There was a new and happy atmosphere in Garaham's office, the morning after. The three mages in front of him were well rested and extremely chipper than usual.

Garaham, on the other hand, was his gloomy, serious self. Which could mean he was extremely elated or incredibly pissed. As usual, no indication on which was which.

«First of all, let me officially congratulate you for the shining victory you pulled out. Apart from the obvious hiccups, it went down quite smoothly and, believe me, if someone says that beating a 19th Rank Cabal should he as easy as breathing, they're lying. I know my brother, and Staccato has made abundantly clear he's not a newcomer in magic. You did good.»

The three exchanged some glances.

«Jefe... are you dying?» Chico asked. Garaham's frown immediately made them all feel better.

«And this is roughly why I tend to keep the niceties with you to a minimum next to non-existent.»

«Maybe, just maybe if you told them more often we wouldn't think ye're terminal the times ye did.» Banshee pointed out. Garaham raised an eyebrow.

«Moving on.» he dismissed the topic with a movement of his hand. «It's hardly the time to rest on our laurels. We've work to do.»

«Ah, aye. Why did you offer us to prepare the party for Staccato's concert? Hell, why did you ask for that concert anyway? Wasn't he just Justin's pawn?» Banshee asked. Garaham rested his head over his hands, his elbows firmly grounded against his desk.

«The moment you drifted off to Oneiron, Justin disappeared.» he revealed, looking at them intensely. «Hardly anyone noticed, everyone was looking at the floor to see what was going to happen in your duel. Even the Councilors were completely concentrated on the show.»

«Why you not?» Vopros asked.

«I don't like easy violence and I was sure you would have, to say it in a language more modern than mine, your asses handed to you pretty soon in the fight, and I didn't want to see that.» he admitted with extreme candor. «Plus, I was still thinking about the real reason Justin would have had to choose the Expendables for the task, and not changing his mind even when I called myself out of the game, making him lose his apparently precious "brother on brother" action.»

«Could he have changed?» Chico asked.

«Probably Algernon would have denied him the change just for spite, but that's not the point. He didn't seem disappointed at all. As if from the moment his decision had been made, he had lost all interest in what was going to happen. I was looking at him, then I turned to the floor the moment Chico was attacked by Irissa, and by the time I looked at him again, a matter of seconds, he was gone. And he hadn't come back, as you know, until the verdict.»

They all sat on the information for a while.

«Well, he mad.» Vopros said. «Maybe he simply remembered he had something else to do.»

«You see, the clear fact that he is mad, sometimes makes people lower their guard when he does something. You chalk it up to madness alone, and you think there is no sense in it. What if there ultimately was?» Garaham asked, as he stood up, slowly.

«You think that the fact that he wasn't there at the trial meant something? Pero qué?»

«That I can't possibly even start to imagine. One thing is to suspect that Justin D'Yves is up to something, another is to try and scour his deranged mind.» Garaham admitted, shaking his head. «Point is, we've been dragged into this mud pit, and I think we're not out of it.»

«Staccato was here taunting us way before Justin put on his coup-de-theatre. And from the exchange I had with River, he didn't seem to know Justin, or have any idea about what was happening. He was veramente surprised by the fact that Justin had chosen them. Why would he be, if Staccato was clearly already in with Justin from the start?» Chico said, putting out what he had been thinking for some time already.

Banshee's eyes glimmered. She had been extremely silent. Just now, she looked like she had come back to life.

«Staccato's working with Justin on something, but behind his own Coven's back!» she exclaimed.

«I wouldn't be particularly surprised if my brain-cell impaired brother was ignoring much of what's going on around him. He has many qualities. Brain not being one of those.» Garaham folded his hands in a knot behind his back, and started pacing back and forth, behind his desk. «I don't like being taunted in my office, as much as I don't like being used by someone without even knowing why. Or whom. And this brings us to the concert.»

He looked at them, stopped, and faced them like a general with his troops. As raggedy as they were.

«We have to expose Staccato. I want to know who he is, and what is his role in all of this kerfuffle. Not to mention I want to understand in which role of said kerfuffle we've found ourselves mingled into.» he said, with a decisive and clear tone, passing his gaze from one Pollo to the other. «We're going to find out his identity and expose him during the concert, in front of the whole Order. If he holds his persona so dear to go around like a disgruntled teenager, we'll be sure to pay him back properly, for his little surprise with the music box.»

«But... por qué?» Chico asked, nervously. «We have been promoted, we have a new house, new rank, possibly new missions coming up, that we could refuse because now that each of us have a room we don't really need much else... why throw ourselves against someone like Staccato and his mad friend? He almost killed me once, already, and probably only because Banshee went ruffling about his apartment. Think about what would he do if we went against him directly somehow.»

«Because.» Garaham's glared «We are no one's pawns.»

«So, you make us go against Staccato and Justin D'Yves because you want revenge.» Vopros summarized.

«Yes.» Garaham didn't even try to hide his true colors.

«This is petty.» Banshee pointed out.

«Yes.» Garaham nodded, again.

«Well, we did more for less.» Chico shrugged.

«Very well, now that you're uselessly on board, let's find you a place to start.» Garaham said and launched on the desk the newspaper with the article about the explosion in Perch Street.

«Banshee said that you blew up Perch Street because you simply dropped some dynamite where you scried Justin were.»

«It looked like a white room we scried following River.» Chico nodded.

«Well, it appears then that, for whatever reason, Staccato or Justin had a den in the sewers under Perch Street. So, I strongly recommend you take up arms and go take a look at what remains of it.»

«But there will be a lot of police. And a lot of chaos. The press ultimately chalked it up as an exploded pipe, but police is still sniffling around to see if there could be a bomber in town.» Banshee said.

«My dynamite don't leave tracks.» Vopros cared to point out.

«Nevertheless, it will be heavily guarded.»

«Are you telling me that the Coven that pulled off the Boston Museum Heist is scared of going around the sewers just for some policemen around?»

The three all looked at Garaham. He had a very strange, crooked smile on his lips. Something as rare as sunrise in Iceland.

They stormed out, Banshee already starting at least six contingency plans.

https://youtu.be/iBhFKWYsLsY

«I will kill them all!»

Staccato's voice sounded harsh and rabid, after being used for such a long time to weave such beautiful melodies. He was pacing back and forth in the large, white room, the echo of his steps resounding like a battle drum against the empty walls.

Leaning against one of the walls, the massive paws crossed on the giant chest, the blue fanged monster was looking at him. Just his red eyes, even without pupils, seemed to follow the short man's movements across the room.

«Calm down.» he said, in a scraping voice.

«Do I look like an hysterical woman to you? I won't calm down! Those... underlings, they dared to humiliate me! Why? Because my so-called Coven is completely and utterly useless!»

«Defeat happens. The important thing is that the plan worked like a charm. Justin is ecstatic. And She is, too.»

«To hell with them and their plan! I crashed and burned in front of everyone who's someone! I have a reputation at stake, here! How do you come back from being beaten by one of the most ragtag Covens around?» Staccato hissed, stopping in front of the creature to look up towards its nozzle, his eyes burning in the shadow of his hood.

«Nobody knows who you are. You could just shed Staccato and simply...»

«No way in hell!» the small man gritted his teeth, moving towards a great piano, well in the shadows of the badly lit room. He stopped some steps from it. «Nobody can know who I am. Not until my task is completed. And She is being particularly shy of her part of the deal, lately.»

«We have the book, now.» the beast caressed the precious tome laying on a small white table, right beside a very well-decorated and exquisite music box. «She will be pleased, and she will reward you, be sure.»

«Oh, I will be patient, but I will have my revenge on those bastards, oh you can bet on that.» Staccato grinned, creepily, under the shadow of his hood «They will pay, and they will pay dear for the humiliation they've put me through. And for using me as entertainment as if I was a K-Pop star.»

«Asking you to sing in public is hardly a terrible slight. You are, after all, a very proficient singer, and you're proud of your voice.»

«You are a well-mannered beast, Zeno. Would you like it, if I sold you to my niece to teach her good manners without asking you first?»

«As your Familiar...» the beast bowed his head, sarcastically «... I couldn't say no, anyway.»

«Oh, you know what I mean!»

Staccato stormed to the piano and caressed its surface. He walked around it, and sat down, starting to softly stroke the keys with his long, elegant fingers. A heavenly music filled the empty space of the small white room with gentle peace. Even Zeno relaxed, lost in the music for some moments. Before something came to his mind, and the music suddenly took a sour taste in the back of his mind.

«We don't have time to go after revenge, Staccato. We need to find her.» he simply said. Staccato didn't even slowed down.

«She has waited millenniums, she can wait some days until I find a way to come back to them.» he replied, dryly.

It lasted just a second.

Zeno's eyes flared up. A red, violent light filled the room all around them, for a disquieting and creepy second. He bared his fangs, as a deep, thundering growl crawled up his windpipe and rattled against his closed jaw, making it tremble in menace. He straightened up his hunched pose, raising to his nine feet height. His shoulders were larger than the door on the background, and his claws glimmered of the red light of his eyes as he exposed them with a dull sound.

Staccato froze, his hands over the keys.

«I have waited millenniums. I have walked this green, sick, revolting Earth, turning every stone, digging every hole, turning every page, searching every scorched corner of this cursed blue planet. I have sweated and served under a hundred masters, howled under countless, merciless skies, to be granted the chance to find her. To hold her. To bask in her music, and never have her leave my side again. You, little man, you have no right to decide for how long I should still wait before my due is granted.» he growled, his voice a concert of sorrow and despair, distilled so purely the words alone stung Staccato's ears like a thousands pins, from the inside. «Your petty revenge has nothing to do with me, or with my Mother. First, you fulfil your duty with us. Then, you'll be free to do whatever you want. But until then, Staccato, you will obey her.»

The small man remained in his position as if he had completely lost every sense of direction and position. His mind was raveling in front of the majestic, raw power the beast was manifesting. No fluxes, no magic. Just what it was: power encased in the most perfect murderous killing machine.

«I'm... sorry, Zeno. I was out of line.» he said, with a slightly trembling voice, after he had swallowed, three or four times.

The creature went back to his hunched pose, leaning against the wall, retracting with slow, controlled movements. Staccato started playing again.

«Your music... she would love your music. She would play along, and make the most wonderful harmonies.» Zeno grumbled, his voice, lost any menace, was back to a deep well of broken despair.

«You told me she is a wonderful harpist.» Staccato smiled.

«She's my missing notes.» the beast said. «Together, we're the perfect song. Divided, we're dull instruments.»

«We'll find her. I promise.» Staccato nodded, slightly increasing the rhythm of his song. «Now we have the book, we just need to understand how to activate it.»

«This time... this time we won't lose her.» menace came back, even if just a veil, over the words leaving Zeno's throat. «There won't be another accident.»