Silence reigned as those words left my lips. I looked at Voltar, but his expression still refused to shift.

  The poison was called Angel’s Sorrow for a reason. It didn’t o be an angel, but it required a divine creature to shed its tears. The trated sorrow of su entity owerful enough to hurt the living through exposure, to touch the mind mu the same way a visitation from a divine creature would.

  For people or creatures inating from the profane like myself? A mere touch could be instantly fatal.

  “I suppose that is another reason why I would not be the one brewing this poison,” I said, giving the assorted vials ba. “One small slip-up and, in the best case, I’m an invalid for oh, years, I would say. Assuming it doesn’t kill me or permaly damage my brain.”

  “A risk,” Voltar said. “But ierest of clearing yood name, you wouldn’t mind me looking at your b, would you?”

  Oh, I very much minded in the immi couple of hours. But I could hardly expin that a stranger was locked up in the cupboard. I didn’t need more plications in my life.

  “You are wele to visit. I do have the only key outside of my ndlord, so you’ll o talk to him or me before you visit. Do you wish to go immediately?”

  He shook his head slightly, a slightly amused expression still there. Whatever his pn, my having time to gh my b wouldn’t interfere with it.

  “Please let me know before you go in there, Mr. Voltar. I don’t deal with the most votile or dangerous substances, but I would not reend expl any unfamiliar alchemist’s b without oh you. Are there any more questions?”

  He put his hat ba, already heading out the door.

  “I don’t think so. Have a pleasant day, Ms. Fara.”

  “And a pleasant day to you as well, Mr. Voltar,” I said with false cheer.

  I shut the door carefully, doing my best not to sm it. I fished my key out of my pocket and locked it up again.

  I hurried over to my sink, grabbed Voltar’s cup, and removed it. I, the detective’s leftover coffee still sat. Alright, this would be simple enough. I’d have to go somewhere else to perform the diabolism, so its stain didn’t point to anyone here, but I had the ingredients here. My blood and his saliva- I just needed my focus to help bridge the gap between materials and power, and a trag spell would be easy enough to work.

  I drew the blinds shut, then grabbing a dle from my cupboard, I lit it. Vertrul, they called the invisible creatures whose fat I'd made the dle out of. Its methods of not beied went beyond disappearing from sight, so as long as the dle was lit, attempts to scry my apartment would be obscured, if not ht blocked.

  Grabbing a chisel, I worked on the floor, tappily at the gaps between the floorboards. I cleared out the putty and other material I’d used to fill the gaps between them. After a while, it was all cleared out, giving me space to use my fingers.

  I lifted up one of the floorboards, looking at the trio of small wooden boxes hidden uhem. These three boxes tained all the other remnants of my life as Malvia. Mementos, Biosculpting tools, and Diabolism.

  The one I wanted was separate from the other two, with symbols carved into it that pained my eyes to look at. The wood singed my fingers as I lifted the box out and ope. Ign the pain, I ope up, grabbing a small metal star, eight-sided and with an ied in the ter. Bck-painted fmes backed it, glistening in the m light.

  I should have burhis, removing the temptatioirely. Diabolism was still possible without it, even if it was harder to perform. But why not use it? Desperate times and all that.

  I sat in one of my chairs, thumb going over the ied . Using it would mean calling on Him, and that was never pleasant. Versalicci would know as well the moment I called on the focus. That didn’t matter too much. Golvar already firmed he knew who Katheryn Fara really was.

  The chair cracked underh me. I looked down, seeing a spiderweb of cracks cutting their way through the already cheap wood. I got up, gring at the focus. Probably not best to have this out till I had the ritual ready. I should have better trol over it. Then again sidering my teacher I was lucky to still be living.

  Eager to be used again, are we? I thought, putting it ba its box. I quickly tched it shut, then sidered the tips of my fingers. The burns were already fading. The seals on the box weren’t holding up that well after a year of .

  It meant I could carry it in cloth to whatever secluded, abandoned building I secured for the ritual. It wouldn’t be hard magic, just a little mixture to keep Vor tracked. I couldn’t track Dawes, but it would let me know what Voltar was doing.

  Still, somethi off. I went to pick up the cup.

  I looked at the coffee cup, a thumb going over the rim. Cracks in the surfaed irregurities as my thumb slowly went around it. In the ter, the dregs of the coffee seemed to swirl. White specks mixed in with it, almost looking like the night sky.

  I filled the cup with water and ri out, watg it all vanish. The pipes here were crap, but they did the job. I then reached for the soap and started scrubbing the cup as if it was covered in a yer of shit.

  How dumb did he think I was? The greatest detective in the world happens to leave his cup unwashed in an alchemist’s home? Even if I wasn’t a diabolist, using what he’d left in the cup for a mixture targeting him specifically would be simple enough.

  I couldn’t figure out how, but it was a trick, a trap. I ri twice more until the inside of the cup was bare.

  Okay, this might be a touch too paranoid, but I would take any excuse not to attempt some diabolism. Besides, paranoia is needed now more than ever. Why did elements of my past choose now to trample all over the little life I’d arranged for myself?

  I stared at the disappearing water. This had been a mistake. I wasn’t risking much; just a taste and a little nibble of diabolism would set everything right. He couldn’t have gone far. Use the remnants of human flesh still in my system, jure forth an imp, a watch-

  I rammed my head against the wall.

  This time, the wooziook over a mio fade. I sat in a chair, head in hand, both eyes sched shut as I recited the list of elements from beginning to end.

  Zindlium, Zinc, Zir, Zorinthium. I o stop letting my head get hammered like this. Too many more instances and I would cuss myself.

  In my stomach, something kwisting in my gut around and around. Thankfully, I hadn’t even sidered breakfast yet. Something leaped, f me to gag. I tried to stop, stumbling as I got up from the chair.

  It had been years since I’d used it. Why was it so damn powerful? It didn’t eveo be ing back; I hadn’t spotted a single spirit sihat oe and shouldn’t as long as I didn’t draw on the power.

  I retched into my sink, whatever was in my stomaing up. Panting, I forced myself away from it. Was that blood in the sink? No, don’t focus on it. It wouldn’t, couldn’t kill me, and I wouldn’t feed it anymore. Actual Diabolism would just make its gluttony worse than the blood I’d actally fed it, and I didn’t have six months where I could disappear anymore.

  Ign the pain twisting in my stomach, I put the boxes and the floorboard back, then repced the putty. It would take a little time, but it would eventually look like all the repairs you did yourself to keep the cold air from reag ihe Biosculpting tools I'd need but those were for ter. I'd need several hours to redo the etic alterations maintaining my disguise, so best to save those for ter in the evening.

  When you fe a mask, and wear it, you must bee it. Whether you want to be that mask or not. Anything less and it's no longer a mask, Malvia. And you'll need masks, being you. We all do, but the two of us most of all.

  The remembered voice echoed in my mind as I looked back at the sink. Katheryn Fara did not use Diabolism. I could not be tempted again.

  I grabbed a coat a. I might not be able to do anything about Voltar, but that intruder to my b could provide some ao this.

  ***

  Half an hour after cluding the events in my apartment, I and a retly collected Tolman were walking the path to my b. It was still early m, so the roads were merely somewhat crowded instead of fully packed with foot traffic.

  My stomach was calm now, although a w knot still sat at the bottom of it. Whether ay or the Diabolism making its displeasure known, it gnawed away at me.

  Tolman filled the early m with a cheery bahat I didn’t share with him.

  “You know, one night, you’re worried about me and Arsene being os because of me w with you. The m, you’re draggi to work with you again without letting me say a word in protest. You are the mistress of the mixed message, Fara.”

  I’d just visited his house, a ramshackle pce a few streets from mine, and pleasantly not had a run-in with Tolman’s husband.

  “If I’d known Arsene sleeps so te in the day, I’d visit more often. I’m shocked he’s the one who was boired and not you, sidering how te you were out.”

  Tolman grinned. “I wore him out plenty when I got home. Besides, even if he’d been up, I’m sure I could vince him to let me go with you. People prying into your past could find stuff on us we also want to be buried.”

  I nervously g the other Infernals nearby, but the closest one, maybe a few paces behind us, didn’t eve. This early in the m, people were more focused on reag their destination than listening in on our versation. You woke up this early to beat the crush of foot traffid the times when carts and wagons would travel the streets.

  Still, that didn’t mean he should be so cavalier in what he said.

  “And that includes your mystery intruder. You said you think he’s one of Lord Montague’s?”

  I’d told Tolman an abbreviated version of the events since I’d left him at ly’s st night, along with a few suspis on my part.

  “Him or Lady Karsin,” I answered. “Although I suspect his lordship more betweewo.”

  “Why, because you like Lady Karsin?”

  “No, although I’ll admit I have a personal animosity with Lord Montague. But Lady Karsin’s heir is free of the poison’s effects. He’s had the antidote. She doesn’t need more doses, but Montague does and did not like the price we iated.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Sending someoo your b the day you both met feels like a bit too fast for him te. He decided to doublecross you immediately?”

  “Good point,” I ceded. Lord Montague was a racist, arrogant man, but willing to risk his son’s life on a single person finding the antidotes? Maybe not. “I suppose we’ll find out from the person themselves today.”

  “Right, I wao ask. You left them in your closet ht?”

  I sighed. “Yes, I did. Tolman, I have had the unique displeasure of getting all of….three, maybe four hours of sleep. I was in an even worse state st night.”

  “So, did you beat him up while cussing him out like you did Three-toed Williams?”

  “Katheryn Fara shouldn’t even know who Three-toed Williams is,” I hissed, gring at Tolman.

  We were in public! I already had to deal with my act slipping after just one enter with one of the still loyal Old Crew, now Tolman was joking about past life things with me?

  We weren’t alone in some deserted er of the quarter, the streets were filling rapidly. Just within a doze were a dozen people, including a trio of urs, which I mentally noted as probably getting ready for a pickpocket attempt.

  “Peace. Calm down. Most people here don’t know who he is, either. You’re bringing more attention to us by making a deal out of it.”

  A reply was oip of my tongue, but he was right. I took some breaths and forced myself to calm. “Apologies, Tolmaerday was simply a very trying time. It threw me off bance, but it will not happen again.”

  “It probably will. I do uand what’s going on, but you ’t let it all get inside your head, Fara. The world is not out to get you.”

  I felt a small hand slip inside my pocket. My tail ed around the arm attached to it, yanking the street ur forward so I could grab him.

  I gred at the ur, my hand cmped onto his wrist. He immediately started screaming bloody murder, which very few paid more than a few moments of attention to. Everyone knew he ickpocket, and no one seemed ined to believe the rather iive list of things he was yelling I’d doo him.

  “That st one sounds anatomically impossible, but if you’ve seen it personally, I would be ied in hearing the details,” I said. “Now, are you going to be reasonable about this?”

  The ur tried pawing at my clothes, either in an attempt at leverage or to strip me. Those couple of inch-long talons he sported could certainly mahe tter.

  It was a bit of a scramble that saw most of the surrounding traffic move away from us to avoid it. The ur’s two friends tried to close in, only to back off as Tolman gave them a look that ihem to try somethiually, I got both my arms underh his shoulders and lihem around the back of his head.

  It was awkward, but I ma well. Not quite the same kind of scrambling brawl I’d done when I was younger. I got him into it with no difficulties or foul behavior on my part.

  “What do you think?” I asked Tolman. “A perfect little orphan t home to your husband as a gift for leaving without saying goodbye. You mentioned him wanting to add to your brood a while back.”

  “What are you doing to him?” He asked. “Also he’s bed your eye. That why you tried to gouge his out?”

  I frowned. “Look, you weren’t supposed to see the eye- never mind that. I’ve seen you use this in the fighting pits. To subdue your oppos.”

  “That’s supposed to be a full nelson? Sloppy.”

  The ur, seemingly out of ideas, was still pawing at my blouse, my coat, anything as I kept the hold applied. He better not rip the fabric, this was my sed-best outfit.

  “I would disagree with your assessment of it being sloppy,” I said. “I think I’m doing it rather well-”

  “Let go of me!” The pickpocket shrieked, turning into a flurry of motion. A foot kicked my knee, an elbow rammed into my ribs, and theh bit into my wrist. I quickly released the little imp, just in time for the back of his head to ram my nose.

  My tail reached out to grab him, only for him to cw it. I most definitely did not squeal in pain as I pulled my bleeding tail bae.

  “Let this be a warning to you!” I yelled at the retreating child after a feing breaths for more air. My ribs throbbed. Little shit was strohan he looked. My words were more nasally than usual. “Just because it looks like a good mark doesn’t make it a good mark. Use your eyes for more than a few g a time!”

  “Yeah, I think I’ll pass on him as a gift for Arseolman said, keeping an eye oher two. They kept a healthy distance, clearly having residered their odds. “Seems a bit high-maintenance fift.”

  “Did he break my nose?” I asked. It felt like it.

  He sidered it for a sed. “No. Just a bit swollen. You didn’t do the hold hard enough. Gave him too mu to work with. Doesn’t help you’ve decided to drop quite a bit of height and muscle. Also, you know, your tail.”

  I gred at him. “Pardon me f to do a disguise as far removed from my previous self as I could get. And I never had that much muscle.”

  We could talk a little more openly. People were giving us a wider berth. Violence was not unusual for anyone, but staying away from the aftermath was a good idea.

  “To the alleyway? The Watch may have decided to keep a heavier presence here since yesterday,” Tolman said.

  I nodded, and off we went to the retive privacy of the alleyway. The few residents of the alley kept their distanot managing to break into an abandoned house to live in instead meant they were all lower on the societal peg order than Zarrow. Very low.

  I probed my nose, and winced as my fingers set off fresh bursts of pain. It went back to a slow, dull ache. Now that I k wasn’t broken, there was something else to check.

  My tail bled from where the ur’s cws had cut through my skin, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. From all the blood, I thought he’d almost severed it. Instead, a quick baaunched most of the bleeding, although it hurt like hell.

  A few scattered pieces of fabri the ground caught my attention. Three pieces, dull colors, and seemingly having appeared out of nowhere. Oh, hell.

  The little ur had pawed all over my blouse instead to escape and had seemed far too deliberate about it. And I doubted he’d wasted an attempt to pick my pockets to try and grope me. I checked my blouse and found a scrap of different fabric that had sewn itself into my blouse.

  “Tolman, one sed. The ur tagged me with a self-sewing tracer.”

  Quick as a fsh, said ur’s two patriots fled into the alleyway.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Tolman said. “Self-sewing tracer? You mean just a tracer?”

  “No,” I said, examining the patch of crimson fabric. It was maybe a few timeters ih, which helped it stand out less on the brown of my blouse. I drew a knife snd started trying to cut it off. “It started melding with the fabriy blouse the moment the kid spped it on.”

  “Is that as easy to make as a normal tracer?”

  “No. It would be much more difficult,” I said. ing. A tracer would already be a pretty expensive iment of magic to trust to a street kid. A self-sewing one? Who would trust an ur with one of those? Evech mostly sewed them into the clothes themselves.

  A name came to mind. Versalicci would trust urs with this. He used to trust me with this back when I was just a street rat. It had been just regur ones back then. These were o his arsenal. How many more of these had been put on me?

  Sighing, I took my coat off, looking along the inside and outside for any more tracers.

  “People are watg,” Tolman said. It was true, a few people in the surrounding houses looking down at us; most of them would probably be leaving for the m ute soon enough.

  “Let them. They will be very disappointed if they expect to see more than my coat off.” I groaned as I ted the number of tracers. Three, no, wait four, as I found ohat was the exact same shade as my coat. I’d only found it because my thumb had rubbed over the slight bump made by it. “How many are on my blouse?”

  Tolman circled me. “Three on the blouse, two on your skirt. Someone wants you tracked bad.”

  I sighed. My entire wardrobe would be rui this rate. With Tolman pointing them out, I cut each of them free, trying to spare as much of the fabric as possible.

  “This was my sed set of clothes,” I said to no one in particur. “My best was already ruined after yesterday. If that ur shows up again Tolman, I will shoot him.”

  “I thought he was going to be my adoptive child? You aren’t going to be sidered his aunt now.”

  We set off for the b again, and I covered up much more with the coat than before. I wasn’t i underh, but removing the tracers took away more fabric than I would have preferred.

  “Versalicci is the one who ordered this. It's another issue to be solved on top of all the others,” I said.

  “Talk to him.”

  “Talk to him? I might as well serve myself to him like a turkey at the solstice. I’d be dead before I could eve him.”

  Tolman chuckled. “He likes you, Fara. He won’t kill you. I’d be surprised if he does anything more tharack of you and drop some suggestions you should drop by to see him.”

  “Katheryn Fara might associate with criminals, but she does not associate with the Bck Fme.”

  “Well, first, Katheryn Fara is probably notable for not dealing with Fmes at this point, and sed, she might not have a choi the matter.”

  I shivered. “Tolman….you know what he’s like. I ’t go back.”

  “Not saying you should. Arsene and I left for a reason as well. But you ’t pretend he does, and you might as well leverage what you . He’s not willing to jab you in the face. Set him up for an uppercut. Find out what he wants and why he’s so desperate to tag you. Maybe get someone else to box him instead.”

  “I hate it when you use those kinds of metaphors. But thank you. We should save the rest of the discussion for after we finish this.”

  We’d reached the building my b was at, and shock of shocks, my Landlord still was not here. her were any of the other tenants. Not a surprise. None of them operated bs, they just used these apartments as ste. And trusted in their preparations and foul reputations to keep others out.

  This building had no security provided. You supposedly paid for some in the rent, but it never materialized. You only rented here if choices were slim or you were fident you could protect it yourself. In another building, that might mean hired muscle, watchers, maybe the bag of a gang or two. For this o was magical defenses, prepared by the people who re.

  In my case, a rather simple spell I’d paid to be installed where if you entered without a key, you would end up asleep. Simple and merciful, yes, but I couldn’t hahe alternative. My neighbor had, and I hadn’t known which was worse, seeing the liquified remnants of the would-be thief, knowing they’d slowly melted, uo do anything about it, or listening to the psychopath pin about the smell afterward.

  I opened up the door to my b and passed the key to Tolman so he could cross the threshold.

  Inside you could see where I’d fought the intruder. Luckily, not too much had been smashed, and most of the cupboards were still closed. I hadn’t started any new potions, and it took lohan a day to brew since finishing the cures a couple of weeks ago. I’d have to make sure nothing was missing from the ste. Then again, if the intruder took anything, it would be on them. Nothing they could have stolen would help them escape, at least not with the testing et remaining intact.

  The testing et y at the back, the door still shut.

  “Do you want to stay quiet?” he whispered.

  I shook my head. “They probably heard the door open. You hear us, ’t you?”

  No response from the closet.

  “Get ready. Don’t hurt him unless he makes it necessary.”

  Tolman rolled his eyes at the unnecessary instru. I reached for the testing closet key. The pain in my stomach was gone, repced with what was definitely ay now. Finally, some answers were within reach as I fit the key into the lock.

  I opehe door. Inside my testing closet y a small pile of clothes, a piece of paper, and no sign of the intruder from st night.