A visit.

                The sun was setting in the western sky, casting long shadows against the ramshackle buildings along the cracked street.  With the falling of the sun, the slums of the city seemed to come out. It was still around a half hour until the sun would fall behind the skyline, so the undercity hadn’t fully awoken yet, but it would soon.  Today had been a long day, even for Kole. Things had never been this difficult for him. In fact, very few things have been difficult in his life and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. It was a new experience and Kole couldn’t figure out if this Demon Mammon was more bothersome or entertaining. Mammon must be quite powerful to take out Matao. And although Matao might have been loud and belligerent, Kole had to begrudgingly admit that Matao was not someone to be messed with. The Council would not be happy with his death.

                Actually, the council was almost never happy. They currently were up to their necks with forming and strengthening their diplomatic ties to the rest of the world.  After the council decided to go public, things had gotten a lot harder for them.  They now had to focus their energy on working together with other nations and controlling the supernatural.  The world now looked to the council to keep supernatural events contained and kept under the surface radar of the normal world. Mammon was definitely causing the council to fail at this second duty. If the reapers didn’t take care of him soon, the governments of the world will start questioning the council’s ability to control things; which would not bode well for it. The Vatican is just looking for an excuse to get rid of them.

                And now with the loss of Matao, it was now up to Kole and Shera to deal with the demon lord. Well, mainly Kole. Shera could not be trusted to handle this. She was too unreliable and would leave the council if given half a chance. Kole would actually have to risk his life on this task.   This was yet another interesting concept to Kole. I wonder what I would be feeling right now if I had my humanity. He thought to himself I believe that I would feel something akin to fear. Kole chuckled a bit to himself. The thought of fear meant nothing to him now.

                A little ways down the street was a faded purple sign pointing into a nearby shop.  The name was too faded to read from the distance, but one could make out astrological signs and an open palm on one side. This was his destination: Madam Gkika’s Fortune Telling. Oh God, he hated this place, but he had no other choice. The psychics that work for the council turned up nothing and while Tibias was borrowing his subordinates for the time to investigate the publisher, Kole needed to find out more information. 

                The shop itself was worn down with age. Madam Gkika hadn’t bothered to repair it over the years.  Its once vivid purple paint was now faded and chipped off. There were a few small graffiti signs on the wall. Next to the front door was a small sign of a pentacle on a shield; the sign of the Council of Draelins approval. If she didn’t have it, she would be forced to close down. It also meant that she was legit.  The front door was also covered in foreign runes that Kole couldn’t identify but pulsated with a strong warding energy. She had made it incredibly difficult for a mortal or supernatural person to trespass. Luckily, to a reaper of Kole’s levels, the wardings were nothing more than especially annoying spider webs. The sign on the door said that the Madam would be open for business for now, yet the lights were off and the door was locked. Odd.

                Since the sun was setting, shadows were numerous and Kole could feel them slowly stretching and 

elongating as the sun fell lower and lower. Concentrating a bit, he extended his senses and concentrated on inside the shop. The barrier put up little fight as he just shoved it aside and let his mind seek out the shadows. There were plenty. He searched for a while. Then suddenly, he encountered a barrier.  There was a small spherical barrier clocking part of the room where his power could not extend through. It was as if that place was closed off. Got you. Kole sought out the shadow that was closest to the barrier and let his body dissipate and flow through the shadowed real ms into the desired patch of darkness.  He appeared in a small room, behind the shadow of an old armchair that was worn with use.  There were no lights on and the only light was emanating from a small sunlit window that shone dust streaked rays throughout the room. In the dead center was a small circle of sage with an elderly woman sitting cross legged in the center, staring at him with a sense of anger and curiosity all at once. She wore a long baggy purple dress covered in glitzy beads. She wore multiple large bronze earrings that were shaped in pentacles. Her baggy skin sagged immensely, making her face look like it was in a perpetual frown.

                She slowly shambled upwards, her earrings and beads making a small ruckus of their own. She Her brown eyes narrowed in on Kole’s and asked quite loudly in an old Romanian accent “How did you know I was here? I thought I finally got a good masking spell down to hide me from you.”

                Kole looked at her and shook his head. “Answering that would only allow you to improve the spells that you have and be able to hide from me successfully later, and that would be quite a bad thing.” He looked her up and down gain. “Celia, remove that illusion. I am here on council business and need to speak seriously.”

                The old woman gave him a crooked smile. She then started muttering something indiscernible and moving her hands in a smooth liquid like fashion. Her body shimmered for a few seconds before the old woman standing before him was gone and a young woman no older than twenty five was standing before him. Her hair, instead of being withered and white was now long, curly and black, tied back in a ponytail.  Her skin was dark, but not dark enough to be fully African. The clothes remained the same however.She was also slightly shorter than the old woman was, but stood up straight and confident, obviously unshaken.  She looked at him with unwavering eyes before asking him in a slightly husky voice “Better”

                “Much.” Kole replied.

                “I take it that you are here for some information on that renegade demon that killed the bastard Matao?” The girl named Celia asked. “If you are coming to me, you must be desperate.”

                “You obviously knew that I was coming.” He stated. “And since you possess a rather strong gift of seerdom, you must already know what I want.”

                 “Indeed I do!” she exclaimed. “Just to warn you, You might not like what I-“

                Reaching into the darkness Kole applied a minimal amount of will and solidified a little knife before tossing it towards the young woman. The knife got a few inches away from her, but thenupon passing over the circle of sage leaves, disintegrated into wisps.  “So you know something?”

                “Yes” She said, a little offput. Kole felt a little twinge of respect for the girl. She didn’t even flinch when he tossed it. “Just to let you know, I saw that coming.”

                “In that case, you will tell me what I want.” He continued. Celia looked into his eyes defiantly. Kole did not like eye contact, but returned it just as easily. He found eye contact was a useful tool for intimidation.  Her eyes still returned them evenly. He saw in them even a smidgeon of amusement in them.

                 “If you had let me continue what I was saying, I was going to say that you might not like what I have to tell you. “ She said. “In addition the vision I had is a bit muddled. It was as if the future was being blocked by something. I was lucky to get what I got.”

                Just like our Psychics. He thought. They said something about their powers being blocked too. “How were you able to see things then, when our seers weren’t. “ He asked her.

                “I happen to e exceedingly gifted in this area. Your psychics are not trained solely in the area of fortune telling while I have been.” She started swaying back and forth a bit out of need to move, but she did not leave the circle.

                “Fair enough.” Kole said. “Alright then, tell me what you did see?”

                “Now come on,” She clucked at him a bit and shook her finger. “You know I can only tell you for a price.”

                “What did you have in mind?” He asked.

                “The usual should do.” She responded.

                “Very well.”  He said. Kole reached into his pocket and pulled out a hunk of amethyst the size of his fist. It sparkled in the setting sunlight. “One shiny rock.”

                Celia’s grey eyes lit up. “oooh.” She murmured, fixated on the stone.

                He placed the stone on the couch and then looked back up at the girl. “Now then, tell me everything you know.”

                “All I know is that if that demon isn’t stopped it is going to be Hell on earth.” She said casually.

                “Hell on earth? Be more specific.” Kole said. Her vagueness was annoying.

                “I mean exactly what I said. Hell is going to become a part of Earth.” She said. “In my vision, All I could see were several powerful demons toppling cities. There was no council anywhere and the reapers were dead or missing.”

                He looked at her. “How vague.” He said. “Thank you for your assistance.”  He turned to leave.

                “Hold on!” She said. “There was one more thing. “I saw a flash of you quickly in my vision. God knows why I saw you of all people in this vision, but I know for a fact that I saw you smiling.” She continued. “It wasn’t one of those small grim smiles, it was a large ‘I’m happy’ smile.” She shuddered a bit. “It was very creepy seeing you with one of those, considering thefact that you could never smile like that.”  

                Kole stood there for a few seconds, mulling over this new information before he spoke.”Thank you for this interesting information” He suddenly didn’t feel like being in that building. He didn’t know why. Was it possible that he was actually unnerved by this information. Him smiling was preposterous. Even Kole knew this and accepted this fact a long time ago. Whatever the reason, he decided that he wanted to get back to the office and wait for Tiibias to return. He needed to talk with him. Soon.  Instead of leaving through the door that was still a little ways away, He walked to the nearest shadow and vanished into the distance, leaving the young seer behind in her shop with a pursed smile on her face.