By the time I made it home, the bells and clocks of the city were tolling one. Well, the one clocktower I could actually hear.

Used to be this city's various ways of keeping time made a cacophonous overlapping assault of sound that drove most for the safety of indoors. Especially when the dreaded noon or midnight came with twelve different chimes.

It hadn't helped that when clockwork had first started picking up steam in the city, various nobles had invested in increasingly more extravagant ways of keeping time. Bigger, more accurate, louder, accompanied by ever larger bidding wars for the services of various engineers, mages, and artificers. All in an effort to prove how much more forward thinking then they were than their contemporaries.

They had tormented the city for half a decade, until some infiltrating spy had rigged a device to direct the sound waves of His Duke of Ledin-on-Nye's Grand Edifice of Chronoregistry at a squadron of Her Majesty's warships being towed through the Nover.

There were no survivors.

Soon after that, on Her Majesty's command, wards had been placed restricting the sounds of clocktowers and other methods of telling time to districts around them. There had been fierce bidding wars over whose giant ego tribute would cover which areas, which helped repay for the ships lost to the Nover.

So, only Her-Lady-The-Baroness-of-Torrich-and-Dupper's Tower of Punctuality chimed as I finally reached home, a rather plain tower that seemed quite off from its extravagant name.

At least if you didn't know about the gargoyles that had been removed for eating someone. This is why you should be careful about what magics you use for animating statues.

The streets had emptied out some, meaning less of a crush on the way home. Part of that was because some utter lunatics had decided to top the conjured clouds with a snowfall.

I drew my coat tightly around me as I moved forward, trying not to slip on the building-up snow. Flakes were falling from what would have been an afternoon sky before now. It had been clear just an hour beforehand, the temperature climbing to something reasonably comfortable. Someone was trying to torment the people of Avernon. That or two of the royal family were fighting over control of the weather mages' services.

I paused, a sound reaching my ear, and then with a small shake of my head, I hurried forward.

Turning the corner onto my street, the shrieking of the hog was now ear-splitting, only matched by the string of curses and oaths coming from Varrow.

Varrow had taken my instruction to heart, and now that was proving problematic as the massive hog he'd bought pulled the shrieking Infernal forward. Varrow was trying to haul the pig backward towards my house, a second Infernal in a red coat pushing futilely against the pig's shoulders from the front.

I suppose I should have mentioned to bring the pig back stealthily, but hindsight only occurs when it would have prevented disaster. At least in my experience. Now I'd have to keep it alive while I found a second to actually biosculpt.

"Mr. Varrow," I said, raising a hand as I approached. "Good afternoon to you!"

My voice provided sufficient distraction that the squealing hog headbutted Varrow's helper in the groin. They collapsed while the warty, hefty animal tried to make good on its chance to escape.

"Harrow," Varrow snarled, trying and failing to keep the hog from dragging him down the street. "Give me a hand?"

"Is there no one inside to help?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

Sure, my visible minders from intelligence were gone, but surely someone besides me had gotten back home by now.

"Sure," he growled as his hooves dug furrows into the ground. "The priest was willing, but everyone else laughed and told him he was wasting his-Harrow!"

The hog had overpowered him by now, and suddenly, Varrow was being dragged down the street, arms wrapped around its midsection. His helper moved to the side instead of getting trampled under hoof, letting a flailing Varrow get pulled.

I choked back a giggle as he screamed and swore as it dragged him through the snow.

"Harrow, your fucking dinner is escaping!"

Okay, I should intervene before the hog actually escapes.

***

Five minutes after helping wrestle a large, frightened animal that didn't want anything with sharp teeth near it into my basement, I walked back around to my front door, opening it.

Inside, my four minions were busy enjoying a cup of that most vile brew that was afflicting the kingdom, looking up as I entered.

"Well if it isn't the conquering heroine returning," Alice said snidely. "You slay any dragons while you were gone?"

"No," I replied, taking my coat off and shaking the snow off outside my shop. "Also, you just forfeited your share of the bacon."

"I will weep for my loss. Would you mind closing the door? My coffee will freeze at this rate."

Oh, the temptation to have that vile brew freeze over. I did pull the door shut. I was starting to shiver a little myself.

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"While you haven't said why you want a pig, I'm pretty sure it wasn't to carve it up," Gregory said.

From down below, the hog in question squealed why Varrow swore at it. We all ignored it.

"No, but since he tried bringing it in through the front, I need to go get a second in secret," I said. "And then I have to come up with a reason why I sent Varrow to get this. Bacon might be a good one."

"An entire hog just for bacon?" Tolman asked. "That's a lot of bacon to get. How would you preserve all of it?"

"I don't know. Smoke it, maybe? This wouldn't be an issue if say, anyone not decided to let Varrow struggle with the pig outside?"

"I was the only one who tried to help," Gregory said. "The other three refused."

"And you ended up not helping Varrow because?"

"Unflattering insinuations, I was going to take him into an alley and spawn a shapechanger inside him."

I really needed to find whatever was planting these idiotic ideas in Varrow's head. Probably the newspapers.

"And the rest of you?" I asked.

"Go pay people if you want folks to wrangle pigs," Alice said drily. "It's what folks do where I've been living these last couple of years."

"So," Melissa said, still glaring at me. "We were busy talking about everything you've had us doing today. Did you blackmail our brother."

"Yes," I said, and she tensed up. "Yes, because I wanted to get his attention, nothing else. He seems determined that he can just kill his traitorous diabolists and then wait this out underneath everyone else's attention, so I needed something to make him come out of his hole."

Melissa snarled. "If you think you can threaten-"

"I did, and he responded," I said firmly, cutting her off. "The fact he actually agreed instead of having someone else waiting for me ready to deliver a firm message about demanding his time should say something about things are going currently."

Silence as Melissa chewed on that, and Alice spoke up.

"So he agreed to it?" She asked.

"Yes, he agreed to it," I replied. "I had to give up a store of blackmail I was saving if he ever tries to seriously have me killed, but he's agreed to smuggle you out. You will be out of the city by evening."

Alice opened her mouth, then seemed to struggle to find something to say. Melissa interrupted before she could.

"I'm sorry, your store of what?"

"Blackmail, Melissa," I said, rolling my eyes. "Are you seriously shocked that I have some? While I have the proverbial sword of his revenge on my deseration over my head?"

Melissa glared at me, but the fire in her eyes guttered out a little. "I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, but a betrayal of our kind-"

"The Black Flame isn't Infernals," I interrupted. "Also, a store, not the store. I have plenty more where what I promised to burn came from. And besides-"

Someone pounded on my door, interrupting me.

I rolled my eyes as the same person pounded on the door yet again.

"Open the fuck up, it's freezing out here!"

No recognizable voice. Oh joy, what new player had entered my life now?

I opened the door up just a little. There was an Infernal on my door not much older than I was, shuffling about as she tried to keep warm. She drew closer, the heat from inside my shop drawing her.

"Got a message for you," she said, producing an envelope from within her ratty coat. "Got asked to deliver it to you."

I eyed the message. Crumpled, worn a little bit, and despite the prominent seal, clearly opened.

She's also done a poor job of resealing it too, the alignment was far enough off to be visible. Also, the paper was blackened slightly in a circular pattern. Had she used a brand to reheat the wax?

"Who sent it?" I asked

"Some fancy lad who looks like you delivered this along with a whole five pounds," the courier sneered. "Almost made it worth the fact that he tried to keep on the other side of the street from me and threw the letter instead of handing it."

I raised an eyebrow. That could be..well, quite a few of the cousins actually, so I couldn't name any names.

"They also said you'd pay double that when I delivered it," the messenger said in a more polite tone, pulling the letter back into their coat.

"I'll pay half that," I said, getting a wounded look from the messenger.

"You'd deny me payment for my honest work?" she protested. "I delivered this message, safely, across the Quarter, dodging who knows what devils and creatures employed to look at your mail."

That was rich, considering she'd opened it herself.

"You got paid ahead of time," I replied. "Also, you opened the message yourself, don't bother denying it. I'm guessing it proved quite a bother to read. No, I'll pay five pounds, since you didn't just take the payment and chuck it in the Nover, but not a penny more."

Five pounds was already a ludicrous sum, and as much as I'd been spreading coin today, I didn't want to burn through it fast enough to spend ten.

The messenger grumbled, complained, and wished everlasting damnation on me under her breath, but eventually relinquished the message.

It took a while to read. I was far too rusty at this, and languages had a way of disappearing when you didn't actively use them. More annoyingly, they didn't need to hide the contents of this. People could know I met Liu for tea just by seeing it with their eyes, not by reading intercepted messages.

The invitation was for today. Actually, within the hour, the same coffee house as before, Aunt Jing and Uncle Liu. I raised an eyebrow as I confirmed the time again. It was phrased as a polite request, but I didn't doubt they intended for it to be obeyed.

Forcefulness? From these two? So shortly after Aunt Jing's near-cursing at the hands of Tagashin? It was always possible that it was just Xang arrogance and expectations for respect and obedience. I had constraints on my time, and not really the mood to indulge them in this. Not showing up would be its own message.

But if I wanted to organize as many potential disruptions as possible, I didn't have a choice, did I?

"Well everyone, it seems I must be off once again," I said, tossing the invitation into my stove. "It appears I've been invited for tea by the Xangs. That was faster than I expected. I hoped they'd take their time and Diwei would be rabid enough to charge into the fray."

"Hoping to kill whoever this Diwei is?" Melissa said from my countertop.

Had that brat dug her claws into my countertop? What was with people doing damage to my home?

"No, I was hoping she'd kill whoever is behind this," I muttered. "Diwei is really good at brute force, although recent events have been a mark against her in that regard."

Then again, she'd gone in apparently trying to provoke a reaction out of me. Somehow, that had translated to making and breaking oaths with a kitsune, which was a mite more foolish than expected.

"If there's one thing I can count on her to do, it's to get bull-headed when she's convinced there's acclaim involved," I said. "She is really invested in living beyond her ancestor's legacy, which means anything involving devils should draw her like a moth to the flame. Instead we have the reasonable ones setting up a meeting. Anyone interested in joining me for tea?"

"These are the same Xangs you talked about back in the Flame?" Alice asked. "Unless you think there will be a fight, I'll pass."

"I want to spend my afternoon sipping tea with nobles, sure," Melissa added.

Not technically nobles, but close enough, I suppose. I turned my gaze to Tolman.

"Do you want these two alone in your store?"

"A fair point," I said, while Alice and Melissa didn't even try to protest. "Gregory, thought, I want you with me."

"Because a priest might put them more at ease?"

"No," I said bluntly. "You're coming with me so we can have a talk with them about you going to them and prying into my past."

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