Serpents and Shadows

“Are you satisfied, Grand Adderman?” Envy Noir asked meekly, trying and failing to keep the gnawing trepidation out of her voice.
They were at the Adderwood Megalith, a sacred ring of stones set in a hallowed glade of a primeval forest the rest of the world had forgotten. Though the ancient and towering stones were now moss-covered and weatherworn, their power had only grown with the ages. They had been arranged in a hexagonal pattern, and each possessed a hexagonal orifice near its top. For the sake of the evening’s ceremony, each of these orifices was presently occupied by a blood-red Philosopher’s Stone. 
At the center of the Megalith was a hexagonal platform that had been covered in the Sigil Sand imported from Pendragon Hill. There was an altar at each point of the platform, and each of these held a Philosopher’s Stone as well. A complex Spell Circle had been meticulously drawn within the Sigil Sand, dug deep enough so that it could not be easily broken by an errant footstep or gust of wind. 
Though a number of prominent members of the Ophion Occult Order had been assembled within the Megalith to bear witness to the ritual, only four of them were permitted within the Spell Circle itself; Ivy Noir, Envy Noir, Erich Thorne, and of course, The Grand Adderman himself.
His long crimson cloak dragged behind him as he slowly slithered around the circle, carefully inspecting it for any mistake or sign of betrayal. He regularly glanced between it and a scroll of parchment to confirm it was correct. At one point he theatrically reached out as if to correct a perceived error, only to withdraw his hand after reconsidering. 
“It’s perfect,” he decreed blithely, the lack of condemnation in his voice being the closest he was capable of praise.  
Erich and Ivy both sighed in relief, and Envy nearly fainted into her sister’s arms. 
“That’s putting it lightly,” Arch Adderman Fenwick remarked. “This is a pretty impressive Grand Working you’ve managed to come up with, Envy. Makes my head hurt just looking at it.” 
“We never would have been able to pull this off if it wasn’t for you, Envy,” Ivy praised her.
“Once you’re bound by the circle, Grand Adderman, Emrys will instantly become aware that his trap has been sprung,” Erich said. “He’ll most likely appear immediately. It’s vital that you do not reveal the Asphodel Incarnate until he’s standing within the sigil ring opposite you.” 
“And that no one here does anything to tip Emrys off that this is a trap,” Ivy added, shooting the Darlings Twins a cold glare. Her confidence was broken, however, by the cheerful gaze of that thing they called their daughter; an abomination she hadn’t known existed an hour ago. 
“Don’t worry, Miss Noir,” Sara Darling said in her sweet singsong voice. “I know Mommy Darling can act rashly sometimes, but I want revenge on Emrys too now because of what his vassal did to Daddy Darling, and Mommy Darling knows better than to do anything that might make me unhappy. Isn’t that right, Mommy Darling?”
“Absolutely, Sara Darling. Your happiness is just the most important thing in the world to me,” Mary Darling cooed, placing her hands on her shoulders and kissing her affectionately on the head.   
“You see? She’s ‘happy drunk’ right now. Nothing to worry about,” James Darling assured everyone. “A hell of a lot better than her being sober, eh Envy?” 
Envy recoiled at the barb, retreating into the arms of her sister and grabbing at her neck as she was reminded of the feeling of Mary’s knife against her throat.
“To be frank, James, it’s not your sister we’re worried about,” Erich shot back. “Your encounter with Petra has left you compromised, and it’s something Emrys could take advantage of. It could complicate things, and I’m not sure you should even be here at all.”
“The Darlings have a right to be here, considering they’ve suffered at the hands of Emrys more than any of us,” The Grand Adderman countered. “They’ve also gone to greater lengths and incurred more risk to take down Emrys than anyone here, including the three of you. I will not deny them the satisfaction of witnessing the vanquishing of their greatest enemy firsthand.”
“As you wish, Grand Adderman,” Ivy acquiesced, bowing slightly as she shot Erich a look that told him to let it go. “Once you introduce the Asphodel into the Sand, the spell will be altered enough to free you and bind Emrys in your place. Once he’s bound within the Circle, Erich will bind him in Blue Moon Silver chains for good measure, and then you’ll be free to banish his avatar from the mortal plane. We will all be at your service, should you need anything.”  
“Grand Adderman, before we commence, I feel I must again reiterate my objection to this plan!” Crowley’s monotone voice boomed over his gramophone horn. “It is bad enough that we are conducting this ritual here and luring Emrys to our headquarters, but if this does not go precisely as planned you could very well be killed! Surely there’s a more disposable Adderman who would make an adequate offering?”
With a single gust of wind, the Grand Adderman slid over to Crowley, clutching the glass of his vat with his long, darkened fingers. 
“Such as?” he asked mockingly as the disembodied brain trembled in his bubbling philtres.
“You know I’d volunteer, Grand Adderman, if I even for a moment thought you’d consider me adequate for anything,” Fenwick quipped. 
“This whole thing is Seneca’s fault, no? Should he not then take the risk of being the sacrifice?” Raubritter asked in response. “I cannot help but note that Seneca is not even here this evening, no doubt because he feared you may have planned to doublecross him.”
“It matters not,” the Grand Adderman said as he withdrew back into the Spell Circle. “Regardless of the risk, I am both the most tempting offering for Emrys and the only one with the power to banish him. Furthermore, I am now thoroughly out of patience. Emrys leaves this plane tonight, upon this very hour! Noirs! Thorn! Take your positions!” 
“Yes, Grand Adderman!” they said simultaneously as they each took one of the three corners of a triangle overlaid upon the Spell Circle. 
“Mr. Mandrake, you’re on crowd control duty. Make sure no one but Emrys gets into this Spell Circle before the ritual is complete! No one!” Ivy shouted to the trenchcoated automaton who was leaning up against the stone nearest to the Darlings.
“Do I not look vigilant?” he asked with a listless shrug. 
“Are you the same kind of quantum clockwork robot they use at Pascal’s?” Sara Darling asked sweetly. 
“Now what was a nice young girl like yourself doing at a filthy vice den like Pascal’s?” The Mandrake asked. 
“The same thing I do at secret occult banishing rituals: anything I want,” she said with a smile that came across as vaguely threatening. 
“Silence, please! We require total silence!” Fenwick commanded as he hustled about the Megalith in an attempt to usher the attending occultists. “Sara, sweetie, I realize you’re not actually a preteen girl so I apologize if this comes across as patronizing, but I am obliged to offer you a lollipop to keep you quiet during the ritual.” 
Sara’s eyes lit up as he held out a selection of gourmet lollipops for her to choose from.
“Thank you, Mr. Humberton!” she said as she eagerly took a cherry pomegranate lollipop. “If Professor Crowley had had your good manners, I might not have caused quite as much trouble during his lecture.”
“Nonsense, Sara Darling. You’re never any trouble,” James assured her.  
“That’s it! No more talking! Complete silence from here on out! It’s time to begin the ritual!” Fenwick announced, turning to face the Spell Circle and giving them a thumbs up.  
“Thank you, Fenwick,” Envy said, gently clearing her throat before beginning the incantation. “Ave Thaumaturgica Serpentis. Ave Ophion Orbis Ouroboros. 
“Darkness falls as Moon doth rise. Upon hallowed earth, under sacred skies. By Serpent’s charge and Raven’s cry, from ground below and treetops high. Where forgotten empires meant their demise, where ancestral bones and ruins lie, unseen by unworthy mortal eyes. Where tread only the blessed and wise, where immortals lay down to die. 
“Magick great and magick old, spirits bright and spirits bold. Secrets vast and secrets untold, riches gleaming and riches gold. By Ophion I thus command, bind this soul unto the sands. His power drained, his flesh constrained, within these sigils here contained. By gods above and gods below, by hallowed light and sacred shadow. By my blood and by my right, grant me here this boon tonight. Hear me World Serpent under World Tree, heed my spellcraft, so mote it be!” 
She repeated the incantation, this time with Erich and Ivy joining in. As they chanted, the twelve Philosopher Stones began to glow, and the Spell Circle itself slowly became illuminated with a crimson light coming from within the Sigil Sand. When the incantation was completed for a second time, the Philosopher’s Stone upon the Grand Adderman’s crown lit up as well, becoming the thirteenth node and completing the circuit. 
The light of the Spell Circle exploded into an inferno of spectral fire, rapidly pulsating in time with an unseen heartbeat, and the screaming Grand Adderman fell to his knees as his powers were sucked out of him and into the Sigil Sand. The light blazed for nearly half a minute before dying down to a quiet simmer. The instant it was safe, Erich leapt across and bound the Grand Adderman up in silver chains from behind while Ivy ripped the Asphodel Incarnate from its hiding place inside his robes. 
“Thorne, Noir, what the hell are you doing?” Crowley demanded, along with several other attending Addermen. 
“Just making it look convincing. We don’t want Emrys to get suspicious, now do we?” Ivy replied, a widening grin making it obvious that she was lying. 
“Traitors! Turncoats! Conspirators and usurpers!” Crowley screeched. “Stop them!” 
Raubritter led the charge, but the instant they reached the outer boundary of the Spell Circle, the spectral flames flared up and deflected them backwards.
“Well, how about that? Some sort of protective wards, then, innit?” Fenwick asked nonchalantly. “We’ll never get through those in time. Tragic.”  
“No!” Mary screamed, pushing her daughter aside and making straight for the Circle.
Though it was entirely possible that she could have overpowered the protective wards and made her way through, she never got the chance. She was blindsided by The Mandrake, who knocked her to the ground and pinned her down, stomping on her chest hard enough to restrict her breathing. James and Sara advanced towards him, and in a fraction of a second, he drew out a pair of spellwork pistols. 
“Don’t fucking move!” he ordered. “These beauties are made from one hundred percent Seelie Silver and fire silver-tipped, beryllium-bronze jacketed bullets with a solid thunderbolt iron core and multiple layers of engraved wards. They’ll boil the Black Bile inside of you so quickly you’ll explode.”  
While the threat may have been somewhat hyperbolic, it was enough for James to place his hands on his daughter’s shoulders and gently hold her back. 
“Get off of my mommy!” Sara screamed. 
“Or what? You’ll eat me?” he scoffed. “I’d like to see you try. Everyone else, back the hell away, do you hear me? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you all brought wands to a gunfight. No one but Emrys is getting into this Circle tonight! Capiche?” 
“Speak of the Devil,” Emrys said in a low tone as he appeared without fanfare or explanation on the far edge of the Megalith. 
Several of the lower-ranking Adderman fled at his mere presence, and Crowley backed up his cabinet so quickly that a wheel got caught on a sunken patch of soil and sent the whole contraption toppling over. Sara pulled against her father’s grasp but he held her firmly in place, the burning shards in his chest reminding him that neither he nor his kin were any match for Emrys in a one-on-one fight. 
“Where is she? Where’s Petra? Where’s your vassal!” Sara screamed. “I’m going to kill her for what she did to my daddy!” 
Emrys hesitated for a moment, his expression as grim and dark as the stones around him. 
“I had to collapse my Sanctum to destroy the Scion you infested it with,” he replied solemnly. “Petra… Petra wasn’t able to get out quickly enough.” 
Nearly simultaneously, all three Darlings broke out into rancorous laughter.   
“Quiet! Quiet, all of you!” The Mandrake ordered with a threatening gesture of his guns. 
“Emrys, I’m sorry for your loss, but I’ve summoned you here to negotiate the terms of our surrender!” Ivy announced as loudly and clearly as she could. “My name is Ivy Noir, Head of the Harrowick Chapter, and with the aid of my sister Envy and husband Erich Thorne, I have bound our Grand Adderman within this Spell Circle! I offer him to you as a sacrifice, one great enough to break your chains and free your avatar from the bonds our Order has placed upon you. By accepting him as a sacrifice, you agree to absolve myself and all other members of our Order who accept this surrender as legitimate of any transgressions against you. The Darlings are yours to do with as you please.” 
“Fuck you!” Mary screamed, pushing up against The Mandrake as hard as she could, only to gasp in pain as he brought his foot down on her even harder. 
“No! Please, stop!” Sara pleaded, angry tears pooling in her eyes. “Emrys, don’t do it! It’s… it’s a trap! You’ll be the one bound in that Circle if you step inside! Really!”
“I said quiet, kid!” The Mandrake ordered, waving his right gun at her. 
“Emrys, I’m not trying to trick you! The Grand Adderman is a tyrant who nearly killed my sister! We want him gone as much as you do!” Ivy insisted. 
Unmoved by the drama unfolding around him, Emrys glanced dispassionately up at the Spell Circle, then to the Darlings, and then to the brain in a vat lying on the ground. 
“What do you say, Crowley? Should I take a chance and accept Noir’s surrender, or just let this opportunity slip through my fingers and leave you all to deal with a very irate Grand Adderman when he comes to?” Emrys asked. 
“I… I…. I will be more than happy to answer that question as soon as someone puts me the right way up!” Crowley shouted in response. 
“No can do, Crowley. Can’t have you running off in the middle of all this, now can we?” Fenwick asked. “Emrys, hello there. Arch Adderman Fenwick Humberton, at your service. I know you’ve got no real reason to trust me over Ivy or Sara, but I also know that Envy put a lot of work into getting this Spell Circle just right, and it would be a shame, a crying shame, to let it all go to waste.”
Emrys studied the Spell Circle before him for a moment, then glanced down at the ouroboros-link chains about his wrists, before gently nodding in agreement.
“It would indeed be a shame for this all to have been for nothing,” he said. 
He stepped across the boundary, briefly transitioning to his shadow form as he passed over the protective wards. The spectral flames merely flickered as he traversed them, and then again a heartbeat afterwards, as though something unseen had snuck across as well.
He stepped into a ring of sigils opposite the Grand Adderman, glowering down at him in cold contempt. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then cried out in pain instead as he fell to his knees, the spectral flames shifting in colour from red to bluish-green.
“What? What’s happening?” Ivy demanded, looking first to Envy and then to Erich, both of whom were equally as confused and horrified. 
A well-practiced, maniacal cackle emanated from the Grand Adderman’s hooded face as thirteen orbs of crystalized ichor, glowing with the same colour and rhythm as the flames and each holding a sigil-marked pupa, slowly rose from the Sand surrounding him. The Mandrake spun around to shoot him, but the instant his guns were off of James he closed the distance between them. Grabbing him by the back of the neck, he lifted him off of his sister and slammed him against the protective wards of the Spell Circle. The flames flared up at the attempted intrusion, sending The Mandrake into spasms of agony as James firmly held him in place.   
“You were right, Fenny. These wards are truly a marvel of applied thaumaturgy. And here I was worried I’d have to give this clanker a quick death to put him out of commission,” James said. 
“Not only that, James Darling, but now we have a front-row seat to Emrys’ demise,” Mary grinned as she crept up beside him and wrapped herself around his free arm.  
“I told you it was a trap, Emrys,” Sara taunted him, taking a triumphant lick of her lollipop as she watched The Mandrake writhe with delight. “I just didn’t say who set it.” 
“Did you really think I did not perceive your treachery, Noir?” the Grand Adderman asked as he rose to his feet and effortlessly sloughed off the chains they had wrapped him in. Ivy, Envy, and Erich all tried to flee of course, but the protective wards kept them in as much as they kept everyone else out. “I knew I’d never be able to use the Asphodel to counteract Emrys’s corruption of the Sand, which is why when I had it moved here, I took the liberty of implanting it with these orbs as a substitute. I am greatly indebted to you, Darlings, for providing me with such rare and mighty relics, and your role in my triumph tonight will not go unrewarded. These traitors will be yours to deal with, however you so desire!”
This was enough to make Envy crumple into a ball and weep like a child, and Ivy and Erich didn’t keep their composure much better. 
“Envy, Erich, I’m so sorry,” Ivy wept. “Please, this was my idea! Just take me! Let them go!” 
“Not a chance, Ivy, not a chance!” Mary taunted. “You’re going to wish I had just slit Envy’s throat! Now I’m going to cut her up slowly, right in front of you, eating her alive and feeding her to my pigs until her body gives out! I haven’t given much thought to your hubby yet, truth be told, but I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something equally as excruciating. Whatever it is, just know it will only be a taste of what we’re saving for you.” 
“Daddy Darling, don’t break the robot! I want him for my doll collection!” Sara interjected. 
“Well, I have to break him a little, Sara Darling, so that he doesn’t get away, but I promise we’ll have lots of fun putting him back together as a proper plaything,” James assured her.         
“Your Eminence, I’m a tad concerned that my earlier remark about your death being a tragedy may have come across as sarcastic,” Fenwick piped up. “But I was actually in such a severe state of shock and disbelief, a dissociative fugue practically, I pretty much just emotionally flatlined and lost the ability to express myself properly. But now that you’ve so expertly – and unexpectedly – snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, I am profoundly overcome with –”
“Be silent!” the Grand Adderman snapped at him. “I’ll deal with you later.” 
He turned his attention to the defeated and humiliated Emrys kneeling before him with his head hung so low it was as if he was weighted down by some invisible chain. He could not resist the urge to gloat before banishing him back into the belly of the World Serpent Ophion.
“Three years now, three years exactly, you’ve plotted against us; robbed us, attacked us, sowed dissension amongst my subordinates, even devoured some of our greatest Egregores in a foolish scheme to increase your own power, and it has all come to naught! You even consumed an Egregore of sanguine humours, whose powers would be very useful in counteracting these ichorous orbs, if only you were able to use them now!” 
With a great effort, Emrys managed to raise his head and look straight up at the semi-corporeal ghoul looming over him in triumph. 
To the Grand Adderman’s bemusement, he was smiling. 
“But Grimaldus: I didn’t eat that one,” he said through hoarse laughter. 
In an instant, a disembodied yet still functioning human heart erupted from the Sand, its flesh turned black and Miasma flowing through its vessels. The shadows that had been wafting around Emrys suddenly shot straight ahead and coalesced around it, resuming the form of its original owner. 
“Petra!” Mary screamed as she recklessly charged the protective wards.
The Grand Adderman swiped at Petra with a clawed hand, but she effortlessly evaded him. With a single theatrical flourish, she used her command over sanguine humours to liquify the ichor of the orbs and draw it into herself, claiming its power as her own and unleashing the scarab pupils in the process.
As she channelled all of that power into the Sigil Sand, its pounding rhythm doubled to match her twin hearts; one of unliving clockwork and one of undead shadow. The spectral flames turned to an otherworldly hue of violet as they sent both Mary and The Mandrake flying backwards. Most importantly, as the flow of energy in the Spell Circle shifted, Emrys was unbound. 
“That’s how you kept us from purifying the Sand? By infecting it with your vassal’s undead heart?” the Grand Adderman cried as he stumbled backwards towards the protective wards. He was baffled as to how Emrys ever could have accomplished such a thing, until he started to recall the details of Crowley’s plan to purify the Sand in the first place. “Crowley! What in Heaven’s name have you done?”
“… In my defence, since the Miasma tainting the Sand had come from her, her old heart was the best vessel we could find to contain it,” Crowley replied. “You want to blame someone, blame Raubritter! He’s the one who actually acquired the cursed thing!” 
“I am thinking the flaw in our procedures may actually be systemic, yes,” Raubritter retorted. 
As they bickered, the Grand Adderman slammed into the protective wards again and again in his attempt to escape, and each time he bounced off them like they were solid steel. 
“There’s nowhere to run, Grimaldus,” Emrys said as he confidently strode towards him. “The Spell Circle can’t be broken without a sacrifice. You really did do a remarkable job, Envy. You should be very proud.”  
“But, but – but neither of us are bound now!” The Grand Adderman stammered. “Either of us could be the sacrifice!”
“You’re absolutely right,” Emrys grinned. “One of us has to lose. And I don’t plan to lose!”  
Miasma poured out of his every orifice, including his very follicles and pores, forming a mass of writhing shadowy tendrils that reared upwards and plunged down into the hooded form of the Grand Adderman. He resisted with all his strength as Emrys siphoned out his power, making him fight for every ounce of it. He struggled and spasmed as he fought to free himself, but the Miasma hoisted him up into the air to prevent him from gaining any purchase. He telekinetically summoned his sceptre to him, but Emrys caught it instead and impaled him upon its broken shards. 
The Grand Adderman wailed and tried to call down Ophion itself to save him in his hour of need, only for Emrys to throw him up against the protective wards of the Spell Circle. The flames flared up higher and brighter than they ever had before, preventing anyone outside from seeing what was going on. 
But the pitiful screams of the Grand Adderman made it quite clear what the outcome was going to be. 
Without a word, James picked up Sara and threw her over his shoulder while taking Mary by the hand, leading them both away from the Megalith while they had the chance. Mary gladly deferred to her brother’s decision of a tactical retreat, but Sara screamed and kicked and protested all the while, vowing vengeance against everyone who had betrayed her and her family this night.  
“Dreadful child. Not that the parents are any better, mind you,” Fenwick remarked as he unwrapped one of the lollipops for himself, eager to see the ritual come to an end. 
Slowly, the flames died down to a dull ember, and as they receded they revealed Emrys standing triumphant over the smouldering and empty cloak of the Grand Adderman crumpled upon the ground beneath him. The ouroboros-link chains that had limited the power of his physical avatar now lay shattered about him, their fragments scattered about the circle as if they had been cast off by some great and terrible force. 
Petra was near to him, on her knees and gasping for breath, her hand upon her chest as she felt her old heart beating alongside her mechanical one. They beat opposite of each other, with the two pulses never overlapping or falling out of sync. Lub dub, dub lub, lub dub, dub lub, lub dub, dub lub. 
The pounding in her ears was like the sound of drums.  
Emrys stepped towards her, the thirteen scarabs now freed from their orbs scurrying into the Sigil Sand at his approach. Ivy continued to look on with helpless horror, squatting protectively over her sister, thinking that Emrys would surely suck Petra as dry as the Grand Adderman now that she had served her purpose. 
Instead, he gently bent down and kissed her affectionately upon the forehead. 
“Well done, Petra,” he said softly with an appreciative smile and pat on the shoulder. “Well done.” 
Petra half-sobbed and half-laughed in relief, tears of joy flowing down her cheeks. The hardest thing she would ever have to do was over. She’d done it. They’d won.
“Miss Noir,” Emrys called out as he confidently strode across the Sand towards her. “If you’re up for it, I believe that you and I have a formal treaty that we need to work out.” 
Category:The Vesper's Bell