Everyone looked at the swan-shifter.
“Oh, sorry!” Finn said. “Just thinking aloud.”
“Care to continue the thought?” Anubis, sitting with his wife, Gello (and yes, her name was pronounced like the dessert and suited her in its jigglyness), asked.
They made a stunning couple, both sultry in their own ways. Gello was more in-your-face about it (she got that from her mommy), but Anubis's sleek, male model looks were not to be ignored.
“Well, I was just trying to make a timeline in my head,” Finn said. “It sounds as if the trickster started with the bleach, then stopped. And going by the strength of the smell—you said it was very strong in Heaven, Vervain—I'm guessing the Pasha was taken first.”
“Yes, we've already determined that,” Samael said.
“No, you thought the theft of the Ark was a distraction,” Odin corrected. “But the scent of bleach in Araboth was strong, and that was just a few days ago. If we go by the strength of the bleach, Finn is right. The Pasha was stolen first. It wasn't a distraction.”
Samael grunted. I suppose that was his way of conceding.
“Why start with the Pasha, leaving no clues behind, then conduct this bizarre game?” Brahma asked.
“Why indeed,” Thor said. “The Pasha was a tool used by a psychopomp. It carried the souls of the dead, but only dead humans. Katila, through his strange magic and his inheritance of the Pasha, was able to use it to harvest souls and siphon them out of the Pasha to consume their power.”
“Demonsouls,” Lilith said without any of her usual sass.
“Yes, that was part of the loophole,” Thor said. “The Demons were possessing humans, their souls vulnerable outside their god bodies. I believe that helped Katila to use the Pasha to withdraw them from the human bodies, bypassing the repelling qualities of god magic that keep us from killing each other, and then, take the magic for himself by offering it a new host.”
“It doesn't matter how Katila did it,” Samael said. “That bastard is dead. What we need to determine is why a living god would want the Pasha. How they could use it.”
“I'm trying to do that,” Thor growled at Samael. “Stories of Katila using the Pasha must have gotten around. Someone knows the possibility it possesses.”
“Not much of one,” Blue said. “They'd have to recreate the same circumstances to steal god souls. And you've already warned the Demons.”
“Yes,” Lilith said. “They won't be possessing anyone until this is over.”
“I don't understand while they still do that,” Anubis said.
“They have to. If they don't, human belief will pull them into bodies and force them to possess people,” Lilith said. “At least this way, they have some control over it. They can choose their host.”
“I've warned my father as well,” Azrael said. “He's got Hell on lockdown.”
“And just to be safe, I've alerted the Heavenly Host,” Jesus said.
“The trickster must have known you'd do that.” Anubis tapped the table pensively with an elegant finger. “Are all the Angels and Demons accounted for?”
“All the Demons are,” Lilith said. She looked at Az.
Azrael looked at Jesus.
Jesus scratched his chin.
“Brother!” Azrael growled.
“I'm just messin' with you,” Jesus said. “Mellow out, Az. I'd know the moment one of my Angels was killed. I'm bound to them all now, remember? You were at the ceremony.”
Azrael sighed. “Yes, I remember. Sorry.”
“It's all good.”
“So, the trickster hasn't taken any souls,” Anubis said. “They took the Pasha but aren't using it. At least, not in that way or not with those gods. And they started off using bleach to cover their tracks but now have developed a scent-proof suit.”
“A ninja suit,” Lilith said.
