S'my birthday weekend so y'all get a double update C;
Chapter VII
Tess could not remember seeing the coven buzzing with so much agitation in the fifteen years she lived there. Something had happened, to shake the community so much that they were now torn between rallying around their haven or fleeing the city. She stood watch on an elevated balcony, hidden out of sight and practically bundled up in multiple layers of concealment and protective wards to avoid detection, while Ricardo scouted their entrance into the haven. They'd never get in through the usual means of egress, let alone the front door. The coven's own wards were too powerful and too numerous for them. Ricardo had said there was an alternate, secret route into the coven.
Nearby, she heard the voices of several people argue furiously about whether they should leave the city or seek shelter in the coven haven. Others were talking about the death of the magister at the hands of 'the crimson hunter' which made her flinch.
She bit her lips. Albrecht's… dead? Dante killed Albrecht? What the hell happened? Oh jeez, is he here because the coven did something? Like… like Fortuna?
Whatever the reason, undoubtedly Albrecht's decision to fight Dante for was on Regina's orders; Albrecht himself was too diplomatic and reasonable to take that decision on his own… unless Dante really did pose a threat to the coven. Either way, now Dante must know the coven's dirty little secret. They'd fallen to the temptation of demonic power, at least some of them. The looming suggestion of it had hung over her for years, but she had been in the periphery of the coven most of the time, having little contact with the inner circle.
But up till last year, Tess had seen things. Things that made her distance herself from the coven even more, which ironically got her stuck in the position she was in now. Ricardo's involvement in the whole affair was evident, she knew that before he even defected – she'd like to believe he did it out of shame but that was hardly likely.
The coven had been pushed past a breaking point, building up over the past few years. Dante was an utter unknown in this mess and no doubt it made the already tightly-wound high priestess even more nervous. Dante could have come here looking for Vergil or because of something the coven did. If he'd spoken to Regina and if Regina had found out that Dante had run into Tess… it was entirely possible Regina was simply lashing out at this mess, more out of spite than anything.
And Tess couldn't help but think that it was the perfect diversion to make it easier for Ricardo and herself to slip into the coven unnoticed.
It was too perfect.
There'd have been less of a fuss if the city had been invaded by demons. Tess cringed when a passing group of the coven's enforcers mentioned that 'the traitors' had been spotted in the city and that the enforcers were out looking for them. So they knew Ricardo and she were coming. It was hurtful to be referred as such, but true. She had no loyalty left for the coven and particularly for Regina. As far as Tess was concerned, this was her fault.
Just as she started to think Ricardo had been caught, he returned, winded but with a small smile. His own wards kept him hidden from most of her perception but she was better attuned to pick up on the sensation of someone hiding rather than trying to discern his presence.
"We're in luck," he said. "The passage is unguarded; it seems I was correct and that it has remained undiscovered all this time. Come with me!"
Tess followed him, unable to share in his mirth. "What passage is this?" she asked flatly.
Ricardo and her skulked to the basement of the building they were hiding in, just a stone's throw away from the coven. He scoffed. "Something my father succeeded in hiding from mother dearest," he said acidly. "I suppose I may be thankful for his rampant infidelity now. He constructed it to come and go from the coven as he pleased. I believe I'm the only one aware of its existence now. It has its own set of wards and protective spells but it will allow us free access."
Tess said nothing, just pursed her lips. Evidently that's also how Ricardo escaped Regina's attention when he began to rebel against her.
"Ricardo… they know we're in Amaro. They know what we've done," she sighed.
"Oh I expect they do, dearest," he replied nonchalantly, leading her up the basement stairs into the rear garden of the building. "I'm also aware of their panic and frankly, I don't give a damn."
His glee at the coven's troubles disturbed her. She never imagined that his loathing for his own mother and the coven ran so deep. They cut across the garden, into an empty courtyard and across it to the side of a sealed store. Ricardo unlocked the side door with a rusted skeleton key and ushered her inside. It was nothing more than a hole in the wall, really, gathering dust and cluttered with junk, but Ricardo pushed past some covered furniture and fiddled with one of the tiles. It popped open and swung up, allowing them to enter down into it.
"My dear, you'll have to provide us with some light," he told her with a cheerfulness that enraged her.
She descended the short ladder first and with a flick of her wrist, created a small, hovering flame that lit the narrow tunnel. She felt the wards and seals running all along it. They were extremely potent and explained a bit of how this had remained undiscovered.
"Come along, it will let us exit within the inner sanctum and from there will we get to the great ceremony hall. That's where the entrance to the catacombs is," Ricardo said conversationally, grabbing her hand and starting down the passage.
Tess yanked her hand away and they both stopped and stared at each other. In the gloom, Ricardo's eyes fairly gleamed with feeling, even though the light bounced off his glasses, hiding them.
"Tess. Please. I'm trying to help you," he placated.
She shook her head. "I think you're helping yourself more than me," she said firmly. "Ricardo, I'm sorry. But whatever it is you believe I think of you, it's most probably wrong. You need to realize that whatever happened between us is well and truly over. No amount of wishing and helping me is going to change things. Not now. Not after this. So stop it with the nice-making and let's go."
She walked past him, ignoring the obviously hurt look on his face. The long, winding passage was narrow, damp and stank of mildew. It seemed to absorb noise and at every turn Tess was terrified they'd run into someone. She hated it, she felt like the damn thing was going to come down around her and Ricardo's gaze on her back it worse. She almost turned around and slugged him in the face but she reined herself in. She had to see this through. It had to be done, it had to be over with.
Except it wasn't going to be.
"Here we are," Ricardo said at length, as the light from the fire she maintained reflected off a dull stone wall. "Let me open this… hopefully we will not be disturbed here."
He put his ear to the wall and listened for a moment, then fiddled with one side of the slab before pushing it open. It swung open with a faint creak of hinges, opening into an eerie room that smelled from dust and mould, evidently not having known fresh air for a long while.
"My old chambers in the coven," Ricardo said wistfully. "Right under mother's thumb. I see it's been left undisturbed—no, no… most of my books and notes have been pilfered and ransacked. No doubt mother trying to discover my little secrets. Too bad I took precautions."
Tess wrinkled at her nose at his reminiscing. She remembered being in this room, she remembered quiet talks and commiserations, the telling of stories of her escapades when she shirked the coven's restrictions and went looking for trouble because she could. And she remembered the unsettling feelings and the gazes that made her feel uneasy.
"I envied you, you know," he said quietly. "You never let yourself get trapped here. Soon as you were of age, you found a home outside the coven for yourself. You said it was quieter."
"Less magic flying around and less prying," she confirmed flatly. "Fat lot of good it did me. Now what do we do?"
Their personal wards and concealment spells would keep them safe from detection, for now, but Tess could hear the vague noises of the coven's activity beyond the walls. Rushing feet and lots of voices. The coven was going into panic mode.
"We head for the great ceremony hall," Ricardo said, adjusting his glasses. "They'll be busy sorting the mess outside and with Nicodemus and Albrecht deceased, the guard will be lax. If there is anyone present, we'll—"
"We are not going to kill anybody," Tess hissed. "I don't—I don't care what Vergil said. I don't want to kill anyone else," she insisted, gritting her teeth.
Ricardo winced at her expression and fidgeted. "I… er, yes. Of course. We can… we can figure something out."
They stealthily made their way out of the room and hurried along the corridor – this was the wing where Regina, her guard and family lived and Tess spent the entire time in terror that they were going to round a corner and run into the high priestess or any of the remaining members of her guard. But they met nobody, taking precautions to keep it that way: they left a trail of subtle misdirection and confusion traps on their way that would confound anyone following in their wake, scouting ahead with the use of detection spells.
At long last, the bulky double doors of the great ceremony hall loomed ahead of them.
"I can't believe it—it's utterly unguarded," Ricardo observed.
"The enforcers must've taken the guard out to scour the city for us," Tess said. "Or Da—the demon hunter. He killed Albrecht."
Ricardo flinched a bit. "Did he now? Well, good riddance."
Tess stared at him. His utter apathy for the death of someone he had essentially empowered with distilled demonic force was disturbing. She balled her fist, resisting the urge to beat Ricardo with her bare hands.
The hall was always locked unless it was used for any particular ceremony, usually during Beltane or Samhain. Not everyone was allowed into these ceremonies and Tess had only been allowed in relatively recently. Ricardo fiddled with the complex rune lock on the doors for an amount of time that seemed almost eternal to Tess, driving her around the bend, enough to make her squirm with nervous energy.
"By the way," Ricardo said, manipulating the lock with a tool, "I… overheard something disconcerting when reconnoitring the passage."
"And what would that be," Tess asked impatiently.
Ricardo pursed his lips and muttered a curse directed at the lock. "They think the Gates are reacting."
Tess winced. "Of course they are," she lamented quietly. "Vergil dragged me with him when he set up the last one last week. The network he needs must be complete. Whatever he wants, it involves opening the big one under the fort."
"You have to admit, it's dashed clever of him to use smaller Gates as conduits. That way even if one is damaged, the rest will keep it going – and he'll have complete control over how much it opens and what comes through…" Ricardo sighed.
"I don't care," she spat. "I helped him make them. I'd sooner wish I was dead than admire his bloody handywork! This is why he told me to steal the book now. Whatever he's up to – he's ready. Fuck."
Finally the door opened and they slipped inside, closing it behind them and locking it once more, applying further seals to be safe. The great ceremony hall was large, strangely so, since from the outside the coven's sanctum did not seem to have such a space available. But ancient magic had created space within space, allowing for a massive complex to be hidden within the apparent confines of the palazzo exterior.
It was circular, much like an ancient temple, and hewn almost entirely from marble. There were no windows, the space lit only through candles and torches – and now, through Tess' use of fire creating a hovering flame that hung above them like a chandelier and illuminated the room. The marble and any reflective surface from candelabra to adornments caught the light and reflected it, creating an unexpectedly beautiful glittering effect inside the hall that went unappreciated by the pair as more urgent matters preoccupied their minds.
A large and very plain altar lay demurely in the middle of the hall, standing on a base of stark contrast to the rest of the room. There was no marble on the altar at all; it was all hewn by a darker, coarser stone, worn by time down to a fine grit. It was decorated with fading symbols and reliefs, decidedly much older than the room itself.
"This is it. The entrance to the catacombs lies under the altar," Ricardo said, walking around it with a keen eye. "But I have no idea how to actually open it."
"You don't!?" Tess blurted. She struggled to rein in her indignation. "Are you shitting me, Ricardo?! You said you could help—"
"I said I'd help get you in, not that I know everything," he snapped back. "Only the high priestess knows how to open it and we're going to either figure it out on the fly or destroy it."
"Well we can't destroy it. Don't you see it? It's warded fifty ways from Sunday," Tess almost barked. "The altar's generating them. We'll have to figure out how it opens. Do you have any clue how it could open? Something Regina might've said or done."
"I'm afraid I don't," Ricardo groaned. "You know how she is. She is utterly paranoid about her secrets. She'd sooner have me executed if I found out."
Tess groaned and almost kicked the altar. "Well great. I'm fucked, then."
Ricardo eyed her carefully. "Hardly. There is a hand you can still play to get us out of this bind."
Tess whipped around and stared at him. "What are you talking about?"
Ricardo put his hands on the altar, leaned into them and stared her in the eye. "Your Deep Sight, of course."
She flinched, almost jumping away from him. "No. I can't—"
"I know how you detest it! But do you really have any choice in the matter right now!?" he insisted. "We know how potent your sight can be, Tess! You can literally reach into the ether and pluck out answers! You're perfectly capable of focusing it at your discretion; I've seen you do it!"
"You don't understand, Ricardo!" Tess snapped. "I can trigger a vision if I'm incredibly lucky, but I have a hell of a time controlling it and focusing it! And as if that wasn't had enough, I am completely and utterly vulnerable when they occur! Vergil just about murdered me a while ago because of one!"
"I know that!" he countered. "But what other choice do you have? We risk discovery, not to mention Vergil's displeasure! I… I will watch over you, should you collapse. Don't give me that look! I… I will do it and everything be damned!"
Tess stared at him with a wary, frightened look. She shook her head slowly. "You… bastard," she spat. "You know that Vergil… that he ordered me to get it no matter what I had to do. You just… had to… find the worst possible solution."
"The worst? Hardly," he said dryly. "Please, for the sake of both of us: just go through with it so that we may leave!"
Tess threw her arms up and cursed, quite strongly. "Fine. I'll force myself to have a vision and you better pray to whatever you believe in, Ricardo, that I don't pass out for hours or put myself in a freakin' coma."
"I think I will, actually," he said and cracked a still smile.
Against all odds, so did she, for a moment. She then breathed out and placed her hands on the altar, leaning into them. She shut her eyes and focused on her breathing, preparing herself for the mental onslaught she knew was awaiting her. Actually forcing herself to have a vision was dangerous and a complete Russian roulette. For all she knew, she would end up experiencing a bunch of gibberish. She didn't even have something to help her focus – ironically, some alcohol would've helped.
She prodded, emptying her mind of everything and focusing on reaching out, undoing the layers of restraints and protection she imposed on herself to try and limit her power, prevent it from having its way with her entirely.
It hit hard and fast, feeling much like walking through a sheet of water at speed. The world around her was melting, running like wet paint down a fresh canvas. Ricardo was both there and not; she felt his presence at the very edge of her vision, physically and metaphorically. She was vaguely aware of herself. Everything became like a scene reflected in rippling water; shapes trembled and twitched uncertainly, blurring and then focusing over and over, dreamlike and liquid.
She was outside. She looked up and saw a wide starry sky. The sea roared in the distance. She could smell the damp grass and bushes and the nearby rustle of trees in the wind. She smelled the greasy flame of torches and the dry soot of bonfires. She rallied; this was a potent vision indeed – far clearer and more concise than she was used to. The altar was part of a shrine of some kind but there were absolutely no buildings around. This was a time before Amaro had grown outwards to engulf it. Garlands of fresh vines wreathed the altar, torches and bonfires lit in a wide circle around it. The pungent smell of straw, holly and incense filled her nose.
She heard rather than saw the people, the vague figures in robes standing just at the edge of her vision, unmoving and ever-whispering.
Tess registered a ritual of some kind but she did not recognize it. There were no words she could identify, nor could she understand any of the signs used.
The rustle of cloth in the wind made her look straight at the altar and across it. She gasped, almost reeling back and away from the altar but some invisible force kept her glued to it.
Another woman, tall, slender and imposing but frail, like a wraith, stood across her, with her hands on the altar mirroring her pose. She was wearing a loose, dirty cream robe and white cloak, both of them somewhat tattered and grimed. She wore a hood deep onto her head with long black tresses of her hair escaping from under it. What Tess could see of her skin was an ashy sun-kissed complexion but there were marks on it, vague black marks that she could not see clearly. Mesmerised by the vision before her, Tess unconsciously leaned closer to have a clearer look.
The woman raised her finger to her mouth and made a gesture of 'stay silent'.
Tess almost jumped out of her skin. When she had these visions, she never quite interacted with any person or persons present in them and they never seemed aware of her. But this woman, she was staring right at her from under the hood. It had a deeply mesmerizing effect on her. Tess was unable to take her eyes off this woman. She looked down at her hands – the woman had placed her hands over her own and Tess saw that the wraith's hands were heavily tattooed with arcane symbols in a blue-black ink that made them look frighteningly like bruises. Her hands were thin and coarse, with visible joints and scars. An eerie sense of familiarity struck Tess and she found herself thinking of her mother even though it was utterly absurd. This woman looked nothing like her mother.
When the woman spoke Tess almost lost it.
"Time marks, with endless turn, the hour of return. The ones gone and the ones yet to come. The sentinels sleeping, the sentinels waiting," she said in a ragged voice. "The tempted and the mad."
Then she started to… sing? No, Tess decided. She was reciting an incantation, but her words were so musical they sounded like a song. It was an old tongue; Tess wasn't familiar with it and had no idea what it spoke of. She repeated the stanza over and over and Tess found herself mouthing the words herself.
A pang of pain made her jump and she realized the woman was gripping her hands, pressing them on the altar with a frozen, vice-like grip and leaned closer, her face inches from Tess', still repeating the incantation. Tess still mouthed the words, burning them in her memory, as she stared the woman in the eye.
Her face was narrow and covered in the tattoos that her hands also borne, her eyes green, cold and wild.
Tess didn't want to look at her anymore. She tore her gaze away and started to yank her hands away from the woman, panicking. The vision was growing unstable. Noise roared around them like the din of a storm. There were no more shapes, just a flurry of dull colours spinning round and round endlessly, reaching for her with edges like pulled ooze.
Enough, enough, ENOUGH!
She woke up on the floor of the great hall with a drawn gasp, perilously close to screaming but for her incredibly dry throat that was stuck shut.
"At last, I was afraid we were done for!"
Ricardo helped her sit up and she shuddered to realize he'd been cradling her. She was drenched in sweat and dizzy, feeling faint and wanting nothing more but to curl into a ball and go to sleep forever and ever. Her neck throbbed painfully and she panted like a frightened child. She covered her face with her hands and then flailed to get up.
"Get me up—let go, Ricardo—"
Ricardo awkwardly helped her to her feet. "You collapsed and after a while began to seize. You were muttering – an incantation, I think. Just muttering it over and over so fast I really couldn't pick up the words. Have you—"
"Ricardo for the love of mercy, shut up!" Tess snapped.
She stumbled over to the altar, smacked her hands against it and after taking a breath to calm herself, repeated the incantation she heard the woman say to her in the vision. The musical rhythm of the incantation had a peculiar effect as the words seemed to hang in the air for an unusually long time, thrumming with power. There was a long, pregnant pause between the end of the chant and a loud groan from the altar. Tess whipped her hands away as the altar ground into motion slowly and heavily, the force moving it, doing so with difficulty. The altar slid to the side slowly, revealing a set of stairs underneath, leading into absolute darkness below. The smell of earth and death emanated from the hole. A cold draft came up.
"It opened!" Ricardo observed sheepishly. "You did it!"
"Yeah, whooptie-frickin'-doo," she retorted.
"We're nearly there, we just have to figure out how to navigate the catacombs; they're full of the remains of old wiccans, mostly high priests or priestesses and enforcers," he observed, straightening his glasses. "I've, uh… I've heard that… that's not all there is, down there."
Tess growled. "That's too bad for them because I'm going in. If I'm really lucky, something'll kill me before Vergil does."
Without further ado, she started down the steps, holding up her hand to conjure a mass of flame to light her way.
A loud thud against the doors of the hall startled them both. They heard voices coming from them.
"Blast!" Ricardo exclaimed. "We've been found!"
"Ricardo, move, we can outrun them in the—"
"No, we cannot!" Ricardo countered quickly, going to the altar. "Go! I'll draw them away from you. You must see this through or our lives are both forfeit. Keep going!"
Before Tess could react the altar started to shudder and groan again, sliding shut.
"Ricardo, wait! What are you…!"
Before she could leap back out of the passage, the altar ground shut over her, almost making her bump her head against it. She heard muffled thuds from under the heavy stone, but the mass of rock between her and the surface ate up most sound.
"Ricardo, you fucking idiot!" she snapped.
It was no use. Her neck throbbed and she had to get going. She hurried down the steps again, taking care in the gloom as the fire remained her only source of light. She braced her hands against the walls and felt the moist stone.
Limestone… makes sense, it's easy to carve and makes natural hollows, no wonder they built the catacombs here, she thought.
She stopped suddenly, facing the tunnel ahead of her. A cold, rank breeze came from ahead, making her narrow her eyes at it suspiciously. She expected the worst in there and she hadn't even reached the burial halls yet. She didn't relish the thought of the piles of bones and bodies stacked up high in the narrow corridors.
With an angry huff, she strode ahead, her path lit only by the mass of hovering flame that felt very insignificant in this subtellurian blackness.
