“Well, Est, you’re about the last person I expected to be sitting across from me.”

“Well, Vin, same here.” Est didn’t have the grace to conceal the scowl on his face.

The last thing he wanted to do was to interact with family, even if his cousin wasn’t too bad compared to the rest.

Unfortunately, the ugliness of being a fairly responsible person had conspired to put him in a place not of his own choosing.

“Okay, so why are you here? Why did you barge into Guardian Central HQ screaming for me? I mean, you look terrible… not injured or anything like that. More scruffy and hungover,” Vin narrowed his eyes, “which I’ll admit doesn’t fit considering you’d need to drink gallons of alcohol to get that way and I can’t smell anything on you except for tasty food… Lola’s?”

“I wasn’t screaming and yes, I was just there, but that’s not why I’m here.” Est rubbed his eyes in a futile effort to relieve some of the pressure from a raging headache.

“Then why are you here?” Vin sighed.

Est told his cousin about the conversation he had overheard while astral projecting along with the likely magical gem that completely shredded said astral form and gave him the world’s worst headache.

“First of all… I never took you for a voyeur and secondly, that’s wrong and technically illegal. Grandfather won’t be pleased.”

“That’s not…” Est growled. This was why he disliked much of his extended family. So sanctimonious and eager to tear each other down to make themselves look better by comparison. “I was projecting as part of my fully licensed profession.”

“Specifically?”

“That information isn’t germane to the potentially dangerous activity that I’m trying to tell you about.”

“Fine, fine, you’ve never been a sneaky asshole. You’ve always been one to speak the truth as you saw it… with no regard to the feelings of others,” Vin said.

Est shrugged.

That was a fairly accurate assessment of his strength and flaw, depending on one’s perspective.

“In any case, you haven’t given me enough to go on. I’ll grant that the conversation you stumbled upon sounds concerning, but I can’t do much with just your say-so and physical descriptions of two people. We take our laws seriously. Innocent until proven guilty, after all.”

“Easy, pick up the two of them and get them to swear they aren’t about to do anything harmful under a truth spell, gem, charm, whatever or use a truth scanner, those things are like 95% accurate.”

“We need evidence,” Vin sighed. “I’m not kidding. We really take the rules seriously here in the Guardian Force. Your mother would rip me a new one if I so much as stumble off the sword’s edge.”

“You are proving less helpful than I had anticipated,” Est frowned. “You know what it costs me to just be here.”

“I guess so,” Vin nodded, “but from where I’m sitting I think you and your mother are being huge drama queens about the whole thing.”

“She banished me,” Est said flatly.

“Unofficially,” Vin shrugged, “you didn’t do anything truly banishment worthy. You’ve just been made into a social pariah of sorts.”

“And you don’t see what’s wrong with that? Tell me Vin, what do you think Grandfather and Grandmother will say when they come back and find out?”

“Probably yell at the both of you and force you to reconcile. So, why not just do it yourselves and save yourselves the trouble and embarrassment?”

“No.”

“That’s one thing you and your mom have in common… the almost epic level stubbornness—” Vin hesitated. “Don’t tell her I said that, please?”

“We’re getting off path here. What’ll it take for you to investigate this?”

“Actual evidence,” Vin said.

“Can’t you at least put surveillance on the two people? I’d do it myself, but I’d need to stay within a certain distance of the targets and thanks to Mom,” Est grimaced, “I can’t travel freely to the rest of the nation outside of where I live and here in Manila. I will not ask her for clearance,” he stabbed a finger toward Vin.

“I still need actionable intelligence to get my people on them,” Vin shrugged. “We’re not a surveillance state, despite the preponderance of psionic powers in our family alone.”

“Would it convince you if I let you experience the memory of what I listened to through your own eyes?”

Vin’s eyes went wide. “You’re serious?” When Est nodded, Vin blew out a long breath. “Definitely not what I was expecting. Est letting someone else into his thoughts,” he shook his head. “Do I need to have you checked for duplication? Mind control? Subsumption?”

Est held up a finger. “Just the memory of the conversation between the suspicious people… I’ll know if you go beyond that.”

“I’d never violate a family member’s trust like that,” Vin said. “We all had our earliest lessons from the same man.”

“The conversation took place in an Arena bar about twenty minutes ago,” Est said.

“Weird place for you to be in.” Vin raised his hands, “I know, I know. You were on a job. So long as it’s all legal then I don’t care and I won’t go poking around in that annoyingly broody mind of yours.”

“Just get it over with,” Est grunted.

Est locked eyes with Vin.

He felt the lightest touch on his mind as Vin used the ability to experience an other's memories as if they were his own.

It was over in a few blinks of their connected eyes.

“Okay… you may have a point,” Vin said after a moment. “The man and the woman in your memories definitely set off my troublemaker instincts. I’ll get eyes on them right away,” he sighed.

“You’ll be able to find them?”

“You saw them twenty minutes ago. They’re probably still at the Arena. If not… then not really that big of a problem. Our rules protect from random and indiscriminate surveillance of people going about their lives. When there is a threat we can find a needle in a haystack, quickly.”

“It’s a good thing the keepers of such power are incorruptible,” Est said. “Thanks, cousin. I’ve got a anti-grav taxi waiting and its draining my account. Feel free to not keep me abreast of your investigation.”

Est got up and left without further word.

It took Vin a moment to realize that Est’s words carried a tinge of sarcasm.

Then he realized that some of the words had been genuine.

As always it was a struggle to figure out which was which.

It wasn’t a surprise to Vin why Est was on the outs with the rest of the family.

He grabbed his PID before heading down to imaging to get the memory in his head of the two suspects translated into accurate renderings. His half century of instinct and experience was telling him that Est had stumbled on something big.

For his part, Est was feeling a little better now that he had unburdened himself.

He was looking forward to a quick drink from the ancient bottle of Laphroaig in the safe in his office before going to sleep and hoping that the headache would go away by the time he woke up.

The taxi dropped him off right at his doorstep.

“Ah! Partner Est has returned,” Runt grinned toothily from the couch in the waiting area. The Torruk’s bulk covered two-thirds of the furniture sized for three normal humans. The smile fell away as he noticed the bleary look in Est’s eyes. “Did surveillance on the young miss’ ferocious battle bonded not proceed as hoped?”

Est grunted by way of greeting before going straight into his office for that drink.

Runt followed with obvious concern on his brutish, but expressive face.

Est didn’t say anything until he had sat down in his chair and had two sips.

“Actually the Darkwillow case is done. I now know what her little Rose,” he grimaced, “is up to on those nighttime jaunts. The stakeout was more exciting than my usual ones and I’ve solved it in record time. Obviously we’re not going to close it just yet. Got to properly earn that 5k. Darkwillow needs an education on her bonded familiar and I aim to see it through. Plus, I’m still concerned on why she got the skarling in the first place. It could be trouble, which could spread out and eventually get back to me. I can just picture Darkwillow getting into it with a hit squad from Sylvandria and causing a whole lot of collateral damage in the city,” he sighed ruefully, “then once my mother finds out that I was on the ground floor of this case and didn’t stop a multiversal incident…”

“Are we not all on the ground? At least for the majority of our terrestrial travels?” Runt frowned.

“My associate,” Est raised the glass, “may you never change. Hey, do you want a drink?”

Runt’s face scrunched up. “Your spirits taste like the muddy ground water of my homeland mixed with burnt wood.”

“Still better than that too sweet abomination your parents send you,” Est snorted. “Like a glass of sugar with two drops of water mixed in.”

Runt smiled then pouted. “I drink it too fast. Still another six months before they send another cask.”

“Can’t you just buy it from the spires marketplace? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before.”

“Unnatural copies or made by inferior brewers. Parents only get from the best.”

“Fair enough,” Est shrugged. “So, what’d you find out about Darkwillow? Her family? Connections?”

“Young Miss Darkwillow is one-fourth Sylvandrian through her maternal grandfather. She is three-fourth’s Earthian. The little Rose’s egg was gifted from her grandfather’s ancestor and current Eternal Empress of the island nations of the Hundredfold Fingers of Delurian. It is said that the god sank his many hands into the ocean to pull the islands up from the depths. Red-backed skarlings are native to no other place on the world.”

“Gifted directly to Darkwillow?”

“That is correct. May I continue the report?”

Est nodded.

“The family knows not why Young Miss Darkwillow was gifted such a prize. For her grandfather had been and is still exiled for procreating with her grandmother. Bonding to a skarling, especially the red-backed subspecies, is a rare opportunity and an honor.”

“So… definitely something up—”

“There is more.”

“Do go on,” Est waved a hand.

And so Runt did.

For the next hour.

Indeed, Est hadn’t expected an overview on the recent and not so recent history of the Delurian islands and Darkwillow’s direct connection to what amounted to the royal family.

Eternal Empress was apparently a Class, which suggested what? Immortality?

And now she was what? Trying to reconnect with a wayward scion and his new, human family?

His headache hadn’t abated an inch and his glass had been long empty when Runt finally finished.

“Well… that’s good info. How’d you get it all?” Est was impressed. Runt was just a novice at this whole investigator thing after all.

“I asked Young Miss Darkwillow on the video chat,” Runt held up his PID.

Est sighed. “Okay… good job. Doesn’t matter how, as long as you get the intel. They don’t seem to know much about the familiar bond then?”

“They do not.”

“You’d think the Sylvandrian grandfather would know.”

“Only a select few know the complete details of how the bond is forged. The rest of the population only see the final results.” Runt’s massively muscled body shivered. “To merge with a familiar… two become one and back… it sounds impossible, unnatural.”

“Isn’t everything unnatural?” Est raised a brow. “Me and you included.”

“No,” Runt said flatly.

“Difference of opinion then,” Est shrugged. “I only know of the Sylvandrian familiar bonding system through a few paragraphs from a lesson decades ago, but I successfully subcontracted out the research to a clerk at The Archive. Hopefully, we’ll have what we need in a day or two.” He rose from his chair. “My head is killing me. I’ll tell you about the rest of my night tomorrow. Stay as long as you want, but I’m done.”

“I shall lock up, partner. Sleep well, may the demons in your thoughts give you peace this night,” Runt said solemnly with a bowed head.

“Well… now I’m definitely worried.” Est headed to the side door. He had a small, one bedroom apartment just above his office. His serviceable bed was calling.