A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (23 page)

“Are
you ready to talk about your blatant disregard for a crime scene?”

“Any
chance you could wait until I can recover a bit and maybe get something to
drink,” I asked hopefully.

“No. 
I may be in charge of the new division but considering how high profile this is
getting I still have to explain why our technical expert was walking around
ground zero without an escort.”

Wobbling
to my feet I swayed over to the two men.  I wasn't feeling up to, much but I
really wanted to get out of the damn alley.  Just being there made me
claustrophobic. Once I reached them I leaned against the building and gathered
my strength.

“Conrad,
I got some good news and some bad news,” I said with as much cheer as I could
gather.

“Ah,
Christ on a crutch.  Not again,” the armored shifter shook his head in
exasperation.

“Yes! 
Again,” I stated loudly and then winced at my own volume.  “I went in the lair
in astral form to look around...”

“And
was there a reason you didn't do this before?  Like when I actually had Cromwell
escort you there?”

“Astral
projection can be pretty dangerous,” at least for me these days.  “I needed
time to prepare and considering the risks, I wanted to be with someone I knew
and could trust in a not so normal situation.”

Conrad
looked between Jeremy and me before he gave a grudging nod.  “Fine, any reason
why you didn't ask for an escort once you had your flun... subcontractor?”

I
stood there a moment and looked at Jeremy, then back at Conrad.  Shrugging, I
said, “I got nothing.  Didn't even think of it.”

The
shifter sighed.  “Fine.  What did you find out?”

“Well,
I explored the area pretty closely.  My original guess was right about the
circles being linked together and set to go off when the ley line tap gets low
enough to let the barrier down.”  Conrad nodded, he knew about this part.  “Now
that I have had a chance to see the circles closer I am pretty sure that Baron Samedi
is not the circle mage.”

“What
the...”

“Yes,
the artistry is completely different.  It’s obviously done by a different hand
than what we saw in the house over by the Blight.”

“So
all those warnings you gave us about a circle mage...”

“I
was describing the worst case, which at that time was assuming the zombie
master knew more magic than animating the dead.”

“But
there was another mage there,” interjected Jeremy.

“Yes,
who knew my worst case could get worse,” I added flippantly.  I was starting to
feel human again.  Which was not so great considering I wasn't actually human. 
“We were lucky that my advice happened to still be applicable.  It turns out
that the portal circle was for another dimension.  Which means that we have at
least two magic users from another dimension coming in.”

“Pretty
small for an invasion,” Jeremy interjected.  I had been leading up to this so I
was a little disappointed that he had sprung that one.

“Yeah,
a bit small but I saw a side room with correspondence still visible.  They were
mostly reports and...”

“A
group of just two people wouldn't be writing reports,” Conrad put in his own
two cents.

“Geez
hold your horses,” I pouted slightly.  “Yes.  Two people would not bother with
reports.  Also, some of the reports seemed to be from other people.  From the
mage's home dimension.”

“What
did they say,” my curious friend asked, cutting off what was likely a similar
question from Conrad.

“They
seemed to be status reports from home.  Apparently it’s pretty ugly over there
with raging ley lines and demonic portals.”

“Raging
ley lines?” Conrad asked, obviously not wanting to hear the answer.

“Um,
not really an official term but if the world’s magical energy reaches a certain
level it tends to flow into ley lines.  Like rivers after a big storm.  They
gets swelled and very visible.  After a certain critical point, ugly and
somewhat random things happen on them.  Portals to hell, rain of frogs,
tornadoes.  Things like that.”

“Doesn't
sound like they were trying to escape it though.  Why set up a petty crime ring
if you are just trying to escape your world?” Conrad asked.

“And
if it’s just escape, why have the report?” Jeremy chimed in.

“Oh,
the crime ring seems to have been Baron's side thing.  The reports never
mentioned them.  I imagine his superiors still don't know exactly what brought you
down on them.  Assuming they were his superiors.  It can sometimes be tricky to
figure the politics of a cabal.”

They
looked at me blankly for a moment.  “What's a cabal?” my detective subcontractor
asked.

I
stared back at them.  “You know, a gathering of mages.  The good old boys magic
user club.  Usually dark mages, but could be whatever.  Also known as covens,
though that’s more of a Wicca thing.”

“Wicca?”
Jeremy asked curiously.

“Dead
religion as far as I can tell.  It’s not relevant.  What matters is that there
were two on this side, but there were more involved.”

“But
involved in what?  If Baron Samedi was running his own operation, what were
they actually here for,” Conrad muttered.

“I
can't be sure.  I didn't see anything more than a signature, but I did see a
letter signed by Jin.”  This statement had a gratifying impact.  After a few
minutes, the silent started to feel a bit awkward.

“Son
of a... I thought Jin just wanted to summon a demon,” the officer trailed off.

“Demon
lord.  I am pretty sure he has the ability to summon minor demons already.  The
vampires are complaining about minor pests that may actually be minor demons.”

“Things
just keep getting more confusing,” Jeremy complained.

“Probably
going to get worse before it gets better,” I nodded wisely and maybe a teeny
bit pretentiously.  Jeremy elbowed me in the gut.  It actually staggered me in
my weakened state.  “So, think it was worth breaching police protocol?”

“Fine. 
You’re a hero.  Let's go to the station so we can get a statement.”

I
coughed uncomfortably.  “Well, I am pretty beat.  Anyway we could do this later?”

“No. 
I really think we need to do this now,” Conrad deadpanned.  Maybe I should have
sprung this on him later.  After I rested.

“Officer
Conrad would it be alright if I sent a detailed report you as soon as I got
Derek home,” my friend offered.  Conrad had started to vigorously shake his
head when he continued. “I think you know the effect the Professor has around
technology.  Due to his research into magic, he can be kind of damaging to it very
much like the older vampires are.  Do you really want him around your shiny new
facility?”

I
could see the conflicting emotions cross the burly shifter's face.  Annoyance
was the big one, followed by a bit of anger, then finally exasperation and
acceptance.  Conrad himself was a supernatural and I am willing to bet that if
he projected a bit he could short out a machine or two.  Come to think of it if
the new supernatural branch was going to be populated by shifters and vampires
then the facility better have military grade equipment or they would be
catching criminals with stone knives and slingshots.

“So
be it.  I will come around in an hour for the report.  Have it ready or we'll
be taking a trip.”  With that ominous warning, he turned and headed away.  I
looked around and saw Jeremy's vehicle and started heading towards it.

We
got up right next to the craft before Jeremy paused and faced me.  “So are you
going to fill me in on why you tried to bury me in a pile of books?”  He had a
small grin of amusement on his face as he gestured towards his back seat.  My
own expression was doubtless even more gleeful as I peered through his window
at his rear seat and realized it was covered in stacks of books.

“Come
on! He's going to want more details than just that,” Jeremy's exasperated
exclamation echoed faintly in my ears.  I grunted in reply as I sat in my
favorite reading chair and leafed through the next book.  I was going a bit
slower than usual for several reasons.  The first was a very annoying detective
that would not shut up and let me get into the proper frame of mind.  I was
trying to ignore him, but he was the embodiment of persistence.

The
second reason was the nature of the reading material.  In a way, I felt I was
jumping in the deep end.  These tomes I had snuck out of the mage's lair were
not simple primers for novices.  Nor were they intended to lead an initiate
from lower level examples to higher magics.  Each and every text assumes a
minimum competency in the subject and stated the methodology in the fewest
words possible.  My previous studies had given me a very shaky foundation in
the subject as there seemed to be a dearth of subject matter experts in this
world... or at least in the city.

This
left me puzzling over the somewhat arcane symbols and directions trying to fit
them into my world view.  Oftentimes I paused, to let my somewhat instinctive
understanding of magic fill in the gaps.  Some of it was slowly drawing out
ancestral memories as well, but it wasn't anywhere near as easy as my mostly
ignored alchemy skill sets.

Still
it was deeply satisfying if much painstaking than I was used to.  I was making
progress that I had almost given up hope for over the long year I had been
here.  It would have been going a little faster if I had been able to
concentrate a bit more.

“Come
on Jeremy, there isn't anymore,” I almost whined.  I kept enough control so
there was no overt begging, however I was close.  “There isn't any more to
tell.  I walked around the matrix a couple of times and then found the lab.” 
Oh, wait, that was an interesting use alchemical materials used to draw the
circles.  I could see how that would reinforce the circle’s effect; perhaps the
two differing magics even caused a reverberation effect, creating a synergy. 
That would partially explain the magnitude of the effects considering the
relatively minor energy requirements.

“I
can give this to him as a report, but he's just going to come back and ask for
more detail,” he said, still pacing to and fro in front of my chair.  As far as
I was concerned, as long as Conrad left me alone for a day I was ahead of the
game.

“Jeremy,”
I sighed, as I actually looked up from the book.  “This is really important,
these give me a new insight on Jin.  I may be able to figure out what he has in
mind.”

“Wait
a minute.  I thought you said Jin was a spell caster.  Even I can see from the
pictures that these books are about circles and wards.” Oh crud, he was paying
attention when I was going on about that.  What a time to learn that he didn't
just tune me out when I waxed philosophical. 

“There's
some circles here that should allow me to negate certain magics.  I think I can
adapt these to give us a bit of protection when we storm his lair.” While this
was true, to some extent, I doubted I could master it in time to be useful.  It
was actually a very useful circle, I think that if I activated it on a
convergence of ley lines during the solstice or equinox it may be powerful
enough to temporarily suppress my runic curses.  Again not useful in the short
term but very much desirable in the long term.  “And there are a few books on
spell magic that I haven't gotten to.”  I wasn't very much in a hurry to get to
it either considering how long it would take to decipher anything from those
books.  At least with circles and wards I had some clue how it worked and I could
build on my admittedly imperfect knowledge.  Verbal spell magic was something I
had only seen other people do at home.  I would be entirely relying on my
intuition to figure anything out.  I wasn't ruling it out, but it was on the
backburner for the moment until I had mined out my current cache of more easily
accessible arcane secrets.

My
friend glared at me.  “Fine, I'll send the report.  Don't do anything to blow
up the communicator until I turn it off again.”  I absently nodded, my
attention already fixating back on the tomes.  Wow, a lot of these compounds
called out for dragon’s blood and powdered bone.  Ugh, the blood was easily
found, but bone sounded really painful. I winced as I thought of the tooth I
had recently lost.  It grew back soon enough, but it hurt like a... wait a
minute.  Unicorn horn?  Where the heck am I going to get that in this
dimension?  Did this writer actually kill a unicorn every few circles?  I was
pretty sure removing the horn killed it.  I would either have to substitute
another material or use the weakened circle version.

Time
passed quickly for me as I mulled over these and similar issues.  My exhaustion
was forgotten as my supernatural stamina slowly filled my reserves.  Not as
fast as sleep or meditation, but I just couldn't put the books down.  By the
time I heard the knock at the door it was dark once more.  Looking around I
noted that Jeremy was gone but Mei was in the living room watching the holo vid. 
I had thought I had blown that up again.  Wait, he fixed it yesterday.

I
slowly stood up and stretched.  I was finally starting to feel home inside my
skin after my misadventures in the astral realm.  I was drained, but not like I
was in someone else's body.  I meandered towards the door, as the second knock
rang through house.  It was likely Conrad wanting more detail on the demon invasion
thing.  He had no concept of priorities.  I was lining up several arguments in
my head as I opened the door.

The
last thing I expected to see on my doorstep was a hulking giant of a man in
shining armor, his bulging arm raised to my face.  Considering the last time I
had seen that arm held in a like position I had lost several seconds of my
memory, a set of clothes and tooth, I think I can be forgiven if the immediate
adrenalin rush evoked a sound that perhaps, just maybe, resembled a high
pitched started yelp.  I still say it was a manly war cry, but eye witness
accounts may differ.

After
trumpeting my war cry, I kicked my leg forward with all the force I could
muster, backed with a surge of psionic energy I couldn't yet afford.  I was
rewarded by seeing the force of nature known as Faramond catapult backward
across the street and through the house there.  The bell like tone of the armor
as it was stuck reverberated in the air. A split second later I heard the
crashing of the entire front of the house collapsing around the flying figure
and a moment later the sound of the inner walls giving way, then a final crash
of the rear outer wall exploding outward.  Straining my eyes to see through the
expanding dust cloud, I believed I could see entirely though the building.  A
momentary feeling of satisfaction quickly gave way to alarm.  I owned this
entire block of houses.  Which meant I was destroying my own property.  Oh man,
did my insurance cover this?

I
was about to march, or stagger over to the damaged building when I noticed the
screaming.  I paused a moment to look to my left and noticed a familiar looking
elf shrieking like a banshee.  I started to get a sinking sensation in the pit
of my stomach as I looked from the cavern Faramond had left in my building to
the upset elf and back again.  It suddenly registered that perhaps the armored
maniac hadn't had his arm raised to hit me.  It would certainly explain the
lack of danger I had sensed and fact that I had time to react to the 'attack'
at all.

“Oh
crap,” was my first statement.  The elf was now pawing my arm and asking me to
calm down and wait for a moment.  This was better than the wailing but was
feeling rather invasive.  Not to mention that Faramond was likely to come
barreling back through the remains of the house any second and I didn't feel
like re-growing another tooth.  “I assume he wasn't about to attack me?”

“No,
of course not,” hiccupped the distressed lady.  She was dressed in a frilly red
gown that looked like the doily fairy had gifted her with a dress for a ball
room party.  “We came to ask your aid for...”

She
was interrupted as the remains of the damaged house gave up the ghost and
almost imploded as an armored figure ran through it.  He didn't even use the
same holes he created, but just bulled through the walls that were left as he
ran back to us like a runaway locomotive.  What an idiot. 

I
was gathering my rather limited reservoir of energy for a defense when the lady
held up her hand and shouted, “By your oath of fealty I command you to halt and
allow parley.”

Faramond
stopped not more than ten feet away from us.  From this distance, I could see
the enraged expression on his face gradually give way to a frustrated dismay
through his open helm.  We stood staring at each other for a few seconds.

“I
guess you all know each other,” Mei's dry voice came from behind us.  She stood
in her nightgown her rune sword out but lowered in a more casual stance than I
thought perhaps was warranted.

“I
accept your request for parley,” I finally stated and stepped to one side of
the door.  “Come in and be welcome.”  It sounded a bit formal but was apparently
enough to diffuse the situation as the elf woman and her human tank walked
slowly through the door.  As I warily followed behind them I noted the woman
eyes roamed curiously around the living room as if she was expecting something
different.  Faramond walked alertly and stiffly as if he assumed we would
transform into ravening beasts and fall on his mistress.

“Mei,
this is the elf Estella and her champion Faramond.”  I gestured to the two and
then waved them to the couch as I took my own seat.  I was a little bit
claustrophobic in the room with four people.  One of them almost the size of an
ogre.

“Álfar,”
she corrected me.  I turned to Mei and interpreted.

“Magical
elves that originally came from Norway.”

“We
really aren’t elves and we only visited Norway briefly several centuries ago,”
she corrected again.  Faramond maintained a grim silence, though his eyebrow
occasionally twitched.  Presumably because I was too familiar with his elf.  “We
haven't had any reason to be back since then though.”

“So
are you the source of the tales of the Sidhe,” Mei asked with an arched
eyebrow.

The
álfar gave a vague look of contempt.  The first non-vapid expression I had seen
on her face so far.  “No.  Those barbarians have nothing to do with our people
any more than elves do.”  I made a mental note that the various races likely
parted ways enough millennia ago that they considered one another to be not
related.  “They were a most treacherous people then and most likely remain
unchanged and unrepentant today.”

“What
did they do to get on your bad side?” I wondered aloud.  She took the question
to be in earnest as she answered it in all seriousness.

“They
had a tendency to invite guests to their world under the mound and then torment
them if they crossed their arbitrary rules of hospitality.  The mortals have
had to put up with their whims, but we went to war with them and schooled them
in true hospitality.”

“Ah,
so they revised their laws?”

She
shrugged, “I have no idea.  They were forced to pay wergild and then we left this
world as our business took us elsewhere.  We take vows of hospitality seriously,
but we can't watch over a barbarous race to ensure reasonable behavior.”

“Interesting,”
I mumbled.  I wondered if the Sidhe were still around.  If their world was
another dimension rather than merely a pocket dimension attached to this one
then it may have a similar effect as crossing a portal I hoped would have on my
anchor rune.  Of course, if they only lived in Ireland it didn't help me at
all.  I couldn't even leave the damn city.  “So what brings you here?”

“Well,
we traveled home through the World Tree and...” she began.

“Wait
a minute!  You said the portal wouldn't open for five years!”

“Well,
that one won't so we used a different one.  The Tree has many roots.”  She
pronounced this as if it was a truism retold many times.  I massaged my
temples.  Maybe I shouldn't have dismissed her as a useless flake and walked
off.  I reviewed what little information I had on her culture in my head. 
There wasn't much there, but hosts and guest rights were taken very seriously
in her culture.

“Would
you like something to eat and drink,” I offered.  Mei looked at me suspiciously,
as did Faramond.  I sent a challenging glare in their direction.  I could be
polite, I just usually had other things on my mind.  Things more important than
guests.

“Are
you offering us guest right,” the álfar asked formally.  I had hit on something
in her culture.

“I
do,” I offered hesitantly.  I wasn't sure if I was going to regret this any
less than those ancient Sidhe had.

“I
thank and we accept,” there was a slight shimmer in the air and I felt a weak
geas take hold.  Great a magically binding contract.  It was not strong, likely
it just alerted to the breaking of an agreement rather than enforcing it.  Mei
shivered slightly as if she felt it in the room.

I
got up and went to the kitchen and started preparing some appetizers.  I think
I mentioned I am a decent cook and I had the fixings of a decent meal going
before I went back to the living room with tea and lemonade.  Mei and Estella
were gaily chatting while the knight glowered.  I stood in the doorway blinking
at the pair of women.  Apparently Mei was more high spirited with other
supernatural females than men.  I coughed lightly and set down the tray and
glasses.