Adelfried

When Evan's foot contacted the portal, it drew the magic from it. The portal disappeared with a small pop.

Adelfried let go of the workbench and set the Root down, still panting. “Your magic sucking saved us.” He placed a hand on the workbench to steady himself. “Thank you, Evan.”

Evan looked at the tattered remains of his shoe and seemingly unharmed foot. “Maybe use a little less magic next time.”

“That is wise.” Adelfried smiled. “And uh…if you would be willing, please do not share this with your father?”

“Don’t worry, not a word,” Evan said, taking what was left of his shoe off. “So where did all that stuff go?”

Kae threw the door open. She was covered in green dust and wrapped in a towel. The dust's hue matched the tools that had been eaten by the portal. She threw a shredded cardboard box down. “My shower.”

Nina

Leaving Reggie’s, Red and Nina drove back to Wreckie headquarters the same way they had come, taking them back to the maze of interchanges. From there they took the Houston exit.

After an hour’s drive, through traffic and over the bridge that spanned the bay, they ended up at a large beach house on Galveston Island. Nina took a deep breath of the warm, salty air. The peaceful sound of the crashing waves of the Gulf of Mexico almost made her forget her near death experience yesterday.

The tall narrow house, surrounded by a cute white picket fence, painted a lurid turquoise with white trim sat in the middle of a large grassy lot almost an acre in size. This was the address Reggie had provided them with and the last known position of the conjurer that had been spotted near the class ten event. It was home to Nathaniel and Harriett Weathersby.

Red started off towards the gate from the Deville at a quick pace while Nina trailed behind, stepping slowly so as not to fall over. A concrete walkway lined with flowers of all different colors led up to the front door of the house. Next to the gate was a small call box mounted on the fence with a metal button and speaker. There was a sign over it that read “No Solicitation” in the same bright turquoise as the house. Just below that in a special paint, only visible to an ESH wielder, were the words “Go the fuck away.” Red pressed the call button.

An old lady’s voice, presumably Harriett, blasted from the speaker. “I knew Wreckies were dumb, but I figured you could read!”

Nina, trying to strike a pleasant tone, said, “Ma’am, we just want to talk.”

“Since you obviously can’t read, the sign says fuck off,” Harriett yelled, before ending in a coughing fit.

Red started in a more annoyed tone than his usual lack of caring voice. “We’re here on official Wrecht Order business. We have the right to come in and ask you questions.”

“You have the right to kiss my black ass. Hee Hee Hee Hee Ha Ha” Harriett said and was followed again by a coughing fit before cutting off.

Red fired back, “Opening the door is up to you, either way, we are coming in.”

“You don’t have the right to come in here and harass me. I didn’t vote for you. This is America.”

Red clenched his fists and growled. “Yes, we do. Now, are you going to open the door?”

“Ma’am? Is this Harriett I am speaking to.” Nina said, in a gentle voice.

“Yes?”

Nina kept her voice calm, “Let’s not escalate this. Can you just open the door so we can talk?”

“I suppoooose.” A buzzer sounded and Red reached for the gate to push it open, but right as he touched the gate the buzzer stopped.

Nina tried not to get agitated. “Uh, Ma’am, can you hold the buzzer a little longer?”

“Well, I done pushed it once, how many times am I gonna have to push it?” Harriett said followed by another long buzzer sound. Immediately, Red pushed on the gate, then snatched his hand back, with an ‘ow’.

“Hee. Hee. Hee. Hee. Haw. Haw!” Her loud and uncomfortably long laugh went on. “Oh, you should have seen the look on your face. Now like I said earlier, fuck off before I get nasty.”

“Okay,” Red said, glancing quickly to see if anyone else was around before he reached his hand out in the direction of the gate and sending a fiery red bolt at it blasting it backwards like a piece of lint in the wind.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Nina reached into her jacket to retrieve her specs to inspect the path ahead. She saw several tiny, concentrated dots hidden in the cracks of the concrete.

“Careful, the walkway is littered with snares."

“She’s trying to stall, stand back.” Red slammed an open palm onto the ground tunneling a surge of ESH down the path triggering several small explosions as the snares were set off. Chunks of concrete, flowers, and dirt went flying in all directions. They picked their way through the shattered concrete remains of what was left of the path until they reached the house. Nina followed Red up a wooden staircase to the front door. He gave the front door a blast which did nothing besides leaving a black scar. It had been braced against an attack.

“You’re just making this harder on yourself,” Red yelled. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His right hand started to glow a dark red. In a swift forward open palmed slap, he struck the door. It exploded into dust leaving nothing but jagged teeth of torn wood and sheetrock. Red patted dust off his jacket as he walked in and turned into the living room.

Sitting in a large overstuffed dark green sofa chair was a wizened old black lady surrounded by a forest of exotic potted plants under individual glow lamps. The light from these lit up dark wood-paneled walls. Harriett turned her wrinkled face towards her intruders and scowled before muting the large flatscreen TV.

“It took me six weeks to build up enough ESH to seal that door. Are you going to fix that? Hmm?” Red ignored her as he walked around the room looking the place over with his specs on.

As Nina limped in, Harriett barked a laugh. “What happened to you Hop-a-long? What, Wreckies don’t get sick days?”

Nina tried to strike a diplomatic tone, but frustration brewed within. “Ma’am, we spotted you in Houston yesterday, can you tell us why you were there?”

“Hey Piggy, don’t touch that!” Harriett snapped at Red who lifted a small metal box off a shelf. He gave her a sidelong glance and then opened the lid dumping out a few silver coins in his hand. “I know how much is in there, Piggy.”

Ignoring this exchange Nina soldiered on. “Ma’am, can you tell us why you were in Houston yesterday?”

“I went shopping.”

“Where?”

“Oh, wow, that is cold!” Harriett yelled as she jumped up from her chair. She started rubbing her rear vigorously. “Ewww doggy, that is so cold!”

“Ma’am, are you okay?” Nina said, somewhat concerned.

“I will be just as soon as you get your cold little nose up out of my ass and out of my business!” She cackled as she walked over to Red who was now peering at a small flintlock pistol laying in a wood and glass display case. “You done messin’ with my stuff?”

Red motioned Nina over. The dust pattern around the base didn’t quite match the position of the box, like it had been recently moved. It had a small rectangular brass plate engraving that read “To my dearest Harriett, may you always live without fear.” Red rubbed his fingers on all sides of the frame.

Harriett huffed. “If you break that so help me God, I will put a curse on you that’ll make you wish you’d never been born.”

Realizing they were probably on to something Nina flipped her specs on. A faint trace of ESH radiation emanated from the back of the shelf where the case had been sitting. “Check there,” she said pointing to the spot.

Red pulled the case off the shelf and started to feel the back wall of the bookcase. There was a click and he pulled out a thin shard of metal about four inches long. It glowed intensely white from the massive amount of residual ESH.

“So, Harriett,” Red said, staring at her, “What is this?”

“Oh, you’re just gonna keep shoving your nose further up my ass, huh? You could at least take me to dinner first.”

Nina limped closer to examine the metal shard. “This looks so… hey this is the exact same ESH frequency and color as the park in Houston yesterday. This confirms it came from the source we tracked.”

“Now, you look here,” Harriett waggled her finger in Red’s face.

“Enough!” Red yelled, turning and lifting her up against the wall with a kinetic field. “Something's out there killing Wreckies, Sovs, and even mages. So, before I lose my temper you better tell me where you got this and what you know about it!”

Harriett face twisted as she struggled to break free. “Gonna come in here and beat up on an old woman. You Wreckies are worse than Sovs!”

“Do you know what Sovs do when they want something?” Red said, almost growling. “I know the mercy of the Sovs, let me show you.” As Harriett started to wheeze Nina saw the pressure holding her against the wall increase as her chest and throat compressed inward.

Nina yelled, “Red! Stop it!”

He leaned in close to Harriett another second before finally releasing her. She fell to the ground crumpled in a ball fighting to catch her breath, crying, and whimpering between hacking coughs.

“I just found it, okay!” She coughed and choked some more. “It had a lot of ESH, so I took it. I didn’t see nothing or hear nothing.” She wheezed some as she spat up mucus from deep within her chest. “I just found it and left as fast as I could. Some of us need all the ESH we can get.” She continued to whimper under her breath. “If you take it, I’ll be dead within the year, my lungs is bad and I don’t have enough to make it much longer.”

“Save it for yourself instead of attacking us next time.” Red said coldly, walking out of the hole where her front door used to be.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Nina said, with a little sadness. “But we are investigating a dangerous situation. We have to—”

“If you’re sorry then replace that ESH you just stole, otherwise just go! Leave me alone.” Harriett had tears in her eyes, still lying on the ground.

“I’m really sorry, but we can’t, Wrecht Order policy.” Nina said, walking out of the front door and catching up to Red.

Red held the shard up as he walked. “Don’t let her act fool you, she knows more than she’s letting on.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know we beat up old ladies now when we need information. Show me that in the handbook.”

“Agent discretion when investigating any situation. And for a class ten you can basically throw the handbook out the window.”

“That’s bullshit, we don’t torture like the Sovs.”

Red turned to her and lifted an eyebrow. “I wasn’t torturing her, I roughed her up a little so I could put a tracer on her without her noticing.” Red smiled a little.

“And now another person sympathetic to the Sovs,” she retorted, continuing to hobble towards the car. “You ever thought maybe our job would be easier if we were just a little nicer to people?”

Red shook his head. “Spare me the ethics lesson. You don’t know the…” He averted his eyes. Whatever he was about to say he wasn't going to finish it. “Look, finding this class ten is our only concern and that’s what we are going to do, whatever it takes.”