'I am in position. But are you sure this will work?' Iris leaned back in the chair, arching her body in a relaxing manner before she focused back on the book and the hidden page inside it.
'You are doing good. I can see you from here and there is no one around' Iris bluffed. There was no way she could spot Diana from her position but her bluff seemed to be working.
The plan was not perfect but it seemed to be working.
'I'm worried about Arya. Was the clone a good idea? Can it fool the council?' Diana was worried for valid reasons.
'It'll be alright. The illusion on the paper charm would not fade till someone grabs it forcefully. You just finish up here and prepare to disappear. I will join you tomorrow as well.'
With only a few hours left in the mission, Iris knew it was time.
The Holy Jade had been taken down right at the first ray of sun and the loss of magic had been felt by Iris.
But the feeling of being spied upon also increased.
There was nothing she could do in the day so Iris had to wait till the night to follow out her plan. As expected, the level of surveillance dropped once sufficient time had passed but it never went away completely.
'I can see the Holy Jade. it's being kept in some kind of liquid' Diana was almost there. Now there was only one thing left to do.
'Good, now exchange them. Message me as soon as you get back home.' the message disappeared from the paper in her hand and iris felt a small tug at her magic.
The connection she had with the other paper was being cut off forcefully by the cleaning liquid.
The reason Iris had Diana do the exchange was simple - Diana did not have any magic inside her. She was as normal as things came and would not alert any kind of security protocol.
Diana might have thought of herself as lucky at not being caught but there was no way she was ever going to get caught.
Not when the council belittled magic-less people so much.
Since Iris had read the novel before, she knew that the council had never prepared for a non-magic attack which put them at a disadvantage.
For the next hour, Iris just continued looking out of her window and planning for the future. She would be let go of tomorrow and would disappear along with the couple.
It would not take the commission long to know that the holy jade had been stolen so their next step would need to be taken carefully.
Michael had no idea where Iris had been during the time-skip part but he knew there had been rumors of her near the Valley of Euphoria - the Elvian capital.
But surely the other had not been there the whole time since the Iris also had control of Oreta by then.
'I'm back home. The paper doll is also dismissed. We did it.' Since Diana was back safely, this part of the plan was done.
'Good. Store it as I told you and we should have no problem. I will come to get you both tomorrow. Arya is good enough to travel?' if not then they could wait a few more days.
'Arya is alright. We can manage. We do not feel safe in this city any more so we would like to leave it as soon as possible as well.' Iris was in complete agreement.
'Alright. We shall meet tomorrow then. Burn the paper' and the conversation was done, Iris lit a match and burned the paper which turned green for a few seconds before turning into ash.
The sun was about to rise and it was almost time for Iris to be free as well. Rose had a bad habit of knocking on her door early, likely to catch her off-guard but it had not worked yet.
And speaking of the devil, Iris could hear her footsteps.
"Rise and shine sweetheart. Aww, another failed attempt. Do you even sleep?" Rose had, once again, barged inside iris's room without any second thoughts. It was becoming a routine at this rate.
"When am I going to be released? Also, can you knock before coming inside?" Iris asked, her irritation flowing through her voice.
Iris was not someone who was easily influenced by someone but somehow, Rose brought out the worst in her. She made her break character which was not good.
"Release you? You are not a prisoner silly, just our guest. Too bad you do not want to stay here longer. Master told me that she offered you a spot in the commission. Why don't you accept? It is a good opportunity not many get" Rose seemed curious.
"Not interested" Rose finally let the topic slide. She finally seemed to realize that the other was not playing hard to get but seemed genuinely disinterested in joining the commission.
"Fine. Your loss then. The master said you are free to go now" the carefree attitude changed completely to disinterested which was a surprise.
Iris wanted to ask more questions but the window to do so had already passed. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for all alone and Iris could not blow it up.
Since Iris had nothing on her, fleeing out of the tower was easy enough.
'Am I still under surveillance?' Iris asked the system.
'Surveillance magic detected in the vicinity. User is advised to change their clothes as soon as possible to shake the magic away' what a clever trick the commission had deployed.
But there was nothing to be done for now. Iris could not make them suspicious inside the city. She needed to gain a lot of ground before shaking the surveillance off, maybe even getting rid of her clothes.
Looking around her, there was a fancy clothing shop in her was and no one would be suspicious if she bought a few of those.
Taking a look at a fancy red robe, Iris quickly bought it off of the store. It was decently priced and a few gold coins exchanged hands.
But there was an anti-magic spell cast on top of the robe which made it useful to Iris and what she was about to do.
"Are you ready to go? Our next stop is quite far from here" Iris asked once she reached the elder couple's home. A few bags were lying around them and a storage scroll in Arya's hand.
Seemed like Arya had a little magic inside her to be able to activate the storage seal.
"We're ready. Diana explained the situation to me already" that certainly helped things a lot.
The three of them quickly left the city and Iris was aware of the eyes following them all the way. Luckily for the three, they came across a pair of beggars, and Iris's clothes quickly exchanged hands as well.
Once the surveillance spell on the robe was gone, it was not difficult to lose their tail and they were finally free from the prying eyes.
"By the way, where are we going now?" Diana asked, her tone curious.
Iris had thought a lot about their possible destination and there were a lot of options available to them. But nothing beat the first choice that had come across her mind.
"We go to The fog city - Oreta. There are some things I need to accomplish there" it was time to conquer the city of thieves. It was of the uttermost importance that Iris reaches there first.
She did not know why, but something was urging her toward that city. The same something that told her that her plan with Diana would be a success.