Villainess 7: Janet’s Night Training
Red Pill 33: Incognitos, Auctions
Janet and her friends were in their nightgowns when they all had supper with Janet’s guards for company, all five eating baked mostaccioli and washing it down with iced lemonade. All the while, one of the guards informed Janet that another pair of guards from her father’s marquessate will relieve them tomorrow morning, so Janet thanked them for their hard work. To this, both guardsmen smiled and said it was their pleasure serving their lady for today and added that they will be back on duty this coming Friday.
(Janet’s four clones smiled at their zeal.
“They’re both honorable men,” Janet’s ex-suicide clone said. “Marriage material, perhaps?”
“Ew, no way!” Janet said in her mind, resisting the urge to turn and glare at her clones in the presence of her two guards, making her clones and the bubbly gathering of DeeDee and RuRu and Maxine and Celeste and even Rowena laugh at Janet’s expense in good humor.)
Mindy and the Drevis sisters struggled to keep their composure around the tea table, but a demonic flash of Janet’s eyes shut them all up, till they all finished eating.
Then, after a quick bathroom break before curfew, Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters readied themselves for their night out on the Student Commons Town with the maids helping Janet’s friends get dressed.
For her part, Janet manifested her Black Saintess outfit with her sheathed sword and buckler hanging from the scabbard on her belt. While Janet’s four clones and her maids Susan and Marin were ogling at her battle attire and armaments, Maxine came forward with a spare half-mask in hand, saying, “That’s for your anonymity, dear. Use it well.”
“I will,” Janet said.
Then Rowena came forward with a spare domino cloak, saying, “And that’s to keep you warm.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Janet said and put on both items, placing the half-mask over her eyes and draping the domino cloak over her shoulders and pulling the cowl over her head. The cloak hid her sword and buckler, and the cowl concealed her drill hair.
Meanwhile, Diana and Niana and Ellen had finished helping Janet’s friends dress up in their spare school uniforms, so that they could don their domino cloaks and half-masks. Once they were done, DeeDee had all five maids exit the dorm room with the explicit promise to keep their nighttime escapade to themselves should anyone ask, and they acknowledged with nods of their heads and left the room.
Once the guards closed the double doors again, DeeDee said, “It’s safe, boys. You can come in now.”
Kevin Sydney and Ridley Woodberry and Baron Underwood stepped through Janet’s mirror between the vanity table and armoire, all three of them dressed in their own domino cloaks and half-masks over their clothes. Along with them, nine more of Janet’s clones stepped through the reflection, all of them giddy for tonight’s little escapade, grins on their faces.
When everyone was prepared, DeeDee asked the other nine clones outside in the hallway, saying, “Is the coast clear?”
(“It’s all clear,” one clone said.
“Let’s get on with it!” another clone added.)
“All right, come in,” DeeDee said.
The nine clones assigned to watch over Mindy and the Drevis sisters passed through the double doors and joined the rest of the group, and Janet’s clones and club mates and club advisor lined up in single file before the double doors.
Then Celeste Graves crouched and placed her hand on the ground before the double-door entrance and whispered an incantation, setting the doors aglow. After that, she stood up and grabbed the handles and pulled the doors open into the nighttime hubbub of a dark alley after the 10:00 p.m. curfew came and went. In single fire, the group of three women and three men and eighteen of Janet’s clones passed the threshold into the night, followed by Celeste Graves and Maxine Diddly and Rowena Fleming, who said, “Watch over Janet, RuRu.”
“I will,” RuRu said.
Then Celeste pulled the doors closed behind her, shutting out the night and leaving Janet alone with DeeDee and RuRu and Janet’s four remaining clones.
“I’ll hold down the fort while you’re out there,” DeeDee said. “I’ve already placed your silent clones at the site of tonight’s slave auction, but if anything happens there,” and she looked from Janet to her four clones and to RuRu in turn, “let me know right away.”
“We will,” they all said.
Then to RuRu, DeeDee added, “And while you’re there, watch for any sign of trouble.”
“Will do, Big Sis,” RuRu said.
With that, DeeDee and RuRu both approached the same double doors that Celeste had used and placed one of their palms over the doors, then said an incantation and poured their affinities into them together. With DeeDee pouring her aether affinity and RuRu her darkness affinity, the doors flashed in alternating green and purple light.
“You four clones,” DeeDee said, “put your hands over Janet’s back.”
So Janet’s clones did as they were told, placing their hands on Janet’s shoulder blades.
“This skill is somewhat akin to possession,” DeeDee said. “Just imagine wading into Janet’s fountain, and you’ll merge yourselves into her astral body.”
“Ew!” Janet’s ex-suicide clone said.
“That sounds so disgusting,” another clone said.
“It’s not as disgusting as it sounds, I promise,” DeeDee said. “Just try it, and you’ll see.”
Without further ado, the four clones closed their eyes, and Janet waited for a time when she felt the impressions of their hands leaving her body. When she turned around and saw no sign of her clones, Janet sucked in her breath at the sensation of four bodies crossing the threshold of her skin. It was like the tactile hallucination of RuRu swinging a buckler right through her but gentler, like a caress over her skin instead of an uppercut to the solar plexus.
“Whoa! That kinda tickles,” Janet said.
DeeDee smiled and said, “See? It’s not so bad, is it?”
(“This is so cool!” one clone said.
“It almost feels like I’m alive!” another added.
“Hmmmm, let me see here,” the ex-suicide clone added, running her astral fingers down Janet’s astral body and brushing past her naval and going further down . . .)
“Hey, where are you touching me?” Janet said, her face flaring red as she squeezed her thighs together, then gritted her teeth in a grimace at another sensation over another part of her body. “Hey, don’t touch my butt!”
“Girls, stop with the foreplay,” DeeDee said. “We don’t have time to mess around.”
(“All right,” one clone said.
“We’ll stop, DeeDee,” yet another clone said.
Yet they kept giggling like the naughty brats they were.)
DeeDee let out a sigh and reached up and pinched Janet’s ear, yanking on it and causing Janet (and her clones) to double over and wince (thereby stopping their naughty shenanigans on their living and breathing and blushing avatar).
“You girls are too young for that,” DeeDee said, “and I don’t think your mother would appreciate it, either.”
(“Okay, okay!” they all said.)
“DeeDee, please let go!” Janet said.
So DeeDee let go and said to Janet the Living Avatar, “I’m sorry, Janet, but that’s the only way to get those four troublesome fairies to stop.”
“It’s fine,” Janet said in a deadpan.
Yet RuRu was struggling to hold in her laughter the whole time as if she had witnessed the funniest sketch comedy at a cabaret club of all places, then exploded into gut-busting laughter. So the self-proclaimed Mama Goose that was DeeDee repeated the same thing for RuRu, reaching up and grabbing her ear and yanking her down to her level, bowling RuRu over in a grimacing portrait of agony: “Ow! Ow! Ow!”
“It’s not funny,” DeeDee said.
“Okay, okay, I get it already!” RuRu said.
So DeeDee let go and motioned them over to the glowing double doors and said, “It works the way RuRu and I taught you, Janet. Just imagine touching one of your silent clones from behind, and you’ll be there in an instant.”
(Her clones giggled again, her ex-suicide clone saying, “Haha, from behind!”
“Shut it!” Janet said.)
Janet then said, “But how do I know which one?”
“That’s where I come in,” RuRu said, grabbing Janet’s hand. “I’ll guide you over there.”
“Are you ready, Janet?” DeeDee said.
Janet nodded, squeezing RuRu’s hand and taking a deep breath and letting it out as if she was going with a big sister into a haunted house. She then imagined herself reaching out to one of her silent clones into oblivion, then closed her eyes and walked in lockstep with RuRu right through the glowing double doors, leaving DeeDee behind in the room.
“Godspeed,” she said.
Meanwhile, Janet’s guards stood before the double doors with their ears almost pressed against the door paneling, their ears and faces flushed after overhearing Lady Fleming and her friends engage in some light foreplay. Even if they were honorable men, they were nonetheless specimens of the male gender and thus had boyish imaginations that threw up the most salacious thoughts in their heads, getting them hard.
Yet after hearing nothing else for a few minutes, they assumed that the ladies were fast asleep, till another salacious thought arose in their heads. It consisted of Janet and her girlfriends in their nightgowns with their bare legs and arms tangled around each other in sensual poses.
Both guards resumed their stations, and one guard said, “This will be a long night.”
“I know,” the other said.
Both men groaned where they stood.
A cool draft brushed by Janet’s face when she and RuRu passed through a shadowed corner between two corridors, approaching from behind one of the silent clones standing by the corner with her lamp in hand. Janet’s clone looked over her shoulder at the pair before pointing down the right-hand corridor with her free hand and then putting her finger to her lips.
“Is the auction that way?” RuRu said.
The clone nodded her head.
With that, RuRu said, “You four can come out now.”
When the four talking clones stepped from Janet’s astral body, Janet felt four astral bodies cross the threshold of her skin, leaving her with the same gentle tactile sensation.
“Ugh, it feels so weird!” Janet said.
“You’ll get used to it,” RuRu said, then to the clone: “Go up ahead and scout out the area.”
“Will do!” they said and headed into the gloom up ahead, while Janet and RuRu followed after them past wall sconces on either side casting the walls and ceilings and floors in chiaroscuro. Upon reaching one end of the corridor, they came across another silent clone with a lamp in hand standing in the corner and pointing them further down another right-hand corridor, so the pair followed after the four clones through the sconce-lighted chiaroscuro towards the end of that corridor, where they came across yet another silent clone with a lamp in hand standing in the corner and pointing them further down yet another right-hand corridor, but then three of Janet’s talking clones had doubled back towards them in silent footfalls.
(“There’s a masked doorman at the end of this corridor,” the ex-suicide clone said. “The slave auction hasn’t started yet, but we have to hurry!”
“How many slaves are inside?” RuRu said.
“We counted two dozen kids,” another clone said, “but we’re still looking for any others we might have missed.”
“Where are they now?” Janet said.
“They’re all on the stage,” a third clone added, “but there’s a magic barrier hiding them from view.”
“Did you get a good look at them?” Janet said. “Are they hurt in any way?”
Her three clones looked away from her, all of them seeming on the verge of tears, till her ex-suicide clone said, “I think they all lost their parents.”)
Janet grimaced and gritted her teeth, fisting one hand into a knuckle-white first and squeezing RuRu’s hand in the other, till she noticed RuRu wincing, so she let go of her hand.
“I’m sorry,” Janet said.
“Don’t worry about it, girl,” RuRu said.
(But then a fourth clone came running back and saying through huffs and puffs, “The auctioneer has just arrived, and it looks like all the ones invited have taken their seats. The auction’s about to start!”)
So RuRu said, “Get ready.”
Janet nodded her head, gulping down her qualms, and footed it down the corridor after her clones on soundless strides, though her sword and buckler clinked against the scabbard at her side. When she and RuRu slowed down upon reaching the corner, RuRu put a finger to her mouth.
“Stay here,” RuRu said. “I’ll go ahead.”
When Janet acknowledged with a nod, RuRu dissipated from view, and Janet waited for a time, wondering what was happening to those slaves just now, hoping none of them had sustained any injuries, but then she thought about it. If any of the slaves had sustained any injuries, they wouldn’t have been brought to this auction in the first place, for any injuries would lower their prices. To this, she could only shake her head and hope that nobody was hurt.
(“Janet, are you there?” RuRu said.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Janet said. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a magic barrier around the auction room,” RuRu said, “so you need an invitation to enter without getting detected. I’ve taken one of the used envelopes from the doorman’s bag. Check your shadow storage.”)
So Janet crouched and reached into the black void and took out a black envelope with a glossy finish and a letterhead design in gold leaf. Janet read the letterhead, saying to herself, “‘Count John Doe’s Masquerade Auction.’”
(Then in her mind Janet said, “RuRu, have you been to an auction house before?”
“More than I can count,” RuRu said.
“Do they keep attendance or is it voluntary?”
“They don’t keep attendance records,” RuRu said, “because they don’t want a paper trail to snag them, so you have some leeway in how you interact with the doorman.”
“Okay,” Janet said.)
After taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, Janet turned the corner and walked towards the double-door entrance at the end of the corridor, where she heard a humdrum of voices the closer she approached the doors, yet when she came into view of the doorman, she paused her steps. Over his masked face was a half-mask, and over his head a broad-brimmed cavalier hat with a long feather in the headband, and over his broad shoulders and tall body was a domino cloak similar to her own.
“Who’s there?” the doorman said.
“An invitee to the auction,” Janet said, holding up the black envelope in front of the doorman, as she resumed her footfalls through the shifting chiaroscuro of her surroundings.
“You’re a bit late, my Lady,” he said.
“Better late than never,” Janet said, repressing the urge to draw her sword and slice open his throat as she handed over the invitation (in front of RuRu).
The incognito doorman took and placed the envelope into his bag beneath his cloak and stared at her for a time, then said, “Is this your first time here?”
Janet paused, wondering what to say, then nodded her head and said, “I’ve come on behalf of my father, who has been under the weather lately.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that,” the doorman said, turning about and pushing open the double doors into the hubbub of the auction room, till the voices ceased their chatter, and several masked nobles inside looked at Janet. Then the man stepped aside and flourished his hand towards the room with a bow, saying, “Please enter and enjoy yourself, my Lady.”
Silence reigned, but Janet only stood there.
(So RuRu crossed the threshold and headed towards the one empty round table amidst the cluster of other round tables, where she stood and waved her over, saying, “The magic barrier removes excess clothing.”
“Stripping magic?” Janet said.
“Look at the people around you,” RuRu said.
And Janet did a cursory glance, noting that none of them were wearing hooded domino cloaks, then mentally grimaced and said, “You mean it’ll just remove my cloak?”
“And nothing else,” RuRu said, “hopefully.”
“Ugh, what do you mean by ‘hopefully?’” Janet said.
RuRu just smiled and said, “Try it and see what happens.”)
Janet gulped and crossed the threshold, stepping through said magic barrier, and her domino cloak disappeared from her body and revealed her battle outfit and her armaments in full view of everyone, producing an audible gasp in the room. Then a beam of light flashed over Janet, blinding her for a moment, till her eyes adjusted and took in her surroundings: a private theater with an elevated stage dominating the room; several round dining tables and chairs in clusters, all of them with masked incognito and incognita nobles sitting (sans RuRu standing beside the only empty table); and on the stage just behind the curtain was the presence of a group of kids standing next to a portal like that of an advanced item box skill, so that their collective auras were suppressed within the room.
Then she heard an audible whistle from behind, so Janet looked back at a smiling doorman pulling the doors shut, enclosing her with the other incognito and incognita observers, so she raised her hand up to her face and found her half-mask was still there. Breathing out a relieved sigh, she looked at these onlookers, feeling like a beast in a zoo exhibit and saying, “Sorry for disturbing you all.”
When the silence continued, Janet walked up to the only empty table in the middle of the room and sat there (next to RuRu, who reached over the table and touched the vase-like lamp and winced and said, “This lamp gathers the lifelines of twenty-six slaves, twenty-four of which are inside of this room.”
“Where are the other two?” Janet said.
“You’re clones are looking for them,” RuRu said, then to the clones: “There are two others, so keep looking.”
“Will do!” they all said.)
Then another flash of light appeared over the stage, where a man in a three-piece dinner suit and a half-mask over his eyes walked up to a podium on stage and said, “We have an uninvited guest this evening. Someone, please give our surprise guest some refreshment, if you will.”
Then a masked valet came up and placed a glass of what looked like red wine or raspberry juice in front of Janet at her table, the only one draped over with a black tablecloth and an unlit vase-like lamp. All the other tables had white tablecloths over them and light glowing from their vase-like lamps, and all the other guests were at their seats staring at her.
Here Janet crossed her ankles and rested her hands over the tabletop, not reaching for her glass, and asked the man onstage, “Who are you, if I may ask?”
“I am Count John Doe, the auctioneer for this evening,” the masked man said, doffing his top hat and bowing before putting it back over his head, “but Count John Doe is just a collective alias shared amongst the cognoscenti. We all have aliases here, so do you mind telling us what yours is?”
(“Any ideas?” Janet said.
“Just tell the truth,” RuRu said.)
And so, Janet said, “I am the Black Saintess.”
All at once, another collective gasp resounded throughout the auction room, and a flurry of whispers flew about, escalating the hubbub into a cacophony of speculative rumors. That’s when Janet recognized the content of their whispers, catching enough phrases here and there that amounted to the appearance of a new saintess in this kingdom. She had no idea how her friends were able to spread the news about the Black Saintess this far at the outset, because her words caused a stir amongst the guests and darkened the levity of the room. Yet after giving it some more thought, she realized those rumors must’ve come from the mouths of the slaves themselves at this auction.
Then the incognito laughed and said, “So the Black Saintess has decided to grace us unworthies with her esteemed presence. We’re all honored to have you in our midst tonight, so why don’t we have a little pro bono deal?”
“What kind of deal is that?” she said.
“The merciful kind or the merciless kind, whichever you choose tonight,” Count John Doe said, and he raised his hand and fisted it in the air as if he was grabbing someone by the balls, the same gesture that Lady Dorian performed on Lord O’Neill and Lady Kessler in last night’s experiment. “Come up here, ragamuffins! Let us have a look at you!”
And one by one, a line of girls and a line of effeminate boys walked onto the stage from the adjoining backroom, their wrists bound behind their backs and a black band glowing around their necks and a wheel cross glowing on their foreheads. There were three cat girls, two fox girls, two elfin girls, and eight human girls, and there were four elfin boys and five human boys, two dozen in all and all of them still prepubescent kids, yet their eyes had vacant faraway looks to them as if they had seen things and experienced things they shouldn’t have. They all stood on that stage, lined up like chattel, bound and helpless against whatever means had been used to keep them from crying and acting out and reducing the prices that potential bidders were willing to pay. Yet despite their expressions, they all wore presentable dresses and dress suits as if the auctioneer had splurged to doll them all up and get the most money out of the bidders in attendance tonight.
The sight of them in that state burned through Janet like a flame down a candlestick, so she gritted her teeth and glared at the auctioneer (and asked her four clones in her mind, “Have you found the other slaves yet?”
“We’ve been searching through this underground area, but there doesn’t seem to be any others,” one clone said. “Geez, this basement is huge!”
“Keep looking,” Janet said.
“Is there an exit anywhere?” RuRu added.
“We’re still looking for it,” another clone said.
“Then I’ll help you out,” RuRu said, then to Janet: “How long can you wait?”
“I’ll wait for as long as that bastard doesn’t do anything to those kids,” Janet said, “but hurry up!”
“Whatever you do,” RuRu said, “don’t overdo it.”
“I won’t,” Janet said, and after RuRu disappeared from the table) she fixed her eyes on the smiling man on stage. “Then what do you have in mind, Count John Doe?”
“You can go the easy route,” Count John Doe said, “and have your pick on this stage to take with you, no questions asked, no need to pay anything whatsoever, for it’s pro bono. Once you’ve had your pick, you can go back on your way, and we’ll resume our auction here.”
“How will I find my way out?”
“You figure it out,” the man said. “If you could find your way here, you can find your way out again.”
“But what if I want all those kids?” Janet said.
“If you go that route,” the man said, “then you’ll have to outbid your peers in this room. If you have the money, you can take them all with you, but if you don’t have it, then your decision comes at a price.”
“What kind of price?” Janet said.
“Your body would fetch a good price at this auction,” he said, smiling again. “You can exit this room in one of three ways: whether it’s on your own two feet or in chains or dead, it’s your choice, so choose well.”
Janet gulped at her options, because she had no money to bid for any of them, nor the manpower to take them away by force against the collective numbers of the nobles inside this room, nor even a clue where the other two slaves were or where the exit was or what other surprises lay in store. Faced with an overwhelming disadvantage, she decided to play along for now, hoping RuRu and Janet’s four clones were at least hot on the trail of finding the whereabouts of the two other slaves somewhere on these premises—
When an epiphany struck her, as clear as the sun emerging from the clouds (and said in her mind, “RuRu, where are you and the clones now?”
“We’re still looking,” RuRu said.
“This basement’s too big,” the ex-suicide clone said. “There are two many corridors leading elsewhere.”
“Listen to me,” Janet said, standing up and looking over her shoulder. “I don’t think the two other slaves are anywhere near where you’re looking.”
“Where are they then?” her clone said.)
Janet eyed the double doors through which she had passed the magic barrier as the dots connected in her mind, sensing two menacing auras there as if they were drawing blades from their scabbards (so she said, “The two slaves have been guarding the doors—”
“Ah, shit!” RuRu said.
“Don’t tell me!” the ex-suicide clone added.
“—but we couldn’t detect them,” Janet added) just as two blurs of movement swept across her vision in flashing arcs of steel, almost cleaving off her head—
When Janet ghosted her attackers, disappearing from the table and emerging from a shadowed corner of the auction room beneath the penumbra of a wall sconce. And in the shadow of that corner, she focused on the two shifting silhouettes that were similar to the ones she had seen in last night’s drinking binge with RuRu, till their dark outlines filled up the details and revealed both individuals to be wearing hooded domino cloaks and half-masks and wielding bastard swords. One attacker was shorter and had a smaller and lighter build, whom Janet took for a young female at or just before puberty, while the other was much taller and had wider shoulders, whom she took for an adult male.
“Find her now,” Count John Doe said from the stage to the pair of assailants, so Janet thought they were his bodyguards or even paid mercenaries. The taller one said something to the shorter one, and the shorter one sheathed her sword and ran off and disappeared into another shadowed corner of the auction room, while Count John Doe asked the bidders to rise from their seats and gather around a cluster of tables closer to the limelight of the stage. Now, as the room erupted in a flurry of footfalls and whispers, the tall man commenced a search of the premises around the empty tables, while the count said from the stage, “Calm down, everyone. This is just a slight hiccup in our proceedings. Once we find and apprehend that interloper, we’ll continue with the bidding as scheduled.”
Yet there arose a flurry of questions from the bidders, all of them asking the auctioneer how this place got found out so fast, whether or not someone in their own ranks had ratted them out to the Royal Guard or even the Black Guard under the leadership of the current Duke Bartleby, who had been cracking down on various slave auctions since early summer.
(“What happened over there?” RuRu said.
Janet raised a trembling hand to her throat but felt no sting there, thanking her lucky stars and saying, “I’ve almost got myself decapitated.”
“Are you hurt?” the ex-suicide clone added.
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Janet said, catching her breath as her heart still hammered in her chest.
There was a collective sigh in her mind, and then RuRu said, “Where are you?”
“I’m in a shadowed corner,” Janet said, watching the tall male incognito check beneath the hems of the tablecloths, “but I’m safe for now.”
“Are you sure?” Ruru said.
“I’m sure, believe me,” Janet said as she listened to Count John Doe trying to calm down the nobles.)
“Everything’s under control, I assure you,” the count said, raising his hands in a placating gesture, and walked off stage and headed to the man as he sheathed his own sword and crouched in the middle of the room and placed his palm flat on the floor. Then the incognito’s lips moved as if he was reciting an incantation, and out of his hand flashed a seal of several glowing concentric circles of search magic, yet they passed by Janet’s hiding spot without any issue.
(“The auctioneer has left the stage,” Janet added, “and is now going toward one of my attackers. I think he’s gonna talk to him or something.”
“How big is the shadow you’re in?” RuRu said.
“Big enough to hide my presence from that man,” Janet said.
“Then put a talisman on that part of the wall,” RuRu said. “Pour your darkness affinity into it, and we’ll be able to listen in on them.”
Janet manifested a talisman from her shadow storage and pinned it on the wall behind her, then poured in her darkness affinity, till the characters glowed. After that, she and her clones and RuRu all listened in.)
“Where is she?” the count said.
The masked incognito shook his head and stood up, saying, “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you ‘don’t know?’” the count hissed. “We’ve had to pay top coin for your services to protect our business! If you can’t even look for a girl that managed to get in here, then what the hell are we paying you for?”
“That’s the problem,” he said.
“And what problem is that?” the count said. “The girl that got in? Or the lax security of the premises?”
(“Captain, this is Forty,” a girl’s voice said, huffing and puffing through the mental link amongst Janet in the corner and her clones and RuRu in the corridors.)
The man raised a finger to the count, stopping him from saying anything else, and he gave the ring on his ring finger a turn and said, “What is it, Forty?”
(“I’ve finished checking with everyone manning the perimeter,” the girl named Forty said, making Janet wonder if she was twelve or thirteen or fourteen from the high inflection of her voice. “Nobody’s seen anyone coming or going since the start of the auction.”)
“What about the bandstands?” the Captain said.
(“The magic circles weren’t disturbed in either location,” Forty said, “and none of us could find a trace of the girl we saw in the room.”)
“You’re kidding?” he said.
(“I’m not, sir,” the girl said. “Whoever she was, she didn’t use the bandstands in the park.”)
“That’s impossible,” the Captain said.
(“I know, but that’s how it is,” Forty said.)
“Come back inside, Forty,” the Captain said. “If the girl we saw hasn’t made an appearance outside, then she’s most likely still inside the premises.”
(“Will do, Captain,” Forty said) and then a few moments later, Janet’s other assailant passed through Janet in the shadowed corner she was hiding in like a hologram and stalked towards the taller incognito, looking around the room for someone else (and adding, “Did Nineteen find her yet?”)
“Nineteen, any luck on your end?” the man said.
(Then there came another female voice through the collective mental link, one that sounded like she was in her twenties, who let out a sigh and said, “Our interloper hasn’t crossed my magic barrier again this whole time, so she’s still in this room, but that’s all I have.”
“Are you serious?” Forty said.
“Yep,” Nineteen said. “That chick’s as good as me.”)
“Wait, are you telling me you can’t feel her presence at all?” the Captain said. “Not even in this room?”
(Another sigh came through the collective mental link before Nineteen said, “Even I have my limits, Captain.”
“But even so,” Forty said.
“Listen, Forty,” Nineteen said. “Something like this was bound to happen sooner or later, and it looks like it came sooner than we thought. And I’m sorry, Captain,” she added, “but we’ll just have to stay in place and hunker down and bide our time for now, till that chick reveals herself again.”)
“Damn it!” the Captain said.
Moments passed.
“Well?” the auctioneer said.
“This place is on lockdown,” the Captain said.
“WHAT?” the auctioneer said, then looked over at his fellow noblemen and noblewomen before facing the Captain again. “You can’t do that to me and my guests!”
“I’m sorry, but that’s the way it goes,” the incognito said, “unless you want to have the Royal Guard or the Black Guard up your ass. You don’t want that, do you?”
The auctioneer grimaced under his half-mask, then shook his head and said, “Fine, we’ll wait.”
“Good,” the Captain said and pointed out the incognito and incognita nobles still gathered around the cluster of tables in front of the stage. “Now tell them what I told you. Nobody except for me and my crew comes in or out of this room till sunrise, so make yourself and your guests as comfortable as you can. This is gonna be a long night.”
After that, the incognito Captain told Forty to sit at the same table Janet had sat at, saying, “Don’t let anything happen to that lamp.”
“I won’t, sir,” Forty said.
While Forty went over to said table and sat in the same chair Janet had sat in, and while the auctioneer under the pseudonym of Count John Doe told his fellow incognito and incognita peers to shelter in place, and while the incognito Captain stood guard beside the double doors like before (Janet grimaced under her half-mask and said, “Did you get all that?”
“Yep, we did,” RuRu said.
“So what do we do now?” Janet said.
“Just let me think!” RuRu said, “If there are other incognitos guarding the perimeter, however many there are, we can’t exit through the bandstands.”
“And even if we could, we can’t find their locations inside all of the tunnels,” Janet’s ex-suicide clone said. “Hey, what if we exit the same way we came in?”
“You mean through DeeDee’s portal?” RuRu said.
“Yeah,” another clone said. “We can just ask DeeDee to make another portal—”
“But you’re forgetting one person,” RuRu said, and the four clones groaned in Janet’s mind. “Yeah, you guessed it. Janet can’t cross the magic barrier without alerting the one that set it up, this Nineteen person.”
“So this Nineteen person is the reason why we couldn’t sense the presence of the other two?” Janet said.
“Yep, she’s a prodigy,” RuRu said.
So Janet said, “DeeDee, are you there?”
“I’m here,” DeeDee said. “I’ve been listening to everything those incognitos were saying, and RuRu told me everything while they were talking.”
“Any ideas then?” Janet said.
“This is troublesome,” DeeDee said. “I’d make another portal to get you out of there, Janet, but since the lifelines of those kids are gathered with those of Nineteen and Forty in that lamp, you mustn’t engage those two.”
“I know,” she said.
“What do you think, Sis?” RuRu said.
DeeDee remained silent for quite some time, so Janet looked over at the only unlit vase-like lamp in the room atop the only table draped with a black tablecloth, then said, “DeeDee, what if I replace that lamp with my own?”
“It’s risky but manageable,” DeeDee said. “Since you were the change agent in last night’s experiment, you can do something similar with that lamp on the table over there. You can take control of those kids, and you might even be able to turn Forty and Nineteen to our side if we’re lucky, but however you do it, be sure not to break that lamp.”
“I’ll be careful,” Janet said) and looked over at the two dozen kids on stage, then at the auctioneer with the incognito and incognita nobles gathered by the cluster of tables close to that stage. Those nobles were looking in the opposite direction at Forty sitting at the table with the black tablecloth and the unlit lamp and at the incognito Captain standing guard beside the double doors behind her.
After memorizing the layout of the auction room, Janet thought of the biggest variable that was Nineteen. If she was taking the kids on stage out of here, and if she was targeting that unlit lamp to do it, the very lamp Forty was overseeing at the table, Janet had to draw out Nineteen from concealment with a little game of tag with that lamp. Notwithstanding her hidden opponent in this place, she told her four clones and RuRu her plan, then waited for them to get into position.
“Are you sure you wanna do it this way?” RuRu said. “I could put them on beforehand, and—”
“You said it yourself, RuRu,” she said. “Their lifelines are connected with the kids’ in that lamp, so as long as Forty has it, I’m not risking it.”
“Okay then,” RuRu said, “but putting on twenty-four seals will take some time. Five seconds, at least.”
“I’ll manage,” Janet said.
“Suit yourself, Janet,” RuRu said.
When they finally arrived, passing right through the double doors and the Captain standing by them, RuRu took up her place behind the group of kids on stage, while three of her clones took up their spots amidst the empty tables away from the group of onlookers that were still talking about her in whispers. All the while, Janet’s ex-suicide clone stood right there within the circumference of the tabletop at the level of her hips with her hand out in front of the vase-like lamp.
With everyone in place, Janet took a deep breath and exhaled, took another deep breath and exhaled, and then bolted from the corner in a three-step lunge towards her target.
