A Legacy of Evil: The Flesh Market

What is Magic?

Was it a set of near-scientific laws, following set rules and imposing their effects upon the material world? Was it an intuitive power, warping reality and drawing it from some nebulous force? Was it drawn from powerful, eldritch beings and trickled down upon the world as cultures did their best to understand and live among it? Could it be all these things or none of them?

Such was a question asked by magi far wiser than I was and in fact, that was indeed the nature of the words origin as well. 'Wise Man'. To learn magic was to be accounted among the Wise, following a path that had been established and built upon by prior generations time and again, as what was old became new once more. And then of course, you had people like me.

A good wizard would attempt to cast a spell to find the flesh market floating at sea. A great wizard would take the time to contact spirits, building foundations of trust in which he could return to, time and again.

I did none of these things and instead smiled amiably at the harbormaster across from me, who looked up from the blank piece of paper I had put a spell on as he spoke in English. "That... Seems to be in order. I'm sorry, who did you say you were again?"

I beamed and spoke patiently again. "Vernon Dursley. I represent Grunnings firm and on my approval, we'll be moving some of our companies' assets into the Philippines. Of course as you know, there's quite a bit of legwork needed. We do drills you know, and we'd like to be sure your harbors are up to snuff for the heavy work we'll be requiring."

He frowned, puffing up with pride as he spoke. "Sir, of course they will! Our harbors have taken in every nation, we'll be fine with yours."

I nodded, giving a look of agreement as I spoke. "I know, I know but I need to be sure. As a result, there's a ship of ours that should be docking. I'd like to examine the books and make sure all is well in that regard."

He looked briefly offput and I smiled, tapped the side of my nose and slipped out some peso's, putting down a thousand as I winked.

"A little gift between friends. We are friends, yes?" His eyes grew wide, he took the money and bowed his head. "If you'll excuse me sir."

And as he walked out, he left his books behind as I smiled and flicked it open as I scrutinized it.

So when I thought about it, I came to the following conclusions. Whatever ship they were using, it had to be big enough to hold the market as well as store everything they needed. Which meant it needed to come to port, get supplies and so on. It also had to be a ship that would venture in during the night, as Aswang were not creatures of daylight.

While wizards might have placed protections, the mentality of my people ensured that none of them would consider working for magical creatures if they could help it. So that narrowed it down further and removed the idea of pawns. With these in mind, I could then search and finally found one.

The SS. Midnight Feast. I snorted to myself at the name, eyeing its stats and so forth. As expected, wizards and creatures alike could not resist a flashy name.

I dutifully ignored my own leanings toward that school of thought, made a copy of the paper in question I needed and put the book back before leaving. I had my lead, now all I needed was to track the ship directly.

NOW, I could actually start doing magic. It was time to use a little bit of what I learned to good use, and as I thought about it, I pondered the next most important question.

Was Jollibees a thing yet in this era?

=====

The answer to that was no, unfortunately. But I made do with what I got.

I came with a pack of cigarettes, two containers of pancit, rice and adobo and a bottle of a local soft drink I kept chilled with my wand as I came to a lonely beach. Upon the shore, I set up preparations for a fire and then proceeded to use my wand to create benches as I materialized the other aspects I needed with my wand. Wet sand to glass beads, set in a bracelet, some particular wood types for the fire and once it was all ready I put my wand away. I took up a flint and steel and began to light the fire manually, singing quietly in Lakota.

I was invoking older magic, older rituals in order to get what I needed here. And as I did, I began to dance as well. A shuffling cadence, that made the beads ring against each other, even as I fanned the smoke out to sea as I continued my work. Around and around, not pausing for even a break as the sun began to set and the orange light set the water reflecting to a gorgeous display. And then finally, as the final bit of natural light was gone, I had a breakthrough.

From the water, what looked like a local woman's head was starting to emerge. Beautiful and eerie, her eyes gleaming in the firelight as she walked out. Naked, looking entirely human save for the way she seemed to sway in my sight, the aura of beauty and terror invoked by the sea and felt by sailors everywhere as I stopped and with the fire between us, I bowed my head and spoke.

"Honored Diwata." I raised my head, keeping eye contact as I spoke. "I have come to bargain and invite you to my hearth, as my guest."

She stared coldly for a long moment, before a touch of curiosity filled her and she spoke in English.

"A wizard who uses the Blessed Way. And here I thought your kind were far too arrogant for that." She took a seat and as she did, she snapped her fingers as the water from the sea came and swirled around her, forming into a dress as I let out a private sigh of relief and moved to take the meals and drinks. As I did, I spoke aloud.

"I'm unlike any wizard you've seen before. I also travel." As I began serving her, I added. "There's enough similarities between the traditions of the Lakota and your own nations pagdiwata that I was reasonably sure this would work."

"What would you have done if it did not?" She asked, more curious now as I handed her a plate and smiled as I spoke.

"Grown fat, eating all this food."

She actually smiled at that, and with the ice broken we simply ate. I tried not to focus too hard on her teeth, how at times they looked perfectly normal before shifting into something you'd see on a shark. The Diwata were animistic spirits, spirits of the elements in much the same traditions the Lakota had when I spent my time among them. But their attitudes were far more capricious, especially dealing with spirits of the sea though for now, I was safe. Sacred hospitality was a major part of life here, and in a place far more attuned to magic, I could see why. No telling who or what would come to your door, so it was best to play it safe. I had hopes it would work here anyway, and so as we ate, I held my questions back. No business till the end, and as we finished our foods and took up our drinks, I offered her a cigarette.

And as she moved to lean closer to the fire, I stopped her with a gentle gesture as I snapped my fingers and produced a flame. It was a nice enough party trick anyway, as she puffed away before leaning back with a sigh as she stared at me.

"Wizard." She finally spoke, contented as she took a deep draw upon it and filled the air with the scent of tobacco. "You have my attention. Why have you called for me?"

I took a deep breath, before frowning as I tapped my fingers on my leg. "I'm looking for a ship, crewed by a tribe of Aswang. A massive cargo freighter, called Midnight Feast."

She froze. There was a scent of ozone in the air, her smile entirely gone as she stared at me. I could hear the sound of the violent surf as she began to scowl and look disgusted. Finally, she spoke aloud.

"You are clever, wizard. Had you opened up with that before we broke bread, I would have dragged you screaming in my embrace to the depths below. Ask for anything else, I will not help you here."

"I am not looking to shop from it. I'm looking to stop it once and for all." I said calmly back, hiding behind my poker face that Riddle had perfected and subsequently, so did I as I looked at her and elaborated.

"The market is a blight and I would see it eradicated. Alone, if need be. But it hides and my time is short. If there is anyone who would have power to help me, I would hope it would be you."

She was still suspicious. It sounded good, admittedly but I was indeed, a wizard. And then she flicked her eyes to my glass ring charms, before returning it to the empty plates before sighing out.

"I... I do not like this. But while I cannot trust a wizard, one who follows the old ways as you do might be depended upon." She discarded her by now, soggy smoke and I lit a new one for her which she puffed on more quietly before I ventured an educated guess.

".... They're hunting people under your protection, aren't they?"

She nodded. Her expression simmering but no less wrathful as she spoke. "The magics from your people help obscure them. Sometimes, they look like a freight ship. Other times, as fishermen. Always, bringing death in their wake as the screams of the bantay tubig they trawl for are dragged aboard and slaughtered, for food and for arcane ingredients you wizards love so much, among other creatures."

I leaned forward, eyes fixed on her as I spoke grimly. "Get me to that ship. And I'll swear on my power, I'll end it personally."

She snorted, skeptical still as she spoke. "Even if you are, who are you to promise this? What power do you have, that would make this a success and not simply assisted suicide?"

I leaned back, leaning on a palm as I spoke humbly. "Well, I am a wizard. I'm guessing in addition to the disguises, the ship has wards as well to prevent you from striking them yourself?"

She nodded, scowling as she said nothing as I spoke briskly. "Well, get me to that ship ma'am and I won't just take it down. I'll even share the glory."

I grinned, watching her suddenly pay very, very close attention as I added. "Because once I get on that ship, nothing will get in my way of shattering their wards to allow the likes of you to come aboard. And when that happens, you'll see for yourself whether or not my words are simply hot air."

Looking at her was like looking into the depths of the sea, hiding unspeakable things as I smiled and extended my hand for a shake.

"All you have to do is get me aboard."

The Diwata laughed and as she did, she reached her own hand to shake my own.

=====

I wanted to wait for tomorrow, but the Diwata insisted on acting now. Now that she had a hit wizard ready to help her, she didn't want to waste a single second in removing that blight from her domain. Fair cop, though the ride could have been smoother.

I materialized a simple rowboat and getting in, the Diwata guided it herself. The seas currents moving us rapidly, as her form became translucent, almost invisible in the dark and in the water. As she moved, I began checking my own preparations and work. No apparition, the tell-tale sound was far too distinct for when I snuck aboard. Like hell I was going to climb my way up though, that was what brooms were for after all. And all too soon it felt like, we were coming swiftly towards the Midnight Feast and I stared up at it, with a grim air.

It looked deceptively normal which I suppose was the point. Cargo crates were stacked upon its deck, as it churned through the water and about two hundred feet from it, the Diwata would stop and bobbed her head out, looking at me. "This is as far as I go. Remember your word, wizard!"

I gave a jaunty, two-fingered salute and took up the broomstick with me as I flew up in silence close to it. As I did, I began casting a number of stealth spells to assist. Spells to hide my scent, to silence my footfall. Spells to obscure my form, at least from a distance. A spell to see in the dark, which changed the dynamic greatly as I observed my first Aswang. A humanoid feasting on a snack that I didn't want to look too closely at, with long claws akin to nails as well as sharp teeth, seen in flashes around a bloody maw.

I severed its head from its shoulders with a cutting charm and dumped the corpse overboard as I landed and began my infiltration. Slowly, I creeped about and as I did, I made sure to remove every aswang I came across. Some died quickly, others were tossed overboard into the hungry sea, where I tried not to look too closely as the Diwata took her vengeance on those outside of the protections as she circled the vessel like a shark.

But try as I might, I couldn't find where the majority of the flesh market would be. This entire place looked as if it was mostly automated with a skeleton crew and were it not for the aswang, I might had thought it a mistake. So where was everyone?!

And then I heard a crack near the upper deck, and I stepped carefully out. There was no mistaking the wizards stepping out in their robes, heading for a cargo crate as one tapped his wand in a certain beat before the doors opened and he and his companion stepped inside.

I could have slapped myself for my idiocy. I'm a wizard.

I need to think like one and I crept closer and carefully tapped the same sequence, hearing a click and a grinding noise.

As I opened the door, I saw the following as heat and light hit me, a sharp contrast from the cold, night air of the sea. It was far bigger on the inside, than outside for one. The entire place was a market with five levels, like one big shopping mall as wizards, witches and other races moved about. Vendors and stalls cried out their wares, selling the mundane as much as the supernatural as I saw a balut salesman handing over several of the eggs from his basket to what I could have sworn was some kind of hag.

But the rest of it made my fist clench and my jaw grind, as I looked upon the flesh market.

Butchers shops displaying humanoid pieces, cages upon cages of humans and other beasts, a hippogriff in one being carved up alive as customers pointed to one piece or another.... And all the while, Aswang guards patrolled and looked like conventional criminals, armed with guns. If you could ignore the screams and sobs, you'd mistake this place for just another ordinary black market. Alright then.

I was going to burn this place to the fucking waterline.