Chapter Six: This Time It's Personal

"This used to be a train station, didn't it?" Abigail Chase looked around her.

"Exactly," said Dave proudly, gesturing around his lab, and underground chamber with a high ceiling, decorated with power cords, generators and tesla coils. "The university and the city agreed to let me use it for my research. Some of the equipment can get a little hazardous."

Riley was impressed. "They never cared about me enough in college to set me up with something like this. This is great." He reached out to pat a tesla coil and flinched when he put his hand through a spider web.

"Maybe that's because you could do all your research on a machine the size of a handbag," Abigail said.

"Good point," Riley said.

"It also provides a wide open secluded place for complicated sorcery," Dave continued. "Right, Veronica?"

"Yes, this should be fine," Veronica answered without looking up from her encantus.

Abigail knelt, drawing a line in the dust on the floor with her finger. "If it's so perfect, why does it look like nobody's been in here for months?"

"There is a tiny problem," Dave admitted. "Horvath knows where it is, and it's the absolute perfect place for a trap. I know this from experience."

Just then, there was a knock from upstairs.

"See what I mean, Horvath," said Dave.

"No Dave, pay more attention," Veronica sighed. "The wards I put up would have warned us if another sorcerer arrived. They haven't and neither have they been disabled."

"Right, uh, I'll get it." Dave hurried up the stairs. Abigail and Riley tagged along. The young sorcerer opened the door. "Becky, what a surprise."

"Shouldn't be much of a surprise," the young blonde woman outside smiled. "You texted me, after all. Oh, and I did get pizza."

"Great," Dave helped her carry the trio of square boxes down the stairs. "Abigail, Riley, this is Becky my gi- my girl- my-"

"His girlfriend," Becky finished for him.

"I somehow find that harder to believe than the existence of sorcery," Riley whispered so only Abigail could hear him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Abigail Chase," she shook hands with Becky.

"I think I've heard of you before," said Becky "Weren't you part of that Declaration of Independence heist a few years back?"

"Something like that."

As they ate, Dave filled Becky in recent events. "I hope Balthazar's alright," she seemed genuinely worried, "And Ben Gates too."

"Balthazar's a big boy, he can take of himself," said Dave, but he didn't sound like he fully believed it.

Veronica had a half-eaten slice of pizza between her teeth as she held her encantus open in one hand, and scrawled out symbols and formulas on the ground with a piece of chalk. "Dave, could you grind up some more of those dehydrated hen's teeth?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll be right there," Dave hurried off.

"Running around having intrigue makes one hungry," Riley said in his defense, taking his fifth piece.

"I know how you feel," said Becky.

"Really," he glanced at her suspiciously, "Haven't heard about you breaking into the Library of Congress office recently."

"No, that's out of my league, but I did save New York from an army of the undead. Oh, and does that mean you guys really did break into the Library of Congress?" she asked curiously.

"I refuse to answer that question," Riley looked away, "My agent is available to call between five and seven PM every first Monday of the month."

"Alright, that should do it," Veronica looked down at the intricate patterns of chalk, powders, pastes and candles now decorating a twenty-foot circle of the floor. "Nobody step on this, or even sneeze."

"Is this going to bring them back," Abigail sounded skeptical.

"No, but it's a significant step in the right projection. This is going to help me find them. I'm going to send out a signal along the time stream, and any disruptions will bounce back to me."

"A bit like echolocation then." Becky mused.

"Sure," said Veronica, stepping gingerly around a chalk line. "Dave, can you help me with this."

"Um, I never learned this one," Dave admitted.

"That's fine, I'll do everything, you're just going to boost the power and keep the signal from overwhelming me."

"Like a surge protector," Riley said.

"Sure," said Veronica. "Let's get started."

Veronica sat in a space in the center of her arcane chalk art, legs crossed, hands on her knees, eyes closed, breathing slowly. Dave knelt facing her in a circle at the edge of the intricate patterns. He splayed his palms on the stone floor, and bowed so low his forehead nearly touched the floor.

Nothing happened for several minutes.

"Is that it?" Riley commented. "I was expecting some flashing lights or magical gusts of wind, this is just-"

"Magical gusts of wind?" Abigail scoffed. "You've played too much Halo, Riley."

"Halo isn't even about-"

Becky put a finger to her lips, not unkindly.

"But really," Riley whispered, "What if this whole magic thing is a hoax? I mean we saw some crazy, crazy stuff back at the museum, but if I learned one thing from Disney cartoons when I was an impressionable young man it's that alcohol does things to your mind, and even though I hadn't had any champagne yet I was planning on it, and furthermore-"

An eruption of blue flames roared up from the pictograms. They died away within seconds, but Veronica's eyes snapped open. They were like molten gold. She began to chant in a voice far deeper than the one she usually used.

"Riley," said Abigail slowly without looking away, "Perhaps you should stop talking and go sit the corner."

Riley nodded, and followed her instructions to the letter…for almost an hour.

"I was thinking," he told Abigail and Becky, "We've been just waiting here, and we could be doing something more productive. I'll go grab my laptop and find out some more about Horvath, I also wouldn't mind getting out of this tux."

"The eerie ritual wouldn't have anything to do with it," Abigail gestured to the sorcerer's; she had to admit the chanting was getting really annoying. "What about your phone, weren't you bragging about it having, what did you call it, six-pack apps?"

"Yeah, but my computer can do even more, and you brought up the magical stuff."

"I'm just kidding Riley," she smiled. "I've got your back. You go ahead. Bring me back some clothes."

"Um..."

He was halfway up the stairs before Becky chimed in. "Oh, and Riley, you might want to try a search on Drake Stone. He used to be Horvath's apprentice, it might lead somewhere."

"I'll look into that. Thank you ladies, farewell." Riley was gone.

"Is he really as good as he thinks he is?" Becky asked once he left.

"Oh yes," said Abigail. "Better even."

"Do you think he would've stayed if he'd known the ritual would be over this quickly?" Becky mused, as Dave stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans.

"Any luck?" Abigail asked.

Dave shrugged. "You'd have to ask Veronica, I'm just the surge protector."

Veronica was kneading her eyes and breathing heavily. Becky went to help her up, but she was too late. "Did you find them?" she asked instead.

"Yes," said Veronica.

"Great, where are they exactly, and when?" Dave asked.

"I can't say in so many words," Veronica admitted. "I wasn't looking at a map of the time-stream at the time. But yes, I locked onto their signal." Veronica popped open a bottle of water and downed in one long swig.

"Can we bring them back?" Dave sounded hopeful.

"We can certainly try," said Veronica. "I'll get on that in a minute, I just need to catch my breath."

"You look like you need a lot more rest than that," Becky pointed out, concerned. "You look drained."

Veronica shook her head. "The longer we wait, the more likely their relocation will be permanent; now or never, as I've heard it said. Besides, I'm nearly six hundred years old; it isn't like I won't be able to dye a few gray hairs."

"Alright," Dave cracked his knuckles. "We can use the same magic circle, yeah?"

"As long as nobody stepped on it," Veronica shrugged as Dave's phone rang.

"It's my mother," he said, scooping it up from the table where he'd left it outside the circle (magic and technology didn't always agree with each other). "I'd better take this.

"Hello," Dave answered the phone.

"Hello David Stutler, you Prime Merlinian you," said a woman who sounded far too young and sexy to be his mother.

"Who is this?" Dave asked, glancing back at the girls.

"My name is Ysabelle, but you can call me master."

"I really don't have time for this," said Dave, "Where is my mother."

"Right next to your father, literally and metaphorically tied up on the living room couch. Right now I'm making full use of their cable plan's pay-per-view movie capabilities, but perhaps later we'll have a conversation. They've got so many lovely knives in the kitchen. Was one of those sets a wedding present from you perhaps?"

"Who the hell are you," Dave hissed.

"When you're scared at night Dave, you look in your closet for Maxim Horvath," Ysabelle said playfully. "When Maxim Horvath is scared at night, he looks in his closet for me. See you soon." The line went dead.

"What's wrong?" Dave hadn't even realized Becky was next to him.

"There's a new piece on the board," he growled. "She's crazy, she knows sorcerers, and it seems like she's got my parents. Sorry Veronica, but there's been a change of plans."

"Oh by all means," said Veronica, "Go do what you need to. Do you want me to-?"

"No, stay here, bring them back," Dave ordered. "We can't afford to lose Balthazar, not now."

Dave was sprinting out the door by the time Abigail caught up with him. "I'm coming with you," she said. "You seem like the kind of man who needs someone to watch his back."

"I can't let you get hurt or, no offense, slow me down."

"Oh, I can handle myself," Abigail said.

Below, Becky was beginning to feel sick to her stomach. She'd never seen Dave like this. People said assertiveness was sexy, but on him it was just scary. "Do you think I should go with them?" she asked Veronica.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather you stayed," Veronica said, sitting down in her circle. "The ritual requires my full and complete attention. I'll be dead to the world and highly vulnerable."

"But I don't have magic," Becky protested.

"We've got more in common than you might think," Veronica smiled at her. "Hell hath no fury compared to women like us, eh?"

"Next you're going to tell me taking my boyfriend's parents is the worst kind of scorn, right?" Becky sighed. Bu Veronica had already begun to chant. It seemed as though the Sorceress was hovering an inch above the floor.

Becky looked away quickly and went to get another piece of pizza.