Lyrani swallowed. "How exactly are we to do that? I fear expecting two agents to eliminate a clan of unknown size on our own would be a stretch on our combined skills and talents."

"You make an excellent point, Lyrani." Lord Dundor nodded as he leaned forward in his chair, leaving no doubt that he had thought of this point before it crossed Lyrani's mind. "That's why Camlir has beacon rocks to issue to you."

"Beacon rocks?" Agent Phen blinked, frowning.

Like Lyrani, she hadn't heard about ECISI's newest gadget either.

"Beacon rocks," repeated Lord Dundor.

Behind him, Camlir rose to his full, lanky frame, setting two spheres carved from stone onto Nash's desk with long fingers. They were hollow with windows looking into their internal emptiness. They were like suits of armour, but for what?

"What goes inside them?" asked Lyrani.

"Good question," said Lord Dundor.

Camlir held a calloused hand out to Lyrani, his voice both soft and steady. "Agent Esch, your call crystal, if you please."

She fumbled in her backpack until her fingers brushed against the cool, smooth surface of her deep blue crystal. She withdrew it and dropped it into Camlir's palm.

The call crystal had barely touched his hand before his fingers were closing around it and slipping it into the window cut into one of the stone spheres. It clattered to the bottom of the bubble of rock.

Camlir offered it to Lyrani. She took it, uncertain what to expect.

"Say your name," the gadget master said.

"Lyrani Esch."

Inside the beacon rock, the call crystal hummed in recognition of the name and voice it had heard so many times before.

"Press your fingers against the top."

Lyrani touched her four fingers to the stone surface as Camlir commanded. The call crystal burst into blue light that emitted from the slit through which it had entered the beacon rock.

The gadget master held up the second beacon rock, which was still empty, to demonstrate his instructions as he spoke. "With two fingers, tap the top twice to see a map of the agents nearest to you. Note that these are only the agents who are also carrying a beacon rock."

Once again, Lyrani followed his order. A bird's eye view of Vlitavia Forest spread into the air in front of her. She was the only golden spot in sight, labelled by name with bold letters.

"If you need help, tap the top twice with three fingers. A distress signal will be sent to all agents carrying a beacon rock. If any of them are near enough to be of assistance, they are obliged to aid you, but not at the risk of their own mission, and you are to do the same." Camlir's round, grave eyes held Lyrani's.

Lyrani nodded, rolling the new gadget around her palm, into which it fitted comfortably. The gadget master had outdone himself this time. Lyrani had never seen or heard of anything like this beacon rock before.

It would no doubt be useful, and now that it had memorised her name and fingerprints, there was no threat of its two life-saving functions being used against her.

Camlir had really thought of everything, proving that yet again as he handed Lyrani a glistening pouch. "Put your beacon rock inside this. It will be safe and protected by the elf-made leather."

"Thank you," Lyrani murmured.

"No problem." Camlir gave her a faint smile and a formal nod before holding his hand out for Agent Phen's blood-red call crystal.

Lyrani slid the beacon rock into its new home before raising her eyes to Lord Dundor. "So, I'm guessing your plan is for us to use these to summon aid should we need to eliminate the Outcasted."

"It is indeed." He gave her a nod of approval.

Beside him, Camlir slipped Agent Phen's call crystal into her beacon rock with a clunk. Without needing a command, she reached out for it, stated her name and imprinted her touch on her new gadget before handing it back to its creator. Camlir enveloped the entire gadget in its leather pouch and handed it to Agent Phen.

The junior agent took it without thanking him. He slunk back to his seat behind the director of ECISI, once again retreating to the obscurity that gave him comfort.

As Lyrani tucked the leather-encased package into her pocket, her heart ached for the Outcasted. They had been tossed out of the societies that had given life to them because their existence was regarded as the product of a sin. None of that was their fault. They had grown up without love, only knowing hatred. They lived knowing nobody wanted them.

As a baron's daughter born of a commoner mother, Lyrani had been equally likely to be discarded by a family who didn't see her as worthy of their noble bloodline, but she hadn't been. There was acceptance in the world, acceptance that was rarely handed out to half-elves.

Lyrani wanted to make the halflings' lives better, create someplace for them to belong. Nash had shared the same vision, but if there was no reasoning with the Outcasted, she would do what she had to do to protect him and Elvenland. Even when it left a sickening feeling burrowing in her gut. More unbearable would be losing the man she loved.

Lyrani snuck a glance at Nash only to find his beautiful honey eyes on her, turning her as breathless as if it was just the two of them in the room. Smiling slightly, Nash turned his gaze to Agent Phen as she raised her hand.

Without waiting to be invited to talk, she spoke. "Forgive me if I've missed something, but how exactly are we supposed to infiltrate the halfling clan? We are very clearly full-blooded elves." Agent Phen bent the prominent tip of her pointed ear for emphasis.

"Another excellent question." Lord Dundor inclined his head. "You will be in disguise."

Lyrani frowned. "I don't understand—"

Lord Dundor threw a silencing gaze her way. "If you'd just let me finish, you would."

"Sorry, Lord Dundor." Lyrani pressed her lips together, sealing them against all the questions fluttering through her mind.

The director summoned the gadget master with a single look. Camlir returned to Lord Dundor's side and set two peanut-brown waistcoats on the desk, each with a row of three tortoiseshell buttons running down their fronts.

Lyrani blinked. Never had she seen such hideous garments. She could imagine Dessie's horror at such a sight, but she couldn't appreciate the humour in the thought when she felt Lord Dundor's unwavering gaze on her.

She sighed. She hadn't been keen on the stardust-sprinkled dress that she had ordered at the beginning of the last mission that brought her to Vlitavia, but she'd give anything to wear that gown instead of this waistcoat.

Agent Phen snorted. "Those are supposed to turn us into half-elves?" She turned to Lyrani, disbelief and amusement mixed on her cheeky face.

"Yes, they are." Lord Dundor tossed one waistcoat to Lyrani and the other to Agent Phen. "These are concealment garments. If you put them on, they'll change your entire appearance."

Lyrani rubbed the sturdy material between her fingers. It was so plain and unremarkable, too coarsely woven to be imbued with the magic Lord Dundor was describing, but looks could be deceiving.

"Try them on." Lord Dundor clasped his hands on his desk, watching as Lyrani and Agent Phen slipped into the waistcoats in unison.

Beside him, Camlir's expectant gaze was fixed on the two agents.

Lyrani looked down at herself. The waistcoat had somehow blended in with her dusky blue tunic and black leggings despite being a starkly different colour, proving its magic. She saw no difference in her appearance, in the shape of her hands or the width of her wrists, but then she looked at Agent Phen.

The junior agent had retained her black hair, but her face had hollowed out, and her ears had shrunk and blunted at the tips. She was Agent Phen, yet she wasn't.

She was Agent Phen had she been born a halfling. Lyrani imagined she had undergone a similar change if Nash's open-mouthed stare was anything to go by.

Lyrani felt her face. Unlike Agent Phen's cheeks, hers had filled out. She probably looked like a greedy goblin who had stuffed his mouth with gold in a clumsy attempt to smuggle it across the border. She sighed. She always had the worst luck with disguises. Her ears, however, were no different from the other agent's.

"Agent Phen, you are Mie. Lyrani, your assumed name is Lan." Lord Dundor looked between the two agents.

Lyrani sighed. Her new name was an unexpected deadline for her mission. She could only go around being called "Lan" for so long before she lost touch with her real name and identity.

Agent Phen didn't bother to hide her displeasure. She wrinkled her nose. "Is that the best we got?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Lord Dundor handed over to Anesse with a flick of his eyes.

"We needed to avoid names that would be associated with Elvenland's royal family or any of the elf states in anticipation of the halflings' hostility towards us. That means no four-letter names that might bring to mind the Astors, five-letter names that might come from Rosel, six-letter names arising out of Irylen, or seven-letter names from Keehege. All we had to work with were three letters and seven or more."

Three worked for Lyrani. With everything else on her mind, she may not remember a longer name, and forgetting one's assumed identity on a mission could be a death sentence.

"Is that understood?" asked Lord Dundor.

As Agent Phen did, Lyrani nodded.

She couldn't pull the waistcoat off and cram it into the backpack at her feet quickly enough. It worked as Lord Dundor had said it would, but Lyrani didn't want to wear it any longer than she had to, and not in such company. Anesse's faint smirk would've told her how ridiculous she looked if she hadn't felt her new face for herself.

She patted her fingers along her cheeks, letting out a sigh of relief that they had sunk back into their normal shape.

Lord Dundor looked between Lyrani and Agent Phen while Camlir returned to his chair. "Any questions before you begin this mission?"

Agent Phen shook her head.

Lyrani cleared her throat. "I have a question for Agent Phen."

Lord Dundor waved his hand for her to continue.

Lyrani turned to the other agent, who looked away, folding her arms and slouching into her seat. That was no deterrent. Lyrani had faced tyrannical rulers and charming murderers. A childish fellow agent didn't faze her.

"When did you graduate from the academy?"

"Six months ago," said Agent Phen without looking at Lyrani.

Lyrani tilted her head. "And how many missions have you completed since?"

"Three."

"Lord Dundor..." Lyrani faced the director. "I do not doubt that Agent Phen is very capable, but given her limited experience, is she the best choice for this mission?" She ignored the glare the junior agent threw her way. "This assignment has major stakes. I just wanted to ensure that you've thought this partnership through."

Lyrani had been the junior agent looked down on by senior agents who doubted her capabilities. She had been unfairly dismissed in missions she knew she could've handled. She knew the indignation simmering behind Agent Phen's harsh stare, but she couldn't allow any mistakes when it came to Nash's life, not even to spare a younger agent's feelings.

"What, do you think I can't do what you can?" Agent Phen snapped.

Lyrani turned to her, her gaze cool. "Of course not. Did you not hear me say that I'm aware of how capable you are?"

"I don't know." Agent Phen scowled. "It just sounded like condescension to me."

Before Lyrani could assure her that that wasn't her intention, Lord Dundor cut in. "I hear your concern, Lyrani." He nodded, probably as opposed as she was to endangering Nash in any way. "Agent Phen is one of our most promising new graduates. Even so, there's a lot she could learn from you. The extent of her involvement in this mission is spying, which she has trained for extensively. Your job is where things could get messy, but I know you always clean up after yourself."

Lyrani nodded.

Most of her kills didn't look like murders. She had lost track of the number of deaths of prominent figures she had heard described as heart attacks on the streets. She had just kept strolling, smiling and thanking the stars she had learned how to use poison as a weapon. Whenever one of her assassinations did betray an unnatural cause of death, she always made sure she couldn't be traced to it.

She had done it before, and she'd do it again if she needed to, whether or not Agent Phen was involved.

"Now, if we're done questioning my worthiness to be part of this mission, there's a concern I'd like to bring up as well." Agent Phen sneered at Lyrani before flinging her words at Lord Dundor. "I'm not convinced that Agent Esch is the best choice for this mission, given the nature of her relationship" —the junior agent paused to give her phrase enough time to take on the nastiest connotation— "with the king."

The mission hadn't even begun, and Lyrani had enough of Agent Phen snipping at her. She turned her chair to the junior agent with speed she hadn't expected Lyrani to have, judging by her wide eyes when they came face to face.

"First of all, I am the best killer in Elvenland's employ. Secondly, I would argue that because of my relationship with the king, I care more about keeping him safe than any other agent who could be assigned to this case."

Lyrani thought she had silenced Agent Phen, but the other elf only smiled.

"Caring too much can make you clumsy and blind."

Lyrani narrowed her eyes. "Caring can make you see ways out of difficult situations that you may not have otherwise found."

Had Lyrani been this frustrating as a junior agent? Had Trelle had to grind her teeth against retorts that would earn her a disciplinary hearing if she were to utter them?

Agent Phen opened her mouth to retort, but Lord Dundor beat her to speaking.

"Be silent, both of you!" The director got to his feet behind Nash's desk. "As professional agents, I expect you to respect each other and keep your personal lives out of your dealings with each other. My son's life and the fate of our kingdom depends on you two. If you cannot stop bickering for a moment, you are not going to succeed in your mission, and that is not an option. As of now, you are putting your differences aside, swallowing your pride and doing what I have ordered. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Lord Dundor," murmured Lyrani.

Agent Phen said nothing, only rolled her eyes. A muscle tensed in Lord Dundor's temple as his eyes bored into her.

"Agent Phen?"

"As you wish, Lord Dundor," she said, her voice stiff.

Lyrani cared very little about Agent Phen's blatant hostility towards her, but she had to make this relationship work. Lord Dundor was right. Conflict within this partnership could torpedo their mission.

Lyrani had seen it happen before. She had even been the reason for the conflict, but now, she would be the bigger person.

Lyrani held a hand out to the other agent. "Truce?"

Agent Phen took it in her reluctant grip. "Truce."

"Excellent." Lord Dundor glanced down at his watch. "Now, your train to Wyndern leaves in two hours, I believe. Be on time, will you?" He gave Lyrani a pointed look.

Of course they were heading to the northernmost train station in the realm. The Outcasted would've made their home somewhere beyond that, where there was little civilisation to interfere with their existence, few people to condemn and ostracise them.

"I will." Lyrani looked across the room at Nash.

When a familiar mischief took hold of his eyes, she wasn't sure that she should've made that promise to Lord Dundor. It wouldn't be the first time Nash had made her late for work simply by locking gazes with her in that way that made her forget about anything but him.