Episode 3, part 6
"Take me away"
You feel the Hellmouth's magic calm as dawn comes. Rising from your cushioned seat you pull your seeming around yourself. Stepping outside your sanctum wards you reach out to them and reinforce them with your magic and Fog. They thicken and whirl with the contained energy you place in them. You can barely sense the Gauntlet within as you back away from the door and then descend the stairs.
Dress flowing around your ankles you then leave your building, pulling up your hood as you walk out of the gate. You quickly enter the sewers after that through a nearby manhole. There are many reasons not to be seen as you hunt on this day.
With your plans and tasks increasingly interacting with the magic of the Hellmouth, you need a means to both consume and study it safely as well as Souls in this town. Thus you will find a beggar and lure them away from their nest, to perform the transformation at your home. Walking through the dark and dripping tunnels of the sewer you head for one of the parts of Sunnydale you haven't yet visited, near the cemetery where you arrived.
You can hear the occasional chitter of rats and other underground beasts as you walk, shadows pulled close. Shielded from the sun, you are wary of vampires, who might travel through these tunnels as well. You can smell fragments of their old scents, and the scents of many other things, but nothing fresh nor coherent. At least not near your home.
It would appear that they have still not found you yet. With what you have learned of them recently, you will have to ensure that state of affairs stays true for as long as possible. The scents and sounds you hear do not change overmuch as you head deeper into the town, though the scents do get fresher in places, which you avoid.
Your mystical senses see the town as it normally is, the Souls flowing through their lives above you. Such random order and clam behavior is ideal to you. The distant chatter you can hear filtering through the stone above your head indicates that you are below one of the town's market or shopping districts.
It's a place you are somewhat familiar with. You have avoided it before while traveling in the dark, through similar methods as you are now. You pay it no mind beyond noting its existence. Until your ever growing radius of awareness sees the flicker of a familiar Soul. The Warrior is here, in the company of an older Soul. Not the scholar.
Another one of her companions? You wonder.
You move quicker through the tunnels, watching them in the distance. You cannot hear what they may be saying or doing, they are too far from you to do that. Soon after that you watch them fade from your senses as you move away quickly.
It is good that she seems occupied for now.
But why is she not at her school? You wonder quietly in your own thoughts. Something to figure out then,
without asking them. You will definitely have to watch her some time soon. Shortly after that encounter you leave the market area and the mass of Souls behind.
The smell of greenery starts to filter down into the sewers you walk through after another hour or so. The scent of a single vampire as well, tainted with metal, though it is not recent. A ladder up reveals itself in the gloom, metal rungs rusted. You take a look with your mystical senses and see no Souls directly nearby. Climbing up, rungs creaking occasionally, you gently lift the cover and look out through the crack.
There is no one around, and you seem to be in a park of sorts, surrounded by trees and bushes. Grabbing the cover with one hand you lift it fully out of the way and climb out of the tunnel. Gently and silently setting the cover partially over the hole, you then rise and quest outward with your senses, seeking Souls.
There are some, on the edges, the normal congregations of the town. But closer you find three individual Souls, spread out through the deeper parts of the park. Two men and a woman you think, based on the scents which are fresh around here. You flit through the park, shadows shielding you from view.
The scents you smell speak of drunkenness and hopelessness and a long time forgotten in the corners. Much like your prisoners, now without your guidance. One Soul seems weak and old, about to die. You will not take them, they would not complete the process. Your feet take you away from them, towards the others deeper in.
They are similar, a man and the woman you think. They are not near each other however, each in their own little thicket of trees and bushes. You glide closer to the first Soul, the man. Peering into his thicket you see him, wrapped in clothes and blankets, wide eyed and mumbling, yet asleep.
You reach out with your magic, teasing it past the thicket to examine him. You tilt your head to the left. His Soul is ill, tainted with the vampire. He has been fed upon, recently. He was lucky enough to survive.
He will likely be taken this night, or die before then, you decide. He is of no use to you. Being careful to muddle all traces of yourself, you back away from the man, receding into the shadows of the trees.
The woman, you can smell her more clearly now, is to your right. Down in a dip at the base of a hill, bushes and brambles all around her with a single great tree shading her place of rest. You drift closer, circling around the thicket slowly. Breathing in you catch the scents of drink and the particular leaf humans here like to smoke while doing said drinking. Her hair is red and tangled as she sits near her meagre possessions, against the tree.
"Hello?" Her voice is sweet and quiet. She sensed you but you are not visible to her, hidden in the shadows and behind the tree. You wait, as she looks around for you, and examine her carefully like you did the man. She is grown, at least a decade older than the Warrior, and of some beauty beneath the dust and grime. Her clothing is simple and covered by a blanket wrapped about herself.
"Are you still there?" You ignore her question as you carefully inspect her Soul. It is strong enough, not particularly special and not tainted with the vampire. Watching her, you see her mind is strange, however. It walks strange paths and sees strange sights. She will do, you decide, the last slots of a plan falling into place.
You slip around the tree, dress brushing against this woman's feet, your hood and face shadowed. She looks up at you and smiles. "...an angel?" She asks with a cunning wonder. "Rejoice." Your voice is quiet, clearer than a bell, and totally inhuman. "Your redemption is here." You say, reaching out. Her hand takes yours eagerly.
Pulling her upright you wrap your magic subtly around the woman. With hand and magic you guide her to follow you. The shadows gather around you both and conceal you from sight as you slip through the trees and bushes. Your prey is silent, though watchful. Coming to the sewer entrance you lean down and remove the cover.
"Ohhh…" The woman whispers as you gently prod her. "Down." You say. She complies easily, descending into the wet dark. You descend after her, pulling the cover behind you and sending it totally into darkness. You grab the woman again, guiding her. She is quiet for several more minutes, her Soul flickering with interest as her mind winds down its strange paths. But then she speaks again.
"I'm Annie." You do not respond. She begins to hum quietly, ignorant of being ignored, to the calming beat of a tune you do not know. You listen, it sounds similar to your hymn. Soothing. Your small procession travels slowly through the dark, though you end up taking a slightly different route than you did to get here. There are fresher smells of vampires near your old path.
As you end up nearing the Bronze, you catch a sense of a Soul you recognize. Angel. Asleep. He is somewhere below the ground near the Bronze. Off to your right.
Hmmmm… good. You muse. Knowing where he sleeps is very advantageous to you. When you go to seek him out you will start there. You feel your prey twitch and see her look intently at you out of the corner of your eye.
"Who's there?" She asks. You look back at her, watching her try to peer through the darkness at you. You think about speaking for a moment as you both walk through the deep shadows. Then you decide to. "An odd being." She nods at your response as if it contains the answers to far more than just her question.
The woman starts humming again as Angel's Soul fades away in your senses, following dutifully after you.
What an odd human… you think. The oddity is not the strangest you have seen, for all your prisoners were strange in their own ways. It is the first form of mental oddity you have seen in this place however.
Noting it, you speed up, pulling her along after you. It takes little time after this, not more than an hour, to reach the sewer entrance near your home. Climbing up you push the cover out of the way and rise into the little alleyway that it is placed in. Glancing down into the dark you see the woman looking back. "Come." You say, gesturing smoothly with a hand.
She climbs up slowly and looks around at the walls and trees all around. "Fancy…" She says in curiosity and interest. "Come." You say, pulling her by the hand and magic to the gate. Undoing the chain with a
squeak of metal, you guide her in, before securing it again. She pulls ahead of you then, heading to the door. She stares at the pattern on the wood as you flow up the steps behind her and open the door.
She enters, seemingly in a trance of sorts. Walking into the central entrance room as the door shuts behind you, she looks around in intense curiosity. Watching her start to wander the room, you walk in and drop your seeming. When you do she instantly focuses on you and smiles again. "There you are." She says happily.
You gesture upwards to the stairs with one of your upper hands. Following your hand she turns and then walks up the stairs, curiosity pushing her up the stairs to the third floor. You follow after her. She stops at the shimmering glow of the Fog Gate in the door to the workroom, face twisted oddly at it. Grabbing her shoulder you push, pulling on the power in the wards and letting her through.
She staggers in, unbalanced by your push. With a hummed note in C sharp you activate the central circle. Letting out an interested noise, she walks over and examines it closely. "In." You say to her gently. She casually steps in. You follow after her, mantle trailing behind you and enter the circle.
Releasing a great gout of Fog which shrieks through the room you grab her head with your upper hands, forcing her to look at you, and her arms with your lower ones. Reaching into her Soul you grab it like you grabbed the graveyard spectres and
twist. Molding it into the shape you want, Fog leaking out of her mouth and skin as she twitches like a fish.
In your circle, in your sanctum, you have all the power you need to shape her Soul as you wish. Pulling on her Soul you stretch it and shape it into a form akin to a cup. The woman's flesh tries to twist and warp under what you are doing, but it cannot under the weight of your limited power. Perfecting the shape of the cup, you reach through it and
lock it in place. The woman's body seizes at this, but her heart continues to beat.
Pushing immaterial and mystical hands through the shape you have formed on the mystical plane you
pull on the Hellmouth energy through the wards. Her Soul easily handles the strain, your lock reinforcing it, and you begin to greedily devour the energy and examine it. As you take it apart you see many different layers to it, indicating that it comes from many sources. Other dimensions, other lands, as you had read about. You can almost tease out the properties of these dimensions.
There is a corruptive, amplifying nature to the energy as you expected, incredibly destructive and bent on malice. You determine that your hunger can safely consume this energy, but only in organized magical constructions like what you are doing now. Your nature also means that if you are strong enough any corruption you attain from contact will be consumed, for it is not
of you. All will be consumed by the Fog.
Reaching further you find, something. A connection, curled in on itself to form a plug. A seal and prison for an ancient evil.
The Master, you realize. That force turns within your mind's eye, and you catch a glimpse of his place of rest. A stone room, a ruined cathedral. The vision fades before you can truly see each other.
As you begin to consume the Soul, you realize the flow of energy from the Hellmouth would spill through you. With what you know of this energy, giving it such a foothold could be catastrophic. With the Fog eating and tearing at the edges of her Soul you slowly remove your presence on the mystical plane. The cup shape is ragged and her Soul tattered, with energy leaking out into the ether.
In the final steps of your retreat your own Soul catches on the Fog tainted fragments of hers. You freeze, mind whirring. Carefully you watch and gently coax it as it very very slowly lets go. You return fully to the material world, with massive energies coursing through the circle around you, making it glow white before it begins to fade. Your power has grown much, you can sense, that energy flowing into you. You are not at full power, not yet, but you are several steps closer with several more powerful spells open to you.
Looking at the woman in your hands, she is completely unconscious, but still alive. This is fortunate, for her Soul can be used as a conduit for smaller rituals if needed. You are also sure at this point that if you require it, you can feed on the Souls in this town with some preparation. Considering what you know of the Warrior however, and the vampires who most likely also watch for the traces that can leave, doing so is something done in moderation. More than one of these conduits is also somewhat wasteful of your own efforts unless the situation changes.
Letting the woman fall, you stand in silence as your sanctum quiets, running through your options. You can feel the sun nearing the horizon as it sets, which means other options open up to you. Now would be a good time to go to the Magic Box and take what you need and deny the witches what they desire, weakening them to deal with later.
Angel will also likely be waking up, so you could trail him and watch him. You need more information on him and his leanings. While seeming mostly neutral, you do not truly
know that, so it is prudent to learn. Turning your gaze to the Gauntlet laying quiescent on its shelf you consider it. You have greater power now, as well as precision as the tears in your Soul repair themselves, so it should be much easier to examine it in depth.
Glancing at your new… minion, you decide, you know she will not awaken until some time tomorrow morning. If not later, considering what you have done with her Soul. Perhaps she will be useful then.
And that's that. What do you do over the night?
[] Go to the Magic Box, inspect its defenses, overwhelm them and then take what you want while obfuscating your true purpose there.
[] Go to where you sensed Angel sleeping and follow him through the night, to learn of his nature.
[] Study your Gauntlet and turn your improved senses and ritual analysis to divining its powers.
*cracks neck* I think I'm gonna go take a nap now folks. For extra hilarity, read this update with Annie being voiced by the turrets from Portal 2 like I did.
Vote closes at 6:00 pm UTC. I can't wait to unveil the full details of your new minion!
