Terrifying
As Stephanie rested in her bed, another young woman was on the hunt in London. Peering over the edge of Westminster bridge, she called out into the darkness below.
“Hello? Is anyone down there?” She said.
The Thames was dark and rushing below her. Checking her watch, it was seven minutes to midnight. She took a quick look around her, finding herself alone on the bridge. Perfect.
“Hello?” She called out again. “Come out. I need to talk to you.”
A high pitched voice answered. “No-one down here.”
“I think there is” she said.
“Nope. No-one down here at all.” The voice replied.
“I think there’s a troll down there, and I really want to talk to him.”
A small wrinkled head peaked over the edge of the bridge. As the rest of its body rose, she saw the large floppy ears and small wrinkly body gracelessly pull itself over the edge. Standing at barely 2ft tall, the creature stared at her with it’s pitch black eyes. “What do you want?” the creature asked, while wringing it’s hands.
“I just want to talk.” The young woman answered. “I’m Tanith Low. What’s your name?”
“No, no no no. Not telling. Not telling that!.” The troll exclaimed, shaking it’s head wildly.
“Oh yes,” Tanith said, “troll’s only have one name, don’t they?”
“Yes, yes yes. Only one. No telling.”
“But I can guess, that’s how it goes, right? I guess your name correctly, and I get...?”
The troll stopped wringing its hands and grinned viciously, showing a mouth full of razor sharp yellow teeth. “You get to live, missy.”
“And if I get it wrong?”
The troll cackled, its black eyes sparkling with glee. “You get eaten! Yummy, crunchy meat for me!”
“That sounds like a fun game” Tanith said with a smile.
“What time do you usually play?”
“Midnight. Stroke of midnight. When I’m strong.”
“And you pop out from under the bridge at whoever’s passing by and play, don’t you?”
“Three chances.” The troll said, lifting three bony fingers for emphasis. “Three chances to guess. Gets right, not eaten. Gets wrong, come along.”
“Do you want to play with me?”
The grin on the troll’s face grew wider, “oh yes. Missy will make good play. Missy will make good meal. Go on. Go on. Guess.”
Tanith let her coat fall open a little a smiled. “Before we begin. Are you the only troll in London?”
The troll nodded rapidly. “Oh yes. There were others. No match for me.” It said with a cackle.
“Alright. Let’s see then.” Tanith said, as she took a step closer, whilst adopting a ditzy thinking expression. “Is your name, Bollohollow?”
The troll cackled madly, “No! No no, not Bollohollow! Two! Two guesses left!”
“Well, this is harder than I thought.” Tanith said with a pout. “You’re good at this, aren’t you?”
“Best! The best!”
Tanith adopted another thinking pose, whilst sneaking a glance at her watch. One minute to midnight. “Has anyone guessed your name before?”
“No one! So many juicy, crunch humans. Gobble! Gone! In my belly!” The troll hollered. “Guess! Guess!”
“Hmm...is it, Ferninabop Caprookie?”
The troll cackled and danced about, as Tanith took a few more steps closer. “No! Not Caprookie! One guess left.”
“Wow.” Tanith said, taking another step forward. “I suck at this, huh?”
“Gonna get eaten! Eat eat eat!”
“Well then, I better get the next one right then.”
“You can try. But you’ll be wrong!”
“Is it, Rumplestilskin?”
The trolled hollered and cackled, collapsing to the ground and rolling around. “No! Always guessed! Always wrong!”
Tanith took one more step and dropped her ditzy expression. A sword flashed from beneath her coat and the troll barely managed to dodge. The troll hissed as she spun and kicked out, catching it in the face, sending it sprawling. The troll continued to hiss as it shakily got up to its feet. She was about to lunge at it, when the sound of Big Ben echoed through the night.
“Well shite.” Tanith hissed. She lunged, but it was too late. The troll batted the sword away carelessly. It looked her in the eyes, grinning widely, black eyes sparking with malice as it began to bulk out and grow in size. Muscles bulged in its arms and legs, before bulging in its back and neck. Stretching the skin so tightly, it looked like it would split. She slashed out again, but like before, it was deflected. She kipped back a few paces as the troll’s transformation ended. The thing was now a hulking mass of muscle and standing twice the size of her. Facing down a fully-grown troll wasn’t what she planned. Still, she held her sword down by her leg and circled the creature.
“You cheated.” The troll said, it’s voice now deep and guttural.
“You’ve been a very naughty boy.” She said.
“Gonna gobble you up. Gonna bite and chew and crunch. Until you’re in my belly!”
Tanith shot the troll a toothy smile. “Come and have a go if you think your hard enough...”
The troll roared and lunged at her. Despite his size, he was quicker than she had expected, and she flung herself to the side, narrowly missing being ran down. She flicked her blade out, catching the creature in the thigh, causing it to hiss in pain. He swung a wild fist out, managing to catch her in the back, sending her skittering down the road. Looking up, she saw the troll looming over her, preparing to stomp down on her head. She quickly slashed out as she rolled out of the way, cutting off a few of the trolls toes, causing it to roar out in pain.
She quickly got to her feet as the troll was distracted by the pain and lack of toes. She started to circle it as the troll finally focused back on her.
“Gonna bite you!” the troll growled. “Gonna crunch and munch you up into little tiny pieces, yes yes yes!”
“It’s such a fun game when you’re playing with someone who can fight back, is it?”
“My bridge.” It snarled. “My game!”
She grinned back at the troll. “My rules.”
The troll roared and dived at her again, but with the missing toes, it was much slower than before. Tanith readied her sword, waiting for the troll to close in. Barely a second before being trampled, she jumped with a front flip, slashing her sword out under the street lights. The blade was a flash of gleaming white light as the blade found it’s target, the trolls neck. As if cutting through butter, the troll’s head separated from it’s body, a permanent look of surprise on it’s face. The body continued to move for a few moments, before it’s momentum carried it over the edge of the bridge, and into the water below.
Tanith stooped to pick up the head and moved to the side of the bridge to lean against the barrier. As she rested, she felt someone’s eyes on her. Looking up, she saw a man see had never met before, yet instantly recognised. He was tall and bald, radiating a sense of power, that she could feel deep in her bones now that she noticed him. His startling blue eyes were focused on her, and she involuntarily gulped. She knew of Mr Bliss. There wasn’t a sorcerer alive who didn’t.
Mr Bliss nodded to the head in her hand. “Risky.”
“Calculated. I’ve fought trolls before.” She retorted respectfully.
“I meant the risk of being seen.”
“It had to be done. This troll killed too many innocent people, and risked outing us far more by being alive.”
“That’s true, but it’s what they do. You can’t fault it for doing as it’s nature intends.” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but Mr Bliss smiled.
“I’m not berating you. You’ve done a noble and selfless thing. It reminds me of someone.”
“Uh..thank you?”
“You puzzle me. It’s rare to find any mage focus so heavily of physical conflict, yet not seek power.”
“I just want to help people.” She shrugged.
Mr Bliss nodded, and his eyes grew distant for a moment. “Yes, that sound’s about right. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Corvus Black?”
Tanith tilted her head to the side slightly. “The junior detective?” she asked, to which Bliss nodded to. “I’ve been following his cases. It’s remarkable he’s been able to close any cases at the age of 13, yet alone any younger. Why do you bring him up?”
Mr Bliss’ smile turned almost nostalgic. “You remind me of him. He doesn’t seek power, yet is powerful anyway. He doesn’t wish to lord over people, merely help them.”
“My mother used to tell me stories of the war. I think you’re forgetting some of your own selfless acts.” She said.
“There is no heroism in war, only things that need to be done. Heroes come after, but I am not here to be philosophical.”
He aimed his sharp blue eyes directly at her. “There is a storm coming, Miss Low. Coming events will threaten the tide of power in this world, so I have left my solitude and come here, searching for you. I have need of someone of your abilities and your outlook.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“The sorcerer Serpine is about to break the Truce. If I fail, we will slip into war once more. I need you on our side.”
“It would be an honour.” Tanith said.
“We have much to learn from each other” Mr Bliss responded. “Head to Ireland. I will be in touch soon.”
She nodded and he walked away. Tanith threw the troll head over into the Thames. Hiding her sword beneath her coat once more, she walked off in the other direction.
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Stephanie was awoken for the second day in a row before she was ready. The Ride of the Valkyries was blasting from the stereo downstairs and she was fuming. She vaguely remembered falling asleep just after dinner with Corvus, well after midnight and she was tired. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, she threw her duvet off herself and stormed downstairs. Halfway down the stairs, the music abruptly cut off, and muffled voices could be heard from the kitchen.
Taking a deep breath, she entered the kitchen far more calmly than she felt was possible. Looking around, she was partially surprised to see Corvus fiddling with the stereo, with her dad hovering behind him, trying to peek at what he was doing. Her mother was sat at the table, with a cup of tea looking far too amused for this time in the morning.
She slowly walked over to the table, and her mother handed her a still warm cup of tea. “I thought you father might disturb you this morning. The stereo was mucking up before her even touched it.” Her mother said. She grumbled something unintelligible as she took a sip of her drink. It was perfect. She let the heat of the drink slowly seep into her bones, and slowly wake her up properly. Finally not feeling so bleary eyed, she looked around to see that her mother was reading the newspaper, whilst Corvus and her Dad were talking quietly in the corner. The stereo was laid out in pieces in front of them, and Corvus was slowly putting it back together, whilst explaining what he was doing in easy to understand instructions.
Getting up from the table, and taking her tea with her, she looked over Corvus’ other shoulder to see what was going on. “...and then you need to add this part here gently, so that you don’t bend the piece. And now it’s ready for the casing to go on.” Without even turning to look at her, he said, “Steph, can you pass me those two big bits there?”
She wasn’t even surprised anymore by the things he could do. She simply passed over the pieces he asked for, and went back to watching the reconstruction of the stereo. “So these bits clip here, the dial goes there and there should be no problems now.” He said, as he finished putting the stereo back together. He plugged it in and turned it on, turning the dial way down as he did so. The radio station starting playing through the speakers and her dad turned to look at him with wide eyes.
“How do you know all that?” he asked in disbelief.
Corvus shrugged. “I picked a few things up over the years. I’m not just a pretty face.” He said with a grin.
Her dad laughed, and she couldn’t help the small smile appearing on her face at the interaction. She could admit that she was a bit worried about those two meeting. Her dad had been apprehensive at the will reading when it came to Skulduggery and Corvus, but she was glad to see that those worries were mostly unfounded.
“I have to ask, how did you even become a detective anyway? Especially at so young.” Her dad asked.
“Well, my guardian, Skulduggery, it’s weird name I know. He’s a detective and liked to leave case files all over the living room table. Sometimes I would look over them, and after a while, I started sharing my thoughts about them. Turned out, I was right a lot of the time and was being credited as a civilian consultant on the paperwork. Then when I was 8, Skulduggery introduced me to his boss, and before I knew it, I was being offered a paid assistant position. After solving maybe 20 cases together, I was offered a special role where I could go after my own cases, just not anything involving murders, terrorism or serial killers. I can still work on those, I just need a colleague for safety.”
“How the hell do you cope? You must have seen some grizzly things.”
Corvus shrugged. “The only childhood I had was thanks to Gordon. I guess I came along pre-desensitised to it all.”
Her dad had a sympathetic look on his face and he clapped Corvus on the shoulder. He then opened his mouth to say something, only to finally notice her standing there. “Stephanie! What are you doing up so early?”
She gave her dad a deadpan look. “Oh you know me. Summoned by music and my distain of loud noises.”
Her father had the decency to look sheepish, but was saved by her mother. “Desmond, we need to be leaving.” She said as she put on her coat. “It was lovely to see you again, Corvus.”
“Lovely to see you as well, Melissa.” Corvus said with a small smile. He then turned to her dad and held a hand out for him to shake, which he did with enthusiasm. “A pleasure to meet you properly as well, sir.”
Her dad grinned, but was cuffed on the shoulder by her mother. “None of that. He’s Desmond to you.” She said with a smile and a glint of mischief in her eye. Her father deflated a little but nodded.
“Desmond then.” Corvus grinned. Her father then gave her a quick peck on the forehead, before both her parents left for work.
“So are you going to make it a habit, turning up here in the morning?” Stephanie said, as she looked at Corvus.
“Does it bother you?” He said, and if she didn’t know better, she would think he looked worried.
“Not really. Just as long as you don’t creep into my room before I wake up.” She said with a smirk.
Corvus smirked back. “My dear Stephanie, I would only ever dream of it.” He said with a laugh.
She laughed too, and they both fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Are you ready?” Corvus said suddenly. She looked at him, confused slightly. “Too leave her for a few a while. We can’t really put off your training any longer.”
Stephanie sighed, but sat up straight. “I guess. I haven’t really got much of a choice, have I?”
Corvus gave her a sympathetic smile. “Not after yesterday. If you have another outburst, I might not be around to stop it.”
“Well then I better get dressed.” She said as she got up. Just as she was leaving the room, Corvus called out to her.
“Bring anything you desperately want, that can’t be replaced. We will buy you clothes and other necessities later.” She looked to him and nodded, before heading upstairs to get dressed.
After picking out her running gear, and a light hoodie, she activated her mirror and her reflection stepped out. “Is it time for me to take over?” her reflection said.
“Yes. I’m not sure how long this will take. I could be back tonight, or I could be a month. Are you able to be me for that long?”
Her reflection looked at her weird, as if processing her question. “I was made to be you. Personality, image and memory. I am a perfect copy of you. No need to worry.”
“I will worry though. They are my family.”
“That is true. They are your family. But to me, they are also mine. I know I am only a copy, but I will do my job. Just be glad Corvus updated the reflection magic. I would have been little more than a husk, barely able to do the job. Now, I can actually feel. I assure you, everything will be fine.”
Stephanie looked at her reflection for a long moment before nodding. She moved to pass her reflection, but he reflection moved with her and they both headed downstairs. They both entered the kitchen and Corvus looked up at them with a raised eyebrow. “Good. I was going to remind you to activate your reflection.” He then looked to her reflection. “Did you want a name? Something only to be used when you’re both together. It feels rude, not treating you as a person.” He said with a small frown.
Her reflection looked slightly taken back by this. “You want to name me? I thought I was just her stand in. Not even really a person, just a thing.”
Corvus raised his hand and rocked it in a so-so motion. “You are more than just a reflection. I re-looked over what I changed for the spell. The more you’re ‘in use’, the more real you become. It was originally a fault in the original spell, but without prebuilt emotions, the damaged reflection were sociopathic. You have Stephanie’s emotions and morals. From this point on, you both will be having different experiences. Growing differently. Sure, you both will remember what the other did, but what you individually lived through will always be prominent. You won’t be perfect copies after a while, but honestly, that will be for the best. Mundane and magical don’t always mix well after all.”
Stephanie was starting to get worried again. Was this really a good idea, but she looked at her reflection and she was ecstatic. She had a huge smile and her eyes were shining. Perhaps they were already slightly different.
“Please, continue to call me Stephanie. I will be the you that never had magic. You’re the one who really needs the new name.” Her reflection said.
Stephanie mulled that over. She wasn’t exactly wrong. Nodding to her reflection, she looked back to Corvus. “Shall we go then? I’m guessing things are going to be very busy for a while.”
Corvus nodded back. “Very. Well then, see you soon Stephanie. Come on Steph.” He said with a grin. She waved to her reflection, and together they left the house.
“So, is there anywhere private near here? Ideally outside and surrounded by nature.” Corvus said.
“There’s an old pier not far from here. No-one ever really goes there and it’s just past some woods.”
As they walked to the pier, Stephanie walked close to Corvus and spoke quietly. “So, when’s the break in?”
“Tonight.” Corvus replied quietly. “Skulduggery’s got everything we need, but we need to meet with the Elder later. We’ve got a few hours to get some easy training before that, then we can try something a bit more advanced after the meeting.”
“Magic and crime sounds more fun than stuffy Elders.”
Corvus burst out laughing. “Yeah, you’re not wrong. But one of the Elders gave me training with Necromancy, and set me up with my detective position in a way that even if the Elders fire me, I can still work freelance or for the mundane police. I owe her a lot, so I put up with the bureaucracy of it all.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
“She still cold and boring though.”
“Was she one of those really hard teachers that never smile or emote in anyway?”
“Nah, I think the cold demeanour is part of Necromancy teachings from the temple. She got angry when she heard about my past and was worried when I got kidnapped when I was 8. But I am a rare natural with Necromancy, so all I needed was pointers. I think that will be the hardest thing for me to teach you.”
“Why’s that? I thought you didn’t even recognise the white crystal.”
“I didn’t. Still don’t know what it is. But your elemental magic and necromancy are equal to it in potential, and larger than the average mage. But my necromancy dwarfs yours.” He said with a shrug.
“Well, what was your potential then?”
“About the same as you in all elements. Various other magic were also about the same size. A lot were barely there, but my necromancy crystal was bigger than I was. I was only six and small for my age, but that still meant it was around 3 ft tall.”
Stephanie stopped and stared at him as he continued walking. Without even turning to look at her, he called out, “keep up! I don’t know where the pier is!”
That got her stomping after him. Catching up, she grabbed his hand, turning him to face her. “You have got to be messing with me. That’s ridiculous!”
“You would have said the same thing about magic a few days ago.”
“Don’t you use logic on me!”
Corvus just laughed and continued walking. Stephanie huffed but continued walking. Barely five minutes later, they passed the edge of the forest and could see the pier.
“Now, for your first lesson.” Corvus began as he held a hand out, and created a ball of light. The ball began to float around him, doing two loops, before settling back into his hand. “Summoning a light. Now, usually a wizard would use a focus to help mould their magic into whichever spell they want to use. As you can see, it isn’t necessary but lazy.”
“So, how do you do it?”
“I’m glad you asked! I can feel my magic flowing through me, like a river. This river of magic comes from my core. The key difference between a wizard and a sorcerer is a prebuilt core from birth. A wizard’s core grows with age and use, and will refill as we absorb magic from around us. Sorcerer’s develop a core after they come of age and go through ‘the surge’. We will focus on that later. For now, you need to try to feel for that magic and direct it to your hands. Then you need to focus your will and imagination on a ball of light.”
“Ok, I think I can do that. You’re explaining everything to me properly later though.” Stephanie said, as she sat on the edge of the pier and stared at her out stretched hand. She tried to feel for any magic inside, but she just didn’t know what to feel for. After a few moments, Corvus’ voice startled her out of her concentration.
“I’m guessing by that look on your face, you can’t feel anything?”
Stephanie huffed, but nodded. “I just don’t feel anything like you described.”
Corvus nodded. “That makes sense. To be honest, I would have been surprised if you managed it first time. That would have been next to impossible.”
She turned to glare at him, but he was holding out a weird ball towards her. “Try this. It’s a basic focus orb. It will give you a feel of your magic, but you won’t be able to cast anything with it.”
Taking the orb, she felt two very distinct energies rush to the surface of her skin. It felt like electricity was coursing through her veins and that a piece of her finally slotted into place. The world around her suddenly looked more vibrant. She could feel the wind’s breeze on her skin far more clearly and when she looked at Corvus, she knew this was how he felt all the time. The magnetic feeling that she got around him seemed to triple, and she could feel her energy- her magic- reach out to him. His eye’s widened, as their magic connected. There seemed to be a pulse through their magic that felt ancient and powerful. She didn’t know what it was, but nothing seemed to change, even as the connection seemed to fade, but it didn’t disappear.
There was a brief moment of silence between them, before Corvus smiled and spoke, “Well, I have no idea what that was about, but I think we should try that light spell again now, eh?”
She nodded and handed back the orb. She could still feel that electric feeling beneath her skin, before directing it to her hand. She focused on the image of a ball of light forming in her hand and willed it into being. She could almost hear the smile on Corvus’ face. In her hand, was a small ball of light. Smaller and dimmer that the one Corvus created, but it was there.
“Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!” he exclaimed. She looked up ay him and could feel the pride radiating off of him. “I honestly thought it would take longer than this to get results. Well, let’s move on to the next thing.”
And so, for the next 3 hours, they focused on different but simple magic. Each bit of magic took a few examples from Corvus and a few attempts to get results. Nearly every time she managed to perform any magic, it appeared to be weaker than his. He had explained that he had been using magic half his life, so of course his magic was stronger at the moment, but he assured her that she would likely catch up quickly. The only magic she couldn’t perform was necromancy. That felt like it was still trapped below the surface, looking for an outlet. Unfortunately, Corvus didn’t have any answers for her at the moment as to why it wouldn’t work, but he promised to look into it after they had resolved the case. All too quickly, his alarm on his phone went off and they had to stop training. Opening a portal, Corvus winked at her, and wordlessly they walked through it together, to meet up with Skulduggery.
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Arriving in an alley across the road from the wax museum, they immediately heard Skulduggery’s voice from behind them. He was leaning against the wall, spinning his car keys around his bony finger. He had a brown parcel, wrapped with a string under his arm and was whistling a jaunty tune. Well, mimicking whistling, since he had no lips, or mouth, or anything required to whistle really.
“Happy to have the Bentley back?” Corvus said, in lieu of a greeting.
“Very. I think you should study mechanics next. You’ll be able to fix your own car immediately, rather than have to pay out for repairs and maintenance.” Skulduggery replied.
“You just want free repairs.”
“Is that so bad? The poor old girl needs everything she can get.”
“Did you just call your car a she?” Stephanie cut in.
Both Skulduggery and Corvus looked at her in unison. “Of course.”
She really hated it when they did that. Ignoring their weird speaking habits, she grabbed both their arms, and started to drag them out of the alley. “Come on. The sooner we meet the Elders, the sooner I can go back to magic.”
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Corvus asked.
“Nope, but I guess the wax museum. It’s the biggest building here and you brought us opposite it.”
“Very well deduced.” Skulduggery said with a nodded. “And how did the magic training go?”
Corvus spoke up at this, voice full of pride. “Oh she was fantastic. Got everything other than necromancy within a few attempts. Floating balls of light, basic fire manipulation, basic air manipulation, even basic water manipulation. For three hours work, she got down a lot.”
As they were about to cross over to the wax museum, Skulduggery pulled them around the corner, towards a fast-food restaurant. He then held out the parcel to Stephanie, who looked at it with confusion. “What’s that?” she asked.
“What do you think it is?”
“It looks like a parcel.”
“Then that’s what it is.”
“But what’s inside it?”
“If I tell you, I deprive the parcel of its whole reason to be.”
She sighed, and Corvus snorted. “And what is its reason to be?”
“To be opened of course, and reveal what it’s holding.”
“You’re so annoying” Stephanie muttered, and she took the parcel from Skulduggery.
“The clothes? I didn’t thing Ghastly would even do them anymore, especially not this quickly.”
Skulduggery shrugged and started humming. Corvus just pointed to the fast-food restaurant and made a shooing motion. She sighed again and left. Corvus looked at Skulduggery after she was out of earshot.
“So why did he make them so quickly?”
“I honestly have no idea.”
“Uhuh.” He said skeptically.
“Honest. Ghastly’s always been a bleeding heart, you know that.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
Their conversation was halted as Stephanie walked up to them, now changed into her new clothing. She was wearing, what appeared to be, black hiking boots, black jeans, a black form fitted shirt and a long black jacket, with slightly iridescent purple trim. He knew the clothing wasn’t quite what they appeared to be. The trousers were far more stretchy and comfortable to be jeans, and the boots would feel and move similar to running shoes. They were also of a durability and similar protection level as kevlar, but with far more maneuverability.
He wolf whistled and winked at her. “Looking good. Black definitely suits you.”
She nodded, not a blush in sight. She seemed to mesh with clothes perfectly, bringing out any hidden confidence she had extra.
“Right, shall we go?” She said, as she started marching to the wax museum. “Why are we needed anyway?”
“Ah, well.” Skulduggery began, and Corvus could see where this was going. “We need to report our suspicion of Serpine to the Elders. But I have a lot of history with him.”
“He killed you and your family. Anyone else would have an agenda.” Corvus muttered, slightly too loudly.
Stephanie looked at them with a hard expression. “So, you want Corvus to report it?”
“Well, yes. And having a nice young lady with us might help.”
“I am far from a lady.”
“You’re the best I’ve got.”
“We’re doomed.” Corvus said, barely dodging a swipe from Stephanie in the process.
After another 10 minutes passed. They had finally made it into the Sanctuary. Descending down the stairs, they were almost immediately set upon by the administration
“Detectives.” He said with a somewhat respectful nod. “You’re early. The council of Elders are not ready to convene yet. I could see you to the waiting area if you wish?”
“That’s not necessary. I was thinking of showing these two round a bit.”
Corvus perked up at that. He hadn’t really been in the Sanctuary for anything other than detaining prisoners or handing in reports.
“As you know, access is strictly limited.”
“I was thinking of showing my ward and our friend the Repository. The Book, in fact.”
“I see. Well, as Administrator of the Sanctuary, I would have to accompany you.” The man said, full of self importance. Corvus had never really thought much of the unassuming man. His weedy appearance and self-important attitude had never endeared him to Corvus. This wasn’t to say he was a bad person, just a bit too stuck up for his liking.
“Absolutely. Lead the way.” Skulduggery said.
The Administrator bowed and spun on his heel and began to lead them through halls that Corvus had never been through before. As they walked, Stephanie leant in close and whispered to him.
“Who are they?” she whispered, nodding her head towards the people in grey uniforms.
“Cleavers. Dangerous individuals. Think of a combination of military, security guards and police officers all rolled into one, then you’re close to how effective they are. Each one is a one man army. Be glad they’re on our side.”
“So where are we going?” She asked, changing the subject. Corvus didn’t comment on it. He knew how scary the Cleavers could be.
“I’m taking you both to see the Book of Names. Some say it was created by the Ancients. No-one knows if that’s true or not though. All we know is that every mage’s name is written in there. Every given, taken and true name is listed for every mage on Earth.”
“So my name will be written in there?”
“Yes, but not your taken name. That only gets updated once you take it.”
“But isn’t that dangerous? If someone got their hands on that, they could rule the world.” She cringed slightly. “And I felt ridiculous saying that.”
“But you weren’t wrong.” Corvus added.
The Administrator looked over his shoulder as he walked. “Not even the Elders open the Book. It’s far too powerful- and power corrupts. But so far, they haven’t found a way to destroy it. It can’t be burnt, or damaged in anyway by anything we have at our disposal. If the legend is true, it can only be destroyed by the Ancients, as they were the ones who created it. The Elders did find an ingenious way to defend it though. So far, no-one has been able to even take a glance at it’s pages.”
They finally reached a set of double doors. The Administrator waved his hand and the heavy doors slowly opened with a groan. They walked into the Repository and Corvus took his chance to look around the large room. He could see various magical items, which he couldn’t fathom what they could be used for. As they walked through the room, passing various shelves and tables, he sent his magic out in small, subtle waves. He didn’t want to alert the Administrator to what he was doing, so directed it only to his sides and back. Scanning the various items didn’t tell him much. He picked up the sense of being hidden from one item, another gave him the sense of the colour purple, whatever that meant. One item gave of the sense of dust, that one confused him, he really needed to put more practise into his sensing abilities. He had only come up with it, when he scanned Gordon’s corpse though, and that was only a few days ago. He just hadn’t had the time to work on it so far though.
Sending out one final wave of magic, it briefly touched Stephanie, and he felt the connection between their magic flare for a moment, before settling down. She glanced at him, clearly feeling it too, but luckily didn’t say anything. Anything else he might have picked up with that final burst of magic sense had been dwarfed by the feeling of her. It was only a moment, but it gave him the full sense of who she was. Adventurous, kind, stubborn, curious and intelligent. The sense of Stephanie was clearer than anything else he had sensed so far. Maybe it worked best on people, he wandered. He would have to test that theory later, as they came to a stop a few yards away from a pedestal holding a slightly glowing book.
“That’s the book of Names?” Stephanie asked.
“Yes, it is.” The Administrator answered with a nod.
“I thought it would be bigger.”
“It’s as big as it needs to be. I would guess that the book has the ability to keep itself relatively small, whilst holding and endless supply of pages.”
“And it’s fine just being left out in the open?”
“It is rather heavily protected actually. The Elders weren’t sure how to protect it at first. Shields can be broken, doors can be unlocked. How do you protect the world’s most dangerous weapon? The answer they came up with is quiet ingenious. Why don’t you try and take it, and see for your self?”
Stephanie narrowed her eyes and scanned the walls. Clearly she was looking for hidden traps. Corvus sent one last wash of magic towards the book, scanning the walls and floor along the way. His magic didn’t pick up anything on the way to the book, but as his magic brushed against it’s pages, he got a massive sense of deja vu. He knew he hadn’t been here before, so that particular feeling must be Seerer magic. Magic of the future. It gave him a blinding headache for a brief moment. If there were protections on the book, they were dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of the magic enchanting it.
Stephanie had clearly been happy with her assessment that it was safe to approach the book, but halfway there, she stopped and turned back with a frown.
“Do you understand now?” the Administrator asked, slightly condisendingly.
“Not really, I just felt like there wasn’t a point in taking it. I don’t need to prove anything to you.” Stephanie answered in a huff.
The Administrator just smiled though. “And that’s the power of its protection. It is protected by the Elders’ willpower. They desperately wished for it to never be taken, and laid a protection on the book with those feelings in mind.”
“So it could only be taken by someone who was either more desperate to have it, or had a stronger will than three people? That does sound quite clever “ Corvus said
“Not exactly. Feel free to try yourself.”
Corvus looked at the book. He knew he wouldn’t be able to beat the willpower of three of the strongest mages around, but he thought he would give it a try. He dredged up the feeling of wanting the book, forcing himself to want to take it, and started walking. He assumed that he might have a slight edge here, after all, his magic relied on his imagination and willpower. He continued to walk towards the book, passing the mark of where Stephanie reached. He felt his resolved begin to waver, however, as he drew closer. He shoved that feeling down and continued to take step after step towards the book. He steps began to slow, as he was barely a few paces away from the book. He was sweating profusely, taking another step felt like walking through the thickest mud, but he forged on. One more step and he would be there. He just didn’t want to. Why was he bothering? Did he have something to prove? No, he didn’t.
He stood there, staring at the book. There was no title, or any indication that it was special, other than a slight glow. He could feel his emotion and thoughs fighting inside his mind. He wanted to make it to the book. He didn’t. He wanted to study it, to learn how it worked. It wasn’t worth it, turn back. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do this. What’s the point? He wanted to know if his name was in there, despite not being from this dimension. It won’t be. It might be. It wont.
The whole time he had been fighting with himself, he had stood frozen, staring at the book. Compromising with himself, he sent a small sliver of magic at the book, and commanded it to float. He wasn’t surprised to see the spell fail. Whilst he had put his all into it, the magic protecting the book damped his will to move it. At least he knew it was well protected.
Sighing, he turned back around and walked back to the group. He could see the look of panic fading from the Administrator’s face and considered that a win.
“Do you see now?” the Administrator said, trying to sound confident but failing massively.
He nodded. “The closer you get, the stronger the protection gets, making you feel more and more against the idea of taking it. I couldn’t even scrounge up the will to pick it up with magic. It really is clever.”
The Administrator cleared his throat. “The Elders are ready to see you know. They have been for a few minutes. You can explain why you were late.”
Corvus nodded and they walked for a few minutes, until they reached an oval room, with a large door. Standing inside, there was only one light source overhead, illuminating most of the room, but keeping the edges in relative darkness..
“The Elders will be with you shortly.” The Administrator said, before leaving quietly.
“They always do this.” Skulduggery said. “Keep people waiting.”
“My headmaster does the same thing. He thinks it makes him look important.”
“Does it work?”
“It makes him look late.” She said with a shrug.
The door opened, and an old man entered. He had short white hair and a neat beard. The shadows shifted and converged together, before melting away and leaving Mrs Crow walking with the other man. Another, slightly fat man appeared from nothing, joining the other two in walking towards the trio. Corvus struggled not to snort. It was just so dramatic for nothing.
The Elders stopped a few feet away and were staring at Stephanie. She was staring back, but didn’t look impressed.
“Skulduggery.” The man with white hair said. “trouble just loves to follow you. Doesn’t it?”
“I’d say it waits for me to get there.” Skulduggery said.
The man with white hair looked at Corvus. “And you must be Corvus Black. Our...junior Detective.”
“I am indeed.” He replied, holding his hand out to shake. “A pleasure to meet you.”
The man looked at Corvus’ hand for a moment, before looking back at him. Just as Corvus was about to give up on being polite, the man shook his hand. “Of course. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I did not approve of your employment. You were far too young when you started, and I still believe you are too young now.”
“Good job it isn’t up to you. I do good work and have had success for mages and mundane alike.” Corvus said back, as respectfully as he could. He heard Morwenna sigh slightly from behind the man.
The man decided to ignore Corvus, in favour of moving on to Stephanie. “And is this your new partner, Skulduggery? Has Corvus grown too big to need you anymore?”
“She is, indeed.” Skulduggery said with a nod.
The man shook his head. “No taken name?”
“Not yet.” Stephanie replied.
“That’s something at least. I am Eachan Meritorious, Grand Mage of the Council. Behind me are Morwenna Crow and Sagacious Tome. I assume you intend to continue to involve yourself in our affairs?”
“You assume right. But they aren’t your affairs.” She clicked her fingers and summoned a small fireball for them to see. She snuffed it out after a few seconds. “It’s our affairs that I am involving myself in.”
Meritorious sighed. “I see. I don’t suppose I can convince you to go back to your ordinary life? This world is dangerous.”
“Not a chance. Not only could I not forget about this, I have magic too. I can’t just ignore part of myself.”
The Elders were looking at her with interest. Morwenna glanced at Cirvus and he nodded his head respectfully. She nodded back and turned to Skulduggery.
“Detective. You have recently reported multiple times that there is a threat to the Truce.”
“I have” Skulduggery nodded
“And yet, you have failed to provide evidence.”
“She is the evidence” he said, pointing at Stephanie. “Twice she was attacked and both times, the attacker was after a key.”
“What key?” asked Tome. Skulduggery hesitated.
“Mr Pleasant?”
“I believe the attacker’s master to be Serpine.”
“What key, detective?”
Corvus decided to jump in. “We believe the key will lead Serpine to the Sceptre of the Ancients.”
Meritorious started to smile. “I see you inherited your sense of humour from Skulduggery.”
“It’s one of his few good points.”
“And you know that the Sceptre is a fable?”
“It is thought to be. You have a book in the Repository literally made by the Ancients. Why couldn’t this exist? We believe Gordon Edgley found it and Serpine had tracked it down to him.”
“Nafarian Serpine is now an ally.” Tome cut in. “We live in a time of peace.”
“We live in a stall.” Corvus said heatedly. “I have heard how bad the war was, and everyone is too scared to accidentally start it again. I get that, but Serpine isn’t scared to do what he wants.”
“I’m sure you know what Serpine did during the war. Under orders or for his own gain. But as long as the Truce holds, we cannot act against him without good cause.”
“He order an attack on my friend here.”
“You have no proof.”
“He murdered Gordon Edgley!” Skulduggery cut in heatedly.
Meritorious looked at the Detective with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have proof of that?”
Corvus sighed. “That depends.”
“On what?” Meritorious said, as he turned to Corvus.
“If you believe my word is good enough. I have a ninety-eight percent solve rate on my cases, and that’s only because I dropped my last one for this.”
“So you want me to believe what exactly? That you just know it was Serpine, and you’re too proud to think it was something else?”
“I scanned his corpse for trace amounts of magic. What I found was a necromancy signature but one that was altered. The scan also gave off the impression of the colour red. We all know his red hand is a result of an altered necromancy technique.”
“Your scan gave you a feeling. Is that it? I would say that is barely a start. We cannot break the Truce over that.”
“Then you are dooming yourself.” Corvus said with a shrug. “And if he comes for you, I truly hope you make it out alive.” And with that, he spun on his heel and walked as calmly as he could out of the room.
As he walked through the halls, he was focusing on keeping his magic under control. He was furious. He had done an amazing job over the years, even taking his age out of the context. Wasn’t his opinion worth more than a snarky remark? He could feel his coat shift slightly with his emotions, before a tendril formed from his shoulder and began stroking his hair in a comforting way. He wasn’t surprised, sometimes it felt like his necromancy felt like it had a mind of its own, and would do anything it could to please or help him.
Finally making it out of the Sanctuary and then the wax museum, he lent against a brick wall whilst calming his raging emotions. He could feel something non-hostile watching him, so didn’t pay it much attention. Shortly after he was calm, Skulduggery and Stephanie approached.
“You good now?” Stephanie asked. He gave her a slight nod, before turning and facing the man he knew had been watching him.
“Detectives” the man said, and his cold blue eyes focused on Stephanie. “And hello. You must be the girl who has a habit of drawing all sorts of attention.”
Corvus could see that Stephanie had locked up at seeing Mr Bliss. Truthfully, he probably would have too, the first time he had met him, if he hadn’t been distracted by his worry about being cast out.
Corvus gave the man a nod. “Hello, Bliss. Here for a rematch?” He said innocently.
Though his face didn’t change from his bored expression, his eyes did sparkle ever so faintly. “Another time, I hope.”
“Well, that’s a shame. So what can we do you for?”
“The Elders have called upon me as a liaison between themselves and Serpine. They were hoping I would be a deterrent to whatever he plans. I fear that they have underestimated his ambition this time. And as you probably know, they believe the Sceptre is only a fairy tale.”
“But you believe it’s real?”
“I know it is. It was discovered during an archaeological dig not long ago. Gordon Edgley paid a lot of money to get a hold of it and authenticated. Once he found out it was the real thing, he hid it. He was many things, curious, a fantastic writer, but above all else, he was a good man.”
Corvus felt his throat go dry. “He was.” Was all he managed to say.
“Do you know where it is?” Stephanie asked. Apparently Mr Bliss’ words were enough to shake her out of her fear.
“I don’t”
“But you believe Serpine will be willing to risk war?” Skulduggery asked.
“The Truce is no longer useful to him. He has used this time to learn and collect as many secrets and magics that he can. Once he finds the Sceptre, I believe he will try and use it to bring back the Faceless Ones.”
“And you believe they are real?”
“I do. I was raised to believe that before they were banished, the world was ruled by beings so powerful and evil that they would eliminate any that stood against them. That they would destroy colonies of people for amusement. And I believe that they have been waiting to return, to punish for our transgressions.”
“I bet the Elders would listen to you.” Corvus said.
“Perhaps. But they are restricted by their rules. I have passed on the information to those I believe can do the most good with it.”
“With your help, we would have this wrapped up a lot quicker.”
Mr Bliss allowed a small smile to appear of his face, before reaching out and very gently ruffling Corvus’ hair. “If I need to act, then I will.” And with that, he turned and walked away.
After a few moments, the trio started heading back to the alley they appeared in. They walked for a few minutes in silence before Stephanie spoke up. “So he was terrifying.”
Corvus shrugged. “I suppose so. He is physically the strongest man alive. I fought him once. I barely managed a scratch.”
“Please tell me he was taking it easy on you.”
“Sort of? He scaled his strength to match mine before he went a bit higher than I could manage. China said he knocked me out at about seventy percent of his total strength. I think I got close to sixty percent of his maximum before he got me.”
Corvus continued walking before he realised that both Stephanie and Skulduggery had stopped walking. “What?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re pretty scary too, you know?” Stephanie asked.
“I guess. I haven’t been able to repeat that level yet, but I did believe he was going to kill me. Said it was better for me to die then, than to die later once China was more deeply attached. When I try to use that ability now, I barely reach half that level, but I’m sure I’ll get better with it as I train.”
“Yep. Terrifying.” Stephanie said, and they all continued to the alleyway.
Skulduggery finally spoke up. “China never told me just how far he pushed you.”
“That sounds about right. Now anyway, what’s the plan?”
They finally stopped in the alley before leaning against the walls. “I have a few ideas.” Skulduggery said after a moment. “We need to prove the Sceptre is real, find out how to destroy it and we need to get the Elders to take action.”
“And just how do we do that?” Stephanie asked.
“We need proof that the Sceptre is real, which requires us getting the Sceptre to get the Elders to act.”
“Which means we need the key.” Stephanie said, to which Skulduggery nodded.
“And how do we find out how to destroy it?” Corvus asked.
“Ah. Now that will be the little bit of crime we need to embark on.” Skulduggery said.
Corvus nodded and opened a portal. Skulduggery entered first and just as he was about to enter, he heard Stephanie softly say to herself, “Finally. Crime.”
He turned to her as he walked backwards towards the portal, before walking through, he grinned and said, “You’re terrifying. You know that, right?”
“Oh I know” she said back with a grin, before they both walked through the portal.