Wood splintered with a loud crack. Wolf paused to look. The axe had pierced the floor. A solid line wormed it’s way out from the head of the axe. He pulled the axe out of the floor and struck through a few more times. Bystanders hid their eyes with every strike. Eventually Wolf managed to pry his way through the weakened floor. The gap was small and dark. Not much could be seen.

He hacked away a bunch more. Finally some light was getting through. Zephyr shone the torch on it and they were all disappointed to see nothing under the floorboards except for dirt.

“Aren’t houses supposed to have a solid foundation?” Cat asked.

“Modern day houses,” Coal replied.

“Does yours have a solid foundation?” she asked.

Coal replied with a nod. “Parts of it.”

“But it’s not modern.”

“It’s well built.”

They all gathered around the hole.

“It doesn’t go anywhere?” Indi wondered.

Wolf held out a hand so Zephyr could give him the torch. He knelt down and poked his head into the hole and shone the torch around.

“That seems like a risky maneuver,” Cat remarked. “What if there’s something down there waiting to bite your head off.”

Wolf sat back up frowning.

Amanda raised her eyebrows. “Anything?”

He shook he head and his frown deepened.

Cat was certain it would have been impossible for his bushy eyebrows to physically draw any closer together. “Well we already know this house likes to play tricks.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

Coal glanced at the map that had been left on the table. The ink was fading fast. He grabbed it and brought it to the hole. He held one end out to Wolf. “Drop it in.”

Together they lowered it as far as they could. The dirt floor was only a few inches out of reach. “Put the pen on it,” Wolf said to Zephyr.

Zephyr scrambled to grab it. He placed it point down in the middle of the map and released it. It stayed where it was.

“That’s new,” Wolf remarked. He met Coal’s eyes. “On three, two, one.” He gave a nod and they both dropped it simultaneously.

It landed flat. The pen stayed still.

Cat rubbed her face and wished she hadn’t agreed to give the blood now. Ah what the hell, she’d done stupider things since getting pregnant anyway. It’s just, it hadn’t seemed real until Indi had said it out loud like she had. Now Cat worried about all the risks she’d taken, like coming in to this stupid house. Another thought struck her, what if worrying was also bad for the baby?

“I think we should try going back the way Wolf did,” Amanda said. “Unless you see a way through down there?”

Wolf eyed the map. The lines remained so it should still work, and when it was at the wrong height before it had been moving like crazy, not still. What did still mean? Well the map was out of his reach. Maybe not Zephyr, Coal, or Cat’s though. He turned to Zephyr and nodded at the map. “Can you grab it?”

Feeling more deflated than scared now, Zephyr leaned into the hole without thinking. He had to put his whole upper half through in order to reach the map. He grabbed the pen first and passed it back out to Coal. Then he grasped at the corner of the map. Once he had it in his hand, he took a moment to look around. It looked very much like the underside of someone’s house. He could see cobwebs and a lot of dust. The darkness that surrounded him scared him a little and just as he was about to pull himself back up into the comfort of the light he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He froze. There was nothing there.

He handed the map back up. “Give me the torch.”

He felt Coal place it in his hands. He brought it down so it was level with his chest and flicked it on. Dozens of tiny reflective spots of light filled the edges of the darkness. Like tiny eyes, only he couldn’t see anything to go with them. Were they glow worms? Except glow worms didn’t reflect the light, they made their own. Whatever they were they gave him the heebie jeebies and he pulled himself rapidly out of the hole.

“What is it?” Amanda asked.

Zephyr shook his head. “I dunno, weird reflections. I couldn’t see any obvious rooms or anything down there. If there is a basement maybe it’s properly underground. But I don’t think that’s the way through.”

He got to his feet, glad to be back up, and handed the map back to Coal.

Coal looked at it with a measure of disappointment. Then he rolled it up so it formed a scroll and tucked it inside his inner jacket pocket. “Alright,” he nodded at Amanda, “Downstairs it is.”

She led the way back out into the corridor. The others started to follow.

They had all trouped out into the corridor and gone maybe ten metres when Amanda suddenly collapsed to the ground. Wolf and Zeph followed suit soon after.

“Well, well, well,” remarked Coal.

“What?” Indi froze, confused and a little afraid. Coal didn’t seem afraid and she didn’t understand why.

She sidled closer to Cat, who rolled her eyes and swore in an exasperated tone. “Fuck!”

“What’s going on?” Indi asked in a small voice.

“Dreamweaver,” Cat replied.

Coal crouched near Wolf and felt for a pulse. “Well they’re definitely alive.” He looked back up at Indi with a smile. “Now are you glad you took that dreamskeep?”

Indi nodded back at him but Cat gave him a dark look.

“But Zeph...”Indi pointed.

“Obviously didn’t take enough,” Coal answered. He stood up again and nodded at the sleeping bodies. “Are you up for some dreamwalking?” he asked Cat.

Cat sighed. Truth was she could feel it. The presence of the dreamweaver. The moment they had walked through that door, and she’d resisted it, but it’s pull made her feel sleepy. Luckily that actually helped in times like these. It would make it easier to get in and find the others. She suspected she could do it even without touching them, but it would be safer and easier to keep track of them with some physical contact.

“Why didn’t it get us when we went past the seal before?” Cat asked as she stepped over Wolf, to get closer to the middle of the sleepers.

“It might be protection on that room. Maybe it only notices when we cross past it without disabling the magic, it can’t reach us inside and then when we exit it’s more sudden” Coal theorised. “If you catch a thief on the way out then you know what he came for.”

Indi stepped over Wolf and stood next to Coal. Cat was crouched between Wolf and Zephyr now, and she didn’t want to be left standing on her own. But Coal stepped away to where Amanda lay. “Hang on, I’ll bring her closer. It’s better if you get contact with all three.”

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Cat nodded.

Indi stayed where she was. The powder was good but it also made her feel horribly anxious and sweaty. She tried to think of all the nice things she would do once they were out of here. Number one would be a warm bubble bath, then maybe a movie on the couch. She watched as Coal picked up Amanda under the armpits and laid her next to Wolf. She hoped this would work.

Coal placed their hands close together so Cat could easily reach both of them with one hand. Then he stood up and retook up the spot next to Indi.

Indi was glad. She felt better having some one taller and stronger standing nearby.

As Cat slipped into the dreamworld Indi turned to Coal and asked, “Do you think she’ll be alright.”

He glanced at her briefly then back at Cat. “I think she’ll be fine.”

He sounded confident so Indi nodded and silently watched as Cat tried to pull their friends back. Or at least she intended to watch silently. But Indi had never been much good at waiting. After a few seconds she turned to Coal. “How come you’re here? Really”

He glanced down at her. His blue eyes were very pretty she thought. And he had stupidly thick and soft looking hair. His whole face was pretty actually. She’d never looked at him quite so close before. He was rather handsome and less scary than he had once seemed. Younger looking up close too. He had really smooth skin. She wondered if he used moisteriser. She wondered if he did what brand it was. Would it be weird to ask a question like that?

“It was a bit of a coincidence really...” Coal paused. Wait, what had he said before? What did he want to tell her? If he said he didn’t know they were here then she would assume he was here for some other reason. That would be bad. He didn’t want her, or the others, given she seemed not great at keeping secrets, to wonder at what other reasons he might be here for. On the other hand telling her that a physic told him, well... even though Stella was his secret, mostly given how damn accurate she was, it wasn’t too unusual for a physic to get things right occasionally. That was definitely the less risky option, and closer to the truth, which always made lying easier. “A physic told me.” he replied simply.

“What? A physic? I thought... OW!” Interrupted by something sharp biting her, Indi slapped at her left arm.

What looked like a tiny person with wings darted away, but not before Indi got a look at it’s razor sharp teeth. Then another one appeared and flew directly at her.

Beside her Coal was also under attack. He summoned an actual full-sized metal shield and wacked as many of the flying creatures as he could.

“What are they?” Indi yelped as she ducked another dive bomb.

“Fairies,” came the reply as Coal took a swing at more another group. They seemed to be multiplying.

One bit Indi in the calf. She gave a small scream at the sharp pain. Another got her back. She spun trying to shake them off. Then she backed up into the wall. Finally she remembered to shield.

It didn’t get rid of the ones on her but Coal quickly dealt to them, ripping them free. Indi winced as she was sure the last one took a mouthful of flesh from her shoulder.

“Widen the shield!” Coal commanded.

She wasn’t sure at first why, given he was already in it, but then she realised it didn’t cover her friends on the floor and the fairies definitely weren’t leaving them alone.

Indi pushed outward. She felt her shield weaken, and her energy wane. “I don’t think I can hold it!”

Coal was busy trying to clear the fairies that had gotten in when Indi had widened her range.

“Just a little longer.” Coal pulled a fairy out that had gotten tangled in Amanda’s hair and flung it to the floor hard. It died, crushed beneath his boot. Another he twisted the head off. “Where are they coming from?”

Indi looked around. “From there! From the room we were just in.”

“Drop the shield, let me out, then raise it again, quick as you can.”

Indi nodded.

“Go!”

Indi dropped it.

Coal ran for the door.

It took Indi a moment to get the shield back up and when she finally did she was already surrounded by fairies. She shrieked and tried to dodge out of their way but it was useless. “Coal!” she screamed as she backed against the wall and tried to make herself as small as possible.

There was flapping in her face and then it was gone, replaced by something larger. She yelped and pushed back.

“It’s me,” came Coal’s voice.

Indi stopped thrashing, realising that she wasn’t being attacked anymore. She let Coal pull her hands away from her eyes.

He stared at her, studying her face, checking for injuries. She was covered in scratches from their claws. “Are you bleeding anywhere? Stand up.”

He helped her to her feet and then helped her check her wounds. There was a nasty bite on her shoulder and several superficial wounds but she was otherwise unharmed. Coal had fared even better than she had. He’d been a bit more skillful at hitting back, only a few had gotten a good swipe at him, and most of that was distributed through out his rather posh suit. Indi felt sad to see such a thing now so torn. It was obviously hand tailored and personally fitted. So stylish.

“Where did they go?” she asked.

Coal nodded back at the door with the rune, now closed. “Locked them in there. I think they came out of the floorboards.”

“You summoned them?” Indi asked.

“Got some in a net. Summoned the rest. Sort of.” He glanced back to the door.

“Oh.” She now noticed several half cut fairy bodies lying scattered around. The result of incomplete summoning. Nearby was an small abandoned fishing-style net.

Once Coal was satisfied Indi was alright, he moved to checking their friends on the floor. Not one of them had budged. Cat still knelt upright, eyes closed, hands touching each of her friends on the floor. Other than a few scratches from the fairies crawling over them and one or two minor bites, they looked like they were mostly okay. There was no extensive bleeding at least. The fairies had been quicker at biting the targets that thrashed back at them.

“I’m surprised that didn’t wake her,” Coal mused as he checked Cat for any injuries. “Usually a dreamwalker would get pulled out by an attack like that. She must be in pretty deep.”

“You think she’s stuck?”

“I hope not.”

Indi glanced back at the door down the hall. She could hear a faint banging from the fairies hitting it from the other side. “Do you think they can get through?”

Coal followed her eye line. “No way, that door’s too strong for a fairy. Whether there’s another way around is another question entirely.”

Indi glanced up and down the corridor nervously. It was otherwise eerily quiet. “What do you think happened to the time? And the light? Since it seems like it’s earlier. Do you think that sunset was real before?”

Coal nodded. “It should be later than it is. I knew a sorcerer once who had a spell, a luminary type, that made it look like it was daytime all the time. He didn’t like the dark so he made his house how he wanted. As for the watches, same sort of thing. An old aristocrat I had dinner with once made it so any timepiece in his house would fail to work. He liked to do things at his own pace. He didn’t like rushing about at the beck and call of others. He thought the world too busy and all of us slaves to those things. I suspect he also hoped it might make him age slower, or at least stop him from noticing.”

“So you don’t think they’re related.”

“I don’t know. It’s one theory. The lady was a bit mad right?”

Indi nodded. “It must have made it hard to sleep, in the house that had no night, although I can understand the appeal of eternal day.”

He raised an eyebrow at her, intrigued, perhaps amused that a vampire would desire such a thing. “Well, nobody much liked to stay over at his place but his afternoon teas were always fair weathered. I’d think I’d want a bit more variety myself. The odd storm to shake things up.”

He smiled at her and she grinned back. Storms were exciting. “Well if it’s going to storm, I like it properly pouring,” Indi exclaimed. Then she glanced around nervously. “On second thought I probably shouldn’t say things like that in a place like this.”

“Well I don’t think it’s going to rain in here but I did once know a warlock, a weather elemental, that liked to have an eternal thunderstorm in his front hallway.”

“Why?”

Coal shrugged. “I think he liked to observe people’s reactions. I can’t say if he had it going all the time so maybe it was only when he had guests.”

Indi laughed then asked, “What’s a warlock?”

She knew what a sorcerer was, a witch who studied magic at university, or any one of the prestigious tertiary level magical schools. They were hard to get into. One needed to be both extremely smart and magically skilled. There was even a physical component as well, although it was said weakness in that could be made up for by magical strength but it was on a case by case basis. And an Aristocrat was just an upper class witch, like Coal was. Not just rich though, they were all old money and powerful magic. The laws were often made by the result of a tug of war between the politicians, the aristocrats, and the sorcerers (well archmages specifically, the creme-de-la crop of all sorcerers, the rulers of the high level educational institutes). But the term ‘warlock’ was a new one to Indi.

Coal gave her a surprised look and then explained, “Well they’re not so relevant here I suppose, but if you head west, towards Mercy there’s a lot more regulation around who can sell what. Warlocks are licensed professionals, permitted to sell certain classes of magical devices and spells. They usually, but not always have a background in sorcery. Sometimes they’re dropped out mages.”

Indi knew that word. A mage, also known as a magician if one was being mean, was an unfinished sorcerer. They were the learners of high level magic. In an interesting twist of things while many sorcerer’s shied away from the term, happy to have graduated above that level, the real masters had readopted it as part of their own name. The archmages considered themselves forever students of magic, always learning.

The door down the hall gave a particularly large shudder then.

Indi bit her lip and habitually pushed her glasses further up her nose. “You’d think they’d have given up by now.”

“Fairies are persistent, but don’t worry, I’ve had a lot of experience with those little buggers. They used to terrify me as a child.”

“Really? What made you not afraid of them then?”

“Well, I mean they’re still kind of creepy but they’re also a bit stupid, and easy to distract. They’ll get bored eventually, probably. They’re not usually interested in adults but we must have disturbed them when we cut through the floor.”

The fairies gave the door another loud crack, this time harder than before.

At Indi’s nervous glance Coal replied, “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

But this time she could hear the worry in his voice.