The team had arrived outside St. Catherine’s Private Members Library in Holborn, Central London. The weather was sunny and bright as they stared at the imposing Georgian four storeys building in front of them. So this was the Library..?
They entered the magnificent building via the main entrance, noticing as they passed beneath it an ancient carved plaque of an angelic winged woman with owls and lions at her feet fixed above the lintel. Inside, the panelled entrance led to the main desk. Off to the sides were the public reading rooms; two large double-storey annexes with painted masterpieces of ceilings and the walls, floor to ceiling, covered in book shelves and books. A small number of people sat reading at the various tables or wandered around pulling leather-bound books off the shelves.
The receptionist looked at their invitation and asked them to deposit all of their belongings, both mystical and mundane, with her before proceeding through to meet the Chief Librarian. Sam left his equipment including his restraints and Mary was forced to leave her harp. A young English-Pakistani male approached them and in a strong Birmingham accent introduced himself as Mazhi Kamran Khan, their guide today.
There was something about his demure presence that made Akira decide to check out his aura and as he did so, he saw that Mazhi was apparently some sort of mystical battery; the magical energy fuelled seemingly by the sun seemed to pour into him.
He directed them up a set of stairs and through a door bearing an identical stone relief to the one they’d seen on the front entrance, into a dark and almost medieval-looking study where they were met by Dr. Maxwell Bradbury, Chief Librarian; a tall gentleman in a well-tailored suit who was chain-smoking cigarettes despite the room being filled with ancient books, manuscripts and scrolls.
It felt… disrespectful in one who claimed to be the Chief Librarian to risk smoking around such manuscripts but Bradbury appeared unrepentant.
He dismissed Mazhi with a “That will be all, thank you Gawaine” much to the young man’s apparent annoyance and turned to the team. “So, you wish to study at the Library? May I ask why?”
The question caught them slightly off guard as he quickly followed it up with another. “What do you know about the Library?”
The next half hour consisted of what could best be described as an informal lecture. Bradbury explained that although most people believed St. Catherine’s was a private members’ reading library it was also the secret headquarters of the Library; an ancient, worldwide organisation formed to protect and collect all mystical knowledge. Library agents worked to collect arcane texts and study magical artefacts and had established the College Invisible to teach those with mystical abilities how to control them.
He briefly explained that the Library’s origins begin in the fabled city-state of Shambhala. The Scholar-Kings of Shambhala and their advisors devised a grand plan: they would create a vast repository of knowledge, encompassing all topics and open to any who desired education and enlightenment.
The dream ended when Shambhala was attacked by a veritable army of supernatural evil.The great city-state burned; texts and artefacts were destroyed, damaged, or stolen; great scholars died at the hands of unspeakable monsters.
This attack caused a shift in the surviving Scholar-Kings’ focus. Unable to protect all human knowledge, and now acutely aware of the threat malevolent supernatural forces posed, they devoted themselves to the accumulation and reclamation of mystical knowledge. They reasoned that if they could keep dangerous arcane lore locked safely away, mankind would have a chance to create an enlightened civilization on their own; moreover, should evil supernatural forces again gather, they would stand ready to aid in humanity’s defence.
Newly motivated, these agents created local libraries around the world; the most famous of these was the Library of Alexandria. At this Bradbury asked them if they recognised the relief above the entrance. When they said no, he said that they were of Hypatia of Alexandria who saved the books from destruction at the ancient Library of Alexandria.
Turning to Mary he said “you appear to have had a religious upbringing so you’d probably know her as St. Catherine of Alexandria, The Church renamed and rebranded her to better fit their Christian ethos. Hypatia is the embodiment of all the Library holds dear.”
He paused to emphasise that not all who studied within these walls walked the path of light but all present were bound not to bring down a mystical apocalypse on humanity.
The Library subsequently gathered, studied, catalogued, and protected various arcane texts and items in relative anonymity. They monitored individuals and items of great magic power in case they ever become a threat. They provided information to occultists and mystics in need, though they did not always agree with those seeking aid as to what constituted necessity.
“So again we come back to why you want to join the library? Please note, full membership is rarely offered and in your case definitely cannot be until the abomination known as the Abyss is no longer a direct threat.”
Pointing with his latest cigarette at Akira he said “You’d likely benefit from learning the arts in the College Invisible but be warned for everything gained a price must be paid… It would be down to the Parliament of the Dawn as to whether or not they would accept you.” Turning next to Sam he continued “You are unusual, a mystical hybrid and need help growing into your power. That we can do.” He then turned to Mary “You I think seek specific answers and there we can help you… You seek weapons? We’re in the library. Books are the best weapons in the world. This is the greatest arsenal you could have. Arm yourself!”
He approached a shard of an amber crystal that sat on his desk, gestured and a female figure appeared in the air above it; a near naked, animalistic female figure with horns and forked tail.
He clarified that this was Ophelia, the Library’s supernatural network – a demonic presence bound to their service and linked to other copies of herself throughout the Library.
Explaining that they would probably be issued temporary, probationary library cards – he offered to let Ophelia answer their immediate questions. Akira asked if any of the lawyers from Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley were members. Avoiding eye contact and speaking in a voice lacking any emotion she told him that Lucius Cabot was a member and was currently present in the Library. She explained that the target was likely his Vervaine heritage though his mother rather than his father’s lineage as a Steadman and descendant of the Fisher King, as Lucius has been alive for centuries under various identities hunting the remains of the Vervaines to extinction.
Mary asked about a spell to cast out demonic imps and was informed that the type of imps and the type of binding would first need to be identified.
As Sam began to speak the weather outside worsened. What had apparently began as some high winds and a smattering of rain had built into the worst storm in a generation. The wind didn’t howl so much as scream. The rain doesn’t fall it was driven, hard, merciless, torrential.
The rain now fell like an ocean thrown from the sky. It crashed into the building, splattered off the pavement outside, and formed instant rivers that raced along the gutters and overwhelmed the drains and forced everyone off the streets. Thunder was followed by an avalanche of water that threatened to drown the street. In the deluge day was reduced to night. Yet this was a weather pattern that was intelligently directed against a single part of London.
As the storm built up outside – massive vines started to cover the outside of the building and tried to break through the windows in search of… something. In the sky, in the centre of the storm was a female figure…
Bradbury stared at the distant figure and at the vines that were expanding exponentially. Bradbury asked Ophelia for an explanation of what was happening and in a monotone voice, eyes staring away from them, she briefly explained about the attack on the building. He ordered her to request that all of the major books were removed by staff from the shelves and stored in the miles of abandoned railway tunnels beneath their feet – an area known as the stacks.
He then turned back and said “we could do with your assistance – the Library is apparently under mystical assault by both storm flood and vegetable matter. I need all of my staff inside to remove the books safely downstairs to the Stacks and to protect the patrons and the library itself, could you deal with the issue outside?
It would appear that someone has decided to attack the Library using a “guardian of the green” and some sort of human/storm elemental hybrid, a young female that Ophelia says calls herself ‘Calypso’.”
Turning to Sam he explained that he feared that the female causing the storm was actually similar to Young Sam; a hybrid artificially bonding an elemental storm and a meta-human in the same way as Sam had had his meta-abilities enhanced by combining his essence with that of a dragon.
All of which makes him think it’s connected to the contents of the Casket of Ch’Andarra. As the storm intensified and the giant vines assaulted the building, trying to break through the windows he quickly explained that decades ago a 2,000 year old small golden casket was unearthed at an archaeological site in the Latmos Mountains, a well-known mystical place in Türkiye, hidden in a sarcophagus from Roman times carved with a figure of the Sorceress of Mount Latmos.
The tomb was discovered by the famous archaeologist Dr. Clinton Avery. Beneath the sarcophagus was hidden a sealed golden casket embossed with the image of the sorceress Ch’Andaraa.
The gold casket was opened to reveal five sacred scrolls – these were initially sent abroad for translation and the Library managed by various means to acquire two of them, substituting innocuous copies without anyone being aware of the swop. The three remaining scrolls were returned before they could also be acquired.
Ophelia gestured and a copy of one of the scrolls appeared in her hands. Bradbury explained, “This is a copy of one of the scrolls. It’s quite harmless, words on paper without the power. It takes more than access to writings to work magic.
Of the remaining three scrolls, one was retained by Dr Avery and its contents remain unknown. Two were sent to the University of Ankara from where they were stolen some time ago by unknown thieves.
Of the scrolls stolen we believe one was the Bonds of Fire which apparently contained a dark necromantic ritual to bind a suitable vessel with the essence of a dragon and thereby resurrect it. This is what the Library believes was used to bind the essence of the Dragon Tiamente from its bones into your earthly vessel Sam, that of a meta-human with pyrokinetic abilities, but the ritual was apparently interrupted before it could be completed.
The bonds of air were a similar ritual intended to bind an air elemental again to a ‘worthy vessel’ – apparently another meta-human was used. The girl outside is testament to that.”
Bradbury gathered the copy of the scroll from Ophelia and continued “we hold the scrolls known as the Bonds of Raknis and the Bonds of Adro here and that is what I think the creatures outside are after…”
Sam and Akira looked at the image of a servant of Raknis and thought how similar that creature looked to Tangleweb…
No time for further contemplation, they had to act.
They rushed for the doors and forced themselves outside into the storm. First Akira surrounded both himself and Mary in his force cage. Meanwhile Sam quickly checked that all of the innocents were no longer on the street. Suddenly a massive vine struck against Akira’s shield but it held. In the windows above figures could be seen casting spell after spell at the vines. Those that were hit shrivelled away but in turn that released cascades of water from their ‘corpses’ which, like the water from the pipes under the road surface, now flowed into the sky. Nearby standing on a patch of grass stood a figure they’d seen once before, a sentient tree-like figure last seen hugging a book golem. This was the guardian of the green? As Akira dropped his force cage and redirected it into a personal shield, Mary changed to Banshee but remained substantial in the howling torrential winds and unleashed a shattering shriek that cracked the creature’s bark in several places. Despite the obvious damage, it remained standing, directing the sentient-like vines breaking through the concrete pavement against the Library building.
Sam muttered “Hope this Green Giant’s bark IS worse than its bite” As Akira unleashed a mystical blast at the tree-like creature but to no apparent avail.
In response a lightning bolt stuck the ground beside Mary, missing her by inches. Sam used his headpiece to call up Annie and ask her to let the authorities know that the storm was meta-related and to request everyone avoid the area. That the Balance was on-scene and the matter was being handled.
Mary came over the comm channel; “I recognise her, that’s the meta-human that was kidnapped from Reading Hospital when I first came here, Angelique St. Marie.” A victim too, then. Sam tried to fly up but was unable to get close due to the strength of the winds. However having got within what he hoped was earshot of the girl at the eye of the storm, he shouted “This is madness, can we talk about this?”
Back on the ground the ‘Green Knight’ sent splinters of wood from his plants at the two ground-based members; Akira was protected by his shield but Banshee was forced to dodge – unwilling to risk turning insubstantial in the howling winds. Then she noticed, the creature hadn’t moved from that single patch of grass throughout its attack. Risking being torn into unconsciousness, Banshee ran straight at the tree-like creature and grabbed hold whilst turning insubstantial. And both in their gaseous forms are hurled by the winds into the building, but Banshee was determined to hold on.
In the meantime Akira dropped his shield and projected the force cage around the distant figure of Angelique. Immediately the storm reduced in its intensity but was still powerful enough to make being outside both unpleasant and difficult to breathe. Sam took the opportunity to fly in close while she was in full rant about “meta-human scum interfering with a God” and used his draconic influence to tell her that if she wanted her freedom she needed to stop this immediately. Unfortunately it didn’t appear to work.
Back on the ground, Banshee had managed to retain her hold on the Green Knight who while insubstantial was no longer controlling its attack vines which had stopped their advancing assault on the building. A sense of empathy overcame her and she realised that the creature had been forced to attack them. Then she saw it, a glowing mystical brand on its ‘hip’; a slave mark. If that could be healed? This creature she now knew was being forced to be here. Without her harp could she..? Turning back to Mary and with neither of them now insubstantial she immediately started singing a healing tune that caused the brand to start healing though she noticed it was forming a scar in the bark…
Akira suddenly has an idea – to help heal cuts in trees and broken branches, didn’t gardeners sometimes cover the wounds in fresh mud as part of the process, possibly..? Grabbing a couple of handfuls of soaked mud, he ran towards the creature, dodging the reanimated vines and swaying branches and successfully covered the remaining ‘wound’ with the mud. A primeval voice echoed in their minds; a single word; “free”. But then a wave of sadness at being forced onto this barren patch of land to assault this building surrounded as it was by tarmac and concrete.
Back in the sky Calypso was trying to find out if Sam was a ‘God’ like her, he replied that Akira thought of him as a god and worshipped him. Did that count? She asked “but are you a meta-human?” “Yes I think so.” And hatred and anger combined on calypso’s face as she released a bolt of lightning that shattered the force cage allowing her time to summon a large ‘bubble’ of water from the sky and surround Sam in it, trying to drown him.
The balancing and tumbling that Mikey had put him through now came to the fore as he used his wings and limbs to swim to the edge of the water bubble and grab a breath of air.
On the ground Banshee again grabbed the Green Knight and turning them both insubstantial allowed the buffeting winds to blow them both towards a nearby park. As the guardian of the green, the Green Knight left the area, all of the vines started to fall away and the water inside them began to tumble up to again surround Sam and attempt to drown him. Again he swam free and fired off a blast of fiery breath that turned the water around him into super-heated steam.
Back on the ground Akira dodged a torrent of water fall from the sky and unleashed a mystical blast at the figure in the sky. Both hit simultaneously.
Over in the garden, Banshee turned substantial and lowered the tree-like creature to the ground then leaving it there as it sank its roots deep into the ground with a contented sigh, she rushed back to join the others. From a distance he saw it start to merge with the earth and flow back into the green.
In the sky Sam grabs hold of Calypso to restrain her but is rewarded with a smaller but even denser bubble of water, this time just over his head. Using his hands to push his face through it into the air he realised that although weakened he really needed some help to restrain her. If only..?
A second later the team earpieces filled with a screamed request for someone to bring him his restraints. Banshee forced herself back inside the building and grabbed the restraints (and her harp) from the front desk and rushed outside where Akira used his Theurgical-Kinesis to float the fastenings up and into Sam’s hand. His first attempt at binding her failed but he succeeded on his second attempt and Mary, having changed back was able to make her fall asleep with a lullaby spell. However when she became unconscious she was no longer able to fly and she plummeted towards the ground only to be caught by Akira’s TK and lowered to the ground.
Congratulating themselves, they were dismayed to see that their semi-conscious storm ‘goddess’ was able to turn herself into water and escape by hiding in the torrential rivers that were the streets of Holborn. Defeated, just not captured, however the Library and its precious books and scrolls were safe.
Back in Bradbury’s office, the Chief Librarian thanked them for their assistance and hinted that such service might, just might one day result in full membership. He offered them in the meantime full access to the Library services including Ophelia.
Akira asked for information about his ancestral home of FFrwd Dylluan and was told that to understand the property he first must understand the Steadman family as Ophelia retrieved a history and genealogy of the family – unfortunately it was written in ancient French.
Sam was advised to understand what the scroll of the Bond of fire might be and possibly consult with Lillian about the nature of the Dragon within him while Mary was asked to approach Ophelia who quickly laid her hands on Mary’s head – there was a migraine-like pain and Mary suddenly ‘knew’ how to examine Jeeves and thereby discover what would be needed to exorcise the creatures. She also knew this ability would be a one-off, once used it would be gone from her memory.
As they gathered in one of the reading rooms down below Sam remembered Mikey’s request and explained to the others about her idea to take over the scrapyard. Akira admitted the spider-like entrance Mikey had made gave him the wiley’s but agreed that having someone running the yard and possibly having some robotic dogs in the yard wouldn’t be a bad idea, though he again asks if it would bring them in some income. Mary agreed that it wouldn’t be a problem if Mikey was to take over running the yard, especially if she could set up a proper security net to monitor the area and was able to build the security shield over the hangar entrance Sam had discussed. With that they headed back to the reading rooms.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 