by Daniel Ruth
I stopped eating and stared at him, touching my hand to the rune of truth. Nothing. He appeared to be a normal human. Not even a magical adept. I didn’t believe that at all. If I stabbed him with the tooth chances are the rune etched on it would dispel his shields or illusions. It didn’t really seem very social. I would leave that as plan ‘z’. “I’m al ears.”
“The police do not know this, yet it is one of the reasons you can give them the help they need. I too am not from this ‘area’. I have made a habit of wandering from place to place for many years. In each place I stop, I like to set up a little area that reminds me of home.”
“This is home?” I gestured to the far end of the room by the entrance where the shows were still displaying their larger than life entertainment.
“Yes, I grew up a long time ago where such extravagances were common among my class. It gives me comfort as I wander,” he said simply. “My last home was a pleasant little empire in its declining years. Like many such empires it was a bit decadent, yet peaceful. No one had challenged its might in centuries. Then a neighboring continent’s government decided it needed more resources and war came. Although not as technically advanced as this land, it had many, many magicians. They threw magics at one another, summoned demons and various horrific creatures at one another. It was very bad for business. I was tempted to continue my travels.”
He paused for a minute to pull out a pipe. He tamped it down before lighting it. “I finally decided to stay. I had much invested there and I admit I didn’t want to part with it.” He contentedly took a puff and lazily breathed out a smoke ring. “It was probably a mistake. In the final phase of the war entire cities died. The energy from their death was used by the unscrupulous magicians to cast more death magic until the entire world was flooded with bloated ley lines. You may be aware of where this is going.”
“Yes, standard end of the world scenario. That much energy pries open the cracks between the dimensions and the circulation of the energies becomes self-sustaining. Been there, done that.”
“Exactly, I too have seen this. At that point only closing all the tears can prevent the cycle. Though that seems to be more up to luck than any calculations.” He puffed out a few more smoke rings before moving on. I took advantage of this time to stuff my mouth. “Anyway, the war is over and there is no winner, just a land struggling to survive its constant unwelcome visitors. Move forwards a few decades and the empire is still hanging on, keeping civilization going. Admirable, but although magic is much stronger it’s also the cause of much devastation. A council of mages comes into power to better regulate it. They train new magicians, make new laws and help keep the empire alive.”
“Sounds good. Now why are they coming to visit our lands,” I asked, sucking on a chicken bone. I would have chewed it, but people always stare at me when I do that.
“Ah, you are aware that they are here. Good.” Tapping his pipe, he looked off in the distance. “Fifteen years ago the head of the council suddenly came up with an idea that he could bleed off the excess energy to another world with a lower energy potential. It was not common knowledge, however I have... or rather had, several good contacts within the council.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I interjected in confusion. “Ley lines don’t work that way. They are like circuits, the energy that leaves them, circulates back. There is nothing in existence that can use up all that energy before it comes round again.”
“Agreed. However, the council head had a silver tongue. That combined with a dash of desperation means they have gone through extraordinary measures to make their plan come to fruition. For five years, they prepared their ley lines and nodes. Then the head of the council and a few of his allies went off and haven’t been seen since.”
“At least in that land,” I added.
“That would coincide with ten years ago, when Jin started to change his routine. That was why you wanted to see the node locations. You wanted to know if they had been ‘prepared’,” Mei chimed in.
“Well, actually I was pretty sure he was up to something, however I didn’t really think this was it. It’s a really stupid plan, with no chance of working,” I groused. “Frankly, the old invasion through portals plan made more sense.”
“A classic plan but overused,” offered Sulayman, as he loaded his pipe with more dried herbs.
“I can’t leave the city but you must have contacts in the cities we marked out. Could you have them examine the nodes that had the final magical working happen and see if there are any circles or weird magical squiggles I could examine and see how they plan to pull off this boneheaded idea.”
“I think so,” she slowly nodded. “Some of the nodes were in hostile territory, but I can get at least some of them.”
“So how did you end up here?” I asked as I turned back to our host.
“My contacts dug up this land’s coordinates and I thought it was time to move to a quieter location. I exchanged most of my holdings to gold and walked away. Fortunately, there is a very good exchange rate for gold. As usual I have made a home for myself. Since the nature of magic is against what the magicians’ council’s goal is, I thought I might as well make myself comfortable.”
“Okay, that explains a lot that we didn’t know... except, why tell us?”
“It is what a good neighbor would do,” Sulayman said. His smile dropped as he continued, “There is also the possibility that we are wrong and they somehow found a way around the laws of magic as we know them. I live here now. I do not think I would like to experience such an untamed world again.”
Chapter 19
The rest of our meal was quiet. I was thinking of the ramifications of using this world as a sump pump for excess magic and trying to think of any way that would actually work. Everything I knew about magic said you couldn’t move it like that. You could use it to do something but moving it out along the ley lines would require the entire system to move. You would end up creating a vacuum and nature didn’t like that. It was like trying to fly by lifting yourself with your arms. An entire council of magicians would know this; so what was I missing? Was it a giant con on the part of the council head and the rest were dupes?
Mei was also subdued, yet tried to start a conversation several times. The effort was doomed to failure. Sulayman was polite but now that he had delivered his message he was also content to let her carry the conversation while he smoked his pipe. He deflected any personal questions and would not explicitly state he was a dimensional traveler, despite the previous obvious innuendos. I could tell her heart really wasn’t in it though. If I were her, I would be wondering at the timing. Ten years ago the magician council head disappeared and then Jin changes his habits. It was clear that the two had met and the council head had somehow yet again convinced another experienced mage to follow his ridiculous plan.
Even Sabastian, usually a smarmy, yet charming personality was silent. Of course, his silence was more due to the vacant stare he was giving out over the dining floor. It made sense when you considered he had close ties with the vampire council. Normally he would be frantically calling home to inform Eric and Vivian about the huge territory grab that was going on in the middle of the city. Ironically, the more you were motivated to change the situation the harder the spell hit. When he left the area he would be lucky to remember what he ate let alone that vampires and shifters were happily romping around together in illicit bliss under the command of an extra planar visitor.
After the fifth helping, I had lost my appetite and for the moment given up trying to figure out if what I knew about magic was wrong. It was time to get Jeremy back, so I made our goodbyes and led the dazed vampire and my more focused Asian friend out of the restaurant.
When the valet came out with the car, Sebastian was more lucid, going so far as to snap at the fellow as we entered the car. I brought out my tooth and dangled it in the air as I told our, now surly, driver to make another circuit of the city. Within ten minutes he was back to his normal sel
f; however, it was obvious that he hadn’t given any thought to where we had been. Over the next hour, we drove through the city as I entered the directions into my new military grade wrist terminal. I tried to get it to display the results in a city map but the three dimensional display over the emitter was too small and I spent the rest of the way home fighting to get the thing to output to a direct retina projection. When I finally got that feature to work, I was already home and I just stalked inside and sent the data to the home terminal. That way we could look at it together.
I was stopped as I was going inside by the bell being rung behind me. Looking back, I saw an amused Mei behind me who was in turn observing Sebastian. He appeared particularly furious and was relentlessly ringing the tiny Liberty Bell replica. This brought a smile to me face, which in turn seemed to annoy the vampire assassin even more.
“Is something wrong?” I asked innocently.
“If you want my damn help you’re going to have to lower your wards so I can come in without setting off the fire alarm,” he grated out.
I had to admit that was reasonable, though not nearly as amusing. “Okay. Give me ten minutes to deactivate the ward. Mei? Could you set up the projector with the data I just sent? Also, have Stella move Beth to one of the bedrooms. Make that Jeremy’s, it is somewhat shielded. There’s no point in waking her up.” Not that there was much of a chance of her waking until tomorrow, however if we were all going to be in the living room we would need the extra real estate.
“I’ll park my car around the block,” stated the vampire.
“There’s plenty of room in front of the house,” I said looking at the empty and adequately repaired street that stretched several hundred feet in either direction.
“Yes, but I noted reports of massive property damage at this address. There appears to be a large probability of anything located in this area not existing long, if left to its own devices.”
All true but I stared at him a moment. “You researched my house to see the safest place to park your buggy?”
“Nonsense, I researched this location in order to best kill you,” he corrected without any hint of shame. “It just so happens that the information feed I set up on your life and habits is still sending me information on your most recent disasters.”
“There is no privacy anymore,” I shook my head sadly as I turned to go inside again. “It used to be a little bit of harmless property damage was covered by the appropriate bribes.”
“It still is, you’re simply paying the wrong people,” Sebastian called out over my shoulder.
I went inside, then down to my lab space where I grabbed one of my prepared ceramic bowls. A bowl not housing a dead preserved demon and set to inscribing my magic nullification ward. I had gotten a bit more practice with it; however, it still took a little more than ten minutes. When I was done, I laid it over the part of the protection ward describing undead and felt a ripple in the atmosphere as it changed its nature. Hopefully, the demonic protection and spirit ward was still in play but I wouldn’t be able to verify this unless we were attacked by a horde of demons. Another horde that is.
I trudged back upstairs, calling out the door that it was safe to come inside before coming into the living room. Beth had been put to bed and Stella and Mei were looking over a projection of the city in the center. There was a large yellow area I recognized as multiple overlapping 30 degree cones and a much smaller red zone less than a block wide that looked to be in a modest warehouse district on the edge of Minerva Memorial Public Park.
I looked at Mei. “Isn’t Minerva Park divvied up into at least five different shifter packs?”
“Don’t remind me,” she groaned, as Sebastian came into the room and looked over the map. “Conrad and I had to kick in the teeth of over a dozen jerks that wouldn’t fall in line.”
“We call it the Zoo,” Sebastian said with a subtle sneer. “The largest park in the city and its claimed by an entire menagerie. It’s a wonder the mortals can wander around it without getting eaten.”
“The packs may be jerks, then again it’s also the safest place to walk at night,” Mei countered reluctantly. It was evident that she didn’t really want to champion what she had just effectively called riffraff moments ago. “Unless you’re a vampire, in which case you may have to wait a few days to gather your pieces together. Conrad says he has to go there at least once a week to remind them to live together peacefully.”
“Anyway, we have a location, let’s storm the place,” I said eagerly, not wanting to get into a pissing contest between supernaturals.
“How about we get a plan together so they don’t kill Jeremy, while we eliminate the trash?” Mei suggested irritably, glaring at me. “We can have an army of Conrad’s people there in minutes. He doesn’t have anything higher in his priority list, despite what hoops the mayor is having him jump through.”
“That’s plan is actually worse than ‘storming the place’,” Sebastian grunted disdainfully.
“I could send in some elementals,” Stella hesitantly suggested.
“I think these ideas are actually getting worse as we go along,” I said thoughtfully. “Okay, the police are out. They have a bunch of procedures to go through. As soon as Jin’s minions see his task force Jeremy is in trouble.”
“Conrad is going to be pissed off beyond belief if you cut him out of your plans again,” Mei warned.
“I’ll set up a message to be delivered to him as we go in,” I offered.
“That’s not going to help.” The tiny Asian snorted in disdain. “Are you trying to annoy him on purpose?”
I grinned at her. “Why would I do that?” I looked around at the group. “I was using ‘storming in’ as a metaphor. I was thinking of our resident sneaky vampire doing some reconnaissance and perhaps distract them. Then we storm in.”
“Well, that’s better,” Stella nodded cheerfully. She seemed to have fully recovered from the trauma of the day. Sebastian also grunted in agreement. “It certainly explains his presence,” she nodded in Sebastian’s direction. I kept getting the feeling she didn’t like the undead. I couldn’t criticize her; it was a reasonable attitude to have. “I think Sir Faramond is likely done with his errand. I can call him in for support.”
“Every time that walking wall is involved he levels a house,” I pointed out. “I am not sure even modern medicine could recover Jeremy after he was finished with him.”
Stella looked conflicted for a moment, as if she wanted to defend her guardian, yet couldn’t really deny the allegations. “He is getting better,” she weakly replied.
I stared at her in shock for a moment. “He was worse?”
“Anyway,” she said carefully, looking away in embarrassment. “I can provide some support spells like localized earthquakes, tremors, volcanoes and maybe a small tornado or two.”
“Right,” I looked at her for a moment. “Let’s call that plan ‘B’.” Shaking my head, I continued. “Stella can call down the wrath of god on any runners or armies that sneak up on us. Mei and I will come in the front door or wall or whatever, once Sebastian starts his distraction.”
“What do you want the signal to be?” the vampire asked, while buffing his nails on his suit.
“I was thinking of going in once the screams of agony start. The backup plan could be when we see splatters of blood on the windows and doors,” I said slowly. “These are going to be tougher shifters than normal. I hear some can turn to rock or throw lightning. However, having fought you and your little dagger I am not too concerned except for Jeremy getting in between you guys. Please avoid that.”
“What about captives?” Mei inserted. “The spell that Jin is using to make his minions explode is going to make that awkward and we really need a clue to where he is. I very much doubt he is in a warehouse. It’s not his style. He likes his lairs far more elaborate.”
“Good point,” I conceded. “I am going along with that idea too. If by any chance you do see him, let us know and we’ll j
ust grab Jeremy and leave rather than fight his entire army, most powerful minions and deal with his mob of apprentices at once.” I gave him a long stare, “Hopefully your Council won’t piss itself if Jin is not directly involved. I personally am hoping that when Sebastian goes in he will let us know if it’s a deathtrap. Assuming he doesn’t just drop dead from Jin’s sheer aura of awesomeness.”
“I’ll try to survive long enough to give you some sort of heads up,” he stated dryly.
“With any luck, that will work out better than last time,” I muttered under my breath. Mei coughed while looking away and Sebastian glared at me. Ah enhanced senses. Whoops. “I do have a plan for the exploding werewolves. I have a couple of bowls I have enchanted. I believe that if you put them on their head it should prevent spell from triggering. It may even stop a further buildup if the spell is triggered before the bowl comes down.”
“So they still blow up but...” started Mei.
“But they won’t take out the building and any frail mortals in the area,” I finished for her. “I will only have time to make about five so if you can’t get a bowl on their heads throw them out the window.”
“Um... won’t I be waiting outside for runners?” Stella said while nervously playing with her hair.
“I suggest you keep a shield spell up and keep a few of those crevasse spells ready.” She didn’t seem to be very happy about that answer. “Mei, I also need you to call your contacts and get the previous ‘super’ nodes searched. See what Jin left behind. If we are right about the last ten years being one really long ritual, then there will be something set up to be triggered by... well, something that he is doing right now.”
“I already arranged that,” she said as she confidently crossed her arms. “While you were spinning your dinosaur tooth, I was on my terminal making the arrangements.”
“It’s not a dinosaur... never mind,” I said mildly offended. “Just pictures or painting or whatever they can send. I have no doubt that it’s trapped or spelled to have people ignore it. I don’t think it will be anything big unless you touch it. Jin has been relying on no one knowing anything going on for the last ten years, rather than brute force so it may be hidden very well. Having it explode if someone got too close would be the opposite of what he wants.”
