The group walked towards the office to continue the investigation. Kole had recovered enough in order to aid the team, though he still hobbled notably as he walked down the corridor.Royal, never giving up the opportunity to snark, commented "Is that limp from the injuries, or did you have a little fun last night?"
"With the seer?" Tibias added with a straight face.
"A bit of both," Kole replied flatly.
Royal stopped in his tracks. "Kole, did you just make a non-sadistic joke?"
"Mr. Tarrant does not know how to make regular jokes, Mr. Holligan." Tibias stated.
"But you were with us all night and Kole was at Celia's..." Royal trailed off.
"Precisely, Mr. Holligan." Tibias said and reached for the office door.
Past the door, there was a man in the office, sitting behind Tibias’ desk with his feet up. He was dressed in a long pinstripe jacket with matching waistcoat, a grubby collarless shirt, and battered walking boots. He smiled as everyone entered.
“Hi.” There was a blur of motion. Keera’s knives practically flew into her hands. Carahya and Royal drew their respective pistols and a scythe materialised into Kole’s hand. The intruder calmly threw his hands up. “Hey, that’s a bit rude. I’m on your side.”
Kole crossed the room in the blink of an eye and pressed the blade of his scythe lightly against the intruder’s neck.
“Then you should have waited for us to return, as well as an invitation to enter,” Kole said in an emotionless, conversational tone.
“Sorry force of habit.” The intruder shrugged.
Tibias was the last to enter the room and was confused by the scene put before him. He saw the weapons and then saw who they were directed at. He fought back the desire to laugh; only a slight curve of the lip betrayed his amusement. The intruder’s eyes flashed with recognition.
Tibias was the last to enter the room and was confused by the scene put before him. He saw the weapons and then saw who they were directed at. He fought back the desire to laugh; only a slight curve of the lip betrayed his amusement. The intruder’s eyes flashed with recognition.
“Tabby would you mind giving me a hand here.”
Royal turned behind him to see if the intruder was addressing anyone else and then realized that he was talking to Tibias.
“Sorry, I think you have broken into the wrong office. That guy is Tibias, not Tabby. I don’t think there is one here.”
The intruder looked at Royal. “You must be Royal, the wannabe comedian.”
“Yep that’s me. How am I doing?”
“Badly. Anyway about this scythe.”
After a second of watching the intruder with his hands up and with Kole threatening to decapitate him, he finally spoke. “Quite, Mr Tarrant, you can put your blade away. He is harmless.”
“Well mostly harmless.” The intruder grinned.
“You’re not helping your sense of self preservation, Caldicot. Oh and would you kindly get off my desk please.”
Kole let his scythe disappear and stepped away. As Caldicot took his feet off the desk and stood up, Tibias turned to the subordinates. Keera and Royal had already put their weapons away. Carahya was still pointing her pistol at Caldicot. Tibias looked stern.
“Ms. Faroth, would you be so kind as to disarm yourself. This gentleman is a friend of mine and I don’t think he would like to be shot today.”
“Certainly not, Tabby. You know what they say: holsters and safety catches keep the bullets at bay.” Caldicot grinned with his fingerless gloved hands still in the air. Carahya lowered her gun and the room seemed to relax, Caldicot put his hands down and tried to knock some dust off of his sleeve, though was failing to get anywhere.
Keera was the first to break the relaxed silence. “Tibias? Who is he?”
Caldicot bowed to Keera. “Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a man of wealth and taste.”
“Yes, very witty, Caldicot. My apologies Keera, this is an old colleague of mine, Mr Caldicot Johnson. He works for the Light; he is a particularly talented thief and spy.”
“I prefer the term information gatherer and retrieval specialist. It makes me sound more legitimate.”
Now that Caldicot was closer they could see that the man’s eyes were an unnaturally bright green; they seemed to look right through a person. Whatever he was, he wasn’t human; they could all tell that. Royal took another swing at making a joke,
“Have you got a first name to go with those last names?”
“Caldicot is my first name. Don’t ask long story.”
Tibias interrupted, “What are you doing here Caldicot? If you don’t mind my asking?”
“Just thought I should pop in, say hello, actually meet all these lovely people you keep telling me about. Well the cold one, of course, must be the famous Grim Reaper Kole Tarrant, the first reaper to fight Mammon and walk away limping.”
“Who are you? Or a more appropriate question, what are you?” Kole said impassively.
“I’m what Tibias says. I’m Caldicot Johnson, and I work for the Council of Draelin. To be more accurate I work for the Light, which is the information department. As to what exactly I am, if you want to be precise about what species I am, I happen to be a Croucher, if you must know.”
Carahya cleared her throat, “Erm sorry, what’s a Croucher?”
“I’m a type of Demon sweetheart,” Caldicot informed her; Carahya lifted her pistol and leveled it at Caldicot again, who looked slightly perturbed.
“Are we really going back to the threatening again? I thought we had moved on.”
“I don’t like demons,” Carahya said simply.
“Oh come on, it’s not like I’m the demon that tore apart your boyfriend and his entire family.” Carahya cocked back the hammer of her gun in response. Caldicot winced for a second. “Alright, maybe not the best tact, but still true. I am really nothing to worry about.”
After a beat, Caldicot moved and walked over to Keera. “So, I take it you must be Keera. I can see why Tabby likes you. When he was younger, the only criteria for a woman was that she was pretty; nowadays he has upgraded to being both pretty and smart. Though the wings are a bit kinky. You must be getting adventurous in your old age Tabs.” Caldicot patted Tibias on the shoulder and laughed; Tibias shot him a cold look which screamed ‘I am going to punch the shit out of you.’ After another beat Caldicot resumed.
“Moving on. Where was I? Oh yes wings, yours look lovely. Very striking colour, did you die it? Something like ‘Infernal, because your worth It.’ Was that rude? Not sure it really matters.”
Caldicot looked back at Carahya and saw she still had a gun out, “Stop embarrassing yourself. I know you’re new, but there’s being inexperienced and then there is being incompetent. Put it away before you damage something.”
“Are you quite finished?”Tibias got Caldicot’s attention,
“Getting there Tabby, I must say Giles you have quite the ‘Scooby Gang’ here. But I wonder who your Buffy is? Well, Kole is the most powerful and he is the reaper in the room. So, I guess it must be him. Congratulations Kole, you’re Buffy. I guess Royal must be a combination of Xander and Willow, with the whole use of magic and the rubbish attempt at humour. I’d say Keera would have to be Jenny Calendar, but that would mean you would have to die early on in the series, which is not how I wish to bless the relationship. And who would you be, Carahya? I have it you have to be Dawn: young, inexperienced, and eager to help. Though I am sure you aren’t a key to a different hell dimension or something.”
“Finished?”
“Yes, before I go, can I have a word Tabby?”
“Of course Caldicot, let’s find somewhere more private.”
“Oh lord and any second I am expecting you two to say something like ‘I don’t know how to quit you?” Royal piped up.
“Mr Holligan?”
“Yes Tibias?”
“Don’t make me fetch my cane.”
“Oh are you gonna spank me like a bad boy?”
“No I’m going to knock you upside your head for being a fucking annoying prat.”
“Shutting up.”
Caldicot grinned and opened up the broom cupboard. Tibias looked at him over his glasses, “Caldicot that’s the closet. Don’t give Mr Holligan any more ammunition.”
“Sorry I just got caught up in Royal’s apparent repressed homosexual tendencies,” Caldicot laughed. “I’m just messing with you Roy. Come on, Tabs.” Caldicot opened another door, this one leading to the kitchen. Tibias went first and Caldicot shut the door behind him. As he did, the two men were standing on the roof of the office building, Caldicot’s smile dropped as he turned to face Tibias,
“What the fuck have you gotten yourself into?”
“That was quite a display you put on back there, Caldicot.”
“I needed to maintain a cover and annoying talkative friend works very well. Now, let’s steer the conversation back to where you are joining a cult.”
“I swear you have my office bugged.”
“Please you know me better than that. I wouldn’t stoop so low as to use that crap.”
“What about the bug in my name plate?”
“Whoever did that I am firing. It’ll give me a bad reputation.”
“Anyway I was at Madam Gkika's shop when I declared my intentions.”
“Yes, but Tibias you forget I am really good at my job.”
“Well, what about it?”
“It is more or less a suicidal act. Speaking as your friend, I say this is really stupid and you are going to die. Speaking as a member of the council, I would say that it is the right thing to do even if it is a bit risky. And, speaking as the Key of the Council of Draelin, I say it is the best way to get the information we need, but the risk of what will happen if things go wrong is something to consider.”
“I didn’t know you cared.”
“It is just going to be irritating to breaking in a new Lock. And we haven’t got the time to do it right now. I’m not going to be able to convince you to not do this, am I?”
“Not likely, Caldicot.”
“I thought not. I brought some things to help you.” Caldicot pulled a glasses case out from his pocket and offered it to Tibias.
“What’s this?”
“This is your disguise; if you haven’t noticed you sort of stand out.”
“So you give me new glasses? It’s a bit of a rubbish disguise, Caldicot; I am a little disappointed.”
“Put them on, Tibias, before you doubt me.”
Tibias took off his own glasses and placed the new pair on his nose. A gentle warm feeling washed over his face and the first thing he noticed was that suddenly the vision came back in his left eye, and he almost could have sworn that his ear was growing back. Tibias looked at Caldicot who was grinning widely.
“Did you just?”
“Yeah”
“Have you got a-?”
“Yeah” Caldicot produced a small compact mirror out of his pocket and handed it to Tibias. The man who was staring back at Tibias looked like a totally different person. Gone were the scars and the blind eye, and in their place were a set of pleasant blue eyes perched on a straight, perfectly normal, unbroken nose. He also could almost swear that he looked younger.
“What is this? An illusion?”
“Not exactly. The spell fixed your eye, your ear, and your nose making them appear like they would have without any wear and tear. It altered your appearance only slightly and even shaved a few years off of you. One disguise right there for you. Could you ever doubt me?”
Caldicot lifted his hand out and Tibias gave him a high five, while he prodded his new face.
“The enchantment is focused on the glasses; take them off it will hold, but not for long so be careful. It lasts twenty six hours and you recharge it by putting it in moon light and a little wash in almost holy water.”
“This is amazing.”
“Alright, stop gushing over yourself. Oh, before you freak out, it also changes your voice a little bit too, so you don’t well ruin the whole disguise by talking like you. I also have this.”
Between Caldicot’s fingers, a silver dollar appeared he twirled it between his fingers before handing it to Tibias, “That is a recorder, it takes a copy of your thoughts and if you lose it, it will come and find me. Just a safer method of taking notes than pen and paper.”
“You have out done yourself, Caldicot.”
“Well, I can’t let my friend jump into a fucked up cult without help. Besides I need the information. I have had my lot investigating them for a few months now. I’ve sent a few men in, but I have lost contact. I hope you fair a little better.”
“Thanks.”
“There is one of mine in there right now, fellow by the name of Barnaby Morton; he is posing as an expert in antiquities. It is a very good cover because he happens to actually be an expert in antiquities. He will help you if he can, but do not break each other’s covers. His life is on the line as well. He is using the alias Barry Morley, that might be useful for you.”
“Thank you, Caldicot. I appreciate this.”
“Don’t mention it. Now I have to go, some of us have work to do what won’t get us killed.”
Caldicot put his hand on the door and opened it, which brought them back into the main office. Caldicot was laughing and clapped Tibias on the shoulder, “It was good catching up. I have to go. Goodbye everyone, it was a pleasure to meet you all. I hope next time that you offer me tea before pulling weapons on me. Keera, I wish you both all the best.” Caldicot kissed Keera on the hand, made his way for the door, and he was a gone as abruptly as he arrived.
“What did he want?” Kole asked, now sitting in a chair.
“Nothing important,” he said simply and then went off to go make himself some tea.
