Stars Align

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"Hey, time to wake up over there."

Rivkah looked up from the hand mirror at the man standing across the room from her at an easel. The man nodded at her, pushing up his glasses with paint-covered hands, leaving a drop of red on the bridge of his glasses. "How you feeling?"

Rivkah dropped the mirror on the bed next to her, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "...Tired," she said, for lack of a better word. A better word might be... distant? Like the feeling you got after a long time spent daydreaming. "What time is it?"

"Nine," Dylan said, his light brown curls falling down between his glasses and his eyes as he turned back to his painting. He blew up at the hair, trying to get it out without using his hands. "See anything?"

Rivkah shook her head. "Jack shit," she said, blinking hard. "Maybe something, but I don't remember it."

"Don't let it discourage you. Probably we haven't found the right medium for you yet," he said, studying his painting. "It's easy to get lost looking, too."

"I know," she muttered, standing up and stumbling as her legs nearly gave way. She felt way too weak after that.

"I was gonna order pizza soon if you want any," Dylan said, putting down his palette on a table near the easel. "You probably shouldn't go out yet like that,"

"Pizza is awesome," Rivkah said, wandering over towards the window and pulling open the blinds. She stared down from Dylan's window on the fifth floor of his apartment complex to the city below. Clubs were starting to light up already, filling up with college kids drinking and dancing away the weekend. Dylan lived in the heart of the 'college' district of the city, near the university campus - the guys who lived there called it Dinkytown.

She heard the sound of running water as Dylan turned the sink on. "You gonna go out and join them?" he asked.

Rivkah shrugged. "Maybe. Why the hell not."

Polite conversation? What the fuck? Said the man calling her jailbait. "What a hypocrite," she muttered as he left.

She pulled out her phone and slammed it on the counter, seeing new text alerts from Dylan. Now what? Was now the time to go crawling back to him? Fuck that. She was pissed, and even if she didn't entirely trust Dylan she liked him enough that she didn't want to drag her assassins home to him, the adorable bastard. She'd already decided in the back of her mind that there was no getting out of this one.

"Don't call a cab," she said. She wasn't spending any of his fucking money. "He didn't put my order earlier on his tab too, did he?"

"Ah but you see," she said, standing up, "I don't want to work with him."

She fished in her messenger bag for her wallet, taking out a twenty and throwing it on the counter. It was all she could really afford. "Tip and the alcohol," she said, walking away before he could insist otherwise.

Rivkah found herself on the street again and crossed her arms. Right mess she was in now. Who was left? Dylan was a no because he came with the Coven attached, Douchebag was a no for obvious reasons, and no way in hell was she going back to her mothers house or to any of her other friends. Alone again.

Being out on the street was a bad idea, and she pulled out her little jar of ashes, starting up her magic sight spell again. She could just go to the cathedral and raise some hell, but she probably couldn't do that much before she bit it. Rivkah shoved her hands down in her pockets, thinking - wait.

She blinked, and a grin slowly spread across her face. Yes. She knew exactly what sort of help she could get. But first, she needed a computer. Public library this time, they might be watching the school.

She considered calling a cab of her own, but nah, wasn't there a Sherlock Holmes story where the cabbie was the killer? Bad plan. Rivkah muttered an incantation and disappeared into the shadows, starting to shadowwalk to the library.

The library was relatively empty, and Rivkah was able to stake out a computer in the back, the screen facing towards the wall. She sat down, glancing around the library to be sure she wasn't being watched or followed. When satisfied, she downloaded Google Chrome - public libraries didn't know how to internet - and opened an incognito tab.

This had also been where she got a lot of her information - not the wicca servers, but those run by black witches. The place was not for the faint of heart. Black witches tended to overwhelmingly be at least a little bit unhinged, and those who actually wrote anything were the worst of them. Anyone remotely sane just shut up and skimmed through the creepy bullshit until they found what they needed.

In her case, this would be demonology. The subforum on that topic was run by a guy - or girl, who fucking knew - who went by the name xiao. xiao claimed to be a demonology expert, and had scanned and uploaded thousands of pages of ancient texts and had headed their translation (really, half the people who came on here were just enormous nerds).

They also claimed to be able to provide information necessary to summoners, should they need to contract demonic services. It struck her as hella shady - he could make up all sorts of bullshit that'd get a summoner killed - but it was her best shot. If it's too weird I'll drop it and find something else.

She sent him a private message.

asclepias: need assistance in finding a lesser demon. required for surveillance and sabotage. this is urgent.

They responded surprisingly quickly.

xiao: Got it. I'm pulling together some documents you might find useful as we speak. I understand that most of us are suspicious in nature but this process will require some trust on your part. You can get these documents digitally or physically, but to send a physical copy I will require some focus from you that can be transferred digitally - your embarrassing middle school poetry, for example.

She had a ton of that, but none of it on her with her laptop back home. Not that she was keen on giving out a focus anyway, but the physical copy had the advantage of being able to determine the authenticity of anything particularly old.

asclepias: digital.

fifteen minutes later he sent a pdf attached to a private message - on opening it, she saw a file nearly 100 pages long, written in fading, olde english script.

Notes were written in the margins of the pdf, clearly added digitally via a tablet or something in hasty scribbles, pointing out names in particular and adding brief comments. Ate their last master. Too clever to be safe.

xiao: If you follow through, send me the name of whichever ones you contract so I may update my archives.

asclepias: thanks

Rivkah sent the pdf to her email so she'd have it on her phone. She stood from the computer, shutting it down and looking furtively around the library again. Maybe now isn't the best time for this option. The research she needed to do this properly would take time, as well as the setup, and she might not have that time - and xiao's information could be forgery anyway.

But at least the option was there now. She needed to move on.

She'd found a new location in a coffeeshop - very public and all that jazz, though that certainly hadn't helped much last time. She kept her magic gaze up as she skimmed through the contents of the pdf.

Of the names in the pdf, xiao had circled three who he said were ideal candidates, as ideal as demons could get. With the speed at which he'd sent her the file, he must have already had it scanned somewhere and known exactly where everything was. So really, a huge nerd. Or a huge con artist.

Rivkah grimaced as her determination wavered. Come on. What else is going to work?

Rivkah, as she scanned the files, was starting to realize she ought to have done this a long, long time ago.

Summoning a demon and initially binding it to oneself took a long time. It took research, it took setup, it took precautions, and it took time. Theoretically, so long as one knew the true name of a demon they were bound to obey one's every order - but that was little help if you were gutted before you could make an order.

"Fuck," she muttered. She didn't have the time or stability for this, and it certainly wasn't something she could get away with in the apartment. What about Teuto's place? Oh yeah, breaking into his place sounds like a great plan with no chance of humiliating, humiliating consequences.

Either way she should be moving. Rivkah left the shop quickly, shoving her phone in her pocket and not even bothering to try and avoid attention. There would be no helping it with her style.

There was the house, glowing like a lighthouse in the city from all the magic it gave off. It'd be not a bad place to hide, actually - if it wasn't already well known to all of them. As it stood, even though her magic might blend in everyone would be interested in the place anyway.

No hope of getting inside with all that magic around the door, but she could still use the place as a sort of camouflage from at least the Coven.

She didn't even think to check her phone for Dylan then - Rivkah cracked her knuckles and circled around in an alley behind the building.

She'd made her decision. Here was where it would be. If they found her here, this is where she'd make her stand - but if they gave her time, she'd spend it looking into xiao's information.

Rivkah paced behind the building, cupping her chin in one hand. Ancient witches had come up with many varieties of the containment circle, both to keep things from leaving one and to prevent one from entering one. Both of them acted like a turnstile at a subway, letting you in only way and blocking the way out from the other side.

Rivkah reached into her bag and opened one of her books, starting to pace out a circle behind the building.

Malaethanalot: Historically has been more honest than other imps. Counters by being more malicious. Too weak to back up threats (most of the time).

Those were the notes by its entry anyway. It was the one she was starting to lean towards anyway. That hadn't been all she was doing, though - she'd been working on drawing her runes, so at the least she'd have that binding spell on instant recall when she got visitors. That combined with shaddowwalk was a good enough combination to get her away from simple trouble. But then she wanted to be causing trouble too.

The more time passed, the more suspicious she got. Don't make me wait, you fucks. Let me see you so I can beat your face in. Now, what she really needed was a nice set of brass knuckles...

Fuck it. Fuck it, she couldn't stand waiting and hiding and if they were going to give her time she was planning on fucking using it.

She got up, stepping outside of the 'outie' circle she'd build and destroying it. Fuck it. Fuck them. She was going to the cathedral. She was annoyed with herself for getting cold feet on the demon thing, but that shit needed more time and thought than she bargained on to avoid getting her soul lost to some demon for all eternity.

Rivkah cracked her knuckles as she stepped back out into the street and started off, her expression frightening enough that passers-by went out of their way to avoid her.

Rivkah felt the ground rumble beneath her feet, and she glanced down at it as she regained her balance before looking back up. "Oh fuck me."

Toodles was flying around in the air on a disk, dodging lightning strikes fired at him in the air only a few blocks from where she was standing. "Why does all the fun follow him?" she muttered, irritated, shadowwalking into the alleys to get closer to the action while trying to remain unseen.

Rivkah hit the ground hard and glared up at him, before shadowwalking into the wall and popping out standing next to him. "Next time I'll be sure to jump right in," she said shortly, rooting through her bag and pulling out a swiss army knife. "Should you really be chatting with me so long?"

Rivkah darted away from the blast through the shadows, watching Teuto get flung like a ragdoll. She watched as his assailants closed in on him, took a breath, and darted into the shadows.

Rivkah popped out near him. She crouched, reaching out for his hand and grabbing tight hold of it. "Seeya fucks," she said, flipping the others off and reaching her arm back into the shadows.

She felt the shadows resist her as she pulled Teuto in along with her, and she tightened her grip until it hurt. They dropped out of a shadow on the opposite side of the building, and Rivkah stood, letting go of his hand and wiping her hand on her jeans with some disdain.

She pressed both her hands against the wall of the building they popped out of. God I wish I knew that one sight spell now... She'd looked up so many cool shadowplay spells but the only one she bothered memorizing was the one that'd cut down travel time between classes.

Rivkah raised an eyebrow. "I dunno man, golems are pretty sweet and you're pretty not." She crossed her arms as she watched them scrambling after the golem, Dick's words flitting through her head. She shook her head. Don't be a dumbass.

Still, she'd prioritized pulling him out when she could have easily grabbed one of his assailants to beat into a bloody pulp, so she was still twitchy. "I assume you have places to be that aren't here," she said.

The fact that this asshole lost his perpetual good humor seemed telling. She eyed the man dressed like a Batman villain. Something was... off.

She pulled her Swiss Army knife back out of her pocket, cradling it in her hand. "Follow your own damned advice," she said, sidestepping towards him slowly, preparing to drag him back into the shadows with her if the Penguin here made things go south.