Tall Tales
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Videos
  • Narrator
  • Benediction
  • Matteson: P.I.
  • Over the Hedge
  • Wonderland
  • Store
  • Find on Amazon
  • Tall Tales RPG
  • Resources
    • Discord Server
    • Wiki
    • Supporters
    • The Editor
    • Calendar

Magum Imperatoria, Part Thirty-Nine

5/25/2021

0 Comments

 

From the records of Father Benedict de Monte
Dated 17 February 2007

Sure enough, there was little else for me to do. The suspects were processed in whatever manner was normal for the estate, and then Michael met with us for a debrief. The essential message of it was that we had done a great service for the Crown that day, and would be compensated accordingly. I don’t know what he paid the others, but the cheque handed to me was significantly more than I expected, and Akshainie’s was similar. She asked me later how one spends a cheque, and we ended up having a long discussion about how to get her a bank account.

Before we had that discussion, however, Michael took Akshainie and I aside and we discussed what was next. He was guarded about what, exactly, was going to happen regarding those we’d arrested, and seemed mostly focused on us. We told him about our recent shift in focus to finding ritual sites that were providing the cult with magical energy, and I expressed my concerns about the cult’s increased activity. He took us to the estate library, and showed us records that they’d been receiving about some serpent-based spiritual activity near the border of France and Spain. He informed us it was beyond his jurisdiction, but not ours. We discussed what few details he had, and it was agreed that we would be flown to the Pyrenees the next morning.

After breakfast, we had a brief period to say our goodbyes to Matteson and Alice before they left for a day in town and we were driven to the plane.

“Do you think he’ll really do it?” Akshainie asked, finally, as we were looking down on the French countryside.

“Do what?” I asked.

“Make things right with Iravati?”

“I don’t know. I take him as a man of his word, however.”

“You almost sound remorseful about that.”

“Well.” I thought for a moment as we flew over a river. “It’s what he wouldn’t say that concerns me.”

“Do we trust him to do what’s right?”

“I think we can trust him to do what works,” I said. “And, I suppose, establishing a better relationship with Iravati does work for him.” Akshainie grunted an agreement, and we both turned our attention back to the view.

Previous
Beginning
Next

0 Comments

Magum Imperatoria, Part Twenty-Four

4/20/2021

0 Comments

 
After we separated from the other two, Akshainie, Michael, and I made our way back to the farmhouse where we had captured the cultists. The goal today was to track any connection we could find to other cultists. Michael had materials for a tracking spell to see if he could find where the cultists had come from before the farmhouse in the hopes he would find a hub of some sort; Akshainie and I were asked to slip into the spiritual realm and follow the ley lines connected to the site, splitting up if needed, to seek out any other ritual locations on the network. We entered the house, did a cursory investigation to make notes of anything particular to this branch of the cult that should stand out to us at other sites, and then stepped aside out of the physical realm. Both of us took our more spiritual forms once we crossed over, since they were able to cover ground more quickly than our human forms. We stood for a moment and watched Michael continue to take notes on the site, then turned our attention to the ley line and followed it away from the town.

“I think Alice has some legitimate concerns about our employer,” Akshainie finally said, after we were well out of earshot of the house. We didn’t know how much Michael’s spell would allow him to see or hear, and it seems we both felt it prudent to assume he could hear us while we were close.

“Are you saying that because you think something is off, or because you consistently haven’t trusted him?” I asked. She sighed, slithering slightly slower.

“Both, I suppose.”

“There is little we can do about the latter at this point. I doubt anything there will change until he actually has his audience with your queen.”

“If he seeks an audience.”

“If he seeks an audience,” I repeated. She gained pace and resumed her place at my side. “But about the former.”

“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t want to consider that Alice might be right about the capture of the cultists. I haven’t really thought of them as people we have reason to consider for some time now.”

“They have chosen a path of darkness.”

“So it suits our purposes to just wipe them out?” I stopped and rested my hands on my hips, looking at the sky. She turned back and rested in coils in front of me, holding her head just high enough that she could look me in the face.

“They have chosen a path of darkness,” I said again, slowly, trying to wrap my head around how to say the rest. “But it was a choice, and given reason, they may be willing to make a different one.”

“So we have to give them a chance.”

“I don’t know. But I think I need to. It’s pretty important to my religion, you know, getting another chance.”

“Important like your oaths? Or important like transparency with your supervisors?”

“Like my oaths.”

“So the death of the cultists during Michael’s interrogation, then, does not sit right with you?”

“I gather it doesn’t sit right with you, either.” I lowered my gaze to meet hers, and she frowned at me for a moment before turning and continuing along the line.

“I want the cult to be destroyed. I’m willing to kill every member if I need to.”

“But what if we don’t need to?” I asked. She paused.

“You have something better in mind?”

“I…I don’t know yet.”

“Then we can talk about it when you do.” With that, she continued, and I jogged to meet her. We walked in silence for a few more minutes. We were approaching another little town by this point, and I could see a nexus point just on the edge of it. As we approached, a sudden shudder rippled through the ley line, giving the air a faint metallic taste. Akshainie’s eyes grew wide. “Get off the line!” she yelled, diving to the side. I jumped the other way, and suddenly the line exploded with energy and then crumpled into a dark, frozen shard.

“What was that?” I demanded.

​“Matteson,” she said, staring at the line. “What the hell did he have Matteson do?”

Previous
Beginning
Next

0 Comments
    Picture
    Image courtesy of Picrew by Makowwka.

    About

    Evidence compiled for use during the trial of Father Benedict de Monte.

    Leave a Tip

    Boost on TopWebFiction


    Tall Tales: Volume Two now available


    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019

    Categories

    All
    Akshainie
    Alice Templeton
    Aslaug
    Babylon
    Barzai
    Book Of Shadows
    Broken Tablets
    Brood Of Nachash
    Buné
    Dr Francesca Harris
    Elder Gods
    England
    Father Josef Klappenger
    Files
    Fire And Ice
    France
    Frankfurt
    Gore
    Henry Matteson
    Hörselberg
    Iravati
    John Matteson
    Jörmungandr
    Legion
    Magum Imperatoria
    Mark Larmais
    Mark Of The Beast
    Michael Hudson
    Mystics Anonymous
    Natasha Fox
    North Carolina
    Ohio
    Pakistan
    Pennsylvania
    Professor Flitwick
    Purgatory
    Queen Of Heaven
    Realignment
    Roderick Hudson
    Sabbatical
    South Carolina
    Switzerland
    Tadzio Garciacutea
    Tadzio-garciacutea
    Tennessee
    Tettnang
    The-fall
    The-fall
    The Ravens
    The Two
    Transcript
    Yggdrasil
    Zachariah Hudson

    RSS Feed

Story Blogs

Narrator
Benediction
Matteson: P.I.
Over the Hedge
Wonderland

Resources

Read Order
Weekly Updates
Wiki
Credits
About the Author

Support Tall Tales

Patreon
Ko-fi
Subscribe
Store
© COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Videos
  • Narrator
  • Benediction
  • Matteson: P.I.
  • Over the Hedge
  • Wonderland
  • Store
  • Find on Amazon
  • Tall Tales RPG
  • Resources
    • Discord Server
    • Wiki
    • Supporters
    • The Editor
    • Calendar