Gallows Row was as pleasant a neighborhood as the name suggested.
It has earned its name centuries ago, in a darker era for Arcalis. These days, the wooden scaffolds were long gone, replaced by towering warehouses that loomed over narrow, twisting alleys. Steam pipes snaked between buildings like metallic vines, their joints occasionally letting out hisses that echoed through the darkness. The few magical streetlamps that still worked cast sickly green light that did little to dispel the perpetual fog.
"Charming place," Ethan muttered, carefully stepping over a puddle that glowed with an unsettling purple sheen. "Really brings out that whole 'mad scientist's lair' aesthetic."
"Keep your voice down," Lysandra whispered. Her disguise was gone now, replaced by her usual stern expression. "And stay alert. Lower Gallows Row is notorious for its... creative interpretation of city ordinances."
They passed several warehouses, each more decrepit than the last, until they reached one that stood out. While its neighbors sported broken windows and rusted walls, this building hummed with barely contained energy. Blue sparks occasionally danced across its metal surface.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's our guy," Ethan said.
Lysandra pressed her hand against the wall, her eyes closed in concentration. "Heavy magical wards... and something else. The energy signature is unlike anything I've encountered before."
"Electricity," Ethan grinned. "He's running enough current through these walls to fry anyone who tries to break in."
“But both kinds of wards shouldn’t be working together. They’d either cancel out and end in an explosion, or the arcane wards would overpower the electric ones and turn them off.”
“It didn’t work this way back at the museum, did it?”mused Ethan. “I think it’s safe to say technology is moving faster than any mage expected.”
“You’re probably right, Shadowveil. So what do you suggest, Mr. ‘I suddenly love technology’?”
“Let me take a look around.” he paused, thinking. “The whole undead thing. How common, would you say, are undead in Arcalis?”
“Well, it is illegal, so officially there shouldn’t be any. In reality, there’s a network of necromancers and undead that operate in the shadows of the city, but honestly, they’re very good at keeping to themselves.” Lysandra looked at him. “Why?”
“Do you ever wonder why undeath is illegal? The moral and legal repercussions of it? The guy who sold me my donut earlier was a demon, but they seem to be doing just fine out in the open. Who decides what is and isn’t legal?” Ethan tried his best to hide his lack of understanding of the world behind a mask of philosophy. It seemed to be in character for Gilbert, because Lysandra only gave him a slight eye roll.
“The King, Gilbert. The King decides what is and isn’t legal. And demons file proper paperwork,” she said dryly. “Can we keep the philosophy for after the case is solved? I don’t want this to be another Featherfield incident.”
“Oh, right. Allow me to have a look,” said Ethan. There were cables here, directing the electricity. Something about Gilbert’s body allowed him to feel the flow of the current in a way that would have been impossible back home.
The setup was, actually, quite basic. And the best thing about cables, they aren’t all that difficult to mess up.
“Luckily, I went shopping earlier.” He produced a small pouch, no bigger than a little coin purse. From it, he took out a cutting tool three times the size of the coin purse it was in. Lysandra raised an eyebrow.
“Full of surprises as ever, Gilbert.”
“Thank you, I try.”
He followed the cables until he found the right spot, where several cables intersected. The hair on his arms raised up as he felt the tingle of the electric currents converging, combined with something else entirely - a different energy current, one that was overpowering and made his skin itch like a wound that’s healing.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Magic.
He motioned for Lysandra to get ready, and with a swift motion, he cut through the cables.
The humming ceased. Lysandra didn't waste a second, her fingers tracing complex patterns in the air as she dismantled the magical wards. The warehouse door clicked open.
Inside, the warehouse was a testament to organized chaos. Workbenches lined the walls, covered in a mixture of arcane implements and what Ethan recognized as primitive electrical components. Tesla coils reached toward the ceiling, occasionally sparking. There was no sign of Cole anywhere; Ethan nodded to Lysandra and they both began to slowly move through the warehouse, looking for clues.
There were inventions and blueprints galore. Ethan could not help but marvel at every strange thingamajig laid out in front of him: Tesla coils, half-built automatons, cables and chips and-
A computer.
Not something that merely looked like a computer: a full PC that looked exactly like those late 90’s - early 2000’s computers that were in their own dedicated “computer rooms” where you could browse early Internet and play Solitaire and not much else. He ran towards it, heart pounding in his head. The computer even had the brand name on it. It was from his world.
While examining the device, he accidentally bumped into the mouse. The screen lit up. It was Solitaire.
“Enjoying my Special Arcanotech Computational Device?” whispered a voice right next to his ear.
Ethan yelped despite himself.
At first glance, Cole looked entirely normal. He had messy, black hair, a face that looked a tad too pale, and while his eyes were a piercing blue, there wasn’t any ominous glow to them. It was the scar on his neck, long and gnarly, that was the first clue this man had a date with death and decided to ghost halfway through.
“I did wonder when someone would show up,” mused Cole. His voice was soft and raspy, as if unable to speak loudly.
“Take a step back from him!” yelled Lysandra threateningly, her wand pointed at Cole.
“Oh?” Cole looked at her, puzzled. “But you’re the ones who came in uninvited. Didn’t even knock.” He paused to take a good look at the two of them. “I recognize your faces. You are… the detectives. Lysandra Moonwhisper, of the Dusklight elves. And you are Gilbert Shadowveil, the bastard son who got his start in life from his father’s hush money.”
“You seem to know a whole lot,” said Ethan. “So you must know why we’re here.”
“Not quite, but I can take a wild guess. You’ve clearly come to have a look at my sweet setup and play a game of computer cards.”
“Quit playing, Stratum,” red sparks began to dance around the tip of Lysandra’s wand. “We’re here about the Codex.”
“I’m afraid I do not know what it is you are talking about.” Cole shrugged. “Would you mind not wasting my time? I’m close to my 400th consecutive win at Solitaire.”
“I believe we all got off on the wrong foot here,” said Ethan, trying to diffuse the tension. “Let’s all just have a friendly chat and you can tell us all about the Codex and the Solitaire.”
“I do not know anything about the Codex. I’ve not left my study in weeks, I have a quite… limited knowledge of current events.” Cole swiftly moved past Ethan, and sat down in front of the computer. “Hm, I think I should move the Queen here.”
“Where did you get this machine?” asked Ethan.
“Pretty nice, isn’t it? Well, I have my sources. It cost me a pretty penny.”
“I assume you have no proof of not having left the warehouse in weeks?” Lysandra slowly moved forward, her wand still pointing straight at Cole. Cole shrugged.
“Not really.”
“Have you been playing Solitaire for weeks?” Ethan wondered how enthralled Cole would’ve been to play PacMan.
“Oh, yes. Such an engaging and stimulating game.”
“How have you been able to make electricity work so well with magic?”
Cole smiled. On the screen, the cards cascaded wildly as he finished another game. “Fan of my work, are you? Well, the world sure is full of surprises. I’ve been able to create something… spectacular. A stabilizer.”
“A stabilizer,” echoed Ethan, his eyes starry. Lysandra shot him a sharp glance and he heard her voice in his head say Stay on the fucking task, Shadowveil.
“Look, I don’t want to cause any trouble for you if you really did not steal the Codex, but I would love to hear more about your stabilizer,” said Ethan. Cole eyed him up and down with suspicion, and nodded.
“Just please, don’t blow my head off, miss Moonwhisper. I’d hate to have to deal with that again,” Cole smiled dryly, standing up from his chair. Lysandra slowly lowered her wand.
Cole walked to a different desk in the warehouse; by all means, a very plain and unsuspecting one. From one of the messy drawers filled with so many odds and ends they could barely close, he removed an old, scratched up little box.
Just as he did, the entire warehouse filled with black smoke.