Sell you a Bridge chapter 49

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 give 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. 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."