Shreya walked up to The Estate and was even more impressed with it the closer she got to it. She had grown up in the slums at the edge of the estate and had dreamt about going into it. Now she was here.

The Estate sat on the edge of Derensay atop tall cliffs overlooking an unrelenting ocean. There was a gentle slope with a long walkway up to the massive front doors. It was built out of local stones that had somehow been fitted together to be airtight. The tallest point was an observatory of the sky and was made out of the same window material the Floating Eye was made out of.

In school she had been taught the observatory was made from the leftover windows of the Floating Eye. She could see the blue storm coming in from the ocean reflect on the windows above. I better hurry if I don't want to get wet. Storms came in fast and frequently when you lived on a planet made up of mostly water.

At the front door were two guards wearing dark navy blue jumpsuits. "ID please." The first guard asked. Shreya showed her Saltec ID she had been given when she went to go work with Tor.

"No Saltec reporters are scheduled to be here today. Do you have an appointment?" He asked.

"I was just hired by the Vice Regent. He said he had a job for me at my earliest convenience, so here I am." She smiled at him. Shreya generally didn't have trouble getting past guards.

"I'll call it in." The other guard said. He went into the small guardhouse off to the side. As she waited by the door the storm started. The guard by the doors stood closer to the building under the overhang and pulled his hood up.

Shreya hadn't worn her raincoat today because she had vainly wanted to wear her new business suit and it didn't match. She walked towards the door to wait under the overhang and the guard rolled his eyes at her and shook his head. She leaned back to rest against it, and while it offered some protection from the rain.

As she did, it opened from the inside and Shreya fell back. She was caught by a handsome young man with black hair and brown eyes. He looked at Shreya and smiled, "Always good of you to drop in Shreya." Pletaro Minault said.

He lingered a moment before setting her back on her feet and Shreya did her best to look professional and not like a drowned molerat. "Thanks for catching me." She said.

"Just like old times." Pletaro said. He looked like he just stepped out of an ad for men's cologne. He was wearing a new crisp suit and was freshly shaven. "I'm sorry those two kept you waiting outside. We weren't expecting you quite so quickly." As he talked he walked her down the expansive hallway.

The inside of The Estate was even more impressive on the inside. Decorative rugs lined the hallways and the old stone walls had massive paintings hanging on them. Each depicted a different Vice Regent. Every few steps there was some sort of sculpted artwork, tastefully breaking up the paintings.

"I'll have the servants finish setting up your quarters. For now, I'll have to leave you with the butler, Ducaro. I would have loved to have shown you the house myself, but I have some pressing matters." He took her hand and brought it to his lips as he kissed the back of her hand softly.

"It's alright, I can find my way if someone will just point me in the right direction." Shreya tried to keep her voice steady.

"No, I insist. this place can be a maze. Let Ducaro show you around and then enjoy your new living quarters while we make a few things final about your new position here." Pletaro assured her.

A stern man appeared behind Pletaro, "Your motor is ready sir."

"Thank you, Francisco." Pletaro waved him back. "When I get back we should celebrate your new position here."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea Pletaro. We have a lot of history, and I think we should keep things professional between us." She hesitated. "You understand, right?"

Pletaro's face grew hard for just a moment, before reverting back to his smile. "Of course. We'll keep it strictly professional. However, I am technically your supervisor, so who says we can't have our meetings over a nice dinner from time to time?"

"Of course." She repeated. With that Pletaro turned and left her in some sort of foyer. Soon after she was met by the butler, Ducaro who began to give her a tour of the mansion.

He was an imposing man who had given little to no information about the history of such an iconic estate. It had simply been, Here is the dining room, and Here is the grand balcony. The tour was over quickly due to how fast the man walked

She marveled at all the fresh air, the sheer amount of it made her feel a bit dizzy and at the end of the short tour was glad to find several conjoining rooms had been given to her for her personal use while she worked there.

Shreya had been on the estate for two weeks and had not actually seen the Vice Regent or Pletaro yet, nor had she been given any actual jobs. The head chef had said it was so she could take the time to get settled but Shreya had always lived light and had finished moving in the first three days. She had decided to make the most of her time and wandered the estate as much as Ducaro would allow.

Several rooms were simply off-limits, but others would have the main door locked but be accessible through side doors. As she wandered the estate she wondered if Ducaro knew about some of these rooms.

At one point she found a secret door that led somewhere down into a dark hallway that looked as though it hadn’t been used in half a century. If she had been just a tad braver she would have tried to figure out where it led to. Knowing the savage history of Derensay and its leaders, Shreya could make a good guess as to what was down there and stuck to the upper levels for a few days after that.

After 14 days of roaming the stone halls, she was finally summoned to Varnusha’s meeting rooms. They were located in a high-level security area and she was issued clearance that would let her access much of the house that had been previously locked for her. Before her roamings this would have meant nothing, now, she thought of 20 different doors she wanted to unlock. She had to go through several different security checks before she was finally ushered into Varnusha’s main office.

Like the rest of the estate, his office was much larger than it needed to be with one end filled with windows looking out onto Henear’s vast ocean. On the sides of the long room were bookshelves upon bookshelves. She had expected more artwork in his personal study as he seemed a man of luxury not of study. In front of the windows was a large desk with a holo-terminal glass on the top of it. Shreya had never seen one so big. Most other holo-terminals were small and could fit on a lap, and even then only rich important people had one. To see one of this size made Shreya more nervous of Varnusha’s power than anything else she had seen yet. The large estate and the blatant overuse of air were simply signs of power from previous Derensay Vice Regents, but holo-terminals were still relatively new and one of this size spoke to Varnusha’s prowess.

Pletaro whispered into Varnusha’s ear and he powered down his terminal just as Shreya reached the edge of the desk. He motioned for her to sit, “Shreya, my dear. Pletaro has sung your praises to me since he got here and I am delighted to finally meet you.” Shreya knew she had met Varnusha at several of their Floating Eye meetings, but she played along anyway.

“It is a great honor to be here Vice Regent.” She caught Pletaro’s slight grin at her and she knew he was up to something and she was called in to help him, just like when they were children.

“Shreya, I’ve asked you here for a very special task. One that was inspired by your former employer.” Varnusha grinned wolfishly. “As you no doubt know, our planet is running out of air at a rate which can not be explained. As the province which captures the gases and redistributes them, I have been called to account for this phenomenon and so far my experts have been…unhelpful.”

Shreya did not like where this was going. “I want you to lead a team to discover why this shortage is occurring, and if possible prevent it, or ideally reverse it. You shall answer to no one but myself and Pletaro. Everyone will be at your disposal to question or help, if anyone proves unhelpful to you, they shall answer to me.”

“I will take this matter to heart sir." She paused for half a second, "May I ask why you chose me? I have no real experience…”

“No experience? Did you not help uncover my predecessor’s dumping mistake in Wilea? Were you not the one who helped Tor uncover the Mining Corporation’s illegal marrying standards? You will not fool me Shreya. I know many discount your abilities because of your beauty, but I am much more cunning than that. You are perhaps the most qualified for this job, behind only Tor himself. However, when Tor discovers something it usually ends poorly for Derensay, and for once I would like to get ahead of him on this.”

Shreya blinked back tears. The one time someone recognized her abilities and it had to be this guy. “I won’t let you down Vice Regent.” Shreya stood and nodded curtly, she took a deep breath and smoothed her skirt. “I better get started. Do you have somewhere in mind that I should start?"

"Pletaro, will you please show Ms. Shreya to her office and fill her in on the details we have?" Varnusha motioned for him.

"Of course, sir." Pletaro nodded and gathered his tablet and walked Shreya out of the ostentatious office. Once they were out of hearing from the door guards Pletaro's demeanor changed and he acted as though Shreya and he were off on one of his little escapades he always set up.

"Alright, what are you up to?" Shreya asked without breaking stride.

"Whatever do you mean? Shrey, I'm offended." Pletaro smirked.

She still felt the familiar pull of being proud to be in on whatever scheme Pletaro had in mind but also a wariness, what if I'm the one being played this time?

It had been roughly nine years since she abruptly left him to fend for himself in Derensay. Tor met her while investigating her father's manufacturing plants and had immediately offered her a job as his assistant. She hadn't even said goodbye to Pletaro. She wasn't sure she could have left him if she did.

"Come off it Pletaro," she said, "You're always playing some angle. You whispered into the spider's ear my name and now here I am heading up one of the biggest investigations our planet has ever seen. Why?" Shreya asked.

"I have a few theories as to where it's going Shrey, and I needed someone on my team I could trust. I can't talk about it here where anyone could be listening. Have dinner with me this week and I can fill you in."

"Oh, so now you have time for dinner? I just got handed my first huge job and I'm supposed to immediately take a night off for dinner? Where have you been the past two weeks?" Shreya stopped and forced him to turn around and look at her. "I am not the same girl who would blindly follow your schemes Pletaro. You may have suggested me for this job, but I am just as capable as Varnusha expects me to be. You have placed me in charge here and I will do my job regardless of what plans you have for me."

"I wouldn't have expected anything less, my dear." Pletaro bowed slightly and Shreya couldn't help but laugh. She had missed his charisma and enthusiasm, Tor was amazing at his job, but he didn't know how to just have fun and play around. He was always so serious, whereas Pletaro was always playing around in some way.

"Alright, one dinner. But, I want to know everything Pletaro, if you are running some sort of gamble here, I need to know about it. Varnusha is a powerful friend but an even more fearsome enemy. I do not want to make an enemy of him and I won't put my career in jeopardy for one of your scams." At this Pletaro nodded.

"Well my dear," as he stopped at a seemingly random door, "here is your new office. You'll find all the preliminary findings on the tablet on the desk as well as your holo-communicator. You've been given the entirety of Varnusha's contact numbers and you've been given level 5 security clearance to all of our records. The only people with higher security are the Vice-Regent himself. I shall pick you up at 6 pm tomorrow."

He leaned in and gave her the slightest peck on the cheek, "It is so good to see you again Shrey." As he left her in the doorway Shreya wiped a tear off her cheek and got to work.