This is not where I wanted to end up. The Warrior of Lethe had me pinned to the ground with her burning sword at my throat. He blue eyes glowed with the fury of oblivion and the jagged cuts along her wrists burned crimson fire out of them. My own sword was just out of reach and I strained to move my head farther away from the blade. I could smell her hatred and pain, her own shadow breaking the hold of her psyche and whispering the darkness. I had to think fast. I strained to figure out how I got in this mess in the first place…
***
"Big, mean infiltrator now, huh? Don't go advertising." Keith smirked cockily, sitting on a soul crafted chair. The worn poster with an old picture of Uncle Sam proudly promoting 'We Want You!' hung behind him. Keith hadn't been a patriot and wanted no part of Vietnam. He found it as a sarcastic jab. I wondered why he would trade something for a crappy relic poster.
"Don't worry, I won't." I smirked, looking around Keith's place. It was pretty Spartan except for the poster. He must have kept everything he cared about elsewhere.
"Good. Other people get nervous about having a fanatical judge around them." He smirked at me. "Wouldn't want to ruin any of your sterling friendships."
I grinned. "I'm sure. I just stopped by because I know you have some contacts in the mortal world. I just need to know who they are."
He raised an eyebrow to me. "You thinking of using that power of yours? It's against the law, you know. Interacting with the living." He should know that by now. He's been in the Legion for forty years.
"I can feel my sterling friendship starting to rust. Don't worry about another wraith coming for you for helping an infiltrator. My first case is finding my own murderer."
Keith raised, his hands relenting. "Alright, alright. But you owe me for this one amigo." He reached into his pocket and handed me a list. There was a PI and a detective listed.
I hmmed and looked them over. Not exactly a long list, but I could use the two to start. "Thanks. I'll be gone for a few so don't wait up."
Keith rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "Don't worry. Have fun in the skin lands. Go get laid!" He chuckled, cocking his head to me.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure. If I do, you will not be hearing about it." I walked out of his haunt onto the busy streets of Stygia. If he shouted, I could hear him over the din.
I gently moved the piece of paper over my knuckles sliding through the crowd. The people were diverse as in life. Some people didn't even look like the way they did when they were alive. The way they look in death is an idealized version of themselves in life. Some aren't so vain and appear the way they did in life, with cause of death. Some don't have the cause of death and look completely different. It was what was in the subconscious. I wondered about myself. Why the green eyes? I guessed I would find out that answer soon enough.
I forced my way through the streets towards on of the alleys. I couldn't hear a sound except for myself and I made sure to check if there was no one watching. I had used this point before to enter the mortal world and it was the perfect place. I concentrated and focused on a location, preparing myself. The effort was astronomical; it felt like pushing through a fierce gravity. I gasped, pushing.
"You aren't going to make it! You will FAIL! Give up! You will never know who you are!" My Shadow chimed in at the worst possible moment, as it always had a habit of doing. It took much more effort to ignore now.
I fought even with the whispers and let out a silent scream as the world spun and faded away to blackness. My ears rang and burned with pain, I could feel a hot liquid running out of them. I thought for a moment I had failed and I was going to discorporate and go to oblivion. Then there was silence and darkness. I thought oblivion wouldn't be so bad if it was just silence. But in that silence I smelled something. Something horrible. I wretched and realized I could feel my arms and my legs. I moved my hand up towards the darkness and felt something. Metal. I pushed it open and immediately squinted. I was in a dumpster.
I rolled my eyes and hopped out, wiping the garbage off of me. I had fully materialized in the mortal world. It was so bright, so many colors. It was intoxicating. The blue sky, the yellow sun, the clou…
"Hey! What the hell are you doing in the dumpster? You a goddamn crack head?!" There was a man dressed in a white outfit with a discarded garbage bag in him. I had just come out of a dumpster behind his restaurant admiring the sky.
"Sorry, I was just looking for something. I'll be out of your way now." Is tumbled and turned. I was still woozy from my trip and felt at my ears. Blood. I simply shook my head, rubbing the substance between my fingers. I felt the man's eyes still upon me.
I turned and noticed what he was looking at. My sword was in its sheath at my leg. He said something in another language to someone inside. I strained to translate it. But these people were still alive and I gritted my teeth forgetting. The start of this trip was not good. My shadow was laughing at me in my ears. It didn't take long for me to hear the sirens in the distance and I wasted no time running like hell across the street. Even though I was in the mortal world, I wasn't alive. I looked it, but under medical scrutiny I was dead. I still didn't tire when running, which is always a plus.
After a while of running I hide in an alley. I was lucky to dodge people on the way, so no one else saw my blade. I leaned against the wall, sighing. I shut my eyes, trying to think. My shadow was still filling my head with senseless laughter. That didn't help at all. I probably smelled like a dumpster, had a sword and no money. In this world I was certifiable. I couldn't buy anything, so I tied my coat around my waist, using the back of it to hide my sword. I wiped the sweat off of my brow and squinted, looking at it. It was real water, not just plasm. I rubbed it against my clothes, drying it off. I exited the alley and into the swarm of people. So many voices, accents, languages…I was amazed. Nostalgia got to me and I caught myself wandering. It was so diverse I had forgotten. People stared at me oddly and I looked back, breaking the cardinal rule in any city. It had been so long. I had traveled so far just experiencing the world before I realized that what had been once a sunny afternoon became orange haze off to the sky. I cursed for myself for letting my mind wander this far. I dug through my pocket and saw looked up the address of the PI. Luckily, it wasn't far from here.
I asked for directions and headed down the street, maneuvering easily. Compared to the streets in Stygia, this was like walking across the street. The building was brick and two stories. On the bottom was a nail solon and on the top was the PI's office. Frank Cartwell. I slid the paper in my pocket and headed inside. I found the staircase easy enough and started to walk up it. The stairs were old and narrow. I sighed and concentrated. These weren't soul forged. My claustrophobia was getting to me. My knees shook and my legs felt like jelly. I forced myself to stand and continue. Even in life I wasn't this claustrophobic. I continued on, pushing my resolve to the limit.
"You loser, pathetic! You can't make it up a flight of stairs! Pitiful." My shadow goaded me. I ignored it. I couldn't let it beat me when I was so close.
I reached for the doorknob, finally and turned. My lungs let out a sigh and I called out. "Hello?" I was met with no answer. I looked inside. The office was dark, and I flicked the light switch once. Nothing. I flicked it a few times. Still nothing. I hmmed to myself and moved deeper into the office. There were a few desks that were empty. Except for the middle one.
At it, there was a figure face down on it. I could hear the soft drip of blood onto the floor. I glanced around, feeling into the Shadowlands for his soul. It wasn't there. Either he had no connections strong enough to hold him or someone had got to him before me. I pulled my senses back to the mortal world, weaving in and out of desks stacked with papers. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly to look at it but before I could see what it was it slammed me so had it flung me across the room and into a wall. The smack reverberated into my ears. I blinked and stood up as fast as I can, discarding my jacket and unsheathing my blade. I rushed towards it, but in a blur it smashed through the window and down to the pavement below. I grabbed my jacket and wrapped it around my blade, leaping down stairs. I could hear the commotion of people outside. The people in the nail solon looked at me expecting an answer. I didn't give them any, moving through it to throw open the door.
Shattered glass and wood lay on the sidewalk, but there was no one in sight. People were talking about it amongst themselves. The police had been called an people were starting to look at me. I searched throughout the crowd and I spotted something. A black haired woman with sunglasses. Gauze wrapped around the wrists. I started to move toward her. She backed away.
"Hey." I said calmly. She didn't wait, bursting off with a supernatural speed. "Hey! Stop her!" I sprinted after her pushing people out of the way. I could hear the police in the distance; I only focused on the figure moving out and away on the sidewalk. She threw garbage cans in my way and I instinctively leapt over them. I felt déjà vu. The smell of the chase. I had come full circle. I was home again.
She turned a corner, throwing people and objects in my way. I jumped or leapt over them. We chased each other for countless moments until she reached a parking garage. She was a warrior of Lethe. I must be careful. I unwound my sword from my jacket and looked around. There was only one entrance and exit to this parking garage. I scanned around being ready for anything. The garage was filled with a terse silence. For a moment I thought that there was no one around. I heard a skittering above me from the second level of the garage. I moved out in the open carefully, looking up. Nothing. I refocused my attention on the rest of the garage. That was a mistake. She leapt down from the second level and onto me screaming hellfire.
***
I think this is where we came in. Her flaming sword was at my throat, slowly burning the tip through my flesh. I winced straining to get away from it. The fury of her eyes did not look like they could be soothed.
"What do you want from me?" I asked, strained under the pain of the pinpoint of the sword.
Her fury cowed slightly, but she did not remove the sword. "You, infiltrator, are in violation of the laws of the dead. No interaction in the skin lands."
I scoffed, "You know as well as I that the laws of the Grim Legion are permitted to go beyond the shroud and affect the lands of the living. We have the jurisdiction. You, I'm afraid, do not."
"I'd watch my words infiltrator. Who has the upper hand? I do. You will answer my questions or I'll send you back in hellfire." She didn't smile nor did she smirk. She was totally expressionless.
"Right." It would have been stupid of me to try anything. I did not want a flaming sword to go through my throat.
"There was a detective murdered earlier tonight. Did he kill anyone?" Her eyes burned almost as hot as her sword.
"You mean a PI." I don't remember any detective being killed.
"No, a Detective. James Lowkey. His car exploded in a fireball with no witnesses, no evidence and no explanation. Plus, the fireball almost took me out." That explains why she was so pissed. And that was the detective I wanted to talk to. Fuck. The PI and the Detective now dead. I would bet that I wouldn't find the detective in the shadow lands either. What the hell was going on?
"I was assigned to my own death. He was given to me as a source." I was starting to get agitated now. "I'm investigating my own death. When you do that, why would you kill off one of your sources?"
"The hell do I know, infiltrator. All I know was I got an anonymous tip that some law breaking was going to go down tonight. And then a nice big fireball to prove the source." She adjusts her sword for it to hurt a little more. I groaned under the pressure.
I clenched my fists. "Then why the hell were you doing at a PI's office, in the crowd after his throat was slit? Answer me that." She looked confused for a moment, backing her sword off.
I took the opportunity and moved lightning quick, slamming my fist into her face, sending her flying back. She groaned, the sword dropping from her fingers. I grabbed for it and as she was about to get up again, and I bashed the hilt at her jaw. Surprisingly, it did not crack; even with the amount force I hit her with it. We couldn't be knocked out while we were in the form either. We could only be incapacitated by a violent disruption. Like a sword across the throat. I leapt on top of her, reversing the positions.
"Alright," I heaved. "Now its my turn to ask the fucking questions." She growled at me and rested her head against the pavement.
"Ugh, you are such a fucking asshole." She knew she was more powerful than me, and me getting the drop on her pissed her off. I didn't bother to smirk.
"I'll repeat: What the hell were you doing in the crowd around a dead man's office?" I pressed the sword against the base of her throat.
"Simple: I followed the police reports of a man wielding a sword. Just like you, I have my sources. Following where the reports left off, I caught sight of you and tailed you." She gritted her teeth as she spoke.
"Oh? Then why the hell did you run when I called after you?"
She rolled her eyes, "Because I thought you were the nutcase who blew up the detective's car. Get me?"
I sighed and nodded, "I get you. Smells like a set-up to me." I quickly got off of her, throwing the sword off in a random direction and picking up my blade.
She leapt up with amazing agility and dusted herself off. "Yeah, no shit."
I sheathed my sword, rubbing my throat where the sword burned me. The weapons of her squad must have been pretty powerful since I had not seen them elsewhere. She must be the Silent Legion's heavy firepower.
"Why don't we help each other out?" She said as she moved off in the exact direction as I threw the sword.
"Oh?" I called back after her, my voice echoing in the spaced out garage. "What do you purpose?"
She reached under a van and recovered her blade. "I'll look up how you can complete your mission. If you help me with something your commander wouldn't."
"Alright. That sounds like a fair deal." I walked over to her. I was glad the hostilities had clamed down. This trip was mostly a bust, and now that there was someone playing two legions against each other, I had to figure out what was going on. Looks like my promotion would not go easily.
She sighed and looked forlorn. I could tell it was the way she had always looked. Whatever had come out during the tense moments of hostility was a reaction to high emotion. Now it was back to the way she always was.
"My brother was killed a few years ago. Oblivion took him as a Specter. I didn't find out until recently. I destroyed him." The gauze she was wearing had come off one of her wrists. The fire that lay under the skin had turned a dull red, like dying embers.
She continued on and I listened, my arms crossed. "I petitioned to your commander to have someone look for my brother's killer, but he refused."
I nodded and thought that as odd. Why would a member of the Legion not help find a murderer? Hm. Must be politics. Fucking Nazi. "Right and you want me to look for your brother's murderer."
She nodded. "His name was Nicholas Rainer. The detective that is working on the case is Martin Hainsborough." She continued on speaking, "And in return for this help, I'll help you find new sources to find out who you are."
"Sounds like a good deal. What about this double cross?" I questioned.
"If the Legions found out that there was an indication someone was going to play them both against the other, do you know what would happen?" She looked to me as if I was a child. Her wrists had turned from crimson to solid black.
I nodded. "The Legions would pump up defenses and turn on each other, countless wraiths going to the forges and end up destroyed. Mass chaos."
She looked satisfied with that answer. "Yes. So we watch out for signs of betrayal while we go about our assigned tasks."
"Right. Hey, what is your name? I don't think we have been properly introduced." I looked toward her. She didn't seem anything like the angel of hellfire she once was before.
"Deirdre." She simply said, keeping a hand wrapped around the hilt of her sword and the other languishing at her side.
I bowed my head slightly. "Adrian."
"Well, we'll meet soon enough after we've accomplished our assigned tasks." She offered me a slight nod and turned walking down the parking garage, slowly fading from this world with each step. By the time she reached the end of the lot, she was already gone.
I watched as she disappeared and shook my head simply. So this was my new life. I had a conspiracy to unravel, figure why I died, and solve a murder. Everything had come full circle. I looked out over the hazy night sky, the navy back drop and the full moon. It stood out like a pearl at the bottom of the ocean. I was home again.
***
"Big, mean infiltrator now, huh? Don't go advertising." Keith smirked cockily, sitting on a soul crafted chair. The worn poster with an old picture of Uncle Sam proudly promoting 'We Want You!' hung behind him. Keith hadn't been a patriot and wanted no part of Vietnam. He found it as a sarcastic jab. I wondered why he would trade something for a crappy relic poster.
"Don't worry, I won't." I smirked, looking around Keith's place. It was pretty Spartan except for the poster. He must have kept everything he cared about elsewhere.
"Good. Other people get nervous about having a fanatical judge around them." He smirked at me. "Wouldn't want to ruin any of your sterling friendships."
I grinned. "I'm sure. I just stopped by because I know you have some contacts in the mortal world. I just need to know who they are."
He raised an eyebrow to me. "You thinking of using that power of yours? It's against the law, you know. Interacting with the living." He should know that by now. He's been in the Legion for forty years.
"I can feel my sterling friendship starting to rust. Don't worry about another wraith coming for you for helping an infiltrator. My first case is finding my own murderer."
Keith raised, his hands relenting. "Alright, alright. But you owe me for this one amigo." He reached into his pocket and handed me a list. There was a PI and a detective listed.
I hmmed and looked them over. Not exactly a long list, but I could use the two to start. "Thanks. I'll be gone for a few so don't wait up."
Keith rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "Don't worry. Have fun in the skin lands. Go get laid!" He chuckled, cocking his head to me.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure. If I do, you will not be hearing about it." I walked out of his haunt onto the busy streets of Stygia. If he shouted, I could hear him over the din.
I gently moved the piece of paper over my knuckles sliding through the crowd. The people were diverse as in life. Some people didn't even look like the way they did when they were alive. The way they look in death is an idealized version of themselves in life. Some aren't so vain and appear the way they did in life, with cause of death. Some don't have the cause of death and look completely different. It was what was in the subconscious. I wondered about myself. Why the green eyes? I guessed I would find out that answer soon enough.
I forced my way through the streets towards on of the alleys. I couldn't hear a sound except for myself and I made sure to check if there was no one watching. I had used this point before to enter the mortal world and it was the perfect place. I concentrated and focused on a location, preparing myself. The effort was astronomical; it felt like pushing through a fierce gravity. I gasped, pushing.
"You aren't going to make it! You will FAIL! Give up! You will never know who you are!" My Shadow chimed in at the worst possible moment, as it always had a habit of doing. It took much more effort to ignore now.
I fought even with the whispers and let out a silent scream as the world spun and faded away to blackness. My ears rang and burned with pain, I could feel a hot liquid running out of them. I thought for a moment I had failed and I was going to discorporate and go to oblivion. Then there was silence and darkness. I thought oblivion wouldn't be so bad if it was just silence. But in that silence I smelled something. Something horrible. I wretched and realized I could feel my arms and my legs. I moved my hand up towards the darkness and felt something. Metal. I pushed it open and immediately squinted. I was in a dumpster.
I rolled my eyes and hopped out, wiping the garbage off of me. I had fully materialized in the mortal world. It was so bright, so many colors. It was intoxicating. The blue sky, the yellow sun, the clou…
"Hey! What the hell are you doing in the dumpster? You a goddamn crack head?!" There was a man dressed in a white outfit with a discarded garbage bag in him. I had just come out of a dumpster behind his restaurant admiring the sky.
"Sorry, I was just looking for something. I'll be out of your way now." Is tumbled and turned. I was still woozy from my trip and felt at my ears. Blood. I simply shook my head, rubbing the substance between my fingers. I felt the man's eyes still upon me.
I turned and noticed what he was looking at. My sword was in its sheath at my leg. He said something in another language to someone inside. I strained to translate it. But these people were still alive and I gritted my teeth forgetting. The start of this trip was not good. My shadow was laughing at me in my ears. It didn't take long for me to hear the sirens in the distance and I wasted no time running like hell across the street. Even though I was in the mortal world, I wasn't alive. I looked it, but under medical scrutiny I was dead. I still didn't tire when running, which is always a plus.
After a while of running I hide in an alley. I was lucky to dodge people on the way, so no one else saw my blade. I leaned against the wall, sighing. I shut my eyes, trying to think. My shadow was still filling my head with senseless laughter. That didn't help at all. I probably smelled like a dumpster, had a sword and no money. In this world I was certifiable. I couldn't buy anything, so I tied my coat around my waist, using the back of it to hide my sword. I wiped the sweat off of my brow and squinted, looking at it. It was real water, not just plasm. I rubbed it against my clothes, drying it off. I exited the alley and into the swarm of people. So many voices, accents, languages…I was amazed. Nostalgia got to me and I caught myself wandering. It was so diverse I had forgotten. People stared at me oddly and I looked back, breaking the cardinal rule in any city. It had been so long. I had traveled so far just experiencing the world before I realized that what had been once a sunny afternoon became orange haze off to the sky. I cursed for myself for letting my mind wander this far. I dug through my pocket and saw looked up the address of the PI. Luckily, it wasn't far from here.
I asked for directions and headed down the street, maneuvering easily. Compared to the streets in Stygia, this was like walking across the street. The building was brick and two stories. On the bottom was a nail solon and on the top was the PI's office. Frank Cartwell. I slid the paper in my pocket and headed inside. I found the staircase easy enough and started to walk up it. The stairs were old and narrow. I sighed and concentrated. These weren't soul forged. My claustrophobia was getting to me. My knees shook and my legs felt like jelly. I forced myself to stand and continue. Even in life I wasn't this claustrophobic. I continued on, pushing my resolve to the limit.
"You loser, pathetic! You can't make it up a flight of stairs! Pitiful." My shadow goaded me. I ignored it. I couldn't let it beat me when I was so close.
I reached for the doorknob, finally and turned. My lungs let out a sigh and I called out. "Hello?" I was met with no answer. I looked inside. The office was dark, and I flicked the light switch once. Nothing. I flicked it a few times. Still nothing. I hmmed to myself and moved deeper into the office. There were a few desks that were empty. Except for the middle one.
At it, there was a figure face down on it. I could hear the soft drip of blood onto the floor. I glanced around, feeling into the Shadowlands for his soul. It wasn't there. Either he had no connections strong enough to hold him or someone had got to him before me. I pulled my senses back to the mortal world, weaving in and out of desks stacked with papers. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly to look at it but before I could see what it was it slammed me so had it flung me across the room and into a wall. The smack reverberated into my ears. I blinked and stood up as fast as I can, discarding my jacket and unsheathing my blade. I rushed towards it, but in a blur it smashed through the window and down to the pavement below. I grabbed my jacket and wrapped it around my blade, leaping down stairs. I could hear the commotion of people outside. The people in the nail solon looked at me expecting an answer. I didn't give them any, moving through it to throw open the door.
Shattered glass and wood lay on the sidewalk, but there was no one in sight. People were talking about it amongst themselves. The police had been called an people were starting to look at me. I searched throughout the crowd and I spotted something. A black haired woman with sunglasses. Gauze wrapped around the wrists. I started to move toward her. She backed away.
"Hey." I said calmly. She didn't wait, bursting off with a supernatural speed. "Hey! Stop her!" I sprinted after her pushing people out of the way. I could hear the police in the distance; I only focused on the figure moving out and away on the sidewalk. She threw garbage cans in my way and I instinctively leapt over them. I felt déjà vu. The smell of the chase. I had come full circle. I was home again.
She turned a corner, throwing people and objects in my way. I jumped or leapt over them. We chased each other for countless moments until she reached a parking garage. She was a warrior of Lethe. I must be careful. I unwound my sword from my jacket and looked around. There was only one entrance and exit to this parking garage. I scanned around being ready for anything. The garage was filled with a terse silence. For a moment I thought that there was no one around. I heard a skittering above me from the second level of the garage. I moved out in the open carefully, looking up. Nothing. I refocused my attention on the rest of the garage. That was a mistake. She leapt down from the second level and onto me screaming hellfire.
***
I think this is where we came in. Her flaming sword was at my throat, slowly burning the tip through my flesh. I winced straining to get away from it. The fury of her eyes did not look like they could be soothed.
"What do you want from me?" I asked, strained under the pain of the pinpoint of the sword.
Her fury cowed slightly, but she did not remove the sword. "You, infiltrator, are in violation of the laws of the dead. No interaction in the skin lands."
I scoffed, "You know as well as I that the laws of the Grim Legion are permitted to go beyond the shroud and affect the lands of the living. We have the jurisdiction. You, I'm afraid, do not."
"I'd watch my words infiltrator. Who has the upper hand? I do. You will answer my questions or I'll send you back in hellfire." She didn't smile nor did she smirk. She was totally expressionless.
"Right." It would have been stupid of me to try anything. I did not want a flaming sword to go through my throat.
"There was a detective murdered earlier tonight. Did he kill anyone?" Her eyes burned almost as hot as her sword.
"You mean a PI." I don't remember any detective being killed.
"No, a Detective. James Lowkey. His car exploded in a fireball with no witnesses, no evidence and no explanation. Plus, the fireball almost took me out." That explains why she was so pissed. And that was the detective I wanted to talk to. Fuck. The PI and the Detective now dead. I would bet that I wouldn't find the detective in the shadow lands either. What the hell was going on?
"I was assigned to my own death. He was given to me as a source." I was starting to get agitated now. "I'm investigating my own death. When you do that, why would you kill off one of your sources?"
"The hell do I know, infiltrator. All I know was I got an anonymous tip that some law breaking was going to go down tonight. And then a nice big fireball to prove the source." She adjusts her sword for it to hurt a little more. I groaned under the pressure.
I clenched my fists. "Then why the hell were you doing at a PI's office, in the crowd after his throat was slit? Answer me that." She looked confused for a moment, backing her sword off.
I took the opportunity and moved lightning quick, slamming my fist into her face, sending her flying back. She groaned, the sword dropping from her fingers. I grabbed for it and as she was about to get up again, and I bashed the hilt at her jaw. Surprisingly, it did not crack; even with the amount force I hit her with it. We couldn't be knocked out while we were in the form either. We could only be incapacitated by a violent disruption. Like a sword across the throat. I leapt on top of her, reversing the positions.
"Alright," I heaved. "Now its my turn to ask the fucking questions." She growled at me and rested her head against the pavement.
"Ugh, you are such a fucking asshole." She knew she was more powerful than me, and me getting the drop on her pissed her off. I didn't bother to smirk.
"I'll repeat: What the hell were you doing in the crowd around a dead man's office?" I pressed the sword against the base of her throat.
"Simple: I followed the police reports of a man wielding a sword. Just like you, I have my sources. Following where the reports left off, I caught sight of you and tailed you." She gritted her teeth as she spoke.
"Oh? Then why the hell did you run when I called after you?"
She rolled her eyes, "Because I thought you were the nutcase who blew up the detective's car. Get me?"
I sighed and nodded, "I get you. Smells like a set-up to me." I quickly got off of her, throwing the sword off in a random direction and picking up my blade.
She leapt up with amazing agility and dusted herself off. "Yeah, no shit."
I sheathed my sword, rubbing my throat where the sword burned me. The weapons of her squad must have been pretty powerful since I had not seen them elsewhere. She must be the Silent Legion's heavy firepower.
"Why don't we help each other out?" She said as she moved off in the exact direction as I threw the sword.
"Oh?" I called back after her, my voice echoing in the spaced out garage. "What do you purpose?"
She reached under a van and recovered her blade. "I'll look up how you can complete your mission. If you help me with something your commander wouldn't."
"Alright. That sounds like a fair deal." I walked over to her. I was glad the hostilities had clamed down. This trip was mostly a bust, and now that there was someone playing two legions against each other, I had to figure out what was going on. Looks like my promotion would not go easily.
She sighed and looked forlorn. I could tell it was the way she had always looked. Whatever had come out during the tense moments of hostility was a reaction to high emotion. Now it was back to the way she always was.
"My brother was killed a few years ago. Oblivion took him as a Specter. I didn't find out until recently. I destroyed him." The gauze she was wearing had come off one of her wrists. The fire that lay under the skin had turned a dull red, like dying embers.
She continued on and I listened, my arms crossed. "I petitioned to your commander to have someone look for my brother's killer, but he refused."
I nodded and thought that as odd. Why would a member of the Legion not help find a murderer? Hm. Must be politics. Fucking Nazi. "Right and you want me to look for your brother's murderer."
She nodded. "His name was Nicholas Rainer. The detective that is working on the case is Martin Hainsborough." She continued on speaking, "And in return for this help, I'll help you find new sources to find out who you are."
"Sounds like a good deal. What about this double cross?" I questioned.
"If the Legions found out that there was an indication someone was going to play them both against the other, do you know what would happen?" She looked to me as if I was a child. Her wrists had turned from crimson to solid black.
I nodded. "The Legions would pump up defenses and turn on each other, countless wraiths going to the forges and end up destroyed. Mass chaos."
She looked satisfied with that answer. "Yes. So we watch out for signs of betrayal while we go about our assigned tasks."
"Right. Hey, what is your name? I don't think we have been properly introduced." I looked toward her. She didn't seem anything like the angel of hellfire she once was before.
"Deirdre." She simply said, keeping a hand wrapped around the hilt of her sword and the other languishing at her side.
I bowed my head slightly. "Adrian."
"Well, we'll meet soon enough after we've accomplished our assigned tasks." She offered me a slight nod and turned walking down the parking garage, slowly fading from this world with each step. By the time she reached the end of the lot, she was already gone.
I watched as she disappeared and shook my head simply. So this was my new life. I had a conspiracy to unravel, figure why I died, and solve a murder. Everything had come full circle. I looked out over the hazy night sky, the navy back drop and the full moon. It stood out like a pearl at the bottom of the ocean. I was home again.