>>5152974>>5152934>>5152874>>5152500>>5152487It’s not that you WANT anything bad to happen to Zi, but the plan is paramount. You need that devil-dog, and there is nobody else to serve as bait now… So she must. You, on the other hand, must now do double-duty as seeker as watcher: seeking the hellhound out, and watching for interference by the lawful authorities. It is less than ideal, of course, for two people working in close tandem cannot canvass an area in the same way you originally intended… And so, as a result, the process is not nearly so swift or sure as you had hoped.
However, you are not hopeless or helpless. You are something of an occultist yourself, after all, and you have the Akashic Record at your disposal. Hellhounds are simple creatures, as demons go. It is an easy thing to find a perfect ‘nest’ where such a being of angles might hide by finding an especially jagged and angular construction among the rickety, ever-under-maintenance constructions of Goblintown. Then, it is simply a matter of sinking into shadows—something at which you and Irinnile are uncannily adept—and letting Zi appear to be alone. For added verisimilitude, and to serve in your role as watcher, you hang a ways back, and wait.
…And wait.
And wait.
Irinnile makes a show of yawning within your increasingly-weary head, though she (unlike you) has no need even for brief torpor. You can’t help but agree with the sentiment, both because you are tired and because, frankly, you are bored. You relent, giving up on this likeliest spot and instead scouting the scenes of previous attacks for a clue. This, too, proves a dead end, but for a different reason: you cannot get close, for the damned guards and their Inquisitorial aides are lurking quite close to many of these spaces, obviously also hoping to catch a whiff of burning flesh and brimstone and to bag their (rather, YOUR) quarry.