Birds of a feather can never go wrong,

Helping each other along.

– “Birds of a Feather” by Jack McGowan and Ed Moran 1921

After going through the phonebook, Brother Roger found what he was looking for. The Fishermen resided on 123 Fake Street. While the astral realm was a mirror of the earth realm many of the buildings, streets and roads were renamed. This added to the confusion of many of the people who lived and worked in earth-realm Chicago.

When Brother Roger and Mockingbird finally arrived, they found poorly constructed chain-link fence that ran the length of the entirety of the block. Swinging on the fence by a single metal ring a sign read: “Property of the Fishermen. Under construction. KEEP OUT! This means you, Brother Roger!”

He gawked at the sign till Mockingbird pointed out it was an enchantment that auto-filled in the name of the person reading it. Inside the gate was a barren field. Debris of broken concrete and a patchwork of weeds and native grasses littered the field. From first glance, it appeared no one lived here.

“Refresh my memory on astral property little friend,” asked Brother Roger.

He wanted to bounce ideas off his battle avatar to determine if he was missing the obvious.

“Well, the more wagered battles you win the more astral property you are allowed to own. The Fishermen have over 100 plus total victories, with zero losses. One can assume their property holdings would be large enough to own an entire city block and then some,” commented Mockingbird.

Brother Roger nodded as he continued to stare at the vacant lot. He started to turn around and walk away thinking that perhaps they owned a vacant lot to throw people off where they really lived. His Bible and fountain pen fell out of his pocket and opened up to Romans chapter 5.

His pen pointed to verse 3 that read “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn and endure.”

“What does that mean?” asked Mockingbird.

“It means we’re being tested, let’s go inside,” he replied with renewed determination.

They pushed open the gate that was half closed by a chain and lock. As they continued inside, a sudden gray fog crept towards them. Mockingbird kept close to Brother Roger as they ventured into the fog.

The stillness of the area made it difficult for them to get a sense of there they were at. It didn’t help that neither of them knew exactly where they were going.

Doubts of his pursuit began to fill his mind. Roger started to question his current methods and if his clues were correct.

Nagging doubts tugged at the back of his mind, “maybe The Deacon was right, you are a conspiracy nut”, “and this plan of yours is going to fail” and “the coffee man’s advice was nothing but lies” echoed repeatedly in his head.

Mockingbird started to feel the effect and began to visibly shake.

He closed his eyes, as the thoughts invaded his mind. He felt a tugging at his pocket as he fished his Bible out of his pocket. It immediately opened up to John.

His eyes fell upon 4:18 “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.”

Brother Roger’s focus returned as he felt a white-light build up deep inside. As quickly as the fog appeared the light exploded and expelled the fog. He was surrounded by an aura that wrapped around him like a warm blanket, fresh from the dryer.

The fog formed a tunnel that opened up to a large two-story fairy tale cottage. They moved out of the fog and towards a two story house.

The sign hanging over the door had a picture of three bars and the word “House” scribbled on it.

“Ha! Ha!” Brother Roger said snorting with amusement. “Three Bars House, cute.”

Mockingbird couldn’t tell if he was being serious or he was kidding. He looked around for a doorbell or ringer. All he found was an old sign. Carved upon the sign was:

Indisputable tenants of The Unconquered Temple of Light:

1. Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam! (translation: I will find a way or make one)

2. Don’t forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember you are never alone.

3. Si vis pacem, para bellum (translation: if you want peace, prepare for war)

4. In somnis veritas (translation: in dreams there is truth)

5. Tepora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis (translation: times are changing, change with them)

6. A dream to some, and a nightmare to others!

7. The light of truth shall extinguish the darkness of ignorance

8. You insult us in your dream; you better wake up and apologize

9. You think that’s air you are breathing now?

10. In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. (translation: We go in circles at night and are consumed by fire)

Brother Roger read the tenants and had Mockingbird provide the translation.

“Our Church has tenants, so do all guilds have tenants?” asked Mockingbird.

Brother Roger paused for a moment before answering, “They are required for a guild to operate. It tells the world your dogma.”

He allowed his thoughts to drift back. On occasional he passed by the Unconquered Temple of Light located on church row. The building on the outside appeared to be a simple connivance store, minus the gas pumps.

After reflecting on his experience with the fog, he began to suspect there was more to its mundane appearance. He peeped in the window and saw three bowls on the table in an otherwise empty house.

“Think they got portage in those bowls?” he asked for half jokingly.

Mockingbird shrugged. Brother Roger then knocked on the door. No answer. He tried again. Still no answer, and before he could try one last time he heard a voice.

“Tis’ some visitor, ‘tapping at my chamber door – Only this, and nothing more,’” said the squeaky voice.

Brother Roger and Mockingbird looked up. A large black crow stood at the top of the thatched gable over the front door, looking down at him as if he was the next meal.

“Quoth the crow?” he replied.

When he and his sister were younger, his father would read them Poe’s “The Raven” every Halloween.

“Occasionally!” Crow squawked loudly. “What are you doing here Holy man? I know you are so poor you can only afford one God, so leave us alone. We have no money for beggars!”

Mockingbird puffed up proudly on Brother Roger’s shoulder before flying to Crow. Mockingbird stared defiantly into Crow’s beady black eyes.

“That’s my friend you are talking to, show some respect,” Mockingbird said.

“I only came here to talk about…” interrupted Roger.

“Did you forget religious rule number-1, pinkie? Nobody here’s in the mood to yak about God, Jesus, Muhammad, Vishnu, Satan, or any of the others out there. Aphrodite is ok, but your kind is not welcome here. Now shoo!” shouted Crow.

In an unusual display of aggression, Mockingbird pushed Crow. Being a larger bird, Crow didn’t budge. Then the big black bird pushed Mockingbird back. The little bird fell to the ground with a thud as Brother Roger bent over to pick his battle avatar up. Its left wing tucked in, apparently wounded.

“Let’s get out of here, we need to talk,” Mockingbird telepathically said to Roger.

“Manners go a long away, my feathered friend!” Roger said after tucking his avatar in his coat.

As he walked away Crow continued hurling insults. They made their way into the fog, but this time the disruptive voices didn’t return.

“What’s wrong?” asked Brother Roger.

Mockingbird began to babble about how the big mean bully was being so mean. The private telepath said a different story.

“Crow did an information dump,” mentally said Mockingbird.

“A what?” replied Roger.

“Finally, something I know and you don’t!” Mockingbird said telepathically, “We Avatars can push massive amounts of information to each other. We can literally tell a book’s worth of information in a few seconds. Crow called it an information dump. We are being followed by someone.”

“What? How?”

“I think it was the half naked girl at the Speakeasy. Crow told me I was marked and disabled the tracer enchantment,” commented Mockingbird.

Brother Roger wondered how long he was being tracked and who it was. He looked up and could see through the fog and to the exit out.

Mockingbird continued, “Stay here for a bit, no one will see us in this fog. I was given a plan. When Crow pushed me, she slipped me a key and told me where to go. You need to go to some place in the open where our tail can see you. Crow also taught me how to set up a temporary telepathic link between you and Mr. Bad Kitty and we can talk further.”

Brother Roger didn’t like being away from his battle avatar, but felt if he wanted to get his information he would have to trust the plan. Mockingbird took a silver key from under its wing and jumped into the air and flew off.

Brother Roger decided to go to the one place he knew was safe, the Church of Nazareth, his Church and guild house.

He walked out of the magical fog and teleported away. One of the perks he received as being a founding member of his Church was the ability to teleport to his guild house without delay. He made his way to a pew and pulled out his Bible and began to read.

He opened up his mind to share current sights and feeling with his battle avatar. They became one mind and one body.

Crow meet up with Mockingbird as the two flew through the Gate of the Rising Sun, near the Central Bank.

After a bright flash and when his vision cleared he was soaring high over a strange city. The bright multi-colored neon lights lit up the night sky. A familiar looking Central Bank floated over the city on the five fingered road that held it up high in the sky.

The pair flew together till they reached a building labeled in strange letters. Crow translated “Saber Regency – Tokyo”.

Brother Roger recalled that the Saber Regency had hotels in all of the cities that Astral Fight Club was established. In addition to being a five-star hotel, it held the exclusive Star Light Lounge, which was member only.

Mockingbird and Crow flew into the main lobby. The pair continued to the elevator and Mockingbird inserted his key into the keyhole. As the key disappeared an elevator door opened up and they flew inside. There was only one button and Mockingbird pecked at it.

A soft female voice over the intercom said “Next stop, Star Light Lounge”.

When the elevator doors opened up, stars floated above. A red velvet rope closed off the entrance to the lounge. A waiter in a black tuxedo stood preventing the unwanted from entering.

Mockingbird and Crow flew up to the waiter.

In a French accent, the maître calmly said, “This way, our most treasured guests.”

The man led them to a private booth overlooking the city of Tokyo. The stars overhead twinkled brightly overhead. A waitress appeared and Crow took the opportunity to order water with a squeeze of lemon, and a martini ‘to go’ for later.

Mockingbird tried to order a coffee in a large bowl, but Crow interrupted and told the waitress to bring an Italian cappuccino instead. The waitress appeared a few seconds later with the drinks and left the two birds alone.

“So why are “we” being bothered?” asked Crow.

“Do you know who was following us and why?” asked Mockingbird, linked back to Brother Roger.

“Whippoorwill’s battle avatar has been following you. Her tells are obvious once know what to look for.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Whippoorwill is a genius. When she was 10 she earned her first Doctorate in Genetics and Microbiology. At 15, she earned a 2nd Doctorate in astrophysics. Now, at age 20, she is working in MIT designing new types of matter and working on her 3rd doctorate in theoretical quantum physics. If we combined our collective IQ’s, we wouldn’t even come close to hers. Geniuses like her suffer from the same weakness, they underestimate their opponents. All the disguises she has given her battle avatar look like true-self in one way or the other. She is so full of herself; she doesn’t think anyone is smart enough to catch on. Whippoorwill’s absolutely confident that you don’t know you are being followed. You can now take advantage of that ignorance.”

“You know what her true self looks like?” asked Mockingbird excitedly.

Crow explained that she was a short, sickly thin pale female with no figure. She has slicked back black hair, usually, wears it in a ponytail, and bags under her brown eyes.

In the astral realm, she keeps her hair long. Her eyesight is poor and is too proud to wear glasses. If it wasn’t for the floor-length dresses she wears and long hair, you would suspect you were looking at the guy.

"When her battle avatar takes the form of a human, it will have one of the previously mentioned features,” said Crow.

“I didn’t realize that avatars could take the form of humans.”

“They can do just about anything you can do, with the right training,” said Crow.

Brother Roger filed this away for later research and experimentation.

“So how do you know all of this?” asked Mockingbird.

“You have your contacts, I have my officers, the House of the One God has their spies, especially in your guild,” quietly said Crow.

Brother Roger broke his link with Mockingbird and looked around suspiciously. Fellow guild members were walking around. New guild members were everywhere. A new member, with a German accent, was speaking in tongues with another person he only saw a few times. He suddenly felt surrounded by enemies.

He asked himself, “There are so many new faces. Whom can I trust?”

When he reestablished contact with Mockingbird, his avatar was busy splashing around in the cappuccino. Brother Roger carefully thought about his next question before asking.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

The answer came quickly, apparently, Mr. Bad Kitty already had a prepared answer, as Crow replied, “I won’t insult your intelligence by asking if you heard of the jaded expression: there are two sides to every coin. Well, the people who use that stupid expression are ignorant, to say the least. People forget that coins are 3-dimentional. There are heads, tails, and side. While you embrace in the light, Baba Yaga dances in the dark; I walk the balance between both, side. I'm helping you because she seeks to tip the razor-thin balance between good and evil.”

Normally, Brother Roger would question the implication of Mr. Bad Kitty’s heads/tails/side delima, but he wasn’t here for a religious debate. He needed answers.

Mockingbird jumped out of the cappuccino cup and kicked over the silver pepper shaker. The bird began drawing the strange symbol from the last fight with its beak in the spilled pepper.

“Do you know what this rune is?” asked Mockingbird.

“It’s a sigil, not a rune. Runes are symbols with meaning. Sigils are different magical incantations combined into one character.” Crow paused for three seconds and then continued, “This sigil doubles all the cause and effect principles within its boundaries.”

“Could it cause change the nature of the drain?”

“The drain?” asked Crow.

“You know, the draining feeling you get when you lose.”

“I never lost, but it would double whatever you lost on your wager and her gain. It’s not illegal because both of you have the same potential to make an equal gain or equal loss. In reality, it’s not morally right either because only one party knows about the tweaking of the rules,” responded Crow.

Brother Roger began to wonder how many other people were taken advantage of by her sigil.

“Do you think Baba Yaga is the whore of Babylon?” asked Mockingbird.

“It doesn't matter what I think, what’s important is what you and she thinks. You two are the main characters; I’m just here for the cameo.” Crow said.

The waitress came by and dropped off the martini. It signaled the end of the conservation. Crow delicately picked up the drink in its beak and flew off.

Brother Roger and Mockingbird sat in their respective locations and milled over the conservation together. Armed with a cleared knowledge of the situation, Roger knew he needed further information. With spies about, he needed to be cautious.