Prolog
It had been a full week since the quorum had lost Sarapheen, while liberating High Oaks Castle from the demonic thrall Jack Eaton Jr. and his mad witch Mama Kark.
Everyone had hoped that the angel would simply return soon (she having told them that she was immortal after all), but as the days went by, with no sign of her, the urgency of getting Robor and Beats back into their own bodies grew - as well as the need to liberate the Saint from the curse of that terrible cleaver.
Even now, the Priest could feel the need building, to slice clean, innocent, flesh with the blade. It wasn't an irresistible compulsion (yet), but it was a constant, steady, yearning - occupying his mind and ever inserting itself into the fore of all thought.
For now, it wasn't hard to repetitively dismiss, but the ceaseless urging was beginning to become quite wearisome.
For this, the Saint was grateful to have the strange child/spirit Usdiyona around. The bear-girl had to be taken in by someone, and made a great 'big sister' to Faith, sharing a room with her, and helping ready her each day for when Mother Rosemary came to pick her up for preschool.
Not that he felt he could ever harm Faith - but it was good to have Usdiyona there - just to make sure he was never alone with the small child, while still feeling the weight of the black cleaver.
'Besides,' he found himself thinking offhandedly, 'Usdiyona's blood will satisfy the blade's need just as well as any other child. No need to harm Faith if it ever came down to it...'
For Robor and Beats, things were not quite as bad - just awkward and needlessly complicated.
Beats for instance, couldn't go out on the street to meet contacts and tend to 'his boys' while stuck in Robor's body. They simply wouldn't trust a strange yuppy-looking white dude (and who would blame them). Sure, Beats could take Robor with him and have him do all the talking, but these things required a certain level of 'finesse' that Robor just couldn't articulate with only a few days' practice.
And Beats found it downright creepy, hearing his own voice come out of some doppelganger - but with a totally foreign inflection, accent, and speech pattern.
Robor on the other hand, seemed to be taking it all in stride. Perhaps he actually liked taking Beat's body for a joyride - and almost getting it killed on at least two separate occasions...
'We got to get this done soon!' Beats thought to himself, shaking his head.
For Emend, the week had dragged on - a nagging thought burning in his mind. He recalled what Sarapheen had said about Shade and Soul Stones:
"How exactly do we destroy this?" Emend had asked, feeling the crystal with his hand.
"And is the false soul still trapped within?"
Answering Emend, Sarapheen replied, "just crush it with something hard, like a hammer."
"It still has a false imprint in it," she continued; "a dark and flawed copy of whoever Hans really was, when he was alive."
"The real soul of Hans is not in the crystal. You'll only be hurting Infernal interests by destroying it."
"Now a Soul Stone on the other hand, you would not want to destroy."
"The greater good is served by returning it to its rightful owner, or using high level Spirit to sever the binding the stone has on the trapped soul - essentially setting it free."
Was Doll a flawed copy then? Or the trapped soul of a real child? Mama Kark had been in the process of trying to steal Usdiyona's soul too. Emend having, more or less, inadvertently rescued her from that fate.
And what of the other children's bodies? They had found the remains three girls in the underground lab with Hans, but had only met Doll. What of the spirits of the other two?
Perhaps it was the Avenging Angel in him talking now, but it felt to Emend like a terrible injustice was being ignored (or missed) concerning Mama Kark's victims and high Oaks Castle. One that needed to be righted as soon as possible.
If only Emend could council with his mentor, the Avenging Angel Jarom, to seek greater wisdom in the matter - but without Sarapheen acting as intermediary, he had no way to contact him.
Discussing this (and the rest of the quorum's current needs) with the others, Emend learned that Robor's mentor, the Spirit Warden Morrow Wind, actually spent more time on earth than most angels - and that there was a hidden hallow on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Saskatchewan Canada, where he had trained Robor during his initiation.
If the quorum could get there, then they would surly draw the attention of Morrow Wind, who in turn, could put them in contact with the rest of their mentors. That, and he would probably know what had become of Sarapheen as well.
"I can portal now," Beats declared helpfully, "just give me as much detailed info as you can about the place and we're good!"
