PenNicole squeezes Jake’s hand and decides to risk saying “So tell me about the prophecies.”

“Ugh,” Jake says, rolling his eyes. “Ok, what specifically do you want to know? There are five demons… or were. Now there are four I guess. And then there is another ‘nameless’ evil that was put here by the ‘deathless death god, Titan of Titan’, whoever that is.” He sighs. “I have it all written down but it’s horrible stuff. It’s easier if you just ask questions. Of course, if you really WANT to read the mess, I’ll get it for you.”

“The Demon of Darkness,” PenNicole says. “I… I have friends in places other than on the Beverly Hills, and they’re trying to either save or destroy something that’s been corrupted by the Demon of Darkness. I don’t know if they’ll run into the Demon itself or not, but… I don’t know, do you have any insight on how to deal with a demon’s possessed minions, or just with the demons themselves?”

“Ok, let me get this right in my head,” says Jake. “The Demon of Darkness comes in several sections. He’s associated with the ‘Fallen son of the sun in the Land of Numbers’. Son of the sun... I had a time trying to figure that one out.” He smiles wryly.

“Anyway, this ‘Fallen son’ guy apparently dreams himself here on a vision quest thingy and gets in contact with the Demon of Darkness. The ‘son’ wants to kill or eat his mother. The demon promises just that. They go and petition the Demon of Iron. That’s the one that knows all the spells. Anyway, they make a plan and use very ancient spells, and that allows the Demon of Darkness to possess the Fallen son. Got that all so far?

“Here’s the kicker. The Demon of Darkness can’t even possess someone outside of this… Land of Numbers. So he and his new toy go about running basically a terrorist cell. By doing that they manipulate this thing called the Wheel of Fire.

“This Wheel of Fire thing gets so scared, it starts overcompensating and makes things worse for this Land of Numbers. And apparently that gives ol’ Demon of Darkness the freedom to do something like a jail break. I really don’t understand that part. But it’s like all these bad folks that were locked away in the Land of Numbers get sprung. And so do all the dead spirits of everyone that used to live there.

“Anyway, that’s when the writings stop talking about the Demon of Darkness and sort of go back and talk about the Demon of Fire. The time line in these things is all screwed up, I think. It somehow picks up after the Demon of Blood is killed by someone who’s cursed. Somehow that causes the Demon of Fire to become ‘Anointed’...But that’s not about the Demon of Darkness. Ok, hold on, let me remember…” Jake pauses and thinks.

PenNicole nods, trying not to let too much expression register on her face, especially at the mention of the words “cursed” and “Anointed”, which figured prominently in many memories of her past life as Michelle. She doesn’t want to break Jake’s concentration, and can’t quite make herself be rude enough to suggest he simply go and retrieve his writings.

“All right,” Jake finally says. “The next time we hear about the Demon of Darkness is with the Laughing man deal.” Then he shakes his head. “No. We need to go further back I think. Just after these people from someplace called the 1000 Worlds come and defeat the Demon of Stone. They are supposed to make this great mountain, or the Demon of Stone is. I’m not sure. Let’s see, The bloody, the cursed, the beloved… But wait. No. That’s all about the Demon of Stone.” Jake pauses and thinks again.

“Okay… after the whole Demon of Stone and, like, right before the Demon of Blood, we have this section about the ‘Betrayed and Betrayer’ I don’t know if that’s two people or just one. Sometimes it sounds like one and other like two. I just don’t know.” He stops. “Anyway, B&B for short. Okay, so we hear that B&B will be sent here by someone named ‘The Trustless’, and we never hear about him again except to hear he was right.

“Anyway, the Trustless sends B&B here and he I guess becomes the Next ‘Demon’ of Blood. Except he’s not a demon, see. And he has just enough savvy to play the Demon of Iron.” he smiles.” I like this guy even though it’s obvious he is a scum.

“So then here comes the Laughing Man. He apparently dreams his way here. There is a lot about wanting to get his child out from where it is. Something about stealing it away from its mother, but none of that is important. What IS important is the Laughing Man cuts a deal with B&B. B&B gets some of his blood for transporting him and his baby to the Land of Numbers, and WITH that blood he can send the other demons there as well.

“So suddenly The Demon of Darkness and the Demon of Fire can manifest themselves in the Land of Numbers. But more than that… the Demon of Iron’s boss, that great evil I told you about that was put here, can get in touch with the folks he has ‘turned’ since the ‘Son of the sun’ guy has been working with him. The whole point of all of this is to find the holders of the 12 keys that can UN-lock the great evil ‘in the bottom of the lake’.

“From there it talks about the Son of the sun trying to lift a whole land from under the water to use as a sacrifice to empower the Demon of Darkness, but that is supposed to be stopped by a bunch of elements. Light, air, fire, ice, darkness, and order… and they are supposed to have the ‘bloody’ guy with them too. He seems to get around.”

PenNicole nods grimly. “So it sounds like the twelve keys will be found, and it has to come to the land-lifting before they can stop him.”

PenNicole will then rummage through a bag or box looking for writing materials. If there are none to be had, she’ll move to someplace where Jake can’t see her and try to create some. Unless she totally fails to locate or create them, she will then write down everything that Jake has said, and her guesses as to what it means.

Land of Numbers = ??? Modern-day Earth? Underwater land = Atlantis?

Elements = Nicole and her friends

Demon of Stone people = Michelle and her Friends

Jake comes over and hugs PenNicole tightly. “I love you, you know. You’re the only person I have talked to about this that hasn’t looked at me like I was absolutely insane.” He kisses her.

PenNicole smiles, perhaps a little sadly. “I love you too, Jake. And maybe it just means we’re both absolutely insane, but I believe you. And I believe in you.”

“The real weird part is I only started writing this stuff down SINCE whoever it was brought that thing in the lake.” Jake ponders. “But the prophecy goes back further than that by a long way. Back to the very beginning of time.” He looks off as if trying to comprehend or remember. “Apparently the great evil’s first ‘hunt’ was after a guy known as the Poisoned or the Poisoner. This is the very first part of the prophecy. The thing in the lake hunted him and ‘consumed his hope’, and that apparently broke this guy or something and he searched out the ‘end of time’ and made a deal with someone called Oblivion to try and subtly ruin all of everything. The Poisoner went back and forth in time learning all about what everyone has done or will do. So he knows what will happen, or at least can make good guesses. And he goes around and alters people’s Ideas. Basically say just the wrong thing to just the right people. It’s like that story you told me about the butterfly flapping its wings and causing storms? He goes around saying one thing and that one thing starts wars or disasters or whatever and causes worlds to die or civilizations to fall. Maybe not right away. but he has forever to play around with.”

“Anyway when this ‘Titan of Titan’ brought the great evil here and stuffed him in the lake, ‘The Poisoner’ went into overdrive to try and free his boss. And he got sloppy. People began to take notice. He had to act with what, for him, was a great deal of haste. He is the one that supposedly sent the Laughing Man here. He is the one that sent the ‘Son of the sun’ here. And there were folks that started to take notice. Especially someone called ‘Granddaughter of the warrior in Jet and gold’. She and her family manipulated folks together. Conned a group of gods into a meeting which put the ones that had been ‘turned’ by the ‘thing in the lake’ on notice that they were being hunted. That started them into acting rashly.

“It was this Granddaughter that brought ‘Fire’ and ‘Order’ to the Land of Numbers. And it was her that set up this Bloody guy to start a civil war in the 1000 worlds, JUST to flush out who the bad guys were.”

PenNicole’s eyebrow quirks, and she makes a mental note to ask a couple questions of Sparrow and Genevieve, hoping that whomever this granddaughter is will be familiar when viewed through Michelle’s memories.

“Anyway, the whole point of that was to flush out and get the Poisoner, but the whole deal was that the Poisoner can’t be killed. But this granddaughter doesn’t know that. But the very LAST thing my prophecy talks about is how then he gets taken away. ‘The Husband of the Crone’ is summoned by ‘Darkness’, and he and the Poisoner somehow die together.”

PenNicole’s eyes widen for a moment, then she composes herself. She almost asks Jake if he knows anything about Vivianne and whether or not that might be the Crone referenced there, but then realizes that she’d heard about Vivianne from Gea and Mychael, and decides to try and get the answer from McBain later.

“The Poisoner can’t be killed,” PenNicole murmurs, “but he can be taken away. In Tarot, Death also means transformation. In fact, it means that more often than it actually means death. I would guess that’s what this Husband could do – let go of himself as he is, transforming himself and transforming the Poisoner in the process. Like dumping red into blue to make purple.” Her eyes widen again for a moment, not entirely sure where that thought came from.

“That makes sense. The Husband of the Crone is supposed to be ‘welcomed by his mother’,” Jake says. “It doesn’t actually SAY the Demon of Darkness dies. Just that he is ‘trapped in the Prison’. But the Son of the Sun dies. Or the demon of Darkness eats him. I really can’t tell.”