Infernal Investigations Volume 2 - Chapter 100 Hellfire and Holy Water III

Limping back to the street and site of the ambush, I kept a wary eye about. The sound of fighting had died away by now, but that didn’t an any danger was past.

The chronomancer likely still had the devil frozen in ti. That didn’t an frozen forever, and eventually it would break free. If my relatives and Intelligence didn’t kill it first.

And the Priestkiller, who was hopefully still trying to engage the Xangs and the Intelligence Chronomancer. Better that than chasing down where Mourner Kelson was.

First , make sure everything was safe. The Maws were trying to hide; the hellfire beasts were dissipated, and the summoned devil was probably still frozen. That left the Priestkiller and any leftover Black Fla as potential threats to stumble across as I made my way to the street.

Second thing. I was a ss. There’d been an intact window I passed by. It reflected enough of my visage that I knew small children would be fleeing from for reasons besides being an Infernal. I shouldn’t be able to walk, or even talk.

My earlier words to the Queen of Masks had probably been inside my head, since speaking was probably beyond at this point. Also, is the current pain making stumble?

It was only going to get worse. The idea that my nerves had grown back all the way was dispelled by the fact that I was still missing the flesh that went with most of them. From the outside, it didn’t look too bad. Sure, my flesh sagged where holy water dissolved my jawbones, and there were multiple holes underneath my chin. And chunks missing from my lips.

Still not as bad as inside my mouth, where it looked like I’d tried drinking an entire bottle of acid. I had, in a way.

There was going to be a lot of bio-sculpting in my near-future. Multiple nights’ worth. All-liquid diet. And no biting into people without risking a tooth tearing out. Or I could leave reforming teeth for later, since I’d need to work on the gums first, anyway.

The potion I drank earlier worked slowly. So I’d need to make it to relative safety before my reforming nerve endings left completely debilitated.

Screams echoed across the sky, overlapping each other, growing in volu.

Sothing moved across the sky, black hellfire around it winking out of existence. The Priestkiller, giving up the fight entirely.

I morized the way they were flying before they vanished behind a nearby house. I stared at its face, scorch marks extending from every window outward, a molten gash torn through its wall.

What were the odds they were heading directly back to their nearest safe house? I morized where I was, the point between two windows he’d disappeared behind, and resolved to co back with a map. Draw an exact line and see what it crosses inside the city. On the top of my head, there was the Quarter, and that could get you into the underground. Still, it would be a good general direction to start with.

The tread of hooves nearby interrupted . I turned around, gun raised as a three-headed figure moved towards .

“How auspicious,” the Queen of Masks said, voice echoing but not in the sa discordant lodies as before. “To find you here, alone in an alleyway, Harrow. Fitting for you.”

My eyes narrowed. Not the devil. I made a pantomi of checking the cylinder of my revolver.

“Really?” it sneered. “You think you can challenge , you- “

My hand fished a bottle from inside my coat.

The lesser healing potion smashed into the creature, and it hissed before its flesh turned liquid, shifting and writhing.

I considered the shrieking creature. Okay, Intelligence’s involvent and his disappearance afterward made it clear what this was. Honestly, I was more irritated that there was enough slack on Hawkin’s collar for him to even try this.

I dropped the revolver. I hadn’t wanted to wield diabolism tonight. Not when so many others were tossing it around.

But to handle another thorn in my side? I suppose a bit more rot was called for.

“You know,” a familiar voice called out from above . “As much as it pains to say this, I do actually have to interfere if you try killing him, Malvia.”

Rolling my eyes, I stared up at where Tagashin floated in the sky. One of the moons floated behind her, the pink suit gone and replaced by flowing robes. The kitsune stared down at both of us disapprovingly.

“I see soone hasn’t dropped all her bad habits,” Tagashin said as she dropped to the ground next to , looking at the wreckage of my lower face critically. “Malvia, was lting your nerves off part of the plan? Because you probably shouldn’t be capable of moving.”

The most frustrating part of this was that I couldn’t even respond because of said lted face.

“Curse you, most foul furred fox!” the reforming blob known as Hawkins yelled out of a half-ford mouth. “The thing committed assault on ! End it!”

“Oh, do keep talking, Hawkins,” Tagashin said as she dropped between the two of us. “I’m sure everyone is already so happy that your grudge against Harrow is distracting both of us from supporting Major Aelderson. He needs help to handle that giant devil; just go around the corner and you should spot it. Don’t let it eat you, no one wants to cut you out of a monster’s stomach again.”

The Hawkins-blob let out many curses and protests about how it had that hydra handled while Tagashin and I ignored him.

“What did you even drink to cause this?” Tagashin said, reaching out and grabbing my chin.

That did hurt, as skin and flesh pressed together, no bone to hold any shape as they hit each other.

“Seriously, if you drank acid and spat it on soone, I will slap you.”

That unfortunately wasn’t very far from what had happened.

The Hawkins blob had stopped lting, developing tendrils of flesh dragging his mass up the side of the ruined building, latching onto hellfire-scorched walls and pulling up.

Halfway up he encountered one of the hidden maws. It decided to try to have a al before its inevitable demise, and both I and Tagashin ignored the sound of him and it fighting each other.

“I can heal this,” she groused. “I’m very tempted not to, after what I found out earlier. Did you really try negotiating a deal with the Watch to get yourself put in the coffin?”

I raised an eyebrow, unable to verbalize a question about how she knew that.

“No, I am not watching you constantly, although sotis I think you should be,” she said. “You were a pup let out of the den too early. Don’t look at like that. If anything, that’s an indictnt of others, not yourself.”

I stared blankly at her, hoping she would hurry with this healing. Please let her not think that keeping things this way would be a good way to avoid my rebutting any of this.

“Hold still. This will hurt.”

She gripped my face firmly, and it started as just a general sense of warmth flowing into what was left of my face. It wasn’t so bad.

Until the warmth beca an itch, then a scratch, then the feeling of a thousand needles pushing in and out as I writhed in her grip while flesh, tooth, and bone pushed out. Her grip held steady even as I tried to scream out of a suddenly ragged throat until she let go.

I collapsed onto the ground, gasping through a throat that burned with each breath. Above , Tagashin swayed unsteadily, her breathing unsteady for a few monts as the pain inside my head went from all-consuming to a step below that.

“Thank you, Tagashin,” I managed to get out, teeth gritted as my entire mouth felt like it had been set on fire.

“You should be,” Tagashin said, exasperated. “That is the last ti I’m even trying to do that for you; it’s going to take weeks to get that kind of power to use for free. Healing like that will demand a deal next ti, and I can’t give you a fair bargain. What did you drink?”

“Holy water,” I admitted.

I did not know the words that escaped Tagashin’s lips after I said that as she turned around, fists balled, but the general impression I received was that they weren’t very favourable towards .

“I wasn’t planning on doing it,” I said as the cursing began to taper off. “It just occurred naturally as part of the fight.”

“It naturally occurred to you to drink holy water?” Tagashin said, her anger not cooling down at all. “Do you also regularly sip poison?”

“Yes,” I said flatly, and she seed surprised and taken aback by the blunt admission. “Tolerance building, as well as so storage for when I’ve biosculpted my body right. And I didn’t drink the holy water. I just temporarily stored it elsewhere, where the Queen of Masks wouldn’t anticipate an attack.”

“Via spitting holy water on her,” Tagashin said, although the anger was draining out. “Still incredibly stupid and reckless.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I’d still do it again if it ant defeating her. Her loose as well as the Priestkiller would have wrecked the plan.”

“Right, the ‘plan’ you made,” Tagashin said, glancing up at where Hawkins had won his struggle with the diabolic maw and continued on his way. “Both Voltars are here, Malvia. Both of them want a full report. Soon.”

I sighed, letting the pain of that breath distract from the sensation of my stomach knotting. Right. This had the possibility of being even more dangerous than fencing with the Queen of Masks or the Priestkiller.

“Is there anyone here higher up in their hierarchy than Samuel Voltar?” I asked her.

“That we’re supposed to know about, or I’m allowed to talk about? No.”

I glared at her, although I couldn’t be too mad at her over that convoluted way of not answering the question. Intelligence’s leash on her was far stronger than their leash on . So, potentially soone with higher standing than Samuel Voltar. I already felt that knot in my stomach tighten just wondering if this had overstepped what he’d told last night before leaving my ho. I suspected the current approach to this potential Hellgate wasn’t his own, and if the person responsible for that approach was nearby and angered by the steps I’d taken…

Well, it might be worth checking with Captain Malstein if we could reopen discussion on staying in the Coffin. I snorted. Like being at Colonel Colgrave’s rcy again would be any better than what Intelligence could inflict.

It could be, but I’d figure a way out of that besides a cell.

Next to , Tagashin sighed.

“You’re making be the responsible one, Malvia,” she said. “I hate being the responsible one. It hurts to think that way, and if any of my sisters or brothers saw right now, they’d think I was ill. Or brain-damaged.”

“Having known you for a decent length of ti, I think that last assessnt might be true,” I told her soberly, getting a snort and a half-hearted punch against my arm.

“Alright, I’m going to go needle Hawkins until I feel like myself again,” Tagashin told . “Works wonders. He’s almost as predictable as you are.”

Before I could even begin a retort to that, Tagashin vanished, leaving a drifting pink-colored outline of so kind of dust.

I held my breath, anticipating the dust would make sneeze or hiccup or sothing she would find amusing, and started to move towards the street.

It proved difficult once I’d gone past where I’d observed the diabolic maws. I had a shattered remnant of my saber, but it was entirely too short to try prodding parts of the ground for them, and using diabolism in this already devil magic soaked part of the city was not a wise idea. So I went carefully, dagger clutched in my tail, careful probing ahead as I walked close to the main street.

I had a way to go, darting across rooftops and then being blown off them, had taken far from the faked route of Mourner Kelson.

I paused. I could hear sounds up ahead, at being torn away as sothing hungrily gorged itself on flesh. Joy. I crept forward, revolver at the ready.

I rounded a corner, then paused, contemplating the creature in front of .

The thing resembled so combination of praying mantis and lizard. Scales stretched over chitin, the joining between the two bloody and awkward, the thing’s legs digging hard into the street as it ripped flesh off a bloody corpse, mandibles tearing strips off the body of so unfortunate Black Fla mber. Easily six feet tall and easily that much and a half again long, focusing completely on its al, currently stripping at from the bone into its gullet.

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This much diabolism being thrown around would an things like this. There had been a watch cordon Malstein was going to establish around the ambush area, to keep things like this inside.

I could only hope the Black Fla hadn’t torn through them while escaping. I loaded my revolver as the thing continued chewing on the body, tearing flesh off the thigh bone. No saber, low on alchemical munitions, and bullets would take a while to end this thing. Throwing more diabolism around would probably end it. And likely make sothing even worse spawn instead.

I pulled the hamr back with a snap as the cylinder spun, and the thing’s head swiveled to face , a strip of flesh gripped in its mandibles.

Sothing descended from the night sky: a young man with non-Anglean features and flowing black hair flying downward towards the diabolic creature, robes fluttering around him. I shifted my aim from the creature’s head, firing. My bullet blew a hole in the thing’s leg and kept its attention on while the descending figure swung his sword.

The sword sliced through the flesh of the neck with far more ease than it should; the creature let out one pained squeal before collapsing to the ground in a heap of limbs, while the Xang lightly touched down, sword already sheathed, eyes closed.

I slowly clapped.

The Xang opened his eyes, rolling them as he looked at . “Of course you’ve figured out how to make clapping sound sarcastic by now.”

Over a decade without keeping up with most of my relatives should have made it hard to guess who this one was. Luckily for , his resemblance to his father made it easy. All of Uncle Liu’s kids bore far more resemblance to him than they did to Aunt Jing.

“Cousin Zhi,” I responded. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

The last ti would have been a year after faking my own death. Forced to admit I couldn’t even keep my mother healthy and well by myself, I’d taken her to the Xang compound and had a tense eting, better described as a stand-off, with my old family to get her into St. Lanians. Family connections got the access that pilfered Black Fla money could not buy.

To say the impression any of them would have gotten back then would be negative was…minor.

“Cousin Lily,” he said, inclining his head as he moved out of the way of the swiftly lting diabolism-spawn. “Still dragging into trouble, I see.”

I took a few steps back as well as lting flesh spread over the ground. It wouldn’t do to have any of that touch either.

“I go by Malvia these days,” I told him cautiously. We’d been closer than I had with any of the other Xangs, but that had been over a decade ago. I can’t imagine his opinion of had improved in the ti since then. “And I rember you being the instigator for most of the incidents you could be describing, cousin. I’m not the one who suggested we use Great-aunt Ying’s axe to attack the ghost of the eastern house. Did Diwei ever forgive you for almost chopping her leg off?”

“After many years she deigned to speak to again on it,” he replied. “I will not repeat what she said; it was very rude about both of us, Li-Maliva. You look very different from how I rember you being back then.”

“Over a decade does that, cousin,” I answered, getting an amused snort from him in response.

“Yes, it makes one older, and also sprout fins, dye half their hair, cover them in scales and change the shape of their tail to make them resemble a fish.”

“Shark,” I replied instinctively. “Shark, not a fish.”

“Cousin, we get actual fish at the family compound, not those abominations against nature that get pulled out of the Nover. You look like a fish.”

Knowing how pressed we were for ti, I decided against taking the requisite amount of ti to demonstrate that I was most certainly not a fish.

“I take from you being here that the main street itself is relatively safe?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said. “In that the Infernals have fled, so has the diabolist; the army chronomancer slayed the greater devil, and others handled most of the aftermath effects of diabolic magic. The noble house of Xang cannot guarantee you won’t say, trip on an errant stone and break your neck.”

“One placed by Diwei, no doubt,” I said, and his lips quirked.

“I couldn’t say. I see you collected trophies?”

He gestured towards the two masks I’d recovered from the Queen of Masks, still covered in ichor from their forr wearer.

“You could say that,” I replied. “Their owner isn’t dead. I’m guessing your group hasn’t had any success.”

“No, and they are very upset,” Zhi told . “The hunt was unsuccessful; an outsider involved himself, and then the outsider claid the larger devil all by himself.”

“He froze it in ti, and from what little I saw, it seed a lesser beast to be claid,” I replied. “All muscle and maw, no brain or particular abilities displayed outside of causing its surroundings to reflect its sin?”

No guesses as to what that was. That thing was almost entirely maw, clearly to feed a gluttonous appetite. Also, while it was possible it had more intellect or abilities than what I’d ascribed to it, but frozen in place none of that mattered.

“It is true,” Zhi said. “That it would not be a challenge to any of our older relatives.”

It took actual effort to restrain a frustrated sigh. “They intended to have the younger ones fight it, didn’t they?”

“Under supervision,” Zhi said reproachfully. “They said it would be a good learning experience that they would be unlikely to get under better conditions.”

That was halfway reasonable, I admitted, although even with everything within a mile of this street evacuated, far too dangerous. One little misjudgnt and you would have a powerful devil loose on the crowded streets, or rampaging through hos while families slept.

It still irritated that they’d seen that as a pri hunting ground first. What their minds prioritized instead of what was truly important.

“Where is everyone gathered?” I asked him as we continued down the alley, carefully probing with a sword and a pole I’d gathered from the ground for any hidden maws. My ears could hear other sounds now, but not anything dangerous.

Well, if you didn’t count Captains Malstein and Walston having an extrely heated conversation about jurisdiction as dangerous. Damnations, I’m pretty sure I was about to lose my Watch support.

“Where indeed, Cousin,” Zhi said, the tip of his sword stabbing the ground and eliciting an annoyed snarl as the ground split. We gave it a wide berth, my tail jabbing like a dagger against the maw’s tongue. “No one is particularly eager to stand near each other at the mont, if they don’t already know each other. The group that I believe you were working for has claid where the carriage ended up as their own territory, while the family is keeping a respectful distance. More guardians of this city have arrived, but not associated with the ones that chose to aid you in your righteous goals.”

My lips quirked. “You can call them the watch, Zhi. Or is the forced, flowery language a new affectation, deliberate punishnt on your accursed Infernal relative, or so kind of punishnt for sothing else you did?”

“Never the second, and that is all I dare answer while my revered and honored ancestors might be lurking behind any windowsill to hear ,” he replied.

“I’ll take that as a positive,” I said. “Tell , did they send you because you are the one mber of the family they didn’t think would try to stab ?”

Zhi’s expression beca briefly horrified. “What? I an, I was sent because I don’t think the worst of you, but Lily, no one would do that.”

I gave him a flat look, then decided he probably wasn’t aware of Diwei’s admitting to wanting my head mounted on a wall, and decided that breaking that illusion wouldn’t be a productive use of anyone’s ti.

“Paranoia,” I said in response. “Maybe a bit too much. My apologies.”

He accepted, eager to get off the subject, and we finally reached the main street.

Most of the hos were damaged, walls scorched with fire, marked in black, orange, and stranger colors. So had burnt down completely, leaving skeletal husks behind. So fires still burnt, groups of Watch moving in to form bucket chains or for mages to conjure water. They were the most frantic people moving about. No one wanted fire in the city, especially hellfire. Chunks of multiple houses were scattered all over the street along with the scorch marks of the hellfire beasts.

There was blood on the street, but little in the way of bodies still here. Those were being gathered by the Watch, Watch officers under sheets, Black Fla in a heap. I couldn’t bring myself to care about that latter detail as another group of Watch tossed so poor sap who had fallen for my brother’s lies onto the pile, her eyes gouged out and her throat a bloody ruin.

The Watch was everywhere, far more than Malstein had brought. More than even Walston’s, as these must be units that responded locally. No friendly looks from them. Not many of those from Malstein’s group either. And quite a few sheets covering bodies.

Far down, I could see a few familiar faces among a group in plain clothes near an alley, with a wrecked carriage nearby. I breathed slowly, not letting my heart race. Where Mourner Kelson had ended up. And where Imperial Intelligence had set up.

Closer, all the Xangs, maybe twenty in total, most of them loosely gathered around Diwei, Jing, Fang, and Liu, who were deep in discussion with each other.

Of the giant summoned devil? No sign at all, which I found more disturbing than if it had still been frozen in place here.

I could still hear Malstein and Walston arguing, joined by a couple of others who must have been managing the local conversation. The conversation had turned from arguing about jurisdiction, this being Walston’s case, to sothing even more venomous regarding my involvent. Specifically why Malstein hadn’t checked if I was operating with any actual authority, and when he realized I wasn’t throwing in the deepest cell in the coffin.

Would it be possible to make the earth elental blooded Watch captain collapse into a pile of rocks by informing her I’d offered Malstein that and he’d refused? No, no, Malvia, don’t risk the relatively friendlier Watch Captain’s career in an effort to make another one break down.

“Cousin?” Zhi asked, having noticed my focus on the two.

I tapped my ears. “Magic is a wonderful tool. For example, keeping apprised of the fact that I might be spending the rest of tonight in a cell.”

“A first?” he asked .

My smile faltered a little. “Huh. I thought Diwei would have kept everyone appraised of that part of what’s going on. Hardly the first ti, Zhi.”

His eyes widened, and his mouth opened, but he restrained himself from asking questions, which I appreciated. He’d probably get his father’s version of my ti after they’d exiled instead of my own, but I wouldn’t press on that. I had enough to worry about before trying to chase after dead roots about to get poisoned a second ti.

I concentrated, but could hear nothing at all from further down the street where the Intelligence agents were. Of course. They were aware of my capabilities and wouldn’t gather without so way to nullify them.

“I should talk to your parents and our esteed aunts and uncles,” I told Zhi casually. “I wouldn’t want Diwei thinking she’s not the center of existence.”

“No,” Zhi said cautiously, and I realized I’d probably mis-stepped sowhere with that statent. “Follow . They’re in the middle.”

The Xang clump was very loose outside the group of elders in the middle, but they drew together as I got closer, only loosening up when Zhi asked them to.

The glances I received were much frostier once they recognized as I moved towards the interior, although no one moved to block . And, I realized with a sinking feeling, this was without any of them knowing about what had happened to ever since they’d exiled to the Quarter.

It shouldn’t hurt. I’d already written being part of this off a long ti ago, but so part of it still did.

I reached the four elder Xangs talking, and all of them imdiately looked at the trophies currently hanging from my belt.

“Are those masks a sign that you have killed the diabolic doppelgänger you told us about?” Uncle Liu ventured.

Aunt Diwei scoffed slightly. I was certain she had opinions on the veracity of what I’d said regarding the Queen of Masks. Quite honestly, if the Queen didn’t end up dead by the end of this and people suspected she was just biosculpted? I knew where those rumours would have started.

“Possibly,” I told them. “The devil dissolved, but it is a slippery one. And its death has little in relation to most other devils I’ve seen die. Theatrics and gore, but very little radiation of diabolic energies. Alive but undeniably weakened is my best guess. Give so ti to examine the masks, and I’ll get you a more precise answer. Assuming I have access to my usual contacts after tonight.”

“So you fail to claim the head of the lesser of the two evils you set us against,” Diwei said harshly. “Your failure, child.”

“So it is,” I replied. “Next ti it won’t escape . If you doubt my skills, maybe splitting our focus to have so of you aid might be required.”

Bringing up her own failure to handle the Priestkiller would do nothing but prick her, and every other Xang here. I needed so of them at least cordial to for a while longer.

“Not a terrible idea,” Aunt Jing said. “We have the asure of this ‘Priestkiller’, so so of us helping handle the end of this lesser target, then we all focus on this larger one.”

“If a next ti occurs,” I said, looking down the street at where Intelligence officers stood. “There’s a good chance that I’m about to suffer the consequences of arranging this in the first place.”

Hawkins and Tagashin were there now, Hawkins back in the sa disguise he’d used that night we t in the warehouse, a slim, freckled, red-haired Keltsman in a silver-threaded suit and top hat. Had he brought a spare suit into a combat situation?

I was increasingly sure that I was the most sane and level-headed Intelligence operative I’d t so far. If we discounted both Voltars. And Dr. Dawes. And most of the ones I knew on sight who didn’t seem that insane. Honestly, probably everyone but Tagashin and Hawkins.

None of the Xangs seed willing to say anything about that impending doom, so I continued the conversation onto safer ground.

“The Priestkiller seed inexperienced,” I said, looking to them for confirmation.

Diwei nodded reluctantly. “No form, no grace. Completely incompetent.”

“He knew very little of the way of fighting,” Liu added. “Relying on brute force instead of any actual technique.”

“Technique is one thing; our Priestkiller shows very little sign of ever having their life risked,” I stated. “I fired bullets made of a celestial servant’s flesh at them. Repeatedly. When it began failing, they beca hesitant, shying away from getting close and unsure of making an attack. As if they had never experienced being in any aningful danger before.”

Diwei scoffed. “A diabolist unused to danger?”

“Everyone starts sowhere,” I said. “More seriously, an inexperienced youth led into sothing dangerous by a charismatic older figure, talked into taking a deal with an involved devil, or fully embracing natural powers would fit. And fits with so of the other details. The Priestkiller seems actively attempting to prevent collateral damage.”

“Have so experience about youths being tricked into evil, child,” Diwei asked , and I spared her a glance.

“Certainly,” I said. “Although the Black Fla was never this reckless previously, didn’t trick into deals, and I was already a criminal before they recruited so there was far less falling for to do as opposed to the probable priest the Priestkiller is.”

Diwei seed temporarily unable to work out a response to that, while Aunt Fang cleared her throat.

“Trying to avoid any collateral damage,” she said, as we stood in the middle of the ruined and profaned street.

“Mostly the Black Fla ddi this,” I replied, while part of a building fell in on itself, sothing inside shrieking unholy damnation upon us all. Xangs readied weapons, but Walston’s Watch officers were already moving to handle it. “Or the hellfire beasts. They caused so of this, sure, but that’s because they were trying to restrain abilities far in excess of what I predicted.”

“Sothing you failed to pick up on?” Aunt Jing said, sounding curious instead of scolding.

“I’ve never had the chance to see them in action before, only to clean up after their sses,” I said. “Initial read at the ti was reckless, with diabolism causing it to leak everywhere. Soone restraining their abilities but still leaking enough diabolism when using it to animate statues into murderous creations and turn an entire lake into bubbling corrupted muck as a side effect suggested a level of both raw power and lack of training I didn’t consider because of how ludicrous it was. If they weren’t trying to restrain themselves at all, this would be casually easy. The only saving grace is the lack of training, aning they’re using basic techniques besides the ritual to make the priests sacrifices to the Hellgate’s opening.”

Silence followed those words, everyone around chewing on those facts until soone finally spoke up.

“Well, that’s a depressing note,” a familiar voice said as Tagashin put her arm around my shoulder. “You know, I love family reunions, but I do need to borrow Malvs for a mont. Our mutual boss wants her to explain this whole ss.”

Four sets of weapons cleared sheaths imdiately, many more right after, as everyone suddenly realized there was another Infernal in the middle of their formation in a hot pink suit. Diwei’s blade was barely over an inch away from Tagashin’s throat.

“Uh-uh,” Tagashin said, shaking her finger at Diwei. “Co now, don’t be hostile. You don’t want to join the circus that badly. You’ll end up making Malvia act as the voice of restraint and maturity between all of us again. A very horrifying possibility.”

“Barnes,” I said wearily. “Don’t provoke her. Please.”

“See? This is entirely unnatural. The world itself should be recoiling in protest over her being the reasonable and sane one in this equation.”

The tension wasn’t leaking out of the other Xangs. They knew better than to take the jokes and disarming nature of Tagashin at face value. They knew what kitsune were.

Which made the idea of breaking oaths made to her, even as a test, stupider every ti I heard it. Honestly, when I ended up in front of my grandfather, before anything else, I was going to taphorically throttle him over telling my aunts to try that.

“If you want the world to stop being unnatural, let’s get a move on then,” I told her, moving away from the Xangs. “Everyone else, thank you for your help, and good night. If anyone is willing to help any further and I am able to continue this, we can talk further tomorrow.”

Ti to go face the music with the Voltars and get a straight answer on if any part of tonight had been a success.