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"I see," Nora says thoughtfully. "This may change things..."

Nora sighs. "Right, well, I suppose it's time for me to come clean. I wasn't entirely honest with you about one thing- how I got my soul key. It's not that I didn't trust you... but that I was scared, and... concerned. For you. And I wanted to wait until I knew more, narrowed down the list of possibilities, and only bring it up if I thought I truly might be right... Because if I'm right... I know who Mercia is. And... you aren't going to like the answer, Alice."

Nora nods. "You remember after the aether tornado hit the city, when I ended up working until midnight? Well, Marin called me up to her office out of the blue, after I got off work. It was weird. Why would she want to speak to me personally so late, and why all the way up in her skyrise office? So I took the elevator to get up there, and we talked very briefly. She wanted to know if you had been up to anything dangerous recently, and made me promise to protect you. I've been fluent in subtlety and subtext since I was a child. It's obvious to me now that she was talking about the Otherworld, and that she knows about it. It makes sense she knows. She knows everything that goes on in this city, after all."

Nora pauses for a moment, taking a breath. "That was it, that was all she wanted to talk to me about. Then, on the way back down... The elevator abruptly stopped on its own, and the doors opened onto a dimly lit hallway. It was like something ripped out of the pages of a horror novel. I walked out... And there she was. A fucking angel. I knew there was something weird going on in this city back then, but had no idea about the Otherworld yet... So to see a twenty foot tall angel with like six wings and this booming eldritch voice... I love occult literature like H.P Lovecraft's works, but I never wanted to be in one. Never ends well for the protagonist. Anyway... Mercia gave me the Soul Key herself. And told me to use it to protect you. There wasn't really much I could do at the time but say yes... I didn't tell the truth originally... Well, I was pretty damn freaked out and confused."

Nora pauses again. "...And there's no way it was a coincidence that I met Mercia right after Marin, where I met her, and that they both told me the same thing. The only logical explanation..."

Nora trails off.

Nora lays her head down in Alice's lap and smiles sheepishly up at her. "Any punishment would be a pittance to pay for you not being terribly mad at me. I don't think my poor little heart could take that."

She turns more serious, and reaches up to brush a loose strand of hair out of Alice's face. "...If you can't bring yourself to continue that train of thought right now, then don't. Whatever the truth is, we'll figure it out together."

Nora smiles. "Protect you. You do tend to have a reckless streak, after all."

Nora gives a small shrug. "I didn't really ask for details, love. Either she's just worried and knows how close we are, or knows something we don't. Probably both, really."

She leans up and gently moves Alice's hands apart, steals a quick kiss, then lays back down in Alice's lap, grinning.

"There's no rule saying bodyguards can't play chess with their client. Besides, I'd rather be your partner, anyway."