<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> Reminder: Text enclosed in / / is italicized. -----    The daedra Alexastra rode back into Euper in the guise of a simple black cat perched upon the tailgate of a caravan wagon.  A slightly bedraggled-looking stray, the gatekeepers had grown used to seeing her like this, occasionally entering and leaving town aboard trader wagons, and had jokingly dubbed her the Caravan Cat.  Some of the teamsters had started to consider her good luck, for Alexastra saw to it that no caravan she rode on came to harm during its journey.  Besides the obvious self-protection and the chance to listen in on unguarded conversation, it also encouraged some teamsters to trust more in luck and talismans, and anything that distracted mortals away from the aedra was, in her opinion, effort well spent.  After all, even a small slip here and there could leave openings for later enticements.    She should have been pleased with her return, especially when the guards spotted her and pointed her out, but instead she quietly seethed as she jumped down from the wagon and slipped out of sight down an alley.  The past two days had been nothing but frustration for her.  When Drift had set out for his thrice-accursed mission, she had, of course, followed.  The shape of a falcon had seemed the best way to keep track of her mark, and she had nearly homed in on him when she felt scrying eyes upon her.  A moment later, she was set upon by a pair of eagles and had to flee to maintain her cover as a simple animal.  She could have easily slain both birds, but with aedra eyes on her, she knew that would only invite more powerful opponents.  If the watcher wasn't certain she was a threat, the odds were good that they would only react proportionally.  It was an easily exploitable aedra weakness.  She'd tried two other shapes, a squirrel and a small bird, to try to approach, but had been balked both times without even getting close enough to set eyes on the white Keeper.  When an arrow narrowly missed her while she was shifting shapes into a doe, she knew it was time to leave.  Whatever Drift was doing, it was important enough to the aedra that they were taking no chances about interference.    Alexastra the black cat slipped through a hole in the foundation of a ramshackle house well inside Euper, slipping past several traps that would discourage anyone other than their maker from noticing the small passageway.  When she arrived at the inner rooms, her first act was to check the room with magesight for any scrying eyes.  That done, she shapechanged back to her Keeper disguise and lit a small candle for light before thwumping down on the soft sofa with which she had furnished her safehouse.  The opulence of the room put a lie to the house's outward appearance and, after a few minutes of sulking, she got up and produced a wineglass and a bottle from a nearby cupboard.  Pouring herself a drink, she pondered her options.  They were not many.  She could do nothing about Drift for the time being, either for good or ill.      If Drift came to harm doing whatever he was doing out there, she thought as she settled back on the couch, wineglass in hand, it wouldn't harm her lord's plans much.  She had, as a matter of habit, laid contingency plans five ranks deep.  The damage to her carefully crafted reputation, however, was something that she would not abide.  She was a daedra spymaster, and even among the most secret and secretive of all daedra kind, there were expectations to be met.  Having a mark escape from her sight and control, even if just for a short time, was bad enough: that the reason for his escape involved several of the high aedra made the affront just barely tolerable.  Absolutely nothing was worth getting caught over.  If something happened to him under the guard of those interfering aedra minions, she would certainly take her vengeance on the aedra and the Lothanansi…  Alexastra paused and unclenched her fists, forcing herself to be calm, to be patient.  Yes.  She would be patient.  She would wait.  For now.    /I hope nothing happens to him/, a small voice whispered unbidden in the back of her mind.  /I would miss him/.  The regret that came with that thought nearly startled her into dropping her wineglass.  It wasn't that she felt regret over losing him that alarmed her- Drift was hardly the first mortal she had found intriguing while she wove her nets around him.  Her interest in mortals was what gave her the edge as a spy among them.  She had spent almost her entire existence studying them, trying to get inside their minds, to learn to see things from their viewpoint.  It was, she felt, the only way to have a chance of predicting their often erratic behavior.    No, what surprised her was the depth of that feeling.  She would have expected that deep a feeling of pain and loss from the persona she'd adopted to shield herself from detection by Kyia, but to feel it from herself?  It was…  It was unprecedented.  It was absurd!    It was dangerous.    /He -has- to be an aedra counterspy/, she thought, her heart starting to race.  /He has to be.  Him or someone near him.  That has to be the reason.  One of Velena's minions.  But how could they possibly have-/?  The alternative explanation was too impossible to be believed, and she discarded it immediately.  Draining the rest of her wineglass in a single gulp, she marshaled her emotions back into order and mentally chided herself.  /Be calm.  Keep your guard up.  Only fools panic./  She set the emptied glass down on the table and steepled her fingers in thought.  The intervention of an aedra minion of sufficient skill both to affect her and to evade her detection while doing so was not a development she had expected, but she felt certain it was a manageable complication.  The prospect of unveiling and besting such a skilled opponent was tempting, but she admonished herself with a phrase that she had picked up long ago from a Suielman legionnaire.  "She who chases two rabbits will lose them both," she said aloud as she walked out of the room and up a flight of steps.  Stepping out on a small balcony, she stayed there just long enough to drape a piece of red cloth over the railing before retreating back inside.    Having set up the signal for Thestilus to contact her, Alexastra settled back onto the couch to wait, plucking up a small pillow from the cushions and holding it close.  The cool darkness of the room helped settle her thoughts, and she nixed the idea of ferreting out the counterspy.  If she managed to uncover him while working with Drift, wonderful, but ensnaring both Arkos and Snow was complicated enough without adding another target.  As much as she hated to agree with the little nuisance, Thestilus was right: Lord Agemnos was grasping for too much at once this time.  A contract closure was fine, but using a Marked of Akkala to do it?  What in the Nine Hells had induced her lord to offer such an open contract in the first place, anyway?    Alexastra sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose, shooing those thoughts away.  What Lord Agemnos wanted, Lord Agemnos got.  If he wanted her to get it for him, she would do it or she would be killed and he'd get someone else to do it.  Glancing around once more in magesight to make sure she wasn't being scryed upon, she cursed and tossed the couch pillow across the room.  "What a horrid waste.  Drift is too entertaining to be used up like this, and much too smart.  There's more profit to be made from harnessing that brain than there is from making him into a sword for killing."  The mental image of Drift's delectable body in a Suspira-charmed harness (and not a stitch else) improved her mood enough for her to pick up the pillow and take it back to the couch, cuddling it against her and imagining it was him.  That fantasy lasted until she saw his dull, glazed eyes, and she flung the pillow away again with a snarl.  Suspira's touch would take away what she found the most enjoyable about him.  "What a waste," she growled again and faded back into sullenness.  For a long while, all was silence, her mood gone as dark as the room around her.  "Thestilus had better not have made a hash of things while I was away," she finally grumbled, and got up to light more lamps.  She didn't need them, but why make that brat Thestilus feel any more welcome?  Drift would be fine, she assured herself.  What harm could he possibly come to in just two days, without her there to instigate it? <hr />Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. <a href='http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_1' target='_new'>Learn more.</a> !DSPAM:4c29d998260301804284693! </body> </html>