"It's done."

Hopeless looked up as Corrival Deuce walked into his office. The old general wore his robes comfortably, unlike Hopeless, he was used to holding authority, giving orders; Which is why Hopeless had delegated him as the main leader of the Cleavers.

"Good," Hopeless said with relief. Saracen had called him at a godawful time during the night, informing him of the relationship between Scarab and Billy-Ray Sanguine, the assassin who had caused a lot of trouble that caused Skulduggery to end up in another dimension. "Any developments regarding Crux and Marr?"

Deuce hesitated for a moment, "I haven't found anything yet but…"

Hopeless waited.

Deuce sighed, "Back in the eighties, Crux worked on something for Meritorious. Something off the books, as far as I can tell, but Eachan may have written about it in the Elder books," He explained.

Hopeless blinked, "How do you know this?" He knew Eachan and Corrival were good friends, but if something was off the books, then why tell Corrival?

"Because Eachan asked me to take the job first," Corrival confessed, "It was an intelligence gathering mission. He was worried that the Necromancers were trying to work against the Sanctuary, it turned out to be fake."

"Well, it's a good thing Satya's side project was digitizing the diaries," Hopeless said with some relief, he didn't fancy digging through hundreds of years worth of diaries, although he could have got someone else to do it.

Suddenly, the strange feeling overcame him momentarily. He let out a slight shiver, his hand reaching for the back of his neck, his nails scraping against skin.

"Are you okay, lad?"

He blinked, "Yeah, fine," He put his hand down, "I-" He trailed off, shaking his head to clear it, "Sorry, send Erskine to the archive rooms. Saracen's with him, I think."

Corrival nodded, "Sure thing." He left and Hopeless was alone again. Hopeless leaned forward, resting his head in his hands to try and ease the headache that was forming.

Ooooooooo

"You asked to meet?"

Ghastly flinched, pulled out of his thoughts at Solomon Wreath's voice. He turned, his hand stuffed into the pockets of his overcoat, a scarf wrapped around his neck, "Wreath."

"Bespoke," the Necromancer replied as he looked around, "Graveyard, really?"

"Satya mentioned you liked to meet in places surrounded by death."

"It does make life easier, I must confess."

Ghastly didn't bother with small talk, getting straight to the point, "Are the temples still searching for the Death Bringer?" He asked bluntly.

Solomon raised an eyebrow, "Old friend, they never stopped," He said with a laugh.

"We were never friends."

"How unfortunate for me," Solomon said with slight amusement, "Why are you worried? What does our savior have to do with you and your lot?"

Ghastly hesitated before shaking his head, "Doesn't matter," He said with some finality, turning on his heel and stepping away to leave.

"Is it Satya?"

He froze.

"It is, isn't it?" Solomon said, a smile lifting to his lips, "Let me guess, she's showing signs of what she was back during the war."

Ghastly didn't answer and continued walking.

"Perhaps we can help eachother," Solomon called, "You may like to know about the fact that Remus Crux and Davina Marr are Scarab's bitches."

That caught the elemental's attention, he stopped, "What do you know?"

"I'm no China Sorrows," Solomon said, picking at his jacket before resting his hands on the top of his cane, "But I do hear things. Crux and Marr are working with Scarab. If what I hear is true, then perhaps Scarab hopes to trade the Murder Skull in exchange for the freedom of his son." He looked up, meeting Ghastly's eyes, "Your turn."

Ghastly wanted to tell him to fuck off but something prompted him to speak, "She's using the Shadow Masks again."

Solomon seemed unconcerned, "I thought she always was," He said, eyebrows raised, "It is no secret that she places a little glamour on everything."

"This is different," Ghastly insisted, "She tortured a man- Made him see things that weren't there. It was like we were back in the war, we- well, you remember."

"Better than most," Solomon said softly, "I wouldn't worry about it," He said after a moment, "Perhaps when you get that damn skeleton back she'll go back to the woman we all know."

Ghastly had nothing to say to that.

oooooooooo

Dexter and Saracen spent the next half day scrolling through diary entries between the seventies and nineties. It was a lot faster with the digital entries, thanks to Satya, but was still slow work.

"Coffee?"

Saracen perked up, "Give it to me!" He ordered. Erskine rolled his eyes and handed over one of the cups to Saracen before sliding one over to Dexter, "Found anything yet?"

"Nope," Dexter answered, rubbing his eyes as he reached for the mouse, continuing to scroll down.

"Nice," Erskine said, nodding, "Very encouraging."

Saracen flipped him the middle finger, "Don't see you doing anything, Ravel."

"I'm one of the leaders of the free Irish magical world," Erskine said breezily, "I don't have to do anything." He earned another middle finger.

"Leaders of the free Irish magical world, my ass," Dexter muttered with a snort. Erskine was about to reply with something witt when Dexter's phone began to ring.

Dexter reached for it, answering, "What's up?"

After a moment, "Shit, okay- We don't exactly have much to go on, Ghastly, just a weak lead from Corrival."

Saracen seemed to be listening, or atleast knew what was going on because he reacted, reaching for the computer and began typing something in.

Erskine looked over his shoulder, frowning as he read what Saracen was looking for.

'Remus Crux Davina Marr'

"-we didn't have enough to worry about," Dexter said, "Are you coming to the Sanctuary?" After a moment, he went frowned, "Sure-" He stood, "Yeah, bye."

"Where are you going?" Erskine asked in alarm.

"Ghastly asked me to check on Satya- He said that Marr and Crux are working for Scarab."

"Who's his source?"

"Solomon Wreath," Saracen answered for Dexter, "And he would know- Look."

Erskine peered at what the other Dead Man was pointing at.

"Well, shit," He said in wonder, "Of course, Solomon was the mole inside the temple."

Because the diary entries that Saracen had pulled up described how a possible coup had been suspected in the eighties, Wreath had worked off the books to pass information to the Sanctuary. Crux had been hired before him when Meritorious had been under the impression that Wreath had been a liar but something changed and Crux was dropped.

"But what convinced Eachan that Wreath was able to be trusted?" Erskine asked.

"Who cares because Eachen just basically gave us Crux's home address," Saracen pointed out triumphantly.

"Great, I'll grab Satya and we'll go," Dexter said, grabbing a piece of paper and scribbling down the address.