Reflections Part VII

### NPCs

Nadra al-Hashem, Ellie, Marcus Emerson, Darren Feldman, Ambrose Keswick, Tabitha Keswick, Magda, Walter Marchand, Hailee Pennington, Ashleigh Rhodes

## Official Summary

In the depths of the Reflecting Pool, our operatives are shown both what they need to see, and their fears made manifest. As they traverse their personal hells, the operatives are made aware of some of the Lake's mysterious workings, and variously come to meet its custodian, the Witch once known as Hailee Pennington.

With sorrow, with heroism, and with cowardice, the operatives pass through the trials of the Lake, and surface in the world, wiser and more worn.

## Detailed Recap

Mitch and Pierce come to their senses in the study of Pierce's father, Ambrose Keswick. The distinguished-looking man is dead, his throat slit, blood spreading over the desk and floor. Pierce is shaken by the sight, proclaiming that the scene is an illusion. He pretends he doesn't know where they are, but then his young sister Tabitha calls his name from the hallway. Pierce holds the door shut so she can't enter the room, but the blood seeps under the door, and Tabitha gasps and runs off to call the police. Mitch asks him repeatedly where they are, and Pierce repeatedly denies knowing. Mitch grows frustrated, because he believes the lake is showing Pierce this scene because he needs to learn something from it.

Tabitha runs back toward the now-open door, but Pierce catches her and stops her from seeing their father's body. She asks what's going on, but he doesn't tell her, carrying her downstairs and soothing her. They sit together on the couch, Tabitha crying and Pierce wondering aloud what the point of this vision is. Mitch asks more questions, and Pierce flatly tells him to shut up. Mitch asks if Pierce killed the dead man, and Pierce denies it. Pierce hears a noise coming from upstairs and goes up. He sees his father's corpse standing there, staring at him with hateful eyes, pointing at him accusingly. This rattles him but he holds it together. Pierce no longer sees Mitch, but sees a younger version of himself, sitting calmly on the couch with Tabitha. Then he finds himself standing on the calm surface of the lake, facing a bent crone -- Hailee Pennington.

Kiera's vision takes place in a field. She's walking between Ashleigh and Mark, with Magda bringing up the rear. Kiera asks what they're doing, and they explain that they're looking for Ellie because she disappeared in the night. She asks why no one was watching her, and Magda says Kiera herself was watching Ellie. Kiera denies that she could possibly allow Ellie to walk out of the house alone. They walk on through the field. Magda becomes exhausted and has to stop, sitting under a tree, and Kiera tells Ash to stay with her while she and Mark continue. Kiera screams Ellie's name, and sees a thread from one of Ellie's nightgowns. Mark smells the grass and finds Ellie's trail, but just then, the full moon shines down on them, and Mark begins to transform into his uncontrolled werewolf form. He warns Kiera that she should run for it to protect herself, and she does.

Kiera reaches the edge of a hill, and sees Ellie standing there, with a dark spot of blood on her chest. Kiera rushes over to take Ellie in her arms, but discovers that she's impaled on one of the horns of a huge bull-faced creature, and she knows it's Darren Feldman. He grabs Kiera and begins ripping her to pieces. The vision ends, and she is lying on the surface of the lake next to Hailee, who's trying to calm her. Hailee tells Kiera the pool showed her something she fears, but not something necessarily real. Kiera bursts into tears.

Meanwhile, Hailee is also talking to Pierce. She says Mitch and Kiera were sent to the pool to remember things, but she isn't sure why Pierce is there. She explains that she didn't create Pierce's vision; the lake did. She asks what PIerce is seeking, and he says he's seeking her. He's surprised she looks so old, and she says time works differently in the pool. He expressed concern about her intentions toward Mitch. She's shocked to hear Mitch is there. She says she'll gather everyone and they'll discuss the rumors about her. She disappears under the water to find Mitch.

The water darkens, and someone else emerges before Pierce: Nadra al-Hashem. She apologizes for nearly killing him in Florida, claiming she overreached with her power, and only intended to kill Jack. Her embarrassed apology surprises and disarms him. Nadra says she believes Munnin sent Jack to kill her, because she learned that he was involved in a cabal within ORPHEUS. She learned that an eldritch-infused amputated arm was taken from Sanctuary and given to the Congregation of the Gentle Hand by Trevor Norton, an ORPHEUS agent whose official records showed him to be dead. She believes this was intended to aid the Congregation in their aims. Nadra says she has learned many things while hiding from Munnin in the pool -- memories taken from people in ORPHEUS. She believes the arm will be used as bait to draw someone or something out. Pierce wonders why the Congregation of the Gentle Hand would be selected, when they were small-time, but Nadra points out that they had a great asset: Pierce. Nadra says she created the bar shootout to spook Elijah and Esther and push them to rush and therefore fail.

Nadra asks Pierce to spy on ORPHEUS for her and help her. She says she is "indebted" to Darren, because he has helped her understand things she's learned in the pool. Pierce asks how she's been communicating with Darren, and she says her telepathy works despite the wards around Sanctuary, because the people who built Sanctuary were unaware of a backdoor: the pool itself. She says she entered the pool undetected, which shouldn't be possible. Nadra explains that Koji Miyazaki is the mastermind behind Sanctuary's magickal systems and walls, and these systems are slowly killing Darren by draining power from him. She asks Pierce to transfer an arcane working onto Koji which will undo the power-drain and save Darren's life. All he need do is touch Koji with his open palm.

Kiera calms down and speaks with Hailee. Hailee explains that she and Vivien are the keepers of the pool, and refers to herself as "the Lady of the Lake," while Vivien works to contain something dark and cold in the depths. She says the pool is a repository of "forgotten things," and ORPHEUS needs to use it, which requires them to maintain a cordial relationship with the witches who protect it. Hailee offers to give Kiera back her childhood memories, if Kiera will join her and Vivien in the pool's sisterhood. This will allow Hailee to join Vivien further down, so they can patrol the depths together. Kiera worries that she won't be able to take care of Ellie if she agrees to this, but Hailee says she can perform her duties anywhere as long as she wears the brooch. Hailee agrees that Ellie's safety is paramount, and tells Kiera she herself is quite special with a mysterious destiny. Kiera awakens on the stones beside the pool.

Mitch's vision is of a perfect baseball game in college. He hits a home run, allowing Walter to score from second base. Mitch has a strange feeling that they're supposed to be doing something else with their lives. Walter seems to think they completed their task at the Braddock House and then moved on, getting scholarships to college. Mitch asks Walter if he'd ever hurt him, and Walter is confused and disturbed. He says the situation can't be right because there was only one scholarship, not two -- and if it came down to it, Walter would do what it took to make sure it was him. Suddenly Walter is stabbing and burning Mitch again. Mitch understands now that Walter wasn't forced into murdering him, but chose to do it.

The vision changes, and Mitch is on a great mount of discarded metal and flesh. A mechanical spider playing harp tones scans him and then builds a copy of him from body parts and scraps, injecting it with someone and awakening it. The copy climbs a hill toward a polished stone doorway standing alone in space. It tries to fit its hand in the keyhole, and when it doesn't fit, it cuts its hand and finger to try to make it fit, but collapses from blood loss. Mitch tries to bind its wounds. It speaks to him in a robotic voice, asking him why they exist. A buzzer goes off, and a mechanical voice proclaims "OPERATION FAILURE." Mitch sees many hills and Mitch-copies and many doorways. Mitch approaches the door and tries to use his gun-arm as a key, but looks down and sees the hand is holding the P72. He fits the bat into the keyhole. The door opens, and he steps out onto the lake.

Hailee meets Mitch. She expresses regret for what happened to him, but he blames himself, saying he should have known Walter better and seen it coming. Hailee suggests that Walter killing Mitch was "a needful step on a needful path," and Walter did it to prevent something worse from happening. Mitch asks to speak to Vivien, but Hailee says she's too far down. Hailee suggests that she, Mitch, and Walter are all sacrifices in a great struggle against the forgotten things that want to escape. Mitch says he may as well sacrifice and struggle because his original destiny is completed, and Hailee weeps.

Pierce worries that Nadra's plan is too risky, but she shows him a vision from his time with Darren. He and Darren have completed a sacrifice of a woman, and the two men are exultant and intimately bonded in their shared experience of the divine. Pierce comes out of the vision, and he must admit that he will risk anything to save Darren, to avoid wasting his achievements and discoveries. Nadra begins etching a sigil in his palm with a ritual knife, but he stops her, worried that the plan could be discovered by ORPHEUS if someone reads his mind or tortures him. Together, they erase some of his memory so he won't remember their conversation, and will only remember that he needs to touch Koji for some reason and then return to the pool. She completes the sigil with the knife, and he awakens beside the pool.

Mitch, Kiera, and Pierce compare notes on their conversations with Hailee and their visions in the pool. Mitch says he believes their mission is complete. Pierce is confused about why ORPHEUS sent them to Chester at all, because he doesn't see what the organization has gotten from it. Kiera suspects that ORPHEUS wants her to join in protecting the pool and keeping the pool available to them, but says nothing of this to Mitch and Pierce.

The three of them drive to Mitch's parents' house. He has no idea how long it's been since he saw them, or whether they were told he died. He considers leaving them alone to avoid causing them pain, but walks up toward the front door.

## Quotes

* HAILEE: "Time is not the same here. I have lived many lifetimes in the pool." PIERCE: "Your fingers are gonna be really wrinkly."
* "There was only room for one of us, and it was always gonna be me ... I'm chosen. Perhaps someday you'll understand. *I* am the one with the will to power. *I* am the one who can protect what needs protecting. And it can only be me. You're a stepping stone." - Walter
* "If Mitch's destiny is already gone, then why should not the hardships of this world fall upon this thing that his body has become?" - Mitch
* "ORPHEUS doesn't do things so people learn stuff or deal with demons. They do things because there's profit at the end of the road." - Pierce

## Music Credits

* Three Chain Links - Into Darkness
* Three Chain Links - Magic Hour
* Kevin MacLeod - Ossuary 5 - Rest
* Kai Engel - Imminence
* Kevin MacLeod - Ossuary 6 - Air
* Kevin MacLeod - Right Behind You
* Myuu - Nebula
* Myuu - Haunted by Screams
* Kai Engel - A Neon Flesh
* Sergey Cheremisinov - Sea and Night
* Josh Woodward - Shadows in the Moonlight (Instrumental)
* Kai Engel - Warm of a Mechanical Heart
* Kai Engel - Seeker
* Kai Engel - Deserted City
* Myuu - Fatal Shrine (Soundscape)
* Josh Woodward - She Dreams in Blue (Instrumental)
* Opening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith