Nina
Red, seeing them both staring at him, quickly returned to form. He tossed the white takeout box at Reggie. “Here’s your food, shove it in your trap and let's get on with it.”
Reggie’s expression soured. He walked over to Red and leaned in close. “Now Red, you know I need a story about the food. Why this place? Why this food? Why is it so special?” Reggie stared at Red who glared back. “Sooo, tell me. What delectables did you bring me?”
“Three burgers and fries.”
Reggie rolled his eyes and wound his hand in a circular give-me-more motion. “And? Connection? Story?” Red’s face remained impassive, but Nina could almost feel the tension crackle in the air. “Come on, Red, sell it or we don’t have a deal and you know it.”
“A burger that’s hot, uh firehouse burger I think, one with an egg, the soldier burger, as I recall and one with a little bit of everything on it, the ah, hell, I don’t know what it’s called. They’re from Lankford’s Grocery, one of the best dive burgers I’ve ever had. I found it while we were in Houston.” Red paused, and looked at Reggie, who was now waving both his hands in a circular motion in the universal sign of spit it out. “It was June 10th, the anniversary of the day I met my wife because every June 10th I have a burger, beer, and fries to remember her and this is where I went this last one, okay? This last one was really tough but the…it was all very good and…I just—"
“Oh, just stop already, your description is like getting a root canal. How do you work with him, Nina? You must take lots of meds.”
“Well, actually we only met yesterday.” Nina looked at Red, “You’re married?”
“Was. Was married,” Reggie said, a sad tone in his voice. “And oh do I have some stories to tell you from the old days—”
“That’s enough, Reginald! Unless you want me to forget my manners.” Red’s hands were balled into fists.
Nina watched as the two bowed their chests and eyed each other like alley cats about to brawl. What was the history with these two? “So, Reggie,” she interjected, trying to calm the kitties, “I think it is amazing that all you take as payment is food and art. That is very noble of you.”
Red sneered. “Ha, and a few million dollars.”
“So, I require a small fee for my services.” Reggie shrugged. “It's nothing you Wreckies can’t afford, with your custom jumbo jets and fancy cars. A man has to eat. Besides, my real payment is the experience we will share here today, right?”
“But why go through all this?” Nina persisted, trying to make sense of all shenanigans.
“Oh sweetie, we all just want human connection, whether it’s love or sex or good conversation or…art…or food, that’s what it’s all about. Look at Red, he has already had an emotionally touching experience here today. Not that his ragged ass will appreciate it, but I will. Besides, in my line of work, it is hard to get past the hard outer shell of people, and this forces people to share.” Reggie leaned in close to Nina, like he was about to share a secret. His cologne was overpowering, but she didn’t turn away. “It also helps me weed out the psychos. You should see some of the stuff people make,” Reggie returned to his bubblier nature as he headed for the door. “Well, are you two coming? We have some burgers to try.”
Reggie’s large comfortable office, through a pair of mahogany doors, was lined with bookcases made from the same gold trimmed mahogany. In one corner was a pair of curio cabinets filled with oddities Nina had never seen before. In another corner a table sized globe floated above a brass plate with intricate engravings. Reggie sat down behind a large ornately decorated brass desk at the back of the room. Behind him was a large two-story tall glass window with another remarkable view of San Francisco. Reggie put the box on his desk and pulled out a burger. Reggie motioned for Nina and Red to sit in the chairs in front of his desk. Nina did, but Red paced about the room.
“Thank god for Uncle Bob and his takeout box,” Reggie said, before he bit into his first burger, which was still steaming hot like it had been cooked moments ago. “Mmmmm, Red you’re right, this is wonderful.” He continued to devour the burger while Red continued his sour expression. “Well, Red and Nina, I want to thank you both for sharing these experiences with me. I feel like we are friends now.”
Nina smiled, forgetting for a moment she was on assignment. “Thank you, Reggie, I really enjoyed it. Perhaps we can get together sometime, and you can share some stories about Red and Karen.”
“Oh girl, it is a date!” Reggie said, with delight. “So, let's get started, shall we? You want to know about that class ten yesterday, am I right?”
Red nodded. “And where is it now?”
“This one is a puzzler, but hey!” Reggie’s voice got loud and excited. “That is why you came to me, I’m the Answer Man, am I not?” He waited expectantly for a response that never came. “Okay, so in short, I am not sure what it is nor where it is, but I can eliminate some things that it isn’t.” Reggie paused, as if waiting for a response at his brilliance. “With my vast resources, I can confirm that it isn’t one of the known wizards, I keep tabs on them after all. It also wasn’t a creature endowed with ESH. It could be a natural phenomenon but, most likely,” he paused for dramatic effect, “It’s a new wizard.”
Red rubbed his forehead. “Just what we need,” he said, obviously meaning the opposite.
“Hold on.” Nina raised her hand to stop the conversation. “A full, top of the food chain, honest to God wizard? Like scary powerful individual running around with new powers? How could a new wizard suddenly appear? All the largest ESH diamonds have been accounted for over a century.”
“A new wizard could be a latent high functioning ESH wielder suddenly blooming after exposure to an ESH source. There have been a handful of cases where people were able to perform mage level acts with a tiny amount of ESH. Which means we could have a high functioning wielder suddenly coming into their abilities, but I doubt it. Let’s say it takes me one measure of ESH to take this pen and put it on the bookshelf over there.” A pen lifted off his desk and landed on the shelf across the room. “If someone can use that same one measure of ESH to destroy a skyscraper, when that same person just wants to move a pen to a bookshelf, there is a good chance they’re going to blow up a skyscraper instead. It’s all about control, you see, when you are a high functioning wielder, it is hard to control your abilities. Like you, Nina, I know you’re a relatively high functioning wielder. That power will be useful in battles or when you need strength, but can you slide this paper clip over exactly one inch?”
Nina suddenly felt exposed. She knew this too well and often had trouble with smaller tasks that Reggie was describing. She wasn’t sure why, but she suddenly felt a tiny bit embarrassed, like he was accusing her of doing something. “Well…I think I could, but it might be uh…”
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“Exactly, the higher functioning you are, or the more efficient you are with ESH, the harder it is to control which is why the extremely high functioning wielders usually blow themselves up, and anyone around them when they are exposed to ESH for the first time. That is why all known mages and wizards have access to a massive amount of ESH material but are not too high functioning. That also means the only plausible options for the class ten is a new ESH source previously missed, and thus a new wizard.”
Red folded his arms. “How did both we and Sovs miss such a large ESH source?”
Reggie waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Silly Red, the Earth is large. If an ESH diamond was buried deep within the Earth, we would not get a reading off of it. Even the Sovs wouldn’t. A few feet of earth or ocean water and the signal is dramatically reduced. Imagine something buried deep down.”
“But how…” Nina leaned forward in her chair to relieve a growing pain on her left side. “But ESH diamonds only come from meteor impacts, how could a diamond get that deep into the Earth?”
Red went to the floating globe and spun it until he got to the United States. “Houston is nowhere near a meteor impact site. How could one appear there?”
Reggie waved a finger. “No known meteor craters. Besides, that is where it first hit the sensors, doesn’t mean that is where it was found. Plus, this is all a theory at the moment.”
“That’s it? That’s all you have? Do you know where we can find it now, whatever it is?”
“It’s not an “it”, it’s a wizard, Reggie said, giving Red a sidelong glance. “While you two were playing patty cake with that invisible wizard, there was a conjurer, level four if I had to guess, in proximity when the class ten happened. While I doubt they were the source of it, I am guessing they know something.”
“And you know where they are now?” Red didn’t sound impressed.
“Of course, I do. Plus, I have my own long-range sensors watching the area for any anomalous ESH spikes. If I get anything you’ll be the first to know.” Reggie paused and turned back to Nina. “See dear, nothing but satisfied customers. Now do come over for lunch sometime, we have so much to talk about.” He turned back to Red to deliver one final ugly look.
Adelfried
After a second night with the Harpers, Adelfried was trying to stay focused on the task of getting home, but the wonders of this new world kept distracting him. How did lights illuminate without magic? Where did the crystal-clear sink water come from? What made it flow? His first shower in a modern bathroom was nothing short of astonishing; he would be taking one of those at least every few weeks if the family would allow it.
His first challenge was acquiring the ingredients needed for the return portal potion. After researching with Evan’s help on his magical device—which Evan claimed was not magic at all—they determined the best ingredient to start with was quartz. It looked very similar to the rock he was using and came in several variants. After creating another gold bracelet as payment, Ying made a trip to a rock shop and returned with numerous varieties. Instead of glass vials to hold the water and quartz they agreed on plastic food storage containers, the material of the vessel wasn’t important, only that it was waterproof.
Jim had told him he could use the garage. When he opened the door, the hot air poured out like an open hearth. The glorious cold air magic box didn’t have vents in the garage. But he couldn’t risk what he was about to do in their living quarters. He laid out the quartz on Jim’s workbench. He had never seen so many different versions of the crystal. He chose a hammer from the wall rack and picked a dark smokey crystal, which was similar to the crystals he had used in his time and hit it trying to break off a small chunk. He winced as searing pain shot through the shoulder wound from the previous day.
“You alright?” Evan said, wandering in at that exact moment.
“Uh a pain, from…a wound that needs healing, I will be fine.” If he mentioned the battle to Evan, would they tell him to leave? Too much of a risk, better not to mention it. Instead, he handed the hammer to Evan.
“Could you break me off a few small chunks?” Adelfried said, putting his hand on the wound, it was hot. He needed to spend more time healing it. Harold’s ability to heal would be useful right about now. No, he was in this mess because of Harold. Fear twisted his stomach. Was his family safe? What had happened to them?
Evan smacked the quartz with the hammer and several pieces scattered across the garage floor which Evan scooped up and put on the workbench. Adelfried had to focus on getting home, worrying wasn’t useful, only actions were. He took a piece of the quartz in hand and put his other hand directly on the Root. The prickly warmth of magic flowed through him and into the quartz. He dropped it into a food container full of water.
“That’s it? Now what?” Evan said, staring at him.
“I will see if this works the same as it did in my time. Once I can do that, then I can work to reverse it exactly.”
“Okay…” Evan picked up the food container to look at it.
Adelfried looked around for something to test his new potion on and selected a heavy green device from the workbench which he placed on the floor by the open door.
“What are you doing with my dad’s drill?”
“Dump that on the drill, it should reappear over there.” Adelfried pointed to the other side of the garage.
Evan looked unconvinced but did as ordered and dumped the water onto the drill. “So, was something supposed to happen?”
Adelfried slapped his forehead. “Oh, I forgot. Evan, you can’t touch anything, you suck the magic.”
“Sorry.”
Adelfried repeated the steps with a fresh piece of quartz and the second attempt resulted in a small flicker of light. There was a bubbling sound as the crystal sank through the drill and turned it into a pile of green ooze.
Evan giggled. “I take it that wasn’t supposed to happen either.”
“No, but I have seen this before, I only need to add more uh…magic to it…I think.”
“Are you sure? Because that didn’t look like it was going to teleport anywhere.”
After repeating the same steps on a similar sized piece of smokey quartz, but with more magical energy, he selected a long green tool with a sharp blade on the end. He placed it on the floor and stepped back.
“So, the reciprocating saw is the next victim?” Evan said, obviously enjoying the experiments.
Again, Adelfried dumped the quartz and water on the saw, but this time was met with a white flash of light and a loud bang. Adelfried, Evan, and the inside of the garage were covered in fine layer of green powder that was once the saw.
“Too much?” Evan said, obviously holding back laughter.
“It might appear that way, but more is needed,” Adelfried said, wiping his face.
“What’s the water for?”
“It helps hold the magic inside the crystal. When the crystal is free from the water, the magic starts.” Adelfried said, as he started prepping another crystal.
“So, it doesn’t affect the crystal in any way?”
“I do not think it does, but I am not sure.” Adelfried scratched his head as he started to realize the daunting task ahead of him could be more difficult than he imagined.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this.” Evan paused, looking down at his phone. “The water and crystal from your world will be different than what we have here. You are assuming it is quartz, but it could be a whole bunch of other types of rocks. Maybe something we don’t even have here. Plus, water contains different minerals. So, creating exactly what you had done previously may not be possible.”
“No, I think you do not understand me, there are no rocks in water, I use only water and the crystal,” Adelfried said, dismissively placing another green tool with a circular blade down on the ground.
“I don’t think my dad will be happy with you using his cordless tools as your test subjects.” Adelfried picked up his latest crystal and tossed it at the saw. “Those are exp—” There was a bright flash of light accompanied by a swoosh of air. The circular saw was gone.
“This is good, I am—” Addy frowned as a slight breeze ruffled his beard. There came a sucking sound as the air in the garage was now being pulled in towards a bright ball of light. The vortex where the circular saw once was, reappeared. The subtle swoosh escalated into a roar as an intense wind started to suck lighter objects off the workbench and from the walls into a white hole that formed in place of where the saw had been. Adelfried grabbed the Root and a leg of the workbench instinctively as everything else on the workbench whizzed into the white portal. A cardboard box, twice the size of the portal flew off a shelf to the portal. It crunched as it shrunk to a fraction of its size as it was sucked through.
The wind intensified knocking Evan over. Unable to grab anything heavy, he slid along the ground as the unrelenting gale force winds drew him closer. Adelfried desperately tried to push him away with telekinetic powers, but Evan absorbed the magic with no effect on him. The boy kicked frantically trying to get purchase on the floor of the garage. It was too smooth. He continued his slide towards the hungry portal. The tip of his shoe hit the portal, instantly shredding it to pieces.