Canticum Tenebris (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 2)

by John Triptych

  Valerie looked up at the monitor screen again. “So it looks like we have a suspect that may be responsible for the museum incident? But that doesn’t explain what’s been going on with the rest of the world.”

  Paul gasped as he noticed the picture of the black sun wheel that was included in the dossier. “Oh my god, I dreamt of this symbol a few weeks ago.”

  Johnson turned and looked at him. “What symbol?”

  “This one,” Paul said as he held up the photograph. “It’s an occult symbol called the Schwarze Sonne, which in German means black sun. The symbol is part of a painted floor in a castle somewhere in Germany. It was once used by the Nazis as the headquarters for the pagan religious rites of the SS. The castle itself has some occult significance among arcane societies.”

  One of the FBI researchers, a woman dressed in a grey office suit and had braided hair, stood up. “I think I may have found corroborating information with that symbol as well as the insignia of the UFO that attacked Berlin.”

  Paul’s mouth dropped open. “What? There was an attack on Berlin?”

  Johnson nodded before pointing to the woman. “What follows is classified information that was just recently passed down to us from EUCOM, our European Command based in Germany. Communications have been unreliable so they had to risk sending an aircraft over to us with the details. Go ahead, Sarah.”

  “Right,” the FBI researcher said. “Approximately a week ago, an unidentified airship that was hidden in a massive cloud formation appeared over Berlin. The reports stated that the UFO looked like an all-metal airship that was powered by unknown means. There were massive discharges of lightning that came down onto the city. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and large areas of the city were destroyed. A helicopter crew was able to take a video of the UFO and that symbol that you just described was on it. After bombarding the city for a few minutes, the vessel disappeared into thin air.”

  “Jesus,” Paul said. Valerie just shook her head in a mixture of shock and disbelief.

  “We’ve tried to gather as much information on that symbol,” Sarah said as she looked down on her console and started clicking on her mouse. “And it has been traced to an organization called the Temple of the Black Sun. Its headquarters are in Germany and our suspect was apparently a former member.”

  Valerie crossed her arms. “Temple of the Black Sun? What kind of an organization is it?”

  “It was apparently categorized as a sort of mystical order of magicians,” Sarah said. “The German government attempted to classify it as a cult of some sort. But the Temple’s lawyers and influence among the politicians were able to get that case quashed.”

  Paul adjusted his glasses. “Magicians? That proves it.”

  Johnson pulled out a notepad from his jacket and began to take notes. “What do you mean, Professor Dane?”

  “This whole crisis that’s happening worldwide,” Paul said. “It’s supernatural in nature. Now all of a sudden, we have a bunch of magicians who can seemingly do what was once considered impossible. Either they must be causing this whole thing, or they might know how it started.”

  Valerie took the dossier from Paul’s hand and started going through it. “Are there any leads as to the suspect’s location?”

  Johnson shook his head. “We originally thought that he might have been killed when that worm grew in size and collapsed the floor above the basement, or perhaps he left not long afterwards. We put out an all-points bulletin on him but so far, nothing. He could be in hiding among one of the many abandoned buildings in the city, or maybe even in the subway. Right now, we have no way of knowing where he is or if he’s still alive.”

  Valerie placed a hand on Paul’s arm. “Do you think he killed Dr. Worlich and Captain Niven with some sort of … magic spell?”

  Paul shrugged. “I don’t know, but he apparently became dangerous when this whole thing started. How many members of the Temple are there?”

  “We don’t know,” Johnson said. “It’s a guess but there could be dozens, maybe even hundreds.”

  Valerie frowned before looking at the image on the video monitor again and then pointed at it. “Wait, look at his right hand, it looks like something shiny.”

  Everyone looked up at the monitor screen.

  “Hold on,” Sarah said as she started typing on her workstation console. “Let me see if I can enlarge it.”

  A few seconds later the image on the top screen was centered on Solomon’s hand. The resulting enlargement made it blurry but the object was clear.

  Johnson squinted his eyes as he kept looking at the image. “It looks like some sort of shiny ring that he’s wearing. It’s pretty big.”

  Paul let out a deep breath. “Oh my god. The seal of Solomon. Could that be it? Jesus. It all makes sense now. His name, that ring, and he’s a magician too. It’s all mind boggling.”

  Johnson turned and stared at Paul. “Seal of Solomon? What’s that?”

  “The seal of Solomon is purported to be some sort of magical ring that can control demons,” Paul said. “The earliest stories came from Medieval Jewish tradition, and it told that God had given King Solomon a ring engraved with his true name on it. The king then used his power over demons to compel them to help him build numerous temples until one of the demons tricked him and stole the ring from him.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Johnson said. “We have a gang of wizards from Germany. One of them is this Solomon guy, and he has a magic ring that controls demons. Then he kills one of his companions and creates a giant worm? This sounds like a science fiction movie.”

  “Except that it’s all true,” Valerie said. “I was here when that worm burst through the ceiling. And I was also here when the nuke that the military had planted was about to go off.”

  “I’m not arguing with you, Detective,” Johnson said. “I’m just having a hard time trying to put all of this together, is all.”

  “Well we need to pull everything together,” Paul said. “And fast. If this guy is out there and he can control demons then we need to find him as quickly as possible. What I would like to know is if this Solomon fellow had this kind of power for years, or did it just start when all the old gods came back.”

  “If he had all this power before then surely he would have used it way back when,” Valerie said. “It feels like it’s tied in to everything but it doesn’t seem to be the underlying cause.”

  “So what is the underlying cause?” Johnson said.

  “I don’t know,” Valerie said. “Though it’s a start.”

  “But we’re getting somewhere,” Paul said. “We know a lot more now than what we knew just a few days ago. We’re moving in the right direction. If the gods are real and the demons are real, then our suspect has also proved that his ring might be real. Then other objects must exist as well.”

  Valerie looked at him. “Other objects? What do you mean?”

  “Think about it,” Paul said. “If the seal of Solomon is real, then there must be other mythical objects out there. Swords like Excalibur, or Thor’s hammer, must exist too. These magical weapons could enable us to fight against these gods and demons.”

  “So do you want us to scour the globe for religious artifacts?” Valerie said, “Like the Ark of the Covenant or something?”

  At that moment, Johnson’s walkie-talkie began to squawk. He quickly took it from his belt strap and activated it. “Special Agent Johnson here.”

  The voice on the other line was from Bell. “It’s Lemond Bell. Can you bring Professor Dane and Detective Mendoza down to the basement area? We found something.”

  “On the way,” Johnson said before putting back the walkie-talkie on his belt. Paul and Valerie didn’t need to be told to go as they followed the FBI agent back towards the side halls.

  The basement area was largely cleaned up, but there were still piles of debris that was lying around. Several teams of forensics investigators from the NYPD and the FBI were slowly going through the roo
m as they checked out each minor detail. Paul, Valerie, and Special Agent Johnson walked down a wooden ramp that was installed a few weeks before.

  Detective Bell waited for them at the bottom of the incline. As soon as they met, he turned around and started walking towards an alcove at the far end of the hall. “Follow me,” he said. “We’ve found something out of the ordinary.”

  The three of them followed until they all stood facing a grey, concrete wall in between two large crates that housed museum artifacts. The wooden containers were damaged from the floor collapse but it didn’t look like the forensics investigator was interested in what was in them.

  Bell pointed at the recess on the side of the wall. As the three of them looked at the bare concrete, the forensics investigator took out a handheld ultraviolet flashlight and shined it on the base of the wall. Almost instantly, a set of strange symbols and what looked to be writing appeared over the bare concrete as the pale blue light shined on it.

  Valerie ran her hand through her hair. “What is that?”

  Bell kept pointing his flashlight at it. “We think it’s been written on that wall quite recently. Whoever wrote it used blood.”

  “But you needed a UV light to see it,” Valerie said. “That only happens when someone wiped the original stains off, right?”

  “Normally yes,” Bell said. “But we didn’t detect any cleaning agents nor were there any signs that it was cleaned in any way. Also, we’re not sure if the blood is human.”

  Valerie didn’t take her eyes off the symbols. “If the blood isn’t human, how could you tell?”

  “We normally mix the blood with anti-human serum after we collect a sample of it,” Bell said. “The serum is made from lab animals that have been injected with blood type O negative. If the blood coagulates then it’s human blood. We tested a small amount and it came out negative.”

  “So it’s the blood from an animal then,” Johnson said.

  “We’re not sure about it being from an animal either,” Bell said. “The main composition of blood is normally plasma, red and white blood cells, and platelets. When we looked at the sample under the microscope, there were other types of cells that we couldn’t identify as well as traces of an unknown fluid that we have never seen before. And that’s not even the craziest part.”

  Valerie twisted her head and looked at Bell. “What do you mean?”

  “One of my assistants said something peculiar when she looked at it under the microscope,” Bell said softly. “She told me she thinks the blood is still alive somehow.”

  Johnson’s eyes went wide as he backed away. “What?”

  “Dead cells have broken down membranes that can be penetrated by a special dye,” Bell said. “Live cells have intact membranes that will resist this dye- so if we put the dye on them and shine a light and they don’t glow then they must still be alive. We tried that test on the sample, and we’re sure they’re still live even though there is no metabolic activity. No living being’s blood can do this. It’s totally nuts.”

  Paul spoke up.. “It’s because that blood is neither animal nor human, it’s demon blood.”

  The three of them turned to face him, their mouths open in disbelief.

  “A demon,” Johnson said. “Like in hell and damnation kind of demon? Like Satan?”

  “Yes,” Paul said. “Something like that.”

  Johnson closed his eyes and looked away. “I-I just can’t believe all this. It’s like I’ve been in a nightmare for the past few months and I’m hoping I wake up every morning and think it’s all just a dream.”

  “What makes you think that it’s demonic blood? It could be anything else,” Valerie said.

  Paul leaned closer and pointed at the luminous symbols. “These signs are a form of script. Its writing that’s very similar to ancient Latin and some of those symbols are also on the tree trunk from Hatteras. The suspect possessed the ring of Solomon and legend says that it allows the possessor to control demons. The writings that we are looking at are called the demon’s mark, or otherwise known as a diabolical signature. The myths explained that they are signed with the name of the demon and they are written in blood.”

  “But why would a demon leave a telltale sign like this? I would have thought that they preferred to cover up whatever it is that they do,” Valerie said.

  “Ancient stories state that demonic beings operate on their own set of rules,” Paul said. “I don’t know why it is so, but they sign a pact with a mortal using their signature.”

  Johnson frowned. “Signature? Like as in a contract or something?”

  “Exactly,” Paul said. “The legend of Faust is a prime example of it.”

  “Never heard of it,” Valerie said. “But then again, I grew up listening to my mama and her Aztec stories.”

  “It’s got Germanic origins,” Paul said. “Basically, it’s about a man who wasn’t happy with his life, so he summons a demon by the name of Mephistopheles. He makes a pact with this being to get unlimited riches and knowledge in exchange for his soul. They sign a diabolical contract for a set amount of time. So for seven years or so, Faust enjoys himself until the end when his body and soul get carried off to hell. It’s a morality tale about the dangers of too much ambition and the corruption of one’s soul.”

  “A literal deal with the devil,” Johnson said. “And you think that this Seth Solomon has made a sort of pact with this demon?”

  “That’s my assumption, yes,” Paul said.

  “That’s one hell of a theory,” Johnson said.

  “I agree that it’s just a guess,” Paul said. “But it’s my best guess based on the evidence that we have.”

  “Well, we don’t have anything else to go on,” Valerie said as she looked at Paul. “But based on what we did in this place before, I think it’s a valid assumption. So now what?”

  Paul looked at Detective Bell. “Have you got a standing UV light so that I could study these writings?”

  Bell turned off his UV flashlight and dropped his tired arm to the side of his body. “Sure, I can have it set up for you. I think we might still have pieces of bark from that tree trunk you mentioned as well, shall I have the whole package laid out for you here on some tables?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Paul said to him before flicking his eyes over to the FBI agent. “My books burned up in my library along with my house in Boston. I need books on demons as well as any old books about magic that you can find. I’ll write down a list for you.”

  “If you want books, hell, I’ll have my teams open up the New York Public Library for you,” Johnson said. “I heard it’s got one of the largest collections of books in the world.”

  “That would be good,” Paul said. “Also, when you went to Solomon’s apartment, were there any books in there?”

  Johnson nodded. “Yes, a lot. He had a bunch of really old hardbound books in leather and other materials. We packed them off in evidence boxes and we were planning to ship them to FBI headquarters, but I can have them reroute the stuff here.”

  Paul smiled and shook his hand. “I would appreciate that.”

  “Let me get cracking on it then,” Johnson said as he turned around and started to walk towards the ramp leading to the upper floors.

  Valerie placed a hand on Paul’s elbow. “What are you planning to do?”

  Paul winked at her. “Summon a demon.”

  22. Stepping Stones

  Otherworld

  Patrick Gyle looked up at the towering trees above them as the entire forest itself seemed to glow with a faint bluish luminescence. “Are we still in the faerie realms? The trees look different.”

  Ilya Volkhov was slightly ahead of him as the young boy made his way along the mossy ground. “No, we have left that world and entered into another. This is a place that I had been to before.”

  Although the thick, pale leathery skin made him seem bulky, Gyle’s long, sinewy legs made it seem like he was walking on air as he lengthened his gait and was soon walking a
longside Ilya. The raven continued to perch on his left shoulder and said nothing. He could see a star-filled night if he looked high enough, but the trees were gigantic and blotted out the sky, their trunks stretched out hundreds of feet into the air.

  “I thought we were supposed to go to the realm of the dark elves,” Gyle said. “This doesn’t look like a cave to me.”

  Ilya shook his head as he kept looking at the ground while he walked. “Have you not been listening to that bird god? If the Dokkalfar live in an underground world, then we need some sort of light to see in there.”

  “Why don’t we go back to Earth then? There are plenty of flashlights to be found there,” Gyle said.

  “I don’t want just a flashlight,” Ilya said. “I want something that burns so bright that it could be used as a weapon.”

  “Ah, very clever,” the raven said. “You have read up on your folk tales very well, Ilya.”

  Gyle twisted his neck so he could look at the bird on his shoulder. “What is he looking for?”

  “A firebird,” Ilya said. “If we are in the forest where they live, then we should have no problem tracking one down.”

  Gyle looked confused but his features were so thick that it didn’t show. “A firebird? What is that?”

  “It’s a magical glowing bird,” the raven said. “It can bring both blessings and doom to its captor.”

  Gyle nodded. “Like a phoenix then?”

  “Yes, except that it doesn’t rise up from its own ashes after its death. I guess they may be considered as a related species according to your scientific categories,” the raven said.

  “Holy cow, look!” Ilya said as he pointed at something on the ground that was near him.