Semper Fidelis
Chapter 10
I was late getting back to Harry's place because my timeline had not accounted for driving at thirty miles an hour the entire way. There were a couple more cars than normal parked out on the street but I could not immediately see Elaine as I pulled in and parked my own car. With the fact that something had taken down a full grown yeti nearly right outside Harry's door I did not blame her if she did not just stand around waiting for me in the cold acting like a midnight snack for whatever was doing the killing. I assumed she would have wandered inside the apartment anyway since she knew how to disable the wards and therefore could take advantage of a threshold protection.
I opened the door and got out gingerly. Since you only have one spine you really can't favor it like you can an injured ankle. The formerly wet roadway from the sun beating down on pavement was turning now into a nice sheet of black ice, not thick enough to make a car spin out of control but surely enough to send a current less-than-perky apprentice wizard sliding onto her ass if she got careless. Thankfully the Winter Court boots seemed well suited for such terrain, go figure, so I made it to the door and even down the equally slick steps with only a continued grimace of pain for the entire trip.
As I suspected I sensed the wards were down telling me Elaine, or maybe even Harry was here at the apartment for there were no obvious scenes of carnage outside that something had tripped them. That was good for me because there was no way I pushing open the poorly aligned steel door with my back out of joint so I did the less prideful thing of knocking loudly and waiting for someone to open the door for me. As I assumed in less than a minute I was face to face with Elaine.
Oh my god what happened to you?" She asked with a bit of humor in her voice that really annoyed me as I staggered into the house. I guess some people think it is always a good thing to laugh at another's pain.
"I had a bad run in with a parked car." I said in a strained voice as she stepped fully aside and I made my way toward the roaring fireplace. Heat seemed a really good idea and I slowly pushed a small wooden stool over in front of the dancing flames and then gingerly sat down so I could bake my lower back muscles for a moment in peace. Her smile did not leave her face so I merely closed my eyes to enjoy the heat and not let her get me upset.
She waited patiently for me to settle down before walking around and sitting across from me on the couch. "I was actually talking about the Faerie wardrobe and new hair style." She explained. Good thing I had not answered with a sarcastic comment or I'd be extracting my foot from my mouth right now and feel even worse. I could hear Harry's voice telling me how it was important to think before speaking.
I opened only one eye and oriented it on her. "You can see through the illusion?" I asked confused.
"Obviously." She said with a smile of her own. "But remember I lived for a decade of my life among the Summer Court so this type of attire was fairly common for me. I wore such thing for the majority of my time among the Fae as well."
"With that as a background I also try not to have too many preconceived notions about people I deal with. I find it allows me the chance to judge them on their actions." I knew that last comment was a dig at me for the less than friendly way I had been treating Elaine since she arrived, but she has never really played on the up and up with Harry as far as I could see so I didn't see a reason to give her that same opportunity to play me.
"Yeah we all have those types of crosses to bear." I said in response. "Hell everyone sees me and immediately thinks warlock because of the mistakes I made using magic to try and save the lives of my friends. I don't think I ever will get over paying for that error." Especially not now with my own brother hating me too I thought to myself with a mental sigh of resignation. It certainly placed my feeling of self righteousness in a whole new light.
"Yeah Harry told me about that incident and the choices you made." Elaine said trying to maintain neutrality in her voice even though I could sense an underlying feeling of sympathy. "No one should ever be forced to make such terrible choices for their life, especially not at such a young age where they do not understand the long term repercussions." Her eyes were looking in my direction but not really focused on me. "At least you have the advantage of knowing that your choices had been your own and made at the time with the best of intentions for those you loved rather than something self serving or at the behest of someone stronger than yourself. Not everyone can say that about their own decisions."
We sat in silence for a moment each in our own thoughts as I weighed what she said and knew that Elaine had at least an equally difficult childhood. In fact Harry said if anyone ever informed the White Council that she had been another apprentice of Justin DuMorne then she would probably be executed for merely hiding for all these years.
The heat from the fire had felt good at first as it loosened up the tensed muscles but after those first few minutes that sensation seemed to only make the pain instead increase that much more. "Ow! Crap…Crap… Crap…" I said as I tried to stand and found to my painful disappointment that I couldn't. So instead I fell to my knees and crawled away from the flames with tears of pain flowing freely from my eyes.
I could sense Elaine's concern even though it was hardly the focus of my thoughts. I also knew she had stood up to help me but was unsure what was wrong or what to do. "Lay down." Elaine said in perfect synchronization to the moment I chose to collapsed on one of the thicker throw rugs Harry has lying around the floor of his apartment. It might have looked like I had immediately obeyed her command but the truth was the pain had been too much for me to drag myself any further.
I sensed Elaine step over the top of me and squat down, placing her sitting weight firmly on my own posterior and her hands on my shoulders to keep me still. "Molly do not move." She said looking down at me with a sense of concern and apprehension in her voice. "You have been marked by some sort of mystic symbol. It looks like a three pointed star within in a circle directly in the middle of your lower back. The skin looks red and enflamed and I think this rune is what is causing you all your pain. It is familiar to me but not one I immediately recognize for its power."
I trembled and bit down on my lip, unable to speak at the moment for the pain but sensing that it was dulling as it grew cooler away from the fire or that my body was simply becoming used to it. I sensed Elaine drawing in magic and casting a simple spell of insight to look upon the mark.
"Whatever magic was used to create it or its effect does not show in my sight." She informed me now even more worried for me. "It could be demonic since that might now show up with the spell I cast. But since I don't know what it is so I have no clue on how to break its hold Molly. I could do you worse harm if I tried the wrong thing" She said in an anxious voice.
"Mercedes." I sputtered out between clenched teeth and breathed in really short gasps.
"What?" She asked me confused. "Is that a name of the creaturethat did this to you?"
I drew in as much air as I could to make one more desperate attempt to answer her. "It's not a magic symbol." God it hurt to talk and sucking in air to my diaphragm to do so especially with her sitting on top of me did not make this process any easier. "It's from the hood ornament a Mercedes." I said again as I tried to beat back the pain.
She paused and sat back up a little bit based upon the shift in pressure I felt. "You know what you're right it is." She said with a little hint of relief in her voice. "Did you get hit by a car? Is someone trying to kill you?"
Technically yes to both of those questions I thought. And that was not counting the woman sitting on my back making the pain even that much more apparent to me. "No nothing like that." I said instead. "It's from an accident I had on the way over here."
"Lay still again. Since I know now what it is now I think I can help you with this." Elaine commanded and with her sitting on me and keeping me pinned as easily as Mouse could do I really had no way to argue with her, especially since speaking and even breathing hurt. Instead I just preferred to do the respectable thing and suck in air through my teeth and whimper in pain.
I felt her fingertips roll down my back lightly, tracing the path of my spine as they worked down from my neck to between my shoulders and then to my lower back. Her touch was gentle and thankfully the tips of her fingers were cool so it did not add any pain to what I was already feeling. I had a momentary flash of Harry walking into his apartment and seeing us like this in a rather compromising position which almost made me laugh out loud until the first chuckle made me move and the wave of hot pain flared up from my lower back to my brain again.
"Stop jerking around." She ordered me. "You knocked your spine out of alignment and it's putting pressure on your spinal column." She informed me and I froze as best I could in response. Spinal injuries I knew could lead to paralysis if you did the wrong thing and that was not something I was looking forward to since I hand not yet finished my second decade of life and as a wizard I likely had hundreds of years more of life before me.
"I didn't say tense up either!" She nearly yelled in frustration. "Just lay there still and try to relax and I will see if I can fix this." Sure you relax thinking of yourself as a paralyzed wizard with all the types of enemies Harry seems to bring in our direction. That whole wheelchair motif might be cool for Professor X but it would not impress a troll.
I felt two fingers again, her thumbs by the size of them I guessed, come down on the bones where my neck met my shoulders. The left hand one pushed first, a little downward force into my body followed by a little push higher toward my neck. Then the right thumb did the same on the same vertebrae but on the other side. I could even feel the bone shift ever so slightly inside of me, mostly by the slight lessening of the pain I was feeling, as her left thumb quickly moved down to the next bone and pushed on it as well to keep the first one aligned now back in its proper place.
She did this for each one in turn, shifting them all perhaps two or three millimeters each which may not seem like much but when they are all crunched together compressing your nerve endings you certainly recognize how much of a difference this little space makes. Each one of her touches brought a moment of increased pain that steadily got even larger the lower she went toward where the actual injury was, but with the second push of her right thumb that moment of discomfort gave way to a even greater euphoric feeling of lessening pain after that was so worth enduring.
"Now take as deep a breath as you can and hold it." Elaine said and once again I did so without argument for she obviously seemed to know what it was she was doing. I sucked it in and started to hold it when her left thumb pressed down hard on the next one in line, right where the hood ornament had caught me, and molten fire suddenly erupted all along my back and out to all my nerve endings. "Son of a…" I screamed into the heavy throw carpet but even with that noise I could hear and even feel the last link of my spine pop right back into its proper place.
"There that takes care of the alignment, now I just have to deal with the swelling." She said as I felt the pain endorphins released fully into my body. I've heard they can be as strong as morphine and at the moment I did not doubt that. My breathing became steadier and the unwounded parts of my body began to relax even faster making me feel so giddy that I almost giggled at this sense of painlessness.
In my euphoric stupor I head Elaine chanting but did not sense her drawing any substantive amount of magic into herself. Part of my mind tried to reason out what she was doing but nothing immediately came to mind based on the fog of pleasure I was in. Finally I felt her hands return to my back charged with some sort of cool, yet not cold, energy which she seemed to channel once more right on the spot where I had hurt the most. It was not any wizardly insight that had guided her actions; she had merely used the Mercedes symbol as her target.
Almost immediately the remaining pain drained away, not just got masked or became bearable, but actually drained away as I felt my body heal. Whatever Elaine did felt great, but I knew it had not required much in the way of magic. I was swept along for a few minutes by the feeling and only came back to full conscious though when I felt her weight lift off of my body. I opened one eye and saw her collapse onto the couch looking haggard as if she had just cast powerful magic.
Tentatively I began to sit up, felt no pain in those first movements, and then pushed myself fully to me knees without any discomfort and turned to look at her. She was smiling at her obvious successful results through half closed eyes. I know that exact same look and feeling well. It comes from casting a successful spell.
"What was that you did?" I asked with no disguise of the actual awe in my voice. Face it I knew having Harry for a master is cool, especially if you want to learn how to blow things up or burn them down there is no one I know better. But he was created as a magical battleship whereas I am more like a pleasure yacht. They both swim in the same water but they are not really interchangeable. What Elaine had just demonstrated was something new, something that was magically creative rather than destructive for once.
"The spine alignment was Shiatsu Massage." She said and I knew it was an oriental pressure point massage compared to the more western Swedish massage that was whole hand. Shiatsu was more closely related to acupuncture. "The second part was Reiki." She said with a bemused smile on her face and her eyes now fully closed and relaxed.
"What is that?" I asked never having come across the term in any of my studies.
"It's known in the orient as the Healing Hands." She said in slow words. "A person can focus or enhance their own internal healing or even transfer this energy to another by tapping into their…"
"Mana." I said finishing her statement as the inspiration for what she had done and how she had done it hit me. No wonder Elaine felt so drained like I had after Hisha had me use this force to power one of my illumination spells. Using mana to power a healing spell though made perfect sense.
"My teachers called the energy Chi but yes we are speaking of the very same thing." She said her eyes now opening to look at me. "Obviously you have some experience with this energy as well."
I nodded but my mind was off on other tangents. I placed this into the context of other aspects of my life and quickly figured out this is probably what the scriptures spoke of as a healing touch. It provided the ability to restore damaged parts of the body, and infuse them once more with the primal energy of life itself. This is the very force that had healed the sick, cured the blind, and cast out demons who could not abide its positive touch.
"Do you think I could learn to do this?" I asked her as she watched me with a tired smile.
"It is sensitive magic Molly." She said in confirmation to what I suspected. "With a little guidance you could probably learn to do this as well as your veils which Harry constantly raves about." She said making me blush at this first and second person compliment. "For me this type of spell is a struggle because it is not natural for me to channel that type of energy. But I could feel when I pushed the energy into you that your body seemed to know instinctively how to put it to proper use and did so without any further command from me. It is an absolutely marvelous gift you have Molly and I am envious of the potential it provides you to help others."
I thought about that and smiled. In many ways training with Harry made me feel inferior because my gifts were so different from his. I could not blast through walls or shoot great gouts of flame like he could. And in the White Council that really is how wizards rated each other.
Sure this power would not serve me well in a fight but it certainly would be damn useful after one. I now realized the full potential of how great it would be to heal the bodies, minds, and even souls of others. That last though reminded me of exactly why we were here. If anyone's soul needed healing it was my brother's and if Elaine had just shown me a means to do so then I damn well was going to do it if I could. I owed that to him for the harm I had caused. But of course first I needed to find him.
"You still up for checking out my lead on who is supplying those weapons to the Faerie Court?" I asked seeing that she had not moved much after casting this healing spell. With a groan she sat up straighter and nodded at me knowing as emissaries we were expected to do something.
"Just rest up for a bit I need to cast a tracking spell to find my brother." I said as I got up, happily pain free, and headed for the lab down in the subbasement to get one the crystals Harry stored down there specifically for this type of spell.
"Why are you looking for your brother?" Elaine's voice called after me but I was already making my way down the stairs and did not want to try and hold a conversation by shouting, not when I knew I'd be right back and we could do it face to face.
I also did not bother illuminating the whole workshop up by lighting any more candles but relied instead on the minimal light streaming in from upstairs and of course my familiarity of where Harry stored things to guide me right to them. I admit I almost freaked out when I caught a glimpse of that stupid skull that Harry calls Bob sitting on its shelf because of the odd way light seems to glow in its eyes if hit from just the right angle. Like I have said before Harry is rather odd about some things and the skull is just one manifestation of this. I grabbed one of the crystals from out of the Tupperware container that held them, not really caring about which color this would turn out to be, and headed back up the stairs.
Elaine had settled back into the couch once more gathering her strength but her eyes were wide open and focused on the crystal in my hand. "You said we have to look for your brother?" She asked again as if I would have forgotten so quickly. I got to give her this she is persistent when she is looking for answers.
"Yeah he is gifted in metal working." I explained as I pulled his comb out of my pocket and sat down Indian style in front of her. "He started a new job recently to help pay my father's medical bills and his new boss seems to think it is normal to be paying him in ancient gold coins. Maeve offered me similar ones as her agent today also." I explained.
"I also found a newly made steel or iron dagger hidden in his room that was stamped with his initials." I said wishing I had thought to bring it along instead of leaving it in his room. It really would have come in handy but I was too focused on my pain to be thinking that clearly at the time. "While none of this is absolute guaranteed proof of his involvement with these weapon shipments I'd have to say it certainly seems a good possibility considering how conveniently all of these pieces fit together."
"I would in fact be surprised to find out he wasn't based upon what you have just told me." Elaine agreed. "The Faerie Courts like to focus on the family members of people they have an underlying interest in. It usually provides them some sort of leverage over their actual target."
"Yeah I figured it was likely something like that." I said as I wrapped a few strands of Daniel's hair around the crystal and tied them off. That is not as easy to do as it might sound both because of how tiny they are to manipulate and the desire not to break them pulling the knot tight. I also had to loop a leather strap around the center of the crystal too so that it could swing freely and point us toward Daniel's location.
"Then you understand that their interest in him is to give them leverage over you." She said to which I merely nodded and stayed focused on my task at hand. "Or to indirectly provide them even further leverage over Harry." That of course gave me pause.
While a small part of me liked to think I was the one who was of interest to whatever powers were behind this plot I knew that Elaine's second declaration was more likely the correct one in this case. The Fae had been interested in Harry for a long time, especially those of the Winter Court. The fact that Harry had already hung himself out on a limb with his own White Council for one of the Carpenter children was a detail they would have been interested in. Who's to say that the Fae had not learned from this example and decided to use this proven method to get what they wanted from him as well? Could this whole attack upon the Summer Court merely have been a means to draw Harry fully into their clutches? Of course then that meant my presence here as Winter's Emissary threw an unexpected wrench into these plans. Unless, that is, they now planned to use me as bait as well.
"Probably, but we are talking about my brother so it's not like I can ignore the situation." I said tossing that concern to the side and believing that everything would take care of itself if I stuck to my responsibilities. From the corner of my eye I could see that Elaine literally bit her lip to stifle off any response she planned to make.
I cast the tracking spell as I had been trained by Harry to do and my genetic bond with my brother combined with my sensitive magic to make the spell that much stronger for me than any other I had cast before. I could not only sense the direction Daniel lay but I also knew roughly how far away he was as well. Most importantly I could also sense that he was underground at the moment too, deep underground.
I turned to look at Elaine. "You are not claustrophobic are you?" I asked her understanding what this almost assuredly meant.
"A little, why?" She responded.
"Because I think we are headed to Undertown." I said standing up smoothly and gracefully from my crossed legged seat. That Reiki stuff really works and I had to get her to teach it to me.
"What is Undertown?" She asked me hesitantly.
"It's like another whole city beneath the streets of Chicago." I explained as I tried to think of what I should bring along if heading underground. I'd have to start with my glow stick powered flashlight that I had invented. It was really nothing more elaborate than removing the batteries and switch component from a real flashlight and stuffing activated glow sticks into the chamber but the light it created and shaped with the plastic lens was almost as strong as the battery operated kind of flashlight so served my purpose well.
"You mean the sewer system?" She asked disturbing my planning process with her questions.
"No." I said. "The sewers occasionally provide access but Undertown is really a combination of older tunnels like the ones the University of Chicago used when building the A Bomb and lots of older buildings that have sunk into the ground over the centuries this city has stood here." Okay Harry also said there are a lot of nasties from the Nevernever that hang out down there also so I need something as a deterrent. Of course he had explained their existence as a deterrent against me going there but I figured he had never counted on me going after family on a rescue mission so he would eventually understand. But faced with things from the Nevernever I guess a couple of boxes of iron tacks for things chasing me and that small iron crowbar Harry keeps in the basement for thing in front of me would serve my purposes.
"Wait a minute." Elaine said. "You are telling me that entire buildings sink into the ground in Chicago and no one notices or cares?" She asked me with a tone of unbelief I had heard and even uttered before myself.
"It doesn't happen all at once." I said. "Well occasionally I guess it does happen all at once but those are the exception to the general rule. Chicago was built on a swamp so the building and roads around here sink a little bit every year which is why people don't really notice this is happening. They just sort of build another level on top of the existing ones and go about their business." I explained matter-of-factly hoping she would let me concentrate on the more important matters at hand.
I looked over longingly at Fidelacchius sitting on the mantle and wished I could bring it along. The Sword of Faith would be a great asset but until I was approved to wield it I could do more harm than good by taking it along. But that did not mean I couldn't bring my own training sword along. While it was only made of wood I knew it had limited versatility, but I suspected that Elaine might agree that beating on someone or something with even a dull sword is better than no weapon at all. And hey it would be a handy wooden stake for a Black Court vampire if we crossed paths too.
"How can people not notice their entire city is sinking? Are you people in Chicago totally nuts or what?" Elaine asked me while now to the point of sitting on the edge of the couch and waving her arms around. I guess she was more than a little claustrophobic and this was bothering her. I was sorry for that but I had not selected my brother's location or made her the Summer Emissary so it's not like any of this was my fault.
"You mean like how people fail to also notice zombies, vampires, and magical battles that take place in the city streets around them?" I asked sarcastically with an overblown smile for emphasis of my point before I went to collect the various items now on my mental list. Seeing her mouth hanging agape and moving to try and offer a reasonable counterpoint to my argument was actually funny.
While I was also back in the subbasement I picked up a few of the universal reliable items every wizard should carry that Harry always bragged about. This included a few sticks of thick playground chalk in various neon colors, he had gotten them at a back to school sale at Walmart two months ago, salt, always good for a quick protective circle against the undead, and finally a couple sports bottles filled with my favorite energy drink. It was not as good as an actual magic potion of endurance but the mortal drink stayed potent for months compared to just a single week so I traded convenience for a reduction in power.
I made it back up the stairs and found Elaine standing in the same spot I had left her in with most of the same look of confusion on her face, sans the big mouth bass imitation. "Would you mind driving so I can focus on the tracking spell?" I asked her as I placed everything into my backpack for easy carry. Faerie clothes as scant on convenient deep pockets it seems.
"Sure why not?" She responded with a resigned sigh as we headed out the apartment door. This time I opened and closed it just to prove to myself that I was back in full form.
We did not talk much on the first part of the drive except for me to offer directions of when to turn and so forth. I made it look like I was heavily concentrating on the tracking spell but in truth I was really trying to hide the fact that I could sense how scared Elaine was by our destination. It would not have taken a sensitive wizard to see that they way she gripped the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles had turned white from a lack of blood flow meant she was dealing with internal emotional issues. Of course being a sensitive gave me an even deeper insight into what she was feeling. It was nothing less than pure unbridled terror combined with a hint of panic and the only thing holding her together at the moment seemed to be the remaining shreds of her pride in desiring not to fall apart in front of me.
I originally hoped that as we drove if I let her brood on her own issues she would be able to get a grip on herself, grow stronger, and push these fears down. But as I watched it seemed that the exact opposite seemed to be happening within her. I noted her eyes began to dart around in all directions, like a scared animal looking for an escape route, but when she caught me staring she tried to cover this up by comments about the different traffic styles of Chicago drivers. Finally when I sensed she was going to break I figured that maybe talking was the better solution that letting her brood. That and of course I had magic at my disposal as well. Hell she had healed my body an hour ago so it's only fair to return the favor.
"So Elaine you said you are a little claustrophobic." I started figuring no reason to beat around the bush but at the same time I pushed gently calming thoughts away from me and toward her. "Is there some sort of story behind this that I should be aware of?"
The normal person would have probably have shrugged the comment off as a means to not look even weaker but that type of action did not fit Elaine's profile. Instead she seemed happy to open the tap and let it all come tumbling out in a rush.
"Remember I told you yesterday that DuMorne had made me his thrall." She said as she drove on into the night and I tried to lend her spirit strength. "What I did not fully explain was that the process he used to do this involved magically inspired fear. He cast a series of spells upon me that brought my deepest fears to the forefront of my mind while at the same time proclaiming himself as my only possible savior. It's probably similar to the way the Red Court saliva works. It attracts you to them even though in deep in your mind you know they want to kill you. I do not have a full memory of these events, or at least my conscious mind has blocked them all away, but when I fall asleep I still get glimpses of them."
I wanted to say something supportive but the fact that she was telling me how the fear he had instilled within her to break her will was still causing her night terrors and mental anguish two decades later was like a condemnation on my own actions with my friends. I wondered if this is what it was like today for Nelson and Rosie, my own friends that I no longer had time for that I had broken with magical fear also. And I wondered if this is what life was like for Daniel as well.
"The problem with magically induced fear is that there is no way to ignore it." She continued to explain. "I'm claustrophobic only because some of DuMonte's evil dreams had me slowly sinking quicksand, or trapped in a dark metal box, or the worst one I remember was being buried alive inside my own coffin." She said with a visible shudder. The good news was that talking about it combined with my mental influences seemed to be bringing her back from the edge of panic. The bad news was it was her story was doing nothing for my own self esteem.
"Claustrophobia was of course only one of his mental tortures, though I think I was more susceptible to that one than many of the others." She said trying to smile. "I have similar issues with open spaces, heights, darkness, you name it."
"But you seem to be able to control these things. Hell I've seen and felt you fight me when I sucker punched you yesterday instead of fleeing or collapsing." I said hoping to give her more strength as I boosted the security and confidence vibes a bit.
"Not really. I fought because fleeing was not really an option. Had you not been between me and the door, or had a good shot at my back while I tried to pry open Harry's stupid door I'd have run away as quickly as possible." She said. "I'm really a complete basket case. I've talked to four shrinks and all of them suggested I check myself into a facility where I can get proper rest and treatment for my fears."
"Maybe that would actually help you." I offered and tried to sound supportive rather than judgmental.
She turned and looked at me. "Do you really think a person with claustrophobia does well in a straight jacket?" She actually tried to make a joke which I took as a positive sign, but while we both smiled at it neither of us really found it funny.
"Is it getting better over time? Do you think you are mastering it?" I asked hoping that the old saying about time heals all wounds was a correct one in her case.
"Not really." She said. "In truth those are only the situational fears. For the most part I conqueror them by avoiding these types of situations completely, except in cases like this one. I have a whole series of other fears that make those look easy to deal with by comparison." She offered me as she turned left where I pointed.
"What else is there?" I asked trying to add some light humor to the situation. "Ladders? Black cats? The number thirteen?"
This time it was her polite smile at my bad joke. "No more like people in general and specifically those in any position of authority." She explained as she pulled the car to a stop in the parking lot I had directed her to.
"You mean people like the White Council." I voiced aloud and she nodded. Not that I blamed her for this particular phobia mind you. It's hard not to find a group of old men and women who want to cut your head off as an example to others not to be rated as just slightly over authoritative compared to your average Walmart greeter. "I understand." I said.
"I doubt it." She responded. "Do you know I have not opened up and been intimate with anyone since before DuMorne basically raped my mind?" She said with a chilling tone.
"You're kidding." I said. "You have not had sex in more than twenty years?"
"No I said I have been unable to open myself up to anyone." She answered. "I have had sex a few times but it ended up being more of going through the motions than actually enjoying it. And if the man took charge I tended to nearly freeze up. In part that is why I sought Harry out. I was hoping…" Her voice trailed off.
"You were hoping an old lover could connect you with that part of yourself once more. Maybe that was the key you needed to get your life back together" I finished for her and she merely nodded.
"But then I saw that picture he kept of Susan and the way he loved her and I could not go through with it." She said. "I could not try and put him in that type of situation. I cannot do that to him, bring all that baggage, after all the harm I caused him when we were kids."
"So see you are not afraid of everything." I tried to comfort her. "You put Harry's emotions ahead of your own."
"No I didn't." She countered. "I looked at the way he loved her, remembered it was the way he had loved me. I immediately realized that if I tried and he rejected me that I would be completely crushed. When all you really have left is hope you try not to lose that too."
There was really not much that I could say in response to a statement like that. We sat for a moment in silence as I considered what Daniel might also be going through and wondered if his life was every bit as terrible as Elaine claimed her own to be. I hoped it was not because from an outsider's point of view Daniel was the high school senior that every guy wanted to be. He was the top athlete and even currently dating a college cheerleader. For teenage boys it really does not get any better than that.
But had someone asked me a day ago I would have though Elaine's life to be a pretty cool deal also. She stayed out of the attention of the White Council, something I might have killed to be able to do myself, had her magic, and was running the Paranet organization that Harry had set up for lower powered individuals with the magical gift. Physically she was still relatively beautiful and I had even heard Carlos, the west coast Warden counterpart to Harry, had asked her out numerous times. She had told him no which led me to believe that her tastes ran even higher than arguable one of the hottest beefcake Wardens of all time.
Now though I was seeing that all I thought about Elaine's life was totally wrong. Where I thought I knew a confident and strong wizard, in reality she was a fear beleaguered woman who saw herself with few prospects and was plagued by the nightmares from a mentally abused adolescence. If that was Elaine then how wrong could I be about my brother Daniel?
"Is this the place?" Elaine asked me drawing my attention back to the here and now.
I looked at the crystal in my hand and saw it was pointing more downward than straight ahead now making me sure we would be making our way into the Undertown somewhere around here. I turned my eyes out the windshield of her car and saw the sign on the building directly in front of us was confirmation that the driving part of our journey had indeed come to an end. It read simply: University of Chicago, Department of Physics. Sixty years ago in the tunnels beneath this building the greatest minds of the time accomplished what only God had done before them; they had determined how to split the atom.
"This is it." I acknowledged and stepped out of the car. I was happy to note that Elaine followed suit with almost no hesitation. While her emotions said she was hardly pleased with what we had before us to do, I was no longer afraid she was going to freeze up or flee on me either.
I held the crystal up in front of me and it pointed me not toward the main entrance before us but instead around the side of the building to a pair of steel doors that had once covered the coal chute where the old steam system for the building had kept the facility warm. There was a metal crossbar welded across these doors supposedly to secure them for safety sake, but a closer examination showed that this bar had been sliced neatly through by something that had left a gap no larger than the thickness of a fingernail. If a person were not actively looking for it they would never know the doors were still serviceable.
I looked around to assure myself there was no one in sight. I did not think letting college students see an entrance to the Undertown was a good idea as a place for a convenient make out session. Satisfied no one was around I pulled open the right hand door for Elaine to step through and closed it as we both made our way down the steps. It was pitch black with the door shut so I fumbled around in my backpack until I found my glow stick flashlight and aimed its beam down the well trod steps.
"I'm glad you decided not to use fire." Elaine said noting the walls of the small room we were in. "All this old coal dust would likely explode if exposed to flame." She said. That was a new one for me. I thought coal merely burned like charcoal briquettes in a grill. So fire spells were out of my arsenal until we cleared this room at least.
The positive side to the coal dust on everything though was that it allowed us to see the trail of footprints leading from the chute through a gap in the wall that led down a dark tunnel. Most of these prints were thankfully human shaped and the majority wearing sneakers though at least one set was barefoot. There were some outliers though in the group. At least one set had been made by some sort of webbed foot, another set was generally human shaped but at least two feet in length, and finally a trail of what looked like dried slime such as a slug would make was also evident, providing of course that the slug in question were at least four feet tall that is. Did I mention Undertown is not a place for the faint of heart?
The broken passage through the wall deposited us into what appeared to be some of the brick walled tunnels that had served as a science lab six decades ago. While the coal remains were confined to the previous room enough dust had been left on the shoes of some of those who passed through, and the owner of the two foot long feet, to show us which of the three tunnels branching off to proceed down next. This was of course further magically confirmed by my seeking crystal.
The glow stick flashlight was very effective in showing us what lay down the direction we were headed and some pretty disgusting piles of things lying in the tunnel to avoid as well. I will not sicken you with accurate details on how bad some parts of this underground pathway smelled but suffice to say I really missed the Irish Spring fresh soap smell of the Summer Court at that moment.
Thankfully there was nothing lurking in the darkness waiting to jump out at us. Elaine did keep her taser chain ready and I had my own shield bracelet hand raised and ready to cast if the need arose. But other than some old cobwebs in the highest corners of these passageways they were all free from anything dangerous that either of us could sense.
The tunnel did hook hard to the left at one point and after this turn I could see further down that a light of some sort was burning brightly. It had to be fairly intense based on the distance involved so it was obviously not someone just holding a candle or a flashlight. I figured a burning forge though might be pretty bright so with a silent nod between us we continued on directly toward the light, following the crystal that pointed right at its glowing heart.
Still thirty yards away there was now so much light that I felt safe to cover my flashlight and put it away. I figured there was no reason announcing our presence if someone happened to glance up this tunnel and see our light. I could also tell that the glow ahead was coming out of a fairly sizable room or chamber ahead and that there were at least two voices alternately speaking to each other though I could only hear their mumbling, not actually make out any of the words they said.
We each separated to opposites sides of the tunnel and used the little patches of darkness along the walls to help to hide us. I considered throwing down a veil as an added precaution but I did not want to waste magic or tire myself out when I might require my strength more later.
Elaine stumbled over a loose stone just before we reach the opening in the room and one of the pair of voices from inside rose in seeming response. I could not make out everything that was said but I was certain the word 'check' had been part of the sentence. Well if something was coming to check out the corridor maybe it was better if we surprised them by stepping into the room first. Harry always said the first seconds of combat are usually the most decisive so there was no reason to give away our element of surprise.
With a quick nod to Elaine I rushed the entrance to the chamber and jumped though. "Ha!" I said because I really could not come up with what the correct phrase to use when jumping out of the darkness at someone you did not know is except for 'ha!'
Yeah that element of surprise really only lasts for an instant, and it can be shortened even further when you find yourself facing something you were totally unprepared for; or for that matter two somethings. The first was a troll, a rather big troll, nine feet tall at least, though thankfully he was sitting down at the present moment and not coming toward us. I realized in that instant it had been his two foot long footsteps I had observed in the coal bin but been unable to identify until now. Yeah I really got to get Harry to teach me tracking or some other way to figure out such things before I almost end up tripping over them in the future; providing of course I had a future.
The second individual though was even more surprising than a nine foot troll, which I must admit is a pretty good trick in and of itself. He was a short, bald man of oriental features and wearing an orange robe. He turned from staring at the chess pieces laid out on the table before him and looked at me just as the troll's head swung my way and flashed a rather sinister set of long sharp teeth in my direction also.
"Ah here is the girl I have been telling you about." Hisha said with a smile and seemingly calm word to the troll grinning at us.