Sell you a Bridge chapter 47

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."