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.

1

I suppose I should tell you where I was when this all started. I was in my AUTHENTIC 1930's style office that has a lot of original 1930's stuff in it to create the proper atmosphere. I have a small, square desk in the middle of the floor. On my desk are a paperweight, a candlestick telephone, a desk pad to protect the wood. an “in” box with nothing in it, an “out” box on top of the “in” filled with files that really should put in the file cabinet, a laptop computer that is my only nod to modern help, two file cabinets, one that is badly dented and opens with difficulty, the other a old army 4-drawer with a locking bar on the front.

One wall has a Murphy bed in it that I have as I like the ambiance, and because there are times when I cannot and/or will not get home to sleep. I sleep here more than at my apartment. Next to the desk is a small refrigerator that comes flush to the desktop. On top of it are a one element burner and a 10-cup coffee maker for a little pick-me-up when I need to be alert.

The walls are a ivory with some small cracks tastefully built into the surface to give it that Philip Marlowe feel, and to attract attention away from the slight bow in the wall where some raging troll wadded up a dictionary and broke the wall that he threw it against. Finally there is a set of two seven foot tall book cases that hold old paperback novels and where my folded clothes are put. Through the inner door is a small alcove which holds a desk and another candlestick telephone. That is the secretary's office, which is currently gathering dust as I haven't really tried to get a new partner/secretary since Zhirk died.

Two wooden arm chairs stood in front of my desk. One of them heId my latest client, a Mr, Norman Cobb who was regaling me with his tale of woe. Seems that with all the strange activity going on as Halloween approached, someone had taken his black cat, Cocoa by name, and he was frantic to get poor Cocoa back before midnight. This was the third time he'd gone through the story, and I was getting the feeling I'd be hearing it again, as he didn't seem to understand subtle hints that I couldn't help him find a cat in that short a time. I had been trying to send him to my brother-in-law Larry Potter, for the last ten minutes. But Mr. Cobb wouldn't have any of it. Obtuse would be a good word if I thought he'd actually understand it.

“Mr. Cobb,” I said, “I'm not really able to handle this kind of job very easily. Now if you'd take this problem to Larry Potter, he may well be able to find your cat without the huge charge you'd get from me.” “You're the one I need, not some wanna-be jerkface pimple on a goat's ass. I gotta find my rabbit, and I gotta have you find her.” he said, with a petulant note to his voice. I am not the most patient person in the world, and he hit my limit. I grit my teeth and tried very hard to be polite. “Mr. Cobb, I don't find lost animals. I don't use magic. You need a magickian to find a lost rabbit, there's no way I'd even know where to look and to be honest, I'm not interested in looking. So tell you what, you get your lazy butt up out of my guest chair, go out the door, and go hire a magickian. He can whip up a spell to find your little hairball pretty quickly. Good day.”

Mr. Norman Cobb got up very slowly from the chair, and tried to go for intimidating. He stepped over to the edge of the desk, placed both hands on it and leaned forward, trying to get into my face and force me to back up. This really started to piss me off. “Ms. Fatelli, I said before, I don't want no fuckin' magickan, I want you to find my rabbit! Now either you start trying to locate my rabbit or...” I respond even less well to threats, and grabbed the paperweight.

He saw the motion and came around the side of the desk to stop me from throwing it, and probably to try and intimidate me further. I spun my chair to face him and as he cleared the edge of the table, I planted my stiletto heel in between his legs and into the groin area, making contact with those soft and extremely tender testicles. He gasped and screamed at the same time, and ended up sounding more like a duck than a man. He fell to his knees, then toppled onto his side moaning, and curling about the injured area like a fetus.

I stood up out of the chair, all five foot nothing of me. “Mr. Cobb,” I said to him, “I don't find lost animals, I don't like threats, and I don't like your attitude. When you can walk, get out. Oh, and if you want to file assault, I have a camera that records all my talks in here, just in case someone tries to pull stunts like yours.” I sat back down in my chair and waited until Mr. Cobb could get back up off the ground. He staggered towards the door, then stopped and I saw his shoulders tighten. I stood up quickly, when someone does that they're usually getting a good mad up just before they try to take your head off. Then his whole body started shuddering, and I heard him whine like a wounded animal. What the hell?

Glass Bottles 2 "Hassenpfeffer"

I am going to post up the NaNoWriMo novel here as parts over the next three months. I'm using this venue to afford myself the opportunity to re-write parts of the novel and (hopefully) garner criticism and commentary so that I can understand in my writing what worked, what didn't work, and why. The only way you learn is to let people see your stuff and get feedback. So here we go. Thanks in advance to any who comment. I appreciate any and all. :)