As I'm staring at the gleaming basketball-sized ball of gold, I realize how fucked I am. I have two hundred pounds worth of gold. If I so much as hint at this being here, every criminal is gonna break into my apartment so they can get their hands on this.
Plus, I gotta worry about the money that will come from selling it. I mean, that's like 14 million dollars. Putting that much money into my bank account at once is gonna get me assassinated by the IRS, and maybe the Syndicate. But mainly the IRS. Fuck how am I gonna explain this on my taxes? When I thought it was just gonna be like $400,000 at most, I thought saying I got the gold from a Pirate's Treasure was a pretty decent explanation, but now? God, they're gonna think I robbed Fort Knox or something!
Okay, calm down. The IRS just exists to make sure taxes are paid, so I just need to make sure I pay the right amount of taxes when tax season comes, which should come out to… way too much for me to figure out on my own. I should probably just hire an accountant to handle it. I'm pretty sure I have to report the money right away, so I should probably start researching that.
Okay, so now that I'm not panicking over taxes, I gotta figure out where to sell the gold that won't report me to the police because two hundred pounds of gold is a bit weird for a normal person to have. I mean, who else but a criminal would go around selling so much gold?
I should probably save some of it for some alchemical rituals that call for gold, plus it might be smart to make some jewelry I can enchant.
Hm, jewelry…Maybe I could transmute a good portion of the gold into jewelry and sell it. That could work, and I could probably get more money per pound than I would when selling straight gold. The only problem is that jewelry is pretty light, so I'd have to make a lot of jewelry to get rid of it all. But it would definitely make it harder for any sort of legal trouble to hit me. I mean, it's perfectly possible for people to make jewelry by themselves. As long as it's simple and just gold, I should be fine.
Sighing to myself, I grab another stick of chalk off the table and erase the lead to the gold transmutation table.
With the table clear, I start working on the new circle. This one is pretty basic: just splitting the mass once to get, like, 10 pounds for personal use, and then a second time to split everything else in half.
As I'm working on the circle, I let out a large yawn and realize how tired I am.
I check the clock, 12 am, damn it's late, and I have work today…actually, nah, I'm quitting. I'm a god damned Mage of the Order of Hermes, I have lived hundreds of lifetimes, AND I've got two hundred pounds of gold sitting on the floor of my apartment. I am not gonna work another day as a god damned fast food cashier. Fuck that shit.
I turn on my phone and send my manager a quick email about how I'm quitting and how I'm pursuing better employment, yadda yadda.
Now, is not having a job gonna make all the money a bit more suspicious? Yeah, kinda, but honestly, I don't really care so…
Once I finish up the circle, I let out an even bigger yawn. Man, I'm tired as hell…I should probably go ahead and sleep. I mean, sure, I could put off sleep and just sleep in, but it's never a good idea to do alchemy tired; it always ends in paradox. Plus, I guess I should sleep so I can look at my plan with fresh eyes.
Letting out a small groan as I stand up, I strip off my shirt, revealing the rather large pinkish scar that dominates the lower right side of my chest. You know, thinking on it, I think if the crash never happened, I wouldn't be as broken up about Harleen, because at least then I'd have my parents to support me.
Shaking my head, I strip off my pants, turn off the lights, and climb into the warm flannel embrace of my bed.
With the lights out and my eyes closed, some thoughts of what if's and maybes. What if Halreen never went insane? What if she had never killed her Parents? What if she killed me as well? What if I died in the crash? What if and what if flow through my mind as I slowly drift off to sleep, with each one getting a bit less rational each time. The final one that floated through my mind before I went off to dreamland was the weirdest: What if Snowflame time-traveled to the Revolutionary War?
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Barbara Pov
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Sighing to myself, I set down my cold cup of coffee and pick up the ringing phone.
"Did you get more information about why Edward wanted the maps?" The gruff voice of Bruce Wayne speaks from my phone
I let out a sigh, straight to business as always, "No, got interrupted by Dinah needing my help, figured that was more important."
Bruce doesn't say anything for a moment, "Unfortunate timing. You said you knew them correctly?Could you put together a file?"
Letting out another sigh, I start to work on the file. I was planning on sleeping soon, but I guess I can put that off. "Yeah, sure, no problem."
With that, Bruce hangs up, no goodbye, no thank you, just a click and then silence. God, he really needs to get better at socializing.
A few minutes of filling out the file and sipping cold coffee pass by, and the file is filled out, leaving me with this:
Name: Eddward Mallone
Date of Birth: November 11, 1988
Classification: Person of Interest
Reason: Requested Maps of the Gotham Cave and Sewage system.
Notable Relationships: Ex-Fiance of Harley Quinn, Childhood friend of Barbara Gordon
Powers: Unknown
Type: Unknown.
Employment: Cashier at O'Shaughnessy's
Other Things of Note: Could just be interested in Urban Exploration
Threat level: None to low
Now, does this contain annoyingly little information? Yes, it does. But considering I'm not even sure if he's an actual PoI or just wants to get into Urban exploration, I don't think it's terrible. Plus, I haven't seen him since two thousand and…twelve? Yeah, 12 sounds right.
I set down the coffee and start wheeling away from my desk, but I'm interrupted by my phone ringing again.
I fish it out of my pocket and see it's John Constantine. Oh god…"What is it?"
"Came across something that I could use your help with."
"Okay…?" As dickish as ever, I see
"Came across a freshly collapsed house, old Victorian, so not strange. Except for the fact that right at the steps was a ritual circle I couldn't make any sense of, Non-demonic, I checked, but definitely old school. Early medieval period. I took a pic and sent it to Zatana, and she said she recognized one of the symbols as lead. When she said that, I realized there wasn't any lead piping in the wreck," Constatine says, acting a bit more talkative and sociable than normal. God, I swear if he hooked up with Z again…
"Okay…?"
"So I figure I know what they wanted with the lead, turn it into gold, but I can't think of anyone who can use magic who needs money and would go for the harder yet more legal way to get it."
"And you want to know if I can think of anyone who fits that description?"
"Yup"
"Yeah, alright. Well, I can't think of anyone right now, but if I do, I'll message you, alright?" I say and then promptly hang up without waiting for a response. Normally, I wouldn't be this rude, but I mean…it's Constantine.