Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Someone gasped quietly in the sudden silence. Kyle had been too preoccupied with his internal musings to realize that conversation around him had stopped. Not just his sister, Jones, and that other chick that worked with his sister. Oh, yeah, Alex. No. Not just them. Everyone in the observation room.

“ahem.” Someone cleared their voice behind him as the Warlock of the Archivist focused intently on the activity below them. It took a second pointed “Ahem.” Followed by his sister calling out to him impatiently.

“Kyle.” A shoe hit him in the back, and he turned around, put upon.

“Well, that’s hardly professional.” His confused scowl was entirely genuine. Sam looked up to the ceiling making an exasperated gesture and mouthing ‘really God’.

“You just kind of dropped a bomb on us.” The blank look on his face spoke volumes about his thought process. Or more accurately the fact that he didn’t think he was the only one who’d come to that particular conclusion.

“What?” Alex and Jones narrowed their eyes at Kyle then glanced at one another as if to telepathically say ‘is this guy for real’. Of course, neither had telepathic powers, they just felt that maybe, Kyle was pulling one over on them.

“Do you care to elaborate, Mister Wattkins.” One of the guys in lab coats observing questioned him politely before Sam could tear into her brother. “Perhaps share your insight as a representative of the museum?” Kyle sighed. It had been said so politely but it was clear that a few of the other observers thought that he was being over cautious in recommending no magic use on or around the corpse now that the arcanes had been contained.

“Something killed that dragon while it was inside the moving truck. Right? That’s why it’s all squished up like it is and bursting out of the vehicle.” Like he normally did when explaining things, he’d taken on his lecturer voice and started gesturing with his hands for emphasis.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean that whatever killed it is in the van with it.” Someone protested disdainfully. Not the guy who had politely but sort of condescendingly asked for clarification.

“While that could be true,” Kyle asserted confidently, “it’s not. Think about what we know.” He began pacing as he spoke, too energized by the theory and his need to see if he was right to keep still while discussing it. “The little dragon in the van died, most of its magic was sucked out of it. Enough to kill it almost instantly so it wasn’t able to flee. We know it transformed upon death and reverted back to its natural form because New York city doesn’t have a high enough AMD normally to support a dragon in its natural form. It’s kept that way on purpose with the magic collectors.”

Here, he paused, as a new thought occurred to him. Had the overwhelming of the magic collectors been deliberate? Had the goal been to make New York safe for a dragon to rampage? No. No. He shook his head in denial. That wasn’t it. The pause had been only momentary, and he continued quickly.

“Something sucked the magic out of the first dragon, killing it instantly. Then that accumulated magic was released almost instantly also from whatever holding container or artifact had stolen it. The explosive wave sent the second dragon flying through a building while still in human form.” His sister had been listening avidly and pitched in here.

“You’re right about that. It had to have still been in a smaller form because the hole in the building wasn’t large enough for the corpse that was inside.” She shuddered as the memory of – everything – tried to assert itself into her conscious mind.

“Exactly!” Spinning, Kyle pointed to his sister excitedly, now that he had others thinking along the same lines as him. “The wave of energy crippled the larger dragon and sent it flying. It died in the building. Its magical structure weakened and its arcanes leeching off faster than they should have. Because even for two dragon corpses, the city being instantly flooded in Prometheus Purple and Pink levels? That’s not natural.”

“It should have taken hours or even days.” One of the lab coats stated as he thought it out. And Kyle wondered why he was the only one in the room who had come to this conclusion. “This wasn’t an attack.”

“Not on New York.” Kyle clarified. “Not intentionally. But I think that whatever happened was intended to kill those dragons. And they were after whatever it was that did it.”

“Someone intentionally killed two dragons on U.S. soil.” Alex finally pipped up. “So, we’ve got dragon hunters? Great.”

“No.” Jones corrected her before Kyle could. “No. The dragons were after whatever was in the van. They weren’t fleeing. Because why would one be outside and the other inside? Why would the one inside die first and the one outside not only die second but retain more of its destabilized magic?”

It was always gratifying to Kyle when someone understood a lesson without him having to spoon feed the explanation to them. Jones was a smart guy and Kyle was happy to have been partnered with him for this task.

“There’s something in that truck that can kill dragons. And the dragons were after it.” Suddenly the other observers were keener on the goings on of the refrigerated and magically insulated warehouse beyond the observation window. Alex was quick too, but Sam was the one who hit the nail on the head as she spoke up next.

“Unregistered, undocumented dragons.” She thought for a few moments about that. “No one’s been able to identify either of them.”

“So, where did they come from? How did they get into New York? How did they find out about whatever it was that they were after?” A grim and unfriendly smile curved up the corners of Kyle’s mouth. It was a puzzle. A mystery. Possibly even a conspiracy. Something that would make or break a young warlock’s career.

Why did this have to be his first artifact?

A storm of emotions roiled through Kyle as one piece of metal after another was carefully cut away from the dragon body by workers in magically sealed hazmat suits. His hands itched to go down there and help. It would be so simple. With the abundance of magic flooding that room he’d be able to lift and manipulate all the mass so easily. But he wouldn’t be able to protect himself from the harmful levels of arcanes in there. So, he bided his time tapping a foot impatiently.

And occasionally pacing with glances out the window to check progress.

They were close now. A final sheet of metal had been lifted away by a winch set up in the rafters of the building. Now to unfurl the corpse from its compacted state. The coils of the body were too heavy to pass a strap under for attaching to the winch, so a forklift enchanted to protect the objects it lifted from damage was oh so very carefully levering an arm under the body to lift a portion of it.

It was a slow and delicate process. No one wanted to damage the body any more than it already was. Because being accused of abuse of a dragon corpse was not something anyone present wanted to be accused of. However, this examination needed to be done. They had to know what had caused all the chaos and destruction of the day before. A city was reeling and there were hundreds, if not thousands, dead because of this poor dead being.

“They’re too close.” Kyle warned the scientists whose facility they were using.

“The workers need to guide the – ” The head scientist whose name Kyle had yet to bother remembering tried to protest.

“Someone is going to die if they don’t back away from that corpse. If the body is moving, no one not in a protective machine should be near it.” He turned away from the man he’d been addressing and glowered at the busy workers swarming over the body like ants. They obviously weren’t all just there to move the body and remove the vehicle pieces. Clearly some were from various agencies trying to get at whatever was hidden in there first. Maybe make a snatch and grab before anyone would notice.

“Back it up. Anyone not operating equipment move back while the body is in motion.” A voice announced to the group in the warehouse. Kyle watched them stop and look up at the speakers in the ceiling to listen. Some of the workers surrounding the creature backed away. Others edged closer. The warlock of the archivist eyed them.

With a half turn toward his sister, Jones, and Alex, he gave a little jerk of his head. Nothing overt. Just enough for Sam to notice. She in turn nudged her partner Alex before standing and brushed past Jones in such a way as to get his attention. In short order they were standing together joining Kyle at the window.

One of the great things about Sam was that Kyle didn’t have to say much of anything to get her on the same page as him. They’d been two peas in a pod, the best of friends when they’d been younger. Their minds might not work the same way, but they knew each other almost well enough that sometimes it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.

“Some of them not only didn’t listen to that announcement,” Kyle murmured “they got closer when others pulled out of their way.” Sam gritted her teeth at his words.

“Who the fuck would interfere with a joint F.B.I. and museum operation?” She hissed quietly. “That’s insane.” As a reply, Kyle pointed.

“It doesn’t matter. They are going to die in five…four…three…”

The worker’s actions needed to be slow and respectful, and Kyle needed to maintain his patience which was wearing thin. He’d tried to warn them. Tried to tell them that they needed to back up… But did anyone listen to him?

As the forklift raised the coil of dragon flesh Kyle had indicated as the best place to start lifting, other coils of the dragon’s long body began to shift and fall.  Workers who noticed this fled further away. Some fled swiftly. Others didn’t notice in time. The person manning the PA was shouting a warning. It was too late.

Part of the dragon corpse drifted sideways in an almost slow-motion looking fall. Two fleeing workers were knocked down. One had just been clipped, the other had been crushed beneath tons of weight. Chaos. Shouting. Hazmat-suited workers converging on the pair trying to help the trapped man who Kyle already knew was dead.

“At least one of them survived.” Alex commented as the one who’d been clipped accepted a hand up.

“No, he didn’t.” It was Jones who had spoken, and Kyle was relieved that he hadn’t had to be the one to say it. He just nodded and closed his eyes as the first scream started. Alex had looked to Jones quizzically at first, and then back to the scene below them when she heard the first scream. “His suit was compromised.” Jones added.

The screams were short. Oh, it felt like they’d lasted hours to Kyle. Building and building up inside his head in a most unpleasant way. The sounds chasing themselves around the inside of his skull rising in pitch and terror until they ended on a gurgle.

“At least the mutation resulted in death and not…” Sam hadn’t been able to continue her sentence. 

“Oh, Gods.” She blanched, face ashen under the caramel tan. “Too soon.” Her stomach heaved and she bent over to catch her breath, placing her head between her knees to reduce the nausea rising in her.

“I tried to warn them.” Kyle watched the workers swarming and moving quickly, rushing to save people who could not be saved. Hours and hours later, the dragon corpse was fully unraveled, and the human corpses had been removed in their own protective containers. Then and only then was Kyle able to get his first glimpse at the device he was here for.

“Time to suit up and take a closer look at it.”

Forty-seven minutes. That’s how long it took Kyle to suit up with a tech running a third check on his magically insulated hazmat suit. He knew he’d gotten it on correctly, but now it just felt like they were stalling for time. After seeing how careless bad actors could be in their attempts to pilfer the artifact right out from underneath their noses, Sam had insisted that one of the Magic Crimes division agents be watching the device at all times.

Kyle, for once, wholeheartedly agreed with his sister’s prudence. Whatever it was, it was dangerous, and it belonged in the museum’s vaults. It did not belong in some C.I.A., or N.S.A. black site. Or worse, with some DARPA military contractor trying to weaponize it in the name of Democracy. Behind his faceplate, Kyle scowled as he thought about what had happened with Anna the day before and sent a silent prayer of thanks to his mom’s patron.

“Enough, all ready.” Kyle groused at the technician fussing over his seals and swearing conspicuously in front of the security cameras that everything was good. “We’re ready.” He and Jones were joined by Alex and Sam in the first airlock before entering the warehouse floor.

“That took forever.” Sam chimed in a brightly friendly tone. “Someone double check my seals.” She requested quietly. “The tech helping me was suspiciously thorough.”

“Mine too. Please.” Jones requested in his ever-polite drawl.

“Same here.” Alex added and Kyle’s suspicions cemented in place.

“Since all of us had the same experience, let’s double check each other’s suit seals.” Kyle performed a simple spell to check the integrity of the suits and the seals. Not all of them had badly sealed connections. But Alex and Jones would have had a bad time of it if they’d gone in without the last-minute double check with trusted colleagues to fix the issue.

“Why us? Wouldn’t Kyle or Sam be a more critical target?” The bleak look of dismay on Alex’s face had Sam patting her arm in a conciliatory manner.

“It’s because we’re the only ones who would be believable.” The Magicorps soldier answered before Kyle could. He found Alex a bit obnoxious and therefore was kind of annoyed that he had to explain so many things to her.

“How’s that?” Sam’s partner moped as Kyle opened the door to the second airlock. Walking through, he detached his suit from one airline and attached it to another as he moved out of the way for everyone else to join him.

“Kyle works in these suits all the time in the lab at the museum. Sam’s likely been using them for years herself. Though I’ve trained in similar suits, I’ve never worked in this kind before, and you are new enough to your position that you’ve probably only ever worn one in training.”

Alex colored suddenly, her face blooming pinkly and she lowered her eyes. Looking at the ground she wiggled a toe nervously before looking up at Sam and blushing more.

“Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.” The young woman’s response stopped Kyle up short, and he gave her a keen look before glancing at his sister. His sister had frozen, turned her head slowly, and was staring at her partner with wide incredulous eyes. This was not the impudent, obnoxious, know-it-all smart ass that Sam and Gleipnir always complained about.

This was…

You know what?

Kyle had no idea what this was.

Jones seemed to actually think it was nice. He flashed Alex a charming smile for a moment until he saw the way Alex was looking at Sam. Then his smile froze on his face and his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Kyle almost didn’t notice it. Yet he had. So, it probably hadn’t been subtle. Whatever that was would have to wait.

“Okay, people.” He interrupted the strange interplay going on around him.  “Let’s get to work.” The second door of the first airlock closed behind them. Kyle waited for a complete seal and double checked everyone’s air hoses before opening which would be the third airlock door they were walking through.

A third set of airlines was waiting for them in the sterile environment. It felt weird to Kyle being the one in charge with his older sister around. But she didn’t make a fuss as he insisted on making sure everyone’s airlines were connected correctly and their suits were properly pressurized and sealed.

“Intercoms on, everyone.” They switched their intercoms on so that they could communicate with those who had remained behind in the observation room. Then he finally turned to face the gore oozing from the dragon corpse and retrieve the artifact he’d been sent here for.

In one hand, he held a large, magically insulated retrieval case with the museum’s logo on it. Jones was carrying another in one of his hands. This was it. Their first artifact was mere feet away. Okay, more like several hundred feet away. But it was there.

The floor was a solid sheet of white. It had the feel of tile without the interrupted gaps between tiles that would have interfered with the building’s magical insulation. Around the edges of the room and up the large white painted support beams, magical runes of preservation and protection glowed softly. Off to one side, all the metal pieces of the vehicle that had been removed from around the dragon corpse were stacked in what seemed like a very small pile. Probably for later examination or if they’d been saturated with enough magic, for use in creating future magical items.

But in the center of the room, uncoiled as gently as it was possible to do with something that much larger than a human being. Long and gangly, the body was laid out along the floor. Though it was no longer looped over itself, it was sort of squiggled up to save room. There was another one coming after all. And that one would require even more space than this one.

There wasn’t room for his magic book holster inside his suit. Which was fine. The magical insulation of the suit would have prevented the codex from functioning properly on the objects outside of the suit. But the hazmat suit was too large to wear his book holster over. Kyle’s codex instead dangled from one shoulder where the holster had been carefully hooked so it would be close at hand for use. 

Slightly intimidated by the sight of the dragon waiting for him, Kyle patted his codex with one hand to reassure himself of its presence. Satisfied, the apprentice warlock squared his shoulders and trudged off to the body in the distance.

Cool air whispered into his helmet and each breath exhaled echoed loudly in his ears. It was just nerves. What if he was wrong? What if he’d miscalculated what he thought was going on? But no. It was there. He’d seen it.

Kyle was careful in his approach. The ground was slippery with gore and though the larger pieces of the truck had been separated out from the dragon’s flesh, the smaller bits had been left in place. It wouldn’t do, to have come so close only to fall and puncture his hazmat suit. No, that wouldn’t be good at all.

The lights overhead were bright and a cool white in color. Magically hardened electric lights to avoid interaction with any enchantments or magi-tech in the wreckage. Once again Kyle marveled at how perfect this location was for their examination. Almost like the U.S. government or one of its agencies or contractors had anticipated the need for examining a dragon corpse.

Okay. The warlock was able to admit he was being unfair even in his own mind. It was only prudent to have this kind of facility when things like dragons and monsters roamed the world. It was really, highly unlikely that some shadow agency had offed a couple of dragons and had this site prepped just for that incident. Probably. He was being paranoid.

The dragon’s scales gleamed in the bright light. At least, those scales not covered in dirt and bloody flesh, or ichor gleamed pearlescent metallic colors over the deep-blue green of the base. A teeny part of his brain whispered at him to snag a few to take back to the museum for scientific and official museum business only.

Sam snorted behind him.

“I saw that.” She murmured through their comms. And Kyle pretended to ignore her and he approached a crushed box on the twisted remains of the former truck bed.

“What did you see?” Alex pipped up like the obnoxious tagalong that Kyle found her to be.

“Kyle, briefly fantasizing about how useful it would be to have a couple of dragon scales in the museum’s private collection.” Alex’s eyes widened and her lips formed an ‘O’ of surprise. Jones chuckled; he’d been smart enough to keep his mouth shut as he’d been wondering how technically – on a scale of one-my-momma’s-disappointed-in-me to ten-there’s-a-special-place-in-hell-for-corpse-looters – evil it would be to pocket a few himself.

“Nobody’s taking pieces of the corpse. It’s going to be repatriated back to their kin.” Kyle interrupted before anyone could start one of the bicker fests that he realized started up when he and his sister were together. Then he added with less surety, “Probably.”

“If it hadn’t been crushed, it wouldn’t look like much of anything would it?”

“Under statement of the century, Sis.” The warlock turned his body so he could grin at her as they now stood in a line before the device or artifact. “But that’s how it usually is with these magi-tech things.”

“Right!” Sam groused, clearly aggrieved. “Not quite an artifact, but not just technology. I know it’s my specialty, but the way some people cobble them together as if they are two separate fields of knowledge? Look at this piece of crap!” She gestured angrily. “No elegance, no grace, no cooperative synergy. Just two completely disparate parts forced into a semi-functional whole.”

The rant had Kyle grinning. It was a common rant from his sister, something the young man had heard over and over again through the years. And she was right. A plain metal box that had been crushed so the insides had spilled out from tears in it. There were the remains of a metal crate lined with magically insulating glass lying, also crushed, a few feet away. Styrofoam insulation had been mashed into powdery bits, tinged pink in some places when it mingled with flesh and blood.

“It is an ugly piece of work.” Jones agreed. “Watch your step, there’s broken glass around.” Murmurs of acknowledgement came through the comms.

“Let’s get it packed up.” The Warlock of the Archivist opened his case and placed a clean, magically insulated sheet several feet away to lay the open case upon. He wanted to make sure that he wasn’t covering any piece of the device-slash-artifact that he needed to collect.

They worked quickly and efficiently after collection tools were disbursed among the four of them. Extra magically insulating gloves were placed over their gloves to protect their suits from damage and contamination. Tongs with magically insulated handles also.

“Where to start?” Alex asked with doe-eyed eagerness.

“I was thinking we secure the main box first then the smaller pieces that had burst out in the crush.” It seemed like the obvious choice to Kyle who was most used to archaeological excavations

“No, you need to secure the small pieces first, you dolt.” His sister smacked the back of his head then her eyes bugged, and her mouth gapped as she realized the faux-pas she made with her reflexive big sister action.

“That’s insane. No one does that.” Kyle’s response caused Sam’s eyes to widen again, but this time in surprise and a little bit of confusion.

“So that you know where they were in relation to the box to make reassembly easier.” Her explanation heavily implied ‘duh stupid’ as well as a clear superiority of her knowledge over his.

“Oh.” Kyle laughed at his sister. “You’ve never worked with a Warlock of the Archivist and think we have to do everything by hand.” He flicked a hand dismissively on one shoulder as if getting rid of the thought. “We don’t use these kinds of plebeian methods.”

“I…uh…” Jones hesitant voice came over the comms and Sam, Alex, and Kyle looked up from their sibling bickering. “I’ve never used these before.” The soldier admitted hesitantly. “What do I do?”

“Oh, here.” Alex offered. “I’ll show you.” Alex and Sam were familiar with crime scene investigation and retrieval of magi-tech devices. It was their profession and what they’d trained for. Sam had been doing it for years now. Kyle also had training in artifact retrieval. But Jones… his specialization was more in neutralization than preservation and retrieval.

“Oh, Jones.” Kyle commented. “I totally forgot that you were… weren’t… a nerd like us.” He gestured between himself and his sister, conspicuously leaving out Alex with a dubious glance in her direction. Then he shrugged as Alex showed Jones how to pull the special gloves over Jones’ protective suit and secure them in place.

“Now you look like a proper museum representative,” Kyle smirked and Jones made a rude gesture while grinning back at him. “Let’s do this.” He gestured for them to stand back and he held out a hand with his codex hovering over it. Its tether swung slowly between the book and his shoulder where it was secured. “Archive Query. Archive Input Sequence.”

The codex, a rather plain and old-looking leather-bound book, opened slowly. Pages, yellowed with age, flipped by. Mysteries and secrets of the ages flashed brief glimpses teasingly at observers before the codex settled on fresh, newer looking blank pages singed the slight browning of almost scorched around the edges. Then, those pages flickered to life with a faint golden glow that gradually intensified. Jones wondered if the pages had always been like that, or if he hadn’t noticed during the desperate fighting the day before. Kyle was frowning slightly in concentration and the soldier chose not to interrupt and ask.

“Identify and Locate, Parts of the Whole.  Three-dimensional Construct with Manipulative Reconstruction. Save to Archive.”

Kyle pointed at the artifact.

As he spoke the spell command sequence, the pale golden glow from the pages intensified. When he pointed, the glowing magic of the archive gently and in a distinctly non-threatening manner then reached out of the book. It landed on the major components of the device they had come to collect. Then other places among the bloody floor and ruined flesh of the dragon began to glow. Smaller bits and pieces that none of the group had yet identified as belonging to the artifact.

“Now, that’s useful,” Jones murmured in appreciation. In another area of the enormous warehouse one of the workers began shouting in panic as a glow emanated from one of the pockets on his hazmat suit.

“Yes. Sam agreed. Very useful indeed.” Her wand was out and pointed threateningly at the thief. Jones joined her in pulling his wand and they both hurried over to corner the thief. More security personnel were closing in on the suspicious individual who had already put his hands up in surrender.

“I’ve always thought so.” Kyle didn’t smile. He hadn’t been surprised.

Kyle ignored the standoff between Sam, Jones, and the jackass trying to sneak off with just part of the device. Like, come on, did that jerk not get that he was dealing with someone from the museum? He, like every mage trained to work at the museum, had spells specifically to prevent theft from their retrieval sites and ensure the recovery of entire artifacts no matter how many pieces they were in.

Which got… interesting… sometimes.

There were stories that got shared with all the new trainees at the museum. One heard things around the water cooler so to speak. Now he’d have his own story to share about how someone tried to make off with a piece of artifact and his spell had revealed it. If only it were something to smile about and not people being disappointingly greedy.

Oh, well.

He got to work collecting pieces of the artifact as he activated his levitation ability. As a Warlock of the Archivist, that particular ability was intrinsic to his nature. One might wonder how super dope telekinesis powers were related to what was in practice being a glorified record keeper. Kyle wouldn’t, but one might if they didn’t know what all being an archivist entailed. Warlocks of the Archivist were keepers and retrievers of knowledge.

That was a simplistic way of putting it, but there it was. Sure, with new knowledge an archivist might find everything they wanted to know on a convenient database, or printed out neatly in a book somewhere. But some records were destroyed, mangled, or damaged. Telekinesis allowed a warlock to lift an item in its totality without applying pressure to any one part to avoid damaging it further. Or applying in just specific locations to hold it together as a whole while examining it. Virtual reconstruction without getting contaminants that could destroy old papyrus rubbing off from fingers? 

Sure thing. How about avoiding contact with dangerous unknown substances or unknown enchantments that might be on an artifact or a spell scroll?

Telekinesis was part and parcel with the position. Kyle had magic before he’d made his warlock pact with his patron. Not great magic, not even in high magic areas because he hadn’t know enough big spells to use that magic. Except for the divine fire spell that Michael accidentally taught them that one time, but that didn’t count.

The shouting had settled down over by Sam and Jones and not long afterward, Kyle heard their footsteps coming back, presumably with the missing piece of the artifact. He assumed that it was Sam and Jones because Alex glanced up and didn’t seem concerned. The hazmat suits they were all wearing contained each person’s aura so Kyle couldn’t recognize his siter that way. Which was weird, it was weird not being able to sense her aura when it was something he was so familiar with. His telekinesis would have also been blocked by the suit if not for the fact that it was augmented by his warlock power and his intentions could be commanded through his book.

“Kyle,” Sam’s voice came over the speaker in his suit and he felt that dopamine hit of being right about something that he had inferred. “Catch.” Instinctively Kyle’s body jerked around to be ready for the small object. He barely managed to refocus his magic, catching the small flesh-stained object and placing the piece gently within the growing collection of other debris.

“While I appreciate your faith in my skills dear sister, I would really prefer you not test them with something so important next time,” Kyle responded dryly. Despite the near fumble, he did smile at Sam’s Sam-ness.

“Well, I didn’t want to keep holding it. The thing killed a dragon, Kyle. Besides, I really doubt my toss would’ve done more damage to it than getting blasted across the street by an expanding dragon corpse.” Sam reasoned while gesturing at a piece of shrapnel lodged deep enough into the road that Kyle’s telekinesis had yet to recover it.

“Road?” Kyle’s face took on a look of confused concern at the word. “What road… oh.” His gaze had followed three sets of fingerings pointing on the arms of three different people to another glowing spot he hadn’t gotten around to yet. A large chunk of asphalt was propped vertically against a waist-sized pile of other chunks of asphalt. “Huh?!” He cocked his head at what was clearly some of the wrecked road from the incident site. There were reflectors, lane separation lines, and the magic collector grid were visible on it. “I did not see that.”

“How did you miss that?” Sam scoffed incredulously with furrowed brows.

“It was organized before I got here and wasn’t worked on while I was watching?” He suggested with a shrug. “But now that I see it, I concede your point about the… throwing of things.”

It was a fair point.  Besides that, even if the random component had fallen and broken further, Kyle and the museum were likely the people most qualified in the world to piece it back together again. Way better than the king's horses, the museum was. He worked quickly after that, his sister, Jones, and that – that Alex person pointing glows out helpfullyas he went.

“Over here, Kyle.”

“Another piece there.”

“I think this is something, oh, never mind.”

That last bit made Kyle grit his teeth and seethe with irritation. The freaking noob his sister had brought with her instead of a functional agent. But alas, there was nothing to be done for it. They’d just finished wrapping up the gathering when a rhythmic alarm sounded and lights near the tall doors of the sealed room began strobing in time with it.

“What’s that?” Kyle questioned the observation room through his suit comms. There was a quick crackle of magical interference as someone keyed on their mic to respond. That was concerning, there shouldn’t have been magical interference with them inside their suits in a sealed room.

“The second dragon has arrived; they’re bringing it through the big airlock.” Oh. That’s what was wrong with the comms.

“Acknowledged.” He picked up his case and made sure to set the location spell in his book before gesturing for his companions to follow him to the smaller air lock.

“Can’t we wait for Gleipnir?” Sam inquired wistfully. Which Kyle understood, it had probably been years since they’d been apart for this long.

“Gleipnir wouldn’t want you in here when he releases that thing,” Kyle assured her. “It’s suppressed by him and it’s still glitching out the electronics through two layers of magical insulation. Which is either a sign of how powerful it is or is a sign that this facility’s insulation sucks. Either way, we should get out of here.”

As he spoke, the massive door on the far side of the giant room began to rise.

“Puppies and kittens are fluFFY AND SWEET. WHY DON’T WE COOK THEM UP AS A SWEeet treat. Mmmm mmm mm mmmmmm” Gleipnir’s singing voice had started out faint, suddenly boomed in volume as the large door between them opened wider, and then became muffled again as the small airlock leading to the changing room closed after the group had shuffled through as they vacated the chamber holding the dragon remains.

Jones’ eyes had widened, and his head turned slowly to glare with perplexity in Gleipnir’s general direction. His face was a general mask of what-the-actual-fuck and Kyle spared a moment to smirk ruefully at the poor soldier who didn’t know, that was how most people felt around Gleipnir. With the door closed behind them Kyle made for the small laboratory that was prepared for them, weaving amongst his companions to avoid tangling their air lines.

Now that they had the parts, they would need to clean them of the dangerous dragon bits. Ooorrr… the thought flashed through his mind. It would be useful for the museum to have dragon parts for enchanting in the fut– No. He shook his head. What was he thinking? That would be wrong.

“Wattkins!” A sharp bark came over their comms. Both Kyle and Sam’s heads jerked up at the angry male voice. The siblings questioningly pantomimed to each other in silent inquiry as to which one of them was in trouble this time. Alex was gesturing a general ‘what-the-heck’ at her partner as she tried to figure out what kind of trouble she hadn’t succeeded in keeping them out of. “What are you doing interfering in my operation? I thought I had you on suppression and cleanup.”

Ah.  Kyle knew who that was now. Malice suffused his countenance as Sam and Alex ceased their unspoken back and forth conversation of facial expressions, angry mouthed words, and short violent gestures.

“Son of a bitch.” Jones murmured and the other three turned to him, surprised that the stoic Magicorps soldier had been the first to break the silence.

“Excuse you? Who is this?” The military officer who must have somehow blustered his way into the observation room demanded over the comm thinking he had any kind of say in the matter.

“You’re that soon to be court martialed idiot who sent Anna to be interrogated by those Daedalus Engineering jackasses.” Sam’s nostrils flared with rage and Alex felt the adrenalin rush that was always triggered when her partner’s eyebrow began to twitch with anger.

“What? Did? You? Say?” Each word was cold and precise, suffused with the simmering temper that the older Wattkins daughter was so well known for. Before anyone could respond, a roar came through the communications systems followed by an angry bellow.

“HE DID WHAT, TO MY BABY SISTER?” Gleipnir’s howling anger vibrated through the walls and floor of the building. The vibration quickly became a tremor as Gleipnir released the massive weight and magic of the monster corpse he was containing. “FACE ME MORTAL FOR YOUR JUDGEMENT IS NEIGH!”

Muffled screams reached the ears of the four in the secured laboratory as the remaining workers in the warehouse fled Gleipnir’s wrath. Sam smothered a harsh bark of laughter and put a hand to her head smearing a little crimson smudge across her faceplate. It would have been funnier if she wasn’t so upset herself.

“Who…? What…?” The sheer panic in the fellow would have been funny if not for the fact that Kyle was infuriated with this blowhard. “What is that thing? Why is the suppression equipment reanimating?” At that, Sam rolled her eyes.

“Oh, Jesus Christ. He really is a moron.” She murmured to her brother. “I bet whatever branch he belongs to would give us medals for violently removing him from the chain of command.” Both Kyle and Jones snorted as he officer rambled on.

“Wattkins. Is this your doing? Cease and desist. That’s an order.” The building was now shaking hard as Gleipnir’s wrath ratcheted up the arcanes that were filling the warehouse morgue. This time Sam rolled her eyes so hard that she might have actually sprained something because she stopped mid eyeroll with a wince and put a hand to her face again.

“None of us are in your chain of command you imbecile. This is an FBI case, we were on scene first, take it up with my superiors when communication is restored. That’s not magic suppression equipment manifesting a monster, it’s a sentient warlock pact item. Gleipnir. And lastly – ”

“Lastly,” Kyle chimed in as he activated the authority spell in his museum identification badge, a spell created by some intelligent soul with foresight a plenty specifically for dealing with asshats like this jerk, “The Museum has been called for consultation and this is not the purview of our experts under the aegis of the Magicorps. You will not interfere.”

“And he’s about to lose his job and Lucifer’s got a special place waiting for him in all the hells because he messed with an Archangel’s Goddaughter.” Jones murmured with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Those words brightened up Sam’s dark scowl.

“Really?” She inquired happily.

“REALLY?” Gleipnir chimed from the beyond their sight.

“Watched the main man lay the smackdown myself.” He reassured them. “Should have seen the look on the interrogators’ faces when the literal G-O-D started walking towards the portal to intervene. I think at least two guys fucking pissed themselves.”

“Nioce!” Sam offered the Magicorps soldier a bloody high five that splattered a little onto Kyle. Alex managed to smoothly sidestep out of the way.

“Nioce!” Came Gleipnir’s more reasonable tone over the comms. “Hey, I’m coming in through the airlock to get cleaned off.” The sounds of distant airlock mechanisms came through their comms as Kyle started speaking to his sister.

“On a side note,” Kyle interjected. “Did you know that heaven has an attorney?”

“What? Really? No way!” They had all turned towards the airlock to the decontamination chamber to go meet up with Gleipnir.

“For real. I didn’t see it myself, but Jones told me all about it.” Sam spared Jones a skeptical glance.

“On my wand.” Jones placed a fist over his heart in the formal warlocks pledge of truth and Sam gave a respectful nod.

“Holy shit!” She paused at the door as they cycled through.

“Yeah. I’m surprised mom never told us about this. Because an attorney sure would have come in handy to deal with – ” Kyle’s words halted abruptly and he zipped his mouth shut as his sister broke in with a threat.

“You will stop that sentence right there or I will make you suffer in ways even demons cannot imagine.” Jones looked at the pair of siblings in alarm but didn’t say anything.

“That’s the smart move.” Alex assured Kyle with a pat on the shoulder as she moved past him into the cycling airlock door.

“That’s my Sammy.” Gleipnir chimed in happily as he wrapped his tail around her waist and nuzzled his head against her shoulder.

“What is going on?” The officer who had finally gotten his voice back after Kyle’s spell had silenced him growled over the comms. “What are you doing? You can’t just come into my…”

“You are a stubborn one. Not sure how you slipped through the mental health screenings to get to your rank.” Grimacing, Kyle reactivated the authority spell. Sometimes the spell didn’t work as well on people who were really stupid or who had inflated egos to the point of it being a personality disorder. 

“I’m with The National Museum of Unnatural Science and History. This device is under our purview, and we will be taking it with us for examination in the appropriate facilities guarded by the Magicorps.”

Silence.

Okay. Not complete silence.

A muffled sound of anger, as if someone were trying to speak but there was something covering their mouth or preventing it from opening. Lots of grunts and some shrieks too.

“That should hold for a bit.” He let himself into the decontamination chamber as they had all been walking that way. “I hope it holds until we leave.”

Showers started, water infused with magic nullifying and absorbing particles washed off their suits. They were a mess. A big one. Awful and gross and probably in danger of magical overexposure if the decontamination facilities didn’t work like they were supposed to.

Should I really be that concerned about magic exposure? After what I did yesterday, what are the odds that I’m really okay? He shook his head and banished the thought. It would be fine. The codex would have warned him if he’d – wouldn’t it have? It would be fine. He checked his codex making sure that it was still attached to his suit. The pact item was very well constructed and protected so it shouldn’t suffer any damage from the decontamination shower.

A faintly visible field repelled most of the water raining down around the book. But did the surface seem as if it was ever so slightly damp? No. He was being paranoid.

Everything will be fine.

They’d left the facility with no resistance. In fact, someone had called the asshole’s commanding officers and let them know where he was, and Kyle was gratified to see him being escorted out of the building in cuffs by some very angry looking military police. Jones found that probably as gratifying as Kyle, Sam, and Alex. The siblings parted ways at the helicopter that was waiting to take Kyle and Jones back to the museum with their precious cargo with vague promises to get in touch.

Of course they were going to be in touch, they would be working the case together probably. And Sam had to let the museum take the device because while her forensic lab was good, it wasn’t as great as what Kyle had access to. So, she grudgingly conceded custody of the device to her brother’s lab. Gleipnir was patting her hair consolingly as they watched her younger sibling fly away.

“Okay. I guess we better report back to the office and write up our reports.” Sam stuck her hands in her pockets. It was dark. Very dark. Lights from whatever city they were in glowed beautifully along the horizon. Probably near midnight now that she thought about it and she looked at her watch to see that it was in fact still fried from being exposed to Prometheus Purple levels of AMD.

“We’re a bit far from the office, Sam.” There was a tone to Alex’s voice that warned Sam that maybe she’d not focused entirely on things she should have.

“Where are we?”

“About halfway between Baltimore and New Jersey.” Sam felt her shoulders slump at her partner’s words. She’d been about to suggest that they just head home if it was too late.

“Damn, that’s a bit of a drive. I was really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for a bit.”

“Our beds might not still be there when we get back to New York.” Alex had turned toward their agency vehicle and waved Sam and Gleipnir after her.

“Whyever not, pray tell?” The sentient pact item had slipped into ye-olde-timey speak as part of his, ‘I’m so wise and ancient act’. Normally, it annoyed Alex, but right now she was just going to ignore it.

“I don’t know about you two, but my apartment’s in a really shitty building and the magic shielding probably isn’t rated for Prometheus Purple, if it ever was. Heck, I heard some places, not just over by the source like we were, got up into the pink where arcane currents managed to combine.”

“I didn’t even think of that.” Sam’s groaned with frustration. “I guess we’ll just hope for the best. Right Gleip?” She patted Gleipnir’s tail where it wound around her waist and he chimed up in agreement.

“Right. And will go crash at Kyle’s place if the worst comes to worst.” He chortled with merriment.

“He will hate that, even if he does have that spare room.” They giggled together at their malicious sibling planning. Alex grimaced. She felt for Kyle, she really did. Gleipnir and Sam were like having a pair of evil twins against the world.

“I know. But his place is museum employee housing and it's fully magically insulated and reinforced against monster attack.” That sounded pretty freaking sweet, if Alex did say so herself.

“I should apply to work there.” She grumbled imagining returning to a home trashed by monsters of furniture that had manifested.

“I tried, they said my craft, patron, and education was too specialized.” Sam’s griping surprised Alex. “But that was way back when I first got out of school, before the current director took over. Don’t tell Kyle. He’d never let it go if he found out he’d succeeded to get a job there and I’d failed.”

“Yeah, no.” the other warlock agreed. “I’m not cruel. No way I’m telling Kyle that. Also, hotel, or two-hour-plus drive to our homes?”

“I’m not looking forward to having to deal with whatever’s going on inside my apartment at this time of day. How about we go back to the office, sleep at our desks, and deal with crap when someone wakes us up in the morning.” It was a decent suggestion and Alex quickly agreed.

“Sure, I second that motion.”

“I,” Gleipnir paused for a large annoying theatrical yawn which he didn’t need to make because he had no mouth and didn’t breath. “second, second that notion.”

“They aye’s have it.” Sam crowed triumphantly, also yawning hugely. “To the desks.” They reached their vehicle and Sam took the keys. “I got a long nap earlier. You sleep and I’ll pull over if I need to nap.” Though the other F.B.I. magic tech specialist wanted to argue, she didn’t because she knew that her partner was right. She needed more sleep.

By the time Sam pulled their vehicle onto the nearest freeway onramp, Alex was passed out, her head resting against her doorframe and little snores interrupting her deep even breathing.  Behind her Gleipnir was similarly propped against the doorframe, his long tail sprawled across the back seat. Unfurled in long loping coils of lustrous shining ribbon that he didn’t often show others.

He too was snoring, and it made Sam smile. Most people thought that Gleipnir faked his mortal traits. But that wasn’t so. It was just… He was real. He was alive. And living things slept. They felt pain, and sorrow, and guilt. Gleipnir was alive, he knew he was alive, and believed he was alive, and so he had the traits of living things.

That was one of the wonderous inexplicable things about magic.

She decided not to pull over and would just let them sleep until they got where they were going. Was there really a rush to it? No. And Gleipnir needed rest just like every other living thing. Monsters, chaos, and reports could wait for now.

Hours passed. Lights flashing by, both vehicles and the cities flanking either side of the freeway. Then the light became fewer. Sure, vehicles were still coming from the opposite direction. But there were less lights from cities. She’d entered the boundary of where the power grid had been affected by the disaster two days earlier. Further ahead, darkness.

Or more correctly dimness with scattered patches of darkness. Only magically powered emergency lights were still functional. Even some of them had their enchantments blown out by the event. How long would it take for the lights to come back on in the city that never slept?

Kyle and Jones parted ways at the museum after securing the artifact in one of the reconstruction labs for working on in the morning. Jones went to the onsite rooms for the Magicorps security guards after saying goodnight. Because the military security weren’t actually museum employees, they didn’t generally live in employee housing unless they chose to. Jones hadn’t chosen to.

Instead, he’d taken advantage of the onsite dormitory housing for the Magicorps soldiers inside the upper floors of the museum itself. He still got to collect his housing allowance, which was high because, New York. But he didn’t have to actually pay rent or deal with commuting in New York, which was awesome. And he had access to all kinds of amenities.

Kyle, for his part went to his apartment to sleep and possibly to find his little sister waiting for someone to come and let her know how things were going out in the world. Poor Anna. She was probably terrified. Or… maybe not.

“The girl did face down a big scary fucking monster on her own.” Kyle muttered under his breath as he let himself into the building. He probably should have checked on the prisms that were making themselves comfy in the mail drop box, but since no one was going to be delivering mail anytime soon, or checking it anytime soon, he decided to leave that problem for another day.

Trudging up the stairs, the warlock noted that the emergency lights still glowed a rich blue. That was fine. Most people didn’t realize that magic levels on the East Coast were naturally up in the high Green low Blue range without the magic collectors that protected urban areas and kept magic levels down in the more familiar Yellow zone. Just as he was about to open his door a sound made Kyle pause. There was some clicking, some buzzing, tinkling, chiming, and Anna’s muffled voice coming from the other side of the door.

Anna… was… not asleep, apparently. Curiosity bubbling inside him, Kyle finished unlocking his door and casually entered. One look at what was happening, and he walked back out and shut the door behind him. I did not just see what I thought I saw. I did not just see what I thought I saw. I did notjust see what I thought I saw. After repeating it a few times, Kyle almost believed it and was therefore far more disappointed when he walked into his apartment for the second time to see the exact same thing.

Shoulders slumping as he accepted defeat, Kyle closed and locked the door behind him then just stood and watched for a few minutes. Those prisms he’d been leaving to deal with as some other day’s problem. They were a right now problem. And possibly a long-term problem because his sister was definitely invested in all of them. Already Kyle was trying to articulate the argument in his mind for explaining to his mother why Anna should be allowed to keep an entire herd of prisms.

Picture this scene.

Anna in her pink flannel cloud hopper rabbit pajamas with the zigzag lightning bolts, buttons properly buttoned this time, was on the couch. No big deal. Right? Wrong. Because she was surrounded, completely surrounded by prisms. The herd had to have doubled in size since he’d left that morning and Kyle narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Not doubled as in the individual prisms were bigger. No, they were all conveniently cute pocket-riding-sized. But there were definitely more of them than he originally thought there were.

He wasn’t certain, but he didn’t think those things reproduced that quickly. There were some smaller baby looking ones though. The babies were sitting on Anna’s lap next to Kyle’s personal laptop as Anna directed the prisms, the majority of which had joined together to make a scaffolding that was wielding an antenna made from a wire clothes hanger. The makeshift antenna was connected to the laptop’s router port. Or whatever that port was called where the hardline to the internet would connect when Wi-Fi wasn’t an option. Static played through the laptops speakers which was occasionally broken up with bits of what almost sounded like speech.

“Okay, a little bit more to the left. Left. Other left. And up, up, up. Stop. Back down. Just a smidge. Hold. Hold.” The prisms were remarkably well coordinated. Even if Kyle wasn’t Anna’s older brother, he’d have been impressed with her magical creature wrangling. Seriously. They were an unstable tower of softly glowing, humming, chiming crystal creatures.

At her direction, the tower moved. Prisms lifting and leaning or lowering and straightening as she needed. As Anna shrieked ‘hold’, the sounds from the laptop grew more distinct. How was she doing that. There shouldn’t be any internet. Unless…

Kyle wracked his memory. Was the employee housing on some kind of magical internet? The museum would have working internet communications instead of just scrolls if that was the case. Well, maybe they did have working communications with the outside world that Kyle didn’t know about?

No. That’s not right. Didn’t Director Arcas say something about limited contact. He shook the whirling thoughts out of his head as a familiar theme song fuzzed its way out of the speakers.

“Yes!” Anna gave a little sitting hop in place, raising her hands together in triumph. Which was adorable, of course, while also jostling the laptop and the little prisms sitting on her lap gazing expectantly at the screen. The static surged for a second and Anna cried out with disappointment “Oh, no!” before the music came back steadier than before. “Woot! We did it guys. Let me see if I can get it to record.”

What the heck was going on?

Then, a tinkling crash alerted Kyle to the tower of prisms near the window toppling over. A sound like windchimes falling in slow motion was what came to Kyle’s mind. Then there was a heap of crystals with a cord running into it and a makeshift antenna sticking out the top.

“Shit. Are you guys okay?” Quickly she scooched the baby prisms onto the keyboard of the laptop and placed it aside as she rushed over to the prisms. Dejected meeps of possibly pain called out, but Kyle suspected that those little stinkers might be milking it for attention. “Did anyone chip? Are you hurt? Here, I’ve got some tasty ice magic for you.”

Her fingers were dripping cold vapors as the mewling chiming prisms untangled themselves and scurried over to her with little clicking steps.

1:25 AM September 15th2026

Museum of Unnatural Science and History Employee Housing

“Hey there, Snow Cone.” Kyle felt like now was a good time to interrupt and grill his sister on her activities in the most casually big-brother way possible. You know, while she was distracted with her new abundance of pets. He felt an eyebrow twitch and wasn’t sure whether he was upset or concerned. “What are you up to?”

“Oohh.” Though she seemed unconcerned, was that syllable just a little longer than it should be? “Hi, big brother.” Anna smiled brightly and pushed some of her long loose white locks over one deeply tanned shoulder. The prisms who she had deprived of that sweet tasty ice elemental magic meeped and chimed piteously until her fingers returned down to them again and cooed encouragement at them. “Who’s my good little helpers. Yes, you are. You were such helpful little prisms. Yes. You were. Are you all feeling better now? Yeah.”

I see. 

Oh, yes. Kyle did see. It was out with the cool big brother and all about the adorable little prisms now. When he got his sister the best present ever – regardless of how spur of the moment or coincidental it was – he did not anticipate being entirely supplanted in her affections by the little things. Of course, it was supposed to be only ONElittle thing.

“Your eyebrow’s doing that thing it does when you’re irritated.” Anna interrupted her cooing at her new minions long enough to tell him before she cut them off from the magic they were leaching off of her to crawl back up to the couch. “Okay guys, that’s enough. Now you’re just being gluttons.” The herd had followed Anna in a way that was a little more than low-key concerning Kyle. But then one of them trotted out in front and cut the others off. It tinkled importantly and then gestured with one of its crystalline appendages for the others to back off.

“Well, at least that one’s not so bad,” he managed a dry comment as he laughed at the sight of his sister surrounded by magical animals as if she were some kind of princess from a storybook.

“That’s the one you brought me. He’s a sweetheart.” From her place on the couch, his sister was stretching out her shoulders. “All right, everyone. Our attempt failed. It’s way past the little one’s bedtime so you need to find someplace to hunker down for the night.” She was yawning her words from between fingers covering her open mouth, clearly tired herself. Her entire strain of comments opened so many questions for Kyle. Deep burning questions like; what was the baby prisms’ normal bedtime and how did Anna know what it was? But he decided to leave it for now and instead go back to his first question for his sister.

“Uh. So, what were you doing?” All this time, Kyle had been standing by the door he’d just entered and realized that he wanted to come in and sit down after a fairly long day. His mage's robes, codex holster, bag, and wand never made it to their proper storage places and instead ended up off the end of the couch where he sat over from Anna. He found himself yawning having caught them from his sister as yawned her response.

“I promised to record ‘Professor What’ for Sam. It’s the season premier tonight.” Kyle’s eyes popped open when his sister mentioned the popular fiction television series about a time traveling married chronomancer couple.

“Oh, shit. I totally forgot that we were finally getting new episodes.” He looked over to the bookshelf and almost got up in excitement before remembering that the whole point of the conversation was that they two, he and Anna, would not get to watch the show tonight. “Almost got up for my timeline journal.” He chuckled dejectedly. “Silly me.”

“At least you have yours.” His sister groused and crossed her arms petulantly over her chest. “Mine is at home which I haven’t been for the last two days.” She sighed, only half theatrically and half wistfully for the comforts of her own room things. “I was really looking forward to seeing if Professor What was going to successfully resync his timeline with Dr. When and that T.A. Where.”

Kyle was silent for a moment as he watched his sister. He knew more about the story and as he had many times before he decided to make an offer.

“You can can borrow my books any – ” Before he could get the words out of his mouth Anna cut him off.

“Don’t you dare tempt me into reading the books before the TV series ends,” she scolded him with mock furry. “You know that the books are always better, and I want to enjoy this show as much as possible.” She pretend-frowned at her big brother with a wrinkled nose and her hands on her hips until another yawn broke her concentration as he laughed at Anna’s antics.

“How were you planning on recording the show anyways?” The warlock was looking at the tangle of cords and converters which were attached to his spare laptop which had apparently been charged enough for Anna to make the attempt. “The powers out and there’s no internet.”

“Oh, I pulled an analog to digital cable TV converter out of your storage closet for the antennae and then used an RGB to pin converter, then a – ” Some of her words were lost on a yawn before she continued her explanation. “ – and then I just needed a USB-C gen one for you dinosaur of a laptop and we were golden. Would have easier if it was even older and could have just skipped the other steps after the pin input but whatever.”

“Yeeeeah.” Kyle paused for a few moments thinking over everything he’d heard. Because he was a pretty tech-savvy guy but… “Where did you get all of this?”

“Your storage closet.” She stood up and wiggled her toes in a pair of fuzzy socks Kyle had forgotten he kept in his sister’s spare room for her. “I’m heading to bed. Good night. I made you dinner. There’s leftovers in the fridge.” Then she was off, padding away in her pink cloud hopper rabbit pajamas and leaving Kyle with even more questions.

“Okay.” His stomach grumbled loudly and the warlock looked at it with annoyance. “First food. Then I’ll figure out where this mystery storage closet is that she’s talking about.”

7:13 AM September 15th2026

Museum of Unnatural Science and History Employee Housing

“Nnnnooooo!” Kyle groaned as someone tapped his face insistently. “It’s not time to get up Anna, my alarm didn’t go off.” Shaking his head, he frowned at the surprisingly sharp feeling of the tap-tap-tapping on his surrounded by a chilling cold. “Please let me sleep in. And maybe trim your nails.”

At that he painfully rolled over with another groan, still sore and not feeling great from his magical exertions. The tapping sped up and slid along his face from his chin to his cheeky beside his ear. On the one hand, as a big brother, he could admire the annoying tenacity of his sister. On the other hand, as an adult who’d had an exhausting couple of days and not nearly enough sleep. He wanted to pull his blankets over his head and snuggle down in a comforter nest.

Which was exactly what he did.

Only…

What he’d originally thought was his sister’s sharp little nails were still sitting on his cheek near his ear, pressing harder into his skin from the weight of the blanket. It gave him a little jolt of adrenaline that pulled him from his groggy state and kicked his heart into a higher gear. Now more wakeful, he could hear a slight electric buzzing.

“That’s not my sister being obnoxious, is it?” the warlock sighed wearily. Then he sighed again when his words were greeted with a tinkling chiming response from one of the prisms. No. Not one of the prisms. The prism. The one he’d rescued with a static zap spell.

Anna’s new pet and the leader of the pack… herd… whatever.

“Why are you waking me up?” Though Kyle hadn’t been expecting a response, but he got one. Yes, it was just more tinkling and chiming but it definitely had a cadence and attitude. “Riiight.” Slowly, and with infinite reluctance, the grouchy warlock dragged his comforter down. Opening his eyelids, he looked out the corners without moving his head.

Sure enough, there was a certain little crystalline body there sitting on his cheek. Yes. Sitting. And Kyle wasn’t exactly sure how that was working because it was positioned kind of like a cat or a dog would be, but without changing the shape of its rear legs, and also without them sticking out in front of it. Were the rear legs always so short? No. Because they were mostly horizontal when he watched them walking previously.

Yet, there was no doubt that the prism was absolutely sitting with its apparent rear end on his cheek. Its crystalline abdomen was both semi-opaque and highly reflective so Kyle could see his sleepy hazel eyes staring back at him. Despite not having a face, the little prism gave the impression of gazing at him with sweet puppy-eyes and bent down to nuzzle his cheek.

That made Kyle smile. How was a walking chunk of crystal the size of a large mouse so freaking cute? Clearly the little prism understood what smiles meant because it then gave a happy little hop followed by a series of tumbling ecstatic chiming meeps.

“Okay. I’ll get up. But you’ll need to get off me so I don’t knock you down or squish you in the processes.” Kyle didn’t even have time to fear the creature wouldn’t understand him as him as it immediately jumped to his pillow then onto the nightstand beside his bed.

“About time.” Anna groused from the door to his room where she leaned against the frame with her arms crossed petulantly. “Little traitor insisted on waking your up instead of spending time hanging out with me.”

“Aww.” Kyle stretched as he sat up then held a hand out for the prism. It quickly ran up his arm, across his shoulder, then down his chest into the breast pocket of his pajama shirt. He giggled a little as the swiftly moving and small profile feet of the lightweight prism tickled as they ran. “Don’t be jealous, sis. He’s just saying ‘hi’ to me.” After a moment of watching the cloth of his pocket puff and move as the prism got settled, it poked it’s upper half over the edge of the pocket and pointed towards Kyle’s bedroom door with a chime of purpose. As if it was saying ‘charge’. So Kyle obliged with amusement, running a hand through his light brown hair as he stood.

“Well, he woke me up too. It’s time for you to get ready for work. You’re going to e late.” That… caused Kyle to pause in his first step toward accepting morning.

“How do you know? All the power is still out and none of the clocks are working. What?” He asked defensively when Anna gave him a flat look before rolling her eyes and padding off toward the kitchen.

“Well, for one, you have a magical timepiece in your personal lab. So, there’s that.” She groused as he followed her toward the smell of hot food. “Also, do you really not think I am capable of casting a basic time of day spell to tell what time of day it is based on…” She trailed off her angry retort and gestured around her.

For a second, Kyle was a little impressed as he accepted a bowl of hot – was that bacon? Where did his sister get bacon? And I’m absolutely certain that I didn’t have hashbrowns anywhere in this apartment. Then he got distracted and narrowed his eyes at his sister as the way her words trailed off triggered a thought.

“Wait a minute. You don’t actually know how the time of day spell works do you?” He snatched the plate from Anna’s hands before she could take it back. Instead, she folded her arms defensively, gave a sniff of distain, and lifted her chin haughtily. It was a classic Camina Wattkins move. Kyle had seen it in movies, television interviews, state functions, and even in conversations between his parents. Anna even finished it off with tossing her hair over her shoulder which their mom often did when she was wearing her hair down. Then she folded her arms again.

“I don’t have to know how it works to perform it properly.” She was cool, calm, collected – super adorable. To avoid being a jerk of a big brother, he resisted patting her on the head condescendingly like Sam would do. Instead, he smiled and took a bite of the breakfast she’d made before her pet came to wake him up.

“You’re absolutely correct.” He gobbled up the meal as Anna reached over the kitchen counter they stood beside and grabbed a steaming mug of something. “That better not be coffee, young Miss.” He scolded only half seriously while she was taking a sip. Anna swallowed, made a face, and stuck a slightly browned tongue at her brother. “Cocoa, if you have to know. Not sure it’s much better than coffee since it’s only got one-third the caffeine. But, parents.”

“Right. Parents.” Kyle agreed with a before looking wistfully over to the other mug that had been sitting beside Anna’s. “I… don’t suppose that would be…” Anna gave a less snarky eye-roll and gestured towards the cup.

“Yeah. That’s coffee for you. Figured you’d need it.”

After a rather delicious breakfast, Kyle headed out for an absolutely average day at work. Before leaving he gave his sister a very stern warning to stay inside once again. Which she agreed to with suspicious ease.

“This is weird.” He muttered giving her the side-eye as he donned his warlock’s robe.

“What’s weird? I run away to your place on the weekend all the time.” She responded, petting her new favorite prism in the palm of one hand as it buzzed with electricity and gave off little streams of cold vapor that pooled around its feet.

“Not that. That’s fine.” Kyle corrected, blowing it off as nothing. “I mean you being all compliant.”

“Hey,” Anna paused in petting her prism in outrage to mock punch Kyle gently on the arm. “I’m a good girl.” Her high-pitched defense was both amusing and didn’t do much to settle Kyle’s own nerves. “Who do you think I am, Sam?” A lightbulb went off with Kyle’s mind with the force of an atomic bomb and his mouth dropped open.

“You did.” Anna shrieked and this time her punch was actually a little forceful.

“Oww.” Kyle reached up and rubbed his bicep where she’d landed a solid but not damaging hit.

“You were anticipating Sam and Gleipnir behavior instead of treating me like me, a person who has never actively – ” Here she paused and corrected herself, “d – erm, that is, until recently, and only that one time because I was being bullied, broken any rules. Ever.” She finished her tirade and crossed her arms in a classic Anna glower while she waited for his response. A pained expression passed over Kyle’s face and rubbed that spot from the bridge of his nose to just between the eyebrows where he and their mom both got migraines.

“You’re right.” He sighed, feeling like absolute garbage for doing that to Anna. He’d hated it when his parents treated him like he was one of their older siblings they were either always expecting great things from him or expecting so muchtrouble. “You are a great kid. You always behave, you are more patient and amenable than anyone should ever have to be. And I shouldn’t have let my negative experiences with The Prodigy of Pain influence what I think about you. Will you forgive me, Snow Cone?” He gave her a hopeful smile and held out a hand for a shake.

“Hmmm.” Anna’s brown eyes narrowed at her brother with suspicion. “Maybe. Pinky swear that you won’t treat me with distrust because Sam and Gleipnir were hellions.” Kyle agreed and closed the fingers of the hand he’d been holding out to immediately have just the pinky extended. They shook. He hugged his sister. Then he said proper goodbyes and left, whistling his way through the park to the museum.

It was a good day. And the nice weather was holding despite him bringing down the Wrath of Zeus days before. Though it was weird to see the park so deserted. With the ambient magic levels still abnormally high, the golems were still active. No more monsters were visible, so he supposed the doughnut bike was in squishy pieces somewhere.

But there were no people about and Kyle wondered where they all were. Had a force come to evacuate those who had taken refuge in the museum? It had to have been yesterday while he was working because any point before that might have been too dangerous with monster manifestations happening all over.

“On the other hand,” the warlock muttered darkly to himself, “that officer in command was such a moronic idiot he might have actively been trying to evacuate people prior to getting the monsters and AMD under control. Fucking idiot.”

A corona of magic burst into a rainbow of activated energy around him at his frustration. Much like what had happened the last time the golems stopped him, only far, far more powerful.

“Oh, shit.” He cried out with horror. “No, no, no, no, no. Not right not.” Frantically, Kyle tried to put out the magic he’d unintentionally channeled with his emotions. There was no way that the security golems were not going to notice this. Sure enough, in the distance came the characteristic whumff of a largescale fireball spell igniting.

He turned toward the sound, scanning the green landscape and between the trees so he’d know which direction he needed to shield. Then he heard another whumff. Then another. And three more in close succession. All from different directions.

“Oh. Shit.” He spun slowly spotting some of the car sized flaming balls before they were thrown and some as they were already in transit through the air. Towards him. Without thought of the consequences, Kyle drew power through himself from the ambient magic and cast the strongest protective spell he could think of at the moment. “Shield of Aeneas – no fuck! That only works on forged items.”

It was too late. He’d cast the spell and couldn’t stop it. The agonizing and wonderful rush of so many arcanes raced into him and out into the spell. This time, it was without the buffering assistance of his codex which was uncharacteristically inert while its warlock was in danger.

Kyle doubled over, falling to his knees. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Even without his codex he should have been able to channel this much magic on his own as a wizard. What had he done wrong? Over his head the fantastical images of the history of Rome’s founding danced in choreographed light. They weren’t protecting the suffering warlock from the defensive assault he was under, and the fireballs passed right through.

He couldn’t appreciate it. Kyle could barely see it. He could also barely see Jones running toward him across the lawn pointing frantically with his wand. Kyle could see Jones’ mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear Jones’ shouts over the explosions impacting the shield Jones had erected over Kyle’s head in the moments before it failed.

7:38 AM September 15th2026

Central Park between the National Museum of Unnatural Science and History and the museum’s Employee Housing

Camina hated escort duty.

With a passion.

A burning unending deep and visceral loathing is what she felt for any officer who ordered her to ‘escort’ civilians. Almost as much loathing as she felt for the actual duty of escorting anyone to safety. And yes, she’d been to therapy for it. So much therapy for it.

Camina, and every officer on the gods damned planet knew that her dislike of escort duty came from the incident that made her a warlock and the fact that she – a sob caught in her throat, and she shoved it far down. This was not the time for that. It was never the time for that memory. But the fact that the jackass fobbit officer in charge of this shit-show, who had obviously never commanded anything more complicated than a fucking desk, had Camina-fucking-Wattkins the Goddamned Last Line of Defense running escort duty instead of cleaning up the monsters while sending her child somewhere without informing her at all…

The rage was real and well deserved.

There was going to be a reckoning.

She was already over forty-eight hours without sleep by the time Camina was assigned to cover the evacuation of civilians from the museum. Jim was basically unconscious on his feet. There were rules about how long you would work a soldier, even in emergencies. Even in combat, there were rules. But those rules were different for warlocks - who could handle higher magical loads and therefore more stamina potions – from the rules for non-magic users in the military. Even so, these orders… were not… they weren’t appropriate for the circumstances.

Probably.

She was mad. Okay? And her ability to articulate her emotions, even in her own mind was starting to flag a bit after so many hours without sleep. Or stamina potions. Which she’d been entitled to but had been denied when she requested them. Mother fuckers.

“Well, that’s the last of them.” Jim clicked off his camera and put it away. He had recorded video and taken photos non-stop from the moment he was tossed out of an airplane two days ago. Camina smiled at her new protégé as he put away his camera and dusted off his hands. “Good riddance.” The Warlock of the Archangel Michael’s smile didn’t reach her eyes because she only knew that two members of her family were alive, and one of them was her eldest child Davelor, because he’d been out of the country when the magic collectors blew.

“That is the last of them.” Her agreement was almost depressed and more than a little angry if her gritted teeth were any indication of her mood.

“What now boss?” The journalist swayed on his feet from exhaustion even as he rallied to her side. The older woman turned away with a weary sigh and glanced toward the employee housing.

“Now I’m going to go looking for my kids and husband. You should probably get some rest. I’m sure the museum will let you take a place with some of the off duty Magicorps soldiers in there.” The thought that she now had hours of searching to do in order to find out what had happened to her kids, made her weariness weigh upon her heavily. Since she was at the museum, she might as well start with Kyle and work her way out from there. When Camina had turned her head back towards Jim, he had out another of his small handheld cameras. “Did you just record me saying that?”

“Of course, I did.” He grinned at her as he paused the recording so it wouldn’t catch his voice. “How could I give up on the opportunity to show the world the off-duty Camina?” When he noticed the irritated flare of Camina’s nostrils, he added in notes of hopeful nervousness, “With the utmost respect and only share what you specifically give permission to share? Please?” He gave her one of those universal looks of someone pleading with their eyes and since it reminded her too much of her own kids, she relented with a sigh.

“Fine, you can tag along. Let’s go talk to Kyle’s boss.”

“Yesss!” Despite what must have been extreme fatigue, Jim gave a fist pump and a little hop of joy. 

There may have even been a heel-click in there but Camina was too busy rolling her eyes at his antics to know for sure.

“You ever meet a pureblood vampire before, Mister Thafesh?” Camina questioned as she gestured for Jim to follow her up the grand front stairs of the temple-esque National Museum of Unnatural Science and History.

“Uh… no.” He provided hesitantly as he shuffled through his pockets to find the cameras that still had memory space and juice in their batteries. “I’ve met multiple human-hybrids, multiple generations removed. Kyle’s the cook, right? His boss is a pureblood vampire.” Camina laughed, her throaty tinkling laugh and it gave James Thafesh goosebumps.

“No. Mister Thafesh. Kyle likes to cook,” Camina clarified the misunderstanding about her son. “He’s the best cook in the family besides my youngest Anna – don’t tell her I said that – but cooking is not Kyle’s job.”

Jim followed Camina’s gaze toward a tall, slim, very fit gentleman standing in the shadows just inside the open doors to the museum. Red eyes glowed against pale flesh topped with dark hair. The journalist was transfixed by the glowing red eyes. Mesmerized really. Before he realized it, they were already halfway up the stairs.

“Don’t look into his eyes if you aren’t used to it.” Camina cautioned him with a gentle touch on his arm to break the trance. “He’s not even using any of his powers.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Came the embarrassed mumbled response from her erstwhile sidekick. He returned to filming but no longer looking directly at the vampire’s eyes, which were far less crimson looking than they had been from further away.

“Missus Wattkins.” The vampire greeted in his slightly accented perfect English with a broad fanged smile and his arms opened wide in welcoming. “Always a pleasure and an honor when you grace my humble domain with your presence.” Camina’s returned smile was far more restrained than that of the man greeting her.

“Hello, Director Arcas.” The warlock declined the vampire’s implied request for a hug from the open arms and instead held out a hand to shake. Of course, the vampire refused to shake and bent over Camina’s hand to give it a kiss. Jim’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sheer audacity of the vampire.

“I don’t suppose you’re here to finally let the museum’s experts take a look at your armor or Ascalon, are you?” The raised eyebrowed frown Camina gave the director was a combination of amused and exasperated with an overtone of exhaustion because she was too tired for this shit.