? Gotham City July 10th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I admit to being a bit disappointed when Jim pulled up on a street corner and we all got out of the Silver Ghost. I looked at my mentor dryly "Wow. This is a nice street corner. I can't wait to tell all my friends. They don't have clandestine meetings on street corners this nice. I have to say I wasn't sure this place would live up to all the hype but you sure proved me wrong. Look at the quality of the paint on this curb." Despite not having a face, the tilt of his hat made it clear Jim was glaring at me. Somehow. No clue how he managed that.

Of course I could have just checked my aura sight, but I had the sneaking suspicion looking at an uber powerful ghost in the spiritual spectrum would not be great for my mental health. My suspicions about his annoyance were luckily confirmed by the deadpan tone he responded in. "Quite. If you're entirely finished being an arse might we move this along. I have other affairs to be about tonight and I'm not willing to delay my important matters so you can practice your amateur comedy routine."

Without another word Jim swept away from the car, swirling his half cape and spinning his cane jauntily between his fingers as he walked towards a building right next to where he'd parked the car. I studied the place with a skeptical eye, it didn't look like much so I couldn't help but question all the things Jim had told us. I was still surprised however when Jim walked right past it and into a dark alley. I gave Artemis and Reggie a quizzical look, which they returned, but in the end all we could really do was follow our mentor.

He didn't seem even remotely perturbed by the muck in the alley. Seeming unaffected by the world as he strolled down the dark corridor between the buildings, lighting the air around him with otherworldly glow of his magnificent white suit. Of course, I'd had to stifle a snicker at noticing his shoes floating a few inches off the ground. The almighty Gentleman Ghost was clearly worried about scuffing his white shoes with all the alley muck. Sadly for Artemis and Reggie they couldn't float, but I used my water walking to stride across the surface of all the scummy puddles and remain clean as a whistle.

We finally made it to a set of cement stairs that descended down to a dingy black iron door. Despite the extremely beat up appearance of the thing a quick look with my aura sight showed magic symbols and runes criss crossing the metal in spiraling patterns of intricate spell work. Jim descended the steps and stopped in front of the door. At his abrupt halt I finally noticed that the iron door was missing something pretty important. A knob. There appeared to be no way to open the thing, just a flat expanse of dark iron studded with rivets and bolts.

Jim didn't seem to mind though, he just tossed his cane lightly up into the air, catching it near the tip and using the pommel to rap smartly on the iron. Five beats, then two. I rolled my eyes as my mentor tapped out shave and a hair cut on the magic door. As soon as the cane struck the metal for the seventh time the runes hidden from plain view in the iron began to glow in a way I knew even Reggie and Artemis could see before the door swung silently inward. My fellow apprentices were clearly surprised but a month with Jim had taught us to just roll with surprises.

The room on the other side didn't really...fit...with the outside of the building. Actually based on the dimensions it wouldn't fit IN the outside of the building. I could see off to one side where the hard wood floors extended to the right of the door past where the alley should have interrupted. Seeing the empty space and then the solid cement on just past the edge of the door frame was vaguely disturbing to look at. The place was big but still intimate, with tables and booths each having oil lamps sitting on their surface and the walls baffled with dark red velvet curtains.

I wasn't the only one caught off guard, even the carefully cultivated air of indifference Jim had drilled into us over the last month crumbled and Artemis and Reggie were sitting there gaping right along with me. Jim cackled like a banshee "Look at your faces! I'm so glad I didn't tell you more about this. Now get inside we shouldn't leave the door open too long." We stepped an and Jim threw out an arm, encompassing the whole place in his gesture "And now, my dear apprentices, may I officially welcome you to your first true milestone as seekers of the realms of magic. The Oblivion Bar."

The people sitting at the tables seemed pretty used to the drama, because none of them looked up from their drinks or conversations at my mentor's flamboyant announcement. He walked us up to the bar and sat down at a stool, gesturing for us to do the same. Then his monocle turned to regard the bartender. "Barkeep, a cabernet for me, and your finest organic cola for my esteemed students." He turned to look at our dour expressions "No? Perhaps a root beer? Or a shirley temple?"

I cleared my throat "First of all, we're not children. We can order our own drinks." I coughed once "But, yes, I'd like a shirley temple." Artemis and Reggie both glared at me and I shrugged "What? I'm not a big drinker, and I love shirley temples. Maraschino cherries are amazing. Though to be fair I'd also love to try the house root beer, a place like this definitely makes their own..." I trailed off without finishing my thought as I took in their disappointed expressions. "Whatever, order your drinks. Asses."

Artemis snickered "Unlike you I do enjoy drinking, though I'm guessing we shouldn't get blitzed. I'll have a dirty martini, two olives. Anyway boss man, who are we supposed to be meeting here? Also how did I not know about a place like this in Gotham." Artemis's dad was Sportsmaster, and despite them not being close he'd been training her most of her life. If a place like this existed in the city her not hearing about it was pretty strange. The people in here didn't seem like your average schmucks.

Jim chuckled, sipping his wine as Reggie ordered a root beer. "The Oblivion Bar isn't IN Gotham. At least no more than it's anywhere else. This place is a pocket dimension accessible from all around the world, and from what I'm told from other worlds too. Aside from that it's a magic user bar. The Shadowpact uses it as their main meeting place. We're here to seek their intervention. They normally wouldn't get involved in matters like this, but Acheron, one of their sometime members, is an old acquaintance of mine. Considering Morgan La Fay's presence in the city they'll want to keep an eye on things anyway."

I didn't know who the Shadowpact was, but they sounded pretty impressive, and if Jim thought they could help I was all for it. As if reading my mind Jim chuckled "Ah, I should explain. The Shadowpact are a team of do-gooders who combat mystic threats. As for our meeting, it's already begun. Our good Barkeep here is actually their leader. Isn't that right James?" His eyes flicked to the bartender who was watching with amusement. I was curious what his game was here, superheroes in town didn't seem ideal, but if they only worked with magical threats I could understand why he might at least ask. They probably wouldn't mess with Gotham's ecosystem long term.

Jim looked up at the bartender, James "Acheron said you were the final arbiter here." He went on to explain our situation, explaining how the Court had blackmailed us and then how I'd been framed for murdering one of their own. He even told James about the brewing gang war. He gestured to the three of us "As you can see, these kids aren't ready to swim in waters as deep as these, and even I'd have trouble handing whatever is going on." He lowered his voice and leaned in "Not to mention I've heard rumors of Morgana working with the Court. I can't speak to their veracity but it's a concerning thing to think about."

James nodded pensively as he cleaned a glass with a rag, in the fashion of every bartender when thinking since the beginning of time. "It's certainly not a welcome development. Nimue's presence in the city puts an even darker spin on things. The sisters famously don't get along but they try to avoid each other if possible. Morgana has always been just about equal in power to her sister and Nimue has always been just a bit more talented. Their clashes never go well for her but Nimue can't bring herself to put an end to her sister once and for all."

He sounded pensive as he spoke as if he was just working through the issue out loud "I can't commit too many of our agents to Gotham at the moment. I'll send Warlock's Daughter, Acheron, and Nightshade to assist you. Warlock's Daughter is a Gotham native in any case and I know she would prefer to avoid an all out gang war in her home town. She and Acheron are a bit unruly but Nightshade should be able to keep them under control." His tone was casual, but firm, he was clearly stating there would be no negotiations about more support.

When Jim responded though he didn't sound like he would push for more, he sounded suspicious "Why?" James raised an eyebrow "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth Nightmaster, but this was a long shot at best. I have a meeting with Strega set up for tomorrow night because I assumed you would shoot me down. I'm certainly pleased to be wrong but this isn't exactly your usual method of doing business. Warlock's Daughter aside, what's in this for you?" Aside from suspicion Jim's voice was cold and ethereal in way I'd never heard before, almost spooky.

James, or Nightmaster as Jim called him, sighed. "There have been...disturbing ripples surrounding Gotham lately." He must have sensed the interruption coming because he held up a hand to cut off Jim who was obviously about to butt in "More than the usual I mean. Something bad is coming to Gotham. Something old and twisted. We don't know what, or when, but if Morgana is in town she might be involved and we can't have this spinning out of control. If she's working with the Court of Owls that makes them our enemies." His voice was intense as he spoke, clearly meaning every word.

Jim gave a clipped nod "Fair enough I suppose. I'm not entirely pleased about the information obviously, but one thing at a time. Do we wait for Acheron, Warlock's Daughter and Nightshade here or meet them back in Gotham?" I had no clue who any of those people were but it was clear Jim considered them impressive, and having seen what he could do I wasn't counting out anyone Jim thought was scary. These people would be able to help us somehow I was sure, I just wasn't sure it would be in time. After that dire prediction from the bartender the gang war seemed like the most likely time for a horrible thing to reveal itself.

James chuckled "They'll meet you. Leave your number I'll have them contact you when they're free. Nightshade is busy tonight and Warlock's Daughter is never in this early. Acheron comes and goes as he pleases, but I'll let him know to get in touch, just keep us apprised of any changes to the situation before they arrive or anything they miss." Jim just nodded and drained his wine, gesturing for us to do the same. I drank my shirley temple in a few pulls, munched the cherries and then followed the others back out into the Gotham night. Guess we would be having guests soon.

The Clock Tower July 11th 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Sleeping at the clock tower was miserable, the beds here were awful, I considered ordering a super deluxe mattress through my power, but it seemed like a huge waste with everything going on. I needed a new power, something I could explain away with my perfect memory and my current abilities so I was saving up for something useful. Unfortunately my muscle powder was long finished and I couldn't use it to fix up damage to my body anymore, so I was stuck with this stupid crick in my neck, not to mention being insanely tired because of all the damn nightmares.

Artemis and Reggie looked about as tired as I did. We were all sleeping at the clock tower since the building was warded and impossible to find. Nathaniel knew where at least two of us lived and Artemis was my next door neighbor so her place was out. I wasn't entirely sure my nut job uncle wasn't going to lose his mind when he couldn't find my mom, and I'd rather not get shivved by a ninja in my sleep. Since the beds here were just shitty ones meant for quick naps during long term ops Artemis and Reggie were in just as bad of shape as I was.

Artemis had slumped her head down on the table and had it cradled in her arms. She groaned in exhaustion "Oh my god that mattress. It would have been more comfortable to sleep on the floor. Shame this drafty old tower has fucking rats." I'd actually had the same thought but she was right, with all the critters scuttling through this old place it was asking for trouble. "Didn't Jim say something about the mice and bugs not being a problem anymore? Why have I still been seeing the damn things around?"

I chuckled at that "Because you don't listen well enough to remember that he said it would take a few weeks. His presence lets off a low level necromantic field. Nothing with sapience or bigger than a fist will be effected, but everything that doesn't meet the two criteria will just kind of fade and die. His aura needs to permeate the tower though, it's one of the big reasons he spends all his time here, aside from imbuing the place with whatever weird aversion magic he's been baking into the foundations to make it impossible to find."

Reggie snorted from where he sat with an arm thrown over his eyes, head leaned back to hand over that back of his chair. "Oh sure, don't worry about bugs, our boss had a concentrated death aura so strong it kills off small animals. I definitely feel better now. Speaking of death aura, when are we supposed to be meeting those Shadowpact guys. Jim was planning to bring them here right? He didn't mention exactly what time that was happening and I for one want to mainline a few cups of coffee and shower before they get here."

Before any of us could answer a sardonic voice said "They'll be here in an hour, as a matter of fact." We all jumped out of our skin as Jim's suit faded into being in one of the empty chairs. I could have sworn he did that on purpose. Every time on of us mentioned him when he wasn't around he took it as an opportunity to sneak up on us and scare the shit out of us. I always felt like he followed us around sometimes waiting for an opening, the weird thing was I didn't even see him with my aura sense when he was invisible like that, not that I wanted to, since I was worried it might drive me insane, but still.

Reggie nodded sagely "Ah, of course, then we should definitely get ready to greet out new friends. I think a shower would probably be best for all of us, an hour is enough time for us all to get a chance. I think the only real thing to decide is who goes first." He held up a hand, cutting off Artemis who was about to speak from her spot closest to the door. "Wait. One thing, before you decide who will be the one who gets to use up all the hot water." He paused meaningfully "Dibs!" He translocated Artemis into his chair then bolted for the hallway to the shower, knocking his chair over on the way out.

Artemis's eyes flew open and her nostrils flared "Son of a bitch!" She vaulted the table and took off after him, hurdling the chair as she raced off down the hall bellowing "You better hope you get into that bathroom and shut the door before I get there Willowbrook!" I snickered at their antics and Jim just sighed in an over dramatic expression of feigned despair. He liked to act like we were a huge imposition but he showed his appreciation with actions. He liked having us around, even when we acted like stupid kids.

I stood up from the table and walked into the open concept kitchen (which was fancy architect speak for this place was so old the wall fell down and we cleared away all the debris) and poured myself a cup of coffee. "So, boss." I said with no small amount of hesitation. "I know who Warlock's Daughter is. Any chance this is going to be a problem? Our families were never really friendly. I know she doesn't run with her dad's crowd but old habits and blood feuds die hard. The Aquista family have hated the Falcone's for years. Speaking of the Falcone's where's Kit by the way?"

Jim sighed again, this one coming across much more sincere. "Kitrina is still asleep. She was displeased to be left home to study during our outing last night. I tried explaining she has a month of intense training to catch up on but she just felt left out. She stayed up late last night reading in the library and I had to carry her back to her room. I suspect she'll sleep through the meeting, which might be for the best because while Ms. Aquista most likely won't hold your father against you, Kitrina is a Falcone by name as well as birth, not an outcast like the two of you."

We drifted off into silence after that, Reggie came back into the room with his head completely wet, but not the rest of his body. When he saw my questioning look he glared off down the hall. "She gave me a swirly! I only teleported her into a chair, it's not like I hurt her or anything. She said next time I use my powers on her she'll shave my head and wax the entire rest of my body. Crazy god that's a new toilet." He shuddered and walked out of the room heading for his current bedroom to dry off and get changed.

I went back to my own room to get changed and comb my hair, knowing Artemis was a notorious hot water hog and there was no way I would be taking a shower before the Shadowpact people got here. I got finished getting ready in my costume and headed out to the...I wasn't actually sure what to call it. The huge room behind the clock face served as a sort of combination dining room, living room, and kitchen. By the time I got there, the Shadowpact people had already arrived. They were not what I'd expected. I figured they would be serious aloof magic types, but I could tell at first glance they all seemed fairly approachable.

First up was Acheron, who floated off the ground with his legs crossed dressed like the bad guy from an eighties movie. He had a black shirt on under a bright red jack with a ridiculously high collar sticking straight up and a gold dragon emblem across the front. His eyes were burning orange with black sclera and he had a huge underbite with two wicked looking fangs sticking up. Still despite the odd image he presented he was smiling cheerfully at Jim, who sat across from him in the air, as the two of them shared tea from a floating tea set.

Sitting at the table looking amused was a very well built woman in a domino mask. She was pale as a ghost, pun not intended with white glowing pupiless eyes, and wore a pair of elbow length black gloves and black bodysuit with gold trim that left her shoulders and a good portion of her cleavage bare. I reflected briefly on how much I loved being around female heroes and villains before I noted the presence of a strange energy around her. In fact it almost felt...familiar. I felt a sort of kinship between her presence and my powers, and it took me a minute to realize that her powers affected shadows.

The last person (if that label really applied in this particular instance) was a girl about my age. She was white as chalk, her skin the color of new fallen snow, and her eyes glowing with an ethereal light that reminded me of Jim's suit. Her entire body was covered in a crimson bodysuit and cape, with black interspersed throughout it, the edges of the dark material seemed to roil like dark smoke or lightless fire, and I saw her eyes fixed firmly on me. That wasn't a surprise give our respective identitys.

Darla Aquista had been killed in a gang war a few years back that my family had definitely been involved in. Rumor had it the Odessa mob were the ones actually responsible, but she'd been resurrected by her father's enforcer, Johnny Warlock, in a rather gruesome ritual involving the sacrifice of her actual dad, to bring her back as the Warlock's Daughter. I didn't know if she was a ghost like Jim or some kind of dark magic spirit but whatever she was she really didn't like mobsters for obvious reasons. Even if she was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt because I had cut ties when I was younger I was still a bit uncomfortable.

Nightshade seemed to have noticed me come in as well, and unlike Warlock's Daughter she wasn't shy about talking. "Oh, hello. You must be Random! Jim gushes about you all the time, though gods know he'll never admit it. It's so nice to finally meet you." She shifted through the shadows and arrived in front of me, smiling and holding out her hand "I'm Nightshade. I can sense you and I have a little something in common. You manipulate darkness huh?" Her grip was firm and her smile was warm and friendly.

I blushed a bit, I won't lie. She was absolutely gorgeous and her clothes were very very flattering. I cleared my throat and willed the blush away, hoping that would work "Not exactly. I have stealth abilities pertaining to shadows but I can only do one or two things with them." She giggled at my obvious shyness and released my hand, walking back to the table and giving me just as nice of a view from behind. I was interrupted from my staring by the sound of Artemis and Reggie coming in, both also in costume.

Jim made the introductions and finally stood from his little floating tea party and turned to face all of us. "Well now, we're all here for the same thing, even if we might have different ideas about how to go about it. We want to protect Gotham from whatever is coming. I personally believe that Morgana will play a part in..." He trailed off his head snapping up as an ethereal white dove flapped into the room. He put a hand up and it landed on his arm, he leaned forward and it cooed softly in his ear before vanishing into a silver mist. Jim looked back at us slowly, monocle gleaming. "Madame Xanadu was just attacked, her shop was robbed...by the Talons."

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 11th 2010 1:00 PM EDT

Madame Xanadu's shop was wrecked, but we couldn't see it until we got closer. She must have had some sort of illusion over the place because until we were about ten feet away from the store front it looked just like it had before. Once we crossed the ten foot line though it became clear that something bad had gone down here. The windows were blown out from the inside, with glass scattered everywhere and the occult posters and signs hanging in tatters from the frames of the shop's glass facade.

The door was hanging off it's hinges at an angle and was twisted and warped by heat, and little tongues of flame danced on the pieces of shredded paper at irregular intervals. As we stepped over the threshold it was clear that the damage was pretty consistent throughout the entire shop, with all the tables blown over and books and magical curiosities alight on the ash covered ground. Interspersed through the fire, green frost rime interspersed with blue and purple and dancing golden lightning covered the walls and the occasional spike of stone jutted up with bloody tatters of what looked like razor sharp silk hanging across the top of the room like streamers.

Jim clicked his tongue "Judging by the amount of blood here, quite a few Talon's met their end in this battle. Madame Xanadu is a terrifying foe. The question here is what would be worth all this? She was the keeper of quite a few powerful artifacts, but most know that crossing her is a fools errand. She's a true immortal, and once she recovers from whatever they've done to her she's going to rain down hell on them they can't imagine. She was holding back because of her things, but even so she did some real damage."

Nightshade stepped up, looking around to try to find the owner in the debris "This is wrong. The Court of Owls are pompous twits from what I've heard but Madame Xanadu is a global heavyweight. If Morgana had come with them I could see them MAYBE pulling this off, but this whole neighborhood would be glass if that had happened. This is just...out of their league." She sounded genuinely concerned, and for good reason, the Court were scary enough without whatever the hell they stole from here.

We all fanned out to search the store, hoping to find something that might tell us what had happened. I stepped through warped space and ducked under cutting strands of light as I combed through the place genuinely terrified by how much damage Madame Xanadu had been able to do with zero warning about this attack. Magic was seriously scary shit. Even with my perfect memory I was having trouble learning basic wardcracking, without my powers helping cheat learning this kind of magic would take...well centuries.

But then again Madame Xanadu was a world renowned magus, it wasn't surprising that someone at the high end of the magic spectrum would be using the good stuff. I felt like a kid learning addition flipping through a fucking calculus book. Artemis and Reggie were right by my side and we were levering bookshelves and upended tables off the ground looking for the sorceress who was supposed to be here. I had a thought and shot a panicked look to Jim across the room "Hey boss!" I shouted over "We aren't going to run into the Batman or one of his justice pals are we? Because honestly this looks pretty bad from an outside perspective."

Nightshade burst into giggles "I doubt we'll see him around here, Batman avoids magic whenever possible, we tend to police our own, even in Gotham. That said even if he showed up it wouldn't be an issue. Outside out Shadowpact duties we all have our own pursuits. I'm a superhero and I'm well acquainted with the League. If Batman showed up I'd explain what's going on." She shot me a wink, that her glowing white eyes made very obvious "Don't worry, I'll protect you from the mean old Bat."

I blushed at that and turned away to sulk while Artemis snickered at me. I glared at my best friend out of the corner of my eye. She shot me a smirk "I haven't seen you this flustered since we first started hanging out, back when you were trying to figure out how to get in my pants. So you have some kind of cape fetish? Or are you just this awkward around all women you find attractive. I would have thought having a girlf-" She stopped talking at the flash of hurt that stole across my face as my stomach tightened at the mention of Annabel. "Fuck. I'm sorry Morgan I just got caught up in the moment and I..." She trailed off, clearly grasping for words.

I just smiled and focused on my work "It's fine. It's been a few days. It's natural to have it slip your mind now and then. Hell, I know I do. I keep thinking about calling her before I remember. I still can't delete her number from my phone. I know I'll have to at some point, but it just feels too much like letting forgetting her. I feel like an idiot, being so torn up over her after what she did, but it's just...how I feel, you know?" Every time I thought about her I remembered she was gone, then I remembered why, then I remembered how, in that order. It was like reliving our whole relationship beginning to end in an instant.

We lapsed into silence as we worked, clearing away strange object and unusual books. We weren't cleaning the stuff up, just shoving our way through it until we could track down the Madame, but there was just so damn much of it. I suspected she might have packed some more things into this place than the space would allow, which given what I'd seen from her with that back room was...I froze. The back room. That was the safest place in the store, she would have definitely hidden there if she could have and she'd clearly had time to send that message.

I dropped a bookshelf immediately, earning a yelp and a glare from Reggie whose foot it landed on and loped off towards the door to that weird courtyard. Everyone else seemed to notice me running towards it and followed after me as I ran to the strange door in the back with all the levers and latches. I stood in front of the door smugly and looked at the various mechanisms sure my perfect memory would...do absolutely no good here. The pills improved my memory as an active effect going forward, which meant that past events weren't dug back up.

I'd come here with Madame Xanadu before I'd gotten the ability so I had absolutely no clue what the combination to this thing was. I reached out to touch it gently, trying to see if I could maybe force myself to remember but Warlock's Daughter reached out faster than the eye could track and smacked my hand away. I hissed and pulled it back, glaring at her, but she simply stared at the door with her ghostly pupiless eyes. "That door has been tampered with. There's is some sort of dark magic affecting it, I can sense it."

Nightshade stepped up to glance at the door before focusing on a small sliver of bone jammed into a crevice where one of the levers was. I hadn't even noticed it before. She held out a hand and muttered a few sentences, obviously trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She jerked her hand back with a hiss, cradling it as if it had been burned. "The Court of Owls didn't make this. They got it from someone powerful. It's a shard of bone from a master thief soaked in the heart blood of thirteen kidnapped virgins. This is evil magic, but strong. I imagine they got it from Morgana."

She looked deeply disturbed by the item, which I totally got given what she'd just told us about it. Acheron floated forward. "Let me. Thing's like this are designed to curse the next person to open the door as a security measure. I can connect with that sort of magic even better than Gentleman Ghost, I should be able to reactivate the artifact without any sort of negative effects if I..." He trailed off into a string of unintelligible mutters and sharp cracking syllables I didn't understand. He obviously knew his stuff because as he spun his spells the shard of bone began to glow.

The light got brighter as he spoke increasing second by second as Acheron chanted. I could smell ozone and the faint tang of blood in the air and shadows around us lengthened a bit. I tasted cold wet dirt on the back of my tongue and off in the distance I heard the tolling of a bell. Clearly Acheron and Jim had a few stylistic commonalities in their magic. The light quickly became so blinding we couldn't look at it before there was a loud bang. The shard exploded, taking a fist sized chunk of door with it and the brass door swung open slowly under its own weight.

Acheron glanced back at us and then down at the door. "If Madame Xanadu asks, it was like that when we found it." We all nodded solemnly and followed the red jacketed ghost as he floated through the door. Like the last time I'd gone to the shop we emerged into a courtyard. The artifact or whatever was clearly designed to get the use here. The pedestals that had held the items of power she'd offered me last time were empty now, and some of them were destroyed. There was plenty of debris strewn about the courtyard and I could even see dead Talon's lying here or there.

None of them was the right body type to be my uncle, though I wasn't sure if I should be relieved by that or not. However the most attention grabbing thing here was the fountain. Or rather, what use to be a fountain. Where the stone edifice had stood now there was just wreckage. The water feature had been smashed apart, leaving only the pool at its base, and from that pool rose a huge chunk of ice. The ice had spiraling patterns of frost forming intricate and powerful magical symbols. I recognized some of them from my study of wards, and there were entire castles I'd read about with less defenses than that chunk of frozen water.

What really caught our attention though was the woman inside of it. Madame Xanadu sat suspended in vertical slumber inside the frozen defensive construct. It was obvious from her pale face and bloodstained lips that she was hurt, and her cheeks looked sunken and morose under the odd illumination that the small iceberg allowed through, her face shifting constantly with shadows of powerful runes and dangerous spells that gave the impression of being part of her actual design. Like she'd taken account the angle of refraction and built yet another spell into that dimension of the magic.

Normally that would have been the most stunning thing, but I was a bit distracted. Not by the wounds or by the feeling of power coming from the spells either. No, my distraction was coming from the white hilted knife the size of my forearm that had been driven into her chest. Carnwennan, the knife we had stolen from Zatara's house over a month ago was firmly stuck through Madame Xanadu's sternum. I turned to look at Artemis and Reggie, and despite their faces being hidden behind masks I know they were showing the same horror that mine was. Madame Xanadu had been robbed and possibly killed by the Court of Owls, and it was our fault.

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 11th 2010 1:30 PM EDT

I turned to Jim with a horrified look on my face. This was all because of us, hell, because of me. Annabel had only pushed Reggie into that stupid heist to try to get control over me. Now the knife we'd stolen had seriously injured and maybe killed a powerful ancient magic user and was responsible for the Court of Owls getting their hands on a cache of extremely dangerous magical items. I didn't even remember what was all here, but the Court having it couldn't be good. "Boss, thats-"

Jim cut me off "Yes, it is." His voice was tight with anger "I can't believe I was such a fool. Hired to steal Carnwennan just as Morgana showed up in the city. This scheme might as well have had that bitch's name printed across in bold red letters. Of course Nimue would be the target." He turned and punched one of the pillars with a glowing white gloved hand and the stone cracked under the blow. I'd never really seen Jim use his body to attack but it seemed like magic wasn't his only ability, those pillars weren't normal stone, but he'd left a crater in one with just a punch.

I glanced fearfully at the pale bloody face of the woman I'd met last month who had been so nice to me when I came here. Reggie spoke up "Is she dead? She's immortal and she was able to cast that ice spell so the knife didn't work right? If getting stabbed was enough to finish her off I doubt she would have lasted this long." His voice was shaking and I could tell that he was blaming himself for this as much as I was. Even knowing that Annabel had pulled him into the heist to get at me Reggie was a good guy, he would obviously feel responsible. Yet another thing on my conscience.

Jim turned slowly back to us, clenching and unclenching his fist as if he'd injured it with that punch. "A normal knife wouldn't, but Nimue's immortality is tied to Avalon, and Carnwennan was wielded by Avalon's king. Not to mention the damned thing was blooded on the very black witch and is extremely potent at harming magic users. She is not however, dead. That ice coffin isn't simply a defense, it's a stasis field. She knew I would come to see what happened after I got her message. It will keep her in her current condition until we can find a way to restore her." His voice sounded raw, and it occurred to me there might be more history between the two than customer and shop owner.

Still, if she was alive we could fix this. I was relieved to hear I wasn't responsible for the death of one of the worlds greatest mages. I considered if my power might be able to help, but I suspected anything that could heal or undo this would take weeks to save up for and after putting the civilians on a cruise I was already low, not to mention we still had to deal with the court. If she'd called Jim however there might be another way. "Can you help her boss? She called you so she must think there's something you can do. Do you have any healing magic or artifacts that might be able to fix what happened to her?"

The sigh Jim let out instantly crushed any hope I may have had "No. Nothing that can fix that. After being altered by the very black witch's blood, Carnwennan is a weapon that exists to consume the lives of those who practice magic. Nimue's immortality is also Avalonian magic just like the knife. I don't have any idea how we could fix what's been done. However, there is someone in the city who might have such knowledge. In fact, I'd been debating going to visit him recently in any case. No one knows better than he does how to deal with Morgana."

It was Nightshade's turn to sigh "Yes, we considered going to see him too, but you know how reclusive he can be. He hates to be disturbed. Now that we've seen her magic at work and seen what she's done to her sister however I think reaching out to him is our only real option. If anyone can fix this mess and help us get rid of Morgana, it's Jason Blood." She said the name with a sort of weight to it, like the words were so important that even if they hadn't been a name they would have been capitalized. I admit it was an intimidating name, but the way they were acting made me think there was more to it than that.

Acheron cursed "Of course I can't come to Gotham without having to talk to The Demon. I still owe that bastard two bars of gold from the last time we ran across each other." He glowered at us, an expression made much more menacing by his black sclera'd eyes and pronounced fangs. "A lesson to you kids, never play poker with a Lord of Hell or their host body." He paused for a moment "Or John Constantine. But that one goes without saying." He noted the glares from pretty much anyone and put his hands up in surrender "Fine, sorry, we can go talk to that self flagellating old stiff. He and Nimue were awful sweet on each other back in the day I hear. Seriously, for such a stick in the mud that guy got around."

I raised my hand timidly, as if I was in class, and they all turned to look at me, clearly wondering what I had to add "Not to distract from Madame Xanadu's situation but we do have another issue here. The Court took all the stuff that was here, which I assume was their goal. I don't know what they wanted exactly but all the stuff on those pedestals seemed valuable and dangerous when I was here. Whatever they were looking for I don't think it's a good thing that they got it." I gestured to the stone pedestals scattered around the courtyard. "They had little plaques on them last time so we might be able to find out what they took, if that helps."

Jim jerked around to stare at the stone plinths, as if noticing them for the first time. Clearly seeing Madame Xanadu in that condition had distracted him. "Damn! Quickly, everyone check the pedestals, we need to determine what was taken. We may be able to predict what's coming if we can discern what object they came here to acquire." Everyone spread out to check all the plaques, luckily they were metal, so even the ones on the destroyed pedestals were still whole, we only needed to dig them out of the rubble.

The first one I found was the Arrow of Indra. There was no further information on the plaque, just the name, but even that was enough to send a chill down my spine. Indra was a particularly powerful vedic god, though I didn't know much about him even that was enough to seriously freak me out. The next one was the Ring of Eluned the Fortunate, which I had no idea about so I just added it to my mental list to tell Jim and the others. The third plinth was broken and I had to dig the plaque out. All it said was Stone of Giramphiel.

It looked like most of the plaques were already recorded so I returned to the group to report my findings and ask Jim about them. Jim, being a very old master thief and an obsessive researcher, had naturally heard of all of them. "Those are unfortunate losses but nothing too absurd, except perhaps the arrow. Indra is a storm god and his arrows strike like bolts of godly lightning. Painful but single use, I doubt it was the target. The stone protects from dragon's breath and magic, useful but not unique, and the ring makes people invisble."

He saw me open my mouth to respond to that and interrupted me "That's ALL it does, no Tolkien references please." I must have been sulking about it visibly because he laughed "In any case, I found a few as well. Andvaranaut is a ring that makes gold, which probably isn't it. Ariadne's Thread is a wayfinding treasure that's useful but not overly so. The Necklace of Harmonia gives women eternal youth and beauty which makes it absurdly valuable but not incredibly powerful and there's no way it could destroy the city."

Nightshade showed up next to him "I struck out too. The Canoe of Gluskab can shrink and fit in the palm of your hand or grow large enough to house an army, but otherwise its just a pretty sturdy boat. She had a small pot of Yao grass, but that stuff isn't important enough for all this, all it does is increase mental clarity and sometimes work as a love potion. She had a Sanjeevani which is actually stupidly useful for curing pretty much anything but again nothing huge. And a single vial of the Mead of Poetry, which is admittedly damn impressive but is pretty small scale in terms of effect."

Acheron was the last to arrive, with Warlock's Daughter, Artemis, and Reggie trailing behind. " Apparently she had an Apple of Discord, though gods only know why, and that would certainly do some damage, but not on a city wide scale. A small amount of Alkahest, which dissolves everything, begging the question what the hell she was keeping it in, and for some unfathomable reason, the Pied Piper's flute. The flute could admittedly be a huge problem but doesn't really fit with the prophecy of being 'Ancient and Twisted'. So anyone have any ideas what the fuck the Court of Owls would use these things for to wreak havoc on Gotham?"

Jim made a concerned noise. "I fear we may have missed the point of this little exercise. Perhaps the target wasn't chosen for it's ability, but for its connection to powerful forces. Perhaps they mean to summon Eris? That would be a calamity for Gotham." He paused "Though it would also probably result in all their death's, she isn't known for honoring alliances. Suicide doesn't seem likely for either the Court of Morgana. Summoning Indra would work out even worse, he's known to have a temper and doesn't particularly enjoy being bothered. I'll have to do some research into the provenance of each object and from whence it came."

I glanced over to Madame Xanadu "Well looks like we're back to the original problem. Hopefully this Jason guy can help us out with some way to save her. Is it safe to leave her here like this? Can we even move her? We kind of blew up the door to this place so she wouldn't be nearly as safe as she was before we got here." Also I wasn't a huge fan of going to visit a guy whose last name was Blood and who apparently went by "The Demon" but if it was how we could fix the Madame I was down for it. Enough people had been hurt because I was an idiot, if I could save one I was going to do it.

Jim turned to glance at her, his monocle fixed on the glacier. "I dare see even Morgana herself couldn't budge such a defense. Not without a great deal of time and even more noise. She's safer in there than she would be in the most secure bunker we might find. I say we leave her where she is and pull something in front of that door. I will reach out to Jason and arrange a meeting. He isn't a man to be dropped in on without announcement. In the meantime let's head back to the tower. We have research to do and being out in the open like this is a fools errand." With that he he turned on his heel and stalked out, cape whirling as he left.

Home of Jason Blood July 13th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

I glanced up at the townhouse with a bit of trepidation. Over the last few days we'd made zero headway into figuring out what the hell the Court was trying to do, and we'd finally arranged a meeting with Jason Blood. I closed my eyes, seeing a burning number fifty behind the lids and feeling pretty confident that it would be enough points if I needed to use any of my abilities. Artemis was standing next to me, with Reggie on the other side and Jim was behind us with Nightshade. Acheron and Warlock's Daughter had stayed behind this time, the former because of the debt he owed the man and the latter because he apparently made her nervous.

To say I was less than comforted by the fact that this guy made one of the scariest beings I'd ever met nervous enough to be afraid to be in his presence was an understatement. I turned my head to speak to Jim "This place is pretty nice, bet it was pricey. If anything it might be bigger than my condo and I paid that's worth a few million retail. What does this guy do when he isn't scaring undead mob princesses?" I was sure there was hundreds of millionaires in Gotham I'd never heard of, but it didn't hurt to see if this guy had a rep outside occult circles.

Jim actually shrugged "Honestly I forget. He changes careers once in a while, I have no clue what he's doing with himself at the moment. But he's older than I am and always had a head for investing in profitable ventures. I believe he partially bankrolled the Mayflower expedition as a matter of fact. As for the townhouse, he bought it when prices were much lower than they are now, back during Gotham's early days." That was interesting, it made me wonder if he'd come across the court before, he might be even more motivated to help us than I thought.

I stepped up to the sturdy dark wood door and used the brass lion head knocker to rap three times. When I finished knocking the door swung silently open, revealing absolutely no one on the other side. Jim scoffed "Melodramatic old coot. He's always been like this. It's no wonder Nimue left him, I can't imagine staying with someone who feels the need to constantly appear mysterious and inscrutable." His voice was snide, and I heard an edge of pettiness to it I hadn't expected from my mentor. There was clearly some history here.

An urbane voice echoed out of the darkness as a man stepped into view appearing so seamlessly even I didn't detect him. "What's your excuse then Craddock? She dumped you too." The well dressed older man that appeared was fairly imposing. He was big and well muscled, and carried himself like a warrior. The red hair with distinguished grey at the temples came across like a facade of civility he put on to cover his warrior nature. "And if you came here to cause trouble I'll be happy to throw you out, you said this was about Nimue's safety so I humored your meeting request but I'm not in the habit of allowing myself to be verbally abused."

Nightshade cut my mentor off before he could respond, which I was glad for, as I was fairly certain this would not go anywhere productive if we let them keep sniping at each other. "Jason, it's good to see you, we're sorry to disturb you but there's been a bit of an...incident." She went on to explain what was going on, filling him in on the prophecy, the Shadowpact's presence, the involvement of the Court and the details of the attack on Madame Xanadu's shop. By the time she finished speaking his expression was grim.

Blood turned to walk deeper into the townhouse, gesturing for us to follow. "I was going to ask what a hero such as yourself was doing in that highwayman's company Eve, but the situation you've described is indeed dire." He led us into a large study. The floor was hard wood with a large ornate persian carpet across most of the center of the room. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace and the walls were lined with bookshelves, some filled with books, others with strange curios that looked like they belonged in Madame Xanadu's shop. Blood stopped in front of a case and took down a book with a red leather cover, flipping it open and paging through.

Blood glared down at the pages angrily "This is all your fault Craddock. I knew your thievery and nonsense would get her in trouble one day, I told her so when she decided to take up with you but she never did listen. Now she may be dying and the weapon used to harm her was one you handed to her enemies yourself." His voice was clipped and cold, but I could hear the undercurrent of pain in his words. He clearly cared about Madame Xanadu a lot, and his anger at her situation was reasonable, but it wasn't fair to blame Jim. I made to speak up but my mentor silenced me with a sharp hand gesture.

His usual accent was even crisper than usual as he responded to the wizard (or whatever Blood was). "Blame me if you must Jason, but help her. Despite what you may think I would never willingly allow her to come to harm. If there is something I can do to aid her recovery I will do so." I could tell from the way he was speaking that he was swallowing his pride and doing his best to quench his anger because it wasn't productive. Not to mention I believe he did feel guilty for contributing to her injury, even if he wasn't to blame.

I looked around the room, taking in some of the curiosities on display trying to find a distraction. Shrunken heads, weapons, jars with odd things in them, and a green stone that seemed to pulse with absurd amounts of power under my aura sight. However, my eyes were drawn to the chair by the fire, where I noticed two things I felt the need to address both out of curiosity and to shut down the upcoming fight. "Ok, not to interrupt the important people talking about the important things but I have two small questions. First off, is the cushion on that chair somehow a person? And second, what the actual fuck is that." I pointed over to the chair, or rather, behind it, where...something hid.

It was pink and furry with long hair and a strangely long thin hairless neck holding up a big head with large curious eyes. Blood glanced over at it he seemed to deflate a bit even smiling slightly, calming down once his stalemate with Jim was broken off. "First off, yes, well spotted, but don't ask how he came to be a cushion, he's sensitive about it, secondly that is a goblin I met in my travels. He is called the Thing-That-Cannot-Die or just Thing for short. He's very friendly but also very shy. Apologies if he startled you." The strange creature stared shyly out from behind the chair and I could see in my aura sight that he was a sweet little guy.

I'd have loved to speak to him a bit but Jim cut me off with a throat clearing, reminding me that we had other more important things to do, so I settled for a smile and a friendly wave, which Thing returned, before turning to my mentor and his rival who was still flipping through the book. As he paged through he spoke without looking up "I should have known Morgana was in the City. The magic in Gotham has been in a disturbed state recently, but I thought it was because of...never mind. I thought it was from something else." He grunted with frustration and snapped the book shut switching it for another one.

Now that I was back on task I took the opportunity to ask the question that had occurred to me earlier "Mr. Blood, my mentor mentioned you'd been in Gotham since the early days of it's founding. I'm sure you've come across the Court before. Do you have any insights on how to deal with them? I'm sure they must have given you trouble at some point since you live in the city. They seem pretty overbearing with everyone that lives in Gotham. Like just being here makes you their property or something." Whoever this guy was he was clearly on a similar level to Jim if we could get him on our side against the Court it would be a huge win.

He let out a sharp back of distracted laughter as he flipped through the book "Those jumped up free mason knockoffs wouldn't dare. They tried to push me around a bit when I first arrived and it did not go well for them. They avoid me now. Ah, there it is!" He slammed the book down on a cabinet and knelt down to begin rifling through it "If Nimue was wounded by Carnwennan we'll need something with real power to heal her. Luckily I happen to have a recipe for panacea around here. I have most of the ingredients here I believe."

It was a bit intimidating that he seemed willing to just dismiss the Court like that. Even Jim was wary of them, which meant Blood must be incredibly scary. He started taking out bottles from the cabinet with various fluids and substances in them before stopping with a frown. "Though not, it seems, all of them. I need venom from a great beast. Ladon was the one they used in the original recipe and his venom would be preferable but I don't have any here." He finally turned to look at Jim "I also don't have a way to acquire it in a short time, but I know for a fact a certain ex-paramour of yours has access to a supply."

Jim flinched hard enough that it was visibly noticeable despite him not having a physical body under that suit for us to see doing the flinching "Ah. Yes. Well, I did say I would do anything I could. I suppose I could seek her assistance. She doesn't much care for Nimue, but she cares for Morgana even less, and would most likely jump at the chance to disturb any of her schemes. We...haven't spoken in quite some time of course, but if I reach out she may be willing to talk to me. It's been a few decades so perhaps she's calmed down."

I raised an eyebrow in a silent question "Ok, this thing you guys do where you make oblique references to people using pronouns because you've been around for years and know all the players may seem like a time saver but to those of us out of the loop it just comes across as annoying and needlessly dramatic. Who are you guys talking about? And why would she have the venom of the dragon that guarded the golden apples of immortality. Last I checked that thing had been dead for quite a while, what kind of person just has a vial of it's venom on hand."

Jim gave an embarrassed cough. "Ah, yes, my apologies Morgan. It can be difficult to remember that not everyone has our depth of knowledge and experience. The lady to whom we refer was a paramour of mine in the early nineteen seventies. Quite some time after I parted ways with Nimue, but she was always a bit jealous. It didn't help that they were both magic users of some considerable skill. As to why she would possess Ladon's venom, that has to do with her identity as a member of the greek pantheon. You may have heard of her actually. Her name is Circe."

Some fun Etrigan lore and an introduction to another of Jim's exes as well as a lead on helping Madame Xanadu. Meanwhile in the advance chapters Morgan has a very different kind of family reunion pat-reon has the advance content for anyone who wants to check it out at that site /malcolmtent. Five chapters with two thousand words a piece minimum for a minimum of ten thousand words of advance chapters. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!