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Dana and Merin come through the woods to emerge on the rocky beach, Dana
clutching a bundle wrapped thickly in plastic and tied with rope,
looking rather white-faced. She hangs back on the edge of the treeline
as Merin shifts into lupus then lifts her muzzle back and puts up a
howl, calling for Quiet.
An answering howl comes back from the island in a familiar voice. It
take a while, but soon the pair of women see Andrea's familiar form
working itself across the water in a battered-looking johnboat. She's
dressed normally to initial glance. When she jumps out of the boat to
ground it, though, it's a pair of white sneakers, instead of her
leather shoes, that get wet.
Merin retakes her birthform, greeting Andrea with a lifted hand.
Andrea Wyatt wades out of the water, nodding to the alpha of
Untouchables before turning to her kinfolk. She waitfor the others to
speak, though she does smile at them both.
Merin looks from Andrea to Dana, "Quiet-rhya, you know Dana, right?"
Andrea Wyatt says with warmth, "Yes, I do." The look she turns on the
mage is still smiling, but worry lines appear from the frown on her
forehead.
Merin says "She has a bit of business with you, which I'll let her
explain, but I think you might find interesting."
Dana has the look of someone both loathing that which she is holding,
and yet also afraid of it somehow getting away from her, tense with
wary fearfulness even if the pallor under her tan can't be seen in the
darkness. She steps forward, staying near the two Garou, and says,
"More stuff happened this weekend, with the book. Bad stuff. That's
part of why I came out here, to tell you about it." A brief pause,
then she adds, "Like I should."
Andrea Wyatt nods, her eyes on Dana's face. She says simply, "Tell me,
and I'll help if I can."
Dana swallows, dropping her eyes, not meeting the gazes of either of the
Garou. "As we did research on the book, we found out more and more
things that made us worried. Books coming from places where books
don't exist, temples where they're not supposed to be any. Legends of
a killing darkness in the region Aunt Hettie said the book came from.
It didn't take much by then to convince them to destroy the book," she
says, with a significant if silence flitter of a glance up to Quiet,
then her eyes go more downwards again. "Chloe was the key, though,
because...because of her talents," she says; even the moderately
perceptive would notice her evasiveness. "And then...we found out
she's made a deal with the power behind all of this. Jerran. The book.
It's affecting her mind, and doing some other stuff to her, through a
black stone pendant she's wearing. We tried to make it off her, but
the magic got worse and hurt her badly, and drained the life out of
the one touching it. And then, later...someone showed up looking for
her. Knew Chloe's name, knew she was there, knew who we were. She said
she knew Chloe'd tried to breach a contract, and wanted her now. She
didn't come in...I don't know why," she adds. "And she didn't come
back, but she told us that once Chloe left, she was fair game again."
Andrea Wyatt's face tightens. Her face guards better than her kin, but a
truly perceptive might pick up on the total lack of surprise. She
asks, "Where'd the necklace come from?"
Dana shakes her head, surprise in her expression, at Andrea's lack of
reaction. "I don't know. I think...from what was said, and stuff, that
the demoness may have given it to her. As the token of their
contract."
Andrea Wyatt's expression gentles into a smile as she sees the surprise.
She moves to touch Dana on the shoulder. "I knew some of it already,
Dana. But I'm glad you came. Right now, my pack's just on the ready to
react to Chloe when she can be found. I didn't want to press you on
the book again, at least not yet."
Merin takes a step back, remaining silent as the the others talk. She
listens, but doesn't interupt.
Dana looks back at David, then says, "Chloe's being taken care of, I
think. But, about the book..." she trails off, then swallows hard and
looks up, trying to meet Andrea's gaze. "Chloe said from her study of
it that she thought destroying the book would free the demon. We don't
want that to happen. She suggested that it be thrown into some place
called the Abyss, because she said nothing ever got out of there." She
hesitates, then says, "If you had the book, what would you do with
it?"
David Cox raises an eyebrow, but watches Andrea to see how she answers
this question.
Andrea Wyatt swallows hard, her face shuttering at the casual mention of
the dark place that is the subject of so many Garou horror tales. She
then pause to consider before answering. Her voice, when she does, is
even. "I'd call up spirits to see if Chloe's judgement is right, or if
that necklace impaired her. If she's right, my pack would take on that
responsibility. Of those here, we're the most qualified to go to that
dread place, even if you were not my kin."
Dana nods slowly, then looks over at David, with the look of someone
looking for an indication of opinion.
David Cox speaks up to ask, "Could you tell how ... mmm ... powerful the
spirit curently trapped in the book /is/? For obvious reasons, our own
spirit-sage is rather ... out of the picture, for the time being."
Andrea Wyatt turns to nod at David. "That won't necessarily tell me if
the spirit is the only one in question, though. If this book is a
lock, instead of just a prison. But I can start there."
David Cox nods, commenting, "All I'm worried about immediately is the
one in there. I'm trying to keep everything as separate as possible.
We can make plans for the other thing, as well, but there's no need
for you to go off someplace dangerous if it's unnecessary."
Andrea Wyatt's familiar wry smile tugs at her lips. "Well," she adds, "I
wouldn't have until I was damn sure. It's not someplace you go for a
picnic."
David Cox chuckles and inclines his head slightly. "Point taken. I'm
certain you're not stupid. *My* thought was wondering if you could get
a sufficient force together to deal with this thing, if it happened to
be released in a controlled manner, at a given time and place."
Dana's expression screws up into one of consideration, and she says as
if recalling things from the nether reaches of her memory, "The other
demon in Merriwether wanted the book for some reason. It
isn't...completely bound into it. It had attached itself to David,"
she says, eyes going to Andrea with a haunted look in them of
something better left unremembered. "When it was burned, it went to
sleep, but it has been...healing itself. They thought the other demon
was attracted to it. That's all I can remember, else."
Dana adds quietly, to David Cox's words, "We don't want to see a repeat
of what happened in Merriwether, is all."
Andrea Wyatt looks at the package in Dana's hands rather than at David's
face. Her voice is lowered. "Right now, if I had the choice between
risking my own in going to the Abyss and asking the gathered for that
kind of personal risk, I'd approach my pack first. I've asked this
place for too much protection when it's meant killing and death." She
exchanges a look with the Fianna. "But I'm not sure what they'd want,
either."
Merin exchanges a sympathetic glance with Andrea, "For what it's worth,
I'd help, if you'd let me."
David Cox considers the comments for a moment, then replies, "You
wouldn't be alone. Especially with something to help me track it
somewhat, I could possibly attack it from here. after carefully
releasing it. But it /would/ be another alternative."
Dana simply stands where she is, looking up at Andrea sidelong from
beneath a thin veil of fallen hair, continuing to clutch the bulky,
wrapped package tightly to her in both arms.
Andrea Wyatt says slowly, "I think two packs could take the spirit in
direct confrontation. That doesn't seem to be the heart of its
strength."
Dana gives a quick glance to David, again with that look of looking for
an indication of preference.
David Cox nods speculatively. "Attacking at something away from its
strength is always a good idea. That would also give it less
opportunity to corrupt in a long trip to some forsaken place."
Andrea Wyatt gives David a faintly troubled look. "The only thing is,
killing a spirit often doesn't kill it forever. Unless you drain its
essense, and that's the last thing I'd like to do with /that./"
David Cox replies, "On the positive side, it would be out of our hair
for quite a while, at least. On the negative ... hmm ... could you
bring it /here/? Perhaps in lieu of draining its essence directly, it
could be just released into the general flow, or purified and
released, or just stored in an object and then have something a little
more mundane done with it." He pauses for a moment in thought, then
finishes, "Like dropping it into a deep ocean. Just part of the
essence, not this whole thin."
Dana looks as if she might say something, then subsides, remaining
silent. She just looks between David and Andrea, edging a little bit
more towards Merin.
Merin folds her arms across her chest. The gesture may look defiant, as
if she didn't like something said, but her facial expression says
she's just thinking of the options.
Andrea Wyatt tilts her head. "Could I bring the spirit to this side, you
mean?"
David Cox nods.
Andrea Wyatt gives the book a wary glance. "Maybe. Though I'm not sure
what you're suggesting that we try, as far as thinning it out and
storing it. And I don't know what good releasing it as unmanifested on
this side would do." The look at the book creeps up to Dana's face,
and the theurge changes tracks. "What is it, Dana?"
Dana actually startles a little at the question suddenly directed at
her, but then she shrugs, saying softly, "Nothing. We'd actually had
the idea of throwing it into barrel and filling it with lead and
sinking it into the bottom of the ocean, but Chloe said that that
wouldn't stop /her/." She gives David a glance of question, but goes
on. "But, then I remembered she said it this weekend, so...she may
have been lying, or something."
David Cox shakes his head. "I wasn't endorsing trapping the spirit in
something. I was endorsing draining its power out into something,
rather into someone, and killing it off that way."
Dana ohs softly, then subsides even further. "I misunderstood," she says
almost inaudibly.
Andrea Wyatt checks her lip thoughtfully. "Can you do that?"
David Cox shrugs slightly, ansewring, "Not if it's not material. I'm no
spiritual guru. There's a chance if it's material, though I still
couldn't be positive."
Dana looks between David and Andrea questioningly, but then steps
forward, seeming to come to some decision. Reluctantly, she loosens
her hold on the well-wrapped book, and offers it out to the theurge
with misgiving in her expression. "No matter what we could possibly
help with...I don't think we could do it half as well anything you
decide to do with it. I just ask that if things start happening...if
Garou start going missing or being corrupted, that you don't wait to
tell us. That's what happened in Merriwether," she adds softly. "And,
tell your packmates, so it's not like what happened with David and
Aunt Hettie, with no one knowing what they were doing."
Andrea Wyatt takes the package with the same mixture of trepidation and
determination as her earlier wary expression. She nods to Dana, and
says, "I'll tell them. And we will leave someone always on guard,
until it's done."
Dana bites her lower lip, standing where she is for a second or two
while she looks at the book, then takes a deep, ragged breath,
expression turning bleak, before she backs away, breaking the tense
moment. She looks over at Merin, and asks, "Can I get a ride home from
you?"
You say "Dana?"
Merin gives a little nod to Dana in answer, but waits for Andrea's
question.
Dana pauses, and looks back at Andrea as well.
Andrea Wyatt looks at Dana steadily over the package. "David watches me,
like I watch him. And you can watch me too. Both of you know of this."
She hefts the book slightly. "And my pack will have more warning than
those you knew. I'll let you know what we'll do, as soon as we know."
Dana dips her chin in a shallow, solemn nod, then says softly, "Thank
you, Andrea. For trusting me."
Andrea Wyatt's answer is a slight smile. "And you me, Dana."
Dana smiles thinly, with difficulty, then follows Merin back into the
woods, towards the woman's car.
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