Page 62 of Mardi Gras Murders & Midnight Masquerades
Lia conjured a small ball of witch fire and sent it ahead of us. It cast our surroundings in amber light. The staircase ended in a small antechamber lined with shelves. Scattered across the floor were what appeared to be humanoid figures. Their bodies were twisted in unnatural positions.
"Are those... people?" Dre asked.
I stepped forward cautiously, kneeling beside the nearest figure. When I touched it, I had to suppress a gasp as images flooded my mind. "They were Society members," I explained as I withdrew my hand. "From decades ago. They came down here seeking knowledge and triggered some kind of defensive spell."
"Delacroix's work?" Lucas asked as he examined another body without touching it.
"Yeah," I replied. "These were his followers, but the trap was designed to keep them out as much as intruders. I don’t think he wanted anyone accessing whatever is in here."
Lia crouched beside me. Her witch fire illuminated the dusty shelves. "Look at all this. Books, artifacts, containers... this is a treasure trove of Dark magic."
"We need to be extremely careful," Dre warned. "If he had traps for his own followers, imagine what he has for enemies."
Phi stepped forward and cocked her head to the side. "I'm picking up multiple layers of protection spells. They're dormant now. I think they’re designed to activate if certain items are disturbed. We need a focusing circle to distribute the magical feedback if we're going to examine anything."
"Good idea," Dre said as she began drawing sigils in the dust with her boot. Her movements were precise and confident, each symbol connecting to form a complex pattern around us.
"These protection wards should hold against anything Delacroix left behind," she explained, finishing a particularlyintricate sigil. "But we'll need everyone's energy to activate it properly."
When she was done, we formed a circle around the perimeter of her markings. We clasped hands, and I felt the familiar surge of magic flowing between us—Lia's warmth, Dre's focused intensity, Phi's analytical clarity, Kota's unwavering strength, and Dea's profound connection to the beyond.
"Protego circulum," we chanted together. The sigils began to glow with blue-white light. The energy spiraled upward, forming a dome that shimmered into place around us. The air felt cleaner and lighter inside.
"Now we can safely examine what's here," Phi said as she surveyed the collection. "And hopefully find something that tells us where both his original body and the locket are hidden."
"That's our priority," Kota agreed. "Eleanor made it clear we need both to stop him permanently."
With the circle to share the psychic burden, I began exploring the collection. I carefully used my psychometry to reveal their purposes and histories. Each object told a piece of Delacroix's story. There were ceremonial daggers used in blood rituals, journals documenting his experiments, and vials of preserved essences from his victims.
"These documents detail his body transfers," I said as I began leafing through a leather-bound journal. "Woah. He's moved his consciousness sixteen times over the centuries. His soul might have nothing left to move."
"Which is why he needs the locket," Noah concluded. "It contains the first fragment. The largest piece of who he originally was."
"Exactly," I agreed and set down the journal to examine a rolled parchment. "If we can get the locket andfind his original body, we can prevent any further transfers and finally end him. And according to this... oh."
"What is it?" Lia asked, moving closer.
I unrolled the parchment carefully. "It's a map of his underground network. Look. There are tunnels connecting every major landmark, including the opera house where we found Eleanor."
Dre studied it over my shoulder. "He's been at this a long time."
"There's something about that spot that’s bugging me," Lucas said as he pointed to a mark on the map.
Noah nodded in agreement. “It’s like an unease I can’t shake.”
"What does the app show?" I asked, turning to Phi who was frowning at her phone.
Phi held up her tracking app display, her expression intense. "That's strange. There's a massive concentration of gold energy that just appeared beneath the opera house. It wasn't there when I scanned earlier."
Lia leaned closer to look. "That's Delacroix's signature."
“It can't be beneath the opera house," Kota frowned as she looked at the spot. "Maybe you're detecting Eleanor?"
Lucas shook his head. "It's not her. This is different. And I didn't feel it until I started looking at this map. It's like something activated when we found these documents."
Phi zoomed in on her app, her eyes widening. "Based on these readings, the entire ritual is designed to channel power from all the murder sites through these underground tunnels, converging at this single point." She tapped the bright golden dot. "The concentration is way too powerful to be residual energy. I think the ritual has begun to draw power, which is why this became active in the last hour."
"Okay, so there must be another chamber," Lucas suggested. "Deeper than where we found Eleanor."
