Of course, today was anything but normal so far. From the moment I stepped out of the elevator I could see that the office was teeming with daemons, and not the big eyeball ones, but the little winged imp and goblin ones. Ping had assured me a lot the night before that the protective charms cast on me would be enough to hide the fact that my Veil was broken, and that they had something else in mind for when we needed to transform, but the problem with these sort of safeguards is that if you can't see them working, then you don't know that they're working.

So here I am, sitting at my desk doing work as usual while an imp sat perched on the top of my cubicle, scanning the sea of workers like a cat looking for a mouse in a field. I wasn't sure if it was the overdose of fear and adrenaline completely short-circuiting my brain's ability to react to things or what, but even as imps floated throw my computer to give me weird faces I was able to stay calm and continue working, as if nothing was happening.

"...Don't get why the boss is getting us to pull such an overstaffed shift," a peculiarly gravely voice said. At first I thought nothing of it, until I heard what was said next. "Even if there's a faerie on the loose here workin' with a human, what's one Magica gonna do anyways? Don't we rule the world or somethin'?"

Without thinking, I stood up from seat and made my way to the break room to grab a coffee, so to speak. Sure I was a couple minutes early from my actual break, but as Violet often said, "nobody's anal enough to split hairs over a couple minutes."

Going into the break room I passed by two daemons, one was very tall and lanky with mottled green skin, four arms and eyes like a chameleon. The other was very short with a muddy brown/orange complexion, and I couldn't really describe it as being anything more than a lumpy ball with stubby limbs and a massive mouth.

"You know Grigori, the guy's had the whole Pandemonium on his ass since he got boosted up to Middle Management. He wasn't born a Low Daemon like the rest of 'em," the meatball said. "But you're right, a lotta this is just overkill to find one person."

"What really chaps my ass, too, is," the lizard said, "we have the scouts too, right? Would it be so hard to post a couple of those per floor and then go snatch the girl? And are we even sure the Magica's gonna be here?"

"Wasn't this where Jerry got melted the other day? I mean, your guess is as good as our's."

"Damn, poor Jerry. First day on the job, too. I tell yea, if you're born a scout you got it hard from the get-go."

"I'm sure Grigori could tell you all 'bout it. Heard that guy was born an imp! Didn't even know those got to be that old." The meatball sat down and was rocking back and forth on the spot. "Not that the old man really tells us much anyways. Do you know who it is we're supposed to be lookin' for anyways?"

"Not a clue," the lizard said, crouching down to be at the same level as the meatball and looking more like a bundle of green sticks piled up than anything. "Not even sure we're looking for a Magica, that's just the rumor. All's I got was to 'look for anything suspcious', whatever that means."

"Same here, but I don't even got eyes to look."

"Don't worry bud, I got your back. Anyways, we should get back to post before someone throws us down to the boiler again."

"Can't wait until we get to phase 2, though. I hear we're nabbin' someone and holdin' em for ransom! Like a whole hostage deal or somethin'! Been a while since we got something this exciting."

By the time the daemons had left I had only just noticed how much coffee I had spilled on the counter top. The break room seemed clear, at least clear enough for Ping to poke their head out and whisper into my ear.

"Did you hear that?" Ping said.

"How could I not," I whispered back. "Who do you think they meant?"

"Not a clue. I'd do some sneaking around, but they got this place locked down tight," Ping said, sinking back into my shoulder a bit more. Wait, was that where they went every time they disappeared?! "They haven't kidnapped whoever it is yet, clearly, so we have some time."

"I'm not saving whoever it is if it's just a nobody," I said with a sigh. "It sucks, I know, but it's way too risky right now."

"But what if it's someone we know? You said you saw a scout spying on us last night."

"And how am I supposed to figure that out?" I asked. "In case you hadn't heard, even the daemons are just running on rumors."

"You're right," Ping said, tapping their chin. "Then we gotta go to the top and pay Grigori a visit."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh come on, he's just your boss, it won't look suspicious at all!"

"No, there's no way I'm just breaking into his office to spy on him."

"You're not breaking in, you'll just go right in! C'mon it will be easy!"

"No, I'm not just--"

"Sue! There you are!" Jonathon had just walked into the break room, and I jumped from the surprise, thinking to myself repeatedly that Jonathon is not a daemon and that I'm okay. "I wanted to talk to you about something, you busy?"

"N-no, not at all," I said, draining some of the coffee from my full-to-the-brim mug into the sink. "I just started my break."

"Great! This will only take a sec, come over here!" I took a deep breath, glanced at the puddle of coffee around the counter top and shrugged. I had more important things to worry about anyways.