18. CHAPTER #2
“I think I know why they want your little jewelry so badly.” Gammy clapped, rubbed her palms together, and then held her hands out.
A large bubble appeared there that resembled the view through a microscope.
Instead of wiggling germs, though, there were several crystalline structures glittering with a strange light.
Indy had no idea what he was looking at, but Mr. Heiss did judging by the awful face he made.
“Oh fuck me.” Mr. Heiss groaned, then shoved the entire donut in his mouth.
“You kinda give strict top vibes, but if you insist,” Indy teased. “I am here to please.”
Mr. Heiss glared again, but he couldn’t snap back because he was still chewing.
“Sweetie cakes, focus.” Gammy’s smile was strained.
“These tiny crystals? The light it has? This is from a dragon’s scale.
” The image in her hands enhanced to show the surface of a large fragment.
“See those little craters? The jagged bits? It means the scale was burned, reduced to ash, and then ground into a fine powder to coat the pills in. Scales are notoriously difficult to work with because they’re so darn strong, but they’re quite marvelous for binding together pesky ingredients from different realms.”
“Like, sampaguita from our world and the faerie dream magic crap?”
“Precisely!” Gammy clapped again and the image vanished.
“Okay, and what does that have to do with them needing Dill?”
“Right! Yes! Sorry.” Gammy went to the stove to turn the heat off.
“To actually reduce a dragon scale into ash, you would need a very, very special fire. After all, most dragons are rather on the fireproof side of things. A kitsune or a fire-cat can get a scale hot enough to make it malleable for creating charms and brews. But to truly burn it and reduce it to ashes? You would need a power of epic proportions to burn a small fragment. Like the fires of a phoenix or your new hot friend—”
“Aodnait,” Indy realized.
“Bingo.”
“It’s not Dill they’re after, but Aodnait.”
Dill squealed and ran into the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around Indy and squeezed him tight, lifting him right off the floor. “No! No. No. No.”
Indy wheezed. “Dill! It’s okay! She’s fine!” He patted Dill’s arm. “She’s safe right here in the ring. You can literally go see her and—” He coughed as Dill promptly vanished and left him reeling.
Mr. Heiss reached out to steady Indy, curling an arm around his waist. “Are you all right?”
“Fantastic.” Indy coughed. “Okay. Right.” He cleared his throat. “Question. If they already have the dragon scale dust whatever it is, why do they still want Aodnait?”
“Only some of the pills were coated,” Gammy replied. “A little less than half.”
“It would explain why they haven’t started distribution despite having so many pills.” Mr. Heiss hugged Indy a little closer. “They may still have parts of the scale they weren’t able to burn and need a new source of fire.”
“Can’t ship them without the coating?”
“The pills themselves would not be stable without it,” Gammy said as she tapped the side of the butter dish. “Some of them were already breaking down.”
“Wait, so…” Indy gasped. “If we just wait them out long enough, does that mean all those pills would be destroyed? The ones that didn’t get the stupid magical coating?”
“It’s very possible, but!” Gammy held up her hand. “Given how much the recipe varies in each batch, you’d be looking at a few hours, a few days, or even weeks or months. Which is probably why they are so very desperate. They’re running out of time to save all those nasty little pills.”
“But some were coated?” Mr. Heiss clarified. “Even if they lose over half, that could still be up to five million doses.”
“Unfortunately, yes. There’s no way to know.”
“Until a bunch of monsters appear in the streets and the entire world loses their shit,” Indy said with a grimace. “Yay.”
Mr. Heiss’s phone buzzed, and he let go of Indy so he could check it. He made a face and stuffed it back in his pocket while it was still going off.
“What?” Indy eyed him. “Exciting monster mobster business?”
“No.”
“Who was it? You are making such an awful… Ha!” Indy laughed. “It’s that Nyp guy, isn’t it?”
Mr. Heiss grunted.
“Why do you hate him so much? He is annoying, but—” Indy gasped and grabbed Mr. Heiss’s arm, shaking it. “Hey, hey! Answer it! Talk to him!”
Mr. Heiss stared. “Why?”
“The dream!” Indy pointed at the rainbow bowl. “What if we go see Missing No-no whatever his name was? Could he tell us where the dream came from?”
“To what end?”
“To the end of you have no other fucking leads right now and if he knows where this dream came from, it would give us somewhere to look instead of standing here, gazing into each other’s eyes longingly.”
Mr. Heiss sighed.
“Well?”
Mr. Heiss grimaced and slowly pulled out his phone as if it was going to bite his hand.
It hadn’t stopped buzzing, and he sighed again as he finally answered it.
“Shut up. I need you to take me to see Misingno again. Right now.” He paused, listening.
He scoffed. “No, it is not to hang out, you idiotic little—” He growled.
“I am going to hang up now. Right now. Goodbye.”
“So.” Indy grinned. “I guess that means we need to get dressed, huh?”
“You do.”
“Oh! You just wait!” Gammy slapped her hand on the counter. “You two aren’t leaving without me this time! Where’s those earrings? Huh? Ha, whatever! I will bind myself to that darn ring if I have to! I am not letting you out of my sight, young man—”
Indy snickered.
Mr. Heiss—of course—sighed.
After Indy changed into a rainbow sweater, sparkly fishnets, and denim shorts of such a miniscule length they made Mr. Heiss physically uncomfortable, he put Gammy’s earrings in and they headed out.
Mr. Heiss did not want Nyp to know where he lived, so they agreed to meet him several blocks away in front of a coffee shop.
Indy rocked back and forth on the heels of his purple combat boots, humming. “So. This is fun.”
“It is fun!” Gammy declared. “I forgot how much I miss people watching.”
“I should bring you to the club sometime. You’d love it.”
“I’ll cover my eyes when you’re on stage.”
Mr Heiss, who had donned his human disguise once more, watched Gammy warily. “Are you aware that people are watching you right now?”
“Me? What?” Gammy blinked. “They’ve never seen a gorgeous woman in a muumuu before?”
“I can see through you.”
“Oh!” Gammy grinned sheepishly, her form appearing more solid now. “I got distracted.”
Mr. Heiss pulled out his phone with a grumble.
“Let’s just keep you over here.” Indy ushered Gammy to stand between them to lower the chances of a random person walking through her.
“Thank you, sweetie cakes.” Gammy gave him a small, worried smile. “Doing all right?”
“Yeah.” Indy glanced over at Mr. Heiss.
Mr. Heiss was still messing with his phone, but he could look this way at any moment.
“Just tired.” Indy lightly touched his chest and hoped she got the message.
“Well, I’ll see what I can cook up when we get back.” Gammy patted his shoulder.
“Thank you.”
Mr. Heiss reached around Gammy to nudge Indy back a step. “Over here.” He took Indy’s hand and led him to the alley beside the coffee shop. “Nyp should be—”
“Hey!” Nyp exclaimed as he appeared with his crooked little grin. “How is everybody? Oh, love that suit. Very nice. I’m so excited to hang out! So, what are we doing? Coffee? I love coffee. Is that a ghost? Wow!”
“You’re taking us to see Misingno,” Mr. Heiss said firmly. “Right now.”
“Oh.” Nyp actually pouted. “You really just needed me to… Got it.”
Indy didn’t think it was possible, but he felt bad for Nyp. “Maybe coffee after?”
Nyp perked up.
Mr. Heiss glared.