It Really Happened

~~Narration~~

Valkyrie watches Ghoster's chest stop moving as she works feverishly to stop the bleeding.

It would have saved most people, but there's just too many deep cuts, and too much blood has been lost.

As she looks at the pale face, she realizes she's half on a street curb, probably with a bent axle, in the middle of the night. Her own wounds begin to ache now that the adrenaline rush is fading.

She has no idea where Ollie is, or if Ghoster had family to call.

At least it's stopped raining.

~~Narration~~

Rummaging through the blood-soaked clothing only turns up a cell phone, a Glock, and a bit of money.

Although wet with blood and water, the cell phone still works.

Scrolling through few numbers, Valkyrie sees the following in the address book:

Captain, Finn, & Ollie.

Orphan was heading in the direction in which Fate had pointed him. Turning a corner, he saw a few blocks ahead a car halfway onto the curb. He pulled his car in behind the stopped one... he thought he could see some movement from the front seat. Before getting out, he quickly calls on the Sybil's Sight.

Spoiler:

Moving to the driver's door, he glances in and notices two people, but only one moving: a young woman it looks like, but it's hard to tell with all the blood.

Ollie makes it about a block or so from the park before he slips and hits the ground hard. He lays on the empty street in the pouring rain, gasping for breath.

They're all dead I let them die I couldn't save even one of them

He pushes himself up off his belly into a sitting position, leaning his weight on one hand. He shuts his eyes tight, tilting his head toward the sky. The cold rain mixing with the hot tears that have begun forcing their way out of his clenched eyelids. A shuddering sob wracks through his body.

His mind keeps replaying the events of the last half hour. The deaths of Logos and Guy, Ghoster's bleeding form being mauled over and over by the undead. The horde of rotten creatures rising up behind Valkyrie as she struggled with Ghoster. The moment that he turned, and ran. All of these images run through his head like videos on shuffle and repeat.

I should have stayed and died too

He looks down at his shirt, soaking wet and stained with blood and the fetid rot of the dead. He pulls it over his head casting it aside where it lands in a soaking heap against the curb. Physically, he was fine. A headache brought on by eating the paradox and ringing in his ears, maybe, but he had walked in and out of that massacre without a scratch. Why had he been that fortunate? Had his dealings with Fate stolen the luck from the others? And that tolling in his ears. What had that been, and why had it affected him the way it had.

He climbs to his feet and begins trudging through the rain in the direction of his apartment, still replaying the events in his head, thinking about the bell in his head. He just can't figure it out though.

What now?

It was the middle of the night and he was exhausted, though he didn't think he'd be able to sleep. Shivering, he steps under the overhang of a storefront and takes his phone out of his pocket. He looks at his recents- Ghoster and Ankh. One of them dead, and the other. Well, who knows?

The rain seemed to be letting up as he stepped out from under the awning. He looked up and down the street and notices something in the distance. He realizes it's Valkyrie's bug.

Val... Is she?

He sprints toward it, shoving past Orphan without noticing him and looking in to see her alive, and Ghoster...

He begins knocking on the window rapidly. "Val! You're alive! Val!"

Ollie just glances at the cell phone. He's so happy to see her alive, to know that at least one of the others had made it. He pulls the door open and grabs her, pulling the small woman into an impromptu hug and then releasing her.

"Thank God you made it. I thought you were dead. I saw you fall and I thought..."

He shakes his head, trailing off, looking at Ghoster's body and all the blood covering her clothes. He still doesn't seem to have noticed Orphan.

Ollie reels from the slap but he hardly seems to feel it. He cringes when she screams at him and his voice is quiet and wavering.

"I thought you were dead. It was to much, and I couldn't help... You don't understand, something happened to me when Guy... I don't even understand. I know you can never forgive me for leaving you there. I'll never forgive myself. I was just so scared. I'm so, so sorry."

He trails off, looking down. His words weren't enough. They would never be enough. Guy, Ghoster, Logos. They were all fucking dead, and he had run away scared to leave Val to face her fate alone. He looks back up at her.

"I'm so glad you made it."

"She looks out of it," he notices, "And the other person looks dead, would explain her being wound-up and out of it. She's moving, though, and well enough to talk on the phone, so that's good."

Spoiler:

Continuing to study the woman - little more than a girl, really, by her appearance - and the situation with mage sight, Orphan taps on the window. "I'm here to help. Can you get out of the car okay, or do you need some assistance? Are you on the phone with 911?"

Spoiler:

Suddenly, a bloody man without a shirt rushes in and pushes at him. Orphan rolls with the push, not sure enough of the situation, especially since this new arrival appears to know the girl. He then refocuses his mage sight on this second individual, trying to get some sense of what he is about.

Spoiler:

When it is clear the girl is angry at the man, and that this man abandoned her and some other people, leaving them to die, Orphan steps near, seething inside. He directs his words at the man, his voice calm but his anger evident in his eyes. "Look, I'm not sure of all what is happening here, but I can tell this young woman is pretty upset, not to mention pretty badly hurt, so I suggest you step back away from her."

~~Narration~~

Despite a shattered screen and popped off battery cover, Ghoster's phone is ringing.

With the screen glass in pieces, it's impossible to read the caller ID.

Focused still on the man, Orphan asks the girl "Do you want to get your phone, or would you like me to get it for you?"

Ollie deflates. Her answer doesn't surprise him, but it's hard to hear anyway. He sighs, and reaches past her into the car and retrieves his skateboard. He turns and his eyes flicking to meet Orphan's, the first time since he'd gotten there that he'd paid the man an iota of attention.

He begins to walk away, not wanting to attempt skating until he figured out what was wrong with his luck.

Orphan watches the man leave but stays by the girl, Valkyrie. He knows something of what it feels like to be abandoned, but at least the abandonment he'd experienced had happened for a reason, and he can only imagine how much worse it would be to be abandoned and left for dead after watching companions die. He doesn't say anything, waiting for her to finish her call.

Instead, until she is finished with her call, he scans the area, which seems prudent given her mention of zombies.

Spoiler:

Orphan was able to tell that the man who had skulked off was Awakened, and he found the idea of a mage behaving in so cowardly a manner as he apparently had rather sickening. He hadn't been able to scrutinize Valkyrie enough to determine for sure whether she was also Awakened, but it seemed a better-than-even bet, given what sounded like a shadow name amd mention of several other names that sounded like shadow names.

More concerning, though, was the fact that he could hear some scraping, scratching sounds off in the distance. It could be a lot of things, but the mention of zombies put that possibility forefront in his mind. He quickly reaches into his car to retreive his weapons and takes time to strap his daisho over his shoulder, finishing as Valkyrie finishes up her call.

"You don't have to apologize to me, Valkyrie. It sounds like you've been through a lot, and handled it bravely. I'll help you get your things, because I think it best we get out of her quickly." Orphan thinks also of the tarps and garbage bags in the trunk of his car. "We'll take your friend there, Ghoster, with us too," he says, gently. "But we'd better get going."

Orphan smiles a bit at Valkyrie's reaction to his blades. He helps her load up her stuff and take it to his car, moving quickly and staying alert in case the sounds he'd heard earlier should seem to be getting closer. After everything else was stowed, he flattened a tarp in his trunk, and a couple layers of garbage bags atop that. He also put on heavy rubber gloves as he went around to the passenger side of Valkyrie's car, taking more garbage bags and some duct tape with him.

"Could you keep watch while I take care of this part?" he asks, gently. "You've had a bad enough night, it wouldn't do for us to get caught by the police while I move your friend."

"I'll manage," Orphan says. "You've done plenty tonight, and you're hurt, so just keep watch."

"I've got some weapons in the back seat. A pistol or a shotgun, if you're good with either of those, I think I've still got a couple machetes back there, too."

As he opens up a garbage bag and starts the roll of tape, he says "I didn't get a chance to introduce myself earlier. I go by Orphan."

Orphan lifts the corpse's head and upper body away from the seat, slides the garbage bag over the head and as far down as it will go, then uses his shoulder to hold the body up while looping the duct tape under and around a couple times. Then he goes around to the driver's door. He pauses to listen and look around again before continuing, mystically aware in all directions at once. Since there were zombies about, he also takes a moment to take in a slow, deep breath through his nose, trying to catch any approaching scent of decay.

~~Narration~~

The sounds that Orphan previously heard have faded, and the night is still, except for the sound of rain dripping off of roofs and water rushing into drainways. The smell of blood and ichor on Ghoster make it difficult to smell anything else. Even Valkyrie seems to emit the rank stench of decay from her encounter.

Not noticing anything amiss, and the sounds he'd heard earlier having faded in the distance, Orphan sets about finishing the task. He lifts the corpse's feet, tosses two layers of garbage bags over them and tapes them together. Then he goes around to the passenger side and pulls the body out by the shoulders, keeping the upper body high and letting the bagged feet drag. Not the most dignified way of handling a body of a fallen mage, but he'd pay his respects later.

Orphan puts the body in his trunk, lifts, takes off the gloves and stores them and the tape roll in another garbage bag, which he ties shut.

"Hopefully the Guardians will take care of her car and cleaning up any blood still here," he thinks to himself. "My concern right now is her."

"Valkyrie, I just got into town. I don't know any of the local Concilium. Do you know someone up the chain of command, or do you have some other place you'd like me to take you? We need to get you some medical attention, get those wounds cleaned out, get some liquid in you, then you could use some rest."

"Alright, I'll take you there, then. We'll take it from there after we get you patched up. I know a little about medicine myself."

After he starts on the way, Orphan asks her "So, do you belong to one of the orders, or have an assigned mentor?"

"That... that skater guy that abandoned you? That was your mentor?" Orphan doesn't even attempt to hide the shock in his voice. "I'm really, really sorry. I assure you, though, mentorship among the Awakened isn't supposed to go like that, and rarely does. The two mentors I've had have been fantastic... I've learned so much from them."

Orphan thinks to himself for a bit. "If that's what passes for mentorship here in Sacramento, things are a mess here. Maybe that's why Fate directed me here, to help straighten out some of this mess. I've got to get hold of the local Arrows ASAP."

To Valkyrie, he says, "Well, after we get you patched up and you get some rest, first thing we should do is get hold of this Primoria you mentioned, and get you set up with a proper mentor."

"The Guardians of the Veil," Orphan says, nodding. "They are an order of mages dedicated to keeping knowledge of our kind and of magic from falling into the hands of those who are not ready to Awaken, and those who might use the knowledge to hurt us or try to turn magic toward evil ends. Did your phone store his number?"

Without even giving her time to reply, Orphan barrels on. "You have every right to be angry at your mentor. What happened, from what I've gotten from what you've said, was horrible, and anyone in their right mind would be afraid, but that's not an excuse to abandon an ally, or a student, on the battlefield. He failed in his most basic duty as a mentor." He turns to look at Val. "You could have run, but you tried to save your fallen friend, and kept trying even though you might have been killed. What you did was very brave. When you're feeling a little better and have rested, I'd like to talk to you about the Adamantine Arrow. That's the order I belong to... a lot of people characterize us as warrior mages, and we do go into battle against the things that need to be fought, but our most basic duty is to serve and protect the Awakened society. Sort of like magic cops, I guess," he says, half-smiling. "And no, not everone is suited to being a cop. Your bravery though, trying to save a fallen companion... well, I get a sense you might have what it takes to be a cop, or an Arrow. Another thing is for sure... no Arrow would behave as your mentor did. An Arrow mentor would have stayed and protected you, or died trying."

"Smart thinking, Valkyrie." Orphan pulls over. "If you hand me your phone, I can see if I can figure out that 'something's going on' thing and call him back. It would be good to let this Zilker guy, the Guardians, know what is going on and that I took you from that location for your own safety. And if he has a problem with that, the brunt will fall on me, not you."

At the same time, Orphan thinks to himself "Not really sure I can figure out what sort of mojo he did and reverse-engineer it. If it's some sort of Forces thing, I'm screwed, plus with it being a Guardian, the mojo is probably cloaked all to hell, but it's worth giving it a shot. If nothing else, me trying to ping on his spell might register back to him and get him to call back."

Orphan then realizes an important part of what Val had said earlier. "You said you used Ghoster's phone. Do you still have it?"

"No apology necessary." Orphan takes the phones from Val and examines the damaged one. "Let's see how badly damaged it is. If it isn't completely trashed and Fate is on our side, I might be able to pull this off, and even if the phone doesn't work, I might be able to mojo the, um, mojo somehow."

Orphan then carefully opens up and tries out the damaged phone to see if it is even minimally functional.

~~Narration~~

Ghoster's phone chirps when buttons are pushed, but the screen is unreadable.

((I mentioned earlier that Orphan had pulled over. They’re at the side of the road, after having driven a ways from Val’s car.))

“Alright, the display’s busted, but it still works some, so I can work with that,” Orphan says.

Orphan remembers how confused he was in the days and weeks immediately after his Awakening, and realizes he has an opportunity to show Val a bit about how magic works – something she’d apparently not gotten much of so far. So, he explains to Val:

“In a bit, I’m going to try to use a spell to make the phone work better. I also want to figure out how that thing with Zilker intercepting your 911 call worked, though, and if I do the fix spell first, it might make it harder to read the magic that caused the 911 intercept to happen. Magic on top of magic can muddy the water, sort of. So, first I’m going to look back in time a bit to see if I can figure out that Zilker thing. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I want you to try to focus on that “something’s happening” effect you sometimes get and follow along with what I’m doing. We can talk it over later then, ‘k?"

Orphan then takes some time to pull up an Imago of the effect he wants. He already has Mage Sight up, but he wants to look back in time a bit to see what magic allowed this Guardian, Zilker, to intercept Val’s call. He tried to estimate as best he could when he’d found her in her car, and decided to look a few moments earlier in time than that, since she’d been on the phone when he found her. “Sort of like doing Postcognition, but looking into the past of an object rather than a location. Still Unveiling, though, so it should work.”

Spoiler:

Next Orphan tries to analyze the resonance of whatever spell was in effect at that time.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

Orphan watches the phone through the eye of his spell, as it is transferred from Valkyrie to himself, and then it slowly disappears as it ceases to exist in it's current location.

Orphan's eyes widen in surprise.

"Well, that was not quite what I expected... though I suppose I probably should have expected it when a Guardian of the Veil is part of the mix. If nothing else, maybe I got his attention." He shrugs to Val. "First lesson of magic: Anything can happen, so you have to watch out for anything, and be ready to roll with it. [/color]

Orphan thinks for just a moment about looking back in time to when the phone blinked out, to try to read the resonance of that, but he figured either it would be cloaked to hell or that he might just annoy the Guardian, so instead he asks Val,
"I was looking through time at the time... Did you see or feel anything weird happening when the phone faded out?"

~~Narration~~

Valkyrie examines the first spell, which seems to be one that lasts an hour or so, and makes her think of the future, and how things are intertwined. It's clean edges let her know that Orphan is well versed at this type of spell.

The second spell of Orphan's seems to pulse with the energy of healthiness, but oddly mixed with longevity. It likewise has clean, efficient lines to it's weave that let her know that he is similarly proficient in this area as well.

Orphan nods, not really disappointed. He had been caught off guard by what had happened, so there was no reason whatsoever to be disappointed in this novice's not catching something like that.

"No, that's good, that's good." Orphan shifts his car out of park, looks around and then starts back down the road.[/color]

Stopping at a stop sign, Orphan takes a moment to glance around for anything magical or just unusual - or, via Omnivision, for anyone that might be following them - before continuing on his way.

Spoiler:

"Really, Val, you did good. Knowing what spells a person has in effect on them can tell you something about what they can do in general, and especially what tricks they've got going on right at that moment. That's useful to know, especially if you have to fight someone. But by the same token, if you try to Look at every mage you meet, you'll piss some of them off, because they don't want everyone knowing what they've got up their sleeves, and because reading someone can be a preparation for an attack. So, it's considered bad manners in a lot of circumstances. I'm cool with it, though, because I invited you to look at what I had going on.

"So, I expect we're going to be interrupted any minute now by a Guardian, but while we wait, I'd like to hear what you noticed about the spells on me."

(( I'd like to clarify -- the phone is still there. It disappeared from Orphan's vision as it left the current location (lack of Space 2) ))

"That's good, that's very good." Orphan smiles and nods. "Over time, you'll learn to associate those impressions with different sorts of magic, and in fact, your reads are really good even right now. The second one, for example... that's Life magic, and that is pretty much the opposite of the Death spells that create zombiens, and you picked up the Time magic mixed in there. I've got a spell prepared on me so that if I get badly injured, it heals some of my wounds automatically, but until then, the spell hangs in stasis."

Orphan drives for a couple blocks, then pulls into a parking lot and parks the car again. "Alright, the first spell I tried didn't work out as hoped, so now first let's just try the simple thing. We might not need a spell at all." Orphan dials 911 on Ghoster's phone, wondering if it will go to 911 this time, or put them back in touch with the Guardian Val had talked with earlier, and ready to hang up immediately should he get a 911 operator.

"911 Emergency, who am I speaking with?" answers a woman's voice.