by J M Bannon
"Miss Caldwell, please; the pacing is disturbing my concentration," Alfie was tinkering with the automaton leg, adjusting the piston, rod, and gear. Rose hadn't been paying attention, all she could think about was what was transpiring in the theurgy chamber.
The automaton stood nearly seven foot tall. A cross between a deep-sea diver and a suit of medieval armor, Fletcher had created a mechanical humanoid based on the same principles as his mechanical arm but in this case a full representation of the human form. Leather was used with the brass and iron structure to provide flex at the joints. The back of the machine was thicker as if it wore a backpack, this provided more room for the mechanical elements that drove the machine man.
"Rose, I need help here,” said Lorelei. Rose turned to Lorelei who was busy at the chemistry table brewing the required concoction. Rose scurried over to help Lorelei.
"For the cells to perform properly, all the air must be removed. Please turn the crank on the vacuum pump while I top up the elixir cells."
Rose turned the crank with all of her nervous energy.
"Slower," coached Lorelei.
"There, you can stop," said Lorelei as she twisted a cap on the last cell, then addressing Alfie, "Professor Fletcher are you ready for the energy cells?"
"Yes, Doctor Traube,” Alfie stood up and opened the breastplate of the automaton. Lorelei walked across the room with the bank of cells. Glass and steel containers of a combination that only Lorelei could create.
When Rose explained to Lorelei that Fletcher could build the automaton, but he struggled with powering the construct, Lorelei quickly laid out a theory. When her vision struggled to become a reality, she collaborated with her contemporaries, James Joule and William Thomson for a solution to chemically create the energy needed for the operation of the metal man. As usual physics and time were no obstacle to the imagination of Lorelei Traube and eventually she had created alchemical batteries to power the world's first Automaton.
Rose grabbed a footstool so that Lorelei could get high enough to put the cells in the chest. She hurried around the alchemist to get the stool in place for her.
Traube stepped up onto the stool and slid the four cells into place. "A snug fit," she said.
"Let me get up there and make the connections," said Fletcher.
"Oh, no I have it," Lorelei insisted.
"You best stay out of her way when she is on a mission Fletcher,” injected Rose. Rose smiled to herself to see the two working so hard on this project. It was too bad Tommy couldn't be here to see the project come to fruition.
Rose looked away from the brass man to see Enzo in the hallway waiting by the door of the theurgy chamber. He turned to the studio standing just outside the door jamb.
"Is she in there?" Enzo said speaking with disdain.
"Yes,"
"She is a handmaiden of darkness and you consort with her demonic ways in this endeavor."
"Do you have a better solution for Preston? I know you don't approve, but she has more to offer than just words of advice," replied Rose.
"A black bargain," said the Monk.
"Enzo, for a monk you're unusually judgmental. Somebody told me we are all here for a reason or a season, maybe her reason is to pull Preston back from the abyss and for that, I am prepared to go into the shadow to pull her out of the darkness."
"My words are voiced out of concern, not judgment even if I don't choose them well..."
Enzo's words were drowned out by the chugging sound of the machine man's internal compressor starting up.
"Haha, there we go ladies, it’s charging up the hydraulic tank. You see my friend here is fluid powered, the muscular pistons are driven by pressurized whale oil with spring returns," Alfie could not contain his thrill and excitement.
When Rose looked back to Enzo, he had left the hall. She had too much to do to worry about that curmudgeon. Rose's eyes traced the thick cable that came in through the wall, snaking around the studio and ending in the gemulet relay, housed in the Automaton. Her mind went back to the ritual and the task at hand. Is the connection solid? Rose scurried over to the open back of the Automaton and tightened the cable connection.
"Rose, the connection is sound. Your work is solid," said Alfie admiringly.
* * *
7:28 a.m. The Theurgy Room Hawkin’s House
Angelica stood at the edge of the theurgy pool in a trance, her bare feet on the gold and silver circle inlaid into the floor. Her Ju-Ju staff dipped into the pool and her eyes rolled back into her head, voodoo incantations rolling off her tongue. Preston lay naked in the pool but most of his body was not visible as the pool was filled with a concoction of Angelica's making. It looked more like mud than the translucent waters that typically filled the theurgy pool. This was the physical location of Preston and Angelica, but both were elsewhere, on the edge of the void.
Angelica materialized in Preston’s mindscape, next to the two men lying on the parched earth,”Just beyond the horizon is the void, the barren landscape," declared Angelica.
"I know that Enchantress," replied Azul.
The three of them were on a vast plain of dried and cracked earth, the horizon held the reddish hue of an angry setting sun. Azul looked and felt haggard, his old eyes had lost their glow, exhausted, he lifted himself off the ground when Angelica appeared.
"I am here on behalf of the White Witch, she has constructed a new vessel for you and I will send you to it if you agree. If so, you must prepare for the ritual; and understand you will be stripped from this mortal vessel, never to return,” Angelica counseled.
"Yes, anything, I agree. I would gladly return to my deathless prison after these past few months and as for my friend, he may be lost," Azul compassionately pointed to Preston laying on the ground and continued, "Upon my departure from his mortal form it will be up to him to make his own way back."
"I am keenly aware of your pain, I too was torn from my mortal body and sent to a deathless existence. I recently returned to the physical realm and into the flesh of another." Angelica consoled Azul. "Prepare yourself, the way back is a brutal passage and you may wish to be back in this desolate insanity rather than suffering the spiritual pain you will go through," said Angelica's astral projection as she inspected the spirit form of Preston. The old Sufi may be right, "First we get you to your new shell, then we will concern ourselves with the Englishman," Angelica finished.
The Voodoo Queen snapped out of her trance, alert and back in her body in Rose's theurgy chamber. Making her way around the pool she took the Pwen Hanaan soul siphon attached to the cable in the wall, a strange amalgam of the primitive and modern: naturally dyed threads were woven with copper wire in an intricate pattern, the copper and silver wire wound into a bundle soldered to the cable.
One final look at the wand and Angelica began the incantation. As the power coursed through her new body, she sensed a second chance for how to use her knowledge and this act symbolized how feelings and intent behind the act was the only difference between light and dark. Her young, white hand positioned the staff onto the Englishman's chest.
* * *
7:34 a.m. The Studio Arcana Hawkin’s House
It was like a slap to the face or the cracking sound of dry wood snapping on the coldest day. In an instant, the incessant chatter, anxiety, and despair were gone. He was alone again, quietly his soul wept in relief.
Suspended in an empty, infinite space, Azul sensed he was in an astral construct of some type; it felt like Rose's work. The only objects in the space were a suit of armor and a walnut and brass control panel; cables attached the panel to various parts of the armor. Resting on top of the panel was a note.
Azul,
Put on the metal suit.
-Rose.
The armor was lined with quilted velvet and soft leather. Slowly, he donned the suit, adjusting each strap and securing the helmet on last. With its placement, Azul senses spun, his vision was no longer of space but a monochromatic view of Rose's studio. The change in his v
ision made him lose balance as he sensed movement. He felt what could only be described as vertigo slipping to panic.
Could it be true? Yes, he was in an astral construct in spiritual form.
"Where is this?" Azul said out loud.
"Rose?" he voiced, “Rose, what is this what is going on?"
"Yes, I see. I see you, Rose,"
Azul relaxed, and his field of vision opened up; still monochromatic and dreamlike but he could see Rose holding up three fingers, "I see three, Sister."
He tried moving and turned side to side.
"Ho ... hold up there! We need to disconnect you from the conduit" said a one-armed man standing beside him. This wasn't Rose projecting into him, he was back in the mortal realm without a connection to Preston. The man went behind him and out of his vision. Rose stepped in front of him, "You are free to move about just be careful. You're a big heavy sod."
Azul felt his movements restricted by the suit but took joy in it. He reveled in this strange freedom but more so that Rose could create a place for his spirit to live and manipulate things in the mortal realm. His ancient Brotherhood thought they were special because they had ability to create and maintain objects to confine spirit forms. Rose had outdone them.
It required deliberate thinking to walk, it wasn't how he remembered. Every step a struggle, it was like the first few times he would take control of Preston. He grappled with conflicting signals, he had more presence but it all had a strange artificial feel.
The ancient Mystic wanted to see what his new form looked like. "Do you have a looking glass?" asked Azul.
"Follow me out into the Reliquary the walls have mirrors," answered Rose.
Azul slowly turned getting used to the movement. It was hard to comprehend the situation, he could move the construct through physical space, but the movements weren't as fluid as a human form, "Rose, your home is a disaster.”
"We had some unwanted guests while you and Preston were away at the sanitarium."
"Sanitarium, in-sanitarium is more appropriate," he said with a chuckle. As he walked he took in the sights of the damaged equipment and burned walls. Some work had been done to clean up but there was immense damage to the building.
Rose's beautiful Reliquary was in the same condition. Smashed cabinets, broken mirrors and massive holes in the walls.
He stood looking into the mirrored wall and could see his new form. His metal body was bigger than an average human, a good foot taller and much bulkier. Standing next to him the one-armed man and Rose both admired their craftsmanship. His new form had a skeletal appearance to the metal framework with valves, pistons rods and cables.
"What do you call this thing?" Azul asked.
"The term we have been using is the Automaton," said the one-armed man.
"It's your new form. I know you're still a spirit tucked inside a gemulet, but now you can freely move and communicate without possessing Preston."
"So, I am now inside a steam-powered golem?"
"Not steam, Hydraulics, designed by Alfie, our resident Engineer. We energize a pump to pressurize fluid, then the fluid pressure is used to activate the pistons and actuators. Technically that is the power transmission; your energy source is alchemical and that you have to thank the brilliant Doctor Traube for inventing."
He moved his arms and flexed, looking at his big mechanical hand. He then turned and looked down at Rose. "Rose, dear I have thoughts on how to improve my appearance. I was always a slave to style when I had a body to dress," said Azul.
* * *
7:44 a.m. The Hallway between the Theurgy Room and the Studio Arcana, Hawkin’s House
Angelica stepped out of the theurgy room to a crowd that had formed in the Reliquary. Towering above the group a brass and iron mechanical man posed, looking at himself in the mirrored walls. Quite an odd spectacle, the enormous man-shaped machine moving around freely.
"Azul," she called.
The group turned to stare at Angelica.
"Who are you?" replied the Arabic - intoned metallic voice.
Angelica had forgotten that her astral projection still resembled her old mortal form, a beautiful tall black woman and that now she was trapped in the body of a seventeen-year-old French girl.
"It’s Angelica, you old fool; I brought you back from the abyss."
The metal hulk strode past the mechanist team, each step delivered a metallic thud to the tile floor supported by a symphony of hisses and clicks as pistons fired and returned within and on the Automaton.
"How is it you get such a nice vessel, and I ended up in this metal contraption?” Said Azul.
"I have the Necronist Hume to thank for my form and installation into it. Any issues you have with your accommodations is between you and Sister Rose," offered Angelica. "Rose, I'm in need of assistance in here with Preston."
"What is going on, is he going to come out of this?" asked Lorelei.
"His mortal form lives and as the man in metal can confirm his spiritual and mental condition is desperate. I need to get him from the pool to a place where he can rest," finished Angelica.
"Fletcher, please run up and get Pāora," ordered Rose as she pushed through the group, her eyes met Angelica's, "Is it all right for me to enter alone?"
"Your precious room is clear of any taint of darkness," added Angelica. Was the White Witch that afraid of the dark arts or was this some judgment still being weighed against her for her past?
Fletcher returned with Pāora and Enzo in tow and they moved quickly to the theurgy room. Lorelei followed.
"Leave him to me," spouted Enzo as he passed Angelica. She answered with a stare, no need to trade barbs with him now. She needed Rose and her resources if she would find her son and have any semblance of a normal life with him.
In the hallway, on her way to the Reliquary Angelica sensed a dark presence behind the walls of the strong room; she turned and looked at it. She would need to ask Rose what was kept in there. If she could feel it others would be able to as well. And that made her wonder about the Monk, with all his prattle about her past life; did he ignore what was in the safe or did he possess no ability to sense it as she could.
The small Enzo and huge Pāora carried Preston out of theurgy room. He had been cleaned off and wrapped in toweling. Lorelei was visibly upset to witness her beau in a coma.
Finally Rose came out, she took Angelica by the hands and pulled her close. "I know that you have been through so much and it has led to some, well…" Rose stopped. "Anyway today, what you did helped me. Thank you, friend.”
"Your acknowledgment is all the thanks I need," said Angelica.
41
Friday the 5th of April
10:20 a.m. Palazzo Corsini, Rome Italy
Dimetri sat rigidly at the drafting table in the library of the palatial villa. He was sketching out details of the Number Loom on a large piece of paper.
A voluptuous woman wearing a tight-fitting skirt and revealing neckline entered the room. He couldn't place her features they were exotic, maybe Persian or Indian with some Mongol, a mix that was unique and stunning. Along with her was a boy, also of mixed race; clearly, he had African in him. The boy was smartly dressed in a suit and looked to be in his early teens.
"Do you enjoy my new form?"
Dimetri was confused.
< Did you think I had to be a man? I am limitless Dimetri and I will give you the same power. >
Now with the thoughts being projected into his mind Dimetri understood that Caiaphas was now within this woman.
“Gerrard, this is Dimetri, he does not speak so I would like you to liste
n to his mind."
< Can you hear my mind? > projected Dimetri.
replied Gerrard, projecting his thoughts just as Caiaphas had done.
"Now I am going shopping to get items more suitable for my new shell," said the woman as she walked out of the library.
42
Saturday the 6th of April
Ascot Race Course, Berkshire
Jimmy Lin sat in the front row of Chilton, Owens and Strathmore's private box. Full of Lords, Dukes, and Mechanists, the spectators was more occupied with socializing than the race. Jimmy loved being up here for what it represented. A Chinese immigrant wearing a bespoke custom suit and hat, hob-knobbing with the industrial and aristocratic elite, but he was working. Every race resulted in a change of fortune; he would look at his crib sheet written in Chinese characters and then note if the actual results differed. Next up was the fifth race, this would be the pivotal run that would change the state of the legal and illegal betting landscape forever.
Randal Strathmore sat down next to him.
"You seem preoccupied, Mr. Lin,"
"There is more going on here than little men riding on those ponies," he said looking through his field glasses.
"Oh, I thought it might be your concern over the passing of Weng Lo,"
Jimmy looked at him. "What do you know of Master Lo?"
"Well, just what I read in the newspaper; but then there is a host of information I get from the rumor mill about the succession in your organization," Strathmore stated, poking around for details.
