Jason smiled as he tapped his sword. The first job for the city was nearly successfully complete. They had saved some people from being used until they were monsters and helped put a troublemaker down.

It didn’t get better than that in his opinion.

He wasn’t sure about the competition they were giving themselves now that they had explained everything to the girls and let them choose what they wanted to do.

All of them had decided to keep hunting monsters when they found them.

“How do we explain any of this?,” asked Tilda. “The captain said he wanted

justification for his gold.”

“It’s magic,” said Jason. “With the Alvas gone, we don’t have proof they as a nation were involved. I personally don’t think they were. Our villain seemed to be acting out of revenge more than anything.”

“We still have the eight monsters to deal with to finish the job,” said Tilda.

“That will be a snap,” said Jason. “We have our apprentice monster hunters. As soon as they are ready, we’ll take them around and mob our monsters in their lairs. Once that’s done, there won’t be any more witches to kill, and we can go back to mundane threats on the city.”

“That seems like a plan,” said Tilda. She glanced at Pike in his chair with his eyes closed. “We can get Pike to tell the Captain what’s going on.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” said Jason. “Paperwork has never been my forte.”

Pavel and Errant sat at a table by themselves. A bottle of brew had been produced along with two glasses. Jason kept an eye on it. The last thing he needed was a drunk magician casting hexes.

Sonya and Woody were taking care of the girls. They had been offered beds for the night until they felt like going back to their dorms.

The cure had been vile from what Jason had seen, and he was glad to leave things in Sonya’s hands.

Sonya came from the other parts of the house and took in the scene. She shook her head. Woody sat down beside her. He wore a dog grin on his face.

“Husband,” said Sonya. She took his glass poured a drink for herself. “It is time for you to go to bed. You have work in the morning.”

She put the glass down and helped him up to his feet. Jason moved to help, but she waved him off. This wasn’t the first time she had to lay him down to sleep because of something he had seen, or done.

It probably wouldn’t be the last.

Woody took Pavel’s chair. He stared at his master and friend. The man in blue didn’t look up from his cup.

Woody barked once, loud as thunder. Pike sat up at the sudden noise. Jason nodded. Errant eased back in his chair.

“I know,” said Errant. “It just seemed like the thing to do.”

Woody made a noise about that.

“I win a lot of bets with this,” said Errant.

Woody barked.

“A lot,” said Errant.

“Do you mind if we join you?,” asked Jason. He nudged Tilda so she would sit down at the table with the magician and his dog. “What kind of bets do you win, Errant?”

“Mostly drinking contests,” said Errant. “I never get drunk.”

“Really?,” said Tilda. “Why?”

“It’s one of the things you give up,” said Errant. He poured himself another glass and sipped on the alcohol. “You can drink as much as you want, but you never get drunk.”

“I’m like that too,” said Tilda.

“Really?,” said Errant. “I doubt you could keep up with me.”

“You think so?,” said Tilda. “I drank a shae lord under the table. I’d like to see you do that.”

“They can’t hold their beer, much less the hard stuff,” said Errant.

“Really?,” said Tilda. “Put some gold on this table and we’ll see who the best drinker is.”

Woody barked. He shook his whole body in the negative.

“What’s his problem?,” asked Tilda.

“Beating children is not much of an achievement,” said Errant. “He wants to move on before I get too involved in putting you to sleep.”

“We’ll see who gets put to sleep,” said Tilda.

Errant waved his hand at her. He stared at his glass.

Tilda stood. She shook her head. She went to the bar and secured a glass for herself, and the biggest decanter of alcohol she could find. She pushed the other bottle out of the way and put the new bottle down.

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“You ready?,” she asked as she opened the bottle.

Woody barked. Jason held up his hand.

“Let them get it out of their system,” said Jason.

The drinking started casually at first. The exchange of shots barely cleared the top of the bottle in the first ten minutes. Then Tilda started pushing forward. They quickly emptied out the first bottle without a sign of trouble.

The second opened bottle still on the table followed the first in a matter of minutes. Jason sat back in surprise. He was known to drink a little, but not like this.

The pair of them went through the bar Pavel had stocked up. The empties were stood on one side as they finished them. Errant kept up a string of commentary as they blasted Pavel’s supply like a man in the desert chasing water.

Finally Tilda’s body gave up the ghost just before the sun came up. She slumped in her chair, empty glass in hand. Errant pulled the glass from her hand and put it on the table. He looked around.

“I think we should leave while everyone is asleep,” Errant said. Woody sat up, braced to get to his feet.

“Not everyone is asleep,” said Jason. He smiled at the small scare he had given. “I’m still here.”

“We’re going to leave before Sonya realizes we drank everything in the house,” said Errant. “She’ll be a little bit irritated.”

“What about Tilda?,” asked Jason. He waved at his apprentice.

“She’ll sleep it off and be back on her feet in a few days,” said Errant. He shrugged. “She’ll have a headache for a while, but some pain killer will take care of that.”

“There are the eight monsters we have to kill,” said Jason.

“Can you handle it?,” asked Errant. “If not, I’ll clean them out before the sun comes up.”

“What am I missing?,” said Jason. “You can solve most problems with a wave of your hand. I don’t see why you need us at all.”

Errant frowned. He looked away to gather his thoughts. Then he pulled himself together, and he was someone else.

“I have been asked to save the future,” said Errant. “While I can change some things for the better, I need others to enlist and fight the important fights while I rove around. That’s why I created the Baldwins, and showed the Rioridanians how to summon their daemons, and pushed the Alvas back when they tried to ruin humanity, and other things I can’t recall off the top of my head. I could fight your major battles for you, but I need you to fight your battles yourself and keep things running when I am busy somewhere else.”

“Are you doing it?,” asked Jason. He leaned back in his chair.

“Doing it?,” said Errant.

“Saving the future?,” said Jason.

“I have no idea,” said Errant. “Every win pushes things back a little further. That’s the best I can hope for at the moment.”

“If you need a monster killed, send a note,” said Jason. “I’ll be glad to do it for you.”

“Look after the girls and the Konstantins,” said Errant. “That’s all I can hope for at the moment. Tell your girl she’s tough, but I was tougher my first day on the job.”

“I’m sure she will love that,” said Jason.

Errant smiled and walked from the room. Woody followed with a bound. Jason watched them both go silently. He looked at his apprentice. She drooled on the table. He pushed her back in her chair, and wiped her face and the table off with a napkin. He shook his head.

He still had a horde of monsters to deal with, and uncertain partners to do it with from his standpoint. He would have to work out a plan with Errant out of the picture. At least they knew everything now. That would make their planning a little easier from his perspective.

Tilda would be able to lend her mental power when she had recovered from her drinking. He shook his head at the empty bottles on the table. He would have to compensate Pavel at some point.

He decided to nap until someone came to kick him out. Once he had talked to

everybody, he would start thinking of ways to kill things.

When they were done with the witches, they would turn their attention on that strange hotel. After that, they would try to focus on other crimes for the Guard.

He didn’t know by the time he wanted to focus on the hotel the Guard had already found a secret laboratory under the facility. The experiments didn’t look that pleasant to them.

Pavel tapped him on the shoulder to wake him up. He nodded when he focused on the old adventurer.

“All of my alcohol is gone,” Pavel said.

“Tilda and Errant had a drinking contest,” said Jason. “Tilda lost.”

“I can see that,” said Pavel. He waved at the woman in her seat. “She looks horrible.”

“She did well for herself,” said Jason. “Unfortunately, her brain gave out. I’ll get her on her feet and moving in a few minutes.”

“Errant?,” asked Pavel.

“He and his wooden dog have moved on to the next thing they had to work on and have decided to let us handle the monsters when the girls are ready,” said Jason. “If they never ready themselves, I’ll deal with their transformed colleagues myself.”

“We’ll work something out long before that becomes an issue,” said Pavel. “I have to go to work. We can meet here in the afternoon. Sonya will probably have something to say but you’ll be gone for a unknown time doing unknown things.”

“I should gather up my colleagues and get them to their homes,” said Jason.

“Thank you for letting us stay. Send a bill for the alcohol to the office. Arlo

will pay it.”

“All right,” said Pavel. “It has been a pleasure.”

Jason got to his feet. He nudged his partner with a foot. Pike opened his eyes, but didn’t seem inclined to move.

“We’re leaving, Arlo,” said Jason. “We might need a taxi to carry Tilda home.”

“All right,” said Arlo. He stood up and stretched. “What happened here?”

“Tilda and Errant drank all the liquor they could find,” said Jason. “We have to pay Pavel for that.”

“I’ll put it down to charge the Guard for it,” said Pike. “This seems like a lot of

alcohol.”

“It is for guests normally,” said Pavel. “Or normal guests. I suppose I should have seen something like this happening.”

“It’s all right,” said Jason. “No one sees something like this coming. Let’s get our apprentice up and we’ll take her home.”

Jason and Pike picked Tilda up between the two of them. Pike grabbed her jacket, and slung it over his shoulder.

“She is heavy for such a little girl,” said Jason. He shifted and lifted her over his shoulder.

“I’ll get a cab,” said Pike. He rubbed one of his eyes. “Thanks for your help, Master Konstantin. Except for clean up, it looks like this case is closed.”

“I’ll ask the wife to arrange things so we can take care of the monsters left behind,” said Pavel. “Who would have thought a ghost would have exposed some of this?”

“A ghost?,” asked Jason.

“My friend, Ivanoviska, was killed by one of these witches,” said Pavel. He escorted them to the door. “He asked me for help. That’s how the wife and I got involved with the girls.”

“Still around?,” asked Jason.

“Probably,” said Pavel. “He’s picked up the ability to steal bodies. It’s only a matter of time before an exorcist gets involved.”

Jason nodded. He carried Tilda through the house as Pavel led the way to the front door. He stepped out on the front sidewalk and felt the city come into focus around him.

“Now, I have to make my excuses, and go about the mundane business of checking accounts,” said Pavel. “Also I might need to push the bank mailman down a flight of stairs.”

“We’ll leave you to that,” said Jason, smiling.

Jason and Pike headed back toward the center of the city, Pavel split off and headed for the bank he worked at on the West Side.

They found a cab and boarded. Their trip took them by the hotel Jason wanted to investigate. He frowned that someone had burned it down during the night while they were chasing things in the dark.

“It looks like our dead man came through here,” he said.

“I’ll go by and check it in a few hours,” said Pike. “He might have cleared out a viper’s nest for us.”