Chapter 13:
(10/12/01)
Chance’s sudden birth and even more sudden departure left the cabal in profound confusion. Everyone decided to take a few more days before going to Japan to rest, strengthen old bonds, and create some new ones. While Bria, Christie, and Jennifer got to know each other better, Ripple sought out Marcus and tried to figure out exactly what the hell had happened. After a lengthy conversation, Ripple managed to alert Marcus to the fact that he had gone into Quiet. Realizing that he was putting the cabal in danger by staying as he was, he agreed to find some way to get out of it. The next morning, the cabal awoke to a note on the kitchen table from Marcus, saying that he’d gone away and probably wouldn’t be back for at least six months. However, he hoped that when he returned it would be as his old self again.
After having a conversation with Jennifer, Kenley came to a surprising realization: Despite her earlier stated intentions, she wanted to have children. She brought the matter up with Joe, who was initially reluctant but ultimately acquiesced. Several days later (and with the help of some well-placed Life magic), she announced her pregnancy to Jennifer and Ripple but asked them to keep it a secret from everyone else. (Gabriel, however, figured it out right away.) To celebrate, Bria, Christie, Gabriel, Jennifer, Kenley, and Ripple had a party in the Digital Web. The party primarily consisted of Kenley turning into a giant penis, trying to hit on Christie as part of an elaborate practical joke, and ultimately getting smacked by whiteout after changing her icon one too many times and being stuck in the form of Bambi for the rest of the night. Gabriel and Jennifer, meanwhile, pretended not to know the rest of the cabal.
The next morning, everyone was sitting at breakfast when the doorbell rang. Kenley got up to answer it and saw another killer robot similar to the one we’d seen at the Technocratic compound sitting on the front step. She knew that Michael had been trying to renovate one in his spare time, so she smiled and said, “Hi, Amy.” Amy responded by shooting her in the chest with a jet of paint, then brushing past her into the kitchen. There, Amy subsequently engaged every member of the cabal in a mock battle and gauged their “combat potential.” Since the bulk of the cabal was completely unprepared for such an attack, everyone’s potential was fairly low (with the exception of Gabriel, Marcus, and Wan, who managed to fight back somewhat successfully). Michael, meanwhile, sat back and watched the entire thing with a look of mild amusement on his face.
After everyone had been splattered with paint, a number of cabal members became furious and demanded to know what Michael had hoped to accomplish with his little morality play. He explained that over the past few weeks, he had realized that the chantry would be more or less undefended and the inhabitants unprepared in the case of an attack from the Technocracy, the Nephandi, or another force (and given all that had happened in the past month or two, either was a very real possibility). By using Amy, who was relatively weak compared to most of the other things the cabal might face, he had hoped to give everyone a wake-up call and encourage them to make the chantry into a more secure place. Jennifer saw his point right away and managed to argue the rest of the cabal into seeing her point of view. Only Kenley still remained more than a little miffed about the entire situation. (One nice side effect of this event was that Jennifer gained a considerable amount of respect for Michael, which had been missing beforehand.)
Hard feelings or none, over the next few days the cabal mobilized and overhauled the chantry using both magical and mundane means. They erected a high yet still unobtrusive-looking fence around the land, and Jennifer installed security cameras and intercom systems as she had done at the chantry back in Atlanta. Saxon shielded the node in the backyard so it couldn’t be traced as easily. Kenley secured all the doors and windows with razor-sharp blades that could be triggered at a moment’s notice. Christie also magically warded the front door. Bria set up a Time ward on the stairs that would freeze anyone approaching unless they touched a specific place on the banister. Ripple, in her typically idiomatic Ripple way, set up a Mind ward around the chantry that would cause any unauthorized person trying to gain entry to be struck with the overwhelming urge to go shopping. And just in case things got ugly, Jennifer set up a few permanent Correspondence gates in an upstairs closet that would teleport everyone to a few more secluded sites owned by Marcus, if need be.
A few days after completing the new fortifications, the cabal received an invitation from their neighbors, the Wilsons, to attend a backyard barbecue. Somewhat ironically, they accepted it and got to know their neighbors. During the party, everyone noticed a black van crusing slowly around the neighborhood, then seeming to get confused and leave. After a little discussion, the cabal correctly deduced that it had most likely been a bunch of Technocrats following the signature of their Node and planning to destroy the chantry—until they lost the signal, that is. It seemed that the cabal had mobilized just in time…
Several days later, the cabal embarked for Japan on the continuing hunt for Bria’s parents. In Tokyo, they found it almost ridiculously easy to locate the Fujito Corporation, which was one of the largest companies in the country and had its skyscraper headquarters smack dab in the middle of the city. Upon arriving at the corporate headquarters, they were greeted by Seko and became automatically suspicious, but knew they had to follow through on this opportunity.
Seko took everyone into a conference room and explained that his employers, the Fujito Corporation, would be more than willing to let Bria see her parents—if the cabal, of course, did a favor for them first. The favor entailed finding a magical dagger which had been broken into three pieces (the blade, the hilt, and the stone) and scattered across Japan. Once assembled, it would become a potent tool for completing the human sacrifice ritual that the cabal had seen depicted in the Aztec temple. When the cabal delivered the dagger, Bria would get to see her parents.
The cabal decided to take some time to think over the offer and spent the night staying in hotel rooms paid for by the Fujito Corporation. As expected, there was a substantial amount of debate over whether the cabal wanted to take on this new responsibility. Some members seemed to resent being dragged into something that was technically Bria’s personal business, while others were more than eager to help her. Kenley also argued that because the ritual reeked of the Nephandi, the cabal should not deliver them the real dagger, even though doing so might put Bria or the entire cabal in jeopardy. At length, the cabal decided to take Seko’s offer, work together as a show of solidarity, and deal with the ethical problem of handing over the dagger when that particular problem arose.
The next morning, the cabal returned to the Fujito Corporation to convey their acceptance of Seko’s offer. He seemed delighted and even offered the cabal their first lead in the search. Apparently, a relatively powerful mage and employee of the Fujito Corporation lived in the area, was very knowledgeable about local legend and myth, and would be willing to point out probable hiding places for the dagger in the area. The cabal thanked him and set out to meet the mage.
The mage proved to be a friendly, polite old Japanese man who had a daughter named Ra Lei. (She was also a mage, an Akashic Brother to be exact.) He was very hospitable but could not offer the cabal any concrete ideas for how to find the dagger. However, he offered Ra Lei’s continued services to the cabal, thinking that her superior knowledge of her home country might be of some use. They accepted the help and returned to the hotel, planning to begin in earnest the next day.