A Memish dock worker hands Rack an envelope at the Mirror Maze. Handwritten. No return address. The note is addressed to "the pilot of the Vagrant Star" in careful, deliberate script.
The crew reads it twice. Sable holds it longer than the others.
Cult status: 0. Neither faction has moved yet — just an open door.
Employer: Kavra Malthek (House Malthek intermediary, Sonhandra)
Type: Extraction / Smuggling
Pay: 8 cred
Hook: House Malthek is hosting a political marriage ceremony at the family estate on Sonhandra. The bride-to-be wants out. The family doesn't know yet. Get her to a ship before the ceremony ends — and don't cause a diplomatic incident.
Twist: The estate's main hall contains a House Malthek trophy display. The fourth node — The Mirror — is mounted on the wall as a decorative artifact. Nobody knows what it is. Sable will.
Plan: Infiltration. Detail: Rack procures forged invitations through a gambling contact.
Engagement roll: 2d → 5. Controlled position. The invitations hold. The crew is inside before anything goes wrong.
Sonhandra estate: marble corridors, ceiling murals, a hundred formally-dressed guests. The Malthek family's wealth is pre-Hegemony. Their collection rooms are locked but not heavily guarded — the assumption is that their name is the lock.
Cutter works the room. Sway: 6. He identifies the bride — Nara Solin, early 20s, standing beside her designated husband with the expression of someone calculating the distance to the nearest exit. He catches her eye. She catches it back.
Rack holds the extraction vehicle at the service entrance. Attune (ambient): 4/5. He feels something — not the Way exactly, more like a harmonic. The ship likes this place in a way that makes him uncomfortable.
Sable drifts toward the trophy display. The Mirror is mounted between two Ur navigation tools. It's about forty centimeters across, matte black, surface that doesn't reflect properly. When Sable looks at it, it looks back. Attune: 6. She knows instantly. Fourth node. Active. Dormant is the wrong word — it's been listening. It heard Vess wake up.
Dr. Strange question (Juno, from across the room, watching Sable's face): "What would activating this do right now?"
Mirror Awakening clock opens: ░░░░░░░░ (0/8). Currently dormant. Contact risk: +1 per attune roll within range.
Cutter reaches Nara during the first dance break. Thirty seconds of conversation. She doesn't hesitate: "The ship is ready?" He says yes. She says: "Give me four minutes."
Four minutes becomes eight. Nara returns with a small bag and a personal data drive. She also triggers a motion sensor in the east wing.
Guard response: two Malthek house security, non-lethal mandate inside the estate. Skirmish (Cutter leads): 4/5. He puts one guard down and gets clipped — Rattled (2-harm, minor). The second guard calls it in.
Sable creates a distraction at the trophy display — she picks up a secondary artifact, waves it at the Mirror. The Mirror resonates. Every glass surface in the room shivers. Guests flinch. Security's attention splits.
Mirror Awakening: ██░░░░░░ (2/8).
Juno extracts through the kitchen. Finesse: 6. Clean exit. She has Nara by the arm and they're moving.
Engagement roll — exfil: Rack, Pilot: 6. The Vagrant Star is off the pad before the house security reaches the service entrance.
In orbit, Dross's instruments register the Mirror resonance. A Way-pulse, brief, unmistakable.
Privately, the GM ticks: Ohe's Offer: ███░ (3/4). Dross tells Ohe: "The Mirror just moved. Sonhandra. We have weeks, not months."
Ohe sends a courier. The crew doesn't know this yet.
Payoff: 8 cred. After upkeep: net 4 cred.
Heat — Rin: Social job (+2), complication (+1). Heat: 5 → 8/8. Maximum.
Entanglement (Wanted 0, Rin, Heat 8): 1d → 4 → Arrest. Juno is flagged at the Warren dock on an outstanding questioning order from the Sigma-7 incident. Not Hegemony — local constabulary.
Juno invokes Welcome Anywhere. Workers from Sigma-7 are in the Warren labor hall. Three of them walk in and give a character testimonial so detailed and sincere that the constable thanks Juno and apologises for the inconvenience. She is released with her record clean.
Nara Solin pays the agreed rate and disappears into the transit network. Cutter doesn't ask where she's going. She says: "Thank you" and means it. It's a quiet moment.
Sable — downtime project: document the Mirror's resonance before it fades from her attunement. Study: 5. Three segments on a new 6-clock: "Map the Lattice" — 3/6. She has the Carrier, the Witness, the Mirror. She knows where the Anchor is from the documents. The Gate Key is the gap.
Rack — indulges vice (gambling). Fortune roll: 3. Moderate stress relief. Runs into a Maelstrom contact at the table who mentions, casually, that "there's Hegemony courier traffic to Warren, high encryption, unusual routing." Rack files this away.
Juno — long-term project: the container. Rig: 5. Two segments: "Open the Container Safely" — 5/8. Getting close.
Cutter — trains (Hunt). +1 XP on Insight.