With a grunt, Scarlet woke up, killing the alarm that had ripped her out of the sweet embrace of sleep. It was way too early in the morning, and truth be told she would love to continue sleeping for a while longer, however, the world didn’t wait for anyone, and work was calling.

Technically she could retire but that didn’t sit right with her. Not when there still was so much left to be done and not enough competent people to do it right.

Sighing she sat up, rubbing her eyes, and moving out of the bed, before making her way into the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror her reflection stared back at her. Scarlet had gotten old. She was sixty-six now, and her birthday was in two months. Her face had wrinkles and crow‘s feet lined her amber eyes.

She had never been overly attractive and a little diminutive, and age didn’t really help her in that regard. And while it never had bothered her how she looked, it did bother her that she never had enjoyed her youth. Now it was far too late, and while she did have a loving Husband and two sons, she did feel bad for never truly experiencing life outside of work.

Well, she would have, if it wouldn’t have been for that damn day her sister vanished. She grimaced as she took the toothbrush she started brushing her teeth, contemplating the day ahead.

She knew that she had two meetings lined up, one with a German military general and one with the Lead Researcher of her R&D department. The first one she could not care less about, already tired of dealing with the army, but the second one could actually be promising, considering what she had read in the last report.

Finishing up in the bathroom after refreshing herself a little, she made her way to her wardrobe, picking out one of her favorite suits and getting dressed. Her housekeeper would be awake already and starting on today‘s business on her own, and she looked forward to her cup of coffee.

Although, if she was honest with herself, she still enjoyed energy drinks over coffee, despite it being much less healthy. Alas, her Husband had beat that habit out of her years prior, which probably was for the best.

Finally dressed and feeling marginally more awake she made her way to the kitchen, where her Housekeeper was already working on the coffee machine.

If it was up to Scarlet she wouldn’t have hired a housekeeper, but the young woman was a friend of her son Lucifer who was in a dire financial situation, and she did seem trustworthy enough.

„Good morning, Sarah“, Scarlet greeted the woman as she entered, making a beeline to the kitchen table.

„Good morning, Miss Savart“, the woman said, turning to her employer with a friendly smile, „Coffee should be done in a moment.“

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That was music to Scarlet‘s ears, and she nodded as she sat down, pulling out her phone to go over the notifications and messages she had missed during the night.

Most of it was the usual, messages from a few department heads, daily reports, inquiries by media companies, inquiries by governments or other institutions, whatever was important for the owner and CEO of a Security Service which focused on magical threats.

Dismissing most of them and answering the few important ones she was nearly done when she found a message in her e-mail mailbox. ‚Family emergency‘ was the title and with a frown, she opened it. Normally such matters would either be sent to her private e-mail or by messenger services, not on her business e-mail.

She also didn’t recognize the sender. It was most likely spam or a scam, but she opened it and skimmed it quickly regardless, just on the off chance it was important.

And was she glad she did. While she didn’t recognize the sender personally, she did recognize the e-mail provider, it was a military address, so the chances it was either spam or a scam were unlikely.

Although she did believe it was a genuine e-mail, the contents were… confusing.

The e-mail claimed that someone who got into contact with the Magical Response Army requested to meet with her regarding a family emergency. While she did have an extensive family, nobody she knew would use this kind of roundabout manner to contact her.

When she continued reading her eyebrows rose to her forehead. The sender, apparently a Colonel under Major Blake Durr, hinted at this being very important.

While she didn’t know Major Durr personally, she had heard from him on multiple occasions. He was a respected soldier and known for doing his job right. She also knew that he was related to a family who had lost two sons, just as she lost her sister, so she had been in private contact with Mister and Miss Durr a few times.

Her impression was that Blake Durr would keep his soldiers in check, so this had to mean something.

Filing the e-mail for the moment she was just about to open her messenger app to contact her Assistant to inquire further, when another e-mail came in. This one was from her government contact with the German government.

And the header was enough to shock Scarlet completely. ‚Report from Major Blake Durr: Rin Savart found‘.

She read through it immediately, then read it again to be sure.

Sarah turned around when she heard something fall onto the desk, finding Scarlet sitting there stunned, phone on the table. The woman didn’t move and Sarah began to be worried.

„Miss Savart? Everything alright?“, she asked, worried.

Scarlet turned to her, her face blank, not sure what to say or feel. “I…”, she started, but trailed off, not sure how to continue.

Sarah stepped closer, a coffee in hand, placing it in front of her employer. Just as she was about to say something, Scarlet shook herself, then picked up the phone.

“I think I have to cancel my appointments today. Something rather important came up… I just hope the news are true”, she said with a grimace, before she started to quickly type a response.

This would either be the best day of her life, or someone would be very unhappy to have upset her with blatant lies. While a part of her was hoping that this was actually happening, she forced herself to remain skeptical, not wanting to be disappointed should the news be false.

“Sarah, I won’t be home for the next few days. You can take those days off, I will contact you once I am back”, she finally said as she got up, emptied the coffee mug with one swig, and walked to the front door.

Despite her outwardly calm demeaner her thoughts ran rampant into a multitude of directions. Time to see if any of this was true, or if someone was about to be very sorry to have upset her.