Estelle Ana Baca

Month: January 2011

  • Astaroth’s Wager, Part XII

    Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XI.

    Adelaide found it difficult not to be taken with Thomas’s enthusiasm. She returned his smile and asked, “What happened?”

    “Yesterday was a pretty normal day at work, when into the elevator walks this man—kinda older, wearing a really nice suit and hat, going to the ninth floor. Something about him felt kinda familiar from the start. Anyway—we start going upstairs when this man just starts staring at me. So I ask him about his day, and he answers politely but doesn’t really mention much, until out of the blue he asks me, ‘Are you Henry Carver’s son? The Henry Carver from Independence, Missouri?’

    “This man introduces himself as Philip Meese, and he starts asking after my parents. I told him that Pop passed away last January and was followed by Mom the following April. Then this Mr. Meese tells me how it’s a shame that he’s gone because my father was a great man who helped him out once. Apparently this Mr. Meese was travelling through Kansas City in ‘02 and got taken for all his money by a dishonest man, and my father spotted him a dollar to get a hot meal and a part of a train ticket to Chicago, where, incidentally, he made his first fortune.

    “So Mr. Meese gets off on the ninth floor, and he’s up there for about twenty minutes before he gets back in my elevator to go back downstairs. He goes on to tell me that he always wanted to repay the favor to Pop, but he never got back to Kansas City to look him up. Then he asks if I’d be willing to let him take me out for dinner that evening to discuss a business proposition with me.

    “This Mr. Meese takes me to John’s Grill for dinner and buys me a steak with all the trimmings. He tells me all about how he’s involved in the pictures these days as a producer. Even though everyone else has fallen on hard times, he’s making lots of money in Hollywood. Then he tells me that he’s been looking for a hard-working young man like me to work with him and learn the business of being a producer, and he offers me a job working in his offices with him the week after next if I can convince my bride-to-be to elope with me and move down to Los Angeles.

    “I’ll be making at least four times what I make here, Addie. We can get our own house and everything,” Thomas said. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a cigarette lighter. “Look—this is what Mr. Meese gave me. He said it was his way of investing in me, like collateral. It’s gold. You can bite it yourself if you don’t believe me.”

    Adelaide took the lighter. There were small indentations in the corner where Thomas had bitten it to test the gold’s authenticity. Along the bottom, there was a geometric arrangement of triangles engraved into the gold, and it looked like this:

    strth

    “So whaddya say?”

    Adelaide felt a touch of hesitation. She remembered the dream she’d had the previous morning in which they’d eloped. She couldn’t remember how it had ended, but she felt like the ending was important when compared with the other dreams she’d had that same night. Of all the dreams she’d had, it was the most positive of them all, and it didn’t occur her to that she ought to find the precognitive nature of the dream in itself a reason for hesitation. In fact, it made the circumstances feel right, and she put aside her momentary misgivings.

    She looked into Thomas’ eyes. His enthusiasm was contagious. She knew that he didn’t want to be an elevator operator or a grocer, and that he’d discovered his opportunity to make something of himself. She knew that she’d be happy as long as she was with him. All the rest was forgivable.

    She threw her arms around him and kissed him. She said, “I’ll sneak out an hour before sunrise. Meet me here then.”

    “I’ll buy us tickets for the first train for Los Angeles tomorrow. We can get married there.”

    “I can’t wait to be Mrs. Adelaide Carver!”

    And it was so that on Tuesday, June 9, 1936, Adelaide Grayson married Thomas Carver, with Mr. & Mrs. Philip Meese serving as their witnesses. Adelaide didn’t understand why, but after they kissed before the Justice of the Peace and the Meeses, Adelaide thought about the dream she’d had in which she and Thomas had eloped. She remembered that in her dream, the witnesses they had chosen were the same two women with the swords she’d seen in the dream with Rose Nielsen.

    Dominus tecum.

    On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XIII.

  • Astaroth’s Wager, Part XI

    Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part X.

    “Now that I’ve eliminated the angel and the Nephil in the mix, I can get down to business,” Astaroth declared.

    “You know, you could easily have this entire wager sewn up by tomorrow,” Svipul said.

    “Absolutely not. The true destruction of hope requires the investment of time. I have a slightly less than a year to accomplish this, and I’ll make sure it’s done right,” Astaroth said. “Don’t bother with the primate—I’ll take her home. She might require some motivation to accomplish what comes next, and I know just how to do it.”

    Astaroth left Svipul in Antwerp and took Adelaide back to her bedroom. She hovered over Adelaide to gather information, spending more than an hour slipping into the young woman’s subconscious. The sun was threatening to claw its way over the horizon when she called for Caius, and he possessed a small robin and perched on the windowsill of Adelaide’s bedroom to receive his master’s directive.

    A Robin
    Nekus often possess birds, like this fantastic robin, on account of their mobility and relative stealth. They’re never able to survive it, though. Poor little guys.

    “Quiet, Caius,” Astaroth ordered in a barely audible whisper. “I need her asleep. The manipulation of dreams is one of the best tools that Apokomistai have at our disposal. It’s almost a shame that I can’t teach it to you.”

    “What do you wish of me, madam?”

    “I need you to find Thomas Carver’s sister. Her name’s Florence Warren, and she lives in Kansas City with her husband Roy and their two children Eugene and Lois. They live in the Carver family home, and they’ve been, as the primates put it, having a awfully hard time lately,” Astaroth said.

    “What will you have me do, madam?”

    “Possess any creature you like, with the exception of a primate. A bird might work—something the primates are inclined to prefer, something cute—and I want you to stalk that family. You might start with the children and work your way up. I’ll leave it up to you—you’ve always demonstrated a prodigious amount of creativity when it comes to inspiring madness within primates. I don’t care how you do it, but I want a specific outcome.”

    “And what would that be, madam?”

    “I want everyone in that house to die in a fire within six months. Except Florence. I need her alive,” Astaroth said.

    “And in what condition, madam?”

    “As scarred and insane as possible,” Astaroth said.

    *          *          *

    Adelaide Grayson woke from her slumber not long after sunrise. She had a groggy notion that Rose Nielsen had fallen asleep guarding her, but Rose was nowhere to be found. She didn’t give Rose’s absence too much thought, for she was distracted by the odd sequence of dreams she’d had. The first was an incomplete scene in which she and Rose had been transported to a strange location where there were a couple of women who threatened them with swords and knives. The second was a nightmare in which she was tied to a stake and consumed by fire. The third was a pleasant dream that she carried with her into consciousness, and in it, Thomas reported to her that he’d been offered a once-in-a-lifetime job, and that they were running off to Los Angeles to elope.

    Just as she did every morning, Adelaide went downstairs to assist with breakfast for the boarders. She greeted her mother sleepily and asked about Rose while rinsing out the urn for the coffee.

    Mrs. Grayson answered, “Miss Nielsen left about twenty minutes ago. She rang the bell to call me, paid her bill and left in a big hurry. She left a letter for you at the desk, though. She specifically mentioned that you were very kind to her.”

    “Did she say where she was going?” Adelaide wondered.

    “I asked, but she didn’t answer. I’d imagine that she left an explanation in that letter.”

    Adelaide and her mother served the boarders their breakfast, and just as Adelaide was sitting down to enjoy her own breakfast after everyone had left, Thomas appeared in the kitchen.

    “I wanted to check on you before I went in to work. That angel—Kavati or whoever—it was wasn’t around when I woke up this morning,” Thomas said.

    “Miss Nielsen wasn’t around when I woke up, either. She left me a letter when she checked out of here in a hurry before I got up,” Adelaide said, presenting the letter from her apron pocket. “It’s odd, though. I could—” She paused.

    “What is it?”

    “I had the strangest dreams last night. The weirdest was that Miss Nielsen and I—I can’t even remember all of it. I only remember that she ripped me out of bed and transported me to a place where there were these women with swords. That’s all.”

    Thomas refrained from issuing a comment. “Let’s see what’s in the letter. May I?”

    Adelaide handed him the letter, and Thomas unsealed the envelope and laid the Rose’s missive on the table where both of them could read.

    Dear Miss Grayson,

    I hope that this letter finds you well and able to accept my apologies for leaving abruptly. My father returned while you were sleeping to inform me that the matter is settled and neither you nor Thomas are in any danger. My gifts are now required elsewhere, and I must leave San Francisco immediately. I wish you and Mr. Carver the very best in your future together. May God bless you and keep you always.

    Sincerely,
    Miss Rose Nielsen.

    “I guess that’s that,” Thomas replied. “I’d love to stay, but I have to get to work now. I’ll come by later tonight.”

    “See you later!” Adelaide said, sneaking in a kiss on the cheek. She ate the rest of her breakfast in the silence, entertaining a marvelous fascination with the vivid nature of her dream with Rose and the two women with swords.

    *          *          *

    Thomas never stopped by that evening. He telephoned her to let her know that he had been detained by an awesomely fortunate opportunity and that he would stop by with an explanation the following morning.

    Adelaide awoke the next morning feeling far more refreshed than the day before, and she was grateful for the solid, dreamless sleep she’d had. Breakfast came and went without any sign of Thomas, and Adelaide and her mother were preparing for the lunch service when Thomas finally arrived. Although he was absolutely brimming with cheer, his appearance came in tandem with a host of apologies for both Adelaide and her mother. He asked to speak with Adelaide in private, and Mrs. Grayson obliged by leaving them alone in the kitchen.

    Thomas’s lips parted to reveal a brilliant grin. “I’ll tell you, Addie—this has been the most remarkable week! Except for the day I met you, my love, yesterday was the luckiest day of my life!”

    Dominus tecum.

    On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XII.

  • An explanation.

    Dearest Regular Readers,

    Nadiel was too embarrassed to post this herself, so I told her I’d step in and offer an explanation and an apology. She honestly thought that she could deliver the ending to her most recent narrative “Astaroth’s Wager” in a timely fashion so that she could begin a new one soon enough. (When you get to the end, you’ll understand why she was so keen to let go of this one.) She’s been blaming me for pushing her to produce, which is a fair and accurate complaint. Whichever way you want to look at it, I’m here to apologize for the both of us. Nadiel really didn’t mean to renege on her promises to present a conclusion in her previous posts. I forced her to make promises she couldn’t keep, and I should’ve been nicer. Sorry, readers. Sorry, Nadiel. Mea culpa.

    The conclusion to “Astaroth’s Wager” will be presented to you over the next few weeks. We all hope you enjoy it. Feel free to check out the previous ten chapters in the meantime.

    Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI • Part VII • Part VIII • Part IX • Part X

    Barring a catastrophic WordPress error, Chapter 11 will go up Tuesday morning, January 18, 2011, at dawn local time (7.12 MST).

    ♥

    P.S. In the interests of maintaining her word, she begged me to remove all her false promises from her introductions. Mea maxima culpa.

  • Astaroth’s Wager, Part X

    Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part IX.

    “What will you have me do now, madam?” Caius asked.

    “Well—Stolas should be calming down right about now and on his way to come kill me,” Astaroth said. “I know you’re partial to the body of that Prussian primate, but it’s time to let it go. Leave it, and leave here. You don’t want to be around when at least one angel shows up. I’ll call for you when I’m finished here.”

    “As you wish, madam,” Caius replied. He sat down in a chair in their suite. The body that he had possessed went limp, falling into the deep unconsciousness characteristic of a coma. The essence of his Neku self had departed.

    “Did you have to destroy my Kazuko as well when you destroyed all the other Nekus?” Svipul asked Astaroth. “It’ll take me at least two centuries to develop that kind of loyalty in another Neku.”

    “I can’t argue with that. Nekus don’t really grasp their utter dependence upon their Apokomistai masters for at least half a millennium,” Astaroth said. “But you do realize, my dear Svipul, that you have a better chance at getting an audience with God than you do in extracting even the slightest apology from me.”

    “So—what is your plan now?”

    “I give Stolas not long at all before he’s here to try to take back my ellamadus,” Astaroth said. She migrated to the middle of the suite where there was an open space on the carpet.

    “And then?”

    “There’s the rub, isn’t it?” Astaroth said.

    “You’re not even going to provide a hint as to what to expect?” Svipul asked, joining her in the open space.

    “You can expect fun. Draw your sword. If you would be so kind as to provide me with support, I’ll see to it that you’re rewarded for your bravery.” Astaroth held the Ashera Didilak in her open palm. She muttered a few phrases, and the ellamadus glowed brightly again.

    “Is that the Ashera Didilak?” Svipul asked.

    The ellamadus went dull in her hand. “Break my concentration again and you’ll find out just how much damage the Ashera Didilak really can do. Now—be ready. We don’t know how ready for battle the half-primate will be,” Astaroth ordered.

    Svipul drew her sword.

    Astaroth pronounced a few more phrases in the ancient, forgotten language, and for a few moments, her voice changed, so that the timbre of her voice more closely resembled a percussion instrument than a vocalized sound. The Ashera Didilak’s lavender light grew as unbearably bright as the sun for a fraction of a moment, until its light collapsed in on itself. The ellamadus phased out of sight for a similarly tiny amount of time and reappeared in Astaroth’s palm as it had before she had channelled its magics.

    Rose Nielsen materialized out of thin air, and she fell on her knees onto the floor. She looked as if she had been awakened from a nap. Nonetheless, it appeared that she had sensed that she was being unexpectedly ripped from the comfort of where she had been, and with the one hand she had, she had gripped what was closest to her to anchor her. Much to her horror and Astaroth’s delight, it was a similarly sleepy and disoriented Adelaide Grayson.

    Rose and Adelaide quickly tried to scramble to their feet, but Svipul held her blade at Rose’s throat. Svipul said with a voice filled with unnatural menace, “Keep to the floor and quiet. Both of you.”

    Adelaide’s shock took the better of her. Her entire complexion turned grey, and she fainted again.

    “Look, Svipul! Sitri isn’t the pathetic warrior we thought he was. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that you’re unarmed, Miss Nielsen. I’d be willing to bet that you’ve forgotten your blade, too,” Astaroth said with an unnervingly giddy expression.  “That primate might be able to lend you a hand in a very literal sense, but unless you brought your own weapon to disarm her, she’s useless to you now in every other meaningful way.” She directed her attention to Svipul and said, “What do you think? One pun too many?”

    “Why do you want Adelaide?” Rose demanded.

    “This has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with a miscarriage of a wager. I might even let the primate go when this is all over,” Astaroth said.

    “My father and Kivati will be here soon,” Rose threatened.

    “I’m counting on that,” Astaroth retorted. She held up the Ashera Didlak again and resumed eliciting its magics. The lavender light flowed out of it in long threads that circled Rose until they formed a faint chamber around her. Rose tried to protest, but the chamber only echoed her own sounds back to her. She looked panicked, and she started pounding on the walls of the chamber.

    “Take the female primate with you and leave,” Astaroth said.

    “I’ll meet you at my flat in Antwerp,” Svipul replied. She lifted Adelaide off the floor, and the two of them vanished.

    Astaroth was alone in the suite with Rose inside her mystical chamber for no longer than a few long moments when Stolas appeared.

    “Astaroth! I want it back!” he cried.

    “I told you I just wanted to borrow it. You’ll have it back before you know it,” Astaroth said.

    Rose was furiously kicking at the walls of the cocoon in a demonstration of futility when the entire character of the room shifted: Itzamná and Kivati had arrived.

    Human eyes would never have caught everything that happened during the few seconds in which it all transpired: Astaroth tossed the Ashera Didilak in the air, drew her blade and vanished; Stolas caught the ellamadus; Kivati struck Stolas down and killed him; Itzamná struggled to break into the chamber to save his daughter; Astaroth rematerialized behind Itzamná, struck him with her blade and killed him. There was a jarring blast of light that burst in the room from Itzamná’s death, like supernova in the supremely miniature, and while Kivati was stunned by the explosion of Itzamná’s Graces, Astaroth seized the Ashera Didilak. She issued one final command to the Ashera Didilak, and the walls of chamber around Rose rapidly drew in to crush her and kill her. Kivati struck out at Astaroth to engage her in battle, but Astaroth’s merely lobbed the Ashera Didilak back at her and vanished.

    The hotel suite went still. Kivati was alone in the silence with Caius’ dying human host and a clump of black material that resembled obsidian where Stolas had met his end. There was a shift in the atmosphere of the room from the detectable metaphysical markers that an angel and a Nephil had perished there.

    Kivati reported back to Heaven that Astaroth had been involved in Itzamná’s death, and she requested permission to pursue, detain and destroy her. The response she received infuriated her: no further action was to be taken, for Itzamná had disobeyed when he left his post once again to save his daughter from an Apokomistis with a reputation like Astaroth’s. Rose hadn’t had much of a chance in the hands of any Apokomistis with an ellamadus. Had they not responded, Itzamná’s lifeforce would have remained in tact, and he wouldn’t have died. Without an ellamadus, Astaroth was no more dangerous than the average Apokomistis, and pursuing her wasn’t of the any immediate importance. Kivati was ordered to return to her post immediately and without complaint.

    Kivati eyed the Ashera Didilak carefully in her palm. Her fingers closed around it, and she smashed it, obliterating one of the most powerful magical objects in ever in existence.

    *          *          *

    Adelaide was still unconscious on the floor of Svipul’s flat when Astaroth joined them. Svipul said, “I have an idea on how to tie up this Thomas Carver loose end. You can use the Ashera Didilak to—”

    Astaroth interrupted, “I gave the Ashera Didilak to Kivati before I left the scene, and I’m sure that by now she’s turned it into a useless pile of metallic powder.”

    “Why?”

    “Stolas is no more. I will lay claim to all his territories and possessions at the soonest, after we’ve taken care of Thomas Carver.”

    “But the ellamadus—your power would be unquestionable with it.”

    Astaroth grinned. “My power is unquestionable without it. The only purpose it could serve in the future would be to deliver my own downfall, just as it did for Stolas. The only reason one ever needs a ladder after one has ascended to a rooftop is if one has the intention of coming down. I have no intention of ever relinquishing my title of Queen, and I no longer require the ladder that allowed me to reach this height. That, Svipul, is power.”

    Dominus tecum.

    On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XI.

  • Astaroth’s Wager, Part IX

    Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part VIII.

    An ellamadus is to white magics what a grimoire is to black magics. Unlike traditional grimoires that feature spells neatly written out in books or scrolls like the Lemegeton or the Picatrix, ellamadi are more like the grimoire known as the Orrery, in that they are objects that are meant to harness a specific type of energy and release it if one can unlock how to use it. They demand that its user possess a fluency in the manipulation of metaphysics that is magic, and without that basic knowledge, they’re just pretty objects. On account of their potency and immeasurable value to demons, any angel who came across one was on orders to confiscate and destroy it, and demons went out of their way to keep them out of the angels’ sight.

    This particular ellamadus was known as the Ashera Didilak, which roughly translates to the children’s lament. When only its lower magics are unlocked, it endows its owner with the sort of metaphysical brawn that allowed Stolas to defeat Dantalion and become a King. Its higher functions include summoning magics, which are far more complicated than you might think, for although summoning a demon is relatively easy, summoning an angel, human or hybrid creation isn’t, and they can reunite all the members of a family, including angels. It’s a highly useful tool for parents, which is why it can be a bane to the offspring of its possessor.

    Astaroth gingerly handled the Ashera Didilak. She uttered a few words in a long-lost language that made the orb emit a pale lavender glow in her palm. It lit up her face, emphasizing the lines of menace that flanked her smile. She said, “Stolas is an even bigger idiot that I could ever ever have imagined. It was common knowledge that he had an ellamadus, which was just what I needed, but this changes everything. Come to think of it, it might have been wise of him never to advertise that he had the Ashera Didilak. I’d’ve come after it centuries ago.”

    “What shall I do now, madam?” Caius asked.

    Her eyes were still fixed upon the Ashera Didilak. She ordered, “Pay the proprietors so we can leave. I’m tired of Athens already. Regardless, we ought to leave before Stolas is finished with that boy and senses that something’s wrong. What’s worse is that the hotel maids haven’t cleaned this suite properly. It smells like all the parts of primates that I despise.”

    “Where are we going next, madam?” Caius wondered.

    “Oh, if only I cared that all the others are going to be upset for calling them back to me so soon. I honestly didn’t think I’d succeed this quickly. Anyway—find Svipul. We’ll meet her wherever she is, and wherever that is, book a suite for all of us that meets my standards. And make sure that it doesn’t reek of mammalian excretion, or this will be the last private errand you make with me.”

    Astaroth wasn’t paying attention to Caius’ nod of compliance, for she was entranced by the Ashera Didilak. “And Caius…”

    “Yes, madam?”

    “Mention none of this to Svipul. Let her believe that she’s ‘helping’.”

    The Hotel Lenox
    An old postcard of the Hotel Lenox.

    Svipul and her Neku Kazuko had been tracking down information about Rose Nielsen in Boston when Astaroth, Caius and the rest of her demon entourage took up at the Hotel Lenox. While Kazuko had gone off on her own to follow a lead, Svipul joined Astaroth and the others in the pretense of dining in the hotel’s restaurant. She looked rather pleased and declared, “Kazuko reports that—”

    Astaroth glared at her, and Svipul went silent. It was clear that a silent exchange had begun between the two Apokomistai. Astaroth said, “Svipul, we must be more careful than to announce our future plans in public. Given the circumstances, I’d imagine that you’d be more panicked.”

    Svipul had switched gears, and she followed Astaroth’s lead. “What were you able to find out about Itzamná?”

    “It’s useless. I can’t defeat him. I’ll just have to negotiate with him,” Astaroth explained.

    “And how do you intend to do that?” Svipul asked.

    “The good news is that I have something that an angel wants. I’ll just have to arrange an exchange with him, like we’d discussed before, and maybe he’ll leave me alone. I was really hoping to get through 1936 without a battle,” Astaroth said.

    “Where were you thinking?”

    “Don’t play stupid. We’ve already booked the suite for the week, and I don’t want to make it too easy for him. Boston’s nice and public. Even kind of quaint. He won’t be at risk to spill the beans about what he is if we take the fight to him,” Astaroth replied.

    Astaroth, Svipul and the others kept up the appearances of dining until the earlier hours crept over Boston. A few of the Nekus left to practice ill deeds upon a few of the humans who’d had the misfortune of lodging at the Lenox, and Astaroth and Svipul had retired to the suite. As the dawn was breaking, Caius reported to his mistress’ side. “It’s accomplished, madam.”

    “Explain,” Astaroth demanded.

    “Stolas believes that you stole his ellamadus so that you might use it to buy your pardon from Itzamná, madam,” Caius said.

    Astaroth clapped her hands. “Excellent! Thank you, Caius.”

    “It’s my pleasure, madam,” Caius answered.

    “Oh, and Caius? Round up all the others. I need to see them now,” Astaroth said.

    Caius did as she ordered, and all her Nekus returned to her suite. It didn’t matter to her who had betrayed her confidence to Stolas or questioned her strength against a Watcher, but after a few fiery moments, the only Neku left in existence within the entire city of Boston was Caius.

    Dominus tecum.

    On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part X.

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