As promised, I took Harley to go see Tíana as soon as we were back at the lakeshore. Of course, my young Winter Court sister wasn’t really sure who Harley was until we explained it, but she seemed happy that Harley wasn’t ‘sick’ anymore. She was only three years old though and was playing with some other children who had arrived with some of the recent groups of new arrivals brought by scattered Fae in response to our call. Some were the children of newly-awakened Beastkin, Witches, or Merfolk but there were also some Dwarf and Kitsune children and even a young Púca girl close to Tíana’s age.

We left them to their games under the watchful eyes of Tíana’s guards and went to find see to other things. Jhuras had all of the Atlanteans and Merfolk who were ready to go on his expedition to Atlantis gathered, including our two newest Mermaids, Kayla and Felicity, who were excited to explore the ruins of the ancient underwater city. The expedition planned to bring back anything useful that could be salvaged but I also asked Jhuras to start thinking about defenses for the island. I knew that it was enchanted so that only the invited could find it, but that didn’t necessarily mean that we couldn’t be seen, or targeted, via satellite and I wanted to be prepared just in case.

After giving the Atlantis expedition the go-ahead and watching them leave through the portal that Jhuras had cast I went in search of my Mahair. I found her discussing things with the other adult Queens of the Courts and Narek. I informed them of our meeting with the Sül’shael, what we had learned from them, and their decision to come to join us and help where they could. Mahair was eager to meet them and seemed pleased that I had a group of Fae loyal to me who weren’t attached to a specific Court.

My Mahair and the others had already sent out scouting parties to look for good places for their Courts’ Glades but they felt that each Court should have an official representative living in the city once it was built. Kinara and Sahnae had already been decided on for their respective Courts since they already had a good relationship with me, and both my Mahair and Pájar were considering their own representatives for the Autumn and Winter Courts. They also wanted me to consider having an official guard retinue with me at all times, especially while not on Varüus’kiel.

I could understand their concerns and we agreed that I would have four official guards with me at all times, including two Guardians when we could get a second trained. Lissany, Nishalle, and Pete would be three of them, and I think that I surprised both of my Fae parents by asking that Harley be trained as my second Guardian. Harley was trying to find herself and had a lot to adjust to and about the only thing that she seemed to know for certain was that she wanted to be a Guardian. If she was mine, then she would be close and I could help her to adjust to her new life.

I also asked that they get the techies to get one of the servers and enough F.I.Ts set up for a Guardian training simulation for two dozen people and to start looking at potential candidates. Every Yseil’dhraí, including the Queens, was going to have at least one Guardian in their retinue. I wanted another server, and the remainder of the F.I.Ts, set up for a simulation for any of the Humans who wanted to be changed and learn new skills, especially since we may be bringing family members of former game players and Pegasus Entertainment employees back with us.

As that meeting concluded, my Mahair took me aside to ask, “Why are you not wearing your spell focus, little rose?”

I let out a sigh and shrugged. “It, and my Nature’s Crown, kind of exploded when I was practicing my magick earlier. I guess I don’t really need either anymore from what Danu told me, the rules are different for me now, but I need to learn to control my power all over again. If I use too much power for a spell I could seriously hurt or kill everyone around me.”

Amoiraishe’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “Guard this secret, it will be an advantage if only those closest to you know that you do not require a focus to use magick. I will have some things ready for you when you’re ready to leave for Vancouver.”

When I arrived where I had agreed to meet Rei and the others for our incursions into the Human cities, everyone was there waiting. I didn’t recognize the people who would be leading the teams to New York, Tokyo, and London but they obviously recognized me as once again everyone was quick with the bowing and the titles. I just sighed and did my best to take it all in stride.

I had given my fiancée a very specific task before running off into the woods to accompany Harley. Including Tien and Becky, there were almost thirty people who needed to check on family in Vancouver. That number went up by one when Harley insisted on joining us to check on her mother and stepfather. Most of those people were employees of Pegasus Entertainment but there were nine Apocalypse Dawn players as well, not including Tien, Becky, and Harley. Tien and Becky hadn’t changed their appearances in the game too much but most of the players were going to need a way to look like their former selves if they were going to approach their families.

With that in mind, I had had Rei work with those players and find other Kitsune who could work with those from the other servers who were in the same boat. Using her shapeshifting abilities, she had been altering her form with their guidance to as close as she could to matching their former bodies so that Magi would have something to base glamours on. Working together with Venika, Salem, and Becky, she had completed her task as best she could, and now all of those who required glamours had them.

“Great work, everyone,” I offered as I looked over the glamours and my party mates made no secret of looking over Harley in disbelief. “I guess that we just need to work on our own glamours now. Rei do you remember what Harley here looked like before well enough to copy him?”

“I don’t need to look like my old self, in fact, it’s probably better if I don’t. My stepfather and I never exactly got along and we didn’t part on the best of terms,” Harley interjected. “If we can just hide my Unicorn features and make me look Human, I’ll be good. I don’t need to talk to them, I just want to make sure that Mom is okay… you know… just in case.” As she said the last she pointed toward her horn and horse-like ears.

Most of my party had no family to check on, but we would need to blend in among the Humans since most of us weren’t Human now and Robyn was a celebrity. Venika could hide easily enough, Rei had her shapeshifting, and Pete could fit in easily in his casual clothes but the rest of us needed disguises. So, like Harley, we were going to use glamours to hide our non-human features, though for some of us, like Salem and Nishalle, that was a bit of work.

I wouldn’t be casting anything until Mahair showed up with my new ‘spell focus’ so Venika and my apprentices ended up casting the glamours on everyone but me. They all looked like average Humans wearing casual clothes by the time they were done. I would cast my own glamour since I figured it was going to take a lot of power to not only disguise me but also keep people from seeing the glow from my hair and eyes, especially if it was dark.

I thought that I should be safe casting glamours on myself and maybe a portal spell since I couldn’t think of any ways that could harm anyone. With a portal spell, too much power might be a good thing since they took a lot of power to keep open and we had a good-sized group. The other groups had left for their respective cities by the time Mahair showed up to hand me a black purse and a silver choker with an amethyst embedded that resembled my old spell focus, just with a change in the color scheme.

I could feel the power in the choker as I put it on. When I closed my eyes and tried to examine the spell with my magick sense I had to smile at Mahair’s deviousness. The only enchantment on the choker was a minor spell that had only one purpose, to radiate enough mana that it would feel like a powerful enchantment to others. “Here, my little rose, try not to break that one,” the Queen of the Autumn Court said with a slight smirk before offering me the purse.

“What’s this for? I already have a purse,” I inquired as she pressed it into my hands.

“Use the identity in there, it’s one of many that I developed once the Veil started to fail so I wouldn’t have all my wealth in one place. I have over two dozen all over the world and that’s the one in Vancouver. Each identity has a safe house, safe deposit box, a local bank account, and an account in either Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. Everything should be safe, I’ve been monitoring all of the accounts regularly and I have spells on the safe houses to prevent unauthorized access by Humans. I’ve put a note inside with instructions on how to access everything as well.”

I looked inside the purse and saw a folded piece of paper as well as a billfold with some cash and various identification, bank, and credit cards. There were also the usual suspects like feminine hygiene products, basic makeup, a small bottle of midol, and even a smartphone. I had to laugh when I saw the name on the driver’s license. “Autumn Cortez? Really, Mahair?”

“I am not without a sense of humor, little rose,” she replied with a smirk before producing a pair of matching rings. “Give these to Robyn and Roberto when you arrive. Robyn will need to start getting ready for her tour soon and these will help them both to blend in if they don’t return with you, saying ‘Aentuire’ will activate or deactivate the glamour. If they get into any trouble and need a quick escape they just need to say, ‘Uis’ and it will bring them to Varüus’kiel. They need to be worn to be active though.”

I nodded and placed the rings in the purse along with the ID card. I thought that it was a good idea to use Elvish words to activate the spells and the words for ‘me’ and ‘home’ would be easy for them to remember and relate to the spells since they both spoke Elvish. “I’ll make sure they get them.”

I tried not to show how much the thought of Robyn and Rob possibly not returning with us upset me. It just cemented in my mind that this might very well be the last time that all of us went on an adventure together. Though Robyn planned to move her actual home to Varüus’kiel once we were better set up, right now she and Rob had her tour to worry about. For the moment her job right now was doing what she does best. Using her music to inspire others out there in the wider world, drumming up support, and being an activist for those in need, and right now that was those of us who weren’t Human.

I knew that it wasn’t like we’d never see each other again, I would probably see the rest of them every day and we’d still hang out and be friends. I’d still be teaching Kinara, Becky, and Salem magick and once Rob and Robyn moved their permanent home to Varüus’kiel, I’d see them a lot too. But just going out on quests together, all of us, those days were probably done. Things had changed since the game and Robyn and Rob weren’t the only ones with jobs to do either.

I was an Empress now, I had to think about the needs of my people, and I wanted people I trusted to help me with that. Grell was probably going to be working with Ashura and other Atlantean Artificers on new tech, and that was where I needed him. I was also seriously considering Venika as my Minister of Finance and the Treasury and Salem as Minister of the Environment since they both had the backgrounds and a passion for them, though Salem seemed eager to do her duty as a Liyun’shael out in the forests of Varüus’kiel. Even Kinara was probably going to be kept busy as the Summer Court’s official representative to the city and its people.

Rei would likely be working with the priests and medical types, but she (or he, depending on the day) was my fiancée so we would spend as much time as we could together and she might be needed if anything were to happen to me or one of my entourage. So it was looking like I would only be regularly spending time with Rei, Daenyss as my Attendant, and my protectors. And even that would change with me having a foursome of bodyguards now with Pete and Harley in addition to Nishalle and Lissany.

I was distracted from my thoughts as my Mahair wrapped her arms around me and tenderly kissed my forehead. “Everything changes, little rose. Change can be good though, sometimes in the most unexpected ways, I believe that you know this better than most. Keep your chin up, I will cast a portal to the safe house so your group doesn’t risk appearing somewhere public. You can use it as your base of operations while you’re there.”

The safe house was a large two-bedroom open concept house in the Kitsilano area of the west side of Vancouver. The house was dark when we arrived and the only major source of light seemed to come from me and the three Wisps attached to my party, though there were the small led lights of the security system near the door and the digital clocks on the stove and microwave in the kitchen that indicated that it was 10:34 pm. We found the light switches and explored the house a bit but, while it was modern and spacious, it was going to be crowded with close to forty people.

As I had been instructed, I gave Robyn and Rob the rings from my Mahair as soon as we relocated along with the instructions on how to use them. I figured that the larger ring was meant for Rob and it seemed that I was right as the glamour hid his tail and replaced his cat-like ears and other features with more human-looking ones. Robyn’s glamour made me smile as her celebrity appearance was replaced by that of the ‘Lark’ that my party had grown to know and love over our time together in the game.

Once we were all settled as comfortably as we could with so many of us in the large living room, Tien asked, “So, what’s the plan here, Your Majesty?”

“It’s late now, so we’ll try to get some sleep and start fresh in the morning.” At the grumbling that followed that statement, I sighed before pressing on. “My group has a lot to do with buying supplies and other necessities and I know that all of us probably want to go to our old homes and get some things and contact our families if we have any, but I would rather we’re all safe rather than sorry. I’m going to send Nishalle out to do some scouting and try and figure out what things are like out there since the Veil fell, she should be safe with her skills and abilities.”

Nobody was really happy with my decision, not even me, but they all went along with it. I wish I could say that it was because it made sense, and that might have been part of it, but a large part of it was probably because of my new status. Once everyone was settled as best we could get and Nishalle was out scouting, Rei and I retired to the master bedroom where, with Daenyss’s help, we recreated our sahir kien. I then attempted to use as little mana as possible while placing an enchantment on Rei’s so that it would change size with her when she used her shapeshifting ability. It was weird, even when separated from my body my night-black hair still gave off that silvery glow once we turned out the lights.

It was nearly one in the morning and I was having trouble sleeping when I heard the sound of a motorcycle outside. After getting close to the driveway and light passing over the window the engine turned off and a moment later, Nishalle’s voice emanated from the corner of the room. “We may have problems, Sis.”

“Is it that bad out there?” I asked worriedly.

Nishalle’s head shook, though her face wore a grim expression. “No, it’s not that much different than normal if you don’t count the occasional monsters showing up and magical creatures being dragged off into the night to secret locations. I found a holding area after following a Beastkin being snatched, they’re being treated like animals, but it’s not like they’re being tortured or experimented on… yet. We may need to do something soon though. That’s not even the real problem though since we kind of expected that.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Nishalle may be scary as hell sometimes and a bit of a tease at others, but one thing that she does not do is try to exaggerate the seriousness of a situation. “We’ll try to extract those people as soon as we can, but if that’s not the real problem, what is?”

“I went by my apartment to get my bike and my stash of cash and somebody has been there. They were careful, only a few things weren’t exactly where I left them, but I found listening devices and there was a vehicle outside with people watching my windows. It’s a good thing I’m so stealthy and see better in the dark than during the day or they might have realized I was there. They couldn’t watch the garage since it’s secure and underground but I had to remove a tracking device from my bike before I used my shadow shift ability to get me and it out of there,” the Tokh’dhraí Assassin said with a frown.

I nodded, not really all that surprised, it was part of the reason that I wanted to be cautious. “We had to expect that interested parties might start monitoring high-level Pegasus employees.”

“Yeah, so why were they watching your place too? On a hunch, I swung by your house and there’s an unfamiliar black sedan parked outside. People were in your house, Tae. They were giving it the same treatment as mine. Now, it could be they want to use ‘Caleb’ to find ‘Karin’, or it could be that they’re going after anyone connected with Pegasus, including AD players, and maybe even family.”

“Which means that everyone’s families could be under a microscope right now. We’ll need to extract them soon and it might not be a good idea for our people to go visit them, at least, not as someone they’ll recognize. We need more information before we make a move, like who is monitoring our old identities and why,” I said with a heavy feeling in my heart.

“Do you want me to… uhh… interview, those guys at your place?” she asked.

I knew that she wasn’t squeamish about getting answers out of them, and they probably would talk, but even if I didn’t feel that would be a bad idea for future race relations, I didn’t want to use my sister like that. “No, we don’t want to tip our hand. Having someone who is very obviously not Human take an interest in why they’re so interested in our old selves could cause more problems. I think that we need to set out some bait and see who takes it.”

The next morning found me and Rei pretending to be our former selves, me under a glamour and Rei through the use of shapeshifting. The real problem was creating a glamour that not only looked like my old self but sounded like him too, or at the very least convincingly male. After grabbing a few things at a small store we headed through the downtown streets filled with people trying to act like the world was still normal toward our bank. We spent a lot more time at the bank than was normal.

“Mr. Sanders, Miss Phillips, we’re going to need you to come with us,” one of two large Caucasian men dressed in Vancouver PD uniforms said grimly from behind us as the teller finally completed our transaction. She had been taking her time closing our joint account and then doling out the little more than eight thousand dollars we had there, looking at her computer screen far more than necessary. Now I knew why, though to be fair I had suspected that someone might be at least watching our bank accounts, and we were bait after all.

I turned to look as ‘Jess’ and smiled. “Now this is service, Honey. They called an escort for us to make sure we don’t get mugged.”

One of the officers narrowed his eyes at me as I placed the massive wad of cash in my old wallet, shoved it in my backpack, and then slung the pack over my shoulder while being careful not to jostle its occupant too much. “Are you planning on going somewhere, Mr. Sanders?” he asked.

“Well, we were going to go get married, and then we’re going to spend our honeymoon in this wonderful little island nation, Varüus’kiel. You should visit sometime, I hear it’s a magical place and their Empress is simply divine,” Jessica provided with a grin.

I had trouble keeping a straight face, though I did give my fiancée a stern look. I had been having enough trouble adjusting to my new position, and being some sort of Yseil'dhraí Demigoddess, without her constant teasing. She was almost as bad as Nishalle. So I shot back, “Well, she’s not as foxy as you, my little Rei of sunshine.”

The second officer didn’t seem to have the patience for our playful banter. “We need you both to come to the station with us to answer some questions, Mr. Sanders.”

“Well, we haven’t done anything illegal and, since you’re not reading us our rights, I think that you know that. You haven’t even introduced yourselves, so we’re not going anywhere with you. So, why don’t you tell us what this is all about before I get my lawyer involved?” I insisted.

“Look, Pal, we were just asked to bring you to the station to answer some questions. You’d be doing us a favor if you could just come along quietly. We got a call that you were here, a general description of the two of you, and that some suit wanted you at the station for questioning. We don’t know anything more than that,” the second officer said looking really annoyed.

“Well, if this suit wants to talk to us then they should do it like a normal person and not have us treated like criminals. We’re going home to pack for our honeymoon, if they want to talk to us they can come to see us there. I’m sure they already know where we live, they already made themselves at home last night,” I snapped accusingly. “And if we’re there, then their buddies can listen in. In fact, I’d like to report a break-in and invasion of privacy.”

The looks on their faces told me everything that I needed to know, they wanted us out of here quietly without causing a scene and they knew more than they were telling. Someone way above their paygrade was calling the shots. That was when one of their phones rang. “Sgt. Curtis speaking,” he said as he answered the phone. Then he swallowed a lump in his throat and offered me the phone as he said, “Someone wants to talk to you, Mr. Sanders.”

“Hello, I’m assuming this is my stalker,” I said into the phone.

“Mr. Sanders, I would suggest that you come in peacefully. I have questions that need answering and you…”

I cut him off. “Yeah, well so do I, starting with who the fuck you are and why you broke into my house, conducted an illegal search, and invaded my privacy with listening devices.”

“How did you…” the voice started to say before quickly recovering. “The search wasn’t illegal, and neither were the devices. You’ll find that my agency has a lot of leeway when dealing with suspected terrorists, Mr. Sanders.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, having to carefully control myself not to crush the phone in my hand.

“I am deadly serious. Where is your sister, Mr. Sanders?”

“My sister?” What the hell was all this talk of terrorists?

“Karin Sanders, where is she?” he pressed. “We know that she works for Moira Llewellyn and our agency is currently working with agencies in the United States who have intelligence that her company is a front for a terrorist organization called Apocalypse Dawn. Or haven’t you seen the news reports about the nationwide manhunt for them and other members of their organization?”

“I haven’t talked to Karin since Christmas day,” I answered truthfully. She had been Nishalle since then after all. “She’s not a terrorist. She’s an artist and comes up with ad materials. Moira’s company makes VR games. Apocalypse Dawn is the name of one of those games.”

“Oh, that’s right, you and your girlfriend were playtesters, weren’t you?” the voice said with what sounded like disappointment as I heard what sounded like the tapping of a keyboard in the background. If you can tell me where they’ve gone to ground, then maybe your names can just be lost in the shuffle when we bring in them and your fellow players. And we will bring them in.”

“Fuck you, that’s where they are,” I snapped, glowering at the phone.

“If you want to play this the hard way, I can do that,” the voice said far too calmly. “I’d suggest that you think it over though. We have the building surrounded, and you and Miss Phillips are considered armed and very dangerous.”

“You have no idea,” I growled before throwing the phone to the floor. Of course, the witch hunt was beginning and they used the clarion call of terrorism to get the public and the police to cooperate. The Americans must have let someone in our government know about the F.I.Ts, and their suspected potential for training soldiers, and they were cooperating hoping to get a piece of the action. Now everyone connected with Pegasus Games was on some sort of watch list.

Sgt. Curtis didn’t look too pleased when his phone practically shattered on the ground. He was even less pleased when my knee lashed out and caught him in the groin. Even as he began to hunch over in pain and surprise I removed his gun from its holster, grabbed a teenage girl walking by, and put her in a headlock as I flipped the safety and trained the gun on Curtis’s partner. I didn’t want anyone seriously hurt, but that included me and Rei. “Well, Jess, it looks like it’s time for plan B.”

“Plan B, Caleb?” she asked as bank customers started to realize what was going on and ran screaming for the doors.

“Yup, Plan Bonnie and Clyde, we are in a bank after all. If these assholes want to make us out to be some sort of gun-toting maniacs, then I say we oblige them and go out with a bang. Please relieve the officer of his weapon.” The officer in question looked from me and the girl to Jess, weighing his options so I warned, “Don’t even think about it. Nobody needs to get hurt here if we all play nice.”

My fiancée stepped toward the officer and carefully removed the gun from his holster. Then she backed off and took her own hostage, a skinny man who was bent over and seemed to be having some sort of asthma attack.

“The place is surrounded, we need to get away from the windows,” I warned. ‘Jess’ nodded her head as we backed off with our hostages and made our way toward the back. “You doing okay, Liss?” I whispered to my human shield.

My Guardian gave a faint nod as she continued her pretend screaming. This was all part of the backup plan in case it was someone from the government who took the bait. I could feel her armor underneath the glamour and it had been Lissany’s idea to use her as a human shield in case someone got brave or stupid enough to shoot me. Her armor could take it.

Rei’s ‘shield’ was Pete since he had a flak jacket in addition to his Lindwyrm-hide armor. We were both wearing our Lindwyrm-hide armor under the glamours and they could stop small-arms fire, but we would still feel some of the impact and it hadn’t really been tested against anything with more stopping power.

It was as we were backing our way to the bank manager’s office that the sound of an annoying ringtone cut through the deadly silence that had fallen across the bank’s interior. The other police officer looked from me then down to his belt uncertainly. “Go ahead and answer it. If it’s for me, toss it to the girl. And she had better be able to catch it,” I said.

“Officer Hughes here,” he said once he had slowly retrieved the phone. After listening he lobbed the phone to Lissany who made a show of fumbling but caught it.

“Put it on speaker,” I told my Guardian, making sure to try to sound threatening. Then, once she had done so I said, “House of Hostages, we’re thrillin’ to be killin’. How can we help you?” That was followed by an Oscar-worthy whimper of terror from Lissany.

“This is Agent Jones. I told you, we…”

“Jonesy! How have you been, it’s been so long! You don’t call, you don’t write, you don’t care about hostages,” I rattled off, cutting him off. At least I had a name to put to the voice, though it was possible that it wasn’t his real name. From the sound of teeth clenching on the other end, I thought that I was beginning to piss him off too, which was a bonus. Especially since I took time to shoot three of the security cameras that had us in line of sight. It helped him think that I thought that I was in control and also took the eyes off of us.

“Just keep calm and don’t do anything stupid,” Jones encouraged trying to sound calm and friendly now instead of like an arrogant prick. He must have had someone looking over his shoulder. “If we talk things out we can all get what we want. Just surrender and work with us on this and we can work out a deal. If we have to come in after you, deals are off the table.”

“If you come in after us, someone might not come out alive; could be you, could be us, could be a hostage. Probably more than one of the above. In fact, I can guarantee you that Jessica and I will not be walking out that door and neither will these people we’re holding on to right now,” I said evenly.

“Give up now, cooperate, and things will go a lot easier for you. Think of your girlfriend,” he said, still trying to sound like he actually cared what happened to us beyond throwing us in a cell and getting the information he wanted out of us by any means necessary.

“I am thinking about her, and I’m thinking that neither of us wants the kind of talk you have in mind since neither of us is going to give up my sister. So, since you seem to be hard of hearing, I will repeat myself very slowly. Fuck. You.”

I could practically hear him sneering. “We’ll see about that, you’ll talk. You’re talking tough, but I’ve talked to your co-workers and they all say that you’re a spineless little shit who’s afraid of your own shadow. People like you, always talk with the right incentive. Even if you do manage to get away somehow, your faces are all over the news, just like your sister’s and all of those other people involved with that company. Everyone in the country is looking for you. Pictures of you and your little girlfriend there are trending on social media right now, hashtag terrorists. You have nowhere to run.”

Does this guy even hear himself talk? “Well, then that should make it that much more embarrassing for you when you when we escape, Asshole.” I dropped the phone and stomped on it as my own phone buzzed in one of my pouches. I quickly extracted it, looked at the screen, and tapped to receive the call. “Hey, Sis, you got our backs covered?”

Nishalle’s voice said, “Have I ever let you down? It was just like you figured, someone was really interested when you and Jess showed up, the cops and whoever the suit is in that black SUV got here in record time. Their coverage is mostly on the entrance with snipers covering the windows and the north side emergency exit. Not much coverage in the back alley since there’s no exit back there yet. The people covering the alley won’t be waking up for a while so we’re good to go but we should move fast.”

By then we were at the thankfully unoccupied manager’s office so after a check for any cameras, and shooting the webcam just in case, I opened up my backpack to let Venika out and hand a dollar store spice jar to Rei. Venika immediately gave me the Mom look once she was out and said, “Don’t think we’re not going to be talking about all of that swearing when we’re safe, young lady. I don’t know why you needed me along, you have a new focus.” Regardless, she drew in mana and drew and spoke the sigils for a spell. “Tierre-aeluine thren’dhal utaera!”

The fireball blew out the back wall of the manager’s office and we all made out way into the alley behind the bank where Nishalle appeared from the shadows. We needed to work fast, that explosion was going to draw attention. As Lissany lifted the nearest manhole cover to make it look like we escaped that way and Rei scattered the cayenne all over the place, I quickly mentally tagged everyone and started to focus my intent as I drew and spoke the sigils for my teleportation spell. “Kaida liantuir tala siashe yasrin!”

The others were awaiting us eagerly when we reappeared at the safe house. Everyone looked at me expectantly as Daenyss asked, “How did it go, Mistress?”