Dark Water

By Willow Taylor

Taking up a box, and motioning for Shaper to take the other, the pair headed for the town's cemetery. There they left the boxes with the undertaker and priest, who had not attended the crowd, or had anything to do with what had occurred so many years before. As Victor lit another clove and he and Shaper strode out of town, Whitewater followed them for a time. She darted in and out of trees, playing hide and seek until Victor stopped and turned to her.

"Go to your rest children. You are free now. be at peace, and may you find a new life in another place far better than the ones you had here."

With a soft smile, she emerged from the trees, and dissolved into a large pool of algae and fish, a pool big enough to stay year round as a reminder to what had occurred in this small town.

Shaper STILL had no real clue as to what had really happened here, so he asked again.

"Ok - so what was REALLY going on in that town?" he said as the walked down the sunny road. Victor removed the clove from his mouth and grinned again.

"You still don't know?"

"No," Shaper said, annoyed.

"Alright it works like this: My original theory (remember that?) was mostly right - the Whitewater child, Lily something I think, dropped into the cave which was already filled with water polluted by the dabbling in black magic. The algae had been mutated. She died in the cave, along with the mage that fell in with her. She rose up, and got caught by the residual magic. So she called to the other children, promising revenge. I'm thinking that maybe..." He paused and took a puff. "Maybe she'd watched the rites before, and knew a touch of magic. Then they lost track of their purpose, hence the mindless murders."

"I still don't understand," Shaper said after thinking for a moment.

"That's why I'm the supernatural investigator, and you're the tagalong."

"But what about the town?"

"What about it?"

"They... they didn't DO anything."

"God," Victor sighed, smoke curling around his head and drifting on the wind. "We don't know why they summoned the demon, Shaper. It might have been for the good of the town." He paused. "But that doesn¹t make what they did any less wrong."

"Oh... but what did WE do to trigger their memories to remember their purpose then? What made what WE did to her different than the townsfolk? I'm sorry Vic, I'm just fully off my broomstick on all things magical and besides, we can't just leave this story hanging with no real ending, or sum-up of plot and stuff." Victor looked at Shaper, clove halfway back to his mouth.

"YOU are one freaky-assed person Shaper. But let's wait until we meet up with Amy tonight, and you can BOTH hear the whole thing, ok?" Shaper nodded.

That night saw them in a fine inn in a lovely town called Ah'enon. It was a great city, if you didn't mind that almost all the inhabitants were Nightriders. Amy and Victor fit in alright, with their short stature and dark clothing. Shaper however, didn't quite fit in. He was tall, and wore brighter colors. The Nightriders knew how to make VERY, VERY good cloves. And cheaply too. Victor was perfectly happy to stay here a time. Shaper decided during a nice dinner of roast fowl was best to talk about the other town's happening. Amy wanted to know what she missed as well.

Victor reiterated what he'd told Shaper on the road. "So what PRECISELY is it you don't understand Shaper, you were there for most of it, it's," he grinned, "elementary." Shaper (not getting the reference) raised an eyebrow at Victor's obvious amusement.

"I don't understand why we were able to set Whitewater to rest, while no-one in town could."

"Alright," Victor said, thoughtfully taking a pull at his clove. "Let me see if I can make you understand, WE didn't do anything but survive the worse she could throw at us. The priests at the local church and temple were never sent to try and get rid of her, and it's just as well, because they wouldn't have survived."

"So what does surviving have to do with it?" Shaper asked, taking a drink. Victor sighed.

"If I hadn't survived, I wouldn't have seen all the pieces of the puzzle. It doesn't make a picture, Shaper, unless you have the important piece in the middle. In this case, the cave with the mutated and magically altered algae." Shaper continued to look blank. "I think your brain is rotting, kid."

"Hey!"

"Alright sprit attacks town - revenge out of grasp due to the fact the people it needed revenge upon could easily stay out of its reach - goes insane - starts killing at random. Somewhere in that little risen heart of yours you can understand that, right?"

"I guess so."

Amy giggled and took a drink of her bloodwyne.

"I'm called in, mostly because I'm there - maybe my reputation proceeded me, maybe someone saw me praying and just wanted me out of the way before I uncovered by accident what had happened. So I go to face Whitewater, and get the crap," he nodded to Amy, "pardon my language, beaten out of me. But I still survive better than the average mortal. Anyone with a sufficiently well trained body could have done it."

"Suuure."

"So Whitewater takes me back to her cave - the cave." At this point he shrugged. "God knows why, I don't. Maybe something within her realized I could help - maybe something inside had been perverted by whatever rite she went through, and wants to do more than kill, to likewise pervert." He bit his lower lip. "Didn't work. Again, god knows, I don't. You show up, we start to escape, all three of us withstand her water attacks. She tries another attack and the temperature plummets."

Amy shivered in memory.

"That's when it started to click together. I'd gotten the first glimmers when she'd touched me and felt cold."

"But how did you figure out it was a spirit and not a demon?"

"The cold, my Dear Shaper." Victor grinned again. "A classic sign of hauntings."

"Oh."

"What I wasn't expecting was the fact it was a child, and not just one, but several."

"You weren¹t expecting something? Be still my beating... oh yeah... wait."

"Funny Shaper. Every one loves holocaust humor." Victor frowned, and finished his clove. He then stubbed it out and started another.

"That's got to be bad for your lungs," Shaper said. Victor flipped him off, then continued his explanation.

"What I was saying in the cave was the last rites for children, and a prayer for forgiveness of the sins of the innocent."

"Oh... I can grasp this part, even with my rotting brain."

"Good." Shaper made a rude face at Victor. "So I gave Whitewater a chance to face the people who'd betrayed her, them etc. By the way Shaper, great job keeping everyone in the square."

"Thank you, thank you, just my natural charm."

"Explains why I get the girls." Victor grinned, and patted Amy's hand, gently. "Anyhow, back at town, I took the liberty of liberating the headman's journal of workings." Victor pulled the small leather bound book out of his pouch. "I read it the other day, whilst you two were out cold. I was right. It was to save the town. There'd been a terrible drought, so they summoned - not an elemental as any sane magic worker would. Gah... listen to me, sane magic workers, right, but a demon to bring rain. And it wouldn't go away, until they sacrificed the children. The parents gave the children up willingly, then blocked their minds. As far as they remembered, their children had gotten washed away in the flash flood that followed the drought."

There was silence at the table for a few moments.

"Nasty."

"Uh-huh." Victor sighed and re-lit his clove which had gone out while he talked.

Amy nodded, at least SHE understood what Victor was going on about, and to quiet Shaper so they could all finish dinner and get some sleep, she kicked him under the table in mid-question.

"So wh--AHH!" He glared at Amy who looked oh-so-innocent at him. Victor laughed.

"Enough Shaper, some of here have to eat and sleep sometimes, alright?"

So after dinner, they headed to their two separate rooms for bed. As Victor was drifting off to sleep with Amy cuddled close, he heard Shaper mutter through the walls softly.

"I STILL don't get it."

And Victor laughed again.