Diana stepped closer, her boots whispering against the dirt. She removed the brown wool caps from their heads, revealing faces hardened by sun and labor ,one narrow, one broad, both equally unremarkable.
"Pathetic," she muttered.
Her hands moved with steady precision as she searched through their pockets and belts. A small cube slipped from the first man's coat ,cold to the touch, its corners etched with shallow lines of light. The second held another, nearly identical.
As she held one close, feeling for spiritual residues. As she turned one over in her hand, she discerned what the device was . "Cheap Tenno Corp communicators"
"Strange." She muttered "If their boss is a Specter with any real resources, he'd use a contracted messenger spirit instead. These things are notorious for faulty connections and a short lifespans"
"Then perhaps their employer isn't who we think," Rosa said softly. "Or perhaps he doesn't trust them enough to grant contracts."
Diana gave no reply. After another few minutes of searching, she found nothing, no insignia, no seals, not even an address slip. Just coins, a knife, and the faint scent of stale perfume. She sighed, straightening her back. "Nothing to trace them with."
"You were hoping to find another key, weren't you?" Rosa's tone was gentle, but her eyes gleamed with quiet understanding.
".." Diana hesitated before nodding once. "…Yes."
"The thread might be thin," Rosa said, stepping forward, "but follow it long enough, and it will lead us where we need to go."
For a moment, Diana said nothing. Then, with a soft exhale, she crouched and, with a flex of her shoulders, lifted both men, one on each side. Their limp forms hung awkwardly, but her balance never wavered. "Let's move before the illusion fades,"
They moved quickly through the winding streets, the faint hum of morning returning around them. Few paid them more than a glance; those who did looked away just as quickly, pretending not to see. A rowdy young man casually carrying two unconscious drunks was no rare sight in this district regardless of the hour.
Their rented house sat near the district's edge, a modest brick dwelling with a small chimney and redwood floors. When they reached the door, Rosa pressed her fingers against the handle and murmured an incantation. Spiritual energy rippled outward, forming a faint sigil that sealed the threshold
-Bang!
With a strong straight kick , Diana sprung the door open. Walking briskly she carried the bodies to the kitchen and unceremoniously dropped them, onto the wide redwood table. The dull thud echoeing through the quiet room.
With roll her shoulders, Diana glanced back at Rosa. "Should I sever their limbs? In case they wake before you're done?"
Rosa looked at the two motionless men, her expression calm. "There's no need," she said. "It's impossible for two Grade Threes to escape Lady Morrigan's grasp."
Diana grunted in response, stepping aside. Rosa approached, her long sleeves falling like shadows over her wrists as she placed both hands on the men's foreheads.
"This shouldn't take long," she said.
The air thickened as she closed her eyes and within moments Diana felt it.
The spiritua energy began flowing through the room like a silent tide. Threads of light flickered beneath Rosa's palms, sinking into the men's skin.
For a brief moment, the scent of frost filled the air.
Rosa's consciousness slipped beneath the surface of waking thought, passing through the thin veil that divided flesh from spirit. She descended deeper, deeper until the noise of the world dulled into a single note of resonance.
Then came the cold.
A frigid wind tore across the expanse of her mindscape. The ground beneath her boots was white and endless, a wasteland of ice and silence. To any other, this desolate tundra would be a bone-chilling nightmare, a land of isolation.
But for Rosa, the crisp air, the pristine snow, and the utter silence represented the perfect, orderly clarity of who she really was.
This was her mind!
The deeper the ice, the sharper her focus became.
She raised her gaze. High above, the sky shimmered with the faint reflection of something vast, a single golden eye gazing down through the frozen clouds.
Rosa's breath caught, and her heartbeat slowed. She placed her left hand over her chest and bowed deeply, her voice a whisper. "Your light remains ever kind and your Will ever wise."
Yet when she raised her head, the Visionary's gaze had already withdrawn.
In the snow before her, now stood a pair of red doors. They were old and heavy, their paint peeling to reveal black, rotten wood beneath. Foul, dark liquid seeped from the cracks, and the brass handles were crusted with a flaking and rust.
Rosa stepped forward slowly with boots crunching against the frost. Her reflection shimmered faintly across the frozen ground, no longer the elegant woman she was in the waking world, but something colder, purer. Her eyes glowed faintly blue.
She extended a hand. Her fingers brushed the first door, and the wood shuddered beneath her touch. From somewhere beyond it came the sound of muffled laughter. The air turned foul with the scent of sweat and liquor.
"The mind of a sinner," she murmured. "How easily it rots."
Her pulse slowed as her spiritual energy surged in rhythmic waves. Slowly, she began the process of unraveling the first man's mind.
In the kitchen, Diana watched her closely. Rosa's expression remained serene, but faint traces of frost formed across her sleeves and lashes. The men's bodies twitched once, then went still again.
Diana crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. She had seen Rosa perform mental resonance before But this time felt different. Heavier.
'The room's temperature has dropped several degrees.'She frowned, her eyes flicking between the two unconscious men. "What are you seeing in there?" she whispered, half to herself. "What kind of filth are you hiding?"
Time stretched. The candlelight on the counter flickered and dimmed.
Then Rosa's hand moved.
It was barely a twitch, but it carried the weight of finality. Her lips parted, and she exhaled a mist of frost.
The first door, within her mind, began to creak open.