The White Whale Auction House was hidden underground on Third Street in the Miguel District.
The entrance was a brass door set into an exterior stone wall. There was no sign on it, only a palm-sized brass plaque nailed to the right side of the frame, engraved with a leaping whale.
When Jin'en and Daffodil passed through the main entrance, the two guards in black suits at the door did not even raise their eyelids.
Daffodil walked ahead, holding the pass in her hand without ever showing it.
The guards saw the blade tucked behind her waist. Their gazes lingered on her face for an instant, then moved away.
Jin'en did not know how Inanna had managed it, but she had clearly arranged everything long ago.
The corridor was narrow, lit in warm yellow. Dark blue velvet drapes hung along both walls, and a trace of sandalwood so faint it was almost imperceptible floated in the air.
At the end of the corridor was a second door, thicker than the first, made of metal and painted matte black.
A man in a burgundy waistcoat stood beside it, holding a tablet and wearing a practiced smile.
"Red Letter, two people," Daffodil said.
The man glanced down at his tablet, stepped aside, and pushed the door open.
The auction hall extended much farther back than Jin'en had expected.
The ceiling hung very low. Burgundy velvet fell from the dome all the way to the floor, wrapping the entire space like an enormous jewelry box.
The lights had deliberately been dimmed. Only the little wall lamps beside each seat were lit, their glow just enough to illuminate a person's face without revealing who sat beside them.
The seats were arranged in tiers, about seven or eight rows with a dozen or so seats each, and more than half were occupied.
Jin'en took a quick look around and saw people in all kinds of attire-an old man in a tailcoat, a woman in a wide-brimmed hat, and several people in ordinary jackets who looked like anomaly hunters.
Dark carpeting covered the stage. A long mahogany table stood in the middle, with a middle-aged man in a gray suit seated behind it, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and his hair meticulously combed.
"Where do we sit?" Jin'en lowered his voice.
Daffodil did not answer, heading straight for the two seats at the far end of the last row.
One of the wall lamps in that corner was broken, leaving it noticeably darker than the rest.
Jin'en followed her and sat down. The chair was hard, its leather covering somewhat worn, and once he sat, his knees almost touched the seatback in front.
"Why did you pick here?"
"We can see everyone, and no one can see us."
Jin'en glanced to either side.
It really was a good spot.
Their backs were against the wall, with an emergency exit to their left and the main aisle to their right. Every seat ahead was in plain view.
And the shadow they sat in fell just beyond the reach of the stage lights.
"Have you been to places like this before?"
Daffodil tugged her gloves toward her wrists.
"A few times."
"Always on this kind of assignment?"
"More or less."
She did not elaborate.
Jin'en did not press her, simply turning his attention to the front.
The man in the gray suit on the auction stage was handling a pair of gloves-white leather gloves that looked no different from an ordinary pair.
But when he picked them up, the air throughout the hall seemed to sink for a beat.
Jin'en could feel everyone in the surrounding seats leaning slightly forward.
"The first lot." The gray-suited man's voice carried throughout the hall over the microphone, unhurried. "'White Gloves,' origin unknown. A grade-four anomaly item."
He paused and opened a booklet beside him.
"As registered with the Anomaly Management Bureau, this item's ability is 'Delayed Touch.' When the wearer touches any object, tactile feedback is delayed by three to five seconds.
"In combat, this allows the wearer to feel no pain at the moment of impact, providing a window for a counterattack-starting bid, eight thousand fons."
The hall fell silent for two seconds, then someone in the first row raised a paddle.
"Ten thousand."
"Twelve thousand."
"Fifteen thousand."
Jin'en leaned against the seatback, listening to the bids climb.
In less than a minute, the gloves went to a man wearing sunglasses in the second row for thirty-eight thousand.
The second lot was a ring.
It was black metal, its surface covered in fine markings, resting inside a transparent protective case.
The gray-suited man's voice was noticeably lower than before as he introduced it.
"The second lot, the 'Pattern-Devouring Ring.' A grade-three anomaly item. The wearer can 'devour' the subsidence value of anomalies they come into contact with, converting it into a temporary ability boost. Please note that this effect triggers only once. The ring shatters immediately after use."
The starting bid was fifteen thousand fons.
There were half as many bidders as before, but the bids came faster.
The final price settled at forty-two thousand. The buyer was someone in the back rows whose face Jin'en could not make out.
The third, fourth, and fifth lots came up in succession.
Jin'en gradually noticed a pattern-all these things had one thing in common: their practical uses were related to combat.
Delayed Touch, devouring subsidence values, a necklace that could briefly increase an ability's range, and a dagger whose edge could "remember" the material it cut and sharpen itself specifically for it.
Every item was a consumable with either a single use or limited uses, and none of them came cheap.
"This auction house sells nothing but weapons," Jin'en said quietly.
Daffodil nodded.
"White Whale only deals in anomaly items, not collectibles."
"Is the thing Inanna wants among them too?"
"It should be the final lot."
Jin'en leaned against the seatback and shifted his gaze from the stage to the bidders in the hall.
He noticed that several people were sitting strangely. They did not look like ordinary buyers: their backs were too straight, their hands rested on their knees, their eyes faced forward, and they had not raised a paddle once.
Security? Or people from another organization?
"Daffodil." He lowered his voice as far as it would go.
"Mm."
"Three o'clock, far end of the third row. The one in the gray jacket."
Daffodil's gaze flicked very briefly in that direction, then returned.
"I see him."
"Security?"
"No." Daffodil tapped a finger lightly against her knee. "He's from the Bureau."
Jin'en's back tensed for an instant.
"What is the Bureau doing at an auction house?"
"Could be an inspection. Could be watching someone." Daffodil's tone barely changed, but Jin'en noticed her right hand move lightly from her knee to the hilt behind her waist. "As long as we don't cause trouble, they won't make a move."
Jin'en leaned back against his seat again.
He understood what Daffodil meant.
The Bureau could not possibly be unaware of the gray-market business Inanna had conducted over the years, but as long as nothing major happened, both sides maintained an unspoken understanding.
Today's auction was no different. As long as Red Letter was only here to buy things, the Bureau's people would turn a blind eye.
The condition was "only here to buy things."
The auction continued onstage. The eighth lot was a palm-sized bronze mirror, its surface pitch-black and reflecting nothing.
The gray-suited man's tone was especially cautious as he introduced it, saying the mirror allowed its holder to "see things they shouldn't see" at night-exactly what those things were was not specified in the appraisal report, but its danger rating was listed as grade three.
Jin'en's right wrist suddenly burned.
It was faint, like someone had passed a lighter above his skin and then moved it away.
He looked down. The silver markings beneath his cuff were glowing, very dimly, but they were definitely glowing.
At the same time, he felt a subtle vibration, as though something far away was tugging at the fissure on his wrist.
He abruptly raised his head toward the stage.
The bronze mirror was being held beneath the lights, and within its black surface, exceedingly faint points of silver light flickered twice.
"Daff-"
"Mm." Daffodil had already seen it.
She stared at the bronze mirror onstage, her gray eyes narrowing slightly. "It's resonating with your ability's frequency."
"What does that mean?"
"It means-" Daffodil's voice was so low that Jin'en almost had to lean closer to hear her clearly. "That mirror might be connected to the spatial category. Things like that are rare to begin with. Anomaly items that resonate with spatial abilities are even rarer."
Jin'en drew his right hand back onto his knee and tugged his sleeve down.
The bronze mirror ultimately went to a woman in a long black dress in the first row for seventy thousand fons.
The auction house staff packed it into a protective case and personally escorted her out.
Just as the woman stepped through the hall's side door, Jin'en's gaze happened to sweep toward the entrance, and his breath caught for a beat.
The entrance door was pushed open.
A woman walked in.
Long silver-white hair, a dark gray trench coat, red eyes.
She wore no disguise and did not look at the people around her, walking straight toward the front rows along the aisle by the side wall.
No one stopped her. The auction house staff bowed slightly when they saw her, much more deeply than they did for the other guests.
Inanna reached the center of the first row, where one seat stood empty, as though it had been reserved for her all along.
She sat down and gathered the hem of her coat, as casually as if she were sitting in her own living room.
"Mother's here," Jin'en said.
"Mm." Daffodil's voice was as level as before, but Jin'en noticed that the finger tapping her knee had stopped.
"When did she say she was coming?"
"She didn't."
"Then-"
"Watch."
Daffodil gave him just one word.
The auction continued onstage. The tenth lot was a cufflink set with a dark red gem the size of a fingernail, described as "automatically triggering one short-range spatial transfer when the holder sustains a fatal injury."
When Jin'en heard "spatial transfer," the silver markings on his right wrist pulsed again, more noticeably this time.
He clenched his right hand into a fist and pressed it against his knee, keeping his sleeve from moving.
Inanna never looked back.
She sat in the front row with her back straight, silver-white hair falling behind her shoulders. From Jin'en's angle, he could only see the back of her head and part of her profile.
She sat quietly, her hands resting on her knees, as though she really were watching the auction attentively.
"The final lot."
The gray-suited man's voice suddenly changed.
It was lower and slower than before, as though he were reading a eulogy.
He took a rectangular black wooden case from beneath the table. It was small, about the size of a book, with no decoration on its surface.
He opened the lid and took out something rolled up.
It was a drawing, which he slowly unrolled on the table. The paper was yellowed, with fine cracks along its edges, but the lines on it remained clear.
Jin'en could not make out what those lines depicted, but he noticed Daffodil's body suddenly tense for an instant.
"What is it?" he asked.
"An anomaly space anchoring diagram." Daffodil's voice was so soft it was almost drowned out by the microphone's electrical hum onstage. "You can designate a coordinate and anchor an anomaly space there permanently, regardless of whether the anomaly itself has been contained."
Jin'en did not quite understand, but he noticed that everyone's breathing in the hall had changed.
The old man in the tailcoat in the front row leaned forward, and the Bureau people in the back, who had remained motionless until now, also tilted their heads slightly.
"The starting bid." The gray-suited man paused for two seconds.
"Two hundred thousand fons."
No one in the hall raised a paddle.
The silence lasted a full five seconds.
Then Inanna raised her hand.
Her movement was slow and composed, as though she were merely voting on something inconsequential.
"Five hundred thousand."
The gray-suited man froze for a moment.
No one raised the bid.
"Five hundred thousand, going once."
"Five hundred thousand, going twice."
"Five hundred thousand, sold."
The gavel struck with a crisp sound that echoed twice through the quiet hall.
Inanna stood up.
Rather than going onstage to collect the item, she turned sideways, her gaze passing over row after row of seats and landing unerringly on the corner of the last row.
Jin'en met her eyes.
Those red eyes looked like two glowing coals in the dim light. The corners of her mouth curved ever so slightly.
Then she looked away, turning to Daffodil and giving a slight nod.
Daffodil stood up.
"Let's go."
Jin'en rose with her, and the two of them followed the emergency passage along the side wall toward the exit.
As he walked out, Jin'en glanced back. Inanna had already turned and was heading toward the stage, where the man in the gray suit waited for her with the wooden box in his hands.
"How did she know we were in the back row?" Jin'en asked only after they had left the hall.
"Of course she knew." Daffodil walked ahead, her voice level. "This auction house belongs to the White Whale, and the White Whale works with Red Letter. The moment we came through the door, the staff reported our location to her."
Jin'en fell silent for two seconds.
"So whether she came, when she came, and where she sat were all arranged in advance?"
"Mm."
"Then when she told us to watch the place-what were we supposed to watch?"
Daffodil had already reached the end of the corridor. She paused before the brass door and turned her head to glance at him.
"It was to give you practice."
"Practice what?"
"Practice sitting still." Daffodil pulled the door open, and the cold air outside rushed in, stirring her blue-streaked bangs. "Your spatial rift resonated with both that mirror and that blueprint. Did you think Mother couldn't tell?"