Ray dropped down inside the wall of his base city. He took refuge on a roof. He

decided to eat some from his rations before he went over what he had found with the

help of the lamp. He washed everything down with water from his bag and sat against

the access door leading up to the roof.

Each of the four sites had been the same with one difference. Each one was bigger

than the one before it. That suggested that his mastermind was spending more work

on getting the door dimensions right with each try.

Either that, or he was trying to create a big enough door to overwhelm the adventurers

that tended to defend humanity from the various monsters that abounded with the

smallest amount of personal expenditure.

A third option was a personal cap of some kind was being applied. If that was the

case, the bigger circles could be from the magician getting stronger in the intervening

fifty years.

He liked that for an explanation, but it led him to another conclusion that he didn’t

like at all.

“Lamp, what would the size of the next door be if we used the pattern from the other

four to draw a conclusion?,” thought Ray.

Lamp drew the shapes of the four holes in the ground in Ray’s mind. It drew the

estimate of the fifth one. Then it overlaid all of them.

“That’s a lot of walking and writing,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

The only way to find the guy was to find where the constellations would meet

overhead in the next few days and go on watch. The Face seemed to be the trigger for

events.

If he couldn’t find the guy, there was no guarantee that he could stop a sinkhole as

big as a neighborhood from taking the rest of the immediate area with it.

And he doubted that the regular adventurers here would be able to prevent any

disaster that big until after it showed up.

He didn’t know if he could handle it on his own. The lamp was a miracle worker, but

he doubted he could fight an invasion by himself.

He needed to think of some tricks he could use against monsters that ate everything

in sight.

“Lamp, can you predict where the Face of Ba’al will point when it arrives?,” thought

Ray. That seemed the easiest way to stop this problem before it became a problem.

Affirmative.

A map of the continent and the sky appeared in front of Ray in blue light. He watched

as the stars rolled back two hundred years. The scene paused when the continent

reached a point before the first wave happened.

The scene started rolling forward in a blur.

“Hold on,” thought Ray. “Go back to the first door, and go slower so I can see how

you did the calculations.”

Affirmative.

The voice sounded a little peevish to Ray. He put it down to his imagination. The

spark seemed like a machine. Could it put inflection in its mental tone?

He didn’t want to ask in case it said it was a little irritated at his slow wittedness.

The map rolled forward at a slower pace. Ray squinted as the constellations combined

and lit up each site as the years passed. He rubbed his face as the stars started aligning

above him.

“Are you sure about this?,” asked Ray. He walked around the glowing map.

Affirmative.

What were the chances that he would arrive in the one spot he needed to be by

chance? He expected the numbers would look like a lottery winning. How did he deal

with this?

He decided that he should warn Lord Brian, and Sam. They had the connections to

the locals to get them motivated to fight. He needed to look for that writing so he

could try to blot it out before the summoning. He had to find the guy doing the

writing and stop him from doing any more before he killed more people.

He had the next three steps laid out in front of him. He couldn’t do anything about

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warning Lord Brian, or Sam, in the middle of the night. He doubted the local police

and vigilantes would take kindly to him shining a light on the top of their houses in

the middle of the night. And he had no clue on how to start looking for his would be

planet killer.

“I need some time to think,” thought Ray. “As soon as the sun comes up, we’re going

to have to try to find any writing done and rip it out.”

Affirmative. Will have to visually scan for pieces. Cannot detect magic until it is

used.

“Understood,” thought Ray. He looked at the ticking seconds on his visual clock. He

had time enough for a nap so he could be fresh in the morning. He wondered why the

flame hadn’t put things into hours and minutes, but didn’t want to jinx things by

asking.

The major problem that Ray foresaw if he couldn’t stop the summoning was there

were a ton of civilians inside the wall. They would be trapped with the monsters if the

adventurers couldn’t close the door. The loss of life would be tremendous.

He needed to get Lord Brian in on this just so the population could be moved out of

the way.

“Lamp, wake me up when the sun comes up,” thought Ray. “We have to locate Lord

Brian, and then talk to him and Sam as the first part of our agenda.”

Affirmative.

Ray braced himself up against the roof access and went to sleep. He still had a ton of

time according to his clock. And if the door hadn’t opened by then, it would probably

open the next night.

It was the best he could do at the moment. At least the arm was recording everything

so Woad would know how the targets were being picked and how long he had. He

would just have to get the arm back.

Ray went to sleep while thinking about how Woad would rest the arm from reality

destroying monsters that could probably eat it.

He supposed it wouldn’t be easy.

A chime in his head woke him up to a gray sky. He rubbed his face as he got to his

feet. Everything felt sore for a moment. The visual clock was still ticking down in the

corner of his vision.

At least the world hadn’t ended while he was sleeping.

“Lamp, I need a clean up, a stop at the Blue Oak, and then finding Lord Brian,”

thought Ray. “I think I like being able to eat ten thousand calories with no risk of

weight gain.”

Affirmative.

Blue light flashed across Ray’s body. His clothes gleamed with sharper colors. His

tiredness and aches and pains were gone. He felt sharper.

“Let’s get breakfast, and start our day,” said Ray. “Where is the Blue Oak from here?”

Blue flame marked out the saloon in the distance. Ray started using the roofs to cross

the city. He smiled at the comparison to Enzio that he was making in his head. He

dropped down in an alley and scared a cat. He crossed the street to get to the Oak and

walk inside.

“Hey Ray,” said one of the waitresses he didn’t know yet. “Breakfast is still cooking.”

“Could I have two servings?,” asked Ray. “I have a long day ahead of me.”

“I’ll get it for you as soon as the first batch is done,” she said. She smiled.

Ray went to his table and pulled out his papers. He made notes on fresh pages to help

him think. Blue flame made corrections as he wrote.

“Lamp, how big an area of the city are we looking if the door opens here?,” thought

Ray.

A visual model of the city sprung into being. Various circles showed Ray which

chunks would be swept away in a flood of glutton monsters. He knew they were just

as likely to dig down as to the sides. That would cause sinkholes to happen on some

of the buildings, dropping them below street level.

“Place the circle on the Grandview neighborhood and university,” said Ray.

The circle almost fit neatly on top of the drawing.

Of course it did.

“What are the chances we’re facing some academic that likes to experiment with new

spells he found?,” Ray asked himself.

One in three thousand.

“It’s a cliche,” said Ray.

“What is a cliche?,” said the unknown waitress. She had arrived with two servings of

food while he was deep in thought. She put the plates on the table around his

paperwork. She stood back, placing the wooden serving tray under her arm.

“Where I am from, the idea that a teacher gone bad is the villain is something that

appears in a lot of stories,” said Ray. “My thoughts about the situation I am in are

leading me down that trail. And it is well worn trail indeed.”

“It only makes sense, doesn’t it,” said the waitress. “They do hold the knowledge of

things men weren’t meant to know.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way before,” admitted Ray.

“There you go,” said the waitress. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

It still felt like a cliche.

Affirmative.

“I hope Sam and Sandra aren’t in on this,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

“We should warn them first,” thought Ray. “They’re right on ground zero if we’re

right. And they can keep an eye out for suspicious strangers while we try to get Lord

Brian moving.”

Affirmative.

“All right,” said Ray. He put his papers away. He tucked into the food like it was

going to be his last meal. He called for another jug of what they thought was tea but

was really some kind of alcohol resembling beer. He drank that down and paid for his

meal out of his dwindling coins. He stepped out on the street and headed north.

He hoped he could catch Sam on the university grounds. That would make it easier

than hunting him across the city and wasting some of his time on the chase.

“Keep an eye out for any of Lord Brian’s group, or Sam and Sandra, or anyone

carving signs in the University walls,” thought Ray. “Those are our primary targets

for the day. As soon as we spread our suspicions, we’ll move to the next things on our

list.”

Affirmative.

Blue traces lit up targets as they moved through the streets. Ray knew that was the

Lamp’s way of searching. He approved. It was better to run into one of Lord Brian’s

group now than have to roust them out of bed. It would save time in his estimation.

Ray hopped the wall of the Grandview neighborhood and jogged up to the University

grounds. He hopped that wall too. He jogged toward where he had found Sam and

Sandra’s quarters, but blue light traced a severe figure coming toward him.

He waved at Sandra as he jogged toward her. One of her assistants from the day

before pointed at him. The frown he received was not welcoming.

He supposed the bad news he was about to impart was not going to improve her

assessment of him either.