The once lavish rooms of the North Tower had fallen into disrepair alongside the rest of the Estates. Dilapidated doors rotted away in the summer months, exposed to the elements from all of the broken windows. Various balconies had their water systems filled with leaves, dirt, and debris thoroughly clogging them. Whole floors were at times turned into swamps or flood plains.
It was only due to the future site of the builders that the place wasn’t outright condemned and demolished. The structure in spite of the lack of care was solid. The scant few residents that lived inside were keen to keep the pipes unclogged and the windows covered.
Their efforts weren’t always successful nor appreciated. During the time when the two gangs were clashing Nate had seen on a number of occasions the Crystal Blood Drops purposely clogging the drains. If he was to guess about twenty percent of the degradation of the location originated from that gang.
Certainly he and his crew had torn up their old hideout but it was different. They only ever accidentally caused damages, often taking steps to make repairs or cover it up. More than once Nate had members out on a weekend night fixing what they had broken.
On the twelfth floor was a single apartment with a half-way decent door. It did not hang loose on the hinges but it did have indications of water damage. The place was likely teeming with mold. Past the door was a quaint apartment.
Nate knew this place well. It had been where the feud between their gangs had started. The leader of the Crystal Blood Drops had been trying to get some of their gang's girls high. It wasn’t outside of what they did on the daily.
His gang was loose with their rules. Other than not wanting to cause too much of a disturbance, they lacked strict dos and don’ts. The only real exception being to listen to the people in charge. They were even a collection of various ages. Old Tom was thirty as their oldest member. It had hurt when he died of an overdose.
The Blood Drops leader had been wanting to party with some of the younger girls. Officially they were more groupies then official members. Closer to Nate’s age coming from middle school. The main gang was composed of teens and early twenty somethings.
Malory, the Crystal Blood Drops gang leader, was older, around thirty-five. He fully put that age on display as he went by his last name. Always told people it commanded respect. The situation was completely unacceptable to Nate. They had their own old heads but they kept it legal so far as the girls went. The rest was history.
Wallpaper was plastered back in place here and there throughout the apartment. Some serious effort was being placed into the rotting corpse of a room. It was like lipstick on a pig but Nate could respect it. Boudica was not as appreciative.
He hadn’t learned much of where she and Theodora had come from but it was classy. That was the least he could make out about them. She was a knight and properly filled her role. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t turn her nose up at the condition of the inside, especially the smell.
Enough moonshine can make you go blind, in this case that means nose blind. Moldy smells mixed with rot and the putrid smell of a nearby broken toilet. Clearly Braydon hadn’t been living well if he was staying here. Not that Nate cared all that much.
“Must we be here? I don’t want to stay longer than we have too.” Boudica complained.
Karah nodded her head in agreement. The few times she’d been here had ended in brawls. Nate had once chalked it up to her drinking too much but it seemed that she was drinking to get the smell away. Her senses were still firing on all cylinders, even back then.
“This kid isn’t a Necromancer. He could be like Allison. If so we need to know who made him this way. It might be Zeus.” Nate said flatly.
Braydon was sitting tied up to a chair head slumped. They spread out into the apartment searching through to find nothing of importance. Booze, old drugs, and some weapons. Which were just a handful of machetes and clubs. They hadn’t found a gun or money. Which Nate was certain they would find. A curious development.
Seeing he was still out cold Nate took the time to painstakingly draw out the clearmind spell. It had worked to keep him awake when going through the spirit house formation. So it made sense that it should wake him up. Being the first spell he saw in action had led it to being one of the first magic circles he’d memorised. Naturally there were more important spells but he’d insisted on this one. Anything he couldn’t memorize was written down in a useful notebook by Teddy.
When they let Braydon go he would find that all of his surgery treats and coffee had vanished. It was a small price for him not being killed on the spot. The circle glowed and the body thrashed around wildly.
“Stop struggling you shithead. You take a pot shot at my man and think you can squirm around? Huh. You want another bop on your head?” Karah Threatened.
Luckily the spell helped to focus the floundering boy. It was the most clear he’d been in years. His lanky limbs came to a stop as he attempted to speak from behind the gag in his mouth. Karah had insisted on using dirty cloth as payback.
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“MMMHHHH, mmmgghh, mmmm.” Braydon garbled.
“Ok, listen here. I take this off you won’t shout or scream. Our noses are already being assaulted. I won't have you do it to our ears as well. Do you understand?” Nate asked.
Braydon answered with a vigorous nod. Seemingly the nasty cloth was even too much for him. Nate nodded to Boudica and she removed the gag. The boy’s eyes clearly went wide as he looked around in astonishment. An odd thing to do.
“How did you do that? He said no one else was like me.” Braydon spoke softly, fearing to be too loud.
“You don’t get to ask questions. You only answer them. Now why are you still living here? After I killed that old piece of shit, I mean person. I thought all of you had scattered.”
“It’s your fault don’t you know? You should have been the one to die, not him. Big Bro was the main man. You took everything from me.”
“Shit, Nate we got a real lap dog here. You think if I pull his leash he’ll bark for me? Hell we could take his ass for a walk around the police station with all this shit we found.”
Nate shot Karah a look of bemusement. She’d been uncharacteristically meek these past few days, seeing her like this put a smile on his face. He even considered her options generous. In the past she would have made him crawl through the broken glass scattered around the complex, and that was just for fun.
“Fuck you bitch. Everyone knows you're the only dog here. Why don’t you roll over so your master can rub your belly. We always knew which of you was in charge.”
*Wham*
Karah used her open palm to slap him in the stomach. Knocking the wind from his lungs. It was about as soft a hit the boy would be able to receive from someone like her. Moving behind him where the boy couldn’t see her she gave Nate a flirtatious wink. Confirming to him that her thought process was already in the gutter.
“I don’t like repeating myself. So I'll only ask once. Where did you get that power you shot at me with?”
“I ain’t no snitch.”
“How disappointing. You didn’t listen about me not repeating myself. Fine. I don’t care for the easy way myself. Karah open up the balcony please. Boudica bring the chair.”
This being the former party spot of the gang the door to the balcony was in good order. Furthermore, the retaining wall to prevent people from falling to their deaths was still solidly in place. Nate spied a few across the area which had started to crumble in the elements. Though it could have been from during the war.
“What the hell, how are you pulling me over there? WHa stop please.”
Boudica looked down quizzically into the face of the boy. He seemed to look straight past her and on to Karah. Things started to fall into place for Nate. It was obvious that this kid didn’t have the sight. Which was odd given his apparent ability.
Karah stopped at the edge of the balcony. Winding back she aimed a kick at the short wall. A cracking sound came out alongside her leg as the wall blew into bits splashing out onto the ground below. Braydon seeing her display nearly pissed himself. Boudica finally reached right next to Karah.
“Now boy. I will ask only once more. Where did you get your power? If you don’t tell me I will have to drop you from here. Don’t worry, I'll aim for the next balcony. Then we’ll go down and do this for the remaining twelve floors. Capeesh.”
Boudica with a firm grip upon the chair teetered him onto two legs. The ones in the air pointing down toward the ground letting him get a full look at the next balcony. This one was full of debris. Instead of properly taking care of the place this balcony had been used as a dump by the gang. Of course that meant all forms of nasty things lay within the trash pile.
“Wa- wait, no I’ll talk, I’ll talk just stop leaning me over the edge.”
With a nod from Nate Boudica pulled him back up to safety. Still not far enough away that they couldn’t go right back to making threats. If that hadn’t worked he wouldn’t have been able to rely on Theodora to search his mind. Her propagation power was still running in the background and wouldn’t be done till later that day.
“Speak.” Nate Commanded.
“Fine, Fine. Look there’s a guy. He took over the penthouse. Got a big gambling thing going on there. You can bet anything if you win he’ll give you exactly what he bet. And he bet me an invisible laser to kill my enemies.”
“Bullshit, ain’t no one going to trade with this loser. Let’s toss him.” Karah said dismissively.
“NO, no, please. Don’t kill me, I don't want to die. Please.” His voice was shrill with fear.
“Karah he's cooperating now. We shouldn’t kill him if he does as we ask. Now you said that he was in the pent house. Could you describe this man?”
“Yeah, course I can. He, he’s got a white and black striped suit jacket and a funny hat. Talks with an old-timey accent. Really weird but I made some money the first time I beat him. I even got the skill to tag out our deal. I might be short on cash now but I’ll win it back. I know I will.”
It was true the expected weapons and cash had been missing. Lending some marginal validity to what he said. Obviously this didn’t seem to be Zeus but that didn’t mean this wasn’t exactly what they were looking to find.
“I see. You will take us there. If you aren’t telling the truth. Well, the fall will be much further that time.” Nate warned.
The Precipicetice climb took a fair amount of time. It went without saying that the elevators had fallen into the same state as the rest of the building. Amongst the four of them climbing the steps it was the resident that was having the hardest time. He had been there a few times at this point but had never won something like a boost to stamina.
After more flights of stairs then Nate would ever enjoy to see, they arrived. He knew this was their destination instantly. The characteristic deluge of Miasma clung to the doors pushing out just around the cracks. It was hidden but not well enough. Braydon gave the pent house doors a hefty push.
“They're in the back so we got to let ourselves in.”
As he spoke the miasma spilled over engulfing him and spreading across the ground like oil. The light green hues bubbled out against the dirty brown flooring. With certainty Nate stepped into the room. A plaque on the side of the wall showed the name James B Dial suite.
Which days should I set as the Schedule?
