Spirit Bound (Furry Story)

Chapter 76: The Harbour

It's finally time for Nathanial to head out to Halifax Harbour to search for the missing corpses of the Hunters. His plans have been drastically altered by Liam's insistence that the Hunters be given last rights, and by Agent Ella trying to get everyone to tell him not to go. He now sits on his bed, minutes before the scheduled departure time, lost in thought.

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Nathanial sighed as he finished getting his things together. It was now nine o'clock, and everyone was gathering together to head down to Halifax Harbour for this 'big excursion'. He had just planned to sneak out for an hour or so, find the bodies, dump them on the shore somewhere, and leave a tip on the Crime Stoppers hotline so they'd get picked up. Now, his brothers were coming, so Garret was coming, and his friends, so Conor and Dirk were, along with Ella, Jay, and Sgt. Heimdolf. Eleven fricking people! How in the hells were they going to get a boat to carry that many people and how were they going to deal with the corpses? The 'dumping' thing wouldn't work since Liam had gone all 'Timeus' and turned this into some holy quest to send the souls on. Nathanial winced slightly, maybe Liam was right on that one, maybe he had caused a lot of suffering, not just to the families, but to the souls of these people. He was being kind of selfish, helping Ahmed because he knew him, and trying to get Jezebel to stop haunting his thoughts and dreams. Could he really blame the souls of these guys for being upset? He killed them, brutally, and then hid the bodies so their souls couldn't be sent on. Jezebel was going to get married in a few months, to a right ass, sure, but she might have been happy with Joseph Harper. Who was he to judge? But now, she would never be with him, her life was cut short, by his paws.

Nathanial sat on his bed and stared at the grimoire, softly stroking the pelt that made the cover. His entire life now revolved around death. Part of his friend had been killed by his boyfriend's mother because he couldn't control his temper. Now, that piece was a book so he could learn new, nastier, ways of killing. His mother hated her children and sent her friends to kill them; she ended up getting killed by both groups, Nathanial used her as a tool and weapon, and her 'friend' shot her because she was in the way. He stopped himself from going through a whole list by bemoaning one more thing, 'So many fights and I haven't gained a single level.' Liam had shown him three spells to look over: Corpse Candle, Macabre Reveille, and a very complicated Ghost Galleon. He'd never have thought of looking through these three for what he wanted. Corpse Candle illuminated all corpses in an area, usually a few hundred metres, with a phosphorescent glow and the caster could sense the distance and direction of each one. It only worked if the corpse wasn't buried, but water didn't block it. He thought he'd easily be able to cover the whole inner harbour if he amplified it. The second was... disturbing, it temporarily animated all corpses in an area, again a few hundred metres, and made them walk/swim/crawl toward the caster of the spell. Liam said it should allow them to climb onto whatever thing they had to carry the bodies, and it'd have the side effect of keeping them... 'intact' for a while. That was almost as complicated as the Binding Tentacle spell, but a little harder to learn. Still, he was sure it'd be easier to cast than that stupid candle lighting spell he learned when he was a little pup, if anything that entry level spell had become harder since this whole thing started. The Ghost Galleon was a last resort. Nathanial shivered as he thought of it. If Binding Tentacles was between intermediate and advanced, this might be an expert level spell. It conjured a ship out of the darkness and fog, so it was perfect for tonight, and drew all of the remains of sentient creatures in a body of water to it, animating them as a crew. He thought, judging by the 'wording', that it'd take everything from most of the Bedford Basin. A second casting would cover the rest of the basin and the inner harbour, and a third would cover the McNabs Island region toward the mouth of the harbour. Three castings to cover a huge volume of water. That wasn't all, the spell didn't just create vessels and crew them, it also armed them. Sure, it was a magic variant of cannons, using Dark energy, but they were probably even more destructive than real cannons and three of these galleons could probably destroy the entire navy fleet stationed in the harbour if they weren't prepared. Liam said this spell looked to have been a closely held secret by the English Mages, used in defiance of Society law to defend the British Isles for centuries. Supposition on Liam's part but it made a good story. Last resort for sure, and maybe something he wouldn't do even as a last resort. Nathanial stroked the grimoire, he was a little curious to find out if he could cast it. He was bringing his grimoire with him, just in case, but he was fairly confident he had the spell memorized. He thought back to the fight in the kitchen, when he'd made his mother stand and fight using telekinesis; the Hunter had called him a necromancer, and it seemed the Hunter was right. Nathanial saw Lily lying there in his arms, again, her blood pooling on the tile and soaking into his pants. Her lovely white fur had been matted and ruined; she had always taken such good care of her appearance that no one, not even the most speciesist Fur, could deny she was beautiful.