"Not her specifically," Tiernan said, sounding uncomfortable. "I don't know what she knows. Someone from her office."
Well.
"They contacted us three days ago," Tiernan continued. "Apparently, someone tried to sell information about the auction through government channels, which is mad, if you think about it."
Wait, but why would the Seon-jeong's office contact TAPESTRY? That didn't make any sense.
"I'm not following," I said, frowning. "Why didn't the government call KARMA? That's what it was created for."
"We're not sure either," Ejay said. "Our client said that by the time they could mobilize KARMA to investigate, the informant had vanished. But I think… They just can't officially sanction an operation like this."
"The queen's office cannot be seen meddling with the black market," Shea agreed. "But they obviously have every interest in making sure that artifact doesn't end up in the wrong hands. That's our working theory anyway."
"So we're doing the government's dirty work," Llewellyn said flatly.
My thought precisely.
"We're preventing a potential catastrophe," Tiernan corrected. "The Seon-jeong's office is just… facilitating."
Llewellyn raised an eyebrow.
"Look," Tiernan said. "They provided funding, intel, and most importantly—legal immunity if things go sideways. Even if we accidentally level the entire hotel, we're covered."
That was something at least.
"So wait," I said. "Is KARMA aware of this or not?"
"We don't know for sure," Jihoon said. "They must know something is up."
"But— Don't you suspect it might be a trap? For you?"
Tiernan blinked. "From KARMA? Our license is in order. We're allowed to investigate anything and everything going on around artifacts. And obviously, KARMA is not allowed to interfere with Llewellyn, Queen Seolene has made that clear multiple times."
…Well, what about me?!
Though, why would KARMA set up a trap for me? That didn't make sense. Even if they knew about Penguin, TAPESTRY had confirmed that he didn't even show up as an artifact anymore, so that couldn't be it.
Maybe I was overthinking this.
Still, TAPESTRY was technically a private group operating in a very grey zone. In their shoes, I'd be more worried.
"Who do you think is behind it?" I asked after a moment. "The Alliance?"
"That's one of our theories," Tiernan said. "It's possible that they're weaponizing what they can get their hands on, but we have no proof."
"To be honest, that's our only theory that holds up," Yuè Zhōu said with a sigh.
"We followed that guy from last time," Roan added, "the one with the fancy clothes you both tracked to Liorim Forest. But I really don't think he's responsible."
Yeah, he hadn't seemed the type to engage with anything lethal.
"Just to make sure you guys know," Shea said, "the venue's warded against unauthorized teleportation. Once we're in, we're committed. No quick exits."
"But it's not too bad," Roan said. "The building's security runs on a closed circuit. Shea can tap into it once we're inside and give us eyes on all exits. We should be fine."
Ejay, who'd left the sofa at some point, bounced on his toes. "So we go in, identify the seller, keep an eye on the buyers, see if we can trace the artifact's origin, then grab it before anyone can weaponize it."
He made it sound easy.
"Well, no," Jihoon said. "The Seon-jeong's office provided the funds to buy the artifact during the auction. Wasn't that the plan? I thought you guys were just coming as my backup."
"That's… let's call it plan B," Tiernan said. "Plan A is for our team to go in, quickly and cleanly suppress the artifact—possibly deactivate it entirely—contain it, and steal it before the auction even starts. This is the version of events I'm keen to make work anyway. If it doesn't work, then plan B is to go through the auction and buy it; but, if anyone decides to tamper with it, that's when it's most likely to do the most harm. Which is why I strongly suggest we put all our attention on plan A first."
"And," Llewellyn said, "I'm assuming plan C is—"
"Likely bullfighting," Tiernan said with a sigh.
…Did he just say bullfighting?!
"I'm afraid we'll have to count on you if it comes to that," Tiernan continued, "though we'll obviously do our best to support in combat too. But we should try and avoid having to resort to plan C at all costs, if possible. It's too dangerous."
I mean, I definitely wasn't looking forward to this.
"We'll have to do more testing," Yuè Zhōu said a bit anxiously. "I'm going to try a few embodied techniques using the artifact's projections, but… as always, my abilities are more about interpretation than prediction, so I'm not sure how much it's going to help."
"You say this every time, and then come out with something insane," Roan grinned.
"Seconded," Shea said. "And anyway, don't worry. I just need whatever you can give me to tweak the sound equipment."
"That's settled then," Tiernan said. "We'll all do our part to make sure everything is in place. And if everything else fails, we'll… play it by ear."
"So, we're walking into a trap," I said. I couldn't help it.
"Potentially," Tiernan agreed. "But we can't let that artifact leave that building. If someone releases it in a crowded area..."
He didn't need to finish. We all remembered the keyring.
"Besides, as you can imagine, I don't want to have to report that we failed to the queen."
Well. I could understand that, if nothing else.
"As for our roles," Tiernan said. "Jihoon's our bidder. He's got the perfect cover as a chaebol heir and rare-artifact collector from Seoul. Yuè Zhōu and Roan are going as his assistants. Ejay's working valet—gives him access to the whole building. Phelan will be working the bar. Shea will be monitoring from one of the hotel's bedrooms and intervening as necessary."
"And you?" Llewellyn asked.
"Security consultant," Tiernan said with a grin. "Gives me an excuse to be anywhere I need to be."
Well, that wasn't too bad.
"What about us?" I asked.
"You're going as yourselves," Tiernan said. "Our heroes interested in acquiring rare artifacts. Your real identities are your cover."
I know he'd already said this before, but hearing him say it again…
Maybe I'd been wrong about him. Maybe he was actually insane.
"That's insane," I said.
"I told him you'd say that," Jihoon hollered from his sofa. He was holding a cushion, which he seemed eager to launch at someone just for the sake of it.
"I don't disagree with that assessment," Tiernan sighed. "But your presence changes the entire dynamic. No one will try anything overt with Llewellyn in the room."
"Or they'll specifically target him," I pointed out.
"We'll have the whole team there," Tiernan said. "Multiple angles of support."
Why did we have to deal with this? Weren't Distorted Realms enough?
Though, to be fair, if it was really a Legendary-level Destabilized Artifact, Llewellyn was probably the only one who could tackle it, and we'd have TAPESTRY already on site with containment tools.
Damn it, now that I thought about it, what could I even do?
I needed to find something useful in the Core Partition as soon as possible, to at least make sure I wouldn't bleed out this time.
Or… maybe the opposite. Maybe I should read more on Blood Magic, since that was the only thing that worked last time.
I also couldn't shake another worry. If the Alliance was really targeting Llewellyn, wasn't this like delivering him to them on a silver platter? In a place with an insanely lethal artifact?
Should I even mention this? It's not like that was going to stop Llewellyn from going, and I had a feeling he might not want TAPESTRY to know, but still.
"The invitation's for a plus-one," Tiernan said, sliding a black envelope across the coffee table to Llewellyn. "So you going together won't raise eyebrows."
I felt my face heat up, but kept my mouth shut. At least it was an underground event so there would be no press.
"We've run similar operations before," Roan said reassuringly. "Just never with stakes this high."
"Or with a Legendary-level artifact," Jihoon added.
"We've got six days to prepare," Tiernan said. "Shea will send you both the building layouts and everything we know about the confirmed attendees. Study them. Know every exit, every potential threat."
He stood, and the meeting was clearly over.
***
"You okay?" Llewellyn asked as we walked back toward the station.
We'd considered teleporting, but I needed a walk.
I mean, thirteen artifacts flooding the market, the Alliance possibly involved, the government secretly contacting TAPESTRY instead of KARMA, and a Legendary-level Destabilized Artifact that someone had specifically tested a smaller version of first—with catastrophic results no less?
"Just thinking," I said. "This feels like a setup."
"It probably is," he agreed. "Does it matter?"
I sighed. "Not really," I admitted. "We still have to go."
Ah, I couldn't believe Llewellyn's brand of rise-to-the-occasion impulse was rubbing off on me.
"Come on," Llewellyn said after a moment, checking his phone. "We should check on the dragon. "