"This is spiraling out of control!" Dr. Lavoie yelled while locked away in a Conference Room on a visual conference call within the Vio Fin Immobiliere offices in Paris. Dr. Lavoie's cabal decided to reconvene soon after word had spread within the Fae world on the Human Plane that they were now under Presidium rule. Dr. Lavoie had never been to the Presidium, his family having followed the Blood King to the Human Plane. Even though his parents were long deceased he wasn't sure how they would receive the news of their assumption by the Presidium, particularly pursued by the same Fae who had instigated their departure from the Presidium in the first place. Nevertheless, it didn't stop Presidium forces from meddling over on the Human Plane from time to time. Now those same meddling forces could act with blatant impunity, and that would upset carefully laid plans. Even worse, the Humans had no idea they had a whole other plane that ruled over them and could wipe them out at any moment. Dr. Lavoie felt like their plans rested on a Plane of explosives that could go off at any moment if their long-standing plans did not move carefully and precisely.

"We have it under control." The male on the other end of the conference call replied.

"You call this control?" Dr. Lavoie raged. "The effort to poison the Homelands of The Queen. Thwarted!"

"That plan was intended to be a mere distraction." The male replied.

"The Athenaeum! Found! And not by us!" Dr. Lavoie rallied on.

"Engelram really did deserve to die for keeping that hidden away for as long as he did." Elder Idalia Reliford replied. She sat on the right of Dr. Lavoie in the room.

"And now the Presidium has taken us in as the Renaştere Delegation which will now open up a whole new set of problems we cannot control." Dr. Lavoie continued. "And by the way, who came up with the name, Renaştere, anyway?"

"I think it's quite appropriate, really." Elder Reliford commented.

"The acceptance of your plane could pose a problem but it's still containable and serves our interests." The male replied.

"How?" Dr. Lavoie asked. "I'm surprised Fae aren't already out rampaging the streets snatching Humans in broad daylight!"

"There have been reported incidents already. Luckily, those can be explained away as fake news." Caiden Vescovi replied who sat on the left of Dr. Lavoie. Caiden, a Fae, was a businessman who sat on the Committee for the Advancement of Humanity at the Plato Foundation.

"And those wayward Fae have already been dealt with by the Agency." Elder Reliford added.

"That won't last! If we don't quickly shift the pace, tempo, speed of our plan during this window of euphoric acceptance there could be further, far less explainable outbreaks between presumptuous Fae and frightened Humans that could lead to war!" Dr. Lavoie implored.

"Let's calm ourselves, Dr. Lavoie." The male replied.

"You calm yourself! I have been steadily working my part in this grand strategy for decades, but I'm concerned some spirited Fae will act unilaterally, spoiling decades of planning!" Dr. Lavoie shot back.

"We agree with you, Doctor and we're close to achieving our objective, but we're still missing the other vice to our plan." The male replied.

"What's that?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"The relic. We still need the relic." The male replied. Dr. Lavoie exhaled and then rubbed his head.

"We need to hurry this along. I cannot go through another purge of staff the way I did after the break-in at Zandri. Do you have any idea how much clean up I had to do after that? Had to terminate hundreds of staff and specimens just so that it didn't track back to both VPI and Zandri." Dr. Lavoie said in exasperation.

"And we are thankful." The male replied.

"It was a waste!" Dr. Lavoie lamented.

"Luckily, they'll never be found." Caiden replied.

"That's true. The Penstongue have to eat sometime. One of the few times I actually liked spreading mulch." Dr. Lavoie said.

"How many of the Penstongue did you have to destroy?" The male asked.

"None. Thank goodness. That would have put us back decades if we had to. The one in the lab seemed undisturbed, and the ones we had in the secondary greenhouse also seemed undisturbed." Dr. Lavoie replied.

"It's amazing so many still exist. They were fortunate happened to be off-plane when their plane was banished." The male said. "What about the subjects at VPI?"

"We still have those quarantined. But Dr. Lavoie's right. Once we can stabilize the serum, we should be ready to go." Dr. Velia Zarow, Head of VPI replied who sat on the left of Caiden.

"Good." The male replied.

"I wanted you all to know we came into some information that may prove helpful down the road." Dr. Zarow said.

"What information?" Elder Reliford asked.

"I have an intern who knows Dr. Lewis." Dr Zarow replied.

"As Karen Beattie?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"Only as Dr. Lewis." Dr Zarow replied.

"What about this intern?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"Apparently, she met Dr. Lewis some years ago. Looks up to her. Credits her for current career path. She's also the daughter of one the Plato Foundation's wealthiest patrons." Dr Zarow replied.

"What's her name?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"Livvy Saen." Dr. Zarow replied.

"Saen? As in Ellie and Opheila's daughter?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"The one in the same. Her association with Dr. Lewis could serve our cause." Dr. Zarow replied.

"I don't see the opportunity. Ellie's interests are environmental." Caiden said. "Isn't she and her latest paramour off saving the whales or something?"

"That's just it. One of her past paramour's was indeed Dr. Lewis." Dr. Zarow replied.

"What? As Karen Beattie?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"Can we please settle on a name?" Elder Reliford pleaded in frustration. "Getting a crook in my neck trying to follow the ping-pong of her name."

"How did you come by this knowledge?" Dr. Lavoie asked.

"Livvy herself. Livvy met Dr. Lewis as Dr. Lewis, and it seems Ellie was quite taken with her." Dr. Zarow replied.

"Karen always had that allure." Dr. Lavoie recalled.

"This information could be parlayed into Foundation politics, but I don't see any value as to how it would serve our larger plans." Elder Reliford said.

"I agree. It's good information to keep in our back pockets, and if the window of opportunity presents itself just right, we can leverage it." Dr. Lavoie said. Dr. Zarow nodded.

"Well, I think we have an opportunity that presents itself right now. The Princess Royal and her immediate family are here. In France." Caiden said.

"And?" Dr. Lavoie prompted.

"Who says we can't solve a few problems ahead of schedule?" Caiden replied.

"If 'resolving a few problems' means murdering Gareton's daughter and her family then the answer is no." Dr. Lavoie replied.

"Getting squeamish on us, Doctor?" The male said.

"What I object to is getting stupid. There's no need to kill Karen or her family." Dr. Lavoie replied.

"You're forgetting the big picture here, Doctor." Elder Reliford said.

"I am clearly aware of the big picture." Dr. Lavoie replied. "Look, while I am committed to our cause, I've also been friends with Gareton and Livia for years, back when they were students and I was a member of staff at the Sorbonne. Their lineage is not to be scoffed at either. They date back to the Merovingians and, unbeknownst to them have had close associations with Fae families who founded some of the noblest families on this Plane. There's utility there, and as such our ends can be achieved without murdering them in the process."

"If our aims are achieved, they will fall along with the others so what matter?" Caiden said.

"Timing. Successful aims are achieved when the trigger is pulled at the right time. Murder for the sake of expediency signals impatience. I'm saying use them to achieve our ends as we are doing presently without jeopardizing our plans by carelessness." Dr. Lavoie argued.

"Dr. Lavoie is right. We can wait." The male said.

"I would certainly hope so." Dr. Lavoie said then looked at his watch. "I need to go. Having dinner with the Beatties tonight at eight to welcome their daughter back."

"Will it be a large affair?" Caiden asked.

"Only intimates of the family." Dr. Lavoie replied.

"Enjoy yourself, Doctor. We'll keep you posted." Elder Reliford said. Dr. Lavoie nodded and left the room and shut the door behind him.

"Do you still have your contacts inside Zandri?" Elder Reliford asked Caiden.

"As well as inside the Beattie Household." Caiden replied.

"Well, if the good Doctor is being welcomed at home, I don't see why we can't ensure she's fully embraced." Elder Reliford said.

"Fine, but no trigger pulls." The male said. Elder Reliford nodded in response.

"Where's Rumlar?" Dr. Zarow asked.

"On a task." The male replied. "Do you need him?"

"Not yet, but perhaps soon. We are close to perfecting the serum, but he told me if I ever needed him to contact Caiden here." Dr. Zarow replied.

"Anything else?" The male asked. Elder Reliford, Caiden and Dr. Zarow shook their heads.

"Very well. End call!" The male said.

The called ended and Primus Brixius leaned back into his chair and looked off into the empty spaces that held the faces of Elder Reliford, Caiden Vescovi, and Dr. Zarow and pondered his next steps.