Charlie's just showing Sir Pentious around the hotel, when suddenly Angel Dust asks "Is…that an owl? What's an owl doing here?"
When everyone turns to where Angel's staring, they see…a glowing white owl, with the most luminous yellow eyes soaring through the air straight towards Charlie. Though, the owl lands on the handrail of the staircase she's next to, and holds out one leg with a roll of parchment gripped in the talons. After a moment, Charlie takes the roll and sees a runic seal of some sort binding the roll together - a triangle, with a circle inside, run through with a straight line.
Where has she seen that before?
After a moment, she presses her thumb to the seal, and it flares bright green before vanishing and letting the parchment unfurl. Scanning through it, Charlie says "Aunt…Aunt Calli is coming to visit!"
Alastor raises one eyebrow, and says "This is certainly an interesting development. I can't say I've heard of another member of the royal family."
Charlie says "Technically, she's not related to me. Old friend of my parents, from way before I was born. I've got a- here! Take a look!"
Charlie produces a picture of three people together, two blonde and a woman with hair red as fresh-spilled blood. The red-head is at a piano, while the two blondes that are clearly Lucifer and Lilith Morningstar are playing violin and singing, respectively.
Vaggie hums, and Angel says "They look…happy, I guess."
Charlie nods, saying "They got into all these crazy adventures over the years, to. And then I came along, and it was the four of us. And Calli became Aunt Calli."
Sir Pentious says "She plays Piano, hm? Sounds interesting."
"Oh, I could listen to her play piano for hours as my mom sang a song, it was always so beautiful. And her magic, she can do the most amazing things, never failed to make me smile."
Alastor hums, tilting his head for a moment, and says "Magic, hm? What's the letter say?" There's a change in the air, a charge almost. Power, power so strong he can practically taste it. And it wasn't there when he woke up today, but was definitely there when he got down from the radio tower. And he's willing to bet his staff that it's this 'Aunt Calli' and her magic.
Charlie clears her throat, and says "'Dear Charlotte, or is it still Charlie? You may not remember me after all this time, but I'm your Aunt Calli. I know I disappeared for quite a long while, and all I can say is that my coworker needed me. Shite excuse, I know, but it's the truth nonetheless. You were too young, way back then, to understand just what job it is I have, but if D isn't pulling my leg on how long we've spent working then you're old enough now. But this isn't something I can put in a letter-' Wow, okay, I don't remember Aunt Calli being this serious…"
Vaggie asks "What's up?"
"She was always…bright, happy, ready with a piece on the piano while my dad got his Violin out. Not…alright, just keep reading… 'So I'm coming over to see you in person. It's been so long, and I cannot express how much regret I have for missing so much of your life. I've already checked the palace, and it seems deserted, so I went exploring the streets. Heard the most hilarious rap battle between a Radio Show Host and a TV-man on the TV. TV lost hard, by the way, and the city is currently in a blackout - point of fact, I'm currently writing this letter by the light of Hedwig's feathers, even as I superimposed Earth's night sky way up above by accident thinking about how it'd be a good time to stargaze. TV-man had a meltdown, I guess, and he took out the entire city's power grid bar this one red light past the edge of the city. I wish I could say that my visit is a hard-earned vacation, but I can't. D's been having chronic problems, and none of us can figure out why. But I can tell that they're coming to us from Hell - probably not originating from Hell, but definitely becoming our problems in Hell. I'm getting sent to investigate at long last - we finally got through enough of the backlog that keeps piling back up every single year on the thirty-first that D can spare me.'"
Vaggie asks "The thirty-first...Extermination Day?"
Charlie shrugs, and says "The letters almost finished. 'Also, he noticed that the pileup was bigger this year. There's already a mess of paperwork for each individual soul, we don't want or need a thousand more souls getting added onto the pile we're still chipping away at even now. I'm going to wrap this up now, the lights are starting to come back on. Shame, it's quite nice with everything being so calm. But I'm definitely looking forward to the next radio broadcast, it was truly hilarious. Haven't laughed that hard in ages. All my love, Aunt Cali. PS. Have you heard anything about extermination? All the souls we try to ask about it are always too worked up over it to give us a straight answer. Happens a lot with overly-traumatic deaths.'"
Angel gives Charlie a skeptical look, and asks "Just what does your Aunt do?! Because that last question...how does somebody not know about Extermination Day?!"
Charlie frowns, then says "She always had to leave about three months before, something about getting paperwork ready."
And then, taking even Alastor by surprise, the microphone on his staff switches from the classical jazz it usually plays to Lady Antebellum's 'Need you now.'
Everybody stares at Alastor now, and he says "This...isn't my doing."
Charlie gasps, and says "This song...Aunt Calli once played it! Sang the lyrics, to. What was it...picture perfect memories..."
Picture perfect memories Scattered all around the floor
Reaching for the phone 'cause, I can't fight it anymore
And I wonder if I ever cross your mind
For me, it happens all the time
It's a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now
Said I wouldn't call, but I lost all control and I need you now
And I don't know how I can do without, I just need you now-
And then, suddenly, the music suddenly crackles and stops, quickly followed by a lilting female voice saying "To the Radio Demon I've heard so much about in such a short time, first off I must apologize for accidentally hijacking your towers. My magic does what it wants half the time and the song was on my mind. Second, I so thoroughly enjoyed your verbal beat down of the demon that controls television...Vox, didn't you call him? I'll be eagerly awaiting your next broadcast. And I'm sure we'll meet soon enough, considering you're an Overlord. If you need to call me something, call me Calla Lily."Alastor hums as the usual jazz music resumes from his staff, then holds the microphone up and says "Well, well, this is certainly a surprise. I can't recall the last time I had any competition on the radio. So long as you don't interfere with my show times and don't try to upstage me with your own show, however, I see no reason why radio cannot accommodate both of us. You play music while I'm not broadcasting, perhaps? Calla Lily?"
"My, my, my, I hadn't actually expected a response. Much less such a positive one. Whatever shall I call you, then?"
Alastor's grin takes on a delighted edge, and he says "The name's Alastor. A pleasure to meet you, quite a pleasure."
A laugh sounds over the radio, sounding almost musical in in and of itself, and then Calla Lily says "The feeling is mutual, Alastor. I'm sure you're quite the busy demon, unfortunately, so I won't take up anymore of your time. Until tomorrow, Radio Demon."
Husk flatly asks "Alastor, were you just flirting with Charlie's Aunt?"
Sir Pentious asks "Was Charlie's Aunt flirting with Alastor?"
Vaggie asks "Was that actually your Aunt, Charlie?"
Charlie shrugs, saying "I don't know, that voice sounded similar to what I remember hearing, but…it's been over a century. Nobody just doesn't change in that amount of time. But weird, random stuff would happen around her all the time, from what I remember. Stuff would appear, things would be fixed, I just thought I hadn't noticed her doing something, but..." But, if her Aunt's magic just accidentally hijacked a radio tower and broadcasted a song she was thinking about for all of Pride Ring to hear, then maybe she wasn't as unobservant as she thought.
Angel says "Whoever that woman is, Charlie's Aunt or not, Alastor was definitely flirting with her. Take it from me, I know flirting when I see it."
Husk deadpans "I'm too sober for this."
"'Eh, get me a drink while you're at it, Whiskers?"
"Fuck off, faker."
Calliope leans against the Radio tower and stares up at the red glow in the distance - who or what would be not only that far from the city but also off the main energy grid? Was it because of the TV demon - Vox - being connected to the power grid?
Smart, if that's the reason.
'Need you now' starts playing once more, and Calliope starts humming the tune before heading off once more to get the lay of Pride Ring, and find out who and where each Overlord is. If she's going to get to the bottom of this 'Extermination' business, much less put an end to it, then she can't think of many better places to start than those with the most vested interest in the city.
As much as she wants to see her favorite honorary niece once more, she's got to make at least some headway in the investigation else she'll forget all about it.