19)

Cassy- At a meeting in Khalid's office.

I gave Natalie a moment to think while everyone else stood silent for reasons of their own, known only to them.

She finally sat upright and tugged one of her rings off her finger, tossing it over to me, well at me, but I caught it anyways. "Catch. Whoever has that speaks to those who work for my family with my authority, just in case being in the Bureau isn't enough to get him to listen."

I looked at the ring, silver, which was too small for my hand. It had the letter T molded into the top, but with a second angled crossbar on it. It probably had some special meaning, but I didn't see the need to ask, especially since I knew she would want me to. "So you want me to bring him in."

She nodded as she stood up. "I will be dealing with my father, but I don't want to leave it up to him to call his dog to heel. I want Grimaud dragged in, in chains, to make this official rather than something my family deals with in house."

Kinkade stepped forward to lean on the desk, "You're doing this right, but your patriarch can still brush this off, I want to be there, as a witness."

My boss thought this over and slowly nodded. "If your willing to put the weight of the Pact behind this..." she looked over to me. "Give her the ring."

"Okaaay?" Not sure just what all Kinkade having the ring would mean, probably some sort of high level diplomacy that was over my pay grade. So I handed it over.

Kinkade slipped it on her pinky, likely the only finger she had that it would fit on. "Never thought I would get a ring from any member of your family, but I'll take it. Huh, working for a Thibedeau. Grandma is going to be pissed."

Natalie smirked, "It's a good day to piss off our elders."

I waved to get their attention. "Yeah, Family politics. Awesome, wow. But where do we find the guy.'

Kinkade did not seem to like being compared to the Families, but Nat didn't give her the chance to object. "You don't need to go looking for him, you call him with the ring and he has to come. I'd don't want to call him here, since he arranged for someone to kill Martin across the street, so it might be a little suspicious to try to get him to show up here. So maybe go off somewhere else and then jump him when he shows up."

Kinkade looked down at the ring and smiled. "And what will you be doing?"

My boss stood up, "Arranging a formal meeting between the Provincial director of the Magic Incident Bureau, which would be me, and the head of the Thibedeau Family. I'll call with the details.

With that she headed out with the rest of us following along to watch her get into the back of her car with Johanson at the wheel, The orc returned a hesitant wave to Kinkade's more vigorous one.

I jumped as Otto spoke up behind me. "Is she really angry?"

I turned around to see the hangdog look on his face. "A little, but I know how you can get on her good side.

He brightened up "How's that"

Kinkade grinned "Do you know a good place to meet someone, who you don't want to get away from you?"

Donovan- In the now dimly lit upstairs apartment at the Party-mart

So first the lights go out, Damia swears, Clarice yells, Linda giggles and Roxir gets upset.

Shit, I'm the closest one to him, as I hear his clothes rip. From the little bit of reddish light coming from the window, I can see him get a lot bigger. But I'm saved from him taking out his anger by tearing me into small pieces when the little blue guys from the mirror are suddenly everywhere.

One leaped onto Clarice's back, getting in the way of her pulling out her big ass sword, While two more of them tried to pull down her pants. She spun around crashing into something off to the left out of my sight, yelling and cursing as she fell to the ground.

Two jumped at Damia while others crowded up behind her legs causing her to fall backwards onto the lower bunk. Her head smacking up against the side of the upper bunk turning her panicked yell into a cry of pain. I can't say that didn't bring a smile to my face.

Others crowded around Linda as she held the arm up above her head out of their reach, then she turned to run into the closet sized mini office in the back. Just before another one could snatch it out of her hand as it leaped from the upper bunk to crash into a set of bookshelves nailed up to the wall, bringing the whole thing crashing down.

Roxir yelled and swung his arm out trying to backhand one as it ducked below his reach.

Then he lit up most of one side of the apartment by breathing out pink flames that filled up most of the Tv room, blowing out and away from me thankfully.

Did not know that he could do that, and from the sound of Clarice's "That's fucking sweet!" she didn't either.

The little blue guys screamed, and I saw them melt away as the fire lit up the place, I also see the mirror guy step into the room from the hallway that led to the exit. He swung his remaining hand around into a circle before pushing out from its middle.

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For a moment I sew something glow in front of his hand, like something from a Chinese menu but more blocky.

Then there was a blinding light and the sound of thunder.

The light that shot out from in front of his hand was so bright I could only see its color from the afterimage that burned into my eye, but it just missed Roxir as it widened out, Taking out most of the narrow room with the Tv as it blew out past him. Then it took out the entire front wall, most of the other bedroom, and one corner of the room we're in before it kept going.

Then he turned to the rest of us, made another circle, and flipped his hand upright in the middle.

"I think you have something that belongs to me."

Ah, man. That was just his warning shot.

Roxir looked at the game console, and the remaining half of the TV as it dropped to the ground, then tipped over the edge of the partially gone floor to tumble down to the lower floor. Then he leaned out to see the groove that started up in the ground in front of the store that grow bigger the farther it went until it vanished out of sight in a cloud of dust several hundred feet away

"Thank you so much for welcoming me into your new domain Damia, but I think this is an internal matter." He slowly began to edge his way toward the new opening while eyeballing Mr. One Arm, who gave him a nod which Roxir returned before turning and flying off with wings that seemed to just fold out of his back.

"Chickenshit" I mutter before the little guy turned back to me with a look that makes me sure he was going to blame everything on me. I started to talk, to try to pin the blame on Damia, since she wanted to be in charge so bad. But the way the air seems to begin to vibrate in front of his hand made me think shutting up might be the best plan.

"Where is my arm."

Damia looked up from the bed. Then over to the hole that had been the front half of the room she is in, and the dozen or so little blue monsters. Who were now wearing children's sunglasses and oversized ball caps for some reason? Then she tried to calm him down with a, "I'm sure we can come to some sort of..." only for Linda to tromp back into the room.

"It's okay, I tossed Palmer out the window, the shadow imps can't get him unless they can climb into the dumpster. Can they do that?"

Hand blasty guy suddenly just looked tired. "Tosser, go get my arm and met me back in the store, our store." Three of the little guys ran into the back room and went right out the window, arms stretched out with flaps to catch at the air. The last one turned it's head to give Linda a dirty look before it jumped. "You not throw the Master's parts around. Bad demon."

Linda blinked, "They can talk?"

One arm seems to start to ask something then just shook his head. "The rest of you... just don't."

"Don't say anything else. Don't try to contact me. Don't cross through the mirrors or try to use them to spy on me. Just, whatever plan you come up with that involves me... just don't."

With that he backed out of the room and around the corner, after a moment I could hear him say "Thank you Tosser" and something made a barking sound that caused a bunch of the blue guys to stream out of the closet, from below the bed and everywhere else to head out and around the corner before we heard the slam of the bathroom door as it closed.

I think Clarice summed it up best. "I think maybe we shouldn't piss this guy off anymore."

Damia got to her feet and looked out at the destruction. "We got a bigger problem than him, and so does he."

The building shook, and some bits that had started being repaired by the same blue light that replaced stuff in the store crumbled off.

"I think he damaged the firmament, which means my dad will be coming here."

Martin- Going to hell and not going to take it anymore.

I showed Tosser the circuit breaker and how to turn the power off in the other store, then told him to take his people through the mirror and cause a distraction for me.

"No shiny wall master, we go shadows to other place.'

What? Oh, they do not need the mirror to cross over, did not know that in fact I really needed to have a long talk with Tosser about just what all they could do. I knew they could make illusions, or copies, or some other kind of effect that made more of them appear when they were out of any sort of direct light. But right now was not the time to try to figure out all of that.

I made my way up the stairs and into the bathroom to stare at my lack of reflection in the mirror.

Luckily Kinkade had packed up a lot of the various things that she usually covered the top of the sink with, but it still turned out to be a little awkward climbing over the sink and through a mirror with one arm.

The screams, yells, and one roar covered up the sounds of me falling out of the other side of the mirror and falling onto the floor.

Expecting a fight I pulled up the simplest spell I knew, a circle with the symbol for power in the middle as I came around the corner.

Then I panicked as I saw a seven foot tall scaly demon that looked ready to tear me apart as I stepped around the corner and nearly into his reach. So I ended up dumping nearly half my reservoir into the spell. Seriously, where did he come from?

The sheer amount of mana I let loose in my panic shredded the spell weave, the floor, and the entire front wall of the store. Plus a few portions of the rooms to either side.

I also missed the giant scaly demon entirely as he sort of took a half step and leaned away.

I stared at him, he stared at me. When In doubt, follow the script. I pulled up my spell again while trying not to let my remaining hand shake. "I think you have something that belongs to me."

He looked around at the destruction, a bit wide eyed, then surprising me, politely made his excuses. Then began to back away.

Oh thank god. I gave him a nod to let him know it was safe to go. He went.

Right, now the others.

The one who pulled me through the mirror, the same ass who had shot me, started to speak, and I almost unleashed my spell in my anger.

No, not dealing with you, no more talking, no more chances.

"Where is my arm?"

Then I almost lost my spell weave as I felt my missing arm falling and landing in a mix of various things. Hard, soft, and sticky.

As I struggled to keep my spell weave from fading, the redhead who seems to be in charge started to try to bargain and I almost wanted to use all the mana I had left just to make her shut up. Then the other one came into the room and began telling everyone how she threw my arms out the window.

For a moment she gave me a look even as she nattered on like a fool. Her eyes looked old and deep, and she gave me an ever so slight shake of her head as her eyes darted back to the window.

She's playing a game of her own, and the arm is now out where I can get to it without having to deal with any of them.

Suddenly I was exhausted and I just wanted this done. I do not really want to deal with the memories of hurting anyone again, I just wanted this to end. and of course, to get my arm back.

In addition, I think I may have hurt myself channeling that much mana at once. I'm not entirely sure if I could even cast another spell right now without doing some permanent damage to myself.

I told Tosser to get my arm, he lectured the old eyed one before heading out to fetch it for me.

Then... I tell them to stop. I just wanted them to go away and not have to deal with them anymore.

I head back into the bathroom and saw a tall gaunt man dressed in tattered clothing standing at the open door at the top of the stairs. Black dots covered his skin and his solid black eyes were opened wide in shock.

Nope, not my problem. I closed the bathroom door and cross through the mirror to start to try to figure out how to reattach my arm.