Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?

Chapter 213 – Parliament

Chapter 213 - ParliamentWalking through the large parliament building was the new girl, whom no one knew was new unless they asked her. The girl had short blue hair that was tied into a tight bun and a basic pair of glasses. 

“Nice to meet you, I am Jess Linea.” The woman introduced herself. “I have just been hired by Castle James to be added to his staff.”

There had been a few changes in staff recently, and the building had been getting busy with upcoming events being scheduled. 

“Currently, I am on my placement, and my supervisor is watching, so I can’t stay for long; however, if I get the permanent position instead of my current month-long arrangement, I would be happy to discuss more.” Jess Linea completed the conversation with a certain chatty worker who was interested in her position, and from Jess’s experience, she was sure the man was trying to hit on her.

[How lovely.] Luna sarcastically said as she moved through the parliament building. [Let’s complete this mission quickly before other nosy individuals arrive.]

Of course, Jess Linea wasn’t exactly a real person, and she had snuck in.

A disguise crafted by Anlesa to break into the parliament building to extract some juicy information. If Abe was the king of the problems, and his house wasn’t the location where he kept his treasured information, then the parliament building was the best location.

They had discussed the option of entering after dark, but the building was protected, and importantly, files were likely stored away during that time. Even more importantly, they had no idea where the information they needed was. Even though Eva was from this city, she hadn’t been in the parliament building, and even if she had, there were a lot of rooms, offices, and people moving around. Unless she had been told directly in the past, there was no way in that hypothetical scenario that her knowledge would help. 

[No problems yet…] (Eva)

[And it should stay that way.] (Syrus)

[Ideally.] (Luna)

Verifying her information for this infiltration was nightmarish. There was no possible current way to perfectly identify every single person who entered the building and their location. The best that could be done was to rely on the guards at the entrance. The guards who stood by were supposed to only allow those who had permission to enter the Parliament House. This was done with the members of parliament meeting the guards, so their faces could be recognised. In other groups wished to enter, they usually had to have written permission. This was usually sorted beforehand, and the guards were informed of those guests. 

However, in Jess Linea’s case. If one managed to sneak past the guards, they had a lot of free rein, as all she was required to do was act as if she belonged. 

Castle James was currently on leave. His wife was having another kid, but that fact wasn’t known by everyone as he kept it secret. He wasn’t the only candidate Jess Linea thought of picking, but he ended up being the best choice since they confirmed he wasn’t going to be around today.

This had been something they had been preparing for a long time, even before the discussion with Alba. So Anlesa had been debating options and acquiring information intently. Using all sources available to them, and a bunch of good old eavesdropping.  

While moving through the building, they noticed some interesting ornamental details in the walls.

[That appears to be a secret exit within the wall.] Syrus noted the placement of the material, and it appeared that if certain panels of wood moved, the wall could open up. [Close enough to the head of parliament’s office.] 

[It would make for a good point of escape in case of emergency.] (Eva)

[And a good method to bring people in and out of the parliament building who shouldn’t be here.] (Luna)

Long before they left the manor, one bit of information they tried getting from Havier and Lord Hall was if there was any secret service for the country, and Anlesa had gotten mixed results. There were certainly small groups that did spying and counter-intelligence, but something in line with what Syrus had been entering conflict with didn’t. 

There wasn’t supposed to be a group of armed individuals that obeyed the parliament. Which was why they assumed it had to be a joint force by multiple hostile members of the council. The reason why both assumed it had to be multiple memories was that the idea that one individual had crafted a force so large that even with multiple members, people dying–before Syrus had left the manor–and they still kept up with the attacks and manipulations… a force that large was a nightmare to think about.  

Anlesa didn’t deny their opinion. Luna judged it was a perfectly rational thing to assume. However, it couldn’t be ignored that this force had access to multiple of the city’s secret passages that weren’t meant to be used only in emergency situations or to move people like the royalty without being noticed.

Even Lord Hall didn’t know the entire mapping of these tunnels. Only certain people knew certain passages, and Lord Hall was only aware of the ones that Prince Jacob had told him. 

[From surface information, we have gotten a little bit so far…] Eva mumbled.

For the first hour, they had been exploring the floors quietly. Listening to conversations and taking note of any oddities within the building. There were multiple points where they assumed it could lead to the secret passage, but when they explored the tunnels before, none had led to the parliamentary building. Only one was nearby, but that was the closest exit they found.

Figuring out where the parliament tunnels were located was certainly a goal that jumped up their to-do list. 

They overheard talks about prepping for a festival and announcement, but they were cautious about asking people about that. Anlesa wanted to keep their interactions with other people to a minimum to not accidentally blow their cover.

[So that is the man’s office.] (Syrus)

[Abe’s…] (Luna)

They finally got a good look at the man in question. The current Prime Minister, Abe Esther. His appearances hadn’t changed much from Eva’s memory. An older gentleman with a long, pristine white beard and plenty of hair on his head. Perhaps he had a few more winkles, but it was hard to tell.

[Water and Wind… neither are the worst to deal with in an enclosed office space…] (Eva)

[Oh Eva? Thinking of the violent option already. Damn, I am proud.] (Syrus)

[No?! Just… in case of the worst…] (Eva)

[It’s all good, I do understand.] (Syrus)

They decided to wait for the man to leave before searching his room. Syrus located a few spots where she could jump for them to break their way onto the roof and jump out of here. Or an alternate path through the tunnels. It depended on whether they got caught and where.

The moment Abe was away from his office, Anlesa broke in and got to looking. Syrus, Luna and Eva worked together as they scanned papers, and as people processed the information for anything worthwhile, the others looked for compartments. Multiple soul multitasking at its finest. 

[Nothing.] (Luna)

[Only say something when you find something, minimal distractions.] (Syrus)

Luna didn’t reply, taking Syrus's feedback immediately. 

They weren’t caring about leaving this place as they left it. That will only impact their time here, and it was possible someone had already noticed them entering anyway.

[Wait!] Eva’s hand froze over a letter they opened.

It was a closed letter that was mostly gibberish. Which was completely strange, however, using what Luna had taught her, she had looked at the words and realised this was likely a coded correspondence. She had rapidly applied some basic techniques taught to her, and based on the wording used on other parts of the letter, it was likely a hit request. 

[I can’t believe we have actually succeeded in this…] (Eva)

[In a way, it says a lot about where we have come individually.] (Luna)

[Meaning?] (Syrus)

[I don’t think any of us had done something like this in our past lives.] (Luna)

[Oh. Absolutely not.] (Syrus)

[So, it is a wholly new achievement for each of us.] (Luna)

Anlesa pocked a few other letters and quickly made her way out of the room. They didn’t trust the possibility that no one noticed them at all throughout that. 

Moving down a hallway. 

[Ah, dammit.] (Syrus)

The door in front of them suddenly closed, and a voice called out to her. “The spy who has been murdering our forces has shown herself.”

“I do believe you are mistaken.” Jess Linea smirked and did a small bow as she turned around without fear. “Though the word spy is correct. I am always happy to help my favourite employer. However, until this moment, I haven’t been involved in any of your silly little murder games.”

On the other end of the hallway was an individual who looked to be one of the parliament’s guards, but his presence was telling her a different story. He screamed danger. 

“I’ve been told to take you alive.” 

“What a kind boss, I must thank them.” He charged with his sword ready, alive didn't mean unharmed.

Syrus dodged the man’s swings, and he said, “You are quite an Agile one.” 

“You as well, your swings contain a ferocity within them.

Fire, Moonlight, Manipulation, and Blood were all out as options. They were all used up for identities. The only Attribute that remained there was Morph. An Attribute they always hid because of its nature. The moment people learned Anlesa could change their appearances drastically, so much of how they kept their identity a secret now and in the future would be in jeopardy. 

But a neat aspect of Exotic attributes. They were so poorly documented, and even the same Attribute could do drastically different things for individuals.  

As Syrus stepped out of the way, she sent a chop towards the man’s throat. He stepped back to dodge, but Anlesa’s fingers extended by half their size, and her nails grew sharp.

[Ergh!] Eva groaned. [This is hard to maintain.] 

[Don’t worry. We will escape quickly.] Syrus replied. 

Eva found deviating from the basic human hard. Hair and eye colours were the easiest changes, minor changes to the height were next, hiding her horn after that. Then there was a small jump to modifying her horn, which required active focus. Then there was her recent development, area-specific deformities or modifications. Creating bestial hairs or bones like Maca were something she hadn’t been able to reproduce. 

The bladed fingertips were enhanced by Syrus, focusing her strengthening magic into them. Along with each of her quick steps she clawed at the man’s neck, only leaving a slight mark they were healable. Before spinning and leaving a slash on the man’s face to remember you by.

“What are you… some sort of cat.” His hand gripped his neck.

“Meow? Hehe, it is one of my nicknames. I bid you adieu, Sir Knight.” Anlesa turned tail and slashed the door apart with a strike. “Also, we haven’t forgotten. The past always comes back. “Before jumping past the people who were huddling towards the door, leaping off the walls onto the roof. There was a gap between the parliament building and the surrounding buildings that would make it impossible to jump from. But they didn’t need to.

Before anyone could get up, Jess Linea had already slid down the side of the building, no problem. There weren't many people just walking around the parliament building. It wasn’t a popular spot for the traffic of people to move by. Her silent slide and the fact that no one was aware of what was going on made it easy for her to drop down without notice. 

Once on the ground, she flipped out a small hood from beneath the back of her shirt, which blocked her head from view and she simply walked away. 

By the time everyone who needed to be alerted had been, she was already gone. 

No one expected her to break past the guards, let alone escape from the building itself.