Downtown New York, Year 2481 C.E

Ezra Zephyr sat at a table in the far corner of a brand new cafe, nearly 50ft in from the ground. She gazed distantly out the tall window, precipitation was falling like bullets from the sky. Man, I hate rain, you would think the meteorologists would know how to properly control it by now, with their fancy little Weather Amulets. This is what you get for trying to make the usage of arcanum crystals so complicated, an unreliable and expensivedevice.

The newest tourist attraction of Mellwish lane was the cafe our heroine was sitting at right now, a restaurant that used gravity arcanum crystals to literally elevate the experience of the customer.

Bored, Ezra looked under the wooden table where her vanilla milkshake laid. It has to be somewhere here, Zephyr thought. Finally her eye was caught by a piece of wood attached to the underside of the table, which was slightly out of place. She dug out a pen from her jacket pocket and pried the board off to find exactly what she was looking for, an arcanum crystal. The velvety red gem surrounded by wires glowed lightly, vibrating every couple seconds as its power was sucked into the table. Ezra inched her finger towards the stone, scratching the fingernail loudly across the surface. A jolt of red energy travelled through the gem into her finger, sparks dancing playfully among her finger tips.

Normally, when arcanum energy was held in fingertips of a person it would cause excruciating pain, but not for Ezra Zephyr, she simply blinked and watched the energy jump from hand to hand. An idea sprung into her mind and a smile spread across her features, she quickly dipped one of her fingers into her drink, the energy travelling out of her hand. Then she simply watched as the thick milky liquid was lifted out of the glass and spread through the air. She picked up a paper straw and slid the wrapping paper off before disposing of the wrapping paper in the garbage, the garbage machine beeped before once again spitting out another paper straw made from the waist. Ezra lifted the straw up to meet the floating liquid and sucked a little bit of it out of the air, she reeled back slightly. Too sweet.

Ezra lifted her head, she recognized a familiar energy not too far from here. About time. She picked up the laminated menu and searched for a dish, after she found it she called over a bot by pressing a button left of the table. Next thing she knew a tiny pick bot zipped over to her table.

"I'll get the chicken burger with no tomato and extra pickles, with a side of fries and a Sprite 2.0."

The little robot repeated me. "Chicken burger with no tomato and extra pickles, side of fries and a Sprite 2.0. Click the green button below to confirm your order."

Ezra looked at the screen attached to the bot, nearly 50 dollars for a burger and fries! No wonder they can afford so many arcanum crystals, the food is making up for it. She sighed but pressed the green button.

Minutes later the same bot zipped back with the meal and at the same time Ezra's eyes narrowed slightly and smiled, as a familiar face entered the building far below.

"Yo! Miran over here," Ezra called.

The girl as you would come to know her is Miran Meredith Quill. A young lady with skin as white as a sheet, with her eyes and hair a deep brown nearly black. Her calm smile and formal mannerisms made her come off as nothing more than a studious young school girl, but her polite disposition did nothing to hide the intelligence in her eyes. Even as she walked into the building, she surveyed everything, her eyes quickly shot to each person in the cafe.

Wow, she still can't relax, even at a restaurant, Ezra thought.

Miran jumped from each stepping stone, quietly, hardly making a peep before reaching Ezra.

"Looks like Snow White is a little late to the ball," Ezra retorted.

Miran rolled her eyes. "Still making references from movies that haven't been popular in 400 years?"

Ezra raised her eyebrows. "Those movies are classics! You can't tell me that you aren't glad I made you watch those.'

Miran sighed happily. "Fine, they were good, but the animation was so choppy."

"No duh, they were made hundreds of years ago! Now sit!"

Miran sat down across from Ezra and swung her bag off her shoulder onto the back of her seat.

"I got you your favourite," Ezra said, pushing the meal towards her.

"Thanks, Ez, I'm actually starving," Miran replied. "What's with the stuff in the air?"

"It's my milkshake," Ez said, sucking more of it out of the air.

Miran shook her head. "Of course it is."

"Okay, let's get to business. Did you find a new job that is actually worth more than a couple thousand? We have to pay rent, you know, plus we are both running low on our arcanum crystals. "

"The Masurabian royal family are secretly meeting New York this weekend, the entire royal family. All 26 members," Miran said.

"Wow, talk about a family reunion," Ezra muttered.

"Indeed," Miran responded. "And they are all staying in the same hotel. With their crown jewels."

Ezra's eyebrows raised immediately. "Really? You sure this isn't some trick to capture thieves? I mean sometimes the government sets these things up."

"Nope, not a trick. I had to do some serious digging across the dark web for this info. I got curious when I heard a rumour of some super rich celebrity staying in New York this week. Then I got led down a rabbit hole of false information until I was able to hack the email of a body guard who is getting hired for the job, even then the information was minimal. But I know one thing, that the royal family is going to be at the Eletrave Hotel this weekend. They've booked the entire hotel out under fake names."

Ezra grinned. "How fascinating."

At that moment two men entered the cafe, both dressed in baggy black clothing. Ezra and Miran both knew that when someone's clothing was that baggy, they were hiding weapons. The two girls shared glances, Ezra slowly slipped on her arcanum gloves and Miran readied her devices.

"There they are! Up there! Two girls that fit the description!"

"Uh, oh," Ezra mumbled. "I won't be able to finish my milkshake."

"We could go out the window, it would be the fastest," Miran mused.

"Yeah, but then we would have broken a cool cafe's window, and I could get glass shards in my shoes," Ezra complained.

Miran rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll do it the hard way."

Ezra tapped the back of her gloves together and lit alight the gems with a turquoise glow. She grinned widely and winked at Miran before jumping onto the wall next to the two of them and running down to the main level. Each time the bottom of her shoe touched the wall an invisible force kept her from falling to the ground, attaching and letting go every second as she sprinted down the wall. Ezra dramatically flipped off the wall onto the ground right by the men in black.

She can't help but show off can she, Miran thought.

Ezra grinned menacingly. "I think you guys have gotten a little in over your head."

The men looked at each other, surprised at this small girl's comment. I don't think anyone would blame them, Ezra Zephyr from a far seemed like a normal girl, pleasant looking, with long chestnut hair, tanned skin and pretty brown eyes. No one thought at first glance that they would lose a fight to her. But they were so wrong.

Using the men's surprise, Ezra made her move, activating the arcanum crystals in her hands she removed all the friction from the floor. Quickly she slid towards them with startling speed, so graceful like an ice dancer, but it wasn't nearly as pretty seconds later as she simultaneously punched them in the face and then the stomach. The men crumbled to the floor, groaning.

Miran, who had watched patiently from a far, trotted down the floating stones to the ground. She gave a thumbs up to Ezra before carefully stepping over the two men, she looked back to her friend.

"Let's go home, I want to have a nap."

...

The curious case of Ezra Zephyr and Miran Quill is one full of quite a lot of intrigue behind it, anyone who has invested their cases knows one thing, they are good at what they do. When they first appeared three years ago, at only age eleven they were already some of the most successful thieves on the market, having strange knowledge of rare arcanum crystals, their services were greatly valued and sought after. As the girls grew, their skills followed pursuit, quickly grabbing the attention of many mafia godfathers and higher ups in the underworld. But neither of them particularly liked their newfound infamy, seeing it as a hassle and a detriment. Nobody really knows where the two of them came from, any investigators who were hired to find out were led on wild goose chases that ended off on mysterious dead ends, even the best in New York were stumped. Not knowing who the girls were and how they came to be, not many people could guess what they would do next.

...

Miran unlocked the squeaky door of their apartment, opening up to a quiet but colourful room. Home, sweet home.

"I'm going to go catch up on sleep, Ez. Try not to make too much noise," Miran said, yawning.

"Okay," Ezra responded, turning into her room.

Ezra flopped onto her bean bag in the corner of her room and surveyed her territory. The wallpaper was coloured with yellow zigzag stripes and old rock band posters, her bed only inches from the floor was covered in bright pillows and different blankets. But Ezra's bookshelf was her crowning achievement, full of different books, everything from her favourite fantasy to old historical fiction, all of the books were first additions, stolen or bought on the black market from all over the world.

What should I do, boredom is the worst feeling in the world, other than a bullet in the femur.

Ezra stood and walked over to her desk, sweeping her spare papers into the recycling bin and opening her laptop. She types into EverAsk, the best global researching device, Masurabian Royal Family Members. Ezra quietly read.

The Masurabian Royal Family has 26 members, only 13 of the official members actually live in the palace, which includes the King, Queen, Queen Mother, six princes and four princesses. The rest of the members are spread throughout the world, most travelling as officials and dignitaries for the crown. Because of this, the entire family hardly ever meets in person. The only times all of them gather together are more states of emergency like war, or the decision of succession. Even at weddings or funerals, all the members are not usually present.......

Ezra stopped and typed into the search bar, Masurabian Royal succession. She quickly found an article and started reading once more.

The Masurabian Succession process is long and often tedious. Every prince and princess have equal claim to the throne, so all the family members meet to decide who will inherit the throne. To enter the succession process a prince or princess has to be sponsored by another family member, after that all the applicants must partake in test after test. If they do not complete the test they are out of the running and the tests get harder each time.

What a rigorous process, Ezra thought. What happened to simply choosing the eldest?

She closed her computer. I doubt it is a war, not many countries have the guts to stand up to the Masurabian Empire. So it is time to choose the next ruler.

Ezra rubbed the back of her neck and stood up from her desk, she exited the room.

"I'm going out," Ezra called to Miran. "Be back in an hour or two."

Miran groaned in response.

Ezra exited the apartment and locked the door behind her. She began to stroll down to the market, Miran and herself had specifically chosen a place close to the market so they could buy crystals at a moment's notice.

The market was quite a sight to see, buzzing with arcane magic and tech. The entire place smelled faintly of oil and wires, the loud sound of talking echoed throughout the lane. There was booth after booth lined up against each other, displaying a large variety of things, from sweet buns to electric arcane bullets.

Ezra saw a truck unloading crates and veered towards it, friendly walking towards the delivery man.

"Hello, what type of crystals have arrived today?"

The man glanced at his clipboard. "Electricity, gravity, regrowth, sleep and phase."

"Phasing crystals? I thought a new shipment of those came in last week, why would you already have new ones?"

"Some who bought the whole shipment the other day," the man grunted.

Ezra visibly paled, her eyes widened in shock.

The man looked at her. "What's it to you?"

She nervously laughed to cover up her shock. "Oh nothing, it's just that it is unusual to have a shipment bought up all at once."

"Riiight, now go, I have work to do."

Ezra waved goodbye and hurriedly walked away. He can't be back already, it's only been four months. If he is back I need to go and tell Miran. She turned into an alleyway and started running back to the apartment, but was startled by a voice, all too familiar.

"If it isn't Ezra Zephyr, it has been awhile, Ez."

A man emerged from an alleyway, well man is a subjective term. The mystery man was hardly even an adult, still at the age of seventeen.

"Hey Kaito," Ezra replied coldly.

Kaito smirked. "No need to be so formal, we've known each other since we were young, just call me Tadashi."

"I'll have to pass," Ezra responded again in the same distant tone.

Kaito's cat eyes surveyed Ezra, and an annoyed look spread throughout his face and he scratched his head that was full of smooth black hair. "I thought you were supposed to be the fun one, Ezra."

Ezra simply clenched her teeth and stayed silent.

"Where's your friend? I thought you two were always together," he said mockingly.

"Leave me alone, Kaito. I paid back the debt I owed to you and your boss. I'm free," Ezra spat.

"True enough," Kaito admitted, he came right up to her and leaned close to her ear. "But that also means that you and your little friend are fair game now. If we meet under different circumstances, I won't hold back."

Ezra shoved him away. "Yeah, it's crystal clear."

He smiled his stupid smug smile. "Heard you two were spotted at some cafe downtown, I thought you weren't stupid enough to do something like that."

Ezra rolled her eyes in response. "Can you really blame me? I mean I haven't always had to wear disguises to restaurants. Besides that fact it's a part of the city that isn't usually surveyed by mafia men."

Kaito scoffed. "Still, you aren't a child anymore Ez, you should still know better."

"Don't call me Ez, only Miran calls me that," Ezra hissed.

Kaito looked even more agitated than before but stayed silent.

Ezra continued. "I thought you weren't supposed to get back for a year or so, why are you back so early?"

Kaito smiled and crossed his arms, now slightly amused. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because you love to talk," Ezra offered bluntly.

"Fair enough, it doesn't really matter anyways if I tell you, it's not like the boss would be mad," Kaito paused and began his story. "I was sent to a cousin of the boss to protect him after he got himself into a little mafia war in Chicago, it was supposed to be a year long gig but the cousin mysteriously died."

Ezra raised her eyebrows. "Let me guess the boss was fuming."

Kaito grinned. "Nope, he was actually quite happy, you see the cousin refused to make a deal with him so it actually turned in our favour."

Looking away, Ezra spoke softly. "I don't remember you being so giddy about murder."

As Ezra's statement hung in the air and you could almost feel the tension, like a chord was about to snap. Ezra felt the oh so familiar cold stare on her and she turned and gave a sideways glance at those cold dead eyes. The quiet ended.

"Grow up, Ezra."

Then Kaito disappeared into the wall behind him. Leaving Ezra alone in the silence she oh so dreaded.