June 12th 2016 The Nightside 10:00 PM EDT
It took them a bit less than an hour to dissolve a portion of the wards for us to slip in through. Once it was open, we all hurried through, with only Tommy staying behind to keep the wards from noticing us, and Suzie staying with him as a guard. She seemed actively annoyed that Sindella was going to be going in with Taylor, but she also obviously knew that letting our conceptual 'don't look here' master get popped because he was too focused on keeping us all from getting axe murdered would probably kill us all anyway.
Once we got past the wards, we spent about twenty minutes walking to the house before we realized there was a second layer of protections elongating the space as we tried to approach. I was able to help Jim break this one, because it was closer to void magic than any normal wards. Jim called it spatial folding, and said it was expensive and annoying to break through, so he was glad to have me here.
After that we ran into several secondary and tertiary protections, door curses, hallway traps, paintings that tries to grab us and drag us in, a lantern that hypnotized anyone who looked at it. A rug that was secretly some sort of quicksand liquid held in stasis, three pitfall traps, four ghost sentries, and no less than ELEVEN mimics pretending to be high class furniture. And all of this was on the first fucking floor. Without the eye of odin we would have been screwed, and by the time we reached the stairs, everyone was on a hair trigger.
When we stopped to rest a bit in a safe zone, I turned to glare up the steps at the second floor. "Ok, this is ri-goddamn-diculous. Who LIVES in a place like this? Get a text at the wrong time and you might get butchered by lamp ghouls. That's not even a random example, I SAW a lamp ghoul. It was hiding in the shade of one of the table lamps we passed. I mean, granted, it's fancy, but imagine surrounding yourself with this much protection. Not all of this shit can be tuned to the people living here right? Some of these are active traps they would need to avoid."
I could not fathom the amount of paranoia and distrust needed to force yourself to spend all your time in conditions like this. It was a beautiful house, with dark wood paneling, sprawling hallways, high, vaulted ceilings, marble floors lined with finely woven persian rugs, and a host of fancy amenities. Hell, I'd seen three or four Picassos hanging on the walls, mixed in the the paintings that tried to murder anyone who came within arms reach, and I was pretty sure some of the vases on those tables had been Ming Dynasty. I'd even seen a Faberge egg or two lying around.
That didn't change the fact that even existing in this fucking hellscape was violently dangerous, and that without some means of avoiding all these traps, some of which, from what the eye showed me of their construction, had neither scanning functions NOR the ability to turn off, would turn anyone into a gibbering nervous wreck. What the hell was the Griffin AFRAID enough of to arrange this level of security on his own home. It wasn't fucking death, that was for sure, he faced a gruesome and horrible one of those every time he got up to go take a piss at night. Not to mention I was pretty sure he had kids. Them making it past childhood was a miracle.
"You would be surprised what people can get used to." Jim snickered. "But yes, living here is probably horrendously dangerous, even for people with the requisite permissions. I've seen men cloister themselves in fortresses like this before, and they're almost always running from something or someone terrible. We're not even getting the worst of it, there are several layers of internal traps and protections that have been deactivated by our method of entry. It's lucky we brought Tommy and the eye, because trying to brute force our way into this place would have ended in our agonizing deaths."
I winced, looking around. "I don't suppose whatever the fuck these are supposed to keep out might have followed us in here? Because between the traps and what I saw outside this place looks like you could use it as a fallout shelter for some sort of dark god apocalypse. Granted, the Nightside is dangerous, but this level of protection goes past caution and circles back around to lunacy. I mean the cost alone for all of this. For the amount he must have paid for this much warding he could literally just BUY all of his enemies wholesale."
The outside wards had been impressive as hell, but as an external layer they had just seemed a bit excessive, nothing crazy. Knowing those were just the primary layer and there were multiple wards tied into the internal systems we'd lucked into bypassing? I was kind of worried me might catch the attention of whatever was terrifying enough to make someone at this level so afraid they had to live like THIS. You could have told me it was literally Cthulu and I would have believed it, but whatever it was, if it followed us in we'd be trapped with it, and that was a hard pass for me.
Jim chuckled. "Doubtful. Our entrance was quiet as a whisper. One of the first rules of being a master thief is that no one should know you've arrived until you've already left. I've long since taught you this, my boy. Even if whatever the old man is afraid of was watching the outside uninterrupted, I took great pains to get us past all forms of surveillance on approach. We're going to be delving into the memories of one of the secret masters of the world after all. Can't have him finding out and swearing vengeance, otherwise why the subterfuge to begin with?"
"You're the boss." I said with a shrug. "Now, how about you bring out the eye again, because even I can feel the magic pouring off these steps like a furnace. I don't think any of us would survive stepping onto them unprepared." I paused. "Well, I might be able to tank whatever that is in my armor, but there's no way in hell it would remain this quiet in here. Even Tommy can't obscure everything." Jim pressed the eye to his invisible face opposite his monocle, then sucked air through his teeth and passed it to Sindella.
She winced, and I waited for them to talk a bit before I finally managed to get the thing so I could look and..."What the fuck?" I stared at the steps in horror. Every single stair was cursed. Nasty curses, and they stacked. Each curse redoubled and reinforced the one before it on top of being its own curse, and the total result got exponentially worse as you went along. It took me a bit of reading and deciphering before I realized that the whole staircase had one giant segmented uber curse on it, made up of all the little curses. Even that I only managed to puzzle out because of my experience reading that insanely complex void script. I turned to Jim. "What the fuck is that?"
"That." He said, his voice worried. "Is trouble. The individual curses are a variety of nasty things. Glass bones, soul burning, and about twenty others that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy." He paused. "Wait, no, I'd wish several of these on Blood. Not most of them though. Point is, it's the big one that's a problem. It doesn't just kill you. It's a curse of karmic torment. A massive boulder tied to your soul that will follow you through every reincarnation. A perpetual murphys law that will hound you to death in every single life you live for the rest of eternity, at least once its out of other terrible things to do to you."
Sindella looked appalled. "It's an abomination. It shouldn't even exist, I can't imagine the prices that were paid to make this. The number of people who were killed and tortured to accrue this much karmic debt. Even looking at it makes me feel dirtier, like the knowledge taints my head by being in it. This is...this is dark magic on a level of never even seen before. A grand working of blasphemy against nature itself. It wouldn't even let off gods, several of these are curses of immortal slaying. Anyone killed by this would be cast into the cycle of reincarnation, and their new role in life would be the worst they could possible return as."
I swallowed and took a long step away from the stairs. "Ok, so no using clones I take it. So how the fuck do we get up the steps. Can I just teleport us past it?" I tried a shadow portal before answering my own question. "No. Space is locked here. I can't open any portals." That was kind of a no brainer now that I thought about it. What kind of paranoid lunatic allows his house to be reached through teleportation. I reached out for the darkness between worlds though, and I felt the fingers of my soul brush a corridor. Dark corridors didn't work through space principles, that was why I could go anywhere with them regardless of distance.
Turning to my friends, I cleared my throat. "Looks like I'll have to go it alone from here folks. I can slip back down here the same way, so as long as I have the eye I should be safe enough. I can come back and consult if I get stuck, but the corridors of darkness that I have to use to bypass the spatial lock aren't something people can withstand experiencing." I paused. "Though, now that I think about it, given Jim's absurd connection to death and darkness he might be ok."
All eyes went to my mentor, who started stroking his invisible chin. "I'd never considered that. You were so adamant that anyone but you going through there was a disaster I didn't want to bother with the risk, but now that you mention it that does sound like something I could handle. I've been through most of the worst parts of the Underworld at one time or another, as well as walked the void. Being dead does have its advantages."
"I have a friend you would get along swimmingly with." Taylor said with an amused snort. "But that sounds like a plan. The rest of us will wait here for you so we can flee together once you're done. Plus I'm not sure we can handle all the traps without you on the way out. We left them intact for the most part, and were planning to repair what we took apart on the way back, but you were a big part of those plans. Sindy is impressive as hell, but she's no master thief, I think waiting down here for the both of you is our safest option."
Sindella nodded hurriedly in agreement, and that was that. I kissed Zee and Drea goodbye and headed over to put a hand on Jim's shoulder. I wasn't actually sure he could survive intact, but I also wasn't sure he couldn't, which meant my power had room to work. I should be able to make that uncertainty work in our favor with my ability as we traveled, and I trusted my power enough to keep him safe for a trip that short. I pulled him aside to try to tell him, but he cut me off. "I know what you're going to say, but don't tell me. If you're not sure it'll make it easier f.r this to work."
Once he gave the nod of approval, I focused hard. I opened the corridor, but as I did, I changed it. I made the lie of his safety, a lie born of ignorance and false possibility, a truth, and since it sounded so plausible, it was all the easier to force it to work as I pulled us through the darkness and out the other side on the landing at the top of the steps. We'd used the eye to identify a dead zone to land in, and when we stepped out, Jim caught me as I staggered against him, my head splitting from the effort. Upon asking though, he was fine. I was glad. I was going to need him for this next part.
June 12th 2016 The Nightside 11:00 PM EDT
It took us another hour or so to get through the rest of the hallway. Jim was fine after the trip as expected, and after a minute to recover so was I. We slipped through the wards and protections on the second level with the eye, having to stop every few feet to deconstruct some horrible death array or reverse summoning curse that would have dropped us into an eternal abyss, and they got even thicker as we approached the room. I had to jump us over two more spells even Jim couldn't crack, but finally we made it to a thick dark wooden door that appeared to be the Griffin's personal bedchambers.
After spending another ten minutes cracking that bastard, we stepped inside. Once we were in, we did a sweep of the room with the eye of odin, and when nothing came up, we exhaled with relief and stopped to talk through our next step. To make sure we were safe, Jim pulled out a hand of glory and lit up, activating both the stealth based portion of the enchantment and the part that kept thieving victims asleep and we were able to speak freely. I turned to him with a questioning look. "Ok, there's no fucking possibility that this paranoid maniac doesn't have wards in his bedroom right? Because I'm positive if we step any further in here we're going to die, but I can't tell how."
Jim snickered at that. "It's unlikely he left this place bare given all the powerful protections leading here. It's possible he ignored the room so he could sleep without tripping his own wards, but I doubt it. Unfortunately, if we can't use the eye we only have one other option here. I'm hesitant to even ask." His voice sounded a bit distressed, like even saying the words was hurting him. I could even here a ting of shame under his crisp british accent.
Which was nonsense. I knew what he was asking, and even if he hadn't I'd have suggested it. "Alright Atlas, give us a shrug. You don't carry the weight of the world. I was already planning to use my aura sight. No need to act like you failed some important mission or something. It's not your job to protect me anymore boss." He gave a polite cough that made me smile from how embarrassed it sounded.
"I suppose." He said. "There may be some truth to that. But it was still my duty to watch over you when you were learning, and I failed to do so. I scarcely think I could live with myself if something such as that occurred a second time. Are you sure you can handle this? We can figure out another way if you can't. I'm not sure how they hid the wards here, but there has to be a way to pierce the obscuring effect without endangering you. This is hardly a place where such risks should be taken."
I shot him a grateful smile. "I'll be fine. I'm going to try to use my ability to modify my aura sight temporarily so I don't get overwhelmed. I doubt it'll work for long, but it should be enough to get a solid glance of what we're dealing with. Even if it doesn't pick up anything, at the very least it should help me learn more about my powers." Without waiting for him to respond to that, I closed my eyes and reached for my power, for the lie I was preparing to tell myself and the world around me.
It wasn't a big one in the grand scheme of things, just a tiny bending of the truth, but it would be important nonetheless. I pushed on my power, modifying the shift in myself that I made so easily to turn on my aura sight, and managed to flip it just a fraction of the way open. Just enough that I could get a vague glimpse of what was before me without fully immersing myself in the power. I levered open the part of my soul that could see those things that weren't there just a crack, and glimpsed the Nightside through my true eyes for the first time.
It hit me like a brick. Even the vague, translucent outline of the forces I was seeing, out of focus and distorted, were staggering in their vastness. I forced myself to ignore all of that though. I didn't look at the weave of power that sprawled throughout the manor and out into the night, the truth of the Nightside so many had questioned and sought over the years. I wouldn't be able to take that, even in this state. I tugged on my power, focusing and shifting my inner eye like I was adjusting a microscope.
Finally the room itself snapped into focus, still vague, but more solid for the specificity that I had imposed. I heard myself speak aloud, my voice as distance and remote as it was strained. "The rug in the center of the room is cursed. It's not visible because it isn't a free floating enchantment. The threads are dyed in blood and woven into a specific pattern but it's inert. It works like an unfinished circuit. If a living being steps onto it the circuit closes and curse completes, but until that spark is provided it's just a dead rug. There are a few secondary and tertiary defensive layers lying dormant around it that would be triggered by the activation, but they're mostly in the walls and ceiling, hidden behind shielding layers."
I let the aura sight drop with a gasp, staggering until Jim caught me. I used my ectoplasm to create a model of the spellwork and let Jim take his time deciphering it while I let myself recover from the absurd cost of the actions I had just undertaken. My head was splitting, not as bad as when I glimpsed Taylor's gift by accident, but pretty damn badly. It was agonizing. Still, I did recover, and quickly thanks to my unique physiology. Once that was done I headed towards the bed once Jim had finished taking down the wards.
The Griffin, as one would expect from the paranoid nutcase, had also strapped himself with some person wards, but they were physical shields to protect from damage rather than anything to defend the spirit. A last ditch defense he probably wore everywhere. Based on the aura I'd spotted the shield would probably stop a nuke, but it wouldn't stop a ghost, so I phased right through it and finally got my hands on him, activating my clairvoyance so I could finally learn exactly where Neron was hiding.
Unlike with Gilotina, I did NOT deep dive into the Griffin's subconscious and see the deepest representation of his inner self. This guy was the crime baron of one of the most horrifying places on earth, I didn't want to see the hidden depths of his soul. Instead, I focused on memories. There were a lot of them. I saw the Griffin, a young man, hungry for power but weak of ability. I saw his years of work, striving to be the best, to get somewhere in life only to fail. I saw his dive into the occult, searching for a patron, for something to help him get to the top.
I saw his deal with the being he thought of as the devil, trading his soul for the wealth and power he now possessed, and I saw him luxuriate in the results for decades. Then I saw the years begin to wane. The Griffin's fear of the price of power, and his decision to avoid it. I saw him dive even deeper into forbidden magics, hire people who did things that would probably make me vomit later, all to buy him just one more day, then a second, stacking them all until he'd bought years of life, stealing time from the devil.
But contrary to his hopes, the years didn't make him feel safer. They made him feel afraid. He knew who he was cheating. He became paranoid, reclusive, hiding away in manor, terrified that his former patron would come for him, would call due the debt he never wanted to pay. He built this place to keep out the devil, it was hard not to see the irony in me being the one to get this far. He finally got so scared he tracked down his erstwhile benefactor to keep tabs on him. I saw the files he flipped through, and the location they listed. The street of gods. An old abandoned temple to a dark deity no one remembered the name of.
I also saw something he didn't, through my watching, something he missed because of how obvious it was. There was no way any of this had done jack shit. Neron wasn't being held off by these defenses, not really. He was leaving the Griffin alone because he thought it was funny. Seeing this pathetic, poisonous old man curl up and die inside with the life he bought at the cost of his own soul, watching the fear eat away at his sanity day by day. The Griffin wasn't heading for hell. He was already there. Neron just decided to start things off early. If I hadn't seen the things he was willing to do to keep his life and power I might have pitied the poor bastard. As it was I just wished Neron the best. The Griffin deserved every terrible fate the old demon could throw at him.
With all of this handled I slipped out of his mind and withdrew my incorporeal arm from the shielding, wishing I could take a shower in my brain somehow. I walked back over to where Jim was. "Alright, I got it. I'll fill you in when we get to Julian's though, I don't want to leave the others downstairs alone for longer than needed. You prepared to jump back down? Or do we need to retrace our steps to reset the traps we took apart as we were getting through the hallways?"
Jim gave a sigh of relief. "No, those spells are all powerful enough that I was only able to make temporary gaps anyway.
We would have to open them back up. Just get us back down to the base of the steps. We need to meet up with the others and leave. At that point we actually will have some cleanup to do. Luckily we were able to avoid killing any of the mimics. Those things are too stupid to be proper sentries, so as long as they aren't dead we won't need to worry about them tipping the owners to our presence."
He flicked his wrist and the hand of glory went out before vanishing into his cloak and holding out an arm. I grinned at him before closing my eyes, focusing up again and then pushing us through the corridor of darkness, straining to make sure Jim would be safe. I still wasn't sure if a ghost would normally be affected, especially not one as terrifying as Jim, but I figured it was better not to risk it, so I made the effort to shield him despite it possibly being a waste of power to protect someone who could easily be immune.
We vanished into the dark before emerging at the bottom of the steps, back at the side of the rest of our party, who were waiting tensely, eyes scanning the house as they stood in a blind spot in the defenses held open by Tommy and the traps we'd already disarmed. When they saw me my girls hurled themselves into my arms, and I pulled them both close, taking a moment to hold them next to me as I tried to repress all the unintentional terrible shit I'd picked up rifling through the Griffin's mind with clairvoyance. Then I pulled back, shooting them both a tired smile. "Alright, that's all we needed. Let's get the fuck out of this place." I wanted to go curl up in bed with my girls and sleep.
June 12th 2016 The Nightside 8:00 AM EDT
We headed home after the job and I went directly to sleep. Discussing everything we'd learned was important, but it had been almost four AM London time, even if we were still mostly running on east coast time zones. We got home and I collapsed into bed and when I woke up the next morning, I filled everyone in on the information we gathered. As usual, we turned to Taylor, our resident expert on the Nightside, to give us an update on what we were dealing with, but to our surprise, John was the one who picked up the thread of conversation.
"The street of gods huh?" He said wistfully. "Haven't been there in ages." He looked to Taylor. "Hope you don't mind mate, but this is more my area of expertise than yours. After all, you picked me up in the street of gods. I know you avoid the place when at all possible. Too many things there take your reputation personally." Taylor gave a casual shrug and John raised an eyebrow at me. "Now, you said you saw a temple of some sort. That doesn't narrow it down much. Maybe you can describe it? I know quite a bit about the street of gods, I might be able to ID it."
I had no trouble at all conjuring up the image. "It was small and run down. Not damaged, but just worn. It was made of pitch black stone and it looked like it was tucked away somewhere dark, literally overshadowed by bigger buildings. I remember the street of gods listed on the train platform, does that mean it isn't in the Nightside? The Griffin seemed to think of it like it was part of the city itself, but you talk about it like it's a separate thing."
John sighed. "The street of gods isn't in the Nightside. It also is. It's a nexus of sorts, a junction of space that technically
exists in many places at the same time. The street of gods is downtown, it's also in Shadow's Fall, and in other dimensions, and on other planets probably. It's everywhere, and nowhere. It's kind of hard to give a proper explanation for that place, but suffice to say we can reach it from here without needing to take the train, though we CAN'T reach it from London without hitching a ride."
That sounded complicated. "Ok, but what is it? I assume a place for worship, based on the whole 'of gods' thing. Is it just some kind of temple city? I could tell from the Griffin's memories that the building Neron is in WAS a temple, though not to Neron himself. It appears to be for some other dark god that people have forgotten. It gave me a deeply unsettling feeling, and a very old one. Regardless, does being in the street of gods mean whatever that thing was dedicated to is still around? Because if so we need to change up our plans."
"No, not necessarily." He said with a sigh. "Plenty of the temples on the street of gods are empty. Plenty of them aren't of course. But the street isn't just for gods themselves, it's for their worshippers. You can build a temple to anything on the street, and just by believing in it there's a chance you can make it real. I suspect the Lamentation got started that way. The saint of suffering is horrendously unpleasant and incredibly immortal entity that captures the souls fed to it and subjects them to eternal torment, and it's hardly the worst thing there."
I subconsciously reached for my twenty two, just checking that I was packing it because that thing was going on my 'to kill' list. John refocused on my earlier description. "Anyway, I do recognize that description somewhat. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere near the temple of the Seventh Savior. I can find it if we get close so there's no worry about not tracking it down. We won't even need Senior's gift. I can find it on my own. I used to work the street of gods as a lad. I was a hell of a pickpocket and general con artist."
Sindella cut in. We'd all been listening to John talk this over, but the older woman wasn't having any of this nonsense anymore. "Information we will still have tomorrow. Last night was a dangerous and extremely difficult task. We all need to decompress and recover a bit. I can't delay you too long and I know it, but if you children want to do this without at least a day of rest it'll be over my once again cold dead body. A single day won't be enough, but I insist you at least give yourself some time to recover from the actual exertion."
I think everyone expected me to argue, because they all looked at me as the defacto leader, but I just gave a wan smile. "A day is fine. I have some things I wanted to do before we head out there anyway. Once that's up though, I have to ask. Is everyone still willing to come with us? Gods and demons are a bit more than we banked on when we came out here. If anyone wants to back out I wouldn't blame them in the least."
Wally snorted. "Please, like you would survive without us. I don't feel like listening to Arty harangue me for the rest of our lives together because I let her stupid thug of a brother get himself killed. You're stuck with us, or with me at least, and I know my lady well enough to expect that she'll probably punch you in the dick next time you aren't looking for even daring to ask something like that." He shot her a proud smile. "Assuming I can speak for both of us on this babe?"
Artemis hurled herself at Wally, kissing him fiercely before pulling away, leaving her redheaded boyfriend staring blankly in shocked awe. She shot me a wide smile. "He DOES speak for both of us, and expect that punch the second you give me an opening."I stuck my tongue out at her, feeling my heart warm at the support. I also felt a burst of affirmation from my bond with the girls, and they both shot me fierce smiles to show that they were in this too.
John, shockingly, just shrugged and said. "Well, I might as well. I'll be needed on the street of gods, and you lot certainly seem like you could use the help." Tommy affirmed his involvement, Sindella looked like she was on the edge of rolling her eyes at us for even asking, and Taylor wasn't about to leave her alone. Even Suzie was onboard, which wasn't surprising since I doubted the tall blonde would let her boyfriend run off with his gorgeous childhood crush without trying to cut in.
I smiled at them all gratefully. "I appreciate that guys. In that case, like Sindella said, take the day. I have a feeling this isn't going to be anything as simple as we've managed so far. Moon bases, heists, hell, even the invasion probably wasn't as bad as this will get. Spend your time together. Gather your wits and prepare anything you need. Neron is the kind of threat that we have no guarantee of beating or even surviving. If any of you change your mind I won't hold it against you." I turned to the girls. "I want to spend the day together if you're up for it, though Zee, if you want to spend part of it with Sindella I'd understand. Before that though, I have to make a call."
They could sense the trepidation in me through the bond, so both of them just gave me encouraging smiles. I thanked everyone again, and then got up and headed to the bedroom we were using at Julian's place. I sat down on the bed, pulled out my phone, and unlocked it. Instead of opening my email though, I opened my contacts and picked one of the first numbers. It rang twice before it picked up. "Morgan? Is that you honey? It's so nice to hear from you, I've been worried sick. Rana swears you've been ok, but you haven't called in a week or two. How are things there?"
The worried voice of my mother flooded out of the phone, and I smiled. Despite being independent as hell and doing my own thing most of the time, the thing I regretted most in my life was having hurt my mom. My disappearance for five years had broken her heart, even though she tried to hide it, and she was still extra clingy and worried even if she tried to tamp it down. My aura sight didn't lie, and it killed me knowing how much the danger I was always in bothered her.
I pasted a smile on my face even though she wasn't there to see it, hoping it would come out in my voice. "Hey ma, I'm fine. Was just checking in. Sorry I haven't called. This place is wild and we got distracted, but everyone is ok and we're actually having a pretty good time between the searching. So much had happened since we got here, I can't wait to tell you all about it. How are things back home? Are Rana and Tina being good? They haven't dragged poor Cassie into anything too crazy have they?"
Mom laughed. "A bit to start with, but I've got them straightened out. Rana is a sweet girl, and she and Hana get along so well. Tina is quiet most of the time, but I think she likes being around the baby too. Hana adores her, and she seems to like the positive attention. The three of them spend most of their time here when Cassie isn't off doing those nonsense missions, and the other two are here even then. I think Rana likes spending time with Hana and I because it reminds her of you." Her voice turned stern. "You should call your daughter, Morgan. I know it was dangerous out there, and as a parent yourself I didn't gainsay your decision to leave her. But she isn't taking it well."
"I know." I sighed. "I've been meaning to, but I haven't really been able to find the time. I'll call her after we talk. With that said, I called to talk to you, so tell me how things have been going. I want to hear all about how Hana has been. She learn any new words? Catch me up on the family dish." She chuckled at my absurd phrasing, knowing I was using the over the top enthusiasm to forcibly change the topic, but willing to let me do it because she loved me and didn't want to push.
She started talking about my sister, throwing in more news about my daughter and her friends as we chatted, and just generally gushing about life. Apparently she'd talked Gojo into a salsa class, and he was weirdly gifted at the dancing style. All the other women in the class were jealous she had such a talented partner, and I grinned widely as I heard the happiness in her voice as she described her marriage in such an upbeat way. My mom deserved to be happy, and slightly annoying troll or not Gojo adored her.
We talked for an hour before I finally decided to cut things off. "Alright ma, I've gotta bounce. I just called to check in and see how things were, I'll try to get in touch again soon." I hesitated. I'd called this time because I wasn't sure exactly how this next operation would go. There was a non zero chance I could die, even with the protections and abilities I had. In the end I couldn't resist saying one last thing to my mother just in case. "I love you ok? I've always been grateful to have a mother like you, even if I'm a selfish dick who doesn't show it because I'm always running around. Take care of the family ok?" She told me she loved me back, sounding worried by my tone, but I convinced her it was nothing. I was still getting better at lying every day.
June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 8:00 PM EDT
We stepped down from the carriage and into the street as a group. Everyone had come along, and we were all prepared for some trouble, strapped with every powerful artifact and tool they had available. Taylor had even shared some of his stash, and Suzie had let Artemis borrow a few guns, which my surrogate sister seemed to be geeking out about more emphatically than I'd seen her react to anything since we got here. I hadn't brought anything extra, though I had my gun in easy reach, not that I was sure the damn thing would work on the entities that lived here.
The street of gods was...crazy. The bones of it was pretty straightforward. A long, crowded thoroughfare lined with large buildings. Lots of columns and the like and very obviously full of temples and religious buildings. That was where the image of a normal street broke down though. Abundance of columns aside, the temples were all very distinct. Some were made of white stone, some brick, some stacked rocks like a caste. One large building was made of what looked like black chitin, and one squat building of blood red wood had a black pool in front of it that fountained poison green flames.
In the shadows between the big temples were smaller locations. Some simpler, just normal looking houses or boring looking offices, and some just shacks held together with duct tape and paperclips. I even saw a few cardboard boxes with signs outside them proclaiming them to be churches. The alleys and spaces between were much less orderly too, with the smaller structures jammed in between buildings three or four at a time so they could fit as many as possible on the street, where real estate was obviously at a premium.
What made the street the most surprising to look at though wasn't the buildings, it was the residents. Gods walked among us. All types of shapes and sizes and creeds. Evil dark beings of profane hatred crouched on the edges of rooftops while gossamer clothed saints smiled benevolently down at the hungry and the ill, healing them with a touch. There were robots, goblins, werewolves, giant squids, monkeys, and any number of other strange and alien beings all proclaiming for their own churches and religions.
Some of the buildings were just attended by priests. I saw normal looking men in bland clothes with quiet, thoughtful expressions having thoughtful conversations with lost souls even as lunatic preachers howled tales of the end times from their soap boxes less than a dozen feet away. It was, without a doubt, the strangest, most terrible, most beautiful place I'd ever seen, and even the rest of the Nightside fell short of the sheer grandeur present in the street of gods. It was truly a place that defied description.
It was also a mess, and I had no clue how we would be able to find Kit here, so I turned to the expert on this place. "Alright John, where are we supposed to head from here. You said you recognized the place from the memory right?" I asked anxiously. I didn't want to get lost here. I got the intense feeling that this was not the kind of place anyone rational would want to expose any sort of weakness, and definitely wasn't the kind of place where people who got lost had a good end. John was going to be our best chance of getting out of here alive, because I could implicitly sense multiple beings here that might be able to hurt me, even without aura sight to make it easy to tell.
The blonde detective had a wistful smile on his face as he glanced around, and at my words, his head jerked up in surprise. "Right. Yes. Sorry. It's been a while since I've been here. We're heading for the Seventh Savior's Gossamer Cathedral." He pointed down the street into the distance. "It's that building WAY down there that looks like it's made of translucent cloth stitched together with starlight." I gazed down the road off into the distance, and sure enough I saw the place he meant. It was breathtaking to behold, and I found myself staring hard at it for a minute.
I shook off the awe, expecting to be reprimanded, but I turned to find the others just as distracted. I cleared my throat and they all turned to me, most looking sheepish. Sindella was smiling at us widely. "Don't be so embarrassed. We all stared our first time on the Street. This place isn't like anywhere else in the world." She turned to John. "Do you know how to get us there quickly? You know as well as I do that space here isn't so stable that we can just trust our eyes. Walking straight down this road could drop us in Cairo depending on what day and time it is. I never learned to navigate."
"I'm out of practice." John said with a grimace. "But I have a friend who would definitely be able to lead us safely. Follow me. I know where he usually spends his time." He gestured down one of the alleys, leading us around a few small buildings between the chitin temple and the one made of stacked grey rocks. He walked us down the side road, steering us around a few people until he finally came to a small, very dirty looking shack. It was made of pressboard held together with cheap nails, and it had a corrugated steel sheet for a door, held closed by what looked like a wooden stick in a terracotta pot full of cement.
John ignored all of that and walked up the the building, rapping on the metal sheet in front of the entrance. Once he was done, he waited a minute or two and the metal door scraped open as the pot was pushed away. A head stuck itself out, a haggard looking man in with dirty, matted hair in a long ratty coat. He glanced around placidly, seeming almost unsure where he was, but when he saw John he smiled. "Junior. It's good to see you again. I'd thought you moved out of the Nightside and were living back in London. What brings you here?"
Much like several other beings I'd seen here, this man gave off a subtle sense of danger when I looked at him. He wasn't outwardly scary or intimidating, he looked like a shabbily dressed homeless man. He wasn't even particularly intense, seeming almost disconnected from the world around him as he looked at us like we weren't even really there. Still, something about him just screamed at me that he was dangerous, and I listened to my instincts when possible. I stepped surreptitiously in front of as many of my friends as possible in case he was hostile.
"Eddie, it's good to see you mate. How have the streets been treating you? Been eating well?" He turned to us with a fond smile. "Guys, this is Razor Eddie, punk god of the straight razor. When I was living on the street here he looked out for me. Made sure I got fed and had a warm place to sleep. Eddie is good people, we can trust him." His voice was, for maybe the second or third time since I'd met him, completely lacking any sort of sarcasm of bite. He spoke with complete sincerity about his friend.
Taylor and Suzie were obviously less convinced, given they were looking at Eddie like a particularly pissed off viper about to strike. Still, they didn't contradict him, so I figured we could actually trust this guy. Sindella looked perfectly at home around him, and when he saw her, the clouded, remote expression seemed to clear slightly. "Sindy? Is that you? I heard you'd died. I was heartbroken. You were one of the few people who actively sought me out to bring me food. I miss those grilled cheese sandwiches you used to make. I don't suppose you brought any with you?"
Sindella giggled. "No Eddie, I'm afraid I didn't, and it's good to see you too." She pointed behind her, at the rest of us, but specifically at Zee. "This is Zatanna, by the way, my daughter. Askim , this is my friend Eddie. He used to tell me the most wonderful stories when I was a girl." She stepped forward and pulled the shabbily dressed man into a tight hug, which he returned with a warm smile.
Suzie was fuming with rage. "See! This is why I've always hated you! Everyone loves you, it's sickening. I have no idea how you survived growing up here while being like this. Anyone else would be dead ten times over, or worse." Despite her not saying it though, I could hear the lie under her words. How it wasn't fair that Sindella could be so happy despite being in this terrible place. How she wished people would love her like they loved Sindella. But deeper down, under layers of jaded disaffected anger and bitterness and snark, I heard the tiniest whisper. About how much she respected Sindella for being such a kind person even after living here. About how the other woman gave her hope. And how she knew Taylor wouldn't choose her over Sindella, because even she wouldn't make that choice.
"All I do is treat people kindly." She paused. "Well, some of them. Even I know some of the people in the Nightside aren't safe to be around. I'm an optimist, not an idiot. Still, Eddie isn't like that. He's a good person." She gave an embarrassed smile. "Though actually Eddie, we didn't just come to visit. If I'd thought about it I'd have brought you a sandwich though. Rain check on that. We were actually hoping you might be willing to play tour guide? We need to get to the Seventh Savior's church, and Little John says he doesn't remember how to navigate the street like he used to."
I saw John wince slightly at the incredibly childish nickname, but he adored Sindella, so he didn't complain. I had to smile internally as I saw that. She was so much like Zee, but turned up to eleven. My girl was the sweetest, most lovable person, but she was also shy and disconnected because of how she grew up. Sindella was what Zee could have been if she'd been out in the world, spreading that sunshine to everyone else. It hurt my heart knowing what she'd lost out on because of her father, but I would make sure she had plenty of adventures and made plenty of friends now. I wouldn't let Giovanni Zatara take away Zee's chance to be this kind of person.
Eddie smiled at Sindella, seeming to ignore Suzie altogether (a skill I suspect not many people managed to perfect) "Of course I can take you." His smile faded a bit. "But we'll need to go carefully. I recognize that boy you're with. And there are people looking for him. People that I don't think should find him if you're at all fond of him." His hazy eyes focused again, this time on me. "I'm not sure who you've angered boy, but they are powerful and very petty. This is where they've been trying to get you, so you'll need to be on guard."
As he said that, I began to get a very bad feeling. I'd kind of assumed the people behind the attempted kidnapping were working for Neron, but the style of the two people didn't really mesh. Whoever sent Suzie and Belle after me wasn't the kind of patient hunter Neron demonstrated being. The fallen had baited a trap and waited like a spider, sending mercenaries to drag me here would have been contradictory. Which meant one of two things. Either Neron had lackeys who liked to go off and do shit on their own, or there was a second group of people looking for me. Given my luck, I was betting the latter. Now I just had to figure out who I might have pissed off this much. Joy.
June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 9:00 PM EDT
Eddie brought us down the street of gods through a series of twisting side alleys. The Street of Gods was technically an inaccurate name. While there WAS in fact, a single street at the center of the are lined with all those churches, there were multiple side streets and offshoots branching from the main thoroughfare, containing much smaller and less ostentatious buildings. Not as shabby as the ally shacks, but much less grand than the ones of the main avenue.
I'd wondered briefly why they called it the street of gods, but then I realized 'the neighborhood of gods' sounded pretty stupid, and realized that it was probably either a rule of cool thing, or they had just named it back before the other streets sprung up and hadn't felt like changing it. I was extremely fascinated by everything we were passing though, and I was staring raptly at the buildings as we went by. Which was probably why I was the first person to notice that something was wrong.
Stopping abruptly, I held up a hand, gesturing for everyone else to come to a halt, which they all did. Taylor turned to me in confusion. "Listen, Morgan, I get that this is an interesting area, but you heard what Eddie said, we need to get to that temple before we get noticed by whoever is looking for you. We can sight see later." Despite what I suspected was supposed to be a lackadaisical tone, I could sense the lie well enough to know he was worried. It wasn't the only lie I sensed.
"Sorry to tell you man, but I think it's a bit late for that." I said with a grimace. "We haven't actually moved in the last fifteen minutes. This is some kind of illusionary treadmill spell. The changing area around us is a seeming designed to turn us off course. It took me a minute to see through it, which means its damn good, because my powers are almost perfectly suited to piercing a facade like this. I'm sure the rest of you can pick out the flaws if you look close though."
Jim's head snapped around, monocle flashing as he scanned the area with a curse. "Damn! I can't believe I missed that.
Whoever did this is excellent, but this is also an unfamiliar environment. I hadn't bothered to study the surroundings because I wouldn't have know the difference. Good catch, Morgan." He raised his voice, not addressing me, but casting his shout out into the night to find whoever might be listening. "That said, even a genius wouldn't be able to hold an illusion this seamless over people like us from a distance. Too many possible gaps. Why don't you come out, whoever you are."
A dry, rustling chuckle rolled across the street around us, and where the sound traveled, the images peeled away. The small churches and houses dissolved, showing me unfamiliar ones, each gray and unimpressive, but arranged neatly and in a tight grouping that allowed them to grant what little majesty they had to the much larger, darker grey temple that towered over them. The shadow that the temple cast seemed almost darker than it should, and I felt a cold and brutal presence permeating this area, a presence I recognized, and my stomach dropped like a rock.
I stared up at the jagged, uneven monstrosity of a temple that loomed in the darkness of the side street, and then glanced down to the red robed man with the deformed face who stood grinning hideously at us from the steps at the base of the columns. Despite the obvious power he commanded though, he wasn't the presence I'd been sensing, no, that presence I''d have recognized anywhere, even having only felt a shard of it. I didn't even need to glance up at the pair of ornate black velvet banners adorning the front columns, each one sporting an identical blood red Omega symbol.
The man in the robe's chuckle turned into a howl of sickening laughter. "Your face! I see you've realized now boy. That you understand the magnitude of your folly, but it is far too late. You shouldn't have interfered. My lord is not forgiving, he does not suffer challenges lightly. You stood in his way, took what was his, and now he will take that which belongs to you. You should not have come here. This place is connected to the Sphere of the Gods, here, out power is waxing, if not at it's zenith. Did you enjoy my little show?"
"Oh, my mistake." He giggled, covering his mouth as if he'd made a social blunder. "I should introduce myself. I am DeSaad, high priest of Darkseid. I'm something of a master of illusions, and it was my task to retrieve you. I do hope you have the time to visit. My lord has been awaiting your arrival. He'll be arriving to greet you in person soon, but even in a halfway place like this manifesting a being of his glory is time consuming. Since my manners were so lacking earlier, how about we greet you properly."
He snapped his fingers, and the entire street was full of parademons. I didn't mean one or two, more like a thousand, and I grimaced at the numbers. Granted, I could tear through them like wet tissue paper, but I had the feeling that fighting this many opponents with DeSaad around wouldn't be simple, even with my ability to see through his illusions with some effort. Still, I wasn't too worried. There were other ways to counter that kind of thing, and as long as we got out of here before Darkseif himself showed up we would be fine.
If we couldn't...we were fucked. I was damn strong now, but I'd SEEN Darkseid, seen what he really was. Not all of him obviously, since I wasn't a gibbering pile of twitching meat curled up on the ground, but even seeing that tiny fragment of him connected to Tina had been enough to make me understand that I was fundamentally incapable of dealing with that beast as I was now. That might change someday, but if I fought Darkseid right now, I was going to lose. Badly. And I somehow doubted he was going to be a graceful winner.
Which meant we were going to need to leave. Pretty much now. I reached for my armor, feeling it roll over my body, enclosing me in liquid metal. I tapped into my demonic power to augment my strength, unleashed my wings, and communicated with Zee and Dreamer to coordinate a defense before hurling myself at DeSaad. I felt the powerful surge of a shield snapping into place around my friends, with Jim, John, and Sindella all helping to reinforce it. Once the fallback position was established Suzie and Artemis both got out their weapons, starting up ranged attacks from inside the dome to cull the parademons numbers safely as Eddie slipped out among the soldiers and began to kill.
I, meanwhile, was playing distraction, and I slammed into the steps of the temple like a metal cannonball, conjuring Tartarus to my hand as I sailed through the air and crashed into the stone. DeSaad saw me coming, and it seemed like he hadn't moved, but I froze in place on landing. My senses were tripping. I was being lied to and I didn't know how, but I wasn't stupid enough to attack a New God head on when he had tricks up his sleeve. I wasn't invincible, and these people were pretty much universe level threats.
DeSaad scowled at me, which admittedly wasn't far to go from his normal twisted facial features, but it was a distinct enough motion for me to tell he was annoyed. "How are you doing that?" I smirked. I'd made the right call, he had some sort of horrible trap prepared. "I thought the illusions were a fluke, but you shouldn't be able to sense any problems right now. How are you distinguishing my illusions and traps like that?" He sounded almost offended by the very idea. As if I'd insulted him by being competent.
Which was stupid. I hadn't insulted him. "Because you're a bitch." Ok, now I'd insulted him. I enjoyed the expression of anger that flashed over his face so I kept going. "Seriously, what are you even good for? You're what? The ugly convincing guy? The one who whispers in people's ears to make them do things they shouldn't? Do you really think Darkseid, the god of tyranny, has any patience for your bullshit? I'm surprised he even bothers with you. What are you
god of exactly? Spineless cowards who can't do anything themselves?"
His eyes flared with rage. Literally. They blazed red for a second before he choked it down. "A pathetic attempt. "He sneered in a voice that told me he was geniunely bothered. "Lord Darkseid knows my value. I am his vanguard. His herald. I tread the path ahead, lighting his way, and twisting the minds of his future victims to pave the way for his greatness. Lord Darkseid knows that brute force corruption isn't the only way to accomplish his goals. There is darkness in the human heart, and I am the gardener that tends the bloom."
I cocked my head. "I'm sorry, did you say gardener or meat shield? Because you used a lot of fancy words there, but where I'm from, when we send annoying assholes ahead of our forces to stir up trouble it's because we don't care if they live or die. I mean seriously, could you be more expendable? You're like a cheap copy of Darkseid, but not as good and way uglier." I paused. "Well, I assume. I've never seen Darkseid, but you're setting a high bar, so I somehow doubt his face is more fucked up that yours."
DeSaad was seething. I could feel it. Despite only talking, we'd already started the battle. DeSaad's powers were mental, he used his mind and words to corrupt and twist the truth, that's how he managed the illusions. I could pick up flaws in his technique with my abilities because in the end, this was all one big lie. If I could disturb his calm enough he would lose control of any tricks he had waiting and potentially damage him. Not just this meat suit either, damage the actual god behind the mask.
He knew I was doing it too, but that was the thing about lies. Once you stripped them away, the truth could still hurt you, even if you already knew it deep down. This asshole built his whole domain off lies, and if I could break it, it would seriously damage him long term. Which was important, because Darkseid coming or not, running through the street of gods with an insane illusionist trying to warp our minds was just asking for trouble. There was too much trouble he could trick us into getting into, even if I might notice if he used his power on me, my friends wouldn't.
I had him on the defensive too. He was so busy reacting to my insults that he hadn't bothered to try to dig into my own insecurities. I was sure that he could do some damage if he managed it too, his powers seemed similar to mine. This battle of falsehoods was odd, but it WAS a battle. Either of us could come out ahead. DeSaad's insecurities were buried deep, but they were there. Still, I didn't have time to dig too thoroughly. I needed to finish this so we could fucking leave.
Darkseid was coming. I went on the attack again. "Hell, I bet he wouldn't even care if I killed you. I might even be doing him a favor, getting rid of his annoying knockoff before he became a problem. I should just take out the trash for him."
"How kind." The voice wasn't loud. It wasn't angry. It wasn't harsh or rasping. But it commanded my attention. My fear. I looked up, my eyes drawn like a pair of stars crashing to earth to the massive, hulking form of the being standing at the top of the steps. The glowing red eyes bore into me like a pair of dying stars, no less terrible for their banked radiance. I swallowed hard as I met them, and felt the unassailable presence of the god of tyranny crush down on me, my body seizing like a mouse in front of a cat. Darkseid had arrived.
Ok folks, big fight coming up, though not the one you might be expecting. Meanwhile in the advance chapters.
SO MANY new things coming up. Massive change in power, new ability to express that change, and just generally a huge upgrade in both personal strength and advancement toward what he's supposed to become, which isn't exactly what anyone thinks it is so far, and I'm really looking forward to revealing when it's time. This arc draws to a close soon, and I think everyone will be shocked where its headed.
As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent . Hope you all enjoy.