four-and-a-half-feet tall, dressed in gardener overalls and with a red bandanna tied around his forehead. He had vivacious eyes and two huge frontal teeth that showed even when he wasn’t speaking. His voice was somewhat grave, but he was also very easygoing and joked a lot. After a brief introduction by Bolswaithe, Thomas had uncovered the car for Babcor and showed him the engine and interiors. The capybara had begged him turn the engine on “just to hear it purr,” and Thomas had even allowed him to sit in the driver’s seat and pump the gas a couple of times, but they couldn’t drive out, so Babcor had made Thomas promise that he would take him out for a ride when he had a chance.
Elise’s wristpadd lit up with an incoming message. She stood up from her chair. “Let’s go.”
He groaned. “Where?”
“Come on,” she huffed. Bolswaithe opened the door to the Reading Room. He usually stood outside whatever room Thomas was in unless they were working together.
“We have about an hour before session begins,” Bolswaithe told them.
“What session?” Thomas was half-pulled by Bolswaithe and half-pushed by Elise through the Mansion's corridor.
“Where are we going?” Tony asked from the other end of the corridor. He was dressed in a blue jumpsuit and wearing safety goggles. A faint smell of powder reached them as he approached.
“To the League of Nations,” Bolswaithe told him.
“What for?” Thomas walked reluctantly ahead of Elise.
“We are meeting a friend of my family, a faun. There is a League session in about an hour, and he's agreed to meet with us before.”
“A faun?” Tony walked backward in front of them. “Are we leaving the League of Nations building?”
“You’ve been there?” Elise asked Tony.
“Yeeeeah,” Tony bragged. “Right after getting Orange level. So, are we going out from the building?”
“No,” Elise said.
“Is it really necessary for me to go?” Tony asked. “I met these two guys in engineering that do the funniest and weirdest things. We were about to blow up about a thousand marbles to—”
“You don't need to go,” Elise cut him off.
“You sure?”
“Positive. Go play with your friends.”
Tony smiled. “Sorry, Thomas. I'll let you know how it turned out.”
“Your experiment will be a bust,” Bolswaithe told him.
“How can you possibly know that?” Tony asked. “You don't even know what we are doing!”
“But I know who you're talking about,” Bolswaithe said. “I know what they do, their modus operandi, and I know the ‘myth’ they are trying to bust. And it will be busted. Unless, of course, the laws of physics have been warped too much by Magic.”
Tony stopped in his tracks and let them continue through the corridor. “You're such a fun sponge, you know?” he yelled at Bolswaithe.
“You've told me that already,” Bolswaithe answered without turning around. “I'm sorry.”
They walked across the main hall of the Mansion and the statue of Prometheus and into the right hallway, where each of the doors was connected to a satellite building of the company. Some doors opened to rooms that had several doors. Techs and employees of Guardians Inc. traveled through the doors, sometimes crossing entire continents just by going a couple of feet through the hallway.
“Come on, Elise!” Thomas groaned as they approached a door on the left. “I'll read whatever you want. I promise.”
“Of course you will,” she said, “but you are still meeting him.”
Bolswaithe grabbed the doorknob. “It is a great honor,” he told Thomas.
Thomas sighed. Ever since becoming the Cypher everything was either really
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