Jacob hurried out of the Vanderbilt Building and back to his dorm in Harrison Hall, where they'd agreed to meet afterwards or if anything went sideways. He kept expecting to hear a shout and see Professor Muesli come running after him.

He reached his dorm room. Tanaka and Camilla were already there. The former lounging in Jacob's chair, the latter pacing the narrow space between Jacob and Blake's bed.

"You made it," Camilla said as he entered.

Jacob shut the door behind him. "Muesli wouldn't stop yapping. Wasn't sure when you'd made it out. You got it?"

She nodded to his bed. A thin textbook lay open on his covers.

"Jacob..." Camilla looked worried. "We had a look at it already. This is bad stuff. Really bad."

The tone of her voice spooked him. He shivered. Camilla wouldn't get rattled easily.

"Let him have a look for himself," Tanaka said, voice gruff. "It's open to the section on Ritual Magic."

Jacob sat down on his bed, picked up the book and began reading:

Ritual Magic is the historical term for magic now classified as human-human Production siphoning. In the broadest sense, Ritual Magic is a spell(s) that allows the caster to perform certain magic using human blood. Human blood is intrinsically linked to an individual's magic, and throughout this chapter, whenever blood is mentioned, it is implied that the victim's magic is also used.

There are two known effects that require Ritual Magic. The first is the absorption and storing of magical power from a victim. The second is the summoning of creatures from the magical realm.

Functionally, Ritual Magic allows the caster to build magical structures that cannot be created using other forms of Production magic. In the first example, the blood of the victim is used to create a magical sink attached to the caster's natural magic storage, allowing them to artificially store and use magic they drain from the victim. The victim's blood creates the sink, and their magic fills it. This acts as a sink that can be filled up by Ritually killing more victims who have magic, but is single use and can only be replenished through the use of more Ritual Magic.

In the second example, the blood of the victim creates a passage through the barrier of the magical realm and Earth that allows entities to bypass the barrier without having to break through it.

How does this work? Unlike other Production spells, Ritual Magic requires a physical component to the casting that serves as a 'structure' for the victim's blood. This is where the term 'Ritual' originates. As with any structure, magical or otherwise, pattern is important. Rituals involve the caster preparing patterned carvings on a surface. These carvings can be fairly well-known symbols like the pentacle, the Dara knot, a triquetra, but are always bound by a circle. The next chapter will discuss symbols at length. The blood from the victim is used to fill in the lines of the carving, much like water fills irrigation canals. This is usually aided by the caster's Production magic in larger rituals. The larger and more complex the symbol, the more blood required.

Blood is the fuel, but it comes in different forms. Blood from a mage is more potent than blood from a non-mage. Blood from non-mages will still conduct the magic due to the latent power in any human's blood. The stronger the magic in the victim, the more that is stored. Blood can be taken from living victims, but the magic released at death infuses the blood with more power. A slow, painful death is most effective.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jacob tossed the book to the side as if it had caught fire. Images of hooded figures surrounding bloody altars and dark dungeons filled with candles and sacrifices flickered through his mind. It sounded like something out of a campy horror film.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered. He looked up at Camilla. "How does your father know all this?"

Camilla shrugged. "I don't know," she said in a small voice.

"The better question," Tanaka said, "is why did Muesli have that book?"

"Do you think he's..." Camilla trailed off.

"No," Jacob said, searching the floor. "No, I don't believe that. Why would you take the book out if you were killing students? It's too obvious. It's idiotic."

"Don't underestimate people's stupidity," Tanaka crossed his arms.

"Muesli's smarter than that," Jacob said.

Tanaka grunted.

"We won't cross him off the list. " Jacob said. "We're sure this is what the killer is doing?"

Tanaka and Camilla shared a look.

"It fits," Tanaka said. "Draining someone's magic and using it to power these abilities. It's exactly what the warped shade was. A shell. As if someone had carved out all the magic there by force and left the husk. This has to be it."

"And which type do you think it is? Draining magic for power, or to summon something?"

"The first one. "Camilla said. "It gets into more detail on them in the next few pages, but the numbers for those summoning rituals are disturbingly high. The example my father gives is of an Aztec mass sacrifice. That's not what we're dealing with."

Jacob ran a hand through his hair. "So, someone is sacrificing students to build their own magical power, and mimicking a vampire to cover their tracks."

Jacob shuddered. He looked up at Tanaka and Camilla. Camilla looked worried, her arms hugged around her as if she were cold. She looked like a small girl. Tanaka seemed to be confident, unruffled, even angry, but it seemed the petulant anger of a child.

And then it hit him. Tanaka was just a child. Camilla was just a little girl. They were all just kids. This was murder they were talking about. Cold-blooded, calculated murder. They weren't detectives, and this wasn't Harry Potter. They were fumbling around in the dark. Whoever the killer was, they were a psychopath who probably wouldn't hesitate to kill the three of them. It almost would have been better if it had been a vampire, more understandable: a creature killing to survive.

"Cold-blooded murder," Jacob whispered to himself. He'd known it before, obviously. What else could it have been? But reading the description of Ritual Magic, knowing what it was, made it seem more real, more visceral, something happening to them right here, right now, not a distant threat lurking somewhere on campus.

"I told you, it's bad. Really bad," Camilla said.

"But we can't go to the faculty," Tanaka said. "We've been over this."

And what if they went to President Russell and he was the murderer? If anything, this only confirmed it had to be someone on the faculty. Other students didn't have the resources or ability to perform Ritual Magic.

Jacob picked the book back up and rifled through it. The next pages had several diagrams of pentacles and other more complicated patterns in circles. Each time they were carved into stone.

"What about this?" Jacob said, handing the book to Camilla. "If someone's casting Ritual Magic on campus, won't there be these carvings somewhere?"

Camilla's nodded. "That's what I said earlier."

Tanaka glanced at the open page and nodded. "So, what, we go around campus looking for these carvings? That could take days."

"We'd look major suspicious," Camilla said.

Jacob put his head in his hands. Not to mention they didn't have days to just traipse around campus looking for magical graffiti. He had to keep training for Archie in a couple weeks. They had class. They had to study. Midterms were at the beginning of next week.

Jacob chuckled at that thought. Midterms. Studying. Someone was sacrificing students for blood magic and he was worrying about studying? Insanity. Literal insanity.

"What are you laughing at?" Camilla asked.

"Nothing," Jacob said.

Silence.

An idea stuck Jacob. "What about that guy? The priest's bodyguard, or whatever?"

"The Enforcer? What about him?"

"Couldn't he look around instead of us?"

"You want to tell him?" Camilla asked.

"I mean, he said he'd help, but he's not doing anything by himself. We go back, show him what the carvings look like, tell him to go look for them."

"But then what?" Camilla said.

"Then we'll know where they're performing the ritual. We, or he, could stake it out."

"Might work," Camilla said.

"Do we have anything better?" Jacob asked.

Tanaka shrugged. Camilla shook her head.

"Alright. I'll go tell him."