The safehouse in Bangkok smelled of dust and stale air. Helena sat at a steel desk, dim lamplight casting long shadows across the scattered papers she'd wrestled from the Serpent commander's satchel. The three sisters leaned in around her, their faces taut with anticipation.
The papers weren't maps or blueprints. They were fragments of something older—ritual records, coded ledgers, and half-burned reports. Helena's fingers traced over them carefully, her sharp eyes catching a repeating phrase scrawled in the margins.
Four names.
She read them aloud, voice steady.
"Isolde. Varisa. Vanessa. Jessica."
The sisters exchanged glances. The names felt strange, heavy, as though speaking them out loud invited something unseen into the room.
"Those are the ones holding the remaining keystones," Helena said at last, pushing back in her chair. "Without them, the Serpents' ritual is incomplete."
Marta's jaw tightened. "So we find them. We take the stones before the Serpents do."
Helena shook her head, frustration curling at the edges of her tone.
"Their names are all we have. No locations, no leads. Just this… list."
She gathered the papers into a neat stack, sliding them into a secure folder. Her training told her what had to be done.
"This goes to Berlin. The government has the resources to track these people down faster than we can. If the Serpents already know where they are, time isn't on our side."
Elise shifted uneasily, tapping her foot with restless energy.
"And while they chase names, what do we do? Sit here? Wait for orders?"
Helena's gaze hardened, her scar catching the light.
"No. We prepare. Because when those names turn into missions, they'll send us. And the Serpents won't be the only ones hunting for those stones."
She sealed the folder and handed it to the encrypted courier device waiting on the desk. With a single keystroke, the data packet shot off into the shadows of cyberspace, bound for government servers in Germany.
As the confirmation light blinked, Helena let herself breathe—but only once. Because in the pit of her stomach, she knew.
Whoever Isolde, Varisa, Vanessa, and Jessica were, they weren't ordinary people.
They were pieces of something ancient. And soon, Helena and the sisters would have to face them.