Our second strategic meeting was a lot grimmer than the first one. Hannah, Tom, the whore and I sat around a secret table, discussing how fucked we were. And we were fucked.

“Ten out of ten. It is nearly impossible within four months to achieve everything you set out for us, Lucinda.” Tom claimed rightfully so.

“I know. We need to skip a few parts. Do you have the mimicry?” It would be riskier this way, but at least none of the risk would fall upon the children at the orphanage.

“Depends on how much money you want to spend on it.” He stated while frowning.

“Yes.” Rolling his eyes, he nodded and I went on with my explanation. “Shortening everything from eight months to potentially three months means building a house of cards that will fall down if there is just a little bit of wind.”

“And what happens in a storm?” Hannah asked, which was a valid point. I fucked up my last plan after all.

“We build faster than gravity can pull us down.” I claimed. In reality, we simply didn´t have another choice but to hope for smooth sailing.

“So … four months, huh?” Tom asked, already thinking about the implications.

“Three. Do you have planned your betrayal?” I asked. I would give him what he wanted, most importantly because I still had the issue with my vanishing memories and he could provide a good way to find out anything. What I didn’t need though was a betrayal.

“Hmm … I´m not so sure I want to reveal anything.” He said while looking at me strangely.

“Scrap all of that. We need the money you embezzled for it. I´ll turn you into a vampire free of charge. Am I not nice?” I was always nice, especially when I would profit from something as well.

“Hmm … I guess so?” That didn´t sound very convincing. Well, neither was turning him into a vampire a sudden altruistic decision I made.

“We have three months. It will take a week to turn you into a ghoul, and three more to turn you into a vampire.” I stated.

“Three months … that’s impossible.” Tom muttered, holding his head in frustration.

“The ‘P’ in Lucinda stands for ‘Makes everything possible’ “ I chuckled, even though I failed to convince the others.

“You don’t sound very convinced yourself.” The whore stated. As usual, she was a bit too good with others and could read my emotions somewhat … which wasn’t that hard in that situation.

“It all depends on how fast we can act. We need to skip a lot of steps that would bring us security, but we don’t have the time for that anymore. Do you still have the full plan I showed you?” I asked Tom.

“Naturally.” He nodded and frowned slightly as this plan was intended to play out over a longer timeframe.

“Shorten it. Throw everything not strictly necessary out of it. We need to focus on the crucial things. Bribing the guards is your highest priority now. Whore, I know you can barely read and such, but you will need to bring as many criminals on our side as possible. Focus on the Tasarov clan and the D’Antonio crime family. Don’t mess it up.” I said and tapped the table nervously.

“We won’t.” Tom said, but I wasn’t so sure about that.

“Just like you didn´t mess up protecting the orphanage …” I said and looked at him angrily.

“… she was working at a day job. I cannot protect four hundred children with the few men we are training.” I understood that as well, which was coincidentally the only reason he was still alive. Realistically, I gave him an impossible task with the resources we had, but it still angered me nonetheless.

“No more mistakes.” He said to which I could only nod reluctantly. If he was so sure he wouldn’t mess anything up, then I would kindly remind him of his words once he made a mistake.

“I need the list.” I stated, already somewhere else with my thoughts again.

“The list?” He asked.

“Yes, the list.” I said indignantly.

“Which one of the lists we have?” He asked, as if that really mattered.

“Just give me the two relevant ones.” I said and looked towards Hannah. “Hannah, I don’t want to ask that of you, but you need to do something for me.”

“And what is that?” She gulped loudly, but didn´t seem to hesitate too much.

“I need you to murder innocent citizens.” I stated slowly and observed her reaction. She breathed in sharply and looked away for a bit, but then turned back towards me.

“How many?” My maid asked, gripping the table tightly. She still wasn’t ready yet.

“Hundreds.” I could see the conflict in her eyes as she struggled to take a clear position. “Okay, you will only need to murder the crimi-“ I said, ready to work myself to death because I didn´t want to force her. In all honesty, I just wanted to see her reaction to my demand as she wasn’t that good with her dagger yet and thus couldn’t help me out with my tasks.

“I´ll do it.” She said, closing her eyes bitterly.

“Are you sure?” I asked slowly.

“Yes. Where is the difference if I or you do it?” Well, her hands wouldn’t drip from the blood of innocents. They would remain clean … sort of.

“Hmm … I see. Tom, I need daily reports about our information collecting activities of the vault, the bribery and how far we undermined the other criminal groups.” I stated and stood up. Hannah followed me immediately afterwards and walked around the table to stand by my side while I stood in place.

“As you wish.” He said after taking a few notes on a piece of paper.

“You know what to do with the money we have left over?” I asked, completely unnecessarily. If he wouldn’t know this, I would have seriously misjudged him.

“Thow it at the peasants.” Smiling wryly, I turned around and waved towards the whore and Tom while I left the room, Hannah in tow. As we arrived late during the night, the only option we had was to take the carriage back towards the mansion through the gates which we promptly did.

It took us a mere twenty minutes for us to arrive at a strangely deserted mansion. The forest looked the same, the mansion was still devoid of most maids during the night and only a few guards strolled around. Thus far, it seemed almost normal.

But the mansion missed this familiar feeling of being at home as I strolled into the foyer, followed by Hannah and the head butler. Mary wasn’t there. She was in the east, inspeciting the duchy and taking care that the north stayed put.

“We are so glad to see you again, Lady White.” The butler said as strode further into the dark building.

“I am glad to be at home as well.” I said, smiling brightly.

“We heard … we heard terrible news about your trip wh-“ He began, but I interrupted him as I knew exactly where this would lead.

“I do not wish to talk about these unfortunate events. It is better if we concentrate on the future instead.” I said with a trembling voice.

“Wise words.” Were they? I couldn’t really say nor did I have to. I didn’t have any other choice but to concentrate on my future.

“Mr Astian, I wish for this place to be completely deserted during the night. No guards, no maids, nothing. I don’t want to be interrupted in my meditations. But please, place every letter on Mary´s desk, as unimportant as it may be. I am acting as the representative of the White family in her absence.” I stated and strolled up the stairs to the first floor.

“I understand.” He said and bowed behind me. Naturally, I put up my usual fake smile, turned around and curtsied as well, which seemed to work wonders each time I did it. Nobody else was doing it to servants after all.

It was only a matter of minutes until I sat in Mary´s chair, my glasses on my nose and reading through the letters we received since Mary went back into the east and I left for that damned unicorn.

As I read the letter of a subsidiary noble, Hannah was summarizing the contents of a few other letters for me. She still struggled with reading a bit and was way slower than me, but it was still more than I could ask for.

“An invitation to a tea party.” Hannah said drily, probably already knowing what I would answer.

“Trash.” Or firewood … but saying trash was shorter.

“A major of a nearby city wants you to hold a speech in a month.” Hannah declared, holding up a red envelope. At first, I thought it was one of Tom´s tricks to avoid surveillance, but he wouldn´t use such a boring pretext for sending me an encoded letter, especially because we just met.

“Trash.”

“Someone wants to sell jewellery to us … trash. Another tea party, this time by a viscountess.” She said.

“Trash.”

“An invitation to the birthday party of the second prince.” She stated while reading the contents of a gold crested letter.

“Tra- When?” I said, stumbling over my words as I didn´t expect that.

“In exactly two weeks. The letter arrived four days ago.” One day. Could I spare one day and night? Ruffing my head, I nodded and looked up towards Hannah.

“I need a seamstress.” I said.

“Noted. Going on, Mary sent a letter that it will take a little while longer.” She was due to come back in two weeks … apparently, I needed to do one more step myself.

“Put that on the read later pile.”

“Anonymous death threats … trash. Some holy fanatic trying to meet you.” They never stopped, would they? How often did I need to reply with ‘I don’t have the time to deal with you’ ?

“Trash. Ignore all the messages by bishops or lower. If the Popes want something from me, they can write a goddamn letter themselves.” Naturally, someone would need to answer these letters nonetheless, but it wasn’t me or Hannah who would be doing that.

“Mr Schlaumeier wants to resume your lessons as soon as you are back.” Sighing, I picked up an empty piece of paper and wrote down that I won´t be able to attend these lessons shortly. I signed it and then handed it over to Hannah who did the rest necessarily. Shortly afterwards, I went through the detailed intelligence report Tom prepared for me in my absence. And it was detailed.

Very detailed.