Hecat had no idea how to get started on invading the mysterious house. He definitely didn't want to lead the way. No matter what Zus said, denialibility meant being ready to throw his underling under the bus.

A side order of thunderbolt would probably also be in the offing.

He decided that he could talk to someone who could point him the right way. Mention of a key would be out to preserve his future. The rest of the scheme could be explained when he asked for help.

Hecat knew that was the way to go. An outright lie would get him shown to the door.

He reached into the aether and pulled himself across several lines until he landed in a jungle. He drew his coat around him as he pushed forward. Animals watched him as he passed. He stopped when he reached a cabin among the trees.

“Howard?,” Hecat called. The person he was visiting probably had felt his presence long before he arrived. He considered it polite to announce himself to avoid problems.

He was there to ask for assistance. He didn't need to start trouble when he needed that help.

“What do you want, Hecat?,” said Howard Klein. He stepped out of the trees, a blunderbuss pointed at his visitor. The muzzle of the weapon glowed in readiness as he held it to his shoulder.

“I just came by to ask for some advice,” said Hecat. He didn't move. “Zus handed me a job.”

“What kind of job?,” asked Klein. He wore a patched off white shirt, brown pants, and black boots. He had a brace of pistols in the sash he used for a belt. He wore a sword and a stick in sheathes on his hip. A wide hat shaded his scarred face.

The scars had been done by something feral and bigger than a man.

“I have been asked to break into a house, stop what's going on, and make sure no one knows the Mountain is involved,” said Hecat. “Zus doesn't want anyone to know he's interested.”

“Why are you telling me this?,” asked Klein.

“I don't know what kind of defenses are in place,” said Hecat. “I need an expert in storming castles.”

“What makes you think I would help you?,” asked Klein.

“Because it doesn't involve you personally having to break in,” said Hecat.

“That doesn't really mean anything,” said Klein. “Where is this house?”

Hecat slowly raised a hand. He twitched his fingers. The extradimensional map appeared in the air to one side. Putting the map between them might have led to a shooting.

“All right,” said Klein. “Don't move. I'll be right back.”

Hecat dropped his hand as Klein's dark eyes turned into white orbs. The blunderbus didn't move off target. If Klein felt a threat to his body, he would just pull the trigger from afar.

And Klein had exceptional aim with his weapon, and the willingness to shoot.

A few minutes later Klein's eyes returned to normal. He lowered the rifle, cradling it in his elbow. Hecat wasn't fooled. Unless he got lucky, Klein could bring the weapon up and shoot before he could throw a spell.

“What's really going on with that house?,” asked Klein.

“Zus thinks it's set up to keep intersections open,” Hecat said. “He doesn't want that to happen. He would have strangers tramping through his clouds.”

“I didn't see any obvious way to break in,” said Klein. “Also the space seems to be stretching in the walls. If that goes on, it might take on the bearing of a residence.”

“So this could be another Mountain,” said Hecat. “Who would be the head god if that happens?”

“I don't have any idea,” said Klein. “I don't have to tell you what will happen to that section if part of an Earth becomes a residence.”

Hecat scratched his face as he thought about billions of humans suddenly taking up the mantles of gods and trying to rule a section of their local time-space and opposing the will of the other regions at the top of the tree.

An all out war overtaking the various powers in play could cause the tree to lose the branches that support most of life.

What would Zus do if that happened?

More importantly, what would Zus do to him if he allowed anything like that to happen?

Zus wanted the key, but he didn't want any trouble for the Mountain and the regions of Earths under its protection.

“I know someone who might want to help you,” said Klein.

“Really?,” said Hecat.

“It's been a long time since I talked to him,” said Klein. “I'm going to call him. Let's go on the porch. I will make us some tea while I see if he will take the call.”

“That would be good,” said Hecat. Klein would never poison anyone. He believed in a ball to the head over arsenic.

“I'm not sure he will take the call,” said Klein. “The last time we had dealings was over some vampires trying to hide south of here.”

Hecat nodded. No one liked vampires. At the least they were dangerous predators that preyed on the unwary. When they had their years on them, they could match the gods.

And Klein and other heroes destroyed them whenever they could so the problem didn't get out of control.

Klein gestured for Hecat to sit on a straw chair as he stepped inside. He hummed as he walked around the straw and wood house. A whistle of boiling water came through the open window. A few minutes later, he returned with a tea set on a silver tray. He placed a cup in front of his visitor. He put a tea bags in their cups. He poured the hot water over the tea bags. He sat down in his own straw chair.

“Do you think Zus knows about the possibility of a residence happening?,” asked Klein.

“I have no idea,” said Hecat. He sniffed the tea. He nodded at the aroma. It made him think of the sea. “It didn't come up in the briefing. Mostly that was about how I was expendable and I needed to get things done.”

“Sounds like Zus,” said Klein. He sipped his tea.

Hecat added some sugar from a decanter to his cup and stirred the tea with a small spoon. He sipped it and nodded at the taste.

“This is good,” said Hecat.

“I got it from the local witch doctor,” said Klein. “He comes by to talk when he's free.”

“Don't tell me what's in it,” said Hecat. “Let me enjoy it.”

Klein nodded. He poured some of the tea on the tray. He wrote a circle and signs in the liquid. He pressed his hand down on the shifting signs.

He waited for a minute. The tea became a bust of a younger man. A mark in Enochian covered his forehead. He glared out of the tea at the two sitting on the porch.

“Klein,” said the bust. “What do you want?”

“I have a problem, and I think I am going to need some muscle,” said Klein. “This is Hecat. He has asked me to help him, and I am asking you.”

“What's the problem?,” said the bust.

“We're looking at a partial collapse of space-time in a region, and perhaps an apocalypse,” said Klein.

“The original problem is a stasis imposed on intersections to keep them open,” said Hecat. “That might cause the movement of the realms to break down if it goes on long enough.”

“So the three of us are supposed to break into this place and shut it down?,” said the liquid drawing.

“If we can,” said Klein.

“Where are you two?,” asked the bust.

“Remember where we killed the vampires?,” asked Klein. “We're about two hundred miles north of there.”

“I'll be there in a bit,” said the bust. “I have some business to attend to locally. I'll swing by and pick you two up when I get done.”

“We'll be waiting,” said Klein. He lifted his hand. The image dropped down to the surface of the tray.

“Who is this guy?,” asked Hecat. “He had one of the Angelic marks on his face.”

“His name is Copeland,” said Klein. “He's cursed. That curse is what we need to break into that house and look around.”

“And you think the three of us can do this?,” said Hecat.

“Barring Zus lending us the support of his lightning, we have to make do with what we have,” said Klein.

“All right,” said Hecat. “I think Zus would have my head if I asked him for more material support.”

“Don't worry,” said Klein. “Copeland's other side is hard to put down, and is able to do things we couldn't do against defenses keyed to our specialities.”

“We can be sure that house will be hardened against movement, and some of our sensory skills,” said Hecat.

“The locking of the intersections bothers me,” said Klein. “It implies trying to get control of movement across the tree.”

“I know,” said Hecat. “It also implies someone who knows how the clock works, and how the intersections are created.”

“Zus wants something out of this,” said Klein. He held up his hand to forestall any denials. “What do you want?”

“I want to go back to my retirement without Zus trying to blow me apart because I couldn't get this done,” said Hecat. “He wants to be able to deny he knows anything if I get caught by the other hierarchies trying to take down whomever is behind things.”

“It's a possible profit for the Mountain, but it's also possible war if anyone from those other regions finds out,” said Klein. “I don't envy your position.”

“I'm hoping to get done before anyone gets wise, and we have to go on the run,” said Hecat. “This might be the worse thing I have ever been involved in.”

“I doubt that,” said Klein. “I'm sure that you have done worse things than save the multiverse from a collapse and reordering of existence because someone was doing something infernal.”

“You're being more positive about this than I thought you would be,” said Hecat.

“I have vowed to rid the world of evil wherever I find it,” said Klein. “What could be more evil than allowing monsters to spread from their lairs into the places that might not have had to deal with them? What could be more just than a ball through the perpetrator's eyes?”

Hecat shrugged. When you killed monsters, he supposed the chance to kill monsters that made monsters was something to look forward to when it happened.

He wondered if that was why Zus had tasked him with this. None of the other residents would go along with open war as a distraction.