Sell you a Bridge chapter 135

Arkham Asylum December 14th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  had to admit. I was annoyed. I had expected searching Arkham slowly to  be a bit of a grind sure, but I expected it to take a few hours even at  my current speed. However, I had neglected an important fact. The person  who designed Arkham BELONGED in Arkham. The entire place was a never  ending loop of back tracking corridors, dead ends, and hallways that I  was pretty sure actually extended past the edge of the building somehow.

In  short, it was a literal madhouse, and trying to explore the whole thing  in slow motion with my slow ass shadow form speed was driving me up the  wall. I was halfway tempted to just say fuck it and try to infiltrate  the patient population just so I wouldn't have to go through any more of  this. The worst part was since everyone was in the middle of  investigating I couldn't even chat with my friends via sending stone  since I might distract them at a crucial moment.

However,  finally, after literally more than a full day of exploration I had  FINALLY finished exploring the various hallways in this place. Not on  that I had even found about a half dozen secret passages (again, no  wonder these idiots have so many break outs) and a few hiding spots  where people had stashed drugs or pills. Unfortunately, this minor  victory was only the prelude to even more pain for me. Now that the  halls were done I was going to have to explore the rooms.

I  heaved a long sigh, or at least the mental equivalent since I didn't  have a body, and got back to work. Because of my incredibly slow pace,  I'd only burned about a hundred points, bringing me down to twenty  thousand five hundred from the twenty thousand six hundred I'd jumped to  after today's points income. A hundred points for eight hours of  constant movements as a shadow wasn't bad especially since I'd run into a  few issues and had to splurge on speed a bit.

I started  making my way into rooms next. One at a time, but as I was getting  started going down the first hallway close to me I noticed something  odd. A new hallway. With my perfect recall I was positive I had  memorized the entire layout of this place, and I absolutely did not  remember there being a hallway in the spot I was currently looking at  one. I groaned internally, because the last thing I needed when casing a  location was for it to spontaneously change shape or get bigger, but  regardless I had to at least check it out.

Since I was in  shadow form I should be safe enough, but I decided to go at the same  slow pace as I had been, just to make sure I could keep an eye out. The  appearance of a new hallway was setting off a ton of warning bells in my  head, but I might just be being paranoid. Even if I wasn't though, I  was a literal devil, I was the kind of thing they made horror movies  about, and I absolutely was not going to creep around like a scared  child up past his bedtime just because I was in a creepy nut house.

Without  another thought about it I my way down the new corridor, keeping my  senses peeled for exactly what was down there. After traveling a while  however, I came to the end of the hall, and in the wall there I found an  archway. The thing was weird looking, made of rough stone blocks that  reminded me of the ones you would use in a castle. I stayed still for a  minute or two, feeling out the environment to made sure the thing wasn't  a trap before heading through.

On the other side of the  archway was a small landing made of the same stone, and spiraling down  from that was a series of steps that spiraled down into a dark abyss.  Interspersed along the spiraling stair were pools of light cast by  flickering torches, each one a tiny island of illumination in a sea of  descending black. I stared down at the flickering lights as they danced  in the far off dark like stars, and mentally debated what I should do.

Of  course I kept going. We were looking for an evil ritual site and this  had evil ritual written all over it. All we were missing was malevolent  cackling and scantily clad sacrificial virgins strapped to tables.  Despite that I did send out a mental message via sending stone to the  others. "Found a creepy stone staircase lit by flickering  torches, it's giving me serious creepy murder room vibes. I'm going to  check it out to see what's down there, if you need to find it it's off  the west wing third hallway down, doesn't seem like it's always there  though."

Jim responded mentally almost immediately. "Spatial  fluctuations are an excellent sign of high power density. That could  very well be the place. Excellent work my boy, stay on your guard as you  explore however, your stealth skills are great, but Circe is canny." I  sent back a wordless message of agreement and began my descent, slowly  creeping down into what was probably yet ANOTHER dungeon.

As  I descended I started to hear sounds. Specifically I started to hear  chanting. I didn't recognize the language so I memorized a few lines and  sent them to Jim as an inquiry. His response was grim. "It's a  hybrid of ancient Greek and Egyptian. I can only think of a single  people who would speak both and be in Gotham. The Bana Mighdall are  here. It seems we were correct in our assumptions. Do not engage them  however. Attempt to surveil the ceremony. It's too early for them to be  performing the true ritual."

I replied with a  confirmation again and made my way down at an even slower pace. My  stealth skills were second to none, not least when I was in my shadow  form, and when I made an active effort to suppress my presence I truly  believed I was almost undetectable. Even Circe might have a tough time  finding me. I crept down the steps, silent as a wraith. Round and round I  went, slowly creeping ever forward as I delved into the depths of the  earth.

Finally after what felt  like an hour I emerged from the base of the spiral staircase into a  massive stone chamber. Despite being about the size of a football field  the short, flickering pools of illumination created an impenetrable  darkness about ten feet off the ground. Only the columns disappearing up  into the blackness gave lie to the oppressive cramped atmosphere of the  place, showing that the suffocating dark wasn't the almost physical  barrier it appeared to be.

Along  the length of the chamber were lines of warrior women, some in togas,  some in cloaks, some in armor and even street clothes. Regardless of  their style of dress however they all stood rigidly in lines between the  columns, all murmuring the same words as if following an invisible  teleprompter. At the other end of the room stood a figure in a midnight  blue robe, arms flung wide, head tilted back as she called out the words  the others murmured in time with her sisters, her voice lifted with  fervor.

I  blinked. She wasn't Circe, I didn't actually even recognize her at all,  but this was definitely the ritual. But it was so early, what was going  on? As I thought that, one of the Bana Mighdall Amazon's in the front  stepper forward. With her change in direction she drew my attention to  the floor at the priestesses feet, where a series of deep grooves  flickered wetly in the torch light, leading to a deep hole I couldn't  really see into.

The  priestess lowered her head to smile at the other Amazon through lips  still forming the incantation, then, with zero hesitation, her hand  snaked out from her robe in a flash. If my reflexes weren't so good and  my senses weren't so honed I might have missed the short, razor sharp  dagger in her hand. I would not, however, have missed the spurt of  arterial blood as she opened the other Amazon's throat.

The  murdered Amazon didn't even fight, her blood spilling out into the pool  as her body fell limply to the stone of the chamber floor. As her head  fell towards me though I finally noticed something I hadn't seen because  all the Amazon's had their backs to where I was hidden. A glowing red  rune blazing on her forehead, the light slowly dying in time to the last  pulses of her heart. The blood flowing from her throat was glowing  dimly in the torchlight as it drained away.

My  blood froze. I recognized that rune. The Mark of Kermtiss. It was a  sacrificial brand that could be given to powerful warriors. It raised  their strength temporarily but fused with their essence so the  sacrificial victim would perfectly donate the maximum amount of power  upon their death. It even let them slowly gather energy as long as it  was applied, creating higher yield for the caster.

The  Mark was in Circe's grimoire, and was specifically noted to be  excellent for mass sacrifices. A note I was terrifyingly certain she had  followed in this case as the next Amazon stepped up after about ten  minutes, two helpers carrying away the now drained body as the priestess  killed the next victim. I understood exactly why they had started this  so early now. There were hundreds of Amazon's down here, and sacrificing  them one at a time was going to take days.

I  slipped out of the room, back up the stairs and to the landing, then  out into the hallway. I didn't leave the hall, in case I couldn't find  the place again, but I definitely got as far from the archway as  possible before looking around and resuming my normal human shape. I  reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I had developed  excellent instincts in my time as a thief, and I knew when shit was  going to get real. I needed more power than what I had, and I knew  exactly how to get it.

Myrina  had been able to match me in combat, and while I'd taken her style and  made it my own, stopping all those Amazon's would be far too tall an  order for me in my current state. Luckily I'd long since solidified my  gains and integrated my many powers, and had been searching for a new  addition to my skillset all this time. I had been content o pour points  into base for a while longer, but it seemed like it was time for an  upgrade.I'd narrowed it down a while ago, but I'd been limited by  points, but this particular power was within my price range now at  twenty thousand.

I'd normally be  hesitant to spend that much at once, but with the extra five hundred to  use in combat I was willing to invest. I scrolled down to the  appropriate email and slipped into a nearby closet in the hallway, just  to use as cover, then I hit the order now button.After only a minute or  two there was a gentle knock, as always, and I opened the door to pick  up the box outside.The box was...weird. It was made of an opaque green  stone with a skull on the lid. The stone wasn't exactly a gem, but not  really a mineral, it was hard to explain.

It  gave off a cold green fog and felt weird as hell to touch, but I opened  it up and took out the glass vial with the skull stopper inside. I  thought back over the email, making sure I hadn't missed some horrible  catch, then read the short instructional card in the box, shrugging  before following the instructions to the letter. As I swallowed the  freezing concoction I gasped for enough air to follow the instructions  on the card, which were apparently to utter a nonsense phrase. Still,  I'd done weirder. With the last gasps of my choking breath I croaked out  "I'm going ghost!"