Nanoha took us down about half a mile from my apartment; the final stage of the descent involved an extremely disturbing few seconds in free fall and a very brief force spell at the end to cushion our landing. "Faster and more stealthy than a standard landing," she had explained. "Like a HALO jump, but with magic." As soon as she hit the ground, she mumbled a spell to her staff, then concentrated for about a minute. She opened her eyes and nodded. "All clear." With a pulse of cherry blossom-colored light, her battle-dress and staff disappeared, leaving only the T-shirt and jeans she was wearing when she had first walked into my office.

We covered the remaining distance on foot, during what must have been the most paranoid few minutes of my life. Every second seemed like it would be the last before some flying überwizard dropped out of the sky and blew me up by twitching an eyelid, but it looked like I had been too paranoid. Perhaps they hadn't been able to follow her trail to my office, or perhaps they hadn't been able to find my home address anywhere in that office. Either way, the street was mercifully clear of all but a few people.

Nanoha seemed to be fine most of the way there, but she stumbled on the steps leading down to the apartment. "S-sorry," she said as I helped her up. "It's—I'm fine. Let's just get inside." It was a lie, and we both knew it. There was a reason she'd been willing to go so far just to get a few hours of sleep. I don't know what she was doing to keep herself on her feet—or hell, sanebut it was obvious she couldn't keep it up much longer. I really, really hoped she had a hell of a destination in mind for this last teleport.

"I think so," she said when I asked her while I started disarming the defense wards on the door. "My family—they're in on everything. Earth's supernatural stuff, plus lots of what I've been up to offworld. And they, well, we have resources. At least, I think we do. Papa was never really too clear about that." She frowned. "But! The point is, they can defend—we can defend each other, at least until I'm in good enough shape to get us somewhere else."
It sounded shaky to me. It sounded really shaky. The fact that she was even considering something so very shaky said a lot about how desperate she really was at the moment.

But it's not like I had a better plan. And no, little voice in my head, leaving her to the wolves is not a better plan, not when said wolves might well decide you're worthy of A) killing or B) dragging off to Zorpling Prime and throwing in Zorpling Prime Correctional Facility just for being seen with her. And besides, chivalry, dammit. It's no more dead than polka.


When I finally disarmed the wards and unstuck the door, we were immediately greeted by Mister, my dog-sized cat, and Mouse, my dinosaur-sized dog. Both of them were immediately suspicious of the newcomer, though Mister lost interest pretty quickly.

Mouse, however, gave a low, rumbling growl as soon as he saw Nanoha. "Easy, Mouse," I said. "She's okay. I think." The growl subsided, but he still kept a wary eye on her.

Nanoha raised an eyebrow. "Big dog."

"I think he may actually be a dwarf woolly mammoth."

She chuckled and petted him. "Whosa good boy? Is you a good boy? You're a good boy!" It seemed to calm Mouse down a little, but his eyes still didn't move from her.

"Okay, then," I said. "So how do we—"

"Harry, is that you?" called a voice from downstairs.

Uh-oh. My apprentice was here. Now that I thought about it, I remembered that I had planned to meet her for lessons tonight; it had slipped to the back of my mind, though. What with the little thing about space wizards and all. "Uh, yeah, Molly, uh—"

"Awesome! Hey, there was something I wanted to ask you about potions!" Her voice became clearer; she was coming up the ladder from the subbasement. "You know how you have the depleted uranium down there? Well, I—" As the trap door leading to the basement opened and Molly Carpenter's over-pierced face and ever-polychromatic hair (half aquamarine, half fuschia today!) cleared the floor, she got very, very quiet. "Oh. Hello, there. Don't believe we've met." She put on the most horrifically forced smile I have ever seen as she climbed off the ladder. I will have nightmares about that smile forever.

"Uh," I said. "Ms. Takamachi, this is Molly Carpenter, my—."

Nanoha was all business. "Hello. Nanoha Takamachi. I'm your boyfriend's client; no, I'm not sleeping with him, and we are very pressed for time right now. More so now that I know you're here." She turned to face me. "I suppose I'm going to have to take the dog, the cat, and the girl along with you."

"She's my apprentice, not my girlfriend," I replied. "And it was your idea to take me along in the first place. Though Mister"—I jerked a thumb at the cat in question, who was now considering his food dish thoughtfully—"can probably take care of himself." So could Mouse, obviously, but I'd rather have him with me.

"I never said it wasn't. Can't leave you here, can't leave her here, and I suspect you don't want me leaving the pets here."

"Harry, what is going on?" Molly was giving me a glare that reminded me of her mother in the most terrifying way possible.

I tried to come up with a way to phrase the explanation that wouldn't cause her to immediately jump to conclusions about hallucinogenic substances. Eventually, I decided on vagueness.

"Ms. Takamachi here hired me, and in doing so got me—and now you—in a hell of a lot of trouble. She is also, at the moment, the only person who can get us even temporarily out of this trouble. So we're going to do whatever she says and hope that our collective intellects can use the extra time to figure a way out of this mess."

"Uh-huh. No sale."

"Look, we really don't have time to be arguing about this. Mr. Dresden. Where's a good place to set up a circle big enough to fit all of us?"

"Subbasement," I said. "Where she just came from."

"Right." She jumped through the trapdoor. "It should be ten minutes or so," she said from down below. "I'll let you know when you two need to get inside. Pack a change of clothes if you get the chance."

Which left me alone with Molly.

"Okay, boss. Chance number two. What. Is. Going. On."

I sighed. Normally I was pretty reluctant to share details with my apprentice, given that being In The Know on certain supernatural subjects was dangerous in and of itself—even if you weren't as hotheaded as she had proven herself to be. But this was something we were both largely in the dark about, and somehow I doubted Molly's expertise with veils would do much to protect her against the largely-unquantified Pursuers. She deserved to know a little more about why she was being dragged along with this. "She's right; we don't have time for this. But...she hired me to help her hide from the organization she used to work for, who she claims have framed her for murder. But they were hotter on her tail than she thought, and now they're most likely on their way here. And so, I'm apparently supposed to hold them off while she prepares a spell that will both teleport us to a safehouse and disrupt whatever method her pursuers are using to track her."

"Okay. That's a dumb plan, but okay. But why'd you bring her here? To your home?"

"Well...she needs a few minutes to do the teleport spell—"

"And you can rip open a Way to the Nevernever in a second or two."

"Which wouldn't do anything to help her, since the tracking would light her back up as soon as we crossed back over." At least, that's what she said.

"Wait, this woman has thrown this kind of wrench into your life just in the last few hours, and you're still trying to helpher?"

"Well...she needs help. And she paid cash. Up front."

"I'm not sure whether the mercenary part or the chivalrous part of that is more pathetic."

"It's more than that, though. She's different. She doesn't use magic the way we do. And...she's told me some things..." I hesitated, thinking about what she had told me, and I realized something. I'd been thinking of this in personal terms, about saving this one woman, and maybe preventing myself from being a victim of an alien abduction. But it went so much farther than that. This was first contact, sort of. This was the first encounter between a representative of the White Council and an actual extraterrestrial race, with the expected technology (and not-so-expected magic) far beyond our own. The beginnings of a long-term plan began to form in my head. Shocking, I know. "Things I need to know more about. Things the White Council needs to know. If we can buy her a few hours, I need to see about getting her under Council protection. If that will do any good."

"Do any...Harry. This is big, isn't it?"

"Bigger than SplatterCon. Bigger than the thing with the White Court. This is huge, Molly. Change-the-face-of-the-world-forever huge. I don't want to tell you all of it yet, in case things go wrong—" If only Nanoha had been so courteous to me. "—But for now, I need you to—"

A faint sizzling noise from the entrance to the apartment interrupted me. Then the door glowed brightly for a moment...before abruptly fading, accompanied by a loud wham.

Uh-oh.


I am actually quite proud of the wards on my apartment, specifically the ones protecting the front door. The biggest and most useful one was a multilayered lightning spell set to trigger when someone partially succeeded in forcing the heavy steel security door open, and then reload and fire again in case the intruders were very persistent. Originally, it only had enough charge to fire four or five times, and it got weaker with each shot. A horde of zombies had shown the flaw in that design, and so it got an upgrade. It would now fire at least six times, each with precisely the same yield. It took a lot out of me to charge it up the first time, but I was pretty damn confident it would fry—or at least discourage—just about anything I could think of.

Of course, now it was going up against things I hadn't thought of. Which is why I was counting on my other defensive ward—one that would have no effect against mundane means of opening the door, but would absorb the energy of any spell used on the door and reflect it back on the caster as raw force.

It would last longer than the lightning, but still required a bit of energy on its own to maintain; it would dissipate after reflecting maybe eight or nine spells. Well. Seven or eight, now.

"Molly," I said. "Forget packing or anything. Get down to the basement and see if Ms. Takamachi can use any help. No, wait." I racked my brains for anything I absolutely needed to take with me; two came to mind. I ran over to the door and grabbed an innocuous-looking cane from the popcorn tin which usually held my staff, snow shovel, and other assorted items. "Catch." I tossed it to her; she caught it expertly. "Take this, and grab the skull on the shelf in the lab with all the romance novels. Make absolutely sure both of these get taken with us." Losing Bob would be very bad; losing Fidelacchius would be much, much worse.

She looked confused, but nodded. "Right." She started climbing back down the ladder.

"Nanoha!" I called down. "How much longer?"

"Five minutes, maybe! Spell's almost done, but it needs more power!"

A loud crack-sizzle sounded from the door; the lightning ward had fired. I could hear indistinct yelling from outside, but it didn't sound like they were planning on packing up and leaving anytime soon. I gritted my teeth and readied my staff and blasting rod. Mouse stood at my side, growling at the door.

There was only one more wham from the reflector spell. I could still hear yells, but they were shouts of soldiers giving and receiving orders, not the panicked cries of people dealing with a sudden and very violent surprise.

Then something struck me. What if they weren't planning to power through the wards? What if— "Nanoha! Do your people have a way of, I don't know, force-disabling wards?"
"I think so! Yeah, they've probably got a wardcracker!"

Well. Shit. "That would have been good to know earlier! How much longer now?"

"Four, maybe three minutes! The calculations for the spell are done, but there's still not enough energy in it!"

"I don't think we have three minutes!"

There was a pause. Then: "I know! Here! Catch!" A split second later, her jewel necklace floated up out of the trapdoor and towards me. "Just touch it; it'll tell you everything you need to know!"

I hesitated, having had all too much experience with magical artifacts that could "tell you everything you needed to know" if you touched them. But from what I'd seen, I'd eat my own hat if Nanoha was anything like a Denarian. If I had a hat, anyway. After a moment, I reached out and grabbed the hovering jewel.


"Hello, Guest User." The feminine voice in my head was calm, flat, almost robotic. Not like the last feminine voice in my head, who could recite the dictionary and make it sound seductive. Hell's bells, my life is weird. "This unit's name is Raising Heart Exelion. I am a Mid-Childan type Intelligent Device, optimized for combat using force-type magic. My Master has enabled Guest User Mode, with instructions to provide whatever assistance is possible to you. Do you wish to take temporary control of this unit?"

I didn't understand a single word of that. Except the part about "optimized for combat using force-type magic," which was something that sounded very helpful indeed. Not that I expected to get much use out of someone else's focus, but...Oh, hell. Why not?

"All right, Guest User. Activation phrase is 'Raising Heart: Setup'. Please speak activation phrase aloud to verify conscious decision."

Oh god. I was in one of those comics. I was the magical girl. I grimaced, did my best to quash the mental image of me wearing Nanoha's battle-dress, and whispered, "Raising Heart. Set up."

And then a whole lot of things happened at once.

"All right, Guest User. Existing Barrier Jacket detected. Integrating. Reinforcing. Multiple existing Storage Devices detected. Integrating. Device Mode unnecessary; existing Storage Devices sufficient for targeting purposes. Mental link established."

At that last one, a whole bunch of things popped into my field of vision, overlaying what my eyes saw. It was some kind of heads-up display, like the scene in Terminator where you see what it looks like from Arnie's point of view. A human silhouette in the corner showed all green. Looking at my force rings showed how many charges remained on each one, and a percentage showed how how close each charge was to being replenished. A temperature readout hovered over my shield bracelet, currently showing it at room temperature.

The voice continued. "Translation matrices active. Scanning Linker Core. Optimizing mana conversion matrices; full optimization under current settings may take some time. Hostiles detected. Acquiring target data." Red wireframes in the shapes of human bodies appeared, overlaid on the front wall in such a way that it was clear they represented people on the other side of it. One was on one knee directly in front of the door; the others were well clear. "Analyzing tactical options. Local defenses have been compromised. Hostiles are preparing explosive stun spell on primary entrance. Tactical options recommended: OffensiveInterrupt stun spell, take hostiles by surprise. DefensiveUse shield to neutralize effects of stun spell, use narrow entryway and linear nature of offensive force-projection spells to advantage."

And that whole spiel only took about three seconds. This thing was slowing down my perception of time somehow, just like Lash had done not so long ago. Defensive, I thought, and immediately wireframe projections popped into my field of view—one a rough sphere centered on my shield bracelet, one a cylindrical arrow emanating from my staff. I imagined narrowing the width and increasing the power of a force spell, and the arrow changed to match. Cool.

"Warning," the voice added, "stun spell imminent. Recommend immediate barrier deployment." I focused my will through the shield bracelet, and the usual half-sphere of shifting blue light appeared—accompanied, however, by an instantaneously formed circle of blue-white light like the ones I had seen Nanoha use.

Normally, my shield bracelet couldn't block visible light. Quite intentionally; having it block my field of vision couldn't possibly work to my advantage in battle. Well, maybe this freakish bit of alien magic-technology could fix that.

"It can be done, Guest User. Hostile stun spell activating." With that, the door exploded into blinding white light and sound—but light and sound that failed to penetrate my shield; it was more of a flicker-pop than a flash-bang. The red wireframes began to rush into the newly clear doorway—until I envisioned a path just about the width of said doorway and bellowed "Forzare!"

Forzare, the robotic voice echoed, and a torrent of power—exactly the way I had envisioned it—rushed through the door and slammed into the intruders beyond, accompanied by a flash of blue-white light. All put up the vertical circles that their magic system seemed to use as shields, but all but two of those shields flickered and then dissipated under the assault, sending the unfortunate targets flying up the staircase and beyond.

The two remaining soldiers—and they were soldiers, that much was certain from the uniform grey body armor and helmets—both attacked at once. "Light Lance," one cried, aiming a roughly rifle-shaped device at me, while the other yelled "Assault Pulse!"

The "Light Lance" hit first; it was the blue laser Nanoha had intercepted while we were out over Lake Michigan. It hit with roughly the same effect: a high-pitched whine/sizzle that grated at my ears. The other attack was more interesting: it was a force spell, but instead of a single big blast like I favored, it was a succession of almost bullet-like pulses that spanged off my shield.

My shield bracelet barely even warmed up. Nice. I raised my blasting rod, imagined a narrow line of pure heat like I'd seen Luccio use a few times, and calmly said "Fuego."

This time, there was a brief pause before the voice echoed me, and when the spell did activate, it was more my normal column of flame than the heat-laser I had envisioned. It was narrow enough to avoid igniting the doorframe, but not by much, and it ended up bouncing harmlessly off the goons' shields. "Warning, Guest User. This unit is not designed for thermal magic. Full optimization will take some time," the voice said.

Okay, then. Fire didn't work as well as force with this thing. That was okay. Force is plenty on its own.

Or maybe not. While the two standing goons continued to alternate between incrementally wearing down my shield and diving back behind cover as I threw more force blasts at them, the remaining four had apparently recovered from being blasted across the street and were now adding their own attacks to the mix. And my shield bracelet was now slowly-but-noticeably heating up. As if in response to my noticing that (which it probably was), the temperature...thing over my shield bracelet grew a countdown. I didn't bother asking The Voice what it was—maybe it was time until failure, time until the bracelet grew hot enough to start causing burns, something like that.

Said countdown had less than thirty seconds on it.

I cursed, sent one more massive force blast down the entryway, and leaped down into the subbasement, shutting the trap door as hard as I could with a thought once Mouse had followed me.

There was a large, intricate magic circle on the floor of my lab, with Nanoha kneeling at its center, hands pressed to the ground. She was shaking slightly, and beads of sweat had formed on her face. Molly stood off to her side, clutching Bob and Fidelacchius and frowning worriedly. "We have to go now, Nanoha," I said.

"Not...yet..." Each word was forced out, as if whatever she was doing took so much effort that she could barely manage to speak. "Minute...more...maybe..."

"We don't have a minute!" I could hear voices from above; the wireframes matching them were closing in on the trap door.

She looked up at me, teeth gritted. Then she gave a single, sharp nod. "Transporter," she said, and with a sound like the universe itself screaming, the walls of my lab peeled away.