The rain pounded on the awning surrounding the warehouse that the trio found themselves at. Having finally evaded the damp, Anjelica lit up a cigarette.

"What exactly makes this place so terrifying that you did not want to go alone Quinn?"

"Information is a tricky thing. You have enough and you have an immense amount of power. Have too much and suddenly you have signed your own death warrant."

While he spoke, Quinn poked around a window trying to find a way in before getting frustrated. After thinking for a moment, he took his jacket off, wrapped it around his hand, and punched one of the panes of glass on the window giving him access to the latch. Popping open the window, he took a step back before making an exaggerated bow.

"Ladies first!" He called out happily.

Rolling her eyes, Anjelica very purposefully slowly and gracefully slid her leg over the window sill and slipped inside the abandoned building.

Taking the lantern that Quinn handed her through the window, she lit the wick with her cigarette before turning the gas on. Light immediately flooded into the main area of the warehouse which was a wide open space which took up about three quarters of the building. The light shone through the bars of a row of what looked to be animal cages on the far wall. There were other cages around the room shaped like twisted gigantic versions of bird cages being both thin and long. Those cages dotted the room with remnants of several that had been damaged being left to rust along the dusty floor.. In the center was an examination table that was eerily similar to the setup Marina had used to do her ill deeds. To her right, along the wall with the main entrance, were hooks that had been nailed into the wall and which had been covered in various tools. Some were mundane like shovels or pitchforks but there were also canes, crops, cat-o-nine-tails, manacles, and knives. Off to her left, towards the back offices was a large table upon which a chemistry set had been placed though it now laid in chaos with several of the beakers being shattered around it. All around were bits of rust and stains that belied the truth of the prevailing scent of blood that permeated this place.

Her two gentlemanly companions clambered inside and then too were struck into shocked silence by the sights around them.

"Holy shit," Quinn mumbled under his breath.

Anjelica and Hound gave each other a somber look and then nodded in solemn acceptance.

"This setup is very similar to one we saw being used for clot extraction a few weeks back. The cages...those are new. I assume this chemistry set belongs to whoever we can thank for all the bloodstone," Anjelica explained.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Quinn asked sarcastically.

"No," Anjelica somberly replied. "Just trading information. We should try to find anything written down. They would keep records somewhere safe. Probably the back office."

Without another word, Anjelica strode forward towards the office room door. She gave it a non-committal jiggle but seeing it was locked as expected, she turned to Hound.

Hound raised his right hand and with the crunching noise of bones moving and the tearing sound of his flesh, his claws pushed out from his fingertips. WIth a grunt and huge swinging strike his claws tore into the door frame, splitting the bolt and causing the door to swing forward.

Anjelica turned towards Quinn with a smug grin.

"Ladies first," She said with a sickly sweetness.

Quinn was embarrassed but only for a moment as the promise of the knowledge he had been seeking lured him inside.

"Alright Quinn, you know Gabriel best so I need you to find if anything here is about him and his lieutenants. There has to be some kind of record of shipping and you know what those numbers are supposed to look like so dig around for those Hound. I will see if I can find anything else interesting laying about," Anjelica commanded the men.

As the two set about pulling open drawers and sifting through reams of paper, Anjelica took a wider look at the room around them.

This office space was tidy with two desks equipped with all one could need to take notes from books to sheafs of paper to inks and quills. She noticed that each drawer the men opened had piles of papers set in very discreet and arranged piles. A once locked cabinet stood open with the extra padlock still hanging from the door.

"Whoever worked here had an orderly mind. They cared about this space and the things in it despite the grisly work they were doing in the front. What they were doing here was important to them. So important, in fact, that they needed to make sure to document everything correctly. What else can I learn about you if I just think for a moment?" Anjelica mused out loud to herself.

Walking over to the desk Hound was not rifling through, she took in the space.

"The ink pot is the closest thing to the chair. The only tool here is a holder for vials...so I need to examine specimens. It seems fairly obvious that it would be bloodstones but what about the bloodstones were they trying to find?"

Anjelica ran her finger across the dusty surface of the desk and over a leather holding case. Pulling open the latch, she unfolded it to see a set of surgical implements neatly arranged inside.

"You were trained. You arrange your tools like someone who has done it a million times. You also have a bit of experience with drugs I see," she said before reaching for a glass of clear liquid held inside the case.

The vial had no label, but by the viscosity, its color, and the acrid smell that emanated from it she recognized what was inside. Widow's Tears.

"You were not just trained, you were also a teacher. This all seems so familiar because Marina was trying to be like you. If that is the case, then that means that she must have also gotten her insane ideas from you. Maybe even here in this room..."

Glancing around, Anjelica noticed that the bookshelves here were not just full of notes but full of large books of the Church academia. Finding some that she recognized, she began to pull them out and found each to have specific pages bookmarked.

"This person was a bit of a theologian Hound," Anjelica said to get her parmour's attention once more. "From 'Tales of the Pilgrimages' they had this underlined: 'So it was that those who carried the future of Astria were given the Lodestones that they pass through the Gates of Perdition to commune with God.' Lovely right? Here is another from the good old sermon starter the 'Biblios Monstro' which reads: 'Who here among you would claim that truest of hopes for our people? Who here will ensure the future with your acts and not your thoughts? It is those few who the people should venerate and the people will amass thee Lodestones. It shall be through unity that my grace will be bestowed upon thee'. Those are the words of our lady God herself. Notice a theme? Anything sounding familiar?"

"Wait, the 'Biblios Monstros'?" Quinn questioned.

"Oh, just the Bible. It is a joke with people at the academy that the thing is monster sized to match the demons it prepares us for," Anjelica explained. "Either of you find something a bit less cryptic than a loony practicing heresy?

"I found a calendar and some meeting notes. For all the despicable shit they are doing, these motherfuckers meet on a tight ship schedule every two weeks," Quinn added.

"About the same time that their shipments happen. They put together a shipment, put it out past the gate like Quinn has seen, and then prepare for the next batch to ship on the next new moon. Some of their security details change after the meetings that Quinn mentioned. Also these numbers...they cannot be people because they are too high. If they are barrels like I think then they are making enough bloodstone here for the whole country. Some gets shipped out to the Duke and the rest gets sent down river to the academy and the Grand Sangrance." Hound said.

"So we still do not know where they are getting their people from or how they are getting this much bloodstone?" Anjelica asked.

"I think you guys may have been right at one point as there was definitely something going on at the orphanage. It seems like they had better plans though," Quinn began as he unfurled a map onto one of the desks.

"This is a builder's map and it gets used by people in the mason's guild. I have run into a lot of these trying to figure out the orphanages layout but this is for a new building project. Or at least it was. A huge complex by the river with a water wheel and everything. I think they just packed up shop and moved to the clinic by the river."

A bit of quiet came over the room for a moment as they all absorbed that information.

"If people are already sick because of issues with their clots, a medical clinic would be a great place to find people. Not to mention the fact that nobody would blink an eye at bodies or blood being seen disposed of. It is kind of brilliant in a sick way," Anjelica said.

"I know that Laena has heard a lot of people have started going to Amelia's clinic instead of Dr.Gunthrie's because she seems to be able to help even when the doctor turns them away. The clinic was set up about six years ago which would make sense with the amount of dust in here and, like you said, it would make a lot of sense for them to serve the poor. Less record keeping than an orphanage," Quinn went on. He suddenly realized that his companions had gone quiet and stark still with pale faces.

"What was that name you just said?" Anjelica asked with a wavering voice.

"Who? Dr.Gunthrie? Or Amelia the Healer?"

Anjelica's face turned into a grimace of frustration as her brow crinkled.

"Of course they fucking would. If Marina was above board then why not? Lies are barely anything compared to all of this."

"Okay, I am going to need someone to fill me in because I am very, very lost."

"We knew a girl named Ameila," Hound began. "She was one of our clutch at the academy. You get close to them because they are your training partners and your friends. The people you live with. Amelia had a knack for science and the clot that found her let her understand chemicals in a way that was a bit unthinkable. Smelling gunpowder from a mile away, shit like that. After her clot took, she became obsessed with serum. She stole it from our training to run tests on it and when she got caught she just started stealing it. Any kind of research on Church secrets is heresy so you can imagine how damning being found injecting serum into a cat would be. They dragged her from where they found her into our clutch's dormitory, declared her a traitor and her sentence as death, and then we never saw her again. She screamed that she 'just wanted to see what would happen'. Those are just the kinds of things that happen at the academy. I do not think we ever considered for a second that they did not follow through on her but this place...the cleanliness of it. The manic ramblings in the notes, the casual nature of it all just feels like I am seeing a ghost."

Anjelica groaned frustratedly.

"They did not do anything to her except relocate her and give her funding to chase her obsession. If she was obsessed with the Lodestones and trying to make them, she must be trying to unify the bloodstones somehow. Why would they give a madwoman like her free reign?"

Silence fell except for the grinding sounds of the gears in their heads.

"Maybe she was right? There has to be a few fanatics who would buy into trying to have an audience with God," Quinn said somberly.

"If the Church is unable to make Lodestones, then they were probably hoping that Amelia could do it for them. Someone who could speak to God would have a chance to change the world if She would listen to them. True change. Not for the better if Gabriel was funding it," Anjelica exposited.

"All of this is expensive, Angel. The Church could not possibly be absorbing this cost. I would bet that the Duke is taking in wagons of bloodstone and sending them back full of coin. If someone were to interfere with that then it would put a halt to everything," Hound added.

"It is not like we are able to do that though love," Anjelica snarked.

"We might be able to actually," Quinn cut in. "You said that they do their shipments on the new moon? If that is the case then there is going to be a shipment going out tonight through the West Gate."

Instead of the quiet silence of contemplation, the room lit up with the spark of anticipation.

"Do we make a bold move, Angel? Should we go and find Sera?" Hound asked eagerly.

"There will not be enough time. We have to move now if we want to set up an ambush.. Sera is with Laena probably waist deep into the food stalls. She should have absolutely no reason to go near the clinic. Quinn, can you think of any reason why we should wait instead of moving while they are unaware of us?" Anjelica asked as they both turned to Quinn.

Quinn gulped in anxiousness then took down a few swigs of his flask.

"I assume it being dangerous and rushed is not a valid complaint?"

The ominous pair across from him both shook their heads.

"Fuck it then I guess. If you two are so ready to get yourselves hung then be my guest."

Anjelica's face turned into a pained expression of regret.

"Actually Quinn, we might need you to drive the cart if we manage to take it."

Quinn's flask raised to his mouth again but this time with a shaky hand.

"I suppose it was going to happen sometime. The game is finally afoot. I cannot wait to fuck up Gabriel's entire night."