Emancipation

Chapter 12 : Unsuspected

Chapter 12

Fiona awoke to another display of local foods laid out on large leaves within easy reach. She had discussed it with Noburu, the android had no idea where it was coming from, but had reassured her that it was safe and healthy for her to eat. Fiona didn't know who her benefactor was, but she appreciated the gifts. The fresh food tasted far better than the emergency rations from the ship. The molecular reprinter was another of the systems that was down. Noburu worked night and day to make repairs but the reprinter was not one of the essential systems as far as getting back to Sanctuary was concerned. Fiona propped herself up and began eating the mysterious offerings. Clearly there was at least one sentient entity on this planet other than her.

As she finished several of the local creatures came out of hiding in the bushes. They were the cutest things. Cat-sized they scurried around the crash site. They looked sort of like some monkeys she had seen but they had large fluffy squirrel-like tails that were longer than they were tall. Leaves and fibers were woven into the tails making t They walked on their hind legs and that left their hands to manipulate their enviornment. Fiona had watched them for several days. They seemed very curious about her. To be honest she was very curious about them. One of the larger creatures finally gathered up enough courage to approach her. It came over and sat opposite her across the mat of large leaves piled with food. Tentatively it reached for a small red fruit and put it in its mouth. Another of the creatures made scolding noises from its place near the bushes. The one that had eaten had another fruit in its little hand, it glanced back at the one scolding. It gingerly put the fruit back in the exact place it had picked it up from and turned to Fiona. It chittered at her giving her the distinct impression it was appologizing.

"No, it's alright! Go ahead, there's too much for just me," Fiona picked up the fruit and held it out to the little monkey-creature.

The creature looked back to the scolding one who gave it a nod. Then the little creature reached out to take the fruit from Fiona. In the process the creature brushed the naked skin of its palm across her hand. Fiona felt instantly dizzy. Her mind swirled with alien thoughts, memories, and perceptions. She reached her good arm out to keep herself from falling over.

"Are you alright?" The creature, Titiue asked reaching out to her.

Fiona managed to stablize her thoughts well enough to realize she understood him. What's more she knew exactly how to answer him back. "I am okay. I just need a little time to adjust," she chittered back. The creatures called themselves wuzzums and lived in family groups of similar composition to elephant herds that they called troops.

Titiue bounced to his feet and hopped back a pace, "You CAN speak! Liene she can talk properly. Not just with wispy growls!" Titiue was a mature male, and the father of many of the youngest cubs.

Liene, the older female that had scolded him cocked her ears in an amused fashion, "I can hear her too little one!"

"My name is Fiona, and yours is Titiue right?"

"How do you know MY name? I am just a male!"

"When you touched me, I gained your memories and knowledge. Of course I would know your name."

"You learn by touch? Is that common with your kind?" Liene asked coming closer. She was a fully mature female and as the eldest she led the troop.

"No, I am a rare example."

"Where are the rest of your troop? Liene asked.

"We don't live in troops. We have communities but some of us live and work on our own."

"Why did you come in a fireball?" one of the adolescents asked. His name was Ubene and he was due to leave the troop of his birth to find a troop of unrelated females to mate with.

"My ship malfunctioned when your planetary system appeared suddenly in front of me. I couldn't help but crash."

"You are wounded?" Liene pointed to Fiona's still immobilized arm.

"Yeah, it happened in the crash."

"Do you need a healer? Nukene go fetch Alene." Nukene, one of the younger females, carrying an infant ran back into the forest.

Fiona raised an eyebrow. "I don't know if your healer would be able to help me… I am an alien."

"Don't be silly! You are in pain and she can soothe you."

"You know, I don't think I can eat any more of this, I would hate for it to go to waste." The whole troop looked to Liene for permission.

"It was a gift. It is yours to do with as you see fit." Liene stated. The young ones scurried over and began eating like TItiue. Fiona smiled. The young ones backed away a bit.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My kind bares their teeth like that to show happiness. I can't move my ears like you." Reassured they all went back to eating. Fiona realized that the food they had laid out for her was something resembling a feast for them. She appreciated the gesture even more. "I really must share my gratitude for your gifts. But right now I have nothing of like kind to offer."

Fiona could tell that pleased Liene by her posture and the position of her ears. "It is no big thing. We could see your distress and the awful bars of dirt you were forced to eat. Really it pleased us that you accepted our gifts." Liene fluffed up her tail and flopped its tip so it overhung her head like an umbrella.

"The patterns you have woven into your tail are quite impressive." Fiona offered a gratuitous compliment for one of the wuzzums points of pride.

"Your wrappings are impressive as well. Is their a reason your fur is so straight?"

Fiona chuckled. Liene was at a loss as to how to properly compliment in return. "It is how my kind tends to wear their fur."

"How, plain."

Nukene reentered the area cleared by the crash with another female. The new female walked quickly up to Fiona. She gingerly placed her hands on Fiona's arm. "It is broken. It appears to have been set properly. You are quite fortunate your metal creature could do this for you." She ran her hands over the places that Noburu had informed Fiona were broken. Fiona felt a warm energy flowing into the areas of greatest pain. It really was soothing and quite possibly healing.

"That feels amazing!"

"I did tell you Alene could soothe your pain. She has a rare gift for healing. She has mastered healing herbs as well, but they might not agree with you. You are an alien, but pain is pain and healing touch is healing touch."

Noburu came out of the ship carrying a bottle of flavored water. "I thought you might be thirsty." The android looked at the wuzzums. If Noburu had a complex enough AI to be confused, Fiona was sure she was. "Have I missed something?"

"First contact?" Fiona shrugged with her uninjured arm.


* * *

Titiue sat back on his haunches and watched the younglings feasting on the stranger's leftovers. It was kind of this Fiona to share with the troop. They had worked hard to gather enough to leave for her before she awoke. Liene had gotten them up when the moon was still in the sky to accomplish the feat. Titiue couldn't complain about it. Liene's kindness was why he had decided to join her troop. When it was his time to mature into a female he would choose the name Litene to honor her. He suspected She was near her time to join the ancestors. The thought made him sad.

As the most junior adult member of the troop he had no real say in the politics of the troop. Alene would most likely be the next troop leader. That would be good for the the troop, her abilities as a healer had always contributed to the status of their troop among the others. Titiue sighed and selected another fruit from amongst the feast laid out for the stranger. Too bad she was so alien. He found her strangely appealing. If he hadn't already joined Liene's troop he would consider joining FIona's. It was not unheard of for a male to leave one mating troop for another, but it was frowned upon. Especially if he had fathered younglings. Still Titiue wondered what it would be like to be a member of Fiona's troop. Surely she was the senior member. He could only imagine the amount of respect she must have.

"Titiue! Ulene is teasing Nolene again!" Nukene scolded.

He hopped to his feet and quickly ran to the children. He grabbed Ulene by the scruff and dangled him. "Ulene is there is a reason you are pulling hairs out of Nolene's tail again?"

Eyes wide, Ulene shook his head no. "It just seemed to be kind of fun."

Titiue brought Ulene around eye to eye and cocked his head to the side. "Really?" Titiue selected one of Ulene's longest strands of tail fur. He plucked it rapidly.

"Ouch!"

"How fun was that?" Titiue asked.

"Not…"

Titiue put Ulene down on his feet, "Don't do it anymore!" Ulene nodded and scampered off. Fiona made an odd breathy chuffing sound. He ran to her aid, "What do you need?"

Fiona made that ugly grimace at him that she had said meant she was happy. This alien was ridiculously confusing. "I'm fine Titiue. You don't have to be at my beck and call."

He stared at her confused. She was a female, of course he was at his service. Especially since she was obviously badly hurt. "You are female."

She raised an eye tuft at him, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Titiue sighed, "You are fully mature. You deserve all of my respect and service."

"I don't understand. What does that mean? You are fully mature aren't you?"

Titiue cocked his ears in amusement, "No, I am male. I haven't matured into a female yet…"

"You mature into females?"

"Didn't you?"

"I was born female," Fiona stated slowly.

"That's possible?"

"For my kind it is. We are born either male or female and for the most part we stay that way. Some do change because their experiences and physical form do not match at birth but they are in the minority."

Titiue rocked back onto his heels. This blew his mind. "How do you know who to defer to?"

"We each have our own talents and abilities. When it comes to any given situation we tend to work together but everyone is usually willing to defer to the person with the most experience in a given situation. We have four main leaders. Mae Amante who is chief of our private territories within the Preserve. Then there is Brenda Bench who is the chief responcibile for directing our people outside of the Preserve. Illoa Peterson is the chief of medical services, our healers. Our most recently appointed chief is Puck Bench she is a healing hound and she speaks for all the peoples of the Preserve that don't share my body type. She is who you would look to for help."

"Are there many people in your Preserve?"

"Yes, far more types of people than there are people in your troop, and we have many times many of each type of people. I am actually a new resident of the Preserve. I have only been here about six or seven months."

"We are now in the Preserve too? How did that happen? We noticed the night time stars changed after you arrived."

"I don't know how you ended up here, but yes, you are now in the Preserve."

"You look thirsty! Let me go fetch you some water…"

Fiona held up the bottle the metal creature had brought her. It was filled with a reddish fluid.

"What is that?"

"Water with a cherry flavor concentrate in it."

"What is a cherry?"

Fiona opened her mouth and closed it without making words, "It is a red fruit with a pit in it. If you want I could bring you one, when I am better enough to teleport."

"Teleport?"

"Jump through holes in space between one place and another."

"That sounds intriguing I wish I could see where you come from."

"Maybe you could come back to Sanctuary with me… I am sure all the chiefs would be very interested in you."

Titiue fluffed up his tail. It would be very much his honor to meet the leaders of Fiona's troop. The idea that they would show an interest in him inflated his ego further. "Perhaps I will…"


* * *

Tyrulan knew his days under Mira Black were numbered. She had begun to notice a lot of inexplicable failures and disconnected losses. He wouldn't be able to conceal that he was the common denominator of all the difficulty for much longer. Mira was of an especially suspicious mood at the moment. All of her minions were walking on glass around her. Several of Tyrulan's fellow minions had been killed because he had subtly placed the fault on them. The irony of it was that several of them were becoming suspicious of him.

"Damn it!" Another creche has been cleared of all the youngest of our younglings!" Mira flung her tablet into the wall of the rented apartment on Tradehub. Tyrulan stepped out of the projectile's path barely missing being the impact site.

"Mistress, I know that this plan on Tradehub is your pet project, but perhaps you should investigate the creche thefts personally?"

Mira eyed him angrily, "Perhaps I should send someone else!"

"I know I am not important to any of your missions Mistress. Perhaps I could go an investigate for you?"

She breathed deeply several times. Tyrulan could feel her attempting to hold back her rage. He sensed her repeating, "It isn't his fault." In her mind.

Tyrulan dipped his head and took up a submissive posture. He buried his surprise, and sense of pleasure at her reaction. She still clearly trusted him. His ability to lie to her face had become almost seamless. He was aware of every time her thoughts brushed over his. It served as a warning to bring loyal thoughts to the surface. He knew that the defection of her favorite hellhound minion had left Mira feeling uncertain of all of her minions, but apparently that mistrust did not extend to him.

"Yes, go! Investigate how the factors found our creches and had the ability to make off with so many of our vulnerable youth. But get back here as quickly as you can! I do not trust Morrel to keep this mission running smoothly!"

"Of course mistress! Which creche has been raided?

Mira held up her empty hand and a new tablet appeared in it. She passed the tablet to Tyrulan. "Here is all the information on the thefts. The trail on the last one would be warmest. Go there and investigate. When you return we will discuss harvesting the young from the ruphruph. They will have to be modified but we must make up the losses."

"Of course mistress!" Tyrulan tapped through the tablet. The first creche that was raided had been the one he had given the coordinates of to the factor. The MO on the next four matched the first one and Tyrulan wondered how the factor had gotten the coordinates on them. It didn't matter. Tyrulan focused on the last location and teleported there. When he arrived a proximity alarm went off and several of the human staff members quickly had him surrounded, as was supposed to happen.

There was no way just any factor could have gotten past it. Tyrulan was sure that the indetectable factor from the kennel was responcible. "Do you run intruder drills on a regular basis?"

The human minders took a step back and took up a more relaxed position. "Yes, sir!"

"How did someone manage to not only access this creche but nearly clear it out?"

"We don't know sir!" We have checked our systems. There wasn't so much as an out of place mosquito!"

"I should hope not you fool! Mosquitos are not native to this planet and we are twenty feet below the surface!" Tyrulan rolled around in his mind the next thing a loyal servant of Mira would ask or say. "It seems to me that the only way someone could have entered indetectably and removed the majority of your charges is if one of you fools is defying the mistress and conspiring with her enemies!"

"No! Sir we would never!" Tyrulan recognized the man as the one in charge of this creche.

"Perhaps I should question each of you individually," Tyrulan put enough telepathic pressure on each of them that they could feel him in their minds.

"Alright! I admit it! I turned off the cameras in the nursery. I just didn't want to be seen touching the children!" One of the younger men in lighter colored uniform confessed.

"You molested our Mistress's future warriors!" Tyrulan yelled. He doubted if he weren't here for a security breach that the man would suffer any punishment for the behavior. "Submit yourself to the mistress for correction. Perhaps if you explain your actions she will be merciful." Tyrulan used his portal gun to open a portal to Tradehub and Mira's temporary throne room. T

he man fell to his knees and grabbed at Tyrulan's legs. "Mercy! Please! I have urges!"

Tyrulan kicked the man off of his legs, "Go face Mira and beg her for mercy!" the man reluctantly crawled on his knees through the portal.

"Now, I will need to see your computer records and whatever video you do have." Tyrulan would find and make note of the coordinates of any other creches in the database, one never knew when he might meet a factor to pass them on to.


* * *

Raen stepped up to the front door of the Baerd guild offices. The security guard on duty was new. He held a hand out stopping Raen from entering. “Miss, these are official Baerd guild offices.”

Raen cocked her head to the side and just looked at him, then she remembered she had left her messenger bag bearing her affiliation pins and patches back at the boarding house. It was her day off and she wanted to just be unencumbered by the tools of her trade. “I am a registered independent courier of this and twelve other guilds.”

“Miss, I can’t let you in without a Baerd insignia,” The young man stated his voice cracked on insignia. Raen sighed he wasn’t much older than she was. No doubt he had fought his way up into this job from the streets much as she had. She couldn’t fault him for following the letter of his job.

“Call, Captain Walters, he’ll vouch.”

“I haven’t been issued a com unit, and I can’t leave my post. So if you’ll move along…”

Raen sighed, that was when luck shone on her side. Ferguson, the woman who had been her mentor when she was learning to be a courier came out the door. “Raen! How are you doing?”

“Ms. Ferguson, you know this woman?” The young man asked.

Ferguson nodded, “This is Raen Davis.”

"The Raen Davis?”

“Yeah,” Raen blushed. This was going to be uncomfortable.

"You saved Jayden Baerd from a silver striped viper? And tracked the missing shipment of Olivery gems? I heard you used to work for Honor Baggood before he made guild master and he wanted to indoctrinate you into the Apothecary Guild. You came up from the streets too!” The guard grasped Raen’s hand and began pumping it like a city courtesy water pump handle.

Raen sighed when he finally released her hand, “So can I go in?”

“Of course Ms. Davis,” He said.

Raen rolled her head on her shoulders and looked up at the roof of the building three stories above. Then she stepped inside. The atrium was well lit by clerestory windows. It felt open and bright thanks to marble floors and landscape frescoes. To her right was a small cafeteria counter and some tables where guildmembers sat eating on their breaks. To the left were the banking counter and a lounge area where informal meetings were held. Straight ahead was the long wall with archways leading deeper into the building. Between the archways was Raen’s goal. Six-foot-high bulletin boards held notices for side jobs, other guilds offering affiliations, and bounty notices.

Raen stepped up to the first bulletin board. She scanned the notices, nothing paid well enough to justify her spending time on it. Several dangerous snakes were loose in the city but she had tired of that gig. What she really wanted was a challenge or something that gave her a sense of accomplishment.

Scanning the next bulletin board, Raen found her target. It was a notice about the mysterious deaths and disappearances of the homeless of the city, most notably children. This was a puzzle and a challenge. It offered several thousand chits for information on what exactly was happening. According to the notice, a large number of badly decomposed corpses had been discovered in the alleyways and subterranean catacombs of the city. The reward was being offered for more information, information was easy for Raen to get. Raen memorized the contact information. None of the other bulletins captured her interest. Raen turned to leave and was spotted by a group of apprentice couriers. She knew this, even though she faced the opposite direction, from their excited squeals and rapid footfalls in her direction.

“Raen! Raen! Can you check my log?” The three kids all shouted in her direction at once.

Raen grimaced, as a fully accredited journeyman courier, one of her duties was to check the logs of lower-ranked guild members. As a highly recognizable face, she had checked a lot of logs. Raen accepted the stack of books and began flipping through log entries for accuracy and detail. The fact was that none of these kids had many unsupervised entries on the books. This was probably one of their first days off. Raen held out a hand and accepted a pen. She used it to inscribe her name, the date, and her membership number in the “inspected by” section. She gave all the kids an easy pass, though one of them had handwriting verging on illegible.

That kid was probably still fairly new to literacy. Raen reflected on her own training. She had always known how to read and write but her skill set had some glaring holes. She had been inept with eating utensils at first. History and geographical studies had been similarly difficult. That said, she was a quick learner. She had the tangled web of streets, highways, and alleys of Marketown memorized within months. It was the biggest and busiest city on Tradehub. The spaceport itself was the size of the next largest city all on its own, and she knew every terminal and hanger of that complex by heart as well.

She returned the logbooks and the pen. The couriers squealed again and trotted off to a corner to compare inscriptions. Raen chuckled to herself. She headed out of the building. As she passed the security guard he gave her the guild salute. Something told her he wished he had a logbook for her to sign too.

From the guild complex, Raen went to one of the poorer quarters of the city. It was near the center of the Apothecary Guild neighborhood and for at least five years of her childhood, it had been her home. She knew the places the street kids hung out, and they knew her on sight. On the way, she bought a dozen nutrient loaves from the Sisters of Charity and a small bag of candy from her favorite sweet shop.

She reached the corner that was ultimately the turning point of her life, where one of her fellow pack members was nearly bitten by a snake. Raen had caught the snake mid-strike and the attention of then journeyman apothecary, Honor Bagood. That moment carried her from street urchin to a fully accredited and affiliated independent courier well on her way to starting her own business. The money from the reward would go straight into her fund to purchase a license to run a business or guild. Her prospective employees were the street kids of this city.

“Raen?” The familiar voice of Fred Fox caught Raen’s attention.

Fred had taken her into his pack of stray children when they were both younger. That pack had eventually evaporated as members gained either gainful employment or criminal records. Some of those kids had even been stolen in the night and sold into the off-world slave trade.

“Fred!” Raen reached out and embraced him. They became entangled in Raen’s shopping bags. After an awkward moment they separated, “Still shepherding the little ones?”

Fred smiled and gestured at a group of particularly young kids. Beckoning them over to meet Raen, “Yes, these are some of the newest members of the pack. Kids, this is Raen Davis. She’s one of the good people you can trust.”

Raen smiled and began handing out chunks of nutrient loaves and candy, “Hey, have any of you heard about something happening to the street kids? You know, them disappearing, or being hurt.”

One of the oldest girls nodded at Raen with wide-eyed hero worship, “It comes in the night! When it is darkest. I have heard you don’t see anything. That all you hear is the sound of claws on cobblestone. If you don’t run, you’re monster food. Sometimes running doesn’t help. Some kids have split up to run away. The ones that go one way get away, the ones that run the other…”

Raen handed the girl another piece of candy. She turned to Fred, “What have you heard?”

Fred frowned, he lowered his voice and leaned in close to Raen, “I have heard there is someone or something stalking the kids, and some of the homeless adults. It has been moving from neighborhood to neighborhood. I think there is a pattern to the madness. I am worried that this neighborhood will be its next target. Can you meet me at our old camp at dark? Maybe we can protect some of these kids.”

Raen eyed him seriously, “I’ll see you tonight. I’ll bring the flashlights.”


* * *

Beaoul walked the streets invisible to all. She chose to hide her fear-inspiring form from them all, doubting the locals would take well to a full-grown hellhound stalking their midst well. The city seemed to be gearing up for some kind of holiday. Shopkeepers draped diaphanous fabric around their displays. She wondered if this was the Christmas that put her former mistress Mira Black into such a dark and murderous mood. The light powdery snow flakes that dusted down occasionally from the clouds indicated that this was what passed for winter on this world. The only bells she heard were the ones on the doorways of the shops that let the keepers know they had customers. What were the other call signs of the mysterious holiday? Bows, gift boxes, evergreen trees decked in garlands and balls? None of those things seemed particularly celebratory of the ancient birth of a child-prophet-king. None of those merry things were present either. That probably meant this was some other holiday native to this colonial world.

Over the last several days the streets had taken on an opulent shine that hadn't been present when Beaoul first arrived in the city. If not Christmas, perhaps they were about to celebrate some kind of feast of thanksgiving. She knew that they were common on many worlds and in many countries. All of these festive celebratory feelings contrasted with how Beaoul spent her nights.

Shame and depression stalked Beaoul even though she knew she had few other choices to make. If she didn't end the lives of the children and street people mercifully with her claws in their sleep, then they would wake up to begin spreading the plague of all plagues through the alleyways and onto the streets of this city. Mira's operatives were relentless in their attempts to infect the lowliest of the people of this world in an attempt to follow the usual patterns of infection. Beaoul knew all too well that this plague was of artificial origins, even though she couldn't trace them to the initial infectious agent.

Mira had taken some kind of pathogen and modified it to her own ends.

Truth be told, Beaoul was exhausted. She stalked the alleys all night searching out the scent made by the initial infection so she could stop it short. Then she scented the air of the streets all day searching for infections she had missed. So far she hadn't sensed any during the day. She couldn't continue on like this for much longer. She also knew her efforts were futile, Mira's army was vast and Beaoul was just one rogue hellhound. Though she bore a supernatural name, she was very much a mortal being. She felt ashamed that more than one of the people she had spared ended up fueling her continued campaign.

Last night had gone badly, she had only managed to end the lives of half the infected before they awoke. She had been forced to hunt down the rest by the scent of infection upon them. She did it as quickly and painlessly as she could but their suffering had been greater than if she had caught them in their sleep. Rumor's had begun to spread, of a monster killer in the night, taking with random abandon the lives of street children. Beaoul heard the rumors whispered among the poor and felt shame all the more.

In her time as Mira Black's lapdog, Beaoul had done little killing more than a few rabbits. It took her rebelling against the queen of darkness for Beaoul to become a murderer. People around her whistled festive tunes, and their smiles beamed from one person to the next. Beaoul had no one to share her dark mood with. She thought about finding the nearest door and inserting the opalescent key that hung around her neck. It unlocked a portal to a living pocket universe, Toni. It was her only friend and the only entity that might be able to console her. The thing that stopped her was the idea that Toni might not concur with her solution.

"May the founders bless you!" A man on the corner said by way of greeting. What drew Beaoul's attention to him was the man he greeted. The nearly furry man wore dark gray and had the unmistakable stench of The Dark Compound clinging to him. Beaoul almost missed him. Her fatigue was beginning to be a liability.

"Shove off!" The dark operative snarled at the festive greeter. The greeter harumphed away.

The dark operative continued on a purposeful course. Beaoul followed. Her invisibility was a benefit, except that crowds couldn't see her to part for her to pass through. She had to nudge her way carefully through a crowd of revelers, another handicap to this was a single wound from her claws or teeth caused a horrible death. She walked on the balls of her feet with her claws retracted as far as they would go and her lips tight over her fangs. The object of her pursuit sped up and Beaoul was becoming overheated and out of breath with her mouth closed. The cool temperature didn't matter she was practically trotting after him.

Finally, the man stopped in front of an ornate hotel. The signs around the door implied the hotel catered to the most discriminating of the off-world wealthy. Beaoul followed him in, careful not to let the doors close in front of her. She had to follow so closely that she was almost touching him. He stepped into an elevator and used a key card to unlock a suite that took up an entire floor. She made it into the elevator just as the door closed, her tail almost caught in the door. The ride up to the suite was quick.

The moment the elevator reached the floor, Beaoul recognized a scent that set her hackles on edge. Mira Black was in the suite. Mira was the only entity Beaoul knew of that could sense a camouflaged hellhound other than another hellhound. Being here risked everything, Beaoul's freedom, her mission to stop Mira's plot against this world, and Beaoul's life. Beaoul followed the man from the elevator but went no deeper into the suite than the entrance foyer. She listened carefully.

"Doug, what have you discovered?" Mira's voice was unmistakable.

"Mistress, what I have gathered from the street rats is that some invisible monster is killing 'randomly' among their number. My investigations indicate that the randomness is far from that. The only ones dying are confirmed to be infected individuals. Something out there seems to be interfering."

"Interfering? How is there anything out there with enough knowledge to interfere?"

"Mistress, I do not wish to invoke your wrath, but I believe the clue is in the description, invisible monster…"

"Beaoul!" Beaoul flinched back towards the elevator at the way Mira snarled her name.

"That would be my conclusion mistress."

Silence fell, Beaoul could hear the minion and her ex-mistress breathing, but little else.

"Our ad for information is pointless. Beaoul will not let anyone walk away alive with information on her."

"We could set a trap…"

"She has a portal key, she doesn't even need a doorway to escape us. Let me think about this for a time. Double up on infections. At some point, she will be overwhelmed by numbers."

"Yes, mistress."

Beaoul heard footsteps. She chose not to wait for Mira to find her and used her key in the lock on the coat closet. The portal opened and she rushed through to safety before anyone reached her. Engulfed in the infinite whiteness of a Middle of Everywhen entity, Beaoul called out to the sentient plain of existence. "Toni! Mira is definitely trying to wipe out the population of Tradehub."

That is less than beneficial. How do we stop her? Toni's mental touch communicated to Beaoul.

"I don't know. I was doing everything I could to prevent the infection, but I am so tired. She is about to step up her efforts," she answered aloud. She knew that in her exhaustion she couldn't hold back the memories of what she had to do. Toni knew by now what those efforts had been.

Oh, poor child, do not feel bad. Their lives were most likely taken the moment they were infected. You spared them what Seyona went through. I don't think I could have come up with a better idea. Perhaps we could have contained the infected here, but they would have died just as surely, and more painfully. Toni reassured her. Lay down Beaoul. Rest! I will get you back to that world at the same moment you left it. Though perhaps in a more advantageous location.

Beaoul lowered herself to her belly laying her head on her paws. The bright white surrounding her was a comfort and she practically passed out she fell asleep so quickly. The last thought on her mind before she lost consciousness was that they had to find a way to stop Mira.