No Matter How Dark It May Be, There Is Redemption

The Pommel of Azathoth and Rocky Road

“So, how much do you guys know about what’s happening at Silas?” her father asked as they were carefully picking up shards of glass and shattered wood off the floor.

“Well, like we said in my videos, the thing causing the tremors is this old monster called ‘la free four mice,’” Laura began.

“––Lophiiformes,” Carmilla corrected with a chuckle.

“Yeah, and it’s some ancient evil that was taking sacrifices every twenty years by consuming minds and it was a vicious cycle because it would use the energy it got from consuming minds to draw in more sacrifices.”

“We thought we killed it when I used the Blade of Hastur on it, but apparently all it did was get weaker and then jump into my mo—The Dean’s body,” Carmilla added, “and now together they’re raising some zombie army that the Zetas and Summer Society are holding at bay.”

Laura’s father stood silently for a few seconds. “Okaaaay,” he stretched out. “I can’t remember from the videos, but did you guys pair the Blade of Hastur with the Pommel of Azathoth?”

Laura and Carmilla looked at each other and found they shared a confused look.

“The what?” Carmilla asked.

“Well, the Blade of Hastur is made from the bones of star spawn, right?  The Pommel of Azathoth is the other half of the R'lyeh pair item, made from the claws of star spawn. Together they can be used to defeat the lophiiformes, but,” he bit his lip, “it will consume the user.”

Laura regarded her father carefully, choosing to skip over that last bit for now.  “Does that mean that the Blade of Hastur needs to be paired with the, uhm, Palm of a Tooth—”

“––The Pommel of Azathoth,” her father corrected her.

“Okay, yeah, that,” Laura blushed a bit, muttering, “What the hell is a star spawn, anyway?” under her breath.

“It’s like a giant octopus-like thing,” Carmilla replied, earning a glare from Laura that told her it was a rhetorical question. She turned to address Richard. “So unless we attach the two items together, they won’t work on lophiiformes?”

“Yep,” he replied.  He raised an eyebrow.  “Where did you guys get this information, anyway?”

“J.P. got it from the campus historical records in the mystical weapons section,” Laura beamed.

“Hmm,” Richard responded.  “Makes sense they would only have half the information ready, I guess.”

“Any idea where the Pommel of Azathoth is?” Carmilla asked.  Richard shook his head. He looked like he was about to say something else when his phone rang.  He answered it and held up a finger.  Laura cocked her head to gesture to Carmilla that they should leave his office.

“How’s your head?” Carmilla asked once they were outside, also looking down to see that Laura’s hand was definitely bruising.

“Still hearing a slight ringing and things are still a bit muffled,” she replied, and grinned, “but I think we all know I have a hard head.”

“Pfft, that’s the understatement of the year,” Carmilla scoffed, smirking.  Laura’s phone rang and the ID showed it was Laf, so she answered it.

Carmilla didn’t bother to exercise her vampire hearing since she figured Laura would tell her the other side of the conversation afterwards, so she just listened to Laura’s half, which consisted of vaguely answering how the encounter went, neglecting to mention the lycanthrope attack, then giving details about the Pommel of Azathoth and asking them to research it as best they could.  Then came a lot of short affirmations.