Taking their leave from the Mors Ostium they returned to HQ. Rosa thought a wake or reception might follow the follow the funeral, but wasn't surprised when everyone instantly returned to work, she'd quickly come to realise that's just the world they lived in. The world she now lived in. No time to celebrate a life while the monster that killed them still roamed.
While officers paced back and forth throughout the HQ, transporting documents and catching up with the morning's work, a small number of familiar hunters congregated in the lobby. Unlike Sam, Rosa had been graced with an abundance of free time and comfortably leaned against a pew listening in on Louie, Zack, Emma, Seis and Audrey.
"So what's your plan now?" Audrey asked Seis. "Is a hunt across the world calling your name?"
"No," Seis responded, his tone surprised. "Actually, I was thinking of sticking around for a bit. Help out with your vampire lord."
"Good. You can take point with Zack," Louie said.
"What about you?" Zack questioned, his brows creased.
"Busy," Louie said. Everyone stared, waiting for him to continue but the hunter never did.
"As untrusting and socially inept as ever," Seis said with an amused grin, like he'd missed his friend's antics.
"You'd think we were his enemies," Audrey said shaking her head annoyed. "At least you all got hugged when you saw each other again. He pointed a gun at me."
"Don't feel too bad. Me and him are meant to be best mates and he barley tolerates me so what do you expect," Zack joked.
"We believe we've zoned in of the vampire's location," Ruthor announced as he appeared across the room, silencing their teasing. "He's established himself on the outskirts of Liverpool and following patterns it suggests it will advance inwards soon. When it does we'll be in range to launch an ambush."
The hunters all turned and opened up a gap so commander Ruthor could enter their gathering.
"We hunt in two days, Halloween night. We'll attack just as night falls #, when the vampire exposes itself but won't expect us. Zack, Louie I want you leading-"
"Not me," Louie cut off the commander.
"Use me instead," Seis said without delay.
The commander gave them a confused and wary stare but quickly snapped back into his usual commanding, demeanour.
"Fine. Zack you take charge, Seis you're his second. Have your team ready," he ordered and both hunters gave an affirmative nod. The commander turned to Louie.
"Do what you have to," he stated before taking his leave. Emma and Audrey trailed after him and both Zack and Seis went off to scout a team, leaving Louie and Rosa alone.
"Well that's the vampire sorted. What's your plan now?" Rosa asked. She turned to Louie to see he'd not been paying attention and instead was lost off in space. Strange, incomprehensible enigmas twirled around behind his arctic eyes.
"Let's go," he said abruptly. He then, without uttering a single sliver of context, darted off towards the exit.
Their destination ended up being back home inside Louie's secret office. They began working on his classified assignment. Rosa noticed that Louie was shuffling through his notes and research more determined than ever, like a dying flame had been reignited within him.
Turning out to be completely useless without her sister present, Rosa watched quietly as Louie worked for hours. Eventually Emma returned home and joined them.
"You should really tell everyone about this," Emma stated scanning through a pile of documents filled with images.
"They wouldn't like it," Louie stated.
"There's a reason for that," Emma sighed placing down the pile of papers and jumping off his desk. "I don't understand what driving your actions. You can trust them, my father did."
"It's not about trust. If they knew, they'd try and stop me. Say I'm chasing phantoms when there is a real threat in front of us. Nothing would get done."
"Nothing is getting done," Emma argued. "We've been at this for weeks and we're nowhere closer than when we started. All we've done is cut off any possibilities and resultingly created an even more complicated and bizarre problem. Louie, we are chasing phantoms and there is a real threat at our doorstep, yet you do nothing. A threat that is after Rosa."
Louie vigorously shook the papers in his hands, "This is a threat after Rosa and its worse than any vampire lord. Besides, Zack and Seis can handle Valdosk," Louie sighed and turned towards her. He froze, catching both Rosa and Emma off-guard.
"Those papers," he said sternly. "Bring them to me."
Despite her clear confusion, Emma complied and brought Louie the pile.
"What are they?" Rosa asked curiously.
"Documents of possible red alerts. People and creatures in the country who could possibly pose a threat," Emma explained. "But I've already checked it five times. That pile has some files that date back twenty years and still contains no one capable of causing what occurred at our house."
"This isn't possible," Louie murmured.
"What isn't?" Emma asked.
"It says he was spotted entering the country over a month ago."
"And?"
"I killed him five years ago," Louie stated coldly.
"You killed him?" Rosa asked, feeling a chill run down her spine. She'd never heard to him mention killing people, the thought had never even crossed her mind.
"Adler Lam a German hunter. Conflicted man but a skilled warrior," Louie said placing down the papers. "But one day, the insanity of the life we live crept inside his soul and like many hunters before, he snapped. Killed eleven hunters and twenty-three civilians before I got to him."
"Then how is it possible he's here?" Rosa questioned.
"It shouldn't be," Emma said, scanning over the document. Her face paled slightly. "Yet it is. Hell, they've even got pictures of him entering the country and the recorded date. Your certain this is the man you killed?"
"No mistake. Spread out all the documents" Louie ordered, "search for anymore dead men walking."
"Why didn't the system flag a walking dead man?" Emma questioned as she began to spread out the piles of paper.
"It might not know he's dead. Back when I worked as an ornae, sometimes the results of our hunts wouldn't get recorded properly and just be logged as bounty complete," Louie informed. "For the same reasons, there's a good chance there might be more."
Although Rosa couldn't help identifying the dead from the living, she followed her sisters lead spacing the pile of red alerts around the room so they could all be seen. By the time they were finished, papers ran along the floor and up the walls. Louie backed up into the centre of the room and his eyes darted around like bullets scanning over every file and document at inhuman speeds.
"Theres more," he commented grimly and then collected five documents. Five more people who'd also been killed yet had been spotted all over the country during the recent months.
'Had they all been killed by Louie?' Rosa wondered. If so how many people has he actually killed? She'd came to believe that the hunters only hunted monsters but, from Emma's lack of surprise, it was becoming clear that wasn't true. Louie carefully scanned over the papers in silence, his eyes ingesting in everything on the pages.
"What are you thinking?" Emma asked, after giving him some time.
"That I've finally realised what that scent was?" he growled, frustration burning in his throat. "How couldn't I tell before," he spat.
"Scent?" Rosa asked confused.
"Back when we were investigating the house. Louie kept picking up on a smell," Emma informed. She turned towards him "What is it?"
"Magic."
Emma's face furrowed. "I know the scent of magic," she said. "We all do, yet none of us there but you could smell anything unusual? Just the scents of the memoria stone."
"We're not talking about standard magic," Louie replied. "Unless this magic is fresh, in powerful concentrations or you have previous experience with it, you might as well consider it borderline undetectable."
"What type of magic are we dealing with?" Emma asked carefully, like she didn't truly wish to know the answer.
"A rare, vile magic, coated in the stench of death and long forbidden for over a millennia," Louie said before wandering over to his desk and withdrawing a thick, black leather tome.
"Rosa I need you to speak of your visions," Louie abruptly announced. "Specifically the one right before the attack."
Rosa was speechless. she'd never spoken of her visions to anyone, still terrified and baffled at what they are. She was still half convinced she was going mad, preferring that simplicity over the fact she might possess a form of clairvoyance.
'How could he know?' she questioned.
"Visions?" Emma questioned, clearly lost. "Rosa what's he talking about."
"You talk in your sleep," Louie explained to Rosa, noticing her baffled expression. His eyes then softened, it was only slightly, barely noticeable but Rosa saw the steel expression crack with rust. "I was going to wait until you brought it up yourself, but time is no longer a luxury we possess." He walked up to Rosa and bent down to her height. "I need you to push through the pain and fear Rosa. What did you see that night?"
Rosa looked to her sister but Emma, was stood off to the side wordless. Rosa could see the cogs inside her sister's mind piecing together the recent events working it together with Rosa's nightly outbursts the days before their parent's passing.
"Why didn't you say anything?" her sister asked, almost sounding hurt with her sister's secrecy.
"I thought I was going insane," Rosa admitted.
"You technically are," Louie stated bringing her attention back to him. "But we'll address that another time. Do you think you can do it?"
The hunter's determined gaze sparked something hidden within her soul. Something primal. Rosa nodded. With a calming breath, she shut her eyes and delved deep into her mind, reliving the vision. She couldn't explain how but, on pure instinct and riding that primal spark, she was able to slip back into the fabricated world. It felt like moving a limb or flexing a muscle, unexplainable but natural.
"The shadows," she muttered, not opening her eyes and remaining inside her psyche. "Up the stairs the shadows are … moving, reaching out. My body won't move closer it's like its warning me to stay away. Even as our house is turned into a massacred bloodbath those shadows are the only thing my body fears … it's like a living abyss." Eventually her mind began to ache, and her body trembled and soon she was unable to bear the mental strain. She was forced to pulled herself back to reality.
When Rosa finally opened her eyes, she was greeted with an unpleasant view. All the colour had drained from her sister's skin although her expression remained fearless as she forced on a brave face. In contrast, a satisfied, psychotic smile spread across Louie's face. He opened up the black tome he'd retrieved before. Rosa recognised it as the same book Louie had titled 'Monsters you should hope to never come across or pray they are already long dead.'
"I believe we've found our foe," he stated placing the book down onto his desk, open on a double page spread.
Emma looked at him in disbelief. "You can't possibly mean-"
"I'm certain. Everything adds up, the strength and intelligence, the shadows and 'a living abyss'. It's using the undead to scout the country."
"What?" Rosa asked, worried about her sister's concern.
"Necromancer," Emma murmured.
'Necromancer.' During one her bouts of curiosity driven research, over the last few weeks, Rosa had covered everything she could on them. But then again, there wasn't much to read in the first place. Following their exile and the prohibition of their practices nearly all of their records were destroyed to discourage others from following the same footsteps. Only few remaining intact for the use of hunters and others who may have to face the exiled mages. However, despite the lack of information, some things were crystal clear, the necromancers weren't liked by anyone, so much in fact they were killed on site or, if that wasn't possible, a hunt was declared upon them immediately. Their magic and sorcery were considered vile and corrupt, connected too closely to the Abyss, granting them domain over both death and the darkness that shrouded this world.
'Whatever that meant,' Rosa thought. She'd heard that word, 'Abyss', used many times now, however, she was still without an answer to what it meant. But there was one more scripture she'd read that was definitely significant to their situation. In fact it was probably the most important piece of context she'd read for their situation, all while simultaneously creating the most confusion.
"Aren't the necromancers all dead?" Rosa asked, reciting what the scripture stated. She had read they possessed dominion over death, was it possible they could resurrect themselves like they do others? Other did death just not affect them? No they must be able to die, Rosa realised, otherwise the hunters and mages couldn't have defeated them.
"Not all of them," Louie replied sourly. "One still lives."
"Why have they never been hunted?" Rosa asked.
"The hunters actually didn't kill most of the necromancers," Louie informed. "It did. A man turned abomination, it drove its entire race to extinction. The Last Necromancer, only known by the name Orus."
"It killed its entire race," Rosa mumbled, disgusted. "Why?"
"For power," Louie answered. "With every kill, the necromancer claimed its fellow mage's power for its own."
"Just how powerful is it?"
"It's a monster," Emma said, ending her silence. "An ancient abomination, over a thousand years old. Wielding unfathomable power, it's the greatest necromancer the world's ever known and easily among the deadliest mages ever recorded. Throughout history it has constantly appeared and vanished wreaking havoc as it pleases across the world never giving the hunters time to form an attack force capable of killing it," fear began to fester in the corner of Emma's eyes, "if this monster really did kill my parents, we need to assemble the council and the knights. Pray they can kill it before it vanishes once again."
"There is no need for that," Louie said. "In fact I expect you both to continue keeping our activities secret."
Emma's head snapped towards him with dangerous eyes. "You can't possibly thinking of facing it alone. Even if it's you. This is a threat that requires the power of the knights. Hell, it's rumoured this thing has killed knights before."
"That's exactly what I plan to do," Louie replied, unaffected by Emma's concern. "I'll end Orus on Halloween night. Both threats to the hunter will be slain simultaneously."
"We're talking about a millennia old power which was capable of killing my parents without issue," Emma snapped. "It's one of the few remaining mages and is said to have killed thousands of us yet you wish to face it alone."
Louie shrugged unbothered drawing out Emma's ire and frustration even further. As Emma continued to argue, Rosa wandered over to the tome. It was the one book's records on necromancers she'd not read. On the left page, there was a series of roughly drawn sketches of a man. Instantly she froze.
'I know him,' Rosa realised. The sketch was rough and faded with time, but she definitely recognised that face. Just where from? Her mind instantly went blank. Pushing through the brain ache from reliving the vision, Rosa clamped her eyes shut. Her face furrowed with concentration as she brute forced her way through her memories, searching for his face.
"What's wrong Rosa?" Emma asked, breaking away from her conflict with Louie.
Rosa never responded, too deep inside her own head to multitask. 'There!' Rosa exclaimed within, almost jumping up in excitement.
She knew she'd seen him and as it turned out it was more than once, a lot more. For the last month, maybe even longer, she'd passed him the morning on the way to school. He'd never once acknowledged her presence. Not even looked her way. They'd just pass once every morning and carry on with their day, Rosa had just assumed he was a middle-aged man on his way to work. Sebastian.
"It's him," Rosa announced, gesturing to the necromancer sketched into the tome.
"What?" Louie asked, his head tilted to the side.
"He's been on my way to school for the last month maybe longer," Rosa replied.
"You're sure?"
Rosa nodded with all the confidence she could muster.
"It's been stalking her," Emma gasped horrified. "For that long."
"Well that officially settles it," Louie said calmly, in contrast to her sister's terror. "It's after Rosa. They both are," he turned to back to Emma, "are you sure you still want me to wait for reinforcements?" he asked.
Emma's face creased with conflict, fear and anxiety, producing an expression Rosa had never witnessed. For the first time in Rosa's life her sister seemed completely lost.
"Are you confident you can kill it?" she asked softly, attempting to regain composure.
"I don't have a choice," Louie replied. "If I wait, it has the chance to escape again or worse achieve its goal. I'm not taking that risk. Halloween night, one of us dies."