Back in their room, Karina and May discussed everything they had seen.

  "Do you think he's campaigning here?"

  "At a casino? Pretty hard, don't you think so? But I wouldn't doubt anything, not coming from that man."

  "Yeah, me neither, May. And now that I saw him in person, I can say for sure that he has some sort of strange aura. I wouldn't say it's magic-related... It's strange, you know?"

  "I had the same impression. It's odd, right? I mean, he's all about tradition and everything, I would never imagine a man like him here."

  "But what could it be? I don't know."

  "Me neither. We can try and investigate it further... Maybe if we distract the guards more or something like that."

  "Yeah, if only we could distract them. It would help."

  "And talking about the guards, I want to try seeing the future. Whether the guards are coming for us or not. This time, I will try something... different. I will need you to focus completely on covering my magical energy."

  "You know you're scaring me a little, right? But let's do it, just give me a minute, I need to focus."

  And Karina closed her eyes. She let her magical power flow through her, and she used it to mute May's magical energy as much as possible.

  "I wish we could do it in the gaming room too, May." She noticed that her friend was about to answer, so she added. "But I know it's not possible to completely erase the magic traces."

  "Right, anyone close to us, sensitive to magic, would detect it in a minute. But now, I need to focus too. I will try something I never tried before."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "I will take advantage of the blessing of Hecate over me. Do you know she's a chthonian deity, right? She lives in the underworld. That means she's closer to the dead."

  "Oh, I don't like where this is going."

  "I will try something a little like a seance. Talking to a spirit." May said, and she let her mind wander. She had read about it in a book a while ago, and it didn't seem hard. She tried to focus on her ancestors, people who would do good for her. People who wanted to protect her.

  May took a candle from her bag. She lit it and put it between Karina and her.

  "If there's anyone here with us. Talk to me and answer my questions."

  Karina felt the room getting colder, and a chill went down her spine. May focused on her own magical energy. The flame in the candle danced in front of her. She felt something had shifted in the room. The scent of sage filled the place, and Karina almost felt like she was in a lucid dream of some sort.

  "It's here, K," May whispered to her friend before she said aloud. "If you're really here, tell me who you are."

  The candle flicked a little, and Karina could swear she saw the shadows moving and dancing in the corner of her eye. It was hard to keep her focus and hide May's magical power.

  "I'm someone who shares blood with you. I'm someone who went away long ago. I'm someone whose name is long forgotten." A voice came from nowhere; it echoed inside the room. Karina didn't like how the gender and age of the voice were indistinguishable.

  "I want you to help me, please. Share your wisdom, you who come from the past, but tell me about my future and the things I can't see."

  The shadows shifted and moved again, and the flame got bigger. Karina felt May's magical power flowing all over the room, barely contained by her. And the presence was even stronger.

  "Open your heart. Ask, and you shall receive." The voice stated, in a monotone.

  "Are the guards here after me?" She gestured to Karina. "After us?"

  Silence engulfed the room. Karina thought that the voice wouldn't answer or that the spirit had gone away.

  "They see everything. And they run after things they don't even know existed a single day ago. Every night, when the darkness befalls the land, the hounds go out of their path. They leave their houses, and they search for something. It's not something you own, and it's not something you would want. Yet you should be careful, even though they don't know you. They also felt that something had shifted. And they are looking for the person responsible for it."

  A fine mist swirled over the room floor. May pondered for a while; she couldn't force very much, or she would be out of magical power. So the next question needed to be accurate.

  "Should I go after them before they find me?"

  This time, the voice didn't take too long to answer.

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  "You shouldn't ask things you already know the answer to. You shouldn't doubt at moments when certainty might be the right remedy."

  And everything changed, the mist disappeared, and the shadows stopped. Karina felt May's magical power returning to her body. Her friend blew out the candle and turned on the lights.

  "That was terrifying, May. I didn't know you could talk to spirits."

  "I never tried it. I knew it was possible, but I wasn't sure. But I guess the answers were clearer this time."

  "So what was the spirit talking about?"

  "What the spirit was saying, at least I believe, if we follow what I've been thinking, that we should take the initiative. If they're coming after us, we should be ahead of the game."

  "Yeah, right. I don't wanna be surprised. But how are we going after them? In the middle of the gaming room? It would be crazy."

  "Oh, Karina. Didn't you connect the dots yet? That night, when everything got dark and silent. They were after us. They used the darkness to see if anyone would use magic."

  "That makes sense, I guess. But what should we do?"

  "I need to follow my instincts, and they are telling me that we should go after them. Ambush them before they get to us."

  "Tonight?"

  "Yeah, if the darkness is back. Let's surprise them."

  "But won't this expose us? I mean, shit, the whole Casino is going to know that we're using magic."

  "No, not if we cover our faces and hair. And we should wear larger clothes too. If they see two girls fighting, then they would be very suspicious of us."

  "You're right, May. But there's another thing, we should be careful about our weapons. At least for now. The magical power they emit, I don't know, it's possible they could trace it to us."

  "Hum, that's right. But there might come some fights where using guns will be inevitable, you know that?"

  Karina nodded; she knew her friend was right. She looked over her bags and clothes. The masks were something they had brought, after all, a spying mission would require a disguise.

  May reached for Karina's hand and squeezed it a little.

  "You should know we're going to be alright. You're stronger than you might think, K."

  "It's just that... I don't know. Sometimes this mission seems to be a lot. I'm used to fighting irrational creatures, and that's it."

  The girls put on the masks and their largest clothes. Karina inspected herself in the mirror, barely recognizable. She pulled her hair back and tied it up; now, in the dim light, she could even be mistaken for a young boy.

  May looked at herself and her friend, and she seemed content with the results. The people after them would probably have a hard time identifying them. Now the only thing left for them was to wait for the darkness again.

  "What if they don't do it today, May?"

  "They will do it, I'm sure. If they're as suspicious of us as I believe, they'll try to ambush us tonight."

  "Do you think there's something pressuring them to get to us as fast as they can?"

  "It wouldn't surprise me, something like this. I kinda hope so, trying to act fast, I guess it would make them prone to mistakes."

  The girls waited for a while, and they tried to get some rest, but it was hard with all the anxiety that kicked in.

  May didn't notice how many hours they had waited when she felt the darkness lurking in. It was like the night before; somehow, all the light in the world seemed to have disappeared. May felt the magical power behind it; it was powerful.

  "Now it's our time to go, K. We should go after them before they arrive on our floor."

  "Yeah, yeah, so they won't know in which room we are."

  The girls opened the door to their room silently. They sneaked into the empty hall. Not a single soul in sight. A chill passed through Karina's spine. Were they close? May tried to distinguish the figures in the darkness, but it was hard. They would need to keep going, but carefully. They had to feel any changes in the air and in the magic of the atmosphere.

  Once or twice, May heard Karina curse under her breath. She knew her friend was a little scared and unsure about everything.

  "Are we sure they're looking for us?" Karina whispered before she added. "Because, like the first night, I don't see anyone. Not that I would be able to see perfectly in the dark, but you get what I'm trying to say."

  "I'm sure, K. We just didn't find them yet."

  "But how many floors have we been to? Don't you think it's strange?"

  "Well, this is a big place... And we don't know how many of the guards are looking for us. Maybe it's just two or three."

  "You're being excessively optimistic, May. If they are desperate to find us, we can count on at least a dozen of them here."

  "Maybe you're right. One thing, K. I don't want to worry you, but you know that you will probably have to take on most of the fight, right? My spells are mostly verbal; if I use anything, they might be able to identify my voice."

  "I've been thinking about it. I guess that's what scares me the most."

  "But don't worry, K, I will fight by your side. We'll just rely on your powers a little more than the usual."

  May heard Karina's breathing getting more controlled; she hoped her friend had calmed down a little.

  When they had searched for more than eight floors, something strange happened. Karina saw something that flickered on the ground. When they got closer to the thing, it disappeared. As they looked up, they found themselves in an intersection of halls.

  "What the hell? This is strange. An intersection here? Did we find one before, May?"

  "Not really. It seems to have appeared just as we were distracted by the flickering. In which direction should we go?"

  "I don't know, let's try to feel the magical power coming from each side."

  The girls both closed their eyes. Karina tried to feel the flow of magic. Both sides seemed the same, except for something faint on the left. It was almost impossible to distinguish, but it was there.

  "Let's go left, May. There is something on that side. I bet they're there. Maybe the right side is a trap."

  "I don't know, but I'll trust your instincts. Let's go."

  They ran in the hall to the left. They almost lost their sense of time entirely. When May was about to surrender and say that they should try again some other night, she saw it. The shadows moved in front of her eyes; she couldn't see the number of guards, but she knew they were there.

  "I guess you were right, K. They were waiting for us."

  "Now our only option is winning."

  Karina barely had finished her sentence when the guards moved. They sprinted, and everything else in the hall, even in the dark, became a blur.