Chapter 3:
We ride back to the city in silence. I am actually amazed how far out we went. I'm not 100% sure of the distance, as the odometer on my car gave up long ago, but it's pretty far. Maybe Mr. Otterton really wanted to be found; or this is more of Karma's doing. I have no idea and I have other questions that are weighing heavily on my mind.
Carrots sits in the passenger seat, her head against the window as she stares blankly at the dashboard. I had made the decision that she was in no shape to drive back in the forest.
"We need to report it to the police," she says, breaking the silence.
"I would prefer to tell Mrs. Otterton first," I reply. "Telling the police would bring trouble onto us."
"But they all deserve better than a shallow grave Nick!" she exclaims at me. "Emmitt deserves better."
"I agree, they do; I'm sure they'll be found by a hiker or something before long." I glance over at her. I suspect they'll be found before the day is out, but I don't voice that to her. I mean, how do you say, "Hey, you know the legendary goddess Karma? Yeah, she's real and will make sure your godfather will be found by some hapless hiker."
"How can you be so sure?" she asks me.
I shrug. "It's the way of these things. But who would you rather your godmother hear it from, you or some hapless coworker of yours?"
I could feel her eyes on me. "I guess you're right. She should hear it from me."
I nod as the city starts to form around us once again.
"I get the feeling you don't like cops much," she says.
How do I explain to this rabbit about things that probably happened before she was even born? It's not like I blame them on her per se, but I have yet to see a cop act in a fashion that has raised their standing in my book. Most of them are little more than state paid thugs with a badge and a gun. "We all don't sit around a fire singing Kumbaya, Carrots," I say attempting to deflect.
"No, no I guess we don't." She doesn't press any further thankfully, taking the way out of that conversation that I offer her. "What do you think killed Emmett?"
I sigh. "He was killed to fuel a very powerful spell," I explain. "The soul is one of the greatest forms of magical energy in existence. It can't fully be destroyed no matter what happens."
"Could he be brought back?" she asks. I can hear the edge of hope in her voice. I know exactly what she feels and why she is asking.
I tense; he could, but that would be necromancy, and there are few things that a wizard could do that would get him hunted down and killed faster than raising a dead mammal. "I'm sorry Judy; I'm many things but a god isn't one of them," I answer her. Besides, what would be brought back wouldn't necessarily be her godfather. The souls on that field were twisted and tortured. They needed to be laid to rest not tortured further by being brought back into the land of the living. That's not even considering whether or not their bodies could be made to support life again.
The rest of the drive to my parking garage passes in silence. I can see her nose twitching out of the corner of my eye as I pull into my parking space. My aging car seemingly lets out a mechanical groan as the ignition is turned off. I sigh quietly; at least it made it back to the city. The last time that I'd had to have it towed to my mechanic from the middle of nowhere it had cost me more than I wanted to think about.
"Couldn't we have driven to her building?" she asks.
"Sorry Carrots, this way I won't get a parking ticket," I say with a wink to her as we get out of the car.
I honestly can't help but smile at the glare she shoots me. It's like a cute angry ball of fluff with the stare of a pissed off tiger. We lock the doors of my car and start to walk out of the parking garage. Her demeanor is pretty quick to change; maybe my poking at her didn't really phase her that much?
"Nick, ummm…" she starts. I can see she's fighting to keep from wringing her paws nervously. "Will you go with me to…well, you know?"
"I will," I simply say. This isn't my first time informing a loved one that I found a body. Hell, wouldn't even be the first time I've had to deal with the police over it. "Don't they train you at the academy for this?" I ask.
She nods. "It's a brief class; typically it's done by a shift supervisor or a district chief."
My heart weighs a bit heavier for her. There's really nothing I can say that will make this easier. We walk in silence from the parking garage to her godmother's building. The sun has descended from his zenith and now the streets of the city are cast in shadows. I look up at the sky and its various painted hues of orange and blue.
I notice as we enter the building that the wolves have been replaced with a rhino and a warthog.
"Evenin' Miss Hopps," the rhino says respectfully to her. She nods at them and keeps on going; neither comment on my following her to the elevators. Perhaps they've been sparring partners of hers at one time or another as well. OR maybe the day shift warned them that I might come back; either way I decide it's better not to question it at the moment.
"Do you think we can take the elevator?" she asks and I nod in acceptance. Besides, if we get stuck then we delay what's about to happen. On the ride back up, the elevator flickered and groaned; in some way it mimicked the emotional feeling inside the car. When we stepped out the car let out an almost audible sigh as the door slid back shut.
Maybe it was my imagination or maybe it was actually there, but there seemed to be a pall cast over the floor. I study the rabbit as we walk down the hall lit by electric lights. They would flicker every time I walked past. Her ears are laid down her back and she wrings her paws in front of her.
We stop in front of Mrs. Otterton's door. I watch as her paw shakily presses the door bell button and wait. The bell itself can be faintly heard through the hard wood of the door. She briefly looks up at me. I give her what I hope is a comforting smile.
" Good evening, Miss Hopps." Fifi's eyes narrow ever so slightly as they shift to me. "Mr. Wilde." The way she says my last name would be about the same way as someone would spit out sewage water.
" Fifi," Fluff greets her as I remain quiet. "We need to talk to Olivia."
" Certainly," Fifi says as she stands back and pulls the door open for us. Much to my surprise, she doesn't even try to shut it on my tail.
" Fifi, who was…" Mrs. Otterton starts as she walks into the foyer. I watch her face fall; she knows she's about to get some bad news. "Not here in the front hall; come," she says as she turns and walks deeper into the apartment.
The apartment is vast and grand, everything that I would expect from a multi million dollar tycoon. The couch I sit on in her living room would probably pay the rent on my office for seven or eight months. It's plush and arguably one of the most comfortable things I have sat on in…. Well, ever. Maybe if I had been a florist or followed my father and been a magician I could have had nice things like this.
My attention is pulled away from my comfortable seat when Mrs. Otterton breaks the silence. "You found him?" she asks, her voice cracking ever so slightly .
Judy nodded and looked down. "I'm sorry."
" Where…. Where is he?" she asks, her voice cracking once more .
" In a field east of here," I answer as Judy looks up at me. "The police will be contacting you in a day or so to identify the body."
" I…. see," Mrs. Otterton says softly. "I…" She cuts herself off and looks away; her shoulders lift slightly as she tries to keep her composure. "I suppose your want more pay Mr. Wilde?" she asks.
" No Ma'am, I haven't worked through your generous retainer yet."
" I...I…" She swallows as she holds back the tears. "I need to be alone," she says as she stands up and leaves the room in a hurry. The mournful wail that erupts from deeper in the apartment tears at my heart. The slamming of a door cuts off the rest.
I hesitate slightly before placing a paw on Judy's shoulder. She breaks again, maybe even worse than out in the field. Her body is racked with her sobs as she turns and buries her face into my chest. I gently place my paw on her back, letting her cry it out.
Losing a loved one is one of the worst things about our mortal lives. If truth be told, even the fey have a hard time when one of their own passes; they're supposed to be immortal, but the old adage of "if it breathes it can die" holds true even for them.
I am honestly uncertain about her. She seems oddly okay with me seeing her this vulnerable; I don't know if it's because she's comfortable around me or if I'm just the closest mammal to her. Not that she doesn't have a right to feel the way she does at the moment; it's just odd. Not uncomfortable odd, just different I suppose.
I gently run my paw pad up and down her back as I look down at her. My paw covers most of her back and I carefully avoid her tear drop shaped tail. My grandfather would have my hide if I touched it without permission.
Her crying slowly stops yet she doesn't pull away. I look up and out of the large floor to ceiling windows at the darkening sky. I can feel the disapproving eyes of Fifi on me but I don't care. If Judy is comfortable who am I to complain; I wonder if this is why Karma told me to be nicer to her.
I'm not sure how long we sit like this, but the sky darkened even more. It's at this time that my stomach lets its needs be known with a somewhat angry growl, which was mere seconds echoed by one of her own. It had been a busy and stressful day and neither of us had stopped to get a bite to eat since the muffins this morning, and most of hers had ended up as a projectile to my face.
" So, ummm, how about we go grab a bite to eat?" I ask as I look out the window. I could feel her shift and tense slightly. She pulls out her phone and looks at the time.
" Sweet cheese and crackers! Nick, I'm sorry, I would love to go to dinner but I'm late and really need to go," she says rapidly as she slips away from me and out the door .
Needless to say she has the dash part of dine and dash down pat. Fifi glares at me from the corner and I know my time in the apartment is through. I sigh as I walk out of the apartment; for the first time since waking up this morning I am alone. The rabbit is gone; hell, I'm not even sure if she's going to show back up in the morning or not. Maybe she had a hot date that she was late to, I think to myself.
I eye the elevator and, deciding not to risk getting stuck in it this late at night, take the stairs down. Judy was right; it was a lot of stairs I would hate to have to go up, but the trip down was uneventful enough. A part of me had hoped to take her to Finnick's, but now the idea of eating there alone sours my stomach. Maybe Karma was right, having a new friend would be nice.
I step out of the building and onto the sidewalk the hustle and bustle of downtown, which had now died to the almost early subdued nightlife. The traffic is still heavy, but not nearly like it is during the day. I decide to head home instead of having a steak sandwich at Finnick's, the expense suddenly not seeming worth it, and instead opt for another Chef Howlardee night.
My mind reels as I think over the day. You'd think, what with being Zootopia's only wizard, finding a mass grave would be my bread and butter, but it's not; while I put on a stoic appearance, it sickens me. " Never let them see that they get to you ," my father once told me. He was a traveling stage magician with no real magic to his name. Rejection and ridicule followed him throughout his days in this mortal coil.
As my mind reels over past and present, my paws chew up the distance from downtown to my humble abode. It almost seems like a lifetime ago that I'd left this, my fortress of solitude, to go out and face the day and the rabbit. My keys unlock the door and I step inside. I snap my fingers with just a small outpouring of my will and the fireplace and candles burst alight.
I undo the knot of my tie and drape it over the back of the couch as I pass by to the food preparation area. It's not much really, just a piece of butcher block held up by some milk crates and a sink that's held up more by the plumbing than anything. I reach up blindly to a shelf over my head and grab a can at random. It doesn't really matter to me at the moment what it is, as I'm eating more to keep by body functional than for any real enjoyment.
The snap of pressure equalizing and the grinding of the can opener can be heard in the room as I mindlessly open the can and dump the contents into one of the pots. I could have just as easily warmed my meal in the can with just a small outpouring of my will, but there is solace in the mundane aspect of warming it over the fire.
Then it hit me, literally in fact, as Karma smacked the dented silver bowl from earlier across the back of my skull: I fucked up.
"You stupid, stupid boy!" Karma admonishes me as I suddenly find myself pinned to the opposite wall, quite unable to move. "YOU are supposed to protect the bunny!" she fumes at me. "Just HOW were you planning on doing that from a JAIL CELL?!"
It's an odd sensation, being smacked over your head and then flung across your hovel with nary a finger laid upon you. I honestly don't recommend you try it. I can't answer her, since it's all I can do to keep breathing; such is the power that holds me to the wall. Honestly, Darth Vader has little on Karma. I can't even feel the floor under my feet any more. I can't move, seeing as how my face is pressed into the wall.
"Do you know how hard it was for me to convince the responding officers that the bowl didn't exist?" Karma growls as she stalks toward me. I swallow nervously and suddenly was let go. Ifall to the floor.
" What bowl?" I wheeze out. She spins at that, glaring at me, and suddenly my nose is pressed into the silver bowl I'd used to cast the finding spell earlier.
" That bowl,": she growls as me. I'm not sure if she sees the sudden understanding in my eyes or not, but now I realize the gravity of my mistake. "What happened?"
I lay it out for her. Everything from that morning forward, of Judy's lack of belief then the wonder in her eyes as I opened her world. Of the fear that I might have murdered her godfather along with 91 other mammals. Of the rabbit's trust in me as she let me see her at her most raw, and of my mild disappointment at being gently turned down for dinner. Why should I hide or try to? It's Karma; she's omniscient, or near enough that it wouldn't matter on either paw.
I can't even look up at her as I lay the tale of the day at her feet. But slowly I feel her displeasure melt away, like a mother who found out her kit might not have screwed up as badly after all. "Perhaps I misjudged, Nicholas. You two haven't had the best of starts, but you've made progress." Her pause is long enough for me to lift my head to look up at her. The far away look on her face makes me think that she's looking at something that's not even in the room. "Be nicer to the bunny," she says cryptically before disappearing from my life once again. This time though, instead of cherries the room is left smelling deliciously of steak. It takes me a moment to realize that the pot of Chef Howlardee on the food preparation area has been replaced with a steak dinner with all the trimmings. But like all gifts from Karma this one came with a price: my cast iron pot is now gone.
My granddad taught me many things about life and magic; chief among those is never to look a gift steak in the mouth, especially if it is given to you by a deity. It's delicious and cooked just the way I like it: medium with just the right amount of char and garlic butter. The baked potato and mixed vegetables are just the icing on an already mouthwatering cake.
I frown as I chew thoughtfully on my steak dinner. This is the second time that Karma has told me to be nicer to and protect the rabbit. Just what in the seven hells am I supposed to be protecting this rabbit from? I sigh; on top of that I need to start doing research into just what could have been brought into this world with a summoning spell that large. Ninety-two mammals died to power that spell, and given the amount of rot I saw with my third eye it's not going to be nice.
I look down at the plate and sigh, the meal was everything that the smell of it promised it would be. But now it was gone and I had questions, questions I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like the answer to. So like any sane mammal with a task in front of them that they dread, I procrastinate just a bit by doing the dishes. Unfortunately though, I have no pans to clean, just the one single solitary plate.
I sigh as I walk over to the coat rack by the door, the single solitary plate along with my fork and knife drying on the dish rack beside the sink. I slip on my pink fuzzy slippers and the thick warm robe and head back across the room to pull back the carpets hiding the trap door into my lab.
" Well she didn't kill you," Ben's sarcastic voice says as soon as my paws touch the floor below.
" No she didn't kill me," I say, snapping my fingers for the candles to light the room.
" So what did she want?"
" You're telling me you didn't listen in?" I ask him as I roll my eyes. "Mr. 'You should ask Karma out on a date' ?"
" No way you see, I value what little life I have left," Ben says to me. "If she even had an inkling that I listened in on what clearly should have been a private conversation I would be blasted to the four corners of the globe."
I shake my head as I sit down at the bench and pull over my notepad and a pencil. "Remember how you asked me if there'd been a big spike in missing mammals?" I ask as I draw the concentric rings that the graves were laid out in.
" Yes, and?"
" We found her godfather in a site today. Shallow grave with mammals laid out in rings from the largest mammal to the smallest." I explain what I had seen as I drew.
" How many?"
" Ninety-two, laid out like this," I say as I hold up the notepad. I watch in astonishment as the blue lights in the cheetah skull wink out without a word.
" Ben?" I ask.
" No." Ben's voice is firmer than I have ever heard it.
I sigh. "Ben please, I need to know what I'm up against."
" Want my advice, then pack your shit and leave Zootopia. I hear Chicowgo is nice."
" You know I'm not leaving, so tell me what you know." I swear if a skull could sigh this one does .
" Fine. I want something though."
" Ok, what?" I ask, thinking that Judy probably doesn't have to make deals with Siri or Zoogle to find out what she wants.
" Four nights out." I cough at this. " On a long weekend."
The last time I'd let him out he'd caused an orgy at Zootopia University, the likes of which some of the students never recovered from academically ."One," I counter. "You remember what happened the last time I let you out."
" Two," the skull countered.
" One, and it will be a Friday."
"Thirty hours," he countered.
" Twenty-five ," I conceded.
" Deal," the skull agrees . " Twenty-five hours of freedom for what I know about that summoning circle.
" Agreed," I say as I flip the notepad to a clean sheet of paper and the blue lights flicked back on in the skull.
" It was during the 3rd century AD a warlock by the name of Lorenzo made a deal with a lesser demon. The demon was an intermediary between Lorenzo and a greater demon who needed the warlock to open a gateway." Ben pauses for a moment as if accessing additional information. "Lorenzo had been led to believe that the greater demon held the soul of his wife who had died three years prior in childbirth. The agreement was that Lorenzo would free the demon onto this plane in exchange for his wife's soul to be freed from eternal torment."
I nod as I make notes. "So Lorenzo freed this demon to save his wife?"
" So he had been led to believe," Ben tells me. "The greater demon had been in contact with a succubus that had been called onto this plane by a fledgling wizard who didn't have a perfect summoning circle."
" Oh, great," I say. When summoning things from the pits of hell, it's a contest of not only will but also skill; an imperfectly drawn or made summoning circle could very well be disastrous.
"Right." Ben pauses again. "I don't know what deal was struck between the succubus and the greater demon; my Master at the time was more of the 'banish first ask questions later' kind. But what I do know is, the succubus not only ensured that Lorenzo found the true name of the intermediary demon, but also sent him dreams of his wife's torture."
" So Lorenzo was driven mad?" I ask.
" I guess in a way. Love is one of the greatest joys and curses of mammaldom; it will not only drive you to feats of extraordinary courage, but also extraordinary stupidity."
I choose to ignore Ben's commentary on love for the moment. "So what was the name of the demon that had been brought here?"
" My Master never found out the true name for the demon, but it was a hungry thing that inspired madness wherever it roamed. Caused the fall of one of the greatest empires in mammaldom and drove the world into a dark age that took centuries to come out of."
"How did your Master slay it?" I ask.
Ben remains quiet for some time. "It required much sacrifice; he was hazy on the details but was never quite the same afterward. Nick, you should honestly run."
A little while later I lay on my bed staring up at my ceiling; the only light in the room is the warm glow of the fire in the fireplace. I'm finding it hard to sleep; well, harder than normal. What could possibly have Ben so scared that he just turns off? He's a spirit, , kind of; he's more like a really complex spell cast on the skull to retain the collective knowledge of maybe hundreds of wizards before me. Because of that he's extremely valuable; in fact, he's so valuable that half the wards on my home are there to keep him a secret.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I know my eyes are shooting open to a pounding seemingly in my chest.
THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD! I hear the urgent pounding, and realize that it's not in my chest but on my door.
I groan and roll over. "Who is that rapping, rapping on my chamber door at this ungodly hour?" I ask into the room as I stand. The creaking and popping of my joints let me know that while I'd slept, it probably wasn't the best of sleep.
" If it's some damnable raven I swear I'll burn it to a crisp" I mutter as I pull open my door; after all, nothing good has ever come from a raven. Two small grey bundles tumble in as soon as the door swings open and a roar shakes the alleyway between my apartment building.
" HELP!" It takes me a moment to place the voice as, I hate to admit it, I'm not the fastest on the uptake upon being woken so abruptly.
"Ju…" I start, but am interrupted abruptly.
" Wizard…" Seethed a voice boiling with hatred and malice. "Send out those with which I seek; my quarrel is not with thee."
My eyes narrow as I turn toward the door. I can hear the creaking of brick and the unholy cracking of bone, which tells me that whatever is out there is changing shape and I'm running out of time to formulate a plan.
I reach behind my door and grab my staff. It's carved from the gnarled branch of an oak tree on my grandfather's farm. It took me years to slowly and painstakingly carve all the runes on it under my grandfather's guidance. The staff in anyone else's paws would only be useful as a club, but in my paws? It amplifies my magic while also making it more controllable. It's like adding a guidance system to a bomb.
I step out of my apartment and up the short flight of stairs that's flanked on one side by the large metal garbage dumpsters. I turn toward the nose and thump the end of my staff hard against the concrete between the buildings and eye the monstrosity trying to shove its way down the alley.
My eyes widen in shock. IT is some form of bull, if a bull could be almost two stories tall and as wide as the alleyway at its shoulders. It's shrinking slowly, and I am grateful to see somewhat painfully, as it bellows once again at me. "GIVE THEM TO ME!"
" And if I don't?" I ask.
"THEN I SHALL FEAST ON YOUR ENTRAILS AND SUCK THE MARROW FROM YOUR BONES!" it bellows at me as its body seems to pop into the size dimensions that it had in mind. Now instead of almost two stories it stands just over 12 feet tall. Its horns, if you could call them that, jut forward from its skull and drip with a blood red substance.
I stare at the thing, seemingly considering its offer; its hide is darker than the blackness of space, blotting out even the meager light cast by the street lights shining into the alleyway. Its eyes burn with the fires of hell.
" They are my guests," I say simply, as there are rules by which even this thing must abide. "They have come to my door seeking my aide and I have granted it; now be gone."
" FOOL!" it bellows at me just before charging down the alley.
I draw upon my will, summoning magic from the air around me. As I concentrate, the runes carved into my staff light up an eerie blue as I swing my staff up and back down once again. "RIFLETTUM!" I shout as my staff meets the concrete once again and a blue shield spans the width of the alleyway.
The bull thing smashes into my shield, and in my haste I have forgotten to anchor the shield to something other than myself. While I don't get splattered into a foxy paste in the alleyway, I am sent tumbling several feet back, and suddenly I wish I had actually taken the time to grab a shirt. I shake my head as I stare up at the sky. My shield dissipates almost instantly, but it has stopped the thing in its tracks.
I can hear and feel its foot falls as it slowly walks toward me. "FOOLISH WIZARD, I SHALL MAKE YOU WATCH…." it seethes at me as it stalks ever closer.
I roll to my knees, my head clearing as I remember where I am and what I'm doing. I point the head of my staff at the bull thing as it starts to laugh at me. "FOOLISH…" It never got the chance to finish its sentence as I draw once again on the magic around me and funnel in some of the pain and fear that I feel into the spell as well. "FORZARE!" I shout, channeling the spell through my staff. The runes on it flare brilliantly white for a moment before the spell is released.
The concentrated and directed force of the spell ejects the bull thing straight out of the alleyway and into the side of a parked car. The car itself folds in around the impact of the monstrosity in a shower of glass and stressed metal. The car alarm starts to shriek for just a moment before shorting out from magic overload.
I grin, as the thing doesn't seem to be inclined to get up right away. I stand and start to walk down the alleyway toward it, the sound of my staff clicking on the pavement seemingly marking time as I go. The car starts to shudder and shake as the bull monstrosity starts to stand with the crumpled car still attached to its back. The sky was lightning with the coming of the dawn. If a glare could kill I would be a grease stain on the concrete.
" THIS IS NOT OVER YET WIZARD!" the bull thing bellows at me before turning into a flock of bats and flying away. I watch the bats warily, but its retreat tells me something. It fears the sun.
I turn when the swarm of bats is well gone and walk back toward my apartment. My feet drag a bit; that blast of magic took a lot out of me. My stomach rumbles as I descend the stairs. My guests must have shut the door after I went to face whatever that was. I place my paw on the doorknob and find it locked.
I knock lightly on the door and can hear scurrying beyond it. "Nick?" I hear Judy's voice from inside my apartment.
" Yeah it's me; unlock the door please," I tell her, and a moment later I hear the door unlatch.
" Nick!" she exclaims at me as I walk in, letting go of my staff and allowing it to clatter against the wall. "Just what in fluff's name was that!?"
B one weary tired, I stumble over and collapse onto the couch in front of the fireplace. "I don't know."
She paces between the couch and the fireplace. "I shot it, I fluffin' shot it, and it laughed at me!"
My weariness comes mostly from my lack of magic use. These days I mostly cast simple finding spells, as the need to use combat magic is all but gone. Maybe that's changed. My eyes are shut as I lean my head back against the couch. "I hit it hard," I tell her. "It fled with the coming dawn; it doesn't like sunlight."
There's a long pause before she asks me, "How hard?"
" I knocked it into a car," I answer wearily, not opening my eyes . My body shakes much like a long distance runner at the end of a race. I don't know if she notices this, and I'm not even sure if I care. Curses Karma why did you throw this rabbit in my path? I ask myself.
"Mama?" I hear a new voice, young and full of something; not fear but something that's hard to place. "Why is he in his underwear?"
That's the other thing I forgot: pants.
