Law of Shadows, page 7
The room which was filled with laughter and the voices of people is stunned to silence. Did anyone see what happened?
Siegfried is immediately up and to his feet. “Oh, my… Paul! I always told you not to ride the chair like a child.” He pulls the unconscious human up and gestures for some friends to help. “There is ice in the fridge. He hit is head on the table, so I doubt that he’ll finish the tournament.”
“Should we call an ambulance?” Someone asks.
“Yes, maybe you guys know first aid?” Siegfried admits hesitatingly.
One of the men fiddles with his cards. “Maybe we should forget about this night’s tournament.”
None of the others disagrees.
Siegfried throws his cards into his backpack and smiles at the others. “If it’s like that, then I’ll take my leave.” He unhurriedly leaves the store and I follow him. Once outside, he sets his eyes on Eva who is using my sister as a shield. I’ll have to speak with the vampire about that.
He takes out a package of cigarettes and lights one of them. “So. What do you want?”
I wrinkle my nose at the sight of the cigarette and take a position upwind from him. “I want that you stop haunting my dreams. Then we request sanctuary in your territory. In return we will pay you with some priceless artefacts.”
“As I see it, you are already hiding in my territory. And since I am the lord, I get to do what I want.” He blows smoke into my face and I cough. Is that marijuana? He is becoming less attractive by the second. I clench my teeth and ball my hands to fists.
Surprisingly it’s Annia who stops the situation from devolving further. She pulls out a sheet of paper. “Excuse me? If you would listen for a moment? I want to call upon the clan-rules.”
He furrows his forehead. “There are no clan-rules. I am the lord and my word is the law.”
She shakes the sheet of paper and a long list of very tightly printed paragraphs unfolds to the ground. “But there is a compendium of laws for your territory on supernatural.net! It clearly states that any refugees from other clans are allowed to stay for a month until their status is resolved. I think we fall into that category. And if not, then we want you to take responsibility!”
His eyes flash red and he snatches the paper away from my sister. “That’s over a hundred years old. My parents wrote that. How did it get into the internet!?” He snorts and lights the paper with his cigarette.
“Do you want to say that you don’t care about your parents’ ideals?” I ask. Parents and family are important among Old Ones. At least if they aren’t dickheads who sell their children to gain power with the other clans.
He draws a deep breath and studies the neon sign above the game store, thinking about something.
I cross my arms in front of my chest. “And what happens if our encounter had consequences?”
He drops his cigarette, shocked. “Consequences!? Didn’t you make sure that there are none!?”
I study my nails. “Nope. Didn’t even bother.” Why should I? I am a hundred and eighty with no children. Even if it’s some asshole’s child, I would be glad about it. We Old Ones have so few children, I never expected to have any. “So don’t you take care of the women you sleep with?”
“We-”
I raise a finger. “Dreams count! Don’t tell me that you have no interest in me if you visit me for days. Any decent man would at least take care of his woman.”
He closes his mouth and pulls out another cigarette. “So you are my woman?”
I slap the weed from his hand, not tolerating it. “Don’t go too far. So do we have a deal? You give us decent accommodations and in return we pay you with artefacts.”
He sighs. “I don’t have much. And which artefacts?”
Annia retrieves her backpack from her shoulders. “An amulet that allows the user to pass through Veils. An energy core to gather power for rituals. A rune-set that explains power runes. An old Christian cross that works against real demons. And a fertility statue with a blessing enchanted onto it, predating known history.”
He studies Annia. “I suppose I should lock away everything of value when you come along to live with me?”
Did he really just imply that we are thieves? I snort. “Why should we come with you? Don’t you have some safe place we can use for our own?”
“In fact, I have not. You will have to stay in my apartment until I can find something for you. And I suppose that you are coming with me because Eva left you on your own.” He gestures at our surroundings.
I look around, but can’t find the vampire anywhere. “When did that bitch run away?”
He raises his hand and wriggles it. “When you slapped the cigarette out of my hand. Boy, that girl can run. Probably she thought that the street will go up in flames.” Then he studies the parked cars and walks up to one, opening it with magic.
My sister follows him. “Don’t you have your own car?”
He looks down the row of parked cars towards a red SLK with two seats. “We can drive with mine if you want to take the boot?”
Annia shakes her head and we get inside behind him. Leaning over, I whisper to my sister. “I think that this may not be the wisest choice we ever made.”
He obviously overheard me and turns around. “You do realize that one week ago, I drove my SLK and did what I want. Everyone was too afraid of me to bother with my territory. Now I most likely have a blood feud with the Hammons on my hands, since they certainly won’t allow me to steal two of their women, not to mention that amulet. And worst of all...”
For once I can’t find any fault with his issues. I wait for what he deems even worse in our situation.
“… I am driving a family car!”
10. ~Home sweet home~
“As the Veils not only restrict the Old Ones, but also represent their territory and affect the supernaturals who live there, they are influencing the mundane world. A war that’s fought among humans is often nothing more than a direct result of the unrest within the supernatural world.”
A memory of the Old Ones.
Carinthia
Sely
I shift in my seat. There is no way that I can endure the silence any longer. We drove for about ten minutes and nobody said a word. “So? If your name isn’t Siegfried, then how should we call you?”
He grunts and flips the blinker to take a narrow side-street. “My real name is of no concern to you.”
Annia pulls another sheet of paper from her backpack. “The Bathomeus clan, which presided over this territory, was split in two family groups. A hundred years ago they were extremely powerful because of their numbers. From his looks I would guess that he is either Regan Bathomeus or a cousin, Magnus Bathomeus. Though the information is very old, so I could be wrong. It was uploaded via the Arpanet in the nineteen-eighties.”
I purse my lips. “I guess we’ll simply call him Regan.”
The Old One in front of us hisses and turns around to claw the paper from Annia’s hands. “Who put all of this information on the net? I didn’t do it!”
“There was also a marriage contract for any female Old One who is interested in her own territory.” Annia pulls out another paper and hands it to me. “Do you never check the internet? It’s the best platform for supernaturals from different territories to interact with each other. Of course only if you know the right passwords and codes.”
“Why would I do that? I have no interest in making my territory’s status known!” He answers, visibly disturbed.
I reach for the door-handle as the car sways dangerously to the left. “Regan, please watch the street! I don’t want to get hurt.”
“My name is Magnus!” He drops the paper and takes the wheel with both hands, his knuckles white.
“Okay, Magnus then. How about becoming acquainted with each other? We are going to share a territory after all. Would you like to explain what happened to the rest of your clan?” I offer, a little less stressed.
His eyes flash red, telling me that I am walking on thin ice. “I am not sharing my territory. You two are being tolerated for the moment. And what happened to my family is none of your concern.” He stops the car in front of a large apartment complex and gets outside.
I hurry to follow him, as he doesn’t wait and walks directly to the entrance to hold open the door for us. Annia turns back to the car as we enter the large building. “Isn’t it bad to have a stolen car directly in front of your home?”
He snorts and closes the door. “Don’t worry. It’ll be taken care of.”
Then Magnus walks up to the elevator and pushes a button. My confusion grows as we wait for the door to open. “Don’t you have some kind of estate? You weren’t joking when you said that you live in an apartment? Alone?”
The Hammon estate is big. We have a real mansion with dozens of supernatural servants. Our fingers are in every business which involves big money, something that comes with having a lot of time, being effectively immortal. Maybe I should forget about thinking of the Hammon clan as mine. Annia and I ran away. The whole point of our escape was to get away from their influence.
“Exactly. I don’t need all that stuff.” The door opens and we step inside.
After exiting the elevator, Magnus guides us to a door and gestures to get inside. I enter a small apartment which is living room and kitchen in one. An extra large working table with a high-end computer and three screens takes up the left side of the room. I check out the three doors which allow access to a bathroom and a sleeping room with a single, large bed. The third door allows access to a walk-in closet. But there is something… I can’t help it. The room feels somehow… off.
Is this really a single man’s room? Everything is so neatly arranged.
I immediately notice the dreamcatcher with the vial of blood next to it. It is hanging in front of the couch, right in the middle of the room. So he didn’t even care to clean up after jerking off to me. I head directly to the artefact and grab it.
“Hey!”
My expression must have been horrifying, because he says nothing as I clean out the vial at the kitchen’s basin and wash the dreamcatcher. Having done so, I feel a large weight lifting from me. Smiling, I look up and study the room a second time. “Who would have thought that the lord of this territory is a genuine low-life and a NEET.”
Annia shrugs. “For a single man’s room it looks more than decent. I expected something like a cave. Where did you expect us to sleep?”
He gestures at the sofa. “You can sleep here tonight. It can be rearranged to a bed. Tomorrow I am going to find you a room in this house.”
So he isn’t offering us the bed. I raise an eyebrow. “The building doesn’t belong to you? How are you going to convince the inhabitants to vacate their rooms?”
“There are ways,” He answers and leaves it at that.
Yeah, a genuine low-life. My respect for him is falling with each detail he reveals about his personal life.
That’s when the door to the walk-in closet, the same which I checked earlier, opens and a small woman with golden skin enters the room. She isn’t a hobbit or a dwarf, since her body is perfectly proportioned. She is just really small and only reaches my chest at most. I gasp when I recognise her race. “A Brownie! I thought they died out long ago!”
The woman blinks, taking in the room. Then she squeals in joy and drops the freshly washed clothes in her hands. One moment she is just standing there, then she is suddenly in front of me, touching me as if to reassure herself that I am real. “Master! You did it! Finally more people to care for. Is she your new mate? No forget about that, you even brought two!” Using her inhuman speed, she dashes over to Annia and grabs her hand, patting it.
Magnus groans. “Oilell, what are you doing here!? Didn’t we agree that you only show up on weekends. No, forget about that. Do you know something about a marriage request for me, made in the eighties?”
“Yeah, I am surprised that someone answered it that fast.” The brownie clearly has a different take on time. She reaches up and parts Annia’s lips, checking her teeth. Annia slaps at her, but the legendary creature is gone in the same moment, so my sister slaps empty air instead.
Appearing in front of Magnus, the brownie inspects the sheet of paper which he got from Annia. “Certainly, Master. I need someone to take care of. Since you are the only remaining member of the family, I thought that new blood is needed to repopulate.”
Magnus reaches for the brownie, but she evades him with the same ease as she did with Annia. “Little pest! Come here!”
The brownie reappears in front of me. “I totally forgot to introduce myself! What a blunder. I am Oilell, faithful servant of the Bathomeus family since,” she wriggles her fingers, counting, “Four-hundred and seventy-eight generations! Hopefully soon to be four-hundred and seventy-nine.”
I clear my throat. “It’s nice meeting you, Oilell. I am Sely and that’s my sister Annia.”
Oilell claps her hands together. “Thought so. If you need anything, just say so and I’ll provide it.”
Magnus waves his hand. “Don’t bother, Oilell. They are just going crash on the sofa for the night and then I’ll find suitable accommodations for them.”
Oilell actually manages to look destroyed. “They aren’t going to stay? But they have to! And you can’t let them sleep on the sofa!” Her eyes fall on the vial which I washed. “And you had them work when I am around!? Nonono.” Suddenly she is all over me with a towel, drying my hands with surprising strength.
I don’t know what to say. Brownies are supposed to be extinct since they completely disappeared for an unknown reason a few hundred years ago. I am not old enough to ever have met one. All I know is hearsay. They are magical beings like us. Their special magic allows them to bind themselves to a house and in extreme cases even to a bloodline as a housekeeper or servant. And they have a mania for order, that’s why they can’t stand unclean places. “It’s fine Oilell…”
“No it’s not! We are a decent clan with manners. The young master just made a joke when he said that you have to sleep on the sofa.” She pulls me towards the closet.
Annia furrows her forehead. “We are supposed to sleep with you in the closet?”
The brownie laughs. “Of course not! It works like this.” She takes the handle of the door to the closet and turns it left, like it’s supposed to be done. “See? Closet.” I confirm it and she closes the door and opens it again, turning the handle to the right.
I feel the pull of magic as the spacial spell warps space. Instead of the closet, there is a huge entrance hall. The corner of my left eye twitches involuntarily as I follow the brownie into a luxurious mansion. A look out of the windows reveals a garden scenery in the middle of spring. “Where are we? Isn’t it supposed to be winter?”
The brownie huffs. “It’s the Bathomeus family mansion, located in a reality marble at the bottom of the lake which is right next to the city. Please feel free to take any room you like and explore as you wish.”
Annia follows me, gaping at the entrance room. If that’s supposed to be an indicator for the mansion’s size, then we just entered a castle.
Magnus steps through the door, a grumpy expression on his face. “I don’t like this place. It’s so big and… empty.”
Oilell huffs and pulls me forward. “Just because Master likes it to live in the storeroom doesn’t mean that others have to like it too.”
11. ~Exploration~
“The body is just a mask we show to fool the world.”
A memory of the Old Ones.
Carinthia
Sely
Oilell turned out to be a meddlesome individual. Even now at the breakfast table, she is fawning over Annia and me as if we are queens. Both of us got the largest rooms I’ve found so far in the castle. I can’t complain, even though I am not yet done with exploring this place. The fact remains that the place is disturbingly empty. “Just how many people lived in this mansion?”
The brownie smiles with a sad expression on her face. “The main family consisted of thirty one individuals with Edan Bathomeus as the clanhead. The branch family with forty-four members was led by his brother in law, Kelvyn Bathomeus, originally Kelvyn Armanno. He married into the clan from Italy by taking Edan’s sister, Fiacre Bathomeus, as his bride. Normally the women move to the other clan, but Edan didn’t trust the Armannos to treat her well.”
“Wow. That’s quite big for a clan of Old Ones. Even the Hammons have… had only fifty two members.” I guess I have to subtract the seven who died when they tried to take us back. Magnus informed us yesterday that one of our hunters got away, which explains why he took us in. It’s likely that he already has a war with the Hammons on his hands, simply by killing their people. Though I guess that just killing them could be seen as defending his territory.
I don’t think that the clanhead will let it slide in any case. Not with what’s at stake. Us, the artefacts, his reputation… he has a lot to lose. I look up and study the big dining hall with only Annia, Oilell, Magnus and me. Magnus was right when he said that he doesn’t want to live here. Even with the four of us, everything feels much too big.
“So what happened to the Bathomeus clan?” I ask. “They had contact with other clans up until the end of the Second World War. Then they fell silent and the Veil was strengthened, only allowing Old Ones with serious determination inside.”
Magnus studies the wall from his side of the table. “The branch family rebelled and tried to kill off the main family,” He states with a dry voice, his eyes focused on something far away.
Carinthia
Magnus
“I hate these family feasts, Dad.” I complain and gesture with my glass of wine at the dining hall. The assembled clanmembers are feasting and singing, having a good time. I curl the corners of my lips downwards. “I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if at least one of them had learned to sing in the last five-hundred years.”
