Spring Showers Box-set

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