The Occultist

Chapter One: Professor Gemake
By Loreic
A pastor paced back and forth behind the pew. Pastor Jeffery didn’t want to deal with the supernatural like most did; he only wanted to preach in a small church in a small town. Recently unexpected happenings started popping up in the small town of Edsion; people started getting riled up and now words of witchcraft spread among the villagers. The congregation started to enter the church, they all took their seats and waited for their Pastor to speak.
“I would like to make an announcement,” Pastor Jeffery said as the crowd started talking in slowly growing whispers, “I have hired an Occultist t-“ the congregation exploded with fury.
“How could you bring one of them here!?” one yelled.
“He’ll damn us all!” another cried.
“Everyone calm down!” Pastor Jeffrey yelled so he could be heard over the panic, “I feel that only an Occultist can help us in this time of chaos.” His congregation reluctantly calmed down, and with that the church service started.
After the service the villagers left while hastily discussing the idea of actually allowing an Occultist in their town. Pastor Jeffery let out a held in breath while wiping his forehead. While the Pastor put up his bible and was about to leave a sharply dressed man walked in. He wore a tan suit and tan dress pants along with brown dress shoes. His light brown hair was neatly parted and an odd charm bracelet hanged to his right wrist. He also wore a necklace of wooden beads and a pocket on his suit showed the chain of his monocle; the chain of a pocket watch also hanged from the suit’s lower pocket.
“Ah! You must be Professor Gemake!” Pastor Jeffery greeted as he held out his hand.
“My Pleaser,” he responded politely while shake his hand, “but please, call me Richard” Richard took out his pocket watch, looked at it, then looked back up to the Pastor. “What exactly are the things that have been happening here?” he asked, “I need as much information as possible to figure out a cause.”
“Where do I begin!?” Pastor Jeffery said flustered, “strange symbols appearing over town, strange glowing shapes sometimes even appearing during the day, and even missing livestock and crops not to mention thefts!” Richard’s eyes widened for a few seconds; he quickly took out his monocle, put it on, and looked around him. After an audibly sigh he put it back.
“What you are dealing with here sir is a summoner,” Richard spoke sternly, “If what you say is accurate then someone is summoning spirits for the purpose to torment, a direct violation to the Summoner’s Acts.”
“There’re laws for summoning?” Pastor Jeffery asked. As a minister he never had learned Occult and or pagan practices, such things were considered heresy to learn.
“Among organized groups at least,” he answered not surprised to hear such question, “ The Psinic Occult Society has it written that if one uses summoning as a form of abuse that the person in question must be taken in, the rule is more complex then that though.”
“Yes, I see,” Pastor Jeffery said with thought. He was fascinated with the ethics of the Occultists, as long as the use of paranormal powers weren’t used to cause harm it was okay; they gave similar rules to supernatural acts as they did one’s rifle. The Church (along with most others) took that sort of things as blasphemy. Pastor Jeffery never really cared for the accusations of witchcraft; his only concern was the safety of Edsion.
“Say, would there be an Inn in this town?” Richard asked.
“Oh, yes!” Pastor Jeffery said; in his absent thought he had almost forgot that this man probably needed to stay in town throughout his investigation. “Just head to the town center and look for a sign that reads ‘Nolin’s Tavern’.”
“Thank you Pastor,” Richard said, and with that he exited the church building.

Chapter Two: Paranoid
By Loreic
Richard Gemake entered Nolin’s Tavern; it was an Inn which had a pub on the first floor, common setup in small towns. People looked over in mild surprise at the dignified gentleman who walked in. They had no idea this could be the rumored Occultist; what people thought of when they heard Occultist was the traditional flavor, a study hardened wizard. Richard went over and sat in one of the barstools.
“A sparkling grape good sir,” he asked the bartender. The bartender just gave him a face that mixed confusion with unamusement.
“We don’t have that here,” he said with a raspy voice, “would you like an Ale?”
“Sir, how old do you think I am?” Richard asked with dry humor.
“Why, I’d guess you’re twenty-five,” he said, yet doubting his answer due to Richard’s question.
“I get twenty-five a lot,” he said, “honestly my age is seven-teen.” The bartender had noticeable surprise on his face. “I suppose I need to go rent a room anyway,” Richard said as he got up, not like the pub had anything for him to drink.
Richard threw his bags (which he went to get after his visit to the church) and setup a small researching desk. A mist dispersed from the back of his neck and formed into an odd creature. It was roughly the shape of a ferret, but it had scales instead of fur. It only had hind legs as the front was replaced with dragon like wings. Its head looked somewhat like a combination of bat and wyrm and had downward curving horns instead of ears.
“Thank goodness!” the creature said in a small voice, “If I had to stay in astral form any longer I would of lost connection!”
“You know Zamber as my familiar that’s impossible,” Richard said o the small creature.
“It is also impossible for you to register sarcasm,” Zamber responded with unamusement, “what’s the job again?” Zamber flew off Richard’s shoulder and landed on the bed.”
“A summoner, and a pathetic show off at that,” Richard said taking out a bottle of ink and old parchment paper, “I’ll need to set up a customized ward to make sure this person doesn’t send out a spirit to get me. Richard finished drawing symbols on the paper and ripped it evenly into eight pieces; he put each one on a different corner of the room. After he placed them he whispered strange words and slumped down onto the bed. He fell asleep while thinking of places one might summon away from peeking eyes.
Gemake woke up to the sound of panic. He quickly got up and ran out of his room as Zamber turned into mist and flowed back into Richard’s shirt collar. When Richard got outside he saw a group of people in a circle looking at something. He pushed his way through to see what they were looking at. Down on the ground laid a large cow; its belly had been completely sliced open with veins and arteries hanging out, it was obvious that its heart had been removed.
“Animal sacrifices?” Richard thought while rubbing his temples,” I really am dealing with a maniac!” Richard started shoeing the people away from the cow. “Move aside, move aside, let a professional deal with this.” Richard drew a basic north tip pentagram and inscribed runes around it in a circle. The people started to whisper in fright to each other as Richard started to chant unfamiliar words. A small faint aura floated near the cow. Richard put his monocle on and inspected the astral glob. “Some of the summoner’s spiritual essence is still left over, with this I-“Richard cut himself off when he saw the crowed staring at him.
“Your, you’re the Occultist,” a person in the crowed said pointing at him while a frightened look adorned his face.
“Why yes Sir I a-,” Richard got cut off.
“Don’t hurt our children!” cried a women.
Richard raised an eyebrow at the people. “I assure you that I am here on business reasons only,” he said trying to calm the frightened crowed. The people ran away from him like bats out of hell and locked their doors.
“I’ll never get used to these paranoid towns,” Richard said frustrated.
“At least I didn’t come out and scare them like that one time!” Zamber said playfully as it formed back onto Richard’s shoulders.
“Telling that small fishing village that you were going to twist their souls and eat their babies wasn’t a wise thing for you to do,” Richard said frustrated, “well we at least have a sample of the summoner’s essence.”
Richard walked back to the Inn and saw his belongings skewn across the ground. “Looks like I’ll be sleeping under the stars tonight,” Richard said looking towards the sky, “but I think I might just find this summoner before then.”

Chapter Three: Just a Job

By Loreic

As he walked down the street Professor Gemake could feel the resentment of the town. The village of Edsion had a long history with the supernatural. It used to be a town that held witch trials and the town center used to have burning pits and gallows, but it's been more than about two-hundred years since anything had afflicted this town. Zamber was now perched on Richard's shoulder, since it didn't really matter now if people saw it; the sight of Zamber also scared away the villager's ideas of throwing food at him.
“I swear, where would you be with out me?” Zamber said joyfully.
“Probably in a quieter sate of mind,” Richard joked.
“Now that we've got that out of our systems where in the eternal planes do we find this damn freaky summoner guy?” Richard looked up into the sky and sighed.
“I honestly need more clues,” he said while in thought, “sure I know his essence, but I still need an idea where to look for this person.”
“Why not check the forest?” Zamber suggested, “I don't know how many times we failed to look there because you said it was 'too obvious'.” Richard gave Zamber a nasty look then headed towards the forest.
The forest by Edsion was one of the few large, dense forests left in England, the forest itself was th reason Edsion had been separated from modern towns. While mot of the world started to boom over industry Edsion's highest technology was hunting rifles. Richard could feel the presence of spirits here, but most of them were probably native forest nymphs, as far as a gut feeling this forest wasn't the place.
“We've been searching here for hours, I think we're done here,” Richard said not even glancing at towards Zamber.
“Hey! It was worth a shot!” Zamber chirped back while flying off of Richard's shoulder. All of the sudden Zamber seemed to freeze in mid-air, it started flying towards some kind of unseen beacon. Richard ran after his familiar that seemed to go mad.
“Zamber! What in blazes has gotten into you!” Richard yelled angrily, “I don't have time for your games!” They seemed to be running towards a clearing, there was a faint silhouette of a man there. Richard couldn't make out his face and as soon as the man looked up he turned and fled. When Zamber and Richard got to the place the man had been they saw a pentagram.
“Look who's right now bitch!” Zamber trumpeted mockingly, “I felt a sure of spirit energy and look at what we just happen to find!” Richard sighed at Zamber's choice of words , but it was correct. Richard knelt down to inspect the pentagram, it was fresh and unused so finding the man hear meant he was looking for a new place to summon.
“He must have been preparing a summon, but then he saw us and ran off,” he said with one hand on the pentagram. He took out a compass from a pocket in his suit and compared it to the pentagram. “It's a south point point pentagram, the satanic star,” he said irritated, I swear, I'm getting sick of these satanist for the sake of being satanist, they hardly get the basic beliefs right.” Richard rubbed out the pentagram with his shoe; Zamber jumped back onto Richard's shoulder.
“I still have his essence's sent ,” Zamber pipped enthusiastically, “he was the same guy that made the raw steak-filla.”
“What direction did he run to?” Richard asked quickly with his eyes turned to Zamber. Zamber jumped off his shoulder once again and flew, more tamely, in the direction the man had ran to.
“Richard realized that they were running back into the town. Zamber kept its path straight into the town causing a tad bit of panic because it chose to doge people's heads only at the last second. Then Zamber stopped.
“Zamber, what's wrong?” Richard asked confused.
“The astral sent, it's... it's... gone,” it said with disbelief.
“Gone? It can't just disappear!” Richard barked at Zamber with equal confusion. Richard and Zamber realized a crowed formed around them. They looked over to a sign that read this area of the town was sacred because it was were the condemned villagers during the trials were buried and looked back to see the crowd with rocks.
“Looks like your moment of glory was canceled out,” Richard said rubbing the back of his head, “now the village thinks I'm a bloody necromancer!”
“You're still going on about that! That was three hours ago!” Zamber snapped back, “It's not my fault the spectral essence stopped near the tomb!”
“Wait, what tomb?”Richard asked harshly.
“not like it really matters,” Zamber stated.
“I said, what bloody tomb!” he said even harsher.
“Ok! Ok! Geez! The one at the grave place, it's one of those tombs town people a pastor that dis in their town!” Zamber frighteningly responded.
“why I oughta!” Richard snarled and started shaking Zamber by the neck, “it was the tomb that was masking the astral sent you twit! It's a sacred area; it has that kind of effect you know!” Richard threw his familiar to the ground and started walking back to Edsion.
“Hey! Wait up!” Zamber squeaked as it flew after him.
“Richard ignored the people yelling at him as he calmly walked into the tomb. He kept his hands in his suit pocket except when he occasionally checked the time. When he neared the tomb the townsfolk fear had already converted to anger; they started to yell at him to just leave. Pastor Jeffery heard the yelling from the church and ran outside to see what was going on.
“People, people!” he spoke over the crowd with his hands in the air, “what is the meaning of this!”
“ This man must be removed from our town immediately!” an angry townsmen yelled.
“He is here to investigate the paranormal activities!” Pastor Jeffery said with force, “he will stay!”
“As far as you know he could have been secretly causing them so he could come and get paid for removing them!”Pastor Jeffery knew there would be noway of installing sense into them; he saw that Richard was walking toward the entryway to the Edsion tomb.
“What are you doing?” Pastor Jeffery asked while running up to Richard, “this is sacred land.”
“I realize that Pastor,” Richard said eyes focused on the entryway, “that's why I must check it personally.”Richard opened the stone door and started to walk down the stairs into the dark pit. Zamber started to glow with an almost lime-green flame that lit up the area around them. Pastor Jeffery had a strange feeling about being there, this probably being his future resting place after all.
“I don't think we should really be here,” Pastor Jeffery said nervously.
“You want me to dispose of the town's summoner problems don't you?” Richard said with his gaze still in front of himself.
“Well, yes,” he said pondering the situation. Both Pastor Jeffery and Richard were dumbstruck when they reached the bottom.
Many coffins were broken into and a few corpses of long dead pastors were tattered across the floor. A south point pentagram was written in blood on the back wall and a man with a twisted look on his face stood in the center of the room.
“Under the Psinic Occult Society you are to be brought to the council to receive your punishment for the abuse of summoning,” Richard commanded in a firm ordering voice, “coming quietly looks good to the council.”
“You have to be kidding!” the man said stepping out of the shade, “you really think my vengeance is through?”
“Vengeance? What does any of this have to do with vengeance!” Richard bit back. The person made a cut on the end of his thumb and held it out.
“Running through these veins are the blood of the people this village killed,” he said harshly, “I am of their descent!”
“That was hundreds of years ago!” Richard snapped, “and if you are indeed of wiccan descent how would your ancestors react if they knew you're a warlock!”
“Silence!” the man ordered, “if you wish to challenge me then summon your servants!”
“I have one servants,” Richard stated calmly.
“Then parish!” he snarled as a blast of energy shot out of the south point on the wall towards Richard.
“ Get out of the way!” Pastor Jeffery yelled at Richard, but he didn't flinch. Just as the blast neared him Richard smacked it away with the back of his hand.
“Wha- what the hell,” the man said with confusion, “how could you deflect demonic energy as if it were just a toy ball!” Richard held his hand up to the man with the back of it facing him.
“You don't think I'd remain defenseless now did you?” Richard said with smug happiness, “this charm bracelet on my wrist is no decoration, it's a tool for creating temporary wards.” He ran straight towards the man . The person threw his fist into the south point and seemed to melt into it. He pulled out a coagulated glob of red evil and ran towards Richard. Richard's ward collided with the man's hellfire and it seemed to eat away at the ward.
“Fool! The power hell's given me is unstoppable!” the man yelled in a frenzy.
“You bloody idiot,” Richard said disgusted, “you don't even know what satanism is!” The ward that was coming from Richard's hand started to cure over towards the man and slowly formed a bubble with the man trapped in his own hell, he turned to dust in seconds.
“Pastor, I think your problem is resolved,” Richard said as he turned around to face Pastor Jeffery, “you might need to have some people come to clean and purify is place.”
The next day the town gathered around Gemake at the town's main entrance, the guilt they felt for chasing him out was clear on their faces (honestly it was mostly embarrassment). The wagon that would take him to the train station was already packed up.
“I thank you again for your services here,” Pastor Jeffery said handing him a bag of pounds, “I deeply apologize for all the grief Edsion has given you.”
“All's in the past,” Richard said shaking his hand, “I've heard of worse things happening in to Occultist in other towns.” With that Richard jumped on the wagon and headed off to the station.
Richard's mind wandered as he sipped his coffee. The train's shifting was almost rhythmic and the horizon was turning an orange-gold.
“There seems to be an unusual amount of reports on satanism, what could this mean?” Richard said in thought.
“How do you know that they're not just now showing their faces?” Zamber asked perched on Richard's shoulder. Richard stayed quite for awhile, the only noise he made was sipping coffee.
“I don't think so,” he said with half confidence and half uncertainty, “something about these cases are just... different.”The council has already given you another assignment right?”
“Yes, in fact our next task is quite different,” he stated after sipping coffee, “we have to stop a riot that has already started.”
“That should be easy for a member of the Vaguefrein family,” Zamber spoke up with joy. Richard didn't respond for a bit, he just kept staring into space.
“I told you before Zamber,” he finally spoke, “I'm Professor Richard Gemake, that name wasn't passed down to me.”

End of the intro chapters.

Chapter Four: Apprentice

By Loreic

A train stopped in the city of New Fallner; New Fallner was a town booming with indestry. It's coal mines had always made New Fallner wealth, but with the new boom in idestry its growth was massive. Off the train stepped a gentleman one would guess to be in his early twenties with a suit case and a bag of luggage. On his shoulder sat a creature that put even the dark Continent's exotic animals to shame. People would glance with curiosity but didn't react with paranoia.
“So this is the city of New Fallner,” Richard said wiping his monocle, “oddly calm for a town supposedly in the midst of a riot.” A man walked up to Richard; he wore a black cloak, black dress pants, and a white dress shirt.
“Professor Gemake I presume,” he stated in a calm respectful voice, “and this must be your familiar.”
“The name's Zamber be-och,” it said with bite.
“I apologize, Zamber has always had... attitude problems,” Richard said apologetically.
“Never mind that,” the man redirected, “I'm Sir Fallner, your contact.”
“Fallner? Then it was your family that founded this town.” Richard stated with question.
“That was Old Fallner, this town's built on its ruins.” Sir Fallner said with nostalgia looking up to the sky. Richard bit his tongue,he obviously brought up some bad history about his family name.
“So I was told there was a riot,” Richard said turning the subject, “but this city looks quite peaceful. Sir Fallner seemed to snap out of his trance.
“New Fallner is a large town, the riot is in the south side of town, you're in the north side.”
“and what exactly are these two sides fighting about? Richard asked.
“You may not be able to tell, but there's actually a firm Church presence here.” Sir Fallner stated, “It's much larger in the south side.”
“Let me guess, there's an argument whether to build a 'grand' church or an office complex,” Richard joked putting on his monocle.
“The riot is between Christians and Wiccans, years of verbal conflict is now battle,” Sir Fallner said sternly.
“Oh...,” Richard said meakly. Battles between conflicting beliefs were no laughing matter.
“and unlike usual fights the Wiccans are attacking back,” Sir Fallner said, “they're using magic Gemake.” Richard gulped, torches and pitchforks were one thing, but magic in battle was a whole different story.
“What about the Wiccan code?”Richard asked, “'An it harm none, do what ye will'?”
“and the Christians have a commandment that reads 'Thou shall not kill', what's your point? Richard gritted his teeth, the Council really expected him to handle this?
“I see my mission here is not to investigate.” Richard said solemnly.
“ You only have to fight if it gets down to that,” Sir Fallner reassured, “your main cause of summon is to be a diplomat.
As Richard and Sir Fallner moved southward through New Fallner the city slowly started to show a slightly more rustic side. Churches also seemed to become a more common sight, also gowning slowly bigger. On a related note Richared got odd looks from some of the people.
“What a happy jolly side of town!” Zamber cheered sarcastically.
“The people here are usually a lot less paranoid you know,” Sir Fallner sighed, “ at least until he came that is.”
“Who?” Richard asked, “a missionary?” often more fundamental groups would come to modern towns to help people 'find their way'.
“This may sound strange but the one who jump started is on the Wiccan side, Sir Fallner said bitterly, “Rhyme Willow.”
“A Wiccan starting violence?” Richard questioned, “that's quite absurd.”
“that's only the start of it, the bloody fool claims he's a prophet.”
“Prophet? That's lunacy.”
“Aye, but people still follow his words,” Sir Fallner explained, “he inflates his ego by having people hang on his word, feeding on their attention.”
They walked even farther into the south side, as it slowly became more humble Sir Fallner seemed agitated.
“I'm sorry Professor Gemake, but I wish not to confront Rhyme,” Sir Fallner said nervously, “we part here.” As Richard watched Sir Fallner leave he could hear a faint announcement behind him. In the distance a small make-shift stage was propped up it a town square of shorts. On top stood a tall man with silver hair. He wore a flowing robe that seemed to have been custom made, compared to the tunics that most of the people here wore.
“Time to meet this 'prophet' Rhyme, Wouldn't you say Zamber?” Richard said smugly.
“Sure, why not,” Zamber said with the voice of someone with nothing to do who was just presented with a load of office work. Richard was looked at with much curiosity by the people who lived in this side of town, not because of Zamber (many people had their own familiars here), but because of his formal attire that clashed with the rest of the town. When Richard entered Rhyme's presence he too gave Richard a curious look, but more of what a cat might give a mouse when it came out of its hole.
“You must be the Mr. Willow I've heard so much about.” Richard said respectfully while holding out his hand, “and who might you be young man?”
“Please, just call me Rhyme,” he responded joyfully, but also ignoring Richard's hand.
“I am Professor Richard Gemake of the Psinic Occult Society,” Richard stated in a way to assert his air of respect. A quick snarl formed on Rhyme's face, but it disappeared before anyone but Richard could see it. “I am here to assure that this little skirmish you've started ends,” Richard continued.
“Aye, but Richard,” Rhyme said addressing him by his first name in order to spite him, “as a follower of the occult you should understand the treatment that others have put upon us.” Rhyme persuaded.
“The Occult is not a faith like what you're talking about,” Richard bit, “it's the study of the unknown, the research of other plain of existence, supernatural and paranormal science if you will.” Rhyme gave Richard and cold stare that would make a Doberman walk away with its tail between its legs.
“I do think that you've overstayed your welcome, Occultist,” Rhyme hissed, “ just leave me be and you won't feel my wrath.” Richard decided that it would be best for now to leave the man be. As Richard and Zamber left Richard they noticed many decorative pentagrams; Richard checked his compose out of impulse, north points. Zamber starred oddly at them, occasionally tilting its head, like they just weren't right...
Richard had spent the entire day trying to interview people about Rhyme. On the Wiccain side they seemed unwilling to talk to him and on the Christian side they got into a tizzy about Rhyme. Richard laid back in his chair, he was in a room rented for him while he was on the train. It was rather dust, but also had a good amount of books. He was just about half asleep and had read a noticeable amount of his book when a loud commotion woke him up. He stumbled over to the window and threw open the curtains. On the street below the windowsill two crowds had formed, the lower south side, Wiccains, and the northern south side, Christians. Each were carrying torches that glowed eerily in the dark night, almost like candles at the bottom of a dried up well.
“We're done with your kind!” Rhyme yelled in a dominating tone at the apposing crowd, “leave now or face eraser!”
“Bloddy hell, does he think this city is a nation?” Richard swore in his mind. Richard jumped out the window (he was on the second story) and cushioned his fall on bush set out as decoration.
Rhyme growled, “What are you thinking? Didn't I tell you not to interfere?”
“An order's and order,” Richard firmly stated glaring into Rhyme's eyes,”your word is under the council's.” Rhyme's patience seemed to snap. He knelt down onto the ground with on of the pentagrams in front of him. Slamming his palm on to it he pulled out a flare of magic, Richard cursed himself for thinking the pentagrams were only decoration.
“I'll give you one last chance, child,” Rhyme rasped, “just go back home now and play with your charms like a good little Occultist.”
“Eat horse shit troll face!” Zamber rudely yelled back. Rhyme threw the magic in rage at the two; a charm on Richard's bracelet glowed as a ward formed a wall in front of him. This particular ward was synchronized in a manner that would hold back Wiccan spells that can in contact with it. Richard smiled smugly as the blast approached, but that smile was quickly washed away. The ward didn't even break as the blast blew threw as if the ward were a simple sheet of iron mesh. With a thud Richard fell to the ground, skin partly chard, and looked toward Rhyme .
“H- h- how did your magic simply pass through it.” Richard stuttered.
“Do you still doubt what I am?” Rhyme said solemnly, “after my blessed magic simply passed through your pointless ward?” More magic flowed out of Rhyme's body; just before he launched another blast at Richard Zamber leaped up and sent out a fog of astral energy. As the blast missed Richard it can close to hitting some of the people in the other crowed; they rallied in response and attacked causing everyone else to also fight back. Richard scampered off the ground and ran towards the only place that he saw was calm, the forest. When he had reached the edge of the forest Richard slumped against a tree to catch his breath. He spent some time pondering how Rhyme's magic broke through his ward. Did he make a fluke synchronizing the ward? No, he had been perfecting his wards since he was twelve. Was Rhyme really a prophet? He ponder on why he even considered it. A spark went off in his head, he took out his compass and looked over to Zamber who was on the ground next to him.
“Zamber, could you check your internal compass?” Richard asked.
“Right'O sir!” Zamber cheered sarcastically. Zamber flew off the ground and beat his wings to stay in mid-air; it seemed to think for a few seconds and then turned and pointed. “North's that'a way!” Richard looked down at his own compass, it read north as the opposite of where Zamber was pointing. Richard seemed content with himself, he didn't know, but Rhyme had altered the area around New Fallner so that the magnetic polarities were inverted, luckily Zamber can only see the planet's true polarity. It was late, and Richard had already been woken up once. He slumped to the ground and let the sound of the crickets lull him to sleep.

Chapter Four: Apprentice (cont.)

By Loreic

When Richard woke up it wasn't the battle that had rocked him from his slumber, but the sent of fire. It wasn't the smell of burning wood but was more liken to the smell of incense. The sky was still dark as the sun had only just started to rise and the glow of torches from the battle lingered in the distance. Zamber leaped onto Richard's shoulder as he stretched his arms yawning. He proceeded to follow the curious sent in order to find its source; the smell had the effect of catnip on Zamber who seemed to be in an oddly blissful mood. Eventually they reached a small clearing, and a very strange one at that. I the center was a full fledged pentacle circled by candles which were the source of the sent Richard had smelled. Even more curious was what was in the pentacle, a sleeping girl. She had hair which went slightly past her shoulders and had a silvery colour to it. She wore something like a black tank top that had tassels for sleeves and also ended in tassels at the bottom. Her pants were also black and went to just above her knees where even more tassels were that ended above her ankles.
Zamber flew over to the pentacle like it had just saw a plate of mutton and, just like a moth and a bug zapper, was thrown back in a painful shock. The same force of the pentacle seemed to be pushing back Richard as he approached it; when he got to be right next to it he had to firmly plant his feet in the ground or else he might fall back.
“What are you doing here?” he asked the girl, she didn't respond. “She must be in a self-induced hibernation, she won't snap out until the cand- Zamber knock it off!” he impatiently yelled at Zamber who was continuing to ram into the force that held him back. Richard lick his fingers and started to snuff out the candles the circled the pentacle; eventually they were all snuffed out and Zamber seemed to be back to 'normal'.
“I swear man, incense is like a drug to me.” Zamber said dizzily.
“Yes, I could tell.”
“Who asked you!”
Richard sighed and used a near by twig to cut a few lines into the pentacle thus making it useless. The girl stirred and slowly opened her eyes.
“Hello there,” Richard said to her,” how did you get to be here?”
“I- I wanted protection,” she stuttered still half-asleep.
“How long do you think your been here?” Richard asked .
She paused to gather her thoughts, “about three to five moons.” (three to five days)
“Five days?” Richard thought, “ that's when I got the call to come here...” As the girl slowly started to wake up Richard paced with Zamber perched on his shoulder. Richard turn back to the girl.
“How rude of me not to introduce myself,” he said,” my name's Richard, what's yours?”
“Lyric,” she responded quietly, still confused by what was going on.
“Pleasure to meet you Lyric, I've been sent here to stop the riot in town.”
“A riot? Here?” she responded with shock.
“Did you not know of it? It started five days ago.”
She stared back with disbelief.
“She must have been put in the hibernation before the riot to not know about it,” Richard thought, “probable her parents foresaw this and made an attempt to protect her.,
“Any way I still need to stop it,” Richard said dissatisfied looking behind him,“I'll take to a safe area. Lyric nodded in agreement at got up to follow him.
Rhyme's group had been able to push their way forward into the town; people had lock their doors and stay recluse in their homes.
“I have business to do, stay here until I'm finished,” Richard ordered Lyric. With an order Zamber flew out into the crowed belched out a cloud of soot that distracted them. Richard then ran toward Rhyme with his ward prepared as a blade , but just as he came near Rhyme shot a blast in Richard's general direction throwing him off.
“Your like a rash, no matter how much you're treated you keep coming back,” Rhyme growled through the soot. Rhyme shot another blast at Richard who, now have the proper ward settings, volleyed it straight back, but the energy simply melted into him. Snarling, Richard attempted a charge on Rhyme, but he was knocked to the ground by a sweep of Rhyme's arm.
“You just don't get it do you,” Rhyme hissed at Richard, “this time, I'm just going to erase you, so you can stop popping up asking to just be thrown to the ground.” Rhyme stomped over to Richard and ripped the charm bracelet from his wrist. “Can't do much without these, now can you Occultist?” Over to the left of Rhyme's head Zamber can darting through the air.
“Take your filthy hooves of of him pig face! Zamber yelled in rage. Rhyme just turned and Zamber smashed head first into a building. With Zamber out cold from its anticlimactic attempt at a rescue Rhyme turned back to Richard. As he held Richard up from his collar Rhyme looked up and saw that the soot had cleared and that the people were looking at something, and that the people then turned to look at him. Rhyme squinted his eyes and saw what the others saw, the girl Lyric. Rhyme had a lot of explaining to do.
Six days ago the town had received word that someone would becoming to try and stop the fightings that had been going on. Knowing that this person might investigate him Rhyme (bluffed) a vision that all the children needed to go out into the forest for ten days of meditation. Rhyme did this because he knew that although his grip on the adults was firm, the younger ones might be more obliged to listen and speak with the one coming to investigate. He claimed they would be there for two weeks in the center of the woods in heavy meditation and that anyone tries to wake them a curse will fall. When the children were released into the woods he tranquilized each one of them and put a sleeping hex on them while he arranged them in a circle. In the dark one girl saw a loaming black shape attack the others. I fear she ran off to another side of forest to hide not knowing what was going on. Rhyme had pondered why he couldn't find the last child, he swore he could find his own daughter.
The people were very confused, why was a child right before their eyes when Rhyme had clearly said that all the children were in the forest?
“Ly- Lyric?” Rhyme stuttered, “How, how are you back from,” Rhyme was trying to come up with an idea but he could think of no way to turn this in his favor.
“Dad, did you start this?” she said a bit frightened. Richard scolded himself in his mind for not connecting the music themed names.
“I can explain dear daughter,” he said using his typically voice of authority, “thes-”
“Where are are children?” interrupted one of the people.
“Yeah! Were are they!”
“People, people! Calm down now!” he ordered his followers, but with each order he gave more people started to yell at him for the whereabouts of their kids. It got to a point were the whole crowd swamped around him demanding him to answer, chaotic yelling filled Rhyme's ears and then his mind. Just when he thought he was going to implode a voice popped in his head.
“Ya had your chance, but I do think you just failed. Have a fun time in hell!”
Rhyme started to burn out of nowhere, the people who were close to him panicked and ran off. Others tried to throw water over him but the fire wouldn't even give a sense of notice. When he had finished burning all that was left were some ashes the read “H.C”.
The next day more Occultist came to assist with cleaning up the damaged side of town. A team had found the children in the woods and undone the hex. Things had seemed like they were being taken care of but something seemed to Richard odd. If Rhyme had put all the kids in the forest and he had found Lyric in the pentacle, did she make it herself? Richard walked over to Lyric who was being interrogated by two Occultists.
“Leave her be, from now on she is under my jurisdiction.
“and why is that?” one of the Occultists asked.
“as she is now my apprentice,” he calmly stated. Both Occultist were taken back.
“You need permission from the council before you claim an apprentice Gemake,” one stated firmly, “besides, you also need to see if she's ok with it!” Richard turned to Lyric.
“Well, are you?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said actually unsure about what to say.
“but still, approval is needed by the Psinic Council!”
“Well that just happens to be my next destination Come Lyric, the next train leaves in forty-five minuets.” Richard said gesturing towards Lyric.
“Uh, yes sir,” she said confused at what was going on and followed Richard.