by Avell Kro
“Look right here in Dr. Melbourne’s 'Journal of West Indies Pagan Practices and Incantations' he
interviewed a Voodoo Hougan Priest that claimed to use such an apparatus to absorb the spirit out
of an individual and trap it in a gourd."
“Imagine your soul sputtering around in a gourd. How crude is that?” Preston said in an English
inflection.
Rose picked up her glass of juice and said “to keeping our souls out of gourds”
Preston clinked her glass and took another swig. Rose followed suit.
“What were you working on before I came in for your help?”
A befuddled Preston followed rose’s gaze to the tomes on the floor. “Oh, that I need to get free
from an Iz Hauwl labyrinth on the fourteenth astral plane I am researching how to construct the
labyrinth hoping that it leads to me finding weaknesses in an existing one," Preston smiled at his
own ingenuity.
Rose directed him back to her pressing matter the object that killed Chilton “I see. Does the book
there tell you what the priest does with the soul?” He looked back to Melbourne's Journal and read
“soul witchery by a Hougan can either enslave the target soul or imbue it unto another. You say
you found this here in London?”
“I did. I was asked to consult on a case of a wealthy Englishman who was found dead. The body
drained of al spiritual energy to the point the physical body withered and mummified.” said Rose,
reading over Preston’s shoulder to see if she could pick anything up, for once it was a book written
in English.
“Voodooism is interesting because it is influenced by western religion, but the manipulation of the
arcane is primal. Very primitive, a derivative of Azande Witchcraft and like all witchcraft and
shamanism rudimentary in understanding the metaphysics, but powerful in manipulating the raw
energy,” said Preston.
Rose sensed Preston’s intellect pushing through, “What could a witch doctor, or what did you call it
a Hou.”
“Hougan, it’s a Voodoo term for a high level practitioner. We can assume this person is proficient.”
“Can you figure out what they are doing with the souls?”
“That may be a stretch to determine the purpose. What I can say is your essence, your soul is your
being beyond the me and I of the material world. It attaches to a mortal form until death. Some of
us learn how to detach and return; that is projection. If you can tap into the soul of another, you
can control the mortal form, transfer the spectral form, or convert the soul essence to the raw
energy of the aether, there is a good description in the 'Hygromanteia', or 'The Magical Treatise of
Solomon' Preston spun in his swiveled chair and grabbed a book from the shelf immediately
behind where he sat “I keep a copy close at hand as it’s such a fine reference guide.” He set the
book down and flipped through the pages then stopped as if he had lost his train of thought.
Preston looked up from the book with a bewildered look.
“Rose what are you doing here?”
“Preston?”
“Yes… Oh dear have I been away again?”
Wednesday the 9th of June
9:00 AM Chilton House
Mr. Sims had Wire-typed Dolly that items were missing from the vault.
Dolly returned to Chilton House with the local London sergeant. It was agreed that Dolly would
take the lead on the inquiry.
Dolly found himself in the Board Room at Chilton House again, this time interviewing each of the
partners.
At this moment attending were Mr. Sims, and the Partners Owens and Lester Chilton, Sir Francis’s
eldest heir. It would be one of many interviews today to gather statements and substantiate claims.
“In the wire-type Mr. Sims sent on June 8th, it was noted that an inventory was taken of the vault
and contents were missing,” began Dolly.
“I had each partner review what contents they had in storage along with items that were in trust
to the firm and kept in the partner strong room. While I could not be certain what else may be
missing there was…”
Lester, interrupted Sims. “Get to the point man. The detective does not require your foppery he
demands answers,” Dolly was thinking what the new baronet said out loud.
Lester took over from Sims. “Twenty Thousand pounds’ sterling of gold guineas are gone. My
father raised funds for the Duke of Wellington’s expedition into the Pyrenees in 1812. The Crown
floated bonds to pay the troops, and we managed the syndication of the bonds. Our fee was five
thousand pounds’ sterling, and a condition was that payment be in the same way as payment for
the troops, gold coins. The value of the gold has increased to be worth twenty-thousand pounds at
current gold prices. That is what was plundered.”
Dol y was struggling to imagine how much gold that was. “Is it common practice to hold that much
currency?”
Lester smirked while taking the folder from Sims and pushing to the side of the table Dolly sat.
“Detective, Chilton House is the preeminent merchant bank in the world. That is what we keep in
the partner’s vault. Our other strong room is four times the capacity and hold much more cash
and gold.”
Dolly opened the binder and thumbed through the accounts. Some of the items he did not
recognize, but of the ones he knew and could postulate the value. He was gob smacked by the
fortune in that room. “What was lifted from the smaller lock box?”
“The Gun,” replied Lester. “My dad kept the pepper box in there in the event he was forced to
open the vault and could turn the pistol on his assailants.”
“Who knew about the pistol?” Dolly asked.
Lester, Owens and Sims looked at each other, Owens spoke up “I would think he told every partner.
It was your admission into the inner circle of the partnership when you were granted space in the
partner’s strong room. Sir Francis and I did the honors of teaching a new partner the
combination. Francis would go to that drawer and show them the gun and proclaim that he would
go down shooting before he would let burglars steal from Chilton House.”
“How much would all the gold weigh?” Dolly finally asked.
“Around four hundred pounds. The gold was packed in ten canvas coin bags.” answered Lester.
“So, several trips or several men.” Dolly pondered aloud, “and nothing else was missing?”
“That is what was shared with me, Detective,” replied Sims. Dolly stared at Lester first then made
eye contact with Owens and Sims. “If there was anything else that went amiss, either intimate or
something that you or a client may have that was incriminating or humiliating I need to know. Let
all the partners know and if there is something, they can come in confidence.”
Lester queried, “Detective are you suggesting any of our partners are blackmailers?”
"Mr. Chilton, I have your father’s murder to solve. I will collect the evidence to convict the murder
and send them to the gallows. Nine other detectives and I must deal with the whole of London.
Now you're fortunate to have powerful associates that will keep this case a priority because I can
tel you from experience, there will be ten more murders on my desk before this one is closed.
Now I suspect that your father was murdered to cover up who took the gold. It is a substantial
fortune and
gold can be melted and struck as bullion and moved to the continent or abroad. If it’s
that simple fine, but I never seem to get the simple ones, and I have questions that are hounding
me. Things just are not adding up.
For example, who knows about this gold? It’s been in your custody for what, forty-seven years?
Has it always been in those strong boxes and in those bags or did Sir Francis move it or have an
occasion to talk about his bags of gold in the safe?
The thieves knew which boxes to open and never had and had no intent in any of the other
boxes.” Dolly leaned back to read the paper in front of him, “such as box 116 with two hundred
five hundred pound banknotes. I bet that could fit in just one of those canvas bags. Why this vault
and not the other one that you say has more cash in it? Could the robbers force your father to
open that vault?”
“No, he only has one combination the vault managers also have to enter a combination,” replied
Sims.
Interesting, so they either knew that or they were specifically looking to only access the partner’s
vault, and that brings me back to how I may have impugned your character. I need to know if
there were compromising documents to be certain that the Gold isn’t a red herring for me to
chase. If there were documents that were held in there of the type I mentioned then that is the motive not the gold.
“So I get to spend all day going through your employment rolls and interviewing your staff,
meaning I’ll be here for quite some time and if you think of anything, please come back and let me
know,” said Dolly.
“Are you done with us Detective?” asked Owens.
“Thank you for your cooperation. Can I see the vault managers next?” Sims answered I will have
him come up. The three men got up and left the board room.
As Lester and Sims left the board room, Sims followed Lester into his office.
“What is it Sims?”
Sims closed the door and spoke in a hushed tone. “Sir, I suggest you go out to the Manor for a few
days of rest and contemplation.”
“What are you talking about man? I have made arrangements for my father’s service here and
must pick up his portfolio of business before the Rothchilds or Peabody Morgan stick their noses
in the trough.”
“The floor safe in the shooting lodge, Sir that is where your father kept the black files. I was not
entrusted with the combination, but he directed me when you took over you should know about
those files.”
Lester sat down, exhaling. “Black files what are you on about, Sims he never told me of the strong
box. I don’t know the combination or its whereabouts.”
“Maybe something will come to you, something he shared so you could open the safe. Sir, I hope
that you are not so naive to think that given the influence of this firm we wouldn’t have access to
other’s secrets.”
“Sims I’m not a fool,” returned Lester. He recognized that his enterprise had influence and
exposure to state and personal secrets. He certainly couldn’t imagine that his father would use
someone's secrets to extort them.
Sims left the office. He wanted to see what was in the black files and how he might employ them.
More so he now realized from Lester’s reaction that he was not party to his father’s treachery.
* * *
Wednesday June 9th, 1858 10:00 AM Gilchrist Manor
Preston lay in the tub. Rose sponged his back. She remained overnight to nurse Preston back to
this world.
Preston didn’t talk much after these episodes, it took all his faculties to stay focused and present or he would drift off and Azul would be return. He fixed on his breathing, the sensation of the sponge
on his neck and the water streaking down his back.
Preston’s thoughts strayed again until he realized Rose caught him gazing at the looking-glass on
the wall above the sink.
“What are you staring at?” Rose inquired. He had been gazing at her image in the mirror. She was
in a chiffon nightgown and he could see the silhouette of her athletic body and the black markings
of glyphs she had tattooed on her skin as wards.
“The mirror. Sometimes when I go away. When I accept his power and knowledge, I no longer see
light reflected in this world but the reflection of the spectral from other planes of reality on the
surface of mirrors.” Preston finished and had a thought, just before it flew into his conscious mind
he had to act. Preston twisted to look at Rose. Splashing her with water making the night gown
see through and clinging to her breasts.
“Rose, Sanctuary.”
She had only moments to act as everything Preston experienced or thought would likely be
perceived by Azul and potentially used against them. Rose rushed out of the lavatory.
Preston focused his mind on the process of astral projection and the use of a gemulet as an astral
sanctuary. By thinking through the theory and practice he would push out the thoughts he had to
share with rose and keep them from his dark passenger, Azul.
He worked through the steps to create an Aetherial Sanctuary. First you required a gemulet struck
in a precious metal enclosing an aether stone or crystal with containing eldritch gas this would
create a tiny bubble of the Aether to structure the sanctuary, for the users meet in, away from the
mortal world but paradoxically still here. Rose had created one under Preston’s instruction a few
years ago. Next you needed a pool of water. The gemulet would be submerged in the water and the
travelers would then immerse a part of themselves in the water. Tinctures would be added to
improve conductivity of the spirit through the water to the gemulet, then you would need to recite
the incantation.
The words were available in several tomes, Liber Loagaeth, the Book of Soyga, the Fourth Book of
Occult Philosophy, or the Hygromanteia. The incantation was fairly pedestrian the final piece was
to make a secondary connection outside of the fluid. The ritual would allow the practitioners to
project their spiritual forms into the Aether to slip between the threads of this material world to
another dimension. Variations of this were used for hundreds of years, by just about every
metaphysical sect as a way to commune across time and space.
What Preston and Rose were about to do was entry level astral projection where their spiritual
essence; the true beings they were beyond the concepts of the I, would go to a secure location. A
place where Preston could speak freely to Rose without Azul reading his mind.
Rose scrambled back to the tub. Preston was gesturing her to go quicker with his hands.
Rose dropped her equipment belt to the floor to have two hands to open the box it was a mitered puzzle box and required multiple movements to twist, turn and open sides before the locked
chamber opened to free the gemulet. The circular metal object was five inches in diameter with
glyphs on both sides and a crystal in the center. That crystal was an interdimensional safe room.
Rose threw the object in the tub where it sank to the bottom.
Unclasping the latches on her roll she drew out two tinctures. confirmed the substances of the
vials, then dumped both in the tub. It was a lot of water; the more tincture was better.
Preston reached into the water to blend the eldritch soup while Rose stepped into the tub with
him. Sta
nding in the water that went up about mid shin on Preston they embraced to make the
secondary connection and murmured the enchantment into each other's ear.
Preston was in the library at Cambridge standing in front of Rose. Rose was in the garden of her
childhood home with Preston since neither had gone to the trouble of building a construct within
the gemulet they would both perceive the space in their own way. Most practitioners craft a
rooms or private space where they would reside during the projection. Both were physically still
in Preston’s home standing in tepid bath water, but they had projected into the astral nexus point
in the crystal and through the nexus point to another dimension. Now what they discussed would
not be available to Azul Hassan.
Preston spoke “You delivered the missing piece last night. The Mumbo priest has a ritual to slave a
soul to an object. We can use that to help me,”
"Whoever this person is they are a murderer and being pursued by me and the metropolitan
police,” said Rose.
"The cops will never find the witch doctor without your help," replied Preston, "Find the Hougan and see if a bargain can be struck, you're a clever girl Rose see if you can barter services, or pinch
the ritual. Then next time Ol Hasan sneaks out you can suck him out.”
"I must get back to London,” said Rose as she thought about how she might find the Voodooist and
negotiate a deal to learn a sacred ritual.
Preston steppe
mean betrayal of Azul and cost us some of my capacity to decipher and understand the works of
Arcana," mused Preston.
“How is stopping a dead Sufi Mystic from occupying your body treachery, He deceived you if you
have forgotten?” said Rose.
It was in the library at Cambridge where Preston found the journals of Azul bin Hassan Tazziz
faroq al Jani Djin. He translated the works, captivated by the mystic's accounts of traveling to new
planes of reality through astral projection. Preston thought the book to be imagination; a work of
fiction, but shortly he became conscious of a spirit guide. Azul himself. It began as a thought, then
a voice, Preston now had him in his mind. He was certain he was going mad, not that he
hallucinated but he heard the voice, then there was a trickling in of wisdom from beyond his