Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[Shayuri]

Chance was 'the girl' of the group, it seemed. Except for Faye, but everyone pretty much understood that she didn't 'count.' She wasn't part of the gang, she just drove the Mystery Machine between gigs meddling and tearing rubber masks off old geezers. Clad in a somewhat faded old red hoodie and blue jeans with threadbare knees and sneakers with uneven laces, she looked a little like a hobo; but not the ugly scary kind. The tragic runaway kind, more like. Her hair was short and scruffy and sandy blonde under the red hood, and the round in her cheeks and her big wide eyes made her look younger than her mid-twenty years. She was pretty; the kind of pretty that would be more than that if she ever really made the effort.

She was leaning against the door, away from the bodies nearby, her head resting against the glass as her hand tapped a rhythm against it. It wasn't the same beat as the Cash song.

At Law's question, Chance turned her head a little to look not at him directly, but at his ghostly reflection in the car window, superimposed over her view of the Arizona desert at night.

"We're a long ways from nowhere out here," she replied, without her usual Southern twang. "Got a long ways to go before we get there."

She sat up straighter then and looked away from the window, into the car, at Law. She shrugged and stretched, smiling wanly. "Ugh, think I nodded off fer a second there. Sorry, what was that? What's mah story?" Chance chuckled. "Oh, yer openin' a whole can of worms with that one. Short version is that I'm...on a trail. Huntin' myself down a little piece of the truth, like a wolfhound." She tapped her nose. "Arf."

"What about you?"

 

[TillForPie]

The brief but pregnant silence following Chance's reply is broken by Faye, not waiting for Law to answer. "Here we are." The Tundra pulls off the highway and rumbles down a faded trail that branches off to the west. Faye stops a hundred yards later and puts the truck into park. "We're walking the rest of the way." She turns off the vehicle and opens her door before stepping outside. It's cold, around 40°F, and still drizzling.

When everyone's gathered at the back of the truck Faye pulls aside a tarp to expose an assortment of tools in the bed and produces enough heavy aluminum flashlights for everyone. She turns hers on and directs its beam to the northwest. It's utterly dark out here and the flashlights are good for little more than seeing where you're stepping. Faye starts off away from the truck.

 

[Rubberneck]

Law is cut short before even being able to reply when Faye announces that they will be walking the rest of the way to their final destination.

He steps out of the Tundra and feels the bite of the desert cold and rain. He turns up the collar on his leather jacket before accepting the flashlight from Faye. He steps in behind her to follow along, ever so curious about what comes next.

 

[Mosier]

Agnasci grabs a flashlight and flips it on.

"Any reason this couldn't have waited, I don't know, three, maybe four hours?" he grumbles loud enough for Faye to hear. "I can't tell if it's late, or early."

He tries not to show it, but the darkness and isolation unnerve him. To Law, he says "I hope you brought a piece."

Agnasci will cast Sense Consciousness (3 dice = Mind 2 + Gnosis 1), just to make sure the mages and Faye are the only ones around this place. It's not that he doesn't trust Penrose. He just trusts himself more.

 

[TillForPie]

Everyone feels the familiar sensation of magic being used nearby as Agnasci casts his spell. He focuses on the imago of the spell and wills it to be real.
[sblock=Sense Consciousness]Agnasci easily detects the presence of himself and the rest of the group. Next he becomes aware of animal life around the truck. The desert might seem desolate but there's a good deal lurking beneath the surface. Finally he's alerted to something... alien. About fifty yards ahead, in the direction Faye's walking, there's a consciousness of a kind Agnasci can't quite identify. It's neither human nor animal.[/sblock]

 

[Mosier]

Agnasci walks close behind Law, and talks to him low enough that hopefully the others can't hear.

"Watch out ahead," he says. "Something's awake."

Never thought I'd be working with a cop, Agnasci says to himself.

Agnasci hasn't had enough time to get used to the existence of inhuman consciousness. He's aware such things exist, but he hasn't yet been able to convince himself they're anything other than monsters. The dirt on Faye's clothes, the rain, the dark, the mind he detected...all of it is screaming at him to run as fast and far as possible. Months ago, that's exactly what he would have done. But since the Awakening, his curiosity has begun to trump his fear. He just hopes Penrose knows what he's getting them into...

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper is the last one to scramble out of the truck. He turns to go to the back of the truck to retrieve his flashlight with everyone else but sees Crow on the top of the truck. Its feathers are ruffled and damp and it moves with a stiff-legged gait across the rain-slick roof. Crow's annoyance comes across loud and clear to Harper and the mage scoops the spirit-bird from the truck and tucks it into the nest of his hood. There is a disgruntled flapping and scratching as Crow moves himself closer to a less constricting position on Harper's shoulder. Crow tweaks Harper's ear.

Harper slams the truck door and moves around the back to join the others. He collects a flashlight, switches it on, and follows. His hood is still down which means he'll get wetter than he would if it were up but since his Awakening he's learned a certain equanimity and accepts that sometimes he's just going to get wet.

'Can't rain all the time.'
​

[/section]

 

[TillForPie]

The crow seems agitated, even after rejoining its companion. Thanks to the empathic link Harper shares with his familiar he can tell that it's wary of something - something it can sense that he can't.

Meanwhile, Agnasci's spell continues to provide information.
[sblock=Agnasci's Sense Consciousness]Agnasci senses a consciousness arriving from above the group but before he can raise an alarm he realizes it's just the crow that Harper always has with him. But now that he thinks about it... the consciousness he's detecting up ahead isn't unlike Harper's familiar. Those two minds are more similar to one another than they are to any of the humans in the group.[/sblock]

 

[Rubberneck]

Law nods in understanding. He felt the magic being used and after Agnasci's warning, figure d they were connected. "Never leave home without it." Law discreetly, well as discreetly as one can be within a group of mages, draws his pistol and runs his hand across the slide. A small bump can be felt indicative of a round in the chamber. He then replaces the gun to its holster under Law's left arm. "Any clue what we're walking into?" He replies aloud so that even Faye can hear.

 

[TillForPie]

It's then, as if in response to Law's question, that Faye catches something in the beam of her flashlight: Lime green fiberglass coating, a pair of wheels, a door, a tow hitch. It's a towable trailer, no vehicle in sight. As the group comes within 20 yards of the trailer Harper's familiar flaps away from him and lands gingerly on the branch of a nearby mesquite tree, refusing to get closer.

The group comes to a stop and the beams of everyone's flashlights converge on the Winnebago. "Found it like this around 11." Faye neglects to mention what she was doing out here in the first place. "Door was left open but I closed it so coyotes couldn't get in. Penrose is busy with his work," as usual, "so he's leaving looking into it to you."