Book 6: Blood in the Streets
On the Monday after I had visited Lisa, Eibon came by the dorm to pick me up for the trip to Edinburgh. Since it was a formal meeting of the White Council, he told me to bring a robe. Luckily I had one at home. He said that we were going to meet up with two others on the way. Trying to be friendly, I asked him what wanted me to call him, and he only said I should refer to him as Master. A man of many words he is not. We met up with Imogen and Maria Feodorovna, and went to one of the parks where Maria opened a portal to Nevernever. Maria talked a bit of what would happen in Edinburg. Apparently, Me and Imogen and some other new apprentices would be introduced to the rest of the wizards. Of course that would be only a small part of what I gathered was a big meeting.
After a relatively short travel, we came to Edinburgh. I saw a real castle, and I knew that it was built to stand firm against almost any attacks. We were met by two wardens at the gates. Once inside I briefly met both Carlos Ramirez again and some of the wardens in the ill-fated group that Lisa had led. Didn't get to speak with them properly though, as the main meeting were just about to start. It as held inside a huge auditorium that was filled with people. The meeting would be lead by a council, of important people. If I got their names right they were Ancient Mai, Ebenezer McCoy, Listens-to-Winds and the man in charge was known by the title of Merlin. The only problem was that the meeting was held in Latin. I had to whisper to Eibon that I didn't understand what they were saying. He said he would tell me later about what was discussed.
After a while it was time for the apprentices to be introduced. Besides me and Imogen there were two Asian guys. We had gotten notes with what we should say in Latin, When I were introduced, a lot of the assembled wizards started murmuring and whisper amongst themselves. I think that was due me being an apprentice to Eibon. At least I hope it did. Sadly, I butchered the pronunciation of the Latin, which had everyone laughing. I did my best, but next time I will do better. When it was Imogen's turn though, everyone turned very silent, and you could feel the animosity amongst the crowd.
Slightly after we were finished introducing ourselves, and had sat down, a group of people came in. First a short blond Latin-American woman, and then a huge man who carried a sword. I recognized them from my visions, and whispered to Eibon that I did recognize them. He didn't seem surprised. After them five others came in. All of them behaved as if they owned the place and didn't care at all that they were late. I had a feeling that it was quite orchestrated though. I do appreciate great showmanship. Eibon told me the man and woman that I recognized were Kalevi Merinen and Lucia Hanae Matsushita. The assembled people started talking about some rogue wizard named Francis Black who had broken out of the White Council and now were teaching others to use magic. There was apparently a great debate of what do against him and his students. It was clear that some of the council wanted to make an example of him and his students. Lucia and Kalevi were trying to turn the crowd a lynchmob. I am not sure if was the fact that Francis Black choose what laws he would follow, or that he was hiring wizards out to the FBI that angered them the most. Eibon told me that they were young, hungry for power, mad, and the reason we could not get rid of the council. I could hear Imogen whisper to Maria, wondering what to do with the quite heated debate. Maria told her to sit down and make sure that she wasn't noticed. Apparently a lot of people would have been quite happy if Imogen was dead. The end of the debate was that the council would send an emissary to talk to Francis Black, and if that didn't get the desired result, wardens would be sent to deal with the perceived problem. Must say that debate were some of the longest four hours I have ever experienced. I really don't like debates, and I especially don't like debates where I don't understand what is being said.
When the debate was over, the doors to the room was blown open, and an extremely beautiful mid-eastern woman stormed in. Two wardens tried to stop her from entering the room. She was followed by a man with a huge sword. The woman was introduced as the Queen of the Brass Court, and the man was her knight. She spoke English, and was very agitated, and wanted the council to support her in her war against the Summer Court. Even from where I was sitting, I could feel power emitting from her. The feeling I got was that she and Star had a lot in common. The council tried to calm her down, as it was quite clear that had any fight taken place a lot of people would have died. She claimed that Summer conspired with the old queens, and that they held her daughter; the Brass Lady captive. As she left, she threatened the council and said that if they didn't support her, she would punish them severely later on when she had destroyed the Summer court. Oh dear Goddess, this was bad.
After the meeting, Imogen and I were told to wait in a room while Maria and Eibon attended to some other things. Not sure how long we had waited when we heard some kind of alarm going off. Imogen was of course ready to go exploring, I thought we should stay, but was talked into going out to see what was going on. Lots of people came running down the corridor. I asked one of the wardens that came running what was going on, and we were told in no uncertain terms to go back to our room and wait there. For once Imogen actually did what someone told her to do. Maybe twenty minutes later, Maria came by to see how we were doing. Apparently over fifty newly created Black Court vampires had attacked members of the council as they were leaving. How had they gotten there? According to Maria, all of those that had died were on the side that wanted a peaceful dealing with Francis Black and his disciples. A coincidence? Maybe, but I didn't think so. Again we were told to wait in the room as she would go and check some things out. Forty minutes later, Eibon came and said we had to leave right there and then. We wouldn't have time to fight our way out. Maria was doing some kind of diversion. That didn't sound very good. As we left we met again with warden Ramirez, who looked quite worried. We took a long detour from Edinburgh back to Boston. Once there we were told to stay indoors, behind a good threshold. Well, that meant that I needed to stay with Imogen at least for the night, as a dorm doesn't get much of a threshold. Antonio wasn't at home though.
The next day, Imogen left with Karl, and Mirou to New York. Karl had some business there, dealing with some kind of suit of armour if I understood it correctly. I declined to join, as I had too much stuff to do. Besides, I had a feeling Eibon would be quite angry with me if I were to disregard his direct order to stay put.
When I went to the dorm to pick up some stuff during the day after, I found that someone had broken into my room, and the door was sealed with police tape. I could tell that whoever had done it had also put a ward on the door. That made me very cautious, and I used my magical sight to investigate it closer. It would let anyone enter the room, but if I did so then whoever had made the ward would know. That made it personal. I went and talked to the police, who said that they figured it was some burglar, and that one of my neighbours had seen the door broken. Of course no one had seen the person or persons who had done it. The police were quite puzzled though, and said they had no clues. I had some ideas though, and it seemed my worst fears were true, in that Isabella's family were after me to get to her. I arranged to get a new room, so I had somewhere to stay. Wasn't hard to convince the dorm managers that I couldn't use the old one as I wouldn't feel safe there. I said I would come back later and get my things. Now I only needed to get someone else to get them for me. Back at Imogen's house, I used my magic to find out whether or not Yukimi was still alive. I needed to come up with some way to neutralize the threat that her family posed to me, luckily I got some ideas.
I spent the next few days studying, and thinking on what to do. I had the feeling that time was running out, in more than one sense. On the news, there were reports of strange happenings in New York. They were wondering whether it had been a meteor striking a building in central New York, or an act of terrorism. Some people talked about Nacho Libre. There had also been a strange break-in at the Metropolitan Museum. I had some sneaking suspicions on who was behind it. Please, let me be wrong for once. And Eibon had still not come back for me.
After the others had come back, Karl wanted us all to meet, apparently he had met someone who had some information for us. I first got very surprised when two men showed up that I had never seen before; an Asian man and a fat German with a moustache. They introduced themselves as Zhujiang and Herr Schwartz. Apparently they were some business associates of Mirou, who wasn't coming as he lay in hospital. Then Karl showed up with four teenagers in tow. Austin, and Hannah who were a couple, and then Megan, and Joshua. Austin was a fellow goth, or maybe more of an emo. Hannah appeared to be very protective about him, and made it quite clear that he was hers. Joshua was a real pretty boy, even prettier than Antonio, who did join us slightly after the others had come inside. Had I been single then sure I might have wanted to flirt with Joshua at a party, but I doubt that anything lasting would have come out of it. I want men, not boys. I wondered about Star, but was told that she was not around at the moment. It seemed that Karl, Antonio, and Imogen knew Herr Schwartz from before, and Karl seemed to know Zhujiang.
I got a sense that the newcomers were more than they appeared to be. Austin had some kind of powerful item, I could tell that Hannah was a practitioner, but there was something just weird with both Megan, Joshua, and Herr Schwartz. I could tell that Zhujiang was marked by some kind of power, similar to what I sensed about Mirou earlier. The teenagers seemed a bit uncomfortable being with us, but it turned out some representative from the Brass Court had tried to recruit them, and had gotten quite angry when they had said no. There was something familiar about the name of the representative. The woman from the Brass Court had come back later with some Black court Vampires, but had just walked away when the teenagers had told them to. There was something there that they weren't telling us. The question was what it was. They then said that they had seen the Brass Court woman and her vampire associates getting captured by some wizards. When I asked for a description of them, I was given very good drawings depicting both Lucia, Kalevi and some other woman that I had not seen before. Karl recognized her though. She was the Black Court vampire he had fought when we were visiting the trolls earlier, and Star fought the duel. The teenagers said goodbye and left, saying that they hoped we could do something about the current unrest in Boston.
Imogen and I told the others about what had happened in Edinburg, and I confirmed that I had seen Lucia and Kalevi in two visions earlier. They were definetively involved. Zhujiang, behaved like a typical male chauvinistic pig, and dismissed my visions, saying that he did not listen to prophecies from women. Oh, the nerve, I had a mind of showing him just what I could do. Luckily Karl stepped in and told him that my visions were right. I asked Zhujiang just who he thought he was, and got the answer that he was an emissary from the Emperor of Heaven. Herr Schwartz worked with him, and they were here due to some problems with Jade Court vampires. I said I had never heard of them, and was basically told that I need not bother.
I told the others about the ward on my room at the dorm, and my fears that Yukimi's family had infiltrated the FBI. Karl then said that when they had picked up Mirou earlier after he got arrested, he had been quite out of it, but the one thing he did remember was that they had spent a lot of time asking questions about me and Yukimi. He was quite certain that they had messed with his mind. That confirmed my worst fears. I asked Antonio if he remembered the name of the wizard that had captured him earlier, but he had no idea. Well, I was going to have to write an anonymous letter, and use him to flush out Yukimi's siblings. The enemy of my enemy might not be my friend, but they could certainly be a useful tool. Now I only needed to set in motion the next part in my plan to protect myself as well. I think they called it a dead-man's switch, that if anything happened to me, then all the information I had about her family would go public. I had a feeling that the wardens and probably others as well would be very interested.
It seemed that the reason that Star was not around, was that someone had taken the lamp that was used to control her. Karl confirmed that she was indeed a genie. He had gotten her lamp back when we had been fighting the snow trolls during the winter event a year ago. When he had learned what it was, he had put it in a bank vault. The problem was that the bank had been robbed, and now someone else had the lamp. Oh crap. I said that I might be able to track her down if I had something that belonged to her. Karl volunteered to go and get some things from her apartment. I told him that the the stronger connection she had to the object the better. As a byway, he said that he and Peggy were getting married, and that they were going to adopt the troll baby that Star had cared for earlier. I can honestly say we were all very much confused by these news. I was happy for them to get married, but adopting a troll? Had they any idea of what trouble they were in for?
After a short while, Karl was back with some of Star's belongings. I set up a magical circle with the help of Imogen. Not that I would need her help in that, as divination is my speciality, but if noting else she might learn what I do. Could always be useful if someone needed to track me down. The result I got was nothing, which meant that she was not anywhere on Earth. That meant we had to try it in the Nevernever as well. It's hard for magic to travel across the borders. Of course crossing into Nevernever had its own risks, and was not something one should attempt lightly. Karl knew of a suitable spot where we could do it safely, or as safe as possible. Was always the risk of something lurking on the other side.
We quickly crossed over, and me and Imogen did our tracking, but again we came up with nothing. That meant that Star had either been obliterated, or she was held behind some very powerful wards. We went back to Imogen's house, and started contacting our various contacts in the city to see what they knew about the bank robbery. Imogen learned that some people had made a lot of money selling various strange things recently, while Antonio found out that a lot of people in the Latino area had vanished. Karl apparently knew someone who had sold lots of heavy weapons to the alleged perpetrators. Oh great, so not only were we dealing with criminals, we were dealing with heavily armed criminals. I talked to my friends in the Paranet and also warned them of the Black Court vampires that was around. They said they were already aware of that, and that everyone was spooked. Apparently almost four hundred persons had vanished over the past weeks. Mostly homeless people, and all of them young ones.
We learned that two weeks ago, young people on the streets had started to disappear, a week later, older homeless persons had started ending up dead. According to the information Antonio found, in a shelter for homeless people, everyone had been killed under mysterious circumstances. All of the persons that had vanished had probably not been turned into vampires, but I think a lot had. The rest had probably become food. This was extremely bad. Oh dear Goddess, please protect us from this.
In the evening after we had done our investigations, Antonio came back to the house together with someone who looked like his sister Maria. This was very strange, as last I had seen her, she had been very ill, and she had died as far a I knew. But here she was alive as could be, and seemingly in good health. Imogen took me aside and asked me if I could tell if it really was her. I used my sight on her, and as far as I could tell there was no glamour or other spell on her that would make someone look like her. And she really was alive as far as I could tell. I told Imogen this. I talked to Maria while she was eating, and asked her how she was doing. The poor thing was starving, and quite shook up. She had apparently suddenly found herself in a strange hospital in Egypt, and then somehow managed to get back here, where the Police had picked her up, and then contacted Antonio who had come down to get her. The only thing she had had with her had been some strange letter in Arabic. Imogen apparently could read it, and was talking to Antonio in one of the other rooms.
As I was talking to Maria, she started crying, and I reached out to comfort her. That was a bit of a mistake. I was totally unprepared to the power of the magic that had been used on her. Why hadn't I seen any trace of it with my magical sight? When I touched her, I saw how everything turned black, and then I found myself transported to Egypt. I could see the silhouettes of the pyramids. Then I was inside one and I woke up lying on a strange stone altar. A old bearded man stood above me, and performed some ritual. He then collapsed on top of me, as he transferred his life essence into me, or Maria actually. I knew for a fact that she had been dead, and it was only because of this ritual that she was alive. So that was what was meant with the mystical quote “my life for her life”.
I woke up lying on the floor, with one hell of a headache, and I felt really nauseous, and had to vomit up everything I had eaten earlier. My skin felt like it was vibrating from the power of the spell, and I felt the cold touch of death and felt dirty and unclean. Maria was panicking, not surprisingly given how I had just collapsed. Karl kindly handed me a glass of water and a headache pill. That made all the difference. The others said that it was quite common for me to collapse like that. I agreed, and said that I had collapsed after feeling the magic that kept her alive. That it had been the most powerful magic I had ever experienced. There was no need to tell her that she had actually been dead. She looked at me like I was from another planet. Antonio tried proving to her that magic was real by producing a small flame in his hand. I don't think she accepted it though. Most people don't. I went and borrowed the shower to freshen up. I tried letting the water rinse off the after-effects of the magic, while I performed a cleansing ritual, but all I could see in front of me was blood, and it felt like dead meat rained down on me. I would have nightmares of this for some time. I performed my ritual to keep dreams at bay, both on me and Maria who also went to bed. I think I coped better with it than she did, but that wasn't to say I coped well.
The day after, I tried doing some research about where people had disappeared,to see if I could narrow down where the vampires might be hiding. I learned that it had been concentrated to some of the poorer areas in Boston. The kind of people that no one would miss. From my contacts in the Paranet, I learned that it was not just people from Boston that had disappeared but also a lot of young people who had been drifting from place to place, ranging from Connecticut to New York. That didn't help me narrow anything down, and I still had noting really useful to work with. If I just could get some good readings, then I could alert the wardens.
Antonio, Karl, and that mysterious German guy, Herr Schwartz, decided to try to find out more about the people that had done the heist at the bank, and stolen Star's lamp. So they went out in the town to talk to their contacts. In the meanwhile I tried getting some more information about Isabella's family. I would need as much material I could to neutralize the threat they posed. That didn't go so well either.
In the evening, we got a call from Austin, one of the teenagers that had visited earlier. Apparently they were trapped in a cemetery with lots of vampires around, and needed some help getting out. Well, Imogen might be able to do more in a fight than I could, but I doubted any of us could do much against vampires. I tried casting a divination-spell to get any confirmation of what was out there., but didn't get anything solid. Imogen on her part decided to call the Wardens to get some help from their part, but they would need more confirmation before they would send anyone. Well, we would need to do something to help them, so we set off toward the cemetery in Imogen's old car.
When we got near the cemetery, we parked the car and veiled ourselves, so we could get closer. Everything was abandoned and deadly silent. After some time we found the four teenagers coming out from a house next to the cemetery. Not sure what Imogen did but I think she used some spell to contact Austin, as he tensed up and started looking around. I was busy trying to watch so no one crept up on us. When we got closer I could tell that Austin was carrying a big sword and had a pistol strapped to each leg. What was going on? Imogen talked to Austin a bit and he wanted us to quickly enter the cemetery. As we did that I could feel a ripple of magic as we passed some sort of ward. A bit like a threshold, and our veils were taken down. I looked around, and could still not see anything moving outside.
In the middle of the cemetery was a big oak, with some mysterious mist surrounding it. When I got closer to it, I could feel some power emitting form it, and it felt a bit creepy and my skin was tingling. I could tell that the wards surrounding the cemetery was very powerful indeed. Austin invited us to the Mausoleum in the middle. It seemed that the teenagers had made some sort of home inside it. It was a bit morbid, but who am I to argue? After all, I have a girlfriend who is several hundred years old, and who changes bodies.
We talked to the teenagers about what was going on, and they said that there were maybe two hundred vampires in the nearby buildings, but they had managed to take out a few of them in surprise attacks. They apparently knew about our involvement in some of the strange affairs that had taken place in the city earlier, and thought we were really powerful. Was almost as if they idolized us. That misconception could get us all killed. I was a bit concerned that they knew that one of the Circle of Five hand been involved in the winter ritual earlier. I did my best to not let that show. If I hadn't told any of the others what I knew about Yukimi, I sure wasn't going to tell mere acquaintances. The teenagers wanted help, but was very wary about wardens in particular. They were hiding something. I wasn't sure what, but I had a feeling it had partly to do with Hannah being a wizard, and the type of magic she used.
As we were looking out, we saw how someone or something turned Imogen's car over and then we heard metal breaking as it was torn to pieces. Damn it, that meant we were trapped here. Imogen did manage to reach the wardens again, and this time got them to come. I asked the teenagers if it was ok if I did some divination-magic to make sure we knew what was going on, but they advised against it, saying that they didn't know what would happen, but that it probably wasn't good. There was something in the way they said it that made me belive that they knew exactly what would happen, but it would indeed not be good.
It was a tense wait before the wardens arrived. We saw them carefully coming closer towards the cemetery, but then as from out of nowhere all the vampires stormed them. They came from the roofs and ever other place you could think of. Sadly the onslaught of vampires was too much for the fifteen wardens. But they took about a hundred and fifty vampires with them. The buildings around suffered a lot of collateral damage. We did what we could to help the wardens from inside the cemetery, but it was not enough. Then just as quickly as the vampires had come they vanished.
Austin drew his sword, and I could tell that that was the item of power that I had sensed earlier when they were at Imogen's house. He summoned some dark power that felt like a force of nature. It felt unpleasant, but nowhere near the spell that had brought Maria back to life. The magic spread out and quickly decomposed both all the dead vampires and the dead wardens. We needed to get out of there. Imogen quickly picked up the few belongings that was still around. Those included the Wardens swords and their focus items.
Luckily, the teenagers had their van nearby so we could get away. Imogen managed to call the wardens again when we left, and they said we should wait at home until a member of the senior council would debrief us. Not sure I liked that. But what was done was done.
When we came home to Imogen, we found Maria sound asleep on the couch. Shortly after we came home, Karl, Antonio and a strange Asian girl showed up. When I asked who she was they said she was Kuro. That she was Herr Schwartz. That sounded very weird. I would have to look into that. We talked about what had happened. They had apparently managed to track down some of the people that had performed the heist and had some talk with them. I had a feeling I didn't want to know how they had learned the information they got. It turned out that it was some agent from the FBI that had hired the thieves, and Star's lamp was now in their custody. Might as well be on the Moon for all the good that did us.
The teenagers excused themselves and left as they didn't want to be around when a senior member of the White Council' would come. So they got Kuro and Antonio to take them to the university as they wanted to see the strange sacrifice tree there. Karl wanted to have a look around at the cemetery so he left in wolf-form, to see if he could find out anything there.
I performed a long ritual to track down the vampires. I had a feeling they were connected to the vampire that Karl had fought when we were helping Star when she fought a troll king. My ritual took hours but it was worth it. I found the link from that vampire to all the others. I could tell that there was three groups of black court vampires, one smaller group near the cemetery and one at the university and then one in the forest near the ancient sacrifice tree there.
When I was finished with my ritual, and totally exhausted, I found that Eibon had come to the house. He wanted to know what I had seen in the ritual. I told him about it. He said that the vampires were mobilizing. Unsure about for what, but it was bad. He did seem pleased about what I had found though. I also informed him about the ward that had been placed on my dorm room. He said he was aware of it but that I now had the chance. Being his typical enigmatic self he wouldn't say of what, but I got the feeling it had to do with the situation with my dear girlfriend. He told us to stay off the streets as blood would flow, and that Nevernever was definitely off limits at the moment as that was even more dangerous. We also informed him that we had gotten information that Black Court vampires had been behind the abduction of the Brass Lady.
I spent the remainder of the day, writing down everything I knew about Isabella's family, and then placing copies in sealed envelopes. You need something to use if you are going to conduct a proper blackmail. Blackmail is such a dirty word though, but what else should one call it, well it was my life insurance, and it was all I had. My goal was to get her family to leave me alone, and making them aware that I had material that would be bad for them, and that I would use it if needed. I made sure to leave a copy of the material with a lawyer, and it should be held until my death. I sent another copy to the Trimountaine Arcane with the same instructions. I had originally planned on setting up a meeting at Wishes, which was neutral ground, but then I realized that that would simply give them an ideal opportunity to get to me. I had no intention of being turned into a brainwashed minion for them.
Imogen and Antonio spent the next days getting some metal bars across the windows on the ground floor and put up lots of garlic in order to protect against any vampires. Not sure what the others were doing. I took the time to put a message in the secret dropbox, that Yukimi and I used to communicate with each other. I explained the current situation at the FBI, and said I had taken steps to minimize the threat to me. We both knew that they would not stop looking for her, so I suggested that she might have to fake her death to cast them off the trail. I also wrote about the situation where Star had gone missing and that her family had probably gotten to Mirou.
According to the news,then nothing special had happened in the city. The Trimountaine Arcane ran a story though, where they came relatively close to the truth, and warned people about an invasion of vampires in the city. I took the time to go out to do some research and while veiled visit both the intensive care units at the hospitals and the psych wards, looking for suitable hosts for Isabella if she would need to. I chose those places to look for people that either was lying in a coma with no expected way out, or people that were suicidal, in order to minimize the stain of evil such things would leave on my soul, and in a way give the persons involved a way to live on. The idea was that the person in a coma, wouldn't have a life otherwise, and the suicidal person would have free will to choose said fate.
During the evening, when I was back with Antonio, Imogen and Maria, we all started getting lots and lots of text messages on our phones that something strange was going on at campus. Even George had called Imogen. Antonio called Karl who had done some preparations at home together with Semyon and . We decided to meet outside the Campus area to see what was happening. When we came there we heard lots of noise. Semyon had apparently had had someone get a custom vehicle for him. It looked like it was armoured and capable of driving through lots of rubble with the plough attached to it in front. Herr Schwartz and Zhujiang was also present. Then Schwartz more or less ripped his skin off and in his place stood Kuro. That was very freaky to see. I could see how the disposed skin of Schwartz literally started to melt away. Probably some kind of extoplasm. Karl turned into a wolf, and both he and Kuro set off in different directions to do some scouting while we looked from afar.
After a while Karl came back saying that there were thousands of vampires running around. It seemed that everyone on campus had been turned. The vampires were attacking the sacrifice tree on campus, and the tree was winning. He said he saw a couple of horned persons fighting the vampires, and then huge whips of energy emerged from the tree and cut down hordes of vampires. He had also seen how a contingent of wizards had come and were starting to fight the vampires on the other side. We realized that there was not much we could do here, better get back home into safety. Imogen tried calling George, but didn't get any reply. I hope he had managed to get out, and had only lost his phone, but I had a sinking feeling. Antonio called his girlfriend to check that she was doing ok. He apparently had a long-distance relationship with an FBI-consultant in Vancouver, and she had just lost her job due to some internal restructuring.
The day after, the news reported that there had been some kind of accident with chemical vapours that had killed a lot of people near the old graveyard, and that there had been huge sink-holes on campus, making buildings collapse and many had been killed or vanished. The authorities had blocked all access to both areas until it would be safe again. Neither of us believed that story, and I doubted anyone else that knew anything did. I tried getting in touch with everyone I knew in town just to check who were still alive. I met up with a lot of remaining students for a manifestation of grief near campus. We had all lost friends and family. I think everyone was in shock of the scale of it all.
Later in the day, Eibon came by Imogen's house. Two of Francis Black's students had been caught yesterday near the campus. They were accused of collaborating with the vampires. When we asked him if all of these troubles that we had seen here were happening all over the world or just in Boston, he said that it only happened here. When I told him about the drawings that Austin had given us on the persons they had seen when the Brass Lady had been taken, and the vision I got from the needle that had poisoned the troll king, he looked concerned. When I wondered if there was some chance of getting any more information there, he gave me a large sapphire and a necklace, and indicated that I should work my magic on them. I have no idea where he had gotten them from though. I promised I would do my best.
He also gave me and Imogen two documents that was summonings to Edinburgh for a crisis-meeting, but he forbid us from going and said that we would die if we went there, but that we were not to mention to anyone that he had said this. He said that he believed that Francis Black needed to be warned, as the council would use the two captured students as an excuse to go all out on a manhunt for him. Imogen asked him if he had heard anything from her master, but he hadn't she had been missing for the past few days.
When Eibon had left, I started to prepare or my divination ritual. Maria wanted to watch it, as she didn't believe in magic. I told her that her presence might complicate things and that she wouldn't see anything anyway. She wasn't that happy with the response. I would have to show her some of the stuff I did for training. If nothing else it would do for a neat party-trick, trying to predict the order of all the cards in a deck or picking out which sealed envelope held which card.
After having taken a long time calming myself and performing a cleansing ritual, I started working my magic on the sapphire, and it didn't take long before I got what I was after. The vision I got was of a young boy. Strange that I knew that, as I saw it from his view. I saw a big forest consisting of spruce-trees in the middle of the winter. It was very cold and my feet were freezing due to him wearing broken shoes, and then shorts. The boy decided to go into the forest. When he turned around to look behind him, I could see a pillar of smoke a long way off. Then it skipped to a hut in the forest, cluttered with things. An old man was talking to the boy. I cannot understand the language. The boy obeys the old man. Then it seems time skips again, and it is clearly somewhere between five and ten years later, and I see a young man standing in front of an old man that has been strangled with a scarf. The young man meets a man I saw at the meeting in Edinburgh. They speak Latin with each other, but I cannot understand it. It is somewhere in the 19th century. The young man bows before the older man but he is filled with hate towards the older man. The young man later met a young woman, whom I could identify as Lucia. They seem to click very well together. Then time skips again to about 50 years later. They are talking about how tired they are and that a news age must come at any price. Then it skipped to where they were meeting a lot of people. I could not identify them. The man and woman are breaking many of the laws of magic. Both using magic to enthral others and enter their minds as well as killing people. I get a feeling that it is the right way to go. The man and the woman also talked with a woman that looked dead, and made some kind of deal. During the vision my feelings went from feeling hopelessness, to fear and outright terror, to hate, to despising someone, to hating the weak, to loneliness, and then a sense of belonging, and finally hope and a sense that the end was near.
I then repeated the process for the necklace. Again I got a vision. This time of a young girl standing on the balcony on a large hacienda. Lots of bushes around the house, and lots of people working the fields. She felt like she didn't belong, as if everyone were wearing masks and hiding their true self. The girl is around eight years old. Then time skips a few years, and I see how she is beaten by her father. She feels shame for something she has done, but also a mix of fear and hate for her father who hurts her badly. I know that it isn't the first time that he has done that. The girl is rebellious, and a few years later, the hacienda burns. Her father jumps while on fire, from the balcony, he breaks his legs when he lands. The girl is feeling a sense of both fear and joy. Next I see, she is in her mid teens, and is living on the streets in a big city, possibly Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo in the mid 19th century. One man is helping her, and giver her food and talks her into learning magic. They then travel to England. She falls in love with the man, but her feelings are not returned, and the man grows colder. She then meets the young man from the first vision, he is tall and thin here. They click immediately, then I see similar scenes where they are talking to different people. My emotions changed from one end of the spectrum to the other and back again as they did in the previous vision. First a feeling of not belonging, then desperation and hopelessness, followed by love and obsession which turned into despair and feeling left out in the cold, then friendship and hope for the future.
I knew that both of them had made some active choices that had shaped their lives, so they were not just victims of their circumstances. They were responsible for most of what had happened so far. One thing I did notice though was that there was another young woman that they both seemed to click very well with. She looked like she might be from Spain, or Greece or some similar place. There was something very familiar with her. I couldn't place it at first, but then it hit me, she looked very similar to the woman I had seen when I soulgazed Yukimi. I knew that she had been doing nasty stuff before, I just hadn't realized for how long and how much she had been involved in the current affairs. I would need to ask her about that later on.
While I had been done in the basement, working my ritual, both Star and Karl had arrived. I was quite happy to see Star again, but she seemed as if she was not herself, and behaved very strangely. She said that she had a message from a young woman, whom she didn't know the name of. The woman had said that she was sorry that she had gone a bit overboard. When I asked what had happened, Karl said that he had intended to go down to the subway trolls to talk to them about something, when he had heard a huge explosion, and when he looked around seen a pillar of smoke from the FBI-building. He decided to go there and investigate in wolf-form, basically to see if he could find any traces of Star there. When he got there, he had seen an Asian woman leave the demolished building though a portal to the Nevernever. He had seen very few casualties from the devastation though. At the top he had found a dead man and a woman. The man had gotten a large pipe though his chest and the woman had gotten a red-hot iron bar wrapped around her body. Star said she had no clear memories of what had happened, but had suddenly found herself in the Nevernever with a woman who had urged Star to go here. I gathered that it was Yukimi that had been there. I was both relieved that she was ok, but also sad that she hadn't come in person to meet me. I guess she still needed to lie low, especially with everything that was going on in the city.
Here, Imogen suddenly threw some kind of staff at me. I instinctively caught it,which turned out to be a big mistake. A powerful vision hit me as soon as I touched the staff, which was broken and had some strange engravings on it. I instinctively know that the staff belonged to a man that had been one of the most evil and vile persons to ever exist. He had ruined countless lives, and only cared for power, his family and wealth. Many hundred years of evil passed in front of my eyes in a few moments, and I fell to the ground shaking in pain and fear. I was bleeding from my eyes and my ears. I would have preferred passing out, but the intensity of the vision stopped me from that kind of relief. When I stopped shaking, I felt weak as a kitten, and had to puke. All I could do was cry from what I had seen. The feeling that filled me was one of hopelessness. It felt as if a large part of my soul was gone. I had one hell of a headache, and felt really miserable.
When I had managed to freshen up, I was still feeling a bit catatonic. I was given some tea to calm my nerves. Oh dear Goddess, that was what I needed to start feeling alive again, but I also craved large amount of alcohol to drink my self into unconsciousness so I could forget what I had seen. Sadly I didn't get any of that. I was dimly aware that we talked about what was going on, and that we needed to find some evidence of who was behind everything. Hopefully we would be able to stop more bloodshed. My visions wouldn't be enough, though.
The next few days I drifted in and out of semi-unconsciousness. I was still weak, and plagued by horrible nightmares that stopped me from sleeping. Not entirely sure how long it took me to start feeling better, but I knew that I couldn't have made it to Edinburgh even if I had wanted to. When I finally got better, I knew that I had to do look some more to find a new host for Isabella's soul. I owed her that, and I would gladly do anything to help her, as I was so in love with her. I think the others tried finding some evidence, but I was not sure of what progress they made.
I talked to some of the other members of the Paranet, and learned that another tragedy had struck Boston. This time someone had gotten into a school and murdered all the people there. Both the teachers and the children. Almost two thousand persons. Who would do such a horrible thing and why? We also heard that the Council now had new leaders, as Lucia and Kalevi had ousted the Merlin politically. I did not like those news at all. I feared that nothing good would come from that. The others had also gone to see the trolls again, but they were gone. So we would get no help from that place.
The day after, Imogen got a phone call from Karl. Apparently Mirou had gone missing from the hospital. He shouldn't have been able to move given his previous injuries if I understood it correctly. I followed Imogen, Antonio, and Star to the hospital, where we met up with Karl and Zhujiang. Karl also brought his adopted son Ymer with him. Ymer had grown quite a bit and he now looked like he was maybe two years old, and he looked like one would expect a son of Karl and Peggy to look. I had a feeling that he was using some kind of glamour, but I didn't think it would be right to look at him with the Sight. He seemed very friendly, polite, and well behaved though. Imogen took the time on the way to question Star as she thought Star was acting strangely. Well, more strangely than usual. I took the time to talk to Imogen about her and Lisa. I can understand if Imogen doesn't want a girlfriend, but it pains me to see Lisa hurting like that.
At the hospital, we had no problem finding Mirou's room. It smelled weird in the room. I took the time to cast my hyper awareness-spell to be able to take in all details of the room. What I did get was that it felt like something with faerie-connections. Sadly my magic, was enough to make the electricity in the room to go. Not very good, so I decided to leave the room and go down to the lobby, where I took the time to also pick up new headache-pills. Given the latest events I had a feeling I would need them. After a while the others came down. Karl talked to the staff, but they hadn't seen anything. We decided to go and eat breakfast at a nearby diner. I decided to go back and do some more investigation around the hospital, well at least that was what I said, but in reality I wanted to do more research for a potential new host body for Isabella.
After a relatively short while I got a call on my phone. Apparently Mirou had called Karl from home and said that he had just heard from Mirou and that he was at home. So we decided to go there to see what was going on. Strangely enough he was fully healed, Not so surprisingly, he had a rather cavalier attitude to having just left the hospital through some non-standard means. He said that he had had a spy in his head, but that it was gone now, and that one of us was under surveillance as well. Well, that would be me. Hopefully, I would never have to worry about Isabella's family again. Mirou was understandable nervous about having two wizards near his expensive electronic stuff at his house, so we decide to go back to Imogen's house. Star acted a bit disappointed for some reason. I can never understand that woman.
Karl brought us some gifts for helping him earlier. I must say I didn't do anything to deserve it, but I very much appreciated it. It was special made perfume, tailored specifically for each of us. I could definitively think of the perfect time and company to use that. Not sure how he pulled that off though, as custom-made perfume were very expensive, but it was a real treasure.
After we had talked a bit, we decided that I should try to track down the Brass Lady, using my divination. And now that Star was back, that would indeed become much easier. I took the time prepare properly and then got some help from both star and Imogen. I figured that, since Lucia and Kalevi had been implicated in the disappearance of the Brass Lady, the sapphire and the necklace as well as the drawings would be good links to whatever magic held the Brass Lady. I lost track of the time, but I could find out that the Brass Lady seemed to be slightly north of Sao Paolo.
We knew that we had some preparations to do if we wanted to be able to find and free the Brass Lady. Mirou wanted to fly down there with an airplane, but we pointed out that neither me nor Imogen would be able to use it, without putting hundreds of people at risk. And going through the Nevernever would be even more risky as we might be caught in a war between faerie courts or face other nasty things, even if we could find the way. Karl had access to weapons. Hopefully that would not be needed. I for one wouldn't know how to use one. Fearing that we might face both Lucia and Kalevi down there, I did another scrying to find out their whereabouts. Lucia was somewhere in central Europe, but Kalevi was in Sao Paolo. Hopefully we could avoid him. Star said she would be able to fix transport. That had us a bit worried, but there was not much else we could do.
Before we left, I made sure to write a letter to Yukimi, where I mentioned what we would do. If I had had a way to contact Eibon as well, without going through the wardens at the hospital, then I would have done so. Now I asked Yukimi to convey the information if she knew a way. I knew this a very risky idea we had, but we all felt we had to do something to keep things from getting any worse. Star did indeed manage to get some transportation, by summoning a actual flying carpet. A big lush carpet, the size of a large living-room. Antonio, Imogen and I would have to work shifts to keep it veiled from view.
Before we left, did I take the time to look at everyone again with the Sight, just to make sure no one was under any tracking-spells. Star appeared to be really injured. Her fiery form was barely holding together, Mirou appeared as a dragon the size of small horse. Karl looked much more bestial and I could definitively understand the myths about the Viking berserks. Zhujiang appeared as a meditating red man on a white background. As for Imogen, well, she appeared to be stable now, but I could see threads a bit like a puppet going to the strange shadow I had seen about her before. I had a feeling that outsider-part of her would try to take control again, and it would not be pretty.
The trip took us four days, by flying carpet. At first it was kind of exiting, but it got quite tedious, and people got on each others nerves. I was still plagued by horrible nightmares and headaches since I had touched that staff earlier. We made sure to fly low, and completely veiled. I really need to learn to navigate the Nevernever, as that would speed up things a lot. Every time we landed for the night I did a new ritual to see that we were going the right direction. When we finally got near the Sao Paolo, I could pinpoint with greater accuracy where we were supposed to go. I also found to our great relief that neither Lucia nor Kalevi was there. We had landed maybe two miles away, and then decided to scout the area. We followed a road that lead us to a large hacienda surrounded by open fields, and the houses surrounded by a high wall. I was not sure if it was the same hacienda as I had seen in my vision earlier, but I felt it was quite likely.
We decided to play stupid tourists, and wandered onto the grounds. I could tell that there was a heavy ward with alarm-functions surrounding the houses, and let the others know this. After a while we were approached by one of the staff working in the field. He only spoke Portugese, and we held up a map that was from the wrong country, arguing that we looked for some chapel. After a while they managed to get someone from inside the house that that spoke English. We continued to play stupid tourists, and the staff member told us that we were in the wrong country. He would drive us back to the nearest village. When the staff-member walked away to get the car from inside the ward, Star created a veil over Imogen, so that it would appear as if she was still there and then Imogen veiled herself. She would hide and try to find out the passcode needed to bypass the ward. The staff member then drove us down to the village, where he left us. We just smiled and waited until he had driven away and was out of site before we started walking back. After a while we met up with Imogen who had managed to overhear the passcode.
We then waited until nightfall to enter the hacienda again. We veiled ourselves and went through the ward. Once inside, I pinpointed the location of the Brass Lady to be inside a barn. We split up into three groups; Me, Imogen and Zhujinag in one, then Antonio and Karl in another, and Star and Mirou in the third. Each group would veil itself. When we came to the barn, I cast my hyperawareness-spell to listen at one of the door. I could tell that there was someone inside, despite the strange roaring sound from inside. We very carefully opened the door, and snuck inside. I could see an armed guard patrolling inside. With a quick sleep-spell, he went down. I knew it was a good idea to learn some offensive magic. Seemed Antonio and Karl who came in from another door had already taken care of the other guard who had been sitting in a chair.
In the end of the barn we could see what was causing the noise. A vaguely humanoid shape was partly encased in a whitish-purple crystal. With a mini-hurricane around it. All of this was surrounded by four magical circles encased in the ground. We quickly realized that we could not take out the circles by force. Mirou was itching to use some explosives though. Not sure where he had gotten that from, and I had a feeling I didn't want to know. After some debate we realized that we could try to ground out the magical circles by using lots and lots of water. Karl was doing guard-duty, while Antonio put up a veil over the well outside, and Mirou kept pumping up more and more water. I helped Imogen with the water, and she could after a while take down the outmost circle. Subtle is something she doesn't do. I could tell that Star wasn't feeling very well when the second circle came down. It didn't affect anyone else of us, but it seemed like some kind of defense. When the next one came down, she was really starting to look seriously ill. But we needed her presence. The shape inside was getting more agitated as well. After a few more hoursm the final ward came down. I went out to relieve Antonio, who would buse an axe to break sunder the crystal that surrounded the shape inside. The captive was basically shining in a greenish-black light. We could tell that the ritual here was draining all power from the Brass lady, and that some kind of corruption had taken place. Once Antonio broke the crystal, the Brass Lady collapsed. Star was also looked badly shaken. In the bottom of the crystal was a heart, the size of a human torso, and it was still beating. We knew that this was the heart of a troll.
The ritual had been draining the Brass Lady and through the troll heart directed power down a deep shaft. We heard a rumbling noise and things started to shake. We decided to very quickly get as far away as we could, so Karl stole the car and we drove off until we got far enough that Star could summon her flying carpet again. This time, it was much smaller, and looked like a rough carpet made out of fire. I could tell that Star was basically using her last energy to get us out of there. The Brass Lady was still unconsciouss. She would need lots of help from her court real soon if she was to get better. We took a detour to an active volcano in Colombia. Ar landed the flying carpet a bit away from the volcano, and then Star and the Brass Lady landed inside the volcano. It didn't take long before the volcano was ominously silent, and the eruption of lava stopped. We had a feeling we needed to get as far away as possible. A short while later, the Brass Lady appeared on the side of the Volcano. Her mere presence set fire to the vegetation there, and it now looked as she was an avatar of fire. After looking around she simply vanished. A bit later Star appeared, and she now looked fully healed as well. We all continued back home as quickly as posible, wondering where the Brass Lady had went. We didn't really have the time to stick around for me to do my divination-magic, but we were fairly certain that she had returned home to her own court. Which made it even more important for us to get in touch with her and the Brass Queen to convince them that a war with Summer was not a good idea. And maybe she could provide the evidence we needed to stop Lucia and Kalevi
As soon as we got home, Star brought Imogen and Zhujiang with her to her court, while Antonio went to the Summer court to broker peace. I decided to first check the dropbox that I used to communicate with Yukimi. I found three letters to me. She had been sick of worry to say the least. In retrospect I knew that it hadn't been the best of plans though, to go away like that. I wrote her a letter saying I was home and that I was safe. I then set out to find out what had happened while we had been gone. Apparently there had been some serious riots. Not surprising given what had happened. I recognized the name of the police officer who had stepped up and really defused the situation. He had been one of the contacts that Tim had mentioned earlier.
I had a growing feeling that time was running out, and that I needed to help Isabella find a new body really quickly or something bad would happen. I couldn't put my finger on what would happen, but I had a feeling her family was not going to forgive what she had done to her siblings. I did some more investigation, and I found the perfect person. A young woman, who was currently institutionalized in a psych ward or her suicidal tendencies. She was a gorgeous Mediterranean girl. And as a twist of fate, her name was actually Isabella. I made sure to veil myself when I looked around. As far as I could make out, she had no immediate family. I might not have the skills to understand the exact nature of her mental illness. I did hope though that it would not be a hindrance. I prayed that the Goddess would forgive me for what I was about to do. Here I was, actually planning the death of a person, who had done me no harm. I had to be crazy to even think about such things, but what could I do? I knew that I would be living with the consequences of my actions for a long time, and that no one must ever know the exact details.
I did realize though that I needed some help. I would have no problem getting her out of the psych ward, but how to stage a death, that was something I didn't know. After some thinking, I realized that a car-crash probably was the best idea, so I had to ask Karl for how to obtain a disposable car. One where the brakes would fail. I didn't tell him what I needed to do though, but told him that it was to fake a persons death. He agreed to help me, and would deliver a car as soon as possible with no questions asked. I also had to send a message to Yukimi to make sure she was ready. It took a few nerve-wracking days where I went over everything in my head again and again. Every detail had to be just right. I also went over how to play the part of the distressed girlfriend once the news would break that Yukimi's body had been found. Good thing I paid attention in acting-class. I could start crying and have a mental breakdown on demand.
The day finally came when everything was ready. I met up with with Karl near the hospital, to get the car. He went through how everything worked. I then went in veiled and got the intended patient out. I had to use a sleep spell though. Then I carefully drove the car to where I was to meet with Yukimi. My heart was racing so hard, and I almost hoped that she would not be there as that would mean that I couldn't follow through with what I was about to do. May the Goddess have mercy on me. Yukimi did her thing and switched bodies. It all went very quickly. We then put the now unconscious body in the car and had it drive down the road towards a sharp turn near a bridge, after having planted some stuff to help identify the body. It would also mean that I would be contacted and thus get a chance to learn about it. Hopefully without implicating me. The crash was spectacular, and the victim died instantaneously. I had done everything, to make sure that it would be a quick and painless death, and that no other persons would be in jeopardy. Afterwards, I had to help Isabella to an apartment she had. We were veiled the whole time we went there. We took a tear-filled farewell, as this would be the last time I would see her for many months. It was all part of the deception. No one must suspect anything.
A few days later Zhujiang came back to Boston. He had flown from England. Apparently, the Brass Lady had taken them there and they had had a long discussion with the Merlin. Star and Imogen had made their way home by flying carpet, which took longer time. In the meantime, Karl had gotten a call from Austin, who said that he and his friends had found out where the Brass Lady had been taken. Karl didn't tell him that we had already freed the Lady. So we decided to meet them down at the Avalon, which actually was still open. They claimed that they had tracked her to a castle near a city called Alba Lulia in Romania, but that everything was heavily warded. It sounded like it was a trap, but for whom? We decided we needed to investigate things out, but that we would need some kind of backup. With that in mind we home to Imogen to do some planning, without the teenagers.
For some reason, the feeling we got was that Romania was connected to vampires. The question was whether or not the White Council knew about it or not. And If there were vampires there, we would need lots of backup. And given that we hardly would get it from the current leadership of the White Council that meant other sources. We knew that the vampires had attacked the three sacrificial threes, each of which was connected to one of the old Faerie Queens. They might want to settle some scores. The question was how to contact them though, and whether or not it would be a good idea doing so. We really didn't want to start more wars as we had just averted one. Imogen went to the hospital that the wardens used, to talk to Lisa. She would hopefully know something.
I got a call from the Police, where they said they found Yukimi's body, that she had been killed in a car crash. I pulled off my best performances ever and had a complete breakdown. Mirou took pity on me and drove me to a psychiatrist he knew so I could get some help for my nightmares and my grief. I had to spend the whole evening there. Would do weekly checkups later.
The day after when I got home to Imogen, I found that they had somehow liberated Leina, the leader of the coven from the Wardens' hospital. Austin was also there, and then later came members of the former senior council from the White Council. I recognized the Merlin, Ebenezer McCoy, Ancient Mai, Listen To Winds from Edinburgh. Eibon was also there and a one-eyed man whose name I didn't quite get. I think it was Vadderung. They questioned Austin and Leina a lot. They were less than happy though. We told them what we had been doing, and the visions I had been experiencing. I was told to seek help for my nightmares. The wizards said that they would look into the castle, and thanked us for the information we provided. They took Leina with them, as well as the broken staff that Karl had found at the FBI-building. I returned the sapphire and the necklace to Eibon when no one else was looking. He left me with the instructions to practice.
A few days later Eibon came by, and told us that they had hit the castle in Romania, and that they had dealt with the vampire that was there. They had found lots and lots of evidence there that implicated Lucia and Kalevi. They had now been taken care of and would face a trial. Two shards of Ibliss, who I gathered were members of the Brass court had also been involved. They had been sent back to their court for punishment, as they were outside the jurisdiction of White Council. Maria had also been found. Apparently she had been a prisoner at the hacienda in Brazil. She had been captured in Bulgaria when she had been following the vampire. Eibon had found her, when the Brass lady had gone down there after she had regained her power and destroyed the wards and everything else there. Francis Black was no longer wanted, as the council realized that he had been made target by Lucia and Kalevi.
Imogen and I were summoned to Edinburgh, where we attended the trial. Both Lucia and Kalevi was executed for what they had done. It was a stark reminder for me, that if anyone found out what I had done for Isabella, then I would probably face the same penalty. I decided that I would do everything I could to atone for my deeds. I was suffering a lot from guilt, given that I had turned into the very kind of monster I wanted to stop. And all of it for the sake of love.
