Goddess Unravelled

A New Problem

In the living room Natasha was typing away furiously, head bent over her laptop. Alice moved as quietly as she could, coming up behind the woman so she could look over her shoulder. Sure enough the garish colours of the conspiracy blog were up on the screen. Alice reached forward, leaning over the edge of the couch and put her hand on the laptop, pressing it down, stopping short just above Natasha’s fingertips.

The computer hacker looked up, mouth open and brows drawn together, clearly about to protest. Instead, her eyes met Alice’s and she stammered and went bright red. “I-I was just updating—just a previous blog post that’s all.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Alice tried to hold her amusement back at the wide-eyed look the other woman was giving her. The computer hacker looked like she thought Alice might turn her into a frog on the spot.

“You can put up whatever you want after all of this is finished.” Alice straighten up and put her hands on her hips. She was fully aware she was channeling Azura now. The older witch had an arsenal of scorching expressions when she thought someone was misbehaving. “If I catch you doing anything other than checking your email on that thing, I’ll put a spell on you that glues your fingers to the keyboard. Clear?”

The colour had slowly drained out of the Natasha’s face. “Clear.”

It was almost easy to feel bad for the woman, but Alice kept the stern look on her face. It was unlikely that the gods were keeping an eye on a ridiculous website like the God Conspiracy, but it paid to be cautious.

“Come on, let’s go downstairs. I’m hoping Azura will be back any minute.”

In fact, as Alice descended the stairs, the computer hacker following closely behind her, it occurred to her that it had been a little bit too long now. Azura should have been back by now. Of course, traveling by magic was fast, but perhaps she’d taken a long time talking with Peggy, or maybe she was trying to convince her to give up information and the other woman wouldn’t. Just from meeting the Czec woman for a few minutes, Alice doubted she’d been an easy one to convince if she didn’t want to do something.

When they arrived downstairs it was to find Gabriel, Maya and Shakra crowded around the fireplace. Azura was back, apparently. She was sitting in the armchair, a cup of tea in her hands. Alice felt her stomach drop when she saw how white her mentor’s face was.

“Azura. What happened? Are you okay?”

Azura held up one hand as Alice rushed over. “I’m alright. It’s not me.” When the older witch met her eyes, Alice could see how serious she was. “It’s Peggy. When I arrived there, she was gone. Her shop’s been trashed. All the windows were smashed, the place was turned upside down.”

Alice could feel her mouth hanging open, too stunned to say anything. Natasha didn’t appear to have the same issue. “They were looking for something?”

“I don’t think that was it.” Azura frowned. “There were drawers they didn’t go through. They didn’t punch holes in the walls to look for hiding places. It was more of a…message.”