38

I got an address from Anne where Megan might be found. She told me Megan had changed locations often due to the entity, and this was the most recent address for her. But the implication was that she might no longer nbe there. Only way to find out was check it out.
I went down to an old section of Halifax near the dock area. The buildings here had been partly rebuilt, and then left to rot when whatever project that got started lost it's funding. There were squatters all over, most, but not all of them human. I'd come down here to find Megan, so that's what I was going to do. It didn't stop me from wishing I had Zik'k along, this would have been exactly the place that would be great for having a bodyguard to watch your back. Unfortunately I didn't.
I walked into the semi-converted building that I think may have been an attempt to create a loft apartment. The steps led me up to the sixth floor, and the second door in from the stairs. I looked out over the street, and felt the wind come through the steel mesh that enclose the long balcony-like walkway in front of the apartment doors. I screwed up my courage and raised my hand to knock, when I heard the lock turn on the door and I saw the door knob rotate. The door pulled open and disappeared into black, not just shadow, I mean black, the kind of absolute block you can only feel properly in a cavern.
I wanted to run back down the stairs and leave. The Darkness was absolute, no light in and none out, something no sane person would ever enter voluntarily. I called out, “Megan? I'm Fern Fatelli, do you remember me?” The voice I heard never was meant to come from a human throat. “Ms Fatelli, it is a surprise to see you here, and wanting to talk. Have you fared well since our last meeting?” “Well enough, but I didn't come to talk of past happenings, I came to talk about opportunities and situations.”
“Intriguing Ms Fatelli, but I sense there is much of each that needs a more direct explanation. So please elucidate your opportunities, and describe your situations.”

#

“What the opportunity is, is a new body to act as a conduit, and the chance to challenge an established power on earth. One that may even be a true challenge to your ability.” “An interesting and intriguing proposal, but vague,” the Darkness mused from inside the room. I heard Megan's breathing, loud, steady, and very slow. The power in each breath seemed like a drum, and my body felt pressure with every exhalation. “What would be the terms of this 'proposal' Ms. Fatelli? I wonder about the details.”
I took a deep breath. You know how I jumped right into this idea of letting it use me as a conduit? Think that was fast? Wrong-o. I'd been thinking about this since Megan got taken years ago, but I only had very recently decided to propose it. I'm likely to be taking on a big, evil dragon in a short while, and I'd need all the juice I could get on my side of the fight. You have to survive to deal with the consequences, and I wasn't sure that even with the entity on my side, I'd survive it.
I really really did not want to do this, but it was a chance at some redemption for some past screw-ups, and scared as I was with this, I needed that redemption more. “I'll take Megan's place as your conduit for three months, and in return, you help me open up the Anoylyn Way. “A very interesting proposal, Ms Fatelli, very much interesting indeed. I have not pitted my abilities against a dragon, especially while in a form that has such.....limitations upon it.” The Darkness paused and I felt Megan shift slightly through the dark that enveloped her room. when she shifted the dark shifted slightly with her. It was very creepy to watch.
I stepped back involuntarily, and gave the darkness a bit more room. Something about that patch of black made me want to avoid being touched. My skin shrank away almost physically from the darkness in that room. “I would know more about the limitations you propose Ms Fatelli. After all, a smart human wouldn't leave me free to wander in a conduit for so long would they now?” I felt it's gaze like a heavy weight on my shoulders. “Feeling guilty are we Ms Fatelli? That such a young child should be so..... ill-used by one such as myself? Is that what you're thinking Ms Fatelli?”
That had been exactly what I'd been thinking, and that the entity knew my thoughts made the whole bargaining a lot more hazardous in my mind. I needed it's power a lot more than it needed me as a conduit. Unless I could think of a compelling reason that would sway it, I was likely to condemn Megan to further manipulations by The Darkness. The one thing I did have was a little time, and if I played that advantage correctly, I might get it to relinquish Megan.
“Yeah, I was thinking that actually, and how easy it must have been to lead the girl the way you wanted. I hope she's still sane enough to make her own mind when you let her. 'cause if she's gone round the bend, she's of no use to me to negotiate for her release. And yes, I want redemption. I want to make things right here between me and Megan, and me and you. You have a stake in this too. If we can find a mutually agreeable setup, we can all benefit. That's what I'm after.”
I spoke the words strongly and with as much conviction as I could project. I had to make the Darkness believe that I was working for my own interest and it's interest as well. If I did that bit of acting good enough, it might deal with me a little more fairly. Or at least less hostilely.
“I am intrigued by your bluntness Ms Fatelli. So few of you humans are willing to be blunt, it is refreshing to encounter it on occasion. What are the specifics of the proposal, beyond the three months as yourself as a conduit? What would I get beyond just the chance to operate through you Ms Fatelli?” “A chance at a different perspective from me and a different identity. Plus I'm not as likely to go crazy with you riding me. I'd think Megan is pretty close to the end of her ability to handle things realistically, and like I said earlier, if she's gone mad while you've been inhabiting her, there's no deal. She'd be of no use to me damaged like that. So what's it going to be, yes or no?”

37

The Darkness, that supreme enitity of the essence of dark, had inhabited a young, angry girl seven years ago, and had tricked her into allowing it to remain with her after our deal had finished. The girl had been close to being driven mad and I lost track after her mother had cut off contact, angry at what had happened, and I couldn't blame her in the slightest. Now I had to find her, so that I could find the entity and ask it a favor. I'm afraid I knew what it would ask for in return. Another conduit to this world, this time mine. I shuddered at the thought. I think I'd almost rather take my chances with Anolyn's barrier.
I went over to where Anne Maystack resided. For a while she stayed well hidden, fearing reprisals from those that her husband turned evidence against. Her husband, before he went to the state with the evidence of the smuggling, had hire myself and Zhirk, a troll, to kidnap his wife and daughter, and keep them safe when all hell broke loose. We managed to do that, but it took calling the entity of darkness and borrowing some of it's power for a while to do it. Once the ringleaders had been caught and the smuggling operation dismantled, she was able to come out of hiding. But her daughter had made her own pact with the Darkness, and she wasn't do careful and it took her over.
I tried to find out the details after we'd stopped Ahiah, but the mother refused to talk to me then, and she and her daughter disappeared for four years, when she surfaced again and got a small house near Dayning. I'd heard through the professional grapevine that she'd hired a investigator to find her daughter, who was supposedly here in Dayning somewhere. She was, and mother and daughter were reunited, but I'd heard the daughter had been changed by the Darkness, and not for the better. I wasn't sure what I'd find, but in lieu of calling the entity up, I decided to talk to Megan. But first I had to find her.
I went to talk to Anne. She opened the door when I rang, and I saw her eyes go flat and ugly when she saw me. This didn't seem all that promising. “Mrs Maystack, I'm Fern” I started to say but she interrupted me. “ I know who you are, now leave or I'll call the police.” “Mrs Maystack, I need to talk to Megan, could you tell me where she is.” The statement made her even more hostile. “You do not need to talk to my daughter, you do need leave right now however.” She shut the door in my face and I heard her loudly start talking. “Mrs Maystack please, I need to talk to Megan. It's very important.” I paused. “I know of a way to get rid of the entity.”
The door jerked open and she was there, angry eyes flashing. “I'm listening. Explain to me how you're going to do that, get rid of that darkness in her.” “I'll take it. I'll offer myself in trade to the entity to make it let her go.” I spoke the words and knew that there was no other way. The entity wanted it's time on earth and Megan, the angry child she was, was a perfect choice for the entity. The one thing I had over Megan was experience, and the huge magick that had been linked to me. The creature wanted me the last time because it thought it could tap that magick. Why I didn't, and probably didn't want to, know.
Why offer myself? For starters, Megan was under my protection when she was possessed, and I felt responsible for what happened. I know that she made her own choice, but still, it was a uninformed one and she had paid for it for a long time now. Plus, with Cobb and trying to open the Way, I wanted something big in my corner so that if push came shove, I had serious firepower. But mostly it was because she had been hurt when I was supposed to be protecting her. That darn maternal instinct. What else can I say?
I got an address from Anne where Megan might be found. She told me Megan had changed locations often due to the entity, and this was the most recent address for her. But the implication was that she might no longer be there. Only way to find out was check it out.

31

The last one really was an extension on our fact number 6.
6a. Dragons prefer magickal intelligent prey, as like certain creatures, dragons can absorb the magick that the creature holds and add it to their own, increasing their own reserve of magickal power. Dragons are known to actively hunt intelligent prey because of the magick inherent in them. I had a HUGE mass of magick attached to me from Ahiah. I would be a mother-lode for a dragon. This was definitely not something that was fun to know. Don't get me wrong, I'm really, really glad I knew it, I just didn't like that I had to know it.
I spent the rest of the week bringing books to the police station, and those three wizards, bless them, never complained about the job at all. Fawn told me later that it was a break from their normal routine and they had really got into working the job. I wasn't sure what I could do to thank them properly, but Fawn smiled and told me not to worry about that until after I'd gotten the way open and avoided begin dragon hor' douerves.
Which brought up the next order of business. How the heck to open the way in the first place. Anolyn had made the barrier not so much as impregnable as absolute death to cross. You could go through it any time you wanted, you just were dead when you got through it, regardless of what you went through in. Anolyn had set the barrier to kill anything that wasn't the rock the barrier rested on. That was why the clamshell rock boat had worked, it was made of the same rock the spell was on.
The knowledge of the clamshell rock boat and it's last resting place were lost to us, so that meant starting from scratch. I really don't like re-inventing anything, especially when it has a chance to so seriously kill me if I screw it up. The next thing to do would be to look at the barrier.
I drove to the coast town of Pictou, which had been at one time the Nova Scotia terminus for the ferry that ran between it and Wood Islands on Prince Edward Island before it had been walled in by Anolyn. The barrier could be seen, a whitish curtain that went up and arced back over the island, creating an irregular dome over the whole of the island. Nothing went in alive. Nothing came out alive. It got me to wondering why would such a creature like Anolyn want such protection?
I thought about that for a moment and threw it away. My job was to re-open the Anolyn way and beyond that, I had no reason to think of anything else. If I got this done, and if I lived, then I had things to think about. That's me, just little sweet sunshine.

#

Things were progressing quietly well, which considering my “real” job as a “sting” provider and a private investigator of some ill repute. Those tended to be quiet to a point then usually all hell would bust out as, well, I'm sure it's the magick Fawn and I both carry. A late friend pointed out that both of us had all this magick, and that magick itself saw that as a kind of imbalance, so to 'balance' things, weird stuff kept happening around us.
I really hated that explanation, but it made sense. I had to other acquaintances in the business, and neither of those two women ever had to contend with all the weird stuff that went on in my jobs. You'd think that with that kind of reputation, I'd have gone broke long ago because people generally are scared off by weird and unusual. Not the case with me. I always had a backlog, of better-off-than-average clients. Blame that on the magick too I guess.
I was driving back to Halifax when the attack happened. It was so fast and powerful that I didn't recognize it for an attack until I had a moment or two to think. I was on a gentle curve when a deer flashed in front of me. I instinctively swerved the car to miss the deer. I think that's what saved my life. There was a blow to the car that lifted it off the road and threw it into some pine. I felt a cold draft hit me and a tearing sound from behind the driver's eat somewhere. I had my seat belt on and so I wasn't thrown from the wreckage, but ended up being thrown about like a rag doll in the car before it fell through the trees and hit and rolled down next to a stream.
The car stopped in mid-stream, hitting a rock and coming to a sudden rest. I sat in the car for a long time, I'm not sure just how long. Something told me that I needed to stay absolutely still, and for a wonder, I did actually listen to my instinct. Fear helped a lot. You don't know what you can do until something scares you bad enough or threatens you badly enough that you act. My act was to play dead.
Later, when my fear went away, I pulled myself out of the car and looked at it before walking to the road. The rear half of the car had been torn off by something big, and was back up the hill a ways. The front end looked like a metallic ball that something chewed up and spit out. In all that metallic carnage, I did not sustain a single scratch. A hell of a lot of bruises though, and I ached on the walk back to Pictou to call Fawn and Larry and ask them if they could pick me up at the bus station the next day.

27

He looked like he was ready to continue to argue, but instead he stepped back and stood there, looking at me for a moment. “All right, I will allow this once, but I assist in the preparations, and the spell, or you will not enter Underhill.” He started talking again before I could voice any objections. “This is MY house Ms Fatelli, and you work for me, not the other way around. You owe me the service, and YOU will perform it. I will not have you renege now.”
I got mad, no build up at all. Just incandescent fuckity-mad. He'd hit every attitude button dead-on. “You want it done, I'll do it, but I don't HAVE to do it your way. I just have to get the service done and fuck-all if it isn't the way you want it. Now either let me back there or call the judge and explain to him why I'm not finishing your so-fucking-precious-god-damned service!” He looked at me like one would look at a particularly disgusting piece of trash. I started to wind right up again, but he held up a hand.
“All right, I have already said that you can perform this one spell, this one, and no others. I will assist and I will be part of the spell, start to finish. It is MY house, and you will abide by the rules therein.” That was fine by me, in fact better than fine. I got to keep my eye on him and if he pulled anything devious, it would be where I had a chance to spot it before I got surprised.

#

It took us a few minutes to get set up. Cobb was all over everything, and the book was placed unopened on the floor beyond the new circle of protection that just circled the desk. Cobb finished the salt circle, and drew the chalk one about a handspan's width out side it, then scrawled the proper marks inside the ring the two circles made. I set the candles, one black, one white on the north and south axis of the circle.
I lit the white one and left the black one unlit, and started the chant. It was in Latin so I have no idea what I was saying, but I have a good memory and Larry had made me memorize the spell before he let me pack off back here. As the chant built, The shade wisped from between the pages of the book and solidified in the circle . It tore at the barrier, but could not harm it, or escape.
As we got to the midway point of the spell, the shade started frantically throwing itself against the walls of the barrier, and pieces started breaking off of it and dissipating like smoke. We reached the midway point and the shade was throwing itself madly and powerfully at the barrier, which had taken to flaring a whitish black color as the shade attacked it. There was a sudden flare to one side of our protection circle, and Cobb swore as we saw a second shade, this one outside the circle, flicker into view momentarily, then disappear into the shelves. I did not falter, but two shades was a surprise and our situation had changed.
If I had followed through on going alone on this, I'd have been up to my eyeballs in trouble. As It was, both Cobb and I were in trouble, but only about chest high in trouble. I kept the chant up, and the trapped shade began unraveling faster, pieces drifting away like smoke. he other shade, whom the spell was also affecting, redoubled it's efforts to breach our protective circle. It's efforts were starting to show some effect.
There were areas where what looked like wind had partly blown on the chalk outer circle of our barrier. The shade had been worrying that point consistently, and the circle was weakening. You can fight a shade, and come out on top if you're prepared to do it, but my experience made me think even if you were prepared, you're still going to get hurt badly beating one.
“Do not stop the chant”, Cobb growled at me, watching the second shade attack the barrier again. “I can deal with this. Just make sure you finish that chant or we're fighting both of these creatures, not just the one.” I heard him start up a chant of his own and I kept at mine. The shade in the circle was weakening rapidly, and would soon be gone, but I almost faltered when Cobb cursed in fae, and I felt the barrier go down.
One thing about spells like the one I was casting. They take time, and they take time because you have to get the pacing right so that the magick works effectively. Too fast and it starts expending itself before you have it focused. Too slow and it doesn't build up properly and begins to dissipate before you're finished. So I had to keep cadence exact or the spell would unravel.
I saw Cobb step out of the circle in the corner of my eye, and turn away from me to face something. It had to be the shade. Since it was in the room, it was being affected by the spell also. What was being done to the trapped shade I couldn't do to the other shade, but the spell could, and was affecting it. Hopefully wakening it and hurting it.
As I chanted, I caught quick glimpses of the fight. Cobb braced up and threw himself at smoke, mumbling some chant as he did. I saw the flicker freeze for a moment and Cobb slashed a silver sword through some thing that gave off a scream that I couldn't hear, but feel. I felt blind, hungry rage. They disappeared out of view, which for me was worse than if Cobb had stayed in it, as I didn't know at all who was winning that fight.
I finished the chant with the proper flourish and the last of the the trapped shade sublimated away. As I finished, I heard a muttered curse and a thud as something solid hit the floor. I turned around, rising to a half-crouch and ready to dodge if the shade came at me. I saw Cobb, on his knees dripping blood from deep cuts all over him. I scrambled over to him and looked for the shade.
Cobb caught my look and mumbled “Don' worry, it's.... gone back where was call from....”, and he fell forward, smacking the floor and not moving, and no sound except for the irregular wheezing breaths. I tried to drag Cobb out into the main room, but I couldn't budge him.
I stepped into the main room and yelled for assistance, and two fae came and had me help bandage the worst of Cobb's wounds. Then the two of them joined one pair of hands while standing on either side of Cobb and touched him with their others. Cobb lifted off the ground like he weighed nothing and they moved him out into the hall and down to another phone booth. I followed and found myself back in the long hallway that led to the hexagonal infirmary/bedroom.

26

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at the kitchen archway, from which some savory odors had started to waft out of. She turned back to me and said “It's not much of a stretch to think you were specifically targeted with the shade by someone. But I don't see why.” “You think he tried to put a hurt on me to get to you and Larry? That would really be the pits Fawn.”
She looked off into thin air momentarily as she thought about that. After a moment she shook her head. “I don't think so short stuff, if you are hurt or killed while on his grounds, he is responsible for your death, and if I'm remembering right, he would owe Larry and I something for your dying” she finished. “So I die he gets screwed?” I mused. A situation like that sure didn't make Cobb a very like person to have called up the shade. If I had been a bit slower to the door, it would have gutted me.
“Comes back to the question, why? What's the motive? who would want the whole service screwed up?” That made me think back to Judge Kaddas and his little conversation - I do not like ..... Mr. Cobb. We have crossed in the past, and now I find I have an opportunity to ruin a plan of his. Your knowing changes the situation beyond his ability to control, and he hates losing control of anything.”
Pretty thin to my thinking, but I told Fawn about it and she decided to look in on the Judge. Me, I got to go back to the books, but with a little equalizer. I can do spells of my own and one I do know is the circle of protection. I don't like casting spells as it takes me a long time to set up and invoke them, but now the time was worthwhile as I did not want another set of razor cuts along my back.
I ran a circuit of salt around the whole edge of the room, and then sat to focus and invoke. For charms I had a small piece of glass and a flashlight. My ability to concentrate was crap so it took me about thirty minutes to do a five minute spell. But once I was done, I felt the fuzzy hum of the spell. I went back to my books and started in on the one I had opened just before I got attacked.
I took a deep breath and placed the book back on the desk, and waited a moment. Nothing happened and I let my breath go. I had thought the shade might have been with the book, and if it had, my picking it up ought to have called it forth. The book was on dragon life-cycles, and some of the things I had read had been paraphrased from this text.
Dragons, it began, were conceived outside of the magic, and yet part of it. Zagyg speculated that dragons were the source, but later experiments.. and my ward suddenly pressed on me as the shade tried to get through. It's source was the book and when it materialized, the ward thrust it bodily out of the protected area, pushing it into the bookshelves. The shade struggled and pressed against the ward, but could not work its way to me, and if I left the circle or someone stepped in, it would break the enchantment and the shade would be free again in the room.
I sat for a moment and tried to decide what to do at this point. It couldn't get to me, so I took a moment to figure what to do. Running out into the room would break the enchantment and leave the shade free to continue guarding the book. Taking the book with me and reading it out in the main room was out of the question, and the shade would probably follow the book. Dispelling the shade would be the best solution, and although it would take time, I had time to use. I closed the book and threw it flat like a flying disc. It rotated and landed on the floor and skidded towards the corner furthest away from the room. The shade started for the book and I bolted for the door. I dove through the entrance and came up shaking, the shade was at the doorway, and I could feel it's focused gaze upon me. Then, like before, it vanished into the shadows.
I went and talked to Larry about dispelling the shade, and he showed me how to set the circle around the book, the incantations, and the finish. “You sure you want to do that alone short stuff? I'd be more than glad to help you, and shades can be pretty tough to handle alone, even when you know what you're doing.” “You saying that I don't Larry?” I asked him. He held up his hands in mock-surrender. “Okay, okay, I won't go with you. Just please be careful Fernie, I want you around to watch your niece or nephew grow up.”
I went and got the items I needed and went back to the Underhill entrance. Cobb was waiting for me again at the entrance and when he saw what I had in the backpack this time, his eyebrows went up and said “No, this will not be allowed.” “What won't be allowed?”, I asked him. He gestured at my backpack. “This, all of your items in where will not be allowed in. I will not have you casting human spells in my house.” “I already did that Cobb, and I plan on doing it again to get rid of that damned shade.”

24

I woke up a little later to an argument going on nearby. “She is incapable of performing the service, and the ebt remains. Either her sister picks up the service, or a volunteer. Or I have my choice of compensation!” I heard Cobb snarl out. “She was attacked on your premises, wounded in your house, and under your so-called protection when the attack occurred. It seems to me that the judge may see that as not fulfilling your end of the agreement, even to the point of deliberately allowing her to be attacked so that you could coerce someone else into accepting the service.” said a familiar voice I recognized as Larry's after a few groggy moments.
“Who's imacabipple of tahrner?” My mouth was obviously not on the same channel as my brain was. It took a few more moments for everything to start working together. “Who's not capable?” I said much more clearly, and the argument outside my room ceased like a light switch being flipped. Larry stepped through the open doorway and walked to the side of the bed. “Hey short stuff, you must be feeling better, I can hear the delicate contrariness in your voice.” He smiled as he talked, and I smiled back, or I think I did.
“Do you remember what happened Fernie?” I went through there myself and couldn't find a trace of anything except your blood starting at the doorway.” I sat up groggily, and despite a pounding headache, told Larry the details of what I remembered, diving through the legs that felt like cobwebs, the flickering of the shadow as the attacker moved around. and the shadow at the doorway after I escaped the library and got back into the main room.
“What I want to know is what the hell it was, and why it attacked me. That doesn't make sense to me at all. What am I digging into that's got somebody so nervous?” I said woozily. It was hard to focus with the headache driving a nail in my skull with every heartbeat. I wanted to go back to sleep, but some stubborn part of me wanted to stay awake just to hear what Cobb was going to say, so I could try and figure out what he was planning next. Even stubbornness though, doesn't trump medications, and I relly don't remember passing back into sleep.
I woke again a few hours later and levered myself back upright in the bed. The room was hexagonal in shape and ornate columns that looked of carved marble stood at each corner. I didn't know any human hospitals that looked like this, so I had to still be in Underhill. There was a small sphere hovering just next to my pillow as I looked to my left. It was silvery and emitted a warming hum as I observed it. When I moved to get out of bed, it rose away from the bed and floated out the archway, and I felt the breeze of it's movement as a brush along my entire body, which is how I came to realize I was completely naked in the bed.
I levered myself off the raised bed and looked for the bathroom. I went in to look for mu clothes or some kind of robe to put on, but I didn't find anything other than a towel, which I quickly wrapped around me. I came back into the bedroom again and found that my sweat suit had been repaired and laid out on the bed for me. No one had come in that I know of. I shrugged and put it down to magick. Underhill is full of it I suppose.
All this time I kept listening for other voices or some kind of activity, but I heard absolutely nothing. I heard my own breathing and my own heart beat. It bothered me that it was so quiet. I walked out into a grayish hall. It was well-lit, but everything had a wispy quality to it, as if the first strong wind would tear it all asunder. My room was at the end of the hallway, so I went down the hall towards what I hoped was the exit.
There was an opaque curtain over the exit , and I brushed it aside and entered.... out of a phone booth and back into Cobb's main hall of booths. Cobb emerged from another phone booth next to the one I had exited and faltered slightly as he recovered from his surprise. “I didn't expect to see you active so soon after being wounded as you were. The human doctor indicated that you would need a lot of rest to heal properly.”

23

So I haunted the other white phone booth, and found that all of the books there were illegible. I got frustrated and brought one book back with me to see if I could find anything that I might match up with one of the English books. I found one that had the same type of covering and the same embossed sigil on the front, which meant to me this one was probably identical in content to the other, just translated to English from the original.
I put the book down on the reading table and turned to the front page, and two identical translated pages sat in front of me. I blinked and about feel out of the chair in surprise. I could have sworn it not translated. I went over to the shelf and pulled a book at random, and looked at it. It was complete gibberish. I took it over to the desk and laid it down and opened it. It was in English. The circle must hold a spell that translated the books to English, or maybe to the main language of the reader as long as she was inside the circle.
I decided to go against my instinct and looked with my wizard sight, and just about went blind. Everything glowed, and glowed fiercely to my sight. It hurt like looking at Cobb had hurt. Everything seemed to have magic pouring out, forming a glowing haze that surrounded me like a bright, blinding fog. I shut my eyes and waited for the after flashes to go away. I hate it when my instinct is right and I ignore it. When my eyes cleared I went back to the book and looked it over.
The book I had pulled was one on romantic poetry. I began checking the shelves to see where the books had resided before being placed in that pile by the desk. I found all eighteen locations, and they were clustered on three shelves, which made me think the shelves were organized in some way. I took all the books down from those shelves, and set them by the desk.
As I got ready to look through the first of the books, Cobb came in and looked around. “Are you done yet?” he said, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from tearing into him. “Why didn't you tell me this translated the books? I could have gone through them rather than trying to fine English copies.” I snarled at him testily. I had been reading and making notes that I forgot to eat, and my temper and stomach were both at me to go find something to eat.
Then I smelled something different from him. Chagrin. He actually felt embarrassed that he had forgotten to tell me about the desk. He gave me an explanation sounding like he was bored, but there was a definite odor of embarrasment. “To use the table you just place the book on the table and it changes the script to what you are used to reading. You can ask the table to collect particular books by saying out loud the information you want” he finished saying, and left hurriedly.
That was way out of character for Cobb, and it bothered me to think he might be trying to manipulate me even now that I was working on this service he'd tricked me into. I set aside the books and exited the room and went back home to get some food. I decided to stop by Larry and Fawn's to see how his luck researching things had gone. We had arranged to meet at a small restaurant called “Hole in the Wall” near his shop. We sat down, ordered our food and then got to talking business.
“Dragons are a serious piece of bad news Fernie. I have everything I could find out so far here” he said as he handed me a spiral notebook. It was about a third full of notes. “You can look through it but most of the stuff isn't in any kind of order so it may not make sense. I think I'll need about four to five more days to go through the basic stuff. Probably another month to track down all the esoteric entries and collate my notes into a readable report. How about we set up a time each day to compare notes we have?”
I looked over at my brother-in-law. The thought of Cobb using him to open the Way back up really angered me. That I was used to try and make that happen angered me more, and that helped keep me focused. I shoved those thoughts aside and got a smile to my face and said, “sounds good. I'll bring mine tomorrow. Meet at the downtown library?”
“Yeah, that's great Fernie, I can work until you get there. I have a few friends watching the shop for me while I'm doing this, so I'm not losing any business.” He chuckled and looked at me with his lopsided smile. “I'd forgotten how much fun it is just to do research. Thanks Fernie.” “Thank you Larry, without you, this would be a real pain to do.” I told him. the water brought our meals and we tucked in to a good dinner. I beat Larry to the check. I'd hired him after all, and it was fun to see him grump about me paying.
I went back the next morning and Cobb again escorted me to Underhill, and to his mansion. He didn't say one word to me the whole time, which didn't bother me at all. Talking meant he was trying to manipulate me, so I enjoyed the silence. I went back to the first white phone booth and stepped through. the books had been stacked neatly next to the table, and the torches flickered and the shadows danced on the wall shelves as I walked to the desk and set my backpack down.
As I straightened, i caught a glimpse of something that flickered and sped towards me. Instead of bracing for an impact I pulled the same trick I had used before, dive into the legs. I passed tough some thing that felt dry cold, and cobwebby, and something fell in front of me in complete silence. I rolled to my feet and took a step towards my backpack, and then sprinted for the doorway. I exited into the room just as something shredded the back of my sweatshirt.
I felt a cold impact that had no force and then felt a wet trickle down my back. Then the pain hit, and I screamed in agony and managed to stagger away from the phone booth. I looked behind me and there was a thick, glistening blood trail from the door leading from me to the door, and a vague outline of blackness in the door. It hovered for a moment, then it flicked back into the room and disappeared from view. I tried to stagger back towards the entrance and felt my body go numb as I moved. My arms and legs got hard to move and th wounds felt like fire. I tried to scream for help, but the room spun and tilted crazily, and I lost consciousness.

19

“You already know the story so I don't have to outline that for you, but yes, there are, or were, fae on the island when Anolyn erected the barrier. He did such a thorough job that Underhill was cut off as well. My family is on the other side of that barrier, and has been for the last fifty years. I want them free. You have the power to open the barrier. You and your sister.” “My sister?”
It clicked into place all at once. He was talking about the residual magick from our parents original spell. Both of us were used as magical storage batteries for our parents, and because the spell never finished, we both still had this huge reserve of magical energy in and around us. We couldn't touch it in our own magicks, what small things we did, like run a vacuum, or heat a cold cup of coffee. But to anyone who knew how to extract the magic, we'd be their very own nuclear power source, and one that wouldn't go away for a long time.
I started to get angry all over again. “Is all we are just a battery for you!” I said loudly. “You plan on using me for that barrier to knock it down?” “Yes” Cobb said. Then he stepped right up to me and stared down from his six foot plus height. “I am planning on using you. You owe a service, this is the service.” He finished speaking and his look dared me to contradict fact.
“Listen you pompous idiot, I owe a service. What if I refuse it. I don't see you have any way of stopping me from leaving.” He straightened and finally looked triumphant. He smelled gleeful, like he wanted me to refuse. “Kaddus! Judge Kaddus! I have need of you!” He roared the name, and a blue nimbus appeared by the fireplace, enlarging and solidifying in moments into the judge that oversaw the trial.
“What now?” he said very grumpily. “I have a dinner waiting for me. Why are you calling me here?” He saw me, and understanding wafted from him like wind across a desert. “She is refusing the service? Smarter than you then.” He turned and faced me full-on. “Ms Fatelli, I understand and sympathize completely with your situation and wanting to refuse the service Mr....... Cobb wants you to perform.”
He smelled of regret, and of resignation. And suddenly he smelled angry and he straightened and spoke sharply to Cobb. “I have had enough of these manipulations! She is going to hear the truth and YOU will not interfere!” Cobb triumphant smell smoldered quickly to a burnt wood angry smell. I still couldn't get used to smelling emotions.
Judge Kaddus faced me and said, “If you refuse the service, someone else will have to take your place. The laws of Underhill state that it would be immediate family that would have to fulfill the service. Cobb wants you to refuse so that he could entrap your brother and sister to perform this service.”
I was confused suddenly. Mad mind you, but confused why the judge would be so up front about Cobb's manipulations. “Why tell me all this?” I asked him. “For two reasons Ms. Fatelli. One, Larry Potter has been a voice of reason the last five years, and many of the fae respect what he has done. I believe, like Mr. Potter, that honest dealings with other races make for better neighbors and allies should necessity arise.”
He stopped and smiled ferally, and I caught a smell of malice from him. “The second reason is I do not like ..... Mr. Cobb. He wants fae to not be so accommodating to humans. We have crossed in the past, and now I find I have an opportunity to ruin a plan of his. Your knowing changes the situation beyond his ability to control, and,” He looked positively gleeful, and smelled it too, “he hates losing control of anything.” Cobb ground his teeth and I could smell hate rolling off of him like a suffocating fog.
I smiled too. Beyond screwing the manipulative Cobb over, family is very big with me considering the only family I have left is Fawn and Larry. I knew too, from talking with Fawn a week ago, that she was pregnant. Which meant if Fawn had to take the service, Larry would jump all over it to protect her and the baby.
What it meant was still a very difficult situation. I most certainly did NOT want to try and do the service. Dragon magic is powerful. Very powerful from all the stories that have been told. But if I didn't take the service, Cobb was free to force Fawn, which would then have Larry volunteering to do it. A classic rock and hard-place.
“I'll take the service, I'll perform it, but I want to know what options I have for this service. Can I hire help or do I have to go this alone?” “You have the service you have to perform it.” spoke Cobb pompously. Judge Kaddus spoke up and said “there are no stipulations in the laws on how the service is handled, only that you perform it. It doesn't say alone, or, how swiftly the service needs be done.”

13

The idea to negotiate with Troykin was to get them stirred up some, and then you could get them to agree to most anything. Plus, losing face was a big thing to Troykin, so what they agreed to they'd stick with, however they agreed to it. I had asked Fawn about the Troykin up here, and she had told me that they were generally willing to work with humans.
Larry Potter was a name known up here, as his shop catered to all races, and considering a lot of the wild racist xenophobia practiced by humans and the non-human on each other, Larry was considered a good man to know and helping his sister-in-law could be seen as getting a big discount on something. All told it was a good thing to be Larry's sister-in-law.
The Troykin almost fell over themselves when I told them who I was. They didn't believe it for a moment. I sighed to myself. “Okay, what will prove who I am?” I asked the supposed leader of the bunch. “We know of the name of the Ne...pilim you fought, what was the name you called that creature?” The name I called him. “That piece of filth was called Ahiah, but I called him 'Baldy'.” It was the right answer. What did I tell you about magic and coincidences? How likely do you think that the bottle and the name of the Nephelim would come up on the same day, and linked to each other? Really? You're a bigger believer in coincidence than I am, that's for certain.
“Now you are free to ask one of us to help you, but I recommend Zik'k. His family owes Mr. Larry very much for his kindnesses, and has the largest honor-debt.” A lean, scarred-up Troykin stepped forward, then put his hand over his face and bowed. Hmm, some kind of ritual greeting? “No need to be formal, Zik'k, we'll work better if you just call me Fern.” I said. Zik'k straightened and held his nose. “Peeee-eew, human, what kind of magic have you been rolling in? Gah, the smell's awful!” I blinked in surprise.
Troykin could smell magic? “You can smell magic?” I blurted out. All five heads on five Troykin nodded. The leader who'd suggested Zik'k said “That we can, but it's not something we advertise much. You have to be a pretty powerful wizard to have a smell on you, and yours is,” I watched his face screw up in concentration as he hunted for a suitably diplomatic word, “pungent.” “Are you going to get all huffy about it?”, I asked, getting huffy about it myself. Hey, it's a girl's privilege to be huffy when called pungent.

12

For the life of me I couldn't see any connection other than the one “Mr. Cobb” had pointed out. Someone wanted to use it to increase their personal power. Pardon, some fucking lunatic was power-mad and somehow figured out how to remake the damn soul bottle. But the big reason is why? Just making the bottle was horrific, but no one I could imagine would just make that kind of bottle for no reason at all. It was a huge magick battery, which meant huge powerful spells.
I rubbed the nub of my little finger, where it had been torn off by Ahiah, the Nephelim. I had the last joint still but just the thought of that bottle being around made it ache badly. Okay, who knew about the bottle? I went though and tried to remember each person that had contact of knowledge of that bottle. Fawn, her team, me, Larry, Rynun, Uncle Todd, and Ahiah. I couldn't think of any others, but for that bottle to be around, someone must know of it, and of me and Fawn.
Our folks had been a full-bubble-off-level crazy, and had made of Fawn and I huge storage batteries of magic. We couldn't touch it, but it stayed with us. I don't know how much was there, but Larry said it was a LOT of magic. No one that I knew really wanted to touch it either. Magic like that draws other magic like a magnet draws iron filings. We both are a magnet for weird coincidence.
The bottle showing up after seven years was just another one of those coincidences that really weren't. Right now, the bottle concerned me most and who was casting spells on me. Both seemed very connected, and the only person that had both was “Mr.Cobb”. So the question became why did he ask me to help him and warn me about the bottle? I'd have to ask him when I found him. But with something like this I needed back up. Good, reliable, backup.

#

Dayning is that part of Halifax that grew up after the magic cam back with a huge bang almost sixty years ago now. It is mostly the non-human section. Most all of them have their own enclave here in one or more places. I came down here because I preferred a non-human partner for this. Humans like myself are good at most anything. We're nature's great generalist. But if you want a specialist species, Dayning is the place you'd come to find one.
What I wanted was smart and tough. There were a lot of races like that, Trolls were the biggest example. But I hadn't felt right about hiring trolls since Zhirk died. Call it stupid, maudlin, prejudice, or superstitious, I just never wanted to hire a troll again. There were other races beyond them. What I wanted was one who stood a chance against fae magick, and there was only one that had any kind of resistance that I knew were the Troykin.
Troykin are bad news. They have outsider blood in their veins. Most spells will just blow apart unless you prepare the spell carefully, or are hideously powerful. The other side of things is that they are affected by silver and the merest touch causes gaping wounds as their skin dissolves. Salt hurts them, and repels them but doesn't do much more than that, and a determined Troykin has been known to resist being repelled by salt on occasion.
They are also unstable, which may be due to the outsider blood. They are not quite hair-trigger on the emotions, but the next closest thing to it. It generally made them a poor choice, but considering the opposition, I was willing to have one with me, as it would make “Mr. Cobb” at least have to work at doing us in. I was more guessing he wanted something from me, otherwise why the elaborate illusion?
Too much speculation would start to hurt, so I backed off and concentrated on the problem at hand, negotiating with one of the local Troykin gangs to get my help. I parked my car and stepped out, all five foot nothing, ready to brace five six foot plus tall Troykin. I had the advantage that I was human, and a human seen this far into Dayning was generally considered crazy and/or dangerous. I figured crazy worked well.