It had been a long day. It had started with an unexpected banged bedroom door in the early hours when Sam and Annie had some form of disagreement. There had been no other obvious tantrums or loud shouting, but Sam had left early in the morning obviously upset about something and had switched off his comms and tablet leaving him uncontactable. There were times Akira thought, when it felt as though Sam was auditioning for a Relate commercial. Annie meanwhile had elected to lock herself in the monitoring room and had refused to come out all day.
It hadn’t been a problem for the rest of the team as they’d only had a ‘meet & greet’ session booked with the MRC (Malfunctioning Robotic and Cybernetics) squad of the Met’ that day – after the confrontation with the Saviour unit time traveller, they wanted to know what resources were available in the event of another such visit.
Annie had still continued to monitor them throughout the visit and primed them with suitable questions to ask. Mary though wasn’t completely convinced that Annie hadn’t also used the opportunity to hack covertly into MeRCy’s computer systems!
It had been an interesting and informative day, though to their surprise, the primary MeRCy response to robotic attacks or malfunctions came down to their officers using directional EMP guns similar to the charge emitted by Mace’s specialist bolts, explosives and proximity terminals to try and hack into and access the operating systems of what the MRC squad referred to as ‘runaways’.
It was late evening, the sky was beginning to look ‘bruised’ and had started raining when the Raft arrived back at the junkyard and, disguised by the bases’ stealth field, had successfully docked in the hangar.
Minutes after they arrived, a man hobbled from the shadows cast by the street lighting in the street outside and walked, leaning heavily on an ornate and antiquated cane, through the rain towards the junkyard gates. His movements immediately activated the bases’ security systems hidden within the spider-like sculpture above the entrance.
He stopped in front of the gates and pressed the disguised speaker. Mace picked up the call, only to hear the man explain, “I’m from the Library. I understand you’re looking for a certain book and a place called the Vault. I may be able to help you but I need something in return… I will be waiting outside the gates if you would like to talk?”
On camera, the man looked to be in this late 30’s, with piercing ice-blue eyes, shaved head and dressed in a smart, if old fashioned suit. The rain seemed to not bother him as he stood patiently, looking calmly right at the concealed cameras.
The team quickly agreed that they needed to hear him out. Akira looked at the monitor, at their expected visitors’ bald head and smiled, jokingly he said, “I’ll handle this one, after all we seem to have a lot in common and that might put him at ease,” as he patted his own shaved head.
He made sure his earpiece was on and functioning and headed to the gate where he met the man waiting patiently. He stood there, unthreateningly in front of him. They shook hands as he explained, “My name is Bron Pelles and I’m a researcher with the Library.” He went on to apologise for the intrusion and late visit, but he was sure they would agree that the matter was urgent.
He had a strong, welsh-sounding accent but underneath there was something else, a foreign twist to his words that seemed to hint at a touch of Arabic or Middle East. His skin was tanned, but there were moments under the street lighting when his skin seemed almost grey.
There was something familiar about him though what it was exactly that felt familiar, Akira couldn’t say. Their visitor refused to go somewhere dry. In fact, he seemed unaffected by the rain and instead addressed his reasons for visiting them, standing on the roadside outside the junkyard.
“I’m sorry for interrupting you so late at night and at home, but I felt this warranted such an intrusion. I’ve been researching a certain mystical object. I believe our goals might be intertwined in that both are being stored in the same location, the place you know as the Vault.”
He paused for a couple of seconds, then continued, “Word is spreading through the occult underworld; no, not about the assassination contract on yourselves, but to acquire a mystical artefact which may be about to become available known as ‘the Sanguine Grail’. Drinking from the Grail supposedly grants great transforming power and immortality, something you should want to avoid doing at all costs because every gift comes with a price! The Library has authorised me to use all means necessary to obtain the cup and store it safely. It’s my understanding that the cup and the Testament you are looking for are both stored in the same location currently; the building you know as the Vault. I would like to propose a deal if you’d be interested? ”
Akira asked, “Would you be accompanying us?” He shook his head and tapped his apparently injured leg with his cane, “No I would leave that to you.”
Akira felt something akin to a strange connection to the man, so much so he was willing to try seeing if his postcognition would allow him a glimpse into the man’s past despite there being no real physical contact between them. He focused and… He was obviously wrong, instead of Pelles’ background or personality all he could ‘see’ was a recollection of a figure hobbling along a series of long, dark, stone corridors, a dungeon filled with windowless passages. The memory seemed to be almost infinite, as though he had walked them regularly for hundreds of years, day in day out. There were flashes of personality, of anger and of an infinite patience but no real insight into the man.
Akira did sense a sort of relationship to Pelles but reminded himself that he was related by blood to at least three mystical families.
Apparently unaware that this was going on, Pelles continued to explain that he has learnt that P.I.S.C.E.S. had obtained the cup from a coven after the War and took it to the Vault where it had remained safe until now. With the organisation under investigation by the Government and most of its dedicated staff having either followed their boss abroad or fled, the cup and the other mystical objects they stored are at risk of being acquired by unscrupulous individuals. Thankfully, they don’t know the actual location of the Vault yet, but he did.
Pelles offered the team a deal; if they obtain the chalice and give it into the Library’s care through him, the library can then deal with the remaining mystical items and grimoires stored in the building.
In return, they would make sure the Testament of Carnamagos was kept safely and the Library will make sure that the assassins all learn that the price on their heads was no longer available.
Akira sub-vocally asked Mace if they could check out his Library credentials but she wasn’t sure how to do that, given that the Library kept its membership and staff secret and it wasn’t as though there was a website or database that Annie could hack into and check.
It didn’t help that neither Annie or Mace had ever visited the Library or been made members. Mary considered trying to phone herself but given the late hour and the fact that the call would be over an open line, would they respond even if someone answered?
Yet did they want to risk retrieving such a powerful artefact and giving it to someone who would misuse it?
Akira said, “I’m just as worried as you about it falling into the wrong hands. Will you want it brought to you at the Library?”
He smiled, “You can do, but the idea would be once you acquired it that the safest thing would be for it not to be transported openly in the streets. The idea would be for the Library to come to you once you have the Chalice and collect it. We will also make arrangements for the Library to subsequently visit the Vault and remove all the other artefacts and books there as they could be just as dangerous. But given the value and risk factor currently associated with this object, we would want to minimise the risk of someone else acquiring it whilst it’s being transported.”
“So it wouldn’t be just you then?” “No, of course not! I’ve been sent as a representative simply because I’ve been the main researcher of the object.” He again tapped his injured leg, “I’m not a field operative.”
Akira continued, “What you’re saying is that if we get it, we shouldn’t drink from the cup?” Pelles smiled, “If you decide to do so, then I want it clear that you did so despite my warning. I don’t want the consequences of your ill-thought out actions on my conscience. Personally you’d be silly to drink from something no-one actually understands or knows what it does. All we know is that this cup has a long history and that it was acquired from a satanic coven before World War 2 and for it to have been in storage ever since, PISCES must have assumed it had some seriously dangerous properties. The only thing we know is that it’s supposed to grant immortality but the records say it comes at a price. So you might gain a type of immortality but in which form?”
Akira laughed, “I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, I’ve another eighty to a hundred years in me yet.”
Pelles went back to answering the original question, “So yes, if you are successful you contact the Library either directly or through me. I have spent nearly fifteen years of my life looking for and carrying out research on this cup so I know more about it than anyone living so yes, I’ll be honest with you I want some of the credit for its recovery and I want to be the Librarian who’s chosen to research it. I’m not able to get it myself. so I have selected you because that way we both win.
You get access to the price on your heads and I get to study an object that has dominated my waking hours for years, decades. The Library will make sure the assassins learn that the prize is no longer available. Do we have a deal?”
“And the manuscript is something we’d be allowed to keep?”
For the first time, Pelles looked nervous. “Ah, the Library is… currently UNAWARE that the Testament is there. I have not yet brought it to their attention. If they knew they would probably want to retain it themselves – it is an extremely dangerous and powerful grimoire after all. If you want to hold it yourselves then this probably needs to just be between you and I, rather than with the entire Library. If you want it for yourselves I’d suggest we only involve the rest of the Library after the book and chalice had been safely recovered. Once you have the book safely hidden, the Library would accept your right to possess it and I, as the person bringing in the Grail would be able to ensure I was allowed to continue to study it. It’s your choice. If you decide to call in the Library straight away then you need to understand the possible consequences.
It is their life task to find and store away such knowledge. I don’t really care. I just want to keep this mystical object, this cup, away from the people who might be trying to get it, and if we also get access to everything else that is stored at the Vault; all the other grimoires and mystical items, then I don’t think the loss of one book would bother them that much. Especially if it was already a fait accompli…”
Mary muttered over their comms, “So we make it up as we go along then?” and Akira replied, “It’s the old poachers pocket thing again.”
When Akira agreed to the deal, he explained that the place they were looking for was Kilmaur Manor in the Grampians, near Perth. As far as he was aware the property was apparently deserted except for the curator and his ‘staff’ and that the property was magically protected.
Akira murmured, “Kill More? What an inviting name.”
Back inside the BASEment, Annie got busy. A few seconds later, she confirmed that Kilmaur Manor was on her list of properties within the right distance of Edinburgh and the Government had acquired the property in 1937.
She went silent, then after a couple of minutes she gave out a loud and very unsubtle shout of “Yes!” over their earpieces, followed by a quieter “Sorry, but I have just managed to successfully piggyback off a NATO satellite and have momentarily redirected their sensor array to check out the manor. I’m getting a partial floor map of the building and twelve heat signatures though only one is confirmed as human though the others could be wearing body armour that stifles their heat signatures. I can’t see below ground but there is obviously a basement and there is a large shielded area to the rear of the building I can’t see into… I can see lift shafts so presumably there are more floors underground. I’ll forward a brief to the Crate. Mace has asked Adam to load her bike so I assume that is what you will be using?”
Meanwhile Akira asked, “So, who do we contact once we got it?”
Bron Pelles replied, “Believe it or not, we will know. Sorry if that sounds mysterious but you and a couple of your teammates have been to the Library and you know we have ways and means of doing these things. But…” and he gave Akira a small ancient-looking bell with Arabic script engraved around its base. He explained that if they rang it wherever they were, he would know they’d been successful and he would make arrangements to come and collect the chalice for protection. He handed over the thumb-sized bell very carefully so the clapper didn’t accidentally ring.
Akira took it from his hand and felt a buzz of magic coming from it.
“The mystical protection around the Manor is something similar to the barrier round your own home in Wales, as for the helpers that stayed behind they are probably some form of mystical creatures, not really alive. The only reference I could find to them, called them the ‘Unholy’. As for the curator, I’ve no information on him at all. He may be just a janitor or something else entirely. I’m sorry, I don’t know. Not having visited the place, I don’t know more than that.”
Pelles wished them well and wandered into the shadows, away from the streetlights, and appeared to vanish. He might have teleported away or was just good at staying concealed in the shadows but he did appear to disappear.
They elected to time their arrival so they could carry out a dawn raid. At this time of the year that meant 3.30am. They did realise that they’d never asked what the chalice looked like but perhaps they could find that out online?
What they discovered was there was nothing online that they could trust. A search for the Sanguine Grail led straight to the Blood Grail and Sangraal, which apparently were another names for the Holy Grail and that was overflowing with contradictory descriptions. At one point, they started to argue that it would have to look for a simple wooden cup or bowl.
There was no mention anywhere that the Holy Grail, while supposedly capable of healing and miracles, was supposedly capable of granting immortality and the legends were intertwined with the idea of a holy bloodline surviving since the days of Christ.
Meanwhile they also tried to find out more about Bron Pelles. Surprisingly, there was nobody online that they could find called by that name. The only thing that they did find was that Bron used to be a fairly common Welsh name and it was one of the names associated with the Arthurian legends and the Fisher King in particular.
They also discovered, in the much later Lancelot-Grail cycle which included a more elaborate history for the Fisher King, some of the other names for the Wounded King were Pellehan (Pellam of Listeneise in Malory), and Pelles in the later legends. That name was extremely uncommon and many with that surname seemed indirectly connected to the Steadman family.
Seemed their visitor either had elected to disguise his identity or was trying to hint at some deeper secret. Whatever the reason, it had caught their curiosity. However, they were aware that hiding their identity might be quite common for members of the Library. They remembered that Lillian, the young girl possessed by the essence of a dragon, hadn’t had any public personae before she’d left to join Claremont Academy with the Amazons. Perhaps this was the norm for Librarians? On the other hand, Akira’s mystical reading of Pelles had made him wonder if he was already immortal? Akira for some reason intuitively trusted him to keep the cup safe and felt he might be connected to his family line, possibly from right back at the beginning?
They knew the risks and felt they had to be prepared for anything, assuming they were successful of course.
The plan was to head to the Grampians in Scotland and park the Crate about a mile from the Manor before walking through the countryside and entering the grounds.
It took them a couple of hours of flight time to get close enough to decamp. The decision was taken for Adam to not release the ‘Tinks’ drone and record this mission given they were technically about to commit a burglary.
The nearest neighbouring properties were some distance from the Manor house. They needed to reconnoitre. It was agreed that Akira would initially try using his astral projection.
Akira sat on the ground and prepared his mind. He felt his spirit, tethered at the navel by a silver cord, leave his body and rush towards the house. Surrounding the property there appeared to be a shimmering purple aura around it. He reached out and tried to push through. It was like swimming in molasses but somehow he managed to claw and rip his way through the mystical barrier. Behind it was the house, which felt inert. He reached out to pass through its walls only for the building to start screaming! Something was aware of his presence. Nothing for it, he continued through the walls only to see three unholy figures glowering at him inside; a hulking inhuman brute, a floating female figure and a shambling, decaying figure that presumably had once been human or at least had been when it had been alive.
A few seconds later an overweight, middle-aged man in a grease and food-covered t-shirt appeared. He had a beard without a moustache and seemed to be able to see Akira’s astral body. He gestured and mystical glyphs appeared surrounding each hand, which then flared out at him causing his projection to slam back into his physical body out in the grounds. Ok, so stealth was out of the question.
He explained to the other two what he’d seen and the decision was taken to proceed anyway.
Once they got through the barrier, which remained invisible to normal eyes, they had at least twelve moving heat signatures to deal with. Only one had been fully identifiable as a living, human figure according to Annie and the pizza-covered t-shirt might indicate which one of the four figures he’d seen that was.
The decision was taken to try gaining entry by a side entrance. They worked their way forward until they were where the barrier should be. Akira turned Mace and himself invisible and with Banshee turning herself both insubstantial and invisible, they stepped forward and heard a banshee-like scream, which seemed to try and force them to run away. Mace appeared to not notice it and the other two were thankfully used to such attacks by now. They pushed forward despite the rising feeling of fear caused by the screaming until they were through and the psychic attack died away.
They ran as a group towards the side entrance and Mace quickly picked the lock to get them inside.
They stepped inside as Akira raised his force shield, rendering Mace visible once again. The sound of footsteps from the front of the building turned out to be the large, lumbering male moving in an unnatural way, the ghostly female and this time several of the lumbering, decomposing figures in support.
As the zombies shuffled forward Mace muttered, “It seems PISCES had a policy of continuing its employment even after death.”
She readied her first bolt as a zombie reached out from her right side and noted the others huddled together lurching towards her from the other. She fired her first bolt quickly, too quickly, as it merely incapacitated the first zombie by nailing it to the wall.
She spun on the spot, dropped to her knees and unleashed a barrage of bolts at the rest of the zombie horde. With time to take proper aim, the first bolt shattered the first creatures’ skull and rendered it lifeless, a second, third, and fourth bolt followed each in turn ending a shambling half-life with a head shot. The zombie contingent was decimated in seconds. She unleashed another bolt at the zombie she’d nailed to the wall, which ended its unlife. There was one last shaft left in the wrist-sheath before she’d need to switch it over. She spun back round, took aim in a rush and fired causing the creature to fall to the ground but it still continued to try and crawl forward. She ejected the cartridge and slammed another in just as two more began to come round the corner of the building.
The massive inhuman creature pushed forward towards Mace, who was the only one visible. It struck out with its massive fists but she thankfully dodged the blow by the skin of her teeth.
Banshee unleashed a Wail of the Banshee at the massive attacker. The attack hit it causing its ears to bleed. However, as she watched the injury began to heal itself. Damn, damn and damn again why did they have to face another regenerating attacker?
Akira followed it with a mystical blast against the floating female. The blast went through its form and hit the wall behind. She was obviously insubstantial.
Mace aimed her wrist-bow at the advancing zombie. Akira muttered over the team comms, “We really need to get her a t-shirt with ‘Zombie-killer’ on it after this.” She ignored the comment, lined up the shot and unleashed the bolt, which shattered the creatures’ skull. The next bolt automatically advanced into the bow’s groove. No time to aim, she relied on instinct. It also hit the remaining upright zombie through the eye socket and into the brain. As the remaining zombie crawled forward and tried to grab her wrist, she slammed the bow against the zombies’ skull and fired. The bolt split its skull in two.
The big creature continued to try to grab and hit out at Mace’s head whilst this was going on. She immediately threw herself back as the last bolt fired, in order to avoid the blood splatter and the attack. She succeeded, though the pillar behind her was not so successful. Plaster peppered her from its angry blow.
Banshee let loose with a focused terrorising scream. It left it staggered but in the process, Banshee had given away her position and she was aware it healed quickly.
The ghostly figure moved in, heading towards her. Her claws reached out and despite both being insubstantial, their powers appeared to cancel the others out. Banshee twisted away and out of its range.
Akira unleashed a mystical blast at the big guy. It knocked him backwards and delayed his ability to recover.
Then the grease-spot of a curator came round the corner, obviously out of breath by trying to whisper an incantation at the same time and suddenly unleashed an attack. Voices, like brainworms crawled through their minds. Both Mace and Akira managed to shake off the attack but Banshee wasn’t so lucky. She felt eerie, inhuman voices crawled through her awareness, leaving her dazed and confused.
Mace responded with a bolt against the curator. Not bothering to change heads, she unleashed a standard bolt, which hit but she’d not managed to do any damage. To Akira and Banshee’s mystical sight, they could ‘see’ his shields deflect the bolt before it could penetrate.
She used the distraction though to fire a second bolt at the big guy. It hit him in the head and rendered it unconscious, possibly dead (assuming such a creature could be killed?)
The ghostly female again tried to grab hold of a dazed Banshee. She didn’t try and escape and instead lashed out with her fists leaving her ghostly attacker stunned and unconscious.
The two remaining Unholy were out of the attack, at least for the moment.
Akira focused his attack on the curator – he ran forward and as he did so, he summoned the fangs of Yig, altering his body and, in the process, rendering his hands paralytic.
He reached through the shields and touched him in the neck leaving his victim dazed. The curator responded by unleashing multiple protoplasmic snake-like tentacles from his chest which seemed to swarm over Akira. The snake affliction in him responded to the snake-like attacks as Akira successfully blocked. Mace immediately responded with a sleep bolt at the curator. Occupied with attacking Akira, he was unaware of the attack; it hit, causing him to collapse exhausted. A second bolt also fitted with a sleep head rendering him asleep and completely incapacitated.
She did look in disgust at the transformed Akira. He ignored the look and reached over to touch the curator to try getting a postcognition reading from him. Akira’s mind swirled as he saw a young child playing amongst the exhibits then all of the subsequent years of the curators’ life flooded in, all within the same dark building. His whole life had been spent within these walls, never once leaving. All those years secretly studying the dusty books he was never meant to even open never mind read and study. Decades spent illicitly learning the secrets of the Vault as he took on the role of the Curator. He wasn’t as familiar with the various artefacts as he was the books but there was a recent acquisition, a book that had been brought there by ‘R’ very recently and was kept separate from the library and book storage below. This would have to be the Testament of Carnamagos he was sure. Green, untanned leather and bone hinges and hasps. The symbols on the cover ‘spoke’ to the serpent threatening to overwhelm him.
It was upstairs, in the sealed chamber they’d been unable to penetrate with the satellite sensor array, a large open warehouse sealed with a pass code, one he easily flinched from the sleepers’ memory he’d used it so frequently. There were also a number of cups and goblets inside there as well. He tried to tell Banshee and Mace but he couldn’t speak properly then he saw a reflection in the window glass of his scaly face and awkward, long forked tongue.
Standing up he knew where to go and how to get inside the chamber. The first object they found was the book inside a glass case. Mace smashed the case and retrieved it. An alarm went off but they ignored it. Opening the book carefully, she confirmed the writing inside was in ancient Greek. Unfortunately, none of them could read Greek but it was enough. Akira hid it inside his poachers’ pocket, then went looking for the Sanguine Grail and found a display of goblets and cups.
Two immediately stood out. One was a wide silver goblet with a wide base bejewelled with blood-red crystals. In fact, the chalice was designed to protect an ancient, small wooden bowl that had been subsequently been lined with fragments of blood-red crystal.
The other that stood out was a red clay bowl that was decorated in an alphabet of inhuman origin. Both radiated power. The rest seemed merely ceremonial or intended for ritualistic use.
Again, Akira tried to talk, to explain but his serpent tongue rendered his words into unintelligible gibberish. He tried to focus, to push the serpent inside away as he felt a tingling in a familiar spot on his arm as he realised his choice of magic had again activated the brand that had been on his arm. Still, he’d got rid of it before and he was sure he would be able to again, whenever he wanted.
He felt the dark magic in the chamber calling to him. So much power. He forced the serpent influence away and grabbed the two chalices.
He rang the little bell and suddenly it was as if all the darkness in the room gathered together into one area and out of that intense ebony stepped Bron Pelles leaning on his cane.
There was something wrong though, he looked weakened by being there. He almost collapsed and then said, “No, I can’t stay, not in this place. Call me again when you have left this place.” Akira and Banshee tried to ask him which cup they needed but it was too late, he had already stepped back into the darkness and vanished allowing the shadows to again flee to their natural locations in the chamber.
Akira realised that by his mystical senses, both objects radiated intense evil. Then Adam began screaming over the team comms. “There are a hell of a lot of people who have suddenly appeared outside the house, I’ve dispatched Tinks to monitor them and I really don’t like the look of this. Either there’s a Halloween convention in town or you’re rapidly being surrounded by vampires. There are more appearing every minute and there appears to be two definite and separate camps.
Akira was trying to figure out which of the two objects was the oldest. He felt it was probably the clay cup given it seemed to be millennia old. In the end he decided to take both as Adam sent a camera-feed to Mace’s wrist-computer. They saw a small army of fanged, hissing human-like figures confronting each other whilst trying to surround the house. The barrier that had been so hard for them to cross was doing an excellent job, so far, in keeping them from entering.
If they went outside they’d be overwhelmed, thankfully they didn’t need to do that to get to the Crate. Akira opened a portal to the inside of the vessel and instructed Adam to pull Tinks inside immediately as soon as they were all on-board take off and head towards home.
With that, he focused and opened a portal to the crate, as the team stepped through. No sooner had they arrived than Adam immediately sent the ship into a sudden and sharp take-off.
Adam shouted down, “Ah, looks as though we may have some company…” The seat monitors flared into life showing what the hull cameras were currently seeing. One of the apparent vampire leaders was transforming into a human-sized bat like creature and taking off in pursuit of them. The other ‘camp’ seemed visibly upset though the team was glad to notice that none of the others seemed capable of such a transformation.
It was coming after them, not as fast as their top speed but still quite fast but she was tenacious and it was able to follow the psychic ‘scent’ of one of the objects, but which?
Banshee seemed to think it was the crystal-covered goblet but Akira was convinced it was the clay bowl. One way to find out, Mace agreed to take the goblet and set off with it on her bike in a slightly different route home to see which the vampire creature elected to follow.
She’d need to take off whilst the crate was in flight, never an easy procedure and especially when they were already flying at speed, but take it where?
They could take it to the Artefact Research Centre, but it wasn’t really set up to deal with or understand a mystical object, was it? The Library would probably be a better location. Mace had never been before but she knew where it was.
Mace dropped away as her bike accelerated out of the cargo door and as it slammed shut again, Akira decided to contact the Library by using the bell Pelles had given them. The bell rang out and again all the darkness gathered into one corner of the vehicle and a figure stepped though. They knew this was Bron, despite the grey, stony skin and glowing red eyes.
He looked at the bowl in their hands and the first words out of his mouth were “where’s the chalice? You promised me the chalice. Tell me child where is the chalice?” Akira stuttered slightly looking at the powerful vampire that stood mere inches away, “We left it behind. We haven’t got it; we thought this was the right one.”
Pelles stared at them, “I will get revenge for this insult, little one. Your actions have started a war in this country, a war of vampire nations who will seek out the cup because it guarantees them true immortality. The only immortality that counts, that of being the ruling grace, the eternal survivors. If Bathory or Lilith get to it first, you will have been responsible for the death of every living soul in this nation, possibly even the world.
“What would you do with it if you got it?” He stared, unblinking. “I have been the keeper of the chalice for centuries, ever since it came into my possession from Lilith. I have kept this country safe and the vampires in check. I have used it to heal the land, admittedly to create offspring but it has been manageable, survivable. Your failure will start a war between the various factions of the Vampire, one that will spill over and plague humanity once more. It will be the Black Death all over again though this will be harder to cover up than that had been then. My role as Fisher King was to be the balance between the races.”
Sub-vocally they wondered whether they should give it to him? As far as he knew it still lay inside the vault, magically protected, so no vampire could reach it (though what about any human minions?) – would it be safer in the hands of this vampire, this Fisher King?
To their immense relief, darkness formed round him and suddenly he was gone.
At some point, he would become aware of what they’d done. Perhaps they should return it to the manor? Though now P.I.S.C.E.S. was no longer in charge of the building, it was only a matter of time before someone got inside or the magic stopped being revitalised.
So what the answer? The Library? Was it trustworthy enough to trust with such a powerful artefact? They had certainly knowledge of vampires. They definitely didn’t want it back at the BASEment. Even if they managed to shield themselves against vampires, what about the people in Container town? No, what about Akira’s ancestral home? That was mystically shielded but was it shielded against vampires and especially was it shielded against a Steadman? If the Fisher King was his ancestor then might it welcome him?
Perhaps there was a reason why his parents had never lived in the house itself, electing instead to live in the gatehouse..? The thought came unbidden that when the kegends talked about the Fisher king being infertile, did it mean his ability to create other vampires nearly as powerful as himself was affected?
Outside the bat-like creature was following behind Mace with the blood-red chalice but was falling behind. She just wanted to take the chalice where it could be kept safe, not an abandoned house without people. After all if the Oktoberkynde could gain entry to Akira’s home, who else might?
“So, do we take it to the Library or drop it in a volcano?” wondered Banshee.
They finally agreed to transport it to the library. The use of Akira’s Library card resulted in a call-back, from the young Pakistani-descended Brummie, Mahzi.
“Ah, I think I need to contact Ms Tower and put the Black Chapter on alert. We need to arrange to urgently send out a collections team to secure the remaining books and curios.
They made arrangements for Mace to head straight to the Library, which they were assured was shielded and said they’d visit themselves as soon as they’d sorted out a few matters. What they didn’t say was that the matters consisted of taking the Testament and locking it up safely in the BASEment.
An hour later, they were sitting in the St. Catherine’s restroom with Mahzi drinking coffee, waiting for the Black Chapter to return from their initial visit to the Manor.
“It sounds as though you might have sparked off a war between the various Vampire Nations. Ah, I will make sure you get details of a ritual that blocks vampires from entering your base or homes without your explicit approval. It’s where the legend about vampires having to be invited in before they can go inside of the house originated. The spell blocks them; sounds like you might need it.”
Mary had to ask, “So, is your ‘memories’ of Gawaine able to cast any light on any of this? You know the grail or the Fisher King?”
Mahzi explains that in his recollections of his uncle Arturos there was no memory of a holy grail or the fisher King being mentioned. That was back in the 6th Century though and many of the Arthurian Legends were later additions.
He had however done a bit of research and the first mention of the grail — not yet referred to as “holy” — appeared seemingly out of no-where in the Conte del Graal (also known as Perceval), a French romance by Chretien de Troyes written about the turn of the thirteenth century. Chretien’s grail was described as a large jewelled dish containing a single Mass wafer that a maiden carries during a banquet at an enchanted castle. The maimed king who presided over the gathering had been wounded in the genitals, and his country was a wasteland because of his infirmity. Neither he nor his land could be healed unless the poem’s naive young hero, Perceval, asks: “Whom does one serve with the grail?”
Akira asked was there ever a chalice in his memories of ‘Gawaine’?
The young man paused and nodded, “there was a quest Arturos told me about when I first came to his court, shortly after he first became High King, of an expedition which took some of the knights across the sea to a desolate wildness filled with monsters far to the North where they found a giant blood-red crystalline cauldron. In the telling, this massive dish had apparently been made by the old gods. This object was also sometimes called ‘the’ chalice.
The quest, assuming I’m remembering it correctly, was led by a warrior who claimed to be one of the old gods. Which god, Arturos never actually said. I think our newly baptised King was actually embarrassed about the incident and whilst the seemingly god-like being had powers and seemed to be long-lived, he had admitted that they weren’t immortal since he apparently could be killed.
Thinking about it now the description would also fit a long-lived Meta but that of course would be crazy since Meta’s only began appearing last century; didn’t they?
From what I remember about what Arturos had told me regarding the description of the cauldron, if seen with modern eyes, it might actually be closer to a large satellite dish than a cooking pot, one which the ‘god’ seemingly repaired before they left.”
Akira meanwhile was again remembering his family genealogy and in particular the progenitor of the Steadman line.
Morgan had told him that the first Steadman was reputed to have been some kind of Arab that came back with Richard after the Third Crusade and the Library records had provided a name; Khalid Maghribi Al-Zhedma also known as de éternel – ‘the undying’. King Richard had apparently granted him some territory in what was then a conquered part of Wales. He was reputed to be a great warrior but also a healer and a scholar. Morgan said he was the first (and the last?) Fisher King. Some say he brought with him a cup that was said by some to have been used to catch the blood of the Christ at Golgotha.
It did seem to fit.
The Third Crusade took place in 1189–1192 and Chretien de Troyes supposedly wrote the Conte del Graal in the late twelfth, early thirteenth century. The timeline fitted this being a tale of Al-Zhedma and his lands, romanticised to make him seem some sort of saviour-like figure.
Then in 1196, William of Newburgh’s “Chronicles” recorded the first tales of vampire-like revenants in England, specifically in Mercia.
Coincidence?
Perhaps they should try and arrange a visit with Naomi Van Helsing sometime to see what she could tell them about the origins of vampires?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 