Chandra opened her eyes to a familiar ceiling. She sat up quickly. Her head spun and she dug her hand into the couch to steady herself. The room was currently empty except Gideon, who was leaning against the door jamb and Saerris who was still unconscious on the other couch. Chandra sighed and got to her feet. She walked over to Gideon, "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Gideon shrugged. He looked around, "Do you have any idea where we are?"

Chandra looked around, "Well, it's basically an inn. It's just not on the world we were just on."

"Oh," Gideon looked around, "And we're the only ones here why then?"

"Because this is a...hidden level. It's an inn but it's also a guildhall," Chandra explained vaguely.

"Oh," Gideon nodded, "Alright."

Phoenix. Come here.

Chandra rolled her eyes, "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go look around." She wandered through the hallway without giving Gideon a chance to argue.

I'm going to have to wipe his memory.

You're not wiping me from it. Chandra hissed through teeth gritted in anger. If you hadn't wiped me from Jace's mind none of that would've been as bad as it was.

Phoenix I-

"You can wipe this place and the guild's existence but you will not remove me from his memory," Chandra snarled. She found Star in a room with Eclipse. She fixed both of them with an enraged glare, "What do you want?"

"Actually we were going to offer you a job," Star said, "but it doesn't seem like you're open to the idea."

Chandra shrugged, "That depends. Will you honor my request? Keep me in Gideon's memory and I'll think about it."

"You really do play by your own rules don't you," Star sighed. She looked at Eclipse. He nodded, "Gideon keeps his memories of you. But Saerris won't be able to stay in his memory."

Chandra growled, "Why not?"

"She's shown an interest in joining us and if she does his knowledge of her could be...dangerous," Star explained.

Chandra sighed, "Fine. Whatever. What job?"

"Shadow and Echo can fill you in on the details," Eclipse said. He smirked, "You'll enjoy it."

Chandra raised an eyebrow and met his gaze doubtfully, "Sure." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to give into her like that?" Star asked, "She'll never learn if you continue with this."

Eclipse laughed, "Star. This is Phoenix we're talking about. If we don't give her permission to do what she wants she'll do it anyway." He met the telepath's gaze evenly, "That much was obvious when she went after Shadow without permission. No form of reprimand will make her change. She will become more cautious with time but she'll never be one to think before she jumps in. It's not in her character."

Star sighed, "Very well."

"It'd do you well to learn a little from her," Eclipse added. "Obeying orders isn't all there is to being in an organization."

Chandra walked up to Gideon, "Someone wants to meet you."

"Who?" Gideon asked.

"An elf named Star. She's cool. Don't worry about it," Chandra assured him. Might as well share her name since he'll be losing the knowledge anyway. She led him down the hallway and met Star on her way to where they had been. Star cleared his memory and dropped him off back on the world he had been on. She also altered the memory so to him Chandra had said she was leaving for a little while because she was bored.

"Eclipse said you guys had a job for me?" Phoenix said.

Shadow and Echo turned to her and nodded.

"There's an empire on a lost world-"

"Lost world?" Phoenix cocked her head to the side.

Echo sighed, "Give me the database. I don't have time to explain it to you."

Phoenix handed her the device. It was about five inches tall, three inches wide and less than an inch thick.

Echo took it and plugged it into a computer. She began uploading the information and returned to explaining the job, "The emperor has requested that we investigate some interesting occurrences within the aristocracy."

"We're infiltrating the aristocracy," Shadow said.

'You'll enjoy it.' I'm infiltrating an aristocracy? I'm infiltrating a group of higher class snobby whiny-and I'm supposed to enjoy it?! I swear! He's just giving me these jobs so he can laugh at me. She gritted her teeth, "Great."

Shadow started laughing, "Don't worry about it. The two of us will be doing it with you."

"What kind of odd occurrences anyway?" Phoenix took a deep breath. It was supposed to be relaxing but it didn't help. Given that I've dealt with a mob of thugs being mind controlled by a reluctant master. And a fire mage that had a pet cat as well as a hoard summoning tattooed creepy lady.

"Well..." Echo and Shadow exchanged glances.

"There's a race that we've never come across before that's basically being kept as pets by the rich," Echo explained, "And it's been that way for a multitude of generations."

"However the emperor has noticed that the rules he created to try and keep that race from being taken advantage of appear to be being taken advantage of," Shadow added.

"What kind of rules?" Phoenix asked.

"Things like no one can say no to them and they basically have privileges," Echo sighed, "It's hard to explain."

"The race itself is called Felis but they're generally just referred to as cats," Shadow explained.

Phoenix cocked her head to the side.

"They look like this," Echo grabbed a device off one of her many desks and it projected an image of a human with minimal cat-like features.

"They generally have the ears the tail and the eyes," Shadow said in an almost monotone voice, "Although a select few more exotic ones have a pattern on their skin or slightly pronounced canine teeth."

Phoenix stared at the image, "That's...weird."

Shadow shrugged, "The emperor has heard that some of the aristocracy is using their privilege to spy on their rivals during the seasonal balls."

Phoenix stared at Shadow, "Balls? Like dancing?"

"And talking and gathering," Echo nodded, "Yes."

Phoenix growled, "That damn vampire is more than dead."

Echo glanced at her and Shadow suppressed a laugh.

"Are you three going to spend the rest of the day chatting?" Wyvern asked impatiently.

"Sorry," Echo rolled her eyes.

Phoenix cocked her head to the side, "Wyvern too?"

Shadow nodded.

Echo unplugged Phoenix's database and gave it back to her. The three of them met Wyvern outside the room.

"Where are we going exactly?" Phoenix asked.

Echo pointed to a world on the map Phoenix had never noticed before, "Here."

"That's pretty far removed," she sighed.

"It's a lost world," Echo shrugged, "You'll get it once you finish reading."

"Right," Phoenix stuck out her tongue. I don't like reading. She followed the three of them to the world they were staying on for the next while. The four of them arrived in a mansion. Phoenix looked around in mixed awe and uneasiness, "That's...big."

"You're going to have to be able to act properly in a dress for this to work," Wyvern said.

Phoenix deflated and stared at the ground, "That vampire's dead. This is stupid. I don't wanna do this anymore."

"You haven't even started yet," Echo rolled her eyes.

Phoenix walked sullenly up the stairs, "I'm going to read and looked around."

"Which means she's looking around but trying to make us believe she's doing something productive," Echo sighed, "This is already interesting."