Once everyone fully understood my order to send Yamin off to the church, I twisted my ear and out popped an antenna from the top of my head to make the phone call that would finally set this situation straight.

  “Did somebody just make toast?” Marek commented on the sound of my antenna deploying.

  “No, it was just me…” I sighed.

  I had the church's number on speed dial, so I dialed it up in my head and got the ringer going.

  *Ring ring!*

  *Ring ring!*

  “Hello, you've reached the call center of the Ecclysian church…” spoke a woman's voice on the other line. I projected the sound so everyone could hear it.

  “Hi. I'm Yalda, the Eighth Star Angel. I need someone to send a…”

  “Please dial 1 if you are in need of an exorcism.”

  Oh for goodness sake… It was just a darn answering machine! I hate answering machines!

  “Please dial 2 if you are in need of confessional time. Please dial 3 for wedding services…”

  The stupid thing cycled through all the numbers up to 9, giving me a bunch of useless options to our situation.

  “Please dial 9 for any other inquiries.”

  *Beep!*

  “Yes, that one!” I announced, dialing in the number nine.

  With all the different possible services the church provided, I wasn't surprised that ‘Help pick up my demon oppressed friend who lost her grimoire’ wasn’t one of them. I'd probably have to change that soon for my own convenience.

  The ringer went off again for what felt like a few more anxious hours, when in reality it was only about three minutes before someone finally picked up on the other line.

  “You have reached Father Nicholas Pauka.” he sounded older and had a pretty thick accent. But nice, from how cheery his tone was.

  “Hi, Father Nicholas. I need a…”

  “I am currently out of my office. Please leave a detailed message at the tone describing your situation and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Gosh dang it! Not again!”

  I was so absolutely ready to send out a tactical EMP specifically tuned to answering machines. If I had to deal with one more of them…! ZAAAP!

  “I'm just kidding!” Announced Father Nicholas while laughing. “Hello hello! Yes, I am here! May you forgive me. Please call me Father Nick!”

  “What a troll…” Indena shook her head.

  After a deep breath to recompose myself, I began speaking.

  “Hi, Father Nick. My name is Yalda, and I'm the Eighth Star of Heaven. I’m contacting you for aid. If you wouldn't mind, please send some people over to my location to pick up my friend who needs protection.”

  There was uncomfortable silence on the other end.

  “And here I thought I was the prankster…” he chuckled. “We've been getting calls all day of people claiming to be the Eighth Star Angel. Can you prove you're really her?”

  How was I supposed to prove my identity? I had my serial number, which worked back at Urnan.

  “May I present my serial number?” I asked kindly.

  “Can we hurry this up?” Indena said. “Yamin isn't going to last long.”

  I hated to think that Yamin was in such dire need while I was chatting on the phone, but we had to get the church's help first, so this was a necessary step.

  “Mmm…” he replied with an uncertain noise. “I'm not looking for numbers. I’d like to see something a bit more special. Something that proves you are a real angel. You can perform miracles, yes? Please give me a sign.”

  -A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given to them-

  “I won't give a sign to a wicked and adulterous generation,” I replied to him.

  Adalyn spit out tea one of the maids brought in for her.

  “What are you talking about?” Adalyn asked me in a shocked tone. “Why would you say that?”

  Her voice sounded different just then. I couldn’t place why though.

  “I don't know. Why does it matter to you?” I asked with a suspicious gaze. “I wasn't even talking to you.”

  “Well, it just sounded so beautiful the way Y'all said that…” she brushed a tear from her eye. “Somebody, write down everything she says! This is gospel in the making!”

  She’s so odd sometimes…

  Father Nicholas had been unusually quiet again. After a few more moments, his voice returned to the phone with less enthusiasm and more seriousness.

  “So be it. You are right, hallowed angel.” He believed me! “Forgive me for being so wicked…”

  “Bro really changed his tone all of a sudden…” Indena commented.

  It was weird alright, but I wasn’t lying. I just spoke from my heart, and that was it. That must have been enough.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I explained to him the situation that Yamin was in. He was actually under the impression that I was already staying at the church and found it odd that I wasn't. But thanks to his position, he said not only was he going to send a team of inquisitors, but he himself would also be going along to oversee the operation.

  “Alright, thank you very much,” I hung up. “He'll be here within the hour. In the meantime, we need a plan to get that book back.”

  That was going to be a much harder situation. Finding shelter for Yamin was easy. But tracing down where those shadow gliders took the grimoire was going to be a whole other trouble entirely.

  ~☆☆☆~

  We all moved into the foyer hall to discuss our plan and await Yamin’s safe departure. With all the church people coming to pick her up, I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that she'd get there safely. But just to be sure and not take the chance of losing her too, I planned to go along with them.

  “You really think those church guys are going to be able to protect Yamin?” Indena asked.

  “If they’re like the ones back in Urnan, yes,” I said. “Father Nick sounded like he was sending a lot of inquisitors. And even if not, I’ll be going too.”

  “Marek, Cynthia, would you mind coming along?” I asked. “I’d feel a lot better with you guys helping.”

  It was looking like I would have to be the one to go search for the grimoire the demons stole, so I wouldn't be able to stay long once we got her there. And even if the church was a secure place for Yamin to hide, it would have been nice to know some familiar faces were looking after her. If the church had any qualms against non-clergy entering inside hallowed grounds, my authority would be enough to wave that concern away.

  “Oui,” Marek agreed for both of them… Although, Cynthia looked very concerned about my request.

  “Mistress Adalyn, would you allow me to leave for a time?” Cynthia asked.

  “Of course…” Adalyn grinned. “It sounds like a lovely idea. I trust you all to protect my darling Lil’ Yamy more than anyone else…”

  Her words inspired me to do better than I had already been. I had to make things right, and getting Yamin to safety was the first step.

  Yamin was getting restless while we were waiting, so to ease her troubles, Miss Cynthia took her into another room and changed her into something more comfortable. When the two of them returned, Yamin was in an all black dress, supposedly enchanted with a soothing spell that would comfort her slightly.

  “So,” Marek spoke up, “where did those demons come from anyways?” he asked, taking a seat next to Cynthia on one of the couches. “How did they get in?”

  “It’s like the Shrimp was saying…” Indena started. “She had a bad feeling something was up. We weren’t taking that too seriously… Damn… Why was I so stupid earlier?”

  Honestly, we were all making bad decisions here for some reason. It wasn’t even just this morning. Letting Yamin stay here over the church was just dumb. Whether those were a result of us being stupid or something else, I couldn’t figure out. I liked to think we were wiser than this though.

  “Shouldn’t that barrier have kept the demons away?” Marek continued. “That’s what I’m trying to ask. How did they get in at all?”

  There were a few possibilities… The first being that they were already here in the house before we got here. The second possibility was that they may have found a way inside, possibly a crack or an opening we didn’t know about.

  “Miss Cynthia, what is the barrier shaped like?” I asked.

  She described the barrier as a big dome being placed over the house, projected by those large crystals on top of the roof she showed me.

  “That means it is not a sphere,” I noted. “Could something have come in from under it then?”

  “Oh damn…” Indena remarked. “You’re onto something! Those demons could have come from underground.”

  That had to be it. If the barrier only acted like a dome, it wouldn’t reach underground like a sphere. I didn’t fully buy that the demons were already here waiting for us, since Cynthia only put up the barrier when she learned we were coming. And we were pretty secretive about our trip here.

  But one issue was that shadow gliders didn’t dig, they glided. There had to have been some way they entered from underground.

  “So, the demons came from somewhere below us, in the shadows, no?” Marek recapped. “Could the toilet work?”

  “Oh my!” Adalyn blushed and waved a paper fan in her face.

  That seemed like a possible spot. Maybe a basement too, or pipes within it. There were too many possibilities to count them all, especially since this house was giant sized. Like, I’m talking BIG. So big that I could fly around in it.

  “Why didn’t they take out any of the barrier crystals while they were here?” Marek asked.

  “Why would they?” Indena challenged. “If they just wanted Yamin or the book, that means they weren't going to waste any more time ef’n around.”

  She was correct. They were more focused on using their sheer numbers to deal with us, especially me, rather than take down the barrier. Plus, why would they do that if there was the potential for competition coming in while the barrier was down? They might have failed to capture Yamin, but leaving her without some sort of exploitable protective wall was like leaving money just laying around in a house without doors.

  It seemed way too organized to just have been a simple demon invasion. They managed to stall us and steal something very particular, that being the grimoire. I had a feeling there was a bigger head honcho demon at work here.

  “This was planned out,” I concluded. “Someone smart has to be behind it. Those demons knew what they were doing.”

  “Maybe another demon lord, no?” Marek suggested what I was thinking.

  “I doubt it,” Indena waved her hand. “We would have seen his domain, right? He would have changed reality.”

  “Who says he hasn't?” I suggested. “I did remember picking up a lot of darkness energy in Little Conberg, and that’s not too far from here at all. It’s not impossible to think that there’s a demon lord quietly pulling some sneaky strings over there.”

  The darkness happened about the time of the second mafia attack. None of them were using dark powers or anything, but the energy was present. Plus, I had a feeling some of the people there were being affected by it. Possibly including Indena.

  “Underground…” Marek thoughtfully brushed his chin. “You think those mafia guys might be involved?”

  “Why them?” Indena asked.

  “They came out of the sewers,” Marek reminded us. “Those are underground, no?”

  That’s right! That was exactly where the mafia came from and fled to. But were those guys really in cahoots with a demon lord? Anything was possible, but I really didn’t see them use any dark energy at all.

  “So, you think the mafia has the grimoire?” Indena asked.

  “How would they have known about it though?” I asked. “Why would they care? They already knew a lot about us and didn’t bring up the book at all.”

  They wanted to capture me, not the book or Yamin. That would have been a good time to do it though.

  Still, the dark energy in Little Conberg couldn’t be ignored, and that was our only lead.

  “We don’t have all the pieces yet, but we have to get that grimoire back,” I said. “ The sewers of Little conberg is looking like the most likely spot to start.”

  Unfortunately, checking through sewers didn’t sound like the most enjoyable experience, but we had to do what we had to do. The only problem was, who was going, and how were they getting there?

  Clearly I had to go, since I was the only one here who could take on a demon lord. But I was going to need some backup. Truth be told, this day had tuckered me out quite a bit.

  “Shrimp, you know I got your back,” Indena said. “I’ve got an idea where we can start looking.”

  “I was thinking we could just open up a manhole somewhere,” I said.

  “Nah. We gotta’ find a different way. I bet those mafia goons have the obvious entrances locked down.”

  If she had an alternate entrance, I wasn’t going to complain. Although, I had to question what rat martial artist she was training under in order to slip in and out of a sewer undetected. The idea of her training under a demi-human rat was actually really funny.

  Well, we had our teams. Once we dropped off Yamin, Marek and Cynthia at the church, Indena and I would head for the sewers…however she planned for us to do that…

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)