“So, if we are indeed heading for war for this ‘codex’, or at least flexing our muscles and firing warning shots to prevent others from having it, it would be a good idea for us to share what we know about Lady Vyn, don’t you think?” Carol Summers picked up the bottle on the table and poured herself and Soren Lupei some more wine.

“Thought you might say that. Which is why I’ve come prepared.” Soren Lupei smiled and said: “And since I did pass you the first folder, can you tell me what you’ve got?”

“Yeah, that’s an interesting idea.” Carol Summers slightly tilted her head: “But I would argue that my information is gonna be way more exciting and - and explosive. So I don’t think for a minute that you would want to follow that.”

“Hmm, I’m not very sure. ” Soren Lupei smiled: “My information is pretty interesting as well - it could be, what was that you said, explosive? So how about we compare sources, and you can share give me a taste first, or - in terms used by human youths, let me see a trailer or a preview, and I will decide if I want to follow?”

“Okay, a preview it is.” Carol Summers snapped her fingers, an array at the center of the long table lit up, and a hologram of a young girl and a young boy running was displayed right above the table top.

“What is it?” Soren Lupei narrowed his eyes: “Is that - is that Lucias Vyn when she was younger?”

“Yes it is, and her younger brother.” Carol Summers had a victorious smile on her face: “You know, old butlers and managers of these troubled households could be quite talkative when you are willing to pay the right price or offer the right incentives. And did you know, that Lucias Vyn, the godmother of the Vyn Family and the biggest broker of organized underground super mercs that are not connected to any of the actual magical families, was once a part of the magical world?”

“Are we talking about the magical world only? Not elementals, not the mutants or the new , not us, the only ‘legitimate’ magical world?” Soren Lupei asked with intrigue.

“Yes.”

“That’s indeed interesting.” Soren Lupei tapped the table with his fingers as he thought, then after a while, he sat straight on his chair and said: “Here’s a preview of what I’ve found - the guy who stumbled into our turf and traded the intel told us some other intriguing things - things we followed up on. Remember some of those artifacts with kinda illicit sources surfaced in the previous few movie festivals? They were reported to have come from an anonymous seller, who you could’ve guessed, are all connected to Lucias Vyn. And I have quite a detailed list of sources on where those artifacts came from.”

“Okay.” Carol Summers chuckled: “I don’t think that’s better than mine, but it’s pretty close, I will give you my intel first.”

“So, family story of Lady Vyn?” Soren Lupei raised his glass and made a toast: “Guess I can drink to that.”

“Lucias Vyn’s original family name is not Vyn, Vyn is the name of the family that took her, her mother and her younger brother in.” Carol Summers said: “She took their name to hide, because of her father. A legacy magic wielder with a dreadful talent for magic, but a scary and deadly talent for disabling and dismantling magical arrays, even with the least bit of magical power and even no power.”

“So what’s her original family name?”

“Brooke. She used to be a Brooke.” Carol Summers smiled wider than she possibly ever did: “She’s the child of the most notorious serial killer, or should I say the leader of the serial killer group in the history of the magical world. ”

“So, her father is the serial murderer with a body count that was up to a thousand?” Soren Lupei’s eyes opened wide: “Well well, she did get her - personality - somewhere. And Brooke, is it the same Brooke as Tamil Brooke?”

“Same Brooke, different branches of family.” Carol Summers snapped her fingers again and the hologram showed a complicated family tree with a lot of parts missing, but with two branches lit up: “If it comes to it, she would be Tamil Brooke’s cousin, many many times removed. And here’s the thing - do you remember the time about one third of the Brookes disappeared due to some kind of intra-family conflict? It happened right around the time when the serial killer stopped.”

“Are you implying that the Brookes found out and cleansed their own?” Soren Lupei frowned: “That - that would actually make a lot of sense.”

“Okay, I will give you the full report. But do tell.” Carol Summers smiled.

“Some of the artifacts actually came from the Brookes. And they made quite a big deal out of it at one of the movie festivals.” Soren Lupei took a big sip of his drink: “Some came from the Grant Academy itself, while others actually might have come from the victims of those serial murders. I could give you a list of those artifacts - and one thing might be of interest to you - the Blades of Gu.”

“The blades of Gu? I don’t think I have heard of such an artifact.”

“It’s not AN artifact per se - it was more of a blueprint and recipe for forging a kind of set artifacts. It was forged with the same philosophy as the curse of Gu, where people put toads, centipedes, scorpions and all other kinds of venomous creatures inside a sealed jar, and let them fight till there’s only one. The only one alive will be the one with the most deadly poison in its body. And in the case of the Blades of Gu, they will infest their wielders, drive them to kill each other until there’s only one remaining.”

“And why would that be of interest to me?”

“The blades are used for selecting assassins. The kind of assassins that possess great and almost unspeakable power, and will self-destruct when they finish the mission, either failing or succeeding.”

“Hmm.” the smile on Carol Summers’ face faded, “I am quite familiar with a blade like that. Or at least a blade that felt like that when its wielder tried to kill me.”