Waking Camila in the morning had been easy. Getting Acedia out of bed on the other hand had required a fair amount of effort and the vicious pull of gravity. Once they’d deposited her on the floor it had taken a bit more work to get her to the table. Fortunately Helena knew exactly how long three servings of porridge took to cook and had set a timed flame so she didn’t need to worry about burning anything.
Their guest didn’t seem to appreciate her skills. “This is it?”
“I want to pay rent next month,” Helena said. “And the month after. Besides you two don’t even need to eat.”
“Neither do you,” Acedia said, glaring down at her bowl.
Helena poured herself half a glass of wine before adding a portion of water. “Just because I can’t starve to death doesn’t mean it’s fun.”
“Wait, if you can’t die of thirst, why do you drink that horrid mix of box wine and water?” Camila asked.
Helena sighed. Barbarians everywhere. “Because uncut wine leads to madness.”
“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t,” Camila said. “What with ya know, everyone else being sane.”
“Maybe I’m the only sane person,” Helena retorted.
Camila giggled. “Nah.”
“No,” Acedia agreed.
Helena glared at both of them before turning to her meal. One day she’d be proven right about this. And then she’d gloat. Oh how she would gloat.
Camila wolfed down her meal quickly, while Acedia picked at it. But the demon did eat some. “How is it you’re poor?” the demon asked as Camila put down her bowl. “You’re at least an immortal magician. Most other magicians would sell their soul for your power.”
“Power doesn’t pay the bills,” Helena muttered.
“Also you’re too proud to take small jobs,” Camila said. Helena grimaced at the edge in the woman’s voice. “No one’s going to hunt you down for the big stuff if they don’t know who you are.”
“I’m not good at advertising either,” Helena deflected. “This city is huge even for someone like me. Word of mouth was good enough back home.” She looked over the demon. “Anyway, we should probably focus on more immediate matters. Like where we’re going to find clothes for someone with wings.”
Camila turned as well. “Oh, yeah. A nightgown isn’t going to cut it. Where do you usually get clothes?”
“I don’t,” Acedia muttered, hiding behind her bowl. “Most of it was stuff my sisters bought. No one complains.”
“Because you never go out,” Helena said.
Camila sighed. “Kay. Guess we’ll have to improvise.” She cocked her head to the side. “Pretty sure my wardrobe won’t work. I like having backs on my shirts.”
The jiang-shi slowly looked over at Helena. Helena froze. “What? My peplos have backs too, you know.”
“Yeah, but they’re usually slit down to your hip so her wings should fit just fine,” Camila said cheerily.
“Fine,” Helena replied. “But if she gets mad and stabs you with one of the pins, it’ll be your own fault.”
Camila shrugged. “I’m dead so it doesn’t matter.”
Helena finished her own meal and gathered the bowls. “Get the yellow one then. It’s a bit big on me so it should at least resemble something decent on her.” Demons apparently didn’t need to eat to get full figures. The power of evil or some such nonsense.
She turned her attention to the dishes, quickly washing each of them before tapping them with a drying charm. There was probably a way to get the dishes to clean themselves, but it was harder than doing it herself with a bunch of smaller spells. A lot of magic was like that.
When she’d finished she found Acedia had managed to get into the dress fairly easily. It was a little short on her but her wings fit through the open sides of the peplos. The color was a terrible match for her pale complexion and bright red hair, but that was to be expected. She’d never liked that dress honestly, which is why Helena was willing to sacrifice it.
“That’ll do for now,” she said out loud. She walked over and adjusted the pins to better let the demon’s wings free. “There.” She Looked up at the demon. “I don’t suppose you’d return the favor and help me dress Camila?”
Acedia sat on the bed. Camila just smiled and shrugged before levitating off the ground to give Helena some room to work with. About what Helena had figured. She turned her attention to her friend.
A few seconds later she’d changed Camila into a buttoned up vest and pair of shorts. After helping the woman pocket her watch Helena grabbed a black peplos for herself and tossed on her witches hat. “Alright. So where does Invidia live?”
“Across the bridge, in the Big Apple,” Acedia said.
“So we’ll need to use the post office in the market ward,” Helena said.
Camila frowned. “Because otherwise the bastards will forget to deliver it?” She took the disdain the residents of the Big Apple had towards the Immigrant Realm slightly personally.
“It’ll get there, sometime around winter solstice,” Helena replied. “If I threaten the postmaster directly though we’ll get much better service.”
Camila blinked, probably uncertain how serious Helena was about threatening the postman. “Alright then. Well let’s go. The market’s gonna be a mess this time anyway so no reason to wait for it to get worse.”
The trio got out without much trouble, Acedia following like a teenager being dragged out with their family. Fortunately everyone in the area was too busy being shocked by having a demon in their midst to comment.
To call this part of town the ghetto was something of a misnomer. All of the Immigrant Realm barring the Merchant District and the Government District was a ghetto. This neighborhood was comparatively nice. However in the local slang this was the Black ghetto. It was formed from the stories about the majority Black owned areas in the ‘real’ world’s New York around a century ago. Helena had bought a place here before she knew all those details, simply because the rent was cheap and she couldn’t really stay in the ancient world districts. As such most of the people walking around on the street were normal people in 1900s fashion going about their lives. A witch, a jiang-shi, and a demon were very out of place here.
Helena appreciated that. It meant people didn’t bother her. The panhandlers fell silent, the pickpockets looked for another mark, and the street preachers yelled at everyone else about the wages of sin. She got more respect here than she did at home. Less money, but more respect. It was worth it.
However no amount of respect would stop one of the horse drawn carts or motorized trucks from making their deliveries. As they reached the main streets a series of milk carts returning from their deliveries forced them to wait. Helena grimaced as one of the horses left a present on the streets for wandering pedestrians. One of the reasons she’d switched from sandals to boots after she’d moved to the city.
“Hey.”
Helena blinked and turned back to Acedia who was staring at her with an odd expression. “You pestered me for my life story last night, but you never told me why you were here. You’re a magician from the Hellenic Realms. Why the Immigrant Realm? And why are you hiding here?”
A fair question given how much they’d pulled out of the girl. “I turned Apollo’s favorite hero into a slug.”
“What?!” Both women were staring at her now. She’d apparently left that detail out of her talks with Camila.
Helena shrugged then started to cross the street, avoiding the horse droppings along the way. “He seemed to think I was at his beck and call just because Apollo promised me to him. I taught the over muscled fool that ‘No’ means ‘grab my arm again and you’ll spend the rest of your short life as vermin.'”
Acedia followed shaking her head. “If I cared about dying I’d be running right now.”
“Sounds good to me!” Camila said. “Though I bet that got you in a lot of trouble. I don’t remember the Greek Gods being nice. In fact they seemed kinda vengeful. Didn’t Apollo chase some woman until she had to turn into a tree?”
“Yes.” Helena acknowledged. “Fortunately I’ve got friends in the pantheon as well. Still I decided it was safer to live here. They have laws against gods murdering people.”
Camila shook her head as she hopped along. “I dunno if it’s because I’m dead now, or because I have a hard time accepting gods as real, but I’m mostly just surprised they didn’t have Cupid shoot you with an arrow.”
“They did. I’m immune,” Helena said. “Eros and I don’t get along either, but he didn’t take it personally.”
She started to slow her pace as she walked into the market district. The fringes here were mostly human, but an elegant crane woman was using her white feathered wings to display her silks. Meanwhile a bit further down hooded dwarves offered wrought gold trinkets to gawking tourists in modern fashion from across the bridge.
This was the area that best signified the Immigrant Realm. The odd twisted space where all the various realms met to trade. Here Helena and her friends barely stood out at all. She might be an immortal witch, but a casual observer would be far more interested in the fiery djinni selling lamps that would burn for a century. Her main worry was that Acedia didn’t get lost in the press of people. It was easy to get seperated and she was certain the demon wouldn’t call for help.
“Something’s up,” Camila said, interrupting her thoughts.
Helena paused and looked around. Camila was right. Now that they were further into the markets the shoppers were more somber, and were whispering rumors in groups. A centaur and two satyrs were chattering over something other than the price of apples, and three regal merchants from the City of Gold had lowered themselves to questioning a leopard man in their native tongue. One woman in a brown robe was openly weeping on a similarly robed man’s shoulder. Everywhere people were nervous.
“New plan,” she said as she grabbed Acedia’s hand. The demon hissed in annoyance as she led them a few blocks down a different street, pushing through the crowd with a little bit of enhanced strength.
Finally she saw the stall she was looking for. A camel sitting with hieroglyphics on a pack next to it. She waved to the woman at the stall. “Inhapi.”
“Ah Helena. We weren’t expecting you for a while. Did something happen to the dates you-” Inhapi paused as she saw Acedia. “Oh! I see.”
Camila glided up. “See what? We were just going to the post office. But everyone’s acting weird.”
“You did not know?” Inhapi frowned. “My apologies. I’m afraid to be the bearer of ill news.”
“What happened?” Helena asked.
Inhapi made a gesture to ward off curses. Helena ignored the prick of pain. “Ythencial, the demon who had a stall to buy people’s souls was murdered, right here in the market! They say the killer struck under the morning sun, its face shielded by blinding light!”
Helena’s heart sank as she turned to Acedia. “It looks like your attacker found someone else.”
Acedia shook her head slowly. “I really shouldn’t have bothered running.”