Why Is This Night..

I didn't see any practical jokes last night in Steelhead, though the giant coelacanth in the harbour serenely gnawing on a rowboat was charming.

Of greater concern was the Xeno I spotted perched on the roof of Beauty & the Beast. I had glimpsed the creature in the sky before during an event at Kokopelli Square, but it diappeared before I could pursue. It was at least four metres tall, and twice that long counting the tail. Numerous spines..I would even call them blades..extruded from all areas of its coal-black exoskeleton. From the safety of one of the shops in Caledon Row I observed the beast. I dismissed the idea that it might be a construct as I saw it feeding on the remains of something..or someone.

I was unsure of what action to take..trying to establish contact carried its risk, and there was always the chance this was some guard-beast Mister meQal had sentried over his store while he recovered from his illness. I took a daguerrotype of the creature for further analysis. But after I snapped the photo, it seemed agitated, turning its head back and forth, searching for the source of the noise. It must have finely honed hearing indeed..I was at least two blocks away!

The beast soon vanished. I flew to where it had been. The beast has left the head of a large saurian on the roof. Did it pull this creature from Steelhead Harbour? If our waterway could support the coelacanth, then there must be other large creatures in the deep for it and the xeno to hunt.

Note to Father: I have SERIOUS reservations about hosting our next Ballon Friday, underwater in the bottom of the Harbour! And this time I cannot be there to protect you..not in my watertight hermit crab body at least.

I returned to Caledon, strolling through the Cay looking for another of those special roses that grow from ime to time. I did meet a new neighbour from the Zombie household. (She did not appear to be undead..I will have to ask discreetly at a later time.) She mentioned in passing that the prior landowner had left Caledon..was this the "pompous blowhard" Captain Pearse had referred to before?

I grew tired of searching and returned to the firehouse to enter a sleep cycle. Androids do indeed dream..at last night I had a nightmare..

I was in full armour, standing on the pier of what my best guess was the Hobo Station. From across the sea an enormous creature, obscured from my sensors by billowing smoke, dove towards me with a roar that shook the island. Sensors could not penetrats the smoke, but this beast was easily the size of Sky City! I immediately began to retreat. Bricks and splintered lumber scattered around me as it smashed buildings in my wake. Somehow I managed to double back to the pier..I felt my systems shorting out as my guages burst. Tesseraction Systems: Offline..Flight Systems: Offline..nowhere left to go but into the water..where all systems would flood and short out..but I had no choice. Just as I leapt, the darkness enveloped me..

And I awoke.

This morning I returned to House Bloodwing to ask Father about the dream. As I enetered I saw my brother Vortex was crouched on the sofa with a nervous expression. He told me that he had the same sort of dream. Furthermore, every time this year in Heliopolis where he was raised, the Immortals would shut their gates and cower for eight days. It was the only time he ever saw his mother, the fearsome Sekhmet herslef, tremble.

Darien arrived, standing in the doorway with a bucket and a brush. He stirred the bucket and then daubed the doorframe in red. Setting the bucket down outside, he entered. He sat down across from us and explained.

"Vortex..your Mother's kin shut their gates this time of year for long ago the God of Hebrews cast judgement upon the Egyptian pantheon, for Pharoah..the avatar of Ra in the First Life..refused to release the Hebrew slaves at the behest of their Prophet. Did you not notice the cracks in every pyramid and pylon in that Eternal City? No stone was left standing upon another stone. Even still they have never recovered to the glory of what they were before the Ten Plagues were unleashed up and down the Nile."

"And my dear daughter..the dream was even more vivid for you because of the Hebrew magic I used to create you. The Tree of Death is still connected to the Tree of Life, and that is how, to my surprise, you were imbued with a soul. Because of this mysterious favor from Him, even I, a Demon Prince, must honor Him on these nights."

"What you saw was the Angel of Death who slew the first born in every household in Egypt. By marking our doors we mark House Bloodwing as safe from that dark angel. I know him by reputation and trust me, you don't want to tangle with him. I don't know if First Created counts as First Born..whether you or Vortex or even Ari are in danger. But after losing your brother Alan, I'm not going to take that chance."

Father then ordered me to mark the balcony door with blood, and Vortex to mark the gates to the service bay in the basement.

~Qli