xXx

Strange settled himself on the surface of the spinning brass globe in the twirling twilight of a pastel ethereal backdrop. "Kutori, Sage of Ether, I am come. Through the Veils of Snirotha and the Channels of Chroga I have made my way, with proper signs and sigils, to partake of your wisdom. I come recommended, I ask audience."

"Aren't we confident of our worthiness," resonated a voice through the brass shell. "Go away."

"I can do that," Strange said. "I will drop by and leave a note with the Queen, she will be most interested to hear how her recommendation has become worthless with Kutori the Sage."

"Nasty mortals," grunted a voice inside as the brass warped and shifted, creating a portal big enough for the thin wizard. "No patience, no long view."

"Indeed, that's my problem at the moment," Strange said, slipping down into the globe. On the outside it was impossible to sense the dimensions of the globe in the ether. Inside, it was miles across. Strange stood on the balcony of a vast library, face to face with a hulking mound of a creature. An eyestalk slipped down to inspect him as delicate fingerlike legs moved books around and turned pages, studied by a dozen other eyestalks.

"Kutori, the Queen was vulnerable to the dark force that threatens my dimension. I cannot find it, however. I sense that in its way it already has bypassed my veils of security, but I can find no breach in the defenses of the Earth. At every turn in my search I am countered, this threat is two steps ahead of me. The Queen said you might know more."

"Prime is not my specialty, wizard," grunted Kutori with the wave of a tendril grown for just that purpose.

"Just so," Strange said. "But the ether is, and ways of entering and leaving sealed dimensions.

For a moment there was quiet between them. "You do not need me to cipher this riddle for you," the Sage rumbled. "You know all you need to for the problem to be discovered, though solving it is beyond any of us I fear."

"I am not a sage," Strange said, choosing his words carefully, "but my body of knowledge is nonetheless significant. I don't suppose you could help me narrow it down?"

"Sages are for gaining information you lack," the Sage said with a sniff from several nostrils. "You have the information you need, save for a name that will clarify the entire riddle. This is beneath me, and hardly worth riddling with you. Seek out the Weaver. He will help you weave your information into a tapestry with a view that becomes clear as you work."

Strange stood still for a moment. "I sense I have little time," he said softly.

"Then perhaps you shouldn't dawdle," the Sage said, withdrawing his eyestalk.

When next he looked, Strange was gone.

xXx

Valeria sat down to eat, then with a faint hissing whine the stepping disk swirled behind her. "Looked good," Illyana commented. "Mm, smells good too. What is it?"

"Goulash," Valeria said shortly. "Help yourself."

Illyana settled opposite Valeria. "So what do you think of our ninja friend?" she asked.

"Probably shouldn't discuss it here," Valeria said, glancing around meaningfully.

"Oh, yeah, whatever," Illyana said. "You were talking to her for like ten minutes or so."

Valeria sighed. "It really isn't polite to scry on people," she said.

"Oh yeah," Illyana said, a distant look in her eyes. "I keep forgetting." She shrugged and dug into her supper.

"So you caught the discussion on the ninja?" Valeria asked after a quiet moment.

"Sure did," Illyana said. "That's something else."

"Indeed," Valeria said with a nod. "Tell me something. Would you say that after that kind of sacrificing of what makes you human, by sheer biology you are still counted human?"

"What do you mean?" Illyana asked around a mouth full of food.

"If you kill a ninja," Valeria said, her face troubled, "does that mean you kill a human?"

Illyana's chewing slowed, and she leaned back in her chair. "Hm. What do you think?" she asked.

"Well, I imagine they could still reproduce," Valeria said, looking down at her plate, "so they're the same species. They started out human, certainly. But if you trade your humanity for power," she said, brooding, "perhaps you trade in the very essence of what makes you a member of the human race." She lapsed into silence.

Illyana's eyes were cold. She swallowed her food. "Yeah," she said. "yeah maybe. Look, Valeria; it doesn't matter what they are. They're willing to trade their lives for ours. We're going to have to do some killing to stop them. Now you do what you need to do. If you need to make your pretty ideals conform to that necessity, then you do it however you need to. You can just dance however you want. The simple fact is that there's going to be killing. You need to grow up." She picked up her plate, standing, her eyes ice cold.

"Keep me posted on what you decide about who's human," she added, locking eyes with Valeria, who was a bit startled. "I'll be wanting to know whether your judgement lets me pass the human test." Her feet twisted into fetlocks, and with a faint whining hiss a disk began sweeping up under her.

"Good goulash, by the way," she said. Then she was gone. Valeria blinked.

Valeria sat trembling for a moment as emotions seethed. "Grow up?" she muttered. "Grow up! From her?" Anger bloomed in Valeria's chest.

She stood up. "No," she said, closing her eyes and gesturing. "No, we're not doing this. I am a mature woman." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Just because Illyana believes something doesn't make it true." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "She's just baiting me." She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. And at the bottom of that breath was the uncomfortable suspicion that Illyana might have a point.

"I need to talk to someone," Valeria said, shaking her head. She picked up the phone.

xXx

The elevator door opened, and Valeria stepped out and glanced around the office. Behind his bank of glowing monitors, Doug turned his chair and grinned at her. "Hello," he said. "Step into my office," he added, standing and walking over to a box of couches all facing each other. He hopped over the back of a couch and flopped back. "Sounds like you've had a hell of a day."

"And then some," Valeria sighed, climbing over the back of the couch opposite Doug and settling on it. She leaned back into the cushions and sighed.

Doug nodded.

"What do you see, Doug?" Valeria asked, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Roomie trouble," Doug said. "Illyana is a brat, it's not your imagination." He smiled broadly. "I don't know about the rest. I've never seen you scared before."

She looked him in the eye. "I don't know how you do it."

"Insane," he said, tapping his temple. "I'm a madman. We're gifted by the gods by greater sight, weren't you told?" He smiled broadly.

"Seems I need to brush up on my mythology," she murmured. "You might want to be careful what you say about Illyana. She has a nasty habit of scrying on people."

Doug chuckled. "If she was sitting right here I'd call her a brat. If I talked to her tomorrow and found out someone had told her I called her a brat I'd have no qualms about fessing up. I still like her. But she's a brat."

"It's her… her chilling disregard for life that unsettles me. She doesn't seem to be fighting her darker nature. She seems to be reveling in it. If she wants to be the Queen of Hell, that's fine as long as she stays there." Valeria shook her head. "I can't be associated with that. We can't be friends if she is wallowing in cruelty. And because of me, Strange is teaching her magic." Valeria sighed. "I don't know," she said softly.

"She must have told you to toughen up," Doug said, nodding sagely. "Make your own decisions, Valeria," he added. "You spend more time with yourself than anyone else. Be sure that the one person you're stuck with is a person you like."

For a moment she just looked at him. "That's incredibly profound, Doug," she said.

He smiled. "Don't do anything you can't live with. If you do, your solitude will drive you mad." He tried to smile. "Hard earned wisdom, Valeria. I hope it does you some good."

"Well, Mister Ramsey, thank you for deepening my perspective today," she said, standing.

"Going so soon?" he said, a bit surprised. "I put some coffee on when you came in the door downstairs. It should be about done."

"Now that you mention it, it does seem a bit selfish to unload on you then run," Valeria said. "Talking to you sure does save a lot of explanation and beating around the bush, though."

He just smiled. "It's good coffee," he pointed out, sniffing.

She smiled. "Sure. I'd love some coffee."

Doug clambered over the back of the couch and strolled over to the coffee maker. "Just one other thing before social time," he said, his back to her. She waited.

He turned. "If Illyana ever crosses that line, get out," he said seriously. He paused. "If you wait that long."

She felt a faint chill.

He turned back to the coffee maker. "And with that out of the way, would you like a donut too?"

xXx

Valeria strolled down the street towards the apartment when she noticed a bag lady keeping pace with her without seeming to keep pace with her. She let out a deep breath. It could be a ninja. Or it could be a bag lady. She gritted her teeth. Intolerable. This paranoia was intolerable.

She turned and jogged across the street, headed for the bag lady. She looked both ways crossing the street; when she looked back the shopping cart was there but the bag lady was gone.

"I knew it," Valeria gritted out, and she darted towards the cart to see a figure disappear around the corner of the other end of the ally; so fast! She whipped after.

Coming out the other side of the alley, she saw that there was no foot traffic at dusk on this street. But the ninja was gone. She looked around at the thousands of hiding places on this street alone, and she warily retreated.

She took a long, long look at the apartment. Then she went to the pay phone at the end of the street. She dialed her number.

xXx

eep

"Illyana, if you're home I recommend you go to a safer place to sleep. I have a bad feeling about the apartment. I'm going to sleep elsewhere tonight. You know how to find me if you need anything. Be careful,"

eep

In the shadowed apartment, dark shapes flitted through their living space, tracing sigils on the wall with their fingers, silent, almost shapeless, their eyes cold.

xXx

The bag lady shifted her clothes and hair and almost flowed up out of the window well below street level. Now she was a blue collar factory worker on the way home. Shoulders bowed, she headed down the street. She caught the bus to the pier, where she got off and walked to an isolated lot behind a warehouse.

"I know you're following me," she said in clear Japanese. "I won't take you to the Jonin."

Lock dropped from the shadows. "So he knows I'm coming for him."

"Does it matter?" the other ninja said with a shrug.

Lock drew her shortsword. The woman she faced slid nunchaku from their concealment. They squared off.

"I can't let you take word of my presence back," Lock said softly.

The other woman nodded curtly.

They whipped around the edges of the Tao, circling then whirling sideways towards each other, weapons whickering as they met in the center. Lock curved away from the attack path, as did the other woman ninja.

Lock breathed out, closing her eyes. The other woman fell, dead.

Lock cleaned and sheathed her blade, then took the fallen form of the other ninja and slipped off to a nearby park. She swiftly scaled a tree, carrying the body until she reached the upper branches. Then she pinned the body to the tree under the ribcage with the shortsword. She nodded to herself. It would be some time before the body was found, and the Hand would most likely find it first. But not before August eighth.

Lock dropped from the tree and vanished into the city. The first blows had been exchanged. The stage was set. She nodded to herself. For now, that would have to do.

Night fell.