World Tree MUSH

    The store was a converted warehouse or factory of some kind, located near one of the many ports in the San Francisco Bay. It wasn't pretty or modern, but had that distinguished look that came from Industrial Revolution era brickwork. The trail of Mephy's contract lead here, as scrying had revealed that his summoner's old house had been torn down in a fit of gentrification a few years ago. Some remnant of the house, the diviners had said, contained the contract. It was decided that the Beacon Society's chosen agents would go in during the closing hours to 'browse'.
    The interior of the shop is all concrete floors, heavy duty metal shelving, and lights hanging from the ceiling rafters. It contained the pieces of old houses that were too pretty to simply junk; sinks, doors, windows, chandeliers, and abandoned furniture. Home appliances such as diswashers, laundry machines, dryers; the occasional vintage or antique sewing machine. There was an area with old rugs, looking worn and faded but well cleaned.
    Aurelia glanced around with curiosity on her face, wondering what the spirits of these things would say if she could hear them. Aurelia was in her street clothes at the moment; an oversized jean jacket, t-shirt, and long skirt with pockets. "There's a lot to go through..." She turns to her companions. "Should we split up?"

    "If we're all confident what we're looking for," Cagliostro notes. She's left her floating snake elsewhere so as not to alarm, but she's still dressed in a flashy, flambuoyant dress for this, her long blonde hair styled impeccably behind. "I would imagine we can filter out the appliances, yes? It's probably at least a part of the house, not a simple item that wasn't attached or bolted on, yes?" She hmms, "And something not too recent, either."
    The blonde alchemist isn't just chattering, she's already walking off, looking around for something that might have a hidden panel, or is at least large enough to 'hold' something. That doesn't narrow it down much though, does it?

Good thing the store is closed or Benedicta would have to worry about standing out here. Still, she can't help but to be surprised that the contract is here of all places. She figures it would be in a Cabal stronghold or somewhere along those lines. Still, if it was here of all places she wonders why Mephy needs their help retriving it. "I guess spliting up might be a good idea, we need to find it before the store opens back up."

    Aurelia is over checking the cabinets and hutches for hidden compartments. She squints as she uses her magic to get a vague sense of the internal space of the things by feeling out where the metal components are. She grouses about how some of the things are constructed without screws or nails.
    Cagliostro's meandering has taken her to the area with desks, where her examinations reveal several hidden compartments. They seem to contain letters, with the odd flask of hard liquor.
    Benedicta has the sense that somebody is watching the three of them, odd glimpses of a familiar girl in mirror flickering on the edges of her vision. Her horn glows faintly near the full length mirrors.

    Interesting letters are just going to be found by the buyer, so Cagliostro has no problems just... tucking them away for later review. She's not exactly one to respect another's privacy. As much as she is a 'bad girl' though she has her heart in the right place(probably) so tends to ignore everything that doesn't look like a contract. "Hmm... I'm not sure it would be in a desk like this..."
    Rapping on a few desks she pauses, then looks for more 'attached' furniture. Maybe doors and stuff?

Benedicta's horn does indeed glow yellow as she approaches one of the mirrors. She's reminded a bit of her transformation mirror she had, at least before Sybil destroyed it. She doesn't her own reflection as she stares at it but that of a familar blonde girl. "Alice?!" Was this someone's idea of a joke? "She's been in there for the last four years?" It seemed so long ago, the girl vanished shortly before Benedicta's own magical awakening.

    Aurelia grouses as she comes up empty, wandering over to Cagliostro to check if the alchemist had found anything of use. She holds up her lone find, which seems to be an empty amber bottle labeled 'morphine'. "Anything interesting at least?"
    Alice breathes onto the 'interior' of the mirror, and draws a large X in the fog, circling it. But what does she mean by that? As if to answer the possible question, the girl in the mirror picks up a piece of paper that, like her, has no counterpart in the real world reflected by the mirror.

    "Nothing but incriminating letters, I think. Perhaps there's something hidden on them but likely not what we are looking for," Cagliostro replies, holding up a sheaf of letters. "Unless we intend to blackmail some of them with how they use terms like 'My little honeybunchkins' it's likely not useful."
    She hears Benedicta saying something, but that doesn't mean anything for certain. She dare not raise her voice too high either, instead frowning and calling out, very quietly, "How about yourself?"

"I think we might have found what we're looking for! Wait, is the contract is inside the mirror? How the hell did it end up inside of there? And do you have something to do with her being in there?" Benedicta sounds a bit annoyed at that, but it would explain why Mephy couldn't simply grab it himself. "Oh yeah, it's me Benedicta, it's kind of hard to explain but...I guess it's not as bad as you have it. Looks like we're both maho now, oh yeah Sybil's one too believe it or not." She does her best to try and explain what's been going on the past four years.

    A puff of fire and brimstone marks the arrival of none other than the Prince of Hell himself, Damian. "'Sup Benny baby, I brought some pizzas, thought maybe we could chill toni- oh, you guys busy?" he says, balancing a comically tall stack of pizza boxes in one hand. As he looks around the place, his eyes naturally lock onto the mirror after a moment or two. "Creepy mirror, spooky dark shop. Probably haunted. This some Beacon business?"

    Aurelia hears Benedicta talking as well. It's also odd that the al-mir'aj woman didn't answer Cagliostro. Given there's just the staff and clerks cleaning up before closing time, she's very curious as to who Benedicta is talking to, and just walks over as casually as she can. Aurelia assumes the much bolder Calgiostro will do the same (or outpace her). Aurelia sighs as she spots Damian with pizza. "Oh it's just Damian. Yeah, it's Beacon stuff. What's new, Damian?" Clearly Aurelia hasn't seen Alice in the mirror yet.
    Alice sighs as Benedicta talks, unable to respond. She nods, looks surprised at the reveal that Sybil is a maho."

    True, Cagliostro could skip ahead, and she almost does. But Instead decides to pace herself with Aurelia, after all she is less familiar with what is going on(even if she is reluctant to admit it) so it's good to not rush into anything.
    Instead she gets an impish jackal with pizzas suddenly announcing himself. "Probably best to not put those on the antiques," she says, gesturing toward a table that's for holding stuff, not for sale. "Have you seen Benedicta? Oh there she is." Benedicta is within sight, but has a bit to talk before Cagliostro meanders over there curiously.

"Yeah, be careful with the pizza! We've got someone important in here!" Benedicta points a white furred finger at the mirror along with Alice. "I'm guessing you can't just teleport in there and get her out, Damian? Or would that just shatter the mirror?" She knows he's quite capable, but she doesn't know if he can warp into alternate dimensions. "I'm guessing we might need someone skilled with illusions or spiritualism to get her out. Which means Dorothy or..." she pauses a bit before coming to a realization, "Maybe Heartbreaker?"

     Damian waves to Aurelia and Cagliostro, giving the latter a momentary up-and-down. "Huh, have we met before? I'm Damian, if we haven't." he greets, offering his free hand to shake while the other one streeeeeeetches over to set the pizzas onto that table. "Anyway, not much new really. Even Safe Haven's getting kinda stale lately, not so much as a vampire attack in weeks."

As Benedicta draws his attention to the mirror again, he scratches his chin and then bites his lip, eyes squinting in concentration. After a second or two, he's enveloped in another cloud of sulfuric smoke... only to still be right where he was once it dissipates. "Hmm, nope. I can't even get a read on her. If I had a personal connection to her, or at least knew where exactly she is, then maybe..."

    Aurelia squints into the mirror. "I... think I've heard rumors about you. Back in high school there were stories and videos going around about a Blondie Mary that would show up in mirrors." She glances at the price tag of the mirror. "Er, guess this is on the parents' credit card." Being a magical girl doesn't pay, after all, even as an adult...
    After checking out with the mirror (and likely needing some help to cart it out), Aurelia is standing near the mirror, looking for anything else that might not be reflected in reality. Her eyes widen and she whirls around as an awful din echoes from a crook of the brick building. Alice's eyes widen with surprise too as the fire door opens, spewing a gout of smoke and a man. Late last year, this same man was seen being chased by otherworldly hound-esque creatures. Today proves to be no different as Tim Mirra, looking ragged and haggard, sprints across the parking lot towards the familiar figures of Benedicta and Cagliostro. "Help!"
    The hounds bound out of the open doorway, following.

    Sadly Cagliostro can't offer to help pay, unless the store takes items in trade. She probably has a few knicknacks that would work fine, but unlikely for the full value. Oh well. She rubs her chin. "Interesting item, really," she start to say that when... well.
    Isn't this a bit familiar? "Someone has the worst luck," she remarks, sighing. Sadly Cagliostro doesn't have her familiar here to do the fighting, so she must instead use her own abilities. A snap of fingers, a flourish of the cape, and she plants hands on the ground, causing the road to ripple and erupt behind the man, trying to make a spiky intercept for the hounds chasing him. She's going to try to just neutralize all of them, but that wouldn't keep some from darting around to dodge the sudden barrier.

"Shit! Not now!" Getting the mirror back to Beacon was going to be difficult enough as it is. Speaking of bad luck, Benedicta can feel her body lock up in fear as the hounds approach. "Run!" She was left defenseless for the moment and the only purpose she can serve is as a decoy. Maybe she can buy them enough time to get the mirror safely out of there.

     Damian pitched in to help pay for the thing, though he just has a few bucks' worth of allowance. "I'd have to do some stuff for Dad if I wanted more." he explained, and it's not hard to figure out what he meant by that. Now, in the present, as the hounds come chasing that guy again- "Hey, it's that guy again!"- Damian ignites a pair of fireballs in his palms with a grin. "I've got some new tricks for you pups! Wanna see?" Any that slip around Cagliostro's barrier get a hot surprise, naturally.

    The lead hounds smash into Cagliostro's impromptu barrier, discorporating into a sludgy mess against it with disturbing squelch noises. The ones further back jump in time to get roasted by Damian's fireballs, reduced to flaming goo against the pavement by the fiery magic.
    Aurelia grabs the mirror, about to withdraw it into what she thinks of as her inventory space. It should be just small enough; she did put that couch that's now sitting in Orania's parlor in it that one time...
     Tim tries to stop himself as he runs past Benedicta, notices that Alice is inside the mirror, and there's a confluence of his own nascent magic capability and the warping of space Aurelia is performing to get the mirror safely. A strange stutter effect showing the people within about five yards of the mirror, their motions projected backwards. Then, it seems, something of the future, where the world around them falls into the sky.

Well, the good news for Benedicta is that the distortion stops her from getting ripped apart. The bad news being in her Al-Mir'aj state makes her extra sensitive to and she's hurled away from the others. She ends up back at the resturant where they first met Tim. At least it's closed for the night, so she doesn't end up landing in someone's dinner.

    Cagliostro blinks, "Oh no..." And then... blips out. At least from the others. Cagliostro is mainly an alchemist, but she knows a lot of magical theory, so a moment later she realizes she's on a familiar street, away from the others, where she first ran into trouble.
    Sigh. "Well I suppose it's likely everyone got out safely. How annoying though." She puts hands on her hips and wanders off to get a smoothie or something.

     Damian's just about to chuck some more fire to be sure when suddenly, some magical shenanigans start happening. Glancing back toward the mirror, he just manages to see that odd reflection in time before he disappears with a small *pop* and shows up somewhere a few Vines over, in the middle of a cornfield... which is quickly set ablaze by his errant fireball. Several scarecrows, apparently very much alive, turn toward him with their blank stares.

"Uh... sorry?" he says with an uneasy grin.