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Conclave...Part 9
2006-04-09 16:22:00
A moment of silence stretched into a seeming eternity after I had stopped talking.The Professor took a long, deliberate swig from his ever present two-liter of Diet Pepsi and began to speak. “So, it doesn’t look like Daniel opened up either urn. We can also figure that Drake still wants them back. Now that he has some of your ability to manipulate and travel through Shadow, he will be even harder to locate or predict. Finally, we also have Alexa to consider. We now know that she was the product of some sort of twisted genetic program of Daniel’s and Drake’s devising, so I sincerely doubt that Drake is going to let us raise her in peace in the way that we would choose. What do we do with these urns? How do we protect ourselves from a vengeful Vampire with the powers of a Demigod? And how do we protect Alexa long enough to let her grow up into the young woman she’s quite possibly destined to be? Those are the questions we need to resolve. Does anyone have any answers?”Cerr...
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Conclave...Part 8
2006-04-06 05:20:00
Staring down at the two archaic, cuneiform-inscribed, sealed bronze urns, I rubbed my hands together in a nervous fashion and started speaking again. “It was only when Mrs. Al Farhan presented herself and claimed a connection with Drake and his past that Daniel began to piece together the fact that the two great mysteries he had been struggling with were intimately connected. Mrs. Al Farhan had hoped to earn her freedom by revealing her connection with Drake. Instead, she descended into a Hell that rivaled anything done at Abu Ghraib either by Saddam and his twisted sons, or by the misguided American soldiers who made that name famous again.“It’s painful for me to recall all of the details of how he got her talk about all she had learned, so I will just summarize it without adding in any of those gruesome details.“These two bronze urns contain the dessicated remains of Drake’s parents. The one on the left, the one inscribed with great dragon Tiamat on it contains his mothe...
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Conclave...Part 7
2006-04-03 04:50:00
Herne tilted his head and interjected, “What price is that?” “Drake discovered his talent while laying mortally wounded on a large field of battle buried underneath several other foot soldiers, one of whom was slowly bleeding to death, the blood dripping onto Drake’s lips. Even as he was dying, he could feel a stirring of his Will, but there was a terrible thirst that had to be quenched before his Talent would respond to his Will. He succumbed to the thirst and drank of the fluid that was there for the taking. “To make a long story slightly shorter, Drake discovered thatr by drinking blood, human blood in particular, he could repair even the direst of wounds to his own body. He was able to get up from under that pile of bodies and walk away from that battlefield unscathed, but forever changed.“He didn’t, however, fight any more battles for Ur. Instead, he slipped away for several years to learn more and more about his talent, but the more he experimented with it, the ...
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Conclave...Part 6
2006-03-31 05:17:00
“It was only when Daniel was sent to Iraq that the answers he was seeking about both Drake and that mysterious common ancestor of most Casters literally fell into his hands.”“That Iraqi woman, Mrs. Al Farhan?” That was the Frau.I nodded. “He had no idea that two great mysteries he was trying to puzzle out were actually related, literally. But once Mrs. Al Farhan came under his control, and once she offered up her knowledge of Drake in an attempt to gain her freedom, Daniel couldn’t resist...taking it from her in some very unpleasnat ways.” Cerrydwen’s eyes narrowed as she broke into the narrative. “You mean he raped that poor woman in just about every way that can be done.”I shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, he raped her...brutally raped her...in a number of ways, all of which are now resting in my memories. Once he learned that she had the Talent that she did, and that she had the chance to use the Talent on Drake, his greed to know more and more became unquenchabl...
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Conclave...Part 5
2006-03-25 03:14:00
I stopped speaking for a moment, taking time to look at each of my companions before dropping the bombshell that was about to come out. Each of them was clearly absorbed in what I had been saying, but they all seemed to sense that a change was coming as well. I leaned forward a little bit, looking down at the floor before continuing. “Daniel Bernstein had the goods on Drake, right down to a genetic profile of the man that identified a very scary fact, one that may impact each of you. Mrs. Al Farhan is not the only known relative of Drake.”Ravyn piped in. “What? Who else is related to that abominable man?” “Well, darling, you are almost definitely related to him, probably less distantly than most other Casters, given how strong your talent is.”“You can’t be serious! Can you?” I held up my hands at sounds of derision and anger that everyone was starting to make. “Unfortunately, I am. But let me explain a little bit.”They all settled back, most with looks of confu...
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Conclave...Part 4
2006-03-21 03:48:00
Despite the lighthearted banter and joking as the Frau continued to remove fragments of Drake’s sword from my body, I could see the obvious concern on the faces of my companions. The news that Drake had acquired at least some of my mastery over Shadow was more than a little disconcerting to everyone present.Using more of her unsurpassed seamstress skills than her Healing talents, the Frau quickly patched up my gut innards, using copious amounts of thick, sinew-like fishing line that Jim had had sitting in his garage. Finally, she closed up the leather like flesh of my stomach using big, looping stitches to close the jagged wound.As she was finishing her work, my consciousness sunk inwards, as I set in motion my own internal mechanisms for patching things up. It was no longer a process that happened automatically, but one that now took a great deal of concentration and energy. The Frau tut-tutted again as she pulled away from me, her hands a mess of sticky, presumably stinky goo. T...
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Conclave...Part 3
2006-03-20 06:42:00
The journey from the Faire to the Professor’s home was done in multiple stages, but it took place so quickly, it was almost a blur. First, we landed at the stone circle outside of the community home near Chicago. I was barely standing at that point, finding it hard to maintain my own balance. I was still leaning on Ravyn, who was grunting under the combined strain of supporting my weight and managing the complexc task of making sure we arrived safely.“Hey, I have rather fond memories of this place.” “Keep it up, buster, and you’ll be crawling your way home!”“Yes, ma’am.” We hurriedly stumbled into the house, gathered up the duffle bag full of cash, and made our way to the basement without much notice. We stepped into a dark room, where we hoped that my own powers over the Shadow were put to the test.Luckily, Drake hadn’t been able to drain those abilities from me completely before Herlinda had stopped him, so I was able to muster enough strength to take us to the...
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