Caleb Lost intended to protect Harlan, but at the pivotal moment, he receives a summons he cannot ignore:
(Caleb) “I have a feeling someone awaits us beyond the next turn. Someone other than... Harlan? Where...? This isn't the vault beneath Vyšehrad anymore!”
“You're right, Caleb Lost. You've been summoned elsewhere.”
“You! Anyel!” (Another amesha we saw in Dampyr #54. He first met Harlan on Cape Cod, in #36. He has appeared about a dozen times.)
“Nice to see you again, Camael. I asked to be assigned to your case.” (Camael is Caleb's original angelic name. Samael is his brother, now a fallen angel or naphidim.)
“My 'case'? What are you talking about, Anyel? Where are you taking me?”
“Don't pretend you don't know, friend. You upset the Balance when, three years ago, you left your headquarters in Prague without permission.”
“I did that to confront Thorke.”
“I know. The case is complex, but not hopeless. That's why I asked to be assigned to defend you. Let's hurry. The preliminary inquest has begun.”
“The preliminary inquest? I can't go now. It could take months!”
“Years, even.”
“Anyel, Harlan and my friends in Prague are in mortal danger! Now more than ever, I must be at their side.”
“I'm sorry, Caleb. Nergal has timed things well. He will present the prosecution's case, but if we can prove that he exploited your situation for his own schemes, perhaps we can appeal to the jury.”
“By then, it may be too late for my friends. Who is the examining magistrate?”
“Since we could never find a single impartial judge, there are two of them. And hearing their names, you'll understand how important they consider you, my friend. Regent Uriel has proposed himself for the Amesha, and Prince Iblis has taken the trouble to represent the Other Side.”
Anyel is talking about events from Dampyr #64, which just as he said was published three years before this story. Comic books usually avoid mentioning the timeline of old stories in terms of years. Otherwise we'd contemplate how in the most recent stories, Kurjak must be twenty-five years older than when he first appeared. It doesn't matter so much for Harlan and Tesla due to their undead lineage. However, Kurjak's origin ties in strongly to the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the late 1990s, so the whole "sliding timeline" topic is mostly avoided. There is one story about Harlan outliving his human friends, however.
We first heard of Uriel and Iblis back in Dampyr #54 when they attended the "Tales of Hoffmann" opera, but they have not been shown in the series yet. We'll see them soon, though.
Thus ends part one of this story, with all of its major characters (Harlan, Kurjak, Tesla, Hanneke, and even Caleb) each in a different bad spot. I can't think of another Dampyr cliffhanger that ratchets the tension like this. How will it end??
