Chapter 58

As a group we went around the corner into the corridor where the prison guards had Mage Clara pinned and restrained. Also in the corridor was the beheaded corpse of Johannes Trithemius who appeared to have not gone onto the next life without a tremendous struggle, admittedly to no avail.

Despite being heavily shackled as well as what appeared to be sedated by the guard medical Mage judging by the syringe lying next to her, Clara was still struggling as well as swearing vilely at all of us and still trying to use her teeth to bite anyone who came too close.

“Interesting,” was all Morgana had to say before beckoning the Seers forward.

“We won’t know till we remove the anti-casting part of the restraint,” Jemima said after a moment. “But judging by some of the curses, not human either, looks like your suspicions were correct, Mage Morgana. This is definitely Sidhe work, similar to what was tried with Abigail.”

“So why is it still there?” Simon asked.

“No need to leave,” Abi replied. “It may well be part of a Sidhe, but it won’t be missed so long as it reports in regularly and who’s to say what it could do once it was away from here.”

At this point we were joined by Rowenna and a still badly wounded, though not critically so, Mage Vera.

“So this is the traitor?” Vera asked quizzically.

“Yes, though Clara herself appears not to be the traitor; rather she’s the victim of a form of parasite,” Morgana replied.

“Fortunately she wasn’t high up in the role’s and responsibility levels here. As it is the damage and deaths caused during the Nephilim incursion were bad enough,” Vera sighed.

“Do you wish to try the device, Mage Morgana?” Róisín asked.

“Yes,” Morgana replied after a moment’s thought. “It might kill the thing, but on the other hand it might put it in a position where it can’t escape and we can question it about its activities as well as its owner.”

With my help and a bit of a struggle Róisín managed to get the helmet part of the device onto the madly struggling Clara and switched it on. As soon as the light had turned green we were able to remove the anti-casting part of her manacles and see the terrible damage done to her psyche by the spirit of a Sidhe called Diamantu. We could also see the spirit itself laid open to our scans now frantically trying to bury itself ever deeper into the mind of Clara.

“Jemima?” Morgana asked.

“Yes, Mage Morgana, Abi and I can hold it in place, though if we could send for Seer Simone to bring one of those spiritual canopic jars, I believe we can remove it intact for us to study and question at length,” Jemima replied.

“I’ve sent for Benjamin,” Rowenna added, wincing at the damage we could see.

“He’ll have his work cut out,” sighed Morgana.

“He usually does in cases like this; though he learned a lot from the Sidhe victims in Albany,” Rowenna replied as she watched Abi and Jemima methodically remove the spirit of Diamantu from the hiding places it sought to conceal itself in.

“We have it isolated now, Mage Morgana,” Jemima announced.

“Good, do you wish to proceed Simon?” Morgana asked.

Glancing up I noticed that Seer Simone as well as Mage Julia had arrived. Seemed we’d stirred up quite a hornet’s nest with our experiment and the consequences thereof.

“Yes, Mage Morgana. Let’s get this thing out of the poor woman and questioned. Mage Julia, could you get your people involved in finding out a way to see if any others in our organisation have been compromised in such a way. We’ll roll it off to the rest of the Mages of this Earth in due course, assuming you’re successful, but I’d like to ensure that we, the Council are clear first, that includes me.”

“Yes, Mage Simon,” Julia formally replied.

I watched in awe as the Seers then carefully transferred the essence of Diamantu’s spiritual essence into the storage jars that had once contained the souls of Mages from when we’d attacked Dombarovskiy and our first meeting with Grigori Rasputin.

“Never knew we’d find a use for the things,” I murmured to Morgana.

“Neither did I. Seems the Seers did though,” she replied.

“Everyone needs a hobby I guess,” I chuckled, watching Morgana smile too.

“Indeed, John, indeed,” she chuckled in return.

As soon as the spirit of Diamantu was removed Clara collapsed mercifully into unconsciousness and Rowenna started the process of having her transferred to the medical facility on Loegria.

The Seers meanwhile had set up the various wards surrounding the canopic jar to prevent the spirit of Diamantu escaping or communicating as they then prepared to take it to a sealed area of the prison where it could be questioned.

“Wonder how much damage it’s done,” I mused.

“To Clara or us?” Morgana replied with her own question.

“To us, I could see the damage it did to Mage Clara; every good memory she had had, corrupted and twisted into a waking nightmare for that bloody thing’s entertainment,” I stated.

“Yes, awful,” Morgana shuddered. “As to any other damage, it was limited. It didn’t have the access to do much save pass on hearsay from Clara’s position. To attempt to get more would have raised suspicions and there was no way it would allow her to gain promotion as that would have required a scan too.”

“Simon’s worried,” I said quietly.

“Yes, it never occurred to the Council just how the Daoine Sidhe might have infiltrated us,” Morgana replied.

“Might explain how they got into Rwanda under our noses,” I said.

“It’s one possibility, yes,” she replied.

More and more Mages were turning up from various enforcement sections of the world’s Bureaus to supplement the guards at Kurukshetra; mostly to allow the guards time to do a thorough head count of the inmates as well as a systematic search of the various levels in case any had attempted to conceal themselves in the hope of getting to an area they could teleport from.

“I suspect you managed to nip this in the bud, Mage Morgana,” Simon said as he approached.

“Yes, but it never occurred to me that there might still be a traitor here,” Morgana replied.

“Still would have been if you hadn’t triggered a response,” Simon replied.

“Yes, but three guards are dead, as well as seventeen prisoners, five of them killed by the guards breaking into the cell block,” Morgana sighed.

“Terrible but true,” Simon commiserated. “However we’re now aware of another threat against us by those damned Sidhe.”

“I just hope we can detect them, rather than insist on a full scan of every Mage under Council employ,” Morgana mused.

“One way or another it will need to be done,” Simon stated firmly. “In the meantime, let’s see what our Seers can come up with.”

We all walked down to the sealed area of the prison where I was surprised to find more Seers than I’d ever seen in my life, almost thirty of them were surrounding the jar in two concentric rings. We were also joined by Julia, Rowenna and Vera, who was determined to see what was going on and what had caused so much grief for her staff members.

“Taking no chances I see,” I said to Abi.

“No chances at all. Goibhniu’s spirit dissipated before we got too many answers out of it. My sisters and I have been working on ways to keep this Diamantu aware, intact and unable to leave,” Abi replied, looking about as serious as I’ve ever seen her.

“When you’re ready, ladies, please begin,” Simon requested.

As ever, whatever it was the Seers were doing was not obvious to me save as an immense feeling of pressure to my senses, which simply was, yet did me no harm. The jar itself was now stood upright and the lid upon it began to rise, allowing the spirit within to rise and claw at whatever it was the Seers were using to contain it.

“Don’t suppose you could turn up the volume?” Arch asked with a chuckle getting a few smiles from the Seers.

“In a minute Arch, patience,” Jemima replied with a dimpled smile.

Slowly the pressure increased until I ‘heard’ a howling screech coming from the spirit of Diamantu as it realised it was faced with a formidable and terrible foe.

‘Release me!’ demanded a mental voice.

‘You will answer to us and tell all you know, ‘ came the mental command of Seer Simone ‘You cannot force me to tell you anything. I am Daoine Sidhe!’ came the reply.

‘We’ll see, ‘ was all Simone said and I watched with interest as the area in which the spirit was contained began to glow causing it to howl out in seeming agony.

‘Your puny efforts at torture will avail you not! I will not give up my secrets!’ the figure gasped out.

‘Oh, we’re just getting started, parasite, ‘ Simone replied in dark mental overtones.

This time the light was brighter and pulsed slightly as the assembled Seers went at the spirit with a vengeance and the mental screams echoed in our minds as a lot of the watching Mages winced at the perceived agony of our prisoner.

‘Ah, we have it, ‘ Simone finally announced.

‘You lie, ‘ moaned Diamantu.

“This is the metonomy variant of the spirit of the Sidhe Diamantu,” Simone announced out loud. “He was tasked to ensure that no information about the plans of Queen Oonagh were transmitted by the likes of Ímar, Johannes or Yvgeny. Other than that he was to monitor and report any information he came across. Fortunately in Kurukshetra that was limited due to the high security levels here and the fact that he was more than happy here torturing prisoners, wiping their minds and playing mental games with Clara.” Simone finished in tones of disgust.

“Torturing prisoners?” a white faced Vera asked.

“Yes, he would attack them on nightshifts when Clara was doing her rounds,” Simone replied.

“Does he know of others?” Simon asked as Vera held her head in her hands and wept.

“Specifically no, in general yes, there are others,” Simone confirmed.

“Can you find them?” Simon asked as the rest of us leaned forward in interest.

“I do not know. Journeywoman Seer Abigail believes she might have a way, but we need to test it,” Simone replied.

“How did he get into Mage Clara?” I asked.

“She got careless and the Coalition had her under observation ... or rather Yvgeny, Johannes partner in crime, did and kidnapped her and took her to Azurana where Diamantu posing as one of the ‘wise ones’ took her over and ported back with her to Tír na nÓg and hence to here. Her presence didn’t trigger an alert from us as she wasn’t Sidhe,” Simone replied.

“Lady Seers, I want you to immediately consider the possibilities of a scan to identify any Mage entrapped mentally by a Sidhe,” Simon commanded.

“Yes, Mage Simon,” Simone replied for all the Seers as the gestalt forced a screaming Diamantu back into the canopic jar.

“Now let us go back and scan Ímar, I want to know what that traitor knows,” Simon said grimly.