Helen joined the sisters on her thirteenth birthday. Her mother was a friend of Ninya's mentor and had wanted to ensure her daughter's future. She was also a distant relation of the extended Siph Gleiss clan, but with no involvement in the family business.
Helen's side of the family was descended from a brother of Silas Siph Gleiss generations before they began building illegal pot stills and had a falling out. The brother thought he got the better end of the deal as he was given the family home and the businesses. Silas took only his new hobby in several wooden crates and left. And for generations it seemed that way, then the war came and reversed Silas descendants fortunes many time fold.
Most sisters are recruited at an early age and Helen was one of the oldest girls in a class of seven other girls. It was a grueling indoctrination and half the girls quit within a few weeks leaving just Helen and two other girls who became her flatmates Mina and Donna. They struggled through the rest of their training and only Helen and Donna graduated. Mina remained part of the organization, but relegated to a minor role of failed trainee.
The failed trainees remain useful to the sisters and are treated with many of the same privileges. There are a great many more than full fledged members and with their large numbers were they able to buy influence and grow their organization soon after the war.
The three girls became a chapter and operated within the city. They would meet at Gertrude's bar or at restaurants and most would mistaken them for longtime friends. They shared the same family names and heritage as their targets. The sisters were keen on adapting and always improving their tactics.
Ninya would meet with her little girls and invited me to join them and become acquainted with each. Mina was the most approachable and I found her more pleasant than Donna who was the more protective of the sisters. Helen remained a star struck school girl whenever near Ninya.
With Ninya's approval, Helen explained the sisters were infiltrating the Neo-Artesians and had informants in nearly every major chapter in all the cities and townships. This particular chapter was quite small and uninteresting, but proved the most difficult to penetrate and she was hand selected with her family history of being part of the Siph Gleiss and in some weak way connected to Gertrude. She could even count Donna who was from a family that was acquainted with the elder.
The sisters had thought of everything and Mina was dating one of the young initiates and worked in the same office building. They estimated it would take several years to ensure any initial suspicion would become a faint tug and so the need for many more recruits and trainees.
It was unclear what was their objective as they seemed to only amass power with no aim or end in sight. I felt discomfort in being exposed and my role as an Administrator was falling in jeopardy. Ninya assured me I was safe and in no danger from the sisters or the Politiburo. This was a game they both played and were well acquainted. She told me to ask my colleagues and they would say the same thing.
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