Here's the last part.

I wrote some game notes on the characters in the piece, mostly notes to the GM on how they could be used in game and the points they contributed, where applicable, in Copper's make-up (Friends, Enemies, etc.), but I think I'll leave those off.

Part Six

8. ATTACHMENT: Memorandum excerpts.

The following excerpts are from a memorandum by Interrogator Severity, Necanthrope SCL 3C, Internal Affairs. The memorandum details the findings of the Interrogator through soul caging the subject, Ebon Copper SCL 10, during his time as an operative candidate at Meny.

[Excerpt Begins]

Per Section Chief Albright SCL 2F, I was instructed to interrogate the subject Ebon Copper SCL 11. My instructions stipulated that I was not to physically or mentally harm the subject, that I was not to leave the subject with any memory of the interrogation, and that I was to secure any and all information the subject possessed with regard to the Ebon Mercurial. My secondary instructions stipulated that I was to retrieve Ebons Sanctity SCL 4D and Delve SCL 4E who previously had been rendered vegetatively comatose upon prosecuting unsuccessful soul cages of the subject.

Review of the previous courses of interrogation pursued by Interrogators Sanctity and Delve demonstrated that normal chemical, hypnogogic, and psychotraumatic courses of interrogation had yielded minimal useful data. I employed a level four ebb probe of the subject's conscious mind and confirmed Interrogator Sanctity's conclusion that any further data, should it exist, lay beneath the subject's consciousness threshold. I performed a soul cage upon the subject to explore the existence of unconsciously held data of the desired type and to secure the fulfillment of my secondary instructions. I was retrieved Interrogators Sanctity and Delve. Nevertheless, Interrogator Sanctity remains in a vegetatively comatose state. Interrogator Delve has been consigned to the Bedlam Facility for the Insane to aid in examination of six separate psychoses he has subsequently manifested.

Summary of Findings: The Ebon, Copper, was separated from his mother at the age of six. His mother is, apparently, the Ebon, Mercurial, although he has, as yet, no conscious knowledge of this fact. Unconscious memories (which might surface to consciousness at any time) of his mother being addressed as "Mercy" by other adult Ebons, notably the Ebon Ash, do exist. The following precis is a concatenation of memories placed in an emotional context from the point of view of the subject. Experience demonstrates that the emotional context is necessary to understanding the subject's history for possible further manipulations of the subject for Departmental purposes. Outline follows.

Memory Outline

• - Earliest memories include living in Downtown with Copper's mother and two sisters, Chrome and Lithia. The family lived in what was apparently an abandoned six-story tenement with a central courtyard where the children played. Visitors were extremely rare, and Copper's memories include voices and the impression of visitors, but only a few specific recollections of people coming to the House. One of these visitors was a tall slender Ebon named Ash who spent time with the family and had begun teaching Chrome the use of glyph cards.
• - Mother spent almost all her time with her children. Copper has dim memories of her being gone from the House occasionally, but these absences were few. Copper remembers a night of tears when he wept because Mother spent the night away and left the children in the company of the dour Ash. The family celebrated extravagantly when she returned the next afternoon.
• - Days and evenings in the House were filled with laughter and music. Mother would spontaneously gather the children to sing with her songs of wonder and joy, as well as deep sorrow and fear. Displays of sculpted light would dance over the children's' heads in accompaniment to these arias. Always the children were secure in the knowledge of their safety in their mother's love, no matter how terrifying a story the music told.
• - Copper has almost surrealistic memories of the last day the family spent together. He remembers playing with the young Lithia in the family's dayroom off the courtyard. Suddenly Chrome is bending over him, holding him and Lithia close. She tells them to be very quiet. Just as suddenly, Mother is there. She hands Chrome a small satchel and herds them to a door that Copper's never seen used. With an earthshaking roar, the window to the courtyard, and the wall that contains it, caves in, and an incomprehensible cacophony erupts into the family's quiet world. The family is hurrying down a long hallway, then down a dark alleyway in the rain. There's another loud noise behind them, and a warm wind blows down the alley. Mother turns, and Copper sees her suddenly engulfed in formfitting armor, all midnight and silver. Before it covers her face, she whispers, "I love you, my dears. Go to Ash, now. Chrome, you know the way. Use the cards as he showed you. Go. I love you. Go!" And she turns and runs into the darkness. Copper's memories of that night are disjointed thereafter. He remembers other alleyways, he and Lithia crying, halogen spears of near-daylight dragging through the inky shadows of overhangs and storm drain recesses, and always running through the night. His clearest memory is of being settled by Chrome into a dark nook under the rooftop storm drain of a low tenement, holding Lithia in his arms, feeling his older sister press a small box of bone and gold into his hand, and watching her go running off into the darkness. He never sees her again.

Postscript:
ATTACHMENT: Memorandum to K. Sievers from Marrowdire

Kenneth, I would like you to take this matter up personally. This case has been open now for almost twenty years and I would like to see it closed. The above attachments reveal that our subject has a knack for complicating matters. I dislike the idea of Salt's involvement in these matters. Step lightly around that possibility. As for handling of these files, the elimination of any records of document requisitions should handle any exposure in a minimally invasive manner. Interrogator Severity could present a problem. I've scheduled her for an interview. If the results are unsatisfactory, I'll forward an extermination warrant. You may close the warrant or farm it out, as you wish.

Something recent: one of our people attached to IA states that a rumor from Downtown has the urban legend Old Mother Eye as an acquaintance, possibly even a mentor, of our subject. Her name has come up in other matters, and this is as good an opportunity to nail down a loose end. Please pursue the matter.

Michael,

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