Chapter 48 Storyline Russia: St. Petersburg (Part 5)

The flight to St. Petersburg was relatively quiet and peaceful, on a small private twin-engine plane. I don't know its name — I've never been very good at air travel. During the flight I ended up with first aid seals. In the city itself in the past life was often — my father was often in St. Petersburg for work and took me with him, and my grandmother lived there.

In short, it was not interesting for me to stare. But I was interested in the local magical area, because, as it turned out, near St. Petersburg there is a large colony of mermaids, who breed a bunch of all kinds of aquatic life, which is presented on the St. Petersburg market.

Many materials, from simple shells, suitable for talismans and amulets, to high quality pearls. The widest selection of ingredients for potions, chimerology, various rituals and witchcraft.

As well as just quality products. Rusaloids here in Russia were protected by old and new laws, so they quickly occupied an empty niche, and now the magical world of Russia has no need for fish, river and sea crabs, crayfish, edible algae, mollusks, and even snails. Although the latter are more often imported to Europe.

Walking through the market, I was not very impressed with the finished products and preparations. No, the quality is on a good level, but I am not interested in it. I liked the system of cooperation between magicians and the magical race. I even talked to an old merchant, and he told me that the mages had made a contract with the mermaids during the founding of the city, and since then there have been no serious conflicts between the parties.

What interested me the most was the possibility of making a contract to buy goods in bulk. This opportunity opens up some avenues of income, but that is something to be considered after the fact. However, I have already made arrangements to purchase three types of pearl clams: black, pink, and small common. This is a common practice and does not affect the market in any way.

This is what potion makers and artifactologists do, because pearls are a very interesting ingredient and material, and research into new ways to use them will continue for a very long time. And to protect the market, there is a licensing system and a mermaid monopoly on "blue", "gold", and "blood" pearls.

These secrets are kept especially carefully, and no one has managed to find out. But I saw no dragon pearls anywhere, and when I asked the same old man, I heard laughter.

When he stopped laughing, he explained that dragon pearls were a myth, and only a few times in history have they been mentioned as the embodiment of magic that can do unimaginable things: create or destroy continents, or something even more incredible.

As I said goodbye to the old man, I walked away pensive. What would they do to me if they found out that I had a "small" gift from the Azure Dragon in my bracelet — a gold-embroidered suede pouch with five dragon pearls? I've thought about keeping it a secret before, but now I can't even let anyone know about my meeting with the dragons, for it's well known that only they can get the beautiful beads.

***

I didn't get all the details of the "Peter incident," and the investigation is still ongoing, but it's clear that someone from this side helped the terrorists. A powerful terrorist attack on the city. A total of four terrorist attacks were planned, roughly at the same time, with a time gap of one to three hours.

 A chain of events. The first attack was to be a huge explosion in a densely populated area, near a large market. The arriving sorcerer-tantrist acted as a controller to direct the collected energy of death and pain, the suffering of the victims further down the chain.

The next strike was to hit the electricity and water supply, causing more casualties and panic, the energy from which would again be harvested. The third strike was to hit the kindergarten.

The ritualist mages would perform a mass sacrifice of innocents, triggering the final, fourth stage. "Black Plague Explosion" is the name of this black magic curse, a magically induced epidemic of terrible power activated by a "karma bomb". Why did the mountaineers decide to use this and not, for example, the breakthrough of some dark creatures, which could be easily arranged? Specialists thought about it, but the answer came quickly and unexpectedly.

When the explosion occurred, killing more than eleven thousand people at once, martial law was immediately declared in St. Petersburg. But the machinery seemed to be completely rusty, and the services were slow and sluggish. Most officials were completely incapable of making clear decisions, and their assistants were hardly listened to.

Many orders and decisions turned out to be fundamentally wrong, downright stupid, and even harmful. And yet, the attack on the water and power plants was repulsed, albeit with heavy losses of both ordinary people and mages.

What happened drew all the attention, so the third attack was not responded to until the city's magical security service triggered an artifact that reacts to black rituals with an evil squeal. It turned out to be a recorded synchronized death of ten people, and while the exact coordinates were being determined, orders were being given, and fighters were being assembled, twenty more people died in two waves.

A large force of combat mages were found on the scene, and a circle of ten ritualist mages were engaged in the ritualistic killing of children.

The locals were lucky enough to get into the middle of the ritual and wiped out most of the ten before the Guardian fighters arrived. A long battle with the most vile curses and devious techniques. The enemy stood to the last, and the last black sorcerer, a Highlander in his eighties who had been torn in half, managed to crawl away and activate the curse. Everything living within a three-block radius was wiped out.

There were no survivors of the horrible and painful death, but the curse, not having been completed as intended, stopped within those limits and a quarantine zone was declared around it. As I was told, all the previous victims became "fuel" for the ritual, and the number of child victims was meant to indicate the power of the curse.

My job is to "cleanse" these places. To release the tortured and innocent souls, to drive out the "hungry" and "vengeful" spirits, to remove the mark of evil and sorrow from these places, and to deal with the curse. What to do with breakthroughs from other worlds and plans, I don't know, but there are options in this situation.

A grueling, long and complicated ritual, with a hundred assistants, I performed for ten hours in the center of the explosion. I was provided with everything I asked for, and as soon as I said I needed assistance with the ritual, within an hour over two hundred mages had gathered.

One hundred was enough for me. Also, during the ritual, I was able to find out that the terrorists were doing the same thing: there was a mage-operator and a hundred support mages around the perimeter collecting the surge of sacrificial energy.

While I rested, they shared my confirmed suspicions about what had happened, and the first serious conclusions. The Highlanders were seriously trained and equipped, the fighters themselves did not have such high level equipment.

Moreover, the fighters acted as if they had been trained for special police units: coordinated, clear and united fists, divided into squads. Artifacts and various protective amulets and talismans they can make themselves, but the equipment, the ammunition — no.

Where did they get it? Who gave it to them? And why? And I was also worried about the question: why and why did they tell me all this and why did they not ask for a signature?

During the second ritual, near the site of the main battle, a strange booty was found, hung by one of the dying, tying his posthumous release of magic to this nasty thing. I didn't understand the meaning of the spell, but for a few moments, the howling ghost of the culprit appeared before me.

Two other mages had seen him, and they had kept the memories for investigation — in case they could identify the portrait and unravel the mystery?

I was then told another part of the story. During the attack, the militants were commanded by unknown masked men. When it became clear that even escape would not be possible, the commanders killed themselves with powerful magical explosions. The powerful magical pulse dissipated any possibility of determining the energy signature, but forensic experts found particles of flesh.

The examination revealed that the commanders did not belong to the Highlanders at all, the genotype analysis showed that these magicians carried the blood of an average European, i.e. a mixture of several white races, with a drop of Negroid, one sample had traces of Asians, but in a small fraction. In short, it's unclear.

Although, I suspect that at higher levels of access, there is already more than one working version, with evidence from intelligence. But that's none of my business, and I don't want to make it my business.

The Russia here is not very different from the one I know, and its magical part does not interfere much in the lives of ordinary people, although many problems could be avoided. Why is that? I don't know. I've seen a lot of apathy, indifference, spitting. It's all the same. I'm sick of it.

Kindergarten was the worst. When I entered the building, which smelled of the cold of the dead, I saw signs of struggle, destruction, death. When I passed a playroom or something, I was overwhelmed.

My perception shifted and the real world and the astral world mixed, and my insides twisted with cold. My body was petrified and I dared not go any further. In the game room, I saw her. Out of the corner of my eye, I heard them calling my name and tugging at my shoulders. Without realizing my actions, I entered the room...

***

POV Oversight

The escort mages were looking at the Japanese man, and they were getting more and more creepy. Everyone could feel the misfortune that had happened here, and a chill ran down their spines. The Japanese man, who was frozen at first, walked into one of the halls with a mechanical gait, not noticing anything or anyone, not answering.

Here he reached the center of the hall and knelt on his knees. His face was not visible, but the temperature began to drop, and puffs of steam escaped from his mouth. Here, the mage stretched out his arms, as if embracing someone, and lowered his head, as if caressing someone... someone small. A few seconds later, a silhouette appeared, and in the mage's arms was a girl, about six years old, also embracing the boy.

Blood splatters were clearly visible on the ghost's face. She was crying. Silently, but her longing seemed to pierce every mage's heart. And then, one by one, other children, girls and boys, began to manifest. All had blood splattered and dripping from their skin and torn clothing. As they appeared, they slowly approached the Japanese and embraced them.

Frost and chunks of ice appeared on the walls, icicles began to grow, and a frosty haze spread across the ground. The people shivered with cold and eeriness, as if paralyzed by what they saw, and the mages did not realize the time that had passed.

But in an instant, something changed, breathing became easier, and the frost inside them melted, releasing the stiffened bodies and minds. The ghost children began to look a little more "alive". The room became brighter, warmer, and lighter.

The figure of the Japanese man was covered in a cocoon of blue-green light, he stood up and examined the children. The magicians could see the glow of lilac eyes, non-human, alien.

The unusual color of the boy's eyes had not caused such thoughts before, but not now. The mere sight of the golden sparks in the lilac glow caused a shudder of something greater than a mere magician. Stroking the head of the very first girl, the mage smiled affectionately, warmly, and received an unbidden smile in return.

And then a wave of blue-green light spread out from him, "slimming" the children's spirits. Fear, grief, pain, suffering, sickness, everything was washed away by this light. The wave covered the whole area of the kindergarten and completely washed away the traces of former sorrow and misfortune. The Japanese man staggered and almost fell, but he was picked up unconscious in his arms.

Later, when the magicians studied what had happened, they would notice that flowers blossomed, dry branches of bushes and trees came to life, and even wooden furniture sprouted green shoots.

And those who were present at that moment, all traces of trauma and illness disappeared, scars and traces of curses disappeared. Very little was said about this case — it was kept secret, but rumors began to circulate.

Seven hundred kilometers from this place, in one of the magical forests, an old man lost contact with his god. He was unable to perform a single miracle until his death. His companions escaped more easily, but they were no longer able to speak to their gods.

Emergency meetings were held in several high offices, and those who had not reported in time were reprimanded. Speculations and plans were made. Many of those who were greedy and especially cunning were already anticipating new opportunities after acquiring the trophy that had come into their hands. But the wishes did not come true and the plans did not work — there was simply no time.

Within four days, the young Japanese sealed the magical disease/curse "Black Plague" into a specially prepared oak trunk by local craftsmen. The magician said he couldn't do more than that, and if the locals couldn't handle it themselves, they could seal it in a stone sarcophagus until someone could be found who could handle it permanently.

After that, the young mage, completely ignoring all the invitations that rained down on him, as well as the attempts of various "important" strangers to get through to him, finished the order of the seals, received the agreed payment, and left the country.

 Many people gritted their teeth in indignation and even cursed. A few "important" ladies spat poison at the Japanese, but none of the small curses or booty reached its target, and none of them did. The magician left no flesh behind, no matter how hard the local specialists tried. It was impossible to bind the promising boy.