Chapter 1

The following characters appear in the first couple of chapters:

Yuryi Lawristan

Main protagonist, Magic user, 5’-11’’ tall (1.80 meters), 200 pounds (91 kg), appears to be 46 years old, dark hair, violet eyes, a broad powerful man, he is a Brown Dragon

Yvonne Strupinski

Female lead, widow, 5’-7’’ tall (1.70 meters), 145 pounds (66 kg), large breasts, 42 years old, auburn hair, black eyes, very good looking

Ilene & Julia Waterford

Yvonne’s daughters, twins, 5’-4’’ tall (1.62 meters), 119 pounds (54 kg), small breasts, 18 years old, auburn hair, gray eyes

Charlie

Cook, Thai, 5’-0’’ tall (1.54 meters), 135 pounds (59 kg), 31 years old, black hair, brown eyes

Yuryi has the Narrative

It had been a bad winter in Duluth and the rest of the State of Minnesota plus the entire mid-west of the United States for that matter. It had been cold with a lot of ice, snow, and wind, and it wasn’t getting any better ... yet.

That morning the city officials had broadcast warnings of the impending storm and advised all businesses to close down and everyone to return to their homes during the storm, which was predicted to be a very intense one even for our area.

Everything was to be closed down by noon today. It had already started snowing again prior to that. The weather people had already told us that we were approaching 150 inches (3.81 meters) of snow for the year, and this new storm would increase that. By noon, the temperature was already minus 15 degrees F (-26 C), and it was expected to go down to minus 21 F (-29 C) over night. I had sent all of the customers and the staff home by 11:00 o’clock that morning and had closed the building. There were, of course, those who had hidden in various locations in the building. They were the poor and the homeless who had nowhere else to go. I was aware of them and didn’t intend to chase them out. I had been poor and without resources myself in the past, but I also didn’t intend to allow them to take whatever they wanted from the various stores in the building.

To prevent that, I had, therefore, checked all of the store entrances and made sure that they wouldn’t be able to open them by casting a ward across them. There were some stores that remained open so those remaining could avail themselves of what they required to be comfortable.

The power went out shortly after noontime. It had been off several times this winter in various parts of the city, but the power company had managed to return service to those areas in a few days each time. The building has its own backup generator, but it can only power some of the lights in the building and part of the heating system. It has a large fuel tank and can operate for up to 72 hours at full output. It kicked in a minute after the power went off. It lit some of the lights in the hallways and restarted part of the heating system. Under emergency power, the temperature in the building is allowed to fall to 50 F (10 C) instead of the normal 72 F (22 C).

It was now 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, and I was sitting in a chair a short distance behind the doors of the main entrance to the building covered by a thick blanket. I was wearing the uniform of a security guard. The outside temperature was already below –15 F, but I wasn’t sure just how far below that yet. The storm, now a blizzard, had been raging for nearly five hours. The snow was falling heavily along with sleet, and the wind was blowing it around and shrieking between the buildings. On the last weather report that I had heard, they said that the wind was blowing at 40 mph (64 kph) with gusts as strong as 60 mph (96 kph).

I was ready to pack it in, having been sitting here for most of the afternoon and had seen no one. I didn’t figure that anyone would be out in this blizzard when three figures appeared at the doors of the main entrance and banged on the glass for admittance.

“Who in the world...?” I started, as I rose from the chair with my warm blanket, and moved to the doors to admit them. The doors opened outward, and it was all I could do to hold onto the one I opened and keep it open as the wind tried to force it closed. The three figures quickly entered, and I had trouble closing the door as the wind had reversed and tried to snatch it out of my hand. I finally got it closed and locked it again. The cold had come in with them. While the temperature in the center of the building was 50 F, in the hallway near the main entrance it was already below freezing. Still, it was a lot warmer than it was outside in the wind.

“Thank God that you are open,” the older of the three figures said once I had joined them. I turned the hallway lights on so I could see them better, and the three figures resolved into three females, one older and two younger. They were dressed in long heavy coats with hats and hoods, and boots for the snow. They also had gloves on and scarves around their faces because of the intense cold.

The older woman appeared to be about 5’-7’’ tall, but it was difficult to judge anything else the way she was dressed. She appeared to be about 42 years old. On removing her scarf, I could see that she had auburn hair and to my surprise she had coal black eyes. The two younger women were shorter at about 5’-4’’ tall and appeared to be about 18 years old. They were lighter than the older woman. On removing their scarves, I could see that they too had auburn hair but gray eyes.

“Good heavens, it’s cold out there, and the sleet really stings when it hits your skin,” the older woman said as she opened her coat to shake the accumulated snow and sleet off of it. The two younger women followed her example. Following that, all three removed their outer coats to reveal thick inner coats and additional scarves. The older woman had a definite presence, as one who had her life and affairs under control. The two younger women didn’t give the impression that they had anything under control.

“Thank you for admitting us,” the older woman said after a minute or so. “I’m Yvonne Strupinski and these are my daughters Ilene and Julia Waterford,” she told me.

“Who are you?” she asked following that.

“I’m Yuryi. Yuryi Lawristan,” I told her. “I’m the security guard on duty,” I added.

“Come on back to the food court. It’s warmer there and you can get something hot to eat and drink,” I told them to move them to the warmer area in the building.

“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the front entrance?” she asked.

“I figure the three of you are the last to be out in that blizzard,” I told her.

“At least, it’s warm in here,” the two daughters said.

“You won’t think it’s that warm after you have been in here for a while,” I told them with a smile, as I picked up the blanket and led them back to the food court after turning out the hallway lights. The food court is on the main floor of the building.

“How come you were out on foot in that blizzard?” I asked on the way in the dim light of the emergency lighting that ran along the floor of the various hallways.

“The battery froze in that damned electric car. I never should have allowed that damned salesman to convince me to buy an electric car,” Yvonne told me in an upset voice. I just smiled. I was sure that there were many electric cars and many others that weren’t running in this weather. The manufacturers hadn’t managed to fix that problem yet. You can’t change physics. Things just don’t work as well when the temperature goes way down. We soon arrived at the food court. Being in the center of the building, it was the easiest area to keep warm or to cool. There were a number of people sitting at the tables there eating or just talking. Yvonne saw them and had a question.

“Have you admitted this many people?” she asked, looking at them.

“Actually, you three are the only ones that I have admitted since closing the building,” I told her. “The others normally stay here much of the time,” I added.

“Are they employees?” she asked, looking more carefully at some of them and their clothing and general appearance.

“A couple of them are. The others are mostly homeless,” I told her to a shocked look from her and her daughters.

“Homeless?” she asked looking around.

“It’s complicated. I’ll explain later,” I told her before calling out to our chef.

“Mr. Charlie, we need hot meals for three cold hungry visitors,” I called as we neared the concession area. A number of those sitting at the tables looked up to see who had arrived, but that was all.

“Okay, boss,” a voice returned from further back in the concession area, and we heard something being dumped into a pan.

“Go ahead and have a seat at one of the tables on this side of the concession area. Only a couple of them are open,” I told the women. We sat at a table near where the voice had come from.

“Aren’t you worried about what will happen when those who own these concessions return and find some or even much of their food gone?” Yvonne asked after we were seated.

“Not really, it’s a cost of doing business,” I told her. She stared at me for a short time.

“You have a rather strange concept of how business is conducted,” she finally told me.

“It’s not strange, it’s practical,” I told her to another stare from her. I, however, had a question for her.

“I know that a frozen battery had you out of your vehicle, but what made you start out in the first place? You appear to be someone smart enough to know better,” I continued prodding her to answer. She stared at me again for a short time.

“We ... well, I had a problem,” she hesitantly answered after a time.

“A problem!” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh all right,” she finally answered in an annoyed voice. “I had a problem with a man. He is someone who was interested in me, but I had no interest in him ... at all. He has been pushing me to go out with him, but I was sure that it was more than that ... a lot more than that,” she told me in a quiet voice and then fell silent.

“And he threatened you?” I asked.

“Yes, how do you know that?” she asked, surprised.

“You are a very good-looking woman, and I know how men, at least some men, react to that. Also, some men will do whatever it takes to have their way. What did he say?” I asked. Again, she was some time in answering. Her daughters were holding onto each other on the far side of the table and appeared to be scared to death.