Thursday, October 15, 2015

Chimera: Class of 666 | 1.5.3 | Part One "Waking Up" | Chapter Five "The Chimera"

Story: Chimera: Class of 666

Part: One "Waking Up"
Chapter: Five "The Chimera"
Authored by: 
Hannah Nyland (The Irreverent Revenant
All Rights Reserved.

Chimera: Class of 666
By Hannah Nyland and Jerad Sayler


This conversation is pretty up and over my head but at least in the sunlight it is less frightening. I still wear the amulet, I still dissect and retain these quick dive-ins. “These types of beings, made of pure ephemera usually exist apart from our world, unable to directly act upon people.  They are separated by a barrier of interference.  The world of the collected resonance we call The Shadow Realm for it is a shadow of our own.  But sometimes they manage to cross over.  When they do they are still usually formlessness and out of sync with physical reality for the most part. They cannot be touched, felt, seen or anything like that. Physical reality isn’t easy for them, ephemeral beings have to either use what little power they can to interact.  Think cold spots, strange manifestations, poltergeist activity. It takes a lot of juice but sometimes they even can gather up enough ambient matter to fashion a temporary material body for themselves. After a short while their bodies they turn back into slimy goo, ectoplasm, what ephemeral matter looks like when it gets consolidated enough to become something like flesh and blood.”
“So you were probably seeing spirits where they don’t belong, or ghosts that should move on. I would say they are ‘naturally’ occurring except I have a universal theory that operates on the world being broken and flawed.”
“And creepy-crawly could have been a manifestation of a ghost or spirit. There are too many other things out there it could have been to know for sure. You said it had dog-level intelligence, that doesn’t narrow it down much.”
I take all this information in; with it, the creatures have started to lose some of their menace. Though I probably won’t feel that way if I come face to face with one again. At the moment though, I’m shifting over to a more analytical mindset; the situation is a puzzle to be solved.
“The spirits, is it possible to send them back to the Shadow Realm? And is what they do harmful to people? It definitely looked like they were leeching off them. I’m more worried about that dog-thing though. Don’t like not knowing anything about it since it was in my neighborhood. I wonder how long it’s been in town. How long it’s been doing . . . whatever it’s doing.” I frown, and shift restlessly. There are too many unknowns for my liking here. “So, got any ideas on what I should do about it? I would really prefer not to leave this uninvestigated when it’s so close to home.”
He smiles, seemingly impressed by my resolve. "I do suggest you investigate. And to ensure I don't lose my new apprentice I will equip and empower you for success."
My mind is racing. I’m looking forward to investigating this, in a weird way. Wasn’t expecting that. There’s still a voice in the back of my head screaming caution, but it’s easier to ignore here, away from immediate danger.
"Yes, it is possible to send spirits back across into the Shadow Realm, but you are far from learning these mysteries now. Usually spirits that manage to slip into physical reality are weak and have trouble influencing objects or living things.  They can be harmless, manageable, and even positive. But yes, they leech energy off of people's emotions. This life-force or animus they eat, best I know, seems to be a byproduct of the soul with relation to sentience and emotions or states of mind.  People and other living things seem to produce a seemingly endless supply of this charged resonance.”
I put up a hand. “Wait. Hold up. What is resonant energy?”
“That is a long conversation we can have later.  But what it boils down to is this: what happens in the physical plane resonates in the spiritual world, creating ripples of action.  As below, so above. Resonance is what we call those traces of psychic energy that is left behind by these interactions and they can build up and collect in places over time. A slaughterhouse has the general resonance of cows for sure, but what is stronger is fear, pain, and death resonance. Different resonances can give rise to spirits, resonance that now has instincts or even artificial intelligence, wants to find more food wants more of what it is.  Your mage Sights make you able to perceive physical and mystical phenomena as well as different types of resonance.”
This deluge of information is a welcome relief after a week of having nothing but my own paranoia and anticipation to chew over.
“Perhaps…” he concedes after a longer pause, “we should assess the spirits and ghosts you see as well, ensure they are no harm... but we are at another slippery slope. Are you planning on fixing every problem in Jamestown and go from there? We are not alone, messing with cryptids or spirits could step on someone's toes. Either way we need more information. As far as I know Jamestown is on the edge of both Horsemen and the Fargo territory... as far as I know it is unclaimed by mages. But that gives me no intel for any other supernatural society that may hold claim there. Werewolves and vampires are the ones I at least know exist in regional and global level conspiracies but there are rumors of other, stranger things."
My expression shifts from sad to slightly amused. “Werewolves. I can add that to my list of things that are real. Anything else? It seems like pretty much everything is. And Honestly? I probably would try to solve every problem in Jamestown if I had the power to do that. It’s my hometown. I’d prefer for it to be safe.” I look a bit wistful and shrug, acknowledging that this is perhaps unrealistic.
Casstiel chuckles.. “I know how that feels, I am the same way about Beulah. Well hell, both sets of my grandparents and an aunt and uncle in that town. Nergal, Kairos, and I have pretty much regulated everything supernatural thing there since 2010. It is okay to go check these things out now that I have your back, but little critters in the dark could very easily be just the tip of the iceberg. Just know that throwing yourself at every problem makes a lot of enemies, but sometimes it is worth the cost. We just need to be smart about how we go about it. We don’t want to attract outside attention, like the critter’s boss or something.”
“Hopefully I can at least do something about this. I’ll check both the spirits and the other thing out. Investigation only. But I don’t understand why other mages would want these sorts of things running around if they are harmful.”  It just doesn’t make any sense.
Casstiel finally remembers his manners and leads me inside and into a spacious kitchen with granite countertops. Over to my left extends a huge living room with vaulted ceilings, dark wood floors and a fireplace that always seems to be retreating further from me. Some kind or architectural illusion? No, it is not a simple trick, okay maybe a trick. I can feel the distance recede too.  There are distortions here in space, and also flickering of mental energy like static. I catch a phantom whiff of brimstone and instantly become anxious.  This place resonates with Hell. I can feel their breath across the back of my neck. I’d say I was getting scared by that just wasn’t true.  It is a little unsettling but also exciting.  This place charges me with that potential and reminds me of the trails I surpassed.  I make a mental note to ask about the weird aura in the house later.
Casstiel still has his back to me as we walk, still talking.  “Yes, werewolves exist, vampires have a whole blood-sucking society. Pretty much everything from myth has some aspect of occulted truth. There are lots of things out there.  I am sorry you saw something nasty and I didn’t show up like I promised.  I was careless. I thought I could watch everything or notice when you are in trouble. I should have set up some shifts for myself, but I had no reason to believe with the amulet you would get into any trouble. And you didn’t… but still that creature is worrisome.”
Genuine remorse.  I had wondered why he hadn’t shown up but assumed it was because I hadn’t been in danger at the time.
He leads me over to a white garage door on one wall of the living room and past a small statue of Bast in bronze sitting on a runner table near a leather couch.  He picks up two familiar looking boots from the shoe rack.  My boots.
I’m not really watching him though. A wrought Iron globe catches my eye. Well… less a globe and more like rings of iron moving on various axis in very slow rotations. In the center appears to be a geometric shape of heavy dark metals the size of a child's fist.  I study it and instantly know it is 80-faced polyhedron-icosahedron.  I can feel each side of it as if I were touching it with my eyes.  Each of its tiny faces is inlaid with multiple symbols.  This rotating globe radiates with magical energy I can feel but not see, a kind of warm like invisible sunshine fills the whole room.   I’ve got my eyes trained on the iron globe, trying to pick out any symbols I recognize. Some look like astrological signs, also Roman numerals maybe? The rest looks like foreign, Hebrew and even more exotic lettering.  The whole die radiates unseen energy, creating a sustained field of magic.
I notice Casstiel is watching me patiently and tear my eyes away.  He doesn’t comment, just holds out my boots to me.   I stare at the die for a few seconds longer before giving up, frustrated and intrigued. This is apparently a mystery that will have to be addressed at a later time.
The rooms pull on me in conflicting ways, the influence of my watchtower making me feel both unsettled and completely in my element.
“So… what’s up with the house?”  I finally ask to fill the mounting silence.
He smiles proudly, happy I’ve decided to comment perhaps.  “The second we entered our house we entered the private quarters and ritual spaces level of the sanctum.  You see, with my understanding of spatiomancy I am able to apply multiple layers of identical spacial templates and stack them in spatially displaces pockets on top of each other. If someone broke in they would enter a normal home.  One with two floors 9 rooms, and 4 bedrooms. But to those of us I have keyed to enter I’ve copied and expanded the normal template out to 28 bedroom “sized” rooms, 14 hallways, 21 rooms with bathroomish components in them, and 35 massive common areas… 84 viable spaces counting the original versions.”

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