Chapter 139 - Ungrateful

There were a lot of small pieces, all right. But putting them together turned out to be as easy as cutting a dictionary into separate words and trying to make a new book out of them. I and Ghost spent two hours in this hall, putting together wisps of data, but in the end…

"The demon's influence was just too serious," Ghost shook his head. "The emotional traces alone are enough to mix everything up."

"Not to mention, you know, the damage," I added. "But we got something, at least. Hopefully, someone will know more about that."

Desmond, to whom we were telling all this, sneered. "Don't dance around with words. I need the information."

I sneered right back, but bit my tongue before telling him to not be so bitchy about getting it. Ghost's hand on my shoulder helped in holding back my anger.

"Here, here! I even wrote everything down for you, Desmond." Ghost passed Desmond a sheet of paper. "But that's it, there's just nothing more to look at, even if we sift through the entire building."

Desmond looked down at Ghost's writing, and I snickered inwardly at the cogwheels visibly turning in his eyes. Ghost had a doctor's handwriting. I, for myself, didn't understand a word of what he wrote down—which is why I doubled his notes on my smartphone.

A dozen second later Desmond lifted his eyes at Ghost. "Just tell me with words what have you found."

"Uh, you know, I have terrible short-term memory, too. Can you give me the note back, please, so I could read from it?.."

With a smirk, I lifted my phone and read aloud from it. "Malakbel. Sun. Eye. God. Angel. Fire. Wheels. Life-giver. These are keywords we dug up. Malakbel must be his name… I don't know about angels, but the rest look like his descriptions. The book was in Latin, too, from what words were left preserved." Considering that I didn't know Latin, it was a good thing that aspects didn't need any translation.

"Malakbel…" Desmond murmured.

"Does that ring a bell? We also got this from the middle of the book. The least cooked part." I coughed and turned to my notes again. "'His all-seeing eyes reach all and pierce all and judge all, yet he is merciful and endues not retribution yet forgiveness and healing. Yet doth fear his eyes, too, because a glance of a heavenly being is too much for mere mortals and their'… Their something?'

This part required translation, so it was a good thing Ghost, unlike me, knew Latin. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Desmond did, too.

"This bears thinking," Desmond said after a pause. He gave me a thoughtful look from under his thick eyebrows. His lips spread in a malevolent smirk. "You are free to run with this to the clucking chickens who are waiting on the outside. I don't need your assistance anymore, and… do not try to eavesdrop on me again."

'What an asshole he is, after all,' I thought, giving him a dirty look. "Thank you very much, too, Desmond," I said aloud and turned to the exit. "Let's go, Ghost. I couldn't want to get out of here…"

I wished at least someone was grateful for the information we brought, but reality, apparently, didn't work this way, because as soon as I and Ghost stepped out of the portal, Spider-Woman and Captain were at our faces with the entire witchy council at their backs.

"You just let a vampire access to my coven's secret subspace! A vampire! What other secret you will give out to the cold-blooded monsters? Or do you think that Eternalroot Coven is gone now, that our opinion doesn't count?" Spider-Woman hissed at me and Ghost.

"You were told to follow my orders, Diana, Ghost." Captain wasn't happy either. His fingers that he planted on his hips, clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white. I was afraid he would bruise himself. "This is plain insubordination! Even for plain civilians, how hard it is to simply follow orders? It wasn't for you to decide whether to give the vampire access to Eternalroot's subspace or not."

"Thank you very much, too," I murmured under my breath. "Aren't you interested in what we found, at least?"

"We—" Spider-Woman started, but Captain interrupted her.

"While you were in, our relief came in. Elder Elena calls our team back. You will tell her then what you found and explain to her your behaviour."

"What? Are you not going to share that information with us?" a council member exclaimed in an indignant voice. "They are here, let them speak!"

The rest burst with shouts of support, bodily showing Captain aside in order to reach for me. On reflex, I stepped back and would've fallen down if I didn't grab for Ghost's shoulder. "Calm down, everyone! Calm down!" I tried to raise my voice loud enough to be heard, but either it wasn't enough, or people just didn't care.

"Enough! You won't get your answers if you keep acting this way!" It was Captain who showed them aside with both physical force of his impressive muscles and magical force of wind that came out of nowhere. It wasn't strong enough to push people on the floor, but it made them step back.

"What's wrong with these people," I murmured, looking at the gathered before me witches. It was crowd mentality, definitely. Crowds were stupid, that was a well-known fact.

With a sigh, I retold the council everything I just told Desmond. Only then were I and Captain let go, while the other witches squabbled with each other about what else to do with the information and hurried to pass it to their leaders. My job here was done.

I hoped that, at Nightingale's headquarters or at my own home, I will finally get some sleep. Just some good night's sleep—and hey, maybe in the morning someone will find out something more about Malakbel, something to but him down.