"Sounds wonderful! And I'm hoping you're going to be well behaved with any other delivery people?"

"I'll swear it on my mum and sister's graves, I will. We get enough trouble from the coppers without giving each other any."

"Oh, so I'm just special. Lovely!"

"Naw. You're magic. I can feel it. Mama didn't raise her boy with the best of morals, it may be said... But she didn't raise a fool. And she didn't raise an oathbreaker neither." He digs in one grimy pocket and produces a shilling, tossing it lightly through the air. "Let's get out of here, boys. I'll explain things in a bit, yeah?"

You know what? She got paid. Didn't have to do too much work to get rid of them (not that she couldn't break their wrists, but ugh, effort.) She'd say it went fairly well.

And that's probably enough running around for one day.

The next time she goes into the post office looking for work, someone in a very important-looking uniform is there, watching everyone who comes and goes.

Well, that's interesting. Probably not a good idea to go up and ask 'Hello Mr Important, what's going on?' but still. It's a bit weird.

She goes up to the dispatch desk to see if there's anything there's any work for her today.

"Ah- Wait just a moment, I'll dig through these papers..."

Important Guy knocks on the office door and lets himself in without waiting!

"I pray God is with you this morning, Mr. Sims. And you, miss Ragara Marena."

"And you too, Mister...?"

"Special Investigator Claude Hortier. Don't worry, you're not in trouble," He says with a far-too-practiced smile, "I have business in the city, but I make a point of meeting any new faces when I get the opportunity. I hear your special is shapeshifting. It's always fascinated me, the variety of God's gifts that witches may wield."

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive to see how many different things people can do."

Ooh he's so slimy. But she can out-slime them all! (Or, well, most.)

"I have heard it said that there are more wonders on this Earth than the choirs of angels could dream of in Heaven. I don't believe that, but I understand the sentiment. There is so much that magic can do... And so much mischief that clever abuse of it can do. Thus, my job. I do hope I will not have to convince you to refrain from harming the war effort. So many things that seem minor and harmless can disrupt matters far beyond one person's view, like ripples in a pond."

"Well, I very much like not being eaten by Neuroi, so you definitely don't need to convince me."

This guy sure does think he is menacing! He's all... Loom-y.

He decides on something after a few seconds of awkward attempted intimidation.

"Wonderful. I pray you go in peace and live well this day, Ragara Marena."

Oh, someone trying to intimidate a Celestial Exalted. How adorable! And he doesn't have the context for how cute he's being, which is just precious.

"You too!"

Special Investigator Claude Hortier leaves, striding confidently.

"He is famous, you know," Sims the bureaucrat tells her once he's gone. "Ah, right. Work... It... Doesn't seem like there is anything with a low enough security clearance for unaffiliated witches right now."

"I'll keep that in mind if I see him again.

And no worries!" And she leaves. Kinda odd they don't have enough low-security work immediately after someone like that was running around-- but it's not like there's anything she can do about it.

Might be worth having a little better idea who this guy is. She goes looking for Ghost; she seems like she'd probably know of him.  

She's in a pub, sulking with an empty mug. Not having a great time to all appearances.

Okay, maybe not the best time to mine for information. "Did something happen?"

"Oh. Hi, Marena... Yep. And it's my own damn fault."

She sits down next to her. "Want to talk about it, or talking about literally anything else?"

"...Second thing for now, maybe I'll swing around to the first in a little bit?" She makes a face at her empty mug.

Well, she did say to talk about something else-- "Have you heard of a guy named Claude Hortier?"

"Uh-oh. Tall guy, talks about God, way scarier than he has any right to be? 'Special Investigator'?"

"I've met cats more intimidating than him, but yeah, same guy."