Nightside 02 - Agents of Light and Darkness

there in the deep dark shadows, my back pressed against the wall, breathed deeply, and close my eyes, concentrating. And opened the eye deep in my mind; my third eye, my private eye. Energies swirled within me, rough and roaring, then flowed out of me, rushing off in all directions, lighting up the night so I could See everything. The thunder of a million voices descended upon me, not all of them in any way human, and I had to struggle to focus, to narrow my vision to the one thing I was searching for. The bedlam died away, and already I could begin to sense a direction, and the beginnings of distance. And then Something reached down out of the over-world, snatched my mind right out of my body, and bore it away. There was a sensation that might have been flying or falling, as the alley and the material world disappeared. And I was somewhere else.
    This time, it was my turn to stand in the spotlight. A light stabbed down from somewhere above me, brilliant and blinding, holding me in place like a bug transfixed on a pin. I felt horribly naked and exposed, as though the light showed up everything inside me, the good and the bad. All around me there was only darkness, a deep concealing darkness, and somehow I could tell it was there to protect me, because I was not worthy or strong enough to see what lay beyond my small pool of light. But I could sense that I was not alone, that to either side of me there were vast and powerful presences, two great armies assembled on an endless unseen plain. There was a feeling of restless movement, and what might have been the fluttering and flapping of wings. My mind, or more likely my soul, had been hijacked. Brought into the over-world, the boundaries of the immaterial. The over-world wasn’t Heaven or Hell, but it was said you could see them both from there.
    A voice spoke to me from one side, and it was a harmony of many voices, like a crowd chanting in syncopation, a choir that sang only in descants. My skin crawled at the sound of it. I’d heard such a voice before, in St. Jude’s. It was a powerful, imperious voice, steeped in ancient, unanswerable authority.
    “The dark chalice is loose once more, traveling in the world of mortal men. This cannot be permitted. It is too powerful a thing to be abandoned to merely human hands, and so it has been decided that we shall descend from the glory plains and walk in the material world again.”
    A second harmonied voice spoke from the other side, rich and complex and full of discords. “Too long has the Unholy Grail wandered at random in the world of mortal men. The somber chalice, the great corrupter. It must be placed in the right hands and allowed to fulfill its purpose. Its time has come round at last. And so it has been decided that we shall ascend from the infernal plains and walk in the material world again.”
    All I could think was Oh shit …
    “Tell us what you know of the Unholy Grail,” said the first voice, and the second echoed, “Tell us, tell us…”
    “I don’t really know anything yet,” I said. It didn’t even occur to me to lie. “I’ve only just started looking.”
    “Find it for us,” said the first voice, implacable as fate, as an iceberg seeking out a ship.
    “Find it for us,” said the second voice, relentless as cancer, as torture.
    Both their voices were very loud now, beating about me in the darkness, but I refused to allow myself to flinch or quail. Show weakness before overbearing bastards like these, and they’d walk all over me. I was scared, but I couldn’t afford to show it. Both sides could destroy me in a moment, for any reason or none. But they wouldn’t, as long as they thought I could be of use to them. I glared out into the dark, showing impartial contempt. Angels or devils, they both spoke with the arrogance of anyone who speaks from a position of strength. But I felt pretty sure I had a question that would reveal their true position.
    “If you’re so powerful,” I said, “why can’t you find the Unholy Grail for yourselves? I thought nothing was hidden from you, or your bosses?”
    “We cannot see it,” said the first voice. “Its nature hides it.”
    “We cannot see it,” said the second voice. “Its power hides it.”
    “But you can See what is hidden.”
    “So See for us.”
    “I don’t work for free,” I said flatly. “And if either of you could compel me, you’d have done it by now. So stop trying to bully me, and make me a proper offer.”
    There