By the time the magic of the chalk circle finally sizzled out, and sound rushed back into the room, Valerie and Bloom had finished hashing out the details of her supply line idea as well as a few other further details of their new partnership.
It was also in this time that Valerie had her suspicions of Mister Bloom’s true motives and identity, but she kept most of that to herself and remained speculative.
They left the room, meeting the eyes of an older couple that was leaving their own meeting, an actual business meeting and not just some illicit hookup disappointingly, before they returned back to the party.
Valerie reconnected with Zhu Li, who subtly broke down the details of the Tiffany as she pretended to be cleaning something nearby.
As with every Tiffany, there was a lot of useless information, although in this case there was much more than usual. Inane conversations about her shoes, and how she regretted picking this pair and that another was actually better and blah blah blah.
Boring, bland and mind numbing. But that was the deal with a Tiffany. You had to dig through the inane to get to the good stuff.
It was in one of these ramblings that Kaleigh, as it was noted that Percy literally never spoke aside from some grunts or one worded responses, revealed that they would be immediately returning to the training compound to continue with the training for the upcoming guild competition.
Something that was supposed to be a secret, and yet here she was openly complaining about having to actually sweat because of the training for it. She also did not seem very happy about the way the rest of the team were treating her as - according to her - they were just jealous of how good she was.
In reality, she was a massive handicap and they were having to work extra hard to make up for her incompetence.
That was good, Valerie could definitely exploit that. And who knows, maybe if she somehow found the opportunity to give that wicked witch a facial rearrangement with her fist, or something even stronger, then it might be possible her own team wouldn’t try to step in and help.
Undoubtedly, there was certain buttons she could push to increase the odds of that happening.
Of course within the Tiffany details, there was also plenty of slander about Valerie, alongside some strange comments around Kaleigh’s age and looks.
Valerie didn’t understand how they could be strange, that girl was definitely vain enough to constantly talk about her appearance, but Zhu Li insisted their oddity.
Something about ’giving up’ years to ’look the best in the room’ according to herself, before she made another comment about Valerie slapping the hell out of her. That made Valerie smirk in victory once again.
It was just a shame she couldn’t have left a more permanent scar.
However that was the best information that Zhu Li could get from the Tiffany, and although she offered to shadow them for longer to see if she could get more, Valerie turned her down and thanked her profusely.
Her thanks extended beyond words, as she subtly noted Zhu Li’s bot number and left a nice review as well as a very generous tip. Not just for tonight, but for everything her friend had done for her over the years.
It was the first time Valerie actually felt truly good about spending her growing wealth.
However, that tip wouldn’t come through until after the party. So in the meantime Valerie let her friend get back to her work, and moved over to the very fancy food arrangement that was barely touched by anyone.
All of this food, which could feed hundreds of families, and they were mostly occupied with the finger food and alcohol.
Popping a few of the fresh, naturally grown grapes into her mouth, Valerie ’accidentally’ dropped a few small cubes of meat that vanished before they could hit the floor.
After a quick glance around to make sure no one saw that, Valerie held another cube in her hand, as she muttered under her breath.
"Follow Percy and his date and learn the location of their training compound so that you can point it out on a global map later. I want as exact of a location as possible."
As she said this, she tossed the meat cube onto the floor, which vanished immediately after leaving her fingers.
She paused for a few moments before listening closely to the series of gentle taps on the tables surface. Her eyes narrowed as she deciphered the rhythmic language, before snorting and smirking.
"Stinky?" She chuckled, glancing at Kaleigh and Percy, and scanned them with her mana vision. With that repulsive aura, similar to that of the Warlock, clinging to the pair of them, she hardly blamed Sebbie for thinking as such.
"Yeah, She really does stink. But just make sure to be extra careful to stay out of sight and don’t get yourself killed, okay?"
A few more taps came through that Valerie deciphered before sighing softly and tossing a few more morsels of food onto the floor, as well as one of the small, shiny fruit spoons that was sitting around. All of which vanished promptly.
"There, happy?" She asked the air, which tapped enthusiastically before the invisible presence moved away from her a moment later.
Valerie glanced over in Percy’s direction again, imagining the little invisible creature slinking its way over to the pair of them - and even caught a few dresses flipping upwards or some shoes mysteriously being untied as it did so.
He just couldn’t resist the urge to cause chaos surrounded by so many awful people. It was just in his nature to annoy them.
Valerie, on the other hand, had a look of longing in her eyes as she stared at the almost emotionless face of Percy whilst he was being forced to listen to another one of Kaleigh’s brainless ramblings. Eventually, Valerie pulled her eyes away from him, the sight pulling her heart deeper into the pit of her stomach the longer she looked.
’I swear to the gods, I will free you from whatever disgusting spell she has cast on you. And then I will beat her. Beat her within an inch of her life over and over, until the feeling of her bones breaking and flesh tearing against my knuckles no longer gives me satisfaction.
And then... I will kill her.’
As she recited her promise in her head, the clouds above the grand mansion shifted slightly and, despite the infection still hampering most of her magical abilities for the moment, a crackle of a golden lightning sparked between Valerie’s fingers.
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