Chapter 6: Old Friends and Bad News

            Alice and Nathaniel jostled their way through the crowded streets looking for a taxi to take them back to the Mann mansion. The problem with that plan was that it was the Saturday night before Mardi Gras and the city was already packed with people looking to celebrate early. Cars of any sort were locked in due to the sheer amount of foot traffic and unoccupied taxis were nowhere to be seen. The pair walked in silence for several blocks before Nathaniel finally spoke up. “I don’t need you to nanny me you know.” Alice laughed derisively “How long ago was it that you were left for dead in an Alley?” She has a point spoke the projected voice of his employer. Nathaniel jumped despite himself and Alice stopped in her tracks to glare at him. “I get that you just went through a lot, but it’ll take us forever to get to your place if you keep jumping at shadows. Let’s move.” She turned and picked up her pace almost vanishing in the crowd. Don’t lose her idiot. She’s your best lead on the amulet, and the only reason you’re still alive. Nathaniel hurried to catch up, his strides might have been longer than hers, but that meant nothing when she seemed to be able to get the crowds to part around her. Get her talking, I don’t care what you’ve got to do. “Hey…” He said when he had finally caught up “I just wanted to say thanks for earlier. It wasn’t terribly gracious of me to act that way after you helped me…again. Though you have to admit it’s quite the coincidence that we’re both looking for the same amulet.” Alice attempted to ignore him as she rounded a corner to head in the direction of the mansion. “Nothing to say eh? Or is it that you’ll get in trouble with dear old dad if you talk about work?” Alice gritted her teeth and kept walking resisting the urge to simply knock him out and leave him down another alley. “Maybe I’ve got it wrong. Is he your grandfather? Don’t tell me he’s your boyfriend?” The glare Alice shot at him could have cut through a steel plate. Nathaniel, displaying a startling lack of self preservation instincts, became overjoyed with this reaction. “Struck a nerve have I? Didn’t think you’d be into older men, at least not that old.” Alice’s hand shot out and clamped around his mouth. “If you shut up I’ll talk. Deal?” Alice could feel Nathaniel’s grin widening beneath her hand as he nodded. I’m honestly surprised that worked.

            “So who is he?” Nathaniel asked. Alice lightly jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow. “I thought you were supposed to shut up. He’s not exactly my father, but he’s close enough. He adopted me years ago and has been training me ever since.” “Training you in what?” Alice punched him again for talking but answered him all the same “Training me in just about everything it seems. Martial arts, different forms of magic, investigation techniques, whatever he thinks I’ll need. I’m supposed to take over for him when he retires, assuming he ever does.” They walked in silence for a moment before Nathaniel finally asked “Well what does he do?” Alice made to hit him and chuckled as he flinched “WE are investigators. We find things, or people. Usually we wind up fighting demons or werewolves or other things that bump in the night. It’s dangerous work, but necessary, and I’m proud to be doing it.” Nathaniel steeled his nerves and tried his luck. “You’re proud to do it, but are you happy?” Alice stopped in her tracks and turned to him with a stare that could melt a steel plate. “I think you’ve asked enough questions.” She growled. Nathaniel stood frozen in place more terrified of this young girl with the piercing gaze than he ever was of any clockwork death machine. Alice’s hand darted into his jacket pulling out the listening bug she and Jonah had planted at the mansion the prior day. “Your turn to talk. Explain why you have this.” Nathaniel scrambled to come up with a suitable lie, but found himself unable to think with her so close. “I saw it back at the mansion, I don’t know what it does, but it seemed valuable. I figured I could use it to bargain with, I didn’t even realize it was yours when I took it.” You’re an idiot. It was almost impressive how a disembodied voice projected into his head from a continent away could sound so disappointed.  Alice stowed the bug in her pouch, turned back down the road and resumed her relentless pace.

            “You mentioned an amulet; if I find it for you will you stay the hell away from our investigation?” Nathaniel hurried to catch up as his brain tried to process what he had just heard. “Wait! Are you serious? If you’re not here for the amulet then… Never mind I actually don’t want to know.” Not believing his luck Nathaniel hurriedly fished the drawing out of his jacket and showed it to Alice. Recognizing that drawing should have floored her, but Alice was far past being surprised by coincidences. There was just something about this case where nearly every damn thing was connected somehow and it was starting to get to her that this annoying boy kept showing up. “I already have this amulet, just not on me, it’s back at the inn I’m staying at. If you go back to the mansion and wait for me there I’ll bring it to you and you can go away.” “Not a chance in hell. If you have the amulet at all I’m going back with you and will take it from you wherever you’re staying. Otherwise you’re not getting rid of me that easily. After all, how do I know you’re not just trying to get rid of me so you can keep it yourself?” Alice ground her teeth at the prospect of having to take him back to One Eye’s but liked the idea of ridding herself of him sooner. A motion in the corner of her eye set her instincts on edge and she turned back the way she was walking and took off as fast as she could without seeming suspicious.

            “I said I’m not going back to that mansion damn it!” Nathaniel yelled after her as he practically ran to keep up. “We’re not going to the mansion and keep your voice down you idiot, we’re being followed” Alice hissed at him as she discretely slipped her hand to her revolver. Years of training as a con artist kicked into effect as Nathaniel slipped into character and pulled Alice closer, throwing his arm around her shoulder and whispering in her ear in a manner that was far too familiar for either of their liking. “I didn’t notice anyone different in the crowd, are you sure?” Bristling slightly at his touch but playing along she whispered back. “I can sense these things OK? You should be able to see him about a block back. He was dressed in black.” Nathaniel tilted his head a little to nuzzle her affectionately and cast a glance back. It was hard to make him out, not because the crowd was too thick, or even because he was being evasive, he just had something about him that made you look right past him as though he wasn’t there. It took effort, but he managed to get a decent look at him and made out a single detail. “Is it the priest?” That was the word. Alice stopped in her tracks and pushed Nathaniel away before whirling on their stalker. Sure enough the familiar figure of Brother Claudio was bearing down on them, the pleasant half-smile of his plastered on his face as always. If she had surprised him at all it didn’t show. “What the hell do you want Claudio?” “Language, young lady. I was sent by Jonah to collect you, I have a message for you both.” Nathaniel, though slightly confused from the rapid turn of events, caught on enough to try and work this to his advantage. “Well if Claudio here needs to take you back to your boss or mentor or dad or whatever he is then why don’t you take us both so you can get my amulet and I can go on my way?”

            Alice was getting very aggravated with this whole night which was only getting worse now that Nathaniel was making reasonable suggestions. A short time later the 3 of them were climbing out of the backseat of a cramped cab having just set records for “Most uncomfortable silence”. Conversation was attempted, mostly by Nathaniel, but Brother Claudio never talked much and any comment directed toward Alice was met with an icy stare. Alice turned on Nathaniel “Wait outside, no negotiations.” Nathaniel looked like he was about to object when Claudio placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll wait with him Miss Alice. Men of the cloth aren’t generally looked favorably upon in these establishments.” Alice nodded her thanks to Claudio and ducked inside before Nathaniel could say another word. With a quick hello to One Eye she ran up the stairs to her room and dug through her trunk to find the amulet that was given to her by Lady Celeste. She found it on top of the egg she had gotten from Lady Celeste as well. Alice froze staring at the egg. Though she hadn’t paid it much attention when she had gotten it she was now finding herself overcome with curiosity about it. She was still staring at it when Jonah came into the room looking for her. Thankfully she managed to hide it before he noticed what she was holding, he still didn’t know she had the egg, or at least, she hadn’t told him. It had felt somewhat wrong that she had a memory of his locked in that egg so at the time it made sense for her to not tell him. “Hey kiddo, ready to go?”

            Alice tried not to look embarrassed as she pulled out the amulet and closed up the trunk. “Yeah, just turns out Nathaniel was looking for this. Not sure exactly how he and Lady Celeste fit into this, but I figure if I give it to him he’ll stay out of our way.” Alice thought she saw a moment of doubt on Jonah’s face and wondered if he had seen the egg, or if he just wasn’t sure about giving away an obviously valuable amulet just to get rid of Nathaniel. For Alice that price was more than acceptable. The pair headed back downstairs and into the night once again to meet with the priest and the con-artist. This was going to be another long night.

Chapter 5: The Bone Man Cometh

            Though the last weak rays of the sun fell on the streets of New Orleans, the alley that Jonah and Alice found themselves in had not seen natural light for a long time. The chill winds of a winter night howled down the empty alleyways biting to the bone and causing Alice to draw her cloak tighter, Jonah as usual seemed to not notice the cold. The investigators were in this lonely alley thanks to a tip from One Eye. Alice turned a wry grin towards Jonah “Are you sure that One Eye doesn’t actually want you dead?” A brief smile crossed Jonah’s scowling features as he responded “Not as long I owe him money…” The heavy steel door of the shop One Eye had directed them to worn and weather-beaten as though it had been there for as long as the city itself. A wooden sign hung on the wall next to the door proclaiming it to be “Ming’s Curiosities”. Jonah let his hand drift down to the revolver resting in its holster, a subconscious act of reassurance. “Ready kiddo?”

            Alice ran through a mental checklist, the same check she made before walking into any unknown situation. “Hold on Old Man. Gotta listen to some demons.” With sleep coming so hard at One Eyes she had forced herself over the last day to tune out her demonsense so that she would be able to sleep in its absence. However if there was ever a time when she needed the ability to sense demonic forces it was now. Closing her eyes and letting her mind open to the world around her she felt the all too familiar noise return. What began as the regular white noise of minor imps skirting around the edges of reality soon gave way to a more distinct sound in her mind. “Alice, what’s the matter?” Jonah asked, bringing her out of her head. Alice blinked rapidly as she returned to the world around her. “There’s something in there. It’s different than anything I’ve felt before.” She said while trying to collect her thoughts. Jonah’s scowl deepened as he thought it over. “This place deals in magical artifacts, it might just be that. Might also be that the proprietor himself is some kind of demon you haven’t seen yet.” Alice shook her head “I don’t know…” Jonah placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “Look kiddo, whatever is in there, we can handle it. If we stay on our guard and keep our wits about us we’ll be fine. Now I’m asking you again, are you ready?” Alice squared her shoulders and pushed the demonsense to the back of her mind again. Placing a hand on her tool pouch and looking Jonah in the eye she nodded.

Raising a gloved hand Jonah pounded on the heavy door listening to it reverberate through the building. A long moment passed in silence before Jonah went to knock a second time only to have the door open as he raised his hand. The room inside was too dark to make out who had opened the door, though someone was moving inside. A sudden flare of light illuminated a dark figure as a match was struck and went to a candle. The candlelight moved nearer the door and a slender woman’s hand pulled the door open further. “Come inside please” implored a soft voice. As the candle moved around the room the woman paused to light others bringing a soft yellow glow to the room. Finally resting the candle on the counter the woman stood revealed in the light. She was an exceptionally pretty woman with smooth caramel colored skin and long smooth hair that hung past her waist. She was dressed entirely in silks that were all different shades of red, each darker than the last. Even her lips, which were curled into a faint smile were stained a deep crimson. “Is there something I can help you with?” The woman asked, addressing the pair. “You could tell us where the proprietor is,” replied Jonah “somehow I don’t think you’re Ming.” The woman only smiled again and continued “I’m afraid that Sir Ming is indisposed currently, though I was left to mind the shop. Is there anything you or your curious friend are interested in?” Jonah cast a glance at Alice who was wandering the room looking everywhere, Alice however, was too distracted to notice.

Alice’s demonsense had grown louder in her mind as she looked around the room trying to determine where it was coming from. Whispered voices echoed through her head without ever passing her ears. Half heard slurs and mumbled threats were joined by high pitched screams of rage that seemed to come from far off yet were heard as though from inches away, though none of it was loud enough to be understood. Alice tried to push the sense from her mind when she couldn’t pinpoint the source and found to her surprise that the sense pushed back, growing louder and more insistent. A hand on her shoulder brought her back to her senses long enough that she managed to see a rare look of concern on Jonah’s face. “Something’s wrong!” She managed to choke out before the assault began again. The voice was now a raw bloody scream, incoherently raging at the world and heard through the padded walls of an asylum cell. The screaming hated everyone and everything and only oblivion would slake its thirst. Alice didn’t feel her legs give out beneath her or hear Jonah call out to her as he caught her mid fall. She simply clutched at her head and screamed with the voice as it fought its way into her mind.

Jonah spun on the woman drawing his revolver and pointing it at her head in one smooth motion. A flash of intuition hit him and he tried his luck. “Let her go Renee!” The woman only smiled again “It is not my doing, though I’d suggest you point that elsewhere little man. If I die there’s no one who can call off the Bone Man”. Snapping her fingers a curtain in the back of the room shifted to the side and the temperature dropped drastically. Alice’s screaming stopped as she collapsed to the floor staring into nothingness, Jonah ran to her side trying to revive her but keeping his eyes glued on the inky blackness behind the curtain. Frozen breath hung in the air as the Bone Man shuffled into the room. It had the rough appearance of a tall, featureless, naked human. It was so emaciated that it looked to be little more than leather-like pale skin stretched over a skeleton. It’s skin was oily and splotchy in some places, dry and cracked in others. Its face, if you could call it that, had no nose, eyes, mouth or hair, though it was obviously staring straight at Alice and Jonah. The Bone Man took another step into the room and it seemed as though every joint in its body was creaking and popping at once. Its skin glided over the skeleton beneath creating a ripple that suggested that the skin wasn’t attached, just something that it wore. Renee slipped behind it placing a delicate caramel hand on a greasy pale shoulder. “Take them” She commanded it before she slipped into the blackness behind the curtain.

Alice screamed again as the Bone Man resumed his march towards them. Jonah drew his revolver again and opened fire tearing massive holes in the chest, neck and head of the creature, but it still stood. The hold it had on Alice however had broken and she regained her senses enough to see the creature for the first time. The Bone Man simply stared at them with half its face missing and reached into the hole in its chest. Never breaking its stare at them they heard a snap as it broke a rib free and held the piece of bone before it on an open palm. Alice watched in horror as the piece of bone splintered and transformed into some form of insect. The insect didn’t live long however as Jonah’s next shot obliterated the Bone Man’s hand and the insect with it. “Get Back!” He yelled at Alice as he stood and flipped a release on a small device attached to his wrist. Alice’s eyes widened and she covered herself with her cloak as the device spewed a sulfurous powder into the air in the direction of the Bone Man. With a snap of his fingers Jonah caught the piece of flint embedded in the finger of his glove against the steel plate in the heel of his hand sending sparks into the air and igniting the powder. The fireball expanded outward engulfing the Bone Man for an instant and leaving several nearby shelves burning. A wave of hot noxious fumes from the burning powder washed over Alice, but she was safe from the fire beneath her flameproof cloak. Jonah had almost managed to get his own cloak up in time but lost an eyebrow. The fire had managed to catch on the thick black substance that the Bone Man used for blood though it still attempted to reach for them with its remaining hand as it smoldered and collapsed into a heap. The danger wasn’t over however as dozens of the bone insects scrambled from the burning heap and the reeking stench of the burning blood filled the room. Alice and Jonah found each other through the smoke and ran for the door throwing it open and letting the cold night air rush in crashing against the wall of hot smoke. They leapt into the alleyway slamming the door closed behind them.

Hacking and coughing Jonah set about sealing the door with a magical ward while Alice propped herself up against the wall of the alley. Breathing the cold air in deeply and feeling the last of the noxious fumes get forcefully ejected from her lungs Alice collected her thoughts and searched out with her mind. The Bone Man was gone, but there was something else, something close by. Catching his breath Jonah sat down next to Alice “You alright kiddo?” Finding her voice and forcing it past the raw pain of her throat she managed a weak “Yes, but there’s someone over there” pointing down the alley to a body lying covered in a thin rug. Jonah got back to his feet and helped Alice to hers. Alice drew her own revolver and with weapons drawn and readied they approached the body. With Alice keeping a steady aim on the body Jonah reached cautiously for the rug to and pulled it away. Somehow neither of them seemed too surprised to find “Nathaniel” beneath the rug, it was exactly the sort of coincidence that happened too often in their line of work. “Well things just got more complicated” sighed Jonah. Alice shook her head “He’s not dead. I sensed his mind and corpses don’t have minds.” Jonah checked his pulse and found it faint, but undeniably there. Nathaniel lay on the ground, eyes open but without seeing anything. He appeared the same way Alice had only moments earlier when she was under the influence of the Bone Man, but it was destroyed now. “…the insect!” They yelled in unison. Jonah shot a glance at her “Get ready to help him out, or knock him out, whichever’s easiest. I have a feeling once that thing is out of him there’s going to be screaming and I’d prefer not to draw any more attention.” Alice nodded and knelt next to the prone man as Jonah cracked his knuckles.

Many years before all of this Jonah would tell Alice about his time training with the Buddhist Chi Masters of the East. It was a bedtime story to her to hear about the strange powers they were capable of and of their ability to heal any wound by the use of pressure points. It had become more than a bedtime story when he had used those same powers to set her broken leg after a run in with a bog imp. It was still one of countless talents that Jonah had yet to teach her simply because there hadn’t been time. There never seemed to be enough time. She watched carefully and tried to reach out with her mind to feel the way Jonah was focusing the energy in his hands. Jonah took a sharp breath and struck Nathaniel in the chest with his fingertips several times in lightning speed and precision. His body began to convulse violently and Alice clamped down on him to keep him on the ground as Jonah took the other side. Finally one of the spindly bone insects crawled from his mouth as Nathaniel went limp again. Before the wretched thing could scurry off Jonah snatched it up and trapped it in a small glass vial that he kept in one of his pockets. Nathaniel awoke with a start and sat up. “What in the? Oh hell, it’s you two” he said recognizing them finally. This comment earned him a sharp slap to the head from Alice “Don’t give us crap. We just saved your life.” She scolded and gestured to the vial. Jonah slipped the vial in a pocket and cast a knowing glare at Nathaniel “You’re in the wrong part of town kid. I think you need some protection to make sure you get home safely.” Nathaniel scoffed “No thanks old man,” and got unsteadily to his feet but tried to hang on to his indignation even after nearly tripping over himself, “my life is in danger enough whenever you two are around. I’ll manage.” Alice met his gaze and stared him down. “I insist.” Nathaniel looked at Alice and mumbled something resembling a concession while casting worried glances at Jonah. Jonah pulled Alice aside quickly “He doesn’t look like he’ll talk to me, are you going to be ok on your own?” Alice puffed herself up and nodded giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Good girl. See if you can figure out why he was there and how to keep him out of the way. I’m heading back to One Eye’s to see what I can find out about this.” He said while patting his pocket with the vial. Jonah, Alice and Nathaniel exited the alley a moment later onto a street that was still packed and went their separate ways, each on their guard for their own reasons, and for reasons that would become good ones all too shortly.

Chapter 4: Imposter

            The light crept in through the cracks in the drawn curtain falling on the restless figure lying in Nathaniel Mann’s bed. “Nathaniel” had barely slept that night after almost having his cover blown twice in the last day. He had never liked clockwork engineers or their strange contraptions and now they had tried to kill him twice. First there was the train where that infuriating redhead had saved his life only to bring him to some old bugger who seemed to be able to read his bloody mind. Then when he got to the mansion another one of the damn things attacked him in the courtyard before that Baker fellow could shut it down. Add in the older Mann’s habit of collecting anything with a gear, gauge or coil and it made searching the place a nightmare as practically everything went into hysterics around him. Nathaniel had spent as much of the day searching the manse as he could but was turning up nothing on the amulet he had been sent to find. He had stayed up as late as he felt he could without drawing suspicion but couldn’t sleep at all after that, he kept having horrible visions of brass soldiers bursting in and crushing him where he slept.

            A servant girl entered his room quietly and drew the curtains slowly. The light raced in waking the sleep deprived imposter. Groaning unintelligible curses at the intruder he finally managed to sit up and cast a bleary eye at the young dark skinned girl who had woken him. “Sorry for the intrusion sir but you asked me to wake you early. You said you had plans in town.” She was polite, but even in his deprived state he noticed that she seemed almost fearful of him, avoiding eye contact and keeping her posture shrunken and meek. This was going to be problematic. If he was going to find this damned amulet, or failing that, what had happened to it, he was most likely going to need the help of the few servants that were left in the manse and they weren’t going to be offering help to someone they were afraid of. “Time for the charm” he thought to himself. Offering up the warmest smile he could he tried to meet eyes with the girl. “Well thank you sweetheart, but my plans aren’t for a little while and right now I have something I need to take care of. Maybe you could help me with it?” The girl’s eyes grew as wide as any he had ever seen as she gasped and ran from the room. It was then that Nathaniel’s brain finally caught up with him and he realized he had just woken up after sleeping in the nude. “That could have gone better.” he muttered to himself as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. You mean it’s not a good thing when girls run crying from the room as you sit there naked? Came a snark-filled voice from inside his head. “Morning boss.” Nathaniel sighed in exasperation.

            I don’t pay you to try and screw the servants you know. “I was just trying to follow a lead.” Is that what you’re calling it these days? “I’m actually just getting ready to head out and check the local pawn shops to see if any of them have it. This Mann character let a bunch of servants go recently, maybe one of them took it?” Well as productive as it sounds for you to check every single pawn shop in a major city days before a major celebration, I have some news you might want to hear. “Of course you do.” Enough of your lip boy, you’re valuable but still replaceable, don’t ever forget that. I’ve been watching the mansion while you slept and found that girl you ran into yesterday, disguised but it’s her. She did something in a room on the east wing and I wasn’t able to watch, but she and the old man look like they found what they need. “So I track them down and find what they took? Any idea where I should look for them?” You never listen I said they found what they need, not that they found the amulet. They probably found a lead themselves, and from a bit of conversation I caught before they got out of range, they seem to have left something behind. Go find whatever it is they left and see if you can beat them to wherever they’re planning to go. You don’t want to fight either of them and as a pair they would destroy you. “Thanks for the tip boss, I’ll get right on it.” Good, now I’m getting a decent night’s sleep for once. You’re on your own for a bit, try not to do anything stupid. “Thanks for the confidence” Nathaniel said aloud, but as soon as he said it he felt that the connection was once again severed.

Having an overbearing boss was one thing. Having a boss who could use astral projection to check up on you from several continents away via a thaumaturgical implant in your skull was quite another. Rolling his neck to work away the dull throb that the implant always gave him Nathaniel finished dressing and went to find breakfast. He may have had a job to do but it could at least wait until after a plate of whatever these Americans called food. Thankfully Nathaniel had stumbled upon a dining room while searching the day before. It would have looked suspicious if he had to ask for directions in his own home. Finding his way back to what he hoped was food he stopped just outside the door and listened in on the conversation inside. “Remind me again why you’re still here and not out fixing my machines?” Asked an obviously irritated Thaddeus Mann. “I’m waiting for your son, sir. I need him to recalibrate the babbage devices on your clockworks so they’ll recognize him properly.” Replied Jon Baker distractedly. Standing up from the table with a grunt Thaddeus began to storm off towards the door Nathaniel was hiding behind. “Just get them fixed before Tuesday, I won’t have them ruining my party dammit!” Nathaniel straightened up and managed to look natural just as the heavy door swung open bringing him face to face with his “Father”. Putting on what he hoped was a convincing smile he greeted him with a bright “G’morning Dad” which only seemed to make his scowl worse. “Go with Baker, he needs your help with something, and for Christ’s sake quit slouching boy!” Thaddeus grunted before stomping off down the hall. Nathaniel gave a brief sigh of relief and stole inside to grab a quick plate of food and hoped that whatever the engineer needed that it wouldn’t take too long. He managed to grab a handful of fruit and a couple of what were apparently unsweetened scones that they insisted on calling biscuits before Baker ushered him off to his workshop.

The workshop was a constant mess of clicking, whirring, steaming activity. Sprawled on nearly every surface of the shop were half assembled pieces of brass coated clockwork devices, many of which remained in motion and were twitching in a vaguely disturbing fashion as they tried, and failed, to function. Cages lined the walls where smaller things were locked up that were able to move but needed to be kept out of the way. In one of them a brass hummingbird beat frantically at the bars of its cage until it gave up and perched with its beady eyes locked on something that didn’t seem to exist. A larger cage was devoted to some form of skeletal attack dog that was horrifying enough to look at on its own, but had managed to become even more disturbing after it had apparently chewed off one of its own hind legs and torn off half its jaw in the process. Jon seemed oblivious to all this as he wandered through the carnage to a massive guardian that had been chained to the wall for safety. Nathaniel didn’t exactly feel safe as he had seen these things rip through doors like paper and there was no doubt that it would break free if given the motivation. Nevertheless he did as he was told and sat in the chair across from it. As the inactive machine sat staring at him with Nathaniel staring right back, not daring to blink, Jon climbed up behind it and fiddled around with something in its head. “Try not to move, would you? It needs to recognize you again, so just act normally.” He instructed adding “…Sir” as an afterthought. Several excruciating minutes passed as Nathaniel sat as still as he could, acutely aware that at least half a dozen machines in the room were capable of turning him into a fine paste and as far as he knew, they all thought he was an intruder. “Just about done,” Jon said activating the massive machine. “Just need to give him a voice recognition” “Do what now?” “Tell him your name… ‘Sir’.” Nathaniel stared into the cold mechanical eyes of the machine and for a moment felt compelled to use his real name. “Nathaniel Mann” he finally squeaked out.

The giant stood straining against his chains as an ominous clicking started in its head. Nathaniel dove for cover beneath a bench as the clockwork guardian unfolded to its full height. “Oh get up you ninny, you’re fine” Jon sighed in exasperation. Nathaniel crawled out from under the bench in time to see the engineer release the guardian from its binding. He managed to only flinch slightly as the machine stomped out the room past him. Clearing his throat Nathaniel tried to regain a little dignity and asked “Good, so are you going to bring in the next one of those things?  I don’t want to have to guess which ones are trying to kill me.” Jon, who was already distracted with some notes he was making on a sheet of paper brought his attention back to the irritated young man. “Don’t worry, I won’t keep you any longer, that one will go talk to the others and tell them the new parameters. Once they’ve all learned to recognize you they’ll be set out of storage to resume duty.” Jon returned to his work seeming to have already forgotten Nathaniel was still there. “So I can go?” he asked the distracted man. “YES!” Jon yelled waving him off and appending it again with a muttered “…Sir.” A very relieved Nathaniel practically ran from the room and headed to the east wing.

Having found the gallery of magical relics the day before Nathaniel knew that’s where the strange pair must have gone. Avoiding the occasional servant in case his “father” needed him for something else he found his way to the room again and snuck inside. At first nothing seemed out of place, except that the floor had a strange dust he hadn’t noticed the day before. Kneeling down to examine a small pile of the white dust that had gathered at the base of one of the displays he dipped his fingers in it and rubbed them together before bringing them to his nose to smell it. “Chalk?” he muttered to himself. It was then that the silence of the room was broken by a false wall sliding open mere feet away. Standing quickly Nathaniel found himself face to face with a pair of servants who had emerged from the hidden passage. Nathaniel, in his life as a thief and imposter had acquired a talent for reading people. It was an absolute necessity to be able to tall what someone was thinking if you were going to bluff your way out of (or into) a situation. Right now that talent was telling him by the way the pair tried to compose themselves, as though they were trying to hide something even though they had nothing in their hands to hide, that he was looking at the people who had stolen the amulet out from under him. “You’re not supposed to be here.” He said with an air of authority. The younger girl looked at the older girl who had composed herself faster. “Of course we are sir,” Stealing a quick glance around the room she came back with “we came to clean the floors.” Nathaniel grinned slightly. “Not a bad lie, but you don’t have anything to clean with. Now I’m busy and not in the mood to deal with you two so I’m not even going to ask your names. I just want to know where this is.” He held up a drawing of the amulet. “You two tell me where I can find it and don’t ask why I need it back and I won’t tell my father that you’ve been stealing his stuff, deal?” The younger girl again looked to the older girl, as tense as a cornered cat as the older one tried to stare down Nathaniel. She lost. “There’s a buyer for these kinds of things in town. I don’t know if she still has it but she did a week ago.” She wrote down the name and address of the buyer on the back of the picture. As he took the address Nathaniel noticed a glint of brass on her shoulder and reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder covertly grabbing the clockwork bug. “Thieving doesn’t really suit you, you’re not pretty enough to get away with it if you’re caught.” He said smugly before turning on his heel and walking to the door. “Thank you” the younger girl started to say before the older girl jabbed her with an elbow. “My name is-” she began “Don’t care!” He finished.

Nathaniel left the house in high spirits and found a taxi. He had a lead on the amulet, he was ahead of the girl and her dad, and if he played his cards right he would be out of town before anyone noticed he wasn’t who he was pretending to be. He stared at the small clockwork beetle in his hand still whirring away, he had no clue what it was supposed to do, but as long as he had it then it meant that he could keep it away from the other two. For the first time since the train he felt back in control and it felt good.

Chapter 3: Infiltration and Information

            The morning sun shone down on the Mann family mansion, casting long shadows across the two figures waiting patiently at the gate. An elderly gentleman dressed in fine European silks stood tall and perfectly straight next to a demure young lady with waist length raven hair and a red gown with far too many ruffles to be of any practicality and a collar high enough to leave not an inch of her neck exposed. A harried and sleep deprived servant rushed to the gate to meet the wealthy foreigners who had sent word of their imminent arrival only hours before. Showing them into the spacious entrance hall the servant bowed deeply and excused herself to fetch the master of the house. As the older man stood straight and stared ahead with a permanent scowl etched upon his face the younger woman discretely inspected the entrance hall.

            The decorations of the hall were a somewhat eclectic mix of new and old. Some of the pieces of furniture and paintings were obviously very old while others were of a much more recent style and showed no wear. The floors were a very impressive imported marble that was inlaid in such a pattern that a practitioner of magic would recognize the circle in the center of the room to be a place of power. One particular piece on the wall drew the attention of the girl, a massive grandfather clock standing a full 9 feet tall with giant crystal windows set into all its sides so the inner workings of gold plated gears could be seen. The girl bent closely to the clock to watch her reflection in the massive pendulum as it made its ponderous journey back and forth. “I do hope you’re not too interested in that piece as it’s not for sale.” Boomed a genial voice from down the hall.

            The raven haired girl bolted upright and looked somewhat abashed as a large, red faced man in a pressed white suit joined them in the entryway. “Didn’t mean to startle you young lady, the name is Thaddeus Mann, pleased to meet you.” He said as he extended a meaty hand to the older man whose grim expression had yet to change. The grim man stared at the hand for a long moment and again at the portly man in white before finally extending his own hand for a quick, and exceedingly stiff, handshake. The young woman quickly stepped to his side and took Thaddeus’ hand herself. “Do not mind my father, he does not mean to be rude.” She intoned through a thick eastern European accent. “He speaks little English so I will be speaking for him today.” Thaddeus attempted to compose himself and took the young woman’s hand kissing it lightly. “Very well then, with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” Smiling demurely the young woman curtsied slightly before continuing “My name is Katarina Belmont and this is my father Lord Belmont.” The grim man bowed his head ever so slightly at his introduction.  Thaddeus shifted uneasily on his feet, trying without success to avoid the merciless stare of Lord Belmont who looked as though he had never had a joyous thought in his life. Grinning unevenly Thaddeus clapped his hands together “Well I understand that you’re only in town for a short while and are looking to buy some of my family’s old relics. We’ll get there soon enough but would you care to join me for breakfast first?” A flurry of foreign words exchanged between the visitors. Turning back to the visibly sweating gentleman Katarina offered him a disarming smile and said “My father is wearied from his travels, he wishes to inspect your manor to see what pieces he may buy from you.” Thaddeus visibly relaxed at the prospect of no longer having to eat with the cold stranger. “An inspection won’t be necessary,” he claimed smiling broadly “I took all of my father’s collection of these so called ‘Magical Relics’ and placed them in the east wing.” Another quick flurry of translation and Lord Belmont’s expression finally changed from grim composure to righteous fury. Just as it looked as though Belmont was about to shout several untranslatable things at Thaddeus, Katarina stepped between them murmuring soothing things to her father. Exasperated she turned to the terrified man and told him “My father wishes to express his concern that you do not respect the magical traditions of his household and yours.”

            Getting the distinct impression that he should have just had his life flash before his eyes, Thaddeus wiped his brow and apologized before offering to lead them personally to the east wing gallery. The trio walked down the hall with Lord Belmont talking continually to Katarina and Thaddeus feeling grateful that he couldn’t understand the curses that were being thrown his way in a language he didn’t speak. Stopping at a nondescript door on a far end of the house Thaddeus summoned the harried servant from before and instructed her to see to any of their guests needs before excusing himself to his waiting breakfast. After a long moment of searching for the correct key from a ring she had pulled from her apron she finally let them into the gallery and rushed in to draw the curtains back letting light spill into the darkened room. Meekly showing herself out the servant closed the door behind her and left the pair of foreigners in the gallery. Shooting a pointed glare at the older man “Katarina” started unbuttoning her collar. “You know I hate this dress” She said, dropping her accent. Jonah had already started loosening his own collar so he could only chuckle “But you look so cute in it” He mocked playfully. Alice rolled her eyes, grinning and started fishing around in the myriad of ruffles for her toolkit. Finally withdrawing the chalk from a deep pocket she tried to hand it to Jonah only to have him gently push it back in her hand. “You’re up kiddo, I’ll keep watch.” He said with a conspiratorial wink.

            Alice’s hand trembled despite herself. It was a simple spell, one she had practiced hundreds of times, and when it came right down to it Jonah had trusted her with far more important and complex things before. Somehow though, this small task seemed monumental. Clutching the chalk tightly she smiled softly and started drawing the necessary circles and runes along the floor as Jonah took several small devices from the cuffs of his gloves and attached them to the door, placing one in his ear. The spell Alice was tracing into the floor was designed to track magical essences.  It would tell them which, if any, of the artifacts in the room were actually worth being stolen, as well as if any had been recently removed. Jonah and Alice had to stand in circles specially designed to exclude them as it was likely that the devices and enchantments they had on them would far overpower anything found in the Mann Family collection. As the last of the lines went into place Jonah gave her a silent signal “All clear” signal and Alice focused energy into the runes activating the spell. A slight pressure wave emanated from the center of the design rebounding off the walls and protection circles making it appear as though reality itself had just rippled in a pond. Faint glows lit up all along the room where items of minor power sat on display. As they had suspected, none of the pieces that were left had any real value or power. Curiously, there were some residual auras where powerful pieces once lay. “Hmm.” Sighed Jonah thoughtfully “What’s this tell you?” Alice studied the room carefully, noting the placement of the items, the strength of their auras and the trails some of them had left when they had exited the room. “This guy has no clue about magic…” She began after a moment “Almost all of these are trinkets. He probably paid too much for them too. The room hasn’t been used and he’s selling them off so he most likely doesn’t care either, my guess is that he’s got some kind of expensive hobby.” Jonah nodded to himself as she continued, lost in thought. “Some of the pieces are missing, so it looks like he’s sold a few though, the trails are faint on most of them, but a few are recent. The weaker ones all leave through the door, the stronger ones though…” Jonah smiled to himself as it dawned on her “Hidden passageway!” She exclaimed as her eyes traced the more powerful trails to a nondescript part of the far wall.

            Alice broke the spell with a wave of her hand and went to examine the wall. “Now all we need to do is find where this leads.” She mused. “Good job kiddo, but there’s no need, only one place this passage would let out.” Alice looked at Jonah puzzled. “Things don’t get built underground around here due to the high water table so there’s no tunnel underground. It would have to let out somewhere else in the house. This is most likely a servant’s passage, something so they can get around without disturbing they master of the house. It would let out in the servant’s quarters. If we’re going to figure out where the missing artifacts went to we should listen in.” Smiling Jonah gestured to the chalk lines “Get this cleaned up while I send the bug.” Normally being assigned to cleanup duty would have annoyed Alice, but right now she was beaming with pride and didn’t care as she brought out a cloth to wipe away the chalk. Jonah, meanwhile had drawn a brass beetle from the inner pocket of his jacket and was busy winding it up as he searched for the entrance to the hidden passage. Finding the release he slid the concealed door open a crack and placed the clockwork insect at the door. A few whispered command words and it was off clicking down the passage on tiny legs. Sliding the door closed behind it with a barely audible click Jonah straightened up and retrieved his listening device from the door, affixing them back into the cuffs of his shirt he looked over to Alice who was already re-buttoning her collar and sliding back into character. Opening the door “Lord Belmont” brusquely signaled the serving girl who had been standing patiently at the end of the hall. “We are, eh, ‘feen-eshed’ here.” He said in his thick and slightly broken accent “If you would, eh…” and he looked imploringly at “Katarina” who stepped up to politely continue “My father would wish to speak with Sir Mann about the items on display” Alice finished for him having returned to her proper character. The servant curtsied and lead the pair to the dining area.

            They found the portly businessman listening impatiently to a stranger who was apparently doing his best to ruin breakfast. “I’ve told you,” he continued, heedless of the new arrivals “I checked the recognition coils, and run tests on all the babbage devices. I don’t know why the clockwork guardians attacked your son, but they seem to not have recognized him.” Alice shot Jonah a meaningful glance, “Lord Belmont” however, stood in stony silence with a distant gaze as though nothing had happened. “I don’t care about your technical talk boy! Just fix it dammit! Lord knows I’m paying you enough.” The stranger sighed and rubbed at a spot on his forehead that seemed permanently stained with machine oil. It was then that Thaddeus noticed the new arrivals. “Lord and young lady Belmont! I trust you found what you were looking for in my… collection?” Jonah was staring intently at the stranger and made no notice that he had even heard Thaddeus, the stranger for his part was obliviously muttering something about “recalibrations” to himself as he absentmindedly picked at some fruit. “Oh him? Don’t mind mister Baker there, he’s brilliant with those lovely little machines, but I’m afraid his manners get away from him at times. He came all the way from England just to build my clockwork servants. John! Introduce yourself.” John looked up with a blank expression as though interrupted mid-thought. “John Stewart Baker, I build things.” He said simply by way of introduction before returning to his ramblings. Thaddeus shook his head and asked “So are there any items you might be interested in Lord Belmont?” A flurry of translations passed between Jonah and Alice before she started in again as Katarina. “There are some items of interest, but my father wishes to know about the pieces that were missing, have you had many sales?” Thaddeus found himself shifting again underneath an uncompromising glare coming from the severe gentleman across the table. “Not as many as I’d have liked. It seems as though some of my former servants had sticky fingers and made off with a few minor pieces. Nothing important I assure you, but I’ve yet to track down where they hid the darned things. Rest assured though, the problem is solved and if you wish to purchase anything I’ll be happy to keep it safe and sound until you can send for it.” Another brief round of translation and Alice left Thaddeus with a reassuring smile “We will have to check with the estate back home, but we shall return soon with a most generous offer for several of your items. We bid you a good day sir.”

            A short time later the pair were back in a taxi heading to “The Wandering I”. “So what’s the plan?” asked Alice. “We should give the bug a day or so to listen in. In the meantime we should ask One Eye for any pawn brokers who specialize in magical items. If we can find who’s been selling them, or more importantly who’s been buying them it ought to help find Renee.” Alice, who had been busily working a potion into her hair to revert it to its natural red asked “And then?” Stretching out his stiff back Jonah just raised an eyebrow “One step at a time kiddo. I don’t know about you, but this old man could use some sleep.” The taxi rattled along towards the other side of town as the city bustled around them a world away.

Chapter 2: Things Rather Forgotten

            “I’m not surprised you know the guy that runs this dump.” Was Alice’s only remark upon seeing “The Wandering I” for the first time. Jonah simply shrugged, he was well aware of his tendency to collect friends and acquaintances that would proudly proclaim themselves to be outcasts.  The inn was a fairly run down hole in the wall in one of the poorer sections of the 7^th Ward. The sign above the door had probably been painted once but was now so weathered that it might as well have been driftwood. With windows so thoroughly caked in grime that light almost didn’t make it inside and only the barest hint of paint left on the sun bleached façade it made no secret of the fact that it was a haven for the kinds of activities that were usually banned in most societies.  The only thing that distinguished this particular dive from a thousand others in similar states of disrepair was a small symbol etched in the glass on the window set in the door. It was a curiously out of place Egyptian symbol called the “Eye of Horus” and marked this location as neutral ground for any and all magical parties. Places like this had existed for centuries and were safe houses of sorts for mages, demons, demi-humans as well as the people who tended to hunt those same mages, demons and demi-humans. Needless to say tension in neutral grounds often ran high but they were also the only place in some cities that a warlock and a werewolf could have a beer and not attempt to kill each other.

            Jonah led Alice into the dank bar and the moment she passed the threshold her Demonsense went haywire before instantly falling into a blanketing numbness. The rush of sensation nearly made her knees buckle, the dizziness would have left her floored had Jonah not reached out and caught her by the elbow in time to keep her upright. “Shoulda warned you. Wards put in place to dampen Demonsense like yours, keeps people from going nuts if there’s too many hellspawn in here at once.” Alice nodded faintly, her head screaming at her. Ever since she was 8 and her Demonsense had awakened she had always been aware of the presence of the supernatural all around her, it was like a faint buzzing, always there but never really at the forefront of her mind. It was Jonah who had taught her to listen to it, to distinguish it from the rest of the noise of the world and eventually to use it at her command. For the first time in nearly a decade the noise had ceased, and the silence was deafening. Alice took a deep breath and composed herself. “I’m alright” she lied. Truthfully she had grown to depend on the Demonsense to keep her out of danger and she felt vulnerable without it. Jonah narrowed his eyes and gave her a knowingly stern stare but let the lie slide. He grabbed their bags and cocked his head indicating she should follow him to the bar.

            Alice, still unsteady from the sudden loss of sense took a quick look around the room to orient herself. The need for a dampening ward had never been more apparent. Seated around the room were a motley assortment of wizards, creatures, demons and everything in between. Off in the corner a trio of fishmen were nervously sipping at their drinks through a series of fleshy tubes. In the center of the room the main part of the action was an arm wrestling match between an ogre and what could have passed for human had it not been for the glowing veins and massive stature. A minor imp bearing a pad of paper and a leather pouch was darting through the crowd of onlookers taking bets on the outcome of the match. Off to one side of the room was a lively card game between a quartet of mages and an equal number of satyrs. Barely heard above the clamor of the crowd was an upbeat jazz band consisting of humans playing instruments with a succubus dressed in extremely little but with intricately painted wings who was playing with her tail as she sang with the kind of talent that only tends to come from demonic involvement. Thankfully the inn wasn’t so packed that she couldn’t make her way to the bar where Jonah had taken a seat. Placing her hand lightly on Jonah’s shoulder, Alice hopped up on the stool next to his.

            “Alice, I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine: One Eye” Said Jonah, leaning in so he could be heard. One Eye stuck out his giant, meaty hand to introduce himself and gave what was unmistakably a wink out of his one good eye. One eye was a giant of a man, or at least he would have been once. He stood at least 7 feet tall though he was stooped with age so in his youth he had probably been considerably taller. His head was mostly bald with only a few short wisps of grey hair left on the sides though the distinguishing mark about it was an incredible scar that reached from the back of his head, across the top and crossed over his left eye ending on his cheek. In place of his eye was a leather eye patch that seemed to be riveted into place. He wore only a simple set of faded jeans and a shirt that had probably been white at some point but was in desperate need of a few good washings. As if to accentuate his appearance as an aging warrior, mounted on the wall behind the bar was a 6 foot bastard sword that hung beneath a plaque that simply read “Don’t make me use this”. Though his muscles had slacked with age Alice didn’t doubt for a second that One Eye could wield that sword with a terrible efficiency if any of his clientele got out of hand. Alice took the proffered hand and he shook with a surprising delicacy and even stooped to give the back of her hand a very gentlemanly kiss. Leaning in closely One Eye spoke so just the three of them would hear “So I take it you two need a room? I’m also going to guess that if you’re all the way out here that you’re here on a job and you’d like it kept quiet?” Jonah nodded his agreement to both questions before placing a stack of bills on the bar. One Eye’s brows furrowed and he sighed, procuring a key from a peg beneath the bar before continuing. “Second room on the left upstairs, and if you bring any more trouble I’m going to need more than this.”

            Alice got down off the stool to find that Jonah had already collected their bags and was offering his hand to help guide her up the stairs and to their room. It was a small, almost subtle gesture but in its own way it showed how worried he was for her. Smiling inwardly Alice took his hand and followed him to their room. The room itself was a piece of crap, there really wasn’t a better way to put it. The thin walls were decorated in nothing more than faded, chipped paint. The small window was covered by drawn curtains that were so thick with dust it was impossible to tell what color they might have once been. The only furniture in the room was a sole bed barely large enough for one and a nightstand that looked as though it may fall apart at any moment. The bed at least had a fresh pair of sheets which was a small miracle in and of itself. Jonah was already busy unpacking his travelling cot, it wasn’t necessarily an expression of kindness or concern towards Alice, he had simply always preferred to sleep uncomfortably as it made him more likely to be awake at the first sign of danger. Alice was just thankful to be able to get some sleep, their schedule tended to keep them up for the nights so sleeping through the days was a practice they had adopted long ago. The two continued their daily rituals before sleep for some time, Alice brushing her hair while humming tunelessly to herself and Jonah stripping down to his pants and going through a series of stretching forms intended to help him retain his mobility even in his advanced age. Alice paused at one point to watch the runes that had been etched into Jonah’s back. It wasn’t the first time the ancient symbols that had been both inked and scarred into him had drawn her attention. The symbols themselves were placed all over his back over points called chakras and were supposed to help him draw upon latent magical and physical energies. Alice had 2 herself, one on each shoulder, Jonah though had so many that they seemed to blend together. As Jonah stretched and moved through his carefully controlled sequences the runes seemed to dance across his weathered skin. “Something’s bothering you.” Jonah stated simply without breaking stride. Alice hadn’t even realized she had stopped brushing her hair. It was pointless to try to lie to him, he always seemed to know. “It’s just… I can’t even remember the last time I couldn’t sense a demon. Are…are you sure we’re safe here?” The question did something rare indeed: it stopped Jonah in his tracks. He stopped mid form and looked her square in the eye “One Eye is a lot of things, not all of them good, but he’s a man of his word. If he says we’re safe here then this is the safest place in the city. Now come on, we should get some sleep if we’re going to do our jobs.” It was about the best reassurance Alice could have hoped for and it did help, but that didn’t mean it was easy for her to fall asleep or that her sleep was restful.

            Alice rarely had nightmares which might have seemed odd given that she regularly faced the kind of horrors most would never know, but the reason she rarely had them was that she had always known she could fight those horrors. It might have been the sudden loss of her Demonsense or it may have been the unease she had felt from the moment they had taken the case but that night she had the first nightmare she’d had in years. It was a shapeless evil that stalked her through the forest that night, a shadow barely glimpsed from the corner of her eye. A growing sense of dread filled her as she walked deeper and deeper into the woods not knowing whether she was finding her way out or getting more lost by the step. It was the sudden realization that the night had become far too silent that froze her in her tracks. Alice let her hand calmly drift down to the holster at her hip for the reassurance of her revolver to find that reassurance gone along with her sidearm. Breath catching slightly she reached for her tool pouch to find it missing as well. The path in front of her suddenly grew unnaturally dark, too dark to see the path anymore but every instinct she had said there was something sinister there and that she should run. She tried to run only to find that even her body had failed her as her legs grew weak and collapsed beneath her. Falling into the inky blackness of the ground she tried to scream and found herself awake and panting in the bed. Jonah was there. Alice’s breathing began to return to normal but the cold sweat that had covered her was a stark reminder of the panic she had felt. Tossing her a warm washcloth Jonah gestured to the basin near the window and finished shrugging his jacket on. “C’mon kid. We’ve got work to do.”

            Alice hurried through the motions of prepping for the night to come making sure to wash off the sweat and bounded downstairs to join Jonah and One Eye at a table. The food was simple enough: beans, rice and a type of spicy sausage One Eye called andouille but it smelled incredible. “…sounds like magic to me.” Said One Eye, continuing his conversation “Around here that usually means voodoo, and if that’s the case I know someone you should see.” Jonah gave an appreciative nod as he worked his way through a second helping of the meal. One Eye scribbled down a name and location on a scrap of paper and handed it off to Jonah as Alice tucked into a plate herself.  Feeling back to her old self Alice and One Eye started trading stories, mostly about Jonah. “So One Eye…” she said between mouthfuls “you said ‘more trouble’ earlier. I have to know, how much grief has this old man caused you?” Jonah groaned at that, but One Eye only chuckled “He managed to burn down my last bar.” He said over the rim of his glass. Jonah shot him a look “OK, so it was actually an Incubus that did it, and Jonah did help me rebuild, but he was the one that led it to me in the first place.” Jonah simply finished his plate and tapped his watch. One Eye, grinned into his glass “Duty calls, eh?” Alice shoved the last bite into her mouth and let Jonah shoo her from the table. With full stomachs and a quick check of equipment they were off into the night to seek out a priestess named Celeste.

            It turned out that knowing the location was almost unnecessary as the first taxi they hailed knew exactly where to find her. The cabbie spent the entire ride there talking about the myriad of ailments she had fixed for him, everything from rashes to boils to a losing streak at cards. “Lady Celeste got a gris-gris for everythin’!” he said sounding like a walking advertisement. A short ride that felt like a long ride later and they were at a small shack perched on the edge of a swamp on the outskirts of town. It was largely unadorned though light could be seen coming through the windows. Handing the cabbie an extra bill to stick around Jonah and Alice made their way up the rotting walkway to the shack. Jonah had barely knocked on the weathered planks that constituted a door when a thickly accented voice boomed from inside “COME IN CHILD!” Opening the door they were hit with a garish blast of light and color. There was only one room to the shack but every surface was covered in brightly painted masks, carved pieces of wood that seemed to hum with a quiet power, dried bits of meat that could have come from just about any animal and strange glass jars filled with unidentifiable things. Lady Celeste was seated in a large wooden chair that had thousands of snakes carved into it. She was a surprisingly young woman with the voice of a much older woman, dressed entirely in brightly patterned fabrics that made her already dark skin seem that much darker and had a blood red sash tied around her eyes. Turning to face the pair as though she could see through the blindfold she announced “I knew I would have visitors tonight. Now what is it you seek from mama?” Jonah studied the priestess for a long time before finally speaking up. “We’re looking for missing people.” Celeste smiled “This is a big city child, people go missing all the time. Sometimes in a city like this they just don’t want to be found. Now a special man like you and a special girl like her don’t come lookin’ for people who go missin’ just any ole way. Why don’t you tell mama what you’re really lookin’ for?” Casting a sidelong glance at Alice, Jonah took a deep breath “The people we’re looking for went into a trance before disappearing. We’re thinking there’s dark magic at work and we were told you would be the one to ask about that.” Celeste stayed silent but gave that smile again, it was one Alice had seen hundreds of times before on Jonah. It was the smile of someone who knew much more than they were letting on but weren’t going to give up that information easily. Jonah rubbed the bridge of his nose where his glasses sat. “Name your price so we can get the information and be on our way.” Celeste frowned slightly. “Child, you aint no fool. You should know that knowledge can’t be bought with coin, it must be paid in kind.” Celeste pointed to a pair of painted eggs on a small shelf “Girl, bring me those charms, if you would be so kind.” Celeste took the eggs and held them out in front of her, facing Jonah directly. “What I require is a memory, something strong. Place your hands on these and think of something you’d rather forget. Then mama will let you know where you need to be.”

A deep scowl traced Jonah’s lined face as he closed his eyes and gave a resigned sigh. Wordlessly he locked eyes with Celeste and placed his hands on the eggs. At first nothing seemed to happen but as the long moments passed in silence the air itself grew colder and seemed to thrum with power. Despite the chill sweat was beading on Jonah’s forehead and his whole body seemed to tense until his face was flushed. Finally Celeste broke the silence with a gasp, it was impossible to tell if it was one of ecstasy or pain. Jonah broke his hold on the eggs and Celeste seemed to collapse, panting into the chair with a contented smile crossing her face. Alice stepped quickly to Jonah’s side and helped stand him up as his knees began to buckle. “You got what you wanted now it’s your turn!” she demanded. Celeste propped herself back up in the chair still seemingly lost in thought. “Calm yourself girl, I did not hurt the man and I’ll tell you what you need to know. I had a student once, a girl much like yourself, she left me some time ago and she never learned these magics from me, but this is her work. She has no love for the Mann family, seek them out and she’ll be close behind. Find my Renee and you’ll find what you seek.” Wiping the sweat from his brow Jonah regained his composure and bowed slightly to Celeste “Thank you for your help Lady Celeste. Come on Alice, we need to pay ‘Nathaniel’ a visit.” As they turned to leave Celeste spoke up “Girl, I ask a moment in private.” Alice shot Jonah a worried glance which he returned with a reassuring nod before walking out the door. Celeste turned her blindfolded gaze to Alice and seemed to stare right through her. “My Renee has fallen down a dark path. Her future, and yours, are clouded to me. I see a lot of her in you and I don’t wish to see another follow her into madness.” She held out a talisman in one hand and one of the eggs in the other. “These will help you in your trials girl, but do not let him know of the egg. You will know when they are needed.” Alice hesitated, not knowing if she should even accept the offered gifts. Finally grabbing the items she hurried out into the night to join Jonah. Outside the shack the warm humid night was in sharp contrast to the chill inside. Jonah was already instructing the driver to their next destination as Alice joined him to head off. The night was still young and there was much more

Chapter 1: An Eventful Arrival

            The train rattled along rhythmically as Alice pored over her texts. Jonah sat with his feet propped up on his overly large case, his multi lens glasses perched on the brim of his hat which had been lowered over his face. Mental preparation was what he called it, though most would simply call it a nap. They were mere hours from their destination and though most would be brimming with excitement about their imminent arrival at a new city this sort of travel had become routine for the pair. Alice would catch up on her studies while the old man would spend most of the time either taking inventory of their variety of tools and supplies or he would simply spend it letting his weary body rest.

            The text itself was a study of hypnotic creatures that were common to the North American continent. It was astonishing that these tales recounting ancient horrors that had possessed people and forced them to kill their families were somehow boring but Alice found herself wanting to join her mentor in his mental preparations. Deciding that now was a good time to take a break she quietly left the room to stretch and get some fresh air. The train car itself was packed with eager tourists, anxious to get to New Orleans in time for the Mardi Gras festivities. It was a small miracle that the two of them had gotten a room to themselves, but to their benefactors in the church cost was nothing as long as they got the job done. Dodging past several groups of people bustling about the narrow hallway including a rather rotund woman who made her passage unnecessarily difficult Alice finally made her way to the door to the outer corridor of the train and managed to get outside of the stifling rail car. She wasn’t alone at the railing outside the car.

            Casting a glance over his shoulder a tall, thin, gangly man took a long drag on his cigarette, finishing it and stubbing it out on the ashtray nearby. Wordlessly he fished a silver cigarrette case from his ill-fitting suede jacket and offered her one with a gesture. Alice turned down his offer as politely as she could as she proceeded to lean against the railing opposite. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath of the country air and allowed the noisy rhythm of the tracks to sooth her overworked mind. Alice had fallen so deeply, so quickly into her relaxation that it took her several minutes to realize that the smoking man was trying to get her attention. “I’m sorry, what?” She practically yelled over the clattering of the tracks “I was asking if you wanted to get something to eat in my cabin” was his shouted response. Alice nearly rejected his offer out of hand before she realized she hadn’t eaten all morning and that she would rather have something decent to eat rather than the travelling rations Jonah packed for everywhere he went. With a coy smile and a gentle nod of her head she allowed him to lead the way. Rather than lead her back into the cheaper car she and Jonah were staying in, the smoking man led her into the first class cabins beyond, and then led her even further into what appeared to be a private railcar.

When they finally arrived at the only room in an incredibly posh car he finally spoke again with a light southern drawl “Sorry it was such a walk. If I don’t put at least a few cars between myself and my servants I just can’t relax.” As if on cue a small boy, no older than 10 came into the room bearing menus. “Look, kid, I don’t care, just get me a sandwich and a stiff drink, she’ll have the same”. Alice wasn’t sure which offended her more, the casual disregard with which he treated the child or the way the child, obviously used to this form of treatment simply backed out of the room with an apologetic stammer. It was becoming very clear to Alice that no matter what this man said, she was not going to like him. “So I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself earlier, the name is Nathaniel Mann, of the Louisiana Mann family.” Nathaniel said while warmly extending his hand for a friendly shake. Alice took his hand and returned the greeting while studying the strange man across from her.

From Alice’s point of view Nathaniel was a series of contradictions. His clothes were slightly tattered and ill fitting suggesting that they were second hand or belonged to someone else, but that clashed with his obviously wealthy surroundings. He was undeniably charming and well spoken, but the way that he treated and spoke of his servants showed little regard for his fellow man. Finally there was the awkwardness to his physical appearance which didn’t match up with her notion of children from wealthy, powerful families. Generally when someone had the kind of money to afford a private train car they could also pay a cosmetic scientist for the genetic work to fix problems like his ungainly height and exaggerated facial features. This “Nathaniel” seemed to a man inhabiting someone else’s body altogether. “You look like you have something on your mind. Care to let me in that pretty little head of yours?” Alice bit back the retort that was already forming “You just seem a little out of place for these surroundings. Why would a wealthy son even have such a careworn jacket? Or even bother flirting with a common girl?” Nathaniel looked as though he were about to wave off her concerns with an explanation when he paused and suddenly looked very concerned. “Mah jacket?” he questioned suddenly with a strong cockney accent. Any further inquiry was interrupted by a loud crash from just outside the front of the car. Nathaniel let out a curse and bolted toward the cabin door. “Eh, sorry ‘bout this girlie but, er, we should run!” The moment he opened the cabin door a massive metal fist shot through and waylaid him, following the fist was a towering 8 foot clockwork guardian.

The clockwork guardian appeared to be a massive suit of armor and indeed would have been indistinguishable from a giant person clad in metal had it not been for the tempered glass that covered its face, exposing the inner workings of whirring brass gears and intricate pistons. Normally exposing the workings of such a machine would be a fatal design flaw, but Alice had the feeling that in this case the head was exposed for the express purpose of informing any would-be attackers that this particular foe was no mere human opponent. The smart thing to do would have been to simply run, hope that the guardian wouldn’t follow or that it would ignore her and merely subdue Nathaniel. The guardian had turned its faceplate toward Alice and stood to its full height. It started to take a step toward her when she sprung into action, grabbing her sonic glove from the tool pouch she always kept at her side. The sonic glove was a simple device consisting of a small device built into the wrist which would transfer a vibrate a thin metal plate placed into the palm, which would then send a sonic pulse through whichever object she happened to be touching. The guardian lunged for her with surprising speed and missed her only thanks to her magically enhanced reflexes. Narrowly dodging to the side of the lunge Alice planted her palm firmly onto the guardian’s back and triggered the pulse by pressing into it. The sonic pulse rippled through the side of the machine, shifting the gears and causing them to slip out of place. This machine though was built for a fight and was engineered so precisely as to sustain heavy blows such as this. The guardian slumped for only a moment before the internal computing machine it used as a brain adjusted for the pulse and had righted itself.

Whirling around the guardian charged Alice who had picked Nathaniel up and was trying to get him out of harm’s way. With a massive shove Alice threw Nathaniel out the door of the cabin and herself back into the room, just out of range of the several tons of metal that charged into the space occupied by the both of them a second before. Finally coming to from the vicious blow to the head, Nathaniel watched in confused awe as he saw Alice, framed in the now broken doorway of the cabin, bobbing and weaving around the assailant slapping it repeatedly and somehow crippling it with each blow. It seemed as though the battle raged for hours though truthfully it was over in mere moments as Alice systematically sought out and destabilized the delicate clockworks inside the guardian until it could no longer compensate for the damage and finally twisted itself into a broken heap on the floor. Alice was standing over the massive form panting from the exertion when she heard Nathaniel getting to his feet in the hallway. “That was bloody brilliant love! How’d you take down one a them bigguns?” Alice spun on him fury blazing in her eyes. Covering the distance with two quick strides she grabbed him by the ear and bent him painfully toward her. “I think you have some explaining to do ‘Nathaniel’”

Jonah was awake and sitting on the train floor with his back to the door, busily sorting through his large case when Alice stormed back into their cabin dragging Nathaniel behind her. “Out enjoying yourself  kiddo?” he asked just before she threw the stranger into the cabin landing him squarely in the seat across from the one she took with a huff. Turning a bemused eye on the stranger Jonah simply chuckled “Well you’re new”. Alice, pointing an accusing finger at the overly lanky man shouted “He got me into a fight in a private car” as a way of explaining his presence here. Turning that bemused eye on Alice he simply asked “Do I want to know why you were in a private car?” Throwing her hands in the air with an exasperated shout Alice took a deep breath and related the whole story to Jonah, “Nathaniel” for his part simply sat there looking as apologetic as he could. Finishing the story Alice sunk back in her seat with her arms crossed, her eyes shooting daggers at the stranger across from her. Sighing Jonah latched his case and stood between the two. Turning to “Nathaniel” Jonah began his own interrogation “Am I to assume, son that you’re a conman?” Under the withering gaze of the unbelievably imposing old man the stranger found himself unable to lie. “Yessir” “Is ‘Nathaniel Mann’ even your name?” “Nosir, it’s the name of a man who was supposed ta have been on the train today but had been held up in the city and didn’t make it on board.” “Am I correct to assume that you had something to do with his delay?” “Yessir” “Judging by the fact that the servant did not question you at all but the clockwork guardian attacked you I’m going to guess that you have some device which affords you a measure of control over the minds of those around you but was unable to fool a mechanical brain. This was how you were hoping to impersonate this ‘Nathaniel Mann’. Such devices are hard to come by and not exactly cheap. From the state of your dress I’ll assume you were hired to impersonate him for some reason and given the device to carry out your assignment.” With each word the conman sunk lower into his seat, terrified of the old man who was able to peer so easily into his mind. Rubbing his temples Jonah eased into the seat next to Alice, sighing heavily. “We have ourselves a problem. The broken guardian in your cabin is going to raise a lot of questions, but there’s going to be a lot more questions raised if ‘Nathaniel Mann’ suddenly goes missing while several witnesses saw him on this very train. I don’t particularly care what job you were hired to do, but we’re going to step out of the way and let you do it. We’ll rig that machine so it appears as though its clockwork brain broke and that it no longer recognized you. In return you’ll not tell anyone about us and do your best to shut down any inquiry of the sort. Do we have an understanding boy?” The conman meekly nodded.

Alice had shifted her rage from the imposter to her mentor. “We’re just going to walk away after he almost got me killed?” she practically screamed. Jonah leaned in close to his apprentice and whispered so only she would hear “You and I both know that thing wouldn’t have stood a chance against you. Besides now he owes us a favor and, call it a hunch, but we might need the wealthy son of a rich family to owe us a favor while we’re investigating the area.” Alice’s mouth tightened into a slightly less furious scowl and nodded to let him know she understood. The rest of the train ride was spent sabotaging the intricate workings of the clockwork brain and coming up with a suitable story as to how “Nathaniel” had escaped the wrath of the guardian. By the time they arrived at the station on the outskirts of town everyone had returned to their rooms, Jonah and Alice deciding to stay in their cabin for a while longer to avoid the hustle of the excited crowd. They finally exited the train carrying the few bags they owned just in time to see the conman board an expensive looking auto-carriage. Slinging her travel pack over her shoulder and shaking her head in frustration Alice turned to her mentor and asked “So where are we starting this little investigation?” Stretching out his tired back Jonah took a deep breath of the pungent city air and looked out at the city before him from under the brim of his hat. “I’ve got an old friend who I heard set up shop in this city a few years ago. Knowing him, his place would be the best to find information.” They found an unoccupied taxi waiting nearby and threw their bags in the trunk. The cabbie turned to face them as they climbed into the back and greeted them with a cheerful smile and a thickly accented greeting “Welcome to New Orleans!”

Prologue

            Alice’s breath hung in the air, visibly reminding her that despite the sweat plastering her hair to her forehead and neck that the dank castle she was sneaking through was permeated by an unearthly chill. Her senses on edge she crept down the hallway trying to will her footsteps to make less noise. Tightly clutching her tool pouch to her she silently cursed the old man for sending her in here to flush the beast out. It was just then that she felt the hot breath on her shoulder and felt it cling to her cheek in the winter chill. She was nearly at the next corner before she even realized that her years of training had taken over and that she was fleeing the beast.

            Rounding the corner she stole a glance back behind her to confirm that indeed the massive wolf creature was chasing her and was far too close for comfort. The wolfman stood nearly 9 feet tall with impossibly broad shoulders and claws that seemed as though they could tear the thick doors off the castle walls without even trying. All that paled in comparison to the snarling maw that was gushing steaming breath into the winter air with every panting stride making its head seeming wreathed with smoke. With its wicked fangs a hairsbreadth from Alice’s neck she sharply turned the corner and bolted off in the other direction. The wolfman scrambled to find purchase on the worn stones of the castle floor and nearly ended its lunge by crashing into the decorative furniture along the wall.

            With only seconds to spare between the wolf and Alice she drew her revolver from a thigh holster and took aim at the stained glass window at the end of the short, dead-end hallway. The wolf, having found its footing and now frothing at the mouth lunged once more for Alice she dove out the shattering window. The impressive leap of the wolfman would have surely found its target, even mid-fall had she not hooked her grappling line to the window’s ledge as she jumped. The line snapped taut and yanked Alice into a painful smack against the castle wall as the wolf dove through where she would have been only an instant before. “Good girl” muttered the old man as he took aim with his rifle and planted a silver bullet directly between the eyes of the wolf. The wolfman was already dead before it even hit the ground.

            Covered in bruises and small cuts from her exhausting night of being chased by yet another monster, Alice let out her grapple line and lowered herself to the ground where her mentor  was loading onto a cart the corpse of what was now a young German man. “I’m getting really tired of being bait for these jobs.” She yelled. Jonah, as was his usual response to these complaints, simply sighed and glared at her with a world weary expression that told her to drop it. Alice knew the truth of why she was taking the more dangerous jobs these days, as powerful as he was with his arcane knowledge, medicines and gadgets, there was nothing the old man could do about the passage of time and he wasn’t as agile as he once was. Tying a blanket around the body and climbing into the carriage seat he simply said “Come on, let’s turn this in and go get something to eat.” In response Alice merely gave the body a kick as she climbed into the cart beside the man who had raised and trained her for the last 6 years. The man who had opened her eyes to not only the darker horrors of the world, but her own potential as well. The man known only as Jonah.

…

            Hours later they rode back into the small town with the unpronounceable name to be greeted by people who could only be described as the quintessential frightened peasants. As Jonah  addressed the crowd in their native dialect Alice simply did her part to appear the inconsequential apprentice. Obviously no one in this poor, rural village had the money to pay them for their services which is why it should have been a welcome relief that their contact from the church was waiting for them at the inn. It should have been, but it wasn’t. If Brother Claudio was here then it meant that he had another job for them already. Sure enough when the Old Man and Alice sat down at the inn to heaping portions of a dish that seemed to consist entirely of cabbage and lamb Brother Claudio attempted to join them and had with him another file detailing their next case. Before the priest had even opened his mouth the old man had cut him off with a gruff exclamation of “You don’t talk until we finish eating!”

            The three of them made an odd trio, Alice’s pale, freckled complexion and violently red, waist length hair stood out as the most vibrant colors in the room. Jonah by contrast had a weathered face that seemed as though it had once been chiseled from stone. It was possible that he had once been stunningly handsome, but now too many years of scowling and too many stories to tell made it impossible to see him as anything but intimidating. Beside the pair of opposites sat what could only be described as a palate cleanser, Brother Claudio was a purposefully bland man of the church. If you were to contemplate him for more than a moment you might realize that entirely uninteresting appearance was carefully crafted to make him instantly forgettable, but that would require you to pay attention to him for more than a more than a moment.

Brother Claudio sat with quiet patience for the rest of the meal with his hands folded neatly in front of him. Aside from that the meal passed normally for the duo of monster hunters: Alice delighted in making idle chit chat about anything that crossed her mind while for his part the old man responded mostly with grunts and a variety of exasperated facial expressions between bites. “Honestly though, why name it ‘The Wolf-Man of Berlin’ if we’re nowhere near Berlin?” she was saying as Jonah finished the last of his plate and cleared his throat to address the priest. “So where exactly are our benefactors sending us this time?” “New Orleans, in America. There’s been a series of disappearances and the rumors are that there’s something demonic involved.” Claudio said while pushing an envelope of cash and a case file across the table. “What makes you think demons?” he asked, opening the envelope and counting the bills inside while leaving the file untouched. “Every person that’s gone missing was last seen in some kind of trance before they vanished without a trace. We’re afraid that with the upcoming Mardi Gras celebration that whoever is behind this may have a larger plan in mind. We’re asking you to find them, put a stop to it and rescue the missing if at all possible”.

            The old man sat back in his creaking chair and closed his eyes. A long moment passed between the three of them, Alice sitting on pins and needles, Jonah silently mulling over his decision and Claudio, as always, smiling that implacable smile that made it impossible to tell what he actually thought. “Fine…” Jonah groaned without opening his eyes “just get me a passage on a steamer, none of those flying machines”. Brother Claudio smiled a little wider as, having seen this coming, he had already included the tickets in the case file. A few days later they were crossing the ocean to the so called land of the free.

            A half a world away a young well dressed man glanced over his shoulder as he did his best to melt into the shadows of the alleyway he was being summoned to. A darker, unseen figure waiting for him pulled him deeper into the shadows and into a heated embrace. The two groped each other hungrily in the night without a single word passing between them. When they finally surfaced for air from the passionate kiss the unseen woman asked “Did you bring it?” There was a flash of dazzling white teeth as the young man grinned wide and brought an amulet out from beneath his coat. He held it just out of her reach as he pulled her in for another kiss. Ignoring the amulet she wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him to the ground. An all too short time later the man lay on the ground panting and chuckled to himself “I think I just ruined my suit”. The woman sat cross legged next to him staring transfixed at the amulet and didn’t respond to him at all. “Same time next week then?” he asked as he stood, trying in vain to brush some of the grime off the expensive clothes. The woman suddenly looked him dead in the eye and snapped her fingers “Actually, I don’t need you anymore. You will go now”. The young man’s body stiffened and his eyes glazed, if he had still had any presence of mind he might have noticed that he had started walking further into the shadows of the alley. The young man was never heard from again.