After Lillith left, the rest of the group came back and we had an informal meeting in my living room. Reginald smiled warmly when he saw Angiolas' large painting hanging on my wall. “I always loved that painting. I'm glad to see you have it, looks good in your home.” I was a bit surprised he wasn't upset with everything that happened with Lillith. “You're not mad at me about Lillith?” I asked him. I hated to bring it up but I was puzzled. “Not at all, you didn't even let her into your house. She is an Enchantress, lust incarnate, worshiped throughout the ages, and you turned her away! MULTIPLE times... I'm not mad. I'm impressed, and proud. Angiola is in good hands. I was wrong about you Tobias, you are truly in love. I don't know if any of us would have been able to turn her away like you just did.” Simon began to laugh hardily. “I can't believe your cat crapped in her seat! That's just priceless.” I gave Mouse some scratches and lovin. It was pretty funny. I couldn't believe he had done that, but he really just does his own thing. He is way too smart for his own good. Unfortunately it wasn't all good news... No one had heard of The Eater Of Souls before. Philip agreed from the area, if there would be any information it would likely be in with Native American legends. Perhaps we could go and talk with The Owl again? I hated to bother him but Simon said he would go with me. He was the one who met him originally and set up his new shelter in my town. Philip wanted to go as well, because he was the archivist, and had never met him. I hated to leave Reginald and Thomas alone to undo several of the traps we set up but they didn't seem to mind. Plus Thomas had been wanting to check out my gunsmithing set up for some time now. I wouldn't be able to give him much of a tour but he knew his way around a shop just fine. Philip, Simon and I loaded up in my Jeep and headed downtown.
We got there right around sunset. Knowing we had a powerful Vamp and a Lithch in the area, operation in public after dark wasn't the smartest idea but we were all heavily armed. Plus Lilith would hopefully be busy meeting back up with them and trying to set up a tracking spell. If Mouse hadn’t messed that up. After sneaking into the underground, we wandered back through the dust strewn area to where the Owl kept his residence. We went through the normal process of lighting the coal and adding the tobacco, letting the smoke permeate through the chambers. The smoke didn't summon him, it wasn't like that at all. It was more of an offering and a sign of respect. It also let him know we were there and wanted to talk. I hadn't thought of what may happen if a worker ever decided to stop for a smoke break in the area, but that hadn't happened to my knowledge.
Shortly after we arrived, we could feel the wind moving from the flapping of massive wings and the large raptor swooped into the room. Landing on an old waist high display case the owl stood at about eye level. About four feet tall plus the massive ear tuft feathers. He almost looked glad to see Simon. “It has been many years my friend, it is good to see you.” Simon told The Owl. Fluttering his wings The Owl said. “I am glad to see you as well. Thank you for arranging this home for me. I am grateful for all The Order has done for me. It seems like one disaster was averted yet another has taken up the mantle.” His voice was impressively deep as always. We didn't ask for his help lightly, as The Owl preferred his solitude. He was a Shaman in life and very in tune with the world. He was a seer of visions and held great power, all before becoming The Owl. Simon thankfully took the lead on this one, “We hate to disturb your solitude again and thank you for seeing us. Are you familiar with The Eater Of Souls? It seems like a Lich and the former right hand of the Dark Pope have allied with this entity.” The Owl hooted in agitation, oddly enough I had NEVER heard him hoot before.
After a moment of wing rustling the great horned Owl replied, “The Eater Of Souls, I have heard of. In both my former life and this one. It was on earth in the beginning, waiting. It consumes all, slowly. It will bind the spirit to the body, never to find release. It feeds off of this pain and torment. Growing fat off of the suffering and the longing for release, crying out from its victims. If It has given power to a Lich, or has turned his malice upon your order... Even your God of light may not be enough to free your souls if It takes them. In a cave in Utah, the badlands, It is waiting.”
That didn't sound good at all. A Lich can be ridiculously powerful on its own. I can't imagine one charged up by the Soul Eater magic or whatever. Philip had an analytical mind set and seemed even more disturbed by the news. “With respect elder, I have one more question. I am the archivist for The Order, has this creature gone by any other names or has there ever been another? Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.” Philip asked. The Owl bowed his massive head and paused for a moment. I never tried to push things with him, but it seemed like the three of us may be able to get more information, each asking a question. After a few moments The Owl raised his head and it was almost like his eyes had a faint glow to them. Also something I had never seen before. “The Eater Of Souls is one of a kind. An ancient evil that was here from the start. It has not surfaced before this, however the Navajo knew of him. An excommunicated branch of the tribe worshiped it for many years, its leader is now the Lich you are after. Much of The People's history is oral. You may find something looking at the Mayans and Aztecs, they knew of a power in the lands to the north.” Philip was deep in contemplation, if his memory wasn't eidetic it was pretty close. I'm sure he was mentally going through everything we had on the two tribes and anything we may have of written history for Native American tribes. I had one last question and was hoping our luck would hold. “The Lich, known powers can widely vary. However they will all have a phylactery. Can you see where this is held?” I wasn't wasting time, if we could find and destroy it before the Lich found us... Checkmate. The Owl looked deeply at me for many moments, his large eyes locking onto mine. It was unnerving and I was very grateful he was a good man. “The vessel you are looking for is currently in a museum. It is a sculpture of the man himself as a human, gifted to the Mayan and taken far away from his lands. The Met now holds the key.” We all thanked The Owl formily before leaving the Lakeland underground. I was shocked at how much information we had gotten. We all had a ton of work to do and it looked like we would need to figure out how to break into a museum on top of it all. The problem was, they were still in Lakeland at the moment and we couldn't have them messing around here. Too much was at risk if they were to stay in Lakeland. There are a LOT of bad things they could set off here. Taking a desperate gamble I sent Lillith a text. Yes, she left me her number before she got back into her car and sat in a big pile of Mouse droppings. Hopefully she would be willing to help us out a bit. The text chat went like this:
Tobias: Hey long shot but I need ur help
Lillith: Anything for you :-*
Tobias: U get them out of town, back 2 Utah.
Lillith: K what do I get??? ;-)
Tobias: We kill ur baggage = u get freedom 100%
Lillith: Freedom n U 1 more time????
Tobias: Freedom only!
Tobias: If u lay low we don't hunt u
Lillith: K :,-(
Lillith: If u change ur mind... LMK :-*
“Looks like I got Lillith on board, in theory at least.” I said to the group as we got back to my house. Philip had been making notes on the brief fifteen minute drive back from lake Mirror. His memory was truly a gift and he already had lists of possible interactions with The Eater Of Souls, however he wanted to double check everything before going into too many details. Reginald wasn't too happy to find out that we would likely have to plan a break in at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had called Angiola on the way back and she was already running a recognition program going through all of the artifacts cataloged there. I had no clue what info we would get since the only video we had was somehow scrambled but it was worth a shot. Hopefully by the time we got back to headquarters we would have a better idea of where to begin. We decided to get back to The Order compound, and go from there. I was fine with that and was just happy to be able to go back and see Angiola. I still couldn't believe she was alive, it was a shock that still had not settled in completely. One by one Reginald, Simon and Philip left via my transit room while I made sure to give Mouse some extra attention and top off his automated food and litter boxes. I was still cracking up laughing about him pooping in Lillith’s car as I poured cat litter into the hopper. I spread some loose catnip on one of the cat towers before I left. I had to give him a bit of a treat for sticking up for me. Gotta love the little guy.