Gotham Cemetery July 17th 2010 9:00 PM EDT

Once I'd gotten the information from my Uncle I'd called Jim, who had been able to get the venom from Circe in advance. I'd been a bit surprised she'd handed it over, but Jim said she wasn't really worried about being ripped off. If I didn't deliver, she would just do something horrible to me and then force me to work it off for eternity. Jim is not a comforting person. Despite that, because of the specifics of the directions, we had to wait until dark to come get the book.

As I climbed over the wrought iron fence with Artemis, easily scaling the metal, I made sure to remain as silent as possible (which for me was completely silent) and Artemis only made slightly more noise. Of course that amount of noise rose dramatically when she vanished and returned to the other side of the fence, replaced by Reggie. I could hear her whispered curses as she scrambled back up the fence. I turned to Reggie and raised an eyebrow "Why do you constantly antagonize her? You know she's going to make you miserable for that."

As she got over the fence and readied herself to pounce on Reggie he held up a finger for her to wait. To my surprise she actually did, giving him a chance to speak. "That time wasn't me messing with her. Arty has advanced infiltration training and I don't I'd have made more noise climbing that fence than she did even pissed off and muttering about me. I probably could have mentioned my plans admittedly, but my reasons were practical." That...was an excellent point. Reggie was the least stealthy of all of us when he didn't use his powers.

Artemis glared for a second before huffing "Alright. Fine, that's fair. I'll let it slide this time." She turned to look at me "Now, which mausoleum did your serial killer Uncle leave his creepy trophy collection in again? Also how has nobody noticed this place in all these years. I imagine there must be some kind of groundskeeper here to...water the morbid vines that are growing all over the place." She turned in a slow circle, taking in the disrepair "Jesus why is this place so badly tended."

I shrugged, "It's full. Graveyards don't have infinite space. Once one of these places runs out of room they open a new one and everyone goes there. You run into loved ones for a few decades maybe but this is an old cemetery, the people buried here don't have any close relatives alive still. No close relatives means no visitors so they don't have to waste money keeping the place up." They both stared at me in confusion and I shrugged "I went through a goth phase when I was fourteen. Hung out in a few places like this."

Reggie snorted "Ok mister graveyard expert, then tell me how the hell there are secret compartments under this place that nobody knows about. Despite it being pretty overgrown I somehow doubt they would miss an entire construction crew digging out a mausoleum and putting in an underground space under it where the most prolific serial killer in Gotham history could display his trophies." Despite the flippant remark I could tell he was nervous being here, Reggie had a bit of a thing about cemeteries, which was weird since he literally lived with ghost.

But I actually did know this one from my research "I would imagine its in the catacombs. Most of Gotham has a series of tunnels under it that people don't even know about. There are entrances in some places like this and in a few of the older sewer plants, but mostly people only stumble on them by accident. I've never seen a complete map of the things actually, but they've been here since the city was founded. They started as some small tunnels but they expanded as Gotham did."

I knew from some research I'd done that the catacombs were deeper under Gotham than even the sewers were, but I didn't know there was an access point here. Based on my Uncle's directions though that was the only thing that made sense. Shame I didn't know much more about them then I'd just told my friends, the catacombs had been scrubbed from most of the books I'd found and only some of the older Gotham histories even mentioned them. I'd gotten most of my info from an old book I found in a used book store during my goth phase.

I made a mental note to put my hacking skills to work trying to dig up more on the tunnels now that I remembered they existed. If nothing else they might be empty enough to use as transportation to get around the city without running into the Court. Assuming they didn't use them too. Actually it wouldn't shock me if the Court had a base in the catacombs. I made a mental note to mention it to Jim. We quieted down as we walked through the mausoleums. This section of the cemetery echoed pretty loudly when we spoke.

The more I looked around the less I blamed Reggie for being so anxious. This was a creepy place, not just because of the dead that were interred here, but because the cemetery itself seemed to have died and rotted away. This place seemed like it belonged in a graveyard of its own, where decomposing boneyards were laid to rest. Even the air here felt stale and stagnant despite the chill wind sweeping through the rows of tombs. Luckily the Falcone family mausoleum wasn't too far from where we hopped the gate so we made it there quick enough.

I felt a bit silly, because I had the creeping sensation of being watched, which made me want to run, but some small part of my brain was terrified that running would draw something unknowable to give chase, so I forced myself to walk slowly to prove to both it and my own mind that I wasn't afraid. Despite the sense of eyes on me, none of the places where I knew someone could stalk me unseen showed any sign of aura or life, which really did not help with my nerves.

Finally we came to the tomb we were searching for. It had only been a few minutes, but something about this place made it feel longer. The name Falcone was carved above the door in white marble, but a crack ran through it and the roof was sinking a few inches on one side side half of the name was a few inches lower. The door was at a bit of an angle but thankfully still worked with some shoving, but the dingy brass slab scraped the floor loudly as we shoved it open, and as the moonlight flooded the mausoleum we saw rats and bugs fleeing from the light.

I stepped inside, the others following behind me, and once we were all in I stepped back up to push the door closed again. Reggie pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on, the white UV light somehow making this entire place seem like a black and white movie, and somehow even creepier. My friend swallowed loudly "Well I kind of get how no one found this place now. Who shuts themselves inside a mausoleum?" I nodded my agreement as we walked across the stone floor to the giant stone coffin my Uncle had specified.

I turned and raised an eyebrow at Reggie who nodded and translocated the coffin lid with a giant stone pot near the door. The pot was too big to fit into the coffin but lifting it out and putting it down was much easier than levering off that heavy ass lid after years of being stuck in place. As Uncle Alberto mentioned the coffin was empty with the exception of a false stone bottom. I pressed a latch and a panel swung up revealing a person sized square of blackness. I held up a finger and shifted into shadow form, flowing slowly down the hole and along the wall until I got to the bottom.

When I regained my corporeal form I shouted up "Hey pass me the flashlight." With my reflexes catching it was childs play and I shone the light around to see where I was. First off I realized I'd been wrong. There wasn't an access point to the catacombs in the family tomb. The floor above had been demolished somehow, maybe a jackhammer or something, but Uncle Alberto had clearly made this entrance himself. Second of all he'd sealed off all the exits into the rest of the tunnels, which explained why no one had found this place.

I heard feet hit the stone floor behind me and turned to see Artemis looking up into the hole with a rope next to her. She raised her voice just enough to be heard in the tomb "Reggie, if you teleport me back up into that goddamned coffin I'm going to fill your life with misery and woe." The was a cough from up in the tomb and the rope shook slightly as Reggie came down the slow way. He slipped a bit when he got closer to the bottom but he bent his knees to absorb the impact. One of our first lessons with Jim had been how to get down from high places. He said it was an integral skill for all thieves.

Once my friends were down I flicked the light around the room to illuminate this so called museum. It looked...ordinary. Tables filled with various odds and ends, books and paintings and a few pieces of jewelry. I found what we were looking for pretty easily, it was the only book that had a pronounced aura around it. I picked the thing up and noted how heavy it was with a raised eyebrow, but we found what we needed. I opened it up and flipped through the thing, committing all the pages to memory just in case.

Artemis made a small noise of uncertainty "Not to rain on your parade Morgan, but that doesn't seem like an awesome idea. That book belongs to an evil goddess of magic. I doubt she wanted you to read it." She looked around subtly, as if worried Circe would jump out from behind a table and scream "Ah ha!" Before turning us to ash with magic fire. I finished flipping through the thing and flipped it shut with a shrug, stowing it in the bag I brought. She rolled her eyes "Ok, never mind I guess." She said sarcastically. "I guess no harm ever came from reading a book."

I smiled a bit at her rationalization but she wasn't wrong. I had the info committed to memory now so it's not like there was anything I could do. I might have been more worried about it if I hadn't found something else to stare at, A gun, sitting on a purple velvet pillow in a position of honor in the middle of the room. It was small and still shiny, well cared for despite the layer of dust covering it showing it hadn't been used in a while. It was a twenty two, with a baby bottle nipple as a built in silencer.

It should have looked silly, should have made me laugh. But I could see auras and that gun was drenched in the blood of dozens of people and the fear of an entire city. It was a murder weapon, a cursed pistol, and it had been custom made by a master gunsmith for a mass murderer and then used to kill its own creator. I walked slowly over and picked it up. It felt heavier than I expected. I slipped it into the inside pocket of my jacket, fulfilling my promise even though I probably could have just ignored it, then turned to the others. "We got everything, lets get the fuck out of here."

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 18th 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Standing back in the shop after having just been here the other day was fairly surreal for a few reasons. First of all Blood was here with us. After we'd turned the book over to Circe she had just vanished, and Jim said we probably wouldn't see her again. That said Blood had the venom already and had concocted the panacea so we made plans to meet the next morning to cure Madame Xanadu.

Second and most importantly however was the fact that this whole place was stripped completely bare. Every single piece of magical esoterica had been snatched away and the only thing left now was shattered tables and shelves and some broken glass. Honestly it looked like they might have even taken some of the tables. I winced "Should we have put a guard on this store or something? Madame Xanadu is going to be pissed if she wakes up and finds all her stuff was looted."

Jim and Blood snickered and my mentor waved his hand dismissively "I feel pity for the poor fools who stole from this place. Every single piece of merchandise is tagged with tracking spells and protective wards. None of them will be able to get any of those books or jars open, and Nimue will collect her goods back with interest when she wakes. Honestly I suspect she looks forward to thefts, it gives her a chance to remind the world what she can do."

I was torn between a smirk and a wince when I thought of what those poor bastards were going to go through. Artemis, as always, had her eyes on the prize though "So I know the panacea can heal her, but how do we get her out of that ice cube. That thing is so tough we didn't even have to worry about anyone hurting her when we left her here for a few days. Can either of you really break it?" Her voice sounded doubtful. I'd been wondering that myself, not to mention I was worried about the consequences of breaking the spell with the knife still in.

Jim shook his head. "No, neither of us can, at least not quickly or without serious fallout. However, both of us should be able to manage it working in tandem. Blood and I know quite a bit about Nimue's magic and we have a not inconsiderable amount of power in our own rights. Despite my...distaste for the old stiff, he's quite knowledgeable in his field." Blood turned to glare at my mentor but apparently decided it wasn't worth it.

They led us to the back where the brass door was hanging open, the lock still blown apart by Morgana's spell. The door way still led to the castle courtyard and nothing in here had been touched apparently, which wasn't surprising considering everything of value had been taken by the Court. I suppose anyone who could get past the wards out front would have known enough not to touch that terrifying block of ice anyway.

As we made our way in, Jim and Blood spread out to either side and began pulling things out of bags they had brought with them. Bottles of water, candles, stone bowls with strange plants in them, and a roll of rough leather they unrolled to reveal a bunch of odd looking tools. The ingredients were startlingly similar in nature but dramatically different in specifics, with each of them using different plants, candles, and tools. Clearly they had the same basic idea in mind for this spell but very different styles.

I turned to Reggie, who was watching just as closely as i was, and punched him gently in the arm. "You ok there man?" He took a second to respond, seeming a bit dazed but he finally looked up at me with a puzzled frown. I clapped a hand on his shoulder "Hey, I know you blame yourself for this mess, trust me I hold myself completely responsible too, but this will fix things. Madame Xanadu is going to be fine and we even have the knife back. We repaired all the damage." Of course I didn't mention the Court having all those magical artifacts, but still we had done a good thing.

Despite that sentiment I felt an ominous cloud hanging over my head. The gun my Uncle had used to kill so many people hung heavy in my pocket. I carried it everywhere as I'd promised, but I tried never to touch it. It felt...stained. Reggie eyes had been drawn back to the ritual in progress but he still spoke to me. "I appreciate it man, I really do. I know we didn't really have a choice, but I just wish things had gone differently. Fucking Court of Owls man. Those guys need a serious ass kicking."

I heartily agreed. Artemis's voice appeared from Reggie's other side where she was standing to chime in "Oh they definitely do. I'm just not sure we're in a weight class to consider doing the kicking. Regular rich people are one thing, but immortal zombie ninjas with metal blood and super healing seems a bit outside our wheel house. Besides, I doubt they're going to be in good shape soon anyway. Madame Xanadu is going to be fully healed if I remember what Panacea does correctly, I read tons of greek myths as a kid because of my name. I doubt she's going to let them off with a strongly worded letter."

She gestured toward the ritual, where Jim and Blood had constructed a full blown circle and were chanting. Blood's power seemed to billow like the fires of hell, the blood red flame roaring up around him, wreathing him in it's sanguine light like a demon prince. Jim was barely visible, darkness roiling around him, and the ground around him was freezing even as I watched as the shadow sapped the life and energy from everything, leaving behind only the chill of the grave. The two energies met and clashed, and right at the dividing line they seemed to erode the ice block, stripping away the magic one layer at a time, like peeling a magical frozen onion.

Layer by layer the ice was stripped away, but the method was odd, like Blood was melting it and then Jim was refreezing and the constant shifting of states was driving the spell work from the protective barrier. The constant torrent of arcane sigils wafting up from the thing like steam seemed endless, and I could see that Madame Xanadu had forced so much magic into that thing that she must have inscribed the runes and symbols on the molecular structure of the ice. Each of those symbols I had seen had been formed of countless much smaller arrays of symbols.

Even with my perfect recall I couldn't hold them all in my brain, I was unable to even take the images all in before they shifted and another wave of spells came out. Watching this thing come apart was like watching someone code the worlds most complex firewall in reverse, but infinitely more complex. Every symbol was part of a hundred interlocking runic patterns in a full three dimensional structure, part of a chain of spells backwards forwards up down and sideways that wove into even more complex structures the deeper they went.

Finally after almost an hour of constant power streaming from both of them the protections Madame Xanadu had in place and she toppled from the air where she had been suspended in the ice. Jim blurred so fast even I couldn't see him and appeared beneath her, catching her. Almost like a light switch the fire and darkness both snapped off and Blood bolted forward sliding across the cobblestones on his knees to appear her side. With a nod to Jim, my mentor yanked Carnwennan out of her chest and Blood uncorked a bottle and poured it into the wound.

Golden liquid so effervescent it was almost mist layered onto the wound and the gash closed up. Madame Xanadu's eyes snapped open with a gasp and we all breathed a sigh of relief. That feeling faded as the newly awakened sorceress screamed "The thread!" She glanced wildly around, seeming to almost ignore Jim and Blood as she took in the destruction around us. "No! They took it, gods damn them!" She began to scramble to her feet, the panacea clearly healing even the weakness of being drained of energy after a long fight.

Jim reached up and caught her "Nim! Calm down love. Just tell us what's wrong, what thread did they take? We went through the missing inventory and the only thread was Ariadne's thread, but we didn't see how that would be useful. Is that what Morgana was after?" Holding her in place seemed to reset something in her brain, forcing her to take a deep breath and process the questions. She became slightly less agitated, but not by much.

The woman's breathing was ragged "She's going to call the Labyrinth! We have to stop her!" She began walking again and this time he didn't hold her back, we all followed her out. She scowled at the state of her shop but ignored most of the problems in favor of heading to the wall to push a shelf out of the way. After she pressed a panel the whole thing slid aside like it was on tracks. She began rifling through a room of very dangerous looking magical materials. She saw us following her and turned and scowled "What day is it?"

Jim spoke up a bit hesitantly "It's eighteen July love. Why? What is this about? Why would Morgana want to bring the Labyrinth to Gotham?" At the date Madame Xanadu seemed to have all the energy drained from her. She slumped down into an overstuffed arm chair in the secret room and exhaled. Whatever she was afraid of wasn't happening yet and she was willing to tell us what the hell was going on, which was good because I was lost. The Labyrinth was greek not British. If anyone we had run into would have wanted to call it I would have assumed it would be Circe.

She sighed in relief and slumped into an overstuffed arm chair to the side of the secret room. "Oh, oh good. I'm sorry I'm just a bit flustered. We have time. I'll just...sit. That was unpleasant. I apologize for the outburst but I wasn't sure how long I had been under. The stasis field denies me my perception of time while I await it's dissolution. Damn it all. I've grown too complacent. She's usually more direct than this, I didn't expect her to leave the task to minions, or for them to manage to thwart me so completely."

I cleared my throat "That's...kind of our fault. Reggie's family was being held hostage by the Court unless we stole the knife. We didn't know what they would use it for, but we're the reason you were hurt. I'm sorry, we should have considered what would happen. This is all just a huge mess and it's all because of me." I couldn't help but shrink back from the anger I was expecting, but nothing came. The beautiful sorceress smiled and patted my shoulder, clearly not holding my actions against me.

Her voice was soft and comforting when she spoke "I don't blame you, Morgan. I am passingly familiar with the Court of Owls and their methods. You were justified to do as you did, and truth be told I should have perhaps pushed a bit harder to learn your target. James coming into my shop with a group of apprentices was strange enough to bear looking into." She flushed "But I admit I was a bit swept away in seeing him again and let myself be distracted." Her face hardened "But none of that is of importance right now. Right now we need to stop my sister from summoning the Labyrinth, because if we don't she may very well become a god."

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 18th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

I was glad to see Madame Xanadu relax after she realized what day it was, but that joy was short lived. Once she realized thing's weren't pressing she drafted all of us into service cleaning up her wrecked shop. We had to rebuild tables and put the shelves back and as we worked she dispatched Jim and Blood out to various places to pick up her stolen goods. Seeing my mentor play errand boy would have been much funnier if I wasn't exhausted from spending hours moving furniture.

After finding out that things weren't spinning out of control yet Madame Xanadu pretty much blackmailed us all into helping before she would tell us what was going on. I probably would have bitched about it more but I still felt terrible for getting her shivved with an ancient witch killing artifact of power, so I decided to shut up and just move the furniture. On the upside she fed us pretty well, ordering sandwiches for us from Philadelphia. I got an italian (cold of course, not hot because I'm not a sociopath) and everyone else got a cheese steak.

Madame Xanadu cleared a spot for us at one of the tables and we all sat down to eat. She took a big bite of her cheese steak and moaned with pleasure "My absolute favorite thing about my shop occupying a dimensional nexus is the fact that I can order food from all over the world. I can have the best take out delivered in minutes at any time of day, it's heavenly." Her crisp English accent seemed more musical in a casual setting, less formal somehow than it had when she was a shopkeeper. She smiled at the three of us "So, how are you all enjoying the food?"

Reggie was the first to speak up, though I wish he'd waited until he was done chewing. "It's amazing! I've never had one of these before. This is fantastic! I've heard a lot about Philly cheese steaks and this certainly lives up to the hype." I saw Artemis shoot him a glare as she surreptitiously wiped a fleck of chewed bread from her face, but Madame Xanadu mostly just chuckled at the enthusiasm despite the bad manners. He was lucky Jim wasn't here, our mentor was fairly laissez-faire about most things, but he abhorred bad table manners.

Artemis and I both agreed. Honestly this really was the best sandwich I'd ever had. I'd heard there was something different about the bread in Philly and it was absolutely true. We could make a fortune picking up fresh baked bread through Madame Xanadu's shop and opening an authentic Philly sandwich place here in Gotham. Of course we would make substantially more just stealing expensive shit from rich people so once I thought the whole thing through the sandwich shop idea seemed a bit pointless.

Around that time Jim and Blood got back, and she passed them each a sandwich, seeming to know exactly what kind of food the preferred without asking. They sat on opposite sides of her and pointedly ignored each other, and Jim even had his face on so I could actually see. His ghostly white costume was swapped for a pretty much identical black one in his visible form, which seemed kind of half assed but hey, if it worked for him. Once everyone was back we all turned to the Madame and Jim was the one to speak up "Nim, love, we've been running errands all day but your shop is nearly back in ship shape, can you tell us what all this is about before we die of suspense?"

Madame Xanadu smirked "You always were impatient. It was one of my favorite things about you. Fine. As I mentioned my sister is trying to bring the Labyrinth to Gotham, she wants to use it to become a god. It goes without saying that this would be a bad thing, considering my sister is basically the world's oldest version of those terrible girls from the American sweet sixteen reality shows. She's a tantrum throwing brat, and her spawn is even worse." She sneered as she spoke, leaving no room for confusion about her feelings toward Morgana.

Jim raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow, and I wondered if he did that when he was invisible too and we just couldn't see. His voice was more serious than I'd ever heard it "You did mention that, but I fail to see the connection between the two things. The Labyrinth was just King Minos of Crete's attempt to keep his wife's bestial bastard child away from the public eye out of shame." I knew this much of the story, the King had prayed for a white bull as a sign of favor from the gods and promised to sacrifice it. When he hadn't Poseidon had been enraged and cursed his wife to fall in love with the bull and the minotaur had been their child.

Madame Xanadu shook her head "I thought the same, but during the attack I managed to rip the truth from the mind of one of Morgana's pawns. She actually didn't tell them the story, but the Court of Owls is less moronic than she assumed. and did their own research with the clues she dropped by mistake. She always did have a habit of looking down on others. What most people forget from the original story is that Minos is half god himself, a son of Zeus the entire scheme with the bull was a calculated gambit on his part."

We all looked at her in confusion and she smiled "Minos knew the nature of the gods. They would punish others in horrifying ways, but they also disliked bearing witness to the atrocities they committed. Minos was clever and knew if he arranged for the birth of the minotaur he could seal it away in the Labyrinth and the gods would ignore it completely, unwilling to gaze on such a hideous beast." Left unsaid was that the dude had knowingly let his wife get fucked by a bull, but that level of shittiness was pretty standard for ancient greece I guess.

It was Blood's turn to look confused "But what could he have possibly been using the Labyrinth for that would be of use
to Morgana all these millennia later? Did he leave some kind of divine artifact or potion in there?" I wasn't seeing where this was going either, and the others looked just as confused, but there had to be some benefit to calling the thing here or Morgana wouldn't have gone to all this trouble. Well, ok maybe she would have, I didn't know her and she seemed like kind of a bitch, but still Madame Xanadu was clearly hinting at something.

Her pretty face twisted in a mixture of a scowl and an expression of admiration "The center was never the point. The Labyrinth itself was. Morgana, and then subsequently the Court were able to track down an old journal from one of the assistants on the project. Deadalus was even more of a genius than most give him credit for. The Labyrinth harnessed the blood and life force of the sacrifices provided, and used the Labyrinth to purify and refine it. That energy was provided to the Labyrinth's Master allowing them to purge the mortality from their veins."

My eyes widened "Minos wanted to become a god like his father. He used the Minotaur to keep the gods from watching as he attempted to ascend. But even if the Labyrinth will work for Morgana without the blood of a god already in her veins were would she get that many sacrifices? The League would crush her before they let her kill enough people to become a god, and from what you said it doesn't seem like a quick process. Also what happened to Minos? He obviously failed, since according to legend he ended up a judge in the underworld."

The troubled look on the Madame's face did not inspire confidence as she bit her lip in concern "I don't know. About the sacrifices or if it will work for her. I'm just as in the dark as you are. The information related to this secret has been buried for thousands of years. The Court of Owls only managed to dig up what her plan was because Morgana was too arrogant to bother treating them as anything but furniture. Even if she found out they knew I doubt she would care. She doesn't view them as anything resembling a threat."

Jim cut in "As for Minos, he did not become a god and he does indeed reside in the realm of Hades. I've met him a time or two." We all looked at him and he shot back a teasing grin. "Dead people convention." I rolled my eyes at his nonsense but he continued "But jokes aside we can assume that Theseus somehow prevented the Labyrinth from serving it's purpose. Perhaps the Minotaur was not only the focal point of the maze but its anchor as well. Something to keep in mind if we fail to stop Morgana. Speaking of which, Nim, any news on her whereabouts?"

All eyes turned back to the shop keeper and I felt a bit like I was watching a tennis match. The flow of ideas and information between the older members of our group was impressive, they'd clearly known each other for a very long time, even Jim and Blood seemed to work seamlessly together, albeit with great reluctance. Madame Xanadu already had a map out and was laying it on the table. "Yes, I've been working on scrying her while the children cleaned, I don't have a specific location, but she's somewhere in this area." She circled a big spot on the map.

Jim was delighted "Wonderful, we can easily narrow it down from there, and with Carnwennan and you back at your peak we should have no problems subduing that wretched sister of yours." He shuddered "I never cared for her. And even less for your bastard of a nephew." He paused for a second before shooting her an apologetic smile "No offense meant of course darling." Their dynamic was pretty fascinating to watch honestly, it was like I was seeing a young man and his older lover interact in front of her ex husband or something.

I wisely chose to keep that insight to myself however but Nimue seemed neither offended or amused. She seemed worried. I saw her bite her lip again "I don't think it will be that easy this time. The Talon's are...strange. Their bodies are much more resilient than they should be and they heal much faster. I only managed to fell a few of them in the assault but they brought dozens. She'll be prepared for both myself and the dagger, and besides, Gotham is a place where magic like hers tends to flourish. My own abilities will be somewhat curtailed. I suspect that's part of why she chose it."

None of us seemed very pleased to hear that, but Jim and Blood seemed to know what she meant. I hadn't noticed any issues with magic in Gotham, but then I developed my powers there and we hadn't gotten to the point of using many actual spells in town yet in any case. Regardless I did have one thing to contribute, I winced as I looked down at the map, because I recognized the area. More specifically I had been there before.

I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "So I have good news and bad news. The good news is I think I know where Morgana is right now. The bad news is I think I know Morgana is right now." I pointed to a spot on the map inside the circled area, not too far off from the center. "I can't swear to it, but if I had to guess she's probably right there. I happen to know the Court has at least one property in that location." I sighed and stared down at the map miserably "After all, my ex girlfriend lived there."

Powers Estate July 19th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

The Powers Estate seemed...bigger and more imposing than I remembered it. I imagined part of that was the trauma I'd gone through here spooking me, but I flicking on my aura sight I could see the entire place was shrouded in a dark, noxious looking energy. Paying attention I noted some similarities to the normal miasma of Gotham that I had assumed was just normal city darkness. I understood what Madame Xanadu meant now about Gotham being a good environment for her sisters magic.

As I studied the protections from the trees further down the property I couldn't help but scowl, this stuff was way more advanced than the for dummies nonsense ward books I had been reading had prepared me for. Of course that wasn't an issue because I had my mentor and his friends here. In fact we had brought everyone on this little raid. Nightshade, Acheron, Warlock's Daughter, Kitrina (who seemed really nervous about Warlocks's Daughter being nearby but refused to stay at the tower alone) Blood, Madame Xanadu, Jim, Artemis, and Reggie had all come along on this jaunt into the heart of evil.

Madame Xanadu was fairly confident in she and Jim taking down her sister with home field advantage, and the rest of us would be dealing with the Talons. Of course to do that we needed to get in and the best way to do that was without being spotted so we could ambush them when their guard was down. All the older capes were bunched up staring at the wards, muttering to each other, but I stepped closer so I could listen in. Perfect memory meant I'd be able to remember all this analysis and try to digest it later.

Jim seemed pretty sanguine about the whole thing, but then he always did, and analyzed the ward with a professional eye "Looks like a recursive mobius paradox. Any energy that hits it gets reflected back a few seconds before it hit and cancels itself out. That's a nasty one. She must have been working for weeks to get that set up. The mobius structure is woven through about six timelines too, so altering the temporal frequency of the spell won't do the trick. If we create a sequenced temporal shift exactly the inverse of the ward structure it should just blink out of existence."

Blood shook his head, rolling his eyes at my mentor "Don't be insipid, that would take days to manage, even with all three of us. We might not finish before she calls the Labyrinth. No, the time for subtlety is past, we should just throw a temporal rupture spell into the spell form. The whole thing would collapse under its own splintered weight and we could boot the resulting timeshift into the manor to take out a few of the Talons by booting them to the cretaceous era or something." The sneer in his voice made me think that his disagreement was more about Jim than the idea.

Before Jim could speak Madame Xanadu cut in "Girls, girls, you're both pretty. You're also both right, James I'm afraid that soft touch will be too slow, and Jason bull rushing Morgana is a good way to get turned inside out, which you know very well. Luckily we have other options. However, if the two of you care to put away your measuring tape you'll note that this particular ward has six frequencies and there happen to be six experienced casters here. Granted Warlock's Daughter is a bit young, but she has home court advantage here in Gotham so she can fake it until she makes it."

They both looked a bit embarrassed and I really wished Jim was in his civilian form because I totally would have taken a picture. However, he had no face right now so that was out of the question. I just decided to watch with my aura sight on as she walked them through structuring the spell. I avoided looking directly at Jim, but from the excess energy Madame Xanadu and Blood weren't any better in terms of power, I had to carefully angle myself so I could only see the spells they were working on.

The aura of their magic...hurt to look at. Each spell was in a slightly different point in time, but somehow still all visible at once, their frequency in the fourth dimension untethered from what it should be. The longer I looked the more painful it became, as if just witnessing what was happening was eroding my fundamental understanding of the world. Despite the pain I couldn't tear my gaze away, my brain searing every painful second of the shifting confluence of temporal energies into my memory. I felt blood run down my nose, and finally a hand slapped me across the face, jarring me out
of my fugue.

Artemis was looking at me worriedly, with a bit of horror on her face, and I reached up to feel that the nosebleed I'd felt was more of a nose fountain, my face was a mask of bright red blood and my head pounded. I wiped it away with my cape, making a mental note to use my tracelessness skill later to eliminate the stuff. Lucky we hadn't put our masks on yet because my head might have exploded without anyone even noticing. Artemis opened her mouth, clearly to ask me what the actual fuck had just happened but Madame Xanadu cut in "It's done, go!"

Apparently the spells had been reaching their crescendo as I looked away and been fired all at once, neatly and seamlessly cancelling out the wards just like Jim had said. My mentor was a hell of an infiltrator. Knowing he could have managed that all on his own given a few hours or days was fucking humbling. I slipped my mask on, triggering my tracelessness skill to remove the blood like I'd planned so no one could use it to curse me or something. I stepped silently after the others, completely undetectable even in the forest.

Before coming Jim had me completely recreate everything I'd seen of the Powers Estate. Luckily my memory was flawless so there was no possible way I could forget any of the place, unfortunately Annabel hadn't exactly given me a tour so our map was incomplete. Despite that it was more than enough information to plan an entrance and exit. Jim had planned everything out to the last detail, I slipped under the side door we'd decided on as a shadow then returned to normal and unlocked it from the inside.

I was the first one inside because of the plan, which was pretty lucky, because the fucking Talon with the big ass bastard sword would have lopped anyone elses head off. Luckily between my senses as a ninja and my crazy reflexes I managed to duck under the swing. Despite being a supernaturally powerful warrior from god knows when Talon's were still subject to the laws of physics. When I avoided the swing the Talon overbalanced. As an undead warrior genius he caught himself almost immediately, but that hitch was enough time for me to exploit my reaction time and put one of my shuriken in his throat to keep him from raising the alarm.

The Talon raised his sword again, about ready to split me in half at the skull, but before he could manage a white cane faded elusively into view from an unexpected angle and tapped against his head. There was a muted blue flash and a chill rolled over me as the undead ninja was flash frozen. I turned to see Jim tip his hat to me and hold a gloved finger in front of his face. The others slipped in behind him and I sighed with relief.

I'd actually put quite a bit of thought into how to disable a Talon, but I'd been so worried about preventing him from letting them know we were coming I hadn't had time. Now that I was free I eased my tanto free of it's sheath, the durasteel palladium alloy glinting in the dim light. My ninja assassination knowledge included many methods of disposing of enemies, including ways to disconnect the spine. I figured even a Talon needed a spine to move. Severing it might not put them down permanently but it should drop them for at least a few minutes.

We inched forward, past the dining room and into the foyer. The ostentatious marble receiving room was unlit, but the moonlight glittered off the massive chandelier and cast shimmering reflected pin points of light across the dark carpeted double stair cases circling either side of the room. Our best case scenario here was to eliminate all the Talons one at a time and then converge and gang up on Morgana together. For some reason I'd been expecting them to be in the middle of a meeting or waiting in ambush, but it looked like we'd gotten lucky.

Of course, literally the split second I had that thought the chandelier blazed to life, illuminating the receiving room as groups of Talons flooded down the steps on either side. At the top of the stairs, looming over us like some immortal despot, was a tall woman with a formal hairstyle and a luxurious set of voluminous purple robes. Perhaps the strangest thing about her was the beaten gold mask covering her face, clearly designed to look like a womans visage but somehow reminding me more of one of those creepy porcelain dolls.

The woman's voice was high and condescending "Ah, Nimue. My associates were worried about your arrival, but you always have been the predictable one. I admit, I was irritated you managed to survive even the little white hilt, but then, I probably should have expected it. One could never count on Arthur to do a thing properly, so why would his weapon serve any better. I'd make a crude joke about his adequacy in bed, but I wouldn't want to defame my own son's conception." Her voice sounded...relaxed. Which seemed like it was a bad thing. She should be less smug in this situation.

Madame Xanadu sneered "Fifteen hundred years and you still haven't gotten tired of the sound of your own voice. It's mind boggling to me, especially since I tire of it after five minutes of any given reunion. As for Arthur's adequacy in bed, I wouldn't know. I was desirable enough not to have to resort to mind controlling my own brother into bed. The sad part was even after you bore his child, he still liked me better than you." We all turned to stare at the sorceress, clearly all thinking that this wasn't the time for family drama.

Jim cleared his throat bringing a white glowing glove to his mouth "Nim, darling, perhaps we might save the family feud for another, less pressing time. I realize you and your sister don't get along, but this may not be the ideal time in which to express your mutual distaste." I'd honestly never heard my mentor sound that diffident in front of anyone, and I wondered if he was actually scared she might go off on him if he got in the way. I was so going to mock him about this later.

Morgana laughed mockingly "Oh no need little ghost. My dear sister should unburden herself while she can. This particular reunion may not go as well for her as she expects. After all, she isn't the only one who can make friends. Oh gentlemen?" Her mocking tone rang out across the hall and the darkness converged into a shape in the middle of the floor, the shape of a man in a black suit wearing a top hat and a pair of black rounded spectacles with dark lenses. The man was holding a cane, his hair was dark and well coiffed and in many ways, he looked like a dark counterpart to Jim.

The obviously powerful magical shadow practitioner would have been bad enough, but that wasn't the part that really scared me, the sight that sent a chill running down my spine was the chalk white fist that smashed through the wall and the massive shambling form that followed it through. I knew who it was even as he lurched through the dust, even before the debris cleared and I could really see him. Everyone in Gotham knew his name, and feared it. But that didn't stop the extra stab of dread that shot through me as I heard his rumbling voice echo through the hall. "Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday."

Powers Estate July 19th 2010 8:30 PM EDT

This was...pretty bad. We were supposed to have an easy time here, Jim and Madame Xanadu gang up on Morgana, the rest of us take out that Talons. Granted there were a ton of them and they were immortal super soldiers, but the more experienced of us had been pretty confident so clearly they weren't worried about the undead army. The impression I got however, was that the main reason for that was Blood, who was on the same level of scary as Madame Xanadu and Jim. Now though, someone was going to have to take on these two and that left the shadowpact and the junior team to face the Talons alone.

I turned to Jim with not a small amount of panic in my eyes "Boss? That's Solomon motherfucking Grundy. That guy is a walking natural disaster that often takes the entire Justice League to put down. I don't know who the hell the other dude is but I'm getting major copycat vibes and if he's even half as strong as you this is going to go downhill fast." I had absolutely nothing that would take down either Grundy or anyone anywhere close to Jim's league. I could probably drop some Talons but that was my limit.

Jim adjusted his hat, which I'd only seen him do a few times when he was genuinely nervous and which did not bode well for our current situation. "His name is Richard Swift. He calls himself The Shade. His powers are distinct from my own though there is some small overlap. Despite that he is a formidable threat and a sometime rival of mine. We grew up around the same period and ran afoul of each other quite a few times, even joining forces for a few heists. He's exceptionally skilled at magic and very dangerous."

Blood stepped forward "I can handle the abomination, but I'll be unable to watch over the children. Nightshade, Acheron, we'll have to leave their safety to you." Normally I would have been offended at being called a child, but standing under the shadow of fucking Solomon Grundy certainly made me feel like one. Blood turned to Madame Xanadu "Nimue, I'm afraid your battle with your sister will be a one on one, be careful, knowing Morgana, if she's this smug about a battle she had something up her sleeve."

Madame Xanadu nodded, suddenly much less cocky but still perfectly calm "Of course, you two handle your own opponents. I'll deal with my sister." She muttered a few words and flickered her fingers at us, and I felt my body flood with strength. I saw spirals of glowing runes wind around Artemis, Kitrina and Reggie too, and it was clear Madame Xanadu was looking out for us. She turned her head to look at Jim and Blood "That should protect them from the worst of the aftershocks. Feel free to let loose as needed. These aren't easy opponents and there are no civilians in range. Gentlemen, do your worst, I know I certainly will."

And with that she snapped her fingers the world sort of...stretched. It snapped back like a rubber band and the Madame was standing in front of Morgana driving the point of her knife at the other woman's chest. Unfortunately, it didn't make contact because Morgana withdrew a white shield with a red dragon on it that straight up breathed fire at her sister. Madame Xanadu flicker fingers and the same stretching effect happened, leaving her at the entrance to one of the dining rooms. Morgana cast her own blink spell and vanished in a flash of light, pursuing her sister.

As this was happening I heard Blood bellow at the top of his lungs "Gone, gone, the form of man, arise The Demon, Etrigan!" And when I turned to look, and orange scaled monstrosity was crouched at our side. The red eyed monster had such an oppressive presence even the Talons wouldn't come close, and when he grinned at me I felt a chill go down my spine "Little thief all full of dread, your boogeyman will soon be dead. Fear not the beast with skin of white, all foes fall before Etrigan's might." With a bend of his powerful legs The Demon hurled himself at Grundy pulling a flaming sword from nowhere.

Jim clapped me on the shoulder "Don't worry too much lad, we have the big fish handled. Acheron and Nightshade are more than up to keeping you lot intact against a jumped up zombie army." His words were light and easy but his tone spoke of tension and even fear. A spear of shadow leapt up from the ground and scythed toward my throat so fast even my reflexes didn't notice until it was about to land. Faster than a human being could even move Jim spun his cane between his fingers and smashed the shining metal head of the white stick into the shadows, shattering it like dark glass.

My mentor stepped in front of us, and the weight of the grave fell on the room. Every single being backed off to the side, Talons and Shadowpact alike, and even we retreated in the face of Jim's otherworldly aura of death. His voice came out like permafrost as his monocle glinted in the light, clearly fixed on the dark spectacled man in the dapper hat. "Richard, dear boy did you just try to murder my disciple? Because I must say old been that's hardly sporting. The poor lad is only a child. He's hardly at your level of skill."

Anyone who knew Jim knew that when he started talking extra British like that it was time to duck and cover, but The Shade just waved his concerns away "Oh pish posh, you were standing right there. I was just trying to get your attention old friend. I have better manners than to take pot shots at your kiddies. But since you're taking this seriously now I shan't be holding back. Come James, let's you and I revisit old times." The Shade rapped his black cane on the ground in a manner highly reminiscent of Jim himself and conjured forth his own power.

The wave of shadows that rose up behind the man like a black tidal wave was deeply unsettling. The shadows clumped up into grasping limbs and tentacles and something about the darkness looked almost hungry. The black wave rolled forward, looking like it would consume Jim and us and the entire damn house. Jim rapped his cane exactly as The Shade had and that same eerie graveyard bell that had rung out during his battle with Zatara began to toll. The shadows lengthened again like the had last time, but this time they stretched away from Jim creating a sort of uncrossable barrier against the dark.

Jim's normally softly glowing ethereal white suit was shining with a cold and unearthly light. Normal light was warm and comforting like the sun, reminding you of summer and the desert. But this light was harsh and washed out. It was the light at the end of the tunnel, the final gaze of fading sight a man gets before he died. This was the light of the great beyond, and it drove back even that hungry unnatural darkness. The tide of black that had been held back began to recede and as it did Jim walked forward, driving it back a lone shining beacon of brightness in a sea of creeping dark, looking untouchable in his bright white suit.

He paused as he walked forward not looking back but raising his voice to make it clear he was speaking to us"Random, Neith, Swap. This battle is going to be your first real test in combat. I'll keep The Shade busy but this will be a difficult fight for me. Given the numbers of Talons Acheron and Nightshade won't be able to ensure your safety. Even with Nimue's spells boosting your power and defense you could very well lose your lives here. You are without a doubt some of the most promising your thieves I've ever come across, but part of being a thief is being able to survive any situation. Adaptation is key."

He took a deep breath (which I wasn't sure was even necessary for him) "I'm proud of all three of you, and look forward to teaching you many more lessons in the years to come, so don't die here. Do what you need to do to dispatch your opponents. These..things are nothing more than the enslaved corpses of the honorable dead. Lay them to rest." I knew that he was worried we might hesitate to kill the Talons. Artemis in particular desperately didn't want to become her dad. With that last bit of advice he resumed his slow terrifying walking into the center of the cloud of shadows.

As he approached The Shade the dark flooded out again closing in from either side to create cylinder that began to spin like the world's darkest goth-est funnel cloud. With our mentor and the two heavy hitters were gone. I turned to see if the Talons were closing in and noticed a fucking cleaver already coming at my head. However I had the boost from Madame Xanadu's magic, and combined with my reflexes they might as well have been attacking underwater. I reached into my coat and drew the Holiday gun, and put two bullets into the Talons head.

It had been almost reflex to double tap, the exact method of killing my Uncle had used, but whether it was the gun being some kind of cursed death weapon after all the dark magic and death that seeped into it in the city, or having their brains blown out just made them unable to function for a bit, the Talon dropped immediately. I still had fourteen shots (the gun held fifteen and one in the chamber) and I advantage of my speed and reflexes to pop seven more of the bastards Holiday style before stowing the empty gun back in my coat. The timing worked out because I had to hop back to dodge the kusarigama that was flickering toward my throat.

After ducking under the chain scythe I activated water walking and gracefully flipped up onto the chain, running down the thing in an impossible manner that seemed to stun even the undead killing machines. I leapt forward with my tanto aimed at the chain Talon's spine but a spear wielding Talon came out of nowhere and deflected the blow. I did a back hand spring, which with super strength, perfect muscles and flawless reflexes was so easy it bordered on obscene and retreated back out of range glancing around to check on the others.

Reggie was using his translocation to swap members of the team and Talons to give our side a break or put their side in the way of attacks, while Artemis was sniping the bastards in the heads from near the wall, clearly having taken Jim's words to heart. Kitrina and Warlock's Daughter were fighting back to back With the Shadowpact girl using dark magic to keep the Talons off her while my cousin emptied a sawed off twelve gauge into their heads. They didn't explode like normal people's heads would, but they certainly went down.

Nightshade and Acheron were playing crowd control with their magic, keeping any of us from getting bogged down by the waves of unkillable assholes. The Talon's I put down with the gun weren't getting back up, so black magic death weapon was looking likely, but I still had to take care of the rest of them.

I made a mental note to try decapitation as opposed to severing the spine. Having their heads cut off would probably at least slow them down. A wave of throwing knives flashed toward me but with my speed and reflexes deflecting them was child's play. I grinned to myself beneath my mask, if they wanted my attention that badly I'd have to give it to them.

Let's get ready to ruuuumble! The final fight of the arc is upon us! We have some serious heavyweights in this one, so it should be a fun battle. This chapter also marks the 100k word mark Meanwhile in the advance chapters Morgan runs into a very scary person and they make him an offer he really wants to refuse pat-reon has the five advance chapters of two thousand words each for a total of ten thousand words at that site /malcolmtent. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.