Chapter 0.5: Dawn Commission

The Dawn Commission has done a lot of good, in Phoenix's opinion. She's proud of their work over the past two years. Of the team she's grown. They've facilitated dozens of negotiations between different supernatural groups, helped five families and a nest of doppelgangers find safer homes, and established a decent safe repository of knowledge available to their growing network and mailing list.

It was time, she thought, to expand her team to include first responder field agents. Networking and education were force multipliers for sure, but they didn't amount to much if one didn't have a force to multiply.

There were a few unaffiliated names popping up in the underground here and there that she thought may be a good culture fit. So along with her more generic job postings, she sends out handful of bespoke invitations to apply by email and mail when able, and by word of mouth and personal networking when not.

"Martha! How are you this evening?" Phoenix strikes up a small conversation with the proprietor of the private library and bookstore. Recent events, book recommendations and feedback (as always), and can she put an updated job posting on Martha's bulletin in the back room?

Martha's library tends to be a gathering spot for the aware, and there's a good chance that Pheonix will run into good candidates here.

Hope is in the supernatural section library, reading up on one of the latest tomes Martha acquired. A Dawn Commission book on ghosts, which would have been helpful to know about that one time when her quarry turned into one. This source doesn't use the term "third order wraith" like Vesper did, instead the closest match is an "incorporeal revenant," and advises that in addition to sunlight these purification rituals also work, and also here's directions to summon a psychopomp if you can't deal with the revenant on your own.

Phoenix approaches. "Excuse me, are you Hope? I'm Phoenix, director of the Dawn Commission." She offers a hand to shake. "I'd like to offer you a job."

Hope shakes her hand. "I am. As in a long-term job? Doing what?"

"A long term salaried job, yes." She hands Hope a brochure. "We're hiring for field agents -- hunters, like yourself -- to be better able to respond to crises when we hear about them. I expect much of it will be like the work you already do, though will have a broader scope of more complex crises to solve than hunting bounties. This is a new experiment for the Commission, we'll provide the training we can, but much of the specifics of the role will be up to the people filling it. I've heard good things about you and what you've accomplished. Many people are alive and safer because of you."

"Thanks. I'm a fan of the Dawn Commission's work as well. They've reduced the number of calls I get to kill things that don't need killing. It'd be nice to work for a client I know won't do that. And who actually pays."

"Excellent! We're looking to have a team of field agents, so please refer anyone you think would be interested. Are you available Monday morning to come by our office and give us an interview?"

"I'll be there, if no emergencies come up!"

At this moment, her phone rings. With an excusing look to Phoenix, Hope picks up. Before she can even get a word out - "STICK GIRL!! VAMPIRE ASH IS JUST NORMAL FUCKING ASH!" Alric is yelling through the phone loudly enough that half the library must hear it. In the background, a machine? "EXCEPT MAYBE THE FACT THAT YOU CAN'T GET THIS SHIT OUT OF YOUR CARPET! CALL ME FOR YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE I NEED MORE SAMPLES! K THANKS BYE" click.

Silence fills the library once again.

"... I don't suppose you have an opening for an enthusiastic mad scientist with a talent for improvised explosions?"

Phoenix blinks at the phone then laughs. "Oh, we have an opening for him! The hard part will be keeping him from being poached. Or being driven insane."

"There's a mage, Vesper, who I've worked with. I don't know if she's looking for work, but she'd be good to have."

--- Monday morning ---

The Dawn Commission's headquarters are in a red brick and glass high-rise on Summer Street in downtown Boston.

Astraeus Knox, a handsome man with all the gregariousness of a morning news anchor, gathers the new recruits and ushers them to the Commission's office lobby on the 13th floor. "And here's the common area. Kitchenette in the corner, with snacks available. Though sometimes the contents can keep you on your toes. It's sparked some fascinating cross-cultural conversations on diets, and now I keep my mealworm farm at home." He chuckles. "This is Jonathan, head of security, he'll set you all up with visitor badges to get through the gate. We have the whole floor, but only really use the closest corner. My communications department is here. Good morning, Saije!" The young sparkle goth waves as the group passes her in the hallway. "And here's our executive cat herder, the Phoenix herself! It was lovely to meet you all, I do hope you'll stick around." And like a whirlwind, he deposits the group and bustles off elsewhere.

"Welcome!" Phoenix says. "Any questions?"

"What kind of equipment will we have access to?"

"We'll have state-of-the-art body armor for all of you. Donated by Emerald Laboratories, one of our sponsors. Like wise, medical kits, common ritual components, and a corporate card for incidentals. We'll fund any training or certifications that you think you'll need relating to your job."

I eyed the rest of the crew. To my surprise, we actually knew most of them. The woman in a leather jacket, standing off in the corner was Hope, a mercenary monster-hunter I had worked with on occasion. A few paces to her left was Alric, eyes darting around like a cockroach skittering on hot metal as he scribbled in a battered notebook. Then there was Lucian, my one-time lab assistant. Gone was the uncertain kid I had met in a dark alley, replaced by a confident young man clad in military-style gear.

"Hope didn't give me much details, just said you were putting together a team for hunting nightwalkers," Inara said. "But you must have something big in mind for us, to justify that kind of expense."

Lucian was very excited to learn about the existence of an organization like the Dawn Commission when he first heard about it years ago after arriving in Boston. He could see a more fully realized version of it being particular useful for his family in the past. When Hope had called him up to see if he was interested in a full time job with Dawn, he pounced on the opportunity to be a part of such an endeavor. It will be nice to work with Vesper (and Inara?! still confused about that) again, and not as her employee this time! Hope is cool from what he has seen, and is awesome for referring him for this job. He hasn't had an opportunity to sit down and chat with Alric yet besides cursory introductions. So far things are looking up!

"Is that most of what we are going to be doing? Combat missions?"

That's not the question to ask now that we're finally getting answers. Alric takes a noticable deeeeeeep inhale - AnY QuEsTiOnS? Oh, I do have questions lady. "Where's your library? Do you guys have a wiki? How do I get access to either? Can you get me past Martha? Any reputable online sources I should know about? Aaaand less important, as I can figure the following things out myself later: Besides vampires and werewolves and fae and trolls and witches, what else supernatural is real? Do any of the big religions get anything right? How many gods are there, if any. Are there different planes like in DnD or is it just this? Afterlives? Astral projections? Are Karens right about quartz? Is Phoenix your title? Or did your parents name you that? Did you decide on that name yourself? And how does magic work. Do souls have the shape of their owner? Or are they spheres? Cubes? How do I find out my capital N Name and is it any different from my normal name? What difference does it make then? Why is the capital N Name important? Are you a fae? Are any fae part of the commission? What training and certifications are available? Can we do all of them? What's the upper limit? Does the magical world use a different currency to US dollars and if so what? What's the exchange rate? Where can I get my hands on more notepads and pens? Can I have Amazon stuff delivered here? Is there a magical Amazon? Are lizard people real? Is Zuck one? Any other celebrities that are somehow magical? Is Hogwarts real? And how the fuck does magic work"

Alric fell silent, the last of his minute-long rant fading into silence, and my eyes tightened into a contemptuous squint as Inara regarded him. "She wasn't asking you to vomit out every senseless curiosity that ever flitted through your skull, you buffoon."

This is worse than being in class again, Inara added, and having that clown Tezinsky prattling away, squandering the precious minutes of everyone's lives.

Oh, I don't know, I said. Alric's last question seemed pretty important to me.

Inara laced her next words with a patronizing undertone, You had the Gift. Even if your magic was little more than smoldering embers, you at least had a reason to seek greater understanding. But him — it's as futile as attempting to teach a boulder a ballad. No amount of effort will ever coax a melody from his empty soul.

"I believe she meant questions regarding the job, Alric" Hope says as she eyes Vesper curiously.

Befuddled. I'm actually befuddled. How does one cram that much of an attitude in that small of a body? Magic? He looks down to Vesper. "Okay, wait, let me get this straight: How do you grow, if not by following your curiosity?"

He's not too bad, I mused. A trifle... impulsive, perhaps.

Inara's voice rang out, sweetness laced with an undercurrent of scorn. "Curiosity is not a sin, but chasing every glittering novelty without thought most certainly is. As to your question, I hone my mastery of the Art so that I might vanquish ever greater foes. And when a question gnaws at me, I keep it to myself until I can visit the Arcanum library and ferret out the answer."

"Don't take it personally, Alric. Council wizards are all like that."

Did you hear that? I asked. She called you a Council wizard — how embarrassing.

The only thing embarrassing here is you, Inara said. I might be a few decades too young for a Council seat, but it is a great honor.

Wow Alric does not take any shit from Vesper, no wait that was probably this Inara person, gah! Still though, he seems driven and some of those questions make a lot of sense actually. How much do I actually know about magic? He probably should probably not be asking all of those to Phoenix though... some are quite easy to look up or ask from strangers.

Phoenix looks mostly amused by Alric's questions. She glides into a seat at the conference table and gestures for the others to do the same.

"I'm not ignoring your questions, Alric, but I am going to sort them against my priorities in answering them. My legal name is Jean Goodhart, though I go by Phoenix for personal reasons. The philosophy of Names is a deep and interesting subject -- and I am working towards answering your questions too, Lucian, Inara." She nods to them before turning her pale green eyes back to Alric. "Alric, do you know what Dawn signifies?"

Ooooh, foreshadowing. Can't wait to find out what kind of metric she is mistakenly optimizing for. He takes a seat. "I can give it a shot: New beginnings?" Green eyes? Definitely a fae.

She nods and smiles encouragingly. "Yes! And deeper than that: a resetting and purification, a literal reknitting of the holes worn by the previous day, strengthening the fiber of reality. Dawn is a potent time for practitioners of magic. It washes away the lesser magic effects and tempers the enchantments that survive." She holds up finger, forestalling the objection and accusation she can see rising up in Alric. "No. You have the wrong idea, fascism is not where I'm going with this. The intent of the name of the Dawn Commission is the knitting together and tempering for a new beginning. Too many people are falling through the holes on the border of the supernatural and mundane world, and the existing communities are too isolated to help. The inscrutability among the supernatural communities is hurting us more than it protects us. So our intent here is to build bridges between the various supernatural communities and between them and the mundane public."

The objection he had in mind was more along the lines of WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TIME OF DAY INFLUENCES MAGIC?? He doesn't correct her.

She pauses, giving room for any interjections, before continuing. "What I have in mind for field agents, for you, is a team that can investigate and resolve conflict between the supernatural and the mundane public, especially where there might be violence. Though I don't intend for combat to be your primary mission. We aren't a mercenary group or a gang."

"How much can we expect the mundane government to get involved? I don't actually know what parts are aware of the supernatural."

"I don't expect much involvement. Politicians don't seem to be much more aware than the general populace. There have been some government agencies dabbling in the supernatural before, but I only know of defunct ones. If one is active now, I don't know of it."

Alric has asked his questions. His prediction: There will be no immediate answers. Phoenix will continue an awful lot of talk about her organization, then do some smalltalk, and finally get them their passes.

He decides to shut up and let this social situation run its course, in the hopes that it does so quickly. Any further interruption on his part will just drag this out. He will instead just sit here, patiently, taking notes - at least as patiently as someone ONE SOCIAL SITUATION and ONE BOARDING PASS away from ANSWERS can be.

Phoenix does indeed talk more about her organization, as is usual for an employer recruiting and onboarding new employees. The terms of employment are good, legible to the normal mundane hiring process, with no selling of one's soul in hidden in the fine print or anything like that. The benefits package is a bit eclectic, including membership to the penthouse club in the building, a gym membership, and LinkPasses for public transportation, but also a writ of safe passage through Boston Below by treaty with the Rat Kings, and tokens of friendship from the Golden Empress and the Grant Dynasty.

Once all documents are signed, the four new field agents are handed their official employment badges, and permission to roam the office unescorted.

To Hope's question about the Rat Kings, Phoenix replies that they are swarm entities made of literal rats. They barely have human-level sapience and the rats they govern have only rat intelligence. The writ of safe passage should be enough to prevent them from being eaten, but she doesn't recommend relying on it.

"Well that's terrifying."

Now that that is all out the way, Lucian can finally properly introduce himself to Alric! He asked such interesting questions! Wait where did he go? We just got our badges!

I fingered the badge. It looked like an ordinary ID card — ugly photograph, RFID chip, name and job title — but it represented possibility. Freedom. No longer was I cursed to roam the fringes of nightwalker society. Now I had an in.

Or, rather, Inara had an in, something I was sharply reminded of when I tried to stand and found the body unresponsive. Inara was listening to Hope and Phoenix talk about the Rat Kings, barely concealed boredom bleeding through the barrier. She caught Lucian's eye, waving him over.

Alright, Alric can wait. Lucian ambles over, he thinks, reading from her posture, that this is Inara. "Yeah?"

"So, the Dawn Commission," Inara said. "What do you think so far?"

"They are the best thing to happen in a long time, I wish they have been around ages ago. I want to make this work." Lucian pauses to collect himself, "I'm talking to Inara right? I... I don't know how to talk to you. You aren't Vesper, I like Vesper. Should I be treating you like a stranger?"

Alric splits off to the library Chapter 0.6: DC Library

Oh shit, Inara said. He knows about us.

Let me handle this, I said.

A pause. Uncertainty seeped across the barrier as I paced restlessly in the void of the mindscape. Just fucking let me out, I knew Lucian for years before — you know. This.

...fine, Inara said.

It was another few seconds before she managed to relax enough to loosen her grip on the front. I fell forward and the world slammed into me. Bright fluorescent lights, the sharp smell of cleaning fluids, the rough texture of the fabric chair I sat in. I grinned, letting the sensations wash over me until the intensity faded — a little at least. It never fully went away.

"Let's not talk about this here," I said. "There should be conference rooms or something, someplace with a bit of privacy."

An anxiousness that Lucian hadn't noticed was even there relaxes at the change. Lucian replies with a soft 'mm' of agreement.

I stood — and oh it was wonderful to move under my own control for once. Beneath the fluorescent lighting I guided Lucian through the Commission's bustling corridors, the dry corporate air imbued with the sterile scent of old paper and printer ink. In no time at all I found an unused conference room, a small bubble of privacy. An elegant glass table sat in the center, surface adorned by a gently pulsating computer, the screensaver's soft glow casting a ghostly pallor over everything. I sank into the embrace of a chair, gesturing for Lucian to follow suit in its twin.

As he settled in, a thick silence fell over us, broken only by the hum of the air condition system. I scrutinized Lucian from across the table. In spite of my confident claims to Inara, doubt gnawed at me. My interactions with Lucian had been nothing but fleeting exchanges over the past few years, and if he were to discover the truth about —

"I am Vesper," I abruptly cut in, before my train of thought could reach its inevitable destination. "Inara is a wizard whose soul became entwined with mine. We are separate and joined, two minds sharing a body."

A mental barb jabbed at my head's other occupant. Would be nice if you shared a little more often. After all, it's MY body.

Inara didn't respond. Whenever I fronted, she preferred to recede into the background, maintaining her silence until I had switched out.

"You did right by me Vesper, offering me that job, helping me get situated, I-" he cuts himself off, everything had been so awesome today, but, now he just feels lost and confused, just like way back then... "Is this just how things are now? Is there anything I can do to help? Are you OK?" He had not been particularly close to Vesper, but he thought he understood things and he so clearly doesn't.

I flinched at the rawness in Lucian's voice. Silence hung between us, thick and oppressive, as I stared at the table. When I finally spoke, it was in a fragile whisper. "No, I'm not okay. It's been... weeks, I think, since she let me out. Hard to remember, my memories since the demon are tattered."

Dissociative amnesia was what the Council healers had called it. A mundane yet poorly studied and even worse understood phenomenon.

"I don't know if there's anything you can do to help," I said. A pause. "Inara had the Council's finest mages look at us, trying to reverse the fusion." Beneath the table, my fingers curled into a fist, old anger flowing back. "A parade of useless bastards, each one saying how sorry they were, how much of a tragedy it was that Inara's bloodline would end with her. Not a single one asked how I felt about it. It was all Inara this, Inara that."

"she doesn't let you out for weeks" Cold anger, Lucian is not very familiar with the feeling. Lucian wants to say that shit ends now, but he doesn't actually have any pull here does he. A pause, he crosses over and wraps her into a hug, "We can figure something out, Dawn is trying to change things, and with change, maybe a solution." After a moment he lets go and backs up, "Inara, if we are going to be team mates, I need Vesper to be okay too, I can't work with someone keeping my friend hostage."

I stood stiff in Lucian's arm for a moment, fighting back tears before giving in. How long had it been since someone touched me? Inara always held herself at arm's length, as if afraid that physical contact would somehow dirty her, and the few occasions I did front were usually when we were alone. There was so much I missed. An entire life that had slipped through my fingers.

Gods, you're both so dramatic, Inara sneered. It's only natural for me to be in charge — face it, Vesper, I'm better at living your life than you ever were. Years spent studying magic, and you only managed to master a single basic spell.

You alienate people, I bit out. It's not coincidence that I haven't spoken to Lucian in years. Eight years at Arcanum, and how many true friends can you honestly claim to have?

Spare me the lecture and give me the body. I never should have let you front. You've only managed to make things worse. Menace heralded her next message. Don't make me fight you for control. We both know who'll win if this turns into a contest of will.

I flinched at that, remembering the migraines that had plagued me for days after the last time we fought — truly fought — for control.

"I-I have to go," I stammered. "Sorry."

I forced myself to let go of the front. Inara barely waited long enough, wresting control away the moment my grip slackened. Back I fell into the darkness, through the glass wall separating me from the world. Senses and emotions faded too, numbing the anger and leaving me with little more than a dull resentment. Lucian was right. I had tolerated this for far too long — something had to change.

"Vesper is barely even here most days," Inara said. "And the best healers money can buy all agreed this was permanent, so there's little point dwelling on it. What would you have me do — share the front with her?" Inara scoffed. "What a waste. I'm ten times the mage she ever was."

"What do you expect me respond with to that? She definitely said let. if its a matter of it taking to much, I don't know, 'energy', or stuff, for her to be out for long, that is one thing. But its not. I do believe you tried the best of what's currently available but I don't agree that's the best that ever will, or will be soon if I have anything to do about it. Do you believe change isn't coming? It wasn't to long ago the mundane world looked drastically different, what's to say the same can't happen here. Now. Yes! Share! We are going to be diplomats sometimes, and combatants other times, I am sure Vesper is happy to have an amazing mage at the helm if we are in combat. And I think from what I have seen so far Vesper would be much more diplomatic when that is needed." Lucian feels out of breath. He is going to shut up now.

"Enough!" Inara snapped. "I'm not a monster, Lucian. I didn't choose this. I didn't want this," she gestured vaguely to our body, "any more than Vesper did. But it happened. And I... had to deal with it. That's all."

"I don't think you are a monster. I think this is a shitty situation for both of you." A deep sigh. "Please, just, think a little about what I said? We are going to be teammates, but I consider Vesper my team mate too, and I need both of you to be, if not friends, coworkers that can sufficiently get along for my peace of mind." Lucian is going to leave to look for Alric unless there is anything else.

Hope stays and talks to Jonathan as he finishes handing out the badges. "Nice to meet you. You seem lightly armed. Not worried about real attacks here?"

"Hi! Oh, yeah, well this place has kind of an odd threat profile, in comparison to other places. I'm mostly here to keep any people just walking in from the street out of the offices. If there was an actual attack form a supernatural faction, I likely wouldn't be able to do much even if I had big guns and a full squad. Heh." He shrugs. "I think there's wards or something that do the bulk of the actual protection."

"Good to know. I assume the wards don't have any gotchas, or we'd have been warned. I have to wonder, though, if the wards have no risk of false positives, how can you trust them to not have false negatives? Or maybe they are triggered manually. Who should I ask about that?"

He considers the question. “So, as far as I know, practically all wards have false negatives, and are like rock-paper-scissors in what they can protect against and what can get through no problem. So it’s good opsec to not share the details too broadly. I’m not a mage, so a lot of the details are lost on me. Phoenix would know, I think she constructed them. … So, you’re one of the new field agents, do you have a lot of experience running or breaking security?”

"Understood. Not exactly, most of my hunts are against solo targets, often on the run. The few mages I've hunted aren't the warding type - necromancers, pyros, et cetera. Generally shooting first takes care of those. I'm just concerned about what happens if the Dawn Commission pisses off, say, Hiss, and the team's not here. Especially considering our team may be making more waves than the Commission has in the past. Maybe if I understood warding better I'd feel different, but to the naked eye the answer is "you all die"."

“Well, the windows are reinforced, as are the exterior walls and the wall with the turnstiles here.” The turnstiles themselves are the kind that has a revolving rake of bars all the way up to the top. “You’ll need a badge for the elevator to even stop on this floor, and the stairs are badge-locked too. We do drills quarterly, and that has been sufficient. But you may be right that our threat profile has changed now with you on the team.” Jonathan gives a sort of embarrassed smile.

"That's good! Especially considering the existing building you've got to work with. Do you know how hard it is to get into the floors above and below? And what do you do in the drills?"

"Those floors have a similar setup. There's a law firm on the floor below, and I think the company on the floor above does software. Are you thinking of someone cutting through the floors? That's more impractical than the movies would have you think. For the drills, we have a consultant come out and conduct a penetration test, then we do an analysis on how we did and what we can do better next time. If you're asking about cutting through the floors, I think you would love the drills."

"Cutting? No, that would take much too long and negate the surprise. I was thinking a ring of explosives to blow a hole, throw a flashbang down, and drop in."

"Yeah, that sort of thing is quite a bit outside of our budget to prevent. Once you get to attacks that hostile, there's such a wide breadth of vectors to defend against that it isn't cost effective to scale security up that much. It's more effective to reduce the appeal of attacking. By like, having distributed backups of the servers, and not storing dangerous or valuable things here."

"Yes, that is a rather paranoid scenario, I admit."

He shrugs. "80-20 rule. 80 percent of the risks can be stopped with 20 percent of the effort. So I follow the checklists and have everyone badge in separately, you don't prop doors open or leave a company laptop in a coffee shop, and then we're all doing the most effective bits that will actually help against the most likely threats."