Miss Thornbrook looked at him with interest, “Oh?”

“They want to harvest their cores to grant members of the Order, especially Lady Katherine, a second affinity.”

Miss Thornbrook looked at Dellen with narrowed eyes, “How do you know who Lady Katherine is?”

“They want to harvest the unforged?” Eliza asked with horror, “Copperopolis is an entire city of unforged.”

Miss Thornbrook snapped her fingers, a bright flame illuminated the night and brought all eyes back to her. “How do you know who Lady Katherine is?”

Eliza looked at him in confusion, “How do you know who Lady Katherine is?”

“This shouldn’t be so hard for her to guess,” Gilgamesh said in response to Eliza’s question.

Dellen sighed, this was going to be a tricky interaction, he could always choose honesty, ‘I… have a Chronometric Affinity,’ but he had told Eliza and that loop had then ended and her knowledge was locked in forever. He was not sure that he had gained anything from his last bout of truthtelling. “I’m not sure how I know, it all came together in a clear picture in my head,” he said, knowing his explanation was inadequate at best.

Miss Thornbrook’s head tilted to the side, and she waited for him to continue. Eliza and Finnegan looked on in confusion.

“Oh good, that answers everything,” Gilgamesh said.

“What does that mean?” Finnegan asked.

“It means that I’d heard of her from my contacts in the Mercantile Guild, they speak a bit more freely around nobles. I heard about a Lady Katherine who was performing experiments looking for ways to grant second affinities.”

“That’s awfully thin,” Gilgamesh said.

Miss Thornbrook’s mouth bent in distaste, she did not quite look like she believed him, but she looked like she was willing to listen, “That woman only cares about power for the sake of itself, power without a cause is a waste.”

“Let us say that I provisionally believe your theory. This means Lady Katherine has a few unforged to experiment on, but not far from here, there is an entire city that is almost helpless. My resources will be better spent at your Copperopolis than trying to help a handful of people who might already be dead.”

“You can’t just leave people to die, that’s unethical!” Eliza said.

“Child, I have to choose between helping a bare handful who might be in grave danger and an entire city of the helpless,” she gave a helpless shrug, “It’s no choice at all. If you,” here she looked back at Dellen, “Are intent on rescuing those held by the order, then you have my blessing, but I will not breach those walls and go to war with the Order when I am so clearly needed elsewhere.”

“But you can help tonight,” Finnegan protested.

“Yes, I could,” Miss Thornbrook agreed, “And I would probably win if I assaulted their compound on my own, but it would not be a bloodless victory, and if it went poorly, I would not be able to help your home, now tell me, should I spend myself like that when I can protect so many more?”

“She thinks she could single-handedly defeat everyone at the Order,” Gilgamesh said, sounding impressed, “That’s power.”

Dellen understood Miss Thornbrook’s point, but he still felt wrong abandoning the unforged that the Order had taken. “I’ll go on my own,” he said.

“Why?” Miss Thornbrook asked

“I’d like to confirm that I’m right.”

She nodded at him, “Admirable, but what are you going to do, exactly?”

“I’m going to use magnetism to go over the wall, break in through a window, and explore until I find the unforged.”

“A crude, but serviceable plan, but what then? Do you think that you could help them escape?”

“I won’t know unless I try. Maybe it will be as simple as helping them forge.” It would be so much simpler to just agree with Miss Thornbrook and go to Copperopolis, but leaving people behind to be experimented upon and used as parts, no, he could not stomach the idea.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Miss Thornbrook nodded, “There’s a market near here where you can gather supplies.”

‘I know,’ Dellen wanted to say, ‘You’ve taken me there before. We’ll find a vendor selling iron buttons that I can use. Come on, I’ll lead the way.’

“I can help you at least that much before we head to Copperopolis.”

“Do you think you’ll find a captain willing to leave so late in the evening? I don’t think you’ll be able to leave the city much before dawn, and I don’t believe that you aren’t curious about what I’ll find.”

“Fine then,” said Miss Thornbrook, “I’ll take you to the market and give you a few hours.”

Miss Thornbrook led the group to the market, where Dellen bought buttons as well as four larger pieces of iron, along with a pack to carry everything, thick gloves, and a red robe, though the color was not similar enough to be mistaken for a robe from the order in a good light.

They continued on, walking further until they reached the wall of the compound furthest from the entrance gate. As in the previous evening, the time was just after midnight. Miss Thornbrook melted a few buttons into the wall, just in case it would help, then she took Dellen to the top of the wall where they lay down a few more melted buttons. She jumped down, leaving him atop the stone. With a glance back at Eliza and Finnegan, Dellen jumped off the wall, dropping buttons and using them to push off of with a magnetic field just before he landed.

“Just like old times,” Gilgamesh said.

Dellen snorted, “Come on, we know we aren’t going to find anyone this time around.”

“And you’re not using the main entrance.”

“And I’m not using the main entrance,” Dellen agreed. He pulled on the gloves and the robe that he had bought at the market, just in case anyone might be watching. Then he walked through the shadows of the trees, waiting in the anonymity of their perimeter. “Can you find a window that leads to an unoccupied room for me?”

“There are limits to how high I can fly,” Gilgamesh said, “But I’ll look, even if it will take a while.”

Dellen watched him go from window to window, and envied his invisibility.

When Gilgamesh came back he said, “First floor, second window from the left. I didn’t notice before, but it wasn’t shut properly.”

“Thank you,” Dellen walked up to the back of the Order’s main building. He dropped three buttons in the grass and pushed himself up a story to the window Gilgamesh had indicated. The room was unlit, dim, and, as promised, seemingly unoccupied.

Gilgamesh floated next to him, “What are you waiting for? Break the window and go inside!”

Dellen threw the large pieces of iron through the window, then using his gloved hands, pulled himself in through the frame, taking care to avoid the glass shards left behind.

They found themselves in a chapel-like room. Rows of wooden pews stretched out before them. Sconces adorned the walls, between which were shelves. A massive chandelier, now unlit, hung from the center of the ceiling. At the front of the room, a raised dais stood, adorned with intricate carvings that depicted sacred symbols and motifs. An imposing lectern crafted from dark wood, stood at its center. The lectern bore an emblem from the Order, though Dellen did not recognize the specific symbol. He could only guess that this room’s purpose was indoctrination. It felt as though he should be sitting at a pew, listening to a member of the Order dictate his beliefs.

“This is much safer than last time,” Gilgamesh said, approval thick in his voice. “Where to next?”

Dellen felt stuck, “Where do you think Lady Katherine would be conducting experiments?”

Gilgamesh did the wobble that was his equivalent of a shrug, “I feel like nefarious acts happen closer to the ground, even under it.”

Somehow, that felt right to Dellen, too, though the pain that he had experienced at the hands of Thaddeus and Thatch had happened well above Copperopolis. “Down it is.” He walked over to one of the doors out of the room and looked from side to side before stepping into a dim hallway. The windowless walls were lined with sconces, but the light from each of them was faint, just enough to line the corridor with shadows.

“Cheerful place they have here,” Gilgamesh said.

Dellen took a minute to orient himself, debating whether to go find Orion Blacktar in his room or go to the laundry. He decided to head to the laundry. The first thing he needed was a robe and a mask. There had to be a place where the Order’s spare masks were stored before being given to incoming initiates. “You have no idea,” he replied, “But there was training. I’m much better with Electrical Aether than before I spent time here, and they gave me materials to get up to Second Trinity.” If you considered Tiberius handing him ingots and calling down lightning ‘giving.’

Dellen led the way to the laundry, keeping his footsteps quiet. They reached the stairwell. It was just as quiet as the corridors, but he fought the urge to hunch. In the dim light his robe could almost pass, but the lack of a mask would be obvious to any but the most distracted.

The laundry was locked.

“Now what?” Gilgamesh asked.

“Why is this room locked?” Dellen muttered to himself. He had worked in the laundry, he did not remember ever seeing it locked. Of course, they also had not spoken; if it had been unlocked every day just minutes before his shift he would never have known. He inhaled and exhaled, a decision lay before him, continue on with his plan or backtrack to Orion. Dellen decided to break into the laundry. At the very least, he could find a high-ranking robe that would serve to simplify this scouting mission. “We’re going to have to destroy the lock.”

“Can you use magnetism to unlock it instead?”

“Maybe someone else could, but no, that would require a great deal of finesse. There’s a lot to align in a lock,” Dellen said absently, not paying much attention to what Gilgamesh was asking.

“That’s interesting. How did you know that?”

Dellen frowned, “Maybe I remembered it from before?”

“Maybe, so what is your plan?”

“A cruder application of magnetism, I’m going to pull the pins out of the lock,” Dellen put his still gloved hand at the keyhole on the door and created the strongest magnetic field he could manage.