Young Justice: Salem
July 28th, 2010
“I don’t like this,” Zatanna said rather unnecessarily. That had been obvious for the better part of half an hour. She jabbed the screen of her cellphone, huffed, then shoved it into the pocket of her jeans. “Do you have anything?”
I lowered my wand and shook my head. “No, nothing. If I hadn’t known that it was supposed to be here, I’d think this was just an ordinary field.”
Zatanna and I both silently stared at the field where, just two days ago, we’d both seen the Tower of Fate standing plain as day. Now, it was gone, just as it had been a little over a week ago when I’d come here for my very first lesson.
“And you’re sure that it can’t just move?” I asked cautiously.
Zatanna shook her head. “I mean like, it can move, but not like this. When Kent brought it over to Salem it took him two weeks, and he was still Doctor Fate back then. I’m not really sure he can move it without Nabu’s help.”
I nodded slowly. She’d certainly know better than I did––apparently Shadowcrest, her family’s manor, could teleport around freely with barely any notice––since the wards I was used to really didn’t take kindly to getting moved around.
“Then I think we may have a problem,” I said slowly.
“Yeah…You are supposed to have a lesson today, right?” she checked.
I raised an eyebrow. “Zatanna, you were sitting right next to me.”
She sheepishly brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, maybe he decided to cancel it for some reason. He might be busy with like, hero work, or something.”
“I mean, maybe. You said there wasn’t anything about him on the news?”
“Nothing.”
“And he isn’t answering your calls?”
“Nope.”
“Something you said he’s never failed to do before?”
“Even once in the middle of the night.”
“...and neither of us can get into the Tower for some reason?”
Zatanna huffed again, but I could see that she was just trying to hide her concern. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You don’t need to convince me.”
We both turned to look back at where the tower wasn’t. I had to marvel at just how perfect the spellwork protecting it was. My best guess was that it was some form of folded space, like the opposite of expanding a room. The area around the tower was folded in on itself so tightly that it may as well not exist, only visible and tangible when you were allowed to see it.
The first time I’d seen it, I’d compared the woodwork to what I knew of the fidelius charm, but in hindsight that was only partially correct. The knowledge of the tower’s existence wasn’t hidden, the tower itself was. I had been pulled in by their visual similarities, but ultimately the two spells were very different workings.
I was rather curious what would happen to the tower if I did something very stupid to the land around it. I wasn’t going to do that––Kent would certainly be upset if I accidently reduced Salem to cursed ashes––but it was an interesting thought experiment into how different wards reacted to damage.
“So….I guess we should look around before we do anything rash, right? I mean, it would be very awkward if we started telling people he’s missing and he just forgot his phone on the way to lunch and lost track of time.”
“That’s…probably a good idea,” Zatanna said haltingly. “But what if…” she trailed off, but I understood what she was saying.
Kent was a rather old man, after all. An old man that lived alone in a house that could literally vanish from existence apparently. He wasn’t nearly as old as I’d originally thought, but apparently wizards around here just weren’t blessed with the same sort of health and longevity that those of my plane were. Sure they could usually expect a few decades longer than a muggle, but, with a handful of notable exceptions, not much more than that.
As such, even though Kent was only a few years into his second century, he was already considered to be very, very old. His body was starting to slow down, he tired quickly, and neither his magic nor his reflexes were what they once had been. That was not to say that he was on his deathbed or anything, but even wizards back home knew that the truly elderly should be watched carefully to make sure help could arrive quickly in case something should happen.
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I considered the vast quantity of stairs with no banisters within the tower, and the multitude of precarious environments it could open doors into. If Kent had missed a step or slipped on some wet rock…He could be lying unconscious with a serious injury right now. An ignoble fate for a wizard of his caliber, but not an unheard of one. Though she was better known for her musical compositions, Musidora Barkwith was also rather famous for dying after tripping over her own wand and cracking her head open on the side of her prized exploding tuba, leaving her magnum opus ‘Wizarding Suite’ unfinished.
“It’s…let's hope we’re just overreacting. I mean, it's probably nothing? You’d have heard if something happened to him. Kent’s not the sort of person to go down without a fight. Let’s just have a quick look around and see if we can spot something. It’s already been at least thirty minutes, a few more probably won’t hurt.”
I really hoped that we could figure this out ourselves. The only person I knew other than Zatanna who might be able to help us find Kent was Giovanni, and, in my books, the less time I spent around him the better. He clearly didn’t like me, and every time we interacted it increased the likelihood that he noticed that something was going on between me and his daughter.
“You’re probably right. Um, give me a sec?”
“Of course. I need a minute too, you’ve got time.”
I applied a magic sight spell, then slowly, carefully, meticulously began to mold the golden energy of Order magic into some of the detection spells that Kent had taught me. It was hard work, reminding me of those early days at Hogwarts when I struggled with even the most elementary of charms and transfigurations. Still, it was utterly exhilarating to cast spells that no wizard in the history of my House had ever used before.
Speed would come with time. Kent had already told me that my skill with Order magic was progressing at an astounding pace, and, sometime in the not-so-distant future, I’d be capable of casting a few of the higher-difficulty Order spells that I had my eyes on. Aether sight, of course, but also whatever spell allowed Kent to fly around so freely without the aid of a broom, a carpet, or even a wand. Very few wizards back home had ever mastered the art of flying unaided and I was very interested in joining that illustrious group.
Before that could happen though, I needed to find Kent and make sure he was all right. Then maybe Zatanna could guilt trip him into giving us more frequent lessons, particularly if he’d missed today for some particularly silly reason. Kent’s lessons were exhausting, but I was more than willing to sit through an entire day of mind-numbing classes for the chance to learn what he was teaching. Thankfully, he was actually pretty good at teaching. He was certainly a better lecturer than Binns!
I blinked rapidly as the last of the spells snapped into place and turned to look at Zatanna. To my eyes, she glowed with several differently colored auras, and I could hear the logomancy whispering around her face. “Ready?” I asked, trying to get used to the sudden riot of colors dying the entire world and the ethereal strands of music winding with the wind.
“Yeah, I think this should do the trick. Should we split up to cover more ground?”
I shook my head and quickly regretted it, the different colors from the three different spells on my eyes blurring together at the sudden motion. “Better not. If something did happen to Kent, I’d rather you didn’t run into it on your own. Plus, I don’t really have a great way to contact anyone if I do manage to find him and he’s in trouble.”
Zatanna clicked her tongue. “We really do need to get you a cell phone. I have no idea how you manage to live without one.”
“Cell phones weren’t even a pipe dream when I was your age,” I told her teasingly.
She slapped my arm. “You’re barely a year older than––Hydrys!” she exclaimed, suddenly realizing what I was saying.
I winked and dodged away from another swipe, catching her hand as it passed my shoulder and pulling her towards me. She stumbled, then rolled her eyes and relaxed into my side.
“Let’s go?”
“Yeah. Definitely.”
We spent nearly half an hour scouring the area around the Tower with our spells, but found no sign of Kent. I did think I saw a hint of something red with one of my spells, a momentary flash of color that vanished as quickly as it appeared, but by the time we got close enough to investigate, it was gone and I honestly wasn’t sure what it might have been. That was the downside of using multiple spells that all displayed their information as color––it’s hard to know which one is actually trying to tell you something.
By one o’clock, Zatanna was looking rather glum and the two of us sat down together on a rickety bench. I dismissed my spells, my straining eyes glad to no longer be assaulted by so much information, and Zatanna did the same with a mumble incantation that I couldn’t quite catch.
“I guess we should probably call your dad?” I suggested, my voice tinged with distaste.
To my surprise, Zatanna shook her head. “No, no, I think…I don’t really know how much he could help. I think maybe there’s a better option.”
“Oh?” I asked curiously. I definitely liked the sound of an option that did not involve contacting Giovanni.
“Yeah. I don’t know them particularly well, but I know that Uncle Kent is still close to some of his old friends from the Justice Society. Maybe one of them knows what’s going on? Or, even better, one of them might have a spare key or something. Dad and Kent are close, but Uncle Kent was always more like a mentor to him than a peer, I think. They’re close, but not like…in a different way, I mean?”
That did sound like a promising lead. “I understand. And you know how to contact some of them?”
“Um…maybe? I think…I…” She dug out her phone and began to rapidly fiddle with it, her finger moving from the bottom of the screen to the top in long sweeping strokes. Eventually she let out a pleased, “Ah ha!”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked.
She flashed the screen at me faster than I could actually look at it. “Yup, here we are. Uncle Kent took me to this one kid’s birthday party in Central City a few years ago that his friend Jay was hosting. It wasn’t great, but I have a picture and an address now. Even if he doesn’t know anything, he definitely has a way to reach some of their other old teammates!”
I caught her hand and held the phone steady. I didn’t recognize the address, but I had visited Central City once already and could apparate us there. However, I wasn’t sure that really was the best way to go about things.