Chapter Fourteen

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Saori’s car was a disaster.

This was not news. It was, in fact, one of the first things I had noted about her, and it had continued to hold true since. “Saori’s car is a glorious disasterpiece composed of the most bizarre, disturbing, and confusing shit you will have seen today” was just a maxim I had learned about interacting with her. As with most such maxims, it hadn’t taken long for this lesson to sink in.

What I now learned was that this rule applied more extensively than I’d quite realized. She’d had this car less than forty-eight hours, and it was already every bit as strange as the last. She had her usual array, the things that never varied: Emergency gear, medical kit, dice and cards, acetylene cutting torch and sledgehammer, spray paint and rope. Those things were in the car because they were useful, and as a result they stayed there.

But she had also accumulated quite a bit of truly strange shit already. To sit down, I had to move a bag containing about twenty mood rings, a toaster which appeared to be operated by hand-crank, and a plastic box with dozens of restaurant coupons. Being a fool who never seemed to learn, I gave in to curiosity and examined the latter somewhat before putting it in back. All of the coupons were from other cities, I was pretty sure, and it looked at a glance like they were all expired.

“This is impressive,” I told her while I set those in back, on top of a large plastic tub of conch shells. Raincloud took a moment to climb onto my lap, possibly trying to make sure there was space to fit in around all the insanity. “I mean, I’m always impressed by the shit you dig up, you know that. But this is a particularly insane batch.”

“Thank you, I try,” Saori said, in one of the worst fake-humble tones I’d ever heard. “So your thing’s at the coffeehouse, seemed easiest. It’s at twelve-thirty, so you might want to wake up some.” Then she stomped the accelerator, and I learned that it also took less than forty-eight hours for her to arrange whatever unholy mess of aftermarket tweaks she used. I at least managed to get the seat belt on and my eyes firmly closed before the first corner, thankfully. I wanted both with the acceleration she put into it.

Because of course she picked me up fifteen minutes before I was supposed to be on the other side of the city having an important meeting with someone I’d never met about a topic I had zero knowledge of. Saori was fun, but sometimes I just had to sigh.

Then something occurred to me. “Wait a second. You gave me an interval of, like, six hours. How is he on that specific of a timeline?”

“Because he’s a wimp.” I was guessing she meant the guy I was supposed to be meeting, though the sudden horns made it plausible she was referring to another driver.

“How does wimpiness affect timing?” I wondered.

“It’s about those layover domains. You can route through those on whatever path you want. In theory, at least.” Saori paused. “Oh, hey. You want some caffeine?”

“Fuck yes,” I said, and the enthusiasm in my voice got a laugh from Saori and Raincloud alike. I’d had virtually no access to it except in the form of coffee in days, and while I wasn’t yet desperate enough to drink that, that wasn’t saying much with me. “So that’s in theory. In practice?”

“It gets messy.” She pressed a cold metal can into my hand, startling me a little. Blindness…was better than the alternative right now, but it always had its own drawbacks. “I mean, first off you’re only going to have so many transfer points. And if you try using one you don’t know, very bad things happen. There are other limitations, too.”

“Sure, makes sense.” I cautiously sniffed at the liquid. The can was labeled as an energy drink—I’d risked enough of a glance to check, and gotten to enjoy the sight of Raincloud with her head out the window and Saori with her hand out the other window flipping off a semi on the way past. The drink was probably what it said it was, but it was best to check with Saori. Her pranks were usually funny, but some were much funnier to watch from the outside. It smelled right, so I ventured a sip.

“Right, so anyway. The only way you’re getting an ETA that tight is if you’re doing things in a really boring way. Only use domains that sanction being used as a layover, so that you don’t have to be careful about it, like a wimp. You don’t have to be subtle that way. If you’re bootlegging your way through the system to avoid paying fees, things get slippery.”

I very nearly blinked, though in this case that would have meant opening my eyes to stare at her. “Wait, really?”

She laughed. “No, not really, dumbass. His transfer point was in Cleveland, remember? He’s on the road already, texted me from the edge of town. Nah, nobody gives a fuck about portals unless you do something stupid. This kind of travel is pretty normal in most domains.”

I sighed, but I couldn’t fully hold back laughter myself at that. I had to admit, I’d walked right into it this time. I sipped at what did appear to be an energy drink, pet Raincloud, and listened to the familiar cacophony of drivers being pissed at Saori. This, too, passed in a blur; but it was a soft blur, this time.

---

Softened Dreams was busy. This was inevitable, really. It was Friday afternoon, two days before Christmas. If there was a busier time, I wasn’t sure when it would be. I recognized a lot of the people there, too, not surprising given I’d been actively trying to socialize lately. Hell, I’d been trying to network, as much as I hated that verb both linguistically and as an activity. Of course I recognized people.

On another day, I might have talked to some of them. I didn’t see anyone I’d really consider a friend, but there were some friendly acquaintances. On another day I might have sat and lost a game of chess against Karl, or gone to the back corner where Alexandria was presently working on some schematics. She was some cocktail of mechanic, mechanical engineer, and mad scientist, and if I was being honest she was mostly friends with Saori. But she liked to talk shop, and given that cars had been something for other people to worry about for most of my life, I had a lot of shop to listen to. I was still almost certainly never going to be capable of driving, but I couldn’t afford ignorance anymore. Sparrow was also apparently the kind of lunatic who would work overtime at a coffeehouse and then come in on his day off as a customer, and I might have gone over there so he could pet Raincloud. Things like that.

On another day. But I was here on business today, and I could see it waiting. Or, rather, him. Saori’s friend-of-a-friend was here already, and it wasn’t hard to spot him. For one thing, he was one of the few people I didn’t recognize at all. For another, he stuck out. You just didn’t get many people with skin that dark in Pittsburgh. There were plenty of black people, but the only time I remembered seeing someone comparable to him was a girl who had recently moved here from Kenya. It was noticeable.

Oh yeah, and also he was waving us over as soon as we hit the door. That part helped. Saori had said she’d never met this guy before, but he presumably knew who he was here to talk to, and it’s not like there were many Japanese people in town, either. So I supposed that it was pretty reasonable for him to have spotted us. The chances of it being a different pair of Japanese girls (or, well, given that Saori wasn’t even from Earth it got messy, but in terms of appearance at least) walking in at the meeting time by coincidence were essentially nil.

“Hi there. I’m Kadir.” His voice was…remarkable, enough so that I had to work to avoid a potentially awkward reaction of one kind or another. Kadir was only average in height and build, but his voice was quite possibly the deepest bass I’d ever heard, and resonant, making me think he probably did actually sing. It was the sort of voice that made me want to taste it, and that wasn’t bad, but it probably wasn’t a good idea during a business meeting.

“Saori, a pleasure. Glad you could make it out here. Feather spoke very highly of you.”

Kadir grinned. His teeth were almost startlingly white against the background of his skin. “Feather’s a sweetheart. How’s she doing these days?”

“Seems well enough. Still very…bubbly.” Saori’s smile seemed sincere, but it also definitely seemed rueful.

Apparently, whoever Feather was, bubbliness was a known trait. Kadir laughed, and it had the same rueful tone as Saori’s smile. “Sounds about right. Well, pleasure to meet you. And…” His eyes slid over towards me, and he trailed off.

“Key.” I wasn’t trying to get him to pronounce Kyoko, for any number of reasons. The nickname was…tidier. “I’m interested in getting some defenses set up on my home. I hear you’re a good person to ask about that topic.”

He grinned, and didn’t put any false humility in it, which made me like him more. “I do my best. Initial consultation and bid is free. Details on the job?”

I stared. I was…not expecting that. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, but usually it was me that was cutting through that much small talk. And I sure as hell had not been expecting anything about this to be free.

My surprise must have shown on my face, because Kadir chuckled. It sounded like a bass drum. “It’s good business,” he said. “Start off on the right foot, you know?”

“I suppose,” I said dubiously. “Confidential, also?”

“Yes, entirely. I might have to talk to some other people for the job itself, depending on what you want done. I’m good, but I can’t do everything. But I swear I won’t share the details of this conversation with anyone, not without confirming it with you first. With obvious exceptions for things outside of my control, of course.”

It was a bit casually phrased, but I wasn’t too worried. Even a casual oath had too much weight in our circles to be lightly broken. I’d want more exact definitions for some purposes, but for this? It was fine. I relaxed a bit more, suppressing a yawn. “Cool. I don’t know what information you need, though. You might have to walk me through it.”

“Let’s start with what you want. What do you know about ward systems?”

“Jack shit,” I said cheerfully. “I know they exist, how they work on an extremely abstract level, and that some react very poorly to being doused in honey mustard.”

“Hey,” Saori said, sounding like she was trying for indignant. It wasn’t working very well. “I already told you and her both that I wouldn’t do that again. Geez. A girl fumigates one dance party and suddenly it’s all people want to talk about.”

Kadir paused, and I could see him visibly make the decision not to ask. He was a quick study, really. Most people took the bait at least once before learning not to ask questions about Saori’s insanity. “Right, well,” he said after that momentary pause. “Start off with the base. Any given warding system uses a single working laid over the whole area as a backbone. Other components build off of that.”

I nodded. “The force reversal thing, right? Someone tries to push through and it redirects their momentum?”

“That’s the most common, yeah,” he agreed. “Sometimes you use something else, an alarm or such, but a kinetic inversion is very broadly effective, so it’s the most popular choice. For a really basic system that force inversion might be all you need.”

I thought about the things that had been going on, and my lips twitched, though I doubted anyone would mistake the expression for a real smile. “I think it’s safe to say I’ll need more than the basics.”

He nodded, not looking remotely surprised. “Right, well. Once you get past that, the options open up pretty wide. It will depend on how much you want to spend, what you want to prioritize, and what environment you’re working in. Generally, I recommend that people have at least four or five different kinds of triggered effects built into the structure. Usually better to go for a wide range on those, but it will depend on whether there’s anyone in particular you’re worried about. I once did a job for some guy who managed to piss off Surtr’s granddaughter, for example, and I didn’t bother putting any fire in that mix, you know?”

I snorted. “Yeah, I bet. What happens if one of these things goes off, anyway? I mean, not the actual magic, I get that part varies. But does it need to be replaced or something?”

Kadir shrugged. “Not usually. If someone actually damages the spell structure then it needs to be repaired. But generally I use versions that are self-rearming. It’s more up-front work, but much less over the long run. It still needs upkeep, the working is always going to decay over time. But I can show you how to do that, and it doesn’t require much skill. Not much more than it takes to raise and lower them, and I highly recommend you learn to do that. It’s not strictly necessary, you can automate them, but I really don’t recommend it for any but the most low-security purposes.”

I thought about Audgrim. About the key he’d made, so that someone could get through dvergr-designed wards without knowing how to use them. A small security lapse, one that I was sure he hadn’t even really thought about as an issue. Still enough to get him killed, though, and he’d dragged quite a few people down with him. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “Tend to agree on that.”

“Right then,” Saori said brightly, before the silence could really settle in. I was sure Kadir had noticed my sudden shift in mood, but the kitsune stepped in before any comment that might have been coming. “So now that we’ve finished remedial studies, what are we actually, you know, doing?”

“Well, I assume you have a specific place in mind here,” he said. “What can you tell me about it?”

“It’s a house here in Pittsburgh,” I said. “Relatively old one. Three stories, wood frame, built on a steep hill. Basement’s reasonably well secured, but otherwise no defenses or security of note. Neighbors are nearby, but street access is limited because of the hill. It’s on the northern slope, if that’s relevant. Sight lines are limited, but it has a clear view along the street leading downhill, which is also the best access route. Terrain is rough by city standards, overall, enough that it’s inaccessible to a lot of vehicles in winter.”

Kadir paused and looked at me. “That is an unusually good tactical summary,” he said. There was a sort of respect in both his eyes and tone that hadn’t been there before.

I smiled. It felt tight, but sincere. “I’ve had a lot of motivation to practice,” I said. I could feel Raincloud chortling in my head at his expression, a verb I had rarely if ever had cause to use and yet which was definitely the right one for the moment.

Kadir smiled as well, and inclined his head slightly. Not quite a nod; it felt more like someone acknowledging a touch while sparring. “Fair enough. Well, I’ll be honest with you. That’s…going to be hard for me to do much with. You’ve got a flammable structure with no existing defenses, and the neighbors will make things hard. They limit what kinds of triggered spells you can use without causing problems. Though they do somewhat limit the attacker as well.”

I thought about the car bomb. And granted, this wasn’t something I was looking into just because of my current situation. I wasn’t planning just around the one known attacker; I was hopefully going to survive long enough for other people to also get to threaten my life, after all. But at the same time, I kinda doubted this would be the only person or group willing to use measures like that.

Yeah. I wasn’t planning on the neighbors discouraging much of anything right about now.

If anything, kind of the opposite, and being reminded of that turned my mood from dark amusement to just dark in a heartbeat.

“What would you recommend I look for instead?” I asked him.

Kadir gave me a funny look. “That’s it? Not going to argue with me about it?”

I shrugged. “You’re the one who knows what he’s talking about in this conversation. What’s the point of hiring an expert if you aren’t going to listen to what they have to say?”

He snorted, a very strange sound with how deep his voice was. “That’s a sensible attitude, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t grasp that. Especially when I’m telling them something they don’t want to hear.”

“I like my house. But I like being alive more, and I don’t have much room to be sentimental right now. So, suggestions?”

“Ditch the wood,” Kadir said without any hesitation. “You can reinforce it with magic, but you’re starting at a deficit. The same magic applied to something that’s already sturdy will be better.”

“Considering present company,” I said dryly, “less flammable is a good idea regardless.”

Saori managed indignant for all of three seconds before she was grinning. “Okay, that’s fair,” the kitsune admitted. Raincloud didn’t even try to mask her reaction, and the chuffing sound she made was so distinctly amused you really didn’t need a telepathic connection to parse it as laughter. Hell, even Kadir was grinning, and he didn’t even know Saori.

A moment later, though, he continued. “The hill is good. Makes it harder to use a numerical advantage. You’re going to want at least one quick exit, though. The neighbors are also a problem, because a lot of the stronger wards are very…visible. I’d suggest somewhere where an explosion wouldn’t draw immediate attention.”

He was, I noted, pretty much describing the Blackbird Cabaret. The building was an old warehouse made out of metal and concrete. Easy road access. Secluded, a post-industrial district with few neighbors to speak of, and even when it had been active, loud noises weren’t nearly as remarkable in a warehouse complex relative to a residential area.

Hell, it also described Maddie’s home, or possibly lair. I wasn’t entirely sure what all counted as a lair but her place seemed like a good candidate. And regardless of the word used, it was another warehouse complex, one so abandoned that I was pretty sure she was the only occupant in the entire complex. Metal, concrete, and asphalt, secluded, and she might actually be even closer than the Blackbird to Kadir’s description, because while street access was through a maze of tangled, narrow side streets, she had easy access to both the river and the railroad tracks. I knew for a fact she had methods on hand for a quick exit using either.

“Great, I can work with that,” I said. “Though it might take a little time for me to find somewhere. What’s your availability like?”

Kadir shrugged. “I’m free currently, but things come up. If you have a specific date I can schedule around it, otherwise it might take a while if I’ve already got something I’m working on.”

I nodded. “That’s fine. I can contact you when I have a firm date. But for the moment, any chance you could also do a basic set of wards on the place I have? And I mean very basic.”

“I guess,” Kadir said, sounding rather dubious. “But I don’t know how much good it will do you.”

“Oh, it doesn’t have to work,” I assured him. “It doesn’t even have to last more than a few days, a week at most. It just has to be there.”

Kadir looked at me oddly. So did Saori, for that matter; she hadn’t heard about this yet. “I suppose that’s doable,” he said after a moment. “Should be pretty easy, if you don’t care about it lasting.”

“Great! Can you have it done by Monday?” I was grinning, now. It was a little too wide, a little too eager. Kadir actually pulled back when he saw it, just the tiniest bit. I didn’t think it was conscious, and I couldn’t entirely blame him. I knew what I looked like when I was grinning like this. It looked more than a little bit like some of Saori’s creepier smiles.

It was perhaps unsurprising, then, that she moved closer while he pulled away, and the confusion in her posture faded in favor of arousal. Saori…was very much what she was.

But Kadir, after that momentary flinch, was nodding. “Should be doable. You want a price quote?”

“Please, and can you do one for a better set? Just so I have an estimate to plan around.”

“Sure,” he said, taking out a notebook and a pen. “But it’s a pretty broad price range until I see the place. I have to know what I’m working with.”

“That’s fine. I can give you the address for the current place.” I fished around in various pockets until I came up with a notecard and what appeared to be a heavily-chewed brush pen. I had no idea where that had come from or why I was carrying it, but it would work. I wrote out a street address, he wrote out an invoice, and we swapped them with a mutual wince.

For me, it was at the price tag. I was reasonably sure I could afford it, but only barely. Depending on the margin of the error on the higher quality wards, it might or might not be enough that my inheritance was no longer self-sustaining. Regardless, it was clear that I could no longer afford to casually ignore my finances. Though I supposed that at least Kadir was willing to take cash. There were much worse things to owe someone than money.

For his part, I was pretty sure he was just wincing at the quality of my handwriting.

“Okay,” he said after a moment, tucking the notecard away. “Do you want to do it?”

I nodded once, sharp and quick. I was, I realized, still grinning. “The cheaper of these at the address I gave you, minimum. I’m not sure when I’ll need the better one, but I’ll call you when I know more. I have a set of keys for the current location, if you need that, and if you can get me the account information I can have payment sent over as soon as possible.” I paused. “Though that might take until Tuesday, thinking about it. Just because of the holiday. Is that an issue?”

“No. I’m willing to trust that you’re good for it. I’ll get started right away, and barring unforeseen complications I’ll be done no later than Monday afternoon.” He smiled again, teeth so very white against skin so dark, and it didn’t touch his eyes. “Pleasure doing business, Key.”

“Likewise,” I said, and watched him go.

Then, almost immediately, I turned towards Saori. “So,” I said brightly. “That was fun. What can you tell me about veils?”

To her credit, or perhaps detriment, Saori had no difficulty with the topic change. “Quite a bit. It’s one of my strong suits. Whassup?”

“Well,” I said. “Start with, how the hell did you know Ekaterina and her gang was there the other day? I didn’t feel them at all.”

She laughed. “You wouldn’t. Smoothing over those energy traces is, like, one of the most common things for people to practice. Any halfway decent veil is going to be very low-profile in that way.”

I nodded. Not all that surprising, really. I was sensitive, but not remotely the only person who could feel magic moving around. And most of the people who were good at veils would be interested in hiding from other supernatural critters, not vanilla humans. It made sense that this was one of the senses people learned to hide from.

“But they’re not perfect,” I said. “I mean, as noted, you caught them at it. How’s that…work?”

Saori shrugged. “It depends. There are a lot of kinds of veils. You can pretty much lump them into two groups, though. First one is if you block the actual sensory stuff, which is hard and usually has holes in it. You can see flickers or distortions, hear something for a second, stuff like that. The other is if you just make it hard to pay attention to you, which someone can shrug off like any other mental magic. They were doing the second, and I’m pretty good at catching those.”

I nodded. That made sense, really. The few times I’d run into magic targeted at my thoughts or emotions, I’d generally gotten flattened by them. Capinera sometimes left me semiconscious by accident, and I knew because she had, repeatedly.

I added that kind of resistance to the list of things I would look into later. It had to be a trainable skill, I was sure of it. Everything became easier with practice.

For now, it was useful to know. “So,” I said. “Hypothetically speaking here. It would be easier to get the drop on you with the other kind?”

“Ehhh, complicated?” Saori shrugged again. “It’s not that binary. But I guess sorta?”

“Good enough,” I said. I was grinning again. “And so, if I’m understanding right, for the kind you’re not as good at, you’re blocking the actual signal? Doing weird stuff with optics, that kinda thing. And then I assume that’s not all the same, like, it’s going to be different mechanisms to hide different things?”

“Yup. A lot of veils start mixing things together. Mostly use misdirection, but also hide so that it’s easier to slide past. That kind of stuff. Like I said, not binary. Why are you asking?” Saori seemed genuinely surprised that I was even interested.

“I have a plan.” The grin was wider, and my voice was cheerful. I didn’t think it was a lie, not really. “It’s stupid, insane, and extremely dangerous, you’ll love it.”

I explained what I had in mind, and it was actually a plan now. She had just confirmed some of the specifics. There were enough things in hand now to call this a plan now, not a vague idea.

I was right. She loved it. Saori was laughing her head off by the end, more than loudly enough to prevent eavesdropping. Hell, Raincloud was asleep, and somehow still managing to mentally laugh while dreaming. I did not understand that.

I grinned. I sipped tea, and started to say something about how I appreciated the help.

Then I realized that Saori had gone still. And she was looking over my shoulder. And from her expression, I was guessing I wasn’t going to like what was back there.

I turned around, and looked up. And up. And up some more. The guy standing behind me had a lot of “up” in which to look, being around seven feet tall. His smile showed several missing teeth and entirely missing humor, the expression having more in common with a pit viper than a friend.

“Hi,” he said, in a voice that might have sounded deep, had I not been listening to Kadir a few minutes ago. “Mind if I sit down?”

Sometimes, I really hate being right.

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