The Dormant Queen of the Hybrid

Book 1,Chapter 9 Asterids

The smell of stale coffee lingered in the air, but the lady with blue eyes doesn’t mind. She is busy licking her lips staring at the bacons and pancakes that are being prepared by the cook to fulfill their breakfast set request. The morning is cold enough to warrant more of that hot-energizing beverage but she settled with room temperature orange juice. Dook however, is busy reading the news paper ignoring the flirty glances of the waitress from the counter, while officer Gerdo let his hot chocolate turn cold as he prepares the documents—spreading it to occupy half of the table. The officer is deemed as meticulous, business like and unapproachable by Asterids. They were supposed to meet in the Police Dep’t Office, but Gerdo insisted to make it an informal meeting and eat breakfast.

“The first file included the criminal and the investigative records in the past years. Field notes, and victims including Mr. Sandro is up to date.” He pointed at the last page depicting the profile of the said latest casualty. The dead Madrigal clan member was very much alive in the picture.

“Witnesses, occurrences, suspects and incident specifics are added. Please let Mrs. Madrigal know about that sir.” Officer Gerdo smiled while his eyes remained neutral, resulting in a puppet like appearance.

“Officer, did your guys in the station, notice anything unusual pattern with the killings recently?” Asterids inquired, as she start drowning the poor pancake with butter.

“We have the usual. It attacks randomly day or night. Every few months, once or twice a year. You will see in the documented locations in the map all the victims was found dead within the city of Pasig. We did however get the report from Dr. Jackstone. The analysis on that theory was added at the last page. There is a big possibility that the black ether came from a pixie demon. To think that a rogue demon might have the cause all this, will definitely help us take this case off our hands thankfully.”

“How can you be sure it’s a pixie demon?” Dook challenged the report’s assumption.

“Honestly I don’t really care. It’s out of our hands now,” the officer said with the same puppet-like-smile.

“I say let the MCCDS handle it,” he added. Dook let the officer go this time. His opinion is not needed at this point.

“Thank you for your help officer.” Dook shook his hand.

“I’m just here for the money,” he said with aloof demeanor.

*** *** ***

By the time the sun starts casting it’s afternoon light, Dook and Asterids went on separate ways to do their day job, meeting the architects and project manager delegating the task of the week. Some employees invited Asterids to visit a pub near the boundary of Makati and Pasig, which to her surprise, she caught herself agreeing upon easily. She is no longer an avid partygoer. Much surprising is seeing her boss together with his goons of construction workers, foreman, and project managers in the same pub entrance that night. It seems that this is a new tradition of the company. Asterids boss innocently swagger towards the bar, not noticing how almost everyone stops what they’re doing just to look at the fine specimen. His face is neutral and intimidating. And adding the group of muscled men obediently following his order to assist and entertain the clients who’re joining the casual event, anyone will definitely hesitate to approach the stoic guy. Although, he is armed with the perfect smile once he start greeting his employee.

“I didn’t know you’re a drinker.. And a people person.” Asterids started while elbowing her boss, as she take an unoccupied stool beside Dook. The clients on his right side.

“I drink. I have friends.” Dook responded in defense. Asterids noticed how all the girls on her left side tries to get the attention of the alpha. While Dook is focusing on his boring drink like a coal miner consuming his alcohol on the rocks. Looking idle on his phone, possibly texting a secrete lover. From time to time she will also caught him talking to some of the goons, and specially the clients, about work related things.

*** *** ***

The morning hit her with a bang as her head pulsate from the of hungover. She needed to hydrate badly. Thank goodness for the big mug of coffee and a platter of omelet, waiting at the table next to her bed. However, this is definitely not her house and so Asterids woke up jerkily, alarmed and ready to kill whoever put something on her drink. And because of the sudden movement, her forehead hit the nose of the poor guy who were just trying to open the window above the bed headboard. F*ck!

“Shoot! Sorr—”

“Alive again little princess?” Dook angrily greeted his assistant while clutching his nose, checking for any permanent damage.

“Boss?” Asterids groggily identified the poor victim of her forehead attack.

“How could you get drunk with two hard liquor shots? The clients won’t like it if the host is wasted than they are.” Asterids was ignoring him though, because Dook is wearing a cutesy apron with Spongebob Squarepants print, on top of his sleeveless shirt, making him look like he’s not wearing anything underneath. She was surprised for a moment and then her lips clamped together firmly, before she lost herself laughing. A few minutes of that went by, until she was ready to take her boss seriously. She noticed how diligent her boss is. It was their day off that day and Dook spent it cleaning his house, while Asterids made herself at home trying to review the documents from Officer Gerdo and making some phone calls.

“Here, take the one with your picture on it.” Dook dropped a black card on top of the files that Asterids is reading to get her attention. “ Also since you already have the cursed ring. You don’t need this diluted imitation charm to hide your shifter aura from the witches. I will use one for myself, though.”

“Wait, no more cutesy spongebob? What’s this—Is this a library card, boss?”

“Yes. Fake IDs. I have a guy who makes this things, and I got it from him last night.”

“While the whole company was partying?” Dook ignored her.

“As you know they don’t allow any lowly shifters in their facilities, but this card can get us in at the main and public buildings inside the witches district, but not into the underground vault or forbidden section.”

“I got that covered boss.” Asterids proudly showed her findings.

“Black Church of Sabbath correct?”

“Yes, witches district Makati City.”

“Believe it or not, our construction firm had a contract with them in the past. Well it’s before the Sordlak and Madrigal merger, so I had to call an old employee of Mr. Edward to get some info and backing up. Once we enter the building, they will allow us to take a few picture as case study for the eclectic wall cladding design and magic fortification in the ground floor.. For old time sake.”

“Good job, assistant.”

“Not so green after all boss eh? But I suggest we get our priorities right—first things first.”

“Which is?”

“I need more omelet.”

*** *** ***

After Asterids get her fill of poultry goodness, the duo went straight to the Makati city, by car. Dook insisted. The city is one of the central business district in the National Capital Region, Philippines. Traffic is composed of mostly vehicles as well as the flying broomsticks or flying bicycles. The streetlights does not use any bulb, but of pure energy that can last a few hours until night time. The place is very busy but not crowded. The buildings are mostly skyscraper of glass and stone walls. It is full of bright lights but everyone looked dim or gloomy with their black and gray designer’s clothes. Everyone looked like a model of rave or gothic theme runway show, which made Asterids’ Chambray shirt, green blazer, skinny jeans, white belt, silver heels-that-she-bought-just-a-few-minutes-ago, a peacock hoe wanting for attention. Dook however, fitted right in with his black blazer, charcoal Henley sweater, black jeans, and dark brown leather belt.

The Black Church of Sabbath is the central landmark, north of the witches district. All the roads of the city will eventually end to the big estate owned by the Witches Coven. The Coven is the governing body of the witches community. Just like the shifter council for the shifters, the witches and the wizards have the Coven. And above the shifters council and the coven is the MCCDS created by U.N., humans and magical creature’s highest authorities combined.

The church is literally black from the basalts. A hard, black volcanic rock with less than about 52 weight percent silica crushed and used as the base colors for tiles to represent the outside of the gothic building. It’s half the size of the white house with acres of natural forests at the back. Both sides however are used as the witches graveyard, which will definitely unfold a problem soon since the population continuous to grow within the district.

An old wizard greeted Asterids and Dook that day. He is one of the regular guards wearing their black toga-like uniform. Though the building is clearly very ancient, it’s up to date with its modernize security system. Asterids used the black card, swiping it to some kind of rectangular censor on the wall, which lit in green color, indicating they are free to proceed. Thank you fake IDs. The censor pad is also a screen that indicated their level of access within the facilities; Type C, Half-blood. The wizard guard clicked his tongue in dismay. “You don’t know how lucky you half-bloods are, but make sure you don’t take the whole day spending it here in the sacred church. You better be useful to your seniors being you aren’t contributing to the witches society.”

“Sir we also have a letter of approval to visit the basement one.” Asterids handed the letter which made the old wizard more annoyed.

“Wait here!” he demanded.

“Geez, what was that about, boss?”

“Half-bloods are treated almost the same as the shifters here. A subspecies, because they can’t wield or use mana. They are basically just regular humans here. They do however have some of the rights as a normal witches/wizards like this IDs.” Thirty minutes had passed, before the old wizard returned and allowed them to go straight to the basement one with their camera, pen and paper. Their cellphone and other gadgets were confiscated in return.

The basement one is very lofty inside, like it’s a different dimension. You will see some of the witches use their broom to fly around to search for their book shelves. In this world, knowledge is still power. Specially the ancient kind. Which is why every magical creatures protects their histories, long line of traditions and biographies. Specially the most influential groups or families of the said upper class society. Half of the basement is dedicated for the highly secured and computerized recordings of such information while the other half is for the academic stuff like the book of spells and curses. In the middle of the basement one is an altar museum where young witches and wizards are free to cast their spells. The same facility is sometimes use for mock exams or graduation ceremonies. Asterids started to pretend taking pictures of the building wall while Dook scanned the place to start their research. They immediately located the curse section at the farthest end of the academic zone by accessing the computer logs or catalogue. There are tons of cursed books, but most of them are not harmful. “Boss, obviously the dangerous curses are forbidden to the public eyes. We’ll have to go to the forbidden sections,” the blue eyed girl indicated which Dook agreed upon.

There are four more doors at the right side of the academic zone, basement one. Two of them is for authorized personnel only, one is for the basement two and the other one says Classical Antiquity. Jackpot! They tried to scan their IDs and the censor pad lit in red; Level not authorized. Shoot! Luckily, people come and go in the room which gave them the opportunity for tailgating. The Classical Antiquity is quarter of the academic zone but still lofty and wide inside. It’s full of leather-bound or hardbound ancient books and some artifacts. There are circular high top tables with no chairs around them. There are also cauldrons. Lots of them displayed as collection items aligned to the walls. The cauldrons have ancient language inscribe on them. Using the computer logs, Dook was able to pinpoint the section they require for the research. Asterids begun flipping the page while being wary of the people around them, specially the guards. Two hours shall passed until they will see the fruit of their labor. Asterids continue browsing the bookshelves of curses; destructive, environmentally unfriendly, noxious, hazardous, poisonous, toxic, deadly, lethal, bad, evil, malign, malignant. Then she saw one interesting article about unique spells. She got busy flipping the thick book collection of unorthodox spells by Agatha Crispy.

“Hey, Boss. Look at this one,” Asterids interrupted Dook with his cauldron reading and begun quoting a passage, “Hamorabi is a dictator warlord wizard which proposed the first and the only spell in existence for shattering the soul. The Azrael.” That definitely caught the attention of the young alpha.

“It’s just a one liner though.” They shifted their focus and begun searching for the curse spell Azrael but found nothing more than what they already had earlier.

“We’ll have to go to the biography zone and search for that Hamorabi guy,” Dook said and then he vanished in the crowd. Tailgating can only lead them to few room options. The biography zone is privatized for the privileged members. It’s like a bank of secret info for old clans or families of witches with protected ancient knowledge and traditions. After all, most of this important knowledge made them powerful and influential in the society.

“Hey, Boss. What are you doing?” Asterids asked, seeing his boss back from somewhere.

“I stole the ID of the old wizard.”

“Whoa, what?”

“Follow me, assistant.” They went back to the altar museum in the middle of the basement one. Then into the Biography section, going through the personnel only door. Inside of it is like a server room, full of computers. There are only few books around. Asterids tried to access one of the computer but it needed a password. They went deeper in the other rooms and found another private quadrant of antique books. There were also walls of paintings or pictures of old and known wizards and witches of the histories. Most of them are war heroes, presidents or merchants.

“I found him.” Dook called Asterids using his inside voice. And then she saw him. The five hundred years old wizard Hamorabi.

“Age: 545. Birthdate : 01 /01/ 1476. Birth location: Macedonia. He was the dictator leader five hundred years ago who conquered few countries on western Europe resulting in the Witch Hunt wars.” Asterids started reading the description. The painting is definitely imposing as he wore his golden crown while holding his scepter decorated with a large ruby. His brown hair is wavy , no longer than shoulder-length, with very fashionable bangs or fringes. The popular style before the fifteenth or sixteenth century. His eyes is the color of mud, perfect match to his properly trimmed bearded face.

“There he is. Our prime suspect for the Madrigal clan killings.” Dook added.

“Who goes there?! This is a private area witch. Show yourself!” Shoot! One of the guards suddenly came out of nowhere. Dook immediately caught Asterids and pull her close to him, so they can hide behind the shelves, adjacent to the wall, and away from the wizard guard. The problem is the space is too cramp for the both of them. They had to face sideways, to barely fit inside. Asterids tried to mouth something about her discomfort, but Dook covered her face with his hand to shush her. The guard was very persistent though and so having to endure cramps and lack of oxygen given her boss is trying to cover her only means of breathing, Asterids knees gave out and she went stumbling out of their hideout face red.

“Hey?! Who are you people?!” The wizard guy started pointing a weird gun at them. Still a bit dazed from the fall, Asterids immediately raised her hands in surrender, followed by her boss with his face neutral. In few seconds, the guard will call the higher ups, another personnel will come to their location.

“What is happening here Jeff?” A voice suddenly came from the front door, blocking the only possible exit that Asterids and her boss have.

“Madam!” The guard immediately bowed his head. It seems that the person from the door is well respected by the guard. Possibly an admin or an employer of the building. Please don’t be one of the Coven High Witch, or worse an Arch mage! A high witch have the same level of authority as a shifter’s alpha clan leaders to his members. While an Arch mage have more influence. They are like military marshal among the witches/wizard community.

“What is happening here, child?” The person-from-the-door continued to inquire into the wizard guard she called Jeff. Asterids felt a little bit of despair since they won’t have a way to run from this. And from the looks of it, it seems that they are already out of luck. Just from the broche with symbol of the sun, moon and a star, anyone can tell that the old lady who’s approaching them is one of the Arch Mage. This will be the worse case scenario. The personnel will capture them and file a complaint, leading to a $4,000 penalty or possibly a few months in jail time for trespassing. Their faces will be known and they won’t have a way to get more information about the suspect anymore.

“Yes, Madam! I caught this two sneaking around. It seems that they are just half-bloods which are not authorized to go here.” The arch mage faced the wizard guard Jeff, as he explained in details what happened. The blue-eyed lady and the ash blond hair guy on his back, remained silent while staring at each other. Once Jeff is done explaining, the Madam have him left the room, making him swear to keep the event a secret. That was not what Asterids was expecting, but it seems that the old lady have been staring at her, as if in awe, ever since arriving inside the private room.

“Is that you? Sister Maruha?” the arch mage finally said after the wizard guard closed the door behind her. It seems that she mistook Asterids as her dead witch birth mother.