Arcana Pt. 01: A Shapeshifter's Desire

"Yes, I was supposed to give you your... ID card..." The man looked up at her from the plastic card he had on his desk, "You barely look like her. What. Who are..."

Caroline's hair faded to brown and her eyes resumed their normal color, "Better?"

"Fucking SI. Here." He slapped the card in front of her and shook his head. Caroline turned her hair back and took the card, walking up to SI.

The little card had her picture from her driver's license on it and it read, 'Official Seattle Police Department Consultant'. Beneath that it read, 'Independent Contractor'.

She smiled a bit as she headed through the doors. Hail was standing at the head of the room talking with two men. One of them was wearing a crisp pants and a button up shirt with a book bag slung over his shoulder. The other slouched a bit in some ragged clothing and looked real annoyed. The first could've been an upstanding family man with his clean look and trimmed black goatee. He couldn't have been a day over thirty. The second was more akin to a vagrant. Dirty, unshaven and wrapped in tangled brown locks of hair. He looked more forty.

Oddly enough though, it was the raggedy man that Draconis was uneasy about. The clean cut man didn't pose any threat, but the slouched and malnourished looking bum set her instincts on edge. She eyed him carefully as she walked over to stand near them.

"And here is our third, whom will be the muscle for this mission." Hail said, gesturing to her, "I see the photo on your ID was useless. Boys, this is Caroline. She's a shapeshifter and a powerful one at that. You've all seen the Dragon of Seattle?"

"I have." The clean man purred, looking down at her.

"This is her and those robbers were merely a tip of what she is capable of. Last week she dropped a vampire in ten seconds flat and had it completely at her mercy before burning it to a crisp. Caroline, this is Alexander Furth and Jacob Carlson." Hail nodded.

"Doctor, if you please. Three PhDs from Harvard, Yale and MIT." Alexander addressed her formerly and politely took her hand to kiss the back of it.

"Yea, yea, and I've got a degree in Fuckitol, premier study of whogivesashit." Jacob scoffed, "So, if she's so impressive in a scrap, why are you bringing me in?"

"Because she's inexperienced. You two aren't. You're smart and skilled. She needs a little more time to learn. Plus, I need a good nose. She can follow a scent, but I need someone capable of searching and tracking." Hail explained and her face grew darker, "Because you three are going into the Underground."

Alex grimaced and Jacob tensed. Not visibly, but Caroline could sense the way he felt about those words. She cocked her head, "Why the fear? Isn't it just an over glorified sewers from before the fire a century ago?"

"The Seattle Underground is the remnants of Seattle before that fire, indeed. Following it, they rebuilt in a whole new way, taking the entire city up a dozen or so feet so that it was above the tidal basin. The streets and alleyways were left behind and created the Underground. But it wasn't long after that they were condemned for fear of the plague." Alex explained as if he were reading a textbook.

"Since then, those underground's have rarely been entered by normal folk. A few blocks have been renovated for some tours or something and that has only riled up what does live there." Hail continued and she shook her head, "Since then, all manner have used the Underground to hide. It's a maze down there and it's bigger than ever before. What used to be under just a few dozen city blocks has likely been expanded to the edges of the city. We have no way of knowing just how big it's become."

"Wait, that could be under every building in Seattle? How does nobody notice?" Caroline asked, bristling with curiosity.

"When a child is scared of a monster under their bed, do they go looking for it? What happens when a parent isn't around to check for them? They just cower in their bed and try to pretend it isn't there." Alex said with a somber tone.

"So nobody thinks about it, talks about it or does anything? You just let evil things fester and grow?" Caroline exclaimed.

"Kiddo, you wanna get rid of crime in this city? Say, stop all the murderers?" Jacob said, looking over at her, "Are you gonna search every building and basement? Dig through every trashcan?"

"We keep safe what portions we can afford to, under this area of the city, under a few high security facilities. We keep things from coming to the surface when we can. It's all a maze of horror down there and we don't have the power to tackle it head on. Most of the things down there rarely care about us anyway. Its not all evil, just things of the darkness." Hail explained and she shook her head.

"So this job, going Underground, what for?" Alex asked.

"The vampire we stopped last week was just one of a few different nasties we've nailed in the last few months. I'm pretty certain they're connected. They wouldn't know it, because they're all being driven out of the Underground. Something down there is making a power play for real estate and we need to know why. If something powerful enough to push a few vampires, a scourge of ghouls and a warlock to openly preying on the surface, then it can't be good for us. Most of these folks try to go back to the Underground after they have a victim or whatever it is they were coming up for. All of them have not, they've all resorted to unusual hiding places. Under the wharf, old warehouses, the industrial parks abandoned buildings." Hail explained in a serious tone.

"You think we're seeing some big bad trying to grow his territory and make a serious move on the surface. The rats are fleeing while they can." Jacob said succinctly.

"That's the simple way to put it. You three are to go down there and sneak around. See what you can find out. Not everything down there is evil. A lot of it just wants to stay out of sight of the plain old mortals. Poke and prod some. Back here by midnight." Hail nodded and walked away.

"That's it? Ask around?" Caroline said, putting her hands up.

"Might as well try to go ask a black man to join the KKK." Jacob laughed.

"The creatures and Mythics that call the Underground home do not like to get involved with mortals any more than they have to. They will not speak easily, but I know a few who might." Alex said with a nod of agreement to Jacob.

"Why would they hide? If any of them are like me, they've got nothing to fear from normal people. Regular humans are fragile things." Caroline pointed out.

"Witch burnings. Crusades. Werewolf hunts. The Inquisition. When riled up with a common foe, humanity can be organized and scary. None of them want to start another church-led middle ages. Dracula learned that the hard way, Bram Stoker put out that book on how to kill vampires and their numbers in Europe were cut in half in a decade. A century later, they've still not recovered and the way to kill them is commonplace in thriller movies. Everyone and their grandmother knows how to slay a European vampire." Alex explained quickly, "None of them want that attention."

"Put it that way, it makes sense. I guess if this entire city got together and poured concrete down the drains, they could probably bury the Underground." Caroline chuckled, "Alright, so where do we go?"

"I've got a number of contacts. The basement of the precinct here has a connection to the Underground and we'll move in from there." Alex said and he led them to the stairs.

"Hey, so I'm a Shapeshifter. What're you two?" Caroline said casually as they walked down the empty stairwell.

"Wizard. I've studied for the last sixty years. Been working with Viktoria for the last four decades here." Alex said. Caroline considered asking about his age, but then again Hail was more than a century old and she still looked good. Perhaps his magic granted him some kind of long life.

"Jacob?" Caroline said after a silent pause.

"Werewolf." He said curtly.

"Is it a full moon?" Caroline said and Alex stifled a snigger.

"That's a Lycanthrope, you idiot. A werewolf is a person who willingly transforms into a full wolf." Jacob growled in annoyance.

"Oh, see I figured the whole..." Caroline held out her arm, morphing it into an enormous canine paw with gleaming black claws. "Something like that, kind of a Van Helsing wolfman."

"Lycanthrope. Not werewolf." Jacob snapped and she shook her hand back to normal.

"Interesting you can change so easily like that." Alex observed, indicating her hand, how fast it had gone furry and back again.

"I am descended from Native American Skinwalkers. The spirit inside me let's me transform into anything I can imagine. Though I am partial to being part dragon. Bulletproof scales and immunity fire, all that." Caroline followed him through a heavy metal door at the bottom of the stairs. They passed down a quiet, empty corridor until they came to another door. This one had a heavy steel frame and quite the locking mechanism on it.

Alex opened it and turned to them, "This door is entirely one way. I've enchanted it myself. Once you're through, you've got to come back to the surface a different way." He indicated the massive amounts of etchings and magic runes that covered the entire back of the door. Sparks of magic coursed through the lines occasionally and Caroline felt a bit uneasy.

"Go. We don't need to be wasting time here." Jacob said impatiently. He stepped through the door and, at first Caroline thought he had knelt down, but she realized that he had actually dropped to all fours in the form of a great shaggy brown wolf that stood at least as high as her elbow. He shook out of his ragged pants and shirt, leaving them behind and padding off into the dark.

"A real charmer, huh?" Caroline sighed, walking through after him. Her eyes shifted into orange reptilian slits and the darkness opened before her. Beyond the door, the hall sloped downward, dropping at least ten feet before leveling off.

The door slammed shut with a resounding boom behind them and a soft glow began to shine from Alex's hand. It didn't really come from anywhere, just a golden runic shape floating from his palm and casting light forward.

"Jacob is a werewolf. His attitude is a casualty of his nature. He is more beast that can become man than the other way around. When the danger comes, he is powerful and skilled." Alex followed her as they came to a stone archway and a T in the Underground.

A sharp, low bark came from their right. With the glow from Alex's magic, Caroline could see like daylight. Jacob was standing twenty feet down, looking back at them.

"Aren't you the one who knows where we're going?" Caroline pointed out, looking back at Alex.

"Impatience." He shrugged, striding past Caroline to catch up with Jacob.

As they walked, Caroline couldn't help but marvel at everything around them. They had always been told and shown pictures of the Underground as a wreck. Collapsed hallways, crumbling walls and just general decay. Instead they were walking down a tunnel with a worn brick floor and moss-strewn walls. The place looked more just old than destroyed.

More than an hour passed, turn, straight, corner, door, another door. Caroline couldn't even come close to following the pathways Alex was leading them through. She was entirely lost by the time Alex stopped before a large double doorway with enormous studded metal doors. Jacob sat down and growled at him.

"Alright, beyond this door, we show no fear. Show no weakness. Anything that could show your nature as prey will set them off and they will try and eat you." Alex warned grimly.

"What will?" Caroline asked, already feeling an itch in her feet to go the other way.

"Trogs." Alex said, reaching for the doorknob.

He heaved the door inward, a loud squeal emanating from the metal hinge. Caroline was not prepared for the sound and sights beyond that door.

It looked like a dump, smelled like a dump and sounded like something Caroline didn't even want to think about. The hallway opened into an enormous cavern that had been carved over many years. It extended a hundred yards in the other direction and half that much wide. The only light that could be seen was a half dozen fires that burned throughout the cave.

All around them was the scent of rotting flesh. The trogs themselves were numerous, but they only stood two or three feet high. They were disgusting little creatures more akin to goblins from The Hobbit than anything else. They were fleshy and brown, with wrinkly bald heads and long ears. None of them wore clothes and that seemed to make it all the worse. Some Trogs were fighting, punching and clawing and biting at one another, some were feasting on rotten, maggot-ridden flesh and still others were fucking like beasts. All of this happening no more than a few feet from each other.

Caroline was honestly disgusted at it all. She couldn't even tell what ones were male or female, they were all just gross.

But as they walked in, the cacophony of flesh and howling voices died down. Beady black eyes turned to them all around. Jacob gave a loud bark and growled at the closest to him, making the three Trogs pick up their half-eaten corpse of who-knows-what and flee into the darkness beyond Alex's magelight.

Yet, even as they walked forward and the Trogs avoided Jacob, their eyes closed on Caroline. A couple licked their lips and lifted little weapons of sharp stone or rusted metal.

'Caroline. These creatures are cowards, but they are backstabbing cowards. They can sense your uneasiness.' Draconis warned her.

"We've come to talk to your King! Nothing more!" Alex called out.

"You talk to King, magic man! We take care of you friend!" A Trog yelled up at him and pointed at Caroline. He sounded even dumber than Caroline could've expected.

"I advise against it." Alex warned the Trog with a shake of his head.

"You bring tasty weak human. We take." The Trog moved towards Caroline with a malicious grin.

Enough was enough, Caroline had decided. She could see the disgusting little shits moving towards her from all around. She immersed herself wholly in Draconis's power and her entire body shifted in the span of a few seconds. She stomped the ground and roared a dragon's roar, rattling the walls around them and causing bright sparks and whispers of fire to escape her mouth. Her ivory claws gleamed in Alex's magelight and she lashed out at the closest one to her.

She needn't have bothered though, just the roar was enough. Every single Trog in a hundred feet of her screamed with terror and fled as fast they could. She could see them scrambling over one another to escape. They were crawling through small cracks and tunnels in the walls all around, and before long the room was half empty.

"No help?" Caroline snorted, glaring at Alex.

"The Trogs would've tried even more to get you if I had protected you. They're frightened little bastards, but they know how to attack in an underhanded mob when they think they can win." Alex said, pointing ahead of them, "To the king."

"Why are we here? How can they possibly help?" Caroline looked around with distain.

"They poach from the fisheries, they steal corpses, they club dogs and cats. They're repugnant and repulsive." Alex agreed, "But they go everywhere. They see everything. One Trog or another sees just about everything that happens in Seattle. If you know how to make them talk, and know how to understand their stupidity, they can be incredibly useful."

In front of them, the King was nothing more than a Trog a foot taller and thirty pounds heavier than the rest. He wore a crown of sorts in his head made out of an old license plate and some faded orange electrical wiring. He cowered behind a throne made of stone, metal and bones. His eyes were wide and he shook with fear as they approached.

"King Blargh. I seek your council." Alex said and Caroline had to clench her jaw painfully hard not to laugh.

"Okay! You have it! Now go!" Blargh said, waving to them, "Take big furry beast and nightmare monster with you!"

"We need to know if anything strange has been going on down here in Undertown. I am willing to pay in gold." Alex said, fishing in his bag. King Blargh's eyes perked up as Alex withdrew a pair of Twinkies.

"Gold?" Caroline cocked her head.

"Yes! Gold! I tell! I tell!" Blargh exclaimed, leaping around his chair and snatching the pastries. He didn't even bother opening them, just shoved them in his face faster than the eye could see. He devoured them, packaging and all, and swallowed them with a contented smile.

"So?" Caroline asked impatiently.

"You!" Blargh punched a nearby Trog on the head, "Gurg! What been doing in faraway area?!"

"Ask Furg! Furg, tell!" The Trog turned and punched another Trog across the face.

This quickly devolved into a mad melee to their right, a dozen Trogs all screaming incoherency and pummeling the sense out of each other. Finally, somehow a winner had been declared and one of the Trogs got kicked to the foot of King Blargh.

"Big man! Big man in black! He killing one and two and one and three! They ghosts! Ghosts do stuff! Things and death! Very bad! Lots fear!" The Trog rambled quickly.

"There! That is happening! Now you go and bring more gold!" The King exclaimed, throwing his arms up and kicking the Trog at his feet.

"Of course, King." Alex nodded and they all left the way they came quickly. Outside, the door squeaked closed and they were left in silence and relatively low-odor air once more.

Jacob sat up next to them and shifted back into a human.

"What the fuck was all that?" He exclaimed.

"Somewhere to the north there is a guy in black killing a lot of folks and enslaving their souls. There's enough going on to drive out vampires and such from up there." Alex said, scratching his head, "We've got a direction now. By the way, faraway is how they describe the northern parts of the Underground. So, hope you're both alright with an hour of walking."

"I don't even know anymore. This is all so fucked. Creepy little goblins living under Seattle. I was just barely getting to terms with what was happening to myself." Caroline shook her head in disbelief. At this point she just wanted to be back home in bed with Kate. But slumping through this muck and weirdness was paying her a lot of money, so she trudged on.

*******

CHAPTER 13 - WIZARDS AND MOBSTERS

Alex led their way through corridors and caverns that just seemed to get deeper and darker as they headed north. In one hand he held a bright white magelight that cast a bright aura all around them, and in the other than he held a wooden wand flat on his palm that was pointing like a compass to the north.

"Okay, I don't know about you guys, but this is not feeling good." Caroline said. The cold was seeping through her scales and it felt much more than just a subterranean chill. It was setting her nerves on edge and it felt like it was sinking into her very soul.

Jacob, as a wolf, growled at her and dipped his great shaggy head in agreement.

"What you're feeling is the stain of dark magics. Entrapment, enslavement, rites and rituals most foul. It's no wonder the Trogs weren't eager to tell us about it." Alex nodded, looking around at the dark cavern they were in. There was no telling how far Underground they had descended, but there were stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. As Alex shone his light around, they found great etchings in the stone floor. Pentagrams and circles, sinister looking runes and cryptic markings. The room as a whole was only a few long strides across. Blood splattered the stone in places and there were bodies piled against the wall. Some were human, others didn't look as much, and all of them were pale and naked.

"Shit." Caroline hissed.