Sell you a Bridge chapter 48

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 and 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."