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A sy limestone, with no paint nor other form of decoration The only piece of furniture was a smal pedestal in the center of the room, on top of which stood a jar

The door was locked, and Alexia, resourceful as she was, had not yet learned to pick locks, though she mental y added it to her list of useful skil s she needed to acquire, along with hand-to-hand combat and the recipe for pesto If her life were to continue on its present track, which, after twenty-six years of obscurity now see to kil her, it would appear that acquiring a less savory skil set ht to be terh the door It was paned with s in their fraled, and she squir to see She just couldn’t quite ot the correct angle and was abruptly rather queasy to her sto in soh sounded behind her, just soft enough not to startle

Alexia stil jue dress in surprise Upon landing, she whirled around

"Floote!"

"Good evening, madam"

"Come look at this, Floote They have a human hand in a jar in the e?"

"Yes, h every house in Italy had such a thing Alexia supposed this ht be possible Gruesome, but possible

"But don’t you think, madam, it may be time for bed? It would not do for anyone to find us in the Inner Sanctum"

"Oh, is that where we are?"

Floote nodded and extended a gracious arm for Alexia to precede him back up the tiny staircase

Alexia took his advice, as there was apparently nothing else to see besides the random human body part "Is it very co about?"

"For the Templars, madam"

"Uh, why?"

"It is a relic, madam Should the temple come under serious threat from the supernatural, the preceptor wil break the jar and use the relic to defend the brotherhood"

Alexia thought she ht understand She had heard of holy relics in connection with some Catholic cults "Is it the body part of some saint?"

"They have those, too, of course, but in this case, it is an unholy relic, a weapon The body part of a preternatural"

Alexia shut her mouth on her next question with a snap She was surprised she hadn’t been physical y repulsed by the hand as she had been by the mummy Then she remembered the dae the same air She supposed that hy the jar had to be broken in case of eency

They proceeded the rest of the way to their roo over the i more and more worried as a result

Floote stopped Alexia before she retired "Your father, madam, was ful y cremated I made absolutely certain"

Alexia sed silently and then said fervently, "Thank you, Floote"

He nodded once--his face, as always, i Under the Thames

Much to Lord Maccon’s annoyance, the acquisition operation, as Professor Lyal had terer than intended Impatient to be off after his errant wife, the Alpha was instead stalking back and forth in the drawing roo an audience with Queen Victoria

He was stil unsure as to how Lyal had, in fact, ed to keep him in London al these days Betas, in the end, were e powers Powers that, when al was said and done, see more than a continued battery of civilized behavior and an excess of manners Effective, blast him

Professor Lyal sat on an unco crossed over the other, and watched his Alpha pace

"I stil don’t see e had to come here, of al places"

The Beta pushed at his spectacles It was nearing the afternoon of his third day awake in a row, and he was beginning to experience the effects of prolonged daylight exposure He felt drawn and tired, and al he wanted to do in the world was return to his tiny bed at Woolsey Castle and sleep the afternoon away Instead, he was stuck dealing with an increasingly edgy Alpha "I have said it before, and I shal say it again--you wil need sundowner authorization for this, otten it for me afterward?"

"No, I couldn’t, and you know it This is too co"

Lord Maccon stopped for the siotten very complicated Once they’d discovered the location of the stolen object, they’d sent a river rat in to assess the place The poor lad had co wet and in an absolute panic, justly earned, as it turned out Their quick theft and retrieval operation had turned into so far more problematic

Professor Lyal was a ho liked to look on the practical side of any given situation "At least noe knohy Lord Akeldama went into such a tizzy, pul ed in al his drones, and ran"