Two inches tall, about one and a half wide. Not that unusual, maybe a little larger than most of the others.
Floyd Wilson stood up from the brick wall he was examining, and ran his hand through his short brown hair, and slid his notebook and ruler back in his jacket pocket and tucked his pencil behind his ear. The symbols where everywhere, scratched into the corners of windows, drawn inside trash can lids, and etched into brick walls, like this one was. They where all over Eugene, but no one ever seemed to notice them. Floyd learned a long time ago how to take notice of things that no one seemed to notice.
He wouldn’t be much of a warlock if he let things like these odd little symbols slip by unnoticed.
They were unlike anything he had ever seen before. A chevron pointing downwards, and above a long triangle pointing upwards. The bottom of the triangle curved upward, and a small green dot rested between it and the chevron.
“You done yet? I’m starving, and we’ve been at it all day.”
Floyd let out a sigh as he turned to face his partner, Evelyn Hoit. She was bit taller than him, and made up in brawn what she lacked in patience. “Yes, Eve. I got it,” he answered. “Where do you want to eat?”
“There was a sandwich shop a couple of blocks back, let’s head there.”
Floyd followed Eve back the way they had came towards the sandwich shop. They had been working together for some time now. Almost three years, he figured. She was well aware of Floyd being a warlock, and by now had a good amount of experience dealing with the eldritch mysteries and powers he worked with, despite not knowing a shred of magick herself.
To everyone else they where simply a couple of investigators and process servers trying to make a living in Oregon. While that was usually what payed the bills, they also worked to protect the people of their city from occult evils and, when necessary, help keep the veil between the magickal world and the mundane one sealed. At least, they did all of that when it was interesting enough for them to bother. Or it payed. Floyd preferred to leave all the selfless do-gooding to The Union. He was more interested in making a buck and learning more about magick. Eve, on the other hand, while still interested in making a buck, preferred to kick in both doors and teeth.
“This is the place,” Eve said, “you’re buying. These little marks of yours are boring as shit, the least you could do is buy me lunch.”
“Yeah, sure,” Floyd knelt down next to the door and took his implements out. There was another symbol here, he must have missed it earlier. “You go on in, I’ll be there in a second.”
He swore he could hear her eyes roll as he measured the symbol. This was different, it was… newer? Floyd could feel the magick still on it; a slight pressure in his chest and a tingle in his fingertips. As he measured it he tried to focus on the residual magick to see if told him anything. Sometimes spells and curses and the like left behind a sort of magickal fingerprint, and Floyd could use that to find out whoever placed these symbols all over town. It might even be enough for him to find out what purpose they served.
Unfortunately, the magick was already far too faded to tell him anything. He tucked away his implements in his jacket and stepped inside the sandwich shop to join Eve. Floyd knew there was no way she would want to look further into this matter. He would have to work solo for a bit on it if he were to pursue it further, as Floyd knew he would. It was too weird for him to ignore.
“So, how about we actually get some work done today?” Eve asked as she tossed a few manila envelopes on the coffee table before joining Floyd on the couch to eat her lunch.
“What do you have?” he set down his sandwich and grabbed the top envelope. “More subpoenas? And you thought those symbols were boring?”
“Well, if you’re not interested I’m suppose I can do all of these paying jobs myself,” she said, reaching for the envelopes.
“No, no. I’ll help. Someone has to watch your ass, anyways.”
“Let me know if you know someone who could. The first one’s in Thurston,” she wrapped up the second half of her sandwich and walked over to the kitchen. Floyd hated how fast she ate. “I’ll be right back, I’m heading down to the market real quick to get some chew.”
“What? No, you gave up tobacco. If you get back on it I’m helping you off it this time.”
“It’s not for me, Floyd. I grew up in Thurston, remember? And if I know anything about it, it’s that if you want to get someone to talk about their neighbor, a can of chew can’t hurt.”
Floyd smiled as she left their apartment. Thurston was on the eastern edge Eugene’s sister town, Springfield. It was as close to country-bumpkin-ville you could get while staying within city limits. It had its nice parts and good people of course, but if someone where to fly a confederate flag on their pick-up truck and buy shitty beer, they would do it in Thurston.
Taking his lunch with him, Floyd walked across their apartment and into his study. He plucked a book on arcane symbolism off of one of the bookshelves that lined his study and sat down at his desk. As he let out a deep breath, the scented candles he kept around the room started burning. He always loved scented candles, but only kept a few mild ones in his study. Vanilla, green bamboo, and patchouli. As much as he loved candles and had them littered all over his bedroom, he didn’t want them ruining the smell of the books in his study. If there was one thing he loved more than a good scented candle, it was the smell of old books.
Floyd leaned back in his chair with his sandwich as he told the pages of the book to start turning. There was no need to risk getting food stains all over one of his grandmother’s books. Not only did it have sentimental value, but these old books on magick seemed to have minds of their own at times. Mistreat one, and the next time you need to look something up in it, it might take you an extra hour or so to find it.
After a few minutes scanning the book and eating his sandwich, Floyd commanded the book’s pages to stop turning. It was odd, the numbers skipped a couple of pages in the ’F’ section. Leaning in, he saw the torn remnants of three pages. He had to put on his reading glasses and look again to believe what he was seeing. Pages were torn out, their remnants trying to hide in the binding of the tome. In all of his life he had never seen such an imperfection in his grandmother’s books before. Even when he was a kid and learning his first spells, he had certainly been as careful as he could possibly be these books. He had even been cutting a circle around this room for years, nothing magickal would be able to get in or out without his consent. And these dusty tomes were definitely magickal.
“Floyd, you ready to go?” the front door slammed behind Eve. “You’ll have time for spells or whatever later, we have work to do.”
“Y-yeah, Eve. I’ll be out in a sec.” Closing the book and returning it to its proper place, Floyd couldn’t put it out of his mind. He never did like the feeling of not knowing.