28 – Neutrality is a Difficult Path to Walk

“Hey, Danny, think fast.”

With a light, underhand toss, the small metal cube sailed from Erika’s gloved hand through the air, right to a startled Daniel, who, as reflexes dictated, scrambled to catch the flying object. His hands clasped around it, leaving him sighing in relief. For one brief moment, he started to inspect it, only to pause and look up with a frown on his face. He rubbed at one ear while looking around, turning to Rick, then to Anna.

“Can you—” he started, speaking louder than normal, roughly at the volume of someone wearing headphones with music playing a little too loud. “The heck is going on?”

“Morning, everyone,” she said with a grin, stepping fully into Varn’s with the crate of cursed cubes tucked under her arm. “Have I got something to show you all today.”

Daniel concluded that the cube was the cause of his troubles, and he flung it to the table in the middle of the arcade like it was fresh from a crucible. That wouldn’t work, however. Erika and Carter had tested the cubes for the last three days. The Fixer even offered a few insights, drawing on their previous life as a mage.

Even without being in contact with the cube, the song would still play. Distance did affect the quality of the sound, but it took a good mile before fully stopping. There was no time limit either, at least not that they had been able to find—none of them had been willing to subject themselves to music cube for any length of time, but the other cubes didn’t seem to have a time limit, so it stood to reason that the same was true there.

“Say stop,” Erika said, taking mercy on Daniel before he could start panicking.

“Stop.” Daniel’s face turned relieved almost immediately. “What the…”

“I call this one the music box,” Erika said, picking it back up with her gloved hand. Setting the crate on the table, she popped the top and carefully slid the music box back into its slot in the foam padding. The three more dangerous cubes had a sheet of clear packing tape stretched over the top, mostly to ensure that nobody accidentally touched them until she was ready to try breaking those curses. “Plays an annoying song until you tell it to stop.”

Rick and Anna, both hovering around the former’s laptop, leaned toward the crate to get a better view.

“What’s all this?” Rick asked, starting to reach forward, only for Erika to slide the crate out of reach.

She did not want to see if there were any negative effects to being double cursed.

“Delivery from The Warrior,” Erika explained. “A few cursed items to test how they react to me breaking them.”

“Cursed?” Rick hissed, recoiling in his seat.

Daniel’s eyes popped wide open as even he staggered back. “You cursed me?”

“Just a little bit,” Erika said, “The Fixer said these should be perfectly safe, long-term. In fact, none of these have been permanently cursed, they’ll drain their magic after about a month.”

“A month of that sounds like torture.” Daniel slowly shook his head. “I don’t know if I would make it.”

“I wouldn’t let you suffer through all that,” Erika said, lightly patting him on the shoulder. “I’d break the curse before then. Maybe after an hour or two,” she joked.

Daniel shuddered.

“Objects to test curse breaking?” Anna asked, pointing without nearing the broken cube on the top row. “You succeeded, I take it?”

“Well… yes. Unintentionally,” Erika sighed, explaining a little moment of embarrassment. “All the top row cubes have a way to stop their curse without me doing anything, but the way to stop that one was to hit it against something. I happen to be very good at breaking things via percussion.” She rubbed the back of her head. “Too good, in this case.”

“But it did break the curse? Or just the object?”

“I can feel a sort of film around the cursed ones—it’s like a thin layer of grease, except not slick. I can’t feel anything around that one anymore, and while The Fixer isn’t a mage, they were able to deduce that the curse has been successfully broken.”

Anna hummed, walked around the table to be on the same side as Erika, and then stared over the cubes. “May I?” she asked, pointing to the music cube.

“Please. I need to try breaking the curse while other people are cursed—I think that’s as close as I’m going to get to Rick’s situation. Though, for now, just say stop when you’ve had enough.”

Nodding, Anna pressed a finger to the top of the cube and held it there for a long minute. Standing firm despite the combined pressure of Rick, Erika, and Daniel staring at her, she simply drew back her finger and stared at its tip.

“A… Anna. Are you okay?” Rick said, looking conflicted between reaching out to her and staying well away from the crate of cubes.

“Hm?” Anna said, distracted. “Oh. Fine. Horrifying, isn’t it?”

“You can tell it to stop anytime…” Erika said, utterly baffled that she hadn’t already. She, Carter, The Fixer, and even Daniel had all said stop basically the moment they realized what was happening—or, in the case of Daniel, the moment he knew the kill command.

Anna was still going, lightly humming along with the music.

“Didn’t you want to try breaking it while someone else was cursed?”

Erika glanced at her wristwatch with a small frown. “I’ve got something of a time limit regarding that. After breaking it, I can only stick around for about three hours. I don’t know how long today is going to take,” she said before looking to Rick. “Did they say when they would be here?”

“Just sometime—”

“Stop.”

“—today, likely in the afternoon. Leslie is out picking up Sofia and maybe some slurried steak, if he can convince a restaurant to ruin their blender.”

Erika hadn’t missed his absence, yet Daniel’s presence. “I had wondered where he was. Any idea how things are going to go?”

“Neutrality is preferable,” Anna said, rubbing just behind her right ear, jangling several of her piercings together. “But we decided that, if they push too hard, we’ll agree to basically whatever The Eclipse wants. We’re not in this to die over it.”

“Of course not,” Erika agreed.

“The letter did say that they would be coming just to talk, no need to get uncivil over anything,” Rick said, tapping a few times on his laptop before turning it around for Erika to see the scanned letter—not that she could read that tiny text from across the table. “Hopefully, that means that they won’t just attack us out of nowhere if things do turn sour.”

“They seemed easygoing enough last time,” Daniel pointed out.

“It’s easy to be easygoing when you’re in a position of power,” Rick grumbled, huffing a bit as he pulled his laptop back to himself. “Need I remind you that I saw that spider woman with a fist-sized hole in her chest just a few weeks ago? A human wouldn’t heal like that. As long as they think they can beat us down easily, they can be as polite as they want, knowing they’ll win in the end.”

“Pessimistic,” Anna said, returning to her seat. “Not untrue. Though they did give us a little over a week to discuss things among ourselves.” She gave Erika a pointed look. “I wonder if that was more because of the Outsiders than any of the rest of us.”

“The Fixer was mad I said that last time, mostly about myself, I think, not them.” Clasping the crate closed once again, Erika moved it to the back counter so that it would be out of the way when this meeting started. “Honestly, I don’t know what I am.”

“Isn’t this where you say something like ‘I’m Erika’, and that’s all that matters?” Daniel asked.

“I mean, yes, if I want to be really cheesy about it,” Erika said with a small laugh, “but it would also be nice to know. Like, I can do some things that normal humans can’t do, but I can’t do things most Outsiders can do. So…”

“What is normal for humans anyway?” Anna asked, though her tone made it sound like she was asking herself more than the rest of the room. “You’ve got people like me, then you’ve got people like Sofia, who can sense ghosts. Rick’s got a cursed sword; does he count as human?”

“Cursed people seem to be their own classification,” Erika said with a shrug. “But The Fixer says the whole classification system isn’t an accurate representation of reality.”

“Always hated philosophy,” Rick grumbled. “Seemed like a pastime for rich, old, dead dudes who sat around and thought too much because they didn’t have real problems.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “One might argue—”

“Rather not argue about nonsense, if it’s all the same,” Rick cut her off, instead looking up to Erika. “You really think you can get rid of my sword?”

“I’m more confident now than I was before, though I still want to test breaking curses on other people. I need to touch it, to see if I can feel its film. The Warrior delivered her full analysis of your sword along with those cubes, and she doesn’t think breaking the curse will kill you.” Erika paused, frowning for a moment—her hesitation stemmed from a place of worry, unsure whether Rick would take what she said next well or not. “The real issue is whether we should or not.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Erika held up a hand, wanting to explain herself before the yelling could really begin. “Leslie told me how it came in handy once or twice when you used it to chop up a ghost. I personally saw you use it to great effect, chopping up those maggots at that office building, and then you used it to save me at the hotel. We used it as an example of why we deserved to be a neutral faction the last time The Eclipse came around. I know it has… caused problems in the past,” Erika picked diplomatic words, “but you know how to mitigate the dangers now, utilizing it usefully. If I break it, it’ll be gone.”

“That’s what I’m hoping for.”

Erika pursed her lips, wondering if Rick had only heard her final sentence, but decided not to press the issue further right now. She still had to play with the cursed cubes; there would be time for him to think on it.

Even if they wanted to carry on talking now, Leslie and Sofia barged into the arcade, leaving the door open behind them.

“Think our guests are here,” Leslie said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder as he walked further in, taking a quick look around as he moved. “No Fixer or Leah?” he asked, stopping his gaze on Erika.

“They have an… engagement to handle,” Erika said. “Nothing dangerous, but something that cannot be delayed, apparently.”

More dealings with their new cover. Erika hadn’t thought there would be that much to it—she certainly hadn’t noticed anything off about Leah in the first few weeks of The Fixer’s entry into their lives—but she supposed she wouldn’t have noticed if maintenance was literally just living out the guise’s life as normal. Without The Fixer having other covers, they only had Leah’s life to live.

According to them, they should be back to mostly normal shortly after the new year, minus a few hours a week for maintenance.

The timing was not convenient, making Erika wonder if they chose to seek out a new guise less because Erika and Carter wanted to see how it worked and more because they wanted to avoid this exact meeting. She knew they didn’t want to be associated with anyone too heavily, and Erika’s actions in the previous meeting had sort of, maybe implied that The Fixer was throwing in with The Hunters. Still, they could have said something instead of running off to hide.

The Fixer’s absence might weaken their position with The Eclipse, and Leslie clearly knew, not looking any happier with her explanation than Erika was, but there was nothing to do about it. Especially not when the spider-like form of The Adjustment stepped up to the open doorway and tapped her chitinous hands against the frame in a light, unnecessary knock.

“Good day,” The Adjustment greeted, remaining at the door like some vampire awaiting invitation.

“How did you get here?” Erika couldn’t help but ask.

“We drove?” The Adjustment said, giving a confused glance back to where The Art was approaching the door.

The Art wore something similar to the first body that Erika had seen her in, a porcelain mannequin, though this one was fancier with sharp, detailed sculpting of the body, making it resemble a Greek statue. As an admirer of defined abs, Erika took special note of the sculpting of the stomach piece, wondering if the sculptor took initiative on their own or if The Art requested such detail. If the latter… was The Art another weirdo like The Fixer who got horny over human bodies?

Erika wasn’t sure what to do with that thought.

“The city is unnavigable except by vehicle,” The Art said, her voice sounding a little less echoey than it had in the crash test dummy. “Not only because it is a modern American city, but also because we tend to cause commotion if witnessed by most people.”

“Yeah,” Erika said, delaying as she tried to figure out how to word her question. “Don’t people see through your windshield? Not to be offensive, but The Art might be able to pass as someone wearing a mask… The Adjustment is distinctive.”

“The glass is heavily tinted.”

“Huh.” Daniel cocked his head to one side. “And you never get pulled over?”

The Adjustment barked a laugh. “If the police scan our plates, they get told to fuck off and leave us alone. A few diplomatic immunity tags help ward off the idiots who don’t listen to their computers.”

“Aren’t there non-humans who aren’t in The Eclipse? How do they avoid being seen while traveling?”

“As fascinating as this topic is,” Sofia said, running her hands up and down her arms with a shiver. “Maybe they should come in? All the warm air is escaping.”

“Agreed,” Rick said, waving them in. “Don’t want the neighbors thinking we’re too weird.”

“You’d be surprised at what humans will ignore if it means they get to continue in their own little bubble,” The Adjustment said, nonetheless entering and closing the door behind her and The Art. “Which also helps with those who do manage to get a peek through the tint of the car windows.”

“Yeah, you said something like that last time.”

“Anyway, guess we ought to get started right away,” The Adjustment said, approaching the table.

It took a few moments for everyone to settle around, all sitting this time. Erika moved around to be on the same side as The Hunters, Leslie removed his cameo coat and draped it over the back of the chair, and Sofia took a seat right on the far edge of the table. Both The Art and The Adjustment took the chairs deliberately set up on the opposite side of the table, the former making light clinking noises as her porcelain body contacted with the hard metal of the seats.

“So, The Emperor is surprisingly agreeable toward you all being some kind of neutral ghost hunting group,” The Adjustment said, interlacing her long fingers as she rested her hands on the tabletop. “I think she thinks that she can direct you all toward being less neutral with various jobs while still making you happy with the situation feeling neutral.”

“Adjustment,” The Art warned.

The warning went completely ignored. “However, The Emperor also wanted me to give you guys the hard sell first, then slowly back off to show how magnanimous The Eclipse is.”

The Art sighed, clacking her fingers against the detailed surface of her face.

“Are you… supposed to tell us that?” Rick asked, looking confused.

“The Emperor is pretty good at picking out the right person for the right job, and she picked me for this. She picked me,” The Adjustment jabbed a finger to her chest. “Not The Hanged Man, not The Hierophant wearing one of his negotiator masks. So you lot get me and this is how I negotiate.” Scoffing, The Adjustment half turned to The Art while still managing to address The Hunters. “Frankly, trying to strong-arm you into some deal that I’ve already been told isn’t even the end goal sounds like a waste of time on both our parts.”

The Art shook her head slowly, but did not deign to comment beyond her initial warning.

Erika wondered if it was some good-cop, bad-cop routine, except with The Art as more of an annoyed, exasperated cop, while The Adjustment played the buddy-buddy type of cop. Ruse or not, she had to admit that it was working. Both this meeting and the last did a lot to improve Erika’s opinion of The Eclipse, or at least some of The Eclipse.

If The Hanged Man had shown up last time and acted at all like he had the night he dragged her off to The Church, the situation would have certainly devolved into violence.

“I suppose we’ll thank you for being upfront then,” Leslie said, earning a nod from Rick and Sofia. “So what does neutrality mean in The Emperor’s eyes?”

“Oh, roughly what you guys laid out last time. No direct actions against The Eclipse. You’re okay to consort with the likes of The Castle and The Puppet if you must, solely for neutral actions—removing annoying ghosts, other troublesome elements that aren’t involved with The Eclipse, or anything that threatens the secrecy of our side of the coin—but no whining if we had prior plans to engage with them and you all get caught in the crossfire.”

Anna looked over to the others, meeting everyone’s eyes and earning a few nods in return. “If something like the hotel incident occurs again,” she asked, “where we are meeting for purely neutral discussions, will we be attacked without warning, or will we be given a chance to step aside, removing ourselves from the impending conflict?”

“That likely depends on the exact situation. If a bomb is set to go off in your meeting place, you can’t be warned without tipping off whoever you’re meeting with.”

“Are you in the habit of bombing people?” Erika asked.

“Not usually. It’s messy. As someone usually involved in cleanup, I always argue against messiness—I hate making more work for myself,” The Adjustment groaned.

“The last highly destructive incident sponsored by The Eclipse was performed under the former Emperor, sometime in the late nineties,” The Art added. “Generally speaking, The Eclipse prefers to avoid killing, doubly so for indiscriminate killing. It tends to make anyone we fight more willing to go to extremes, compared to if they know they will only be exiled, or otherwise face less punitive measures.”

“You tried to snipe The Warrior in the back of her head.”

The Art dipped her head in agreement. “The Puppet represents a threat to continued secrecy. They tend to be loud and purposefully so. The Warrior, in particular, has no qualms about advertising the supernatural to whoever she believes may be useful, handing out her enchanted bullets to anyone willing to wield a gun in her favor. A handful of humans are always going to know, but they gather up cultists as one might rake leaves in autumn.”

Erika raised an eyebrow at that, finding that it didn’t quite align with her own experiences with The Puppet. Certainly, they were trying to get Erika and the others on their side, what with all the help they had offered regarding the sword without asking for anything in return, but she hadn’t seen more cultists than Simone and Michael. Two people didn’t feel like the end result of ‘raking in the leaves’.

Not wanting to upset The Art or The Adjustment when things seemed to be going her way, Erika chose to keep her mouth shut regarding that oddity.

“You guys meeting with them is the main reason we’re staging this little intervention,” The Adjustment continued. “The Emperor does not want their faction growing, especially not with the addition of someone with a fancy sword and… Outsiders.” She spoke the final word with a suspicious twist in her face, like she didn’t really believe it.

Which was fair enough, given what The Fixer told Erika.

“If you must meet with them,” The Art said, “I would suggest meeting here. This is a location known to us, and we are less likely to strike here than we might under more… uncertain circumstances.”

Rick narrowed his eyes, his frown deepening in a look that Erika associated with a forthcoming conspiracy theory. “That almost sounds like you want us to invite them here, just so you can jump them.”

The Adjustment chittered, laughing with a clap of her hands. “Good instincts. Not saying you’re right, but good instincts. Personally, I’d advise against meeting too many people whom we don’t like, at least until you prove your neutrality through actions. That’s probably going to take some time. Lucky for you, I just so happen to have a job that might help you start proving your willingness to work with us.”

“Doubt there was much luck involved,” Rick grumbled, folding his arms.

Leslie motioned Rick down. “Let’s hear them out.”

“The Emperor owns a bit of property out in Cedar Lake that she’s been having trouble selling, thanks to an annoying little haunting. Clear it out, and she’ll consider it a sign that you’re willing to work toward neutrality.”

Erika’s eyes widened as she resisted her first instinct to look at Daniel. “Sounds easy enough,” she hurriedly said. “Probably be in and out in five minutes.”

Daniel choked a little at her words, but Sofia covered it with an angry curse in Spanish. “We don’t even know the situation? Don’t be so overconfident,” she snapped.

Erika just shrugged. “What? Just say goodbye like last time. Easy. I want to know what the catch is. And what’s the pay?”

“The catch is there is no pay.” The Adjustment tittered in good nature. “Or, consider your neutrality the payment. Now,” she raised her hands, placating, “I told The Emperor that no pay wasn’t going to fly in the long term, but she promised it would be just this once as a show of goodwill. Future ghost bustings might net you anywhere from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands, depending, not that she has another one lined up immediately, but who knows what the future might bring.”

“We can take a look,” Leslie said without even consulting the others. “We’ve always done them without expectation of reward in the past, being able to carry on as we have is pay enough.”

“Agreed,” Sofia said while Anna nodded her head. Erika shrugged and nodded along as well, knowing that this was going to be an especially easy job.

“I… agree,” Rick said, his hesitance earning a look from Leslie. “I get it,” he quickly explained, “but working for free knowing we might be paid kind of sours the feeling, you know? This arcade isn’t earning money, and I ain’t made out of the stuff.”

“Excellent,” The Adjustment said. “No fussy deadlines or anything like that, though I would advise you not to let this linger forever. Wouldn’t be very neutral of you to ignore our extended olive branch.”

“How do we contact you when we’re done?” Leslie asked.

As if waiting for the question, The Art produced a series of business cards—the fancy kind with raised lettering, pale nimbus coloration, and Silian Rail font, presumably anyway; Erika was no expert in font styles.

“My number is on these,” The Adjustment said. “Feel free to call me whenever for whatever. I don’t sleep, so I have a surprising amount of spare time. Seems like I’m acting as your handler, so chat me up about business, I guess. You’ll also find the secretary of The Eclipse listed on the back, use that if you’ve got questions, information for us, or other official business. Probably use that one for reporting on this particular job, but call me for others? Doubt it matters much.”

“Is that The Secretary?” Erika asked, “Or just a secretary?”

“A secretary,” The Art confirmed.

Erika nodded, taking one of the business cards for herself. While she didn’t like The Eclipse, with the potential exception of the two in front of her, she supposed it was good to have their number.

“Out of curiosity,” Anna asked, “what was the hard sell?”

“Oh…” The Adjustment rubbed the back of her head, looking up toward the ceiling in thought. “Something like five thousand a month—collectively, not per member—plus small bonuses for jobs done in exchange for zero autonomy. You’d take jobs we dictate, nothing else. You’d do the jobs we dictate, no argument. If you discovered something on your own, you’d bring it to us to confirm before we’d allow you to handle it. I guess she’d offer some protection in return, but, eh…” She shrugged, glancing at The Art.

The Art looked back, waited a moment, then sighed. “There was some talk of physical pain, both as threats to agree as well as should various restrictions be broken.”

“As I said,” The Adjustment said with a loud grin, “hard sell.”