By: Field Agent I.N.
Location: Ždiar Region, Northern Slovakia
The Carpathians are not where you expect to find a Vetala.
The house was a rental. Remote, old, well-maintained, tucked between forested slopes in the Ždiar region. A couple from Košice had taken it for the month. They lasted five days.
Vague local reports started filtering in around late February. Nightmares. Lost time. The husband claimed he saw his wife “step out of herself” in the reflection of the kitchen window. When neighbors arrived to check in, they found both sitting in silence. Lights off. Every mirror in the house covered with towels and bedsheets.
We assumed a local entity. Maybe a domestic mimic or shade tied to the land. We were wrong.
The entity was identified as Vetala-class. For the uninitiated: shapeshifter, teleporter, mind-reader, liar. The worst kind of clever.
We initiated the banishment manifestation using the Fury Summoning Circle as per standard procedures, placed just outside the home’s original cellar entrance. Reflection anchors were found in five rooms, including an antique picture frame that had warped into a perfect feedback loop.
Banishment required two relics:
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Athame of Absolution — to sever its manipulative grip
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Warding Salt — to drive it from both the body and the walls it clung to
The procedure held, but only barely. It spoke in the wife’s voice for most of the final phase. Then her mother’s. Then mine.
The full mission archive is presented for public perusal below.
UPDATE — April 12, 2024
Filed by Operative N. DeCosta, Archive Compliance Unit
The detailed archive for Operation Mirror Ash has been withheld due to active protocol crossover and case inheritance by the Containment Branch. While the record is sealed, relevant materials are provided below for further research into common lore of the Vetala-class Demons.
Recommended Cultural References
Burton, Richard F., ed. Vikram and the Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic and Romance. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1870. Accessed April 12, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2400/2400-h/2400-h.htm
Crooke, William. The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 2. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1896. Accessed April 12, 2024 https://archive.org/details/popularreligionf02croo/page/n9/mode/2up
Dowson, John. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature. London: Trübner & Co., 1879. Accessed April 12, 2024. https://archive.org/details/aclassicaldictio00dowsuoft/page/n27/mode/2up