The major noble houses were contacted first followed by the lesser ones. The message that there may be spies and cultists within the household staff was relayed throughout Barton. The day after Divine Blessing revealed the traitors within Baroness Westlake’s home, more were found around the various households. In short order they broadened the scope of investigations to businesses the families operated in Barton and, distressingly, found many more.

  Baron Sorenson found a full 12 cultists among his family’s many retainers. Gerard Bantal and his team had their hands and claws full dealing with the cultists as, like the ones at Cordelia’s home, they went berserk once discovered. Apparently one of the ones Tooth and Nail fought became the size of a small house and sported alligator heads rather than insect-bird heads. Yeah, Brivaria didn’t want anything to do with that one or any of those like it.

  Garam Felio contracted Alden’s team, now with a new member in Edison Kor, to assist with his search. They found three cultists which Lucian was delighted to cut down. He was trying hard to redeem himself. The man had apparently fought valiantly at the party as well though he did receive a stern talking to for having his blades at a dinner party in which he was not supposed to be armed. Typical rogue things, Brivaria thought upon hearing the news.

  House Decrune was voluntarily interrogated by the city watch who found a whopping five cultists. That made sense since the Decrune armory was where much of the armor that the Ogramites dwelled within came from. Brivaria heard the five cultists put up a nasty fight. Thankfully the watch came prepared and, unlike Talver in Between, their skills for defending their city were on full display. For all of Kseniya’s jabs at Watch Captain Hudson, the man had capable people under him.

  That last bit of news came directly from Talver who’d not only been present for the interrogations but had personally fought against all of the abominations. Brivaria was impressed. He survived a trip to the Between and came back ready to take the fight straight to the monsters. She admired the gumption and hoped more would do the same. Zlithia would be a better place if it had people ready to stand against the threats from both without as well as within.

  Unfortunately, Talver’s visit also came with the news that the Meyers estate declared itself cultist free and refused any investigation with outside assistance. Yeah, no one believed that. Brivaria didn’t nor did Talver nor did the rest of the watch. Since everyone was planning on the day of the hunt being the day everything went sideways, the watch captain was looking at having both guardsmen outside the city and ready to leap to the aid of the hunters as well as inside the city and ready to fight back against the monsters if or when they appeared.

  Unfortunately, Watch Captain Hudson didn’t have that many men so sacrifices had to be made somewhere. Talver wasn’t certain whether the captain would prioritize the safety of the nobility or the city citizens. Kseniya gave a snort of derision at that being a question and Nyx frowned. Brivaria explained to Giselle that it was likely the nobility would be protected first and then Giselle frowned too. It didn’t make sense to either the angel nor spirit deer but it was what it was.

  A lot of things were happening but, for the moment, it looked like Brivaria’s team would get to enjoy some time to rest and recuperate. That was true right up to the moment Charles Wodan and Jasmine Veer visited the inn. It turned out that they were quite alarmed to learn that a new copper rank team had discovered cultists and were in the process of exposing them all across the city. To hear the bards tell it was to believe that the angel and her team were single-handedly saving the world from cultists despite mostly sitting at the Siren’s Alcove as their part had been done already.

  “So you’re not hunting us all down?” Charles asked as they all shared a booth at the far side of the inn’s common room. Candice was definitely trying to listen in but Kseniya’s privacy ward was foiling the curious innkeeper.

  “No, it turns out there’s another cult that’s doing the more normal cult things rather than sex, fishing, and beer,” the angel explained. “All the houses except Meyers have turned up with members among their staff. The Meyers household is refusing to investigate. No, let me rephrase—they did their own investigation and found no cultists among them.”

  “Does anyone believe that?” Jasmine asked incredulously.

  “No,” chorused both Nyx and Giselle in unison. Nyx gave Giselle a thumbs up and the deer girl grinned. The two were getting along better by the day. Kseniya coughed politely and cut in.

  “They don’t but the only ones who can order the estate turned out for examination are the watch captain and the Count. The Count is too busy hiding behind his mercenaries and the watch captain needs twice the amount of men he has to do everything that needs doing.” That was the sorceress’ most charitable statement yet as far as the captain was concerned.

  “That’s crap,” Jasmine said, the earlier concern about her own band of ne'er-do-wells forgotten. Everyone agreed with that but Brivaria was watching Charles and he seemed more worried than bothered.

  “Is there something wrong?” the angel asked the suddenly pensive cultist.

  “Do you remember Carter? He’s the cleaner in our group,” Charles ventured. Nyx nodded.

  “Oh yeah, he cleaned our cabin,” Nyx answered. At seeing Giselle’s curious expression, she explained further, “we visited Charles, Jasmine, and their friends a while back. We stayed in one of their cabins and went fishing with them.” Giselle nodded and Charles went on. Giselle would have to ask what fishing was at some point!

  “Carter has a couple nobles that pay him to clean their places monthly. He brags about them sometimes when he’s a few beers into the evening. He goes room by room using skills to clean incredibly fast. The big noble manors and mansions are about the only things that can potentially run him out of mana before the job is done. He has a job at the Meyers house tonight,” Charles explained.

  Everyone could see where Wodan’s words were going just after he began and they all grimaced in unison as he finished.

  “Maybe he should pass on that job tonight,” Brivaria suggested. Mr. Wodan was nodding his head and about to voice his agreement of that suggestion when Nyx spoke up.

  “Wait, no, that’s perfect,” Nyx exclaimed, raising her voice a little. The privacy ward could easily contain the excited cat girl’s words but she’d waved her arms enough to get the innkeeper’s attention. Candice didn’t walk over but Brivaria saw the young innkeeper looking in their direction. The angel and her group would definitely be receiving a friendly interrogation of their own later.

  “Oh no,” Kseniya groaned but Nyx was undaunted.

  “No, think about it. The servants won’t let anyone in the manor but if they allow him inside then maybe we could go with him. If we tag along as his assistants then we could go in and look around.” Nyx spoke quickly and her tail stood up showing just how excited she was at the idea.

  “And why would they allow a cleaner inside?” the lamia asked pointedly. Nyx shrugged.

  “They might not but if they’re trying to maintain the appearance that everything is normal then who knows? If they stop us at the door then that’s that but if they let us in…” Nyx trailed off and looked around the table.

  “And will they let an angel, a lamia, an iveskan, a cat, and a dog in?” Kseniya pressed.

  “No, but maybe two cats,” Nyx said with a sly grin and looked at Brivaria.

  The angel had been quiet until now. She was sitting between Giselle and Trixie. The golden had seemingly learned that both “Trixie” and “dog” referred to her so she turned happy, innocent eyes to Kseniya. The lamia was stern but not heartless so she gave the dog a couple of gentle pets.

  “I think it would be very dangerous for us to go in without the rest of the team,” Brivaria began. She could see Nyx’s tail beginning to droop. “However I’m worried for the people who are not cultists in the Meyers household. I don’t think they can turn everyone to their side and, now that it’s come out, there may be people inside who need our help. I’m willing to risk it if you are and if Carter is.” Brivaria turned to Charles Wodan. “He would be in even more danger than Nyx and myself. I think it would be fair to give him the final say since none of this is possible without his cooperation.”

  Charles considered Brivaria’s points. Even Kseniya hadn’t thought about the possibility of innocent people inside the Meyers household. The lamia’s reservations didn’t vanish completely but she stopped arguing against the idea. Giselle mumbled a quiet “oh no” and, while she was content to listen as everyone else talked it over, Brivaria could tell that the deer girl felt the same way about the situation as the angel did. Eventually Charles nodded.

  “Okay, let’s see if we can catch up with Carter. We’ll give him the details and let him make the final call. I’m not going to push him one way or another. I may be the leader of our little group but I don’t order anyone around. That said, you’re part of our group too now don’t forget. The city is only big enough for one shady demon cult,” the man joked.

  It didn’t take that long to find Carter as Wodan knew something about the cleaner’s schedule. It wasn’t that the cult leader pried so much as Carter happily talked about his work. Watching dirty things become clean through hard work or magic was very fulfilling to the man and the System was more than happy to offer him new skills and classes to be even better at his chosen occupation. The way he passionately spoke about the beauty of a clean floor even had the angel oddly curious in his trade.

  When they got around to discussing the Meyers household, he immediately jumped at the opportunity to help them. There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in the man. There might be people in danger and he could do something to help them so he would. If someone had told Brivaria that a demonic cultist could be heroic then she wouldn’t have believed them until now.

  They also got in touch with Guardsman Talver and let him know about their plan. Just because they were going to do something reckless didn’t mean the angel wanted to do it without backup. While the watch as a whole didn’t have the manpower to spend on the Meyers mansion, Talver had a special dispensation from the watch captain to look out for the calamity-prone angel and could possibly wrangle some help of his own.

  Kseniya had been concerned that the guardsman might try to stop them but, while it was reckless and dangerous, it wasn’t against the law. If Carter let them tag along and the household allowed them inside the no laws were technically being broken. The angel had the feeling that this wasn’t the sort of thing that Watch Captain Hudson would approve of but Talver was on board. He wanted to stick it to the monsters in the city even more than Brivaria and her team did. The only thing that was stopping him from coming was that he had no convincing way to turn into a catfolk on short notice.

  “You’re here to clean house?” a middle-aged man in House Meyers livery asked while looking at Carter’s easygoing smile. Carter was a man of average good looks with short, brown hair that he hid under a gray cap that matched his overalls. He was flanked by two nearly identical cat girls with their dark hair pulled up and back into ponytails. They could have been twins save that one had a shock of white in the middle of her black tresses.

  “That’s me,” Carter drawled, “same as it was last month and the one before. May I come in? Sooner I get started, the sooner I get going.” The doorman looked from Carter to the two cat girls.

  “Who’re they?” he asked. He was eying the two cat girls with suspicion. Even if Carter was known to the house, they were not.

  “Nyx and Styx. They were impressed by my work a little while back and were curious about it. I’m looking to expand and could use the help. Today, they’re going to help me the old-fashioned way for a little bit and the System might see fit to offer them a class for their trouble down the line.” Carter lied smoothly and spoke quickly. In fact, Brivaria could only get a whiff of dishonesty at the beginning around the part where he said their names. The rest was genuine, if carefully worded. He was more formidable than he appeared.

  The doorman gave the group an appraising look. Carter lacked spare outfits so the two girls were wearing matching black blouses and skirts provided by Nyx. The clothes were tight and not particularly modest. Thankfully this worked in their favor, not because the servant had any lascivious thoughts but because short sleeves, tight tops, and high skirts left very few places to hide weapons or other such things. The doorman looked them over, noted that they had no weapons or anything out of the ordinary, and motioned for them to come in.

  Brivaria carried a broom and dustpan. Nyx carried a mop and bucket. Carter carried a variety of other things including a bag of holding which he presented to the manservant for inspection. The bag had only a couple items inside as it was mostly used to hold dust and other debris that Carter’s skills didn’t get rid of. Once he was satisfied all was in order, the doorman spoke.

  “You may clean the main floor and upper floor. The lower floor is off-limits. Is that understood?” the servant asked.

  “Yes sir,” Carter replied smoothly. “I’ll follow my normal route and skip the lower floor. The next time I come I will have to save up some additional mana to ensure it gets a full cleaning so I might have to charge more.”

  “Yes, that’s fine,” the man grumbled in response. Carter motioned for the girls to follow him and they did so.

  They went to one of the nearby rooms and began cleaning. As much as Brivaria and Nyx would have loved to zip down to the basement right away to see what was down there, they did have to pretend to be cleaners. Carter did a fantastic job of playing the part since it was basically what he’d been going to do anyway.

  The doorman watched them for a time while they cleaned. Carter explained to the girls that he could use magic to clean entire rooms but the dirtier the room was the more mana it cost. A bit of physical cleaning here and there drove the mana cost down letting him clean more rooms and thus make more money. If they got skills like his then they’d need to learn what things to clean by hand and what things to let skills handle for them.

  Carter was starting to go over how to clean around furniture when the doorman wandered off. He’d been watching them for a while but evidently decided that watching the cleaner instruct his two apprentices on the finer points of his occupation was not particularly interesting. Surprisingly Brivaria enjoyed the instruction. Carter was friendly and extremely patient. They weren’t actually here to learn his trade but the angel got the feeling that he liked the idea of having assistants. His words at the door hadn’t been lies.

  Brivaria fought the urge to immediately head to the basement once they were left unsupervised. According to Carter, his normal cleaning path would take them by the stairs down within the next 40 minutes if they kept going. It would be less suspicious if they did the work on the way than if they dropped everything and rushed there.

  Forty minutes felt like a small eternity to Brivaria and Nyx but Carter was the one in the most danger here. Whatever they could do to help him stay safe and out of trouble would be for the best. Also, the longer they worked, the more something felt off about the place to Brivaria. There was no one around. The doorman had left them to do their work and completely disappeared. Every time they changed rooms or the angel found herself near the door, she looked around and still saw no one. It felt like the house was deserted.

  By the time they reached the basement stairs, Brivaria felt certain the main floor of the home was empty. She hadn’t seen anyone but them since the doorman left. Neither her improved hearing nor Nyx’s own higher awareness heard any sounds except their own. The angel was starting to get a bad feeling about things.

  “Let’s go down now,” Brivaria said as they began cleaning the area around the top of the stairs.