Jason rode the elevating platform up through the Adventure Society administration building, arriving on the fifth floor. There was a new reception desk, installed as part of the changed being implemented by the inquiry team. Behind the desk was a familiar face.

“Bert,” Jason greeted him. “They’ve moved you upstairs. Is it the new essences?”

“It is,” Albert said. “Getting the full set is the way off the bottom rung in the Adventure Society. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Seems the higher-ups liked that I didn’t let them take Miss Sophie away when she was locked up in the prison tower.”

“Miss Sophie and myself both appreciate it as well,” Jason said. “It’s nice to see integrity being rewarded.”

“Is that one of the suits Gilbert was making for you?” Albert asked.

“It certainly is,” Jason said.

“Well, if you don’t mind me saying, Mr Asano, you’re looking quite sharp.”

“Thank you,” Jason said. “We have a saying where I come from: the suit makes the man. In a characteristic display of Bertinelli family excellence, your brother has made quite the man of me.”

“Thank you for saying, Mr Asano. You can go ahead and wait in the conference room.”

“I know the way. Thanks Bert.”

Jason went through to the conference room and sat down to wait. In the meantime, he pulled out a hefty tome of magical theory, opening to where he had marked his place with a ribbon and started reading. It wasn’t one of the new books Gabrielle had handed over, as they were too advanced, but a more foundational text he inherited from Farrah.

The books Knowledge had delivered to him fell directly into Clive’s field of astral magic, all focused on one specific aspect: dimensional transgression. Portals, teleportation and even the basic theories of passing between worlds. Clive had almost exploded with surprise when he first perused the books to glean their purpose.

“I don’t know if this is enough to get you to your world or back,” Clive had excitedly told Jason, “but it gets us orders of magnitude closer.”

Clive had been spending every moment not spent training buried in the books. They turned out to build on work he found amongst Landemere Vane’s notes, seized back from the church of Purity.

Jason closed the book and put it away as the door opened to admit Elspeth Arella and Tabitha Gert, the stern-faced leader of the inquiry team. He stood up to greet them, Arella shaking her head seeing that Jason had been sitting at the head of the table.

“Arella,” he said with a nod. “Interim Director.”

“Actually,” Gert said, “Director Arella has resumed her full duties as the inquiry comes toward a close. You may address me by my regular rank of Inspector.”

“Very well, Inspector,” Jason said.

Jason took in Gert at a glance, from the tightly bound hair and prim, plain clothes to the way her cold eyes surveyed her surroundings and seemed to find them wanting. Her resting expression exuded disapproval, as if she had a general expectation that the world at large would fail to live up to her standards.

Given his style of interpersonal relations, Jason had learned to swiftly assess how certain people would respond to his particular brand of provocational insouciance. He recognised immediately that the inspector was the kind of person with zero tolerance for the informal affability that was his strong suit. With people like that he would either crank it right up or dial it right back. It was a matter of what he needed from the interaction and how much he felt they deserved a prod. From everything he had heard, Tabitha Gert was a rigid, but even-handed woman, carrying out her job with stark professionalism. As he felt that integrity was deserving of respect, he kept his normal inclinations subdued.

Gert waved Jason to one side of the table as she and Arella sat opposite.

“Mr Asano,” Gert began. “In the course of our inquiry in to the general culture of this Adventure Society branch, your name has been appearing significantly more often than is appropriate for an iron-ranker. Which is to say, at all. Garnering the attention of the influential and powerful too early in your career is an excellent way for that career to reach an early and ignominious end.”

“I agree,” Jason said. “All I can say in my defence is that I made what I felt to be the right choice at each stage. I recognise, of course, that such a course often leads to places I never intended or wanted to go. I’m told that is a common situation for outworlders to find themselves in.”

Gert nodded, although even that affirming action somehow came across as disapproving.

“Your rank was reduced as part of the initial sweep of demotions,” Gert said. “From our brief initial assessments, your promotions had a smell of politics to them. That they were part of some kind of game Arella was playing.”

Arella remained silent an impassive, not reacting to the mention of her name or the postulation on her motives.

“I have no doubt that was a factor,” Jason said. “I like to think that my capabilities made it an easy pill to swallow, but naturally that is not an impartial opinion.”

“Do you think you deserve three stars, Mr Asano?” Gert asked.

“From what I’ve seen of the demands on adventurers, yes. At least at iron rank.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Gert said, surprising Jason. She seemed built for delivering news you didn’t want to hear.

“I read your report of the contract surrounding the land in the forestry district. It was thorough and well-recorded. I look very favourably on thorough reports. Delivering that report directly to the upper levels of the administration was also well-considered. Your handling of a politically delicate situation demonstrated sound judgement. You also took being excluded from a prestigious expedition with equanimity, putting your energy into completing contracts. At the iron-rank level, this is more than sufficient to warrant a three star promotion.”

“I don’t imagine things are quite that simple, though,” Jason said.

“Indeed. Frankly, you have demonstrated a capability above your rank. The problem is that in doing so, you’ve demonstrated that you consider your rank to be below you. I am aware that you surround yourself with bronze, silver and even gold rankers, but you are not one of them. I have no doubt that you will climb higher, but before restoring your promotion, I would like to see a demonstration that you understand that you are, for the moment, an iron-ranker.”

Jason nodded.

“I surmised that something like this would come up during the reassessment,” Jason said, “and I have given it some consideration. I think I have a proposal that will work for everyone involved.”

“And what is this proposal, Mr Asano?”

“A road contract,” he said.

“A punishment detail,” Gert mused. “Interesting.”

“My reputation is riding high, right now,” Jason said. “Ostensibly, I should be swimming in accolades. But if you assign me a punishment detail and I eat it without complaint, then it will be a public demonstration of my respect for the Adventure Society’s authority.”

“What’s in it for you?” Arella asked, speaking for the first time.

“My team has been undergoing an intensive training period. Going out and facing some real-world challenges is exactly what we need right now. In my world they call it a shakedown cruise. It will allow me to show some humility and help some people along the way, which is a win all around, by my count.”

“A well-considered idea,” Gert said. “I approve.”

“I’ll be choosing your scheduled route,” Arella said. “You can expect a lot more trudging through the desert than nice delta towns.”

“That’s fine. I would appreciate if it included North East Quarry Village Four, if that’s possible. I made some friends there a while ago and it would be nice to check in.”

Arella looked slightly peeved at Jason welcoming her condition.

“Are you sure you can get your team to eat being placed on punishment detail with you?” she asked.

“We’re already making plans,” Jason said. “If you don’t give us one, we’ll probably roam around clearing off adventure board notices anyway.”

“Very well,” Gert said. “You will be assigned a road contract. Contingent on it being carried out satisfactorily, your promotion will be reinstated on its completion.”

“Thank you, Inspector.”

“Thank me by doing your job and doing it well, Mr Asano. We are done, here.”

She stood up and departed without a further word. Arella followed, giving Jason a complicated and assessing look.

“I’ll have the details sent to you before the road contracts go out at the start of the month,” she told him and likewise left the room.

Jason made his own way out, returning to the reception desk.

“How did you find the head of the inquiry team?” Albert asked as he paused for a chat.

“Disconcertingly agreeable,” Jason said.

Albert raised an eyebrow.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard someone call her agreeable,” he said. “The Duke hates her more than he hates Arella.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. She’s completely rigid when it comes to Adventure Society rules and authority but has a complete disregard for anything else. Locals laws and authorities mean nothing to her. I’ve seen the Duke march in here more than once, only to leave more angry than he arrived every time.”

“Something worth knowing. Good looking out, Bert.”

Valdis informed Jason and his team that they would soon be returning to the Mirror Kingdom and they arranged one final match in the Geller family mirage chamber. Jason and Humphrey gathered the team on the houseboat to discuss strategy.

“I really want to win, just once,” Neil said. “Sending him off knowing that we can stand along side the best.”

“That’s easier to plan than execute,” Humphrey said. “They’re all close to bronze-rank, more experienced and have been working as a team for much longer. They’ve been able to take apart every strategy we’ve attempted by staying calm and responding with tactics that make efficient use of their superior power and practised teamwork.”

“Then we disturb their calm,” Neil said. “Hamper their efficiency, disrupt their team work. Surely you have something, Jason? Disturbing people’s calm is your life’s work.”

“Well, I was thinking about something,” Jason said.

“Oh?” Humphrey prompted.

“We’ve been thinking about Valdis’ team the wrong way,” Jason said. “We’ve been strategising as if they were collections of power and skill sets.”

“You don’t think we should strategise around their powers?”

“Of course, but we also need to look at them as people. Think about Valdis. We’ve been looking at him as a high-speed, high-impact melee attacker and using Sophie to contain him. Trying to take him out doesn’t make strategic sense because the effort to put him down would cost more than having him put down is worth, compared to Sophie bundling him up.”

“You think that’s wrong,” Sophie said.

“I do,” Jason said. “We haven’t been thinking about them as people. Valdis isn’t just a power set. He’s a prince of the Mirror Kingdom. The rest of his team were hand picked to stand alongside him.”

“Oh,” Humphrey said, eyes wide as revelation dawned. “I get it. Disturb their calm.”

“Would you mind filling in the rest of us?” Neil asked.

“Strategically,” Humphrey explained, “their team is built around their healer, Sigrid. She facilitates and directs strategy. We’ve tried pouring into her multiple times but they have tried and tested strategies to defend against exactly that.”

“This isn’t new information,” Belinda said.

“The strategic core of the team is Sigrid,” Jason said, picking his explanation back up. “The political core, however, is Valdis. Prince of the Mirror Kingdom. He’s the reason their team exists and I promise you that in their heads, the central figure of the team isn’t Sigrid, but him. This is our last shot at beating them until we go to the Mirror Kingdom and kick the snot out of them on their home turf. I’m willing to bet it all on the bottom line of Valdis’ team being that he has to survive, whatever the cost.”

“But this is a mirage chamber fight,” Clive said. “He will survive.”

“Yes,” Humphrey said, “but those instincts have been ingrained for years. I can tell you right now, they were being prepared for Valdis’ team before they ever received an essence.”

“Exactly,” Jason said. “That disparity between the actual core of their team, Sigrid, and the core that’s been drilled into them, Valdis, is the gap in their armour. If we go all-in on Valdis, right out of the gate, I bet they’ll do the one thing we haven’t been able to force out of them. They’ll make a tactical mistake. Even if it’s just a fleeting moment before their discipline kicks back in, it gives us a small but critical window.”

“So we feint on Valdis but actually move on Sigrid,” Sophie said.

“Exactly,” Jason said.

“We’re going to have to really sell the feint,” Humphrey said.

“We can do that,” Jason said. “The advantage we have on them is versatility. We can change things up faster than they can react. So long as we can get them to make that mistake, we can capitalise before they can cover for it.”

“You think we’ll win like this?” Sophie asked.

“From just this, no,” Jason said. “There’s a good chance they’ll regroup and retake their formation, even in the face of everything we throw at them.”

“Then we need to figure out how to stop that,” Neil said.

“No,” Jason said. “We try and stop them, because it would be suspicious if we didn’t. We fight hard to keep them scattered, which will make them clump together all the more. If they’re going to put so much effort into to gathering up, it would be a waste not to use that against them. The advantage of never having our strategies work against them is that they haven’t seen them through to completion. It’s time we showed Valdis and his team some things they’ve never seen before.”