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At first, it looked like the window was completely blocked off, so it was hard to make out exactly what he was looking at or trying to indicate. But then she saw it: little pinpoints of light that lit up and faded. The window wasn't taped up like some of the others had been after all. Those were some kind of... machines, shoved up against the window.

"One way to find out," said Lyra.

"No. You're not going up alone," Bastien said immediately.

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He was already angling his body to block her, and in the narrow space of the alley between buildings, that was no idle threat. She felt jealous for a moment; she could never have loomed over anyone like that, and she could think of plenty of situations in which she would have loved to be able to do something like that.

But she didn't let it show on her face, only flashing him a cheeky grin. "Are you my black knight or just my minder?" she said, a teasing light in her eyes.

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He didn't rise to the bait, his eyes only narrowing, as if to tell her to cut the crap. She sighed. He could have at least played along a little.

But then, she supposed he wouldn't be Bastien if he did. Actually, it would have been pretty surprising if he quipped back. "Who said anything about going up? That's what these guys are for. Pixie," she said, cupping her hands together and blowing gently into them. A moment later, a tiny spirit, no bigger than a songbird, appeared.

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It was vaguely humanoid in shape, though a little hard to make out, shimmering translucently in the light that filtered in. Lyra still couldn't figure out exactly what Pixie looked like, even though she'd had ample opportunity to study the spirit.

"Whoa. I didn't know they made spirits that small," said Luke. He was leaning in to get a closer look when Pixie shot up, spiraling up and away from him. He took a step back, startled, and Lyra had to fight the urge to laugh.

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"I think she was drawn in by all the other ones I had. Made her feel safe. Small ones like that are worried about being snatched up and eaten if they try to strike a bargain with a human."

"I can never tell if you're just making this stuff up," said Luke, shaking his head.

"No, it's legit. I heard the lab rats talking about it once. Psychic imbalance or something. That's why you're not supposed to summon anything too potent. It'll overwhelm you."

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It was Lyra's turn to be surprised. She hadn't expected to hear Bastien chime in, least of all with anything so... well, theoretical. Even Lyra's explanation was more colloquial, when she had given it to Luke.

But then, what she had been saying was the truth this time. Pixie had said as much, sort of. For a given value of 'said'. Little spirits like that tended to be kind of indistinct in their communication too. Lyra guessed that it came with the territory of being... not as much of a psychic presence, or whatever.

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But she recovered quickly; it was one of her many, many talents. "Right," she said. "I guess the same must be true in reverse. And since I'm already so preoccupied, I'm probably not going to have the time to waste with bullying her. That's the idea, anyway."

"So? Does she see anything?" said Luke. He was still watching Pixie, or trying to, anyway. She was already hard to see at the best of times, and the further she got from them, the harder she was for them to make out.

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Even Lyra, who had a bead on her and knew in a spatial awareness sense where she had to be, couldn't exactly see her anymore.

That was the good thing about Pixie. She was great for anything that needed a subtle, stealthy touch, like recon or momentarily distracting a foe. There were plenty of small spirits that Lyra could have contracted with, but they were all pretty weak. The only reason she kept Pixie around was because she was so practical.

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She hadn't known about the uniqueness of her situation until very recently, and it was true that now that she had backing, Lyra was beginning to experiment more with what she could do. But it was still uncomfortable for her to maintain a bond with too many spirits simultaneously.

Granted, for most users, even making a pact with two spirits was too much. Lyra didn't know exactly what it was about herself or her situation that let her do this. But there was a limit.

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So she stuck to keeping the spirits that she really needed--- ones that filled unique niches of utility, and didn't overlap too much with one another.

What she didn't tell them was that for the most part, to reduce the strain on her own... soul, or mind, or whatever it was, most of the spirits she had weren't all that strong. They'd seen the aftermath of one of Jericho's interventions when she had first met them, and she didn't know what they made of that, but..

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If they thought she was just playing it close to the vest and hiding her real power, so be it. That was useful in its own ways too. Just like they didn't fully trust her yet, she didn't exactly fully trust them either, and she wasn't sure she trusted them not to hand her over to the lab guys if they found out about Jericho.

And who knew? Maybe she was. Jericho's powers were technically a part of her too. But if they knew just how little control she had over him...

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Well, be that as it may, she still had more versatility than anyone else they had working for them. That, she could say with absolute certainty. And her control over Pixie wasn't something she had to worry about either.

"Hmm," said Lyra, tapping her chin. "The window's pretty grimy, for one. She's not too keen on that."

"Cut the crap," said Bastien. His tone wasn't angry, and she wouldn't have pegged it as on edge either, but he was giving her a pretty firm reminder that this wasn't the time to play around.

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It wasn't that he was wrong exactly, but she wanted to inject a little levity into the situation. It wasn't so much for their sake as it was for her own. If she didn't joke around, then she might have to think about the full weight of the situation, and that...

But if they weren't in the mood for it, then there was really no point, was there? "Roger that," she said flatly. If he sensed the slight hint of insubordination in her response, he didn't respond.

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She sighed. Stoic guys... Concentrating on Pixie, she frowned slightly, and recounted what information she had. "From what she can make out, it does look kind of like machines. Just the backs of them though. It's hard to tell what they're for."

"Ugh. I'm no good with all this tech stuff either," said Luke.

"Yeah, and we can't break in through the window if there's this many things blocking it," said Lyra. "I mean, I guess we could, and break them doing it, but maybe there's important stuff in there..."

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"We can figure out which apartment it is from the position," Bastien said. "Let's see if we can find a way in."

Lyra stared at the window for a moment longer, then shrugged and turned around. Bastien was right; it wasn't going to be practical to get in this way. Even if they could have safely broken in through the window, doing so would have made a lot of noise, and climbing up there would have posed an additional problem. They didn't even have any equipment for that.