"Remind me again why you're coming along?" Jade asked, giving Ashar a sidelong glance as they moved at a brisk pace through the streets of Estelhelm. Tara led the way, referencing the device strapped to her wrist as she cut through alleyways, crossed streets, and guided them through a confusing network of roads. The city of Estelhelm was a densely crowded place, no doubt due to the strict space limitations being constructed atop a plateau imposed.

  "How could I miss an adventure?" The enchanter flashed a grin at her. "Demons in the city? A dose of midnight espionage? How about a chance to field test some of my latest creations?" He tugged at a bandolier he wore slung over one shoulder, which was laden with a variety of crystals, contraptions, and vials.

  "'Midnight espionage'" Naomi eyed him skeptically. "It's midday."

  "With any luck, the hour will be more appropriately dramatic by the time our venture comes to a head."

  "Do you take anything seriously?" Jade asked him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. His Labyrinth level was thirteen but, like Tara, that didn't tell the whole story. According to the interface the sum of his external magical abilities was estimated at level twenty-two, the highest of any in their current group. If that, and the quality of the wares in his shop, was anything to go by, he would be an asset.

  If he can focus for more than ten seconds.

  "Of course. But most of that is taken up by my projects. It wouldn't be healthy to burden myself with a mantle of grim determination every moment of the day."

  "Now you're speaking my language." Luis said, clapping Ashar on the back hard enough to make him stumble. "The most important time to focus on the good parts of life are when it's bad. That's when you need it most."

  "That almost sounded wise." Jade said. Despite herself, she felt a smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

  "We're almost there." Tara interrupted, gesturing for them to stop. She had halted at the mouth of an alley, peering out at a row of warehouses that ran along the spinward rim of the circular city. The tek'kalla pressed her back against the wall, keeping to the shadows. Her efforts at discretion were mostly undone by her stark white robes and the bright, midday sun shining down on them.

  "Yeah, Tara?" Luis said, stepping up beside her. "You're going to draw more attention to us like that."

  Luis wasn't wrong. A couple of passersby in the street threw curious glances their way, although if that was because of Tara's strange behavior or was simply due to the motley nature of their group, Jade couldn't be sure. None of the emotions she could taste included suspicion, so she ignored them.

  "There might be demons keeping watch." Tara hissed, hunched against the wall. "We should stay out of sight."

  "There are plenty of people around." Siora pointed out. The elf was bringing up the rear of the group, and still had an anxious air about her. She forced a smile. "If we act natural, we'll fit in."

  Tara reluctantly joined them as they stepped out into the broad thoroughfare. It wasn't exactly teeming with people, this was an industrial part of the city, but there was enough variety in the foot traffic that their group didn't stand out too much.

  "You said you checked this place out before?" Jade asked quietly, moving beside the tek'kalla. "How did you get in?"

  The warehouse in question was a large, three-story tall structure. Its footprint was about the size of a football field, maybe a little wider. The dark stone building was old, with broken windows and cracks running along the side facing the street. None of the windows Jade could see were close to the ground, however, and the large doors were closed.

  "I blasted through a door in the back." Tara muttered, gesturing down a side street. "Up against the city wall. I waited until no one was around."

  "Subtle…" Fenrin sighed.

  Tara flushed, which shifted her complexion from violet to plum. It was a little cute, but the glare she shot back at them was anything but.

  "I didn't have a lot of options. No one would listen to me, so I had to figure it out myself."

  "Are we really going to break into a building?" Naomi asked, keeping her voice low as they passed a group of the amphibious rhyssits. They turned down a side street, rounding the side of the large warehouse. Away from the main thoroughfare there were fewer people around. Jade wished they weren't out in the open, but there was nowhere to hide in the streets surrounding the structure. The alternative would be to wait until nightfall, but sneaking around here would be even more suspicious after dark. "We just got here. Aren't we supposed to be building good relationships with people in the Labyrinth?"

  "I'm sure they'll cut us some slack if we solve a demon problem for them" Luis reassured her. "Besides, we've got Fenrin! You're some sort of noble, aren't you?"

  "I'm the grandson of the baroness of a small town two quadrants away from here." Fenrin frowned, absently scratching his familiar's head. "I wouldn't count on my name to keep us out of trouble."

  "You're not doing much to make me feel better." Naomi sighed.

  "We're doing this for Earth, too." Jade reminded her. They'd finally made it to the back of the warehouse. A quick look around, and a soft pulse of her aura, confirmed that no one was nearby. "If we have a chance to find out why demons are interested in Earth, we have to take it. Even if it means taking some risks."

  "I'm not so keen on them being in the city, myself." Ashar said. He pointed at a small, rusted metal door set into the back wall of the warehouse. "Is that where you got in?"

  Tara nodded, leading them to the rear entrance. The back of the building abutted the outer wall of the city, and there was barely enough space for them to walk two abreast as they cautiously moved closer. As they drew near, Jade could see scorch marks burned into the door. A small piece of the stone was missing near the latch, blasted away.

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  She really did blow it open.

  "I tried to make it look better when I left." Tara said, not looking at any of them. "But… I'm a little better at breaking things than fixing them."

  "Wait." Ashar said, holding up his hand. His eyes, normally alight with a mischievous sparkle, had suddenly narrowed. He pulled a small diamond from a pouch on the bandolier he wore slung over his robes. It pulsed softly with faint, blue light, although it stopped as he held it up to his eye. "There's a detection spell here."

  "There is?" Tara took her wand and muttered an incantation to no obvious effect. "I don't see anything."

  The threshold appeared completely mundane to Jade as well. Her magical senses were getting sharper every day, but she couldn't detect so much as a hint of any enchantments.

  "It's weak and subtle." Ashar said slowly, panning the gem across the door as if it were a magnifying glass. "Probably a divination spell, or an alarm."

  "Nothing happened when I came through here last time."

  "Could be why you didn't find anything." Fenrin said, glancing around and making sure they were still alone. "We shouldn't stay out here."

  "I can disable the spell." Ashar offered, digging through another pouch at his waist. "Just give me a moment."

  The enchanter sprinkled a vial of red powder across the length of the threshold, which settled into a loose line on the ground. Then he squeezed a drop of liquid from a vial, dropping it right in the middle of the doorway. There was a 'pop' and a small flash, and then nothing.

  "All done." He said, stowing his supplies. "Let's get inside."

  Taking him at his word, Jade followed Ashar into the dark interior of the warehouse. She was surprised to find that the door opened directly into a large, cavernous space, and not a smaller room or utility hall. A pair of skylights let in a small amount of sunlight, allowing her to see clear across the entire length of the structure to the giant doors that opened onto the main street. Large crates, boxes, and the remains of other storage containers littered the interior of the building, many of which were broken or decayed.

  "What now?" Naomi asked, quietly closing the door behind them as they slipped inside.

  "Let's get geared up." Jade said, opening the mouth of her dimensional bag and starting to distribute equipment. "Fenrin, tell Mimi to keep an eye out for us."

  Sophisticated detection spells were a strong indicator that something unusual was going on here, to say the least. That wasn't the sort of thing that fit such an obviously abandoned and dilapidated warehouse.

  "We're just going to find that they're here, then go to the Silver Shield, right?"

  "That's the plan."

  "Then why are we putting our armor on?"

  Jade glanced back at where the detection spell had lain hidden.

  "Because we aren't the only ones who make plans."

  Naomi sighed but accepted her enchanted armor from Jade and started pulling it on. She shared her concerns, but Tara had already tried to bring this to the attention of the local authorities. If the demons were here, they surely knew they were being investigated. Even with the foiled spell, they could already know they were here. Best to be ready for a fight.

  "That's… unconventional." Ashar said, staring openly at Jade as she finished donning her own, unique armor. That she only flushed a little at his attention was a testament to her prior training in Lysara. "Is there a reason for it?"

  "Yes." she said curtly, tightening the last of the buckles. Jade had taken the time to modify her minimalist armor to at least cover her chest a little better, utilizing Naomi's skills as a tailor to grant her a tad more modesty on the battlefield, but she still looked like she's stepped out of one of those ubiquitous ads for shady mobile games.

  "The magic is quite impressive." He said thoughtfully, casting a critical eye over the intricately carved runes woven into the leather straps that comprised her 'armor'. "This is elven design, isn't it? How does it-?"

  "Later." Jade hissed, nodding deeper into the warehouse. "Focus."

  Luis and Tara were the last to finish gearing up. Where Luis wore a heavy breastplate, Tara's combat attire was… unusual. The tek'kalla had donned a multi-layered set of armor, first pulling on a form-fitting black under suit and then, with a few taps to the device on her wrist, conjuring angled white panels of composite material to cover her torso and legs. The white-on-black design was sleek and futuristic to Jade's eyes, although perhaps too striking to be well suited to covert action. Tara slid a clear visor down over her eyes, leaving the rest of her head bare.

  "Ready." she said, keeping her wand up. The strange device she'd brandished at Jade in Ashar's shop remained holstered at her hip.

  A few moments of quiet discussion were all it took to form a loose plan. Ashar's array of enchanted items had proved more effective at detecting whatever magic was at play here than any of their senses, so he would guide them while the rest kept a close lookout for any signs of trouble. The twin skylights did little to banish the oppressive gloom of the abandoned structure, and Jade was tempted to shift into an elven form to give her a better view. Instead, she opted to adopt her demon shape, trusting in its enhanced attributes.

  The next twenty minutes passed slowly, tension building with each new area they investigated. A collection of small offices yielded no secrets, nor did any of the large containers, intact or otherwise. As large as it was, the warehouse was mostly empty space. There weren't many places for a group of conspirators to hide. Jade could taste the group's anxiety and apprehension grow with each passing minute, the turbulent emotions mingling with her own. As with all negative emotions they were pleasing to her demonic form, and she had to fight to avoid getting distracted. Preoccupied, she nearly walked into Ashar as he suddenly stopped, holding his wand. The enchanter had affixed the diamond from earlier to a slot on his focus and had been waving it around. Now he stood still, frowning at it.

  "What's wrong?" Fenrin asked. The half-elf had his bow out. Not quite at the ready, but able to be brought quickly to bear on any threats that presented themselves.

  "There's nothing here." He replied, not taking his eyes off the implement.

  "Isn't that a good thing?"

  "No, I mean, here." Jade followed Ashar's gesture as he indicated a loose pile of rubble and debris. "My detection gem isn't returning anything at all. It's like it doesn't exist."

  "Illusion?" Jade asked, cautiously probing the area with her foot. It felt solid enough to her.

  Clunk.

  She expected the floor in the area to be the same, rough stone as it was in the rest of the buildings. Instead, as she nudged aside a few pieces of broken rock and slats of wood, her foot hit a perfectly smooth, dark surface.

  What is this?

  Together, they carefully cleared the area to reveal a three-foot square panel set into the floor. Ashar nodded slowly, pointing his wand at it.

  "Lead." he said softly. "It's blocking the spell. And our senses."

  That was news to Jade. She filed the information away for future reference. Refocusing on the task at hand, she studied the lead square beneath her feet. There was a latch. A trapdoor?

  "This is old." Fenrin whispered, kneeling to inspect the trapdoor. "If demons are here, they didn't make this."

  "Doesn't mean they couldn't be putting it to use." Jade replied, crouching beside him. "Let's take a look."

  "Shouldn't we go back and report what we found?" Naomi asked, giving the hatch a nervous look. Her guitar was in her hands now, held at the ready.

  "We don't know anything yet. For all we know, this is just a cellar."

  Jade didn't believe that any more than the rest of them did. Her gut told her that they'd uncovered something important here. It felt wrong to just walk away. She felt an urge to act, an impulse to delve deeper. It was her nature. But she hesitated. Too many times, she'd forged on ahead heedless of the consequences. Maybe, this time…

  Creak.

  Without warning, the hatch lifted from the floor, shoved from below. A dark, hooded head emerged from the floor, one dark arm still holding up the trapdoor as it clambered free of a ladder.

  "That's right." It said in a raspy voice, looking down into the hole. "I'll check it ou-"

  The creature finally noticed the group surrounding it and froze, half in, half out of the hatch. The sudden stop caused its hood to fall back, revealing dark skin, angular features, and curling horns. Its eyes went wide.

  "Wha-"

  Jade was the first to recover from her surprise, and she didn't hesitate. Ripping her daggers free of their sheaths, she lunged straight for the demon's throat.