“So, who are we after?” A young woman in the near darkness asked.
“I don’t know their name, just their role.” A male voice, clearly her companion, replied. After few minutes of silence she finally pressed on.
“Well?” “Demon hunter, one with supernatural power, sadistic nature, possibly on some kind of war path.” “Aren’t they all like that?” She enquired.
“No, most either banish back to hell, or kill outright. This one tortures, and then captures their essences.” Trust a sorcerer to pick up on little details like that, Leah thought.
“Why would he, or she, hang onto something they detest so much?” “I don’t know! But we are getting closer.” The last half of his speech was hushed, implying the need to quiet. Leah didn’t seem to get the hint though.
“How can you tell?” She probed.
“There’s still a faint magical glow in the ashes up ahead.” “Another sorcerer perk right?” “No, I had to learn it like any other spell.” He replied, scanning up ahead feverishly with his eyes now. The two began walking again, crouched down a little now. The sorcerer was in his early to mid twenties and had been with the investigation branch of the bureau of the Ministry of Magic for a few years. The witch was a NTO, a newly trained officer, and couldn’t go on cases on her own for another month or so, as she had barely left the academy. As a fully trained officer (FTO, and a high ranking one at that) he could select from any of the ‘noobs’, if he so wanted to take into the field. There was one specific reason he had chosen Leah, after casting the ability detect, and potential finding spells so many times, they had become ingrained as part of make up, and Leah’s potential was indeed big. All she lacked was confidence, and the right spells which he could easily nurture her with.
“We have to stop.” He informed her, reaching his arm back to block her progress. She tried to peek over his shoulder, a slightly quizzical look etched on her brow. “There’s a trap up ahead, he now knows he’s being followed.” Carefully the witch took a few steps back.
“How long will it take to go around, sir?” Her adrenaline was pumping now, as she felt the pulse and throb of the hunt seething through her. Just then there was a loud crackling smash up ahead. An explosion erupted back towards them, hurling her, but not him, backwards. The sorcerer caught her in a holding net before she hit the floor, preventing serious injury.
“I never go around.” He informed her.
“You could have warned me!” She grumbled as he gently released her, lowering her gently to the floor.
“I told you there was a trap up ahead, what more did you want?” He asked slightly puzzled. The young witch dusted herself off, and then glanced past her male minder to see the spell the sorcerer had cast to set off the trap. A clay statue lay in arm sized pieces on the floor, scorch marks at its edges. He stepped forward, leaving her to scrabble up. Leah just rolled her eyes to herself, most of her other male role models had done the same. Up ahead there was a stone archway, and just beyond that the pieces of the statue were already remelding together. As the sorcerer past a small portal opened up and engulfed them. He stopped to make sure it sealed up properly. As soon as it had, he started to move on again. The witch sprinted to catch up with him. Or at least tried to. Suddenly there was an invisible wall in the archway, barring her passage. She banged heavily on it to try and get the elder spellcaster’s attention, but it was soon obvious that the wall had been sound proofed.
She watched helpless as the second trap sprung. The sorcerer went rigid. She recognised the spell as a binding. The caster had been over zelous though, and hadn’t allowed for even the lung muscles to move for breathing. As fully autominous muscles, the heart was able to keep beating. Desperately she began to work on the counter.
“I wondered how long it would take the ministry to send someone after me.” The voice was posh, male, and well articulated, with an implacable accent. The demon hunter stepped from the shadows. “I was hoping to get your companion as well, or at least one of you in the first trap… it was so expensive aswell… but never mind, she won’t be able to save you, and under the binding, you can’t save yourself.” He withdrew a small ebony dagger from a sheath on his belt. The atmosphere changed, infused with fear. “I see you recognise the blade material.” The demon hunter intoned affectionately, as he began to caress his cheek with it. “I always loved Emdeonite, even when I was small. Such allure… spell shattering, and poisonous to you spellcasters. You do know you’re going red, right wizard? Not very good at holding your breath are we? Oh well, soon be over.” The demon hunter chuckled to himself and took a pronounced step forward.
“Such a pitty my vial is full, otherwise your soul could benefit my cause.” He took another step forward. “Still… I can always take your power… yes, I’d like that very much.” Another step, so he was no less than half a metre away from the suspended sorcerer. The witch completed the final twist on the bind breaker spell. The invisible wall rippled as the magic shot through. The binding on the sorcerer was sorcerer grade, and with the resistance of the invisible wall, the spell wasn’t completely broken, though it was lifted on his lungs, which he made instant use of.
“Oh, now that was a slight let down.” Informed the demon hunter closing the gap between them so he could whisper in the other mans ear. “Still, I get to watch you bleed to death, so it’s only a small loss…” With that he jabbed harshly with the blade. But before it could pierce the tender flesh on the spellcaster’s side, it was forced away by another spell. The knife shot from his hand, shooting across the room, towards the excluded Leah.
“That wasn’t very fair!” He moaned as it sank into the barrier spell and began tearing the spell asunder.
“Yeah well, crack pots don’t have any right to be saying what’s fair or not!” Leah retorted, her voice now audible through the hole the knife was making.
“What did you call me?” Suddenly he was filled with anger and rage. He stormed over to the archway, and grabbed hold of the knife, yanking it free from the spell it was happily devouring.
“Crackpot, means a loon, not right in the head, a nut job!” At this the demon hunting began hacking and slashing furiously at the wall, trying to bring it down. A bolt of lightning arced across the room to hit the hunter squarely in between his shoulder blades. He froze, before rolling to the side, dropping his knife as he went. He could now see the odds were against him as the sorcerer had wrangled free from the bind, probably using the hole the witch had created. The demon hunter grabbed a bottle from the side of his belt and smashed it at his own feet. In an instant he was gone. He had used a gateway in a bottle, and nearly instantly after he had fallen through, the aquamarine telltale engulfed it’s self. “Dammit!” The witch cursed.
“Well, at least we have a few leads to still go on.” She gave him a puzzled look. “Those were bought not home made, and there’s only three stores in town that sell real magic.” “How can you be so calm?” She asked, now disgruntled more than anything.
“Practice.” He replied sagedly, before smiling slightly at her.
“So, you’re ok then Yoshen? No lasting damage from being nearly suffocated?” “None I’m aware of…what happened to the ‘sir’? Finally got out of school habbits?” He teased. Her eyes net his for the briefest of seconds, before she glanced away.
“Sorry, if you don’t want a first name basis…?” She left it hanging in the air.
“I’m not bothered by it.” She scowled slightly at the brush off.
“Are we going to follow him?” “Are you any good at navigating the gateways? Because I’m sure as hell not.” She shook her head in reply. “Right, back the way we came it is then. Do you know how to collect Demonic ashes?” he asked. She stared blankly at him. He smiled triumphantly, there’s nothing more exciting to a sorcerer than explaining something, unless it involves finding something new out. Yoshen was quite probably the worst of the worst for this, he had to have everything labelled up, sub divided and alphabetised. They reached the still smouldering ashes, and knelt down close to them. “You see the blue tints? That gives us an indication of species, the faint stench of sulphur indicates he didn’t cross over too long ago… the cinnamon is a mystery though.” The sorcerer added as an afterthought. “I have to make a call.” Yoshen stood quickly, and took a couple of steps way, turning his back on Leah. When he returned a minute or two later, he informed her that a cleanup squad was on their way.
Leah knew it wasn’t just the ashes, they had to make sure the gateway had sealed properly to prevent none magically capable from accidentally straying into it. Until they arrived, as the ones first to come on the scene, Yoshen and Leah were under magical obligation to stay there. During the half an hour they waited, Yoshen paced tirelessly. “You got a lot on your mind?” Leah asked after the first fifteen minutes. He looked at her as if he had just been reminded she was there. “As a matter of fact, yes I have. That cinnamon is really bugging me, and the location of this killing…” “What’s so odd about this place?” Leah asked, looking around confused.
“Nothing, and that’s the point. The hunter gene is dominant over and magic ones, so usually human demon hunters need external power in order to cast the banishings. For him to do it on a non sacrosanct site, they would need a fully charged wizards staff… but I didn’t see one on him.” “Is that where the cinnamon comes in?” “I have no idea, maybe.” He kept pacing in silence then, until the clean up crew arrived. It took the two spellcasters less than five minutes to get back to the surface, and onto Norris street, where Leah had parked her car. Yoshen had dedicated his life to the study of magic, and had never had time to learn how to drive. From there it was twenty minutes, through rush hour traffic back to the ministry of magic headquarters for the city. Number 76 North street didn’t stand out at all. It was the same colour as the ones it neighboured with. The only difference was sign outside saying ‘Evelyn and Evelyn, marriage councillors.’ That was the best cover they could come up with to explain the multitudes of people moving in and out. Several enlargement spells had been encrypted into the physical boundaries of the house to provide enough room to get the hundred or so employees of the ministry in. The clean up crew had stations around the city to try and get easier dispersion.
For the sake of appearances, the two went with their arms entwined upto the door, and it was Leah who knocked. Instead of one of the 5 secretaries, it was Greg Evelyn, the city boss who answered the door. “In.” He ordered, clearly very frustrated. Silently and obediently, they entered. “Some one leeked to the demons, and now their representative is in my office. I want you to assure him, and then get right back to work. Be damned careful what you say, he’s pissed enough to break the treaty, and at the moment we don’t have enough forces to stop them if they do invade. Do I make myself clear?” Greg growled. He led the way through the labyrinth of corridors to his office. He forced open the heavy, double oaken doors to his outer office. His personal secretary, Janine, was backing out of his office with an unburdened silver tray. She turn, and received a curt nod as Greg reached for his door, and held in open to usher in the two field officers. “Ambassador Kerrigon, may I present sorcerer Yoshen Mendellan, and junior officer Leah Parsons, they’re the ones you requested.” Greg closed the door behind the two. Strong eaves dropping hexes erected themselves as soon the door was closed again.
Five minutes passed, during which the minister paced furiously back and forth across the floor. Then the hexes fell away and the door was once again open as Leah and Yoshen left. “Well?” Demanded Greg.
“sorry sir, can’t stay for the pleasantries.” The two fled.
“Which shop are we going to first?” Leah asked, remembering back to their earlier conversation about where the hunter could have got his magical supplies.
“I think it’s time you did a bit of ground work on your own, Can you go to Forrest and Mingle’s? I’ll head to Candid and Terryn’s, and meet up at Fangles and Myst, say about 2?” They were walking briskly back to the entrance now. Leah nodded, and could understand the need for speed, after all, she had been in the interview. She had enough training to work out what to look for in the shop’s inventories. She made a mental list for herself, including bottled gateways, binding traps, exclusion walls and possibly the Emdeonite blade, though that was more likely to be found on the black market, if it wasn’t inherited.
No doubt that the actual piece had already been destroyed, which was mandatory for the element, under ministry protocol, though it was common knowledge. With that, the two of them parted company, with Yoshen dashing off to the left, and Leah heading right to her car as they left their headquarters. Going separate ways meant that Yoshen had to catch the bus. It was that, or teleport, and he hadn’t had his license updated for several years now, and he knew it would be invalid. Leah on the other hand could just slip the keys out of her pocket, and drive anywhere she wanted, provided the roads weren’t bunged up.
Leah unlocked the driver’s door, and slid in. She took off the gear stick lock, along with the wheel one, and opened the glove box to attach the radio security device. Her parents had insisted that she use every security measure every time, and as they had paid for the car, Leah had little say in the matter. The car flared into life at the slightest turn of the key in the ignition. As usually happens, there was now nearly a complete lull in the amount of traffic on the road, so it only took a few minutes to drive across town to the shop she was supposed to check the stock records on. The east district was mostly industrial, though they had the odd neon light of strange little shops. One of which was Forrest and Mingle’s. A flapping sign outside informed all that the shop was a ‘new age wicken store’.
Being on an industrial estate, parking was easy to find, the was a forty by forty foot concrete square right in front of the store, with now faded white lines, once parking spaces. Despite the name, no one called Forrest or Mingle had ever owned the shop, which was currently run by two kindly elderly women, in their sixties. Alice Junesday was short and plump, while Ayleen Yohanson was tall and built like a stick insect. Thick wafts of incense attacked the nostrils as soon as you entered. Electric lights shaped like candles lined the walls of the store, and the over all impression was rustic and ancient, despite the sign outside.
“Can I help you deary?” Alice asked, peering over her half moon spectacles at the young, not too chubby, not to thin girl who had just entered.
“Leah Parsons, ministry of magic,” she flashed her bag “I need to see your records.” “Ayleen! Get the sales records, someone from the ministry’s here to check on them.” Alice called back behind the bead curtain behind her.
“Get them yourself you crazy old hag, I’m on my tea break!” A croaky voice called back.
“Where’d you put them?” Alice yelled back.
“Top shelf… I’ll be right out.” The other woman replied, slightly more morbid than before. It turned out the wiccan women kept very bad records, all done by hand, in a kind of chicken scratch fashion, but had to import the sorcerer grade spells, rather than makes them themselves, unlike nearly everything else on sale in store. The few they had sold to real practitioners hadn’t even come near what Leah was looking for. The most adventurous thing actually sold was a bandage that bit back if tied to tight. Leah thanked the two women for their help, before she left the shop. It was half one by the time Leah had ciphered through all the scribble. The next problem was finding Fangles and Myst. Yoshen hadn’t told her which street it was on, and she only knew the location of this shop as she had bought protective herbs from there when she had moved to the city. She had vague idea that it might be somewhere in the south district, but that was a large area.
Without having more to go on, Leah had few options left to her. She cast the glass tinting spell on the windows around her as she sat in the driver’s seat of her car. Although no change occurred on the inside, it was now near impossible to see through from the outside. Leah took out a map of the city, and a crystal pendant from around her neck. Cautiously she spread out the miniature atlas and began spinning the crystal on its small chain over the ink image. She concentrated and poured her inner strength in, as she let the magic scry the city for what she was looking for. It took a few paces before she got a firm lock as the magic paralyzed the crystal mid swing. The store was indeed in the south district, and was just off the main shopping area of the city.
Thankfully there was a multi story car park near by. Lean jotted down the directions carefully tracing where she was with her finger as she did. After parking up in the theatre boulevard car park, Leah locked up, and travelled down the stairs, crossed Saladfarm road, and took the third turning on the left. It was five to two when she arrived. She looked around cautiously for any sign of her companion. The universal magic engravings above the door informed her that two sorcerers ran the store, and did not welcome ministry officials inside. As only a grade two witch, Leah wasn’t even comfortable waiting outside the place, which had a distinctly ominous feeling about it. She had heard stories of freelancers tormenting ‘weaker’ spellcasters, and really didn’t want to be a victim to that. She paced nervously as the minutes slid past.
In hindsight, she should have got Yoshen’s number, but there hadn’t really been time, and she was excited about her first loan assignment. Now she was mentally kicking herself for not doing it. It was close to half past when Yoshen came sprinting around the corner towards her. He was red faced, as if he had run the entire distance from one store to the other. Leah scowled at him, angry that he had taken so long, leaving her in such a high state of perpetual fear. Yoshen grounded to a halt infront of her. “I’m so sorry, the 67 has changed its bus root again. I ended up downtown.” He explained. She looked into his eyes. There was an innocent honesty in them.
“Why didn’t you just Zap from one to the other?” She demanded.
“Any idea how I would do that?” He countered, raising an eyebrow in question. “Maybe I could transmutate into an element form, and just kind of move here? Well, that would take longer than walking here, and would have drawn a lot of attention. Maybe I should have gateway’d, but I’m no good at navigating them. What about teleportation?… wait, no license to do that. What if I…?” “Ok, ok, I get the point.” Leah interjected. “Let’s go in shall we?” Yoshen straightened up and lead the way in. Inside, the store was a dark mahogany riddled warren, and as dire and daunting as the outside. Dribbley candles lined the walls, along with ceramic skulls, and cotton cobwebs. Behind the counter was an equally macabre 30 something bearded man. He had a bronze goatie, seemingly on top of the inch long black strands that covered the rest of his lower face. “Nat.” Yoshen nodded grimly.
“Yosh. Who’s the pathetic witch you brought with you this time, and what do you want this time?” “Official ministry work, show me your records.” “You know where they are.” Leah shivered at the icyness between the two of them. Yoshen lifted a thin plank to the side of the counter and stepped behind. He reached up to the top shelf and pulled down the leather bound monolith of a book. Leah glanced round the shop. As quick as a flash, Nat told her that there was nothing on sale for her. She blushed slightly in frustration at this, but took it no further.
“Play nice Nat… I can still beat your sorry ass.” Yoshen commented from where he was reading.
“How about both of us, Ministry?” A croaky voice demanded from behind a dark curtain. It was then the co-owner reared his ugly head. He had a pock marked face, different coloured eyes, which wouldn’t be so bad if they faced the same direction. Those weren’t his most disturbing features though. Aside from the obvious left leg limp, he had ‘salt and pepper’ bushy eye brows, and scraggy, thinned hair on top of his head, which he had combed over. For the briefest of seconds his wondering left eye focused on Leah, in parallel with the other one, sending cold shivers down her spine, and making her feel despair and self loathing. But as quickly as it had arrived, it was gone again, as his eye wondered off again. He chuckled to himself, which turned into a hefty smokers cough.
Yoshen grabbed her arm, making her jump. “Time to go.” He informed her. She let him lead her out. When they were outside, Yoshen reached into one of his inner jacket pockets. He pulled out a chocolate bar, which had already been opened, and broke off a piece. “Here, eat, you’ll feel better. I promise.” She took the piece he offered and put it into her mouth. As it melted, warmth and hope returned to her. “That’s Redreich Fangle’s little party trick. Nathanial Myst and I have a history, we sat the exam at the same time, and I beat him to top of the class in a heated sorcerous battle, leaving him as second best of the class. We haven’t been able to pin anything on either of them, Redreich especially, even though, as you saw he is quite able to dabble. The curse he just used is known as the dark glare, and you felt it’s mildest level. It’s still legal in such a weak level, but we’re trying to get that changed. They started to head towards Leah’s car. As Yoshen was more than generous paying for petrol, even with the escalating prices, the witch didn’t mind chauffeuring the two of them about.
The drive back to the ministry was uneventful. As soon as they were in, and back in Yoshens office, he began the search for the name that had crept up. Back in 2000 the ministry had entered the digital revolution and put all the files they had on computer, and then networked all the ministry establishments together. Every spellcaster, hunter, demon, angel, elf, giant, gnome, ogre, dwarf, and shape shifting immortal was stored on there. Two minutes later, the search was complete. No results were found for ‘Elgard Sharton’.
“How would he not be on file?” Leah asked.
“How do you know his name wasn’t recorded wrong?” Yoshen tested.
“Act 31… part 47, paragraph 3… All shops that keep written records must use truth pens, and the buyer must sign themselves. My Aunt owns a shop up north and explained it to me.” Leah explained after catching the look on his face. “Could we try and work out where he would strike next?” “I’m listening…” “Well, if we look at all the cases, we might see a pattern, or something.” Ten minutes past as they plotted points on a city map. All of a sudden, a commotion started up in the office. Suddenly people were running about madly. They both looked up, and then at each other before heading out. As she ran past, he grabbed hold of the arm of Sarah, the supplies manager, and rarely appeared on this floor. “What’s going on?” He asked.
“Someone’s killed an Angel!” Sarah ushered, looking shaken. Yoshen released her, and he and Leah joined the small crowd. Everyone was gathering around the distraught investigating officer. The angel liaison officer was trying to get out as much information as she could, as it was her who had to talk to them. They would be angrier than the demons, and would almost definitely react more violently. Greg Evelyn came storming into the room. “Everyone, back to work. Gerome, Amanda, Mona, Sam, Dana, I want you straight on this, get to the scene. Michelle, call the ambassador, he needs to know. Kelly, Robin, Kas, look after…” He indicated in the rough direction of the sobbing girl first send to look into the magical disturbance. The three secretaries huddled around her, each trying to be more comforting than the last. “Yoshen, I want you on this case ASAP, so hurry up bringing yours to a close.” With that as his final orders, the city boss departed.
“Does he expect me to create a time compressing spell or something?” Yoshen demanded through gritted teeth to Leah. He marched back to his office. People backed away, or returned to their desks. Not everyone in the ministry got an office, it was either first come first serve, meaning the senior officers were appointed one, or top dog gets finest fillet, meaning the more powerful, and especially the sorcerer class, also got one. No one begrudged them this. The exam was elitist in the extreme. To start with, the witch or wizard had to have above a set level for their power to body size ratio. They had to be able to cast spells none verbally. The third criteria was to be able to read ancient script, which was found to be an innate talent, rather than something that could be learned. Only about 3 of witches or wizards ever met all three, though the exam board were still willing to allow people who failed the none verbal spells criteria, but could only achieve a second class sorcerership.
The exams themselves lasted two weeks, but that was mainly to rank up the individuals in sorcerous combat. There was a ten year gap between each session. As Yoshen hadn’t wanted to wait another decade, he had entered early, and thusly had become the youngest sorcerer on record. The time lag was to try and prevent devaluation of the rank, keeping it as the highest class of magic achievable. Reaching top of the class entitled the sorcerer access to the archaic library that held all the previous knowledge of the sorcerers. He was also the first one in several millennia to learn the sacred ‘phoenix arts’ and it was quite by chance that he had cracked the code and managed to read the text. This information he hadn’t yet shared with anyone. Yoshen had always reasoned that if others were supposed to know the powerful arts, they would crack the code on their own.
Back in his office, they both poured over the map. “Last peg. The incident today.” Yoshen put it in. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any pattern.” He added after a minute.
“What if the design isn’t finished yet?” Leah asked.
“What if it’s just opportunistic?” Yoshen countered.
“In a sewer underground, a water treatment plant, an incinerator, a scrap yard, and the rest. What are demons doing there?” “How would he get them there if they weren’t there already?” Yoshen tried again, still seeing problems with everything that could crop up to explain it.
“You heard him! He said your soul wouldn’t benefit his cause, he has this all planned!” Something seemed to click in Yoshen’s mind. The grubby penny had dropped, the veil of darkness suddenly lifted. He moved over to his book shelf and took out a volume. He flicked through page after page.
“Aravarcorgh!” He exclaimed, slamming a finger down on the page. Leah stared at him blankly. “Demonic rune for dead demons… the essences are meant to be sent to a level of hell humans cannot touch! But what is it’s importance?” He began pacing.
“If his cause is complete… what do we do now?” Yoshen glanced at her, then down at the map, before returning to the page.
“We have his final target, if he is following the rune’s design across the city!” Both suddenly moved towards the door. They seemed to be the only ones in the office concerned about a non angelic killing.