Reuben: 2/9-16/97 (11/6-7/96)
We walked from City Hall back to the Chantry in silence, thinking about the information gleaned that day. I still wasn't certain what to make of the possible Angela-Forteau link, or if I should even care. I wasn't surprised Forteau had never mentioned it to me; he had told me very little about himself over the year or so of tutoring I had received from him.
After we got back, I worked with Eric to boil some water and heat a pot of sauce and served up pasta to everyone. Renee mentioned that she wanted to talk to Stephanie, Tiffany, and Nicole (aka STaN), but I thought she was nuts. After all, when last we had seen those three, they were high-tailing it out of the Halloween party that our group had pretty much wrecked. Somehow I couldn't see them welcoming us with open arms. Nevertheless, Renee, Kasee, Cab, and John left for STaN's place in Cary around 6:30 PM.
I was tired from all of the day's walking, but decided to spend some time in the library, reading by candlelight, while Dog continued to watch his "spirit television" in our room. After a few hours of studying my notes on the connection between general prime patterns and life patterns, something finally clicked. I started swearing softly, so as not to disturb Eric. I could now see the key to changing my own life pattern - or the patterns of others, for that matter. I thought about experimenting with my new knowledge a bit, when I heard the front door open and Cab, Renee, Kasee, and John walked in.
I walked into the living room as Renee flopped onto the sofa, John next to her. Kasee saw me and said, "STaN are in really bad trouble, and their auras are muted an' stuff, and they have this black spiral around them and they look kinda bad." I nodded, then looked to Renee for a translation. "There is some kind of black spiral around them, visible in the spirit world."
John put in, "We've been debating what it means. The garou have a group called Black Spiral Dancers; they serve the Wyrm. If those three are tied to the Wyrm, they are in very bad trouble."
Then Kasee said, "But you know I've been wondering about the chant they gave us on Halloween night and what it might mean, I mean, since it was all like gibberish and stuff maybe it does mean something."
I shrugged. I hadn't heard them mention anything about a chant, but Renee said that each of them had been given a fragment of a chant. By now, Daedelus and Eric had joined us, and said that they remembered their parts of the chant. I suggested that they write them down and we'd take a look at them. The phrases looked meaningless, but something about them caught my eye. I looked at the one that Renee had been given: "dan taeh." I thought about it, and realized that it was an anagram for "and hate." That sounded bad. I looked at the others. "rahled fo rrorho" became "herald of horror," "i ma het fieth" became "I am the thief." This was looking worse and worse. Unfortunately, all we had were nonconsecutive fragments, so we couldn't be sure what the whole added up to; I guessed that it was a summoning of some sort. I guess it was a good thing that the party went to hell. On that happy thought, I headed off to bed.
I awoke the next morning to TV in stereo. Dog's spirit television was still talking, but the real television was on as well - the power had just come back on. I stumbled out to find Renee cooking breakfast. I put on some water to make coffee (I suspected Eric would be glad to know that he didn't have to be our power source anymore). I opened the front door carefully (didn't want to find any dead bodies hanging there, you know) and was surprised to see that even though a shallow river still ran down New Bern Avenue, there was today's News and Observer lying on our porch. I picked up the paper and went in to eat breakfast. As I sat reading the comics, I was startled by a short scream from Kasee's room. We ran in to find Kasee looking slightly singed, saying something about channelling the node. Sounded tremendously unpleasant. Renee set about healing her while I went back to my bedroom to meditate for quintessence. After that, I retired to the library to see what might be possible with my newfound knowledge of manipulating life patterns.
A bit later, Mary came in holding a short staff possessively. I asked her what it was, and she said that Grandpa had given it to her. Great, I wondered, who's Grandpa, and why is he giving this kid presents?
"May I look at the staff more closely?" I asked.
She held it out wordlessly, keeping two hands on it as if I might grab it away from her. It appeared to have some strange glyphs up and down its length. I shifted to spirit sight and saw that while the staff had a powerful spiritual presence, it had no sentience. Cab walked in and started examining the staff, kneeling beside me. She reached out and started tracing the glyphs with her finger, moving slower and slower until she stopped and just stared at the staff. I waved my hand in front of Cab - no response. I shook her shoulder, and she fell over, passed out. Now what? I called for Renee's help, and between us we figured that she was suffering from - of all things - hypothermia. Renee and I carried her to the bathroom, stripped off her clothes, and put her into a bathtub of lukewarm water. I told Renee to go back to studying in the library, and that I would watch over Cab. After a couple changes of water and frequent checks of temperature, her eyes suddenly fluttered open.
"Where am I?"
"You're at the Chantry. You never left."
"It was so cold...wait a minute, why am I in this bathtub? And why are you here if I'm not wearing any clothes?" She grabbed the shower curtain and pulled it between us, hiding her nudity.
"Oh for heaven's sake. If there's anyone around her you're safe from, it's me. I'm gay, remember? Anyway, the reason you're in that bathtub is that you were suffering from hypothermia. You seem to be OK. If you would be so kind, why don't you get dressed and come into the library and tell us what the hell happened." With that, I spun on my heel and walked out, slamming the door behind me. Man, you try to help some people...
Cab came into the library a short while later, and explained that she had been on a frozen ice plain, sitting next to a man who wore almost nothing, while she was in boots and a parka. She had watched as he passed his hand down a staff that looked just like the one that Mary now held so tightly. Where his hand passed, glyphs (just like the ones on Mary's staff) appeared. When he reached the last one, she had pitched forward into the snow, and woken up in the bathtub. I didn't know what to make of that.
I spent another hour in the library, but I really couldn't concentrate. I was almost glad to hear a knock at the front door. Renee opened it and gasped in shock as Nicole walked in. Kasee had been right - she did look bad. Nicole looked like hell, in fact. If I didn't know better, I'd say she had leprosy: her skin looked like it was decaying. Renee and I both tried to heal her, but according to her pattern, there was nothing wrong with her. She was terribly confused and kept talking about someone chasing her. She said that she and Stephanie and Tiffany had been playing with a ouija board a few months ago and had actually contacted someone - or something. It had promised to teach them many powerful things, and they had agreed to serve it. Renee asked her about the chant from Halloween night, and she said, "Oh, I remember that. I can't get it out of my head - it keeps repeating over and over and over. i ma het nroth no toof..." We all jumped in to stop her. I suggested she write down the chant, and when she was done, I took the paper and started to unscramble it. Here's what the chant said, translated:
I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight
I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night
I am the rat in the wall, the leper that reels at the gate
I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate
I am the rust on the corn, I am the must on the wheat
Laughing man's labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet
I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay
The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day
I warp and wither with drought, I work in the swamp's foul yeast
I bring black the black plague from the south and the leprosy in from the east
It appeared to be less of a summoning than sort of a general, "Look at how bad I am" kind of invocation. Maybe it was Verbena thing, I wasn't sure. As we sat pondering the chant, there was another knock at the door. My first thought was that it was whatever was chasing Nicole, but instead it was Inspector Torres again, here to talk to Daedelus. I shook my head - this place was becoming Grand Central Station - and retired to my bedroom.
© 1997 by Tom Brady