Stronger Together chapter 97 (Patreon)

I let Harry take this part. We had already told him every detail of  what the vampire had said. Honestly Harry could probably have just  talked to Bob alone but we were coming over for Yang's lessons anyway so  he decided to just wait a night and ask Bob when we showed up. The big  wizard was as worried as we were, and I suspected he knew how much it  would bother us to be left out. Much like introducing the girls to Bob  this was a way for him to show he trusted us after seeing how hard we  worked in Colorado.

Harry  turned to Bob after responding to my questions about the chain mail.  "As fascinating as all this is, we have another issue to deal with.  There are Black Court vampires in town, that crazy bitch Mavra is back  and she's setting her people to follow me. We don't know exactly what's  going on but they mentioned something about an Iron Crown and blotting  out the sun. I didn't even think that was possible with magic, wouldn't  the long term consequences be disastrous?" Honestly I'd wondered about  that too. It seemed like an insanely stupid plan given the tidal  ramifications alone.

Bob's  eye lights sawed back and forth, as if waggling a hand. "Depends on how  you do it. Magic tends to cheat when affecting things on that scale. I  imagine it would mutate plants and people into dark parodies of  themselves, acting like kind of a dark sun. There's a few ways it could  work though. The Iron Crown is something I know more about. Well, the  name anyway. The fact is there are a bunch of Iron Crowns. Pretty much  any crown made in the Iron Age was described that way and a bunch of  those were powerful." The skull had dropped into lecture mode and I  settled in to wait. Bob loved to hear himself talk and honestly he kind  of earned it.

As  expected the skull continued on with his lesson "All those aside  though, when people use that term they mean one of two crowns. The first  is the Iron Crown of Annuvin. It's a particularly scary artifact owned  by a welsh death god. That thing would have the power for what you're  talking about but it would have caused huge ripples in the supernatural  world if it was stolen. I think the one you're looking for is the Iron  Crown of Lombardy. Much like the swords the Iron Crown is said to be  beaten from a nail of the True Cross. It's been missing for centuries  and if you used the proper rituals to desecrate it would definitely work  for a sun snuffing ritual."

Harry  frowned "Wait I though the Swords were all made with a nail from the  true cross, weren't there only three?" Harry was even more familiar with  the Swords of the Cross than we were, and Kara had been offered one of  them. "How many relics of the True Cross are there anyway?" I was  curious about that myself, this Crown was clearly the real deal if Bob  was telling us about it but it's not like there had been a dozen nails  in that thing. One spare I could believe but was it just a faith thing?  Could the Catholics make new ones just by convince the masses they were  legit?

Bob's  eye lights blinked in surprise. "Oh there were only three nails. Two of  the swords just used a half a nail each. Amoracchius is the one with the  complete nail. It doesn't affect the strength too much though, it was  mostly a size thing. The Sword of Love was just a bigger blade. The  final nail went into the Iron Crown. That thing is much less structured  than the swords though it's power manifests more through the will of the  wearer, the divine right of Kings and all that. It would be much easier  to pervert the Crown than one of the Swords."

That  honestly sounded like a really bad thing. The Swords were heavyweight  gear, top tier artifacts. If the Black Court perverted something on that  level they would become seriously dangerous, blotting out the sun or  not. I cleared my throat "What would you need to pervert an artifact of  the Cross? Is there a special ritual they'll need to use like with the  rite of ascension? Can we narrow down the place or time?" We had zero  idea where to start here, any clue or detail could help prevent the  world from turning into a thirty days of night themed amusement park.

Bob  made an unhappy sound. "Sorry kid that's a no. Desecration isn't really  some big production. Granted the details are always horrible but its  not so much on a schedule or anything. You can pretty much commit any  atrocity big enough whenever you want. In modern times there's plenty of  people that won't be missed or noticed if they go missing. I'd imagine  they wouldn't skimp on the blood and death but as for when it goes down  who knows." He sounded mostly academic about that, it was easy to forget  Bob was a non human sometimes, as a spirit the idea of death didn't  really register the same way with him as it did for mortals.

But  then I had a thought. In the original timeline Mavra's scourge had  shown up at a homeless shelter. The basement had been full of kids in  cages, the books had made it seem like it was just casual cruelty from  inhuman monsters but what if they were stockpiling them for some  horrible desecration ceremony. Blood Rites would be at least a few  months away maybe as much as a year, the timeline was vague in the  books, but regardless it was clear they would need some time. Even if  Mavra realized we knew and rushed we had a few weeks probably, she  couldn't speed up too much without alerting the mortals.

I  looked up at Harry in excitement "I might know something. In my  original vision Mavra was holed up in a homeless shelter.I never  mentioned it because it's pretty far in the future and I figured we  could prevent it. She had some kids in there trapped in cages. The thing  is this wasn't supposed to happen for months maybe as much as a year.  If we assume the reason she was here in that vision is the same then she  was clearly here stockpiling victims for that ritual for quite a while.  Hell a year probably isn't even a long time to something like her. It  would make sense to follow you too because she would want to avoid  discovery and make sure you weren't suspicious of the disappearances."

Harry  looked visibly sickened by the idea, a sentiment I both shared and  agreed with, but he nodded in understanding. "That's awful but it's a  place to start. I'll talk to Murph and see if any parts of town have a  large amount of homeless missing. Do you know which shelter it was?" I  shook my head sadly, the books hadn't ever bother mentioning it that I  remembered. Harry cursed "Ok, but still homeless people is a place to  start, and we know that they'll probably need some time to get enough of  them without tipping off the mortal authorities."

Barb  spoke up, she and Yang having been quieter than usual after meeting  Bob. "We should get in touch with some members of the homeless  population. They keep track of each other better than the cops. If a  bunch of transients are disappearing you can bet someone in the  community has heard something about it. I doubt the vampires are stupid  enough to be taking them all from one spot but if we can get enough data  we can try and spot a pattern and predict where they'll go. We might be  able to cut them off before they take more people."

Harry  look visibly cheered by that idea "Of course! I don't really know any  homeless people but tracking them down should be pretty easy sad to say.  I know a few places the cops don't bother busting that are known to be  frequented by large groups of homeless. Train yards, storm drains, even  parts of Undertown. It should be easy enough to track them down, but we  can't bring Murph. The cops aren't exactly welcome and she screams  police. Luckily a huge guy in a long coat just comes off as weird not as  law enforcement."

Yang  snorted at that but she jumped in too "Sounds good, do we split up  then? Or is this going to be a group thing. I know it's normally a bad  idea to, as Cam would say 'split the party'. But this sounds like a  pretty public thing, I'd love a chance to hit the streets and show off  my skills." From watching the show I actually wasn't concerned for  Yang's safety, but I had a bad feeling about letting her loose on  Chicago after what happened in episode one. A drunk soulfire using  huntress could kill someone, including herself pretty easily if she  overdrew her soul.

Harry  knew none of this but still shook his head "Nope. Like I said one of  our destinations is Undertown. That place is a nightmare factory. Not to  mention that predators like to hide out among the homeless looking for  victims. Various types of fae and monsters could be waiting around for a  snack. We go together, and I can test some of your new skills myself  and give you some on the job training. I'm interested to see what you  managed to learn. Barbara and Cameron both grew an insane amount during  our training and you had Raven to guide you too. Do your best to impress  me." He winked at the last part making it clear it was a joke.

Bob  piped up "Oh I can think of a few ways she could impress us all. You  with the kid too blondie? Because I'd be happy to teach you arcane  secrets if you whip out those sweater monkeys for me. I haven't seen fun  bags like that in years, talk about defying gravity." I winced. So  close to getting through this entire conversation without him pissing  either of them off. Honestly whether Yang would accept the offer, smash  the skull, or just laugh it off was anyone's guess. She was by far the  hardest of the girls for me to read or predict.

To  my relief she just cackled, ignoring Barb's murderous expression.  "Sorry bonehead I keep the twins under lock down. Your tiny little skull  would explode if you got to watch these babies bounce. Not to mention  I'd have to let the boss see my jugs at the same time and it might make  lessons awkward. Not that I haven't noticed him staring a bit." She  winked back at a sputtering Harry before continuing "But if he sees the  girls in all their glory we'll never get anything done. Plus he's got a  baby on the way." Her teasing air evaporated "Congrats by the way big  man. You're a lucky guy."

Bob  chuckled but went silent with a glare from Harry, who turned to Yang  with a smile. "That I am. Susan is amazing." He turned to glance at me  gratefully "I can't ever repay you for telling me about the baby.  Missing even a single day of my child's life would have broken my  heart." His expression sobered "Anyway we'll start on the vampire hunt  now, we have a few hours until nightfall. If we catch them when they're  actually trying to take someone we can follow them back to their lair  anyway. The only question now is where do we go first? If I was a  vampire I'd probably hit Undertown. That place is a bit of a mess  though, you guys up for a trip down into the darkness below the city?"