Chapter Text
Excerpts from a journal found in a hospital lost-and-found in Massachusetts, now in the possession of Jonathan Sims, The Archivist. Translated from Gerard Keay’s personal code.
Met a couple magician kids today. Not very well trained. I’m going to have to explain a lot.
I am. Not great at explaining.
So, magic is playing checkers with the universe
Scratch that. Magic is like a computer code—
No no no.
Calculus! Magic is like calculus that affects the world around you. Or trigonometry, maybe, I didn’t actually study normal maths.
Every symbol is an aspect of the world, every equation is a spell. That’s why spell books are so important, they help you remember everything in the right order for your casting.
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever try to cast a spell without it written in front of you. If you make a mistake, you’ll be lucky if only you explode. If you’re not lucky, you’ll take an entire city down with you. You’re playing with the essence of the universe, here.
When you’re learning a spell, or developing a new one, it helps to have reminders outside the book, too. I’ll draw out the symbols on whatever I’m casting on, or I’ll gather materials that have the right resonance for what I’m trying to do. Carrying charcoal in my pockets really helped when I was learning fire spells.
Be extremely careful with unfamiliar spell books. A lot of them are cursed. If you ever find one with a bookplate that says “From the Library of Jurgen Leitner,” burn it immediately.
What else? Vampires! They’re real. So are some other things, but vampires are the ones you’re most likely to meet. Don’t drink their blood, don’t invite them inside. Et cetera.
Every so often a vampire clan tries to perform a ritual that will remake the world in that clan’s image. They usually need magicians to do it, so they could come after you. There’s a spell for fire that mimics sunlight I can teach you, to chase them away, but there’s one clan that won’t do much against, so it’s better not to draw their attention at all.
Blech. I just know that even with writing it all out, I’ll forget something important when I try to explain it to them. And thanks to Mum, there’s no way to train them properly without getting them mixed up in things too big for them.
I’ll copy out some useful spells that shouldn’t be too dangerous for them, at least.
Each of the vampire clans claims to serve their own separate god, or entity, or whatever. I guess it makes as good an explanation for where their powers come from as any. They definitely don’t work like magicians do.
But it’s weird that their gods are all to do with fears. Where’s the god of love, or justice, or indigestion? Why is it just fear of the dark, fear of being watched, fear of being hunted, fear of death, fear fear fear?
I’d like to believe there’s a more benevolent god out there somewhere. That seems to be enough that holy water works for me, a little, but I’m really not sure.
Mum used to think there was a way to serve the vampires’ deities and gain immortality without being bound to any specific one of them. She thought it would be better than turning, make her stronger or cut the disadvantages or something.
I don’t know if she still thinks that way, and I’m not inclined to ask.
I got my last eye tattoos done today. Mum’s not happy about it, says I’m binding myself too much to the Beholding. I knew she wouldn’t like it. She’ll find some way to make me suffer for it, I’m sure.
But, I’m not bound to the Eye clan, I’m just tapping a little into the Power it serves. It’ll be trouble if any vampires of the Eye figure out what I did, but it’s worth it! My senses are so much stronger!
Thanks to Mum, things are going to come after me whatever I do. At least this way I’m forewarned.
Anyways, it’s a much better way of pulling power from the Powers than skinning myself, Mother. Or collecting evil spellbooks.
If I ever meet Jurgen fucking Leitner, I’m going to kill him.
Well. Got those tattoos just in time. Related news, burns are the worst and I hate hospitals.
She’s gone. I can’t believe it.
Years of trying to destroy that damn book, years of orders from her ghost, and the Archivist destroyed her in less than an hour. I’m free.
I owe Gertrude so much. She said I can pay her back by helping stop the rituals some of the clans are planning. I’d want to do that anyway, so of course I said I’d help.
I wonder if I should change my surname. Not like I’m that attached to Mum’s. And after all the fuss of the trial, it would be nice to have a name that’s less recognizable.
I could be a Delano, like Dad. Maybe he’d like that. I don’t know.
But if I try to change my name the cops might start stalking me again. Probably best not to—I’m busy enough as it is without extra paperwork.
Buried Clan
Vampires with the power of paralysis. The Power they serve is also called the Choke, or Forever Deep Below Creation if you want to be poetic. I don’t.
Current status: tried for a ritual, been stopped. I try not to think about it. Never the biggest clan around, so they’ll likely stay under the radar for now.
Corruption Clan
Vampires with command over insects, worms, funguses—all things decay and disease. Let their little friends feed on their victims with them. Their god is also called Filth or the Crawling Rot. 0/10, do not want to encounter again.
Current status: uncertain. Dekker killed the clan head, but there’s enough survivors to make trouble.
Dark Clan
Shadow-walkers. Not fun to fight, they can duck into a corner and disappear, or show up behind you after you think an area’s safe.
They worship something called Mr. Pitch or the Forever Blind. Founded a cult to draw in victims, you know, like jerks.
Current status: prepping for a ritual.
Desolation Clan
The only bloodline that can walk in the sun. Call their Power Asag or the Lightless Flame. Big fans of learning what things their victims love most and then destroying them. Without my tattoos, I’d have likely lost the use of my drawing hand. Also have a cult.
Current status: there’s some kind of stalemate with their ritual? Gertrude isn’t explaining it well. Not an immediate concern.
Death Clan
Death lovers, of course. Capable of sending their victims into a permanent sleep. Lots of Snow-White-style glass coffins in their lairs. They serve Terminus, or The Coming End That Waits For All And Cannot Be Ignored, because they’re all pretentious gits.
Current status: probably the only clan that hasn’t tried for a ritual of some kind. I guess it makes sense. Death gets everyone eventually, even vampires.
Eye Clan
The clan whose powers match my natural magical inclinations best—control of the mind, memories, knowledge, sight. They serve the Beholding or the Ceaseless Watcher or It Knows You.
Current status: planning SOMETHING with the Magnus Institute, but all we’ve got is guesses.
Flesh Clan
Shape shifters, of a sort. Give themselves body parts taken from victims. Their power is called Viscera, or the Last Feast, and it and their bloodline seem newer than the others—relatively speaking.
Current status: their latest ritual was stopped. It took three washes to get the smell out of my jacket. Gave me migraines.
Hunt Clan
Extremely annoying!!!
Very sharp senses. Will hunt down absolutely anything supernatural that isn’t them, me included. Probably why the werewolves are all but extinct. And to make matters even better, a bunch of them are cops!
Current status: Annoying!
Their ritual to change the world, Everchase, is in progress, sort of. Their problem is that they love the chase so much they hate the capture or kill when there isn’t more prey to go after, so none of the leeches involved are going to actually complete the ritual any time soon.
Lonely Clan
Can turn invisible. Even to me and my senses. Worship the Forsaken. A lot of them are Lukases.
You’d think a group of people so fond of isolation would learn to mind their own damn business, but so far no luck.
Current status: licking their wounds, hopefully.
Slaughter Clan
Very very angry people. Like sharks in a blood frenzy, but so much worse. Serve Butchery.
Current status: little concern. Apart from their general desire to tear people apart, at least.
Spiral Clan
Vampires who can walk through people’s dreams. Very unpleasant, but not many are left. Their god is the Twisting Deceit or It Is Not What It Is.
Current status: Nearly wiped out when Gertrude stopped their ritual. The surviving member has a grudge against her.
Stranger Clan
Shape shifters, able to take on the face of anyone they’ve bitten. Follow a Power called I Do Not Know You, often affiliated with circuses and clowns and the uncanny valley.
Current status: preparing a ritual. We’re going to blow it up. I don’t know how Gertrude got hold of that much plastic explosives, and I’m a little scared to ask.
Vast Clan
Flying vampires. Lovers of wide open spaces and great big heights. Big fans of dropping people from those heights. Servants to the Falling Titan.
Current status: uncertain. There’s enough of them to make trouble, though.
Web Clan
Extremely dangerous, casters of the most powerful Compulsions I’ve encountered. Capable of puppetting multiple victims at a time, from long distances. They call their deity the Mother of Puppets, or sometimes Hidden Machination.
Current status: Quiet. Too quiet.
Wasn’t much help to Gertrude today. Got a headache that made me dizzy at exactly the wrong moment, and the vampire got away. Thought she’d yell at me, but she just said I should get more rest.
I don’t know why I keep expecting her to act like Mum did. She’s much subtler than that.
Dekker was researching the possibility of a fifteenth clan forming before he died. I dunno. Wouldn’t there need to be a fifteenth Power for that to happen? Unless the bloodlines form and then the Powers?
Update: I checked his notes. He thought it already existed.
I think we magicians would sense a new Power forming, though. We don’t usually use them, but they make ripples that are pretty obvious, at least to me. Unless it’s just a new aspect of a Power that already exists?
Huh. Wouldn’t it be weird if the vampires turned out to all be worshiping different aspects of the same entity? The Hunt and Slaughter clans have enough overlap, but I think the Vast and Buried clans might implode.
I need to stop thinking about this so much, it’s giving me headaches.
A tumor? A fucking tumor!
I’ve survived curses, Leitners, angry trees, burns, entirely too many vampires, and my mum, and I’m being taken down by a brain tumor! Part of my own body!
No. No way. I found Dad’s old research notes. He didn’t make much progress with what he actually wanted to do, but he created a lot of healing spells. It’s not my usual brand of magic, but I’ll figure it out. I refuse to die so easily.
I still hate hospitals, even when there aren’t daywalking vampires in them. I refuse to die in one.