Constantine squinted and shook his head like a slight inebriate, "He hasn't come to me for a long time. Maybe, he has found the answers he sought, and no longer relies on wishful prayers to the gods..."
"If you ask me, he's a strange one."
"But he's also a looker." Constantine ordered another drink. As the bartender turned to mix his drink, he said, "It's boring to just drink in these long nights..."
The bartender chuckled and passed him the drink, "Then you've come to the right place. The Gold Cup Bar has hired a talented magician to perform. You will see soon. They are also a looker..."
"Magician?" Constantine scoffed, "I don't think highly of them. They're just charlatans with a sweet-sounding title..."
Turning around, Constantine saw a woman dressed in a cape and a top hat making her entrance amidst the crowd's cheer. She circled the bar, showing everyone her empty hat.
The next second, she pointed her magic wand at the hat, and with a "whoosh," several bats flew out from it. The crowd burst into cheers.
The female magician displayed a deck of cards, flipping a flower card in her hand. She elegantly circled the room, showing everyone the deck. The next moment, she threw the cards in the air. With a swift stroke of her magic wand, the cards transformed into fireworks mid-air, and the cheers echoed throughout the bar.
Constantine coughed heavily, putting down his glass in slight panic, and told the bartender, "I'm leaving. If anyone asks for me later, tell them you've never seen Constantine..."
With that, he tightened his trench coat and tried to slip out through the bar's back door along the edge of the counter. But before he could make it, the door was blocked by a utensils room door.
The female magician from before was leaning against the wall, one hand holding her top hat and the other her wand, giving Constantine a cynical smile.
"Uh, Little Zha, nice coincidence running into you here. Your magic show was magnificent, the best I've ever seen. I have some matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave first…"
As Constantine tried to leave, Zatanna did not stop him, she only twirled her wand and said, "No problem, you can leave. But perhaps by tomorrow, news of you hitting on me at the bar and asking for credit will spread throughout the mystic world…"
Resignedly, Constantine stopped, turned to Zatanna and asked, "What brings you to Gotham? It's dangerous here. Weren't you on a world tour performing your magic? How are you back so soon?"
"Of course I'm here for serious business." Zatanna put on her hat, tilted her head towards Constantine and said, "Let's find a place to talk in more detail. This is important."
Soon, they were seated back at the bar. As Constantine took a gulp from his glass, he asked, "What could be so urgent to have Zatanna Zatara, the genius magician, come running to me, a miserable soul? Didn't you say you would never see me again?"
"John, I'm not joking with you. Don't you have any premonition? Haven't you noticed that many people from the mystic world have set their sights on Gotham in recent years? If my memory serves me right, there was Ghost Mom here before, and many members from magical scholars' families are giving intense looks this way…"
Constantine thought back to his previous encounter with Ghost Mom, who had colluded with the former Gotham's King of Children, Cooper, and Lady Sanchez.
"I seem to recall indeed, Lady Sanchez did say Gotham was special, that it held unique significance to the entire mystic world."
Zatanna sighed, saying, "You should be aware that I come from a prestigious magic family and have kinship with many important figures from the mystic world. To be frank, there's a rumor in the mystic world about Gotham, they say, it is under a dreadful curse, the most dreadful curse in the world…"
"I don't know the academic name of this curse, but in the circle, it's called the 'Curse of Evil'."
'Curse of Evil'?" Constantine narrowed his eyes and said: "Whoever named it has a big talk. What type of curse could be called the Curse of Evil?"
Zatanna nodded and said: "At first, when I heard this name, I also thought they were exaggerating. A curse is just a small part of the mystic world. No matter how formidable it is, how formidable can it be?"
"But later, some elders I knew told me that the so-called Curse of Evil refers to a universal curse..."
"The specific manifestation of this curse is not the usual curse that makes people unable to cast spells, rot all over their bodies, or die directly. The 'Curse of Evil' can affect a group of people, making everything they experience develop in a bad direction, inescapable and irreversible."
Constantine was silent. Zatanna looked at his expression and said, "You feel it, don't you?"
"Gotham is indeed an unsalvageable city. During these days here, I realized that it is the trash can and sewer of the cosmos. All evil, chaos, and madness will eventually flow here."
"As for the curse..." Constantine looked at the liquor in the cup, and said: "The people here don't care, they're not afraid, and even if you want to dispel the curse for them, they will think you are crazy."
"But the problem is that we can't let this curse get out!" Zatanna emphasized: "Haven't you noticed? Those people want to find the source of this curse and use it to destroy the world!"
She put down the wine glass on the table, made a "clang" sound, attracted Constantine to look at it, Zatanna turned her head to look into his eyes, and said: "I got exact news. Many people have teamed up and plan to come here to investigate."
" Among them are frustrated black magicians, traitors who defected from magic families, marginal figures like Lady Sanchez who have become insignificant due to broken inheritances..."
Constantine's fingers gripping the wine glass tightened a bit, then he picked up the glass again, put it to his mouth, and said: "Is the news reliable?"
Zatanna nodded and said: "You haven't been active in the mystic world recently, but if you reestablish contact with your old friends, you will know that this matter has already spread."
"You should know that among the well-known independent magicians in the mystic world, most of them are self-taught talents like you. Also, like you, most of them have ulterior motives and are not quite normal."
"They want to obtain this Curse of Evil to become the ruler of the mystic world, the emperor of magic, we must stop them!"
However, Constantine put down his wine glass, snorted coldly, and said: "It's you and those families who are afraid that they will use the Curse of Evil on you, right?"
"Zatanna, you are always like this, appearing righteous, but I have said long ago that magic has never been something that can be used to save the world."
"You and those self-righteous magic families only want to protect yourselves, to maintain your noble lineage and superior status..."
Zatanna turned her head to the side and said: "So, are you willing to help me?"
Constantine drank up the liquor in the glass again. He put the glass heavily on the table, then said: "Tell me about your plan."