Sell you a Bridge chapter 75 (Patreon)

Mirror House August 7th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

Arriving  at the auction was somewhat underwhelming. The Silver Ghost pulled up  outside an abandoned building and we all got out, already wearing gas  masks. We mostly had our costumes on under them, except Zee because no  one with a working brain could miss those legs when she's in costume.  The girl can rock a pair of fishnets. So we were all ready for the big  auction, and when we climbed out of the car in a dingy alley behind a  run down movie theater I wasn't the only one disappointed.

I  turned to look at Jim. "This is the famous Mirror House? I'm pretty  sure the basic definition of a house requires four walls. Complete  walls." I gestured at the large hole next to the car that had been  shoddily patched with particle board and what looked suspiciously like  scotch tape. There was even a recessed alcove that was blocked off by a  dirty chain link fence, which of course had plastic bags and garbage  hanging from the links. I understood the brilliance of hiding in plain  sight as well as the next thief, but there had to be standards.

Artemis  was the one who answered. "This isn't Mirror House. Or actually, I  guess it is, but it won't be tomorrow and wasn't yesterday. Mirror House  is less a place and more a title. It's the moving location where The  Dealer holds his auctions, the inside will be heavily made over for at  least tonight. They'll take most of the stuff and wreck the rest before  they go. Don't let the outside fool you though, Mirror House has crazy  security, so everyone keep their sticky fingers in their pockets unless  they want them chopped off."

Jim  nodded. "She's right. Even I wouldn't try to rob Mirror House. Now come  along children. Places to be, things to do." Jim strolled across the  alley, once again floating just above the puddles and trash, and walked  right through the chain link, something we unfortunately couldn't do.  After slipping between the fence poles and under the chain holding the  gate closed we followed him up to a door in the recessed wall. A very  shiny, very new looking metal door, humming with arcane energy.

A  quick flick of my aura sight showed a spiraling pattern of runes across  the metal. Nothing I recognized, but nothing too complex either. From  the aura of the door I get the impression that the being who created  this was going for function over form. They had a system of runes that  could be laid quickly and efficiently and had solid higher end power and  they spent time perfecting that layout rather than individual  protections. I imagined this ward schema had been carved into many, many  doors. Still, it was stable and sturdy, nothing fancy but very  dependable.

The  point of the door wasn't to be unassailable, it was to make sure the  person assailing it had to stop and work on it for a bit. This was meant  to hold forces at bay while the defenders got in position. Jim reached  out with his cane and rap rap rapped on the metal, the sound echoing for  a minute before the view slot halfway up slid open. A pair of blank  lenses stared out, clearly from a gas mask. A low dull voice echoed from  within the door. "Invitations." It wasn't a request. It was a demand.  We either gave him invitations or very bad things were about to happen.

Luckily  we had them with us, and we handed them through the slot. He studied  them for a minute then opened the door, stepping back to let us through,  He didn't say a word, but once we were through I observed the masked  man and was pretty glad we had our invitations. He was big. Like, Andre  the Giant big, seven to eight feet of ass kicking goonish power stuffed  into an almost bursting suit that probably could have double as a  fucking car cover. I nodded to him as we walked by but he just turned  back to the now closed door and ignored me.

As  we rounded the corner I leaned in to mutter to Zee. "Wow good service  here. Very friendly." She giggled a bit and grabbed my hand, a gesture I  returned with a squeeze of my own and a smile under my mask. Artemis  hadn't been kidding about the redecorating. As we walked I took in the  whole place and I was impressed. Plush red carpet, understated white  wall paper with gold trim sconces with white candles in gold settings  and I suspected this place might be bigger on the inside.

Whoever  their decorator was had the magic touch for sure because there was  sorcery practically rolling off the walls here, but regardless of that  with my aura sight I could just barely make out the reality underneath. I  couldn't tell if this was an illusion or some kind of construct but at  this level I doubted it really mattered, whatever the case the bones of  this theater were still visible to me under the lovely elegant skin.  Oddly it didn't make the feat any less impressive, if anything it added  an air of menace to the building, like being able to see the darkness  beneath a beautiful face.

Another  thing I noticed was that there was no guide or map. Nothing was leading  us to our destination except the halls themselves, and I caught slight  flickers the the world twisting behind my eyes as we walked. I knew that  all the hallways here would lead where they wanted us to be, no one  would end up behind the stage or wherever they kept the auction items.  We were on the fast track to the main room and nothing would take us off  of it. I was pretty sure we could turn and punch through the wall and  it would take us the same place this hallway was leading.

When  we emerged from the hall we came out into a massive room. The place had  obviously been given the same magic treatment as the halls, the kept  most of the seating on the ground floor, but added private boxes up top  and replaced the screen with a huge sprawling stage. White and gold  columns formed rows down either side. Jim led us down a few rows and we  dropped into a set of seats. Closer inspection showed that they hadn't  kept the same seats, just the color. The red cushioned chairs were more  plush and further apart and small groups of them were sectioned off.

The  lines on the floor around the seats hummed with magic much like the  door. The magic looked like some kind of privacy bubble, and I was  impressed by their preparations again. I turned to Jim. "So how does  this work? Do we go get a paddle? Just shout out a value? Can they even  hear us?" I didn't love the paddle idea, it felt like an easy way to  sneakily track someone. I'd seen too many movies where something  innocuous was used as a bug and with magic they didn't even need an  actual bug to do it.

Luckily  we had Jim here. He turned his white gas mask (still wearing a monocle  and floating on an invisible head) and fixed his gaze on me, or I assume  he did it was hard to tell between the mask and him not having eyes.  "They can't hear us, but we can hear them." He reached into his coat and  pulled our an ivory paddle with a golden number forty three on it. "  The paddles are the only things visible through the wards and only to  the auctioneer, the rest of us are all obfuscated. They call the number  of the winner and reserve the goods and we trade in the paddle for them  at the end of the night in private rooms."

That  was an interesting system. Since no one had seen our paddle coming in  there was no way anyone could tie them to us. The auctioneer could call  our number with no consequences and since we would trade things in  elsewhere no one would know who was who. We didn't even have to worry  about the paddle being used to trace us because we would be giving it  back. I cocked my head. "So we can talk without worrying about being  overheard here? Because I'm sure I'll have questions and being able to  ask about things seems important."

He  just chuckled, his voice somehow not muffled at all through the mask,  though that made some sense considering he had no vocal chords in the  first place. "Feel free to speak about anything you wish. I've laid down  a few privacy bindings of my own since we sat down so even if they have  have recording spells in here we're fine to talk. Your instincts are as  on the spot as ever lad, I'd have been disappointed if you just bought a  mess of items without consulting any of us. It's your money of course,  but it's hardly smart to waste expertise."

I  grinned under my mask and turned to Zatanna. "So did you notice the  spatial folding on this place? Because it's definitely bigger in here  than it should be. I can see some of the structure of the spell and it's  fascinating." I loved all the crazy ins and outs of magic but not  nearly as much as my girlfriend. Zee was a complete nut about any kind  of mystical construct and I knew she would be as fascinated by this  place as I was. I didn't even need to see that pretty face of hers to  know she was grinning right back at me.

She  literally squealed with delight. "I know! Not to mention the pathfinder  enchantment on the hallways. It's a fascinating spell. There was a  similar though much larger scale enchantment in Italy back in the day.  The phrase all roads lead to Rome was actually pretty literal for a few  years there." She sounded as excited as I expected, and I heard Artemis  and Kit groan as I set her off on another tangent. Reggie was distracted  looking around at the auction hall. I loved it when Zee got all  research crazy, it was so cute.

We  spent the next half our comparing notes and talking about rune  structures and construct styles and mana throughput. My girlfriend  really was the biggest nerd on the planet. Jim actually chimed in here  or there, and I was flabbergasted. With his whole gentleman thief  persona it was easy to forget Jim was one of the most powerful magic  users in Gotham, possibly in the world. He had centuries of experience  and just listening to him make casual comments seemed to lead us down  new and exciting paths.

I  had gotten lucky as hell with my mentor, I knew that for a fact. If I  stuck with Jim I would learn magic other people couldn't even dream of.  The crazy part was that he wasn't a dedicated researcher. He just kind  of read everything and remembered it. Jim experienced magic, mostly in  Gotham these days but I knew he'd been a world traveler for a while.  Finally our conversation had to come to an end because the auction was  about to start. A hush fell over everyone in the crowd, including us, at  once. As if the man who had appeared on the stage had brought silence  along with him.

Said  man was, of course, wearing a gas mask. Other than the same absurd  piece of gear everyone was sporting he didn't seem to have any  outstanding features, but when he spoke his voice was deep and resonant.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, I bid you greetings. I am The Dealer, and this  is my Mirror House. The artifacts that cross my stage are strange and  mysterious, items of power of infamy. Tonight you will bear witness to  treasures and horrors, and you will wage a financial war to claim them  as your own. Now, with that said. Let the auction...begin."