"Ready?"

"Ready."

Bob confirmed after Amanda had helped strap the final pillow to his chest and he took a deep breath.

"Here we go."

After Bob had stumbled out of the office, the flying objects and various other mystical mishaps within it had died down rather quickly and left the place calm and quiet. He had then gone with Amanda to gather up couch pillows from one of the neighboring offices within the same building as well as a large frying pan that he could use as a shield.

Then it had only been the matter of using bits of rope to tie the pillows to his body to serve as armor and him getting used to holding the frying pan as a makeshift shield.

When so done, he stepped into the office again. He slowly moved in while rapidly glancing about trying to see if he could spot any hidden spell work or magical energy fluctuations with his sunglasses.

He more felt than saw the change after having stepped into the room. Several boxes with pencils were tossed right at Bob, and he had smack them down with the frying pan. Then he felt two binders hit the pillow strapped to the back and while they cushioned the blow, it still caused him to stumble forward into the room.

Bob darted his head around as pandemonium was unleashed in the office as his gaze tried to hunt down the source for the magical disturbance. He hadn't fully anticipated just how vicious the aerial assault would become, however, as the office erupted at him.

Chairs, pillows, boxes, pencils, binders, computer equipment, were sent flying at and around him. He retreated after only thirty seconds in the room when one the office desks started to vibrate and slowly hover in preparation of being launched towards him.

The frying pan impacted with a chair as he stepped out and Amanda once more closed the door before anything could be sent out into the hallway. Lexie, Amanda, and Bob then waited in silence for ten seconds before the office once again quieted down.

"Ten seconds again. Did any of you spot what might be the trigger condition?"

Bob asked after having looked down at his phone. Amanda who still looked rather shaken after having had to desperately scramble to close the door shook her head and Lexie sent the mental equivalent of a shrug through their familiar bond.

"You stepped pretty far into the room this time, try to take mini steps on this next attempt so we can see if that changes anything."

Lexie suggested after having hopped down to inspect. Bob sighed and nodded before preparing the frying pan for yet another attempt at entering the room.

This time when he stepped in, Bob almost shuffled his feet more than straight up walking. Each "step" tiny in an effort to clear as little distance as possible into the room. Yet it only took a few moments and Bob wasn't even clear of the area around the door before the chaos began again.

He didn't have any notable problems with getting out as he practically stood right in front of the door that time. Once more the door was closed and the trio confered with Lexie taking the lead.

"After your fifth step the attacks seemed to come, Bob. But you still moved too quickly for us to make sure that was the trigger condition. We are going to have to do more tests."

----------------------------------------

"Lexie...I think we can pretty definitely state that it is taking five steps in the room that triggers the magic."

"We don't know that yet Bob. It could be a delay-"

"Lexie. You had me climb through the window, run through the room. Slowly walk through the room, and even crawl in there. We have proven what the cause is."

"You would be a terrible scientist Bob."

After seven more tests Lexie was still getting ramped up while Bob and Amanda were more ruffled, tired, and annoyed as the two had served as guinea pigs for the testing.

"Maybe so, but we also have a job to do and it would be best to get it over with. We have the office chair and the broom, hopefully it can work."

When they had figured out that it was likely that the so-called haunting only responded after someone had taken five steps or more in the office. Bob had gotten Amanda to ask around in the building if there were any office chairs with wheels available to be borrowed, while he had gotten a long handled broom that he thought would serve well.

So, before Lexie could talk him into some other kind of inane test, he sat down on the chair and made sure to plant his legs so that they would not accidentally touch the floor. Bob then grabbed the broom and began pushing himself into the room.

"One."

"Two."

"Three"

"Four."

"Five."

Lexie and Bob counted out loud in unison as he awkwardly "rowed" using the broom to get himself into the middle of the office. And nothing happened. He just sat there for a few seconds breathing slowly bracing himself in case he was going to be hit by flying furniture, but nothing moved.

"Hell yeah! You did it Bob! Now, you just have to confirm if there is any spell work in the office."

His bird familiar practically honked with delight as she flapped about by the doorway before flying back in to settle on his shoulder. Relief flooded through their bond on both ends as he began to glance about trying to see if he could see any hidden magical marks with his glasses.

"No. Beyond that quick activation flare up the magic being done here is cloaked. Lexie, start checking under the desks to see if our would-be hexer has placed spell work there."

"Wait, you think there isn't a ghost."

Amanda piped up from where she stood anxiously by the door and Bob simply shook his head.

"I mean...if it were then it wouldn't have fallen for this trick."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

He gestured down to his improvised conveyance before he pulled up a lighter and a candle he had taken with him into the room.

"No, I think it is more likely that someone who hates your party or is just a prankster has placed a hex here that makes it look like a haunting."

The long wax candle that looked like it had been taken straight out of a catholic church, began to burn eerily as Bob mumbled the incantation carved onto the side of the candle.

"Occulta magicae revelare. Occulta magicae revelare. Occulta magicae revelare"

Bob butchered the latin pronounciation as he pushed himself around the room while clinging to both the broom and the candle. Pulsating light occuasionally reverberated out from the candle to light up the room. With each pulse it was almost like a layer of reality was slowly being peeled away, until finally Bob and everyone else could see the culprit.

An ugly magical miasma hung in the air, a signature that felt like smoke and oil wrapped in rancid blood. It stretched out from the center of the room and touched various items and the floor like tentacles. Bob knew that this was just a magical manifestation of the spell signature but even so he still winced upon seeing it.

"What....what is that."

Amanda asked while she halfway covered her face with the sleeve of her jacket at putrid smell filling the room. Bob pulled out specialized casting markers and chalk from his pockets before answering.

"That is a magical signature. It is basically what it sounds like, the signature left behind where magic has been performed or in this case where the magic is targeted. Whoever put this out either used a nasty spell or they are simply a nasty piece of work. They cloaked it well so my candle tore up the cloak until anyone could see the signature out in the open."

"Ugh, I could tell as much about their personality, but still...this."

She agreed and casually waved to indicate the pulsating image left in the air before seemingly falling short in the words department. Bob shrugged on his end and began to take in the room again now that the situation was clear.

"Lexie, do we have any good anti-hex rituals that would work while still preserving the signature?"

"Hmmm, lemme think about it and get back to you."

The bird replied as she flapped away from Bob and onto a desk where she started consulting her astounding memory banks, but before Bob could tap into the flow he was interrupted by a question.

"What are you going to do?"

At first, Bob did not want to reply to the question as he was too used to being bothered by impatient clients wanting him to magic away their problems, but since he actually dedicated genuine curiosity with the question and a spike of disapproval from Lexie he attempted to be polite instead.

"I am having Lexie here help me with consulting for a possible solution."

"Yes, I understood that you were doing something like that. I meant more out of curiosity, how does one go about solving something like this?"

Amanda did a dramatic flourish with her arm to indicate the office and the bombardment of furniture, equipment, and sundry items spread throughout the whole area.

"Magic is hard at the best of times, but I would like to pick up what I can."

She added after having pointedly looked around the room before turning her attention back to Bob who sighed and removed his glasses to rub his face before replying.

"Normally, I would have something more concrete to work with. Most people use some kind of spell work, sacrifice spots, magical diagrams, scribbled anchoring words, poems, and other things. When people do that you just have to look at their work and try to figure out where the mistakes are and how to correct them. Similar to how people work with coding or knitting, you see the fault and then you fix it or in the worst case scenario you undo the whole thing."

"But this is by design and I am not seeing any spell work around here."

Amanda interrupted him and Bob nodded genially before putting the glasses back on and taking his time to look through the room again before continuing.

"You are correct, there does not seem to be any spell work in this room or at this building. Which means that directly interfacing with the magic, physically destroying the spell work, or using a simple dispelling artifact or ritual is off the table. They have cast this spell from a distance and that makes things significantly worse."

Bob pointed to indicate one of the office windows.

"If someone were to reflect sunlight using a mirror through that window at you. You would know where the source of the problem was and have multiple options to deal with. Close the curtains, call the police on the annoying teenager who is pranking you, throwing a rock through the window at the previously mentioned culprit or similar."

"But you don't know how or where this stuff is coming from."

"Exactly."

Bob nodded encouragingly to Amanda's excited exclamation before going back to his improvised lecture.

"Did they link the spell to an item or some kind of anchor that is in this room? Are they using some kind of sympathetic link. Or is it something more esoteric that makes them able to link the spell to this place. Or did they simply cast it from somewhere nearby and looked through the mirror using binoculars or a camera drone. The options are endless and since I don't have access to their work, guesses become more unreliable than they usually are."

"What about a leeching spell, Bob."

Lexie interrupted him and shot off a suggestion as she seemed to peruse her catalogue as it were.

"No, leechings are unreliable when you are not dealing with enchantments and we don't want to accidentally cause a spell overload. Check if we have anything that consecrates spaces or anchors objects to the ground."

Bob turned back to Amanda after having conferred with Lexie and smiled.

"I am sorry, where was I? Oh yes, how to deal with this. The only real option here is to put spell against spell, which is never fun. Before you ask me, it is because magic interacts in strange ways. Especially, when they are from different schools. Dispelling magic is predictable because there isn't any conflict or interaction points. They remove or undoes a magical effect, what we have to do here is counter it."

Amanda held up her finger as she was clearly trying to come with a question and then nodded solemnly.

"Understood, I will let you get to it without more questions...for now at least."

She smiled at him and Bob turned back to Lexie and canted his head while transfering a query through their bond. Lexie only gave the equivalent of a smug grin before a ritual flowed into his mind.

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Familiar bonds were still largely untested and viewed as strange by society as large. Conceptually they were not that weird. Someone who regularly used or developed spells, could amplify their ability to channel energy by adding a secondary lifeform as an extension of themselves. In return the animal in question would piggyback off of the lifespan and intelligence of the spellcaster. Living longer and being smarter for the whole time are both great benefits.

This of course had led to a myriad of legal and politicial issues as the personhood of familiars were still hotly debated among philosophers, mages, politicans, and lawyers. And that was before one started to consider the various interest groups who were getting involved.

Where Bob had differed from the norm was that he had tinkered with the ritual that had bonded him and Lexie together, and he had also chosen the bird for very specific reasons. Lexie was a Clark's Nutcracker and in addition to being intelligent already, they had one very notable perk: fantastic memory.

Clark's Nutcrackers could bury seeds and remember their exact location and find them months afterwards even when the entire location was buried in snow. Add in that they would do this for up to twenty thousand locations just for a single year, and it was even more impressive.

Bob had leveraged this when he altered the Navajo inspired bonding ritual, he had found online on an open source spellcraft forum. It had taken a few tries and quite a bit of money on his end to secure Lexie as his familiar, but when he cast the ritual it had worked. Not only was emotions and sapience shared through their bond, but also memories and her memory had been enhanced even more.

He could store entire catalogues of spells within the brain of his familiar and she could transfer those memories in almost detail to him through their bond. Which effectively made him a far more versatile Spell-Cracker than what one would expect, as he could dedicate himself more to magical theory rather than specific practical spells. As he had access to as wide a catalogue of useful spells as one could dream of.

A pattern traced itself in his mind forming a diagram that was based around a hybrid of taoist sorcery and hermetic ritual magic. Chinese characters placed on specific locations according to the layout and traced with a chalk circle connecting them, finally to be activated with a mantra in latin.

"Lexie. Can you calculate where I have to place the characters?"

Bob asked as he awkwardly put himself on his belly and began pushing himself towards the "north" wall of the room. He could hear her annoyed chittering as she flapped up and began to whirr about while shouting instructions. Thank god for the fact that she is better at math than I am. Bob thought as he began the awkward work of putting down a ritual circle without actually walking or touching the floor directly.