August 2, 2002
Coralis stood next to Andrew, in the middle of a forest in a remote location southwest of Thurso and the North Sea in Scotland. It was a few minutes past midnight and the moon was full. They were surrounded by ghouls and goblins. She knew that Sebastian and Emery weren't far from them.
Under their feet was a large pixie cemetery. For the past 2 weeks, ghouls have been causing them problems. They had a lot of wards, but somehow, ghouls managed to get past them and dig up some graves. Coralis and Andrew had spent the week there to investigate it. They discovered that elves had been helping goblins to take down wards, so ghouls could make their way to the graves.
High Elf Yalor, wanting to make sure that EBEE elders weren't involved against them, decided to send two representatives there. He argued that if they sometime send agents to collaborate with CMMA agents on cases, so can the CMMA send agents to help on their cases. Emery and Sebastian arrived early in the afternoon.
Sebastian pulled his hologram out of his cloak and started recording the night events, so he could show the elders at the CMMA. He attached it to a tree branch, making sure it was pointing in the direction of the scene, and went to help Emery fight the goblins who were trying to take down more wards.
As Coralis was destroying one ghoul after another, while Andrew tried to keep the goblins at bay with a protective shield, she thought of a spell Panjik had suggested trying when fighting a horde of ghouls, to have better control of them.
"Can you try to conjure up a thick fog? There is something I want to try. Make it thick enough and the goblins won't be able to see anything," said Coralis to Andrew.
While Andrew was working on the fog, Coralis destroyed a few more ghouls.
"Be quick, as my focus shifts on the fog, the shield won't last long," said Andrew.
When the fog became thick enough, Coralis started manipulating it, infusing her own energy into it. She formed what looked like souls, which she imprinted into the corpses of the fallen ghouls and goblins to animate them. She added consistency into them, so that she could manipulate the bodies into fighting their foes. She raised an army and controlled it against the remaining ghouls and goblins.
"Holy gods from above," said Andrew and Emery at the same time.
Her wand burned out. She dropped it on the ground and maintained the spell without losing focus.
Sebastian couldn't stop watching. In the corner of his eye, he saw someone else approaching. He turned his head to have a better look at who it was. He recognized him as the mage who yelled at Coralis the night she fought a djinn in Chicago, during a vampire war, and fled the scene.
He tapped Emery's shoulder and silently indicated him to look in the direction he was staring. Emery turned his head as the mage was leaving, so he only saw the back of a retreating cloak with the hood up.
"Was it an elf?" said Emery.
"No, that was the mage we saw fleeing the scene back in Chicago, the one we think works for Alfredino."
"What in gods world are they up to."
Andrew beheaded the last goblin and Coralis interrupted the spell. She collapsed on her knees. Sebastian ran to the tree where he attached his hologram, and went back to the scene to check on Coralis.
"I'm surprised we didn't see any elf tonight, but where did you learn that spell? That was very impressive," said Andrew.
"Wanted to try a trick someone at the CMMA suggested to me to control a horde of ghouls. His idea was to use that spell to possess some of them and have them turn against each other, but if they were summoned by elves, it could backfire in a nasty way, so I decided to try it out on the corpses instead," said Coralis, still on her knees, her hands on the ground.
Sebastian pulled out of his cloak a vial containing mighty monster juice and handed it to her.
"Thanks," said Coralis as she looked up at him and grabbed the vial. "Do you always carry mighty monster juice with you?"
"Mighty monster juice and mute-balls are necessities to carry around, don't you think?" said Sebastian as she drank it.
"Did the EBEE really just send the two of you on this case, with no backup?" said Emery.
Coralis got up and looked at corpses lying all around them. She stopped counting after twenty and started dragging them.
"Only us," said Andrew, as he helped Coralis dragging the bodies into a pile.
"We still don't know what they were after, probably a cursed object buried in this pixie cemetery. We'll need to redo the wards stronger to make sure that whatever they were looking for stays buried," said Coralis.
"Blue, do you remember the mage who yelled at you when you stepped up to defend Prince Charlie?" said Emery, joining them.
"I remember someone yelling my name, yes, but like I said, I didn't look at him, so I don't know who that was."
"I saw him approaching the scene here tonight, while you commanded your army of what looked like glowing zombies. I recognized his face, but he left as I warned Emery."
Andrew and Coralis stopped what they were doing to look at him.
"You know that I have deep trust issues toward your elders," continued Sebastian, as he pulled his hologram out of his cloak, "so I attached my hologram to a tree branch in recording mode. I hope we'll be able to see him in the background."
"You recorded everything?" said Coralis.
"Yes, the plan was to add it to my report for High Elf Yalor, but I think I will show it to Frank before I hand the recording over. I think he needs to see what truly happened tonight, just in case someone else tells him a twisted version of tonight's events. The spell you did wasn't a basic one."
"Not a bad idea. At this point, he'd have left already if he was afraid of me. You know what he saw at Healing Moon and he heard quite the story from Princess Veronica."
"I remember the elders asking you why you interfered when the vampire war in Chicago was allegedly over," said Andrew while dragging a fallen goblin by the foot. "I did ask the Spanish EBEE elders to look into it, but they never got back to me."
"Seems to me some people there want the both of you out," said Emery.