Julius continued chattering to Hadrian as Jezebel fell into step beside me. She was somewhat taller than me and she had arressted her aging somewhat later than most. I wondered if that was an oversight, an accident of circumstance, or she had deliberately chosen to look older. She moved gracefully with all the assurance of a scion of the nobility. 

"I suspect my brother was more interested in luring you out here than your ...friend," she said with a slight snicker. I offered a superior smile.

"With all due respect Lady Jezebel, there is nothing on this planent worth me putting myself at risk, either physical or social," I replied somewhat snootily. Jezebel smilke and lay a hand on my arm, slowing me down and allowing Hadrian and Julius to draw ahead.

"I admire a woman who knows her own worth, may I tell you something? It is a matter of pleasant fraternal confidence."

I was standing in a parlor. Artifact sat atop marble plinths, some of them suspended by suspensor fields, others wrapped in milky void shields. Jezebel was watching me with an arched eyebrow, looking at me with more respect than she had when we had met. I couldn't recall how I had gotten here and the stone in the necklace was cool against my skin.

"We don't have much time before we are missed," Jezebel said. Her accent was changed in some indefinable way. It was hard for me to track accents, I travelled so much that all Gothic kind of blended together in my mind. 

"Queen Mab," I said, the words coming into my head unbidden. Jezebel smiled, very good, I doubt one in a hundred could have picked up the accent. I shrugged unable to process what was happening. Had Hadrian done something to me? I couldn't imagine it. Had Jezebel? Clearly but she couldn't have messed with my mind without me noticing the psionic residues. I felt very cold, I knew I was in danger.

"Is your minder with the Inquisition?" she asked so bluntly I nearly stumbled. I shook my head.

"Will it cause problems if I have him killed?" she pressed. My mind whirled in freeform, drawing loops that connected to nothing. Lacking any other option I fell back on my familiar instincts and told the first lie I could think of.

"Yes. He is a senior operative with the Adeptus Arbities, if he dies they will come looking for you, I didn't know what I was walking into," I temporized. Jezebel nodded as though that all made sense. I brought my heart rate down under control, a scam was something I could run, even if I didn't understand what was happening.

"You have come about the Account?" she asked. I nodded again, feeling the metaphorical quicksand growing deeper. She lead me over to one of the plinths. A piece of metal the size of a dinner plate sat atop it on a piece of red velvet. It was shiny and chrome and carved with the same strange runes I had seen on the artifact Hadrian had shown me. I glanced over it reading only gibberish. I pretended to read it. Jezebel was obviously waiting for me to say something but I studied it for a long minute. Inwardly I steeled myself.

"I take it you are missing the Key?" I asked. Her eyes widened slightly.

"By the warp you can read it? You really are an Adept then?" she asked.

"Just a dabbler," I replied with more truth and modesty than she could have imagined.