Interlude 3-2 – Session with a Shape-Shifter

  Citadel Third floor- Balcony- 5th day of the month of Niffle of the 6983 GR (Late Morning)

  Nath’aniel-

  Nath’aniel continued reading the bamboo scroll sitting before him. It didn’t tell him much more than what he already knew from when he learned the familiar spell, but it was for the best that he learned every nook and word from the thesis that he could.

  At the sound of the colpsing doors, he muttered to the room. “You’re te.”

  The mage had expected an unfeeling 'I am sorry' from her, but instead the blue-skinned woman just cleared her throat before walking over to join him. Before sitting down, she asked. "Only one setting, aren't you eating?"

  "Mages don't eat lunch," Nath'aniel muttered without pulling his eyes away from the scroll before him. He felt it best to give her time to do as she must, regardless that the others were waiting on them.

  She sighed, before he heard her move the chair and sit down. She waited and cleared her throat again, before asking. “So, how do we do this?”

  “Generally we start with some small talk to get comfortable with each other, and then I will ask a few questions. But seeing as how you were te, and others are waiting on us we could skip that if you’d prefer?” The mage answered, still not looking away from the scroll, although he would need to roll out a new section soon.

  Mystique sighed again, before admitting. “Look this is hard for me, so while I am not sorry, I am also not really ready for this either.”

  “What is hard, being alone with me?” he asked someone curious.

  “No not that, but being honest is. And I know that we have to be, while we are in here with you, and well… I was abandoned when I was six because my skin turned blue in the middle of the night. It took me a few months to figure out my powers enough to even try and blend in with others, and by then lying and deceiving people came as natural to me as my powers were… and yes, something about my powers does make it difficult to control myself around you.” the shape-shifter further admitted.

  As she opened up to him, he closed the scroll without looking at it, as Nath'aniel turned his full attention to the blue-skinned woman. She was dressed in her white outfit, but wasn’t armed. Looking at her now, he could tell that she was making minute changes to herself, almost as if she was losing control of her powers.

  He was about to offer to cast something on her to calm her, when she asked. “Does what I say have to be shared with the others?”

  The mage shook his head before saying. “No, it doesn’t. Additionally, Citadel?”

  “Online, young master.”

  "Would you pce a marker in your logs? And then delete your records of my sessions with Mystique from them when we are done?" He requested his friend. When he finished he saw Mystique's mouth towards him a 'thank you', before taking a sip from her prepared water.

  As she did, she seemed to rex and take firmer control over her powers, but still, her face and features changed. No longer was the overly attractive woman sitting across from him, but rather a somewhat fwed, but still physically pleasing woman.

  "I would never have guessed you were from the Eastern Tribes of the Land," he admitted once she settled her form.

  “Mix heritage actually, my family came from a nomadic people, and my mother was asked to bring in some outsider blood. Mind you the Americas hadn’t been discovered by the majority of the world yet when I was born. And none of it got carried over into any of my biological children.” She expined as she poured some sauces onto the meat patty, from the way they smelled the mage could tell that she was into spicier foods.

  “We don’t have to focus on you if you would prefer, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I would like to know what you meant by I make your powers difficult to control?” Nath’aniel asked. As she started cutting up the meat. From seeing the insides he could tell that it was fnk steak.

  “You’d probably figure it out anyway, I know Erik already has, but my powers make me something like a feral-adjacent. Like Wolfsbane, or my ex, or even the X-men's Wolverine, I have a minor extra sense." She answered before taking the first bite of her steak.

  “So your powers are alerting you to me being a potential predator?” He asked for crification before reaching for his own water.

  She chewed the meat in her mouth, and shook her head that he got it wrong, but waited to swallow before expining. “That’s not what my sense tells me, it’s… Jesus, I can’t believe I am going to admit this…”

  “You don’t have to…” he started to excuse her, but she held up her hand to stall him.

  She then cleared her throat again, before saying. “My sense tells me if a man will give me a strong child or not.”

  It took him a second before he nodded and repeated. “Feral-adjacent.”

  Mystique smiled at him, before putting another piece of meat into her mouth. Something about the way she chewed made Nath'aniel think back to the night before, and what Betsy had done to him besides the Servant's Thesis.

  So he cleared his own throat, took another mouthful of his own water, and once she was done with her bite, the mage asked. "Shall we get to the first topic?" She nodded and he asked. "I wanted to know what exactly a spy's role in society is."

  Mystique mummed at him, somehow knowing that she was fighting her own power-induced urges made him squirm a bit too.

  "Spies are political agents, but they are ones that you use in an enemies or allies society rather than your own." The shape-shifter answered, and when he frowned at that she added. "Take your own experience with the team sent here, but look at it from their perspective. They hear about a new nation or region. They have basically two options, option one, send a military group there to introduce themselves.’

  "But the mere fact of sending hundreds or thousands of armed people may force a limit on how the people living in said nation react. Or option two. Send in a small team or even a pair of agents to do some general information gathering. They get discovered and you get offended, but are not threatened to react."

  "Or they complete their mission completely undiscovered and I am never the wiser to their presence." Nath'aniel guessed for her.

  She nodded and added. "This is especially true if this region was already trading with someone. Not that you are, but say instead of them sending the team, they instead slipped Agent Moonstar in with me and Exodus when we were getting Copycat. She could cim to want to join us and might even help us out for a while, but all the while she is actually gathering the information that she eventually feds back to her real bosses."

  Hearing the possible threat by her offered theory angered the mage, so Nath’aniel asked. “Why? What purpose do such deceptions serve?”

  She dabbed the tip of one of her fingers into her water and started rubbing the rim of her gss as she answered. "Because every nation pys with a simir pybook, of hope for the best, but pn for the worst. And yes while you see it as underhanded and dirty, there is also the chance that you never find out, and thus they see it as a win-win strategy.'

  "And as much as you and Erik might hate it, you will have to think or have someone to think like them as well. Because while we are strong and skilled, there are weapons or personnel that can take us out."

  The mage watched her finger as she continued to rub rings, and said for confirmation. “You are referring to their atomic weapons and Enhanced.”

  Mystique nodded but then added. "And don't think all Enhanced are equal, most of the ones you have met are low or mid-tier." She then forked another piece into her mouth when she was finished speaking.

  When the gss started to make a ringing noise, the mage jumped. Not at the noise, but at the foot that had reached over and was now rubbing against his own. The shape-shifter's leg chased his leg when it moved away from her.

  Nath’aniel coughed, before saying. “Right, and we are about to go kidnap one.” Then he frowned as he heard her foot shifted and change, and a moment ter he it felt to him to be more like a hand and two of the ‘fingers’ moved to grab him. he jumped up to stand a short distance from the table.

  He then could hear the bones and muscle shift and retract, as she smiled and admitted. “What? I am only being honest.” She then sat back and spread her own legs apart revealing the damp spot on her undergarment.

  “I think we will call it here. Good first session Mystique.” the mage said before leaving the room.