An End to Darkness?
Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:29 pm
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.
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.