"Perfect," I said. "Get the team ready. We're going to greet them."
The bait had worked and in their paranoia House Droct had moved the Mirror of Ulthar from their secure fortress to an old warehouse beneath the Crucible. They thought they were moving it to a safer place but they were wrong. Very wrong. They had moved it straight into my web.
I wasted no time. That very night, Milverton and I stood in his underground hideout in front of a large whiteboard now covered with the warehouse's floor plan, patrol schedules, and profiles of every guard identified by the Magpie network.
"That warehouse has three layers of security," Milverton reported, pointing at the diagram. "First, the outer perimeter. Ten Droct guards, all seventh-tier Evolvers from the Vanguard Channel. Strong, disciplined, fiercely loyal. Second, the main vault door. Reinforced steel infused with Essence, three mechanical locks and one alchemical seal that will trigger an alarm throughout the Droct estate if touched by unauthorized energy."
"And the third?" I asked.
"The third is the most troublesome," he continued. "Inside the vault, next to the Mirror, they've placed a 'Guardian.' Not an Evolver. My contact inside House Droct calls it a 'BoundedAberration.' A creature whose mind has been shattered and bound to a single command: destroy anyone who enters without permission. They don't feel pain and they don't feel fear. Quite efficient."
I processed the information. A miniature fortress underground. "How much time do we have?"
"Our window is very tight," Milverton replied. "They're planning to move the Mirror again to a different location in two days, just before the perfect window for us to head to the Sovereign's Gambit. So we need to move tomorrow, as soon as possible."
"Good," I said. "That's more than enough time."
My plan would not rely on brute force because fighting ten Vanguards and a Bounded Aberration head-on would be foolish. I would exploit the biggest weakness in every security system.
"I need three teams," I told Milverton. "Alpha Team, two of your best infiltration experts. Their job is to neutralize the outer perimeter patrols. No killing. Use the suppressor rounds I made. I want them asleep, not dead."
"Beta Team, one mechanic specialist. Aubert can do it. His task is to handle the mechanical locks on the vault door and I'll give him the full schematics. He has exactly five minutes."
"And Gamma Team, that's me. I'll deal with the alchemical seal and the Guardian inside."
"What about you, James?" Milverton asked. "Where will you be in all this?"
"I'll be in the command center," I replied. "Here, overseeing you through this device." I pointed to a small crystal orb on the table. "This is a Seer Observation connected to a series of mini Essence sensors that Alpha Team will place. I'll be your eyes and feed you real-time information about every guard's movement."
This was a partial lie, but I would be watching. Though my real role was far more important.
The next night, we moved. I sat in front of the crystal orb in Milverton's hideout while he and his team infiltrated the Undercroft. I could see everything through those sensors, blue lights for my team, red lights for Droct's guards. It was like a chess game but with lives on the line.
"Alpha Team, move in," I whispered into the Essence communicator.
Two blue dots glided silently through the warehouse shadows. They moved with precision, using the blind spots in the patrol routes we had mapped. One by one, the red dots along the outer perimeter faded and disappeared. The suppressor rounds worked perfectly. In ten minutes, every guard outside was down without a single alarm sounding.
"Perimeter clear," the Alpha Team leader reported. "Beta Team, you're up."
Aubert, Milverton's butler who turned out to be a master mechanic, moved toward the massive vault door. He opened a leather satchel and pulled out a series of strange tools made of brass and silver wire.
"Five minutes, Aubert," I said through the communicator.
He didn't answer, just got to work. I could hear the soft clicks as he worked through the first mechanism. Then the second. Then the third.
"Three minutes left," I said.
He stayed calm. That was when the first problem appeared.
"James," Milverton's voice came through the communicator. "We have an unexpected issue. An unscheduled patrol is coming down the east corridor. Two men."
Damn it. That wasn't on the schedule. "How long until they arrive?"
"Less than two minutes."
I stared at the crystal orb. Aubert was still working on the third lock. He wouldn't finish in time.
I had to act. I closed my eyes, focusing my mind. I couldn't be there physically but I could send a fraction of my power.
I used my Motley Fool ability, Mocking Reflection. At the end of the east corridor, far from the vault, an illusion of me as the Motley appeared, dancing stupidly and singing an off-key drinking song.
The two patrolling guards stopped. "What the hell is that?" one of them muttered.
They approached the illusion cautiously. As they drew closer, my illusion pointed the opposite way and shouted, "Look! A flying porcelain duck!"
Absurd, but the element of surprise was enough to make them hesitate for a moment. That moment was all I needed.
"Door's open," Aubert reported.
"Alpha Team, handle that patrol," I ordered. "Beta Team, fall back. My turn."
I focused all my awareness on the alchemical seal on the vault door, clearly reinforced with a complex energy matrix that would detonate if touched with the wrong Essence.
I would not touch it.
I channeled Void Essence, shaping it into a perfect replica of Lord Xerxes Droct's Essence signature. I got this from information I stole from Fravikveidimadr's archives by stealing Xerxes's DNA sample. I carefully layered the fake Essence over the seal.
The seal blinked green. Deactivated.
The vault door opened.
Click.
Inside, the chamber was dark and cold. In the center, on a stone pedestal, lay the Mirror of Ulthar. The mirror itself looked unremarkable, just a silver hand mirror with a handle decorated with rubies.
And in front of it stood its guardian. The Bounded Aberration. It looked like a mutilated human body stitched back together into a grotesque shape. Its skin was pale, its eyes sewn shut, and its arms replaced by sharp bone blades.
As I 'entered' the room through my last sensor, it turned to face me, even though it had no eyes.
"Who's there?" its voice grated like metal scraping metal.
I didn't answer. Instead, I swiftly used Laughter Curse.
The creature suddenly began to laugh. A hideous, joyless laughter that rattled out of its ruined throat. The laughter made it lose balance for an instant.
I used that moment. I dashed forward with Masquerade Step, appearing behind it. I didn't attack it. Instead, I touched a small rune carved at the back of its neck, the control rune binding it to its command.
I pushed Void Essence into the rune.
Crack.
The rune splintered and crumbled to dust. The command link was severed.
The creature stopped laughing. It stood still for a long moment. Then, from its stitched mouth, came a whisper. "Thank… you…"
Its body dissolved into a pool of black shadow and vanished.
I had set it free.
I walked up to the pedestal and picked up the Mirror of Ulthar. Cold. So very cold.
"Mission accomplished," I said to Milverton. "Get everyone out now."
As I was about to pull my awareness back, I felt something else in that chamber. Something that had probably been hiding in the shadows the whole time.
A figure stepped out from behind the pedestal. He wore a neat gray suit.
"A very impressive performance, Mister 'W'," he said, his flat voice betraying no surprise. "You have secured what our client wanted. And you have given me a very useful demonstration of your capabilities."
He had been there all along, watching me. This entire operation was not just a test from the Puppeteer. It was a test from the Consortium itself.
"Now," the man continued, "hand over the artifact. Your task is complete."
I stood there in the freezing vault with the Mirror of Ulthar in my hand. In front of me was probably one of the most dangerous people in the kingdom. Behind me, my team was waiting for the order to flee.
I laughed. Motley's cheerful laugh. "You think the game is over?" I said. "This isn't even the second act yet."
I raised the Mirror of Ulthar and aimed it not at him, but at myself. I stared at my reflection in its dark silver surface.
And inside the mirror, I didn't see the porcelain mask of 'W'. I saw Cheon Donghwan's smiling face.
"Let's see," I whispered. "Who really devours whom."
I poured Void Essence into the Mirror and without warning, I slipped away through a Mocking Reflection I had planted far away, pulling my body along with me.
"Everyone, mission's done. Scatter," I ordered the whole team.
"We regroup at the main safehouse. Do not go home yet."