Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

15) Dark Leechcraft

Victoria II stood with her back to the room, looking out the window toward the eastern sunrise.

The other occupants of the room were quietly but uneasily awaiting Her Eminence’s pleasure. The War Room had rows of chairs and a huge table dominated by a raised relief map of The Civilization. It was to be a council of Victoria’s most trusted group. This included five from the Arch Mage Council, Dr Saba and two more of the Healer’s Guild Council. There were also representatives of eight major religions of Zahn. General Magnus and the four Home Guard major generals were in attendance as well.

Victoria II turned with an expectant look on her face as the last person, whom she trusted above all else was admitted.

“High Lord Colonel Calvin Cooper Commander of Her Eminence’s Special Service and Baron of Calador.” The Sargent of Arms announced.

Cooper entered swiftly, proclaiming to her, “Apologies Your Eminence, I was looking into some disturbing reports about immortals being abducted all over the city.”

She nodded and said, “That’s quite alright. But now you’re here, I’ll need to share with each and every one of you, the most disturbing of images I received from the Glass Darkly, early this morning…”

She laid out the images and feelings clearly and succinctly, not adding her own interpretations and personal feelings. She did not want to taint the interpretations of her audience.

The gathered council looked to each other as if they were afraid to be the first one to state their opinion.

Cooper was the first to speak. “Your Eminence, I had a dream around the same time you had your revelations from the Glass Darkly. It might add some perspective…” he followed Victoria’s example in reporting his dream. He didn’t know why it was relevant, but he felt compelled to share it anyway.

Dr Saba said, “It looks like She may be back, or returning…”

Arch Mage Carruthers was quick to contradict the observation. “It can’t be, she was banished to the dark realms. Only someone of imperial blood could bring her back!” And with that, the room erupted into heated and fractured arguments of what could bring that one back.

Victoria II held her hand up and the room quieted rather quickly. She addressed them in the sudden silence. “Let us not discuss what is impossible. Apparently, it IS possible She is back.” She turned her intense gaze on each person in the room to finally stop her gaze on Cooper. “What’s your opinion Lord Colonel on who of my family is capable of doing this?”

“Capable? It is a long list Your Eminence. It includes you as well.”

There was a collective harrumph from the majority in the room.

“How dare you include Her Eminence.” was heard from many voices

She smiled. “That is why I trust you above all others Cal. We cannot overlook any possibilities in solving this problem. We must exhaust every possibility until we are satisfied as to who is the primary suspect.”

“Your Eminence, might I say, according to your vision in The Glass Darkly, She isn’t the only threat to consider?” Coop said respectfully.

“Yes, you may Cal. We cannot forget the Shadow Battalion and the Shadowmen, who are still apparently quite active. Let us hope they are not in league with each other.”

“I suspect not.” Captain Clancy of the Criminal Investigative Service said dryly as he stood up. He then bowed his head to Victoria II and asked, “If I may Your Eminence?”

She nodded and he went on, “The Shadowmen’s activity have been, apparently, singular in focus up until the day before yesterday when they attacked the Children of the Crown for whatever purpose. Lord Colonel Cooper has tasked me to investigate the Shadowmen’s activities back until the last day of the coup attempt. It would seem Miss Alexander has taken charge in her brother’s absence and has been immediately engaged by some other individual who has no direct connection to the former rebellious barons. Whomever this individual is he or she has taken great strides to cover their identity and history. However, I have been able to detect he or she too has had agents in common with the rebellious barons from before the coup attempt. If I may, I would like to submit to you, in my humble opinion, he or she may have partly instigated the coup attempt.”

Captain Randolph raised her hand, “If I may, through our interrogations of captured Shadowmen, I can confirm what Captain Clancy is saying. The Shadowmen are acting on the orders of a new individual who Miss Alexander is enamored with. It would seem the individual who is directing these actions has little regard for costs, both monetarily and human, for these operations.”

Captain Clancy bowed his head in thanks. For those who looked closely, one could see a hidden message in his eyes towards Captain Randolph. She also mirrored the look. Victoria II thought ‘It is nice to see love bloom even in these dark times.’

Victoria II nodded. “Alright, this included two of the possible avenues of attack, perhaps all three. We know the Shadow Battalion is one, She is another and whomever is engaging the Shadowmen is the third. Now, whomever summoned Her from Her exile represents a traitor in Our midst. One from Our family.” She turned back to Cooper and said, “Cal I want a complete list of who is capable as soon as you can compile it. The rest of you, I want you to keep this discussion secret under pain of death. But do explore whatever possibilities you can to not only find out who is against us, specifically but also how we can fight back.

“Cal if you will please remain behind, there is something else I wish to discuss with you.”

Everyone understood the dismissal and rose and quietly left the room.

Vicky went over to her desk in the room by the windows at the head of the great map table and motioned for Cooper to join her.

He walked over and waited for her to sit before he took his seat.

She pressed a button on her desk and a side door opened. Ouihan was escorted into the room and directed to sit in the other empty chair across from her at the desk.

When he sat, Victoria II said, “I only want the three of us to be privy to this conversation.”

The Sargent of Arms bowed and left the room, leaving only the six sentinels to stand guard.

Victoria II turned to Ouihan and asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Much better Your Eminence. Still a little sore but it will pass soon enough as will the poison.”

“So, with all due respects Magus, why haven’t you included Us in your trust?” She asked, realizing this was a time to be blunt.

“Well, Your Eminence, We, Sister and I, didn’t find out until just after the coup attempt. You have been quite busy with affairs of state since then. Also, it is an issue of reincarnation. I may be the life force of Wingdama, Aling reincarnated but it isn’t the same as being him standing here. It doesn’t mean I have all the knowledge and stuff at the forefront. I get it in bits and pieces. My remembrance is at its strongest in the presence of the Glass. I am still mostly Ouihan, with some Wingdama, and at its whim, not my command.”

“Fair enough. Do you believe the attempt on your life means someone else suspects your immortality?”

“It is possible this was an attempt to verify my identity but it doesn’t feel right. No, I suspect it is because of my ability to control automatons which earned me a death warrant.

“Might I ask, what was your latest vision from the Glass Darkly?” he asked feeling compelled by his link to the Glass.

Victoria II and Cooper looked at Ouihan in surprise. She then nodded and said, “Very well, I suppose since you are indeed who you are, then you are probably someone who would have a great deal of insight on the matter…” and she shared the visions and also went into most of the details included in the meeting just before.

Ouihan looked thoughtful. His face and body were still a 12-year-old’s but in his eyes, there was a great deal of wisdom and intelligence. He finally said, “I suspect our enemies are working both from outside and in. But I don’t know enough at this time to give you an insightful answer.”

Victoria II was more relieved than she thought she would be when Ouihan said, “our enemies” instead of “your enemies”. She was caught up in relief when she realized Ouihan/Aling was looking at her expectantly.

“What do you need?”

“May I have a free hand to explore the restricted section of the library first? Then maybe I can go into Grandeur City and do some investigations. This may spark memories or a flash of insight.”

“Very well.” She turned to Cooper and said, “Cal, you will take Ouihan under your wing and give him whatever help, and protection, he needs. Continue to task your other resources as well.”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

She turned back to Ouihan and asked, “Is there anything else?”

“Well there is something else. You said the Glass Darkly said the Children of Wingdama, plural. Did you not?”

“That is correct.”

“Then, you need to keep Mousy around you from now on. It’s just a feeling.”

John Wingate slowly woke up. His mouth felt dry and his head fuzzy. He recognized the effects of amber root and Zander blossom because it was used on him before, back when he first met his late wife’s people. A very potent poison used by many in the Southern Continent and a favorite of other assassin agencies throughout Zahn. He supposed if he wanted to capture an immortal like himself, he would probably use it as well.

He tried to move his hand to his mouth, but his shackles stopped him. It was dark in the room, but he was able to make out shapes of other tables like the one he assumed he was on.

Several hidden gas lights sprang to life and gradually brightened. Into John’s vision walked a woman wrapped in a white lab coat. A plume of red hair was visible over the goggles perched on her forehead. She paused in the middle of the room and worked a chain pulley system John hadn’t paid attention to. A large pink stone with tubes inserted at seemingly random points along its rough surface descended from the gloom above the glow of the lamps.

John looked right and left and was able to see the others chained to the tables immediately next to him. On his right was a thin looking brown-haired young woman he had never seen before and to his left was a man who he knew to be Michael Blake from his reputation of being a hunched backed immortal with a hobby of gathering information on other immortals.

Blake apparently saw him too because he asked, “Wingate, right?”

“Yes, and if I’m not mistaken, you’re Blake, right?”

“Guilty as charged. Over there is Mitzi Walker and to my left, if I’m not mistaken is Fanny O’Hara.”

John rolled his eyes and thought, ‘I can’t even be rid of her in durance vile.’ He said out loud, “Can you see who’s on the other side of us?”

The woman in the lab coat said, “That is none of your concern Mr. Wingate.” She finished adjusting the clear tubes coming out of the stone.

“Madam, everything here concerns me. So, unless you don’t want to worry about all your subsequent generations, I recommend you release us now.”

She turned to him, lowered her goggles. “Why, Mr. Wingate you are not known to be so vindictive. I don’t think you’ll bother yourself about my progeny.”

John smiled. “Are you willing to bet their lives on it?”

She shrugged and replied over her shoulder as she turned back to her work. “Well I have my orders. Besides, in a few moments you won’t have the strength to do much about anything. That is if my calculations are correct.”

Blake sneered. “Relying on, ‘I’m just following orders’ as your defense has been tried and has failed. It won’t absolve you among this august company. Oh, and would you at least have the decency to cover this woman’s nudity?” and he motioned his head to his left.”

The lab coat lady shrugged and said, “Oh very well.” And she left the area to retrieve something to cover Fanny O’Hara.

John looked over at Blake with a ‘what’s’ up look on his face but he saw he was looking past him to the woman on his right who was nodding and releasing herself from her shackles with some sort of tool he had never seen before.

She quickly unshackled all her limbs and started to go over to unshackle Blake, but Blake made a motion with his head as he heard the lab coated woman coming back mumbling under her breath. The thin woman quickly ran to disappear into the shadows.

The lab coated woman came back into John’s view and went to cover Fanny. She then straightened up and said, “Now we have taken care of…Damn! Where is Miss Walker?! I need all eight of you to complete the circuit. Oh well, no matter. She won’t get far.” And she reached over to a pillar and pulled on a rope.

Several large men dressed all in black came rushing in, “Find Miss Walker now! Use the life sniffer if you have to but she can’t have gotten far!”

Mitzi found her way into a rather narrow circular ventilation duct of some kind. She was thinking, “Thank God for my skinny ass.” as she crawled down the claustrophobically tight duct. She heard the alarms going off and the heavy footfalls below the duct she was crawling along.

Her heart was pounding in her ears so loud she was worried the men chasing after her would hear it. She paused to catch her breath and try to slow her heartbeat. She had never been this afraid in her whole life.

She looked through a small slit in the duct work. She could see she was above an intersection of the corridors below. She couldn’t see far down the left or right passages, but she could see down the corridor directly across from her. At the far end were four large men dressed in black Shadowman armor. One of this group was holding what looked like a clear looking glass. That individual was looking through the crystal or glass and using it to scan the hallway.

She could almost feel like it was pulling at something from within her. This must be the ‘Life Sniffer’ she heard the woman mention.

The Shadowman with the looking glass paused when he pointed it directly at her. He proceeded to walk slowly leaving the device, artifact or whatever it was pointed at her and said, “Hey I think I got something.”

She remembered thinking, ‘Please don’t see me, please don’t see me’. While she was thinking this, she felt a sense of cold dread forming like a ball of ice in her. She also felt the pulling sensation fading away.

The Shadowman paused and started to scan around again with the Life Sniffer. He shrugged and said, “It was probably a rat.” The group then turned down the corridor going the opposite way than she was.

She was amazed. She somehow knew this could be significant. Or it could have been a coincidence. She wasn’t going to take chances though. She tried to remember her exact actions, thoughts and sequence of events. She tried focusing herself to continue to “not be seen” and she quietly and carefully continued to follow the vent to wherever it was going.

She came to a point where the vent did a 90 degree turn upward and she had a moment of panic. However, she forced herself to be calm as she rolled onto her back and carefully twisted, shimmied and worked her way through the turn and started to pull herself up into the upward traveling vent pipe.

She felt she must have climbed two stories till she came to where the vent opened up onto some sort of roof. The vent had a pointed cap to prevent rainwater from going down it, so she pushed it off and climbed out to the light of day. She made sure to replace the chimney cap. She made her way along the roof until she found a somewhat safe place to climb down to the street below.

She scrounged around until she found a discarded blanket scrap from behind a dumpster in an alley. She wrapped herself in it as best she could. With the soot on her face and hands, she figured she looked passable as a street person. She would draw at least a little less attention that way. She made her way along the backstreets with one overriding thought in mind, “Find Cooper.”