Ingrid busied herself with steaming and studying the Gardiner prints and communicating with her source, whom she had sent scans of each page for review. She had gone through the whole set and found dozens of those scroll-like key tags; they were everywhere in the entire plan, and their meaning was still a mystery. Just to be sure, she had consulted one of the architects who frequented the library to make sure it wasn't a design key they had used in the past. He had confirmed that he had never seen anything like it before.
She rolled up the piece of paper and put it aside for now. From the front office, she heard a cold, clear female voice say, "I'm sorry but I insist that she see me."
A few minutes later, when Hudson walked into her office, his face was vacant, his eyes glazed. "You have to make time for her," he said in a flat voice. He left the room and a beautiful blond girl let herself inside, walking with a confidence and a carriage that immediately put Ingrid on the defensive.
Her visitor was about eighteen years old, with hard green eyes and long thick platinum hair that fell down her back. She smelled of power and pampering and the cushion of wealth that surrounded those who were accustomed to the most lavish privilege. Ingrid noticed immediately that there was something more to this girl. She was one of the Fallen. A Blue Blood, an immortal vampire, one of the lost children of the Almighty.
"You're not from here," Ingrid said sharply. "And I don't like my friends to be played with like toys. Your people might have been granted exemption to practice your brand of sorcery but I won't have it in my library, especially if you're looking for help with your cause. It's a hopeless one, if you ask me."
"Relax, Erda, I'm not here for redemption," the girl said, taking a seat across from her desk and looking around contemptuously at the shabby surroundings.
"Good, because that's certainly out of our jurisdiction." Ingrid frowned, annoyed that she had been called by her true immortal name. The Beauchamps hardly used their real names anymore; they had gone out of fashion and it would draw too much attention, something the Council had warned them not to do. Of course, Freya had stubbornly kept her name all these long years, which was just as well since it was pretty, like everything else about her sister.
"And so what can I do for you, Madeleine Force?" Ingrid refused to do the same and addressed the child by the name given the vampire in her heavenly past. They were in North Hampton now, in the early twenty-first century. None of that mattered anymore.
The girl settled back on the chair and crossed her tanned legs. "You know who I am." She looked around with a smug air. "Interesting choice of environment, the armpit of the Hamptons. But this isn't really the Hamptons, is it? Clever use of a disorienting space. Lucky I had a friend who can sniff them out somehow. Took us a while but we found this sad excuse of a town. That honky-tonk bar at our hotel was quite the scene on Friday night. You should tell your sister to cool it down a bit. I don't mind getting spilled on once, but three times in one evening is too much even for my hardworking dry cleaner."
Ingrid bristled. "What do you want, Mimi? That is what you're called these days, isn't it? I read the tabloids."
"I want the same thing you're doling out to the legions of unworthy. Help." Mimi lost her cool façade for a bit, and her face became grave as she tugged the hem of her skirt over her knee.
"What makes you think I would help you? The treaty between our kind doesn't cover that sort of thing, you know that. Plus, I'm bound by our restriction, if you know your history." Ingrid bristled.
"Oh, I don't need your silly magic. Oliver had to talk me into meeting you, even. Apparently he's met your sister before. Not that she remembered him last night, the sad sap. He was so disappointed." She leaned over the desk and drummed her manicured fingernails in expectation.
Ingrid steeled a desire to swat her hand away. "So if you don't need my magic, what are you here for?"
"I need to get a soul out of the Underworld. Trapped below the seventh circle by a subvertio. I've already tried and failed once before. I don't mean to let it happen again."
"You know the rules. Once the soul has been bound to Helda beyond the seventh, it is hers forever." Ingrid sniffed. "You're wasting your time; it's impossible. Those are the laws of the universe."
"But there's got to be a way. A barter, an exchange, something," Mimi said, desperation creeping into her voice. "I thought you might know. You guys have been around the longest."
The witch sighed. The Fallen and their problems did not concern her. But Ingrid knew that if she did not get rid of this pesky vampire Mimi was likely to use her powers in the glom to cause disturbance and havoc around town - if she hadn't already. Ingrid had her staff to worry about, not to mention the rest of the community. Sure, the rebel angels had been cast out of Paradise, but they had been practically given mid-world: they ran the whole show down here, while Ingrid's people had been banished to the fringes. Mimi Force had no business toying with the Kingdom of the Dead.
"Please, Erda. I'm begging," Mimi said, tears suddenly springing to her eyes. "I love him. I can't lose Kingsley. If you have anything to share, anything that can help . . . I would be in your debt forever."
Ingrid sighed. "Fine. There is a way to recover a soul beyond the subvertio. The Orpheus Amendment. Do you know it?"
"I thought that was just a myth," Mimi scoffed.
"Sweetie, you're a myth yourself," Ingrid snapped. "Helda made an exception once, and since then the Orpheus Amendment has stood. Same rules apply. One look back and it's over."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"I'll take that risk," Mimi said. She stood up and shook Ingrid's hand. "Thank you."
"Oh, and one more thing I forgot to tell you. The Orpheus Amendment demands a sacrifice in payment for the release of a soul," Ingrid said.
"A soul for a soul," Mimi nodded, looking sly. "Don't worry, I was already aware of that part of it. I would never descend into Hell unprepared."
Ingrid hoped she had not made a mistake in helping the young vampire. The Fallen could be a dangerous enemy and she was glad to see her go. In the end Mimi Force had wanted the same thing from Ingrid that her human counterparts did: a way out of an impossible situation. Ingrid could only point in the right direction. The rest was up to them.