The Knot and the Dagger Black
3nd of October 2006 A.D.
Harry's apartment does not look spacious on the best of days, but between your dad in full armor, Brother Divsimar having a chat with Mouse through the auspices of Burny and Detective Murphy making tea for a lack of anything else to do with her hands it makes you hands itch to open a window.
At least the detective does not look like she is too familiar with Harry's cupboard, a little voice at the back of your mind notes. When you ask her for a cup of water and promptly dump it on your head, very glad for the armor under your t-shirt all you can do is shrug. "My magic's weird."
"And the rest of it isn't?" she scoffs.
Instead of answering glibly you consider the words. "Only because magical beings decided to stop explaining themselves. If you
want the twenty minute flux capacitor talk when this is over I'll be happy to give it."
One would have to be blind to miss the slightly arched eyebrow in the direction of the resident wizard as if to say: 'See, she's willing to explain.'
Rather than linger on the byplay you quickly turn back to Clippy's screen, bright with the image of Ping Tom Boathouse she had downloaded days ago off the park's own site.
"One hopes this will end more harmoniously than the last public site we have sought information on," Usum says, bringing to mind images of the carnage at the museum.
Maybe Harry's love life isn't the worst thing to be thinking about after all.
Mentally waving off the demon's instant apology you ask your question: "What are the flaws of the ritual meant to be invoked in this location today?"
The Old shall what is Young wither
Beacon of flame into a dark well forged
Darkness upon the light now gorged
Shadows far off come hither
It is the poetry silent rot, the song of bleached bones lying in still waters, Ying without Yang and death without rebirth and yet there is a dissonance to it. The twisting pulls on the rivers, it draws on the steel impaling the concrete of the city, upon the silent glass faces. but it never reaches further into lake Michigan that the focus point at the South Works.
There is something in the lake the akuma fears, the insight comes unbidden and from that ragged edge its work can be unraveled.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 7/12
Harry does not seem entirely surprised at the news, questioning you further on what you had seen and what it might mean. Even though the magic he had been thought had four elements not two aspects he quickly translates your vision into something he can work with, leading the way into the basement.
Alchemical braziers are lit and glass it set to flame.
Iron shavings for blood, licorice root tea for breath.... Somewhere behind you the soft sound of Harry's chanting stops as his magic prods at the knot of power that is his model of the city gently ever so gently. Faced with the vast power that flows through the dragon-lines he is more like a snake-charmer wrangling his charges than the blunt expression of evokation one more often sees from him.
"There," he says at last as the candles he had set around Little Chicago all go out at once, grim satisfaction in his voice. "The vampire's going to pull the tap expecting water to come out and but it'll get fire."
"Yang instead of Ying?" you ask, a-probably-not-very-nice smile curling at the corner of your mouth.
"Yep, it won't even take a spell to switch it over, like a rubber band snapping back."
"Emergency Priority Call!" Clippy's sudden proclamation drains the good cheer right out of you.
"Boss, Boss they got Adam, Billy... Andrea as well probab'ly, they were still fighting when I ran but the bastards were too tough, had swords, armor and shit," A half familiar voice, ragged with exhaustion comes over speakers.
Jack, the vampire who was afraid of shapeshifters, you recognize him after a moment.
"They who's 'they'?" Even as you ask the question you know in your heart what had happened. The servants of Kakuri had come in force to the Last Station.
Jack has none of the answers you desperately need. He and the other vampires had responded to a shout from Adam who spotted a trio of intruders in one of the feeding tunnels. They had fought, but with only their fists against enemies armed with 'fucking samurai swords' and armored for war able to match the strength and ferocity of their hunger they had no chance at least according to Jack who had run as soon as Billy had gone down, using his hard-earned knowledge of the tunnels to stay ahead of his pursuers until he felt safe enough to use his phone.
"Which way did they come from?" you ask urgently.
"Reckon they came from the Barrels, you know under the old steelworks. There's been rumors something nasty moved in...."
Fear, guilt, rage mingle together in your mind until you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. You should have realized, you should have put two and two together. No, you slam down on the thought. Recrimination will help at nothing.
"Clippy send a message to everyone else's phones, find out who is still al..." You cannot being yourself to force the word out. "Where they are."
Perhaps it is just your imagination, but Clippy's voice does not sound as mechanically precise as usual:
"The Ghoul Adam is dead, the Greater Akuma has taken ill to his ambush being ruined and one of the 'rats' escaping his trap. Porter has been driven into the stone but not slain and no one knows where the cat spirit is. The rest are being herded towards the Barrels likely as hostages. Eight of the Lesser Demon People are in evidence, but not the Lady Eiko."
"What can you tell me about the leader?" Even as you ask the question you are already rushing out of the basement, potion forgotten. No time for brewing now. "What powers did he use."
"He has the seeming of a corpse, one who has drunk too deeply of Yin to show his face before mortalkind. He used unnatural swiftness and the guise of the demon, by will alone warding Porter from approaching until the others were subdued."
What do you do?
[] Head right to the steel mill, maybe you can beat them there
[] Lady Eiko was not with the 'Will of Kakuri', she has to be the traitor... she has so. Make what promises you must to get her to betray her Lord
[] Write in
OOC: So you know that streetwise Molly, and only Molly, made which she failed, that was to figure out the Barrels were right under South Works. No one else had heard the news of something nasty moving in nor did they have a rough map of undertown in their head. Also some of those rolls you did not make were perception rolls against some very skilled stealth is all I will say 
