Lupi 08 - Death Magic

are in truly urgent and dire circumstances?”
    The priest looked troubled, but after a moment he nodded slowly. “Yes, I think I can accept that. Very well. About all I knew of dopplegängers when Cynna called me was that they probably fell within the responsibility of a certain group of Jesuits. I called a friend of mine in that order. Alejandro intended to do some research, then call me back. Instead I heard from Father Moretti. Ah . . . he’s a senior advisor to the Superior General of the Order. Extremely senior. Alejandro’s inquiries sent up a red flag, it seems.”
    Absently he sipped his wine—paused, and seemed to notice the glass he held. “This is quite good.”
    “Thank you,” Rule said.
    “As I was saying, Father Moretti is in charge of a particular group of Jesuits. You might call them watchdogs. Some of what they watch for is unlikely to ever occur, but inquiries such as Alejandro’s draw their attention.”
    “So dopplegängers have been created before?” Lily said. “Copies of humans, that is, not bumblebees.”
    “Cullen mentioned the bumblebee.” Father Michaels glanced at Cullen, a small smile briefly lightening his expression. “The Church has encouraged the idea that dopplegängers are a pipe dream, but yes, they are possible. Until shortly before the Purge, they were not considered a grave threat to anything but the souls of their makers. They lacked sufficient duration to be a real problem. But in the seventeenth century, someone discovered how to make a new type of dopplegänger that lasted much longer. Some accounts claim . . . but I’m getting ahead of myself. This new type of dopplegänger was created using death magic, just as you believe yours are. The Church called them nex in vita .”
    “Death-in-life,” Rule murmured.
    Father Michael’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Yes, exactly. They were different from previous dopplegängers in significant ways. For one thing, they were unsouled.”
    Lily frowned. “Like demons?”
    Cullen snorted. “They’re constructs, Father. Of course they lack souls. So does my computer.”
    The priest shook his head. “Involving death magic in their creation changes things. I don’t know enough about it to explain. I can only repeat what Father Moretti told me. These dopplegängers lacked souls, but unlike your computer, they were capable of volition. If their presul was killed—ah, that means the director or controller of the dopplegänger. If the person directing the dopplegänger was killed, the creature didn’t disperse, as happened with the older dopplegängers. Instead it went on a killing spree. There are accounts of nex in vita lasting up to a week—and one account of one lasting an entire month, dispersing only when it had killed everyone and everything in the village.”
    “A month ?” Cullen was incredulous.
    “I don’t know if the story is accurate,” Father Michaels said apologetically, “and I’m afraid the medieval Church took steps to alter the historical record, so you’ll be unable to verify it on your own. But Father Moretti takes that account very seriously.”
    “I’m not buying it.” Cullen looked more grim than dismissive, however. “It would take massive amounts of death magic to fuel a dopplegänger for a month. Even if a practitioner was able to channel that much power—and that’s a big if—we’re talking at least a hundred people killed in a short time in a controlled ritual. I don’t see how anyone could do that—or how the Church could keep it quiet if someone did.”
    “But it wasn’t done in ritual. Not once the dopplegänger had been created, that is. Father Moretti believes that the nex in vita can feed upon death directly, without ritual, to avoid dissolution. If a dopplegänger’s creator doesn’t dispel it—or if he is killed and no one controls it—then as long as it can keep killing, it won’t cease.”
    “Until someone kills it,” Rule said.
    Father Michaels shook his head. “They exist in a sort of half-life. Death-in-life, as it were. Because they aren’t fully alive, they can’t be killed.”
    Lily’s eyebrows shot up. “At all?”
    “Perhaps with modern weapons . . . but according to the historical record, they cease when they run out of power, but they can’t be killed.”
    After a moment Rule said, “Are you sure of this, Father?”
    “Father Moretti is, and I believe him.”
    “Then how do we stop a dopplegänger? The Church must have found a way