I have never completely understood the Britons' fascination with fish and chips. Don't get me wrong, I like the battered fish well enough, and I enjoy chips as much as the next person. But stopping at a dingy hole in the wall to buy battered fish and greasy chips wrapped in newspaper that ends up soaked and transparent…I just don't get it. So I had cringed a bit when Ben had suggested it for an early dinner as we worked.

I should have had a little faith in him. The little place we stopped at on the way back to his office had packed the food up neatly, complete with a serving of regular fish for Artemis. And it wasn't greasy. I was picking absently at the last few chips in my waxed cardboard container when Ben finally spoke up.

"So, we've gone from a mystery to a conundrum."

I looked up, amused in spite of myself. "What, is that supposed to be an upgrade?"

"It certainly doesn't sound like an improvement," Athena said, then licked her fingers clean and dropped her container in the trash can beside Ben's desk.

Artemis, grooming her whiskers by the door, made a thoughtful noise. <>

Athena grunted her agreement and sat back in her chair.

Ben laid his quartz crystal on the desk and look at me. Without needing to be asked, I nodded and retrieved mine, laying it on the desk beside his. We stared at them for a long minute.

"I'm not sure I want to do this," Ben said wryly. "I have a feeling it's going to make things messier."

"I'm sure it is. But…" I trailed off and shrugged, then reached over and activated both crystals with little surges of Anima.

The two foot-tall images swirled up out of their respective crystals, floating in mid-air between us.

"Well," Ben said after a moment, "It's impossible to say for certain, but I'm pretty sure those are both the same entity."

I was too.

Athena leaned forward, curiously picking up one of the crystals and moving its projected image around a bit until the two voids were overlapping. There was a slight distortion of the overlap due to Athena having to tip the image a bit to get them to intersect, and the first image lacked definition while the second was fragmented at best, but the jagged, gaping scar-like void on their heads was undeniably identical.

She looked at me as she laid the crystal back down. "What does it mean, Mistress?"

I shook my head. "I can't make any sense out of this," I reached up and absently rubbed my left ear as I ran through the facts in my head. A destroyed town, a family under siege, and the murder of five people that nobody would miss for very long; all of which were in some way related to me.

"Perhaps we're coming at this from the wrong direction," Ben said thoughtfully, picking up and slowly twirling a pen back and forth across the knuckles of his right hand. "It could still be a coincidence that you're involved in this," he said to me, then held up his free hand before I could protest. "Hear me out for a minute. I know she left a note for you at your old home, but think about it.

"What does she stand to gain?" He asked. "Fine, so the attack on your home could have been an act of revenge. Disproportionate, but possible." He paused, rolled the pen back and made it disappear up his sleeve with a practiced motion. If I hadn't learned some sleight-of-hand myself, I wouldn't have noticed. "What if it was a double blind?"

"Huh?" I asked with sparkling wit. I wasn't following his train of thought yet.

"How many members of the Éire Council of Druids survived the attack?" He asked.

I blinked. "I...don't know."

"Three," Athena said, "Out of twelve. The woman who accused us, Druid Finanna Somerled; one name I wasn't familiar with; and your mother, Mistress."

Ben and I both looked at her in surprise. She smiled a smug, pleased smile. "I got a look at the police report earlier," she nodded towards Ben, "You had it open on your desk before we left for the docks, and it's not hard to read upside down."

Ben grinned at her. "I can see I'm going to have to keep an eye on you."

I reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "Nicely done, pet. So the High Druid died?"

"Yes," Ben nodded, pulling out a file folder and opening it, flipping through several pages. "Let's see...here we are. According to the coroner's report, High Druid Fergus Leamhnach died from multiple stab wounds. There was penetration on both his back and chest, but based on the pattern of the wounds the coroner believed he'd been stabbed in the back and hadn't had a chance to fight back. It was a medium sized blade, probably curved, maybe more than one."

"Sounds like those curved blades Hecate carried," Athena observed, referring to Brenna's Elevated panther familiar.

I nodded. "It does. And the others?"

"Similar wounds," Ben said, closing the file again. "All appeared to have been attacked from behind. Maybe while being distracted by something else. There was an enormous amount of spell damage to the town...Brenna was throwing a lot of power around. That would make an extremely good distraction."

"She could have just wanted to get them out of the way," I said. "Druids might not be the most combative of people, but when roused to anger they can be vicious and dangerous. Maybe she hit them first, then moved on to the rest of the town?"

"Or maybe," Ben offered instead, "They were the real goal of her attack. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who are benefiting by their absence. It'll take time for the surviving members of the Council to find suitable candidates to replace their fallen fellows. It might even be a couple of years before they fill all of the seats at the table, so to speak."

I let the idea roll around in my head for a minute. "So you're suggesting that not only was she trying to get some petty revenge by pinning the attack on me, she was using the whole attack to cover up her true goal?"

Ben waggled his hand from one side to the other. "Hiding things in plain sight is a good trick." He flicked his fingers and his pen reappeared in his hand. "But not when your audience is already looking for the trick and knows how it was performed." He winked. He'd noticed me watching him when he made the pen disappear.

"It still could have worked," Athena offered tentatively. "I was asked a bunch of questions about Mistress's relations with the Éire Druid Council when they were interrogating me."

"Yes, and no," Ben said. "It could have worked. The Council's antipathy towards Alys wasn't exactly a state secret, and it was a matter of public record that your mother had had a few rather heated arguments with them in recent days, and had tendered her resignation just the day before. But Brenna - if it was her, of which there's little doubt - was sloppy."

"Huh?" Boy, I was sharp today. Maybe I hadn’t been getting enough sleep.

Ben smiled. "She didn't follow through on her planning, or messed up her time table and started early. She didn't plan for your alibi. You were on an airship; registered, logged, and confirmed by the crew. The only way you could've gotten to the town in time to kill the druids and launch the attack would've been to teleport off the ship."

"And you can't teleport off an airship safely," I said, suddenly understanding. "The spatial-folding aspect of teleportation magic would tear apart the enchantments that keep the ship in the air and probably do something similar to the caster. Just like if I tried to teleport with my bottomless bag or utility belt."

"Actually" Ben said with a nod, "most airships have wards on them that prevent teleportation on or off of them for precisely that reason. But either way, your alibi is air-tight. So it couldn't have been you. She might as well have just painted herself bright red before getting started."

"That doesn't explain the attacks on the Fishers or the two murders," I said. "Not to mention the burns on Mr. Gerrik's...remains. Where do those fit in?"

Ben shook his head. "I'm not sure yet. The murder of Mr. Gerrik might've been a crime of opportunity, with her goal there being nothing more than to get a second familiar from the same place you got both of yours. We know she seems to be pretty obsessed with the similarities between the two of you." He sat back in his chair and frowned. "However, the attack on the Fishers' home and the murder of Mr. Smithson and his cronies don't fit. Assuming there's a pattern at all...we could just be dealing with a psychotic. But I don't think so."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"I don't either, but we don't have a whole lot to go on. She may be crazy, but she seemed like the type who tries to plan ahead for everything." I grimaced. "Just like me."

Athena reached over and took my hand. "The similarities are superficial," she said reassuringly. "That's all."

Ben nodded. "I'm inclined to agree."

We sat in silence for a few moments, all three of us staring at the two images floating above their crystals. By the door, Artemis snored softly. Finally, I frowned and reached forward, turning both images to face me. "I wish I could figure out why this entity feels familiar to me."

"To me too," Athena agreed. "Something about its appearance...about that scar...reminds me of something." She sighed. "But I can't figure out what."

I sat back in my chair and folded my arms across my stomach, feeling a little queasy. However unintentionally, and however irrational and overblown Brenna's response had been, I had somehow set all of this in motion.

"This isn't your fault, Mistress," Athena said, more sharply than anything she'd ever said to me before.

Artemis appeared by the side of my chair and rested her chin on my thigh. <>

Ben shook his head and spoke firmly. "Listen to Athena. I don't believe that any of this is really because of you. You're an excuse and a convenient scapegoat. Something else is going on here."

I smiled, my stomach settling a bit under the force of their combined reassurance. "Thanks. But somehow, that doesn't ring entirely true." I reached forward and tapped one of the crystals. "We need to find out who or what that is."

Night had fallen by the time we decided to stop wracking our brains and call it a day. It wasn't that long a walk to Hollis's townhouse - at least not to someone who had grown up in the countryside - so I decided to stretch my legs and clear my head. Ben offered to walk me home - which was sweet of him - saying he could catch a cab from there as easily as from the Yard and that he'd feel more comfortable seeing me home safely under the circumstances.

We walked side-by-side in silence for a while, Artemis ranging out ahead of us and Athena alternately walking on my other side or falling back a little to walk behind us as the mood took her. I was still feeling unsettled by the whole thing and was bothered by the nagging feeling of familiarity I got whenever looking at the images we'd made of the entity.

About halfway there, I felt Ben's fingers find and twine with mine, squeezing gently. "It's going to be all right," he said quietly. "We'll figure this out and get it sorted. What're you doing tomorrow?"

I glanced down at our hands and then up at him. "I'm not sure yet. I rarely know what Hollis is going to have me doing from day to day. I think he likes to keep me on my toes."

"Why don't we plan to meet after breakfast then, if he doesn't have something more urgent for you to do. We can go over all of the evidence again, maybe see if we can get any leads on where Brenna might be staying." He looked down at me. "By all accounts, she's a pretty striking young woman. She'd be hard to miss." He smiled a little. "Like someone else I know."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," I said dryly, but I returned his smile. "The idea has merit though, and the idea of spending another day with you doesn't sound like too onerous a task."

He grinned briefly, making something in my stomach flutter pleasantly. Good grief, was I falling in love with him? No, it was much too quick for that. But I certainly found him attractive, and he seemed to have a talent for making me smile and laugh. He made me feel good when I was with him, and Artemis and Athena both liked him. Not to mention the fact that he treated them with the same respect and affection he was according me, which was gallant of him.

"Well," Ben said, obviously amused, "I'm glad to hear that spending time with me isn't a chore."

Athena snorted a little laugh from behind us and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Hardly."

"I'll Send you after breakfast and let you know what the day's looking like for me," I said, smiling warmly.

"Good."

He said good night to us at the front door of Hollis's townhouse. I got a kiss that left my lips tingling, then he kissed Athena's knuckles, ruffled Artemis's ears, and trotted lightly back down the front steps to wave down a passing cab.

Yeah, I had a crush on him. But I was perfectly okay with that.

It was after ten o'clock, so Hollis had either gone to bed or was locked up in his laboratory in the basement. Either way, I wasn't going to bother him. Elsie had left a teapot simmering on the stove as I'd known she would - she knew how Athena and I both enjoyed a cup of tea before bed - and had put a plate of cookies on the table for us. I found a crunchy treat for Artemis to gnaw on, and we retired to our rooms.

As I was getting ready for bed, my mind already drifting a little, a connection was made. I paused with a sleeveless silk pajama tunic half over my head and blinked a few times. "Scrapbook," I said aloud, then finished wriggling into the tunic and went over to my desk.

"Pardon?" Athena asked from where she was already stretched on the bed with a book open in her hands.

"My mom's scrapbook," I said, opening the roll-top desk and rummaging through the open cubbies. "She put a picture of the bodies from the old asylum in it. Remember? She came into the kitchen at Jonathan's house waving it like a trophy?"

"Yeah," Athena said slowly. "But what...?"

Beside the fireplace, Artemis lifted her head and looked at me, obviously just as confused as her sister. <>

Athena snorted, put down her book and sat up. "I doubt it, sis. Mistress, what'd you remember?"

I found the scrap of paper I'd been looking for, the very article my mother had found on Jonathan's desk. I hadn't admitted it to her at the time, but I had been pretty proud of showing up in the newspaper. The picture was graphic even in black and white, showing two rows of bodies laid out and covered in sheets so that only their shoulders and heads showed.

And yes, there it was. One of the bodies in the first row had a deep, jagged scar on its bald head that looked exactly like the one on the spirit I'd caught two images of. "I knew that scar was familiar. Remember? The spokesman - spokesghost? - for the asylum's ghosts had a scar just like it."

Athena appeared at my shoulder and Artemis braced herself with her forepaws on the desk so she could see it too. "That's odd," Athena said. "What does this mean?"

"It means we know that it's a ghost and where it came from," I said slowly. "Just not why."

I half turned and gathered my Anima, murmuring the words for a Sending. A spectral snow leopard formed in front of me and waited.

"Ben, I think I found our ghost. Check the Daily Mirror from last October, when I took care of that haunting at the old asylum downtown. They have a picture in one of the articles," I held it up so he'd be able to see it, "that shows a body with a scar which matches that weird jagged void on our ghost's head. The ghost who acted as spokesman for them had the same scar, it just didn't stand out so spectacularly. That'll give us a starting point for our research." I closed the spell, modifying it slightly so that it wouldn't deliver until a little after six o'clock tomorrow morning...later this morning, I amended as I noticed that it was after midnight...and sent it on its way.

Then realized that I was wearing just a sleeveless silk tunic that barely came to my thighs, and Ben was going to get a lovely look at my legs. Oh well. I could stand to tease him a little. It wouldn't hurt either one of us.

Before I could even set down the article, a familiar spectral wolf emerged through the outside wall of my room and turned into a life-size image of Ben in nothing but boxer shorts and a t-shirt. Looked like I wasn't the only one not thinking before creating a Sending. But my goodness, he had lovely muscle definition.

"Alys," he said urgently, "Sorry if I woke you. I just got word that there's been another murder that might tie into our case. Even if it doesn't, I want you involved. Meet me at the home of Jameson and Aramina Muldrew...you know, that old asylum block where you dealt with that haunting last year...as quick as you're able. By the time you get this I'll already be on my way there."

I'm pretty sure all of the color drained from my face.

"I'll see you soon," Ben finished, then vanished.

Athena was already emerging from the closet and tossed me a pair of jeans, a pair of my ankle boots dangling from her fingers, a set of her own leathers draped over her arm.

"Thank you, pet," I said absently, laying down the article so I could wriggle into my jeans. I didn't bother changing out of the silk tunic, I just tucked it in before putting on my belt. It would pass as a shirt well enough.

"This can't be a coincidence," Athena said as she dressed quickly. "Can it."

I shook my head and sat down to pull on the boots she'd brought out for me. "No. I don't see how it can. It fits the emerging pattern. Where's my coat?"

"Downstairs by the front door," she replied, rising and passing me my utility belt. I buckled it on and grabbed my staff from where it was leaning by the door. "You think you'll need it?"

"It's not summer yet," I said as I left the room, Athena and Artemis close on my heels. "It'll be chilly." Then I doubled back and went to my desk, picked up the article and stuffed it into one of the pouches on my belt.

Hollis met us at the door wrapped in a dark blue robe and still half asleep. "Alys, I felt Sendings. What's going on?"

Athena finished buckling on her gunbelt and sword harness, then put on a light cloak over it.

"The first sending was mine. The second one was from Ben Donovan," I replied, taking my coat as Athena handed it to me. "There's been a murder at the Muldrews' place."

Hollis blinked to clear the sleep from his eyes as I slid on my coat. "Do you want me to come with you?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't think we'll be able to do much other than look around tonight."

"Does this have something to do with your being out with Detective Donovan all day and evening?" he asked. It was his business to know what I was up to, after all.

I nodded. "I'll fill you in on everything tomorrow morning, I promise. I could use your your insight." Athena opened the door and stepped out into the night, Artemis following her.

Hollis returned my nod. "Of course. Do you have a starting point for me? If it's urgent enough to drag you out in the middle of the night, the least I can do is start looking now."

I paused in the doorway, then dug the Daily Mirror article out of my belt. "Here. I think we're dealing with the ghost of one of the asylum inmates. The one with the nasty scar there in the front row." I pulled out the crystal that contained the image I'd made at the Fishers' home. "This is the image I got at the Fishers'."

"Won't you need it?"

I shook my head. "No, I have another one from today that has the same scar on it."

Hollis's eyes widened. "How big is this becoming?"

I stopped again, halfway out the door and trying not to let my urgency and alarm show. "I don't know, Hollis. But if everything's really connected...then it's big. And getting bigger."

"Mistress," Athena called from by the street. "I've got a cab!"

"Go," Hollis said. "Send me if you need anything."

I smiled a little, nodded my thanks, and hurried out into the night.