The office was quiet around the young woman who sat behind the desk except for the voice coming from the tablet sat in front of her. No one was in except for her at that moment, no other staff (not that there were many) and no clients. The brief moment of calm was the perfect excuse for her to talk to her half-brother that was half a world away in another country.

"But, good news! I found a solution!" Atticus Clark excitedly told his older half-sister.

"Oh, thank goodness," Jacy King replied.

"It involves fire."

"Absolutely not."

A frown formed on the young boy's face at her words. Behind Atticus was a large chalkboard covered in white scribblings that she couldn't even begin to understand and she could see part of the desk he was standing in front of, a desk that was covered in papers, notebooks, binders and all sorts of scientific equipment that she didn't know the names to no matter how many times Atticus explained.

"You don't even know anything about this kind of experiment!" Atticus argued.

"I know enough about you to know that it never goes well when you try to use fire," Jacy answered easily.

"But it would work, and solve the problem entirely!" Atticus defended.

"Yes, and then you would get blown up which causes a whole new set of problems, Atty," she said, "which kind of cancels out solving the first problem."

"I'm supposed to be smarter than you," the boy said, sulking as if he was five years old again.

"You are," she assured him, leaning forward. "I just happen to have a better common sense filter than you do. Part of why I'm so good at my job."

"That's not fair," he complained.

"Well, you can take that up with Mom next time you see her," Jacy told him.

Atticus scoffed. "Yeah, right. As if I'll get to talk to her."

"She's a busy woman, kiddo. And she does care about you, so you know, she sent you to me, didn't she?" she questioned.

"That was Annie Grace, not her," he argued again.

"What, you think that she's outside of their influence? A stroke of genius like that only comes from one place," Jacy insisted.

Atticus opened his mouth, probably to argue with her if Jacy knew her brother, but there was distant shouting from off screen that she couldn't make out. It pulled her brother's attention, though. He turned back to Jacy after a moment, an apologetic look on his face.

"I have to go," he said.

"Alright," she said, "talk to you soon, then."

"Bye, Jay," he said.

"Bye, Atty."

Jacy closed the tablet as the video chat closed and set it aside on her desk. Looking up, she noted that light was just beginning to show on the horizon in the distance. That was the only problem with trying to keep in contact with someone on the other side of the world, it was either too early or too late to talk for one or both parties involved. It was almost lucky that Jacy was such a night owl. Less lucky when her business running during the day was taken into consideration.

But, she thought as she looked over to the clock on the wall next to her, if she went to sleep now, she could still get a couple hours in before having to open the office, before her only two employees got to the office. There was a small couch in her office that had a throw pillow and blanket that were most of the time used just for decoration. Jacy stretched as she stood from her desk and walked over to the couch, dropping down and falling asleep quickly.

But, as was common for her, moments after falling asleep, Jacy found herself standing in a vaguely defined room, a large, cluttered desk in the middle of the room and a regal looking woman standing on the other side of it, rifling through some of the papers on the desk. She was tall, dressed in clothes that made her look like a lawyer about to walk into the courtroom, her dark hair was brushed back in a tight bun, her grey eyes stormy.

"You should prioritize your sleep schedule more," the woman said without looking up.

"Sacrificing a few hours every week in exchange for getting to talk to Atticus seems worth it," Jacy answered easily.

"Yes, if that was the only time that you 'sacrificed a few hours' of sleep. Unfortunately, it is not," the woman countered.

"I get by fine. My couch is a wonderful place for naps between clients," Jacy said.

The woman looked up at Jacy. "You have a complicated case coming soon."

"You could have put that in my journal," she said. Jacy paused, her brow suddenly furrowing as she thought more about what she was being told. "Wait, how do you know?"

"Your uncle..." the woman sighed, shaking her head. "He sees fit to tell everyone about his visions regardless of whether they actually want to know about them. Regardless of whether they should know. But, seeing as this time it was actually helpful, it seemed the next logical step to pass on the information to you."

"Okay, but that still doesn't answer why you couldn't just put that in my journal. And telling me that my next case is going to be complicated isn't exactly helpful, it won't help me uncomplicate it once it comes to my desk," Jacy countered.

The woman didn't answer, simply pulled a book out from the middle of a stack on her desk and opened it. She scanned a page in the middle for a moment, flipped to a later part in the book, then closed it and put it atop a separate stack. Jacy sighed and rolled her eyes, dropping down into a chair on her side of the desk and watching the woman's face.

Jacy bit her lip, considering the words she wanted to say next carefully. Not that it was something that she shouldn't bring up, but it could be a delicate topic and that meant it could get dangerous. But at the same time...

"You know, Atticus would really appreciate getting a chance to talk to you. He could use some guidance, some... I don't even know. Anything, really," Jacy said.

The woman looked up and her stormy eyes had gone dark. It took everything in Jacy not to flinch back and look away.

"I'm not trying to tell you what to do," Jacy continued, "that's not, never has been and never will be my place. But I care about Atticus a lot. And he would really like to meet his mom."

Athena narrowed her eyes at her daughter and once more, Jacy didn't flinch. "There will be a clue in your journal. Your employees will be arriving soon."

With a flourish of her hand, the room dissolved and Jacy sat up on her office couch, golden light streaming through the windows behind her. The woman ran a hand through her hair as she stood up. Talks with her mom never went the way she wanted them to.