The Power of Ten

I stepped inside behind him, scanning for anything living or intelligent, and finding nothing. He was likewise looking with the Eyes of Heaven, and finding nothing.

He tapped his nose, and I sniffed. Yeah, there was something like rotting meat. Despite his size and weight, he moved with level feet and great weight distribution, and could have been a shadow as he moved ahead of me.

I noted the bowls on the floor in the corner before I turned my head to see the dead dog sprawled in the short hallway, right in front of the bathroom, looking like it had been blown apart by a Warlock’s Scorn. Blood and gore had sprayed the immediate area, and there was a thick pool of it on the floor.

Animals weren’t subject to the Shroud, so it was just here rotting, flies somehow finding the way in to start the process.

I grimaced and shot it with a vivic Dart. The vivus began to clean it up quickly, poofing and starting to spread unwhite mist over the floor, and doubtless annoying the flies whose eggs were going to hatch and find no food.

There were slashes, gouges, and someone’s head had hit the wall here. I looked around the small living room, shook my head, and looked at the stairs going up, where the railing at the side had been crashed through by someone.

Well, she hadn’t gone quietly, I mused, finding some respect for her, seeing the dark spots of more blood on the rug. If she gave them this much trouble, no wonder they were letting her die...

Still, no sign of gunfire. Did she not own a sidearm? Sounded foolish. She must have been using a knife...

Master Fred went up the stairs in front of me, while I scanned for magic and found only the faintest traces on the remnants of the Scorn, basically verifying it was Warlocks at work. I dropped off the mail on the kitchen counter before following him up.

The door to the upper bathroom was demolished and blasted apart, and there were clear signs of a struggle in there, with the shower curtain torn down, towels everywhere, and the sink area scored by another blast. There was a messy dent on the lip of the sink, and I instinctively put my hand up to a scar on my temple.

Yep, this was where they had nabbed her and beat her down. My hands tensed, and Shards flicked up despite themselves, spinning rapidly in a blur of jet and silver at my agitation.

Whatever. Most of them were dead. I just had to find the last of them, and feed him his business.

Master Fred edged open the guest bedroom, stepped aside for me to look, and headed for the main bedroom, open down at the end of the corridor and visibly a mess.

She’d done it in blue. The baby was a boy...

I looked at the crib, the baby clothes, the supplies, the ornaments; everything was laid out and ready for the child. She had put time and effort and thought into this... I could feel the love and anticipation as my eyes moved over the elephants on the frill on the windows, the sparkles on the ceiling, the balloons on the wallpaper...

My Shards were just a chiming blur, swirls of rainbow at the edges of jet and silver at this point. I really, really wanted to shoot something right now...

Perhaps she didn’t know how much work it was to raise a child, but she had been willing to try... and give him the love from his mother she had never received.

Aagh! Fuck! I was a One! If Ael was here, he’d drop freaking everything, Div that sucker’s location, get there and freaking melt his mind to mush before feeding him to the Dread of Harse. Let the Glooms be happy with a soul at Zero coming to them...

How long was it going to take me to catch up with them? At the rate I was Leveling sideways? Damn it!

I closed the door for now. It looked like the only room that was not damaged, although a lot of the baby supplies were definitely missing, probably grabbed by the Warlocks so they wouldn’t have to buy such things themselves, of course...

The main bedroom took up half the floor, pretty spacious, with a big, comfortable bed that was oddly untouched in the midst of the amount of shit thrown all over the place. From the pattern, I gathered they were looking for things they could sell. There was an empty place where a large-screen TV had once stood, and dust showed where several other items had been removed, including what was probably a computer. Drawers were tossed out and emptied, her jewelry box was scattered, and the walk-in closet was a disaster area.

A couple storage bins had been hauled out, emptied, and kicked through... they seemed to be remnants of her childhood.

I stood there and sighed, looking at it all.

ANY RESIDUAL MEMORIES?, Master Fred asked in burning letters.

“No. That would make this much simpler.” I put my hand to my forehead. “Cleaning up is not going to be difficult. Cantrips can fix much of the damage. I am going to go through as much as I can of everything here, which is going to take me a while. Are you a decent investigator?” He nodded with a shrug. “Look for anything electronic, in particular, which you think might help locate purple-eyes, and anything else.

“Pointedly, I didn’t see him wearing gloves. Given the amount of violence, he might have left some fingerprints around.”

He lifted his eyebrows thoughtfully, while I began to wave my hands, and Prestidigitation began to put things back where they belonged. I didn’t dust or clean, as that might interfere with what he wanted to do.

He did wink out for a minute, and then came back with a spray bottle he began to squirt around, raising prints that glowed gold in the light of his Wrath. His Vaccine was snapping pictures, and I saw the gnome holo rising on his phone as Master Fred started going around the place, looking for things.

I fixed damaged things with Mending while he scanned and photographed (did he have a DNA scanner in that Vaccine? He was taking blood samples...), fixing damage to the walls, doors, and fixtures, although the Taint in the Warlock Blasts left black smears across them that weren’t going to come out without a bit higher Valence effect... or some holy purity I couldn’t tack on yet.

I hated being a One... but, time and rep counts, time and rep counts...

---------

A flash of golden light got me looking up from the restored table as I slowly went through the mail.

GOT SOMETHING, he indicated from the open glass door to the back yard, and I stood up to get a look.

It needed to be mowed and weeded, but it had a decent spread of flowers and grasses planted. The small brick patio had a couple outdoor chairs and a small table on it... and a cinderblock wall next to it had a small barbecue grill sitting on it.

He waved his hand over it, and golden handprints shone here and there all over it. I eyed my hands, and knew they weren’t my inherited ones.

A familiar image popped up, replacing the cartoon lawn gnome, and my eyes narrowed sharply. “That’s him,” I confirmed.

“Estevaz Complareo,” the gnome’s voice came from Master Fred’s Vaccine. “He’s noted as a person of interest for the Gabrielo Cartel, which has known ties to the Church of Shoul... and frequently employs Sinbound of all stripes to do their dirty work. I don’t know how the two of you hooked up, Miss Traveler, but if Shoul is involved, it’s not a coincidence.”

Darkmoon bloodline... I could only close my eyes and sigh. “No, I do not believe so, either,” I agreed calmly. “But the servants of the God of Secrets will not be easy to find.”

“That is true, because they are treacherous, clever, and sneaky bastards,” Gregorigori agreed, but his voice said he was relishing the challenge. “But... this bastard is a baby-stealer. There are always some people who will go above and beyond to locate someone like him... and others that can be pressured successfully because of it. We’ll find your baby, Miss Traveler!”

“Boy,” I corrected him in a low voice. “He is a baby boy...”

There was a short pause, and the gnome went on politely, “Do you know if he was born human or halvyr, Miss Traveler?”

“No. I was mostly dead at the time.” Which actually wasn’t even a lie.

“I see. Do... you have a name for the boy?” he inquired.

“He is a Highmoon, like his great-grandfather. I had not settled on a first name yet.”

“The Church of Sylune will turn the world upside-down to look for a Highmoon child,” the gnome noted quietly.

“They will be the least likely to find him. He also has the Darkmoon Bloodline.”

Silence from the other end for a long moment. “Are you certain of this?” the gnome asked, his voice hushed.

“I have both Bloodlines myself. They were cancelling one another out. I had to burn them both to free up my magic and save myself. If Complareo is affiliated with the Church of Shoul, it stands to reason they want the Bloodline.”

“Would tracking down the father help?” the gnome prodded gently after another shocked moment.

“Were I able to give you that name, I would do so, track him down, and likely shoot him, given everything that has happened,” I answered calmly. “I have months of my past I cannot recall anymore, perhaps burned away with my Bloodline. I do not even know if Complareo is the father. I cannot actually recall sleeping with him.” Which was not a lie, either.

“Burning two powerful Bloodlines like that... quite understandable,” the gnome said soothingly. “Well, we’ll have a lot of eyes looking for the bastard now, Miss Traveler, don’t you worry. If it becomes known that he stole the baby from the woman who brought the Human Tongue to everyone, he’s going to have a hard time hiding!”

“Perhaps.” Disguise magic wasn’t that hard to use, after all. “I’m certain you will do your best, Master Gregorigori.”

“Yes, my lady, I most certainly will!”

---

Fred closed his Vaccine, and sat down on the other restored chair across from me. I TOLD HIM THEY STOLE YOUR CAR, SO YOU MAY BE GETTING A CALL REGARDING THAT. He pulled out the Vaccine that had arrived with my kit, which he had simply taken possession of for now. HOW BAD IS THIS TECHNOPHAGERY YOU HAVE?

“Extensive. I can probably answer and dial a phone. Figure technology levels about what existed when the Shroud came.”

He shot me a glance. AND YOU HAVE TROUBLE TURNING ON A CAR?

“They have significantly more electronic components today,” I noted to him, and he nodded after thinking about it a moment...