Illegal activities time!
Michael walks in with Ann, having gone to pick her up from Quinn's, just in time to see Morgan flipping the alchemy shop's 'open' sign to 'closed'. The alchemist mumbles a hurried greeting to them before darting back into the back of the shop, and the two magi exchange glances at their hasty, fumbling behavior.
"Nervous?" Ann asks, lifting an eyebrow at him.
"Not as much as others, apparently," he answers. "What about you?"
"I'm alright." With a shrug of her small shoulders, she says aloud, "It will be just like a field exam—booby traps and all, I'm sure."
He snorts softly, amused. "And you always passed these exams with flying colors, of course?"
"Of course."
They've all certainly got their choice of self-reassurances for the task they're about to undertake, so he decides not to comment overmuch on Ann's. She certainly hasn't seemed as outwardly wound up as the others so far today, although when one stops to think about it, their reactions are all perfectly justified.
Morgan has been in the shop either brewing potions or studying with their nose buried in their notes and books all afternoon, finalizing the recipe for the invisibility potion, the linchpin of this entire operation. Combined with the alchemist's natural tendency to worry, it's no wonder they've been frazzled. Mime at least hasn't left their side, providing a steady and sincere stream of encouragement and refreshments.
Meanwhile, Kaidan has been even more quiet than he usually is. As little as he spoke of his time as a prisoner, they can all gather that he is none too keen to return to the place. Both alchemists have been putting him to work around the shop, asking for little things here and there that they might not strictly need help with, but Kaidan seems glad of the chances to keep occupied.
The magi enter the back lounge to find Morgan obsessively organizing the ingredients again. Pages of notes are strewn across the floor around where they sit, fiddling absently with the locket by spinning the wheels round and round.
To announce their presence, Michael remarks lightly, "Never took you for the type of person who reacts to pressure by turning their immediate vicinity into a disaster zone, but hey, whatever works for you."
Morgan pauses briefly to throw a half hearted glare in his direction, and Mime waves. "Hi, Michael! Victoria's in the kitchen. She's scheming."
"Is she?" he says, amused and somehow unsurprised. "I suppose we should make sure she hasn't turned the kitchen into another mess, or Elizabeth will be none too pleased."
Making his way down the hall, he peeks into the kitchen. Standing in the light of a single lantern, Victoria stares intensely at a minefield of sketches all over the table. Most of them look familiar, depicting messily drawn, certainly not to scale blueprints of the mansion layout with lots of question marks, scribbled letters and numbers denoting various checkpoints that they hope to cross by certain times within the hour that they have, and so on and so forth. A few pages of other notes, mainly information on the guard rotation, sit off to the side.
As he watches, she traces one finger along one of the maps, mouthing words to herself with a frown that has been present on her face since morning. Her bandages came off earlier; he can see the pink raised lines of her scars that the fairy left. She's fully dressed, jacket and all, sword buckled to her hip.
By way of greeting, Michael comments, "I heard you're scheming?"
Victoria starts, head snapping round to look at him. "Is Ann back as well?"
"She is. Everyone's in the lounge."
"Good." Her attention is already returning to the maps, pausing only for a moment to give him a look. "And I'm not scheming. I'm planning contingencies."
"Because we definitely need more of those, since that's not what you've been doing all day," he points out dryly, wandering over to the table. There's a ceramic cup of coffee sitting cold on the counter; he grabs it and lights a tiny purple flame underneath it on the end of his index finger to heat it. It's either a testament to her habituation to the presence of wild magic or a testament to her distraction by their crime planning that Victoria doesn't even react to her dragon bone sword vibrating in response to his magic.
"Very funny," she mutters, pushing her scarred hand back through stray strands of hair. "Are the others ready?"
"Waiting on you." He tilts his head and amends, "Well, Morgan hasn't made the potion, since it's time sensitive, so not including that. They're ready, though, no matter how much they keep fussing over the recipe."
Deciding the coffee has heated up enough, he takes a sip, and Victoria glances sharply up at him.
"Put that down!" she snaps, storming around the table to snatch it out of his hand. "What if the caffeine messes with the invisibility potion?"
He blinks at her. "Well, considering I once mixed one of Morgan's healing potions straight into a coffee and it still worked, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"You don't know that!" She pours the coffee into the sink and jabs a finger at his chest. "If the potion wears off of you ten minutes into the raid-"
"It won't," he interrupts, gently pushing her hand away. "Just like we won't be getting caught tonight. We did our due diligence in planning; anyone can tell that much. Victoria," he continues, surprising even himself as his tone softens, "we will be fine." Seeing her open her mouth, he quickly adds, "I'm not just saying it to get you to shut up—that's just an added benefit. I'm saying it because they-" He gestures towards the lounge, lowering his voice slightly. "-all look to you to drive this forward. You're the leader—so act like it. The more faith you have in yourself and all of us that this is going to go smoothly, the better we will all perform, and the better our chances are."
The agitation in her expression slowly simmers down with each rise and fall of her broad shoulders. She takes a deep breath, and with great difficulty, he squashes down a pleased smile as she straightens up, looking calmer.
"Okay," she sighs, "you're…" She grimaces, and this time, he has to actively fight down the smirk trying to break free. "You're right, I suppose," she finally mutters, shooting him a side-eyed glare; luckily, his expression is resolutely innocent.
He can't resist just a tiny jab, though. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Raising her ruby eyes to the heavens, Victoria doesn't deign to respond and turns on her heel, vanishing into the lounge in a swish of dark hair. Giving in, Michael lets his smile break out for just a moment before following.
In the lounge, Ann has her notebook out, sketching an array of the runes on Morgan's locket with some input from Mime while Kaidan tidies up the mess on the floor. Meanwhile, Morgan is giving Victoria a rundown of vials and flasks prepared over the course of the day, little party tricks and odds and ends that may come in handy at the right time and the right moment. They're arranged neatly on a thick leather belt that looks like it's seen better days, with a dozen or so small loops sewn on, some of which look a little questionable in terms of durability. Hopefully, they'll hold. The last thing they need is for a water bomb to slip out and explode on the hallway floor in the middle of their raid.
Victoria gestures at the belt, rearranging some of the potions, explaining why it might be better to have these few next to each other on one side and those on the other, and Morgan nods along thoughtfully. Watching the organized chaos, Michael breathes in quietly.
We'll be fine.
o0o0o
To Michael, the vial looks like it contains nothing but water. It had glowed and bubbled briefly when completed, but it now looks quite tame, clear and still.
With a nervous smile, Morgan looks around the circle and says, "Bottoms up."
When Morgan fizzles out of existence before their eyes, melting into the shadows of the back alley that they've all hidden in to prepare themselves, Victoria visibly flinches next to Michael. He himself is no stranger to strange magics; there was an Illusionist child in their mismatched collection of child magi who could do much the same thing. Still, it's fascinating to see how alchemy has found ways to replicate little things from each branch of magic, albeit in watered-down versions.
"All good," Morgan's disembodied voice declares. "It tastes like a fizzy drink? Not sure if I like it, but it's weird."
"Aw, now I kinda wanna try it," Mime mumbles, pouting.
Kaidan reaches out in Morgan's general direction. "Well, it can't be worse than your healing drafts," he remarks dryly.
A flask materializes in his hand as Morgan retorts, "Wanna tell that to Elizabeth?"
"Ah—I'll pass."
Kaidan takes a sip from the flask and disappears as well. Michael hears Victoria breathe out a quiet sigh of relief when his markings vanish along with the rest of him. None of them had been sure how his innate magic, visibly expressed in his marks, would react to the potion. Disembodied glowing blue lines would've certainly put a damper on their mission.
Ann, standing next to Kaidan, is frowning. "Kaidan, can you actually see Morgan?"
A pause. "Er…no. Why? That's the whole point, isn't it?"
The Tinker closes her eyes briefly. "Izith grant me strength…This is a slight problem, then, if we also can't see each other with this potion. And since we're trying to be stealthy here, shouting for each other every time we need to communicate isn't exactly an option," she points out. "The last thing we need is to get separated in that mansion under a time limit."
Silence descends upon them as they are faced with this quandary, so simple that they hadn't thought to address it beforehand. One trick of Illusionists is that they are naturally gifted with the ability to see through other Illusionists' spells to an extent, especially if they know they're there, and Michael had thought that the same principle would apply here.
"We'll hold hands and walk single file," Michael volunteers as a solution. "So that we don't get separated. And we'll always be able to see Mime, so there's that, at least."
Ann and Mime glance at Victoria, and Michael knows that Morgan and Kaidan are doing the same.
"Time's ticking," Michael reminds her, nodding in Morgan and Kaidan's direction.
The Knight grimaces. "Fine. I guess we don't have any other option." She looks around at their circle critically. "I'll lead, since I need one hand free to draw my sword. Michael will walk behind me. Kaidan and Ann will bring up the back, and we'll keep Morgan and Mime in the middle." Which will make it easier for the rest of them to protect the pair. "Understood?"
A quiet chorus of assent goes up. Mime flashes Victoria a grateful look. Despite the fact that Mime is the only one that any of them will be able to see, Michael is sure that Victoria does not notice at all.
Ann takes her sip of the potion and vanishes from view before passing the flask to Michael. With an anticipatory smirk, he makes a gesture with the flask at Victoria as if toasting her before lifting it to his lips. It does indeed taste like sparkling water, and he watches his body disappear beneath him in fascination.
Belatedly, he realizes Victoria is waiting with one hand held out, staring uncertainly at a point just past his head, and he passes the flask along. She eyes the remaining liquid dubiously before draining the rest and fading away.
Looking remarkably lonely, Mime blinks and turns in a circle. "Wow. This is kinda creepy. Uh, you all are still there, aren't you?"
"We're here, Mime," Morgan's voice reassures her as the invisible alchemist takes Mime's hand and swings it back and forth. "Kaidan?"
"Here," he responds softly. "Where—ah. There you are."
Ann's voice asks, "Who am I poking right now?"
"That's my elbow," Kaidan's voice replies. "Are you alright being the rearguard, then?"
"Fine by me, as long as you and your long legs don't walk too fast."
Michael reaches out to Mime, gently taking her other hand; it's almost just as disorienting to not be able to see his own hand and know where it is. "It's me, Mime."
"Gotcha. Thanks, Michael."
He almost jumps when another hand touches his arm like a ghost.
"Michael?" Victoria whispers.
She sounds so unsure, so out of her depth. For her, it must be a downright bizarre situation—using magic to steal back magic from a high ranking mine owner—and he fumbles to catch her hand before it can drift away. In the moment, he's almost glad she can't see his expression.
"It's me," he repeats.
Her hand clutches his tightly, warm and solid, the ridges of the new scars on her palm pressing against his skin.
"Good," she huffs, and his stomach does a strange little twist—he must be more nervous than he thought. "You'd better stay where I can…"
She trails off, and he can't help but tease, "See me?"
"Be quiet," she grumbles; he can practically see her scowling at him. For a moment, he wishes he could—it's almost endearing when they both know he's just teasing.
"Yes, ma'am." He looks around (rather pointlessly) and asks, "Are we all in order, then?"
"I think so," Morgan's voice agrees. "Lead on, Victoria."
For a worryingly long moment, Victoria doesn't move or speak. The weight of her hand in Michael's is the only indication that she's still there. A joke about getting cold feet is on the tip of his tongue, but at the last second, he swallows it back, reminded of how just earlier this evening, he'd caught her trying to cram in some last minute preparations. They'd talked the whole operation over thoroughly and well beforehand, making up various plans for fast getaways; he'd been quick to tease the Knight about being on the other side of the chase for once, and she'd been just as quick to needle him back about his surely extensive experience being on the run. Between the two of them, though, he knows they can keep the others safe.
He squeezes her hand tentatively, trying to remind her of the hours of prep work they—well, mostly she—did, all for the sake of making sure this goes right.
After a pause, measured in six anxious hearts beating, she squeezes back. "Right. Let's go."
o0o0o
When they emerge from the tunnels, the tree door disappearing behind Michael, he barely notices Mime throwing her arms around the nearest dead tree. Could those tunnels be the answer he's been looking for? But in the corner of his eye, he can see Victoria's suspicion and forces himself to appear nonchalant. If a Knight of the Empire were to find what he thinks he's looking for…
He doesn't want to think about the possibility of it being Victoria.
As they start making their way back towards town, all of them in various moods, Michael finds himself walking besides Victoria, who is gripping her sword with almost white knuckles, ruby eyes repeatedly sweeping the forest around them.
"So," he starts, "what exactly did I miss before the four of you came rushing back to the office?"
She grimaces, and Mime volunteers, "Victoria shoved Goldner into a closet!"
A loud snort escapes Michael even as Victoria snaps irritably, "Only because you knocked over that vase. And Kaidan helped!"
The complete lack of a denial makes him laugh harder, and Morgan looks very much like they're grinning behind their hand. Victoria lifts a hand to her head, closing her eyes briefly as if resisting the urge to strangle someone, and Ann sighs.
"We also overheard a communication crystal conversation between Goldner and someone from the Knight order," she adds, green eyes flashing with cool anger. "He was trying to persuade them that the recent accidents have been part of a revolutional magi uprising—and it sounded like he'd bribed them into taking his complaints higher up."
Michael blinks, eyebrows raising. "I wonder if he realizes the irony of making his complaints about a magi uprising on a device powered by magic, made by magi."
Ann rolls her eyes. "Given what we've seen of the man so far, and this-" She waves a sheaf of papers, a map of the mines scrawled across the one on top. "-I highly doubt it."
"True." Glancing sidelong at Victoria, who refuses to meet their gazes, he remarks. "Can't say I'm surprised—at Goldner's hypocrisy, or the Knight order's."
Receiving an annoyed glare for his troubles, Victoria shakes her head, fixing her gaze forward resolutely. "What I'm worried about is that he has such an easy way to contact the Knights. If he decides to report our less than stealthy break-in…"
"He won't, though, right?" Mime points out hopefully. "Because he'd risk having to explain what we stole?"
"That's the idea," Michael agrees. "If there's one thing we know, it's that people in this country will do anything to make themselves look less incompetent than they are."
Victoria glares at him again, but Morgan quickly interjects, "Look, the important thing is that we got what we came for and none of us got hurt! And we got some handy evidence of Goldner's shadiness. I think we did a good job tonight."
Mime nods with a cheerful hum. Ann looks pleased, probably because they got her a new toy to tinker with, and even Kaidan cracks a small smile at Morgan. Victoria sighs, seeming to relent, if only a little.
"I just worry that this will bite us in the back later on," she says quietly.
With a grin, Michael points out, "You'll keep us safe, if it does."
"Thanks for foisting that on me," Victoria responds flatly.
Undeterred, he continues, feeling the truth of his intuition in his heart, "You keep us safe. I keep us honest." He nods at their Tinker. "Ann keeps us smart." She blinks slowly, looking surprised but pleased, and he glances at their tall Outlander friend. "Kaidan keeps us brave." Blue light pulses from his marks as if startled. "Morgan keeps us careful. And Mime keeps us kind."
The spirit and alchemist exchange smiles, and a thoughtful silence cloaks their group for a moment as they emerge into the dark streets of town.
"So does this mean we can have a team name now?" Mime asks hopefully.
Without missing a beat, Victoria deadpans, "If it's 'Demon Detectives', then no."
"Aww…"
I just think it's nice when characters support each other and hold hands :)
Also, I think Mime ships it :D Michael: *walks in* Mime: *immediately tells him where Victoria is, unprompted* Michael: *questions nothing*
