"No, we already have more than we need." Malice said into the crystal sphere, squeezing her clawed fingers around the device with enough force to scratch shallow grooves into the priceless device. "There's no reason to expend more effort here. Do you know how tedious this is?"

  The center of the orb held the likeness of Zertrolk, commander of the demon forces assigned to Labyrinth operations. The pain demon was humanoid, with midnight black skin and cold, icy eyes that glimmered with azure energy. The succubus could almost feel his frigid aura emanating from the farseeing orb as he glared at her with such intensity that a chill ran down her spine.

  "I care not for what you do and don't like, Malice." He said in a cool, unfeeling voice. "All that matters is we have enough for the rituals."

  "I assure you, Lady Ira will be satisfied."

  "If she isn't, it will be your flesh her talons rend." Zertrolk grunted, crossing his large, muscular arms. "Why she put an unreliable thrill seeker like you in charge of a critical task, I'll never know."

  "Because unlike you, I can be subtle." Malice retorted, sneering. "No one in the city has realized that three quarters of the palatial vaults have been emptied. The dimension effusion will be in your hands by tomorrow night."

  It would have been sooner if Estelhelm's city walls weren't warded against teleportation. Their team had the expertise to safely transport even something as unstable as dimension effusion via magical means, but there was simply no way to get around the protective enchantments. That was why, in the large basement chamber of the abandoned warehouse they were using as a temporary base, four carts were being loaded with their freshly obtained spoils. Malice could hear the imps and bruzaks, demon brutes, hard at work outside the dilapidated storage room she'd appropriated as an office. Already she tired of this tedium. The succubus needed to kill someone. Or screw someone. She didn't much care which.

  "Are you even listening to me?" Her commander demanded, a hint of frustration finally slipping into his words. Malice's claws clenched harder, a crack appearing on the orb.

  "Yes." She lied, giving him her best coy smile. "Raiya has gotten everything out of the palace vaults that she can. Any more, and even she won't be able to hide the thefts any longer. It's time for us to leave."

  Zertrolk fell silent, staring at her intently through the farseeing orb. Finally, he spoke.

  "Very well. I'll be waiting for you."

  The connection severed and the crystal sphere went blank, filling with fog. Malice was tempted to smash it, crush it, or order one of her subordinates to devour the damn thing, but resisted the impulse. She just had to tolerate this for a little longer. Once the initial ritual was complete they'd have more manpower, and she could take a break. It would all be worth it, in the end. She was the one who had obtained the core location data from the new wayfarers, she had even located the proper site on the third floor for a ritual herself. Lord Vastrozun would surely reward her, when this was done. She just had to ensure that they seized the Earth artifacts too.

  Malice strode from the small chamber, entering the larger portion of the warehouse basement where several carts were being loaded with crates of effusion. Large, burly demons did most of the heavy lifting, the dark-skinned humanoid creatures barely able to pass as human even while wrapped in thick cloaks. Smuggling them into the city had been a pain. Fortunately, getting them out was a much simpler proposition. Not that their lives mattered to the succubus. If the carts made it out, she couldn't care less what happened to the demons and imps in this room. They knew that as well as she did, but no one complained. They knew their place.

  "Kellak." She said, approaching the only other high caste demon in the group. "Join the gate guard. We'll need a distraction to slip free of the city tonight."

  The blood demon smiled, an expression that made even Malice cringe. That pale skin, the too-wide mouth, and those hungry eyes… These creatures were always a disconcerting sight, and that was when they were disguised in human form. Something none of them ever managed to get quite right, for some reason.

  "It will be my pleasure." Kellak rasped, chewing the words like pieces of meat before spitting them out. "I'll take of their places in the next shift."

  "Just make sure no one finds the body." Malice glowered at him. "If this goes wrong, I'm not taking the blame."

  "Yes, you are." The dark-haired demon grinned back at her, and then waved his hand dismissively. "But you have nothing to worry about. There won't be any."

  "Mistakes?"

  "No." his grin broadened, revealing rows of wicked, needle-like teeth. "Bodies."

  "Hey." Jade shook the strange woman by the shoulder. "You okay?"

  Naomi had just channeled one of her healing spells into the unconcious lady, who Jade's interface identified as 'Tara'lynn'. She was a wayfarer with a class called 'elementalist', and her level was strange. Her Labyrinth granted level was only 'eight', but the estimation of her total strength and ability was an enormous 'twenty-three'. That was one of the largest disparities Jade had seen so far. From what Aylin and Master Rhysten had explained, that meant she had probably been a student of magic outside of the framework of the Labyrinth. A path that not many people bothered with, considering all the extra time and studying it took to reach proficiency the 'long' way.

  The tek'kalla groaned, her eyelids fluttering open to reveal bright, amethyst pools. She focused on Jade and opened her mouth to speak, but Jade stopped her with a raised hand.

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  "Yes, I'm a demon. No, I'm not with whatever group of them is in the city. We're looking for them too. I'm a wayfarer, from the newly integrated world. I took a race change when I gained my mark."

  Jade rotated her hand to show the shifting, maze-like pattern of twisting lines and sigils that comprised all wayfarer marks.

  "Seems like you're looking into this too, amiga." Luis said, extending a hand to Tara'lynn. "Maybe we could work together?"

  "Luis, she just tried to blast us with a magic gun." Naomi pointed out.

  "Nah, she was only trying to hit Jade."

  "That makes it better?"

  "It was just a misunderstanding." Jade said, not taking her eyes off the slender tek'kalla woman. "Right?"

  Tara'lynn hesitated, her eyes flicking between Jade's human face and the glowing mark on her hand. Then, slowly, she nodded, accepting Luis's proffered hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet. The violet-skinned woman grimaced, rubbing the back of her head.

  "You're really a wayfarer?" She shook her head. "No, you can't fake a trial mark. But…" Tara'lynn narrowed her eyes at Jade. "I've never heard of someone taking a demon race before. That wasn't an option for me."

  "It's starting to happen more and more." The shopkeeper, Ashar, said, stepping out from behind the counter. He frowned at the collapsed shelf, broken containers, and shattered crystals. "A good number of wayfarers pass through my store. I've heard more than one talking about it."

  The enchanter pulled a wand from a hip holster and twirled it with a flourish, sending the shelf sliding back into place on the wall. The crystals followed, sorting themselves back into newly formed bowls with a rapid series of 'clinks'. Jade had to duck as one whizzed over her, settling on the top of the pile with a final clatter.

  "Now, what's this about demons in the city?"

  Jade took a few minutes to summarize, again, her encounter with Malice in Lysara, and the operation she had hinted at here in Estelhelm. The tek'kalla still looked suspicious of her, but her head snapped up when she heard the succubus's name.

  "I ran across a couple of imps smuggling dimension effusion to a warehouse in the city outskirts." She said, finally holstering the strange magical firearm she carried. "One of them said her name."

  "Dimension effusion?" Siora asked. The elf was poking through a supply of bottled alchemical reagents and had hardly reacted to the commotion.

  "It's an extremely valuable crafting material." Fenrin supplied. Like Jade, he was still keeping a wary eye on Tara'lynn. "But it's volatile and unstable if not prepared properly. Even if it is, you have to handle it carefully. It's a lot of what we mine in Rimestead."

  "It's all stored in the royal vaults." Ashar said, leaning back against the store counter. He twirled his wand around in his fingers, spinning it with impressive finesse. "How would they have gotten to it? I hear they're quite well guarded."

  "Malice is a succubus, like me." Jade said, shifting into her demon form and unfurling her wings, spreading them wide. "If she wants to get something, she has all the tools she needs."

  Tara'lynn stared at Jade, wide-eyed. Apparently, expressions of shock were somewhat universal.

  "You chose to be a succubus? Why?"

  "I didn't have much of a choice." Jade grunted, crossing her arms.

  "If you found demons in the city, why didn't you go to the Silver Shield?" Ashar asked. "There've been rumors for weeks. Isn't there a reward posted?"

  "I did tell them." Tara'lynn grimaced. Although she was speaking to Ashar, she didn't take her eyes off Jade. "They sent a few people to look around, but they didn't find anything. After that, they ignored me."

  She sighed, running a hand through her long hair in frustration.

  "I took a look myself, last night. It's empty. But I know that I saw them go inside. That's why I wanted this." Tara'lynn held up the amulet, still looped around her neck. "They're hiding in there somewhere. I've read about demons. I know how cunning they are. I need to do something about this, they're too dangerous to be in the city."

  As the tek'kalla didn't seem to be directing her concern at Jade, at least not directly, she chose not to take offence at that.

  "I want to help." Naomi surprised Jade by speaking up. "If what Malice told you is true, Jade, then these demons might have something to do with what's happening on Earth. We could learn something about it."

  "They're a danger to the city, too." Fenrin said. "They could be doing much more than just stealing, and no one knows yet."

  "Stealing dimension effusion is bad enough." Ashar nodded.

  "You're right, it could be used in any number of unpleasant ways, in unsavory hands." Fenrin agreed grimly.

  "Oh." Ashar blinked. "I meant that additional scarcity would make prices shoot through the roof. It's hard enough to get a supply for enchanting as it is."

  Fenrin gave him an exasperated look.

  "But yeah, yeah…" he nodded quickly. "Safety first."

  A loud clattering sound emanated from the back room, quickly followed by a billowing cloud of black smoke that filtered through the bead curtain. Yulie, the assistant, stumbled through it a moment later, waving a hand in front of her face and coughing.

  "Ashar!" She called, wiping her eyes. "You told me you fixed the mana modulator!"

  "I did!" He protested. "I opened it up and replaced all the charging crystals."

  Yulie glowered at him, gesturing to the cloud of smoke.

  "Did you read the instructions that came with it first?"

  "I mean…" He began, in the tone of a man who was choosing his next words carefully. "Well, you know. I'm an experienced artificer, I thought I'd try out some upgrades."

  "You…" Yulie crossed her arms indignantly, but Ashar raised a hand.

  "Sorry, Yulie!" He told his assistant. "We just found out about an emergency. It's an emergency, right?" He glanced at the rest of them. "Have to go help take care of a demon problem. Civic duty, what can you do?"

  "Demons? Your workshop is on fire!" The assistant finally noticed Jade's new form and froze, staring at her in surprise.

  Ashar ignored her and poked his head through the bead curtain, waving away the thinning smoke.

  "Ahh, it's just mana combustion, looks worse than it is. You can handle it."

  Jade ignored their antics, turning back to Tara'lynn.

  "We want to find these demons. One of them has attacked us before, and they're planning something to do with our world. I'm going to find out what."

  "Want to join up?" Luis asked with a grin.

  Tara'lynn blinked in surprise, finally taking her eyes off Jade.

  "You'd work with a tek'kalla?"

  "Sure." Luis shrugged. "Why not?"

  "You're Elorinth Conclave, right?" Fenrin asked, examining her closely. "Some of your other clans give your people a bad reputation down here, but my father took me on trade expeditions to Elorinth outposts. Good people."

  "I…" she straightened, standing upright. "Yes." Tara'lynn said, extending her hand to Luis. "Let's do it."

  Then she shot Jade a warning look.

  "Just so you know, I have plenty of charm defenses."

  "If you're working with us, no complaints about her." Naomi replied before Jade could speak. "Give her a chance."

  The tek'kalla hesitated for a long moment, and then nodded. She shook Jade's hand. Her fingers were slender and delicate, feeling almost fragile in her grip.

  "I'm Tara'lynn clan Kasta, of the Elorinth Conclave. But you can just call me Tara."

  "Jade." She let go, stepping back. The smoke had mostly cleared now, although an acrid odor hung in the air. "You can take us to the warehouse you mentioned?"

  Tara nodded. She tapped on flat crystal embedded on a forearm bracer and, to Jade's surprise, a map appeared on it.

  Is that magic? Or technology?

  "It's right here." she said, pointing. "On the opposite side of the city."

  Jade looked around, checking on her companions. Naomi and Fenrin gave her nods, and Luis a thumbs up. Mimi chirped once from her perch on Fenrin's shoulder, shuffling her rainbow wings and clacking her beak aggressively. Siora looked worried but, after a moment, she nodded as well.

  "Lead the way."