The Light is Flickering

Oh ho, meat.

Your angel guide has lost her already vapid mind.

Maggie has seen fit to transform a little girl who was too weak to continue on in life without the affection of a – quite frankly – sad little speck of a man, and choked down pills to stop her heart and give in to what she considered was an end to it all.

She has no clue what is in store for her. She should pray for someone to bring about that end.

If prayers worked in this place...

I looked in on this Donovan. She has been given a piece of Maggie’s blue flame, yet wields it like an infant getting its hands in a can of paint. Her training is rushed and erratic, with Maggie pushing the girl to her limits to prepare the sad creature for field work that Vessels are usually trained years in preparation for.

My last Vessel was an ex- Civil War infantryman for the Confederate Army...

Side note: I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that little period in the mortal country of America’s history. It was binge-worthy. I didn’t get much done those four years... So much blood. And numbers, on both sides, increased exponentially here in the Asylum.

Where was I? Oh yes, my last Vessel – his name was O’Conner I believe – was trained in open combat before I ever got my claws into him. As a vessel for the Malifecium, he was carefully taught to manipulate shadow for transportation, as a weapon, and proved to be especially adept at assassination, which we used him to execute a powerful mortal figurehead, I won’t mention in present company (although she would have brought a lot of happiness to the planet – we can’t have too much happiness).

Don’t give me that look. Vessels are a necessity in warfare. Your mortal countries do it all the time. They are meant to have peaceful relations with one another, yet throughout history have trained men and women to pull off special missions – whether it is assassination, or espionage, or the bombing of a World Trade Center – to shake up the status quo and get a particular edge over their enemy.

And, make no mistake, the Authority is just as guilty of changing the course of human history to help bolster their numbers as are the Malifecium. Assassination in the name of a benevolent cause is still murder.

Back to O’Conner… His next mission was to retrieve a Thrall that had decided to disobey his Horde elders (which never ends well) and possess a young boy, living in a posh area of America’s capital of Washington, DC in the 1960’s. The Thrall used the boy to do all sorts of naughty business (I won’t disturb your sensitive ears with details – although there was something about feces), which put the city into a wonderful little tizzy. However, the Thrall-possessed teen also ended up killing a human journalist – a journalist whose scathing right-wing hypocrisy was music to the Malifecium’s ears and also helped spread a good amount of hate during the rampant civil discourse that had already reached a fever pitch at the time.

The Thrall had to be punished and the only way to do it quickly, before one of the Authority’s incessantly bothersome little angel Guides filed a report that would cause strife between the two sides, we had to take drastic measures.

O’Conner had to kill the boy and release the Thrall back to The Pit, where the minor demon would suffer for eternity. So, O’Conner was transported, via one of our shadow portals, on to the mortal plane and he went about the business of confronting the teenage boy and the Thrall within.

No one could ever have predicted the end result...

O’Conner was torn, body and soul, into pieces. Why? Because the Thrall had completely bonded with the boy – who was weak and easily manipulated. In doing so, this Thrall got what most demons dream of, full control of a human body. O’Conner thought he was facing a child with some augmented speed and strength – par for the course. Oh no, this child had the complete power of a demon.

O’Conner was caught unaware.

The fight lasted less than 60 seconds and O’Conner was forever erased from existence. That is the piece of this in which Maggie may or may not have mentioned to Donovan. A Vessel – while enhanced and given certain advantages – can also be killed.

You see, the soul of the Vessel is fashioned into the physical body they are given to perform their duties on earth.

Translated: Dead body, dead soul. No moving on from that. No more chances. That’s the risk a Vessel takes for the power they are given and freedom to move about the mortal plane.

Donovan is being sent to earth to chase down, fight, and survive 29 of the most vicious souls I’ve ever laid my crystal blue eyes on.

Translated: Blue flame or not, she doesn’t have a chance.

If you see Maggie, tell her I said as much. She’s still pretty angry with me.

I still can’t imagine why...

- JUDE