[Sodium_noir] A snapshot in the Night

[Spikey]

Friday afternoon

In the Shadowlands, a war is raging. The dead of countless tribes have fallen to familiar habits and are making war upon each other. In a much darker and more derelict version of Neon City the remnants of an Olmec warband sacrificed before the Mammoths died out are being pinned down by a larger group of conquistadors whose mapping mission into central America delivered them to the sacrificial alters of the Ahua Can. Without access to relic weapons the Wraiths had taken to fighting with whatever came to hand, mostly detritus from the crumbling buildings around them.

Aurora opens her senses to the shard. It has no life presence but it does have a strong connection to the spirit realm. Almost like a lens, or a window, it is capable of granting clear access to the invisible world. Aurora is not entirely sure exactly how powerful that access is but there is an intensity about the object that makes her feel that more that just a view into the spirit plane is offered. However, the prime signature has dark and malevolent overtones - a bloody history?

The wraiths paused. They did not know why, they were still new to the afterlife despite most of them having been killed centuries before. The time in-between had been spent imprisoned in the Obsidian Canes, the statue of a rattlesnake. Once that item had been destroyed by the co-alition of Supernaturals, the Wraiths had been released into the overcrowded shadowlands around Gotham.

But they still maintained a cursory link to the last remaining shard. 

They turn their attentions away from the battle and towards the slight pull they feel. Somewhere in Neon city they sense a familiar calling. A promise of peace, of sleep. The dead begin to search for it.

Christine watches Aurora intently, trying to work out what she is doing. She can feel an odd buzz in her ears and a faint tension headache is developing between her eyes. Feels like someone is trying to bore into her brain with a tiny hot wire. For a second it seems like a heavy, dark curtain is being parted slightly and beyond it a glow of luminous trails, that as her sight accustoms, are meaningful patterns, shapes, words. At the point at which Christine realises she can see through the weird illuminations into another dimension, her view is blocked by a rearing shadow in the shape of a giant, black snake. The slow swing of it's flat head and the murderous glitter of black bead eyes and stiletto fangs makes Christine cry out in sudden
fear. She pushes Aurora's hovering hand brusquely away from the obsidian shard.

"Stop!" she says urgently. Then as calmly as possible she adds, "Look . . . sorry. But whatever you're doing isn't all that . . . safe."

The Wraiths stopped their searching as quickly as they had begun. The call has gone silent and within a few moments they have gathered their senses enough to remember what they were doing. 

The battle begins again.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://elsinore.net/pipermail/sodium_noir_elsinore.net/attachments/20060508/38e9e84a/attachment.htm