Of Preparation and Reinstatement

The Treeroot palace was hustling with activity. Everyone who could be called up to work on Lina's debut party was. That meant that all sisters and Empress herself was involved in one form or other. Nelly was busy setting up defenses and together with Cathrin trying to make sense of was the guest an enemy, neutral or ally. 

"Add him to the neutral pile" Nelly said after hearing the details on the latest one. Cathrin and Nelly—with a few adjutants—were sitting in a room filled with screens and paper. 

"I think that was the last one" Cathrin said and double checked all names were in both columns. 

"We still haven't gone through the do it later pile," said Nicol. Whom was Nelly's behind the scenes hard working adjutant. Nicol had been on a whole another level these past few weeks. Had taken it as a personal slight to her skills that so many things had happened, that she hadn't been prepared for. 

Cathrin and Nelly sighed in unison. The decision on these few subjects would form a lot of their actions in the coming ball, not to mention shape the whole potential future of their interactions. 

"Okay I'm ready, who is the first one." Nelly said after taking a deep breath and steeling herself. Nicol moved a file to the forefront, and it appeared on all of their screens. The picture was a man in their forties, with early whitening of his beard. A salt and pepper, hard to fake variety of whitening. 

"This is Amadou Blanchard, a business magnate who struck gold in his twenties with a breakthrough in plasma propulsion, which then was bought up for a sizeable sum by Biorito." Nicol said, and showed on the screen the difference between the propulsion from before his invention and the one after. He was the reason behind the beautiful new generation of Loud Birds. 

"Remind us again what were the questionable points about him" Cathrin said rubbing her temples. 

"Mr Blanchard has been vocal about the excess wealth and control the Arbore's have over crystal mines, which considering the payout from the annulled wedding and his ample business contacts with Walsh Inc—paints him in an unfavorable light" Nicol said and gave a few news articles as examples. 

The articles contained his speech at a prominent university where he claimed the tight grip of the crystals was inhibiting the growth of the Arbore Empire as a whole, especially its scientific progress. The second article was him shaking hands with the Walsh Duke. There was some pointers, but there wasn't enough to label him as an enemy in her mind. Other than his words lining up with events, it wasn't very solid. 

"There is nothing else about him?" Nelly said. 

"Nothing else stands out miss," Nicol said, looking Nelly in the eyes. 

"Potential friendly, keep an eye out and entice him with a supply of crystals. Or do you have a differing opinion Cathrin?" Nelly said, turning to look at the still temple rubbing sister. Cathrin closed her eyes for a few seconds before nodding. 

"I don't heavily disagree, if we have the manpower I'd love to have some eyes on him" Cathrin said, sighed and answered her own question. "I guess we do have manpower, but we don't have trustworthy ones. Nevermind then, he is a lower priority"

Nicol and Cathrin's adjutant nodded, moving his portrait to one of the five screen's set up as info boards. A few seconds later another portrait landed on Nelly's screen. This time it was an older lady, a woman whose age didn't dampen her beauty—nor did the large scar cutting across her cheek. 

"This is Countess Andrea Kurtzmann, known previously as Madam Glass a mob tycoon in sub zero levels. She gained her title through suspicious means, but according to everything we know about her she has stopped her criminal ways" Nicol said. 

"She might have managed the impossible. One last score, before ending her career" Cathrin said, and scrolled through a few points on the list. 

"The suspicious things again if you will" Nelly said, leaning back in her chair, with a pen between her lip and nose. 

"She has had close relationships with several people who were deeply embedded in the Black Market operations. Her prior skillset as the leader of Glass and knowledge of illicit abusable substances, does make her a potential kingpin. Her books are clean, but we worry she is just too skillful for our operatives." Nicol said, pulling up several images where Countess Kurtzmann is talking with known Black Market invested nobles. 

Nelly stomach churned a bit every time the black market was mentioned, even if she didn't see the images before her every time anymore, it still held a grip over her. 

"Has she claimed any position on anything, other than her previous ties?" Cathrin asked. 

"She has not, she has been both very publicly visible in higher echelons of society and also not taken any sides other than herself." Nicol said, and straightened her military jacket, before leaning back. 

"In to the potential sellouts then. She has quite the network still, and in the eventuality we can gain a mutual understanding we could gain some important information we are missing now." Cathrin said having finally ended her temple rubbing and moved on to idly rubbing her hands together. "Nelly we should take her aside and talk to her during Lina's debut" Nelly nodded, accepting the mission. 

There was a few more on the list that upon further inspection were deemed untrustworthy names that included: Baron Nur Deighton and Simon Akers the media mogul. There was one final nail to conclude, final choice that was the hardest to decipher. There was nothing that placed their loyalty in question except for their choice of plus one. 

"Last one. Marchioness Ethelyn Quickly who is by all means an exemplary noble of Arbore, but due to the addition of the blacklisted Paco Serra as their plus one it bears further thought." Nicol said, aware of most of the situation, missing knowledge of only a kissing scene. To everyone else Paco Serra was only blacklisted without specified cause, which was a normal enough event that it didn't draw unnecessary attention. 

"The only problem is that Marchioness Quickly was made aware that Paco Serra was an individual we didn't wish to be present, but she insisted and gave enough in value for Nelly to acquiesce" Cathrin said, and referenced the fact the Marchioness had given away the rights to a sports stadium on floor 1800, yet to be constructed. A massive payment so that the Arbore family would look the other way on her new fling. 

Cathrin looked at Nelly, waiting for her to make a choice. She was acutely aware of all that had happened, including Nelly's naked visit to Kabek. Nelly bit down on the pen hard, enough that it cracked. She spit out the two pieces and and slammed the table—careful not to get vampiric energy imbued in her hit. 

"Friendly. But if that man does anything I'll reinstate the death penalty"