Lost Cause

by S A Magnusson

  9

  The inside of the home looked like it had when I’d been here the last time. We passed the room where the massive table and chairs were, from when we’d met with the rest of the council, but though the door was closed, I didn’t have the sense there was anything or anyone on the other side I needed to be concerned about. The air had a floral aroma to it, as if fresh flowers had been recently brought through here. Despite that, there was a certain stillness hanging in the air, a strange sense that left me thinking there hadn’t been anyone here for some time.

  “Do you detect any use of magic?” I asked Darvish.

  He moved carefully, with a dangerous grace, looking around him as he did. “I don’t detect anything.”

  “How long ago do you think they left?”

  “It depends on how long Barden let me sleep.”

  “How long do you think you slept?”

  “It depends upon what day it is today.”

  I frowned at him. “You don’t even know what day it is?”

  “Time travels differently on the other side of the Veil.”

  “But we’re on this side of the Veil.”

  “And my body is still trying to adjust. It’s possible I’m still on the other side’s time.”

  “Which means you’re Veil-lagged? Is that even a thing?”

  “It’s enough of a thing to give me a hard time knowing what day it is. It’s enough of a thing where it feels as if time is passing far too rapidly for me. I blink, and it seems almost as if I’ve been gone no more than a second, but in reality, it’s minutes or even longer.”

  “That… sounds awful.”

  “It’s more awful than you know.”

  Would that be what it was like for Kate if we managed to get her back? Would she be Veil-lagged?

  We rounded a corner and found ourselves in a formal living room. The sofas reminded me of what I would expect a grandparent to have, and then there was the rocking chair, an old oak style with the curved armrests. They faced a bank of windows overlooking the river. From here, the sunset gleamed off the surface of the river, and a sense of power seemed to emanate from it. I knew the river represented the power of a ley line, but I wasn’t able to access that power. It surprised me I was able to detect anything at all.

  “They really do have the best view, don’t they?” Darvish said.

  “Would you expect anything else?”

  His face clouded for a moment. “Not after the way they forced us into hiding, controlling the power of the city for the last hundred years.”

  “I think the vampires have the real hold on power,” I said.

  Darvish nodded. “The vampires are something else entirely. Considering the nature of their lifespan, along with their business interests, they have been the real challenge Barden has been trying to address. It’s because of what they’ve become that he’s worked as hard as he has over the years.”

  “I’ve noticed. I thought the same, from the way he interacted with the vampire elders.”

  Darvish jerked his head toward me. “What vampire elders?”

  “He didn’t tell you we saved the life of one of the vampire elders?”

  “We were a little bit preoccupied with trying to discuss how to best help Dr. Michaels.”

  “Well, there’s a vampire elder who we saved. It also seems I’m now his familiar.”

  “You are a vampire elder’s familiar?”

  “I am,” I said. “And if it were up to him, he would have fed on me already.”

  “You truly are nothing like I would have expected.”

  “I don’t know if I should be flattered or not.”

  “You very much should be.”

  We looked around the living room before making our way to the kitchen. Like the living room, it was empty, and there was no sense of any mage presence. I focused on the sense of magic, using the bracelet, trying to summon power through it in order to detect whether or not there would be anything I could pick up on. I didn’t find anything. It was strange. I thought I’d have been able to detect something at this point. There was all the power I detected outside the home, and I would have expected there to be something for me to pick up on here, but the longer we were in the mage council home, the more I questioned whether or not I would detect anything at all.

  “Is this all there is?” I asked.

  “There is another level, but I doubt they would have gone there.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because the lower level is a place of greater danger.”

  I grinned at Darvish. “What greater danger is there in the basement?” I started thinking of all sorts of horror movie things that could exist, but none of them fitted with what I had seen from the mages. I had a hard time believing Veran and Cynthia would keep a strange dungeon down below.

  “It’s a place where there is a connection to the other side of the Veil.”

  “Then that’s where they went,” I said.

  “I’m not sure that’s what Barden would have done.”

  I’d seen Barden working often enough to know he would be willing to go to the other side of the Veil. Darvish might not have seen it, but then again, Darvish had been gone for the better part of the last two years, and much had changed in that time. It was different now. Not only because of Barden’s role on the mage council, but it was different in the things we’d been through, the experience we’d been through with the organization.

  “He’s gone over the Veil before.”

  “And he nearly didn’t make it back.”

  “The last time he went was for her.”

  Darvish frowned at me. “He did.”

  I couldn’t find any staircase leading down. If there was someplace below us, someplace that led to the other side of the Veil, there was no evidence for it. I searched around the main floor of the home, feeling for the sense of magic, but there was none. While there might be magic around us, I wasn’t able to detect anything that could help me know what the mage council had trapped here. Still, there was no doubting they’d trapped something here. There was power, and though I couldn’t feel it distinctly, I knew it was here.

  I focused on trying to trigger spells. It was a dangerous gamble. If I was wrong, I might end up triggering the wrong spell. Not knowing what was out there, there was a possibility I might lead to triggering a spell which would end up with us getting harmed. I ignored that possibility, continuing to focus on the nature of the magic, using my connection, and I worked to trigger any spell I could come up with.

  As I focused, I detected a faint tracing. It was distant, and strangely enough, as Darvish said, it was below. “Where’s the doorway leading down?”

  Darvish stopped in front of a section of the wall. “I don’t think we should do this.”

  “You don’t think we should find Barden, even if he put himself in danger?”

  “Barden wouldn’t put himself in any danger he couldn’t handle.”

  “And yet, I know Barden would do anything to protect those he feels are under his purview,” I said. “And I am certain he views Kate as under his purview.”

  Darvish took a deep breath, and finally shook his head. “We can try this.” He pushed on a section of the wall. Power burst from him—the nature of the spell I hadn’t expected—and a faint line glowed around the wall, forming what appeared to be the outline of a doorway. I hadn’t detected anything there, and that Darvish was easily able to do so surprised me. Then again, he had likely been here before and had experience on how to push open this door. Using it like that wasn’t difficult for him.

  He continued to push power into it, more and more, and I thought about helping, seeing whether or not I could trigger something in the door to open it, but decided against it. Darvish didn’t appear to want my assistance.

  And then the door opened. It came open with a soft sucking of air, pulling back and slipping into the wall. When it did, darkness stretched in front of me, a hollow opening leading deep and away from us.


  Darvish stood in front of the opening, and another spell built from him. As it did, the walls began glowing, tracings along them taking on forms, and swirling all the way down. It illuminated a staircase.

  “Nothing like a creepy staircase leading down into the depths beneath the mage council home,” I said.

  “We don’t have to go,” Darvish said.

  “If we’re to understand what happened, we do.”

  “I still don’t know whether there is anything we’ll be able to find. And if we do this, if this somehow allows us to cross the Veil, then it opens to danger.”

  Was this what I wanted? I wasn’t prepared to cross the Veil. I had possibly a dozen spell coins, many of them ones I’d prepared myself, but certainly not enough to make this journey. In order to cross the Veil, I figured I’d need better preparations—a bag full of them, enough I wouldn’t have to worry about running out as we traveled. In this case, the first thing I’d be worried about would be how I’d protect myself if it came down to a battle. I had barely been able to withstand a fight with Jessica, and there were things of even greater power on the other side of the Veil. “Let’s just see if there’s any evidence of them,” I said.

  Darvish started down the stairs. I followed him, and as soon as we went through the doorway, it closed as if it had a mind of its own. I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d be able to open it again, when it came down to it. I was able to trigger spells well enough, but I wasn’t sure if there was something within this doorway which would be more than I could manage. Seeing as how much energy Darvish had put into opening it, I couldn’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t have enough power to do so.

  The stairs seemed to go impossibly deep. I had a hard time seeing how they would have managed to dig stairs like this into any building, but then, the stairs were most likely magically created, and maybe not all of this was real. It was possible this was tied to magic. In my mind, I played out a scene where the stairs kept spiraling back around, leaving us on an endless loop, almost as if the stairs went nowhere. It was something I could imagine mages doing, if only for some sort of sick joke.

  Eventually, they leveled out. There was a wide hallway, a ceiling that arched high overhead, and another door. The light glowing in this part of the room was still faint, and it carried with it shadows, making it difficult for us to see anything clearly. The air had a musty odor, as if no one had come this way in a long time.

  I reached the door. The sense of power radiated off of it. I had never seen anything like it, and there were a series of symbols worked along it, enough that I had to wonder if it would be difficult for me to determine the sequence of the pattern needed to open it.

  Darvish stood in front of it. He pressed his hands outward, and there came a sense of power flowing from him, a distinct aura of magic radiating from the man.

  “Can you open it?” I asked.

  “It’s different from the other doors. This is older.”

  “Like old as the house is old?”

  “Older than that. The house is several hundred years old—old for this part of the city, and it’s been renovated many times over the years into what it is now, but these stairs and this door are even older. They come from a time and a power beyond what we know in Minneapolis.”

  I studied the door with renewed interest. That suggested it came from the other side of the Veil. “Do you know how to open it?”

  Darvish glanced over at me. “I haven’t crossed over myself before. Dr. Michaels has other ways of doing so, and she no longer requires this as her passageway.”

  “Then how do you know about it?”

  “Because she told me about how she crossed over the Veil traveling down here before. There was a danger here, and this is somehow tied to her power in a way she wasn’t willing to discuss.”

  “Then maybe we shouldn’t try to cross.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying. Barden can manage himself. Hell, for that matter, Dr. Michaels can manage for herself. It’s unnecessary for Barden even to risk himself by crossing.”

  “Other than what you have told him.”

  “Other than that.”

  He turned his attention back to the door, and power began to build around him. The door glowed, symbols taking on shapes, and there was a faint sense of movement from those symbols, almost as if they were swirling with energy. He held his hands out from him in place for a few moments. The cold raced along my arms, heading through my chest and down into my legs. It became almost unbearable, but I ignored it as Darvish continued to hold onto power, trying to trigger whatever would be necessary to open the door.

  Then he stepped back, lowering his hands, letting out a frustrated sigh. He shook his head. “I can’t do it.”

  “Do you think I can?”

  “I would have said no but having seen the way you work your ability, I don’t know. You might be able to do it.”

  It would involve me using a lot of power, and in order to do so, I would need a trigger spell, and I still might not be able to open the door. If I proved I could open it, I could at least know whether or not we had any chance of going after Barden. If I couldn’t… then there was no reason to even pursue this any longer.

  Using the spell coin, I sent magic directed toward the door, trying to trigger it. Power flowed from me, hitting the door, and the runes began to glow as they had for Darvish. I focused on them, looking to see if there was any pattern to them, or if there was any way for me to be able to use those runes in order to open the door. I tried to trigger all the spells at the same time. I didn’t have enough power and reached into my pocket, feeling for another trigger spell.

  There was resistance, like there had been resistance on the door on the upper level. As I continued to push, drawing forth power from myself, I waited, thinking I might be able to use my trigger spell to force the door. There came a faint tracing of pain familiar to me. It was the same sort of painful spell Barden had used on the door in his office. My gaze was drawn toward that, and I realized why I recognized it. It was newer, and also placed by Barden.

  Releasing my hold on magic, I stared at the door. “That bastard,” I whispered.

  “What is it?”

  I pointed to the rune. It was it at my knee level, and there was a pair of them. Both of them rebounded, pushing back against me, forcing me away and so I couldn’t use my trigger spell in order to open the doorway. “Barden placed those so I wouldn’t be able to come through here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I recognized the sense from those spells. He used something similar to it on the door leading back to his office. I think he wanted me to be aware this was him.”

  “But you’re able to open that door.”

  “I was, but he also was using me to test whether or not I could get through places.”

  And in doing so, I had given him everything he needed to know in order to ensure I couldn’t pass where he didn’t want me to go. He had been testing—which meant we weren’t going to get through this door. If Darvish couldn’t do it, neither of us would be able to go beyond it. Neither of us would be able to cross the Veil.

  “How did you return?” I asked.

  “What was that?”

  “Back to this side of the Veil. How did you return?”

  “There’s someone I know who helped me,” he said.

  “Who?”

  “She’s not going to be able to help us now. She’s a little bit preoccupied.”

  Which meant Barden had blocked us from helping. Despite that, I couldn’t help but feel as if we were needed.

  10

  I flipped the coin between my fingers, keeping it moving, and keeping a steady attachment to the magic flowing throughout it. I used it carefully, not wanting anyone within the emergency room to be aware of what I was doing, though I strongly doubted anyone would be. As far as I knew, the only people here who were aware of magic were the ones Barden had placed. Even with his disappearance, they’d stayed, continuing the jobs
that he’d assigned them.

  John watched me. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the coin, frowning. “I didn’t realize it was that slow today.”

  “It’s not that slow,” I said. I stared at the screen, looking at the patient census. We were back to normal, with the upper-level residents having returned from their retreat, which gave me an opportunity to sit and do this, though I wasn’t sure what this was. It was wasting time, and it was also a matter of trying to keep my mind calm while I was here.

  It had been two days since we had tried going into the council home to find a way through that doorway, but there had been nothing. In the days since then, I hadn’t been able to rest. I had focused on creating as many of the spell coins I could, but my abilities when creating them were limited to making things like protective spells, along with triggering spells. I didn’t have a great deal in the way of offensive spells, and had always relied upon Barden for those.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t know them. The longer I’d been working with Barden, the more I had begun to learn offensive spells, but for the most part, my magic was different. Had I much strength, I wouldn’t be just a hedge mage.

  John shifted his stethoscope, sliding back to balance on his neck. It ruffled his eggplant-colored scrubs. “That’s a neat trick.”

  I glanced down at my hand where I was flipping the coin from finger to finger. I had taken to doing it ever since facing Matt, almost a nervous habit. It was better to be able to keep as many of the spell coins in my hand as possible, and by using this trick, I was able to hold it, to balance it, and prevent him from catching me unprepared.

  “It’s just something I do when I’m distracted,” I said.

  “I was talking about how you were typing with one hand.”

  I grinned. “That’s also something I’ve taken up to doing while I’m distracted.”

  I leaned back in a chair, staring at the screen. At this point, I had to wait for the residents to come and staff their patients with me. There was another attending on today, Dr. Locks, and I didn’t know where he was. Most of the time when Dr. Locks was on, he went off and let others staff most of the patients. I’d grown accustomed to that in my short time working with him, and no longer even cared. It didn’t affect me, especially as staffing the patients with the residents—at least, when we were fully staffed—didn’t take that long. Many of the upper-level residents were incredibly skilled, and they had progressed rapidly to the point where they could handle many of their cases on their own without a lot in the way of supervision. It was the interns who required more supervision, but with as many upper-level residents as we had on at this time, they were supervised by residents, keeping a buffering layer between us.