Everliving

Nicole Taylor

Nicole asked the old man one last time; “Are you sure you don’t want to visit the infirmary?”

“I’m fine”, Senex replied.

“I saw you on that slab. You were not fine.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I use that… what do you call it… *just a flesh wound* technique.”

“That’s not how you’re supposed to…” – Nicole pinched her brow. “Okay, you’re fine. A calming cup of tea, then? The mess is over there.”

“Excellent,” Senex proclaimed, “Then you can recall the tale of how you found me over a fresh cup.”

“You don’t want to get some rest first? I’m sure you’ve been through a lot.”

“No time like the present. Plus, right now it’s still fresh in your mind.”

“Okay then”, Nicole said while serving a cup of chamomile tea. “Where to start? I’ve told you about the meeting with the Traditions, right?”

“Briefly, but we can skip that for now. I don’t want to hear about… her again right now anyway.”

“Hey, this time it was your guys’ fault. Well, we knew by this time you were missing – it was getting kind of hard for your guys to hide – but they were very tight-lipped on what they knew. Wanted to keep it in-house, they said. Anyway, we were winding down after the messy bits were settled, when we suddenly noticed a distinct rise in entropic EDE activity in the area.”

"The Pana was weakening from the ritual, I assume?”

“The, er, right. Before long, spirits were visible all over the place – and it didn’t take long for reports all over the world to come in.”

“The N.W.O. must have had a collective heart attack”, Senex chuckled.

“Quite. Anyway, we handled some of the local brushfires together with the Tradition delegation, but it didn’t take long to find out we’d have to go after the source, and quick. So I called Charon…”

“Right, because of course you have Charon’s cell phone number…”

“Well obviously. Turns out his side wasn’t too happy with developments either, and he wanted to meet up in New York. It seemed like the best lead – most of the rest of our contacts were too busy keeping society from imploding anyway.
“Charon had a good lead indeed – he told us about a powerful ritual being enacted deep in the underworld, on the corpse of a Neverborn. He didn’t know any details, but it was kind of obvious it was linked to what was happening.”

“I assume by then you figured out my disappearance was linked to all of this.”

“Matthews – or whatever his name is – figured it out actually. It came as quite of a shock. Turned out they thought you were kidnapped by White Cat’s dissenting faction, and that’s why they couldn’t openly say anything.”

“So off to the underworld… the other delegation didn’t come?”

“Said they had other obligations. To be fair, there was a lot going on. Merces, Jane’s favorite ghost, even showed her face in Antwerp – we didn’t have time to fix that, of course, but hopefully the construct took care of that.”
“Here’s to hoping.”

“So, quickest way we know to get to Entropic Space is through Ravana’s Navel, and we figured you guys would give us a free pass for the occasion.”

“That’s where you picked up Amanda, I assume?”

“When Patricia explained the mission, she insisted. Transition went without a hitch, and most of the journey went surprisingly easy, as well.”

“With the barrier down, I assume the denizens of the underworld were… busy elsewhere.”, Senex muttered.

“Probably, but that’s a problem for… well, later this afternoon. We did pick up some hostiles, of course, but nothing the Resilience couldn’t handle”, Nicole said while knocking on a nearby beam.

“She’s certainly proven her worth. So, the Neverborn was next. A dormant one, I assume?”

“Well, we’re still here, so yes. Still, it was crawling with Entropic… let’s just call them Spectres, and we didn’t have the time to crawl all the way through. So Franklin… well, created a shortcut.”

“Correspondence?”

“No, it’s… Well, Amanda will tell you anyway. He has this pet project called the “Condensed-Post-Life-Entity-Powered Negative-Energy Cannon”. It’s worse than it sounds. Also more destructive. Obviously he’s not allowed to use it, but… well you know Franklin.”

“By Persephone”, Senex said slack-jawed.

“Yeah well. That’s why the Neverborn was so asymmetrical when we left. Good thing those things don’t mess around with the whole ‘asleep’ thing.”

“That’s just nasty…”

“Anyway. Shortcut made, and the surface was suddenly very Spectre-free, so we departed. The three of us and Amanda – the rest kept the ship spooled up and ready to go.”

“I assume the lack of Spectres didn’t last?”

“There were plenty of them deeper in, but we ended up not fighting most of them – I used a cloaking field to hide our movements. It wasn’t too powerful – I figured using Dimensional Science casually wasn’t a good idea – but it did it’s job long enough.”

“Ah, efficient.”

“The only real opposition was a scout from the Cosanguinity – at least I assume so, since he did the whole ‘kill the Nephandi’ thing when he saw Jane. That got hairy for a bit – mainly because he wasn’t shy about using Entropic procedures and attracted quite some attention.

Patricia popped her head around a corner. “Ah, there you are. I brought you two some cake!”

“Ah, thank you, miss Jane,” Senex replied.

“… Are those honey cakes?” Nicole replied, eying the cakes.

“Yes!” Patricia replied gleefully. “I just had a wild inspiration to make some.”

“… Dammit, Patricia,” Nicole replied tersely.

“Am I missing something?” said Senex between bites.

“Nothing, just Patricia being Patricia.”

“So you don’t want any?” Patricia asked. “Oh well, more for me to savor! And Senex, if you ever need someone to talk to about your experiences, you know where to find me.”

“Thank you for the kind offer, miss Jane.”

Nicole shifted in her seat. “Anyway, back to the story.”

“What was…”

“Back to the story”, Nicole replied quickly.

*Continued in the next mission*