CH30: More Problems

He walked down to his wine cellar where the beast was kept and lit the torch on the wall. Behind strong iron bars, the beast's eyeless skull flashed with its own light. A rumbling shook the cellar and wine sloshed in their bottles before he chose the bottle gifted to him by Silas. He filled a wooden chalice halfway before approaching the beast. It felt right to get close to the beast better than it should. The beast raised its shackled limb and held its wrist out of the bars. He took a knife made from the demon's claws and sliced its wrist, letting the blood fall into the goblet. Then he brought the mixture to his lips and drank deeply. Like the apostles of Christ, he drank the blood of the supernatural and gained power.

William Penn woke up in a cold sweat. His wife still slept beside him, unaware of the too-vivid dream. Every night he dreamt of drinking the beast's blood. Before he had the wine from Silas, he thought it had been his nerves getting to him. Then, when one of his men brought the claw, he thought the dream had been a warning from god.

He woke up one night standing in his workroom with the bear claw wrapped with a leather handle near the knuckle. William felt lost, and not since he had been locked up in England for being a Quaker had he felt so trapped. Maybe he should have given the beast to John Grisham and let the man have the headache.

As if possessed, he walked down to his wine cellar. Normally he felt eyes upon him, but for once, he was alone with the beast. Every night he had the dream, but it always stopped before he drank the mixture. He had to know what would happen.

"Drink from my blood and have life eternal." The beast said.

"Thou art not the Christ foul demon," William said as he picked up the chalice purchased from a Spanish ship.

It was said to have been used for rituals by the Aztecs. The ship carrying it had been beached; the men had killed each other over the object. His men had been better than them and brought it to him with no trouble. The Spanish need for gold to push back invaders in the old world had taken more lives than the Prestor John's wrath upon Islam during the crusades.

Small designs had been filled with liquid gold depicting a feathered serpent. William hid it from his wife and had the men who found it swear their secrecy. He gripped the rough wooden neck of the chalice, and the beast stretched its paw out from between the bars.

William's heart hammered in his chest as he approached the beast while mist rose from his breath. There had been no choice, not really. For weeks he had resisted the dream while the items he envisioned came to him one after the other as if by magic. More beasts appeared and attacked his men and innocents in their homes. Bullets bounced off some of the beasts, and they were clever. Men were dying in droves, picked off one after the other.

Silas was happy to remain on his farm and provoke their red Indian neighbors. But, at the same time, the beasts picked the colony of Pennsylvania. The dreams were a warning, and with the knife in his hand, he felt that the warning wasn't as it appeared. He could take the beast's power and subdue it with the wine or let the beasts slowly kill his people. Thanks to Silas, they weren't on as friendly terms with the Delaware Indians.

The man who chose jail over giving in to English religious persecution chose to take power into his own hands for his people.

"No, but drink thou will. What art thou doing?" The demon asked.

William poured his chalice half full of wine before approaching the creature.

"Does it matter how I take my drink?" William questioned.

"No, it makes no difference. With wine, ale, or water, my blood is powerful. Though it would be more potent if thou got rid of Silas Flex and his abominable Sorceries. He covets my power and takes it for his own. What thou shall receive is penitence." The demon said.

William cut the beast's wrist and let the blood fall into the chalice. He was still dreaming; that was the only explanation for why the beast would allow him to cut it. Dark red blood sinks into the wine changing its color.

The quaker lifted the cup and took a long drink. Then, for once in his dream, he tasted it, and it was coppery mixed with the sour and dry taste of red wine. He felt the blood racing through his body from his guts, and his heart raced in his chest.

The quaker stumbled up the stairs as the blood had its way with his body.

"To drink my blood is a risk. Even I don't know what will happen, and to mix it with wine from that man, what a foolish thing to do." The beast said as he climbed his way up the stairs. The chalice fell from his hand and rolled down the steps while he made his way up.

Next, he woke the world and came into focus more clearly than ever before. The sounds of the world around him filled his ears enough to drive any man mad. And his throat felt dry like parchment.

…

Soifon didn't know what she expected to see when she returned to the farm. The spiritual energy in the air had risen by a realm in density, and the horse that pulled the carriage had changed. It was almost uncanny how it looked at her with eyes too intelligent for an animal.

While she didn't have much experience with animals from the world of the living, they weren't known for their extreme intelligence or reiatsu manipulation. The beast sat at a desk in Silas's house, writing with reiatsu manipulation. She had expected that if an animal was intelligent enough to write, it would use its mouth. Fine control was needed to wield a quill without snapping it. The swirling diction of the English rip-off of the Phoenician writing system made her eyes hurt to read. She preferred the blocky letters of Silas's journal.

As someone who went through the academy, she could reasonably say besides the ease of reading it, his journal was an unorganized mess. She didn't know where to begin to learn from it with the mix of advanced and beginner theory. There were even tips and tricks for formation creation that she couldn't understand without the foundational knowledge. Then there was the mathematics mixed in, causing her even more headaches.

Urahara Kisuke seemed to soak the information up from over her shoulder. "This really fills in a few of my theories. It's nice to have a few things confirm that all of these formulas art repeatable?" Kisuke said.

"Thou can practice, and I have an idea that could prove beneficial. I have taken the principles of the expanded space of my immortal's cave and crafted a sub dimensional space the size of this room easily accessible from anywhere." Silas said and tossed Urahara a ring engraved with a spirit stone.

Urahara looked it over before the fool waved his hand and a black tear in space appeared. "Oh, I like that, so I can fill it up with stuff and carry it anywhere. Is the crystal the power source? What is this material? I haven't seen anything like it before?" Urahara said.

Silas took a small book from his ring and tossed it to him. Urahara flipped through it and took a drink of spirit wine.

"Mayhap thou can replicate my experiment to show it is possible for anyone and record thy results," Silas said.

"Methinks that would be a great use of my time. Can I borrow a place to work, or is thy immortal's cave open?" Urahara said.

"I will have a shack picked out for thee. It would be better if the experiment didn't require the conditions of a subspace to succeed." Silas said.

"Why is that?" Urahara said.

"I would have to redo the test and change my formulas completely. Though the conditions of the subdimension in my immortal's cave were already factored in, I want a second opinion. Any space with a stable spiritual atmosphere should work." Silas said.

"That would make a space expanded into a subdimension ideal, but I can compensate with spiritual pressure to replicate the conditions," Urahara said.

Urahara left the room for a cold shack to test the experiment leaving her finally alone with Silas. She had good news and bad news to give him. She didn't want Urahara present to make things worse.

"Husband, we have prepared tea and snacks for thou and thy guest." A red Indian woman said before presenting a bounty of fresh fish, baked bread, and sliced apples.

Soifon ground her teeth at the possessive word and moved a hand to the pommel of her blade. Her friend grabbed her hand and gently removed it.

"Thank thou, please take the rest of the day off to enjoy thyself while I care for my guest," Silas said, giving her his full attention. "Sorry about her; my girls can act rather territorial when another woman's around," Silas said.

"Methinks if thou beat them a little, they would understand the pecking order." Another voice said.

Silas sighed and turned his attention to the horse writing with spiritual pressure. A conversation went on between them, leaving Soifon out. When it was done, she, too, stood up and left.

"Good luck, but if thou art staying, be ready for a fight. I am master's boss mare and won't give my seat to anyone inferior." The horse spoke in her mind.

"Sorry, she has only reached her current strength and feels like she is the queen of the farm," Silas said.

She felt weirdly aggressive. It made no sense to compete with a horse, but she wanted to show it who was on top. Soifon shook her head and focused back on the conversation.

"We need to talk; central 46 has convened, and thy farm is under discussion. If the hollow hadn't been captured and a few powers in west soul society didn't make their move, we wouldn't be polite. Not to thou, I mean to the people of this new world in general. No one likes that a spiritually weak man with a small army holds the beast. If its power hadn't been contained and inspected numerous times, towns would have been wiped out, and they still can be. One little slip up with the beast, and we will be sent as a kill team." Soifon said.

"I don't think it will be a problem. We art converting the hollow's power into spiritual energy for the land. Tis a weakened beast, the mundane man William Penn guards."

"When word of what thou can do got out, many of the captains wanted to invite thou to soul society immediately. With thy knowledge, all of soul society could be enriched, but the head captain denied it and was backed up by the two of the noble families. While thou do not slay hollows and damage the cycle of souls, thou art an ally. But, unfortunately, central 46 heard of thy abilities, and art debated the merits of abducting thee." Soifon said.

She watched the news add more stress to Silas's already heavy shoulders. The horse rapist's corpse hung from a large tree, bringing a slight smirk to her face. While he didn't discourage the practice, Silas had ordered it be practiced out of sight for proprieties sake. It was a small victory in her mind, showing Silas wasn't weak-willed. Some mercy was good but too much made a poor leader.

"The hollow will get free. It's only a matter of time," Silas said, and that wasn't what she wanted to hear. That was something he shouldn't have told her because she was going to report it to her captain.

"Mayhap, there is a reason for such a terrible massacre causing news," Soifon said.

He looked towards the lake where massive amounts of spiritual energy rolled off the water across the fields and sucked into Silas' immortal's cave. Several massive posts stood erect from the lake, overflowing with spirit liquid. She watched them gush the stuff like a fountain, and in the distance, a team of bounts had rowed out to one. They were extracting something, and she felt hollow energy.

"Tis still evolving, with its spiritual energy drained and its body locked away. Something is happening to move it towards a new evolution." Silas said.