by Les Goodrich
Figment: Really? So you don’t play video games.
CoffeeGhost: No.
Figment: But you’re a witch.
Casey was shocked. She was also scared. She suddenly felt a threatening presence just looking at the screen name. She moved her mouse to close the entire site, but stopped.
CoffeeGhost: How did you know that?
Figment: I know lots of things. You’re a Light Tribe witch in Saint Augustine.
CoffeeGhost: Who are you? How do you know that?
Figment: I’m reading your energy signature and it has Light Tribe witch written all over it. But I’d say not terribly powerful yet. Oh, a new student still I bet. I must say that’s disappointing. I’ve been waiting for someone like you, so I had a little code alarm set up. I never thought they’d send a newbie. So dumb. Oh well.
Casey looked up to Mims and the look on her face instantly caused Mims to worry.
“What is it?” Mims asked.
“Some crackpot on my computer I think.”
“Where?”
“In an old chat room.”
“Close it,” Mims said and she walked toward the counter bar.
“Yeah you’re right,” Casey said and she reached to slide the trackpad mouse up.
As she did the WiFi router on the coffee shop back wall began to vibrate. A sickly green light surrounded it and moved in waves, growing larger, pulsing.
“What the hell?” Mims said and she watched the router glow and buzz. She turned to see Casey staring motionless and wide-eyed at the router and the growing green haze. A deafening snap crackled through the room, the router vibration ceased, and the device smoked. Casey fell from the bar stool to land flat on her back where she stared into space and repeated a single whispered word.
“Figment. Figment. Figment.”
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Mims, and she jumped around the counter, already texting Jordan.
Chapter 9
Spells and Spies
Carol lounged back on her couch and drank a glass of pinot noir. She was petting Jasmine when her phone rang. She saw it was Jordan and answered.
“Hello Jordan.”
“Something bad happened to Casey. Some kind of hex. She’s unconscious or out of it somehow.”
“Where is she?” Carol sat upright.
“At the coffee house. I’m going there now. Can you help me?”
“Which coffee house?”
“Coastal.”
“I’ll be there.”
Jordan arrived first and saw the Closed sign in the door. She tried the handle, found it unlocked, and went inside. Mims knelt over Casey on the floor at the bar end of the shop and Jordan leapt to them.
“What happened?” she asked and she turned Casey’s delirious face toward her.
“Like I said, some kind of hex. I swear it came through the WiFi router.”
“The WiFi?” Jordan asked and she looked to Mims as Casey stared in blankness and mumbled, “Figment,” repeatedly.
“Yeah. She was on the computer and she said some guy was creeping her out in a chat room. She went to close the chat and the router started to hum and glow with this green light. Then it popped like a gunshot and she fell out like this. I put the closed signs up to keep people out. She’s been this way since I texted you.”
Casey mumbled and Jordan sat her up and tried to quiet her. “Shhh, shhh. Casey, can you hear me? Shhh, everything’s gonna be fine.”
“Hello?” came a voice at the door.
“That’s Carol,” Jordan said.
“Come in, come in,” Mims called and she moved toward the door. Once Carol was inside Mims locked both doors. Carol knelt down with Casey, Jordan stood up, and Mims told Carol what she knew.
“Have you done anything with her yet?” Carol asked Jordan.
“Just talk to her. She tried to tell me about this computer connection idea of hers earlier, but I wouldn’t listen.”
“It’s okay Jordan, this isn’t your fault. Mims dear, could you make a cup of hot tea with this please?” Carol pulled a cotton pouch from her purse. “One hundred-eighty degree water, all of these herbs, one teaspoon of honey, and let it steep for exactly one minute. Then add what you think looks like a tablespoon of ice, stir it, and bring it to me.”
Mims took the pouch of herbs. Carol and Jordan scooted Casey to sit with her back against the locked door.
“Will she be okay?” Jordan asked.
“I think so. This looks like an old stun-hex to me. They sent it through the WiFi you say?”
“We think so,” Jordan said. “Is it Shadowclan?”
“Most likely. Stun-hexing used to be all the rage in the old days. Witches used it to stupefy accusers right before they took the witness stand. But when the witch trials ended, stun hexing fell out of favor. Mostly because you have to be able to see the person you’re hexing, or you used to. And if two witches are really fighting it out, there are more powerful spells you can cast face-to-face. Stand back.”
Carol stood above Casey and took her wand from her bag. She held her arms out in an opened gesture and closed her eyes. She called upon her Goddess Diana and asked that she join them for the good of all. The shop filled with cool air and a compassionate but powerful presence. Carol inhaled deeply.
“A balanced attendance of air, fire, water, and Earth please. Thank you. Diana, Goddess of love and light. Bless this child before us. Calm her mind then be on your way at your own pace and thank you for your ever-present kindness.” Carol relaxed her arms and turned to Mims. “The tea dear?”
Mims handed Carol the cup. Carol placed it on the bar top then passed her wand slowly above it’s steaming surface. “Agrimony tall and green. Balanced mirror of unseen. Nourish Casey and defend her. Return the stun-hex to it’s sender.”
A green light shown from within the cup and dyed the steam the same color as the recently possessed router. Carol took the tea to Casey and helped the cursed girl to mindlessly drink.
“That’s it. A few more sips dear.”
Casey began to show signs of coherence and her initial waking response was to hold the cup herself and drink the tea enthusiastically.
“Not too fast hon,” Carol whispered. “Take your time. Just finish it all, but let me have the cup when it’s gone. There. Very good. Now don’t get up. Jordan, don’t let her get up.”
“Is that it?” Jordan asked kneeling by Casey with her hand on her shoulder and Carol put the tea cup on the bar.
“Oh no. That curse has to come out. I don’t want her standing when it does.”
“What’s gonna happen?” Mims asked peeking over the counter and Jordan looked to Carol, the question echoed in her eyes.
“I guess we’re all about to find out together,” Carol said and Casey began to stiffen. “Help her lie flat!” Carol instructed and Jordan pulled an increasingly aware Casey around by her shoulders.
“What’s going on?” Casey demanded. “What’s happening to me?”
“Shhhh, you’re fine. Just stretch out on your back for one minute to rest.”
“I don’t wanna rest. I wanna know what’s going on.” Although she was speaking she did not yet have full control over her reflexes so she stretched out on her back as Jordan coaxed her.
Her entire body grew taught, her fists clamped, her eyes squinted, her teeth clenched in a snarl, and she cried out through them. Green haze surrounded her in a shade that was becoming all too familiar to Mims. A startling snap crackled through the shop and the light vanished.
Within a New Orleans house, lit only by the glow of a dozen computer screens, the room began to brighten to a malignant green. Maybe a police searchlight passing on the road.
“What the,” Figment said aloud as he stood to see the green glowing wireless router on the table by the window. “No way,” was his last real thought, then his life was default of all reference until he saw the green light on his ceiling fade and one last cramped notion was crushed from him by torturous pain. I should have saved that little witch�
��s IP address.
Casey fell into a relaxed but exhausted state. Jordan sat her up. She looked at the room and put her hands on the floor. “Well that sucked,” she said. “What was that?”
“You were hexed,” Carol said. “A stun-hex. Powerful dark magick designed to shock and debilitate you.”
“I feel like crap. Is this what a hangover feels like?”
“Ask Jordan,” Carol said smirking.
“Hey,” Jordan said, and she helped Casey to stand then sit at the bar. “Mims thinks the hex was sent through the WiFi. What were you doing?”
Casey explained how the data spikes matched the robbed banks but this time Jordan gave her the utmost attention.
“My theory was this old gaming site could be connected to the kids being controlled or hexed. Looks like I found the proof.”
“Who hexed you?” Jordan asked.
“His screen name is Figment. Oh man, I just remembered the scariest part. The second I started to chat with him he knew I was a witch. He said he could tell I was a Light Tribe student and not powerful yet. He knew I was in Saint Augustine too.”
“How could he know all that?” Mims asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he?” Jordan asked.
“Oh my God. Yeah, I have that bastard’s info right here,“ Casey said and she opened the screenshot. “Here. This is the IP he was using. It could be a proxy. If he’s the level of hacker I think he is, I’d almost bet on it.”
“English please,” Jordan said.
“This line of code tells us the identity of the computer he’s accessing to go online. It could be the computer in his house, or the laptop he’s actually typing on. It could also be the mainframe or server his computer is connected to in the process of accessing the internet. Any good hacker would go through a different computer first, a proxy, so someone spying on them would be unable to know exactly what IP they were using. But that doesn’t matter if I can find the list of web properties served from the main frame. All I have to do is run a server query and include the gaming site URL. If I can find a match, then I should be able to find the proxy source link.” She looked at Jordan who shook her head. “The IP address of the computer he’s really using and where it is.”
“I’ll take your word for it. So can you find him?” Jordan asked.
“It’ll take some digging but I think I can. I can find the host real fast.”
Jordan had never seen Casey so fired up. She was obviously angry, but in control.
“Are you sure you can do all this without him knowing?” Carol asked.
“Oh yeah. One second. I’ll find his ass.” Casey logged onto her laptop and ran a search for the listed host name. She found it, accessed the source code, then ran a search for the gaming site. She copied the resulting list of hundreds of code lines and pasted them into a word document. Then she used the search function on the document program to search for the gaming website.
“Bingo,” she said and she noted the code line where it appeared. Jordan looked at Carol then Mims and they all just shook their heads. Casey typed on. She returned to the host she had found, scrolled to the line that contained the gaming site activity, and scrolled through the line until she found the original host machine name.
“Gotcha,” she said and she copied the IP address. “Now I’ll show you a little trick I learned at hacker summer camp.” She closed the old browser windows and opened a new one. In the address bar she typed ip-tracker and hit enter. The first result was a dot-org domain and she selected it. On the page that opened she pasted the IP address into a text field above a red button.
“What’s this?” Jordan asked.
“Watch,” Casey said and she clicked the button. She scrolled past the frames and ads and at the bottom of the page was a map window with a red house icon in the center.
“No way!” Jordan said and Casey zoomed in on the map.
“Mess with a newbie witch hacker girl will ya?” Casey said with pride. “It’s not always deadly accurate, but it’s usually close.”
“Where is that?” Jordan asked. “Zoom out some.”
Carol leaned to look at the screen. “New Orleans,” she said. “The French Quarter. Tanner opens tomorrow and I’ll be in at nine. I have some information of my own to share and I want all of you at the store by nine a.m. sharp. Mims, you can come too if you’re off.”
“I’ll be there.”
“In the mean time, Casey, stay away from that chat room no matter what you do. And keep the snooping to a minimum until we talk tomorrow.”
“Yes mam. Thank you.”
“And Jordan, the next time Casey has an important idea, listen to her.”
“Thank you Carol,” Jordan said and Mims too then Carol left and the girls helped Mims close the coffee shop.
***
Tanner, Jordan, Brit, Casey, and Mims were all at Avalon Spellshop before Carol arrived at nine a.m. on Saturday morning. Everyone being together combined with recent events to create a feeling of excitement. Even though Casey had just been hexed into unconsciousness the previous afternoon, everyone was in a happy mood.
Jordan made shots of espresso on the crystal powered magickal steampunk burner contraption Tanner had built for her, and everyone sipped their tiny drinks as Jordan put the kettle and burner away.
Tanner was fascinated by the story of Casey being hexed through the WiFi router, and everyone engaged in lively conversation about what they thought was going on.
“Clearly this guy is some kind of Shadowclan witch who’s found a way to integrate technology with old spells,” Jordan suggested.
“Yeah but why?” Brit asked. “Just to use kids to rob banks? Seems crazy.”
“And you’re sure no one at The Poison Apple is involved with this?” Tanner asked.
“I never said that,” Jordan said. “I just know they didn’t send the Lutin to spy on us. I did get something, but it’ll have to wait.”
The door opened and Carol came in followed by a dapper Doctor Nicholas Covington in an olive tweed suit, white shirt, tan waistcoat, and cream ascot embroidered with navy stars. He wore a chocolate colored top hat with purple-lensed goggles upon it, and his piercing eyes gazed through round purple-lensed sunglasses. He swung his cherrywood walking stick under his arm and bowed. “Good morning young people.”
“Doctor Covington, you know my crew, and this is our shop’s friend Mims.”
“Mims, charmed,” and he took Mims’s hand in his, bowed, and kissed it.
“Now that’s some next-level steampunk cosplay,” Mims said and she studied the detail and craftsmanship of the brass goggles on the doctor’s hat.
Carol and the doctor chuckled and the others stifled laughs.
“A perfectly logical conclusion Mims,” Doctor Covington said and his genuine kindness instantly made her feel better about whatever she had said to cause the laughs. “This is no costume. It is my experiment attire. I’ve been working in my lab at the Alcazar.”
“The Lightner Museum,” Carol clarified. “Doctor, this is Casey.”
“A pleasure,” Doctor Covington said and he kissed Casey’s hand.
“Oh gosh, um, the pleasure’s all mine,” she said and blushed. Carol spoke.
“And for everyone who doesn’t know, Doctor Covington is a corporeal spirit and has been my friend for many years.”
“A corporeal spirit?” Mims asked.
“A ghost,” Jordan said and the doctor nodded. Doctor Covington promptly vanished before their eyes then reappeared a few steps away.
“What next?” Casey asked with wide eyes then a soft knock came at the door.
Brit opened it and Thistle and Prisma flew in and spoke in that order. “Hello.” “Hello.”
Casey rolled her eyes and Carol spoke.
“Everyone, this is Thistle. She lives at my place. And I think you all know Prisma. I’ve asked them to come because we need their help.” Thistle and Prisma landed on the counter.
B
rit saw a flash in the visitor spell mirror and moved to the counter to look. “I think customers are coming,” she said.
Casey looked up to the mirror and her heart spun. “Oh my God those are my parents.”
“You can see in that thing already?” Tanner asked. “Unbelievable.”
“You think this would be too much for them dear?” Carol asked.
“It’s too much for me!” Casey admitted.
“Okay,” Carol said to the faeries. “You two sit up on the top shelf and be still and quiet please.”
“Got it,” Thistle said.
“Got it,” Prisma echoed and they flew up to sit on the top shelf with the other faerie statues and Carol went on.
“Doctor, you’re fine. The rest of you, we don’t need this big group. Spread out.”
Tanner stayed at the register and Carol joined him behind the line. The others milled around the shop but Jordan and Casey did so near the front. A minute later Casey’s parents entered the store.
“Mom, Dad, I’m so glad you came,” Casey faked surprise.
“Hello, I’m the owner, Carol. Pleasure to meet you both.”
“Dad, come back here. I wanna show you the coolest room in the store,” Casey said and she took her Dad by the hand and led him into the Crooked Cupboard. Her mom stayed at the front and had a long sincere talk with Carol. In the end Carol gave Casey’s mom a book that explained the basis of witchcraft as a spiritual path of nature.
“The book is a gift. And please visit again soon. Don’t hesitate to ask anything of me, Jordan, Brit, or Tanner at any time.”
“Feel better?” Casey’s dad asked as he returned to join his wife.
“Much. I can tell all of you are genuine friends to Casey. That’s all I ever wanted.” With that Casey’s parents said goodbye and left.
“They seem so nice,” Prisma said from the shelf.
“Yes they do,” Carol said. “You two stay up there for now. Everyone else, join us up front please. This will only take a minute.” The group reassembled.
“In light of recent events, Doctor Covington has been kind enough to look into our mysterious customer, Ms. Josephine Lemort. He’ll explain what he discovered in a moment.
