Date: April 16th, year 1286 Location: Crystal Rose, Kingdom of Specta

  Agnes snaps her fingers and thick threads of white light erupt from them. They arrange to form a familiar, ten meter tall eagle-like creature.

  - “The harpy eagle!” Nyx exclaims. “Do we get to fly again?!”

  - “Yes.” Agnes smiles, seemingly satisfied with Nyx’s reaction. “Everyone aboard!”

  They all climb onto the back of the eagle and the creature takes flight. Beatrice immediately starts screaming and clinging to Nyx. Julian was doing his best to contain himself, but he was gripping the feathers of the bird so hard that his joints had turned white. They could see the city’s streets turning dark as night fell, and thousands of magical floating lights were gradually appearing to illuminate them.

  - “First time flying huh?” Agnes laughs. “Don’t worry it won’t last for too long!”

  - “I… the… you…” Julian says while looking down at the streets below, unable to form a coherent sentence.

  - “He just has a big fear of heights!” Nyx comments. “Traversing the mountains to get here was really hard on him, but we pulled through!”

  Nyx keeps casually chatting with Agnes on the way, catching up on the events of the last month. Beatrice does calm down after a few minutes, and starts looking down at the city with wonder. She was doing her best to keep her hair in front of her face despite the wind constantly blowing it away. Eventually, the harpy eagle descends and lands on a large glass platform attached to the side of the 70th floor of an exceedingly tall tower. Said tower most likely had around one hundred floors in total, for about five hundred meters of height, making it easily one of the tallest buildings in the town. It was covered in bay windows with white light filtering through them from the inside, making it look like a giant beacon in the night sky.

  - “I’m very glad that humans never stopped partaking in monumental architecture!” Nyx comments as she jumps off the eagle and looks down through the glass platform, observing the network of roads around the base of the tower.

  - “To be honest I’d like the tower to be taller, it’d make it easier to monitor the city…” Agnes sighs. “Anyways, welcome to the headquarters of the Fourth Branch!”

  - “What’s with the branch stuff? I’ve heard the other guards talking about it too, so I’m getting curious!”

  The harpy eagle disappears, and Julian quickly runs towards the door leading into the tower on the other side of the platform. Agnes has an amused grin, and follows after him. Nyx walks next to her, holding Beatrice’s hand. The latter was looking down through the glass, struggling to keep her balance due to how much it was disorienting her.

  - “We have five branches among the Arcane Guard.” Agnes explains as they enter the tower. “The officers that you interacted with earlier are part of the First Branch, Order. They basically enforce the law in the city and take care of most incidents. They’ve got the most numbers in the corps, and are basically our backbone. Without them, the entire city would probably be plunged into chaos!”

  - “That makes sense!” Nyx replies, distractedly listening as she looks around the pretty crowded room that they just entered.

  It was a giant open space spanning across half of the floor’s size, with tens of desks, tables and chairs visible on the floor, lit by floating spheres of white light contained in glass casings near the ceiling. Groups of people in guard uniforms were standing around large wooden boards featuring dozens of sheets of paper, portraits and notes connected by red strings. Nyx catches a few words from one of the groups, who was discussing the disappearance of a newborn infant in a clinic. There were also closed off sections of the open space, with heavy doors that were closed for the most part. Nyx occasionally sees ones that are open, and usually on the other side was a small amphitheater with a red string board on the far wall, with smaller groups of guards discussing things she was too far away to hear. Multiple guards respectfully nod to Agnes as she passes by, some giving weird looks to Nyx, Julian and Beatrice.

  - “What’s going on here?” Nyx asks. “They look very busy.”

  - “I think most of them are trying to crack missing people cases. We always have a lot of those…” Agnes replies, giving a sad look to the tens of red string boards visible anywhere she looks. “That’s what we’re here for though. We’re the Fourth Branch, Analysis! We’re basically a big bunch of detectives trying to solve stuff.”

  - “Oh, are you the leader then?”

  - “Oh no, I’m just a high ranking official ! Well, one of the highest ranking, but it's not like it changes anything to my job. Director Lucius is the head of the department, I’m pretty sure it’s been like that for a few hundred years now.”

  - “Oh so he’s not a human?”

  - “Nope! He’s a wind spirit.”

  - “Oh! It’s true that you’re at peace with spirits right now. That means the end of the cycle is near… I can’t wait! Everyone will have to start over, that’s going to lead to so many fun stories!”

  - “The end of the cycle?...” Agnes repeats.

  - “Yes! When humans and spirits start living in harmony, that means their civilization is going to fall soon. Because then the demons are going to start spreading chaos, the spirits will turn against the humans and the humans will fight back, turning it into a three way war! Then when the numbers of each group are low enough, they start making peace and agreeing to live away from each other. Then they forget, and do the same thing some time later! It’s always entertaining because it gives rise to so many different stories, like that one when every single Demon King united with humanity against the spirits!”

  - “Whoa, hold on.” Agnes raises her hand in front of her face. “Is this some kind of prophecy? Does your magic grant you future sight?”

  - “Oh no, I can’t see into the future. It’s just what happens every time! The trope just becomes a little predictable after the tenth iteration.”

  - “...Hm. For some reason, I can’t help but be a little alarmed by what you’re saying… I’ll have to drop by the Library to do a little research.” Agnes clears her throat. “Anyways, here’s my office!”

  They stop in front of a large wooden double door featuring very detailed carvings of various species of birds. Agnes pushes them, and when they open they are met with a large office, with a massive bay window in place of a far wall. The desk was right in front of the window in question, with piles of paper stacked on top of it and various items scattered on its surface like different sized quills and bottles of colored ink. Bookshelves were lining the walls, but they were far from full. The covers had titles that all said “Classified case n°”, with different numbers for each of them. Agnes points to a few red sofas in the center of the office, perpendicular to the desk and spread around a wide round table made of marble and glass.

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  - “Come on, make yourselves comfortable.” Agnes says. “I’ll brew some tea for myself, and I think I have some hot chocolate somewhere around here…” She looks around her desk and opens a drawer, before triumphantly pulling out a jar of brown powder. The corners of her mouth quickly drop as she looks at the jar for a few seconds. “Urk. That’s REALLY expired. I’ll go check around the office to see if anyone has some.”

  - “...Can I just have tea?” Julian asks.

  - “Oh. Sure! I’ll prepare a few extra leaves then.”

  Agnes leaves the room in a storm, closing the door as Nyx, Julian and Beatrice sit on the sofas. Nyx's gaze wanders around the office, and she notices a tabletop picture frame on the main desk. It had a picture of Agnes, widely smiling in a park while holding the hand of a little girl holding her hand that looked had the same brown skin and eyes as her, but with black hair and mischievously grinning at the objective.

  - “Aaaaah.” Beatrice has a sigh of relief as she sinks into the seat. “This is so comfortable…”

  - “Yeah you probably deserve some comfort after everything we’ve been through.” Julian observes with a light smile.

  - “We all do!” Nyx adds as Beatrice crawls over to her and rests her head on her lap. “My back hurts a lot from sleeping on the forest floor ! Well, not as much as my leg.”

  - “Your leg ? What happened to your leg? You were walking just fine earlier.”

  - “Yeah I forgot I was injured!”

  - “Of course…” Julian sighs. “Show me.”

  - “Here!” Nyx pulls up her dress, revealing her bruised leg. The red spots had turned purple.

  - “By Solomon.” Julian comments. “You need medical attention, that looks like an insane amount of internal bleeding.”

  - “It’s fine, I’m having fun!”

  - “You’re going to lose your leg at that rate.”

  - “I have another one!”

  Agnes bursts through the door, brandishing a glass full of a brown powder.

  - “I’ve got some! I can always count on my teams for-” She instantly stops, looking at what was left of Nyx’s leg. “I’m calling the infirmary.”

  An hour later, Nyx’s leg was encased in a hardened pink paste, with a big heart carved onto the side by Agnes with a quill. Nyx tries to scratch at her leg as the doctor, a middle aged man with dark red hair styled in a slick back, leaves the room. He immediately whips around to stare at her when he hears that.

  - “Do not remove this before it turns white.” He says in a very stern, almost menacing tone.

  - “But it’s uncomfortable, and itchy!” Nyx complains.

  - “Then I might as well cut off your leg myself at this point. That’ll save us some time.”

  - “You should really listen to the doc.” Agnes intervenes, giving a sorry smile to the doctor. “He knows what he’s talking about.”

  - “It’ll take a week. Deal with it.” The doctor replies as he exits the office and slams the door shut.

  - “What’s up with him?...” Julian comments, baffled. “I thought healers were nice and caring people…”

  - “They are, I think…” Agnes replies. “He’s just caring in his own way. It doesn’t help that he’s the only one in this building that can properly use that pink paste thing. I’ve heard it’s made from herbs harvested from the edge of the Ancient Elven Lands that have healing properties, but require a very advanced knowledge of Sylvester magic to activate.”

  - “Sylvester magic? You mean Nature magic?”

  - “It’s the official name used by the Academy.”

  - “Scholars and their conventions…”

  - “Regardless, let me hear about what has happened ever since you got captured, and in great detail !” Agnes exclaims as she grabs a black notebook from her desk along with a quill and a bottle of black ink. “I want accounts from each of you, along with every tiny detail that you can remember ! Feel free to take a break and ask for more hot chocolate or tea, this might take a while but I’m not letting you go until I squeeze all the info out of you !” The slits in her eyes grow thinner as she speaks.

  - “Scary.” Beatrice comments.

  - “You should be the last person saying that…” Julian says.

  - “...You’re mean! Don’t talk to me!” She flips on her side, turning her back to him.

  They all begin recounting their journey up until this point, each from their own perspectives. Nyx overall depicted it as a fun adventure, Beatrice was struggling to convey her experience clearly due to her limited vocabulary but did her best, and Julian described it as a harrowing journey that brought him to the limits of what he could tolerate. During that entire conversation, guards were periodically entering the room and handing Agnes large stacks of paper sheets that she was simultaneously going through while listening to them and taking notes. By the time they’re done, the moon was high in the sky.

  - “Alright, I think I got a solid grasp on the situation.” Agnes declares as she puts her notebook down.

  - “Do you know if there are any inns nearby?” Julian asks. “They need a place to rest.” He points at Nyx and Beatrice, the latter having fallen asleep on the lap of the former.

  - “Yes, and we even have unoccupied dorms in the tower. But I’m not done with you, Julian Leventis.”

  Julian immediately jumps from his sofa and lands next to Agnes' desk. He reaches inside his hoodie and takes out the long iron dagger he stole from the bandits' lair, that he mainly used to hunt wild game during his trip to the capital with Nyx and Beatrice. However this time, he was intensely staring at Agnes as if he was evaluating the most efficient way to slit her throat with it.

  - “Right on the money huh?” Agnes raises an eyebrow. “I wonder why you’re so feral, that’s not typical of nobility.”

  - “What do you want?...” Julian whispers between his teeth.

  - “Oh, we’re getting some action!” Nyx exclaims, and Beatrice wakes up in a fright.

  - “What’s going on?...” Beatrice says, rubbing her eyes as she slowly gets up.

  - “Oh please.” Agnes rolls her eyes. “Don’t underestimate a detective that solved more disappearance cases than she can count. Did you think that hood was going to be enough? Anyone with good eyes can easily see your face anyways. Why do you think I brought you to my office, and away from prying ears? I want to hear your version of the facts first before I make your return public.”

  Date: The same day, a few hours earlier

  - “Hey guys.” Agnes greets a group of investigators taking a break and drinking coffee around a table.

  - “Hey boss.” One of them replies. “What’s going on? You don’t usually look that serious.”

  - “I want you to compile all the files recording the missing people cases from ten to fifteen years ago. Bring them to me in my office as soon as you can and make absolutely sure that the hooded elf in there can’t see what the documents are about when you pass by. This might be very urgent.”

  - “...Guess the coffee break can wait.” The investigators all get up from the table. “We’ll have that ready in no time flat.”

  - “Thanks, I can always count on you guys.” Agnes smiles. “Also, do you know if anyone has a stash of hot chocolate?”

  Date: Back in the present

  - “Julian? What is she talking about?” Beatrice asks, looking back and forth between them and staring at the dagger. She locks eyes with him, and flinches. His gaze was cold, not conveying a shred of emotion.

  - “Are you with the Fifth Branch?” He asks, ignoring Beatrice.

  - “The Fifth Branch?” Agnes repeats, raising an eyebrow. “You have ties to them? Now that’s odd. We don’t have any records of that.”

  Julian takes a step back, looking around the room like a trapped animal. He seemed confused as to what to do.

  - “Guess it’s time to tell us your story!” Nyx comments, breaking the silence.

  - “...Sorry. I don't have time for this anymore.” Julian replies as he dashes towards the door of the office, kicks it open and starts running through the building.

  - “Oh damn. I’m sure I asked them to lock the door from the outside every time they came out of the office…” Agnes sighs. “Get back here!” She shouts before she jumps up and starts running after Julian.

  As she tries to pass through the open door, she hits an invisible wall.

  - “Ouch.” She covers her nose. “What’s this, solid air?...”

  She waves her hand towards the wall, and a black sparrow appears in front of her, wings as sharp as knives. It dives into at the invisible wall, repeatedly slashing at it with its feathers before Agnes tries going through the door again. This time she goes through without issue, and Nyx also jumps up from her seat.

  - “I’m not about to let you go now Julian!” She shouts as she starts running after Agnes. “Come on Beatrice, let's chase him!”

  - “...Okay!...” Beatrice groggily replies as she gets on her feet.

  - “To all agents in the building!” Agnes yells. “We have a fugitive on the loose, do your best to capture him without harming him!”