They can still track you, so we need to move.”

“There's help? Surely we can-” Henry said, but he was too late.

Gabriel had begun to run again and, after realising what he was doing, Henry sprinted to catch up. He needed to block what just happened from his mind, deal with it later, his focus now needed to be on staying alive and figuring out what the hell was going on.

Gabriel stopped at the edge of some kind of moat, a torrent of water flowing past, brown and reeking of sewage. A small wooden bridge led across to a pair of large burgundy fabric curtains. In a blink, Gabriel disappeared through them. Henry begrudgingly crossed the bridge, the wooden beams creaking and warping underfoot, before coming to a stop at the curtains. On the other side was a muffled barrage of noise and voices, and a waft of fried food that mixed, rather horribly, with the sewage smell surrounding him. It seemed in the under-city, things just got stranger and stranger.

Gabriel stuck his head back through the curtain and, grabbing the fabric of Henry's shirt, pulled him through.

Where the streets before had been dimly lit, on the other side of the curtain was as bright as the midday sun. Artificial light, from long columns in the ceiling, bathed everything in a golden glow. They were stood in one of a series of small square courtyards and, like standing between two glass mirrors, the courtyards echoed over and over again into the distance, twisting slightly out of sight. The street was close-knit, even more so than before, with stalls spilling out far into the centre of the block, leaving no clear path to take, except to weave in between the sellers.

Gabriel led Henry by the shoulder through four blocks before he stopped abruptly and drove him into a cafe of some sort. It disappeared back from the courtyard, with individual round tables and ornate chairs filling every available space. Gabriel smiled at the waitress, a small woman with brilliant green eyes, that glowed even brighter when Henry caught her stare, as she guided them to a table at the back. Gabriel took the seat with the view into the street forcing Henry to take the other, concealed by the wall of the cafe.

“So,” Henry said, catching his breath. “To sum things up to far... I'm a freak?”

Gabriel smiled and sat back in the chair, “From what I've read about you Henry, you've always been a freak.”

- Chapter 9 -

Betrayed

The drawing room quickly filled with people, before they filed out again, the meeting’s unexpected revelations etching a mixture of concern and anger onto the faces of those who left. An alliance between the Government and the Inquisition was more than most people in the alternate community would ever be able to accept. The Inquisition was supposed to be independent, a representative of the alternate way as much as an enforcer of magus lore. What Wade had done tonight had consequences bigger than anyone could appreciate, but Meyer refused to believe that he had made such a stupid decision without a larger game plan in mind.

Wade was last out of the chamber, ushering Oberon out ahead of him, the old doyen still protesting, before conceding that the cause was lost. Wade scanned around the room and noticing Meyer called out, his eyes narrowing with a false smile.

“Meyer, my old friend.”

“Wade,” Meyer said.

“And Ruth, how do you continue to be so young?”

Ruth did not respond, except to offer him a stare similar to a terrier eyeing up a rat it would like to savage.

“What can we do for you?” Meyer said.

“Thank you for coming,” Wade said. “What happened to your jacket?”

Meyer had forgotten about that and wasn't thankful for the reminder.

“I had a run in with some... youths, nothing really.”

“A sign of the times I am afraid.”

“Council meetings are normally on a-”

“Council business is private Meyer, I can't discuss it with you, as you well know. Anyway, to business. I have received a report that Mark has been found dead. He was hunting Grendal and appears to have been bested.