move.”
She had watched him relax further as he spoke, focused on his memory and on the problem. His body still seemed to hold itself a little too ready for trouble at his core, but he seemed to be opening up. “So, was it hard to put down?” Bree asked, partly because she was on a roll with trying to figure this thing out, partly to see if Daniel would tell her.
“Yes, it was hard to put down,” he replied, and she saw the guardedness snap back into place.
“I guess I mean harder than usual,” she clarified. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“The husband got burned, but nothing major. Bailey got a little scorched. I think you’re asking how ugly it was. It was way up there. Probably in my top five,” Daniel said. “So… you’re thinking we misread it like we both misread the taint, or whatever it was I had?”
“Basically, yeah. So, personal question. How good is your Demonsense, usually? And Bailey’s? How likely was a misread?”
“Mine’s generally very good. I have misread how big one is, but not by much. You know that's not the hardest part of an exorcism. It was never enough to matter in getting rid of the demon, so never enough to pose any danger. And Bailey’s Demonsense is nearly as strong as mine.”
Bree felt a certain satisfaction as pieces fell into place for her, even though she didn’t like the conclusion. “I think what you had was some unusual type of taint from an unusual type of demon, with some kind of warding or masking properties. A much better than average ability to hide itself inside a host. And I think the taint was big enough to have nearly morphed into sentience. But not quite, because I was able to earth it, and if it was truly sentient, that wouldn’t have been enough. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”
He thought about it in silence for a moment. “No,” he replied at last. “I can’t remember anything specific. And this still doesn’t quite make sense. Something as big as you say it was should have shown itself more in my actions, not just my mood. I wasn’t acting darkish, if you know what I mean,” Daniel said with a touch of humor. “So even if it could hide to some degree from Demonsense, how could it not affect me more?”
Bree was tiring as they spoke. The adrenaline of the encounter with the taint was wearing off rapidly now, and tea and cookies weren’t enough to really feed her base energy. And she didn’t like the direction their conclusions were tending. Demons or taint that could truly hide would be a very bad thing. Of course, just because neither of them had heard of such a thing didn’t mean it wasn’t known somewhere . Even a Keeper might not be up on every scrap of demon lore. “I think maybe we should take this to the Ecclesias,” she said hesitantly.
Daniel leaned forward quickly and said softly, but intently, “Please, can we hold off on that? Can we maybe try to handle this more informally? Maybe run it by Kevin, and see if he knows a local Keeper we could bring it to?”
He looked so earnest, was making good eye contact, and sounded so reasonable, and yet she felt a little mole of suspicion crawling to the surface of her consciousness. She probed her Reader sense, but couldn’t locate any specific tells that were triggering the suspicion. She wondered if he had some particular reason for not wanting to go to the Ecclesias. Not that she could, in all honestly, blame him if he didn’t want to go. She wouldn’t enjoy drawing such official attention either. But there was something else, something she could almost taste…
“In any case,” he continued, “we’re both exhausted, and the taint or whatever it was is banished, so there’s really nothing that has to be done right now. I’m willing to hit the books a bit to see if I can find anything that sounds like this, and maybe we can set a date with Kevin in the next couple of days, see what he thinks. He’s got a lot of lore in that brain of his, and
She had watched him relax further as he spoke, focused on his memory and on the problem. His body still seemed to hold itself a little too ready for trouble at his core, but he seemed to be opening up. “So, was it hard to put down?” Bree asked, partly because she was on a roll with trying to figure this thing out, partly to see if Daniel would tell her.
“Yes, it was hard to put down,” he replied, and she saw the guardedness snap back into place.
“I guess I mean harder than usual,” she clarified. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“The husband got burned, but nothing major. Bailey got a little scorched. I think you’re asking how ugly it was. It was way up there. Probably in my top five,” Daniel said. “So… you’re thinking we misread it like we both misread the taint, or whatever it was I had?”
“Basically, yeah. So, personal question. How good is your Demonsense, usually? And Bailey’s? How likely was a misread?”
“Mine’s generally very good. I have misread how big one is, but not by much. You know that's not the hardest part of an exorcism. It was never enough to matter in getting rid of the demon, so never enough to pose any danger. And Bailey’s Demonsense is nearly as strong as mine.”
Bree felt a certain satisfaction as pieces fell into place for her, even though she didn’t like the conclusion. “I think what you had was some unusual type of taint from an unusual type of demon, with some kind of warding or masking properties. A much better than average ability to hide itself inside a host. And I think the taint was big enough to have nearly morphed into sentience. But not quite, because I was able to earth it, and if it was truly sentient, that wouldn’t have been enough. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”
He thought about it in silence for a moment. “No,” he replied at last. “I can’t remember anything specific. And this still doesn’t quite make sense. Something as big as you say it was should have shown itself more in my actions, not just my mood. I wasn’t acting darkish, if you know what I mean,” Daniel said with a touch of humor. “So even if it could hide to some degree from Demonsense, how could it not affect me more?”
Bree was tiring as they spoke. The adrenaline of the encounter with the taint was wearing off rapidly now, and tea and cookies weren’t enough to really feed her base energy. And she didn’t like the direction their conclusions were tending. Demons or taint that could truly hide would be a very bad thing. Of course, just because neither of them had heard of such a thing didn’t mean it wasn’t known somewhere . Even a Keeper might not be up on every scrap of demon lore. “I think maybe we should take this to the Ecclesias,” she said hesitantly.
Daniel leaned forward quickly and said softly, but intently, “Please, can we hold off on that? Can we maybe try to handle this more informally? Maybe run it by Kevin, and see if he knows a local Keeper we could bring it to?”
He looked so earnest, was making good eye contact, and sounded so reasonable, and yet she felt a little mole of suspicion crawling to the surface of her consciousness. She probed her Reader sense, but couldn’t locate any specific tells that were triggering the suspicion. She wondered if he had some particular reason for not wanting to go to the Ecclesias. Not that she could, in all honestly, blame him if he didn’t want to go. She wouldn’t enjoy drawing such official attention either. But there was something else, something she could almost taste…
“In any case,” he continued, “we’re both exhausted, and the taint or whatever it was is banished, so there’s really nothing that has to be done right now. I’m willing to hit the books a bit to see if I can find anything that sounds like this, and maybe we can set a date with Kevin in the next couple of days, see what he thinks. He’s got a lot of lore in that brain of his, and
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