The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 240 (Patreon)

Chapter 240 – Aftermath

(Detective Ragar’s office, Bucharest, Romania)

Two weeks after the monastery raid, Detective Paul Ragar sighed as he looked over the ever-growing pile of paperwork that faced him. It was an unfortunate reality that a police force who was properly held accountable for its actions generated a great deal in the way of reports. While the reports themselves did not ensure that people were held to account, it at least ensured that processes were followed, so that there would not be technicalities or violations that would allow someone guilty to go free, and it gave those wrongfully convicted something to use to try and win their freedom back.

It was not a perfect system. Paul had long ago realized that no system could be perfect, it could only strive to be better than it was the day before. And being better required work, including paperwork, rather than saying, “Just trust me.”

The attack on the hotel, with eight sisters in good standing from the monastery participating as they created a barrier specifically to deal with their consultants from Risen Athelia, had given them clear probable cause to raid the monastery. Using their consultants to minimize damage to the historic site and the people inside while ensuring that no one could escape was easily justifiable. Especially since everything ended with zero casualties, on either side.

However, that’s where the paperwork stopped becoming easy to deal with. They had fifty-four vampires in holding, including Flavia Nica, the ‘Mistress’ and master vampire who had turned all of these lesser vampires. She was also the mastermind behind the deaths and disappearances in the area over the last few years, including the deaths of several officers. She was also responsible for using ‘soul manipulation’ spells against numerous individuals, starting with the Abbess and the sisters at the monastery, but also including more than a few high-ranking government officials.

Holding that many vampires was a pain in its own right. While they were all wanted in suspicion for a variety of crimes, including assault and murder, they still needed to keep the vampires contained. And they couldn’t just toss them in a warded cell and be done with it. Even as criminals, they had rights, after all. Which meant arranging for shipments of blood at regular intervals, while waiting for their trial and sentencing. That meant he needed to document everything so that the future officers put in charge of their detainment would have the proper paperwork to use as a basis for requisition forms. Otherwise, they might open a gap that a defense attorney could use to spring the vampires loose, based on their rights being violated while in custody. And Paul refused to let that happen on his watch.

Thankfully, keeping the vampires contained became much easier with Flavia’s capture. The Athelian necromancer apparently put a permanent binding on the master vampire, linked to a bracelet, which he was currently wearing. The binding forced her to obey all commands from the wearer, and prevented her from hurting any citizen of Romania without express permission. This allowed him to pass orders through Flavia to the rest of the vampires, because of how the link between sire and spawn worked. So, by controlling Flavia, he could control all the vampires in custody.

Such wide-ranging and total control was extremely problematic, though, especially since it was not court-ordered. There was some leeway for special circumstances that had been written into the laws when the Awakening happened, and everyone realized that magic was real, and so were supernatural creatures. But there were limits to what was acceptable, and if he stepped over the line, not only would the case against the vampires be in danger, he’d likely be the one getting brought up on charges instead. So, he documented every order, with the exact text, to ensure that there were no mistakes.

Still, all of that was more or less reasonable, in terms of paperwork and procedure. The very borderline of reasonable, in some parts, but reasonable all the same. Unfortunately, cleaning up the aftereffects was going to be far more difficult.

First, there was the issue of the lone vampire who fled during the attack on the hotel, and had yet to be captured. There had been no contact from him on any of Flavia’s devices, which meant that he had probably seen the news of the raid on the monastery when he woke up after sleeping the day away in whatever dark corner he found, and decided that there was no Mistress to report in to. Sergeant Major Aesys suggested that he would probably go to ground for some time, after this, and likely not do more than a vampire needed to survive. Interviews with the captured vampires corroborated that view, since it seemed Flavia and the missing vampire, Filip, had often argued about the course of action the nest was taking, with Filip trying to rein in his Mistress.

They had wanted posters out with Filip’s picture, but it was doubtful anything would come of it. Beyond the normal vampire abilities to hypnotize someone briefly, to make them forget him, he had the ability to move around intangibly, which was not something the normal police could handle. Unless Filip got careless, or was betrayed by someone else, they were not likely to find him anytime soon.

The next issue had to do with the women at the monastery. All of them had been affected by Flavia’s Soul-element magic. Apparently, the difference between Soul-element magic and Soul Magic was the difference between a candle and a bonfire, but the fact remained that the damage done to the women was not something easily healed, and even the Athelians were hesitant to teach the magics that could help heal the soul, because that same knowledge would help one learn to damage it, just like a doctor learning anatomy to heal patients by necessity learned all the ways that a healthy person could be made sick or injured. And since Soul-element magics were notoriously hard to spot, unless you caught it during the casting, that was more than enough to be concerning.

Still, the Athelians weren’t turning them away completely. They had been given leave to pass on a spell that would allow someone to discover soul damage in another person, which would let them clear out Flavia’s victims in the government. They also passed on a basic Death Ward spell, which protected the target from Death-element spells and effects. Since the Soul-element was the combination of Death and Life, the spell would help protect anyone covered by it from Soul-element spells, as well.

The big problem in helping Flavia’s victims was that the victims’ souls had not been forcibly changed, but rather worn down into their new shape. The process was less invasive, requiring more time but less power. However, it also made the damage harder to reverse, since the soul no longer ‘remembered’ its former pattern. Apparently, it was similar to how it was easier for magic to fix a blade that had been broken cleanly in two, rather than one that had been rusted through. With the broken blade, you just needed to mend the break. With the rusted one, the metal was no longer there to mend.

Arabella, the Athelian Necromancer, had managed to remove the conditioned loyalty and veneration of the Mistress that had afflicted the women, but that was only the first step of their treatment. The women would, unfortunately, always be weak to mental and soul manipulation, from now on. Thankfully, nothing would keep them from living normal lives, though they would need a good deal of therapy to help build themselves back up into the faithful nuns they’d once been. It seems they were all being transferred to different monasteries around Europe, so that they could be as far removed from the site of their violation as possible, and be with others who could help them in their recovery, while other sisters would transfer in to replace them.

The Abbess, unfortunately, had been the primary target of Flavia’s Soul-element manipulation, and was the hardest hit by it. Without the Mistress, she was a shell of her former self, incapable of performing leadership duties within the Church. Still, it was not all bad news. Apparently, the Pope had taken note of the issue, and decided to bring her to the Vatican, so that the Church could not only help heal her, but learn how to heal others of such afflictions in the future. He had also heard that the Pope would be sending a delegation to the Lich Queen, asking her for training.

Then, of course, there were all Flavia’s minions in the Romanian government. Once the spell to detect soul damage was widespread enough, checking the obviously youthened members of the government, and those around them, became the priority. Those who showed signs of being affected were quietly required to resign, for health-related reasons. It was likely better than they deserved, for betraying the people under them and those they were supposed to represent, but Soul-element magic was largely an unknown before now, so they could hardly be blamed for not knowing the need to defend against and watch for it.

Still didn’t help how much paperwork there was, though.

(Peștera Movile, near Mangalia, Romania)

Filip Albescu was not having a great day, week, or even month. That much was to be expected, honestly. This cave was a constant 21 degrees Celsius, with a near-constant 100% humidity, and was all but cut off from the outside world. Nothing but insects lived here, and there was no light to speak of. It was, in every way that mattered, a thoroughly unpleasant place to be.

That said, it was also a great place for a Shadow Witch to train their power. Especially one who did not need little things like oxygen to survive, and could use shadow magic to slip through solid stone when they needed to get back above ground. Even so, he had only left the cave a handful of times since making it here, and each time it was solely to feed. And, unlike the idiots his Mistress had sired after him, he didn’t leave dead bodies behind, to alert the police. It was enough to just pick someone coming back from a night on the town, draw them in with hypnosis. A bite and a drink later, he muddled their memories enough that they clearly had too much to drink, so missing an hour or two wasn’t an issue.

Of course, there was a reason why he was hiding out in Movile Cave. Mangalia was on the Black Sea, and offered him a few possible escape routes. But if the Mistress truly had been captured, then she may well have told the investigators all about him, if they could keep her on a single subject, that is. Still, he couldn’t take the chance, which is why he had decided to wait a month, and let things have a chance to settle, at least a bit, before risking border crossings. He wouldn’t get a second chance at it, after all. Not with everything his Mistress had done.

“The Sergeant Major was right about you. You really are a smart one. How long were you planning to wait before trying to escape the country?”

Filip froze. There shouldn’t be a voice down here, other than his own, and he hadn’t been speaking. While he knew there weren’t any cameras or microphones down here, since access was still heavily restricted, to try and preserve as much of the isolated ecosystem as possible, he didn’t exactly have anyone to talk to, and he wasn’t crazy enough to start chatting with himself, not yet.

And yet, there was a voice, here, in the cave with him. It did not sound like a projection, or something telepathic. Which meant the speaker was in the room. But he couldn’t see anything, which made everything worse.

“Who is there? And why ask me that question, if you already know enough about my situation to mention it so clearly? I’m just trying to survive.”

Then, he saw a presence move through the wall, like he did. Only, it looked far easier and more natural than he could do it. And his darkvision suggested that there wasn’t actually a physical form to go with that presence.

“You can call me Lady Summershade, a servant of the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia. And since you are the only one to try and dissuade your Mistress of her foolish ideas, and had the intelligence to run the moment you saw that the attack was going to fail, and keep running until you were somewhere difficult to reach, even if someone used your Mistress’s blood to track you? Well, that kind of thing shows promise.”

Filip took a deep breath, even though he did not actually need to breathe. Force of habit from when he was alive that he still hadn’t outgrown. And, since this undead hadn’t already killed him, there was a chance that he could actually live to outgrow it, now. He just had to keep calm, and avoid anything that might be an insult.

“I am Filip Albescu, as I believe you already know. And I was planning on waiting another week or two, before trying to slip across the border, either into Bulgaria, Moldova, or Ukraine, depending on which looked least guarded against my kind. Possibly Turkey, but I fear I would stick out more there. Eventually, I would find someplace new to set up a permanent base. Someplace where I can build a life, rather than just surviving.”

“And that is why you have promise. You understand your limits, and aren’t looking to avenge or free your Mistress. Instead, you’re looking to escape. The Lich Queen can always use new servants who show such potential. Tell me, Filip, what have you heard about New Athelas?”