nancy werlock's diary s01 - episodes 1-7

by Julie Ann Dawson

  “Hey, is that Vianu guy a vampire?” thinks Houston.

  “No, stop it.”

  “He’s really pale.”

  “He’s a Necromancer, Houston. Most of them are.”

  “You sure he’s not a vampire?”

  “Sit.”

  “Madame Warlock,” begins Chancellor Straus. “Congratulations on your Rank. We welcome you into such elite company.”

  “Thank you, Chancellor,” I reply.

  “Most Honored Chancellors, if you will allow me to offer the introductions?” says Steve. Both Chancellors nod in agreement. Steve flips open his laptop and then pulls a small metal sphere and a steel ring from his bag. After putting the ring on, he twists open the sphere. A translucent blue and silver spider that looks to be made of glass jumps out and immediately starts typing at the keyboard.

  “What is that?!”

  “Secretary spider,” I say. “Technomancer gadget. The spider is attuned to the ring. It processes data as Steve experiences it, so it provides perfect transcription. And you have to be wearing the ring to read the document so it is great security.”

  “I want one!”

  “They cost like five grand.”

  “I need a raise.”

  “Justicar Investigation Report 543-128-433-FG72. Existing Case File A-194-237-B. New Case File A-194-941-D. Justicar Steven K. Harken, presiding. Reporting Location: Philadelphia Evocation Academy. Archmage Lawrence Davidson, hosting. In attendance: Rank Two Demonologist Nancy C. Warlock, Rank Three Necromancer Craig Morton, Rank Five Demonologist, Rank Five Psion Houston Vaughn. In attendance from the Nexus in Hamburg, Germany, Rank One Evoker Orval Straus, Chancellor of the College of Evocation. In attendance from the Nexus in Bucharest, Romania, Rank One Necrobiologist Robert Vianu, Chancellor of the College of Necromancy. In attendance from the Holy Chantry of the Blessed in Rome, Italy, Rank One Theomancer Franco Magus of the School of Theomancy.”

  “I’m gonna miss the game because of this meeting,” thinks Houston.

  “Justicar Harken,” begins Franco Magus in Latin, “Before we begin I would like to get a summation of Madame Warlock’s Form 91-22-764? We received it only an hour ago here at the Chantry and I have not had the opportunity to review it. However the information within may be pertinent.”

  “What did he say?”

  “It’s Latin,” I say to Houston before responding in Latin. “I apologize for taking so long to file the Form, Magus. I wanted to make sure that it was complete. The Form explains what we discovered about the whereabouts of Grande Madame Vivika Marchan-Vaughn during the time period in question. She had a previously unidentified daughter who was born via a surrogate, and she had used the child as an anchor. She was never missing.”

  “Is this whole meeting going to be in Latin?”

  “Probably.”

  “I’m missing the game for this.”

  “I see. Grande Madame Vivika’s location is known, relatively speaking?”

  “It is.”

  “I will file a Form Z-126-5 to request an interview. If she could be persuaded to answer a few questions regarding her mother and grandmother, we could finally then close our case.”

  “As soon as I get the form I will attempt to contact her.”

  “Based on the report then, there is no reason to think that Theomancer Mortellaro’s death was related to his investigation into Grande Madame Vivika?”

  “No,” says Steve. “There is no motive and no evidence.” Steve provides the attendees an overview of the murders. Morton explains the autopsy reports. I translate for Houston.

  The Secretary spider starts beeping and flashing red. Everyone at the table jumps. “Put your phone away,” says Steve to Houston.

  Houston turns his phone off. “Sorry, I was just checking the scores.” I take the phone from him and put it in my purse. “Sorry.” He slumps in his chair.

  “Haemomancy is forbidden magic in the College of Necromancy,” says Chancellor Vianu. “It is not a school I am comfortable discussing around a Rank Five.”

  “He doesn’t speak Latin,” says Steve. “He’s only here in case someone had a question for him, since he is the one that found the body.” Steve gives me a wink.

  “Very well, Justicar. Long ago, Haemomancy was a school within the College. They were great healers. They were master of the body’s humors. They believed that life was the natural state of all things, and that old age and death were the result of an imbalance in the humors. They believed that if they could discover the means to perpetually keep the humors in balance, then a mortal would never die of natural causes. In fact, they held that there was no such thing as ‘natural’ causes of death. Death was the result of unnatural balances of the humors.”

  “What made them go rogue?” asks Steve.

  “You know what they say about Hell and good intentions. Their entire belief system was based on bad science. They could never sustain through natural means what they achieved with magical ones, because the basic science was flawed. Over time, they simply stopped concerning themselves with immortality for all and focused on immortality for themselves.

  “Around 1760, Haermomancer Chana Magus discovered the first official case of a psychic vampire, a vampire that fed off of psychic energy instead of blood. Apparently a vampire had made a pact with a demon that resulted in a peculiar change in its physiological needs. Chana Magus thought this was her missing link and captured and experimented on the vampire. With that research, she developed a means of siphoning life force from other mortals.

  “The initial results were extraordinary. All mortals naturally produce a certain amount of energy that is wasted. Much like the inefficiencies of an engine. These wasted energies could be harvested and used to extend the life of others. It promised to create a means of survival that was fully symbiotic relationship. Imagine a world where people could sustain each other simply by consuming the waste energy of others?”

  “And now we get to the part where you tell us how this ends badly,” says Steve.

  “Indeed. Badly would be an understatement. Over time, it took more and more energy to support the same result. The older one gets, the more energy needed to keep the body vibrant. After a few decades, the symbiotic relationship becomes parasitic. We learned that Haemomancers were doing more than draining energy from their victims. If it was just a matter of killing their victims, we may not have required such drastic measures. But they were consuming souls.”

  “That’s not possible,” says Franco Magus. “The soul is separate from the aura field. Even completely draining the energy of another person wouldn’t destroy the soul. It would just kill the body. What you are talking about is the purview of gods.”

  “Why is none of this is in the Justicar library?” says Steve.

  “Decisions were made to resolve this issue internally. Think of the upheaval of the time period. The College of Divinities had only just formally been created, and it was full of former Inquisitors looking for reasons to break alliances. And then there were the ongoing issues that resulted in the College of Witchery’s formation.”

  “The Fifth authorized a purging,” says Chancellor Straus with a heavy sigh.

  “Were you aware of this?” asks Steve.

  “No, not this specifically. But it isn’t as if we haven’t had our own purges over the centuries. Sometimes, it is necessary to clean one’s own house.”

  “Can the Nine do that? Just order the mass execution of an entire school?” asks Houston.

  “If they have to,” I reply.

  “What the Hell?”

  “It’s only done when absolutely necessary.”

  “Yeah, like the NSA only spies on people when absolutely necessary.”

  “So Chana Magus and the Haemomancers developed these techniques that allowed them to kill people from a distance and suck their souls. And until know you thought they had been all wiped out,” says Steve.

  “They were all wiped out,” Says Chancellor Vianu. “None of them
could have survived the purging and not been detected after all of these centuries. They would have needed to feed. We would have known they were active. Not exactly the sort of thing they could have hid.”

  “But they still have the books,” Houston mutters. “And someone has decided that forbidden doesn’t apply to them.”

  “Justicar,” says Chancellor Vianu in English. “I thought you said the Rank Five didn’t speak Latin?”

  “He doesn’t,” says Steve with false innocence. “It just occurred to me, he has organic telepathy. Madame Warlock, your apprentice must have been listening in to your thoughts. My fault, I didn’t tell him not to.”

  “He’s a Rank Five, his telepathy can’t possibly be so advanced that he…wait..Vaughn? That Vaughn?”

  “Sidebar,” says Chancellor Straus. The secretary spider stops typing. “Robert, don’t tell me you didn’t realize who he was? You have WitchNet in that tomb of yours, don’t you?”

  “Why did you think Franco was filing a Z-126-5?” asks Archmage Lawrence.

  “I don’t know,” says Chancellor Vianu as he throws his hands in the air. “Can’t remember all these damn form numbers, anyway. And I can’t believe we were talking about his Mother in front of him like she was a suspect!”

  “He astrally projected into Mortellaro’s room. That wasn’t a hint?” says Steve.

  “Oh, for the love of the night. I got called into this meeting before I had a chance to read the full report. You said he discovered the body I just assumed he was in the room. How is a Rank Five astrally projecting?”

  “I’m talented?”

  “Now I understand why you rushed through her Rank Two trial.” Vianu shakes his head. “Not that, in the end, you didn’t earn your Rank. But you understand the unusual nature of the request considering your time away from the Craft.”

  “Of course, Chancellor.”

  “He’s really astrally projecting and using high level telepathy?”

  “And tagging,” adds Steve.

  “He tags?” He says something in Romanian that I assume is cursing. “Who taught him tagging?”

  “Mom.”

  “Does George know about this?”

  “Who do you think signed off on his Rank Five psionics trials so soon after passing his Rank Five Demonology trial?” says Chancellor Straus.

  “Should I be flattered or frightened that these guys are all up in my business like this?” says Houston to me.

  Vianu bursts into laughter. “Ah, young man. I assure you that you have nothing to fear from me. I was just a bit taken aback. This all makes sense now.”

  “Do you see his incisors? He’s a vampire!”

  “Stop it!”

  “Can I ask a question since we’re off the record now?”

  “Houston!”

  “Let him go,” says Steve. “This should be good.”

  “Chancellor Vianu, are you…” Houston gestures toward his teeth.

  “A vampire? Yes, I have been a vampire for the last 93 years. Why do you ask?”

  “I told you!” Houston says.

  I bury my face in my hands. Everyone else is laughing now.

  “Now that all of that is settled, end Sidebar,” says Steve. The Secretary spider begins typing again.

  “Chancellor Vianu, you’ll need to authorize a team of Justicars to enter the Nexus and review who had access to those tomes and when.”

  “You’ll have it within the hour.”

  “To ensure that Chancellor Vianu is not held in suspicion, I would suggest Chancellor Straus select the Justicars assigned to the task,” says Franco Magus.

  “Justicar Harken should lead the team,” says Straus. “I’ll confer with Chancellor Vitarro and request that he second the recommendations.”

  “You will have the full cooperation of the College, Justicar,” says Chancellor Vianu.

  “Sidebar,” says Franco Magus. The Secretary Spider stops typing. “There is another matter that should be addressed. It is the reason why Mortellaro was in the States. Though it is unrelated to his death, it may come to light and thus I would rather neutralize it now. Mortello’s interest in Vivika was not academic. It was part of an Inquest.”

  “I don’t recall the Nine communicating an Inquest to the council,” says Chancellor Vianu.

  “They didn’t, Robert,” says Chancellor Straus. “I only found about because Nancy confided in Lawrence and he alerted me.”

  “You knew?”

  “I was trying to get more information before I addressed the matter before the Council. I didn’t want to go off half-cocked and get everyone riled up.”

  “The Confidentiality Order was made by the Eighth of the Nine,” says Franco Magus. “None of the others issued an objection so the Order stood.”

  “No objection, but they didn’t actually vote to approve?” asks Steve.

  “Ouch,” I say.

  “What?” asks Houston.

  “Glad I waited before I got everyone riled up, then,” says Chancellor Straus with a chuckle.

  “I’m not getting the joke here.”

  I pat Houston’s hand. “Silent Approval says ‘I think your idea is ridiculous, but I don’t care enough to argue about it.’ The others were sending a message.”

  “So nobody actually believed Vivika ascended?” says Steve. “But the Theomancers were concerned about this other stuff going on with the family and were checking into it?”

  Franco Magus nods. “We still don’t know what happened with her mother or grandmother, but that is a matter for another day. Assuming Vivika cooperates with the Z-126-5, we’ll close the Inquest and leave the Nine to their silent ridicule of each other. I just wanted to get this out in the open before the Justicars stumbled over it accidentally and it became a scandal. Particularly since we would like to keep the Nine out of this investigation as long as possible. End Sidebar.”

  “We will put Gatekeeper on high alert,” says Chancellor Straus. “What sort of range would we be dealing with here?”

  “Our best estimations would put the incantation’s maximum range between 300-900 yards.”

  “A half mile?! And no line of sight?” says Steve. Vianu nods. “Odin’s Beard.”

  Houston giggles. “Maybe we should ask S.H.I.E.L.D. for help.”

  “Sidebar!” exclaims Morton. He chokes down the water he was drinking to avoid spitting it over the table. “Don’t do that.” Morton is laughing.

  “That was horrible,” I scold.

  “That was funny,” says Steve as he starts laughing. “Motion to strike Houston’s last comment from the record.” Everyone agrees. “Statement stricken. End Sidebar. In both attacks, the victim was alone and in a place where there would be no witnesses. Both were male and of an age where a heart attack would not have been seen as entirely unusual. Both were not natives of the area, making it less likely locals would connect the dots. Both had abilities that could have been employed to block this sort of attack, but were caught in environments where such abilities would not have been active.”

  “Considering the profile of both victims, we can assume the assailant stalked them and waited for an opportunity,” adds Morton.

  “Might not have known who they were,” I say. “If you are going to all this effort to cover your tracks, it doesn’t make sense to deliberately target a Justicar.”

  “True, the only people who can identify all of us on sight are members of the Council and the Vice-Chancellors. There is no central database accessible to the rank and file. Outside the College of Evocation, most people never meet one Justicar, let alone know what we all look like.”

  “They just got unlucky that their first two victims attracted attention because of the Inquest,” says Vianu.

  “What makes you think these were the first two?” asks Houston. “I mean, you said that the initial uses of the spell were benign and that it only escalated over time as the user needed more and more life-force to sustain himself. For all we know this person, or people, have been doin
g this for decades and it’s just hit the escalation stage.”

  “There could be dozens, hundreds of victims that we don’t know about,” I say.

  “Particularly if they started with mortals,” says Steve. “I need Lansfield working the death registers. I need to know if there has been an increase in heart attack deaths in the region and if so, when it started. Archmage, we need someone to talk to Red Turtle. We have a huge adept population in this region. They would be perfect prey for something like this. Chancellor Vianu, I’ll need itineraries for anyone at the Nexus who has made regular trips to this area for the last…go back ten years.”

  “Justicar, I would remind you that due to the number of prominent guilds in the region and the number of conventions held in Philadelphia each year, that is going to be a lot of legitimate travel.”

  “No doubt one of the reasons this area is a perfect hunting grounds.”

  “There are witch conventions? How do they work?” asks Houston.

  “I’ll explain later.”

  “They normally get timed with events like ComicCon so people can just blend in with the cosplayers,” says Steve.

  “That makes sense.”

  “Chancellor Vianu,” says Morton. “Might I request that you authorize Corpse Light Protocol? We need eyes on the ground and in the astral plane.”

  “Haustblot is next month. If this drags out that could get unwieldy real quick,” says Steve.

  “Then it can’t drag out,” says Chancellor Straus. “The wraiths can provide eyes and alert us in real time when there is another attack. If we are lucky, we may even be able to catch the assailant in the act.”

  “Is Lansfield in a position to even control that many wraiths? They aren’t exactly known for being cooperative with the living.”

  “I can send a contingent to reinforce Lansfield,” says Chancellor Vianu.

  “A contingent from the Nexus?” asks Houston. “The same Nexus we think the killers actually came from and we’re investigating? We could end up with the bad guy inside the investigation.” Houston looks around the room and then shrugs. “Come on, people. I’m not the only person here who saw White House Down, right?”