by Alan Baxter
Master Cai swept his arm to take in the dozen gathered men and women. ‘These are some of our most skilled members, Isiah. They have returned to report on their activities.’ Cai Wu looked to one man, a tall, rangy Indian with a long scruffy beard. ‘Please, Raffi, continue and take into account that Isiah here has some catching up to do.’
Raffi nodded, throwing a smile to Isiah. Isiah returned the greeting. ‘We are all tasked with watching the ONC,’ Raffi said. He spoke slowly, with a deep, resonant voice. ‘We are aware of most of their cells, what they call Gathers, even if we don’t know all their members. Each cell is managed by an Optimates Cruor, sometimes more than one. They control their meetings, their Gathers, and they instill a sense of need in their followers. They attract a certain kind of people and they corrupt them. Once these people have attended a few meetings they are encouraged to perform acts of anarchy and chaos with the promise of great reward. Once these acts have been performed, the person is invited to continue in a similar vein until they are eventually admitted into Sanctum
‘Obviously, at least to those of us that watch from the outside, these people are being trapped. Once they have committed all these acts, they are indebted to the ONC which can hold their actions against them should they try to move away from the group. But they do get some reward. Within Sanctum they are taught powerful magic, but again, it has a high price.’
Isiah nodded. ‘The blood.’
Raffi made a rueful face. ‘The blood. However, their magic is strong, their leaders very capable. We have never managed to get inside any of these Sanctum to learn what happens in there or to see how this magic is taught. But recently their activity has caused us greater concern.’
‘The worship of Yath-vados?’ Isiah asked.
‘Yes, but only in part. They seem to be working towards something big. In recent months, perhaps the last year or so particularly, they have been recruiting more aggressively than ever before.’
‘How long have you watched them for?’
‘We have watched them for years,’ Cai Wu said. ‘We first came across the group a couple of decades ago, but they were of no real concern. We have watched a number of groups around the world and we still do. Most are more concerned with occult magics and such like and are of no real concern to civilisation at large. It takes all kinds to make up this human race, and many things not human add to the Realms, but none of them are much concern. It is not for us to judge. Often, from watching them we learn things. However, these prophecies I spoke of earlier have caused us to look with greater scrutiny at some.’
‘And you think this ONC is the group with a global agenda of chaos?’
‘It is most likely. They are by far the most powerful and dangerous group that we have seen for a long time and their power is growing.’
Isiah nodded. ‘Do you think their worship of this god is helping their power grow?’
Cai Wu shrugged. ‘It is possible. Is their worship increasing their power or is their power increasing their worship?’
Isiah laughed. ‘The great chicken and egg debate. What do you know of Yath-vados?’
‘Very little.’ Cai Wu indicated a woman sitting opposite Isiah. ‘Meera?’
Meera, a small woman with jet black skin and shaved head, bowed respectfully. ‘As Master says, there is really very little to tell. But there has been a slight development on that. The ONC has always been an association of blood. Their magic is empowered by the spilling of blood. They have always worshipped the blood for the power it gives them. Over the last few years they have begun revering this god, Yath-vados, more and more. We didn’t know why. But yesterday, as I watched a cell in Stockholm, I overheard two Neophytes discussing something they had been told as they left.
‘Apparently their Optimates had explained the rise of Yath-vados to them that night. They were told that their leader, the Dominus, had made contact with Yath-vados. After years of worshipping blood and using blood to empower themselves and their society, this ancient blood god had appeared to the Dominus in his dreams. He had whispered his name to the Dominus, giving the ONC a route to extreme power. These Neophytes were told that learning the true name of a god meant that they could have power to commune with that god. By extension, that god’s power could be their own. In exchange for worship, Yath-vados has offered the ONC his power by telling them his true name.’
Isiah nodded. ‘There could be some truth in that. There is a lot of power to be had in knowing the true name of a being. Demonology is based on such a principle and it can be a powerful, dangerous discipline.’
‘So perhaps this Yath-vados is a demon, not a god?’ ventured Petra.
Isiah smiled at her. ‘What’s the difference really? In the end, a demon with enough worshippers is a god. Regardless of origin, it would seem that Yath-vados is gaining powers through the worship of the ONC, fooling them into thinking that they will get the power.’
‘Fooling them?’ Petra’s brows creased in confusion.
Isiah drew a deep breath. ‘Well, it’s a complicated scenario. If Yath-vados gains enough faith from his followers, he will be able to nudge certain activities for them. What he really gives them, though, is a focus for their faith. Look at it like this; a person wants to do something and thinks maybe they can pull it off. Someone in a position of authority then says to them, “Your god, Yath-vados, will aid you. Pray to him and he will make you powerful.” So this person takes that on board, prays to Yath-vados, and, if this person really believes in the power of Yath-vados, he has more belief in his ability. Therefore, he’s more likely to succeed. Did Yath-vados really help him or did the person’s own conviction focus their ability?
‘However, that’s not the real issue. The real beneficiary is the god. The gods are selfish, egotistical creatures. They desire the worship of humans as that is their source of power. Without the faith of followers, gods are weak. It’s really they who gain strength through humans, not the other way around. And before you protest at my cynicism,’ Isiah added with a laugh, ‘not all gods are necessarily bad. Many gods will enjoy the strength of character their followers gain through their belief and the gods themselves are stronger for it. It’s a symbiotic relationship, if you like. More often than not, it’s humans that abuse this arrangement to gain mundane power of their own over other people. However, an evil god can cause great harm if his followers imbue him with enough power. Usually a shaky balance of sorts is maintained, but sometimes that balance can be upset.’
Cai Wu’s eyes narrowed. ‘And therein lies your purpose, no? I think maybe you just explained more about yourself than anything else.’
Isiah shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
Petra looked troubled. ‘So do you think the ONC and Yath-vados could be a real threat to this balance?’
‘I don’t know. I’m told that it’s not something I should trouble myself with, but I have my own reasons for wanting to see the end of this Sorcerer. The one you know as Dominus. This is personal for me. And your prophecies would seem to give more import to this group than those I speak to.’
Cai Wu nodded, resting his chin on steepled fingers. ‘There could be any number of possible outcomes to any number of possible situations. Nevertheless, we have reason to believe that this current situation could be that which is reflected in our prophecies. On top of that, Isiah here has a personal agenda. We have no obligation to help him, but, equally, we have no obligation to hinder him either. But there is more news. Olivier?’
A blond man, muscular and rugged, nodded. ‘Thank you, Master.’ Heavy French accent. ‘We have recently learned that a number of the leading Optimates have been preparing to travel and they appear to be organising their members to travel also. It would seem that the whole organisation is on the move, but in no great rush. Members are being told to prepare to leave soon and they are getting both excited and worried. This is a time of great upheaval for all of them, and some are taking it better than others.’
‘Where are they preparing to go?’ Isi
ah asked.
‘We don’t know for certain, but many of the Optimates are travelling to the ONC headquarters in Sydney, Australia. We can only presume that the entire ONC is being prepared for a mass Gather somewhere in Australia. Or at least, it is being organised from Australia, so will most likely occur nearby.’
Isiah nodded sharply. ‘Right then. I think I should go to Sydney and have a snoop around there. Petra, would you like to come with me?’
Petra smiled, then looked to Cai Wu. The old man laughed, flapping one palm at her. ‘As if I could stop you!’
‘I will not be sorry to see the back of this filthy weather!’ The Sorcerer’s face was dark as he stared out the window, watching stark trees, bare of leaves, whip in the freezing winds. Thick, half-frozen rain battered at the ancient windows, formed slushy puddles in the gravel of the driveway outside.
‘It’s likely we’ll swap one extreme for another,’ Jake said from an armchair behind his Dominus.
‘I would rather extremes of heat and dry than extremes of cold and wet, dear boy. Should you ever get to my age you’ll understand.’
Jake smiled. ‘And what age is that, Dominus?’
The Sorcerer chuckled. ‘Nothing but a number, Jake, albeit a strangely high one. Where is that man?’ The Sorcerer’s tone changed to one of annoyance.
‘When was he due back?’
‘Yesterday at the latest. I had hoped to see him the day before that.’
‘Do you think he had troubled retrieving what you asked for?’
‘No, no. Frank is more than capable. He is a... strange soul, for certain, but he is powerful and intelligent enough to manage a simple task like that.’
‘Perhaps he got caught up in something else? Perhaps whoever you had to run from when you burned your house caught up with him?’
The Sorcerer turned from the window, smiling at his protégé. ‘Stop fishing, Jake, you won’t get a bite.’
Jake’s face curled up in a frown. ‘So much mystery! Well, if we can’t know why you had to burn everything and hurry away, at least tell me what Frank went to get.’
The Sorcerer sat in the armchair beside Jake. ‘It’s not all that simple,’ he said. ‘I had been spending a lot of time here anyway, preparing things. My house was never going to be secure enough for our purposes, even if it was remote enough. Let’s just say that I was covering my tracks when I decided to burn the place and leave it for good.’
‘But you’ve been there for decades.’
‘Change is inevitable, Jake. If you try to resist change you will always be swimming upstream and that is a very tiring pursuit.’
‘I suppose. So what about what Frank went to get?’
‘Really, it’s little more than a trinket. But it is a valuable and powerful one. In my hurry to get things organised, with everything else on my mind, I simply forgot about it. It’s been more than forty years since I last opened that space. As much as anything, I just didn’t want to lose my property.’
‘Which is what?’ Jake was beginning to sound exasperated.
The Sorcerer laughed again. ‘It’s is an ancient artefact that has some innate power. More importantly it helps one focus their own power. It acts like an amplifier, absorbing the echoes of old magic around it and focussing a person’s own efforts.’
‘How does it work?’
‘I don’t really know. Some things are simply powerful and their power resides in ages past. It’s still available today to those that know how to feel for it, but its origins are lost in time.’
Jake shrugged. ‘I suppose as long as it works. But what is it? A statue of some kind? An icon? A Shaman’s leg bone?’
‘It’s a dragon’s tooth.’
‘You what?’
‘Good morning, Dominus!’ The voice was theatrically loud and strident. The Sorcerer and Jake both leapt to their feet in surprise. Frank stood in the doorway to the room, dripping wet and beaming like the Cheshire Cat. ‘I’ve still got the skills, eh!’
The Sorcerer shook his head as Jake’s face darkened. ‘You are the only one that can mask yourself from me. Welcome back, lad. Have you got it?’
‘Of course. I apologise for the delay, but I noticed something interesting so I followed it up.’ He handed the leather pouch from his pocket to the Sorcerer. It disappeared into one of the voluminous pockets of the Sorcerer’s heavy coat. Jake looked on, silent with dark eyes.
The Sorcerer pointed to a chair in front of the fire. ‘Sit, dry yourself. What was this interesting thing that kept you from being on time. I was expecting you two days ago.’
Frank sat heavily in the armchair beside Jake, nodding as he sat down. Jake nodded back. ‘Dominus, my sincere apologies,’ Frank said, rubbing his hands together as he leant towards the flames. ‘However, given the nature of proceedings, I decided that it was something I needed to follow up and something I didn’t want to risk losing track of while I reported to you. It would seem that someone, in fact at least two someones, are interested in our activities. And they’re not mundane interests.’
The Sorcerer nodded slowly. ‘Is that so? Explain.’
‘Well, I collected your property as instructed. On the way back I decided to stop at the Gather in Billings. It’s as good a place as any to stay and the Optimates there are quite green. I checked up on things and led the meeting for them that night. There were several questions in their minds, so I put on a bit of a vaudeville show to boost their faith. Anyway, all this is fairly irrelevant. While I was there I noticed something else.
‘During the Gather I got a sense of being watched. Nothing I could put my finger on, nothing concrete. Perhaps it was more a premonition than a real sensation. Whatever, it put me a little on edge, kept me alert. The next day I was due to fly back here and had a flight booked out of Billings International for mid-morning. As I was preparing to leave I got the sensation again. It was outside this time and I saw from the window two people, a large man chasing a smaller person dressed like some kind of ninja. They were powerful folk. I shot upstairs and watched from the attic window. The big guy chased the ninja down and they fought like nothing I’ve ever seen.’
‘Strange behaviour,’ the Sorcerer mused. ‘But perhaps it was unrelated to your presence or the ONC there. Coincidence?’
Frank nodded. ‘This occurred to me too. But I’m convinced the ninja was on the house before the big guy chased him down. While they fought I got Dan to move my car around the corner. I figured that if I was being paranoid, nothing would be lost. However, if my suspicions were correct and they were watching the house, perhaps they were watching me.’
‘So what happened?’
‘They stop fighting after the big guy gets the better of the situation and they talk. Seems like they make up whatever their argument was. Then they’re sprinting back like they’ve just realised they forgot something. They run back around the front of the house, look at where my car had been parked and the big guy starts cursing and ranting. Then they head down the road and hop into this crappy little car and take off.’
The Sorcerer nodded. ‘You followed them?’
‘Of course. But I have to admit I really don’t have too much to report. They headed to the airport and hunted around for a couple of hours. They were both powerful people, among the most powerful I’ve ever felt. I couldn’t get close without risking them spotting me.’
‘Even with your own ninja-like powers?’ Jake asked with a smile. It was a slightly malicious smile.
‘Sneaking up on you is easy, Jakey-boy. Sneaking up on Dominus is very, very hard. Let’s just say that, with these two, the guy especially, I didn’t want to risk it. That might give you some idea of my caution. You’d have been spotted in an instant.’
Jake sat up, irritated. ‘Hey, you always have to...’
The Sorcerer cut in. ‘Quiet! This is more important than your... sibling rivalry! Save it for later. You know, you’re both more powerful than you realise, but your strengths lie in different places. Frank, finis
h the story. If you had simply moved your car out of sight, what made them go directly to the airport?’
Frank nodded at Jake, one hand reaching out to pat a shoulder. Jake nodded back, patting Frank’s hand once, accepting the truce. ‘Apologies, Dominus,’ Frank said. ‘I had the same concern. The fact that they were so angry that my car had gone means that it was me more than the Billings group that they were interested in. The fact that they headed straight for the airport indicates that they knew where I was headed. How did they know that, for fuck’s sake?’ Frank’s face was dark with anger.
‘There’s not much more to tell,’ he went on. ‘After the airport they seemed to converse and decide to give up the chase. They headed out of town and drove into the country where the big guy sold the car to two idiot teenagers. Then they headed off into some woods together. It was getting harder and harder to follow them as fewer and fewer other people were around. I watched from a distance and they disappeared. I mean, we’re aware of translocation and stuff like that, but these two made it look like a cakewalk. So much power. I tried to feel where they’d gone, but there was really nothing much to track. They were both very careful and kept up their awareness the whole time. It’s like they were both so used to living in a state of constant awareness that they didn’t even think about it any more.
‘I went back and retraced our steps, retraced my own steps, all the way back to your house again and so on. I could pick up occasional traces of magic here and there, but nothing more than potential hints of their presence. There was nothing concrete to be found. Then I had to organise another flight and wait for that. But these people are interested in us, particularly me for some reason.’
The Sorcerer nodded, staring deep into the flames. ‘You did the right thing, Frank. It’s important for us to know who these people are and what they want with you. Could they be just after you? Have you done anything recently to make enemies?’
