Priestess Miccola Morvenna Bingen

Meissa led Vaster to a room in the back of the shrine. She knocked on a closed door.

“Miccola? Are you back?”

The door opened a few arcseconds later. A woman, wearing an outfit similar to Cinehide’s except with a less ornate capelet, opened the door. She was shorter than Meissa and had short, curly red hair and dark freckles all over her face. She had a lit Seven Sword cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

“Meissa. I just got back from teaching.” She looked over at Vaster and took a drag from her cigarette. “Who’s that?”

“Vaster Vrain, an art gallerist and a friend of mine.”

Vaster nodded at Miccola and smiled.

“What do you want?”

Vaster took a step forward. “Meissa was telling me about a gathering you two recently attended.”

Miccola pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and thrust her head towards Meissa’s ear and whispered: “I told you not to tell outsiders about those!”

Vaster laughed. “I’m hardly an outsider.”

“You’re with the Gathering, too?”

“I was working during the last few and had to miss them,” Vaster lied. “I was wondering if you had any information on LV and her experiments with recovering memories.”

Miccola’s eyes widened as she put the cigarette back between her lips. “You two didn’t hear? LV was expelled from the Gathering.”

“Oh, expelled? What happened?”

“Some of the other members had… ethical issues with her experiments. Let’s just say that.” Miccola took another drag from the cigarette.

“What if I still wanted to get in contact with her?”

“She must have gone underground by now.” Miccola looked around and laughed. “I mean, we’re all underground, but she’s especially underground.” She smirked. “Under the underground.”

Miccola took another puff from the cigarette. “What would an art dealer want with someone like her, anyway?”

Vaster and Meissa crammed themselves into Miccola’s tiny room, which somehow fit a bed, a dresser, a writing desk, and a chair in a space smaller than the bathroom in Vaster’s loft. A stack of books with titles in Unified Zeelean, Sperrin Consolidated Runic, and Old Efirian Runic sat on the desk next to a small clock, the stack topped by a teacup overflowing with cigarette butts. A map of the world, set in an ornate frame, hung over the desk next to a star chart from the Ancestral Ephemerides.

Miccola sat down in the chair in front of the desk, Meissa sat on the bed, and Vaster stood in the tiny space between the bed and desk.

Vaster glared at Miccola. “How is this any more comfortable than standing in the hallway?”

Miccola lit another Seven Sword cigarette and grinned. “Hey, I get to sit down now!”