Iris and Hye-Sung went their separate ways. With their approximate locations marked out, they began the process. Slow and steady. East Limβurs, the west, and the southern end. Slow, but consistent progress. The four of them narrowed their search onto a relatively small area. The main town hall building, the research labs of Aether Corp, the Trans-Workshop, and an old church building preserved for history.

They regrouped. It didn’t take particularly long to reach the approximate location. The three mages all mentioned the pulses growing in frequency, to a near consistent rhythm. As for Frances however, whatever it was they felt, she couldn’t feel a thing. On one hand, it was great. Like having a clogged nose whilst in a particularly smelly room, if it was off. But not being able to detect it was also quite a detriment. The unknown source of mana would be equated to an earthquake, whose tremors grant a split second of warning. Or perhaps of a hungered beast, with its every footstep giving rise to caution and paranoia.

“Which one do you wanna check first?” Frances asked. “I’ll go with whichever one you guys choose.”

“The hall’s closed until the morning. I think there a few people doing overtime at the labs, though,” Hye-Sung reported.

“And the workshop’s closed. The church is just there.” Iris shrugged. “Noah’s at the church, probably some nostalgia value there.”

“To the labs then. Should we get him?” Frances asked the others.

“I think we can afford to let him have some time alone with his thoughts. What can really threaten us? Two mages, and a girl with a gun. I think we can handle anything that happens to us.” Hye-Sung laughed with her words. “Besides, you have a gun. Do you really think anything can survive that?”

“I haven’t conducted any stress tests on it. It works fine on humanoids, but I haven’t tested it against something like a dragon.”

Hye-Sung nodded. The mage shoved her hands into her light coat, and leaned against the lab walls. Through the tinted windows of the research lab of Aether Corp, several shadows worked even during the night. Their dark figures silhouetted against the warm orange light of an inside lamp. From the outside, the building was rather nondescript. Labs similar to this could be found all throughout the city of magic. After all, it was home to quite a number of magical companies. Despite their geographic location, the political situation surrounding the city was complicated to say the least. The city itself was older than the country that surrounded it.

Frances knocked on the wooden door. Its hinges stained with brown rust, weathered by the vapour within the air. There was a small peephole built into the wood. A shadow behind moved towards the door. Short in stature, with a long ponytail attached to it.

“Coming, coming.” A person answered. Androgenous in appearance, they seemed to be a child. “I don’t think we scheduled any visitors tonight, right?”

“Good evening. Aether Corp, yes?”

“You got the right place. What do you want?”

“I just have several questions. Are your parents in?”

“I’m 23.”

“What? No you’re not.”

“Gods.” They rolled their eyes. With a sigh, they invited the visitors in.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“So what do you want? We already paid our damn taxes.” The child leaned back on their wooden chair, and propped their legs up on a table.

“We just have some questions.”

“About the mana pulses? You’re not the first.”

“Seems like you’re already familiar.”

“Yeah, but it's not us. Anything else?”

“Do you have any ideas about it then?”

“It's not my duty to question things, unlike nosy people like you.”

“Right. Do you have a name or something?”

“Andersen. And for the record, I’m the current second in command for this place.”

Frances muttered a vague affirmation. She took off her coat, and held it between her arm and her body. The various candles and lamps cast a beautiful variety of oranges and yellows.

“Andersen, huh? Surname?”

“That.”

“Uh-huh. Right. And you’re the second in command. I’m Rayleigh.”

“The warrior family. You’re not a warrior.”

“Hmm. Who’s to say? By the way, I’m a little confused. Are you-”

“Neither.”

“Got it. Common question?”

“Of course. Speaking of which, you’ve got a sister now, right? Supposedly, she’s one of the rare ones.”

“Rare in what sense?”

“Well, she’s a halfblood. I'm not even sure how that happens. That, and she was your brother before. At least now she has a reason for her weakness.” They shrugged with their words.

Frances simply laughed. With a tight-lipped smile, she stayed as amiable as possible. The young person rolled their eyes.

“Either way, we’re not involved. You’d have better luck trying the sewers.”

“Rather than that, we’ve filed a report too.” A man spoke up from behind. Donned in a white white lab coat, his dark circles beneath his eyes stood out like a sore thumb. His face wielded a stubble beard. “But the head doesn’t want to do anything about it.”

“Could you elaborate?” Frances prodded further. This, this was a lead.

“I don’t know too much about it. But our investigation request was rejected. You could ask the city officials for more information, though I doubt you’d get anything more than what we got.”

“Oh I’ll get more. I’ve got motivation for them.”

“Is that right?”

Frances nodded. She thanked them for their time, and left. Hye-Sung and Iris followed behind her.

“We’ve got a conspiracy on our hands,” Hye-Sung muttered.

“Perhaps this has something to do with July’s Sight or whatever.”

“Hmm. Well, first and foremost, we get Noah. If anyone has any idea about the head and this city, its him. Iris, have you got any information from your previous times here?”

“Nope. Quite literally everything changed after you changed.” Iris sighed.

“Then we’ve got to rely on ourselves, and Noah. From what we know, the head of the city probably hasn’t changed in centuries, but no one knows that. The head rules from the shadows, and is the only elf. Doesn’t everything sound too suspicious?”

“Do you think they’re doing something?” Hye-Sung asked. “Personally, I think it's the elf.”

“Interesting. Why?”

“I mean, if the elves here are like the elves we know, they live insanely long. So it's probable that the elf we’re talking about journeyed with Noah long ago, and dealt with the demons. Since Iris and Noah both returned after killing a demon, would it be possible that the elf knows the demons are back?”

“I agree with her. When we were travelling, he showed me many things. If his words are to be trusted, the elf we’re dealing with made powerful magical weapons. The Codex, for example, was something they had a hand in.”