Sovereign

Entry 43: TL-2011-22-03.txt - 03/22

(We received this along with the previous document as part of the complete records of Agent Sanders' activities within the Esoteric Division. These are the event logs of J. Trotter, part of his advanced functions carried out to provide records in a state of emergency by storing observations in easily-compressible text. Think of him as the Esoterics' Black Box. - Allen)

Zoe Sanders wails she slams against the wall. Screams come from outside. Someone starts saying a spell in an arcane language before being suddenly cut off.

"Get up!" Raphael shouts.

Mosadiel had told us to take refuge in the interview room, and to make sure no harm comes to Zoe. That is going to be difficult, as she repeatedly falls over after every tremor and shockwave. Besides, there is hardly anything left of the room. Most of the walls are broken down, the tables and chairs turned over. From my vantage point, the corridor looks similarly destroyed. In the earlier commotion, Magreb somehow slipped away, but finding her is not our current assignment. The shouts continue, but we are blind to the actual activities. Zoe crawls back to the space between Raphael and me.

"We need to move, now!" Raphael shouts over the sound of another explosion.
Zoe nods, staring nervously over the edge of the upturned steel table we are crouching behind. There is blood dripping down the side of her head, but I do not inform her of this. There is no advantage to be gained, and the knowledge would only distract her. I recognize Erin Leon's voice somewhere within the fray. Raphael grabs Zoe by the arm and stands. I follow. We reach the broken wall just as something huge is hurled down the corridor. A door. Raphael curses.

"The entry's blocked."

I turn to confirm. Huge slabs of the concrete wall cover the entry point. And from the massive wreckage overhead, it is accurate to assume that the tunneling containing the elevator shaft is also collapsed.

"Isn't there another other way?"

"There is. But it's that way," Raphael replies, nodding in the direction of the violent activity.

Zoe shakes her head. "No other choice?"

"Stay behind me at all times."

We walk cautiously towards the source of the disarray, taking cover behind as many obstacles as we can find. There is a very loud scream and a flaming body hurtles past us. It is so charred that I cannot recognize who it might have been. I glance beyond the wall we are hiding behind. A woman with hair the colour of blood walks ahead. Her spectral field seems to drain all the light around her, though strangely it does not darken my perception of her skin. Erin is across from her on the corridor, glaring and breathing heavily. She picks up a rock and throws it at the woman, but the rock breaks and disintegrates when it comes within ten meters of her, turning into fine dust by the time it reaches the target. Erin rushes through the dust to kick her in the chest. She is knocked back a few steps but moves forward again, undeterred.

"Is that Crystal?" Zoe asks.

"Yes," Raphael replies "Come on."

He steps away from the wall and hurries behind another barrier - the receptionist's table. I assume it fell off the ceiling since she isn't around to maintain her contra-gravity. Zoe follows, ducking just in time to avoid being hit by an energy blast. I remain hidden where I am, as I calculate that our three bodies cannot fit in the space behind the barrier.

"Why does she look like that?" Zoe says, looking over the table. "All...weird and dark."

"Get down! It's the Cursed Mantle."

"What?"

"It's the appearance of all angels and angel-born who have abandoned the way of the Light. The opposite is the Cloak of Righteousness. The halo humans like talking about."