"Infiltrating the City Hall is not that hard." Manohar shrugged. "You just have to get in during the day when the arrays are down, jam the lock so that the arrays don't trigger, and hide inside an empty room. Then you wait for people to leave, do what you have to, and get out in the morning."
"What about the guards? You can't just walk inside the City Hall unnoticed." Orion pointed out.
"You can, if you have the right face. I have done- I mean, it's one of the reasons I understood that I was dealing with a shapeshifter." Manohar saved himself at the last minute.
"Let me ask you one thing." Orion said. "You don't seem the kind of guy who asks for help nor did you want Jirni here. Then how did I get this job?"
"You are right. I don't need help and I never fail." Manohar said, puffing his chest out with pride.
"That's not what I-"
"I had the perfect plan to find our culprit before your arrival and I even got the Royal Permission to experiment on them and on their accomplices as much as I want after making them talk." Manohar cut him short.
"I'm not great at interrogating people, but usually it's enough to start from my experiments and the talking comes naturally."
"Then why am I here?" Orion asked.
"Well, let's say that usually a lot of my test subjects- I mean prisoners die from unexpected complications. The Crown wanted to make sure that this time I would follow their precious orders so they called your daughter."
"Phloria? Why not Jirni? She's the one they send to make you behave."
"Because they wanted the Beanpole to do something useful for once and drag you out of your slump. They knew that if they called Jirni you wouldn't have come. They are afraid that you're slipping."
"So I'm your babysitter and she's mine?" Orion was flabbergasted.
"Yes, Dad." Phloria nodded. "The Royals wanted me on a mission and I thought that this was the perfect occasion to make you meet Mom and maybe settle things between the two of you.
"I'm not asking you to forgive her, just to put this story behind you before it eats you alive. Lucky told me about your drinking problem and how it's affecting your career."
"Damn furball." Orion was angry at the Ry and moved by the concern that his daughters were showing him. "I promise you that I'll talk with your mother, okay?"
"That's unfair, dude!" Manohar said in outrage. "Maybe I shouldn't have spiked your drinks, but I made up for that by being honest with you. There's no reason to call my mother."
"He meant mine." Phloria said, making the god of healing sigh in relief.
"Wait, what do you mean, drinks? As in more than one?" Orion had wondered why that morning he didn't feel rested and his mouth tasted like trash.
Then he remembered the weird taste of his evening tea and that the staff of his hotel had complained about a wild animal making a mess of the kitchen dumpster.
"First of all, let's all remain calm, appreciate the fact that nothing bad happened, and remember that I'm certified insane." Manohar said as if it explained everything.
"You son of a…" Orion tried to assault him, but a powerful hard-light construct and Phloria stopped him.
Meanwhile, it was almost time for Jirni's appointment with the City Lord.
He lived in the high end of the city and his house was so big that it took an entire city block. The mansion was surrounded by a wonderful park filled with tall trees that welcomed the guests of the Marquis.
Topiary beasts and high flower beds formed green walls around the mansion, giving it color while also hiding everything that happened inside the City Lord's office on the ground floor from prying eyes.
There was only one place high and close enough for Friya and Quylla to do their job, the bell tower of the nearby Royal Library. The problem was that to gain access it was necessary to show an ID.
The girls couldn't use their own without leaving a trace that would immediately alert Marquis Beilin and no fake ID that Friya had from her days as a mercenary would pass a thorough examination.
To make matters worse, unlike Friya, Quylla's presence in Ruham was known since she had accompanied Jirni and the moment she showed her face, people would recognize her.
She wore simple clothes and covered her head with a hood that she would have been forced to remove when the guards checked her documents, exposing her real identity.
It was the reason why Friya wore a shirt instead of her usual loose blouse.
"Is everything alright, officers?" She asked after the two men at the entrance ignored the papers in her hand for a few seconds, focusing on her shapely bosom instead.
The first three buttons were undone, showing a great deal of cleavage that drew their eyes, no matter how hard they tried to focus. Friya had the care to take deep breaths, making her chest press against the thin fabric of the shirt and giving the illusion that the rest of the buttons would pop any second.
"Yes. Your breasts are in order." The guard on the left, a middle-aged man with brown hair, eyes, and mustaches said.
"I beg your pardon?" Friya was waiting for the moment to play the righteous outrage card and that slip of the tongue qualified.
"My colleague meant that your papers are breastfect." His colleague, a man in his early thirties with dark hair and a perfectly shaven face, tried to save the situation, actually making it worse.
"I demand to speak with your commanding officer! This is no way to treat a lady." She hid her cleavage with her hand, making their brains start working again.
"There's no need to go that far! Please, accept our humblest apologies and enjoy your stay in the Royal Library." They gave her such a deep bow that the plumes of their helmets touched the ground.
Friya marched inside, making Quylla slip inside unnoticed as well.
"Good gods, how is that possible?" She asked once they reached their destination.
"It's not that hard." Friya shrugged. "One button is enough to distract teens, two for young men, three when I want to play it safe."
"No, I meant how is it possible that you have no problem doing stuff like that. I would have died of embarrassment in your place." Quylla said.
"Are you kidding me? I saw you at the galas. You had your fair share of men talking to your cleavage all night. You should be used to it at this point."
"That's why I don't date any of them! They are creeps."
"I agree. It's the same reason I usually dress like a monk, but sometimes creeps have their usefulness. Now shut up, Mom has arrived." Friya used a binocular to look inside the City Lord's office and to find the dimensional coordinates of a spot that would allow them to listen to the conversation with Spirit magic.
Marquis Hassar Beilin was a man in his early fifties, about 1.63 meters (5'3") tall, with thick black hair streaked grey and a finely groomed short beard.. It hid his age lines except those around his eyes, also giving him a wise appearance.
"I have already found the perfect opportunity, but I need to work with a commanding officer I can trust. You." Phloria said while looking at him straight in the eyes.
"I'm so proud of you, my little Flower. It will be an honor for me to help you defend our country and our household." Orion was overjoyed at the idea of working with his daughter.
Phloria had worked hard every day since she was six years old to become a Mage Knight good enough to join the Knight's Guard and work with her old man. She had given up on everything to pursue that dream, only for it to be crushed by Deirus' schemes.
Orion hoped that the mission would give Phloria the opportunity to reconsider her decision of quitting the army and to him a way to spend some time with his family without having to think about Jirni.
***
Valeron, Royal Constable's Headquarters. At the same time.
After staging Quylla's death and being served divorce papers, it had taken a short while for Lady Ernas to go back to her usual self.
Or at least to pretend to.
Under her impeccable manners, her perfect hair, and pristine uniform Jirni was still as shocked as the day Orion had kicked her out of their house. She had built her whole life around the family she had raised and without it, there was only a void inside of her.
She had thought of countless schemes that would give her old life back to her. Yet they were all based on deception and manipulation. Those schemes would give her what she wanted but not the way she wanted it.
The love and trust of her family would hang by a web of lies that if discovered, would cost her everything and this time for good.
Her mood was terrible, but aside from those unlucky enough to end up with her inside an interrogation room, no one had noticed it. Jirni's spirit may have been bent, but her discipline was as adamant as always.
She had stopped drinking a week before going back to work and she hadn't touched a drop ever since. Whenever she felt the need to drink or to hit someone, she hit the gym instead.
Yet she refused to be called with her maiden's name, Myrok, until the divorce was officially concluded.
Archon Jirni Ernas was a petite woman, barely 1.52 cm (5') tall. She was wearing her dark blue military uniform that emphasized blonde hair that extended mid-way down her back and her sapphire blue eyes.
She was in her early forties, but thanks to Manohar's rejuvenation and good genes it was hard to think her a day past thirty. Her hair was perfectly curled, framing her face like she had been taken out of a painting and giving her the allure of a mature yet youthful woman.
Many had mistaken her lovely appearance for her real self and most of them had died for it.
"What's next on the agenda, Captain Yehval?" Due to her role as Archon and the crises affecting the Kingdom, Jirni was forced to spend most of her time in the office instead of on the field.
She supervised the work of the other Royal Constables, helping them to follow their leads or to find new ones when they were slumped in a case.
"Next you have lunch, sir." Kamila replied. "I already filled your morning report and revised for you those that were still on your desk while you debriefed the Royals about the famine investigation."
She was a woman in her late twenties, about 1.74 meters (5'9") tall with long black hair held up in a ponytail and almond shaped brown eyes. Before her break up with Lith she had a slender figure that made her deep-blue Constable uniform look a bit loose.
Yet now she hit the gym with Jirni so often that her clothes had become tight fitting.
"You are a gift from the gods, Kamila." Lady Ernas said after making sure that they were alone. "I don't mind the paperwork but these days it's all I do. If I keep being stuck inside this office for one more week, I'll escape like a Manohar just to feel the thrill of the chase again."
"If that's how you feel, then you are going to like your next scheduled meeting." Kamila said.
"Didn't you just say that I'm free for lunch?" Jirni was about to question Kamila more when she opened the door of the office, letting their guest in.
"I'm your next appointment. I hope that you don't mind having lunch with me, Mom." Quylla said. "Please, don't get angry with Kamila. I asked her to surprise you and she had to jump through several loops to buy us a few hours."
After not seeing nor hearing from her daughter for months, the sight of her smile made Jirni's heart skip a beat. Quylla wasn't angry at her, quite the contrary she seemed genuinely happy.
Jirni felt her eyes become watery but she suppressed it before anyone could notice.
"I'd love to have lunch with you." She offered Quylla her hand but she walked past it and hugged Jirni instead.
"I missed you, Mom. We all did."
Jirni froze up for a second before finding the strength to return the embrace without her voice cracking.
"Thank you for this magnificent present, Kamila. Lith was an asshole for keeping secrets with you. He doesn't deserve someone as special as you."
'I guess Jirni/Mom must be out of her mind from joy to say such a thing since she did exactly the same thing.' Quylla and Kamila thought in unison.
Quylla brought Jirni to the Griffon Peak, one of the best restaurants in Valeron. It was located atop one of the highest buildings of the city and it was famous both for the food and its panoramic veranda.
Jirni couldn't talk about her work just like Quylla couldn't tell her about Faluel's lessons and her studies to become an Awakened despite her violet mana core. Yet they had so much to say to each other that by the end of the lunch they had barely scraped the surface.
"I'm glad to hear that you and your sisters are alright." After calming down, Jirni had noticed that something was off with Quylla, but she didn't mention it to not ruin the moment.
"Well, it would be strange otherwise. Phloria trains all day, Friya is under the roof of a huge-ass Phoenix, and Dad freaks out the moment I try to step out of the protective arrays of house Ernas." Quylla sighed.
"What about your second date with that Moron Eari?" Jirni inhaled sharply while pronouncing that name wrong on purpose, to make the ex-Ranger sound as dumb as he looked.
"It's Morok, Mom." Quylla chuckled. "And it went well, thank you. So did the third and the fourth."
"The fourth?" Jirni tried to sound casual, yet her voice came out as a death rattle at the thought of what that number might imply.
"With you gone and Dad out of the house, I just asked Morok to come over. The Ernas Mansion is so big that even I don't know most of it. We explored it together during our dates.." Quylla said.
