Chapter 9 A Fruitful Pilgrimage
A Fruitful Pilgrimage
Iwent home, jerked off again to the thought of Sage, and tried to get some sleep. But she still invaded my dreams, her sweet, fruity and floral scent teasing and taunting me, and I woke up several times humping my pillow.
I was becoming rather pathetic.
Once I’d given up on getting any more shut-eye, I downloaded the Kaldrin app and found a local witch who might be able to make the kind of suppressant Kit had suggested.
Then I went through all of the app itself, looking through the settings, the about page, the terms and conditions…
whatever might point me to its developer.
I drank way too many cups of tea while I waited for my delivery, watching the news and catching another segment on Premier Corvane’s life. Apparently, it was very important that all of Lundaria knew he attended the opera with his wife a few hours ago.
His glamour was still quite heavy, and just watching his smug smile was pissing me off.
He’d hurt Sage. Whether Morgana was exaggerating about Sage’s innocence in the whole deal remained to be seen, but with the facts as they were, everything pointed to him being heavily involved with her disappearance five years ago.
The “why” of it all was killing me, even though my job was just to find her, “no questions asked.”
Screw that.
When it finally got to a respectable hour of the day, I texted my elf hacker contact to see if he was up. Within a minute, he was calling me.
“Ronaaan,” he greeted with a creaky tone. “What’s up, my man?”
“Hey Arlen, I need you to track down the creator of an app for me.”
I heard some sheets rustling in the background, and a woman’s angry groan followed by a door closing. “An app, huh? What, is it crashing too much and you’re taking it personally?”
He laughed at his own joke, and I gave him a moment to situate himself, listening for the telltale hum of a computer coming back to life.
“Alright, well, let’s see what app you’re talking about.
You know I charge by the hour, right? And my rate goes up the more I get pissed off at who I’m looking for. ”
I usually asked for Arlen’s help to find some true pieces of shit, because as tech savvy as I was, the dark web was still a mystery to me, and some things really couldn’t be unseen.
If a few extra hundred runics of his hazard pay helped cover the cost of a therapist, or, in his case, mind-altering substances, it was worth it for both of us.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but you don’t have much to worry about with this one.
And I don’t think the security will be particularly sophisticated or anything, either.
They didn’t finish their CS degree and…”
“Bitch, I never even went to college, you know degrees don’t mean shit. Just tell me the name of the app already. I’ll take a look and get back to you.”
“It’s called Kaldrin, it’s…”
“Oh, for real? I love that app. I ordered some primo moon-shrooms from there last night. They delivered it and everything.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You can buy drugs from an app?”
“You can buy anything from an app, dude! Where the hell have you been?”
Clearly not somewhere fun enough where I could be buying drugs from an app, but I didn’t know why I was surprised. “I just need this done ASAP. I’ll pay double your rate if you make this your top priority.”
He whistled between his teeth and started typing. “Ronan, my man, you gotta stop making these demon deals. They’re literally going to kill you one day. You know that, right?”
I heard a sound outside and peeked behind my curtain to find a witch dropping off my rut suppressant. She took a picture of the package on my doorstep and then left just as I got a notification that it had been delivered.
Pretty cool.
“Obviously. Just let me know as soon as you get anything. Name and location if possible, but either-or is also helpful.”
“How about you send me my new, doubled first-hour rate now? You know, for motivation?”
I rolled my eyes and went to my RunePay app, sending him one thousand with a demon emoji as a note.
The sound of a bell chiming on the other end told me he’d received it. “Much appreciated. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.”
He hung up and I opened the door, grabbing the bag the witch had left and taking a look inside at the three plain glass vials with a note that read:
Thank you for your order! This rut suppressant was made just for you, with your Magik and requested add-on(s) in mind.
To match your demon power, I brewed this at an extra high heat and included a pinch of salamander root. To combat the feelings of unrequited love, I steeped the potion in heartmoss for twenty minutes.
Instructions: Take each dose on a full stomach, six hours apart. Think of the one you cannot have and imagine yourself walking away from them for full effect.
Please leave me a five-broomstick review on the app if you liked my product, and enjoy the attached fifteen percent off coupon for your next purchase!
I couldn’t help but smile, because the whole thing was unbelievably charming. I didn’t know Sage at all, but this had been her idea, and it really felt like something significant.
She’d taken her entrepreneurial spirit and spread it around to other witches, helping them become independent, freelance workers.
Elven magic centered around healing, and there was no knocking their power, but as Kit had suggested, maybe sometimes we needed something that approached our problems from a different angle.
Something that was a little more personalized to get the job done.
Or, like Arlen, maybe sometimes we just needed to get really high.
I followed the prompts on the app to leave a good review and extra tip, then took the first vial.
Liquid fire burned down my throat, followed by a feeling of cool acceptance. The ache in my groin immediately began to subside, and for the first time in days, my head didn’t feel foggy.
Well, now I kind of hoped Sage hadn’t made this app, because I’d hate for it to go away once I turned her in to the Premier.
I tried to follow the instructions, but it was hard to imagine walking away from her, considering it was currently my job to find her. I still had one more lead I hadn’t followed yet, and I took out my phone to dial the number for the cardiologist who’d treated Sage so many years ago.
“Thank you for calling the office of Dr. Dorian Fenwick. We are located in the cardiology department on the fifth floor of Orithiel Blessed Hospital, at 1675 Oakmoss Boulevard in Elmaris. For office hours, press one. To make an appointment with our automated system, press two…”
I spammed the zero button until I began to hear ringing, and a real-live Magik answered the phone in a clipped tone. “Dr. Fenwick’s office.”
“Hello, this is Laurent Graves. I’m with the Records Department here at Noctis General. I’m calling regarding a patient of ours, Sage Hexwood. We’re updating our file and just need to confirm and obtain any relevant cardiology records.”
“Okay, have you sent us a copy of the release form?”
Shit.
“I faxed it this morning.”
The woman on the phone sighed. “Sir, we don’t accept release forms by fax anymore. Everything is done online by InkBind. Upload it there and send it to our office. We’ll transfer the records in three to five business days.”
“But—”
Click.
Well, I’d known that wasn’t likely going to pan out, but it had been worth a try. If I got desperate, I could always go in person.
Now I had nothing to do but sit around for Arlen, so I decided to take the opportunity to clean my house.
After stripping the bed and finally washing my sheets, I got to work in the bathroom, elbow deep in the toilet with nothing to think about but the job.
No matter how many times I went over the facts in my mind, I couldn’t find a way to rectify what I had to do.
I didn’t want to bring her back where she’d likely be locked up again and tortured for the rest of her life.
But I also didn’t want to die, especially based on the fantasy of a woman I’d built in my mind. Of a woman I hadn’t even met yet.
For all I knew, she really did do something spectacularly heinous to deserve all this, and she’d duped Morgana into thinking she was innocent.
Was that likely? No. But it was possible.
My whole house was free from dirt, the chemical scent of bleach replacing the stale stench of dust in the air. My laundry was all washed, folded, and put away, and there was still no news from Arlen.
Collapsing on the couch, my knee began to bounce as I looked around, desperate to find something else to do. Inactivity was a waste of time, especially with a deadly deadline closing in.
I took out my laptop to check Sage’s old MagikGraph account again in the Echo Archives. She’d made her profile when she was in high school, so I started going through her photos from her days here in Cindralis, and noticed she seemed to like taking walks up to the Temple of Hecara.
I liked it up there, too.
I checked the time. It’d been three hours since I’d hired Arlen. I had no new messages, and there was absolutely nothing else I could do on the computer or in my house at this point. I ate a protein bar, grabbed my next dose of suppressant, and went for a walk myself.
Besides, sometimes fresh air helped me think.
I wandered my way through the winding streets of the witch city-state, my boots scuffing against the uneven, moss-cracked pavers.
Lavender smoke wafted from chimneys, the floral haze mixing with the scent of trees from the forest. One of the many streams Cindralis was built around sang sweetly as it ran over rocks, threading its way alongside roads and houses.
I followed my way up the hillside towards the edge of the city and the Temple of Hecara, the stones worn smooth by centuries of foot traffic. The buildings slowly faded into the surrounding forest of silver-barked trees, and tightly-packed market stalls lined the path.