The Rise of the Church
Episode One
"Bones and Blake"
A long white limousine pulled in down a tight alleyway. It came to a halt and the driver stepped out, dressed in an uncomfortable looking tuxedo. He walked to the back of the vehicle in the London downpour and opened it gently. A short man stepped out, clad in a white blazer and green turtle neck jumper. His long white hair fell at his shoulders and his sneering jaw stuck out like a jagged cliff. He nodded to the driver and he disappeared back to the driver's seat and the limo pulled away. The man was named Alfridge Bones, and was a bishop of the Church of the Faceless Ones of England.
Strapped to his back was a large sword, which would have felt heavy if he hadn't had symbols engraved in it to make it light as a feather. He strode out of the alleyway in the rain, his walking stick striding alongside him and he turned to come face to face with a woman. She was in a black cloak keeping her head dry with a hood and had a bored expression on her face. On her back Alfridge spied a sword hilt.
"Ashione Flare. I would assume they'd send you out to greet me," Alfridge's voice was incredibly smug as he greeted the Sanctuary agent.
"Well what would you expect Bones," Flare replied instantly, "Last time you were here you tried to kill the Grand Mage,"
"Oh yes, oh those were the times Ms. Flare! I hear somebody else already did the job, he died in Ireland did he not?" Alfridge attempted to continue to walk but Flare stepped to block his path once again.
"Killed, yes. By Tanith Low," Flare stated. Alfridge grinned.
"I'm heartbroken! Quintin was a lovely fellow! Had this annoying habit of staying alive," Alfridge then realised they were still standing in the rain, "So that is why we're out here then. Obviously Grand Mage Ode is too busy to deal with a 'religious fanatic' at this time,"
"Took the words right out of my mouth Bones," Flare grinned, "I'm who you're seeing now make this quick, what do you want?"
Bones spied a park bench across the road and turned to cross the road, sitting down and waiting for Ashione to follow. From the bench, Alfridge had a great view of the English Sanctuary building, and spied in a top window the Grand Mage peering down at him. Alfridge grinned and waved a little, as Ashione finally reached him.
"Right what's this about then?" Ashione asked quickly getting impatient as Alfridge tapped his walking stick on the ground and smiled.
"Ireland has become an embarrassment to the Magical Community. What would you do if I told you I could devastate Ireland, topple their Sanctuary and allow swift takeover for the England Sanctuary within a week?" Alfridge adored watching Ashione look dumbfounded as she attempted to catch up with everything he had just said.
"Devastate? Like destroy or kill?" Ashione asked and Bones nodded, "We can't do that, if war is declared then we can. But not now when everything hangs in the balance,"
"Nobody will ever know it was this Sanctuary. As far as anybody knows it would be me acting on behalf of the Church," Alfridge said "I just need a bit of help,"
Ashione opened her coat to show a microphone attached to the inside, and all of a sudden Ashione's shadow lifted off the ground, swirled a little and out of the shadows stepped a man and a woman. The woman was dressed in black, a Necromancer, and the man was in Elders Robes – Grand Mage Ode of the English Sanctuary.
"I have listened. What is the twist Bones? What is your angle here?" Ode asked, his voice ordinary and dusty
"I have everything almost in place," Bones said, getting to his feet, he was shorter than the Grand Mage, "I have two thirds of the plan, I just need one more thing, for which I'll be needing him released,"
Ode's face remained stable and blank as Ashione's crumpled in confusion, and opened her mouth but the Grand Mage spoke first.
"I can release who you speak of, but I'll need an agent with you to keep an eye on him," Ode said, "And what do you get out of all this?"
Alfridge grinned as the white limousine pulled back up, "I have my reasons, and I have business to attend to. Let me know when he's released,"
Alfridge barged through between the Necromancer and Ashione, climbed into the back of the limousine and it sped away down the street. Shadows began to swirl up from the Necromancers cloak, and Ashione turned to the Grand Mage.
"Are you really going to do this?" Ashione asked in concern.
"Of course not, we give him what he wants, use him against the Irish Sanctuary then kill him before he can say we were involved," Ode replied matter-of-factly and the shadows swooped and the three figures were gone.
Serpine had a son. Nefarian Serpine, the endearing evil general of Mevolent's army, had managed in the years of the truce to have a mortal woman fall in love with him and they had a child. The child was left with the mortal mother, but was eventually given up for adoption after his mother struggled to care for him. The child grew up in an orphanage, before at the age of nine was finally adopted by a lovely pair.
However, two weeks ago those parents were tragically murdered and the child was kidnapped.
Daniel Grainger was the name of the child, and he was currently lying on a bunk dressed in dusty teenage clothing and his hands shackled together. He had cried a lot for the first new nights, but was used to it now.
Harmony Blake, a woman dressed today entirely in grey sat on the mound of hay in the barn playing with her pistol's safety. Out through the Barns open doors, she could see the fields of green and the countryside hills, and just at the bottom of the hill, a tall steeple of a grey decrepit church. She raised the gun carefully, steadied her aim at the dangling water balloon she had put up and licked her lips. She fired and the balloon popped, the water exploding outwards. Harmony raised her other hand and pushed at the air, the water coming down into a stream and landing in the empty glass next to her on the floor. She scooped it up happily and began to drink when she heard a whine.
Ugh she thought he's awake.
Harmony got up from the hay, holstered her gun and tied her hair back into a pony tail. She walked to the far end of the barn towards a doorway, tapped a symbol on a wooden beam and the doorway ahead glowed, before revealing a staircase. She followed it downward as it spiralled and came into the small round room made from grubby black bricks. The torches flickered on the wall leaving dancing shadows of her arrival. Daniel Grainger was sitting up on the edge of his bunk, hands shackled tightly and he looked annoyed and pale.
"Where the hell is my lunch?!" Daniel demanded and Harmony giggled.
"You're a hostage, not a guest. I'm being paid a great deal to keep my eye on you and therefore I'll feed you when I'm ready to feed you," Harmony found the mortal boy hilarious, compared to the legends she had heard of his father. Harmony turned to leave.
"I'm starving! I'll die if you don't feed me! Then whoever your boss is will not be happy with you!" Daniel threatened, and Harmony paused at the foot of the staircase. She turned and shot him a quick smile before continuing up the stairs and leaving the boy to starve a little more. At the top of the stairs, she noticed a woman in the barn. The woman was dressed in a black business dress and looked a little too good to be true.
"Hi there I'm Denora…" The woman began, but Harmony knew better than to trust anybody who wasn't the man paying her. Harmony clicked her fingers and ignited flames in her palm, throwing them as fireballs instantly in the direction of Denora. Denora was quicker than that, and leapt up high in the air, grabbing on to the second floor edge of the Barn before swinging forward, her kick catching Harmony in the jaw. Harmony took the momentum of her fall and transforming it into a cartwheel, where once she had her stance back, and Harmony's hand began to reach for her gun. By the time it was in her hands and aimed at her, Denora span into a kick that propelled the gun upwards into the rafters, and spun again attempting to connect a punch with Harmony's face.
Harmony caught the fist in her hand, kneeing Denora in the torso and winding her. Harmony splayed her other hand and Denora flew across the barn, landing heavily against the far wall and crumpling into a bale of hay. Harmony clicked her fingers to ignite two fresh fireballs, but Harmony saw the woman's chest opening, and a cold white ghostly hand crawling out.
Harmony ran to the doors of the barn and closed them quickly, before tapping a large complex combination of symbols engraved on the doors. Once she was done, she turned to see Denora's Gist floating out of her sagging body, and Harmony knew she couldn't kill the Gist, but she could sure as hell kill her. Using the wind to boost her, Harmony leapt up onto the second floor of the Barn and began to look for her gun. The Gist's hand grabbed Harmony by the neck and threw her backwards, sending her crashing to the wooden floor. Harmony looked up and the Gist was now hovering and staring nastily at her, its red piercing eyes and mad floating hair an evil grey version of Denora.
Below, the symbols that Harmony had tapped moments earlier surged with green light and suddenly the barn doors disappeared and were replaced with a short tunnel, which on the other side was London – where it was raining heavily. The white limo raced down the tunnel, breaking sharply and Alfridge Bones climbed out of the back within seconds.
The Gist was edging closer and closer to Harmony. Just as it raised its hand to finish her off with a claw to the throat, it began to scream and was sucked down through the floor. Harmony panted in relief, and saw her gun hiding behind a pitch fork. After grabbing it she clambered down the ladder to see Alfridge standing over Denora's decapitated body, his long sword doused with her blood.
"What a vile woman," Bones stated as he began to wipe his sword clean. Harmony stepped up and holstered her gun and looked at her employer in the eye.
"I was just about to handle her," Harmony promised, but Bones looked uncertain.
"You thought you had her till a Gist popped out her chest. I understand Harmony; you do your job well. You did just as instructed, letting her follow you up here. Now they will start investigating, they will lead us directly to what we want. The boy hasn't escaped yet I presume?" Bones asked. Harmony shook her head as he sheathed his sword, "Wonderful,"
"How did the meeting go?" Harmony asked as the limo driver got out of the car and stood anxiously awaiting orders.
"Excellent, they are releasing him for me," Bones sighed, "The only downside is they want a Sanctuary Agent with us at all times to keep an eye on me,"
"Well we can kill them can we not?" Harmony smiled and Bones smiled back.
"That is why I hire you Ms Blake," Bones turned to the driver and nodded and he got back into the car, "I'm headed back to London for a bit more research, and then to pick up the new Team Members,"
Bones turned to walk away and was almost in the back of the car when Harmony spoke up.
"What do I do if the Sanctuary sends more agents like Denora? Or even Cleavers?" Harmony asked and Bones stared at her for a moment.
"Well kill them of course," Bones giggled and was inside the limo, and Harmony watched it reverse back down the tunnel and into London. A few moments later the barn doors reappeared and Harmony looked at the body of the dead woman lying in the hay beside her.
"Ew," Harmony sighed and went back to sitting on the hay.
Tipstaff ran into Madame Mist's office breathless.
"Elder Mist!" Tipstaff screamed as he panted for dear life, "Elder Mist!"
"What is it administrator?" Mist's voice was cold and dead as always. Her veil hung low over her face, and draped to the ground.
"Agent Denora, the one we sent to trail Ms Blake!" Tipstaff screamed.
"Calm down, this is an office. What about Ms Denora?" Madame Mist stood up from her desk.
"She hasn't reported back yet, but her last report said that the fugitive was headed east and…" Tipstaff attempted to continue but paused.
"But what?" Mist became impatient with the spindly man.
"Cassandra Pharos just sent word that she's dead," Tipstaff managed to say at last. Mist was quiet for a while.
"Send in Pleasant," Mist ordered, but she remembered the Skeleton was elsewhere, "Send out search parties looking for Harmony Blake, I will alert the Grand Mage,"
Tipstaff left the room in a hurry.
Damian Maphisto was imprisoned by the English Sanctuary. A couple of years ago, Damian had been hired by a dark sorcerer to assassinate the British Prime Minister. Naturally, Damian had taken the job, but was unaware that he'd kill eighty people in the process. He'd broken into 10 Downing Street, and went a little blood lust crazy. All he could see was red.
Now Damian wasn't the type to be imprisoned in a cell. He couldn't be. Damian was unable to enter a Sanctuary building because of his blood. The protective symbols that are established on Sanctuaries would fry his blood the second he attempted to step inside. So how they imprisoned him was quite genius.
They trapped him in a London alleyway, and shackled him. Then they filled the alley in with concrete. Damian Maphisto was trouble.
Ashione Flare stood in front of the concrete filled alleyway. She made sure no mortals were looking and felt the concrete in front and eventually pressed the first symbol, and began typing away on them attempting to remember the combination to release him taught to her by the Grand Mage thirty minutes ago.
BLAM! She did it. The concrete began to melt away in a red light. When it reached halfway down, she could see the outline of Damian's head. The white limousine pulled up behind Ashione and Bones climbed out and stood alongside her.
"I expected more security. You are freeing the man who killed 80 mortals and still managed to miss his target," Alfridge commented. Ashione eyed him carefully.
"There are Cleavers in every nearby building and sorcerer's blocking every street level exit this side of London," Ashione bragged. Alfridge began to smile and Ashione wondered why, "What's the joke?"
On the rooftops, Cleaver outlines stood tall. One by one, they all began to drop down dead as more and more figures appeared behind them. Alfridge cackled with joy.
"I come from a large church, Ms Flare. Thank you for that information," Alfridge went to punch Ashione, but Ashione was quick and nimble in back flipping on top of the limo.
Bones turned and made a grab for Ashione's ankles, but with a splay of Ashione's hand, Alfridge was thrown hard against the lowering concrete. Ashione clicked her fingers to summon fire in her hands which she raised up and threw heavily towards the recovering man. Alfridge had tentacles of green smoke flow from his hands, which he controlled like giant whips and used to bat away the fireballs, sending them cascading into the walls of the buildings around. The clouds of smoke grew bigger, forming wings behind his back, and he took off the ground hovering slightly and threw himself into Ashione. Flare dodged right, and a tentacle of smoke tore across Ashione's jacket, causing her arm to bleed. The other tentacle wrapped around her leg and scooped her into the air, before slamming her down into the road, causing concrete to tear up around her. Ashione sent a barrage of fireballs from the safety of her ditch towards Bones, and they came so fast he couldn't block in time and on caught on his jumper and pained him greatly, giving Ashione a chance as all the smoke retracted into his body. Ashione's sword was in her hands and she dived on top of the limousine and she swiped at Bones as he recovered. Bones ducked and attempted to swipe Ashione's feet from beneath her, but Ashione jumped up and stomped down on his leg, leaving him lying in pain.
"Alfridge Bones, you are under arrest," Ashione started saying before a torpedo of green smoke sent her flying off down the road, paining her chest and she slammed into a lamp post before tumbling to the ground. She looked up in her dizziness to see Alfridge walking towards her, his sword in hand.
"Ode," the English Sanctuary Administrator spoke as he hurried into the room, "Ashione released Damian as ordered, but Bones has double crossed her. All the Cleavers and Agents are dead and it's just her. If the other Sanctuaries hear about this mess up, they'll come down on us just as we are to Ireland,"
Ode sat and thought momentarily. Ashione was a good agent. But the upstanding of the Sanctuary is what mattered primarily.
"Put out a message. Ashione Flare has betrayed us and is working alongside Bones. I want her killed on sight," Ode ordered. The Administrator looked unsure, but ran out of the room quickly, ready to relay his orders.
Bones' sword clashed against Ashione's as the two stood in the middle of the deserted street. Bones drew back and allowed his sword to make a swipe for her head, but Ashione ducked and plunged her sword towards Bones' chest, but he swerved out the way and brought his own sword down on top of hers, pinning it to the shattered tarmac road. Bones punched her across the face, giving Ashione the relief to yank her sword free, spin and jab. Ashione's sword went straight through Bones' shoulder, and he fell to his knees before her. She raised her sword to finish him off but bright headlights of a van sped towards them. Green smoky wings sprouted from Bones' body and he rose into the air over the van as Ashione back flipped to the safety of the pavement. The side of the van opened and Cleavers swarmed out to surround her. Bones watched from above as the Cleavers began to attack. Ashione used her sword to deflect the blow of three scythes at once, and ducked under them to turn and run. She turned to plant a wall of air between herself and the Cleavers by splaying her hands strongly, to look up and watch as Bones landed by his limousine, grabbed the weak and unconscious Damian Maphisto from the alleyway and clambered into the back of his car before speeding away.
The Administrator stepped out of the van and looked at Ashione.
"Ashione Flare, for betraying the Sanctuary to Alfridge Bones, I place you under arrest," The Administrator stated, she could hear the uncertainty in his voice. He winked at her as he splayed his hands to hold up the wall as she ran. Ashione smiled at the Administrator before she turned and ran off into the traffic.
Harmony put down the plate of cheap tasteless unhealthy food in front of Daniel. She watched him devour it like crazy and smirked.
"So…" Daniel said as he finished his last few mouthfuls, "What do you guys need me for? I have no parents for ransom or anything,"
Harmony sighed and bit her lip, "Your powers Daniel. The powers you won't tell anybody about. We need them,"
Daniel's eyes went wide and he looked scared. She knew his secret.
"For what?" Harmony asked as she turned to go up the stairs, "You'll see soon enough,"
And Harmony was gone.