Van, Azra, and Astrid followed Lucia to see where she was going. It was already getting a little long in the day, but they didn’t think that it would take much time to know where she was going.

But they couldn’t be more wrong…

Lucia seemed to be going everywhere and in every direction. She stopped at a few stalls, went into a few shops, but never bought or talked with anyone. She also seemed to have a penchant to go through unused alleyways and avoiding the busier streets, and from time to time, looking behind her.

Van at first thought she was simply wanting to avoid people. He could relate on some level. But the more they tried stalking her, the more difficult it became to keep track of her. Almost as if she was trying to disappear off the radar.

“Oh~! Do you think it’s a boyfriend? It’s probably a boyfriend! A secret lover perhaps?” Astrid said, eyes shining with delight and expectation.

“I do not think she’s the type to go through all this trouble just to see a mate…” Azra replied. “I also never smelled a male on her when she walked into the room. Not like I smell on Merody, or Serena whenever she visits…”

Astrid gave a cute snort. “These days you can hide anything with enough perfume. Also… Give me the details on those last two! I want to hear all about it!” Looking over to Azra excitedly.

Even Van was a little interested, wondering if his friend finally was getting laid.

Azra just rolled her eyes and continued to track Lucia. Only to blink when their target disappeared. “SHE’S GONE!” Hissing at the sudden disappearance.

“What!?” Astrid twirled her head around, scanning the empty alleyway. “Where did she go!?” Disbelieving that they lost her so easily. “Lucia sucks at sneaking! She couldn’t have just vanished on us like that!”

She then jumped down from her perch and began to sniff around. Azra followed suit after her. After a while, Van joined in, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was supposed to smell. In fact, the more he tried to smell the things around him, the more he regretted it since everyone around them smelled like trash, mold, and broken things…

“Wait… Lucia is a mage right? Maybe…” He began to use his mana to figure out if there were any hidden passages around them. But sadly either they didn’t exist, or they were too well shielded against anyone trying to find them.

“I got nothing…” He said dejectedly. The failure got to him more than he thought it would… He supposed he was never going to be a sneaky sneaky cat…

“Hmm…” Astrid began looking once more, not giving up so easily. “Even if Lucia isn’t good at sneaking… She’s always been good at hiding… I admit even when I'm looking for her, I don’t always find her… Especially when she doesn't want to be found.”

She then turned to address them. “But that doesn’t mean we can give up so easily! We are cats! Our motto is curiosity or death! We won’t rest until it’s either our naptime! Meal time! Play time! Or death!” She stomped her soft paw on the ground. “Whose with me!” Giving a magnificent rallying cry of a meow.

Van and Azra turned to each other and shared a look before both giving a nod.

“Alright, I guess I can give it another go in sensing any mana around me.” Van said.

“And I shall take a look into the surrounding shadows to see if they have been recently disturbed…” Azra added.

Astrid gave an approving nod. “And if you're doing that, I’ll check if there are any places that are lit up that shouldn’t be. Like, if there was a completely enclosed crate, yet there's light shining inside.”

“You could do that?” Van asked surprised.

“It is not impossible. I too can sense the shadow around me as I just said.” Azra commented.

“Huh… That’s pretty neat.” Van said, kinda wishing he could do the same thing.

“Alright group! Let's move out!” Astrid commanded. Then turning around to follow her own advice.

The group now began scanning the area with new found fervor. Searching high and low, trying to figure out where Lucia hid in a dead-end alleyway. But after half an hour of not making heads or tails they slowly began to give up…

“I don’t understand! No one just disappears without a trace! How did she do it!?” Astrid meowed out loud.

“As much as I do not wish to admit it… I too am… Stumped…” Azra said, looking down.

“Guys! I think I figured something out!” Van exclaimed.

The two turned to him with hopeful surprise.

“I’ve been searching around the nearby buildings since I haven’t been able to find anything with my mana sense. And what I discovered is that only one building out of the many that make up this alleyway seems to have an entrance!” He said, beginning to sound excited. “All the other ones seem to have a door or window, but this one!” He then looked to the left of where the dead end was, towards a section of the building where it was almost impossible to figure out if it was a continuation of the other buildings around it, or the start of a new series of ones.

“Eh! Really!?” Astrid turned, trying to see what Van was trying to point out. “Are you sure it’s not just a part of another building?” Turning her head left and right since it was really difficult to tell if this section of bricks was its own building or an extension of the ones on its right and left.

Van nodded. “Trust me.”

Azra and Astrid looked at each other before turning back to him. “Alright, we believe you but… How are we going to figure out the entrance?” She asked.

“Perhaps you can leave that to me.” Azra said, now looking at the section of the alleyway that Van pointed out. “Even if we can’t see an entrance, it doesn't mean it is not there. And if we use our ability to flow through the shadows… perhaps we can simply bypass whatever is hiding the entrance?”

“Hmm… I see where you're going with this…” Astrid said with a thoughtful look. “Even I could probably do something along those lines. But… What if the person who hid the entrance also thought of something along those lines. This is a vampire-infested city, you probably weren't the only one to think of melding into shadow to get into a secure area.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Azra asked, curious if Astrid had anything to add.

“You two might not be able to go if whoever hid the entrance already planned for such an eventuality, but what about someone like me? Let me try and see if I can’t sneak in first and figure out where the entrance is, then I’ll let you in.”

Azra gave a nod. “Alright… I’m trusting you.”

“Umm… Guys?”

The two turned to Van.

“What if… Maybe we shouldn’t go trying to poke our noses into Lucia’s business… If someone is going through this much trouble to hide what they're doing, perhaps then we should just butt out…” Now feeling a little worried that they might be doing something a little dangerous.

The two cats looked at each other before turning back to Van.

“Well… If that’s what you want to do I can’t fault you for it…” Astrid said dejectedly.

“I’m willing to follow master's orders, whatever they may be.” Azra stated, though even Van could tell she was a little disappointed about not being able to sate her curiosity.

Van sighed. “You know what… Never mind, I’m curious too. Let's just go in and out quickly. So long as you two can promise me we won’t get caught, alright?”

“Don’t worry! You can trust us!” Astrid meowed happily.

“Do not worry master, I will do everything in my power to protect you should it come to it!” Azra said, her tail wagging back and forth.

“Alright, I'm going ahead, wish me luck!” Astrid couldn’t wait anymore and charge ahead, disappearing into light.

“I hope I made the right call…” Van worried.

A few minutes later Astrid popped her head out of the wall. “Guys! Get in here! It’s so cool!”

“Astrid! What the fuck! That's a solid wall!” Van exclaimed. “I know it is because I actually tried checking twenty minutes ago!” Thinking that last part inwardly.

“Just get in here and you’ll see!” Then she popped her head back in.

Van and Azra shared a look before tentatively going forward and finding themselves on the other side of the wall.

“High guys! Check it out! All I had to do was channel some mana on this orb handle thing and the wall becomes transparent or hard whenever I want!” She then demonstrated by making the wall see-through from their side and then hard again.

“By the gods…” Van was left in a daze at the runes that flared on and off at Astrid’s play. “This must have cost a fortune…”

“We shouldn’t waste time here. Let’s go in, find our target and get out.” Azra said seriously.

Astrid stopped her playing, realizing that Azra had a point, and jumped down. After a while the group began to go down the small corridor to another room deeper down which led to the basement. Their soft paws hid any sound that they could make.

After they made their way to the door, they heard sounds coming from it, and with a nod to each other, lost form in their chosen element and moved inside. They quickly found their perch on a long wooden support beam right about a table where Lucia was going over a few documents and what appeared to be a small box of orbs covered in a silver matrix.

Van hid a gasp as he realized what those were. His eyes widened further when he also realized who else was in the room with Lucia. “That’s not possible! They said they left weeks ago! What are they doing here!?”

“And is this all you could find?” Lucia asked, setting down the paper she was looking at and turning over to look at the small crate of MPDs. “Have you figured out where they were getting the stuff? The buyer? The Seller? Maybe discovered why they are in Alcray in the first place?”

Kiki walked into view with a shake of her head, a few papers in her own hands, quickly sifting through them. “Sorry… I still haven’t figured out the last few questions. But may have potentially figured out where they may come from.”

“Go on.”

Kiki moved some of her papers and gave them a quick scan before continuing. “As you know… What you have before you isn’t even the prototype of the MPD. In other words… They’re just for running tests… They only last at most three seconds, and can’t even dispel mid level magic. Unlike the prototype that is now coming out that can last a whole twelve seconds and deal with mid level spells, if even for a shorter duration… The whole program was considered a failure and abandoned after the mark two prototype, when it was realized they couldn’t simply mass produce something like this easily and cheaply, and that it would practically be harmless to most higher tier threats, which Alcray is home to many of. ”

“We have some reason to believe… That the last few test batches… Instead of being properly disposed four years ago have instead been sold on the black market. Probably because to dispose of them would be too time consuming and costly. Be believe they then wormed their way through several black market junctions until gaining the attention of a few vampire nobles. Until finally reaching Malon Taldor himself. Who then began buying up as many of the MPDs that he could using a few of his ties with the underworld. Those underworld ties then use certain gangs specialized in procuring and transferring hot items to get batches of the stuff to Malon Taldor directly.”

Lucia leaned back on her chair. “Alright… So we know where the original leak happened… But now we need to know why…” Tapping her fingers on the table in deep thought.

“We have some theories. Would you like to hear them?” Kiki asked.

Lucia gave a nod.

“We believe that Malon Taldor is looking to reverse engineer the MPDs in the hopes of using them against Fandor in the future. But we feel like it’s more likely that he is looking for ways to create shielding to protect his assets from something like the MPD. Though that doesn’t explain why he is trying to stockpile so many of them…”

“Another thing is-”

Lucia shot up, raising her hand to silence Kiki before she could make another sound. Over time as she was listening her head would slowly lean back further and further until she was looking at the ceiling. It was then that she felt a familiar presence.

“Astrid… Get down now!” She hissed.

Immediately Kiki was sent on alert, and Nikki, who was in a nearby room, also quickly entered upon hearing Lucia’s anger. The group then looked up at the ceiling, the tension high.

Finally Astrid popped her head over with an apologetic look on her face. “Uh… Oops? Seems like you caught me~” Trying to play it off like it was no big deal with a nervous cat smile, as she projected her thoughts out loud.

Lucia’s eyes narrowed. “One…”

Astrid got the message and jumped down onto the table.

“Lady Miu!?” Nikki Exclaimed as her tail waved with an identical bell-like object to Astrid’s.

“Oh, hey, a follower! Umm… Nice to meet you! I’ll give you an autograph later…” Trying to play it off cool.

“Astrid…” Lucia stressed the name, clearly annoyed and very angry.

Astrid’s tail and ears fell, knowing she was in trouble. “Umm… Yes?”

“What are you doing here…” Lucia demanded.

“Oh you know… Being sneaky sneaky!” Astrid blithely replied.

If Lucia’s eyes could shoot daggers, they would right now. “Listen Astrid, I don’t know why you're here, or how you got in here, or what you heard… So do us both a favor and-” She paused as she sensed something more, head turning upwards. Her expression went from angry, to pissed…

“Astrid… Who did you bring…?” Her eyes were now filled with rage though her voice was eerily calm.

“Oh uh… No one?” Astrid replied, her hair standing on end.

Lucia let the full might of her anger-filled gaze fall on Astrid. “WHO. DID. YOU. BRING.”

Van and Azra shared a look as Astrid's face began to panic. They both nodded and gently landed onto the table behind. Van’s adrenaline made laps around his veins as he nervously waited for what would happen next. He and Azra were both ready for a fight, but he hoped it wouldn’t get to that. He instead wanted answers, and just to make sure they had the edge, dispersed some of his shadow wolves from his shadow. Perhaps though that was what let Lucia become aware of their presence.

“Umm… So… Don’t get mad but… These are my friends!” Astrid said, already trying to create a narrative. “They were interested in me, and I them, because we share similar abilities. It took some time but now we are the best of friends and they… You know… Follow me around, like my cat posse back home. Do you want me to introduce you?”

Lucia studied the two shadowy cats for a long minute, noting how Van looked nervous, while Azra looked defiant. Finally, she turned to Astrid. “Can those two keep a secret?”

Astrid immediately began nodding her head. “Of course! I’ll even ask them to swear by their name! You know cats listen to me!”

Lucia just stared at Astrid for a while before sighing. “Fine… Just get out of here…”

“Righto! You don’t have to tell me twice!” She then turned to Van and Azra. “Come on guys, let's get out of here!”

The two quickly followed Astrid’s lead out of the basement. But before they could even put one paw on the stairway, Lucia called out to them, freezing them in place.

“Oh… And before you go…” Lucia gave the one last look. “Can you tell Van I would like to meet him at midnight tonight in the boy’s bathroom… I don’t want us to be disturbed… I would also like you to be there Astrid… There are… A few things I want to… Get off my chest let's say…”

“Umm… Sure! Wow, Lucia! Never knew you had the courage to ask a boy out. And that you would want me to join in your nighttime activity! Hilda and Avalyn are going to be so jealous of how good friends we are…” Astrid sniffed, trying to hide the fear and tears trying to form on the rim of her eyes as she knew the jig was up. But still doing her best to pretend like everything was fine. “Oka-a-ay, you crazy girl. Sniff! I’ll tell him you want to meet! Sniff! You can count on me! Sniff!”

Lucia nodded. “You do that…”

The group disappeared up the stairs.

“Wait… so was that-” Nikki began to say, as she realized who that one shadowy cat may be.

Lucia turned to the two girls. “Sorry, let's leave this for next time… I have to… Prepare a few things…”

Though Lucia tried to give a professional and calm mask, Kiki and Nikki couldn’t help pale at their boss’s expression.