Chapter 17 #2
Seymour found a place to park and then they strolled up into the restaurant.
While Sariel found a quiet table for him and Day in the corner, Seymour headed to the counter to order.
He got more than a few strange looks, no doubt from his ragged appearance.
His shirt was torn and bloody, and he figured it was obvious he hadn’t had the best day.
It could have also been the thirty cheeseburgers, ten large fries, and a dozen milks he ordered.
He waited off to the side, glancing back at Sariel and Day at the table.
Day was in Sariel’s lap, and she had folded napkins into an origami cat and some sort of bird. Maybe a swan or something. She danced the cat around and then roared, smashing it into the maybe-swan with lots of growling and snarling.
Adorable.
Once the food was ready, it was piled up on two trays. Seymour grabbed one in each hand to carry over to the table. No sooner had he set them down than Day snatched three cheeseburgers and shoved them right into her mouth with the wrapper still on.
“Hey, hey!” Seymour laughed. “You’re supposed to take the paper off.”
Day swallowed. “Why?”
“Because… it will taste better.”
Day seemed skeptical, but she daintily peeled back the wrapper before gobbling down the next cheeseburger. She meowed and grinned, exclaiming, “Oh! That is much better!”
“See? Told ya’.” Seymour sat in front of Sariel and Day to help block the rest of the restaurant from seeing a bunch of disappearing cheeseburgers, and he picked absently at some of the fries. “So.”
“So,” Sariel echoed as he opened up a bottle of milk for Day.
Seymour took a deep breath. “This is bad, right?”
“It is definitely not good.”
“Can some spell really hurt all monsters?”
“I do not know.” Sariel frowned. “I would have to imagine that spirits and other undead entities like Day would be unaffected because the spell refers to blood.”
“What about Dagobert?”
“Though he is undead, there is still blood in his veins. It would still be a risk.”
Seymour swallowed hard and reached out for Sariel’s hand. “Are you… at risk?”
“Depending on the strength and specific intent of the spell, yes.” Sariel frowned, letting his fingers curl around Seymour’s.
“We still do not know what it does. Assuming the worst is our best course of action. The mostri ribelli have always had devious intentions, but this does not make much sense.”
“Why?”
“They are monsters too. Why create something that would destroy them as well?”
“Not to mention so many innocents.” Day frowned. “I should eat more of ’em.”
“Reckon we gotta find ’em first.” Seymour chewed on a fry. “Any ideas where they might be hidin’? That list of locations hasn’t exactly been the most helpful.”
“But we found the beacon. And I ate many monsters.”
“Yes, a very good point.” Seymour reached over the table with his other hand to give her a scratch. “But we’re kinda stuck back in the same place again. We know they wanna play this fucked-up music, use the beacons to play it in all these monster places, but…”
“But?”
“Where are they gonna play the music? And how?” Seymour frowned thoughtfully. “There’s gotta be somethin’ else we’re missin’.”
“We are missing a brain still,” Sariel pointed out.
“Maybe that’s it. What exactly does Tally boy’s brain do?”
“We know it is the source of his power, but I cannot say whether or not his abilities to manipulate technology can be tapped into by merely having possession of it.”
“But they got these beacon things, right? That are supposed to, like, boost a signal?”
“Yes, we already know that.”
Seymour thought it over for a moment, and he found himself staring at the veins in the crook of his arm. “Maybe it’s like… busting through a clot.”
“A clot?” Day daintily wiped off her mouth with a napkin. “What do you mean?”
“I’m a phlebotomist. I take people’s blood for a living, okay?”
Day grimaced. “Why?”
“Uh, so that doctors and whoever can run tests, medical tests, and figure out how to help ’em.
It’s not for, like, drinkin’ or whatever.
” Seymour chuckled. “Anyway. So, sometimes, a clot might form in somebody’s artery or vein.
Dependin’ on where it is, it can be real dangerous, like cuttin’ blood off from where it needs to go.
Think of it like traffic gettin’ backed up, right?
Or, like, tryin’ to cram all those cheeseburgers in your mouth, but somebody’s stuck one of these here trays in there and stopped you. ”
“I would eat the tray.” Day narrowed her eyes. “It would not stop me.”
Sariel nodded in agreement. “We have seen what Day can consume. The tray would not work.”
“Okay, okay.” Seymour sighed. “How ’bout, uh, a wad of paper gettin’ stuck in your straw, so you couldn’t drink your milk? Get it?”
Day meowed. “Got it.”
“Okay, so—”
“Even though I am not using a straw, yes, I understand your analogy.”
“Maybe they need these beacons to help bust up clots to get through. I’m guessin’ all these monster places have some kinda magic protectin’ them, right?”
“Yes,” Sariel confirmed.
“How well do you know the city? Like, where everything is at?”
“Very well. Why?”
Seymour cleared off one of the trays and flipped the placemat over. It was blank. Perfect. “One sec.” He hopped up so he could hurry over to the counter. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
The cashier stared at him. “You need to order again, sir?”
“No, no, but thank you, ma’am.” Seymour grinned. “Do y’all have any crayons or somethin’ I could write with?”
The cashier slowly slid him a pen.
“Thank you kindly!” Seymour rushed back to the table. He plopped down and handed the pen to Sariel. “Okay, can you draw a map? Ain’t gotta be perfect, but—”
In the space of mere seconds, Sariel had drawn a street map of Somerstown.
“Well. There’s somethin’ I didn’t know you could do.” Seymour laughed.
“Do you wish me to mark the locations that were provided to us by Talos?” Sariel asked.
“You got it, Daddy.”
Day watched Sariel scribble away. “Oh! It is making a circle.” She tilted her head. “Well, not a very good one.”
Good or not, the locations on the map indeed created a somewhat circular pattern. There were a few random dots in the middle, but overall it was immediately recognizable.
Sariel pointed at the dots in the middle. “These are all locations with exceptionally strong magic. They would be the most difficult to reach with any spell, especially that of a hostile variety.”
“Okay, so they definitely wanted to make sure they hit those places hard.” Seymour took the pen from Sariel. “Maybe extra beacons? Or maybe, they made sure they were close to the source.”
First, he drew lines to connect the outer circle of locations. Then, he drew lines between the locations in the middle to make a lopsided rectangle.
Wait, wasn’t that a rhombus?
Could have been more of a trapezoid.
Whatever.
Seymour placed the tip of the pen in the middle of the new shape. “Say, like maybe right here?”
“It certainly seems to be at the very center of everything.” Day purred curiously. “What is that?”
“It is a small park.” Sariel shook his head. “That does not make any sense. There is nowhere to hide or carry out terrible acts of violence with a demigod’s brain.” He paused. “There is one very large tree, but… No. It would not be sufficient.”
“Well, can’t hurt to go check it out.” Seymour shrugged, shoving a few fries in his mouth.
All of the cheeseburgers were gone, and Day had made it through at least six fries and half of the milk. She’d slowed down, taking prim little nibbles. “After that, are we going home?”
“Home?”
Sariel blushed. “I believe she means my house.”
“Home is where your family is.” Day smiled brightly. “It doesn’t really matter where we are as long as we’re together.”
Seymour’s heart thumped, and he smiled. “Yeah. I reckon so.”
“Oh! Isn’t this just lovely!” a man’s voice exclaimed.
“Do you like it? Really?” said another, smooth despite the static of coming through a phone’s speaker and horribly familiar.
“I do!” the first squealed, and it was then Seymour realized he knew this voice too. “It’s so fun! It’s been far too long since I visited the mortal world.”
Seymour spun around in his seat, his heart crawling up into the back of his throat when he saw a very tall man with a long white braid strutting through the middle of the restaurant with a phone in his hand.
His phone case was gold—wait, no.
Bronze.
Well, fuck.