So, that’s the story with those two. I knew something was wrong with Jens, and not necessarily in a bad way. I guess a guy like him has no issues with finding a partner, so he’s not desperate to jump at every opportunity. Hmm … that makes my job much harder …

Anyway, I’ve shown you what you wanted. Let’s move on.

Fair enough. So, everything went as usual, until the day Eric disappeared.

Let’s see it through your memories.

-----

I was taking a walk in the poorly-maintained garden when someone grabbed my hand from behind. Looking back, I saw Mun-Hee, looking very upset.

“Come with me!”

Waiting for no response, she yanked my arm much stronger than I thought she could, almost making me trip.

“Wait, slow down!”

“We have no time! We must be quick!”

“Quick with what?”

“I will explain when we are in our room.”

As we rushed through the courtyard, I realized Mun-Hee wasn’t the only one acting odd. While humans were usually nowhere to be found during the day since they were always busy with some work, this time their soldiers were everywhere. Every hall we passed through had three to five soldiers in it, a focused stare on all of their faces.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“I will explain.”

As soon as we walked into our quarters, she locked the door behind us.

“What is going on?”

“Listen … I do not know much, but I know that Eric is missing.”

“… how?”

“I do not know the details, but I do know that you will be a suspect. I know that you did not do it, but there are only a few people who could. No one has breached the gate, so it had to be someone from within.”

“Why … why would anyone take him?”

“He is a high-ranking diplomat. He knows a lot. And you had a chance to get close to him, so you will be one of the suspects. We know you did not do it, but you will have to lay low for a while, until everything passes.”

She took my hands in hers: “I will not let something bad happen to you, ok. But I need you to cooperate and not leave this room for some time. Yes, I am being … too cautious, but I want you to be safe.”

“Ok, I understand. I won’t leave our quarters until you tell me I can.”

“Good. What where you doing today?”

“Nothing special. I was just strolling through the courtyard.”

“Have you gone anywhere else?”

“No, I was just enjoying the air.”

“Good … good … that will make everything easier. They will know you could not do it.”

“You think the guards will believe me? I am an outsider here.”

“If you were in the courtyard whole time, they will know.”

“Do they honestly think I could carry someone who is so much bigger than me?”

That made her think a bit. Finally, she giggled.

“No, I guess not.”

---

I tried to get as much out of Mun-Hee as I could, but she knew nothing. She was as clueless as me, with the only difference being that she was far more paranoid.

After a few hours, we finally heard someone knocking gently on the door.

“Who is it?” Mun-Hee asked.

“Your favorite insel.”

“What do you want?”

“You forgot you will need some food.”

Mun-Hee unlocked the door reluctantly. She eyed the person on the other side for some time before letting them in.

“I did not expect you to care,” she said in a sarcastic voice.

“Jens asked me to check you out. Now, if you will excuse me.”

Ira walked in, carrying some of those unusual food jars and bottles.

“You did not think very much, did you?” He said.

“How can I think much when my friend is in danger?”

“They know it’s not her.”

“How do you know?”

“I am data analyst. Information is my job. Snirba is safe. But I understand why you are paranoid.”

“Better to be safe than sorry.”

“Yes, I know. I will talk with some people and see if they can convince you to lower your paranoia a little bit. Nobody is accusing Snirba of anything. You know walls have both eyes and ears in this place.”

He left as soon as he had put the tray on the cluttered worktable. But he returned in what the demons call an hour or so. He knocked on the door in the same gentle manner he did before.

“It’s me, Ira. Can you open the door?”

Not really thinking about it this time, Mun-Hee obliged. However, he wasn’t alone this time. Several menacing soldiers surrounded him, staring down at Mun-Hee with dead eyes.

“Bring Snirba with you and let us go,” Ira said, “The queen will brief you on the situation and how it affects our plans.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, right now. Unless you want to keep everyone waiting.”

Instead of being worried by the implications, Mun-Hee let out a mocking snort through her nose. Still, she did as she was told.

“Come on Snirba, let us go. You have nothing to worry about. Ira may be insensitive and inconsiderate, but he would never lie about something like this.

So, we went through the halls, surrounded by the soldiers on all sides. Only then did I realize just how silly their armor is. It’s nothing like the metal armor I’ve seen normal soldiers use. Theirs looks much more like rough cloth, and it has all these small pockets in the front.

They led us to a part of the castle where I’d never been before. We started walking down the stairs, making me realize we were descending into a dungeon. I don’t know why, but I was thinking about how everyone was right about that Francisco guy. He claimed this castle had no dungeons, but there we were, descending right into it. So yes, he was clearly a liar.

I’ve never been in a dungeon before, so my heart started racing. You don’t have to be in one to know that nothing good ever happens down there. The unsettling feeling only grew once we stopped in front of the big, thick, metal door.

One of the soldiers moved his hand in a magical gesture, and the two-piece door opened, revealing … nothing new. Although we were going underground, the halls looked exactly the same as in every other part of the castle. They were as empty and as excessively bright as ever.

Only the doors in the hallway were different. You could see that these doors were much sturdier and heavier with a single glance. It looked as if those smaller doors were also made out of metal.

Passing several closed doors, we finally stopped in front of one. The soldier did his magic again, and the door opened. We walked into the spacious room, dominated by a huge table in the middle of it. Plenty of demons already sat there, talking in their tongue. They weren’t yelling at each other, but they were very loud.

I noticed the queen immediately. Her golden hair made her impossible to miss. In the sea of regularly-looking people, she shone like a goddess.

Even though she’s a succubus.

I must’ve stared at her for a while because I felt Ira’s finger poking me in my waist.

“Move along. Here, take a sit here,” his voice wasn’t commanding though. He sounded more like a senior instructing his junior, which is precisely what I was.

Mun-Hee sat next to me, and Ira sat next to her.

“Ok, we’re all here,” the queen said, exhaling deeply, “Before we start, I want you Snirba to understand what this means. You are among the most prestigious members of our society. We are decision-makers. We determine what will happen and how we’ll deal with the challenges our people face. So you being here is a huge honor and proof of how much we trust you. You’ve worked hard to fulfill your role, to serve Jens as his sekretri, and most importantly, you’re the first timkik we’ve encountered who knows when to keep her mouth shut.”

Without thinking, I started bowing my head as much as the table would allow me to: “Thank you very much! There are no words to describe my gratitude! I won’t fail you, I swear!”

Even though I bowed on instinct, I couldn’t help but wonder why. Why in the heavens would they trust me? I did nothing to gain their trust! And I’ve only been there for some two moons. To be honest, I was bowing more out of fear than out of some gratitude. It made no sense for them to do something like that, so I was worried if I had become a disposable part of one of their plans. Working for the spymaster made me very skeptical about these things.

Truth be told, I’m still worried about it, even to this day. But, even though what they did there made no sense, it did work out well for them. Especially for their queen.

I know that. We’ll get there later.

“I want you to understand that we’re not giving you this privilege for free. We’re expecting something in return. We expect you to serve us well. You’re here because we want to show you that service is rewarded in our society, unlike with your fellow timkiks. As long as you perform well, you’ll keep advancing in our society. There is no racial bigotry here. The only thing that matters is how capable you are.”

“Thank you very much! I swear I’ll live up to your expectations!”

“We’re planning something soon, and you’ll be an integral part of it. So, pay close attention to what we’re talking about here.”

I bowed again in recognition.

“Are we continuing with the plan?” Jens asked. I didn’t realize he was there before.

“Yes, we are.”

“But our main diplomat is missing,” He pointed out.

“That’s what they want. Which is exactly why we have to proceed,” the Francisco guy responded.

“And how will we do that without Eric?”

“We don’t need Eric anymore. He played his role,” Francisco sounded completely disinterested as he said that, “The queen is here to replace him.”

Seeing Jens’ eyebrows twitch, the queen intervened.

“First of all, what do we know about Eric? Now that Ira is here, he can help us understand the situation better.

Ira cleared his throat: “We assume that some magical fuckery is involved. We detected an increase in certain energy outputs before he disappeared. That buildup lasted for several hours, and we had no idea what it was, so our scientists were just observing it. They thought it was some atmospheric phenomenon. Some kind of a magical current or whatever. However, as soon as Eric disappeared, the readings dropped back to normal, which is why we assume it was some kind of a magical attack.”

“So, you think that was an act of war?”

“Most definitely. Our kemras see everything that is going on in this place, and they have also recorded what has happened with Eric. He just disappeared into thin air. There was no one near him. No one approached him. He just disappeared right in front of the camera as he was walking.”

“Disappeared into thin air?”

“Yes. There was no fighting, no struggling, no blood. He just vanished.”

“Do we have any idea where?”

“None.”

“And I guess it can happen again?”

“It certainly can. At least we will have advanced notice the next time, so we can evacuate all the critical people to safety. In time, maybe we will even learn how to disrupt that accumulated energy or create some sort of shield.”

“What do you think happened to him?” Jens asked.

“We can only guess. His trensponder stopped working, so we don’t even know if he is still in this world. What we know for sure is that he is not close to us. We do not know if he is dead, alive, teleported somewhere, or if he is in some other plane of existence.”

“You said it took several hours for the energy to build up,” Francisco said.

“Yes.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. If the same thing happens again, we can just use the choprs to escape. I see no reason for us to stop now. Whoever did this wants to stop us from signing an agreement with timkiks. They want to stop our alliance from materializing.”

“Who else would know about it?”

“It’s safe to say that timkiks are corrupt as fuck. I bet every other nation knows about it right now. They probably even know where our embasi is.”

“I agree with Francisco,” another middle-aged male said, “Whoever did this is trying to intimidate us. If we back down now, we’ll only encourage them to do it again. We must proceed with the plan.”

“Ok, let’s have a vote on it. Raise your hand if you want us to proceed.”

…

“So, all the senior members are in agreement,” Francisco noted, “The only ones disagreeing with it are the people who have joined us recently and are yet to understand how the worlds work.”

“Ok, we’ll continue as if nothing has happened,” the queen said, “Jens, make sure you prepare Snirba for her task thoroughly. We no longer have time for your doubts. You two need to get your relationship in order. After all, she’s supposed to protect you from all those horny timkik ladies, and she can only do that if others believe the two of you are close enough. The rest of you know what to do. Dismissed!”