The hustle and bustle that filled the floors of her usually rather calm workplace made Karen freeze up for a moment. Even though Sebastian hadn't come back last evening, she had not imagined finding this place in so much disarray.
Yet she had come early despite that, and if only to escape the breakfast. Yesterday's dinner had already been stressful enough and the two could make food for themselves.
One of her busy colleges brushed past her, causing her to stumble forward through the bristling hallway. She got involuntarily reminded of the unfriendly attitude that had hit her similarly unprepared at dinner, while finding her way through the traffic.
"What even is her problem?"
Karen opened the door to her office while muttering her frustration. There she found her own desk neatly ordered while Georg's opposite of it overflowed with documents. Her eyes stayed on the piles of paper for a moment and her brows furrowed with curiosity.
The entire building was in complete chaos at such an early hour, they must have gotten called in for an emergency like Sebastian.
An unnerving thought let her grab her phone, and she looked for any possibly missed messages. Yet there was no such call.
Karen let herself sink into her chair, sure that it was not her own fault for not showing up to whatever happened, and started her computer. Maybe her mails could finally answer this conundrum.
There was only an invitation from Stephanie for a conference because of her recently earned training license. Nothing about the disarray that surged in the hallways. It was still a little time until the meeting, but perhaps she could get some information about the situation if she arrived early.
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Georg entered the room before she could stand up from her desk, his arms full of even more documents that he dropped quickly on his already full desk. The perfect opportunity for her.
"Morning sunshine. Can you tell me what's going on?"
With his eyesight, no longer hindered by the tower of paper, recognized the young man her finally and a forced smile appeared on his tired face.
"Ah… Karen. Finally awake? You missed quite the commotion. Everyone's been up all night, because we've got a trace of an enormous fish in a warehouse over in the industrial district. Three containers full of that magic stuff. I've been trying to get all the documents from the company that shipped them. Drove there already twice, but some jackass had to borrow the cartons we usually use for this to move their house and God damn, my car is littered with lose paper after some nitwit cut a corner right in front of me."
She felt an uncomfortable heat rising in her at the jackass, since she had used the cartons in question to move in with Sebastian last week. Karen's shame ebbed off as she remembered that she had given them to Kristof afterwards and didn't know what he had wanted them for.
"Do you need help with that? No idea why I didn't get a call, maybe because of a conference later, but there's still enough time for me to lend a hand."
He waved off, moving towards the coffee machine.
"No, it's fine. I've heard you got transferred away from this division, that's probably why you didn't get woken up at twelve. Besides, congrats for that."
Karen's eyes widened in surprise. Considering she just got her license, getting an own group to train so early was quite unexpected.
"Really? Are you sure about that? Do you have that from the works council?"
Georg smiled and gave her a coffee mug, before putting his own thermos mug in the machine.
"You don't have it from me. But now I have to go back to work. I'll have to get the stuff out of the car and distribute it to the others. Maybe we get finally a clue where those damn Demon bastards hide."
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Karen went to Stephanie's office after drinking the coffee. It was still a little early, yet her busy colleges still filled the floors to the brim.
Sebastian's office was closed, but when there was just a mission, then he was most likely still doing interrogations.
She stopped before the door to the office and checked nervously her clothes before knocking on it. Her pants suit carefully prepared like every other day.
Her hand knocked on the door, and before she could open it, moved it on its own, letting her twitch.
"You are early Karen, come in."
Seeing her boss move things without touching them got never less creepy.
Stephanie was behind her desk, documents piling there as well, and some chosen bits of information pinned at the walls, connected by strings like in an old police movie.
Karen walked towards the chair in front of the desk, the door slamming aggressively behind her.
The woman in front of her looked even more tired and stressed than Georg, her red hair standing up from her head and her hands constantly tipping on the keyboard.
She lowered her glasses after looking away from the monitor, the green eyes behind them stoic yet empathetic, despite the bags below them. Her voice friendly and only slightly tired.
"Congratulations on your newly earned training license Karen, it's direly needed right now. I don't know if you already heard what happened last night, but you can definitely see that it's something huge."
Karen swallowed, her fingers cramping slightly on the armrest. Although she had worked with Stephanie for a long time and knew the personal way she dealt with her agents, Karen could still never really shake off the subtle fear she felt in the presence of someone who could snap her neck with only a thought.
"Georg told me you found three containers full of Mana, but I don't quite understand how that's something so huge."
Stephanie leaned back, her wheelchair creaking involuntarily, while her eyebrows furrowed.
"That alone wouldn't be such a huge thing. Sure, it's a big catch, but more important is how we found them and what we didn't find there."
The monitor turned on its own, showing the records of a video surveillance camera. Shown was the warehouse in question, with dozens and dozens of containers. People and machines moved around in fast forward, transporting the containers away until only three remained. Then the video stopped and Karen felt sweat running down her forehead.
"If it wasn't for the report of a doctor from one of the warehouse workers, we might not even have noticed. The entire building was isolated, and each worker had to follow strict safety rules. Well, one of them didn't adhere, gaining himself a tumor the size of an apple."
Several medicinal documents and pictures moved over the monitor and before Karen could even consider asking what happened with the worker moved Stephanie on.
"Alone what there was in this one warehouse, is more than we assumed they had left on the entire globe. We are currently going through the freight lists, but the readings tell us that it was most likely filled to the brim with Mana and since there are certainly not many options left where they might have gotten all those new resources, leaves that us with only the conclusion that the here remaining Demons must have successfully reconnected with their main forces."
Karen had yesterday helped to investigate the company that was marked on the freight list, not knowing that it might lead to the discovery of a looming war. The mass of information made her emotions feel like a rollercoaster.
"I… wow… that's… a lot."
Stephanie waited patiently for Karen to stomach what she just dumped on her, or at least it looked that way at first glance, but Karen could still hear keyboard keys clicking and Stephanie's eyes darted regularly onto the second monitor that still faced her direction.
"Yes, naturally. I'm sure Tailor will fill you in on any questions you might have. Although I'm glad for any distraction right now, I can't entertain you the whole day. So, back to the main point. It's because of this recent discovery that the United nations decided we should double our recruitment and training efforts worldwide. That's why you get transferred with immediate effect to join Warren's trainings group."
Karen felt herself stiffen up at that notion, her earlier mess of thoughts brought into focus by a suddenly very real impact on her life.
"Wait… but… but I'm not even a magic user! Why would you then choose me to train them?"
Stephanie leaned forward, the wheels squeaking again, and put her elbows on the desk.
"We don't have anyone else available to join Warren, and he specifically requested you for helping him. I'm sure you can manage that. Working with children should be quite perfect for you, isn't that why you wanted out of the external service, so you can work on having your own?"
She studied the questioning look on Stephanie's face, weighing of her options. Refusing that transfer and staying in her old workplace had not a good outlook with the recent developments. That and she already knew the children she had to work with and Warren as well.
"Yes,… of course. I will manage that. It's just so much sooner than I thought that I would have to leave my division."
The monitor turned back to Stephanie, and she opened the breaks before rolling around the desk.
"Sure, take your time. The training will start after school. You know the drill from Tailor's son, so get your desk clean and bring the office materials back to the storage manager."
Karen stood up and got escorted out of the office, with Stephanie rolling in front of her, who didn't bother to use her hands to steer the wheels.
"But that can wait for now. Tailor needs some… let's say emotional support. And I would rather get my spine broken again than do that myself. So get yourself over to the interrogation room and kick him in the nuts. For Christ's sake, we're preparing for a war here and that wimp is wincing like a little girl."
The sudden shift in her otherwise warm and understanding attitude left Karen behind blinking as Stephanie drove through the mass of people towards the toilets.
As much as she had an ear for every single one of her agents, that sympathy didn't stretch over to Sebastian. A mystery that had sparked more than just a bit of office gossip, and he refused adamantly to acknowledge it.
Karen could only shake her head. What a start in the day…