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Ari's out collecting mushrooms on the Blood Moor.
Yes, there are demons, and zombies, and once he saw some bipedal cows with halberds for some reason, and yes, they could theoretically kill him. But he has a very sharp scythe, and he can conjure fire and lightning at his whim, and just in general, Ari can take care of himself.
Uncle Deckard told him not to go too far. Ari told him to go teach his grandmother to suck eggs.
Gabe will happily do so. And put a hand over Ari's crotch while he watches.
Li-Ming whips a crackling strand of purple lightning at him. "Down, boy. You'd think after last night you'd be satiated at least for the morning."
"Hey, I absolutely sure it's not a personal offense. Ari is just that horny."
"Oh, I know. And it's amazing how much punishment he can take before he gives in. And the things he can do."
Li-Ming kisses the top of his head. "At any rate, every moment we tarry is a moment the Lords of Hell continue to walk the earth. So perhaps you gentlemen could put your pants on and we can kill Belial?"
Once everyone is clothed, Li-Ming leads her train of ducklings back to the waypoint. "Everybody hold hands," she says, and once they do, she transports them to Caldeum.
It's hot. There's sand. It's also beautiful; the waypoint lands them facing a grand fountain covered with elaborate enamel and gold designs. Everywhere they look, there's a beautifully decorated stall offering perfume, or silks, or jewelry.
Li-Ming inhales deeply. "Home, sweet home," she says, not without some irony.
"You should see the part I actually grew up in," she says with a thin smile. "And you're going to, because I can't think of another way to find out where in the Hells Belial is without talking to my contacts."
"I could probably use witchcraft to get an idea," Ari muses. "It's illegal here, though, so I'd need to do it somewhere secluded. Probably the sewers would be safest."
"Well, we were thinking of dividing ourselves to aid you. We can use sorcery, which isn't witchcraft, to help Ari investigate. And some of us could go along with you in case your contacts are bribable with trinkets from other worlds."
"I know a spell that prints pictures and a phone full of nude pictures. Ari and Lorath's included."
"Hopefully I can get at least a general idea without having to bribe anyone, but bribes can't hurt. What I'm hoping is that Belial will have been unable to resist doing something really high-profile. He may be the Lord of Lies, but none of the Evils are truly subtle."
They talk among each other and figure out that Henry, Gabe and Felix will go with Li-Ming while Fernando and Thomas will go with Ari and Lorath.
Li-Ming leads her team into a much less opulent part of the city. There she finds a young man with a begging bowl in front of him, strumming a two-stringed lute of some kind.
She crouches down, her voice changing drastically. "Oi, Cheng! Still a lazy piece of shit?"
He breaks out into a grin. "Li-Ming! Still a backstabbing gutter rat? I thought you'd gone off to inflict yourself on Khanduras!"
"They have waypoints there too, berk. But what's been up? Everything gone to shit in my absence?"
"Funny you mention it," he says slowly. "The Emperor died, and the throne went to his son. And his regent's been really cracking down with the guards. You can't get away with shit these days like you used to. Not that anybody could get away with shit like you did. But this regent... something's off about him. People say he never acted like this before he took over."
Li-Ming's grin widens. "You don't say." She straightens up.
"Got any gold for an old friend?" he asks pathetically, picking his lute back up again.
She rolls her eyes, but counts out a few button-sized gold pieces and tosses them into his bowl. "Good seeing you, Cheng."
The others observe this interaction from a distance.
"The dude is saying that the regent is possessed? At least it might be a solvable problem."
"And an easy one, too. If somebody's possessed by one of the Evils, there's only one way to solve that, and it's murder. Now we just have to figure out a way into the palace..." She starts heading back to the meetup point.
"How... stuck a prime Evil is to their host? Like, could we curse this regent with eternal slumber or something similar and buy us sometime?"
She hums thoughtfully. "It's possible. It's also possible he'd just ignore it, but it is worth a shot."
Nod. He looks around for the others. "Is it safe to use our magic in public?"
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