Page 6 of Langiappe & Lost Legends

Kaitlyn led us through the house to her library. It was a room that seemed to exist in a space bigger than the house itself. Books floated between shelves and rearranged themselves in some arcane organizational system only Kaitlyn understood. There were powerful artifacts also scattered throughout.

"I've been feeling strange energies lately," she said as she settled into her favorite armchair. "They’re old ones that are waking up. I can't quite place them. Are they related?"

"Yep. That's why we're here," I said as Dre handed her notebook to Kaitlyn to show her our notes. "We've got multiple incidents across the Quarter. Moving objects, whispers, lighting problems. Dea thinks it might be something called the Lost Legends, but we can't find much information."

"Don't forget the creepy mirror thing at Madam Louise's," Lia added as she carefully sidestepped a stack of books that was definitely following her. "And the street performer's instruments going haywire."

Kaitlyn studied the pages with a thoughtful expression. "The Lost Legends?" She tested the words like they were unfamiliar on her tongue. "I've heard of them. But I couldn’t tell you anything off the top of my head other than they were bad."

Kaitlyn blew out a breath as she sat in front of her ancient computer. The thing wheezed to life like an asthmatic dragon. The fan ground with enough force to rattle her collection of anime figurines. "Well crap on a cracker," she muttered as her fingers flew over keys with the kind of speed only someone under twenty-five could manage. "I've got exactly zero helpful things here. Most of the stuff like this never made it into any system." She spun in her chair to face us then. "But the public library downtown has this killer records section. They file all the supernatural stuff under 'local legends' because mundies are totally clueless. Ask for Margaret at the desk. Tell her I sent you."

"The public library?" Lia's perfectly sculpted eyebrow shot toward her hairline. " What happened to secret magical archives? Hidden catacombs? Ancient temples?"

Kaitlyn's laugh sparkled like glitter. "Hiding in plain sight is, like, Stealth one-on-one. Mundies see exactly what their boring little brains want to see. Nothing more than dusty stories about town founders and spooky houses." She paused as she eyed a particularly nasty grimoire that was doing its best to chew through its iron bindings. Its leather cover was scratched withsigils that definitely hadn't come from Amazon. "Though you might want to take this bad boy along. Those librarians are way scarier than your sisters on a bad hair day."

"Hard pass," all three of us said in unison, remembering the last time we'd handled an object that felt like that.

"Don't worry, it's warded up tighter than a drum," Kaitlyn promised as she shoved the book into Lia's messenger bag while my sister tried not to look like she was ready to turn tail and run. "It won't bite, won't explode, and won't summon any demons. Probably." She flashed a mischievous grin. "But seriously? Be careful digging into these Lost Legends. Things that have been buried this long usually have teeth."

The drive from the Garden District was exactly as fun as you'd expect, with tourists clogging every intersection. They were seriously like moths around a porch light. Lia white-knuckled the steering wheel of her SUV. She muttered curses in French that would've made a sailor blush. A group of drunk tourists wearing plastic beads stumbled off the curb in front of us, and my sister's eye twitched. It wasn’t long before she was parking in the lot of the library.

Holy mother of musty books. The place was a maze of metal shelving units crammed with boxes that looked old enough to remember the Revolutionary War. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like angry wasps. It also had that special vintage paper smell that made your nose itch. It was mixed with something else. Something that tingled against my magic like static electricity.

Margaret materialized between the shelves like she'd been summoned. I'm not entirely convinced she hadn't been. Her silver hair was twisted up in a bun tight enough to give her a temporary facelift. Her cardigan had seen better days. Probably back when some of these records were first written. But her eyes? They were sharp as tacks and way too knowing. One lookat us, and her thin lips curved into a smile that said she'd been expecting trouble to walk through her door.

"Kaitlyn's friends, I presume?" she asked in a voice that managed to be both creaky and commanding. "She called to warn me you were coming. I know exactly what you're after. The section with information about topics such as the Lost Legends is particular about its visitors. Follow me."

We shared one of those 'what fresh hell are we walking into' looks as we hustled to keep up with Margaret. Let me tell you, that woman moved through those stacks like she had jet engines strapped to her orthopedic shoes. It was the kind of speed our nana used to hit at the Saks Fifth Avenue semi-annual sale. Except Margaret was doing it while dodging towers of ancient texts that looked ready to avalanche.

I'm not gonna lie. Watching her move like smoke between those shelves, all graceful and deadly efficient? It made me feel like a baby giraffe learning to walk. In heels. On ice. Uphill. Both ways. Hell, if the demon apocalypse ever came, I wanted Margaret on my team. That woman could probably organize the forces of darkness into alphabetical order with just one disapproving librarian glare. I understood Kaitlyn’s cautionary words.

"Looking into the old disturbances, are you?" Margaret asked.

Dre nodded and offered the woman a smile. “We are. We have no definitive information yet. However, there is reason to suspect the Lost Legends are involved.”

"The Lost Legends," Margaret said, pulling out box after box of documents, "weren't just another supernatural threat. They were systematic. Organized. And very, very careful about covering their tracks."

I started photographing everything that looked relevant while Dre took notes and Lia cross-referenced the past withrecent incidents. The silence was broken only by the soft rustle of paper and the occasional muttered curse when we found something particularly concerning. "Look at this," I said, pointing to an old newspaper clipping. "In seventeen ninety-two, a headline read, ' CURIOUS DISTURBANCES AFFLICT MERCHANTS OF THE QUARTER’."

"That could be today's paper," Dre noted, leaning over my shoulder. "Right down to the 'no small measure of consternation among the good people of our quarter’ part. Gods, they really are following the same playbook, aren't they?"

"Here's another one," Lia added, passing over a yellowed journal page. "There were reports of shadow creatures in the French Quarter in seventeen ninety-one. Just like Cami mentioned."

We spent hours combing through the archives. The pattern became clearer with each document we uncovered. The Lost Legends had terrorized New Orleans for years before suddenly vanishing. Their methods matched exactly what we were seeing now. It started with minor disturbances and then escalated to more dangerous phenomena. They were always testing and pushing boundaries.

"There's more," Margaret said, appearing with another box that looked older than the city itself. "This belonged to one of Marie Laveau's apprentices. She documented everything. The signs, the patterns, and the way the Lost Legends operated."

The journal was filled with detailed observations, diagrams, and notes in multiple languages. One page showed a map of New Orleans with locations marked in red ink. There were dates noted beside each one. The ink still looked fresh, as if it had been written yesterday instead of over a century ago. The one thing missing was the location of the Lost Legends themselves.

"They worked in spirals," I realized, comparing the old map to our current incidents. "They started at the outer edges of the city and moved inward. That's what's happening now, too."

"And look here," Dre added, indicating another page. "They had specific targets, including places of power. At crossroads or spots where the veil between worlds was thinner. Lia, isn't that abandoned warehouse we got a call about last week right on top of one of these marked spots?"

Lia checked her phone, then nodded grimly. "Exact same location. That can't be a coincidence. I wonder if these incidents started there. We didn’t see anything, but we could have missed it."

Margaret watched us piece it together, her expression both proud and worried. "I believe Marie Leveau was involved in their disappearance or the sudden cessation of their antics. She would have felt it was her role as the Queen. I doubt the Laveau family ever stopped watching. They’ve ruled this city for centuries."

“Marie might be changed, but I doubt she will share family secrets that involve the use of their power,” Lia pointed out.

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