CZM Book Club: The Barrow Will Send What it May, Chapter Four

Margaret reads another chapter from the second book in her Danielle Cain series.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Call Zone Media book Club, book Club, book Club, the Club.
Hello and welcome to the Clozon Media book Club, the
only book club where you don't have to do the
reading because I do it for you. I'm your host,
Margaret Kiljoy, and this week my guest is nobody. I

(00:22):
have no guest. It's just me and you, Me and you,
dear listener. As we go into chapter four of my
own book, The Barrow Will Send What It May. We
had to take a break because for a couple of
weeks I really wanted to talk about that other thing.
But now that break is over, so we're back to
reading The Barrel Will Send what It May. If you're

(00:43):
just joining us here, well that's a weird place to
start a book. But if you need a reminder about
what happened, our protagonists had just broken into a man's
workplace slash store office, and we're like, I wonder if
there's magie here, and then they tried to go through
a door, and then magical fire came and enveloped Heather.

(01:09):
In fact, if you want the last paragraph of what
just happened, I'll just do that for you. I'll just
go back just a paragraph or two. I grabbed for
her the fingers of my hand, my goat bit in
hand went through the doorway and it tingled My wrist
though passed through and it hurt like fire. While most

(01:31):
of the times I've gotten burned, fire only hurts later
once the nerve ending started growing back or whatever, this
time it hurt immediately, like how fire hurts later. I
got a hold of her jacket and yanked back. She
fell on top of me. She stopped screaming. If she
was breathing, it was too faint to hear. Done undone

(01:56):
as the end of the chapter three, but now I'm
going to read chapter four, because this episode is chapter four.
Chapter four. She was alive. I found her pulse easily enough.
What the fuck? Brynn said, what the fuck? I agreed.
We dragged Heather back into the office. Brynn ran back

(02:18):
into the hallway and I heard her phone snap a photo.
She slammed the cursed door shut. Found our fucking magician,
I said, as I worked the office window open, Brynn
shut and locked the office door. Doomsday. Brynn said, she'll
know what to do. I climbed out the window. Bryn
handed me Heather and we ran for it. We couldn't

(02:41):
lock the window behind us, we couldn't grab our bikes.
Brynn put Heather into a fireman's carry and we made
for a side street, just as the nineteen fifties pickup
truck roared down the main street and skidded to a
halt out in front of the building. I didn't think
he saw us. Don't die, Brynn said, as we ran.

(03:02):
Don't die, don't die, don't die. Doomsday met us at
the front door of the library, and we ran up
the steps. I was just out of Breatha's brin, and
I didn't have one hundred some extra pounds of friend
thrown over my shoulders. I swept dozens of books off
the table, and Bryn laid Heather down atop it. I

(03:23):
told Doomsday the gist of what had happened. You've got
a hospital in town, I asked. As Vasillis came up
after us. He shook his head. Nearest one's about an
hour east. We've got a little emergency clinic, though, won't
do any good, Doomsday said, as she inspected the patient.
It's not physical damage, it's metaphysical damage. That green fire,

(03:47):
it's called witch's fire. Rebecca mentioned it once burns the
not the soul. Imagine you've got a second body, a
metaphysical body. The bones of that second body, that's your soul,
which is fire, burns away that second skin, the membrane
that protects the soul. It'll kill you as sure as

(04:07):
being flayed. We've got to try to reverse the damage,
Vascilla said, We've got to regenerate that second skin. No,
Doomsday said, too dangerous. Just need to soothe the burn,
keep it from getting infected while it heals itself. That
could take years. Vascilla shouted, I've been studying this for
a decade. Half of what you know you learned here today,

(04:29):
reading from my collection. He rose to his full height.
Everyone freaks out a little bit differently. Vasillis apparently freaks
out by trying to dominate people. He wasn't winning me over,
and she'll be in a coma the whole time. Doomsday agreed,
we have to do this now, Vasillis said. Doomsday looked thoughtful.

(04:51):
I was going to back her whatever she chose. That
was an easy conclusion to reach. She's your friend, Doomsday said,
at last, she's my everything. The two of them together
prepared the ritual. Vasillis was the teacher, Doomsday the student.
It was sort of bizarrely elaborate, complete with wringing the

(05:12):
floor with herb infused salts and washing Heather's nude body
with oils. Brynn and I stayed out of the way,
watching from a couch in the corner. Brynn was folded
in on herself and worry. I held her. Vasillis chanted
in Greek and English. A supernaturally bright red flush moved

(05:32):
across Heather's skin in the wake of his hands as
he encanted by the look on his face and the
sweat beginning to form on his brow. It wasn't working.
After a minute, maybe Doomsday joined him. She too looked desperate.
I heard a crack as Vasillis's hands jerked into an

(05:53):
unnatural position. He fainted, crumpling down onto himself and the floor.
Then Heather screamed. Then Heather died. Vulture and Thursday came
back that evening before Vassilis came to Doomsday had briefed
them over the phone shortly after it happened, but I
imagine it was still quite a shock to walk into

(06:15):
the apartment. Heather was laid out on the table, still
with a sheet covering everything but her face. Vasilis was
passed out on the floor in a fetal position. Doomsday
was pacing. Brynn was sobbing. I was holding her with
my good hand, my wounded hand, the hand that the
goat had bitten, the hand that hadn't been burned by

(06:38):
the witch's fire. I didn't let it touch her. I
was afraid of my own hand. What did you find,
Doomsday asked the boys. She put on a kettle for tea.
Sometimes it was unclear if that woman was capable of
expressing emotion. I guests. Vulture said, I guess that still
matters more than ever. Doomsday said, she wasn't wrong. We

(07:04):
found their car, Thursday said. Pushed into a lake close
to the trailhead, Vulture found the treadmarks and the dirt.
Even six months later, I wouldn't have noticed them. I
dove in and found the car, and Doomsday asked, and
it's a sunken car. Thursday said, that's it, that's all.

(07:24):
No skeletons, no backpacks, just a fucking car. Bacillis stirred
Breyne and I jumped up and helped him to his feet,
then to a chair. Doomsday set the tee in front
of him. Maybe she hadn't been as callous as I assumed.
We are going to talk about this, Doomsday said, kneeling
on the floor in front of his chair. Let me

(07:47):
be If I leave you alone right now, you may
never emotionally recover from what's happened. I don't care. Methodically,
he pulled on his mangled hands and worked them back
into place. I never seen anyone injured like that, and
I never seen anyone heal themselves like that. When a
person is dying, you don't stop to wait for their

(08:09):
permission to intervene medically. You know that you acted on that.
The same is true now for you. I never even
imagined this side of Doomsday. I assumed she didn't have
a nurturing bone in her body. Tough love is still love.
Though you were right, Vascilla said, she was too far

(08:30):
gone to heal. We should have soothed her wounds instead
of trying to directly reverse the damage. Is that what
you want to hear? That's true, Doomsday said, But it's immaterial.
I could have been wrong. You did what you felt
like you had to do, which is always ethically better
than doing nothing. Then what are we going to talk about? Well,

(08:51):
they're going to talk about these ads, eh, eh, find
the most emotionally impactful part of the story and interrupt
it with advertisements. That's the way of the world. Here's
the ads and we're back. Then what are we going

(09:17):
to talk about? We're going to talk about Barrow because
I don't know the first thing about emotional support, but
I want to get you problem solving instead. I want
you to worry about this later soon. Even think of
problem solving right now as your emotional tourniquet to stop
the bleeding before you can get real support. What does

(09:37):
this mean? Brinn asked and showed Vasillis a photo of
the Greek carving over the door. Vulture on Thursday, who
hadn't yet seen it, stood behind him to look as well.
None that are living may pass Doomsday nodded. That's about
what I figured. She steepled her fingers. How long have
you known that Sebastian Miller was responsible for the resurrection

(10:00):
of a Sola and Gertrude. I didn't know. You're not
an idiot, It was only I guess you are lucky.
I'm not in a blaming people mood. Doomsday said, blaming
people moods are the opposite of getting shit done moods,
and I'm in a getting shitit done mood. Vasillis nodded weakly.

(10:23):
I had no idea. When a Sola came back, she
wouldn't talk to us. But when Gertrude came back to yeah,
I suspected. Was he ever in here? Ever? Checking out
books on magic? All the good stuff is closed to
the public. It's all up here. Thursday nodded. He did
check out a book on modern Greek last winter, returned

(10:43):
it not a week later. I was disappointed, because it
would be nice to have people locally I could talk to.
That's how he knew the right words for the barrier,
Doomsday said, My hand went through the barrier without burning.
I said, let me see it, Vasillis said. I showed him.
He whispered arcane words, throwing them forcefully from his lungs,

(11:06):
as though afraid of them, then held his hands above
my hands. My left hand, my undamaged hand glowed red.
My right hand was unchanged. This hand, he said, it
doesn't have a soul. Cool, I said, Bryn laughed a little,
then got self conscious. What does that mean? Practically almost nothing.

(11:33):
Enough wounds like that and you'll die. But I don't
think I'll have any effect on you other than that. Okay,
Thursday said, this is easy enough. The barrier won't let
anyone through who's living. An undead hand doesn't count as living.
I bet a soul in Gertrude don't either. Get one
of them to head on through find out what happened.

(11:54):
They won't do it, I said, think about it. They've
got to know more than they're telling us already. If
they want wanted to help more, they'd have offered. Gertrude's
probably in on it. Thursday said, they're married, after all.
I get resurrecting your dead wife, I said, but I
wonder why a sola we resurrect? Heather Bascilla said, to

(12:17):
get through the barrier. I looked at Doomsday, expecting her
to shoot him down. Yeah, Doomsday said. Instead. She put
her hand to her cheeks, scratching in thought, yeah, that
would that would work. She'd be able to go through
the boundary. Are you fucking kidding? Thursday asked? The thing is?

(12:39):
Doomsday said, still thinking it over, I don't think we
could do it without the Book of Barrow. I only
know a few of his minor rituals, not resurrection. Also,
don't you have to end one life to bring one back? Yes,
he said, well you can bring them back temporarily as
long as the ritual is still being cast. But if

(12:59):
you don't give Barrow his due at the end of
the ritual, right back to death, the person goes, this
is really obviously a shit idea. Thursday said, why. Doomsday asked,
are you telling me that if you could bring Heather
back right now that you wouldn't do it? It's unnatural.
Thursday said, it's fucking magic. Doomsday said, none of it's

(13:24):
any more or less natural than anything else. I'm not
here just to learn about this stuff in the abstract.
I'm here to gain and wield power over others. Thursday asked, no,
God damn it, not over others. Everything is power. A
fucking gun is power. I used one once to end
three lives, but it wasn't because I wanted to wield

(13:45):
power over them. It's that I needed them to stop
wielding power over me. It's a pretty fucking massive power
imbalance in this world, and I don't see why we
should be afraid to correct it. Doomsday stood up, bringing
her teacup with her taking a long sip. Are humans
supposed to fly? I don't know. We built airplanes though.

(14:05):
Are we supposed to bring back the dead? I don't know,
but EMTs do it all the time. It's not a
question of whether or not it's ethical to bring Heather
back from the dead. It's whether or not we can
and whether or not it will further our aims. She
turned his face. Vacillis, if it's a life for a life,
will you do it? Will you die for her? Yes?

(14:26):
Vacillis answered, but then doubt clouded his features. I don't know,
moot point, Vulture said, we don't have the book. Maybe
he's got it on him, but I bet it's on
the other side of that barrier. I say we send
a drone, Doomsday laughed, I wasn't joking. Vulture said, we
get a drone to fly down there with a camera.

(14:48):
Where the hell would we get a drone? Doomsday asked, well,
if they only looked at our sponsors, they might find
that we might be advertising drones. I don't know. Maybe
there's only one way to find out, and it's still
listen and we're back. Oh like I'm the one with

(15:20):
the unrealistic plan. I'm not the one planning human sacrifice
and reanimating corpses. Oh shit, wait, Doomsday said, what Thursday asked?
Doomsday went to the pile of the book still scattered
across the floor next to the table, and picked one out,
flipping through the pages. Yeah, okay, no resurrection for us,

(15:44):
she said. Quote Barrow an endless spirit who stands at
the gate between the living and the dead, waiting to
tear it from its hinges. While capable of granting power
over many things, he is mostly known for his ability
to reverse to death by imbuing the body of the
dead with a peace of his soul. It is believed

(16:05):
that enough of his soul passes from the land of
the dead into the land of the living, the gates
will open, the distinction between the living and the dead
will be forever destroyed. The living will storm Heaven, the
dead will storm Earth. So Vulture said, if enough people
are resurrected all at once, we get some Bible style apocalypse. Basically,

(16:30):
Doomsday said cool Walter said, how many resurrections do you think?
I asked, No idea. I looked to vacillus. You knew
about this apocalypse thing, yeah, he said, looking down at
his hands, and you didn't say anything about it. Because

(16:51):
I want to bring back Heather. Holy shit, Brnn said,
If I really could trader sorry ass for Heather, I
would do it in a second. Hey, don't be mean
to him, Vulture protested, he's just well, he's had a
rough day. The odds of one more piece of barrow
being the tipping point are so incredibly low, As Silas said,

(17:15):
these rituals have been performed for thousands of years and
it hasn't happened yet. We could bring Heather back and
just her and would almost certainly be fine, Almost certainly.
Thursday mumbled, I would bring Clay back. I realized that
all of the sudden, I would go to Denver and

(17:35):
I would dig up the body of my old best
friend and I would bring him back to life because
the world needed someone like Clay, because I needed Clay.
I don't know that I would kill to do it.
I don't know if i'd sacrifice myself to do it,
but I might risk the apocalypse for him. All of

(17:56):
this is one hundred percent beside the point. Thursday cut in.
We don't have the book. We can't resurrect anyone. We
probably can't find a drone in town. Vulture looked, sad.
We can either try harder to recruit a Sola or Gertrude,
or we can confront Sebastian. Head on. Thursday said, those

(18:16):
are our options, or we follow Sebastian and figure out
how he gets into his basement. I said, he's not resurrected,
not that we know of. He's got to get in
there somehow. He can probably bring the barrier up and
down at will. Doomsday said, and it will last until
he's unconscious or dead, like asleep. I asked, no, actually unconscious.

(18:41):
How do you summon a barrier like that anyway? Thursday asked,
can we do that and keep ourselves safe? Doomsday looked
to Vasillis, implying that she didn't know. It's not Barrow's work. Specifically,
a lot of spirits can grant, which is fire, but
it's still necromancy. The only ritual I know it involves
inflicting immense pain on an unwilling victim. That's out, then,

(19:05):
Vulture said. Thursday still looked thoughtful. Hey, Brynn said from
where she stood by the window. Is there supposed to
be a black suv parked out in front of the library.
That a normal thing, no Vasillis said, instead of coming
to look, though, he dropped his head in sorrow. I
bet it's the magic Feds. Vulture said. How'd they find us?

(19:27):
I asked, I don't know. Vulture said, probably the tracking
devices we all have in our pockets. I keep trying
to get you all on burner phones and VPNs, but
you never listen. What do we do? Vasillis asked. It
was hard to understand him with his head buried in
his hands. We sit tight, I said, it just drove off.
Brynn reported, problem solved forever. Vulture said, what were the plates?

(19:52):
I asked, California could be tourists. Vasillis said he still
didn't look up. Now, I bet it's the magic Feds,
Vulture said, doesn't change anything. Thursday said, just raises the
steaks is all. It's never good to get caught with
a body. They won't be after us, I said, they'll
be after the book, and fuck if they get it.

(20:17):
I assure him, So glad you came to town, Vasillis said,
he tried for biting sarcasm. But halfway through his sentence,
his voice broke and he started to cry. They're there,
Vulture said, rubbing our host's shoulders. It's okay, And Vulture
thought for a minute, I mean, it's not actually okay.

(20:37):
Silence reigned in the apartment, but I guess you knew that.
That night, Vasillis slept in the living room and gave
Brinn and me his room. He said he wanted to
keep vigil. I could think of a few reasons it
was a bad idea to let him, but I wanted
to sleep in a bed, so I didn't say anything.

(21:00):
Took off to scope out the town. That was also
a bad idea. There were magicians and magic feds about,
but I knew my opinion on the matter wouldn't have
any bearing on his actions, so I didn't say anything. Thursday,
actually sensible decided to keep watch from inside the library
rather than standing out front with a gun. For a

(21:21):
long while, I laid on my back on Vasillisa's bed.
Brynn was curled up with her head on my shoulder.
Racking sobs from the living room filled the air, and
I focused my attention on Bryn's breathing. Today, fucking sucks,
I said, at last, Yeah, it does, being demon Hunters's garbage.

(21:43):
Brynn laughed a little bit at that, but it wasn't
her giggle. He was too soft, too tenuous, to be
her real laugh. I don't say this much, Brynn said,
and I don't even know where I mean by it.
But I want to go home. God, I said me too.
I held her tighter. The crying in the living room

(22:06):
hit a crescendo, and it sounded like the scillis was
trying to vomit his heart out of his chest. How
do you think we get ourselves thrown in the same
prison if we go down for this, I asked. If
we're lucky, they'll send us to prison. Bryn said, I've
got a feeling though, that this is an X file shit,
and they just quietly make it so you and I
were never born. Who would have figured Moulder and Scully

(22:30):
are the bad guys after all? I thought it over
for a while. If we can see them, they're not
after us, I said, huh. Feds don't show up looking
obviously like FEDS unless they're there to scare you, not
arrest you. It's the mortar shell. You don't hear that
kills you, Brine asked, yeah, hope there aren't more mortar

(22:52):
shells around. The crying from the living room faded into silence.
I like you, Brin said. We don't get to choose
how we die, only how we live. And I like
you and I'm glad I got to know you. I
like you too. You know what Heather and I talked
about last night? So late Berne asked, what's that you

(23:16):
well me but me as relates to you. I told
her how I felt about you, how I wasn't sure
what to do. She told me, I'm going to get
the exact words wrong, which is going to drive me
fucking crazy because it's one of the last things she
ever got to say. She told me that it's okay
to let yourself love someone, but that letting yourself love

(23:36):
someone is like letting someone have the keys to your
control room so that you can share the responsibility of
running yourself with someone else. It's worth doing, and people
will get in there and pull the wrong levers. That's
just the risk you got to take. I like that,
I said, What was with the Ora boris? New start

(24:00):
friend said? She choked up a little on her words.
She wanted a snake that eats its own tail to
remind herself that things go in cycles, that it's never
too late for a new start. There wasn't anything to
say to that, there's always time for a new start,
until one day there isn't holding one another trying not

(24:23):
to think about the world outside that bedroom. We slowly
let sleep come for us. Dun dun dum. That's the
end of chapter four. What happens in chapter five, Well,
you're gonna have to wait until probably next Sunday. But
that's it for Cool Zone Media book Club. And if

(24:44):
you enjoyed this show, then listen to more of it.
I don't know, it's been going for a while. You
can listen to the backlog. Oh. Also, the sequel to
this book is available for pre order right now. If
you're enjoying this book and you're like, wow, I really
want to get the next one, you can order The
Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, which is coming out from
Strangers and Entangled Wilderness. In June twenty twenty five, we

(25:05):
finished a successful Kickstarter. But if you order it now,
if you pre order it from I Think It's Akpress,
Firestorm Books, or the publishers, Strangers and Entangled Wilderness. You'll
get a signed copy and it'll continue the adventures. That's
what's happening in the meantime. See you all too bye.

(25:30):
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