Author: me alsome

Helena had only gotten a few pages into her research when someone knocked at the door of the office she was currently living in.  She looked up to see Chris, carrying a few pillows.  “We finally managed to get a shipment out to the office.  Figured you two might like something better than couch cushions.  Wish we could get real beds somewhere but this is all still ‘unplanned overtime.'”

“Oh, thanks!”  Camila hopped over to grab the pile.  “So you guys are doing a lot of overnight shifts then?”

Chris sighed.  “There’s a gang war.  And the regular scum don’t stop committing crimes just because the Triads are murdering each other.  There’s a lot of work to be done.  Even the paper pushers in the big building are helping out.”

“Enough to get the captain to act?” Helena asked.  She hoped so.  The waiting was interminable.

“From your lips to God’s ears,” Chris said as she stretched.  “Until then we’ll just have to keep building a case.  Arrest the people we can build a case on and hope that the Triad’s lawyers and magic tricks are tied up in the war.”

Helena perked up at that.  “Magic tricks?  What exactly are they doing?”  It seemed strange that the Gold Rat Wizard would commit crimes himself.  That was what underlings were for.

“Yeah, whenever one of the people we pick up manages to spit out a confession somehow every tape recorder breaks, the notes catch fire, and everyone in the room forgets what the suspect said.  Which leaves us empty handed.”  She grimaced.  “Never happens to the Inspector, but the rest of us mortals can’t even talk to the bastards.”

“Interesting.”  That sounded like a very complex spell.  One that would be difficult to trigger remotely.  “Aren’t your cells warded against magic?”

The policewoman waved her hand noncommittally.  “We’ve got some protections but they won’t buy us the stronger wards.  We have to rely on blessed handcuffs, but you can’t just keep people shackled if you aren’t holding them for magical crimes.”

“How do you keep magicians in jail at all?” Camila asked.  “Like, if they can just magic themselves out whenever they want.”

“We send them upstate.  They’ve got fancy jail cells in the big prisons.  But we don’t rate.”  Chris shook her head.  “Those toys are for the rich bastards across the river.  Not us.”

Helena put down her pen.  “I’m curious as to how the Triads work the spell to begin with.  That sort of magic is difficult.  And the Gold Rat Wizard isn’t the type to openly interfere with an investigation like that, so they’d have to be relying on a lesser mage.”

Chris grinned.  “Well we might have a cocky bastard in custody right now.  We’ve been waiting for Kilduff to get a free moment to question him, but if you’d be willing to lend a hand, I could do it myself.”

“Trying to get as much help from the witch while she’s still around?”  Helena chuckled.  Well it was a reasonable request.  And did really want to know the trick.

“Ha!  Looks like you got played, Helena.”  Camila waggled her hands.  “Can I watch too?  Kinda interested myself.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to watch from outside.  Can’t bring two civilians in the room.” Chris said as she led them down the hallway.  “This is technically legal, but I’m pushing the limits of internal policies.  It’s just we need to press this guy now.  There’s nothing we can book him for, so can only hold him for another six hours before he walks out with just a ticket.”

Helena stared at the policewoman.  “You’ll just let him go?  Why?”

“Do you want to live in a city where the police can just keep people in jail as long as they feel like?” Chris asked.

“It kinda sucks, and it doesn’t actually get rid of crime,” Camila said.  “Trust me.”

“I’m well aware,” Helena said.  “I’m just not used to places where the people in charge see unlimited power as something to be avoided instead of a goal.”  She shook her head.

Chris gave a grim snort.  “The true fantasy inside the Immigrant Realm.”

They stepped onto the main floor, Chris heading towards the counter that held beverages.  The place was louder than before, police calling across the floor the exchange information on suspects.  Helena hung to the sides to try to avoid the worst of the noise.

“A few rules before we head in,” Chris yelled over the din as she grabbed two cups of coffee.  “Don’t ask any questions.  In fact it’d be best if you didn’t talk to the suspect at all.  Just tell me what he’s doing.”

“And stop any magic I assume?” Helena added with a smirk.

Chris nodded.  “Please.  And make sure the recording equipment doesn’t break.  I want to have ironclad proof we didn’t so much as raise our voice at him.”

The policewoman led them to a side room.  Camila leaned on the wall opposite the door and waved.  “Have fun.”

“I’ll try to make it interesting,” Helena said as Chris opened the door.

The room was simple.  A featureless white cube with a table and four chairs.  The light was just a little too bright.  The man sitting down across from them was Chinese, wearing a black buttoned shirt and trousers.  He was thin and wiry, bearing none of the fat merchants of every domain seemed to acquire.  As they entered he turned his gaze towards them both, then dismissed Helena and Chris with a snort.

Helena slumped in one of the chairs while Chris sat across from the man.  The policewoman offered one of the cups of coffee to the man.  “Sorry about the wait Mr Cao.  We’ve had a lot of murders recently.”

“Well I know nothing about them,” Mr Cao replied.  “I’m just a businessman.  I have nothing to do with murders.”

He idly fiddled with his kirin pin, and Helena took a closer look at it.  It had the feel of magic, but there weren’t any active spells.  She peered closer, ignoring the world around her as she focused.

There was no magic on the pin itself, but it was connected to something else.  Probably an identical statuette linked with taoist ritual.  Something that would let a ritualist with access to the other statue cast spells through the pin as if they were present.  A clever trick.  Hsu must have set it up so his underlings could do all the dirty work for him.  She’d run into something similar recently, but this connection was much weaker.

Helena reached out with her power and blocked the link.  That should keep any magic from flying through.  She would have liked to see if anyone was monitoring the statuette still, but leaving a conduit like that open was dangerous.

She focused back on the room just in time to hear Chris start her interrogation in earnest.  “We’ve found opium in your warehouse.  You aren’t going to get off this time.  Maybe if you talk a little about your bosses we can keep you out of jail.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mr Cao replied.  “Obviously one of my newer workers was hiding it there.  And I no longer work for the trade consortium.  I’ve joined with a few other businesses to create a new trade group.”

Helena couldn’t help but snort at that.  Chris gave her a look before continuing, “So you’re working for Long Zhou Di then.  Well isn’t that good to know.  No lawyers coming to save you, and no magic to muddle my head.”

The man laughed.  “You’ll find the Living and Undead Dragons are far greater magicians than the Gold Rat Wizard.  But then, you should know that already from the corpses in your morgue.”

“So you do know something about the murders,” Chris said with a grin.  “Please, go on.”

Mr Cao frowned, then grinned again as he twisted the kirin pin.  “I forgot.”

“I cut his connection to the Living Dragon,” Helena said to Chris.  She smirked as horror slowly slipped over Cao’s face.  “They won’t be able to hear any codewords, and no spells will be coming through.”

The man collapsed back into his chair.  He shakily grabbed hold of the coffee and stared into its depths.  Chris cleared her throat.  “So, about your new contacts…”

With a sudden jerk the man threw the cup of coffee into Helena’s face.  She closed her eyes tight but searing heat still splashed across her face.  She fell to the ground trying to wipe away the burning liquid.

She’d cleared her eyes just in time to see Chris falling down.  The woman dropped right on top of Helena, cushioned only by Helena’s wards.  As she tried to get up, Mr Cao threw open the door and rushed through.

Only to stagger back as he ran face first into Camila.  The Brazilian woman caught the man by the shoulders and frowned at him.  “Hey, ya can’t just cut and run y’know.”

Mr Cao screamed in horror and fainted.

“Uh, whoops.”  Camila let the man fall to the ground as Helena and Chris picked themselves up.  “Wasn’t expecting that.”

“You’re a nightmare come to life for him,” Helena said, wiping the last of the coffee off her face.  It felt like she’d gotten a sunburn, but fortunately the damned liquid had cooled physically before she’d gotten it splashed on her.

Chris shook her head, then pulled out some cuffs.  “Well any confession we get out of him today’s just gotten ruined.  But attacking a police officer and resisting arrest is going to put him away.  So it’s something.”  She moved over to restrain the unconscious man.  “Thanks for the assistance.  And sorry I didn’t react in time.  Didn’t have him pegged as a runner.”

“Neither did I.  Stupid of me,” Helena admitted.  She looked at the stain on her light peplos.  “Fortunately I got away with coffee stains instead of blood.”

Camila blinked then nodded.  “Yeah.  Be really sad if you fought me to a standstill just to get stabbed by a smuggler.”

Stabbing might have been safer.  Out loud she said, “Take that kirin pin off him and lock it in a safe box.  That’s the magical link they’ve been using on you.”

“Aha.  Good to know.”  Chris quickly removed the ornament.  “Thanks for your help again.  Sorry we didn’t get more, but any bit helps.  I’ll drag him back to the cells and tell the Inspector.  See if that helps our warrant along.”

“Good luck,”  Helena frowned at the stain.  “I’ll head back to my room and look into cleaning my dress.”

Helena hurried up the stairs poking at the stain.  As she feared, the stain resisted her attempts to just magic it away.  She was only mediocre at cleaning magic, and the material was naturally resistant.  “I’m going to need some soap,” she muttered.

Camila coughed lightly behind her.  “So your bane is actually coffee?  Like, that’s the only reason I can think of that someone could hit you in the face with it.”

A shiver ran down Helena’s spine.  She didn’t like the idea of anyone knowing her bane.  But she forced the fear down.  Camila had figured it out fairly.  And Helena trusted the woman.  The bond between them wasn’t one between master and servant, but it was still a bond.

“Yes.  But don’t tell anyone about it.”  Helena poked at the stain again before pulling off her hat to summon her cleaning supplies.  “The flowers are the only part that grants immunity, but any part of the plant resists my magic.”

“My lips are sealed,” Camila said.  “Need any help with the stain?”

“Keep anyone from blundering in while I’m changing so I can give this dress a good soaking,” Helena replied.

Camila grinned.  “No problem.”

They had reached the police station by the time Helena finished her explanation.  “And that’s why cell phones don’t work here.”

Judging from Camila’s expression the jiang-shi wasn’t convinced.  “All I’m getting is ‘because I say so.'”

“Not me.  Reality,” Helena replied.  “That’s the basis of most natural laws.  Because reality says so.  You’re just used to the natural laws in your home realm.  Here things are different.”  She grimaced.  “Be glad the rules aren’t flexible.  Those realms are troublesome.  Gravity switching makes me sick to my stomach.”

Camila shook her head.  “None of that makes any sense to me.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t,” Helena said as they walked into the building.  “You have to learn when things will make sense, and when you have to improvise.”

“Heh.  Suppose that’s life,” Camila said.

A thin young man in an ill fitting uniform walked up to them.  “Excuse me?  Are you Ms. Aoede and Ms. Barbosa?”  Helena nodded.  “The Inspector wanted you two to meet him at the morgue.”

Camila grinned.  “Like, if they wanna know how I died they can just ask.  They don’t need to check my corpse.”

As amusing as her new friends’ jokes were, Helena had a better guess.  “The gang war’s started.”

The policeman flinched.  “Can’t say.  But we have some people killed by magic.  He’d like you to take a look.”

“Right.”  Helena wasn’t looking forward to this, but it was probably necessary to put the Long brothers away.  “Take us there.”

“So this is what you do?  Like a magic detective?” Camila asked as they followed the officer through the tunnels.

Helena grimaced.  “I’m a freelancer.  Kilduff normally hires a priest for this.  I guess he just wants his five hundred dollars’ worth while I’m stuck here.”

Camila’s jaw dropped.  “You’re doing this for five hundred dollars?  Do you get hazard pay when people start trying to kill you?”

“I wish.  Still it’s not as bad as you think.”  Helena pulled out a dollar coin.  “Our dollars are worth far more than the electronic ones.  The Immigrant Realm uses real silver after all.”

“That’s not how currency works,” Camila muttered as she shook her head.  “But okay I guess that makes some sense.  Gonna take awhile to get used to the new prices.  Well when I get money.  Or a job.”  The jiang-shi perked up at that.  “Know any good jobs by the way?”

That was a painful question.  Helena settled for shaking her head.  “No.”

Their arrival at the morgue saved her from any more questions on the job front.  Kilduff was standing outside, fiddling with his cigarette carton.  “So you’re back.  What did that rat Ling Wei Hsu have to say?”

“Apparently there’s a gang war in the Triads.  But they’re still scum so I can’t have my friends help,” Helena replied sweetly.

“And here I was trying to cut back on smoking,” Kilduff muttered.  “Well, that explains the bodies.  If you’d be so kind as to tell me what killed this lot, we can add the tally to the charges when we finally catch the two.”

Camila hopped forward.  “Kinda strange they’re killing people personally.  Like, when you’re the boss you get other losers to murder people for you.  It’s one of the perks, right?  Also keeps the cops from arresting you.”

“The lads probably don’t have enough people to get away with that.  A small blessing.”  Kilduff pocketed the cigarette pack.  “A very small blessing because they still had enough thugs to fill morgues two and three with corpses.  These are just the ones that were killed with magic.  Bullet and knife wounds the lab boys can handle on their own.”

“Well then.  Let’s see what we can find,” Helena walked into the morgue.

There were seven shrouded figures in the morgue this time.  Recently killed too, judging from the death curses that swirled around the corpses.  Camila shifted beside her.  “Something’s wrong about those bodies,” the jiang-shi woman said.

“Which one’s specifically?” Helena asked.

“Uh…” Camila blinked and stared at the figures.  “That one, those two and the one on the end.  They’re all… empty.”

“Probably drained of chi,” Helena said before walking up.  She grabbed the gloves again, then checked the bodies.  All four were weathered and leathery.  Two had shoulder bruises, while the other two had gunshot wounds.  “The Undead Dragon must have drained the wounded.”  She realized Kilduff wouldn’t know the magician’s title and added.  “Long Jiao Han that is.”

“Figured the monster would have his brother to keep him hopping about,” Kilduff said.  “Why would he want to commit murders that could be traced back to him?”

Helena gestured towards Camila.  “Power.  Every person Long Jiao Han drains gives him more chi.  Chi that he can turn into magic.  Now that he’s conscious again, he’ll be catching up on his spellcraft.”  Because of her hard work.  No good deed went unpunished it seemed.

She waved away the miasma to see if there was any other magic on the bodies.  Then she stepped back as the curses snapped at her like an angry dog.  “Know your place,” she whispered as she crushed the dark energy with her left hand.  She looked over the drained corpses again, peering closer at the curses around them.  “Have you blessed these corpses, Kilduff?”

“They aren’t exactly Catholic, so we don’t do that,” Kilduff said.

“Start,” Helena replied as she pulled out a small phial of oil.  “The bodies will rise as undead.”  She placed the oil on the brow of each corpse, calling upon Hades to keep their bodies still.  As she did the dark miasma hiding within each body unraveled, dragged down to the underworld.

Camila hopped up.  “So they’d come back as zombies?”

“Lesser Jiang-shi.  But they’d be weak enough that no one could tell the difference,” Helena replied.  “A bullet through the skull would put them to rest.  After that people wouldn’t ask questions.”

Kilduff nodded.  “And no one would have known exactly how they died, because they’d have great big holes in their heads.  More clever than I thought.”  He gestured to the other corpses.  “Anything you can tell about the others, lass?”

Helena checked the bodies.  Two looked like they’d been crushed, probably by the brothers’ elemental dragon spell.  The last showed no wounds, but there was the lingering aura of necromancy.  “I think this one was killed by the same spell he used on Camila.  A Taoist curse that shuts down all the major organs.  You’ll need someone skilled in medicine to confirm it.”

“That proof one of our new Triad leaders is guilty?” Kilduff asked.

“No,” Helena admitted.  “It’s an easy spell.  Half the lesser mages in Chinatown could do the same.  It’s useless in a fight, but if a lesser mage caught someone by surprise the spell might work.”

Camila frowned.  “Useless in a fight?  That bastard killed me pretty fast.  I mean sure a gun would have killed me too but the spell seemed pretty good.”

“He’s a master like me, which means he can cast complex spells quickly.”  She made a mental note to explain the ranks of magicians to Camila another time.  “It’s bad for a fight, because a strong luck charm or a blessing would block it.  But the Living Dragon knows how to show off.  Remember all that work he did to make the Liang murder look like a zombie attack?  He understands how to manipulate people.”  She pointed at the corpse.  “And making someone drop dead just by pointing at them will make a bunch of criminals respect and fear you.”

“Good point!” Camila gave a twisted grin.  “So we should make a big show about pounding his face in?”

“You’ll do no such thing!”

Helena turned as Captain Jacobs walked into the room.  He glared at Camila, then leaned back in surprise.  “Wait.  Ryan, who is this woman?”

Kilduff rolled his eyes.  “The witness to the Liang murder.  It was in the paperwork I gave you yesterday, Captain.”

“Oh, of course,” Jacobs shook his head then straightened up.  “Never mind that!  Why is our morgue full?”

“Gang war sir,” Kilduff said.  “Long Zhou Di is trying to take a cut.”

Helena covered the corpse and walked over.  “A very bloody gang war that includes two magicians.  But if you help me investigate the underground you might be able to stop it.”

“You want me to send my men into a gang war?”  Jacobs shook his head violently.  “Not a chance!  Especially since they’re certain to have moved their base.  I won’t waste people on a meaningless strike.”

“Begging your pardon Captain, but I’ve been keeping track of where the rats are moving their goods,” Kilduff said.  Helena nodded in appreciation.  The Inspector apparently was one step ahead of the game.

Unfortunately Jacobs seemed to be two steps behind.  “How do you know where they are?” he asked.  “And where are they anyway?”

“I have sources,” Kilduff said.  “They’re in the middle of another move right now.  Don’t worry Captain, I’ll know as soon as they settle in.”

Captain Jacobs ground his teeth.  “You are not to act until we’ve gotten a clear picture about what’s going on.  Remember that!”

Camila’s grin shifted into a fierce snarl.  “The heck’s wrong with you?  You’ve got people dying in the streets!  Shouldn’t you do something about that?  They too poor to be worth your time?”

“We will act when the time is right.  Now Ms. Barbosa, I have to get back to work.  Ryan, keep on the case.”  Jacobs turned and walked out.

“The most helpful man on the force,” Helena said with as much sarcasm as she could muster.  She’d be furious if she hadn’t been so certain the man would screw everything up.  “Have you noticed his excuses for not acting have become flimsier and flimsier?”

Camila was shifting back and forth, still growling.  “I don’t trust the bastard.  Gives me bad vibes.  You sure he’s not crooked?  Acts like the cops back in Sao Luis.”

“He’s here because the lads at Internal Affairs couldn’t find any evidence to convict him,” Kilduff muttered.  “There’s no depth to his cowardice, but I can’t imagine the man being on the take.  Besides the Triads want the Long brothers taken care of, lass.  He’d be helping if they were paying him.”

Helena considered the matter.  She trusted Kilduff when it came to the police, but she found herself agreeing with Camila’s instincts more.  “We’ll just have to work on our own investigation.”  She turned to Camila.  “Let’s go back to my room.  I want to talk with Lyudmila and the others.  Maybe there’s something magical we can use to catch the Triads off guard.”

“For once I’ll just wish you luck with that, lass.”  Kilduff finally pulled out a cigarette and lit it.  “I’ll be here trying to keep the city from falling into chaos.”

“Good luck,” Helena said to the Inspector.  And she meant it.

So why don’t magicians run everything? After all they can do anything. And while the essence of magecraft is arrogance, it’s not impossible for mages to work together. The answer is because the gods don’t let them. And the principal factors behind that are priests.

What is a god?

A very fuzzy question. A god can be everything from the spirit of an old rock, a mover and shaker like Zeus, way on up to the silent presence of the Judaeo Christian faith. From a magical standpoint, a god is anything that gains power from the belief of their worshipers. A god can have their own power in addition to that, but they gain strength through faith.

Gods tend to have powers relative to the baseline strength of magic, and how well known and popular they are in a realm.

What is a priest?

Again the term is fuzzy, but it boils down to people who the gods use as enforcers of their will. Most gods are a powerful force, and many of them can in fact be in multiple places at once. But it’s still impossible to keep track of everything required to run a realm personally. And a lot of Gods are highly invested in running a realm. You can’t just leave a place like Hellenic Greece, the pre Ragnarok Norse Realms, or even Warring States China and expect it not to change. Humanity is driven to innovate and press forwards. Which means someone’s gotta throw out the foreign weirdos, mages, and conquerors before they ruin your perfectly arranged city states.

Priests serve as the conduits to do that. Unlike mages who have to invest personal power, a priest can just ask their god for backup, and the full might of a deity gets unleashed on the person in smiting range. Assuming the deity wishes to unleash that power of course. Letting humans call upon massive power on a whim leads to indolence and abuse, so most deities limit how often they answer prayers. Either by forcing a cost upon the priest or punishing those who get too greedy.

This leads a lot of priests to learn other talents, such as minor magic or how to manipulate demons and ghosts. This isn’t frowned upon too much in pantheistic systems, but can weaken a monotheistic priest’s faith, depending on the tenets they hold to.

Power from Ignorance

Magicians and priests both rely on belief, but while a magician has to believe in their personal power, a priest believes in the power of their god. Similarly, while a magician needs to understand something to properly wield their magic, frequently the less a priest understands something the more likely they are to believe their god can accomplish it. A priest of Apollo may have an easier time curing ebola than a scraped knee, because it’s easier for them to believe a sickness can be wished away than for a wound they see with their own eyes to just vanish.

And of course in the end the goal of a priest is to keep their god’s realms running as planned. So in general they’re conservative and strongly invested in the local order. Some deities are exceptions. Hecate doesn’t care if her clerics cause a bit of a fuss, and those chosen by Loki are looking for trouble. But in most realms priests are the boot keeping everyone else down. For better and worse.

Types of Priest

In general there’s three types of priest. Not so much in terms of power or even action, but how they see themselves in relation to the world.

Shamans are considered the oldest type of priest, but they are in no way the most primitive or weakest. The unique feature of these priests is they tend to act more as intermediaries. Shaman type priests often work with smaller deities and spirits, though they can call upon mightier ones as well. This lack of a primary patron means they can’t just toss down a god’s wrath at whim, but it gives them great flexibility. A prime example is Aoi. While she needs to perform tiring rituals to call the gaze of Inari or Amaterasu, nearly every kami in the Immigrant Realm knows and respects her, and she can call upon their favor to do things other priests and even mages would be hard pressed to duplicate. In addition most shamans are mages in their own right, some even crossing over to immortality.

From the Oracle at Delphi or a poor man keeping the village patron shrine, most of the travelers between realms consider the temple priest to be the glue that holds ancient realms together. These priests tend to follow polytheistic faiths, and dedicate themselves to increasing the majesty of their chosen deity. They infight, meddle and generally only work together when they get pointed at something they need to stomp. But because they expect their deities to wreak havoc on a whim, they tend to be very strong. Faith comes easy to them. At least faith in smiting. Helena actually counted as one of these priestesses, before she did some nonsense and shifted to more shamanistic pursuits. Hecate’s more of a ‘do your own smiting’ kinda deity though.

Finally, monks are the most common priest in monotheistic realms, or those with strong Buddhist sensibilities. While monk is an odd term to give to, say, the vicious assholes of the Inquisition, the main difference between these priests and the others is the distance between them and their god. ‘Monks’ tend to believe their gods are all powerful, and usually interact with the world through portents and visions, rather than face to face meetings. Which means their power comes down almost purely to faith. In areas where magic is rampant that faith can quickly be rewarded by shutting down a rival priest or mage. In many realms however that faith is tested by long silence. Inspector Ryan Kilduff technically counts as a monk, though his powers are weak and he’d dismiss the title. Still his faith lets him counter magic and harm ‘evil.’

The mosque and the cathedral were only a few blocks from Aoi’s house in the middle of the merchant district.   The two monuments to the Abrahamic faith were the largest in the city.  In fact the builders had made a pact to build them exactly the same height, though their sons had gotten into a fight two decades later about whether the stone cross at the top of the cathedral should count.  Both buildings had large plazas, creating something of a public park between the two.  It was a good place for a meeting.

“So like I really want to ask you about that angel, but are you totally sure this isn’t a trap?” Camila asked as they headed down the street.  “Like they aren’t just luring you outside so they can do a drive by?”

“Drive by?” Helena blinked at the jiang-shi.

Camila seemed off put by Helena’s cluelessness but rallied fast.  “Drive to someone you don’t like, shoot from the car, drive away.”

“Oh.”  It was impressive how efficient outside world people could be about murder.  “An interesting idea, but worthless against us.  You’re immune to bullets and I can survive being hit by a catapult.  Also cars are filled with flammable liquids.”

“You seemed pretty hurt when I kicked you in the gut,” Camila pointed out.  “No offense.”

Helena smiled grimly.  “You hit harder than a catapult.  And don’t worry about it.”  She spotted blue robes among the crowd and started walking in that direction.  “Anyways Gold Rat Wizard Hsu is here already, so it’s probably not a trap.  Still he’s going to either ignore or insult you.  Try not to snap his neck.”

“I’ll do my best,” Camila said cheerfully.  Helena hoped the woman meant it.

Ling Wei Hsu strode up to meet them from where he’d been waiting in the shadow of the mosque.  “You were supposed to help solve this matter, not make it into a bigger mess!” Hsu snapped jabbing a finger at her.

“Good afternoon to you as well,” Helena replied sweetly.  “If you want this settled you can just look the other way while my friends and I destroy the Living Dragon.”

“Ha!”  The man snorted in annoyance.  “Well he will get no more support from us.  Living Dragon Long Zhou Di has decided he and the newly revived Undead Dragon should form a competing business group.  Unfortunately, some of the more young and foolish members of the organization have joined him.”  Hsu folded his arms.  “In short your foolish heroism has created a greater threat for all of us!  You should have taken his powerbase and killed him quickly.”

“If you bastards hadn’t allowed that bastard to puppet me around you wouldn’t be in this mess would you!” Camila snapped.  Helena and Hsu both stared at the woman as she continued her rant.  “You fed him money, you gave him thugs, and you protected him from the police.  Helena rescued me.  She didn’t treat me like a tool!  Not like you disgusting pigs and that trashy bastard!”

Camila’s face stayed twisted in rage for a moment longer, and then the fury was gone.  All smiles.  The bystanders who’d stopped to see what was happening cautiously went back to their lives.  “Sorry ’bout the noise,” Camila chirped to Helena.  “I wanted to be angry for a bit.  It’s good for my health no?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Helena replied.  Camila’s outburst was probably a good sign.  She turned back to Hsu.  “So then, Gold Rat Wizard.  Can I finally use my full power?  Or do I have to keep jumping through your hoops?”

Hsu stroked his beard.  “Hm…  We will stay out of your way.  But the situation is… messy.  My associates lack control of the streets.  Our fellows across the river have decided to wait and see how the matter ends.  If the Living Dragon and his brother are humiliated by a single magician everyone involved with him will be shamed.  They would be forced to crawl back to us and apologize for their foolishness.  Those that considered him a legitimate enterprise would lose face.”  He folded his arms.  “However if a group of magicians attacked and destroyed his new business enterprise, there would be no shame.  Just a war with another rival business organization.  His enterprise would be seen as legitimate, and his killers considered a threat.”  He shrugged.  “Obviously I cannot stop you, whatever your choice.  Nor do I really care to.  But I am just one man in one trade group.  Keep my warning under advisement.”

Camila narrowed her eyes and looked over at Helena.  “What’s that in normal speak?”

“He’s saying if I let Lyudmila and Kseniya help me blow the bastards to tiny bits, people will try to murder us,” Helena replied.  She turned her glare back to Hsu, idly musing over curses that might get through his defenses.  “Of course this doesn’t make any sense.  Long Zhou Di doesn’t want to be part of the Triads.”

“Hm?”  Hsu raised an eyebrow.

“It’s obvious.  He was using you.”  She motioned towards Camila.  “He needed money.  Lots of money.  Powerful Jiang-shi are expensive, and he wanted only the best body for his dead brother.  He owed you quite a bit I imagine.”

The Triad magician nodded.  “Not me, but some of my associates.”

“And he needed even more money, because he wanted to return his brother’s mind to his body,” Helena continued.

“Which you foolishly gave him for free,” Hsu muttered.

“I’m fine with that part,” Camila said.

Helena smiled at the woman before continuing.  “In any case that means he’s done.  He doesn’t need you anymore.  Why not skip town with the money?  You aren’t going to track him down.  I can’t track him down.  There’s no reason for him to try to fight you for control of the Triads.”

“Almost clever, Curse Gunner,” Hsu said.  “Your reasoning is good, until the end.”  He raised a finger.  “The Triads offer order.  But young fools see only one thing.”

“Money,” Camila said.

“Ah.”  Helena rubbed her chin.  Of course.  Magicians were hardly immune to greed.  She’d often wished for just a few more dollars for her research.  “And he has a very important research project.”.  

Hsu nodded.  “He wishes to give his elder brother power.  To stand together as equals.  And he sees our businesses as the tool to accomplish his goals.”

“Which means his underlings are ambitious bastards who are plotting to take over as soon as he leaves,” And that was why she needed to shame them by fighting Long Zhou Di solo.  Because otherwise they’d see killing her as the way to claim the top spot.  Helena sighed.  “Great.  Do you have anything else tell me, or are you just here to make my life more difficult?”

“I have both a gift and a warning for you, Curse Gunner,” Hsu said.  “We will remove all of our pressure from the police.  That will give you some assistance.  However,” Hsu raised a single finger, “it is likely Long Zhou Di has his own allies in the force.  He smuggled in two jiang-shi without being noticed by our normal informants, and his ‘luck’ avoiding patrols far outstrips his skill in divination.”

“Wonderful,” Helena shook her head.  “Are you sure he just hasn’t bought off your informants?”

Hsu grimaced.  “Portents are uncertain.  Ask me again in three days.”  Helena nodded.  The moon would change phase then.  A magician like Hsu would be able to perform powerful divinations.

Camila chuckled.  “Even the criminals are corrupt, eh?  Just like home!  Except the food isn’t as good.”

“I guess that’s it then,” Helena said.  “Tell your business associates they should perform better background checks before hiring.”

“Oh they have heard my opinion on the matter repeatedly,” Hsu snapped.  “Sadly, ‘I told you so’ is not as satisfying when your own money is being wasted.”

“Totally sucks, all you criminals losing money.” Camila said with a grin. “I’m tempted to cry.”

Hsu glared at the jiang-shi then whirled around.  “We have nothing more to discuss, and it is time for lunch.  You two should go gorge yourselves on fish entrails.”

The two watched as the man retreated.  “Like, is that an Chinese insult, or something he made up?” Camila asked.

“I have no idea,” Helena admitted.  “But he’s right.  We should get back to the precinct.  They’re going to ring the half hour bell soon, which will stun you for a good minute at this distance.”

“Let’s skip that,” Camila said as they walked back towards the government district.

About two blocks down a brass starling flittered onto Camila’s hand.  “Eh?”  Camila blinked at the bird.

Helena looked the construct in the eyes.  “You caught all of that, Kseniya?”

“Yes,” the bird replied with her friend’s voice.  “Lyudmila wants to know if you want our help anyway?”

“No.  He used a lot of flowery language, but the way he was talking it’s almost certain the Triads across the river would try to kill me if I had your help,” Helena replied.  “The Living Dragon has shown weakness in their organization, so they’ll be looking for an easy target to feel strong.  I need them terrified.  I’ll be safe if they think their pet magician is the only person who can save them from my wrath.”

The starling’s head shifted around a bit.  “Lyudmila’s creating some interesting new curse words.  Is there anything else we can do?”

“Yes,” Helena said.  “Just because you can’t fight doesn’t mean you can’t help.  There’s a group of fairies in the underground.  Get in contact with them and see if they can find out where the Living and Undead Dragons might be hiding.  They managed to sense the aura of undeath before, they might be able to do it again.”

“We’ll look for them.”  The starling bobbed its mechanical head, then flittered off back into the air.

Camila stared after the bird.  “That was super cool.  But why not use a phone?”

“Cell phones don’t work in the Immigrant Realm,” Helena said as she started walking back towards the police station.

“What?”  Camila blinked then started hopping after her.  “That can’t be.  Radio waves just exist.  They’re like a natural phenomenon.  And how do people stay in touch without phones?”

“I see we’re going to have another long talk about how magic works,” Helena said.  “Let’s get something in the marketplace so I can explain on a full stomach.”

Helena helped Camila sit, while the others took their places around the small table.  Kseniya spread out paper for everyone, while Aoi placed a brush and ink in the center of the table.

“So, like, I failed calligraphy in school.  I probably won’t be able to help out with the project,” Camila joked as they settled in.

“It’s okay,” Kseniya replied.  “You’re here because you get veto power over anything you don’t like.  It’s your life after all.”

Lyudmila folded her hands, “Which brings us back to the problem.  A jiang-shi can’t create lifeforce.  They can steal it from the outside world, or from another human.  Without taking energy in your body will shut down and you’ll go into torpor.”

Camila looked at Helena.  “You said I could get energy from eating real food, right?”

“That counts as stealing from the outside world.  Unfortunately it’s not a lot of energy,” Helena said.  “You could eat a whole cow in the morning and you wouldn’t make it through the night.  If the cow was alive at the time you might get enough chi.  But cows are expensive.”

“Eating a cow alive seems kinda messed up too,” Camila said.  She hummed in thought.  “What about an engine or battery or something?”

“So a magical generator,” Kseniya said.  “What kind of generator would it need to be?”

Aoi grabbed the brush and scribbled out a few characters.  “Earth and yin are required.  We have to design the spell to our strengths, but earth and yin are the core elements.  Those are keys to a jiang-shi’s existence.”

Lyudmila shrugged.  “Raw magic would work, but that’s always less efficient.  And efficiency is our biggest problem.  Still I don’t see how we can make an earth generator.”

Helena looked down at the paper and sighed.  “You’re right.  Metal or fire would be easy.  Water or wind I think I could have but something together.  But earth is beyond me.”  Earth was a stationary element in many respects.  Turning it into energy was hard.  Turning it into stable constant energy was even more difficult.  The energy of the earth was landslides and quakes, not forges and mills.  Helena was an accomplished elementalist twice over, but this was beyond her skills.

“Metal is different from earth?” Camila asked.

“Wu Xing,” Kseniya said.  “The eastern elements.  Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood.”

Helena nodded.  “That’s why I used lightning against you when we fought.  Lightning is wood aligned.  And wood destroys earth.”

“That’s weird.  But, hey!  I finally get why Sailor Jupiter threw around flower petals,” Camila said.  Helena didn’t get the reference but it sounded correct so she didn’t interrupt.  “Anyway what’s all that mean for us?”

“It means without a magician supplying you, you’re going to run out of energy.  Unless you’re willing to murder people,” Lyudmila said.  “I know you don’t like it Helena, but that’s the truth.”

Helena shifted uncomfortably.  That wasn’t what she wanted to hear.  Camila looked over at her.  “So what’s the deal with this connection?  There’s no range limit on it right?  We can just walk away and not worry about it, no?”

“Range isn’t an issue,” Helena said.  “But if I shut off the connection that would be it.  Unlike Long Jiao Han you can’t magic up your own chi supply.  I decide whether you get chi or not.  And I don’t like having that much control over people who aren’t sworn enemies.”

“Oh.”  Camila frowned.  “Yeah that seems kinda bad for me.”

Lyudmila shook her head.  “You’d also have a problem if Helena died.  That isn’t a problem for most witches, but with the number of enemies Helena it might be an issue.”

“You’ll just have to take over if someone manages to finish me off,” Helena said with a smirk.  Lyudmila twitched and glared at Helena.  It wasn’t fair to put her friend on the hook like that, but she knew Lyudmila wouldn’t refuse.  For all that Lyudmila complained about Helena’s hero complex, the woman was just as bad about meddling.

“Well, let’s see what we can figure out,” Aoi said.  “If nothing else it might help us find a spell to help Camila in other ways.”

Camila picked up a brush.  “I guess I’ll just have to wait then.  Maybe relearn how to write.  You don’t know how useful elbows are until you lose them.”

Aoi, Lyudmila and Helena worked together, sketching out power diagrams and theoretical reactors.  As they toiled Camila tried scribbling just anything on paper for a bit before Kseniya started showing off her mechanical bird constructs.

Under normal circumstances this would be a fun time.  Discussing minute magical details with her friends was something she missed, and Aoi’s addition to the group only made things more interesting.  But Camila’s rapid fire questions and occasional laugh only reminded her of the stakes involved.

Finally she flopped on the table.  “Nothing.  And I have to meet that damn Triad magician in an hour to see what he wants.”

“You’re going to what?” Lyudmila asked as she rubbed her temples.

“Maybe the Living Dragon and his brother have angered the Triads and you can let them handle it,” Aoi said.

Helena shook her head.  “My luck isn’t that good.  But since the Triads are my biggest handicap, I should at least listen to what he has to say.”

“I don’t like it, but if he gave his word…” Lyudmila sighed.  “I guess we’ll just have to wait on a solution.  It’s too bad none of us are any good at creating magical generators that won’t just fry undead.  I can’t bargain up one, and a curse reactor seems like a terrible idea.”

“Bargaining…”  Helena had a flash of insight.  She looked up at Lyudmila.  “You could set up a bargain between Camila and me!”

“Bargain?” Camila looked over.  “Don’t we already have this contract thingy?”  She shook her head causing the magic talisman to flutter.

Lyudmila slowly shook her head.  “Bargaining is a magical technique practiced mostly in Irish and Slavic realms.  It’s designed so magicians can offer fragments of their power to mystic creatures in exchange for unique magical abilities.  Gaining a rusalka’s voice for example.  Helena would still be the source of your magic, but she wouldn’t be able to blackmail you.  However!”  The other witch pointed a finger at Helena.  “It has to be a legitimate bargain.  You’ll have to ask for something in return.”

Helena rolled her eyes.  “Come on Lyudmila, I-“

“This isn’t me being a worrywart.  The spell requires it,” Lyudmila said.  “Something of value must be exchanged.”

Camila laughed uneasily.  “I, like, lost my wallet when I died, so all I’ve got is me.  Which kinda is what we’re trying to fix, right?”

Another dead end.  Helena rubbed her forehead in annoyance.  She’d thought this might at least work.

“Actually,” Aoi said hesitantly.  “You do have something else you can offer.  It’s useless for us, but it’s a tangible benefit.  You could give Helena the ability to drink chi.”

Kseniya laughed.  “Ah!  And a jiang-shi’s ability to drink chi is limitless.  Helena would gain the power, but Camila wouldn’t lose it.”

Camila blinked.  “Is that the breath drinking thing that makes me the worst kisser in the world?  Because, like, that isn’t a good thing.”

“Still, it’s a magical power so it works!” Helena smiled.  “That will solve one of our problems!”

Lyudmila’s frown slowly faded.  “I suppose.  I’ll just have to trust you to keep Helena alive, Camila.”  She stood.  “I don’t need to prepare anything for the ritual, so we might as well do it now.  If that’s okay with everyone of course.”

Helena nodded.  “It was my idea.”

“That ritual seems fine for shrine grounds.  I have no objections,” said Aoi.

Everyone turned to Camila, who hesitated.  “Hey Helena.  How much magic is this eating up?”

“Hm?  Why do you ask?” Helena said.

The jiang-shi tapped her fingers on the tabletop.  “Like… I just wanted to know how much power I was taking.  Like is this a big deal?  Or is it just like buying an extra cup of coffee every day?”

Helena hesitated judging the connection strength as well as her own.  “It’s the magical equivalent of having lost a pint of blood the day before.  Safe but noticeable in times of stress.”

“Except it’s constant.  It won’t ever ‘heal’,” Lyudmila muttered.  “Still Helena is very strong, and she has an affinity to undeath.  It won’t slow her down much, except in a fight.  It’s a good thing she doesn’t get into a death duel every three months!”

“That’s only happened once,” Helena said.  “And I will get stronger.  It won’t be this bad forever.”

“Oh.” Camila seemed pensive.  Then she chuckled.  “Well, guess I’ll just have to back you up!  Let’s do this.”  She shifted a hand in front of Helena.

Helena shook.  “Great.”  She turned to Lyudmila.  “Now what do we need to do for the spell?”

“One thing.  You have to agree to it.”  Lyudmila stood and pulled out a sheet of parchment.  She then laid it out between Camila and Helena and drew a knife from her pouch.  “I, Lyudmila Doroshenko, by my name and blood, by my power and lineage, stand witness to a bargain.  Do either of the parties have issue with this?”

“No,” Helena said simply.  Camila repeated the sentiment.

Lyudmila stabbed the knife into the parchment and it began to glow.  A circle of light bearing hard edged Slavic runes poured out of the parchment, surrounding the three women.  “Camila Correia Barbosa, you are offering the ability to drain chi.  Should you somehow lose this power, the bargain will be dissolved.  Until then you can not deny Helena this power, even if she uses it to commit the most horrid of crimes.  Do you understand?”

Camila frowned at Lyudmila’s harsh explanation.  But after a moment she nodded.  “Yeah, I understand.”

“Very well.”  Lyudmila looked over at Helena.  “Curse Gunner Helena Aoede.  You are offering enough magic for Camila to survive as a jiang-shi.  Should your magic be stolen, the bargain will be dissolved.  Until then that magic is lost to you, no matter how badly you desire it, or how badly you feel Camila misuses it.”  Lyudmila’s voice softened.  “Do you understand?”

Helena nodded.  She understood her friend’s worries.  It was a terrible deal.  But she was willing to make this sacrifice to stay true to herself.  

It helped that it really wasn’t that much magic at stake.  She had her own tricks.

“Very well.”  The parchment flared at Lyudmila’s declaration, and writing appeared on it.  Helena knew if she read the words it would be a full legal contact of their bargain.  “If you wish to complete the bargain, swear to it now.”

Helena went first.  “I, Curse Gunner Helena Aoede, swear by the power in my blood to abide by this agreement.”

Camila looked a little bewildered by the formality but she said, “I, Camila Correia Barbosa, give my word I will keep this oath.”

The light went out, and Helena blinked as her eyes adjusted.  The parchment lingered, then vanished as Lyudmila pulled out the knife.  “It’s done.”

“That was a lot more flashy than the stuff Helena’s been throwing around,” Camila said as she hopped back.  “Longer too.”

“Longer rituals allow more powerful and complex spells,” Lyudmila said.

“You’ve seen my combat spells,” Helena said, “Those have to be faster than the person trying to kill me.”

Camila nodded cheerfully.  “So is someone gonna try to kill us during the meeting?”

“I’m curious about that as well,” Lyudmila said.

“Probably not.  The meeting place is right between the Masjid Gibrael and the Cathedral of Saint Alban,” Helena said.

Aoi raised an eyebrow.  “Well, that is safe.  I can’t imagine anyone being foolish enough to fight there.”  She looked over to Lyudmila and Kseniya.  “An angel lives in Masjid Gibrael.”

Kseniya nodded in understanding.  “I’ll still have my birds keep a watch.  Just in case,” 

“Thanks,” Helena replied.  She preferred relying on her friends anyway.  Angels were troublesome.

The weather was miserable.  The sky was gloomy and threatening rain, but it refused to actually grant the earth below water.  Helena however was feeling pretty good.  The interviews with the police were all fairly short.  Helena and her new companion had even managed to grab breakfast at the market before heading to Aoi’s house.  Best of all, most of her wounds had healed.

On the other hand Camila was looking around warily as they moved through the marketplace.  “Are you sure it’s okay to go wandering around the city without police protection?  I mean, we didn’t have any issue ambushing you before.”

“It will be fine.  The streets are slightly dangerous.  But Aoi’s house is completely safe”  Helena shrugged.  “I’d be willing to take on every mage in the city in Aoi’s domain.  I’d offer to fight them all at the same time with Lyudmila and Kseniya there.  I wish he’d be dumb enough to attack us.”

“If you say so,” Camila replied.  She turned back to the people walking around and frowned.  “Hey, why’s everyone staring at me?”

Helena looked the other woman up and down.  “You’re the most out of place person I’ve ever seen.  Even here in the Immigrant Realm.”

The police had let Camila pick out a change of clothes from the donation box after she had finished questioning.  She’d chosen a close fitting shirt and trousers ensemble that apparently was normal in the real world.  Or at least so the jiang-shi had claimed.  Now she looked like one of the tourists from across the bridge, which made her talisman seal and rigid posture stick out even more.  Add in the fact that she was flying about three inches above the ground in order to avoid hopping everywhere and Camila stuck out like a sore thumb.

Of course Camila probably saw it differently.  “I’m out of place?” Camila looked around the market.  “There’s a jackalman selling chupacabra as pets over there!  There’s a demon offering wealth for people’s souls.”  Camila gestured to where Mr. Ythencial was peddling his wares.  “And there’s five fairies flying above us with water balloons.”

Helena chuckled as the fairies all groaned in disappointment and flew off.  “You should let fairies have their fun when they’re invisible.  Maybe pretend that you can’t see their chi.  And yes, you’re out of place.  You’re wearing clothes from a non magical realm, but you’re obviously a very powerful magical being.  Also you’re flying in public which means you’re clueless about city etiquette.  You’re supposed to walk when you can.”

“Really?”  Camila dropped to the ground then hopped forward a few times trying to keep pace with Helena before taking to the air again.  “Screw that.  That hopping nonsense is way too slow.  And what did you mean about seeing chi?  I’m not some Eastern martial artist here.  Capoeira was made in Brazil.”

Helena pointed to the seal attached to Camila’s forehead just below the woman’s short curly hair.  “Jiang-shi.  You sense people by seeing the chi from their breath.  Your brain will interpret it as sight.  You’ll want to practice it later so you can separate the two senses.”

Camila blinked a few times as she floated along.  “Okaaaaay then.  Guess today’s gonna be more ‘how to be undead in a magical world.'”

“Probably,” Helena replied.

“Would have been cooler if I’d got summoned to another world.  Even if I’d been sent off by truck-kun instead,” the woman muttered.  Helena was pretty sure she was missing something, but she let it slide.  They’d left the crowded streets of the marketplace for the parks and mansions of the merchant quarter, which meant they were close to Aoi’s house.

Behind the Hall of the Gods there was a smaller building.  Most people thought it was a large storage house.  After all it was just a wooden building with a few ropes hung around it.  There was a torii gate, but no visible shrine or donation box.  Not even a fountain for cleaning.  And the idea of a simple priestess living in the merchant district next to the biggest trading houses in the realm was unthinkable.

Aoi was good at breaking expectations.

Helena’s thoughts were interrupted as she stepped face first into an invisible wall.  It wasn’t physical, or even mental.  It was spiritual and it stopped her straight in her tracks without hurting her at all.  It was a trick she really wished she could learn.

Camila wasn’t as lucky.  There was a smell of ozone and the woman bounced back from the impact with the magical barrier.  “Ow!”  She gently reached forward and tapped on Aoi’s defenses.  “What the heck is this?”

“A ward against evil and impure spirits.  In other words, us,” Helena answered ruefully.  “She should drop them now that she knows we’re here.”

“Do your friends always slam your face into a wall when you come to visit?” Camila asked with a bit of an edge in her voice.

Helena shook her head.  “No.  Some of them are much more unreasonable.”  She looked over at the jiang-shi, “This barrier is why we’re safe.  Aoi’s not much of a fighter, but she’s one of the strongest humans alive when it comes to barrier magic.”  The invisible wall Camila was tapping suddenly stopped sparking.  “Step inside and you’ll understand.”

Camila hopped inside and her eyes flew open.  “Whoa!  This…”  The jiang-shi looked down at herself.  “I feel incredible!  Like, I knew I was stronger before, but now I actually feel stronger.  A huge level up.”

“That’s the power of Aoi’s domain,” Helena said before she stepped inside.

Power rushed over Helena’s body like a curtain of freezing water.  She could feel exactly how much magic was in her system, how much was flowing over to Camila.  Within the temple she could sense two giant presences, a blazing star of power and a sinking void that consumed magic.  And next to those terrifying presences a small pinprick of light.  The source of the strength that was pouring into her.

Helena took a deep breath and dampened all those senses, much like how she dampened her ability to see lesser curses.  She didn’t need the distraction.  When she’d cleared her mind she headed to the house, Camila hopping after.

The doors opened as they approached revealing Aoi in a simple plum yukata.  “Good morning, Helena.  And welcome to you as well, Miss.  Please come in.  There are many guests today so it would probably be best if we all introduced ourselves at once.”

“Thanks,” Camila and Helena both said as they entered.

The small living room inside was usually very sparse. Tatami floor and white walls.   A family shrine in one alcove, a table in the middle with tea on it.  A few ink paintings hung on the walls.  It would have seemed fairly empty without people.

Today it seemed crowded.  Lyudmila was sitting at the table, her expression that unique mixture of annoyance and joy Helena loved.  She’d stuck to her traditional witches’ dress, though Helena noted that Lyudmila had kept the thin gold circlet instead of a hat.  A pile of mystical tomes was sitting next to her.  

Meanwhile the right side of the room was taken up by the flight of small mechanical birds, everything from jays to finches, that hopped and fluttered about their green haired mistress.  It seemed Kseniya had been able to come.

“Hello, Lyudmila, Kseniya.  It’s been a while,” Helena said with a wave.

“Just long enough for you to do something incredibly stupid,” Lyudmila said.

Kseniya’s smile grew wider.  “We’re happy to see you.”  She turned her attention to Camila.  “But before we continue, why don’t you introduce your friend?”

Helena waited until Aoi joined the group around the table then went around the room.  “Camila these are my friends, Aoi Hoshimi, chief shrine maiden, Lyudmila Doroshenko, my best friend whether we like it or not, and Kseniya Doroshenko, the closest thing to a sane magician you’ll ever meet.”  She gestured to her new companion.  “Everyone, this is Camila Correia Barbosa, formerly of the outside world, a newly freed jiang-shi.  At least as free as I’ve managed to get her.”

“Ola,” Camila said, waving her hand awkwardly.  “Good to meet you all.  Especially meeting more magicians.  Since I’m gonna be around Helena a long time I wanted to find out if you’re all crazy and sarcastic.

“Just her,” Lyudmila said.

Aoi nodded.  “Yes.  Magicians only require sarcasm or overconfidence, not both.”

“Helena and my sister are overachievers,” Kseniya fake whispered to Camila.

“Good to hear!” Camila replied.  “Overachievers are the best people to have on your team.”

Lyudmila’s frown deepened.  “Until they go bounding out into danger.  Why didn’t you wait for us to arrive, Helena?  Your little plan nearly got you killed!  If Camila here had been a little bit slower you’d be dead!”

“That’s-”  Helena caught herself.  Lyudmila was understandably upset.  Rushing into the fight had been dangerous.  “I’m sorry.  But it couldn’t wait.  He said he had my bane Lyudmila.  He was threatening people I knew.”

“What?!” Lyudmila looked shocked.  “I hadn’t heard that.  Sorry.  If he had your bane…”  Her expression turned into a wry grin.  “I take it he made a mistake?”

“He used moly flowers.  I’m honestly mildly insulted,” Helena said.  A thought occurred to her.  “Oh Camila, could you hand your flower over to Aoi?  She can preserve it for later.  It’s worth a fair amount of money as a spell reagent.”

Camila flopped her stiff arms a bit.  “You put it in my left pocket, remember?  A little hard for me to reach…”

Helena winced.  Of course that would be a problem.  “Sorry.”  She pulled the flower out and handed it to Aoi.  Only deities could pick the flower safely, and it had a number of uses in herbalism.  It was worth two months’ rent on its own.

“Do you think he might figure out your actual bane?” Kseniya asked quietly.

“If he hasn’t figured it out already he probably won’t,” Helena muttered.  “It’s disgustingly obvious outside my home realm.”

“I remember how clever you thought you were when you chose it too,” Lyudmila said.

Helena glared at her friend.  “I don’t want to hear about youthful stupidity from you. Unless you want to compare immortality spells?”  Lyudmila raised her hands in surrender.

Aoi poured tea.  “As amusing as I find your friendly bickering, I imagine our new guest could use some attention.  Why don’t we discuss what we know about jiang-shi, and how we can use that to help Camila?”

“Thanks,” Camila said.  “It’d be really cool if I could get my arms to bend.  Or put on my own clothes.”  The woman awkwardly gestured to the tea down below her reach.  “Or eat without help.  And I’d really like to be able to practice capoeira again.”

“That’s going to be very difficult,” Aoi admitted.

“But we might be able to offer some help,” Kseniya said.  “I patched this spell together before we came to the realm.  It isn’t exactly what you want, but it could be useful.”

The young magician held out a scroll and Helena took it while Camila looked over her shoulder.  Kseniya’s penmanship was one of her weaker skills, but Helena quickly grasped the details of the magical matrix.  “This is reinforcement magic.  But designed as a power battery?”

“Yes.  I based it on my own spells,” Kseniya said.  “If you use that Camila will be able to store magical energy in her body.  If she releases a lot of it at once, she should regain complete mobility, for a limited time.”

Camila’s head snapped up.  “So I’d be able to change and stuff?  Great!”

Kseniya shook her head.  “I’m afraid not.  Once you start using the charge, you’ll use all of it.  The design is several reservoirs, but you’ll only be able to break it up into five pieces.  You could use it for normal tasks, but only five times a day.”

Helena tapped the runes, “It looks like their maximum value is based on my personal power.  Given the current magical drain I’d guess I could supply about two minutes in each reservoir so… ten minutes a day of free movement in two minute chunks.”

“Oh.”  Camila deflated a bit.  “Well I could practice.”

“That’s just what we thought up in a few hours,” Lyudmila said.  “And even if we can’t find a better spell, Helena’s skill and refinement will grow.  That means more and more time with unlimited movement.”

Camila brightened up at that.  “Right!  Gotta start somewhere.  This magic stuff is all over my head, so if I’m demanding a miracle just ignore me ‘kay?”

“There’s one big problem with this,” Helena said as she poured Camila a cup of tea, then bent the woman’s arm to let the jiang-shi drink.  “This assumes I’m the one giving her energy.  Which means I’d still be her ‘master’.  I don’t want Camila as ‘my’ jiang-shi.  She’s a person, not my slave.”

“I understand.  But creating a power source for a jiang-shi is very difficult,” Aoi said quietly.  “I don’t know anyone who has managed that.”

Lyudmila grimaced, “Before we handle that problem there’s something we should take care of first.”  She looked over at Camila.  “How are you feeling?”

Camila looked surprised at the question.  “Eh?  I’m doing great considering what’s happening.  I mean, I can’t bend my elbows and knees.  And I’m dead.  Oh and I’ll never get to see my family again.  But I’m not someone’s zombie puppet anymore so things are getting better.  Gotta look on the bright side, no?”

“That’s what I thought.  Aoi, could you read the instruction on the talisman?” Lyudmila said.

Aoi squinted at the writing.  “It’s roughly says ‘In the name of the underworld gods, by the will of Hades and Persephone, be the person you wish you could be.'”  Aoi blinked for a moment then gasped.  “Oh!”

“What?!” Helena looked between the two.  “What’s wrong with…”

She froze.  The wording alone didn’t make it obvious, but with Lyudmila’s questions she realized it.  She’d screwed up so badly.  How could she have made so many mistakes?!  Her hands began to tremble and she sat down.

“Huh?  What’s going on here?” Camila asked whirling around.

Kseniya opened her mouth to explain, but Helena managed to cut her off with a hand wave.  This was her fault.  She’d take responsibility.  “My spell didn’t release you from magical control.  It made it so you’re manipulating yourself.  These aren’t your emotions.  These are the emotions you want to have.”

Camila blinked a few times in confusion.  Then her face lit up in understanding.  “Oh. I get it.”  

The woman burst out laughing, leaving Helena blinking in confusion.  Was this part of the problem as well?  “Why is my huge mistake messing with your brain so funny?”

“Messing with my brain?” Camila shook her head.  “This is what I wanted to be like, right!  No moping.  No terror.  No self loathing.  It’s great!”  Camila smiled.  “What’s the big deal?  You should make one for yourself!”

“Uh, well.”  Helena paused then looked up at her friends.  “She’s got a good point.  What am I missing?”

Aoi shook her head.  “It’s not safe.  Even if you control your emotions, you need to release your anger and sorrow in some way to stay healthy.  There was a group of monks that used emotion dampening magics to break their ties with the world.  Eventually they all either went violently insane or starved to death because they weren’t interested in eating.”

“Yes.  It’s a big no no in the field of enchantment,” Lyudmila said.  “Too many people self medicate all their bad emotions away and either go berserk or end up as a smiling shell.  Moderation is key.  This is a unique enchantment so I can’t say how long you have before things go wrong but…”

Helena nodded.  “I need to think up a better enchantment fast.”

“Like, you can take your time with that, right?”  Everyone looked over towards Camila.  The woman’s smile was trembling.  “I wanna get used to the world and all that.  We should beat down that bastard who killed me first too, no?  Wouldn’t want to get culture shock at a bad time.”

Helena peered into the woman’s eyes.  She was terrible with people, but she could see fear there.  It was obvious even though she’d only known Camila for a single day.  “Maybe you’re overthinking this Lyudmila,” she said.  If Camila could feel fear, wouldn’t she be safe?

“It’s possible,” Lyudmila admitted with a slow nod.  The other witch had to have noticed Camila’s worry as well.

Kseniya stepped forward.  “I think I might know a solution.  You still feel some negative emotions, right?” she asked.  Camila nodded.  “Which means you just need a pressure valve.”  She slowly reached a hand towards Camila’s seal.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t make any drastic changes.”

“Okay,” Camila hesitantly leaned forward to let the other woman touch the talisman.

Kseniya nodded, then tapped the yellow paper.  “Let’s see.  A little overpowering here.  A tweak there.”  A soft glow formed around Kseniya and her birds.  The light flowed into the talisman as Kseniya used her ability to warp and change Helena’s original spell.  “There.  Now to fix things.”  Kseniya leaned forward and whispered to the woman, “It’s okay to want to cry.”

Camila frowned in confusion, then her eyes shimmered as they filled with tears.  “Yeah.  You’re right.  It’s okay…”  Kseniya’s glow faded as the young witch hugged Camila.  The jiang-shi woman let her arms fall, and she closed her eyes as the tears fell.

After a bit Helena hesitantly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the woman’s eyes.  Camila nodded to her.  “Thanks, everyone.”  Kseniya gave a final squeeze, then sat back down.

“It’s nothing,” Lyudmila muttered.  Aoi smiled, while Helena pretended to not notice.  Raw emotions like that made her stomach flop.  But she was glad Camila was alright.  Helena settled for wiping the jiang-shi’s eyes again.

“So with that settled we can return to your other problem,” Aoi said.  “We should probably all sit down for this.  It may take a while.”

Chris and Helena both had some limited experience handling people who had fallen over from the ‘real’ world.  Magicians often handled lost souls in the more mystical realms, and it seemed the job fell to the police here in the Immigrant Realm.  Which meant they both knew generally what to say for a quick introduction.

Camila was currently alternating between awe and disbelief, like most newcomers did.  That was good.  It showed she still thought like a human.  “So you’re saying that magic was real?  And that all you magicians and ghosts and monsters fled to secret magical realms no one knows about?”

“We know about them,” Helena pointed out.  “There are more humans in mystical realms than on earth.  To a lot of realms the ‘real world’ is as much of a myth as our world is to you.”

“Wow…”  Camila looked out the window at the street, her stiff arms following along with the movement.  They’d had to help the woman bend her knees so she could sit at the booth.  “So then monsters come from these realms to bother people?”

Chris shook her head.  “Very rarely.  We usually only get one or two outsiders a year.”

“Magical creatures like ourselves don’t often go out into the outside world,” Helena said softly.  “For most of us it’s certain death.”

“Well obviously that magician did,” Camila said with a pained smirk.  “I was coming home from practice one evening.  It wasn’t even dark out.  I walk down an empty alley as a shortcut, and the bastard just walks out of the shadows and zaps me with some kind of blue light.”  The woman’s eyes unfocused.  “It hurt.  Hurt more than anything I’d ever felt before.”

Camila sobered up a little.  “That killed me didn’t it?  I mean I’m pretty sure I’m dead.  I can’t exactly check my pulse,” she waggled her locked arms a bit, “but I’m pretty sure I’m room temperature.  And from what snippets I remember I’ve been shot in the chest a few times.  People don’t usually survive that, no?”

“Yes, you died,” Helena said.  She turned to face the woman as best she could in the booth.  “It sounds like the spell shut down your organs, killing you instantly.  Then he reanimated your body as a jiang-shi.”

Camila turned back to the window, staring into the distance.  “I don’t suppose there’s some kind of cure for this?  Like, you’re a magician right?  There’s some sort of miracle around that can send me home?”

Chris looked at Helena, who shook her head.  “No.”  She forced herself to keep her voice even as Camila’s shoulders slumped.  “Humans live and die.  People that become immortal and people who die and return cease to be human.”  She hesitated before continuing, “A better magician or a powerful god could remove your jiang-shi traits.  They could make you look and feel human again.  Maybe even let you age and die normally.  But you can never be truly human again.”

“And what about going home?” Camila’s voice was shaking, but she still smiled.  “Magic can work outside right?  I can go see my family?  Just for a little bit?”

“Magic doesn’t exist outside.  That’s the rule.”  Helena took a deep breath.  “Our existence is an open wound in reality and reality wins in the end.  I could survive three months, perhaps.  Then I’d die of starvation.  Every person who saw me eat something would have their memories rewritten to reflect that reality..

“Long Zhou Di might last longer.  But that spell he used on you would have snuffed his own existence out if too many people saw it.  He probably had to scurry home quickly after that.”  Helena shook her head.  “For a jiang-shi like you… with magical support you would last a week.  Then reality would see you’re dead, make you a corpse and rewrite the past so that no one would remember you walking around.”  She took a deep breath.  “Your family wouldn’t even remember you saying goodbye.”

Camila seemed even more rigid than before.  The woman was still smiling, but Helena could see the pain in her eyes.  Helena wished there was something she could offer to ease the blow.  But scientific reality was hard and unyielding.  There was no defense against a force that could use time itself as a weapon.  Something the magicians of the ‘real’ world had learned long ago.

Finally she simply said, “I’m sorry.”

Silence reigned over the table, as the muted bustle of the diner rattled and clinked to their side.  Helena waited as Camila stared out the window, watching the foot traffic passing through the streets.  It was strange talking about such weighty matters in a simple restaurant, while people walked about their normal lives outside.  But maybe the familiarity would help Camila.

The waiter arrived with their orders.  “Two fruit pancake platters and an omelet,” he said, placing down the food before each of them.  “Do you want anything else?”

“I’m good for now,” Camila said.  Helena and Chris shook their heads.

“Just call out if you need anything,” he replied before walking over to another table.

“No questions, huh?  I guess a zombie, a witch, and a cop aren’t an uncommon sight here.”  Camila shook her head in amused disbelief, then looked down at her plate.  Her arms moved down and bent just an inch and then she froze.  Her smile faded, replaced by shock and betrayal as she strained against her joints.  “My arms…”

Helena mentally kicked herself.  Of course that would be a problem.  “Here let me help you.”  She reached out and carefully bent Camila’s arms so they’d be over the plate, then handed over the knife and fork.  “Do you need anything else?”

“Um…” Camila looked away.  “The syrup, please?”

“Sure.”  Helena poured a liberal helping over the pancakes until Camila nodded at her to stop.

“Thank you.”  Camila awkwardly lowered her head and did her best to cut the food and shovel it into her mouth.  She quickly got the hang of it, though it wasn’t very dignified.  From the woman’s expression she was enjoying the meal.

Chris started in on her own breakfast.  “How is it?”

Camila’s grin was back.  “Barely counts as breakfast.  But the best meal I’ve had… like since I died.”

Helena turned to her own food and picked at it.  “You really lucked out.  Most jiang-shi can’t eat.  From the way your magic is being restored, you not only can eat, but actually gain energy from it.”

Camila finished chewing and cocked her head to look over.  “This is the enhanced undead body?  Like, this-” she waggled her elbows, “-isn’t what I’d call awesome.  Vampires don’t have to go through this nonsense.”

“You’re stronger than the average vampire, and have vastly superior magic resistance,” Helena said.  “And you aren’t just the enhanced version.  You’re the legendary version.  The rituals required to animate you probably cost more than my apartment building.”

Something clicked in Helena’s mind.  “That’s must be why he was working for the Triads.  He needed that money to give his brother the finest of undead bodies.  He probably used you as a trial run, or because he didn’t want to use his brother as a guard.”

“Is that so?”  Camila took a few more big bites out of her meal.  “Heh, typical guy.  Scumbag spends a whole ton of money without asking and then expects you to just do whatever he says.  No way to treat a woman.”  She finished off the plate then drained the cup of juice Helena handed her.  “Thanks.  Mind if I order another dish?”

“Eat all you want.  It’s a business expense,” Chris said.

Helena smiled.  “Don’t say that.  She can keep eating forever.  It’d take seven ships of food to give her enough magic for a single day.”

The two other women looked at her in wide eyes.  Then Camila slowly smiled.  “I always liked that cartoon gag where the skinny kid eats everything in the restaurant.”

“Let’s limit it to ten plates then,” Chris said.  She called over the waiter and Camila ordered another three dishes.  As the man left the policewoman’s expression turned serious.  “So, Ms. Barbosa, as an unwilling participant in the crimes we’re willing to give you full witness protection, and then transfer you over to the folks who help kidnapping victims resettle.  It might take a little longer for you to settle then some, but The Big Apple itself isn’t too strange for people from the outside world.”

“Thanks, but will that really work for me?  I’m kinda attached to her.”  Camila gestured awkwardly towards Helena.  “Like, in the magically connected way, not the love in first sight way.”

Helena blinked.  “You noticed?”  Helena mused on that.  The magical connection between her and Camila was obvious from her perspective, but for Camila it should have seemed like business as usual.  Especially since the woman had no training in magic.

“It’s… a weird feeling.  Like I know you’re there.” Camila waved a finger around to try to emphasize the point before giving up.

“Wait, I thought you said you freed them from magical control?’ Chris peered at the two of them.  “Why is there still a magical connection there?”

Helena’s stomach flopped at the question.  “Because there has to be.  A jiang-shi either gets energy from devouring other people’s chi or from a magician.  I’m the only magician we can trust so I’m giving her magic.”  Helena stabbed at her omelet.  “It’s the same reason I made my talisman say ‘do what you want to do.’  I have to order them to have free will.  I’ll see if I can figure out some way to fix that later but for now…”

“Don’t sweat it,” Camila said happily.  “You saved my butt back there.  I owe you big time.  Waiting a bit for a better solution isn’t a problem.”

Chris frowned.  “That’ll make the trial more troublesome though.  Your testimony might get challenged…”  She sighed.  “Well that’s the DA’s problem.  Let’s get the facts first.  Can you tell me why you might have been targeted?”

Camila’s brow furrowed in thought.  “Honestly?  I dunno.”  She continued thinking until the server came back with the extra food.  “Oh thanks.”  Helena helped set the woman up so she could eat easily.

The jiang-shi woman wolfed down something the restaurant advertised as a breakfast burrito before continuing.  “Sorry I don’t have a clue.  I’m doing… was doing okay in college, but I don’t think you need a lot of communications students.  I know capoeira and I was pretty good at soccer, but that isn’t really useful like this.”  She shrugged her stiff shoulders.

“Do you remember any other victims?” Chris asked.  “And can you provide information about his Triad contacts?”

“I can tell you all the people he had us kill, but I can’t tell you anything else.”  Her expression darkened.  “When we weren’t moving my brain seemed to shut down.  I don’t even know how long it’s been since… since I died.  I mostly remember the assassinations.  And there weren’t many of those.”

Chris nodded.  “We’ll see if we can figure that out when we get back to the station.  For now eat to your heart’s content.”  The policewoman paused as she realized her mistake.  “Uh, well within limits anyway.”

“Don’t worry.  I’ll stick to ten plates,” Camila said with a grin.

Helena went back to picking at her own food.  She should have been plotting her next move, or at least recovering, but she was exhausted, mentally more than physically.

An elbow tapped her arm and she jumped in surprise.  “You should eat up.  We got a lot of talking to do now that we’re going to be roommates or something.”

“I suppose so,” Helena forced herself to eat.  Camila was right.  There were a lot of long talks in her future.

Long Zhou Di’s hideout was on the outskirts of the cavern, where the warehouses and portal zone intersected.  Far enough to be away from any portal mistakes, but not a well traveled area of the underground.  It was, in retrospect, an obvious place for a criminal magician to hide.  A portal gate was a beacon to help hedge mage teleport relatively safely, but a master like Zhou or Helena could use one to teleport to other locations quickly.  Up above the customs officials would notice things like a sorcerer and his undead menagerie and start asking questions.  But the portal gates below were under the administration of functionaries from the middle realms, and they were far easier to bribe.  Here Zhou had access to the entire city within minutes, meaning he could strike anywhere and retreat home quickly.

It was a perfect setup.  Helena hoped that he was underestimating her as much as she seemed to be underestimating him.

This part of the underground was a mix of sheet metal houses and solidly built Chinese huts that created a network of tiny alleys and crooked streets.  The perfect place for an ambush.  Helena expected Zhou would be waiting at his home, but she carefully inspected every shadow and every passerby as she stalked through the neighborhood.

Finally she reached the house that she’d traced the jade figurine back to.  It was a solid wooden building with a high fence, fitting the merchant district of a Chinese city.  The one street that led to the house guided her to the back wall.  A small walkway led to the front.  Past the house a field of broken ground started, which meant Zhou’s front yard was unsullied by other squatters.  Helena wasn’t sure if that was a defensive screen, or some feng-shui design that she didn’t comprehend, but she decided to play it safe.  A hop started her flight spells, which would keep her away from physical traps and off the bad ground.  After a quick check for magical traps she hovered through the still air to the end of the fence, then quickly moved around it.

The yard was made of small white stones, excellent for catching light, and as a killing field.  Long Zhou Di was standing there in front of his house, sword drawn.  A sprig of moly, the mystical plant that Odysseus once used to neutralize the power of Circe, was tied around the hilt.  “I see you’ve arrived, Curse Gunner.  I Long Zhou Di, the Living Dragon will be your opponent.  Your life goes for a better cause.”

It was a formal challenge.  One that Helena wanted to accept.  But a formal challenge meant formal rules, and she wasn’t ready for that yet.

Instead she stalled.  “How brave, Living Dragon.  Challenging me while wearing a bane.  Do you do this for all your fights?  Fighting an opponent who can’t use magic has to make battles a lot easier,” she said as she walked to the center of his yard.  “Are you going to have your jiang-shi attack too?  Or would they stop you from showing off your sword work?”

“No.”  He snapped his fingers and the two jiang-shi stepped out from behind stalagmites.  Each of them had a moly flower around their wrist.  “I will however have them stop you from running away.”

Helena eyed the flowers.  “You must have spent a lot of money on this.  I’m flattered.  I still plan to watch you die screaming blood for threatening my friends, but I’ve underestimated you considerably.”

“I find that large sums of money are the greatest magical boost a practitioner can find.  Thus my current job,” Long Zhou Di replied.  “And I thank you for the compliment.  But don’t think that will cause me to underestimate you.”  He leveled his sword at her.  “I am quite certain you’ve thought up ways to fight someone who is carrying your bane.  And you haven’t answered my challenge.”

“My answer is this.  My bane isn’t moly.”  She flipped out her most deadly scroll and invoked its name.  “Wrath of the Erinyes.”

All her suppressed rage flowed from her soul into her left hand, then burst into roiling curses around the scroll.  A cascade of ill fortune poured into the ground, beckoning the dark torturers of Hades to this world.  A ritual that should have taken days coalesced in seconds, and the results were terrible to behold.

Dark shapes began to seep out of the earth around Long Zhou Di, fueled by Helena’s wrath.  Zhou cried out in shock as a ghost whip arced out at him.  And then the Furies were there, laughing and shrieking as they struck with their scourges.  He retreated, desperately searching for something to dispel the apparitions.

Helena wanted to stay and watch, but she didn’t have time.  She spun around and channeled her magic into flight as she pulled out the two talismans she’d made.  Moving as fast as she could she slapped the first talisman on the woman’s forehead, then dashed over to place the second on the man’s.

Zhou’s talismans turned black and burnt away.  Helena staggered as her own seals activated.  She felt the two jiang-shi pulling at her magic, as they instinctively reached out for her to grant them the power to continue existing.  And she offered the power, though it was a bigger drain than any spell she’d cast before.

The man before her began to blink, eyes focusing and unfocusing as the trapped soul’s consciousness rose up.  She stepped back to give him room, watching his reactions.  When she saw comprehension in the gaze she said, “You’re free.”

The man frowned in confusion, but nodded politely.  Reasonable if he was from a Chinese realm.  His eyes zeroed in on where Long Zhou Di was fighting off Helena’s curse, and widened.  He turned back towards her.  “You have my thanks.  Allow me to repay you.”

The mystic connection between her and the jiang-shi snapped, and his eyes glowed black.

Helena’s stomach heaved as a blast of dark mist washed over her.  There was a ringing in her ears and she dropped to the ground, the world swimming around her.  Poison.  Her mystic defenses burned blue, fighting to neutralize the venom, but she’d used too much power.

The swirling dark figure of the man loomed over her as she hacked and wheezed.  She mentally cut the magical link, but the jiang-shi only seemed to grow in stature as she stopped feeding him power.  “For attacking my brother I must kill you, but for aiding my return I shall make it quick.”

There was a flash of movement from the side.  Then a meaty thwack as the female jiang-shi slammed into the man’s head with both feet.  She flipped back, landing perfectly on the ground as the man flew tumbling across the yard.  The athletic woman turned to Helena and reached down.  “Ola!  I’m not related to that bastard, so I’ll say thanks for helping me out.  Need a hand?”

Helena grabbed on and let the woman lift her up.  The jiang-shi girl caught her as she started coughing again, and Helena let herself lean on the woman while using her right hand to summon a healing breeze.  The zephyr whipped through the area and scattered the poison mist, causing the pain and blurry vision to fade.  For the first time she got a clear sight of the jiang-shi woman.

 The undead girl looked to be about twenty, though Helena had no idea how long she’d been dead.  She had the body of an athlete or dancer, and managed to project a certain grace even when locked in rigor mortis.  She had short curly hair and dark brown skin lightened by the bloodless pallor of the undead.  Most interesting was how her carefree smile matched with the angry fire in her brown eyes.

The jiang-shi woman gave her a light shake.  “That’s a cool trick!  But I hope you’re recovered, because it looks like this fight’s just starting.”  

Helena looked over to see Long Zhou Di banishing the curses she’d summoned with his undead brothers help.  How had she not noticed the similarities?  Now that they were standing next to each other the relationship was obvious.  

Helena wasn’t just fighting one magician, she was fighting two.  One of whom was an undead monster.  She’d done some damage.  Zhou had several long cuts on his back and chest.  But Helena was weakened both magically and physically..

The jiang-shi woman next to her hopped impatiently.  “So!  What’s the plan to kick these scumbags’ asses?”

Helena sucked in fresh air.  That was a good question.  The odds here were frankly terrible.  “Give me a moment to stop dying and I’ll figure it out.”

Across from them Long Zhou Di seemed to be similarly confused.  “Brother Jiao Han, how is it your mind has returned?!  I thought your spirit had been lost.”

“The foolish witch worded her spell so poorly it worked to our benefit.  ‘Do as you wish?’  A farce of an order, but something that will suffice until we can work out a better one,” Jiao Han said.  He hopped forward slightly.  “Now gather yourself brother.  It’s time to get rid of this troublesome woman and your rebellious servant.”

“I’m not your servant,” the woman beside Helena said.  “But if you want a piece of me I’m right here.”

“As you wish.”  The two brothers stepped next to each other and raised their hands.  Mystic circles formed beneath them as they both began summoning power.  Together they called out, “Twin Dragons!  Earth and Water!”

“Uh, crap,” the jiang-shi woman said.

Helena took a deep breath and grabbed another scroll out of her pouch before crushing it.  Power flooded into her and she began forming her own spell.  Blood red and silver runes flashed around her as she called out “Firestorm.”

The two dragons materialized first, roaring and arcing together through the sky.  The attacks were perfectly entwined, ensuring they’d shatter any shield.

Then a tornado of fire spun into existence right underneath them.  The dragons screamed and exploded as the elements clashed.  The blast tore Helena’s firestorm apart, spraying the area with steam and tiny pebbles.

“You don’t know my weakness,” Helena said, “but I know yours.  Taoist magic is about balance.  You can counter spells easily, but all of your spells can be countered.  Even if I cheat and use Classical elementals instead of Wu Xing.”

“That won’t last,” Zhou said.  “You’re weak now, Curse Gunner.”

The harsh notes of a dozen police whistles cut through the air and Helena smiled.  It seemed her help had finally arrived.  “Oh look.  The police are here.”

Zhou’s face fell.  “Brother, we must flee.  Hold still!”  He slapped a paper slip to the floor and it began to glow.

“Flee?  But-,” a burst of light washed over the clearing, and then they were gone.  Zhou must have had a teleport already set up.  Helena had expected that.  Win or lose Zhou was going to have to abandon this house after fighting her here.  She’d just hoped for a better fight.

The woman Helena had freed hopped up and down ineffectively.  “Oi, you cowards!  You can’t keep me locked up for however long and then just run off!  You bastards!  Come back and fight!  None of your cheap tricks or mind control shit!  SEND ME HOME DAMN YOU!”

The sound of a dozen feet running over the gravel came over than wall, then Officer Chris ran into the area, pistol drawn.  “Police!”  She looked around the empty area, then lowered her weapon.  “Looks like that little charm scared them off.  Good thing, since I was a little worried about fighting a magician solo.  She one of the rescues?”

“Yeah.”  She’d worked the whole plan over with Kilduff earlier.  He’d insisted one police officer follow along, since that was part of the hostage negotiation rules.  And Helena was very glad the man had stuck to his guns there.  Kilduff couldn’t come without drawing suspicion, so he tapped Chris.  The woman had experience dealing with kidnapping cases anyway.

Still a single officer wouldn’t be much in a mage duel.  So Helena had put a glamour on the woman to make her sound like a full patrol.  They figured the threat of a few dozen cops might cause the Living Dragon to flee.

Unlike everything else, that plan had actually worked.  “The other jiang-shi was apparently a collaborator.  He attacked me when I freed him.”

“Hey.”  The woman next to Helena tapped her on the shoulder.  “Could you tell me what is going on?  Why am I here?  What’s with the light show?  And why are you speaking in Portuguese while she speaks in English?”

“Oh right.”  Helena cast a quick charm on Chris.  “Congratulations, you now speak Portuguese.  It’ll wear off in a month so don’t make any long term plans.”  She turned her attention back to the jiang-shi girl.  “And as for what’s going on, well, let’s find out how much we need to explain.  Who are you and what realm are you from?”

“Realm?”  The woman blinked at her a moment.  “My name is Camila Correia Barbosa, and I came to the USA from Brazil.  I was studying at New York City College.”

Helena felt her stomach tense.  She looked over at Chris and the policewoman nodded in understanding.  No one was that educated without understanding the interlocking system of mystical realms.  There was only one realm the jiang-shi could be from.

Camila was from the ‘real’ world.  The world magic had fled.

Chris stepped forward.  “Do you want to grab something to eat, or go to the bathroom?  This is going to be a long talk, and I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable during it.”

“Something to eat would be nice,” Camila said happily.  “That bastard just had me eating rice cakes.”  Her face turned grim, “And people’s brains.  Sick son of a bitch.”

“How about pancakes?” Chris asked.  “Probably be easiest to find a diner at this hour.”

“Hopefully they’ll have real fruit to go with it instead of much,” Camila replied.  “Let go!”

Helena worked with Lyudmila through the afternoon on the paper talismans.  First she weaved the secret runes of the gods into the outer pattern of the seals.  Then she carefully crafted the divine orders that would destroy their old commands, and allow hers to take root.  After that she bid her friend goodbye and started actually making the talismans.  Each required near perfect calligraphy work, and she wanted four, just in case she dropped one in the struggle.

When she finally finished crafting, it was late afternoon and her stomach had started complaining.  She forced herself to wait for the ink to dry, then slipped the seals into her pouch and headed downstairs.

The main room of the police station was bustling.  Kilduff claimed that crime didn’t sleep, but from her surroundings it seemed most crime actually slept in and got started in the evening.  Half the officers had someone sitting at their desk answering questions, and the other half were either on the phone or laboring furiously at their computers.

She wanted to just walk out, but Kilduff had told her to warn a duty officer before she left.  Given the Living Dragon was still trying to murder her, annoying her allies was a bad idea.  The problem was she didn’t have a clue what ‘duty officer’ even meant, much less who was one.

So she started looking for police she recognized.  Chris might be able to answer the question.  Or the patrolman she’d run into yesterday.  Sadly neither was to be found.  She started looking for someone who wasn’t desperately working on two things at once, but that didn’t pan out either.  Her options blocked she started lying in wait around the coffee machine, waiting to ambush anyone who rose to claim the wretched brew.

Of course as fate would have it the first person to walk towards the table was the one person she recognized the most.  Kilduff walked straight in the front doors and immediately moved to look down on her.  “What are you doing, lass?”

“You said to report to the duty officer,” Helena replied.  “I was looking for them so I could go get something to eat.”

Kilduff rolled his eyes and pointed to the young man sitting behind the front desk.  “He’s the duty officer.”  He chewed on his lip.  “Though if you want to be wandering about I might as well go keep an eye on you.  Let’s go, girl.”

“What wonderful dinner company,” Helena groused as she walked out of the central office to the exit.  “I can only pray dinner will be even better.”

“Walk north if you want to help that prayer along,” Kilduff said.

Helena took the advice.  The Inspector wasn’t a man who believed in petty vengeance.  At least not at his own expense.

The government ward was interesting.  It was obviously less advanced than the Big Apple across the river, but it was ages ahead of the rest of the Immigrant Realm.  Large glass windows and neon signs showed the variety of stores here, most selling electrical devices or household goods.  Helena made a mental note to wander through here again later.  Perhaps when Lyudmila was here.

But first she had to survive this murder investigation.  She looked over at Kilduff.  “Any word?  Getting permission to investigate a house shouldn’t be all that difficult.”

Kilduff shook his head.  “The Captain’s insisting on doing this the slow way, which means a day at least.”  He looked down at the ground.  “Truth is the lazy bastard probably hasn’t even sent in the required forms yet.  I’ll ask his secretary to help push things along.”

“You’d better if you want to solve this case,” Helena snapped.  “Long Zhou Di hasn’t traced this ornament back to me yet, but when he does he’ll figure out we can track him.”

“It’s worse than that lass,” Kilduff said.  “We’ve got a spy in the department, so if the mess drags out too long here…”

Helena threw her hands into the air in frustration.  “Wonderful!  So the Living Dragon can just move around as he pleases.  Does your idiot captain actually want to solve the case?  Because it doesn’t seem like it.”

Kilduff grimaced.  “The captain concerns himself with politics.  Sometimes an individual case might fall through the cracks.”

“And this case wasn’t political?  He hired me because he was desperate to close it.”

“Aye, but now he’s got two people complaining, and the captain handles problems by… cautious planning.”

Helena rolled her eyes.  “You mean by running and hiding from any responsibility.  Maybe I should walk around the streets alone at night.  I won’t get in trouble if I kill him when he tried to assassinate me, right?”

“That’s your right as a citizen, no matter how big a fuss the captain would throw,” Kilduff said.  “But you seem to be forgetting that you lost the last time.  I doubt Long Zhou Di will be so nice as to give you the same openings.  The next time he’s going to go for the kill.  And we won’t be there to help.”

“I haven’t been sitting idle you know,” Helena replied.  “If he brings his undead slaves near me again he’ll be regretting it for the rest of his short life.”  She imagined the horror he’d have when his own undead turned against him and smiled.  “It’s too bad I won’t be able to beat him personally.  But the poetic irony is worth that and more.”

Kilduff gave her a sidelong glance.  “That hat makes me forget you’re Greek every now and then, but I see you’ve got their penchant for melodrama.  Just don’t get too caught up in it.  I want to see him in jail.”

“It won’t be my choice,” Helena replied happily.  Foisting moral decisions off to someone else made life much more fun.

Kilduff reached for his cigarettes, then stopped himself.  “Only a fool wants the details of a witches’ work.  But recently I’ve been a damn fool.  How do you plan to pull this feat off girl?”

“Simple,” Helena replied.  “I…”

A flash of paranoia stopped her.  She looked around at the people walking all by.  Most were human, with a minotaur and a kasha and a few other humanoid monsters about.  None of them seemed all that interested in her.  But she couldn’t help shake the feeling that speaking in public might be a mistake.  “We should find a place to eat first.”

Kilduff frowned, but after a moment shrugged.  “Fair enough.  My own fault for bringing up spies.”

Helena looked around for something that looked like a real restaurant.  Most of the places were brightly lit open diners or fast food places.  In the end she settled for a store that had a large number of booths, and a good amount of floor space.  As a bonus the customers weren’t eating off those odd plastic trays.  It advertised itself as ‘Mexican’ food, which meant it would likely be spiced heavily, but she’d learned how to survive her friends’ obsession with paprika.

Helena got a small booth in the back and ordered something that claimed it wasn’t spicy along with some wine.  When the server had walked away she slipped an ice cube into the cup.

“That makes you look like a little kid, just so you know,” Kilduff said.

Helena shrugged off the barb.  “Uncut wine leads to madness.”

“Do you really think your countrymen are the sane ones lass?”

“Do you want to see me when I’m insane?” Helena asked sweetly.

“Carry on then,” the policeman conceded.

Helena waited until the food was brought out and the wait staff moved away before pulling out the jade crane and checking it for magic.  It seemed that it hadn’t been traced or scryed on so they were still safe.  Her paranoia assuaged she looked back up at Kilduff.  “I’ve developed a spell that will release the jiang-shi from Long Zhou Di’s control.”

The Inspector didn’t seem impressed.  “I thought all you needed to do for that was to pull off that talisman.  I also recall you saying that if someone did that the jiang-shi would become a beast who would slaughter me and my men.”

Helena nodded.  “I did say that, and I’m glad you remembered.  My spell won’t remove the talismans.  It will replace them.  But instead of enslaving them to my will like that bastard, I’ll be telling them to act how they want to act.  They’ll be their own masters again.”

“So you won’t be freeing them from their undeath.  Just making them horrible mockeries of life under no one’s control.”  Kilduff narrowed his eyes.  “Seems like a bad deal to me.  Not to mention a wee bit blasphemous.”

“What?  Should I order them to stand still while I kill them?” Helena snapped.  “Their life, or unlife, their choice.”

Kilduff’s face crunched up.  Helena could almost see the thoughts running around the man’s head as he worked through the myriad bad choices they had.  Finally he nodded.  “Fair is fair I suppose.  Best give the poor souls a chance to make their own decision.”  He sipped his water thoughtfully.  “Damned if I even know if that counts as suicide or not anyway.  Leave it to the priests.”

“I’m annoyed I didn’t realize this earlier,” Helena muttered.  “Of course there would be souls there.  If memories then souls.”

“Didn’t we hire you because you were supposed to be some kind of expert on the dead?”

“I deal with ghosts, not corporeal undead.  Hades doesn’t let bodies blunder about like everyone else seems to do.”  Helena shrugged for dramatic effect.  “After traveling the realms I’m honestly impressed.  The poor guy has to be working overtime to keep all those corpses in the ground.  The Far East doesn’t even try, they just burn them.”

“You’d think a blessing would be better,” Kilduff muttered.

Helena looked up at the man.  “So, now that I’ve spilled my secret plan, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing to get that warrant we need.”

“The secret plan is I help the Captain’s secretary fill out the paperwork and then hope the judge sees the light,” Kilduff said darkly.  “I’m not going to outright break orders.  I’ve bent them enough as it is.  Mayhaps even too far.”

“You’re willing to let Long Zhou Di just escape because the paperwork isn’t finished?”  The idea seemed ridiculous but the way Kilduff was acting it seemed almost normal to him.

“That’s right,” Kilduff said calmly.  “I’ve seen worse killers walk out over dumber mistakes.  You’re just going to have to wait for your chance girl.”

Helena felt her fingers twitching in annoyance, but yelling wouldn’t help.  She forced herself to eat until she’d calmed down a bit.  Then she turned her attention back to the policeman.  “Why?  You run the station.  Don’t argue that point, I’m smart enough to figure that out.  Why is the captain’s ego more important than catching that murderer?  Hell, why isn’t rescuing those two trapped souls more important?  You’re supposed to serve the people.  Not dance around red tape.”

Kilduff’s face darkened.  “Do you really want that?”  He leaned forward.  “You’re from a backwards land, so I can’t blame you for not understanding it.  Let me explain what happens when I run off and solve all the problems without talking to the Captain.

“First of course the Captain gets shown as an incompetent fool.  I imagine you don’t care about that.”  Helena shook her head at the man’s question, and the Inspector continued.  “Right.  There’s a bit of a problem there, since it shows all the criminals where the weak link is, but they’ve mostly figured that out by now.  The daft fool turns a blind eye to brutality and bribery every day.”

Kilduff leaned back.  “The real problem is what I’ve taught the other cops.  They now all think it’s okay to break the rules for the greater good.  And sure they all want what’s best for the city, but how many of the kids actually know what’s best for the city?”  His eyes hardened.  “I don’t think witchcraft is good for the city.  Should I break the law to stop that devilry?”

Helena considered the man’s words.  She couldn’t argue that the current system worked in her favor more often than not.  If who got justice came down to a popularity contest she’d already be dead at the hands of Apollo’s assassins.

But she couldn’t fully accept it either.  “I see what you’re saying, but I’ve seen too many terrible laws.  Slavery for example.  Sometimes the rules have to be broken.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Kilduff said.

“That was easy.”

Kilduff sniffed.  “I’m an Irishman lass.  And one that lives in America at that.  You don’t need to tell me sometimes the rules need to be broken.  But there are dire consequences when you do go down that path.  Especially for a man in power like myself.  If I can’t follow the law, what’s the point of having laws?”

“Perhaps the Gold Rat Wizard was right when he said I had the power of chaos,” Helena muttered to herself.

“Well if you did you lost it when you made a deal with the police,” Kilduff said.  “So don’t you dare think about running off and starting a brawl on your own.”

“So long as-”  The light tickle of searching magic reaching towards her interrupted her.  Someone was casting a spell at the crane figurine.  She quickly scooped it out into the table and traced a barrier around it so it couldn’t be used to target her.  A red circle sprang up around the jade figure.

“What-?” Kilduff said before Helena shushed him.  She needed to focus on the figurine.

The magic poking at the figurine wasn’t Taoist.  It felt more like Indian mysticism, though she could sense a few odd elements in it.  But the magic behind it had the arrogant calculated balance that infused the Living Dragon’s spells.  Apparently he’d trained in multiple branches of spellcraft.

She poked at the spell, trying to sense its intent.  It seemed like a communication spell.  That was odd.  Why wasn’t Long Zhou Di trying to locate the figurine?  Even if he did know where she was staying, assuming that she’d stolen the jade figure was a big leap of faith.  It looked like a trap, but no matter how she tested the spell it reacted like a simple messenger.

“Very strange,” she murmured.

“What’s the rat doing?” Kilduff asked.

“He wants to talk to me,” Helena said.  “Probably in private.”

Kilduff raised an eyebrow.  “Find a corner and I’ll hide around it?”

“I need a mirror,” Helena said.  “A reflecting pool can also work.”

“Ladies room,” he replied pointing to the back of the restaurant.  “I’ll linger outside and listen in.”

The thought of the Inspector being mistaken for a pervert amused Helena, but it was a good idea.  “Right.  I’ll try to amplify our voices without him noticing.”

Helena slipped back into the women’s restroom, thanking all the gods that this land was rich enough not only to have private restrooms, but restrooms with mirrors.  She locked the door for show, then faced the mirror and allowed the contact through.  As Long Zhou Di’s face appeared on the mirror she put on a mask of bored annoyance.  “What do you want?  I don’t usually go out of my way to chat to people who’ve sworn to kill me.”

“Hello to you as well Curse Gunner Helena,” the Living Dragon said.  “I don’t usually resort to these methods myself, but then again people who claim to be fighting me rarely hide in fortresses.”

“I’d have killed you already if your Triad thugs weren’t protecting you,” Helena said.  “Unfortunately they forced me to seek allies of my own.  And those allies stubbornly insist dueling is a crime.”

The Living Dragon nodded in agreement.  “Yes, this whole ‘crime’ thing is quite a problem for both of us.  I can’t go over there and kill you because then the entire city would be hunting me.  You can’t come over here and die by my hand because you’re afraid of being arrested if you somehow win.”

“Is there a point to this, or are you just calling to complain about the police?” Helena replied, looking down at her nails.

“I know how you became immortal,” Long Zhou Di said.

Helena froze.  That wasn’t what she had been expecting.  “You’re bluffing,” she replied automatically.

“Am I?” he said.  “I suppose we’ll find out when one of my curses falls upon someone near to you.  The priestess is too difficult a target, but perhaps your landlord’s children-“

Her vision turned red and  she slammed her fist into the mirror.  The metal bent, twisting the man’s smug visage.  She wanted to send her worst curse at him, to watch him scream and writhe as he slowly melted into slime.  But she managed somehow to bite back the hateful words on her lips.  Long Zhou Di just folded his arms and waited.

Finally she recovered enough to spit out, “You’ll curse your foolishness for centuries Living Dragon.”

Zhou continued on as if she hadn’t spoken.  “Come to the underground.  Alone.  We duel there.  Given my advantage I’ll settle for you running to a different realm.  Just not across the bridge.”

“And if I don’t you’ll start killing my friends?” Helena hissed.

He shrugged.  “If you don’t show up tonight, you will find out.”

“You will suffer a long time before you die,” Helena said.  “I promise you.”

She threw the jade figurine on the ground and crushed it under her heel.  The spell shattered with the ornament, and Zhou’s face faded away.  She seethed at her twisted reflection. But as the fires of hatred subsided, the sick feel of embarrassment took its place.  She shouldn’t have lashed out like that.  With a quick spell she buffed out the worst of the damage, then she unlocked the door and walked out.

“What in God’s name was all that?” Kilduff said as she stepped out of the door.  She imagined he’d heard most of what went on.

“He’s calling me out,” Helena replied.  “And I’m going to be there.”

Kilduff raised a hand.  “Why?  What does that whole immortality nonsense mean?  Why does it change anything?”

Her anger snapped back.  She didn’t have time to play tutor to this hidebound bigot.  “Why are you pestering me about this?  This is witch’s work!  You hate it so don’t quiz me on it!”  She turned to see the entire restaurant staring at her.

Kilduff walked between Helena and the room.  Curses on him and his family bubbled to her lips, but they died there.  The man was stern, but not hostile.  “I’m asking because if there’s a good reason for you to go, then we can’t wait for the warrant,” Kilduff replied softly.

She forced herself to take deep breaths.  When the fantasies of summoning a plague of flies disappeared she began to explain.  “The method a magician used to gain immortality changes their power.  It grants them strengths, and weaknesses.  A magician who hides their soul in a gem can be slain if someone gets ahold of their gem.  On the other hand a magician who gains immortality through breathing exercises is immune to that danger, but can never use magic to stop their breathing.

“Some methods give more benefits than others, and some give more weaknesses than others.  Usually a benefit is matched by a weakness.  In any case, magicians work to conceal how they stop their aging to prevent people from using that knowledge against them.

“My family has a very well known method of gaining immortality and a well known, if rare, weakness.  People who hold our bane are immune to our spells, and we can’t counter magic cast with our bane,” Helena explained.

“That sounds dangerous,” Kilduff muttered.  “You can’t have been that foolish lass.”

“I wasn’t,” Helena answered.  “I didn’t take the family bane.  But I do have a bane material.  If he’s making an assumption I’m fine.  If not…”

“Then those kids are in trouble,” Kilduff said quietly.

Helena nodded.  “Yeah.”

Kilduff nodded slowly.  “Well that changes everything.  We’ve got a hostage situation.  You can go handle it.”

Helena blinked in surprise.  “Really?  After all you said?”

“That’s part of the rules too, lass.  The folks in the Big Apple aren’t totally daft.”  Kilduff pulled out a cigarette.  “But can you take him?  If he does have your bane you’ll be in a tight spot.”

“Yes.  But I’m not going to duel him at all,” Helena replied.  A twisted grin slipped onto her face as she pulled out her two special talisman slips.  “I’m going to turn his own jiang-shi against him.  And all his preparations will amount to nothing.”

Kilduff nodded.  “Right.  Just remember, take him alive if you can.”  He held up a hand to cut off Helena’s response.  “We’re following the rules lass.  And besides, for all the talk they do of rehabilitating, prison is no mercy for a man from the Immigrant Realm.”

Helena put the talismans away.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

But she probably wouldn’t do it.

“Absolutely not!” Captain Jacobs thundered.  “Inspector, we can’t use magic as an excuse to get a warrant!  Especially after our raid on the warehouse turned up nothing except a whole lot of rice.  We’ve got Triad lawyers inspecting my colon for ‘racist tendencies,’ and the Commissioner is not happy about it!”

Helena raised an eyebrow as the Captain jabbed a finger accusingly at her.  “And you!  What happened to protective custody?  This is a police investigation, not your magical feud!  If you want to help talk to the officers about proper witness etiquette.”  He whirled back to Kilduff.  “I can’t believe you took her with you on this little farce.  You of all people!”

“I needed to keep an eye on the witch,” Kilduff said simply.  “You’d be a fool if you think that girl would be good and wait anywhere.  I told you that you were dealing with the devil when you started.  Best to accept it and work with it.”

“Besides, this ‘little farce’ got you the information you needed to arrest the Living Dragon,” Helena added lightly.  “Give the Inspector here permission to raid the house I located and you’ll close the case, catch the murderer, and get both me and your boss out of your hair.”

Jacobs glared at her.  “And get my ass reamed for playing fast and loose with the rules again?  No thanks.”

Once again Helena wished she was better at reading people’s minds.  She could tell the man was afraid, but she couldn’t pinpoint the source of his fear.  Unfortunately that made it difficult to manipulate him.  She settled for appealing to his pride.  “Victory excuses all.”

Inspector Kilduff coughed.  “That’s the worst way to say it Captain, but she’s got a bit of a point.  The little trinket is enough for a warrant, so long as we call up a judge who believes in magic.  And we’ve got enough evidence to lock Zhou, no matter what demon lawyer tricks the Triads try to pull.  Chances are they’ll give up after that.  Once they stop playing the papers, the Commissioner will happily forget we exist again.”

“That’s-!”  Jacobs stopped mid rant and began to pace.  Helena watched and waited.  With luck the man had enough political skill to see an easy victory and take it.

Finally the Captain sighed and relaxed.  “You’re right.  If we can pull off this bust we’ll have it handled.  But-!” he turned back to face both of them.  “We’ll do it following all the rules!  I’m going to handle getting the warrant personally, and absolutely no interference from you Ms. Aoede!  We’re going to have all our ‘I’s dotted and ‘T’s crossed.  Got it?!”

“Alright sir, but you know we have a leak,” Kilduff said.  “The witnesses we managed to grab said they started running the second we started to move.  I can explain the case to the judge faster, so-“

“I’m not budging on this Inspector,” Jacobs replied.  “That’s how we’re handling this case, got it?  The SWAT team will move only on my orders.”

Kilduff’s face scrunched up into a grimace, but the man nodded.  “Yes sir.”

“Do you get it as well?” Jacobs said, staring at Helena.

“No.  But it doesn’t matter since I can’t arrest anyone.”  Helena stretched.  “I’ll just call my friends and wait for your mistake to come back and bite you.”

“Get out,” Jacobs snapped and Helena obliged.

As Inspector Kilduff exited she looked up at him, “The wisdom of the Spartans and the leadership of the Athenians.”

“You’d best listen to him this time,” Kilduff growled.  “If you get in another duel with the man it’ll look this was all just a mage brawl and we were your patsies.  We need solid evidence to put the bastard away.  And that means a warrant.”

“You know the only evidence we need are those jiang-shi,” Helena snapped.  “And now is our best chance of grabbing them.  In a few days he’ll have moved his workshop again.”

Kilduff rubbed his forehead.  “I know lass, I know.  The captain will come around.  He’s got enough people screaming at him that he’ll crack.  He’s a coward and rotten at the core, but the Commissioner scares him more than the criminals.  A bit of fear will get him to do his job.  Then my lads can put the murderer in cuffs.”

Helena frowned, but she didn’t know what to say.  Her first instinct was to act.  To handle the problem herself.  But the rule of law was one of the good things about living in this realm.  Breaking it for her own benefit would only hurt her in the long run.  Apollo and his agents were much better at manipulating people then she was.

Her mind hunted for an answer as the problem gnawed at her.  She wracked her brain for a trick or spell that would let her go fight the Living Dragon.  But nothing seemed to work.

In the end she had to face a bitter truth.  She didn’t know enough about the rules.  The law was useful to her, but she had only learned the letter of the rules.  The intricate interlocking traditions that turned a set of words on paper into a well regulated system were as opaque to her as the clockwork birds her friend Lyudmila built.  She didn’t understand the mindset.  Which meant she didn’t know how to manipulate it.

Defeated, she turned to the Inspector.  “Is there anything I can do?”

“Wait and do whatever it is you do to prepare,” Kilduff said.  After a moment he added, “Or you could atone for your sins and take up the clergy, but that’s a faint hope.”

“I’m already in the clergy,” Helena replied.  She stretched then started towards the stairs.  “I’ll return to my current quarters and prepare some more spells then.  The next time the Living Dragon and I meet, both of us will be at full strength.”

Kilduff shook his head.  “A joyous thought.  One that will keep me up at night for sure.  Well, speak to the duty officer if you need to go out for food.  I’ll go make sure the city doesn’t collapse into chaos.”

“Good luck,” Helena said as she walked away.

She walked back up to the room she’d been given and mentally lit the light bulb before flopping down on the couch.  The desk was cluttered with all the items she’d dragged from home, but the room itself was still barren.  The halls outside were bustling with activity, but the police were all busy with their own affairs.  No one had time to chat with a hired witch.

Normally when things were this bad she’d seek out one of her friends in the city, or talk with Shannon and Moses.  But she couldn’t do that now.  Wandering the city alone was asking to be attacked.  And while Helena was certain she could survive an assassination attempt, her friends might not be as lucky.  Only Aoi could defend herself in a magical duel, and the shrine maiden loathed combat.

Helena looked down at the hand mirror lying on the desk.  There was one other person she could talk to.  But she’d wanted to have better news first.  Lyudmila was going to rake her over the coals.

Then again Lyudmila was a witch too.  And she was better than Helena at Chinese magic and persistent spells.  To be totally honest Lyudmila was just better than Helena when it came to magical theory.  Helena naturally gravitated towards curses, elementalism, and necromancy.  Lyudmila was an academic.  Maybe she’d know something that Helena had overlooked.

That decided it.  Helena stuck the mirror to the wall with a simple spell, then stared into the glass, past the reflection.  She imagined Lyudmila’s face.  The woman’s short green hair that revealed her fey ancestry.  Her piercing brown eyes, and thin mouth that could twist into a smile or judgmental frown faster than the wind.  She sent power into that image.  Not a lot, but enough for a magician to notice.

After a few seconds she got a response.  Power being sent back along the channel.  The mirror darkened to matte black as her power melded with Lyudmila’s.  A few minutes later her friend’s face appeared in the mirror, just as Helena had envisioned.  She was frowning, which didn’t bode well.

“So Helena, what trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?” Lyudmila asked in the mixture of Greek and Ruthenian they’d patched together over their childhood.

“Why are you assuming I’m in trouble?” Helena asked.  Sure it was true, but the question made it sound like she was always in trouble.

“Because you’re calling me on a hand mirror instead of that full body mirror you like,” Lyudmila said.  “That means you somehow broke the mirror so badly you couldn’t fix it with magic, or you’re on the run.”  Lyudmila glared at her.  “Now explain.”

Helena shook her head.  “You’re too good at this Lyudmila,” she muttered.  “Still, you’re not entirely right.  I’m not on the run, I’m in sanctuary.  Someone got mad at me and tried to murder me in my sleep.  I decided it was a good idea to find a safer place to live until I killed them.”

Lyudmila heaved a great sigh.  “Helena, it’s been less than six months since you got in a death duel with another mage.  What did you do this time?”

“It wasn’t supposed to end up like this,” Helena protested.  “I was simply hired to find out what killed a man, and who was responsible.  The death match was purely his fault.  I didn’t send any assassins after him.”

Lyudmila rubbed her eyes.  “So why didn’t you contact me about this earlier?  I thought my best friend might tell me when she’s got some crazy new job.  Especially given all the complaining you’ve done about finding work.”

Helena felt her cheeks flush with shame and looked away to hide it.  “I didn’t want to brag before I had the money.  It would have been embarrassing to say I had a job and then tell everyone it had fallen through.”

“Seriously, Helena…” Lyudmila grimaced.  “Well I suppose I can understand a little.”  Her friend’s face smoothed out.  “All right.  Give me the full story.  I’m not letting you solo this one.”

“You may not have much choice,” Helena replied, “but I’ll tell you the details.”

Helena ran through what had happened, doing her best to tell Lyudmila everything.  Her friend nodded along, showing surprise at the revelation of the jiang-shi, then annoyance when Helena recounted the meeting with Ling Wei Hsu.  “So you’re saying if we help you’ll get in even more trouble?  What the hell kind of bargain is that Helena?”

“It isn’t a bargain.  It’s a threat,” Helena said.  “Anyway let me finish.”

“Fine,” Lyudmila replied.

Helena continued, explaining how they found the warehouse, then the ambush.  Lyudmila blanched as Helena sheepishly recounted how the jiang-shi pair beat her, but she didn’t interrupt.  Finally Helena explained her current problem.

“So, I don’t suppose you know how to get out of a mess of red tape so I can actually duel this Living Dragon?” Helena asked.

“That’s your question?”  Helena flinched back as Lyudmila exploded at her.  “You’re in a fight with a magician you know almost nothing about.  A magician who has not one but two jiang-shi.  He, on the other hand, knows you well enough to attack your home.  On top of that he’s skilled enough to dodge one of your trickier spells.  And all you have for backup is a police officer who hates witches, and an organization wrapped up in its own rules, while he’s got all the money of a crime syndicate and the aforementioned unstoppable undead horrors.  And you’re asking me if I can help you get in a fight?”

“Yes?”  She held up a hand to stop Lyudmila’s outburst.  “Look Lyudmila.  I’m sorry I didn’t contact you earlier when everything went sour.  But I wasn’t thinking straight, and there wasn’t time either.  Besides, you can’t fight beside me.  I told you what Gold Rat Hsu said.”

“So?” Lyudmila.  “Kseniya and I can handle anything that pompous ass tosses at us if we decide to come.  Face it Helena, this is about your pride, not any danger!”

“I know you have a hard time understanding this Lyudmila but in a city there’s a lot of ways to die,” Helena replied.  “And a lot of bad things that can happen to your friends.  If the Triads go after me… it’ll be messy.  I don’t know if that’s a fight I can win, even with your help.  And a lot of innocent people will die.”

Lyudmila motioned behind her.  “You could move here.  There’s room at our house.  Work as well.  Even if you’re worried about Apollo’s minions you could just hide out for a century or so.”

Lyudmila was probably right.  If she left the realm completely the Triads and Long Zhou Di would forget about her.  She forced herself to mull that over in her mind, to see things from Lyudmila’s point of view….

But her mind rejected that.  The very thought made her angry.  “All right.  It is my pride.  Getting driven out of my city by a single mage, just because he got a lucky shot in…”  Hot rage flowed through her.  “The nerve of him!  Attacking me in my sleep!  Trying to terrorize me with his undead thugs!  I can’t stand that type of scum!”  She noticed miasma trickling from her left hand in response to her anger and took a few breaths to calm down.

“It reminded you of that time we got attacked as kids?” Lyudmila asked softly.

The words felt like a needle being jabbed into her skin, but it was true.  “Yes,” Helena replied.  “Without the satisfaction of killing the bastard.”

Lyudmila nodded in understanding.  “I think I understand.”  She thought for a moment.  “Alright.  I’ll be over in a day or two.”

“Wait!” Helena grabbed the mirror.  “Didn’t I just say you couldn’t help?”

“I can’t fight with you,” Lyudmila replied, “but I can and will help.  Information gathering should be fine.  Maybe I can add some sanity to your plans too.  I’m your friend Helena.  I’m not going to sit this out.”

It was embarrassing, but the idea appealed to Helena.  Unfortunately there were a few problems with the plan.  “I appreciate it but I don’t think I’ll be able to convince the police to let me open up a witch hotel.”  She waved at the small office she was now living in.

Lyudmila smirked.  “Which is why I’ll be staying at Aoi’s place.”  Helena blinked in surprise as Lyudmila continued.  “We’ve been plotting against you ever since the last incident, Helena.  I don’t know if Kseniya will make it.  We do have our own work.  But I’m sure she’ll try to help as well.”

“You two…” Helena shook her head, but she was smiling.  “You’re getting way too worked up about this, but fine.  Meddle if you want to.”

“Meddle?”  Lyudmila glared through the mirror.  “I don’t want to hear about meddling from you!  And don’t give me that nonsense about ‘all witches meddle’ or ‘it’s in the blood.’  Your aunt Circe doesn’t do this kind of nonsense.”

Helena sniffed derisively.  “If you think that my great aunt Circe isn’t manipulating every witch from a realm with roots west of Persia you’re a fool.  She’s just better at it than me.”

Lyudmila shook her head and shrugged.  “Sure.  Well whatever.  I’ll be there soon.”  She relaxed a bit.  “Is there anything I can do for you right now?  I imagine it’s fairly dull sitting around in a government building.  Want to borrow a book?”

“I’ll grab something from home later,” Helena said.  “Unless you have a book on jiang-shi creation or eastern necromancy.  The next time we meet Long Zhou Di is going to have his minions with him.  I know the basics, but the basics aren’t good enough.”

“Hm….”  Lyudmila thought about the matter while Helena waited.  “Necromancy is more your specialty, Helena.  I’m not sure how much more I can offer.”

Helena shook her head.  “I work with incorporeal spirits.  And you were better than me at Taoist ritual and ofuda creation.  I was busy learning all the different elemental systems.”

“Yes that’s true,” Lyudmila mused.  “And you can’t take control of the spirits because they’re bound to the body through the jiang-shi ritual.  Too bad.  With all the work this ‘Living Dragon’ put into preserving the bodies the souls of the dead are probably pretty strong.”

“Wait.”  Helena ran that through her mind again.  “Are you saying those people’s souls are still in the jiang-shi?  They’re just getting puppeted around by the control talismans?”

Lyudmila nodded grimly.  “They’re probably in a dream or fugue state, depending on the way he created the jiang-shi, but yes.  It’s how they retain their skills from when they were alive.  And why they’re so dangerous when they go berserk.”

Helena felt her hands clench, and she forced them to relax.  Actual trapped souls?!  She’d thought the jiang-shi were just humanoid weapons.  Like the Brass Man.  But if there were people being enslaved as guides…

Her eyes flickered back up to Lyudmila.  “Is it possible to take control of a jiang-shi from someone?”

“What?!”  Lyudmila’s eyes opened wide, then she cocked her head to the side as she considered the problem.  “Well  yes.  You’d have to work with the trapped soul, and your spell would have to overpower the controlling magician.  And of course you’d be using a talisman seal, so you’d need to attach it to their forehead.  There’s a couple of ways to do it in the tomes I studied, but there are counters as well.  I doubt Zhou has left any textbook weaknesses.”

Helena nodded.  “And if I were to leverage my goddess’ connections to Persephone and Hades?”

Lyudmila shivered.  “Well you’d owe the gods for their help, but…” Lyudmila nodded.  “That would work.  There’s no way any Chinese Taoist has set up countermeasures against divine intervention from the Olympian gods.  Especially not divine intervention combined with modified Taoist magic.  You’re the only witch in existence who could even try to make that spell.”  Lyudmila fixed her eyes back on Helena.  “It will be dangerous though.  You’ll have to place the talismans on their heads personally, and it’ll take a great deal of magic.  Normally I’d say it would be impossible, but again, you’re the necromancer, and I’ve seen how much power you can get from your gods when they aren’t screwing you over.”

“In this case I imagine they’ll happily screw over my enemy first.”  Hades and Persephone considered the creation of undead an attack on their authority.  Also they favored her patron goddess, which made them even more likely to help.  She reached into her hat and pulled out the paper slips she’d bought in Chinatown.  “So, teach me what I’ll need to make the talismans.”

Lyudmila sighed.  “I don’t suppose I can convince you to try a different plan first?”

Helena grinned.  “Not a chance.”  She was going to enjoy watching Long Zhou Di’s own jiang-shi bite his head off.  Turning someone’s hubris against them was a time honored Hellenic tradition.  And freeing two undead slaves in the process just made the deal sweeter.

“Fine,” Lyudmila relented.  “But get some scratch paper first.  Figuring out rune placement is going to take a while.”