Round 2

“He’s not in.” The doorman said brusquely. He was a huge towering creature, with scaly skin and a short puglike face permanently set in a scowl. Perfect for intimidating the dead mortals into not messing with the establishment, and unfortunately entirely unmoved by any trick Koba could come up with.

“But Hecate…”

“He’s not in.” and then the doorman opened the door to Mr. Saturday’s study, and proved it.

Koba had already looked on the roof and searched through most of the nearby slums, so this was not good news.  It seemed like Saturday did not want to be found, and it seemed that he was pretty damn good at playing hide and seek.

And with the slums so close to the fields, the locals could hardly find their own butts. It would all have been very discouraging for anyone but Koba, who found solace in that it wasn’t even sure if it had a butt to find, and so it could focus on finding someone who might know where Mr. Saturday was hiding. Or who was good at playing hide and seek.

*

Resonance leaned over the puddle, carefully and slowly to keep it from rippling. He carefully reached to the side, placing his hand in the sand slowly, to not accidentally displace the sand.

The cloth he usually had wrapped around his skull and hands was folded carefully and placed to his right. It wasn’t easy to scry in something as small and fickle as a puddle to begin with, and he couldn’t have the cloth hampering him.

He started pushing energy into the water, slowly leaning closer to make out the energies rippling over the surface. Yes, something was there. Danger of some sort, hard to make out. He leant in closer.

“You know, there’s easier ways to wash your face.”

Resonance bolted upright. In front of him was some sort of… actually, he wasn’t sure what the heck that was.

“Actually, I’m trying to scry.”

“Oh, seeing the future in a place like Hades isn’t much good.” Koba circled Resonance quickly, stopping to hover in front of him, over the puddle, “Too much magic going about.”

Magic all over this guy, more like it. Koba could feel a spell had been put over him, a tag so to speak, marking him as someones. It couldn’t recall ever seeing this tag before, though. Very suspicious. Very likely to be useful.

Resonance for his part, was also assessing Koba. Two things were sure: whatever it was, it wasn’t overtly hostile, and second, it was carrying a metric shitload of power around. Resonance, who was all too aware of his own limited power supply, could see a lot of potential in this situation.

“Actually, I was looking for someone. My name’ Resonance.” He said sweetly and reached out a hand. The creature shook it with a smile.

“I’m Koba.”

“Glad to meet you.  Are you a sorcerer too?”

“No, but I am looking for someone.”

“I wish I could help, but I’m not having a lot of luck with this. Darn, I’m never going to find that ferryman.” He sagged dramatically.

“What a coincidence!” Koba’s smile widened, “I think we can help each other out!”

*

“And this Mr. Saturday, won’t mind we borrow his mirror?”

“Nooo, of course not. We’re looking for him anyway, and it’d be hard to get a silver mirror otherwise.” Koba reassured Resonance.

“…and then he’ll know where the ferryman is?”

“Yes, and then we’ll split the reward. You can be alive again, all the mirrors you could ever need. All sorts of things.”

“Gee, that’s amazing! I wouldn’t have known what to do if I hadn’t met you, Koba!”

“Oh, I’m only happy to find someone with your scrying talent!”

Neither of them were entirely sure how they managed to keep a straight face through that conversation, but here they were. It had been about twenty minutes since they met, and Koba was already convinced Resonance was an oblivious idiot, whereas Resonance was convinced Koba was a blithering moron.

They’d decided to walk along the coast back through the slums. Or rather Koba had decided that, as it wasn’t sure if the tag Resonance was carrying actually protected him, or if it was sheer luck that he’d made it halfway up the river Acheron and sat around looking at a puddle for half a day without getting into trouble.  

Lying aside, they found that they actually got along well enough that the walk wasn’t unpleasant. Though since neither of them needed sleep or got tired it was hard to determine how long it took, before they could see the poplar grove in the distance.

“Say, Koba,” Resonance asked suddenly, amiably as if they were old friends on a stroll, “What with you being a trusted friend of Dionysos as you said, you must know a lot about gods.”

“Yes?”

“I ran into two Egyptian gods before I met you, and I was wondering… well I didn’t want to intrude with them, they seemed like they’d been in the middle of something important... do you know someone named Anubis?”

“Not personally, no.” Though Koba could always use some good gossip. If anything, Saturday LOVED gossip, “ But I hear rumours. What were they doing that’s so important?”

“It sounded like he had problems with his dad. If I hadn’t heard them talking, I’d have assumed the bird guy he was with WAS his dad.”

“Oh yes, Thoth likes Anubis very much. But Osiris - that’s his dad – is going crazy. Paranoia.”

“Isn’t Osiris supposed to be the king of the Egyptian gods? Because if my experience with royalty is anything to go by, there’s gonna to be trouble.”

“Actually,” Koba floated closer putting an arm conspiratorially around Resonance’s shoulder, “Sources tell me Osiris wants him dead!”

“Oh dear. Then there’s definitely going to be trouble.”

Koba floated ahead a bit with a smile, ducking under a thick mess of knotted branches, “Stick to the path through here.”

*

The slums were a thoroughly dreary place. People milling about with no sense, or purpose, asking each other the same questions over and over, strangely unaffected by the two hooded figures passing through. Koba and Resonance stood out like sore, bulging thumbs in their brightly coloured clothes and actually looking like they had somewhere to go. Koba took the lead, floating easily above the crowds. If the imp had been a more careful or just plain less busy getting to Saturday’s club it would probably have noticed that Resonance was falling behind. Or that for someone who had been so concerned with everyone and everything earlier, he didn’t seem to spare much thought or care for the other dead.

Resonance swore internally. He didn’t have near the strength to get through these crowds, people just easily shoved him aside. And all these filthy peasants pushing past him, touching him and jabbering like animals!

Suddenly someone grabbed his sleeve and pulled him around, putting him face to face with the gaping empty eyesocket of a young woman. Her matted dark hair hung limply over her broad olive skinned face. Even so, she still looked in better condition than most of the locals.

“I remember you!” She shouted, “You’re the bastard who took my eye! This guy took my eye!”

Uncomfortably aware of how much attention he was suddenly getting, Resonance put on his best doddering old man act, “You must be mistaken, miss. I’ve only got the one myself!”

Another man stepped forward, wearing what seemed to be the remains of a guard’s uniform from king Rekoles’ court. “I think I remember him too… he was cutting someone up and I saw him, and then he killed me!”

“I assure you…” Resonance started, but the ball was already going, and more people stepped up accusing him of… well honestly those were all things he did, but to be fair, it was necessary at the time.  Suddenly, the five or so people that seemed to have regained some memory were surrounding him, one shouting to lynch him, another that, the first idea was stupid since they were all dead already.  The shouting got more incoherent as it seemed his assailers forgot what they were doing, but remembered their rage against him. Curse his good looks, he was just too hard to forget!

“I was framed!” Resonance whined, but nobody listened to him anymore.

“I think,” the man holding Resonance’s left arm uncomfortably said thoughtfully, “That when I worked at the castle, he remembered my birthday. In fact I’m quite sure.”

Resonance weighed his options. He wasn’t staying here to get his ass kicked, he didn’t know where Koba had gone, or where they were heading, and he would probably get in a lot of trouble for setting everything on fire, which would likely just get him another asskicking. In frustration he started heating up the air around him. If this was going down, he was sure as fuck making it uncomfortable for everyone involved.

Luckily for Resonance, Koba was not in fact stupid, and had started looking for the sorcerer shortly after they’d gotten separated. Now finding him in the middle of a crowd being fought over for… something having to do with a birthday and possibly a dog, it was hard to make out what was going on, it stepped into action. Or as it was, floated into action.

Koba floated down into an alley close to the crowd, and picked up a trash can. The alley was overflowing with trash, thanks to the forgetfulness of the locals, and it was easy to pick out a dozen tin cans to put into the trashcan. Koba carefully balanced the whole thing on a light crate, and took the shape of a woman. It walked out a few steps towards the crowd, giggling to itself over the sorcerer’s increasingly desperate and shrill arguments to free himself. Really, everyone knew the people around here would never actually remember far enough to get anywhere with their threats.

Suddenly, Koba kicked the crate it had so carefully balanced, sending the trashcan down with a mighty rattle, and shouted “HE’S GETTING AWAY!”, startling the assorted people to let go of the sorcerer, while Koba used one of his better party tricks: making people think they saw whoever they were looking for, just turning the corner. Predictably, everyone scrambled around in confusion, and Koba could easily walk in and haul Resonance off, shielding him from view briefly.

“What’d you just do?” Resonance asked groggily. He could very well feel Koba’s energy reservoir in the new body it was using – he’d been sizing the imp up all day after all.

“Don’t worry, they’ll have forgotten they saw you in a minute.”

*

“Thoth?”

Thoth looked up from his book to find Anubis standing at the door to his study. Anubis came in and shut the door behind him, carefully as if he didn’t want to make too much noise. Something was clearly bothering the younger god, though he wasn’t quite willing to show it. The ears gave him away, though. The ears always gave him away.

“Is something wrong Anubis?” Thoth said, motioning toward a chair for Anubis to sit in. Anubis remained standing, squaring his shoulders as if he was bracing for something.

“There’s something you’re not telling me. About my dad.” He crossed his arms across his chest determinedly staring the other god down, though his ears kept flickering.

A sinking feeling grabbed hold of Thoth’s chest. This was not the time, it was too soon, it wasn’t right for Anubis or the balance of the universe. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. They’re saying he wants to kill me!” Thoth opened his mouth to reply, but Anubis kept going, “That’s not right, is it? I mean, he’s my dad after all, and I’ve never done anything to him! It can’t be right!”

“Anubis.” Thoth interrupted carefully, “Your father is carrying a lot of… sickness. In his mind.”

“I know.” Anubis said defensively, ears flopping down sadly along the side of his face.

“And to be honest, he is sicker than I have told you about. You’ve already been working so hard to keep the peace, and I didn’t want to worry you more.”

“You should have told me!” Anubis snapped.

“I should, yes.” Thoth got up and walked over to the other, laying a hand on his shoulder, “I promise, I’m looking into it. I’ve been following up on several sources to deal with the problem. I was hoping to get something more substantial from one of them before I told you.”

They stood like that for a moment, Anubis ear flicking back and forth pensively. “Thank you, Thoth.” He said finally, with a genuine smile.

Thoth smiled back – well as much as one could smile with a beak, “Now who is this “they” you heard this from?”

“I checked up on that glass guy from the beach, like we agreed, and he was talking to someone who said it.”

“Well, he’s hardly the most reliable source, I mean, he DID turn himself into glass and tried to stop death.”

Anubis laughed, “Yeah, who knows what kind of crazy people he’d hang around.”

*

The rest of the walk through the slums was uneventful, and their entrance to the club was easy. They were briefly stopped by a huge hideous pugfaced creature, but it didn’t do more than stare intently at Koba for a few seconds, as if it was trying to figure out it’s disguise. Resonance tried to keep his body language neutral, but as the creature glanced at him, he couldn’t stop himself from recoiling a bit, inching closer to Koba.

The creature grinned an ugly bucktoothed fanged grin, and stepped aside, letting them hurry in. Resonance just caught it muttering “Cute couple.” To a mostly human looking guy.

Koba grabbed Resonance’s forearm and led him through the club, to a large, elaborately carved wooden door. Koba grinned, and rapped the lock with its knuckles, before opening it easily and noiselessly. Resonance got the impression they were trespassing, not that he cared much.

Koba headed straight for a cluttered desk in the middle of the room, knocking softly on one of the drawers before opening it and rummaging around.  Resonance kept standing awkwardly by the door. Whoever worked here didn’t seem to ever clean up. Koba put down a half full bottle of alcohol on the desk with a thump, before pulling out a small mirror, that it quickly handed over to Resonance.

Resonance weighted the mirror, carefully directing a bit of energy over the surface to test it. It was round, with a swirling pattern around the edges, and just the right size to fit in the palm of his hand. It might have been a makeup mirror for a rich lady, if not for the way the silver readily accepted magical manipulation. The material was clearly well worn into magic use.

“Can you scry now?” Koba asked.

“Yes, give me a minute.” Resonace went back to punmping energy into the mirror, but he couldn’t get a clear image. Everything was blurred and choppy, almost like a bad connection on an old TV. It seemed the mirror wasn’t entirely suited for Resonance’s brand of energy after all. Of course he DID have a native nearby, who was carrying a sizeable bundle of magical energy around… though unlike the last chump Resonance ran around with, said native would probably find out he just yanked a chunk of energy out.

“Koba, would you mind if I borrowed a bit of your energy? I think it might give me a clearer image.”

“Sure.” Koba said, still rummaging through the clutter for a clue as to where Saturday could be hiding. Truth be told, it had always had plenty of energy for his tricks and couldn’t imagine running out. It had never even gotten close to feeling exhausted over magic, so it figured it couldn’t do any harm.

Resonance carefully dipped into the energy, leading it into the mirror, and sure enough, the images stabilized. Koba didn’t really feel much of his energy use either, just a faint annoyance. Not anything that stopped Koba from his search.

Most of the paperwork was just bureaucratic bull. There were a couple of interesting pieces, but none of them were relevant to where Saturday could be. Either way, it didn’t seem like Saturday ever actually bothered with paperwork, as much as he dumped it in a pile and left it. Everything seemed to have been left the same way, bottles of rum, full ashtrays, an old couch with the pillows removed, dried chicken legs in a jar, and the pillows from the couch, arranged into a small pillow fort.

“That’s weird.” Resonance suddenly said, scratching his skull. Koba emerged from the pillow fort to look at him, “As far as I can see, he’s somewhere a couple of hundred meters below us.” Koba blinked.

“I don’t think the basement goes down that far.”

Resonance walked around the office, staring intently at the mirror. With all the clutter, Koba had to jump over and keep the sorcerer from stumbling several times. Koba settled for walking beside him with an arm around his waist, to keep him from falling, sneaking a glance at the mirror over Resonance’s shoulder. It couldn’t see anything, as Koba had never been good with that type of magic, but judging by the sorcerer’s intense concentration, something very interesting was going on in there.

“Think I can find out how to get to him, if we get close enough.” The sorcerer muttered absentmindedly and headed out the door. Koba followed along, still holding on to him, so he didn’t injure himself and break his concentration.

They moved all over the club, prompting accoational shouts of “get a room!” and laughing, which Koba ignored and Resonance didn’t seem to notice. They started by heading to the basement, though it quickly turned out to be a red herring, and from there systematically went through every room they could get to, until Resonance stopped in front of the ladies’ room.

“I think we’re getting close.” He muttered absentmindedly, not looking up from the mirror, “But why’d he hide in the ladies’ room?”

“Actually, that would be just like him.” Koba grinned, and led them into the room.

They moved around the place, getting a few odd looks from the patrons who were actually there to use the facilities, stopping in front of a stall that had a large out of order sign on the front, and didn’t seem to have been cleaned in ages. The door to it was locked, but Koba quickly let them in, locking it again after them. Resonance finally looked up from the mirror.

The place was nasty, grimy and full of graffiti. It really didn’t look very magical or secret.

“Koba, are you sure he…?”

“Yes.” Koba ran a hand along the wall. Of course Saturday would be hiding something in the ladies’ room, of course he would put a secret hideout right under his regular hideout, and of course he’d make it so you couldn’t get in unless he wanted you to. Koba briefly considered flashing the tits of the body it was using to get let in, but decided that Saturday was hardly that stupid. Koba also considered giving itself bigger tits, but no, Saturday did know how to separate business and pleasure.

In the end it just pulled out the amulet, Hecate had given it and jangled it, as if trying to catch a cat’s attention. Surprisingly, that actually worked, and a section of the wall with a crude scribbling of a butt pooping on a cat on it suddenly rippled, and folded inwards, revealing a small room carved directly into the rock the club was built on, with a round hole and a ladder in the middle. They glanced at each other briefly, before walking up to it.

There weren’t any lights in the hole, just a dark tunnel leading gods know where. Resonance looked at the mirror again, pulling energy from Koba a little rougher to speed things up.

“He’s definitely down there.”

“I’ll change quickly, then let’s go.” Koba decided, changing back to his own shape.

“Oh, so you can float of the ladder doesn’t go all the way?”

“So I don’t have a bum he can pinch, if Mr. Saturday is actually down there.” Koba replied cheerfully.

*

Thoth was once again alone in his study, though he didn’t pick his book back up, neither did he get back to work. Anubis had cheered up again once their conversation had turned to more mundane subjects, and had eventually left to seek out some other mortal.

Thoth had since then tapped into the mark Anubis had left on the glass sorcerer’s cloak, and listened in for a good while.

He’d thought the sorcerer was incompetent, as well as a complete loon. Thoth hadn’t expected him to start picking into his plans. He’d have to deal with this soon.

He reached into his drawer and pulled out a thick file on the mortal, quickly flipping past the stack of paperwork amassed by his constant conversions (and Thoth was fairly sure several of the religions he’d claimed, had never existed) to get to the part of the file that may give him a clue as to how he could best handle the sorcerer.

*

The tunnel was carved hastily into the rock, twisting and turning in circles, with only the occasional light to see by. Resonance quickly lost patience with having to keep himself from shattering along the sharp edges in the dark, and lit a small fire, kept in his palm. Koba fared a lot better in the dark, and soon went ahead.

After what felt like forever, the tunnel widened into a well-lit cavern, about the size of a large living room. Carpets were laid out on the floor and bookshelves were placed along the walls, full of obscure tomes and various bits and pieces and equipment for voodoo. In the middle of the room was a large desk, polished and clean, with a few neat stacks of paper laying on it, and a half full bottle of whisky placed to the side. Sitting by the desk, was Mr. Saturday, smoking a cigar and doing paperwork. He didn’t look up when they entered the room, just held up a hand prompting them to wait, so he could finish.

Once finished, he turned to them with a warm smile. Koba floated up closer, pulling the amulet out from his pocket.

“Hecate sends her regards, and wishes to show her support for your,” it hesitated, quickly glancing to the sorcerer, “endeavors.”

“Fantastic.” Saturday said with a smile, snagging the trinket out of Koba’s hand and shoving it in his pocket, “Give Hecate my regards.” The god turned and walked away. Koba followed a bit, but Saturday turned and waved him off.

“Oh, but we are very interested in your project Mr. Saturday.” Koba smiled, “I’m sure Hecate will be happy to hear if there are any news to it.”

“She knows what I’m doing. He poured himself a generous glass of whisky, stopped to look at it, and then drank from the bottle instead, “Or did she promise you I’d tell you where the ferryman is?”

Koba’s smile got a little more strained, “Hecate is, as you know a relation of mine, and…”

“And what?” Saturday interrupted, “I’m gonna tell you because your mommy said so?” He laughed, not really in a malicious or mocking way, but as if he genuine thought the situation was funny, “Sorry, Shorty, you don’t seem half bad, but the best way of keeping a secret is not telling people.” He punctuated his sentence by taking a swig of whisky again.

Resonance, who had until this point been politely standing by the door steadily losing his patience, finally stepped forward.

“Now, I’m sure we can work something out. Surely Hecate can’t have sent someone he didn’t think would be of use to your purposes…” He said pleasantly.

The god turned sharply seemingly noticing the sorcerer for the first time, and strode over to him with a broad grin.

“Nice dress!” He enthused, handing resonance the glass of whiskey he was holding, “Love the fabric, whatcha packing under there?” He clapped the sorcerer’s crotch with the hand previously occupied by the glass.

“… Nothing.” Resonance said miffed, looking to the glass he’d been handed “Uh, thank you, but I can’t…”

“He’s a he. And a skeleton.” Koba’s grin was back in full force, “And he’s right! I’m sure we can help you, if we get a little more information!”

“Yeah, I can see that happening.” Saturday answered, tugging a bit at the fabric wrapped around Resonance’s skull. Resonance, used to being made a spectacle of in King Rekoles’ court every so often, quietly let him and even removed the wrapping, so he could see better.

“I have a few suggestions for how we could be of help…” Koba started, having already schemed up several ways to get the information he wanted at minimum effort.

Suddenly, the door creaked open, revealing Thoth. The bird-headed god entered at a brisk pace, nodding curtly at Saturday. Saturday grinned broadly in return, and raised his bottle in greeting.

“I need to speak with you in a moment, Mr. Saturday.” Thoth turned to Resonance, “It’s impolite to wear your coat indoors.”

Resonance stared dumbly at the god for a few seconds, before taking his cloak off, and laying it over the back of a chair. Thoth then put his hand on the sorcerer’s shoulder, and led him away. They moved a fair bit away. Saturday could probably still hear them, if he put magic to it, but Resonance was confident Koba couldn’t. When Thoth stopped, Resonance immediately turned to argue with him but Thoth interrupted him.

“It’s come to my attention that you know of the situation with Anubis and his father.”

“HAH! I KNEW you were listening in on me!”

“Calm yourself. Now, we both know that your cognitive capabilities are not up to par with a normal human being…”

“Excuse me?” Resonance asked mildy, in a tone few people had survived hearing “Are you calling me retarded?”

“No, Mr. Wilkins, I’m calling you a psychopath.” The god continued, unmoved, “And I am aware that I underestimated you. So I am going to be honest with you, and I will tell you how things are going to proceed. Do not bother arguing, you don’t have a choice.”

Resonance seethed, but let the god continue.

“The balance between good and evil has become disturbed. Anubis father, Osiris is going mad and will likely try to kill his own son to placate his paranoia. I need to stop this from happening.”

“So you’re staging a coup.” Resonance concluded.

“And I need Anubis to be harder to locate for a possible assassin, and to learn to better handle a variety of people…”

“And I move around a lot, and I have experience with court intrigue, which you want him to pick up on, along with my charming personality.” Resonance interrupted. Thoth gave him a cross look, but continued without comment.

“… but he can’t know about my plans yet. Now, Mr. Wilkins, this is very simple,” The god put a hand on Resonance’s shoulder, forcing him to look Thoth in the eye, “Help my cause, and I’ll rig your files to get you what you’ve always dreamed of. Hinder my plans and I’ll leave you to go to where you were set to go. Do nothing, and I’ll still make sure to keep you from being punished for your various crimes. Do we have a deal?”

Resonance thought for a moment, “So, in principle, as long as I don’t actively balls things up for you, I’m off scot-free?”

“Yes.”

“Well, who am I to deny someone in need my help.” Resonance said cheerfully, handing the glass of whisky over to Thoth.

*

“What if you kept the sorcerer, and I reported back to Hecate?”

“Nope Shorty, you both owe me before you get info. Oh, there they are.”  Mr. Saturday turned his back to Koba.

“Hey Skeletor, Orko here tells me you’re that guy who clogged the system with paperwork! I had Selma from the infodesk in all week, drinking and complaining about you! Didn’t know you drank, Thoth.”

Resonance would have huffed indignantly if he’d had lungs, at the suggestion HE was the one at fault for that mess. Mr. Saturday didn’t seem to pay that any mind, and just continued talking, while he grabbed both Resonance and Koba around their shoulders, and pulled them into an uncomfortable embrace, that reeked of alcohol and smoke.

“Now, I’d like to help you with the ferryman, but first I’m gonna need you two troublemakers to help me stir up some trouble of my own.” He paused for dramatic effect. Resonance sent Koba a worried look. Koba sent his most reassuring smile back.

Somehow, it didn’t reassure Resonance very much.