She didn't know whether it was because of her extended leave last week so she needed to catch up on work, or simply because it was the beginning of the work week, but the Windsor Investigation Department was especially busy today for Pandora. Reports were coming in. Investigations were finishing up. Her assistant Inquisitors and employees ran around, organizing documents and speaking up on the phone with various contacts that usually worked with the force, ranging from informants to connections in lower-level authorities such as the Wind Brigade.

  It wasn't something that bothered the High Inquisitor; in fact, this was precisely where she liked to be. Despite what one might think given her position and capabilities, the woman didn't fancy sitting on a pompous throne or having millions of servants to do her every bidding.

  Sooner or later, it reached the evening, apparent by the sun setting on the corner of her office window. Yes, she couldn't evade it any longer. She tried to drown—utterly submerge herself—in her work, but it wouldn't bring her back to her own home that she was reluctant to return to.

  She had a fight earlier this morning with Acacia.

  She lost her control.

  She called him nothing but an Irregular.

  She hurt those she wanted to protect. Once again. And then she treated him badly again when he got himself out of it and proved himself. While she had calmed down now, at least to an acceptable level of internal turmoil, when she revisited the regret, the shame, and the internal conflict she had in her heart, the feelings were like scalding acid that threatened to engulf her. Pandora found that she could not stop shaking. Not from sadness or sorrow. Just...nerves.

  No amount of chamomile tea or her favorite type of espresso could calm down her mania. Even her meditation sessions went off track thanks to her own intrusive thoughts. No matter what she did, she could not stop picturing the incident.

  You're right, I'm nothing but an Irregular.

  His words replayed in her head. Those cold words dug underneath her skin as her fingers did as well.

  She had a habit of hiding her scars. It had gotten worse before. Back in the Legion where her own blood was always splattering everywhere, back when there were more scratches and marks than there were unblemished flesh. Well, perhaps she should only speak for her hands.

  "Why did you look so calm, like you've accepted your fate and that nothing I say will change that?" She muttered under her breath. "Why didn't you say I was wrong?"

  She pushed away her papers on the desk. "Damn it." She was really losing her edge.

  "Bianca...what would you do?" She mumbled offhandedly, standing up and turning her gaze towards the stained glass window, the sunset casting a small bit of orange from the white.

  What would Bianca have done? What could she have said to reassure the boy?

  The uncomforting episode of silence played throughout the room until the office phone suddenly rang. Pandora raised an eyebrow, steeling herself before sitting back down and picking up the phone. An unknown number was quite unusual. Thankfully the office lines were discardable if worse came to worst.

  "Windsor Investigation Department, High Inquisitor Kircheisen speaking."

  "L-Lady Kircheisen?"

  Suddenly, she smirked.

  "Ahahahaha! Oh my god! This is great! This is better than what I expected!"

  On the other side of the line, his breath faltered a bit.

  “Um, sorry? I don't understand what you're trying to say, Lady Kircheisen. Did you expect me to call you?"

  "Yes, Jonas Lucius. I expected you to call me sometime around the beginning of this week. It appears that things are falling into order, just as I wished."

  "Just as you wished? W-wait, no, that doesn't matter? Lady Kircheisen, I have to tell you something extremely important! Err, no, even more critical than your usual expectations!"

  "Huh? An assistant police officer from the recesses of Ocarina wants to tell a High Inquisitor something important. Impossible, yet you appear rather frantic. Explain. Explain it all."

  "E-e-explain? But how should I tell you about it?" Jonas nervously paused before clearing his throat once more. "I...well...hmm...ok, so, Lord Cagliostro Narma knows your true identity! He knows that you are Mercutio! To be blunt, he's hired the Bloodhounds to take revenge on his son. He's after you, and the prime suspect of Giovanni Narma's case! He already tracked your route!"

  "I know, and so?"

  "What?"

  "You didn't think I planned for all of this to happen? It's natural for Cagliostro to do all of this. Getting tunnel vision over getting revenge for his son's death to the point of hiring one of the most dangerous criminal syndicates in the world, and connecting Mercutio to Pandora, I wanted all of this to happen.”

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  "Why? I can't believe this! With all due respect, why would you allow yourself to be hunted down to this extent? You're putting yourself, and that boy in danger! What's the point of him escaping if that's the case—"

  "You talk too much, Lucius." She silenced him sternly, unbeknownst to her, freezing him in place. "Frankly, the only worthwhile thing you’ve done was calling me in the first place. If you're calling me now, that means your boss, Gambino Russo is dead, correct?"

  She heard nothing from the receiving side.

  "I figured as much. I didn't care for him, but my condolences. In any case, this just means everything should be going smoothly. The Bloodhounds should be arriving any moment soon in Windsor. Today will help me determine something important." She ruminated, almost as if Jonas wasn't on the other line.

  "Lady Kircheisen. I honestly used to respect you. But now, I cannot approve of your methods. Putting you and that Irregular boy in danger—"

  "That's rich. Weren't you going to execute the 'Irregular boy' for a crime he didn't commit?"

  "That's...partially why I wanted to call you. I want to abandon Ocarina's IPA. I can't work under the corruption of Cagliostro any longer. Please, allow me to apologize to Acacia! He didn't deserve any of this! I'll even travel to Windsor this week! I must clear my sins!"

  "Oh, is that so?" Pandora grinned, leaning back on her office chair and allowing her silver hair to flow. "Why should I do that? I dislike working with men who are motivated by guilt."

  Jonas' breath hitched on the other side. He gulped, audibly. "I'll tell them. I'll tell everyone that you're Mercutio! All of the IPA, everyone in Ocarina will know of your secret! I-I'll make sure of it!"

  "Dear little Officer Lucius," she began condescendingly. "Who holds more power: a measly police officer in a port city down south, or a High Inquisitor of the Divine Court? Wake up and open your eyes. It's pathetic, really, but go on, I'm entertained."

  "L-Lady Kircheisen..."

  "One more thing. You said that Cagliostro knows Acacia is staying with me, correct? Since it's your phone call, I'll assume there aren't any third parties right now, are there? Is there anyone else listening besides me?"

  "W-well no. I made sure to be alone. I'm at the Investigation Department lounge."

  "Excellent. That means that bastard heard every word we spoke. Good." A crazed smile formed on Pandora's face. "Very good. A superb actor and actress have a role to play now. I've had enough."

  "Y-you planned this?"

  "You’re really out of your depth, but you're irrelevant for the moment. Listen to me and do not speak a word. Can you do that?"

  Pandora's assault of condescending words really rubbed him the wrong way, but nevertheless, he killed his emotions.

  "As you command."

  She took a deep breath out of the phone's range. In actuality, she didn’t necessarily feel good about treating him in such a crass way, but now, she had a duty and a goal to focus on.

  "Cagliostro Copernicus Narma, I know you can hear me. You've tapped all the office lines, haven't you? It seems you're so fearful of me and my potential to prevent your plan from progressing, that you, oh so bravely, ordered the Bloodhounds to follow my trail to Windsor."

  Pandora revealed a portion of her cards to Cagliostro. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She knew the only way she could progress this was to rile him up enough to make a direct phone call to her through Jonas. Pandora begged the Convergence; she did her damnedest to predict his movements and mind. The best tactic was to stir up both of their insecurities, to throw the entire equation into chaos. Everything would work out in her favor if she continued on this anticipated course of action. In the world of Thaumaturges, there were no second chances.

  "So I have to ask you directly." she sharply drew in a breath before she spoke with a jaded tongue. "Why have you decided to go to such lengths just to murder an unreliable teenager who was part of the incident through no fault of his own? You're a powerful man in your sphere of influence with the local IPA wrapped around your fingers, as evidenced by your ability to intercept this call. Why haven't you exhausted your resources and tried your hardest to find all possibilities?” She paused before continuing, “There's absolutely no reason to have wanted to kill Acacia Belmont, let alone commit murder on the spot of the second-degree slaughter of your own son. Considering the resources at your disposal and the evidence at your fingertips, I'm now convinced that this entire thing has just been a false pretense to hide the truth."

  Pandora could almost imagine his reaction. Not wanting to cut the card game short, she allowed Cagliostro coping time to build and recuperate. Eventually, no response was given from the other end.

  "Lady Kircheisen? Is he gone?"

  "Let us hope not, but in any case, this conversation has now become irrelevant and repetitive. In the end, this was just me confirming my suspicions, nothing more."

  But this also confirmed that he's sending the Bloodhounds.

  A clump gnawed at the woman's stomach. Doubt? Regret? Anger? No—pervasive and invasive—it was, in fact, an emotion foreign to her. “Foreign" couldn't be the right word. For something to be foreign implies that one has never seen it before, and her ability to realize it wasn't familiar at all was perhaps more evidence of that sentiment. And more so, the longer she traced the source, the more certain she grew of the fact that she, unlike anything before, had little to no plan to deal with it.

  Pandora drew a heavy and burdened sigh.

  Fear. Fear of the man of whom she entreated to God that they would never cross paths to the point of deluding herself that a 1 out of 1000 chance that they would never meet again would actually occur. Fear of the man whom she gave her everything so he would never walk the path of a criminal. Fear of a man whose path gaze sent goosebumps down her spine.

  "Lucius, I'm hanging up."

  "W-Wait, Lady Kircheisen, you still haven't answered-"

  "This conversation is over. The day is far too long as it is, and I'm not done yet."

  "Don't underestimate him! Don't underestimate the Bloodhounds! You don't understand the kind of people they are. Those assassins are..." Jonas said frantically over the other line.

  "Goodbye, Officer Lucius. If you truly wish to meet the boy, then nothing I say should stop you. Leave as soon as you can."

  And the High Inquisitor hung up the phone.

  High Inquisitor, Mercutio, The Lord of Mercury, all of these names and titles held absolutely no value to Pandora at this point. If she revealed the weakness in her fa?ade, her hand, to the man she wanted to detest more than anything else on Earth and in the Convergence above, would be admitting defeat.

  In order to save this future, I'll destroy this past.

  For the boy, she would give up her pride. In her inner state of disarray and the endless mental calculations trying to predict and pin down any scenario, Acacia's well-being was not a probability. It was an assured fact.

  For a sinner like her, only one chance remained for her to repent.

  Sieg, we'll meet again.

  She stood up and exited the office.

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