Author's Note:
A moment of silence for two thirds of fan fiction I lost when I purged my computer to fix an error (I didn't back it up properly). I had drafts of some these chapters so I am starting from scratch.
If you just found this story for the first time, have fun and I hope you like it. If you followed or liked this story, thank you.
Chapter 13
When they arrived the agents at the Vegas mythical office were amazed by the sight of them. It was unprecedented to see so many actual field agents. The shook hands with Hotch and one even had a copy of Rossi's book for him to sign. They mythical agents offered to help them in any way possible. It was becoming embarrassing and after a couple minutes of this Rose ordered them back to work.
Hotch looked to Rose. "I may be king but you're still in charge here," he observed.
"As a knight this is my territory to protect," she said.
They entered the conference room of maps. Morgan looked at them.
"So where do we go from here?"
As if to answer the question an agent surfaced.
"Sorry to bother you," she said quickly "but this report just came through from the non-magical law enforcement scanner." She handed the slip of paper to Rose and left.
"A private archive of medieval literature was vandalized," Rose said.
"It the collector a wizard or magician?" Rossi asked
"Careful about the word magician, witch or wizard is preferred" Rose said. "The person is mortal, Miles Emerin. Lives in a residential area and is currently out of town."
"Anything stolen?" Morgan asked.
"There are no other details about it. We're lucky medieval is in there."
Reid looked at the message. "Guys Miles Emerin could be a variations of more Welsh spelling of Merlin."
Rose turned to Hotch. "What do you suggest we do?"
"What we usually do, split up," Hotch said. "Morgan and Rossi look around area and question the neighbors about suspicious activity. J.J., Prentis, and Rose will look at the crime scene. Garcia and I will go to the regular field office to look for information there while Reid works from down here. Any questions?"
Rose smiled and the rest of agents nodded.
"We'll reconvened down here in two hours."
…
Morgan drove in their regular van with Rossi in the front passenger seat.
"So refresh my memory," Rossi said. "What is the difference between a magician and a wizard?"
"Penn and Teller are magicians," Rose said. "Slight-of hand artists. People who pretend to do magic but don't."
"Are there any real wizards who practice magic?" Prentiss asked.
"Only a few because magic messes with electricity. The two energies don't get along so you won't see any wizards on sound stages. That's the basic answer."
"So getting back to the case, could this guy be a wizard but not tell anyone?" J.J. asked.
"No, he'd show up on our maps," Rose said.
They arrived at the basic two-story home. Rossi waved his badged to the patrolman.
"Odd place to keep an archive."
"An archive can be any shape or size," Prentis said as they looked at her. "During my teen years abroad I may have stumbled upon temperature controlled rooms looking for the wine cellars with my friends," she said guiltily.
The officer in charge greeted them. "Mind if I ask why the FBI is interested in this case of vandalism?"
"The material has some international ties," Rose said easily.
The officer seemed to buy it.
"Have you spoken to any possible witnesses yet?" Rossi asked.
"Nothing has come of it so far."
"Then we can take over the investigation from here," Rossi said.
"Okay then," he said. "Frankly I have better things to do than hunt down the perpetrator of some smashed boxes."
"But first have spoken with the home owner?"
"We can't get ahold of Miles Emerin. It was the silent alarm that routed directly to the police station. According to his answering service he is traveling without a phone on some nature quest."
The agents exchanged some uneasy looks.
The officer sensed this.
"Nothing else was stolen or out of place. I don't think there is any reason for concern."
"Okay, thank you officer," Morgan said.
The officer and his patrol men left with crime scene tape still hung up.
Rose then took charge.
"Morgan, and Rossi do as Hotch said. J.J., Prentis, and I will search the scene and no I don't think that guy was cursed to say that."
Morgan looked to J.J. and Prentis. "Stay close to her."
All three women glared at him.
"We can handle it Morgan," Prentis said.
Rossi and Morgan walked down the sidewalk
Rose went to the front entrance pealed back the crime scene tape. "We stay together and analyze the place as though it were an active scene. Cover corners."
Rose opened the door and held gun out. The ring on her thumb glowed purple. "No magic has taken place here. So we don't need to go into knight mode."
There was a slight sigh as Prentis and J.J. still weren't comfortable with being considered knights.
As the officer said, nothing looked out of place. It was also a very modern looking home to house an archive. They went down to the basement and saw the mess.
The boxes that were once neatly stored were in ruins. The contents were thrown around recklessly and quickly breaking down after being under precise conditions.
Wearing gloves Prentiss began to sort the contents. "All of this is about Sir Gowain and the Green Knight. I think I might have read that in college."
J.J. began to count as she looked around. She noticed there were still some boxes on the shelf while there seemed to be more on the ground.
"Something on your mind J.J.?" Rose asked.
"My husband Will, once took me on a tour of what they were doing to preserve the documents New Orleans. It sounded dull until he showed me stuff about his lineage and the fact that these things could be folding vaults."
Rose picked up on train of thought. "There are too many wrecked documents here," she joined J.J. in looking for a latch of some sort and found one that opened A through F.
Inside where several shelves had been moved make room for the remains of Ambrose Emerin, in green camouflage holding his head.
"I can't always sense mythical creatures with my magic," Rose said slowly.
Then they could hear yelling from up above. It was Morgan and Rossi.