Reuben Cabot: 4/6/97
We all stared at the spot on the wall through which Balthazar had disappeared. It was unbroken, with no sign of his passing, although the tendril was still there.
Kevin walked over to the wall and examined it closely. As he stared at it intently, Walks All Paths took the jacket that he had been carrying and made a loop with it. He gingerly touched the jacket to the tendril, as if expecting to be pulled as Balthazar was, but when the jacket touched he only flinched and stepped back quickly.
*Hey, Reuben. Kevin's not looking so good.* Dog said with concern.
I turned my attention to Kevin who was now standing in front of the wall with both hands pressed against it, tears streaming down his face. He screamed suddenly, then collapsed to the ground, still sobbing. Cab and I rushed to his side, but he seemed all right, though shaken up.
When he had pulled himself together, Kevin stood up and took a deep, shuddering breath. "Everything here - this house, the floor, the furniture - is made of souls. It...it's horrible..."
Cab scoffed. "What are you talking about? Souls are not wall-shaped. Let's quit wasting time here and see if we can find Balthazar."
After one last check to make sure Kevin was OK, we started following the tendril through the house. It described a crazy path, winding through rooms two or three times, up stairs, and down into the cellar. We had followed it up to the third floor and were startled to hear cries for help. We walked down a long, wide hallway until we came to a balcony that overlooked a tall atrium. The atrium was filled with plants of all shapes and sizes, and clinging to one tall tree, about fifteen feet from the balcony, was Balthazar. He had one hand on the tree, and the other on the carabiner, which was still attached to the tendril. The tendril continued out through the open roof and straight up into the air.
While I stared upwards, trying to figure out how we would follow the tendril into the sky, the garou gingerly climbed onto the railing and, flapping his wings awkwardly, flew out to the tree that Balthazar was clinging to.
"Help! Help! This thing is going to kill me," Balthazar screeched.
The garou flew closer and said, "Let go of the carabiner."
Balthazar looked stunned for a moment, then let go, nearly falling out of the tree as he did so. "I didn't think of that. Now what?"
Walks All Paths landed heavily in the tree just below Balthazar. "Now we climb down."
As they started their way down the tree, we ran back through the house, arriving at the base of the tree at the same time they did. Balthazar brushed himself off, then gestured all around us.
"Do you like this? Aren't all of these plants great? And guess what? They're all real." The way he said that last implied that this was unusual here. I didn't want to pursue that just now.
We walked back to the sitting room, Balthazar leading at a fast clip. He stopped abruptly and stared at the garou. "You have wings. Did you know that?"
Walks All Paths rolled his eyes. "Yes, I had suspected something like that."
Balthazar turned to Mary again. "Nice stick." She hugged it closely to her and looked at the floor.
As we walked into the sitting room, Balthazar asked if he had heard a scream, but when Kevin started to explain, he was cut off. "So Owl told you to see me, eh? You know, a wise man wouldn't show you the path to Grandma's. But I will."
Suddenly, he spun and turned to me. "So what brings you here?"
I was getting annoyed by all of this. "I'm with the band."
"Oh really? What do you play?"
"Drums." A quiet snicker filled my head. At least Dog was amused - I was wondering if we hadn't wasted our time coming here.
With an abruptness that I was getting used to, Balthazar swung back on topic. "You see, there's a shield between here and your world. But if I had one of those special souls, say, that of a garou, I could break that shield."
Walks All Paths and I stared at each other for a second, then simultaneously muttered, "Oh shit."
Balthazar stopped speaking and was staring intently at the head of a moose hanging from the wall, which seemed to be staring back at him just as intently. Nothing would have surprised me about this place. I cleared my throat and said, "We need to get the rest of our people back from outside the city walls. Can you be of any assistance?"
Balthazar looked puzzled for a minute, then looked up brightly. "I'll send a car! JEEVES!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The butler appeared instantly at the door. "Yes sir?"
Balthazar leaned back lazily and said, "Can you..." and waved his hands.
Jeeves bowed and said, "Yes sir. Right away, sir."
After the butler left the room, Balthazar gestured for us to sit. We did, and while Cab, Kevin, Walks All Paths, and I talked about our possible options, Balthazar had an earnest conversation about the current exchange rate between the lira and the shekel with the moose head. From what I could see, the moose was winning.
After about an hour and a half, there was a knock at the front door. Balthazar broke off his conversation (which by now had turned to a debate on which was better, "Porky's IV" or "Police Academy V") and shouted, "JEEVES!"
Cab said, "Um, he took the car to get our friends…"
"Car? I don't have a car! Oh bother."
Balthazar walked over to the door and opened it to reveal Renee, Eric, and Cab. We rushed forward to greet them and we all returned to the sitting room.
Renee explained that they had been approached by a man dressed as a Cossack as they waited who informed them that someone named Lady Ashen wanted to meet them. They were led to a section of the city wall near the gate, and the Cossack opened a door there. the walked through and found themselves in a cell. They were questioned by a tall lady with pale gray skin, presumably Lady Ashen, then were rescued by some men who seemed as if they had leapt directly from the Three Musketeers. Somehow, they escaped (Renee didn't go into detail), and after some problem with a gang of toughs, found there way to Balthazar's.
As she was explaining this, I noticed a bit of red on Renee's shirt. I stepped around behind her and was horrified to see the back of her shirt was red with blood. When she finished her story, I asked, "Um, Renee, are you OK? Do you need a new shirt, or..."
She shrugged, then looked down. "I'm fine. We, um, had some problems, but I'm OK now. I'll change soon."
Balthazar looked at Kasee closely. "So, did any of these 'musketeers' touch you?"
Kasee nodded. "Sure, and they possessed us, too."
Balthazar nodded, seemingly unsurprised. "Lady Ashen is in charge of the Legion of Iron. Hmmm...Did she take anything from you?"
Eric spoke up, "Yes. They took our swords, and all of our possessions."
Walks All Paths stood up. "It looks like we need two things: our swords and a way to Grandma's."
While he talked to Balthazar, a thought occurred to me. I didn't think it was possible for any kind of residual spirit-taint to remain, but I shifted my sight to spirit to be sure. Renee, Eric, and Kasee's patterns looked normal. Well, that was a relief.
Balthazar walked over to a desk and opened it to reveal an old-style telephone. He picked it up and jiggled the switchhook. "Lady Ashen, please. Yes, yes, THE Lady Ashen. I know. I don't care. Just ring the phone. LORD BALTHAZAR! Thank you."
He hummed something that sounded like "The Girl from Ipanema", then, "Lady Ashen please. Yes, this is Lord Balthazar. Yes, I'll hold."
There was a short pause, then he spoke again. "Lady Ashen, this is Lord Balthazar. Yes. The riders are back. You know what they'll say. They'll say you were involved. You know what they'll do. Yes. Send it right over. I'll send Jeeves."
He hung up the phone and addressed us as if he had left off in mid-conversation. "The problem is...Charon no riding. That's possession to you. Some people said OK. Some people said no. He killed them. But then he left. Someone came up with this clear stuff that lets anyone ride, but then the shadow takes over and people do bad things. I told Lady Ashen that people would think she's riding, and…"
He broke off suddenly and turned to Mary. "Nice stick you have there."
"Now, where is Jeeves? JEEVES!"
Cab pointed at Eric, Renee, and Kasee. "He's looking for..."
The front door opened and Jeeves walked in. "Found them, sir."
"Jeeves, Lady Ashen is sending us a gift. Could you please go and collect it?"
"Very good sir." And the butler stepped briskly out the door.
He was back in twenty minutes with quite a load of goods. We sorted through the packs, trying to see what was missing. We found that one sword, Kevin's flute, and my Sony Watchman had been taken, as was all of the metal change we had had.
I turned to Dog. *Sorry, guy - no TV for now.*
He gave a mental shrug. *That's OK. The only channel you can get around here is C-Span, anyway.*
Eric stood up from the pile of packs. "Well, now that we have all of this, we need to follow the tendril. Where does it go from here."
He stared at me as I pointed straight up.