The Rapture Screams, part 2

Extracts from the Diary of James Elliott

My colleagues who are still set on the risky venture of rescuing Sophie have been to the Dreamlands again. There they met Gnosos the High Priest, magician formerly known as Toby Higginbotham, and from him learnt the spell that they require “Kuranes’ Binding”. It seems that the true originator of this spell is King Kuranes, who Belinda and a number of other MI13 personnel (not involved) have met and are on friendly terms.

Friday 28th November 2008

Today is the day that they will attempt to free Sophie. Whereas I really do not think that this is wise, I am clearly not going to dissuade them. Indeed now I am in Lucinda's house, I think I have to keep my doubts to myself. It would be disrespectful to my hostess, and achieve nothing apart from ill-feeling.

Accordingly I feel I should be present and do all I can to keep it as safe as possible. The main business of the day is purchasing the required materials for the spells. The most difficult to procure is the moonstone which takes Thomas most of the day as he has to go all the way to Fort William. The salt required for the Pentagram of Protection is easily available from the grocery shop, albeit we need a considerable portion of their entire stock.

My contribution is going to be a Pentagram of Protection. The Pentagram is cast to contain a specific type of creature. Ideally we would like protection again Yog-Sothoth and his minions (which may include Sophie). It don't think that any Pentagram I would cast would be likely to do anything more than annoy Yog-Sothoth and probably not even that. I am worried that “Yog-Sothoth's minions” may be too vague. Nevertheless I will give a go. At least I will have tried. Whether or not Sophie is contained by the spell, it should not be any impend to either of the other spells.

Emilie is going to cast Evocation of the Damned. They will see what appears. If it seems to be Sophie, Freddie will cast Kuranes' Binding.

At midnight, we all walked over to the grave yard. We laid a large tarpaulin over Sophie's grave, put a substantial circle of salt on it and I cast a Pentagram of Protection against Yog-Sothoth's minions. After that I was completely bushed and clearly of no further use to the proceedings. I expressed my intention of going to bed and no one demurred. Given my known reservations, they may have been glad to continue without me.

Whereas I was tired, it wasn't my main reason for leaving. I want to get some distance from the scene of action before the serious bit. I accept this was partly self preservation, but I also felt that if things went badly it was important that a witness survived to inform anyone trying to fix the mess.

I retreated as far as I could while still being able to see the group around the grave. It did not feel like a safe distance, merely a bit less dangerous. I waited close to a wall that I could get behind quickly and move away fast out of sight of the ritual site. I was too far away to hear them. I could see the flickering light of whatever their torches illuminated. It was enough to see where they were, but gave no real clues as to what they were doing.

I waited what seemed like hours, but was only about half an hour. Then I hear an unearthly howl. I thought it was going wrong, but it was brief and then nothing. A couple of minutes later, they started to move about. They were packing up.

I went quickly back to the house to be there before them. I heard them coming in as I got into bed. I was intending to listen to see if their conversion gave any clue as to what have happened. Being so tired, I fell asleep immediately.

Saturday 29th November 2008

At breakfast, I got some details of the events. Both spells seemed to have been entirely successful. Sophie appeared to be unharmed (no sign of the ritual sacrifice) but with jet black eyes.

The howl they thought had been Yog-Sothoth enraged at his property being stolen. They also thought that he had been prevented from exacting revenge by Nyarlathotep. I have a sleep in the afternoon and preparation for the tonight, when everyone else is going into the Dreamlands.

Come evening, we all gathered in the sitting room. They sat on the floor propped up with every cushion in the house. They held hands and Freddie cast “Chains of the Pilgrim”, and they all promptly fell asleep.

I spent most of the night in a corner of the sitting room reading. About once an hour I went out and walked round the house to check there was no unusual activity in the area. All was quiet.

Sunday 30th November 2008

By the time, the dreamers awoke I really needed to get a couple of hours shut-eye so as not to fall asleep in church. Attending church is expected. Given Lucinda's place in the community she cannot have guests who don't attend. Accordingly I did not hear a proper account of their exploits until the afternoon.

They seem to have spent the whole time in Celephais. King Kuranes is concerned that Gnosos may be up to no good, and that he and the god Haazhekthah may blur the line between dreams and reality.

To find Sophie, Kuranes recommended a seer who had recently established a good reputation. It proved to be an inspired choice as the Sophie was the seer, but it was not until the evening after visiting her that they worked this out. Sophie was going by the name of ‘Aforgomon's Daughter’, with a servant called Abborax who had probably been a vagrant when recruited. Her prophecy was largely to confirm that Gnosos will be trouble for the waking world, but probably not soon, and that she would visit her sister in the Waking World at the Dark of the Sun.

They are assuming this will be the total eclipse on 22 July 2009. Personally I would not rule out the annular eclipse on 26 January 2009, or the partial eclipse on 4 January 2011. The last of these being visible in this country; the other two are only visible in the Far East and Pacific.

In the evening they returned to the palace and after learning that Aforgomon is an avatar of Yog-Sothoth, they realised the seer was Sophie.

On returning with knights in the morning, they found the servant Abborax murdered and Sophie gone. Investigations found traces of a portal in Sophie's bedroom. Kuranes sent a wizard who opened it.

Three of the dreamers and two knights went through into a throne room where they met Sophie. Sophie thanked them for freeing her from her ‘stepfather’. Then she introduced them to a Star-Spawn. Strange way of showing her gratitude. They retreated in panic. The dreamers all managed to get back through the portal, but neither of the knights did.

The magician then went to great lengths to permanently seal the portal. His assessment was that it had not been created by spell, but by a special ability. Precisely what Sophie is capable of is not clear. It might be as simple as her being a very, very good dreamer. Whatever it is, she is clearly very dangerous.

It seems that my fears about releasing Toby Higginbotham and that Sophie might now be a sorceress have both proved horribly right. There is a temptation to say ‘I told you so’.

However I am not at all sure that any other course of action would have brought any better results. Without MI13 to maintain the regime, Toby Higginbotham would probably have been released anyway. Given Lucinda's determination, Sophie would almost certainly have been summoned sooner or later. It is probably for the best, that the remnants of MI13 are aware of both. It possible, albeit not particular likely, that Sophie being summoned inside the Pentagram of Protection prevented a disaster in Cliffside. We will never know.

I shall do all I can to be nowhere near Lucinda Grady at the time of any solar eclipse for the foreseeable future.