Chapter 11:
(09/29/01)
The cabal returned from the Nephandi labyrinth under the Olive Garden for some much needed rest. Inspired (and in some cases disturbed) by what had gone on, they spent the next few weeks renewing old friendships and developing new ones. But several days after the labyrinth, the cabal awoke to find a note from Isabella sitting on the kitchen table. It said very little but left everyone with them impression that she had decided to leave the cabal and didn’t know if she’d ever be back. Marcus said that apparently she had decided to pursue her own goals, and that the cabal was no longer of any help or use for her. Everyone was surprised, but no one shed many tears over it. After all, no one really knew Isabella anymore.
Ripple’s first act was to seek out Marcus and ask him if what Ahreen had said about her pregnancy was really true. Through a magical home pregnancy test, he determined that Ripple was indeed pregnant, but that there was no way of knowing whether the child was a normal human or some sort of Nephandi construct. After some serious soul-searching, however, Ripple decided to keep the baby (over the objections of some other cabal members, primarily Kenley) and deal with whatever happened as a result of it. Kenley offered to be her obstetrician, but after Ripple got a look at the wide array of pointy medical implements that Kenley planned to use for that job, she decided to give the job to Marcus. She then went into the backyard to play with Wolfie, the giant alien wolf she had brought back from the planimal planet. However, Wolfie hadn’t seen her in such a long time that he gave her the cold shoulder. Her feelings somewhat hurt, she went back inside.
With Isabella gone, Saxon took it upon himself to take care of Bunnicula, the carnivorous bunny rabbit that one of the Marauders had given to Kenley, who in turn gave it to Isabella. Seeing the bunny’s sharp teeth, he decided to take precautions and magically cover his arm with bark before trying to feed a steak apple. Despite his precautions, Bunnicula sunk its teeth into Saxon’s arm and completely severed it from his body. Saxon screamed himself silly until passing out from blood loss, and the noise alerted the rest of the cabal. The first to arrive was Kenley, who saw the chaos, ripped Bunnicula’s Life pattern apart, and healed Saxon (though his arm would take several weeks to regrow completely). Everyone was worried and relieved for Saxon, although certain members of the cabal (Jennifer in particular) also found morbid humor in the situation.
Bria took advantage of her newfound stability within the chantry to start looking for her parents, Jonathan and Maria May, who had abandoned her at the age of twelve. She learned that her paternal grandparents lived in nearby Portland and accepted their invitation to join them for Thanksgiving dinner. Bria’s grandparents begged her to find their son and his wife, who they thought might be living in Mexico City, and she agreed. After hearing Bria explain what had happened to the rest of the cabal, Jennifer noticed many similarities between Bria’s quest and her own search for her past, and took it upon herself to get to know Bria. After several lengthy conversations, the two of them were finally able to count one another as friends.
Perhaps most importantly, the date that Kenley and Joe had set for their wedding finally rolled around, and the cabal soon found itself caught up in the preparations. Marcus agreed to perform the ceremony. Jennifer was the maid of honor, and Gabriel the best man. Ripple planned a bachelorette party for Kenley that involved a hot tub filled with “pleasantly warm champagne,” her mentor Timber popping out of a cake and stripping, and copious amounts of alcohol. Joe’s bachelor party was rumored to have taken place at the Pleasuredome, the largest Cultist chantry in existence, but all the men involved were sworn to secrecy so no one else would ever know for sure.
The wedding itself went off without a hitch. The reception took place at one of the many movie theatres owned by Marcus, where he showed plenty of embarrassing home movies of the cabal members and everyone else showered Kenley and Joe with gifts (including a beautiful jade carving of Kenley’s lab from Wan, a custom-built computer from Jennifer, a disk of “101 x 10^32 Positions” and the entire three-day Digital Web sex video from Gabriel, and an elaborate fireworks display of bioluminescent snails orchestrated by Michael and performed by his newly renovated HIT Mark).
The next day, everyone awoke to find an unusual piece of mail: front-row tickets and backstage passes to a magic show being performed that night by someone named Christiel Phoenix. Curious, everyone agreed to attend the show, where they soon discovered that Christiel Phoenix was quite obviously a mage. Everyone eagerly went backstage and introduced themselves. Christiel Phoenix (whose real name was Christie Mallory) was a Hermetic and had a black cat familiar named Circe, who often disagreed with her and at times seemed to be controlling her. She also displayed a disturbing amount of knowledge about the cabal. Then she turned to Bria and said, “You’re the one I need to talk to.”
Christie explained that her mentor, a powerful Hermetic named Saelic, had Bria’s maternal grandfather for a contact in Mexico City. However, almost a month ago he had abruptly stopped delivering reports to Saelic, who was understandably curious about his contact’s whereabouts. A little research turned up Bria’s existence and her quest for her parents. So Christie wanted to join up with the cabal in order to find Bria’s grandfather and report back to Saelic. In exchange, she would share her information with Bria and hopefully help her find her parents. It seemed like a win-win situation, but Circe’s manipulative demeanor and the all-too-convenient situation made many members of the cabal understandably suspicious of Christie. Grudgingly, they agreed to give the arrangement a try.
Several days later, Marcus chartered a plane and the entire cabal made their way to Mexico City, where they rented the entire floor of a hotel in the middle of the city and began their investigation. Although the group split up on several occasions, mostly everyone stuck with Bria to back her up. Christie had relatively detailed information about Bria’s parents, their occupations, and their last known places of residence and employment, so that was what everyone based their investigation on. The first place they looked was the site of the archeological dig, an ancient Aztec temple still being excavated in the middle of the city, that was the last place her parents had been known to work. The cabal talked to several people at the dig and asked them about Jonathan and Maria, but got very little information from them. It seemed that although some of the employess their supervisors were not allowing them to disclose any of it. However, one employee remembered being in a nearby bar and hearing another patron say something about “that goddamn Jonathan May,” so the cabal decided to check it out.
Through an astounding coincidence, the bar turned out to be owned by none other than Bria’s maternal grandfather, who offered no explanation to Christie for his lengthy absence and was overjoyed to see his granddaughter. Bria’s emotions were slightly more guarded, but she agreed to talk to him later on. He asked where she was staying, and she hesitated only momentarily before giving him the name and address of the cabal’s hotel. They only talked for about twenty minutes before he said he had to leave, but promised to visit her sometime to continue the coversation. Then, the cabal returned to the hotel.
In the middle of the night, Bria woke up to the sound of someone climbing through the window of her hotel room. She asked, “Who the hell are you?” and the figure responded by baring fangs and attacking her. Bria screamed at the top of her lungs and let loose with an enormous fireball that toasted the intruder. Unfortunately, there were several more behind him. The rest of the cabal (except for Joe and Kenley, who were too busy enjoying their honeymoon) woke up and rushed out to help her. The first one into the hall was Ripple, whose room was next door to Bria’s. As soon as she stepped out of her room, however, one of about thirty vampires pounced on her, knocked her to the ground, and began drinking her blood (yet again). The rest of the cabal immediately recognized Bria’s grandfather among the vampires, encouraging them to destroy the cabal for knowing too much and being a danger to his plans.
A battle ensued in which Marcus, Gabriel, and Christie did most of the work with Forces effects (Christie killed Bria’s grandfather with a fireball, a fact which didn’t bother Bria at all) and only Ripple was seriously injured. (Marcus healed her and reassured her that her unborn child would be fine.) Wan took over the mind of the only surviving vampire and milked him for information. The vampire didn’t specifically know why Bria’s grandfather had been so eager to kill the cabal, but did suggest that the cabal stay off the streets of the city for the next few nights, as the vampires would be killing more than usual due to some sort of festival or ritual. The only really safe places in the city would be the Aztec ruins, which for some reason the vampires were always sure to avoid. Confused, Wan let the vampire go and everyone went back to bed.