The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 131 (Patreon)

Chapter 131 – Poltergeists?

To say that there was something of a stir when we returned to the ship would be an understatement. After all, just seeing a phoenix was rare enough. Seeing two of them, and knowing that they were formerly human? That was something else altogether.

The Capitaine and Sergent-Chef were not entirely pleased at the turn of events, also for obvious reasons. Turning into a bird with no way to turn back was certain to be taxing on their social lives, especially with the Sergent-Chef being married. I somehow doubted her husband would be willing to go through with the whole ‘fucking a bird’ thing, even if he could find a way to make the anatomy slot together properly. But I’d been wrong before, so I left the enchanted items in the Phoenix Matriarchs’ care, along with a promise to come and see them, when the final seal was undone.

If they hadn’t found a way to change shapes before then, I would craft an enchantment for them, to allow them to live their lives at least somewhat normally. Unfortunately, even using my own items as a template, such an enchantment was not something that I could just whip up in an afternoon. I would have to spend at least a week in the items’ creation, and I was loathe to put off the work of unsealing the remaining elements any longer than I had to.

Of course, that meant that I could not sit idle, chatting with the sailors on the French science ship. After making sure that they would not suffer any damage from proximity to the intense radiation that had been bottled up in the Seal, we returned to my sea-plane, leaving the Phoenix Matriarchs and Commandant Tremblay with their people. They had their duties, and I had mine, after all.

My pilots were waiting for me, when I got back to the plane, in my human guise. The chief pilot smiled, and said, “Where to, Miss?”

I smiled, taking some pleasure at his more familiar tone. When he had first come on to fly the plane for me, after being hired by Lilah’s people, he was very formal, and I didn’t need magical senses to see the fear rolling off of him. I didn’t blame him, of course. It was only natural to fear someone so obviously more powerful than you were, especially when they’ve made blatant public displays of their power, like I had.

However, over time, he’d grown more comfortable with my presence, as he learned that I wasn’t some raging demigod that would smite people for looking at them the wrong way. As he became more comfortable, his formal attitude loosened up, and he was able to speak to me as a person, rather than a monster. And, following his lead, the co-pilot was acting the same, which was good. I was fine inspiring terror in my enemies, but I was not the kind of ruler that wanted to have my subordinates live in fear of me.

“According to the maps, Easter Island is roughly at the halfway mark between our current location, and our destination. I wish to stop there, so that I can get in contact with Chilean officials, as well as check up on different projects that I’m needing to handle.”

“Understood. We’ll be ready to fly in about half an hour.”

“Perfect. I intend to make a couple calls while you’re getting ready.”

As I moved to the passenger compartment, I sensed Koyama coming up behind me. No doubt, he wanted to talk about the next steps. Which was fine, since I needed to talk with him, anyways.

“Yes, Koyama-san?”

“Ah, Akagawa-dono, I happened to overhear your conversation with the pilot. I actually wanted to speak with you about stopping at Easter Island, anyways.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow as I sat in one of the comfortable chairs. “I assume someone from the Chilean government reached out to one of your contacts about some problem on the island?”

“You are as perceptive as ever, your Majesty,” Koyama nodded as he sat across from me. “In truth, there have been some strange developments on the island, ever since the Awakening. The local officials were wondering if you might take a look at things, if you were already in the area?”

Well, now I was starting to get interested. If this was some forgotten magic waking up? Well, it needed looking into, at any rate. “When was the island first colonized?”

“Sometime between 300 and 1200 CE, as far as the scientists are able to determine. At the earliest, that would put it roughly five hundred years after the estimated date you came up with for the sealing of magic on Earth.”

“Yes, long enough that magic would have settled into the barely present state it was in until the seal was cracked with the Awakening. Sealed, but not completely gone. Possibly even still usable by someone, if they had enough talent, and were able to find a power site, or find some other way to draw in power.”

“Power site? You mean like Stonehenge is supposed to be?”

“Actually, it legitimately is a power site. I visited it on my initial trip to England when I was doing the tour of different countries my classmates had come from. It is located on a minor ley line nexus, making it far easier to tap into power there. With the way the stones are set up, a sacrifice performed upon the altar in the center would have had great power, indeed.”

“I thought the ley lines were the things connecting these wellsprings?”

“Ah, you’re not wrong, but that’s like saying highways connect cities, and ignoring all the city streets or rural roads. Less power flows down these minor ley lines, but they can still be tapped into, like any other.”

“Fascinating. So, if there’s a power site on Easter Island, then the people who lived there could have done something, and this is what we’re seeing the results of now?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Though I couldn’t say just what they did without knowing more about what is going on. I’m afraid that I’ve been rather busy since my return, and haven’t had time to delve into all the different stories of possible magic gone awry.”

“Well, according to my contacts, ever since the Awakening, there have been incidents. The tamest incidents are that the moai started glowing every solstice and equinox. Ghostly fire seems to surround them.”

“That could be anything, but probably has to do with some magical ‘residue’ left over from earlier times, especially if they represented deified ancestors, as some people say. Belief shapes magic, after all, and if there’s a power site there then the statues could have absorbed the power of that belief, which is why they glow at times when magic already gets more powerful.”

“Well, the locals aren’t really worried about that. For them, it is a nice tourism boost. The statues look pretty, and it doesn’t cause anyone any harm. I only mention it because it may have something to do with the rest of what is happening.”

“Let me guess, there’s some things that have gotten progressively worse over the last forty years?”

“Precisely. It started as complaints about poltergeists. Things moving in the middle of the night, strange noises, and things like that. The kind of thing that most people attributed to old houses, human forgetfulness, or any number of more rational reasons. Before actual undead spirits showed up with the Awakening, of course.”

I sighed, already disliking the way this conversation was heading, and said, “Let me guess, the occurrences started off random, and mostly harmless, but they’ve grown worse over time? Have any entities been spotted? And how many have died?”

Koyama leaned forward, interest written plainly on his face. “From your tone, I am guessing that you already have some ideas about what is causing this? As for actual entities being spotted, like ghosts or wraiths? So far, no one has come forward saying they’ve seen anything like that, except for a few people who were dismissed as unreliable, since they were far less than sober when they reportedly saw these ‘spirits’.

“As for deaths, there haven’t been any directly attributed to these happenings, but there are at least five or six injuries every time the moai glow, which is also when the happenings are more intense. But, aside from these ‘hauntings’, there have been some unexplained deaths and disappearances. Some people outside of Hanga Roa, the only real settlement on the island, have gone missing, but they’re usually tourists, who often do foolish things that get them in trouble. The rest are people who do business on the island, but are not natives. Oddly enough, the hauntings go quiet for a time after one of these disappearances.”

“Or, at least, that is what the locals are wishing to tell anyone from the government that comes asking,” I said, shaking my head. “That the deaths and disappearances are tourists and non-natives tells me that this is probably not the work of an undead. At least, not directly. There may be some spirits of the ancients lingering, but I am not so sure.”

“What do you think is happening, Akagawa-dono?”

“Most likely, the power site is causing the noises and moving objects. Think of it like waving a magnet over a pile of iron sand. Even if the sand does not get pulled up to the magnet, it will change the patterns slightly, right? That is my best guess, from this far away, as to what is causing the ‘poltergeists’.”

Koyama frowned. “Which means that the injuries and disappearances are not because of that?”

“Not directly. But remember, magic is affected by belief. If a belief began circulating that there were spirits which caused accidents during the equinox and solstice, then, if enough people truly believed it, then that would affect the ambient magic. Not enough to do anything, while magic was sealed, but, over time, and with magic leaking into the world? Small things, like shaking a ladder to make someone fall, or having someone trip and twist their ankle? Perfectly within the realm of possibility.”

“And the disappearances?”

“If the belief that the spirits of the ancients were upset and were causing ‘misfortune’ on the island took root enough to cause these accidents, it is equally likely that someone got the ‘brilliant’ idea of trying to appease these spirits. And what better way to calm the spirits of ancient natives than to offer up the blood of those who come to the island from foreign lands?”

“The sad part is that I cannot see any fault in your logic. And it isn’t like there wasn’t already resentment in the cultural consciousness from colonial times. Slavers raided the island at times, and the few slaves who managed to return to the island brought smallpox with them, according to the history I’ve read.”

I nodded sadly. That would do it, all right. Just add in a touch of religious fervor and someone trying to ‘rediscover their heritage’ but going about it the wrong way, and there were all sorts of terrible places that could lead.

“I expect that, somewhere on the island, you will find an altar which has seen more than its fair share of blood to consecrate it. The blood of foreigners being used to cleanse the island of their ‘taint’, and quieting the spirits of the ancestors is, sadly, a recurring tale over the span of civilization. Even without magic, there have been people in this world who did such things, and in the other world, there were nations that, before the Demon King came to power, did much the same, but on a national scale. One of the few things that even I have to praise the Demon King for is how he put a stop to such practices within his domain.”

“So, it does not sound like something you need involve yourself with.”

“Indeed. My getting involved would likely only make things worse. I will speak to those at Phantomline, however, and see about designing a way for individuals to track down ritual sites, especially ones involving human sacrifice or blood magic.”

“I’ll pass the word along. While I am certain it is not what they were hoping for, having a definite answer and a possible way to track the disturbances will help.”