A catgirl waring goggles and a tool belt brought my missing doll Sasha to my door, in extreme disrepair. Tells me she was attacked by Luddite mice. Luddite mice? Mimmoths weren't bad enough? I ask the young lady what she'll accept as reward, all she asks for is lunch. Luckily I've started a small aquarium from my new fishing hobby.
She told me her name is Aviva. I ask her where the Luddite mice came from. They first appeared in Russia after a particularly violent spat of industrial unrest. Industry builds a better mousetrap, the mice unionize. Unlike mimmoths that destroy devices as a fight-or-flight response, Luddite mice are more sophisticated. They use pieces of machinery they've stolen as tools. They coordinate their sabotage and even subvert machines to their own ends, especially when food production is involved.
During the Steelhead meeting I felt a chill down my spine. Frau Lowey and I both sensed that Jeremiah had returned to Earth. I had an emergency meeting in Belhaven with Marcus that very night.
Koen had already been to Belhaven, and destroyed Marcus's hidden bloodfruit tree. He couldn't deny it. Bloodwing's vine cellar was pungent from it. I could smell it from halfway across the island. The thought of him using modern fermentation equipment in the 9 Muses Brewery to mass-produce bloodwyne...or worse, a tainted version of their standard ale, was highly disturbing to say the least. I wasn't even going to ask how he retrieved it Aleister's destroyed lair!
The curious thing is the day after Koen's sabotage, someone arrived in Belhaven and tried to reanimate Count Diablo to exact a favor from him. The figure identified himself as Jeremiah. The reanimation process failed, however. Diablo was back in the spirit world within a matter of hours. Chemical analysis of remains revealed the reanimation serum used was not potent enough. It was too old, diluted, or an insufficient amount.
Koen must have known Jeremiah was coming and destroyed Marcus's raw materials for the serum beforehand. Had our Father succeeded, certain enchantments over Belhaven would have broken. That is all I can divulge at this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment