Money is about to do something he had been dreading since he found out about the kids' emergence at the airport with the underaged girl and collection of unknown women within his group. He had no way of knowing what plants were being sewn into his kids' mix and what sins he was committing against himself and the family. If he was looking to betray him or if the curse had finally overcome him.

All he knew was he didn’t want to look at the tapes. The hidden cameras or listening to the microphones bugged within the house to keep tabs on his only son. That said, he needed to know the truth of it and after all the unexpected coincidences added together from this last escapade he was convinced it was the only way. If they were committing crimes against humanity, theirs and ours. Crimes against the soul he didn’t want to know much less see it. Hear it…

“Jojo, hit the button for me I can’t bring myself…” Money confesses as he leans back into his chair before the computer monitor. Rolling away as if making his last attempt at flight away from what might be true. His worst fears might be realized.

JoJo grunts an acknowledgment as he two covers his eyes and hits the play button. Backing away and flinching only keeping his ears open.

They had collected the recordings of the last week’s worth of footage and were attempting to watch what his chosen minions had cut into what was need to know. He had those minions kept in a room now alone and isolated till he could see what was seen. To decide their fates too. That’s what level of blasphemy he worried the boy had gotten himself into. Not just his fate but the fate of so many others entangled into this mess…

“Looks like Tye found the hidden doors quicker than we thought he would. I suspect he noticed them prior to getting the house from us boss.” JoJo states aloud. Money inches his eyes open ever so slightly and allows himself to engage the media before him. He risks a glance at the length of the editor's cut and it runs two hours and thirty minutes long. Glancing up he can see Tye opening one of the fake wall doors and snickering to themselves…

“My clever boy, what have you gotten yourself into?”


————————————————————

“You know it’s funny… it occurs to me that I’ve been prepped for you Nora.” Tye states as they pace between Nora and Corin.

“How do you believe so?” Nora inquires breaking her attempt at meditation. Collecting herself she told the others but really she is gathering strength for an offensive posturing. Against even her summons if she deem it necessary. They’ve proven to be more than a hand full and their direction seems awfully precarious to be polite.

“Because my father always is trying to avoid the eyes of his mother and in turn always has eyes on everything and everyone else. ‘An ear to the ground for sound and a bird in the sky for an eye’ he would always say. Anyway, he is always trying to read our minds and anticipate our movements. He does this by placing devices into locations to collect data. Be they technology or human…” Tye continues. “So it’s an easy enough thing to forget about because you become accustomed to being heard and seen at all times. You forget your privacy is gone. You give in and forget and open yourself up to his manipulations by accident or laziness?”

“Tye…” Corin interrupts then covers her mouth and begins peering about the room.

“Yeah, he even admitted to it. He knows everything man how do you combat that? I made a mistake because I forgot the situation. I was overwhelmed and now we are really in the shit.” The confesses.

“What are you saying? He can see everything? Hear everything? What sort of spell is he working?” Nora asks back. She is standing now and frustrated.

“He said he bugged the house. It means he put in recording devices. Uhm… it means he has cameras and microphones in the house to hear and see what we’re up to.” Corin answers. “Uh… remember that video game and tv we were playing on earlier? They are what we call technology.”

“I know what technology means.” Nora shoots back.

“No I mean, they are the result of recordings. They receive input from external devices that come together to give us those images. Tye’s father has those devices gathering data for him in this house to record us. To generate images for him to observe and know what we are doing.” Corin tries to explain.

“He’s been spying on us this whole time.” Tye finishes.

“So he knows what our plans are right now then?” Nora asks aloud.

“Yes, because he can hear our voices and see our movements. So…” Tye continues motioning to his head.

“So we need to think to each other with our minds.” Nora thinks into them both.

“Yes.” Tye confirms giving a thumbs up reflexively.

“How do you know there is video recordings though?” Corin thinks to herself. Nora puts her hand up for Corin to wait and closes her eyes.

She must bridge their minds. She must make it so they can hear one another’s thoughts as she hears them. It must be possible if she can build a bridge between herself and them then why can’t she build a bridge between them both? Maybe she can echo the thoughts? Why doesn’t she try that?

“How do you know there is video recordings though?” She thinks and both Tye and Corin hear it but also she can feel Brent and Locke hearing it too. She did it too vaguely. She has to be more precise.

She can hear Locke fumbling at the thought so she shuts him out again as for Brent he seems unmoved and already aware of the fact. He seems to recall a memory of him and Tye having a similar discussion. Brent was talking then but not very much. Only enough to get points across.

“You see he’s bugged the place. I know it so how do we get around it?” Younger Tye complains.

Brent motions with his hands and shrugs.

“Sign language?!” Tye screams out then covers his mouth. “You’re fucking brilliant you know that?”

Nora puts her hand to her forehead. It hurts how absurd it all is. Tye apparently learned sign language to get around his father’s spying but is now certain that his father placed cameras to capture the images so he could see their signing now too. It was a game of goblin and moria and she had walked into the latter stages of it. This was a good sign though it meant to complicate things. Her summons have been entrenched in warfare and battle hardened all their lives. They truly were the perfect tool she needed. The only problem was they needed to be guided and used properly. Their sentience, their identity, their rebelliousness was the obstruction that could lead to her and her people’s destruction. Us or them…

No those totalitarian thoughts felt wrong but she was responsible for too much to let the idea passively slide by without thought. Either way she’d have to ponder it but right now seemed the wrong time. She’d have to let it sit in the back of her mind. Make a decision as things progressed. She had trained to calculate multiple things at once. Process what is happening at multiple points. Both present, past and future. It’s the way of a summoner to handle multiple situations at once. To manage all the, as the humans would say “data”, she could draw upon it all and build something useful. Surely.

She could even delve into their mind scrapes when they slept. It was dangerous if they suffered from phasing sickness that’s why she hadn’t done it but the Goliath hasn’t been showing any signs. It might be time to do just that. It’s just she hadn’t observed him sleeping yet. Did it not need sleep? How many days had it been since they all met and yet she can’t recall him ever sleeping? Is it how he bridges such a strong connection to nature. Sleep is necessary to create a divide between realities. So if you deny that bridge you begin to dissolve the barriers between the two? If that were true would she lose the giant if he refused to sleep. She needs him to sleep so she can scape his mind. How good would his defenses be? It’d an assault on one of her summons. A necessary evil but one she was preparing herself to undertake.

This talk of beating hearts and temples… she knew they wouldn’t budge to tell her. She could order them too but something told her instinctively they’d manage to thwart that and build harder defenses against it. She needed them unaware of this attack. She needs them to trust her. She’s been peering into Locke’s thoughts all this time since the arena to measure how he’d triumphed and his book the gods seemed to admire but was blocked this way and that. External forces. Demonic or even the gods themselves keeping the knowledge away from her. To push to find it was it a test or a warning? She would do anything to save her sister and her people. She’d carry the burden of responsibility later. Sacrifice herself for the good of everyone else if need be.

So that gambit was set and the goblin set loose on the run. She would have to be a clever Moria, disguise herself as her adversary, till she got what she needed to capture what she wanted…

“That kind of worked but it sucked cuz I heard it too. You have to get better with your programming. You’re like a sledge hammer hitting small nails. You’re gonna break the wood you hammering into.” Corin complains aloud to her. Catching her off guard and pulling her away from her thoughts.

“What?” Nora asks aloud.

“I mean, you need to think of it as a program. Execute. Yes, no, if, then statements. Xandor. Ya know? Otherwise you’re just blasting everything out over stereo and that’s not really efficient or tactical.” Corin replies back nonchalantly. Then a great big sneering smile crosses over her face and she laughs.

“Demon. Don’t mock me and leave my charge.” Nora shoots back. Tye jumps back and throws up his hands in a pacifying manner.

“Woh woh woh! Lady’s, please. Uhm, think of the children?” The tries to crack a joke to lighten the atmosphere. It doesn’t really work. Nora eyes him and Corin’s smear turns into a leer at Tye.

“Don’t let this incompetent outmaneuver you or I’ll eat both your and masters souls for all eternity for being idiots.” Corin replies back before the thing within her lets go and Corin seemingly comes back to herself.

“This is getting a bit out of hand you gotta control yourself better friend.” Tye admonishes Corin who’s shaking their head hand to forehead. Looking a bit woozy.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry. Information is power. Don’t give it up freely.” Corin admonishes herself.

“You are my summons. You agreed by contract. The others I won fair and square. It all belongs to me.” Nora reprimands. He hauty imperialistic monarchic opinion drenched in itself.

“You really are like a collage of everything humanity has fought off these last thousand years aren’t you?” Corin points out.

“I was kinda thinking the same thing…” Tye crosses their arms and stands before her disapprovingly.

“Order defies chaos. Chaos creates disaster. Know your place and work within it.” Nora shoots back almost mechanically.

“You tell that to your goblin friends so easily?” Corin asks.

“What?” Nora gasps.

“She said you tell that to your sister so easily, lady summoner?” Tye replies.

“I don’t tell them they know inherently the order of things. They accept it and we live in harmony.” Nora replies.

“Perspective is a bitch. Oops sorry, uhm that’s like a double entendre right?” Tye muses.

“I’ll allow it.” Corin accepts.

“Double entendre?” Nora asks herself. Her magic struggling for a moment to translate the meaning. Double meaning. She looks back to the two with suspicion as they both scratch at their chins and ponder nothing in their minds. Humming even as if to resist thinking.

Yes, Brent will have to be the target. These two are obnoxious to an extreme. She’ll be glad to replace them when the opportunity arrives. In fact. Now that she’s upon their birth world she is in fact the Moria in the hatchery. She can grab whoever she wishes she just needs to complete the summoning prerequisites. In fact, it might be smart to simply leash this boys father and make him give her whatever treasure they protect. Or one of his lesser followers. Weaker who know the secret and are more capable of being overwhelmed by her abilities.

She could do it right now. She’s more knowledgeable than they are. She could break them and create drones. They’d be less effective but she’d be able to get anything out of them. She could but then she might fail. She’d observed things. She’s seen then curry favor from the higher order of beings. Would they allow it? Was she strong enough yet to overwhelm them?

“The answer is no.” Corin states aloud an evil smile plasters across her face. “Summoner, little, small, tiny. Delicious how you squirm.”

“Begone!” Nora shouts without thinking. Enraged with a gust of wind she summons from her hand and with all the magic within this world untapped it grows exponentially instantly and she regrets it and everything might be destroyed within the area unless she can I work it but it’s too late how does one I work a spell of this measure instantly after being cast. Alas, why has time slowed to completely is this the last moments before her death?

“Aye, you have killed yourself and everyone else with this act yet I have interceded. I instigated. It was part of my intentions. My plan. Now, beg me to make it go away. Acknowledge me as superior to you and I’ll make it go away. So it now or all will die.” She can be heard and seen. External to Corin now simply standing behind her. Pulling her strings. Laughing at her.

“I cannot.” She replies.

“I know that’s why it’s hilarious. I do it anyway because I see you’ve acknowledged it were it matters most. I win you lose and that’s how it’ll always be simpleton. Small. Tiny weak. Know they place and play within it child.” She replies back as she consumes the power for herself and dissipates again.

Nora is standing before the two her hand outstretched her words echoing. Tye and Corin blink at her. Corin pats herself as Tye unfolds their arms.

“Huh, didn’t work?” Corin asks hopefully.

“No… it didn’t.” Nora admits.

“Well, nice try. I’ll give you points for that.” Tye replies. Nora can feel the two giving her a positive response. It sickens her and she can feel the eyes of she laughing at the entire situation.


—————————————-


“Is that Corin who just jumped out of those blankets?” JoJo asks beside themselves.

“I… think so. So that girl was Corin we had with us…” Money replies back scratching at his chin. “Then that means it’s true then.”

JoJo nods.

The door to his office bursts open as one of his employees races through it out of breath. Headphones resting around his neck and shoulders. Paper in his hands. Sweating.

“Sir. They’re going for your sisters ship at the docks.” He states.

“Are they? So they’re at the house right now?” Money asks hitting the pause button as he lifts his gaze to his employee.

“Yes sir. Well, Brent has been sent out and Locke is disguised as a woman.” The man replies back. Taking a gulp and seemingly grasping for reason.

“Huh, so they’re all dealing with the same sort of curse right now huh?” Money thinks to himself as he relaxes back into the chair.

“Should we head them off?” The employee asks.

“Get people in place to intercede but don’t get spotted and don’t make a move until I explicitly say so. Understand?” Money replies back with full authority.

“Yes sir. We’re on it.” The employee states back and dashes back out the door.

“They’re clever. If they can hope between points of interest they can snag that boat and use it as a sort of safe room whenever they need to retreat or regroup.” JoJo states aloud.

“Yes, it could become quite near impossible to keep track of them if they get it without any sort of way to find the boat itself. But that’s the thing. By relying on the boat you give something up. Open yourself up to different unforeseen obstacles. Let’s finish this and come to a decision then. My boy and his friends are clever but he comes from me and I’ve ages on him in this game. I want to know the level of his guilt before I make my final judgment on him.”

“Yes boss, I kinda like the boy and his friends too. Be a shame to…” JoJo doesn’t finish as Money’s eyes cut him off. “Sorry boss, let’s finish the video.

“Impartial viewing remember. Stay impartial or you’re no use to me.” Money admonishes.

“Of course boss. Always.” JoJo replies.