by W A Rowland
William Rowland
Dire Symbols
The Core Stone: Book 1
Copyright © 2019 by William Rowland
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
First edition
Cover art by OnceUponADayDreamer
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
Find out more at reedsy.com
FOR MY WIFE, SHELBY.
THANKS FOR INDULGING MY CRAZY.
There is no greater loss,
than to loose what could have been.
There is no greater gain,
than to realize what may be.
There is no greater potential,
than what is found inside the human soul
-Unknown
Contents
Foreword
A MOON WITH A VIEW
ANOTHER DREADFUL DAY
A STRANGE MEETING
GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF
WALKABOUT
A STROLL THROUGH THE PARK
NEW FRIENDS
ACROTERION
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
PAIN AND POWER
BEST LAID PLANS
OF WOLVES AND MEN
REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD
THERAPY
HANDS-ON INVESTIGATION
JOYRIDE
FUTURE PERFECT FUTURE
SEARCH AND RESCUE
AN UNUSUAL ARRANGEMENT
UNIONS AND REUNIONS
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
SECRETS AND SEPULCRES
SHADOWHUNTER
BASTET, DAUGHTER OF RA
DEMONS AND DESIRE
NARROW ESCAPES
ANCHOR FOR SOULS
MOVING DOWN THE LINE
REQUIEM
EPILOGUE
About the Author
Also by William Rowland
Foreword
Two years and a slew of medical issue stood in the way of this book, but through frustration, tears and the efforts of several dedicated editors, it is finally here! I’m so excited to be able to finally share this story with everyone, and hope that you will find as much meaning in reading it, as I found in its writing.
A MOON WITH A VIEW
Night had settled over the frozen forest, shadows of the trees creeping slowly across the underbrush. The full moon was lazily making its way through the winter sky of the western continent and silence reigned over the scene, powerful and deep. It was the kind of silence that weighed on the souls of mortals; the kind of silence that whispered to them of terrible things to come. But beneath the surface, the moon saw the silence broken. The world was about to end!
The world below exploded in a blast of power and energy as thirteen beings twisted the laws of the physical world to their will. Battle was met as the will of one collided with the power of the many. In a few short moments, several of the beings were snuffed from existence; their souls pulled into the void of the chamber in which they fought. The place in which they fought was one of power, a connecting point for the worlds; somewhere dangerous to tread, even for the moon high above. It felt the world shudder as they drew on powers not meant for mortals to access. Powers long since locked away by the most ancient of their kind. Powers with the potential to rip the world asunder and then piece it back together, bit by bit. The beings in the chamber didn’t even know yet the depth of the well from which they were drawing their strength. They didn’t know that with each second spent inside that place, they grew more and more drunk with their own ability. Soon, they would be totally lost, just like the one they fought.
The moon watched with interest as the seven of the remaining beings fought with the eighth, the pure power that this one controlled an order of magnitude above the might of any one of its foes. But even with all of its stolen power, that individual was overcome by the combined onslaught of its enemies. And as it fell, it too dissolved away into the void.
The moon was impressed; this was the best entertainment it had seen in many ages. Would there be more? It watched as the seven remaining beings exited the chamber reluctantly. If these had been normal mortals, the moon would have looked at their auras and seen the struggle they faced within. The blue of worry, the green of anger, or the bright red of lust as the immense power of the anchor called to them. Come. Drink. Rule. But the beings below were not the normal mortals that so heavily populated the world; they were the special ones. The silver ones.
Demigods, the mortals called them. But the moon knew the sordid tales of their creation. It knew the purpose they were given, and it knew the failure that often came when a single human soul was given power over others. So, would these seven give in like the others had? The moon watched with anticipation, and as it looked on, six more auras blinked out of existence, till only one remained. There it was, another failure, another soul given to the lust for power. Then something curious happened. The door sealed shut. The demigod walked away. And the moon pondered what it had just witnessed as the gas lamps of the nearby town lit, and the mortals walked from building to building. The world wouldn’t end today.
ANOTHER DREADFUL DAY
Liam Douglas rode the MTA blue line, making his way, once again, towards the daily drudgery that was his job. He had been an “executive assistant” for one of the largest law firms in the city for almost three months now after graduating college in May. He had originally thought, when applying for the position, that he’d be assisting with case file organization and scheduling meetings. But as it turned out, the particular executive he was assigned to, Jacob Nelson, already had an assistant for those particular tasks, which meant Liam was the “Other assistant.” He’d heard about that particular job from many of his professors. He was the assistant that got the crap jobs.
The first assistant was a pretty, redheaded woman named Jessica, and Liam despised her. It wasn’t that she was a woman or that she had beaten him out for the job he actually wanted. To the contrary, Liam believed that everything should be based on merit, and in fact knew of several women from his pre-law courses that would be better than him at the same job. Heck, he knew several paralegals in the very same office that would have been better than him at the job had the company actually looked internally to fill the junior partner’s assistant position.
Technically, he and Jessica occupied equal positions in the company hierarchy and so they should be doing equal work, but when Jessica wasn’t in conference with Mr. Nelson taking notes, one of the few things she actually did well, she lounged at her desk watching videos online or checking her multiple social media accounts. When something didn’t get done, Mr. Nelson brushed it aside as if it wasn’t Jessica’s fault, which usually meant that Liam got stuck with the blame as he was supposed to “pick up the slack.” She was also an absolute horror to deal with and Liam noticed very quickly that everyone in the office steered clear of Jessica when at all possible.
She belittled, insulted, and bullied everyone that wasn’t one of the lawyers or above her in the company hierarchy.
Liam wondered, during his first days, why nobody ever brought it up with management, and was debating doing just that until one of the paralegals tipped him off that the last person to complain about Jessica’s behavior had been summarily dismissed without reason, which the company could do since they were lawyers, and nobody was stupid enough to try to take them to court for wrongful dismissal. The main thing that mattered to Liam after that was Jessica had somehow made herself untouchable, and she knew it along with everyone else. This also indicated to Liam that she was much smarter than she acted, and had chosen to behave in this way, which only infuriated him even more.
So, yes, Liam was bitter from the start, very much so. Liam was relegated to office clean-up, email filtering, and coffee runs essentially, when not finishing tasks that had been given to Jessica to do. He had fumed for a few weeks at how she had gotten the case assistant position over him, and was essentially getting paid to do next to nothing. But as he was emptying the trash in Mr. Nelson’s office during his third week, he noticed a used condom wrapped in a paper towel. Upon closer inspection, there were quite a lot of “paper towels” in the boss’s trash. His brain put two and two together and suddenly it all made sense.
The first thing that Liam, and really anybody, had noticed about Jessica was that she was gorgeous. She had apparently decided that leveraging her “assets,” as it were, to her advantage was a more acceptable way to advance in the company than by actually working hard. Sadly, it seemed to have worked. She had bright red, curly, shoulder-length hair that bounced as she walked. Her often tight dresses and pencil skirts showed off her butt and lean legs, and she usually wore tops that looked to be a size too small, as the buttons were strained to breaking by her bust. She had a cute face that looked almost innocent, had it not been attached to the rest of her, and her voice was a sultry alto that almost always sounded at the level of a whisper. Liam despised her.
Assuming that her plan had been to sleep her way to the top, she had gotten as far as a junior partner in the firm. However, a quick glimpse at her personnel file, one of the perks of having executive assistant access, showed that she’d been in the position for over a year. Apparently, she had gotten stuck working for Jacob, either because she couldn’t seduce someone higher or because she really liked working for Jacob. Liam suspected it was the former rather than the latter, as Jacob wasn’t exactly a stud. Standing 5’9” and roughly 275 pounds, Jacob Nelson was rotund. He had a terrible temper and liked to berate the staff for perceived failures before even finding out the facts. Liam could only guess that in Jacob’s eyes, everyone there was disposable, probably even Jessica. In fact, it was this way with most of the junior and senior partners at the firm. The big-wigs ran the staff like a chain gang. Long nights and weekends were expected, and resignations were an almost daily occurrence, not that the folks at the top ever felt it. They would just pull up some sap from the junior partner teams and that junior partner would then pull someone from the general staff or hire an outsider like Liam as new blood. The staff position would be filled inside of two days and the cycle would begin again.
Yes, Liam hated his job. Though everything wasn’t all bad. In his short time at the firm, he’d had contact with the majority of the office staff, and aside from Jessica and the partners, the majority of the office staff were decent people just trying to survive the meat grinder that was Madison & Cork, Attorneys at Law. He’d even gotten to know two of the paralegals from the general staff fairly well as they all tended to go to the same coffee shop for lunch.
It had only taken a week for Liam to decide that he liked being around Katheryn Wells and Richard Thompson, as they shared many of the same goals and interests, and had been hired fairly close to one another, with them filling vacancies in the general staff. In the few months preceding, the three would often go have a beer after work or see a movie together all the while openly sharing their dislike of the terrible office dynamics in which they were forced to work.
The three had disliked the atmosphere so much that they had whimsically discussed quitting together once or twice, though the idea had always fallen flat as they each admitted to needing the job for their own reasons. Kat had wanted it as a resume builder to springboard her once she finished her graduate degree, which Liam still didn’t know how she found time for, and Rich had just wanted a job to pay for his cost of living and old movie addiction. Rich and Kat had even been there for Liam when he’d caught his ex-girlfriend cheating on him with his neighbor across the hall. Liam and Rich had also been there for Kat when her boyfriend dumped her for being too busy. And Kat and Liam had been there for Rich when one of his favorite actors had died. Of anyone in the city, they were the closest thing to friends that Liam had.
Rich was dark skinned, 5’10” and a few pounds overweight. Years of studying and desk work had taken their toll on Rich just like almost everyone else and he habitually complained of back pain and needing to work out more, without actually working out more. He usually wore a button down and slacks to the office with a solid colored tie, though Liam knew that Rich preferred a more comfortable wardrobe.
Often when they would hang out, Rich would show up in sweatpants or loose-fitting cargo pants and a T-shirt, not caring for fashion or normal social convention. Once, Rich had even arrived in a very loud Hawaiian shirt and a kilt to the bar one night, claiming that he had never been more comfortable in his entire life. He only begrudgingly went home and changed after Kat had threatened to leave rather than be seen with him.
Liam was fairly sure that if there wasn’t a dress code at the office, Rich would show up to work in his pajamas without a second thought. His hobbies included collecting comic books and doing running commentaries on terrible movies. Often, Liam and Kat had been on the receiving end of the outrageous tirades during Rich’s famed “Bad Movie Nights,” and many laughs were shared between the three of them. Rich was the obvious jokester of the group and had, more than once, sent Kat or Liam into fits of laughter through his antics.
In contrast to Rich, Kat was prim, proper, and altogether awesome. She was 5’5” with tan skin, brown hair, and a slim frame, having avoided the usual office weight gain. She was pretty in her own right and many a time, either Rich or Liam had posed as her boyfriend to deter the advances of inebriated bar goers. Of the three of them, she was the health nut and was not afraid to push her life decisions onto Liam and Rich, espousing something called “kale” as the ultimate super food. She was also a huge hypocrite in this area, as she’d be berating them for eating a cheeseburger one day and be munching on a piece of pie the next. She loved to read fiction, shop, and listen to death metal.
Liam had once made the mistake of asking Kat why she enjoyed the loud, screaming music, as he and Rich were then treated to an hour and a half of Kat talking non-stop about which bands were the best, why the screaming was cathartic, and her teenage crush on the lead singer of Gojira. They learned two things that day: one, their normally calm, composed friend could be very enthusiastic and two, to never ask her about music again. On top of everything, Kat was actually a very kind and caring person, if just a bit crazy underneath it all.
Rounding out the trio was Liam. 6’0” and fair-skinned, he had an average build, short dark hair, decent facial features, and a little muscle from his daily five-minute abs workout. Liam was lean, bordering on lanky and had always had an affinity for tripping over his own feet. His ex-girlfriend had said that his eyes were his best feature, as they were an odd shade of bluish-green and changed ever so slightly as you looked into them. Liam didn’t know about all of that now that he and Anna had broken up, but he’d always clung to the idea that his eyes made him unique, and to date, he hadn’t met anyone with similar ones.
He also really wished he could move, as Anna was now living in the apartment across the hall, but that was impossible for the same reason he was picking up t
rash and sorting emails for Jacob Nelson: money. True, Liam had been accepted to a graduate law school program, but with student loans from undergrad and an abysmal credit score, thanks to poor choices earlier in his life, he couldn’t afford more.
So, Liam’s life currently consisted of going to work, paying rent, eating, and sleeping. Rinse and repeat. It left much to be desired, but at least he wasn’t on the street and he did get paid a living wage for his work, if barely. Only another few months of sparse living and, hopefully, he could finally start looking for somewhere nicer to live and reapply to law school. A few more months.
“Shit,” Liam groaned at the thought of being in this hell for a few more months as he exited the bus in front of the office building of Madison and Cork, Attorneys at Law As he entered the offices, he noticed something felt different. The whole ambiance of the outer office felt…. dark. Liam looked at the receptionist, a nice lady in her 60s, and noticed that her usual smile was missing.
“Hey Sharon, is everything ok?” he asked quietly.
“Ohh, it’s terrible, Mr. Douglass, just terrible….” Her voice hinted at barely restrained tears.
“What’s terrible, Sharon? What happened?” he asked.
“Mr. Nelson… he’s dead.”
Liam froze. Jacob was dead? The receptionist burst into tears then and Liam patted her on the shoulder a couple of times trying to comfort her. If Jacob is dead… that means… Liam’s mind ran through the implications of the event, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit lighter. His dying, though morbid, meant that Liam would most likely be moved to a different partner’s staff. He may finally be able to get away from Jessica and actually do what he was trained to do.
He handed Sharon a box of tissues from the reception desk and quickly made his way into the office. Inside, he found a somber atmosphere of people quietly picking away at their keyboards. The usual office banter was gone and more than a few wet eyes could be seen. These weren’t for any love for Mr. Nelson, Liam knew, but probably from people getting yelled at for daring to talk and not respecting the dead or some such BS that the office managers had been told to enforce.