I’ll sell my rock, I’ll sell my reel
Likewise sell my spinning wheel
To buy my love a sword of steel
Johnny has gone for a soldier
-Traditional, “Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier”
That afternoon, Daniel received a visit at his house from Officer Chance Galicinao, who looked quite rattled. His eyes were darting about the neighborhood, and he seemed nervous. Daniel invited him inside and poured him a cup of coffee. The cop took a sip and then swallowed hard before beginning his story.
"I thought you were taking too much time finding Evelyn," he began. "I was worried about you, so I started looking on my own. When I started having those blank moments again, I knew I was onto something. I tried really hard to shake it off, and for Evelyn I did. That's when I found it."
“I investigated the connection between Boudreaux and the Blackwoods. I found out that Boudreaux is keeping the Blackwoods in a fancy house on Deborah Drive. I went there expecting some resistance, perhaps from the dead guys you told me about. But I wasn't expecting to find the kid who stole the tapestry, your pal Drellassi, and the guy who got shot in front of your house. They were all dead. Not walking dead, but dead dead. No sign of life or whatever they had before. It was like, I don’t know, their batteries ran out our something. The Blackwoods weren’t out there. Neither was she.”
Daniel wasn't sure what to make of this. The last time he dealt with an outbreak of the walking dead, they didn't just die again that easily. Thinking about the source of the outbreak, he had an awful idea. What if its trying to make them dependent on it for their zombie labor? Hoping it wasn't true, he called Reginald's cell number.
Reginald replied that they hadn't seen any more of "them." He went on to say that the cops had been patrolling the area heavily, and he thought that Boudreaux wanted to clean up the mess. Daniel had been afraid that the tapestry might be trying to increase the Blackwoods’ dependence on it. It was supposed to be sentient, after all. But the fact that the zombies it had created spontaneously also seemed to have lost their steam suggested that something else was going on..
“So what does that mean?” Chance looked puzzled.
"Maybe it's like you said, dead batteries," Daniel said, scratching his beard. "This is unfamiliar territory, even for me. We have to figure out how they recharge and keep them from doing it. I don't know exactly how the Tapestry works, so maybe the Blackwoods don't know either. There might be something in those books we took from the shop, but those things are exhausting."
"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Chance asked with a sigh. "What about Evelyn? Can you even help me at all?"
“I tried the runes already,” said Daniel. “Blackwood seems to have some mojo up that confuses them. Maybe your fellow officers have some leads?”
“You aren’t going to get rid of me that easily,” said Chance.
“Well, then,” Daniel told him. “Start reading. Anything about weird tapestries or rising zombies, let me know.”
Chance picked up a book and eyed it dubiously. “Codex Umbaratum?” he asked.
"Sounds harmless enough," Daniel said as he picked up the first of Riley's journals and began reading through it. He knew this would take a while, but once he understood Riley's organization system, he picked up speed and was able to locate what Riley had written about the Tapestry of Whispers. It wasn't hard to find out where it was made - Whipering Oaks plantation. He also found a reference to "Mad Isolde Thorne," a suspected witch. What Drellassi had already told him made her more than a suspect in his book, although witch might be too kind a term from what he had heard.
"I found something," Daniel said with a sigh. "I know where they might be headed, but you're not going to like it." Chance was taken aback. "What do you mean?" he asked.
“We need to take another little trip down to Bosco, hopefully before the Blackwoods get there.”
Chance looked a bit nervous at the thought of going back, but he still volunteered. “I know a backroad that will get us down there sooner. We might still get out there before they are ready.”
As Chance's car turned from the highway to the backroad, the sun was dipping low in the sky, a blood red orb just above the horizon, and shadows were already lengthening. Daniel sat in the shotgun seat, and Beth ensconced in the back. They all looked around apprehensively at the woods that began to encroach on the road. In the daylight, the woods seemed pleasant enough, but as the shadows grew long, the vibe began to change.
Daniel was the first to feel the change in atmosphere, a miasma of sadness, honor, duty, and underlying horror, all in service of keeping people "in their place." Daniel had experienced such impressions since moving to Louisiana, but he was surprised to see that Beth and Chance were also affected.
Fog swirled about the road like smoke, and there were distant echoes ominously resembling thunder or cannon fire. Daniel smelled the faint scent of gunpowder. 3Ethereal fires, glowing a sickly green, appeared in the fields and along the roadside. Chance pointed to one. "What are those?" he asked.
"Looks like foxfire," said Daniel. "Will o the wisp. But I've never seen so many."
Looking back to the road, Chance slammed on the brakes, shouting “What the HELL?” The car skidded to a stop as the smoky fog parted, and revealed a tall, coal black horse standing in the middle of the road. Mist came from its nostrils when it snorted. On its back was a lanky figure dressed in full Confederate dress uniform, complete with service medals, topped with what looked like a grotesque Greek death mask.
The figure on horseback drew a wicked-looking saber and pointed it menacingly in their direction. As the mist slowly lifted, other figures in Confederate uniforms materialized out of the gloom. Daniel recognized several of them from Riley's store and Darklawn Cemetery. This time, Chance and Beth could see them too.
“Oh, great,” Daniel muttered. “The cavalry’s here.”
Daniel wasn't sure if the ghosts could hurt them, but when one of the soldiers punched the window next to him and it cracked, he guessed that the answer was yes. Chance jammed the car in reverse, and it passed through a couple of the misty soldiers. The ghost on horseback pursued the car, his spectral mount galloping at full speed. With a flash of his saber, he struck Beth's car window. The safety glass spiderwebbed, but remained in place.
Daniel reached for his "pig sticker," but the cramped car made it difficult to maneuver. Chance tried to drive in reverse, but he ran off the road and the wheels spun. The Confederate spirits swarmed toward them. The ghost on horseback smashed through Beth's window and dragged her out onto his horse. She tried to fight back, but her fists passed through the ghost's ethereal flesh.
Daniel drew himself into the shotgun seat, muttering the Prayer of St. Michael and drawing the power of Oblivion out. A few more ghosts approached the car, but stepped back as Daniel came out of the car, eyes jet black and his hair and beard blowing in an ethereal wind. "Run," he told the soldiers in a deep rumbling voice and attempting to put the fear of death back in them.
When one of the soldiers punched Daniel, the spell he was casting faded, and another ghost punched him from behind. Daniel staggered, almost unconscious from the battering, but caught himself by hanging onto the car. Chance wasn’t faring much better against the ghosts - he was down and a ghost raised a fist as if to drive it into his head, but ended up punching the car instead.
Daniel tried to defend himself and his friends with his "pig sticker," but he was too badly injured to lift it. As the ghosts beat on Chance, he could only watch helplessly. Finally, one of the ghosts struck Daniel in the face, and he lost consciousness.
Daniel awoke in the darkness, lying on dew-soaked grass. He was in a lot of pain and could barely move. He struggled to sit up and saw that he was in a cemetery. Chance and Beth lay unconscious beside him. Directly in front him was a tombstone with a Confederate battle flag on it. Most of the others in the area also had them. The same miasmatic air, smelling of sweat, blood, decay, and gunpowder, still swirled about.
A rumbling, echoing voice reached his ear. It was the masked wraith who had led the Confederates' charge during the battle. He was sitting on a tombstone nearby, playing with his spectral saber. "I know you can hear me, boy," the wraith said. "And I want you to know that you denied me a fat prize. You cost me a fortune in Oboli, boy. And for that, you are going to pay."
“I didn’t see your name written on him,” Daniel coughed weakly. He crawled painfully over to sit on a tombstone himself, staring defiantly at the Confederate ghosts stanind in a circle around them. “You and your guys could have killed us, but I see I’m still on the live side of the Shroud.”
“You got some talent,” the ghost intoned. “Ain’t everybody that can see across. I have a proposition for you.”
Daniel didn't want to help this ghoul, but he was in too much pain to cast a spell or fight back. "What do you want?" he asked. The wraith chuckled darkly.
Now, as it happens, me and the boys here are part of what you might call a family. And this family, they need… material for the forge. If you join us, we can put your skills to good use. You will help us find the… materials we need to keep the forge fires burning.”
Daniel had a good idea what the wraith would say if he refused to help him, but he wanted to make him say it. He hoped that at least some of the other Confederates might object to the wraith's offer.
The masked wraith chuckled again, a hollow sound that echoed through the gloom. "Well, well," he said, "it seems there might be a price for that." He nodded toward Beth and Chance. "We might get some new material, or Oblivion may." His gaze shifted back to Daniel. "What do you think, my friend? Do we have an accord?"
"Well, Jebediah, it looks like you're holding all the aces. I guess you've got yourself a deal." Daniel tried frantically to think of a way to them all out of this, but it seemed like for the moment the best idea might be to play along. Reaching into his uniform coat, the dark masked figure produced an elaborate looking ghostly manacle. One of the other Confederate ghosts moved forward and grabbed his arm, then held it out for the leader to see. Daniel was impressed again by their ability to touch the living. The leader quickly clamped the manacle on his wrist, and pain both physical and psychic shot up his arm.
"My name is Colonel Ebonshard, and you'll do well to remember it. I will find you when I want you, assuming you last this night." The ghostly leader whistled to his men, and they marched away, leaving Daniel, Beth, and Chance wounded but alive in the graveyard.
After some time, Daniel managed to stand again. The only conscious one, he did his best to ignore the psychic pain of his new “ghost Fitbit” and makes the arduous staggering crawl to Chance’s car, where he retrieved his phone and called 911. Before long, the ambulance arrived.
The ambulance took Daniel, Chance, and Beth to the hospital, where they were treated. Chance and Beth regained consciousness, but they were nearly as delirious as Daniel. The doctors were surprised that Daniel's blood pressure was so low now, given his history of high blood pressure. Daniel noticed that the Shroud seemed thinner for him. Daniel wasn't sure what the thinning Shroud meant for him, and he didn't relish the thought of finding out.