Helpful Advice

It took Helena a half hour to reorient herself in the morning. Fortunately Camila was her chipper self and managed to put together a breakfast. Admittedly ‘breakfast’ for the Brazilian woman meant bread and fruit, but Helena wasn’t complaining. Especially since Camila had managed to drag Acedia out of bed to the counter they were using as a table.

The demon woman had recovered from her outburst last night, but she still wasn’t very active. That was only to be expected though. Camila was subtly pushing Acedia to help with minor tasks, but it wasn’t going well.

Helena checked the message box she’d sent her letter too, but it hadn’t been touched yet. Not surprising. Pfaltzgraff Alexis wouldn’t be expecting a letter so soon. “Alright. Let’s start gathering information.”

“What’s the plan?” Camila asked.

Helena grabbed some chalk. “First I talk to someone who actually understands demonology. Then I squeeze Nezaiel for whatever he might know.”

“You think you can just walk up and ask to see him?” Aceida said. “He lives in a mosque. He’s an angel. He’s not going to meet with a literal idolater.”

She carefully began labeling the north corner of the room in the old alphabet of Thebes. “Getting a meeting with him is easy. There’s even an unconsecrated building in the complex just so he can meet with followers of other pantheons.” Helena finished marking the limit of the room and moved to the east corner. “You see Nezaiel’s the worst kind of angel. The one that tries to save everyone.”

“That is really annoying,” Aceida said. Camila chuckled while Helena shook her head. It was impressive how much irony the demon could pack into a single sentence.

“I’m not trying to save people because I think I’m better than them. I try to help for other reasons.” Helena finished demarking the east and turned to the demon. “And I can assure you. I’m not trying to save everyone.”

Acedia blinked then huffed in annoyance and flopped back in her chair. Camila just shook her head. “Like do you practice saying vaguely threatening lines? You had to have practiced that, but I’ve never caught you.”

Helena moved to the south corner. “I practiced as a child. It’s important to keep people worried. If the people aren’t a little afraid of you things get unpleasant. Very quickly. They don’t always bring out torches and pitchforks, but it’s never good. And frequently lethal.”

“Yeah, speaking of things that’ll kill us,” Camila popped out of her chair. “What if this Nezaiel’s snapped and became the murderer?”

“I have a hard time believing that,” Helena said. “I’ve met him before. He seems as committed to nonviolence as he is to his God.” She moved to the west corner. “On the other hand I’d have no trouble at all believing he’d hide and shelter the murderer in an attempt to ‘save’ them. However twisted.”

Camila went to peer at some of Helena’s runes. “So you’re saying he won’t stab us, someone else might.”

“Which is why we’re meeting him in an unconsecrated building,” Helena said. “So we can kill anyone who tries to stab us.”

“That your default plan?” Camila asked.

Helena nodded. “I like simple plans. It’s harder for simple plans to go wrong.” She finished the last set of runes. “But we should start the day talking to people who don’t want us dead.” She pushed the mirror to the northwestern edge of the room and concentrated on it. This was a more difficult spell then the one Lyudmila had used to contact her before, but it was more refined. She only had to focus on the complex sigil her teachers had used to act as a focus.

After a few minutes she felt the connection come together. The mirror seemed to expand then shift, revealing a comfortable reading room. Two padded couches were arranged around a short table, and carefully cultivated glowing plants served as lamps. A few bookshelves sat on the far wall, alongside several landscape paintings. Books were scattered everywhere, something that Helena was certain caused a number of fights among the magicians who lived there.

“Nice,” Camila said. “How do we get a house like that?”

“One hundred years of good investments,” Helena muttered. “Also start rich.”

The door opened and a woman wearing a red dress and a sewing apron walked in. Her black hair was cut short, but most striking was the small leathery wings that just barely stretched past her shoulders. She adjusted her glasses as she moved to the couch. “Helena, it’s been a while. It’s always nice to see one of my former students. And you seem to be making new friends.” She looked at Camila. “Perhaps literally?”

A flash of irritation washed over Camila’s face, but the jiang-shi quickly hid it. “Nah, she helped me out of a tight spot. And since I can’t head back home I stuck around.” She waved her arm in greeting. “I’m Camila Correia Barbosa.”

“Ryumi Yurikoto,” the woman said with an apologetic bow. “And I suppose I should have guessed. Helena always had an issue with creating undead, even if she had permission beforehand.” Ryumi looked over at Acedia. “And I suppose you would be Acedia? Unless the dark forces of hell got any better at naming.”

“They still suck,” Acedia replied.

“A pleasure to meet you both.” Ryumi sat down. “Well Helena, I’d love to question you for hours as to your recent adventures, but I imagine you called to talk about something important. Though if you want me to help you with interior decorating I’m afraid my suggestion is going to have to start with ‘buy more furniture.'”

Helena shook her head. “I’m well aware this is a lost cause. I’m calling because I have angel problems. Or problems with something that’s spending a lot of effort to pretend to be an angel.”

Ryumi smiled. “Aiming high are we? Well I’ll be happy to help with that. Could you explain-.”

The door behind Ryumi burst open and a short Japanese woman wearing a beat up stereotypical witch outfit skidded into the room. She looked like a teen out for Halloween. “Helena! You weren’t gonna call without talking to your favorite teacher were ya?!”

“Is Hanako going to come as well?” Helena asked sweetly.

“Tch. You’re terrible Helena. Sure lockpicking’s fun, but you love to blow stuff up as much as me.” The woman posed proudly. “And it was my stellar performance that convinced your grandmother to let you go to camp in the Realms of Illusion.”

Acedia nearly fell out of her chair. “You- You are ‘the Ordinary?!”

“Juri the Tutor these days. Gave the Ordinary to Kseniya.” Juri pouted. “I wanted to be called the Camp Counselor, but everyone pointed out people would be calling me ‘Camp Counselor Juri’ when I was dueling them. And then I’d feel bad about beating them up.”

Camila laughed. “Oh so you’re the fun one. Bet you have all sorts of great stories from when Helena was a kid, no?”

Juri nodded. “Yep! Oh, Helena was my best student. She was so angry about being sent to camp. Wandered around everywhere with a sour expression. And then she learned the joy of explosions.”

“And as much as I know you’d both love embarrassing me more, I could use some help blowing a specific someone up.” Helena interjected. She pulled out one of the silver coated feathers. “Whatever I’m hunting has these for wings.”

Juri raised an eyebrow and sat down while Ryumi peered at the feather. “Now that’s interesting. Explain from the beginning please.”

Helena quickly recapped the attack on Acedia and what she’d found at the marketplace. Ryumi folded her hands at the mention of kabbalistic magic, while Juri perked up at the fighting. “And that’s when I contacted you,” Helena finished.

“You’re right. That doesn’t make any sense,” Ryumi mused. “No offense Helena but I can only conclude you misidentified the spell.”

“I was afraid of that,” Helena muttered. “Kabbalism just doesn’t make any sense!”

Ryumi chuckled. “I could say the same about your gods Helena.”

“Helena, you said that the thing just appeared out of nowhere, and then poofed out of existence right?” Juri asked. After Helena nodded in reply, Juri turned to Camila. “And you said you gave the thing a good kick. What did it feel like?”

“Felt like kicking a car. Metal and all,” Camila replied. “Glad I don’t feel pain ya know.”

Juri looked over at Ryumi. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Probably not. Your magic is-” Ryumi paused. “Ah. Of course. I suppose you’ve been around me long enough to know that much.” She looked over at Helena. “What’s the most famous use of Kabbalistic magic?”

“The golem,” Helena replied automatically. She blinked. “Wait you can’t mean-“

Ryumi nodded. “Yes. You aren’t fighting an angel. You’re fighting an angel construct.”

Camila raised her hand. “Isn’t that heresy? Also kinda impossible, what with angels being all pure and perfect and stuff?”

“It’s hard. Creating a demon is objectively easier, and I still haven’t completely succeeded at that,” Ryumi said. “But if you’re a deranged madman attempting to build an angel golem by murdering sinners you can get something close enough.”

“An artificial angel wouldn’t fill me with unreasonable dread,” Acedia muttered with a blush.

Ryumi shook her head. “It would if it was designed to exterminate demons. It’s exactly like an angel in that respect.” She looked at Helena. “Which is how your spell can track it. You searched for an anti-demon weapon. And you found it. But that does not make a real angel.”

Helena hissed in annoyance. “And it doesn’t appear normally because it’s inactive. I bet its creators even have it tethered to their workshop so they can recall it instantly.”

“Well that’s gonna make it hard to track,” Camila said. “That mean we’re going to have to run around the city trying to find the crazy guy building it?”

Acedia shivered. “While they get to strike anywhere in the city.”

“Worse,” Juri said. “The thing ain’t complete. Which means not only do they have free reign to murder demons, the thing’s only gonna get stronger.”

“At some point it’s going to get strong enough to track down though, right?” Helena asked.

Ryumi nodded. “And since you know you’re looking for a kabbalistic golem you can use some of my spells to track it. Though you’ll have to be close to get past that truesilver on the wings.”

“Gives us a chance though,” Camila said.

“Wish I could join ya,” Juri said. “I always wanted to fight an angel. But this sounds like one of those horrible things that ends with a lot of bodies. And I gotta keep order around here.”

“And by that she means cause trouble for everyone,” Ryumi said.

Helena grinned. “I remember well.”

Ryumi stood. “Is there anything else we can help with? I’d love to continue talking, but I imagine you’ve got people to threaten.”

“Probably won’t threaten anyone, but I will insult them,” Helena said. “I’ll call again though. Before Walpurgisnacht I promise.”

“If you can, drop by and we can have a match,” Juri said. “Bring your friends too. ‘Specially her.” Juri pointed to Camila. “I haven’t fought a jiang-shi in ages. And you look like you got a few more tricks than the average ones. A lot more brain cells too.”

Camila laughed. “Can’t fight without a bit of thinking. I wanna hear all of Helena’s embarrassing secrets too, so sure!”

Acedia sighed. “I’ll pass. I’m just doing this to help my sisters.”

“A worthy endeavor,” Ryumi said quietly. “Good luck to you, sin demon Acedia.” She bowed slightly to Helena. “And good luck to you too Helena. Try not to blow up anything important.”

Juri grinned. “Ignore her. Blow up everything.”

“Later,” Helena replied with a smile before cutting the spell.