-------

”So you’re saying he left in a hurry yesterday morning?” Valor questioned a hawker selling food across from the now empty shop of their supposed informant. The little stall sold simple things like fish and meat pies. The kinds of things a hungry worker might want to snack on during hard work.

“Ye. He was in right hurry too. When few of his things fell off the load, he didn’t even bother stopping to pick ‘em up. ‘Course, someone else appropriated those things soon after, so yer not gonna see ‘em anymore. I know he had the stuff moved to the harbor. Heard something about the city of Pisces.” The older Kappa was rather free with information, partially because Valor had bought a whole bunch of the food as a trade.

Pisces was one of the two other Zodiac cities located on this plane, which tended to be filled with worlds rich in water, the other city being Cancer. "Any idea why he left in such a rush?" Valor continued to question.

“I can’t rightly say. I’d say it has something to do with the rumors of people going missing. Ask his neighbor. She might know more.” The Kappa gestured towards a seamstress store next door. Hope was just coming out of the shop, having questioned the owner after they split up to find clues.

“Any luck?” Wisdom asked.

“Only marginally. The woman said that our informant fled because he thought he’d be the next one to ‘disappear’ and didn’t want to risk it. In fairness, she also mentioned that he might’ve fled because whatever brought us to his door, as the presence of the Host usually means trouble. In this case it’s the same reason, but it shows she was mostly going by what she’d overheard.” Hope explained. They were all still in armor, as they hadn’t yet found a place to stay and change. Not that they would blend in very well anyway, aside from Hope with her illusions.

Envy personally wasn't all that interested in the whole investigation business. She wasn't a stranger to intrigue, but she was more used to it on the court level, and not when it came to a police-style investigation. Besides, she thought this was a distraction anyway. The informant was gone, and there was nothing they could do about it aside from traveling to the place he'd fled to, which wasn't on their agenda. They were unlikely to find out anything useful. They should rather be focusing on what they were in this city for, which was to find the culprit, and the best way to do that was to wait for the culprit to hit again.

There was also another reason Envy was feeling uninterested. The others hadn't noticed yet, aside from perhaps Hope, but Wrath seemed very distracted for some reason. She'd been like that almost since they entered the city. Even now she could see her tilting her head, as if listening to something only she could hear while staring at empty space. "What's going on?" She asked, while walking to stand next to Wrath.

“It’s…hard to explain. There’s something wrong with this city, but I can’t put my finger on what that something is. It’s highly annoying. It’s like a constant buzzing in my ear, or as if everything is tilted just a few degrees the wrong way. I can’t point to any single thing being wrong, but the whole picture just…feels wrong.” Even her response was halting and half-mumbled, as she was clearly focused on something else.

“Any idea what it could be?” Envy knew Wrath was much more sensitive to this sort of thing. She hadn't noticed anything wrong personally, and a quick look around seemed to confirm that the hustle and bustle of the city was perfectly normal. People going about doing their daily errands just like everywhere else.

“It’s like there’s something in the air. No not the air. Something else. Something in the water perhaps? I can’t put my finger on it. The city is so full of magic that it’s hard to make out any details amongst the cacophony. Just when I think I’ve caught a glance at something weird, it’s gone.” Wrath tried to explain.

Envy understood the point about the city being full of magic though. That was one of the things about cities in the Divine Planes. Even areas filled with mortals and weaker cultivators were absolutely brimming with ambient power and magical items and formations that utilized that power. Interestingly, there was less need to rely on anything technological in the Divine Planes, as just the ambient power was enough to power almost any magical device you could imagine. Even if her senses weren’t even close to Wrath’s, she too was being slightly overwhelmed by the amount of magical things happening around her. Even simple tasks usually had a magical solution. She was used to such strong magic of course, even if it was exceptionally prevalent in this universe, so she quickly got adapted to the overwhelming amount of magical information. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t sense anything wrong.

Slightly concerned over Wrath’s state, she called out to the others. “I think we’ve gotten what we can from this area. Let’s find a place to stay and get some plans going.”

"Agreed. This is a dead-end. We should move on." Valor nodded as well.

They’d gotten several recommendations for lodgings from the locals. Thanks to their position, they wound up rather close to the heart of the city, as the mere presence of the Host would’ve disturbed things too heavily on the fringes. The inn they selected was a rather luxurious one. They could easily afford it thanks to Karna’s work at crafting, and three two-person rooms located on the top floor of the five-floor inn. Their rooms were separated by a rooftop garden, where they now all sat, making plans.

“I think we should avoid moving alone, but we should split up to cover more ground and gather more information. Since our informant vanished on us, we’ll have to gather all the info on our own.” Wisdom begun. His planning had already proven to be efficient, so he and Valor often took charge when Karna didn’t. “We should pair up.”

“I suggest that I’ll go with Kensei to make contact with the officials. Wrath has an aquatic form which might be able to blend in, though I haven’t seen any Scylla here so far. I think Hope and Wisdom should do most of the undercover work, as they’re the most likely to pass unnoticed.” Valor listed.

“I’ll go with Wrath. I think we might have something else we can investigate.” Envy volunteered. She would’ve gone with Wrath anyway, but now she especially wanted to keep an eye on her.

“Something else?” Wisdom asked.

“It might be related, or it might not. We’ll see.” Envy said simply, while Wrath was still looking distracted.

As the two other pairs departed on their missions, Envy turned to Wrath. “What do you need? Where do you need to go?” She knew her old rival would have her head in the game if things became difficult, but it would be better to get this mystery solved quickly.

Perhaps realizing that she’d been too distracted, Wrath also seemed to focus more. “I need to get to one of the focal points of their water distribution network. Below one of the water towers will provide us with a starting point at least. I should know more after that.”

“I’m guessing access isn’t open.” Usually, the risk of poisoning prevented free access. “Wouldn’t the mouth of the river do as well?”

Wrath smiled a bit. “The two are on separate systems. The canals and the ocean are separate from the municipal water system, although I’m sure the municipal system draws from the river, before filtration of course. No, I need access to the municipal system.”

"How are we going to do this? I'm assuming marching up with our armor might get us access, but if there is something going on, then they'll also know we're on to them. With you around, trying to blend in and infiltrate the place will be a challenge as well." For once, Envy was fully in a task-oriented mood.

“Well…” Instead of replying vocally, Wrath just assumed the form of a winged cat, or Tressym as they were known.

“Huh. That works, I suppose.” Envy borrowed on the magical talent she’d copied from Wrath and cast a more traditional polymorph spell on herself. While it wouldn’t last as long as someone with natural shapeshifting abilities like Wrath, it was good enough for their purposes.

Envy gestures with her paw, now identical to Wrath's, signaling for the other Tressym to lead the way. The two easily made their way across the rooves of the city towards the nearest water tower. Even if cats were not the most common pets in an aquatic city like this, Tressym weren't an odd sight either. They also picked paths that would keep them out of sight, often utilizing their wings. It wasn't until they got close to the tower before they started to run into situations where actual sneaking around was needed.

This was where the nature of a proper Tressym became obvious. The guards around the tower, which weren’t that numerous to begin with, suddenly found themselves distracted or clumsy, as the luck of the Tressym turned things to the two feline’s advantage every time they had to find an opening to sneak through. The tower itself was massive and practically hummed with magic. Most of the magic seemed to be designed to both protect and purify the water inside, but Envy also got the sense that the towers were a defensive feature, and the water inside could be deployed in various ways should the city be attacked at some point.

They made their way into the tunnels beneath the tower and reached a spot where the water was transferred from the pipes and aqueducts into the reservoir in the tower. There was no mechanical pumping system, as it worked completely on magic, and they could see a couple of water elementals handling the transfer and control of the water. In the middle of the large chamber they had entered was an enormous basin where the water was gathered before either being moved into the tower or out to the city.

“So, what now?” Envy asked.

“Now I’ll need to enter the water.” Wrath responded simply.

“Will the elementals interfere?” Envy asked, glancing at the elementals going about their work. The beings were rather low-level and not dangerous, but their disappearance would be noticed.

“Not with my attunement to the element. I’ll also have to take my Scylla form to best connect with whatever is going on. The elementals know better than to get involved. However, there’s a good chance that someone will notice me even if I’m careful, so I need you to keep any guards at bay. This shouldn’t take long, and we can make a hasty exit once we’re done, but it would be better if no one can enter the chamber until then.” After finishing her explanation, the feline form of Wrath morphed into something more monstrous.

Her lower body became a mess of serpentine heads as each tentacular appendage was actually the head of a hydra. The upper body of a woman was mostly covered in scales, while her head retained her normal appearance. She also grew rather large, only barely able to fit into the basin that for some reason wasn’t at all disturbed by her entrance. In fact, the water seemed to welcome her presence, humming with a welcoming tone as the water itself vibrated.

Not one to stand around, Envy turned towards the paths into the chamber. She utilized one of Wrath’s favorite tricks and placed barriers of pure Qhaysh deep enough into the tunnels that anyone trying to enter wouldn’t be able to see into the room. Any single barrier wasn’t all that powerful by itself, but she layered hundreds of shields on top of each other, where anytime a single barrier was destroyed, another one would move up to take its place from behind. The technique was a rather well-known one, named Phalanx, but it wasn’t easy to execute. Envy had enough experience as a mage though, that such tricks were simple to her.

She could sense the searching magic Wrath was using behind her but focused on the tunnels. It took a couple of minutes, but guards finally showed up and started attacking one of the barriers. The attacks were rather powerful, which signaled that the one doing the attacking wasn’t just a random guard, but Envy could still maintain the barrier. “We’ve got company. Whatever you’re doing, do it fast.” She called out.

“I’m already finished.” Wrath declared from behind her, before grabbing Envy’s shoulder. Both of them vanished in a flash of flames.

------

"Find out anything interesting," Envy asked smugly as Valor was the last of their group to arrive.

“Just the basics. Who disappeared, from where, and what they’ve managed to find out so far. The officials promised us their cooperation, but they either haven’t really found out anything, or they’re holding back. I think most of the officials are in the former camp, though probably not all.” Valor seemed a little frustrated with the official response. “Things did get a little interesting though. Apparently, there was some sort of break-in in one of the water towers that had the officials in a tizzy. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?”

“Us? What preposterous slander! We never left the inn. As far as anyone knows.” Envy faked being outraged, before letting some of her true feelings slip out with a grin.

Valor gave a suffering sigh. “So, was it worth it? Spooked the officials bad enough that they won’t be much help for a while.”

“Yes.” Wrath confirmed firmly. Most importantly to Envy, she’d lost that vacant expression and was now fully engaged again. “We found out, from a completely unrelated source of course, that the waterways below the city work as a sort of magical formation. It’s a little complicated to explain, but they’re essentially extracting the power of faith from the people living in the city. The people aren’t worshipping a god strictly speaking, but as aquatic species, they have certain reverence towards the element of water itself, and the ones that built the system are using that reverence as a source of faux-faith. I’m assuming they’re using that power to elevate new gods by expending the stored faith during the elevation process. That also explains why the gods aren’t reaching the point of becoming True Gods, as they have to gather any subsequent faith the old-fashioned way.”

“That’s…kind of sneaky but a lot less sinister than I expected.” Envy frowned. “While not something they’d want spread around, it’s hardly a motive for a string of murders.”

“True. There’s still something else to this, but if I want to find out more, I’ll have to get to the focal point of the formation, which is probably under the huge tower in the center of the city.” Wrath confirmed.

"Also known as the place where all the guards, officials, and oh yeah, the gods congregate." Wisdom pointed out. "Sounds like we're back to square one though."

“Not necessarily.” This time it was Hope’s turn to look smug. “While the rest of you were wasting your time on conspiracies and politics, I actually found something that might be helpful.”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense.” Envy prodded.

“I found something that connects all the victims. They were all fervent believers. As in, visit the temple at least three times a week-kind of believers.” Hope’s look of triumph was both adorable and childish at the same time.

“The same temple?” Wisdom clarified.

“No. Different temples. As you recall, a large portion of the victims were outsiders. It would be odd if they all served the same gods. Especially the spies. Notably though, none of the victims were believers in the local deities.” Hope knew temples and faithful were a could source of information and had gone that direction first. Even she had not expected this kind of result though.

"Huh. So, a faith-motivated string of crimes. I hate fanatics." Envy grumbled, despite utilizing such fanatics in the past.

“I wonder if that idea clears the local gods or implicates them again?” Wisdom posited with a frown.

“Could you elaborate on that? I’m not following why it would implicate them.” Valor asked. He could see the followers of the new gods getting fanatic, but not the gods themselves giving official sanction for such religious persecution.

“Well, I wonder if the strong faith of these people might mess with the formation? Is that possible?” Wisdom was only guessing as well.

They all looked towards Wrath. “I can’t say. I wasn’t able to get a detailed enough reading at the…well, wherever we got the information. I don’t think so, but I can’t rule the possibility out. It honestly might interfere by tainting the faith a bit, but I doubt it would be to the extent where murders were the answer.”

“We’ll report our current findings and keep looking. We’ll find something out eventually. We have enough karma between us that we’ll get mixed up with whatever this is even if we don’t want to.” Valor decided.