Chapter 0.1: Hope

Hope, tell us your story.

While Hope approves of the de-escalation focus of the Dawn Commission, she knows her talents lie in the other direction. Before joining the Dawn Commission, she only went on hunts she considered straightforward - where there seemed no possibility of a nonviolent solution, and where regular bullets would do the job. Of course, her assessments were not always correct - such as the time she went on a werewolf hunt, killed him, and then found herself trying to shoot a ghost. Very unreasonable of him to not die properly the first time!

I really can't afford to be doing freelance shit right now, I need money! Fucking rogues fucking things up for the rest us, no wonder people are afraid of werewolves if asshats like this are around killing senselessly Lucian doesn't need his ears shifted enough to be able to pick up on the sound of gunfire from where his nose is telling him the rogue is around the corner. Did the rogue bite off more than they can chew? or did a bounty go out and I didn't hear about it? His thoughts cease as he turns the corner, a bad-ass looking women in leather holding two handguns is standing over the corpse of who he had been hunting... and a ghost has just finished forming in front of her. shit!

Lucian runs over, purposely loud so that its not a surprise, while he digs in his bag for salt.

"Hey! We need to surround this thing fast!" Hopefully she picks up quickly or this can get out of hand fast.

Hope snaps a gun towards him as he turns the corner, sees a human, and turns back to the ghost. When the ghost starts to advance, she runs in a circle around it, baiting it into chasing her within the circle of salt as Lucian finishes it. "Thanks for the help!" she pants as she holsters her guns. "This was supposed to be a simple job. I don't hunt things I can't shoot. The bounty isn't much, but I'll split it with you."

"You're welcome! I'll have to take you up on that."

With the ghost stuck in a ring of salt, they wait together in the alleyway for dawn to eventually dissipate it. He had shifted fully human once it became clear Hope did not pick up on Lucian being another werewolf immediately. He will say he is one casually in conversation; trying his charms on Hope, not all werewolves are bad, he's nice right? He won't back down from an opportunity to present werewolves in a more positive light, even if they may be sitting near the corpse of one. He hopes dawn comes soon, despite the nice company Hope provides, a dark dank alley way is no place for his sensitive nose.

She takes a closer look when he says this, but otherwise seems unbothered. "Ah, good! I keep telling werewolves they need to hunt their own rogues before someone else does, for their own safety."

"....mmhmm" ooh boy

"Though, I suppose I've only heard of the times they didn't, to be fair."

"Yup! It doesn't help that there is so many different types of us running around. There's no real centralized way for werewolves to deal with werewolves problems though, I hear about these things through the grapevine like everyone else. Just another thing that needs fixing I guess."

The cobblestones were worn and slick with rain, like the rotting teeth of some ancient creature, and the chill clung to us as Inara stalked through the shadows. Glowing gold runes above our outstretched hand illuminated the ripples in Creation that our quarry had left. Even a ninth circle devil could not walk this world without leaving traces.

The streetlamps flickered as if warring with the darkness, their struggles failing to break the fog that had settled like a shroud over the city. I paused by the crumbling façade of a building that could've been a cathedral, a hospital, or an asylum in its past lives. It was hard to tell with this city. The seeking spell twitched madly, spinning this way and that.

Are you sure that thing is working? I asked Inara.

Yes. Strigen's Seeking never fails. Give it a moment.

She had barely finished speaking when the glowing arrow stabilized, pointing to our right. Inara didn't bother to say she had told me so — the smugness radiating across the mental barrier did that for her.

We followed the seeking to the mouth of an alley draped in shadow. Inara waved a hand and a flame erupted into life above her palm, shedding a little light. I didn't bother to point out that we had a phone in our pocket with a flashlight ten times brighter.

The walls flanking us were a mishmash of ancient red brick and decaying plaster, over which climbed dull green vines that seemed as old as the city itself. The air hung heavy with the scent of rain, mildew, and the faint aroma of a nearby bakery – a ghost of cinnamon and sugar. Inara strode down the alley until we came upon two figures huddled against the wall.

One was a string bean of a man dressed in military surplus, like a child playing dress-up in his grandfather’s fatigues. His gaze darted around, all nerves and wiry tension. The second, a woman of striking build, wore a leather jacket that looked like it had seen as many fights as she had. The flickering firelight painted her with an aura of arrogance and brutal grace.

Behind them, a screeching wraith clawed at an invisible barrier. Its monstrous form was thoroughly inhuman, a mass of swirling spectral cloth wrapped loosely around a wolf shifter's half-form. An abomination held at bay by a circle of salt. Barely.

Idiots, Inara thought. That's a third-order wraith. Five more minutes, and it'll finish breaking through their unfinished ward. She paused, then shook her head. Not my problem.

What? You can't be serious. Are we really just going to leave them to die? It'll only take a few minutes to draw a proper binding diagram.

I don't know any bindings by rote, Inara said. And —

I do.

Surprise flowed across the barrier. Really? How?

I did my best to mask the stab of anxiety her question sparked in me, hoping Inara couldn't sense it. Never mind that, let me front. I can handle this.

Reluctantly, she ceded control to me. I fell forward into the body, all my senses suddenly sharpening. Gods, but I missed fronting. I stepped forward, into the nightwalkers' line of sight, only then recognizing the military guy's face. "Lucian? What have you been up to? I thought you skipped town ages ago."

Four minutes, Inara reminded me. Catch up with your old friend later.

"Actually, forget that," I said. "That wraith is about to break loose — you got any more of that salt?"

"Vesper? Hey! How have you been? Oh- right- salt, yes I've got some right here" Lucian digs around in his pack. "Hope this is Vesper, Vesper this is Hope, she helped me get setup here in Boston long time ago." Lucian hands Vesper the salt. It is only then that it registers to Lucian what Vesper had said. "Wait, did you say its about to break loose? They can do that?!"

I grabbed the bag of salt and set about drawing a hexagon around the circle. Grislin's Extraplanar Containment ought to be enough, for even if it had been designed for demons, the principles were much the same for other spirits. Perhaps more importantly, it was the only binding I knew by heart.

Demonology was not a forgiving art.

"Warding is more complex than just making a circle." I chided Lucian "Your work would contain a ghost, but your friend here is a third order wraith. Haphazard boundaries can only delay such a potent spirit." I pointed at the thinnest part of the circle, where the glinting grains of salt were already turning gray. "See?"

Hexagon complete, I started on the first outer circle.

"Is it - transmuting the salt? Into what?"

"Not quite," I said. "Salt soaks up ambient mana, so it's particularly good at blocking spirits. But it's unclaimed mana, and that means the wraith can siphon it away."

I finished the second outer circle and knelt on the ground, touching it with my fingertip. A pulse of mana and the circle flared with golden light as the wraith howled in fury.

"There." I stood, brushing off my hands. "Energizing it makes it metaphysically mine, so the wraith can't drain the mana away without resistance — and Grislin's was made to contain Greater Demons. It'll hold till dawn."

"I see... Is energizing it a trick anyone can learn? Seems handy. Also, thanks for the help."

I glanced at Lucian, standing silently by the wall. "Of course. As for energizing, you would need the Gift. Have you been tested?"

Lucian frowns at that. He is still a little peeved that he does not have it himself and doesn’t like being reminded of things he will never be able to do.

"Not that I recall. I should probably try, if it's easy to check."

Trivially so, Inara informed me. If you let me front, I can test her in a couple of minutes.

Lucian will notice. Enhanced senses, remember?

He'll notice that SOMETHING is going on, but he won't know what. You met him before... you know.

Fine. I let some of my resentment tinge the message. It was my body. My life. And yet whenever we had to do magic, I always had to let Inara handle it. How was I supposed to learn like this?

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down, relaxing my hold on the body. The edges of my vision blurred as I fell away, trading places with Inara. Our body shifted, stance and posture changing subtly as she switched in.

"I can check right now," Inara said. "The ritual only takes a few minutes, though I'll need your cooperation for it to work."

"Sure! What do I need to do?"

Inara sat down on the dirt, gesturing for Hope to do the same. "To be blessed with the Gift is to hold within your soul a reserve of power even as an untrained novice." She held out my hand. "Take my hand, and I will send a trickle of my power into your body.

"If you lack the Gift, nothing will happen. But if you are one of the lucky few, after a few minutes your soul will instinctively reject the foreign influence, or attempt to seize it for itself. The former will feel oppressive, as if the world itself presses down upon you. The latter will feel the opposite, as if potential waits just out of reach, a sense of energy waiting to be taken.

I wondered what it had felt like for me, when the College Arcanum tested me. I would most likely never know. Their mentalists had shredded that memory beyond recovery, and I doubted they had kept a copy. In their eyes, I had been less than nobody. Just trash, to be cleaned up and tossed away.

"Close your eyes," Inara said, "empty your mind, and we shall see what happens."

Hope takes her hand, and closes her eyes, not expecting anything to happen.

Inara reached for the thread of magic woven through our soul and drew off the thinnest strand of that golden light before feeding it into Hope. Envy pricked me at the sight. I would have had to use ten times as much power — Inara had a finesse that my magic lacked even at the best of times.

We waited in silence, but nothing happened. The thread of magic twined around Hope's soul, but remained firmly under Inara's control. Five minutes later, she withdrew it and opened her eyes.

"I'm afraid you do not have the Gift," my mouth said. Inara shrugged. "Few do, and fewer still burn bright enough to be worth training."

That's what they told me. I didn't bother to mask my contempt and anger. It is not your place to decide who is 'worth' teaching.

Teaching wizardry is a slow and expensive process, Inara retorted. Would you have us waste precious resources on people who will never be able to do more than light a candle — and that after years of study? The line must be drawn somewhere.

"Figures! Worth checking, though. Thanks!" Hope does not seem disappointed.

"I appreciate the understanding," Inara said. "Not all who receive such news take it with such equanimity." She glanced at the seeking spell, still hovering in midair where I had left it. "But I'm afraid it is time to be on our way. Tonight's meeting was not unpleasant, yet the night looms long ahead and much is left undone."

Yeah.... something definitely is up there, but she did just save them from making a mistake with the ~~ghost~~ wraith so Lucian isn't going to say anything about it. He will definitely give Vesper a long look to make sure she knows he noticed. "Thank you Vesper, it was nice seeing you again." Hope and him still have to wait for dawn for the wraith to dissipate. He is glad they decided to stick around, if it had gotten loose, he doesn't know what to think.