A voice emanated from the backroom. “There’s tea and coffee in the cupboard, help yourself.”

Salvador obliged, opening the cupboard to see what was on offer. He was disappointed seeing only cheap green blends. He was about to close it again, when there was a knock at the door.

“Could you be a dear and get that for me?” Lydia called out from her bedroom.

“Certainly.” Salvador went to the door.

On the other side was a young woman, slightly heavy but very shapely. Her long hair framed a very pretty face completed with tortoise shell glasses. The one I noticed from the waiting room.

She looked into his face with searching eyes. “You’re not Dr. Kieth.” Her voice advertised her northern descent. “Who are you?”

Salvador could feel the amulet around his neck vibrate, and for a moment, the woman’s pounding relentless gaze held him fast.

Then he wrenched himself free, with a sheepish smile and a school boy’s glance at his shoes. “I’m just a visiting friend of Lydia’s. Who are you, miss?”

The woman’s features softened and her tone became less accusatory, but Salvador wouldn’t make the mistake of looking her directly in the eyes again regardless. “My name is Sonia Romanov.”

“Would you like to come in, Sonia?”

She shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly, and made no move to come inside. “Is Lydia present? I would like to speak with her.”

Salvador was beginning to form a hypothesis about the young woman’s true nature. “Of course, she’s just fetching something from her bedroom. Have a seat.”

Salvador watched carefully as Sonia’s posture turned more uncomfortable, still standing out in the hall.

Then Lydia’s voice came from her room. “Who is it at the door?”

“A young woman named Sonia; she says she’d like to speak with you.” Salvador called back.

“Well bring her inside.”

As Salvador expected, with mistress of the home's permission, Sonia stepped assuredly into the room. She took the seat Lydia had previously occupied.

Salvador moved towards the blinds over the windows, the sun was down. It looked like it had passed the horizon almost an hour ago. “Would you care for some tea, Sonia?”

“No thank-you. I don’t believe you’ve told me your name.”

“Yes, I’ve been terribly rude, haven’t I? My name is Salvador.”

“And what do you do, Salvador?”

“As little as I can manage. I work for the National Museum, here in the city. Cataloging artifacts, mostly.”

“Are you a practitioner of the Art?”

He laughed at her rather flamboyant turn of phrase. “I am, in fact. I take it from the question that you are as well, yes?”

Sonia smiled, but her body language was unconvincing. “I'm a transfer student here at the university. Studying astrology.”

“I see.”

“Here they are. I have them, Mr. Devalance.” Lydia came back into the room holding a bundle of files.

Sonia’s head turned away from him just an instant as Lydia stepped into the room. It was enough.

Salvador had the slim skeleton grip semi-automatic pistol out of the holster under his left armpit and into his hand before she looked back. “Be very careful please, Dr. Kieth. I have reason to believe that your guest is a vampire.”

“Yes, I expect she belongs to the same coven Herman and I have been working with.” Lydia was very nonchalant about the whole matter.

As there seemed to be no further need for it, Salvador returned his pistole to it’s holster. “I hope you didn’t take any offense, miss. It’s only that vampires are meant to be extinct.”

“Oh, we still turn up from time to time,” Sonia replied, with a coy smile. “It wasn’t as though your gun could have injured me anyway.”

“My custom rounds might have done more than you'd expect.” Salvador returned to his seat.

“That’s my chair you’re in,” Lydia told Sonia abruptly, when she knocked against her leg. “Go sit on the loveseat with the historian. You should have plenty in common.”

Sonia’s smile vanished, and she sulkily went to sit on the uncomfortable plastic wrapped sofa beside him.

“Maybe you should give me those papers, and tell me what exactly you have been working on together. Because the dossier I was given suddenly appears grossly incomplete.” Lydia handed the packet of documents across the tiny room to him.

They contained tracings of the signs on the jar, as well as close-up photographs of the spell-craft itself in color photographs. There had been a handful of wide black and white shots of the jar in the dossier, to allow for identification, but he had suspected information was being held back. This confirmed it.

Jenny’s descriptions still help up as accurate though, from what he could tell. From the basic geometry of the spell-work, he could tell that it was some kind of ward, but something looked very wrong about it. He wasn’t an expert in boundary magic though, so he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was.

The language on the artifact was a southern dialect of Sylvan, the likes of which he had never seen before. Ironically, it was the loan words from Draconic which he found easiest to identify.

The spell was unquestionable doing something. No doubt that was why they had yet to attempt unsealing the thing. However, it was impossible to tell exactly what the fashioners were trying to keep out, or what the consequences of violating that prohibition would be.

“Fascinating,” he remarked at length. “I presume Dr. Kohler was consulting with you due to your expertise in experimental warding practices. I can see there’s something odd about the alignment, even without speaking the language, but I can’t tell exactly what.”

“Very clever,” Lydia’s praise came with only a tablespoonful of patronizing. “Perhaps you’re not hopeless after all. That misalignment you noticed has kept some of the finest minds in the Republic stumped. At least until one blind old woman was clear sighted enough to realize that these wards aren’t meant to keep anything out. They’re intended to keep something trapped inside.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Yes! He could see it now. That explained the unusual orientation of the Draconic word for... well... the closest term he knew was ‘bad spirit’. This was a spirit jar, meant to keep something inside from escaping.

Salvador tore himself away from the academia back to his investigation. “May I ask how exactly you involved a coven of vampires in this research?”

“Who else know more about dead languages?” replied Lydia.

“And we also chose to involve ourselves in this affair. Our coven has a responsibility to keep that jar sealed.” Sonia added.

Salvador asked the obvious questions at once. “Why? What’s inside it?”

“I don’t know.” Sonia’s explanation came as something of an anti-climax, so she elaborated. “Except that the contents are very dangerous. My masters don’t always share the totality of their knowledge with me. As a spy, you should be able to commiserate with me.”

“You’ll forgive me for asking this, I hope. But how do we know that you lot didn’t steal it?”

Sonia smiled in the way he always heard vampires smiled, when you gave them an opportunity to demonstrate how clever they are.

“Because we don’t want it. All we want is for it to remain safe and sealed. Democracies are absolutely wonderful when it comes to not doing things. Even if a madman here wished to open it, he could never cut through all the bureaucracy and red tape to get it done. Once you get it back, we predict that it will go straight into the deepest vault of the National Mint, where the merchants and politicians who control your country won’t have to worry about it. There it will be forgotten, and that is precisely what we wish. Corruption and petty factionalism have already bored so many holes into the Elven People’s Republic, that you’d have better luck using a pasta strainer as a lifeboat than keeping something safe there. So long as you promise to see it lock up tight, we see no reason not to assist you in retrieving the jar.”

Salvador nodded. “You mention elves, can I take this as confirmation that you know who took Dr. Kohler?”

“And where he was taken. I can give you directions to the cabin in the Whitewood where he’s being held. Unlike vampires, spies have no compunction against making themselves uninvited guests in someone else's home.”

The unseasonably warm sun illuminated the bright colors of the drying tree leaves, as they made its way down into the valley. A few more leaves slowly tumbled down towards him as a cool evening wind struck them, and broke their frail connection to the branch.

From where he sat on the edge of the descent, the whole valley was visible. In the very far distance, the smoke of a forest fire lit the horizon, further in the interior.

Salvador stood up and stretched, before retrieving and donning the jacket he had hung from a knot in a tree. He returned to the team of men from the ‘Action Service’ which Jenny arranged for him.

Their leader was a fierce looking giant name Raul. He had some grey around his temples, but a body like an armored train. By himself, he held a machine gun which rightfully should have been mounted to something.

The others had rifles, and all of them wore body armor. They had commando kit for forest operations, and would be able to approach unseen to a point. There was a clearing around the cabin, and it would be very clear who they were past that point.

“How far is the fire?” Salvador asked.

“More than a mile,” Raul answered. “Fire services say they have it under control. Wind's going the other direction anyway.”

“Right. We’ll be in and out before night anyway. I want all of you to take up positions around the cabin at the edge of the tree line. If anyone tries to leave the property, then detain them. I’ll go in alone to determine the precise location of our objectives. If possible, I’ll exfiltrate with them before sending you in. That may not be likely though. Come in when the fireworks start, and I’ll do my best to keep the objectives secure until you’ve finished eliminating the opposition. Any questions?”

There were none. Everyone had already been briefed on the composition of the abduction team holding Dr. Kohler. There were six of them, five golden skinned and one albino. They had submachine guns, but no armor or heavy equipment. A single lorry was in an open garage, and Salvador thought it might be a clever idea to disable it as he approached the cabin.

They repelled down into the valley and began their approach.

Two elves were always on patrol around the cabin. Through his binoculars, Salvador could see that the albino was one of the two on watch.

He affixed a silencer to the front of his pistol and waited for them to go out of sight. Once he had his chance, Salvador crept closer, tree to tree, each time they passed.

Then he made the final sprint to the house and took cover in the garage. When the patrol had gone by again, he opened the hood of the truck and pulled out the alternator. He closed the hood and waited for the patrol to go by again.

Salvador followed behind them, and went up to a window on the side of the house. He quickly popped his head up to peek inside. There was a dormitory with two sleeping elves.

Around the back of the house was a rear door. Salvador tried it, but it was locked. He placed a piece of plastique over the lock, and quickly dashed out a spell with chalk from his belt to dampen the noise.

He took cover, and the plastique erupted with a mild thump, which he prayed no one overheard. Salvador moved into a laundry room and closed the door behind him. The lock was obviously damaged, but it was possible the patrol outside might not notice if they didn’t look directly at the door.

A single elf walked directly into the middle of the room, and stood still in complete shock. Salvador’s body had already moved before conscious recognition reached his mind as to what he was doing.

The elf tried to raise his hands in defense, while his eyes sent a silent plea for salvation. By the grace of the gods, the man could motivate no sound from his throat.

The pistol coughed, and Salvador watched a red keyhole open on the man’s forehead. He fell dead quietly.

Need to be quick!

Salvador went to the door the elf came through. A man was in the main room, facing away from him and looking out the window.

Salvador took aim and hissed.

The man turned and wasn’t Dr. Kohler. Two shots, and then he died for it.

Salvador knew which door led into the dormitory, and took another. It led into a second bedroom, where Dr. Kohler had been tied down to a bed with rope. Salvador motioned for him to stay silent and closed the door behind him.

He untied the doctor and whispered in his ear. “The jar, where is it?”

“In the kitchen, you can get there from the main room. But- that isn’t important anymore. They’ve already unsealed it, and-”

Shouts from outside. The damage to the rear door had been discovered.

With no time to lose, Salvador began pushing a wardrobe in front of the door to barricade them inside the room. There were gunshots outside, and he pulled the doctor to the ground to take cover.

“There’s no time! Don’t you understand!?” Dr. Kohler was absolutely manic. “They’ve unsealed it!”

“Unsealed what? What’s inside that thing?”

“The next layer of protection was already cracked when they brought it out! That must have been why it was put into the jar in the first place. The darkness it contained was beginning to leak!”

“What darkness? Doctor, you’re not making any-”

The wall opened.

Salvador knew no other way to describe it. Three-dimensional space simply began to function differently. While the wall remained intact, there was also a path through it.

He could see the doorway into elves dormitory open. Both the elves had machine pistols, but the one further back also held a cracked lacquer box.

Salvador and the elves each fired at the same time, but the trajectories of their bullets all seemed to go wild, and fired off in impossible directions.

Momentarily stymied, they stared dumbfounded at one another. Then bullets ripped through both elves from the direction of the laundry room.

Then, the cabin briefly exploded.

A shockwave rocked the house and had blown out the interior walls.

When he came to, Salvador’s ears were ringing and he was buried under debris.

Outside, through a hole in the roof, he could see that the evening was bright orange.

When the ringing cleared, he heard Raul shouting. “-wind shifted! The fire’s right on top of us! We need to move!”

Salvador pulled himself up and out of the rubble. Physical space appeared stable once more.

“Over here! I have Dr. Kohler!” One of the commandos took the doctor from him. “The jar is in the kitchen!”

“It’s in pieces!” Raul shouted back.

“Then collect the godsdamned pieces!” Raul sent two more men into the kitchen. “How many did you get!?”

“Got three! The one with the box tried the truck! Wouldn’t start and he took off towards the fire on foot! He was leaking from at least half a dozen holes as he left, he’s dead for sure!”

Salvador clambered out of the ruined cabin with Raul's help; he could taste the smoke. The sun was already down. How long had he been unconscious?

They had pulled up their vehicles and moved everything into them. They could already see the flames approaching as they drove away.

As soon as they were safe, Salvador got on the radio to Sonia. “We eliminated five of them, recovered Dr. Kohler, and the jar.” He looked at the shattered clay pieces in front of him. “Unfortunately, they already opened it. The last elf fled into the forest fire with the contents. Some kind of strange box.”