May 1902 - Blackwolf Manor, Germany
Maksymilian adjusted the brass telescope trying to get a better look at Saturn while the planet tried to hide with the rise of Venus and the Sun. The distant, indistinct blip with it’s trail of sparkling moons came into focus for the young man, eliciting a wan smile. He reached back to feel around for a worn leather notebook on the nearby workbench, keeping an eye on the telescope as he tried to avoid knocking over the myriad of bottles and delicate projects that littered its surface. He closed a hand on the book, swiping it from the desk as a glint crossing the lens caught his attention. Maks jerked back from the telescope at the sight of a streak of fire heading towards the manor, looking up in time to see it pass overhead. An acrid plume of greenish black smoke trailed behind into the forest to the northwest, shaking the room as it connected with the ground.
The distant rumble of the impact’s shock wave entranced Maksymilian, leaving him staring out at the tendrils of smoke. A faint cadence of footsteps coming up the stairwell went unheeded, along with the presence of a blonde woman that peered over the top of the banister.
“Maks, are you all right?”
“Felicia!” Maksymilian startled and knocked into the workbench, sending the projects flying and spilling several of the bottles. He tried to mop up the opalescent mess, scrambling before it dripped through the slats of the table and started to eat through the floor. “I- I’m fine! Were you expecting any unusual astronomical events today?”
Felicia entered the little study and placed a warm hand on his shoulder, drawing her other hand in a calm circle around the spill. She drew her hand up, closing the circle and congealing the spill into an iridescent mass that became an intricate suncatcher. “There are none on my calendar. What did you see?”
“A streak of fire.” Maks offered, placing the rags he’d grabbed down on the table so he could take the suncatcher from Felicia. “Looked like it crashed north of here.”
Felicia motioned to the telescope with a flit of concern darkening her face. “May I?”
“Of course.” Maksymilian moved to the other side of the study and placed the little suncatcher on a ledge. Felicia looked into the telescope, making some small adjustments to track the plume of smoke to its source.
“That wasn’t an astronomical event.” Felicia murmured, viewing what little of the impact site was visible through the trees. She looked up at Maks, catching his eye. “I have to get out there. Can you watch the house for a while?”
Maks paused. “Shouldn’t I come with you? An extra set of hands could be helpful.”
“Normally, I would love your company.” Felicia started heading for the stairs. “But I got word from headquarters and they haven’t cleared you for field work yet.”
Maks’ face fell. “Honestly? Felicia, you are the Director of Magical Activity for Supernatural Control! You make the rules. Just say yes!”
“I would love to, however, I answer to a higher power and they agreed that you need more time.” Felicia offered him a smile that hid a great many things. “Maks, I need you to trust the process. I need you to trust me.”
Her smile became wry. “And I need you to stay here.”
Felicia retreated down the stairs, if only to avoid Maks’ protests. She pulled a large satchel out of a hall closet and detoured through the kitchen to head into the large backyard.
Outside, Felicia’s footsteps quieted under the wide expanse of grass and flowers that lay between her and a massive oak tree at the rear of her property. A flight of massive slate slabs created a staircase up the trunk, terminating at the base of an intricate treehouse that nearly towered over the manor. Felicia smiled at the long scaly tail that twitched and swished from within the upper branches of the tree, the depths of the foliage obscuring the rest of the aubergine creature.
Felicia slung the satchel over her head as she approached. “Axel, did you see what crashed?”
“Je ne suis pas sûr,” A massive dragon stuck his head out of the tree, trying not to catch his long horns on the surrounding branches while he thought. “Cela ressemblait a- giant metal bird?”
Felicia mused on Axel’s comment for a moment. “Could it be a glider?”
“Possibly,” Axel offered, starting to gingerly pick his way out of the tree and climb down the slate staircase. He’d seen a great many things since arriving at Felicia’s manor in 1672, but this one worried him. “The trajectory seemed odd though — I’ve never seen a glider crash like that.”
“Could it have come from outside our atmosphere?” A cheery, innocent voice caught Felicia’s attention and she froze, turning to see that they’d been joined by a finely crafted terracotta golem with the impression of lupine features.
"Bonjour, Hannah." Axel’s voice hid little of his amusement while Hannah offered him a curtsy and turned to Felicia with a blithe smile, oblivious to the twitch in her master’s eye.
“When are we leaving for the crash site?”
“Hannah, Axel and I are going.” Felicia addressed the golem with a firm tone. “I need you to stay here with Maks.”
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“But I want to come with you,” A neutrally annoyed look crossed Hannah’s face. “Besides, that crash was in the mountains northwest of Furtwangen. We both know what’s out there and I can help.”
Felicia regarded Hannah for a moment and acquiesced with a sigh. “Fine. Go get Trunk.”
Maks passed Hannah on the porch, offering her retreating form a disbelieving glance and crossing the lawn to address Felicia. “I’m coming as well then.”
“I’m sorry, but someone has to stay at the house.” Felicia fixed him with a level stare. “Hannah has been my assistant for seven hundred years and has left this property all of three times. You have been here for ten years studying to be my apprentice, and yet come and go as you please. This time, Maksymilian, I need you to stay here.”
Hannah returned shortly, tailed by a large green leather and brass steamer trunk that seemed to act more like a dog than luggage.
It kicked up little divots of grass while trotting next to Hannah, who chatted happily to the animus — oblivious to the tense mood building in the yard.
Axel let a thin tendril of smoke drift from one of his nostrils while he stared down at the pair. He took pride in the landscaping around the house, and Trunk knew it — the animus had always been happy to carry tools and help move delicate transplants out of the greenhouse.
“Excusez-moi, faites attention à la- My. Lawn.”
Trunk paused, taking one last chance to drive a gouge in the once-pristine yard when Hannah picked it up to mount it on the dragon’s back.
“Today I finally drop you at altitude. Bon.”
“Both of you behave or you can stay here with Maks.” Felicia half-scolded, distracted by the darkening smoke of the crash.
“I wonder if the reapers are already out there.” Axel stretched out, craning his neck to try and keep peering over the tree line while he lowered himself down to let Felicia and Hannah mount his back.
“Most likely.” Felicia patted Axel’s side. “Are you going to be all right with the smoke?”
“I will do my best with the situation at hand.” Axel offered her a light chuckle.
“Maksymilian,” Felicia turned to address Maks over her shoulder while Axel started climbing up the stone slabs in front of his treehouse to gain some lift. “Please make sure you watch the house. I’m not expecting any visitors and we’ll return shortly, I promise.”
“Of course.” Maks inclined his head to Felicia and turned to head inside, putting on a front of indifference when Axel jumped from the top of the slabs and banked away from the house with a strong flap of his wings.
—||—
Within a few minutes Hannah pointed out a charred scar in the forest left by the object’s impact, its trail culminating on the grounds of the remains of an old whitewashed asylum tucked into the mountains. Felicia’s horrified murmurs were swept away by the wind when Axel banked, heading down to land. He pulled up and landed outside the crash site, trying to avoid landing on any of the blown out trees or crushing anything that may be important. The impact crater had destroyed the front lawn of the asylum and decimated the building, leaving little behind.
Nurses and doctors picked through the wreckage, looking for survivors and setting up triage to help the injured. On the far side of the building by the ruins of the main entrance, a woman with dark hair and clothes stood by a large group of people — many of which wandered aimless in bloody, burnt, and torn clothing. She offered pointed instructions to hustle those collected around her into an open doorway on the side of the asylum. Many of them peered into the opening, stalling as they offered nothing more than wide-eyed fear. She glanced down at the blue armband on her left side, the skull and lotus embroidery catching the light from the sulfurous fires on the other side of the door and gave a stern motion for them to continue with a jerk of her chin.
Hannah and Felicia dismounted Axel and freed Trunk from his back, loosing the animus to roam through the wreckage and help out. Felicia pulled on a purple armband with a wide central stripe in black, ensuring that the logo of a lotus and three hexagonal chips was oriented correctly. It stood out against her otherwise delicate and light clothes and she offered similar bands in green to Hannah and red to Axel, murmuring instructions to them on the best ways to help before dispersing them into the bedlam.
The dragon started towards a group of doctors that had approached, deferring to them and asking where his strength would be best put to use. Most of the staff gave him a wide berth, but a few that bore similar armbands — these crested with a pattern of stacked, concentric circles with a keyhole shaped cut out at its centre — motioned for Axel to use his great strength digging into the rubble.
“Oleander!” Felicia approached the dark-clad woman, catching her attention from the clipboard in her hands with a wave. “What’s the situation look like?”
“You tell me. That- thing took out half of the asylum.” Oleander jabbed her hand towards the large smoking crater that lay near what had been the entrance to the building. A large metallic craft, no bigger than a carriage lay at its heart. “I’ve never seen anything like it in the supernatural or mortal world.” She paused, offering Felicia a half-hearted laugh. “Oh, and the Council is losing it’s collective mind over the fact that this is supposed to be a safe house and yet, here I am, processing three hundred of the newly dead.”
Felicia scanned the crowd, letting her eyes flit from body to body. The chaos was beginning to slow and the cryptids that passed them and helped one another now offered quiet greetings to her. “So- about one percent?”
Oleander’s eyes were wide above her forced smile. “Not the point.”
“Moreover, there is something inside of it.” Oleander flicked her eyes away from Felicia for a moment to check her notes and allow more souls to enter the underworld with a bob of her head. “If you would be so kind, I could use a hand figuring out how that can have a soul and yet, not be on the register with us at all. I don’t even know if whatever that is can be considered alive or dead.”
“I can help!” Hannah flashed a wide grin at Oleander from where she’d leaned into their conversation, spooking the reaper.
Before Oleander or Felicia could respond, Hannah grabbed up handfuls of her skirts and darted off, climbing over the rubble. The golem paused now and then on the way, helping the staff pull up sections of walls and fallen floors to search for survivors. She mounted the lip of the crater and picked her way down towards the still glowing hull of the craft, the ticks and pings of cooling metal almost inaudible over the crunching of her footsteps in the burnt earth. Hannah reached out to the craft, hesitating for a moment before she laid her hand on the side, seeking out seams between the panelling she could dig into.
Oleander cursed under her breath and turned to reprimand Felicia. “I’m tired of her sneaking up on me. You need to get her a soul.”