Infernal Investigations

Snow crunched underhoof as I pulled Alice towards the entrance to the Hells' Own. The rising sun had already gotten to work reducing the amount on the ground, but there was just enough covering the ground to be cautious. No need to slip on the ice.

Alice was being cautious for an entirely different reason.

"I can't believe you talked me in this this," she said.

Given she was actively fighting my efforts to bring her forward, I was beginning to have doubts that I had successfully done so either. The looming figure of the Hells' Own lay ahead, all of it's windows closed against the besieging snow. With the entirely stone walls and iron bars on the ground floor windows, it made it look like a castle prepared for siege.

The sound of music came from inside, including a drunken sing along to accompany it. Despite the fact that we were far, far before the traditional hour for drinking. Given the usual lot for people in the Quarter, that was any time you could afford to.

"Irons bars are new," Alice noted. "He's made some changes since the last time we were here."

"Last time you were here," I said. "I've been here quite a number of times. Most of them were in disguise. One time was not. Haven't been since that last time."

"Guessing Edwards wasn't pleased when he figured out who you were," Alice said.

"He got over it," I said. "I think it depends on the lie and the liar on when, or if that occurs."

Alice came completely to a halt, forcing my arm off of her shoulder. "Are you still on about that?"

"On about what?" I said mildly.

"Fuck off with that," she told me bluntly. "I can deal with you hating me. Hates something I've dealt with before, and yes, you got a good reason to dislike me. But this coy bullshit mixed with this politeness act you're putting on fucking stops, okay?"

She glared at me as I turned to face her, the look that had made people almost twice her height quail in fear. Myself included that one time I'd broken a knife of hers. This wasn't negotiable was it? I'd barely gotten her onboard and jabbing her would make her leave.

"Yes, I am still on about that," I said. "Are you surprised? Or do you think the only daggers are ones made of metal Alice?"

"Yeah, well at least these ones didn't leave you dead," she said with a sneer. "Hate me all you want, it don't matter to me."

"Sure," I replied mildly. "Why would it, when you'll be out of this city by the end of today, right? Hard for hate to matter when it's dozens of miles away?"

Her expression fell in a little bit, and she opened her mouth, but I did not want to hear it. I turned back around, tail wrapping around her arms and pulling her forward.

"Come on," I told her. "And relax, we don't want to spook anyone in there."

"Relax? You are fucking kidding me?"

"He's not as bad as his threats are," I said. "If he was, well the local population would be much smaller than it is."

"Most of his threats are to people who don't pay their tab or get angry when he cuts them off. Most of his violence is at people who tried to damage his bar. I'm all three of them Malvia!"

"You were all three last time you were here and all he did then was kick you out."

"Because we were in the Flame then, and aren't now. You're having fun with this," she accused.

"Not at all," I replied. "This is one of the fastest ways to find someone we need."

Okay, a little bit of lying. Trying to move past the past was easier when it was not right next to you, deliberately wanting to avoid the hurt it had caused you. And perhaps I took a little satisfaction out of being the one not being put off-balance.

"Come on, we can just get it over with and to the parts of the day where you get to glare at people and occasionally cuss them out," I told her. "And your ticket out of this city without being traced."

"It should be," she said reluctantly as we entered the Hells' Own.

"You!"

Well, so much for the quiet way, as I pushed further inside, hand tight around Alice to drag her with me. Ahead of us, the owner of the establishment pointed an accusatory finger our way.

"Mr. Edwards," I said warmly as I walked inside, every patron's face turning to stare at me. Both music and drunken singing came to a slow meandering stop as the participants gawked. Even those who knew me seemed very taken aback by my new appearance. For Hells' sake. I'd met Infernals much stranger looking that myself. "What a pleasure it is to visit your fine establishment once again!"

"Help," Alice said bluntly beside me. "She's gone insane and is dragging me through every agonizing second of it."

Edwards barely hesitated a second, sparing just a glance for my new appearance. Then he was drawing his shotgun from underneath the bar, patrons scattering as he levelled it at me-

"Wait," I said, holding my hands up. "I've come to offer recompense for the numerous insults and damages done by, let's be honest, mostly the reprobate next to me."

"Shoot me," Alice told him morosely. "It would be easier for both of us than what she has planned. Don't listen to her sudden reasonableness and lack of aggressiveness; she has gone insane!"

"Harrow," Edwards said, tone incredulous. "You've become a fish. Why are you a fish?"

"I would argue I resemble less a fish and more a-that's not important right now, I just want to buy a drink, pay for damages, and get you at least one sincere apology today," I said, keeping a wary eye on that shotgun. His finger was at least off the trigger, but that meant very little in terms of time. "I honestly didn't want to make much of a fuss."

"Too late," I heard muttered from at least one throat. That, several wagers on if Edwards was going to shoot me or Alice, several hurried plans to cut visits here short, and one drunken rasp whispering a message to be taken to Versalicci.

Perfect.

"Again, I just want to order a drink and also get you an apology from Miss Skall here," I said. "I'm willing to pay double?"

That it seemed was the tipping point, as after a few seconds of internal deliberations Edwards lowered the gun. I pulled a reluctant Skall forward as conversation resumed, albeit a lot more hushed than before.

I could still hear most of it, but nothing interesting.

While we walked over to the bar, someone took the opportunity to get out of the tavern before things heated up. It gave me a chance to glance back, long enough to catch the Black Flame sitting at the table.

Three in total. No Malachti or Mitlau, although that was definitely North in the middle, nursing a rather large tankard while keeping a bleary gaze directed my way. A little older, a little heavier, a couple of extra scars, and at least one additional time his nose had been broken. The source of the drunken rasp.

The second was a well-muscled woman, busy using a dagger in her tail to file pick at her teeth. She'd that annoyingly common tendency among people still new to this of filing away at them to make them sharper. Stupid. Teeth came in naturally sharp enough of most times, and if they didn't, just accept you weren't going to bite out throats instead of ruining your ability to eat.

One last one, a lanky youth, brown hair with haphazard cutting. The kind you got from using whatever sharp thing you could get your hand on. Ragged slices with sharpened tins, glass, an actual knife you weren't worried about dulling the edge on. His cheeks and chin bore the same butchery across it, although at least one scar looked as if it had been cut by someone else.

He was trying to stick far enough in the dark you wouldn't see him on first glance. That was the one they would send. We didn't have anything to worry about.

I sat down at the table, picking and end far away from the other patrons, my tail tail moving through the chunks of wood cut out of the furniture.

"One tankard of mead, extra on the sulfur," I said. "Do you want anything, Alice?"

There was a muttered comment that was either a demand for ale or telling me to fuck off. I chose to take it as the former.

"One ale for Alice," I said. "Oh, do you have any pork skewers ready?"

It was with reluctance that Edwards accepted my coin for the order, but the allure of solid coin ended up winning out, and soon, I was idly munching on the probably not pork. Oh sure, there was some pig in it. Some, but not a lot.

"Alright Harrow," Edwards said, after having brought out the food, mead, and pointedly only a glass of water for Alice. "What do you want besides the food and drink?"

"Could I have not come here for a very well prepared meal and expertly brewed drink?" I asked him. "My compliments to the chef and brewmistress."

"You're fishing for something," Edwards growled. "How about you dip your rod in someone else's pond, Harrow."

"The only ponds in this city are either in parks I'm not allowed to visit or exist only when this part of the city floods," I replied. "Also, fishing? Seriously, it's just some gills and fins."

Edwards grunted, then ignored my jab to turn his attention to Alice.

"Didn't know you were back in town," he said, tone low.

"I wasn't until recently," Alice said resentfully, looking over at me. "I wasn't going to show up here until this one decided to coerce me into her insanity."

"Let's not leave out the relevant details," I replied cheerily. "You broke into my house twice, held me at gunpoint once, and then tried to tempt me into biting you."

By now, the other patrons at the bar had beaten a retreat to a safe distance from the three of us.

Edwards growled. "Whatever you're offering better be worth it, Harrow."

"I'm not costing you any actual business," I said. "Neither is Alice, who is here to offer her sincere apologies for what happened last time she was here."

"I was drunk," she muttered. "Both times, alright? Stop being a jackass about it."

It took a lot of willpower not to have my tail immediately smack her over the head. He'd only known about the one time!

Edwards' eyes narrowed. "Both times?"

"Which she is sincerely sorry for," I said, trying to take the conversation away from that.

"Are apologies going to fix my roof?" He said ominously.

Alice looked up. "Roof looks fine. Don't see what needs repairing."

I coughed. "It has been a couple of years, so him not waiting in your to pay for it is expected. Maybe if you have the funds now?"

"I'm a farmer Malvia. Worse, I rent my land. What coin do you think I have? You pay him."

Oh yes, from the endless coffers I stored under my house, filled with the immense profits I'd made since having my last identity burned to the ground. No, wait, very modest profits from a few weeks, and with probably no business after this week's events.

"Around how much did it cost to replace?" I asked him.

"One thousand pounds," Edwards replied immediately.

Alice whistled. I gave the roof an appraising look. Not the worse construction in the Quarter, nothing was actively leaking through, all the bullet holes had been plugged up. It was nowhere near a thousand pound roof.

"Twenty," I said. "As a down payment, and for some information."

This would be the most obvious way I'd ever gotten information from anyone, but that was part of the point. You had to be careful how you misled, being this obvious. Everyone would probably guess you'd gone into this suspecting you were doing this just for them to overhear.

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Edwards grunted. He could guess what game was being played. And that pretty soon half a dozen parties would be needling him anything they might have missed. On the other hand, it was a good way to make a lot of money from all of those people.

"What specifically?" he said. "Because twenty isn't going to get you a lot."

"Holmsteader's territory, any recent events, and specifically any potential ties between her and the Black Flame," I said, pitching my voice low enough that most no one could hear.

A few had, given the failed attempts to hide their perking up at those words.

Edwards grunted, then gestured towards a table in the staff section, well within sight, but further outside earshot.

Well, I hadn't expected this. Apparently he'd decided to give a little more credence to the rumours I wanted to spread. I knew he hated Gio, but being willing to help mess with Holmsteader a little wasn't something I'd anticipated.

I went over as well, taking my tankard with me, Alice following.

"I'm not giving that information over for twenty," Edwards said as we all sat down. "Forty, at a minimum."

"Twenty-five is the highest I can go."

The requisite negotiations between us ended at twenty-eight, with four shillings and a ha'-penny thrown in as well.

"Non-existant," Edwards told me once I'd forked over the money. "As I'm sure you knew already. Holmsteader hates Versalicci and wants to keep her operations as far away as possible from her customers. Even people not in the know consider the Flame Infernal supremacists."

"Think you gotta be somewhat equal to the rest to be a supremacist," Alice muttered. "He does love talking about grievances though."

"Yes," I said. "That part I just wanted to toss the rumour mill something juciy to chew on. How much do they know about what I'm doing, Edwards?"

Another five pounds on the table before he could bring up that I hadn't asked for it.

"Plenty of rumors flying around about what's been going on with you the last few days, most of them tied to Holmsteader, and those priest killings that have been going around. Those have everyone on edge, everything figures its a matter of time before fingers start pointing at the quarter for why they're corpses are desecrated."

Yeah, a very real fear given how not so long ago the Halspusian marches into the Quarter had dissolved into utter violence.

"For what I actually want, Holmsteader's recent actions?" I asked.

More bait, and one that would be more likely to get bitten. Holmsteader wouldn't be appreciative, but then she shouldn't have had an Infernal artifact thrown through my front window.

"Everyone's heard about her goons tossing some kind of metal screaming thing through your window. Then the diabolism getting tossed around that evening, and one of her top people getting killed and his house getting burned down. Business actually turned up a little after that. Some people really like the idea that they might be in 'actual danger'."

"There always are," I said. "A free bit of information, Tyler got killed for things Holmsteader would have eliminated him for herself."

Edwards raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly would those activities have been?"

"Probably that massive ritua-"

My tail wrapped around Alice's throat, and she took the hint.

"Not something that needs to be spread around," I said cheerily.

"Right," Edwards replied. "Well, at least it explains why she's not been looking around for someone to string up as an example."

"Externally, I'm sure," I replied. "Internally, I'm sure she's been looking for some necks needing of a good stretching."

Edwards shook his head. "Nothing I've heard of."

I frowned. That did not make sense. Given what Tyler had been doing, I would think Holmsteader's first reaction would have been making sure none of her people had been involved besides him. This was the kind of thing that ended with your territory invaded by Royal Marines eager to remind you who the real power in this city was. I'd marked her off as not being involved for that reason alone. Perhaps she was just playing things very tight to her chest.

"Interesting," I said noncomittally, while making a note to look further into this. "Anything interesting regarding a priest of Tarver involved with this?"

"Nothing I've heard of," Edwards said. "I think you've already got your money'd worth of information already."

"True," I said, glancing over at the Black Flame's table. "I think I've already gotten what I wanted."

The youth hiding in the corner was gone.

Edwards grunted. "If you mean to chase, you're too late. He's got a full five minutes on you by now. You like talking these days, don't you Harrow?"

"The lead's irrelevant," I said. "And talking feels refreshing, for once."

He met my gaze with an unimpressed stare. "What are you after the Flame for, Harrow? I figured you were smarter than to try to lock horns with them."

"Locking horns is idiotic," I said. "Someone is guaranteed to get hurt no matter what happens. No, I didn't choose this. They've decided to mess with me several different times now. They've given no indications they will stop. So, I've decided to stop playing their games."

"I'll give an honest speech at you funeral," He replied.

"At least you didn't try talking her out of it," Alice muttered. "That would have been pointless."

"Honesty is about all I can ask for," I said. "Let it be said on my death I went out in a blaze of glory, with fire both alchemical and hellish in nature!"

He was silent for a second, waiting until I finished another swallow of the mead. I let the sulfur bubble and froth on my tongue as it ignited, shutting my jaws before the gases leaked out.

"Throwing hellfire about tends to just set everything around it on fire," he said as I set my mostly full tankard down.

"A good thing I don't plan on wielding that first then," I said. "I make no promises for my enemies, when they decide to finally come for me. But they shouldn't have any reason to come here. Nor should I for the immediate future."

He grunted, then nodded. "Fine. You should have spent enough time here."

Enough time indeed, that the other two Flame members shouldn't immediately see me and Alice leaving related to their third having gone off. I finished my drink, but kept my hands on the tankard when I was done.

"I'll return the tankard," I told him, putting another couple of coins down. At this rate of spending, and with repairs to my shop I'd probably be broke in oh, three days?

"Keep it," he said. "I'm not having something get started between you and those two if they figure out what happened."

Fair enough. I got up from the table, Alice shortly after, and we both headed towards the front.

Edwards tolerated the Black Flame, and had never given an indication that his attitude towards them had ever moved past a grudging acceptance. Edwards knew that trying to keep the Flame out of his tavern wasn't worth the cost of making Versalicci his enemy. At the same time, Versalicci never pushed it any further then keeping a small presence there, mostly just to remind people that no one kept the Flame out of their business.

So they wouldn't be allowed access to the network of tunnels people out of the Quarter paid Edwards to get in or out through in order to make deals without anyone noticing. And they wouldn't go through the front to sneak out, as that would defeat the purpose of slipping out without notice. Cut out the back entrance that went through the staff areas, just as off limits as the tunnels, and that left the side entrances. And between the two of them, the one exiting into an alley had the closest entrance to the Underground.

Now, was our young fresh recruit the kind to keep in mind that the most convenient exit, or the one that was less convenient in case I'd put someone there.

I'd had Gregory keep an eye on the other one to be safe.

We headed out the front. No need to tip off North and his other companion inside the tavern. The chance of lookouts on the outside were slim, we'd checked as best we could. Ten minutes wasn't much time to make sure there were no watchers, but it would have to suffice. We could handled a few Flame foot soldiers.

Alice was headed across the street, to get a shotgun out of the carriage while I turned to the alley as soon as I made it out. I had the utmost confidence in Tolman, but there was always the chance someone had happened on the scuffle and chosen to intervene.

The snow was nearly gone by now. I pulled my coat open as the heat of the day began to get to me. Strangely high for the season. Maybe the weather mages had decided to actually do a job that benefited the people in the street for once.

Down in the mud of the alleyway, Tolman was grappling with the Black Flame youth, hands locked behind the courier's head, forcing it into the muck of the alleyway.

I sighed as I stepped into the alleyway. You would think we would have put some effort into paving the roads, considering how many of us had hooves. Fine, I'd just have to hope what I cleaned off my own hooves later was just mud.

"Tolman," I said. "What a pleasant surprise to-"

"Could you not," he said, slamming the poor Flame Recruits face into the mud, sending it flying everywhere. "This one's slippery, and the mud isn't helping."

Not helping the lad's breathing either, given the gasps as he tried to pull his face out of the muck.

"Oh, alright," I said, pulling my revolver out of my coat. "Let the poor man breathe, Tolman."

Tolman pulled back, yanking the courier's face out of the mud. He gasped, spitting out chunks of mud, his face caked in it. Damp chunks fell out of his rat's nest of hair, tears welling up in eyes obscured but it. He breathed in to scream.

I pulled the hammer back, and he quickly reconsidered, the scream dying in his throat.

"Apologies, but no," I said. "We're going to have a nice, quiet conversation."

My tail wrapped around his neck, and he tensed. The tip of my tail traveled up, but only to start clearing his eyes, forcing the largest chunks off his face. He relaxed just a smidge as I got the worse of it cleared.

Alice came from the front now, cradling her shotgun, and the tension now fully went out of him as he realized the futility of resistance. Well, futility unless he wanted a face full of buckshot.

"We aren't going to hurt you," I told the captured messenger, who didn't seem reassured in the slightest. "Unless you scream for your friends inside. Admittedly the violence would befall them and not you."

To illustrate my point, Alice pulled the hammers back on her shotgun, both barrels aimed at the exit from the Hells' Own. A good thing that the messenger had been forced to take this door. It was unlikely anyone else would come out this way.

"A messy end for all involved," I said. "Probably best to be avoided."

"I ain't gonna tell you the message," the courier said defiantly, and I rolled my eyes.

"Harrow and Skall are working together in Hells' Own, and Harrow has turned herself into a fish," I said. "About how close am I on the substance of what you were told to say?"

The defiance curdled and turned into sullenness in a matter of seconds as the courier continued to glare. Seriously, why not a shark? There was dignity in being a shark, as opposed to some bass on the end of a line.

"Hold your tongue if you want," I said.

I pulled out a letter from inside my coat and considered dropping it on the ground. Considering what that ground consisted of, I instead shoved it inside the courier's coat pocket. The only one I could find without a hole large enough for it to fall out through.

"Deliver that to Giovanni Versalicci for me, would you?" I asked him, and he gave me an incredulous look in response.

"You want me to carry a message to the boss?" He choked out.

"Yes," I said. "Ah right."

I slipped a couple of shillings inside the same coat pocket.

"And there's payment for your services," I said. "Now, we will have to tie you up so you don't immediately run inside and lead North and your other companion out here to certain death. Shouldn't be anything you can't wriggle out of in a half hour. Don't spend the money all in one place. And do deliver the message, I imagine the Boss will be most upset if you don't and he finds out what was on it."

He seemed so befuddled it didn't take long to leave him tied up in a barrel.

"One second," I said, still holding onto the mostly full tankard. I was close enough to where I'd bitten his throat out. He hadn't even liked to drink this.

I knew this was just as pointless as in my in mind. Even if Pieter knew I was doing this down in the Hells, not having been subsumed into some other devil and been warped himself into some native of that plane? He wouldn't be able to appreciate the meaning of the gesture.

It wasn't much either. Corpse was turned into a devil, no marker or memorial. Just some alley near where I'd bitten his throat out.

Sorry for the shite apology Pieter. It was the best I had, as I poured the rest of the mead into the wet muck of the alley.

The other two held back any comments until I made it over to them.

"So," Alice said. "You did all that so you could deliver a message?"

"No," I said. "I did all that to deliver a message Versalicci couldn't ignore. Outside of the affront of me having one of his couriers mugged, the letter threatens that if he doesn't show up, I'm going to start murdering my way through his henchpeople until he does arrange a meeting."

"Malvia…" Tolman said cautiously. "Perhaps you could have sent a less dangerous ultimatum?"

"No, I don't think I could," I muttered.

Versalicci wanted me under his thumb. He was convinced I was. He needed me there until he got Melissa back. Just requesting a simple meeting without promising to have her with me woud likely see my message consigned to the fire. Actually delivering her was out of the question. So that left a threat that would force him to comply.

Leading with 'I know you had the Black Flame exposed for money' would have taken me from an annoyance to be handled to a threat that needed to be destroyed immediately. Oh, it wouldn't take much to probably tear whatever reputation I had in the Quarters to shreds. Even with his own in tatters from what his plans had brought to the Quarter, I had no doubt about that. However, even the suggestion would pique the curiosity of some people. Who knows what other things might have been overheard but dismissed by others? Even if I was completely discredited, it would get some people thinking in directions he couldn't afford.

So, not something I could pull out unless I wanted him to try and kill me for certain.

"My brother is convinced he helped forge me into someone who doesn't care a whit for death and violence," I said. "He might be right. So playing into that won't be outside his expectations. And he knows I can make enough of a fuss that it's worth addressing. If only to have all the force gathered to take care of me if needed."

"An excellent way to get yourself killed," Tolman observed.

"He still needs me," I said. "Otherwise that would have already happened. No, he'll have it there as a deterrent, but that will be all. And besides, the reward we're looking for is worth a risk."

Alice kept her mouth shut at that, maybe not wanting to address that the reward was entirely at her benefit.

"Also," I added. "The second shilling I have him is smeared with a mana tracer I made out of a snail, and attuned to a compass and map. It'll work brilliantly."

"Malvia," Alice said. "Pretend some of us were both not Alchemists, and also not convinced one could get by on four hours of sleep every day."

"It wasn't always four hours," I said. "Besides, alchemicals can make sleeping only a little just as restful as a full eight hours, if you use them on occasion."

"It was constantly, not on occasion, and sometime it was two hours and you would nod off during meetings."

"That didn't happen that often!"

"It happened to the point that we had a rotating list of people who had to wake you up when you started drooling hellfire on the table."

Tolman coughed. "Maybe we should focus on the slime smear that is so important?"

"Snail extract," I corrected. "Snails in the underground pick up ambient mana from their environs as they travel through it. It's pretty much all the most common leftover residue from the most common kinds, sometimes more exotic radiation from certain schools. However, once it's extracted, you can modify it, just a litte. And then you can attune to tools, like say a map and compass letting you retrace every step the owner makes. And the smear on those coins started as a type very common for a variety of alchemical solutions, so can easily be written off as just being because they were handled by an alchemist."

"Not to rain on your parade, but you do know the fact you paid that fledgeling is suspicious as hells right? Your riding on this lad being dumb enough to conceal he got two shillings."

"No," I said. "I'm counting on him at worst not even mentioning it until he's already at their lair. And I give it decent odds they won't figure it out."

"Or they do and you've antagonized Versalicci by making him move his entire base of operations," Tolman said.

"Oh, he'll be anatagonized enough by the end of this," I said, pulling out Tolman's pocket watch to check the time.

Tolman reached inside his coat. "When did you nab that?"

"When you were grappling with the fledgling," I said, looking at the borrowed watch, keeping it out of Tolman's grasp before finally flipping it to him. "We have four hours until my brother should be at Carnley's. We've got a Diabolist to visit, and a restaurant before then at a minimum."

"Worse than that," Tagashin-as-Barnes said, suddenly on top of the carriage. "We've got some more morbid places your presence is being demanded at first Mal."

I froze, then looked around. Besides Tolman and Alice, both of whom had hands halfway to weapons, no one else in the street showed the slightest sign of noticing the garishly dressed Infernal atop the carriage. Or paying attention now, and I refused to believe it was because hot pink top hats and suits were coming into style.

"I thought I told you a nickname abbreviating my name is not happening," I told her.

"And I'll keep on using them anyway. Listen, things just got serious. We have two separate crime scenes to visit before you get on with your own business?"

Gregory stuck his head out of the carriage. "Something holding us up- oh it's Barnes."

"Pleasure seeing you as well, clotheshorse" Barnes said. "Two more priests have bit it overnight. Puts our sacrifice count as halfway to completion."