Devil's Consultancy 45

With her attempts to reach out to Captain Marvel directly thwarted, Tanya put out some feelers on how she would go about reaching the Rock of Eternity, and then waited until the next opening in her schedule. 

Naturally, Ace took much better to magic than Jason, as she had the power, she just needed control over it. Lessons were, however, sparse: Diana had started to train Ace physically, which had started after their first visit to Themyscira: Ace was apparently quite enamored with the island. 

In fact, it led to this, a weekend trip to the legendary Island of Amazons. It wouldn’t be her first visit to the place, as she had previously arrived to personally negotiate ArcWayne’s access to the Clay of Life that was then stolen. 

Themyscira looked like ancient Greece: painted marble everywhere, colorful works of art showcasing the culture of the Amazons. Signs of ArcWayne’s deal and further cultural exchange with Man’s world were everywhere, from the modern-style playground that was overflowing with little girls, none older than six, to the literal cell phone tower that was cunningly disguised in a very tall platform, practically an obelisk, upon which a statue dedicated to Hermes was posed, holding his hand to his forehead to better peer over the ocean. It was pointing to Gotham. 

The tower, and all of the rest of the data infrastructure, was managed by a dedicated communications satellite that maintained position above Themyscira’s current position in the Bermuda Triangle. It could move, but it hadn’t for the last twenty years. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on additional Clay of Life, which the Amazons were capable of producing in larger quantities, so they had plenty of money to pay for these things. In related news, many billionaires are now glowing with the vitality of youth. The magical Egyptian skin cream was very expensive (one hundred million per year for a consistent supply was what they were charging, and there were still buyers) to maintain a regimen of, but it was by far the most lucrative product of ArcWayne. Even more than the toy golems. This fact annoyed her. The amount of security they needed to be able to offer it for legitimate medical uses, practically sold at a loss compared to the amount they could get from the billionaires… at least you didn’t need continuous application for those…

That wasn’t to say that the old ways of the Amazons were abandoned; on the way to the royal palace, where Diana’s mother was, Tanya saw no less than eight sparring arenas in active use. There were some modern sports armor and padded weapons for the two of them that had six year old trainees sparring with each other, but for the most part the women fought full contact, the only sign of the updated times being the addition of sports bras underneath their armor. 

There was a sizable fraction of obvious immigrants, too: all women, of course, but there were several girls who had the technical expertise to keep everyone’s phones and computers in working order, a few sports scientists and pediatricians, child development experts, and that was just the professions Tanya could recall off the top of her head, and that wasn’t even counting the numerous women with few job skills that were recruited from women’s shelters, while obviously not every abused wife would be willing to move to Themyscira just to get away, about half were happy to do so. There were no less than five different thickly built women wearing overalls, construction experts, directing others with heavy machinery on the walk towards the palace, each job site installing electrical systems and more convenient plumbing systems in the old buildings while doing as little damage as possible. 

In other words, Diana’s dream of her home taking a place on the world stage, to engage with Man’s world instead of hiding away, was now reality. She walked the path between the parking spot of Bruce Wayne’s small spaceship (the envy of his peers) and the royal palace with a reserved but clear happy smile on her face, acknowledging each of the greetings she received from those they passed. 

Ace and Tanya followed at her sides, trailing a step back and taking in the sights. Ace imitated Diana’s reserve, her smile no less genuine but with small nods and waves instead of Tanya’s exaggerated ones. 

For her part, Tanya played her usual role, the excitable child. She paid extra attention to anyone who was pointing a cell phone camera at them,  as while there weren’t very many social media influencers from Themyscira, and most of them were immigrants, there were still a few Amazons that took to the internet like ducks to water. Even if most of them needed a program to censor all of the incidentally exposed breasts that were commonly visible when in the public areas of Themyscira. 

Not that it was anywhere near everyone, mind you: while there wasn’t any taboo against exposing them, Amazons were typically quite well endowed, so even if their backs were superhumanly capable of bearing the weight, that didn’t mean they wanted things bouncing around during physical activities. But if you have more than a hundred Amazons in one place without anything pushing for a particular mode of dress, there’s going to be at least one exposed nipple in every direction you look, and that’s not even counting the breastfeeding mothers. No one cares. 

Diana’s mother, Hippolyta, welcomed them at the front of the palace. From the subtle discomfort of her honor guard, Tanya suspected that she had gotten impatient to see her daughter. …She has got to stop psychoanalyzing everyone’s posture and microexpressions. She blames Bruce. “Welcome back, Diana!” Hippolyta said, before kneeling down to Ace and Tanya’s height. “Ace! How’s my favorite granddaughter?” she asked, hugging the girl. 

Ace blushed at the physical contact, but returned the hug with eagerness only held back by her insistence on copying Diana’s poise. “Sorry Tanya.” Ace whispered from over the older amazon’s shoulder. 

“I’m not her grandchild yet.” Tanya whispered back. “Enjoy your number one spot while it lasts.” She added in a joking, half-competitive tone. Ace smiled in relief, indicating that the joke landed. 

Not acknowledging the exchange, Hippolyta stood back up and started walking into the palace. “Come in, come in.” She said, her voice slipping back into something between the doting grandmother tone and the regal, authoritative one she used when Tanya met her in an older state. “I’ve had lunch prepared.” She added.

Lunch was delicious, of course, filled with conversation about the upcoming wedding: where it is, what would be an acceptable limit of seats assigned to Themyscirans, because basically everyone on the island wanted to go, and speculating whether or not Hera would agree to officiate. 

As a wedding with blended cultures, there was naturally much to talk about, particularly because Diana wanted to do most of the planning personally instead of just hiring a famous wedding planner like Bruce was going to before the idea was nixed. Fortunately, Bruce was perfectly fine with the ceremony being mostly according to the amazon’s traditions, he just had a few stipulations of his own on parts of the Christian ceremony that he’d want to keep, such as the reciting of vows and the ceremonial kiss. This was complicated by the fact that Themysciran weddings were… not really a thing. So Diana, ironically, wanted more Americanisms in the ceremony than Bruce did. 

Actually, was it ironic that each partner wanted to include the other’s culture more in the ceremony? Thoughts for later… reading history, especially ceremonies thick with meaning, on original mediums was one of her favorite things! It wasn’t as exciting to peruse after it had been put into a digital format… 

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After lunch… well, more like an hour after lunch, the bridal magazines and papyrus scrolls were put away and they moved on to something else. 

The palace didn’t actually have a private sparring arena, it didn’t have a lot of things, like a large bath (it did have a few small ones), a training field, or even a private stage for entertainment, actually, as Queens past chose to not separate themselves from their people, instead investing in sufficient infrastructure that the royal family could simply pick one that wasn’t too busy to show up in, meet their people and conduct their leisure among them. That didn’t mean that every arena was freely available to all: there wasn’t a formal banning of immigrants going to certain places, but social pressures limited most of them to staying on the northern half of the island. 

So it was with an audience of about two dozen other Amazons on the southern half that Tanya found herself across an Amazon in the sparring ring, one Donna Troy. She was the most recent Amazon to be birthed through the Clay of Life, although they did tend to do such a thing in batches so she was only a few days younger than the second youngest of her nine sisters. At thirty-five years old, those born of clay matured more slowly than others, so she looked about fifteen. In another five years, she’ll be considered a full adult warrior and have no more restrictions on herself due to her age. 

Donna was equipped with standard amazonian armor and live steel; Tanya had cast her usual sparring enchantment on the arena, the magic settling in easily: the fact that this sparring arena had seen thousands of years of friendly conflicts made the spell practically cast itself. Tanya wore a matching set of armor, but instead of a sword, she had her fingers ready to draw from the Batman-style utility belt she wore over the armor. 

“Remember Donna, with the magic in place, you can fight to kill without danger.” Diana warned her. Beforehand, Hippolyta banned recordings of this battle, and not a single Amazon even tried to go against her order, instead excited at the concept of seeing something that was not for the eyes of Men. “Tanya, there’s no need to pretend: just enjoy yourself.”

Hippolyta held up a colorful cloth and tossed it upwards. The instant it touched the ground, Donna burst forward, seeking to thrust her sword right into Tanya’s face. 

Tanya leaned backward, shifting her weight onto her left hand and using the tension of the extreme position to shift onto her right hand, getting just enough distance to swing her leg too fast for a normal human’s eyes to perceive clearly, a black corona of energy forming into an ice skate blade and disemboweling the young Amazon. 

Donna screamed in pain, the injury vanishing between eyeblinks and taking a second for her to realize that she wasn’t hurt, there wasn’t a drop of blood spilled, and even her armor was intact. Meanwhile, Tanya put in a few more gymnastics flourishes into getting back on her feet. “What the…” She muttered, touching her stomach. 

“I did warn you that it was just as painful as real injury.” Tanya said, putting on a bored air. She may not have ever intended to put on a vigilante costume until the Witch Girl identity became necessary, but she still went through the same training Dick did and Jason still is; she just did it for fun. Did she work even half as hard as Dick, Barbie, or Jason did at the martial arts? No. But she had the advantage of what Bruce called talent and she called experience to ensure that she matched or even exceeded their skill levels, and that was before she used magic to enhance her attributes further. “I use demon magic, this kind of spell is usually used for torture.” By now, she could do it without needing to double-think it as torturing the combatants, but back when she was first developing it, she frequently needed to reframe what she was doing as sadistic in order to make her magic do what she wanted. 

“I won’t underestimate you again.” Donna promised, and she approached much more cautiously, now taking Tanya seriously as a combatant. “Yah!” She shouted, advancing with many small adjustments of her position, obscuring the exact angle of her approach. 

Tanya couldn’t help but compare the trained warrior to Bruce, and found the girl wanting. Still, she was having fun. And part of the fun was… “Slow…” Tanya taunted with a bored tone as she coated her hand with magic and parried the blade, moving her hand in a languid motion, as if warding off a fly. 

Donna attempted to transition her strike into something that Tanya was not in a position to parry or dodge, but her hand fell off in a clean cut from Tanya’s other hand idly flinging a mage blade enhanced Batarang through it, so all she accomplished was splashing Tanya’s torso with blood. In an eyeblink, the injury was gone, as were the bloodstains. 

As her opponent recovered from the mental trauma of losing her hand without noticing, Tanya theatrically sighed. “You’re fast, and probably pretty strong.” She said, “But I’m better.”

“Tanya, it’s unbecoming of a warrior to act this way.” Diana said. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re just copying your cartoons.” Turning to Donna, she added: “Magically, she’s putting in her full effort. Do not be disheartened.”

Okay, she may have been pretending to be an anime villain for fun. “Fine, fine.” Tanya said, “I’ll stop.” She assumed an actual fighting stance, crouched low with her hands hovering over her utility belt. Admittedly, the spinoff ninjutsu stance looked a lot cooler when one was wearing the full Batman cloak, concealing the exact orientation of her legs to betray what direction she was ready to leap in: in this case, she was ready to leap backwards, her right leg extended forward. Her black hair, currently loose, was a poor substitute. Unless… no, that’s silly. Using magic hair as clothes is a stupid idea, she wasn’t nearly sexy enough to copy that video game. 

Donna glanced at the weapon rack at the side, and reached out towards it. “Shield!” She shouted, and one of Diana’s friends tossed one for her to catch with her left arm. Tanya allowed this; it was just a spar, after all. 

When the girl charged, more carefully than before in the expectation that Tanya would be trying to maintain distance, Tanya’s fingers plucked some smoke bombs from her belt and tossed them to the floor in front of her, the small explosives expelling the special dust to make a thick cloud. Taking more gadgets from her belt, Tanya rolled to Donna’s right, a little forward, and sprayed a line of explosive compound as she went with her left hand, while her right hand instead tossed a Batarang wide, the memory of the guidance formula allowing her to silently let it curve back and go for the girl’s left side. 

Donna’s reflexes were sufficient to deflect the Batarang with her shield, but she was not foolish enough to charge, instead holding steady and straining her ears to catch Tanya’s movements. But she was focusing on the wrong ear…

A grapple line caught Donna’s sword arm, and an electrical jolt induced a spasm, making her drop it. Instead of letting that stop her, the young amazon charged along the grapple line, maneuvering to use her shield as a weapon. 

Tanya detonated the explosive when Donna was stepping on it, causing her to fall to the ground, and Tanya closed in, quickly grappling the girl and dislocating both of her arms in short order. 

When Tanya leapt away and blinked, the arms were back in place, and Donna roared in frustration, tears forming in her eyes. “Why can’t I win?” She asked desperately, “I’m the strongest in my class!”

“Despite her appearance, Tanya’s a veteran of many battles, Donna.” Diana said soothingly, walking onto the arena and comforting her. “She trained further with the finest warrior I’ve met in Man’s World, and in magical power she is comparable to myself.” In demon form, true. Unfortunately, her nonlethal sparring spell fails against the kind of power a demigoddess can throw around, so while Tanya was pretty sure she’d lose against Diana in a no holds barred fight… she also had a few ideas that might allow her to win… “It is no shame to lose to such an opponent.”

“I suppose I should have listened to you, Daughter.” Hippolyta said, “But I wanted to see your suitor’s combat skills for myself, and his daughter did not disappoint.” There was a reason she focused on using Bruce’s ninjutsu instead of bringing out her rifle, bayonet ready. “Still, I believe you mentioned that Ace had made progress in her magic studies?”

Tanya grinned. Yes, she had! Jason did manage to make a usable mantra eventually, but he lacked the power to actually do much with it, so progress has been slow. He apparently had a minor affinity for necromancy, so he had been focusing his efforts on summoning and questioning ghosts for now. 

Tanya returned to where Diana was seated, Ace in her lap like a child five years younger. Smoothly, the two traded places, the technically-older girl walking calmly onto the sparring arena, where Donna awaited. 

Ace took a deep breath, and settled into a ready stance. Unlike Tanya, she didn’t put on a set of armor, and instead was wearing a toga that went all the way down to the floor. “Cadmus. Oneiros. Chara!” Ace shouted, floating upward as her power flowed out from her, a white mist that sparkled. Any who looked upon it hallucinated images, flashes of what was currently floating around in their head, what they would dream about if they went to bed right now. Tanya could see that playground they saw on the way in in the mist, her subconscious probably making a plan for if she needed to play there for her cover. 

Donna was caught off guard, the uneasiness of her stance indicating that what she was seeing was not nice. But she spoke Greek, so she was probably prepared for fake images given the mantra. 

Ace’s spell congealed into objects, specifically a few glowing golden ropes that shot out and attempted to ensnare Donna’s limbs. Simulacra of the Lasso of Truth, they were Ace’s go-to offensive option. 

Unfortunately, she chose one of the absolute worst people to use it on. Donna deftly positioned herself to bat away the ropes, cutting any that made progress in their goal. While Ace’s constructs were quite durable, the Amazon had enough magical talent to sharpen her sword, allowing it to damage the magical construct and sever the ropes when a normal sword would fail. 

With buoyed confidence, Donna advanced and attempted to skewer Ace with her sword. A shimmering shield, as in a physical shield that glew with an inner light, sprung into existence to block the attack, and while Donna’s sword did sink into it, it stopped after only a few centimeters, nowhere near enough to do anything with. 

Ace gestured, and the shield spun, wrenching the blade out of Donna’s hand. “Cadmus, Oneiros, Chara.” She incanted, and suddenly an ethereal copy of Diana, looking like a living constellation with points of light that had lines drawn between them, grabbed the sword and started swinging it at Donna. 

The amazon wasn’t out of it yet, though: she used her own shield to bash away the sword, hit the constellation-Diana in the chest with the edge of her shield, and drew a backup knife to cut the construct’s throat. It dissolved, and Donna took her sword back. 

Despite Ace’s new tricks, it only took about two more exchanges before Donna had Ace on the ground, choking the girl’s windpipe with her thighs so she couldn’t incant her mantra. Naturally, Ace tapped out. 

Hippolyta was sure to reiterate that Tanya’s combat skills were not to be spoken of to Man’s world before everyone dispersed, an hour later, and not a single Amazon present hesitated from agreeing. 

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Tanya’s second attempt to get Captain Marvel’s patron, the wizard that may or may not be a demon, angel, or even both, one of the nephilim that the Fourth Apocalypse War started over, to reveal themselves was done in her CEO identity, trying to get some ArcWayne work done. 

Specifically, she had scheduled a series of meetings with some of the practitioners that SivMana was employing, attempting to headhunt and possibly get a hint on what they were working on. 

“Mr. Karnes, it’s nice to meet you.” Tanya said politely, standing up to shake the man’s hand. She had dressed in businesswear, a pantsuit with a jacket styled after military dress uniforms, and she thought she wore it well. “Sit, sit, have whatever you want, this is all expensed anyway.”

“Call me Stan, although my friends call me Stinky.” Mr. Karnes said, sitting down. “It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Degurechaff.”

Tanya resisted the urge to correct him, reminding herself that she didn’t really earn her doctorate. As nice as it was to have one. Besides, he didn’t seem to mean it in a malicious or condescending way, unlike some other people she’s met with. “I do recommend the steak, I know the supplier and any chef worth their whites can turn them into masterpieces.” Well, she picked the restaurant by asking the people Alfred buys her favorite beef from if they sell it to anyone in Fawcett, and it turned out they did. 

After some idle conversation, a little bit about Mr. Karnes family (divorced, but with custody of his ten year old son Timothy), a little bit about her own personal life (she vaguely alluded to a younger half-sister, Timothy’s age, as her only family, but otherwise insisted that she spent her off time with old books more than anything else), the food arrived, and after a moment of silence as they ate, they got down to business. 

“So I have to ask: Did you ever consider applying to ArcWayne before getting scouted by SivMana?” Tanya asked, to start things off. 

“I did.” Mr. Karnes said, “But I was going through the divorce at the time, so I kept putting it off, not wanting to look like I was trying to separate Timmy from his mother, not to mention I needed to hide all of the diabolism from the courts…” He looked her up and down. “I’m sure you can sympathise with that, at least.”

“It’s rough for those who consort with demons in this country.” Tanya said neutrally, “There are quite a few that can be worked with, if you cultivate the right relationships.”

“Absolutely.” Mr. Karnes agreed, his smile the greasy sort that criminals sport when they think they’re speaking among likeminded individuals. “Not to brag, but I’ve dealt with some pretty heavy hitters in my day.”

Tanya hummed, pretending to be impressed. She was beginning to get the impression that his insistence on an in-person meeting, the only one of her meetings today that did so, had less than professional intentions. She can work with this, he’d probably be more willing to divulge secrets if she plays this right. Besides, he was kind of good looking… “Have you gotten anything interesting from those works?” She asked, “Now that the awkward part’s over with, my own deal for youth turned out pretty well for me.” Tanya sipped at her mocktail. “Being a teenager again wasn’t exactly fun, but I coped.”

“Is that why you’re not drinking?” He asked, sipping at his whiskey. 

“Yes.” Tanya said without elaboration. “But back to my question, have you gotten anything like that?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” He said, a bragging note in his tone. “I have a contract that, if I speak a magic word, I get infused with the skills and strength of four damned souls, strong ones.”

Ah. “Very impressive.” Tanya said, “I preferred to bargain for power that I need to shape myself, it’s more versatile.” Idly, she used a mage blade to cut off the next piece of her steak. “So is it just a basic possession overlay with subordination? Or is there some level of refinement on your part?”

It didn’t take long for Tanya to connect the man to one of Captain Marvel’s recurring foes, the “demon” Ibac, but there was one little thing about his explanation on how it worked: the phrasing… The Captain’s offhand mentions, when discussing his powers, of the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Courage of Achilles… 

Is that how Captain Marvel’s power works?