I can provide pics on request. I have a short list of wants at the bottom of the post, but I'm open to all offers for the relevant systems.

PS4

Game	Condition	Notes
Blue Fire	CiB
Code Vein	NiB
Concrete Genie	CiB
Control	CiB
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy	CiB
Cris Tales	NiB
Dark Souls 3	CiB
Darksiders 3	CiB
Darksiders Genesis	NiB
Divinity Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition	CiB
Dodgeball Academia	CiB
Edge of Eternity	CiB
F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch	CiB	Japan import
Ghost of Tsushima	NiB	Launch Edition
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition	NiB	Vblank exclusive
Immortals Fenyx Rising	CiB	Gold Edition (codes used)
Lili: Child of Geos	NiB	Limited Run Games
Lili: Child of Geos Limited Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
MediEvil	CiB
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy	CiB
My Hero One's Justice	NiB
New Super Lucky's Tale	CiB
Mortal Shell	NiB
Moss (VR)	CiB
Nioh 2	NiB
Okami HD	CiB
Persona 5 Royal	CiB	Steelbook edition
Persona 5 Royal	CiB	EU import
PSVR Demo Disc 2.0 (VR)	NiB
Red Matter (VR)	CiB	Limited Run Games
Sackboy: A Big Adventure	NiB
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition	CiB
Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated	NiB
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order	CiB
The Surge 2	CiB
To the Top (VR)	CiB	Limited Run Games
Tokyo Chronos (VR)	CiB	Limited Run Games
Trover Saves the Universe (VR)	NiB
Yx IX: Monstrum Nox	NiB	Pact Edition

PS5

Game	Condition	Notes
A Plague Tale: Requiem	CiB
Deathloop	NiB
Demon's Souls	CiB
The Forgotten City	CiB
Hogwarts Legacy	CiB
Life is Strange: True Colors	CiB
Returnal	CiB
Spider-Man: Miles Morales	CiB

Switch

Game	Condition	Notes
88 Heroes - 98 Heroes Edition	NiB
99Vidas	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
99Vidas	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
A Hole New World	NiB	First Press Games
The Adventure Pals	NiB	Super Rare Games
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion	NiB
Aegis Defenders	NiB	Limited Run Games
Aeternoblade II	NiB
Aggelos	NiB	UK import
AI: The Somnium Files	CiB	Day One Edition
Air Conflicts Collection	CiB
All-Star Fruit Racing	NiB
The Alliance Alive HD Remastered	NiB
America's Greatest Game Shows: Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!	NiB
Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition	NiB
Anima Gate of Memories: Arcane Edition	NiB	UK import
Another World	CiB	Limited Run Games
Aqua Moto Racing Utopia	CiB
Aragami: Shadow Edition	CiB
Arc of Alchemist	NiB
Ark: Survival Evolved	CiB
Arms	CiB
Ash of Gods: Redemption	NiB	EU import
Assassin's Creed III Remastered	CiB
Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection	CiB
Atari Flashback Classics	CiB
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings	CiB
Away: Journey to the Unexpected	NiB	Limited Run Games
Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack	CiB
Bad North	NiB	Limited Run Games
Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Editions	CiB
The Banner Saga Trilogy	NiB
Batman - The Telltale Series	CiB
Battle Chasers: Nightwar	NiB
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe	NiB	Limited Run Games
Battle Princess Madelyn	NiB	Japan import
Battle Princess Madelyn: Royal Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Battle Worlds: Kronos	CiB
Bayonetta 2	CiB	No Bayonetta 1 code
Bayonetta Nonstop Climax Edition	NiB	Japan import
Bee Simulator	CiB
Ben 10	NiB
Bendy and the Ink Machine	NiB
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+	NiB	First print w/ extras
Black Bird	NiB	Limited Run Games
Blacksad: Under the Skin Limited Edition	NiB
Blade Strangers	NiB
Blaster Master Zero	NiB	Limited Run Games
Blaster Master Zero 2	NiB	Limited Run Games
BlazBlue Centralfiction Special Edition	NiB	EU import
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle	CiB
Blazing Chrome	NiB	Limited Run Games
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon	NiB	Limited Run Games
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night	NiB
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King	NiB	Limited Run Games
Bomber Crew: Complete Edition	NiB
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2	NiB
Bookbound Brigade	NiB	Japan import
Brawlout	NiB
Bridge Constructor Portal	NiB	Game Fairy
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia	NiB	Limited Run Games
Broken Age	NiB	Limited Run Games
Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse	CiB
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill: Slaps and Beans	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Bundle Demetrios / Xenon Valkyrie	NiB	Red Art Games
Burgertime Party!	NiB
Burgertime Party!	NiB
Cabela's: The Hunt - Championship Edition	NiB
Caladrius Blaze	NiB	Asia import
Call of Cthulhu	CiB
Candle: The Power of the Flame	NiB
Candleman	NiB	Red Art Games
Capcom Belt Action Collection	NiB	Japan import
Carnival Games	NiB
Cartoon Network Battle Crashers	CiB
Cat Quest	NiB
Cave Story+	CiB	First print w/ extras
Celeste Collector's Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Chicken Range	NiB	UK import
Child of Light Ultimate Edition + Valiant Hearts: The Great War	CiB
Children of Morta	NiB
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!	NiB	Japan import
Cities: Skylines	CiB
Close to the Sun	NiB
Code of Princess EX	NiB	First print w/ extras
Collection of Mana	NiB
Cooking Mama Cookstar	NiB
Cosmic Star Heroine	NiB	Limited Run Games
The Count Lucanor	NiB	UK import
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy	NiB
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled	NiB
Crayola Scoot	CiB
CrossCode	CiB
Crystal Crisis	NiB	First print w/ extras
Cube Creator X	NiB	Asia import
Cytus Alpha	NiB	Launch edition w/ CD
Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz	NiB	Asia import (English on cart)
Daemon X Machina	NiB
Danmaku Unlimited 3	NiB	Limited Run Games
Darius Cozmic Collection (Famitsu DX Pack)	NiB	Japan import
Darkest Dungeon: Collector's Edition	CiB
The Darkside Detective	NiB	Super Rare Games
Dead by Daylight	NiB
Deadly Premonition Origins	NiB
Death Mark	CiB
Death Mark	Cart only
Death Road to Canada	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Death Squared	NiB	1Print Games
Deemo	NiB
Deponia	NiB	EU import
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers	NiB
Diablo III: Eternal Collection	CiB
Dimension Drive	NiB	Limited Edition (Play-Asia exclusive)
Disgaea 4 Complete+	NiB
Disgaea 5 Complete	CiB
Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King	NiB
Doom	CiB
Door Kickers: Action Squad	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Doraemon Story of Seasons	NiB	Asia import (English cover, no rating)
Double Switch: 25th Anniversary Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Downwell	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Dragon Ball FighterZ	CiB
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2	CiB
Dragon Marked for Death	NiB
Dragon Quest 1/2/3 Collection	NiB	Asia import (English cover)
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen	CiB
Dragon's Lair Trilogy	NiB	Limited Run Games
Dreamworks Dragons Dawn of New Riders	NiB
Dust: An Elysian Tail	NiB	Limited Run Games
Earthlock Collector's Edition	Box/Extras only	Super Rare Games, damaged box
Earthlock Collector's Edition	NiB	Super Rare Games, damaged box
The End is Nigh	CiB	First print w/ extras
Enter the Gungeon	NiB	Special Reserve Games
The Escape Trick (Misshitsukara no Dasshutsu: Unmei o Tsunagu 35 no Nazo)	NiB	Japan import
The Escapists: Complete Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
The Escapists 2	NiB
Everspace - Stellar Edition	NiB
Everspace - Stellar Edition	NiB	UK import
Evoland Legendary Edition	NiB	Super Rare Games
Fairune Collection	NiB	Super Rare Games
Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force	NiB	Limited Run Games
Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory	NiB
Farm Expert 2019 for Nintendo Switch	CiB
Farming Simulator	CiB
Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star	Cart only
Finding Teddy II: Definitive Edition	NiB	PixelHeart
Fire Emblem: Three Houses	CiB
Fitness Boxing	NiB
The Flame in the Flood	NiB	Super Rare Games
Flashback	NiB
Flinthook	NiB	Limited Run Games (misprint)
Flipping Death	NiB
For the King	CiB
Forager	NiB
Forgotton Anne	NiB	Limited Run Games
Fox n Forests	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Friday the 13th: The Game Ultimate Slasher Edition	NiB
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa	NiB
The Fruit, Labyrinth, and Eden of Grisaia Full Package	NiB	Japan import
Fun! Fun! Animal Park	NiB
Furi	NiB	Limited Run Games
Furwind	NiB	EU import
Gal Metal - World Tour Edition	NiB
Galak-Z: The Void + Skulls of the Shogun Bone-A-Fide Edition Platinum Pack	NiB
Gekido Kintaro's Revenge	NiB	Red Art Games, smushed box
Gelly Break	NiB	EU import
Ghost 1.0 + Unepic Collection	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Ghost Blade HD	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Ghost Parade	NiB
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered	NiB
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - Owltimate Edition	CiB
Giga Wrecker Alt.	NiB	Limited Run Games
Gigantic Army	NiB	VGNY Cover
Ginger: Beyond the Crystal	NiB	UK import
Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match DX	NiB	Asia import
God Eater 3	NiB
God Eater 3	Cart only
God Wars: The Complete Legend	CiB
Golf Story	NiB	Limited Run Games
Goosebumps: The Game	CiB
Grandia HD Collection	NiB	Limited Run Games
GRIP: Combat Racing	NiB	Collector's Edition
Gris	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Gris	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Gunlord X	NiB	EU import
Guns, Gore, & Cannoli 1 & 2	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Guns of Mercy: Rangers Edition	NiB	PixelHeart
Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger IX	NiB	Limited Run Games
Happy Birthdays	NiB
Harvest Life	NiB	UK import
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope	NiB
Harvest Moon: Mad Dash	NiB
Has-Been Heroes	CiB	Third print (Purple cover art)
Has-Been Heroes	CiB	Third print (Purple cover art)
Hasbro Game Night	NiB
Headliner: Novi News	NiB	Japan import
Hell Warders	NiB	Asia import
Hellmut: The Badass from Hell	CiB
Hello Neighbor	NiB
Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek	NiB
Heroland Knowble Edition	NiB
Horizon Chase Turbo	NiB	Special Edition
Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard	NiB
Hotline Miami Collection	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Hover	NiB
Hover	NiB	Red Art Games
Human Fall Flat	NiB	Super Rare Games
Human Resource Machine Deluxe	NiB	Japan import
I am Setsuna.	NiB	Japan import
Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure	NiB
Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl	NiB	Limited Run Games
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf	NiB	Super Rare Games
Just Dance 2017	NiB
Just Dance 2018	CiB
Just Dance 2019	NiB
Kamen Rider Climax Scramble Zi-O	NiB	Japan import
KEMCO RPG Omnibus	CiB	Asia import
Kero Blaster	NiB	1Print Games
Killer Queen Black	NiB
Kingdom: New Lands	NiB	Limited Run Games
Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa	CiB
Kunai	NiB	Limited Run Games
La Mulana 1&2 Hidden Treasures Edition	NiB
L.A. Noire	CiB
Lapis x Labyrinth Limited Edition XL	NiB
Lastfight	NiB	EU import
Layers of Fear: Legacy	NiB	Limited Run Games
Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy - Deluxe Edition	NiB
Legend of Kay - Anniversary	NiB
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Explorer's Edition	CiB
Legendary Fishing	NiB
Lego City Undercover	CiB
Lego DC Super Villains	NiB
Lego Harry Potter Collection	NiB
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2	NiB
The Lego Movie 2 Video Game	NiB
Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game	NiB
Lego The Incredibles	NiB
Lego Worlds	NiB
Let's Sing 2018	NiB	UK import (1 microphone bundle)
Let's Sing 2019	NiB	UK import (1 microphone bundle)
Let's Sing Country	NiB
Little Dragon's Cafe	CiB
Little Town Hero Big Idea Edition	NiB
Lode Runner Legacy	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
The Longest Five Minutes	CiB
The Lost Child	CiB
Lost Sphear	NiB
Lumines Remastered	NiB	Limited Run Games
Lumo	NiB
Machinarium	NiB	Super Rare Games
Mahjong Deluxe 3	NiB	UK import
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle	CiB
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020	NiB
Mario Tennis Aces	CiB
Mary Skelter 2	NiB	Limited Run Games
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood	NiB	Damaged spine
Mega Man 11	NiB
Mega Man Legacy Collection	CiB	No Collection 2 code
Mega Man X Legacy Collection	CiB	No Collection 2 code
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection	NiB
Megaquarium	NiB	Japan import
Mercenaries Saga Chronicles	NiB
Mercenaries Wings: The False Phoenix	NiB	Limited Run Games
Mercenary Kings Reloaded	NiB	Limited Run Games (misprint)
The Messenger	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Minecraft: Story Mode - The Complete Adventure	NiB
Minecraft: Story Mode - Season 2	NiB
Minit	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Minit	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Moero Chronicle Hyper	NiB	Limited Run Games
Moero Crystal H	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Monopoly for Nintendo Switch	NiB
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom	NiB	Launch Edition
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame	CiB
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 2	NiB
Monster Jam Crush It!	CiB
Moonlighter	NiB
Mortal Kombat 11	CiB
Mother Russia Bleeds	NiB	Special Reserve Games
Ms. Splosion Man	NiB	Limited Run Games
Musynx	NiB	Chibi cover
Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition	NiB
Mutant Mudds Collection	NiB	Super Rare Games
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden	CiB	Deluxe Edition
MXGP3 - The Official Motocross Video Game	CiB
My Friend Pedro	NiB	Special Reserve Games
My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!?	NiB	Japan import
My Hero One's Justice	CiB
My Little Riding Champion	NiB
My Memory of Us	NiB	Red Art Games
My Riding Stables - Life with Horses	CiB
My Time at Portia	CiB
Namco Museum Arcade Pac	NiB
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2	NiB
NBA 2K19	NiB
Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~	CiB
Neo Atlas 1469	NiB
Neo ATLAS 1469	NiB	Japan import
Neurovoider	NiB	Red Art Games
New Super Lucky's Tale	NiB
NG	NiB
Night Trap	NiB	Limited Run Games
Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon	CiB
The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit	NiB
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 02: Robot Kit	NiB
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit	NiB
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit	NiB
Nippon Marathon	NiB	UK import
Northgard	NiB
Nurse Love Obsession	NiB
Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas	NiB
Okami: Zekkeiban Limited Edition	NiB	Japan import
Old Man's Journey	NiB	Red Art Games
Omega Labyrinth Life	NiB	Asia import
Oniken + Odallus Collection	NiB	Play-Asia Exclusive
Onimusha: Warlords	NiB	Japan import
Oninaki	NiB	SEA import
Opus Collection	NiB
Our World is Ended.	NiB
Outlast: Bundle of Terror / Outlast 2	NiB	Limited Run Games
Overcooked!	CiB
Overcooked! 2	CiB
Overwatch	NiB	Japan import
Owlboy	CiB
Panty Party	NiB	Play-Asia Exclusive
Panzer Dragoon	NiB	Limited Run Games
Party Arcade	CiB
Party Planet	CiB
Pato Box	NiB	Play-Asia Exclusive
Paw Patrol: On A Roll!	NiB
Payday 2	CiB
Penguin Wars	CiB
Penny Punching Princess	CiB
PixARK	NiB
PixelJunk Monsters 2	NiB	Limited Run Games
Poi: Explorer Edition	CiB
Pokemon Shield	CiB
Pokken Tournament DX	CiB
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Mega Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
The Princess Guide	CiB
Professional Farmer: Nintendo Switch Edition	NiB
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha	NiB
Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo	NiB
Psyvariar Delta	CiB
Puyo Puyo Tetris	NiB
Q.U.B.E. 2	NiB	Super Rare Games
R-Type Dimensions EX	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
R-Type Dimensions EX	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Rad Rogers: Radical Edition	NiB
Raging Justice	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Raging Justice	NIB	Strictly Limited Games
Raging Loop	CiB	Day One Edition
Raiden V: Director's Cut Limited Edition	NiB
The Raven Remastered	CiB
Rayman Legends Definitive Edition	CiB
RBI Baseball 2017	Cart only
RBI Baseball 18	CiB
RBI Baseball 19	CiB
RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Red Faction Guerilla Re-Mars-Tered	NiB
Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure	NiB
RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore	NiB	First print w/ extras
Resident Evil Origins Collection	NiB
Resident Evil Triple Pack	NiB
Retro City Rampage DX	NiB	Limited Collector's Edition from VBlank Entertainment
Reverie: Sweet As Edition	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
RICO	CiB
Riddled Corpses EX	NiB	Red Art Games
RiME	CiB	Includes manual
Riot: Civil Unrest	NiB
Risk of Rain 2	NiB
River City Melee Mach!!	NiB	Asia import
Rocket League Ultimate Edition	NiB
Rockman 5-in-1 Collection (Anniversary 2 / X Anniversary 2)	NiB	Japan import
Rockman X Anniversary Collection 2	NiB	Japan import
Rogue Legacy	NiB	Limited Run Games
RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures	NiB
Roman Rumble in Las Vegum - Asterix & Obelix XXL2	NiB
Root Letter: Last Answer	CiB	Day One box beat up, game itself NiB
Runner3	NiB	First print w/ extras
RXN -Raijin-	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package	NiB
Samurai Shodown - Shockbox Gold Edition	NiB	Pix'n Love
Saturday Morning RPG	NiB	Limited Run Games
Scribblenauts Mega Pack	NiB
SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays	NiB	Asia import
Sega Genesis Classics	CiB
Senran Kagura Peach Ball	CiB
Senran Kagura Reflexions	NiB	Limited Run Games
Shadowgate	NiB	Limited Run Games
Shakedown: Hawaii	NiB	VBlank exclusive
Shanghai Refresh	NiB	Japan import
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn	CiB
Shikhondo - Soul Eater	NiB	Play-Asia exclusive
Shining Resonance Refrain	CiB	Day One Edition
Shmup Collection	NiB	PixelHeart
Sid Meier's Civilization VI	NiB
Sisters Royale	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Skullgirls: 2nd Encore	NiB
Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack	NiB
Slay the Spire	NiB
Slime-San: Superslime Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Snake Pass	NiB	Super Rare Games
Sniper Elite V2 Remastered	CiB
Sniper Elite III Ultimate Edition	NiB
Snipperclips Plus	CiB
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy	NiB
Snow Moto Racing Freedom	NiB
Soldam: Drop, Connect, Erase	CiB
Songbird Symphony	NiB	UK import
Sonic Forces	CiB
Sonic Mania Plus	NiB
South Park: The Fractured But Whole	NiB
Space Invaders Invincible Collection - Special Edition	NiB	Japan import
Sparklite	NiB
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy	Cart only
Spintires: Mudrunner - American Wilds	NiB
Splasher	NiB	Red Art Games
Splatoon 2	CiB
Sports Party	CiB
Star Wars Episode I: Racer	NiB	Limited Run Games
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast / Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy	NiB	Limited Run Games
Star Wars Pinball	NiB
Starlink: Battle for Atlas - Starter Edition	CiB
Stay	CiB	Red Art Games
SteamWorld Dig 2	NiB
SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech	NiB	Super Rare Games
Steins;Gate Elite	CiB
Stern Pinball Arcade	CiB
Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands	NiB
Stranger Things 3: The Game	NiB	Limited Run Games
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection	CiB
Streets of Rage 4	NiB	Limited Run Games
Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe	NiB
Super Bomberman R	NiB	Second print (standardized spine text)
Super Mario Party	CiB
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD	NiB
Super Neptunia RPG	NiB
Super Robot Wars T	NiB	Asia import
Super Robot Wars V	NiB	Asia import
Super Street: Racer	NiB
Super Trench Attack!	NiB	PixelHeart
Superbeat: Xonic	NiB
SuperEpic: The Entertainment War	NiB
Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido	NiB
Syberia Trilogy	NiB	EU import
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition	NiB
Tennis World Tour: Roland-Garros Edition	CiB
Teslagrad	NiB
Tetris 99	NiB
Thea: The Awakening	NiB	Limited Run Games
Thimbleweed Park	NiB	Limited Run Games
This is the Police	Cart only
This War of Mine: Complete Edition	CiB
Thumper	NiB	Limited Run Games
Tiny Barbarian DX	CiB	First print w/ extras
Tiny Metal Ultimate	NiB	Limited Run Games
Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops XL	NiB
Titan Quest	CiB
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!	NiB	Limited Run Games
Toki Retrollector Edition	CiB
Tokyo 2020 Olympics: The Official Video Game	NiB	Japan import
Tokyo School Life	NiB
Touch Detective: Funghi's Big Breed (The Nameko no Puzzle: Nameko Dai Hanshoku)	NiB	Japan import
Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded	Cart only
Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle	NiB
Trailblazers	CiB
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes	CiB	DLC code unused
Trials Rising Gold Edition	NiB
Trine Series 1-3	NiB
Trine Ultimate Collection	CiB	cart is Trine 4 standalone
Troll & I	CiB
Trüberbrook	CiB
Truck Racing Championship	NiB
TT Isle of Man - Ride on the Edge	CiB
Turok / Turok 2: Seeds of Evil	NiB	Limited Run Games
Two Point Hospital	NiB
Two Tribes Collection (Toki-Tori Collection / RIVE Ultimate Edition)	NiB	Super Rare Games
Uglydolls: An Imperfect Adventure	CiB
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers	NiB
Ultracore	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Umihara Kawase Fresh!	NiB	SFC Box Edition
Undertale	CiB
The Unicorn Princess	NiB
Valfaris	CiB
Valkyria Chronicles 4	CiB
Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story	NiB	UK import
Vampyr	CiB
THE Variety Game Daishugo: Kingyo Sukui, Card, Suji Puzzle, Nikakudori	NiB	Japan import
Vasara Collection	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Vectronom	NiB	Red Art Games
Velocity 2X	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition	CiB
Vitamin Connection	NiB	Limited Run Games
VOEZ	NiB
Void Terrarium Limited Edition	NiB
Vostok Inc.	NiB	Wired Productions
Waku Waku Sweets	NiB
The Walking Dead: The Final Season	CiB
War Tech Fighters	NiB	Red Art Games
Wargroove	NiB
Wasteland 2 Director's Cut	CiB
Wild Guns Reloaded	CiB
Windjammers	NiB	Limited Run Games
Windstorm	NiB	EU (Nordic) import
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition	NiB
Wizard of Legend	NiB	Limited Run Games
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus	CiB
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap	CiB	First print w/ extras
World of Final Fantasy Maxima	NiB	Asia multi-language import
World of Simulators	NiB	Firefighters/Professional Construction/Firefighters Airport
Worms W.M.D.	NiB	Super Rare Games
Wulverblade	NiB	Super Rare Games
Xeno Crisis	NiB	Strictly Limited Games
Xeodrifter	NiB	Red Art Games
Yoku's Island Express	CiB
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles	CiB
Yooka-Laylee Classic Edition	NiB	Limited Run Games
Yooka-Laylee	NiB	Limited Run Games
Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair	CiB
Yoshi's Crafted World	CiB
Ys Origin	NiB	Limited Run Games
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana	CiB
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution	NiB
Zumba Burn it Up!	NiB

WANTS

Game	System
Atelier Ryza 3	PS4
Tales of Symphonia Remastered	PS4
Kirby and the Forgotten Land	Switch
Xenoblade Chronicles 3	Switch
Offers	PS4, PS5, Switch

I prefer CiB or NiB, but I'm also happy to look at digital offers. Nothing disc or cart-only, please!

I love reading and watching tv shows or movies. I also love animals. I have five cats, two dogs, and a turtle. Please don't message me if you're over 19 years old.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor	$159.16 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	ID-COOLING SE-214-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler	$19.98 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte B660 DS3H DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	$188.50 @ Amazon
Memory	Silicon Power XPOWER Zenith Gaming 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$34.95 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$49.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Zotac GAMING Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB Video Card	$409.99 @ Newegg
Case	Cougar MX330-G Air ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$100.00
Case Fan	be quiet! Pure Wings 2 87 CFM 120 mm Fan	$10.90 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total	$1033.46
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-25 18:43 EDT-0400

Matchup: Rugby ATL (2-2, 10pts, 5th in East) vs Houston SaberCats (3-1, 15pts, 3rd in West)
Venue: AVEVA Stadium, Houston, TX Weather: 83 F, 29 C, Clear Sky
Broadcast: The Rugby Network, AT&TSN SW
Kickoff: 8pm ET, 5pm PT

Rugby ATL	Number	Houston
Will Burke	1	Alec McDonnell
Tiaan Erasmus	2	Dean Muir (c)
John-Roy Jenkinson	3	Morgan Mitchell
Nahuel Milán	4	Siaosi Mahoni
Jordan Brown	5	Nathan Den Hoedt
Johan Momsen (c)	6	Marno Redelinghuys
Matt Heaton	7	Danny Barrett
Daemon Torres	8	Wynand Grassmann
Rowan Gouws	9	Carlo de Nysschen
Duncan van Schalkwyk	10	Davy Coetzer
Harley Davidson	11	Gerrie Labuschagne
Will Leonard	12	Louritz van der Schyff
Te Rangatira Waitokia	13	Dom Akina
Jack Shaw	14	Christian Dyer
Martini Talapusi	15	Drew Wild
Reserves		Reserves
Alex Maughan	16	Axel Zapata
Jonas Petrakopoulos	17	Frikkie de Beer
Lincoln Si’i	18	Pono Davis
Justin Basson	19	Gideon van Wyk
Frederick Henry-Ajudua	20	Malon Al-Jiboori
Ross Deacon	21	Nick Boyer
Ryan Rees	22	Zach Pangelinan
Kurt Coleman	23	Emmanuel Albert

Referee: Luke Rogan (USA)
Assistants: Jono Cooper (USA) & Blair McClure (USA)
TMO: Austin Reed (USA)

❓ "this seems intriguing after a cursory look"
⭐ "im interested in this for one reason or another"
❤️ "ive been waiting for weeks, months/i'm absolutely in love with this"

⭐ Caroline Rose - The Art of Forgetting
Label: New West
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Neo-Psychedelia
⭐ Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall
Label: Ninja Tune
Genre: Art Rock, Progressive Pop, Chamber Pop, Post-Rock
❓ Liturgy - 93696
Label: Thrill Jockey
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal, Black Metal, Glitch, Chamber Music
⭐ JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES
Label: AWAL
Genre: Experimental Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop, Jazz Rap
❓ Lucinda Chua - YIAN
Label: 4AD
Genre: Ambient Pop, Chamber Pop, Singesongwriter
Lankum - False Lankum
Label: Rough Trade
Genre: Irish Folk Music, Drone, Avant-Folk
Depeche Mode - Memento Mori
Label: columbia
Genre: Synthpop, Electro-Industrial, Darkwave
Navy Blue - Ways of Knowing
Label: Def Jam
Genre: Conscious Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop
Parannoul - After the Night (Live)
Label: n/a
Genre: Shoegaze, Emo, Post-Rock
Kate Davis - Fish Bowl
Label: n/a
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
Kele (of Bloc Party) - The Flames pt. 2
Label: !K7
Genre: Art Rock, Indie Rock
❓ The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here
Label: Get Better
Genre: Queercore, Powerviolence
❓ Purling Hiss - Drag On Girard
Label: n/a
Genre: Garage Rock, Power Pop
Secret Machines - The Moth, The Lizard, And The Secret Machines
Label: n/a
Genre: Alternative Rock, Space Rock Revival, Indie Rock
The Reds, Pinks & Purples - The Town That Cursed Your Name
Label: n/a
Genre: Indie Pop, Jangle Pop
DEBBY FRIDAY - GOOD LUCK
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: Electro-Industrial, Deconstructed Club, Industrial Hip Hop
Grecco Romank - Wet Exit
Label: n/a
Genre: Industrial Techno, Maximalist Post-Empire Themed Dungeon Power Techno
Noble Rot (Alex Edkins of Metz / Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck) - Heavenly Bodies, Repetition, Control
Label: n/a
Genre: Post-Punk, Electronic
The Natural Lines - The Natural Lines
Label: Bella Union
Genre: Indie Rock
❓ Jilk - Syrup House
Label: Castles in Space
Genre: Post-Rock, Experimental Electronic
Night Hikes - Perfect Wonder (EP)
Label: n/a
Genre: Psychedelic Pop
Phoneboy - Moving Out
Label: n/a
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
❓ Zohra - Murder in the Temple
Label: American Dreams
Genre: Synthpop, Goth Pop
❓ Heartworms - A Comforting Notion (EP)
Label: Speedy Wunderground
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Industrial Rock
Softcult - See You In The Dark (EP)
Label: Easy Life
Genre: Shoegaze, Dream Pop
Benny Sings - Young Hearts
Label: Stones Throw
Genre: Indie Pop, Synth Funk, Yacht Rock
Angel Bat Dawid - Requiem for Jazz (live)
Label: n/a
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz, Spiritual Jazz
Nickel Creek - Celebrants
Label: Thirty Tigers
Genre: Progressive Bluegrass
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily - Love In Exile
Label: Verve
Genre: Chamber Jazz, Ghazal
Matt Corby - Everything’s Fine
Label: n/a
Genre: Contemporary Folk, Indie Rock, Neo-Soul
Kid Moxie & NINA - Lust (EP)
Label: Italians Do It Better
Genre: Synthpop, Synthwave
CATT - Change
Label: Listenrecords
Genre: Singer-songwriter
❓ Kool Keith & Real Bad Man - Serpent
Label: n/a
Genre: East Coast Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop
❓ Juno - Myriad Path
Label: Jazzland Norway
Genre: Jazz, Indie Pop
Exploring Birdsong - Dancing in the Face Of Danger (EP)
Label: Long Branch
Genre: Art Rock, Art Pop
The Bouncing Souls - Ten Stories High
Label: Pure Noise
Genre: Skate Punk, Pop Punk
Annabel Lee - Drift
Label: Howlin' Banana
Genre: Garage Rock
Andy Loebs - Hyperlink Anamorphosis
Label: n/a
Genre: Digital Fusion, Progressive Electronic
Resa Saffa Park - Madness. Let Me In!
Label: Unity
Genre: Singer-songwriter
Dick Stusso - S.P.
Label: n/a
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Rock
❓ LVRA - soft like steel (EP)
Label: Eastern Margins
Genre: Electronic, Hyperpop, Alt-Pop
Hysterical Love Project - Lashes
Label: Motion Ward
Genre: Dream Pop, Downtempo
The Black Cat's Eye - The Empty Space Between A Seamount And Shock​-​Headed Julia
Label: n/a
Genre: Neo-Psychedelic, Prog Rock, Space Rock
Cecile McLorin Salvant - Mélusine
Label: Nonesuch
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Nu Jazz
Xysma - No Place Like Alone
Label: Svart
Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
❓ Semaphore - I Need a Reason to Stay
Label: n/a
Genre: Shoegaze
❓ Endless, Nameless - Living Without
Label: Silent Pendulum
Genre: Math Rock, Noise Rock, Blackgaze
O Gajo - Não Lugar
Label: n/a
Genre: Indie Folk
Spicy Dreams - You Me You Us
Label: n/a
Genre: Dream Pop, Alternative Pop
WMD - Deliquesce
Label: n/a
Genre: Chillwave, Chiptune, Ambient
Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Label: n/a
Genre: Singesongwriter, Traditional Pop, Alt-Pop, Chamber Pop
SKAAR - Mad Woman, Pt. 1 (EP)
Label: Warner Norway
Genre: Singer-songwriter
Luke Combs - Gettin' Old
Label: Sony
Genre: Contemporary Country
Myke Towers - LA VIDA ES UNA
Label: n/a
Genre: Reggaetón, Latin Pop
BABYMETAL - THE OTHER ONE
Label: Toy's Factory
Genre: Alternative Metal, Trance Metal
Meg Myers - TZIA
Label: Sumerian
Genre: Alternative Rock, Alt-Pop, Electropop
ROSALÍA & Rauw Alejandro - RЯ
Label: Columbia
Genre: Reggaetón, Latin Pop, Bolero
ICECOLDBISHOP - GENERATIONAL CURSE
Label: Epic
Genre: Hardcore Hip Hop, West Coast Hip Hop
6LACK - Since I Have A Lover
Label: LVRN
Genre: Alternative R&B, Neo-Soul, Trap
LUDMILLA - VILA
Label: Warner Brasil
Genre: Pop, Contemporary R&B, Funk carioca
TisaKorean - Let Me Update My Status
Label: n/a
Genre: Southern Hip Hop, Snap, Crunk
Kota the Friend x Statik Selektah - To See A Sunset
Label: ShowOff
Genre: East Coast Hip Hop
Oliver Francis - OLIVER’S REVENGE
Label: n/a
Genre: Trap, Cloud Rap
BigBabyGucci - Colors
Label: n/a
Genre: Pop Rap, Contemporary R&B, Trap
Jae Skeese - Abolished Uncertainties
Label: Drumwork
Genre: East Coast Hip Hop, Boom Bap
Hit-Boy - SURF OR DROWN
Label: n/a
Genre: West Coast Hip Hop, Trap, Jazz Rap
August Burns Red - Death Below
Label: SharpTone
Genre: Melodic Metalcore, Progressive Metal
Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust
Label: Fueled By Ramen
Genre: Alternative Rock, Pop Rock
Ne Obliviscaris - Exul
Label: Season of Mist
Genre: Progressive Metal, Melodic Death Metal
Ov Sulfur - The Burden Ov Faith
Label: Century Media
Genre: Deathcore, Symphonic Metal, Metalcore
Shores of Null - The Loss of Beauty
Label: Spike
Genre: Progressive Metal, Death Doom Metal
⭐ Acid King - Beyond Vision
Label: Blues Funeral
Genre: Stoner Metal, Heavy Psych
❓ The Turin Horse - Unsavory Impurities
Label: Invisible Order
Genre: Noise Rock, Post-Metal, Mathcore, Dark Jazz
XALPEN - The Curse of Kwányep
Label: Black Lodge
Genre: Black Metal
Zoromor - The Monolith
Label: Via Nocturna
Genre: Black Metal
Dawn Ray'd - To Know the Light
Label: Prosthetic
Genre: Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal
Floor Jansen - Paragon
Label: n/a
Genre: Pop Rock, Symphonic Rock
❓ Forcefed Horsehead - Monoceros
Label: n/a
Genre: Grindcore, Death Metal
Iron Walrus - Tales Never Told
Label: Apostasy
Genre: Sludge Metal
Morass of Molasses - End All We Know
Label: n/a
Genre: Stoner Metal
Woe Unto Me - Along the Meandering Ordeals, Reshape the Pivot of Harmony
Label: M-Theory
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal, Death Doom Metal

Notes:

• I am EXTREMELY busy, but I check my messages and DMs at least ONCE per day. Please be patient and wait at least 24 hours for my response if I don't get back to you immediately.
  
• I buy only in Unrevealed Key Link Format or Plain Steam Keys. No gift links.
  
• For PayPal, I am in the US region and I only send via G&S. Please note there will be PayPal fees (including international/conversion and purchasing fees) to consider.
  
• All games that you sell to me should ideally be REGION-FREE. Please ensure the games are not region-locked/bound to a specific country.
  
• You must be willing to fill a spreadsheet with steam keys.
  

 
I pay with the following:
TF2 & PayPal
 

I Buy Scary Games to Play in the Dark Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Propnight	0.5 TF2 Price Will Be Ready Soon	$1.07 PP Price Will Be Ready Soon
The Blackout Club	4.7 TF2 Price Will Be Ready Soon	$9.64 PP Price Will Be Ready Soon
Visage	4.7 TF2 Price Will Be Ready Soon	$9.67 PP Price Will Be Ready Soon
All Games Above (Special)	10.7 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games Bundle Price Will Be Ready Soon	$22.23 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games Bundle Price Will Be Ready Soon
Full Bundle (Special)	11.13 TF2	$23.03 PP

I Buy Kart Club: Best Indie Kart Racers Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Garfield Kart - Furious Racing	0.2 TF2	$0.38 PayPal
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix	0.3 TF2	$0.64 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	0.6 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$1.17 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Train Simulator Classic: On the Fast Track Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Train Simulator Classic	0.7 TF2	$1.44 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	0.8 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$1.65 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Humble Heroines: Warriors, Dreamers, and God Slayers	with TF2	with PayPal
Control Ultimate Edition	1.3 TF2	$2.63 PayPal
Dreamscaper	0.2 TF2	$0.45 PayPal
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice	0.8 TF2	$1.72 PayPal
Praey for the Gods	0.6 TF2	$1.32 PayPal
Sable	0.5 TF2	$1.04 PayPal
Syberia: The World Before	0.9 TF2	$1.84 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.0 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$10.29 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Humble Choice (Mar 2023)	with TF2	with PayPal
BIOMUTANT	1.7 TF2	$3.48 PayPal
Hero's Hour	1.1 TF2	$2.19 PayPal
Jurassic World Evolution 2	1.9 TF2	$3.87 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.3 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$10.9 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	6.52 TF2	$13.5 PP

I Buy Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
PAYDAY 2	0.2 TF2	$0.45 PayPal
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition	1.0 TF2	$2.11 PayPal
Mount & Blade: Warband	0.5 TF2	$0.98 PayPal
Strange Brigade	0.3 TF2	$0.68 PayPal
Stick Fight: The Game	0.4 TF2	$0.75 PayPal
Farming Simulator 17	0.5 TF2	$1.11 PayPal
Euro Truck Simulator 2	1.2 TF2	$2.43 PayPal
Armello	0.3 TF2	$0.69 PayPal
Gotham Knights	5.1 TF2	$10.54 PayPal
Ghostrunner	1.3 TF2	$2.67 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	12.4 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$25.61 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Unparalleled Puzzlers Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Baba Is You	1.6 TF2	$3.3 PayPal
Creaks	0.4 TF2	$0.74 PayPal
DARQ: Complete Edition	0.2 TF2	$0.51 PayPal
Dorfromantik	2.0 TF2	$4.04 PayPal
The Last Campfire	0.3 TF2	$0.61 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.1 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$10.51 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	5.56 TF2	$11.5 PP

I Buy Humble Choice (Feb 2023)	with TF2	with PayPal
Fallout 76	1.6 TF2	$3.36 PayPal
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous	0.9 TF2	$1.89 PayPal
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales	0.3 TF2	$0.62 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	3.2 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$6.71 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Sim-ple Life Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Garden Paws	0.9 TF2	$1.77 PayPal
Lake	0.8 TF2	$1.62 PayPal
Staxel	0.6 TF2	$1.18 PayPal
Summer in Mara	0.4 TF2	$0.92 PayPal
Townscaper	0.6 TF2	$1.17 PayPal
Winkeltje: The Little Shop	1.0 TF2	$2.09 PayPal
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles	2.0 TF2	$4.17 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.7 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$11.9 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	5.85 TF2	$12.1 PP

I Buy Survival Instinct Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition	1.1 TF2	$2.2 PayPal
The Long Dark: Survival Edition	0.4 TF2	$0.78 PayPal
SCUM	2.8 TF2	$5.72 PayPal
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition	2.9 TF2	$6.08 PayPal
Volcanoids	0.9 TF2	$1.91 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	8.9 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$18.35 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	9.06 TF2	$18.75 PP

I Buy In Case You Missed It: Gems of 2022 Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Haiku, the Robot	1.5 TF2	$3.14 PayPal
PowerSlave Exhumed	1.7 TF2	$3.51 PayPal
Source of Madness	0.5 TF2	$1.13 PayPal
Supraland Six Inches Under	1.6 TF2	$3.34 PayPal
ZERO Sievert	3.7 TF2	$7.56 PayPal
Prehistoric Kingdom	1.4 TF2	$2.9 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	11.9 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$24.66 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	12.01 TF2	$24.86 PP

I Buy Fighting Farmers Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Forager	1.4 TF2	$2.84 PayPal
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands	0.2 TF2	$0.36 PayPal
Len's Island	3.0 TF2	$6.23 PayPal
Re:Legend	1.0 TF2	$2.12 PayPal
Spirit Of The Island	1.4 TF2	$2.91 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	8.0 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$16.53 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	8.18 TF2	$16.93 PP

I Buy Humble Choice (Jan 2023)	with TF2	with PayPal
Doom Eternal	2.0 TF2	$4.19 PayPal
OlliOlli World Rad Edition	0.3 TF2	$0.57 PayPal
Tribes of Midgard	0.7 TF2	$1.52 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	3.5 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$7.18 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Best of Boomer Shooters Bundle - Holiday Encore	with TF2	with PayPal
AMID EVIL	0.6 TF2	$1.17 PayPal
Dusk	1.1 TF2	$2.24 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	1.9 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$3.9 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Fantastic Journeys: Middle Earth & Beyond - Holiday Encore	with TF2	with PayPal
Gauntlet™ Slayer Edition	0.2 TF2	$0.46 PayPal
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4	0.5 TF2	$1.03 PayPal
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7	0.7 TF2	$1.48 PayPal
LEGO® The Hobbit™	0.4 TF2	$0.84 PayPal
LEGO Lord of the Rings	0.5 TF2	$0.95 PayPal
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition	0.8 TF2	$1.65 PayPal
Middleearth Shadow of War Definitive Edition	1.2 TF2	$2.48 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	4.9 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$10.16 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	5.56 TF2	$11.5 PP

I Buy LEGO at the Movies Bundle: Holiday Encore	with TF2	with PayPal
LEGO® DC Super-Villains	0.4 TF2	$0.83 PayPal
LEGO® Jurassic World™	0.4 TF2	$0.82 PayPal
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers	0.4 TF2	$0.76 PayPal
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes	0.3 TF2	$0.69 PayPal
LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 2	0.4 TF2	$0.9 PayPal
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame	0.4 TF2	$0.75 PayPal
The LEGO Movie: Videogame	0.2 TF2	$0.42 PayPal
LEGO® Ninjago® Movie Video Game	0.3 TF2	$0.71 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	3.2 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$6.72 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Best of Stealth Bundle: Holiday Encore	with TF2	with PayPal
Aragami	0.4 TF2	$0.92 PayPal
Hitman Game of the Year Edition	1.2 TF2	$2.53 PayPal
HITMAN™2 Gold Edition	2.8 TF2	$5.83 PayPal
Styx: Shards Of Darkness	0.6 TF2	$1.29 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.8 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$12.08 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	6.52 TF2	$13.5 PP

I Buy Ultimate Racing Sim Bundle: Holiday Encore	with TF2	with PayPal
Assetto Corsa Competizione	2.6 TF2	$5.36 PayPal
Assetto Corsa Ultimate Edition	2.7 TF2	$5.56 PayPal
Automobilista 2	3.3 TF2	$6.89 PayPal
DRIFT21	0.5 TF2	$1.03 PayPal
NASCAR Heat 5 - Ultimate Edition	0.4 TF2	$0.92 PayPal
rFactor 2	1.2 TF2	$2.44 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	7.6 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$15.77 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	7.71 TF2	$15.97 PP

I Buy 2k Megahits Holiday Encore Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Sid Meier's Civilization VI	0.9 TF2	$1.84 PayPal
XCOM: Ultimate Collection	0.9 TF2	$1.86 PayPal
Mafia: Definitive Edition	2.2 TF2	$4.54 PayPal
Duke Nukem Forever Collection	0.3 TF2	$0.57 PayPal
Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe	2.9 TF2	$6.05 PayPal
BioShock Collection	1.1 TF2	$2.23 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	9.4 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$19.53 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	9.92 TF2	$20.53 PP

I Buy The Tactician's Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Phantom Doctrine	0.4 TF2	$0.73 PayPal
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus	0.2 TF2	$0.41 PayPal
Dark Deity	0.4 TF2	$0.91 PayPal
Gears Tactics	4.3 TF2	$8.86 PayPal
The Red Solstice 2: Survivors	0.2 TF2	$0.41 PayPal
Star Renegades	1.4 TF2	$2.91 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	7.0 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$14.48 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	7.19 TF2	$14.88 PP

I Buy Humble Choice (Dec 2022)	with TF2	with PayPal
First Class Trouble	0.4 TF2	$0.85 PayPal
GreedFall	0.6 TF2	$1.34 PayPal
Wasteland 3	1.2 TF2	$2.48 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	2.6 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$5.34 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Premiere VR Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Arizona Sunshine	2.0 TF2	$4.21 PayPal
After the Fall® - Launch Edition	5.0 TF2	$10.35 PayPal
Vox Machinae	3.3 TF2	$6.74 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	11.8 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$24.34 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Black Friday VR Voyager's Pack Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
A Fisherman's Tale	0.2 TF2	$0.36 PayPal
Car Mechanic Simulator VR	0.4 TF2	$0.9 PayPal
I Expect You To Die	1.3 TF2	$2.7 PayPal
SUPERHOT VR	2.2 TF2	$4.49 PayPal
Until You Fall	0.7 TF2	$1.39 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.4 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$11.25 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	6.52 TF2	$13.5 PP

I Buy Complete Your Twin Sails Collection Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Splendor	0.6 TF2	$1.34 PayPal
Small World	0.3 TF2	$0.67 PayPal
Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics	0.6 TF2	$1.21 PayPal
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition	1.7 TF2	$3.42 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	3.7 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$7.59 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy 11 Bit Studios: The Complete Collection Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
This War of Mine: Complete Edition	0.8 TF2	$1.56 PayPal
Children of Morta	0.7 TF2	$1.55 PayPal
Frostpunk	1.2 TF2	$2.48 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	3.1 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$6.39 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

I Buy Humble Choice (Nov 2022)	with TF2	with PayPal
Eldest Souls	0.3 TF2	$0.62 PayPal
Hell Let Loose	7.8 TF2	$16.18 PayPal
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning	0.9 TF2	$1.88 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	7.0 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$14.48 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	7.48 TF2	$15.48 PP

I Buy Day of the Devs Bundle (2022)	with TF2	with PayPal
Brutal Legend	0.6 TF2	$1.22 PayPal
Gang Beasts	3.0 TF2	$6.15 PayPal
140	0.6 TF2	$1.15 PayPal
Psychonauts	0.3 TF2	$0.64 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	5.1 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$10.47 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	5.56 TF2	$11.5 PP

I Buy Melee Mayhem Bundle	with TF2	with PayPal
Chronicon	1.6 TF2	$3.25 PayPal
Mordhau	1.6 TF2	$3.41 PayPal
MORTAL KOMBAT 11	1.7 TF2	$3.44 PayPal
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl	0.3 TF2	$0.58 PayPal
River City Girls	1.4 TF2	$2.91 PayPal
Chivalry 2	3.3 TF2	$6.88 PayPal
All Games Above (Special)	11.3 TF2 + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games	$23.39 PP + You Keep Any Remaining Bundle Games
Full Bundle (Special)	TBD	TBD

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“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.
________________________
By The Vesper's Bell

Saturday, March 18 - Friday, March 24

Top videos

score	comments	title & link
287	45 comments	This dude is a straight up mutant (PS: They came against our 3 biggest rivals)
100	15 comments	Maybe this is where Sorokin picked it up? #Varly
68	5 comments	I DON'T THINK WE NEED HIM. FIRST 7 GOAL GAME SINCE OCTOBER. CLUTTER PROVING EVERYONE WRONG. HUDSON FUDSON DOES IT AGAIN. HOLMY, DOBBER, LEE, PARISE ROUND IT OUT. RESPECT THE SOROKIN (PATENT PENDING)
67	10 comments	Toronto?
48	4 comments	AS SCARY AS SHARKS ARE, THEY CAN'T COMPARE TO THE WRATH OF THE KILLER P'S. PAGEAU. PALMIERI. PULOCK. PARISE. PERFECTION.

 

Game thread comments

score	comment
51	Isles1996 said Terrible game from Lee. Off night for Ilya but he had zero help in the 2nd. Parise, Palms, and Nelson were great. Getting 0 points would have been a disaster, so the game wasn’t a complete failure. Pl...
47	checknate1 said We say we have the easiest schedule compared to the Pens and Cats forgetting that the Isles completely shit the bed whenever we play a team we should win against.
35	liguy181 said Columbus is probably more hurt by that win than we are from an ot loss. We were never gonna go 10-0-0 to end the season. On to the next one
23	xnerdyxrealistx said Hard fought point but, damn.
22	USAJourneyman said Lee & the defense were god awful But we got the point
19	T_R_G_H said parise is the best league min contract player in the league
18	Wshrig said Only the Islanders can play like absolute dog shit against the worst team in the NHL....
18	Ord8377 said Resign Hudson Fasching
17	JBR409 said Blowout the Leafs 7-2 and then put up this shit effort against the worst team in the league. Gotta be consistent if you wanna go far in the playoffs
16	lazyblogger914 said 5-9 in OT. I’d feel a little bit better about this season if we’re at least .500

 

Dank

score	comments	title & link
309	19 comments	[Certified DANK] Boring Islanders 😴

 

Top Remaining Posts

score	comments	title & link
273	16 comments	DP staring right into P.K.’s soul when he said that
260	19 comments	Met and Islanders legend at tonight's Kraken/Predators game. One of the nicest people I've ever spoken to.
205	20 comments	Brock Nelson Prayer Circle 🙏🏼
173	9 comments	Butchy looking great on the pregame show!
163	43 comments	Brock Nelson is on the ice at practice today
156	116 comments	Our odds of making the playoffs are up to 69%
122	20 comments	No games in hand...homestretch
117	0 comments	Hey Toronto
115	29 comments	Hudson Fasching.
113	4 comments	Toronto?

 

“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.

“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.

“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.

“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.

“Well?” the Grand Adderman hissed impatiently as the spectral, sepia candlelight of the subterranean ritual chamber danced upon the silken robes that shrouded his stretched and wizened form.
Beneath the sacred summit of Pendragon Hill, in a great vaulted chamber built at a crossroads of otherworldly passageways, the sisters Ivy and Envy Noir sifted through the pit of Sigil Sand to confirm that it was once again pure.
“I’m afraid it’s… complicated, Grand Adderman,” Envy reported timidly as she methodically let another handful of Sand sift through her fingers. “The Sand itself has been purged of Emrys’ Miasma, but… it’s still here. It’s faint, possibly diffused, but it’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“The readings on the parathaumameter are inconclusive at best,” Ivy sighed, shoving the useless device back into the holster on her belt. “Crowley told you that they dispelled the Miasma from the Sand and into a human heart, and afterwards the heart burrowed itself into the Sand, and then they just couldn’t find it?”
“That is what he said,” the Grand Adderman replied with a noted tinge of exhaustion to his voice. “Based on what information they selectively chose to disclose to me, I can find no cause to fault them with this turn of events. I was tempted simply to torture them until they told me what they did wrong, but then thought that consulting with the two of you might yield more accurate results. Do either of you have any idea where the heart may have gone, if it ever existed in the first place?”
“If the Miasma had been bound to any corporeal object, and it was here, we’d be able to detect it,” Envy replied. “It feels like it’s in the space in between the grains rather than the grains itself, but for our purposes, I don’t think that really matters. Crowley’s ritual may have hallowed the Sand enough that the Miasma can’t reinfect it right now, but the moment we do anything with it that changes its astral frequency, the Miasma will just be reabsorbed.”
“Grand Adderman, as much as I’m loathed to admit it, I have no reason to believe that Crowley and the others did anything wrong here at all,” Ivy stated. “It appears that the ritual was successful at dispelling the Miasma, but that still wasn’t enough to save the Sand. There’s nothing else we can do with this. It’s been irreparably compromised and should be discarded. We need to start seriously considering alternatives.”
With a snarl, the Grand Adderman strode forward and impaled the Sigil Sand with the broken shards at the end of his sceptre. Slowly twisting it around, he prodded the Sand with his clairvoyance, searching for anything the Noir sisters might have overlooked.
“It’s in the shadows. I’m certain of that,” he murmured. “So like Emrys to hide in the shadows. That he has so tenaciously entrenched his very essence into this Sigil Sand can only mean that he is terrified of us using it against him. If we continue allowing Emrys to dictate the terms of engagement to us, then we are doomed! This Sand has the capacity to bind Emrys and banish him once again from the mortal plane, if only we can undo his sabotage!”
“Grand Adderman, I am sorry, but I fear we simply do not have the time to research a method to adequately purify this Sand before Emrys further escalates his assaults on us,” Ivy insisted. “Erich and I have been researching other entities we might be able to enlist as potential counters to Emrys, and I don’t think we should completely discount Seneca’s idea to try to broker some form of truce with him.”
In a flash, the Grand Adderman withdrew his sceptre from the Sand and raised it threateningly over his head as he spun towards Ivy, sending her stumbling back up against the wall.
“Maybe we don’t need to purify the Sand at all!” Envy shouted, desperate for anything that would spare her sister from the Adderman’s wrath.
To her surprise and relief, the Grand Adderman paused his advance, lowering his sceptre and turning his head towards her.
“Emrys wants us either to not use this Sand at all or try using it anyway so he can use it against us. You are correct, Grand Adderman; if we keep fighting Emrys on his terms, we will lose,” Envy began. “I have an idea, one I hesitate to suggest since it would put you personally in grave danger. We go ahead with the original plan, making a Spell Circle to bind Emrys with you to power it, but fudge it just enough so that the Miasma is able to corrupt it and bind you instead. That solves the biggest problem with the plan; getting Emrys into the Spell Circle in the first place. He’ll think it’s safe, he’ll think he’s won, and he’ll walk right in to claim you. Once he does, you expose the Sand to the Asphodel Incarnate, the one which you in your great foresight sent me down to the Reliquary to retrieve. I am certain it will provide more than enough of a counter to the Miasma that it will undo its effects on the Spell Circle and allow it to revert to its original purpose; binding Emrys and empowering you. Then we’ll be able to perform the banishing ritual and be rid of him forever!”
The Grand Adderman pondered silently for a moment, his hooded face impossible to read. Both sisters feared he was about to kill them on the spot for their heinous crime of less-than-flawless sycophancy.
“Would it be possible to move this Sand to the Adderwood Megalith?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely, Grand Adderman. I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s a far more secure location, and it will be much easier for you to channel Ophion,” Envy assured him.
He turned his head slightly towards Ivy, who nodded emphatically as well.
“I’ll see it done, then,” he said, and started slithering towards the Cuniculi doors. “You two make the necessary alterations to your Spell Circle design. We do nothing until I am convinced that this bait and switch is safe to attempt! Is that understood?”
“Of course, Grand Adderman,” both sisters said as they bowed, respectfully remaining in place until the Grand Adderman had taken his leave of them.
Once he was gone, Ivy and Envy made their way up the spiral stairway to the manor above without daring to speak a word to each other. When they had made it into Ivy’s Tesla, and had begun their descent down Pendragon Hill and felt safely out of reach of any surveillance, Ivy smiled from ear to ear.
“You did it. You did it,” she said in hushed awe. “He’s actually just going to walk into our Spell Circle and let us bind him!”
“I just gave him what he asked for,” Envy smirked.
“Were you telling the truth about the Asphodel Incarnate?”
“It depends on how powerful Emrys has gotten, but it doesn’t really matter. Once the Grand Adderman is bound, we can take it from him. Chain him up with Erich’s Blue Moon Silver for good measure.”
“Absolutely. Can’t be too careful,” Ivy nodded. “We don’t need to hold him forever, though. Just long enough to offer him to Emrys and forge a peace pact. This is going to work. This is actually going to work!”
“You don’t think he suspects anything, do you?”
“I don’t. He’s been far too powerful for far too long. The idea that any of his underlings would actually try to overthrow him, let alone succeed, has never occurred to him. Emrys is going to kill the Grand Adderman, and the Darlings, and be very grateful to us for freeing him from his chains. I wish I could tell Erich the good news right now, but I can’t even risk texting him.”
“Oh, Bloody Hell! The Darlings!” Envy cursed. “They’ll be there for the ritual, won’t they? They’re not going to side with us! How are we going to fend them off until Emrys gets there? Other than the Grand Adderman, he’s the only one stronger than they are.”
“Right. The Spell Circle will have protection wards, but I wouldn’t trust those with my life against the Darlings,” Ivy mused. “The Effulgent One is one option, but I’d prefer something we could work out a more explicit arrangement with. Someone we could trust to keep the Darlings or anyone else off our backs while we wait for Emrys, and someone who wouldn’t be unwelcomed or suspicious if we brought them to Adderwood. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but I think… I think I might know where we could find somebody. Don’t worry, Envy. This is just a minor detail to work out. We’re going to pull this off. I promise.”
***
“Our code-name for him is The Mandrake. I’ve heard people just call him Drake, but for today, at least, I think we’d be better to err on the side of formality,” Erich advised as he drove Ivy and Envy down the abandoned road, its every pothole filled with rainwater from the mild yet unyielding drizzle. They were far from Sombermorey, far from Harrowick County, and far from any other chapterhouse of the Ophion Occult Order, to ensure their meeting wouldn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers.
“He lives out here?” Envy asked skeptically, looking out in disdain at the crumbling masonry around them, unable to judge its extent due to the pervasive fog. “Everyone of these buildings looks condemned. This has to be a ghost town. What is this place?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that if you want a guaranteed private meeting with The Mandrake, you drive in the direction he tells you,” Erich replied. “Once you’re somewhere remote, you’ll hit a sudden patch of fog, and then you’re here. There’s no need to worry. I wouldn’t have brought you two out here if I didn’t trust him.”
“And he’s not a part of the Order? Or an enemy?” Envy asked.
“He’s a freelancer. He’s loyal to no agenda but his own, and works with anyone who he thinks will be of help to him,” Ivy explained. “Even if he doesn’t agree to help us, he won’t rat us out. He couldn’t care less about the Grand Adderman.”
“And he can handle the Darlings? Both of them?” Envy asked skeptically.
“Outside of their playroom, the Darlings aren’t as overly powerful as they appear,” Erich claimed. “They’re physically superhuman in terms of strength, speed, stamina, sensory acuteness, agility, reaction time, resilience and recovery, but none of these are unlimited. Other than some selective telekinesis and their eternal youth, they’re still just humans with a little extra oomph. There’s a reason you never see Mary out by herself. It doesn’t matter how much stronger she is than a regular person; she’s still not indestructible, and that terrifies her. It terrifies James too, of course. He’s just better at risk management when he’s out on his errands. Remember that they did retreat from their battle with Emrys on Pendragon Hill. They’re cowards, and they will fall back if they think they’re in mortal peril. I’m not saying The Mandrake is as powerful as Emrys, but he’s definitely strong enough to keep the Darlings at bay for a bit. He might even manage to scare them off, though given how obsessed they seemed to have become with getting revenge on Emrys, that may be a long shot. At any rate, the Darlings won’t be able to hurt him.”
“Why not?” Envy asked.
“You’ll understand when you see him,” Ivy assured her.
As they drove down the ruined streets, Envy was suddenly struck by the realization that ‘ghost town’ wasn’t an adequate description. The town didn’t just seem abandoned; it felt forbidden. It felt like Chornobyl, like something monstrous had happened that hadn’t merely forced the residents to flee, but had cursed the land forever so that they could never come back. Everything was so insidiously still. There didn’t seem to be any animals at all, and the only plants she had seen looked to have been dead for some time, albeit relatively unrotten. She suspected that was because this place was as devoid of microbes as it was macroscopic life. She felt sick, being alive in a place where life of any kind was no longer welcomed. She trusted her sister, and she trusted Erich, so she assumed that short visits would do no lasting harm. Nonetheless, the sooner this was over with, the better.
She jumped in her seat at the sound of some deep, whale-like call, resonating from somewhere far within the fog.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Naming it doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” was Erich’s cryptic response. He slowed down the car as they drove down what might have once been the town’s Mainstreet, stopping entirely in front of a dark alleyway. “He’s down there.”
Envy peered down the alley, spotting a sign with a single eye centered in a simplified dreamcatcher hanging above a doorway, with a silhouetted humanoid figure leaning up against it.
“Could he maybe come out to meet us, or – ”
“We’re going down to meet him,” Ivy said sympathetically as she opened the car door. “Don’t worry, Envy. All we need to do is have a quick word with this guy and we’ll be one step closer to overthrowing the Grand Adderman.”
Envy nodded and, taking a deep breath, forced herself out of the relative safety of the car and into the mist-swept, forlorn world outside.
Leaving the car made it clear just how quiet everything was, and now that she was no longer looking through the tinted windows, the lack of colour was much more striking as well. She pulled her cashmere cloak around her to guard off the damp chill in the air, regretting that it descended no further than the hem of her pleated skirt. Walking alongside her sister and behind Erich, she reluctantly approached the shadowed stranger in the alley.
The first thing she noticed about him was that he was wearing a trench coat and fedora like a detective in a film noir movie, which fit with the eye-themed logo on the sign above him. There was a dim glow coming from his face, and at first, Envy just assumed that he was smoking.
Then he looked directly at them, and she saw an illuminated version of the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon carved into an otherwise featureless face of iridescent silver. Envy instantly wondered if it was a helmet, or if he was perhaps some kind of android. If it was a helmet, it seamlessly concealed anything human that might be under it. Unless it had some kind of internal heads-up display, she didn’t see how he could have any vision through it. Being an android, on the other hand, would explain how he could exist in a place that was so unwelcoming to life.
“Erich Thorne. Welcome back,” The Mandrake said in a listless monotone. “Nice ladies. You whip them up yourself?”
“Heh, no. This is my girlfriend and Head of the Harrowick Chapter Ivy Noir, and her sister Envy, a Master Adderman and expert thaumatologist,” Erich introduced.
“…Really?” The Mandrake asked.
“My sister and I utilize proprietary implants that modulate our bodies’ bioelectrical signals, optimizing our appearance, health, cognitive faculties, mental well-being, and physical capabilities,” Ivy explained. “I can assure you, Mr. Mandrake, that my sister and I are as smart – and dangerous – as we are beautiful.”
“I’m shaking,” he scoffed. “What is that I can help you with, Miss Noir?”
“It… involves the situation with Emrys. I presume you’re aware?”
“Sorry. Can’t help you with that,” he said flatly with a shake of his head.
“We’re not asking you to bring Emrys in,” Ivy told him. “We’ve… managed to convince the Grand Adderman to bind himself in a Spell Circle as an offering to Emrys. He thinks it’s a ruse to bind and then banished Emrys; it’s not. We intend to use him as a peace offering to forge a truce with Emrys. To ensure our plan goes smoothly, we need some extra muscle to fend off anyone present that might be loyal to the Grand Adderman. Do you think you’re up for that?”
The light from The Mandrake’s face ebbed a little as he took a moment to ponder Ivy’s proposition.
“Extra muscle, eh?” he asked.
“Against the Darling Twins, specifically,” Envy added. “They hate Emrys, and they don’t care much for us either, so they’ll be sure to work against us. We don’t have a way to protect ourselves from them. Do you think that you could keep them in line, at least until Emrys shows up?”
“The Darling Twins? What about the other one?” The Mandrake asked.
“You mean that thing they call their Uncle? Deep underground and entombed within a forty-foot labyrinthine cube of self-healing titanium foam, magnetically levitated above LED floodlights and an electrified floor. We don’t need to worry about him,” Erich assured him.
The Mandrake didn’t seem particularly assured, though it was unclear if that was because he wasn’t convinced that the Darlings’ Uncle was truly out of the picture, or because that wasn’t who he was talking about it.
“Well, they’re no danger to me, either way,” he remarked. “Can’t say I’d be sad to see the Grand Adderman go either. The main risk to me is that if you fail, I’ll have made myself an enemy of the entire Ophion Occult Order. That might put a cramp in my style.”
The strange whale call from before sounded once again, this time seeming significantly closer to them than it had before. Erich, Ivy, and The Mandrake didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about, so Envy deferred to their experience. She did, however, keep a watchful vigil on their surroundings while they had their conversation.
“And if you don’t help us and we succeed, you’ll have alienated yourself from an organization that now possesses Emrys as an ally,” Ivy countered. “Is that an opportunity you want to pass up?”
“It’s a big risk, and all you’re offering in return are promises of vague potential boons?” The Mandrake asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on some payment upfront for this.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable. What can we offer you?” Ivy asked.
“If you’re the new Head of the Harrowick Chapter, does that mean you have access to Seneca Chamberlin’s Sombermorey Manor?” The Mandrake asked.
“It does. Is there a particular piece of his treasury that takes your fancy?” Ivy asked.
“Last I checked, Seneca had a somewhat extensive collection of spellwork firearms and sigil-etched silver bullets for taking out all kinds of boogeymen,” The Mandrake replied.
“You mean like one of these?” Ivy asked, pulling back her coat and reaching for the holster on her belt. She drew out a long-barrel revolver made of sterling silver and polished ebony, engraved and inlaid with a multitude of occult symbols.
“Exactly like one of those,” The Mandrake said. “I wouldn’t mind a nice new pair of sidearms, along with a generous supply of ammo. It might even give me an edge against the Darlings.”
“That sounds like a reasonable downpayment,” Ivy nodded with a slight smile. “He won’t be happy about it, but I can appropriate the weapons from Seneca without raising suspicion. As far as anyone else knows, they’re to use on Petra, Emrys’ acolyte. I doubt they’d be of any use against her, but it’s plausible enough to do as an excuse. If Seneca makes a fuss, which he will, you fully intend to return them after the ritual is complete. If we win, we intend for our treaty with Emrys to dissolve the Grand Council and decentralize our power structure, and I’ll have the authority to let you keep your new weapons permanently. If we lose, you flee and avoid the Grand Adderman and his lackeys as best you can, and if Seneca survives you may have to deal with him trying to get his guns back.”
“Ah, Ivy,” Envy said softly.
“So all I have to do is keep the Darlings and anyone else off your back until Emrys shows up?” The Mandrake asked, ignoring Envy’s interjection. “In exchange for a pair of Seneca’s finest spellwork pistols and two boxes of ammunition to be paid upfront, and afterwards I get the privilege of being the first person you call on when you’ve got some work you’d like to outsource to a third party?”
Ivy nodded, and extend her arm for a handshake. Rather than accept it, The Mandrake produced a business card embossed with the one-eyed dreamcatcher icon, and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“Give me a ring when everything’s set, and be sure to have my payment ready when you do,” he told her.
“Ivy,” Envy repeated, a little more insistently this time.
“No one else is in on our plan to betray the Grand Adderman, so I trust it goes without saying that we’re counting on your discretion?” Ivy said as she pocketed the business card.
“Confidentiality is standard in my line of work, Miss Noir. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he nodded.
“What about that? Should we worry about that?” Envy asked, pointing upwards to the top of the building in front of them.
The others all turned to where she was pointing, and upon the roof perched a creature that didn’t immediately make sense to them. It was there, and yet they could not say precisely where it was, as though its physical location was a stochastic estimate rather than a definite fact. It had no colour, and yet it was neither white nor black nor grey; it simply had no colour and there was no other way to describe it. It was large; larger than any of them, though smaller than the building it rested upon, and its size couldn’t be narrowed down any more than that. It either had a long body or a long neck, most likely both, but perhaps neither. Its face sat at the uttermost nadir of the Uncanny Valley, too inhuman to garner any sympathy but just human enough to make them wonder if it had once been a man’s, or more likely a child’s. The face was horribly strained, stretched out as it was across all the being’s possible locations, and yet it smiled down at them with a mouth devoid of teeth but still filled with malice. Several polydactyl limbs clawed into the crumbling brick of the building beneath them, and a tapering tail lazily whipped back and forth as its hollow and soulless eyes refused to break contact with them.
“Do not break eye contact with it until you’re out of town,” The Mandrake said in a hoarse whisper. “Walk backwards to your car, slowly. Don’t run, and don’t break eye contact. You’re lucky there are three of you. Two of you can keep watch while the other drives, but the driver should be looking in the rearview mirror as much as possible. Just don’t let it out of your sight before it’s occluded by the fog. You got that?”
“Mandrake, you told me the things that ravaged this town only come out at night unless provoked!” Erich hissed at him.
“Don’t take it personally. I tell that to everyone,” The Mandrake said. “Don’t break eye contact, and don’t try to fight it. I’ll see you in Adderwood.”
He leaned up against the door to his back, pushing it open and then sliding inside in a fraction of a second before slamming it shut, the sound of several locks clicking into place echoing through the alley.
The creature on the roof couldn’t have cared less about his departure, keeping its eyes keenly on the three live humans in the alley below.
“Erich – do we listen to him?” Ivy asked with a nervous swallow.
“I… I have no reason to think he wants us dead, and that thing hasn’t attacked us yet,” Erich replied, though it was obvious to both sisters that he was far from certain. “Do what he said. Back up slowly, and don’t take your eyes off it. Both of you get in the back seat and don’t block the middle.”
“But what is it?” Envy asked.
“Envy, trust me when I tell you that that information is counterproductive at this moment,” Ivy said as she grabbed her hand, and to Envy’s dismay she felt that it was trembling.
With an obedient nod, Envy began walking backwards, pulling Ivy and Erich along with her.
As they reached the end of the alley, the creature descended from the roof with both the grace of a cat and the viscosity of molasses, pouring its nebulous form to the ground as much as jumping. Each limb jerked about in what individually seemed like a chaotic fashion, but in aggregate was enough to smoothly propel the strange entity forward.
Ivy whimpered, but successfully fought the instinct to flee. She and Envy backed into the car almost simultaneously, and with only a bit of fumbling succeeded in opening the back door. Ivy went in first, followed by Envy. Once they were in, Erich opened the front passenger side door and pushed himself over into the driver’s seat, with Envy leaning forward to pull the door shut.
“Erich, drive! Drive now!” Ivy ordered, her unblinking eyes fixed upon the shambling creature stretching its elongated neck out towards their vehicle, its toothless smile so wide it looked like it might tear its face asunder.
Erich slammed on the gas, and their car sped off down Mainstreet, with the creature sprinting off after them in pursuit.
“Don’t we need to turn around at some point?” Envy asked, she and her sister now staring straight out through the rear window.
“It’s too risky. As long as we get out of town, we should be back more or less where we were,” Erich explained, his eyes glancing up into his rearview mirror every few seconds.
“Ivy, please. What is that thing?” Envy pleaded. “It doesn’t look real. Is it some kind of thoughtform?”
“It’s an inverted thoughtform, made from inverse thought,” Ivy answered. “It’s a form of consciousness that has the reverse quantum values of ordinary thought, causing wave functions to collapse in the complete opposite way they’re supposed to. Their mere presence is antithetical to life, psychic phenomenon, and any tech that relies on non-Newtonian physics.”
“Which is incidentally why we took my old Royce instead of Ivy’s Tesla,” Erich added.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at it. Our effect and its effect on wave functions cancel out and keep it from doing anything too weird,” Ivy went on. “It’s why they almost never attack in broad daylight, and why they can only exist in places devoid of sentience, like this. It’s why I thought we’d be safe meeting with The Mandrake here. Oh, God. Envy, I’m so sorry. I never should have brought you here, or at least I should have told you. I thought there’d be safety in numbers, and I didn’t want to scare you.”
The inverted thoughtform’s smile finally split its head wide open, and a great plume of monochrome flame ruptured forth from the gaping fissure. It was close, but it didn’t seem to be able to close the distance between itself and the car. A big enough bump in the road that caused them to involuntarily break line-of-sight for even an instant would be all it would take for them to lose that advantage.
“But why is it attacking though? Does it want to eat us? Is it defending its territory?” Envy demanded.
Ivy continued to stare straight ahead, fighting back tears that threatened to force her to blink.
“Inverse thought can only be made by the perversion of ordinary thought,” she said softly, seeing no need to say anything more.
Envy fell silent as well, now more than ever understanding the vital importance of maintaining their vigil on the creature before them.
It wasn’t so much running after them now as it was just tumbling, though it somehow always managed to keep its long neck held upright. It pushed itself to draw just a little bit closer to them, but that only slowed it down and caused it to sag under its own weight. Reality, or rather reality perceived by regular consciousness, was poison to it, and it dared not get too close. One instant of inattention was all it needed to strike.
When Erich saw that he had a clear path towards the fog at the edge of the town limits, he slammed down on the gas and pushed the vehicle as hard as it could go. In a desperate last ploy, the inverted thoughtform launched itself into the air in the hopes of landing on top of the car and hiding it from view long enough to grant it its victory. But the closer it got, the more real it became, and its increasing mass was enough to cause it to fall short of its target and crash into the pavement.
As the car vanished into the fog and they finally lost sight of the monstrous creature, they heard it release a shrill, forlorn howl that slowly faded into the distance. A howl which, much to their concern, was clearly not the same cry as the deep and resonating whale call they had heard earlier. For a third and final time, the whale call sounded again, perhaps in response to the howl of the creature that had been pursuing them.
Only this time, it wasn’t coming from behind them or even around them, but in front of them.