Effrancia Devastine: And barely conscious, you'll say to no one

IN THE PAST

Mr. Prevoskhodnyy waved his hand and the annoying apprentice gal sputtered angrily. Served her right, Eff thought brightly, choosing to temporarily ignore the fact that the spymaster knew her whereabouts. She wasn't going to move, that's what he would no doubt expect her to do. Also, even of he knew she was there, he didn't know she was masquerading as a termite, did he? At least, she appeared to be one... If he thought she was invisible and swung a really big knife around where he thought she was, she would still be decapitated. Or de-arm-or-leg-itated. Or sliced in half. Eep.
He hadn't killed her yet, though, and neither had the young woman with lighter hair and a darker accent that may or may not have been fake. (It didn't sound fake, but then, you could never know with spies.) Instead of doing any of this, he surprised her. Of course, she wasn't surprised that he'd done something unexpected, her very narrow view of spies dictated that they always did what you didn't expect you to do, but she was still surprised, because he said. "You can come out now, Nate's sister, aren't you? I have a feeling you'll be useful."
Appearing was probably the stupid thing, but Effie did it anyway. "You knew Nate?"
Mindy jumped and scowled. Anna nodded at Eff, then shook her head at Mindy.  Mr. Prevoskhodnyy smiled slightly. "I certainly did. He was one of us."

*****

Anna wouldn't have trusted the newcomer, who introduced herself as Effie, except for the fact that Mr. Prevoskhodnyy did. He was generally very cautious, so she trusted his judgement on this one. Besides, Effie was pretty cool. She was an illusionist, and had already learned the basics, changing her own appearance, but was eager to learn more, as opposed to Mindy, who was constantly rebelling against whatever Anna tried to teach her. They were both her apprentices now, but the past week had proven they couldn't get along. As of this mission, they were both working with her, though Eff would probably be reassigned afterwards. A pity it wasn't Mindy.

The three of them walked purposely up the long, spiralling riveway. Effie expressed some surprise at the fact that they weren't sneaking, and before Anna could answer, Mindy snootily replied, "If someone saw us sneaking, they'd be suspicious. It's much better this way, we look like we belong."

"Yeah? Thanks to me!" Effie snapped. She had indeed illusioned them to look like middle-aged men in black suits. 
"We could have done it without--"
"Apprentices, remember. We are a team," Anna cut in. 
"But Effie isn't even--"
"Aye aye cap'n!" For a moment, Effie appeared to have a shaggy beard, eye patch and parrot sitting on her head. Anna tried her best not to laugh.

*****

The mission was a boring one now that Effie had come into the plan. Apparently the old one had involved breaking in through the ventilation system and sneaking through the walls to a loose panel in the ceiling. This one mainly involved looking like they belonged, with one quick stop to catch a guard so Eff could see what his ID badge looked like so she could illusion copies if necessary. 
"Should I kill him?" she asked uncertainly when she was done.
"Of course not!" Mindy exclaimed, as if the very idea was ridiculous. "We're not the bad guys, and we don't need to. Agent Zinaida already knocked him out with her mind. It usually lasts for hours."
Anna shook her head slowly. "Mindy, we're not good guys either. No matter how noble the cause a spy is working for, there is always deception, always lies, always dirty little secrets hidden behind a web of shadows." Her eyes glazed over for a minute, then she shook herself. "We can't leave any kind of witness. My power is too...distinctive. If you'd rather not kill him, though, I can do it." She pulled out a short but deadly-looking dagger, but Effie shook her head.
"I can." She pulled out a hammer (having no anvils on her. They're too 34401424221424 heavy to carry around in your briefcase or something) and hit the guard on the head with it, feeling the crunch of bone and...loving it.

*****

"So it's just there?" Eff demanded. "The box that supposedly has one of Mevolent's secret weapons, just sitting out there, and not even any traps?"
"Pretty much," Anna said. "I mean aside from the cameras we disabled, but really, you'd expect there to be more." She walked over and picked up the box. Effie took a step towards her, ready to do...something, but nothing exploded, no trapdoors in the floor opened up, not even an alarm.
"So that's it, then?" Effie asked.
She saw Anna's eyes widen, then felt the chill of a metal blade at the back of her neck.  
"No, it's not over. Not by a long shot."


(Sorry this is all bits and pieces! I really didn't want to write the entire mission out, but if there are any in between bits that I didn't include that you want to see, let me know.)