PART 1

"I'm sooo pooped…" whined a certain Celestial girl as she fell onto the bed like a sack of potatoes.

"Tell me about it," her boyfriend muttered with overplayed trepidation as he removed his helmet and placed it onto the nightstand.

"Boo! You only had to stand around!"

"Precisely! I've been standing all day!" Josh argued back and sat down on the bed as well. "My legs are killing me…"

"At least you didn't have to play nice with all of those creepy bureaucrats," Angie continued to complain unabated and hugged a pillow to her chest. "They're so annoying!"

"You know you're preaching to the choir here, right?" I asked as I entered the bedroom of my (or rather, our) Celestial suite.

It's been a long day, and although I wasn't at the center of the attention this time, I got exhausted by proxy just by staying close to the childhood friend couple.

This was the third day of Angie's Grand Elysium Tour. It was unlike the time when I was attending the military exercise. For a start, it didn't involve any parades or chariots. Due to her insistence, the no-flying rule was indefinitely suspended and the first day's program consisted of an aerial round-trip around the Elysium... in a giant bloody flying palanquin of all things, carried through the air by a dozen burly Celestials. It was a good thing none of us were prone to sea-sickness, because that was easily the most unstable ride I'd ever been on, and I had ridden in a car with Judy's mom driving.

Jokes aside, it was another one of those 'traditional' things the Directorate in general, and the Cult of Deus in particular, insisted upon. In other words, Savir most likely had a hand in it, so I told everyone to refrain from discussing any sensitive info, just in case there were some hidden listening devices in the litter. In retrospect, my worries were a bit misplaced, as Josh and Mountain Girl maintained their silence, while Angie was too busy 'Oooh!'-ing and 'Aaah!'-ing at the scenery to talk about anything else.

In any case, the trip confirmed a few suspicions I had about the pocket dimension, such as that it had a definite ceiling just a couple of hundred meters above the highest mountain peak of the copied Critias, and that the sea surrounding the island was cut off at a certain point visible on the horizon. With all of that put into consideration, I also had to conclude that the population density of the Elysium was shockingly low.

If the census data of the Directorate was to be believed, the whole of the pocket-dimension had just a hair's breadth less inhabitants than Timaeus, all of it concentrated around the towers dotting the landscape. The rest were either farmlands or uncultivated wilderness, with a few rustic flagstone highways snaking through them and connecting the settlements. That said though, while 'only' having a couple hundred thousand inhabitants might've sounded underwhelming on paper, it still meant that there were an order of magnitude more Celestials in the Simulacrum than Draconians, Magi, and all other mystical folk combined. Abyssals notwithstanding, of course, as I had little grasp on their absolute numbers, but considering how their citizenry had access to modern conveniences, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were even more numerous.

Let's put the Simulacrum's magical demographics aside for the moment, and return to the Grand Tour. Day one was mostly just sightseeing from above. Day two, in contrast, had Angie visit three of the other spiral towers and their inhabitants. There wasn't much to see there, as they were just as empty as the Migdál Glaukós with which we were all intimately familiar already. If anything, it felt like we were ushered from one party in celebration of Deus's return to another. It wasn't until today that Angie got her request, and the palanquin-Celestials ferried us around the various rural settlements of the Elysium.

"It was a little fun though," Angie stated, apparently following a line I thought I might've missed while pondering the recent events. She was lying on her stomach now, with the pillow under her chest and her hands propping up her head under her chin. As for Josh, he was massaging her calves, causing her to giggle. "Sure, it was tiresome and stuff, but everyone was so excited to meet me."

"You were unexpectedly popular with the kids and the elderly," I noted absently as I walked over to the large windows and pulled the curtains open. It was already late in the afternoon, and the simulated sun was getting noticeably redder with each passing minute.

In the meantime, Angie let out a mirthful little giggle and adjusted the pillow under her.

"It's because kids are cute, and old people are kind!"

Glancing over, I couldn't help but narrow my eyes and say, "The fact that you can say that with a straight face tells me you haven't met enough kids and old folk yet."

"Boo! Party pooper! Booo!" Her complaints came to an abrupt end when she let out a startled hiss and looked over her shoulder. "Hey! Be gentler, please!"

"You should be happy I'm even doing this for you when my legs are stinging too," her boyfriend grumbled, yet it was blindingly obvious that he started handling her legs like they were made of porcelain. "Why do I have to do this, anyway?"

"Because I'm Deus, and you're my Joshticar!" Angie declared with a toothy grin, and I couldn't help but bury my head in my palm.

"I can't decide what's the more depressing interpretation: that you insisted on calling him that just to make that pun, or that you wasted your one and only chance to capitalize on it like that."

"Boo! To the last I boo at thee; from hell’s heart I boo at thee; for boo's sake I boo my last boo at thee!"

"… Could you please stop butchering Moby Dick, please?" I cut in, hand still on my face.

"Can't. Couldn't think of anything else. Too tired."

She punctuated that by sticking out her tongue, and Josh sighed in the background again.

"You say that, but you were pampered all day long. You barely even had to walk anywhere."

"I'm mentally exhausted," she responded with just a hint of a pout.

"Then why am I massaging your legs?"

"Oh, stop it, you dunce!" Angie exclaimed, this time with a full pout. "You talk like I've never given you any service just to be nice."

"Well… erm… I can't argue with that," Josh mumbled, and his movement turned a bit mechanical, which told me he was getting embarrassed. He quickly shook it off though, and let out a pent-up breath. "But I'm also mentally exhausted, you know? I had to play this Justicar role all day long, without speaking a single word, all the while everyone was looking at me funny."

"Not everyone," I pointed out as I made my way over to the bedside. "The Praetorian Guards seem to have an inexplicably good impression of you."

"Yeah, but that's just more trouble," he continued to grumble. "They keep asking me to train with them."

"You know, they are going to follow you to Timaeus, so you might as well accept the offer and build up a good relationship with them," I commented half-heartedly, and my friend looked at me like I just showed a whole lemon into his mouth.

"Sure. And how am I supposed to do that without using my Celestial abilities? Or speaking, if we're at that?" Pausing, he stifled an annoyed groan and started kneading his girlfriend's other leg. "I'm pretty sure they just want to interrogate me about my relationship with Angie. Like that annoying reporter."

I was just about to tune out of the conversation and start considering my plans for the rest of the day, but that yanked me right back in.

"Annoying what now?"

"Reporter," he repeated himself with audible distaste. "She approached me in the morning, while you were inspecting that flying carriage thing, and asked about where I came from and if something was going on between us."

"As in, you and me?" Angie perked up, finding the topic interesting.

"Nah. That was the weird part! It was like she was implying that there was this soap opera thing going on with us and Leo and Ms. Yamako! It was creepy as hell!"

"Did you tell her anything?"

I might've sounded a bit more severe than intended, as the guy immediately averted his eyes and let out an awkward chuckle.

"No, of course not. I mean, I might've nodded once or twice just to get her out of my hair, but I didn't speak a word to her. Seriously, I didn't."

"The laddie doth protest too much, methinks," Angie teased him with a fake British accent, and in response, Josh started kneading her calves more vigorously. "Ah-ouwie! I was joking! Time out! Time out!"

While the couple on the bed continued to horse around, my brows descended into a frown of their own accord. A woman going around and asking thinly veiled questions about our relationships, huh? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern. Maybe I should look into this a bit more, I decided just as the childhood friend duo finally calmed down once Angie caught her boyfriend in a headlock.

"Can't you two cuddle like normal people?" I murmured as I watched the two of them, but I got no response. As such, I opted to shake my head and say, "Whatever. I'm going to step out for a moment. You know the drill, right?"

"Stay put, don't talk to any of the important people without you around, and ask Ms. Yamako if we need anything," Josh answered even while his face was turning into an unhealthy shade of red.

I was about to nod, but then he suddenly frowned and tapped on Angie's shoulder. She immediately let him go, as if they agreed upon the signal ahead of time, and he turned a pair of skeptical eyes on me.

"You know, it's been bothering me for a while, but can you really just teleport in and out of this place whenever you wish?"

"Right. Didn't you need that weird carnival mask to do that?" Angie followed him up by poking at my old cover story. "Didn't Ammy say that it's a really difficult magic?"

"Sure, it's not easy," I lied through my teeth. In truth, ever since I grew my extra phantom limbs, Phasing became as easy as breathing, and it no longer came with headaches or any other adverse effects. Of course, they didn't need to know that, and luckily for me, I had a brand new, much sturdier cover for it. "Turns out, it's a Polemos power."

"Is it?" Josh pressed me with a critically raised brow, while Angie seemed a bit more thoughtful.

"I dunno… That just doesn't sound right to me."

"The facts are the facts," I stressed mirthlessly, implying that I didn't want to discuss the topic in detail. "It's an unusual ability I could use after my amnesia. I could barely do it with the help of support enchantments before, but since the Polemos memory transfer, I can do it much easier. Therefore, it's a Polemos thing. Q.E.D."

"Fair enough, I guess," Josh finally relented, but his gaze was still critical of me. "But then why did we have to use that freakin' unstable sky-carriage thing to come back instead of just teleporting home?"

"It's not a power meant to be used for convenience," I continued to tell not-exactly-truths without batting an eye, and while Josh grudgingly accepted my words, Angie remained unusually stern.

"I still feel like something's amiss. Are you sure you can do that?" She paused and tried again. "I mean, are you sure Polemos can do that?"

"Isn't asking him if he can do something he's already doing a silly question?" Josh teased her, and she immediately puffed up a cheek in return.

"Muu! You know what I meant!"

"Just accept it as it is, will you?" I cut in, and Josh fully gave up.

"Fine, whatever. I just wanna know when I'll get my cool quarter-Deus powers too, that's all."

"Don't worry, buddy. I don't have any super-special-awesome powers yet either."

Angie patted him on the shoulder with a smile that wasn't entirely sincere, causing the guy to roll his eyes.

"Whatever. Where were we?"

"Around here?" Angie suddenly flashed an impish smile and caught the guy in a headlock again.

"Oh, come on!" Josh protested, if weakly, and I quickly left the two of them to their games before they could ask any more inconvenient questions.

Once I returned to the living room, I gave a few basic instructions to Mountain Girl, currently lounging on the sofa at the back of the room and reading a doorstopper of a book. Done with that, I closed my eyes and picked a mark for Phasing. While I was pretty sure that 'reporter' had something to do with Savir, she was currently preaching from a pulpit in what looked like a small church in another tower at the other end of the Elysium, so I left her for later. First off, I had a soft appointment at home, so I Phased there first.

"Heyo, girls! I'm home!" I declared loudly as I walked out of the teleport closet, eliciting very different reactions from my audience in the living room.

"Eeek!" a certain Abyssal spymaster cried out in alarm and literally fell off the couch in front of the TV.

"Brother!" another loud voice called out, and my danger sense gave me a soft warning as my knightlier sister, still in her school uniform, dashed down the stairs and nearly tackled me off my feet.

"W-W-What is going on!?" Tajana whimpered while cradling her head. She apparently hit it on the way down. She was dressed casually, with her long hair tied into a ponytail, and her eyes opened wide as saucers the moment her gaze landed on me. "L-L-Leonard D-Dunning?!"

"In the flesh," I jested as I tousled Penny's hair, and it was only then that she looked up at me with a startled expression.

"Wait! Brother! What are you doing here?"

"I'll explain in a moment, just…"

"Leo? Is that you?" my other sister poked her head over the railing of the stairs, and her face lit up into a delighted smile the moment our eyes met.

"Hi, Snowy. I'm semi-officially back."

"What does 'semi-officially' even mean?" Penny inquired with a genuinely confused expression, and I patted her head a bit more to comfort her. It, unfortunately, had the opposite effect, as the moment she noticed that the Abyssal woman still sitting next to the couch was looking at us, she let out a loud 'Awawa!' and stepped away from me. "N-Not in front of strangers!"

"Tajana is hardly a stranger," Snowy noted as she reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to me. She was also wearing her uniform, and her trademark twin-tails looked even fancier than usual.

It must've had something to do with the aforementioned spymaster insisting on brushing her hair every evening like she was a princess in a shoujo story. Though again, the first part of that was kind of correct, so who was I to judge?

"You know what I meant!" Penny fumed and waited until I gave our Abyssal sister the customary head pats before waving to get my attention. "Hello? Brother? You still haven't told us what you're doing here?"

"I told you I'll get to it in a moment," I chided her, causing her to sulk, so I reached into my pocket and handed her a small confectionery wrapped up in faux gold foil. "Here you go, kiddo."

"I-I'm not a kid to be distracted with candy!" she complained, yet she still took it without any hesitation.

She quickly unwrapped the small package, revealing a round chocolate ball covered with chopped hazelnuts. Once the Celestial higher-ups realized Angie had a sweet tooth the size of Mount Everest, we always had at least one platter of sweets around us at any given time, and since I was planning to visit my sisters today, I unapologetically pocketed a few of them. Speaking of which…

"Got one for you too," I said as I handed another confectionery to Snowy, and she accepted it with a beaming smile.

"Thank you."

"Enough stalling," Penny grumbled, though it was hard to take her seriously while she was also licking the melted chocolate off her fingertips. "Are you coming home? For real this time?"

"As a matter of fact, I am."

Her fingers stopped mid-motion, and her face practically lit up, washing away her previous peevishness in one go.

"Really?"

"Yep. I'll be back in a couple of days, along with Josh and Angie."

"Wait! Are they also in the Elysium? What are they doing there? I thought they just got a really nasty flu, and that's why they didn't come to school!"

Ignoring my redhead sister's outrage, I noticed Snowy giving me an odd look, so I prompted her to speak up.

"Yes? Is there a problem?"

"No, not really, just…" She paused to glance at the silent woman by the couch. "You don't seem surprised by Tajana's presence."

"Just because I wasn't here doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention to you guys," I told her with my best Big Brotherly Smile™. "I naturally know about her too."

"Y-You were 'paying attention' to us?" All of a sudden, Penny became flustered, and pulled Snowy aside. "S-Sis? Emergency meeting! If Brother knows about her, then she might know about… you know?"

"That we borrowed his PC to play multipl—?"

"Psst!" She put a partially chocolate-covered finger on Snowy's lips and let out a forced cutesy laugh. "T-Tee-hee?"

Ignoring their act, I shook my head and turned to the Abyssal woman, still sitting on the floor and nervously eyeing me.

"Miss Sukkal."

"Y-Yes, sir… erm… S-Sir Dunning?"

The way she addressed me gave me goosebumps, but I ignored it and unceremoniously walked over to my favourite comfy chair.

"Please get up and sit down."

"A-At once!"

She was frantically trying to rise to her feet even as she said that, and before long, she was sitting ramrod straight on the couch, hands clenched, and staring at me without blinking.

"As I have just said, I'm returning home soon," I told her blandly, pointedly ignoring the way my sisters were trying to remain low-profile while sneaking upstairs. Resisting the urge to chuckle, I looked Tajana deep in the eyes, linked my fingers in my lap, and added, "Let's discuss what to do with you, shall we?"

PART 2

The human mind is such a curious thing. It's been less than a month since I've been home the last time. Much less so if we count the times when I only flung my disembodied point of view here. Yet, the moment I sank into my old padded chair, I could feel the stiffness actively draining out of my shoulders and my face being conquered by a relaxed smile, as if I just returned home after a long hike in the mountains.

Our guest might've misunderstood my actions, as she tensed up like a piano wire. In some ways, she reminded me of a mouse in front of a snake, which was an odd mental image, considering she was a high-ranking definitely-not-demon, and I definitely wasn't a snake either. Definitely.

"Um… Sir Dunning?"

When I raised a brow, she twitched like she was expecting me to blow a lid and cut off her head at any moment.

"Just Leonard will do. I'm not a fan of formalities," I told her in a dry voice, and it didn't help her complexion one bit.

"I-In that case… Sir Leonard… What exactly do you plan to 'do' with me?" When I didn't respond right away, she raised her arms defensively, and hastily sputtered, "I-I'm one of the chief retainers of Lord Noire Irdu Inanna of House Inanna! K-Killing me would result in diplomatic repercussions!"

"Relax, I'm not planning to do that," I told her in the same tone as before, and I only just realized that it might've been the reason behind her overreaction. I'd been playing Polemos so much as of late that it became second nature, and it was most likely unnerving her. As such, I cleared my throat and adopted a slightly friendlier manner. "Seriously though, you know that I'm not exactly on friendly terms with Crowy, right? You probably shouldn't try to threaten me with him. It's not very effective, you see."

"Ah… Um… I'll k-keep that in mind…"

Seeing that we weren't getting anywhere fast at this rate, I decided to cut the pleasantries short and cut to the meat of the matter.

"As to answer your previous question, it's still up in the air." She blinked at me, belatedly realizing that I was talking about what I would be 'doing about her', and her eyes quickly focused on my mouth, hanging on my every word. "As I've said before, I'm going to return to Timaeus soon, and I'm not entirely keen on sharing a roof with an Abyssal Seducer."

"A-Aren't you already living with my Lady?" she blurted out, but then covered her mouth as if she didn't mean to say that out loud.

"That's a different matter entirely. Snowy is my sister and entirely trustworthy. The same cannot be said about you."

"You… have a good relationship with my Lady…" she blabbered on, seemingly saying whatever came to her mind. How this woman managed to remain a spymaster under someone like Crowy was a mystery for the ages.

"Certainly. She's the most reliable little sister I could ask for," I answered with a smile I hoped wasn't too sheepish, and after a measured beat, I shifted it into a deadpan expression. "So, I want you to be honest now. What are your plans with her."

"M-My plans? I have no plans! Nothing at all!"

Her flustered denial wasn't going to convince anyone.

"Miss Sukkal," I started with a level voice. "I'm aware you have told my sisters that you have only visited Snowy out of concern, and that nobody, either in the Abyss or among your Faun escorts, knew about it. Frankly, I'm not buying it."

I must have hit the nail on the head, as she visibly tensed up, but then she responded in a much calmer, almost practiced way.

"I… I don't know what you mean. I can only repeat what I've already told My Lady and the Griffon Knight. I am here to look into the whereabouts of—"

"I have to stop you right there. I know Crowy, and he's too paranoid to let you out of his sight and come to this island for some vague reconnaissance mission like that. The fact that you beelined here right away, without your escorts, tells me that Snowy was your primary target, and you wanted to get your hands on her in secret, without anyone else's knowledge. Did I get that right?"

She was doing her best to remain outwardly calm, but the way her eyes were shaking told me she was anything but that.

"Stop stalling and tell the truth, would you? This is getting tiresome."

She was visibly conflicted for a moment, but then she hesitantly told me, "For you to understand, I would have to reveal the recent political changes in the Abyss."

"The Ashurs colluded with the Celestials, Crowy got obsessed with the possibility of them holding me hostage, sent in spies, it turned out I wasn't there but you discovered the Celestial connection, Crowy mobilized and caught them by surprise, took over House Ashur, and now there's all kinds of political drama going on, because he's holding two Mana Wells, and the other houses don't like that. Was that the gist of it?"

Tajana stared at me like I was some kind of surprise poltergeist, her face slackened and white as a sheet, but before long, she limply nodded.

"Y-Yes, that's… How…?"

"Not important," I cut her inquiry short and hardened my voice. "Answer the question."

The young spymaster opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, like a fish out of water, and ultimately slouched her shoulders in defeat.

"Since you know this much… Erm… Yes, you are correct. I did receive a secret mission from My Liege, to contact My Lady in private."

"As expected," I noted with a satisfied hum. "What does he want with her? I can hardly imagine it was out of brotherly love and concern, so I guess it had something to do with the political landscape."

"No, not at all! I-I mean, maybe in a sense, but… My Liege only wanted to offer a deal for My Lady, to overlook her transgression and accept her back to House Inanna in exchange for services rendered."

"What transgression?" I blurted out, raising my voice more than intended. "She was used by Crowy, he left her behind when he ran away with his tail between his legs, and then pretended that he was the one who got betrayed. That's the long and short of it."

Honestly, I didn't exactly expect an apology from that bastard, but that was a bit too much.

"My Lord did no such thing!" Tajana objected, only to then immediately shrink back. "I-I mean, Lord Noire never betrayed my Lady!"

"… Are you messing with me right now?" She remained silent, looking more confused by my insistence than anything. "You are aware that Crowy had a literal mind-control slave collar around her neck, right?"

"I-I'm sure Lord Noire had his reasons!"

"And I'm sure he was also full of nothing but benevolent intent when he exploited her, painted her as a traitor, and threw her under the bus, blaming everything on her to try and save his own ass, right?"

"My Lord was… he was working with limited information! That's why he thought the Nergals were involved, and… and it doesn't matter, since it was all just a misunderstanding!"

"It 'doesn't matter'? Really? That's the best excuse you could come up with?"

"It's… It's not an excuse! It really doesn't matter and you… you're no better! You exploited My Lady's weakness! Hypocrite!"

"What are you even talking about?" I blurted out in sheer confusion, and she doubled down.

"Y-You adopted My Lady, did you not?"

"Yes? After she was betrayed by her brother, thrown aside, and had nowhere to go."

"That can't be the whole truth! Nobody accepts an Abyssal Seducer into their family without ulterior motives!"

The more worked up she was getting, the less she stuttered, which was a welcome change. It unfortunately also came with increasingly frantic arguments, and I wasn't a fan of that.

"You're showing your Celestial heritage. Not everything is a part of some elaborate scheme, and not every act of kindness is just a setup for exploitation. I thought after living with Snowy for the last couple of days, you would've already realized that."

"Y-Yes, I understand that she refers to you as her brother now, and she had forsaken Lord Noire, but that doesn't mean anything!" She argued back, constantly swinging back and forth between frightened and agitated. "My Lady is an Abyssal Seducer! We rely on our inborn powers to create bonds of affection, and it's well-known that a Seducer is most vulnerable to displays of unregulated affection! That must be how you manipulated her!"

For someone afraid I would kill her just five minutes ago, she was surprisingly eager to throw accusations around. That said, I couldn't help but raise a curious brow at her latest outburst.

"Hold your horses. Seducers are weak to love?"

"Yes!" After exclaiming so, her eyes suddenly opened wide, she raised her palm and began waving them around in a panic. "W-Wait! That's not what I meant! It's much more complicated than that! S-Since we're so used to creating f-feelings in people, when someone shows the same kind of affection on their own, it's… it just makes us a little flustered, okay?" It took her until this moment to realize that she was rambling, and she forcefully folded her arms in front of her chest before loudly yelling, "D-D-Don't act like this is the first time you've heard of this! I-It's how you manipulated my Lady into forsaking her blood and heritage!"

Ignoring the way she was flailing around to the point I wouldn't have been surprised if steam started billowing out of her ears at any moment, I thoughtfully pinched my chin.

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"That is the first time I've heard something like that, but if it's true, it certainly explains a lot." It was only at this point that she noticed the critical look I was aiming at her, and she shrunk back once again, like a puppy that didn't understand why its hooman was angry at her. Shaking the mental imagery out of my head, I exhaled hard and levelled a flat stare at her. "Let's make things clear, shall we? No, I didn't adopt Snowy as part of a nefarious plan, I don't plan on using her in any way or the other, and as for her relationship with Crowy, I couldn't be happier if she cut all ties with that bastard, but it's ultimately up to her. She's a big girl, and she can make her own decisions."

I purposefully skimmed over the unintentional love-bombing part, but to be fair, I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

"I… I don't believe you."

"Then don't. It doesn't change the fact and only makes you look foolish. Nothing new." She twitched as if I just punched her in the nose. "Anyhow, you still haven't told me what your secret mission was about. Why did you contact my sister? For the record, I have the means to make sure you aren't lying, so don't even try to wriggle out of this question."

This time, she let out a hiccup, and after staring at the floor in front of her feet for a while, she let out a defeated noise.

"Uuuh… F-Fine." Reluctantly, she finally explained, "As you have said, My Liege claimed hold of all of House Ashur's assets, including their Mana Well. However, Abyssal Law explicitly forbids of one house possessing more than one Mana Well. Because of this, while My Liege is currently in custody of the Ashur estate, the other Lords of the Abyss are pressuring him to return it once the investigation concludes and the traitors are weeded out."

"So far so straightforward. Where does Snowy come into the picture?"

"I-I'm getting to it! So, you understand, we have an ideal way to resolve this situation. The Ashurs had many children, and the youngest is only five years old. Since his siblings are implicated in treason, My Liege is planning to remove them from the line of succession, making the boy the only potential heir, and then arrange a marriage while he's still custodian, so that House Inanna can exert control over House Ashur even after the handover."

"Oh, I get it now," I noted a tad morosely. "So it's a forced arranged marriage plot, and he sent you here, as the closest person to Snowy, to try and convince my sister to return to the Abyss and become one of his pawns again."

"N-Not in these words, no," Tajana whimpered.

Clicking my tongue, I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"This is sooo clichéd, but I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better from him." I let my hand down and sent a sideways glance at my 'guest'. "Have you told Snowy about this?"

"I… am still waiting for the right opportunity," she whispered, and I couldn't help but exhale a single chuckle.

"Marvelous. So, now that we're clear on that, I would once again like to ask what you're doing here." She looked at me funny, so I clarified, "I don't mean 'in my house', but 'officially'. Your secret mission was to convince Snowy, and I know that you're probably hoping to meet Bel again in the process, but what's the public explanation for your departure from the Abyss?"

Instead of answering my straightforward question, her attention snapped back to me the moment I uttered the B-word, and her eyes opened wide as saucers.

"N-No, w-w-wait! How would you know about th—!" Biting back the last syllable, her eyes somehow widened even further. "C-Could it be…? Did you… hear about me from Lord Bel? I've heard you're in contact, and… and did Lord Bel mention me? By name, maybe? Did he?"

Her sudden shift into a young maiden hopelessly pining after her idol was a rather jarring one, but I saw no reason why I shouldn't play along if it would help me pry her mouth open.

"Sure. Not in detail though, just that you might show up sooner or later. Then he said something about a timey-wimey ball, how this is the present of a future of a different past than the future of his past's present, and he concluded that with, 'The past is a history, the future is a mystery, but the now is a gift. That's why it's called the present'. And then he made cartoon duck noises and disappeared. True story."

"The present is a gift…" she repeated after me with a dopey smile, seemingly completely disregarding everything else that just came out of my mouth. "Lord Bel's wisdom is unfathomable."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that," I grumbled, tapping my feet against the floor. "More importantly, you've yet to answer me."

"I… am in Timaeus track down the connections between House Ashur and the Celestial Intelligence Network, and to discover the whereabouts of a vial of Udug Blood Amalgam."

"Is that just a cover, or something you have to do?"

"The latter."

"How often do you have to report back?"

"W-We don't have a reliable way to communicate between the Abyss and the outside world, so…"

"So Crowy has no idea that you were captured," I finished her sentence, and after a moment of hesitation, she raised her voice.

"B-But, by now I'm sure my Lord is aware that something happened to me! It's only a question of time before he would—"

"No, he doesn't know yet," I pointed out a touch dryly, and she shrunk back again, not expecting to be rebuked that fast. "Staying on topic, you say that your official concerns were the Ashurs and the Blood Amalgam. Correct?"

"C-Correct."

"And you had no reason or desire to get on the bad side of either me, the Draconic Federation, or the Magi?"

"Of course not! I'm not suicidal!"

Nodding, I crossed my arms again and considered her words carefully. All things considered, there were three possible options on the table. The first one was to let her go. Since she was marked, I could use her to track down her Fauns, and then I could catch them all, avoiding any future complications. The second option was to let her stay as a guest in my house, which was something Snowy would've likely appreciated, but I wasn't particularly fond of, and once Judy and Elly learned of it, I was sure it would cause some friction. Last, and certainly least, there was the pragmatic option, where I would simply imprison her. The dockyard hideout had a couple of empty rooms, and locking her up there would've been a classic out-of-sight-out-of-mind solution.

While I was still thinking about which solution would be best, my ears picked up some shuffling from upstairs, and when I glanced over, my eyes met with Snowy's.

"Can we come down?" she asked a touch uncertainly, making me smile.

"Why couldn't you? We aren't discussing state secrets."

"W-We actually are…" Tajana protested in a mousy voice, but by then, my sisters were already halfway down the stairs.

"Brother? Are you bullying her?"

That was Penny's first question the moment she stopped by the couch, earning her an incredulously raised brow from yours truly.

"I don't think I am. Am I bullying you?"

"Y— N-N-No! Definitely not!" the young spymaster insisted as if her life depended on it.

"You see? We were just discussing what she's doing here, and what would happen to her once I'm back in town."

"Are you going to lock her up?" came Penny's next question, and her expression told me she didn't know how she would feel about my answer, whether it was yes or no.

"I'm still considering my options, but I'm not sure if keeping her here is a good idea."

Tajana stiffened in her seat, as if I just gave her the death penalty, but it soon shifted into uncertainty when Snowy stepped up to me and tugged on the shoulder of my shirt.

"Yes?"

She leaned over and gestured for me to do the same, before forming a funnel with her hands around her mouth and whispering directly into my ear.

"Are you sure Tajana can't stay here any longer?" I wordlessly raised a questioning brow at her suggestion, so she lowered her voice even further. "If you give me some time, I think I can convince her to come over to our side."

After some thinking, I gestured for her to turn her head, and mimicking her actions, I also shielded my mouth and whispered back to her that way.

"She seems pretty loyal to Crowy. Are you sure you can do it?"

She nodded right away and urged me to turn my head.

"I… I can do it. She can be a little stubborn at times, but I'm sure I can make her see reason, so… can she stay with us a little longer?"

So, my sister wanted to keep her around because she was trying to subvert her, while Tajana was staying around because she was looking for the opportunity to lure her back into the Abyss. Kind of a messed-up situation all around, and I still wasn't one hundred percent sure it was a great idea. That said, Snowy rarely made any requests to me, so I felt that it was my big-brotherly duty to accommodate her. Even if that meant I would have to look forward to an awkward explanation involving my girlfriends in the future.

"Fine. She can stay."

"Thank you!"

Snowy beamed at me, but before I could return the gesture, someone started murmuring into my other ear.

"W-What are you whispering about?"

Glancing over, I found my Knightlier sister, slightly flushed, staring at me from up close with her hands forming a funnel around her mouth. She must have felt left out, I surmised and gestured for her to turn her ear my way.

"We just decided to keep Tajana here for a bit longer. Are you okay with that?"

"I can put up with her, but…" Penny paused and glanced between Tajana and me. "You're not planning to… erm… seduce her too, right?"

"Who do you take me for?" I spoke aloud and delivered a light flick on her forehead, then gestured for her to lean over again and whispered, "Snowy wants to make her switch sides."

"Really?"

"Sure. You can ask her if you want."

My knightlier sister nodded with a determined grimace and walked over to the other side of my seat before signalling for Snowy to lean closer and they started whispering between each other. Despite her strong-minded expression, Penny was clearly having fun, which reinforced my initial hunch that she must have been feeling left out.

In any case, since we came to a conclusion, it was time to share it with the eminently confused Abyssal sitting on the couch and staring at us in open-eyed bewilderment.

"The family council decided that, for the time being, you're going to stay our guest here. You can thank Snowy for that."

"T-Thank you?" she blurted out on autopilot, but my sisters were too busy whispering to each other to pay her any heed.

In the meantime, I stood up and reached into my pocket.

"You can keep using the guest room for the time being, I suppose. It's not like Percival is coming back any time soon."

My stray comment made the redhead behind me let out a high-pitched noise and she grabbed hold of my shoulder.

"That's right! Brother! What about Uncle Percy!" I turned to face her, and after glancing left and right (all the while conveniently ignoring the startled look on Snowy's face), she practically pulled me down to her level to whisper into my ear. "I… I know that he did bad things, but he was kidnapped by Bel before he could tell his side of the story, and he's been missing for so long! Shouldn't we do something about him?"

"Don't worry, kiddo," I spoke softly, in the company of a few head pats. "He's fine, at least for now."

"How do you…?" She swallowed the end of the sentence and her eyes immediately narrowed into suspicious slits. "Brother? Did that awful Bel bastard tell you about him?"

"Yes."

"When? Did he really go into the Elysium to talk to you? You really shouldn't associate with evildoers like him!"

"I know, I know." I rubbed her head a bit harder for emphasis, and added, "Desperate times create desperate partnerships."

"I understand that… but…"

Seeing that she had no comeback, I flashed my standard Big Brotherly Smile™ at her and turned back to Tajana.

"So, as I was saying, consider yourself promoted to official mandatory guest status."

"That means I still can't leave," she grumbled, seemingly less timid now that Snowy was in the same room.

"Obviously." I showed her a toothy grin, then removed my hand from my left pocket, and lazily threw a gold-foil-covered chocolate truffle over her head. "[Keep up the good work.]"

"[Thanks, boss,]" Hrul responded with a grin of his own as he rolled the confectionery between his large fingers, his whole body covered by a thin sheen of orange film.

"Wha-waah-whaaat?" Tajana was in a panic, glancing between me and the source of the disembodied voice behind the couch.

Ignoring the bamboozled woman, I turned back to my sisters and sternly told them, "Keep an eye on her, just in case. Don't rely on the Fauns alone."

"… I didn't even know he was there…" Penny mumbled in a daze, while Snowy nodded with an expression that said it was only natural.

I spared a glance at the clock on the wall and then let out a long breath.

"Since I'm done here, I think I should head back."

"Already?" My knightly sister sounded disappointed, and she wasn't alone.

"Can't you stay for dinner?" Snowy pleaded, but I had to shake my head.

"Sorry, but I still have places to be, plus I'm waaay behind on my schoolwork, so I have some cramming to do."

"Schoolwork…?" Tajana continued to mutter in the background without anyone paying much attention to her.

"It can't be helped then," Penny concluded without too much resistance, but her dissatisfied eyes still bothered me, so I came up with an idea on a whim.

"How about we go on a family trip once I'm back?"

"A trip?" Snowy's eyes lit up at once, and Penny's downcast look made a hundred-and-eighty turn as well.

"Just the three of us?"

"If you're okay with that."

"I am!" Penny declared with way too much enthusiasm. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know yet. I'm open to suggestions."

"Challenge accepted!" she declared with a fist pump, and Snowy barely managed to stifle her chuckles.

Seeing them so hyped up over such a small promise made my small heart grow at least one-and-a-quarter sizes, and I roughly tousled their noggings before turning towards the teleport closet. However, before stepping inside, I turned to Tajana one last time. I just felt like I needed to get in the last word.

"Behave yourself, and everything will be fine."

"Y-Yes, sir."

I nodded at her, then at the Faun behind her, and then waved at the girls before making my exit. A second later, I reappeared inside the underground base and made my way over to the main workshops. I wasn't lying when I told my sisters I would need to cram, but some things were more important than my academic success, and my Plan F backup project was certainly one of them. I could only hope it would be ready in time when the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fans…

Part 3

What I originally intended to be little more than a quick status check ended up being way more of a pain in the neck than planned. As it turned out, putting together a big science project wasn't simple, especially if it was the 'mad' variety, with some magitech sprinkled on top. Nor was it cheap, and even though I still had a lot of money in my account, I didn't like the number of zeroes Fred and Sahi were throwing around.

On the bright side, at least everything was proceeding relatively smoothly. The core device with the big glowy green tube in the middle was already half-completed, and if Peabody was to be believed, we could start growing the body by next Monday. According to Galatea, all of this was made possible due to my ability to directly manipulate enchantments cutting down on the prototyping phase, though I wasn't sure how much I could trust her, considering she had been trying to flatter me as of late. Probably to butter me up before asking for a new exotic fish or something. She was predictable like that.

At any rate, by the time I returned to the Elysium, I was both tired and cautiously optimistic about the way things were developing. In retrospect, I should've known better.

Not even half an hour passed after my return (barely enough to take a shower, change my clothes, and grab something to eat) before someone knocked on the door of the Archon Suite. With a sigh, I turned on my Leoformer and uttered an only slightly annoyed, "Come in."

"Sorry to disturb you, Lord Archon," Jaakobah spoke before the door was even fully open, and I could immediately tell that he was bringing trouble to my doorstep by the way his brows were angled.

It was only the two of us in the room, as Mountain Girl was with Josh and Angie in the bedroom, so I waved for him to come over.

"Is there something to report?"

"No, Lord Archon. Not quite." The door automatically closed behind him and he walked up to me before reaching into the inner breast pocket of his uniform. "I was asked to deliver this letter to you."

"A letter," I repeated after him in a deadpan voice, and he nodded as if that was a question. In his hand, there was a neatly folded envelope with a fancy wax seal and everything, and once I made sure there was no enchantment or other magical malarkey involved by poking it with a phantom limb, I accepted it. "Who's the sender?"

"It was delivered to me through multiple relays, but based on the handwriting, I suspect it's from Director Savir."

I turned the envelope around, and just as he said, there was a single line inscribed on it in fancy cursive handwriting. The plain English text read 'A cordial invitation for the eyes of the Second True Archon only', with a kind of superscript over the second half in harder-to-read Celestial Scrip saying 'Leonard Dunning'. Yep, that was definitely from her.

"And you say this was delivered through multiple relays?"

"Yes."

"Presuming that others could also recognize her handwriting, what are the chances that news of this 'invitation' has already spread through the whole tower?"

"Relatively high."

Jaakobah sounded rather blasé about this whole ordeal, probably because this kind of thing was common in Celestial society. I couldn't share his attitude, as after our last interaction, the chances of this being a 'cordial invitation' were vanishingly low. There was no point in delaying the inevitable though, so I broke the wax seal and unfolded the letter.

The man in front of me pretended not to care, but I could catch him trying to sneak a peek at the contents from the corner of his eyes. Not that it would've mattered much, considering all the important information was written in hard-to-decipher ancient Celestial Script.

"It was only a question of time," I grumbled as I folded the letter and pocketed it (as much as that applied to hiding it in a fold of my semi-toga). "You're dismissed."

Swallowing his curiosity, Jaakobah nodded and gave me a curt salute before turning on his heels. It was only when he was back at the door that I suddenly remembered something I had meant to ask and called after him.

"What is the state of the investigation into the Udug Blood Amalgam?"

He froze mid-stride and turned on his heel, facing me again.

"We tracked a potential lead to the Bureau of Import Management, but they have proven to be uncooperative, and we have been trapped in an administrative gridlock."

I tried to recall the details of that particular department, which wasn't easy, considering the byzantine structure of the Directorate, but after all those daily interview sessions with the various bureaus and directors, I was nominally familiar with most of them.

"It's part of the Unorthodox faction."

"Indeed."

"That explains a lot," I whispered a tad morosely.

Ever since the Bel incident, Director Mensah and his faction have been keeping me at arm's length, and our relationship became all the more strenuous after the appearance of Angie/Deus. While they weren't openly hostile, getting in the way of an investigation of their operations was more or less expected.

"Keep it up, but don't pressure them too much," I instructed, and after waiting for a few seconds to see if I had anything else to add, Jaakobah saluted again and left the premises.

For a few minutes, I was left alone in the living room with my thoughts. I was tempted to take another look at the letter, but there was no point. The message was loud and clear, and I knew that a development like this was only a matter of time. I wasn't exactly eager, but it was like a dentist's appointment. No matter how much I hated it, it had to be done.

As such, I first stopped in the bedroom, where Josh and Angie were lazing around, while Rinne was ostensibly looking after them. In practice, she was sitting cross-legged on the floor near the bed, with multiple books laid out in front of her, seemingly cross-referencing something. She'd been doing that in her free time ever since I'd told her we would soon return to Timaeus, and I wasn't nearly interested enough in her hobbies to ask what it was all about.

Unlike her, the childhood friend couple were bored out of their skulls, and were playing some kind of word game.

"Banana."

"Artichoke," Josh responded after a moment of thinking.

"Elephant tree!"

"That's not a plant!" the guy protested. "You're trying to trick me again."

"I'm not! I saw it on TV!" Angie argued back with a pout, and they would've probably continued to bicker if not for my appearance. "Oh, hi, Leo!"

"Did we have a visitor?" Josh followed her up like their previous exchange never happened.

"Just Jaakobah. Listen, I have to step out again."

"Why? Didn't you just come back?"

"This time, it's Celestial business. I'll be back soon, rules are the same as usual."

"Got it!" Angie exclaimed with a grin that was probably supposed to be encouraging, but then her eyes opened wide and she snapped her fingers. "Wait, before you go! We have a request!"

"I'm all ears."

Instead of saying it herself, she poked Josh with her elbow, and the guy rolled her eyes in mock outrage.

"Oh, fine." He faced me, and simply asked, "Next time you're out, could you get us a handheld or something?"

"Two! Two handhelds!" his girlfriend corrected him and held her index and middle finger out in a V.

"As in, game consoles?"

"Yes." He nodded and let out an overdramatic groan. "There's nothing to do here, and at this rate, we're gonna go stir-crazy!"

"Yeah! They never told me there was no TV in the Elysium! Just how backwards can we be?!" Angie fumed and changed her gesture to a single finger pointing at the ceiling. "My first act as Deus is going to be enacting all kinds of modernization and reforms!"

"Oh? And how are you going to do that, O Deus?"

I only intended to tease her a bit, but she considered my question very seriously.

"I have no clue, but I'll have a lot of lackeys and advisors, won't I? I'll just let them figure out the nitty-gritty details."

"Wow," Josh whistled and put his hand on her shoulder. "Spoken like a true politician."

"Hehe…"

She must've mistaken that for a compliment, and neither of us was in a hurry to correct her. Instead, I rubbed my chin and told her, "I can pick up something the next time I'm out and about, but do you really need it when we'll be back home in a few days?"

"A few days are still a few days," Angie argued back and defiantly crossed her arms.

I wasn't in the mood to argue with her, so I just shrugged, which she interpreted as her victory and raised her palm for a high five. Shaking my head, I said my goodbyes and walked out of the room, and then the suite altogether.

While I could've just Phased over to Savir's location, I took my sweet time to walk to the elevator, ride it to the designated floor, and then go there on foot. If nothing else, it helped me collect my thoughts, and just like with dentist appointments, while I logically knew it had to be done, it didn't mean I wasn't subconsciously trying to postpone it until the very last second. Alas, it still only took me a few short minutes to arrive at my destination, and the two guards in front of the door gave me blank stares as I rounded the corner.

"L-Lord Second True Archon?!" the burly man on the left side of the entrance tensed up, apparently not expecting to see me.

"At ease." After that dry command, I inclined my head towards the door. "I'm here to see the director."

"We… weren't told of this…" The other man seemed more stumped than anything, but I ignored his protests and opened the door with a poke of a phantom limb. "Ah?"

"Just continue as you were," I told them, and walked in, completely disregarding their panicked expressions.

"I told you not to bother me until—" Savir called out from the back. Our suites had roughly the same layout, meaning she was in the bedroom, and she immediately fell silent when I interrupted her with my best Judy impression.

"I don't care if I'm bothering you. Come out."

There was a moment of silence, followed by some clattering from her direction. In the meantime, I closed the door and walked over to the table. Savir's quarters hadn't changed an iota since the last time I'd been here. At last, after about half a minute of waiting, the bedroom door opened and out walked the Orthodox faction leader in an otherwise modest black dress with a slit skirt showing off her leg. Her eyes still had circles under them, but her overall appearance was less haggard than the last time I'd seen her. In fact, her complexion was a little 'off', for lack of better words, which made me wonder if I interrupted her in the middle of putting on her makeup.

Most importantly though, the moment our eyes met, I could feel a wave of primal irritation gush out from the recesses of my mind, and my brows involuntarily descended into a glare. I was getting used to it though, and even without Cal's help, I quickly reined in the reaction and softened my expression into a deep frown.

"I believe I was very specific about the time and place of our meeting," she complained as she walked over to the coffee table and stood next to me.

"I'm not great at following instructions."

"I've noticed," she continued to grumble and gestured at the nearby chairs. "I would love to offer some drinks, but I wasn't expecting you here, so you have to excuse me."

"I'm not thirsty, and I would appreciate it if you cut to the chase," I told her in a low voice, dangerously close to a growl, but she remained nonchalant and let out a soft breath.

"Is some basic civility too much to ask for, Leonard? At least sit down first."

While I was within my rights to act stubbornly and make this into an argument, there was no point in it, so I grudgingly took a seat. She did the same, and once we were nominally comfortable, she crossed her legs and showed a thin-lipped smile.

"Our last discussion ended on a rather sour note. I blame myself."

"So do I," I quipped, and while her brow trembled for a moment, she retained an amicable expression.

"I shouldn't have taken so many things for granted. Such as our partnership." She let out a throaty chuckle and leaned forward, resting her chin on her right palm. "Maybe I should thank you for opening my eyes, O Archon?"

"I told you to stop beating around the bush," I cut in, feeling exasperated and more than a little irate as I momentarily lost my stranglehold on the unnatural irritation clawing at my mind. Maybe I should've brought Cal along after all, I pondered for a second before shaking the thought out of my mind and focusing on the director lounging in front of me.

"Don't be so impatient, Leonard. I'm getting to it," she chided me and shifted her posture a little. "First, let me apologize for my previous actions. In hindsight, I've realized that it was the wrong approach. I was too impulsive, and it led to you slipping through my fingers."

In other words, she wasn't sorry that she set me up, or that she kidnapped my friends, but that it didn't go as she planned. Typical.

"However," she continued, her voice now barely more than a low purr. "I could've never made it to the top of the Directorate if I was discouraged by a few setbacks. No, Leonard. I'm the kind of woman who always gets what she wants."

"… Please rephrase that in a way that doesn't make you sound like a creepy jilted cougar. Thank you."

She blinked in confusion, but it only lasted for a moment before she reassumed her laid-back attitude.

"Please, Leonard. There's no need for name-calling. It's beneath you." She made a vague waving gesture with her hand and, seemingly considering the previous conversation concluded, she launched into a new topic. "I wish to establish a new relationship with you. This time, without taking anything for granted. A proper relationship of give-and-take."

"In other words, you want to make a deal."

"Don't make it sound so informal," she told me with the smile of a fisherman who just caught something on the hook. Since I was the fish in this analogy, I was naturally less than pleased by this development.

"I thought I was very clear the last time we talked," I told her, my voice sounding icy even to myself, but she brushed it off with ease.

"Things have changed a lot since then. This time, I have done my research, and I think it's in your best interest to hear me out."

We locked eyes for a while and tried as I might to discern her intentions, her expression remained inscrutable. I momentarily considered just flipping the table and leaving, but I knew she had been doing something in the background for the past couple of days, and as tempting as taking her down a peg sounded at the moment, it was best to gather as much information as possible before deciding that.

"Go on."

Her face lit up, though so imperceptibly that, without my extensive practice of reading Judy's expressions, I would've missed it.

"You see, Leonard, I believe that there's no person in the world who doesn't have a weakness. A chink in their armor, if you will. It might be a trivial thing, or something others couldn't even truly understand, but it can easily become leverage in negotiations." Her lips parted into a delighted smile that didn't touch her eyes at all. "And I believe I found yours."

I let the silence linger in the room for a long beat, then uttered a flat, "Is that it? A vague threat?"

"A threat? Oh, please, Leonard! Do you take me for Dolion?" She dismissed me with a wave before folding her arms and resting her chin again, this time on the back of her hand. "No. It's more of an… observation. Such as that, despite what all of Elysium suspects, you have no romantic interest in Deus at all."

That came out of the left field and left me unbalanced for a moment. She capitalized on it right away and pressed on.

"It's an easy misunderstanding to make, bearing in mind how close the two of you are, but you obviously wouldn't consider something like that. You have not one, but two fiancées waiting for you on Critias, after all. Yet, people are simple creatures. Show them an attractive man and woman, or girl, standing next to each other and conversing amicably, and their minds start weaving a story, whether what they see is truth or just their imagination. Public sentiment is a powerful force, Leonard, and it isn't hard to subtly sway it one way or the other, and once its gears start turning, it's hard to stop. But then again, without something for these sentiments to rally behind, they could hardly affect you, the wise and powerful Second True Archon, could they?" She paused and leaned even closer, like a snake about to jump at her prey. "But say, have you ever heard of the seventh addendum to the Third Book of Hymnos, fourth revision? The third paragraph of page seventeen, to be exact? It's a rather obscure passage, but one that is very much relevant to our current conversation."

She waited for me to say something, but when I remained silent, she let out a throaty chuckle and resumed where she left off.

"My staff only recently rediscovered the original document, so forgive me for not being able to quote the passage verbatim, but its essence is as follows: it is written into law that, for the sake of our civilization and the purity of Celestial lineage, all Ophanim are required to pass down their blood by union with another Ophanim. This law was completely forgotten for centuries, and some later revisions completely omitted it, yet it was never repealed. Of course, from the perspective of my predecessors, revoking the law and amending the Books of Hymnos would've been a waste of time and effort, as the Elysium had not seen a single Ophanim in a millennium, let alone two of the opposite sex, and of childbearing age, no less." By now, her smile was so wide, it threatened to split her face, and it was anything but genial. "That is, until today."

"Are you serious?"

My hiss didn't take her aback at all, and she continued to grin at me like she just delivered a check to Kasparov.

"Why, of course. You must understand that it's old law. Sacred law. Not something even the Archons could easily overturn. Elysium is built on the bedrock of millennia of administration, bureaucracy, and precedents. Challenging it would be same as challenging our history itself… but only if someone were to remind the greater Directorate of this forgotten passage."

"Is this your leverage on me?" I concluded with a glare. "Do you think I would be afraid of something like this?"

"Afraid? No, of course not," she answered in a light-hearted tone, as if expecting my rebuttal. "I know you're not the kind of person who would shrink back in fear. As for annoyances though? That's another matter entirely."

"You're threatening to… annoy me?"

"Now, now. It's not a threat at all. It's just an honest observation of your character. Not to mention, I'm not the one who would be a thorn in your side, were the masses just happen to find a single passage in an old book that would let their wild imagination become reality, but all of Elysium." She paused to smile at me, and concluded with, "And trust me, trying to argue with the Directorate, arranging for the repeal of Hymnos law, and all the myriad steps of the ensuing procedures? They would be quite annoying indeed."

"… And, theoretically speaking, what would stop me from silencing you before you could disseminate this information?"

"Oh, please!" She waved her hand as if she was chasing away an annoying mosquito. "Why bring up hypotheticals we both know you wouldn't act upon? You would not do that for the same reason you haven't done so already; you could, but openly antagonizing the Directorate would be a hassle you want to avoid. Isn't that right?"

For a while, I didn't know how to react to that. I hated to admit it, but she really did her homework this time, and she got me. At least as far as the 'hates playing along with annoying crap like that' part was concerned. Of course, she could've been bluffing, but if what she said was true, it would've certainly given me a lot of unnecessary headaches. However, just as I was about to grudgingly ask her to state her terms, she pivoted in a truly unexpected direction.

"Not to mention, a conflict with the Directorate, whether direct or through the repelling of the law, would inexorably delay your return to Critias, and we both know it's something you cannot afford."

That made me raise a rather confounded brow, which Savir mistook for scoring another proverbial point and she let out a mirthless chuckle.

"Joshua Bernstein, or the 'Justicar', as he's currently known to the wider Elysium," she started, and since I was still stunned into silence by the inertia of this sudden left turn, she continued in a smug tone. "Considering that he was brought here by my agents, it's only natural that I would connect the dots. So did many others, but I happen to know something else they could never suspect." She leaned back in her seat and pointed a playful finger at me. "While his fame is only budding at the moment, Joshua Bernstein is widely known to be a dragonblood of some talent. He won a tournament, facing off against a scion of the Feilong bloodline, and everyone with a working pair of eyes could see him manifest his ancestral traits during the duel. Yet, as the 'Justicar', he manifested Celestial features and abilities. On the surface, there's an irreconcilable contradiction here, and I'm sure you never expected me to uncover the truth."

"The truth…" I echoed her, and while I was slightly worried that she might've discovered Josh's 'Chosen One' power set, my gut said she was probably off the mark and would venture out in a completely different direction.

"It was the timing," she explained with a smug, know-it-all smirk, and circled her finger. "After rejecting our hospitality, he evaded pursuit, only to later reappear at your side. His powers are unquestionably of Celestial origin, yet they are unstable. As for the final clue…" Her finger stopped and pointed at my waist. "Ever since that day, you stopped carrying your weapons in public. Not only that, but you have been acting much more reserved, avoiding confrontations and accompanying Her Grace and her Justicar everywhere like a mother hen, as if afraid to let them out of your sight."

"Which means?" I baited her with a deadpan question, and she must've found it amusing, because she let out a genuine chuckle.

"I admit, I would've never suspected it if not for the ancient records I found while looking for leverage, but once I did, it all made perfect sense. He's of draconic heritage, and as such, you knew that by sheltering him on Elysian soil, you would further raise the ire of the populace. It was something you naturally couldn't afford so soon after colluding with an Abyssal of ill repute. As such, pressed for time, you planted some of your power in him using the Spear of Destiny, suppressing his blood and hiding him in plain sight. A clever ruse, I acknowledge."

"Uh-huh," I muttered, nodding along and waiting for the punchline. Was she trying to use Josh's identity as a 'draconian' to threaten me next, I wondered? However, just as I had that idea, it was immediately dashed by her next words.

"I believe that you acted too rashly, so soon after your full awakening, and you haven't considered the ramifications granting power to this young man would impose upon you! Yet, you couldn't take your powers back either, for doing so could potentially expose his true bloodline to the public, and explaining yourself to them would've been quite annoying, now wouldn't it? Therefore, you influenced the reborn Deus into returning to our ancestral land on Critias, so that you could safely remove Joshua Bernstein from Elysium and then retrieve your Spear of Destiny, and with it, your sealed powers, in a single move!"

She pointed even harder at me and delivered her last line like some kind of spiky-haired attorney in a cartoonish court. For the first few seconds, I could only blink slowly as my mind was doing its best to make sense of what I'd just heard.

"Would you believe me if I told you that you are completely off the mark?" I asked, and she honest-to-goodness huffed at me.

"Please, Leonard. We are way beyond the scope of petty mind games." She didn't even wait for me to get another word in and lazily waved in my direction. "In conclusion, you cannot afford to be bogged down by any annoying procedures at the moment, as with each passing day, you risk someone questioning the 'Justicar's' true identity and discovering your vulnerability, and neither of us wants that to happen."

"In other words, we are back to square one," I told her without denying her conjecture. I didn't yet know when or how, but I had a hunch I might be able to use this misunderstanding to my own advantage, so I figured I might as well play along. "What do you want?"

"I don't demand much." Savir's voice fell into a low purr once again and, combined with her lazily confident expression, it reminded me of a cat that already caught the mouse and was contemplating how to play with it. "Answer me this: Does Deus truly intend to remain on Critias for the foreseeable future?"

"Yes."

My answer wasn't exactly cordial, yet her face lit up all the same.

"Wonderful. I was worried I wouldn't have enough time to consolidate my position and authority, but with this, one of my greatest concerns is already alleviated. As such, I only have one request: ensure that until I'm ready, Deus stays out of the affairs of Elysium." She paused, and after adopting a troubled expression, she offered an 'olive branch', so to speak. "Of course, since we're cooperating, in order to avoid any potential annoyances, it's only right that I would provide something in return for your support. How about this; it came to my attention that Dolion, despite appearing quiet, is furiously planning something with his most loyal supporters. So long as you make sure Deus and Acacius aren't meddling in my affairs, I will ensure that Dolion will stay in his corner and won't cause you any trouble. I think it's only fair."

"By a liberal definition of the word."

"I'm glad to hear that we are in agreement." She smiled and then let out a melodramatic sigh. "You see, Leonard? If you only came to the terrace I wrote in the letter, we would have champagne to celebrate our reconciliation."

"You're stretching both the meaning of the word and my patience," I told her flatly and rose to my feet. "Do you have anything else to say?"

"Nothing in terms of business, but since you're already here, why not stay for some small-talk?"

"Not in the mood." Saying so, I turned to the door, and then added, "Since you went through all that trouble to do your research, I believe it's my turn to do the same."

"Oh? That sounds—"

I didn't wait for her to finish, and walked out of the room, and down the hallway without a word, ignoring the startled guards in front of the entrance.

In conclusion, she actually managed to find a hold on me, which annoyed me to no end. She was also overanalysing things a bit, which might or might not prove useful in the future, so it kind of balanced out. In the end, it was imperative that I focused on the topic of this whole 'mandatory marriage' thing. First thing first, as soon as I returned home, I had to ask the girls about this, and unless they had a readily available countermeasure, I would probably have to put my money where my mouth is and do some research myself.

"… I wonder if searching for 'how to reliably burn down a records office' on the internet would put me on a government watchlist…?"