by J M Bannon
"In London?"
"Yes, there is a gateway leading directly to my basement laboratory."
"From Omaha?"
"I guess. Where's that?" said Rose.
"Here. Omaha is in the Nebraska Territory, east of where we first met," confirmed Quentin.
"Well, I don't have a high opinion of it so far," Rose stated as she checked her belt and tinctures. "Off, go then. Down the stairs to the factory floor then take another set of stairs, Holy Shit!" yelled Elmore.
One of Allard's abominations made it through the hole Rose had carved out of the cage and was wandering the shop floor. Rose screamed to get the beast's attention, it galloped towards Rose and Elmore. He took aim with his Henry rifle and took the shot. Upon seeing the first shot hit but not stop the animal he fired two more in quick succession.
Rose bound down the stairs and leaped from the third step into the air driving the spear into the back of the creature, causing it to crumble into a heap. "I forgot to let you know these things don't really mind bullets," Rose hefted the spear out of the corpse, the spear’s removal sounded like a boot pulling out of mud.
"You'll need this," Rose held out the Javelin of Light.
"Can I touch it? It won't burn me if I'm unworthy?"
"Don't be silly," Rose scoffed, Elmore reached for the spear, and she added, "unless you are a chronic masturbator."
"He pulled his hand back, define chronic?"
Rose laughed only to stop, wincing in pain from the damage to her ribs. "Take it. I'll be back to get this later. Understand this is a Holy relic I have been entrusted with and I now give it to you keep it safe."
"Anything special I should know about it, or how to use it?"
"Just trust what you feel and that Angel Arnheim wields the Javelin with you. Now stop that machine and I promise I'll be back to get my relic," Rose hugged Elmore to both his and her surprise. She looked back at him one more time than prepared to descend the stairway; it was dark so Rose grabbed a lantern and hurried down. The room was dark, with the flickering light cast from the railroad lantern, Rose entered the laboratory with the metal rejuvenation tubes. She was shocked to find two men dead on the floor. One of them she didn't know, but the other was the Company Man from Harpsichord. As she surveyed the room she caught the reflection of herself in a copper sheet, "How many of these bloody doors are there?" Rose said out loud inspecting the frame. Seeing the pull chain with its white wooden handle she gave it a tug and stepped back for what came next.
34
Saturday the 30th of March
11:05 p.m Dimtre’s Vila Lago d'Orta Italy
Allard passed through the gate with the American and the soul magnet. This door opened to the control room where the Mute worked. Before it shut he wailed out, “open door twenty."
The Mute worked the controls at his post closing the gate and opening the door in Omaha that was connected to the Homunculus machine.
"You set that down over there," ordered Allard pointing the gun at Tommy. Tommy complied and placed the device on the counter.
"Seer Allard, when did your agenda trump the Brotherhoods' plans," said Caiaphas staring out the window over Lago d'Orta.
"No, we needed the device; without it, we would be set back months, perhaps even years," countered Allard.
"Quiet, I'm not here to listen to a rationalization of your disobedience."
Everyone in the room heard the click of the hammer falling on the empty chamber of the pistol when Henri pulled the trigger. Doctor Caiaphas turned to face him smiling.
Shit, the gun is empty. Allard dropped the pistol and drew the second gun from his waistband firing at the doctor; spraying bullets, some hitting Caiaphas others going through the window behind him.
Caiaphas fell back to the ground from the impact of the slugs. Almost falling out the broken window behind him.
"I've had enough of your mysterious conspiracy," said Henri. He felt a sense of relief not that he killed one of his Brotherhood but being rid of the oppressive Caiaphas. He was finally free of him.
"You there, I need to get away from here fast, where can you send me that no one will find me?"
Dimetri stood there with his mouth agape.
"Answer me. Write it on your stupid little board or on the wall for all I care," Henri screamed his face red and sweaty and pointing the pistol at Dimetri.
"Wait, Dimetri, he's out of bullets," Caiaphas said as he stood up. He had two bullet wounds that were bleeding. "Two of six, not very accurate Henri, but still fatal for anyone else," he finished.
A bell rang, and the light blinked over a numbered gate, signaling a traveler seeking transit through the Nexus. Henri looked at Dimetri, who then looked to Caiaphas for guidance.
"By all means, Dimetri, open the gateway and let the caller come," said the Doctor as he felt his wounds.
Henri panicked pulling the trigger again and again but the gun it did not fire. Caiaphas patiently walked up to Henri and took his head in his hands. Henri flinched in fear at his touch and the feel of the warm blood on his face from Caiaphas’ hands.
Caiaphas moved in close and whispered into his ear. "Henri, how sad to see a man so lost to ambition. You failed me not because you tried to be more but because you were so worried about how you were perceived in the process of becoming more."
Caiaphas guided Henri, "Now come with me."
Henri was no longer in the room with the man he shot. Now he was in a filthy stone mausoleum that stunk of age and rot. At the far end of the room deep in the shadows and darkness, he sensed Caiaphas.
The words were in his head and compelled him to step into the darkness. Although he stepped from the light into dark, he could still see. He heard squishing and looked down to see he was standing in a pool of liquid. He felt the moisture soak into his shoes then into his skin.
Looking up, he saw the true form of Caiaphas within his mind. Henri Allard's sanity collapsed in on itself, his mind crushed trying to comprehend who and what his Master really was.
4:30 p.m. Basement lab at the Continental Cattle Company
Water showered down from the top of the copper sheet. The waterfall shimmered with energy then shifted, producing an archway to another room. Rose recognized the space it was the vestibule of Allard's gateway. In the middle, lay the beast she had killed. She looked to her right and there was her studio; it was a disaster. Looking to her left was the factory, and another beast rising out of the vat. She didn't have the Javelin, so she needed another option. One was running back into the studio, but she needed to find Allard and did not have time.
Rose drew out the Rod of Raziel. Her stance was not a defensive or offensive one but passive; seeking to understand with the Rod laying across her palms. She let go and trusted the relic.
She saw a light from above. It wasn't God or an Angel but illumination from a hatchway. Someone has left it open and she could see there was a room over the vestibule.
Rose sheathed the Rod and climbed atop the hulking mass of the dead beasts. It was enough to get her to the edge of the hatch and grasp the edge. It took everything she had to muscle up the hole, tears pour from her eyes in response to the pain from her side. Her legs dangled as another of the beasts swiped and clawed in the corridor below. Rose felt it brush on her feet giving her the motivation to get herself up through the hatch. She felt terrible that she didn't stop the monster, just had to trust that Dolly and the others could protect themselves.
Rose looked around noting her whereabouts amid some giant contraption. A strange glowing bulb throbbed in time to the Tick-Tock of the mechanism that surrounded her. Walking up to the bulb she drew the Rod and again opened herself up to understanding what she observed.
She received the answer to her immediate question: Was this the master of the other clocks? Rose knew she was in the right place. Her urge was to rush to find Allard, but she fought
it and asked to have revealed all the information she should possess rather than what she thought she needed to know.
With each tick of the clockwork, time in between seemed longer and more information flooded her senses. Dates, times, drawings, experiments, construction, tests, success, failure, comings, and goings, she was swarmed with the design and the history of the construct and its sponsorship by Caiaphas. As fast as it came it stopped. Her head was buzzing suddenly slamming her with the understanding of the various linked structures, and where Allard may be hiding. She walked through the causeways between the mechanisms to a stairwell up to the control room.
Four men were in the room one hovered over the illuminated panels, controlling the machine downstairs; she knew from her experience down below him to be Dimetri, the inventor. Rose felt as if some of his memories were hers now.
The other two were embracing but as she entered, they let go and one fell to the ground. It was Allard, and he looked like Maxwell did after he looked upon the form of Pruflas.
Tommy was standing against the wall in utter shock next to the Necronist device.
"Tommy, everything will be all right," Rose waved at him with assurance.
"Will it?" chided the old man standing over Allard.
"You're the Outcast, the one who entombed Pruflas," the Ex-Nun recalled the vision she had a year ago.
"It is true, I am. How do you come to know this, I have changed mortal forms several times since my work as a Macedonian Seer?" Caiaphas said as he turned to face Rose.
She observed he had been severely wounded, "I saw your otherness, you're not from this dimension; it was revealed to me when I entombed Pruflas," replied Rose.
"Interesting, you claim to have witnessed me in my true form and are responsible for his entombment?" He paused, then asked, "How is my brother?"
"Sleeping, I made him a nice bed,"
"You have my gratitude. I am certain Pruflas would have sought revenge after I stuck him in a stone for two thousand years. I don't remember you being there, so you must be able to see across time," Caiaphas conjectured.
"I can see more than just through time," Rose patted the Rod in its sheath. "I know all about the Nexus and how you use it to shuttle your abominable foot soldiers from place to place. We figured out your connection to the Necronists and seeing as you incapacitated Mr. Allard here, you must be concerned that we are getting too close."
"Don't assume to know where we are in this game, I am far better at this than you. I have had an eternity to craft a far superior plan to one that an ex-communicated Nun ever will. Until you fully understand the essence of my being and the nature of all that encompasses reality, you won't have a clue what the game is here. You know what makes a grandmaster in chess?" asked Caiaphas.
"Winning games," Rose was prepared to play his game.
Well, that is how we rank players don't we; wins and losses. That is not the answer; the answer is how they play the game. It is more than just utilizing moves and gambits but knowing your opponent and getting them to make moves you want them to make, that sets them up for checkmate." he said walking over to stand next to Tommy, "There is a war coming."
It made sense to Rose they must have been creating these creatures to support one faction in case the war broke out. Her knowledge of the United States was thin, but she knew the seceding state were pro-slavery and disadvantaged in population and wealth to the larger Union. "This is about America. Are you're instigating that civil war or making money from the highest bidder for those creatures you are fabricating?"
"Wrong. This isn't about stealing souls, or who of your kind hold dominion over the other. Our adventure together is personal and nothing to do with earthly mortals other than the part you play. Rose, you will never fully appreciate what value you have and what you are capable of because you are human. Your kind are infantile, you haven't been physical forms on this planet for but a short time and believe this tiny window of existence you experience is so significant."
"Don't forget I entombed your brother. You don't think I can do the same to you?" Rose posed, drawing the Rod from its sheath.
Dimetri worked the controls. Rose saw there was another copper door panel in this room, with water flushing down.
Caiaphas grabbed Tommy by the wrist and twisted it until Tommy was on his knees. "Now now, Miss Rose, one more move and I will send your friend here into my mind and he will never come out. My colleague will take the device and leave through that gate and I will follow him unless you want to see your friend over there die before you," said Caiaphas.
Dimetri picked up the soul magnet and exited the gate.
"This isn't some operatic tragedy or a melodrama where the hero saves the day, Rose. If you think you are here to stop a great evil, you are gravely mistaken. I am the Grand Master and the moves I make force the play of my opponent, but I am not playing against you. You are not a player. You are a pawn, well maybe a slightly more important piece, but the action you take are the ones I made you take willingly.
Both Caiaphas and Rose turned to the gate when it sputtered and closed. The tick-tock of the clockworks downstairs was gone.
Rose turned back to the old man. "You were saying…"
35
Saturday the 30th of March
9:48 p.m. Hawkin’s House
The Estate was in turmoil. Gunshots, growling animals, Constables, and a baby crying made it inconceivable for Angelica to remain idle. She arose and strode toward the rear of the residence where Rose's study was situated. En route to the staircase she passed through the foyer and observed a young woman holding a baby, both were crying. Her hosts' sibling, she was likely a comparable age to the body Angelica possessed. In the study, Enzo and two policemen had brought up a man from the cellar. He lay on the Persian rug in front of Rose's desk. Every few minutes a shot would send a thundering echo up the steel staircase behind Rose's desk. Angelica quietly and coolly walked past Enzo to the stairwell where a Constable stood watch. She observed and sensed his fear as she sauntered past him and down the stairs.
"Miss, you shouldn't be going down there," he warned, but he did not stop her. Gun smoke permeated the air in the stairwell, an acrid carbon smell. BANG! There was another shot, with its deafening echo.
Angelica stepped into the Reliquary, it was well lit but hazy from the gun smoke. Detective Williamson stood steadfast, the solitary man holding the line. A bizarre scene, the room was like a museum with glass cases and display cabinets. The surface of the floor tiled, the walls decorated with wood wainscoting and mirrors. Yet it was if a bomb had detonated, the entire space was a catastrophe with holes in the walls, glass shattered, and lifeless creatures strewn about. One man holding off a herd of ironclad bulls in Rose's china shop.
Then she heard it. -The skull encrusted Ju Ju Staff, positioned in a glass cabinet. It called to her, pulling at every cell in her body.
She closed her eyes and felt a sense of harmony, a knowing all would be right. She let go and as she let herself swoon to the moment of being back in the presence of her mentors. Black tendrils flowed from her skirt up and around the cabinet. Since her resurrection, she could manifest her aura, her imprint on the aether and manipulate it into a physical form through the ichor. It flowed around her like iron filings in a magnetic field and she could make it adhere to her body and transform. It wasn't part of her, yet it was; Angelica controlled the fluid, felt she would be nothing without it bathing her. The tendrils popped open the cabinet and tenderly brought the staff to her. When the wooden shaft touched her palm, she coursed with the power of her predecessors.
BANG! The Englishman shot another beast breaking through the gallery.
"Fuck me, dead!" he bellowed reloading his pistol. He nodded his head in the direction of the hole in the wall. Angelica looked and spotted what looked like flickering flames and the unworldly screams of animals. "If you're up to it, I sure could use your help in ridding the house of those creatures."
Angelica strode down the
hall and entered the Studio Arcana. The meat puppet bucking around the studio was smashing into equipment setting the room ablaze. She struck down her staff and cited an incantation. A blue glow pulled out of the beast into the skulls atop the Ju-Ju staff; the Voodoo Kings in the world beyond would feast tonight.
Angelica turned to the portal and stared into the vestibule through the doorway; she could see the factory and several beasts in the spreading conflagration. Beyond the creatures, the vat of ichor called to her, she could feel the life energy in it. Her dress transformed from a modest white lace ensemble into a sultry, flowing black gown, both fabric and ichor at the same moment. It swelled to the vat and drew the fluid to her. She had never tasted so much vitality before. Along with the ichor she drew in the life energy out of the two soul corrals. Animal and human life force flowed into her augmenting her power. The absence of ichor in the vat fouled up the animation process and left the two forms a lifeless mass of meat and metal in the vat.
Every cell in her body felt invigorated as she slurped up the vitality in the ichor. She sent a wave of ichor into Rose's workshop it advanced across the floor preparing to flood the whole basement. With the base of her staff, she stirred the ichor empowering the eldritch broth with an enchantment. The fluid transformed into a carpet of beetles swarming to the carcass of every animation and ingested them. She too fed with the beetles becoming more powerful. The Voodoo Queen felt like she was everywhere, in multiple places, her body could sense being elsewhere in America and in London, at the same time part of the aether. Angelica could feel and touch it above her head; pulling the ichor into her, she soared up and through the hole in the ceiling of the vestibule. Now she knew she was some place else.
There it was the aether that was hailing her, a pulsing globe of eldritch gases. The heart of the engine she was now within. She approached and peered into the vapors and her vision perceived that the chamber down below was inside the globe, yet not. She had to devour it. The tendrils from her skirt, some vaporous and smokey, others like tar, enveloped the globe crushing it, assimilating the etheric energy. It was existential for a flash she existed beyond the material realm.
