I expected to be stopped at the door of the Shuffle Masquerade, given Callie was with me and apparently the triplets hated her, but to my surprise the bouncer just waved us both through. Once we got inside, I stuck close to her so we didn't get separated. It was...a lot. I wasn't overly fond of places like this. It wasn't just the crowds, I'd dealt with those before, it was more that the sensation of churning bodies packed into a small building like this made me feel like I was in a pressure cooker.

Callie knew me well enough to know I'd be uncomfortable here, hence her offer to back out, but I was able to ignore the feeling by leaning a bit harder on my Focus than was normal. In the state of logic processing that was Focus, it was easy to hyperconcentrate on just one thing and let the rest of it fall away. I focused on Callie, making sure she was safe and nearby, and it wasn't as hard to block everything out.

It certainly helped that it was so much fun to watch her like this. She was practically buzzing with excitement, and constantly looking around like she expected to get caught with her hand in the cookie jar any moment now. She didn't seem anxious though. Just energized. This was a bad idea. She knew it, I knew it, but neither of us cared. She wanted to do it, and I wanted her to make a couple mistakes. She spent so much time focused on others, on being the perfect leader. She deserved to do something dumb just because she felt like it.

Despite watching her with all my Focus, I wasn't able to completely block out everything else. My Perception still mapped the room around us, even as a second thought, so I was able to both avoid tripping over my own feet and get an idea of what this place was like. The masquerade was, in a word, strange. The theme here seemed to be black and white marble with splashes of red. The tiles were all different sizes, the furniture of different designs, and even the layout looked chaotic and haphazard in a way that somehow gave the impression of being intentional.

While the Masquerade was a gestalt of chaos and variety, it was clear each aspect had been carefully placed, and that the sheer chaos of the nature of this place created an almost homogenous impression. The people certainly seemed to enjoy it, and I could see dozens of dozens of people in a combination of cape outfits and formal party clothes dancing and writhing around us all, with a few small areas of calm amidst the tumult. A table with ropes around it, a bar, a door seeming to lead up to a second level of the club that overlooked the entire dance floor.

We, of course, were heading for the latter. The door leading up to the second level seemed to be where the triplets were most likely to be spending time, and Callie wanted to bait the three of them. I probably should have been nervous about that part, but between the churning cauldron of discomfort I was avoiding with my Focus and the excitement of a fight, not to mention happiness that Callie was doing something for herself, I almost didn't have room to think or worry about the possible negative ramifications of my actions.

Plus, and I couldn't stress this enough. I was NOT scared of these people. If spending three weeks in daily sparring with Abel did one thing, it was normalize power. I was so used to brawling with someone who might as well be an F-ranker, that nothing short of that was going to actually scare me anymore. It was like spending almost a month being chased around by a terrifying monsters. Jump scares kind of lose their effect in comparison to the real deal. That might be presumptuous and a bit cocky, and it might be proven wrong soon enough, but somehow I doubted the triplets would be the ones to do it, they were basically our age from what I could tell.

It took less time than I'd expected to make it through the crowd. The man standing guard at the door was colossal, even by my standards, probably a full seven feet tall. He was only H-rank, which muted most of the impression that would have made, but still, big guy. When he saw us, he crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at us menacingly. Or rather, at Callie. "Nightstrike." He said, in a voice that was much higher pitched than expected from such a huge man. "Do you have an invitation?"

Callie just gave him a wide smile. "Nope. I've been out of town so I didn't have a chance to set up this little visit. Tell Disaster I'm here to see her." Once she was finished talking she just turned back to me, effectively ignoring the big man. He looked annoyed, but also wary, and turned around to stalk upstairs, presumably to inform his boss of who was asking for her.

I cocked my head at Callie and she grinned, twining her arms around me as we waited. "The triplets outnumber me three to one. If I show up and ask to come in and they say no, I can just leave, but it tells everyone else that they're too scared to face me, even with a numbers advantage. Granted, he'll have noticed you too. But even two on three, not letting us in sends the message that they're worried about us, which they really can't afford." She smirked at me. "You didn't think I'd come here just to get chased off did you?"

"I have no clue." I said with a small shrug. "I'm just following your lead. The details are all you, just tell me where to stand." The mouth of my mask opened, large enough for me to press a kiss to her forehead. "This is your show." I pulled back out of her embrace regretfully. "And speaking of shows, seems this one is set to continue. That guy is coming back, we'd better get ready for the big event."

Sure enough, less than a minute later the towering form of the bouncer returned, glowering down at us. "Disaster says I should let you in." He grimaced. "Your...friend, can come too." The glower seemed even more extreme when aimed at me, presumably because Callie was perceived as a legitimate threat after her years in the spotlight and I was just a big dude in a mask. Still, I WAS G-rank, so the guy didn't actually say anything to me. The chances of this random bounced being able to punch up ranks were minimal. Hell, I doubted anyone in the city could manage it, and even if they could, they wouldn't be able to do it with Callie and I. We weren't your average G-rankers.

Turning and gesturing for us to follow, the large man led us up the steps and into the second floor of the club. To my complete lack of surprise, the second floor, which looked like a small balcony from downstairs, was much bigger on the inside. Entering the top level, we emerged out onto a huge dance floor, easily equal in size to the bottom layer of the building, albeit much less fancy and refined.

The top floor was much more stereotypical night club in terms of design, at least from what I'd come to expect from movies and books. The dance floor in the middle was a series of glowing blue cubes pressed together to create a square grid. Around the edges were railings and decks made from some sort of opaque dark blue gemstone, with strange zaps of electricity arcing through the material at irregular intervals that seemed to somehow line up with the music.

Much like the lower floor this place had plenty of people, though it wasn't quite as packed. I noticed several suited forms wearing the masks that denoted the Queen's people, though not the usual ones I saw in the streets. Most of the hearts masks I saw on random thugs were ten masks, with the number signifying their place in the organization. The people here, however, were mostly sixes and sevens from what I could see, with the sole exception of the three women sitting at the large table in the back corner.

The three of them, all wearing what looked like corseted dresses with wavy skirts, each a different color, all had heart masks with the letter A on them, something I'd never seen before. Aces, I supposed, which made sense since the Ace was simultaneously the highest and lowest value card in the deck. If these were the Queen's daughters the Ace designation was probably how she marked them as second in command and also reminded everyone they were actually fairly low on the chain of command.

As I drew closer, I was able to see them more clearly. A brunette, a blonde, and a redhead, all with long, nearly identical haircuts. We made our way straight for the table, Callie dragging me by the hand to approach the three women. I didn't think we were going to fight so soon, they wouldn't be stupid enough to get baited into attacking within seconds of our arrival, right? As we got closer, I could see the identical green eyes behind the masks fixed on us. "Nightstrike." They said in unison as we got closer. "To what do we owe the pleasure."

I winced. That was really creepy. They almost had to practice that. Callie's grimace showed she didn't like it either, but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of admitting it. She just raised en eyebrow, her eyes fixed on the redhead. "Disaster. Thanks for the invite. Always nice to see you. Hope your mother is well, I haven't seen her in quite a while."

Politics made my head hurt. Everything Callie had just said was pleasant and polite, but I could tell from her tone she'd been taking some sort of potshot at the trio and the Queen herself. I personally preferred the direct approach. What ever happened to just calling someone an asshole to their face? On the upside, it seemed to break them out of their weird unison talking thing, because the redhead, Disaster, looked over to me in interest. "And who is your friend? I didn't realize we were in such esteemed company? A G-ranker from the capital I take it?"

I was kind of bummed she didn't recognize, me if only because I'd thought my reputation in Valen had been pretty good since beating Stricture. Still, it was kind of cool to be taken seriously. Callie didn't seem to share that impression, and I winced a bit as her hand tightened around mine in annoyance. Not hard enough to crush my fingers or anything, but tight enough to be momentarily uncomfortable. "You know very well who he is." She said, in a calm, measured voice. "This is my boyfriend Solomon."

Ah, it had just been more political bullshit. Fair enough. I raised my none crushed hand and waved. "Hi." All three of them looked at me intently, and Callie glared. I slowly put my hand down. Right, I was clearly missing some of the not so subtle undertones here. "Hey, Nightstrike, why don't we go get something to drink." I said as cheerfully as possible. Fighting I was fine with, but this was just uncomfortable, I wanted to leave.

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because Callie smiled brightly. "That's a great idea!" She turned to the other girls with an extremely fake grin on her face. "We're going to go enjoy the festivities, thanks again for the invite. We'll see you all later." Then she dragged me away, off toward the small bar that the second floor had available. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as we were clear. That had been so awkward. I hoped the rest of the night would be much more non-confrontational. I was just here to support my girlfriend and punch things. Why did people have to be so aggressive?