(Immediately following Sam’s resignation announcement)
Although Akira did not realise it, Sam’s announcement of his intended departure had sparked an emotional crisis within him. Unconsciously he felt as though all of his efforts to maintain the team’s balance by recruiting Beltane and Illustrious to cover for Sam, substituted Frankie’s Holo-ghost personae for Mary, and of course not forgetting Jeeves’ impersonation of Mace (admittedly only ever from some distance away) had been for naught.
For several months now, he had successfully maintained the illusion that the Balance was still around, fighting the good fight while secretly seeking out his missing teammates. Then he finally managed to help get the original team back and once again balance was achieved, only for Sam to decide to suddenly quit and for Annie and Adam to decide to leave with him.
It’s not as though he could just reform the Balance 2.0 again. Shona and young Mary were due to return to their original teams and sponsors and with Banshee and Mace back they didn’t need Frankie and Jeeves to impersonate them anymore.
The Balance was again shattered and he had no idea how to achieve harmony anymore.
It never occurred to him that the emotions he was experiencing might be the result of sadness at no longer working alongside his friend on a daily basis, that his friendship would need to change yes, but it could survive if allowed to evolve.
It left Akira with what he thought of as a spiritual crisis and he only knew one way to handle that – to enter into a retreat and of course heading to Skomer Vale was no longer an option for him (though that was of course his choice, the gates were only sealed against him returning in his mind).
There was however one place he could go, a unique location where he would be welcome; his own little Shangri-La and one that ensured he would be alone. Instead of talking to the others, he elected to sneak away like a thief in the night.
He used the art programme Annie had installed on his team laptop to create a cartoon avatar of himself then recorded a message to go with it, “Don’t try to find me. Trust me I know now that I know nothing, I’ll be back when I do.” He then set the timer for the message to play after his teammates logged on to their own laptops or tablets the following morning.
He had packed a couple of bags to take with him. If he was being honest, he was probably taking more than he needed but he was starting to rely on having certain material possessions and a certain level of comfort. He rationalised it by telling himself that he wasn’t sure there was a washing machine at the old place and he didn’t want to have to wash his clothes every day by hand or risk the alternative, wearing the same clothes day after day until he stank.
Early the next morning, he teleported away from the BASEment and headed to the City Centre train station, caught the first train to Brichester and from there made his own way to Ffrwd Dylluan.
Several hours later, he walked through the garden gate and passed the remnants of his parents’ old cottage to his ancestors’ stone-built manor house. To his delight, the main door opened as he approached and the lights in the foyer switched themselves on as though the house itself was welcoming him back.
He stepped inside the hall and immediately headed for the study in the north-west corner of the house. He didn’t want the distraction of any of the other rooms for the moment, especially the Mirror Room or library with their many diversions.
He spent the next ten days in there, leaving only to get some water and a little food from the kitchen or to use the toilet.
Akira used the time to further his studies of the Dao. Through abstinence, meditation and reflection he came to see that his dualistic view of the need for balance was simplistic. Balance already existed in everything and it was only their efforts to improve the world that threw this out. By practicing effortless effort and following the directionless path, he now felt he could achieve the unachievable. Enlightenment, Wu Wei or action without force would now be his measure of success, as he sought to emulate his favourite Taoist, Sun Tzu.
Of course, Sun Tzu was also the author of the Art of War.
As Morgan his father figure growing up, would have recognised immediately Akira was still acting like a ‘Chai’, childlike, inexperienced in so many ways and always impatient for change (or stability?) In reality, his concept of naturalist was just an excuse for doing the first thing that occurred to him.
Day eleven found him experiencing a desire to explore the house. He did decide to avoid the Mirror Room though for the moment just in case the various mirrors showed him things he wasn’t ready to face.
He wandered into the kitchen and made himself a meal from the fresh vegetables in the pantry. The old Edwardian dial telephone he’d left on the table of the kitchen last time he had been there had been replaced on the wall beside the pantry, the room had been tidied and the larder was fully stocked. By who though? Since he’d arrived he had seen no-one, though he’d heard the Crate landing nearby a couple of times. He did feel guilty that he hadn’t responded to Mary or Maces’ calls.
He looked at the gallery of paintings; many were landscapes so dark with age that it was difficult to recognise what they were, before he wandered into the Library and spent the rest of the day in there.
Although he felt like a child in a sweet shop with so many wonderful books, he ended up reading some old Sunday papers that despite their obvious age, looked as though they had just been delivered that morning. One newspaper in particular caught his eye; it was the Brichester Chronicle dated the 16th September 1888.
The main story on the front page was about the ‘recent’ Whitechapel Murders (it took him a few seconds to realise that the Whitechapel Murderer would eventually be known as Jack the Ripper). After detailing what was known about the then latest victim Annie Chapman the week before, the story launched into a theory that the four murders known about so far were somehow related to a much larger number of deaths, which was believed to have occurred over the last two years. Deaths that were never identified as murders because the victims had either only been known by sight never by their actual name or their bodies had never been found.
Who or what had been ‘Fairy Fay’ for example? She’d apparently been killed by the Whitechapel Murderer in a back alley off Commercial Street on Boxing Day 1887 according to the list only for her body to disappear from the morgue that night.
Inside the newspaper pages was a cutting from another tabloid. An advert for liver tablets seemingly, until Akira turned it over and realised it was actually a letter cut from a later edition of the same newsletter.
The anonymous letter referred to a supposed group of vigilantes apparently known as the “Night Watch” and claimed that the missing victims had all been vampires which is why their bodies were never found. If further claimed that Jack’s victims were their human servants or possibly ‘Dhampiri’ that had been put down to protect the citizens of the City of London from being converted by this plague of bloodsucking creatures. It even claimed that Jack was in fact a werewolf in the employ of these vampire hunters.
Of course, it had to have been inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel which was published… when exactly? He used his commdot’s 5G connection to check the internet and was surprised to discover that Dracula was first published in 1897 so that wasn’t the source of these ludicrous ideas and it was definitely not a theory he’d heard before.
There was a note written in the margin in extremely fine handwriting in red ink. It read, “Folio 34b see Vargr hybrid?”
That sparked his interest and he began looking through the shelves for more information about vampires. After a few hours of searching, he found a handwritten journal on one of the top shelves. It was dated 1922 with the word ‘Vampyri” and letters “NVH” stamped into the cover. It was written in the same fine handwriting as on the cutting, but this time using black ink. It contained a number of observations and theories about the origins of vampires.
A lot of the information was contradictory. It seemed nobody knew for certain when people came up with the first vampiric figures, but the legends dated back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians had feared Lamastu (at times it was also spelled as Lamashtu), a vicious demon goddess who preyed on humans. In Assyrian legend, Lamastu, the daughter of sky god Anu, would creep into houses at night and steal or kill babies, either in their cribs or in the womb.
A footnote wondered if sudden infant death syndrome and miscarriages were attributed to this creature as a way to try to explain why things like that happened?
Lamastu, which translated as “she who erases,” would also prey on adults, sucking blood from young men and bringing disease, sterility and nightmares. She was often depicted with wings and talons, and sometimes with the head of a lion. To protect themselves from Lamastu, people would wear amulets depicting Pazuzu, another evil god who once defeated the demoness.
Lamastu was closely associated with Lilith, a prominent figure in some Jewish texts. Another footnote stated that Lilith actually came first and that Lamastu was the latecomer.
Accounts of Lilith varied considerably, but in the most notable versions of the story, she was the original woman. God created both Adam and Lilith from the Earth, but there was soon trouble between them. Lilith refused to take a subservient position to Adam, since she came from the same place he did. In one ancient version of the legend, Lilith left Eden and began ‘birthing’ her own children. God sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, they promised they would kill 100 of her children every day until she returned. Lilith in turn vowed to destroy human children.
The claim that Lilith was a child-killer might have been taken directly from the Lamastu legend. She came in the night, primarily to steal away infants and fetuses. Most likely, the Jews assimilated the figure of Lamastu into their tradition, but it’s also possible that both myths were inspired by a third even more ancient figure.
While she was often depicted as a terrifying creature, Lilith also had seductive qualities. The ancient Jews believed she would come to men at night as a succubus. Lamastu and Lilith were often depicted with wings and sharp talons.
He’d heard of Lilith before and not just in legends. The Fisher King, Khalid Maghribi Al-Zhedma –possibly his family’s progenitor – had said that the ‘Sanguine Grail’ had come into his possession from Lilith and that ‘if Bathory or Lilith get to it first’ they would be ‘responsible for the death of every living soul in this nation, possibly even the world.’ So, no pressure there then!
He shook his head to try and clear his thoughts and continued his reading.
After discussing origin myths and something about increasing physiological alterations the longer the victim was exposed, it then then went into a theory that vampires were not actually undead, but had been somehow artificially enhanced. Something about activating immortalus with some going a step further by gaining superior abilities to create a corruption of deus.
The first Meta’s had appeared in 1909, was the author trying to draw some sort of comparison between Meta-humans and vampires?
There were also some notes about a grail – the Sanguine Chalice? – apparently being found in Egypt during the crusades, which when drunk from somehow acted like a disease carrier whilst activating their potential and rendering the users immortal subjecting them to numerous side effects including a need for a high protein diet etc. In others, the change might also act as a meta-crisis sufficiently powerful to activate their meta-abilities (presumably if they had the meta-gene).
These abilities and their immortality might be able to be transferred to others via a blood infection though generally the victim’s own immune system would need to be severely hindered for it to occur.
The author of the diary hypothesised that the transfer of ‘adaptations’ was apparently less powerful with each subsequent generation. Drinking the blood of other vampires could transfer over activated Meta abilities from the host, but required substantial amounts of blood to ensure what Akira assumed was sufficient genes to be transferred for this to have a chance to happen and not all vampires were able to absorb the abilities.
The writer had noted that most vampires seemed to be susceptible to strong sunlight though some did appear to be able to survive exposure though it seriously weakened them.
The juice of garlic when breathed in caused respiratory problems in vampires. It did note that they did need to breathe and their hearts did beat, though admittedly extremely slowly. There were references by the writer to research the use of religious objects, staking, fire, garrotting and silver but if they were ever investigated it had to have been recorded in the damaged half of the journal.
There were a number of sketches of skeletal structures showing alterations to the ribcage continually developing leading to a web-like structure protecting the heart and other internal organs.
There were some additional notes on why they were so dependent on drinking blood. Blood is very high in protein but low in carbohydrates and vitamins. It may also harbour blood-borne diseases. The vampire evolves a number of features to enable it to cope with such a specialised diet – from developing sharp teeth for severing blood vessels to changes in kidney function to deal with a protein-rich diet and give immunity to a number of diseases while developing an anticoagulant compound in their saliva to ensure the continued supply.
There had been a lot more information written in the rest of the diary but a substantial amount of a now brown fluid had apparently been spilt on top of the remaining pages causing the writing to become smeared so that it was unreadable. It took Akira a few minutes to realise that it had to be dried blood. The only other readable section was a few words on something called the Houses. Someone had initially written ten then scored that out and written the word eight instead.
He stretched and took a break. He tried to take the journal with him out of the library but every time he stepped through the door it vanished from his hands and reappeared on the shelf. He gave up after a few tries and walked up the spiral stairs admiring the carved wooden balustrades and the post caps shaped like goblets and peered into the various rooms, amazed at what he found in the bedrooms. He continued exploring, observing the claw-like taps on the baths and the luxurious embroidered quilts covering the four poster beds.
Upstairs on the mysterious second floor he went to open a door and saw that the carved amber doorknob contained a small scorpion trapped inside. He reached out to grab the handle and turn it when he stopped and stared. He was sure the creature trapped inside the ancient resin had twitched. While he watched, it remained inert, an ancient ancestor of modern day scorpions, trapped forever inside the amber, yet every time he reached out he could swear its tail twitched. In the end, he retrieved a pan holder from the kitchen and used that to turn the knob.
He stepped inside and found himself in one of the bedrooms. He’d never been in this room before. He marvelled at the antique bed, the 18th century furniture and the wonderful oak panelling. He looked at the big picture window and marvelled at the bright sunlight outside, especially as it had been overcast and raining outside only a minute or two before.
He approached and saw the ocean through the window. He opened it and felt the heat and the ocean breeze on his hand. He seriously considered stepping through the window frame and jumping down onto the beach below, seeing what the other side of the window looked like but decided against it. What if the window was one way or only visible from his side?
Next door was some sort of theme room, decorated as a panto version of an Arabian Night’s harem, thankfully without the concubines. In the centre was a huge swimming pool, surrounded by a mass of curtains. He was so surprised to find it here he almost fell in when he slid the curtains aside. In the centre was a large and very ornamental fountain and behind it on the far side of the room were a number of couches, chairs and cushions.
He stepped back out, turned and walked up the stairs that would lead to the top of the house. He opened the door into what he assumed would be that attic and stepped down into the basement.
He had been warned about that, many years from now, he’d just forgotten. In front of him were two large ornate man-sized antique mirrors, the glass bespeckled with age were surrounded by thick wooden frames. He smiled as he recognised them. Perhaps one day..? He fingered the topaz blade pendant round his neck.
He spent the next few days exploring the house and its mysteries before he heard the Crate returning. He grabbed his bags and headed out to the lawn ready to board.
After returning to the BASEment having defeated Calypso, the newly-reformed Balance were gathered in the lounge as Mary drew deep on her pipe, cleared her throat, and said, “People, we need to talk. I’ve been reviewing Tink’s footage of our assault on The Vault.
Young Locker, you’ll need to take a look at that for yourself. We never got a chance to follow-up on the cans of worms we opened then, instead we dashed off to Africa like we had to, and then getting all tangled-up in the Faery Realms business. But because of that we have seen just what will happen if we don’t do anything about these vampire clans.
Locker, there’s no footage of that, you’ll just have to hear from the three of us what the future holds – or…” She looks to Mace and Akira, “…would we do right to tell that tale, I wonder? For I don’t quite ken just how knowing about what will or might happen can throw things out.
Anyhow’s, as I understand things now, the Sanguine Grail is on deposit in The Library, and just can’t be let fall into the claws of the clans of Bathory or Lilith, but the one who called himself Bron Pelles – that might or might not be some ancient kin of Akira – did claim that he had been sort of neutral keeper of that grail, that when he held it the two rival vampire clans were held in some sort of balance, unable to proliferate and fester.”
She took another lungful of tobacco smoke. “So it might be one way to save the future, so to speak, would be to hand that chalice back to Bron Pelles… ‘Course, we’d need to know that was the right thing to do before we did it, so maybe first we should talk to Naomi van Helsing about this whole vampire-history business and what Akira uncovered at his property, see what she thinks of that. And then it’s not likely that The Library would let us freely do such a thing. We’d have to think of that, too.”
Another puff. “And I’m not quite clear what happened about that other bowl we liberated – the clay one, no less evil. Is it with The Library or in our private collection? And the summons-bell that Pelles gave us, have we still got that tucked-away somewhere’s I wonder?”
Jeeves explained that both were in the BASEment’s vault and safe, for the moment.
Mary nodded her thanks to the indispensable Jeeves and said, “Well, that’s good to know. I”m not sure the clay bowl has anything to do with our problem but it might be handy to know a little more about it. Akira, d’ye think it’s worth risking one of your little ’see what the past held’ kind of things on it?”
Reluctantly Akira nodded. He’d been under the influence of Yig when he’d first seen the ancient red clay bowl adorned in an alien alphabet. There had been something about the bowl that he felt linked it with the Testament of Carnamagos somehow and it ‘called’ to the ‘serpent’ within him. He shuddered and tried to clear his head of the intense feeling of dread.
Unaware Mary continued, “But as for the bell, that will come in mighty useful if we want to get in touch with Mr Pelles again. IF,” she ended heavily. “And Akira, all this stuff you found out about the vampires, there was no hint about your… erm… family involvement? Apart from the presence of the notebook itself, of course. Nothing about this ancient Fisher King who supposedly held the balance between the tribes?”
Akira shook his head. He was as much in the dark as everyone else regarding Khalid’s actual role amongst the clans. What he did feel was that he was definitely not to be trusted, though.
Mary paused for another puff, and then added in a lower and more thoughtful tone. “So we still need to talk to Naomi about that, specifically. And then there’s this King Arthur and his New Round Table that’s popped-up – I wonder if that has any link with what went on so long ago…”
On that, the team dispersed, but Locker did wonder if there was any way he could contact the ‘Knights again and see if he could find out more about them?
A few hours later, down in the security vault Jeeves brought out the clay bowl and handed it to Akira. At first, he felt nothing then it began with an intense feeling of inhuman evil emanating from the small object and an intense desire to smash the bloody thing. It continued to flow into his consciousness and he felt their demises, each sacrifices’ death throes lanced through him as their life force was violently torn out of their bodies, too many to count as it signalled to the stars.
His legs buckled from under him and he collapsed to the ground. Jeeves swore as he strained to catch the dish while trying to stop Akira from smashing his head on the counter. He succeeded in both just as Akira began to suffer a series of seizures as unconsciousness overwhelmed him.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 