We teleported directly to KARMA headquarters.
Llewellyn navigated us through, barely acknowledging the guards who straightened their postures when they saw him.
When we entered the open-plan room on the first floor, two young agents by the water cooler near the door were rolling their eyes as, further in, raised voices cut across the space.
One of the two—a woman with a neat bob cut and a tag reading 'Agent Kim'—was saying, "…Ten coins says Ó Lochlainn chucks the next form out the window."
"Fifteen says Ó Néill requisitions a security camera for his desk," the other countered, a man with a round face who was drinking from a water glass. His name tag read 'Agent Farley'.
What? What was that about now?
Agent Kim nodded to Llewellyn in greeting, then turned to me, taking in my confused face. "Ó Lochlainn and Ó Néill," her head tilted in the direction the voices were coming from. "They bicker like medieval kings."
"Old family joke," Ó Lochlainn called, clearly having overheard. He was skimming a case file without batting an eye. "We've been arguing with the Ó Néills since the Middle Ages."
Ó Néill didn't deign to look up. "Spare me the heritage hour. You're not Irish, I'm not Irish, and Innishae hasn't had medieval feuds since your ancestors lost their last horse."
"Five years in Cork—makes me honorary."
"Five years of teething there doesn't make you a Celt. It makes you a walking compliance risk, apparently. Fix your Form 47-B. It's gibberish."
"Your compliance stalled the Mulgate evacuation. Took you twelve hours to get approval. My team moved in thirty minutes."
"The Mulgate evacuation breached seventeen protocols. Compliance isn't optional, Ó Lochlainn."
"Neither's breathing. We saved sixty-three lives. Priorities, eh? Want me to autograph your compliance binder?"
Llewellyn looked completely unfazed by the exchange.
Ó Néill's pen snapped against his desk. "Your priorities turn every case into a roll of the dice! Every time you bypass protocol, you set a precedent."
"Ah, give over, will ya?" Ó Lochlainn said. "Sixty-three people aren't precedents. They're people. You'd know that if you ever left your forms long enough to meet one."
"I meet them in the morgue when your shortcuts fail."
"And I meet them alive. Funny, that."
Well. I scratched my head. I couldn't help feeling like this was like forum moderation, but with better suits.
Llewellyn stepped forward, cutting through the conversation, and just said, "We have a Destabilized Artifact to submit."
Both detectives froze, then they both moved at once. Ó Lochlainn gestured for Llewellyn to come closer and got up to retrieve what looked like a containment box from one of the cabinets, while Ó Néill produced some forms for him to sign.
"Date and location of recovery? Was it today's Knot? Coordinates should be..." They rattled off a string of numbers that meant nothing to me.
Llewellyn placed the destabilized pen inside the box and Ó Néill sealed the box with a quiet click.
The whole room exhaled in relief.
I didn't. The thought that Penguin might've ended up locked in that box made my chest tighten uneasily.
As Llewellyn and I took care of the forms, Ó Lochlainn and Ó Néill started bickering again.
"…three fractured ribs and a collapsed warehouse!" Ó Néill was saying through gritted teeth when I tuned in again.
"Better ribs than coffins."
"Better neither."
Ó Lochlainn tossed the file onto the desk. "Ah, you'd prefer a tidy spreadsheet full of corpses, so?"
Honestly, these two could start a podcast called Petty Grievances Live.
"Done," Llewellyn said before he could reply, sliding the signed forms across the desk.
Ó Néill turned to Llewellyn and handed him a digital pad too. "Sign here and here."
Llewellyn took the digital pen.
"Artifact's logged and contained," Ó Lochlainn said. "You're good to go, boys."
Llewellyn finished signing and we both got up.
As we turned to leave, Ó Néill's voice stopped us.
"One more thing. There've been reports of increased black market activity. If you come across anything suspicious..."
"Got it. We'll be sure to file a report," Llewellyn said without turning around.
Ó Néill said something we didn't catch, to which Ó Lochlainn just replied, "Oh, go polish your rulebook, will ya."
The door swung shut on Ó Néill's icy retort.
"They'll be at this for hours," Llewellyn said. "Let's go."
I sighed in relief.
Overall, it'd been pretty smooth sailing. However, as we left KARMA headquarters, I couldn't stop thinking about something.
"What if we find a sentient artifact like Penguin and accidentally hand it in?" I asked as we walked. "We might not realize. Penguin was a wristwatch when I found him."
Llewellyn shook his head. "Very unlikely. Penguin is the first I've ever seen."
Fine, but he might not have realized.
Llewellyn seemed to guess my train of thought and looked at me unimpressed.
"It took me a glance at your creature to realize how powerful it was. I would not have been completely fooled by it, even if it was inert."
Okay, that was a good point. I felt my shoulders relax slightly.
Just then Llewellyn's phone buzzed.
He took it out of his pocket and looked through it, then looked up at me.
"Are you free tonight?"