The post office always felt weird to Helena. It was built like a temple, but they left it pale white, like bleached bones. Not a speck of paint to liven it. The people of the more modern Big Apple seemed to love that hellish architecture and used it for all their important buildings. It was such a bad omen.

The inside was far more lively. Not just with people bringing in letters, but with creatures from across the realms exchanging money. The silver dollars of the Immigrant Realm were hard to fake, but not well liked outside its borders, while the paper money of the Big Apple was worthless everywhere else. And so the Post Office was not only the communication hub between the two connected realms, but also the Immigrant Realm's biggest bank. At least for people who were too poor to have a real bank account.

Acedia was back to sulking. But Camila hadn't had to push the woman to follow them, so that was good. Helena reached into her pouch and pulled out the paper and envelope she'd grabbed at home. She offered them to Acedia as they crossed the crowded floor to an open counter space. "Will you need more to warn the rest of your sisters?"

Acedia shook her head. "Invidia can warn Avarita and Luxuria, and Ira's serving a forty year sentence for murder." She took the paper and grabbed one of the pens chained to the desk before staring at the paper.

As they waited Camila shifted over to Helena and asked sotto voice, "Ya think she'll manage to muster up the effort to write that herself?"

"If she can't, we can help," Helena replied. "I bet you're honestly curious if she can overcome her limitations as well."

"Yeah kinda," Camila replied. "For a lot of reasons." The jiang-shi woman shook her arms.

Helena paused then reached into her pouch to grab hold of her bell. She called upon the artifact, using its silence to shield their words from anyone listening in. "That's a little different. You have a limitation in exchange for power. She is acedia. What you're trying to do is dangerous for her."

Camila frowned. "Like, what do you mean? Dangerous how?"

"Sin demons are metaphysical beings. They're formed by concepts." Helena nodded towards Acedia as the demon slowly started her first sentence in the letter. "If the demon ceases to represent that sin, that concept, they either must find a new concept to represent, or they die. If you succeed, she'll have to find a purpose to live."

The jiang-shi smile faded. "But that's... that's bullshit!" Helena was very glad no one could hear them as Camila snapped into anger. "You're telling me she has to not only get over her depression but she has to magically find some other soul consuming obsession? Or she dies? Why didn't you warn me earlier?!"

"Because I've seen lots of people who've succeeded," Helena replied simply. She looked Camila right in the eye. "Every magician you've met has wanted something so badly they ripped apart reality to seize it. At great risk to themselves and everyone around them."

"Acedia here has less to work with admittedly. We magicians are naturally arrogant, and our actions require arrogance. But I think she has a chance to succeed, with your help," Helena said. "Besides, she wants to die otherwise. I think she'd appreciate the chance."

Camila's anger lessened but she still wasn't smiling. "And you think I can do this? Would you have tried this if you'd met her?"

"No I'm bad with people," Helena admitted. "I probably wouldn't have considered it."

Her friend opened her mouth to retort, but Acedia turned around then. Helena quickly dispelled the sound barrier so the demon wouldn't notice. "You're done?"

"Yeah I guess," Acedia said, holding up a short note. "Here. You have a stamp too?"

"No. I usually send my letters via magic," Helena said. "We're going to have to wait in line."

Camila grinned. "What? You don't have a spell to make stamps."

"That's forgery, and someone would probably get mad," Helena replied. "It's not worth learning the spell. If I'm ever that desperate I'll just steal some."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Eh? Like magic some out of a cash register?" Camila asked.

Helena shrugged. "That could work, but it's better to just break in when no one is about and just pocket them."

Both of the other women were staring at her now. She grinned. "I learned lockpicking from one of my tutors. It's fun. I don't get to do it enough."

"Who were your tutors? You talk about them all the time but you never say who they are," Camila said.

"Ah. Well they're quite famous in the magical world, but here nobody knows them," Helena said. "I trained under my Grandmother, the Grand Witch of Thebes. My tutors were Demon Stitcher Ryumi, Hanako the Witch of the Stolen Tomes, Lily of the Rainbow Fan, and Juri the Tutor. Though she went by Juri the Ordinary at the time."

"You trained under the Ordinary?!" Acedia's outburst caused several of the other people in line to turn towards them. Acedia winced and shook her head. "I guess I underestimated you."

Camila raised an eyebrow. "Okay I wanna hear this story. 'The ordinary'? Was that like a joke that got out of hand?"

Helena grinned. "Yes. Juri's one of the few true magicians not born to a magical family. Just a natural talent that loves magic. So when people tried to give her a title she told them to stop because 'I'm just ordinary.' And so that became her title. At least until she gave it to Kseniya."

"You left out the part where she destroyed an entire realm," Acedia said.

"She said it was a fairly small realm. Only the size of a city," Helena replied. "And she only destroyed the demon god. The realm was still there, just damaged a bit. Okay, a lot." Helena sighed. "I never did master the spell she used though. I'm mediocre at earth magic."

Camila tapped her foot on the marble floor. "Ya know, if you can do things like blow up entire cities I gotta ask why you didn't show off any of that stuff when we fought the evil mage that murdered me and made me undead? That would have helped."

"Like I said, I never learned the spell. And in this realm I could only have blown up the block," Helena replied. "The maximum power of a spell is based on the power of a human without magic. Here humans are fairly weak. As for why I didn't just blow up the building... I hope that's obvious. The inspector would have been unhappy if I started obliterating chunks of the city. And another mage would probably still survive that."

"Tch. What fun is that?" Camila bobbed her arms in a shrug. "Though I suppose that's kinda fair. If I can't bend my arms you shouldn't get to blow up buildings whenever you want."

Helena blinked. "How does that make any sense?" She shook her head. No one wanted her to have any fun it seemed.

As they continued moving up the line Acedia kept fiddling with the letter. Flipping it over and over before giving Helena a side eyed glance. Helena wasn't quite sure what was eating at the demon woman. It seemed out of character for her, though they hadn't known each other long.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the next teller calling them up. Helena started fishing out the pennies needed for a stamp, but Acedia just slouched her way to the window. The demon put down the letter. "Use account 82716-12."

"Like, you have an account?" Camila asked.

The man behind the counter tapped away at one of the blocky computers from across the river and nodded. "Yes. Though you haven't accessed it other than the automatic payment for three months Miss Acedia. Are you sure you don't want to open a savings account?"

And with that bit of information the rest of the puzzle became clear to Helena. "Your sister Invidia's been sending you more than just rent money hasn't she."

"I guess."

"Wait, so you didn't need to send her a letter asking for money?" Camila sighed. "How much do you even have?"

Acedia rolled her eyes. "I don't know. Like it even matters. You tell them."

"Your account is currently two thousand three hundred seven dollars," the teller said. "Are you sure you don't want the savings account?

Camila grimaced as the outsider woman tried to calculate how much that was. Helena just glared at the demon. That could pay her rent for the next three years. "I hope your sister appreciates my envy."

"She does but I don't." Acedia heaved another great sigh. "Give me three hundred."

"Yes, ma'am. Please sign here." The teller pushed a slip of paper to the demon before opening a drawer with the promissory bills that the Immigrant realm used for large payments.

Acedia scrawled her name on the paper then took the bills from the teller. The demon turned around and shoved them in Helena's face. "Here."

"Uh, are you asking me to find you an apartment?" Helena said.

"I'm asking you to kill that angel. Or its summoner. Whatever. Make it dead. Keep it away from my sisters." Acedia looked away. "Might as well use their money for that, instead of wasting it on a worthless demon like me."

Helena took the bills and stepped away from the bank counter. "You aren't a worthless demon." She felt her blood rising like it had before. "Anyone who gives me a good reason to kill an angel can't be worthless."

"Your friend Lyudmila was totally right about the bloodthirsty thing," Camila said.

"You want to skip this fight?" Helena asked.

Camila shrugged and smirked. "Nah. Just making small talk. Let's head back to our place and plot."