Harriett wasn’t one for travelling. Whether it was the trip to Egypt where she made a sphinx come to life, or the time when she accidentally re-surfaced and re-sank Atlantis, or… or the Amazon… oh gods, not the Amazon. Even running the word through her head sent chills down her spine. But although Feron had assured her that this trip to London was most definitely not a vacation, even stepping on his father’s private jet had caused the previous day’s dinner to re-visit the confines of her mouth in the worst way outside of the plane’s staircase. At the site of such a display, 3 things had happened: Harriett had done everything in her power to keep her hair out of her mouth’s general vomiting direction, Feron had grunted in disbelief as he watched his best friend attempt to clean the runway with her own entrails before reaching in his enchanted bag holding their travel belongings in search of paper towels, and Kylia had died laughing nearly the entire trip from Chicago to London.

But upon landing in London and taking a few minutes to clean Harriett off before exiting the plane, Feron had one of his father’s many servants lower the car down from the plane while another stayed with the plane. The servant transporting them in the car, a vampire named Laverne, was a man actually born in London. However, what many whom saw him would never have noticed was the fact that he was indeed born in London, but in the London of the 1800s. Although he was still considered something of a newborn by many vampires quite older than him, his ‘young’ age was heavily counteracted by his genuine aptitude, abilities, and general bravado mixed with honesty. It was thanks to his knowledgeable presence that Harriett learned along the way that most vampires eventually adapt to the light and only newborns are truly hindered by the sun in any way due to their newly rewritten genes taking many, many years to settle into their new supernatural inheritance. Also, to Harriett and Kylia’s great delight, Laverne was able to greatly regale them all with stories of Feron’s childhood, much to the Prince’s dismay. If the trip had ended that moment after learning how long Feron had wet the bed for, Harriett would have still called the trip an absolute success.

But after about an hour of meandering through busy intersections and roads, traffic, pedestrians, and Kylia’s constant backseat driving, Laverne was finally signaled by multiple men in crisp suits down a roundabout driveway in front of one of the tallest buildings Harriett had ever seen.

In Canary Wharf, one of the business sections of London, tall buildings were not something that were unheard of. If your building wasn’t above ten stories here, Harriett figured that you might as well not even dare to call your building a skyscraper. Perhaps more of a sky-onlooker, a sky-envier, or maybe just a simple building. But if a skyscraper was considered normal when it simply touched the sky, the one Harriett now looked upon almost seemed to touch the stratosphere itself.

The London branch of S.A.M.’s enterprise was nothing short of amazing to simply look at from the outside. To most people of a non-magical background, S.A.M. was simply known as one of the biggest importers/exporters of miscellaneous items around the world. And although that wasn’t necessarily a lie, most online websites that described S.A.M. left out the part about it being the biggest magical government agency in this plane of existence. From science, to architecture and history, to magic and the spiritual world, S.A.M. did it all, and Harriett was about to get her first taste of it that didn’t involve her father guiding her through every step of the way.

Kylia stepped out of the car first, wearing basically the same outfit she had had on when she had come over Harriett’s house several days ago. As she fully exited the vehicle, her leather jacket was suddenly bombarded by small droplets of rain that had just started to fall from the gray tinted sky above. The demon princess gave off a grunt before taking her jacket’s sides in her hands and pulling it forward to stretch out the jacket in a way that the rain droplets would be mercilessly flung off her coat and onto the asphalt below her.

“Did we have to use such mundane ways to get here?” Kylia bellowed as Harriett followed behind her, followed by Feron. Harriett had gone with a simple pair of jeans and a green long sleeve shirt underneath a brown hooded coat. Feron, on the other hand, stepped out in black dress pants with vertical gray lines running up and down its threads, a white dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a solid black tie protruding nicely from his collar downwards, and a black vest with intricate designs sewn into the back linings of it.

As the droplets connected with Feron’s face, the young prince gave off an opposite reaction to that of the demon princess, with an almost childlike smile finding its way onto his face as the beads of rain danced happily off of his front, curly white locks of hair. Although he brought up an umbrella to cover Harriett, he made sure to hold it in a way in which only Harriett was truly covered, while his own body continued to absorb everything that mother nature had to offer.

“Are you listening, wolfboy?” Kylia shot back at him.

Feron enjoyed the rain for one more breath before his composed demeanor returned in order to deal with Kylia. “Could you at least pick one derogatory name and stick with it? The variance in your name calling is getting quite weak.”

“Hmph, my siblings and I consider such remarks as a way to say “Good morning”. It’s simply your culture’s fault for being so sensitive sometimes,” Kylia proudly muttered.

“Stick with us, princess, and you’ll see just how sensitive we can be,” Feron replied with his own proud words.

Kylia took a sudden step towards Feron and grabbed his shirt directly below his collar. “Do not call me that,” she heavily growled.

If Kylia’s step had been considered ‘sudden’, then the speed Laverne had used to suddenly move from the driver’s seat of the car to directly next to Kylia and Feron was even more shocking. And if that wasn’t enough, Harriett’s mind had taken a few seconds to register that Laverne’s hand was now straightened like a knife and currently being held to Kylia’s throat.

“Is there a problem with you and the young lord, My Lady?” Laverne nobly asked, his face reflecting nothing less than simple composure and respect.

Kylia looked to Laverne and attempted to transfer her peeved state of aggression to him next. But as their eyes connected, it almost appeared to Harriett as though a particular thought transferred between both of them at that moment. And without even having to guess, Harriett assumed it to be intimidating. Therefore, within several seconds, Kylia calmed down, let go of Feron’s shirt, and stepped back.

“Don’t call me princess,” she huffed before walking towards and into the main doors of the gigantic skyscraper.

“Quite the companion you’ve picked up, Prince Feron,” Laverne kindly stated.

“You have no idea, Laverne,” Feron replied in kind. “But that will be all. We can take it from here.”

“Are you sure, My Prince?” Laverne asked with concern in his tone.

Feron responded with a nod. “Come on, when have I ever not been fine, Laverne?”

“Shall I recite from the beginning of your life or would you like to pick a year?”

Feron receded back into himself before answering, “Just… just go hang out at the plane for a bit.”

“As you wish, My Prince,” Laverne replied with a low bow. As he rose back up, Harriett caught a smile being beamed her way from Laverne, to which she returned with a small one of her own. “Please don’t let the prince here get you into too much trouble, Lady Harriett.”

“I will try not to, Laverne. And thank you for taking us here,” Harriett kindheartedly replied.

“It was my pleasure,” Laverne stated with a nod of his head towards her. “If that is all, I will take my leave, children.” And with that, Laverne drew back into the driver’s seat of the car, went about the roundabout and back towards where they had all originally come.

Once Harriett and Feron had watched Laverne completely leave their field of view, they set off to follow Kylia through the large glass doors and into the main lobby that constituted the ground floor for S.A.M.’s London branch. If anyone had thought that the building was massive on the outside, Harriett knew right away that all anyone had to do was step into the main lobby to see that it wasn’t all for show.

The lobby was filled with an amazingly large diversity of people from all backgrounds of power milling this way and that. From people in everyday business attires, to ceremonial robes that obviously reflected their high authorities within their own personal cultures, and even to a few supernatural species members walking here and there. Though it was rare to see species members such as elves, fairies, and other members walking about the human world so openly, Harriett knew that S.A.M.’s London branch most likely had a powerful cloaking and warding spell being broadcast around the entire building (And most of London. What? They spare no expense. This isn’t your everyday run of the mill city, ya know.). And with guard stations filled with intimidating people of all shapes and sizes in all of the corners of the lobby, Harriett was surprised to find that only now did her brain start to inform her that perhaps their plan wasn’t the brightest one of all time.

Despite the great amount of people about the lobby, the lobby floor itself was still in no way at its peak capacity. And so, Harriett and Feron were easily able to make their way to the center of the room where they found Kylia standing, her eyes looking up and about at the glass windows up above the higher parts of the lobby walls.

Kylia let out of a whistle just as Harriett and Feron met up with her. “Jeez, the warding on this place is atrocious. Do they really think those low-level sigils would keep out anything noteworthy?”

“Sigils?” Harriett repeated back more to herself than to Kylia, her eyes tracing Kylia’s to look at one of the windows Kylia was currently looking at.

“Yeah,” Kylia replied while pointing at the window in question, “Just focus on that one for a second. If I can visibly see your warding every few seconds without trying, then they obviously aren’t trying.”