Helena drew mystical circles in the back lot of the police station while Camila and a number of confused police officers watched. She checked the notes Kseniya had given her after each line, making sure the symbols were all properly aligned. She also double checked that she understood all the symbolism in her own spellwork. She could have finished earlier if she was just willing to cast the ritual by rote memory, but that kind of second rate sloppy magic was beneath her.
“You said I was going to like this one. Is it magical ritual something to dispel bureaucracy?” Camila asked. “Or are you gonna give the chief the plague or something?”
“Kidney stones are the preferred spell for getting people out of the way,” Helena replied absently. “But I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep waiting for the chief’s fear of inaction to beat his fear of action. This,” Helena gestured to the circle, “is so you can stretch your muscles.”
“Eh?!” Camila stared at the runes with renewed interest. “I thought that spell Kseniya cast on me would only let me move for ten minutes. I’ve been saving it for if we got jumped. It’s a pain getting help dressing myself but dying again would suck more.”
Helena nodded and smiled. “That was good thinking. And you’re right, Kseniya’s spell is limited, but that’s because you’re storing magic like an urn. We can only fill it so much. If I channel my magic into you directly you can act freely so long as I keep the spell going. Unfortunately I have to stay in the circle, so it’s useless for day to day activities” Helena stepped into the web of lines. “But I can give you some time to stretch and practice.”
“Really?” Camila’s eyes lit up. “All right! What do I have to do?!”
“Just let the magic flow through you,” Helena said. “The rest should come naturally.”
“Okay!” Camila closed her eyes and held her breath.
Helena smirked as she started activating the spell. Camila’s excitement would impede the connection, but Helena guessed her new friend would figure out how to accept the magic. She turned to focus on her own breathing, letting her power spill out and infuse the circle around her. Transforming the potential energy into someone else’s power. Stripping the parts that were ‘her’ away.
Transferring the magic was easy. Helena’s concept of magic was very distant from Camila’s but the connection between them made the spell natural. Power was just supposed to transfer from Helena to Camila. Like a freshwater lake feeding a saltwater bay.
Camila shivered as the energy flowed into her, then the woman slowly stretched her arms towards the sky. Pops and snaps resounded as the woman’s joints bent for the first time in years. Helena idly wondered if that was a magical sign of the power working, or an actual physical reaction in Camila’s body.
Either way, Camila smiled widely. “All right! I feel great!” The dark skinned woman bent her elbows a few times, marveling at the motions, then sprung right into a cartwheel. “Woohoo!” Helena smiled at the woman’s antics, then her jaw dropped as Camila went straight from her cartwheel to a series of kicks.
Helena watched appreciatively as Camila went through a routine that was half acrobatic dance, half martial art kata. She’d seen a number of martial styles through her life, but this one seemed different. Many styles conserved movement. This one embraced it.
A crowd started to gather as Camila practiced. Off duty police officers and workers mostly. But it was sparse enough that Helena wasn’t worried about an assassin. Instead she decided to see how ready Camila was for a confrontation. “Very nice! Now try it while flying!”
Camila’s eyes flew wide open at the suggestion. Then the woman laughed. With a quick run forward, she did a backwards flip into the air and stayed there. The jiang-shi woman took a few hesitant floaty steps in the air back and forth, before springing into action again.
This time Helena could make out more of the woman’s technique. Helena had a lot more experience with aerial battles. She preferred fighting at a distance herself, but a few mages liked to get in and fight up close. And almost everyone else who fought against a magician tried to fight hand to hand.
Based on past battles she could tell Camila was very good. Unnaturally so. The woman was still adjusting to fighting in three dimensions, but her sudden turns in the air and attacks above and below her showed that she understood the fundamentals. Perhaps this was her talent? Or maybe Camila remembered some battles from when she was being used as an assassin. Either way Helena was impressed. Camila might be more than just a distraction in a mage duel.
Still she couldn’t help but feel there was something off about Camila’s attacks and dodges. Something big. Unfortunately she was still an amateur at melee combat. She stared at Camila’s movements, but she couldn’t separate what was strange about Camila’s strategy from her unique fighting style.
A sudden mystic presence jolted her from her thoughts. She looked down at the crowd, then relaxed as she saw Aoi walking towards her. “Hello, Aoi,” she called out.
“Helena,” Aoi said. The shrine maiden’s hair was mussed and she looked tired. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What happened?” Helena asked as she waved Camila back down to the ground. “You look like you forgot to sleep for a week.”
Aoi shook her head. “I wish.”
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“Eh? Something happen?” Camila asked as she dropped down beside them.
“I had to kill three of Long Jiao Han’s servitor jiang-shi,” Aoi said. “He’s started hunting.” Helena flinched. The woman was a powerful spiritualist, but she hated combat. Having to fight, even against outmatched foes, would make Aoi ill.
Helena patted her friend on the shoulder. “Let’s go see the captain then. I was at my limit anyway.”
Camila’s expression fell, but she sighed and nodded. “Too bad. Guess it had to end sometime.” She shook her arms. “Back to rigor mortis.”
“Sorry,” Helena said as she stepped out of the circle.
Another shiver crawled over Camila, and the woman grimaced. Her arms popped back up before her, and her knees locked as well. Camila sighed and looked wistfully back at the practice field. “Next time.”
Helena wanted to offer some comfort to the jiang-shi woman, but she was still worried about Aoi. “So do you think the fools will listen to us now?”
“Yes. I think this might force him to act.” Aoi rubbed her forehead. “At least I hope so.”
“If you have more problems like that you can ask Lyudmila and Kseniya for help,” Helena offered. Unlike Aoi both of them were fighters.
Aoi gave a ragged sigh. “I’ll consider it. Right now they’re searching through all the leads we found.”
“Well let’s go yell at that crooked captain then,” Camila said. “Then I can practice for fun, and you two don’t have to worry about zombies going for your brains.”
Aoi managed a smile. “Yes. It was a very impressive display by the way. You’re quite the martial artist. And it’s a very interesting school.”
Camila nodded as they began walking back into the police station. “Capoeira. It’s a style created by slaves in Brazil to break out. Revolt kinda didn’t work, but it still gave people a way to fight back. A maestre can fight even with their hands chained.”
“Interesting. It’s strange The Living Dragon would pick a style that’s so incompatible with a jiang-shi’s physiology,” Helena muttered. “Knowledge of kicks would be useful, but the acrobatics are impossible with locked joints.”
“Maybe you can ask him after we kill him,” Camila offered.
Helena considered it. “Maybe. Ghosts of magicians are harder to bind.”
Camila blinked a few times. “Like, that was a joke, right?”
“Helena specializes in necromancy,” Aoi replied.
Helena forced herself not to smile as Camila gave her one of those ‘I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into’ looks. As her teacher had said, ‘if people aren’t a little worried about you, you aren’t a proper witch.’
Aoi led them into the new building, brushing past the front desk. “Ms. Hoshimi!” the man called. “The captain is-“
“My apologies, but it can’t wait,” Aoi replied as she pressed on.
“You can do that?” Helena asked.
“You can if you’re considered a public representative of Japantown,” Aoi replied.
Camila gave Helena a surprised look, while Helena shrugged. Aoi had more power than she let on in the community. Apparently the police recognized that.
Captain Jacobs and Kilduff were in the back, meeting with another man in a police uniform. From the unhappy look on Jacobs’ face, the meeting was going poorly.
Aoi’s arrival brought a light of hope to the Captain’s eyes. “Ms. Hoshimi! Forgive me Commissioner but I need to-“
The Commissioner dashed those hopes immediately. “It’s fine. You can meet with her right here. In fact I insist. I’d like to see how you run this precinct.” Helena could tell from the man’s inflection this was more of a threat than an idle whim.
“How can I help you, Ms. Hoshimi?” the Captain asked Aoi.
“We’ve found three bodies in the alleys,” Aoi stated simply. “A night watchman and two homeless men. All three were drained of chi, and hidden under a dumpster. The bodies were reanimating when they were found, so I had to destroy them. Your police are inspecting, but I imagine it will take them some time to reconstruct the scene.”
Captain Jacobs groaned. “Was there no way to stop them without destroying the bodies? You know how hard it is to handle investigations when-“
“Captain,” Aoi interrupted softly. “There is a jiang-shi hunting in our city. One that raises its victims as undead. I’ve had four different community members speak to me about hiring a youkai exterminator, and the town is becoming rife with people selling mystic talismans. If something isn’t done soon, the people will turn to a vigilante. I hear that Chinatown has already called a hunter from their home realms.”
The Captain’s face was pale as he absorbed the information. The Commissioner however moved forward. “So, what’s a jiang-shi? And who are you two?” He pointed at Helena and Camila.
“That’s the specialist and the rescued hostage from the Liang case, Sir,” Kilduff said. “And a jiang-shi is some Oriental zombie thing that eats lifeforce out of people. The girl Camila here is one as well.”
The Commissioner’s eyes hardened. “I see. And you know why this monster is hunting people then Ms. Specialist?”
“Curse Gunner, Helena Aoede,” Helena said. “And yes. I told the captain already. The Undead Dragon, Long Jiao Han, requires more chi than a normal jiang-shi to use his magic. And since Long Zhou Di is not going to drain himself dry so his brother can perform experiments, the obvious choice is to get the power from living beings. He’s probably killed even more in the underground. You just haven’t found the corpses yet.”
“When will the killing stop?” the Commissioner asked.
“When they’re dead or imprisoned,” Helena replied. “Asking a mage to live without magic is impossible. Long Jiao Han will need lives to fuel his spellcasting, and he will not hesitate to take them until someone stops him.”
The Commissioner whirled on Captain Jacobs. “So why haven’t you gone and stopped this madman?!”
“After the last failed raid their lawyers were all over us,” Captain Jacobs sputtered. “With the lawsuits against the city-“
“If you don’t handle that nonsense now we’ll have a complete breakdown in the law!” the Commissioner shouted. “The lawyers can piss and moan all day long, if you keep sitting on your ass there won’t be a police precinct here! I have half the city council on my ass because of Xiao Liang’s murder. If they hear some backwater sellsword or masked comic book fan caught him, we’ll be out of a job! And I mean we, because I’m not going down by myself!”
Inspector Kilduff coughed. “Well, we can have a tactical team there in about an hour if you want.”
“Do it!” the Commissioner yelled. Kilduff nodded and was out the back a second after.
“Finally,” Camila said. “We get to hit those bastards where they live!”
Helena saw the thundercloud brewing on the Captain’s forehead and sighed. “I bet we don’t.”
“Damn right,” Jacobs said. “You’re a hired specialist and a witness, not SWAT team members. We’ll handle it.”
“Of course,” Helena replied. “We’ll just go back to our room. Do you want to join us Aoi?”
Aoi nodded. “Yes. Thank you. I’ll have to give my report about the bodies later, so I’ll wait there.”
As Helena led the three away from the two police officers Camila leaned over her shoulder. “You aren’t gonna just let them handle it right? We aren’t missing out on getting revenge right?”
“Not a chance,” Helena muttered. “We’re going to put together a plan to fix everything when the police mess up.”
She was certain they’d need it too. There was no way a simple raid would end this.