Behind Sealed Doors - Part 2

“A random island without water or electricity in the middle of nowhere...” Annabeth concluded after looking through the window of the living room. “Why ya've this place?”

After living the main bedroom, Anna went on some exploring, finding more rooms than a person could need and calling Col as she was exercising. Ending with the four of them going to the chaotic living room.

Like everything else in this house, the living room was also a massive room with more furniture it needed. Six couches, ten small tables, four bookshelves, a bunch of vases, and an empty television stand. It was, in a few words, a very chaotic room.

Most of the furniture was pointed to different directions, some even looking away from each other. It was as if this whole place was set in some weird artistic way, or maybe some ritual even.

“Tis’ my humble hiding spot. Bought it with very legal money gained in the investment market...” The five-tailed fox answered from her leaning position on the biggest and most expensive-looking couch right in the middle of the room. “Never really told anyone or asked permission about it, though. Would beat the purpose of having a safe house, wouldn’t it?”

“A princess with a secret safehouse, eh… Suspicious.” The recently awoken inquisitor answered and took a seat at the closest place she could. “Ya checked it, shorty?”

“Why would I…”

“C’mon. Yer the niece of the secret service boss, don’t try to trick me, ‘kay?”

“You… Fine… But I didn’t say a thing, ok?” Karim conceded with a sigh and then also took a seat around the room. “She got some tricks on the deed and this place isn’t technically a plot, but it’s hers for sure. Her works on the stock exchange are more suspicious if you ask me and she kept running from the subject whenever I asked, but that's all.”

"So she owns this island or whatever, eh? How I got 'ere then?"

"I don't get the idea, but is almost the same thing as that bullet you fired on my house." Karim explained while the kitsune kept nodding in acknowledgment. "I have no idea how she got inside my house and why she had to use my bedroom to open it, though..."

"That's a neat trick... Care to explain, fox lady?"

"Through the window and the other door already had a sigil. Not much to explain, to be honest."

"I'll need to get some railings later..." The girl whose house was now made of two dimensional doors and a bathroom commented with a bothered expression. "But anyway, can you explain why you did all this, Ms. Chiron? I went along since your plan was better for Annabeth, but I still want an explanation.

"And I'll explain everything in its due time, little Karim.” The kitsune started as she moved her hands in the air, making a deck of cards appear as she did so. “I'll even start by why it took me so long to help you at the temple, but our Anna here will have to explain her own skills too.”

Minako wasn’t looking at anyone as she talked, instead leaning on her couch in a very sloppy, but her stare could still be felt. A mischievous gaze full of curiosity even if a little more dangerous than that.

"Anna..." Colette called with a worried expression from her silent corner of the room. "I don't think you should go on with this."

"Nay. This much's good. Tell yer tale, fox."

It wasn't a good subject and the gunslinger who currently had no guns would prefer to avoid it, but Minako had too much ammo on her right now. Complying until she had a clearer grasp on this old brat would be the best.

Things would change the moment she got something better than thinking Minako was some rebellious teenager trying to flee her home.

"Good! Even better because what I was doing is very easy to explain..." The fox playing around with her tarot cards started to speak with a glee. "I was sealing the maidens in the infirmary and taking care of the traitors. I'm not sure how they got there, but I was sure something would happen and had to act... I got the timing wrong and ended late to the fight, but it was my sole miscalculation there."

Minako's nonchalant reveal made two of the three other girls in the room stop in utter disbelief. It was as if they were told someone had singlehandedly managed their task without any outer input. Only Annabeth didn't react much to it, but that was because she knew, or was forced to know, the trick behind it.

And even before anyone could ask about this very same trick, she disclosed it to everyone.

"She's an oracle, gals. Only read 'bout 'em and the last documented one was a hundred or so years ago, but she had the right skills."

"Oracle, like, predict the future?" The muscle-brained inquisitor asked to be sure of what she was told. "Those you see in fairytales and all?"

"Tha fairytale ones are a lot cooler than mine... Properly seeing things is a lot different from kinda feeling what's the right path."

"It's still stupidly strong! Telling the church about this would cause a fucking uproar..."

"I wonder if auntie knows about it..."

"She likely does. That succubus knows way too much, even for me." Minako answered with words that didn't surprise anyone. "But anyway, it's your turn now, Anna."

Prompted by the five-tailed oracle, all the few eyes in the room turned to Annabeth and it became very clear that she couldn't avoid some explaining. And so, with a sigh and very little disposition, she started to talk.

"Since ya gals wanna know 'bout mah' eye this much, then we'll start with some modern soul theory, 'kay?"

“Can I ask what it has to do with the situation?” The petite cop asked with a tint of confusion in her voice before her partner could start. “Weren’t we talking about your weird skill from the other day?”

“It’s important to get the idea, y’see? Trust me ‘ere, you’ll need it.”

“Fine…”

“I’ll consider ya both know what differentiates human and spirits, ‘aight?”

It didn’t seem as if Karim got the idea that and Minako seemed more focused on her deck than anything, but both still nodded, so that was enough. Col already had some knowledge, so she could be ignored. And it was the abridged version only, so it shouldn't take long.

“’Kay! Let’s start this…” The evil eye inquisitor propped herself up and then started her lecture. “Everythin’ that’s alive has a soul, even if they change form and power, all of ‘em are the same in concept. If it’s alive, it can use magic. And if it’s alive, it’ll die and go to the Reincarnation Circle. The only thing that changes is how yer soul interacts with matter and how it replenishes itself. Yer followin’ ‘till ‘ere?”

Unsurprisingly, Karim nodded with boredom and Minako didn’t bother to react. Even Col seemed to be following for now. This much was as simple as one could go and wasn’t even ‘modern’ per se, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

“Then we go to what matters.” Annabeth continued, still trying her best to sound smart as she was doing so. “When a whatever use magic, they use a part of their soul to make somethin’, and then this 'soul energy' dissipates in the air. How much ya can use and how much ya've is based on how developed is yer connection with the Circle."

That the Reincarnation Circle, or God for some, would work on a karmic system and some randomness to choose a soul's species on the living plane was common knowledge, so Anna could skip it. It was also a slightly debated topic that she would prefer to avoid.

"Although the use and capacity are based on yer soul, the recover is all based on yer body. Humans and animals do so by trappin’ it inside their material bodies by breathing, eating, or whatever while spirits and monsters just absorb it from the air...”

“And that’s why spirits don’t really have physiological processes if they don’t want, but can literally vanish if they use too much energy and yada yada yada. Can you go to the point?” Anna’s partner cut in as she seemed to be taking too long for her taste. “You can also skip the part about innate skills being a subproduct of the energy bodies spirits have. We know all this already.”

“Fine, fine... What a hurried li’l gal…” Annabeth conceded in a hurry and then skipped to what Karim wanted to hear. “Anyway, it was found out that both humans and spirits can, in reality, use both methods. The efficiency is wildly different, though, with the second method being almost irrelevant to humans even if it was there. A body made of magic isn’t very good at dealing with embedded energy while one that’s more like an armor over the soul can’t absorb much. And that’s where mah’ eye joins the fray…”

“So that’s where you’re going...” Minako said with a smile on her face and holding a single gray card. “Now the name ‘demon eater’ makes more sense.”

“Y’know how it’s called, eh? Care to tell me how?”

“Can’t that pretty head of yours guess yet?” The smiling kitsune answered in a suggestive way, but the subject was cut short by the only of the four who had no knowledge of this name.

“You two can have this conversation later? Hearing two people that know what’s happening already is very infuriating...” Karim complained as she was more interested in the explanation than in whatever small squabble those two were having. “And more than that, does that name really explain what this eye of yours does?”

“It’s likely what yer imaginin’, shorty,” Annabeth smirked while turning her attention to her small partner. “The whole point of this golden eye of mine’s consuming energy from other beings. It makes mah’ body and soul recover very fast as long as I’ve some good sources ‘round at the expense of bein' the only way I can recover…”

“…but that's only the first part.”