I shrugged at Versalicci’s comments. “Truth be told, even if it wasn’t suicide for myself trying to hammer through that…well, the Duke certainly made it easier by melting the middle. But it’s only a useful bluff while we’re in this room.”

“So, an empty bluff, then?”

I put a hand on the quartz. Heat still coursed through it but it had cooled enough I could put fingers on it.

“Not entirely empty. Even if your reasons for keeping me alive and well all this time have dissipated, I am your best bet for not ending up as the guilty party at the end of this. Voltar doesn’t think you are, but he’s not long from being sidelined, I bet, and has much less reason to see this entire mess resolved.”

“Ah, the enmity of nobles,” Versalicci rolled his eyes. “Like I have not already earned that a hundred times over.”

“Don’t play the fool,” I said. “Whoever’s framed you will not have this as their only hand, and they want you, and me, as their patsy.”

“Which doesn’t change my ability to evade unwanted attention, but don’t worry. You’ll have the information you want and be out of here without a scratch on you.”

I looked down at my blistered fingers still lying on the circle, and after a half-second lifted them. In the end he was right. It was an empty bluff the moment I needed to leave.

“Why was Golvar carrying around a box full of Angel’s Sorrow?”

“Why that specifically? I have little idea myself, although it’s clear someone I thought was a trusted business associate has turned traitor. That’s another issue to be dealt with.”

“Make sure it’s actually that ‘business’ associate,” I warned. “While I wouldn’t stake my life on it, at least one person I’ve met involved with this has shown an ability to shift their form quickly and rapidly.”

Versalicci’s pause before replying was barely a second, but still long enough to be noticed.

“Interesting. Shape-changers?”

“That or someone has made some remarkable breakthroughs in Biosculpting with no one else getting a whiff.”

“Such is the fate of our species, that even creatures from myth come to assail innocents just for being of diabolic descent.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know what irks me more, the idea you were ever innocent or that you consider this an assault on all Infernals. But regardless, where did Golvar go to pick up the box?”

“It was a dead drop set up for the occasion. I’m hardly going to send one of my trusted and known lieutenants to my source’s home or property.”

“Then give me their name and address then. It’s a place to start, at the minimum.”

Versalicci sighed. “Bismuth, near the docks. There’s an alchemical supply store called Maldron’s Herbs. I’d set up an introduction, but if the owners are behind this, no need to tip them off. I am not sharing what Golvar was supposed to haul back. And they are mine if they end up behind this.”

“Get in line,” I replied. “Another question, since the answer to my previous one is so little in its worth?”

He laughed.

“Then, because solving this helps both of us? The Pure-bloods, have they been a problem before now?”

He shook his head. “Oh, not really. Not that much more than any other human-only gang does. You’d think as cosmopolitan as this city has become, they’d broaden their recruitment some, wouldn’t you?”

“.....yes,” I said. I was pretty sure he was joking. He wasn’t oblivious.

“In terms of recent activities, they’ve been making moves for their own chunk of the underground, but bluntly. Stepping on toes far bigger than their feet. I thought they’d be a self-solving problem, but after their recent offense, I believe it’s time for us Infernals to show the rest of those living down here how it’s done.”

Again with that speaking for all of us, Versalicci. “That’s interesting. They’ve been trying to lean on the Delver’s guilds as well. And where are they located, if you know?”

Voltar probably knew where their headquarters was, but I had a few people I trusted more on where scum would be living than him. Versalicci was at the top of that list, even if he was the least likely to actually say.

“No, sister,” he said. “Oh, I know, but they are mine. You do not hurt the Black Flame without suffering the consequences. That’s two questions, which I think is more than we agreed on, but I do have a favor I want in return.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I looked at the melted quartz in the center of the room. “And what would that favor be?”

“Tell Voltar that while a truce will exist for now, the moment he uses this as an occasion to investigate my dealings, he will bleed. Now come, let’s see you out, sister.”

***

I jolted awake, hand reaching for a knife, before everything came into focus.

I was in an Infernal Quarter alley, now being stared at by half a dozen other Infernals, three of whom were busy disposing of…something trying to move in a sack.

“Apologies,” I said. “Been a rough day.”

Not the best of words, but the struggling sack took their attention more as I hurried out of the alley. Had two of them looked…not scared but apprehensive? I didn’t think only having a single eye would so unnerve people. Or at least people willing to be doing whatever they planned on doing to the occupant of that sack.

I had more important things to worry about, though.

Damnations, how had they put me to sleep? The last thing I could remember was that message Versalicci wanted sent to Voltar, and from there…nothing.

I forced myself to not start searching every nook and cranny of the alley for signs of the Black Flame. Panicking wouldn’t help, but my heart raced regardless. How had he put me to sleep so easily?

I moved out of the alley, only to realize something had been added to my ensemble.

I didn’t know what was worse, that Versalicci had stuck a coat on me while I was asleep or that it looked exactly like my old ones when I’d been part of the gang.

Wait. I checked the interior pockets and cursed when I found a pair of surgical knives with a pair of familiar initials carved in. This was one of my old coats.

He’s going to burn if he thinks he can get me back into the Black Flame, I thought to myself, hurrying out of the alley.

At least it might explain why those two had seemed frightened. With my old body back, the symbol visible on my hand, and if those two had been around five years ago.

Well, they’d have a good reason for looking the other way.

I put the offending hand inside my coat pockets and wished I could do more. Having the human side of my heritage be from so far away did not help with being less recognizable.

Nothing I can do about that right now. Which left me either heading to Voltar’s or handling something else while I was here. I was inclined towards the latter since I didn’t want to return with only the one lead. Not when I could get a second one at a relatively low cost.

It was time to visit Varrow.

***

I waited in the darkness.

Varrow had certainly gone up in the world. Or, more accurately, everyone else here had gone down, since if the District was more crowded, he would never have been able to live in a place this nice.

Back when I’d run with his gang of pickpockets, con-people, and urchins, we’d lived on the streets or in whatever warehouse we could break into. Not a nice, two-room apartment that had functioning water. It was probably nicer than my apartment was-had been. My apartment had been. It even had a window big enough for a person to fit through!

I tried to put that out of my mind. I’d already been here once on a house call, so I hadn’t needed to search out where Varrow lived. The lock on his door had been a simple thing to pick, which meant this wouldn’t be his true refuge, but he must visit it.

Now I just needed to wait in the darkness for him to come back.

I couldn’t see in it, but having the single lamp in this room on when Varrow got home would give away someone being here. Meanwhile, I sat in the darkness and changed masks.

Being more like Malvia Harrow would be called for here if only to not give him a heart attack from having friendly Katheryn Falara in Harrow’s body. It would be tense at first, but not too bad. Our relationship had always been decent when I’d been with the Black Flame.

Although it would still be best to wait till he’d closed the door to reveal me.

The darkness helped some with getting into the right mindset. Malvia considered the darkness a friend. Not when trying to read or write, but other times it helped to forget what she, no I’d done. An easier cloak than wilful blindness.

Honestly, it was as dark as the underground in here. It’d been later in the day than I thought when I’d awoken, and the sun had disappeared fast.

The underground. The ultimate place to hide, given how extensive the tunnel and cavern networks were down there. For the Pure-Bloods to expand down there, that was strange, to put it mildly.

I toyed with the idea of that being where the poison was being made. Points in its favor, isolation and the underground would not be good for celestials, separated from the sight of the sun. The negatives, with the Delvers' guilds active, the chance of a random group finding it and being capable of escaping? Very high unless you had a very nasty guard dog. Or a monster.

Monster. I leaped to my feet, realization striking me. Those rocks I’d collected from the warehouse, I’d have to examine them. Why keep stone fragments that had no magic to them?

If they were the fragmented remnants of someone who’d been petrified you wanted to be brought back, they were essential. What was roaming the underground, with the Delvers' guilds thus far unable to beat it? A basilisk. The Pure Bloods had tried to lean on them, but what if they’d also been trying to find out how the guilds knew of the basilisk?

Other parts didn’t fit yet without confirmation, but made a modicum of sense. Shapechangers could remove their eyes, meaning such a beast would be less of a danger to them. The basilisk was a silent killer, and gained sustenance off of leeching the life force of petrified victims, meaning less biological mess and less noise than other creatures.

A basilisk might also be the only safeguard against a celestial if it broke free as well.

I needed to examine the fragments first though, so I sat back down, forcing myself to be patient.

Sounds came from outside. Singing of the non-drunken variety which was a good sign. No need to sober him up.

The door opened, and someone stepped inside, mumbling to themselves. Definitely Varrow.

“-getting too old for this, you daft fool. Watch going easier these days isn’t a reason to risk their wrath. Need to find a new line of work-”

The lamp lit up, casting light over the entire room. Including me sitting in an armchair.

“Varrow,” I said. “It’s been a few years since we last talked.”

I’d thought his skin had gone pale when Voltar had shown up at my apartment. Now it resembled milk. His jaw opened and closed a few times, nothing coming out and in but air as anything he tried to say died in his throat.

“Malvia,” he finally gasped out, backing towards the door. “You’re alive? When? How?”

“Not relevant. I’ll answer eventually, but first, Varrow, we have business to discuss.”

He considered my words, gave me half a nod, and then sprinted for his apartment window.