The Detective

The ride to Moira’s home was… awkward to say the least.

Things seemed to go well after her declaration of loyalty at John’s place. She gave John’s mom a burner phone that had both his and Moira’s phones linked to it, and a few moments later it had Talia’s phone linked to it as well. These phones, according to Moira, were used by Order knights whenever they had to do infiltration missions into seedy areas of the Abyss. They were designed and enchanted to be nearly undetectable by both magical and technological means, with the only way of finding them being calling them or tracking them using phones that were linked to it. The phone would be unable to call anyone else other than the phones that were linked to it, but such was a necessary sacrifice if safety was to be achieved.

Apparently these phones had not seen as much use in recent years as the Order spent more time outright attacking places rather than trying to do things more delicately. Moira wouldn’t say what caused the change, but she did seem to insinuate that it was her father’s idea to have the Order use more of a closed fist when dealing with people.

Things continued to go smoothly after that, with Moira telling Brenda what the Order would probably plan on doing once introduced to John, and that they would be in Alfheim for a maximum of a couple days (in the event that the investigation took longer than expected). John then assured his mother that if things went belly up, he could always recast the rune to get everyone back into Midgard and that Mavis and Talia would be more than enough to protect him while he casted said rune. Then with a quick hug (and an extra promise they would be as safe as possible and John would not give Brenda any grandkids anytime soon), they were off.

And that was when the awkward silence set in.

The car ride wasn’t supposed to be that long. Moira lived about 20 minutes from John’s house, or around 45 minutes by walking. However, they didn’t factor in that the time they left set them right at rush hour, so the 20 minute drive had already doubled and they weren’t even halfway there. The extra time wasn’t made any better by the daggers that Mavis was glaring at Moira, nor the uncomfortable way that Talia and Moira tried to avoid one another’s gaze. John gave a small sigh. He knew things were going to be tense between everyone, but had hoped that being busy would keep said awkwardness to a minimum.

“So, Moira," he said, **** to try and help kill the awkwardness, “who are we going to be working with?”

Moira gave him a silent look of thanks before speaking, “Well, you’ll be working alongside me and my father, though my father is not much for field work nowadays. Once we figure out where Lifthrasir is, my father will probably join us for a final **** on wherever he is holding up. Other than that, we will probably be assigned a couple of knights to ensure our protection-”

“I have that covered," Mavis said coldly, turning her fingers into tiny blades. “No need to bring more Order shit-heads along.”

“... right," Moira said, scooching a bit away from Mavis. “Other than… the knights, we will also be working alongside a detective friend of my father.”

“A detective?” Talia asked. “Like an actual officer that is also Abyssal?”

Moira nodded. “She’s worked alongside us for almost a decade at this point. She used to be an officer in Japan, but came to America to try and help out the chaotic state of the Abyss here. She was one of the people that actually helped us track down Lifthrasir in the first place, and was one of the people that helped convince my father that the best way to get to Lifthrasir was getting you out of prison, John.”

John raised an eyebrow at this. “Wait, she suggested releasing me?”

Moira nodded. “She had dug through the various prisoner files and found yours. She came to me and talked with me about you, and we both realized that you seemed to not only be an outlier amongst the other prisoners, but seemed to have some odd powers that could be of use in finding Lifthrasir. While she went to convince my father that this was the best way to find Lif, I went to have you released.” She smiled and leaned back in her seat. “Honestly, she seemed pretty excited to meet you. She said that the revival of a dead magic was, and I quote, ‘an impossibility that simply had to be seen to be believed.’”

John smiled at this, and felt Mavis’ hand close around his own. Mavis then hopped into the conversation, saying, “Well, if she helped get John out and isn’t a part of the Order, I guess she can’t be that bad of a person.” She then turned to John. “Still, she has thrown her allegiance with the Order, so don’t get any ideas.”

“Whatever could you mean?” John said with a knowing smile, which was quickly replaced by a look of mild pain as Mavis reached down and gave his dick a hard squeeze through his pants.

“You know exactly what I am talking about.”

John chuckled before turning back to Moira who was blushing and looking away. ‘Right,’ he thought, ‘the Order is big on purity culture. If I recall, the Paladin has to exemplify that purity. In fact, if the knights at the prison were to be believed, the Paladin of the Golden Rose gets her powers because of her purity, or something.’

“Hey Moira,” John asked after Mavis removed her hand from his crotch, “what exactly are your powers? The knights at the prison would talk here and there, but I never really got a full lowdown on what it is that you can do.”

Moira smiled, probably glad that she did not have to address the sexual situation that just occurred. “Well, for one I am imbued with the power of the Lady, giving me increased strength and stamina. Of course, that’s only a partial buff so I have to stay in good shape if I really want to be able to be effective on the battlefield.” She then flexed, and John could feel his heart (and his cock) jump a bit at the sight of her well defined muscles. “Additionally, my attacks can be imbued with holy power to smite down my enemies, and even disintegrate most dead at just a single hit, and I have some supportive healing powers as well.”

“How good of healing powers?” Talia asked.

“Well, I can usually keep someone from dying if I get there in time, and for most cuts and stab wounds, I can heal those up no problem. I can’t regenerate lost limbs, or at least I’ve been told I can’t-”

“Have you tried?” Mavis quickly interjected.

“Well... no. I haven’t been on a lot of battlefields where people end up losing limbs. Most of our knights are wearing armor and few people actually engage them in hand to hand combat. Most of the injuries I’ve healed have been burns or the like from spells, or the occasional minor curse or disease.”

“Oh, so you can break curses?”

“Sort of?” Moira said with a slight shrug. “I mean, curses are kinda difficult to work around. They work less like normal spells, which have one time effects before dissipating, and more like enchantments. My healing is able to break some of these that act like continuous spells, constantly infecting or harming someone, but can’t break some of the more complicated ones or more powerful ones. Like, a few years ago we busted a local **** den that was also running an illegal apothecary in the basement. They had a few people chained up as test subjects, many of whom had curses placed on them through the potions they ingested. I was able to cure the ones with simple sicknesses, but one person had been enchanted to have an overly bloated head and tiny limbs, and it took several healers to break that one. All I could do was stop him from bleeding constantly.”

“Well, I guess you’re not completely useless to our team then," Mavis said with a dismissive huff. “Only one among us with healing abilities is John, and his only healing rune happens to be his most expensive in terms of mana.”

Moira raised an eyebrow and turned to John. “You can actually heal?”

“Barely," John said with a huff. “As Mavis said, my only rune to heal is pricey at 25 mana per cast. Probably because it’s the only Egyptian rune I have.”

“I didn’t even know that you had Egyptian runes. What other runic cultures do you have access to?” Moira asked, and just as John was about to tell her, the car door opened. A very well dressed older man took a quick step back, bowing to the four occupants.

“Miss Brighton, we have arrived," he said in a slight British accent. Moira smiled, saying a quick thanks before turning back to the three of them.

“John, Mavis, Talia. Welcome to Brighton Manor.”

The first thing that John noticed was how cute the detective was.

That is to say, that was the first thing he noticed about the occupants of the room. The first thing he noticed about the room itself was that someone had clearly seen “A Beautiful Mind” at some point, because the room was covered top to bottom in random papers all having to deal with Lifthrasir in some regard. He could see polaroids that had just fleeting glimpses of the elf, maps with dozens of pins in them, and even a few mundane police reports of **** den busts and the like. All in all, it seems that whoever’s room this was had been chasing Lifthrasir for longer than John had been alive.

Speaking of people, John’s attention was drawn to the two occupants of said room, who were currently hunched over a table talking back and forth about an open book between them. John’s attention immediately went to the female detective who was currently gesturing to something in the book. She was short, not quite as short as Mavis but still short enough that John could look over her head without having to stand on his tiptoes. She had blue hair, chopped at about neck length and blue eyes of almost the same shade. She looked ethnically asian but had curves that could make a priest have whiplash. Oh yeah, and she looked exactly like a character from one of John’s favorite video games.

So that was something.

Part of his brain was also processing the older man standing next to her, an older tall man with slightly faded red hair in the early stages of graying, with a slight five o’clock shadow. Said man was dressed in half armor and held a pair of swords at his sides, and if John spent enough time looking at him, he was certain he would see some similarities between this man and Moira as John knew from Moira’s description that this man was indeed her father but WHO CARES?! John certainly didn’t, because he was too locked onto the sight of one of his childhood crushes standing at a desk apparently awaiting his arrival.

“N… Naoto Shirogane?” John asked softly, to which the blue hair detective responded with a slight smile.

“Your report did say you were a gamer, so it’s no wonder you would recognize me.” She stood up straight, walking over towards John before offering him a hand. “Detective Shirogane, APD District 5. Good to meet you, Mr. Newman.”

After a moment of slack jawed awe, John quickly took her hand and vigorously shook it. “How… I… Persona… How?”

Naoto gave a slight chuckle, tipping her hat to hide her eyes. “My uncle was one of the developers that helped create Shin Megami Tensei. I helped give him a few ideas on how the powers and the like should work, and to repay me he ended up including me in one of the games later down the line. And yes, before you ask, the powers of the game were based on my own. Granted, he changed a few things here and there, but the idea remains the same.”

“I can’t… I mean, how… why…”

Mavis stepped forward, putting a hand on John’s shoulder and pulling him back. “Excuse him, his brain isn’t functioning correctly after meeting one of his childhood crushes.” She then offered a hand to the blue haired detective. “The name’s Mavis. Good to meet you, Detective Shirogane.”

Naoto quickly shook her hand as Moira and Talia walked in, the latter introducing herself as well and the former walking over to her father to talk.

“Ah, so this is the young man you chose to free from Our Lady of Grace.” He walked over and offered John a hand. “Lord Brighton of the Golden Rose. I hope you will keep a better composure with me than you did with the detective.”

John took a deep breath, standing up straight before taking Lord Brighton’s hand and giving it a firm handshake. “I will try my best, sir. Jonathan Newman, runic mage and Gaia’s Chosen.”

“Lofty titles, young man," Lord Brighton said, letting go of John’s hand. “Let us see if you actually deserve them.” He then gestured to the table, which John could see was mostly covered by a large three dimensional map. “We were just discussing how you would… procure us an entrance into Alfheim.”

“You mean sneak you in ‘cause you all are banned," John said with a grin as he walked to the table.

“In a manner of speaking," Naoto interjected. “Technically speaking, the government of Alfheim never released an official banning of the Order of the Golden Rose, and individual members are not banned from going to Alfheim via the central portal, but conduction of business by the Golden Rose is extraordinary frowned upon, as is doing any business for the Golden Rose due to their absence from the plane.”

“So what we are doing is still illegal then?” Talia asked as she looked at the map.

“Technically no, just frowned upon. In the event that we are caught and faced with an unfriendly jury, we could face any punishment from being put to **** to a simple banning from ever returning to Alfheim.”

“I would assume then,” Mavis said, leaning on John as she spoke, “that you have some sort of master plan for getting around this little problem? John’s already been arrested a few times, and I don’t really think the Council will be slow to axe him off if they capture him again.”

“I have the beginnings of a plan," Naoto said, before tapping on the map, causing it to zoom to a particular location. “You see, when the Golden Rose was first asked to come to Alfheim, they came to aid in the removal of a skaven menace. However, they discovered that the tunnels the skaven made were so numerous and so stable, that to try and collapse them would just collapse half the city to dust. Thankfully the Golden Rose was able to place seals on some of these tunnels to keep the rats out, and the Council was able to send in labor teams to slowly fill in the tunnels over time. However, I was able to find some documentation that in the Ljosalfr rebellion that happened not too long ago…” she zoomed in once again, this time bringing the focus of the map to a small cave entrance in the woods, “the rebellion utilized these tunnels to transfer goods and troops all across Alfheim. The Council retaliated by posting guards around the old tunnel entrances…”

“A practice that hasn’t been used since the quelling of the rebellion," Talia finished for her. “Still, the Council has been working on filling in those tunnels for years. It’s unlikely that we would find the correct tunnel and that it would still be open.”

“Correct. However, we have a small advantage here.” Naoto turned and gestured to Moira. “The seals that the Order put in place wouldn’t and couldn’t have been removed by the council or their teams. Moira, as the Warden, should be able to locate these seals, and we have the old maps of the Order to tell us which seals we are looking for. As for blocked corridors, we only need the tunnels to sneak us through Alfheim proper. Once we get close enough to where Lifthrasir was known to have lived while in Alfheim, we can sneak above ground the rest of the way.”

John looked at the cave that had been focused in on. “Do you know if this entrance is still open or not?”

“No," Naoto said, crossing her arms. “Unfortunately, I don’t have records of which tunnels or which entrances have been blocked off. I do have several options of tunnels outside of the main city of Alfheim that we can try, but it is going to be guesswork which one will be our actual entrance.”

John nodded before turning back to the map. “And all I need to do is cast the rune to get us into Alfheim.”

“No," Lord Brighton said. “What you need to do is cast the spell to get people in there, then you do whatever my daughter tells you to do in the pursuit of catching Lifthrasir. You will act as protection for her and aid in her investigation alongside Detective Shirogane, and if we deem your acts as serviceable enough, then we will grant you an official freedom from prison.”

John turned to look at Lord Brighton, quickly casting an Observe as he did so.

Well… That was concerning. Best to stay on his good side.

“I’ll help you as much as I can, but Moira has already promised me my freedom as long as I get you to Alfheim. That deal cannot be changed.”

Lord Brighton raised an eyebrow, his hand going down to drum his fingers on the hilt of his sword. “Need I remind you that you are only out of that prison because my daughter thinks you are useful to us? That with a single word I can have you thrown back in like the criminal scum you are?”

“Lord Brighton, need I remind you that we need him to get to Alfheim in the first place?” Naoto said with a hint of scorn in her voice. “And that threatening said help might not be the best idea right now?”

Lord Brighton let out a small sigh before taking a step back. “You’re right as always, Detective Shirogane. My mistake. This case has been a touch… personal for me, and I am not exactly thrilled to be working with someone… well…”

“Someone as impure as me?” John asked, taking a step back to stand between his two girlfriends.

Lord Brighton sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Please don’t take offense to that, mage. Shirogane has proved herself time and time again in cases and has earned the trust of the Order. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t even feel comfortable having her work on this case.”

“You must understand, John,” Moira said, taking her father’s arm. “The Order has been hunting down Lifthrasir and his holdings for years. He’s one of the highest players in the Abyssal underworld, and my father has been hunting him down since before either of us were born. We’ve seen a lot of depravity in hunting him down, and have lost a lot of good people…”

“I understand that,” John said slowly and carefully. “I just want your dad to realize that not only did I not do any of those deeds, but I have a distaste for killing anyone, period. I don’t want these powers to make me a murderer.”

“Honorable," Naoto said with a small nod. “But what happens in the event that taking a life is the only way to keep yourself alive?”

“Shouldn’t you be on the side against killing?” Talia interjected, crossing her arms.

“I am. I personally would like it if the Abyss was a world that followed more closely to that of the mundane world, where justice is dispensed by the government and vigilante justice is less encouraged. But this is a world where your neighbor has the ability to vaporize your brain with a flick of the wrist, one where no real government has been able to be formed outside of Europe. It is a world that is still in its tribal state, one where biggest stick diplomacy seems to take over. So again, I ask you, John: Are you willing to kill if it means saving yourself? Or what if it means saving others?”

John looked to Naoto, who held a grim and serious expression. Frankly, that had been a question on his mind throughout all of prison. The **** and attackers from Dimitri had never gotten bad enough that he ever had to do more than give a good thrashing to his attackers or endure a few hits from Dimitri. But he always wondered what would have happened if Dimitri got a little more angry with his hits, or if one of Dimitri’s fanatics ended up a little too close with one of those shivs. What if the warden held his guards back long enough that John would be **** to kill someone to save himself?

The nightmares about Brett still persisted, and that killing was mostly out of his control. Would he kill again if it meant saving himself? His friends? His family?

Could he kill again?

He looked over to Moira, then Talia, then Mavis. He thought about his mom, and the few friends he had online through gaming.

He turned back to Naoto. “Yes. If it means saving others, I will be willing to take a life. I don’t like it, and I will try to find other solutions, but I will.”

Naoto smiled. “Good. I could tell the moment I saw you that you are a good man. You remind me greatly of a man I knew a while ago, and he too had the same kindly yet determined aura that you do. I wanted to make sure though that, if you help us, you will be willing to do what it takes to take down Lifthrasir.” She then turned to look over at Lord Brighton. “I think he’s perfect for the job. Are we dismissed to go start our mission?”

Lord Brighton shook his head. “You girls are.”