(Stein's POV)

"No, sir." Elvira crosses her arms over her chest and tucks her wings in. "And I'd very much appreciate it if you wouldn't call me that, cause I'm sick of the damn rumors."

"Easy." I settle my arm onto the back of my chair. "I never planned to call you that. I just heard Kid and Black*Star call you a witch and figured I'd make my own assumption before calling you one."

"Oh, well, then thank you, Stein." She smiles at me briefly before turning to Lord Death. "I'm sorry about Mother. It won't happen again."

"Oh, don't be sorry." He ruffles her hair with one massive hand. "It's your mother, what more should we expect? Besides, I didn't help much by losing my temper." Lord Death drops his hand back to his side. "Sorry about that, Ellie."

"It's okay, Dad." Elvira smooths her hair back down. "I know how she is, but we have more important things to discuss. Before we do, though," She jabs a thumb at me. "Why is he here? Besides the fact that he's the top meister."

"I'm here because Lord Death figured you would get along with me the best." I push my glasses back up on my nose. "So I need to be in on why you're here."

Elvira turns to look at me, then turns back to her father, eyebrow raised. "We will discuss that later. Until then," She moves across the platform and sets up the computer system. "We can move on to my problem. Three of my four teammates are missing." She begins to type, three sets of information rapidly popping up on three different screens. "Cordovan Drake, Raja Anderson, and Blythe Adkins, aka Braddock Deering."

"Aah, so that's it. It would help more if we had more information, Ellie." Lord Death looks at each profile in turn. "I only recognize Blythe, and that's because your mother insisted on an angel going with you."

"I was getting to that, Dad." Elvira turns to face us. "Cordovan and Raja are both reapers I recruited for specific reasons when you placed me over the London Division. Van served in the Royal Court as a personal guard to Her Majesty and Raj was a police officer with Scotland Yard. Both of them kept me up to date on affairs of the court and any criminal movements. Van was "injured," She makes air quotes with her fingers. "Protecting the Queen from a would-be assassin. He usually takes advantage of sick days and days off and visits the Society to give his reports, but never showed this time. Raj was given a case by his commanding officer and disappeared on his way to interview suspects. Blythe usually stayed in the Society, but being our healer, she also kept a close eye on Van and Raj. She was going to visit Raj, but he said she never showed."

"So this team," I shift to sit indian style in my chair. "What do you do?"

"My division serves the same purpose as meisters and their weapon partners. We collect souls." Elvira crosses her arms over her chest. "The only difference is the way the Society does it. They judge the soul before deciding if said soul is taken or put back into the human it inhabited. My team and I, however, deal with the souls too corrupt to be judged."

"So you've probably made enemies?" I pull another cigarette from my pocket and light it, sticking it in my mouth.

"All of us have." Elvira shrugs. "But the only two who would ever be recognizable to anyone would be Van and Raj. They're seen by the public. Blythe, Mac, and I know our enemies. They don't know us, so it doesn't make sense for someone to take Blythe unless they knew she was connected to both Van and Raj and I know for a fact that no one does."

"Mac." I reach up and twist my screw. "Who is he?"

"He is my right hand man and is in charge while I'm here." She reaches out with one hand and hits a key, bringing up another profile. "Macabee Baines is a meister hailing from Death City. He was Dad's requirement." She hits the same key, closing his profile.

"Ahh, so Macabee is still with you." Lord Death sounds just a bit smug. "How are he and his partner?"

"Mac has gone blind since the last time you saw him and his most recent partner decided that he'd had enough of Mac and left." Elvira shrugs. "Mac doesn't seem too bothered, though, and he really likes his new death scythe."

"The loss of his sight is unfortunate, but then he has his- wait, most recent partner?" Lord Death tilts his head, slightly confused. "I thought he and Algernon were getting along just fine! How many partners has he had?!"

"Counting Nonnie, four." Elvira shrugs again. "He has no problem matching soul wavelengths. It's just his personality makes it hard for partners to get along well with him, though in his defense, he was the one who ended the partnership with Algernon."

Lord Death lifts one massive hand to scratch his mask. "I don't understand. I thought he and Algernon were like brothers!"

"Yeah, well, Nonnie had a different agenda." Elvira turns back to the other three screens. "Now, back to the problem."

"Oh, yes," Lord Death nods. "The problem. Go on, Ellie."

"The problem, other than more than half of my team being missing, is that I don't have much longer to help Mac with the search." Elvira flexes her white speckled wings, not looking at us. "I won't have the strength."

"What do you mean?" I blow out a skull shaped puff of smoke.

"My wings are supposed to be solid black, not dusted with white." She stretches her wings out to their full length, looking at us over her shoulder. "My feathers only turn white when my wings are molting, and as my feathers drain of color and fall, my strength goes with them." It seems as though the spots of white grow as she speaks, pushing the feathers closer to their fall.

"Ah, yes, I remember that." Lord Death nods again. "It happens once a year, and that's the only time when you're completely still."

"So it happens in spring?" I settle my arms back on my chair.

"Yes," Elvira turns to face us. "And unfortunately, it means I cannot continure a search that has gone on for six weeks and somone has to take charge of the Grim Reaper Dispatch Society. Mac can't do both."

"So that's where I come in." Lord Death chirps. "Well, just tell me where I'm needed and I will help. You are my only daughter, after all."

Elvira smiles. "Thank you, Dad, and to show you where you're needed, we get to take a little field trip. Stein, you can come, too." She hits a key on the keyboard that closes the profiles then turns to the massive mirror in the Death Room. "I doubt you'll be able to follow, Dad, but I can take Stein with me and leave the mirror going." She lays her hand on the reflective surface. "Headquarters, please." Her soul wavelength once again splits the mirror into two doors, which swing open to reveal a long bridge built of stone leading to a massive building of the same material. "Well, home sweet home." Elvira goes to step through the mirror.

"Wait a minute." Lord Death tilts his head, his daughter pausing with one foot through the doors. "If you can travel the way I can, why did you not do that in the first place? Would it not have been easier than traveling here on Titan?"

"Nope," Elvira looks at her father over her shoulder. "Around this time, every mirror travel saps my strength further." She flexes her wings, which now sport massive white spots that cover half of every feather. "I decided to save my mirror travel for the field trip, but," She turns on her heel, stepping closer to her father. "I'm going to need you to keep it going. My feathers will fall by the time we get back if I try to do it."

Lord Death nods. "I understand, and since I can't follow you through, I'll do it from here."

Elvira nods and turns back to the doors. "Alright, then it's just you and me, Stein. Come along." She whisks through the doors, not even bothering to see if I'm following.

I look at Lord Death, eyebrow raised. "And I'm supposedly the only one she'll get along with?"

"You'll see." Lord Death waves me on. "She just has to adjust. It's been a while since she's been back, now go on before she comes back for you."

I shrug and turn my chair around. "Alright, but don't expect me to be nice just because she's your daughter." I roll through the doors after the white haired halfling, admiring her white splashed black wings while I imagine slicing them from her back.