I stayed at my house that night again, unwilling to return to Castle V until I was prepared to rescue Jax. Trix, The Shadow of Rome herself, had contacted me and we agreed to meet at the Cathedral at noon. With time on my hands until then, I studied my mother's armor and made some modifications that would help me in my role as N.
After a few hours, I admired my work. The armor gleamed, no longer just silver, but black, like the night. I kept a few subtle silver accents where the tree of life remained carved into the chest plate. At a certain angle, the silver reflected the moonlight, like tiny stars at midnight.
The leggings and chest plate had been imbued with Angel technology that gave them the flexibility of fabric but more impenetrability than steel. It fit like it had been made for me.
I modified the half-mask, which covered the top of my face, connecting it with my e-Glass so that I could keep my identity secret, but still stay in communication.
My final plan involved sending Zorin out for an Easy-Dye kit.
"You want a what?" he asked, his face a comic display of dismay.
"An Easy-Dye kit. They're relatively new and they allow people to instantly change their hair color with the touch of a small button you wear behind your ear. I need one to disguise myself when I meet with the rebels. They can't know who I am, especially if I ever need to return to Castle V as Scarlett."
He paced my living room, filling it like a god of old. "And why can't you get this yourself?"
"One, because I have no money and they are ridiculously expensive. And two, because I have to finish getting ready for my meeting."
He glared at me. "So now I'm to be your errand boy?"
I grinned. "It will make you useful."
He mumbled a few choice words before flying out the door. It didn't take him long to return, bag in hand with my new hair kit.
"Thank you. Want to see the magic?"
He rolled his eyes. "Sure."
I installed the tiny metal sphere into my e-Glass and put it on, then tapped it twice as per the directions. Instantly my hair turned black. "Voila!"
His eyes widened. "That is actually impressive. And while I prefer your pale hair, you look very nice this way as well."
His words made me a little giddy. "Thanks."
I admired myself in the mirror when Evie beeped at me. "You have just enough time to get to your appointment, Scarlett," she said in my ear.
"It's show time," I told Zorin as I pulled on my mother's armor and became someone else.
***
Zorin and I arrived first. We kept our wings hidden and wore black cloaks with hoods. We claimed a spot in the dusty belly of the Cathedral on old pews that hadn't been completely ruined by the war. "If we're going to use this as our base, we need to clean it up," I told him.
He wiped away an inch of dust from the wooden bench before sitting down. "Agreed," he said. Zorin didn't wear full armor like me, but he did wear a mask to disguise his face. Better we weren't easily identified at this point in the trust game.
Trix arrived with T.R. We'd both agreed to only bring one other with us.
She looked around, her cropped red hair flipping against her cheek as she spun her head. "Classy. Did the maid quit?"
I laughed. "Good help is so hard to find," I said with the same light tone as her.
T.R. just grunted. I'd only seen him once, briefly in the crowd with a hoodie on. Now I could see all of his features, his light hair shorn high and tight, his blue eyes that glared at me with mistrust. "Can we get this meeting started?"
I gestured for them to sit, which they did, but T.R. eyed me suspiciously. "Why are you two wearing masks? You've seen our faces. We should see yours."
"Maybe she's someone we'd recognize," Trix suggested.
"I'm not one of you," I said. "Neither of us are. And I won't have our identities compromised if one of you is captured."
"My guys would never break," T.R. said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We all break," said Trix, more moderately. I liked her.
"You didn't tell them anything," he said, his voice less caustic with her. More… loving. Interesting.
"Nothing important," she said with a shudder. "But people have different priorities. N's right. Someone might give out her identity if they didn't value it. And like she said, she's not one of us. So why would we value her?"
"My plan will strategically benefit you," I said, tired of being talked about as if I weren't there.
"How exactly?" asked T.R.
I spoke quietly into Evie and she projected onto a blank wall the video I cued up. It was images of Jax. "This is Sir Jaxton Lux, a high-ranking Knight of the Teutonic Order, sentenced to death for executing deserters."
"I heard they were Officers," T.R. said.
"They were killing innocents, claiming they were killing rebels. Sir Lux ordered them to stop. When they refused, he stripped them of their rank. When they refused again, he executed them."
"Saw this on the city camera's, did you?" asked Trix with a smirk.