Everything was more or less back under control when Russ finally called Serenity and asked him to head back to New York City. It wasn’t quite an afterthought when Russ asked Serenity to bring Blaze and Ita but leave Rissa behind.
They met at a strip mall, in the back room of a store that sold boxes and other packing materials nestled between a liquor store and UPS store. Serenity had never really thought about the economic model of a store that sold only one type of thing, but there did seem to be people coming and going regularly; it probably helped that they were next to the UPS store. On the other hand, didn’t they sell boxes too?
Whether outside support was necessary for the box store or not, it was clear they had it. The back area was significant, a forty-by-fifty open room with a concrete floor and a large sliding door that opened onto the rear loading dock. There were several pallets of flat cardboard boxes that were still partially wrapped in plastic, clearly waiting to be opened, inventoried, and moved into the public area.
The half of the open area that didn’t contain pallets had a counter set at a height that was clearly intended to be used while standing and a set of stools that were the right height for the counter. Russ sat on one of the stools, talking to a large man with deep green skin. The man was clearly Legion, but Serenity didn’t remember anything about this body other than having seen him a few times.
Russ looked up when Serenity stepped into the large room. “Ah, there you are! I’m glad you were able to make it today.”
“You didn’t explain much in your call, but it sounded urgent.” Serenity headed over to the table. He didn’t need to sit down yet, but he could already see that there were some papers on the table.
Russ nodded with a grin. “A bit. I can’t officially call you in for the assault, things are a bit tighter now that we’re gray instead of black. That doesn’t mean I can’t call you in for the aftermath and if you happen to get there a bit early, well…” Russ shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind some backup in case there’s something more there than we expect.”
“Should we be worried that you only call us when it’s time for a fight and you think you might need backup?” Blaze followed Serenity into the room with a grin on his face. “It’s good to be prepared, so shouldn’t you have told us that we might need supplies if nothing else?”
Russ shrugged. The grin on his face was clearly unrepentant. “Are you going to tell me you didn’t bring whatever you might need to heal several people?”
Blaze tilted his head at Russ. Serenity assumed that meant Russ won that exchange.
Russ grinned even wider and waved at the stools. “I’m afraid we don’t have a seat for you, Ita; rhis wasn’t set up with Sterath in mind.”
Ita hopped up to the counter. It was probably a little high for her to be comfortable, but she could certainly see. “This will be fine. It is only to be expected. That you thought of me at all is more than Sterath would have done; foreigners must adapt to Sterath ways, they do not adapt to others.”
Serenity turned towards Ita for a moment. She didn’t count herself as Sterath anymore, did she?
He wasn’t given time to think about it, because Russ only waited a moment before continuing. “As I’m sure you all came prepared for a fight, let’s skip to the details. Serenity, you remember the Solomon vases, don’t you?”
“The vase that held something that tried to possess a college student … what was his name?” Serenity remembered the incident, but the parts that were the most clear in his memory were the ritual he’d done to deal with the spirit and the temporary patchwork he’d managed to do to help the boy out until Blaze could reach Earth and actually heal him. The illusion spell he’d broken to reveal the theft was also very memorable.
“Rube Merryweather,” Blaze supplied. “I checked in with him a few weeks ago; he’s fine. There have been no recurring issues so far. His skill at detecting very fine details in magic is developing unusually quickly, but it doesn’t seem to be contaminated by his experience. He’s currently planning to join the investigative teams on A’Atla, but I don’t know how long that will last; when we got back to Earth, he was interested in enchanting.”
Everyone was silent for long enough for Blaze to finish, then Russ laughed. “I should have known you’d remember more about the person than Serenity. I’ll bet he remembers the magic and has completely forgotten that he was shot as we left the museum.”
“It wasn’t that painful.” Serenity flushed a little. He really had forgotten about that; it didn’t seem important.
Even Ita couldn’t resist a chuckle at his weak attempt at a comeback.
Russ grinned and shook his head, clearly amused at his future son-in-law’s peculiarities. “Well, the Solomon vases have kept turning up. One here, one there, five at a swap meet … that sort of thing. It’s been just enough to keep us looking, but somehow they never lead anywhere. Sometimes they cause problems, but most of the time they’re just there.”
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Russ looked around the group, then continued when no one had any comments. “I eventually started wondering if they were a distraction and looked deeper into the other things present when they were found. We’d already looked for anything that might lead us to the vases, of course, but that still left a lot of stuff that wasn’t ever looked at beyond a basic check to see if it was stolen. I started looking for the things that we’d have paid attention to if the Solomon vase wasn’t there and each incident wasn’t tied to another. It took a few more finds, but I eventually came up with an answer.” Russ moved some papers around on the table; they looked like maps, but under them were some printed photos.
Serenity leaned over the table to get a good look; they didn’t look like much. There was a knife, a small stone, a chair, a shirt, and a silver pendant strung on a leather cord.
Russ tapped the photo of the chair. “Every single one of these is a recently-made magical item that no one was able to immediately identify. I couldn’t go back to most of the older cases, since we only took the stolen stuff unless it was also in an illegal location, but the two I was able to check also had something marked unknown. These aren’t the only ones we found, but they’re a good example of how different everything is. I even went to those crafters you imported, Serenity, and asked for their help. They said they didn’t know what they were, at least not specifically; they’d never seen anything quite like them.”
“They didn’t?” Serenity knew who Russ was talking about: Katya’s family. He’d invited them, but it was actually Rissa who’d traveled to their home planet to bring them to Earth. The Kyrikas were an entire family of crafters; Katya Kyrika was the odd one out, since she’d chosen a different Path. “I’d expect one of them to have some idea; they’ve seen a lot more than most Earthlings. I don’t think the training in the Tutorial was on anything particularly unusual. For that matter, isn’t one of Katya’s cousins teaching some enchanting classes?”
Russ nodded. “They said they didn’t even understand how the items could work, which is the same thing they said about the Solomon vases. So I pulled Red in, just to see if she could figure anything out. Do you know what she said?”
“I can guess.” Serenity knew enough about Red to know that she didn’t like to give straight answers, but some of the functions were obvious just from the pictures. “The knife is a ritual knife, enchanted to be able to cut even when it is dull. The shirt’s protective, but also designed to hide the fact that it’s enchanted. The chair makes someone look more approachable and friendly. The rest she needed more time to look at.”
Russ gave a long, slow blink at that. “When did you talk to Red?”
Serenity tried to raise an eyebrow. He’d already said it was a guess. “I didn’t, that’s just based on the pictures. Was I right, then?”
Russ sighed. “Two out of three? No, three out of five, I think. The chair actually makes anyone who sits in it a bit more suggestible, like they’re sleepy or have been drinking. It’s subtle. You’re right that she asked for more time on the others, but she also said she’d seen the enchanting techniques before - and that applies to all of the items, not just the ones she could identify. Which means that whoever made them is using techniques that were found on Earth in ancient times and which aren’t known or commonly practiced today. She said the same thing about the Solomon vases; they’re apparently similarly constructed, even if I can’t see it.”
Serenity couldn’t either. Admittedly, he didn’t have any of them in front of him, but the Solomon vases were made of clay and had a permanent stopper inscribed with a distinct pattern. None of these items were clay and Serenity didn’t see any patterns carved into them, either. Maybe they were hidden in a way the Solomon vases’ enchantments weren’t? “Red would know better than I would.”
Russ nodded. “Same here. The important thing is that it gave us a new line of investigation to follow; we started looking for more items made in the old style rather than the current one. There might be multiple people making them, but the knowledge has to come from somewhere. It’s a secretive community but not a large one, so chances are that if we find anything like this, it probably came from the same person who made items that are somehow associated with the Solomon vases.”
“He outsmarted himself,” Blaze interjected. “Or you’re missing something. It could be both. If you’re right that they’re there as a distraction, whoever’s behind it gave away too much information for the benefit. I assume there’s nothing else tying the locations together?”
Russ shook his head. “It’s more than that; there are a few we wouldn’t have noticed at all if the vases hadn’t been there. One of them had some other illicit goods, but the vase is the only thing we’ve found in a few places. Those could be red herrings,” Russ paused and glanced at Blaze, who nodded to let him know that he’d understood the reference, “or they could be attempts to attack enemies.”
Serenity nodded impatiently. “So what does that have to do with why we’re here today?”
Russ turned back to Serenity with a half-smile. “Do you remember that mind control incident you called me about? The one where a buyer was trying to convince people to sell to him for peanuts?”
Serenity nodded cautiously. “Legion called me, I think it was someone trying to con his wife?” Serenity paused and looked at Legion. He didn’t know if this was the same body as the one with the wife who was attacked, but he knew it didn’t really matter; Legion was one person, even if he had multiple bodies.
Legion nodded silently.
“We found out how he was doing it. We expected a Path Skill, but it turned out to be a combination of a Skill and an item - an item made in the same style as the weird items, at least according to Red. More importantly, he was willing to talk in exchange for a lighter sentence. That means we know where he got the item, which brings us to today. We’re going to go in and talk to the creator.” Russ waved his fingers at the map he’d shoved out of the way earlier. “We’re not really expecting a fight, but we’re preparing for one. Anyone who knows the old ways should know that that sort of item isn’t allowed.”