The Hidden Paths to Power

by D. A. Smith

  “Nobody in the neighborhood would hire her for a job. George had been a rising star in banking world, so she had gotten used her lifestyle, but couldn’t support it herself. She was also still taking lessons in magic, which meant she had other prices to pay as well. As I said before, dark users demand payment for the lessons. She had one resource that could give her a means to hide her magic use but also gather some income. The house she now owned.

  “Regina contacted the State of Colorado and offered to turn her house into an orphanage. After the state sent out a social worker to inspect the house and found it pristine, the state hired her and her house, for a monthly stipend for her use, as well as for the children. I think you know where I’m heading but I need to finish.

  “For the first fifteen years, Regina managed the house brilliantly. The children were well cared for, she found time for her lessons and found a way to be happy, though she still lived as a social misfit because of the stigma on her reputation. Then, the complaints started to come in from neighbors, about foul odors and her yard turning into an eyesore. The schools the children attended, started to notice odd behaviors in the young ones, and suspected abuse. When this was reported to the state, a social worker came out but found nothing, to indicate the complaints had any merit; though the man who came, did tell her, the yard needed to be taken care of better for the children’s safety.

  “Four and a half years later, the police were called to the house, after someone heard a violent fight and screams coming from the house. Regina was found dead in a pool of blood, from a knife wound, and all the children who resided there currently, had been slaughtered. When the officers did the body count, they discovered one boy, a seventeen year old named Robert Vincent, was missing. As the police investigated, they found Regina’s casting room, which lost all its power when she was killed. Robert was never found. The stigma on the house, because of the murders of ten children, and the “devil worshipping”, has made it difficult to find anyone willing to buy it.”

  I interjected a question here, “If this Robert Vincent was seventeen when he left, how would he have become so powerful? That’s assuming, he is the progenitor of those using the Gilpatrick name.”

  “Once the power has been awakened, there’s nothing to stop you from learning on your own though it is harder. That would explain why Sam said, even dark users were a little jumpy about him. If he is Ryan’s teacher, he will be a little undisciplined in his magic use. I imagine, the only thing that keeps him contained at all is, there is no statute of limitations for murder, and the name Robert Vincent is still on the books, as being wanted for the murders at the house. Given the way we age, I have my suspicions about the young blonde man who was reported as being a part of the Gilpatrick household.”

  “What about the older members?”

  “They could be older dark users who took him in or any number of scenarios. These are simply guesses that we need to investigate. The signs of age are not an indicator, for how long a mystic has been around. Not all of those, who have the power awakened, do so young. I know of one man, who was sixty years old, before he was activated. He only lived for another one hundred seventy-five years. I’m fairly certain, I’m right about Regina Compton and Samuel Perkins. It would explain why he high-tailed it out of Colorado when Regina was killed.”

  “How will we get into the house?”

  “I have an appointment tomorrow, with someone from the real estate company contracted by the bank that owns it; which ironically, is the same one George Compton worked for before the tragedy. I’ll be presenting us, as developers interested in tearing down the house and building a new one.”

  “Are you actually going to do that?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what we find and how the neighbors feel about it. The house has become something of a landmark in the neighborhood. It has a dark stigma, which inspires the kids in the area to makeup horror stories. It also serves as a reminder, to a few of the older people, who lived there when Regina did; and still live there; about the tragedy and if they aren’t careful, it could happen again.”

  “The balance again, huh?”

  “Everything is balanced. If it wasn’t, we would be in trouble for not doing our job.”

  I turned to Marcus, “It’s time for you, to dish out the story that had you turning bright red, when Doriane threatened to tattle on you. You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to, but you and I will be working together for a long time.”

  The color in his cheeks increased a little, “It’s not a very flattering story but may serve as another lesson for you, about keeping our life, to those within our esteemed circle. As I’m sure you can guess, my views on men, would have seen me killed in any number of horrible ways, had they been known. It’s still a risk but not nearly as much of one as in my time.

  “It was three months after Doriane and I first arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. The year was 1897 and we had setup two houses because it was my testing to see if, I was ready to be let off the apron strings. Doriane had a dark user she was hunting, who was beyond my skill to help with, but we agreed, I could start living on my own. My very first night on the town, after my house was finished, I met a young man. He was gorgeous. The type that would have you and I tittering about, as we watched him saunter by, at a little outdoor café, which we need to do sometime.

  “Of course, given my nature, I had to take it very slow before finding out about his desires but something in his eyes told me, he was looking at me, the same way I was looking at him. I’ll give you details if you want at another time but we started having a relationship a few weeks later. I was so infatuated that I started to ignore many of the lessons I received, about paying attention to behavior. I guarded my nature and protected my house but started to forget about casting out at times, for the presence of dark magic.

  “I was confused and hurt, when the man I was starting to love, didn’t want to be near my house. I had blinded myself to the obvious, as I thought he was afraid to be caught being a man who liked men. I wasn’t experienced enough yet, to sense the presence of dark magic without actively seeking it. Doriane tracked me down because she ran into a little situation that was urgent enough, she needed my help as soon as she could find me. Doriane, as our teacher and the one to awaken the power in us, has the ability, when it’s needed, to locate us in a moment.

  “Imagine her surprise, when she cast her senses out, to find me and seated next to me in the theatre, was the presence of dark magic. Immediately she came to investigate and discovered, I wasn’t investigating the man seated next to me, but having a relationship with him. What’s even worse was, he was the student of the dark user she came to hunt. The man, whose name I will not utter until the day I die, had been set to spy on me by his mentor.

  “When the man seated next to me, saw the look on Doriane’s face, he thought he was dead in that moment, but our teacher had better control than that. It wasn’t him she was throwing the hard look at, but me. Without causing a scene, Doriane ordered me back to my house. She definitely left my date feeling very small before she followed. At my house, she ordered me into my own casting room and forced me to cast the vision spell. What I saw, caused me to want to chop my own head off. If I had continued to remain blind, I would have fallen in love and would tilt the balance too far within ten years.

  “The man I was falling for, was a student of a dark user, who had taken himself out of the shadows and ran for public office. Had I remained blind, it would have been my actions that exposed magic to the world. What I saw was, Doriane coming to me five years after I started having my relationship, and when she told me about my man’s nature, I would go insane. I would begin hunting dark users without restraint, and ordinary people would see me blasting apart, any dark mystic I came across. While my own actions would put pressure on the idea that I was good, I would take out enough of the dark users for the world to become too good.”

  I turned to my mentor, “How did you handle the dark
user who took a public office?”

  “I wasn’t there because he took public office. I was there because, I felt some of his private activities, were putting some serious pressure on the balance. I discovered while investigating, he’d been using some less potent versions of the dark-eyed lover spell that Ryan wished cast on you. His would have completely turned you into a walking mannequin, unable to do anything without orders, even take a piss. The ones Charles Milburry were casting didn’t take the free will away completely. They just made it difficult to resist the orders given.

  “When I found his little secret den of evil, I discovered he’d been running a little side business in child prostitutes. He had five little girls, who couldn’t have been older than ten at the most. Each one was under the influence of the mild, dark-eyed lover spell. That’s why I didn’t find them caged or shackled. They waited in his little sick, pleasure palace, for the next customer he brought to play with the little ones.

  “I was forced to leave them there for the moment, and that was when I searched out the blind one here for help. I had to plan carefully because you can’t release a victim of that spell just on a whim. The version of this spell Charles was using, left the victims with some memories of what they had been doing. The stress and trauma of a sudden release, could cause even a ten year old to go into cardiac arrest.

  “I also wanted the man to pay a little, for what he was doing, so after Marcus was deeply convinced of the error of his ways, we worked out our plan. Marcus, who is a master at social manipulation, began subtly getting it out that Charles was into child prostitution. Since Marcus is a master at this, no one could remember who started the rumors but within a week, they had Charles making hardline public appearances to try to clear his reputation.

  “I was watching closely, for the time when Charles would attempt to dispose of the evidence. I had carefully manipulated a few police officers to be waiting with me. I did this, by first tracking down the mother of one of the girls and offering my services to try to find her. This gave me my legitimate opening to approach the police. This was during a time, when it was hard for men to take women seriously, but a few of the officers had heard the rumors, and were determined to get the man if it was true, or find the one responsible for tarnishing the reputation of a well-respected politician. I was walking a fine line but had the truth on my side.

  “Before I started approaching the non-magical people, I brewed a healing elixir that smelled and tasted like liquid penicillin. It would be several years yet, before it was given that name, but the theories about it had been getting bounced around. The officers asked why I had it. I told them, I had a little medical training, and the girls, if they were in there, might need some treatment, on parts of their bodies they wouldn’t want men touching. This got them to leave the girls to my care, for medical inspection, before they were sent home.

  “Charles came and the officers timed their entrance perfectly, for when he was opening the hidden panel that led to his little pleasure cove. Charles was left in a predicament because the only way to escape was, to kill the officers with magic, but his eyes were trying to bore holes through me, because I was standing there too. He knew I’d have no choice but to eliminate him if he exposed magic to the world.

  “He accepted the indignity of the arrest, after the officers saw the little ones dressed in indecent fashion, and clearly “doped up” on some drug, to keep them compliant. I was left to my medical exams and had them lie on their beds and fed them each a dose of the elixir. The brew I made had a twofold effect. The brew instantly cured the dark-eyed lover spell but also, put them in a state that would appear, to be the effect of coming out of a drug induced haze. They each fell asleep and I began to examine them one at a time.

  “I won’t tell you all the details but the men who paid for Charles Milburry’s service, caused plenty of damage. It took me five hours but eventually, I had them all awake and accepting, they weren’t to blame for any of it, and shouldn’t be ashamed because a bad man caused them harm. When I was as confident as possible, the girls wouldn’t try to end their own lives, or have serious medical issues, I had the officers find me proper clothes for them. Once they were dressed and told the officers what they could remember about how they were taken, I helped them get home.

  “Charles was able to break out of jail without giving magic away, destroyed all his tools for magic that he couldn’t pack in a hurry and left Boston. He and I met on a dark stretch of grasslands and he attempted to get his revenge. I changed him into a tree that as far as I know, still stands in the place I left him.”

  I said after my shock wore off, “I thought you would’ve killed him.”

  “I had that option but whenever possible, I don’t cause harm but repurpose and recycle. I’m fairly certain the spirit that moved into the tree, was quite able to eliminate his dark nature, and now he stands a lonely vigil. He’s far more useful to the world as a tree than a corpse.”

  I smiled then asked Marcus, “What happened to his student?”

  “As much as I wanted to find a way for him to pay, technically he didn’t do anything to upset the balance. I found him afterward, in a situation where it was just the two of us, and proclaimed him my enemy. I could see the evil light in his eyes during that showdown but he wisely showed restraint. Given how I was feeling in that moment, he wouldn’t have stood a chance, as he was only a five year student. I had over forty years on him in this life. I do know his real name and where he resides. He lives in Italy and has a 750 year old guardian as his minder.”

  All of this gave me plenty of fuel for my mind, as Doriane and I finished our visit with Marcus with more casual chat and stories, then we went home to prepare for the next day.

  As we were driving to our appointment, I was disguised with black hair and brown eyes, so no one would comment on Deana Boller playing at being a real estate developer.

  I asked Doriane, “Why don’t we setup a real detective agency for a while?”

  “We could if we wanted to. It’s a role I haven’t played fully yet in my life. I’ve done a little here and there but never officially.”

  “How many roles have you played?”

  “I couldn’t list them all. It was harder, until women became more equal in the world, to find the right roles to play. Can you imagine the headaches I endured, having to spend days on end, with an active spell to keep men away, unless I wanted to indulge? I would play barmaid, servant, seamstress or anything women were expected to be, except a prostitute. One time, I even played the role of a woman, running away from an abusive husband, and spent five years in the home of a man, who was impotent but kind enough, not to send me home. Finding places to setup my casting rooms was fun, as women in general couldn’t own property. I had to set them up miles out of any town, with plenty of camouflage. That’s how I became so good at making wands and finding the strength to cast several spells at one sitting.”

  “I’m sure I’ll have my own troubles. Women are more equal now but there are lingering pockets of resistance. I think my greatest challenge is going to be, helping to find ways to keep us from being filmed, especially as facial recognition software advances. Also to help find ways, to prevent urban sprawl from taking over too much of the natural world.”

  “As long as the balance is maintained and magic doesn’t get revealed, there’s only so much we can do. Since we can’t be the faces attached to these projects, we just have to find people we can inspire to take them on for us.”

  We arrived at 9:00 a.m., the appointed time, and saw a black-haired man with an oily smile waiting.

  If I could’ve risked it, I would have checked him for dark magic but I think, he’s just one of those real estate guys who’d sell his own mother for the right price. I think the agency sent him because he’s willing to say whatever he had to, to get this house off the bank’s balance sheets.

  Thirty years is a long time to have to pay property taxes on an empty house.

  We got out and he sai
d as we approached, “Larry Caulder. Is one of you Ms. Kimberly Daniels?”

  Doriane replied, “I’m her. This is my associate Deborah Holton.”

  The man’s leer was annoying but I’d seen worse, and he seemed professional enough, to keep whatever thoughts were going through his mind to himself.

  I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Caulder. Kim; I’m going to take a walk around. I’ll talk to a few people to get a general consensus of the neighborhood’s feeling for the house.”

  “That’s a good idea and Mr. Caulder can take me on the guided tour.”

  I wasn’t worried about Doriane’s safety around the man, though his leer was enough to make me think, he wasn’t above trying for something, when he didn’t think others were watching.

  They walked up to the house and I glanced around.

  It was nine in the morning, on a chilly Friday, so most of the houses were deserted for the time being, as kids were in school and adults were at work.

  I caught a glimpse of eyes watching from the house across the street and walked that way.

  I rang the bell and an old man with kind brown eyes answered the door. He was old enough to be retired and might be old enough, to remember details from Regina Compton’s time.

  He asked, “Are you folks interested in buying the old Compton place?”

  “We might be. We’re developers who specialize in renovating properties that have stood empty for too long. We’ve heard a bit about the story, of why the Compton house has stood unused so long; enough to be interested in gauging the neighborhood’s feelings about it. It has stood as a landmark but is falling apart, and may be a danger to any kids playing in the area.”

  “You’ll find the neighborhood split on their opinion about it. There aren’t many left who remember what happened in the place. I was a toddler playing in this very yard, when George and Regina Compton moved in. A sweeter couple you couldn’t know, until Regina found the man who would change everything over there. I don’t remember it but my mother told me, I was frightened witless, when George ran out shouting that nasty word about his wife then shooting himself. The neighborhood didn’t see her much, as she took care of the orphans. We would see the kids outside but not much of her. I was doing a tour for the Army, when the murders took place. I took a bullet in the lower back so have been semi-retired, since I got out of the service. When I can stand long enough, I do a little furniture building to help supplement what I get from the military. The most shocking thing was, the discovery of satanic symbols and such in the room below. At the time, this was a full on, God-fearing neighborhood. The discovery sent many families packing. Those that stayed said their holy prayers with passion and insisted the ministers of the churches come bless the house.”