Kenzi Mailkov sat in her offices, formerly Trick's Lair inside the Dal Riata as she reviewed the latest Fae registrations, housing and employment reports for the County. Kenzi had kept much of the old charm now that Trick moved into the Ash Compound, but removed furniture to make it functional for her, Bo and Beatrice Skally, her Assistant. Beatrice, a two hundred year - old Motspa Fae, had come to Kenzi and Bo for all practical purposes, homeless. Bo and Kenzi happened upon her during a case they took shortly after Kenzi's return, and found she was wandering from town to town, job to job, had not many friends, and no family whatsoever. She was looking for another place to temporarily hang her hat until she decided to move on again. As she and Kenzi got to know one another they found they had similar history. Kenzi offered her a job at Dal to help out here and there and immediately discovered Beatrice was exceptional at both organization and administration. That was because she was a Motspa Fae, one who can see things in spatial terms. Kenzi and Bo seized upon that skill set and Beatrice has been with Bo and Kenzi for about as long as they have managed the Dal. Beatrice seemed happy and thrived because she felt she useful and needed. Bo and Kenzi thought they would be lost without Beatrice.
Who knew the kicking of a can would lead to her life today. If Bo had not kicked that can, Kenzi would not have woken up and they would have passed eachother by. Kenzi thought of that moment a lot: it was destiny that brought them together, and only destiny that could separate them. She and Bo were bound together forever. And who knew it would all end up with her and Bo running the Dal? But it all came together. The phone rang and Beatrice picked up. It was Beverly informing her that Trick wanted Bo and Kenzi to join him at the Ash Compound at 2:00 PM to discuss a matter.
"Man, this is turning out to be a day of meetings. What is in the taps, man?" Kenzi commented when Beatrice informed her of the call.
Kenzi had a budget meeting with Ryan Lambert, Vex, and Liam Kavanaugh to discuss the quarterly performance of Dal's finance portfolio, referred to as DRM. If one had asked Kenzi ten years ago to read a balance sheet, she would have thought you asked her to read hieroglyphics. Now she even surprises herself with how easy it was. After that meeting she and Bo had a meeting at Noon with Julia Jenkins to discuss recent developments from Julia's latest case.
Kenzi recalled the day she met Julia. Bo explained she had met Julia after she jumped off the "Death" Train after escaping her abduction by the Crows, Hugin and Munin, and said to call her if she ever needed her. Five years ago, Bo received that phone call from Julia looking to reconnect. Apparently, her adventure with Bo proved so impactful she acquired a fascination with investigating the paranormal. She went on to college and pursued an individualized studies program that mixed courses in the paranormal and the supernatural, but also courses on anthropology, mythology, ancient studies, and religion. She volunteered at the local police precinct, became enrolled in a mentorship program for aspiring police officers, and then developed a mentoring relationship with one of the detectives. One she completed her program at college, she went and joined a private investigative firm that focused on investigating exceptional situations, and found it was her calling. It was during her tenure with that firm that motivated her to get back in touch with Bo.
After a recitation of her latest educational and career developments, Bo and Kenzi asked if Julia would be willing to branch out on her own. She could bring along whomever she wanted, but they were looking for someone to take over casework for them as their programs for the Dal kept them on the move.
Kenzi recalled how Bo lamented that Kenzi must have made a million of those flyers when they first started investigating cases, because people would still present them reference. Julia accepted the offer, and so at the age of 25 Julia had formed her own investigative firm, called Julia Jenkins Investigative Services, or commonly known as JJS supported by five additional staffers of combined Fae and claimed humans that needed work and their skills were a match for JJS's needs. Julia's work on cases was so good that Tamsin employed her services, so did Erik, and even The Morrigan, to everyone's shock. Julia's firm became known throughout the Six Counties, and also became well-known in the human world. Julia deftly took cases where it would not invite too many inquisitive questions, particularly if the cases strayed into the Fae world. And now, at the age of 30 years old Julia had the hottest investigative firm in the Fae world, and in certain corners of the human world, and had become very well off in the process.
While Kenzi and Beatrice sat at her desk her cousin Dmitri was sitting on another couch in the corner on the phone negotiating something Kenzi half-paid attention to. The less she knew about her cousin's dealings the better. Ryan Lambert, Liam Kavanaugh, and Vex walked down into the lair. Ryan Lambert looked at Dmitri when he heard him on the phone, and visibly cringed. Ryan did that whenever he overheard Dmitri negotiating some suspect deal on the phone. Kenzi smiled at his reaction. Kenzi had gotten over her acrimony about Ryan long ago. With everything that had happened in her life in the past ten years, life was far too short to keep grudges. Besides Ryan had proved himself ten times over he was committed to DRM and could deliver on his connections.
"So what is on the agenda for this morning? I have a lunch meeting at noon with the Gang." Kenzi started.
"Oh? Anything going on?" Vex asked.
"Julia is on a case to recover a relic for someone. She was in hot pursuit but encountered something weird. Dyson and Eric were called to the area over the same disturbance in the area, and that pulled in Tams. And Bo is coming in anyway." Kenzi explained.
"Do you want me there too?" Vex asked.
"Not unless you want to be." Kenzi replied. Vex nodded.
"Well, the agenda for today is to re-balance our portfolio tracks. There seems to be greater demands on our Economic Development Portfolio. As more and more Fae relocate from other counties to this one, we need to re-balance so we can financially accommodate demand."
"I am glad Bo is not here for this." Kenzi said.
"Why?" Liam asked.
"The more money we make the more she hates having to deal with the accounting of it. Drives her mad. She always says if she could rid the universe of money she would be a happy camper." Kenzi said.
"That is why she pays us, so she doesn't have to." Ryan replied.
"Wish I could pay you guys to listen to her moaning and complaining." Kenzi said. Everyone smiled at that one. Kenzi looked at one of the balance sheets.
"What is going on with our Speculative Investments Portfolio?" Kenzi asked.
"Making progress. The fifty million we sank into different tranches there seems to be paying off. " Liam reported.
"Let's start there." Kenzi said as they opened up their reports and proceeded to go through them line by line.
After the meeting was over Ryan, Vex, and Liam all left the Dal while Beatrice went upstairs to check on the lunch arrangements as Kenzi wrapped up her paperwork from their meeting. As Kenzi walked past a mirror she stopped and smiled at herself. A lot had changed over the last ten years. Kenzi recalled right after she had returned she went up straight to Dyson and asked him if he could sniff any difference in her, if she had turned into some type of Fae. He breathed in hard and said while he could not smell whether she had turned Fae he did say her human scent was no longer there. Kenzi, however, knew she was different, but she could not put a finger as to how she was different. When they all went back to the Clubhouse she went up to her room, took one long look around, and then proceeded to grab her clothes and throw them down the stairs. Bo, Tamsin, Trick, Dyson and Lauren happened to be downstairs ran upstairs, and asked her if she was okay. She told them that for the first time in her life she had no idea who she was, but felt she needed a change. She saw the concerned looks on their faces, and then quickly added she couldn't part with the shoes, which made them chuckle and relax.
After several examinations by Dr. Lewis everyone surmised Kenzi was okay, and life continued as normal. But Kenzi knew better. She decided to keep the light brownish-blond streak touches to her hair she had after she had returned. She thought it made her look more adult, and thought it was beyond time. She also thought it was fortuitous when Trick announced he wanted her and Bo to take over the Dal. Trick believed it would do both Bo and Kenzi good if they focused on new challenges rather than fixate on recent events. Kenzi thought it proved to be the best medicine. But over the last ten years, Kenzi started to notice things were truly different with her, and not just personality - oriented differences.
The first change she noticed was her eyesight. It was the sharpest and the clearest she had ever known in her life. Once when Dyson was trapped inside Kenzi's body, afterwards he pointed out she needed glasses, and even though he was right she never followed through with an eye exam. Now her vision was razor sharp. She actually tested the theory by pulling a Snellen Eye Chart off from the Internet, and found she could read the manufacturing fine print at the bottom of the chart easily from 20 feet. She actually increased her distance to 30 feet, then 40 feet, then 50 feet, and saw she could still see the fine print as clear as day. Kenzi honestly did not know what to make of it. She thought she was one of those exceptional people who, after being hit on the head, suddenly became super intelligent. She chalked up her super vision to the shockwave that hit her after she entered the portal, though she kept the supposed aftereffects to herself, and when Dr. Lewis performed her examinations she played up she still had horrible vision.
However, she noticed a second characteristic change in herself when she and Bo had to take a few courses in Business Administration to help prepare them for managing the Dal. During the Economics Course Bo was having such a painful time with it Kenzi thought Bo was going to garrote herself. However, for Kenzi the numbers started to come together in her mind and make sense the moment she read them off the paper. Bo chalked up Kenzi's easy assimilation of Economics to her street savvy knowledge, and managing all the financial details from their investigative casework, and so did Kenzi, for the most part. It was not until Liam presented them with their first balance sheet that the numbers just made sense to Kenzi right off. It took Bo a couple of years to learn and understand accounting and market spreads, but now Bo was a pro at it. What Kenzi did not tell Bo was that it took her seconds, but played along until Bo's acumen caught up to where Kenzi felt she no longer needed to hide hers. She chalked this up to same head shock.
What she could not so easily sweep off to the side was when she, Beatrice, and Julia went shopping downtown one day. Kenzi saw a shoe store she wanted visit and when she about to enter the store the world seemed to rush in a swirl around her. Kenzi shook her head thinking she was having some type of vertigo attack. Both Beatrice and Julia must have thought the same thing because they caught her just as she was about to topple over. Kenzi held her head and broke out into a sweat. She shut her eyes to try and calm the swirl storm in her head, but when she opened her eyes the world seemed to expand like a rubber band and then it snapped together. That was the last thing she remembered before she woke up startled, in her room at the Clubhouse being watched over by Beatrice and Julia. She shook her head. She felt as if she had slept for days. She saw Beatrice and Julia sitting in the corner of the room and apologized for sleeping so long. Beatrice and Julia looked at one another then back at Kenzi and said she had been asleep at most thirty minutes. Kenzi looked at them wide-eyed, and said she felt she had been asleep for a week. They all chalked it up as Kenzi being over-tired and recommended she take a couple days off, which Kenzi did, and she did not have the recurrence again.
The fourth time Kenzi realized something was different was at the Dal when she went behind the bar looking for a rare whiskey vintage she wanted to serve during "Happy Hour" to her friends. She found her intended bottle buried in the back of the second shelf under the counter, and as she went to grasp the bottle her hand passed right through it. Kenzi nearly hit her head under the counter as she pulled back in reaction. She quickly looked around to see if anyone saw what had just happened, but no one seemed to have noticed and kept to their conversations. She bent down again to see if her hand would pass through the bottle again, but this time she was able to grasp the bottle. Kenzi honestly thought she was seeing things, became exasperated with herself, grabbed the bottle and thought nothing more of it. And then it all seemed to stop, and for the next five years Kenzi had not had an occurrence of any strange-like behavior.
Kenzi heard a great deal of commotion upstairs. People were arriving for the Noon meeting with Julia, and so she headed for the stairs. She suddenly stopped shaking her head, chastising herself for forgetting a stack of papers, turned around and when she had done so the stack of papers in question rose from the desk and shot into her hands. Kenzi went wide-eyed as she quickly looked up the stairs to see if anyone saw what had just happened. No one was there. She quickly gathered herself together and walked upstairs to meet everyone for lunch.
When Kenzi entered the private entertaining room she found Dyson, Erik, Julia, Tamsin, and Beatrice all grabbing food from the buffet, and taking their seats. She had added the private meeting room to accommodate larger gatherings since the Lair was now used as private office space.
"Is Bo coming?" Julia asked.
"Yep." Kenzi replied.
"But running late. Bo just called me before you came in." Tamsin added.
"Should we wait for her?" Erik asked.
"No. Let's get this show on the road. I can bring Bo up the speed on the details later. By the way D, do you know what Trick's meeting is about?" Kenzi said
"No idea. Beverly called me about it when I was enroute to the station." Dyson replied.
"Another mystery, I am sure. So Julia fill us in." Kenzi said.
"Well, I was hired by Kenzi and Bo to track down an old Fae relic that somehow was stolen from Engelram, the Collector. The origins of this relic are unclear to me. But Engelram was panicked over its loss. Said he kept it in a special vault, and it was taken from there." Julia reported.
"How did he come by it?" Tamsin asked.
"It is my understanding it was passed down to him from a relative. The only bit of history I know about it is that the relic stems from some ancient war. I surmise from the Great Fae War or the rebellion that came afterwards." Julia replied.
"What is the relic's purpose?" Dyson asked.
"Have no idea. But when I told him I didn't recover it he went into a wrought panic." Julia replied.
"Engelram panicked?" Dyson asked incredulous.
"Big time, and as we speak he is packing to skip town. Whatever he is running from he is scared to death of it." Julia replied.
"What does this relic look like?" Tamsin asked.
Julia pulled out a photo and it was small round disc with ornate drawings on it, and a small crystal in the middle. Tamsin looked at it first.
"The symbols on this relic are clearly Fae. In an ancient language. Really ancient language" Tamsin noted.
"Have you seen this symbology before?" Dyson asked.
"Only once before." Tamsin said.
"Where?" Dyson asked.
"Remnants from a battlefield. One of the soldiers whose soul I reclaimed carried this symbol." Tamsin replied. Tamsin pointed to it on the photo.
"Sounds like Engelram had possession of a family heirloom." Kenzi said.
"Sounds like it." Julia agreed.
"Julia, you said that when you chased this guy there was a disturbance inside the tunnel of some sort?" Dyson asked.
"More like a disappearance. He pulled something out of his pocket, pushed whatever was in his hand and vanished." Julia replied.
"Between your description and that of Dyson's it sounds like he jumped planes, crudely, but yet so." Erik said.
"Is that normal?" Julia asked.
"Some Fae can and do travel between planes all the time, you just have to be equipped to handle it. Like the Afreet, or an Elemental, like Clio, the Bounty Hunter. Fae that are not equipped need help to traverse the planes otherwise they could die. That nearly happened to Bo when she escaped from an interstitial plane once. If Clio had not been there to stabilize her she would have died." Dyson replied.
'Well, whatever technology he used was really crude. Gave everyone in the area vertigo." Erik said.
"Really? I felt nothing." Julia said.
"Probably because you inside the bubble so to speak. If you were further away you would have experienced something different." Erik replied.
"Do you think he will come back?" Kenzi asked.
"Don't think so. In fact, he warned of the opposite. That something was coming." Julia said.
"Oh, here we go again." Kenzi quipped. Everyone chuckled.
"So what does Engelram want us to do next?" Kenzi asked.
"That is what I asked him, but he said it was too late for him and he would need to go and hide somewhere." Julia replied.
"Did he elaborate on why this relic scared him so much?" Tamsin asked.
"I asked him and all he said, and I quote 'it was the key that secured our futures' end quote." Julia replied.
"What does that mean?" Erik asked.
"That statement sounds more positive than ominous." Dyson said.
"I agree, but you don't flee town if it is meant to be positive." Tamsin said. Everyone nodded.
Tamsin's phone rang, she took out her phone, looked at the Caller ID, stood up, and stepped away from the table.
"Well, we need to obtain some more guidance from Engelram before he scoots town, or whether he considers this case closed." Julia said.
"Agreed. Want Erik and me to go with you? I have some experience with Engelram." Dyson asked.
"Extra company doesn't hurt." Julia replied.
"Well, make sure you get a definitive answer. And make sure he pays you for your expenses thus far." Kenzi said.
"He already did. Handed me my payment in cash." Julia replied as she smiled.
"Uh-oh." Kenzi said
"What does that mean?" Julia asked.
"Means we need to get to him. Understand what this relic means, before he jumps." Kenzi said.
"We can do that right after our two-o'clock with Trick." Dyson said.
"Cool." Julia replied.
Tamsin returned to the table.
"That was Bo. She just pulled up." Tamsin said.
"About time! What she do? Get lost?" Kenzi said.
"She said the day got past her. But she and I need to do a swap so I will check you all later at the Compound." Tamsin said as she grabbed her car keys, exchanged good-byes, and left.
