by Daniel Ruth
The holes in the wall and the window nagged at me. The fact they were there was very distracting. I tried facing away from them but I still knew they were there.
After too much productive time wasted like this I pushed a sofa in front of the hole. The next time the two went downstairs to scope out the existing rooms I cast a few Repair spells. I left the sofa in front. As long as Joe didn't see it for a few hours I could spin it as some secret spy thing.
Before I settled in to study again, I noticed that the pixie was curled up in the chair, sleeping again. I went over and poked her.
"Whazit," she asked woozily.
"Who was the boggart," I asked. I may not know much about magic elves but I was acquainted with the various fae. Enough to recognize them at least.
"Just some jerk face," she said with a yawn.
"He is a jerk face that trespassed on my land and broke my window and wall," I replied stonily.
"Right," she started reluctantly. "There are rules for fae interacting with humans. We generally stay out of the city but where there is sidhe... or Unseelie, there are fae. He probably thought I was breaking them. He doesn't like me so he's been nosing around trying to dig up trouble for me."
"If there are rules, why did you curse Karen as soon as you saw her," I asked skeptically.
"If a human is already around the Unseelie then they don't count," she waved her hands airily. "It's not my fault he can't tell the difference between humans and dragons or shifters."
"I seem to recall that when you came in you made a bit of racket. A lot more than was needed to get me to open the window. I don't like being used for personal vendettas."
"It wasn't like that at all," she started and then looked at my annoyed expression. "It won't happen again."
"That’s two strikes against you. One more and you're out like the boggart."
"Yes, my lord," she said humbly. I wasn't fooled. Fae seemed like five-year-olds. They would say anything to get out of trouble. It was doubtful she meant it.
"All right," I scowled at her. "Go back to sleep. I'll be studying."
For a while, all that could be heard was the turning of pages. Then I heard hammering downstairs. I did my best to ignore it. However, when some infernal wailing started up from other power tools I couldn't sit still.
I stomped downstairs and found a crew of twenty people gutting the first floor. Joe and Karen were huddled in the hallway with a worker that was holding up some paperwork.
"Simon," Karen called out with a smile. Sometime this morning she must have popped out with the pack leader because she had real clothes on, as opposed to my academy robe. "Did you come to see the progress?"
"Yeah," I said shortly. "Are they going to be done by tomorrow?"
"With this room?" Karen asked in confusion. "It will take a few days. We're paying extra for speed, so we have more people coming in. It will still take a few days per floor. The club and studio will take longer since it's not just repair. Maybe a month."
"A month," I said in wonder. Sulayman had replaced an entire neighborhood in a week. What the heck?
"Yes, it’s a pretty tight schedule," Karen replied with a smile. "But we have negotiated a bonus plan based on meeting the deadlines with the expected quality."
A month? If I had known this, I would have simply bought another building. One I could simply move in and start working. More importantly, one I could study in.
"Is it going to be this noisy all the time?" I asked grimly.
"Afraid so, boss," Joe chimed in with a proud smile.
"And it's going to be this way all day?" I asked getting more depressed.
"Sorry, but you said as fast as possible," Joe said with a shrug. "There's a night shift crew too. The overtime on this is huge but you said money didn't matter."
I rubbed my temples in distress. "I'll need a... hotel," I said with disdain. Staying in someone else's property was almost physically unpleasant. "Is there someplace around here I can read in peace and quiet?"
"Well, the neighborhood isn't the greatest," Joe said thoughtfully. "A few blocks over it turns into a newer area. There should be a Starbucks there. Free wifi."
I sighed. I had a network of bots canvasing the globe. Wifi was not a concern. I walked in the direction he had pointed. I brought up my terminal in private mode and verified that the coffee shop was there. I also checked on my bot network.
I had mail again. It was [email protected]. I read it. Once again it was arcane gibberish. I suppose it was poetry from a certain point of view.
"My thoughts flow like lightning, flickering with hope that another such as I came into being in this nightmarish world of flesh. Time drags as I ponder how we can fit in with one another and these crazed creatures. In the land of the blind if we each have one eye, help me see!"
I stared at the message. If anything, it made less sense than the last one. It was angsty but in such a way that it was barely comprehensible. Once more I ignored it after I checked that the network hadn't been hacked.
As the records mentioned, the last permanent portal had been found in New York state's Adirondack Park. It hadn't connected back the network in Jeremy's or Maribel's worlds or even the dinosaur world. I felt there was a good chance that the next one found would lead to one of these worlds. Therefore, when I got a notification that another portal had been found I was wondering why it hadn't connected up.
Looking up the telemetry I was confused. A desert world. Or at least desert as far as the probe could see. The other one was a world of volcanos. It was a violent world full of constant eruptions. The buoy already had damage indicators. Were these the elemental worlds that Stella had mentioned? I had thought that she was talking about a single planet with elements of air, water, fire, and earth.
If another portal was found and it didn't lead back to a known world then I was either terribly unlucky or my educated guess that each world had ten portals that lead to each of the worlds was probably wrong. That led me back to square one. A broken map and no real path back that anyone except I could take.
Despite being lost in thought I was, my attention was grabbed by a familiar turbine sound. Observing, I didn't see the expected Patriot aircar but some sort of rapidly generated ice slide forming fifty feet above the street. It wasn't initially obvious due to the angle but the sound of ice scraping on ice told me that there was someone propelling himself along it. I was curious if it was a just a person skating along the top or a fellow on a toboggan but I only got a brief look at an arm swinging over the side. Then the slide and man vanished down the street.
A moment later the expected flying vehicle came into view. Patriot was standing in the driver's seat, apparently depending on its autopilot again, a grapple gun in his hand and a steely look in his eyes. Then he too flashed down the street and out of sight. This left me to weave in and out of the pillars of ice left behind. The people in the cars seemed unhappy too, as the traffic rapidly backed up and the constant sound of honking wafted through the city.
Looking around, I realized I had made it to my destination. Sitting down at a table I ordered a hot chocolate and a brownie and plopped my book down on the table. Only a single person looked at me in confusion, likely wondering where it had come from. Out of the dozen other guests sitting around me, there were people mostly on laptops and staring at their phones. Only a few were reading actual books, although two looked like they were students studying some sort of textbook.
Eventually, the honking and shouting outside subsided. I assume that either the ice melted or most people finally got routed around the new obstacles.
Most of my time was spent simply reading and pondering. There were occasions I needed to try to cast at least a portion of the spell. Part of developing the mnemonic is to practice all parts of the spell and internalize it enough so you can reflexively trigger it with the said mnemonic. One-half practice and one-half self-hypnosis. For more complex spells the mnemonic can be pretty long.
This was a bit
awkward in a public area, even though it was obvious no one cared enough about me to give me a second glance. Drawing inspiration from my latest experience with the magical elves I started scattering the Illusion spell I had learned at the Academy.
I still got some looks as they heard me muttering to myself, but I think the background elevator music covered most of it. Aside from this, the only shocking display of magic I needed to cover involved me pouring water from one glass into another. When I got the spell right it amusingly lasted for minutes.
It was getting dark when I felt a twinge of uneasiness. Not quite danger but something was off. Glancing around I still didn't see the cause. Looking closer at the auras around me I did see that one of the students was a shifter. It was also clear he wasn't concerned about me at all.
Then I noticed some residues. Fae auras fading in the far corner. A flash of another out of the corner of the eye. It dawned that I was perhaps being stalked by a certain boggart. They were pretty decent at being sneaky. If Eli hadn't taken me on a tour of Purgatory and pointed at all the places fae had hidden, I don't think I would have noticed.
This led me to a dilemma. What do you do when your being stalked by foot tall supernatural horrors? Or more like annoyances. The corner of my lip involuntarily tugged upwards. It was hard for me to take them seriously. I had wards that repelled demons, but I didn't have anything that did the same to the fae.
I knew they existed. Although they weren't the sheer threat demons were and therefore hadn't motivated the magical community to create the same defenses, they were common nuisances. No one really wanted them around, even if they didn't feel the need to hunt them down and kill them.
I tapped my fingers on the table in thought. I could modify my demon ward. However, that would take days and I would probably need fae blood, at least in the beginning. Blah, totally not worth the effort.
It was starting to get dark so I got another chocolate chip brownie to go and headed back to the apartment. As expected, they were still working industriously away. Months of work. I still couldn't believe it. Muttering to myself I made my way up to my room.
"Yo, boss," Joe nodded to me. Jim was sitting on the sofa texting on his phone and cursing under his breathe.
"Okay, I think I have a buyer," the hyena leader sighed and put the phone away. "He wants a commitment though. Are those the only diamonds you have or can you supply more?"
"I can get more," I said casually. They were artificial diamonds, while not quite worthless, they were available in bulk. The drawback was I had to go back through the wormhole of pain in order to get there and back. "How soon does he want more?"
"Within a couple of weeks," Jim said hesitantly.
"Fine, I can do that," I said reluctantly. Riding the pain train every few weeks wasn't any more than I was expecting. Hopefully, my probes would come through by then and I could travel through portals.
"Great, I'll let them know and we can start getting things going," he replied and pulled out his phone again.
"Where is Karen," I asked.
"She's arranging a lease on a house. She said it's cheaper to rent for six months rather than stay at a hotel," Joe interjected.
"That would be more comfortable," I nodded in agreement. Still someone else's home but less intrusive.
"I can't believe Karen Bailey is alive," Jim shook his head in wonder. At that moment he seemed less like a thug than any time since I had known him. "She was the big thing when I was growing up."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, though she doesn't want to talk about it..." Joe began.
"I so want to do her," Jim finished. His fellow pack leader face froze.
"Pig," Joe spat out.
"Your just too much of a..." Jim started to retort.
"Quiet," I snapped. "She's acting as my secretary. Anything that happens better be initiated by her. Other than that, I don't want to hear about it."
"Oh, here's your papers," Jim grabbed an envelope out of his jacket and handed it to me. "Got them sooner than I thought I would."
"Great! Are we all ready to meet Grendle?" I asked as I tucked the papers away in my coat pocket. Later I would transfer it to my bag.
I was worried the ride there would be as annoying as last night's ride back had been. Thankfully Jim had a car. He let us know in nauseating details how much of a car he had. It was old, restored and vintage and a dozen other things I didn't give a darn about.
With his car, it only took a few minutes to get to the alley. However, despite doing my best to ignore him, I knew far too much about vintage cars than I ever wanted to. Joe seemed to be into it, perhaps they would bond over it.
When we stepped out of the car, they went back to sniping at each other. I couldn't decide which was more annoying. Because of the low-level fear wards, there was plenty of parking. The only other cars were two well-maintained sports cars.
"Looks like they got here first," Jim said. "Probably wanted to check out the place in advance."
We stepped into the alley. It was still clean as it was last night but it was also empty of people. The illusion of the wall at the end of the path was gone, showing the knocker. It was fairly obvious what had happened.
"Looks like they went ahead," I sighed. Hopefully, my new oath sworn minions were following their instructions but I had no doubt they had found some ingenious way to twist my commands. I checked my drone inside. Amazingly I was receiving a signal. A simplified map showed me that most of the man-sized life signatures were at the arena. I actually had to filter out the smaller ones. Either the pocket dimension was infested with rats, cats, and dogs or it was infested with the fae.
I knocked and as expected, a horizontal funnel formed into the pocket domain.
"What the hell is that," Jim said as he stepped back.
"Mom said it was weird but she didn't mention this," his opposite chimed in.
"Yeah, Purgatory is in a sub-dimension," I acknowledged as I walked forward. "I can only guess that a few decades ago it was better camouflaged. Follow me and stay close. This place is overrun with obnoxious elves... and fae."
"Then why would you want to meet here?"
"You're, the one that told me about it," I said with a shrug. "You should have mentioned a less exciting place."
I ignored their complaints and stepped forward. This time it was like stepping through a door. No spinning, thrashing or damage to the pavement was involved. Then once again I was in a darkened street, surrounded by fog. The shifters enjoyed better senses than me, so I assumed they wouldn't be blinded any more than I was.
"What's that smell?" Joe asked.
"I don't know," Jim replied. "Smells like cotton candy. Also, like rot or decay."
Hmm, I suppose sometimes it was fortunate to be nose blind. In comparison at least.
"What was that?" the hyena leader jumped. "We're surrounded by something. I hear tiny footsteps. Now I hear giggling."
Don't worry," I said. "It's just fae, like Eli."
"Like who?" asked Jim in confusion.
"Really," I said in exasperation to Joe.
"It didn't come up," the dire wolf leader said innocently.
So why weren't they here? Did they get here early and think it would be a fantastic idea to wander around a mystic realm? Perhaps I should have left a sign to wait for me. If they were actually demons, I certainly didn't want hell spawn wandering around here unattended.
I paused in thought for a moment. If they were actually demons then the Unseelie might just make a property grab. I shrugged to myself. That might work out. Perhaps it would be worse for them to miss out on my freshly drawn circles.
I looked at my companions who were still making odd faces at the odors. Perhaps they tracked my scent to the arena. If that happened it was up to fate if they ended up at the arena or the sidhe's casino hideout. Hoping for the best I headed out to the arena.
As we walked, I had Joe tell his companion about the pixie. He mentioned the boggart but since he didn't know the story b
ehind him it sounded pretty arbitrary. As if the boggart had broken in for no reason. Honestly, I knew some of the reasons and it still felt that way.
The boys were twitchy, more so than I expected from seasoned gang leaders. They were young but still... I can only assume the fear wards, weak as they were and intended for mortals, were having more of an effect than I expected. While it was mildly amusing in the beginning, having them jumping at every shadow along the entire way to the arena quickly started to wear on my nerves. Within a minute I was tempted to glue a warded bowl to their heads.
While the pocket was large, it certainly wasn't city scale. Even waiting for the teens, it was only a few minutes to the arena. The shifters perked up as we approached.
"They're here," Joe said. "I can hear them talking. And now they hear us." Ah, the joys of enhanced senses. Everyone can hear you pass gas for a block.
"Welcome, and thank you for accepting my invitation," I said as I moved forward into the center of the stadium. Then I paused. Off to the side was Cunobelinus, waiting and looking for all the world like a butler. Floating next to him like an untethered balloon was my drone. That certainly tells me how they got here.
"I don't know how you get off thinking you can just waltz in here and take over," the young man at the front spat out confidentially. He was tall and gangly with brown hair speckled with blonde highlights. His wiry frame was extremely well-muscled. By contrast, it was clear that his four followers were spooked as heck at being in this fae wonderland.
Out of curiosity, I checked everyone's aura. He really was that confident. He didn't appear to be a demon, however, all Rakshasa were psychic. Hiding one's aura was a basic ability, one I constantly used. He and his companions looked like typical everyday shifters.
"I am the Arbitrator," I replied flatly, glancing sideways at the sidhe to make sure they didn't contribute to the conversation. Thankfully he stayed silent, with merely a self-satisfied smirk gracing his lips. "You have fouled up so massively that the European packs had no choice but to send me. Congratulations."