Mikki was sure, this one was trying to figure out who was behind him. He just knew it, why else would she bond with him so fast, although he sometimes had a feeling that some actions were actually genuine. 

Not that it feels exactly uncomfortable. 

If not for him then for the Child that accompanied her… Dex. Mikki was even slightly surprised by the child; he showed the promise of prey as great as the one he had been speaking with. Of Titania. She was a curious one, she still did not feel like what she should be, what she was. For the most part, she behaved like a normal teenager. 

Thoughts of the boy distracted him again. That child’s mind had been a burning conundrum, wrapped up in a lukewarm barrier of jade. Mikki had tried multiple times to break through it, but to no avail, and yet the boy had not even noticed the intrusions. Dex had spent the day running from one fancy to another, like a kitten seeing the outside world for the first time. It made one wonder, just what horrors the Tarajan had inflicted on this innocent soul? What tragedies would be required to cause one so young to develop such a strong barrier? 

In any case, his mind felt similar. It was as if he was looking at Titania's mind. Hers held a truly Iron Wrought defense, castle walls made of titanium and diamond so strong that one peek during the school trip was enough for him to completely discard the idea of sneaking into her mind for information. It would be suicide.

The older tarajan child was a mental blank, and wore a mightily effective protection charm. Mikki could break into his head, but it would be an arduous, tiring process. What’s more, the target would know immediately and send the bodyguard after him. Though, body guard might not be the right term for this man. The guard’s footsteps made no noise, and his movements were far too fluid for someone of such an advanced age. The gentleman was accustomed to violence, always walking in a ready stance and carrying inumerable hidden weapons. 

Three knives and a sword, and that’s only counting what I actually saw. Assassin. Killer.

He reminded Mikki of a trained killer, but he couldn't pin down his magic much to his own frustration. 

Putting the distractions out of his mind, Mikki returned to focusing on the day’s events. As strange as the small gathering was, he was almost having fun. The flowers and plant life in Five Halls had been fascinating, as was their visit to the Ice River surfing site in the historic center of the city. 

The Child was staring at it while exclaiming in wonder and bringing laughter to them all. Laughter that was almost genuine and not an act.

The buildings here were still built with actual old stone and one of them even had a gargoyle, a winged beast carved from rock. It was sculpted to be shouting out his bad mood with an ugly grimness of a face. It was the first time he did not walk past these things and places in the night with a clear goal in mind, or the beautifully sweet taste of an approaching kill on his tongue. 

“Tell me about your family,” He asked, “what true, what untrue?” 

There is no need to play secrets if both parties know. 

Titania bit into her apple tart and smiled weakly at him, before keeping up her act with surprising ease, “There is nothing much to tell, you can look up most of it on the network.” she said, shrugging her shoulders. 

Well now she is showing a bit of her colors but I should have guessed it would not be as easy as I want it to be. 

Titania leaned forward and grinned, “Only if you tell me about yours, alright?” She said boldly and made him smile inadvertently. 

She knows.

Now they both knew for certain it made no sense to continue to speak as he had done up until now, feigning a foreigner's accent. Instead, he leaned back and dropped the act he had been painstakingly maintaining. 

“Fine.” Even his voice now sounded different. 

Next to them something fell to the ground and he looked towards the sound. It had been Dex that had dropped his fork on the floor. 

“Wait let me.” Titania said and handed the Child hers, lifting up the fallen one and placing it next to her already finished platter. The boy, who had been blushing a bit before, now continued to eat in silence as though embarrassed. The bodyguard besides them had gone still as their group fell into a tense silence. 

One wrong move and Mikki was a dead man.

“Well then let us speak with each other.” TItania answered him, breaking the silence and sitting up in her chair as though there was a stick in her back, “One question for a question, one answer for an answer.” 

She’s nervous. 

But he had to admit if he had not spent days observing her and paying attention to her every gesture, move, and habit he wouldn't have noticed. 

“Then I shall begin.” He said, and she smiled at him, “When did you notice?” Her smile grew wider, like a child receiving praise. 

“Always.” she answered, pretending as if she had known from the very second he had approached her. Although… maybe she had. 

She introduced herself readily, comported herself in an open, almost friendly manner, so much….well she is truly intriguing.  

“Now me. Who is seeking to destroy us though, you?”

“People.” he answered at the very precise question she asked, trying to avoid it but encountering silence. 

She is not very good at this game; one is not supposed to ask the most important questions at the very beginning. 

“Me again, who are the birds of your sister?” He asked. “Names please.” he said and Titania smiled faintly. Everything around them seemed to have become a timestill as they stared at each other silently. Waiting to see who would break first. In the end it was him who won, which was to be expected. This one had little experience, although she pretended otherwise and would have fooled most people. But he was not most people. 

“They are friends, and no names.” She said with a smile, even as her back grew stiffer. He noticed from the corner of his eye how the Bodyguard moved a tad closer to her. 

a very attentive one you are, no? 

“Tell me, is it the government or one of the families seeking to destroy our people?” 

The same as before, it seems this is her only interest. This time it is cleverly phrased, she just forgot that everyone wants her family gone. 

“Both.” 

She showed no reaction to his answer. 

This is becoming more interesting by the second. 

“That one is due to personal curiosity, how can you be loyal to the Tarajan? After all, your mother killed your fathers. How can anyone be loyal to someone like that?”

Titania leaned forwards and her answer, he was rather certain the only genuine one he got answered was not exactly what he expected. 

“Love, Loyalty.” She said, “Honor and Home, we know these things very well a bit different then most and not one of us children misses our fathers.”

“Love, Honor.” He muttered, “Where is the honor the love in serving, working for a woman that killed her husband. As you are, even if only half of noble blood anysone would take you, while she is, excuse me, little more then a better whore?” 

“You just answered the question yourself. I am half a slumchild.” She leaned back and stared at him, glowing green in her eyes, “My turn. Give me the name of the one who is standing behind you.” 

“You have been asking the same thing since the very beginning,” He said. “No interest in me as a person? I am not hard on the eyes.” 

And most women her age are usually foolish enough to lose their focus at this point but she is not. 

He thought back, she had not reacted in any way to his appearance up until now, she was polite, friendly but never once had she shot him a look. It made her a curious thing, more than up until now. For just a second he wondered how she would look on the inside with the skin removed. Equally curious? 

After all there is no second one of her kin, of an oath mage, around anymore. 

“A name I cannot reveal, but he carries the fire in his name.”

“I won’t get better I guess?”

“No not really, you will not.”

She shrugged her shoulders and stood up, “Fine.” She smiled again, and it felt almost sincere for a second but then she turned. Her hand held out for the child, the little boy jumped from his chair. He took her hand and together they left. 

For a second he watched them walk away rather peacefully, then he realized something. It must be a mistake on her side, a slight one. 

It might be something common among the ruling families though, I will need to investigate if it is unique to the Tarajan. It can be my first anchor to bring them down. 

They were close to their previous starting position but the Parking Garage they walked into was not the one they had previously walked out of. Either they were simply making a mistake…

Or they have cars stationed in several parking garages throughout the city. 

A smile sneaked on his lips, not the friendly one he usually wore but one that made the people around him shudder.