<div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    Unlike the last city, the gate guards at Ironreach didn’t make things hard for us. The Citizen was clearly well known here, and when he brought us to the gate, they let us right through. Once we entered though, I noticed things were different than expected.


    Based on his descriptions and his general demeanor, I assumed Ironreach would be lively and bustling. It WAS pretty packed with people, but it wasn’t loud or energetic. Everyone walked quickly and silently, eyes trained on the ground as if afraid to catch a glimpse of something they didn’t want to see.


    I frowned at the Citizen. “Is this how it normally is? I was expecting more…just more. This is weird and grim.”


    He shook his head, brow furrowed as he scanned the streets. “No. This is strange. Ironreach is a rowdy place. Something is wrong. Come on, I need to go see a friend.” He paused. “Unless you think this was enough?”


    “You’re a guide,” I said dryly. “Guide us.”


    He chuckled distractedly and then led us further into the city. We eventually came to a stop outside of a small building. It was a noodle shop, apparently, basically a stand with a roof and a front wall. He pushed the door open, then strode up to the counter. “I’ll have a number thirteen with extra peppers, and thirty seven degree twist.”


    The girl behind the counter, who looked so bored I thought she might have been asleep, looked up fuzzily. “Ah, right.” She hit a button and the counter popped up, opening a path into the back. We walked through the kitchen, reaching a staircase with a sign beside it. It simply said ‘Inverted Heaven.’


    Without pausing, the Citizen opened the door, gestured for us to go ahead, and we all piled down the stairs, coming out in some kind of…gambling parlor? Everyone was playing a strange game involving symbol covered butterflies and a remote controlled toad. Technology here wasn’t exactly medieval, but it was definitely eclectic. The designs were very old fashioned, and the toad was made of dark metal with lots of gears.


    The Citizen ignored it, walking through the parlor until he reached the back and knocked on a screen door. There was a pause, and then it slid open. “I’m here to see Caladwen,” he told the towering mountain of muscle on the other side.


    Glowering down at him for a moment, the man nodded, then slid the screen closed. After two minutes he came back, opened the screen, and stepped away.


    We were escorted back to into a spacious antechamber, where a blonde woman with bright green eyes reclined on a couch, reading a book. “Tag!” She said brightly as she sat up. “So good to see you! You didn’t say you were coming.”


    The Citizen (Tag I suppose) shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on it, but things just kind of worked out this way. Sorry to disturb you Cal, but I had some questions about…well about a lot of things. What the hell is going in Ironreach? Everyone is so quiet and reserved. This can’t be natural. Your sister must have some idea what’s causing this, why hasn’t she stopped it?”


    “Dez is…busy,” she said grimly. “There’s been an infiltration from the Deepchild Collective. The organization isn’t TECHNICALLY illegal, because no one can prove they’re connected to the Pale Men, even if we all know it. One of their priests has been causing trouble, and he’s here with the backing of Algenclave, so Dez can’t just kill him.”


    He blinked in surprise. “Algenclave? I thought he was dead. Didn’t he vanish like twenty years ago?”


    “He did, and now he’s back,” she shrugged. “He killed Zelgar over in Shadowcrack and took over the city. He’s been pressuring Dez for the last few months, sending his Mistwardens to “patrol” Ironreach territory, collecting taxes from our villages, and a dozen other little things he can claim are misunderstandings but everyone knows are blatant provocation.”


    I stepped forward. “Hi, sorry, don’t mean to interrupt, but what exactly are you guys talking about? This is fascinating, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve got things.”


    Tag snorted. “Sorry, where are my manners. Caladwen Renfroe is Dezcarta’s sister. She’s also a powerful force in the city. This is Solomon, he’s looking for some friends of his in the local area. We were planning to ask Dez, but maybe you’ve heard something.”


    I gave her a detailed description of everyone, and she shook her head. “Like I said, we’ve been busy. I’ll ask around, but Dez would probably have a better idea. I just don’t know if you can get in to see her. Algenclave has been applying lots of pressure, and slipping this priest in has made it all worst. He’s been ministering, doing charity, and all sorts of other things that seem harmless but are almost definitely brainwashing.”


    Glancing at Callie, I exchanged worried looks with my wife. I refused to believe that the ‘Deepchild Collective’ wasn’t in some way involved with the Void Child, especially given the stated connection to the Pale Men. This priest showing up here might have something to do with Callie, or with my friends, or might just be the usual Ascendant bullshit making our lives difficult, but whatever the case, it was almost definitely going to drag us into a mess.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    So I decided to be proactive. “What if we look into it for you?” I offered. “No one here knows us. I infiltrate the Deepchild Collective’s organization and feed you info, and in exchange you search for my friends with your local connections.”


    She raised an eyebrow at me. “And what makes you qualified to do that? I don’t know you, you might be a total weakling. Maybe you’ll just get murdered the second you step in the door.”


    “Maybe,” I agreed cheerfully. “But what does that have to do with you? No me means no deal, which means you don’t have to investigate. And like you said, you don’t know me, so it won’t matter much to you if I die.”


    Staring at me for a minute, she burst out laughing. “Well, I suppose that’s true. I like this kid. Fine. You infiltrate the Deepchild Collective, we investigate and try to find traces of your friends. You have a deal. When can you start?”


    I shrugged. “Depends what I’m doing. I need to know more about them, where their bases are in the city, how they interact with people around them. If they’re looking for geniuses I can just roll up and offer to join, if they’re low profile I might need to wait for them to notice me. I need to know what I’m dealing with.”


    Actually, I was pretty sure I could find a breakthrough point just from investigating with Murmur or Dantalion, but casing places like that took a while, and I didn’t have the time. Between the Void Child and the godchildren, without even mentioning the local forces, my friends were in extreme danger. And now Callie had attracted the attention of that THING in the ocean, and I wasn’t able to do anything to fix it yet.


    I felt like I was suffocating, surrounded by enemies on all sides. I’d been honest with Bella earlier, when I gave her that speech about being a shark, but I was also putting on a brave face for my disciple. In reality, I wasn’t sure we could all get through this, and the worse it got the more afraid I was that one of the people I brought here would die and it would be all my fault.


    My own life was…not irrelevant, but less important. If I died, I died. I wouldn’t be around to worry about it. I’d never have let that thought pass through my head if Callie could hear it, but it was true. The danger and pain I’d been through had almost ground away my fear of death. Could dying hurt more than being burned alive with ego fire? Than the falls? The idea of being killed just couldn’t move me anymore.


    But watching my loved ones die. No amount of soul refinement, training, or mental polishing would ever make that anything but terrifying. If I had to see Callie killed, or Benny, or even Abel…I didn’t know what I would do. I suspected it would be violent and very drastic.


    So I needed to be proactive. Find the answers ahead of time. And this priest was a servant of the Void Child, so he should have information. That was the real reason I’d volunteered for this. I could see Callie staring at me, and I knew she was worrying. She would be aware of what I was doing, and while she couldn’t exactly get mad that I was putting myself at risk for my own wife, I knew she wasn’t happy because she would have already figured out that I couldn’t let her come with me.


    With her current connection to the Void Child, it would be too risky to expose her to one of its servants, even if we didn’t have rock solid confirmation.


    I spent the next hour talking to Caladwen while the rest of my group decided to test out the game being played in the parlor. Based on the yells and cheers the few times the door opened, Bethy was apparently really good at it, or was possibly cheating. Regardless, hearing them so carefree really helped me calm down, and the warm feelings of support through my bond with Callie didn’t hurt either.


    Caladawen was straightforward and helpful, of course. I was going to take care of her enemy for her, or at least give her the keys to doing it herself, so she would naturally do her best to be helpful.


    Speaking of which, I wasn’t sure how this would work out. Would I have to fight the priest? And if I did, would that C-ranker (I was assuming) they’d mentioned come after me. I wanted to avoid that if possible, obviously. If it WASN’T possible…well, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it, for the moment I just needed to know the exact stipulations of the agreement, so that was what I asked.


    Caladwen hummed, considering the terms. “I’d say I need you to at least give me evidence of foul play. What that is, I’ll leave up to you, but if you can prove he’s corrupting the minds of the citizens with an ability, that should be enough. Sacrifices are also an acceptable excuse, or experimentation. I don’t know what the Deepchild Collective actually DOES, just that I don’t want them doing it here.”


    I couldn’t help but laugh at that. It was nice to deal with someone who didn’t mince words. Not that most of my friends did, but too many Ascendants leaned hard into the PR and reputation aspects of building their legend. People like Abel who let their fists do the talking were rare, and meeting another one was definitely a good thing.


    “Anyway, your entry point will be the Broken Song Ministry. It’s a shelter the priest set up in Old Town. Anyone can come there for a meal or a place to sleep. He also hires “guards” to keep the peace, but everyone knows its an excuse to recruit a private army in Ironreach without violating town law.”


    I nodded. “I can work with that. I doubt I’ll run into anyone I know there.” I couldn’t seer the high and mighty godchildren stopping at a shelter, and while I would definitely investigate, I wasn’t planning on causing trouble there either. I would apply to be a guard, then use Dantalion to gather info, possibly slipping into the deeper parts of the base if they existed. I assumed so, Ascendants loved secret passages and hidden chambers.


    With the agreement made, I decided to get some extra insurance. I wrote out a contract and we both signed it. Once that was done, I headed out of the parlor, leaving my friends to enjoy themselves. I would be less noticeable alone, especially without my mask. I didn’t plan for this to take too long, after all. No one who might be a threat to my life was going to have it easy with me looking into them.