Lillian sat quietly, carefully pulling apart a croissant with her fingers and eating the chunks. It had been ten minutes since Lucie had left and not a word had been spoken since. While she was anxious to start on the task of rescuing a child in need, Lily wished to take a few moments to speak with Adam. The events of the last mission had revealed some things about Adam that Lily wished to question him on, though she found it difficult to raise the topic. In part because she felt foolish for not having noticed the subtle hints as to the nature of Adam’s secret that had suddenly become like fiery beacons for how clearly they stood out. But also because the whole affair had brought to light that Lily did not know much of Adam, which raised the question as to whether the two of them were actually friends. She had long felt a kinship with Adam, his powers of observation equalling her own made her feel less alone in the world. It brought her a monicom of happiness that there was at least one other person who saw the hidden threads that tied the world together as readily as she did, perhaps even more so. The reveal of such a well hidden secret made it clear to Lillian that not only did she not know her friend as well as she thought, and that she was not in fact on the same level as him in terms of intelligence. 

Lily finished her meal and stood. “I shall prepare for tomorrow. If you’ll excuse me.” Lily gave a small curtsy, doing her best to imitate Lucie. Spinning on a heel Lily quickly left the room, not waiting for a response from Adam. She stopped walking just past the door, turned around, and returned to the room. She hastily grabbed the remaining pears that were on the table “I will need these.” Lillian once again spun on her heel and left, placing the pears in a pouch that could accommodate them. With long strides she made her way out of the manor and headed towards the city to prepare, putting all else from her mind but the task at hand. 

A rather painful hour long walk ended with Lillian in front of the cities largest library. She carefully made her way up the large worn steps in front and entered the building. At that time of day the library barely had anyone in it so the librarian was off reshelving books. Lillian had spent enough time at the building that she had long ago memorized the schedules and modus operandi of the staff. Mrs.Farmer, a seventy year old widower who wore an unflattering and poorly made black wig, liked to reshelve during the work week in the middle of the day. She would put every returned book in alphabetical order (by author) and subject on her cart and start in the geology section on the second floor; she would then work her way around the library counter-clockwise. It took her roughly three hours to finish the reshelving, one and a half per floor depending on the book load. If anyone wanted to work unobserved all they needed to do was go to the library during reshelving time and determine how far along Mrs.Farmer was in her shelving. 

Lillian swiftly moved to the large sign out book kept at the front desk, closed it, lifted it twenty centimeters into the air, and dropped it. The large book collided with the wooden surface and a thunderous crash echoed through the library. A fraction of a second after the echo faded a loud and shrill “Shush!” drifted down from the top floor. Lillian smiled and headed towards the locked rooms at the back of the library, confident she had roughly an hour and a half at minimum to do what she needed. Plenty of time. 
Lillian produced from one of her pouches a rough and misshapen iron key and inserted it into one of the locked doors labeled “Architectural drawings.” She fiddled with the key a bit, wiggling it back and forth while trying to turn it before it finally did turn and the door clicked open. Lillian took a brief moment to assure herself she was not being watched before slipping into the room, locking the door behind her. She had made a copy every key used at the library allowing her access to the sections that most people without official reason were not allowed to see. Her blacksmithing skills left something to be desired as the entire set of keys came out rather poorly; but with a bit of finesse they still worked. 

The room was large and yet still terribly cramped as every available bit of space was dedicated to massive drawers that would allow schematics to be placed within without need to fold or roll them. There was not enough room available for every drawing however, so those drawings considered less important were rolled up and kept in wine racks stacked on top of the drawers. These racks reached all the way up to the fairly high ceiling, with exception to one spot where room had been left for the only window. The entire place smelled of old paper and dust, the only signs that the room received any use was a feint pair of footprints in the thick dust made by Lillian's own boots a month prior when she broke in to find schematics for the mayor's house. She was convinced he had secret room in his basement and she wished to determine what was within. As it turned out the room was in fact not secret and was simply a wine cellar that was not used due to the mayor’s distaste for spirits of any kind. 

After a few minutes of searching, far less time then she thought she would need given the low light, Lillian located the schematics for the hospital the little girl was being held in. Lillian then spent the next hour transcribing the entire set of plans into one of her books; the process was tedious and took up dozens of pages as there were enough details that she could not simply draw the plans smaller, but had to section them off and draw them full sized. Once finished she returned the drawings to their proper place and started to leave, but remembering how she had spotted her own footprints from last time, stopped. Using the hem of her dress she walked around the room kicking up the dust and hiding the signs that anyone had been in the room. Satisfied she had hidden her actions sufficiently well Lillian exited and relocked the room. Once again her misshapen key became stuck in the door and she was forced to wiggle it about to try and remove it.

“Ahem”

Lillian frooze, her hand still on the key that refused to come out. She looked over her shoulder to find Mrs.Farmer behind her, the copious wrinkles of her face contorted into a disapproving glare.

“And just what might I ask are you doing, Miss McClellen?” The old woman had her hands positioned on her hips with her elbows pointed out, making her look like a humanoid sugar bowl. Lillian looked away and bit a lip, trying to think of a plausible excuse. While she considered herself a highly intelligent woman, improvising was not her forte. For a brief moment her mind flashed back to the battle with the monster and her flaming blunder. “Well, Miss McCellen? I do not have all day.” 

Unable to think of a lie, Lily opted for a half truth. “Ah, you see, Mrs.Farmer, I-” she moved out of the way to show the warped key still stuck in the door “-made my own key to see if it was possible to copy a key by sight alone. I used the library as my testing grounds because I am… here… so often.” Lillian didn’t believe herself and most of what she had said was true. Mrs.Farmer did not seem all that convinced either, though the wrinkles made it difficult to pick up on more subtle expressions

“That key. Looks terrible.”

Lillian blinked, “Well… yes. I forged it myself and I am somewhat lacking in that field.” Mrs.Famer shook her head. She then approached the door, grabbed the key, and with a jiggle of her hand and a kick from her foot to the bottom of the door the key popped loose. She then returned the key to Lillian who accepted it sheepishly.

“Come with me,” was all the woman said next and walked off with the speed one would expect of a younger woman. Lillian quickly followed and began to calculate how much she would need to donate to the library to make the incident go away. She was surprised, however, to find that instead of being led to Mrs.Farmer’s office as she had been expecting, the librarian led her deeper into the library. The old woman quickly made her way to a specific section, perused the spines of the books a moment, plucked one from the shelf, and presented it to Lillian who tentatively took it and read the title aloud.

“...Forging for beginners.”

“That key is terrible. You could have broken my lock with that wretched thing. Out of everyone in this blasted city I would think you’d have had the mindset to read up on something before trying it. You are to read that book, make a new key, and return both next month so we can see if you’ve done better. You’ve got a lot of potential Miss McCellen, don’t waste it by picking up the habits of men.” Lillian stared at the other woman a moment, looked at the book, then back to the woman; she nodded ever so slightly, then turned and walked out of the library. 


*******************************************

Lillian sat in a private room of La Maison du Beau Café, a French Coffee shop that had opened several years ago and had been doing rather well for itself. Her reasons for visiting the shop had nothing to do with the untouched cup of over priced bean water, but rather because of its convenient position across the street from town hall, and for the private rooms available on its’ second floor. After ensuring with the waitress that she was to not be disturbed for the next hour Lillian left her body and leapt out the window. Her formless body landed like a feather on top of a sleeping dog who only responded to the slight pressure it caused by grunting and kicking a foot. Lillian made her way across the street and into the Town Hall, slipping in behind a couple whose arms were overburdened with papers so a passing gentleman held the door open for them.

Unlike the library whose schedule could easily be discerned and memorized, the hall was a chaotic mess of uncertainty. Dozens of people rushed back and forth, most of whom Lily did not recognise, and all with some clear purpose. The main hall was filled with thirty desks, each with a government worker, most of whom were dealing with multiple people at once. Lillian felt a tinge of pity for the poor souls who had to deal with such a mess on a constant basis. 

Not wanting to waste the hour she had given herself Lily took off in a run and made her way toward the records room. The room was positioned at the farthest possible point from the entrance, on the third floor, to make it harder for anyone attempting what Lilian planed to do once she made it into the room. She quickly found the room and walked past it, knowing full well it would be locked. Instead she made her way to a broom closet and, once a rather stressed looking woman with crooked glasses and a windswept hairdo went past, she slipped inside. The room was small and filled with all manor of cleaning supplies, had she had the capacity for an olfactory sensation she was sure she’d have passed out from the opened chemical jars; all of which looked like dangerous concoctions made by the cleaning staff given their homemade -and misspelled- labels. 

While the majority of the building had plastered walls to give the place an air of elegance, the broom closets in the building had been mercifully spared that extravagance and sported only the ugly and cheap wood that formed the frame of the building. Lillian moved some brooms out of her way, careful to not make any noise, and pulled a panel of wood off the wall. Who ever had been working in the closet had clearly run out of nails and had opted to press fit the bored in place; their laziness was Lily’s boon. 

With some discomfort, but little difficulty, Lillian squeezed her body through the opening she had made and found herself squished between the wall of the broom closet and the wall of the records room. She then began to make her way deeper into the framework of the building, contorting and squeezing her body to fit past beams and pipes. She kept moving until she could see with her non-existent eyes the feint outline of a nail that failed to be driven into the wood, and had bent into the shape of a musical note. The ferrous notation indicated that she was standing near an open ventilation shaft. During a previous exploration of the Library's drawing room Lillian had discovered the town hall was meant to be four floors high, as opposed to the three that it ended up being. Operating under an assumption that ended up being true, Lillian surmised that some remnants of the unmade fourth floor remained. One of those remnants was a ventilation system that was to go one floor higher, but stopped part way. Rather than closing the ends of the open shafts properly, the workers had simply tacked a piece of wood over the open ends. The job was shaudy and Lillian had little trouble removing it, even while her body was semi-ethereal and conorted like a pretzel. 

Lillian climbed-contorted her way into the shaft and located the vent register that led into the Records Room. With a small push the register poped free from the vent shaft, and Lily was able to squeeze into the room. Once inside she found it devoid of people, as usual, and well lit thanks to the windows allowing in the afternoon sunlight. 

Knowing she only had an hour to get what she wanted to do done, Lillian quickly began searching for Lucie Ruzicka. On more than one occasion Lily had to invent another human being for her own purposes, so she was well versed in how to do it and how to make it not look suspicious. Given that her and her compatriots plan was to kidnap a child and hope she was simply declared missing it seemed prudent to have a new identity made for the young lady. Given Lucie’s desire to adopt the child it only made sense to forge documents that made it look like they were mother and daughter. Unfortunately, that plan would prove difficult to follow through on; after locating Lucie’s documents she was surprised to find that the woman was apparently dead. 

Lily’s non-existent face scrunched up in surprise and annoyance. The file she had found on her comrade not only declared her dead for many years, but indicated if she was alive she would only be nineteen. With her original plan thoroughly ruined by unexpected deadness, Lily moved quickly to implement a new plan. She retrieved several blank documents from a box, and a pencil that she kept hidden under a shelf. Writing as fast as she could make her ethereal body go Lily made documents for both the little girl, and for Lucie. “If that even is her real name,” she thought to herself.

It was not easy, she had allotted time for only one forgery, but Lily managed to make documents for the expecting mother and her expected daughter. She listed Lucie as an immigrant from the Ukraine and gave her the name Lucie Anastasia Romanchuk, from the small village of Zaporozhye. She specifically picked the Ukraine as it was the closest country that Lucie possesed physical features from. 

Not believing for a second that Lucie was nineteen  -and knowing full well a nineteen year old with a ten year old daughter would raise some questions- Lillian made her twentynine instead. She did much the same for the little girl, keeping her first name the same but changing her middle and last names to Natalia and Romanchuk. She listed the girl as having been born in Prague and that her father was a man from the city, one of Lillian’s pre-invented people whom she had killed off for legal reasons a few years prior. Unsure what the young lady looked like she decided it would be best to give her at least one Czech parent, as a means to explain why she did not look like her mother, or look Ukrainian. 

Once the documents were finished Lillian forged the relevant signatures and put the them in their proper spots. To avoid raising suspicion Lily used a trick she thought up when she first started forging documents; when she went to slip the file into place she pushed it further down than she needed to, damaging the paper slightly, but more importantly semi-hiding the file. If any staff randomly came across the file and found it odd they’d never seen it before their concerns would be immediately dashed do to the files semi-hidden state. To Lillian’s knowledge that exact scenario had never came up, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Lily returned her pencil to its’ hiding place, put the vent register back into the wall, and willed herself back to her body. Her eyes shot open and she immediately dug into her pouch for the food she had saved from breakfast. She gorged herself on every pear she had grabbed and downed the cold coffee that still sat on the table, cringing from the bitterness but happy for the sustenance. She then sat back in her chair to recoup from using her power for so long; she closed her eyes and took deep controlled breaths. Once she felt better she left her private room, paid for it and the disgusting brew she drank, and set off towards her home. She had one last task to take care of before returning to Ianus, and it was an experience she found herself dredding. 

*******************************************

Lillian stood before her mother, who at that moment was smiling so wide there was some serious concern her head might just pop off. 

“I wish to make myself clear, Mother,” Lily began. “This is not a permanent change in my thinking. I still find the obsession with one's appearance to be a pointless waste of time. However, tomorrow I will find myself in a position where I need to appear to look professional so as to not raise suspicions or make the individual I will be accompanying look bad by association. Is that clear?”

“Crystal! I am simply so thrilled to get the chance to doll up my only daughter!” 

Lillian fidgeted, slightly uncomfortable with the thought of what she was about to unleash upon herself. “Yes… well… I simply ask you do not get carried away. You may change whatever you wish about me so long as you can justify its’ importance.” 

Lilian’s mother rushed out of the room, called for several servants, and returned “Let us get started right away!”

“...Is… is three more people really necessary?! I had thought you would only do my hair and perhaps a bit of makeup. I do not t-” Lily was interrupted by her mother gently placing a finger upon her lips to silence her.

“Oh my sweet Lillian. You may know a great deal about bugs, and how fast a corpse can dissolve in acid. But I am a master in an area you have so thoroughly avoided. You are accompanying Adam Ware! A small change in hair is not enough.”

Lily frowned slightly but had to admit her mother had a point “Well… I suppose that is true. But as I said, you may do nothing to me unless it can be justified.” Lilian’s mother smiled and nodded. As it would turn out, her mother was able to justify a great deal.    

*******************************************

Lillian walked down the halls of Ianus, her legs were ablaze with pain from all the walking she had been doing, and the rest of her body felt like it had been violated after the experience with her mother. The nice dress she had put on that morning was replaced with an even nicer royal blue dress, and her nails had been painted to match it. The hanging pouches that would normally adorn her body had been replaced with decorative chatelaine bag that hooked onto her waist, and was barely large enough to hold the book with the hospitals schematics.  Her usual messy bun had been replaced with a complex braid that reached past her shoulder blades, the hair that wouldn’t cooperate with the braid had been given a slight curl and left to  ‘frame her face,’ according to her mother. Lillian’s face had not been left untouched either and had been enhanced with makeup from her mother's personal supply. The face paint had been used to smooth or cover features, and her lips had been enhanced with a burnt pumpkin like lipstick that apparently matched her hair. Lillian was not thrilled about the makeup, but was happily surprised to find she could not feel it on her face like she had expected. “Small mercy’s,” she mumbled aloud. The last features of her body her mother felt keen on fixing was her ears which she adorned with sapphire earrings, and her spectacles which she replaced with a pair that were less circular like her old pair and far more oval like an egg. Her mother insisted the ovular shape was “in,” whatever that meant.

The change in appearance had done its’ job despite Lilian’s unhappiness with it. Even she had to admit that she looked professional, as though she truly was the secretary to one of Prague's richest families. Lily also had to admit she simply looked better, which helped her feel less self conscious about the wounds on her legs that were in desperate need of a re-wrapping. 

Lillian continued to walk through Ianus, getting odd looks from members who were clearly surprised to see her dressed up so formally. Lily ignored them all and made her way to Lucie’s room, keen to receive answers to some warranted questions. She gave the other woman’s door several loud knocks and waited.