by Mel Todd
Shaking my head, confused by the changing personalities.
I need to get out of the middle of the room, tired of being snuck up on.
I dropped my stuff off at my cube, grabbed my laptop, then walked over to the conference table and took a seat. Carelian departed to chase things under the table and Siab headed over, her laptop in hand.
"So, show me." Alixant demanded and I leaned forward, interested in what they had found.
Chris flicked his hand and an image appeared on the wall "We talked to other people, some with good memories and minor magic, and we created a sketch of the person who did the face painting." Older, at least thirty-five, with a low tail of dark hair, wearing glasses and a goatee. Chris gave us all a minute to take it in before he started to talk again. "All the reports had him wearing wild hats with flashing LED lights on it, robes that had swirly things, and dangles. They admitted it was hard to focus on his face."
"Makes sense. Everyone remembered what he wore, not what he looked like," Alixant commented staring at the picture. "Go on."
Chris put another image up, a ticket. "He asked them if they wanted to be in a drawing for free prizes at the panel. Nothing needed but they had to be wearing the face paint for their ticket to be valid. He handed out the tickets and painted the face. But here is the interesting part. He usually only offered it to one person, then reluctantly did the other person if they asked. It took us a bit to figure it out, but he always offered to the mage, never to the person with them if they weren't mages. He did have a Chaos tattoo, but no one could remember the strong or pale values which might have helped with tracking him down. Chaos is the highest populated mage class." Chris shrugged.
"What was the substance placed on their faces?" Alixant asked staring at the wall with a thoughtful expression.
It amazed me how Alixant could go from being an irritated jerk to a completely focused person. I couldn't let go of my mad that easily. Or maybe he hadn't really been mad. I played with that thought as I listened.
"At first glance it just looked like a water-based adhesive with colors added. It wasn't until I got back the findings from the two people that died that I think I know what happened." Siab said after checking her notes.
I couldn't stop the stab of guilt that followed that statement, but I didn't know what else I could have done.
Everyone just looked at Siab and she continued. "The tox report showed that damage from hydrochloric acid and fentanyl caused the few deaths. Though the amounts were small because of the emergence transformation effect."
"That makes no sense—no one should be able to cover up hydrochloric acid on your skin," Niall interjected.
Siab nodded and took over the screen putting the image of two different chemical structures up on the wall. "True. But the powder substance had chloride in it. Here's my theory—we all know that moving molecules is both a high- and low-cost endeavor. I think this substance was purposefully mixed so that with minimal effort and exact knowledge of the molecules involved, he could change it from one to the other. Breaking the bonds and rearranging them would take a bit of effort but only a small offering, depending on his rank."
"But what good does that do? I mean the acid would sear the skin. And fentanyl? That will kill you even being absorbed through the skin." I couldn't keep my mouth shut, but fentanyl was a nasty drug and killed fast. "If that was what he did, they would have all been dead in seconds."
"True, if he did it perfectly. I think he only managed to transform some of it, which was why people were dropping but not dropping dead. Basically sheer luck, and points to him probably being a pale for transform or a low rank mage overall."
"But what does it get him?"
Alixant jerked upright in his chair and glared at me again. "It gets him you."
"What?" I'm pretty sure the other two reacted the same way as I did. But either way, I felt a strange clench of emotions in my stomach.
Alixant rubbed his brow and had an odd expression on his face. "Have any of you come across the seven grams at death study?"
"Sure," Siab said. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"For the rest of you, they've done studies and shown at the moment of death the body loses seven grams of weight. But what they haven't been publicizing is a few people have died during the magician rank test."
I blanched at that, though Siab just looked interested.
Alixant waved his hand. "Oh, nothing sinister. A heart attack, stroke, just odd medical things. But the machine and the merlin monitoring noted a large spike of power being pushed out, similar to what happens during an emergence. So, they started asking magicians near death if they were willing to be monitored and they agreed. They have evidence that as you die you bleed out power. What is really interesting is that the slower you die the more power collectively is pushed out. I think this is what that guy was doing. He wanted people to push out power. Whether he figured that out after the ritual magic or something else, I don't know."
Chris looked thoughtful. "Okay, I can see where he might be learning from this, even if that is a sharp upwards curve to go from one to three to nine to twenty-seven, then quit caring about numbers at all. So he gets all this power going out, then what?"
Alixant just pointed at me and suddenly it clicked. I thought I might need to throw up.
The words tumbled out of my mouth as I fought my nausea. "He wants a second or more likely a third emergence. What if that's it? The first few were to accomplish something else, maybe just to be more powerful. Then after the incident at the park, he realized patterns didn't matter, power did." I turned and looked at Chris. "Do you know if there was a spike in people emerging the day of the park murders?"
Ugh, I'm already sounding like them. This shouldn't be this easy.
But I couldn't help but look for correlations. So much of emergency medicine was if this, then that. It was almost second nature.
Chris shrugged and pulled up something on his computer. "The OMO does show rates and stats."
"But won't tell me a damn thing about second emergences," Alixant grumbled, then shot a glance at me. "You mentioned third. You think you can?"
I shrugged not sure what to say. "I never thought you could emerge more than once, but if everything is about power, maybe you can emerge over and over, getting stronger and more powerful in different branches and classes." I didn't mention my curiosity about Kadia.
"But why you? Why not someone else?" Siab challenged me. It wasn't arrogance or disbelief in her tone, more curiosity.
Chris spoke up. "Something else to consider: I've been following up with the hospital on all the victims. While they won't break HIPPA, they did mention that all the victims had extreme lethargy the next two days, to the point of almost feeling drugged."
"Oh." The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it and they all snapped their heads towards me. The desire to join Carelian on the floor spiked but I forced a nonchalant shrug. "I haven’t done much the last few days but sleep. I felt completely drained. As to why me? Heck if I know, but it might have something to do with emotions. He made me angry." I jerked my head at Alixant, who didn't look repentant at all.
"And your power wasn't being siphoned out…" Alixant trailed off. "I bet that's the key, simple and fast. Magic siphons out, the walls between the planes rips and you grab the power. The perp just wants to grab it, but he missed because you grabbed it first."
"But what? I was more powerful?" I asked in disbelief.
"Maybe. Maybe you needed it more. Anger is a strong emotion and a good motivator."
"And I bet there was a familiar on the other side that liked her better than our perp. Hence Cori being chosen," Siab put in. She had a thoughtful look on her face, but her attention was on Carelian who had decided the chair in my cubicle was where he was going to groom himself.
"You think it matters that much? That magic is sentient?" I asked a shiver running through me
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe
you were closer, younger, prettier, the right combination. No one has ever figured out how or why certain people emerge, and others don't. It could be nothing or everything."
"Right now, it doesn't matter that Cori grabbed the power. What does matter is her emergence left us with very little evidence." He tossed me an annoyed glare and I resisted sticking my tongue out at him. "Either way, we don't know if he'll try again or not but we have to assume he will. So, what do we know?"
"Large event," Chris provided.
"Transformation substance, slow death needed," Siab pointed out.
"No pattern in the deaths is needed, as seen from the last thing, so milling crowds would be better for him. It would take longer to stabilize people." Niall had that faraway look on his face, staring at the board.
"Yeah, but why do we think he will stay in Atlanta?" I asked, feeling like I had to say something.
"To be honest, we don't, but I'm betting on the fact that he has a home base here and Atlanta has more large-scale events," Alixant said. "So, what events are coming up next, Cori?"
Everyone turned and looked at me. "Why do you think I know?" I asked, bewildered, as I looked at all the expectant eyes on me.
"Uh, because you live here, and we don't?" Siab said, her duh clear in the tone.
"No, well yes. I mean, I live here but I just moved here barely a month ago. I have no idea."
"But you knew about DragonWorldCon," she protested.
"It had tens of thousands of people attend! People from all over the world show up! And I knew people that went before. It isn't a small event." They all looked at me with vaguely disappointed expressions.
What? I'm not exactly a social butterfly.
But as I groused, I took over the wall screen with my laptop and pulled up the Atlanta Events page. "Here is what is going on in the next couple of weeks."
We all looked at the screen. There were a lot of events. Football games, music events, other conventions, parades, the list went on forever.
Alixant stared and the wall and stood pacing back and forth, tension radiating from him. "We'll never find him this way. There are too many events and it is too easy to do magic to turn something innocuous into something deadly." For a moment I thought Alixant was going to throw things, but he sighed and sat down. "We're back to the basic tenets of murders. Who are the first people you kill?"
"The ones you know." Chris and Niall said in unison. They grabbed their computers and headed back to their cubicles.
"And that is my cue to get back to looking at the data of the samples I got,” said Siab. I'll keep working on the facial recognition, trying to merge all the sketches and go through the OMO database. Maybe we'll get lucky." She smiled and gave a longing glance towards Carelian, who by this point had curled into a ball and was soundly sleeping in my cubicle chair.
I didn't really have anything to do. I'd done all the training and I really wanted to be back at a job that I knew how to do. My insecurity must have shown on my face because Alixant smiled.
"Study. You've got the book I gave you and you might as well look at your college courses. With your AA degrees, you should be starting as a junior except for one or two classes and your magic courses. If you log on to OMO with your ID, you should see the suggested careers for people with your abilities. Granted, you are strong in so many you should be able to do almost anything." He stood up and moved back over to his area. He paused and turned back to look at me. "Remember that while the government won't force you to take a certain career path, anything not STEM based and related to your strengths will be denied and if you choose to continue, all classes will be your responsibility to pay for." He gave me one more hard look then sat down.
I considered the cat sleeping in my chair, sighed, and went to grab the ritual book. I curled back up at the table and started to read.
Chapter 32
Each mage visualizes or associates the cost of an offering differently. While molecules are what is taught in most universities, it doesn't mean that is how a mage sees it. Often it is an amount of hair or nail or skin, or maybe the time it will take to regrow. There are stories of mages that counted in calories or even one who did it by cell. As always, no one knows why they can do this, but test after test shows they are always exact as to the cost. ~Magic Explained
The next two days were the same thing with everyone else researching information while I had nothing to do but read. I liked reading and it interested me, but by the time I escaped at four on Thursday, I was ready to scream. Even Carelian seemed bored.
My carrier should show up soon but Siab pointed out I might want a harness and a collar as from his paws and tail he would be a big cat… like dog big.
I still hadn't decided how I felt about that piece of information but either way, it would be a change. In the few days he'd been here he'd already gained what seemed like a pound. I needed to get him to the vet, but familiars apparently didn't need shots or to get fixed, which didn't really surprise me. I mean neutering a sentient creature sounded evil.
Holding him in my arms, I climbed the stairs. So far, outside of Mine, Hungry, and his name, he hadn't spoken to me and I made sure hungry wasn't an issue. The book of familiars should be here today but the online videos I found said he'd learn to use a toilet in the house if I wanted. And I did. The litter box was okay, but it stuck to his paws and annoyed both of us.
I pushed open the door, surprised to see all the lights off. Jo should have been home at least two hours ago. I let Carelian down and he headed right to his food bowl. Of course, I checked my phone. Nothing.
I started to call her when I heard a bottle clinking from her bedroom. I headed back, my steps fast. I was oddly concerned, and I couldn't say why.
"Jo?" I knocked on the door. It was ajar and swung open as I did. She sat on the floor, staring at her computer, the piles of books, and a bottle of whiskey, tapping it with her glass. I stood in the doorway, frozen for a moment. Her hair, her glorious black hair, hung limp around her face, and her entire body had curled into itself. Gone was the proud, smart, funny woman I knew. Instead, this was someone I don't think I'd ever seen.
"Jo? What's wrong?" I moved in and slid down to sit next to her.
She barked a laugh, bitter and hard. I hurt to hear it. She took a gulp of the liquid in the glass, which by its smell was whiskey from the bottle. "I'm a complete and utter failure. I can't do this. This is why I didn't want to emerge at a high rank. I wanted hedge. I wanted my damn certifications, and I just wanted to work with my papi. Maybe someday take over the garage. Now I'll flunk out. I don't even know what they do if you flunk out as a mage. Do they throw you in prison, assign you to grunt work, make you act as a test subject? This will destroy my parents. They'll hate me." On the last words her voice broke and she took another desperate gulp of whiskey as if it would somehow change her feelings.
I had no clue what she was talking about and looked around. Jo had never been the best student, and struggled at English, but then so did lots of people. She'd aced math and we'd never talked about school much. Even the dream of being an engineer was more at the same level you talk about being an astronaut. Not something you think will ever occur.
"Jo, talk to me. What's going on?" I pulled the glass from her and set it away, out of reach, as I moved to sit in front of her. She had to look at me, or her feet. Carelian came in and plopped down between the two of us and began grooming as if there was no place else he'd want to be.
"I can't do it, Cori. I can't. I've been trying. Really, I've been trying. I can't get everything to stay still. They move no matter what I do. My last paper was an F and I have a huge test and I can't figure out what it says." Her voice shook as tears ran down her face.
Confused and scared, I reached out to cup her face, wanting to hold her, needing to comfort her. "I don't understand. What moves? Why doesn't it make sense?" I needed to figure out what was going on. This wasn't my Jo, and I'd do anything for her.
"The letters. They change. E
very time I look, they're different. There is so much to read and understand and it keeps moving. I like numbers. They don't move or at least they don't move as much. Maybe I should just quit and save them the trouble of expelling me."
I sat there, trying to process her drunken rambling. How much had she drunk already? Then my brain snapped into gear. You read lots of weird case studies with some of the medical assistant classes.
"Jo, are you dyslexic?"
She snorted, scrubbing at her face with her hands. "They said no. Dyslexic kids can't be good at math. Only lazy kids are good at math but can't get their papers right. It got worse after I graduated high school. So I just avoided reading. Didn't need to. All the manuals have pictures and I knew what words went where. 'Sides, math is always the same. Logical. So I'm just stupid."
My mind stutter stopped, and I looked at her. "Who told you that?"
"All the teachers. I was just being lazy. I didn't like English, but since I like math and was good at it, I couldn't be dyslexic. They told mami I was just lazy, and she got mad at me. So I tried. I would listen to all the lectures and then get Stinky or you to check my writing. I used a ruler on my words in class and I'd only get marked down for spelling. But while I graduated, it was only because of the science stuff." She gave another one of those raw laughs. "Chemical diagrams don't move, the numbers and lines rarely change or if they do, they don't make sense and I wait for them to move back to what they should say. So, see. I'm just stupid. But I swear, I've been trying, and they won't stay still…" She broke off in a harsh sob and I was glad the bottle wasn't close to her.
~Stupid teachers. Smart queans.~ The voice sounded in my head. I jumped and looked down at Carelian, who was licking Jo's ankle.