Spring Showers Box-set

by Avell Kro

  to provided relief from the humidity, above her head a belt drive ceiling fan churned the air with

  no affect.

  Hernando Moya finished signing the papers and he handed them back to the solicitor.

  The Solicitor notarized the papers. “Don Hernando, that is the last of the documents you wanted

  drawn up.” Said the Lawyer. He kept looking at Angelica, coveting her beauty. He likely assumed

  she was the house help for Don Hernando. Angelica met his gaze then looked back to her

  needlepoint.

  “Please keep a copy and send the original notarized and witnessed last will and testament to the

  London and New York office of Chilton, Chilton, Owens and Strathmore.” said Don Hernando

  without emotion.

  “Very well,” said the solicitor collecting the documents putting them in a folio, then into his

  briefcase.

  “Watson will show you out” Don Hernando rang a bell and the house man came into the office.

  “Yes, Don Hernando” said the Butler.

  “Show Mr. Foubert out, Watson”

  “Yes, Don Hernando” Watson looked in Angelica’s direction and gave a slight bow, not too much to

  be noticed by Moya or Foubert but he wanted to be certain Angelica to know the respect he had

  for her. Watson had been with the house since it was under Don Ernesto and Angelica used to play

  here as a little girl. Watson was now a free man, liberated by the French Government’s decree and

  Angelica had returned to her home as the Witch Queen of Haiti.

  The two men left. Only Angelica and Don Hernando were in the room. She dropped her

  needlepoint to the floor and underneath the fabric was the voodoo fetish of Don Hernando she was

  using to control him. She walked over to him pricked, his index finger with a pin and used the

  blood to draw a mouth on the doll. He had control of his mouth again. “You won’t get away with this, the trustee will see through those forgeries.”

  Hernando, those documents are originals with your signature. They are now your last will and

  testament and precede these.” She gloated while taking the old will off his desk. At that moment,

  she took a match from his cigar box, struck it and lit the papers on fire, throwing them at the foot

  of the curtains.

  “The die is cast my brother. You chose to go against our father’s wishes, you chose to treat me and

  my mother as slaves. I am resetting the scales.”

  “You don’t understand, you savage witch. There is a legal system to be contended with, the

  institutions handling these affairs will see right through this farce”

  “Hernando, it is that very legal system that I plan to wield against you far more easily than the

  magic I just used to draft up those papers.” It felt to Rose as if it was her saying the words, but it

  was indeed Angelica. This had already happened.

  “Come brother, come out from behind your big desk and kneel before me.” The curtains began to

  smolder and flame from the burning document.

  Hernando gave every effort to resist, he was sweating and physically struggling against himself.

  His feet moved as if he wore shoes of lead. Hernando whelped in pain, but slowly moved closer to

  Angelica as she re-arranged pins in the cloth doll.

  Rose felt the satisfaction of wielding power over this man who had started a string of horrors.

  First, when her brother showed up for the funeral she and her mother were locked away in their

  rooms, she never was given the chance for a proper goodbye. When the doors opened days later,

  slavers came and took her and her mother away as slaves. Rose was plunged into the fear and

  pain of Angelica’s two years as a slave; cutting sugar cane in the mosquito infested fields, living in

  endless fear and abuse. The mix of her memories Angelica’s memories and the experience of the

  events she was witnessing gave Rose a sick feeling of uncertainty and anxiety, unsure what was

  her what was Angelica what was now and what was then. She wondered if this was how Preston

  felt during his possessions.

  “Unbutton your shirt. Take it off,” ordered Angelica.

  Don Hernando unbuttoned his vest, shirt cuffs and shirt as commanded. He threw the clothing to

  the side, his eyes filled with fear and shock as he watched his body do unthinkable things no

  matter how hard he resisted.

  “You know Hernando this is all your doing. If you hadn’t disowned me as your sister and sold me

  off to that plantation I would have grown up here as a privileged catholic girl, with the guilt of

  being half black and profiting from the work of slaves. Instead, my fate was to live as a slave and a

  savage in the jungle and yours will be worse than damnation.

  She walked over to her needle point bag and pulled out a spirit siphon like those Rose had found

  in Moya and Chilton and a clear glass ball. “Do you have any idea what I am about to do,

  Hernando?” as she held up the perfect glass orb and the primitive spirit siphon. At that moment, Rose realized she could tap into Angelicas feelings and memories as well as her senses.

  “No, please don’t hurt me. You just said that it was your fate to go to the Jungle … to become so

  powerful. I beg your forgiveness and pity” whimpered Hernando.

  Angelica moved in front of the overweight hairy man soaked in the sweat of fear no longer the

  picture of a haughty Portuguese sugar magnate, “Hernando, do you know where you went wrong?

  “I did not honor our fathers wishes,

  I did not honor our family…

  you were family” said the Don.

  “You’re still begging even in your answer.” Rose heard Angelica speak to him. “No, your mistake

  was that you only saw my mother in me never father. You were blind to the half of me that is

  Moya and more than name, I have the Moya patience, intellect, and determination, maybe more

  than you and that is why father wanted me to have my birthright. I imagine it took you some time

  to plan. How long did it take you?

  Hernando just looked up at her gulping short breaths.

  “How long? I asked,” she repeated.

  “The decision to send you away was a rash one, I did it, and consulted with no one. Later when

  Chilton asked about you, then it was a few months to cover up the evidence of my transgression,”

  answered Hernando.

  “and your brothers part?” asked Angelica.

  The situation was surreal for Rose. Her point of view was that of Angelica’s and she could feel her

  feeling sense what she sensed but at the same time experienced her own feelings as an observer

  and she felt terrified for Hernando.

  “It…It was easy to convince Emilio he’s so lazy and greedy. He was all for me doing what I could to

  grow and protect his inheritance,” shared Hernando.

  “Your selfish choice, took two years of my life as a slave, then a month of running through the

  jungle to find the Village at the Falls, I did not know if the village was real or just a slave myth but I

  decided I would rather die in the jungle looking for it then spend one more day cutting sugar cane,”

  replied the Queen.

  “I’m so sorry for what I see you are a Moya you have our father’s determination”

  “Never mind your simpering. How did you convince the English Bankers?” asked Angelica.

  That was Emilio, -really. I had sent you and your mother away. Chilton contacted him as executor and trustee of my… our father’s estate. Sir Lester had a copy of my father’s intentions and asked


  Emilio about you. He got him to agree to honor the preceding will and trust or he and I would

  contest the will in court and our first order of business would be an injunction to move the trusts

  to the Rothschilds. He would lose the fees from the trust and our commercial relationships and

  respect of his financiers losing us to another banking house.

  Well brother, we both have bankers that are prepared to bend the rules for their clients, those

  papers you just signed will assure that all the Moya fortune flows to my birth right and that is

  your punishment for how you treated me.

  For you not honoring my mother the punishment will be far worse. For subjecting her to the cane

  fields and whip, your soul will be ripped from your flesh and housed in this perfect glass orb,

  crafted by the Beaumont Glass Works in Shreveport, Louisiana,”

  “Oh, God help me,” he begged.

  “Too late for that, what I can guarantee you is your immortal soul will not be punished in Hel . It

  will stay right here on earth in my purse, you will have the existence of a fish in a bowl.” chided

  Angelica cruelly.

  And then the incantation began. Rose was there as Angelica pressed the siphon against

  Hernando’s chest and channeled his soul directly into the glass ball. Rose felt the anger, the

  sadness, the exaltation of the pure power and most importantly for her, the knowledge of the

  incantation.

  Saturday the 25th of June what remains

  10:25 PM Pilton Road

  When Rose returned to the room she had the presence to discover the glass orb on top of the

  mantel, perched on a wooden pedestal. Inside the ball; ochre fumes swirled about, Emilio,

  Hernando, and Sir Francis in spiritual limbo, she surmised. The spirit siphon was also on display

  above the hearth.

  Rose got up from the chair walked over to the hearth to examined the fetish wand and peered into

  the glass orb, “Do they have any sense of their fate?”

  “The Pwen Hanaan. It’s not meant to be pleasant; the ritual or the condition after” shared the

  Voodoo Queen.

  “I felt sadness but not remorse” said Rose looking at the fetish, “I mean you didn’t feel remorse, it

  was calculated.” Rose could see a faint reflection of herself on the surface of the orb she looked at

  and could see the tears running down her face.

  “I have none. My upbringing was unusual. I was born on the Moya Plantation; my mother was a

  house slave but my father was the plantation owner. He loved my mother very much and we grew

  up as his family not as slaves. When Hernando completed university, he joined us in Haiti and

  learned he had a little black sister and was utterly disgusted with his father, my mother and me.

  He told my Papi that he was old and going senile to take up with my mother, he yelled about how

  the investors would lose confidence in their enterprises if they knew the life he was leading. Papi

  told him he was happy and if Hernando did not approve to leave. Don Ernesto was much older

  than my mother and when he became sick he signed papers that freed my mother and

  acknowledged me as a Moya and one third heir. I was thirteen I did not understand the

  significance of those papers or the fortune that one third of his estate was worth, but my father

  knew his son’s contempt. Should I care more that I killed my own blood? It was my brothers and

  Chilton that went to the extent they did to take my birth right and erase my existence.

  “Thank you for sharing the experience,” acknowledged Rose.

  "Sister Rose, I see that you have summoned beings from the highest choir of Angels, you are

  steeped in the arcana of light. If you choose to apply what you have learned here today you will

  break your covenant," Angelica explained.

  “I don’t take that decision lightly,” said Rose as she contemplated the orb and its contents. Rose

  caught the reflection of a man standing in the archway behind her. She spun around to see a tall

  gentlemen in Necronist garb, judging by his adornment, a Guild Master.

  “Please continue ladies,” said the Guild Master.

  "Gerrard, have you met Sister Rose Caldwell?" asked Angelica.

  Gerrard held the stoic stance of a Necronist with both hands tucked into the opposite arms sleeves and his feet placed more than shoulder width apart to set a base of power to conjure from. "We

  have not met. A pleasure to meet you."

  Rose looked him up and down, she had never met a Necronist let alone one of the six Guild

  Masters. "What's your business here?" she demanded.

  "I could ask the same of you, but I’m sure that you, like me were asked by Detective Williamson to

  act as a spiritual scent hound to find the murderer of Chilton and the Moyas, am I correct? One of

  us is the backup plan.”

  Angelica flipped a new Tarot. "The Hermit, the law bringer is here.

  “I don’t need the power of premonition to tell you that the English detective is coming. She would

  have given him your location. We need to leave now and return to Paris where we will have the

  protection of the Emperor,” retorted Gerrard.

  “I have no intention of going to Paris.” said Angelica.

  I am your way out of this mess you started. They will kill you.”

  “Gerrard that’s the difference between you and I your so restrained and scientific, the son of the

  age of enlightenment and I embrace the chaos and natural flow of the Aether. How long did it take

  your city of Paris and solemn brothers to sap you of the primal power you discovered when we

  were together?”

  His stoic stance melted. “Less than a year, but it wasn’t the city that diluted it. It was no longer

  being with you. If you came to Paris we could continue not where we left off. I know that would be

  too much to ask with what has passed but we could start anew,” replied Gerrard.

  “Gerrard, it is your turn to pick a card,” implored Angelica.

  Gerrard walked into the parlor and stood before her tarot table. “Angelica, I am not here to play

  games,” looking up to meet Angelica's gaze something caught the Seer’s eye “Is that a fifth skull on

  the Staff, is that Papa Lafayette?"

  “He passed when France sent the Foreign Legion in to the village. We had kept our side of the

  grand bargain Gerrard. We never left the Village of the Falls.” Angelica touched his hand. Rose

  assumed that Gerrard was getting a vignette of the carnage in the village just as she had

  experienced Hernando’s death.

  Without sitting down he touched a card on the table with the hand that held his Necronist beads.

  Angelica put her finger on the card "You broke the bargain."

  Gerrard lifted his finger "I had no part in that, I never knew until now” Rose observed a loss and

  sadness in the Guild Master as he spoke “I left my heart there it was our sacred place.”

  He pulled his hand away "I had no idea Angelica,"

  Angelica flipped the card "Death, the pale rider, the end of a phase of life that has served its purpose. How do you read the cards, Seer?"

  The Voodoo Queen stood up, grasped the Ju-Ju Staff and made her way towards Rose, passing

  Gerrard as if he did not exist.

  When Angelica stepped up to the hearth and looked at the orb, then at the spot where Rose had

  taken the siphon from. "Rose, you have played your part and now you must go. The crossroads you

  face are of no consequence to what happens here, please take your leave."

>   Rose advanced towards the parlor exit. She had what she needed and now must decide if she was

  prepared to take the consequences for using the ritual to free Preston. Rose looked back at

  Angelica and Gerrard then turned to exit only to be startled by the presence of another Necronist

  standing at the front door.

  Rose withdrew a reliquary from her belt sheath and incanted the invitation to Raziel a guardian

  angel, protector of Adam, and chief of Erilhiem. As the Enochian call rolled off her tongue she felt

  in her bones that Angelica’s wards dampened and hindered her summoning call. No supernatural

  power would intervene to help. She would be on her own.

  "White Witch spare me your summoning,” said Seer Thomas as he grabbed her arm and pul ed

  her into the parlor, “Witness those that truly practice the craft.”

  Angelica turned to Gerrard. "How did you see the conclusion, Master Seer?"

  “Angelica, our offer still stands. Come with me to Paris and we can continue our studies again.”

  “Our offer?” she questioned.

  “My offer. my plead.” Gerrard begged clasping his hands together.

  “There is no going back to those young lovers in the jungle, and you can offer nothing I wish to

  learn. The best option for you Master Seer is to leave with your minions before there is more death

  by my hand.” Angelica’s tone invoked efficacy and resonated beyond the sound of her voice and

  into the aether as she began to glow with eldritch energy.

  Rose watched in amazement as Angelica drew deeper upon her power. At the same moment Lord

  Oswald phase shifted through the parlor wall from outside of the house in hopes of surprising and

  surrounding the Voodoo Queen. However, her defensive wards alerted her and slowed his ability to

  pass into the room. Still it was a fantastic feat to phase shift into the room, a sure sign of power

  and control of the arcane.

  Angelica spun around to face the Lodge Occultist, one arm outstretched with a subtle twist of her

  wrist. Her extended index and middle finger threw a hex that spewed an inky, smoky mass coating

  the wall with what initially looked like tar but transmuted into multitudes of spiders, every type

  and size crawled all over Oswald and the wall he was passing through, it was enough for him to