In the end, Vivian decided to keep the [Mark of the Beast]. Claire didn't mind. Sure, it was a sixth of her mana, but it was well worth the shine of hope and elation in her mom's eyes. She'd tried to hide it, but Vivian had been depressed her since the injury. She felt like she'd lost her purpose in life; whatever her personal legend was, she was deeply in tune with it, and she had been suddenly barred from it. I could funnel core parts into her to help her heal the injury.

  There was a problem with that strategy, though: Claire knew that, ultimately, she was selfish. She was not the type to sacrifice her wellbeing for others. She could give her mom some spare core parts once in a while, but that would be a trickle at best. She admired altruists, but she knew she wasn't one of them. There had been lots of internal turmoil and guilt when she had first realised that about herself, but she ended up accepting it. If she could help others without a significant investment from herself, she would. But she always came first.

  That wasn't to say the hope the mark gave her mother was a false one. If Claire came across the ability to mend souls, she would take it. That would be useful in and of itself.

  She stopped her internal squabbles in favour of testing the other application of [Mark of the Beast].

  She repeated the process, this time targeting her neck and choosing the image of a pentagram. This one was definitely temporary, so why not have fun with it?

  The power poured out of her, then into her again, bending in the process. She felt her senses expand, her pulse quicken, her mind working faster than before. She wasn't yet fully accustomed to feelings coming from her soul, but she could definitely feel it also became more.

  It wasn't a huge difference. But it was definitely noticable.

  "It's about one-eighth of an unclassed's power." Vivian responded to the unasked question. "It's surprisingly efficient for such a low level Skill. With a few augments, you could even follow in my footsteps. Even though I know that's not what you want."

  Claire nodded. She admired the bravery of Breach warriors. She also knew she did not posses such bravery.

  She walked around the room a bit and did some waving of arms and legs to get a feel for the added power. Everything felt a bit easier, all movements a little faster.

  With a quick mental command, she cancelled the spell, and the mark on her neck dispersed into embers that died before hitting the floor. Instantly, she felt the power leave her.

  "I feel worse than before I made the mark. Is that normal?" She asked the local buff expert.

  "Yes, we refer to it as the 'downswing'. When you get used to the empowered state, so when the buff is gone, you struggle to re-adapt to your actual capabilities. The bigger the boost, the harsher the downswing. About a third of shot calling I did in the field was warning people that their buff was about to run out so they could hide and deal with the downswing safely. This is also separate from berserk-type buffs that give an actual debuff once they run out. Then you have to deal with adjusting to an even lower level of power. Not many people took those kinds of Skills. Even less survived to their first evolution."

  Claire smiled as she listened to her mother talk. Usually, she mentioned her past with an undertone of sadness. Of times long lost. Now, it was a more positive kind of reminiscing, despite the topic being somewhat sour.

  "Thank you for the help, mom. I love you."

  "I love you too, dear."

  With that, Claire went back to her room to partake in a bit of gaming. There were a few more hours left in the day, and she had to waste them somehow.

  As the hours went by, she suddenly felt a pulse from her [Deal with the Devil], and a feeling of tiredness she was ignoring had resurfaced. She checked the time. It was 1 AM.

  The contract has me go to sleep earlier so I can actually function at the job. It was an altogether welcome side effect.

  The magically enforced contract did not help her fall asleep, however. Despite everything, she was really anxious about the next day's task. She really didn't think about how she would even solve the whole mystery. What if she failed? Well, then she wouldn't get the rest of her payment, and Draxon probably wouldn't hire her full time. Maybe also stain her name so no one else would hire her, if he was feeling vindictive. He didn't strike her as the type, but what if?

  Fortunately, eventually she grew too tired to form coherent thoughts and drifted off to sleep.

  --

  She woke up before the 9 AM alarm. Again, the contract did an excellent job at forcing her to make the correct choices. She took a shower, dressed herself, created her [Glamour], and left for the bus.

  Two hours later, she was back at the Draxon Inc. branch. She was full of energy, though mostly the nervous kind.

  She entered and approached the secretary, the same woman who had been there yesterday.

  "Hello, I'm back. Should I go back to doctor Draxon's office, or...?"

  "Excuse me, but who are you?"

  Claire raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then realised what had happened. She dropped the [Glamour] for a few seconds and then reapplied it.

  "Oh, miss Black! I didn't recognize you under the illusion. Well done. Yes, mister Draxon is waiting in his office, he will brief you on the specifics of your new position. He is currently talking to your new assistant, but he said that you can enter at anytime. "

  Assistant? Gods know I could use one with this mess.

  When Claire entered the office, she saw that the chair she sat in yesterday was occupied by a peculiar person.

  They were large, at least 3 metres tall, and their skin was the color and texture of granite. Their face was akin to a bat's, though a bit anthropomorphized, complete with protruding fangs. They wore some sort of security uniform, likely tailored specifically to accommodate their large frame.

  "Ah, miss Black, perfect timing. Me and miss Loupe were just getting finished with comparing notes about your case." Draxon said without commenting on her illusion.

  "Yes, mister Draxon told me I am to serve as your assistant for the duration of this task. I have prepared all the information we have on the incident and I will brief you on it once we begin." The stone-skinned woman confirmed in a deep, but indeed feminine voice. Like her surname suggested, she had a slight French accent.

  "It is wonderful to meet you, miss Loupe. I'm Claire, may I know your first name?"

  Miss Loupe cocked her head in thought, but relented.

  "Juliette. I'm the head of security for this building. It is a matter of personal pride for me to find the culprit and recover this prototype."

  "Now that you're acquainted, you two should continue this in your own office. I have temporarily assigned you to hold the room two doors from here, left side from the elevator. I need to get back to work. This is far from the only crisis I have to deal with at any given time." Draxon dismissed them.

  "I guess we are going to... my office, then."

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The room had a piece of paper printed out stating "Claire Black" on the door, in stark contrast to the engraved plaques all the other occupied offices on the floor possessed. The two women entered and sat down at the desk, which was very similar to that in Draxon's office, if of a bit lower quality.

  "Okay, so, the specifics, then. Do we know how and when they took it?" Claire asked without preamble. She was supposedly in charge, after all.

  "Yes, to a degree. There is a fifteen minute window where cameras on the whole R&D floor, that is, the third floor, got disabled by some kind of EMP device."

  "Wouldn't that also damage any machine there, including the prototype?"

  The gargoyle woman - Claire was sure she was some kind of gargoyle - shook her head. "Each camera was disabled by a dedicated, short range pulse, all within a few seconds of one another. According to a rudimentary mana residue analysis, the culprit used spatial magic to teleport the charges right to their targets just as they were activated."

  "We're dealing with a space mage."

  "Yes. Mister Draxon himself also confirmed that the prototype itself was removed by getting stored within a pocket dimension."

  "Fuck. A space mage could have just waltzed in and took it without a trace, then. How ate we supposed to find them?"

  "Fortunately, it is not that dire. The entire facility is heavily warded against spatial intrusion. And even if they were powerful enough to overcome them, the feedback from the wards indicates that whoever disabled the cameras teleported them from somewhere within the third floor itself."

  "So it is definitely a mole. And so you need me to interrogate your whole staff."

  "I have compiled a list of possible suspects in the order of decreasing probability. On the very top are the engineers who were working on the prototype to begin with."

  "Right. You know, it feels unfair. You did all the work investigating the whole thing, and now I just stroll in, check a bunch of people for lies, and take the credit for returning the device."

  Juliette's features hardened. Hehe, hardened. Stone. "This would not have happened if I didn't fail my job. My entire purpose in life is to safeguard and protect, and I have failed to do so. Not getting credit is mercy for such a fault."

  Claire sighed. "Julliette, did you hire these people?"

  "No."

  "Then you couldn't have known the threat would come from within, could you?"

  "I still should have anticipated it."

  Claire sighed. "You're taking too much responsibility for this. I have a friend who's an engineering student. He said to me that accidents are never a failure of just one system. There should be multiple redundancies. If they slipped past you, that just means you can't be the only line of defence. The warding should have prevented space alteration altogether. Outside of wherever it's required for experiments, I guess. My point is, it's never just one person's fault."

  Julliette pursed her lips. "Maybe so. Still, it happened on my watch, and I will do all I can to fix this."

  Claire nodded. "Good enough. Speaking of, how are you going to stop the culprit from escaping?"

  "They have already- oh, when we interrogate them?"

  "Yes. They clearly can teleport to some degree, we need to be ready to restrain them when they figure out they've been caught and try to run. Or when they figure out we are interrogating the whole department."

  Julliette proceeded to tap a clawed finger on the desk in thought. She left a small indent in the wood.

  "There are density-three mana crystals in the storage. We can temporarily overclock the spatial wards and then have everyone put on siphoning cuffs. This will immediately alert the culprit, but they can't do anything about it."

  "So we are putting the whole place on lockdown. Sounds like a headache. Hey, do you have an intercom system here?"

  --

  "Attention Draxon Inc. R&D personnel! I am Claire Black, and I've been tasked with retrieving the prototype one of you have stolen. Im going to interrogate all of you, one by one, until we find who dun it and they tell me where they keep it. The facility is on lockdown, so don't try to blink out of here, you'll just get your soul bruised by the feedback. Miss Juliette Loupe is standing in front of the stairs and the elevator with mana siphoning cuffs. Please form an orderly line and let yourself get cuffed. Failure to comply will result in a stone fist to the stomach. But don't worry! Nothing you confess will result in disciplinary action. In fact, if you're the thief, and just hand over the prototype willingly, we won't press charges. You will get fired, though, we can't have spies on staff. I'll try to talk Draxon into some kind of severance package though. So, go get cuffed, and I will talk with you all later."

  That was surprisingly exhausting. She really disliked public speaking, but she wanted to convey a very specific vibe to the whole group. There was a persona she was trying to portray. Whether that helped her extract meaningful information remained to be seen.

  The lockdown proceeded without incident. Engineers, rune experts, scientists, and, last but certainly not least, the janitorial staff, all lined up semi orderly in front of the chief of security. Julliette was also backed by two more guards, so the process went quicker than Claire had expected.

  Because it would be a nightmare to ferry people one by one to the top floor, Claire elected to commandeer one of the smaller labs as the interrogation room. No work would get done there today anyway.

  And so, the first suspect, the head of the project that got stolen, was led into the room. He was a balding, pale man in his fifties, but carried himself with an air of importance.

  "Okay, mister... Cliff, yes?"

  "Doctor Cliff, actually." He corrected her.

  "Fair enough, Doctor Cliff. I'm Claire Black, and I'm going to ask you some questions regarding the device and the day it had been stolen. Please be aware that I have a divination ability that lets me sense when someone is telling a lie."

  "Am I under arrest?" He asked calmly.

  "Worse, you're under investigation of a company that employs really determined security. But this isn't a criminal investigation, no matter what I discover about you, you won't go to jail. You help me get this over with quickly, and I'll let you go back to your job."

  Cliff looked much less confident after that, especially as Julliette leaned in as Claire mentioned "determined security". "Fine. What do you want to know?"

  "Let's get these out of the way now; did you steal the prototype?"

  "No."

  "Did you assist in the theft or the disabling of cameras?"

  "No."

  "Do you have any credible information about who could have done so?"

  "No." Ding.

  Claire felt her blood boil. She closed here eyes, then took a deep breath to center herself. He was cooperating, there was no need to start shouting yet.

  "You just lied. Please, share the information about the possible suspects you have."

  "I don't know what you're talking about." Ding

  "Doctor Cliff, I really don't have time nor patience for this. Spill the beans. I literally cannot let you go until you do so. You have some lead."

  Cliff just stared at her.

  "...we will come back to this. Where were you on that Friday, at three-fifty to four-five afternoon?"

  "Toilet break. When I was leaving, it was still there, and when I came back, the prototype was gone."

  "Thank you. Do you still claim to have no reason to suspect anyone in particular?"

  "I mean, anyone on the team could have done it, they were at the right place and time."

  "Why didn't you just say that earlier?"

  "Well, I thought it was obvious."

  "So besides that, nothing else suspicious about anyone else?"

  "No. We are quite close with everyone on the team, which makes it all the more perplexing this had happened."

  Claire grimaced. She would have to be more careful with the wording in the future.

  "Thank you, doctor Cliff. Julliette, you can uncuff him, and have one of the guards escort him out of the building. The company will contact you when this mess is over."

  As the security chief led the scientist out, Claire left a check mark next to his name on the suspect list, and wrote "toilet break" underneath.

  Next up was Rony Ellwood. He was a young blond engineer, and he was shifting nervously in his chair as soon as he sat in it. Claire knew from her own example that such fidgeting had no actual bearing on whether the person was guilty; the situation would be stressful for anyone.

  "Mister Ellwood, I'm Claire Black, and I've been tasked with retrieving the prototype. I'm going to ask you some questions, please be aware that I can tell when you're lying, so let's not waste time."

  "Alright."

  "Did you steal the prototype?"

  "No, miss Black."

  "Did you aid in its theft, including by messing with the cameras?"

  "No."

  "Do you have any credible suspicions on who could be involved in it, beyond the whole team having the access to the device?"

  "I... I think so? Jerry, that is, mister Coalridge, was tinkering with it shortly before it went missing. I don't know exactly what he was doing there, but he had the engine hood open and was working on something there."

  Claire eagerly noted that down.

  "Thank you. Speaking of, where were you between three-fifty and four-five the day of the theft?"

  "I was at my desk, doing calculations for the next iteration of the device, making sure the lenses would be spaced evenly. I needed to print out a model of the scope, to test it in practice, but my 3D printer ran out if filament. I remembered that there was a spool left in the main lab, that's where the prototype was, and so I went there to grab it. That's when I saw Jerry working on it. The engine is his job anyway, so I thought nothing of it, grabbed the filament, and went back. A few minutes later, miss Loupe barged into my office, grabbed my shoulder, and started shouting about the prototype being gone."

  Claire raised her eyes to Julliette, who elected to not meet her gaze.

  "She was doing her job as the chief of security. In any case, this is enough. Thank you, mister Ellwood. Julliette, please uncuff him, but stay here. I want your side of the story, too."