A door man welcomed them as they entered the hotel lobby. Cassandane nodded to him as she stalked further inside to face the man behind the counter. "Please send up three more breakfasts. Extra fruit, extra toast."

"Certainly, Centurion Cassandane!"

Mike couldn't help but note that the man working reception seemed a bit too enthusiastic. Beside him, Marius muttered what sounded like "show off" before following Cassandane past the elevators to go up the stairs. Once they were out of sight of the staff below, they began to use the kinetic talent to spiral up the stairway. Their journey took long enough that Mike began to feel nauseous from the constant circling. Finally, they reached the twenty-seventh floor and entered a room clearly labeled as the presidential suite.

"So this is the presidential suite of a five star hotel?" Mike looked around at the living room area, which contained a full in-suite kitchen to one side.

Cassandane moved to sit at the dining table, orienting herself so she could keep an eye on the magically floating bodies she had left as bait. "The restaurant has a MIchellin Star, if that designation holds any meaning to you. The concierge seemed to feel it an important selling point when I checked in."

"Just out of curiosity, how much does this place cost for a night?"

"Nothing," Cassandane said.

"Is there an Angmari discount or something?"

Marius, visibly annoyed, cut the conversation off. "She has placed agents in the staff, Mike. They are being mind controlled."

"Oh," Mike said. "I didn't know we could do that."

"You can't," Cassandane said. "Neither can Marius."

"Don't be so sure of that," Marius said. "I have done things you wouldn't have thought I was capable of."

For a moment, Cassandane seemed ready to ignore the comment as she stared out the window towards her trap. Then the slightest smile came to her lips. "I figured out how you did it."

Marius grunted. "Of course you did. Don't tell me you jumped from orbit as well."

"Of course not. I could simply fly off while on Earth for shuttle duty. Though I am curious about the specifics of how you handled the fall."

"It was quite simple. First, use the kinetic talent to seal the air in my lungs so the dissolved gases wouldn't boil out of my blood in vacuum. Second, actively heat and cool my body depending on the amount of solar radiation I'm receiving. Third, crack the carbon from carbon dioxide using process manipulation and force it to bind with four hydrogens to make methane. Fourth, control my fall so that I don't burn up on entry. Easy." Marius crossed his arms, a smug smile on his face. The smile faded when he took in the expression from Cassandane. "What? Don't tell me you figured out a better way. Mine worked."

"Methane?"

"It's non-toxic. I got more oxygen for my cells, the dissolved carbon dioxide stopped being a problem, and I think the hydrogens came from water, so that would have freed up even more oxygen."

Cassandane shook her head. "Unbelievable. You are alive in spite of your monumental ignorance. Hydrogen ions are naturally produced during anaerobic glycolysis. That is the cause of the burning sensation during heavy exercise. Your cellular mechanisms managed to survive on a combination of aerobic and anaerobic processes while you threw a wrench into the natural processes. You are lucky your body didn't pull hydrogen ions free of anything important. Truthfully, it may have. You could be walking around with genetic damage from your amateurish stunt. And do you even know how much methane is a safe amount?"

"Look, Cassandane, I'm alive and in great health." Marius shrugged. "Besides, I doubt your method would work much better."

"It has the potential to permanently replace cellular respiration," Cassandane said. "Unlike your method, which would kill you if done for too long."

Mike's eyes darted back and forth between the two Angmari. "Uh, guys? I know I'm low man on the totem pole here, but we should probably be talking about . . . whatever it is we need to talk about."

"Good call, Mike." Marius sat down at the table and folded his hands as if transitioning to a more reasonable mode. "We need to get back in the fleet's good graces. Can you call Hafnym and let him know I developed a full paragon? That's quite the resource for the fleet. And I hesitate to even bring it up, but I love the new skin."

Cassandane sniffed. "I didn't do it for your benefit, Marius. I am as much a deserter as you."

"That doesn't matter. Hafnym will want to run. There are three full paragons in this room. Three! How can he not want us back?"

"They have managed to turn Synths into kinetics."

"What?"

"We're not necessary. The science team on Angmar Three can make new kinetics to order."

Marius lowered his face into both hands. "This is a mess. Do you think they would surrender without violence if we boarded one of the minor vessels?"

Cassandane's brow drew down. "We're not doing that, Marius."

"Then what do we do? Run and hide? Spend the rest of our lives in seclusion, fearing Nallit might find us?"

"No," Cassandane said, voice low. "We lure Nallit out. And then we kill him."