The Imperial City's perfu of jasmine and marble dust turned cloying as Vell's team entered their assigned quarters. What might have passed for austerity elsewhere felt deliberately theatrical here - rough-hewn walls frad by gilded doorways, straw pallets arranged beneath stained-glass windows depicting imperial victories. Ada's boot scuffed against a mosaic hidden beneath gri, revealing a single golden tile shaped like a snarling wolf's eye.
"Charming," Sia drawled, tracing a finger along a suspiciously fresh bloodstain on the doorfra. "I give the decor three days before it kills soone."
Lira didn't look up from her workbench of scavenged floorboards. "Four hours," she corrected, soldering wires to a resonator crystal that humd in dissonant thirds with the city's ambient magic.
"The dampening field in these walls isn't just soundproofing. It's chewing through my circuits like a starved gremlin."
Mia materialized from the shadow of an overfilled bookcase, her hands full of pilfered cutlery. "They left listening spells in the soup tureen." She dropped the spoons into Lira's lap with a discordant clatter. "Third one from the left gets chatty around moonrise."
Vell remained statue-still by the window, watching sunlight fracture through the glass map of the Empire's conquests. The red pane over Karstok still bore chip marks from whatever weapon had shattered it decades earlier.
"Will you stop that?" Ada's pacing intensified, her braid coming undone as she gestured at the half-visible runes glowing beneath the plaster. "We need to sweep this place properly, not play house with whatever parasites the Imperials-"
"Ada." Vell's voice cut clean through her rant. He held up a hand, catching the dust motes dancing in a sliver of sunlight. "What do you sll?"
"Rot. Hubris. Cheap lavender oil trying to mask-"
"Beneath that."
The room stilled. Sara paused in her knife-sharpening ritual, blade poised at the exact angle to catch reflections from the hallway. Even Alex's whetstone ceased its rhythm against his sword's edge.
Ada inhaled deeply through her nose - once, twice. Her eyes narrowed. "Salt. And... burnt sugar?"
"Tidepools." he pressed his palm flat against the damp stone wall. "This wing's built over old sea caves. The foundations are honeycombed with tunnels that flood during storm season."
A slow grin spread across Sia's face. "You're thinking we don't need doors."
"Not thinking." Lira held up her mangled resonator, now sparking violet. "Knowing. The interference patterns match tidal charts from-"
"Enough." Ada massaged her temples. "This is exactly what they want. Distract us with shiny secrets while-"
[Hoo, when did she get so mature?]
'....you should actually be embarrassed instead of impressed.' He thought with a mocking smile.
Stay connected via My Virtual Library Empire
[Huh, what do you an by that?]
'nothing, don't worry about it.'
The knock ca in three bursts. Mia lted into the bookshelf shadows as Sara fluidly rose, blade hidden behind her thigh. Vell remained at the window, but his reflection tilted just enough to watch the door.
The Imperial ssenger looked barely eighteen, his starched collar digging into a fresh shaving cut. "Lady Regina's complints," he recited to the doorfra, trembling under Sia's exaggerated inspection of his epaulets. "She thought you might appreciate... local comforts."
The silver tea service glead with malicious intent, steam curling from a spout shaped like a dragon's maw. Ada's hand shot out to intercept it, but Vell was already there, his calloused fingers brushing hers as he took the tray.
"Tell your lady," he said, blocking the ssenger's view of Lira's hastily concealed scanner, "we prefer our tea brewed with 'unenchanted' leaves."
The door slamd on the boy's stamred reply. Sia imdiately pressed her ear to the wood. "He's running. Like actually sprinting down the hall."
"Overkill, even for Regina." Ada prodded the teapot with her boot. "This reeks of third-year pageantry. Basic intimidation play."
Alex hefted his sword. "Could slice it."
"Or," Lira interjected, producing a turkey baster and three vials of glowing liquid from her toolbelt, "we could see if the poison's keyed to imperial bloodlines again... for science."
Vell stirred the tea with Regina's ivory-handled letter opener. "I heard there was an incident last month in Krov province. Three trade ministers dead from-"
"-contact neurotoxin in jasmine blend, yes, but this," Lira's scanner whined as she passed it over the steam, "is clearly laced with mory moss and... is that singing nettle? How delightfully retro!"
'haha... i am starting to realize I know barely anything about the things on this continent.'
[Obviously but give it ti, you will learn, you always do.]
'How are the kids evolution status?'
[stable, barely any signs.]
'so strange, i expected at least Wren or Yenna to have evolved by now, i guess has been no need for that.'
[That's a good thing actually, evolving too fast can backfire, its good they got ti to learn and master their current powers.]
'I guess... I am sure they will be fine.'
[Don't worry too much, if things go south you can easily sense it and go save them and if that is not an option, you can divide your power among them like before.]
'Yeah, you are right, I am sure its nothing.'
Mia's hand darted out to snatch a sugar cube. Before anyone could react, she popped it in her mouth.
"Mia!" Three voices shouted in unison.
She blinked slowly. "Cyanide's bitter. This is cardamom." A beat. "Also poisoned. But nicely balanced."
'They are so cute... they have grown so much.' He kept thinking.
Chaos erupted. As Lira scrambled for antidotes and Ada started inventorying Mia's pupils, Vell caught her wrist. Her pulse fluttered calm beneath his fingers.
"relax, this is nothing." He removed the poison from her body and ford it into a ball in this hand. "Sigh, you can be such a handful sotis."
Sia barked a laugh. "You ate the evidence?"
"Waste not."
"Next ti, wait for Lira's analysis."
---
That night, Vell found Ada rewiring the listening spells into a crude music box. Her fingers moved with precise fury, braid now completely unraveled.
"You should rest," he said, placing a stolen honeycake from the kitchens beside her tools.
"Can't." She jerked her chin at the ceiling where Sia snored in a hammock of stolen drapery. "Soone needs to watch the idiots."
They both knew she ant the voices - the ones that whispered from every corner of this gilded cage. He leaned against the wall beside her, close enough to share warmth but not touch.
"in that case, want to go catch the rats outside? They are beginning to annoy ."
They both smiled at each other.
"Thought you would never ask."
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