Once we all made it back to The Order compound we had some time to kill. Philip had wanted to do a deep dive into some more research about the litch and Eater of Souls. Thomas was busy going through the artifacts as soon as we got back. He was looking for anything else we may be able to use against a Lich or The Eater Of Souls, whatever that was. Angiola had been busy the entire time we had been gone. She had a recognition program running based on some screen grabs from the footage at the gas station. It was actually pretty brilliant, she had taken a photo of the still and used a multi faceted lens. Then running a program used by scientists to estimate how a mummy would look when alive. She was running this face as well as a program to differentiate Mayan artwork from anything else. It was an ingenious idea and I could see how proud Reginald was. Reginald was busy hacking into the Met's security systems, although The Church had a TON of sway and could probably just ask to see the artifact in question for some made up reason. Angiolas' program chimed and it looked like we had the identification of the Lich's phylactery. The Met had it listed as “Costumed Figure” , a small figure of a man standing in what they called ceremonial dress. It wasn't listed as to where the figure was being displayed but I'm sure Reginald could find that out. At the meeting we would have to discuss the risks of having The Church ask for it versus just stealing it outright. Either way it would have to be replaced with an exact replica. The downside of having The Church asking to view it and returning a copy was that on the off chance they denied the request. If we got caught, they would remember the church asking for it and begin to look into the artifact a bit closer. Typically a Lich's phylactery was inert unless it held the soul, however this guy seemed pretty nasty even by Lich standards so the less people to handle it the better. The plan was to go over everything in the morning in the main conference room.
I was dreaming again, I knew that much. I had the floaty disjointed feeling and the random “knowledge” that sometimes comes with a dream. I was in the sky and I could clearly see the clouds surrounding me. The ground below me was a bright vibrant burnt orange and red. A large bird of prey flew past me and I could tell it could see me as well but couldn't understand why I was there. The area was vast and I could see the desert going off to the horizon and beautiful mesas all around. My body was pulled downward to a mesa and everything went black for a moment. I was in a body, but I could tell it wasn't mine. Opening my eyes, in this new body. I could see that I was inside of a natural cave inside one of the mesas I was seeing from overhead. The body I was inside of was so incredibly weak but I managed to raise one arm in front of me reaching beseechingly towards the large creature in front of me. My arm was skeletal, bone and sinew the skin having long rotted off. Outlined in the sun coming in from the cave mouth I could see another skeletal body laying against a rock, I could tell his soul was tethered to both the creature and his bones, never to get release. The beast itself was massive, standing as tall as a buffalo but easily 12 feet from the head to the body, not counting the stubby tail. It had bumpy mottled skin, pebbled and reptilian. Large orange and black bands covered its body with white blotches overlapping it. It was The Eater Of Souls, the realization smacked me like a brick to the face. Arm still outreached towards the beast, it turned and looked at me. Black reptilian eyes and a slit for a mouth, the head of a massive desert lizard looked back at me in confusion. It could tell that I was an intrusion to its lair, and was not the soul originally tethered to the body that I was inhabiting. We stared at one another for a few moments before everything faded away. I woke up and realized I was back in my own body, I was sitting up and in the same pose that the corpse in the cave was in, arm still outreached towards the beast still lingering and my vision from my dream. I was trembling and felt like I was going to vomit. The power that flowed off of it was sickening and I could still feel it in my brain and in my soul. “Tobias, you're as white as a sheet! What happened?” Angiola asked me, knowing something was very wrong. She placed a loving hand on my chest and gently pressed me back down onto the bed, then caressed my cheek turning my face towards hers. “Your skin feels like it's on fire, but you're not sweating at all. What did you see?” It was nice to have someone there who not only knew about what I was going through, but could also completely understand. There was no panic in her voice, just concern. She could tell I wasn't okay, so she didn't bother asking or freaking out when I woke up in a panic. My heart skipped a beat as I found yet another reason to love this woman next to me. “That one had me shaken a bit. Sorry I woke you sweetheart, but I think I ended up in the cave with The Eater Of Souls... That was a bit much.” I explained as my heartbeat slowly stopped its hammering in my chest. Angiola shook her head and laid her head on my chest. “No no no, don't be sorry love. I can't imagine what that must have been like, I would be afraid to go back to sleep. I'm here for you, just wake me up if you need me okay.” She said with a yawn before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep. I stared up at the spinning ceiling fan as I slowly ran my fingers along her back. It was an odd feeling, laying there with her and feeling at peace. Normally I was up, out of bed and finished with sleeping for the night after one of my dream/vision things. It was like Angiola said, I would normally be terrified and unable to go back to sleep. Too full of adrenalin and terror. There are some things that just don't get easier with time. With her sleeping contently on my chest, my normal panic melted, and I was just, okay again. Slowly, I drifted back to sleep.
Shay was driving through the night, Sĕigo in the passenger seat of the old town car. Lillith was in the back seat napping on and off. Shay was furious, they had driven all the way to central Florida just to find out the target wasn't there. Not only was no one home but once the Enchantress returned with a shirt of his, the tracking spell showed him nearly to Utah, where they had started. Lilith had dropped them off at some shady motel off the interstate at sunrise and showed back up around sunset and broke the news. She said she tried his house and stalked around any of the local areas he may have been at as well. His vehicle was still in the driveway but The Order was crafty and Shay knew they had other ways of traveling. Lilith said she talked with a neighbor who had a key to help when Tobias was out of town, and had talked him into letting her in his home. She used some excuse of being a girlfriend who left some personal items in his room but he was out of town again for work. At least working with this valid whore had some benefits. Shay would have simply waited till nightfall and broken in. If he wasn’t home he would have slaughtered the entire neighborhood and burned Tobias’s house to the ground. Then again, that would have shown their hand. Sĕigo was worried about his Lord, The Eater Of Souls and couldn't understand how anyone could know where to look for him. The Eater Of Souls was old and powerful beyond words but if The Order was already going after him... Who knows what they may have planned. They were driving through Georgia on I-75 at the moment but Utah was a large area and the badlands, although home, still covered several hundred square miles. Despite taking a different route home, hopefully they could get home first and lay in ambush. Surely The Order couldn't know the exact location of his master. Shay drove on in white knuckled rage, taking little solace in the fact The Order couldn’t know exactly where to look and could spend days searching the badlands for his new master. He knew the area Tobias lived in a little from when he had followed the mighty Shoggoth into the homes of the college kids where he had drunk his fill. He was supposed to land in Tobias's house but there must have been some strong warding that had misdirected them a bit. The attack had been swift and brutal but he was distracted and feeding when Tobias had arrived and ambushed him. After the steak through the heart he had been loaded into a steel coffin, where he couldn't see anything until he arrived in the interrogation room. He had wanted a second chance at proving himself to The Dark Pope but was too wounded to fight in The Master's plan. When he woke up to find out his Master had failed... He had taken it upon himself to get revenge and the hatred he had for all of them burned on, deep inside of his black heart.
I woke up from a deep sleep and rolled over to see Angiola was still there. It was so nice to have someone in my life that I knew could last. I reached over and brushed a lock of golden hair out of her face and behind her ear. She smiled and slowly opened her eyes. “Good morning love, were you able to get back to sleep?” She asked me, voice slightly thick with sleep. “I did, for the first time I can remember I was able to get back to sleep after a dream like that. It was really nice. Although not as nice as waking up next to you.” I told her before kissing her forehead. I got up and used the restroom and I could hear Angiola in the room making coffee. The compound had nice studio apartments for the few members who lived on site. I had a room here as well but rarely used it, I guess now I wouldn't need it at all. I couldn't wait for her to move to Florida with me when we got done with this mission. Once I finished in the restroom I walked out and sat on the edge of the bed. Angiola passed me a mug full of coffee before going into the restroom herself. I took a sip and the coffee was amazing. “I wasn't sure how you took your coffee so I just made it like mine, hope that's okay.” She called through the closed bathroom door. “It's excellent! Thank you.” I told her, mug almost to my lips again. “I'm so excited, I can't wait to go house shopping!” She said excitedly as she came out of the bathroom. She took the mug out of my hands and placed it down on the kitchenette across from the foot of the bed. The rooms were small, spartan almost but with the amenities at the compound, you really didn't need much other than a place to sleep. She kissed me deeply and pushed me back onto the bed. Crawling on top of me once I was laying on my back. “We haven't set a date for the wedding yet, I know we are in the middle of some craziness but any thoughts on it?” She asked me playfully as I was still pinned to the bed. “I'll gladly marry you any time, any day, I'm just so grateful to have you back.”I told her before pulling her back down and kissing her. Later, after we had showered and gotten ready for the meeting, we were in her office loading up the information she had gathered on the artifact at the museum and possible surveillance from the Lincoln and its trio. “How about tomorrow, Simon can officiate the ceremony and Reginald can give you away.” I said laying on the small loveseat in the corner, my legs hanging off the end. “Really! Yes! Oh my gosh! Absolutely!” She was surprised and so excited. She leapt onto the loveseat, knees landing on each side of my hips. “You really have been thinking about this haven't you?” She said before kissing me. “You are all I have been thinking of since that night. I thought I lost you, and it broke me. I was just so empty, nothing in my long life had ever hit me so hard. Then you were back and... I just never want to let you go again.” She smiled warmly down at me before leaning down and kissing me again.
We got settled into the conference room and I went over the dream I had about the cave and The Eater Of Souls. Simon was clearly worried about how shaken I was by the experience. Philip had been doing a ton of research about the areas and tribal legends. His eyes went wide as I gave my description. When I finished going over everything Philip got up and gave his report. “Although much of the Native American folklore is in an oral tradition. I was able to find a story told to a man who was studying the shamen of the Navajo. He wrote about an offshoot branch that had been excommunicated from the tribe. From what he had been told, a mother of the tribe gave birth under the tail of the scorpion, under a full moon and the child was named Sĕigo, who became the tribe's holy man serving Quote: a creature of loathsome horrors, older than the lands and unpleasant to the earth spirits. The story goes on to say they had some meetings with vial tribesmen to the lands of the south, who brought sacrifices to the beast of the cave once every ten years. The Navajo would not have any dealings with this tribe or any others that served the creature of the cave. This led me to look deeper into the Mayans... They had a much more detailed written history and if I'm translating this correctly it seems they did travel to Quote: Lands to the north every ten years to give offerings of sacrifice to the great beast of the caves. The beast of the caves would bless their warriors, giving a tremendous bloodlust and they would also feel no pain in battle. They also wrote about the Priest of the cave beast who could heal himself of any wound, including reattaching his limbs. The priest could kill a man with a single touch and the body would rot before it hit the ground. Needless to say I believe this is our Lich and The Eater Of Souls. Unfortunately I've not found any more information about the cave beast, but this does help us a bit with the Lich.” He sat down after he finished, I could tell he hated not having more information.
Thomas stood up and started to unfold a large set of blueprints. “I kept this off the computers and I've machined all the major components by hand.” Thomas said as he pinned the large hand drawn technical diagram onto the white board that we had been projecting notes onto from the laptop. “I'm not normally this paranoid when it comes to weapon design but this CAN NOT fall into the wrong hands. I couldn't risk having the file hacked, No offense to Reginald or Angiola, you both do PHENOMENAL job, but this... DARPA would want this, and frankly it won't work without some of the sigils engraved.” The blueprint was for a large boxy rifle of some kind. It was really oddly shaped and the barrel was close to 6 feet long. The projectile was 5 inches long and had 2 interlocking sections that were rifled. My brain took a moment to realize what exactly I was looking at but... “Is that a freaking rail gun?!?!” I blurted out, standing up to look at the technical specs in the corner. It was insane! The listed velocity was mach 8, almost 9000 FPS. This thing was going to hit like a missile. “Yes, I've finished the prototype and test firing. The projectiles are machined on a CNC lathe and are made up of blessed silver and high cobalt steel. The 2 pieces are interference fit together, the silver attaching like a copper jacket of a normal bullet. I take the cobalt steel core and dip it in liquid nitrogen, then drop it into the rifled silver jacket. As it reaches room temperature, the two are mated seamlessly. The rifling on the projectile matches the lands and grooves on the barrel giving it stability at this speed. The projectiles core is hollowed out and is cut halfway to the hollowed core at the rifling. The bullet fragments on impact and dumps 85% or more of the energy in the first 5 to 12 inches of impact on soft targets. It will blow chunks out of armor but when it hits soft tissue... I made a block of ballistics gel roughly 5 feet by 5 feet by 10 feet long and it tore the block to pieces.” It looked like he had used electromagnets as well as some sigils carved throughout the rifle, some super cooling components, some strengthening the materials and others, I simply didn't recognize at all. “Can I shoot it?!? Pleeease!!!” Angiola said excitedly, she looked like a kid on Christmas morning. “Give me a clean shot at this Eater Of Souls with this rifle and I can solve this problem quick enough.” She said nodding at the blueprint.
Reginald stood up as Thomas was taking the blueprint down from the white board. Reginald was tapping away at his laptop and as soon as the blueprint was put away he projected his screen onto the now vacant white board. “This brings us to a museum heist...” He trailed off. I honestly couldn't tell if he was upset or trying to hide his excitement. “I have made a passable replica of the artifact. The plan is to get in, swap the phylactery for the replica and get out of there. If the lich knows his vessel is there, he surely monitors any activity. I'm afraid that if the Church was to request a viewing or anything that would grant us access legally would show our hand to the lich. Not to mention, we wouldn’t be able to perform a museum heist…Destroying the phylactery is another problem altogether.” He wasn't wrong, I hadn't destroyed one personally before but I was sure Philip or Thomas would have something that would work or a record of how it had been done in the past. If Simon himself had not done it at some point in his career recently enough to talk us through it. As Reginald went on, going over the plan for us to get into the museum and make the swap, I could tell he really was excited about this. The plan he had made was brilliant in its simplicity.
Once the plan had been laid out and all of the additional information about the main targets, lich and Soul Eater mainly, things were winding down. I stood up to take the floor. “I would like to make a request. I know we will have some down time before we leave for New York. Simon, would you marry us?” I asked as I took Angiola's hand inviting her to stand up and join me. Everyone in the room broke into a huge smile. “I would be honored to officiate the first wedding in the history of The Order.” He answered with a warm smile. “Reginald, would you please give me away?” Angiola asked the man who had been a father to her. Reginald choked up a bit and could only nod his head in answer. “Wonderful. Thank you all so much, how about we meet up on the first floor rooftop in an hour, will that work for everyone?” I asked. They all agreed and gathered their things before leaving Angiola, Simon and I in the room. “I am so incredibly happy for the two of you. Thank you for requesting that I marry the two of you. Once this mission is finished, we can start working on moving Angiola to Florida.” Simon said to us, with a warm smile. It was odd to think about, for YEARS this man had constantly admonished my dating anyone and now, he was going to be officiating our wedding.