An End to Darkness?

[Cybermancer]

Now that it’s finally over and most of us have recovered, it’s probably safe to discuss what happened. Hopefully this will be the end to a darkness that has haunted us for a long time.

I wouldn’t ordinarily consider this my story to tell however the participants are still exhausted and drained from the experience. My role in most of this has been as a watcher and things I didn’t directly witness, I was informed of in great detail. So while the others rest and recuperate, I shall relate the events as I know them.

It all started approximately two or three months ago when Ron Caliburn was contacted by Lady Yue and Master Zhong (honorifics of their own choosing). They were the grateful parents of a young girl that Ron and Cynthia rescued about two years ago. As it happened, they were also both powerful sorcerers, each in their own right. Since that time two years ago they have been puzzling away at a solution to Cynthia’s problem.

For those of you who are unaware, allow me to bring you up to speed. Cynthia was conditioned from birth to become a warrior. She was employed as a child soldier as early as pre-adolescence by an organization called the Hourglass Foundation. It was part of a program to create specialized anti-supernatural combatants and the training was both rigorous and brutal. Thousands of young girls were forcibly enrolled and only dozens survived.

It was during this torturous time that Cynthia was approached by an entity that resides on the astral plane. The entity offered Cynthia not just enough power to survive her training but to excel at it. The entity promised that Cynthia would become special and cherished to those who currently controlled her life. Lastly the entity promised Cynthia that she would eventually grow so powerful that she would be able to throw off her shackles and destroy those who had enslaved her. This entity claimed to be the ancient demon, Lilith.

Whether or not this entity actually was the being known in legend as Lilith or was merely appropriating the name is something we might never know for certain. Cynthia is convinced that she is but her judgement cannot be trusted on this issue. Nevertheless I will refer to this entity as Lilith henceforth.

What we do know about Lilith is that she was some sort of vampiric astral entity. I say ‘vampiric’ because while she shared many similarities to what we might consider ‘traditional’ vampires, there were also differences.

Lilith offered Cynthia a deal. She taught Cynthia magic and in return, Cynthia would pay a tithe in blood for every spell she cast. That tithe could be paid with the blood of her enemies or with her own blood but it always had to be paid before a spell could be cast. We were never able to determine if this was a psychological conditioning that Lilith imposed or if Lilith was able to control the flow of magic within Cynthia on some metaphysical level. Either way, Cynthia was never able to cast magic without the sacrifice of fresh blood.

Eventually Cynthia was liberated by Darcy and Ron Caliburn. In turn, Cynthia and Ron Caliburn set about infiltrating the Foundation to bring it down. Unfortunately this was also the time Khavik decided to make his final appearance so their timetable had to be advanced. While they accomplished many of their goals, the job was somewhat incomplete. Most of the child soldiers were rescued and most of their handlers arrested. One pair managed to escape both the control of the Foundation and law enforcement. There will be more about them later.

Due to Khavik’s return, Cynthia and Ron felt compelled to come to Hannah’s aid. Frankly, the less said about Khavik, his machinations and even his fall the better in my opinion. He was a little more than a supernatural bully and deserves neither glorification nor even memory. What is important is that he was considered a powerful enough threat that Cynthia was willing to make a deal with Lilith for more power.

The result was alarming. Cynthia was granted enough power to do what she wanted but just barely enough. There were forces moving behind the scenes that were trying to manipulate events to force a confrontation that would overwhelm Cynthia and force her into further contracts with Lilith. Those machinations were foiled however which is fortunate. The transformation Cynthia had undergone from this latest contract was bad enough. It wasn’t the power that was alarming so much as the physical characteristics that remained a part of Cynthia.

After the expanded contract, Cynthia found she could now manifest vampire like abilities. She had fangs that could retract when not in use and her eyes would turn all black when she was using them or employing powerful magic. She also developed an allergy to silver which we kept under wraps for security reasons. Another limitation was that her magic was weakened when used during the day.

As if this wasn’t enough, Lilith went from being an external entity existing on the astral plane to one that was now residing fully inside of Cynthia’s mind. This was anticipated to some extent and a trap was sprung for Lilith there. Lilith was trapped in Cynthia’s mind and her influence severely curtailed. While this meant that Lilith was aware of much that Cynthia experienced, it also meant that occasionally, Cynthia was able to see and hear things that Lilith was up to and pass that information on to us. A detail even few of our allies knew about.

Since that time an uneasy status quo had been maintained. Lilith was contained but it wasn’t a feat that any human could be expected to maintain indefinitely, even with the help of her family and friends. All we had done was buy time for ourselves while we looked for a more permanent solution to the problem of Lilith.

That is where Lady Yue and Master Zhong come in. Their daughter was one of the young girls that had been rescued by Ron and Cynthia when they infiltrated the Foundation. The daughter had been a recent “acquisition” and the attempts to brainwash her barely begun. With the family reunited, the parents promised to look for a solution to Cynthia’s problem.

Research was shared between them and a number of other mages who were also working on the problem. Eventually the collaboration led to a breakthrough. A ritual was developed that would banish Lilith and her influence from Cynthia permanently. The downside was that it would leave Lilith a free agent, able to wreak her vengeance and evil. Fortunately unrelated events would present a possible solution to that as well.

Unfortunately, Lady Yue and Master Zhong were perhaps just a bit too arrogant or merely underestimated the amount of influence Lilith still retained outside of Cynthia’s mind. They allowed Cynthia to learn of this plan and so Lilith’s operatives in the world also learned of it and prepared to act.

As determined as fate seemed to screw us over, it also seemed to be willing to toss us a bone or two as well. One of Lilith’s former minions was willing to turn in exchange for protection and a few assurances. From the information she shared with us, we learned that her former ‘sisters’ were planning a ritual of their own in Iraq. We only had a week to act.

I’m afraid that the first of our guests are arriving so that’s all I’ll be able to relate for today. I’ll follow up with more hopefully on the weekend or later next week.

[Cybermancer]

We had no idea what sort of ritual Lilith’s minions were preparing. We were also caught a bit unprepared for the level of power some of those minions wielded. We’d had some encounters with them previously and they seemed more like peak level humans who had some minor psychic ability and occasionally practiced magic. They were known to us as the Lilutu.

Based on research into these creatures that started years ago along with information we have more recently unearthed, it seems that the Lilutu are some sort of air spirts, perhaps related to djinn. When they are air spirits, they are able to observe our world but can’t interact with it except in small and mostly harmless and meaningless ways. That is where Lilith enters the picture. Apparently she knew of a way to allow them to possess a baby. Thus they could experience the mortal world and have lives of their own. Unfortunately it appears that this possession kills or permanently displaces the soul/mind of the child. The body forever after belongs to the Lilutu.

The Lilutu appear to be more amoral beings with little understanding of human ethics rather than truly evil beings. Like the wind, whether they are helpful to a person or destructive depends as much on random circumstance as anything else. But the ones given mortal bodies are supposedly very loyal to Lilith and appreciate the gift of sensation.

It appears that the Lilutu grow more powerful as they grow older and do not age once they reach adulthood. The older they get, the more they learn to master paranormal powers and this seems to make their bodies stronger as well. The weakest of them are hundreds of years old (the youngest was just over a century) and it was from these that we gained the impression that they were not overly powerful.

However once we received intelligence on their whereabouts, we started actively hunting them down with our allies. This is when we started encountering more powerful Lilutu, those who had walked on the earth for a thousand years or more. Our initial encounters with these ancient beings were not as successful as we would have liked but we did learn from each encounter and refined our methods of attack.

One thing we did learn is that they all have a severe allergy to copper. This made jacketed rounds a viable weapon against them. It also made certain anti-armor weapons ridiculously effective.

Despite early difficulties with older Lilutu, we were confident in our ability to disrupt their ritual, even if we didn’t know what the ritual was, exactly. Our source was left in the dark about what the ritual was, only informed where it was and that she was expected to show up there to lend a hand. She didn’t of course and will forever be branded a traitor amongst her peers. Which ties her safety to our goodwill that much more tightly.

We were perhaps a little too confident in our abilities. Still, in retrospect I don’t see there was much we could have done but what we tried to do regardless.

I won’t detail how we got into Iraq, past military and para-military check points and to where the ritual was taking place. Suffice it to say that it took a combination of our unique skills and abilities to navigate the situation.

The ritual itself happened in a place only tangentially connected to Iraq. It seemed that the Lilutu knew of a demi-plane that can only be reached periodically from our world. The last time it was connected to our world was in 1960. Before that it was 1905. The next time will be 2070.

In this place that exists between shadows, they were attempting to summon their goddess (Lilith). Gotham Witch was only barely able to identify what they were doing before Cynthia lapsed into a coma, confirming her suspicions.

For their part, the Lilutu identified Gotham Witch and Hannah as two of our most powerful members and attacked them with all they had. That is to say, all they could spare as their more powerful members were focused on the ritual of course. If we hadn’t spent so much time before this thinning out their numbers, we would never have had a chance in that dark place.

While they weren’t ignored, Ron Caliburn and Peter did not receive the attention they should have from our enemies. They were able to maneuver around the defenders and by working together (perhaps to the surprise of the enemy as much as themselves), they were able kill one of the head Lilutu and disrupt the ritual before it could be completed.

Unfortunately while we were getting our licks in, the enemy were getting theirs in as well. One of the other child soldiers from the Foundation and her handler had joined us for this fight. In the middle of the chaos, a portal opened and a dozen demons came through it. Most of them were acting as a screening force while one of the faster ones made a bee line for Rook (one of Cynthia’s former ‘sisters’). The others pounded her handler (Raiden) into unconsciousness before retreating back through the portal.

They didn’t escape unopposed however. Hannah managed to break away from her Lilutu opponent long enough to strike out at this new enemy. Much to my own personal horror, Hannah was struck down with a blow I felt certain was lethal. Perhaps that is why I am relating this story in such a detached manner. It’s much too personal and I do not wish to relive a blow by blow detailed account.

Disturbingly, even the Lilutu seemed to be trying to stop the demons.

The down side was that now that the ritual was done, the Lilutu were able to turn their full attention to us. Rather than direct my attention entirely on Hannah, I had to orchestrate a fighting retreat and a safe recovery area for our wounded.

For their part, the Lilutu didn’t seem interested in pursuing us and finishing us off. A tactical error on their part perhaps or else they too were reeling from what had just transpired. Either way, it gave us a chance to lick our wounds.

[Hannah]

Matt had me write down what I experienced while I was out as soon as I could hold a pen. He thinks its best to capture these things fresh before the mind starts to add and remove details. He wanted me to share this with you so you’d know I was okay.

…

When the daemon turned on me, I threw up my defences as best I could, but as we both know, it wasn’t enough. When it struck, it struck hard and I found myself falling into darkness.

But it wasn’t a fall, it was more of a pull really.

Soon I found myself adrift in a void. There was no light, no sound, nothing
there, but me.

At first I wondered if this was something the demon had done . . . but this didn’t feel like it was a torment. If anything, it felt sheltering.

“Hello?” I called out, but the darkness absorbed my voice.

You have been making a lot of noise, Hannah Knight.

Maybe I should have been startled by the darkness replying, but I’ve been through quite a lot already. Besides the voice was soothing, reassuring . . . maternal.

“It’s something I’m good at.” I replied, looking around for the source. “Did you bring me here?”

Yes, we have, to see the source of all the commotion.

“Well, yeah, that’s me . . . were you wanting to ask me about something? My friends are in trouble and I’d like to get back to helping them, so I’m in a bit of a rush.”

You cannot help them. In fact, right now, your heart is struggling just to beat.

“I see. Is this one of those things where we make a deal where I serve you and you return me to life?”

Not unless you want it to be.

“Alright, then why have you brought me here?”

We have already explained that.

“That can’t be all, just to see me.”

If that were all we wanted, we would be satisfied and return you to your failing body.

“So . . . then what? If I’m dying and there’s something I have a chance to do other than float here, I’d kinda like to get on with it.”

You are impatient. You shall not pass while we speak.

“Yes I kinda am, my friends are in trouble, and Rook is in the hands of those daemons.”

You risked your life for this child. Nor is this the first child you have done this for.

“Yeah, I get that from my father.”

You have taken in children that were not yours and loved them as much as those born to you.

“Yes . . . how did you know that?”

We watch many things. You have had our attention for some time now.

“Thanks . . . I guess.”

We have watched your searching for ways to help your step-sister.

“Are you offering to help?”

We are not. She must ultimately be her own salvation.

“Okay, then why are we having this conversation?”

We had children once, they called us ‘Mother’ and we loved them deeply. When they were taken from us, we wept in the dark void left by their absence. In time, we learned to use that void to shelter not only ourselves but to shelter others.

A dark sadness came with those words. It was almost overwhelming. I felt like weeping, but instead I did what I do, I offered support. “You are very brave and kind to turn your sorrow into a way to help others. I hope I never know what it is like to lose a child, but if I do, I hope I’ll have the courage to continue to help others.”

The sorrow lifted like the dawn. In the darkness, specks of light appeared. Soon I was adrift in the midst of a starry sky. In those stars was a constellation in the shape of a woman’s face, her eyes deep black pools in the void.

You will awaken intact. Do what you would do. We will speak with you again.

“That’s not giving me any answers. Who are you?”

Wake up, Hannah Knight.

And with that, I snapped back into place and saw Matt leaning over the bed with a concerned look on his face.

HK

[Cybermancer]

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to relating these events. The holidays were busy for a number of reasons, both personal and business related. Surprisingly though, not a lot on the supernatural front recently. I’m fine with that as it gives us a chance to regroup and decompress before the next time we might be needed.

As for what happened next…

Naturally I was relieved when Hannah opened her eyes again. I was certain she might not make it. She was one of several casualties we took in the fight. A fight that hadn’t ended when she went down or when Rook was taken by the demons. Those who could still fight covered everyone as we withdrew from the situation.

Hannah’s recovery did signal a turnaround in fortunes for our side however. Not only did she recover fully, she was able to heal most the others who had been injured. She wasn’t able to help Cynthia but fortunately the young witch came out of her coma on her own.

She confirmed that the Lilitu were attempting to summon their mistress out of Cynthia’s mind where Lilith was currently contained. She had struggled to keep Lilith from escaping and felt she was about to fail when the ritual was disrupted.

Quite a few things were still unknown to us which led to some rampant speculation.

We knew or believed that Lilith required a physical host to re-enter the mortal world. That was the whole reason she was a part of Cynthia’s life to begin with.

In retrospect we realized that perhaps bringing Rook along was a mistake as she might well have been a suitable candidate as a replacement for Cynthia. This may have been part of the Lilitu’s plan from the beginning which might explain how we given the information regarding the location of the ritual to begin with. It’s hard to say with any certainty since the arrival of the demons in the middle the ritual seemed to throw both sides for a loop and were opposed by both sides.

That led to two lines of speculation. Either there was another party involved this or Lilith was trying to double deal her own minions. While the Lilutu seemed genuinely loyal to Lilith, that didn’t mean she was loyal to them. It was also possible that Lilith was making deals with other parties for unknown purposes.

Additionally, the enemy would have additional opportunities to summon their mistress in the immediate future. So we were not able to rest for very long.

Fortunately we did have an ace in the hole.

I’ll have to finish at a later time. One of my monitors indicates that someone is playing hide and seek with my security personnel so I have to prepare a proper welcome for them.

[Nemesis]

I suppose I should start adding to this tale since Cybermancer has been so busy lately. Not to mention the fact that it's my story, really. And I'm on summer break.

The 'ace in the hole' that Cybermancer was referring to in his last post was a girl and a woman named Innocence. The girl appeared to be about only about seven or eight years old and had only been seen in my dreams. Not only by myself but by others who can visit dreams.

The woman on the other hand was quite old. She looked to be a century if she was a day. Unlike the girl she was very much present in the material world and had been for a very long time.

One thing that they both had in common was that they referred to me as being a dream.

That having been said, they were probably the same person. Or perhaps a part of a person or different fragments of the same whole.

Regardless, for whatever reason, they were both looking for Lilith, the same as we were. They were also better at tracking the ancient demon's minions. It was as though they had the inside track on her thoughts.

With their help we were able to block two more attempts of the Lilitu to summon Lilith out of me. The girl especially helped me hold her down inside my mind.

All of that was just a holding action however. Eventually the Lilitu were going to get their way and have Lilith summoned. The trick was letting them have their way on our terms.

That meant finding Rook before they did. I won't give away all the details but suffice it to say it took quite a bit of magic to pull off. And another confrontation with demons.

What was odd about the encounter was what was in the tracks we found after the fight. There were the cloven hooves you might expect of course, looking rather like a stampede of wild goats had gone through the place. But there was one paw print nearly missed and half swept away, as though deliberately brushed by a tail. An expect tracker we know insisted it was the print of a fox. Its presence was quite out of place and we have yet to determine why it was there at all.

Of course, we had no sooner rescued Rook from the demons that had stolen her away when Lilith's minions arrived. No doubt they thought they'd won when they managed to grab both Rook and I.

It must have been some surprise for them they went ahead with their ritual to summon Lilith only to have more than just her pop out of my head.

This is the hard part of the story for me and a large part of why I haven't wanted to talk about it here before now.

The girl? Innocence? She wasn't a dream persona like we had suspected when she first started appearing in my dreams. She was a sort of psychic projection though.

She was the last bit of innocence that once resided in my mind while I was still in the foundation. A mere fragment of untainted hope that they had yet to scour from my mind and soul.

I was the dream persona, created by her mind to protect her. But I couldn't do it. There was just no way. We would build up walls around her and the bastards at the Foundation would find new ways to tear them down. It was a losing battle and I knew it.

Parts of my memory of this are hazy, even after Innocence restored some of them. But what I think happened was that I pushed her out of her own mind and body. It was the only way to save her and even that was a desperate Hail Mary. I cast her out into the world of dreams and then molded myself to become what the Foundation had wanted all along so that they would never have any reason to go looking for her.

Apparently an angel was watching that day though and Innocence was saved. She was hidden away and kept safe, not only from the Foundation but also from Lilith who would come a very short while later (I guess an angel and a demon were both watching, weren't they?)

But Innocence tricked me in the end. The plan had been for me to leave with Lilith so that she could have her body back. Then I would dive into Lilith and possess her in much the same way she had tried to do to me.

Innocence was stronger than I took her for and she forced me back into my own mind and went out with Lilith.

Once out, she merged with the old woman, who had probably been the same person all along. Though if so, she was merely a physical psychic projection of the little girl. Either way, it doesn't matter and makes little sense even to those who are initiated in such things.

Innocence grappled with the ancient demon while my friends battled her minions around me. I was fairly helpless through it all, reeling as I was from the mental backlash of having both Lilith and Innocence cast out of my mind at once.

Lilith was pushed through the veil between worlds along with all but a small handful of her remaining minions. Innocence went through with her, having possessed the demon's mind at last. Now they are all trapped someplace else that once was and may be yet again. But for now they are all gone.

Somehow, I miss them all. They were all, to varying degrees, a part of who I was for as long as I can remember. They all contributed to making me who I am today.

There was some fallout of course. Papa wasn't too happy to learn what my plan was after the fact, for example. Neither were a few other people. I guess that helps me understand why Innocence pulled the old switcharoo at the last minute there.

Likewise, some of my magical knowledge and power left with Lilith. I'm much weaker now and I'm still relearning a lot of what I used to know. That was another reason I delayed in posting. I didn't want anyone who might be reading to know just how weak I had gotten until I had gotten over it.

There were also casualties.

Maddie (who once posted here as Phoenix and whose account has since been usurped) and her son Shang are no longer with us.

Likewise, Cybermancer's god-father, Dr. Austin James is also no longer a part of this world. I especially miss him since he did so much behind the scenes to help battle against Lilith and to help me become as normal in my mind as I can be. Christina continues he work but he was more than a friend to me.

Loss seems to be one constant we can't get away from. Even when we win.

[Lord Shakar]

I regret that I wasn't around to assist in this matter. It sounds as if my expertise in both the Astral and the Extra-dimensional could have been put to good use.

I wish that I hadn't been held up dealing with the politics of the Astral Plane for so long. I knew I should have reached out and checked my sources long before.

If any of those involved in this need any assistance feel free to contact me. I am now taking a more active interest in the Physical Realms once more.

[Nemesis]

We all do what we can when we can how we can.

[Cybermancer]

You don't give yourself enough credit, Cynthia. You fought longer and harder than anyone could have expected and endured much. You did more than what most people could.

[Ron Caliburn]

Can't get much prouder of someone than your Momma and I are of you Cynthia. This was a solid win, and it was because of you.