Finally they reached the post office and the letter was sent. The finality of it kicked up Helena’s stomach again, but the humors quickly rebalanced. The deed was done. There was nothing to do now but wait.
At least on that front. She looked around as they left the office then nodded and headed towards an alleyway. Camila hopped up behind her. “So, what are we doing?”
“Meeting the Adena. He’s decided to show up,” Helena said, nodding towards a cat that was heading towards the alley along the rooftops.
“Thought Europeans brought cats to the Americas,” Camila said as they moved out of the crowds.
Helena nodded. “Something he learned to mimic later. Though I doubt it was hard. He’s a master. Assume he’s better than me in everything but combat.” He might be better than her at that too, but she had her pride.
When they were a little further into the alley the cat leaped down into the shadows between some boxes. There was a faint shift in the air and seconds later the Adena walked out. “Curse Gunner. Pixundé.” He nodded to each in turn. The man had somehow stumbled across Camila’s capoeira name.
Camila grinned, but there was an edge in her smile. “Didn’t think I rated being spied on.”
“Unlike some, I remember magicians are not the only ones worthy of titles,” he replied quietly. “You beat the Undead Dragon. And the false angel if the tales are true.”
“They are,” Camila said. “Woulda been nice to have some help though.”
The man frowned. “I’m sure it would. A mistake on my part. I was following the trail you first found during the time you were ambushed, and then again on the information I had gained after that. You had finished the matter by the time I arrived.”
“So we have a lot of information on the people who are already dead.” Helena swore. “I’d hoped you would have found something about our other killer.”
“I did. You led me to them.” The Adena folded his arms. “What is missing can sometimes be more important than what is there.”
Helena folded her arms in return. She was perfectly willing to wait out his cryptic puzzle. Camila on the other hand seemed more interested in the answers. “What’d you find?”
“Neither angel appeared at your finds.” He looked around before continuing. “For your attack on the false demon this makes sense. But for the murder…”
“Amaiel should have shown up,” Helena finished. That was strange. “I still don’t see her being the culprit. She’s obsessed with rooting out blasphemy. If she went mad she’d just start killing people herself.” Her eyes narrowed. “Which means someone’s been intercepting our messages.”
Camila shook her head in mock sorrow. “Thought they weren’t supposed to do that.”
“Not if they like living,” Helena growled. “So someone in the Church is involved.”
“Whoa, that’s a bit of an assumption, no?” Camila looked a bit uncomfortable. “I mean we’ve been sending them through the mosque. Couldn’t someone there be paid off? Or the other angel is hiding things? I mean I know it’s not likely but…”
The Adena nodded. “But we need to be sure before moving in on the largest Church in the realm. Which is why I have the Gold Rat Wizard searching his ranks for whoever brought the truesilver into the realm. Someone must know.”
“Damn. I should have thought of that.” Helena sighed. She’d been making mistakes. Getting locked into thinking like a magician. She could teleport chunks of true silver all over the realms, but ritualists would need to smuggle it in. And silver was heavy. The shipment would need guards and a number of men to move it.
“Kinda wondering why the bastard didn’t think of that,” Camila muttered. “Thought he was smarter than that.”
“He assumed his thugs would tell him about it.” The Adena gave a derisive snort. “Nevermind how easy it is for a bribe to make scum forget. But when it comes to his so-called business he is often blind. I corrected his thinking and he’s now hunting for the truth personally.”
Helena nodded slowly. Now that the idea was in her head she started seeing the possibilities. “I’ll tell him to investigate any group murders seemingly unrelated to this mess. For that matter see if something happened during the mob war or even before. A group willing to create an angel to kill off the unworthy is willing to kill a few criminals to help keep a secret.”
“Wise.” The Adena looked around again. “That is all I know now. However if the trail is good, we will find ourselves against an enemy in a fortress. We may need to work together against it.”
The pride in knowing that the Adena was asking her for aid was eaten up by the seriousness of the situation. “I’ll mark a polecat on the door if we’re ready to plan an attack.”
“I will send word if I need your skills,” he replied before striding behind the boxes. This time Helena felt a lot more power being used. She stepped up and looked where the man had disappeared. There was nothing. “Shadow stepping,” she muttered. He must have used the shadows for a short range teleport.
“Show off,” Camila chuckled.
Helena shrugged. “It works for him.” If she could get away with some of that she would. It might make people more respectful. She walked out of the alley they’d been chatting in and started towards a park.
“So what now?” Camila asked. “We got a lead to follow up on?”
“We have a lead, I’m just not sure how to follow up on it,” Helena grimaced. “None of my scrying spells will work on the Cathedral or the Mosque if they’ve kept it properly blessed. And I can’t think of any fey creature that can infiltrate the place either.”
An arm wrapped around her shoulder out of nowhere, and Helena froze. “This wouldn’t be happening if you’d learned to properly summon animals instead of fairies, little Helena.” That voice. She turned to see a dark haired woman wearing too much makeup and a modern t-shirt and skirt getup with what looked like crudely drawn figures of herself on the shirt. “I keep telling you, you need to study the basics more. It’s fine to branch out but it really hurts when you forget your roots.”
Camila shifted to face the new woman. “You a friend of Helena’s?” The jiang-shi was obviously ready for trouble, but sadly there was nothing either of them could do to handle the trouble that was coming.
“Sorry, Great Grandma,” Helena said. “It’s been hard to keep up my studies recently.”
“Like, isn’t your great grandma Hecate or…” Camila’s eyes widened. She must have caught on.
Hecate winked and held a finger to her lips. “Shh. This is when I’m undercover. Don’t worship or grovel or anything, otherwise I have to be all official. You can call me by name but try to act normal.”
Specifically this was the form her goddess used when she was meeting people as family rather than as a god. A very important distinction. It was the time when Helena could speak her mind without getting in very big trouble. But Hecate still didn’t make real social calls. At least not with anyone but Circe. The goddess was going to ask a favor. And Helena didn’t have a clue what.
Well there was no rushing her goddess. And the company wasn’t unwelcome. “So what brings you to the Immigrant Realms great grandmother?”
“Well I was across the bridge talking to some of those new age kids that follow me.” Helena grimaced and Hecate shook a finger at her. “Now don’t look like that little Helena. Sure most of them are pure dabblers, but we can’t be picky. Besides, there’s a couple of those girls that’ll become pretty good witches.” Hecate grinned. “And they throw really sweet parties. Well some of them do.”
Camila seemed to be trying to work all of this out. It was understandable, given Helena had been dumbstruck herself the first time she’d seen the goddess this way. “So, like, do gods normally walk around town in disguise?”
“Only the fun ones!” Hecate laughed. “But nah, it’s not common among the Olympians, unless they’re going to surprise someone. Most of them don’t have real worshipers outside the Hellenic, Macedonian, and all those Roman realms.” She gestured to her current outfit with a many ringed hand. “I on the other hand still have followers here and there, so I get out more.”
“How many of them actually recognize you, great grandmother?” Helena asked. She still had a hard time believing dabblers from a modern realm could approach the power of a real witch.
Hecate shrugged. “Well, I mean a lot of them have weird ideas about gods in their heads. It’s hard for them to understand that gods can be people too. And then the idea that their goddess would show up as some weird goth girl two years out of date really blows their minds.” The goddess chuckled. “But when they catch on it really helps boost their confidence.”
Hecate threw an arm around Camila’s shoulders and pulled them both close. “So! Why don’t you pick a place to eat? I’ll treat you both to lunch. After all, it’s been a long time since I got to speak to my favorite great great great granddaughter.”
Camila’s grin was scarily similar to Hecate’s. “Your great grandma’s pretty cool, Helena.”
There was no arguing that. “Alright. I know a place that serves modern Greek.”
“Not ancient Greek?” Camila asked.
“Nobody would go to a restaurant that only served our home realm’s food,” Helena said as she started down the street.
Hecate nodded. “Yeah. The cooks aren’t bad but, seriously limited supplies. The Immigrant Realm has it nice with all your trade routes. And those American ingredients. I keep telling Demeter we should let more stuff in, but she doesn’t listen to me or Persephone at all. She keeps worrying about what Poseidon will think, even though the man’s never cared about what’s on his plate before. No taste at all outside fish.”
“So, like, am I going to be struck by lightning for hearing that?” Camila asked. “Because lightning can hurt me.” That was a good question, Helena had to admit. While she let herself relax in this form her great grandmother wasn’t so openly dismissive of the Olympians around Lyudmila and Kseniya.
The goddess patted Camila on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Helena here might have made you free willed, but the pantheon considers you connected. Which means you’re extended family. Just don’t go telling outsiders.”
“Kinda insulting but the extended family bit sounds kinda cool so I guess I can’t complain,” Camila replied.
“Finally,” Helena gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Someone I can tell all the crazy stories you share with me.” She probably wouldn’t bother Camila with the petty gossip that seemed to fill the gods’ lives, but not having to watch her tongue all the time would be nice.
Hecate’s smile vanished. “Speaking of family, there’s been a few complaints.” That made Helena wince. Being noticed by the Olympians was rarely healthy. “Apollo was very angry about your little stunt with your friend’s soul. I talked it over with Lord Hades and Persephone but they were a little annoyed too. Especially since they’ve cut you a lot more slack than most people get,” she said motioning to Camila.
“I gave them ten sacrifices just now,” Helena muttered. “I don’t see why they should care about a demon they had no claim on to begin with.”
“Not thrilled with being ‘an exception’ either. I don’t worship you all,” Camila added sharply.
Hecate shrugged and shook her head. “I know. I totally explained that. Well not what you said Camila, because they hate admitting they aren’t universally adored. But Apollo’s really good at running his mouth. I think it’s all cleared up for now, but try to be more politically minded. The golden boy’s remembered you exist, and he’s still out for your blood.”
Helena grimaced but thought over her great grandmother’s words. Apollo was never going to be happy with her, but inter family feuds were common among the Olympians. And unlike most people who offended the gods and got smote for their troubles, she had a lot more leeway to work with. “Should I be saving up to offer a calf to Zeus? Or is there something else the gods want?”
“Well I want some of that new milk-chocolate they’ve started making out on the Coast, but I’ll get that myself,” Hecate replied. “As for the others, well the cow might not be a bad idea. But just acting in the pantheon’s name should be fine. You act as a magician more than a priestess Helena. You can try to drum up some awe every now and then. Even awe in us Titans would be fine.”
“I can do that,” Helena replied. Bragging about the Olympians often felt sour in her mouth, but bragging about herself and her family was easy.
Hecate smiled. “Great! Now your wonderful great grandma only has one more thing to ask you.”
“That sounds kinda ominous,” Camila said. Helena silently agreed.
The goddess didn’t bother to defend herself. “I want you to teach that cultist, Yvonne, how to be a proper priestess of me.”
“What?!” The pain in Helena’s gut returned. She waved her arms to try to summon up the words to explain everything that was wrong with that, but they all tripped over each other. “Why?”
“She has great magical potential,” Hecate said simply. “She really believes in concepts like Love and Truth and stuff. There’s a reason she was being groomed as a sacrifice. Sure she’s easily manipulated, but there’s a good amount of power hidden in her mind. She’ll probably never get true magic. Too much faith for that. But she’ll be a great ritualist witch.”
Camila managed to summon her own thoughts faster than Helena. “Like, manipulating her kinda seems wrong. What with our friend dying to stop that kinda bullshit, ya know.”
“I’m also not sure why giving someone who makes bad decisions incredible power is a good idea,” Helena added.
“If I limited my blessing to people who made good decisions all the time, I wouldn’t have many followers,” Hecate said pointedly. “And the rest of the world isn’t as interested in letting her ‘figure things out for herself’ or whatever you’re hoping. She’s going to have people proselytizing to her from all sides. All I’m asking is that you make a case for me as well.”
It offended Helena. She wasn’t a street preacher to begin with. And she still wasn’t thrilled with taking in a random cultist as a student, much less one who was in jail. But this was her goddess asking. And Helena was pretty sure that request would become a command if she refused. “Alright, but I won’t hide anything from her.”
Hecate shrugged. “That might be the best tactic. Especially from you little Helena.” The goddess shook her head. “You were always at your best when you were brutally honest.
“Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, your goddess has a little hint for you,” she sniffed in annoyance, “one that I’m giving you for free since people keep sneaking past my blessings. Cursed truesilver.”
“I didn’t want to question you,” Helena said, “but it’s been really annoying. It’s hard to prove you’re the ruler of crossroads if I keep getting ambushed at them.”
Camila tried to look innocent. “I didn’t say anything.”
“For which I thank you,” Hecate replied. The goddesses eyes glowed red. “Tonight you will receive a visitor who will give you the clue you need. I will guide her through the crossroads to you. After that you must act on your own.”
“Thank you, great grandmother.” Helena’s heart beat quicker. A lead. A chance to redeem herself. Something that would give her the initiative. The thought was addictive.
Camila looked more alert as well. “Guess we just need to get ready for the fun, eh?”
Hecate nodded, the divine presence around her fading as quick as it appeared. “Now, let’s grab that meal. You can lay all your emotions out on me.” She squeezed Helena’s shoulder. “I owe you that as well.”
Helena’s eyes itched again. “Thank you,” she replied.