"Wait," Lauren called.

The representative stopped and looked back.

"You came all this way to give us something incredibly expensive. At least let me make you a coffee."

"You don’t have to."

"I know. I’m offering."

Her smile persuaded him to return.

"All right."

"What do you drink?"

"Something bitter."

Lauren blinked. "That doesn’t narrow it down much."

"The most bitter thing you can make."

"Now that sounds like a challenge."

She prepared a small cup of dark espresso without sugar or milk. The stranger accepted it without using his hands, allowing the cup to rise from the counter and hover beside his shoulder.

Several customers watched with open fascination.

He took a slow sip and briefly closed his eyes.

"Well?" Lauren asked.

"Perfectly bitter."

She laughed. "I think that’s a compliment."

"It is."

With one final nod, the man left the café.

Questions erupted the moment the door closed, but Luke barely heard any of them. He watched through the front window until the black suit vanished into the Saturday crowd.

His mind kept returning to the representative’s choice of words.

Knowing what had happened in their dungeon made sense, and expensive promotional gifts were unusual but possible. The way he had referred to their abilities was harder to dismiss. He had spoken as though Reinforce, Oracle’s Glimpse, and Fated Javelin belonged to Luke and Yvonne themselves.

Lauren rested her hand on the nearest box. "My daughters are going to lose their minds."

Her excitement pushed Luke’s suspicion aside.

"Will they have time to play?"

"They’ll make time once I tell them the headsets were free."

Luke smiled. "That might work."

"Oh, it will."

Lauren looked happier than she had since telling him about their departure. Whatever was strange about the representative could probably be explained by corporate marketing.

For now, Luke was willing to leave it alone.

Outside, the stranger continued down the crowded street without looking back. He passed a bakery, slipped between two groups of pedestrians, and entered a narrow alley between several office buildings, where the noise of traffic faded behind him.

No cameras faced the deepest part of the passage. The surrounding walls had no windows, and the shadows remained thick despite the daylight beyond them.

Once he reached the far end, the man stopped.

His black suit rippled across his body as the disguise began to fall apart. Broad shoulders narrowed, masculine features softened, and dark hair turned silver-white as it spilled down his back in a thick sheet.

The warmth drained from his complexion until his skin resembled polished alabaster. A faint bluish undertone left her looking almost bloodless, giving her the cold, flawless beauty of a statue that had somehow learned to breathe.

The brown eyes of the disguise brightened into luminous gold.

Additional limbs emerged from beneath the illusion. Two arms became four, then six, until three more unfolded from along her sides and back. Nine graceful arms framed the tall woman who now stood in the man’s place.

Short black horns swept backward through her silver-white hair, and full dark lips stood out sharply against her unhealthy pallor. Her elegant features were undeniably beautiful, though there was something inhuman about their perfection.

The business suit had survived the transformation, but it had clearly never been designed for her true body.

The white shirt strained across her enormous breasts, and several buttons had already come undone, revealing a deep valley of pale cleavage. The jacket could no longer close around her chest, leaving its lapels spread wide and doing more to frame her curves than conceal them.

Her trousers clung just as tightly to her broad hips and full ass. The waistband had slipped low enough to expose a strip of alabaster skin beneath her navel, while every small movement threatened the seams.

What had looked respectable on the handsome representative now resembled an indecent office fantasy.

One of her nine hands continued guiding the coffee through the air. Another pulled at the front of her shirt, though the useless adjustment only pushed more of her cleavage into view. A third retrieved the small device vibrating against her hip.

She glanced at the screen before answering.

"It’s done," she said. "I handed both systems over personally."

Her true voice carried a light, musical quality.

An elderly man answered from the other end. "Were there any problems, Shura?"

"None. The replacement identifiers were accepted, and the headsets never entered the normal delivery network." She raised the espresso to her lips. "There won’t be a warehouse record, courier route, or purchase trail for anyone to follow."

"Were you seen?"

"Of course I was seen. I walked into a crowded café carrying two floating boxes."

A brief silence followed.

Shura smiled into her cup.

"They saw the disguise, Elder. As far as everyone inside is concerned, a representative from Powerforge visited two players and gave them a promotional reward."

"You attracted attention."

"A little attention makes the story believable."

She took a slow sip and hummed at the bitterness.

"This is excellent."

"Shura."

"Yes, Elder?"

"The coffee was not part of your assignment."

"It would have been rude to refuse."

"You volunteered to stay for it."

"She offered."

The elder released a tired breath, and Shura’s smile widened.

Several of her free arms folded loosely beneath her chest while another continued fighting with the open shirt.

"You still haven’t told me why the systems had to be delivered this way," she said.

"That does not concern you."

"It concerned me enough to require a human disguise and counterfeit identifiers."

Her tone remained polite, though curiosity pressed through every word.

The elder waited a moment before answering.

"Human authorities have started examining Powerforge headsets."

Shura lowered the cup.

"Already?"

"A small number have been flagged for inspection. Others are being traced through purchases, shipping records, and account registrations."

Her golden eyes drifted toward the alley entrance.

"And the ones I delivered?"

"They will appear to have come from nowhere."

"So that was the point."

"Yes."

One of Shura’s hands tapped thoughtfully against her arm.

"Do the authorities know what they’re looking for?"

"Not yet."

"But they know enough to start looking."

"They have questions. That is already more than we would prefer."

Shura took another sip, though she no longer seemed quite as interested in the taste.

"Will they confiscate them?"

"If the inspections continue, some systems may be seized."

"That sounds inconvenient."

"It will become worse if they find a pattern."

She leaned back against the wall, causing another button to slip loose. Her eyes dropped toward the widening gap in her shirt.

"This suit was much better behaved while I was shaped like a man."

"Return as soon as possible."

"You still haven’t answered all my questions."

"I answered the one you needed."

"That is usually how you decide when a conversation is finished."

The call ended.

Shura stared at the silent phone before letting out a quiet sigh.

"One day, Elder, I’m going to ask something before you have time to hang up."

One of her hands crushed the empty cup while another caught the last drops of coffee before they reached the pavement.

She glanced back toward the street.

The two systems were now beyond the authorities’ records, placed directly into human hands without leaving a trail. Whatever happened to them next would be much harder to follow.

Another of Shura’s hands tugged uselessly at her shirt.

"I should steal a better suit next time."

All nine arms folded around her body as darkness gathered between them. A moment later, the alley stood empty.

No footprints marked the pavement, no discarded cup rested against the wall, and the nearest security camera had recorded only a few seconds of harmless static.

Nothing remained to prove Shura had ever been there.