Fire in the Chapel
Karen gained no further essence till the dawn, which brought the delicate sound of building forces into her once more. The nights searches were mostly fruitless, only reinstating several of the previous impressions.
With the morning and breakfast, Melanie explained that she might be gone for some time to her husband, who eyes Karen in that half nervous way that he always did, and aqueses quietly. The small child ran up to Karen and gaves her leg a firm hug, pleased to see her. She played with the little one until Melanie was ready, and the two of them headed out to the power plant.
A few flashes of badges later, and they had an interview with the man who Melanie spoke with the day before. Steven Ryman, electrical engineer.
"What exactly is it that you wanted to see me about?" He asked. Karen watched him closely, resting by the generator while Melanie asked all the questions. After a while it became eminently clear that the fellow had no idea about what was going on. Karen became certain that he had been tampered with in some way, however, due more to Melanie's cirtainly that she had had a converation with the man of which he has no recollection, than anything else.
Melanie made a few more discrete inquiries, but discovered little of use. It seemed that there had been a state wide brown out at the time, but the causes ware under investigation. She gets told to check back in a couple of days and see what they discover then.
After this somewhat frustrating time, Karen took a breif walk around the generator, and sensed some vague past disturbance to the symphony in this place, but it had ended now, and she could not lock on to an exact location or what was done, or by whom. At least Karen gathered more essence by this excursion.
Finally, the two of them took their leave of the generator and made their way to the airport to catch the next plane to New York.
Ariving at John Kennedy airport, Melanie organized the rental car, while Karen stood by. And it was then that the Symphonic disturbance washed over her.
It had built up to a creshendo, as though several Symphony disturbing acts had been pushed into one moment of intense sound. The direction was clear, but faint, as though from a fair distance. Karen looked at a wall map and assessed her position in relation to the rest of the city. The sound was definately coming from Queens. Karen checked her watch. 10:30am.
Queens was where Nathaniel was. Well, she thought, at least that's where they were headed now. Karen made sure they headed to the disturbance as quickly and directly as possible, she driving and letting Melanie navigate. On the way Karen asked Melanie about what she just felt (if anything) and they turned on the radio to see if anything had hit the news...
Melanie shook her head as she navigated by the street map that all rental cars came with. "No, I didn't notice anthing, but I was talking with someone, and you are better at noticing that sort of thing than me." She and Karen both blinked in surprise as another Symphonic chord sounded. This one was much softer and less complex. "But I heard that!" she added.
Karen thought about her investigations last night, and tried to figure out if that area was the one they were going to drive towards anyway, or if not, then how close it was to any of the UFO incidents.
Within a street or two, she realised. Awfully close in fact.
With the radio on, Karen flicked through looking for local news chanels and got an abrupt news report.
"... church of St Sebastian are warned to clear the area. The fire department have reported that there is danger to nearby buildings, so if you can see the fires then it is a good bet that you should move away. At this time it is not clear wether there have been any people hurt. More updates as they come to hand."
And, almost on cue, Karen began to see the smoke. A church was burning, and the flames rose up high above local structures. As they pull closer to the fire, the flashing lights of fire department and ambulence vehicles added to the colours. There were several bystanders looking about, as well as a couple of news crews, being kept back by firemen.
The church was fully ablaze, stained glass popping and shattering in its lead housings, stones blackening from the heat within. The outside remained relatively sturdy, at least for now, and smoke rose like an indignant finger to the Heavens.
She parked the car, flashed her badge at anyone who tried to obstruct her, and then had a good look around at who was there and what was happening... including for any signs of demons or Father Nathaniel. She asked the firemen about what was happening and if they had seen Father Nathaniel at all, trying to do this in as short a time as possible and to keep away from the news crews if possible. She looked about for any people who were in there who had been brought out.
Karen and Melanie passed the Firemen with ease, their badges not undergoing the close scrutiny that would tell that they are out of their jurisdiction. Karen looked about carefully, and could make out the multiple disturbances to the Symphony of creation re-echoing around the area. The church was the site of the greatest and first disturbance, and afterwards, the lesser one had occurred by the side of the building, near where several windows had been broken outwards from the church. This last area was clearly where the fire had began, because it was most gutted, and the flames had died down a bit in this area.
Analysing the echoes, Karen was able to determine that the first disturbance was a result of someone using the Celestial Song of Shields to obscure and delay all symphonic noise until after the event, followed rapidly by all the sounds of disturbance that it cloaked. She was able to determine that a celestial caused this fire, and also wounded a mortal here, and further that one manifested the Tongue Numinous Corpus and assumed celestial form. Unfortunately the order of these events was difficult to determine because of the effect of the Shield that surrounded the area.
The other sound was far more subtle, and difficult to analyse.
Melanie went over to the place where the second sound occurred and looked at the ground.
Karen went over and spoke with one of the fire fighters who was otherwise unoccupied at the moment, since he was holding back the crowd until now, but they appeared to have backed off a little.
She asked him about whether anyone was hurt in the blaze.
"Well, there was a young boy who had been inside the fire, but some fellow pulled him out and bandaged him up. He looked pretty bad when I saw him, just before the ambulance took him to hospital. Smoke inhalation and second and third degrees. But the fellow who pulled him out and the chick who helped him apparently ran off afterwards. I guess it was some sort of prank that got out of hand, and they were just scared they would get blamed for it. Too right, too."
She asked about father Nathaniel.
"Nah, we ain't seen head nor tail of him. Couple of the guys broke in by the back door when we got here, but there were no sign he had been inside when it started. Looks like we got lucky, and service must have been over when it started. The chief might know something, but he is pretty busy right about now."
Melanie motioned to Karen as she finished talking with the fireman, and Karen came over. She was surprised to see that Melanie was crying.
"Someone was hurt, and then someone tried to help them, but it wasn't enough ... then ... She? He? was here. Somehow, they took the pain away, but took it onto themselves ... so much pain. How can it be held in one person?"
Melanie looked up from the ground to Karen. "I don't understand the sounds very well, but I can hear this one. The person who made it must be close to humanity..." she swallowed back the lump in her throat and wipes away her tears, profoundly affected by whatever she could sense. To Karen, it was just another symphonic disturbance. She looked at the ground and could see off cuttings of bandages and a discarded and empty tube of burn cream. There were also several droplets of blood, somewhat incongruous with a burn victim.
Karen put her arm around Melanie, trying to calm her and give her support. "The rescuer was perhaps Father Nathaniel... it was mentioned to me that he was very close to humanity. Let me look for a moment"
As Melanie moved aside she looked closely at everything there, looking at the blood for anything unusual about it.
Melanie nodded, and smiled bravely at the support offered. "I'm OK." she sniffled, and moved asside. Karen looked closely at the blood. She touched it, and brought a small amount to her for a closer look. It was strange, something about it bothered her... then she got it. The blood had not darkened or coagulated, and had not mingled with the dirt. She summoned her resonance to bind with the the source of the blood, but knew in that instant that the source is an Angel, and her ressonance could not bind with Celestials from so distant a sourse as blood. She recognised the manner in which the blood had fallen, as being straight down, from a stationary figure. The Angel had open wounds, unbound, constantly weeping blood. Stigmata of some kind.
Karen realised that she needed to keep Melanie busy so she looked up and said "Melanie...we need to try to find the one who ran away. See if you can chat with any witnesses and try to see what you can determine about the rescuer, and perhaps you can get the name of the hospital they took the kid to? Perhaps try to talk to the chief once he has a moment." She looked at Melanie, to try and see how well she was coping and if sending her off with a task to do was actually the right thing to do, or whether she was feeling the pain of the person so much it would be better to keep her nearby for a while.
Melanie nodded, and went to work. Karen saw that she had been touched by what she felt, but not harmed by it, instead had gained some understanding she did not have before. She seemed thoughtful and melancholy as she went to speak with the bystanders.
Then Karen sat very still and quiet and simply listened to the symphony, trying to sort and separate all the sounds into understandable ones. She will tried to pick up the sounds of what Melanie was feeling and also tried to make more sense of the order of what she had already felt. She tried to find any disturbances that may have been caused by demonic influences, or any other signs of a force of chaos. She also tried to figure out if anything here indicated that an angel was hurt or destroyed.
Unfortunately the echos of what had happened were fading into background. Karen could learn no more from them than she already had. The wounding or even death of a corporeal vessel of an Angel actually would create no sound in the symphony. Angels were instruments in the sound, but did not occupy within it in the same way of mortals. But, the destruction of an Angels' Forces that bind them together, or the sound of an Angel Falling, these two both made Sound. Karen heard no evidence of either here, not now at least.
She then wandered over to the place that had already been gutted and had a look at what was left there, to see if there was any signs of what might have happened.
It was very difficult to get any good idea what had transpired, due to the nature of fire. But Karen looked over the ruined portions of the building and determined that it was started in a side room from the main church area, some kind of storage room. Large amounts of chairs, tables and cabinets had been shoved against the door, which in turn had been broken inwards from the church main area. Then the fire had started in some bottles of flamable liquid, and spread to the baracade. She finally managed to find evidence of a molitov cocktail, made with first aid bandages. It had been thrown onto the baracade, and it started the entire blaze.
Last but not least, she carefully scanned the crowd, trying not to appear conspicuous in this action, for people that were paying particular attention toher and what she was doing.
And Karen did notice one figure looking at her intently from the crowd. There was a momentary flash of recognition from them, then they were gone, moving beyond sight amoung the people. Tall, ebony skinned, built on a massive frame, dressed in a red tee shirt. She tried to remember who it was, the face was familiar, but for the minute it escaped her. She rushed to the edge of the crowd, but he was clearly gone. Who was it? Someone she knew vaguely from a very long time ago...
Melanie nodded to Karen, and quietly motioned her over.
"The boy was taken to Mt. Sanai hospital. And there were two people who ran off together. A man in jeans and sneakers and another person who was shorter, but no one got a real good look at. About one person thought it was a woman and another thought a young boy."
�Seems there had been youths hanging arround the church all morning since the service was called off today. Father Nathaniel did not show up to open the doors today."
"The cheif is really busy, but he confirmed that the priest did not come to the church this morning, and the local police have been informed. He also said that they send another boy to Mt. Sanai with smoke inhalation. Aparently he had tried to get into the church to help his friend out after the fire started, but didn't find anything. Someone else, probably someone already in the church got the first boy out. The first boy's burns were aparently expertly treated."
Karen nodded and said "We might head on over to the hospitals in a moment to see if they can give us a better description, but i doubt they will be able to." She looked over to the vague area where she saw the watcher and then asked Melanie "Have you seen anyone that looks..um...different in amongst the crowd as you've been talking to them? I'm sure i saw someone I know...someone i knew long ago...i just can't remember who it was.."
Melanie frowned and looked around. "I didn't see anyone before... perhaps it was someone from before my time?" She suggested.
Karen just nodded. "Must have been... very strange."
Karen then tried to convince one of the police that the one who healed the boy could have some vital information and that she felt that this case was connected with one she was currently investigating. She requested that her name and mobile number be put on any notice to the public asking for the whereabouts of this person, for them to contact her about it. She then left the officer with her name and number and got one from him, asking if she could make an appointment to speak with the chief about the case in the morning.
The detective she spoke with, and Det. Insp. McGreggor, was quite friendly and compliant, and said, "This seems a bit of an incident at the moment, so it is quite likely this will go in the papers. I will cirtainly try to do as you request if I have to do a press conferance about it."
Then she had one final look about the place to see if there was anything she's missed, see if Melanie had dug up anything new
Karen's first investigations appeared to have been quite thorough, and she uncovered nothing new. So, she and Melanie headed out to Mt Sanai hospital.