Renegade mage paranoid m.., p.8
Renegade Mage (Paranoid Mage Book 2), page 8
“Well, I had to remake an avatar,” Shahey said with a frown. On the scaled face it looked quite intimidating, though maybe Callum was just inferring that from the suppressing aura that made it impossible to forget exactly how powerful the dragonblooded was.
“Avatar, sir?” Callum asked. It wasn’t lost on him that the dragonblooded and dragons were referred to as distinctly different things. Shahey regarded Callum, looking less like a jovial gym owner and more like something old and alien and dangerous.
“This isn’t exactly a secret, but I would ask you not to speak of it too much,” Shahey said. “This is just a puppet.” He thumped his chest. “Used up the last one with that dragonfire. Which isn’t actually something we do, but I liked the lore so much I had to add it.” He smiled indulgently at the memory. “Anyway, the real me wouldn’t exactly fit through a portal, and just existing over on the other side would probably come with catastrophic consequences. So I have a few of these running around on Earth.”
When Callum had caught references to dragons, they’d just been described as powerful. He’d taken that in the same way that a tank was powerful, or a strong mage was powerful. Apparently he should have been taking it the way a god was powerful. He’d known that he was swimming around in deep waters, going to a portal world, but he hadn’t realized that they were abyssal.
“Ah,” he said faintly. “So those shadows in the distance are your people?”
“You can see those?” Shahey gave him a sharp look. Callum blinked at him and debated how to answer. So far he’d not informed anyone in the magical world of his glamour-blindness, and barring an exigent reason he’d rather keep it that way. Unless Shahey demanded answers, of course, because Callum was rather at his mercy.
“Just shadows, sir,” Callum said. “Nothing more than that.”
“Huh. That’s interesting, though it’s not like we get many mages here. I’m not sure why you can see even that much, though. Maybe it’s something you got from your father.”
“I assume you don’t mean Callum Senior?” Callum managed after a moment, struck completely sideways by the comment.
“No.” Shahey tilted his head at Callum. “Did you not know?”
“I had my suspicions,” Callum said. “Mom and dad were far too old for it to be the usual process. But I never asked for the story because it didn’t seem important. Now, it might. You knew my parents, then?”
“I know everybody in Tanner,” Shahey proclaimed. “It’s one of my project towns.”
Callum made an inquisitive noise. Shahey was more voluble than he expected a massively powerful individual to be, but at the same time Callum had already made it clear he didn’t know much about the supernatural. After seeing Shahey at the gym and as the enforcer of the dragonlands portal, he had a strong feeling that everything was an act.
“All the world’s a stage,” Shahey said. “Brilliant man. Anyway, dragons mostly just watch people. Earth isn’t our territory and we don’t want it anyway, so we’re, in a sense, tourists. We don’t interfere with local matters,” Shahey said, with a level look that made it very clear Callum couldn’t ask him for help “But we might give a nudge here or there to help one of our favorites on a purely mundane affair.”
“So you really were trying to set me up with that lady at the gym?” Callum asked, mind leaping to an absolutely irrelevant matter for some reason. At least he knew he hadn’t been imagining things; Shahey was acting. He wasn’t human and never had been, and all the expressions were put on solely for Callum’s benefit.
“I was!” Shahey laughed. “I didn’t know about your talents at the time. Maybe I should have suspected, though. Supernaturals tend to be more comfortable in each other’s company, so maybe your grandparents had a few drops of blood from somewhere. Fae or mage.”
Callum nodded, a little bit disturbed. Less at the implications for his heritage than at the concept that he was being influenced without his knowledge. Perhaps the reason he’d settled so quickly on Winut, without looking at other properties, was some subtle urging of his hindbrain he hadn’t noticed. Or he’d gone deeper into fae territory than he meant to, just because of that small nudge.
“So far as your actual parents go, really there’s not much to the story.” Shahey tapped a claw against the table, something he’d also conjured. “When Callum and Mary moved to Tanner, they had a daughter. I don’t know what went wrong with her, but she turned into a trollop pretty early on and wouldn’t clean up her behavior. They had a falling out, kicked her out, and disowned her. She vanished for a while, turned up pregnant, had you and left you with Callum and Mary.”
“…I see why they never told me themselves.” It was hard not to take it personally, that he was the bastard son of a woman of ill repute, but at the same time, that clearly hadn’t mattered in the end. He’d turned out just fine, and he owed all that to his real parents, not the biological ones. Though it did raise the question of who exactly the father was, and how much those genes were responsible for Callum’s magic, and glamour-blindness.
“You turned out well, there was no need to weigh you down with it,” Shahey agreed. “I never thought you had any particular supernatural talent myself, so it’s not surprising nobody else did. Though if they’d known, they’d have snapped you up immediately. The weirder aspects are in high demand. As it is, I’m surprised they let you slip away so easily.”
“I was careful they didn’t think much of me,” Callum told him. “It’s much easier to trick someone when they think you’re stupid.”
“Ha! I like it.” Shahey favored him with a toothy grin. “Just don’t be actually stupid, like wandering into our territory uninvited.”
“No, sir, I will not. You have my word I won’t return without an invitation,” Callum said. He meant it. Shahey had been fairly easygoing throughout the conversation, but at the same time, the mana had remained frozen as a reminder of the power the dragon held. At least on his side of the portal. He wasn’t sure if it was a threat or just a consequence of having the attention of Shahey’s real body.
“Good,” Shahey said. “Then it is time to go.”
“Do you have any advice you could offer me before I leave?” Even if Shahey, or dragons in general, wouldn’t help him or oppose him in any substantive way, he might be able to get some useful information. Politeness went a long way.
“If you’re looking for enchanting materials, you’ll want either the Night Lands or the Deep Wilds. Faerie is rather like here, and you won’t go unnoticed.” Shahey stood, waving his hand and creating a staircase down toward the portal out of thin air. “Of the two, I’d suggest the Night Lands. The Deep Wilds are more hostile, and it’s easier to get mordite anyway. You just need to root around at the bottoms of the cenotes there.”
“Surely enchanting material isn’t just limited to bane metals,” Callum said, following Shahey carefully. It was a very, very long way down.
“I suppose not, but I’ve only passing familiarity with the details.” It only made sense, since nobody but mages could make enchanted items. Or even use them, unless they were completely passive. “By the way, you should stop by Tanner again when you get the chance. Nobody there believes you’re some kind of murderous terrorist.”
“I’d love to,” Callum admitted. He still thought about the people he’d left behind on occasion, though he didn’t let himself dwell on it. It wasn’t like he could go back. “But if I did, GAR or the feds would pester them or worse.”
“That’s true,” Shahey said. “I suppose you’ll have to get far more terrifying, enough that nobody will dare to cross you.”
“That’s the dragon way?”
“It is.”
“I will keep that in mind, sir,” Callum said.
“If you want to talk to me again, stop by the gym,” Shahey said.
“Out of curiosity, why a gym? I mean, you’re a dragon, it seems a little ordinary.”
“Because it’s interesting,” Shahey said cheerfully. “I get to meet all kinds of people. I met you, for example.”
“I don’t think I was too interesting before I found out I was a mage.”
“Oh, you weren’t that bad. Admittedly, you’re much more entertaining now.”
That made Callum laugh. They stopped in front of the portal, everything that Shahey had summoned dissolving back into nothing. It was going to take a while to digest the conversation, since Shahey had given him a lot to think about along with a number of hints.
He was a little regretful Shahey hadn’t offered to help, but at the same time, he was glad. Although it wasn’t likely that dragons could exert their full power on Earth, if Shahey did make a move Callum would be beholden to the dragon’s interests, rather than his own man. Callum would far rather take the harder road and remain independent than rely on someone else’s strength to protect him.
“What about the people who attacked you? It seems like a terribly stupid idea.”
“It is,” Shahey said cheerfully. “But some people just can’t suffer wounded pride.” He rolled his eyes. “I might have to go remind someone of the foolishness of such an action. But it need not concern you.”
“Fair enough,” Callum said. “I suppose you’ll just fire-breath them like you did those trolls or whatever they were.”
“It’s kind of funny,” Shahey said musingly. “We don’t actually breathe fire, but in Earth lore dragons could, so why not? It’s a great idea, actually. Very imposing.”
“It is at that,” Callum said, wrestling his luggage around as they reached the bottom of the stairs. It was much harder to maneuver without gravitykinesis. The portal back looked just the same, its magical construction resisting the freezing effect of the dragon’s presence.
“If I may ask, did you make that portal? I’m pretty sure it’s artificial.”
“Alas, no,” Shahey chuckled. “I think we’d have more of them if we did.”
“Huh,” said Callum. That implied that it was a human mage that had made it. Somehow. He wanted to ask more, but there was a glint he didn’t like in Shahey’s eyes that reminded him the dragonblooded was only a tiny extension of a larger, vaster, and far more dangerous being. Especially when Shahey tilted his head toward the portal meaningfully, which was definitely his cue to go.
“I’ll stop by if and when I can,” Callum said instead, stepping toward the portal and pulling his luggage along behind him. “But it might not be for a while. Years, I guess. Any last thoughts before I go?”
“The strong do what they can, and the weak endure what they must,” Shahey quoted at him. “You’re taking the path of the strong. Think about it.”
“I will,” Callum promised, though he wasn’t entirely certain some quote from ancient Greece was entirely relevant. Though considering the architecture he’d used, Shahey clearly had a soft spot for the time period. He gave Shahey one last nod and stepped back through the portal.
***
“This is an official request from the Department of Arcane Investigation,” Ray Danforth said, trying to be patient.
“There’s nothing I can tell the DAI that I haven’t already told you,” Arthur Langley said mildly, but there was no give in his expression.
“There are not many people who had close contact with Mister Chase Hall.” Danforth clasped his hands together. “In turn, he is one of the few people we know has had contact with Callum Wells. We acquired information recently which suggests a new line of inquiry.”
“Oh? What might that be?” Arthur looked skeptical.
“We have confirmation that he has contacts in Europe.” Ray would have rather kept that detail private, but King Jissarrel, who’d supplied the information, had other ideas. To a fae, the idea of being involved in the story of some ghostly murderer was too good to pass up, so he’d been telling everyone who listened. It wouldn’t be long before it reached Callum himself, or whatever organization he had, so they needed to move quickly.
At least Jissarrel had been able to track the airports he used, so they had a number of feds and their image matching programs combing through footage to see if they could find a recent photo. The fae king had provided a ghostly image of his own, but that was hardly useful. Even if Callum hadn’t shaved off the mess on his face, the apparition was a hazy magical conjuration that’d be difficult to process into something the average Interpol agent could use.
“Europe is a long way away. I don’t think anyone here would know about it.”
“Perhaps not, but now that we know there’s something there, we can ask specific questions that might jog people’s memories. Whether Chase Hall mentioned anything about Europe, had an accent, talked to anyone with an accent, any of that.”
“He sounded purely American to me,” Arthur said. “Honestly he mostly kept to himself. Came here for mental health reasons, like I said last time. The only people who had much interaction with him were myself, Jessica, and Gerry.”
“Could you arrange for interviews with them? It won’t take long, I simply want to see if I can get them to recall anything.”
“Hm.” Arthur eyed Ray distrustfully, but eventually nodded. “I’ll have them come by.”
“Thank you,” Ray said, sitting back in his chair. It seemed like the Wells case was the only one he’d been working on recently. Or the Ghost case, as some still called it, since it wasn’t like escaping from BSE custody had made the name any less apt. For himself, he preferred not to romanticize someone as clearly dangerous as Callum Wells.
It took some time for the witnesses to arrive, since they all had jobs, and the results were mutually unsatisfactory. For him, nobody had any information that might hint at a link between Chase Hall and Callum Wells or Europe. He didn’t even think they were sandbagging like they had before, though at the same time nobody had yet admitted they knew anything about the hotel massacre. For them, it was just another round of annoying questions and having to take time out of their days.
When he stood up, he was not very hopeful. It seemed like it had just been a waste of a trip and a day, especially when this was mostly BSE’s case anyway. They probably wouldn’t even thank him for his trouble, and might blame him for the lack of information. He found Felicia waiting outside the office he’d appropriated for the interviews, and she reached out to grip his arm.
“We need to go,” she whispered in his ear, and he nodded, escorting her out the door. He wasn’t sure what she had for him, but it was not something for shifter ears. Ears that were far too sharp for them to speak freely.
They took the teleporter back to GAR, heading into the back to the secure areas that led to the DAI compound. The US branch adjoined the GAR headquarters, so it wasn’t necessary to go through another set of teleport pads. It wasn’t like the BSE black site, which didn’t have any other way in or out. He followed Felicia into their shared office, closing the door and waiting for whatever she obviously wanted to tell him.
“I got the story out of one of the young shifters,” Felicia said. “Clara.”
“You did?” Ray stared at her. Her siren blood meant that Felicia didn’t talk too much around others, because when she did it was generally a compulsion. That could be blatant, or it could be subtle. Often she used the former, in her capacity as an agent, but sometimes it was the latter. “Alpha Langley will have our hides. Hell, Alpha Chester will demand them, and get them!”
“It’s fine, she doesn’t know,” Felicia said, waving it off. While sometimes they had to bend the law as DAI agents, fae also had odd ideas of morals. Normally it was fine, and Ray rather liked Felicia, but sometimes she took a line that struck him oddly. “The point is, the victims did kidnap a shifter. Clara. She’s too weak to fight compulsions properly.”
“Oh?” Ray leaned forward, objections forgotten. “I mean, we can’t possibly use the information officially, but what happened?”
“She was teleported out. That’s not what she said, but she described a sudden displacement with extreme nausea. I’m not sure why the nausea, but since we already know Hall was working with Wells, that seems relevant. Also, that Hall came out of a closed room smelling like gunpowder. It’s pretty clear that Wells was playing porter for him.”
“That is some excellent corroboration,” Ray admitted. “We can’t use it officially, but I can write up a report that still gets the necessary information up the line. It’ll be easier to look for two people than one.”
“I’ll make sure Interpol has Hall’s name and information, too.” Felicia said with a sigh. “He and Wells seem to have the mundane act down pretty well so they might have more luck than we do.”
“Time for paperwork, then,” said Ray, turning to his computer. He still missed the click-clack of a proper typewriter, but computers were just so much easier to work with.
“Oh boy,” Felicia said, without enthusiasm. Ray snorted and pulled up the email client, flashing as it was for his attention. There was some of the usual inane stuff, commentary about cases neither of them were involved in, but one of them was from BSE and it caught his attention.
Baiting Callum Wells
Agent Danforth;
I need your input on a proposal for potentially entrapping Wells using known associates. Duvall is pushing hard and the Europe lead is far too vague.
Zhen.
Ray groaned. The Wells case just seemed to generate work out of thin air. He couldn’t wait for it to be over.
***
Fane Sen was in a foul mood. He had not exactly covered himself in glory when he had allowed Callum Wells to escape, but it was in the end a minor matter. Some new and incompetent mage wouldn’t make it far before GAR picked him up again. Except they hadn’t.
Then it turned out Wells was somewhat more valuable than he’d thought. Not only was Archmage Duvall absolutely furious about losing a very rare spatial mage, but somehow the man was a dangerous renegade. He hadn’t impressed Sen as anything of the sort at the time, and even now he doubted it, but he’d read the reports and certainly something had happened.
