Danya Khaim Gennadi Boryenka Eastinov. Level 44.

And Danya Khaim Gennadi Boryenka was at his wits end. How in the System was he able to keep the secrets of his [Boss] when She took unauthorised leave of absence? Of course She would also be the one to approve such a vacation. But that was beside the point. He was Her [Secretary]. He knew She had done no such thing. And it was his job to know such things.

Therefore it stood to reason that She was AWOL.

It was indeed most irritating. Because he was left holding the fort. Manning the phones. Keeping the lights on. Keeping up the facade that all was well. This was fine. To a degree. He was used to doing this. But this time it was all at the same time. And by himself. Without Her instant authority behind him. And it was wearing thin.

There were simply too many balls in the air.

The [Boss] ran a tight ship, with only a handful of close trusted advisors. And they advised Her. Not him. The vacancy of such a critical position was completely crippling. And this was exacerbated because the [Boss] Herself was absolutely devastatingly effective in getting balls out of the air and into the desired goal. Or, in most cases, goals. Because generally there were multiple objectives for just about every, single, ball. And these objectives were usually contradictory, sometimes even diametrically opposed. And the Boss somehow still scored in both and got every single other party to accept what was essentially an own goal in order to achieve their own goal.

And now Danya knew he was getting past tired. His logic was getting somewhat confused. He was treading close to a [Stat Check Fail]. Even with all the Stamina and Intelligence the System had seen fit to grant him, there was only so much a single person could achieve before they crashed. Well, except the [Boss]. But She was an outlier, a monster, an absolute [Legend] who could settle a room into panicked [Submission] by lifting an eyebrow.

And the even scarier thing about it all was that, to a large degree, She was unaware of Her own fearsome reputation. It was a curious blind spot for such an accomplished Woman. Scarily effective in Her work, overwhelming in Her presence, She expected the best of, and from, Her people. And if there was one thing that was more reassuring Danya did not know it. But this he did know. He was Her people. And She would go into bat for him no matter how bad he may have fluffed his lines, tangled his objectives, or ruined the play, She would totally and utterly support him.

Of course, then She would teach him what he had done wrong and how he could do better next time. And that learning was not pleasant. No, in fact it was far from pleasant. But it was effective. Exceedingly so. And She cared that he learnt whatever that lesson may have been and then another three beside it. This was the reason She was the [Head] of the [Organisation].

She called it Her [Family].

And it was. And woe and betide any who tried to attack the [Family].

And this is what this unexplained disappearance came down to. Someone had made an enquiry. Concerning Her son. The missing [Scion]. It was almost an urban myth that was bandied about within the [Organisation]. And probably even outside the [Organisation] as well. But Danya was closer than most. He was after all Her right hand man. Her [Gofer]. In fact he was one of the very very few outside of the immediate blood family who knew who the other [Potentate] was. And Danya also knew just how serious this [Obsession] was. If She was protective of those who were under Her umbrella of authority, She was absolutely fanatically more so when came to her direct bloodline. In fact the [Errant Scion] was, to Danya's somewhat awed thinking, the catalyst that had formed and driven Her for all these years.

Of course he hadn’t been there at the start, but from what he had pierced together it had been torrid.

No, Danya had only been taken in under Her wing a mere 12 years ago. As fresh as can be. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the darling son of his mother, the light of her life. And the pride of his father, with all the vicarious aspiration and expectation to ascend that came with it.

His parents had argued for months over his name. Nearly a full year after he had been born. It had, apparently, been so disruptive that She had stepped in. And somehow, Mama and Tata both were satisfied. One result. Two goals. Each had gotten what they wanted and Dany, well now he had a real mouthful of a name.

In fact it was distinctive in more ways than one. Firstly, it abandoned the traditional naming principles of [First Name], [Middle Patronymic Name], [Surname]. And this was a major departure.

Upon being isekai’d into the System, people had naturally congregated into their various nationalities and family groupings by and large. But the System had muddied the waters. Everyone now spoke [Common]. It felt like you were still speaking in your native tongue. But so was everyone else.

Perfectly.

This meant a lot of the disagreements and arguments either didn't occur or were resolved reasonably. However it was quite disconcerting at first and it took some time for some of various nationalities and cultures to mix. The odd thing did still carry over. These were clung to. And [Names] were one of them.

But it was over six hundred years since Dany’s ancestors had volunteered and She, as She stepped in, was able to point out that as trusted members of the [Organisation], [Middle Patronymic Names] were not in fact, formally used within the [Organisation]. And that in addition to this, holding on to this tradition, while enriching from a heritage point of view, was in fact divisive when it came to the greater [Organisation] which did not recognise any particular ethnicity as having any formal standing at all. All were [Humanese]. And that was that.

This then freed up a naming slot. In fact it broke the whole mould, so Dany had been blessed with three extra first names. This was fine generally as most people simply called him by some variation of his first name. He answered to all of them.

But secondly, it was distinctive as it confused the glitch out of the more traditional of his acquaintances. They insisted on addressing him more formally. That was a mouthful indeed, with none of the pleasing cadence of traditional greetings. And Dan’s classmates took great joy in addressing him by the inadvertent acronym his name formed. Even after all these years it was infamous. Dany shrugged it off. It had brought him to Her attention, and at ten years old, with just two levels under his belt, he had become her [Lackey]. Her [Gofer]. And then her [Apprentice], and now Her [Secretary]. He was one of the closest to Her. And She was close to him. In fact, She was as close as a second mother. But with a capital. But even still Danya Khaim Gennadi Boryenka could not help but capitalise Her pronouns even when just thinking about Her. She was inspiring.

And he had rocketed up the Levels since being brought in under Her wing. And his skills too. He was learning from one of the most accomplished and dangerous [Bloodmages] that existed within the Human Polity. And what was even more astounding was She was not known as a [Bloodmage]. There wasn’t even a hint of it. It was widely considered in the more shady circles that She was a [Shadowmage], maybe even an [Archmage]. It was known She was a skilled [Assassin] yes, but the absolute fear of a D Tier [Bloodmage], able to turn Her foes’ own Essence against them, was absent.

This was amazing. And inspiring. Her [Reputation] was completely and utterly fearsome even without this critical piece of intelligence. But Dany knew. He was after all her [Secretkeeper]. And She was teaching him. And it was hard. And completely against the widely accepted principles of Magic that most of the more magically inclined population ascribed to.

In fact, She didn’t even let him join the [Mages Guild]. That would cripple his mind. His [Magic]. It was like providing a crutch to a fit person and forcing them to use it. Hobbling them. Squeezing them into a [Path] or [Discipline] that some other Adept had formed. That was not theirs. Limiting choices. Constraining and weakening. No, She was scathing about those who would insist on such dogma and tradition. On right ways and wrong ways. It was inexcusable. And one of Her secrets Dan held was the desire, nay the plan, to dismantle this bottleneck on Humanese creativity and imagination.

So, of course, She was teaching him in quite a different way. And She was teaching him nothing directly. In fact She made him take [Mediation], of all things, as one of his first Skills. That had been beyond frustrating. To know someone knew what to do, but was making you figure it out for yourself. With just the slightest of nudges admittedly. But it was working. He was now advancing at a rate that was significantly faster than his peers.

And Danya’s [Bloodmagic] was completely different to Hers. As it should be. It was his. And it was distinctive. He was a truely unmistakable [Bloodmage]. In fact She had been quite surprised that he was a [Bloodmage] at first. For of course Dany had not been Her [Secretkeeper] then. He had no idea that she held the title as [Premier Humanese Bloodmage]. He couldn't have asked for a better [Mentor].

No, Dany was a showman. A [Ringmaster] even. In complete contrast to his shadowy mentor. And he loved it.

But recently poor Dan had hardly had any time to practise at all. No, not since She had hared off to discover whoever had asked such intriguing questions at one of the [Level 1] [Libraries]. He was getting rusty. Actually, the more correct term was stagnant. And stagnancy was bad.

Something must be done.

Danya gathered up his things. It was time to visit the other leader of the [Azure Sky Advancement Program].

He would enlist help from the other branch of the [Organisation].

He had delayed long enough.

He would follow Her. For how could he help keep Her [Secrets] when he wasn’t with Her to know them.

And She would need him. Danya just knew this with complete assurance, for despite being capable as She is, She also hadn’t been without a [Minion] in some shape or form for over 500 years.

No, She definately needed him.

A.S.A.P.

And the [Organisation] needed Her. Desperately.

Or all sorts of snafu would ensue.

Danya took a final look around the small room he had boarded in for the past 12 years. He had everything he needed. His step was decisive. His gaze intrepid. His optimism unbounded. It was time to venture forth. To retreive his completely scary and utterly indispensible [Boss].

He set off to find [Baron] Aaron Tait, [Captain of Industry], [CEO] of [Artificer Services Accredited Professionals], the leading manufacturer of Humanese Artefacts in the entire System.

And the [Azure Potentate].

[Potentates].

Yes. He would find them both.