a cross in the void // christopher lightwood {4}

seven // descent

They warded the coat check. Dash had never seen so many runes drawn on a doorway, so many different types of wardings, and on top of all of that a common trip line made of two seraph blades sunk into the ground with string wrapped between them. In that way, Alan Lochlyn proved much like Pluto: somehow he always managed to be carrying exactly what he needed at any given time. Pluto managed it by carrying around a massive handbag that Dash was by now convinced had to be magic. Dash wasn't sure how Alan did it.

"So what now?" Dash asked, as Alan pushed closed the doors of the coat check and finished up some complex warding runes on it that sank into the wood glowing brightly red.

"We figure out who the hell that was and what she's doing here."

"Well, she's a demon," said Dash. "Obviously. She has to be."

"Yes, but kind of demon? What demon could build a setup like this?" Alan gestured around them. "What demon would give us a little show of power like the one she just did when she could have instead done any number of demonically frightening things? Why is she holding us here? Why is she holding us here? She's been nothing but oddly nice to us, when she's not just leaving us alone. What's she up to? What's her plan? So many questions. We start trying to get some answers."

"Well," said Dash, "I don't have any."

Alan crossed his arms, staring into the middle distance. "I'd say it's because of me," he said, "to stop me from bringing word back of Tatiana's disappearance, to stop from telling what I saw, but Elsie Stoneberg was there too. She saw and heard and learned everything I did and she isn't here. I desperately don't want to think it has something to do with Pluto but you're here and I'm here and they're your friend and my . . . my kid." Alan's voice choked up again for a moment. "And they're all tangled up in . . . I don't even know what all. It's a mess and they're in the middle of it and they're not telling me things like they used to."

Dash got to their feet, standing with him in the middle of the coat check. "Pluto wasn't messed up with demons, though. Never. I know that like I know the back of my own hand. But that doesn't mean they might not be able to tell us something."

"Yes, but how do we even go about sending them a message?"

It hit them like a light. "Do you think a fire-message might work? I know we've been not sending those so we don't mess up the timeline too much but you have your stele. You could try."

"I could," said Alan. "You are right. Let me find a piece of paper." He dug around in his pockets and the satchel he'd brought with him and came up with a small, battered spiral-bound notebook. He tore off a piece of paper and wrote down a simple message: Trapped in hell dimension with Dash. Don't know more than that. Send help. He put his stele to the paper and flicked it away and they both watched as it winked out of existence.

"So how do we know whether they get the message or not?" Dash asked.

"We don't," said Alan. "We just have to keep our fingers crossed."

< & >

The fogou beneath Taigh Liath had one access point and it was a stone hole in the cellars, with ladder rungs attached to the wall. Pluto went down slowly. It was difficult figuring out how to get down here with their handbag and everything but they managed it somehow.

Taigh Liath may have been a stone fortress but it was far from a cold one, not with warming runes stamped on every available surface including the floor and the walls. The fogou beneath was a different story. It was colder than any 21st Century freezer. Pluto huddled into their coat and gloves and fumbled to get out a witchlight and hold it up, keeping back the darkness. They consulted the map they'd brought and started walking.