#Lore24 – Entry #196 – Supers Month II #15 – Learning a Thing of Two About Scheherazade’s Legacy
From the journal of Abigail “Sassy” Dawson, Mage of the Order of Hecate
Richard done knew what it was I came for, once we’d settled down and had some coffee goin’. I was rather amused that our tastes hadn’t changed; I liked mine much like anyone else would, if on the thicker side; he liked his boiling hot, and Assane preferred her’s on the cold side, though I noted she had taken to adding ice cubes to it now. He’d been trackin’ “Granny Scheherazade’s” relics for a time already when he had found out that they were makin’ headlines on the museum circuit a few decades back, but it was only in the last few weeks that they’d started movin’ again, and comin’ together in one place. He’d been tryin’ to track down who was pullin’ the strings and comin’ up emptyhanded.
Before he could dig into Assane too much for not doin’ her share of the whole “protectin’ the world” thing they had sworn themselves to, I inquired what those relics were meant to do, and whether or not they were related to the genies in any way. I’d heard the name of Scheherazade plenty over the years since I’d joined up with the Order; she was one of the greatest arcanists to have ever belonged to it, after all, though nobody, not even Chrona, knew exactly what had become of her. Richard admitted he didn’t know the full extent of their power, but given that they were all aligned to the element of fire in some what or another, it was either destructive or creative.
Between his and Assane’s knowledge of the past, given their heritage and experiences in the Dark Ages and even earlier, and what Liz had told me about her experiences with Kitsune and the visions she’d experienced around the relics, we had a right decent idea of what Kitsune’s leash holder was plannin’, just lackin’ on the details of where, who, and when.
So, as we figured it, they was plannin’ a big ritual. That dagger would be implemented as daggers usually are for that sort of thing, for drawin’ blood, or, more likely, sacrificin’ to draw more power from what we figured were human souls, not no animals. The bracelets would focus the energy of the ritual into whoever was at the center of it, and the staff would draw in even more power, though it could be used, so they told me, to draw in souls as well, perhaps even from the ancient past. Combined with those visions Liz described, that dark figure and the demonic army, we reasoned out that Kitsune’s plan involved either summonin’ up a horde of demons to rampage across the world again, or resurrectin’ that dark sorcerer from Liz’s vision, maybe even both for all we knew.
I tried to get more details out of the two about that dark sorcerer, but they couldn’t figure on who it was. They looked at me like I was a bit slow, then proceeded to tell me about what history called the Crusades, and how the history books left out all the juicy parts about the many demonic invasion attempts, the dozens of dark sorcerers commanding armies of them and the undead, of how the genies were brought into play, and all kinds of other details. They simply couldn’t figure on exactly which one of the dozens they could tell me about might be the target of a resurrection or soul summonin’. Even though the one in the visions had been wearing those bracelets, that didn’t narrow it down much, since they’d passed down to many a sorcerer over the centuries.
But then they went and threw in another possibility that didn’t sit well with me neither, not that any of the options they’d suggested did. Since it seemed that Kitsune was workin’ with help from outside our own realm, that could mean damn near anything was possible. Maybe those relics weren’t even meant to cause trouble on our world; though they were more powerful here, they weren’t lackin’ for power elsewhere in the multiverse, so they could be doin’ something along the lines of what they’d suggested in another realm entirely and might not even have eyes on our world. None of us believed that one for a second, though.
Needless to say, we found ourselves comin’ together just like the old days, and knew that we had our work cut out for us. Now that they had some challenges laid out before them, they’d work out their latest spat and start workin’ toward their purpose, and head for Sentinel City to see what they could glean from there, while I’d head back to the Sanctum and let Chrona and the Order know what we’d reasoned out, then coordinate our efforts from there. They reminded me not to get too excited just yet, though, cause even though I was a mage of the Order of Hecate, and had me approachin’ two centuries of life, we were likely dealin’ with things that see the passin’ of centuries as blinks of their eyes. Even though magic was runnin’ wild in the world and comin’ in from somewhere, it could be months or years before they made their move.
I didn’t think so, but they did have a point; no sense runnin’ off and getting’ all worked up when a good long look at things could be beneficial. So, I bid them farewell for a time, and headed back home to give my report on what I’d learned and would begin workin’ to figure on what our next step was to be.
We were in one of our libraries, lookin’ over dozens of tomes of ancient lore and studyin’ a map of leylines and connected interdimensional pathways when I got the warnin’ that Liz was in trouble from that charm I’d insisted she wear. Knowin’ that the youngin’ was headstrong and damn near capable of handlin’ about anything, I knew whatever she was facin’ musta been downright fearsome. Asher was waitin’ for me in the portal chamber when I got there a couple minutes later, loaded for war, and we headed off toward Sentinel City to pull her bacon outta the fire. Whatever it was that had got her to call on me, I weren’t about to let it get away with hurtin’ my girl.