All the grace and Finesse of a charging Rhinoceros

I nod. "It's not an easy language. It took me almost a year to learn to read and write in English." Then I turn. "How about you work with Ignacy?" I stand on tiptoe to whisper 'and keep him under control, can you?" in his ear. His emotions brighten.

I get up and walk to where ignacy is playing with his fel- blade "come on firebug. Let's chat up the guards they look bored watching this lot play with the books" I smirk pulling a flask from my coat and shaking it enticingly "thanks liv

"Any time." I murmur, turning back to the files.
There's a lot to read, but after three hours all I manage to discover is that Marty Devor really is a nasty little leg-breaker. In his documents are ream upon ream of takeover papers, deeds, and business acquisitions. Regularly a note is scribbled in the margins: 'send boys around' I have a very unpleasant feeling about what that means.
Finally, I close the first filing cabinet. The next cabinet holds a number of payment statements. I run an eye over a number of payments to doctors and a few morticians, wondering why Devor needs them in his pocket...and deciding I don't want to know. I sigh. This is starting to feel like a wild goose chase.
"Any luck?" I call to Lily and Djhuety.

It doesnt' take long for Ignacy and I to get the two guards to relax and remove marty's protocol stick from their. . well you get the idea, mostly with 'stolen' nipps from my flask. Nothing, and I mean nothing, loosens a tongue like good alcohol. The conversation is light and doesn't seem to be going anywhere till one of them mentions that 'scary frozen tart' hmm something that might help liv. though the guard on the left keeps looking at ignacy's sword and crossing themselves, maybe they know something else i don't, oh well for another time I think. I smirk at the other two "best go back and check on the other three, one man in there with two pretty girls never know what mischief they are getting into, even if grandmother is there"
the guard laugh "vat do you think ve are zat deaf as to not here ze cries of to lovliez az zem?" gods his accent is horrid, like a frenchman being mind raped by a Bulgarian.
"when you can 'be' where ever you want do you think we would hear them?" comes my reply as I re-enter the record room "you coming Pyro?"

I glance up as Liam and Ignacy wander back into the room, both smirking. "Get anything useful?" I ask, closing yet another useless file.

"horrible mental images, and I will never look at a blender the same way again" I smirk "Oh and something about a "scary frozen tart" though i don't know how a pastry could be scary" My tone of voice light until the last part, "any ideas?"

I raise a brow. "Scary frozen...did they mean a woman?" I really have got to improve my sense of the twenty-first century language, I remind myself once more. Though at least I'm not as bad as Liam. "What exactly did they say?"

"The new associates are ok, except for the scary frozen tart" I don't waste my time with the accent "quiet and all bussiness" I shrug "then they had the story about the blender, a jackrabbit, animal not toy, and the 8 foot lizard man. . " liam shudders "just so wrong, I guess they were the nights entertainment" I desperately hope the guards were yanking my chain

I shake my head. "Don't repeat it; I really don't want to know." So, there's a woman involved somewhere. One more piece of the puzzle. I close the filing cabinet. "This is a waste of time; there's nothing in here. He'll have anything we could actually use hidden, I imagine. And hidden well."

Frustrated, I toss the folio I've been thumbing for the last fifteen minutes into a corner of the room. "It has to be here." I look around the room, now resembling a small natural disaster. "Doesn't he have more to show us then this? His appointment book, a ledger for their little club, maybe just a list of names and contacts?" I turn to the guards. "Where does DeVore meet with his private guests?"

"We don' 'ave to tell you, pretty boy." one of the hulking guards grunts. I turn, eying him. With a brain that instinctive, he'd be easy to work....if necessary...

"Your employer gave us access to every scrap of paper in this place; I suggest you cooperate, or DeVore may get grumpy when he can't remember where his treasures are." The guard screws up his face, trying to figure out if I've threatened or insulted him. "Gods he's dense," I think.

"Fine." the guard grunts after a few long moments of cogitation. Moving to the back of the library, he presses an ornemental jaguar skull. One of the bookcases shivers as a hole opens in its center, widening into a corridor. I blink. I've heard about this; pocket universes, tied to specific areas. That's fancy.
"Go on." the guard mutters.

I give my best smile. "Thanks, chum. Oh, and if you ever go so far as to insult me like that again, I'll make sure your the prettiest poodle at the park." I step into the corridor, turning my back on the guard as he attempts the complicated mental somersault to follow my train of logic. I lean into Liv as she and Lily match stride next to me, leaving Liam and Ignacy to bring up the rear; "To much?"

I snicker. "Not at all. Though I imagine even your gift couldn't make much more than a pit bull out of such as that."
"You don't have to get so all-up touchy 'bout it," Lily says with a smile that has deviltry in it, "y'are cute, after all." I grin as Djhuety's eyes turn bright blue, and he blushes.
The corridor is mostly empty. The door at its end is heavy, oaken, banded in iron. "Do the honors?" I ask, gesturing at the wrought-iron handle.

With a flourish, I pull the door open and wave the others inside. "May it not be said that I ever let a lady suffer unduly." Lily giggles and Liv rolls her eyes.

"You really shouldn't do that too often, my lad. You'll get ill. Iron is..." then I notice Lily watching us. "Chivalry can be overdone." I amend. No reason to give us both away so easily.
I step inside, and as I do light grows, illuminating a fairly sparse room. There's a table, chairs, and a single file upon it, as well as one filing cabinet. I can feel magics all around the room, humming, swirling...waiting.
"I think there are traps set up in here." I say cautiously. "I may be able to hold them...let's see..."
Closing my eyes, I call up a memory of the year the lake I had been living near froze solid. And I sing. Stillness and silence, immobility and things held trapped, suspended in perfect ice. I let my voice flow through the room. The buzzing on my skin ceases.
"There." I say, rubbing my throat, "that should hold. For a bit, anyhow."
I step further into the room, looking about. "Looks like a board room."

I step in after the last of the others and scan the room, the long table, the deep leather chairs; portraits of composers, artists and writers peer out from the long shadows on the walls, their eyes seeming to focus in the middle distance somewhere behind us, making me jumpy enough to check over my shoulder every few minutes.

I glance around. I can still feel the magics trying to move, prickling against my skin. "Let's not take too long." I say quietly. "We don't have a great deal of welcome here. In fact it's near worn out already."

Trying to focus past the ambiance, I take a step forward. Lily sees me sway on my heals and catches me, grunting as she takes my weight. "Easy, Lambkin." I smile and steady myself. "I'm fine; just unsteady." I shake my head to clear the gathering cobwebs before crossing to the to have a look at the file.

I glance at him sharply. "Protect your mind, lad. The magics in here are subtle and powerful, and nasty with it. Tell me if you need a hand shutting them out."

"Just muddling," I say, thumbing the document in the file. "Like walking through thick mud and insects; more irritating then anything else. Have a look at this." I pass Liv what looks like an inch of legalize, the final four pages thick with handwriting. "What do you make of it?"

I glance over the papers...and suck a breath between my teeth."Bright and dark gods above below and about. This is the name of the exiled King of the Pixies, that little....and this name, and this..... this is....these are Hunting Kindred. Bad ones. The worst. Red Ladies, the Phouka Lord, the Glancour Gang....and....chaer geaid agus muc, and the Unseelie. Shit. And Sandra Chance. I've heard about her. A bloody necromancer. And....Taffy Lewis? Haven't I heard that name around?"

"taffy is a rich yuppie" I say "wait wait which unseelie?" it is more then mildly concerning to hear that faction is involved

"The Dubh na Hasa." I say tightly. "And there are demons on this too. Disgusting" I flip back a few pages, reading the agreement quickly. "This is mostly about a pact, an agreement that each group will aid the others and attend to the orders of the fraternitatis illustrati...fraternitatis illustrati? Really? That's what they call themselves?" I shake my head. "Bloody jumped up posers."
Then I reach the page on remunerations for services, and what I read makes me fall silent. I swallow, hard, and raise my head, meeting Djhuety's eyes. I have to swallow again, to fight down my revulsion and anger.
"Your enemies. They are evil. Not just stupid. Not just mercenary. Evil."