Tanhkmet’s eyes were growing old, and only meager light filtered in through drawn blinds. But as lieutenant Krion escorted the newcomer into their briefing room, still he thought she seemed somehow familiar.

She was a tall and broad-shouldered northeasterner. A strong jawline was framed well by dark hair short and swept back, which he understood was considered a rather dashing style for young rhiza those days. She looked eager, unscarred, and almost as if unintimidated by the den of grizzled Imperial Guard elites into which she entered.

He paused in his preparatory adjustments of the projector, as Krion pointed the patrol officer newcomer to her seat. She seemed rookie enough to have been a cadet within just the last year, and he wondered if he recognized her from one of his recent Academy guest lectures. 

He frowned, hoping he didn’t. It’d been a tall order for Lycera to procure a Patrol Corps attaché with the capabilities they required on such short notice, he knew, but if the young lieutenant was a graduate of the most recent class, she’d have less than three months of real experience under her belt.

“Lieutenant Theodora Belisarion?” 

“Oh – uh, yes, sir,” answered the officer, saluting and rising from her chair, even though she’d just sat down.

“We’re all arrived, then,” he said, addressing the whole room. “Morning to you all. Time is of the essence, here, so I’ll cut to the chase.”

Metal plates of his unique armor scraped together as he reached to switch on the projector. Light flickered onto the wall behind him, enlarging pictures of a boy no older than five, both in profile and in portrait. His expression was blank, and far-away.

“At nine thirty-five this morning, Sybilline caretakers reported this child as missing from their facilities. Intelligence suggests an anarchist cell is responsible for his kidnapping,” he explained. “I’m sure I don’t need to explain the potential consequences of an oracle child in the hands of state enemies,” he added, pausing for effect. 

Some of the figures around the room nodded or grunted in assent. The young rookie looked for direction from the veterans around her, then nodded herself. 

She was alert to her surroundings, at least, Tanhkmet thought dryly. Patrol officers often sought to catch his eye, in the hope that a good impression would aid their careers. 

“Indeed,” he continued. “As such, this force has been tasked with locating and recovering the individual in question. Secondary to that, with neutralizing the threat of those involved in his capture. Individuals of the latter group are to be apprehended alive if possible, but that is by no means a priority.”

He swapped to the next slide. The projector cast a rough map of the city onto the wall, marked with color-coded arrows.

“It is believed that those responsible have left the city on some southeasterly heading. However, the specifics of their location and destination are at present unknown. Missing persons are more the domain of the Corps, so to that end this task force will employ a specialist capable of leading us directly to the target.”

He stepped forward, taking with him from the podium the raggedy doll he’d received from the Augury alongside their report of the child’s disappearance, 

“Lieutenant – thank you for joining us today so promptly.” He gestured to the young rookie. “If you would be so kind as to get us started.”

Despite the fact that she was the only patrol officer in attendance, the lieutenant at first dithered in confusion, before realizing she was in fact the specialist in question, and rushing back to her feet. 

He weighed her determined confidence one final time, as he offered her the doll. She looked the drab toy once over, feeling at the straw of its filling that protruded from holes in the rough fabric. 

“Turn off the projector. It will be easier without the light,” she said.

Tanhkmet raised an eyebrow at the naked command of an officer so junior, but said nothing as he retreated to deactivate the device. The room fell dark save for the thin slivers that slipped in through the blinds.

The young lieutenant distanced herself from all the others, at the fore of the briefing room. She held the doll to her face, closed her eyes, and inhaled.

Tanhkmet watched her, along with the rest of his elites. The rookie stood unmoving, focusing as she must’ve trained, before releasing a slow exhale.

A vibrant green flame sparked to life above her, breaking the tentative stillness. A rough tangle of ardent brightness took shape in a rough semi-circle just above her forehead, tapering away into earlike spikes over her temples. Light re-embraced the room, as flickering emerald shadows grew and danced on each wall, pulsating in flux with the crown’s intensity. And as Tanhkmet could himself manifest a vis, so did he feel an indescribable awareness of her presence before him, as he knew all else present would as well.

A thread of viridescent fire then swirled from the doll, reaching to wrap around her, before splitting in parts that each crept elsewhere. At first one stretched toward Tanhkmet, but the rookie seemed to ignore it. A few other bristles grew in some other direction each only for a few moments each, before one in particular stretched long and bright toward the southeast.

The lieutenant opened her eyes. 

A huge quadrupedal form began to coalesce in the space before her. A translucent wolf crystallized into distinct shape, formed of the same shimmering green fire as that above her head. The room brightened further as her atypical totem stared back at her, with burning eyes of silent canine intelligence.

The young lieutenant turned back to Tanhkmet, and nodded.

“Alright, then,” he said, hand-signaling to his section leaders. “If the situation presents itself, officers Unjet and Lycera will lead direct engagement of the enemy. Junius and Lieutenant Belisarion are to stay close to me, and our first focus will be to extract the child from danger. Finally, and this should go without saying — but this is a matter of extreme importance to the general security of the realm. Nothing about this mission is to be revealed to anyone outside this room. Is that clear?”

The patrol officer seemed to perk up, no doubt thrilled to be assigned to his own personal team. She saluted alongside the rest of them without hesitation, as if she’d set out on expeditions alongside veterans of the Imperial Guard dozens of times before. 

But Tanhkmet grit his teeth as he watched her move out, alongside the rest of the company.

It was too late to find any other patrol officer with a vis for tracking. He needed her to lead their way. But he’d take point, on the road ahead. They wouldn’t lose too much momentum, taking just a little extra caution.

He’d gotten the blood of enough overeager young rookies on his uniform jacket, already.