NoGift

"Yes, Master," answered White with her sweet voice that didn"t have that much emotional fluctuations.

"Master, when will we meet?  Black misses you so much," Black inserted.

Argent just smiled helplessly.  "Tomorrow.  After everything is over,"  she answered.

Black frowned in his own cute way.  "Black still has to wait until tomorrow?  Master, can"t we just go down for a while to meet you?"

"You can"t.  It will affect our plan if someone accidentally saw you and White."

"But--"

"Black, don"t make trouble for Master," White admonished a little.

Black pouted.  "Fine."

Argent turned to White.  "All the devices are in place.  You only need to activate all four along with the one you have with you.  Did you already familiarize yourself on how to operate it?"

"Yes, Master.  You don"t have to worry, everything is already recorded in my system."

"Good.  Then wait for my signal tomorrow."  She then turned to Black.  "Do you know what you should do tomorrow?"

"Yes, Master!  Black should protect White and make sure that everything will go according to Master"s plan," Black answered enthusiastically.

She smiled and also praised Black which made his little face s.h.i.+ne.  "Another thing, two people will appear at the place where you are now later after midnight.  It"s a boy who looks like he"s only 13 and a young elf," she added.  

Black scrunched his brows.  "A boy and an elf?  How could they suddenly appear here?"

"It"s because of the boy"s Gift."  

Lynx" Gift allowed him to pa.s.s through any objects.  Not only that, but he could also allow another person he"s touching to be able to pa.s.s through an object if he so wished.  When Argent learned about it, she only thought that his Gift was really perfect for this operation.  But just like any other Gifts, it would certainly have its own restrictions.

He probably couldn"t go trough objects containing huge amount of Mana or those that had high-level seals and spells on them.  He also couldn"t probably used his Gift on people with a higher level Gift.  That"s just Argent"s  speculation based on the restrictions on Aurum"s Gift.  

The restrictions of Gifts were really quite a fascinating study.  It could differ based on the person"s type of Gift as well as that Gift"s level.  Based on her observation the past seven years, it seemed like those people with elemental type Gifts had fewer restrictions in comparison to other types.  If Argent had the time, she really wanted to do a research study on this topic.

But alas, because of that Pope and his minions, she couldn"t even look after the state of her own company.

"Just make sure not to attack them when they appear," Argent continued to say to Black and White. 

"Yes, Master," the two said at the same time.

She was planning to end the call when she heard the call of Aurum"s voice.

"Brother!"

Argent turned and just as she thought, Aurum was running towards her.  Behind her was Clay, following calmly.

Aurum was just about to say what she found when she noticed that her brother was using her light brain.  "Are you calling someone?" she asked when she arrived in front of Argent.

Argent nodded.  "It"s Black and White."

After that, she enlarged the screen of her light brain so Aurum could also see the two.  

Clay who just walked to the twin"s side saw this happened and he couldn"t help but be startled a bit.  Then he returned to calm immediately.  He had almost forgotten that Argent was the creator of sPhones.  It"s only natural for him to have made other extraordinary gadgets.  Not to mention that flying contraption they rode in when they were in Shandra, the appearance of this weird screen was not really that surprising.

"Hi Black," he greeted the black-haired kid on the screen.  Then he turned to the white-haired girl.  He wondered if they"re siblings.

Black looked at Clay then widened his eyes.  "It"s Clay!  What are you doing there?"

"He"s here to replace you," Aurum said.

"What?  How could Clay replace Black?  You"re lying!"

Aurum only snorted while Clay just smiled helplessly.  When they were in Shandra, the two always bickered so he was already used to this kind of conversation betweent the two.

"White, why do you seem so exhausted?" Aurum then said with exagerated worry.  "Black is definitely giving you all kinds of headaches, isn"t he?"

"That"s not true!  Black is well-behaved.  He listens to everything White says!" Black strongly refuted.

"Really?  You"re probably only saying that because you don"t want my brother to scold you," Aurum said using a tone as if she didn"t believe Black.  But if one looked closedly, you could see the teasing light in her current dark eyes.

"No, it"s not!"

"Black hasn"t been causing any problems, so Miss Aurum doesn"t need to worry.  Also, I"m incapable of feeling physical exhaustion so even if Black caused trouble, it wouldn"t bring me any headaches," White said in that voice unique to her.

Black hugged White"s arm.  "That"s right!  You"re bad Aurum, you always bully Black!"

Aurum rolled her eyes.  She planned to tease Black more but looked like she couldn"t do it with White there with him.  What a shame.  So instead, she turned back her attention to her brother and finally told her what she saw.

"Brother, popsicle is here."

Argent was a bit surprised when she heard what Aurum said.  Because there"s only one "popsicle" her sister could possibly refer to.  "Winter?" 

Aurum nodded.  "I saw him walking in the streets earlier.  He was with that muscular blond bodyguard of his."

Now that Argent thought about it, Winter being here wasn"t really that surprising.  Tomorrow was the Festival of Creation, the Temple often invited royalties from different countries in the world to attend.  Winter was the second prince of Albion, it"s only natural that he might be invited.  No, it"s more accurate to say that the Temple sent an invitation to Albion and Winter was the one that had been chosen to go to represent the royal family. 

If she remembered it correctly, Icelyn was the one who usually went to events like this one.  But she"s now in prison.  The King of Albion now knew about her collusion with the Temple.  Other people in his position would probably immediately sever their relations.h.i.+p with the Temple.  But he didn"t do that.  Because the King knew he couldn"t fight head on with a behemoth like a Temple of Gaia.

So sending Winter here was like a statement that he"s willing to retain a superficial relations.h.i.+p with the Temple.  For now, at least.

"Will his presence be a problem?" Aurum asked noticing that her brother was in deep thought.

Argent shook her head.  "We"re currently wearing human skin masks, he wouldn"t be able to recognize us.  Him being here wouldn"t affect our plan."

But maybe she could take advantage of his presence here.

"Master, I just found a recorded video that the Pope did using his sPhone.  Should I show it to you?" White suddenly said.

That was kind of unexpected.  Even when far away from the lab, White was still somehow connected to the main system so it"s only natural for her to know this immediately.  Especially since following the Pope"s action through the camera of his sPhone was a high priority order given by Argent to White.

But ever since she gave that order, they never found anything remotely useful.  So what"s with this recording?

Soon, the handsome face of the Pope appeared on the screen.  There was a gentle smile on his face.  Anyone who didn"t know about the dark things he"d been doing would think that he"s the epitome of kindness and gentleness.

"To Argent Blackbourne, I know you"ll be able to watch this so I"ll just make it short.  Tomorrow at noon, come alone to the Northern forest.  Someone will come and bring you to me.  Then we"ll do our exchange.  Your mother for the sword."  He smiled as if he was really seeing Argent in front of him.  "I hope you won"t disappoint me."

The video ended there.

After seeing that, Argent finally confirmed that the Pope really did suspect that she was able to spy on people using the sPhones.  If she came to him at the time and place he mentioned, then that would only proved his suspicion.  But she couldn"t just go, couldn"t she?    

She smiled grimly.  That s.h.i.+tty b.a.s.t.a.r.d.  He didn"t want to be disappointed?  Then she"d give him a fan-f.u.c.king-tastic show.