Ned
Things went about as expected on all ends:
The Kids came in, yelling after the Doc, saying things like
"it's important"
"Really important"
"Not 'The Kids are at it again' important but ACTUALLY important..."
And then they retired to the spooky library, crawling through the various tomes and trying their best to discover something in relation to a bunch of info. they have little idea what to do with just yet.
Fade IN: INT- Library
"-Part of me actually thinks this isn't all as bad as it sounds....though it's also the part that wants to drop all this and go get comfort ice cream so I'm going out on a limb to say that's my denial talking..."
Margot
Library: dusty. Margot: dressed in hiking clothes with a surprisingly minimal amount of blood and ash on her face after a summons. She was standing near a small display table that was empty save for a particularly heavy book with yellowed old pages that she'd pulled from the shelf. She was skimming pages and chapter headings for key words while they spoke.
"It's probably exactly as bad as it seems, but that doesn't mean we can't have ice cream."
Then, more to Doc, more in explanation:
"I think they're sacrificing to or making deals with some pretty powerful spirit."
Sepúlveda
Wardrobe note: Sepúlveda is wearing a pair of corduroys because the kids were protesting his first choice of clothing, which was nothing. Corduroys and his glasses. Nothing else. You're welcome.
"If one of you doesn't start from the beginning and tell me what happened in the next, oh--" He checks his imaginary watch. "--thirty seconds, I'm going to beat the shit out of both of you with the proverbial limb."
Ned
"We needed to get more information about the victims of this supposed serial killer running around killing Apprentices. We summoned Jacqueline Paix's spirit. Or Margot did. In the same area she died at. She was...remarkably calm out of the gate, but also displaying some really intense...side effects. Very cold. Ice forming where she was walking, cold."
"We questioned her about a few things and she told us a bunch of stuff to do with the Victims. Namely that there is apparently a Freemason type society called the Order of the Falcon. Secret society sort of stuff. One of the victims was a Member....Chet La Croix...and Jacqueline herself used to do work for them, training some of their members in an unknown occupation."
"She told us the woman who found her, Evelyn Murray, was someone she knew and that Jacqueline, was keeping a secret for Evelyn that she could not divulge to us. Outright refused to the point of being upset."
"That's...when...uhh....well Margot can probably explain this part better than me."
Margot
"The secret was more important than that."
This was how Margot explained-- by starting out with a correction. Thank goodness she didn't have big teeth or bushy hair or the comparisons would actually never end.
"She wanted to tell us but was being prevented by an... enchantment, I think. She came across this Evelyn woman and discovered something that she shouldn't have seen, and I think to keep her quiet she was given to this Keeper of Secrets spirit. I think the pact of the secret's, like.... binding on a spiritual level.
"When she tried to tell us what happened when she died she'd say she couldn't say. Or that 'it couldn't be said'. She wasn't able. And when she finally got close she mentioned the Evelyn woman, and she was just so hurt by the betrayal-- I think they were cabalmates. She challenged the secret in telling us that much and at that point this white-white hand came through the Gauntlet and grabbed her and... like... pulled her back into its being. And it said "Know that your word is your bond. Woe to those who would dare steal from the spirits that which is theirs. This is the wisdom of the Keeper of Secrets.""
She blinked owlishly up from the pages of her book before concluding. "I think this Order of the Falcon is trying to do something really stupid and harness this Keeper of Secrets for something, and I think apprentices keep getting in the way."
Sepúlveda
He's not amused. Not that he expected the kids to heed him when he said he didn't want them involved in this, but he's still not amused.
... and I think apprentices keep getting in the way.
This earns her a Look over the top of his glasses, which he pushes up higher on the bridge of his nose as he digests this.
"And, ah, how did you come to know Jacqueline Paix's name?"
Margot
A faint pink blush at the look she got from Doc over the rim of his glasses, and Margot tucked her gaze back down to the pages in front of her. Licked the pad of her thumb and flipped through a few more pages with the added traction provided.
"I... uh.... might have pulled an all nighter a little while ago reading into articles and stuff."
Ned
"I got it from Grace. Leveled the field for me in some detail a month or so back alongside the other victim names. Grace also gave me some info. regarding the Order of the Falcon but I don't think she knows about them. Just some of their details and the name of one of their more recent recruits."
Ned's thumbing through a few texts and volumes, frowning or making a face at the useless info. he finds.
"We might be new to this but we're not test tube kids. You're not going to be able to keep us out of affairs, especially if it concerns young workers Dying." Ned pauses in his reading to regard the Doc, a frank and opposing bit of honesty to Margot's shame-faced admittance.
"Right now we've got a few hypothesis' that differ but mostly just three directions we both think could be investigated further..."
Sepúlveda
Just some of their details and the name of one of their more recent recruits.
"Note to self: yell at Grace."
Something something test tube kids. That look Ned gives him is greeted with dubious raised eyebrows. An unspoken Yeah, right. If he really wanted to impede their free will, he would find a way. Trust.
Anyway:
"And which directions might those be."
Ned
"The cold that was coming off of Jacqueline. It was intense. Otherworldly intense but not resonance related. She's the only one of the victims that had it, despite the murders all having happened with similar MOs: gunshots. Jacqueline died though, of hypothermia, having been shot, after she died at that....While standing up, no less."
Cue baffled mask
"The Cold though, was something attached to this Keeper of Secrets. The same white arm that came out of the other side. Same....frequency? Feeling, really. Not just cold but....complete. Void. Space between the stars sort of nothingness if I could draw a little on Lovecraft and she was tangled up with this Order of the Falcon somehow...alongside at least one of the other Victims..."
"Secret Society plus weird, cold nothing spirit bargains plus young workers that might not know any better..."
Ned's uncomfortable. A little squirming
Ned
Squirming a little while leaving the sentence hanging in the air.^
Margot
"Jacqueline mentioned that the Order of the Falcon has special 'hunts' that are requred before you can ascend to the higher ranks. There's a chance those hunts might have something to do with the other dead apprentices. I just find it uncanny that there was a new body found month after month like that.... the timing doesn't seem coincidental with people just happening to uncover mysteries."
A pause, a glance at either of them, and then Margot cleared her throat.
"Well, you'd think people working with a Keeper of Secrets would be better about keeping secrets."
Sepúlveda
"You two are going to give me an ulcer."
No they're not. He's a Disciple of Life. Ulcers fear him.
"Sounds like Nephandi to me, but I don't know shit about spirits. What're you knuckleheads planning to do next?"
Ned
".....Tell you was step one. If you didn't have any bright ideas beyond 'Science!' I was going to drop Nick and Pen a line....and then Grace, to see what more can be fond out about Evelyn, This Order of the Falcon and this Keeper of Secrets..."
Pause.
"...Finding Evelyn and figuring out what the fuck seemed like a pretty solid bet...but if Nephandi is the word for all of this...Well...we figured it was time to toss this up to the higher Ranks..."
Kiara
Creak.
Movement in the dark. Isn't this how every low budget horror movie begins? Our heroes happened upon unawares? Not ... quite. The sound of shuffling is accompanied by the door to the library being nudged open and a figure filling it; her shadow filling the frame. Her partially naked figure, as a small aside. Kiara Woolfe was standing there with her dark hair tousled and wild around her shoulders; her body, at least until mid thigh, concealed by one of the good doctor's shirts.
She'd rolled the sleeves up, the Verbena and stood there with an apple in hand; a generous portion already sampled.
Dark eyes took in the scene. She settled a shoulder into the frame and let her mouth drift upward at one corner. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" She knew she was, the eyes said it well enough. Still, there was a touch of interest in the voice, the study she gave each figure. She felt like a surge of Spring had just set foot into their space. Earth and blood and the steady pulse of thriving, blooming things.
(a witch by any other name, then).
Sepúlveda
"Kiara! Get over here."
He's so charming, it's no wonder Kiara willingly gives up her free time to spend it with Andrés. He extends an arm and gestures with his free hand like he's going for optimum secondhand embarrassment.
To the kids: "Do not try to find Evelyn. If you two end up in my morgue, I'll reanimate you out of spite." To Kiara: "Does the name 'Keeper of Secrets' mean anything to you?"
Margot
The sudden creak and appearance of Kiara had startled the young witch-- shoulders and spine jerked and her face turned quick to the doorway. If her cheeks had been pink before they went all but magenta now. Good thing it was dimly lit in the library, and she was tucked near the shelves with her book and table.
"Not really....," to whether she was interrupting. The Good Doctor had gestured for Kiara to come join him where he was sitting in his chair.
To Doc:
"I had no plans to go knocking on her door." And then her attention shifted back down to the pages in front of her. Or, more, her eyes did. She was listening intently to hear what wisdom Kiara might have to share about the Keeper of Secrets.
Ned
"We need a dress code..."
Ned murmurs, keeping his eyes firmly in the book infront of him while Margot makes with the further explanation.
"I was going to leave Evelyn to Pen and Nick. She's important enough and good enough to have put Jacqueline in a bind and too much of an unknown for Margot and I to be that stupid about it. We give Grace the name of the Order and she can do her techno jam and maybe find out some more names and people or even a purpose."
Then Ned is listening intently, eyes in the book in front of him much as Margot, waiting for Kiara's response to the million dollar question.
Kiara
The pagan was barefoot (of course she was, somehow, that made sense). There was a thin chain around her neck that winked from beneath the folds of Andrés' shirt and while she bore the disarray of someone recently stirred from sleep, her eyes were still (upon closer inspection) wearing the remnants of black liner. Her mouth wore the faint traces of lipstick, a red stain dulled by the hour.
Get over here.
She pushes off the door with an idleness that can only be deliberate; picking a path over to the Doctor and perching herself on the arm of his chair. The shirt she's wearing is long enough to protect the idea of modesty (theirs, maybe, it's questionable if she had any care about it) as she directs a sudden, sharp little look her lover's way. "The Keeper of Secrets?" The Verbena's eyes shifted to Ned and Margot in turn; considering.
Back to Andrés: "Yes, it means something to me." There was a pause, the faint traces of acidic sweetness clung to her. "The Keeper of Secrets is a spirit. Very old. Very powerful. William and I met them once when we were out exploring the caves.
It survives on, unsurprisingly, secrets. Feeds on them." Her brow rose. "It exchanged knowledge with us, for a set price. You feed the Keeper of Secrets something that's worth a lot to you and it's no longer yours. It's not a pact you make lightly as far as such things go with Spirits."
Sepúlveda
Sitting still isn't one of his strong suits. He's managed to remain seated this entire time by joggling a foot or picking at the chair's arm. Now that Kiara's next to him he can play piano chords on her thigh or futz with loose strands of hair.
"Interesting."
If she gets the impression he's going to ask her more questions about this topic later, that's because Kiara knows him fairly well by now.
In the meantime, he adds, "Last I heard, which was, ah... three? Three. Three days ago, Gracia was looking into the Order of the Falcon. There's got to be some connection between dead apprentices showing up month after month and their choice of patron spirit. I doubt their victims are random. Let me see if I can find anything on this Evelyn myself. If it needs to go to the Chantry head, I'll take care of that." A beat. "Do I need to tie you two up to keep you from getting involved any more than you already are, or can you cool your jets for a minute?"
Kiara
She adds in, as a quiet afterthought: "What I can tell you is that any secret you gave to it became forfeit. If you spoke about it to anyone, gave to someone else what was an offering to this being? It would take from you payment owed." She turns the apple in her fingers.
"It doesn't like its gifts being stolen."
Ned
"...There's one other detail."
Ned offers, jaw pushed to one side as the Doc 'pulls rank' yet again. This was familiar territory across the board, but he didn't seem to want to press the topic any further than that.
"The way the bodies were shot and killed. It was an execution method. Standard military approach and...well...assassination tactics. Two to the chest, one to the head. I don't know much about the Techies but that seems like it might be up their alley..." A pause, one of Ned's hands slipping over his knuckles, gaze flicking toward Margot for a moment. If he looked uncomfortable over the talk of Nephandi before he looks downright displeased with the next sentence.
"...Or you know...the Euthanatos."
Sepúlveda
"It could also be other Nephandi, or hunters, or anti-terrorist law enforcement blah de blahs. We'll know more in the morning, yeah?"
He stands, then. Fingertips on the small of Kiara's back an unspoken invitation to retreat back upstairs.
"Or... soon, if not morning. Don't... Don't jump to conclusions, that's how you end up spraining your shitty ankles. Don't knock on the door again, I'm not putting my pants back on tonight."
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