“Your larder seems to be lacking. You must be having a hard time. I’m dreadfully sorry to impose upon you,” Sui An said, her tone dripping with false sincerity. The fox demon had not only healed last night, she’d managed to clean herself and repair her outfit.
“Ya know, you’d be cuter if you weren’t busy being evil,” Camila said.
Sui An smirked. “Oh dear. I apologize if I’ve given offense. You’ve done so much for me after all.”
Helena ignored the kumiho and checked the map to see if Hsu had scribbled anything down on his side. To her surprise she saw a note in Granite Monkey Sen’s hand. She checked the angle of the shadows. “Hsu will contact us in a few minutes,” Helena said to her friend.
“So he found something?” Camila hopped over.
“He’d better,” Helena muttered. If the Triad’s top magician couldn’t find where a smuggled shipment had gone, no one could. She grabbed the porridge off the pot and waved it towards Sui An. “Are you sure you don’t want any? I’d hate to be a bad host.”
As she expected the kumiho waved it away. “Foxes eat meat.”
“Thought they ate anything they could get?” Camila said cheerily as Helena helped her bend her arms. “At least real foxes.” Helena suppressed a laugh as Sui An snarled. She’d have to remember that barb for later. Even if she usually preferred more direct threats.
The two finished their meal quickly, while Sui An preened. Helena wondered how much of that was the fox woman trying to put up a front, and how much was to annoy her. Answering that would probably require learning far more about the kumiho then she wanted to.
They’d just finished when Helena felt someone trying to contact her. She moved towards the mirror, motioning Camila to follow. The weak communication spell wouldn’t be able to show her friend’s face, but she’d be able to hear and talk. Helena threw a bit of power into the mirror, then folded her arms as Hsu finished the connection and appeared in the reflection. “Hello Gold Rat Wizard. Do you know where the silver went yet?”
Hsu frowned. “Greetings to you as well, Curse Gunner. I do know where the silver went. Do you want me to tell you the rest of the information, or do you intend to run there and make a fool of yourself?”
“There’s something more to this than just an address?” Helena asked. She hoped not. She wanted to end this matter.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Hsu replied. “It took some time to get the information, but fortunately the dead remember more than the living.”
Camila looked over at Helena. “How do I get that cool memory thing?”
“It requires a magician forcefully ordering you to remember. I don’t suggest it,” Helena replied. “So what did you find?”
“I tracked the shipment to a building in the merchant district. One that has been sold since the shipment. I doubt the Bank of Nova Venezia is our culprit. And the previous owner was a front company.” Hsu placed his hands in his sleeves. “Either the silver was cast there and the fake angel moved, or there is an underground passage above the sewers but below the basement level.”
Helena sighed. “And we get to look for it I guess.”
“You could leave it to the Adena,” Hsu replied. Of course that wasn’t going to happen, and both of them knew it. “If you are interested however it’s the building at 8272 on 32nd street.” He shook his head. “I will be speaking with my associates and their subordinates again. Several people will need to be reprimanded for poor judgment.”
Poor Inspector Kilduff was going to have a lot of murders to investigate it seemed. Helena tried to feel bad about it, but given the amount of damage those idiots did she couldn’t really muster the effort. Still she wasn’t going to let Hsu just wave the matter away. “So what was that about you keeping order in the city?”
He stroked his beard. “Order takes time to re-establish. If I’ve failed again in four months I will accept your chastisement Curse Gunner. Until then please put your devious mind and barely contained hostility towards other matters.”
“So if you haven’t fixed things in four months I can break your arms? Cause I’m still angry ’bout your friends using me as a tool,” Camila said with a grin.
“Good hunting Curse Gunner,” he said before cutting off the connection.
Helena gave Camila a look, though she couldn’t help but smile. “You probably shouldn’t threaten him like that. He might start taking you as a real danger.”
“Is that bad?” Camila replied.
“Well since he’s strong enough to kill you, yes. I’d bet on you in a fight, but it wouldn’t be a sure thing. No reason to get more real enemies than you need. Stick to more general insinuations,” Helena said.
Camila’s grin faded. “Alright. Don’t really want to kill him anyway. Not that bad,” Camila said.
“Well isn’t that touching,” Sui An said. Helena gave the woman a glare. Speaking of people that probably should be dead. “So I take it you’ll be running off to play hero?”
“And kill the thing hunting you. Meaning you can leave us alone and I can stop protecting you,” Helena replied. “Will you be accompanying us? I can’t offer much protection beyond the weak wards here while I’m out.” She didn’t want to take the fox demon with her, but the fake angel had proven capable of breaking into her home before. She was bound to warn the woman.
Camila hopped closer. “We really going to drag her around and protect her?”
Sui An’s ears twitched “I’ll take my chances. There are plenty of good places to hide should it come here.”
Well that made Helena’s life easier. She threw on her traveling pouch and grabbed her keys before the kumiho could change her mind. “Let’s go find and hurt someone, Camila.”
“Sounds like fun.”
A few minutes later they were outside the address Gold Rat Wizard Hsu had given them. Sure enough there was a Venetian bank there, advertising ‘Christian Friendly Loans.’ Helena vaguely wondered if they were actually avoiding usury, or just giving the money to proper lenders while pretending to be friendly.
“Looks pretty normal, but those cultists were hiding under an orphanage,” Camila said looking the place over.
Helena shook her head. “It’s not in the building. The merchants here paid off some magician to make spellcasting around the building very difficult. Won’t work against someone trying to blow the place up, but I’d have to try very hard to stick a curse here. No lesser magician could work ritual magic in this building. Much less a ritual to cover a construct in true silver and animate it.”
Camila hummed in thought. “So now what? We gotta find who owned the place last?”
“We find where they took the true silver,” Helena said as she walked towards a small alley between the bank and the shipping magnate next to it. “They obviously aren’t doing the ritual here, so they must have a passage to their ritual site.”
“How do we find that?” Camila looked down the alleyway and paused when she saw a manhole. “Ah no….”
Helena sighed. “Yes. Just… fly.” If they stayed above the sewage they’d stay clean. She pulled out a mint leaf and crushed it, calling upon the spirits of the air. The scent surrounded the two of them. “This should probably handle it.”
“Better than nothing,” Camila said. “Need me to pick up the cover?”
“Please,” Helena said. She could probably manage it if she strengthened her arms, but it’d be awkward.
Camila floated at an angle, grabbed the heavy metal lid, and flipped it off easily. The metal hit the ground with a clang. The jiang-shi woman took a deep breath and hopped down. Helena followed.
She fell a good 15 feet before getting to the sewers. Fortunately this was further down the tunnels so she could float above the sewage. Her charm was working as well.
Camila looked around. “So now what?”
A good question. The sewer line looked pretty normal. There was no secret passage here. At least none visible. Helena conjured up a ball of light and looked around. That was the key. A section of the brick was newer than the rest of the wall. “There. We’ll have to break through.”
“That safe?” Camila asked. “Like, I don’t wanna be buried under bricks in sewage.”
A reasonable worry. Helena didn’t want to drown in filth either. “Their repair work can’t be as good as the wall, and if it was open before it obviously wasn’t important. Just don’t burst through it carelessly.”
“Makes sense.” Camila casually kicked the brickwork with a stiff leg. The brickwork shattered, echoing loudly in the enclosed tunnels. Both Helena and Camila flew away from the splash of sewage, but after a few seconds it became clear she’d opened another passage. “Nice!” Camila peered in and frowned. “Think we got a problem though.”
“What do you mean?” Helena moved forwards trying to see in.
Camila dived through the hole. “Come in. You’ll see.”
Helena followed in, her summoned light leading the way. As soon as she got inside she saw what Camila was talking about. “Damn. Just our luck.”
A long tunnel just above the sewers level stretched out. The ceiling was only four feet high, forcing Camila and Helena to both float at an angle to fit. Behind them was a small sub basement, the floor above probably leading to the bottom of the bank. Down the middle of the passage a rail line ran. Something perfect for moving a large shipment of silver somewhere else.
And in front of them was a huge mass of earth and loose rock, sealing the passage. Whoever had used the passage before did not want to be followed. “Well that’s annoying. I guess we’re doing this the hard way.” She reached into her pouch and pulled out her compass.
Camila tried to move to get a view of the device. “Cool idea but how do we know it doesn’t turn after the rocks?”
“We don’t,” Helena admitted. “But it’s a start. At the very least we know what part of the city they aren’t in.” She checked the needle now that it had stopped. West NorthWest. “A very large part of the city that they aren’t in. The government district is that way, and they didn’t go there.”
“Well we got what we wanted. Let’s get outta here before your air freshener runs out,” Camila said.
“A very good idea.” Helena turned and flew out the hole, then out of the sewers, Camila hot on her heels.
She pulled out her compass against when she got to the surface, working to line up where the tunnel was headed. “Could you put the manhole cover back please?” she asked Camila as the other woman popped out of the sewers.
“Sure thing.” Camila floated over again to get the cover. She’d nearly placed the iron disc back in it’s slot when the clang of bells rang out over the Immigrant Realm. Camila froze, her body locking up.
Helena swore. How could she have lost track of time? The sound of bells reminded Camila that she was dead. Helena reached into her pouch for something to deafen the noise.
As her hands closed around a cowrie shell, light burst through the alley. The angel! Screams tore through the air as Helena spun towards the construct. It was charging at Camila, sword out.
Like hell!
Helena pulled the shell out and threw it at the angel. “Neptune’s wrath!” she screamed, calling out to the sea that spawned the cowrie. A serpent formed of seafoam roared as it poured out of the shell.
With a flash of blinding light the sword flashed out and cleaved through the sea monster. But the water ignored the cut and slammed into the fake angel. Low power spell probably wouldn’t affect it, but the impact forced the construct back.
Camila! She rushed forwards to grab her friend. The jiang-shi was frozen solid, but still hovering. Helena pulled her back, away from the angel. Soon the bells would stop and Camila would be able to fight. She just had to hold out until then.
The light snapped forwards again and Helena fell back, away from the sword blow. The angel overextended and she stepped back forward, summoning all her hatred into her left hand. “Break,” she hissed as she punched the creature in its center.
Her knuckles slammed into metal with a clang as the dark curses around her fist snuffed out. That damned truesilver again. She’d probably hurt herself more than it. At least the creature staggered.
Pain ripped through her body as a wing slammed into her. She hit someone behind her as she was thrown out of the alley to land in the street. Camila, she must have hit Camila she thought as her vision spun. Her wards had saved her, but she was still feeling terrible.
She pushed herself upright just in time to be blinded by the angel. The sword rose above her head. Helena called out to Hecate and began summoning power, but could she break the creature’s defenses in time?
A spear of white flame slammed into the angel from above. Metal screeched as the spell ground against the creature’s wings. Helena summoned her own black flame cursing the angel and all it loved to death as she flung it towards the light. The creature took wing, then vanished, leaving her fireball to fizzle out.
The bells stopped a second after and Camila hopped to her feet, screaming out an unintelligible string of Portuguese expletives. Helena could sympathize, but now probably wasn’t the best time. She put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “We’ll get them next time.”
“Unless it’s noon. Then I’ll just be worthless again!” Camila snarled.
The Adena landed next to them. Helena figured he’d been the one to help. “That wasn’t a mistake. That was an attack,” the man said. Helena nodded in agreement.
“What do you mean an attack?” Camila snarled.
Helena pulled out the woman’s watch and held it up so she could see. “It’s ten fifty five now. Why was the cathedral sounding the bells more than five minutes early?”
Camila blinked. “Vixe Maria…” Her face fell. “I was kinda hoping it wasn’t them you know.” Helena gave the woman’s shoulder a squeeze. She knew what it was like to be betrayed by one’s pantheon. And unlike Helena, Camila hadn’t been raised on stories of the gods’ fickle nature.
“We still don’t know who is the spellcaster. While we know one of the silent god’s followers is guilty, there are likely many more who are innocent,” the Adena said. “And with the thing needing only Pride to be complete, it would be foolish to leave this to the police.” He folded his arms. “We will need to work together on this hunt.”
Helena wanted to be excited but the close shave meant she was mostly trying to calm down. Her side still hurt from the wing strike. “Agreed.”
“Aren’t we still totally in the dark?” Camila pointed out. “Like, you’re going to need the police to search the building anyway. They aren’t gonna let us investigate the cathedral.”
It was unfortunately true. There wasn’t anyone she could talk to in order to get access. And she couldn’t brute force her way in without drawing a lot of attention and getting herself in trouble. If it was a smaller organization she could trick someone into letting her in but…
Wait she did have someone she could trick into letting them in. And probably finding the guilty as well.
“I have a plan,” Helena said.
“You will have to explain it after the police finish questioning you,” the Adena said, pointing to where a number of men in uniform were running over.
“Not bad response time,” Helena said. It was too bad she’d have to lie to them about who was responsible for this.
Camila frowned. “Wait, like, won’t they be questioning you too?” She looked over and found the Adena had disappeared. “Oh. That’s kinda annoying. Was way cooler in the comics when Batman did it to someone else.”
“Those sorts of theatrics are always more fun when you’re the one doing it,” Helena agreed. She sighed and waved to the police. “Well at least this will be fast,” she said.