Lila Frost walked through the hallway of her apartment floor, heading towards the door to her home. It was now nighttime, and she had just gotten off work, being a servant for the Coldwaters was tiring.

Opening the door to her room she was greeted by Lottie who was busy watching the display screen. Hearing Lila enter Lottie turned to greet her older sister.

“Oh, your back. Dinner’s at the table.” She spoke.

Lottie stashed her jacket and took of her shoes and sat down at the dining table. Before her was a still warm bowl of stew. Ever since she and Lottie had been living by themselves Lottie had learned how to cook for the two.

With Lila gone for sometimes an entire day or two working her odd jobs, this talent came as a necessity. Though Lottie couldn’t make anything special, she had quickly learned how to make soups and stews rather quickly.

As Lila began to eat, she asked Lottie, “So what do you think of Bryson?”

“He’s pretty cool. A bit grumpy though.” Lottie answered, turning her head towards Lila she asked, “What did the two of you discuss when we left the shop?”

“Oh you noticed? Wellll… honestly, I don’t know.” Lila admitted.

“What do you mean?” Lottie asked turning fully towards Lila now, her show still playing in the background.

“You saw the nutcracker that was on that display? The glass one?” She asked.

“The weird wooden doll?”

“Yeah that. Bryson mention that there was some weird magic in it.”

“Weird how?”

“I don’t know, he just said it’s weird.” Lila said with a helpless shrug.

“Is it anything bad?” Lottie asked becoming more and more interested.

“No idea. But it did seem that it bothered Bryson.”

“So is that bad?” Lottie asked concerned.

“No, no. Probably nothing. Just him being paranoid or something.” Lila tried to assure.

“Alright, if you say so.” Lottie said before turning back towards the display screen and continued to watch her show.

Lila looked at her sister in surprise, normally Lottie would be a lot more interested with these things, but here she seemed rather disinterested. Deciding to not think about it to much Lila just continued too eat her meal.

***

The next morning, Bryson was walking to the library inside their mansion with Lila trailing behind him. All of the sudden, rounding the corner was a very panicked maid. Her eyes wide, frantic as she bounded down the hallway.

“What are you doing?” Bryson asked with a groan. Great another mess.

“Oh… Lord Bryson…” The maid said nervously coming to a stop, eyes darting around, “Your… here…”

“You… you ran down the hall. How did you not see me?” Bryson asked in disbelief.

“I apologize for the offense my lord!” The maid said bowing deeply.

“I don’t care. Why were you running?” Bryson asked already bored.

“Ah… uh… well…” The maid stammered out.

Rolling his eyes Bryson snapped at her, “Either tell me or I’ll have you fired for your disorderly conduct, running around the place like a fool.”

The maid paused and pursed her lips in unease, glancing over to Lila for some sort of miracle. Lila could only shrug helplessly, she had learned a long time ago that once Bryson presses you for an answer, you give an answer.

“It’s your sister, Lady Sable Coldwater.” The maid said slowly.

“What about her?” Bryson probed.

“She’s… missing.”

“… Come again?” Bryson asked.

“Y-your sister was meant to be in her room and now, now she’s missing.” The maid stammered out.

“Is that so?” Bryson wondered aloud. As he spoke, he saw the maid visibly close her eyes in fear.

“Who else knows of this?” Bryson asked.

“No-o one.”

Bryson gave a small sigh before speaking, “I’ll send someone find her. I doubt it will be any issue.” He assured, “Just make sure no one finds out about this. Or well, it will be your head.”

The maid nodded her head fervently, “Right away!” She said as she hurried along.

As the maid left, Lila asked Bryson, “So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll just send Nico to search for her. I doubt she’s in any trouble.” Bryson said with a shrug. But why did she run and where is she? He thought.

***

Lottie Frost was sneaking around the streets, doing her best to be as inconspicuous as possible. She was doing rather well, very few people noticed her moving about, and those who did thought very little of it.

She was just some girl fooling around. But what Lottie was currently doing more than fooling around, something far more important. Currently she was tracking Edvard Bo, owner of the Warrington Sprite magic shop. She had been tailing the man since the morning.

Ever since her conversation with her older sister Lila, she had become interested with the shopkeeper. Apparently something strange was going on in the shop, and Lottie wanted to know what.

Currently her spying had allowed her to garner some information on the shopkeeper. Edvard Bo had left the shop suddenly and was currently making his way to… somewhere.

Lottie wasn’t exactly sure where, especially since Edvard was taking random turns and travelling through random streets just to wind up on the same street he had begun on. He was definitely trying to make sure no one followed him for some reason.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t been able to spot Lottie just yet. Lottie who was witnessing this became far more suspicious as time went on. There was definitely something to this.

I wonder what? She thought, just as she did Edvard suddenly came to a halt and began looking around his surroundings. Lottie quickly darted behind a building and managed to avoid his sight.

Satisfied that no one was paying any attention towards him, he approached a mailbox. The mailbox was littered with graffiti, but Lottie noticed that on the side of the mailbox from where she could see, there was something roughly the size of her palm was etched into the side.

A weird symbol that she didn’t recognize, normally she wouldn’t think much of it, except that the mailbox was made of steel and no other mailbox had this symbol etched in.

Edvard Bo then knelt down, pulled out a key and opened up the mailbox and proceeded to grab a couple of unmarked packages out of the mailbox. With a quick wave of his hand the two boxes disappeared into thin air, and he quickly shut the mailbox closed.

Lottie shrunk back as Edvard headed back her way, not noticing her he passed by without a second thought. Lottie however, looked at the shrinking body Edvard with great interest now.

“Huh.” She said aloud when Edvard went out of her sight. I need to find more information. She thought, quickly turning around, and running back towards her home, taking a quiet corner to avoid getting spotted.

She didn’t run far however as she rounded the corner of the street, she collided head first into someone.

Thump!

“Ahh!”

“Ow!” Lottie cried as she felled backward, clutching her head in pain. Looking over to who she bumped into, she saw that it was another girl, roughly her age wearing a hood and a pair of shade on the ground.

From the hood peeked out her raven hair, the girl had her eyes closed shut and was rubbing her head in pain. Opening her eyes, the girl glared at Lottie with crimson red eyes.

“Watch where you’re going idiot!” The girl hissed at Lottie.

“Sorry! I didn’t see you.” Lottie apologized.

“Eugh, can’t believe you can be that stupid.” The girl snapped.

“Hey! I said I was sorry!” Lottie said defensively, she then blinked at the girl, finally getting a good look at her, “Hey, you seem familiar.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The girl replied coolly.

“Those eyes… that hair, wait you’re a Coldwa-urrmm!” Lottie was interrupted as the girl quickly covered Lottie’s mouth with her hands.

“Shhhh!” The girl shushed.

“Sorry, sorry. I guess you’re trying to keep hidden.” Lottie apologized again. Picking up the shades that had dropped, she handed it back to the girl who quickly snatched it from her and put them back on.

“Wait, doesn’t Bryson have a sister his age?” Lottie realized.

“Why are you calling him by his first name?” The girl asked.

“You aren’t denying it.” Lottie noticed.

“Tsk. Fine yes, keep it a secret, but I’m Lady Sable Coldwater, who are you?” The girl snapped.

“I’m Lottie! My sister works for him!” Lottie said happily.

“Oh, that Frost girl.” Sable said.

“Yeah, what are you doing here, isn’t someone suppose to be with you?” Lottie asked.

“… I snuck out.”

“What?”

“I snuck out. I wanted to explore the city alone.” Sable said, “What are you doing here? This is a weird place to be alone.”

“Oh, I’m on a mission.” Lottie beamed.

“Ah, a game.”

“No, not a game. This is serious, I’m investigating something Bryson found strange about the magic place.” Lottie said proudly.

“Explain.” Sable commanded, face contorting into a look of disgust for a moment when Bryson’s name was mentioned.

Not noticing the disdain Sable made when referring to Bryson, Lottie explained, “Well, Lila said that Bryson thought that there was something suspicious about one of the toys. So I took it upon myself to investigate.”

“Suspicious how?”

“Don’t know. But that owner took some sort of package from the mailbox, and I was following him when I bumped into you.” Lottie said.

“Huh, show me the mailbox.” Sable commanded.

“Sure.”

Leading Sable towards the mailbox the two of them were able to get a better look at it, Lottie pointing out the strange symbol. The symbol upon full study definitely seemed to be some sort of communication device. However, neither of them recognized it.

“So anyways, I’m going to keep tracking the guy.” Lottie said, turning to leave.

“Wait.” Sable called out.

“What?”

“I’m coming with you.”