone, I highly doubted Thorn would help Scalovera with much of anything at all, and Scalovera didn’t seem like he was trying to bargain with Okeria for Thorn’s freedom. If I was in Scalovera’s shoes, the only reasons I could think of for sparing Thorn would be to keep Okeria in line or to gift Endra as another host. Or maybe both.

I shook my head and put those thoughts aside. Thorn would be able to answer our questions sooner rather than later. Okeria, who was about eight stairs ahead of me, suddenly veered off into a hallway without looking behind himself to make sure I was following. His footsteps grew slightly louder as he raced down the hallway, and when I rounded the corner to peer down the bright space, I still couldn’t make out what had caused his burst of speed.

But from the way he pumped his arms, and how his feet crushed and splintered the hardwood flooring underneath, that something had riled him up. Which couldn’t spell anything but trouble for the three of us.