The Deceitful One

Bryan crouched down in front of her and asked, "How can I help?"

Out of pity for the old woman sitting outside in the cold, he decided to indulge her. He would never mind helping someone if he had the ability to.

"If you give me 1 pound then I can tell you your future." The old woman chuckled.

Bryan rolled his eyes but he still took out a 1 pound note and gave it to her, "Here, what does my future hold?"

He knew this was most likely a scam but he still decided to play along. Moreover, it wasn't like she was asking for an absurd amount of money to 'read his future.'

"Oh, what a generous young man!" The old woman took the 1 pound note and kept it inside her robe first.

"This is a special deck of fortune cards that I have created with great effort. Trust me, young man, this is very accurate. Even the Gods admire me for my cartomancy.

You should feel fortunate that I only charged you a measly 1 pound." She chuckled as she started to shuffle the cards.

'Yeah right!' Bryan mocked inwardly.

A few moments later, she took out three cards and kept them on the small table, face up. Bryan rolled his eyes yet again, for he had never seen such strange fortune cards before.

The old woman held the first card that depicted a figure kneeling down on the ground with their head in their hands. In the background, there were dark clouds and a grim reaper facing their back towards the figure.

"The Mourning." Explained the old woman, "It represents a deep sense of grief that comes from the loss of a loved one."

She then picked up the second card that depicted a baby sleeping soundly on a bed made of white feathers. The background depicted illusory clouds, stars, and multi-colored rainbows.

"The Dreamer. It represents the power of dreams and imagination. And also the ability to tap into the subconscious mind."

The old woman finally picked up the third card. This fortune card depicted a white serpent forming a circle and eating its own tail. And the background was fully black in color.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, the old woman sighed inwardly, 'You're truly an enigma. Even to me.'

"The Ouroboros. The serpent of infinity represents rebirth and immortality." The old woman finally finished explaining the meaning of all the fortune cards.

She kept the cards back in the deck and then looked at Bryan earnestly, "You must pay heed to these clues from the River of Fate, young man."

Bryan shook his head and scoffed in disbelief, "You should get yourself to someplace warmer or you'll catch a cold, old lady."

He then got up and started walking to the HQ, completely discarding this little farce from his mind.

Meanwhile, the old woman deeply stared at Bryan's departing back as her eyes gradually turned silver.

"Consider this my gesture of goodwill, Bryan Lombardi. We shall meet again in Nadir." The old woman smiled faintly as her body transformed into bright silver strings.

The next moment she completely disappeared from the spot!

An old tramp who was sitting by a burn barrel across the street saw this happen and his eyes widened.

He looked at the place where the old woman disappeared. Rubbing his eyes to check if he was hallucinating or not, he looked at the spot again.

Then he looked at the bottle of alcohol in his hand and shrugged, "The rum must be of really good quality, hehe."

...

The weeks that followed were truly hectic for Bryan and the rest of the members of the Strike Team.

After Bryan provided the information that he had gotten from Jamie to Robert, their night patrols increased significantly.

So much so, that the members of the team barely spent any time at the HQ.

Combining the information that Bryan had provided along with the Hell's spawn case that happened on the 10th of December, Robert deduced that the people who were inciting the low-class workers were most likely the cultists of the Inferno Order.

With a background as deep as theirs, it would completely make sense that they somehow got their hands on the highly classified information regarding automatons.

It could also be members of the Holy Blood Sect but that was very unlikely. Since most of their members preferred to stay low-key compared to the cultists of the Inferno Order, all of whom were insane.

With the way things were going, both Robert and Bishop Walls believed that something terrible was definitely about to happen in Damascus.

Hence, they naturally had to increase their vigilance.

The Silver Owls also had to investigate the members of the Holy Blood Sect. Although they had been remaining low, the number of disappearances around the slum areas hadn't stopped at all.

What was even more irksome was the fact that the Wisdom and Fate Path Transcendents of the Church of Wisdom could not accurately divine the plans and whereabouts of the members of both these evil organizations.

Having possession of artifacts that could counter divination, effectively brought to a standstill one of the main abilities that the Transcendents of both Paths could utilize.

The only way to overcome this hindrance was to have a Transcendent, whose rank was higher than the artifact being used by the two evil organizations, perform divination.

However, the highest ranking Transcendent from the Church of Wisdom in Damascus was Rank 3.

This meant that the artifact being used to hinder divination was at least a Rank 3 artifact!

Although Bishop Walls had already informed the Church in Nadir of this development in Damascus and asked for reinforcements, he was not sure when they would arrive.

It could take a few weeks or maybe even a few months. After all, the Silver Owls in Nadir also had their own matters to look after. It was very difficult to send help to other cities or even kingdoms.

For now, all they-- the Silver Owls of Damascus--could do was bide their time and do their utmost to find the cultists hiding in the shadows.