27 June 1875, Sunday
I look quite odd without eyebrows. Wilhelmina assures me they
will grow back and Tattvik trimmed the charred sections of my hair away
leaving it shorter than it has been in years. To my great relief,
several rounds of wash water have removed the pungent scent of burned
hair.
It is curious to think of the number of battles I have survived that,
thanks to Mrs Cuthbert's healing powers, have left no permanent mark
upon me. If a strange hairstyle and missing eyebrows are the
worst I must endure, then I shall be grateful indeed as it wounds only
my vanity and such wounds are easily cured by looking into my husband's
eyes.
It all started with a pleasant reception at the Pratijnya's
house. Lady Cowperthwaite, Mrs Frazer, and I went, accompanied by
David and Mr Salmalin as our drivers. My husband was not allowed
to remain in the background for long. More and more family and
friends arrived to see Tattvik and 'her people' and were introduced to
us. My husband's surname attracted rather more attention that I
expected. In particular, a man named Rishi made note of it and
then shook my husband's hand in a most testing manner. It was all
rather juvenile. Though I could not help but feel a surge of
pride that Ravvi's grip seemed to meet with Rishi's approval.
I joined the two men and was introduced. If anything Rishi was
even more surprised by my appearance than that of my husband.
Some day I should really get Mrs Cuthbert to tell me how my aura
appears to other practitioners. I get the oddest looks sometimes
and, as far as I know, there is no mirror that can show me my own
aura. I asked him why my husband's surname was evoking such odd
responses. He said that it was an uncommon name in this area of
India. I'm afraid I was not terribly subtle in my attempts to get
him to elaborate. He spotted Lady Cowperthwaite talking to
a man out in the courtyard and with an exasperated look that reminded
me strongly of Inspector MacGreggor, made his excuses. Since he
was obviously making for milady and her companion, I followed along.
Lady Cowperthwaite had become intrigued by the man when she spotted him
feeding the owl that, along with a jackal and peahen, has been
following her ever since she set foot in India. She found it even
more interesting that the owl accepted food from the man, leaving his
fingers intact. I introduced milady to Rishi and he introduced me
to Viveck. Viveck had already mentioned to milady that he was a
member of a Temple and had been sent, along with several brethren to
protect the Avatar of the goddess. Rishi was not happy that
Viveck had shared this information and tried to hurry him away.
Mrs Frazer had joined the conversation by this point and was hard
pressed not to roll her eyes at Rishi's futile attempt at secrecy in
the face of Lady Cowperthwaite and Viveck's obvious rapport. And
really, trying to communicate with us through hints and secret
handshakes never works. I used to be good at it, at least in the
conventional circles I moved in when I was younger. But now,
after five years in the League and as the Witch of Darlson, I've become
enamored of plain speaking and lost all taste and talent for subtlety.
Not long after, we made our goodbyes. Tattvik remained with her
family. We were to meet up with the rest of the league at the
market (with the exception of Sir Spencer, Lieutenant Wooster, and Mr
O'Flaherty who had gone into town earlier on an unspecified errand and
Mrs Cuthbert who had remained at the bungalow to see what she might
learn through her mystical sources).
We were surprised to find that the market was closing early.
Nearly every shop was shuttered or in the process of closing as we
walked along. We soon discovered the reason― men in the black
silks of the League of Shadows (and what does it say about my life that
I am able to tell one black-clad warrior from another by the cut of
their outfits and the style of their weapons?) surrounded us and
demanded that we surrender Lady Cowperthwaite for some
poorly-thought-out plan of theirs. Given that they held naked
scimitars we were disinclined to accede to their request.
I did not hear much of the discussion after that, as I focused on
raising power. Given that we were surrounded I thought I would
only get one chance to get a spell off before having to defend myself
against their swords. Mrs Frazer and Lady Cowperthwaite kept them
talking for longer than I would have believed possible. However,
as there are only so many ways to demand someone's surrender before the
conversation gets repetitive in the extreme, the men raised their
swords and rushed us.
I cast my bewildering spell and managed not to hit any of my
companions. I could see very little effect on the onrushing tide
of black clad men― there were just too many for me to affect in such a
short time. After that it was all flashing swords and trying not
to get killed whilst the five of us held our small patch of ground.
If it had not been for the efforts of our compatriots in the background
we would not have stood a chance. However, nearly all our friends
who had not been at the party were at the market and had been quietly
taking out Shadow agents hidden in the stalls around us. Their
efforts reduced the numbers from an impossible 400 to 5 to a more
manageable 150 to 10 and soon 150 to lots as Sir Spencer, Lieutenant
Wooster, Mr O'Flaherty and many temple devotees arrived and began
thinning the ranks of the enemy even further.
Unfortunately Our Enemy also had reinforcements in the form of three
incredibly strong and nearly invulnerable men who landed in our midst
and attacked us with great glee. One man was as big and strong
(or stronger) than our Mr O'Flaherty. He sent my husband flying
with a mighty punch. Fortunately I have seen my husband recover
from much worse,― though it was difficult not to worry when he was sent
hurling away from us.
One man could control the winds and attacked George sending him after
my husband.
The final man could control flame. He went straight for Mrs
Frazer. I dove for his knees, she managed to dodge and I felt something
push against the flaming man-- toppling him over me and onto the
ground. He rolled onto his back and I stabbed him in the chest
with my sword― sending what little latent power I had into him with my
control elements spell. The spell had too little power but did
manage to disrupt his control over the energies. Unfortunately
that meant that he burst into flame, whilst I was in close proximity.
My memory of events is spotty after that. Someone knocked me off
him and smothered the flames, but I was badly burned and from that
point on nearly all of my will was directed at remaining
conscious. Mr Salmalin managed to rip the man's heart out
(following the example of Kali who had, by now, possessed Lady
Cowperthwaite). This did not result in the the death of the man
as one might expect in this situation. It did cause him pain, as
did the holy water I remembered I had in the pommel of my
sword. I gave it to Mr Salmalin during a brief pause in the
action and he poured it over the heart.
The Strong man had been removed from the field by George. The
Wind and Fire men started pulling the very life force from their
remaining minions, in a vain attempt to restore their power. I
managed to capture some of that energy while Lady Cowperthwaite, in her
role as Avatar of Kali, disposed of the rest. Mrs Frazer later
reported that Lady Cowperthwaite actually put the heart of the Wind Man
in her mouth which Mrs Frazer found barbaric and unhygienic, but it did
seem to get the job done.
All our remaining foes vanquished, who should appear but the
children. Galen led the little rescue party, driving a small cart
loaded with all the firearms the children had been able to lay hands
on. They were accompanied by Lord Vaughn who shot me what I could
only interpret as an amused but exasperated expression. He was
being held at gun point by my daughter. Apparently Mrs Cuthbert
had told her that Lord Vaughn was a “Bad Man” and when he showed up at
the house and tried to dissuade the children from setting out in search
of us that only confirmed his status in Octavia's mind and she pulled a
gun on him.
Apparently Wilhelmina took it on herself to show the children how to
shoot. Now, I have no problem with the children learning to
defend themselves, as our Occupation brings us into contact with
dangerous people who have absolutely no compunction about taking the
most vulnerable of us hostage to control the more dangerous elements in
our group. The children have been learning self-defense from Mr
Salmalin from the time they could stand. However, the idea of a
three-year-old with easy access to firearms does worry me.
Three-year-olds are not known for their accurate threat assessments.
Lord Vaughn seemed to treat his capture with the seriousness that it
deserved and had given Octavia no cause to carry out her threat (for
which I am profoundly grateful-- a more foolish man would have seen
such a threat as little more than a joke and might have gotten himself
killed). Mrs Frazer suspects that the children may be somewhat
shell-shocked given their experiences on the sea against the pirates
and may be prone to overreact to perceived threats for some time to
come.
I was just about to release the energy I had captured when Lord Vaughn
(no longer held hostage by my daughter) approached and asked me to hold
on a bit longer. Apparently the energy was really the souls of
three of the Shadow members and Lord Vaughn thought that he could
transfer them to another vessel so as to question them later. I
gave my consent and he worked his magik on me, pulling the souls
into a watch. It was an eerie feeling. I realized that,
other than Mrs Cuthbert's healing, I have rarely allowed anyone to
be-spell me voluntarily.
I could feel Mrs Cuthbert all around us. Somehow, she had been
with us in spirit throughout the battle, healing the wounded, shielding
us from harm as best she could.
I woke up in my bed at the villa, healed of my injuries and smelling of
burnt hair. Tattvik and the aforementioned multiple basins of
water soon cured that and, dressed in clean clothes, I am
about to join the others in an attempt to extract information from the
captured souls.
~Later~
Questioning the former Shadow agents was not as revealing as we might
have hoped. All three of them were merely foot soldiers,
and their knowledge of events and future plans was, unsurprisingly,
limited.
We did glean the following:
It was their intent to capture Lady Cowperthwaite and use her as bait
to lure the Vrita worshipers into a trap. The Vritra worshipers
need Lady Cowperthwaite as the “Vessel of Kali” as well as a
jewel-encrusted knife in order to complete their ritual. The
knife is thought to be over a thousand years old. Which may mean
that the knife that the jewelery shop owner was murdered for is not the
one needed for the ritual. That knife did not have the impact on
the local magikal field that a thousand-year-old artifact would have
had.
All but Lady Cowperthwaite, Mr Salmalin, George and Wilhelmina
were considered expendable. How they ever thought they would get
anywhere near Lady Cowperthwaite while my husband and George were still
alive puzzles me greatly.
The force of 400 men who attacked us were drawn from the surrounding
region and were nearly all of the local Shadow agents.
There are additional Shadow headquarters in Bombay, Bora, and
Balaghat. Unfortunately, Balaghat is our next destination and
best guess as to Lady Cowperthwaite's mother's location.
Once our conversation with the spirits was concluded, Mrs Cuthbert
spent no little time with them, convincing them to 'go to the light'
rather than return to the Shadow Master's resurrection pits. She
later reported that she was successful, which means that between Mrs
Cuthbert and Kali, many of the souls of the men who attacked us have
been freed from the dreadful cycle of death and rebirth that the Shadow
Master demands of his followers.
28 June 1875, Monday
I had intended to spend the morning resting after our ordeal
yesterday. Mrs Cuthbert was able to heal most of the
damage. However, her skills were needed by nearly all of our
party―especially given that nearly all of the ladies of the party share
a Delicate Condition.
Instead of a quiet morning, I heard Dr Langtry downstairs, demanding to
be shown to Mrs Cuthbert. He was radiating such a cloud of anger
that I could feel it all the way in my room, and I am not usually
Sensitive to such things. I toyed with the idea of staying abed
and leaving Mrs Cuthbert to face him, but could not bring myself to
abandon her to the odious man-- particularly after she had faced him
down in her dream state (he had put a spell on her to allow him to
follow along on any prophetic dream she might have).
I joined Mrs Cuthbert and instructed David not to bring tea.
Lady Cowperthwaite joined us in her role as Lady of the House, but for
the most part sat back watched. Dr Langtry tried to make the case
that it was our duty as practitioners to report to him. It is
true that I have a relationship with the Lord High Warlock's office,
but my primary allegiance is to Sir Cosmo and Lady Cowperthwaite and,
through them, Our Employer. Dr Langtry seemed to think that I was
in some way under his command when, in fact, I reported on the matters
related to our adventures in the South China Sea as a
courtesy―one which he has so far not reciprocated. I did
make it clear that he was not to interfere with any of my people
again. This makes twice that he has cast a spell on one of our
party without our consent.
After Dr Langtry took his leave, Mrs Cuthbert pulled me aside and
mentioned, that in all the excitement of yesterday she had forgotten
that she <u>had</u> had a vision of where Von Klatna and
Count Lyndram had been hiding. They had sought sanctuary in the
local Mission.
Soon we had a party ready to go and see if they might still be
there. We thought it unlikely given the ruckus of the day before,
but we could not miss the opportunity to catch up to them.
At the Mission it became clear that the men had not only stayed there,
but had snuck out in the small hours of the morning without so much as
a word to their hosts. The senior sister in charge of the Mission
was not pleased that one of the junior sisters had fallen for the story
the men had spun. We warned the sisters that at least one of the
men was dangerously crazy suggested that they avoid further contact
with them.
I then sent a note to Lord Vaughn asking if he had heard anything about
two foreign men leaving town early Monday morning. Mr Salmalin
spotted Viveck in the street disguised as a food seller and asked the
same question. Viveck did not have any information and said he
would get back to us.
By then it was time to go to another family party at the Pratijnya's
house. I spent an enjoyable afternoon visiting with old
friends. I did my best to further David's cause by being as
pleasant and unexceptionable as possible.
Upon my return home there was a note from Lord Vaughn that two men
matching the description of von Klatna and Count Lyndram had
bought a small cart and were seen leaving Mhow before dawn.
Viveck had also reported back with similar information. Likely we
will chasing them all the way to Balaghat.
29 June 1875, Tuesday
Another quiet morning disrupted!
This time it was in the form of the Strong Man that George had dropped
in the river. He came to the tradesmen's entrance and begged an
audience with Lady Cowperthwaite. Naturally Mrs Frazer, Mrs
Cuthbert and I could not let her face him unescorted. George and
Mr Salmalin seemed at odds over something but I could not tell what it
was.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when the Strong Man
genuflected before Lady Cowperthwaite and told her that he had seen the
error of his ways, asked her forgiveness and said he wanted to serve
her in any way he could. I told the man that forgiveness was easy
but redemption was hard. He repeated this was the path he had
chosen. Lady Cowperthwaite seemed to think for a moment and then,
in a sure quiet voice that did not quite sound like her own she
instructed the Man to go to Bombay, find find Dasa, the one-eyed hermit
and help him with the shrine to Kali. The Man bowed several more
times before leaving. I caught Mr Salmalin's arm and asked him to
follow and give the Man the benefit of his advice. My husband's
advice is well worth following.
Sir Cosmo continues to be away from the house, meeting with people and
trying to arrange enough elephants and guides to get our entire party
to Balaghat.
Tattvik's parents came over for tea and then we joined them for
dinner. David stayed behind to make his proposal to Tattvik's
father. Tattvik has spent the past few days preparing her mother
for the shock of David's proposal―one can only hope that Sweta passed
the warning on to Tattvik's father.
30 June 1875, Wednesday
Sweta sent a note over asking to meet with me. Tattvik invented
some errands and fled the house leaving David and me to face her
mother. Luckily Lady Cowperthwaite invited herself to join
our party and was able to say several nice things about David, his
brother Stuart (who is also with us and was dragged in to be introduced
at one point during the conversation) and Mr Graves, their uncle, who
is holding down the fort back in London.
Sweta started out in all seriousness of her interrogation of David but
after an hour she smiled her sparkling smile and I knew that David had
won her over. Though that did not stop her from teasing the poor
man mercilessly. I never knew her to be so ruthless, but then I
never saw her evaluating a potential husband before either.
After she left, I took Octavia out to the market to look for some new
fabric dresses for her. She has grown an inch in the last week
alone! She has been following her father around and getting
underfoot ever since he expressed disapproval of her methods in dealing
with Lord Vaughn and in helping Galen trick Violet and Daru.
She will turn four in August and a few months after that, if all goes
well, will become a big sister to the child I now carry. She has
my talent for languages, but Ravvi's fearlessness and
physicality. I suspect she will always be her father's daughter,
but with with that legacy comes a certain responsibility. Ravvi
is still working on designing a training regimen that takes advantages
of her strengths while helping her learn some of her
weaknesses. Perhaps when her sibling arrives we can channel
some of her fearlessness into protecting the baby and learning more
defensive manoeuvres.
In the meantime, I really must step up my search for an appropriate
caretaker to join Violet and Daru. Originally I had thought that
another nursery-maid would be sufficient, but now I see that we need
someone more like George who can keep up with the children and cope
with their tendency to run <u>toward</u> a fight. I
will ask Sweta and Viveck if they can recommend anyone. Goodness
knows people with George's skills are rare indeed― though perhaps not
quite as rare here as in London.
While we were out shopping, Octavia and I were having a discussion as
to why I would not buy her the pink sari she wanted (a three-year-old
does not need a gold trimmed sari of the finest silk) and I heard a
woman in cutting English tones whisper in that carrying manner 'spare
the rod, spoil the child.' It took nearly all of my self control
not to turn on the woman and explain that when you have been teaching
your child arcane physical arts from the time they could stand you need
be both smarter than the child and have some bond with them that will
make them <u>choose</u> to obey you― violence will not win
arguments. Especially when the child has experienced the violence
of battle firsthand and knows the all-out violence that is required
until the other person goes down and stays down.
Octavia has seen the evil that men (and women, I'm afraid to say)
do. I do not want her to ever confuse the violence that comes
from that evil (and that we fight tooth and nail against) with my
disapproval of her. If we learned anything from Wilhelmina's
rather odd upbringing it is that a resourceful child of her caliber (of
which all of our children are) is bound to you only by affection.
However, as the adult you do have certain advantage (age is rumored to grant wisdom
after all). The moment I resort to force to make Octavia obey me
will be the moment that I lose her trust and break the very bonds of
affection I deem necessary to our survival as a family.
~Later~
Octavia and I returned home to find that Mr and Mrs
Pratijnya would be coming over for a second visit. Mr
Pratijnya wants to meet Stuart and hear more about David's family
connexions back in England. I see this as a positive sign, though
David is quaking in his highly polished boots. I left David in
Stuart's care and went to find Tattvik and ensure that she was looking
her best for this important meeting. She had recovered from her
attack of nerves earlier in the day and was quite determined to see the
thing through.
~Evening~
Mr Pratijnya has taken David off to a coffee shop to discuss matters
further and to get his horoscope done. I tried to reassure Stuart
that this was a good sign but he was still shaken from the meeting with
his brother's prospective father-in-law.
1 July 1875, Thursday
It is done! Mr Pratijnya has agreed to Tattvik and David's
betrothal and a date for the ceremony has been set (as much as is
possible given that we are leaving tomorrow for Balaghat and are
uncertain as to the date of our return). I am so pleased for
Tattvik. She has been very worried that her parents would not accept
the strange Englishman she has chosen.
Quite frankly I was concerned that her parents might not be pleased by
her long association with me and might have tried to keep her from
returning to England with us. However, during our visit several
things became clear to me as to why they were willing to let her go to
England in the first place.
Tattvik did not have a lucky life here-- her first fiancé died
and apparently she had gained a reputation for having bad luck.
Not a good thing in such a small community. Coming away with me
to England seems to have changed her luck for the better and her
parents do not appear to desire to tamper with that. Not to
mention that Sweta was one of my best and, toward the end of my
time here, only friends. She knew me better than I knew myself
and, I know think, sent her daughter to look after me as she was not
sure I could take care of myself in my reduced circumstances.
I will not deny that Tattvik's company saw me through the worst of some
Very Bad Times and she deserves all the happiness she can hold.
2 July 1875, Friday
At last! We are riding Elephants! We are on our way to
Balaghat and have so far managed to avoid having the odious and
officious Dr Langtry join us. We are in the company of Lord
Vaughn (he had contracted with the last reliable guide) and a man named
Graf von Hammerstein (who had contracted many of the Elephants we
needed). He is a big game hunter, knows Sir Spencer and seems
delighted to combine forces with us. We are several hours out of
Mhow and are having a grand time. Octavia loves how high up we
are and has no fear of the elephants.
Proceed to Echoes of
his father's madness
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