False Positive

 Both Anton’s group and Millie’s party looked at the occupant of the cage, as it snapped at them all with its tooth-filled beak. Nibbles and Lia both growled at it in response, before Talia had the idea to cover the cage with Millie’s hat. Since they were being watched, their enemy probably already knew that they’d caught one of his spies, but that didn’t mean that he had to see all of what was going on. But now the question came about as to how they would be able to use this bird to locate Niles.

“...Hey, if you drink someone’s blood, do you get all their memories?” Millie asked Talia after a few moments of thought.

“Not typically, no,” the vampire said. “Why?”

“If you drink some of its blood, I was wondering if that’d help you see where it came from.”

“I don’t think so. It’s not a bad idea, per se, dear, it’s just that I don’t know if it’d work.”

The group continued to discuss various ideas for how to get what they wanted from the hell-bird, keeping a little bit of a distance from the cage and their voices low. They weren’t sure how much of their planning could be picked up on an audio level, but just to be safe…

One idea that came to mind was that they would release the bird, and then Shay could follow it, while they all followed her. The one issue with that was that flight speed and running speed tended to be a bit different from one another. Another one they thought of was to try and create their own version of the creature. Given that its creator had apparently used magic to craft this one rather than the Soul Stealer tech, and they had two magic users at their disposal, they figured this might be a feasible idea. The only real problem they could think of in that regard was the part where one of said magic users was still recovering from the blood loss she’d experienced.

She realized that this might cause her to pass out. But if it got them to their target, it would all be worth it. Plus, it hadn’t been the first time during this entire excoursion that consciousness decided to take off without her, and if they played their cards right, it wouldn’t be the last one.

Deciding that it would be a lot less of a strain with both her and Anton creating their own spy-bird, the two magic users sat down and faced each other. Millie had pulled her sketchpad from her pouch, starting to figure out some designs. Anton threw in a few suggestions as she did, regarding its range of vision. What they ended up with was something not entirely unlike the hell-bird...but somehow more unnerving. Instead of the ten eyes and a few rows of teeth, it was basically all eyes, including in the back of its head. It had a beak, as well, which had another eye right on top. Millie had consideried adding multiple teeth with eyes on them, but ultimately decided that that would just be too much and held back.

“...Hey, if we pull this off, would that make us gods?” Millie wondered aloud.

Anton shrugged. “It’s more of a construct than a new species. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

She nodded, but was still mildly disappointed. And so, the two of them joined hands, both focusing their will on their creation. Pink and blue magic swirled together, as they both visualized the creature of the sketch forming between them, being able to see what it saw, and it leading them all wherever the hell-bird led their...well, they weren’t sure what to call their variation on it, but they were hoping this idea would work out.

Their magic swirled and pulsed, until something formed between them. Their spy-bird was a bit misshapen upon creation, one side being rather bigger than the other. The pair may have agreed on the design and function..but there was a slight miscommunication on the size of it.

“...Well, crap,” Millie muttered. “Can it still fly?”

That was one of the things they had been in full agreement on during the creation: that it would be functional. It fluttered upward, albeit a bit awkwardly. They were both able to see what it could, as well. Given that it was looking right down at them, that happened to be themselves.

“Eh, good enough,” Anton said.

Millie nodded in agreement. Sure, given that he had an architecture background and she used to be a designer, this attitude felt like a slight betrayal of the perfectionism inherent in either of those fields. But it was still better than the things Niles had been sending after them. Nibbles had stepped up to get its scent, letting out a confused wuff as she did.

“Smells weird…” she said.

Given that it was a creation of pure magic cobbled together by two mages, it wasn’t quite clear what this thing should smell like, but to the werewolf...she couldn’t quite put her paw on what it was, really.

The hell-bird was soon released, and it flew off. The uneven spy-bird took off after it, and the two magic users used that link to trace its movements. The whole group watched as it awkwardly flew off in persuit of Niles’ creation, none of them really wanting to bring up how odd it looked to them.

They could tease the pair over that later.

And before too long, the magic users had some idea of where to head, Millie getting onto Nibbles’ back. She did get the idea to maybe eventually try flying on her scythe...but that could be attempted at a later point, as well. The werewolf started to run, sniffing the air, as her human directed her along.

And soon enough, this small army was on the move, chasing after their bizarre creation and its target, moving as quickly as they possibly could. The hell-bird had reached the edge of the forest, turning and screeching at its pursuer and exposing its fangs.

They followed it into the small village that lay beyond the forest, where it lit upon a fence and just stared at them. And it was then that they all took a good look at their current location. First and foremost, the whole place had a grayish-yellow tint to it, and had a faint sterile scent that one could pick up even without being a werewolf.

Talia poked at a vine that climbed an old wall, the vine crumbling at the slightest touch. It was clear that this place had likely fallen victim to the Soul Stealers, with everyone having either died or evacuated. Given how sparsely populated the quarantine zone had been in the Underworld, Millie seriously hoped that it was the latter.

It wouldn’t have shocked anyone if this had turned out to be Niles’ hideout, given how gung-ho he’d been about commanding their enemy in the first place (and in the process, becoming the very punchable face of it). This place had clearly been ravaged by it, all life having been sucked out of it.

They continued through the village, Millie feeling okay to walk on her own by now. She wasn’t back to 100% strength just yet, but she could at least do that. She stepped forward, scythe in hand and head on a swivel.

After some exploration, she could see a skeleton lying on the floor of what had to be this village’s library. What was with this entity and trying to ruin libraries, anyway? Shaking her head, she walked along...or rather, tried to.

The skeleton’s hand had reached up, gripping her by the ankle. Having fully expected any bodies around there that had not come in there with her to be dead, Millie screamed in response to the sudden ankle grab. The others came running, Nibbles and Amaia right at the front of the group. The former was growling, the latter wielding Vertiwhip, and Millie taking a look down.

The skeleton sat up, grumbling a bit. “Think you could scream any louder, girl?” he asked. “You ruined a perfectly good nap.”

She held up a defensive hand. “Sorry!” she said. “You just kinda startled me, is all...see, I was under the impression that everyone around here was dead.”

“Of course we’re all dead around here,” he said, the apology not having gotten her on his good side. “You come into a place called ‘Skullvale’ and expect to find it teeming with the living?”

Amaia stepped forward. “Look...we’re looking for someone that might have caused this place’s environment to dry out. Looks like he’s halfway to skeletal, armor with this yellowish tinge…” they said.

“What the hell is that?!” the skeleton demanded, pointing a philange at Vertiwhip.

The dullahan blanched at the question. “Ancestral weapon…?”

The skeleton rolled his eyes (an impressive feat for someone that didn’t even have any eyes).

“So, you’re one of them, huh? Damn Fae Court enforcers, always stealin’ innocent skeletons’ backbones…”

Millie glared at him. “If you have any information about this guy, please tell us, before I sic my werewolf on you.”

Nibbles gave the skeleton a grin, tail wiggling. “I like to play rough!” she said.

He held up his hand. “Okay, okay, no need to strongarm me…”