Soul Merger

Alissa was very glad life decided to finally give her a break. It only took the city being on fire and two days of recovery from having her soul ground back into shape.

Sure the rest of the city was still a complete mess, and her friends who cared about nebulous things like 'the world' were having a bit of a philosophical crisis. But Alissa was feeling good, no one was trying to kill her, and while having her friends and a couple of monsters move into a houseboat next door was weird, it had some perks. While still leaving her a house she could retreat to if she needed a break from people.

Right now she was relaxing on the upper deck with some tea and a breakdown of what had actually happened with the Rampage. It seemed with the ledgers now public information several investigative groups had gotten a lot of money to piece together the details and print them.

Fili, Rosalina, and Clara were up here as well sitting over some books on magic theory. They were still going over the last little bombshell Raiel had dumped on them. Meanwhile the angel and Kotori were hanging out with Akari in the hold trying to make the place suitable for living. Or at least less creepy.

Alissa turned back to the paper and skimmed through the parts she was partially responsible for. Explaining how the ledger had been distributed was probably useful to other people, but she knew those details. Finally she reached the section where they started giving the rundown of the Rampage and the damages.

The initial breakout was pretty simple. Lots of monsters at the lake docks, causing mayhem. But there were two huge problems. Because of all the boats and aquatic monsters a massive monster force went out to sea and destroyed the temple there, starting the Rampage. Meanwhile that damned demon had fed enough to become an incubus and went wild at the Order of the Crimson Maiden's stronghold.

Her mood soured as she continued down the account of events. That disgusting creature had been at the center of a lot of the worst parts of this whole shitshow. The only reason she didn't skip to the end in disgust was because the damn thing apparently switched to killing rich bastards at some point late in the disaster.

Actually that was strange. Alissa looked through the information again. At some point the succubus had turned to hunting down people who had been in the ledger. She folded the paper and waited for a break in the other's conversation. "Hey Clara. That ledger you had, you said it was double entry accounting?"

Clara looked over and nodded. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Was it just a single account book or one of those split books so they can have all the different account numbers in one tome?" Alissa asked.

"Hrm." Clara closed her eyes and thought. "Pretty sure it was a single book. Didn't have any blank spaces. So I guess there have to be other books out there."

"Right." Alissa looked over the list of victims. She had a good idea where one of those had ended up. "I'm going to have to bother Raiel about this," she muttered. Maybe the angel would have some idea what would cause a demon to hunt down specific people. It certainly wasn't because of any sense of justice.

Rosalina groaned and stretched. "Well even my vast intellect and cunning can't make sense of this mess. How's the city doing Alissa? Do we need to worry about pirates coming to kill us all, or a bunch of angry nobles arresting us for sedition?"

"Neither it looks like," Alissa replied, flipping to today's tally. "Apparently half the people on that ledger died in the Rampage for various reasons so the 'douchebags who are willing to destroy the city for their fetishes' faction is doing poorly. The Zuberg family has been disbanded, the Mermaid Trading company has had their license revoked and ships seized, and the Salalo family head just got killed by his successor." She offered the paper to the trio. "There's more but basically it seems we skipped the war part and moved to cleaning house."

"Jesus," Fili said. The mage rarely used Tower swear words, but this situation seemed appropriate for one. "I can't believe we caused this..."

Rosalina peered over one of the side articles. "Huh. Well that's interesting. Claude Henderson of the Iron Union claimed the place wasn't illegal because it wasn't technically on city land. Guess that's why everything was on boats or docks. A lot of work to try to pretend it's legal if you don't want to get caught though."

"How'd that work out for him," Clara asked.

"The investigators at the scene of his death stated that there was no murder because technically the fatal impact came from the ground. So the people who threw him off the roof were innocent," Rosalina replied. "Union's having an election for his position in three weeks."

Alissa sniffed. "It might have worked if the city hadn't been devastated. Say if the books were leaked or someone stumbled onto the affair and raised a fuss." Legal technicalities were far more powerful when there was a strong functioning city council. Right now things were messier. All the factions were figuring out who was still alive, and who their allies now were.

"Oh hey," Clara picked over another side article. "The last member of the 'Grand Explorer's Company' finally died."

"Who?" Alissa asked. She'd never heard of a group like that.

"A group of artifact hoarders," Fili said with a grimace. "They used to go out and gather pre Fall materials to show to the public, but after the old members died and passed everything down to their kids, the group just became a crowd of rich jerks. And everyone who wasn't a rich jerk got kicked out."

Clara chuckled. "Seems like you hate them more than me. But yeah they're assholes who keep history out of everyone else's hands. Figure with them all dead we might be able to do some book hunting at their perpetually closed museum. Especially since we've got ourselves a bit of a question about how magic's been increasing or whatnot."

Well wasn't that an interesting thought. "Didn't think you'd be the person to suggest a bit of theft Clara, but sure, I'm in." Alissa stood and stretched. "I need to get out and about for a bit. Been stuck in bed and miserable for too long."

Fili blinked a few times then hopped up. "Uh, I'm in too! We can get Sally and Brian to make copies of the good stuff."

Rosalina snickered but waved her hand. "I'll stay here with Akari and our new guests. Shouldn't leave her alone, and dragging monsters through the city is still probably a bad idea." She sighed. "Alas your crimes will have to wait until you return to be forgiven." Seemed like Rosalina had recovered as well.

"I don't suppose you sell indulgences?" Fili asked.

"Would your Tower priests even accept those?" Rosalina mused. "Well I'm not part of an organized church anyway so I'll have to settle for wishing you good luck on your robbery."

Alissa adjusted her cloak and checked her weapons. Now that she thought about it, this might be the first time she got in a real fight since the battle with the incubus. A battle where her techniques had gotten out of hand. She'd need to sit down and do some more training before she pulled anything else out of her subconscious.

Hopefully though this would be simple. "Is this museum even guarded?"

"Probably not," Clara said. "Can't imagine the caretaker would stick around if there's no paycheck. We might have to bribe someone."

Fili nodded. "If there's a serious problem we should leave. Those books aren't worth killing over."

The trio headed into the city proper, Alissa following Fili and Clara. The city wasn't exactly subdued, but there was a lot less traffic than usual. The ebb and flow of commerce still was happening. Seaport was a big port after all. But with all the damage, the amount of transactions was reduced in favor of repairs and rebuilding. Meanwhile the rich were holed up playing political games.

That meant the area they were wandering into was quieter than it normally would be. The big museums and hyper expensive shops that surrounded them were all shut down as the rich and upper middle class people who usually frequented them were busy with other problems.

Also it was raining. But if that stopped you, you weren't going to make it in Seaport, Alissa mused.

The area was so quiet that Alissa couldn't help but look over at the sound of footsteps echoing over the buildings. Two figures in rain cloaks were walking down the street in their direction. Neither were showing any signs of having weapons.

That set off all the alarm bells in Alissa's head. There were still possibly monsters around. Even the little old ladies were carrying big kitchen knives just in case.

She moved closer to Clara and Fili, letting her eyes flit over the stores, alleys and rooftops for other threats.

Just in time to see someone leap from a second story towards Fili.

Alissa shoved the mage aside and swung her sword at the attacker. The assassin sucked in their gut to avoid the blade and landed with a kick that sent Alissa stumbling. That probably saved her life, as a sharp rock spike flew through the area she'd been standing before.

"Take the mage," she yelled to Fili, hoping her friends could handle the other assailants. For now she had to focus on the woman across from her. A catgirl in a stained brown cloak with a black mask. The would-be assassin had a weighted chain weapon attached to a knife.

Alissa let her cloak fall off, figuring it couldn't hurt. The problem was she had no idea how to fight against the strange weapon. It didn't seem effective, which meant there had to be a trick.

The woman struck first, swinging the weight high at her head. Alissa started to block then ducked. The chain bent around her sword, letting the weight swing where her head had been.

Alissa tried to throw the woman off her game by continuing the sweep of her blade, but the assassin pulled the weight back to her hand with a well practiced move.

There was a hefty metallic chunk from where Fili had been. The cartridge system, Alissa realized. "Lava Floor," the mage called out, and shrill screams came from the other street.

The assassin's eyes flickered over for a split second, and Alissa took that chance to attack. She rushed forwards with a stab, and the catgirl replied by throwing the chain again, this time at her arm.

Alissa hissed as the weapon entangled her right arm, an expert twist drawing her thrust out of line. The assassin raised the dagger side. But Alissa pulled her own blade from her belt and stabbed it into her enemy's kidneys before the other could strike.

The woman let out a gasp, eyes wide in shock, and Alissa finished the fight by stabbing her in the throat.

Alissa stepped back and turned to see what had happened with the others. Clara was nursing a shoulder wound, while a chunk of the street further down had two flaming corpses sticking out of it. Fili's spell was kinda scary. Meanwhile the mage herself was unharmed, looking for bandages in the bags they brought.

Clara gave a pained grin as Alissa walked over. "They got the drop on me."

"You lived so you're still better than them," Alissa replied. "Let me help with the bandages. Fili you should check the corpse that isn't on fire."

"I can help," Fili protested, holding up the bandages.

Alissa coughed. "You're a little short. Sorry."

Fili blinked, then gave a weak giggle. "Oh. Fair. Here you go, tall one." Alissa took the slightly damp cloths and turned to check the wound.

The wound was a deep puncture through to the shoulder, but Clara's size meant that something that would have hit bone was just a flesh wound. The minotaur merge pulled her sleeve off to give Alissa a better look. "Hope that those assassins got paid in advance. Need a new blouse."

"Well it was nice and sharp so I don't see anything in the wound." Alissa did her best to make sure she didn't miss anything before starting to wrap the bandages tightly around the wound to shut it. Crimson blood rapidly soaked through the inner layers, but she ignored that and added more wraps and more pressure. "Think you can still use your crossbow?"

"Not well," Clara replied. "Kinda use that arm to aim."

Alissa grimaced and nodded. With a few more wraps she figured the wound was as well bandaged as it could get. "We'll see what Rosalina can do when we get back."

Fili walked over holding a slip of paper. "Um, sorry about that. It seems they're after me. Probably for releasing the ledger."

Alissa blinked. "I mean we all kinda did that. You sure they're only after you?"

"You're listed as a bonus so long as I'm dead." Fili handed over the contract.

It was a simple set of targets with merges and known abilities broken down. No signature of course but Fili and her friends were the only targets. Alissa was listed as 'possible guard.' "Only two thousand crowns bonus? Either I've just been insulted or being an assassin sucks."

Clara looked over her shoulder. "Eight hundred? Wow, that kinda hurts." She looked a little more serious. "Think this is a bargain bin assassination, but still kinda worrisome. Maybe we should head home?"

"Let's finish up and check on Fili's friends," Alissa offered. "If they aren't after the rest of us, then we aren't in much more danger walking the city randomly than we are sitting together as a group."

"I do wanna steal those books." Clara looked at Fili. "Well let's leave it to the fledgling revolutionary with a price on her head."

Fili blushed but motioned towards their target. "The books. Then check on Sally and Brian. They should be fine but..."

"Yeah." Alissa stowed her gear and took a final look around. "Anyway, we should leave before people ask about the lava patch."

They'd have time to worry about the rest later.