"I need a drink!" Clio announced when she walked into the JJI Conference Room the next day. Clio had beat-feeted back to the County and JJI to report to Tamsin, Julia and Reed on what all happened at Deapers Mountain.
"The bar is fully stocked." Lise informed.
"I need some really potent stuff. Hiding anything?" Clio asked.
"I have a bottle of Louis XIII L'Odyssee D'un Roi." Lise replied.
"Wait, weren't only three bottles of that ever produced?" Tamsin queried.
"That's what people think. One of the distilleries that produced Louis XIII was managed by Fae. We received a few bottles out of gratitude from one of the Fae Elders we helped out of a jam." Julia replied.
"That sounds perfect!" Clio said. Lise brought in the bottle and poured Clio a snifter.
"Well, you might as well share the love." Tamsin replied as Lise poured them all glasses. Lise was about to walk away with the bottle when Clio stopped her.
"Oh no, I meant what I said. I need a bottle!" Clio said.
"That tough of a time, huh?" Lise asked.
"You have no idea." Clio replied.
"Well, enjoy!" Lise said as she sat the bottle down on the table.
"Thank you Lise!" Julia said.
"Yes, Thank you!" Tamsin added.
"Anytime." Lise replied and then she offered a wide smile to Tamsin. Everyone else shook their heads.
"So what's the emergency?" Tamsin asked. Clio held up her finger as she sucked down her drink, poured another one and sucked it down.
"Wow! You must have some news." Julia commented.
"We have a real problem. A real, real problem." Clio reported as she poured another long drink.
"Okay?" Tamsin prompted.
"I'm afraid to tell even you." Clio replied as she slugged her drink down and poured another one.
"Let's just rip off the band-aid, shall we?" Tamsin said.
"I saw Aoife." Clio said.
"What?" They all said collectively.
"I think she's dead." Clio replied as she drank another shot.
"What?!" They all yelled collectively.
"In fact, yep, she's most certainly dead!" Clio replied as spoke through a gulp. "Damn! This bottle is almost drained. We are going to need another bottle."
"Lise!" Julia yelled. A few moments later Lise opened the door and peered inside.
"Yes?" Lise prompted.
"We need another bottle. In fact, make that two more." Julia replied.
"Okay then." Lise replied and shut the door behind her.
"What the hell happened, Clio?" Tamsin demanded.
"I was tracking our lead from Orsen in Oldhurst and ended up in a small town in upstate New York. I was reconning the town when I saw Aoife sitting next to a window in a coffee shop. I watched from across the street as she met with four others. Guess who was part of the posse?"
"Who?" Tamsin asked.
"Rumlar." Clio replied.
"Are you kidding me?" They all said collectively.
"Luckily, you gave me a picture of him before I left otherwise I would have been none the wiser." Clio said to Tamsin.
"So Rumlar was her connect?" Julia asked.
"Looks that way." Clio replied.
"This is all so unbelievable, and not good." Julia said. Just then Lise returned with two more bottles of Louis XIII, set them on the conference table then turned and left the conference room shutting the door behind her.
"When they exited the cafe Rumlar got into one car with one other and Aoife got into another car with two others." Clio reported.
"Why didn't you try and apprehend him?" Reed asked.
"Honestly," Clio replied as she moved her hands up and down like the balances of Justice, "six and five and pick 'em. I decided there was an entire Realm looking for Rumlar so I chose securing Bo's mom's safety as the priority. That's what Bo would have done."
"True dat!" Tamsin commented.
"The two men with Aoife drove her to a place called Deapers Mountain and planned to kill her there." Clio replied.
"And apparently, they succeeded." Reed commented.
"There's some news with that." Clio added.
"What else?" Tamsin asked.
"One of the two men that was with Aoife was a Monolith." Clio replied. She left out the questionable nature of Koren until she could verify further.
"How did one of them escape the banishment?" Julia asked.
"Not sure." Clio replied.
"But even more importantly, why is a Monolith on this plane of existence?" Tamsin queried.
"Not sure either." Clio replied. "But there's still more news to that."
"What the hell else can there be?" Reed asked flabbergasted. Clio took another drink.
"Agent Chennai, The Queen's personal Agent is dead too." Clio informed.
"And so are we." Julia replied as she collapsed in the back of her chair and rubbed her forehead.
"What happened?" Tamsin asked.
"Aoife was about to take a mother of a lava blast from the Monolith when Agent Chennai jumped in front of it. The blast bounced off her Seracon shield, destabilized the ground beneath them and they all fell off the cliffside inside the mountain and into the abyss." Clio said matter of factly. Everyone's mouths dropped.
"We are so dead! Just dead! Lise can start writing my obituary." Julia said.
"Tamsin, we need to fess up to all of this." Reed chimed in.
"Not yet." Tamsin replied.
"Tamsin! I can ride hard with the best of them, but Fae are getting killed Tamsin! Like really, super important Fae!" Reed exclaimed.
"We just need to maintain sharp focus if we want to recover the relic outright!" Tamsin said.
"Screw focus, Tamsin! We need to fess up or our heads will be on the chopping block!" Julia replied.
"Look! Everything that has led up to this will be a bunch of half-measures if we cut and run now. Now more than ever we need to find that relic to give everything that has happened thus far meaning. We need to keep our focus!" Tamsin replied.
"Tamsin, Bo's mother and Agent Chennai are both dead. How much more are we going to risk?" Clio asked.
"Whatever it takes to get at that relic. Trust me, that relic is the way to the truth as to the Presidium's true intent on us not finding it." Tamsin replied.
"This is no longer some side project. Shit got real! Really, really real! We're gambling with our very lives now Tamsin!" Julia said.
"I know! We just need to speed up finding that relic." Tamsin replied. Everybody exhaled and sat quietly for several moments.
"Is our timetable still the same?" Clio asked Tamsin.
"Yes, we have until after the Installation. That way, I can still play possum." Tamsin replied.
"Are you sure Aoife and Agent Chennai are both dead?" Reed asked.
"Dude! Unless they can fly they're gone." Clio replied.
"We have to at least say something about Agent Chennai." Julia replied.
"Not yet. Not until after the Installation. The Presidium will naturally assume she went dark in the pursuit of her mission." Tamsin replied then pondered a thought.
"What's churning in that head of yours?" Julia asked.
"Dyson told me that it was Agent Greystone's mission to find Aoife, not Agent Chennai's." Tamsin replied.
"So what was Agent Chennai's original mission then? And how and why did you two end up meeting in the same town? What and or whom was she looking for?" Reed asked Clio.
"Seems like we are not the only ones gone rogue." Clio replied.
"No we are not. Clio, the answer lies in that small town. I am almost sure of it!" Tamsin replied. "What 's the name of that town anyway?"
"Bear Valley." Clio replied.
