06 – Recovery and Righteous Indignation

Varn’s felt different without anybody around.

Erika spent all of a Tuesday morning tidying up around the old arcade, cleaning a few of the neglected cabinets, organizing the stock of tokens that would replace quarters, and setting out the prizes. The boarded-up windows had been replaced with proper glass, though they were shuttered at the moment; between the light coming in through the windows and the new lights throughout the arcade, more dust than ever was visible on nearly every surface. The King children were far from expert cleaners, apparently.

Before the whole incident, Rick had been planning on opening Varn’s to the public this Friday. There were fliers, and he even took out an advertisement in a local paper, which raised questions about the kind of patrons he was intending to attract; nobody Erika knew read newspapers. Erika almost hoped that nobody would show up. Over the past few months, she had grown fond of spending her time here, talking about ghosts and monsters with the other Hunters, and otherwise just lounging about. If random people started showing up, chilling out like that would be harder.

Rick wanted the extra income, and they could still meet in the back room, or so he said. If the place actually did well enough, he was thinking he would buy out the neighboring, also abandoned shop, knocking down the wall between it and the back room, and turning it into a proper meeting place for more private affairs.

Erika had severe doubts that this place could bring in a dollar a month, let alone enough to make up for what he spent on advertisements. If he actually managed to rake in enough to buy out another lot, she would eat her baseball bat.

Not that she would break his hopes and dreams by telling him that.

Hopefully, Rick would be out of The Castle by then, along with Anna. Whether or not he would be in a mood to follow through with the grand opening was a question that Erika could not answer, but she could at least help get this place ready. All would be for naught if Rick was willing but couldn’t open its doors.

Thus, she worked.

Thus, she cleaned.

Thus, she distracted herself from her real problems.

No distraction could last forever. A knock at the back door made Erika pause. Checking the tablet mounted on the wall behind the counter, she frowned at the giant spider waving up at the security camera. The door buzzed, and the locks disengaged with a single tap, a feature that Leslie hated, but which was convenient for Erika.

“Yo,” The Adjustment said, raising a hand in greeting as she entered the arcade. “This place is shaping up nicely. Wish I could visit as a customer.”

“Why can’t you?”

The Adjustment paused, head twisting to an unnatural angle in confusion. “Uh… is that a joke, or…?”

“It isn’t like anyone is going to be here to see you,” Erika said, leaning against the counter. “You might just be the only customer.”

“Oh, it won’t be that bad,” The Adjustment said with a small laugh. “You go to one of those school things, right? Don’t you have some friends you can round up?”

“Maybe once, but I doubt anyone I talk to would make it a regular thing.” Erika sighed, then shrugged. “Maybe Daniel’s friends would be more into it. Anyway, just you today?”

“The Art might wish she were attached to my hip, but we are separate people. She’s got her own things to take care of, and I really only brought her along before in case there was trouble.” The Adjustment sat down on the opposite side of the counter; there was no chair, but her spider legs repositioned to hold her aloft. “Should I expect trouble?”

“Eh. I wouldn’t rule it out. It would be just my luck for that naked woman to barge in right now.”

The Adjustment narrowed her eyes, looking around like she would be able to spot the woman lurking in some darkened corner of the neon-lit arcade. “Your crew isn’t here today either,” she pointed out as her gaze returned to Erika. “Heard something happened. They alright?”

Surprised at the genuine concern in The Adjustment’s voice, Erika gave her an honest, “Probably. Mostly. They’re a bit shaken, but I think everyone will make a full recovery.” Given the animosity between The Castle and The Eclipse, she decided not to go into too many details right away. “That’s part of the reason I called you today, actually.”

“Much as I personally wouldn’t care to see you lot hurt, you lot wanted your independence, and that comes with assuming the risks and consequences. You’ll get no official help from The Eclipse.”

“No, nothing like that,” Erika said, though it was good to know that if they did fuck up and couldn’t fall back on someone like The Castle, The Eclipse would leave them out to hang. “Right, let’s start at the start. First and foremost: the property you sent us to is now cleansed of all ghostly apparitions we could find. Probably, anyway, we didn’t trudge across the entire snowy field. If you want a more thorough inspection, call us again when it warms up a bit.”

The Adjustment barked a laugh. “I’ll let Empy know. Ghost gave you trouble, did it?”

Erika shook her head. “Trouble came after we left. We were ambushed by a large man bearing the same tattoos as the woman who punched a hole through your chest.”

The Adjustment’s good humor died off instantly. She sat straighter on her… leg-chair thing, planting her forearm on the table as she leaned forward. “Same tattoos? As in, close enough to reliably say the two are related?”

“Definitely. He wore clothes, so I couldn’t say if they wrapped all around his body like the woman, but even with only his hands and head, I would guarantee they went to the same tattoo parlor with the same reference picture.”

“The Emperor is mildly interested in the woman, but has been unable to dig up anything. To hear there is another out there…” She trailed off, leaning back with a thoughtful tapping of her finger against her cheekbone—or whatever anatomy she had. “On a more personal level, I am very interested.”

“I figured.” Catching a hint of movement on the security camera tablet, Erika held up a finger. “And you aren’t the only one,” she said, buzzing the door open once again.

A woman stepped through the door, not even pausing to knock. Her long black dress billowed behind her as the golden cross bounced against her chest with every precise, mechanical step she took. The faint scent of cigarette smoke trailed after her, except it wasn’t quite the right smell—it was mixed with something, like a foul perfume used to cover some worse scent.

Erika had only met the woman once before, and she had been too stressed to pay attention to things like that at the time, so she couldn’t be certain whether this was a new thing or not.

The Adjustment abandoned her semi-casual pose, stiffening and standing as a soldier called to attention. Apart from a wary look at Erika, she focused all her attention on the newcomer, yet didn’t dare to speak.

“I do not enjoy interruptions of my duties,” The Analyst said, ignoring The Adjustment as she stopped at Erika’s counter. “I would much prefer if you visited The Church in all future interactions.”

“Yeah, sure, good to see you again, too,” Erika quipped. “I honestly thought you would send The Banker.”

“I am The Analyst, not he.”

Erika didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, so she shrugged and said, “Well, as I mentioned over email, I have news on The Mummy to fulfill our agreement.”

“Then share,” The Analyst demanded.

Erika almost asked the nun for the magic word, only to worry that she might give a literal magic word. Instead, she went over a more detailed explanation of her encounter with the monk and the naked woman. She went over the woman’s resistance to harm, the way The Prescient identified her as being apart from the rest of the world, the likelihood that she was not dead despite her near decapitation. The monk got a similar explanation, with Erika going over everything she learned about him from the fight, as well as the few details The Castle had shared.

The Analyst remained silent, not even blinking as she drank in the information. Only when the explanation ended did she start asking questions, beginning with seemingly banal queries regarding the style of the monk’s shoes, the length of the woman’s hair, and other exacting details that Erika had paid little attention to in the middle of her fights.

“Would you draw the woman’s tattoos? The man’s tattoos?”

“Exactly?” Erika sighed, wishing The Banker had come instead—he probably would have been too tired to grill her for a full hour. “Absolutely not. I don’t have perfect memory.”

For the first time, The Analyst turned away from Erika, facing The Adjustment directly. “The Eclipse witnessed the encounter with the described woman?”

The Adjustment jolted, stiffening like a cadet as a general walked past. “Uh… yes. Some of us.”

“Who among your number can recreate the tattoos?”

“I… don’t know. Only The Aeon, The Fool, and The Art got a good look at her, and none are known for perfect memory.”

“You failed to mention yourself,” The Analyst said, lightly motioning toward Erika. “The Agent’s testimony places you at the scene.”

“In case you weren’t listening, I was having a bit of trouble with a hole through my chest at the time.”

“This renders your eyes inoperable?”

The Adjustment gave Erika one of those ‘are you serious’ looks for just a moment before refocusing on The Analyst. “Yes?”

“I see.”

“I didn’t,” The Adjustment grumbled, making Erika snort.

Whether because of the noise or simply because she had no more questions for The Adjustment, The Analyst turned back to Erika. “The Castle is still in possession of the monk’s remains?”

“As far as I know.”

“Very well,” The Analyst said, turning on her heel.

“Hold it,” Erika said before she could get very far. “I’m not done yet.”

The Analyst paused and looked back. “You have further information? The structure of the conversation indicated an end.”

“Not on the monk or the woman, or The Mummy in general, but…” Once sure that The Analyst wasn’t just going to rush off, Erika turned to The Adjustment. “The Eclipse is doing something to stop the maggots from appearing, right?”

“Uh… I guess,” The Adjustment said, shrugging. “That isn’t really my department.”

“That is correct,” The Analyst said, her otherwise neutral face tinged with a hint of impatience. “The Hermit consulted with me on the matter, though agreements prevent me from speaking more on the subject.”

Erika sat up, eager now. She had called The Analyst here not just to fulfill her agreement, but in the hopes that The Church’s ties to The Eclipse would provide another in to getting in contact with someone important. By the sounds of it, her intuition had been perfect. “I have it on good authority that whatever they’ve done is not going to last. It isn’t going to simply fail, it’s going to catastrophically fail.”

The Analyst frowned, eyes losing focus for a short moment. “I do not know the exact form in which The Hermit implemented my advice,” she said, sounding like the admission physically pained her, “thus, I cannot speak of the likelihood of your assertion. State the nature of this authority.”

“The Prescient.”

The Adjustment snorted; the nature of her eyes meant that she couldn’t roll them, but the way she tilted her head gave the impression anyway. “Fortune tellers like that are notoriously unreliable. The guy pulls a card from a deck he shuffled and thinks it is some divine providence.”

The Analyst nodded, though less derisively. “There are more mysteries in this reality than any one person can fully comprehend,” she said, again with that hint of a strained grimace. “That said, I prefer logical reasoning based on evidence over mystic impressions before making decisions.”

Erika looked between them, frowning as she leaned against the countertop. She couldn’t exactly dismiss their dismissal as irrational; she didn’t know any better either. In fact, she knew less, and that really had been the whole problem since the very start. Here she was, diving into the big leagues, all while not knowing anything about anything. She had gotten people hurt. She had nearly gotten people killed.

For all she knew, The Prescient and his deck of cards were no better at predicting the future than some random Adderall addict with a dartboard covered in LLM-generated words. Erika did not know with any degree of certainty that future-telling was possible to begin with. The Castle, The Director in particular, put stock in it, but aside from earning some points through helping her and The Hunters, Erika knew exceedingly little about them as well.

“So neither of you believes there is a credible threat to… The Hermit, was it? That whatever The Hermit is doing is in no danger?”

“Hold on, I didn’t say that,” The Adjustment backpedaled. “I don’t have a clue what she’s doing. It might blow up in her face, it might not, I’m not the one to ask,” she said, looking to The Analyst.

“I make no claim, one way or another, without further assessment.”

Erika leveled a dull gaze at both of them. “The Prescient suggested that maggots will swarm out of whatever dam has been holding them back sometime within the next two to three weeks, along with all kinds of other trouble. Regardless of whether he is correct or not, can we all agree that a preemptive reexamination of the operation is a good idea? Adjustment, you know The Hermit, and Analyst, your words demand attention, so if you could help bring the possibility to The Eclipse’s attention with me, they would probably be far more willing to listen than if I tried getting a meeting with The Emperor on my own.”

The Analyst straightened, looking aside, then stared at Erika. “The Church prefers to avoid influencing events beyond the scope of our contracts. I will reassess all information I provided to The Hermit and, should I locate any flaws, will inform The Hermit posthaste.”

“Not accepting contracts to send an email to The Hermit?” Erika asked, feeling like she knew the answer already.

“No. Contracts are solely for the exchange of information, save for extenuating circumstances. This is an extenuating circumstance, thus I have already agreed to reexamine all information related to the situation.” The Analyst dipped her head, bouncing the folds of her habit. “Good day.”

The Analyst left without another word, taking with her that odd scent of cigarette smoke and exhaust.

That left Erika with The Adjustment, whose stiff posture deflated like a balloon the moment The Analyst was out the door. “Couldn’t have warned a girl?” she grumbled, leaning back against the cinderblock wall next to the counter. “Didn’t think I’d be meeting with The Church today. The Emperor really would have roasted me alive if I said anything to jeopardize our working relationship with them.”

“Based on everything I’ve seen, you could probably insult her to her face, and she wouldn’t care unless you threatened her archives,” Erika said, retaking her seat on the tall stool behind the counter. “But I guess I’m sorry about that. I figured a two-pronged attack would be better than one, and I’ve got an outstanding agreement to let them know about things I find related to The Mummy; didn’t want to repeat myself a whole bunch in a dozen different meetings.”

“Yeah, speaking of meetings, you’re probably too late for one with us if you’ve only got two weeks,” The Adjustment said. “Empy schedules meetings months in advance.”

“All the more reason to get you on board.”

“You want my recommendation? Forget talking to The Emperor. She’s not likely to listen to you—you’ve already pissed her off something fierce, and mentioning The Castle is going to make everything worse.”

Erika raised an eyebrow. “Not going to include all this in your report?”

The Adjustment shook her head with a laugh. “And make more work for myself? Empy is going to call me in for a meeting, ask if the ghost is gone, and after I say yes, she’ll dismiss me. Now, if you lot throw in with The Castle or The Puppet, I’ll probably be back, and I’ll probably be a whole lot less friendly, you get me?”

Erika adopted a coy smile. “We’re neutral, right? As long as it doesn’t step on your toes, we’re free to associate with anyone.”

“That’s a paper-thin shield and you know it,” The Adjustment said, pointing a spindly finger.

“Maybe, but in this situation, I really feel like I’m doing you guys a favor. The Eclipse doesn’t want maggots swarming through the city again. You can only claim ‘gas leak’ so many times before people start taking deeper looks at things.”

“Exactly, which is why I’ll do you a favor. We’ll skip The Emperor completely, and I’ll get you a meeting with The Hermit. Maybe. Hopefully? Her title is extremely apt; she rarely gets out or meets with others—she rarely meets with the rest of us.” After a bout of confusion on her face, The Adjustment shrugged and started wiggling her fingers in the air around her head. “She’s the mystical type, so she’s more likely to believe some fortune-telling charlatan if we can actually get her to talk to you.”

Erika let out a small sigh. “You don’t instill confidence,” she said, feeling like there was no meeting in the future. She could hope for one, but it was probably best to think up other ways of stopping the maggot swarm.