Chapter 61- Unexpected Contacts

  Denmark- Odense, Safe House- 30- Oc.t – 2008 (02:30 pm Local time)

  Master Keacilius Dourne-

  While he didn't think that his old colleagues would just outright attack him and his disciples, especially since he had saved a few of their lives over the years, he wasn't about to risk it. Not so close to getting what he sought. So Master Keacilius sat in one of his studies, staring at a picture of his long-dead wife. The sound of a board creaking put him on edge, ready to attack whoever was there, but he lowered his guard when he saw that it was only Hugh one of his disciples.

  “And here I thought the traipsing through the Pne of Bone was the worst part. This week cannot end too soon.” The young man said, before throwing another log onto the already lit fire.

  The boy's words made him chuckle. He was about to tell the young man that this was nothing, and regale him of a story from his days as a police officer, but that then quickly reminded him of when his wife got sick and stilled the older man's tongue. Instead, he put the picture away, as the two men waited.

  Then after a long moment of silence, young Hugh asked. "Would we have really done it?"

  “Done what?” The master sorcerer asked for calcification.

  "Opened the doorway to the Dark Dimension?" Hugh reminded him of their original pn. To gather enough members to storm the forbidden archive in Kamar-Taj and steal the Book of Cagliostro.

  They had already reached out to the pne, and some of its energies had already leaked into them, so as far as Keacilius was concerned taking it a step further wasn't that rge of a leap, but he never got a chance to admit that. As someone ran up the steps of his hideaway, putting both men on guard. Both were calling out towards the astral realm, its yellow light appearing around their hands, as Katrina burst through the door to the study.

  "Detection arrays at the Oxford magic club are going off Master. Someone is attacking them." The brown-haired woman reported.

  Both of his disciples gave him a look as if wordlessly asking 'What should they do?’. So he did as he had before and took command. “Send word to the other safe houses. Let them know what is going on. And tell them that I am going to assist them. I understand if some of you will want to py it safe so close to our goal, but I will not, they have had our backs over the years.”

  Then he was out of the small room. As he rushed down the stairs he pulled out his sling ring and put it on. Then in the rger emptier living room, he swung his arms to open a portal. It warmed his heart to see all three of his disciples doing as he had ordered them, casting messaging spells out before drawing out either astral swords or Dark Energy Kris, before stepping through the portal ahead of him.

  He had dropped them half a block from the clubhouse, since portalling directly into an active magical array would only get them all killed or dropped into some pocket reality.

  Still, he and the three disciples ran through the back alley wielding magic openly, which would have gotten them all chewed out if word reached to one of the Sanctums or Kamar-Taj itself. Thinking back to the schools of magic that Nath'aniel brought up back on his holiday, Keacilius reached out into a forbidden school and conjured some Darkforce fmes, as they reached the back door of the clubhouse.

  The fmes ate not only the wood but also any magical arrays etched into the frame, allowing them both free but also safe access into the building proper.

  And it didn’t take long to encounter their first attacker. Standing over the mangled and broken bodies of a pair of college students was an animated statue, carved to look like a knight. The statue raised its shield, before charging towards him and his disciples.

  “Unleash.” The master ordered his subordinates. Not sure how Darkforce would work on the statue, he went back to what he was more familiar with, an astral bolt from one hand while throwing a Dark Demission Kris with the other.

  The statue's sword and arm were quickly broken and chipped away from the astral bolts striking it, while his Dark Kris cut through the statue's shield and forearm all the way to its elbow. Still, the statue moved to sm itself at us. Yet it didn't succeed, as an astral whip caught its foot, toppling the thing.

  Standing in the front doorway was Lucian and another pair of his disciples, Samantha and Conrad.

  “The others?” Keacilius asked his lead disciple.

  “They are all here, but outside forming a perimeter. I figured we didn’t want the local police interfering or whoever is attacking to get away.” The former Foreign Legionnaire answered.

  "Good thinking. Katrina, stay here and start sweeping the building, the rest of you pair up and let's move." The master ordered. Hugh quickly followed him up the stairs, and off to the right at the nding. Meanwhile, Conrad followed Lucian up to the third floor. Auria cast an Interference spell on the lobby, making it appear normal from the outside and stly, Samantha checked on the clearly dead students.

  The master sorcerer peaked in the first two rooms that they passed, there was damaged and broken furniture, but no bodies or attackers, however, he hit the mother lode in the third room. It was a rge conference room. Sitting at the head of a rge table was Professor Ortani, and cowering at the edges of the room were some of his students, but in the center of the table was the bloody remains of over half of his magic club.

  Hearing him and Hugh enter the room, the former Master perked up, and spoke towards them. “Ah, Keacilius, perfect timing as always.” The older man tried to stand, but he had clearly exerted himself too much as he fell back into his seat.

  “What happened?” Hugh asked for him.

  “Ah, oh that, well let’s just say some of my disciples were none too happy, that we were no longer attempting to gain immortal bodies.” This time when the professor attempted to stand he didn’t fall backwards, but did need to lean against the table to remain standing. “I do think that any remaining rebelliousness has been stomped out of them.”

  “You turned your own defenses against your students?” Keacilius asked slightly disgusted.

  "Not all of them," Ortani said with a smile.

  The sorcerer looked over the remaining students still alive in the room. They were all terrified, but more than that he noticed that they were all female, making Keacilius wonder if the professor had ulterior motives for his impromptu member pruning.

  The Master leaned towards Hugh and said loud enough for even the furthest student to hear him. “Take them downstairs and have Samantha check them over.” He leaned in even further and whispered. “We may need to apply some mind magic on them.”

  Hugh for his credit only nodded, and gestured at the college girls to follow him, they seemed all too eager to get away from their professor. Once it was only him and Ortani, the professor dropped his attempts to look strong and fell back into his chair.

  Keacilius rubbed his forehead as he approached the bloody remains of the former magic students. Closer it looked to him as if the professor had attempted to fuse the young adults with the table rather than killing them in a more traditional sense.

  "If you become a threat to my pn, or our retionship with Nath'aniel, do not be surprised when I do the same to you as you did to your students." The Master warned him before leaving the room. He knew that he needed to locate any of the surviving members of this magic club before people came looking for their missing children. So he cast several message spells to his disciples. "Sweep the building and find all of his disciples, no one can lead this mess back to us."

  Over the Southern Atntic- Helicarrier Beta 02- 8/30/2008 (14:45)

  Judith Chambers-

  Judy let her butt sway as she strode through the corridors of the flying aircraft carrier. She was on cloud nine after seeing all that she had back in the Savage Lands. 'Not only are the Magi not extinct, but one of the old gods is down there, this news will nd me big.' She thought as she headed back towards her bunk. So much so, that she didn't even out to the lust her walk was generating, not just from the men, but also the occasional confused women as well.

  Yet all of that joy dimmed and her stride slowed as felt something scratching at the back of her mind. It was like a quiet voice at the bottom of her gut telling her to run away and never look back. And while it was not a new sensation, it was one that she hadn't felt in years.

  At the hatch to her bunkroom, it was so strong Judith knew that the source was inside. So she triggered the lever to unlock the chamber, and slipped in before she smmed the metal door shut behind her, and then began gring at the occupant sitting at her desk. To mortals' eyes, they would see her bunk mate Julie Smith in her SHIELD uniform, but even to her half-demon eyes Judy could see the man that gave her the same feeling her father had before he left her and the rest of her family, Judith had not a shred of doubt that the man smiling at her was a demon.

  It wasn't the horns that gave him away as she had seen mutants with horns. Nor was it the glowing red eyes, as again she had encountered mutants with eyes that glowed. Rather it was that the man in the hot pink business suit in the room's only chair had the extra set of eyes above his normal set and when he opened his mouth sulfur gas spill when it talked that did. "Welcome back, I hope your trip was rewarding."

  "Are you trying to blow my cover?" She asked the still-smiling man.

  "Your cover is already blown. Your bunkmate dug into your locker while you were out and found your still-built shrine inside." The demon told her nonchantly.

  Hearing him say that made Judy feel a deeper panic, even more than the fact that she was talking with an actual demon. So she rushed over towards her foot locker. Once there she quickly spun the combination on the lock and opened the lid. Sure enough at the bottom of her locker was the small demonic shrine of animal parts that she had built to reach out to hell and trade information for soul fragments. Worst yet her collection of fragments that she kept stored inside was nowhere to be found.

  Then she immediately looked at the hatch to her bunkroom, half expecting security to swarm in and seize her, instead standing just inside of her already cramped room, there was a two-foot-tall demon, with wings, cws, and horns smiling at her.

  “Before we continue much further, please take the bracelet that my associate is holding.” The first demon requested. Looking sure enough the little demon was offering towards her a cheap pstic bracelet.

  Although he said it as a request, Judy could feel the threat in his voice if she didn't do it. Still, a part of her blood made her ask. "Why?"

  "Once on it will shield your thoughts from mine." The demon admitted. His answer brought her more confusion, as from what little her research into her father and his kind, would almost always never hinder themselves in an exchange. "You are correct, we normally don't, but you are an information broker, and your recent success has gotten the attention of my patrons, and since they are hoping to pay you to sit on what you've learned, me learning what that is would lead me to a quick and painful end, so better that I remain in the dark and continue living in bliss."

  Hearing his reasoning made her think back to her past couple of days, but quickly stopped when he growled at her and stood up. So Judy quickly walked to the imp, for that was what it had to be, and tied on the odd friendship bracelet on her wrist. Once tied, the small colored pstic bits fshed like they were really gemstones, but then faded back to the cheap trinket that it looked like at first.

  The demon was back to smiling and straitened his suit as he spoke more at her than to her. "Good, now where were we, ah yes, introductions. You can call me Far-doc. And you are posing as Judith Chambers, but were born legally as Satana Hellstorm, a half-demon of some rather renowned pedigree."

  “You’re right I am the daughter of Satan. Are you two going to kneel or something now?” She asked, after crossing her arms over her chest.

  Far-doc's smiled widened, before telling her. "Despite your father's best efforts and the misunderstandings in your historical texts, your father is one of many Demon Princes, and nowhere close to ciming Archdemon status.”

  "You said patrons before, as in more than one. Who sent you?" The half-demon asked.

  The want-to-be suave demon waved her off, before denying her that information. "Their names are of little value to an unembraced half-blood, such as yourself. If you decide to take the Plunge, and make something of a name for yourself, then I would be more than willing to make an introduction for you. But for now, all you need to know is the information you recently uncovered, and their desires to have you remain quiet on it, for now."

  “And I am getting what for doing this, you mentioned me getting paid?” Satana asks, worried that it will only be allowed to live.

  Far-doc nodded and sat down before he answered. "Not in conventional money like a mortal, but rather the currency of our kind. One of my patrons is willing to offer you fifteen Kreeian souls.”

  “Korean? Does nationality change the fvor?" The half-demon asked confused. While she had traded in soul fragments, she wasn't too sure what to do with them, besides bask in the feeling that holding them gave her.

  “Kreeian. As in a soul from a Kree, that would be an alien that the humans haven't made contact with yet. And no most humans have simir feelings. And remember that these are full souls, not the fragments that you have been trading in till now." The demon businessman expined. As he did, he seemed to be looking over his nails, cws she corrected, as Far-doc extended his nails to be as long as butter knives before he cleaned them.

  Satana knew that if she was going to walk the path of her father, she would have to commit at some point to actually consuming a mortal. She just wasn't really ready to do that to a human. 'But maybe if it's an alien, maybe I can.’ She thought.

  As she was settling her own morale questions, Far-doc continued. "As for my other patron, he is offering you a choice. He can also provide you with twenty human souls, or he is willing to give you a Source for either the Fire or Gss bloodlines."

  “Source?” She asked confused.

  "Sources are seeds that allow our kind to expand their power base. Based on what I feel from you, you inherited the Charm and Mind bloodlines from your father. This is how you understand so many nguages; you hear their intent as they speak. Taking a source instead of souls will grant you additional options in your eventual growth." The demon looked bored as he expined that.

  ‘But that means what his patron is offering is basically more firepower for me.’ She thought before asking. “That sounds both expensive and rare, who exactly is willing to offer something like that up to me?”

  “Uncommon yes, but not entirely rare. Unless it is one that works for any demon kin, like the ones I was given to offer you. And to answer your other question Demon Princes tend to have a few extra lying around like it is nothing.” His smile was starting to make her want to punch him.

  ‘So one of his patrons is at the same level as my father.’ She thought with a touch of worry. “And then what, unless something has changed, we are still stuck aboard a SHIELD helicarrier?” Satana asked him seriously. If she was being honest what he was offering was way more than she expected to get in the usual groups she traded in, and regardless she needed to make a new shrine if she was going to try and sell the news about the magi anyway.

  Far-doc shrugged and then said. “That is up to you. While I was completely honest with you that your bunkmate knows about your shrine, what I didn’t tell you was that Spark-end behind you there, ate her dreams and she will remain in a coma for the better part of a week. She also doesn’t know that you are a half-demon.”

  “You made me believe that all was lost.” She snapped at him.

  "You misunderstand my purpose. I am here to be both carrot and stick. If you agree to wait, perfect, I will pay you as promised. If you refuse I will use my powers to awaken your bunkmate and encourage your superiors as to the level of threat you pose. Either way, I get you distracted or unable to leak the information that my patrons want to be buried. You must remember," The demon stated before pointing at himself and stating the simple truth. "I am a demon."

  “How long?” Satana asked knowing that she was basically screwed already.

  "Six months," Far-doc answered bluntly. Then he pointed out. "Taking this deal, also gives you the possible strength to act on your own information, if you look at it another way."

  ‘Fat chance I am taking on the Brotherhood or Hathor on my own, even with the fuel he is offering.’ She thought, before she nodded and said. “Fine, I will take the fire bloodline thing.”

  “Yes. Burn, burn, burn it all down.” The imp finally said behind her. Its voice was much deeper than she expected from its small size.

  AnnouncementSo i got only 3 more written and edited. Instead of getting as many first drafts done, like i usually do, i am trying to get each chapter to a post-able level so in case life presents deys or something i will still have something to post. That said, there will probably be another week of one 1 chapter being posted next week, before returning to 2+ a week.