Chương 166: Act 3, Chapter 20: Through the looking glass

Day in the story: 7th January (Wednesday), around 2. 30 a. m. I let two sp-eye-ders crawl up my body from where they lay upon my leg in their dormant state. They went through the chest and up my neck and set themselves up at my cheeks, planting themselves firmly within the boundaries of the medium of me, and only then did they open the eyes on their abdomens. It was a strange sensation of something moving within the skin itself and not onto it, but surprisingly I took some pleasure in that.

It was electrifying, knowing that there was some form of life that acted on my whims and thanks to the rules I set in the universe.

"Oh good merciful God," Caroline remarked as she glanced at me, after she went through what the knocked-out guys had on them, which amounted to nothing of substance.

"It's not something I pictured when Marek told me I would be working with a mage of artistic creation back in the day."

"What did you expect?" I asked as I moved those eyes of mine that bore the mark of the Shattered in their irises, and right through that crevice they sucked in whatever the glass remembered but didn't want to share with the rest of us.

"I dunno. Like unicorns, rainbows, flowers, and landscapes? Maybe some statue thrown in there for good measure. But not an eldritch being mincing people with a thought and sporting additional eyes that crawl over the skin. Good sweet Lord Jesus."

"You'd be happy to know that I have a few more of those on my body," I told her, lifting the hair falling down my back a bit to show the one on the back of my neck. She winced when the eye moved to track her movement, while I still marveled at that simple dynamic addition. No longer was my additional sight static, but it could follow the needs of my brain perfectly. She made the sign of the cross and whistled for Loki to come closer to her. The dog jumped out of the trash bin happily.

"You find anything in there?" She asked her.

"Smelly clothes, poop, bottles, boxes, rotten fish, and other food," Loki answered, while I focused my sight on the blackened face shield of one of the helmets.

"Do you believe in God?" I asked, while inside the very essence of me I asked for a recounting of what had happened here, focusing on the presence of the Rhythm in particular. The visor responded by showing a scene to me. The gang was hauling some cargo into the warehouse when someone knocked on the gate, making it all wiggle. Mr. Steel Viper ordered one of his minions to move toward it for what I assumed was a check, but before he could reach it, the gate was spread open.

"Yes, I do," Caroline replied.

"Helps me cope with what I'm seeing. I don't buy into this Reality-being-the-only-god-in-here crap. The fact that it's interacting with us makes it more of a force, like gravity, than a godly presence."

"You think so?" I asked, watching as Robbie disregarded the man who was supposed to deal with him and pointed his finger at the bigger group of bikers by the warehouse. He looked angry and shouted something.

"Yes. I go to church every Sunday with my ma. Can you explain what you're doin'?" she asked, when the older of the Reyes brothers was attacked by the gangsters, only to be thrown aside by something I assumed was a sound wave of immense force. It looked like a membrane in the air, bumping him off.

What followed was a shootout—they simply didn't care and unloaded at Robbie for a good two seconds, before they realized that he was still standing and that the bullets kept missing the target, being thrown off left and right.

"I'm kind of jealous of people of faith. I lost mine so long ago I can't remember how it felt to have one in someone other than yourself," I replied, watching Reyes go hard against those Nazis as they rushed him.

"I'm trying to find out what happened here. I have my ways," I answered her question.

"You have the weirdest set of powers I've seen. I'm going inside, unless you need something from me?"

"No, go. Maybe you'll find something there. I'll let you know what I gather in here." She lingered for a second longer and went inside the building. Loki stayed behind, though—likely to observe if I would do anything strange or out of the ordinary. If that term applied to me in any way, shape, or form. I decided to watch the fight closely to learn as much about the Rhythm as possible.

As soon as they stopped shooting at him, the group rushed toward Robbie, and I have to admit that it either took guts to do that after seeing a person deflect bullets, or they were just plain stupid. Immense hatred can also force people to do such things. The Rhythm didn't wait for them to get close, though, and one of the attackers was stopped dead in his tracks as he hit an invisible wall. He dropped to the ground, hitting the concrete with a head that bounced off with a crunch.

Didn't look too good from the perspective of the helmet. I also noticed that the car with the dented side had been pretty whole and operational before the fight started and was now being thrown toward one of the bikers, crushing him underneath and rolling over him before it stopped in the position it is in now. The rolled-over guy was pretty young, his breath shallow—maybe that's the one who was taken to the vet later on? He didn't look like he could've made it, though.

Two of them came close and proceeded to slash with their serrated knives in quick, frantic movements that were difficult to see from out here, but the Rhythm pushed them away with his powers and proceeded to run closer to the boss and the people around him, throwing those three "guards" into the air with soundwaves localized underneath their feet, then grabbed the boss by the collar, punching him with his own fists over and over.

He threw him to the ground and kicked him in his left side when two other guys managed to grab him from the back by his jacket. He was slick, though, and came out of it with one quick motion, leaving those two with a loose jacket in their hands, right before they were thrown away as well. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. In about a minute, he managed to overcome each of them.

He came to the boss of the gang, spat on him, and promptly left the scene the same way he came in.

"It seems, my dear Loki, that I might have a lead on the man we are after."

"Yes?" she spoke back to me, wagging her tail.

"How?" she asked, which sounded weirdly like a dog's bark.

"A secret," I replied, patting her on the head.

"Can you tell Caroline while I spend some more time looking through the glass?"

"Yes," she replied and sat by me without any more sounds.

"I guess you have some sort of mental connection?"

"Yes."

"Okay then." I told her and took the helmet off the stand, realizing that I probably did not have to keep squatting in front of it. I focused on the shield again, wanting to recall the scene as it had just ended. After Rhythm left the yard, a few good minutes passed with no one really doing anything substantial. Some people groaned, others shouted or swore as they began coming back to their senses. They quickly realized that one of them was badly crushed, and Marty used a phone to call someone over.

[You have quite a good grip on that ability.] Anansi remarked as I mentally sped up the boring parts and slowed down again when something interesting was going on. It's like pushing and pulling with my Authority. Comes instinctual. Are you helping me? [Not in any conscious way on my end. But I am an anima. I am part of you, and as that, you are using me each time you are using your Authority in any way.] So you are telling me that I am so lucky that I am probably the only mage in the world whose magic can literally ask me to go fuck myself? Another win in my collection. [I can. Yes. Isn't that splendid?] Oh, don't you dare mock me, or I will make sure that one of the legs in your new body is shorter than the rest. I told her back, shutting that beautiful mouth of hers, while in the past trapped in the visor, I witnessed the bikers taking the hurt guy into the car that had just arrived.

Steel Viper joined him inside, and they all went on their merry way. At least he cares a bit about his own people. [Isn't that exactly how you live your life?] Oh, shut up. I am trying to do better nowadays, don't I? [Yes, you both are.] she replied, while I tried to mute her voice in my head, soul, or wherever she was. A pretty long "nothing much" followed all that had happened in the yard. It was filled with more mobile and less fortunate bikers cleaning everything up after the fight.

This continued for quite a while, until another intruder broke the order. He was a black man, wearing streetwear clothes reminiscent of a blend of skater and hip-hop styles, if I was not mistaken. He had short dreads on his head and came in knocking. Knocking on the fence's gate, that is. One of the men in the yard came toward him, disdain showing in every move and in the way he shouted at him.

The new man, who looked vaguely familiar to me, was very polite in his body language—nodding, bowing, trying to explain something with his hands. At one point, though, the biker reached for a gun and pointed it at the newcomer, and at that point he hastily went away. I watched the memories at high speed after that, as nothing else worth noting happened. I released my Authority from the visor and put the helmet back on its stick, then leaned against the wall of the warehouse, deep in thought.

"Okay?" the dog asked me.

"Yes. I just can't figure something out," I replied, thinking of the other man. That wasn't the Rhythm, but he was similar to him. Kind of like… Malik. Although not quite either. I was pretty sure he was taller than Echo was, and his demeanor different, and yet the hair was similar, albeit shorter, and the face structure seemed close enough. But also not quite. Was there a third brother I didn't know about? Or maybe that's their father, despite the youthful clothes and the young face.

Maybe I should ask Bonnie about that before I somehow get tangled in a bigger mess than I already am in.

"Carol is on her way," the dog announced.

"She wanted to be sure she missed nothing."

"I understand," I replied, still thinking about the matter with one of my brains.

"There is a purple jacket by that wall, can you see it?" I asked Loki.

"Yes."

"Grab it and bring it here, please."

"Okie dokie," she responded and quickly went for the Rhythm's piece of clothing. Caroline came out just as she brought it back to me.

"What's that?" she asked.

"That's the older Reyes's jacket. It was taken off him when he was here, beating the shit out of those bikers. You find anything in there?" I told her, while she reached for the jacket.

"No. Nothing that we would have to worry about. I called the police about this place, though. They have a pretty big stash of drugs in there. You sure that jacket is his?"

"One hundred percent." She smiled hearing that and extended the hand with the jacket toward Loki, who took a sniff.

"Can you use this to track him?" she asked the dog.

"Yes!" Loki exclaimed and ran toward the gate, bouncing happily off the pavement in a way that reminded me of Lio. I was instantly flooded with feelings of hope that my little cloud serpent was doing something fun, and right after that my vision from the eyes he created for me on his forehead was unveiled by Anansi. Liora was prowling in the woods of my Domain, weaving between the trees in a particularly not-like-him manner.

He's usually quick and hasty, as if the wind itself forced him to be in constant high-speed motion, but now every movement was measured and deliberate. Paws set in front with care not to break any branches or rustle blades of grass, which was kind of funny to me—he could've just as easily moved a foot above the ground and been fine. Maybe he was testing and training himself the same way I often was.

My surprise came when he jumped suddenly—my vision following his head as his jaws caught a small grey bunny that was apparently hiding in the bush. He, of course, proceeded to tear the poor creature apart and eat it—something I promptly focused away from—but the realization of what happened came to me in a rush of overwhelming joy. My Domain, my very soul, created animal life inside it, hidden in the woods. Was it an answer to my question? Or something that was there already?

Musing like that would have to wait, though, because we were after a target that was of higher importance to me. I wanted him dead for what he'd done, and this dog's nose was key to finding him.

"I left my car near the vet, but I borrowed someone else's. Get inside," Caroline said as she entered a sedan. I joined her in the passenger seat, and we were about to go when we heard the roars of the bikes in the distance.

"Go," I said simply, as she wondered what to do, turning her head back to look for the motorcycles.

"Nah. Let's get out. It's easier to fight outside the car. And this one isn't mine."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, get out," she said with a firm voice.

"Okay. There's absolutely no need to be so stiff, Officer Jackson," I replied, shutting the car door behind me.

"What's the plan? You know one of their friends is missing—your dog tossed him into a river or something and I mangled the other one. It's probably not the best idea to stick around and find out what happens next."

"What? Loki stashed him in a boat, she didn't throw him into the river," she said, motioning for me to follow her away from the lights.

"I'm not saying we should stay and fight them. Let's just move on foot." She took off between the trees, away from the approaching bikes. I followed, while Loki moved to the front, leading us toward the source of the smell. Hopefully.