Downtown Druid

Moving through a mirror was very different from moving through trees. With the trees there was a sense of oneness with everything and a loss of ego, but with the mirror there was only an intense discomfort and awareness of something other watching, followed by a sudden return to reality as one steps through the other side where it connects.

Jacopo shook his head and scurried into a dark corner behind a plant to regain his senses. His connection to Dantes had faded and he spent a moment focusing on reconnecting to him.

“Are you okay?” sent Dantes.

“Yes.”

Dantes tried to measure where they were in relation to one another, eventually managing to triangulate it.

“You’re in uptown somewhere.”

Jacopo sent an affirmative and took a moment to peek out from behind the plant and look around. He was in a building with a thick carpet interwoven with images of nude demon women in salacious poses that reminded Dantes of Tel’s etchings he’d left to Syn. The walls were covered in purple curtains and a woman wearing no top approached Mondego as he lit another cigarette, this time blowing out a smoke of bright cyan.

“Mister Mondego, we weren’t expecting to see you back so soon.”

“I have a meeting with Godfrey.”

“Yes sir, he just reserved a room next to where the Fingers met you earlier.”

Mondego, took another inhale and blew more smoke into the air. “You. I want a room with you after my meeting. And a steak. Make it happen.”

The woman nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Mondego walked through the opulently and sinfully appointed halls with Jacopo close behind him, taking his time to follow him. They passed by one large meeting room that Mondego hesitated outside, gritting his teeth and flaring his tusks for just a moment before moving past it. The room beyond that had one woman and one man standing outside of it. They wore gold half masks and soft smiles that gave Dantes a chill even through Jacopo.

They both bowed lightly and pushed each of the doors open, revealing a large open room at the back of which, behind a mask, sat a man whose face seemed to be glowing.

Jacopo carefully slipped into the room behind Mondego and climbed into a small gap between two cushions from which he could see everything. From where he was sitting, he got a better glimpse at Godfrey. He was of average height and build, wearing a burgundy shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar, and black leather gloves on each hand. What really stood out about him, was that his face seemed to be made entirely of liquid gold. Gold eyelids blinked over pupiless gold eyes, gold lips peeled back into a smile revealing golden teeth, and as he spoke a golden tongue could be seen shifting in his mouth.

“Mondego,” Godfrey purred, his voice low and deep. “I’m glad you were able to come on such short notice.”

Mondego sat, his face an impassive mask, though Dantes knew him well enough to sense he was distressed.

“What did you need?”

“Are you in a rush? Need to get back to the missus?”

“No.”

Godfrey smiled, “You’re worried, I can tell.”

“No,” lied Mondego.

“You think your recent troubles are Dantes’s doing. That your old sacrifice has come back to haunt you?”

Godfrey looked for a moment, directly into where Jacopo was hiding, then looked away. It was just long enough to give Dantes and Jacopo pause, but not long enough to confirm that he’d seen him.

“Well, I can tell you that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Mondego's eye twitched and his hands clenched tight. “What?”

“He’s back. He’s coming for you and the others.”

“How do you know?”

“That’s immaterial. I know it the same way I knew your name before I came to this city. The same way I know that right now there are nine hundred thousand five hundred and sixty seven gold, one million and six silver, and ten million copper currently changing hands at this moment throughout the city. The same way I know that you’re not going to tip the whore you have arranged for after this meeting.”

Mondego stayed silent, his eyes focused on the desk in front of him rather than the unnerving golden eyes of the man smiling across from him.

“Your old acquaintance Gaspard has already been killed by him. Beaten to death before being devoured by vermin.”

Mondego began to pull another cigarette from his case, placing it to his lips.

“Danglars took the news poorly, but you seem to be handling it better.”

“Gaspard wasn’t worth a boot full of piss.”

Godfrey smiled. “I wouldn’t say that. Everyone has their value.”

“How’s he doing it? Not killing Gaspard, any kid with a knife could manage that, but my warehouse? Getting out of the Pit?”

Godfrey smiled and leaned back in his chair.

“It’s safe to assume he has a new set of skills and some help.”

Mondego blew a smoke ring into the air. “You know more than you’re telling me.”

“Always. That’s the nature of our arrangement.”

“Is that what this meeting’s about? You telling me bad fucking news to feel like you're better than me? I’m the one on the streets. It’s my fists that are covered in blood while you hang out here with whores acting like some fucking noble.”

Godfrey’s smile vanished and his hand whipped out from the desk and grabbed Mondego’s by the ring finger. Gold smoke suddenly seemed to rise from it, and the ring tattoo began turning from gold to black.

“Wait!” cried Mondego.

Godfrey released him, and the gold smoke swiftly wrapped itself back around Mondego’s finger.

Godfrey’s smile reappeared on his face. “I called you here to give you some advice. A way to give you an edge against your former friend. This meeting is a favor, don’t forget what you owe.”

Mondego rubbed his ringfinger and nodded. “Okay. What’s this edge?”

Godfrey’s smile widened and he looked directly at Jacopo, this time, his stare unwavering. “First, let me remove any prying eyes.”

Jacopo and Dantes shared an absolute harmony of thought in that moment.

“Fuck.”

Jacopo moved from the couch and started sprinting for the door.

Godfrey held two gold coins between his fingers which he tossed into the air. Before they landed, they had become golden cats, and they began sprinting after Jacopo.

Jacopo squeezed through the slight gap on the bottom of the door, and began sprinting toward the nearest window.

The two masked guards opened the doors for the cats, who didn’t slow down at all as they sprinted toward Jacopo.

Jacopo couldn’t beat them in speed, so he shifted tactics, ducking behind a red fern just as they were about to catch up with him, one of them slammed into the wall, and he took that moment to leap onto its face and claw at its eyes. While it looked to be made of gold, its flesh was soft, and Jacopo tore a hunk of its right eye from it, eliciting a loud screech from it as he leapt away trailing gold blood behind him as he searched for a window.

The other cat stayed hot on his trail as he ducked into a room in which a dozen or so men and women were all tangled together wearing masks as they enjoyed one another’s naked forms. Jacopo leapt onto the nearest one, eliciting a screech which swiftly spread through the rest of them as he started climbing through their pile.

The cats reached the room too and began scratching and tearing their way through the orgy in an attempt to reach him, further raising the volume of screams that were spreading throughout the chamber.

One woman with a high and elaborate hairdo that she had somehow maintained through the undulation of dozens of bodies, screamed and backed away toward a window that was cracked open. Jacopo leapt onto her, climbing up through her hair and leaping onto the windowsill, narrowly avoiding the grasp of golden claws as he leapt out the window and began running full speed into the night while Dantes watched, their hearts beating swiftly in unison.

Dantes took note of the fact that they were in the Lower East part of uptown, near where the Church of Many gods was located. Not a bad place to put a secret meeting place and den of sin. He sent Jacopo what directions he could before limiting his contact so that Jacopo didn’t have him hounding his every step as he moved to return to him.

Dantes was sweating profusely, and took a long sip of water before collapsing back onto the floor. Godfrey. He was the one who had tempted his old gang into betraying him, and it looked as if he had some way to monitor his current whereabouts as well. That was trouble. Though he did seem unwilling to give Mondego exactly what he wanted. Dantes wasn’t sure, but he had the distinct sense that Godfrey was playing a very different game with very different stakes than the rest of them were.

Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks bite into the inside of his cheeks.

“Dantes,” said Wane as he approached.

“Yeah?” he asked, not fully giving Wane his attention.

“We’re ready for a lockpick.”