16 – Communication is the Foundation of Advancement

Erika wasn’t exactly sure how to broach the topic of the cursed sword with Rick.

She wanted to break the curse as a little good deed, as a nice little thank you for giving her a place to lie low and, since then, a place to hang out—a little return for them helping her out when she needed it. She needed to figure out something for Anna as well, for putting Leah back together after the museum, if nothing else, but breaking a curse on a sword seemed like a good starting place and a good use of her abilities.

A few concerns held her back over the past few days. For one, she had been kind of going around all this research and investigation behind Rick’s back. From her conversation with Leslie and from having eyes to see the way everyone didn’t openly discuss the sword, she knew it was something of a sensitive topic. Admitting to snooping around and even having a little consultation with an actual mage without Rick knowing or agreeing might not be the best course of action.

Then again, she was Erika.

December Ninth, the day before her eighteenth birthday, she walked right up to Varn’s. Rick’s van was in the back, as usual. He couldn’t possibly live here—the only running water was in the single-occupant toilet and unless he had taken to sponge baths, he didn’t smell foul enough to have foregone showers for any length of time. She was pleased to see no other vehicles around, meaning no Leslie, no Anna, no Sofia, and Erika hadn’t brought Daniel along either.

With a brash confidence that Erika didn’t quite feel at the moment, she knocked a shave-and-a-haircut on the door before unlocking it herself. The knock was just to let Rick know that he didn’t need to hop out of his seat in shock when she barged in.

She was a bit surprised to find it so dark. The entirety of the main room was unlit and empty, all the arcade cabinets were off, and only the emergency lights above the door she was coming through were on.

That all made some sense. If nobody else was here and Rick wasn’t expecting anyone, he was probably in the back. She could see a sliver of light coming through the crack underneath the door. Knocking lightly, only twice this time, Erika stepped inside. “Rick?” she said as she opened the door.

Rick sat behind the desk, facing the door with his ever-present cardboard tube leaning against the wall next to him, but he didn’t look up from his laptop right away. Heavy headphones covered his ears. It wasn’t until her second step into the room that he jolted, jumping to his feet, flinging the headphones off in his hurry to slam the lid of the laptop shut.

Erika stood still, slowly raising one of her eyebrows.

“You, uh… didn’t say you were coming today,” Rick said.

“Sorry. It wasn’t really planned,” she said, glancing at the closed laptop. “Sorry for interrupting.”

Rick’s eyes, already wide, widened a little more. “It wasn’t porn,” he said just a little too fast.

“I don’t really care,” Erika said with a shrug. “You’d have to be watching something seriously nasty to phase me.”

“It honestly wasn’t porn,” he said.

“The pervert doth protest too much,” Erika said with a grin. He had his trousers on and his zipper done up, so she doubted he was lying unless he was one of those weirdos who just watched for the sake of watching. Still, teasing was fun. Erika took two steps forward, reaching out for the laptop like she was going to open it. “You wouldn’t mind me taking a peek if it wasn’t, right?”

Rick ripped the laptop out from under her hands, threw it into one of the desk drawers, then fumbled with his keys before locking the drawer. When he finally looked back up, Erika folded her arms over her chest, grinning victoriously.

“Must have been some hardcore shit.”

“It wasn’t—” Rick ran his fingers through his hair, giving her a glower. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, right!” Erika clasped her hands together. “I don’t really know how to say it, so I’m just going to: How would you like to get rid of that sword?” she asked, pointing toward the cardboard tube against the wall.

Rick stilled unnaturally for an awkwardly long moment, long enough to make Erika internally grimace. Perhaps giving in to her brash impulses hadn’t been the correct decision this time around.

“How do you know—”

“Oh, please,” Erika said with a hefty scoff. “How do I know about your cursed sword? I have working, functional eyeballs in my head.” And Leslie had filled in the rest of the blanks, but Erika didn’t think she needed to throw him under the bus.

“You spoke with The Banker again?” Rick asked after a long moment, far more subdued than he had been a moment ago. “Asked about curses?”

“What? No. I plan to avoid The Church as much as humanly possible,” she said with a shake of her head. She felt like she got away with as little punishment as could be reasonably given and had no intentions of pushing that by making regular appearances. “The Banker isn’t the only mage in town. I had a little consultation with someone known as The Warrior.”

Rick turned away, looking to the large board on the back wall of Varn’s office.

A map of Chicago had been pinned up with several push-pins shoved in at various points, linked by several strings of varying colors. It wasn’t quite an insanity conspiracy board, but it wasn’t far off either. Everything Erika, and now the rest of The Hunters, knew about the supernatural scene in Chicago was labeled up there. One pin, stuck in the dead center of downtown, had a string leading off to a The Eclipse label. Beneath The Eclipse were a few other notes, one with a basic description of them being the rulers of supernatural Chicago, another listing off The Hanged Man, The Art, and The Emperor as members of the group.

There were similar pins for The Puppet, currently only listing The Strategist and The Stalker. The Church and The Castle were pinned as well, though the latter was pinned off to one side of the map since nobody knew where they were based. In fact, the only information they really had on The Castle was that they existed and had someone called The Butler and The Director in their roster.

The Mummy had a pin at the museum, but no real information about anyone associated with them. Erika had spent a week watching the museum shortly after the ‘gas leaks’ stopped, but nothing she saw indicated that anyone associated with the place was some nefarious cultist.

There were a few other random pins scattered around the map. Rick had added one on the eastern side of Chicago about vampires. His only real evidence was an abundance of blood drives around the area, far more than was statistically typical. Down in the south, five pins at five hospitals, all equally spaced from each other, had a string connecting them into a pentagram with notes in Anna’s handwriting questioning the possibility of demons.

Erika wasn’t sure that a pentagram actually meant anything. None of the hospitals had anything particularly noteworthy as far as news went, and three weren’t even hospitals, just little doc-in-a-box clinics.

Then again, conspiracies and ghost hunters went hand in hand.

A scattering of smaller pins dotted other areas of the map, all of which represented potential ghost sightings. Different colored pins meant different things—some were almost certainly busts despite something odd going on, others were a little more certainly ghosts, and white meant more investigation was needed. Ninety-nine percent of them would be a bunch of nothing, according to Sofia.

“Who is The Warrior?” Rick asked, looking back at her after examining the map for a moment.

Erika stepped forward, taking up the note tablet and black gel pen that hung from strings beside the map. She added a new note for The Warrior, listing off Mage and Leader? before pinning it up beneath The Puppet’s header. “She gave off leader-y vibes, you know? The Stalker was certainly quiet, letting her talk without interrupting the entire time. Then again, I’m pretty sure The Stalker is on the bottom rung of their ladder, so that might not mean anything.”

“And you just… went up and asked about my sword?”

“We did a fair amount of research,” Erika said. “Then, we decided we needed an expert opinion before trying anything.”

“We?”

Erika winced. “Danny and I? At that library Anna and I told you about.” She didn’t pause, trying to move the topic along. “They didn’t have actual books on magic, as far as I could tell, but we—”

“And Danny went with you to see these supernatural beings?”

“I mean, he was supposed to stay in the car.”

“But he didn’t. Does Leslie know?”

“He… doesn’t know that he doesn’t know.”

Rick let out a long, slow sigh.

“Look, he told me ‘no summoning ghosts’ and we summoned exactly zero ghosts. Never in the rules was it said that he can’t visit undead or mages or whatever.”

Rick, somehow, had the lung capacity to continue his sigh for several long moments. Erika was fairly certain he was using it as an excuse to buy himself time to think while also expressing some minor disappointment in Daniel’s poor decision-making skills.

“We were going to bring it up at the next meeting. This only happened two days ago. I wasn’t even going to bring it up now, except The Warrior sent me a text. She has tonight free, so if we want a full consultation on your sword, tonight’s the night.”

“Why?”

“She said she wouldn’t be able to help more without seeing the actual thing,” Erika said with a shrug. “Given how attached it is to you, I couldn’t exactly sneak it out from under you to get it examined.”

“I mean… why help at all? Why go through all this?”

“Why not?”

“These people,” Rick said, waving his hand back at the board, “they trade favors for favors. You said that, didn’t you? What did you trade for this?”

Erika paused a moment and considered. When she had gone into that meeting with The Warrior, she had fully expected a trade of some sort. Likely, more things needed breaking—spells or enchantments or whatever had been on that gold bar. The night she broke that bar, The Strategist had said that they would consult with The Warrior and get back to her later.

She meant to ask about it, but she had gotten so wrapped up in The Warrior’s explanation of magic and curses that it slipped her mind, especially once they started discussing the sword itself. Then the magic talk afterwards, and the thought of the gold bar had slipped by entirely.

There would be opportunities to ask later, so Erika wasn’t completely broken up about it. Tonight, in fact, presuming Rick was willing.

But as for his question, what had she traded for The Warrior’s help, Erika couldn’t think of a single thing—which was odd, now that she thought about it. “She didn’t really ask for anything. No deals or agreements or formal passing of favors.”

Her response did nothing to reassure Rick. If anything, he looked even more sour than before. “If a product is free, you are the product,” he said, like he was quoting something, waving a hand dismissively as he spoke. “Normally, that means your personal data goes to advertisers. Here, though, who knows what you’re unknowingly giving up to some witch.”

“Kind of rude. She was polite and answered everything I asked.”

“I meant a literal witch. Magic spells and everything.” Rick groaned. “Do you have to twist everything I say?”

“She didn’t cast any visible magic, actually. I thought about asking, but it felt a little rude, you know? Like she isn’t some street performer busking for tips.” Erika hadn’t wanted to offend the woman. “She did have little glowing balls of light hovering around the table, but for all I know, those had strings dangling from the ceiling that I just couldn’t see.

“Anyway,” Erika said, clapping her hands together, making a noise just a little louder than she meant to. “I’m not here to argue The Warrior’s character. She offered a consultation with your cursed sword. Maybe she’ll ask for something to actually get rid of it, maybe not. The only way you’ll find out is if we head out to meet her tonight.”

Rick grumbled something under his breath as he rubbed just above the bridge of his nose, right between his eyebrows. He cast a long glance at his sword—or its cardboard tube he kept it in—chewing on his lip as he did so.

“Again, sorry to spring this on you,” Erika said, leaning against his desk with a small frown. “Thought we would have a bit more time to tell you about it, but when she sent me that message, I figured you wouldn’t want me shooting her down without a chance to decide for yourself. I can tell her no or see if we can postpone this for a while…”

“No, I want to…” Rick ground his teeth again, running his fingers through his hair. “Is this just me? Can the others come too?”

“Leslie and company?” Erika shrugged. “I’m coming for sure.” She had things to ask about, the gold bar primarily. “I don’t know if everyone is a good idea; it might get crowded, but I’m sure Leslie is fine.”

“No. Anna.”

That surprised Erika a bit. “Really?” she asked. “Not the guy with more guns than the local armory?”

“I thought this was a friendly meeting,” Rick said, narrowing his eyes. “Why would we need guns?”

“I thought you were worried about the dastardly witch trying to turn you into product, or whatever your metaphor meant.”

“I am, which is why Anna is the best choice,” he explained. “She sees things differently than I do. If I miss something, she’ll catch it.”

Erika just shrugged. It really didn’t matter to her. Rick was paranoid, that much was clear, and Erika really didn’t have any room to complain about that, given her own worries about The Mummy, absent as they had been as of late. If he wanted Anna there for support, it was no skin off her back.

“So…” Erika said. “Shall I tell The Warrior that we’re good to go?”

Rick started to nod. “Let me call Anna first, make sure she’s available. Maybe Leslie, too, if only to be on standby if something happens.”

“Sure. Sounds good to me,” Erika said, waving lightly as she headed back toward the door. “I’ll just be out in the main room. Let me know when to send the message.”

“Erika.”

Erika paused, looking back over her shoulder.

“Do you… think there is a reasonable chance I can get rid of this sword?”

After a brief moment of consideration, Erika turned back to face him. “I’m going to tell you something I haven’t told any of the other Hunters. I think I can break the curse entirely on my own, right this second, if I really put my mind to it.” He jolted a little, looking straight at her with his eyebrows up and his eyes wide. “You live with The Fixer hanging over your shoulder and you pick up a thing or two,” she added, handwaving in an explanation without having to go into her family history.

“I see. You must have been thinking about this for a while. Then do we even need—”

“But I don’t because I don’t know what kind of consequences there might be,” Erika said, interrupting him. “I’m a fairly brash person. I act without much thought when I see a good path forward—no sense wasting time trying to be optimal when good enough is… good enough. Without much thought isn’t the same as zero thought, however, which is why I decided to consult an expert… or the closest thing to an expert that I have handy access to. I don’t know if the curse is concentrated solely in the sword, or if it is in you, or if breaking the sword would leave lingering aftereffects, or what.”

Rick drew in a breath, nodding. “That makes sense. Alright.” He took in another breath, drawing himself up this time. “I’ll get Anna on board. And then we…” He trailed off, looking down at himself. He lightly tugged on his bright red and blue flower-pattern Hawaiian shirt and baggy cargo pants. “Do I need to dress up? Is this too casual?”

Erika looked down at her own attire, a high-necked crop-top with a long skirt that had been hidden beneath her longer coat. Contrary to what most of her classmates believed, Erika didn’t put much thought into her daily wear. She knew her ensemble could be assembled from anything in her closet—she simply didn’t buy clothes that wouldn’t. Rick was probably the same, at least as far as putting thought into his attire went.

It fit him. It was something of a crime against fashion—especially the sandals with socks. Even that, Erika wouldn’t care about too much except it was December.

“There is probably time for a quick shopping trip,” Erika said, slowly smiling. “Maybe Anna can come too. I’d love to see how she puts together her biker ensemble.”

“Ugh,” Rick groaned. “I’ll ask.”

“Oh, it won’t be that bad. Shopping with two lovely ladies?” Erika laughed. “You let me know if Anna can make it in time for shopping. I’ll be out there, putting together some ideas for how to get you some drip.”

Somehow, Rick looked even more apprehensive about the prospect of shopping than about meeting with a real-life witch.