September 4, 2003 – 7:30
"The corpses with the fake sigil tattoo? Hold on, I'll put you on speakerphone. I've got a crowd over here who'll want to hear about this."
"Yes. Oddly enough, there is no picture of them in any papers. Is Eva with you?"
"No, but Sebastian is."
"Hello Veronica," said Sebastian, holding a cup of coffee.
"Oh good! Hi Sebastian! You are going to want to hear about this. I'm sure you remember the gory night against Lucas' vampire last year?"
"You're talking about the night when a djinn tried to kill your brother and Blue stepped in, right?"
"Yes, that night. Turned out that the vampires we killed, at least some of them, had the same tattoos on their left arm, right below the armpit. Papers are showing pictures of two of them, their left arm above their head, so their tattoos are clearly seen in the pictures."
"We burned them all, did we miss some corpses?"
"No, we didn't miss any, I'd set myself on fire on that."
"In which papers? I wanna see," asked Gus.
"Jorgie, that cockroach! It was in the middle of the night and barely any moonlight illuminated the forest. Bet you that he took advantage of the chaos to snap pictures before you two started to clear the scene of evidence."
"It was in all of Chicago's daily papers, with the coverage of the damn witch hunt. Are you talking about the guy who yelled at Blue when she saved my brother's life?"
"Yes, I saw him leaving the scene when she turned the djinn into a pile of corroded bones. He is an informant to one of the EBEE elders," said Sebastian.
"That alone proves the betrayal theory," said Erik.
"I don't recognize that voice as well, do I know you?" said Veronica.
"Princess Veronica, right? We met once in London, I'm Erik Fullemon. The guy who asked you about which paper is Gus, and my brother Henry is also here. We arrived in the middle of the night to help Blue keep her dude safe and blur the trails leading to her."
"I like you then. It also proves that the Clear Valley case back in June was a setup."
"It wasn't that far from where we fought Lucas' war," said Coralis.
"I'll let the dust settle a little bit and I'll send Trisha with one of Hendrick's men who were there to speak with the town citizens, to see if they believe the propaganda against us and that you're one who killed their residents," said Veronica.
"Jorgie was also in northern Scotland, I wouldn't be surprised if we see pictures of your glowing zombies in the human press," said Sebastian.
"At this point, it wouldn't make a difference if they also used that case against me. If that case is also going around, it could explain why Andrew ranked lower than me: he was there and helped me with that spell, but he wasn't the one controlling it," said Coralis.
"The glowing zombie… you showed me a video of that, I think," said Frank to Sebastian.
Sebastian nodded.
"You and Emery were there but weren't supposed to be. If Jorgie saw you… it means that you two might become persons of interest," said Coralis.
"One last thing, sis. I better not hear you feel guilty about me being on that list. If it wasn't for you, Plurio would probably be ruling over Chicago now and you can imagine what would happen. I think me being a person of interest is a small price to pay. Clear Valley was a setup for the both of us."
Erik and Henry left after she hung up with Veronica to go to their flyball field, but they flew back after their game. Gus stayed to research everything he could about the Silverling Heart and what it looked like.
During the week, Gus bought a stainless-steel necklace and Coralis managed to turn it into silver, using some technical information she found in the book that Frank gave her the past Christmas and moulded it into what looked like the Silverling Heart.
A week after the witch hunt started, Erik, Henry and Gus watched Coralis make preparations to spell the Silverling Heart replica, while Frank attentively watched the late evening news report.
The international witch hunt was all the news could talk about. Some countries, including Canada and Korea, were refusing to kill any that were listed as kill on sight because they had conflicting reports about some of them and were arguing that they would probably need a witch to kill a witch.
Coralis heard her phone ringing from the living room table and went to pick it up. She saw it was Veronica, so she put the call on speakerphone as she answered it and deposited it on the kitchen island counter to continue what she was doing.
"You got news for me?"
"You know it. A witch, a wolf and a vampire walked into the forest. What could possibly go wrong, right?" said Veronica.
The guys laughed, including Frank from the living room.
"Oh, I see I have an audience, even better," continued Veronica.
"We've been helping Blue to get what she needed to forge a replica of the Silverling Heart, which we're going to nickname the Silverblue Heart," said Henry.
"Oooooh, I do want to hear all about it. I've heard about that necklace. It's supposed to make any elf wearing it immune to silver, right?" said Veronica.
"Yes, and it's also believed to allow the wearer to create silver out of nothing and mould it into anything. What about you tell me what you found out this week, and I tell you about what we've been up to?" said Coralis.
"Deal! Right, so, as I was saying, a witch, a wolf and a vampire walked into a forest. Valiantly, they fought the goblin and vampire monsters and saved two residents from a nasty doom. Unbeknownst to them, more bad guys hid in the forest and snapped pictures of the defeated goblins, who were also sporting devilish tattoos near their armpits. Alas, the sleeping goblins were deemed too ugly to pass for humans in the press."
"You were right, they had been moved while we were in the shack," said Coralis while the guys wiped tears as their laughter died down.
"I've got to say, I admire your storytelling skills," said Henry.
"Thank you! I've been polishing off my storytelling talent for centuries, I indeed became a pro at telling stories."
"Knowing you, I'm sure you aren't done with your story," said Coralis.
Frank got up and joined them in the kitchen, standing next to Coralis.
"You know me so well, sis. When they returned to town after slaying all of the monsters, the town folks welcomed them as heroes, cheering their victory over evil. Following the witch's advice, the mayor performed a cremation ritual and turned the bodies into ashes before despicable folks could use them for nefarious purposes."
"That would explain why their pictures weren't posted in the papers. Their tattoos may have been harmless, but we knew it was a setup. I recommended he burn them before those who set us up came back or other people saw them and got the wrong idea. I'm glad he listened to me."
"What I find disturbing in this story so far, is that it also proves that some elders at the EBEE have planned on taking out Blue for a very long time. The vampire wars and the Vase of Blue Sky saga were over a year ago, and some of the vampires there, if not all, had the same tattoos as you found on the human dead bodies in Clear Valley?" said Erik.
"Isn't it interesting? I also need to tell you how I found out about the goblins having tattoos and you're going to love that story."
"Seb will want to know about that, it proves him right," said Frank.
"He should be here at any minute," said Coralis, looking at the time. "He was waiting for your sister to be back from work."
"As months went by, the town folks continued to tell their children the tale of the three brave warriors who saved their town from a horrible fate. One day, the news that there was a warrant for the arrest of their beloved heroes and that one of them was sentenced to death reached their ears. 'LIES!' they screamed, fists in the air."
"They don't believe that she is a witch or that she is summoning demons?" said Frank.
"You'll see. Angry, the town mayor and his citizens were determined to protect their saviours and rectify the lies, but no one would listen to them until their protests landed into the ears of an unlikely ally."