We all needed some rest, especially Michael, and I needed to be up early for work in the morning. I didn't think the vicar was going to be able to cause much more havoc overnight. When I got my phone out the next morning to text Michael and see how he was doing, I found out I was wrong about that.
We hadn't added Alabaster to the Whatsapp group yet, but I texted him to tell him to join us at the Wicker Stop. Adam had the most details via his contacts. The vicar had been found early in the morning by a dog walker, seriously injured and wrapped around a tree on the church grounds. He'd been taken to hospital in Lancaster. And now nobody could get into the church.
Michael and me had to work our shifts, but the others went to get kitted up. Adam had the stone bird remains back at the junkyard to experiment on, and after a while him and Robin came back with sprayers and glass bottles filled with battery acid, which he was confident would prove particularly effective against the stone birds. Meanwhile Alabaster totally failed to notice the Whisper Sisters had dropped by the cafe and it took some quick thought on Michael's part to convince them that the knife and rifle he had with him were costume props.
Adam had a chat with the police when we got there, who were particularly unhappy because some other people in a black sedan who we'd probably call feds if we had feds here had also shown up. Fortunately it turned out Adam knew one of them as well and we were able to get to the church. Or rather, we were able to get several feet away from the church. The ward had expanded a lot. Adam was now also unable to get in. I never expected to be able to anyway, but touched it anyway, and now it felt like a solid wall. I wasn't going to be able to get through this time, whether by force or by magic. Alabaster seemed quite upset by it, but insisted nothing was wrong.
Michael walked in like it wasn't there.
I did a lap of the church, during which all I could determine was that the ward was now a smooth solid wall and that there were maybe more stone faces on the church than last time I'd looked. Meanwhile Michael went investigating in the church. He found where the vicar had been making changes to papers - presumably the ward tweaks he'd been talking about. Most of what he found was in Greek, as we could see when he started a video call. I suggested he use Google Lens, which got him part of a translation. He took some pictures and collected the rest to bring back.
By the time I got to the front of the church again, Michael was going to investigate the crypt. That's when things got weird. He seemed happy and content down there. Unnaturally so. To the point where I thought he was actually going to lie down and fall asleep down there. And then something would happen to him and none of us would be able to help because none of us could get into the church. I had to get him out of there. So I used the voice.
It was one thing using the voice to calm a frightened girl or an angry vicar. It was something else entirely using it on Michael. I felt sick, and the fact Alabaster had obviously noticed I was doing something didn't help. It worked though, and I hugged Michael out of sheer relief when he got back to us.
So now what? Reading and experiments. With some help from Alabaster's Greek/English dictionary, we got the stuff translated and learned about how this entity was summoned to keep out the non-sacred. With sacred here having a rather specific description unrelated to righteousness or good works. So Adam went with Michael to pick up his brother and see if he was able to get through the ward. They sent word that he was, although not without some difficulty.
So it seemed that the vicar's efforts to 'fix' the wards had instead managed to redefine 'sacred' to basically mean Michael. Imagine if people didn't go meddling with ancient relics and powerful magic they didn't fully understand?
Anyway, what we needed was a way of putting this guardian spirit and its ward back in a box, which sounded like something its previous users had been able to do. Specifically, by melting down the coin used to summon it, and then recasting it next time it was needed. So all we needed to do was find the coin and melt it down.
Of course we had absolutely no idea where the coin was. And the whole time I'd been at Adam's place, stone birds had been hurling themselves at the ward and exploding. I was pretty sure it was me they were after.
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