[Redd]

"Luvvie, we got it. If you wanna skedaddle down over here and collect before I find a buyer, I'd appreciate tha'. Bloody cold it is, and a fine dame like me'self is gonna draw some unwanted attention." Nix clicked the end call button. Then, with a practised action, she delicately pried out the sim card, before breaking both the phone and the tiny chip in half and tossed them both into a nearby bin.

She breathed, in and out, steeling herself. Talking with emissaries of gods was not her usual definition of a fun Friday night and this one, in addition to having a particular stick up a particular spot, often found cause to get her knickers in a twist. Also, well, the only reason she was dealing with this particular one was because it was a more preferable outcome than death.

With a huff, Nix stuffed her hands into her pockets and continued skulking down the length of empty street. Aldrect wasn't so fancy after dark. Once the night set in, the short fallings of the city became apparent. Trash littered the street where feet usually marched and there were no throngs of bodies to hide those crouching in the shadows begging for scraps to get them by.

It wasn't unfamiliar to her, she thought, twisting her lips into a scowl and taking a kick at a stray can. But perhaps memory lane wasn't the best place to walk. Not right now.

[Redd]

To say she wasn't troubled was a lie.

She knew she should have been happy, the plan worked, scale acquired, treasure got and all that. But gods be damned, she still couldn't shake that awful feeling that coiled in her gut like some bloated eel. Or something. She never was good with her metaphors.

Her gut, however twisted it may have felt, was very good at helping her make judgement calls and there was something about her contact that always made her worry. Celestiel - and gods help her if that was her actual name - was a brute, hidden away behind the guise of a quiet, bookworm looking woman and it was a wonder she hadn't been recalled by Yepha yet... or just straight up Fell.

"Do you have it?" The voice was like music, soft, honeyed notes on a bitter, cold wind.

It made her skin crawl.

[Redd]

Nix inclined her head towards the new voice and pressed her lips into a line. "Nah, I chucked it into the bin on the way outta that hellhole - 'course I fuckin' have it." Nix drew out the jar housing the sample - a clean golden scale, with a delicate thread wrapped around it. It differed from the cheap copies she'd seen in colour alone - most clones seemed to favour a black on gold appearance. "Last little bit of our dearly departed friend. Once this is gone, there's no more Gold Chaos for us silly mortals to bicker over. You realise how much money I'm missin' out on here, right?"

Nix turned and presented the jar to the Seraph, keeping her grip firm in case Celestiel got it in her head to take it. She wasn't ready, not yet.

The Seraph tilted her head and with a delicate hand, rearranged her long blonde hair so it wouldn't get in her ice-blue eyes while she examined the sample. "Good. You did well." She straightened up and shuffled her wings - pure white and made of fluffy, curling feathers. "Were any mortals hurt?"

[Redd]

"Ugh, shit that was one of your impossible conditions, wasn't it. No deaths, no hospitalisations - I think - so I'd say we're good on that front. You can't just send people down into a derelict fuckin' lab managed by an insane AI trying to tear apart the heavens without a few scrapes an' bruises." Nix paused, thoughtfully tapping a painted nail against her cheek. "Dunno about their mental faculties though. Place was weird."

Celestiel gave her a questioning look, before withdrawing her wings in a single shrugging motion. "What did you learn?"

"That their security system is... out of this world. I sent a couple of crews down into those sewers. Same directions, just different points along the main tunnel. Each came back with a different story. They all took the same path, saw different things." Nix paused for dramatic effect, before throwing Celestiel a withering, accusatory look. "So it left me wonderin' how does your brand of plane-altering bullshit end up down there? And why does it stink of Chaos origin if you're one of Yepha's?"

[Redd]

It had about the effect Nix thought it would have. The Seraph scowled, hand playing over the hilt of the flamberge that was hung through a sash around her hip. "Careful with your words, mortal." The word was spat, disdain evident. "And what you accuse me of."

Nix just shrugged. "I'm just a sorry sap of a mortal, what do I know about the grand machinations of the gods, I ain't privy to their all-powerful think." She flashed a grin and casually tossed the specimen jar into the air, ignoring Celestiel's horrified look as she deftly caught it again. "I just do what I'm told. Sometimes."

Celestiel's brow furrowed but Nix's couldn't care less demeanour was having the intended effect. That, and her unspoken, poorly concealed threat. "There was a... plane shift? Under the city?"

"Aye. Well, not like you'd be thinking. It's not some hole in the sky over Lamenolai or anything like that. More like... spatial anomalies, three people walk through a door at different times and end up in three different places. They all went through the same door, they all left via the same door but the space within was... displaced. And almost all of the outcomes were incredibly dangerous." Nix explained, frowning as she knew it was a poor descriptor but how does one explain something they knew nothing about. "You say the Chaos Realm is capable of interferin' with ours, correct? Chaos influence over there changes things over here? I'd say our good doctor friend or one of his associates deliberately messed up the other side, to stop people finding the lab."

[Redd]

"Troubling. I will raise this with Zu'hai's contacts, perhaps they will purge the area." Celestiel rolled her shoulders in a careless shrug and all previous worry had faded away and a cold, stoic visage settled over her face. "All the better that I have the Scale. Hand it over." Her hand outstretched, tone demanding.

"An' what will you do with it?" Nix grimaced, taking a step back. She nervously flicked a glance back down the street, hoping, dare she say, praying. "I know you ain't taking it to the Vaults."

Whatever cold serenity had been on Celestiel's face was gone. "And you know that how?" Her eyes flashed, red, dangerous and fiery. She took one step towards the thief and a light began to gather in her hand, shifting and shaping into a sword of silver, gold and light. "Mortal, I have tolerated your foul mouth and your callous skulduggery for long enough and I tire of it. You will cease with the games and hand over the vial. Now."