Chapter 11

When I was woken in the middle of night, I feared the worst but the person who woke me wasn’t Pete!

‘Hank Lambert? My name is Emily Lafontaine. You don’t know me, but Sylvia Groton gave me your sigil and suggested I contact you. Look, this is going to sound crazy, but bear with me a moment, okay?‘ The voice sounded like a young woman, but one that was stressed out and feeling the strain of whatever it was she was going through.

‘I am a scryer, kinda sorta like Sylvia, that’s why I know her. But where she specializes in scrying magic, seeing magic, I specialize in prophesy. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. Now, most of the things I see are worthless to anyone. If I am in Madrid, what good does it do to know a car will slide through an intersection and hit a dog in Moscow? How about what the winning lottery number in Taipei is, seconds before the drawing, and I don’t even know anyone in Taiwan, much less the city? Most of my visions are of that sort.‘

‘Okay, but what does that mean for me, I mean, since you are calling me?’

‘This is the third time I have seen something far enough ahead to try and do something about it. When I talked to Sylvia, she suggested you, saying you know the movers and shakers in the Americas and that you are a Wizard. Mr. Lambert, Tomorrow, at ten AM in the morning, local time, there will be a, a portal of some sort, I think, a greenish arch, and it will appear in Central Park, New York City. It will only be there for three minutes, but the ... the things that will pour out of it will slaughter a dozen innocent people! When they go back through the portal, they take a young girl with them. You have to stop them!‘ She was sending me an image, a memory of what she saw, and I could easily recognize the spot if I saw it again.

‘You did the right thing, Emily. I am going to get with the Warlock and the president of the Council and we will be there to stop this.‘ I told her, trying to project calm confidence. Inside, I was a gibbering mess! What the hell was I getting into here?

‘I ... I have a good feeling about you, Mr. Lambert. Bon chance!‘ she disconnected, and I immediately put a call into Pete.

‘It’s three in the damn morning, Hank, and I just got to bed an hour ago. This better be important.‘

‘It is if you want the location and time of the next incursion, and it is going to be a big one. Twelve innocents will be killed if we can’t stop it.’ I gave it to him with both barrels. It was important he pay attention, and pussy footing around wasn’t going to help!

‘Shit. Tell me everything... ‘

Today was the twentieth, a Thursday. What could be so important in Central Park on a Thursday? We had no idea but that was one of the hundreds of questions we asked as we brainstormed until the sun came up. Reggie had contacted the European Council and the Asian Council; both were sending a Warlock each. They were afraid that this was a feint to draw them all out and wanted to keep at least one Warlock in reserve. I can’t say I blamed them!

The Wizards were coming, of course. A more inquisitive bunch you would never find, and keeping them away would be a whole other battle no one wanted to fight. Pete and I had a plan, of sorts, and were hoping we could prevent any casualties at all. It all depended on my shields, good timing, and lots of luck.

Pete and I met the two foreign Warlocks in Central Park, and after a quick look around, we found the spot from the memory I had received from Emily.

Ken Jeong was from South Korea and he was a quiet, no-nonsense kind of guy who served as an officer in their military. Giuseppe Pinta was a garrulous guy, all smiles and quick to laugh, but his intelligent eyes made you wonder if he was putting on an act.

We explained what we wanted to try, and the two of them, though skeptical, were willing to let us give it a shot first. This was our territory, and though they had heard about the new Wizard, they were not convinced I was all I was made out to be.

That was fine with me, as long as they stayed out of the way and let me do what I could.

The plan was for me to try and capture the first one, dropping a reflective shield around it like the one I used against Mike Newell. As I did that, I was also going to be dropping a shield over the portal, preventing anything else from coming through. While I had practiced setting multiple shields at once, I had never set one quite so large and strong as the one I would use on the portal, and of course, I had never tried to contain a portal!

The time ticked down, and we watched, spread out in front of the area where it was supposed to appear. Each of us was lost in thought, setting up what we would do if this really happened, or how we would react when that happened. It was a good thing Pete did a countdown or I might have missed it!

It was scary how quickly everything happened once events began! The portal appeared, almost making me gag at the sudden strong taste of copper in the back of my throat. Through the portal stepped a short being, pointy ears like the stories of elves and moving fast. I cast my first shield, trapping the creature and slammed the big shield down around the portal as fast as I could!

I hadn’t thought about it, but I suppose, subconsciously, I had made the edge of the shield sharp like the power blades I had been practicing with. As the large shield came down, it almost wasn’t fast enough. The edge impacted and sliced effortlessly through a huge creature that was exiting the portal. The shield sliced through the left shoulder, bisected the torso, and dropped half the body, including the head and two right-sided arms to the grass outside the shield!

I am glad I have lots of practice holding shields automatically. I was so shocked at seeing half of a four-armed, blue-skinned creature with huge fangs, that I might have dropped the shields, and let in the other half of it in and its buddies, too.

I could feel the sense of shock from the others who were watching, and I could feel a sense of implacable hatred from the creature contained by my small shield. It was glaring at me, its hands clenching and unclenching into small fists.

It was less than five feet tall, had a greenish cast to the skin, and appeared hairless. The ears were definitely pointed, as were the slanted eyes, and the teeth were either sharpened into points or were naturally like that. It was dressed in light, leather-like armor topped by metal plates of some kind ... bronze in color, though it could have been colored steel for all I knew.

The creature knew I had trapped it though, and its eyes were locked on me. Wanting to get a closer look, I walked up to the shield, strengthening the field around it, just in case. I glanced at the larger shield, and I could see it was receiving a hell of a lot of energy and turning it back against the attackers. We couldn’t see who was on the other side of the opaque portal, but blasts of energy, hurled boulders, and other less obvious attacks, were making my shield visible as it reflected the energy.

I could actually feel one of my gems warming up, just the slightest bit, and when I checked, they had already managed to drain more than two hundred joules of energy in just a minute! They were throwing everything they had at it! If they didn’t run out of power, or shut down the portal soon, I could only hold it for five more minutes, tops, and then I would have to drop the big shield and use smaller ones to protect the team.

Luckily, Emily had been right and the portal only lasted just shy of three minutes. The attack had petered out after the first minute and a half, though we couldn’t be sure if that was a sign they were out of power, or if they had just stopped the futile attack to conserve power.

Our prisoner watched the entire proceedings but never bothered to speak, or even try to speak. When the portal closed, it closed its eyes for a moment. When it opened them again, it looked right at me and spit at the shield. Its aim was good and would have hit me in the face if the shield hadn’t been there.

I was pretty sure the insult wasn’t its real aim though, but it only occurred to me later. The spit distracted us long enough for it to ram a stiletto-shaped blade into its own torso. The move was a violent one, slamming the blade so hard the cross guard was all that kept it from going deeper. The being, whatever it was, dropped to the ground as if its strings had been cut, and like the half-remains of the four-armed thing, it simply faded out. The shield was empty again.

Pete had me hold the shield in place for several minutes while he and the other Warlocks cast some spells. They wanted to make sure it was really gone and not invisible or intangible and waiting to strike when we dropped the shield.

I felt let down by how this ended. Yes, we saved the innocents from being slaughtered and the girl from being kidnapped, but we still had no more idea today than we did yesterday, why this was happening and how we could stop it in the future.

We discussed the possibility of us getting together again if another portal could be intercepted and everyone agreed that it would be their priority as well. We all exchanged sigils so we could contact each other directly, then dispersed.

Reggie and the rest of the Council were no more satisfied with how things turned out than we were, but were properly appreciative that we had been able to foil this attack. I suggested, and Pete seconded, that we owed Emily Lafontaine a reward and our thanks for the warning that made it possible.

Pete and I gave up our memories of the events to the Council so they could see what we experienced, and maybe, one of the older Wizards here, or on the Over Council, would recognize the invaders ... by type, if nothing else.

Things seem to quiet down a bit after that, and finally, I took the time to go to Augusta and really look around. I had not been avoiding the place, not really, but I felt a bit like an intruder on Pat’s turf. Of course, he thought that was funny, but said he kind of understood, being a little uncomfortable himself in Atlanta.

At least I didn’t have to deal with the repatriation, or reintegration, or whatever it is called, of over a hundred slaves! He was trying to figure out how to deal with people that in some cases had had a boot on their necks their whole lives. Hell, he said there were four families that had been slaves for generations!

Augusta, Georgia is the second largest city in the state and was established in 1736! It was named for Princess Augusta, wife of Frederik, Prince of Wales. Its big claim to fame is being the host for the annual Masters Golf Tournament. It is also the site of the Medical College of Georgia.

The city is adjacent to the Fort Gordon US Army base, home of the Army’s Signal School, and contributes a sizeable chunk of the economy, the largest segment outside of tourism, in fact. The primary religious affiliation of the area is Southern Baptist, outnumbering Catholics, and Methodists at a ratio of four to one each, or two to one combined.

Why is the religion of the region important? The Southern Baptist church is, by their own words, a fundamentalist sect. They believe the bible to be the literal word of God and inerrant (without error). The salient part of this point is this passage: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” - Exodus 22:18

This is the passage that kicked off the Salem Witch Trials and this is the passage used to condone the capture, torture, and murder of Mages since the King James version of the bible was released.

And it is a lie. Okay, to be accurate, it is a mistranslation, a misunderstanding. The Bible was translated from Hebrew and the translations were, generally, not horrible. Problems cropped up when words appear that were no longer in common usage. Old words die, new words are born in a living language. Rad, right?

The original phrase, according to some Hebrew scholars, ‘kashaph’ was translated as one who practices ‘mystic mutterings‘ and taken to mean spell casting. Other scholars said that the word was ‘mekhasheph ‘should have been translated as ‘to cut‘ as in the harvest and preparation of herbs, the ancient pharmacologist.

The alternate translation, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live‘, is one that makes more sense in context than the sudden introduction of witchcraft. The other passages in Exodus 21 and 22 mention several forms of murder and the punishments for those, yet nothing of the occult.

So, this mistranslation, and the unthinking obedience to the ‘Word of God‘ that was the product of a very human error, led to the deaths of thousands who may, or may not, have been Mages.

All of this is just a roundabout way of saying that Mages must walk softly in areas where the major religion wants them dead.

My family is not all that religious. We are, supposedly, Episcopalians, but my parents mostly used church on Sunday to socialize. I had no idea how the two churches differ, or were similar, so I couldn’t really internalize that threat.

People were people, right? A person could be good, bad, and indifferent, it was only in groups that people became really dangerous, or so it seemed. I would have to take a closer look at what went on, but I doubted we would have to be too worried about a modern-day Salem.

I would, as Grandpa used to say, keep my eyes open and my powder dry.

One thing that Augusta didn’t have, that Atlanta evidently did, was a big drug problem. Yes, there were drugs and dealers and even some gang activity, but it was nowhere near as big an issue as it was the larger city. I think Pat had as much to do with that as the local law enforcement!

The crime rate was on par with most other areas of a similar size and population density and, like Pat, unless there were good reasons to get involved, mostly I would adopt a hands-off on social issues. While I could totally get into playing costumed crusader, I would resist the temptation. What little I could probably do without usurping free will in the area, wouldn’t be enough to justify the risk I would be taking.

Not to say I wouldn’t, you know, help out if I could and not be noticed! A little push here, a tug there? Oh no, that man tripped and his drugs were ruined when they spilled out all over the wet street! So sad...

Pat had asked me to go by and check out his place. He hadn’t been back in a while, and he knew for sure that there was a pile of mail with my name on them. He claimed to not know who from and told me that it was my problem, not his, but to call after I had checked in.

The security, both mundane and magical, had been cleared for me to enter at will. The suspicious guard who controlled the elevator looked as if he would have loved to shoot me ... or anyone, really.

Upstairs in Pat’s penthouse, on the kitchen counter, sat a tub of translucent plastic that had the US Mail logo on the side. The ‘huge stack’ of mail turned out to be seven or eight envelopes, and I was immediately wondering how I could get him back for teasing me.

The letters were a whole other thing though, and I really wanted to know a couple of things. First, who knew to write to me here and who told them I would be here in the first place. Even more importantly, it occurred to me, who the hell even knew who I was and why would they bother to write to a high school kid?

The short turned out to be a blessing and a curse. A curse because I wanted to ease my way into the city slowly, getting used to things and quietly finding a place to call home base. A blessing because it appeared that most of the people I wanted to know were already seeking me out. Without exception, the letters were invitations to call on people or invitations to an event.

‘Oh Pat, mentor of mine, buddy, what the hell is all of this?‘

‘Ah, you opened your mail? I figured out most of it by looking at the return addresses. You are going to need a personal assistant or a secretary to schedule things for you.‘ His tone sounded unreasonably smug and I knew he was leading up to something ... something I probably wasn’t going to like.

‘A secretary, huh? For a high school junior? Excuse me, Mrs. Parks, my secretary forgot to type my homework. I’m going to dock her pay, but what can you do? Can I bring it in tomorrow?’ I quipped, getting a laugh in return.

‘It really isn’t my fault, Hank, but it is not all bad either. You know the twins have a modeling agency, right? They specialize in Asian models, or Pacific Rim as they call it. They help them get work visas, apartments while they are here, keep them from getting rooked and so on. They also have a business on the gray side of the market, false IDs, birth certificates and so on, to help Asian Mages relocate when things get uncomfortable. You know, when you live in the same house for a hundred years but still look twenty? Folks get suspicious.’

‘And this has what to do with my mail? I would have thought, as security conscious as you are, that you would warn your ladies about talking out of school.’

‘Whoa! Slow down, Hank, I was telling you about them but it wasn’t any of us who talked, okay? The word is out that you have Augusta now. That is common knowledge, and it is info released by the Council to keep anyone from trying to move in and cause trouble. The twins have been contacted by a couple of dozen Mages overseas about relocating to this area. They have gotten twice that many from here in the USA and from Europe too, though the Europeans have their own papers guy.’

I wracked my brain for how this concerned me, and the only thing I could think of was the gem business, but it was not like anyone needed an invite to do that, they just sent them to Pat.

‘Okay, I give. What the hell does that even mean? Why would there suddenly be interest in moving to Georgia, of all places? New York City? Sure! Los Angeles? Movie stars! But Augusta? I already guessed it is not a business thing, you handle that.’

Pat was laughing. It was disconcerting, hearing laughter in your head that wasn’t yours, and when it was rollicking, side-splitting, uproarious laughter and you are the target, it is downright freaky! And annoying.

‘Sorry, Hank, really, I couldn’t help it. You, with your power affinity, being a Wizard and with you single-handedly thwarting an invasion from another dimension, well, you have catapulted yourself to the top of the most eligible bachelor Mage list! Congrats, buddy!‘ he managed before busting out laughing again.

The rest of the conversation wasn’t all that helpful, what with him breaking into giggles every few seconds when I grumped at something.

He did tell me that I could pick an office on the third floor and use it as my base for as long as I wanted. He owned the building, as of last year, and when the tenant on three moved to bigger offices, he had the floor remodeled.

Half of the floor was being built out and was already leased, but the other half was available and had been broken into three smaller groups of offices. Each was about the same, but one had a corner office, and he preferred I not take that, he could get more money for rent there!

He said he had candidates for a good PA too and would send me one tomorrow morning. We set up a time to meet at nine, then he directed me to his library in the penthouse.

‘Most of what you borrowed from my library has been the beginner stuff, things every Mage wants to know. There is a section in the index called commerce though, and I doubt very seriously you ever really paid much attention there. I don’t blame you, half the books are outdated trade routes and negotiation techniques centered around slaves and camels.

‘There is one book that was really helpful. It is called ‘Enhanced Interpersonal Interaction for Mages in the Business World’ and it was published in the 1950s. The spells in that book that I found especially helpful are the associate loyalty and honesty ones.’

‘Like the truth spell you had me use that time?’

‘Hmm ... kind of. The truth spell was a very literal spell. It forces the user to speak the truth. Truth and honesty are not always the same thing, and truth and loyalty have only a passing acquaintance now-a-days! No, this is more ... when you cast the loyalty spell, it makes the employee want to do their best by and for you. They would never consider talking out of school about your business or giving away trade secrets. It doesn’t make them take a bullet for you, and if it they had to move to Boise to care for a sick mother, they would still quit, but they would regret having to.

‘The same with the honesty spell. It is not going to get them to spit out that your client is as ugly as sin, but it will keep that same employee from fudging their numbers on their timecard. They would no more consider pocketing a twenty from the till, or a bribe from a competitor, than they would casually cut off their own hand. ‘

‘That does sound handy! That will help if I hire the person you send, I guess. What do I do with these invites in the meantime?’

‘Ignore them until you hire someone. Then have them write up a form letter type response, thanking them for the invite but explaining that your visits to the city will be short and unscheduled at first, until you find a home here, and that once you are established in Augusta, you will be happy to reevaluate then.’

‘Damn, that’s pretty slick. Don’t call me, we’ll call you, huh?’

‘You got it! Gotta run, Hank, See you in the morning.’

I wandered around his place for a while before I got bored and headed out. I stopped in town and picked up a couple of newspapers and a real estate circular, thinking that nothing was really out of the question right now since I had no idea what I wanted.

When I got back, I checked with the receptionist on the first floor of Pat’s building, getting directions to the management office on the first floor. Pat had already alerted them, and a nice lady showed me the open offices on the third floor. She seemed curious about the type of business, but I just gave her one of the business cards Pat had made me last year, with H.A. Lambert, Jewelers on the front.

The office suites were all much bigger and nicer than I thought I would need, but the woman seemed sure I would be fine in any. The one I chose was the smallest of the three, with three offices, a break room, a conference room, two bathrooms, and a formal lobby. The entrance to the suite was through one of three sets of double glass doors.

Mary, the woman who showed me around, gave me her card and told me to have my office manager or personal assistant contact her anytime, Monday through Saturday, and she would help with the buildout and even staffing, if needed.

My head swimming a bit, I went back up to the penthouse and left all the newspapers on the counter, deciding I would rather be home with the familiar than be here alone. Almost regretting that I had driven instead of teleporting, I touched the inner link on my watch, I popped home and appeared, as always, in the backyard.

I would have to teleport back in the morning, of course. I needed my truck in Augusta this weekend, so I could learn how to find everything, but I was beginning to think I needed a city car and a home car, or truck, or motorcycle ... something!

That was for later though...

“Mom, I’m home! What’s for lunch?”

“Call the girls and tell them you are back. We can order pizza; I am just not in the mood to cook today.”

Lynn’s parents were so used to Carrie and Lynn being at my place, that we had even gotten them to look the other way when she stayed over. Lynn’s mom was convinced I was trustworthy and Bernie’s, well, the less said about her the better. It was no hard task to convince both to stay over tonight and go with me to Augusta in the morning. Especially not after they heard about the invites and the sudden immigration interest!

“Hank, we have been talking a little about that. You know, just Bernie and me.” Lynn said, perched on my lap. Bernie was seated in her favorite spot, on a pillow on the floor where she could either lean back against my legs or sit with her head in my lap. I swear that girl was part cat.

“You have? And what is it that you were talking about?”

“Well, see, Carrie has been asking me if you found more girls, you know, to replace them.”

“You can tell Carrie, and I will tell her too, that no one could ever replace her!” I assure Lynn, giving her a hug.

“Not like that, dummy! I mean, if you have gotten more girls, and if not, why not? She thinks Bernie and I should be recruiting for you, but we thought you would rather find your own. We are sure we would like them too, if you do.”

“Wait, what? Why do I need to find more girls? I just got rid of two of you!” I teased, but was curious about where this was leading.

“‘Cause Maggie said you need them! She said you may not need them to store power for you, but you need them to keep you happy, to make sure you always have someone to cuddle with.” Lynn said off-handedly, as if this should be evident.

“And to fuck. And blowjobs.” Bernie said, leaning in and kissing my package through the material of my shorts.

“Anyway,” Lynn went on, patting Bernie on the head, “We thought that since you hadn’t found any yet, we would, you know, kind of look around. Only, there aren’t that many girls at school we ... um, we like, like, and most don’t like us like that.”

“So ... the girls you think are hot are not into dining at the ‘Y’, huh?” I asked innocently and got a punch in the arm in payment.

“Ow!”

“Sissy! Take your punishment like a man. Yes, okay? You know that we like girls, mostly more than guys, except for you. The girls who like girls are girls who we don’t like. The softball team has some real, um, scary girls who like girls!”

“Sheesh, she is never going to get to the point, you know,” Bernie griped, rolling her eyes and pinching Lynn on the butt. “Hank, the reason we even brought this up was there is a new girl at the school, just started last week, and she is already asking about you. I get the feeling she knew about you before she moved here, so you telling us about the eligible bachelor thing ties it all together.”

“Yeah. She’s cute though, so...” Lynn chimed it, giggling at me when I growled at her.

The next morning, waking up with both of my girls in bed with me was enough to make the morning bright, not even considering what we got up to the night before! We all got showered and dressed, I reminded the girls that this would be a business meeting, of sorts so they were appropriately garbed in very nice, form-fitting skirts, blouses, and jackets.

Heck, they looked like the kind of secretary that men chase around the office and get in trouble!

After breakfast (pancakes!) we were off. I had the girls hold my hand and we were in Pat’s entryway in a flash. Well, not a flash, you know, just a ... never mind.

Pat was there and stood to shake my hand. STOOD TO SHAKE MY HAND!!

The girls went nuts, and I wasn’t much better. Victoria, who had been standing by Pat, just in case, had a big smile on her face as she grabbed the walker that had been hidden behind the wall and placed it in front of Pat.

“Ladies, you knock my man down and undo any of the hard work our Mages put in to getting him this way, I will make you wish you had never met me!” Victoria scowled, but I could see her heart wasn’t in it. Both of my girls gave Pat another kiss, another careful hug, and then one of each to Victoria as well.

“Pat, you look fantastic! Hey, you are much taller than I thought you would be too!” I said, shaking his hand with both of mine.

“Yeah, it is a refreshing change to see the world from up here! I am still moving slow and use the chair when I really want to get around, but at home I stump along with this walker,” he said happily, slapping the rubber handles.

“What about the numbness? Any other issues that we missed? Doc keeps telling me that you are doing well, progressing as expected or better, but all of that means dick when I see you like this! This is awesome!”

“Two toes are numb, a spot on my shin and I get these odd nerve jangles from my left ankle and my hip sometimes, but let me tell you, buddy, they are nothing. Nothing at all. Now, let me sit down so we can talk. I promised Vicky that I wouldn’t push it right now if she let me greet you standing today.” He shuffled over and took a seat in a recliner, rubbing his hands along the soft leather arms.

“You want to know something weird? This is the first time I have ever sat here. I have owned this chair for a decade and never sat in it until today. I am doing a lot of things for the first time and even more for the first time in a long, long time! Anyway, look, I kinda brought you here under false pretenses. Well, hmm ... yes and no.” He paused and shook his head at Victoria before continuing.

“I was going to spring this on you, but that wouldn’t be fair and today, of all days, I can’t be unfair to you. The woman I brought with me would be an excellent personal assistant for you. She would be fanatically loyal, slavishly honest, and would do any task, no matter what it was, without hesitation. That is the problem, see, she can’t help but be that way.”