Sell you a Bridge chapter 39

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 11th 2010 1:30 PM EDT

I turned to Jim with a horrified look on my face. This was all  because of us, hell, because of me. Annabel had only pushed Reggie into  that stupid heist to try to get control over me. Now the knife we'd  stolen had seriously injured and maybe killed a powerful ancient magic  user and was responsible for the Court of Owls getting their hands on a  cache of extremely dangerous magical items. I didn't even remember what  was all here, but the Court having it couldn't be good. "Boss, thats-"

Jim  cut me off "Yes, it is." His voice was tight with anger "I can't  believe I was such a fool. Hired to steal Carnwennan just as Morgana  showed up in the city. This scheme might as well have had that bitch's  name printed across in bold red letters. Of course Nimue would be the  target." He turned and punched one of the pillars with a glowing white  gloved hand and the stone cracked under the blow. I'd never really seen  Jim use his body to attack but it seemed like magic wasn't his only  ability, those pillars weren't normal stone, but he'd left a crater in  one with just a punch.

I  glanced fearfully at the pale bloody face of the woman I'd met last  month who had been so nice to me when I came here. Reggie spoke up "Is  she dead? She's immortal and she was able to cast that ice spell so the  knife didn't work right? If getting stabbed was enough to finish her off  I doubt she would have lasted this long." His voice was shaking and I  could tell that he was blaming himself for this as much as I was. Even  knowing that Annabel had pulled him into the heist to get at me Reggie  was a good guy, he would obviously feel responsible. Yet another thing  on my conscience.

Jim  turned slowly back to us, clenching and unclenching his fist as if he'd  injured it with that punch. "A normal knife wouldn't, but Nimue's  immortality is tied to Avalon, and Carnwennan was wielded by Avalon's  king. Not to mention the damned thing was blooded on the very black  witch and is extremely potent at harming magic users. She is not  however, dead. That ice coffin isn't simply a defense, it's a stasis  field. She knew I would come to see what happened after I got her  message. It will keep her in her current condition until we can find a  way to restore her." His voice sounded raw, and it occurred to me there  might be more history between the two than customer and shop owner.

Still,  if she was alive we could fix this. I was relieved to hear I wasn't  responsible for the death of one of the worlds greatest mages. I  considered if my power might be able to help, but I suspected anything  that could heal or undo this would take weeks to save up for and after  putting the civilians on a cruise I was already low, not to mention we  still had to deal with the court. If she'd called Jim however there  might be another way. "Can you help her boss? She called you so she must  think there's something you can do. Do you have any healing magic or  artifacts that might be able to fix what happened to her?"

The  sigh Jim let out instantly crushed any hope I may have had "No. Nothing  that can fix that. After being altered by the very black witch's blood,  Carnwennan is a weapon that exists to consume the lives of those who  practice magic. Nimue's immortality is also Avalonian magic just like  the knife. I don't have any idea how we could fix what's been done.  However, there is someone in the city who might have such knowledge. In  fact, I'd been debating going to visit him recently in any case. No one  knows better than he does how to deal with Morgana."

It  was Nightshade's turn to sigh "Yes, we considered going to see him too,  but you know how reclusive he can be. He hates to be disturbed. Now  that we've seen her magic at work and seen what she's done to her sister  however I think reaching out to him is our only real option. If anyone  can fix this mess and help us get rid of Morgana, it's Jason Blood." She  said the name with a sort of weight to it, like the words were so  important that even if they hadn't been a name they would have been  capitalized. I admit it was an intimidating name, but the way they were  acting made me think there was more to it than that.

Acheron  cursed "Of course I can't come to Gotham without having to talk to The  Demon. I still owe that bastard two bars of gold from the last time we  ran across each other." He glowered at us, an expression made much more  menacing by his black sclera'd eyes and pronounced fangs. "A lesson to  you kids, never play poker with a Lord of Hell or their host body." He  paused for a moment "Or John Constantine. But that one goes without  saying." He noted the glares from pretty much anyone and put his hands  up in surrender "Fine, sorry, we can go talk to that self flagellating  old stiff. He and Nimue were awful sweet on each other back in the day I  hear. Seriously, for such a stick in the mud that guy got around."

I  raised my hand timidly, as if I was in class, and they all turned to  look at me, clearly wondering what I had to add "Not to distract from  Madame Xanadu's situation but we do have another issue here. The Court  took all the stuff that was here, which I assume was their goal. I don't  know what they wanted exactly but all the stuff on those pedestals  seemed valuable and dangerous when I was here. Whatever they were  looking for I don't think it's a good thing that they got it." I  gestured to the stone pedestals scattered around the courtyard. "They  had little plaques on them last time so we might be able to find out  what they took, if that helps."

Jim  jerked around to stare at the stone plinths, as if noticing them for  the first time. Clearly seeing Madame Xanadu in that condition had  distracted him. "Damn! Quickly, everyone check the pedestals, we need to  determine what was taken. We may be able to predict what's coming if we  can discern what object they came here to acquire." Everyone spread out  to check all the plaques, luckily they were metal, so even the ones on  the destroyed pedestals were still whole, we only needed to dig them out  of the rubble.

The  first one I found was the Arrow of Indra. There was no further  information on the plaque, just the name, but even that was enough to  send a chill down my spine. Indra was a particularly powerful vedic god,  though I didn't know much about him even that was enough to seriously  freak me out. The next one was the Ring of Eluned the Fortunate, which I  had no idea about so I just added it to my mental list to tell Jim and  the others. The third plinth was broken and I had to dig the plaque out.  All it said was Stone of Giramphiel.

It  looked like most of the plaques were already recorded so I returned to  the group to report my findings and ask Jim about them. Jim, being a  very old master thief and an obsessive researcher, had naturally heard  of all of them. "Those are unfortunate losses but nothing too absurd,  except perhaps the arrow. Indra is a storm god and his arrows strike  like bolts of godly lightning. Painful but single use, I doubt it was  the target. The stone protects from dragon's breath and magic, useful  but not unique, and the ring makes people invisble."

He saw me open my mouth to respond to that and interrupted me "That's  ALL it does, no Tolkien references please." I must have been sulking  about it visibly because he laughed "In any case, I found a few as well.  Andvaranaut is a ring that makes gold, which probably isn't it.  Ariadne's Thread is a wayfinding treasure that's useful but not overly  so. The Necklace of Harmonia gives women eternal youth and beauty which  makes it absurdly valuable but not incredibly powerful and there's no  way it could destroy the city."

Nightshade  showed up next to him "I struck out too. The Canoe of Gluskab can  shrink and fit in the palm of your hand or grow large enough to house an  army, but otherwise its just a pretty sturdy boat. She had a small pot  of Yao grass, but that stuff isn't important enough for all this, all it  does is increase mental clarity and sometimes work as a love potion.  She had a Sanjeevani which is actually stupidly useful for curing pretty  much anything but again nothing huge. And a single vial of the Mead of  Poetry, which is admittedly damn impressive but is pretty small scale in  terms of effect."

Acheron  was the last to arrive, with Warlock's Daughter, Artemis, and Reggie  trailing behind. " Apparently she had an Apple of Discord, though gods  only know why, and that would certainly do some damage, but not on a  city wide scale. A small amount of Alkahest, which dissolves everything,  begging the question what the hell she was keeping it in, and for some  unfathomable reason, the Pied Piper's flute.  The flute could admittedly be a huge problem but doesn't really fit with the prophecy of being 'Ancient  and Twisted'. So anyone have any ideas what the fuck the Court of Owls  would use these things for to wreak havoc on Gotham?"

Jim  made a concerned noise. "I fear we may have missed the point of this  little exercise. Perhaps the target wasn't chosen for it's ability, but  for its connection to powerful forces. Perhaps they mean to summon Eris?  That would be a calamity for Gotham." He paused "Though it would also  probably result in all their death's, she isn't known for honoring  alliances. Suicide doesn't seem likely for either the Court of Morgana.  Summoning Indra would work out even worse, he's known to have a temper  and doesn't particularly enjoy being bothered. I'll have to do some  research into the provenance of each object and from whence it came."

I  glanced over to Madame Xanadu "Well looks like we're back to the  original problem. Hopefully this Jason guy can help us out with some way  to save her. Is it safe to leave her here like this? Can we even move  her? We kind of blew up the door to this place so she wouldn't be nearly  as safe as she was before we got here." Also I wasn't a huge fan of  going to visit a guy whose last name was Blood and who apparently went  by "The Demon" but if it was how we could fix the Madame I was down for  it. Enough people had been hurt because I was an idiot, if I could save  one I was going to do it.

Jim  turned to glance at her, his monocle fixed on the glacier. "I dare see  even Morgana herself couldn't budge such a defense. Not without a great  deal of time and even more noise. She's safer in there than she would be  in the most secure bunker we might find. I say we leave her where she  is and pull something in front of that door. I will reach out to Jason  and arrange a meeting. He isn't a man to be dropped in on without  announcement. In the meantime let's head back to the tower. We have  research to do and being out in the open like this is a fools errand."  With that he he turned on his heel and stalked out, cape whirling as he  left.