I left Whisper and Grell to handle the information dispersal and enlightenment campaign and ordered a dozen pizzas since it would seem that we were going to have a busy night ahead of us, there were roughly forty people to feed, and it was nearly dinner time. The other groups were all back from their shopping missions and I decided to let them all in on who was after us and what exactly we were in for. When I was finished, Jennifer snorted in disgust. “Idiots, going to all this effort for something that they won’t even be able to use.”

“What do you mean?” Venika asked, arching an eyebrow at the pretty brunette game programmer.

“They don't realize that they won't be able to use the tech,” Jennifer said with a shrug. “Even if they got a F.I.T they couldn't use the skill teaching option without one of the Aen’kuorüis that contain the central skill archives. Those aren't in the F.I.Ts, they’re in the servers. The crystals in the F.I.Ts were only there to give memories to those who needed mental conditioning and implanted memories to feel right in their new bodies. Also, the game, the F.I.Ts themselves, and the servers are all programmed in Atlantean. The tech is largely magick-based and very advanced, even for Atlantean technology, so one would need to be a very adept Artificer who can read Atlantean just to figure out the basics.”

“But weren’t you, like, one of the game’s lead programmers? How did you learn Atlantean to do it if everything is based in Atlantean and there was no interface to teach you before the game was ready?” one of the other Pegasus Entertainment employees asked.

“I already knew the language because my father was the one who designed the F.I.Ts,” Jennifer commented casually with a shit-eating grin.

“Wait, you’re Jhuras’s daughter? That would mean that you’re…” Rei gasped in sudden realization.

“Yup, I was Atlantean,” Jennifer admitted, still grinning from ear to ear. “I used a F.I.T in the prototype stage four years ago and took on a Human body so that I could blend in as one of our programmers. All of our programmers were Atlanteans, and Becky was taught Atlantean and the programming language derived from it as part of her GM data package.”

“I was wondering why you weren’t using a more standardized programming language. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it until I got into the game and got my GM download,” Becky muttered. “So, if you weren’t born Human, who are you here to check on, Jennifer?”

“I want to make sure that my girlfriend is okay, and bring her to Varüus’kiel with us if she wants to come. When we get back I’m going to take another run in the F.I.T though, I miss artificing and I’m an Atlantean at heart,” she explained.

“We’re getting on retrieving our people after dinner,” I told her with a grim nod.

As we ate I considered the problem of getting everyone’s loved ones safely extracted. As we had suspected, all family members of people with a known connection to Pegasus Entertainment were being monitored, both physically and electronically, and that meant that just walking right in and taking them was a risky prospect. In the end, I decided to do just that.

Throughout our meal, I asked who everyone had wanted to come and check on. In most cases, it was a parent, both parents, a sibling, or a girlfriend/boyfriend. The only one who had more than two people to extract was Erica Dunn who had worked in public relations with Pegasus Entertainment. She had two-year-old twin daughters and her husband, so she was pretty sure that they would all be together.

So, as dinner came to a close I found myself revealing my plan to the others. “Here’s the plan. We know that your families are all under surveillance but I’m hoping that our little information bomb might be giving those watching them other concerns at the moment, so this is probably a good time to retrieve your families. We’re going to ninja them away, a quick in and out, so you won’t have time to answer their questions until both you and they are safely in Varüus’kiel.”

“How are we going to do that?” Tien asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re all going to call them to tell them you’re okay and to ask where they are. In your case, once you’re sure that both of your parents are together and at home, or somewhere else that is relatively private, you’ll teleport in, get them to Varüus’kiel, and then explain the situation and answer any questions that they may have. Those of you who need glamours to be recognizable will have them,” I explained.

“How are we going to manage that? “Erica inquired with a slight frown. “Not all of us are Magi, and what if they don’t want to go to Varüus’kiel?”

I sighed and shook my head. “They have very little choice in the matter. Right now they’re just being monitored, but once all of this hits the news in a few hours, how long do you think it will be before someone decides to use them as hostages instead to get what they want from us? If they don’t want to stay in our new home, then we can set them up somewhere else with a new identity. As for how we’re going to manage it, I have a plan.”

My plan was simple and while my apprentices and the other Magi were working on casting glamours to make those who had changed look and sound as close to their old selves as possible, I gathered some spare change and began to create the artifacts that they would need to get in and out without a trace. I would have thought that creating over twenty fairly potent little artifacts with my magick would have tired me and drained my reserves a bit, but I was hardly feeling it at all. I was still using far too much power though, just how big was my damn mana pool now anyway?

With the artifacts created I began to hand the coins out to those who would be retrieving loved ones as I clarified, “These will be keyed to the first person other than me to hold them so that nobody else can use them. The key phrase is ‘Huffelump’ to confuse any listening devices at your families’ homes. The first time that you say it, you will be teleported to the person you are thinking of, so make sure that you’re thinking of whoever it is that you want to retrieve. The second time that you say it, you and anyone that you are in physical contact with will be teleported to Varüus’kiel. The third time, it will allow you to wind whisper me so I know that you made it there safely. Any questions?”

“Yeah, what if something goes wrong?” one of the former players who had returned to his original body asked.

I didn’t even need to think about my reply since I already had considered the possibility. “If I do not receive the whisper from you after an hour, I will assume that something went wrong and will come after you and your families as quickly as possible. My group will be trying to track down the members of H3lls-Pwn before those idiots get captured though, so hang in there and don’t say anything if we can’t get to you right away.”

Over the next hour and a half, almost everyone who had family members to retrieve had managed to do so without any major problems and they and their loved ones were now safely in Varüus’kiel. The only ones who had yet to attempt to do so were Whisper and Harley. Harley had made the call, only to get into a shouting match with her stepfather after she found out that he had beaten her mother and turned her over to the government agency that was dealing with the ‘changed’, probably our friends at CSIS.

Before furiously crushing the phone in her hand, Harley had gotten enough information to deduce that her mother was indeed a Beastkin like herself and that she was likely being kept with other non-humans at the local black site from the list we had gotten on the CSIS server. It was the same one that Nishalle had discovered on her scouting foray the previous night so we wouldn’t have any problem finding it later that night for the planned raid. Harley was visibly worried about her mother and anxious to do something about it but we had a plan and I managed to convince her that it was best to wait and that a few hours weren’t going to make much of a difference.

Whisper was even more pissed than Harley. She hadn’t called her boyfriend but rather had used her laptop to hack their building’s security cameras and the camera’s on both of their home PCs to see if he was there before making a move to extract him. That was when she discovered that her boyfriend wasn’t near as worried about her as she was about him. She caught him on the webcam of his computer screwing some other girl and we had to talk her down from going to kill him rather than just sweeping him off to Varüus’kiel. Since she was an Assassin that was a very real possibility.

Now Whisper was keeping herself occupied by trying to figure out a general area where H3lls-Pwn might be from the most recent sightings that had been reported to the police. She had also gotten us some photos with their names from the CSIS server to help track them down. I could have just used that information to teleport right to them but I didn’t want to risk just magically appearing in a public location and both giving myself away and losing the element of surprise.

“I think I got something,” Whisper grumbled just after eight o’clock that evening. “They’re not exactly being original. Most of the recent sighting reports have been around the East Side and Chinatown, in the East Hastings area. Lots of homeless, drug trafficking, and generally questionable people and activities there so it’s a good place to get lost in the crowd. The hotels there generally don’t ask questions and there are some abandoned buildings that they could be hiding in too. You’re going to have to hurry to get to them first though because I’m pretty sure that the police and CSIS will be going over the area too.”

I quickly nodded. “We’ll get over there and I’ll use a tracking spell to find them from there. I want you to keep up the information distribution on social media and various news outlets. Grell, Robyn, Rob, Salem, Daenyss, and Kinara will stay with you.”

Whisper flushed and anxiously stroked Shadow, who was curled up in her lap. “You don’t need to leave people here to keep an eye on me, Your Majesty. Sure, I would like to go and make Eli suffer for being an asshole in person but he’s not worth the time and effort. I have more important things to do, like clearing our names.”

“I’m not leaving them here to watch over you, Whisper. And, please, it’s just friends here so call me Taelya,” I told the tiny Assassin gently. “Too large of a group would draw attention, it’ll be safer here, and Salem and Daenyss won’t have to worry about wearing clothes to blend in. I wouldn’t want them walking barefoot in that area of the city, who knows what they could step on. Grell, I want you to look for wholesale suppliers of any tech that might be useful for artificing. Robyn, you’ll be looking for food wholesalers that we can contract for our long-term supply needs on Varüus’kiel. I also want you all to consider other things that we might need and look into them.”

It was just under an hour later that we got off the bus near our target location. The metallic red Mercedes SUV would stand out too much in the area and I wanted us to be as low profile as a group of six people sticking close together could. With that in mind, I had woven glamours over each of us, even Pete and Rei who could blend in among humans. I made us look not only human but also a bit scruffy and dirty like life had worn us all down. The glamours would also keep people from focusing on us so we could avoid being questioned by the cops or suits. Inside the backpack that I wore securely on my shoulders, Venika hid with Willow, and her own Wisp, Silverheels.

As soon as we were off the bus I hid amongst the others and quickly drew and whispered the sigils for my Trail of Light spell. “Kiara naethrin tiurin’híel Nick Olsen!” I had memorized the names and faces of each of the members of H3lls-Pwn, but I was really hoping that my instincts were right and they were sticking together.

We also needed to find them soon, the area was crawling with cops and people in dark suits who stood out like sore thumbs. I figured that they were going to have to search visually though since most of the people that they were canvassing for information wouldn’t help a cop if their lives depended on it and the suits only attracted the attention from the pickpockets and panhandlers. They might give someone else up if the price was right though so I felt it was best to hurry. The others felt as uncomfortable in this area of town as I did, as was demonstrated when Lissany muttered, “I hate this part of town, I always feel like I’m gonna get stabbed. At least I’m wearing armor this time.”

My companions and I followed the glittering trail, stepping around the garbage that littered the street and keeping our eyes on the people around us for our targets or danger. The trail turned off East Hastings Street and into a narrow, filthy, and smelly alley that we followed, occasionally passing people either passed out on the ground or watching us carefully until the glamours made them forget about us. They really fought the effect, but they were probably worried that we were going to attack them. Eventually, that alley and the glittering trail that we were following led us to an old apartment building with boarded-up windows and doors.

We turned off the alley and found that the boards to one of the ground floor windows had been moved recently, flattening the grass and leaving a slight furrow in the dirt, before being clumsily put back in place. Through the long-broken window, I could hear low voices coming from inside.

“What the fuck do we do? We can’t stay here forever but if we go out to get food and stuff someone is going to recognize us and report us to the cops, our pictures are all over the place.”

“It’s dark so we can probably move again soon, Vic. We just need to remember the rules of being a fugitive. Move when it’s dark, keep our faces hidden, and use cash instead of cards,” a second voice assured who I assumed was Victor Finch.

“Fuck you, Casey! This isn’t some stupid movie or game!” a third voice snapped angrily. “I don’t know why I fucking listened to you and tossed my phone!”

“Because they could use it to fucking track us, any idiot knows that, Dave!” Casey shouted back. Well, that accounted for Casey Krieger and David Greene, and since I had been tracking Nick Olsen that meant the gang was all here.

Dave’s voice snarled, “Who the hell put you in charge anyway?! I should have never listened to Razor when he said that we could make a big name for ourselves in that game. Now we’re on the run and he can’t remember his own fucking name! We wouldn’t be in this mess if we hadn’t listened to that overcompensating neurotic asshole!”

“It was your idea to mess with the redheaded bitch, Dave!” a fourth voice that I assumed belonged to Nick shouted. “He was against the idea at first until you harassed him into it! You’re the one who told us all, ‘it’s just a game, nobody is really getting hurt.’ Yeah, well people did get hurt, us!”

“Speaking of you getting hurt,” Nishalle’s voice spoke in cold fury. “Hey, boys, remember me?”

Screams of fear rang out from behind the boarded window and I looked quickly to my side but Nishalle must have used her Shadow Shift ability to get inside. I could sense that she had let the glamour I had placed on her drop and she sounded really pissed. I hoped that she wouldn’t decide to solve our little problem by killing them all, as much as they might deserve it after everything they did. After a quick look around to ensure nobody was watching, I quickly tagged the others, dropped my glamour, and formed the sigils for my mass teleport spell. “Kaida liantuir tala siashe Nishalle!”

We appeared inside the remains of the dilapidated ground floor apartment as Nishalle approached the four college-aged guys cowering away from her in the corner with her katana drawn. “No killing them please, Sis. You know our laws; they have paid for their crimes against me.”

“Can I at least maim them?” my sister asked hopefully, her crimson eyes locked on the four douchebags in the corner.

“They have wronged another since they paid for their crimes against us,” I pointed out helpfully. “She has the right to determine their punishment and whether or not they should go through the Wild Hunt first. You guys remember the Wild Hunt, don’t you?”

From the expressions on their faces, it was apparent that they remembered the Wild Hunt very well. They also remembered us, though they seemed confused by my new appearance. The one with Victor’s voice kept mumbling, “This isn’t real,” over and over while the others looked like they were ready to try to bolt. They figured out who I was pretty quickly as I gestured to the ground and roots burst through the floor to ensnare them.

“I’m afraid that it’s very real, and so are we,” Venika calmly confirmed as she and the Wisps made their way out of my backpack and settled on my shoulders. “Monsters, magick, Fae, everything that was in the game is real now that the Veil has fallen, isn’t that right, Your Imperial Majesty?”

I tried not to roll my eyes and to attempt to look imperious as Venika addressed me formally but I figured where she was going with this as the members of H3lls-Pwn stared at me. “Yeah, I’m not a princess anymore, I’m the Empress of all Fae and a Demigoddess now, so you should feel honored that I took time out of my busy schedule to find you and keep you out of some government black site where they probably plan on getting information that you don’t have out of you by any means necessary. Daenyss, join us please.”

A moment later the naked Nymph appeared before me. “Yes, Mistress? How may I serve you?”

Daenyss’s former guildmates stared at her naked body even as they attempted to struggle against the roots holding them captive. “Boys, this is Daenyss Filipovic, my loyal Attendant, and good friend. I believe the four of you knew her once upon a time, or rather the person she was before.”

Her name didn’t sound too different from her former name so it didn’t take long for their eyes to go wide in realization. “Dennis?” one of them asked in a mix of wonder and horror.

“Yes, that was once my name before I swore my oath to serve Mistress,” my Attendant replied absently before asking me, “Are these the men that you went out to search for, Mistress?”

“Yes, Daenyss. These are your former guildmates; I wouldn’t call them friends though. When you lost your memory, instead of sticking by you and trying to help you as a real friend would, they betrayed you. They attempted to get you to take sole blame for actions that were done as a group, actions that you were apparently originally against,” I said with a meaningful glare at Dave. “You have the right to choose their punishment for that betrayal and whether they should face the Wild Hunt.”

For a moment, Daenyss wore a thoughtful expression. “Maybe they could make up for the things that they did if given another chance? They could get a new start, like I did, and become better people,” she suggested hopefully.

Dave was a manipulative asshole but it seemed that he was smart enough to realize that their fate was in her hands. I could see the wheels turning in his mind from the expression on his face. Since she couldn’t remember them and she was a Nymph, he figured that she would be easy to manipulate. She was offering them another chance and he had learned nothing. It was confirmed as he smiled and nodded, “Yeah, give us a chance to start over.”

The others quickly nodded their agreement, their eyes calculating. None of them had learned a damn thing. Daenyss was sweet, caring, and often innocent but she was not stupid. She sighed and gave a slight shake of her head at their far too eager reaction so I asked, “Is this what you want, Daenyss?”

“Yes, Mistress,” she replied with a sad smile, surprising me with her answer. She couldn’t lie to me, her oath prevented that, but it also prevented her from doing anything that would allow me to come to harm and I had a feeling that as soon as these guys no longer had eyes watching them they would try to stab us all in the backs. “I think that if they can start again as I did, with their pasts not holding them back, that with the right influences they could become as loyal to you as I am. We can bring them to Varüus’kiel where it’s safe. I think that Xixie could help them to get a fresh start, and she and the other Sül’shael would be very happy to welcome them into their group and set them on the right path.”

I barely stopped my eyebrows from shooting upward in surprise. That was so devious, such an appropriately Fae solution. It wasn’t something that I would have come up with or chosen but it was her decision to make and I knew that she was making it for the greater good. The others looked as surprised as me and Venika and Rei didn’t seem happy at all. “Babe, are you sure this is a good idea? After everything that they’re done already?”

I took a deep breath, looked at my fiancée as impassively as I could manage, and said, “It is Daenyss’s decision to make. I cannot and will not overrule the decision of the victim if she is certain that this is the right thing to do.”

“Yes, Mistress, I feel that this will be for the best and that in the future these four can become good people with the right guidance,” the Nymph confirmed.

Those four bastards looked so smug, so I guessed that it was time to pound the final nail in the coffin, now that the decision was made. “Miska niest jhaith! Do you all, victim and accused, agree to the course of action proposed by the victim, Daenyss Filipovic? That you four will take the opportunity to start your lives anew under the guidance of the Sül’shael? Swear it to your names. If you do not swear it to your true names, then I will know and I will dream up my own punishments for you.” I gave the four a disgusted look that showed just how unhappy I was with the fact that they thought that they were getting off with a slap on the wrist.

“I, Daenyss Filipovic, daughter of Naerysse and Nymph of the Hawthorne Clan and the Autumn Court, swear that I agree with and will abide by this decision,” my Attendant stated first.

Dave was only too quick to follow suit, looking like the cat that ate the canary. “I, David Greene, swear that I agree with and will abide by this decision.”

Each of the other three followed his example and I smiled as I felt the binding that I had cast take hold. “You are now each bound to this course of action. Let’s be off to Varüus’kiel so we can get started. Nishalle, do you think that you can make their deaths quick once we find Xixie?”

“It’s more than they deserve, but yeah, they won’t feel a thing,” my sister replied, giving the four a disgusted look.

Poor Venika, Pete, and Rei had no idea what was going on, and Harley was a bit confused about why the Sül’shael were being brought up, but the others seemed to have caught on and whispered explanations since they had been there for the Sül’shael resurrections of Harley’s attackers in the forest and spoke Elvish well enough to understand what had been happening. As for the four members of H3lls-Pwn, they looked confused and terrified but they didn’t move a muscle. Couldn’t move a muscle was more like it, even without the roots ensnaring them unless it took them toward the course of action that they had just bound themselves to.

“But… you said that we could start over…” Dave sputtered frantically, his mouth now the only thing under his control as I had the roots withdraw and slip back into the earth below.

“Don’t you douchebags know never to make a deal with the Fair Folk? You got played,” Harley said, trying and failing to cover a smug grin now that she knew what was going on. “I can’t believe I used to look up to you assholes.”

“Daenyss offered you a second chance and you took her kind nature for stupidity and a means of getting out of the punishment that you deserve. Still, she is giving you a chance to start your lives anew under the guidance of the Sül’shael, and you have bound yourselves to that course of action. Once you are dead your freed souls will be bound to the seeds of Sül’shael women who will be only too happy to raise you and guide you once you start your lives anew as their children, just as we agreed to,” I told them, letting that sink in before I cast a portal to Varüus’kiel.

“Inu’Mahair!” Xixie squealed in delight once we had found her talking with my Mahair of all people. The Sül’shael rushed toward me bouncing all the way and her hair and wings flashed, nearly igniting before she managed to remember that she wasn’t only among her kind and that other Fae were considerably less fireproof. “We are making you sooo many pretties and a short hairy man is going to teach us how to make something called armor for you and your Guardians! We are going to make yours so pretty! Ooooh! That’s the hairy man, there!” she babbled excitedly before pointing at Hadrick.

It figured that the Dwarf would want to try and make armor, and possibly other things, from Nythrin once he found out about the strong and light metal. And since the Star Maidens were the only ones who could make a flame hot enough to melt it and could shape and control the metal once molten he had found the perfect students to help him. “That’s great, Xixie, I’m sure that Hadrick will teach you to make many new things and that the armor you make for me will be wonderful. There was something else that I wanted to ask you about though…”

“What are they doing here?” Amoiraishe asked pointedly, her tone venomous as she glared at the members of H3lls-Pwn. If they had control of their own bodies at the moment the four would have run as far and fast as they could, judging by the look of terror in their eyes when they saw my Mahair.

“Daenyss has decided upon compensation for their betrayal and they have bound themselves to it, Mahair,” I explained. “They have agreed to start over, under the guidance of the Sül’shael.”

“They have, have they?” my Mahair asked, her eyes lighting up. “And how did you convince them of this, my little rose?”

“They were so eager to accept her generous proposal that they didn’t think to ask for details. Therefore, I was not obligated to share them,” I replied, much to the Queen of the Autumn Court’s obvious delight.

“That’s my girl,” she said with a smile. “I assume that they weren’t very remorseful if you of all people were to agree to this course of action?”

“Not in the slightest, and they tried to take advantage of Daenyss’s good nature. They can’t be trusted and are a danger to us and themselves as they are now, whether here or in the outside world. Daenyss’s solution is a sound one and hopefully, they will grow up to be happier and less selfish than they are now with a proper guiding hand,” I told her, hoping for the best.

Xixie was uncertain about what I was asking her to do at first but she could see that the binding upon them was agreed upon and sworn to by them. She did agree once I explained the situation, that we wanted to give them a new start in life, and that I trusted her people to raise them properly and with love. I also promised her that Nishalle would make their deaths quick and clean so that they didn’t have to suffer, which set her mind a little more at ease.

As much as I had agreed to the plan though, I didn’t want their blood spilled on the soil of Varüus’kiel. I didn’t want blood spilled period, but I consoled myself with the fact that it wasn’t really death that we were doling out but a chance at a new life, and the Sül’shael obviously loved their children and would raise them well. They would probably be very happy in their new lives.

So after telling Amoiraishe about all the black sites where non-humans were being taken, making a rough plan, and promising to send her the addresses back with Xixie, I cast a portal back to the condemned apartment where we had found the members of H3lls-Pwn. We would do the deed there and leave the bodies for the police to find. So once we had returned and found it as safe and unoccupied as when we left, I cast a spell to put our four troublemakers to sleep.

As much as I hated them, as much as they had tried to make me suffer, I couldn’t find it in my heart to feel the same for them. I didn’t want them to suffer needlessly, this was a rebirth, not an execution. Between their slumber and Nishalle’s skills, they never felt a thing and soon their life-sparks were in Xixie’s capable hands, to be bonded to the seeds of volunteer mothers when she returned to Varüus’kiel. Once Nishalle and Venika had made certain that we would leave no evidence of our presence behind we teleported back to the safe house where the others were waiting.

Xixie was curious about everything she saw, much like Daenyss on the first day that we met but then, it was her first time away from her home and out in the wider world. Everything in the house caught her attention and fascination and I was a little sorry that I couldn’t let her stay longer but I had a list of cities and addresses that I had written down for her to take back to my Mahair and she probably needed to get those four souls bonded to seeds before they went stale or something. So it was nearly eleven o’clock and time for the late news when I opened a portal to where Mahair was waiting so I could send Xixie back with her cargo.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can, Xixie. Please get that information to my Mahair as soon as you arrive and I can’t wait to see all of the pretties you’re making for me when we get home,” I told her, reaching out to hug her. “Please, take care of yourself and the other girls for me.”

Xixie was practically vibrating in my embrace as she hugged me back. When we parted her face had exploded into the biggest grin I had ever seen and she could hardly stand still. “I will Inu’Mahair! You can count on me!” Excitable as Xixie was practically all of the time, I knew that she was right. She and the other Star Maidens would do anything for me and always to the best of their ability. I hoped that I deserved such loyalty and devotion as she stepped through the portal and I allowed it to close once she was through.

Checking it with Grell and Whisper informed us that every major television network, radio station, and news website in the country were pursuing the information that we had sent out like rabid dogs. Whisper had also been storming every social media site with the stories about us being falsely accused and the non-humans being moved to government black sites. It was a circus, though the reactions of people about the non-humans were largely mixed. Some people were rightfully incensed while others thought that the government should keep non-humans locked up and throw away the key.

It was about what we had been expecting but at least we had a plan in place. During my talk with my Mahair about the black sites in Canada (there were twenty-eight of them across the country) we planned to hit them all at one o’clock in the morning, local time. My group would of course hit the one in Vancouver while Mahair was assembling teams to go after the other sites with the plan being to incapacitate any Humans guarding them and to bring all of the prisoners safely to Varüus’kiel. I did not want anyone on either side dying in these raids if at all possible.

Tomorrow Robyn would get in on her part as she and Rob would go pick up her car from her place, replace her phone, and then she would start a very public campaign for the rights of the ‘changed’. Since she was well known for fighting for equality and the rights of abused minorities we doubted that anyone would be surprised by this turn of events. She and Rob would continue things on their end while she worked on her new album and prepared for her next tour and she would use her burner phone to send me and the others from our party hers and Rob’s new contact information so we could touch base once in a while.

Tonight though, we had a raid to prepare for. We would all be joining in the raid and we carefully went over our plans until it was time for Nishalle to head off to the black site where she would sneak inside using her abilities and find a place to hide until it was time for us to join her. At one o’clock she would phone me to let me know that she was in position and I would use her as the focus for my mass teleportation spell, getting us all inside the facility to do our thing.

I thought that I was going to go crazy waiting and I wasn’t the only one nervously tapping my foot or watching the clock. Rei tried to keep me calm though, telling me that we could do this and they wouldn’t know what hit them. Finally, at one o’clock on the nose, my phone rang. The second that I connected the call, my sister’s voice said quietly, “I’m in the security room now, the guards are out cold and I’ve disabled all of the cameras. Give me a ten count once I hang up and I’ll be in position on the detention floor.”

The call disconnected and I slowly counted to ten in my head before tagging everyone and drawing and speaking the sigils of the spell that would take us into the lion’s den. “Kaida liantuir tala siashe Nishalle!”