Wizard of Our Time

by C P Sennett

  After taking a few sips of the hot brew I leaned over, reaching for the cordless phone. I picked the number in the phone’s memory and called the name ‘Pseudomamma’ This was the name on the device I had allocated to Monika, the Broker. As soon as the phone rang I put it on speaker phone so I could walk around. I find pacing helps with awkward calls.

  On the 5th ring she answered. “Eddie, is the weather any better?”

  “It’s like wonderland here and you?”

  This strange wording I’ll explain another time but it’s how we start all our calls.

  “Eddie, what news do you have on Tabitha Saffron?” asked Monika with a distinct lack of warmth.

  “She’s alive as far as I know, but we need to talk.”

  “Sorry Eddie, if it’s the money you want to negotiate I don’t have the time now. It’s late, even by my standards.”

  “No, oh, and when have I ever tried to negotiate on money part-way through a job?” I had much more professional pride than that. Hell, I was annoyed now as I didn’t even know I could. “Anyhow, did you know what was at that hotel. Did you know what I was heading into?”

  “No, sorry, was it rough? I did say you were going in blind on this. Remember, I’m always straight with all the people I use and that includes you.”

  I thought for a second. Actually true, she didn’t have much info for most of the jobs I had done lately for her but prior to that she had always been meticulous about gathering and sharing as much info as she could. The last few were info light shall we say but that is why they had turned out to be shitty ones. Perhaps at times it was due to the lack of trust on the client’s part or at times they just didn’t know much when they gave the work to Monika. I yawned. “Sorry about that and no the job wasn’t ideal.”

  It was then her turn to pause. “Are you hurt?” she asked with almost a hint of concern in her voice.

  “No, not really. The girl’s gone though. She was at the hotel you sent me to but she left a short time before I got there. Apparently, she left with a different crowd to the ones she arrived with.”

  “Others?”

  “Yep, I found this out before I left. Who was it that took her, do you know yet?”

  “No” she replied, “I’m working on it still.”

  “Honestly?” I asked flatly.

  “No Eddie, I didn’t. Why, what has you rattled, you sound on edge?”

  “Nothing, if you don’t know then it’s best you don’t know. Let’s just say Essex has now become my prime focus as there was something else at the hotel, something I need to report in.”

  “If there is anything I can do, just ask. I could send you one of my contacts, you would have to pay them, but…”

  I cut her off. “No, best you keep out of this as it’s something I’ve got to look into and I think it would be bad news to get external help on this stuff. It’s something my lot don’t like. All I can say is advise anyone you know to keep well away from that place. This isn’t your normal vampire level shit. It’s something and it’s something that’s got me a rattled.”

  “I understand.” she calmly replied.

  I took a sip of my coffee and carried on, careful not to say ‘what’ had me rattled. It was always a ‘who’ as a what may have prompted her to take a look and that wouldn’t have been good.

  “Ok, so someone I met there seemed to think you knew that I was late getting to where this Tabitha was.” When I mentioned this, I listened for any indication of deception from her on the line. I listened hard, I’m much better at reading people face to face but this was all I had to go on.

  I’d never met Monika, just phone calls after being introduced to her by the late Sentinel of Essex, Wilfred Sonoman, about five years ago. He occasionally got work from her as did others who did the same sort of thing and Wilf liked her, he said she was a ‘good egg’.

  Monika responded exactly how I hoped she would. No pause in her answer, no waver or intake of breath beyond the normal. “No Eddie, I don’t know what the person meant by this. However, as a professional courtesy I’m happy to look into whatever you need. If you think I’ve been given bad info then I can flag it back to the client?”

  “No, honestly, I’ve got this, let it go. Just make sure to keep your people well away from that area and if you want me to do more on the investigation into Tabitha then call me. I don’t know who has her but she isn’t at the hotel anymore.”

  “Ok, stay safe and hopefully she is still alive.” she finished, reverting to her normal, business-like tone.

  Before I could say anything else she just said “Goodbye” and the line went dead. In five years, I’ve never hung up on her when I wanted to, not once. She always bins me.

  Ok, well that’s one thing sorted. I’d reported back to my Broker and now I needed to see if I could find out what the snake thing was. I’ll admit, I wasn’t comfortable with a young girl being missing but as I didn’t have a lot to go on I had to let it go.

  “Ok Eddie” I said with a sigh and a slurp of coffee. Run through the events of the night and retrace them aloud. I continued pacing as I spoke. “Given the job by the Broker, limited info. I arrived at the location they said looking for the girl with a decent cover at an industry specific antiques ball. Tommy found me pretty quickly which ruined things. He had the old but gold looking Ali with him, a possible mephit.”

  I stretched and continued. “They both seemed to know Fern in some way and she was with them, a now confirmed mist mephit.” I then took another hit of coffee, “Shit! She was there, perhaps Fern knows something about the girl.” I made a mental note to go through this with her. “Then, everyone’s favourite goon, Steve, turns up. I go under the hotel and meet Mr Brown Robe and then his giant boss, the snake man of doom or whatever, cheap shots me.”

  I considered finding out more about the big creature and whether that would help with the missing girl but in truth she wasn’t my problem anymore, the ‘uber-python’ was. The pain of reality bit… I needed to research this properly, as a priority. “I am so tired.” I said in weak protest as I dropped down to the floor and reached under the bed gently pulling out a number of books.

  Books of all different shapes, sizes and colours. I could have gone with something obvious to start. Medusa, being a not too dissimilar version of what I had seen earlier, apart from no statues and it being male was a close guess. Also, this didn’t feel ‘Greek’ to me, the markings on his torso didn’t seem Greek in design and I had a pretty good look at them.

  I considered its face as well, especially the eyes. Its eyes were serpentine and the lack of eye makeup didn’t exclusively rule out Egyptian origins but it was something they were big on. Also, again, the tattoos and markings were not Egyptian.

  The creature’s accent seemed a starting point and the rings it wore, not that I had seen them that well. These gave me somewhere to go, I thought. Perhaps something more South American as a starting point?

  The global term for what I thought it could be was a Naga so that is where I started researching.

  ****

  Several hours later and I had covered a few subjects including Animism. Also, a book on the Naga of Japan and also two Indian works on Naga, none of them helped much. Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, the books threw up things to counter it. Actually, it left me with nothing at all, just most likely that it wasn’t a Naga, which didn’t help.

  Its eyes though, they were still firmly in my mind but I couldn’t find anything conclusive on what the creature was. The markings on it did look South American to me though.

  I even strayed far enough from the path to consider it a manifestation of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec snake god, or even Lady Rainbow IX Chel of the Mayans who historically was similar to Medusa in appearance. There wasn’t anything mythological or religious fitting this monster, nothing solid at all.

  I’d got through the flask of coffee now and I was on my second one and running out of options. Either I call it in to the Order and see what th
ey suggest, which I didn’t really want to do, or I could keep going.

  I, like most, love the praise when things go right but I was never really one to go running for help. Especially when it was this serous, they could send me some novice to check out that I hadn’t gone mad and then it could all go wrong.

  You may laugh but seriously, it happened to a member of the Order in York some years ago. Doing jobs like this is often the territory of apprentices or the newly qualified. The idea is to get them some field work and try to give a more modern perspective on things. Also, it saves skilled practitioners from wasting time on hoax investigations. Then, if it’s serious they get a big hitter in.

  So, as I had nothing really to go on my next port of call had to be Fern. If she wasn’t any the wiser, I’d call it in.

  I went back into the circle and opened up the cocktail shaker. Fern’s light flared up again but a bit weaker now. It still shone brightly but the power of her brightness didn’t last as long. This wasn’t the time for pussy-footing around, I needed some answers. She had to give me something on the creature, the girl or Tommy and Ali, something of use on anything would be good.

  Holding up the brown beer bottle I thought it would have shown the strain by now but it was still holding up remarkably well, on the turn but still intact. That would mean she wasn’t very powerful or just not motivated enough to escape. The question was which.

  I was hoping for both but she did seem frightened when I spoke with her earlier, so I would have expected more motivation to get out. Well, more than was evident at the moment.

  I lowered the magic enhancing my voice but I took a stern tone with her, time to get my poker face on. “Now I’ve got your attention. I’ve informed the Order and they are coming to collect you.” I said, pausing to let the words sink in…

  She looked up from the cold floor. She looked deep in to my eyes and I, into her impossibly icy blue pools, I saw fear, real fear. “I’m sorry” she gasped. “I’m sorry but I can’t be taken by the Order, they will destroy me.”

  “You keep saying that but they won’t.”

  “They will Eddie, that’s what they do. I’m a mephit, and I’m vulnerable.”

  I shook my head. “Try harder Fern, or at least give me a reason not let them take you. That’s assuming I can stop them of course. Tell me more about that hotel where we met.”

  “The hotel?” she asked scrunching up her sweet looking face in confusion. “You have to stop the Order, please!” she pleaded, as she scooted over to me on her knees and held my leg like a child.

  “Give me a reason to help?”

  “I can’t say.” She stammered.

  “Then… I can’t help you.”

  “You have to, you’re not a bad person, I can see it.” she begged in desperation, rubbing her hand up the inside of my thigh in a strange but not sexual way.

  “Fern, the call was made well over an hour ago. They’ll be here soon, I’m surprised they are not already here to be honest, traffic I guess.” I turned to leave the circle to drive her predicament home further and knowing she couldn’t follow me out this should only increase her panic, well that was my plan anyhow.

  “Ok, ok, I’ll tell you, just promise you’ll let me go.”

  I stopped and turned around. “I can’t make that promise. You tell me what you know and I’ll do what I can for you. Or, take your chances with the Order when they get here. Whatever you choose do it quickly as your time is running out.”

  “Eddie, please.”

  “Tick tock.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything and but be quick about it.”

  “Ok I am 19 years old, so young for my kind but mephits mature quickly mentally yet physically we age slowly as you know. So mentally I am about 36 compared to a normal human I guess. I’ll live to be about...”

  “Fern, I know the basics. Why were you at the hotel earlier?”

  “I was looking to feed.”

  “Obviously, what else.”

  “That’s it.” she squealed before slowly getting to her feet with unmarked knees.

  It was at this point I needed to up the fear factor to ensure I was getting the good stuff from her.

  I looked distracted, raising my hand to quieten her. “I hear a car pulling up.” I paused seeing that my ploy had the desired effect on her.

  “Ok, fuck, alright, alright.” Then she started speaking with pace. “I know Tommy, through Ali. Ali is human but she knows a little about the supernatural world. She even knows some magic, a few incantations, simple stuff but she isn’t trouble, honest. She met me one evening a few months ago at another charity ball and she recognised what I was. She saw me feeding and recognised me for what I am. Later, that evening, she approached me and told me I could help her with your friend, Tommy. She wanted me to work as distraction for her at the important event she was attending. All I had to do was to keep guys away from Tommy whilst she could get to know him ‘better.’

  I nodded to indicate I wanted more.

  “She wants something of his but wouldn’t tell me what. For this, she is paying me £5k and I eat for free. If you let me go you can have half, you know I’ll give you £2,500” she added, looking past me at the entrance to the room and its closed door.

  “There is more to come.” I said coldly. “Get on with it and I’m not here to extort money out of you.”

  “That’s it, look, I don’t want to die here. The Order will kill me and I just want to go, I won’t trouble you.” she said looking even more desperate. “Look I’ll do anything, you know, anything!”

  At that offer I couldn’t help but curl the right side of my mouth into a small smile.

  “I know you will.” And with my will I created a noise from inside the house to be sure I had every ounce of information from her.

  As far as Fern was aware there was noises and shouting from upstairs. It was hard for her to hear it but a voice was saying “Eddie, it’s your High Sentinel, Fernandez, I’m here to answer your call.”

  At this point, Fern flew forward, diving hard at the ward. Her force sent a crackle of energy cascading away from the point she hit. She then threw a couple of weak kicks at it, flailing wildly in desperation.

  “Fernandez is a hard man Fern, quickly tell me.”

  “Promise me” she said battling her fear to form the words aloud.

  Again, I upped the ante further with my magic. Now, she could hear the creaking of floorboards above her head leading to the stairs.

  “Eddie” she said falling to her knees, “Fucking hell please, Ali will have me killed if I tell you.”

  “Fern, I can’t call off a High Sentinel easily, that just doesn’t happen. I can hide you if you tell me quickly what is going on. I can stall the High Sentinel but now is your last shot. My butler will keep him busy for a while only and I need time to hide you with my magic, hurry girl.”

  “Fuck Eddie.” she sobbed. “They’ll kill me.”

  “The High Sentinel will kill you as well and he is here and now. He is the immediate threat to you. Last chance mephit. I’m not going out on a limb to save you if you don’t spill it all to me.”

  “Argh” she cried and with her delicate left hand she curled it into a fist and put as much of it in her mouth as she could, biting it hard. “Ok, Ali is working with someone powerful. She is bringing in other sorcerers and magic using people who have only just ‘awoken’ their powers and selling them to someone. In exchange, she works with someone or for someone Etern… Eternargos or something like that.”

  “What does this person look like?” I demanded forcing the voice to call out asking for me. A slightly Spanish sounding completely made up Mr Fernandez could now be heard calling out. I was stretching this about as far as I could as Mr Fernandez clearly didn’t exist. It was the first name which jumped into my head at the time. There was a few High Sentinels but none called Mr Fernandez.

  I fixed Fern with a hard stare. “Just so you understand me, in t
he next 20 seconds he will be down here and I will fade to the background. I have to, he will be in control and will do all the asking from then on. Did you see this Eternagos?”

  She shook her head in a clear gesture and with real vigour. “Honestly, just save me.” she said with no hint of her earlier seductiveness, this was raw self-preservation and I believed her.

  “I’ll see if I can send him away Fern, but if I manage it then we will talk further. Do you hear me.”

  “Yes, yes, anything Eddie, I’ll be good.” she said, her voice indicating she was broken.

  I then played along with the charade a bit further. I left the circle and walked out of the room, through the hall and out into the landing area of the basement. I opened the door and walked upstairs and waited for a bit. A good slow count to 120, then I returned.

  As I walked back into the room where Fern was left standing she looked at me with a hopeful look upon her face and I almost felt sorry for her, almost.

  ****

  Monkia had called me earlier. It was now about 8am and I was feeling tired. I had been up searching for anything on Eternargos and I’d found nothing.

  Hours of additional checking, a bit of food and flat out ignoring Fern. I had to get a handle on this and I genuinely thought she didn’t know much more. Her story sounded plausible and now I had a name. Also, an indication that Ali was in on this.

  Thankfully, though, Tommy was in less danger than I thought. If Ali wanted something from him that was fine. She didn’t want Tommy though as he wasn’t of the arcane ways at all.

  Then I got a call.

  ****

  Monika had phoned me earlier and again hung up on me. There was more information it seemed.