Month 11, Day 30, 1:00 PM

Frank Poe

Lying on the sleeping couch in his apartment above his office, Frank Poe was too tired, and too hurt, to be furious. Oh, but he wanted to be furious. Themius had pushed that divination well beyond safe levels for the apprentices and journeyman who had participated in it. They’d built the power unevenly and lost control. If Poe hadn’t intervened, there could have been backlash, or worse, a break event. As it was, everyone involved walked away with at least a little will strain.

Several hours into the day, the coppers’ healers finally released Frank.

In the meanwhile, Marie seemed very protective of his components; she carried them everywhere until they locked his chest in the office. She didn’t seem to realize that almost everyone else would practically forget that the box existed if he didn’t point it out.

Once he’d pointed it out to her, however, the enchantments did not have any effect. Her mind was so resistant to mental magic, she didn’t have a good frame of reference.

Frank worried about Marie. She’d not said anything except a few subdued words since the failed divination. She was paler than usual, and seemed on the verge of tears whenever she looked at Frank.

Frank felt sick, and it was more than the headache or the nausea. Marie was more than sensitive enough to have seen that absolute blackness, and … Frank still felt unsettled. This might affect her.

He knew there was more out there than he’d seen. The wastes. The remote wilds. Many of the other planes. His mind was full enough of horrors with living in this world, let alone the nightmares of others. But, he knew this: his divination showed real horror in the Raven Queen’s life. If Marie really saw it, well …

Not that Marie’s life was easy. While on a case, Frank had found her running the desk of a massage parlor—Hands, Hearts, and Palms—that was not entirely focused on the physical rehabilitation and sore muscles. She was directing the clients to the services with a bodyguard the size of a mule watching over her.

Among other things that showed she’d make an exceptional apprentice—like having a strong imagination and already being able to read and write—she was unaffected by his curse. This might have otherwise shown she was a null. But, it turned out that she had quite a strong natural will and therefore some other sort of immunity.

Realizing that she had no trouble recalling him, Frank immediately knew that she had talent. Her mother, a cleaning lady at the parlor, swore that her girl might know what the business did, but Marie wasn’t “available for hire.” It took some perseverance, and answering some awkward questions, to explain what he actually wanted when he hired her. Marie herself seemed to be learning how to balance books from the “auntie” who ran the place. This meant she grasped numbers and caluculations.

Moreover, he’d been pleased that she’d jumped at the chance to work away from the pleasure houses. Nothing wrong with that work, he supposed, when those that chose that business were adult enough to make a fair choice. But, even if Frank Poe wasn’t an altruist, he wasn’t going to let potential like Marie slip into that work if he could help it. Even if not that, she’d be entirely wasted as a house servant, or worse: an accountant.

Also, Marie seemed to think he needed her to manage his affairs, which was adorable in its own way. With his little stunt at the coppers’ station, however, she was had some justification. Frank felt like he could barely move.

Now, while Poe lay down, she heated water for tea at the cast iron stove. She dropped a scoop full of leaves in the pot, poured the water over them, but only set out one cup in the tray.

“Bring a cup for yourself.” Frank called from his couch. He adjusted his pillows. He winced. There wasn’t much for it; healers always recommend that—after the danger of hemorrhage passed—will strain should be best treated with rest.

Marie looked up at him with a mechanical daze. After taking a moment to register his words, she picked up another teacup from the shelf and placed it on the tray. Walking from the other side of the room through the maze of loveseats, settees, sofas, and the occasional coffee table, she banged a shin on a footstool.

“Ugh. This apartment is mostly couch!” Marie muttered. She wasn’t wrong. Frank had found it this way; couches packed in every corner, and some stacked and leaning against the soot blackened and darkly varnished paneled walls.

Nor were the couches upholstered in any sort of consistent style. Frank chose a linen and paisley fabric-covered one for his bed, but there were leather (brown, red, and black), blue velvets, green cotton, and patterns of embroidered wild flowers. All these couches seemed trapped in the one-room apartment, most of this furniture unable to fit through the door, and none of it could be maneuvered down the twisting stairs.

Frank smiled at Marie’s outburst. Or rather, he tried to, but winced and closed his eyes for a short rest. She finally showed some liveliness since they’d returned.

Marie set the tray down on the side table next to Frank, and sat on the narrow lounge at the side of his sleeping couch. Frank sat up among a mound of pillows where he’d collapsed fully clothed. Marie poured and handed a cup of tea to Frank, and then poured a cup for herself. She wrapped both hands around it, but did not drink.

“How much was the bonus then?” Frank asked.

“20 gold.”

“Misers.” Frank replied. He took a sip of tea. It was light and sweet. He didn’t think he’d kept a tin of tea that nice around the apartment.

They sipped in silence for a long time.

“Tell me, what did you see?” Frank asked.

“When?”

“In the scrying bowl.”

“There were images, and darkness. And …” Marie shivered noticeably “a golden eye.”

“An eye?”

“Yes, it opened, and then it … You stopped the spell.”

Frank sipped his tea. After seeing that, it was a credit to Marie that she was sitting here with him at all. Ah, youth. Never afraid enough of death. On the other hand, he hadn’t seen an eye in that black void. He only sensed it. That was enough for him. He wouldn’t be scrying the Raven Queen again.

Frank could speculate on what that blackness was. Some unique protective spell? An anti-divination ward? That’s what he had suspected when he first felt it, but now … that felt wrong. It was like something out of a Myrddin story; irrational and unexplainable. Had he awakened some other creature that interfered?

He’d also only had told the coppers’ gathering a part of what the spell told him; the gestalt examination of fate he’d kept to himself. There was something in the larger pattern … He’d think about that when his head didn’t hurt so bad.

“Mr. Poe?”

“Marie.”

“Who are you really? What …” Marie’s question drifted off. It was easy to forget, given how jaded the teen was, that she’d barely seen a tiny piece of the world yet.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“Would you like me to try to explain?” Poe asked gently.

“Yes.”

“Who I am right now is a detective for hire. But, I got here through a combination of family, education, bad choices, and bad luck. I was a research assistant at the University. All journeyman students might try to study various types of magic, or even natural science. But to be a master, you have to develop some specialty; it’s not a matter of power alone. I have wealthy relatives, but I’m disowned now, of course. I’m letting them down, going into the trade. Still, my old classmates, like Themius, remember me.” Frank sipped his tea. His head was pounding. “Even if they mostly abandoned me after …” Frank trailed off, trying to overcome a sudden nausea.

“So?” Marie asked after an uncomfortably long silence.

“I was researching fate magic. It’s not a well understood branch of magic, even now. The Fay understood it, maybe, but they are long gone now.” Frank felt another spike of pain in his temples. He rolled his neck.“In short, I made a mistake and paid for it by spending some time in a specialty hospital, trying to relearn how to talk. I am lucky to be able to cast magic at all.” Poe sighed.

“You weren’t poor?”

Frank laughed, then winced. “No. And, I am still not ‘poor.’”

“Is that why you have a box full of gemstones?”

“No. That’s my component kit. But also yes, because components are expensive. I have other money saved. Speaking of. You have been taking half the fees of the August Agency for yourself.”

Marie flushed. “Well, I … You’d just waste the money anyway. I still paid the rent with part of what I kept. And, you weren’t making any money at all before I joined the agency.”

When Frank was an arrogant young aristo, he might have been offended. But, he wasn’t that young anymore. And he definitely wasn’t an aristo.

He reckoned, for a thirteen year old, Marie hadn’t presented too bad a defense. A good thaumaturge was always ready to defend themselves, and not easily bent. Assuredness was fine. Arrogance, of course, would suffer.

“Oh, did we agree that you’d be a half owner of this agency?” Poe sipped his tea. Marie, her tea cup forgotten, opened then closed her mouth. Poe continued. “Moreover, after the events of today, we obviously need to renegotiate your contract.”

Marie recoiled a bit, and slumped. She would be obviously less enthused about this prospect.

“Poe, I mean … Mr. Poe, surely the extra …” Marie protested.

“If I had not been there today at that the divination, there would have been a disaster. Accordingly, you were quite right to insist I participate.”

“I was?”

“Yes. And, you showed sensitivity to both the expressed will of others and the scrying, which even experienced thaumaturges did not.”

“I did?”

“Yes. And, you followed my direction quite closely.”

“I did?”

“Yes. And finally, I’ve concluded that over the past few weeks your instruction in basic education has gone very well.”

“It did?”

“Yes. Accordingly, you will now be my apprentice.”

“What?”

“Apprentices must, of course, pay for their training, which you will do by remitting your half of the August Agency’s income to me.”

“What?!”

“And, apprentices are due a stipend, room, and board. You will have to eat here, and you may need to do some of your own cooking. Considering the immediate value you provide to the Agency, a fair stipend would be 10 gold per month, perhaps more if income improves.”

“But, we only made 12 gold last month?”

“And, you should have the use of the empty apartment above mine in this building.”

“Where will the money come for rent?”

“Because I am the owner of the building, there’s no need for you to pay rent.”

“You are the owner … wait. Who have I been paying rent to?”

“Me.” Frank grinned. “You’ve been paying me the rent to offset your quite gross embezzlement.”

“Uh … didn’t you say I could skim money for my salary?”

“Yes, I did. Now, as my apprentice, I expect you to study hard, greet the clients of the agency, maintain records, and generally assist me in investigations.”

“Don’t I do that now?”

“Yes, but you don’t live here where I can keep and eye on you. Also, you desperately need training in magic, and so I’m going to make sure you get the supervised training you need. In four years you will enter the University, where, unless I actually become destitute running this failing business, I’m willing to sponsor you to attend.”

“But, my mother …”

“Has already approved. If she remembers. I left a note. I also plan to invite her to stay with you, if she wishes. Tonight we’ll go to your … home and tell her that I’ve extended an offer to you, which she should have been expecting for some time now on condition of absolute secrecy.” Frank frowned a bit. “Besides, I don’t like that you sleep at that ‘massage parlor.’ It was no place for a child, but I’m now quite sure a dangerous place to live, what with the Morrows escalating their war with the Stags. Yours is a Morrows-run business? It’s much better over here in the Stag’s territory.”

“But …”

“It’s not a ‘formal’ apprenticeship mind you; journeyman are discouraged from taking students.”

“Discouraged?”

“It’s illegal. So if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it. You’re my assistant.”

Marie looked a little bit like he’d broken her brain. Her face moved between confusion, anger, excitement, resignation all at once.

“Why are you doing this?” Marie said, exasperated.

“A couple of reasons. First, because it’s ridiculous that the Crowns don’t train more naturally talented thaumaturges from a younger age. We … rather, they have plenty of money for it. Even if you discover ordinary kitchen magic and the like on your own, which I expect you will soon anyway, without proper training, your talent will be wasted. Second, you have been able to deal with my curse for me in a way that I can’t. When you hand the clients the notes, they remember to pay me. That never worked when I handed them the note. Of course, your embezzlements will have to stop. The stipend should cover you, and if it doesn’t, we can talk about what you’ll need money for, given that I expect to be feeding and housing you. So, what do you say?” Half of those reasons might be a lie, but Poe wouldn’t admit that they were. He didn’t want to think too closely about it.

“I … yes! Thank You!” Whatever was going on inside in her mind, Marie smiled at Frank. He smiled back. This felt like the first good decision he’d made in a while. He wouldn’t let the Frigg’s opinion sway him against it.

“Excellent. If you think you’ve been studying so far, just wait till we really get going.” Frank smiled.

Sure, she wasn’t some scion of a crown family, or at least not a legitimate scion, but that did not matter. Frank just had to grow the August Agency into something that could afford to give her a decent education. And, he could work a little bit harder, besides.

“Now, just let me recover for a few minutes and I’ll escort you home to get your clothes and things for the apartment. If you would, please retire to the office and intercept clients, while I take a nap.”

After Marie left the room, Frank fell back on the pillows. Dealing with her took more energy than he thought it would. He leaned over and reached under the couch for a couple of potions he’d kept there. He grabbed a pain reliever, anxiety reducer, and a sleeping potion.

He hated it, but he needed rest, and these would get him there. He took a swallow from each.This particular will strain felt bad; not as bad as the incident that put him in Meadowbrook, but bad enough. The healers assured him he wouldn’t slip into a coma, but that was the least of his worries.

As he drifted in pain, trying to rest, he thought back to the parts of the divination he did not reveal; the result of the augury. The Raven Queen’s future. While she seemed impossibly well protected from examining her present, and her past was cloudy and misleading at best, her future, as unreliable as predictions could be, was at least visible.

That particular scrying was filled with figurative imagery, and everyone had their own symbols. He would have pressed Marie to describe what she’s seen in greater detail, but that final image was not a subject he wanted her to return to.

For Frank, he saw a bell, a butterfly, and ravens. The image of the golden bell: notoriety, or perhaps fame, was already part of her future. The Raven Queen legend was only starting, and Frank was sure it was going to grow. There was also a flash of butterfly with dark and golden wings; likely transformation, present tense, but also further into her future. More than growth, Frank thought. And finally, because the augury only gave three signs, the last sign was ravens, shifting into that devouring darkness. That could mean many things; ravens were clever, so perhaps she’s grow in cleverness. But, ravens also followed armies to war. The Raven Queen could be the sign that war was coming again; a cause or effect.

Frank sensed that darkness was terrible and dangerous. The Raven Queen might not be a human at all. Not that there weren’t other intelligent creatures in the world, but she was unlike anything he’d ever scryed.

The spell did not give him enough to see where she fit in things, and in that respect Themius was right.Frank’s spell had failed. Perhaps he’d check his books …

Eventually, Frank passed into a deep sleep.