Simon first thought of sneaking through the hallways as he arrived at the floor above. However, he noticed the sheer amount of guards waiting for him by every corner. It was far too risky to try and maneuver around them.
However, there was a place that barely anyone would look to that he could abuse: The veiling.
Indeed, he was quite acrobatic and trained himself in athleticism enough that he was able to scale walls and even the veiling quite handily with a system of ropes and grapples that he fashioned together.
He began to scale and crawl on the walls much like a spider, carefully cloaking himself in a black robe as to match the design of the base.
Simon continued until he finally got to the office that Camila was inside of, luckily for him, it was still left open, so he checked what was inside.
Within the office room, he found himself staring at what appeared to be a small library, one filled with shelves of books regarding the past history of the world.
The walls, ceilings, and floor were all finely varnished with a deep oak-like finish and shine. They also had a nice velvet carpet on the floor in the shape of a rose, which caused Simon's eyes to roll over.
"Ugh. Pretentious little brat…"
Luckily, she could not hear him, and even more luckily, no one else was in the room. So Simon jumped inside of it while closing the door, locking it in one fell swoop.
Of course, the very first thing he thought of doing and did was search around and steal anything that looked valuable and not nailed down.
"Well, would you look at that…" Simon grinned as he grabbed a small golden statue of an eagle off the desk, stuffing it in his briefcase.
"Hmm… I wonder…"
He turned his head to the carpet before chuckling to himself. "Well, if Helen is as all-powerful as she says she is…"
Simon then rolled up the carpet and also stuffed it in his sack.
He continued with candlesticks and jewelry such as necklaces and rings and even went to their wardrobe, stuffing his briefcase and sack full of clothes.
"Well, I can always ask someone to revert it back to cloth… this was a great score. Thanks Helen…" Simon smiled before he looked at the bookshelf.
Books were expensive, yes, but really, it depended on the type of book you had and usually what kind of edition and how old it was.
So, of course, he chose the oldest and ugliest-looking book that was just on the top shelf, climbing up to it before grabbing at its spine.
However, when Simon pulled on the book, it only came out a few inches before a click could be heard. Suddenly, the bookshelf swung open, revealing a secret passageway.
"In hindsight, I was going to check for hidden storage rooms but I guess we're doing that earlier."
He jumped off and took a peek inside of the room, his eyes widening as he saw what was within:
A room full of Magick. That's the only way he could describe what it was. Its shape was akin to an auditorium or a lecture hall but in the shape of a circle, with the lowest level being the center.
It was illuminated with glowing red orbs, giving off a hue similar to that of blood. Simon began to walk through it, reaching out with his hands to touch the orbs, only for his fingers to phase through them.
"Huh, shame I can't steal you… would have been useful." His eyes then drifted towards the lowest level. There ,he found what appeared to be another desk with a coffin right beside it with the label:
"Camila."
Simon smiled to himself. "So that's where you sleep? Interesting. Now then, this is probably where you hide details on the artifact too."
He circled around the desk, carefully patting and rubbing against its surfaces to see if it had any secrets. Sadly, it seemed to only be the obvious drawer that had a lock on it.
"Hah, this should be easy enough." Simon grabbed hold of his lock-picking tools from his briefcase, placing a pin inside of the drawer lock-
Snap
Suddenly, the pin was destroyed, crunched down, and destroyed by whatever defense mechanism was installed into it.
"Huh… alright then…" Simon pondered to himself for a few moments before he remembered the kiss with Helen.
He rubbed his lips for a bit, recalling the taste of strawberries and what she said.
"Sharing of powers…"
Simon then pointed his finger out to the lock, trying to imagine a beam of light shooting forth as hard as he could.
Then, without any warning, a radiant beam came forth from his index finger, striking the lock and destroying it in its entirety.
"Yes! Haha!" For the first time in ages, he actually performed Magick. It's been so long he forgot how cool it was.
"Alright le,t's see what you have here…"
He opened up the drawer, revealing several paper documents, all of them written in a language he was vaguely familiar with but knew was ancient. Simon would need some kind of transcript to figure whatever it was out.
Carefully, he pocketed them and was about to steal more until suddenly, a vision was seared into his mind. One where Helen collapses on the ground beside an unconscious Camila.
"Shit shit shit!"
Simon immediately began to book it, running as fast as possible outside of the office, then crawling his way back to the stairs and continuing to run to the lobby, where he found the place in ruins, filled with dents, craters, and scars of battle.
In one of these craters ,he found Helen, curling up like a ball.
"Oh good…"
Then… a voice echoed throughout the corridors as footsteps can be heard getting closer.
"Wait just a bloody second… what in the guttersnipes did that brat do to us?"
Franklin emerged from the darkness with his lackeys, cracking their knuckles as they entered the lobby.