Arooo…9

Previously………..

“More scotch, some food and some new clothes other than that time and rest.”

“I’ll try to get all of that, this way.”

Tim leads us down a hall that’s attached to this room and into a large old library. I can smell old books, and lot’s of other things that has me on the edge of sneezing. I get a chair by this old oak table and take a seat and Justin’s staring and looking around after Tim leaves. It’s all very wolf centric in its designs and its art and stuff…this is a really old library.

“We better get started Erica.”

“What?”

“This is the library of the Were here in the UK I’m guessing his highness let us in here for a reason so we’d best start looking for all the information that we can find.”

“Oh…right…well you’re the scholar where do we start?”

He points to shelves that are locked behind silver bars. “That looks like a good start.”

“Okay…”

I really hope we can trust Tim and that he’s not in someone’s pocket.

*And Now……….

I’m wandering at first through the place as Justin is looking at the bars the place isn’t all that big but at the same time it’s a private library of a people and things that don’t exist according to the histories of the normal world.

But the normal world is just the façade, it’s never been normal it’s just been hidden?

I get a cart when I’m coming up on these books that are written in very old Latin and they seem to be about names, like titled in the names of demons and devils and stuff like that and I’m loading them onto the cart and then heading to the tables that are used for studying and I start going through them.

** “All that ever was shall be forever again and anew.”

“When the world was not yet the world as man knows it the world was a cosmos…all places were connected by the great chains of life and mana flowed from one realm to another and to another still yet all realms were all the same place yet different.”

“The Ea of man was not the Ea of fae nor was it the Ea of the gods in fact there was an original Ea and that was of the world that was and is the primal one, the eldest world for all of the great worlds of man, fae, gods and such were echoes of the primal universe.”

“All was created and all was destroyed and this was the world of The Alpha and The Omega…the first world and the place of chaos mixed with order and home to our creation.”

“Each ripple from it became a copy of the one before it. Chaos, The Old Ones made what they did to be feared and fed by those that they had sparked their creations and releasing them like seeds in the next waves.”

“Order and Light the “Good” created the worlds of their kind first creating the Elohiem their servants the angels and then later the races of man.”

“While the forces of nature and those of the first force of mana the living soul of majik laid claim too and fathered The Elde or as the Greeks would call The Titans, The fae and the animals of the world.”

“Eager to reap their harvest The Old Ones sought to devour their children and to tip the balance within the primordial universe in favor of chaos over order.”

“The Titan’s warred with each other in their own realms and still uncontent and perhaps touched by The Old Ones they raged across the cosmos destroying or devouring all that would not submit. And this war begat the immortals to be seen as the powers that mankind has seen them as and many did find heart and follow and thus became The Gods.”

“This however was not the end for during this war the touch of Chaos slipped into the Elohiem and angry at being displaced by the gods they fought back against their rise in a war over the power of the souls of those that were the races of the mortal coil. Thus started the rebellious coup by Lucifer and his followers to take over the realm of man and to make it his own realm to raise an army to unseat the power of Yahweh and the other Elohiem.”

“This saw the rise of Satan and his demons and devils as they took forms sought to be stronger that those of their former kith and kin.”

“The Elohiem and the gods all fought Lucifer together ending the three sided war and in this they bound him to the world he had retreated to a place between worlds a barren mirror of Ea and left him there chained and buried.”

“The Elohiem led the war against the Old Ones with all the races of the mortal coil and soon after many losses it became clear to the others that the balance had shifted to that of The Old Ones and soon they would rule over the primal universe and their influence would ripple outwards and the accords were struck.”

“The Elohiem and The Gods had their numbers diminished and thus they turned to the Elde who agreed to come to the battle on their terms and with them marched the races of The Fae…it was to be the battle of battles…and still there was not enough.”

“We of the Were were made bound by Fae powers to the totems of our closest mystical relatives the animals we who volunteered for this duty became strong, strong enough to rise and fight the hordes of The Old Ones and we became shock trooper and scout and reaver.”

“But we were made too strong and we survived the aftermath of the war and it was then we were seen as a threat. A pack can be as strong as it’s alpha…they gather it’s strength and yoke it and a truly powerful Were can battle Angel, Fae-Lord or Demon and that power through blood and through the pack can be shared out by the alpha.”

“Mankind ended up being the great victor of the war…created by the Elohiem they were the weakest of the beings that had fought but to sustain them with energy so much of their creation had been given one thing…an Immortal soul.”

“And choice…to return to their mortal coil once again to be someone new once again and live another life or become a denizen of the realms they had allied to…or had faith in….that was part of the reason “Heaven.” Warred with “The Gods” was for the ever renewing pool of energy.

But none of the fae could do this; a Fae destroyed was destroyed forever being that they are their living souls, as with the Elde. And the others that a material form is the only way they can fight or live like The Elohiem, Angels, Even The Gods they cannot return to the realm of mankind on their death until a certain amount of time had passed…one full turn of the world around the sun and one full turn of the world under the sun.”

“We of the Were were going to be put to the sword…we had all of our powers and we had both choice and Immortal souls. It was The Elde that stayed the hands of the others and it was under the conditions of cast no spell, be tied to the moon…a death-binding to silver that we were spared from being killed outright and we were cast out into the world of man to fend for ourselves.”

I blink and rub at my eyes since it took a lot of reading to pick this all out from these rambling pages of ancient Latin and get to the actual meat of things. These old guys and gals wrote not just histories but opinion pieces all at the same time.

I’m looking at Justin who’s sitting in the cage of the excluded books like he got the door open and had started looking and sat down once he’d gotten caught up in the reading.

“Well I’ve found a lot of broad strokes reading and I know why the fae have such a hard on for man and beast.”

Justin looks up. “Oh?” Then it sort of hits him too that shift from reading print for so long then looking at the world and he starts to rub his eyes.

“Apparently you and I were created with immortal souls like some kind of rechargeable battery for these Elohiem? And they’re not to happy about it.”

“That makes sense, given what we’ve found out about how your powers operate now with what your pack queen did.”

“But humans?”

“We have immortal souls like you said and other beings don’t. When we die we either come back in another life or go to whatever afterlife that you believe in and become a soul battery there.”

“They use us as batteries in heaven?” I’m thinking of my wife now.

“Well not as like prisoners like in that matrix movie they have to keep up the appearance of their realms to keep the souls there otherwise we’d be like no deal and we’d be free…that’s the whole choice thing.”

“So when an atheist dies?”

“Their power gets released into the world itself.”

“But they don’t believe in any of this.”

“Hmm…and that’d really stop you from shifting and ripping his arm off? What they believe doesn’t change reality.”

“So…heaven’s real?”

“Yes it is but it’s not likely what the good book exactly says that it is.”

“Then what is it?’

“No idea, but it’ll likely be close to a lot of the ideas.”

“And the Lucipher thing.”

“Angels have no real form, they are energy beings completely made of soul. They are more powerful in that way when it comes to wielding power since they are made up of it and even their bodies here are very temporary shells. It takes a huge amount of power to do and then there’s free will.”

“Okay…so why is he freaking out over that?”

“We get to chose, Angels don’t get to choose they were made to carry out the will of heaven throughout the universe and to be the soldiers and such against the enemies of heaven. Lucipher saw what we do as a species and it drove him over the edge that we of all beings were given this gift.”

“But how’d he really fall?’

“I don’t know, he wasn’t supposed to by his very nature. None of them should have but they did.”

“Okay…so the Elohiem are? They mention Yahweh as being one of them.”

“I’m still not clear on that except that I was told one that Yahweh is just one of the names of God. I’ve also here that God is one that is many so maybe they’re the other names and faces of God.”

I nod that makes sort of sense.

“I still haven’t found anything though on the stones and stuff.”

Justin get’s up and he stacks some tomes on each other and touches the top one and walks out carrying the whole bunch he has like he just tied them like in the old days with the whole ribbon around the books. It’s a little odd seeing him doing magic even though I know he’s a mage.

He gets a spot at the same table and sets them down.

“I’m looking at the stuff now. These are old books on majik.”

“Oh…so no wonder they were locked up since no Were is supposed to be at them.”

“Locking up stuff is a good way to keep it from being used against you too.”

“So…what’s it saying.”

“We’ll as far as I can tell a soul stone is a battery, it holds hell souls in it and collects them too all bound to Asmodeus. Now they need these to open up locks in the place were he and Lucy have been put down like a magical auto release gun for the seals.”

“The seals?”

“Thee Seals.” He’s saying “the” but he’s really emphasizing it.

“I’m still not following.”

“The religious ones? You’ve heard of them?”

“I thought that was movie stuff.”

“Hmmm…so are wizards and werewolves.”

“So they charge these things up and they use then to open the locks up.”

“And when they do Asmodeus will try to make his own version of Armageddon.”

“Which is why the virus?”

“Yes since Were’s don’t believe too much in a higher power and with their alpha’s dying with them then all that power’s dumped out into the world.”

“And with the Templars going after mages and anything supernatural he’s having them limit the people that can even use that energy and he’ll gobble it all up.”

“He’ll feed on this world. And feed it to get his people on his side and raise an army to take over everything.”

“But won’t heaven stop him?”

“Sure it can try but they’ll fight that war here and not in their realm.”

“And the same with the fae?”

“Worse you said there were traitors, an elf at that place in Canada?”

“Yeah…?”

“The realm of the fae is the closest to ours that’s what he’ll attack first there’s likely sides being chosen even now.”

“Oh shit…Okay I have to get Stevie up to speed.”

“I’ll be here, there’s more to this stuff and other things that’ll be useful.”

“Other things?”

“Spells.”

“Oh goody.”

He smiles at me and I get up and head over to the far side of the library by the windows and I sit down on the window seat.

~Stevie? ~

I get this picture of her in a car/ she’s in the passenger side and the window is down and she seems to be focuses on something else.

~Erica? ~

~Yeah I’ve got the skinny on what’s going down. ~

~Perfect timing fill me in. ~

We do that mental connection thing both of us downloading things and she’s getting more and more focused as she’s getting angry. Angry for our kind and other Were’s angry for the humans and our family there and even for the Fae? I get this whole feeling that she’s sort of with one.

I can feel her planning, being that leader girl that I told people that she is.

~So…Stevie? ~

~Talk to this Tim and tell him everything and then tell him to help you find these assholes and get that stone. ~

~Got it and you? ~

~I have to meet some people first and then we’ll start hunting them down and taking care of these stones once and for all.~

I catch this scent through her and it’s like crystal meth and old blood and something that just…I don’t recog…it smells like the priest I tried to catch.

~What’s that smell? ~

~Vampires.~ I can feel her partially shifting and she fades out with me seeing her wolf shifted eyes in the mirror of the car.

I feel and smell him as I get up and I’m in that edgy zone too caught up with Steve as tim comes in with a couple of bags of take out and a card board box full of clothes that look like military stuff and some biker gear.

“How’d you know?” He blinks at me. “You didn’t what’s wrong?”

“My Queen’s going after a nest.”

He tosses me a take out bag. “Us too, we found them.”

“Where?”

He looks at Justin this time. “Bramblewood.”

“What’s that?”

Justin’s closing books and he’s grabbing new clothes. “It’s one of the major guild houses for those of the craft. This could be really bad if they turned on us.”

“Would they?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so. They’re closer to the druidic types.”

I’m stuffing down barely warmed burgers with liver puree smothered on them with some cheese and I’m over getting dressed and it’s no time to get all girly about being naked in from if them….yes they both looked even during this.

“Okay then mages or not we’re moving out…Tim…you and your lads with us?”

He’s staring at me and I can smell apprehension on him but anger too and his attraction all mixed together.

“Aye…these fuckers are so interested in demons then let’s give them hell.”

I slip my SWAT pants on and my feet into the combat boots using a cantrip to lace and tie them as I get a dark grey sweater on over my sports bra and just grab the leather jacket.

“You got an armory?”

“I grew up in Belfast what d’you think?”