Cassie pushed her eyes open and slapped the sleep out of her eyes as she looked ahead of her to see Harris sitting at a table across from her. She looked down at her hands and realized that her own hands weren't tied so there was something good out of being captured in public. She scanned around her environment once again and saw that she was seated in front of a coffee shop and people were sitting at other tables speaking in their native language while she was sitting in front of her enemy at this moment. "Hi," Harris waived nonchalantly. Cassie looked over to her right to see Derek sitting in a chair beside her, neither one were bound or gagged. He shrugs as he spots the other two villains, Pavel and Marcel, sitting at a table adjunct to theirs. It was better to not make a scene because these guys obviously owned the police and could easily just out them as fugitives so the best thing to do would be to appeal the occult society.
"Why'd I have to wake up? I was having a good nap," Cassie quips as she playfully elbows Derek in the arm.
"Sorry for the inconvenience, but we needed you guys awake. Anyway, we've been thinking and reading," he pulls out a journal from his back pocket, Cassie's journal that he stole while she was sleeping, and opened it. "It is a beautiful story that you have written in this journal, Cassie. I mean, all the legendary alchemists coming together to create the Philosopher's Stone, only to hide it in a lost city. You really have done your homework, Cassie."
Cassie mentally groaned over her stolen journal. "Well, that's how I got into college in the first place and how I graduate in a couple of months."
"Despite," Harris began, "Despite reading your book over a dozen times, I am still confused as to where the actual location of Ys resides. Can you help me out here? I can easily just hypnotize you into giving me information but I follow a very strict code."
"Honor among thieves, really?" She looks at the coffee cups that Pavel and Marcel place down in front of them. She was not tempted and ignored their polite gestures. "My father is the one who knows all about honor among thieves."
"I don't care who you are, Cassie," Harris rebutted. "The only thing I want from you guys is your cooperation." He leans over the table and hisses at her, "Where is Ys. Tell me where it is?"
"Calm down, Mr. Hisser, don't you know it's called a lost city for a reason?" She looks to see Marcel rising from his seat and moving over to behind Cassie and puts his hands on her shoulders. She could put up with a lot of things, torture, being shot at, beat up, but a villain physically putting their hands on her was where she drew the line in the sand. "Take your hands off me or else you will have to hypnotize yourself to block out the agony that I will bring to you."
"You think you're such a fighter," Marcel smirks but he appeals to her request.
"Cassie," Harris began again, "I don't care who you are or what you are, I only dream of finding the Philosopher's Stone. It's been my group's lifelong goal and many leaders before me have perished and no one but you has come this far to discovering the one stone that turns all kinds of metal into gold while granting the user the ability to live indefinitely."
"One thing you need to get through your skull, Harris, is that the stone only grants you the ability to live longer, not make you immortal. You can still die like any other human. 'Sides, you have an entire cult, now you need to steal somebody bigger than you?"
"This isn't about money or power, Cassie. I have all that in my little cult society. My motive is principal and respect."
"Well, our motive is the thrill of adventure, but we also know that if something is lost, then it is lost for a reason. Call it our job to make sure that myths stay myths."
"If that's what you want to call your job. I know nothing about you other than your name or your occupations and I don't care about your motives. I only value respect and what's right."
"Well, what's right is not looking for a powerful object out of respect or principal. At least you're original; I've encountered some pretty selfish villains over the years. A teenager with issues against the government, Neo-Nazi wannabes, an arrogant black market trafficker, a guardian who doesn't talk, and even a global terrorist group who think the world is unlivable. Derek here even met a Genghis Khan copycat when he was in the Gobi."
"Interesting tales," Harris rolled his eyes, "But I'm not a villain. I only want your cooperation and if you don't cooperate, then I will bring discomfort upon you."
Pavel walks over to Harris and whispers something into his ear. Harris's face lit up with excitement. "Excellent," he turns to Cassie to explain, "It looks like your friends, Johsua and Erkin, are in possession of a page torn out of this journal and we have them in our sights and we already have acolytes on their way."
Cassie winces and looks at Pavel. Derek looks over his shoulder at Marcel and growls at him like a predator. "Cass," Derek calls out.
"What's up, D-Man?"
"I heard there's a better coffee shop on the other side of town."
She nodded, understanding what he was cryptically implying. "Good idea, I'll race you there."
Cassie and Derek both flip the tables over and shove away Marcel and make a run for it across the street and into an alleyway but Marcel and Pavel were in hot pursuit and chased after them, it was literally a reenactment of Cassie's father experience in Yemen.
Before she could cut down an alleyway, the redhead mercenary appeared in front of her and connected his fist to Cassie's face, sending her into unconsciousness.
"Let's try this again," Harris said.
Cassie snaps out of it for reals this time and realizes that she was back where she started when she ran off. She remembers: She was running and then Marcel and Pavel chased after her then everything went black after the redhead ambushed her in the alleyway. Now here she was, back to Square One with only herself sitting at a table and no Derek this time.
In addition to Harris, Pavel, and Marcel surrounding her, there were the three mercenaries standing behind Harris and all three of them had their arms crossed over their chest. She saw the blonde female mercenary's face and instantly recognized it.
"You were at the museum," Cassie said, "You were the one who stole the manuscript."
"That was me," Eins said, "I am known as Eins and these two," she points to her two companions, "Are Zwei and Drei."
"Let's get this over with for real," Harris said, firmer then how he had previously been. "Do you know where the lost city of Ys is? We're on a tight schedule and we need you to tell us quickly. I'm not playing around. Tell me what you know or else I'll have Marcel and Pavel hypnotize you into giving up the information."
"Where's Derek?" she asked, "Erkin, Joshua."
"When I took you out," Drei began, "Eins subdued Derek while Zwei took care of your two friends with the assistance of Marcel and Pavel."
"What about Derek who was just here?"
"That was another illusion," Marcel said, "I put you under one. I thought you would feel more comfortable if you were in the presence of your loved one."
Cassie became agitated. "Aren't you supposed to be drowning in the Baltic?"
"We would've," Pavel said, "But these three mercenaries saved our lives. We are indebted to them."
"Also, you're the first one to break from our illusion," Marcel said, "You were supposed to die from cardiac arrest but for some reason, you're still standing. You were supposed to picture yourself getting eaten by a sea monster and you're still alive."
"Enough interrupting, where is YS?!" Harris asked, "We have to know for reals, do you know where Ys is?"
"It's here in France, but you already knew that," Cassie said smugly, "Whatever your name is."
"Austin Harris," he introduced himself.
"Are you the leader of Vita Longa?"
"I'm a leader but I'm not the highest-ranking one. The leader of Vita Longa is a man named Hans Heisenberg. Like me, he only exists within Vita Longa and not on the internet."
Heisenberg, Cassie thought and she had a confused look to subconsciously tell what she was thinking, like Breaking Bad?
"I can tell you're interested," Harris said, "I can also tell that you have no clue as to where Ys actually is. Your friends, Lowell, Yura, and Hale, we're holding them."
"If you're trying to get under my skin by using Derek and company to force me to come with you into Ys for whatever reason, then you're wasting your time."
"You misunderstand us," Marcel said, "My name is Marcel Manet, I'm native to this country."
"I remember you," she said, "You're the one I was fighting on the boat."
"That would be me," he said, "We had to swim for two miles to meet up with each other before the Three Mercs picked us up by boat. You've got us a great deal of misfortune."
"But we can forgive," Pavel said, "Harris, Marcel, and I are the only true members of Vita Longa, we are inviting you to come with us to Ys for the great opening."
"Why?" she wondered.
"We believe that you are worthy enough to gaze upon the Philosopher's Stone," Harris said, "The tool that will bring restore Rome back to its glorious days. Resolve the present for a better past for a better future. We, Vita Longa, believe that the only way a better future can be assured is for the past to be revisited so we can learn from our mistakes."
"Well," Cassie shrugs casually, "Personally, I like the world the way it is and it would suck if things suddenly started changing. I'd missed the Italian pizza too much."
Harris was getting annoyed with Cassie's behavior and wanted nothing more than to slap his open palm across his face. But after what happened last time, he made a pledge never to hit another woman, no matter who they were...or how long he's been married to that woman.
"I'm giving you an opportunity, Cassie," Harris said, "Gaze upon the lost city of Ys and witness the power of the Philosopher's Stone."
"Like I said, no thanks," she said, "But if you think I'm just going to stand by and let you take the stone for yourselves, think again."
She is stubborn, Harris thought, I will give her that. But I have to get her to come to Ys with us one way or another. If she could find all those lost cities and mythical objects in less then two days or weeks then she is the only one capable of figuring how to open the gate to Ys. We've spent countless years trying to open the gate but Cassie had gotten the job done several times, succeeding where others have failed. We need her to open the gate if we want the stone.
This time, Harris got stern. He slammed his fist on the table and leaned forward. Cassie copied him mockingly. "Listen here, you are coming with us to Ys whether you want to or not. If you try anything stupid, we will kill your friends. We'll start with Yura and Hale because they're insignificant and because you have feelings for Lowell, we'll kill him slowly."
Cassie's wide-eye betrayed her nonchalant expression.
He threatened Derek after saying that I had feelings for him. For this reason alone, I will take down Vita Longa and every mercenary working for them.