(Spoilers for “Deadly Seven” by Panik)

Duxton and Sydenham, London

Saturday December 16th, 2017

Katrina, Patty, and Elli regrouped in the Stake Out to discuss their options after monitoring Sarah Thacker’s nearby flat and watching her stay indoors.

They considering physically shutting down the MRI scanner, but weren’t sure the Chancellor of the Duchy of Ely would want to bail them out when they were done for criminal damage.

Whilst they were talking, Elli had a burst of queasy disorientation, as if there were more discordant notes in the music of the spheres.

Miles Dursby (antiquarian, regular customer, exorcised Gur’ath demon) said hello from the next table, and Patty and Katrina pop over to say hello and quiz him to make sure he’s not a demon any more, whilst stalling his curiousity about what’s going on.

Patty’s phone beeps with an automated round-robin message from Fergus, alerting them to another sudden burst of newly mined coins in various cryptocurrencies.

And the Patty sees Thacker passing by the food yard walking down the street. Katrina & Patty jump out to trail her closely, onto the Overground, out at Sydenham, and jumping from bush to car to cover to follow her up Syndenham Hill. She crosses the road to enter a patch of wood on the side of the hill.

They spy Thacker reach and bow before a large twisted tentacled tree amongst what looks like a ruined abbey. Beside her is the humanoid shape of a Gur’ath demon, whom Patty recognises from Wilson’s patient files as one William Burnes. Patty sends Elli her location. As they watch over half an hour, and waiting for Elli to follow on, two other Gur’ath demons join the ceremony.

Elli is meanwhile potential-demon-sitting Miles Dursby, who confesses to her he knew it was an exorcism. When she gets the message, she sets off.

Meanwhile in Sydenham Hill Wood, the pitch of chanting changes, with the focus onto a circle into the ground, towards what Katrina & Patty know enough to recognise as a summoning spell. They decide they have to intervene, without waiting for Elli.

Patty grabs Thacker to stop her, and the Gur’ath demons attack. Thacker develops a mass of tentacles where her left forearm was, but that doesn’t stop Patty & Katrina using her as a human shield. She turns out to be an excellent human shield, thanks to her ability to command the Gur’ath demons not to do anything to risk hurting her. Meanwhile, Patty adopts were form, and the duo start to wear down the demons.

But then the the tree-thing turns out to not be rooted on the spot, and advances on them, casually grabbing and holding the William Burnes demon against the mouths on its trunk.

Meanwhile, Elli is taking a high-risk route to cycle to Sydenham, grabbing lorries and buses to keep herself going at speed. As she rises up the hill, she sees the tree-thing, which she knows to be the powerful demon spawn of the “dark mother”. She abandons her bike and casts the most powerful holding spell she’s ever done.

Patty and Katrina retreat onto the main road, forcing Patty to revert to human form, it becomes a slugfest. Thacker gets the demons to attack Elli, but her friends stop them, and manage to pummel the demons into unconsciousneess.

But what do you do with three unconscious bodies, two of them demon, on a busy high street in an advent evening?

The “ruined abbey” exists to look at, but is actually a Victorian folly.