About three hours and half a dozen pies later the magic trio were almost ready to attempt their spell. Joe, a shockingly short and stocky-looking man who looked like he belonged playing bouncer in an old twenties noir movie would handle extracting and purifying the blood. Ted would then use the blood to cast the actual scrying spell to find Toussard and, providing all that worked, Chrissy, a rather boisterous redhead with a distinct British accent would make the whole thing able to travel with us as we moved. At least that is what I thought they explained to me on the fiftieth try as to what was going to happen. Magic just makes everything so unnecessarily complicated.

Joe sat on the couch, ready to begin, on the table in front of him was the knife and enough test tubes to fill several chemistry sets. He scraped several flakes of blood into a bowl and began with the test tubes. Each tube one after another he would drip multicolored fluid into the bowl before mixing and studying the result intently. Once he was satisfied he took several pinched of various herbs and added it to the mixture until it seemed to glow from within on its own. He lit a match and dropped it into the concoction letting it burn in a bright white pillar of flame before fading completely. What was left was a pure red globe of liquid floating just above the surface of the bowl, the light shining off it gave it an unearthly quality that unnerved me.

“That’s as pure as it’s going to get there,” Joe said calmly as he passed the floating orb of blood to Ted. “I think that by calling like to like I was able to connect it to the vampire instead of the original donor but there’s no way to be certain. This is still all highly theoretical.”

Ted produced a small crystal, barely larger than a needle, and said a few words that entered and slipped out of my mind like water. The needle shone bright white as he pierced the blood orb and seemed to absorb it, changing the light it emitted to crimson. Crissy took three stones, which looked like they had actual scales in them but were just the patterns in the rock, and placed them in a mortar. She then crushed them into a fine powder while Ted looped a thin piece of string through the needle. They produced a map of New York, some cheap truck stop one, and held the needle loosely over it. The needle waved around lazily as it sought the location of Toussard, the wide circling arcs slowly shrinking as it honed in on where he was hiding.

After what seemed like an eternity the needle came to rest in an area of lower Manhattan, I let out a breath I hadn’t even fully realized I was holding. Chrissy scooped a handful of the powdered agate and blew the orange dust all over the map, covering it with a cloud of fine dust. With her eyes closed tightly in concentration she spoke a few sharp, barking commands and the dust rose into the air, forming a three-dimensional view of the area of the city. The needle hovered where it was and the cityscape forming around it put the location somewhere underground.

“Crap, it must be honing in on the original owner’s grave or something.” Joe sounded dejected. “I really thought I got it right this time.”

“Wait, though, look!”

The picture formed by the dust came into greater focus as a large chamber beneath the city connected to a network of tunnels. The map spread and grew into an immense underground complex farther below the city, even incorporating some of the old abandoned subway tunnels into it. A small light formed near the needle and it glowed intermittently, slowly the light moved from the room and through the maze of hallways. It spread through the corridors and passageways until one of the pathways reached the surface of the city’s streets. As soon as it did the entire cityscape blinked out of existence, the gem dust falling to the map with a certain finality.

Joe took a metal case from beneath the table and put it down. He filled it partway with water from what looked like a medical saline bottle. He took pinches from various powders he had set out and put them into the disk-shaped case that was followed by the needle from Ted’s scrying spell. The three casters joined hands over the case and concentrated briefly as the liquid shone bright blue before settling into a glass-like clear finish. The tension in the room vanished like a heaviness that was all around us just evaporated as Ted stood up with the small case in his hand.

“Here, follow the compass and you will find the guy you’re looking for, think of it like magical GPS. Just please make sure that whoever it is can’t ever trace this back to us. Kill him, blow this thing up I don’t care. One unexpected visitor is more than enough for this year, I’ve got to get on with my life if I’m ever going to get promoted upstairs.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“You think the view is that much better one floor up?” Mara brought some drinks for the magic users; they all looked a little tired after everything.

“Yeah, right, one floor.” Joe opened his drink and guzzled half of it in one sip. “Ten is mostly just for teachers and staff, the real fun is up higher.”

“Damn straight. Veiled apartments, huge floor plans… true luxury up there but only for those willing to take some risks to actually push magic farther.” Chrissy winked at us with a smile. “You didn’t think we were doing this just out of the goodness of our hearts, did you? This was proof of concept for us after months of hard work, this is all going into our proposal for new apartments. It’s got to be better than these glorified closets.”

I looked at the three of them, nothing like the college students I remembered from back in the day. Too many of them looked more like Ted did a year ago than these three who seemed more to know what they wanted out of the world and were preparing to take it. Lisa had even joined them in enjoying the drinks and laughing just as loud as any of them, it was good seeing her with people closer to her own age.

“Thank you, Ted, I really mean it. I might have been a little harsh on you when we ran into each other last year but you got things together nicely since then. You don’t need to worry about me darkening your doorstep again.” I took the compass and made my way to the door when Ted stopped me, a huge grin spreading across his face.

“If I hadn’t run into you who knows where I would have ended up? I was more willing to take money from an anonymous envelope left outside my door than actually work. I was in a bad place then and I’m not now, don’t worry about the angry reception when you got here… the teachers here like us to convey a certain… cantankerousness.” He gestured at Chrissy who was gathering up some of the powdered stone left over after the spell. “We get to try out some very new magic and any time I spend with her is a plus so I’d say we’re more than even. If you need more magic help, especially experimental stuff, don’t forget my number, alright?”

“Yeah, kid, sure.” I shook his hand and nodded back at the girls. “Feel free to kick them out any time you get tired of them, just warn them we’re going the day after tomorrow… first light.”

“You’re not staying? I know we made it look easy but we pulled off quite a feat tonight, celebration is in order.”

“Thanks, but I’m a few years past my last dorm party, drink one for me.”

“You’re only as old as you feel, Mr. Hunter.”

“In that case, I must be a hundred and five, go, enjoy your party.” I walked back to the elevator\tron set and stepped inside when Mara popped out of the apartment.

“Please tell me you aren’t going after Toussard right now.”

“Tempting,” I couldn’t stop a chuckle. “Gotta call my kid, tell her I’m on the outside again, if I don’t all the ice cream in the world couldn’t buy forgiveness.”

“Alright, hold up a second I’ll give you a ride.”

~ * ~

When we got back to the Plaza my place certainly didn’t look like no one had been there for the past year. It was possibly cleaner than when I had been here last, I would definitely need to talk about getting people some raises on the staff. I hopped on the phone and called Kaylee, it was still early enough in California that she was awake and we spoke for many long minutes. She was beyond excited that I was free and promised several times a minute to visit as soon as she could. It brightened my heart to unknown heights simply to hear her voice again after so long.

When I finished I found Mara upstairs in the gallery, what had once been the grand ballroom now displayed weapons and trinkets I had gathered through the years. Weapons and armors of legend sat on small podiums under covered glass. Mara was staring at a sword I had taken off some monster when I visited China years back.

“It’s not real, unfortunately.” I walked up behind her as she stood, looking from display to display. “They wouldn’t let me keep the originals but I was allowed to get detailed reproductions of everything. Each of these I held in my hand for at least a brief moment before they were locked away in some vault I don’t even know the location of.”

“You held Hrunting? Beowulf’s sword… honestly. What about the bow in the corner, whose is that one?”

“Artemis, though I wasn’t allowed to actually fire the real thing I did get to test its draw.” I spent the better part of the night showing Mara around the small museum I had gathered, she couldn’t tell the difference between the fake displays and the real ones and that was just fine with me. Finally, she crashed into one of the guestrooms for the night, it had been a tiring day but still nothing compared to what was coming.

After she was asleep I went down to my office, there was still one thing left to do before I could officially settle things. Through the years I had gone off on no small number of dangerous missions, many of which I had no assurance that I would return from. The thought of leaving Kaylee without ever knowing what had happened to her father wasn’t a thought I could easily fathom so I began writing her letters before leaving. They would explain what I was doing and where I was going but as time went on they became more emotional the just the facts. They had to take the place of a father for my daughter if I myself could not.

In the earliest hours of the morning, I filed this newest letter with the dozens of others I hoped that would never need to be read.