Adom was tired. Bone-deep, soul-crushing tired in the way that only came from having your entire day derailed by other people's poor life choices. This morning he'd woken up in a decent mood. He'd been looking forward to his first lecture as a professor, had prepared some genuinely interesting material, and had been planning to spend the evening at the beach with Eren and Sam for the first time in months, and introduce them to Bennu.Simple pleasures. Normal things.Instead, here he was at a black market auction after midnight, chasing stolen research artifacts while babysitting a changeling spy who'd gotten himself in over his head. Never a dull moment, apparently."Here," Cass said as they approached the warehouse, producing three masks from somewhere in her cloak. "Put these on before we get any closer."Adom examined the mask she handed him. It was well-made, covering the upper half of his face, but what caught his attention were the tiny runes etched into the material around the eye holes and temples."Identity concealment?" he asked."Among other things. The runes scramble facial recognition magic, alter voice patterns slightly, and generally make it much harder for anyone to figure out who you actually are." She was already putting on her own mask, which was decorated with silver thread in a pattern that somehow made her look both elegant and vaguely threatening. "Standard precaution for this sort of thing.""Right," Adom said, securing his mask in place.Cass handed the third mask to Jorik, who took it with the expression of someone trying to process too much information at once. "Your codenames for tonight are Sapphire, Obsidian, and Amber. Don't let your real names slip. These people have good memories and long reaches."The warehouse entrance was more sophisticated than Adom had expected. What looked like a simple doorway from the outside turned (...)