Mid-West Campaign
Session One Hundred and Four

Tuesday, 23 October 2001

[Time travel on 26 October 2001 extricated Benedict Oaxaca from the past before he could defect to the Catholic Church. The success of this mission necessitates some cosmetic changes to this session synopses. Events that no longer took place in the new timeline are written in blue type. See session 106 for more details.]

In a private wing of the local hospital four of the evidence response agents are awake and talking. Drake is unconscious and on a life support machine. Elise is glad that the whole thing is over for the time being. Jane says that it is not over. Something here doesn't make sense, and is all to do with Elise's family.

If Heart was to be believed all the families made the same pact. The father and the son continually reborn over the generations. All the members of the female line die. But that pattern might work for the Crowe and Magus families (and even for the Wilkinsons before they were killed) but it is not true for the Steigers - at least not for the last three generations.

Elise's grandfather, father and brother are all alive at the moment. That's one generation too many. Elise's grandparents had two children, a boy (Robert) and a girl (Mary). Both survived, both married and both produced female children that are still alive. Elise has a cousin called Miriam.

Elise is a little surprised that she forgot this while Jane remembered, but it is all true and in the light of this case all the more puzzling. Mary married James Steinberg (a very dull accountant). Miriam had already been born by the time the marriage took place.

McCollins suggests the agents can get proof by digging up the supposed bodies of all the Crowes and Steigers that have died. Jane points out that this is evidence response: they know what is going on, they don't need proof. What they need is a way to stop Arioch. Some of the people he will kill will undoubtedly deserve it. However, if earlier this evening is anything to go by he is going to cause a lot of collateral damage on the way. Plus some of his potential victims (like Miriam Steinberg) are innocent of any wrong-doing.

McCollins says that they would need to know Arioch's true name in order to bind him - and finding that out would take a great deal of research. Additionally, the demon will require a soul if they are going to bind it, and McCollins doesn't suppose they will have a surfeit of volunteers for that little task. If they banish Arioch, or if they kill him, he will simply reform in one month and continue his task. He is bound to hunt down the families of the pact-makers. He will just keep coming back until that task is complete.

Jane asks whether they could trap him instead. McCollins agrees that trapping the demon would work as long as the circle or the wards holding him were not disturbed. Ironically, the summoning circle the agents destroyed earlier in the day would have been perfect for such a task. But if they do trap a demon in a magic circle of some kind, where could they then put that demon where it wouldn't be disturbed?

At this point, McPike and McCollins have a relapse and are rushed into intensive care. This only leaves Elise and Jane as active agents (both will be released from the hospital in the morning). Jane telephones Artemis Black for advice and to get some more people onto the team to help.

Artemis suggests seeking out Elise's grandfather, Richard. Despite being a corrupt and evil old wizard, he evidently had power over Arioch before and it must be in his interests to help. Elise says that her grandfather lives in the wilds of Montana, and they are bound to be able to find some deep mine of some sort of hide the summoning circle.

Jane and Artemis speak about Benedict. Jane cannot believe that Benedict wishes them ill. Artemis says that Benedict's faith had a powerful hold over him. Ben had access to the Book of Entrance. He studied it for some considerable time, and Artemis believes Ben could be intended to find the adrift Heavens and return God to the world. If that happens then the destruction of the universe is all but assured.

Artemis says that he will send agents Bradley Ecks and Jack Burchill from the mid-west team, and Special Agent Jacques Jackson from the north-west team to Mississippi to augment their numbers. They shouldn't go after a sorcerer as powerful as Richard Steiger without a full complement of agents.

Wednesday, 24 October 2001

In the morning, Jane and Elise are discharged from hospital. Shortly thereafter they are reunited with Bradley Ecks and Jack Burchill. Jacques Jackson is young, blond and unnecessarily ugly. He claims to come from Louisiana and speaks with the sort of faux-French accent that Peter Sellers would have been proud of. Ecks sees that Elise has lost a finger and immediately equates her with Frodo Baggins. He is uncommonly excited about the release of the Lord of the Rings movie in two short months.

The agents board a plan and are soon heading towards the Middle of Nowhere, Montana in two four-by-fours. It is only when they park outside the isolated Steiger ranch at 10:00am, that Elise shrinks down in her seat and tells Jane that her family still think that she is dead.

Leaving Elise hiding in the car, the four agents head over to the farmhouse where they speak to Elise's mother, Judith and their next door neighbour Mrs Maggie Doyle. Mrs Doyle has brought an pineapple upside down cake, someone Elise knows will be generally inedible.

Judith Steiger is delighted to welcome the FBI agents, and quickly bustles about in the kitchen making a range of sandwiches and fried delicacies. Jackson discerns that this woman deals with strong emotions by cooking. How much delicious food would she generate if she found out her daughter was alive? He is sorely tempted to break the news to her immediately.

Elise's mother tells the agents that her rather Richard (Elise's grandfather) is out in an old copper mine about three miles from the ranch. He walked out there because the terrain is quite treacherous. Robert Steiger (Elise's father) is out on the farm somewhere, while Elise's younger brother Richard Jnr is at the hospital in the local city. His girlfriend Daisy is in labour. They aren't married yet, but Judith is convinced that they soon will be.

Jane takes a sandwich for Elise, then Burchill drives the group to the copper mine. Elise explains that she used to play in the mine as a child. The lower portion of it is flooded. It hasn't actually been worked for some considerable time. Burchill's driving is up to the task, although he nearly wrecks his car on the way over to the mine. When they arrive, an old man walks out of the mine toward them. It is the magus Richard Steiger.

Richard is surprised to find Elise alive. Jane tells him that Elise was brought back to life as a favour from an archangel. Richard doesn't disbelieve that such a thing was possible, but still wonders if this is truly his grand-daughter. Despite attempts of the other agents to drag him into conversation, Richard will only talk to Elise. The two head into the mine to speak in private.

Elise tells her grandfather everything that happened in Yazoo City. He says that he knows Arioch is coming for him, but he has no intention of trying to avoid that fate. He made a deal with the demon, and he intends to keep his word. In fact, he doesn't seem inclined to help at all, and doesn't care that the rest of his family (including the innocent ones) are going to die by Arioch's hand.

Elise questions her grandfather on why their family has a different pattern to the Magus and Crowe lines. The answers are quite enlightening. For generations following the butchery in Yazoo City (when the Steigers took over the Wilkinson's place in the pact) Richard Steiger and his father Robert were guilty of murdering their own children so the father could become the son down through the ages. All that changed in the 1940s when Richard Steiger fell in love.

He met Janet Miller is Paris in the 1940s. She was a nurse and he was a soldier. He loved her and she wanted to start a family. Richard decided that he would go along with this and break with the tradition that he and his own father had established. This caused a great rift between Robert and Richard Steiger, because if the children weren't culled as they were born, then Robert would never get his turn to 'live'.

They moved out to Montana because Janet loved the place. She was particularly enamoured of this mine. Richard shows Elise a clear crystal pool inside the mine where light dances on the water, reflecting the many minerals in the rock. This is the place Richard and Judith started their family, and it is here that Richard still knows peace.

The last time Richard saw his father Robert was at the confirmation of Elise's father. Richard was a more powerful magus than Robert despite being the younger, and Robert Steiger was forced to withdraw. Elise's grandmother died of cancer three years ago. Despite all his power, Richard could not stop that. After the death, Richard became utterly disconnected from the world. He just doesn't care about anything any more: not his family and not his impending death at the hands of Arioch.

There seems to be nothing Elise can say to spur her grandfather into action. He doesn't care that his children die. The thought of an alien invasion by the Shaggai piques his interest slightly, but it's nothing that would make him want to fight Arioch. He is also not prepared to help at all. Why should he help Elise and the FBI do something about Arioch?

Richard says that Arioch will go after the families in order of hierarchy. First the Maguses, then the Crowes, then the Wilkinsons and then the Steigers. He reckons he has about five years before Arioch finds him. Richard has no idea where the other maguses are. The surviving Wilkinson is George Wilkinson, but Richard doubts he is still going by that name. He hasn't seen Magus since 1700. Interestingly, the pact made with Simon Magus was made solely with Simon Magus, or more accurately the Simon Magus of now and the Simon Magus of one hour in the future. Richard says that he has no idea why Arioch agreed to that, but Simon Magus is not entirely human so that may have something to do with it.

There's nothing those who have made the bargain can do to affect Arioch. It doesn't matter how powerful they are, but no spell cast by Magus, Crowe or Steiger can kill him or bind. While magic could certainly be used to trap Arioch, it would have to be cast by someone else. For such a feat, the caster would need to know Arioch's true name. Richard knows what it is, but he isn't talking.

Regarding his own power, Richard says that unlike Simon Magus he doesn't "do books". His powers come from pacts, from friends, from creatures and unknowable power. This has taken its soul. Most magi who deal with magic as Richard does, bargain with their soul. Richard has no soul, so the magic has taken a physical rather than spiritual toll. This is why Richard looks like an old man, even though he should be eternally young.

Elise makes a last ditch effort to convince her grandfather to help her. What if they could restore his soul? What if they could get him into heaven where he would be reunited with his wife. Richard scoffs. He doesn't want his soul. If he got it back two things would happen: he would either be filled with the most horrible remorse for his actions, or he would feel no remorse and know for sure that he was an unrepentant evil bastard. He doesn't want either.

In hindsight, Richard says that the deal with Arioch was not worth it. He's met Eisenhower, Churchill and John Lennon; he's even thrown Elvis off his property, but none of it was worth the price. "Not all bargains are worth your soul," he affirms.

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