"What the hell are we going to do about it?" I said.
"Do we need to do anything?" asked Niall. "It seems to be intent on bringing paradise to Furrae. What's so bad about that?"
"For someone who was nearly sacrificed to help feed It, that's a pretty blinkered viewpoint," I snapped. "Look, kid. Have you ever heard of the great god Kar'Pech?"
"No," he replied in a subdued tone, sensing my concern.
"Well, Kar'Pech was a Fae. He wanted to be a god, and with the powers at his disposal he was able to pull it off pretty good. He appeared before the inhabitants of a prosperous city, and by the time he left - a thousand years later - it had fallen into ruins. Its people were reduced to serfs tending the land to bring him sacrifices of grain and wheat. Living in shanties... illiterate.
That was his idea of 'paradise' - a feudal system where he was on top and everyone else worshipped him and obeyed him in all things."
Niall's tail drooped. "And what happened to this Kar'Pech?"
"Oh, he got bored with it all. The way the story goes, he left the city one night in search of new challenges. Some say he began to try and teach feral rabbits to talk so that they could worship him. Others say he succeeded, but that's not the point. It took his worshippers over a hundred years of praying for his return before they finally twigged he wasn't coming back and slowly began to rebuild their once-proud city.
"Now whatever the Dark God is planning may be paradise for It but for us mere, uh, quasi-mortals it will assuredly seem more like hell."
Niall swallowed. "So, er.. what are we going to do about it?"
"You know what? I haven't the faintest idea."
In an attempt to clear my mind, I decided to go for a stroll in the city.
Disguising myself as a fox Being, I took Niall with me and we set off into the dark, rain-spattered night. I always found these trips invigorating.. the faint aura of nervousness and fear which the sight of a stranger brought to my citizens had become my primary source of nourishment. A little cruel perhaps, but I could feel it doing me good all the way down.
Everyone who saw me go past had a faint thrill of terror, a sinking feeling that the stranger in front of them might be Johan Cross (and it was!) and they would hurry away, their heart beating faster with the fear that I had come to end their lives.
I could feel that Niall was able to metabolise this too, which was good. The only problem with taking him out to feed like this was that he wasn't yet able to disguise himself properly. I had taught him to conceal his headwings, but I didn't want him to go out with the same base form each night. Someone would eventually realise who he was, and from there deduce who his companion was which increased the risk of assassination for us both.
I resolved to try and build him a concealment charm. Azrael had been the true master of that and most of his secrets had died with him, but all the same I should be able to rig something to change his fur colour.
The trenchcoat helped disguise me of course, and Niall was similarly attired. It also helped cut down the amount of rain which made it through to our fur, saving the irritation of getting wet and the attendant problems of drying it out again. Sitting in front of a warm fire helped at a pinch but it was generally considered impolite on account of the smell it made. Not that I was actually beholden to anyone in my present position as ruler, but it was something I was taught as a cub and old habits die hard.
As we wandered through the half-deserted evening streets, I suddenly had an idea. Turning sharply left, I led Niall to a strangely ornate building illumined by an unlikely combination of electric lighting and braziers.
"Welcome, O sucker.." intoned a musical voice, cutting off suddenly as a hand smote the speaker. "That's 'Seeker', you IDIOT!"
A babel of voices sounded as the apprentice and the grandmistress began to partake in an ancient ritual known as beating-the-shit-out-of-each-other, but this quickly stopped as I clapped my hands, suddenly reminding them that they had a customer waiting.
"On behalf of the Temple, I bid you welcome, Mister.. uh..."
"..Cross," I finished for her. "..as I presume you foresaw. So you may as well cut the crap and let's get down to business."
Niall looked at the Phoenix Oracles in awe and wonder. "Can they really predict the future?"
"I'd like to think so," I said, "But they certainly weren't just now."
Ignoring the look of irritation from the grandmistress, I slouched into a chair and turned to face them.
"Right. As you are doubtless aware, something very bad is going to happen in a small village known as Mundathra. I'd like to know when and what we can do to prevent it."
The Oracles conferred with each other for a while and then one of them spoke up. "It shall take place when the moon is in the seventh house, and the white star aligns with the red."
"I see," I said, nodding politely. "And what steps must we take to prevent this thing from coming to pass?"
"Make thee a sacrifice, a burnt offering of pumpkins, flour, milk, butter and cinnamon.. mix the flour and milk into pastry and bake for two hours.."
"Thank you very much, ladies," I said abruptly, interrupting the prophecy and placing a small bag of gold upon the table. "May I have a receipt, please?"
There was silence, the looming prospect of my demanding a refund bringing a look of stark horror to their faces until another voice piped up behind me.
"I'll do it," she said, and hastily scrawled the amount down on a small piece of parchment. I took a quick glance at it - in their relief, no-one noticed that she had put the wrong time on it.
Bowing politely, I led Niall back out into the night. As soon as I was out of their earshot, I began laughing hysterically.
"What is it? What did the prophecy mean?" asked Niall.
"I don't know," I gasped, "and I don't care. I really ought to do something about those old frauds at some point.. but never mind that right now. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling thirsty."
A few minutes later I was sat down in The Smoking Gun and ordering two glasses of water, for myself and Niall. Exactly twenty-three minutes later, a hooded figure arrived and made their way towards us. The corner I had chosen, while offering us a good degree of privacy, was nonetheless very brightly-lit so it was impossible to see that the newcomer was glowing faintly of their own accord.
They moved towards our table and I ordered a third glass of water for them as they sat down. I glanced at my wristwatch - a fine Swiss specimen I had purchased on Earth at great expense - it was exactly the time scrawled on the receipt.
"I'm glad you've made it," I said. "So. Can you give me the real deal?"
"Yes," she said, in the same voice as the Phoenix who had given me the receipt.
"Are you supposed to be telling us this?" asked Niall, butting in. The phoenix cocked her head and looked at me, a quizzical expression just visible below the folds of her hooded robe.
"No, she isn't," I said. "she's an agent of mine. In times gone by it was easier to deal with the Oracles, although they have become downright shifty of late. Did you see their faces when I asked for the receipt? Heh.
When I was younger, there was a burgeoning cottage industry for 'cubi who would ask the Oracles a question on your behalf and read the answer directly from their minds. That way they would get the truth, rather than the dross and outright lies which they have taken to fobbing off their customers with of late.
That proved a little too successful, so nowadays they have taken to using mental shielding which pretty much put a stop to that. Eventually I hit on the idea of using a plant to get the truth from them, hence our friend here. Anyway, carry on my dear."
I nodded to the phoenix, who quietly resumed speaking. "According to the Sisterhood, the Dark God is going to try and manifest Itself in about twelve days."
"Twelve days?" I said in a horrified voice, "I was banking on at least a couple of months. Do you know what It is planning to do?"
"Well, to be honest, the prophecy has become a little fuzzy, but it looks like It is sending a demon to perform the final rites, but there are two candidates. Firstly, It will send a raccoon demon by the name of 'Jay Farrow' to perform the summoning.
But the Dark God has been putting all Its energies into this event - if the summoning fails, It will be pretty much screwed and it will take about three centuries for It to become strong enough to try again.
"In that event, It will send a horse demon known as 'Dark Pegasus', but he is I believe still being groomed by the Dark God to act on Its behalf and not yet ready to perform the ceremony himself."
"What about the Church prophecies?" asked Niall. "It said they'll have to sacrifice a Fae and a Queen."
"Well, the thing about prophecies is that the clearer they are and the better understood they become, the more likely you are to be able to change them. That's one of the reasons our prophecies are so heavily veiled, by the way, although as your illustrious ancestor has pointed out, the tendency towards concealment has sadly attracted a great many frauds and charlatans to our ranks.
"The prophecy you're referring to is, so far as we can tell, a fragment of the second-level prophecy, a sort of emergency B-plan in case the first one is defeated. In effect, the more I tell you about the first prophecy, the more able you become to prevent it happening, and the more likely it is that the second-level prophecy will come to pass instead."
"Well that would be a good start," I said. "If we can buck the first one, we'll have delayed Its return by about 300 years. What do we need to do to ensure this?"
"Well, as I say, It's sending someone to Mundathra, probably a raccoon. When they arrive, they will round up the villagers and pick out those who are most pure-of-heart. The single most pure individual will be sacrificed in some horrible manner to bring back the God. The others who didn't quite make the grade will be disposed of or possibly fed to the God when Its return is complete. The rest of the villagers will worship It and help to bring about the New Age.
"Not just in Mundathra either, but gradually expanding Its territory until It controls Ha'Khun, Macura Province and basically everywhere It can take hold."
Niall and I were silent. After a while, the Oracle spoke again.
"If it were me, I'd either prevent the demon from getting there in the first place, or failing that ensure that he doesn't get what he needs when he does show up."
"And if we fail at that?"
"Then you may as well bake a pumpkin pie and hope for the best."