"Calm yourself," Beatrice said, for the first time since the demon's appearance. At first, Brook thought she had been talking to him, riding the edge between panic and outright despair. Only, when he followed her sharp gaze, he found himself staring at Tod. He was half risen off his seat, a hand wriggling around in his pocket, grasping on to something. Brook could barely make out the contour of it through Tod's clothes, and it looked suspiciously like a knife. A knife? At a meeting? What the hell is Tod thinking?

"B-but-" Tod sputtered out, his eyes glancing back and forth between Beatrice and it.

"Enough. She..." Beatrice paused for a second, licking her dry lips anxiously. "The Witch has graciously come to our aid and demanded little for it. And you will all show her respect for it."

"Understood," Mina nodded, always the loyal one, and always hasty to agree to whatever Beatrice said. She didn't even seem to be disturbed by the Witch's appearance at all either. Brook could only wonder how.

Tod, always the coward, backed down immediately, hand raised out in front of him as he sat back down. He nodded hurriedly, averting his gaze and looking away from the demon. And, to Brook's surprise, Harris grunted his agreement too, barely seeming phased by the whole ordeal. Is it really just me who's still unsure?

"Brook?" Beatrice turned her attention towards him, the demon now staring directly at him. Through his soul.

"...Yes. Un-... understood," He managed.

With all disturbances - hopefully - quelled, Beatrice moved towards the centre of the basement, dragging a table that had been placed to the side with her. She carefully pulled out a paper scroll from her cloak and laid it out across the table, the edges curling up. It was a familiar schematic, drawn in immaculate detail. For the museum. Gods, it's really happening.

"You should all know why you're here by now. You all should be familiar with the museum's plans with all the times we planned out something for it that never panned out," Beatrice smiled ruefully. "I would welcome all criticism and advice, however I believe the plan I'm about to lay out to be the most comprehensive and safe one. I believe... it was the third one we conceived."

"The third one?" Mina creased her brows, leaning in. "Didn't we rule that one out because-"

"It relied too much on gambling with the magical defences, yes. But now? With a Mage by our side?"

"It will need to be refined, right?" Harris said, strangely vocal. "Even ignoring the magical part, that plan was rife with holes looking back on it."

"Which is why we're going over it again. To refine and to perfect."

"...Alright. Where do we start?" Harris shifted his seat forwards, taking in the schematics once more, as they all had before.

"It has to be the distractions, right?" Tod interjected, highlighting what was his part of the plan in the past, still jittery but more serious than before. Focused. Like he used to be.

"Correct. Let's start with the guard patrol. The night shift is filled by four guards swapping out every three hours doing regular circles around the perimeter so that one guard of the patrol is at the front entrance every fifteen minutes. Excluding the patrol, there are two guards posted at all major entrances, and two night guards inside the museum itself. One covers the regular part of the displays and the other... is a Mage, protecting the magical."

"How powerful is the Mage?" The demon spoke for the first time since her introduction, still looming over them all engulfed in that terrifying fog of darkness. It was almost as if Brook had forgotten she was even there. But how?

"We... don't really know. We're not Mages like you, so it's hard to gauge that sort of thing. We did collect a record of some of their past work experience however to get a better idea. There's only one Mage doing it after all."

"Only one?" The demon asked, pursing her lips in a way that Brook found difficult to ignore in spite of all that horrified him.

"While there does seem to be two Mages, the other only comes every couple months or so. This is the only regular."

"And do you remember some details about this Mage?"

"He... graduated from their schooling about a few years ago now and only had one job before this, doing customs checks at the city gates."

"Anything notable about their schooling?"

"No, not really... I guess that they were from a state school? Most Mages I've learned of are from private ones."

"Perfect," The demon smiled again in that tantalising way. "And if he only had a few years then... Yes, it will be simple for me to deal with him."

Brook shivered.

* * *

"Are you sure that isn't false confidence I'm hearing?" Felin's voice came from over Amy's shoulder, using that same Spell he used when they were investigating the plague monster back in Triesen.

"I'm pretty sure," Amy whispered, her mouth barely moving. Despite there being a Concealing Shield around her mouth to hide her conversations with Felin from the rest of the thieves, it didn't hide the fact that she was speaking. So, it was best to do it discreetly.

"Just don't become too arrogant, my dear Apprentice. You haven't been learning from me for too long, and a few years of experience isn't something so easily ignored."

"Trust, Felin. If it's a state school then... I know their quality just as I knew my own," Amy frowned. I may have been the worst of my class, but looking back on it now, the top weren't that great either. With the kind of Spells I can cast now... I reckon they can be dealt with easily. Hell, they probably haven't even learnt many Spells past their mandatory repertoire too. I bet some don't even know how to create Spells. Sure, they can combine and mix Spellforms together in the 'traditional' taught method to reach higher Tiers, but that isn't the true path to powerful magic.

Focusing back in on the conversation after her interlude, Amy found herself lost for a moment, Beatrice having marched on ahead pretty quickly after her comment. It seemed however, they were onto the infiltration itself.

"...-with Mina, the architecture of the cathedral can now be exploited. Originally, two points of entrance or exit would be used, depending on how the guard shift appears due to our disruptions. Either we'd send me and Harris through the tunnel entrances or use the old spire window fault to climb up and break in that way."

"That part always seemed solid to me. We're changing it?" The larger man frowned subtly, his face guarded and plotting. Didn't Beatrice say his name was Harris? That's one to watch for.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Adapting it. We have a Mage now, and with their capabilities? Some of the harder details can be smoothed over."

"What," Amy put on the same grand and imperious voice as before, enhanced by her Monstrous Visage, "Are you asking of me?"

"Ordinarily the spire window would've been our ideal entrance but - due to our analysis of the guard shifts - it was far more likely to be used as an exit. As an exit, the spire is far riskier and if the plan goes wrong and the alarm is raised, the guard will be on alert about the entire building, keeping careful watch for things trying to escape; like us, scaling the cathedral wall.

"With you here..." Beatrice trailed off, her confidence failing somewhat, "I don't really know what your capabilities are but do you have a way to turn us invisible or something like that? So when we try to use the spire as an entrance, we won't be as easily spotted climbing up?"

"Perhaps," Amy considered. "Aren't there buildings closer to the museum you can use to get to the 'spire' instead of climbing directly up it?"

"That's what we mean by climbing up it," A spindly looking man murmured derisively, his voice a whisper but in that certain hushed way that was certain to be heard by everyone. As they all turned to him in shock - perhaps anger? Maybe even fear - he tensed up, as if ready for a fight. "What? With anyone with experience, it's obvious."

There was a silent message in the eyes of all of them there, one Amy could easily read even without the enhancements she put back in place for this meeting. They all needled into him, the one Beatrice had warned her about, Tod. All the thieves present did not want to provoke the Witch. Yet, for what other reason could that veiled insult be for?

Shaking her head, Beatrice ignored him and moved on, saying, "Yes, we'll scale one of the side buildings first, making our ways across rooftops to the cathedral. There, we'd climb up to the spire with a hook and line. Regardless, not only does it make some noise it's also very obvious. Which is why some sort of invisibility would be favourable."

"I can provide something along those lines," Amy revealed little, much to Tod's discomfort.

"Good," Beatrice moved on, already used to the Witch's secretiveness. "With our entrance into the cathedral properly secured, we follow the spire staircase down into the storage section of the museum. We'd pick the ordinary lock and get into the museum proper, which is where this new plan would majorly diverge."

"We could never quite figure out how to pass this section, could we?" The one called Mina commented, her frown deepening.

Turning to face Amy, Beatrice sighed before speaking, "As I've said, we're not Mages. The specifics of the magical security measures are lost on us, but perhaps not you. All the information we have on them comes down to names for systems and the way they're implemented, rather than how they actually look."

"Show me."

Fishing among some spare papers, Beatrice found and passed a small subsection for the blueprints over for Amy to look at, pointing out a specific part. And although the intricacies of the designs were unfamiliar to her, Amy could perfectly understand them and possible countermeasures came to her mind quickly.

"The mana signature monitors can be bypassed simply, however at this stage it would just be myself entering and disabling them. None of you would be able to follow until I give the go ahead," Amy began. Unknowable would hide me easily and then all it would take will be for me to shield the detectors in some Unknowable working to disable them. Whilst I cannot be sure there aren't measures against Unknowable, with Felin's comments about the rarity of the Element, I doubt most even know of it let alone consider it in their defences. I can't destroy them outright either as that would set off an alarm, so even if they are defended against this is my best shot. "Next would be the tuned locks on the display cases. This does not affect the mundane displays, so this is only something I have to account for. They will be by-passed in a similar way."

"And these... auto-magic nullifiers?"

"...I can surmise what those are for and they too shall be dealt with," Amy bluffed. I guess I'll have to look into them later.

"They're anti-propagation Magick systems," Felin whispered, somehow always able to tell what she was thinking. "It stops someone from casting a Spell outside the building that replicates itself to get inside the building and thus instead be 'cast' from the inside, sneaking by the typical hostile detection Spells. All good anti-magic defences had one in my day. It's something you don't need to worry about however. Nothing in your repertoire is propagation-based."

Nodding slightly to Felin's words, Amy added, "In fact, I doubt they need to be accounted for at all for what you have in mind."

"Excellent," Beatrice smiled, pleased that one of their largest hurdles had already seemingly been solved, and 'easily' too. Only, not everyone was happy. "Now-"

"Just wait a second," Tod interrupted, ignoring everyone else's looks thrown at his way. "How exactly is all this being 'dealt with'?"

"Stop being an ass, Tod," Mina shook her head, "It's not like you'd be able to understand if she explained it anyway."

"Well someone here should be able to stick up for ours," He retorted. With exaggerated deference, he continued, "I don't mean to doubt your capabilities, Miss Witch, but from all the Mage consultants we've contacted about this in the past they'd all given up after hearing that stuff. They all seemed pretty competent and they laughed at us even trying to find away past those things. So what makes you any different?"

"...Beatrice has spoken for th-the Mage, Tod. That should be enough. Or are you doubting her?" The one called Brook spoke up for the first time, having finally gotten past his unease.

"Whilst I often disagree with Tod, I have to say he has a point," Harris grumbled. "Even if we don't understand her explanation, it at least gives us something to trust when the time comes. The more transparent we are with each other on the plan, the better it'll end up when it comes to fruition."

"Not you too, Harris?" Mina scowled. "You're really siding with Tod-?"

"Oh please," The man in question spat, "As if you're any better Mina. You've been mad at me since the first time met. Then when it comes down to blaming someone, I'm always the one you point to! Honestly, just what is your problem?"

"My problem?" Mina shouted indignantly. "You seriously cannot be asking me that Tod. No- how dare you? You spend every moment you can getting on my nerves, antagonising me, and you have the gall to ask that?"

"It's not my problem that you're such a stuck-up bitch who can't get over her own appearance."

"You're going too far Tod," Beatrice intervened, putting a hand in front of Mina just as it looked like she would lunge at the man.

"Tod is being... Tod, yes, but he does bring up a good point," Harris reiterated.

"Not while he's talking like this to me!" Mina retorted, pushing up against Beatrice's hand and jabbing a finger towards the target of her ire, still spread out over his chair looking smug.

As the rest of them fell into petty arguments, all being dragged into their silly squabble, Amy stood there as she always had, resolute. Even Beatrice, ever so attentive to the Witch's mood, seemed to grow to ignore her as she tried to mediate between them. Looking over them all, Amy had a realisation.

I'm being such a fool, Amy frowned. They're all kids. Skilled kids, yes, I'll admit. But still, kids. With that entails all the sort of immature things children will squabble over. If they really were so mature as to form a confident front before the deathly Witch, then how could they fall victim to such a petty disagreement? And if they act like this in such a minor situation... who's to say how they'll act during the heist? When I'm relying on them to have my back when things go awry. Would I want Tod of all people watching over me? I think... I will reconvene with Beatrice after this. While I'm not at all confident about the rest of them, she has displayed some competence I can rely on, at least for advice. The rest of them? Except Brook who hasn't shown me much of anything, they're not worth my time.

Beatrice herself snapped to alarm when she suddenly remembered the person standing behind her. Whipping around, there she found her worst nightmare. Displeasure.

Shaking her head slowly, Amy stepped forward and let her Cloak rescind just enough so that the rest of the gang noticed her once more. They all quietened as the Witch occupied their thoughts again, fear crawling up their faces. Clicking her tongue, Amy began.

"It's clear to me now that I cannot trust to rely on any of you here," She scowled, her Visage intensifying with her displeasure. "You are the people I must depend on when we're in danger? You demand me to reveal my secrets for trust when you cannot trust your own fellows? You cannot even depend on each other, constantly scheming behind each other's backs; something I can tell despite being here for only a short while."

"A- Witch, I-" Beatrice tried to plead, to no avail.

"No. We may meet again Beatrice, but for the rest of you? I now proclaim our cooperation for this heist... finished."

With that, Amy channelled every stream of mana out of her diminishing pool into her Witch's Cloak, maximising its Magick to the fullest. Monstrous Visage fizzled and wavered as the mana powering it trickled away. Fortunately, none of the mundanes in the room could see her to tell. All their eyes had glazed over, looking 'through' her to a spot where she wasn't there. And, amidst their panicked shouts and accusations, their supposed 'alliance' already falling to anarchy, Amy left. Unnoticed.

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