Wow It's been two months, it was a long meeting.

You couldn't really tell time in that place, only that it felt like it either went too fast or too slow, though that's over now, not everything that happened there was interesting so I'll try and only put in the interesting parts.

Fade woke me up at 5 O'clock, on the day we were suppose to leave and told Siran to be good and to behave herself, though she only turned and let a little bit of water fall out of her mouth. Taking what little luggage we had we left base camp and popped to a nearby wooded area.

P: Why couldn't we just pop over there like we usually do with this sort of thing, Teleporting isn't very useful if you can't get anywhere with it.
F: When you can displace yourself in existence and pop up in your intended destination then you can complain. However, this place is protected by many things, both natural and.... well you know by now, and as the meeting place of the faceless court it can only be entered by the Path, meaning only strong proxies can get there, this leaves less bickering and casual murders.
P: Then why do we have to do it here I swear I read somewhere you could open it anywhere, you've opened it in the middle of the road once.
F:* Fade looks troubled* I've never done that, I choose here because it's the domain of old faceless, the dark wooded areas, home to stalking nameless things, it's easiest to draw upon his eldritchness and open his path, also it's part of the pomp and ceremony of these things.
P: So...... How do we open it?
F: Well that's easy, *He takes out his knife and flips it in his hand twice* With a flick of my magic wand.
Abra Kadabra.

With that the air around me shook and pulled, as if all of creation was protesting this thing, and as I watched the blade of the knife disappeared, a hole appeared behind it and as Fade pulled the knife to the ground a rip, a scar opened in the remaining space, through it I saw a dead forest, the sky unseen through a thick canopy and the way lit by some bizarre luminescence. There were shadows that danced and prodded at the tear Fade had made.

F: Well better get moving, don't want to be late, don't forget your mask Pete.

With that I put on a plain tube of fabric that took away my features, Fade put on his Muse's mask and checked his hair. Without even stopping he stepped into the void he had created and despite my apprehension I ignored the growing sense of terror, dread and wrongness and followed. Fade and me must have walked for hours surrounded by, not quite darkness, and strange noises until Fade stiffened and chuckled.

F: We're here.
P: And Where is here when it's at home?
F: The Island of Staffa, end of the tourist seasons, still plenty of nice puffins to see though.
P: Staffa?
F: Scotland, one of the islands of the inner hebrides, it's name comes from the old norse for stave, or pillar island as you'll see is fitting very shortly.

Another gash appears, what I see before me is is a dark sky showing an Island unlike any I've seen before, millions of columns seem to burst from the raging surf holding up a great slab of land.

P: W... Who made this?
F: No one did, all natural on the outside, you could say God made it if you were so inclined.
P: Does anyone live here?
F: No one non fear related, the faceless court wouldn't be secure if we had a couple of farmers spying on us all the time. Beside its not even a mile square, all we have to worry about are tourists and they're gone by this time of year, and conditions.
P: Then where do we meet these people, in the cave?
F: No don't be silly.

We appeared on top of the island and Fade pulls up a crude trapdoor, not befitting the occasion, though as we went down a few step we came to a much more grand door, made of marble Fade said, not of the Island's Basalt. He opened it with little effort and even less noise and before me was a massive hall made of White stone and black wood, the wood creeping and filling the spaces between the stone, Hundreds, thousands of Proxies filled the space, most far too laid back to be at such an important occasion. Through this Fade put his hand in between my shoulder blades and led me through to a desk with a woman in a similar mask to mine but a hole through which she could see everything unimpeded.

 F: Fading Muse, head of the London Borough of Barnets Orphanage, head of the Enfield rugby team and avid mischief maker.
Woman at Desk: ... Thank you for that, and him?
F: Pete MI ice, dogs body.
WaD: Thank you, you are in part M room an, Your companions ic, please enjoy the meeting and refrain from murder and harassment, it would not be looked upon kindly.
F: Would it be alright if we got someone to take our bags to our rooms, because as you are aware the meeting is about to start and we don't have time to go down to M part, also I am anticipated.
WaD: Very well, Muse. Door on your right.

We went through the door and found and auditorium filled with masked faces and found a seat in the middle of the stands not too close or too far away. The stragglers came in, hush fell, In the center of the room a man walked in and stood with a microphone and in the voice of Tiberius announced;

T: Let the 102nd meeting of the faceless court take place.

Holiday over

A week ago Fade was approached by an individual that some might call, important in proxy circles, according to Fade he's the one in charge of most proxies in the greater London area. For this let me paint you a word picture, it was a sunny afternoon and Fade was trying to stay cool among the oppressive heat beating down on every house and every surface, he's even managed not to kill anyone the past months, he's just sending me out to do a few stalkings and intimidations but nothing major. This particular evening I was getting back from a stalking when I found Fade sat across the table from a particularly scarred man possibly about 50-60, though you may think Fade looks 30 not 21 so any guess I make could be useless. When they noticed my presence Fade stood up and spoke with his cigarette still in his mouth;

F: This is my protegee, so please don't be to malevolent around him, This is Pete MI Ice ,little wet around the ears but he's got promise. Now Pete this is a very important and ruthless proxy, this man is Tiberius, just Tiberius, he thinks himself above second names, he has something very important to tell us.
T: Fade must attend the council in 2 weeks, all the important leaders....
F: Start from the beginning or all chances of me comings will vanish.
T: A war has started in the north, hundreds of proxies are already dead from the fighting of the northern borders, we don't know who exactly is declaring war on whom yet but this meeting will decide if it is a petty fight over territory or something more troublesome *He turns and lays weary eyes on a smirking Fade*. We need the Muse here because he is one of the strongest in the greater
London Area and in the UK, they will listen to him.
F: Oh you know that's not the reason you want me, you think I'm the one inciting all the violence, would you believe it if I told you I'm not starting any wars right now?
T: I'll believe that when your body is so dead it can't even twitch anymore, but this is above your head the Scottish contingents are nervous about so many proxies amassed around their borders and you know how hard it is to frighten them.
F: In all honesty no. *Again flashing a cheeky smile*
T: Well they aren't easily frightened, we need you at the council if only for you to take the piss of us being paranoid, if we are then your insults might rest us at ease. Though I can't trust you, the only person around here that wants the world to change, is you.

Bring your pet if you want but come, the faceless court in 2 weeks, it may decide the fate of us all.

* with that he stood us walked behind a wall and disappeared*

P: Are we going?
F: Of course we are it's going to be a lot of fun. *His mischievous smirk growing wider*

The meeting is this weekend god help us.

Working away from home

It seems Fade felt like a holiday after his little incident the other week, this didn't seem to end like the other one despite the limp he seemed to acquired and can't seem to shake. We popped up in a town called Borris-in-Ossory apparently in Ireland a place very unlike London, so much so I had a little kip whilst we waited for the to begin. We met in a little pub in the city it was a group of runners who wanted to make a deal with his lord almighty, this went as well as you expected. After a couple of pints the runner got up and tried to overstep his mark and try to get more than he was entitled, this unfortunately didn't go down to well with Fade so I was grabbed by the collar to a place called Kerryglass, somewhere on the River Shannon according to Fade it was so foggy you couldn't see the opposite bank. Here amongst the rain and the water he and this Runner fought jumping from boat to boat at the quay, whilst I tired to keep pace with another bloke who must have been at Fade level, or higher must have been a professional boxer before had or something. Well I was walked over this little bridge whilst Fade was walking to the end of the pier, so looking for support I ran towards him as soon as he was at the end of the pier tackling him off the pier as soon as I felt cold water rush under me clothes and through my nose we were landing on the hard tarmac of a road in the country, Fade pulled me up by my collar and got me to attention whilst we waited for retaliation we ignored the middle aged man standing by the pub who must have seen us come out of nowhere. By the time we had taken up positions the other blokes had followed us through and the fight begin again blows being traded and knives being drawn, I barely saw Fade for dust across the fields and his pursuer somehow kept pace with him.

Keeping my mind on the little shit following me I pegged it past the little post office and the GAA club I jumped a rusty gate to try and get a more open area between me and him, but somehow between the brambles and the cows he kept pace and by the time I turned it was no use I was corned by the hedge and the man. I resigned myself to my fate until I felt my nose bleed and the pressure on the world increased, your man stood there almost frozen, not able to move a muscle all I could see a man with a mask with a mischievous grin standing behind him, by the time I blinked he was on the ground.... not moving I had no clue what was going on but I didn't dally.

I found Fade fighting his bloke half a mile down the road trading blows and slashes amounst farm yard machinery and a dog barking his head off. He was on the back foot until I arrived and distracted his opponent from the fight, he turned and Fade went to slash to his throat, he wasn't even able to make a surprised sound by the time he hit the floor. It was only then I noticed Fade had a massive gash on his forearm and forehead, though since he'd just recovered from much worse I don't feel like worrying about him, I cleaned it up and wrapped it and that's all I think it needs, goodnight.

Long time no see

Well let see what was happening last time I updated Fade was being weird and Sarah had just become part of the group, now to what's happened since..... Malice is Dead. Sarah killed him because he tried to kill me, I still don't understand properly what happened, apparently it was part of the plan, that it was his job to kill me, it's what Fade said. Though why would Fade want me dead he's had plenty of chances to kill me already and he could have taken any number of them to do it, maybe Malice's association with the Doctor finally got to him, got sick in the head. Saying all that however I can't help but feel nothing about his death, it didn't affect me apart from prolonging my life and we never got that close even in the time Fade went missing. This means though that the most sane person in the house is now dead, how much longer can I hold out against the insanity that surrounds me, Fade's got me going on jobs with him, I must have killed more than 30 people in the past couple of months, I feel like I'm slowly slipping away, just becoming a toy ticking away, aimlessly wandering and one day the spring will just uncoil.

I'm gonna tell you about a job I went on a few days ago with Fade, which despite the heat he still wore a suit for. We were apparently going to face a group of Runners and scare them a bit, it didn't turn out that way unfortunately. We got there at midday when the temperature was about 30 Celsius outside meaning more likely than not they'd be in the building they've been using to hide in. Fade opened a side door and checked there was no one inside waiting to ambush us, he came back and told me to be careful, I felt this was a bit too easy as well but we pressed on, 5 minutes later after searching we couldn't find anyone in the building Fade just assumed it was a bad tip off and that someone had made a mistake, until it happened. The walls of the room around us blew in towards us pelting us with bits of brick and paint, with this a man stepped out;

Mysterious man: Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous Muse, drenched in the blood of enough innocents and devils to fill an ocean, am I not right.
Fade: So you're the one who's been looking for me, I presume?
Mm: Of course I am, you wouldn't come to me so I decided to come to you instead and I need a grand entrance didn't I, though finding you wasn't as easy as I expected some of the people I asked must have been more afraid of you than me because they gave me incorrect information and apparently told you someone was looking for you.
F: True, though I think it's foolish to challenge me if you value a life where you want to see the sun set today.
Mm: That would be true but I have a feeling you'll be re acquainted with an old fear of yours, though that's just what I believe, since you are the most senior I'll let you take the first move.
F: You make it sound like we're playing chess, alright pawn to D3.

With that Fade threw a knife he had concealed up his sleeve and putting his hand behind his back vanished from sight. The man sidestepped the knife like it was nothing, I saw Fade appear behind him a moment later and with shock saw the man holding Fades arm which had his truncheon in it, with a smile he let go and punched the man in the gut causing him to double over. With this he vanished again only to reappear in the same position but holding his truncheon ready to swing it up to the guys head, it connected with a sickening crack as it connected with his jaw bone, I seriously thought it was over at that point... but then he stood up and chuckled.

Mm: you're as fast as they say and improvise very well, though I still don't think it will be enough to kill me.
F: Obviously, though I would expect you usually to be rolling around on the floor trying to cry out behind the blood and broken jaw you should have gotten.
Mm: What can I say, we're two of a kind.

He ran at Fade who I expected to vanish but instead to the hit right to the stomach, he didn't even flinch. The man continued to punch Fade in the face the gut, he even got Fade on the floor once but let him back up.

Mm: And resilient *he said between breaths*
F: Well it will obviously take more than that to kill me.

Fade vanished once more, the unsettling thing is the man smiled when he vanished raised his arm up and a moment later Fade appeared in front of him caught by the neck and trying to raise himself with the toes of his shoes.

Mm: I know I just needed to find out what you could do and take.

The man was suddenly very frightening this is the first time I'd seen Fade in trouble before, the first time I'd seen him..... scared. The man bent down with Fade and picked up a brick from the floor, he then continued to smash Fade in the head with it over and over, until blood came gushing from his nose and seeping from his scalp. This is when the man dropped Fade in a heap on the floor, he started doing something weird, he started taking Fade's tie off , then his blazer and his shirt revealing a bunch of dotted lines on his arm and chest, running his finger across each one until he finally spoke again.

Mm: You see killing you would not do this victory justice, if you died you wouldn't feel the despair I want you to feel, and this will start with me wiping out some of your little pets. All I have to decide is which one will be the first victim * He traced his finger along the lines until he came to one of the segments* how about this one, little thing she is having her 7th birthday thanks to you, maybe I'll choose her take some of that hard fought time for myself, or maybe this one nice young bloke 15 years old, just too young for you to kill, just found a girlfriend he has how nice. *His fingers slid along to 5 marks on his chest above his heart* Or this one the child that can't be yours, or the woman, still hoping.

Fade struggled trying to get up but the man took the brick again and brought it down between Fade's legs, Fade curled up obviously in agony, yet the man didn't relent.

Mm: No, they are for the final symphony of your despair I think I'll be satisfied with three of them.

He took Fade's arm and gripped his arm around it, again Fade writhed as much as he could, as much to free himself as he did in pain. the man stopped and I saw that three of the marks on his arm had vanished, after that all I heard was Fade's shattered breathing s he breathed through the blood collecting i his mouth and what turned out to be a fractured jaw. This was only broken by  a steady tapping like someone walking in dress shoes, A woman appeared in a tight shirt and three quarter shorts obviously dressed for the weather, she came up to the man and told him to stop.

Woman: You've made him suffer enough now I need to talk to him.
Mm: Yes Ma'am
W: Fade how far you've fallen, some may have said you were the strongest person connected to the Fears in the UK, but now look at you nice and broken like everyone you leave behind. Though don't worry, like he said we won't kill you. *She sat down on Fade's lap causing him to convulse in pain, she lent down so that her red hair brushed against his face obscuring it for a second before she pulled it back* Though when we do it will hurt much more than this.

She bounced back up to her feet, eliciting another grunt of pain form Fade, and as quickly as they both appeared they were gone, it too much coincidence that our doctor tried to kill me so soon before we would need him to patch up Fade, who right now is bandaged up in every way imaginable, he can't move I think he just lies there and thinks, and prays that they don't make good on their promise.

Confrontation with a ghost

Fade has been going on as normal..... that's it, that's the strange thing I want to say he has become depressed or gone insane but he is just the same. He saves a child's life and he just act as if that's normal... actually? Is this normal, for him? I swear he vanished. Quite literally out of existence, yet here he is more than a month later and he's normal, during that time everything he's planned seems to have gone to shit. He's also taken to not talking, well to me at least, so it means I've started talking to someone who's turned up recently.... another proxy..... Sarah.

I know for those of you reading this it seems ridiculous, the woman tried to kill me, I know but she said she's sound a new deal with a new abomination and since she isn't contractually obligated to kill me that she would come find me. I actually asked her why she risked facing Fade who probably wouldn't take to kindly to her being in his house, especially after she tried to kill him and me. AS if sensing us talking about him Fade came outside, Sarah said with a weird little smile "oh, that's been taken care of hasn't it?" this led to Fade staring at her with obvious distrust but he didn't make any movement that what she said was untrue, this is why I've been talking with Sarah. Since Fade's grown as distant as he used to be and Malice is called back more often to his abomination since Fade's plan fell apart.

Well that's it for today not much to report.

Curiouser and curiouser

Curious, as in Fade returning quite non chalently in the middle of the night, kicked me out of his bed and slipped in. I woke up the nest morning to find him in a clean suit, shaved and with his mask on, he didn't say anything to me, just sort of stared off into the middle distance and when Malice came in, as non chalently as Fade did last night, giving him a simple, what's up, and nothing more. Fade stayed silent until he left again, which led me to question Malice.

P: Malice?
M: What is it now Pete?
P: What's wrong with Fade?
M: *Gives a shrug* I don't know, he has been gone for a decent amount of time, maybe something happened to teh kid, maybe he's been replaced by a robot.
P: Can they do that? * I asked jokingly*
*Malice just raised his eyebrows, not saying no*
P: Though seriously you treated it as if nothing has happened, why didn't you even ask him how he was?
M: I did, I asked him What's up.
P: That's not what I mean, aren't you curious to know what happened, what he's thinking, how he feels about this?
M: I thought I told you this already, though it seems I need to make it even more clear. Fade hs gone through alot, he's died quite a few times, injured quite severly, been ripped from his family, Twice. The man you saw go out hat door, may not be the Same Fade, he may not even call himself Fade anymore. That man knows things about the Fears we don't need to, or want to. You see Pete, the reason I don't ask him how he's doing, or what's wrong, is because I don't want to know, because I um unlikely to understand what he's feeling, he has a unique and sometimes confounding moral philosophy, he scares and intrigues me all at the same time.
P: Well, you still should have asked.
M: Did you?
P:..... No
M: Then shutup you idiot, or maybe Siran will tell on you.

yes Curious.

Your nightmares never leave you

They're back, stranger and more vivid than I remember, but I wasn't in my room at my normal house, I was at Fade's, I heard the Tick, the ticking that was always there, though as it grew louder I realized it wasn't ticking but knocking. I looked around my spartan room and saw a door that shouldn't be there, in the wall by the window, I heard the knocking and heard the voices the voices of the dead coming to whisper in my ear, taunting me, that a psychopath is more moral than me, that I should just follow them, follow them to freedom. I plug my ears and the voices stop, but the knocking continues, even getting louder, that was when the little mechanical men poured out the door, small as ever, poking around my room, prodding around me, like I was something dead they could have fun with. They then stopped however, and I felt dread gut wrenching dread, I realized that the knocking had stopped, I felt an immeasurable amount of fear, the silence meant that the thing that was taunting me was done playing, that whatever was coming for me would stop hiding behind the doors and noises.

I stayed waiting for half an hour, listening to the creaks of the place, until I heard a whistling, upbeat whistling, though through my time with Fade I've learnt that sometimes that's the one you need to be most wary of. It means it's strong enough to let you know it's near. Then he appeared at the foot of my bed, the man of clockwork, the conductor.

P: Why did you scare me like that?!
TC: That*He says looking at the door*..... that isn't me, *showing me a mouth full of bronze teeth* though I could easily let it in, do you want me to?
*He makes his way to the door*
P: No!!!
TC: Thought so.
P: But why are you here, I haven't made my choice, I don't even know me options.
TC: 'Me options' ? You really are beginning to sound like the Muse. You do need to be careful however he will sacrifice you to achieve his own ends without a seconds hesitation.
P: And you won't?
TC: Well.... atleast I'll be honest about it.
P: Wait. Why are you telling me this? Fade's suppose to be one of your favorite servants.
TC: That's why, that's why I want his little plan to fail, because we do need you but for separate reasons, I just like causing trouble amongst the older fears, and plaguie is pretty annoyed he can't get to you. It's just a great deal of fun for me, the Muse however well.... he has own motives.
P: Ok, but what should I do instead?
TC: Use your imagination, I'm sure some of the Muse's rubbed off on you.

HE said this as he faded away tapping me on the forehead, leaving only a smile as I fell back on my bed. I woke up to find it light out, 'Thank god it was a dream.' I said to myself only to find a note on my table, 'You sure about that'