Your Shininess?

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A few minutes of relaxing pleasure later and Bianca found herself once more at the iron door of the gigantic trailer. She holstered the bag with the probes and looked down to Lanstein waiting on the ground offering her a helping hand to make the jump downwards. But she realized quickly, that the tiny kobold was unable to take the offered help and instead formed out of a few tendrils of her body a stairway downwards. Bianca gladly ok the offered steps walking carefully on the frozen stairs while trying to keep the gene cubes intact. When she felt polished rock under her bare feet, she allowed herself a glance at the room around them. Thilarie parked the HGV in a gigantic greyish hall side by side with at least nine other trucks of the same type. These massive behemoths took up most of the space in the huge garage. It was a busy atmosphere in the headquarters, countless lizards were loading up the trailers with freshly prepared food rations for the next day of bringing joy to the outskirts of Leaston. Here and there Bianca was able to make out further members of the Spearheads; the automatons were giving up the personalized orders gathered the day before organizing the additional medical supply section to treat the sick.

When Lanstein and Bianca walked across the hall to Thilarie's office, she could hear from all sides friendly greetings from automatons and lizards alike greeting Lanstein or welcoming the kobold with warm words. Bianca enjoyed the attention granted and peeked over to her friend, who was greeting everybody back, dropping a plethora of names and highly personalized questions as well as responses. Bianca grinned happily. Lanstein cared about this all and had put her everything into it. She was keeping the morale high, and the distance between the Spearheads and their supporters close. She was loved, and Bianca felt it.

After a few minutes of walking through the hall and the complex behind the entrance doors being the operational centre of the Organisation, they eventually arrived at a milky glass door with the formless text 'Spearhead' engraved in silver letters into the glass. The office behind the door was of a quite sterile environment, lacking in some spaces personality. That, however, got made up in many ways by incorporating foreign tech to make the building less dependent on arcanists granting juice to the modern-looking building. Lanstein explained to Bianca that the Organisation got founded in a time of close cooperation with Etherium. Etherium was making the Spearheads, as an organisation of public service and aid, even possible by investing a colossal sum into their founding. The Spearheads got treated as a symbol of friendship between the countries. Since the peace summit incident a few years ago, the Organisation got, however, granted independence from their benefactors; after they cut their influence on Nemthi as a consequence of what happened. Since then did the Spearheads listen for the Triumvirate alone. Carrying out civil and military support whenever their aid could get needed.

Bianca had no clue what Lanstein meant with the 'peace summit' or an incident attached to it; living in a self-contained bubble in the slums rendered the siblings a bit clueless regarding what happened in the outside world. She was about to ask the freezer about it, but Lanstein had already knocked against the door requesting entrance. A request that got immediately granted. The door swung up automatically and unveiled Thilarie and Denton sitting next to each other on a couch in the corner of the office. They were having a good talk; Bianca could make that out by analyzing how Denton sat. He was relaxed yet energized, sitting with crossed legs in the corner, his tail wagging restlessly. A heartily greeting got exchanged, and the two stood up and went over to Thilarie's office table, joining the now waiting duo.

Thilarie threw herself in the swivel chair and directed the siblings with the wink of a hand to two simple chairs on the other end of the table. Lanstein placed herself at Thilarie's side and stood silently, her hands folded and resting against her belly, however ready to act whenever necessary. Thilarie quickly went through the papers on her table, gathering them just to put them away for later. She wanted to show the kobolds that they would be now her prime and only directive:

"So, my dear Peritl's. Here we are finally; my office. I have everything necessary present to make our trip to the palace of unity a breeze. I have only one thing to check before we can visit the Triumvirate ... or at least try to get an audience."

The freezer reached out for a strange contraption resting on the table. It looked like a metal fruit that got cut open and connected via a wire on its backside. Its backside was covered in runic writing, a technique that was quite popular in Nemthi to enchant items rendering them usable for magicians. These runes, Bianca knew from the tellings of a crippled solder in the slums, were company insignias. A huge count of telepathists resides in the so-called pillars of communication, massive monolithic structures built to enhance the telepathy abilities of its employees. A way to support and make long-distance calls between cities possible. By channelling the Veil, the source of all arcane, into the construct, one can activate the company runes and request building up a connection to the nearest pillar. There, one will get guided by a telepath to the exact receiver the caller desired to speak towards. 

Bianca watched with growing interest how the automaton made the runes glow up by simply grabbing both half-orbs, placing them in her palms. A few seconds passed, and the right orb awakened, now blinking rapidly. Thilarie held the right mindphone now against her skull to grant the service tower access to her mind, and the left in front of her motionless mouth:

"Hello, here is Speartip Thilarie ... requesting a direct and secure line to the palace of unity. I have a business to attend with the Triumvirate. ... yes, I am aware it costs extra to put you in a non-awareness state. I'm sorry ... It is ringing? Thanks!"

Whatever got said now on the other end of the connection was inaudible for the siblings. They saw the freezer nodding a few times, saying yes and then stating her intentions. A few moments passed until the automaton's face lighted up; she had now the right person on the other side:

"Greetings, your shininess, I am glad I get to talk with the Silver king personally about my humble request. ... As you wish, no sweet talk, I understand.

I have two visitors present here in my office, who would need to get granted an audience with the Triumvirate. They would like to perform an outstanding discovery to your eyes only. ... No, I don't know what exactly these two kobolds have discovered. They assured us that your shininesses have to listen to it before anybody else. And I and my second in command trust their claim. ... You wish to talk to them first? One moment."

Thilarie removed the orb from her skull and handed the phone over to the siblings. They looked at each other uncertain who should dare to speak to the incarnation of the saviour of Nemthi. A moment passed, and when Denton was not trying to grab the phone, Bianca bit in the sour apple and took over the orbs, sticking it to her head. She took a deep breath and spoke up to her king with all the confidence she was able to scrape together:

"May your light shine eternally, your shininess. Our names are Denton and Bianca Peritl, humble students of the medical school. And we would like to perform our big discovery to you and the remaining Triumvirate in person ... yes."

An amused hissing filled her head when the orb projected the voice of the Silver king directly into her mind. No voice got transmitted, only pure determined prowess filled her head. The virtual presence of the king made Bianca tremble in respect; every hair on her back was standing up straight, waiting for his shininess to talk back:

"S~so, kobold Bianca Peritl, answer me that s~simple question. Do you two offer s~something that could be worthy of our time, more important than anything else? I am waiting." 

Bianca felt the pressure weighing her down with massive power. The following sentences could determine if they could visit the Triumvirate or not. They needed their presence to even dare to hope to get the attention necessary for their discovery to not land in the wrong hands. A further deep breath and an encouraging pat from her brother and she felt ready to answer:

"What we offer you, oh Silver king, could be a game-changer in the medical field. I refrain from dropping any direct clues until we can be sure that our words meet you and your ears alone. Only so much. We developed a method that isn't listed in any book. A way to deal with an issue that had no solution before. And that despite its being a terminal issue for everybody alive."

Silence, only the soft hissing of the lamia filled her mind. Slowly a single sentence formed in her head, an absolutistic voice having made a decision. Calculating but not missing a certain warmth merged with undeniable interest. A voice so captivating, even her partner Galen didn't dare to interfere:

"You will lift your s~secret in two hours in the palace of unity in our presence; don't make me regret this~s."

With the last syllable spoken, the connection got cut, and the telepathic presence of the king vanished. Leaving Bianca back alone with a breathless Galen residing reverend in the far back of her head. 

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