Sometimes the obvious… isn’t.

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I heard him before he entered my office, his voice muffled through the oak doors. He didn’t know, and she couldn’t know, and I probably found it more amusing than I ought to have. Given my line of work, I take what little pleasures I can find when I can find them. I heard a hand fall to the doorknob, and then there came a swift and sharp rap on the oak. I gave two seconds of thought to answering, but the opportunity vanished when the door opened.

The chair turned easily, and I looked up to the pale blue eyes of my brother and watched the look of stunned disbelief cross his face. Then he nodded and shook his head as he moved to sit in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “I should have expected this, I’d imagine. You always were one for a good mindgame, weren’t you.” It was an observation, of fact, and I chuckled goodnaturedly at him. “So, going to tell me that it’s a bad deal because of our…”

“It’s a done deal. I didn’t even have to sign off on it, but I did.”

Now shock really did illuminate his eyes. “I’m in? God, Teimhean… have you any idea what this means?” He dropped the last few inches into the chair, and I had to chuckle.

“I’ll have a doctor who won’t stick a needle in me and fill me up with what turns into mind-altering drugs that leave me sick to my stomach for days after?” I looked to the clock on my phone, and then back to Xelander. “We have some time before our lunch reservations; would you care for a tour of the facility? One of the perks of the program is full access to the research labs and up to five of our technicians to assist you.”

If Xelander had ever been excited in his life, this was it. Energy nearly crackled tangibly about him, and I could just about see the gears in his head turning at the implications of a fully equipped research lab and five dedicated technicians at his command. The way his eyes glittered reminded me of my own when I was throwing my magic around. “Xelander,” I paused before speaking again. “When did you come in to your magic?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t have magic. That’s your department.”

I studied him for a long moment, and then nodded. Fine, if that was how he wanted it, he could go on believing it. But I knew what I saw, and what I saw was a considerable measure of power in those eyes. Only he knew what it was, and he was busy denying it with every ounce of his being. “Right, must have been a trick of the light. Anyway, we’ve half an hour or so, not enough to get the full tour, but I could give you the half-pence run.”

“I’ll wait and take the full tour. I’d prefer to know precisely what I’ll have available. Knowing that will allow me to assign your researchers things that will take proper advantage of the equipment at hand and keep me from purchasing duplicate equipment ahead of time.” It made sense that Xelander was well off; live a couple of centuries more than the average human, and you learn quickly where not to put your money. I was in a tax bracket that shouldn’t have existed but for those of us that lived extended lifespans. Come to think on it, Xelander probably was as well.

“How hard have you looked into having your own practice, Xelander?”

“It’s why I came down to Charleston. This city is a gate city. Magekind arrive here and use this as a jumping off point, so it makes sense to have- what is it? What’s wrong?”

Suddenly I knew what that building down on Charlotte was, and it made me cold to my soul. “Xelander, you’re a genius. One slip of the lips and you’ve solved a riddle that was right in front of me. I should have seen it. Christ... I need to get a message out to someone, hang on.” I pulled my keyboard closer, opening an email window and keying a furious message to my supervisor, an addendum to the report I’d filed earlier on the warehouse fiasco.

If Charleston was truly a Gate city, and not just how Xelander had meant it, then that building guarded a magical portal. For enough of a price, a high-enough powered magic user could open the Gate at this end and allow a transportation spell to carry them or someone else. Instant entry, no fuss, and I had just destroyed the creature that had controlled it. We needed to secure that Gate. I hit ‘send’ after adding my cell phone’s number with a request to call me with immediate orders. It could throw lunch to the four winds, but I knew once I explained things to Xelander, he’d understand.

The reply came in text almost immediately: Secure and Stand by.

I couldn’t have waited until after lunch, could I?

“I’m sorry, Xelander. I’m going to have to take a raincheck on lunch. Your theory about Charleston being a Gate city is a little more accurate than you realize, and I know where the Gate is. Thing is, I’ve got to go secure it before anything else stakes a claim on it.” Which meant that I’d have to do some serious power-throwing to establish my own hold on the Gate and hope that nothing had moved in while I was gone.

“I’ll be going with you, then.” Xelander rose at the same time I did, and he held his hand up to belay my refusal. “I’m going on several points. One: You are my brother, and I’ve been derelict enough in that duty. Two: I’m still better in a fight, I’ll wager. And three: I’m a doctor and anything you can’t heal; I can at least treat. Now, if you have no further reason to try to dissuade me, you can brief me along the way.”

I briefly considered deputizing him to make it a formal arrangement, but then that whole issue of him being my brother raised its head and pointed out that it might be a valid conflict of interest. I’d ask later, and only after I’d secured the Gate. With any luck, the Powers that Be would be pleased enough with the acquisition of the Gate that I could get Xelander grandfathered… brothered… in. Bother. “Right, well, let’s go then.”

Caroline didn’t need to be told to cancel lunch, and Xelander and I got to Charlotte Street in just shy of half an hour. Don’t ask me how fast I went; it doesn’t bear mentioning. All I’ll say is that for some reason, the police didn’t notice me and I’m perfectly fine with that. I pulled us into the lot, noticed that the chainlink gate hadn’t been replaced, and hoped that meant that nothing else had moved in. I wasn’t certain that I was up for serious combat. Lucky me, Xelander was.

“So, this is a staging point for magekind arrivals,” Xelander mused as he looked around the property. The wind was blowing up off the Charleston Harbor and yet his silver hair didn’t shift too far in any direction or the other. My mop was trying to migrate into my eyes, and I raked my fingers through the unruly strands as I led the way towards the building that concealed the Gate.

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“Yeah… the previous owner was a demon, and I took him out with fire, without really intending to. He burned a hell of a lot faster than I’d thought he would. I’d only intended to scare him off so that I could get free of him…” Yeah, so that wasn’t the truth, but a minor lie wouldn’t hurt in this case, right? “Thing is that demons are painfully susceptible to fire. Only when they’re ancient or close to it does fire become less of a problem and more of a simple nuisance.”

I didn’t want to explain how I knew about that to Xelander, didn’t want to paint the visual of leathery skin shrinking taught against skeletal ribs, the face darkening and turning into the gruesome Halloween decoration I’d seen Valen Ravenswing become. Which probably happened as a direct result of this Gate and the demon that I’d ended up destroying. I could be so damned dense at times.

“I’ll take your word for it, Teimhean. Doesn’t seem like there’s anyone here, but best to sweep the place and make sure.”

I joined him in peering into the dark depths of the building. “There’s an easy way. I go stand in the center and let my fire expand out. If I hit anything, we’ll all know it in moments of it happening.” Of course, he’d have to stay at the door, just outside enough to not get caught by the sphere or power and get burned for his trouble. I wouldn’t be able to heal him, and I rather doubted that he had healing magic in his denied arsenal.

“As much as I would prefer it otherwise, I understand the necessity and agree. I’ll stand outside, but should your magic encounter anything; I will come in and do whatever is necessary to keep you safe.”

“Xelander,” I started, turning to look at him, “you do realize one important thing: I can’t die any more than you can. Trust me: I’ve tried.” And that was all that I was going to say on that matter. He didn’t need to know the details any more than I wanted to hash through them. It was bad enough that he was giving me the look he’d patented as the Older Brother. “Right, forget I said that. Back up, this won’t just be a pretty light show.” Oh, I could have made it invisible, but when I had an audience, what was the point of that?

He shifted back through the door, and I let a sphere of golden fire flicker into being in my hand. Lifting my other hand, I cupped the ball of fire for a moment, drawing it larger as I pulled my hands apart. I could do this one of two ways: I could allow the fire to grow exponentially and theoretically create a conflagration that was hot enough to consume any living thing that might be in the warehouse with me.

The other way was less harmful to my surroundings and only put enough power into the growing sphere to keep it strong enough to sting like a candle’s flame against skin. A quick pop of heat that would make most creatures react to the sudden pain, but not be enough to seriously hurt them. After a brief thought, I opted for the startle response and let the sphere bounce up and out of my hands as I began to thread power into it.

It shimmered from gold to blue, faint flickers of orange dancing across it as it grew, the colors glittering reminiscent of a gas flame. Eventually the sphere grew large enough to encompass me, and I resisted the urge to dance with the flames and lift into the air within it. The rogue nature of my air magic would probably give cause to the whole damn thing going sky high. That would be counter-productive to keeping the Gate active but would go quite well with sealing it if I had to, and I knew I could live through it.

The fire grew, shifted, changed into something more like a Chinese flower firework and bloomed into a massive rolling wall of golden magic as I watched. I knew without looking that my eyes were glowing, that my power was rippling on my skin and giving me a golden tint. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know, too, that soft strands of silver were whispering into my hair with the magical power drain. Even my scar would heal somewhat, only to etch itself painfully back across my chest when my power reverted to inactive. I kept that scar there as a reminder. The pain helped.

I felt it then, a slightly distant echo of power, but it wasn’t coming from within the building. It was coming from just outside, resonating with my fire, a soft whisper of support and protection. Bloody Hell, Xelander was a Paladin, an immortal born to guard and protect. Had I done that? No, I was good, but I wasn’t that good. I might have cast him to immortality and trapped him here in the world with me, but I couldn’t make people become things.

I was so busy thinking about the implications of Xelander being a Paladin that I didn’t notice the Gate opening up around me until it was almost too late. A green swirl of magic had begun at my feet and was slowly creeping up and around my knees, spinning a scintillating web of power around me to protect me from the magical means of travel. If I didn’t move to control it, it would open wild and snatch me out of Charleston, and deposit me somewhere completely unknown to me… if it anchored at all.

My fire magic dropped from the sphere, slamming back into me and washing the gold across my skin almost painfully. I dropped to one knee, left hand splayed on the floor while I worked to exert my will on the Gate and draw it under my Command. I was grateful for Xelander’s somewhat alarmed presence, for at the moment of connection with the Gate, I was vulnerable. I continued drawing the power of the Gate towards me, offsetting the magical vacuum formed with my own power, and when I was just starting to think that it wouldn’t work, gold began creeping back towards me through the Gate.

It was a little like sticking my hand on one of those electric plasma balls you find in novelty stores, a static electrical charge that tingled all along my body and made my hair stand on end. But the Gate was mine, and I drew the power down, keenly aware of the quiet pulsing of power. My rogue magics within me felt the draw of the Gate and tried to awaken, but I pushed the Gate closed, and the sleeping magics settled back into slumber.

“All right, you can come in now, Xelander. The Gate is mine, and the power is banked so it shouldn’t be too terribly problematic. I mean, for a magic user, which you aren’t.” He was only one of the more grounded mages I’d ever known, but that wasn’t the point. “Anyway, let me send off this message and someone will be here shortly to take the Gate.” As he made his way into the building, I pulled out my cell phone and shot a reply across the digital ether, noting the securing of the Gate and identifying the anchor for travel.

It would be a matter of moments for transit, but I knew that the Mage division would have to find someone with a high enough powerbase to fully secure the Gate and the availability to travel. Given that, there was bound to be a bit of a lag, and I watched Xelander approach, his head tilted in curiosity as he scanned the area for something. “You won’t see the Gate unless I activate it. Do you want me to?”

Those light blue eyes shifted focus, and then he turned his attention to me. “No… but it seems so strange. There ought to be some trace, some manifestation of the Gate so that people know where it is.”

“There is, you just have to know how to see it. I mean, I can see it because it is linked to me right now. But- oh, how do I describe it? Ah, got it. You know those stereogram things? Posters in malls of random splotches that when you stare at them just right, you can see a three dimensional picture? It’s a bit like that, the three-dimensional tingle that tells you something is there but doesn’t quite register until you’re looking at it right.” He was staring at me. “Yeah, mages can’t see those posters. But we can see a Gate.”

“So.. it is a three-dimensional representation of a poster found in a mall.”

Was he even listening to me? “No… it’s a three-dimensional tingle. It’s just like those posters in the mall.” Though, when I gave it more rational and less magical thought, it still didn’t quite put it right. “Hang on, here.” I let enough power slip through my guards to make the shimmering ring on the floor visible. “That’s what it looks like, only invisible.”

He had that look on his face again. That patient expression that illustrated his calm understanding that I had lost any semblance of sanity and gone haring off into bugging crazy and left him behind to clean up the mess. “As your doctor, I’m starting to become concerned, Teimhean. Are you entirely certain that you’ve not hit your head or anything?”

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. “I never could tell when you were serious versus when you were simply having me on to watch me react.” The quick flash of amusement that crossed his face spoke volumes. “Damn it, Xelander!” I couldn’t tell him how honestly pleased I was that we could talk again, that it felt good that there wasn’t that invisible wall resting between us that we couldn’t reach through.

He hid a chuckle as my cell went off again, alerting me to stand by for arrival. I stepped away from the invisible circle and tugged him along after me. It wasn’t like that science fiction show with the big splash of water; we wouldn’t be harmed by the event horizon, but magekind found it a bit uncomfortable to be too close to it.

The Gate shifted, and I felt the anchor in my magic accept the inbound traveler, and then a small blonde woman stepped out of the glitter, fixed me with a look, marched over to me and slapped me in the face.