Silent Enemy

Chapter 14: All Souls

Judy stared at the photographs before her, a look of revulsion evident on her lapine features. Slavery, like most historical horrors, had been covered in her basic history courses throughout school. In them, she had learned that mammal's society had once been brutal. Where mammal life wasn't highly valued, and could be bought and sold like any other commodity on the open market. Of course, mammals had evolved past such primitive ideologies, and since then, freedom was a guaranteed right to all mammals. Judy had learned in her years since joining the ZPD, that such attitudes where overly simplistic and naive. Slavery still existed, it was just hidden, and mammal trafficking was a blemish that she and her fellow officers had worked hard to eradicate. Looking into the eyes of one frightened child, his fur dirty, and his paws clenching desperately to those of his mother, made her mouth taste of bile. "Daniel. What is this?"

"Mammal trafficking."

She gave the wizard a flat look. "I know. Why did Prince give this to you?"

Daniel shrugged. "There's a couple of reasons I can think of, but only a few seem likely." Nick started to take a drink of coffee, the sighing put the mug down again. "First, he is clued in. He knows what I am, and what I can do. That, plus the fact he gave them to me..."

"Means this is connected to the supernatural." Nick finished, eyes meeting Judy's over the photographs."

"Yeah." Daniel moved to scratch at something stuck in his fur that he wasn't sure he wanted to identify. He checked the motion, and resolved himself to getting a shower as soon as possible. At least he had managed a full night's sleep. "It could even be related to our summoner. I don't know."

"Nick, we need to do something." Determination solidifying in her eyes, she gestured to the photographs. "These mammals need our help."

Nick grimaced. "I don't suppose we can just pass this on to the ZPD, carrots?"

Judy shook her head. "We can't Nick. What are we going to tell them? A sorcerer is using slave labor to...what Daniel?

The wizard sighed, and shook his head. "Not sure. Could be that our bad guy is using them in some kind of ritual, but I can't say for sure. Not without investigating this further."

"We've got another problem here fluff," he sighed, and gestured to the kitchen around him.

"Daniel, what are the odds that another one of those outsiders attacks here?"

"It's possible. But I don't think it is likely."

"What do you mean?" Judy turned her head, nose twitching.

Daniel's tail flicked slowly back and forth, stirring the air gently behind him. "Well, consider this. The outsider had to be summoned using a foci in order to get it past your threshold. Kind of a lot of work to get at your friends. Would have been easier to just attack while she was on the street."

"Wait." Nick scrunched his face, ears dropping flat, "Are you saying that someone had to trigger that thing? As in, had to observe it?"

"Not necessarily. A practitioner could have laid a contingency spell, sort of like setting a fuse on a bomb. But the spell would have taken some serious power to survive crossing even your all's weakened threshold."

"So what does that mean exactly?" The doe's eyes flicked back down to the photographs, her mouth setting into a firm line.

"My guess is that the outsider was sent to attack you." For a moment no one spoke, and they all stared down at the arrayed photos before them. Each of the mammals portrayed wore a collar. Not only a tool for their captivity, but a reminder to them of their place in the world. It told each and every one of them what they were. Property. To be used, and treated as their master's willed.