In a city like many others. Where the building scrapes the sky, a woman in plain clothes so as to not attract attention is running through the streets. She is running late, by a large margin. She knew she shouldn’t have spent so long hanging out at Lilly’s work, but she was just so enamored with everything. It was all new and old, she had witnessed magic actual magic she couldn’t just explain away as some kind of hallucination. That was unless this was all some kind of psychotic break. Either way, she was leaning into it hard.

It was somewhere in her run between the coffee shop on the non-descript building her team was using to surveil a suspect, Which she didn’t actually know what they thought he had done. All she knew was to look for things out of place. Apparently, his casting magic wasn’t out of place enough.

Magic had been what she thought they were looking for at first. Then he cast, and no one did anything. Then again, and again. Each time nothing, even when the magic cast was obvious like the bright glowing arrow. Yet, no one in the room seemed to react. Everyone was so nonchalant about it that she almost asked how often they saw this. But they were FBI and she didn’t want to come off as ignorant. Now she didn’t even know what they were looking for.

Reaching the door to the stakeout spot she straightened her clothes before, stepping inside. When she did she saw all her fellow officers tense and staring hard at the screens, half of them dark the others showed a bunch of plain-clothed officers disconnecting cameras.

“The microphone is under the lamp.” Someone said, “No, the one behind you.”

Another, “The vent”

Detective Mercer was watching over it all, “What is Mr. Knight’s location?”

There was a heavy silence in the room as everyone waited for the response. “Still clear. He is heading out of the city.”

“Continue with the operation.”

“Detective Mercer, What’s going on?” She knew they were preparing to leave but why?

He turned towards her looking confused before he smiled. “Bennet good you’re here. We’re packing up. Headquarters is calling it there’s nothing here.”

“It’s only been a couple of weeks. I thought we’d be here longer.”

Mercer shrugged, “Normally, you’d be right. Except the higher-ups have decided we jumped the gun and want everything out before he catches on.”

“So we’re scaling back?”

“For now they want us to regroup and go in for a debrief.” Mercer turned away. “Progress?”

“All equipment accounted for. The team is making their way back.”

“Good. Where is the suspect?”

The operator looked over the screen reading something, “He’s stopped. Just outside the city in the middle of Westwood Forest.”

“What are you doing there?” Mercer mumbled under his breath.

“Sir, don’t we have eyes on him?” Alice chimed.

“No. They’ve been pulled back for the time being.”

Did he know? The timing was too perfect for it to be a coincidence. Instead of voicing her opinion, she decided to address a different issue. “Sir. I think I might have misunderstood something. Just to clarify, what exactly were we looking for?”

Mercer barked out a laugh. “Not surprised. Everything. The guy was just too suspicious when he came to our attention. The higher-ups thought he might have connections with dealers, money laundering etc, etc. I mean the only thing we found wasn’t illegal, the suspicious money he’s getting, and from a legal company, despite him not seeming to work at all. Everything is suspicious yet there is nothing, no evidence we could use for anything.

“So we’re packing up?”

“For now. We’ll have people monitor him for a while, but unless he does something—” Mercer trailed off before turning back towards the monitors. “Now start packing. We have a lot of paperwork ahead of us.”

“Understood.”

#

Cold. That was his first thought. What happened? He remembered the bus going to a show then suddenly a cold floor; also something about a doll. A man’s clouded mind snapped into focus the world around him smooth, shiny, and empty. He was surrounded by well-polished shining white marble. It was…cold, and filled with emptiness. A hollow feeling permeated the air, an echo of nothing reverberating through the room creating a deafening silence. Bernard Warren should have been terrified. He should have run out of the room, towards the massive doors in front of him, and never look back.

Except, where is the pain? He marveled at the feeling of seeing his young hands, skin no longer stretched thin across his hands.

“Hero! We beg of you please save us.” A voice echoed loud through the chamber, and Bernard looked back. There behind him was a bunch of people in white, and gold robes, and a middle-aged man sitting upon an ornate marble throne.

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Bernard turned fully, his feet sticking slightly to the floor.

He took in the man smiling upon the high seat. He seemed approachable despite his golden crown, immaculately groomed mustache, and pressed outfit. He was a man who had everything together. A man that was everything that a man should be. Strong and respected. Someone who would get things done and not afraid to get his hands dirty yet. A kindness in the eyes are crinkles just barely there. He was a man who was just like his hero. His father. Though it had been decades since his passing, he could never forget the feeling he had given him. This man gave the same.

Bernard was about to speak when the King began to change. His mouth grew to wide for his face splitting with to many teeth. His eyes turned cruel as his mustache became a red river falling from his face. The kindness turned to a cruel joy the feeling of security changed to a promise of pain.

His throne no longer a smooth marble seat bones, blood and viscera spilling all the way to his feet. On ocean of read filling the floor. His bishops coated, in read, there bodies rotting.

He could feel the warm sticky blood coat his feet as the pool became deeper. His heart beat fast terrified he wanted to run. This was a monster. He needed to escape yet his feet wouldn’t move.

Then all at once the world was normal the King was a kind old man again and the room was simply a throne room.

What the hell was that?

#

The screen froze on the screen. A lost look covered Bernard’s face. Frozen in stillness the image seemed to linger. Drystia almost thought she could still see the vision overlaying the world. That was intense. A doll sits in a near-empty auditorium watching the first moments of a Hero. The screen was massive and there were hundreds of seats all empty except for her.

Upon the stage Ge, who was apparently one of the Office creators, and a God, had been going through all the Heroes she had worked with. Seeing how they arrived, and what happened after. She knew she could go back through the files to see, but it had never really been something she was curious about. Now after watching these and seeing what happened, she might have to re-examine that thought process. Especially, after seeing how many of them ended up overthrowing a country, or revolutionizing technology. The ones where it was the opposite of new magic in a tech world were fascinating. It was the ones that the Heroes failed, the ones that died too soon, or from dumb luck. The ones who turned right when going left would have saved them. Or the ones enslaved by the summoners that hit her the worst. She wondered if this would be one of them.

The woman standing on the stage, Ge, was looking thoughtfully at the image. She was apparently their boss. At least according to Nicki. He said they gave him the job and didn’t do a lot after so she wasn’t sure if that title was apt or not.

“Precognition? Not a bad choice.” Ge said turning back towards Drystia.

“Wait. That’s what it does? I thought he’d get visions of the future. Not whatever the hell that was.”

“It was a vision of the future...kind of...seeing the future is weird it all in metaphors or signs, even visions can be interpreted differently depending on who’s seeing them. Something about knowing the future changes it. So it keeps it vague and open to interpretation.”

“Huh.” That was not what she expected, “Still weird. So, does the vision mean the old guy was evil?”

Ge lifted her hand in yes and no gesture. “It could mean if he trusted him it would lead the kingdom down a dark path. Could have meant the man went through rivers of blood to get the throne. Could simply be his true form, and he’s good and just maybe trying to do his best for the kingdom Could mean a lot of things. Those powers are weird.”

“Ok, but what specifically mean there, in this instance?”

She lifted a file skimming through it. “It meant. That he'll do whatever it takes no matter the blood spilled. Ends justify the means. And he would have used the Hero as his own personal assassin. Hence the oceans of blood at his feet.”

Drystia thought over the vision and could see some of it, but what she said was to detailed. “You got all that from the vision?”

“No, it’s what happened or what the king tried to do.”

Something wasn’t adding up. “It’s only been a day.”

“Here. It’s only been a day here.” She countered, “He’s already been there for years. Time moves differently from world to world.”

“I knew it was different, but was it really by that much?”

Ge shrugged. “Can be. In this case, it’s much faster.”

“So then What happened to Bernard?”

“He escaped after the king tried to put him down the path of death. Then he led a revolution against the King. Then he became the king and bumbled through being a ruler. Somehow he lead the place to prosperity. So I give him a solid seven out of ten.”

She skimmed over it, giving such bare-bones details leaving Drystia wanting more. She needed to know how, and why. She wanted to know the story. She could feel her hands itch to just grab the file from Ge’s hand, but held back. Knowing she’d get a chance later.

#

Alice was working on locking up the equipment in the room. She was surprised they weren’t simply packing it up, only to have been told it would have been too expensive to move all of it. The fact that this wasn’t the first time the place was used through her for a loop. Apparently, the area had more than one person of questionable wealth. She was packing some of the cameras into a plain packing box when Detective Mercer came up to her.

“Alice. You’ve done some good work here. It’s good to have competent people”

She raised an eyebrow, she had not done much at all, and she said as much, “I haven’t done much except watch the monitors and take notes.”

“Exactly. You have no idea how embarrassing it is when you pull someone onto the team and they goof around or get themselves exposed.” He shook his head, “Last guy talked to the perp. Had to start tailing him, make sure he wasn’t a mole. Wasted so much time.”

Alice’s mind shot towards the moments she almost ran into Nick. Her friend even hitting on him, and shuddered.

“You wouldn’t do something as dumb as that.”

“No sir.”

“Or steal anything from the target.”

Her heart skipped a beat as she kept her voice steady. “Who would do that?” Did he know? Did he know and has just been holding onto the information?

Mercer shrugged, “Someone trying to prove something.” Mercer turned to leave.

Feeling she dodged a bullet she let out a breath only for the man to turn back, “Oh. I almost forgot. Bennet, there’s someone I want you to meet. Are you free Friday?”

That caught her off guard. “Who’s that sir?”

“That’s a surprise. But here’s a hint. They might have a position for someone like yourself.”

Alice immediately thought it was the commissioner, or possibly someone higher. Maybe she could become a liaison. “I’d love to.”

“Perfect. And Bennet.”

“Yes?”

“Bring the book.”

Alice’s blood froze in her veins as Detective Mercer left the room.

* * *