I could feel the emotion flowing off of Michael as he spoke about his son. Literally, with my wizard’s senses in full swing I could pick up powerful emotions from those nearby. I listened intently as the worried father told me his tale.

“Don’t get me wrong-he’s a good kid.” Insisted Michael, “But lately he seems to be avoiding me and its making me worry. He never used to do this you know? He always loved spending time with me…we had such a close connection.” He wiped a tear from his hard eyes, “He was always such a strong kid, despite what happened to his mother.”

While the man talked I had a mage’s hand jotting down notes in a pocket dimension. It was probably for the best if he didn’t know I was writing all this down. He was much more likely to talk freely if he thought it was just between the two of us. I felt bad about recording his private feelings, but you have to be willing to leave your conscience behind if you want to be a good journalist.

I don’t know if I’m a good journalist or not, but I was trying my best.

“Has he been spending time with anyone out of the usual?” I asked pensively. Such behavior could be indicative of a number of things.

“Well…yes.” Admitted Michael, “But the group’s mostly good kids so I don’t think too much about it. They’ve never done anything wrong, not that I’ve seen at least.”

I rubbed my chin; the plot was beginning to thicken, “Can you tell me more about this group?” I questioned, hoping the man could give me some suspicious details.

Michael’s gaze shifted to the window, he seemed uncomfortable talking about the subject. Eventually he relented and divulged some juicy facts to me. My mage’s hand scribbled furiously as I took in everything he told me.

“There’s about six or seven of them. I know a few of the kids.” He said, “There’s one or two troublemakers, but they don’t seem to do much. He’s constantly leaving here to go hang out with them. They’ve got this antique car that they rip through the neighborhood with all the time.”

I nodded along with the words the father was speaking.

“I tried following them once, they went to this old abandoned house just outside of town.” Continued Michael, “I would have followed them, but my car started having problems and I didn’t want to get stranded out there. People are starting to talk about hearing strange things coming from that house; rumors are being started about my boy. But I’m telling you-he’s clean!”

I frowned, “What sort of rumors?”

He shook his head in disdain, “You know, the usual. Kids up to no good; drugs or sex or some other juvenile activities. I’ve heard it all even from people I thought were sensible before.”

I had this all down on paper, but something about his story was bugging me. It was almost as if he was omitting something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Regardless of what he was hiding, I was-unfortunately-professionally obligated to investigate the matter further. It might turn out to be nothing, but I had to see for myself. I had to be sure I could truthfully disclaim the whole story before I wrote a single word about it.

“What did you mean before when you said your car started to break down?” I asked, returning to a previous point, “What kind of issues were you having?”

“That’s the weird thing.” He muttered, “My car kept stopping and starting, even the controls felt sluggish. I took it back to my mechanic to get it check out and you know what he said?” Asked Michael, leaning forward in his seat, “He said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Bastard still charged me a pretty penny for the full check up.”

I thought about what the man had told me. It definitely seemed out of the ordinary. Cars generally don’t break down when nothing is wrong with them. I knew there was only one place I was going to find out more about the situation. I was sure the other parents’ stories would reveal the exact same things.

“Could you give me the address of this house you mentioned?” I asked. I already had the location that Mark had given me, but I just wanted to make sure it lined up with his story. I was almost hoping it didn’t.

“Come on, officer. They’re just kids.” Protested Michael, “I’m sure there’s nothing going on. There’s no reason to go there.”

“I’d like to check on the place anyways. Just to be safe.”

The man relented and wrote the address down. It was indeed a match for the location my boss had supplied me with. I knew I was going to have to check the house out, but I didn’t want to risk myself without making every possible preparation. Even if the chance of their actually being a risk were incredibly low.

“Thank you for your time, sir. I’m sure this will all turn out to be nothing.” I assured the man, giving him a pat on the back. Despite what he had claimed, he didn’t see immensely confident of his son’s innocence. “Look, I’m just going to have a look at this house. If nothing’s happening, then nothing needs to come of it.” I explained, I didn’t want him worrying needlessly. If the kids were just up to some mundane crimes then I wasn’t going to get involved.

I patted the man again in an attempt to reinforce the man’s confidence. I’m not sure if it worked or not, but I got out of there which was all that mattered at the time.

I took another cab back to the crappy hotel. I gathered up all my magical trinkets into my pocket dimension. Then I headed back out with the relieved knowledge that I wouldn’t have to see the hotel ever again. Even if my investigation didn’t pan out, I was finding somewhere else to stay. I didn’t care that I would forfeit my initial payment. I made sure to give the witch an elaborate farewell before I stepped out the front door and walked down to where my cab had been waiting for me to return. I waved the hotel goodbye in the rear window.

I told the driver to take me to the address of the house I’d heard so much about. I knew I could spend days just talking with all the different parents, but I was on a deadline. Besides, I wasn’t one to waste time when there was nothing else I could accomplish. The cab driver drove down the road as I tapped the glass in anticipation.

It was time to see what all this excitement was about.

The cab driver refused to take me directly to the old house. I guess the locale suspicion was as bad as Michael and Mark had claimed. That still didn’t make anything true. He dropped me off at the head of a gravel side road leading in to the abandoned abode. He sped off with my money in his fist, while I regarded the trek in front of me.

The gravel path was long and windy; I couldn’t see the residence through the thick vegetation. I checked the sun, I’d spent so much time already that it was beginning to sink below the skyline. I didn’t feel like crashing through the woods in the middle of the night, so I started walking. The path was rough and uneven, it didn’t make for pleasant journey.

Mark had probably expected it to take several days before I even ventured out to the house. It’s what most of his other employees would have done. But, unlike the rest of his employees I didn’t need such delays. I could handle myself without wasting time.

As skilled as I was, I was not an outdoorsman. The path became completely overgrown a few hundred feet in, making me wonder how the kids had ever driven down it in the first place.

I sucked it up and kept moving. I had to step around thick roots and duck beneath tangles of branches, but I made progress. I was beginning to worry that I’d be out here all night when I heard a girlish giggling coming from a few feet behind me. I spun around to face whatever was stalking me through the dusk. I had felt the edges of my hair prickling up before, but I had thought it was a bear or something else of the like.

To my surprise, standing not far behind me was a young woman. She was peering curiously at me around the side of an ancient oak tree, with a mischievous expression on her face. She wore a guitar case on her back which was settled over her long pitch black hair.

“You look like a duck trying to walk on a floor covered in marbles.” She told me, “What I’m saying is you look ridiculous.”

“Thank you for the colorful description and the clarification.” I told her, “Now, is there something you want?”

“I’m just wondering who you are.” She said, “I’ve been following you for a while and you’re clearly here for the same reason I am.” She shook out her lush hair as she regarded me, “I just wanted to know who my fellow journalist was.”

I squinted at the woman’s figure. Something about her outline was bothering me, it was strangely blurry as if she had on…a glamour. I whispered a short sentence and the illusion faded suddenly. The woman reacted in shock.

“Not cool!” she exclaimed, “What the hell was that for?”

Now that I could see her clearly I could make out much more about her. The two horns sprouting off her forehead and the long tale winding down one leg told me a lot about her. Her eyes drew my attention, one burned with a furious intensity, whereas the other was pure blackness. Lines of scarlet and black ran down her face and hands. Her visage was unnaturally beautiful with full lips, a delicate nose and an overall loveliness. She couldn’t have been more than twenty with the softness of her features.

“You’re a tiefling.” I stated. Then I noticed the change to the guitar case, which was in reality a lute, “And a bard.”

“And you’re incredibly rude.” She replied. She glanced towards where my ears were concealed beneath my hair, “And a half-elf.”

I realized my mistake and hastily apologized, “I’m sorry! It was a force of habit; I’ve had bad experiences with glamours in the past.” I hadn’t even thought of what I was doing before I acted, “I promise you it won’t happen again.”

She crossed her arms, “Well, I only had the one so it wasn’t as if it was going to happen again anyway. But, fine. I’ll accept you’re apology if you’ll tell me who you are.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Sometimes I do things without even pausing to consider the consequences, sometimes I hesitate far too long. It’s a common flaw with mages; our personalities are often abnormal. If all she wanted was for me to tell her about myself, then that was fine. It wasn’t like my identity was a secret or anything.

“My name’s Daniel WhiteWood.” I told her, “I’m a wizard who’s here to investigate the house at the end of this path.”

“Now that wasn’t so hard.” She said, “Although, I’ve never heard of you.”

“I work for Spellcaster’s Special.” I stated.

“That would explain it.”

The two of us stared at each other for a few quiet minutes. I’m not sure that either of us really had an idea of where our meeting was headed. I couldn’t bear the silence any longer so I decided to break it with a question of my own.

“Now that we know who I am,” I began slowly, “Why don’t you tell me who you are? I would love to know.”

“The name’s Gwen Aleria.” She said, “I work for Once Upon a Times. I’m also here to investigate the house at the end of the path.”

I was amazed; Once Upon a Times was one of the biggest magician’s newspapers on the planes. A job for a company of such high standing was a prestigious position. The fact that they were investigating the occurrence gave it a lot more credibility. I was pleased to meet someone at the top of my field; I could probably learn a thing or two from her.

Gwen stepped out from behind her tree and walked down the overgrown path. “If we’re both here for the same reason, we may as well work together.” She proposed as she reapplied her glamour, “I could use a meat shield.”

“Very funny.” I muttered as I followed her through the thick foliage. I whispered a few eldritch words so I’d be able to see her through her glamour while it still remained in place.

The two of us walked down the path for the better part of an hour. I was beginning to think that the path would never end when an idea crossed my mind. The trees we’d been passing looked awfully familiar and not in a species kind of way. I swore we’d walked past the same cedar a dozen times, that wasn’t the only thing that was bugging me.

“I think someone’s cast a charm on us.” I declared as we crossed the same stretch once more. “This is all some kind of trick.”

Gwen paused midstride to look around at our surroundings. In particular she examined the roots that had covered the gravel path.

“Not to mention this is fresh gravel. How would a new road become overgrown to such an extent?” She looked back towards me with a knowing shimmer in her eyes, “It seems that not all wild stories are exaggerated.”

Once we’d taken the appropriate counter measures the illusions blocking our path faded away. We’d been charmed to walk in circles for almost an hour. The sun had already sank below the sky and I was starting to get a little annoyed. This was not supposed to be as difficult as it was proving to be. I suppose I should have been happy that we could at least actually make progress now.

Once the illusion had vanished we could see the house off in the distance. It was almost obscured by the dense foliage, but it was just barely visible. I reckoned it was at least another mile and a half off. We set about closing the distance between us and the building.

“So what do you think we’ll find?” asked Gwen after ten minutes, “I was expecting to be able to defraud another hoax.”

“Probably just a coven of low level talents.” I guessed, “That illusion was really nothing special. I could whip up a hundred of its like without breaking a sweat.”

“It was certainly effective.” Muttered Gwen darkly as we left the subject.

The path was easily traversable despite the lack of any light source. We decided to forgo any magical lights as both of us were adapt at seeing in low lighting. There were many perks associated with being a half-elf.

We walked for another twenty minutes before I started hearing a strange rustling in the woods to our left and right. I held Gwen back as I listened intently to the noise. She seemed to have heard it as well as she dropped to the ground and vanished with a simple incantation. I would have vanished as well, but whatever was out there was likely to have seen us already. I would prefer to have it focus on me rather than on the tiefling.

I cast a minor spell that allowed me to see the heat signatures of two dozen humanoids moving stealthily through the woods. They hadn’t realized we’d noticed their presence; of that I was certain. They were organized in four units that slowly approached us.

I was wondering what they were planning until I saw the arms of the members of one unit raise, pointing towards me. I recognized their intention and focused on my wards in preparation.

The woods were filled with the sound of a hundred quiet pops as six soldiers unloaded assault rifles in the direction I was standing. I was ready however, with an arcane word I brought up an ethereal shield that deflected the projectiles away from me. Trees cracked as deflected bullets bored through them like they’d already been processed into paper. My wards would have protected me from the barrage, but the shield made it far less jarring.

I spun around to face a second squad that emerged from the forest. They held more powerful, but shorter ranged weapons. I didn’t intend to let them test my shield. I threw up my hand and spit out a string of violent syllables.

A bolt of lightning as thick as my thigh shot from my fingers to strike the nearest soldier through his black body armor. The crackling energy surged through him to strike the next soldier, the action continued until five troopers were down and the last soldier had leapt for cover. I’d overcharged the spell slightly; I wasn’t in the mood to be merciful to enemies who’d tried to execute me.

My senses told me something was approaching me incredibly quickly. I turned in time to see a rocket flying towards me. I raised my shield to catch the blast, but the force of the impact still sent me head over heels backwards.

I crashed into a dead pine tree which gave way as I slammed into it. The dry wood fell down upon me, my wards protected me from the impact, but I was pinned to the ground. Several bullets rattled off my arms, they hurt like hell but my wards held them off. I strained against the tree, but was unable to pull it off. Ceasing the futile struggle I instead waited until the soldiers drew close to me in an attempt to finish me off. I picked the tree up with an assertion of arcane energy and flung it at the approaching soldiers. The trunk smashed into them, knocking them to the ground, while allowing me to free myself from my entrapment.

I whispered a few more words before rushing the location of the rocket launcher. The woman who held the weapon unleashed another shot on me, but the spell I’d cast prevented any of the damage it could have caused. My form was translucent and ethereal, the rocket passed straight through me to explode in the woods beyond.

I didn’t give her a chance to reload. I dropped the enchantment around myself to form a glowing blue orb around my fingers. I fired it at the woman, landing it squarely in the centre of her chest. She screamed for an instant before her entire body was sucked into the magical orb.

With casual ease I flicked a ball of fire towards another squad of soldiers, where it exploded sending the troopers flying. I counted the amount of enemies who were down, only a half dozen of the soldiers were left. The number dropped to four when I send two soldiers crashing through the forest with a powerful gust of wind. I smiled faintly, it was good to get back in the action every once in a while. I hadn’t had to use my magic for such a purpose in far too long.

I dispatched another three with ease as the revealed themselves to try to eliminate me. I stalked through the woods searching for the final soldier so I could get it over with. I heard nothing before a thin cord wrapped around my neck and began to strangle me. I cursed myself for failing to ward myself against such an action as I searched through my list of spells for one to deal with the man. I didn’t have to as the tension suddenly released from my throat. I swiveled to watch the man collapse dead to the ground with a wet patch of blood on his back. Gwen stood above the corpse with a bloody dagger in her left hand.

“Thanks, but I could’ve handled him myself.” I told her.

“I’m surprised; I didn’t think anyone from such an obscure production could be so talented.” She whispered just above the background noise of the dark forest, “That was a lot of raw power I just witnessed, not to mention a considerable lack of restraint.”

“I was a professor at a university before I joined the magazine.” I explained, “Before that I was a battle mage, so I’ve picked up a few things over the years.”

Gwen regarded me with a calculating expression. It seemed that she was revaluating her previous assumptions. I didn’t blame her; most people were surprised to find out my past. There weren’t many people with my credentials in this line of work, if there even were any others. After a few moments of silence she asked in her usual sing song voice.

“Why would a man who used to work for a university start slumming it as a simple writer?” She questioned while looking at me askance, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“There was an accident at the university, it closed down.” I answered.

“But even for a professor you’re pretty skilled.” Gwen insisted; she didn’t seem to notice my reluctance to talk about my past. “Surely another university would have been willing to hire you into their faculty.”

“Not if the accident was my fault.”

This silenced Gwen’s inquiries for the time being. We left the soldiers behind and made our way towards the seemingly not so abandoned house. I was looking forward to uncovering the secrets that were hiding inside the forbidding abode.

It took us yet another half hour to reach the front of the house. Despite the soldiers we had run into earlier, the place still seemed abandoned. I was convinced it wasn’t the case.

The entrance to the house was barred only by simple oak door. I saw a glow flicker into Gwen’s burning eye as she observed the passageway. She examined ever inch of the ancient structure before she declared.

“There are traps set all around the house and the whole place has a barrier around it. The door and the windows have powerful wards covering them.” She explained, “They’re delicate, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to brute force them. This could take me some time.”

“Whatever made you think I don’t have finesse?” I asked, almost hurt by the accusation, “Anyways, you said it’s the doors and windows that have the delicate wards, correct?”

She nodded and I smiled, “Then I’ve got a better way in.” I stated.

I walked up to the side of the house, readjusting my movement whenever she told me I was about to run into a trap. I stood before one side of the house and raised my hands. I concentrated and sent a phantasmal force against the barrier. The wards might be delicate, but I had a feeling that anything big enough to cover an entire house would be all about the power. Without an archmage level mage it’s practically impossible to go big and delicate. The barrier gave way soon after I began my assault upon it, the force I’d conjured rushed past the tattered protections to rip an entire section of wall off the building.

I bowed and gestured into the opening I’d created, “After you, madam.”

“I guess that’s one way to gain entrance.” Admitted Gwen, “Although I feel like opening the door is a little more stylish.”

“You haven’t even seen stylish yet.” I assured her as we entered the old building.

I was right about the place not being abandoned. Despite the fact that only darkness could be seen inside through the warded windows, the interior was in reality lit by a series of green magical orbs. I deduced that the lights must only be visible to those who were inside the house. The whole place was given an otherworldly tint by the strange illumination.

I saw Gwen flicker and knew that she would be invisible to anyone but me. It was an intelligent tactic; I’d already proven to be more than capable of taking the brunt of an assault. It was better if they didn’t know we were exploring the house together.

The interior of the abandoned house reminded me of something out of a Victorian painting. Long red drapes fell down to the floor, while a variety of strange paintings and tapestries covered the walls. An impressive variety of unusual tinkers were set around on antique, but sturdy tables. It was the kind of place where I’d run into vampires countless times before.

We crossed the entrance hall to arrive in an immense chamber. A staircase three arm spans wide led up to a second floor. The plush carpet was a disturbingly crimson red that made me think of blood. I was beginning to ask Gwen where we should go next when the sound of boots descending the stairs began.

A middle-aged woman with buzz cut blond hair arrived at the landing before the staircase flanked by two young teenagers. I guessed the kids would be no more than fifteen or sixteen. The woman’s withering gaze fell upon me with a look of utter disgust painted across her gaunt face. She reminded me of the woman from the hotel, but toned down a notch. Not even she could quite match those beady she-devil’s eyes.

“I was hoping my people would deal with you.” She muttered, “Don’t you know you’re trespassing on government property.”

“You know what lady?” I said defiantly, “I really couldn’t care less whose land I was trespassing upon.”

The woman glowered at me as if she hoped I would just up and vanish before she deigned to give me a response. “Who sent you? Was it the Octurians?” she demanded harshly, “Know that you’ll never make it out to report back to them.”

I held up my hands to slow her down, “Hang on a second. I’m not here from some foreign government.” I frowned and reconsidered, “Okay, I’m foreign-but even more so than you think. I just want to know what’s going on here.”

“What’s going on here is that we’re at war. A war that we’re going to win.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously, “Tonight.”

I always managed to find myself in the most horrendous situations. This woman was clearly out of her mind, there would be no reasoning with her. I’d never thought about governments recruiting young teens for their magical capabilities, but it made sense. A university run by a kingdom wasn’t that far from what was going on here. It was just a lot less messed up and extreme. Seeing this woman’s smug grin made me sure of one thing. I was going to shut this woman down and then write a damn good story about it.

The woman pulled out a slim revolver which she leveled at me. I raised my shield to block any incoming shots from the weapon. I wondered why the woman would even bother with a firearm after what had happened to her assault team.

I yelped in surprise and pain as the woman fired a bullet that cut through my shield to drill into my leg. I fell to one knee clutching my bleeding appendage. The steel tipped bullet had punched straight through my flesh, leaving a hole I could see through. I was pretty sure that was not a good thing, especially with all the blood pouring out of it onto the absorbent carpet.

I gasped in pain as I looked up in confusion at the woman’s weapon. She noticed my shock, reveling in my turbulent emotions. Once enough time had passed, she clued me in on the reason my shield had proven useless

“It took a while, but our operatives managed to enhance firearms.” She laughed, “Your wards won’t be a problem for us.”

I sent a bolt of lightning streaking towards the woman’s face. One of the kids murmured a ward that intercepted the bolt. He smiled as he looked down upon me; I hadn’t had the focus to release my best shot so the little bastard thought he could take me. I put into practice what I had drilled into myself over years of bloody battle. I created a sprawling mental fortress where I could take refuge. The pain surrounding me couldn’t penetrate the bleak walls of the construct. I looked up at the young sorcerers with the full power of my mind behind my actions.

The other “operative” an unhealthily slim young girl decked out like a gothic washing machine stepped forward. A swirling vortex of fire gathered around her fingertips before she threw it at me. I was ready for such an action. As soon as the spell left her fingers I summoned up a gust of wind that scattered the fire; rendering the incantation useless.

I responded to her attack with an orb of black matter. The boy chuckled and raised his ward again to block my spell, thinking himself far more powerful than I was. The orb hit his ward and hung in the air without dissipating. The boy cried out as it began to flow over the shield I had expected to be summoned. The black orb slid around the barrier and leapt upon the inexperienced young mage. He collapsed to the ground covered by the inky substance. The girl rushed to his side and tried to pull it off of him only to find herself draw into the substance. Even I hadn’t expected the girl to take herself out of the fray so handily.

Their handler raised her revolver to shoot me once more only to have her tiny throat slit by Gwen who was repeating her previous tactic. Gwen gave the woman rough kick, sending her crashing down the staircase.

“What did you do to the kids?” She asked, eyeing the struggling black ball. “I don’t like harming innocents. I’m sure there’s some sort of brainwashing going on here.”

I waited until the struggling stopped before dismissing the spell. “They’ll be fine.” I promised the tiefling, “I just smothered them until they fell unconscious.”

Gwen nodded before leaning down to bind the fallen mages. We wouldn’t want to have them flanking us later. I had a feeling that mercy wouldn’t be a luxury I could spare if I had to fight a half dozen of the brats. That was why I was hoping that I could fight them in small clusters like those two. I had another feeling that I wouldn’t be so lucky.

I noticed Gwen pocketing the revolver in the corner of my eye while I examined the room we had found ourselves in. I was willing to let the action slide; having the weapon could prove useful later on. Besides, I’d never been a fan of guns. I’d taken the swordsmanship classes like everyone else in university and was competent with the weapon, but there was just something about firearms that I didn’t like. I really couldn’t explain it, it was just another of my quirks.

Gwen walked over to where I was standing. She crouched down to get a better look at my leg. In the conflict I’d almost forgotten that I’d even received the injury, now that I was reminded of it the pain was almost unbearable. Gwen pulled out her lute after she had finished examining the injury; she began to strum lightly upon it.

“Before we go any further we should deal with that wound.” She stated, “We can’t have you limping and leaving a trail of blood everywhere we go.”

She began to sing faintly; her voice was sweet and beautiful. However, there was a sorrowful edge to the music that hid deep inside the depths song. A dull magical glow began to form around the wound as she laid her hands upon it. Despite the fact that she had stopped holding the instrument the strings kept vibrating the same cheerful and yet somehow saddening tune. I gasped in momentary pain as the flesh at the edges of the wound grew until the hole was closed. While the rapid healing caused by restoration magic was always a little disconcerting, even a little painful at times, afterwards my leg felt as good as new. I tested it and was pleased by the results.

“Thanks, that’s very useful.” I told the bard. It was always nice to have a healer in your party.

Gwen nodded once curtly, “Now that we’ve taken care of our first problem we can get on to the real question. Where do you think the rest of the kids are?” She asked as she slung her lute back securely on its strap, “They came from upstairs, so maybe we should check there first…?” She left the suggestion open for me to interject.

“No, I think the woman only came from upstairs in another attempt to mislead us.” I replied as I looked around, “After all, when is it ever not the basement?”

Gwen smiled as she scribbled something down on a piece of paper, “I’m going to quote you on that one.”

There was no obvious way to go further down from the ground floor. This fact made me even more certain that I was right. Why would they bother to hide the basement if nothing suspicious was transpiring within it? We decided to search through the floor to find any clues as to its whereabouts. Old homes like this always had some kind of cellar.

We combed the ground floor up and down for an hour before Gwen finally cried out, “I’ve found something! It looks like the edge of a hidden door!” I rushed over to her side while she smiled at her discover, “Doesn’t this just fill you with nostalgia? You just don’t see many good hidden doors these days.” She sighed.

I nodded, already beginning to work on pulling the passageway open. It took a few minutes with a lot of effort and positioning, but we got it open. The wall pulled away to reveal a spiral staircase descending into the unknown.

Gwen looked at me and shrugged before descending into the depths of the house. I followed behind her; this could be a really big story. For once a fluff story turned out to have something rock solid hidden within it. I supposed that considering what we had found so far it wasn’t really a fluff story at all; almost everything had come true so far. In fact, in some respects it was even more extreme than the original story had made it out to be.

A thick scent hung heavy on the air drifting up from wherever the staircase led. I twitched my noised trying to identify it. Rosemary, I decided, that was not a promising revelation. We hurried down the steps towards the secrets held below.

The smells of blood and smoke soon followed the powerful incense. We picked up the pace until we landed upon the rocky bottom of the spiral staircase. We were in a hollowed out underground cavern that must have been dug out from the original basement. We stalked slowly forward keeping to the shadows, in the distance aberrant chanting could be heard.

In a few short minutes we’d arrived at the source of the sensory overload we were currently experiencing. The cavern itself was at least a mile wide, but that was not what drew our attention. We hid in the shadow of a rocky pillar and gazed with horror on the proceedings before us. I’d never seen anything like it before.

Thirteen men and women in dark black robes surrounded a red etching that spanned across the entire cavern floor. A pile of small animals-dog and cats mostly-told me what the circle had been drawn with. Several soldiers were in the process of draining the blood of a herd of cattle into a hole cut into the centre of the design. My mouth hung open in horror at the vile defilement of everything virtuous in the world that I was witnessing. It made me seethe with rage.

I noted the fact that there were more than the five other mages that Michael’s story would have indicated. I assumed that some of the mages must have been kidnapped from other towns and kept below. The rest would probably be established government agents who would be the most dangerous thanks to their experience.

My terror rose as I realized that the arcane energy’s that the circle required were already gathered. The mages were simply channeling it for their desired goal now. If they were slain then the energy would still activate their spell, without any control over the incantation the results were likely to be even more catastrophic. There was nothing I could do to stop the vile ritual that was happening right before my eyes. Instead I waited for an opportunity to disrupt their efforts as much as possible.

I drew in energy to prepare for a devastating strike that I hoped would deal with most of the sorcerers present. Gwen had her hand to her mouth, I was sure she was experiencing many of the same emotions as I was. No magic user could see what was happening without being filled with ghastly rage at the grotesque horror of the ritual.

She looked at me and asked with her eyes wide, “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is.” She begged, “Please tell me what I think is happening isn’t happening.”

I looked at the procession with a mix of dread and regret. I couldn’t lie to Gwen about this; she already knew the truth. She was just asking in some vain hope that I might have some hidden answer to the mysteries before us. Instead I could only supply her with the cold hard truth about the situation we were in. She would know if I lied.

“Everything you think is true.” I whispered in a hushed voice, “That’s one of the largest summoning circles I’ve ever seen.”

And there was nothing either of us could do to stop the foul denizens of another world from pouring into this one. There wasn’t even a way to escape before the reckoning came. All our options had evaporated like mist.

All we could do was wait.