Fifteen minutes later, Sandy returned with three huge old books in her arms. Her face was sweaty not only from rushing but from worry. With a loud thud she put them on the table, sat down, and opened the first one. Her voice was shaking as she began her tale.
"There is a Celtic symbol called the knotwork. It's used in rituals concerning the eternity of souls and the passage after death. Here." She showed them a chapter before quickly moving on to the next book. She skimmed the pages, clearly looking for something specific, and stopped. Her tone shifted, becoming serious and sharp as a blade. "After the Celtic civilization disappeared, a demonic sect transformed the symbol in a very sinister way. They pierced the eternal knot with an arrow, attaching nine stakes to it—five on one side, four on the other. According to this book, the nine stakes are believed to represent the nine levels of hell, and the symbol as a whole would likely mean the interruption of the eternity of the Soul. Since the whole sect was wiped out, however, the ritual's true purpose, the exact steps, and the perpetrators were lost with the massacre, leaving everything else as speculation."
She handed them that book and opened the third. When she did, a shiver ran down Rose's spine. It wasn't the black cover or the dark figures drawn in it, but the book's aura itself—a darkness so tangible it choked the air. Would it be too bad if I ran away right this instant? she thought, but still stayed glued to her chair.
"However, in the forbidden books..." Sandy pushed the black book toward Locious. "There's an entry called 'The Eternity Exchange' and mentions a ritual that was performed a few thousand years ago in a small farming town. The same symbol was described on it and what we know is that it resulted in the whole town disappearing, leaving behind a heavy malevolent energy which has been impossible to clean."
Sandy gave the book to Locious. His eyes moved rapidly across the text and his face darkened as he read the paragraphs. He finished and returned it to Sandy. Rose thought he was going to pass it to her, but he didn't. He looked at her as if understanding what she wanted but refusing to comply.
"Can you give it to me, Sandy? I want to read what happened too," Rose asked, ignoring Locious's annoyed look. But he intercepted the book before she could get it and lifted it into the air, under everyone's confused gazes.
"The book is a compilation of different dark rituals but it isn't a manual; it is a description of experiences and witnessed stories—crude, raw, no filter. This one is a journal from the town's priest. Are you sure you can handle what's written there?" he asked.
She didn't want to be left out, not with something as important as that, so she nodded and Locious handed it to her. But Sandy gave him a doubtful look, as if it hadn't been the right decision. She didn't know if it was the exhaustion, the heavy implications the Angel Aura secret had, or the emotional roller coaster she went through with Locious that day, but she was feeling extremely sensitive, as if anything could set an emotional breakdown in motion any moment. All of them must be thinking of her as a silly human, but she had to learn. Even if it was a difficult read, she had to do it; it was her duty as an emissary. She opened the book when Sandy started narrating.
"Okay, so I'll go over the main points mentioned in his journal so we are all on the same page. First, the priest explained how he came across the ritual. He said that one night, he felt a strange surge of energy and got up. Peeking through the little church's window, he saw a long line of townspeople walking toward an abandoned silo outside the town limits. He followed and silently, from a crack in the timbers, observed the bone-chilling scene. He described the scene completely but what is important here is the performance of the ritual. He said that a person, wearing an oversized robe stained with blood and bone fragments and a horrifying mask taken from one of the Church's demonic descriptions, used an antique book and dark chants to mark the willing townspeople with a black substance."
Sandy took a deep breath and gave time to the others to write notes. Rose probably hadn't heard a single word she said, completely submerged in her reading. The story wasn't a happy one nor was it sugar coated. To use one single word, it was tragic. Locious shouldn't have let a Rookie have the book, much less someone who was already struggling with the Aura effect.
Putting her own wandering thoughts aside she continued with the tale:
"When he came back to his Church, he drew the symbol he saw in the townspeople's bodies. This is the other important thing the priest highlighted. The people seemed to be in a trance; he saw them willingly enter the place, but at the same time, they looked like puppets, as if someone else was pulling the strings. This is very similar to the experience of the people you interviewed. He didn't mention anything about a blackout but it could either be because it didn't happen or because the people never mentioned it."
This was what worried her the most. Did that mean the ritual had evolved? Shouldn't it have disappeared with the town? Were demons behind it? And if they weren't demons, was there any other being powerful enough to hide from both the Angel Society and the Demon Association for centuries? There were too many questions, and no one seemed to have the answers. It almost felt as if they were walking completely in the dark, and every step was taking them further from the answer.
Her throat suddenly felt like sand. Not knowing how to continue, she turned around and filled a glass of water. This gave her a moment to gather her thoughts, but before she could, Locious continued where she left off.
"I'll continue, don't worry. The priest recorded everything he saw in town: the people's attitude, if their behavior changed, if they remembered the ritual, the marks; he even made a list of the marked and unmarked ones. In the beginning, marked people seemed to be living a normal, comfortable life. However, a few weeks later, they all started to die in mysterious ways. Not all at the same time but within just a few months, half the town was dead.
In that regard, the priest realized that he couldn't sense any energy from their souls during the last rites. Their bodies remained intact, but their souls vanished instantly without even a tremor of energy. This happened every time with every person marked. Which is extremely strange as the priest should have been able to feel the passing of the soul or the Collector energy coming to take them, even if they were under a demonic pact. But according to him, there was just emptiness, a void he didn't feel when performing the ceremony for the unmarked ones." Locious concluded in a monotonous voice devoid of all playfulness. This wasn't the friend who liked to make fun of her for her craziness; this was the Angel Locious, the pure and overwhelming primal energy, the respected and intimidating boss.
Sandy shuddered involuntarily. That annoying instinct of survival was screaming at her to leave that place immediately. She needed to prepare herself every time he entered Commander mode, and this time, the unexpected shift felt like a hit. Should I excuse myself and ask him for a brief later? she wondered. But then she noticed him signaling for her to go back to the tale. As usual, the hero comes to save me. Stupid Angel complex..., she thought, and smiled internally, relieved that she had a scapegoat. However, despite the fact that she appreciated him coming to her rescue, as he was aware of the strong effect he had on her, there was also a deep conflict: something in her essence made her dislike the idea of being saved but she somehow managed to always end up indebted.
"In the end, the journal ends abruptly. The last entries are of him almost losing his mind. He felt constantly watched; sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and glimpse dark red eyes staring at him from the windows. He fell ill after praying for the last marked person." Sandy stopped. She knew the final detail of the priest's death. But when her eyes landed on Rose, she realized saying it out loud would push the already sick-looking Rose over the edge, and she decided to keep it for herself. She would read it anyway, but saying it out loud would be like throwing salt on the wound.
The truth of his last moments was painful: he spent days bedridden trying to overcome the illness until one day a creepy laugh rang in his ears, as if anticipating his demise and celebrating beforehand. He was probably a nuisance for the darkness that wanted to consume the whole town. So before the sinister being could achieve its purpose, he decided to use the last of his energy to secure the journal under one of the statues inside the church.
"He performed an ancient ritual to ward off evil, which allowed the journal to be protected as no contaminated soul could enter the place. The spell was supposed to only secure the church, but it had a boost reaction: the dark energy around the town was mitigated. After the Angels went there and took the book, they realized that the spell not only protected the church and the diary, but also prevented the whole town from being engulfed by the evil energy," Sandy finished her storytelling, and a heavy silence filled the office.
"So this is the story that gave origin to the Angel Society? In the old manual there was an entry explaining that a priest died, and when he arrived in heaven, looked frantically for his friend—another priest from a small church in a town that no longer existed, whose people vanished without a trace. He had disappeared without the mandatory letter required for a priest to change locations and without a word to his best friend or anyone he had ever met. This friend created such a severe disturbance in heaven that even the Angels were alerted of the frantic search. After hearing his story, they decided to investigate, and that is how Angels ended up finding out about the place, but in the end no one was able to give answers about the priest or the people. However some time later, the Angel Society was created as a solution to these human problems, allowing these situations to reach the heavens faster and be easier to be solved." Mike said with his stoic voice, as if he was giving a report about a paper he read. He may be a stick in the mud guy but he knows things and he is smart, Sandy thought, and nodded, confirming what he had said.
"So that's all the information we have to work with. I know it's not much. According to the journal, the priest only knew the ritual's name because he heard the sect leader shout it out during the rite, but he had never heard of it nor was there even a mention of it in the books he read. So we don't really have a solid reference to start investigating. We only have the symbol, the rough ritual garments, the people's lack of sense, and a name that we don't even know if is correct. So we have to…"
"How can you be so calm?!" Rose said, startling everyone in the room because of the harsh and tense tone she used. "What happened was awful, scary, and terribly sad." They looked at her, surprised because not only she interrupted Locious mid-sentence but also looked at all of them with tears in her eyes and a level of anger they couldn't fully understand.
They also felt frustrated and enraged, of course, but it was a sense of duty—a threat to their values and their life mission that moved them. The situation was in dire need of a solution. Every time that symbol appeared, people disappeared and died. Was the story sad? Yes, incredibly. Did they feel sorry for the priest? Also yes. Who wouldn't? Did they have the time to dwell on it? Definitely not. Efficiency and resolution were key, and human emotions were an inconvenience more than an advantage in the kind of work they had to do. Even if they looked cold-hearted, it was better to seem desensitized than risk allowing another tragedy to happen.
But they forgot: she was a human. A sensitive human who suddenly came across the harsh reality of their work and probably saw them as detached and cold as a wall. She didn't understand the pressing urgency of the matter at hand.
Sandy was about to explain to Rose the importance of keeping a clear head for this kind of situation when Locious jumped from his chair, grabbed Rose's arm, and pulled her to her feet. Without a word to Rose he turned to Sandy and ordered:
"Continue investigating and inform everyone of this. The problem is truly serious, and we need to gather more information. I'll take Rose home."
He left in a rush with a dissociated Rose in tow. A pair of confused eyes looked at the invisible smoke cloud he left behind, not even sure of what had just happened.
"Those two will end up making us stronger, or destroying us from the inside," Sandy muttered, picking up the books. She pulled out her cellphone and waited for the other person to pick up. "Hey Mike... we have a real problem on our hands…"