She had not come here to liberate sad spiritual negatives from stone.  Ghost guiding was her charity, she did it everywhere.  She hoped that some future witch would do the same for any sad fragments of her former self that she left behind to haunt her old retreats.  Strong psyches left strong imprints, Sometimes in spite of themselves.

    It was springtime now but her thoughts centered suddenly on the city in winter with brilliant fangs of ice dripping from the curve of lamp poles.  A blink of her eye and the cold mirage was gone.  She did not question it.  The stream of her thought was often interrupted by the debris of temporary visions.  She centered herself on the matter at hand and thought of Auriel.

       He ran a small vegetarian cafe downtown.  She saw the carved wooden sign depicting The Bay and Barley hanging over the entrance as she walked towards it.  The oak lintel over the door was carved with bay leaves and barley stalks as well.  

Entering the little hall way she stepped into the restaurant proper. She saw Auriel immediately.  He had his back to her.  Intent on doing her own exploring she slipped behind him without speaking.

    She thought of Auriel's note as she eyed the patrons cautiously.  The note had intrigued her.  She sought the heart of the mystery he had hinted at.  A man passed her.  He was enclosed in a dark, misty nimbus.  'Portable darkness,' she thought to herself.  He was using a technical trick ensuring privacy.  If he had not crossed in front of a lamp in her vision field she might have missed him.  His aura was dark as well and held close to his body like a thin film of black oil. She shuddered and followed the 'ink spot' aura to a back room which was neither obvious, nor large.  There were two little tables here and one slightly larger one which was occupied.  

    Brandywine sat down at the small table close to the curtain which closed this semi_private den off from the rest of the cafe.  She took a bright red pair of very retro jogger's earphones out of her bag and placed them firmly over her ears.  Although the 'phones' were connected to nothing but air, with the jack hidden in the depths of her bag she mimed musical enjoyment.  Her head and body swayed through the motions of a 'Ditsy Shoe' music fan as she made little, silent popping motions with her mouth while squeezing her eyes partially shut.   She could see some things better with her eyes almost shut.  Auras, for instance.  Everyone around the table, three men and one woman, had the sable mist of negative aura cloaked tightly about them.  Their clothing was black as well and had a slick, worn look as if continual use had left a dark patina upon the fabrics.  Collectively she sensed a cabal, a hidden knowledge group.
     An aura as variegated as a Woodstock rainbow crossed her field of vision.  It was Auriel.  She knew he had seen her but they ignored each other as he took the orders from the group at the larger table.  She pitched a sub_audible at him knowing that he wore a sound enhancer. "Shaitan?", she sounded, asking if the group were Satanists, but he gave no response.  Wrong.

Try again.  "Samedi," hummed her sub vocalizer, asking if they were Voodoo or Santeria.  No response.  She shut her eyes completely and, in spirit, joined the group at the table.  She laid her palms upon her own table's flat, varnished pine surface, imagining her little finger just touching the hand of her neighbours on either side.  She let the vision begin and winced back into body.  

    Slime!  Dog filth! Was it new dog filth?  Something both evil and new under the sun was impossible. She sent her memory on a time trip unwinding the reel of time gone by;  searching, searching....  Fifteen or twenty years ago a minor messiah of darkness called out and was heard by a negatively chosen few.

   "Suixs!" she thought.  "Four of them.  Mother guard us!"

   The Suix were a suicide cult popular briefly in the last decade.  The cult ended almost as soon as it began.  The old members didn't last long enough to recruit new members and the birthrate was low.  These survivors must have developed a twisted logic to have kept themselves alive.   

     What would bring them to a downtown veggie cafe?  Of course!  They were vegetarian, eating no meat because life itself was precious, the highest sacrifice.  The skylight shot random rays of golden sunlight onto their table.  The Suix looked sombre even in sunlight.  Brandywine concentrated on the woman who appeared to be about thirty.  Thirty was old for a Suix.  She decided to do a mind link with her.