February 17, 2002 – 22:00 (Montreal time)
"Was it with something like this that my sister called Sebastian last night?" said Frank when Coralis was done with her call, drinking the rest of his coffee.
Their bell rang, and Victoria went to answer it, meeting the visitor down their indoor stairway.
"No, unless she called Sebastian's satellite number," said Coralis, heading to her bedroom to grab her cloak and paraphernalia. "Sebastian has a cellphone, and there was phone a signal where we were."
"Stephanie said you also have a satellite number, mind telling me why you aren't using yours to call me?"
"For your safety. I don't trust my EBEE elders, so I don't want them to intercept my calls to you."
"I see," said Frank, following her to the entry door. "I have to go too. Talk to you tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Victoria came back inside carrying a closed wooden crate.
"For you, from King Matthew."
"Can you please put it in my room? I'll look at it when I get back."
Coralis took off to pick up Eva before heading to Winnipeg. They were supposed to go there for a meeting the next day, so they were wondering what was so urgent that they had to go that night to High Fay Ellya's home instead of the CMMA Headquarters. They had never been there before.
Coralis thought about the previous night, about the person that Sebastian saw fleeing. She thought about her meeting with her elders. The EBEE said they had people monitoring the situation in Chicago, but what bothered her was that their informant attempted to stop her from defending Charlie and that she nearly got into trouble for it.
She found High Fay Ellya's house and admired the view with Eva before landing by the front door. If she hadn't known where it was from the coordinates, she probably wouldn't have seen it. It was made of green bricks, stationed between two very large trees with very thick foliage covering the entire rooftop. Three stories high, its shape was very irregular. Bricks weren't layered in a straight line.
Eva rang the doorbell, and a male fay answered. He looked no older than 30, but he could very well be 150.
"Blue Thunder and Eva Suri," said High Fay Ellya from behind, indicating the greeter to let her in, "here you are. How did you pass through the wards? I was expecting you to call my hologram once you arrived at the coordinates that I sent you."
"I sensed some wards, but when I looked down at the coordinates I received from you, I saw your house," said Coralis.
"I'm a passenger, I trust my driver when passing wards. We passed some wards, and then I saw your house. Beautiful sight, by the way."
"Hmm, I am not sure if this means that I need to redo my wards or if you have fay blood in you, Blue Thunder. I'll have to ask Sonylla at what point she saw my house when she followed Panjik. Unless they've been here previously, people won't be able to see the house, but a few fay bloodlines can see through that glamour."
"I am definitively not a fay, no offence to you."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Your use of light magic intrigues me."
They followed High Fay Ellya to a large room next to the lobby. Panjik, Sonylla, High Mage Finnas and two elves that Coralis didn't know were there, sitting on tall green chairs around a large wide table of oak.
"We're only missing Agent Emery. He should be here soon," said High Mage Finnas.
"May I ask why we are holding the meeting here instead of at Headquarters?" said one of the elves.
"There is a potential of moles working at Headquarters. It is better to hold sensitive meetings away from prying eyes and ears," said High Fay Ellya as her hologram vibrated.
She pressed to answer it and Emery's holographic image came out. She closed her eyes for a moment and made her house visible to them. When she opened them back up, she looked at Coralis and got up to walk to her front door. She came back a few minutes later, followed by Emery. Food and pitchers containing a light blue liquid appeared on the table.
"According to Emery's report, there was an EBEE mole spotted at the scene last night, who is believed to be an informant for Elder Alfredino, an elder at their London branch. Sebastian Larameer, his apprentice, stated having seen him fleeing during the attack on Prince Charlie."
"While we know that the EBEE were monitoring the situation between King Matthew and his brother Lucas, which could explain the presence of an informant, I find it troubling that he attempted to stop Blue Thunder from interfering against Prince Charlie's attacker when that failed and disappeared instead of staying to help, which implies that Elder Alfredino might have been working on Lucas' side," said Emery.
"If we believe that at least one EBEE elder is working with Lucas' clan of rogue vampires, why is Agent Blue Thunder here?" said the elf who had been questioning the meeting place earlier. "How do you know he worked for Elder Alfredino?"
"I remember seeing him with Elder Alfredino the last few times he came to Winnipeg," said Emery.
"Agent Blue Thunder has been working on that case alongside Eva Suri for quite some time and has been questioning the instructions given to her," said the other elf before looking at Coralis. "You probably don't know who I am. I am High Elf Yalor. Beside me is Zahir, one of our agents who's been investigating some prominent elf families."
"I met with them earlier today. Elder Alfredino questioned me on why I defended Prince Charlie. It sounded like I wasn't supposed to step in, but he didn't elaborate on why I shouldn't have interfered. I suspected that they might be planning something against them when they asked me to cut ties with the Chicago royal vampire family, and then elves attacked their club shortly after," said Coralis, looking at High Elf Yalor and Zahir.
"Did they ever tell you why they wanted you to inquire about their family heirloom when it'd have no use to them and it wasn't something they would have a reason to confiscate?" said Eva.
"They never did. Whoever wanted the Vase of Crimson Sky would also want to kill Prince Charlie, unless we're talking collector, and clearly, that person wanted him dead," said Coralis.
Their meeting ended in the middle of the night. The CMMA elders told her that she wouldn't have to attend their Headquarters meeting during the day, but Panjik offered to help her train on spirit magic, as he was also a spirit mage. She also wanted to do some combat training with Sonylla, so Coralis stayed in Winnipeg that night.
Her training session with Sonylla was interrupted by Eva.
"Blue, we need to go the The Goddess' Gems pack in Ontario, near Sudbury. Djinns were spotted roaming around their borders."