Chapter 8

Jade and I followed the hallway. There were a few turns and we passed two doors, but there were no other branching hallways, nor any sign of Walker, my mom, or Ruby. After one last turn, the hallway came to an end at a door that was left ajar.

I stopped short of touching the door. I knew the doors locked automatically, but Rho never told me whether they closed themselves or not. I recalled during her demonstration that she closed the doors. So, maybe like real doors, these had to be manually closed to be locked again. If Walker and both women went inside, then he may have left the door open so they could get back out without having to unlock it again.

Jade stepped up to the door with her hand out to push it open.

“Wait,” I whispered. “Listen.”

She stopped and frowned at me. Then we listened. There wasn’t any sound coming from inside. “I don’t hear anything,” she said.

I nodded. “We should hear something: the scraping of shoes or boots on the floor, the movement of cloth, even soft speech, but there’s nothing.”

Jade rolled her eyes and pushed the door open. I stepped to the side, not sure what to expect.

She scoffed at my action and then peered inside without stepping in. After a few seconds, she frowned, shook her head, and went inside.

I looked through the open doorway. Other than shelves with items, and a wall with several hanging garments, the room was empty. There weren’t any display tables in the middle of the room either, nothing for anyone to hide behind. I stepped inside and looked behind the door too. The doorway was in the corner of the room and there wasn’t enough room behind the open door for three people to hide. Something lying on the floor near the hanging items was the only thing out of place.

Jade threw up her arms. “Where are they?”

“They could be here,” Rho said. “This is the room of Invisibility.”

Not wanting to let on that I knew what Rho told me, I looked around the room and said, “We should figure out what these items have in common. I was told items with similar properties are stored together.”

“Who told you that?” Jade asked.

“Sebastian, the vault servant,” I said.

Jade turned to look at me. “A vault servant?”

I stared back at her. “What? He’s an animated statue made up of the same stone that makes up this place’s walls, ceiling, and floor. All he does is maintain the vault.”

“You should fire him,” she said, turning to look at items on a shelf. “If he’s here to maintain this place, then he hasn’t done a very good job.”

“If you’re talking about the spell effects in the hallways,” I said, looking around at the shelves, “he can’t do anything about it.”

“Then what good is he?” she asked.

I turned and ran my fingers along a shelf. There wasn’t a speck of dust. “He cleans.” I looked around the room again. There was an eclectic collection of different items. Nothing offered a clue to help us determine the common property. “Do you have any idea what Walker wanted here?” I asked.

“No,” Jade said. “He was very tight-lipped about what he wanted. We didn’t even know there was a vault until he demanded you give us access.” She stared at me for a few seconds and then turned back to the shelves. “So, you have no idea what these items do?” she asked, looking along a few items.

“Nope,” I said, looking away. My girls had told me that I was a lousy liar, and I didn’t want to give Jade any reason to question me further about my knowledge of the vault.

“Then how do we use these items?” she asked.

“No idea,” I said and rubbed my head.

Rho said, “Most of them, you simply have to hold or have on your person. Some of them require a command phrase to activate and deactivate their power.”

“I suppose we’ll have to touch some of them,” I said hesitantly.

Jade snickered. “You first.”

I sighed and looked along the shelf next to me. There was an old fountain pen sitting on a small display stand. It looked harmless enough and I didn’t understand why anyone would give it an invisibility spell, but I picked it up.

I didn’t feel anything, but I immediately noticed that my arm, hand, and the pen I held all turned transparent. I wasn’t truly invisible. It was as if I was looking through thick glass, but it would be difficult to see and track. I placed the pen back on the display stand and everything went back to normal.

“Interesting,” Jade said. Then she turned and chose a smaller item. I wasn’t sure, but I thought she vanished as soon as she picked up the item, mostly. I could still see her, but only just. “This is so crazy cool! I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be invisible!”

I nodded, “Note, however, you’re only mostly invisible. I can still make out an outline or shimmer. There’s a sort of distortion to the things behind you.”

She reappeared, setting the object where it had been originally resting. “So, the items in this room make people invisible.”

“Not just invisible,” Rho said. “Some items have additional properties to restrict sensory detection, such as sound, your scent, and even physical presence.”

“I think that invisibility is only the start,” I said. “If someone wanted to hide, they might need additional sensory restrictions, such as sound, scent, and even touch.”

Jade stared at me. “What would be the point of all that?”

I shook my head. “It would depend on the purpose for which the item was created. If you’re trying to escape, invisibility is a good start, since we tend to depend on sight to do most of our searching, but if someone wanted to use dogs to find you...”

Jade nodded. “Yeah, I could see that, but no touch?”

“Don’t want to knock things down while running, or have someone throw paint on you to make you visible.”

“Wow, true.”

I looked around the room. “Look around for any of these little display stands that are empty. If Walker was here, maybe he picked it up, activated it, and, with the weird power expansion going on in other rooms, the women were caught up in the effect too.

All three of us started looking. Rho moved closer to me and asked, “Was there something specific you wanted to know?”

I glanced at Jade, who was looking intently at the opposite wall, and then I tapped my temple.

Rho nodded and the room we were standing in gave way to the white space. I spoke immediately. “Walker, my mom, and Ruby aren’t here. Are there any items that will do more than make them invisible?”

Rho looked behind her, and the one item that was lying on the floor became visible. “It’s a child’s blanket. Your Grandfather didn’t know how to categorize it, so he put it in this room.”

I nodded. “What does it do?”

“It would be better if I showed you,” she said, holding out her hand.

I hesitated.

“You used your power to find out what you could about Jade, but you’re scared of this?”

I sighed in resignation. “You’re right.” Then I held out my hand too.

Rho stepped up to me, laid her hand on my arm, and the white room vanished.

Randall Rosenbaum sat at his desk in the den looking down at the latest item his brother brought him. It was a child’s blanket, white with pictures of open treasure chests. Like many things they had collected, it looked perfectly harmless. Randall looked up at Henry. “Where did you find this?”

Henry looked at the blanket too. He pulled his cigar from his mouth and said, “You heard about the kids that went missing last week?”

Randall nodded.

“Well, they turned up again. However, the media had nothing to report. It turns out, the kids claimed they were in some other town for several days, eating and playing as much as they wanted. Which is weird since they were only missing for an hour.”

Randall shook his head. “That makes no sense.”

Henry pointed at the blanket with his cigar. “It was the blanket.”

Randall looked at it again. He used his spell of magic detection and the blanket lit up with the type of magic he had only seen a couple of times before. “This has a pocket dimension attached to it?”

Henry nodded. “It seems the boy this belonged to wanted to show it off to his friends. So, he took them for a little fun. All of them returned, healthy and well rested.”

Randall shook his head. “We need to know more about this thing, like how it’s activated.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Henry said. “First you have to be holding it, and - since it’s for a child - you either have to have a very strong desire to hide or say the words, ‘hide me’ three times.”

Randall sat back in his seat. “I have to hand it to the parents, this is amazing. It’s too bad they’ll likely be punished by the Council for making it.”

Henry shook his head. “They didn’t.”

Randall frowned. “Then where did they get it?”

“They claimed they bought it at a yard sale,” Henry said and pulled on his cigar. “I followed up. The family they bought it from had moved away only a few days after the sale.”

“Any idea where that family is now?”

“I have Lucy out looking, but so far she hasn’t had any luck.”

“Did you ask the kids about the blanket or the place they went?”

Henry nodded. “They all said similar things: it was a small town with lots of toys, candy, and playgrounds.”

“Sounds like a kid’s paradise,” Randall said and then looked up. “Any idea if it changes for adults?”

Henry smiled. “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

Randall looked at the blanket with an earnest expression. Then he picked up the blanket, held it to his chest like a child, and whispered, “Hide me. Hide me. Hide me.” Instantly, he vanished, leaving the blanket to fall in his chair.

I blinked and looked at Rho. “That’s it?”

“That’s all I have,” she said. “Anyone with a copy of me bound to them was never able to summon me while in the pocket dimension. Randall wasn’t the only one to go either. Several family members tried the blanket. Everyone reported going to a small town with plenty of people they would have been happy to have as Fonti. All of them returned well rested, feeling as if they had just finished a huge meal, and topped off on magical energy.”

I blinked at her and then at the blanket. “This blanket could replace the need for Fonti?”

Rho shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that Henry was known to use the blanket more and more often. After a couple of months, he was convinced that he no longer needed Fonti and broke his bonds with all of them.”

Something told me that this wasn’t a good thing. “What happened?” I asked with a solemn tone.

“He was able to maintain his power for another month of regular use, but he also reported that the inhabitants of the pocket dimension were exhibiting the same symptoms that normal people do when they have sex with a Magus too often.”

I nodded. “So, it might make for a good emergency refill, but not a long-term replacement for Fonti.”

“That would seem to be the case,” she said looking at the blanket. “Do you believe Walker, your mom, and Ruby are all inside?”

“I suspect so, but to be sure, I’ll need to check those other rooms we passed on the way here.

“One room is the room of silence. You can imagine the types of items you’ll find there.”

“And the other?”

“The room of ghosts.”

I tried to puzzle that one out but gave up. “What does that room hold?”

“Various items having to do with ghosts,” she said. “Some summon ghosts, some repel ghosts, some make you look like a ghost, and so on.”

“Okay, so you’re saying ghosts are real?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, running on the premise that you’re right, is it possible ghosts from that room grabbed the other three and dragged them into their room?”

“Ghosts are remnants of a dead person’s emotions. Most ghosts are either angry or scared. The frightened ones are the ones most people see because those ghosts want you to feel like they feel: scared. They are the originators of the jump-scare.”

“And angry ghosts?”

“Angry ghosts are usually referred to as poltergeists. They’re the ones who move things and attack people. They’re angry, so they lash out, intent on inflicting pain and damage.”

“Neither sound too pleasant.” Then I had a new thought. “Do Magi leave ghosts?”

“A Magus will leave the most powerful ghost,” Rho said. “Fortunately, those ghosts do not have access to their power. They cannot cast spells but are fast and can pass through most substances without slowing down.”

“What can stop a ghost?”

“Well, you can use simple magic to stop a ghost, but for mundane purposes, a line of salt will stop a ghost on the same level. A sheet of natural glass will do it too.”

“Natural glass?” I asked. “What’s the difference between that and the glass we use for windows?”

“They’re the same thing, but there is synthetic glass too. Also, don’t confuse clear plexiglass with natural glass.”

I nodded. “You said most ghosts are either angry or frightened. Are there any others?”

“Well, fear and anger are powerful emotions, hence why they’re so common, but love and lust are also powerful. However, most people don’t die feeling either.”

“But is it possible?”

“Yes.”

I nodded. “Anything else before we go check the rooms?”

“No.”

“Okay. Let’s go back to Jade and I’ll suggest checking the other rooms.”

Rho nodded and the white space shifted back to the room of Invisibility.

Jade hadn’t moved while Rho and I talked. To keep up the premise of not knowing more than I should, I looked over the shelves on my side of the room and then moved over to the wall with the hanging items. “Everything over here seems okay, except this blanket on the floor.”

“Same here,” Jade said as she moved closer. “Any ideas about the blanket?”

I shook my head. “I want to make sure we’ve covered all of the normal possibilities before we do anything with the blanket.”

She looked at it and nodded. “Agreed. I’d feel pretty stupid if they were in one of the other rooms and found us playing with a kid’s blanket.”

We turned and left it where it was and went back out to the hallway.

The first door we came to was the room of silence, according to Rho.

Jade tried the handle. It was locked. She looked at me. “Any idea how to get inside?”

“The better question is,” I said, “are they in there?”

“Well, if we can’t open the door, we won’t know.”

I sighed and stared at the door handle, almost like I was willing it to tell me how to open it. Then I rubbed my temple.

“The lock for this room isn’t a spoken phrase or a knock on the door,” Rho said. “You have to spell the word ‘silence’ with the sign language alphabet.”

I frowned and looked at Jade. “Do you know sign language?”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t you?”

I shrugged. “A little.”

“What does... “ then her eyes widened. “Okay, so what do you know?”

I thought about it or made it look like it. Rho stood behind Jade and held up her hand. She made gestures and spelled out the alphabet. I repeated it, more slowly because I was trying to mimic her gestures.

“Wow! That’s better than me,” Jade said.

I nodded. “Okay, S ... i ... l ... e ... n ... c ... e.” Then I pointed at the door handle.

Jade tried it and the door opened. She pushed the door open and we both stood there, looking through the open doorway.

The light in this room was dimmer than in the hallway, but otherwise, nothing that we could see appeared to be out of place. Similar to the room of invisibility, shelves of items lined the walls, but there weren’t any hanging items.

Jade looked at me. I realized she had tried to say something, but I didn’t hear her. I looked at her.

She took a breath, opened her mouth wide, and appeared to scream. Yet, again, I didn’t hear anything.

I opened my mouth and called out her name. Nothing.

Jade frowned and moved to pull the door closed.

I looked at Rho. She was trying to talk but there was no sound from her either.

Jade closed the door and I heard the distinct sound of the latch clicking into place. I looked at her. “Can you hear me now?” She nodded and I heard myself.

“That was crazy,” Jade said. “Why would anyone create anything to make others deaf?”

“Same reasons as for invisibility,” I said.

She shook her head and turned to lead the way to the other door.

As we drew closer, I felt a distinct waft of cold air. It wasn’t a breeze, but more like passing through a cold spot. I suddenly wished I had a shirt at the very least.

Jade looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, with my arms crossed over my chest. “It’s nothing, just a quick chill.”

She frowned at me for a second and we continued.

When we reached the door, we found it ajar, and the lights along the hallway suddenly dimmed for a few seconds before resuming their normal illumination.

She pointed at the door. “That wasn’t open when we came through earlier.”

I nodded in agreement. Jade sped up to get to the door.

She pulled it open and fog poured out into the hallway. “What the hell?” she asked, stepping back as if someone had splashed her with something dirty.

I glanced at Rho, who shrugged. I rubbed my temple and she took me to the white space again.

“I have no idea what’s happening here,” she said before I could ask anything.

“I need to know what kinds of items are in there,” I said.

“I told you before, things having to do with ghosts.”

“What does fog have to do with ghosts?”

“Temperature variations,” she said. “Ghosts can cause them.”

“Can they create standing pools of water too, or make the air humid, because you need one or the other to get fog.”

“Magic can create fog,” she said.

I closed my eyes and quickly counted to ten. “I thought you said ghosts don’t have access to magic.”

“There are several magical items in that room. Some combination of magical effects could be causing the fog.”

I looked at her again and nodded. I had seen and experienced way too many magical effects to ignore the possibility here too. Just because those effects hadn’t escaped the room didn’t mean they didn’t exist.

“Now, if you plan on going in,” she continued, “there is a can of salt to the left of the door. I would recommend drawing a line with it on the floor after you step inside. To the right of the door is a glass shield. It looks heavy, but it’s been enchanted to be light enough for a child to carry and strong enough to stop the heaviest blows.”

She advised that we take precautions. Considering what we could run into, I had to agree.

We returned to Jade and I took the initiative, pulling the door open and grabbing the can of salt.

Jade looked at me. “What’s that for?”

Before I could reply, we both heard a weak, “Help!”

Jade’s eyes widened and she stepped into the room. “Walker?” she called. Within three steps, she was enveloped in the dark and the fog.

“Jade!” I said in a whisper. “Come back, Jade.” I watched the fog and listened to hear anything in the silence. Nothing. I stooped and drew a heavy line with the salt. I set the can next to the door to help prop it open, and then I stepped over the line, feeling for the glass shield. It wasn’t next to the door. I looked back at the doorway. “Rho?” I whispered. “Where’s the shield?”

“Over here,” I heard from further in the room. The voice was a whisper, unlike how Rho normally spoke.

Crap.

I moved further into the room. The fog was so thick that my jeans were sticking to me. “Jade?” I said, but if she answered then I didn’t hear her. I could hear my voice, but just to make sure, I also clapped. No, I wasn’t deaf and nothing was suppressing sounds in the room, which meant something was wrong with Jade.

“Jade!” I called out in a much stronger, more confident-sounding voice. “Say something or do something so I can find you.”

Again, I waited, listening intently, but there was nothing.

I turned to go back to the door. The light from the hallway barely penetrated the fog and darkness. It was like seeing a light from dozens of yards away rather than the few feet I had traveled. I took two steps and watched the light disappear with the distinct sound of the door closing.

I stopped in the pitch-black room. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. I needed light.

I was tired of the magical problems that had plagued the hallways. I wasn’t about to lose this group, especially my Mom, just because the protective spells of the vault were failing due to a lack of sexual energy in the Manor. I closed my eyes and tried to decide on either clearing out the fog or lighting up the room.

A voice started humming. At first, I thought I was hearing a tone spell, but there were no words, just the humming. Also, usually, I didn’t recognize the tune used in Tone spells. This was simple humming, and the tune was familiar.

I opened my eyes when I finally figured out where I had heard it. I was young, maybe five years old, and was mesmerized by a movie on the television. It was about a girl and her dog. They were lost and had to follow a road to find their way home. She sang a song that had words, and the title of the song was “Somewhere over the rainbow.” The humming was of the same song, only much slower, making it sound sad, and melancholy.

“Somewhere over the rainbow?” I asked in the dark room. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to tell me that I’m not in Kansas anymore?”

The humming stopped. The room was so quiet, if I didn’t hear my breathing I would have thought I had gone deaf or somehow ended up back in the room of silence.

“Help me,” said a voice, only it sounded like someone calling from a long distance and I didn’t recognize the voice.

I looked around in the dark again, still unable to see anything. I reached out and my hand brushed one of the shelves lining the walls. I stepped closer and felt for anything on the shelf. Something should offer some kind of light. I found several items, but I had no idea what any of them did, and none of them felt like a flashlight or lantern.

“Rho?” I called aloud. At this point, hiding her presence seemed moot. “Rho, where are you?”

She didn’t answer. I knew protective spells could stop her from responding to me, but it never occurred to me that such spells may be present in any of these rooms. If so, why this room? Was it because she was seen as a ghost? Or for some other reason?

Something touched my butt. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn one of my girls just felt me up.

I turned around, pressing my back to the shelves, but I couldn’t see anything.

I was prepared for someone to hit me, but the sudden sensation of having my crotch stroked in the same gentle fashion wasn’t on the list of possibilities.

I couldn’t move back, away from that touch, so I moved to the side. I clutched my knees together and covered my crotch with my hands. “Who’s there?” I asked. My voice cracked from a combination of the half-grin on my face and the unexpected gentleness of the contact. If I had been at home and sounded like that, whoever had touched me wouldn’t have stopped. She would keep playing the game, knowing I was willing.

“Hello,” said a whisper in my ear. It was like someone stood next to me, very close.

I froze. I was sure it was meant to be intimate, but that didn’t stop me from feeling fear rushing up and down my spine.

I stepped away from the shelves, turning around and around to see who might be there, but couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t even tell which way led to the door anymore. “Who’s there?” I asked, my voice going up an octave.

“Mmm, so big... “ said the voice. Then I felt something graze the side of my neck.

I moved again. “Stop touching me!” Yes, even to me, I sounded like a four-year-old.

An odd pink light grew from the darkness. It followed a swirl of fog - or so I thought.

The fog, which had resettled after I disturbed it, began to swirl around the light, pulled together, and condensed into a much more solid form.

I stepped back from the forming column, watching with the same fascination as one would watch a car accident - unable to do anything to stop it from happening, but also unable to turn away.

What started as a simple column ended up taking on the hourglass figure of a woman’s body. Arms came down, and the head appeared to have long hair twirling up toward the ceiling.

I didn’t feel any wind, but there was a pull of sorts. I wanted to step closer to this odd pink form, to feel the body, to hold it against mine.

With the illumination of the pink light, I realized the answer to my earlier dilemma. The fog wasn’t stopping me from seeing in the room, rather, it was the fact that the lights in the room were out. I imagined a globe of light, as bright as the lights in the hallway, hovering near the ceiling above me. I put my will into it, and I let my power flow.

The light was dazzling. I quickly realized that though the fog was thick, it only came up to my waist. Well, the fog other than what was involved with the pink light. That fog stood about five and a half feet tall if I didn’t include the column of hair.

I could see the rest of the room, the shelves, the door, everything except the floor. If Jade was hurt, tied up, or unconscious, I couldn’t see her. For that matter, if the others were here, I couldn’t see them either.

I looked at the pink fog. “Where’s Jade?”

The fog moved toward me, for all the world like a real woman walking my way. “Help me,” said the distant voice again, and the arms reached for me.

I moved back, trying to fight the sudden need to hug the fog figure. “Where is Jade?” I asked again.

The figure stopped and looked up at the light I had conjured. It reached up to it as if trying to grab it. “Too much...”

The light went out. I was left with nothing but the odd pink glow coming from the fog’s body.

I had seen the door. It was behind me. I turned to leave.

“No!” said the same distant voice, and the pink fog body appeared between me and the door.

I stopped and backpedaled, unnerved by how quickly this thing had moved. “What the hell?”

“Can’t leave,” said the voice.

I frowned in confusion. Could I have a conversation with a ghost? Rho made it sound like this entity would be too focused on its emotions to talk rationally or allow anything that didn’t give in to its irrational wants and needs.

Worse, I couldn’t help Jade or the others if this spirit wouldn’t let me. Thoughts of my mother being hurt by this spirit helped curb the growing urges.

I focused on the pink body. “I have to leave,” I said, moving to the side to get at the door again. “I have to find my mother and the others.”

The body moved to block me. “You mustn’t leave...”

I frowned. “I don’t belong here, and I have to find Jade.” Then I moved to the other side to go for the door again.

The pink light moved closer. “She doesn’t matter ... you don’t need her...”

“If you’re not going to help me, then I’ll do this myself,” I said, and raised my hand.

“You’re a Magus?”

I stopped and stared at the pink light. That question had been clearer than anything else the distant voice had asked. “I am.”

“Help me!” The voice echoed around the room.

“I can’t help you,” I said, letting my voice trail away. “You’ve died.”

“No! I’m not dead!”

I sighed. “I can’t help you.”

“Fuck me... “ said the voice very softly. Almost to the point that I could barely make out the words.

“What?”

Something rubbed against my crotch. If it had been one of my girls, I would have said she was rubbing her ass against me.

I stepped back. “Please don’t do that. This is already difficult enough as it is.”

“It’s hard...”

“Yes, this is hard...”

“You’re hard...”

I sighed again. Yes, I had an erection, but I couldn’t let this ghost do this to me. “You have to stop. This isn’t going to help.”

“Help me... “ the voice said, and the pink fog body moved closer, almost like this spirit was throwing itself at me.

I stepped back, to maintain some distance between us, but stepped on something hard and round.

The distraction helped me maintain some control over the growing urges I felt. I bent and picked it up. It felt like a stone bowl. Probably one of the items from this room, but why was it on the floor?

The pink fog reached me as I examined the bowl, and rather than feeling engulfed by more cold moisture, I honestly felt as if someone was trying to hug me.

Again, in my ear, an intimate whisper said, “Make love to me... “ I also felt something caress me, not from outside my jeans, but as if a soft, gentle hand encircled my shaft and stroked me.

I tried to move back but stepped on something small and round, like a marble. Between trying to get away from the fog, trying to pick my foot up off the object, and my momentum, I ended up falling to the floor.

I hit my head on the floor and thought stars sparkled in front of my eyes. I sat up, rubbing the back of my head. When I opened my eyes, the lights were on and the fog was gone.