Of Value and Venting
21th of November 2006 A.D
"I can't let you two go back," the words come out hesitant, but end firm, as much as it hurts to separate families, there is no way back for them tat does not end in tears and blood. "But I can bring your families to you."
It is less than they had hoped you see, but more than they had hoped
Good, plans turn over in your head, the Fellowship, or Monoc perhaps. They work for money. You heft the dufflebag of dollars. Quite a lot in there, more than the of worth of a bunch of people who happen to be related to random 'bloodbags' who died in a plane crash to the Red Court. Slaves and less than slaves, they are counted and that, you have faith, will be their undoing in the end.
Of course you had picked up that money for more than ballast. One of the things the Amethyst Hand had been curious to see was Earth-money. Not that the magnates of the City of Journeys are any less sophisticated in monetary matters than the banks and investment funds you are... not familiar with. You barely know the buzz words and so a lot of the questions the financiers, most of them SUTRAS had asked of you, but there is one thing that came to mind right away.
Light, green, blue and Red flashes under the leaded cover.
"Well?" you prompt the SUTRA, whose hologlyphic avatar, an odd commingling of spider and solar disk ripples above the large projector in the center of the room.
"We achieve 99.9999% fidelity in reproducing the currency."
Twenty hundred dollar bills shoot out into your hands, as far as you are able to tell identical such that to your inexpert eye at least the original was hidden.
"Excellent, not that I think we will be using something like this often, hopefully not at all, but it is good to know we have the option..." Probably not the lesson you should have taken from that documentary about rogue states funding themselves with counterfeiting, but as far as crimes that can get you an arbitrary amounts of money go this is the closest thing to victimless.
Leaving the full roll of bills for the Amethyst hand to play with you spend the rest of the day in and out of conferences with sorcerers from Ameli to Grandmaster Aesp to alchemists calling in from across the Five Cities, explaining the conditions of all the people you had brought to Sanctuary and what you hope from their studies.
The way these folk, each in their own way a master of their craft heed your every word with quiet courtesy is in some ways more eerie than the cheers of the crowds or the way guests and servants alike bow to you in the corridors. Just last month you handed Harry a sword and paid him to research it, now you have thousands of bright mind at your disposal in any field of study... and you technically aren't paying them anything which feels awkward as heck.
They are being paid at their respective jobs, you remind yourself.
It is just that those jobs become... whatever you want when you want to.
You clear your throat. "Also this is cocaine, a highly addictive refined drug, you will find a write up in your files I made available already."
As packets of white slide onto the black marble table, heads mechanical and biological, scaled, fungoid and manlike turn to look at you again you say your goodbyes and depart.
Essence Restored to 15/15
Gain 1 Willpower -> Now at 5/9
***
22nd of November 2006 A.D
Burny was the one you had asked to play the song so you pop like a genie out of a bottle into Harry's living room at the arranged time onto the expected barrage of questions: were you hurt, had the skinwalker turned, how had it gone and did you have the whole of the Red Court on your trail right now. In response you take out Arianna Ortega's head and set it spinning in the air like it's a mannequin's head on one of those fancy lit up displays.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 14/15 (MHM)
"She will not be calling in anymore hits," you proclaim cheerfully. "Isn't that right Arianna?"
The decapitated head nods, enormous wings flapping in a parody of wings.
"Stars and stones Molly!" Harry does not look amused. "Put that away!"
"Harry. I l...like you, but that bitch does not
get dignity in death!" You do put the head away though. "First thing that happened when we broke into the plane she wanted to eat the person next to her for a pick-me-up and some of those servants, call them what they are some of those slaves, were working themselves to the brink because she told them that if they failed her their families would die. And these people they didn't have any ability to betray her or the Red Court or anything really, she did it because she liked mind games, or because of tradition, or maybe just because she was bored."
Lost 1 Essence > Now at 13/15 (Empathy Excellency)
Now he looks worried, trying and failing not to loom, it's cute, a part of you notes. "That bad huh?"
"Barely got singed," you point out. "Heck Broken Seeker got hurt more, even though he healed fast."
Harry just kind of stares at you, doing his best Gandalf impression. It's decent but he has a ways to go before you will be spilling out all your worries and concerns.
"Where is the skinwalker now?" he asks, the question you had rather he not... and yet in a way the one you had come for him to ask here.
"Gone probably, no reason to stick around Chicago, last I saw him was in the plane, but that is at the bottom of the ocean now."
Broken Seeker is no kinder to his worshipers than Duchess Arianna had been to hers, less so in some ways because he has far fewer of them and very particular ideas about how they should live, but you had let him go out of a sense of honor, a hope that you might be able to turn him from his dark path. It all sounded just a little mad now.
"Good," Harry sighs, startling you. "Glad that thing isn't in Chicago anymore." He must have seen the surprise in your expression because he gets defensive when adding: "Too bad it didn't die, but those things are almost impossible to kill. Driving it out is about the best you can do without expert help. Are you sure it isn't after you anymore?"
Thinking back to the last expression you had seen on Broken Seeker's stolen features you asnwer honestly. "Not for a while at least."
What do you do next?
[] Negotiate fealty with Porter
[] Talk to Daniel about his... well you hesitate to say plans
[] Catch up with Lydia
[] Write in
OOC: Since you have eight days left of the month you can do all of the above, I am not going to give you guys an artificial time limit, this vote is more about the order and maybe any write ins you want to make. Again the way to dealt with Broken Seeker kind of surprised me. 
