‘LEAVE HIM,’ screamed Lizzie, it was all she could do. The Serf took no notice, but the candelabra next to him seemed to. It flared in response to Lizzie’s command and fire leapt from it. Not an inferno, but enough for the Serf’s cloak to catch. The fire crept up the flank of the serf towards the arm clutching the boy whose breath was gone and whose life was soon to follow. Suddenly aware of the flames the Serf dropped the boy and reeled away slapping at its arm. It fell to the ground and wrenched the now blazing cloak off. A few of the crowd quickly pulled the unmoving boy to within their ranks. The alarm the Serf had displayed quickly faded as it got to its feet to re-join its master abandoning the pointless bout.
Robe, unaware of anything but his invocation, sank to his knees pulling the girl into a seated position. He wrenched her head to the side with one hand and pulled her arm wide with the other, opening her up to whatever was about to escape the prison of the mirror. Robe’s chant started again as he offered up his sacrifice, but his words could not be heard over the demon’s booming cry. The girl’s frantic scream was also now drowned out as a mouth appeared from the mist, black and fanged and it filled the mirror’s frame. Its great clawed hand reached through toward the helpless girl, the fingers dissolved into mist once again as they reached her, thin black tendrils curled themselves around her, and penetrated her nose and mouth. She stopped screaming almost instantly and new horrific noises could be heard from the mirror as terrible shapes appeared. The unmistakable beat of wings pounded the air behind the frame and a great beaked creature appeared, it hovered for a moment in the frame like a gothic painting, a black scaled humanoid body beneath a massive birdlike head. A high pitched squawk caused Lizzie to throw her hands protectively to her ears. The bird creature flew to the edge of the frame and became smoke in a burst. Still keeping its profile it entered the room. And then laughter, horrible childish cackling, erupted from the mirror. The din of it was so loud Lizzie expected another titan, but a small impish creature hauled itself up over the frame from somewhere below. It had the body of a muscular child and its two heads had Lizzie scrambling backwards in revulsion. Again childlike, the heads displayed wide fanged mouths with long thin tongues lashing from them. It walked on hands and feet and it sprung into the room becoming a pool of black smoke on the ground that shuttled forward toward a horrified crowd by the door. Robe stood examining the girl he had by the hair. There was no protest from her now. Her eyes were black pools and they stared up at their commander.
Lizzie looked around, for something, anything that could help. If she was responsible for the fire attack on the Serf, she had no idea how to repeat it, and so it could not be relied upon. Sully waved his hands at her pleading for her to stay still as the smoke form creatures were so far ignoring them. Lizzie stepped towards him, maddened by his cowardice and snatched his rod from him. An ornate silver eagle sat atop a small black wooden staff, there was enough silver in the eagle to give the rod some weight. With Robe’s focus devoted to the violation of the girl he did not notice Lizzie stepping onto the seven pointed star and launching the rod with all her might at the mirror and the quickly dissolving creatures. She expected the flamboyant stick to fly, barely noticed, through the gateway. She expected, if indeed her aim was true, to strike the demonic entities spilling in through the frame with as little impact as a fly off a windscreen, but the rod struck, and shattered glass. The roar of the demon’s collective ire was tremendous. Large sections of the mirror fell to the stone floor dividing further on impact. The smoke was gone in an instant.
‘Damnit, Liz. Can you refrain from meddling for one Goddamn second?’ yelled Robe turning to her, knowing exactly from whom the nuisance had come. The Serf stepped towards her and grabbed her by the shoulders holding her towards the approaching Robe.
‘You realise,’ he said infuriated, ‘that all you’ve achieved is to slow the process, don’t you? The size of the mirror doesn’t really matter.’ He was right, Lizzie watched as fresh tendrils rose from every piece of mirror which had landed reflective side up. This time they did not need Robe’s direction, they swept toward the door and the crowd looking for hosts.
‘Now watch, watch them come.’ Lizzie turned her head away refusing to be a witness but the Serf grabbed her by the hair and wrenched her head round, Lizzie cried out in pain. Robe slapped the Serf hard across the face. ‘I said don’t hurt her you pathetic creature.’ Lizzie felt the Serf’s grip loosen, it let one hand go and it reached for Robe. ‘What are you doing? Hold her,’ he yelled. The Serf’s hand returned to Lizzie.
The screams and shouts from the scattering students began to die off as one by one the mists overcame them.
‘You’re full of shit Robe, you know that don’t you?’ said Lizzie, desperately trying to find a stop to the madness. The protests from many within the crowd had now stopped, replaced by gurgling and choking.
‘Not now Liz,’ said Robe, exasperated.
‘You’re nothing but a bloody hypocrite. A sick fucking psychopathic one, but a hypocrite none the less.’ Robe turned to her shaking his head.
‘You’re making this so hard Liz, so hard not to hurt you, maybe I should give you up to them too? Would that make you happy?’ He pointed at the crowd, some of whom were slowly getting to their feet with blank expressionless faces. One boy turned his hands over examining them, as if for the first time, while a girl sat on her knees, an impossibly large smile growing on her face. She began snapping her head violently from side to side and the terrible laughter came again, this time from her.
‘Maybe you should,’ she said, ‘but you won’t; and that’s my point.’
‘Just let me work Liz won’t you please.’
‘You don’t practice what you preach Robe, haven’t you realised? It’s like what you were discussing with Sully that day in philosophy class, what was it? That “Will to Power” shit. I mean that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Putting yourself above all else in the pursuit of power. Abandoning compassion and sympathy?’ Robe said nothing, he just looked at her, but the Serf’s grip on her shoulder relaxed slightly. ‘But here I am Robe, I’ve been a pain in your arse from the very beginning, and what have you done about it? And now at the end, why am I not with them? Why am I standing here watching it all? Not just spared, but given a goddamned front row seat. It’s like your showing off for me Robe, don’t you see? You’ve abandoned nothing, you won’t hurt me, not really, but why?’
The Serf’s grip was all but gone, its hands merely rested on her shoulders.
‘Because we’re friends?’ said Lizzie. ‘Because you like me? You care about me?’ There was something in Robe’s face then, something she hadn’t really expected, a resignation perhaps, or some recognition, something had hit home. ‘Why Robe?’ she said softly now, ‘Because, you love me?’
The look he gave her then was anything but subtle, but what was it she thought, fear? Chagrin? The candles in the room reacted in kind, sparking back to their normal flame. The Serf jolted, some invisible manacle falling from him.
‘Is that really it Robe? You’re in love with me?’ said Lizzie incredulously.
‘Shut up, just shut up. And you, I told you to hold her, shut her up.’
But the Serf did not obey. It lurched forward, some remnant of Robe’s control resisting its advance. The students who had not yet been overcome by the mists were being set upon by those who had. Shrill screaming and defiant yells clashed as they were locked in combat.
‘But you never said anything Robe,’ said Lizzie, trying to keep her voice steady and calm, aware of the danger the students were in. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’
He ignored her, instead focussing on the oncoming Serf.
‘Get back you idiot, what are you doing, seize her.’ The mist strands were retreating, the Serf struggled forward; Robe’s control was quickly evaporating as his hubris haemorrhaged from him. The Serf’s movements slowly became free, and the possessed students had stopped attacking the others, they stood statuesque,
their focus now on Robe who backed towards the door and pulled on it only to realise it was his turn to find himself trapped. Part of Lizzie wanted to help him, and part just wanted to look away, in the end she could do neither, she stood and watched.
The Serf seized him by the throat and lifted him from the floor. Robe clung to the arm holding him and kicked. Sully sprang down from the altar sensing his moment, and searched through the parchments on the floor. He began to chant.
Lizzie barely heard the words, her thoughts had returned to the day they had discovered Robe’s body in the woods. She had been unable to go to Vic’s side as he knelt by his dead brother, while she had stood on the path and cried. What if she had been strong enough to go to him then? Would she have seen what Vic saw? What Robe wanted him to see? Or like in the photographs, would she have seen the body for what it truly was? How much heartache could have been avoided if she had been stronger?
She couldn’t bring herself to look at Robe’s dead body then, but she couldn’t stop herself watching him die now.
The candles flared brightly as Sully began his own incantation. The Serf dropped Robe who crumpled to the floor clutching his neck gulping air. The students were slowly coming to, as the strands of mist were being pulled increasing quickly back towards the mirror shards. Some unseen lasso pulled the Serf backward. Lizzie saw that the largest of the broken mirror fragments, barely a foot wide, was aglow, dust and the remaining mist in the room was being sucked into it as Sully performed the banishing rite from the third scroll.
The Serf’s greatest desire was to be free of the bonds of flesh and to leave this plane, but it resisted the pull for one other desire. With great strength it lurched forward once more grabbing Robe by the arm. A great wind cycloned through the chamber. The students anchored themselves together and Lizzie tucked her arm under the stone altar. Sully’s robes billowed around him but he was unmoved, he yelled the words from the parchment. The Serf, with a screaming Robe in tow, accepted the pull of the ritual and allowed itself to be hauled backwards towards the mirror fragment, now a gateway. At the edge of the portal the body of Todd stopped, no longer compelled, a dark shadow, twice the size of its host, was being sucked from Todd’s bones. A long, dark, and translucent arm still clung to Robe as it was drawn down through the mirror hole; Todd’s body fell backwards to the floor. Robe’s arm was pulled through, but the hole was not wide enough for his shoulders. His arm disappeared and he screamed in agony while he frantically slapped the floor with his free hand trying to find some purchase. He grunted as he managed to pull himself a few inches up before being slammed back to the ground, the wind rushed through the gaps around the hole.
Robe looked up at Lizzie, she could not tell if the look was one of regret, sorrow, or just defeat, but he was no longer screaming. He closed his eyes as a sickening crunch echoed through the room, Robe’s broken body was dragged through, his legs slapped the edge of the hole as the Serf took him.
The rush of air slowly ceased, the candle flames receded and the glass portal became glass once more. One student made a run for the door finding it free and the rest quickly followed helping the boy the Serf had choked who was, at least, on his feet. Sully was on the floor telling a semi-conscious Todd not to move.
Twenty Four
Lizzie sat, sniffing the air, trying to place the faint smell. Sully closed the door of his office and took his seat behind the desk.
‘It’s single malt, fifteen years,’ he said.
‘What is?’
‘The smell, it’s single malt, of which I suspect you owe me a bottle,’ he said giving her a wink.
‘Ah. Yes, sorry about that, it was an accident.’
‘Don’t worry about it. Thanks for coming in to see me. I would have come to see you, but I didn’t want to put you in a position; I don’t know how much you’ve told your aunt, or how much you want her to know. I wouldn’t have blamed you in the slightest if you hadn’t come, but there are some things I think we need to discuss.’
‘You mean like whether or not I might go to the police?’ Sully smiled, he knew he could rely on her to cut to the chase.
‘Amongst other things, but yes. Also I wanted to give you this.’ Sully went into his desk drawer and retrieved a white envelope.’
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘It’s what I wanted to see you about when I spoke to you in the hospital. I wanted to get your permission, but in the end I just went ahead.’
‘Went ahead with what?’
‘It should be self-explanatory. Anyway how are you?’
‘I’m fine,’ said Lizzie, only half paying attention to him, as she ripped the corner seal of the envelope.
‘Just pop it in your bag Lizzie, open it when you get home. I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to speak to you properly since all the trouble, but I wanted to let the dust settle. So you are well?’
‘I am,’ Sully gave her a suspicious look. ‘Honestly, I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I don’t suppose I’ll ever manage to get some images out of my head, but the fact that I know it’s over, really over means I’m able to, I don’t know, sort of leave it all behind now. I know that sounds strange considering what happened, but somehow I find it easier to deal with this than the mystery of Robe’s death, his first one I mean.’
‘It’s not that strange,’ said Sully, ‘I think I know what you mean. I wanted, if you like, to try to answer any questions you might have. I think that’s only fair after what you’ve been through.’
Lizzie sat forward in her chair thinking.
‘You know, I probably have a hundred questions, a thousand maybe, but right now I can’t think of any. Well, perhaps just one. When I think about that night in the library one thing confuses me, what exactly happened to Robe? Why did that thing, whatever it was that was in Todd, attack him?’
‘Actually I had wondered if you knew just how brilliant you were that night,’ said Sully, ‘whether or not you were aware of how important your actions were.’ She gave herself a moment to try to work it out.
‘All I know is the more I challenged Robe on his bullshit the less control over things he seemed to have, so I just kept pushing him. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was just desperate, clutching at anything.’
‘Well you’re right, more specifically, now how do I explain it? It revolves around commitment and confidence. It’s hard to put into words, but basically Robert’s control of his servant creature, The Serf as he called it, was based on his ideals of full commitment to his cause, this “Will to Power” concept. Whether or not he actually needed to commit to this to control the creature is unclear, but what is certain is that he believed he did. And when you penetrated that belief it crumbled, along with his control.
You see the pentagrams, the cloaks, the ceremony of the whole ritual thing, isn’t, in itself, necessary to achieve results, but it all serves to focus people into what they’re doing, it unites and commits them.’
‘The right words, in the right order, with the right conviction?’ said Lizzie using Void’s words.
‘Exactly, and when you took away Robert’s conviction he was left with an extremely pissed off demon he could no longer command.’
‘That’s what The Serf was?’
‘I believe so yes, using the first scroll he was able to bring it through from its own realm, but with the three scrolls united he was able to tap into something far deeper, far more dangerous.’
‘The black creature and the others. What are they?’
‘I don’t know for certain, but from the names he spoke during his summoning I think they were some of the greater demons, things so old and evil it would have been the end of us all. But for your intervention Lizzie, I can only guess at the horror. So I will always be more grateful to you than I could ever hope to express.’ Lizzie blushed.
‘Hey I was just trying to save my own ass,’ she said, ‘you just happened to be in the room. So, the other people there that night, what’s happ
ened to them?’
‘I’m still working my way round them, to see what their intentions are. Some of them were pretty shaken up and I’m not sure if they intend to talk to third parties about what happened. We’re obviously concerned about a media backlash as well as any legal difficulties. That said Lizzie, you are perfectly entitled to do as you please, the same has been said to all those present that night.’
‘By “we” do you mean the university or The Council? Or are they one and the same?’
‘Well yes, that’s a good question, and I know Frank has discussed some of it with you but I’m not sure just how much he explained?’
‘Not much really,’ she said, ‘I sort of thought that you were The Council, but now I’m not so sure.’
‘Oh no, the Esoteric Council goes much further than me. What you saw was just a branch of a much larger tree. I won’t say too much right now but think of the Council as just that, a parochial little council, a small cog in a system that stretches eventually to the highest levels.’
‘Really? Why?’
‘It’s complicated,’ Sully paused, his eyes searched the ceiling while he gathered the words. ‘These elemental forces you were witness to, and the darker element we all nearly succumbed to, are well documented through history albeit in antiquated texts and have had little testing by modern standards. The thing is this… power, for want of a better expression comes and goes.’
‘Yeah Void said something about how it ebbs and flows, and that it’s currently strong?’
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