Victorian Days & Nights by: Elsbeth Magic & Mayhem in Victorian England

Chapter 9

Rebecca sat off to the side of the Tea room, watching as other members entered. Much to her surprise, the day started when a messenger arrived at her home informing her to proceed to the Kinsley estate. Leaning over, she whispered to an older looking gentleman dressed all in black.

“Why are we here so early?”

Black Jack smiled. “What are you talking about; I haven’t been to sleep yet.”

“You do know something, don’t you.”

“Can’t say that I don’t, Rebecca, let’s say I hope what I know to have happened is wrong. I can then go to sleep peacefully."

Before the conversation continued, two Sergeants entered the room. Jack had to smile when his apprentice approached and stopped himself from saluting. “Good morning, Owen, and how is your lovely wife doing?”

“Very good sir and a good morning to you…although I guess it’s almost good night.” He half stood at attention, while eyeing the food over in the corner. “My wife at least is getting used to my odd hours.”

“Help yourself to the food my good apprentice; we are still waiting for the others to arrive.” Turning his head Black Jack had to keep himself from laughing. “Good lord Osgar, I hope at least you had a good time last night, you look absolutely horrid.”

Rebecca frowned. “Indeed, what were you doing last night, Osgar?”

“His Lordship had me spend the night at Madam Love’s establishment.”

“What?”

“Didn’t get any sleep did you, girls keeping you up all night.” Black Jack grinned.

“That they did.” Osgar rubbed his face.

“He did not.” Rebecca looked astonished. Osgar spent a night at a brothel under Lord Kinsley’s orders, that was absurd.

Before Osgar could explain, Black Jack laughed. “So did you find what you were looking for? Besides the ladies.”

“Jack!” Rebecca frowned.

“Behind one of the walls, apparently the creature only comes out at night when a certain type of man is sleeping in a particular room; Nasty piece of work, to seal her up like that.”

Rebecca looked confused.

“Both our good Sergeants and a squad spent the night waiting for a ghostly apparition to appear. None of the ladies working there tonight were actually working girls; in fact they were some of our own people.”

Rebecca remained silent as Black Jack continued the story.

“Apparently every month, when one of our soldiers spends the night with one of the girls they are attacked by some sort of wild animal. Thankfully there haven’t been any deaths. What’s rather odd according to the owner, these incidents are new. Oh, they were aware that the place had a history of hauntings, but never something so direct. Normally such establishments are close mouthed about such things; however one of our men knows the owner.” He shrugged, wasn’t any of his business. “So last month after an especially brutal attack, they came to us for help.”

“So why all the subterfuge?” There was no reason why they needed a squad to pretend to be prostitutes. Even Jack’s apprentice could discover if a place was truly haunted.

“Because on our initial investigation we found nothing.” Osgar nodded thanks as Owen passed him a cup of tea. “Owen, who had more experience dealing with these types of people, suggested that perhaps it was some competitor trying to put them out of business.”

Owen nodded. “We have seen this before Miss, where an establishment hires a rogue magician to force the closing of a competitor. Normally we have another department that handles such incidents, but eventually...”

Black Jack smiled. “It comes back to us. We thought that perhaps we would just skip the whole middle man and deal with it ourselves.”

“So why did you dress our women as prostitutes...”

Osgar laughed. “We didn’t, Rebecca; it was nothing more than an illusion. True, a master of the arts would be able to see through it, however the ones who do these sorts of things are hardly master class magicians. If you physically touched any of our people, you would feel their uniform. Of course, all of the volunteers were male. Except for Corporal Pendleton”

Black Jack chuckled. “Well no one is quite sure what race the good Corporal is much less its gender.”

“Yes well, at the stroke of midnight as the owner foretold; a creature, more like a black hound, appeared inside one of the hallways. Deathly silent until it passed through the walls and attacked Corporal Pendleton and myself.”

“What happened?”

“Corporal Pendleton banished it.” Osgar shrugged. “Apparently it was a curse. We followed its source to an older part of the building. Inside an abandoned storeroom behind a false wall we found the remains of a chained up woman.”

Rebecca put his hands to her mouth. “How dreadful, so she cast the curse?”

Black Jack nodded. “We believe so; however the woman had been dead for quite some time.”

“So what caused the curse to activate? Was it a competitor as you suggested or something else?”

“Something else.” A voice answered from the across the room. Lady Kinsley entered the Tea room, followed by Luna and Brigit.

“Brigit?” Jack looked surprised.

The Irish Witch moved quickly throwing herself into the arms of the older looking but quite young gentleman. Such displays of affection were not typically the norm in a polite society, however with Brigit living with the Fae most of those human cultural mores have fallen to the way side. Of course her friends, being her friends, just smiled.

“When did you get here? No one told me about it.” Black Jack looked towards Rebecca who only smiled.

“Surprise.” Brigit kissed him lightly on the lips.

“Brigit” Lady Kinsley said affectionately. “We do need to talk about other things; I will give you to plenty of time alone, but for now.”

“Yes, your Ladyship.” They both said at once taking a seat next to one another.

“Osgar, I assume that you were successful in last night’s endeavors?”

The Sergeant stood up straight and gave a very formal report on the events that took place in the London brothel. Covering those involved, who should receive commendations for a job well done and future plans to follow up on other incidents.

“That makes what, four or was it five such incidents this month?”

“Eight actually Lady Kinsley.” Owen said. “According to my friends at the yard there has been a rise in sightings in various locations. Most of what we have seen is in London proper, however there have been reports that such events are also occurring further away.”

“An increase in activity is not all that unusual; we often see it during certain times of the year.”

“True, Rebecca, still until recently that curse was not active. We are not even sure the unfortunate soul had any real power to begin with.” Osgar commented.

“Next time this happens.” Luna spoke up, trying not to look at Rebecca who was currently giving her an unfriendly look. “I would like to be included.”

Lady Kinsley turned to the Vampire. “I don’t think accepting your help at this time, Leila, is proper, not everyone is comfortable with your current situation.”

“I agree.” Rebecca nodded.

“Michael didn’t mind last night dragging me clear across London.”

“I don’t mind, Lady Kinsley, my squad tends to be more open minded than most.” Black Jack offered.

“If that is acceptable to you, Jack, then Leila thank you for your kind offer.”

Sergeant Osgar frowned. “Where exactly did you say you were last night, Miss Leila?”

“Some abandoned factory...”

Sergeant Osgar turned to Lady Kinsley unhappily. “I thought you said you were not going to enter the grounds.”

“Such things...matter not...Sergeant.” The twins Nemain and Macha entered the room, turned around and closed both door. Quite a few in the room were surprised when the two girls began to cast several powerful wards, covering most of the house.

“My manor is already heavily warded; no one will notice a few more.” Erin said.

The others around the room could only nod, the seriousness of the situation suddenly becoming apparent.

“As you are aware our Society is being pressured from several different fronts, politically, magically and from what I have discovered, financially.”

“Financially?” Rebecca looked confused.

Owen nodded. “My brother explained to me that some of our more wealthy donors are being pressured from various sources not to donate to the society anymore.”

“However, I believe this attack is to keep us off balance and keep our attention away from what is truly going on.” Lady Kinsley nodded thanks as Nemain served her a cup of Cornish cream tea. “Not everyone is aware of what went on last night at the Warehouse, nor why we were alerted in the first place. However that particular incident is but one of a chain of events starting with the death of the Vampire historian Menenius.”

Black Jack nodded. “It was to make us blind.”

“Yes, I believe so.” Lady Kinsley smiled, something passed between the two before Erin continued. “We have had an ever increasing incident of hauntings and other manifestations in the London area, including at least thirteen of some group or groups attempting to summon a creature from the Outer Darkness.”

“Foolish.” Luna frowned.

“I agree, however all of these incidents have spread our resources dangerously thin. Unfortunately, we are unable to call for assistance from our European brethren, because they too are having similar issues.”

The room became deathly quiet, the ramifications that this was becoming not just an English problem but a Continental problem, did not bode well.

“Although happily, the Society in London only seems to be having political issues.”

Most understood the reason for that. Although there have been for centuries people with the ability to band together during times of troubles, the Society itself began in England, and was considered its main office.

“Rebecca, what do you know about the overthrow of the Titans by the Greek gods.” Lady Kinsley asked seemingly out of the blue.

Rebecca opened her mouth then nodded. Obviously this was going to be part of the discussion, how she wasn’t sure. “The Titanomachy began with the rise of Cronus, overthrowing his father Uranus and becoming King of the Heavens. Cronus along with his siblings killed their father, who in turn said that they too would be overthrown by their children. Which is exactly what happened, Zeus with the help of Athena, Apollo, and Artemis cast Cronus out of the heavens.”

“What happened to the Titans?”

“They were cast into Tartarus and sealed away.”

Lady Kinsley nodded. “Brigit, what do you know of the war between the Fae and the Fir Blog.”

Brigit nodded. “The Tuatha Dé Danann fought the giant race, thought to be almost gods themselves. The Fae King Nunda wished to live in the fair lands but the Fir Blog king refused. The two kings and their armies met in battle where the Fairy King Nunda fought the Fir Blog champion on the fields of Balagatan and lost his hand. However the goddess Morrgian slew the Fir Blog king. Afterwards they were finally cast out of the lands and forced into the Aran Islands and the fortress Dáºn Aengus.”

“Of course, we do not need to go over the war in the heavens with God and Satan.” Erin smiled. “So, Owen, what do all these stories have in common?”

Owen looked surprised being asked. “Lady Kinsley?”

“What happened to the Titans, Fir Blogs and the Devil and his minions?”

“They were all banished and thrown out of the heavens.”

“And sealed away.” Rebecca nodded.

Lady Kinsley sighed. “Those stories are not uncommon; they can be found in most cultures throughout the world. There is a reason for it, although most, even the Fae, who are almost immortal have long forgotten.”

“Menenius would he have had knowledge of such things?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes.” Luna answered. “He would have known something.”

“We come to believe that there are certain forces that are attempting to break those seals. Their attempts are causing tears between the Otherworld and our own. “

“So that is why we are seeing more hauntings among other things.”

“Correct, Osgar. Also, the abandoned factory that most of us have visited opened a portal into that prison for a brief moment. However to do such a thing required the death of well over a hundred people.”

“Why?” Owen shook his head, who would be insane enough to do such a thing.

“We don’t know Owen.” Lady Kinsley said sadly.

“Lady Kinsley, if this seal is broken the Fir Blogs, Titans or whoever will be released.”

“Well yes, however Osgar, those beings locked away are much more terrible than the evil gods of those stories.”

Macha began to sing quietly.

"Brár muno beriaz ok at bnom veráa
muno systrungar sifiom spilla.
Hart er á­ heimi, hárdámr mikill
–skeggld, skálmld –skildir ro klofnir–
vindld, vargld– áár verld steypiz.
Mun engi maár árom áyrma."

"What?" Osgar looked confused.

"Brothers will fight and kill each other,
sisters' children will defile kinship.
It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife
–an axe age, a sword age –shields are riven–
a wind age, a wolf age– before the world goes headlong.
No man will have mercy on another"

Black Jack translated. "Ragnarák."

Sergeant Osgar chuckled. “Sounds like you’re talking about the end of the world.” Looking at at Lady Kinsley and the twins, his smile disappeared.

“Yes Osgar, that’s exactly what we are talking about.”

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth