by Daniel Ruth
“Why not?”
“It’s inscribed with a ward that is keeping you from going catatonic. Again.”
His eyes moved back to his erstwhile dinner companions. “Oh, Priscilla. Lost to my own folly.”
“At least the vampire and the shifter are still... alive,” I paused on the word as the meaning conflicted with the undead’s state, then shrugged. Close enough.
Abruptly he stood up, fire suddenly filling his frame. “I can make this better.”
“Well, waking everyone would be a good start but...”
“Not enough! I will raise the fallen. Only then will my mistakes be repaired.”
I looked at him blankly. “You have a resurrection circle, don’t you?”
“Of course. I am a master of circle and wards. You must be aware of this.”
I wanted to throttle him. “Of course I must.” Hopefully his wards had been affecting me all this time, otherwise, I was a lot less intelligent than I thought. Right, that must be it. “Well let’s resurrect all your guests. Considering there must be hundreds of them it’s going to take a while.”
“Hundreds?” He paused as he contemplated the task ahead of him. “I feel the power in the air. Still, I may need your help to succeed in such an undertaking.”
“This undertaker is pleased to help in this undertaking,” I replied with a smile. He grimaced in distaste. Too soon.
“First let me turn off the wards and change,” he said, suddenly realizing the insects crawling on him. He was remarkably collected as he took off his coat and shook it out. He moved over to the bar to wash off his hands and face and spraying under the warded bowl. I had a moment of worry before I remembered that it was waterproof. Likely explosion proof too.
“I would suggest you bring the dead back first. People may panic if they woke up next to rotting corpses.”
“You have a point.”
“Also, the vampires are going feral so you will probably wish to keep them under the full effects until...” I trailed off. I wasn’t sure what I could do against a god. It was extremely possible that there was no solution, especially if I couldn’t even identify the vampire’s original patron god.
“Damn,” the silver-haired man muttered. “I was hoping they would prove different from the ones I knew.”
“You too?” I asked. I thought about it for a moment. Out of ten dimensions, this one had rationale vampires and the other had the more typical feral brand. “Who do the vampires worship where you came from?”
“Some supernatural horror. I think they called it Vanth.”
“Not a god?”
“I understand that vampires generally aren’t linked to gods,” he replied absently as he pulled down a curtain and wrapped the dead woman at his table in it and bridal carried her deeper into the building. “Just some hellish beast. I suppose for most purposes you can consider it a god. Though considering a demon has caused the fall of this world...”
“It’s really not so bad for an apocalypse,” I offered helpfully.
“Really?” he asked dubiously as he surveyed the bodies lying about.
“Yeah, they restored basic services such as the power to hospitals, water, and sanitation. And frankly, without those ugly adds hanging over the street the city looks better than ever.” I noticed his glaring at me and I remembered that his area was included in the overwhelming ugly light shows. “Um, no offense. Anyway, you know the horrific entity that our vampires are, or rather, were plugged into?”
“No idea. I am a newcomer to this dimension. Whatever it is, it was more hospitable than the other one. I think they may have kept most of their free will.”
“So it could be a god?”
“I don’t know. We’re here,” he interrupted my questions as we followed a winding hall with a pair of ornate gilded doors. Ah, real gold. Of course. This man had really tacky taste. And this was from someone that liked to roll around in large piles of precious metal and stones.
The large room was reminiscent of the last circle room I was in. Of course, this time it was in my own body, rather than in my astral form. It was also not in the abandoned lair of Baron Samedi. This room looked far more impressive in person. The arched ceiling and windows let in lots of moonlight. I suppose when the power was actually on this place was bright and cheery. As it was, it was only due to my own ability to see in the dark that allowed me to operate normally. Sulayman was either excellent at navigating blind or had something similar.
The floor was covered in circles, most of them were identical and I could see that the connections between them amplified their effects. Those were the ones that lulled the senses into seeing what they expected and accepting the absurd. Apparently supercharged as they were, the lulling included catatonic states. There were several protection circles. None like my vampire protection circle, of which I was very proud of, but I saw a guard against demons and another against devils and even one against spirits. My own protection circle was initially based off of protection against spirits.
Off in the far corner, obviously less used than the others I saw our goal. A true circle of resurrection. The goal for which I had expended great efforts for in the last several weeks. And it was just sitting here. I really wanted to hit something.
As we got closer, weaving through the circles, Sulayman placed his hand on my arm. I was pretty sure it was to key me to the protection wards I saw inscribed in between the circles. In theory, my warded bowl should have been enough, but I wasn’t anxious to test it. Oh, nice, he had set up physical effects such as fire, ice, and necrotic energies. Very similar, though not identical to the circle room the Baron had at his base. Hmmm.
Okay, let's prioritize things. Study the circles and wards. Resurrect the poor slobs got in the magical mishap and then find out what was going on with a rogue circle master that was even more of a rogue than I thought.
Examining the circle, I took a moment to admire its grace and elegance. I could tell just by looking at it some of the errors I had made, where I had tried to brute strength an effect. Over on the outer curve, I saw a portion clearly intended to access the firmament to bring back the spirit or ‘soul’. That was the critical part I had been missing.
“...so a drop of blood here will energize this for at least an hour. It will be draining for you, though.” He pointed to a small portion of the circle. I studied it a bit. He was right. I sharpened a fang and bit down slightly on a finger to draw out a drop. I felt my reserves dip drastically as the circle started to pulse with a slow strong beat. It took me a moment to recognize it was in sync with my heartbeat. Neat!
“Great! Let’s go gather the corpses of your friends and make them not dead,” I turned towards him eagerly. He moodily growled at me.
“Get started. I will add you to the defenses while you’re gone.”
“You have a shed where we can stack the bodies?”
“No.”
“So you probably don’t have a place to stack the live sleeping bodies either.”
“No,” he sighed.
“Wow. You really were unprepared for the end of the world,” I shook my head sadly.
“Apparently, I had more faith in you than was warranted by reality,” he deadpanned. I didn’t have an immediate answer to that one.
It was fortunately that mere physical excursion didn’t tire me because that was the beginning of a very long night full of drudgery. After wasting a good thirty minutes carrying four at a time in my arms I broke into a shed and got a wheelbarrow. With that, I could take almost ten people if I balanced them just right. I would have just levitated them but after being attacked by Sebastian again, I was wary of another ambush. Sebastian had gotten what he wanted, however, he had lost his dagger. I had no doubt he would want it back.
The resurrection process was quick. Once the body was brought inside the circle, the glow of the circle spread to the body. Within a minute the corpse was restored to its original condition. Within two, the spirit was joined to it and the person was
alive. It didn’t take long for the corridor to look like the sleepover of the dead. People lined the hallway outside the room. They were alive but they still had rotted slime on their skin. The partially decayed clothing still smelled rancid and could barely be defined as clothes. Sulayman volunteered the hotel’s branded bath coats, but while I was willing to help out there was no way I was changing the clothes of hundreds of people. They could wash and change themselves once they woke up.
After hours, the final human had been raised and laid out in the hall. Sebastian was looking over the circles, muttering to himself about how to modify them to reduce the effect on humans and shifters and keep it on vampires. While this was mildly interesting, I was wandering between the resurrection circle and the evocation ward. We both spent the time until dawn in the circle room, muttering and talking to ourselves regarding our own research. Except for all the dead people, it was a great night on the town.
Chapter 10
As the sun rose I left Sulayman mumbling to himself as he modified his circles. While I was gathering the corpses, I had moved the vampires to various out of the way rooms. It wouldn’t do to have some random Samaritan try to save them and get eaten for their troubles.
I had reached my house soon after midmorning and I had to suppress a slight yawn. It had been a busy night and although I wasn’t physically tired, it was mentally wearing. I was about to park my rickshaw when I noted that an old floater was in front of my house taking my usual spot. It was somewhat more elongated than most. Almost reminiscent of a Hearst. Great more guests.
I parked across the street and approached the vehicle. “Hello, Hardy. I assume you have Eddie’s friends in the back?”
“What happened to you? A cat get too friendly? And stop calling me Hardy, my names...” he began obviously offended.
“Completely unimportant,” I finished for him. “Yes, I know. Bring that thing over this way. I have the circle over there.”
“You are a real jerk. I hope Mr. Prince gets tired of your shit and gives me the go ahead to end you. Why the hell did you put this mojo thing over here?”
I had been leading him down the block and behind the house where I had first placed the healing circle. I didn’t see what he was complaining about. It was actually pretty close. “The place had sentimental value.” It had been where Mat had been eaten, but I didn’t see any reason to explain to him. “Alright, back it up here.”
I moved over to the circle. It was already inscribed in the ground and simply need to be empowered. I grabbed the first casket and dragged it into the circle with a thump.
“Hey! Careful with those things. They are delicate!”
“They are going to be redundant in about five minutes.”
“Well then, treat them nice in that time,” he admonished me. I did my best to ignore him.
I pulled out my runed tooth and pricked my finger. A crimson drop welled out before the skin sealed itself. I used it to trace the activation sigil and forced a bit of power into it. While I did that, I pondered what it would take to upgrade the circle to Sulayman’s resurrection circle. I thought about it as I absently watched energies bathe the first body. It would probably easier to start fresh, but it would be a fun project. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to stay active this time. With the ley lines flooded and the environment saturated with energy it would certainly be a while. Flame and smoke erupted from the status pod.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Energy from the circle blew up the pod. What does it look like,” I pointed out shortly. I opened up the burning casket and verified that the person inside was no longer damaged and was breathing normally.
“Why didn’t you take them out first then? Idiot.”
“Don’t care. If you do, then you should take them out and put them in the circle. It's active now, so you can do that by yourself. Don’t worry, it probably won’t disintegrate you,” I added helpfully.
Hardy then took it upon himself to deactivate the next two pods and wrestle the bodies into the circle. I supervised. In other words, I ignored them as I made plans. It would be too much work to redo the circle. I would leave it as it was. As a simple, yet powerful, healing circle it was effective. I could use one of the neighboring house’s patios as the location for the next generation of resurrection circle.
“Hey, who are you guys,” a voice interrupted my thoughts. Looking over I saw a thin, short man looking out the back door of the house at me. I looked back nonplussed. “Weren’t you at the barbecue? What are you doing in my back yard?”
“You’re one of the squatters,” I stated blankly. I had bought the entire block to get my privacy and yet here they were. I had failed somewhere.
“I was invited,” he responded defensively. A young boy poked his head from behind the man’s leg.
“Who’s he, dad?”
“I’m the landlord, just stopped by the give these fellows their spa treatment,” I said as I gestured to the unconscious, healthy people now lying next to the circle.
“We have a spa,” asked the man, puzzled by the turn of conversation.
“Yeah, an air bath. They are all the rage. Benjamin Franklin swore by them.” The man looked at the glowing area on the ground didn’t respond.
“It’s glowing. Is it radioactive?” the boy asked.
“I... don’t think so,” the man said hesitantly.
“Hardy is still alive. For the moment. So it must be safe,” I added my two cents. “If you’re really lucky you might see him disintegrate.”
“Hey man, that shits not funny!” The stout gangster yelled at me, obviously upset. The squatter almost looked like he was about to berate the gangster as he walked through the glowing lines on the ground to move the now sleeping people. “Mr. Prince is going to want the final installment from you pretty soon,” he added belligerently.
He must have been talking about the final person that needed a resurrection service. I was mildly surprised that Eddie had shared details with his subordinate. I had always pictured him as the need to know, micromanager type mob boss. I grunted. “I told him it would take a few weeks. I’ll call him when it is prepared. Assuming normal communications have been restored by then.”
“I’ll be checking every day until it's ready.” With a grunt, Hardy moved the people into the back the trunk and finished securing the stasis pods.
“I’ll have my security arranged for you. Just ring the bell,” I mildly regretted not getting his name for a moment. If I had that, I could have inscribed it into a pain ward. I smiled at the thought. I heard him make a spitting sound as he left.
“If you owe him money I might be able to gather a collection for you. And I think we have some clothes that weren’t destroyed we can spare,” offered the man. As absurd as it was, I smiled at him. I was a sweet thought. What a nice man. I felt slightly less annoyed at him no doubt messing up my extra house.
“Don’t worry about it, we exchanged some services. He’s just being a pill. Names Derek.” I offered my hand.
“Paul. Paul Tonitis,” he replied as he should my hand. Firm by human standards. “This is my son Erin.”
“Good to meet you, hopefully, we can have another barbecue. Your son looks about as tall as Beth.”
“Beth? Jeremy’s sister? Yeah, they’re about the same age. I thought they might play together but she always seems busy.”
“She’s very active. She and Jeremy are excellent caretakers.”
“It’s nice that Jeremy includes her in this business. I heard about their parents. Such a shame. Still, they should be fine as soon as they figure what to do about the older generation. Same thing happened to my grandparents.”
My attention wandered a little bit. He was nice, for a stranger, but I had so much to do and had to take a nap before I did anything else. “Sorry to cut you short, but I’ve been up all night on,” I paused for a moment. “Rescue work and I have to take a nap before I get back to work.”
“No problem. You and Jer
emy have done so much for us. Just let us know if you need anything!”
I was dragging a bit when I came back home. I paused a moment to grab the pole with the bell, pull it out of the ground and move it outside the new perimeter. It actually ended up on the sidewalk but I couldn’t have it disintegrating the neighbors. Well, by accident at least. I tamped the churned earth back down as best I could. I would ask Beth about it, but chances were that the agency that did my previous lawn repair was either out of business or had so much work they couldn’t fit it in.
When I walk into the house I noticed that Beth was on the couch with an interface in front of her. She shimmered slightly and I nodded to myself in approval. She was practicing with her shield. She also had several marbles orbiting her. I could feel a vague disturbance in the air around her, so she may have had another effect on. I thoroughly approved.
“Morning,” I nodded to her and Jeremy who was on another interface in the far chair. They grunted in acknowledgment. He briefly looked up and then shook his head before ignoring me again. He muttered, “Another suit.”
Obviously absorbed in their work. I thought for a moment. Honestly, Beth seemed to know her way around services and vendors a little bit better than her brother. I had loved the bike she had gotten me at such short notice. Jeremy was better as an investigator.
“Beth, you have a moment?”
“Sure. What you need?”
“I need a larger basement. I was going to use another house to do a set of new circles but they seem to be occupied. Thanks to Jeremy and Mei.”
“I helped too.”
“Yeah. Good job,” I replied dryly. “Now I have no place to put things. I can research stuff downstairs but a real circle room needs floor space.”
“Um, okay. So you want me to contact some contractors?” She scrunched up her nose in thought. “I don’t know Derek. All the contractors are working for the city.”
“I am going to have issues resurrecting people if I don’t get more room. I can’t count on people’s ghosts hanging around like Mat’s did.”
