Issue 1 Downtime

Nailah is sitting in her ritual room on the low dais with a lit fire-bowl in front of her. The room is dimly lit and filled with aromatic smoke from the bowl. Her eyes are closed as she waits for John.

John soon knocked on the door. He could already smell the smoke.

"Step inside." she says without opening her eyes.

John did... and promptly began coughing.

"How," he said, interrupted by a cough, "Can you breathe in here?"

"Smoking helps." she says calmly, still not opening her eyes. "Give it a moment. You will get used to it."

He just breathed for a moment.

"Okay. I'm good."

"Have a seat." she says, gesturing at some pillows on the floor. "Make yourself comfortable and try to keep your thoughts on your family and your ancestors."

He sat comfortably. Sitting on the floor was something he had to get used to when visiting his Japanese grandparents.

"I'll try. I hadn't even heard of this Yamakaze guy before now."

"That's alright. You don't have to be specific about it as long as there's a connection." she says and goes quiet for a while, only occasionally chanting to herself in what must be ancient Egyptian. Eventually the smoke would begin to make John a little drowsy and there's probably something mixed in with those herbs. How else would he explain that the room seemed much bigger than before. With only the fire-bowl providing a flickering glow he could barely make out the walls anymore outside the small circle of light.

"Ar heka neb t'etet neb t'etu er-a sut..." she almost whispers, yet her voice still seems to echo in the room. Suddenly her eyes open wide, glowing faintly in the hazy light.

"So the stream of Time, swift flowing
Brings the torment of half-knowing,
Dimly rushing, blindly going,
Past the never-trodden crest;

But beyond the groans and grating
Of abhorrent Life, is waiting
Wicked dead-lights, culminating
All the years of fruitless quest."

She begins to sing-song, glowing eyes fixed on John.

"And the voyager, repining,
Hollow winds in dry throats whining,
Sees their wicked red eyes shining,
Black against the leering sky;

Thus the living, lone and sobbing
With the loathesome furies robbing
In the throes of anguish throbbing
Hear the dead ones endless cry."

Her voice grows more agitated, almost feverish.

"Skitt'ring legs in cobwebs creaking,
Ever at the spirit eating,
Things unseen forever fleeting,
Shapes in shadows pale and dry;

Ghastly shades of bygone gladness,
Clawing fiends of future sadness,
Mingle in a cloud of madness
Ever on the soul to lie."

And just like that the room is back to it's normal proportions as Nailah's trance ends. Of course it never changed sizes to begin with. That would be ridiculous.

Nailah's words sent the sensation like that of a hundred tiny crawling spiders up John's spine.

"That... did not sound good..."

"No... The enemies your ancestors fought are far from defeated..." she says, seeming disoriented.

"How far?"

"Hard to tell... You'd be wise not to underestimate them though..."

"With my family and probably even more at stake, that's the last thing I intend to do."

"I will do what I can to assist you, though I'm afraid their domain is mostly outside of my expertise."

"Their domain?"

"Japanese mythology. These things don't exactly work the same everywhere. Something that's harmless in dealing with Fae might not go over well with a Yokai. Things have different meaning in different mythologies."

"Ah. And like Fae, a Yokai is any number of different creatures. So what might work with one might not with another?"

"Presumably. As I said, the 'rules' in this are... well they're less set in stone as you'd like them to be for things that can be as binding. But it applies on a bigger scale as well. This room is dedicated to Sekhmet and the sun is one of her biggest symbols of power. Yet I doubt Amaterasu would stand for most of the things it does in this domain."

"I need to find this Abe no Seimei descendant then. Presuming that tape hasn't already erased itself or reverted to a copy of Arachnophobia, I might be able to find the guy my own way."

She nods. "If there is anything else I can help with let me know."

"Any idea how to track down a magical weapon?"

"That really depends. Books and ancient texts often mention important artifacts though not necessarily in plain text. From the sound of it you have a certain claim on this weapon due to your heritage so people who know of it's location might help you. Not many texts made it into the West to my knowledge, at least not ones beyond what passes for eastern mysticism, so I think you might have to make your way to Japan."

"I'll see if I can find this Abe guy first, since he might actually have it for all I know. Fat chance it'll be that easy of course."

"It's a start." she nods.

"I just hope he can't confuse the facial recognition like Loki did... I didn't think magic could do that, but what do I know."

"Look at it this way. Technology has a hard time measuring these things and ultimately measuring is what cameras do. You wouldn't expect a vampire to show up on a camera either." she smirks faintly.

He chuckled ever so slightly. "Let's hope magical images on haunted VHS tapes don't follow that trend or I'm back to square one."

"Well you've already seen the message it was meant to convey."

"I have to have the image of the guy to run a search for him."

"Right. Of course."

John stood up.

"Thanks for your help. As horrible a threat as this is, I feel slightly better about it."

"I'm sorry I didn't have better prospects for you."

"Yeah... but I guess a hoax was too much to hope for," he said with some frustrated bitterness.

"A bit elaborate for that, from what you've told me. But I understand the sentiment."

"Thanks again," he said, stifling a yawn. "It seems I've got a lot of work to do. But first, sleep. Assuming I can, I mean."