Chapter 246 - It's All Coming Together

"But that's for the worst-case scenario," I concluded. "If we assume that Staghead wants to get the entire seal, then it's possible that some of the pieces were destroyed completely by now, anyway."

"It's always better to not rely completely on chance."

"Yes… so you know what to do if you feel like there's no other way." I turned to take JJ's hands in mine. These cold, elegant and deceptively frail, but so powerful hands. "Smash it into dust."

"Without hesitation."

I let the moment between us stretch for several more seconds, drinking it in like tea, before, with one last rub of my thumb on JJ's palm, turning back to my notes and my phone, which held electronic copies of books from Nightingale's library. "Now, what could be a counterpart for fey magic? It won't be the direct opposite, it never works this way… Direct opposites either work perfectly fine together or explode. What it is about iron that makes fey fear it?"

I forgot about everything else again as I thought about that. I looked at a piece of iron, scrutinized it from every side, mulled in my head about every possibility… But even two days later, after consulting everyone I could, I got no closer. Iron just worked, but like silver, it had to be close to the fey you wanted to stop with it.

But then, as I perused the aspects inside of an unassuming iron disk again, it struck me. A real "eureka!" moment.

Why didn't I think about it before? And it fitted. It absolutely fitted. Fey were spirits, after all. Now I just had to polish that theory and test it.

The answer I came to was simple. Fey were afraid of iron because of a human belief that it was so. Beliefs had power, too. They created a sheen in the infosphere, added aspects to things that had no other reason to be there. Beliefs were the reason silver was a purifying metal, and sunlight was a cleansing thing, both of which affected vampires gravely.

Most, though, weren't affected by beliefs as strongly. Shapeshifters, for example, didn't care for wolfbane at all. But spirits were unlike any other supernatural creature. Their natures were tied to beliefs more closely than these of anyone else. They could even change it because of it.

So while iron itself had some informational aspects about warding and protection, I was positive now, that it wasn't iron itself being special in any way—no, it's just that fey were really vulnerable to it.

It was another question if it would disrupt their power or not, but their power was a part of them, so logically…

In short, the answer, as I saw it, turned out to be awfully simple. Just bring enough iron, that should weaken him—this was about how I put to our team of Staghead hunters when we later gathered for an online meeting.

"If this is the case, then I have a feeling that we will have to test this information out soon." Cornellio absentmindedly petted Lumi, whose wing was still in a sling, but who looked healthy enough otherwise. "I gathered information that someone was stealing or buying other pieces of the seal for around three years by now. It wouldn't have even been suspicious if I didn't have my current perspective to look from. Diana, your piece may very well be the last one Staghead didn't put his hands on yet."

"But if that was so, then why didn't he come to get it all the time he knew it was there?" I asked.

Cornellio shrugged. "I wouldn't know what lies in the minds of madmen."

"I have something to say, too," Eve spoke out. "I asked a person who knows another person, who knows another person who heard plenty about our Staghead. His true name is a secret to everyone, as it always is with fey, but he's also known as Life Unstoppable and Jehael of the Autumn. Honestly, I prefer Staghead. He's also not the last man in the fey hierarchy, holding allegiance to the Seelie Court. Staghead is known for his extreme dislike of humans and everything related to them, repeated speeches about how fey should overthrow them and take their rightful place under the sun, and cruelty. As for his powers, he's told to be a great fencer, if that helps. Oh, and a brute as far as fey magic goes—there's a general opinion that he doesn't wield it with appropriate for a noble fey finesse."

"It might not look like much, but it's more than we knew before," Bob said.

"Well, I have something more useful for you. I researched the matter, and it wasn't even that hard to make a dimensional lock that will prevent Staghead from teleporting. We can use it to guard a place, or we can use it as a trap for him…"

And just like that, our plan began to crystallise into a form we can see. We had a bait, a trap in two parts, fighters—of which we had to choose only one to put forth or risk them starting to fight against each other again, but still.

The only thing lacking was our target himself.

"He must have humans who feed him information. He might buy, charm or blackmail them, doesn't matter. But like the last time, if there was a whiff about another piece of the seal moving, he'd surface again," Bob spoke. "We can just start a rumour."

Cornellio hummed. "I don't think this is so easy. I didn't announce the seal amongst my wares, but Staghead came for it, anyway. Still, it only shows that he knows more than we'd like, not less. So I don't think luring him out would be the hardest part—the hardest part would be making sure he doesn't learn about the trap."

A sudden feeling of creeping paranoia fell over me like a shadow. Under it, the worst predictions seemed like the ones most likely to come true. "I hope he doesn't know already."