Chapter 3: Pipe and Key

July 26th, 1898 Summer is always a time for storms, but this year they have been particularly violent and destructive. Today offered a brief respite, but the clouds are gathering again as the sun sets, with flashes of angry green lightning in the distance. Seven people gather in a small tavern known as the 3 Pipes – a popular establishment in the South’s Eye neighborhood near the more prosperous docks. All are familiar faces at the pub, though tonight might be the first time they have all been in a room together.   One is a prominent figure – Augustus Clement, the Vice Chairman of the Excalibur Trading Company, considered the most prominent shipping business in the City. He frequents the 3 Pipes often, conducting business with employees and contracts alike over a pint or two. But tonight, it seems there was something more in his drink than just the City’s second finest ale. Augustus has fallen sick, collapsing at the rail just as he downed his first glass. He managed to croak out ‘poison’ before he went unconscious.   A passing page boy has been sent for a doctor and the police. Augustus has been laid out on the floor as comfortable as possible – he still lives, but his breath is weak. It seems that someone else at the 3 Pipes this evening is responsible for his poisoning. But who else is here? And who could have done it?   Rumor, insinuation, and accusations fly between all the potential culprits. Things are only made worse when, while moving prone Augustus to the top of a table, a note and a key fall out of his pocket. The note reads “Be careful when confronting. You have our support. ~N.E.” Though some are hesitant to ‘start any trouble’, secrets begin to come out and suspicion grows. Eventually, the police arrive and begin the quaint 19th century custom of having the present company vote on the guilty party. No one seems perturbed by this, as it is the standard practice of the time.   Molly Murphy accuses Lacy Littlewood of knowing too much and trying to rid herself of a problem. Lacy believes that Hugo Hampshire is guilty, only ever coming to the tavern when Augustus wanted to talk, which surely means that tonight Augustus meant to confront him. Hugo insists that it was Vincent Vlasick, looking to protect his own interests and that of his burgeoning pickle empire. Vincent echoes Lacy’s beliefs that Hugo is likely the culprit, given his position as accountant and the financial woes of the company. Delia voices her thoughts that Molly’s anti-bourgeois philosophies drove her to take down one of the upper class as a strike for workers’ rights. Michael compliments the police on their crisp outfits.   Hugo is carted off, and it seems that the correct villain was caught. A slightly tipsy Michael admits to Delia that he swiped the key that fell from Augustus’ pocket. Mortified at what this could mean, Delia grabs Michael and hauls him out of the tavern. But as they both walk through the door of the 3 Pipes…   …they find themselves returned to the present, back in Dee’s shop at the very moment they had left.   They share tears of joy and frantic hugs, and then both race off to enjoy the luxuries of modern living that they had been denied for so long. Quilted toilet paper. Triple showers. The internet. But it is not long until Dee is pulled back into the struggles at hand.   Present Day   With Eugenia’s boisterous appearance on the scene, and Kit’s clandestine arrival, most of the crew has gathered outside of the Payle Family Plumbers. Francis sends Felicity to wait in the car, and Mora takes up a watch from the stairwell of an apartment building across the street. While Kit secretly circles around to the back, Francis and Eugenia walk through the front door, and are greeted by a smiling Gilbert Payle.   Gil doesn't know much about a canceled appointment, and nothing about a supposed meeting with Felicity. His calls out to his sister in the back of the house are met with a terse reply telling everyone to go away. As the two ply more pressure to Gil, Kit notices the back door open and slips into the kitchen. When they hear someone coming down the hallway, all hell breaks loose.   Mora sees two thugs pulling Felicity out of the car. She races down the stairwell, and once back on the street, quickly brings down one of the assailants with a shot to the leg. Felicity knees the other one in the balls, which frees her to flee around to the back of her car.   Kit faces off with another goon in the kitchen, this one three times as large as the little fox. With parkour skill, they manage to avoid most of the incoming hits, but all the speed in the world can’t lessen the blow back of their quick kick to the thug’s thick skull. Kit takes a bruising to the foot, but manages to down their assailant and quickly zip tie him..   The scuffles separate Francis’ and Eugenia’s attention. Fearing for his sister, Francis leaves the shop through the front door, while Eugenia moves cautiously through the storefront to the back of the building, the family residence. She notices the scuffle in the kitchen, but her attention is pulled away by the sight of a woman being held at gunpoint in the parlor; it is Gilbert’s sister, Jacqueline. Eugenia awakens Excalibur in the form of an intimidatingly huge handgun, and coyly points it at the hostage-taker. The sight of it pauses the man to pause long enough for Jackie to slip free and forcibly headbutt him in the face.   Out in front, Francis sees the two goons, and his sister hiding behind the car. He rushes towards the one bleeding from the leg, grabbing him by the neck and raising him up. He demands answers. He demands vengeance. And in the end, the berserker rage of Mitosis takes over, and he crushes the man’s windpipe before he has any chance to beg for his life. The body falls to the ground. And Felicity falls deathly silent.   Francis knows through the red haze that his sister saw, and storms back into the storefront, looking for another target. Mora manages to coax Felicity into the car, and quickly drags the two thugs – one living, one just a corpse – into the building. While the others regroup, Kit searches through the house. Upstairs he finds an older gentleman with failing mental health. There is a quick blessing and Kit retreats from the family’s personal quarters.   The threat seems to be over for the moment, but the mystery continues. With thugs, the shaken Payle siblings, and Francis still seeing red, Eugenia calls Dee to come and assist. Loathe to leave the comforts of her 21st century abode, Dee nonetheless heeds the call and joins the team.   Eugenia takes charge of Felicity, and drives her back to her apartment and Lukas’ arms. The uncharacteristically quiet Felicity asks after her brother, if “that’s him now”. Eugenia can only offer small comfort.   Mora handles the clean up duty, wrangling the bodies both living and dead into Dee’s car (with tarp!) and heading out to places even more unsavory that the local neighborhood. The living thugs she leaves tied up in an abandoned warehouse. The body she dumps in the river at her usual spot. Strangely, she notices something – that the distant figure of ‘The Ferryman’ is nowhere to be seen. It is only in his absence that she realizes that he is usually there, far out of reach, but seemingly watching.   At the Payle’s, after assurances are made to protect her family, Jackie shares more of the story. Her and her brother were contracted for some time with the old prison to take care of the old infrastructure. One day, while tracking an issue with a pipe, Jackie ended up in a very old part part of the prison’s basement. She swears she came across a room filled with dead bodies, which caused her to retreat. When she tried to bring someone back down, the door had been sealed. And then the family’s contract suddenly terminated. Jackie felt obligated to reach out when Felicity was snooping, but the threats of the thugs (perhaps from the prison warden?) caused her to cancel the meeting.   The team disbands for the day. It has been a long time since they each got their phone call at 1am. There are pieces of the puzzle to sift through, wounds to tend to, and now, it has started to rain.   While across the city, Emma and Ravyn start down a deep hole in the floor of an old construction site – a hole that was not there before.   Epilogue   The spring rains are gentle, but persistent. They don’t fall like curtains, obliterating all sight. They are more like veils, easy to push through if you make an effort. Winter’s chill isn’t completely gone, and there’s a wicked wind that makes its way in between open doorways and around corners.   In Cross End, Dee Lestrange awkwardly holds an umbrella on the stoop of the Payle family’s steps, as Jackie and Gil help their elderly grandfather down to the waiting car. He is confused, sad and unsure as to why they are leaving their home. Her heart goes out to them, fleeing the place that should be their sanctuary for a cold, unloved place. No matter how nice Empire makes the apartments, it will be difficult. And even returning one day will not be the same, not after such an invasion. She sighs and closes the door after them.   High in Winegarden, Percival Excalibur has shaken free of the fog of his medication, and is yelling. There’s nothing more for Eugenia to do but listen to the tirade, and let it wash over her as the old man expends his anger on the one person who is still by his side. He grows exhausted, ready to be wheeled away again, and to pretend that the chasm he has created between himself and those of his blood isn’t so great, or so dark.   Emma makes her way home in the rain, continually reassuring her mother via text message that she was indeed on her way home. The rain soaks through her hoodie, and she almost regrets turning down her mother’s insistence of a ride home from the Brewery. She thinks she knows her mother’s mood. But she is thrown when she walks in the front door, and is embraced immediately and forcefully. None of the harsh reprimands she expected, none of the yelling or questions. Emma returns the hug cautiously at first, and when her mother doesn’t let go, she hugs harder. They stand there in silence, suddenly desperate to just know that the other is there.   Toma presses his head lazily against his brother’s shoulder, his energy reserves depleted. The house is warm from the press of bodies, and the rain plays a delicate cadence across all the window panes. The aunts and great-aunts and cousins, they all agree that the rain is most appropriate. They continue to share whispered sorrow and boisterous reverence for the departed. Everyone seems to be aware of the two boys, but rarely speak to them directly. Eventually, Erika makes her way over, and smiles as she strokes both of their cheeks. Quietly, she users them both to bed, to their own private spaces away from the gathering of death. There will be enough for them the next day.   In a garden, somewhere, a butterfly painted in vermilion and goldenrod flies through the air, and comes to rest on the ivory finger of a woman dressed in indigo. She smiles to watch it slowly flap its wings, as if testing the air. As it departs to wander the garden again, she raises a tea cup to her lips, and watches the cold rain beat against the glass panes. She is interrupted by a brash young man. “Mother,” he says with a grimace. “We have a problem.”