Some days you should've just stayed in bed, preferably with the weight of some beautiful stranger pressing down on you. This was starting to turn into one of those days. Or nights, to be more precise.<br/>Tsukiko was standing looking out of one of the 4th floor windows in an old, condemned building. It had been a school once, one of those rundown inner city schools where you could almost taste the desperation and resignation in the air. Then there'd been a fire. The fire damage had actually been pretty minor, the smoke and water damage on the other hand had been anything but. Judged to costly to renovate, the school had relocated. One would assume that the city had some other plans for the building since it hadn't been torn down yet. But whatever plans there'd been must've been long forgoten. As far as clandestine meeting places went, this one was pretty awesome. Deserted, grand and possibly a little bit haunted. Tsukiko's main objection to the old building as the location for the meeting was that she hadn't picked it. She hadn't even known about it, definitely a place worth remembering. Unfortunately this meant she knew next to nothing about the layout of the place, only what little she had learned while she quickly scouted the place before it was time for the meeting. Usually she would know a place like the back of her hand, where all the good hiding places and escape routes were and so on. But tonight there hadn't been enough time. She didn't like it, not one bit, but sometimes you had to take a leap of faith. Besides, the mission was worth it.<br/>The last month or so hadn't been easy for the Ashen Court. The trouble had started right around when the Autumn Court gave way to the Winter Court and the Snow Queen ascended to the throne. Normally that would be a time to relax and wind down, the responsibility of the crown no longer being theirs to worry about. But this time someone had come gunning for them just when they'd let their guard down. Someone was obviously out to steal the Ashen Crown from Tsukiko's boss, and they had been totally unprepared for it. Bogart had ruled the NY Autumn Court for so long that many had just assumed it would always be so. But as Bogart himself was fond of saying, when you assume you make an ass of me and u.<br/>So now Autumn was on the brink of a civil war, Ashen Courtiers sharpening their knives or hiding under their beds. People was cautiously choosing sides and few had so far pledged their support for Bogart, at least not openly. That was the reason Tsukiko stood there shivering in the cold building when she could name 10 places she'd rather be just from the top of her head. She was there to get Countess Arachnia, the Spider Witch, to formally pledge her allegiance for Bogart. Things had gotten so bad that the representatives of long time allies couldn't even meet in the open anymore, they had to stoop to this.<br/>Arachnia had served as Bogart's spymaster for many years now. Not that Bogart ever needed one, being a trader in secrets himself, but you got to keep with tradition. But Arachnia was a powerful changeling in her own right. If they could get her to pledge for Bogart openly more would follow suit, and then they would actually have a fighting chance. But the Witch's representative was still nowhere to be seen. Tsukiko didn't like this one bit.<br/>Tsukiko peered through the blinds for what must've been the 50th time. The first 49 times everything had been quiet, but it seemed 50 was the charm. Suddenly there where unmarked black vans and SUVs surrounding the building, and out of them swarmed dozens of men in black, packing like they meant business. Kevlar, silenced smgs, gasmasks, nightvision goggles, the works. At first Tsukiko thought they must've been the police, but there where no identifiable markings on them anywhere. Black ops then, but where they here for her? If so, why? That just opened a whole new can of worms of ugly possibilities.<br/>Tsukiko cursed. Her mission had just failed, but now she had a new one, even more vital than the last: getting out of there alive.