Chương 76: Chapter 75 - New New Plan

Atzi went back to the inn. Though she was less tired than when she had started the loop, she was still sleepy enough to go right back to bed.

"Dying sure takes a lot out of you," Atzi said from her bed, before letting out a large yawn. Then she turned over and went to sleep. === Atzi awoke hungry, some time before the afternoon. She decided to skip eating downstairs, instead going out and getting something from a market stall. That way she could keep a lookout for the Shapeshifter's procession while she gnawed on a stick of gravy-slathered pork. V mentioning blackmail had given her an idea.

She waited until she saw 'Scabiel' separate from the procession, heading down the street. Atzi walked ahead of 'her', until she was in front of the alleyway where she had confronted the Shapeshifter's prophet previously. When 'Scabiel' walked by, Atzi waved. She casually called over, "Hello, prophet of the Shapeshifter."

'Scabiel' turned into the alley, and immediately asked, "How?" Atzi tried to imitate the type of smile V would give when they were being mysterious.

"That's not something I'm gonna share. I'm here to negotiate." Scabiel transformed into the familiar shape of the prophet, body melding into the scarred visage wrapped in furs, and covered by the carving of a tiger.

"I could separate your head from your body as part of 'negotiations'. Keep that in mind."

"The Serpent sent me." In other words, you can't just kill me, bozo.

"My word is her word." She's got a lot of daughters. Humans get serpent-blooded and Pomarians mixed up a lot, I bet I could bluff this.

"I'm her daughter, so if you do that, she'll want your head too." He snorted.

"You are a terrible liar." Shit, how'd he know?

"... Fine, she didn't send me, but she's got more important stuff to deal with. You're here to interfere with my sister Kurgi, yeah? You don't like that she and Scabiel are that close." He rotated his hand impatiently.

"Move on to the part where you say what you want."

"Gems." He turned around and started walking away. Atzi crossed her arms.

"What, that's it? Fine, I'll go let Kurgi know." He glanced at her.

"Sure. You do that." Atzi felt a smug edge to his voice. Like he had some sort of plan to deal with her trying that.

"Oh, I get it. You're gonna just turn into someone else to interfere. Very clever. Scabiel not worth the gems, then?" He continued walking away, turning out of the alley. Atzi shouted after him, "Fine! You want a deal? I can give you something you won't get anywhere else. I'll tell you who's going to get elected at the godscouncil!" He was gone. He hadn't even paused in his steps. Atzi grumbled to herself.

"Okay, fuck that guy." I'm going to Kurgi. Might as well. Fuck that guy. She made her way over to the fence, hopping it as usual. She kept an eye out for Kurgi, looking for the woman's distinctive eye-like ears. She had a general sense for what parties she liked to frequent, though it was still fairly early and most places were either still setting up, or only small gatherings. Finally, she found her, chatting with a group of people. Atzi approached.

"Hey, Kurgi?"

"Huh?" Kurgi turned towards her.

"Hi. The Serpent sent me. The prophet of the Shapeshifter is gonna mess with you and Scabiel, if she starts acting weird and saying awful stuff, it's not really her."

"What? Why?" Kurgi asked, confused.

"Oh, cause he's jealous about you 'stealing' her. Lame stuff."

"Oh. My. Mom." Atzi waved goodbye.

"Anyway, good luck! Now you know." Atzi turned to leave.

"Wait!"

"Yeah?" Atzi turned back.

"How do you know that?"

"Uh... it's a secret." Kurgi touched Atzi's arm and stared at her with her big beautiful red eyes.

"Really?"

"... Really." Atzi swallowed.

"Uh... the real Scabiel will be here soon, she'll probably get jealous if you keep..."

"Oh! Of course!" Kurgi laughed and let go.

"Uh, see you around!" Atzi darted off. Damn, if I wasn't so tired I could have slept with her yesterday. Oh well, there's always the next loop. Atzi wanted to intercept the meeting at V's later, but had a bit of time until then. She was hungry again, so she spent some time schmoozing around another upcoming party, stealing food off their counter and putting back a few drinks. When it was almost time, she scampered off to V's mansion. There were no guards outside.

Every curtain was drawn, and there didn't seem to be any lights on inside. They must have already left. That was quick. Well, whatever. It means I can just walk in easily! Atzi tried the door. It was locked. That was no problem for her. She took out her lockpicks and started fiddling. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. It popped open in no time at all.

"You still got it," she said to herself. She put away her tools and stood up. Then she reached out a claw, opening the door and-"What are you doing?" Atzi whipped around, towards the voice. It was Cory, affixing Atzi with a raised eyebrow. Atzi gave a small wave.

"Hi Cory. Uh... you doing good?" Okay, I just need to get her on board with the bank heist. She shouldn't have a problem because it's not V running it, right? Cory crossed her arms.

"Well, I was before I found out this was canceled! Fence told me. They didn't tell you?"

"What? Fence said that? When?" That little… Cory gave a noncommittal shrug with one shoulder.

"Oh, they got here earlier and found the entire place abandoned. So they told the rest of us." Atzi groaned, resting her head in her claws.

"I got here as soon as I could! It's not cancelled, it's just... altered, slightly."

"What do you mean?" Cory asked. She looked back up.

"V has a lot of heat and had to bail, but I know the entire plan. We can still do it." Cory grinned.

"Ah, they gave you all the tools?" Yes. Yes!

"I've got all the passcodes for the bank guards and I know where the head of it will be. We'll need her blood for the vault door," Atzi assured her.

"What about the other stuff? When they invited me on this job they mentioned seer wards? Also, a reward for me..."

"The spellbook of the Sage of Sostra? Yeah, you'll get it, don't worry."

"You have it?!" Cory stepped closer. Unless V took it when they ran…

"Yep."

"Atzi. Atzi." Cory stepped even closer. She grabbed Atzi by the shoulders.

"Y-yeah?" Atzi asked, suddenly feeling very happy.

"I need that book. It's so much more important than this bank heist." So forceful. So sudden. So this is the power of being in charge.

"I... I know. B-but we still need the blood from the head of the bank to get into the vault, and you're the only one that can do it…"

"Not a problem! But… could I have the book first?" She gave Atzi a pleading look. I'm the only one who can help her!

"W-well, I trust you, so we can go get it first. Th-then we sort out stealing the blood?"

"Yeah!" Cory let go. Atzi led her to the sewer entrance that she usually used when stealing the book.

"V keeps it in the sewers, secret entrance down from inside their mansion."

"Clever." Cory followed her through the sewers, until they were just under V's mansion. When they reached the book's location, sure enough, it was already extracted. The wall was partially destroyed, bricks strewn about.

"... Oh. Shit. V... took it already." Atzi stared at the hole. Cory looked sour.

"I thought you said you had it."

"I thought V would leave it behind! What's the point in keeping it at this point?" Atzi groaned and rubbed her face.

"Great, the heist's ruined then... that's what I get for asking V for help..."

"Do you know where V went? Maybe we could get the book back," Cory said. Atzi shook her head.

"V didn't say, just said they're skipping town." Atzi thought for a moment.

"... Hey, Cory. You aren't, uh, curious how I know where the book is? Was. Shit. V obviously got it first."

"Hmm? Well, either V told you, or you figured it out on your own somehow. Are you telling me you figured it out on your own?"

"Sort of... uh... I know some things I'm not meant to." Atzi thought for a moment longer.

"Oh. Oh! I know something you might like, if the book's not here. I know where there's gonna be ten gems tomorrow." Cory raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of gems?"

"Fire gems. Guarded by... okay at least one pretty good mage but they're mostly dumbasses that let a chicken eat most of the gems."

"A chicken?"

"Yeah. A chicken. Eats most of them, if they aren't stolen. So, you know, if we pull it off, it's not even a crime really."

"Funny, that's twice I've heard a wild story about a chicken in as many days. But how do you know a chicken is going to eat the gems?"

"I've been having visions of the future." This is an easier lie.

"I uh... told V I knew about something going wrong in the heist plan, and they, um.... they panicked and fled the city. I guess they thought it was weird I knew as much as I did, but I just wanted to make sure the heist went well..."

"Huh! What kind of visions of the future? Can you see my future?" Cory asked. Atzi closed her eyes and acted like she was concentrating. Then looked downcast.

"You... have a girlfriend. Oh..."

"That's right!" Cory said, happily.

"But that's the past, not the future."

"Her name's Alana. She's got pink hair and she's got a lot of energy." Atzi closed her eyes more tightly.

"And... really strong." Cory smiled.

"Uh-huh. You must have met her at a party, right?" Atzi shook her head again.

"You can ask her if she's seen me at one, I've not."

"Hmm, okay. I will. Anyway, what happens in my future with Alana?"

"Uh... something involving the city...? There's some kind of danger..." Atzi trembled.

"Oh? What kind of threat?" Cory asked.

"... Oh. The city's gonna be destroyed in five days. Oh." Atzi let her jaw drop.

"Fuck." Cory gasped.

"By what?!"

"Undead. Loads of them. Fuck." She thrashed her tail.

"Oh no, it's the whole empire. Oh no. There's nowhere to even run."

"Undead?" Cory asked, extremely confused.

"What causes the undead?"

"Yeah. A portal. Malus opened one." Atzi reached a claw out in front of her.

"She... got a ritual wrong and opened a portal to the underworld." Then she blinked her eyes open.

"... This is pretty big, but you still wanna do the heist...?"

"Wow… Atzi, you should become a book writer. You're so creative. I was enthralled." Cory slapped her on the shoulder. Atzi was silent. She felt dejected. Cory hadn't even believed her for a moment. Then she tried, "You wanna come with me to watch the gems? We could watch the chicken eat them if you don't wanna risk it." Cory hummed.

"Oh, if there really are gems? Sure. I get half."

"Oh, of course. Tomorrow evening, outside the north gate. They're getting moved into the university. Uh, as for the heist... so... are you out, then?

'Cause we need blood magic to make it work… I know the guard passwords for the bank guards!"

"Yeah, there's no reason to do it without the book. For me anyway. Trust me, I have other stuff going on." She winked.

"Oh... okay… What kinda stuff...?"

"Stuff with Alana." Atzi looked down at her clawed feet.

"Oh okay. Ha ha, I get it. That's cool, that's fine."

"But hey! I'll be there tomorrow. Where should we meet?"

"South gate in the afternoon? It'll take a while to get along there in time."

"Okay! It's a date," Cory said. Atzi felt like her brain paused.

"Nice! I mean. Nice." Cory held her nose.

"Now let's get out of these sewers. It smells."

"Oh. Right, yeah." They began to walk back the way they came.

"Hey, Cory... um... say I did have the book and gave you it. Would you... uh... would you still do the heist?"

"I dunno. I really just want the book. Is there a reason I should do the heist?"

"There's gotta be good stuff in the vault, right? I mean, V was desperate to get in there. Must be something really valuable in there?" It's the only thing that makes sense. Too much is weird about it.

"Sure, but... don't tell anyone else I said this, but money's not so important to me."

"Oh, I don't mean money. V's got tons of that, it's gotta be more than just money. Makes sense, right?"

"It does. But what?" Atzi shrugged.

"Dunno, never seen inside it." Cory laughed.

"You're so funny, Atzi. Bye!" Cory ran off ahead. Atzi laughed too.

"Bye!" Cory had said she was funny. Which meant that Atzi still had a chance. She walked towards the sewer exit, head in the clouds. She climbed her way out, and happily walked her way back to the inn to sleep.